Right wing nuts thread (2 Viewers)

[DaveXA]

Wasn't sure where to put this, but we need a thread for the wing nuts. Lauren Boebert.

 

[LA - L.A.]

That dude could have a great career in the 80's as Russian, movie villain.

 

[Optimus Prime]

A major conservative thinktank previewed rightwing efforts to overturn the 2024 election on Thursday, with a top official saying there was a “0% chance of a free and fair election”.

Mike Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project at the Heritage Foundation, made the comments at an event in Washington sharing the results of a hypothetical exercise mapping out several implausible scenarios that could take place after the election.

The outlandish scenarios involved Barbara Streisand being kidnapped by Hamas, antifa-BLM protesters taking over a detention facility and the FBI arresting Donald Trump after winning the election.

The effort was designed to muddy the waters over the threat to the 2024 election posed by Donald Trump, who has repeatedly refused to commit to accepting the election results and tried to overturn the 2020 vote.

Instead, the Heritage Foundation, which is also behind the extreme Project 2025, wanted to suggest that it was Joe Biden who could try to overturn the result of the election, echoing the ex-president’s repeated claims that it is actually Biden who is the threat to democracy.


“President Biden is very well-positioned to hold the White House by force in the case of an unfavorable electoral outcome,” the report summarizing the exercise says.

“The lawlessness of the Biden administration – at the border, in staffing considerations, and in routine defiance of court rulings – makes clear that the current president and his administration not only possesses the means, but perhaps also the intent, to circumvent constitutional limits and disregard the will of the voters should they demand a new president.”…..

Rightwing claim of ‘0% chance’ of fair US election previews effort to undo 2024 result

Mike Howell makes comment at Heritage Foundation event where implausible post-election scenarios were shared

www.theguardian.com

 

[MT15]

A major conservative thinktank previewed rightwing efforts to overturn the 2024 election on Thursday, with a top official saying there was a “0% chance of a free and fair election”.

Mike Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project at the Heritage Foundation, made the comments at an event in Washington sharing the results of a hypothetical exercise mapping out several implausible scenarios that could take place after the election.

The outlandish scenarios involved Barbara Streisand being kidnapped by Hamas, antifa-BLM protesters taking over a detention facility and the FBI arresting Donald Trump after winning the election.

The effort was designed to muddy the waters over the threat to the 2024 election posed by Donald Trump, who has repeatedly refused to commit to accepting the election results and tried to overturn the 2020 vote.

Instead, the Heritage Foundation, which is also behind the extreme Project 2025, wanted to suggest that it was Joe Biden who could try to overturn the result of the election, echoing the ex-president’s repeated claims that it is actually Biden who is the threat to democracy.


“President Biden is very well-positioned to hold the White House by force in the case of an unfavorable electoral outcome,” the report summarizing the exercise says.

“The lawlessness of the Biden administration – at the border, in staffing considerations, and in routine defiance of court rulings – makes clear that the current president and his administration not only possesses the means, but perhaps also the intent, to circumvent constitutional limits and disregard the will of the voters should they demand a new president.”…..

Rightwing claim of ‘0% chance’ of fair US election previews effort to undo 2024 result

Mike Howell makes comment at Heritage Foundation event where implausible post-election scenarios were shared

www.theguardian.com

This could equally go in the Project 2025 thread, as that is the same source

 

[LA - L.A.]

Judge dismisses Giuliani’s bankruptcy case, allowing creditors to try to seize his assets | CNN Politics

Rudy Giuliani is no longer entitled to bankruptcy protection, a judge decided Friday, making it possible for creditors to immediately pursue his assets within days.

www.cnn.com

Woohoo!

 

[DaveXA]

Judge dismisses Giuliani’s bankruptcy case, allowing creditors to try to seize his assets | CNN Politics

Rudy Giuliani is no longer entitled to bankruptcy protection, a judge decided Friday, making it possible for creditors to immediately pursue his assets within days.

www.cnn.com

Woohoo!

Good, I hope he loses every last penny.

 

[MT15]

This is the GOP candidate for Lt. Gov in Indiana.

 

[MT15]

It seems that MAGA is starting to promote Barron as the “heir to the throne”. It doesn’t seem like Barron was actually in attendance at the rally in PA.

 

[MT15]

So this woman won her election and refused to certify it?

 

[DaveXA]

So this woman won her election and refused to certify it?

Bizarre is right. Wow.

 

[MT15]

Bizarre is right. Wow.

Reading the article - the woman has reconsidered. But only because she was informed that it is her duty to certify a valid election, and the recount had proven its validity. She would have been in violation of the law, I think, had she continued to refuse without a good reason.

 

[LA - L.A.]

Reading the article - the woman has reconsidered. But only because she was informed that it is her duty to certify a valid election, and the recount had proven its validity. She would have been in violation of the law, I think, had she continued to refuse without a good reason.

The law wins again. Isn't the law undefeated against Trump and his election deniers?

 

[Optimus Prime]

The leader of a New York City suburb is recruiting 75 armed citizens, many of them former police officers, for a force of “special deputies” to be activated whenever he chooses.

Blakeman Jumps Into Culture Wars​

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who has allied himself with former President Donald Trump and thrust himself into the culture wars, posted a call in March for residents with gun permits and an interest in becoming “provisional emergency special deputy sheriffs.”

The posting called the initiative a strategy to assist in the “protection of human life and property during an emergency” such as a hurricane or blackout — and perhaps, Blakeman later added, “a riot.”

The new force has drawn vocal opposition in this well-to-do Long Island county, which is one of the country’s safest, protected by one of the largest police departments. It has plunged Nassau into a national debate about authoritarianism in an election season that some see as a fork in the road for U.S. democracy.

Blakeman said in an interview that the program was about “providing another layer of protection” for residents. “I didn’t want to be in a situation where we had a major emergency and we needed help and people were not properly vetted or trained,” he said.

Critics Accuse Him of Creating a Militia​

But critics have accused him of creating, with little notice or explanation, an unsanctioned militia answering only to him. They called the move especially dangerous amid heightened fears of political violence, and as Trump promulgates plans for mass deportations and quashing dissent.

Sabine Margolis, an IT program manager from Great Neck, said Blakeman was using the pretext of an emergency response team to create a “clandestine armed presence.” Her online petition called “Stop Bruce Blakeman’s Personal Nassau County Militia” has received more than 2,600 signatures, and opponents have held rallies pillorying both the program and the lack of details on training, scope of recruitment and parameters of the deputies’ duties.

Blakeman dismissed criticism that the program is politically motivated, but it has provoked a more forceful reaction than his previous provocations. He has railed against bail reform, migrants and mask mandates, has called Democrats like Gov. Kathy Hochul soft on crime and has portrayed Nassau County as besieged by lawlessness — and used neighboring New York City as a cautionary example.

But Blakeman’s opponents say that giving police powers to civilian gun owners could result in accidental shootings and is an implied threat to minorities and political enemies.

“It’s fearmongering, and it’s very damaging to people,” said Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, the Democratic minority leader of the county Legislature.

“It’s the opposite way we want to be going, a private militia with guns,” she said. “We’re trying to work on gun control, rather than promote them.”

Blakeman Said the Force Could ‘Free Up Police’​

Blakeman said he created the force so that “in an emergency, if we required them to protect infrastructure or government buildings or schools or hospitals, that would free up our police.”.............

A Trump Ally Is Training 75 Armed Citizens. Is That a Militia?

Discover the controversial plans of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to recruit armed citizens as special deputies for emergencies.

gvwire.com

 

[LA - L.A.]

The leader of a New York City suburb is recruiting 75 armed citizens, many of them former police officers, for a force of “special deputies” to be activated whenever he chooses.

Blakeman Jumps Into Culture Wars​

Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican who has allied himself with former President Donald Trump and thrust himself into the culture wars, posted a call in March for residents with gun permits and an interest in becoming “provisional emergency special deputy sheriffs.”

The posting called the initiative a strategy to assist in the “protection of human life and property during an emergency” such as a hurricane or blackout — and perhaps, Blakeman later added, “a riot.”

The new force has drawn vocal opposition in this well-to-do Long Island county, which is one of the country’s safest, protected by one of the largest police departments. It has plunged Nassau into a national debate about authoritarianism in an election season that some see as a fork in the road for U.S. democracy.

Blakeman said in an interview that the program was about “providing another layer of protection” for residents. “I didn’t want to be in a situation where we had a major emergency and we needed help and people were not properly vetted or trained,” he said.

Critics Accuse Him of Creating a Militia​

But critics have accused him of creating, with little notice or explanation, an unsanctioned militia answering only to him. They called the move especially dangerous amid heightened fears of political violence, and as Trump promulgates plans for mass deportations and quashing dissent.

Sabine Margolis, an IT program manager from Great Neck, said Blakeman was using the pretext of an emergency response team to create a “clandestine armed presence.” Her online petition called “Stop Bruce Blakeman’s Personal Nassau County Militia” has received more than 2,600 signatures, and opponents have held rallies pillorying both the program and the lack of details on training, scope of recruitment and parameters of the deputies’ duties.

Blakeman dismissed criticism that the program is politically motivated, but it has provoked a more forceful reaction than his previous provocations. He has railed against bail reform, migrants and mask mandates, has called Democrats like Gov. Kathy Hochul soft on crime and has portrayed Nassau County as besieged by lawlessness — and used neighboring New York City as a cautionary example.

But Blakeman’s opponents say that giving police powers to civilian gun owners could result in accidental shootings and is an implied threat to minorities and political enemies.

“It’s fearmongering, and it’s very damaging to people,” said Delia DeRiggi-Whitton, the Democratic minority leader of the county Legislature.

“It’s the opposite way we want to be going, a private militia with guns,” she said. “We’re trying to work on gun control, rather than promote them.”

Blakeman Said the Force Could ‘Free Up Police’​

Blakeman said he created the force so that “in an emergency, if we required them to protect infrastructure or government buildings or schools or hospitals, that would free up our police.”.............

A Trump Ally Is Training 75 Armed Citizens. Is That a Militia?

Discover the controversial plans of Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman to recruit armed citizens as special deputies for emergencies.

gvwire.com

You know if Republicans want us to stop comparing them to the Nazi party in Germany, then they should stop doing the exact same things the Nazi party did to seize control of Germany.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The German government has banned the rightwing extremist magazine Compact, accusing it of whipping up “unspeakable” hatred of Jews, Muslims and foreigners while undermining the country’s constitutional democracy.

In what she called a “hard blow” against the far right, the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, ordered dawn raids in four German states at properties linked to the publication, which is ideologically close to the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party and promotes its drive for power.

Faeser said her ban against a “key mouthpiece for the rightwing extremist scene” was proof that the government was “taking action against the intellectual arsonists who want to incite a climate of hatred and violence against refugees and migrants and defeat our democratic state”.


Faeser added: “Our message is very clear – we will not allow ethnicity to define who belongs to Germany and who does not.”

The ministry outlawed Compact, which was founded in 2010, as well as the company that publishes it, Compact-Magazin GmbH, and an affiliated media production company, Conspect Film.

By late Tuesday morning Compact’s website was down but its X account was still accessible. Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms removed Compact’s accounts in 2020 for using hate speech.

The sudden move came as a surprise given that the magazine was already classed as “extremist” by the domestic security watchdog in 2021 but was still widely available at newsagents across the country, prominently displayed in the racks next to mainstream publications.

The monthly magazine, with a circulation of about 40,000, calls itself the “voice of resistance”. It feeds racist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim and far-right nationalist conspiracy theories while spinning Reichsbürger-like fantasies about overthrowing the state.……

Germany bans ‘rightwing extremist’ Compact magazine

AfD-supporting publication has fed racist and far-right nationalist conspiracy theories

www.theguardian.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

guess this can go here
==============

Chaya Raichik, the woman behind the popular Libs of TikTok social media accounts, has complained in the past about the efforts to "cancel and silence" her. It appears she is taking a page from the playbook she supposedly hates.

Raichik's online operation reposts TikTok videos of left-leaning content creators saying things that often border on the absurd. She has recently upped the ante, amplifying Facebook posts from random people making crass comments about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, blasting them to her 3.2 million followers on X, and tagging their employers in hopes they are rendered jobless.

In some cases, it has paid off. "To [sic] bad they weren't a better shooter!!!!!" Darcy Waldron Pinckney posted on Facebook. You probably don't recognize her name because she is not a public figure. She is not a lawmaker or a bureaucrat or someone in any position of power. She worked at Home Depot.

The past tense here is key. On Sunday, Raichik posted a screenshot of Pinckney's comment, along with a video of someone confronting her at the store and an admonition to her employer: "Hi @HomeDepot!" Raichik wrote. "Are you aware that you employ people who call for political violence and the arse*ss*nat*on of Presidents? Any comment?" The company promptly terminated her.

Whatever your feelings on the former president, cheering on his assassination attempt is, in fact, wrong. It is also wrong to weaponize your millions of followers to turn a random woman into a national pariah, siccing a mob on her and rendering her unable to support herself—and possibly her family—because she made a tasteless comment on social media. These two things are true at the same time.

Cancel culture comes in different forms. But this is arguably its purest. We're not talking about someone who wielded considerable influence over society, whether in Hollywood or on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. We aren't even talking about a public school teacher who said this to a classroom full of students. We are talking about a woman who worked at a big box retail store, whose ability to pay for housing and food is potentially now up in the air for saying something gross on the internet.

It's ironic that the people leading this mob are some of the same individuals who have repeatedly—and rightly—decried mob justice over the last several years. In some cases, their careers and fame are grounded, at least in part, in that very concept.

"Cancel cancel culture," Riley Gaines, the swimmer and activist who has pushed back on biological men competing in women's sports, said in August of last year. Gaines, who has been the target of some illiberalism herself, was singing a different song this week, celebrating the termination of a man whose firing also came at the behest of Raichik.

"Too bad it didn't hit him square," Tony Bendele, formerly a small-town firefighter, posted on his personal Facebook page with a popcorn emoji. Raichik got ahold of it and, again, posted a screenshot to her Libs of TikTok account, with a rallying cry to her following on X (where Bendele does not have a footprint). It didn't take long for him, too, to become a national story. As of this writing, Raichik's initial post excoriating Bendele has been seen 11.7 million times.

"Please accept this as my resignation from the firehouse. I can't do this," Bendele, whose department also received a bomb threat, later posted on Facebook. "I have been threatened. My family has been threatened. My friends have been threatened. I have never felt so unsafe in my life….It's one thing to ruin my life, I accept that. But to put everyone else in danger around me, to shut down everyone's daily life, this is not ok."

Gaines counted that as a victory on Monday. "This wouldn't have happened without @elonmusk purchasing X and @libsoftiktok exposing it," she posted on X. Is this what winning looks like?

The online defenses of these firings fell mostly into two camps. The first: People like Pinckney and Bendele aren't actually victims of cancel culture because what they said is bad. I take no issue with the latter—what they said is bad. But using that as justification to gleefully destroy their lives is as classic a definition of cancel culture as any.

Past victims of cancel culture, after all, weren't always angels; such backlash often comes after legitimately unsavory or cringeworthy remarks. To take these random people's personal Facebook posts and exile them from society is to invoke a mantra from some left-leaning activists: "It's accountability culture, actually."

"It's exactly how America should work," wrote Zach Dean for OutKick, the right-leaning publication typically dedicated to sports news. "Checks and balances, folks….Shoutout to the Home Depot for quickly nipping this ugly human in the bud." Perhaps it is unsurprising that the publication has repeatedly railed into cancel culture.

The second line of pushback doesn't appear to deny that this is cancel culture. Those on the left just deserve it, the thinking goes, because they've used these tactics for years. While I appreciate the honesty, there are a few issues here. For one, there is no proof that these specific individuals ever participated in online mob justice—once again, we are not talking about people who are public figures or who have even a semblance of a following.

More importantly, that is plainly contradictory to the definition of a principle, which is not a principle at all if you decline to apply it when it's inconvenient. "They started it" is not a justification that has much currency past elementary school.............

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[MT15]

guess this can go here
==============

Chaya Raichik, the woman behind the popular Libs of TikTok social media accounts, has complained in the past about the efforts to "cancel and silence" her. It appears she is taking a page from the playbook she supposedly hates.

Raichik's online operation reposts TikTok videos of left-leaning content creators saying things that often border on the absurd. She has recently upped the ante, amplifying Facebook posts from random people making crass comments about the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, blasting them to her 3.2 million followers on X, and tagging their employers in hopes they are rendered jobless.

In some cases, it has paid off. "To [sic] bad they weren't a better shooter!!!!!" Darcy Waldron Pinckney posted on Facebook. You probably don't recognize her name because she is not a public figure. She is not a lawmaker or a bureaucrat or someone in any position of power. She worked at Home Depot.

The past tense here is key. On Sunday, Raichik posted a screenshot of Pinckney's comment, along with a video of someone confronting her at the store and an admonition to her employer: "Hi @HomeDepot!" Raichik wrote. "Are you aware that you employ people who call for political violence and the arse*ss*nat*on of Presidents? Any comment?" The company promptly terminated her.

Whatever your feelings on the former president, cheering on his assassination attempt is, in fact, wrong. It is also wrong to weaponize your millions of followers to turn a random woman into a national pariah, siccing a mob on her and rendering her unable to support herself—and possibly her family—because she made a tasteless comment on social media. These two things are true at the same time.

Cancel culture comes in different forms. But this is arguably its purest. We're not talking about someone who wielded considerable influence over society, whether in Hollywood or on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. We aren't even talking about a public school teacher who said this to a classroom full of students. We are talking about a woman who worked at a big box retail store, whose ability to pay for housing and food is potentially now up in the air for saying something gross on the internet.

It's ironic that the people leading this mob are some of the same individuals who have repeatedly—and rightly—decried mob justice over the last several years. In some cases, their careers and fame are grounded, at least in part, in that very concept.

"Cancel cancel culture," Riley Gaines, the swimmer and activist who has pushed back on biological men competing in women's sports, said in August of last year. Gaines, who has been the target of some illiberalism herself, was singing a different song this week, celebrating the termination of a man whose firing also came at the behest of Raichik.

"Too bad it didn't hit him square," Tony Bendele, formerly a small-town firefighter, posted on his personal Facebook page with a popcorn emoji. Raichik got ahold of it and, again, posted a screenshot to her Libs of TikTok account, with a rallying cry to her following on X (where Bendele does not have a footprint). It didn't take long for him, too, to become a national story. As of this writing, Raichik's initial post excoriating Bendele has been seen 11.7 million times.

"Please accept this as my resignation from the firehouse. I can't do this," Bendele, whose department also received a bomb threat, later posted on Facebook. "I have been threatened. My family has been threatened. My friends have been threatened. I have never felt so unsafe in my life….It's one thing to ruin my life, I accept that. But to put everyone else in danger around me, to shut down everyone's daily life, this is not ok."

Gaines counted that as a victory on Monday. "This wouldn't have happened without @elonmusk purchasing X and @libsoftiktok exposing it," she posted on X. Is this what winning looks like?

The online defenses of these firings fell mostly into two camps. The first: People like Pinckney and Bendele aren't actually victims of cancel culture because what they said is bad. I take no issue with the latter—what they said is bad. But using that as justification to gleefully destroy their lives is as classic a definition of cancel culture as any.

Past victims of cancel culture, after all, weren't always angels; such backlash often comes after legitimately unsavory or cringeworthy remarks. To take these random people's personal Facebook posts and exile them from society is to invoke a mantra from some left-leaning activists: "It's accountability culture, actually."

"It's exactly how America should work," wrote Zach Dean for OutKick, the right-leaning publication typically dedicated to sports news. "Checks and balances, folks….Shoutout to the Home Depot for quickly nipping this ugly human in the bud." Perhaps it is unsurprising that the publication has repeatedly railed into cancel culture.

The second line of pushback doesn't appear to deny that this is cancel culture. Those on the left just deserve it, the thinking goes, because they've used these tactics for years. While I appreciate the honesty, there are a few issues here. For one, there is no proof that these specific individuals ever participated in online mob justice—once again, we are not talking about people who are public figures or who have even a semblance of a following.

More importantly, that is plainly contradictory to the definition of a principle, which is not a principle at all if you decline to apply it when it's inconvenient. "They started it" is not a justification that has much currency past elementary school.............

MSN

www.msn.com

She’s been a piece of shirt since she first came on Twitter. Probably before, but nobody knew her then. And so is Gaines. Both the stuff you wipe off your shoes.

 

[Optimus Prime]

What does this even mean?

So, 2nd term or 'lame duck' presidents and their wives can't attend the Olympics anymore?

 

[DaveXA]

What does this even mean?

So, 2nd term or 'lame duck' presidents and their wives can't attend the Olympics anymore?

Gingrich is a moron and a full-blown MAGA. Not surprising he's got nothing better to do.

And fwiw, Biden is still President, and he's still gonna do President things until Inauguration Day, hopefully when he transfers power to Harris.