People that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows -- US Politics September 2020

The Department of Justice released details early on Monday morning explaining why three Democrat-controlled cities have been designated “anarchist jurisdictions.”

The DOJ identified the cities as being cities that permitted extremist violence and destruction of property to continue while taking action to stop the criminal acts. The department designated New York City, Portland, and Seattle as being “anarchist jurisdictions.”

The DOJ released the following criteria for evaluating whether a U.S. city is a “anarchist jurisdiction”:

Whether a jurisdiction forbids the police force from intervening to restore order amid widespread or sustained violence or destruction.
Whether a jurisdiction has withdrawn law enforcement protection from a geographical area or structure that law enforcement officers are lawfully entitled to access but have been officially prevented from accessing or permitted to access only in exceptional circumstances, except when law enforcement officers are briefly withheld as a tactical decision intended to resolve safely and expeditiously a specific and ongoing unlawful incident posing an imminent threat to the safety of individuals or law enforcement officers.
Whether a jurisdiction disempowers or defunds police departments.
Whether a jurisdiction unreasonably refuses to accept offers of law enforcement assistance from the Federal Government.
Any other related factors the Attorney General deems appropriate.

The Department then released information on the three cities to receive the designation of being an “anarchist jurisdiction.”

New York City:

Shootings in New York City have been on the rise since looting and protests began on or about May 28, 2020. For July 2020, shootings increased from 88 to 244, an increase of 177% over July 2019. In August 2020, shootings increased from 91 to 242, a 166% increase over August 2019.
While the city faced increased unrest, gun violence, and property damage, the New York City Council cut $1 billion from NYPD’s FY21 budget.
The budget resulted in the cancellation of the new police recruiting class, cuts to overtime spending, and the transfer of certain police functions, including school safety, out of the NYPD.
Meanwhile, the Manhattan and Brooklyn District Attorneys have declined to prosecute charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly arising from the protests, and the District Attorneys in Queens and the Bronx have declined to prosecute other protest-related charges.
Both Mayor de Blasio and Governor Cuomo have forcefully rejected federal law enforcement support.

Portland:

This month, Portland marked 100 consecutive nights of protests marred by vandalism, chaos, and even killing.
Those bent on violence regularly started fires, threw projectiles at law enforcement officers, and destroyed property. Numerous law enforcement officers, among others, suffered injury.
Shootings increased by more than 140% in June and July 2020 compared to the same period last year.
In the midst of this violence, the Portland City Council cut $15 million from the police bureau, eliminating 84 positions. Crucially, the cuts included the Gun Violence Reduction Team, which investigates shootings, and several positions from the police team that responds to emergency incidents.
In August, Portland Mayor Wheeler sent a letter to President Trump expressly rejecting the Administration’s offer of federal law enforcement to stop the violent protests.

Seattle:

For nearly a month, starting in June, the City of Seattle permitted anarchists and activists to seize six square blocks of the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, naming their new enclave the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” (CHAZ) and then the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” (CHOP).
Law enforcement and fire fighters were precluded from entering the territory. The Seattle Police Department was ordered to abandon their precinct within the CHOP.
Person-related crime in the CHOP increased 525% from the same period of time in the same area the year before, including by Mayor Durkan’s own count “two additional homicides, 6 additional robberies, and 16 additional aggravated assaults (to include 2 additional non-fatal shootings).”
The CHOP was allowed to stand for nearly a month, during which time two teenagers were shot and killed in the zone.
The Seattle City Council, Mayor Durkan, and Washington Governor Jay Inslee publicly rejected federal involvement in law enforcement activities within the city of Seattle.

“When state and local leaders impede their own law enforcement officers and agencies from doing their jobs, it endangers innocent citizens who deserve to be protected, including those who are trying to peacefully assemble and protest,” Attorney General William Barr said in a statement. “We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance. It is my hope that the cities identified by the Department of Justice today will reverse course and become serious about performing the basic function of government and start protecting their own citizens.”

jfc things are going to get a lot worse in the next month and a half

Speaking of CHAZ/CHOP, another internal investigation concluded last week that the cop who directly pepper-sprayed a seven-year-old in the face should face no censure,as this action was "lawful and proper," and in line with policy.

(A stringer for the New York Daily News covered this within hours; the NYT has yet to weigh in on how this makes the child look bad.)

finally, i've been waiting my whole life to live in an anarchist jurisdiction

I'm genuinely shocked Chicago isn't on the list, considering how much Lightfoot and Pritzker pushed back against his bs.

how do you imagine it playing out differently?

― the unappreciated charisma of cows (Aimless), Monday, September 21, 2020 3:53 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

people blame the government when the government shuts down. people think the president and his party are the government (they're not wrong). therefore the republicans will get the blame.

(i agree pelosi will fold.)

Previous shutdown polling, make of it what you will
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/18/americans-view-this-shutdown-much-as-they-did-past-ones-negatively-and-with-much-anxiety/

if people think the parties are equally to blame then that's bad news for the party with ~8 incumbent senators in close elections, and good news for the party with ~1 incumbent senator who will lose whatever happens.

there won't be a shutdown before the election btw. the republicans are unfortunately not stupid enough.

Gauntlet: thrown!

from the Ilhan interview:

Have any of your Republican colleagues ever reached out, publicly or privately, and said the use of violent imagery or language toward you is not OK?

No. There are really no dissenters. We have now had a few death threats that have been very publicized where people have been arrested and are incarcerated for it. I can’t remember a public statement or private comment of support.

Really? No Republican member of the House or Senate has ever offered any words of support?

Nope.

was Marchese really expecting a different answer here

Well, no, the point is to get the source on the record.

FEINSTEIN on ending filibuster and expanding SCOTUS: “I don't believe in doing that. I think the filibuster serves a purpose. It is not often used, it's often less used now than when I first came, and I think it's part of the Senate that differentiates itself.” ht @DanielPFlatley

— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 21, 2020

Fuck her forever

If Biden/Kamala win, hope they get Barbara Boxer out of cold storage.

She needs to be put down.

Re Lincoln Project, they are convincing to me on the issues they address with specificity re Trump. even tho I do know there’s little overlap with me on the majority of shit that makes me see myself as libleft. Their stuff seems legit aimed at GOP low info ppl when i read or hear it. but long pieces like the one about “why we MUST overturn the senate to keep usa safe” are sufficient. they get nowhere near an endstate i want because they do not fuck with endstates. they want trump and the current bunch of fuckwit courtiers dead. seems legit til i see probs.

POLITICO:
President Donald Trump said Monday he was furious with Republicans in Washington for not doing enough to take up his unsubstantiated claims about former Obama administration officials and Hunter Biden.

“Does anything happen? Nothing happens,” Trump said at an event in Dayton, Ohio. “I’m so angry at Republicans. I am. I’m so angry. I am so angry, but a lot of things are happening.”

Wikipedia: Trump's political party affiliation has changed numerous times. He registered as a Republican in Manhattan in 1987, switched to the Reform Party in 1999, the Democratic Party in 2001, and back to the Republican Party in 2009.

So he went back to the Democratic Party for several years, and yet feels fully qualified to call the Never-Trumpers "RINOs."

Truck question. He was always a republican

Not sure which thread this fits best on, but... Mueller investigation was toothless from the off

In some ways Weissmann's book is written more clearly than Mueller report. It builds up to the climax of learning that Manafort gave Kilimnik (a Russian intel agent, per SSCI) campaign strategy/polling & Kilimnik seeking a wink from Trump that Russia could take eastern Ukraine./2 pic.twitter.com/opC9IAi1mR

— Charlie Savage (@charlie_savage) September 21, 2020

Comic relief from Canada: a London rep theatre about 40 minutes from me--they've turned their parking lot into a drive-in; they still play films inside--is screening all the debates out back.

http://www.hylandcinema.com/movieshowtime/presidential-debates-package-october-7th-2020-at-900-pm#signup-form

I can't stand this fucker, but good on him

ALLAHASSEE — A group trying to help felons sign up to vote in Florida says it has raised more than $20 million to pay off outstanding court debts for thousands of former prisoners seeking to register in a battleground state crucial to President Donald Trump's reelection.

Billionaire and former presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg is among those who have helped with a surge in fundraising for the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition in the 10 days since a federal appeals court upheld registration restrictions put in place by the state’s felon voting law. The group had just recently crossed the $5 million mark but the help from Bloomberg and others — including entertainers such as John Legend — pushed them to their latest milestone. Florida's registration deadline is in less than two weeks.

"The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy and no American should be denied that right,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “Working together with the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, we are determined to end disenfranchisement and the discrimination that has always driven it.”

Bloomberg’s decision to funnel money into paying off court debts came shortly after he also pledged to spend $100 million to help defeat Trump in Florida. Trump narrowly won the state with less than 113,000 votes four years ago and both Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden are in a push to find any advantage that helps them in the margins.

Florida’s voter registration deadline is Oct. 5 and as many as 775,000 felons may have outstanding court debts — which include fines, fees and restitution — that preclude them from registering under the law passed last year by the Republican-controlled state Legislature.

Neil Volz, the coalition’s deputy director, said the group had already paid off fines and fees for nearly 5,000 people so far and averaged to about $1,000 per person. He said that the average could drop because “our goal is to help as many people as fast as possible” but he said the infusion of new help could lead to 20,000 people having their legal financial obligations paid off.

Bloomberg bringing sharia law to Florida already I see

lol

he needs to spend another $100 million on restitution

Finally, Bloomberg justifies his existence. Temporarily.

That Bloomberg story is genuinely good. Almost makes me want to drop him out of a two-story window instead of a twenty-story window.

Ive never understood why ex-convicts aren't allowed to vote in the first place. After you've served your sentence, you've repaid your debt to society and should have voting rights reinstated. Nowhere does the Constitution allow this permanent loss of suffrage as a lifelong punishment.

Also: Florida designed the court fees/fines as a way to fund the court system... sounds like a tax to me. Thus, a poll tax.

Racism is the short answer

it's funny how when you, say, attack a beloved right wing figure who served time for something serious like rape or murder, right wingers will scream "he's paid his dues, leave him alone" even when nobody's talking, but when it's a minority or a leeburul, nope, that shit's forever, doesn't ever wash off.

Racism is the short answer

― rob, Tuesday, September 22, 2020 9:40 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

The state with the prettiest name!

Racism?

Sunshine Racism

"Racism," while horrible, is oddly pleasant to say, like the famous fave of non-English speakers phrase "sliding glass door."

Am I the only one who reads this thread's title as Ray Davies singing Celluloid Heroes?

"Some that you recognise, some that you've hardly even heard of"

there is no moral justification for denying felons the right to vote WHILE they're serving their sentences either. and as wards of the state they have a *heightened* interest in who governs them.

Talk to Tallahassee!

I hate that a fucking billionaire has to bail us out, but eh

Yeah, this is where I'm at in general these days: '(state of affairs I would never have explicitly wished for but which I guess make things 0.0001% less shitty than the perpetually-shitty status quo), but eh'

TUNA FISH!

The president on violent protesters: "Cans of tuna fish. They go out and buy tuna fish and soup. You know that, right?...Because they throw it. It's the perfect weight, tuna fish, they can really rip it, right? And that hits you. No, it's true. Bumble Bee brand tuna."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) September 23, 2020

Bumble Bee brand tuna is now antifa

black bloc cat food

StarKist just doesn't have the bludgeoning power I look for in a canned tuna.

Just a variation of a Trump chart topper from a couple of weeks ago. He leaned more toward canned soup back then, but today he favors tuna. Like all truly creative artists, he's restless and keeps looking to top himself.

Why, in four years, has no one on our side made a concerted effort to feed President Credulous McTwitterhog a line of compromising talking points for him to unquestioningly parrot on camera?

How would you know the difference

Fair point.

He leaned more toward canned soup back then, but today he favors tuna

it was bags of soup back then; presumably Miller or Scavino managed to explain to him that cans are harder than bags, and the phrase "cans of tuna" sparks his degraded neurons, because he has never opened a can in his soft-fingered life.

lol some poor mf who works at Bumble Bee Tuna is having a bad night

They only have like 2,400 followers, so I can't imagine they're well-equipped for rapid-response operations:

Eat em. Don't throw em.

— Bumble Bee Seafoods (@BumbleBeeFoods) September 23, 2020