Another TDS sufferer kills...

[Bigfella]

Oh, those poor misunderstood guys with stomachs and guns.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...er/5923650002/

But...but...but ANTIFA! ANTIFA! ANTIFA!

[TopHatter]

Armed groups say they will show up to polling sites on Election Day, and experts are afraid it will intimidate voters

• Far-right groups are planning online to monitor polling sites on Election Day, some of them armed, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
• Stewart Rhodes, the leader of a far-right group called Oath Keepers, said his members would draw their weapons if needed.
• Rhodes said he wanted to prevent "the radical left" from intimidating voters. Experts say the presence of groups like his would probably make things worse.

Far-right groups are planning to patrol polling sites on Election Day, some of them armed, causing experts to worry about the possibility of violent clashes and voter intimidation.

If you plan on voting by mail, the first thing you have to do is register to vote as soon as you can, as deadlines to register in some states are early in October.

Stewart Rhodes, the leader of a far-right group called the Oath Keepers, told the Los Angeles Times on Saturday that his members would "be out on Election Day to protect people who are voting." He said some would be carrying concealed weapons.

A QAnon-affiliated group has also been talking on Telegram, describing "heavily armed MAGA patriots" preparing for Election Day, according to the Times. The Times in turned cited the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks extremists online.

Laws differ by state when it comes to whether you can bring a weapon to a polling site -- concealed, unconcealed, or at all.

Openly carrying a firearm at a polling station could be interpreted as voter intimidation, which is illegal in the US.

Rhodes said if push came to shove, his members would draw their weapons.

Rhodes said he was worried about "the radical left" targeting voters. A Pew Research survey at the end of July found that Trump supporters were more likely than Biden supporters to prefer in-person voting this year.

"I'll be voting in person and so will everybody else I know, and I think the radical left knows that," Rhodes said.

Rhodes said that his group would report issues to the police initially but that he's "not confident police will do their job."

He said if his group noticed, for example, protesters at polling sites with guns, "we're going to intervene."

"We've done it before," he said. "If the cops are doing their job, we'll just stand by. If they're not, we'll step in."

Cassie Miller, a senior researcher with the Southern Poverty Law Center, told the Times that "chances are really high that we're going to see militia members, armed groups, or Trump supporters who are armed at the polls."

"Not only are these people willing to participate in voter intimidation, but they're hoping to create this chaotic moment," Miller said. "There's an unwillingness to accept anything but a Trump victory."

Devin Burghart, the executive director of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, told the Times that his group believed far-right groups would be standing by at polls in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin and that "the act of showing up armed is certainly a deterrent to folks showing up to vote."

Burghart said people could report such groups via his group's app, which is designed to alert local legal observers.
______________

And the derangement continues.

[tbm3fan]

More and more like the SA brown shirts of days past. At least the originals never pretended to be protecting democracy like these pretenders of today. Then again maybe they aren't interested in democracy anymore? Maybe surfgun could enlighten us regarding what they stand for as he seems enthralled by them...

[TopHatter]

Maybe surfgun could enlighten us regarding what they stand for as he seems enthralled by them...

He'll never answer that question.

I tried on multiple occasions to get his opinion on Trump's claim that he's above all law (which is exactly what his lawyers argued all the way to the Supreme Court).

The best that surfgun could manage was a pathetic claim that these were Democrat or media talking points or some such chickenshit nonsense.

This is what moral cowardice and cognitive dissonance look like.

[TopHatter]

Psychiatrist Judith Herman: Trump’s collapse in the polls has “undeniably” made him more “dangerous”

Dr. Judith Herman, the co-founder of the Victims of Violence Program at Cambridge Health Alliance and a longtime psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School, has been warning about President Donald Trump's mental health since the 2016 election, when she called on then-President Barack Obama to request a "full medical and psychiatric evaluation" of the president-elect.

Since then, Trump's "grandiosity" has grown even worse, Herman said in an interview with Salon, and his supporters approach "cult behavior." With Trump's poll numbers plummeting and his attempts to sow doubt in the results of the election, the specter of violence amid calls for an uprising have made him even more "dangerous," she added.

Herman, who was among the dozens of mental health professionals who expressed concern about the president's mental health in "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump" and spoke out at events hosted by psychiatrist Bandy Lee, spoke to Salon about Trump's "mental status" amid his electoral trouble and the dangers posed by his "cult"-like supporters.

Salon: Why did you decide to publicly speak out about the president's mental health?

Herman: Well, it started with the election of 2016, which I was kind of shocked and upset about like many people. And so what I did was I wrote a letter in November 2016 to President Obama, who was still president then. And a couple of my colleagues signed on, and it was a very short letter. It just basically said, "I'm worried about the mental instability of this president-elect — and for these reasons. And is there a way to require him to have a fitness evaluation that would involve the complete medical and psychiatric eval assessment by neutral professionals?"

And of course the answer was "no." There is no such mechanism. There is, actually, for high ranking military officers — except for the commander-in-chief. They have to go through a fitness evaluation every year. And I never did hear back from the president — Obama — but the letter . . . did go public. Huffington Post got hold, and it went viral. And Gloria Steinem read it at the Women's March and put it on her website, which was very exciting.

And so then Bandy Lee contacted me. She was putting together what she called a town hall meeting in March of 2017 . . . We basically said, "We have a duty to warn, or duty to be what Robert Lifton calls the "witnessing professionals," when we think someone is a danger to the country."

You've discussed the Goldwater rule, which prohibits psychiatrists from diagnosing public figures they have not examined, and the American Psychiatric Association has been very critical of mental health professionals that have spoken out. Have you experienced a backlash as a result of your decision to speak publicly?

No, not personally. I mean, I'm still a member of the American Psychiatric Association. Actually, I'm a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association — for what that's worth. When we were working on the book, Robert Lifton and I called ourselves "village elders." But some contributors to the book resigned from the APA either over this issue, or I think Bandy had resigned quite some time before. But, no. I mean, my attitude was if they wanted to kick me out of the organization, that was OK with me. But I haven't actually experienced any problems.

You said ahead of Trump's presidency that you were particularly worried about how Trump's "psychopathology might be amplified by his access to power." How have you seen that play out during his administration?

Oh, unfortunately it has been pretty much what we predicted. I mean, you have grandiosity, you have a tendency to deny reality and you have paranoia and attraction to violence. And it seemed to me that all of those things would be amplified by access to power. I mean, the grandiosity and the insistence on his own alternative facts — as one of his spokespeople put it so delicately — has been enabled by all of his courtiers and his sort of cult followers, particularly around denying reality during the coronavirus pandemic.

I mean, it does approach that kind of cult behavior — including the MAGA hats and the willingness to expose themselves to a lethal pathogen — because loyalty to the cult leader requires it. And his grandiosity is now . . . to the point where there is a sense that he is immortal or invulnerable or invincible. He could conquer the virus by being this Superman-great leader.

I think Tom Friedman had a column in The Times the other day that said, "Trump's not Superman. He's Superspreader." And it seems even worse now that he's out of the hospital and claiming that he feels great.

He's claiming to have found a cure.

Yes. Well, I mean, now he's on dexamethasone, which is a steroid known to produce euphoria, and grandiosity and psychosis as a side effect for some patients. If you have a tendency in that direction in the first place, it probably doesn't help. But, yes, it's become more florid, certainly. as time has gone by.

And then, of course, the incitements to violence and the paranoia have similarly become more explicit — more frequent. And now, he is retrieving wilder and wilder conspiracy theories and obsessing with particular enemies. So I would say that you can't really know his mental status without a direct examination, but what we see of his mental status looks more floridly disturbed as time has gone by.

You described him as a cult leader. What do you think pulls his supporters into that cult to begin with?

Oh, I wish I knew. I mean, let's not minimize misogyny and white supremacy . . . If he can be said to have principles, those are the only two he's got — and they're very consistent. And, I think, certainly there is a hardcore [following] for whom that is the most important thing. For others, I'm puzzled. I mean, I do think the politics of resentment clearly . . . not just the resentment of women and Black people who don't know their place anymore, but the resentment of people who feel disrespected and that their issues and their wellbeing are not reflected in ordinary politics. It needs an extraordinary leader to shake things up — change things.

I mean, I think those two ingredients by themselves would make maybe the kind of third party that we've had periodically right along . . . when various segregationists ran for president, for example. But I think the fact that there are very powerful and wealthy enablers is what transformed this into the takeover of a major political party, and the success of the Electoral College. And then, of course, the implementation of their program has nothing to do with the white male working-class and rural folks who feel left behind.

That's been a running theme in Republican politics, though. An aggrieved white base supports the candidate who mostly works to advance the interest of the rich.

Yeah, it has been. I mean, many of the things we're seeing in this presidency are not new at all. Certainly we've had demagogic leaders before. We've had this kind of alliance. I think that this particular configuration of the Republican Party began probably when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and said, "We shall overcome." And the solid South, which had been a Democratic one-party state became a Republican one-party state for a long time.

There's been a lot of talk lately about how Trump might not accept the results of the election. You've warned in articles that his narcissism just "can't bear" the thought of losing. How do you think he might respond to a loss? And does it even matter whether he loses by a little or a lot?

Oh, I think it matters a lot in terms of how successful his call for an uprising will be. I mean, he clearly has in mind . . . that his Proud Boys, a combination of militias, probably the armed folks that we saw in Washington when he tried to drive out the protesters, when he had to have a photo-op in front of the church with the Bible. They turned out to be from ICE, and other immigration enforcement and Park Police. And it was a mix of basically paramilitaries. And I've been thinking about the ICE people as, in some ways, the equivalent of the SA in Nazi Germany — the Sturmabteilung. And I think the call for an armed uprising should be taken very, very seriously. He doesn't kid around. When he says he would not be willing to accept the results of any election he lost, I think that does really need to be taken very seriously.

There was a report that the FBI busted up a plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, D-Mich.

Yes. Well, there have already been two armed incursions into the legislature in Michigan that closed down the legislature. I mean, this is not a joke.

But the question is: Are these going to be isolated, scattered bands that can be relatively easily contained or not? Or are they going to have an army of lawyers and other establishment enablers contesting every bit of the election? And I think the only way — it's that combination again that gives you fascism. And I think the only way to prevent that is to have a very clear cut result.

Are you worried that Trump may become even less restrained once he's out of the White House?

The problem is as soon as he's out of the White House, he faces multiple [possible] criminal charges, as well as civil liabilities. And that's not going to go anywhere — that's going to progress. And, I mean, I do have enough trust in our institutions. Or hope, I guess, might be a better word, to think that there will be a reckoning. Now, what will happen to his mental status under those circumstances? I think it's not going to be pretty. I mean, it's already not pretty.
_________

[TopHatter]

Riled Up: Misinformation Stokes Calls for Violence on Election Day

In a video posted to Facebook on Sept. 14, Dan Bongino, a popular right-wing commentator and radio host, declared that Democrats were planning a coup against President Donald Trump on Election Day.

For just over 11 minutes, Bongino talked about how bipartisan election experts who had met in June to plan for what might happen after people vote were actually holding exercises for such a coup. To support his baseless claim, he twisted the group’s words to fit his meaning.

“I want to warn you that this stuff is intense,” Bongino said, speaking into the camera to his 3.6 million Facebook followers. “Really intense, and you need to be ready to digest it all.”

His video, which has been viewed 2.9 million times, provoked strong reactions. One commenter wrote that people should be prepared for when Democrats “cross the line” so they could “show them what true freedom is.” Another posted a meme of a Rottweiler about to pounce, with the caption, “Veterans be like … Say when Americans.”

The coup falsehood was just one piece of misinformation that has gone viral in right-wing circles ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3. In another unsubstantiated rumor that is circulating on Facebook and Twitter, a secret network of elites was planning to destroy the ballots of those who voted for Trump. And in yet another fabrication, supporters of Trump said that an elite cabal planned to block them from entering polling locations on Election Day.

All of the rumors appeared to be having the same effect: Of riling up Trump’s restive base, just as the president has publicly stoked the idea of election chaos. In comment after comment about the falsehoods, respondents said the only way to stop violence from the left was to respond in kind with force.

“Liberals and their propaganda,” one commenter wrote. “Bring that nonsense to country folks who literally sit in wait for days to pull a trigger.”

The misinformation, which has been amplified by right-wing media such as Fox News host Mark Levin and outlets like Breitbart and The Daily Wire, adds contentiousness to an already powder-keg campaign season. Trump has repeatedly declined to say whether he would accept a peaceful transfer of power if he lost to his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, and has urged his supporters “to go into the polls and watch very carefully.”

The falsehoods on social media are building support for the idea of disrupting the election. Election officials have said they fear voter harassment and intimidation on Election Day.

“This is extremely concerning,” said Megan Squire, a computer science professor at Elon University in Elon, North Carolina, who tracks extremists online. Combined with Trump’s comments, the false rumors are “giving violent vigilantes an excuse” that acting out in real life would be “in defense of democracy,” she said.

Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign spokesman, said Trump would “accept the results of an election that is free, fair and without fraud” and added that the question of violence was “better put to Democrats.”

In a text message, Bongino said the idea of a Democratic coup was “not a rumor” and that he was busy “exposing LIBERAL violence.”

Distorted information about the election is also flowing in left-wing circles online, though to a lesser degree, according to a New York Times analysis. Such misinformation includes a viral falsehood that mailboxes were being blocked by unknown actors to effectively discourage people from voting.

Other popular leftist sites, like Liberal Blogger and The Other 98%, have also twisted facts to push a critical narrative about Republicans, according to PolitiFact, a fact-checking website. In one inflammatory claim last week, for instance, the left-wing Facebook page Occupy Democrats asserted that President Trump had directly inspired a plot by a right-wing group to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.

Social media companies appear increasingly alarmed by how their platforms may be manipulated to stoke election chaos. Facebook and Twitter took steps last week to clamp down on false information before and after the vote. Facebook banned groups and posts related to the pro-Trump conspiracy movement QAnon and said it would suspend political advertising postelection. Twitter said it was changing some basic features to slow the way information flows on its network.

On Friday, Twitter executives urged people “to recognize our collective responsibility to the electorate to guarantee a safe, fair and legitimate democratic process this November.”

Of the lies, Facebook said it was “removing calls for interference or violence at polling places” and would label posts that sought to delegitimize the results. YouTube said it was not recommending videos containing the false rumors, while Twitter said sharing links to disputed news stories was permitted if the tweets did not violate its rules.

Even so, the idea of a Democrat-led coup has gained plenty of traction online in recent weeks. It has made its way into at least 938 Facebook groups, 279 Facebook pages, 33 YouTube videos and hundreds of tweets, a Times analysis found.

The unfounded claim traces back to an Aug. 11 letter from two former military officers, John Nagl and Paul Yingling, to the country’s top military official, Gen. Mark A. Milley, according to researchers at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a London-based research organization. In their public letter, Nagl and Yingling asked Milley to have military forces ready to escort Trump from the White House grounds if he lost the election and refused to leave.

Some online commentators seized on the letter as evidence of a coming left-wing coup. “Bootlickers Nagl and Yingling suggest a violent military coup,” read one post on Facebook on Aug. 12, which got 619 likes and comments and linked to the letter. That same day, Infowars, a conspiracy theory website, also published a piece claiming that retired army officers were openly talking about a coup by Democrats.

Nagl and Yingling did not respond to requests for comment.

On Sept. 4, the right-wing outlet The National Pulse added to the conspiracy. It published a piece pointing to what it said were the “radical, anti-democratic tactics” of the Transition Integrity Project, a bipartisan group of former government officials who analyzed how to prevent a disrupted presidential election and transition. The group published a report on Aug. 3 about its efforts, but The National Pulse said the document showed “an impending attempt to delegitimize the election coming from the far left.”

Trey Grayson, a Republican former secretary of state of Kentucky and a member of the Transition Integrity Project, said the idea that the group was preparing a left-wing coup was “crazy.” He said the group had explored many election scenarios, including a victory by Trump.

Michael Anton, a former national security adviser to Trump, also published an essay Sept. 4 in the conservative publication The American Mind, claiming, “Democrats are laying the groundwork for revolution right in front of our eyes.”

His article was the tipping point for the coup claim. It was posted more than 500 times on Facebook and reached 4.9 million people, according to CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned analytics tool. Right-wing news sites such as The Federalist and DJHJ Media ramped up coverage of the idea, as did Bongino.

Anton did not respond to a call for comment.

The lie also began metastasizing. In one version, right-wing commentators claimed, without proof, that Biden would not concede if he lost the election. They also said his supporters would riot.

“If a defeated Biden does not concede and his party’s rioters take to the streets in a coup attempt against President Trump, will the military be needed to stop them?” tweeted Levin, the Fox News host, on Sept. 18. His message was shared nearly 16,000 times.

After The Times contacted him, Levin published a note on Facebook saying his tweet had been a “sarcastic response to the Democrats.”

Bill Russo, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said in a statement that Biden would accept how the people voted. “Donald Trump and Mike Pence are the ones who refuse to commit to a peaceful transfer of power,” he said.

On YouTube, dozens of videos pushing the false coup narrative have collectively gathered more than 1.2 million views since Sept. 7, according to a tally by The Times. One video was titled, “RED ALERT: Are the President’s Enemies Preparing a COUP?”

The risk of misinformation translating to real-world action is growing, said Mike Caulfield, a digital literacy expert at Washington State University Vancouver.

“What we’ve seen over the past four years is an increasing capability” from believers to turn these conspiracy narratives “into direct physical actions,” he said.
_____________

“Liberals and their propaganda...Bring that nonsense to country folks who literally sit in wait for days to pull a trigger.”

Yeah, that doesn't sound deranged in the slightest....

[TopHatter]

Neo-Nazi and Proud Boys groups push Trump campaign poll watching operation online: Reports

Officials in multiple states are taking aggressive steps to protect voters from efforts by militias or other armed groups seeking to congregate near polling places on Election Day, as simmering online activity indicates that some groups are trying to register as campaign poll watchers for Donald Trump's campaign.

In Michigan, an open carry state, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Friday announced a ban on open carry firearms at and near polls.

"Michiganders should know that law enforcement across multiple levels is working together to ensure that anyone who wishes to exercise their right to vote in person on Election Day can do so safely and without the threat of intimidation," said Col. Joe Gasper, the state's police director.

PHOTO: In this Sept. 17, 2020, file photo, militiamen and women listen on as speakers at the annual Constitution Day rally held at the Michigan State Capitol building in Lansing, Mich. (Adam J. Dewey/NurPhoto via ZUMA Press via Newscom, FILE)


New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal issued a statement, also on Friday, that reiterated guidance for local law enforcement to help protect voters. Poll watchers "may not harass or intimidate voters, engage in electioneering, cause disturbances at polling places or challenge voters based on their race or ethnicity or how they are expected to vote," the statement said.

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo said at a Thursday press conference that she's "putting security provisions in place" to assure voters "there's no place for violence, there's no place for threats."

The measures come as online accounts tied to neo-Nazi sympathizers and "alt-right" groups such as the Proud Boys have been generating posts that encourage supporters to join the campaign's Election Day operations, according to two new reports this week. That includes sending out links to poll-watching registration sites for the Trump campaign's so-called Army for Trump, an effort working to recruit thousands of supports to sign up as poll watchers for the campaign on Election Day.

In one instance, a Proud Boys-affiliated user, in a group that claimed to circulate to 1,800 people affiliated with the Proud Boys, shared the link to sign up, writing that Democrats "don't want us Republicans to be in their polls," according to the report from SITE Intelligence Group, a non-governmental agency group that tracks potential security threats online, that was released on Tuesday. A separate SITE report released on Thursday said a link was shared within a neo-Nazi channel that claims to have about 5,000 members.

"The call to watch the polls, initially made by President Trump himself in the first presidential debate, has been answered by several far-right groups," the SITE report said.

Samantha Zager, deputy national press secretary for the Trump campaign, said in a statement to ABC News on Friday that the president "has unequivocally denounced hate groups by name on numerous occasions but the media refuses to accurately cover it because that would mean the end of a Democrat Party talking point."

PHOTO: In this Sept. 26, 2020, file photo, members of the Proud Boys, a gang that supports President Trump, hold a rally in Delta Park on the edge of Portland, Ore. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images, FILE)

Zager did not reject these groups' apparent interest in joining the campaign's poll watching team when specifically asked by ABC News.

Poll watchers are legal under strict rules that vary by state. In most states, both parties are permitted to have trained representatives observe the voting process, relay information back to their parties, and watch for irregularities. They are not supposed to interfere with voting aside from reporting issues through official channels.

ABC News previously has obtained videos of Trump campaign poll watcher training sessions, held in multiple battleground states, in which attendees explicitly were told to avoid interacting with voters.

The SITE report said efforts by the Proud Boys or similar groups to volunteer for Trump "have so far not been followed with direct threats of voter suppression," but it could be "inferred" that their "presence at election locations as 'poll watchers' would potentially serve to intimidate, pressure and harass oppositional voters."

"Some of these groups will be listening to his false claims of fraud, and you put that in combination with his refusal to condemn white supremacists and civil unrest -- it really is a very thinly veiled call for his most militant supporters to go to the polls," Mary McCord, a longtime national security official and Georgetown University Law professor, previously told ABC News.


PHOTO: On September 26, 2020, a state of emergency was declared in Portland, Oregon as The Proud Boys and other far-right extremist groups rallied in defiance of being denied a permit. (Michael Nigro/Sipa USA via AP, FILE)

Previously, at a debate, Trump urged his backers to "watch very carefully" at polls on Election Day, heightening already high political tensions. He later backtracked, saying at a Thursday town hall event, "I denounce white supremacy."

Experts have told ABC News they're concerned over the Trump campaign's use of the word "Army" in recruiting poll watchers.

"An 'army' doesn't sound like people just there to observe," said Sean Morales-Doyle, deputy director of voting rights and election programs at the Brennan Center for Justice. "An 'army' sounds like people there to engage in war with the enemy."
__________

The people change but the words stay the same:

This summer, within a very few days, the enemy will launch his final push for victory here in Mississippi. This offensive will consist of two basic salients [...]

One. Massive street demonstrations by blacks used by communists [...] designed to provoke whites into counterdemonstrations and open, pitched street battles [...] to provide an excuse for:

Two. A decree from subversive authorities in charge of the national government [...] declaring martial law [...]

When the first waves of blacks hit our streets this summer, we must avoid open daylight conflict with them [...] we must reveal their leaders as the immoral hypocrites they are.

As Christians we are disposed to kindness, generosity, affection, and humility in our dealings with others. As militants, we are disposed to use physical force against our enemies. How can we reconcile these two apparently contradictory philosophies? The answer, of course, is to purge malice, bitterness, and vengeance from our hearts.

"Imperial Executive Order" issued at a Klan meeting on June 7, 1964 by Samuel Holloway Bowers Imperial Wizard of the White Knights Of The Ku Klux Klan

[TopHatter]

Police: Man upset with mask mandate threatened Wichita mayor

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A retired firefighter who was upset with Wichita's mask ordinance was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kidnap and kill the mayor of Kansas' largest city, authorities said.

Police said the 59-year-old suspect who was arrested Friday could face a charge of criminal threat, the Wichita Eagle reported.

Wichita Mayor Brandon Whipple, a Democrat, said someone had read him text messages received by another city official that asked about the mayor's address and threatened his life.

“He said he was going to kidnap me and slash my throat and he needed my address because I needed to see the hangman — me and everyone who, something about tyranny,” Whipple said.

“It sounded like the person was very upset about pretty much mask mandates and he said something about not being able to see his mother because of COVID restrictions on elderly homes,” he said.

Wichita police spokesman Charley Davidson said that no other local officials are believed to have been targeted.

The arrest comes more than a week after authorities said they thwarted a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Authorities allege members of two anti-government paramilitary groups took part in plotting in that case. Six men are charged in federal court with conspiring to kidnap the Democratic governor. Eight others are charged in state court with counts including providing material support for terrorist acts.
______________

[Albany Rifles]

Just checking in to see how the story on Hunter dropping off an incriminating laptop in DE while living in CA to a Trump-fan shop owner whose security footage was wiped and who def saw Hunter but is legally blind, written by Hannity's producer w/ info from Giuliani is holding up.

[Albany Rifles]

Speaking of corruption in high places...

https://www.insider.com/trump-paid-i...content=topbar

[TopHatter]

Speaking of corruption in high places...

https://www.insider.com/trump-paid-i...content=topbar

"Trump paid his daughter Ivanka $747,622 for 'consulting,' then deducted it from his taxes, according to a New York Times investigation"

I'm no CPA but I'm pretty sure that paying a regular salaried employee "consulting fees" and then deducting it as a business expense is tax fraud...

[surfgun]

Low life John Carney pardoned the criminal involved in Whitmer plot.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ar/ar-BB19TE11

[TopHatter]

Low life John Carney pardoned the criminal involved in Whitmer plot.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...ar/ar-BB19TE11

Interesting that you call John Carney a "low life" but haven't said a word about the plot against Whitmer.

The pardon had been recommended by the five-person Delaware Board of Pardons. The outlet noted that the details of Croft's hearing are unclear because no minutes were recorded.

Lt. Gov. Bethany Hall-Long (D), who chairs the board, said in a statement to the News Journal that pardons are recommended to the governor based on several factors, including "the position of the Department of Justice, the nature of the incident(s), the time lapsed from the last conviction, and the impact on employment and housing."

Mat Marshall, a spokesman for Attorney General Kathy Jennings (D), said in a statement to the outlet that her predecessor, Matt Denn, did not oppose Croft's pardon because his criminal record was from two decades ago.

"It appeared to everyone involved that his offenses were in his past and that he had gotten himself on the right track," Marshall said in a statement.

Marshall added that neither state prosecutors nor the Board of Pardons would have endorsed Croft's pardon had they known "what the future held."

"Croft's actions are horrific and another reminder about the rising tide of political violence by so-called 'militias,' the boogaloo boys, the Proud Boys, and other extremist groups," Marshall said.

[TopHatter]

Retired Navy SEAL William McRaven says bin Laden conspiracy theory Trump boosted is as 'crazy' as denying the moon landing

Retired US Navy Adm. William McRaven, the former head of US Special Operations Command, said Tuesday that the Osama bin Laden conspiracy theory that President Donald Trump boosted on Twitter last week was as crazy as denying the moon landing.

Last Tuesday, Trump retweeted a post from a since-suspended account that was spreading a baseless QAnon conspiracy theory that bin Laden is still alive and that former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden staged his killing and possibly had SEAL Team 6 killed to cover it up.

Amid significant criticism, the president defended his retweet Thursday at a Town Hall led by NBC's Samantha Guthrie, saying it was just a retweet. "That was an opinion of somebody," Trump said. "I'll put it out there. People can decide for themselves."

McRaven, a former Navy SEAL who oversaw the bin Laden raid, kept his thoughts on the unfounded conspiracy theory to himself until CNN's Jake Tapper asked him about it Tuesday.

"I didn't even think it was worth addressing because it was so crazy. It was a little bit like denying the moon landing," he said, characterizing the conspiracy theory Trump retweeted as far "off in left field."

McRaven said that he was pleased to see that Robert O'Neill, a former Navy SEAL and member of SEAL Team 6 who is thought to have shot bin Laden, spoke out against the conspiracy theory, making it clear that not only did the US military get bin Laden but that the men who went on the mission risked their lives to do so.



Responding to the president's retweet of the bin Laden conspiracy theory, O'Neill tweeted last Tuesday: "Very brave men said [goodbye] to their kids to go kill Osama bin Laden. We were given the order by President Obama. It was not a body double. Thank you Mr. President."

McRaven told CNN's Tapper that Trump was disrespecting service members like O'Neill who participated in the raid to take down bin Laden by boosting "crazy" conspiracy theories.

"By being so dismissive, by promoting this crazy conspiracy theory, you really disrespected those guys that went on the mission, and frankly, I'd offer, a lot of people within the special operations and conventional forces that have been fighting this hard war for a long time," he said.

The president has floated a number of unfounded conspiracy theories and scientifically dubious claims in the past, including during his 2016 presidential campaign.

More recently, Trump pitched the unsupported idea that his Democratic opponent Joe Biden was taking performance-enhancing drugs in order to get him to the election finish line by November. He has called for Biden to take a drug test.

McRaven has been a measured but outspoken critic of Trump and his administration. Throughout Trump's presidency, he has identified administration policy decisions he considers disastrous and accused the commander-in-chief of failing to display leadership in a time of urgent need.

In an opinion column titled "Our Republic Is Under Attack From the President" that was published in the New York Times in October 2019, McRaven wrote that Trump was gutting the country of the "nation's principles."

In another article published in The Washington Post in 2018, McRaven wrote: "A good leader sets the example for others to follow."

"Your leadership, however, has shown little of these qualities," McRaven added. "Through your actions, you have embarrassed us in the eyes of our children, humiliated us on the world stage and, worst of all, divided us as a nation."

McRaven said in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal that he voted for Biden in the upcoming presidential election.

The retired Navy SEAL held a number of important leadership positions within the special operations community during his nearly four decades in the service, including overseeing the successful Operation Neptune Spear raid in 2011 that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

After retiring in 2014, he went into academia and has written several books on his experiences as a Navy SEAL.
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How about you surfgun, where do you stand on this? Was the Bin Laden raid a hoax, engineered by the Obama Administration?

[TopHatter]

Trump supporter launches furious rant at Starbucks barista


The woman screamed ‘Fuck black lives matter!’

This week a Trump supporter went viral for all the wrong reasons after video surfaced of her yelling anti-Black Lives Matter rhetoric at a Starbucks barista in Santee, California.

The clip – which was taken by a concerned customer – shows the agitated woman getting into a heated war of words with barista Alex Beckom, 19, after being politely asked her to wear the Trump 2020 mask under her chin, correctly over her face.




Instead of leaving quietly, the woman then accused the coffee shop employee of discriminating against her for her political views as a supporter of the president.

“I’m not going to listen to anything you say to me when you talk to me like that and I know it’s because you’re discriminating against me because I’m a Trump supporter,” she responded.

After it was repeated that she was only being asked to properly cover her face per COVID-19 guidelines, the women spat out, “Fuck Black lives matter,” before asking for a straw and some sugar for her drink.

“And again next time you come in I’m going to need you to keep your mask on or else I can’t help you,” the barista repeated nonplussed.

“No, no it’s not a law and I can show you the penal code and everything, it’s a hoax,” the woman insisted. She concluded by shouting as she left the store, “I don’t have to wear a mask, I’m not going to wear a mask. This is America and I don’t have to do what you say. Trump 2020!”
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It's truly sad when cancer strikes such a young person. Hopefully she'll recover.