+ Prosecutor: Man propped dead wife on sofa in front of kids

Tue, March 9, 2021, 9:46 PM

ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — A Southern California man who killed his wife propped up her body on a sofa, told their children she was drunk and had them open Christmas presents in front of her body, a prosecutor told jurors at his murder trial.

“This Christmas story does not have a happy ending, and unfortunately this is not just a story, it is real life,” Heather Brown, senior deputy district attorney in Orange County, said Monday as trial began for William Wallace of Anaheim, the Orange County Register reported.

Za'Zell Preston, 26, was taking college classes in hopes of becoming a domestic violence counselor when she was killed in 2011 by a man who already had served jail time for beating her, the paper said.


(more)


https://news.yahoo.com/prosecutor-man-propped-dead-wife-034641726.html

+ MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s Social Media Announcement Gets The Treatment On Twitter

Lee Moran

Thu, March 11, 2021, 2:17 AM

Mike Lindell — the Donald Trump-supporting CEO of MyPillow who was booted from Twitter in January for peddling the ex-president’s 2020 election conspiracy lies — said Wednesday he is setting up his own social media network.

The platform ― called “Vocl” — will be a YouTube-Twitter crossover and launch in a matter of weeks, Lindell told Business Insider.

“It’s not like anything you’ve ever seen,” boasted Lindell, who Dominion Voting Systems is currently suing for $1.3 billion in damages for what the company describes as his “viral disinformation campaign” about voter fraud following the 2020 election.

“It’s all about being able to be vocal again and not to be walking on eggshells,” Lindell added of his incoming platform, which some commentators suggested could become a rival to so-called “free speech” apps Gab or Parler and may even entice ex-President Donald Trump, who was banned from multiple platforms including Twitter for inciting the deadly U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, into signing up.

While Trump supporters lapped up the news, critics responded with dings and alternative mocking names for the site:


(more)


https://money.yahoo.com/mike-lindell-new-social-media-reaction-081724558.html

+ Apple rejected Parler's latest attempt to come back to the App Store

Karissa Bell
March 10, 2021, 4:52 pm

It looks like Parler’s App Store exile will continue. Bloomberg reports that Apple recently rejected the app’s bid to get back onto iPhones, citing “highly objectionable content.”

Apple had originally kicked Parler out of the App Store in January, shortly after the riots at the U.S Capitol. Apple said at the time that the app needed to improve its content moderation and make a bigger effort to keep dangerous and hateful content off its platform. The company said the suspension would be in place “until we receive an update that is compliant with the App Store Review Guidelines and you have demonstrated your ability to effectively moderate and filter the dangerous and harmful content on your service.”


According to Bloomberg, Apple rejected Parler's latest bid to rejoin the App Store late last month. Apple reportedly told Parler that the latest iteration of its policies were not “sufficient to comply with App Store Review guidelines.”

At issue is not just Parler’s policies, but the fact that the app is still filled with the kind of “highly objectionable content” Apple wanted it to address. ““n fact, simple searches reveal highly objectionable content, including easily identified offensive uses of derogatory terms regarding race, religion and sexual orientation, as well as Nazi symbols,” Apple told Parler.


(more)


https://www.google.com/amp/s/money.yahoo.com/amphtml/apple-rejects-parler-attempt-come-back-app-store-225241175.html

+ House approves $1.9 trillion COVID relief package, sending bill to Biden

BY GRACE SEGERS, MELISSA QUINN

UPDATED ON: MARCH 10, 2021 / 6:57 PM / CBS NEWS


Washington — The House approved the final version of President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill on Wednesday, handing the new president a significant legislative victory as he works to stabilize an economy still struggling to rebound from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bill, known as the American Rescue Plan Act, passed by a vote of 220 to 211. One Democrat — Representative Jared Golden of Maine — joined all Republicans in voting against the measure.


(more)


https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/covid-relief-bill-american-rescue-plan-passes-house-biden/

+ CORONAVIRUS, ILLUSTRATED
COMIC: How One COVID-19 Nurse Navigates Anti-Mask Sentiment

March 6, 20219:11 AM ET
RYAN KELLMAN

NATHAN ROTT

ISABEL SELIGER



Agnes Boisvert, an ICU nurse at St. Luke's hospital in downtown Boise, Idaho, spends every day trying to navigate between two worlds. One is a swirl of beeping monitors, masked emotion and death; the other, she says, seems oblivious to the horrors occurring every hour of every day.


(more)


https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/03/06/973294303/comic-how-one-covid-19-nurse-navigates-anti-mask-sentiment?utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=npr

+ A California police department fired an officer who was a former Proud Boy. He says it's unfair and he never saw any 'kind of racism' while he was affiliated with them.

salarshani@businessinsider.com (Sarah Al-Arshani)

a group of people in uniform: Members of the Proud Boys gather in support of President Donald Trump and in protest the outcome of the 2020 presidential election near freedom plaza on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

© Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
Members of the Proud Boys gather in support of President Donald Trump and in protest the outcome of the 2020 presidential election near freedom plaza on December 12, 2020 in Washington, DC. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

The Fresno Police Department fired an officer after learning he was affiliated with the Proud Boys.
Rick Fitzgerald told Insider that he was never interviewed as part of the investigation.
He said he left the group in November but never saw any "racism" when he first joined.


A California police department fired an officer from within its ranks because it was revealed he had been affiliated with the Proud Boys.

In a statement, Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama said officer Rick Fitzgerald was fired on Friday after an internal affairs investigation was launched last month when they became aware of online images and videos that showed Fitzgerald rallying with the Proud Boys at a November pro-Trump demonstration that turned violent.

"Such ideology, behavior, and affiliations have no place in law enforcement and will not be tolerated within the ranks of the Fresno Police Department," Balderrama said in the statement. "Public trust and accountability are paramount in our ability to fairly police this community."


(more)



https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-california-police-department-fired-an-officer-who-was-a-former-proud-boy-he-says-its-unfair-and-he-never-saw-any-kind-of-racism-while-he-was-affiliated-with-them/ar-BB1fADNc

+ Lancaster County man on FBI most wanted list in Capitol attack, footage shows

DAN NEPHIN | Staff Writer

A man who is wanted by the FBI and is shown on video pepper-spraying police and encouraging violence near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 is a staunch Trump supporter from Ephrata, video and still footage shows.

LNP|LancasterOnline was able to identify the man by carefully comparing his social media posts to widely disseminated video and photos of the violent events that day, which followed a speech by then-President Donald Trump to thousands of his supporters in which he urged them to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory in the November election.

Numerous videos and photographs now inaccessible on the man's Facebook page -- which an LNP|LancasterOnline reporter and editor relied on to report a Jan. 10 story about Lancaster County residents who went to Washington, D.C. -- show the man is Samuel Lazar, 35, a self-described entrepreneur.


The FBI posted a single photograph of a man believed to be Lazar on its website, identifying him only by the number 275 and urging the public to help identify him. In the photo, he is wearing a tactical vest and goggles, and his face is painted in a camouflage pattern; he’s also holding a megaphone. A patch on his vest bears the words from Psalm 144: “Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.”

People who know Lazar also identified the man in the FBI photo as him.

A man who answered a phone whose number is listed for Samuel Lazar on Tuesday said his name was David and hung up when an LNP|LancasterOnline reporter asked about the FBI photograph. When a reporter called the number again on Friday and Saturday, it went to voicemail with a male voice identifying himself as Sam. Messages and texts to the number were not returned. Notes left by a reporter at Lazar’s Ephrata apartment on Thursday, Friday and Saturday also were not returned. Phone and voicemail messages left for more than a half-dozen people believed to know or be related to Lazar were not returned as of Saturday evening.

It is not clear why the FBI is looking for Lazar, and he has not been charged with a crime linked to the Jan. 6 insurrection, based on a search of publicly available federal district court records for Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania as of Saturday.

Online state court records indicate Lazar pleaded guilty to a third-degree misdemeanor charge in June 2016 related to providing false information when trying to buy a gun in Millersville the year before. His attorney in that case said Friday that Lazar made a mistake on the federal background check form when answering a confusing question concerning prior convictions. Court records indicated Lazar pleaded guilty in 2013 in Lancaster County to low-level offense related to fighting and pleaded guilty in 2004 in Schuylkill County to criminal mischief and related charges.

The FBI site does not offer any description of the photo of Lazar other than to raise a plea for help in identifying participants in the Capitol violence; hundreds of other photos posted by the FBI include the same plea. Lazar’s picture was posted to the FBI’s page in late March, and the FBI tweeted it on March 25.

The FBI declined to say whether Lazar is the wanted man.

“The FBI does not comment on specific information or tips we may receive from the public; however, the tips we have received have been critical in furthering these investigations,” spokeswoman Christina Pullen said Thursday.

Pullen could not say how many people have been charged based on tips, because other factors may be involved in bringing charges.

“Information provided by the public is critical to furthering these investigations, and we encourage people to contact us,” she said. The agency asks that people who recognize anyone in photos on its site to call 1-800-CALL-FBI, or submit a tip to tips.fbi.gov.

https://twitter.com/FBI





https://lancasteronline.com/news/local/ephrata-man-wanted-by-fbi-in-capitol-attack-investigation-footage-shows/article_b10587f4-998c-11eb-b115-e3e95ef1f1dd.html

+ White Lives Matter' rallies flop as hardly anyone shows up

Brandy Zadrozny and Ellison Barber and Kailani Koenig

Sun, April 11, 2021, 6:27 PM·


1 / 2
'White Lives Matter' rallies flop as hardly anyone shows up

In semi-private, encrypted chats, neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists planned rallies in dozens of cities Sunday to promote their racist movements and spread their ideologies to larger audiences.

Hyped by organizers as events that would make “the whole world tremble,” the rallies ran into a major problem: Hardly anyone showed up.

The “White Lives Matter” rallies, the first major real-world organizing efforts by white supremacists since 2018, were planned on the encrypted app Telegram after many aligned groups were alleged to have taken part in the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S Capitol.


The poor showing underscores how the country’s unpopular and disorganized extremist movements have been driven underground by increased scrutiny from the media, law enforcement agencies and far-left activists who infiltrate their private online spaces and disrupt their attempts to communicate and organize.



Related: Reformed neo-Nazi explains how people fall prey to QAnon online



Few “White Lives Matter” marchers showed up Sunday, but anti-racist and anti-fascist groups gathered just the same.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, a small crowd of antifa and anti-racist protesters gathered at the park where the “White Lives Matter” march was planned. They marched around downtown behind a large white sign that read, “WE ACCEPT YOUR SURRENDER.”

The lackluster events were documented by livestreams and photos posted to Twitter.

In Philadelphia, activists tweeted photos of a counterprotest picnic with pizza and Tastykake snacks. In New York City, over a dozen counterprotesters stood seemingly unopposed across the street from Trump Tower, where a “White Lives Matter” rally was expected.

Police in downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, formed a circle around a lone protester to separate him from a large crowd of counterprotesters. Three protesters assembled around a “White Lives Matter” banner outside City Hall in Fort Worth, Texas, where a police line separated them from a couple of dozen counterprotesters.

Hundreds of counterprotesters, bystanders and media members gathered at a counterprotest at the scheduled start time of a “White Lives Matter” march at Huntington Beach Pier southeast of Los Angeles.

Throughout the afternoon, counterprotesters could be seen on several livestreams chanting “Unity and community” and “Black lives matter.” A few single protesters, one of whom wore a full hood and a T-shirt with a white supremacist slogan, were run off by the crowd, who yelled “Go home, Nazis!”


(more)


https://news.yahoo.com/white-lives-matter-rallies-flop-220544843.html

+ Insecure, Frustrated Bully With Something To Prove Considering Career In Law Enforcement

8/09/13 9:16AM



The moody, temperamental ball of repressed rage says he would like to serve and protect one day.


RALEIGH, NC—Calling it his lifelong dream, local man Brendan Lockhart, an insecure and perpetually frustrated bully who believes he has something to prove to the world, told reporters Thursday that he is seriously considering a career in law enforcement.



Lockhart, a recent high-school graduate who sources confirmed is plagued by resentment, self-doubt, unexpected fits of rage, and has always had a penchant for tormenting those who are smaller and weaker than him, explained that he feels he is well suited to serve as a police officer.

“I’ve always wanted to be a cop,” said Lockhart, whose paranoia and inferiority complex constantly haunt him, leading him to lash out at others in order to convince them he is in control. “I know it’s a tough line of work, but I think I’ve got what it takes to earn my shield and get out there and keep the peace.”


“This is the job I was born to do,” continued the man whose main goal in life is to prove to others that he is strong, confident, and not afraid.


Friends and family confirmed that Lockhart, an unpredictable, petty individual who frequently loses his temper when he feels he is being threatened or disrespected, has in recent months been inquiring into joining the ranks of the Raleigh Police Department. In this role, the man with a massive chip on his shoulder and no visible sense of empathy would be tasked with peacefully resolving disputes and evenhandedly administering justice to members of the community over whom he would have official power.


Specifically, sources speculated that should Lockhart successfully complete the 17-week officer training program and cursory psychological examination necessary to become a cop, the 18-year-old, who suffers from feelings of inadequacy and frequently explodes in emotional outbursts against people he perceives to be mocking him, would on a daily basis be placed in delicate situations requiring extreme patience and sound judgment.

“My dad’s encouraging me to go to the academy, and he says that once I graduate I can probably get a job around here,” said Lockhart, referring to the man whose own lack of compassion and propensity for inexplicable violence is largely to blame for similar patterns in his son, and who is himself a veteran police officer. “Once I’m a cop, I’m going to do what I have to do to make sure these neighborhoods stay safe.”



“I bet a lot of people don’t think I can do it, but I’ll show them,” continued the man who could in six months’ time possess both a standard-issue firearm and the city-sanctioned authority to unholster and fire the weapon.

When pressed for further comment, sources close to the man who hopes to play an active role in protecting his community confirmed that Lockhart constantly goes out of his way to intimidate and belittle those people he knows are too submissive to fight back. The 18-year-old often fantasizes at length about getting revenge on those he believes have wronged him. When frustrated or enraged with his own general powerlessness in the world, he reportedly has a tendency to take out these emotions on the first person he comes across, with little or no provocation. Lockhart routinely gets in screaming arguments with others and must be physically restrained as his anger reaches a white-hot pitch, frightening all around him. A devoted fan of mixed martial arts, Lockhart is capable of watching YouTube videos of people being pummeled senselessly for hours at a time.



Sources also felt it bears mentioning that Lockhart is an impassioned and unapologetic racist.

When asked to outline his motivations for entering the field of law enforcement, the perpetually infuriated bully who could very soon be responsible for the security and well-being of thousands of innocent people explained that he feels a personal obligation to do whatever necessary to safeguard society.



“There’s a lot of bad people out there who think they can get away with doing whatever they want, and someone has to stop them,” said Lockhart, his hands unconsciously closing into tight fists. “So if I don’t step up and show everyone who’s boss, who will?”



“Plus, I’ve been talking to my buddies at the gym, and a bunch of them are gonna be cops too,” Lockhart continued. “It’ll be great.”



https://local.theonion.com/insecure-frustrated-bully-with-something-to-prove-cons-1819575405




#Satire.

+ Steven Carrillo is charged with murdering a Santa Cruz County deputy sheriff and a security officer guarding Oakland’s federal courthouse.

Credit:(FRONTLINE)


“I Felt Hate More Than Anything”: How an Active Duty Airman Tried to Start a Civil War


Steven Carrillo’s path to the Boogaloo Bois shows the hate group is far more organized and dangerous than previously known.

by Gisela Pérez de Acha, Kathryn Hurd and Ellie Lightfoot, Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program
April 13, 9 a.m. EDT

https://www.propublica.org/article/i-felt-hate-more-than-anything-how-an-active-duty-airman-tried-to-start-a-civil-war


Co-published with FRONTLINE.
Rioters on the front steps of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021

Series:The Insurrection
The Effort to Overturn the Election

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

This story is part of a collaboration between ProPublica, Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program and FRONTLINE that includes the documentary American Insurrection, airing 10 p.m. Eastern on April 13 on PBS.


It was 2:20 p.m. on June 6, 2020, and Steven Carrillo, a 32-year-old Air Force sergeant who belonged to the anti-government Boogaloo Bois movement, was on the run in the tiny mountain town of Ben Lomond, California.

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With deputy sheriffs closing in, Carrillo texted his brother, Evan, asking him to tell his children he loved them and instructing him to give $50,000 to his fiancée. “I love you bro,” Carrillo signed off. Thinking the text message was a suicide note from a brother with a history of mental health troubles, Evan Carrillo quickly texted back: “Think about the ones you love.”

In fact, Steven Carrillo had a different objective, a goal he had written about on Facebook, discussed with other Boogaloo Bois and even scrawled out in his own blood as he hid from police that day. He wanted to incite a second Civil War in the United States by killing police officers he viewed as enforcers of a corrupt and tyrannical political order — officers he described as “domestic enemies” of the Constitution he professed to revere.


Text messages between Steven Carrillo and his brother Evan shortly before Carrillo allegedly killed a deputy sheriff.

Credit:(Courtesy of Evan Carrillo)

Now, as he texted with his brother and watched deputies assemble so close to him that he could hear their conversations, Carrillo sent an urgent appeal to his fellow Boogaloo Bois. “Kit up and get here,” he wrote in a WhatsApp message that prosecutors say he sent to members of a heavily armed Boogaloo militia faction he had recently joined. The police, he texted, were after him.

“Take them out when theyre coming in,” the text read, according to court documents.

Minutes later, prosecutors allege, Carrillo ambushed three deputy sheriffs, opening fire with a silenced automatic rifle and hurling a homemade pipe bomb from a concealed position on a steep embankment some 40 feet from the deputies. One deputy was shot dead, and a second was badly wounded by bomb shrapnel to his face and neck. When two California Highway Patrol officers arrived, Carrillo opened fire on them, too, police say, wounding one.

“The police are the guard dogs, ready to attack whenever the owner says, ‘Hey, sic ’em boy,’” Carrillo said in an interview, the first time he has spoken publicly since he was charged with murdering both the deputy sheriff in Ben Lomond and, a week earlier, a federal protective security officer at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland.

When Carrillo was finally subdued on June 6, cellphone footage captured him shouting at deputies as they led him away, “This is what I came to fight — I’m sick of these goddamn police.”


(more)


https://www.propublica.org/article/i-felt-hate-more-than-anything-how-an-active-duty-airman-tried-to-start-a-civil-war?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

'AMERICAN INSURRECTION'



https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/american-insurrection/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Twitter&utm_content=Second_Screen

+ CAPITOL RIOTS:

Oath Keeper Becomes First Capitol Insurrectionist to Rat Out Fellow Rioters

ONE DOWN

Pilar Melendez
National Reporter
Updated Apr. 16, 2021 4:40PM ET Published Apr. 16, 2021 12:09PM ET

DOJ/Criminal Complaint


A heavy metal guitarist and self-described “founding” member of the Oath Keepers who stormed the U.S. Capitol armed with bear spray has become the first Jan. 6 insurrectionist to plead guilty and cooperate with the feds, prosecutors said Friday.

Jon Ryan Schaffer, a 53-year-old from Indiana, pleaded guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding and entering a restricted building with a deadly or dangerous weapon during a Friday hearing. During the hearing, Judge Amit Mehta also revealed that Schaffer will be sponsored for witness protection.


“The defendant in this case admits forcing his way into the U.S. Capitol on January 6 for the express purpose of stopping or delaying congressional proceedings essential to our democratic process. These actions are disgraceful and unacceptable,” FBI Deputy Director Paul M. Abbate said in a statement.

The plea, which requires his full cooperation with federal prosecutors in their ongoing investigation, marks the first time a rioter has copped to his crimes on Jan. 6. It’s been exactly 100 days since thousands of MAGA rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to prevent Joe Biden's electoral certification. So far, 400 individuals have been charged in connection to the riots.


Schaffer was released after the Friday hearing until his sentencing, though he must now submit to court supervision in the Northern District of Indiana, surrender his passport, and stay away from Washington, D.C. His release came after his attorney argued for no travel restrictions, claiming Schaffer is an “internationally known musician and recording artist.”

Plea negotiations between Schaffer’s lawyers and federal prosecutors were unintentionally disclosed earlier this month after sealed Department of Justice documents were accidentally filed on the public docket.


“The government’s ongoing plea negotiations with this defendant are the first and most advanced plea negotiations involving any of the over 300 Capitol Riot defendants,” federal prosecutors wrote in the April 5 filing. By pleading guilty on Friday, Schaffer will likely face a four-year prison sentence.

The guitarist and founding member of the heavy metal band Iced Earth was initially charged in January with six crimes for participating in the Jan. 6 siege while wearing a hat that proclaimed him to be an “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member.”



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In his plea agreement, Schaffer “acknowledged he is a founding lifetime member of the Oath Keepers,” and admitted to traveling to D.C. to protest the results of the presidential election, which he believed was rigged, prosecutors stated.

“Schaffer admitted to being among the first individuals to push past the damaged doors and into the Capitol building, forcing officers to retreat. Schaffer and others advanced toward five or six backpedaling USCP officers while members of the mob swelled inside of the Capitol and overwhelmed the officers,” prosecutors said in a press release announcing his plea agreement. “The officers ultimately deployed a chemical irritant to disperse the mob. Schaffer was among the people who were sprayed in the face, after which exited while holding his own bear spray in his hands.”

During the siege, Schaffer allegedly sprayed multiple U.S. Capitol police officers with bear spray as they breached the government building. A criminal complaint also states Schaffer verbally assaulted officers inside the building.

Long before his decision to storm the Capitol alongside his paramilitary members, prosecutors state Schaffer held far-right extremist views.


“During an interview in 2017, Schaffer identified himself as an ‘anarchist’ and referred to the federal government as a ‘criminal enterprise.’ During that same interview, Schaffer stated that the 2016 Presidential election was ‘rigged,’” the complaint states.

After the election, Schaffer attended several Trump rallies protesting the election results, including one March event where he told reports, “If somebody wants to bring violence, I think there’s a lot of us here that are ready for it. We don’t want that, but if they bring it we’re going to respond to that, trust me.”

So far, prosecutors have charged over a dozen Oath Keepers with conspiracy, including Jessica Watkins, a 38-year-old former Army vet accused of recruiting members to “fight hand to hand” to take over the Capitol. Prosecutors describe the Oath Keepers as “an organization that characterizes itself as a militia of former law enforcement and military personnel and has often, as a group, urged President Trump to declare Martial Law in order to prevent Congress from certifying the Electoral College Results.”



https://www.thedailybeast.com/oath-keeper-jon-ryan-schaffer-becomes-first-capitol-insurrectionist-to-rat-out-fellow-rioters?ref=home&via=twitter_page

+ They're the military's most elite. In secret online groups, some spew racism, conspiracies.

Carol E. Lee and Anna Schecter
Fri, April 16, 2021, 3:30 AM


WASHINGTON — They're the most elite, lethally trained members of the U.S. military, widely considered the best of the best. And yet in secret Facebook groups exclusively for special operations forces that were accessed by NBC News, they share misinformation about a "stolen" 2020 election, disparaging and racist comments about America's political leadership and even QAnon conspiracy theories.


(more)





https://news.yahoo.com/secret-facebook-groups-americas-best-083012948.html

+ WATCH: Bill Maher Once Said N-Word 11 Times and Told a Black Woman He Couldn’t Tell She Was Black — And Didn’t Get Canceled

TOMMY CHRISTOPHER APR 17, 2021 11:46 AM



Comic and political pundit Bill Maher hosted Sharon Osbourne for an extended complaint session about “cancel culture” on Friday night, partially because Maher was able to survive cultural cancellation himself after he said the n-word 11 times on the air in a segment of his old Politically Incorrect show.

On the latest episode of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, Maher commiserated with Osbourne over her exit from CBS’ The Talk following an on-air meltdown during which she berated a co-host and demanded she not cry.

But for all of his complaining about “cancel culture,” Maher has managed to cultivate an immunity to the alleged phenomenon that would make Pfizer and Moderna jealous.

Lots of people probable remember the flap surrounding his invocation of the term “house nigga” during an interview with Ben Sasse. Maher was moved to release a brief statement of apology that time, which was followed by a lengthy schooling from Professor Michael Eric Dyson and some professional counseling from Ice Cube and Symone Sanders.

But long before that, during the run of his ABC show Politically Incorrect, Maher took some truly atrocious liberties during a discussion of racial slurs with Black actor and activist Anne-Marie Johnson.

During that segment, while advancing the even-in-2001-tired-as-hell argument that white people can say the n-word because Black people say it, he blurted out “nigga” 11 times — including the claim that people regularly walk up to him and say “Bill, you a nigga!” — and told Johnson he’d never know she was Black if she hadn’t alerted him to that fact.


The segment included some other pretty sickening moments, such as David Spade explaining how much the mockery of white people by Black comics hurts him and Sarah Silverman defending her assertion that activist Guy Aoki wasn’t really offended by her use of the word “chink” in a joke, and was just trying to get attention for himself.

She concluded the segment by telling Aoki, to his face, “You know what? There are only two Asian people I know that I don’t like. One is you, and the other is my friend Steve, who actually went pee pee in my Coke.”

That episode aired on August 22, 2001, and it was not followed by any outcry, and Maher’s show stayed on the air for nearly a year after that, even after he said something that actually did eventually get him canceled — at least from ABC.

But Maher landed on his feet quickly, and has since thrived on HBO, where he consistently rails against the “cancel culture” that he mysteriously seems to escape time after tine. How about that?

Watch the full segment above.


Tags: Anne-Marie Johnson, Bill Maher, David Spade, Guy Aoki, Ice Cube, Michael Eric Dyson, Politically Incorrect, Real Time with Bill Maher, Sarah Silverman, Sharon Osbourne, Symone Sanders, The Talk




https://www.mediaite.com/opinion/watch-bill-maher-once-said-n-word-11-times-and-told-a-black-woman-he-couldnt-tell-she-was-black-and-didnt-get-canceled/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

+ Oath Keepers’ blithe interview demonstrates how little we have learned since Oklahoma City

Apr 19, 2021 4:35pm Central Daylight Time by David Neiwert, Daily Kos Staff


Today marks the 26th anniversary of the day—April 19, 1995—that a far-right “Patriot” extremist with military experience named Timothy McVeigh blew up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and maiming hundreds more. It should have been a moment that permanently discredited his belief system as well as confirmed it as a major source of domestic terrorism and a top concern for law enforcement.

Yet on Sunday, CBS’ 60 Minutes showed us how the twisted beliefs of the “Patriots” who form the Oath Keepers—an organization devoted explicitly to recruiting military and law enforcement veterans, all potential McVeighs in the making—continue to assert their presence in the American political landscape by portraying their seditionist “constitutional” worldview as normal, and describing how actively serving law enforcement officers help train them in weapons and tactics. That despite their leadership having played leading roles in the attempt to prevent the peaceful transfer of power by armed insurrection on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.


Jim Arroyo, an Oath Keepers leader from Arizona, boasted to the CBS reporters that they receive top-flight paramilitary training because of their affiliations.

“Our guys are very experienced,” he said. “We have active-duty law enforcement in our organization that are helping to train us. We can blend in with our law enforcement and in fact, in a lot of cases, our training is much more advanced because of our military backgrounds.”

While Arroyo seems to think that this will help make the public feel more comfortable with giving a law enforcement role to unaccountable vigilantes like his group, what it actually does is raise yet more bright red flags about the extent to which our law enforcement organizations have been infiltrated by and blithely staffed with right-wing extremists.

That problem became self-evident when it emerged that some 31 law-enforcement officers in 12 states have been linked to the Jan. 6 Capitol siege. It’s become a paramount issue as the connections between law enforcement and the far-right Proud Boys street brawlers—with whom the Oath Keepers at various times have linked arms—became better known after the insurrection as well. These issues are why the FBI sent out a bulletin to law enforcement advising them to be on the lookout for infiltration by such far-right groups.

This, as I explained well over a decade ago, is exactly what makes organizations like the Oath Keepers so potentially dangerous to our democracy:

Inevitably, there are going to be competent killers either joining the far right from our military ranks—especially if they've been recruited into those beliefs either before or during their service—or enacting far-right "lone wolf scenarios," and they are going to have the ability to wreak a great deal of havoc.

One of the experts CBS consulted for the piece, ex-NSC Senior Cirector Javed Ali, noted: “I think what makes the Oath Keepers unique and challenging, beyond the fact that they are a formal group with chapters all over the country, is that a large percentage have tactical training and operational experience in either the military or law enforcement. That at least gives them a capability that a lot of other people in this far right space don't have.”

One of the ways the Oath Keepers, like all would-be vigilantes, have always avoided accountability—as they have from their origins, when a prominent Oath Keeper speaker was arrested for sexually abusing his young daughter—is to claim that anyone causing trouble or breaking the law wasn’t really a member of the organization. This lets them fob off the violent, black helicopter paranoia and outright incompetence that swirls around their activities (including the moment, at the 2014 Bundy Ranch standoff, that Oath Keepers and militiamen were drawing down on each other) as the mere side effect of the occasional irresponsible nonmember using their name


(more)



https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2021/4/19/2026656/-Oath-Keepers-blithe-interview-demonstrates-how-little-we-have-learned-since-Oklahoma-City?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=Sendible&utm_campaign=RSS

+ Pence’s mid-pandemic holiday ski trip cost taxpayers more than $750,000

Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel

April 22, 2021


While coronavirus cases surged to record levels late last December, Vice President Mike Pence went on a ski vacation in Vail, Colorado. The trip came with a massive bill to taxpayers, with Secret Service protection alone costing $757,527.85, according to documents obtained by CREW.

At the time of his holiday travel, Pence was the head of the White House coronavirus task force, which put out dire warnings after Thanksgiving as the CDC recommended that Americans stay home over the holidays in order to limit the spread of the virus. Clearly, Pence did not follow the government’s advice, and in the process put dozens of Secret Service agents at heightened risk of infection.

Pence’s trip extended from December 23rd to January 1st, and reportedly included a Secret Service entourage of at least 48 agents, contributing to both the high cost and the risk of infection. The agents stayed at several different hotels in the Vail area and rented 77 cars for the trip. The charges included more than $270,000 at the Marriott Vail Mountain and more than $80,000 at the Ritz Carlton.

Unfortunately, Pence’s unnecessary pandemic travel wasn’t a first for the Trump administration. Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump did something similar, and traveled to Trump’s Bedminster club during the April 2020 stay at home orders. The Washington Post recently reported that career Secret Service staff suggested an inspector general investigation into the spread of coronavirus within the agency. The idea was rejected by the Trump-appointed IG, who also blocked other investigations that could have reflected badly on the Trump administration.

This also is not the first time Mike Pence stuck taxpayers with huge bills for his travel. Back in 2019, he traveled to Ireland for government business in Dublin, but stayed overnight at Donald Trump’s resort on the other side of the country in Doonbeg. Travel costs for that were more than half a million dollars, and also resulted in the Secret Service spending more than $15,000 at Trump’s resort.

While Pence’s December trip to Vail was less nakedly corrupt than his trip to Doonbeg, it showed another kind of bad judgment, by putting many government workers tasked with keeping him safe at risk in the midst of a raging pandemic. We would hope that the head of the coronavirus task force would know better



https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/mike-pences-mid-pandemic-holiday-ski-trip-cost-taxpayers-more-than-750000/

+ Traitor Trump Demands National Guard During AZ's Third Recount


By John Amato


Traitor Trump Demands National Guard During AZ's Third Recount


In typical lying fashion, TraitorTrump demanded Gov. Ducey (R) of Arizona send in the State police or National Guard to protect against a non-existent threat posed by yet another audit of the 2020 election.

Tilting at windmills, people.

Thankfully, Trump can't tweet any longer, but he sends out statements from his money-grubbing PAC. He sent this one yesterday:

The Republican Party is demanding that Governor Ducey of Arizona immediately provide large-scale security for the brave American Patriots doing the Forensic Audit of the 2020 Presidential Election. Governor Ducey will be held fully responsible for the safety of those involved. State police or National Guard must be immediately sent out for protection. The Democrats do not want to have this information revealed, and they will do anything to stop it. Governor Ducey must finally act!

Who is posing a threat to the audit? BLM? Antifa? Cardi B? Nobody knows, but since the narcissistic imbecile said it, the MAGA cultists will follow his lead.

Arizona already has had two recounts. So, how absurd is this latest audit?

AZCentral writes, "Then there’s the never-ending story of the election audit, led by the Arizona Senate Republicans. It’s a desperate move, and so far it’s been an absurd one."

Arizona has installed a voter fraud nut to oversee the whole project.

The head of Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based firm that Republican senators hired to oversee the audit, has embraced Mr. Trump’s baseless theories of election theft and has suggested, contrary to available evidence, that Mr. Trump actually won Arizona by 200,000 votes. The pro-Trump cable channel One America News Network has started a fund-raiser to finance the venture and has been named one of the nonpartisan observers that will keep the audit on the straight and narrow.

Keeping his Voter Fraud and Big Steal lies alive is critical to TraitorTrump's fundraising, no matter what the cost is to the American people.

Many prosecutors and judges have weighed in on the danger Trump's election lies pose.

“It’s never too late” for pro-Trump extremist groups like the Proud Boys to mobilize because the right-wing political climate hasn’t shifted much since Trump left office, federal prosecutor Jason McCullough argued at a hearing for one of the accused Proud Boys leaders earlier this week.

The comments from prosecutors and judges demonstrate how Trump’s post-presidency lying about 2020 is complicating matters for some of his most ardent supporters — including people who heeded his call to come to Washington on January 6 and are now in jail cells awaiting trial.

--

“The Court is not convinced that dissatisfaction and concern about the legitimacy of the election results has dissipated for all Americans. Former President Donald J. Trump continues to make forceful public comments about the ‘stolen election,’ chastising individuals who did not reject the supposedly illegitimate results that put the current administration in place,” Sullivan wrote.

The issue came up Thursday at a hearing for another defendant in the same case.

“The unfounded allegations are out there, and they’re being made constantly by the former President,” Sullivan said, prompting a defense attorney to condemn Trump’s comments as “absolutely reprehensible” and express hope that “somebody” will “try to stop” the lying.


Lying is all TraitorTrump knows and understands.



https://crooksandliars.com/2021/04/Trump-National-Guard-Arizona/amp?__twitter_impression=true

+ Texas couple who deleted Facebook posts bragging about being at the Capitol riot was arrested for assaulting police officers, FBI says

Kelsey Vlamis

Sun, April 25, 2021, 12:22 AM·


A Texas couple has been charged with assaulting police officers during the Capitol siege.

A criminal complaint says the two were captured on police body cameras striking officers.

In since-deleted posts, the Middletons bragged about their participation on Facebook.


A couple from North Texas was arrested Wednesday on charges related to the siege at the US Capitol on January 6, when a mob of Donald Trump's supporters breached the building to disrupt the certification of the election.


mark and jalise middleton
Facebook records in the criminal complaint show Mark and Jalise Middleton, FBI said. FBI, US Department of Justice


In a criminal complaint, the Federal Bureau of Investigations said Mark and Jalise Middleton of Forestburg were captured on footage from body cameras worn by police that showed them assaulting two Metropolitan Police Department officers who were guarding the Capitol.


Related: Pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol, forced into recess


They are facing charges that include assaulting police officers and remaining on restricted grounds, though they did not appear to have entered the building.

The footage shows the police officers struggling against rioters who are pushing against a barricade and trying to break the police line, ignoring commands from officers to step back, the complaint said.



Read more: Trump and his advisors are shrugging off DOJ's Capitol riot probe. But they see danger in the Georgia and New York investigations.



One man wearing a Trump beanie, later identified as Mark Middleton, 51, pushes against the officers and the barricade with his body. When officers repeatedly instructed Middleton to get back, he yelled "f— you!" and continued to push. At one point, he grabs one of the officers and attempts to pull him forward.

Beside Mark, a woman wearing a Trump 2020 beanie, later identified as Jalise Middleton, 50, also grabbed at the officer with her hands, the complaint said. When another officer stepped in, Jalise Middleton struck him too.

The Middletons continued to strike the officers and jab flagpoles at their faces until one officer deployed a chemical spray, forcing them to retreat.

mark and jalise middleton
The criminal complaint included still images of officers' body camera that purportedly showed the Middletons assaulting officers. FBI, US Department of Justice

After receiving a tip, the FBI examined photos and videos the Middletons had shared on Facebook.

"We are on the front lines. We helped push down the barriers. Jalise and I got pepper sprayed, clubbed, and tear gassed. We had to retreat, but more patriots pushed forward, and they're taking back our house," Mark Middleton said in a video shared to his personal account, the complaint said.

"Do not believe the news media, we're not rioters or mobs," he said in a separate comment. "We've been the ones supporting the police, backing the police, but this is how we're being treated?"

Jalise Middleton made incriminating posts on her Facebook page too.

"We fought the cops to get in the Capital and got pepper sprayed and beat but by gosh the patriots got in!" she said. When someone asked why they fought the cops, she replied: "To get in the Capital to send them bastards a clear message that this won't be tolerated."

The complaint said Jalise Middleton deleted the above post days after making them.

Facebook has said it was preserving data related to the Capitol siege in order to aid law enforcement.

To date, at least 439 people have been arrested in the Capitol insurrection.

Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.

Read the original article on Business Insider



https://news.yahoo.com/texas-couple-deleted-facebook-posts-052200474.html?soc_src=community&soc_trk=tw