[News] Post a Political News Story

Ongoing discussion of the political news of the day. This thread is for 'smaller' stories that don't call for their own thread. If a story blows up, please start a new thread for it.

Memphis Police fires 5 officers for their involvement in Tyre Nichols' death

Wow, immediately fired with no pay. Usually the police really circle the wagons when some of their number do something horrible, or at the very least the union makes a stink. I wonder what's different about these five--

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/LS2bN6l.png)

...oh.

Facial hair! They all have facial hair.

To be fair, the video is reportedly pretty unequivocal.

JC wrote:

Facial hair! They all have facial hair.

IMAGE(https://media.tenor.com/kqP2FJogdKAAAAAC/a-great-big-bushy-beard-greatbigbushybeard.gif)

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/IKvovUE.png)

I had to look up the Splash Mountain thing and it looks like the MAGA crowd is *really* upset that today is the last day for Disney's 34-year-old ride that was based on the super racist Song of the South movie from the 1940s and are rebuilding it based on the 2009 movie The Princess and the Frog.

They can still watch those Werner von Braun documentaries on Disney+ if they need their fix of white supremacy.

OG_slinger wrote:

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/IKvovUE.png)

I had to look up the Splash Mountain thing and it looks like the MAGA crowd is *really* upset that today is the last day for Disney's 34-year-old ride that was based on the super racist Song of the South movie from the 1940s and are rebuilding it based on the 2009 movie The Princess and the Frog.

I never really understood why the built a ride based on a movie that they try so hard to keep out of the public eye. This is a change that is 34 years late, honestly.

Speaking as a Negro, the people who came up with "woke," I gotta say, I wish we hadn't let white people find out about it because holy sh*t have they taken it, warped the hell out of and absolutely ruined it.

Like, all apologies to present company, but Jesus Christ.

We shoulda just kept that one in-house.

It's Marjorie Taylor-Greene's party now.

Kevin McCarthy reportedly said he would “never leave” Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right, conspiracy theorist Republican congresswoman from Georgia, after she backed him through a rightwing rebellion and 15 rounds of voting for the position of US House speaker.

“I will never leave that woman,” McCarthy told a friend, according to the New York Times. “I will always take care of her.”

Elected to Congress in 2020, Greene quickly became a figurehead for the pro-Trump far right, particularly after Democrats then in control of the House ejected her from committees, citing her racist statements and encouragement of violence against political opponents. Eleven Republicans supported the move.

Greene also voiced support for QAnon, the conspiracy theory which holds that Democratic leaders are pederastic cannibals; spoke at a white supremacist rally; criticised and contravened Covid-19 public health measures; and, among countless other controversies, suggested Jewish-controlled “space solar generators” were responsible for destructive wildfires.

Recently, Greene said that if she had been in charge of Trump supporters who attacked Congress on 6 January 2021 – an attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s election win now linked to nine deaths and more than 900 charges – “we would have won”.

In comments she later claimed were made in jest, Greene also said the protesters “would’ve been armed”.

I agree with Jamelle Bouie, she's the next Speaker for the Republicans.

Prederick wrote:

To be fair, the video is reportedly pretty unequivocal.

If this were the first case to use clear video footage, that would be a much stronger argument.

Prederick wrote:

Speaking as a Negro, the people who came up with "woke," I gotta say, I wish we hadn't let white people find out about it because holy sh*t have they taken it, warped the hell out of and absolutely ruined it.

Like, all apologies to present company, but Jesus Christ.

We shoulda just kept that one in-house.

If you can figure out a way to keep right-wing scumbags from taking your sh*t and ruining it, please do share the secret.

Remember folks, it's ACAB, not AWCAB.

Former Senior F.B.I. Official in New York Charged With Aiding Oligarch

NYT wrote:

A former senior F.B.I. official in New York who oversaw some of the agency’s most secret and sensitive counterintelligence investigations was accused on Monday of taking money from a former Albanian intelligence employee and from a representative of Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian oligarch.

The charges against the former official, Charles F. McGonigal, came in separate indictments unsealed in New York and Washington, D.C., after an investigation by his own agency and federal prosecutors. In the New York case, he was charged with violating economic sanctions that the United States has imposed on Russia because of its aggression in Ukraine.

Before he retired in 2018, Mr. McGonigal had been the special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s counterintelligence division in New York. In that post, he supervised investigations of Russian oligarchs, including Mr. Deripaska, whom the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan charged him with aiding. Mr. Deripaska is an aluminum magnate with ties to President Vladimir V. Putin.

Federal prosecutors said Mr. McGonigal, 54, broke U.S. law by agreeing to help Mr. Deripaska, who was indicted himself last year on sanctions charges, investigate a rival oligarch and try to get off the sanctions list.

The charges are a serious and rare accusation against a senior F.B.I. official, and they demonstrate that the reach of Russia’s oligarchs can extend into the heart of American law enforcement.

...

The indictment unsealed in Washington charged that Mr. McGonigal, while working for the bureau, took $225,000 in secret cash payments from a person who decades earlier had served with Albanian intelligence. Mr. McGonigal concealed that relationship from the F.B.I., the indictment said.

The indictment also charges that the F.B.I.’s New York office, at Mr. McGonigal’s request, opened a criminal investigation into foreign lobbying in which the former Albanian intelligence employee, who was not named in the indictment, provided information as a confidential informant.

Michael J. Driscoll, the assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.’s New York office, said the bureau was committed to enforcing economic sanctions designed to protect the United States and its allies, saying, “There are no exceptions for anyone, including a former F.B.I. official like Mr. McGonigal.”

He added: “Russian oligarchs like Oleg Deripaska perform global malign influence on behalf of the Kremlin and are associated with acts of bribery, extortion and violence.”

In an email to F.B.I. employees, the bureau’s director, Christopher Wray, called the conduct sketched out in court papers “entirely inconsistent with what I see from the men and women of the FBI who demonstrate every day through their actions that they’re worthy of the public’s trust.”

The indictment unsealed on Monday in Federal District Court in Manhattan charges Mr. McGonigal with one count of violating U.S. sanctions, one count of money laundering and two conspiracy counts for what it said were attempts to aid Mr. Deripaska.

Mr. Deripaska was a client of Paul Manafort, who for several months in 2016 served as Donald J. Trump’s campaign chairman and in 2018 was convicted of financial fraud and other crimes.

So the main FBI counterintelligence guy was taking bribes from the same Russian oligarch that Paul Manafort was working for and--most importantly--was extremely likely involved in the FBI commenting right before the 2016 election that there was no connection between Trump's campaign and Russia.

IMAGE(https://i.imgur.com/ZbIYRhO.png)

Maybe, just maybe this is really common.

Classified Documents Found At Mike Pence's Home

farley3k wrote:

Maybe, just maybe this is really common.

Classified Documents Found At Mike Pence's Home

Haha I just said this weekend they should search Pence's house/office.

Prederick wrote:

Speaking as a Negro, the people who came up with "woke," I gotta say, I wish we hadn't let white people find out about it because holy sh*t have they taken it, warped the hell out of and absolutely ruined it.

Like, all apologies to present company, but Jesus Christ.

We shoulda just kept that one in-house.

I'm sorry.

After we 'jacked chicken & waffles, I realized nothing is sacred.

Just perpetual dishonest grievance politics. They're like Bizzaro tumblr teens.

EDIT: And they know this is completely dishonest, but that's part of the point of doing it. There's no real animated focus or argument here beyond "f*ck the libs."

Don't these changes mean it's actually slightly harder to wake the Xbox? Kinda the opposite of being woke

I just want to point out the URL of that

newsweek.com/microsoft-changes-xbox-console-climate-change-republicans-ted-cruz-1776054

tells you pretty much everything you need to know

Stele wrote:
farley3k wrote:

Maybe, just maybe this is really common.

Classified Documents Found At Mike Pence's Home

Haha I just said this weekend they should search Pence's house/office.

Three weeks from now they're going to find something in Dan Quayle's house.

Has anyone checked Reagan’s coffin.

Rat Boy wrote:

Three weeks from now they're going to find something in Dan Quayle's house.

A top secret potatoe

"Oh look, they found classified documents in a P.O. box once owned by McGeorge Bundy."

JC wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

Three weeks from now they're going to find something in Dan Quayle's house.

A top secret potatoe

The rare joke that tells anyone viewing this forum exactly how goddamn ancient we all are.

EDIT: If you're reading this, I want you to attempt to explain this joke to anyone under 21 and report back with the results.

JC wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

Three weeks from now they're going to find something in Dan Quayle's house.

A top secret potatoe

The DOJ provided an update that afternoon, stating, "Sorry everyone, false alarm. We appreciate Vice President Quayle's effort to be honest and transparent about his alleged mishandling of sensitive information, however there is no law, policy or guideline requiring the disclosure of classifieds inadvertently removed from official Whitehouse newspapers during one's time in office."

Prederick wrote:
JC wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

Three weeks from now they're going to find something in Dan Quayle's house.

A top secret potatoe

The rare joke that tells anyone viewing this forum exactly how goddamn ancient we all are.

EDIT: If you're reading this, I want you to attempt to explain this joke to anyone under 21 and report back with the results.

I'm just happy someone recognized it!

JC wrote:
Prederick wrote:
JC wrote:
Rat Boy wrote:

Three weeks from now they're going to find something in Dan Quayle's house.

A top secret potatoe

The rare joke that tells anyone viewing this forum exactly how goddamn ancient we all are.

EDIT: If you're reading this, I want you to attempt to explain this joke to anyone under 21 and report back with the results.

I'm just happy someone recognized it!

Everyone makes misteaks.

Man, remember when a politician being stupid used to be a huge scandal.

iaintgotnopants wrote:

Man, remember when a politician being stupid used to be a huge scandal.

Remember when everyone could agree when someone was being stupid? That ship has sailed as well because we cannot even get certain groups to admit something is stupid.