GOP

mickeyrat

weekend update...

https://www.threads.net/@johnnypalmadessa/post/C6lrBfcuYAA/?xmt=AQGzXognDhyc8NBUsty_aFi0RuvqUkVwtf2NS7uWHk2GWA

mickeyrat

look forward to more of this....

https://www.threads.net/@lincolnproject.us/post/C6oxsEioQhh/?xmt=AQGzeFZd9DYEKe8vW4CgCVIWsQZo_y_mp2jeMY5M2hmhZQ

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/speaker-johnson-oust-motion-to-vacate-marjorie-taylor-greene-482da113f542b62ee00b5f1692f58a5b   Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene triggers effort to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from office

 

United States House of Representatives Washington news GA State Wire LA State Wire

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene triggers effort to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from office

By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING

3 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hardline Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called Wednesday for a vote to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, pressing ahead with her long-shot effort despite pushback from Republicans at the highest levels tired of the political chaos.

Greene, who is one of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters in Congress, stood on the House floor and read a long list of “transgressions” she said Johnson had committed as speaker. Colleagues booed in protest.

The vote, which under House rules is required within two days, could happen imminently.

mrussel1

mickeyrat said:

https://apnews.com/article/speaker-johnson-oust-motion-to-vacate-marjorie-taylor-greene-482da113f542b62ee00b5f1692f58a5b   Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene triggers effort to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from office

 

United States House of Representatives Washington news GA State Wire LA State Wire

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene triggers effort to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from office

By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING

3 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hardline Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called Wednesday for a vote to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, pressing ahead with her long-shot effort despite pushback from Republicans at the highest levels tired of the political chaos.

Greene, who is one of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters in Congress, stood on the House floor and read a long list of “transgressions” she said Johnson had committed as speaker. Colleagues booed in protest.

The vote, which under House rules is required within two days, could happen imminently.

It's all about the fundraising from it. 

mickeyrat

mrussel1 said:

mickeyrat said:

https://apnews.com/article/speaker-johnson-oust-motion-to-vacate-marjorie-taylor-greene-482da113f542b62ee00b5f1692f58a5b   Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene triggers effort to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from office

 

United States House of Representatives Washington news GA State Wire LA State Wire

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene triggers effort to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from office

By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING

3 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hardline Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called Wednesday for a vote to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, pressing ahead with her long-shot effort despite pushback from Republicans at the highest levels tired of the political chaos.

Greene, who is one of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters in Congress, stood on the House floor and read a long list of “transgressions” she said Johnson had committed as speaker. Colleagues booed in protest.

The vote, which under House rules is required within two days, could happen imminently.

It's all about the fundraising from it. 

of course. with fuckstick sopping up every last dollar from the rubes, what else can they do?

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/speaker-johnson-oust-motion-to-vacate-marjorie-taylor-greene-482da113f542b62ee00b5f1692f58a5b   House quickly rejects Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's effort to remove Speaker Johnson from office

 

Mike Johnson Washington news LA State Wire GA State Wire

House quickly rejects Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's effort to remove Speaker Johnson from office

By LISA MASCARO and KEVIN FREKING

8 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hardline Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tried and failed in sudden action Wednesday to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, her long-shot effort swiftly and resoundingly rejected by Democrats and Republicans tired of the political chaos.

One of Donald Trump’s biggest supporters in Congress, Greene stood on the House floor and read a long list of “transgressions” she said Johnson had committed as speaker. Colleagues booed in protest.

Greene of Georgia criticized Johnson’s leadership as “pathetic, weak and unacceptable.”

No sooner than Greene triggered the vote on her motion to vacate the speaker from his office, the Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise countered by calling first for a vote to table it.

An overwhelming majority, 359-43, kept Johnson in his job, for now.

It’s the second time in a matter of months that Republicans have tried to oust their own speaker, an unheard of level of party turmoil with a move rarely seen in U.S. history.

---

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As Greene pressed ahead despite pushback from Republicans at the highest levels, GOP lawmakers filtered towards Johnson, giving him pats on the back and grasping his shoulder to assure him of their support.

"We need steady hands at the wheel,” Johnson said afterward. “The country desperately needs a functioning Congress."

The Georgia Republican had vowed she would force a vote on the motion to vacate the Republican speaker if he dared to advance a foreign aid package with funds for Ukraine, which was overwhelmingly approved late last month and signed into law.

But in recent days it seemed her effort had cooled, as she and Johnson met repeatedly for a potential resolution.

Johnson of Louisiana marched on, saying he had been willing to take the risk, believing it was important for the U.S. to back Ukraine against Russia’s invasion and explaining he wanted to be on the “right side of history.”

“I just have to do my job every day,” Johnson said Monday.

In a highly unusual move, the speaker received a boost from Democrats led by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, whose leadership team had said it was time to “turn the page” on the GOP turmoil and vote to table Greene’s resolution — almost ensuring Johnson’s job is saved, for now.

Trump also weighed in after Johnson trekked to Mar-a-Lago for a visit, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee giving the speaker his nod of approval. And Trump’s hand-picked leader at the Republican National Committee urged House Republicans off the move.

Ahead of the vote, Trump said on social media, “I absolutely love Marjorie Taylor Greene,” but he said Republicans need to be fighting now to defeat Democrats in the November election.

“This is not the time,” Trump said, to oust the speaker.

The move now poses its own political risks for Greene, a high-profile provocateur.

Greene was determined to force her colleagues to be on the record with their vote – putting them in the politically uncomfortable position of backing the speaker and seen as joining forces with Democrats to save him.

The tally showed the strength, but also the weakness, of her effort, as most lawmakers voted to move past the infighting and allow the Republican speaker, just six months in the office, to keep the gavel.

Last year, the House chamber was brought to a standstill when eight Republicans voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s office, and Democrats declined to help save him.

Ousting McCarthy resulted in a nearly monthlong search for a new GOP leader, throwing the chamber into turmoil with an episode Republicans wanted to avoid before seeking voter support in the November election.

__

Associated Press writers Stephen Groves and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/nikki-haley-presidential-primary-election-indiana-8b73a23568e054ce33163e2ca23b8fb3   Haley won 1 in 5 Indiana Republican voters in the presidential primary. She left the race in March

 

C State Wire

Haley won 1 in 5 Indiana Republican voters in the presidential primary. She left the race in March

By ISABELLA VOLMERT

Today

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The ghost of Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign is ringing up significant support in state primaries despite her withdrawal from the race in March shortly before Donald Trump had clinched the Republican nomination.

The backing for Haley — most recently in Indiana, where she grabbed more than 21% of the votes on Tuesday — signals persistent discontent among party voters with the former president. He is racking up primary victories even as he has been spending much of his time recently in a New York courtroom facing state criminal charges involving hush money payments to a porn actor.

Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador who qualified for the Indiana ballot before she ended her campaign two months ago, has not endorsed Trump.

A Haley campaign adviser did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the results.

Indiana Democrats did not have the option to vote “ uncommitted ” in their party primary. Unease about President Joe Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war has sparked a protest vote movement in some states, raising similar questions about the strength of his support in November.

---

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Haley’s support was largest in Indiana’s urban and suburban counties. She won 35% of the vote in Indianapolis’s Marion County and more than one-third of the vote in suburban Hamilton County. As in other states, she did best in the most Democratic areas of the state.

The exception was Lake County, home to Gary, just south of Chicago. Haley won only 14% of the vote in Lake County.

Biden’s campaign attributed Haley’s Indiana showing to Trump’s trouble in suburbs and cited similar primary numbers in swing states such as Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The president has made an open appeal to Haley supporters to back him in November.

The Trump campaign claimed without evidence that Haley’s support came from Democrats, adding that he would carry Indiana in November, as in 2016 and 2020.

Two weeks ago in Pennsylvania, Haley received nearly 17% of the primary vote. She earned similar support in Arizona just weeks after her exit.

Trump, who won every Indiana county, brushed off Haley's support in an interview Tuesday with WGAL-TV of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

“All of those people are going to come to me,” he said.

In late January, Trump said prematurely that Haley did not have enough signatures to make Indiana’s primary ballot. While Haley did get the minimum 500 signatures needed in each congressional district to make the ballot, the margin was razor thin in the 7th District, which includes Indianapolis.

Haley’s campaign was largely absent from the state even while she was in the race.

Indiana, with its 11 electoral votes, is far from the swing state that Pennsylvania is. Trump won Indiana by 16 percentage points in 2020.

Nonetheless, Haley's support from 1 in 5 Republican voters raises questions about how they will vote in the fall. Before she dropped out, she took nearly 27% of votes in Michigan. She received 13% of the Georgia GOP vote shortly after her exit.

Haley, who ended her campaign after losses to Trump across almost all Super Tuesday states in early March, recently announced she was joining the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. In her farewell speech a day after Trump’s big night, Haley declined to directly endorse him. She put the onus on Trump to win the support of the moderate Republicans and independent voters who had supported her.

“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that,” she said. “At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people.”

Trump had been withering in his criticism of Haley, calling her “Birdbrain” in speeches to his supporters and questioning her decision to stay in the race.

Just before Super Tuesday, Haley said she no longer felt bound by a pledge that required all GOP contenders to support the party’s eventual nominee in order to participate in the primary debates.

She has said little publicly but has continued to utilize her email outreach, via her Stand for America PAC, sending out updates on her Hudson appointment, as well as the return of her husband, Michael, from a South Carolina Army National Guard deployment that saw him stationed in African during a large portion of her primary campaign.

___

Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.

Halifax2TheMax

Dem chaos agents at it again! Damn those Dems! How dare they vote to keep a repub speaker! 

mickeyrat

bizzaro hollywood couldn't come up with this.....

https://www.threads.net/@griffinkyle/post/C6990y0PBFc/?xmt=AQGzyYSCygGfV8C8_Ak-p7iG5JnhB0pt546KI8d1UWblyQ

Gern Blansten

mickeyrat said:

bizzaro hollywood couldn't come up with this.....

https://www.threads.net/@griffinkyle/post/C6990y0PBFc/?xmt=AQGzyYSCygGfV8C8_Ak-p7iG5JnhB0pt546KI8d1UWblyQ

lol...it's ridiculous. Bunch of fucking hypocrites

Halifax2TheMax

What kind of stains are on Mitten’s magic underwear or was this a plea for Veep? C’mon in Chris, the waters fine.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/15/politics/mitt-romney-pardon-trump-biden/index.html

Halifax2TheMax

Don’t think we’re a banana republic? Think again. Abbott & Costello in charge. And auditioning to be POOTWH’s veep.

Abbott grants Daniel Perry pardon in murder of Black Lives Matter protester

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is pardoning Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a Black Lives Matter protest.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a Black Lives Matter march, on Thursday after a review board recommended he be released from prison.

“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” he said in a statement. “I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation.”

Abbott has long vowed to pardon Perry, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison last year. After Perry’s conviction, unsealed court records revealed that he regularly shared racist memes and threatening content in private messages and social media posts, including descriptions of killing protesters and minorities.

Perry was convicted of murder in the death of 28-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran Garrett Foster, who was legally armed with an AK-47 rifle, during a 2020 confrontation in downtown Austin at a racial justice demonstration. At the time, his attorneys vowed to appeal.

In a statement, Perry’s attorney, Doug O’Connell, said the board took time to review evidence and interview witnesses “to get to the truth” of the encounter between Foster and Perry that night in Austin in 2020. The decision, he said, corrects “the courtroom travesty” that left his client behind bars for 372 days and resulted in the end of Perry’s military career.

“He is thrilled and elated to be free,” O’Connell wrote. “He wishes that this tragic event never happened and wishes he never had to defend himself against Mr. Foster’s unlawful actions.”

The governor in his declaration criticized Travis County District Attorney José Garza’s handling of the case. He resurfaced allegations that arose during the trial, accusing the prosecutor of directing the lead detective in the case to withhold evidence from the grand jury andaccusing him of misconduct and bias.

“Rather than upholding the self-defense rights of citizens,” Abbott wrote, Garza “has prioritized ‘reducing access to guns’ that citizens may use to lawfully defend themselves”

Travis County Judge Clifford Brown reviewed those accusations during the trial phase of the case when defense attorneys filed a motion for a mistrial. He ultimately denied the motion.

Garza strongly condemned the pardon, saying the state board and governor are sending a message that some lives matter and others do not under the law in Texas.

“The Board and the Governor have put their politics over justice and made a mockery of our legal system,” the district attorney said in a statement. “They should be ashamed of themselves.”

Garza, a Democrat, has become the target of conservatives in the state and in his more left-leaning county after the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law limiting the discretion of elected district attorneys to prosecute certain offenses. The 2023 law signed by the governor allows private citizens to file petitions against district attorneys, specifically those who may refuse to prosecute criminal offenses such as a low-level drug or abortion-related cases.

A Travis County resident recently filed a petition to the court to remove Garza from office for official misconduct and it is under review.

“The petition is meritless and we are confident it will ultimately be dismissed,” Garza said.

The Perry case attracted attention from conservative news personalities who called on Abbott to act, drawing comparisons between Perry’s self-defense claims and Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager acquitted after fatally shooting two men and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wis., in August 2020 amid unrest after a police shooting.

Perry was driving for a ride-share service in July 2020 when he sped his car onto a street in Austin that was crowded with protesters and got into a confrontation with Foster, who had the rifle strapped to his chest. Prosecutors argued Perry could have driven away. But he fatally shot Foster.

In its statement Thursday, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles said it had reached its decision in the case after conducting a “meticulous review” of police reports, court records and witness statements in the case. Abbott appointed all the members serving on the board composed of legal professionals. The governor urged them to conduct an expedited review of Perry’s case a day after his conviction, and weeks before his sentencing. Then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson pressured him to do so.

The board’s highly unorthodox review, experts said, did not commence until after the criminal case was over. But they did not wait — as is normally the case — for the appellate process to play out.

“After a thorough examination of the amassed information, the parole board reached a decision,” the panel said in a statement. “The Board voted unanimously to recommend a full pardon and restoration of firearm rights.”

The behavior surprised longtime observers.

“The parole board in Texas is not supposed to be a judicial body. They don’t engage in re-litigating the facts of the case. That’s not the board’s job and never has been,” said attorney Gary Cohen, who has represented offenders before the board for four decades. “What the board did and the governor did, is a complete perversion of justice and it has dire and drastic consequences for public confidence and safety.”

Clemency is ordinarily granted in cases where offenders have exhausted their appeals and later petition the board, demonstrating some degree of rehabilitation. In this case, the governor took the unprecedented step of petitioning on Perry’s behalf, Cohen said.

It is not the first time the state board has run into political quagmires.

After his death, the pardon and parole board recommended Abbott pardon George Floyd’s 2004 drug conviction, which involved a police officer later charged with crimes related to falsifying records. The governor did nothing and enough pressure built that the board members eventually rescinded their recommendation.

Foster’s family was devastated by the board’s decision. Sheila Foster initially pursued a lawsuit against Perry in her son’s slaying. But after he was convicted, Foster felt he had been held sufficiently accountable and looked to dismiss it, her attorney Quentin Brogdon said.

“We both hoped the governor of Texas would not follow through on his threats,” he said. “Unfortunately, he has turned the rule of law on its head.”

Foster’s options for reviving her lawsuit are limited but she is exploring them, Brogdon said.

“But today she is simply at a loss for words and extremely disappointed in our system of justice,” her attorney said.

Foster’s girlfriend, Whitney Mitchell, who was with him at the time of his death, said a jury rightly convicted Perry as a murderer and his text messages were proof enough for them that he had planned to kill demonstrators that night.

“With this pardon, the Governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan and US Air Force veteran, and impugned that jury’s just verdict,” Mitchell said in a statement through her attorney. “He has declared that Texans who hold political views that are different from his — and different from those in power — can be killed in this State with impunity.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/abbott-daniel-perry-blm-protester/

brianlux

Halifax2TheMax said:

Don’t think we’re a banana republic? Think again. Abbott & Costello in charge. And auditioning to be POOTWH’s veep.

Abbott grants Daniel Perry pardon in murder of Black Lives Matter protester

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is pardoning Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a Black Lives Matter protest.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott pardoned Daniel Perry, the former Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a Black Lives Matter march, on Thursday after a review board recommended he be released from prison.

“Texas has one of the strongest ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws of self-defense that cannot be nullified by a jury or a progressive District Attorney,” he said in a statement. “I thank the Board for its thorough investigation, and I approve their pardon recommendation.”

Abbott has long vowed to pardon Perry, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison last year. After Perry’s conviction, unsealed court records revealed that he regularly shared racist memes and threatening content in private messages and social media posts, including descriptions of killing protesters and minorities.

Perry was convicted of murder in the death of 28-year-old U.S. Air Force veteran Garrett Foster, who was legally armed with an AK-47 rifle, during a 2020 confrontation in downtown Austin at a racial justice demonstration. At the time, his attorneys vowed to appeal.

In a statement, Perry’s attorney, Doug O’Connell, said the board took time to review evidence and interview witnesses “to get to the truth” of the encounter between Foster and Perry that night in Austin in 2020. The decision, he said, corrects “the courtroom travesty” that left his client behind bars for 372 days and resulted in the end of Perry’s military career.

“He is thrilled and elated to be free,” O’Connell wrote. “He wishes that this tragic event never happened and wishes he never had to defend himself against Mr. Foster’s unlawful actions.”

The governor in his declaration criticized Travis County District Attorney José Garza’s handling of the case. He resurfaced allegations that arose during the trial, accusing the prosecutor of directing the lead detective in the case to withhold evidence from the grand jury andaccusing him of misconduct and bias.

“Rather than upholding the self-defense rights of citizens,” Abbott wrote, Garza “has prioritized ‘reducing access to guns’ that citizens may use to lawfully defend themselves”

Travis County Judge Clifford Brown reviewed those accusations during the trial phase of the case when defense attorneys filed a motion for a mistrial. He ultimately denied the motion.

Garza strongly condemned the pardon, saying the state board and governor are sending a message that some lives matter and others do not under the law in Texas.

“The Board and the Governor have put their politics over justice and made a mockery of our legal system,” the district attorney said in a statement. “They should be ashamed of themselves.”

Garza, a Democrat, has become the target of conservatives in the state and in his more left-leaning county after the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a law limiting the discretion of elected district attorneys to prosecute certain offenses. The 2023 law signed by the governor allows private citizens to file petitions against district attorneys, specifically those who may refuse to prosecute criminal offenses such as a low-level drug or abortion-related cases.

A Travis County resident recently filed a petition to the court to remove Garza from office for official misconduct and it is under review.

“The petition is meritless and we are confident it will ultimately be dismissed,” Garza said.

The Perry case attracted attention from conservative news personalities who called on Abbott to act, drawing comparisons between Perry’s self-defense claims and Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager acquitted after fatally shooting two men and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wis., in August 2020 amid unrest after a police shooting.

Perry was driving for a ride-share service in July 2020 when he sped his car onto a street in Austin that was crowded with protesters and got into a confrontation with Foster, who had the rifle strapped to his chest. Prosecutors argued Perry could have driven away. But he fatally shot Foster.

In its statement Thursday, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles said it had reached its decision in the case after conducting a “meticulous review” of police reports, court records and witness statements in the case. Abbott appointed all the members serving on the board composed of legal professionals. The governor urged them to conduct an expedited review of Perry’s case a day after his conviction, and weeks before his sentencing. Then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson pressured him to do so.

The board’s highly unorthodox review, experts said, did not commence until after the criminal case was over. But they did not wait — as is normally the case — for the appellate process to play out.

“After a thorough examination of the amassed information, the parole board reached a decision,” the panel said in a statement. “The Board voted unanimously to recommend a full pardon and restoration of firearm rights.”

The behavior surprised longtime observers.

“The parole board in Texas is not supposed to be a judicial body. They don’t engage in re-litigating the facts of the case. That’s not the board’s job and never has been,” said attorney Gary Cohen, who has represented offenders before the board for four decades. “What the board did and the governor did, is a complete perversion of justice and it has dire and drastic consequences for public confidence and safety.”

Clemency is ordinarily granted in cases where offenders have exhausted their appeals and later petition the board, demonstrating some degree of rehabilitation. In this case, the governor took the unprecedented step of petitioning on Perry’s behalf, Cohen said.

It is not the first time the state board has run into political quagmires.

After his death, the pardon and parole board recommended Abbott pardon George Floyd’s 2004 drug conviction, which involved a police officer later charged with crimes related to falsifying records. The governor did nothing and enough pressure built that the board members eventually rescinded their recommendation.

Foster’s family was devastated by the board’s decision. Sheila Foster initially pursued a lawsuit against Perry in her son’s slaying. But after he was convicted, Foster felt he had been held sufficiently accountable and looked to dismiss it, her attorney Quentin Brogdon said.

“We both hoped the governor of Texas would not follow through on his threats,” he said. “Unfortunately, he has turned the rule of law on its head.”

Foster’s options for reviving her lawsuit are limited but she is exploring them, Brogdon said.

“But today she is simply at a loss for words and extremely disappointed in our system of justice,” her attorney said.

Foster’s girlfriend, Whitney Mitchell, who was with him at the time of his death, said a jury rightly convicted Perry as a murderer and his text messages were proof enough for them that he had planned to kill demonstrators that night.

“With this pardon, the Governor has desecrated the life of a murdered Texan and US Air Force veteran, and impugned that jury’s just verdict,” Mitchell said in a statement through her attorney. “He has declared that Texans who hold political views that are different from his — and different from those in power — can be killed in this State with impunity.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/abbott-daniel-perry-blm-protester/

It's like the 1950s all over again.  Shake my freakin' head, what a disaster.

Halifax2TheMax

Guess who?

But I’m not really that optimistic. History tells us that repressive movements enabled by cowards and hucksters are just as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the legitimately hateful. You can wreck a country with cosplaying careerists just as easily as you can with bloodthirsty revolutionaries.

Maybe that’s the right elegy for our times.

mickeyrat

Halifax2TheMax said:

Guess who?

But I’m not really that optimistic. History tells us that repressive movements enabled by cowards and hucksters are just as bad, if not worse, than those perpetrated by the legitimately hateful. You can wreck a country with cosplaying careerists just as easily as you can with bloodthirsty revolutionaries.

Maybe that’s the right elegy for our times.

like, an

 hillbilly elegy?

mickeyrat

https://apnews.com/article/montana-attorney-general-campaign-finance-primary-opponent-54b427bb9f71d51adadcf76ca244c8c6   Montana's attorney general said he recruited token primary opponent to increase campaign fundraising

 

Montana's attorney general said he recruited token primary opponent to increase campaign fundraising

By AMY BETH HANSON

Yesterday

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Montana's attorney general told supporters he skirted the state’s campaign finance laws by inviting another Republican to run against him as a token candidate in next month's primary so he could raise more money for the November general election, according to a recording from a fundraising event.

“I do technically have a primary," Attorney General Austin Knudsen said last week when asked at the event who was running against him. “However, he is a young man who I asked to run against me because our campaign laws are ridiculous."

Knudsen separately faces dozens of professional misconduct allegations from the state's office of attorney discipline as he seeks a second term. He made the comments about his primary opponent during the fundraiser on May 11 in Dillon, Montana, according to the recording obtained by the Daily Montanan, which is part of the nonprofit States Newsroom organization.

---

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In the recording, Knudsen is heard saying that Logan Olson “filed to run against me simply because under our current campaign finance laws in Montana, it allows me to raise more money. So, he supports me and he’s going to vote for me.”

Knudsen’s senior campaign adviser Jake Eaton declined to comment on the recording.

Olson, a county attorney in rural northeastern Montana, denied being recruited by Knudsen. Campaign finance records indicate his filing fee was paid by a longtime Republican operative who is also a Knudsen donor.

The state’s campaign finance watchdog agency, the Commissioner of Political Practices, is investigating complaints filed by the executive director of the Montana Democratic Party that allege an agreement between Knudsen and Olson.

Under state law, a person cannot pay or “promise valuable consideration” to another person to induce them to be a candidate, or to withdraw as a candidate.

Democrat Sheila Hogan's complaints say Knudsen started raising donations exceeding the $790-per person allowed without a primary opponent long before Olson filed on March 11 — the final day for candidate filing.

“Olson is not a legitimate, good faith candidate for Attorney General,” both complaints state.

Eaton, who called the complaint against Knudsen frivolous, said it was “common practice for candidates to accept primary and general contributions and then return the money if there is no contested primary."

He suggested Democratic Attorney General candidate Ben Alke, a Bozeman attorney, was also accepting more money than what is allowed from individual donors.

However, a search of Alke's campaign finance reports shows only contributions to his primary campaign.

Knudsen and Olson have until May 23 to respond to the complaints, although Olson has requested an extension, commissioner Chris Gallus said Friday.

Olson has not raised or spent any money in the race, according to a report filed by his treasurer on Friday.

His April campaign finance report listed a debt of more than $1,500 to Standard Consulting of Helena for reimbursement of his filing fee.

“I did pay Logan’s filing fee and helped him file for office,” Chuck Denowh, a Republican operative and owner of Standard Consulting, said in an email Friday. “I did so because he asked me to.”

Denowh has donated $1,580 to Knudsen -- $790 each for the primary and general elections.

Alke said the professional misconduct allegations and other actions by Knudsen are why he's running for attorney general.

Knudsen is facing 41 counts of professional misconduct on allegations his office tried to undermine the Montana Supreme Court while defending a challenge to a state law about judicial nominations. The Commission on Practice is scheduled to hear the case in mid-July and recommend whether Knudsen should be punished.

Separately, in early 2021 Knudsen ordered the Lewis and Clark County attorney to dismiss concealed carry weapons charges against a man who allegedly threatened a restaurant manager trying to enforce the state's pandemic mask mandate. Knudsen's office later pleaded the case down to disorderly conduct.

In October 2021, a Helena hospital said three unspecified public officials threatened doctors after they refused to treat a COVID-19 patient with ivermectin, a drug for parasites that is not federally approved for the virus. Knudsen’s office later confirmed that he participated in a conference call with hospital executives and that he sent a Montana Highway Patrol trooper to the hospital to talk with the patient’s family after they claimed mistreatment — something the hospital denied.

“This sort of conduct from the chief legal officer and law enforcement officer of the state of Montana is inappropriate and I hope people are paying attention because this is just one of several issues with Austin Knudsen,” Alke said Thursday.

mickeyrat

gift article.....

https://wapo.st/4bpfMwN 

In a place with a history of hate, an unlikely fight against GOP extremism
By Hannah Allam
May 20, 2024 at 12:29 ET
COEUR D’ALENE, Idaho — Locals prefer not to talk about the hate that took root here a generation ago, when the Aryan Nations and other militants built a white supremacist paradise among the tall pines and crystal lakes of North Idaho.
Community activists, backed by national civil rights groups, bankrupted the neo-Nazis in court and eventually forced them to move, a hard-fought triumph memorialized in scenes from 2001 of a backhoe smashing through a giant swastika at the former Aryan compound just outside of Coeur d’Alene, the biggest city in this part of the state.
For much of the two decades since, civic leaders have focused on moving beyond the image of North Idaho as a white-power fiefdom. They steered attention instead to emerald golf courses and gleaming lakeside resorts where celebrities such as Kim Kardashian sip huckleberry cocktails.
Now, however, North Idaho residents are confronting that history head-on as a new movement builds against far-right extremism.
This time, activists say, the threat is no longer on the fringes of society, dressed in Nazi garb at a hideout in the woods. Instead, they see it in the leadership of the local Republican Party, which has mirrored the lurch to the right of the national conservative movement during the Trump era on matters of race, religion and sexuality. The bigotry of the past, they say, now has mainstream political cover.
In this ruby-red state, the pushback is being led from within the party. A group of disaffected, self-described “traditional” Republicans has spent the past two years planning to wrest back control from leaders who they accuse of steering the local GOP toward extremism, a charge the officials vehemently deny. A crucial measure of the challengers’ efforts comes Tuesday, Idaho’s primary day.
If the breakaway group can succeed, it would make North Idaho an unlikely setting for something rare: A meaningful internal rebellion against the forces that have driven the Republican Party toward open embraces of far-right rhetoric and policies since Donald Trump first claimed the GOP presidential nomination eight years ago.

continues.....

mickeyrat

small ray of hope......

https://www.texastribune.org/2024/05/15/texas-granbury-isd-school-board-courtney-gore/

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Courtney Gore has disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on when she won election to the Granbury ISD school board. Credit: Shelby Tauber for ProPublica and The Texas Tribune

Investigations

A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrinating kids. Then she read the curriculum.

Courtney Gore, a Granbury ISD school board member, has disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on. Her defiance has brought her backlash.

By Jeremy Schwartz, The Texas Tribune and ProPublica

May 15, 20245 AM Central

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This article is co-published with ProPublica, a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up for ProPublica’s Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published. Also, sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

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Weeks after winning a school board seat in her deeply red Texas county, Courtney Gore immersed herself in the district’s curriculum, spending her nights and weekends poring over hundreds of pages of lesson plans that she had fanned out on the coffee table in her living room and even across her bed. She was searching for evidence of the sweeping national movement she had warned on the campaign trail was indoctrinating schoolchildren.

Gore, the co-host of a far-right online talk show, had promised that she would be a strong Republican voice on the nonpartisan school board. Citing “small town, conservative Christian values,” she pledged to inspect educational materials for inappropriate messages about sexuality and race and remove them from every campus in the 7,700-student Granbury Independent School District, an hour southwest of Fort Worth. “Over the years our American Education System has been hijacked by Leftists looking to indoctrinate our kids into the ‘progressive’ way of thinking, and yes, they’ve tried to do this in Granbury ISD,” she wrote in a September 2021 Facebook post, two months before the election. “I cannot sit by and watch their twisted worldview infiltrate Granbury ISD.”

But after taking office and examining hundreds of pages of curriculum, Gore was shocked by what she found — and didn’t find.

The pervasive indoctrination she had railed against simply did not exist. Children were not being sexualized, and she could find no examples of critical race theory, an advanced academic concept that examines systemic racism. She’d examined curriculum related to social-emotional learning, which has come under attack by Christian conservatives who say it encourages children to question gender roles and prioritizes feelings over biblical teachings. Instead, Gore found the materials taught children “how to be a good friend, a good human.”

continues.....

Halifax2TheMax

Does anyone have any tic-tacs?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C7PnX4bK2mQ/?igsh=YmdjaThxbHkxMmtq

Halifax2TheMax

C’mon Chris! Jump on in, the water’s fine!

https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/22/politics/nikki-haley-donald-trump/index.html