August 26, 2020

Spot the difference...

https://twitter.com/TonyClementsTC/status/1298681620875051010

August 26, 2020

Cops admit vandalizing cars of man who filed complaint against them, prosecutor says

Two Asbury Park police officers admitted Tuesday that they vandalized a pair of cars last year belonging to a man who filed an internal affairs complaint against them, authorities said.

Asbury Park Police Officer Stephen Martinsen, 31, and former SLEO-2 Thomas Dowling, 27, both of Asbury Park, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree criminal mischief and as part of their plea deals they must forfeit any future public employment in the state, according to a statement from Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni.

They also face probation when they are sentenced on Oct. 16 and must pay back the victim for the damage they caused to his cars, the office said.

“Spiteful retaliation from law enforcement officers towards a citizen for any reason is an unacceptable option. This is in no way condoned at any level, for any reason,” Gramiccioni said in the statement. “All members of the law enforcement community must maintain the public’s trust by conducting themselves at the highest level of integrity and decency.”

Authorities say the men wore disguises when they rode their bikes to the vehicles in Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, smashed out the windows and slashed all the tires on Sept. 3 between 3 and 4 a.m.

The vehicles belonged to Ernest G. Mignoli, an outspoken Asbury Park resident critical of the city’s police department. Mignoli, 70, had filed an administrative complaint against both officers several days before the incidents. His “jaw dropped” when he learned that the people responsible for damaging his white Jeep Liberty and Toyota Prius were police officers, he said in an interview with NJ Advance Media last year.

The cars suffered $500 in damage, the office said.


https://www.nj.com/monmouth/2020/08/cops-admit-vandalizing-cars-of-man-who-filed-complaint-against-them-prosecutor-says.html

August 26, 2020

The Police Take the Side of White Vigilantes

Who are the cops for? Over the last week, all across the country, in ways large and small, they’ve shown us.



In Philadelphia on Monday night, the cops made it fairly explicit on whose behalf they police the streets. As they unleashed tear gas on unarmed protesters marching on Interstate 676, getting caught on camera spraying gas directly into the faces of harmless, seated demonstrators, across town they allowed an actual roving mob of men armed with baseball bats and other improvised weapons to violate curfew and move about with impunity. Or something more than impunity: an endorsement. Residents reported attempting to get the police to arrest or disperse the would-be vigilantes and being mocked and dismissed.

“We don’t take sides,” Philadelphia’s police commissioner said the next day. “Our mission is to always protect all persons.” That is what she is supposed to say. But the untruth of that claim is well documented. Over and over again, cops take sides. They do so in broad daylight and at night, on cell phone–captured video and behind mysteriously nonfunctioning body cameras.

In Chicago last weekend, a man in tactical gear with a long gun brandished it menacingly at protesters. “Open carry” of firearms is illegal in Illinois. The police had a quick chat with him and sent him on his way unmolested. As police departments have everywhere else, this one gassed and beat unarmed demonstrators who were protesting police violence. “We don’t tolerate police misconduct—ever,” the mayor said. But they do. They have tolerated it among Chicago police officers for 100 years.

What would lead a police department—not a few misbehaving officers but every officer on the street, in this instance—to dismiss a heavily armed man as no threat (to either their own safety or the safety of the community) in one case, while, in another, viewing an unarmed local activist as so much of a threat that multiple cops decided to surround and brutally beat him with batons?

The incidents in Chicago and Philadelphia are evidence that American police across the country share a coherent ideology. Armed white boys don’t code as a threat to them; “anarchists” and angry black people do (even if the protesters are the ones at least attempting to engage in constitutionally protected behavior, while the roving white gangs are flagrantly violating the law). That disconnect, the galling image of watching the law so obviously tossed aside under certain circumstances, highlights a fundamental truth about what’s happening across the United States. The police are not using brutality to enforce “the law.” They’re using the law to enforce something else: a particular social order that is, to them, worth fighting for.

more: https://newrepublic.com/article/157981/police-take-side-white-vigilantes

August 26, 2020

Donald Trump is the worst jobs president ever

last two Dem presidents: +35M jobs

last two GOP presidents: - 5M jobs

August 24, 2020

Are diplomas from Liberty University worth the paper they're printed on?

You tell me

August 24, 2020

Rahm Emanuel lets his slip show. 'This will be the year of the Biden Republican,'

'Two things I would say if I was advising a Biden administration, one is no Green New Deal and two is no Medicare for All.'

The lack of support for a “Green New Deal” and “Medicare for All” in the Democratic platform helps the party balance between the desires of the moderate and more progressive members, Emanuel said on CNBC.

With a broad coalition of support that stretches from four-star generals to Black Lives Matter supporters, Biden can leverage his decades of governing experience in Washington to “culturally move them into a comfort zone,” he said.

“My view is you don’t want this to be a transactional election,” the former Chicago mayor said. “You want this to be the opportunity of a transformational election.”

Democrats, looking to capitalize on a fractured Republican Party, featured a string of video endorsements from prominent Republicans at their first virtual national convention that closed Thursday.

The party, however, is walking a thin line as it tries to satisfy its progressive wing that is looking for transformational policies.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/21/this-will-be-the-year-of-the-biden-republican-rahm-emanuel-says.html

August 16, 2020

Esper eyes $2.2 billion cut to military health care

Yeah... because the troops... why anyone in the military votes GOP is bewildering...

Pentagon officials working on Defense Secretary Mark Esper’s cost-cutting review of the department have proposed slashing military health care by $2.2 billion, a reduction that some defense officials say could effectively gut the Pentagon’s health care system during a nationwide pandemic.

The proposed cut to the military health system over the next five years is part of a sweeping effort Esper initiated last year to eliminate inefficiencies within the Pentagon’s coffers.

But two senior defense officials say the effort has been rushed and driven by an arbitrary cost-savings goal, and argue that the cuts to the system will imperil the health care of millions of military personnel and their families as the nation grapples with Covid-19.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/16/esper-eyes-22-billion-cut-military-health-care-395578

August 14, 2020

FL Sheriff Who Vowed To Deputize Gun Owners Over BLM Protesters Is Arrested On Felony Charges

Clay County Sheriff Darryl Daniels made national headlines earlier this year when he threatened to make “special deputies of every lawful gun owner in this county” in order to “handle” Black Lives Matter protesters who showed up in his community. On Thursday, Daniels was charged with three felony counts – two for allegedly lying to law enforcement and one for alleged tampering with evidence.

Allegations are that Daniels abused his authority by ordering a deputy to arrest his onetime mistress on ginned up stalking charges. Cierra Smith, a former corrections officer, and Daniels had been in a long term adulterous relationship since 2012–when she was the sheriff’s subordinate employee. In 2019, Daniels’s wife learned about the indiscretions and allegedly threatened to kill Smith.

more: https://lawandcrime.com/awkward/florida-sheriff-who-threatened-to-deputize-lawful-gun-owners-against-blm-faces-unrelated-felony-charges/

August 11, 2020

Portland "Bible Burning" Story Was Russian Disinfo

Of course it was...

The truth was far more mundane. A few protesters among the many thousands appear to have burned a single Bible — and possibly a second — for kindling to start a bigger fire. None of the other protesters seemed to notice or care. Yet in the rush to paint all the protesters as Bible-burning zealots, few of the politicians or commentators who weighed in on the incident took the time to look into the story’s veracity, or to figure out that it had originated with a Kremlin-backed video news agency.

And now, days later, the Portland Bible burnings appear to be one of the first viral Russian disinformation hits of the 2020 presidential campaign. The video was first tweeted by an account that lists two cities — Oklahoma City and Abu Dhabi — as its users’ location and has only a few dozen followers. It was soon after deleted. But before it disappeared, the tweet was picked up by a Malaysian named Ian Miles Cheong who has amassed a large Twitter following by playing a right-wing American raconteur on social media.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/11/us/politics/russia-disinformation-election-meddling.html

August 8, 2020

2 Ex-Green Berets Sentenced to 20 Years for Failed Trump Backed Coup in Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A Venezuelan court has sentenced two former U.S. Special Forces soldiers to 20 years in prison for their part in a failed beach attack aimed at overthrowing President Nicolás Maduro, prosecutors announced.

The former Green Berets, Luke Denman and Airan Berry, admitted to taking part in the May 4 operation orchestrated by a third former U.S. soldier who remains in the United States, Venezuela’s chief prosecutor, Tarek William Saab, announced on Twitter on Friday.

“THEY ADMITTED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FACTS,” Mr. Saab wrote, adding that the case will continue for dozens of other defendants. He did not offer details.

The operation — called “Operation Gideon” — was launched from makeshift training camps in neighboring Colombia and left at least eight rebel soldiers dead while a total of 66 were jailed. A former Green Beret named Jordan Goudreau, who operated a private, Florida-based security firm called Silvercorp USA, claimed responsibility for the failed attack.

<snip>

A day before authorities announced that the two ex-Green Berets were sentenced, Venezuelan authorities opened the trial of six American executives of the Houston-based Citgo company. The six men were arrested over two years ago in Venezuela on corruption charges.

The case had lingered for months until former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson met personally in July with Mr. Maduro in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, to urge they be released so they could return home to the United States.

Mr. Richardson on Saturday said he would also work to free the convicted veterans, who are both natives of Texas.

“Luke Denman and Airan Berry are American citizens and military veterans who deserve our support,” he said. “We will continue our dialogue with the Venezuelans to try to find a way to bring them back home to their families.”



more: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/08/world/americas/2-ex-green-berets-sentenced-to-20-years-for-venezuela-attack.html