US Politics

[Wanna-B-Fanboy]

12 minutes ago, Mark F said:

Extreme trump american Supreme court decision . Slate.

 

"The most immediate consequence of Egbert is dire: Some 20,000 Border Patrol agents have effectively been freed from the requirements of the Fourth Amendment and can violate the Constitution without fear of a lawsuit. They operate not just at the border but also within 100 miles of it, where two-thirds of Americans live. U.S. citizens will no doubt suffer from Wednesday’s decisions, but immigrants will bear the brunt of it; they already face routine abuseat the hands of these agents. Many of these victims may come into the country seeking the protection of the nation’s vaunted Bill of Rights. They will quickly learn that rights are only as good as the judges who enforce them."

 

makes crossing the border to the usa dicey. We have no rights.

Here:

 

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/sotomayor-border-patrol-civil-rights-lawsuits.html

[Mark F]

@Wanna-B-Fanboy

yes, thanks.

 

well down the road to being an authoritarian state.

I went to Spain in the early seventies, when Franco was still dictator there.

when the cops, "franco's men"  were around, the Spanish people were visibly frightened. They just clammed up.

 

Edited June 9, 2022 by Mark F

[Tracker]

 

 

                                     

[bustamente]

People need to stop praising former AG Bill Barr he is the guy who butchered the Mueller report and gave Trump cover.

[blue_gold_84]

15 hours ago, Wanna-B-Fanboy said:

Here:

 

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/sotomayor-border-patrol-civil-rights-lawsuits.html

Here's some context for anyone who's interested: https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-business-travel-canada-lifestyle-da1f72c794ba511fc11eb023fc85a3d1

Quote

In 2014, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Erik Egbert learned from Boule that a guest arriving at the inn that day was from Turkey. Egbert considered that suspicious and when the guest arrived, he went to investigate. Boule asked him to leave, but Egbert allegedly shoved him and pushed him to the ground, injuring Boule’s back. After determining the guest was legally in the country, Egbert left.

Boule complained to Egbert’s supervisors about the rough treatment, and Boule says Egbert retaliated by making reports about him and his business to various state and federal agencies including the Internal Revenue Service. But no agency found any wrongdoing.

Boule sued, saying Egbert had violated his Fourth Amendment rights by using excessive force and his First Amendment rights by retaliating against him. A federal trial court ruled for Egbert, but an appeals court reversed the decision and Egbert appealed to the Supreme Court.

And more information regarding the SC decision: https://apnews.com/article/us-supreme-court-travel-canada-government-and-politics-clarence-thomas-1fc4973d204e397c91a2c411b9ee722f

Quote

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday limited when people can sue federal officials for a violation of their rights, siding with the government in a case involving the owner of a notorious inn on the U.S.-Canada border.

The justices said that the owner of the Smuggler’s Inn, Robert Boule, can’t sue a Border Patrol agent over a confrontation at his inn where he said the agent shoved him and then retaliated against him when he complained that the man had used excessive force. It’s the latest in a line of cases narrowing the public’s ability to sue federal officials for rights violations.

“Congress is better positioned to create remedies in the border-security context, and the Government already has provided alternative remedies that protect plaintiffs like Boule,” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote.

Thomas wrote that the court’s “cases have made clear that, in all but the most unusual circumstances,” creating the ability to sue “is a job for Congress.”

All nine of the court’s justices agreed that Boule shouldn’t be able to pursue his retaliation claims, but the court’s three liberal justices said he should have been able to pursue his excessive force claims, saying the facts of the case were very similar to the case the court decided in 1971.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court’s liberal justices that the majority’s decision “contravenes precedent and will strip many more individuals who suffer injuries at the hands of other federal officers ... of an important remedy.” Referring to the court’s conservative majority, strengthened to six under the Trump administration, Sotomayor said that “a restless and newly constituted Court sees fit to refashion the standard anew to foreclose remedies in yet more cases.”

The ramifications of the Trump Administration continue to be felt and it will only hinder civil liberties further in that country, IMO.

[JCon]

It's still early, though.

 

[Tracker]

6 hours ago, JCon said:

It's still early, though.

 

AKA: business as usual.

[bustamente]

Anyone surprised by this list

 

[Tracker]

                                                         

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin leads in early results from the special primary for Alaska's only U.S. House seat. http://4.nbcla.com/1Nz9aW7

[Tracker]

Cult expert Steven Hassan sees 95% chance of worsening pro-Trump violence
   
It has been almost a year and a half since Jan. 6, 2021, when Donald Trump and his cabal attempted to nullify the results of the presidential election, and by doing so effectively bring an end American democracy. By any reasonable standard, this was the greatest crime committed by an American president in the country's history.

Last Thursday night, the House committee tasked with investigating Jan. 6 and the larger threat to American democracy held the first in a series of televised hearings. Its preliminary findings are that Trump and numerous allies, including Republican members of Congress, orchestrated a sophisticated, well-funded, nationwide effort that included the Big Lie and other propaganda about "election fraud," dozens of spurious legal challenges designed to subvert the electoral outcome and undermine public faith in democracy, and other attempts to rig the outcome in Trump's favor.
The coup plot also involved premeditated political violence and terrorism as seen in the attack on the Capitol by right-wing paramilitaries and thousands of other Trump followers. Trump's coup plot also involved proposals to invoke martial law and use the military and other security forces to "confiscate" voting machines and presumably engage in other nefarious tasks as ordered.

The ultimate goal of this elaborate plot was for Trump to remain in power indefinitely as an political strongman who rules by declaring a perpetual "national emergency" or finding some other quasi-legal justification to end democratic government.

Trump and his cabal's plan came much closer to succeeding than most people recognized at the time. In that sense, the events of Jan. 6 were practice for a future coup attempt — one far more likely to succeed, given that America's pro-democracy forces are being defeated at almost every turn.

.alternet.org/2022/06/trump-violence/

[blue_gold_84]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/jan-6-committee-hearing-mon-1.6486550

Quote

The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot resumes its hearings Monday morning with live witnesses, building on a prime-time hearing last week that started to detail how former president Donald Trump pursued his false claims about the November 2020 election even after a host of officials advised him there was no fraud.

The session on Monday delves deeper into what it calls "the big lie," Trump's false claims of voter fraud that fuelled his relentless effort to overturn the 2020 election and led a mob of his supporters to lay siege to the U.S. Capitol.

The committee is set to hear testimony from Chris Stirewalt, a former Fox News political editor closely involved in election night coverage who stood by the decision to declare Arizona as being won by Biden. In subsequent weeks, Fox broadcast several claims of electoral fraud by Trump surrogates including lawyer Rudy Guiliani.

Stirewalt, in an essay published on The Dispatch early Monday on why he's testifying, said the stakes for the hearing are significant.

"What Trump and his gang did in the 2020 election and its aftermath is a big historical moment for our country, far bigger than the Watergate scandal we still discuss 50 years later," he wrote.

...group of witnesses testifying Monday will be made up of election officials, investigators and experts who are likely to discuss Trump's responses to the election, including dozens of failed court challenges, and how his actions diverged from U.S. norms.

Among them is the former U.S. attorney in Atlanta, B.J. Pak, who resigned from the Justice Department after being tasked by the Trump administration to find examples of electoral fraud in Georgia that did not exist. The panel will also hear from former Philadelphia City commissioner Al Schmidt, a Republican who faced down criticism as Pennsylvania's election was called for Biden; and noted Washington attorney and elections lawyer Benjamin Ginsberg.

Monday's hearing will also turn to the millions of dollars Trump's team brought in fundraising in the run-up to Jan. 6, according to a committee aide who insisted on anonymity to discuss the details with the Associated Press.

Trump, giving all indications he's mounting another presidential run, said last week that Jan. 6 "represented the greatest movement in the history of our country."

More than 800 people have been arrested over the siege, and members of two extremist groups have been indicted on rare sedition charges over their roles leading the attack. Among those who died at the Capitol that day was a Trump supporter fatally shot while part of a large group seeking to breach a Capitol entrance.

Additional evidence is set to be released in hearings this week focusing on Trump's decision to ignore the outcome of the election and the court cases that ruled against him. Hearings are planned for Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon.

 

[Tracker]

Historian lays out the far right’s violent game plan for 'overturning democracy'

 June 11, 31 members of the white nationalist group Patriot Front were arrested in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho for allegedly planning to attack a local gay pride event. Historian Thomas Lecaque, in an article published by the conservative website The Bulwark on May 13, stresses that this alleged plot shouldn’t be viewed as an isolated incident, but as one example of the far right’s campaign for “overturning democracy.”

“The arrest of dozens of members of extremist group Patriot Front over the weekend shines a light on the new agenda for the militant factions of the far right,” Lecaque explains. “Their energies are now being focused on another goal: prosecuting a renewed culture war against sexual minorities. Packed tightly into the back of a rented U-Haul truck with their flags and weapons, members of the accelerationist fascist group were en route to the Coeur d’Alene Pride rally when they were pulled over and arrested.”

The historian adds, “Police made the stop on the basis of a tip from local residents. Images of the men, kneeling and zip tied in a field next to their truck, spread quickly on social media.”

Lecaque, a professor at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, describes Patriot Front as part of the openly violent wing of the far right; other examples include the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers.

“As has been the case at other times in history when political instability has drawn extremist groups into open street-fighting — a Proud Boys calling card — these groups represent the sharp end of the ax that the far right is driving into American society,” Lecaque warns. “On January 6, 2021, their goal was to overturn the results of the recent presidential election. In June 2022, however, their goals have shifted.”  

Lecaque notes that Patriot Front was founded in 2017 by Thomas Rousseau, who is among the members charged with conspiracy to riot. Rousseau had been a member of Vanguard America, one of the white supremacist and white nationalist groups that was part of the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia that year. But after that event, where activist Heather Heyer was murdered, Rousseau left Vanguard America to start his own group.

“Patriot Front members believe themselves to be the ruling heirs to the continent by dint of their racial connection to its European colonizers and consider their racial identity essential to American identity more broadly,” Lecaque observes. “Of course, this is just the sort of blood genealogy nonsense one expects from Nazis…. What makes them significant, however, is their media savvy.”

Lecaque stresses that Patriot Front should be viewed as part of a broader far-right anti-democracy movement.

“Patriot Front is just one distinctive group of many,” Lecaque warns. “Other extremist groups gathered in Coeur d’Alene to watch and harass the pride march, including Three Percenters, Ammon’s Army, PDX Liberation, Proud Boys, and Atomwaffen. These groups have their own ideologies, own brands of violence, and many of them — Atomwaffen being an incredibly clear example — are much readier to engage in violence first, foremost, and often.”

Lecaque adds, “The Coeur d’Alene pride event was not the only target. Christian fascists in Dallas protested at an LGBTQ bar at the beginning of the month as part of a coordinated far-right assault on Pride Month. American Nationalist Initiative, a neo-fascist group, planned to link up with Proud Boys to flash mob outside of a Planned Parenthood in Plano, Texas this weekend, while other planned to harass a Pride Drag event in Arlington.”

The push for anti-gay violence, according to Lecaque, “goes beyond the White supremacists and militias” — and he cites far-right evangelical pastor Dillon Awes as an example. During a June 5 sermon, Awes called for murdering gays.

“Violent fantasies about murdering marginalized communities and overturning democracy are not new,” Lecaque writes. “We have seen them before.”

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/patriot-front-2657499955/

Edited June 13, 2022 by Tracker

[Tracker]

Lauren Boebert tells church crowd that she prays for Biden's demise: "May his days be few"

Psalms 109:8 is a GOP favorite. The next verse reads: "Let his children be fatherless, And his wife a widow". Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., suggested that she prays for President Biden's death during a Colorado church event this past weekend.

The Republican lawmaker's remarks came during a Sunday family gathering at the Charis Christian Center in Colorado Springs, where she attacked the Democratic effort to regulate guns in the aftermath of two shootings in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas.

"I do want you to know that I pray for our President. Psalm 109:8 says, 'May his days be few and another take his office.' Hallelujah! Glory to God," Boebert said, garnering applause from the crowd. 

[bustamente]

Just another reminder that former AG Barr is full of **** and trying to save what little credibility his has left, on his way out Barr praised Trump before jumping the sinking ship.

[Tracker]

Idaho cops inundated with death threats following bust of white supremacist group: report
   
On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that the police department in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho is being bombarded with angry messages — including death threats — after a high-profile mass arrest of the members of the white supremacist group Patriot Front.

The arrests took place over the weekend, after 31 men were caught piled into a rented truck, on their way to a local Pride event where they allegedly were intending to cause a riot. The arrested white supremacists came from at least 11 states around the country, and included 23-year-old Thomas Ryan Rousseau of Grapevine, Texas, believed to be the group's leader.
 
"Police Chief Lee White said Monday the department had received 149 phone calls since the arrests, some of which have included death threats," reported Alice Tecotzky. "About half of the calls were complimentary, White told reporters, 'and the other 50 percent — who are completely anonymous, who want nothing more than to scream and yell at us and use some really choice words — offer death threats against myself and other members of the police department.' Some callers have threatened to publish officers’ personal information, such as their phone numbers or addressed, online."

According to Nick Martin of the independent hate group tracker The Informant, white supremacist activists are already zeroing on on the Coeur d'Alene police department as a target after the arrests took place.

"Neo-Nazis on other social media platforms have started doxxing members of law enforcement in Coeur d'Alene. Names, home addresses, phone numbers and photos are being circulated," wrote Martin. "One of the members of the Coeur d'Alene Police Department is being described by neo-Nazis as an 'Anti-American and Pedophile Apologist' because the arrests prevented the Patriot Front members from allegedly planning to disrupt a Pride event."

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/idaho-cops-inundated-threats/

 

Edited June 14, 2022 by Tracker

[SpeedFlex27]

I don't know who this guy is but if texas Governor Greg Abbott & the GOp are forming alliances with The Proud Boys this is serious business. 

[Tracker]

9 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

I don't know who this guy is but if texas Governor Greg Abbott & the GOp are forming alliances with The Proud Boys this is serious business. 

For the sane Americans this has to be frightening. There is an an unholy alliance bonded together by fear, hated and intolerance comprised of neo-Nazis, violent anti-abortionists, racists, fundamentalist "Christians", political opportunists and oligarchs who see the movement as a way to increase their influence and profits. 

If they ever came to power, there would follow almost immediately an internal blood war to determine who led the agenda. Lets hope it never comes to that.

[the watcher]

9 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

I don't know who this guy is but if texas Governor Greg Abbott & the GOp are forming alliances with The Proud Boys this is serious business. 

Lol, a redneck with common sense and open eyes. Gotta love it !

[Mark F]

 

[HardCoreBlue]

4 hours ago, Mark F said:

 

Meanwhile back at the DOJ ranch MG says he’s closely watching these hearings. FFS! You should be miles ahead of where they are. Gawd he’s maddening to listen to.

[Wideleft]

Surprised this hasn't made it here yet:

 

 

 

 

[Tracker]

42 minutes ago, Wideleft said:

Surprised this hasn't made it here yet:

 

 

 

 

Irony and shame are lost on the GOP.

[Tracker]

Texas GOP Attorney General Ken Paxton on the Uvalde massacre: 'God has a plan'
   

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said recently that he would tell parents of young children killed in the Uvalde school shooting that "God has a plan."

Paxton, who took the leading role in a failed Supreme Court case aimed at overturning the results of the 2020 election, went on a media blitz to fight calls for gun restrictions shortly after an 18-year-old shooter killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in the West Texas town of Uvalde.

In an interview with right-wing radio host Trey Graham, Paxton acknowledged that it is "difficult to give comfort" to families who lost their kids. "If I lost one of my children I'd be pretty devastated, especially in a way that is so senseless and seemingly has no purpose," he continued. "I think ... I would just have to say, if I had the opportunity to talk to the people I'd have to say, look, there's always a plan. I believe God always has a plan. Life is short no matter what it is. And certainly, we're not going to make sense of, you know, a young child being shot and killed way before their life expectancy."

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/god-always-has-a-plan/

[Mark F]

1 hour ago, Wideleft said:

Surprised this hasn't made it here yet:

 

 

 

 

I was thinking about this..... recruited by Cruz.

who better to have as a reliable candidate than somebody completely compromised as this woman is.

She absolutely will vote exactly as told,  to  keep her high paying job, for which she has no qualifications whatsoever.

America is Corrupt to the core.

 

11 hours ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Meanwhile back at the DOJ ranch MG says he’s closely watching these hearings. FFS! You should be miles ahead of where they are. Gawd he’s maddening to listen to.

Oh no the intrepid mr garland is just building the case.😂

Edited June 15, 2022 by Mark F