USA News and Discussions

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Speaking of somebody suffering from mental health issues, even I have some sympathy for the harsh sentence dealt out to one of the D.C. rioters who apparently does suffer from such issues (see article below). Meanwhile, the ringleader Trump continues to walk free as a bird.

The “QAnon Shaman” Gets 41 Months in Prison
by Dan Friedman
November 17, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/20 ... -sentence/

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman” who became the image of the January 6 Capitol riot, got 41 months in prison on Wednesday, one of the longest sentences handed out to defendants facing charges for their actions that day.

Chansley, 34, entered the Capitol and the Senate chamber on January 6, shirtless, tattooed, and wearing a fur hat with horns. His face was painted red, white, and blue and he held a spear with an American flag on it. (Chansley got his moniker by wearing similar garb at events held by adherents of the QAnon conspiracy theory.) In the Senate chamber, which lawmakers had previously fled, he yelled, “Time’s up, motherfuckers.” He also left a note on the Senate desk of Vice President Mike Pence stating: “It’s only a matter of time. Justice is coming.”

Federal prosecutors called Chansley’s conduct threatening. “If the defendant had been peaceful on that day, your honor, we would not be here,” Assistant US Attorney Kimberly Paschall said Wednesday. In rambling but at times articulate remarks at his sentencing hearing Wednesday, Chansley expressed remorse. He said he wants to emulate Christ and Gandhi and cited his “shamanic beliefs.”

“My shamanic attire was designed to ward off evil spirits, not to scare people,” he said. He described struggles with mental illness and the effects of childhood trauma, including his father’s suicide, and time he has already spent in solitary confinement. “The hardest part of this is I know I’m to blame,” he said.

“I’m not an insurrectionist, I’m certainly not a domestic terrorist,” Chansley added. “I’m a good man who broke the law.

Edit: From Courthouse News:

https://www.courthousenews.com/qanon-sh ... itol-riot/

Jacob Chansley asked Lamberth to see him in a more holistic light than the one in which he has been portrayed by the media and the government.

“We live two different lives. One life that we learn from, and the other after that,” Chansley said, adapting a quotation from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Bernard Malamud. “I’ve meant to give your honor a much broader perspective than media belabors to give the public. I’m asking your honor to judge a tree by its fruits.”

…
"Yesterday I celebrated my 34th year as a judge. I think your remarks are the most remarkable I've heard in 34 years," Lamberth told Chansley.
Prosecutors asked for 51 months incarceration — the high end of the guidelines that recommend 41 to 51 months for the felony charge to which Chansley pleaded guilty in September: obstruction of a congressional proceeding, which can hold up to 20 years in prison.

“The message here today should be: Don't. Don't think your actions won't have consequences,” Justice Department attorney Kimberly Paschall said Wednesday. “Don't think federal law enforcement will sit idly by. Don't think you can disrupt the peaceful transition of power. Don't.”

[caltrek]

Steve Bannon Indicted for Contempt of Congress

A little bit of a follow-up:

Bannon Pleads Not Guilty to Contempt of Congress Charges
by Samantha Hawkins
November 17, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/bannon-p ... s-charges/

Introduction:

WASHINGTON (CN) — In a court filing* on Wednesday, Trump ally Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of criminal contempt of Congress stemming from his refusal to comply with requests from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

*https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-conte ... t-plea.pdf

[wjfox]

[Yuli Ban]

[caltrek]

How the Kremlin is Feeding Far-right Texas Secession Fantasies — and Using Ted Cruz as a Useful Idiot
by Alex Henderson
November 29, 2021

https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/how-th ... ot-report/

introduction:

(Alternet) During the Cold War, the Soviet Union didn’t have the internet to use against the United States. But in 2021, the Soviet Union is long gone, Russia has a government that is far-right rather than far-left/communist, and the internet has changed everything from politics to shopping to journalism. The Kremlin is great at using the internet to manipulate the far right in the U.S., including secessionists in Texas.

In an article published by The Bulwark on November 29, Kristofer Harrison (a former Bush Administration official and Never Trump conservative) explains why allies of the Kremlin have been encouraging the secessionist fantasies of Texas’ far right.

“It is important to understand that the modern secession movement is not a product of Lone Star pride,” Harrison emphasizes. “It’s an idea that has been force fed into the American conservative movement by Russia. Secession is one of the Kremlin’s ‘active measures’ campaigns: Promote fringe wackos abroad and hope that eventually, they break something. This may not sound like much of a plan, but it sometimes works. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin has been openly building his portfolio of wackos for a while. And the wackos have begun breaking things.”

Harrison notes that in Texas, the “most prominent secessionist organization” is the Texas Nationalist Movement — and in 2015, some of its members traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia to attend a far-right event organized by Rodina, an offshoot of Putin’s United Russia Party.

One of the useful idiots of Texas’ secessionist movement and its Russian supporters, according to Harrison, has been Sen. Ted Cruz. When Cruz was asked about that movement during a recent appearance at Texas A&M University, he said he wasn’t “there yet.” But he didn’t condemn secessionists either. And Harrison, in his article, slams Cruz for “cozying up to” them.

[wjfox]

Latest from the right-wing sewer.

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/30/medi ... index.html

[caltrek]

The Wingnut War on Reality Continues
by Abby Zimet
November 30, 2021

https://www.commondreams.org/further/20 ... vigilantes

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) Earlier this month, the United States was for the first time demoted to the status of a "backsliding" democracy by global think tank International IDEA, which cited a “visible deterioration” of our civil liberties and checks on government indicating "serious problems with the fundamentals of democracy.” (Thanks Josh Hawley, right-wing media, MAGA insanity, all the perpetrators of hoax claims and all the blithe defenders of creeping fascism.) Amidst that bleak progression, the wingnut war on (alas, often unlovely) reality goes on apace. These days, its frenzied battles are increasingly fought in schools - all those wee malleable minds to shape! - where right-wing targets have morphed from masks and mandates to (imaginary) CRT to, in fine totalitarian tradition, books, ranging from "pornographic" (queer) to "divisive" (historical) to "communist" (whatever makes right-wingers uncomfortable). This year, the American Library Association says it's seen more calls to ban books than in the last two decades as terrified GOP governors, lawmakers and school boards rush to stop time and America's changing demographic by banning an array of books - by or about women, people of color, the LGBTQ community - in a move that will only eliminate a primary "safe space" for students "who desperately want and need books that reflect their lives." It's happening in Texas, Ohio, New Jersey, South Carolina, where Gov. Henry McMaster demanded the award-winning Gender Queer: A Memoir be pulled from school shelves, vowing in all his malignant idiocy that, “We’re going to remove things that cause harm to our children or put obstacles in their path as they grow up." In Virginia, where a county school board voted 6-0 to begin removing "sexually explicit" books from shelves, a couple of members went one better and urged they be burned to ensure "we are eradicating this bad stuff."

Unsurprisingly, Florida is right there with them, especially after a school board member sparked outrage by taking a bunch of kids on a field trip to - gasp - a local LGBTQ-friendly bar and grill for lunch.

Extracts:

Then Moms For Liberty - who in a state facing a drastic shortage of teachers, many suggest, should change their name to "Moms For Schools Without Teachers," also maybe "Snitches 'R Us" - upped the crazy ante by offering a $500 bounty to anyone who "catches" a teacher saying anything about the nasty rumored racism in America's noble past. "We've got $500 for the person that first successfully catches a public school teacher breaking this law," they tweeted of their psychotic new liberty-as-targeted-harassment-and-dystopian-bounty-hunting campaign.
...
Teachers tried to turn themselves in for the bounty by admitting they'd taught "history"; many offered bounties if some Moms would define liberty, define CRT, find a school where it's taught, or substitute for a week at a public school where beleaguered teachers are so busy they don't have time to pee or eat lunch never mind indoctrinate anyone and make 35 middle school kids listen to them.

[wjfox]

[Ken_J]

good news everybody. If you throw away bills without opening them because you have some kind of debt that you can't pay right now, It's just become legal for debt collectors to track you down and send messages to you through e-mail, online messaging apps and social media.

[caltrek]

Congress Passes Stopgap Spending Bill, Averting Shutdown Despite GOP Revolt on Vaccine Requirements
by Tony Romm and Mike DeBonis
December 2, 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-polic ... n-vaccine/

Introduction:

(Washington Post) House and Senate lawmakers on Thursday approved a bill to fund the federal government into early next year, narrowly averting a shutdown after some Republicans sought to seize on the imminent fiscal deadline to fight President Biden over his vaccine policies.

The two successful evening votes spelled an end to a brief yet tense period that would have brought Washington to a halt come Saturday morning, a development that Democrats had described as irresponsible and dangerous in the middle of a deadly pandemic.

The new agreement, which awaits Biden’s signature, covers federal spending until Feb. 18. At that point, lawmakers must adopt another short-term measure or complete work on a dozen long-stalled appropriations bills that fund the government for the remainder of fiscal 2022, which ends in September.

Even as both parties insisted they did not want to push the country toward a fiscal cliff, they still came dangerously close to missing their deadline. For days, conservative Republicans had threatened to hold up the funding bill as part of a long-running protest of Biden’s vaccine directives, including those ordering large employers to require inoculations or implement comprehensive testing programs. Some lawmakers, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), even explicitly called for a shutdown in a bid to deny the White House the ability to enforce its rules.

[caltrek]

Facing a $175,000 Sanction Over Election Suit, Trump Attorney Files Appeal
by Daniel Jackson
December 3, 2021

https://www.courthousenews.com/facing-a ... es-appeal/

Introduction:

(Courthouse News) — A day after a federal judge in Michigan imposed more than $175,000 in sanctions on a group of attorneys who filed a suit attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election, one of them has appealed.

In August, U.S. District Judge Linda Parker had strong words for the attorneys she said deceived the court in order to push forward the “Kraken” suit alleging fraud in the 2020 presidential election but was actually an attempt to undermine faith in democracy. In that 110-page order, Parker ordered the nine attorneys to take continuing legal education and referred them to the disciplinary authorities of state bar associations for possible disbarment.

On Thursday, Parker added dollar figure to the sanctions, ordering the nine attorneys to pay the attorney fees for the city of Detroit and state of Michigan officials.

On Friday, attorney Lin Wood filed a notice saying he was appealing Parker’s final judgment to the Sixth Circuit.

Further Extract:

“...some of these people are shameless and will simply use the sanctions as further evidence that the system is stacked against them,” (Professor) Hasen (an expert in election law at University of California Irvine) wrote in an email.

[wjfox]

[Yuli Ban]

More than half of young Americans feel democracy in the country is under threat, and over a third think they may see a second U.S. civil war within their lifetimes, according to the 42nd Harvard Youth Poll, released by Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics (IOP) on Wednesday.

The poll also found approval of President Biden has plummeted, and a majority of respondents are unhappy with how the president and Congress are doing their jobs. In addition, many of the respondents feel strongly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and are worried about the threat of climate change. Half of all respondents also said they struggled with feelings of hopelessness and depression.

The Harvard Youth Poll—which is conducted twice a year, in fall and spring, and has run for over 20 years—captured responses on these topics and others from 2,109 people between the ages of 18 and 29, from across the country. Students from the Harvard Public Opinion Project (HPOP) organized the survey, under the supervision of John Della Volpe, director of polling at the IOP.

“After turning out in record numbers in 2020, young Americans are sounding the alarm. When they look at the America they will soon inherit, they see a democracy and climate in peril—and Washington as more interested in confrontation than compromise,” Della Volpe said. “Despite this, they seem as determined as ever to fight for the change they seek.”

[wjfox]

[Nanotechandmorefuture]

I guess things must have gotten that bad for Howard Stern to comment on it. The idiocy rate is nothing new it was always there just not apparent to everyone until COVID.

[caltrek]

More evidence of the effects of systemic racism in the U.S.A.:

Foreclosures Are Fueling America’s Racial Wealth Gap
by Michael Mechanic
December 6, 2021

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/12/homeownership-race-wealth-gap-housing-discrimination-black-latino-kermani-wong-brookings-research/

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) This past June, to commemorate the massacre of hundreds of Black Americans and destruction of their thriving community by a white terrorist mob in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a century ago, the Biden administration promised it would work to address the racial wealth gap.

Specifically, it said, federal officials would expand access to “two key wealth-creators”—home and business ownership—and take actions to address racist practices in the housing market.

Important steps, to be sure, but new research points to an equally vital priority: helping families weather the kinds of economic shocks that propel homes into foreclosure.

The wealth gap is dire. Based on data from the Fed’s 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, median wealth for white families nearing retirement was $315,000, nearly triple that of Hispanic families and six times that of Black families. Racial disparities in average wealth are even greater.
More than half of the median wealth gap between Black and white people at retirement age can be attributed to racial differences in housing wealth, based on data from Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Per the latest census figures, 75 percent of non-Hispanic white people own homes, compared to 45 percent of Black people, 50 percent of Latinos, and 60 percent of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. And crucially, white homeowners enjoy more robust growth in property values than homeowners of color, on average, and therefore end up with a substantially larger return on investment.

The conventional wisdom attributes these ROI differences to market forces that suppress property values in neighborhoods where people of color are the majority. (The New York Times Magazine had a good piece on this recently.) The new research, however, indicates that the disparity may also be rooted in racist labor practices, compounded by differences in family wealth and access to capital. When a family’s mortgage suddenly becomes unaffordable, they might have to sell quickly for cheap—or their lender does it via foreclosure.

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Brian Williams Signs Off from NBC After 28 Years
by Samantha Kubota
December 10, 2021

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment ... uxbndlbing

Extract:

(NBC via MSN) MSNBC host and former “NBC Nightly News” anchor and managing editor Brian Williams signed off for the last time at NBC on Thursday evening.

…In his on-air goodbye, Williams warned against extremism in the country.

“The truth is I’m not a liberal or a conservative. I’m an institutionalist,” he said. “I believe in this place and my love of country I yield to no one. But the darkness on the edge of town has spread to the main roads and highways and neighborhoods. It’s now at the local bar, and the bowling alley at the school board in the grocery store.”

He also lambasted elected officials he thinks have “joined the mob” and who have “decided to burn it all down with us inside.”

MSNBC President Rashida Jones said in a note to staff last month that Williams would leave at the end of the year to “spend time with his family.”

[caltrek]

New York City Gives Noncitizens Right to Vote in Local Elections
by Kelly Mena
December 9, 2021

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/09/politics ... index.html

Introduction:

New York (CNN) New York City on Thursday became the largest municipality in the US to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections.

In a vote of 33 to 14, the Democrat-controlled city council passed the measure known as "Our City, Our Vote."

Under the legislation, noncitizens who have lived in the city for at least 30 days and are legal permanent residents in the US -- including green card holders, individuals with workers permits and DACA holders -- will be allowed to vote in city elections, including mayor, public advocate, borough president and city council.

Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez, the prime sponsor of the legislation and an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, told CNN it's about championing the issue of "no taxation without representation."