The Right Wing Moron Thread

[S Landreth]

multiple felony charges

• Armed PA man in wig trying to ‘restore Trump as President’ arrested at Dairy Queen

An armed Pennsylvania man in a rainbow wig who was trying to ‘restore Trump as President’ was arrested at a Dairy Queen, Delmont Borough police report.

The wigged man who reportedly told police he “talks to God” is 61-year-old Jan Stawovy, of Hunker Pa. Police were called Saturday afternoon, Sept. 10, due to Stawovy driving erratically.

While looking for his Jeep, police said they were informed he pulled into a Dairy Queen on Greensburg Street and he was inside wearing a bright yellow vest, a rainbow wig, and carrying a handgun.

After arriving, police made contact with Stawovy. According to the affidavit, Stawovy first claimed he was working “undercover with Pennsylvania State Police working on a major drug sting.” While talking to him, police said Stawovy continued to shout and yell profanities.

Police said that Stawovy claimed he “talked to God” and was a “prophet” and would “kill all the Democrats because Trump was still president.”

He said he was working to “restore Trump to President of the United States,” according to court papers.

Stawovy reportedly claimed he knew the Dairy Queen workers and they would “vouch” for him. The manager told police that he was in the store earlier that same day and just put $120 on the counter and said it was a tip for “non-Democrats,” but other than that, they don’t know who he is.

Stawovy was taken into custody without further incident.

A search of his car turned up two more loaded handguns, a 9mm and .22 caliber along with 62 rounds of ammunition. Police noted that Stawovy didn’t have a concealed carry permit.

The man is facing multiple felony charges.

[S Landreth]

• Migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard file class-action suit against DeSantis

The group of Venezuelan migrants flown from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., last week by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) filed a class-action suit against the governor and the state’s transportation secretary on Tuesday.

The suit provides a detailed account of how the migrants came to board the two planes allegedly under false pretenses, arguing the relocations violated their Fourth and 14th Amendment rights and the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“These immigrants, who are pursuing the proper channels for lawful immigration status in the United States, experienced cruelty akin to what they fled in their home country,” the suit alleges.

“Defendants manipulated them, stripped them of their dignity, deprived them of their liberty, bodily autonomy, due process and equal protection under law, and impermissibly interfered with the Federal Government’s exclusive control over immigration in furtherance of an unlawful goal and a personal political agenda,” it continues.

The relocations have fueled fury among Democrats, who accuse the GOP governors of using the migrants as political pawns — a sentiment echoed throughout the class action suit.

A Texas sheriff separately opened an investigation into the Martha’s Vineyard flights on Monday.

Alianza Americas, a network of groups supporting immigrants, filed the class action suit with three unnamed migrants DeSantis relocated, claiming the scheme also constituted intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, false imprisonment and fraud.

The suit alleges the individuals, while staying in Texas migrant shelters, were told they were flying to Washington, D.C. or Boston and promised resources upon landing. The migrants were then allegedly told the flight would arrive at Martha’s Vineyard while the flight was in the air.

“Once the individual Plaintiffs and class members landed, it became clear that the promises made to induce them on the planes were in fact bold-faced lies,” the suit states.

[baldrick]

flying them to a land populated by lawyers was a well thought out plan

[S Landreth]

DeSantis (who is running for governor of Florida again) kidnapping 48 Venezuelan asylum-seekers (legal immigrants) might not have been the best idea.

DeSantis will win in November but he’ll have about 100,000 less Florida votes

[S Landreth]

Little more about the moron DeSantis

• House Homeland Security chair calls on DOJ, DHS to probe DeSantis

House Homeland Security Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) on Thursday joined the chorus of calls urging the federal government to investigate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) transport of migrants.

Why it matters: Thompson is urging the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice to probe whether coercion was involved after some of the migrants filed a lawsuit against DeSantis alleging Florida officials used "bold-faced lies" to mislead them about the flights.

The migrants said they were promised cash assistance, employment services and housing assistance as part of the transport.

______________

• Jury in Project Veritas lawsuit awards Democratic firm $120,000

A jury found Project Veritas liable in a federal civil case for fraudulently misrepresenting itself and violating wiretapping laws after the conservative group targeted a Democratic political consulting firm in an undercover operation, per the New York Times.

The big picture: Project Veritas founder James O'Keefe said on the group's YouTube channel Thursday night they'll appeal the verdict after the jury awarded the consulting firm, Democracy Partners, $120,000 in the case.

Details: Lawyers for Democracy Partners told the jury in Washington earlier this month their clients "were the victims of political spying conducted by Project Veritas" during the 2016 presidential campaign, according to Politico.

• Project Veritas insisted it was news gathering and that its operatives work as journalists during stings.
• But the jury of five women and four men found former operative Allison Maass "breached a fiduciary duty" in the operation that "amounted to fraudulent misrepresentation" after she gained an internship at Democracy Partners "using a false name and story," Politico reports.
• Maass secretly recorded conversations and took papers that she gave to Project Veritas, which edited and published the videos as part of an operation that Democracy Partners said were was designed to embarrass Hillary Clinton and boost presidential rival Donald Trump's election chances, per the NYT.

What they're saying: "Hopefully, the decision today will help to discourage Mr. O'Keefe and others from conducting these kind of political spy operations and publishing selectively edited, misleading videos in the future," said Democracy Partners co-founder Robert Creamer in a statement.

The other side: "The jury effectively ruled investigative journalists owe a fiduciary duty to the subjects they are investigating and that investigative journalists may not deceive the subjects they are investigating," O'Keefe said in a statement on Project Veritas' website.

[S Landreth]

• Parents Lose Suit Over Merrick Garland's School Board Memo

Trump-Appointed Judge Dismisses Lawsuit by Parents Who Sued over Merrick Garland School Board Memo That Sparked Conservative Outrage

A little less than a year ago, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a single-page memo that denounced threats of violence and intimidation against school teachers, administrators and staff. The memo quickly sparked outrage from conservative media and lawmakers on Capitol Hill — and even a federal lawsuit from parents claiming it was a blueprint to “silence” them.

On Friday, a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump jettisoned the lawsuit, finding that the parents and the groups representing them misread the less than 300-word memo.

“The alleged AG Policy is not regulatory, proscriptive, or compulsory in nature because it does not impose any regulations, requirements, or enforcement actions on individuals,” U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich noted in a 10-page ruling. “None of the documents that the plaintiffs allege establish the policy create an imminent threat of future legal actions against anyone, much less the plaintiffs.”

Dated Oct. 4, 2021, the memo did not mention “parents,” let alone target them for retribution. It reported a spike of threats and harassment against schools. At the time, schools across the United States faced protests over COVID-19 policies and policies regarding transgender students, but the memo itself did not cite this context.

In fact, the memo expressly supported the First Amendment rights of parents or anyone else to speak their mind about school policies.

Within weeks, a group calling itself the Saline Parents — named after a city in Michigan — filed a federal lawsuit with four other plaintiffs from the Great Lakes State and Loudoun County, Va., which landed in federal court in Washington, D.C. The lawsuit labeled Garland’s memo “a heavy-handed, direct threat by a powerful government agency designed and intended ‘to intimidate individuals based on their views.'”

For that, multiple GOP members of the right wing of the Senate Judiciary Committee last year called for Garland’s resignation, including Sens. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Josh Hawley of Missouri. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas claimed, inaccurately, that the memo treated mothers and fathers as possible domestic terrorists. Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee went farther, saying the Justice Department likened those parents to Oklahoma City bomb conspirators Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols. Garland famously prosecuted them early in his career, an experience that he emphasized during his confirmation hearings.

For Judge Friedrich, the memo was much more modest.

“Further, even if the alleged policy contained any kind of restriction, regulation, or proscription, it would not apply to the plaintiffs’ conduct,” the ruling states. “The plaintiffs represent that their conduct includes verbal opposition and peaceful protests, akin to ‘private citizens petitioning their government officials for a redress of grievances,’ but never ‘threat[s] of criminal violence.'”

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documen...ne-parents.pdf

[S Landreth]

• NRA Free Speech Lawsuit Against New York Regulator Is Dismissed

A federal appeals court on Thursday ordered the dismissal of a National Rifle Association lawsuit accusing a New York regulator of stifling its speech by pressuring banks and insurers to stop doing business with the gun rights group.

In a 3-0 decision, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the NRA failed to prove that Maria Vullo, the former superintendent of New York's Department of Financial Services (DFS), "crossed the line between attempts to convince and attempts to coerce."

Vullo had in April 2018 called upon banks and insurers to consider the "reputational risks" of doing business with gun rights groups, following the fatal shooting two months earlier of 17 people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

She later fined Lloyd's of London and two other insurance businesses more than $13 million, and they agreed to stop selling NRA-endorsed products that New York considered illegal.

The NRA sued Vullo, DFS and then-Governor Andrew Cuomo in May 2018, saying the state's "blacklisting" campaign would deprive it of basic financial services and threatened its advocacy.

A lower court judge in March 2021 dismissed all claims apart from two free speech claims against Vullo, but the appeals court said those should have also been dismissed.

Circuit Judge Denny Chin wrote that even if Vullo's actions were "somehow coercive," she acted reasonably and in good faith given the backlash against gun rights groups after the Parkland shooting.

"She surely had the right to raise these concerns to protect DFS-regulated entities and New York residents from financial harm and to preserve stability in the state's financial system," Chin wrote.

The NRA's lawyer, William Brewer, said the group may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

He said Thursday's decision "offends the First Amendment" by letting financial regulators "selectively punish businesses to advance 'public policy,' including 'social issues' such as gun control."

Vullo, in a statement, said the decision vindicated her authority to address public policy concerns even as "aggressive adversaries" use litigation to stifle her efforts.

The NRA, which is incorporated in New York, faces a separate investigation by state Attorney General Letitia James into alleged corruption within the group.

A Manhattan judge in March blocked her effort to dissolve the NRA, but said James had many legally viable claims.

The case is National Rifle Association of America v Vullo, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 21-636.

[S Landreth]

• Sexual assault investigation against former GOP lawmaker turned over to Michigan Attorney General

The Michigan State Police’s nine-month sexual assault and financial misconduct investigation into former House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) has concluded and has been turned over to Attorney General Dana Nessel.

Chatfield, who was Michigan’s youngest-ever House speaker when he was elected to the position in 2018, served until 2020. He is accused of sexually assaulting his sister-in-law for more than a decade starting when she was a child, but has denied the allegations, characterizing the relationship as a consensual “affair.”

The Michigan State Police (MSP) has been investigating the complaint since December 2021, when it was filed with the Lansing Police Department. The MSP wrapped most of that probe in May, submitting a preliminary report to Nessel, then offering additional information in August.

“MSP is no longer investigating this matter as it has been turned over to the AG’s investigators for completion,” MSP spokesperson Shanon Banner said in an email Monday. “Any further information or updates will come from the AG’s Office.”

[S Landreth]

• DeSantis-appointed county commissioner resigns after alleged Ku Klux Klan picture emerges

A Gadsden County Commissioner appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis abruptly resigned last week after pictures allegedly showing him in a Ku Klux Klan outfit started to circulate, according to Gadsden County Sheriff Morris Young.

Young said that the pictures were brought to him last Tuesday and multiple people told him the pictures were of Gadsden County Commissioner Jeff Moore. He said when he approached Moore about the pictures, Moore did not deny it was him.

“He never denied at all. Refuted nothing when I showed him the pictures,” Young said in an interview. Young, who is Black, endorsed Desantis. “I thought he needed to resign, and I told him that.”

Moore, a Republican, was appointed by DeSantis to serve as commissioner in early August. The governor’s office confirmed on Monday that Moore resigned last week, but said they did not know why.

“We are in the middle of hurricane prep, I’m not aware of the photo you sent but Jeff did submit his resignation last week,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communications director.

On Monday, Moore said he was in the middle of preparations for Hurricane Ian and would reach out on Tuesday or Wednesday. He has since not responded to multiple requests seeking comment.

The pictures began to circulate in Gadsden County in recent weeks and made them to Young’s desk last Tuesday by a group of people from the county.

“That was the first time I had seen them or started having to deal with it,” he said. “He told me it was a costume.”

Gadsden County is located in rural North Florida along the Georgia border and has a Black population of 55 percent, one of the highest in the state. When DeSantis appointed Moore he was the only non-Black member of the county commission.

“I’m not surprised Gov. DeSantis would appoint someone with this ideology,” said president of the NAACP Tallahassee Chapter Mutaqee Akbar. “Even if they didn’t know about the picture, it’s the kind of person I can see him picking.”

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/ne...da/8119165001/

[TizMe]

Jon Stewart sat down for a conversation with Leslie Rutledge, the Attorney General of Arkansas — the first state to pass a ban on gender-affirming care for minors. He asked her to explain why the state took this health care decision out of parents’ hands, and why they’ve overridden the guidelines issued by every major medical organization.

[panama hat]

How utterly cringeworthy

[harrybarracuda]

What a witless hag. Completely talking out of her arse.

[harrybarracuda]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal grand jury indicted Republican Florida state Rep. Joe Harding on six counts after authorities said he illegally obtained $150,000 in pandemic-related small business loans by allegedly using the names of two dormant companies.
The indictment, unsealed Wednesday night, alleges that between Dec. 1, 2020, and March 1, 2021, Harding used the dormant companies on applications for loans on the Small Business Administration’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan applications, including using false bank statements as supporting documentation.

The indictment accuses Harding of using two companies on loan applications: The Vak Shack, which according to its website, sells discounted vacuum sealer bags, and Harding Farms, a 46-acre horse and cattle far facility. Both companies had not been active in Florida from between May 2017 to December 2020.

Florida Republican who sponsored ‘Don’t Say Gay’ indicted on Covid relief fraud charges - POLITICO

[bsnub]

Marjorie Taylor Greene Says 'All Indicators' Pointing to Trump 2024 Win

https://www.newsweek.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-trump-2024-win-1810374

[harrybarracuda]

So Tucker Carlson, who's scored an "interview" with the high heeled, war mongering midget, claimed that no Western journalists have asked for an interview since said midget invaded Ukraine.

Only to have even the Kremlin call him a bullshitter, because they've received loads and always say no, not wishing the midget to be put on the spot.

What a complete cock that bloke is.

And of course you know he's going to stick his tongue as far up the midget's arse as he does baldy orange cunto.

The Kremlin said Wednesday “many” foreign news outlets had requested to interview President Vladimir Putin, contradicting talk show host Tucker Carlson’s claim he was the only Western reporter to ask.
The former Fox News host, who visited Moscow for an interview with Putin this week, said no Western journalist had “bothered” to request access to the Kremlin leader since Moscow’s Ukraine offensive began.

Kremlin Contradicts Tucker Carlson’s Putin Interview Claim

[harrybarracuda]

So Hannity was doing a live interview on Faux News with Curtis Sliwa, who set up the "Guardian Angels" years back as a vigilante group to police the metro.

In the middle of the interview, Sliwa's goons started beating up a passer by, who he claimed was a "migrant" and a "shoplifter". The camera of course panned to it.

“Our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys right here on the corner — 42nd [St.] and Seventh [Ave.],” Sliwa said during the Tuesday broadcast, calling the man a shoplifter.


“Let’s just say we gave him a little pain compliance,” continued Sliwa, the 2021 GOP mayoral candidate. “His mother back in Venezuela felt the vibrations. He’s sucking concrete.”

And of course the bloke was not a migrant at all, but in fact a Bronx resident.

Cue the usual right wing backpedalling and no doubt embarrassed silence from the execrable Hannity.