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Here's an interesting quote from a judge hearing a lockdown-related case in Wisconsin.

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“Due to the meatpacking, though, that’s where Brown County got the flare,” Roggensack interrupted to clarify. “It wasn’t just the regular folks in Brown County.”

You can guess who the meatpackers are and who the regular folks are.

more: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/americas-racial-contract-showing/611389/

#alllivesmatter

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57 minutes ago, The Unknown Poster said:

 

No real surprise in any of this, as bizarre as it is, and its all downhill from here. Trump and the Republicans will "govern" like an army of occupation with increasing frenzy and fury.

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9 minutes ago, do or die said:

Pretty accurate summation....

Meanwhile, most of my American friends / contacts are complaining about the 'unconstitutional overreach' by their state governments.  They don't get it, and many truly do see it as a conspiracy and fake news.  Or they live in a state where the governor has not taken any measures at all.  I honestly have no idea how some people sleep at night - they live in a world where someone is always out to get them, and reality is never reality. 

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49 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

Meanwhile, most of my American friends / contacts are complaining about the 'unconstitutional overreach' by their state governments.  They don't get it, and many truly do see it as a conspiracy and fake news.  Or they live in a state where the governor has not taken any measures at all.  I honestly have no idea how some people sleep at night - they live in a world where someone is always out to get them, and reality is never reality. 

It's easier to blame someone else for your lot in life than take responsibility for your own actions.

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COVID-19 Cases Climbing in No-Lockdown Nebraska

The two biggest counties in Nebraska—where Gov. Pete Ricketts refused to issue a stay-at-home order and started reopening—reported steep increases in coronavirus cases on Saturday. In Lancaster County, home to the capital of Lincoln, 76 new positive tests, including the first one in a jail, were registered. 

https://www.thedailybeast.com/covid-19-cases-climbing-in-no-lockdown-nebraska?ref=home

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Meth, Murder, and Madness: The System That Buried Ahmaud Arbery :RED FLAGS EVERYWHERE
The Brunswick DA’s office’s handling of Ahmaud Arbery’s killing is not the first time local law enforcement has come under scathing scrutiny for “egregious and wicked” dealings.

JUSTIN GLAWEMay. 09, 2020 4:59 AM ET
SAVANNAH, Georgia—Allegations Friday that a Georgia district attorney blocked police officers from arresting the killers of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery were just the latest blow to a local law enforcement apparatus that has been rocked by a series of troubling and deadly scandals.

Brunswick DA Jackie Johnson’s office allegedly prevented the Glynn County Police Department from arresting Travis and Gregory McMichael in connection with the shooting death of Arbery, an unarmed black man, in late February, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Johnson has recused herself from that case. But one Glynn County commissioner suggested she personally intervened in early plans to make arrests “to protect her friend” Gregory McMichael. McMichael was a former cop and investigator in the Brunswick DA’s office for 25 years who had reportedly investigated Arbery in the past. 

On Saturday, Glynn County released a statement defending the police department and deflecting blame to two district attorneys. The McMichaels were deemed not to be flight risks and officers were advised by the DA’s office that no arrests were necessary. Waycross District Attorney George Barnhill told detectives on Feb. 24 that the act was “justifiable homicide,” the statement said.

It is far from the first time the office—and local law enforcement more generally—had come under scathing scrutiny. 

A decade ago, Johnson was responsible for overseeing the case of Caroline Small, an unarmed mother who led Glynn County police on a low-speed chase while possibly experiencing a mental breakdown. In June 2010, the responding officers—Michael Simpson and Robert Sasser —pinned Small’s vehicle between their squad cars and a telephone pole. They fired eight bullets through her windshield, striking Small in the head and face.

Afterward, Simpson and Sasser stopped paramedics from rendering aid to Small because they reportedly thought she was dead, but she wasn’t. Small lived for four days in a hospital before succumbing to her injuries. 

“There is nothing I’ve seen in my life as egregious and wicked as the killing of Caroline Small,” said John Wetzler, a former assistant district attorney in the Brunswick DA’s office who said he knew Johnson when they were assistant prosecutors there together. “Even Atlanta doesn’t get the frequency of seismically shifting criminal scandals like Glynn County. [Glynn County police] are either paralyzed with indecision or corrupt to the core.”

Johnson, then an assistant district attorney, pushed out the interim DA who’d said he wanted to prosecute the officers over Small’s killing. That prosecutor told a Small family attorney that he believed he was replaced because of his intent to charge the officers. After he was removed, Johnson was appointed by then-governor Sonny Perdue. Upon taking over the case, she declined to present charges to a grand jury and instead asked jurors to simply determine whether the shooting was justified, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Multiple attempts to reach Johnson’s office were unsuccessful on Friday. A spokesperson for the Glynn County Police Department did not answer questions from The Daily Beast. It was not clear if the McMichaels had retained lawyers.

Sasser, one of the two officers involved in Small’s killing, went on to kill his wife and her friend before turning the gun on himself in June 2018. He was out on bond at the time, after threatening his estranged wife at her home. After that, Sasser had attacked police officers during an armed standoff and was again released on bond, an agreement Johnson negotiated with a local judge. Out on that bond, he threatened his estranged wife and her male companion at a restaurant. Two days later, he killed the pair. (When The Brunswick News asked for Sasser’s personnel records in a public records request, former Glynn County Police Chief John Powell said that the records from the last six years of his tenure were missing, the newspaper reported.)

Legal experts also argued this week that Johnson should exonerate a man serving a life sentence for the 1985 murder of a husband and wife because new DNA evidence points to a different killer. Johnson has yet to respond to the findings. Her office has also been criticized by an investigator working for the family of a military veteran who was stabbed 13 times in the back in 2016, saying Johnson had a “perceived bias” against the victim, 26-year-old Taylor Williams. A grand jury declined to indict the lone suspect in the case for manslaughter. 

The other side of Brunswick County courtrooms isn’t immune to controversy, either. The county’s former public defender was accused by the ACLU of charging clients for services that were supposed to be free and was arrested last year for allegedly punching and choking a woman.

Johnson’s office did try Zacharia Presley, a white police officer, for manslaughter in the shooting death of Tony Green, an unarmed black man, in 2018. Green was struck four times by Zacharia, an officer with the Kingsland Police Department who was acquitted of manslaughter and convicted of violating his oath. Green had filed several complaints against Presley prior to the shooting, his family has said. 

Green’s father, Wayne Anderson, spoke at a rally over Arbery’s death at the Glynn County Courthouse on Friday. 

“When I went through the trial for my son, the last thing I said: ‘I don’t ever want to see another parent go through this.' So that is why I am here,” he told the crowd.

For their part, Glynn County Police have come under so much scrutiny that a Republican state lawmaker has proposed allowing voters to decide whether they want to disband the department. 

The senator, William Ligon, told The Daily Beast on Friday that the “leadership issues” within the Glynn County Police Department prompted him to introduce a bill that would give citizens a vote on whether to dissolve the police department and hand law enforcement duties to Glynn County Sheriff Neal Jump. 

“When it was obvious that the individuals involved had ties to law enforcement, they should have immediately called the GBI,” Ligon said of the McMichaels and the state law-enforcement agency that ultimately secured their indictment on murder charges. “I think it’s tragic. I think they should have been arrested.”

On Friday, The New York Times reported that State Attorney General Chris Carr was poised to investigate the larger law-enforcement ecosystem.

Jump, for his part, has appeared to diverge from the pack. He attended a protest in Satilla Shores, the neighborhood where Arbery was killed, on Tuesday night, arrested the McMichaels on Thursday, and spoke at Friday’s rally in front of the courthouse. James Woodall, president of the Georgia NAACP, introduced Jump as “the man seen around the world.”

“It’s time we look beyond black and white, or green and yellow, and look at what’s right and wrong,” Jump said, to cheers. “We must remain steadfast in our beliefs and continue to move forward so that justice is done.”

But the department that responded to Arbery’s killing has had even more recent scandals. 

On Feb. 28, Glynn County Police Chief John Powell was indicted, along with two officers and the police chief from nearby Vidalia, on charges of covering up crimes allegedly committed by members of the department’s drug task force. Former members of the since-disbanded task force were accused of suppressing evidence in a fatal police chase, sleeping and doing meth and cocaine with a confidential informant, carrying a handgun while drinking in a bar, coercing witnesses, and lying to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation about at least one of those instances of misconduct. 

Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed five days prior to the indictment.

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19 minutes ago, Tracker said:

Don't know if this is true but.......

This needed to be shared (proof in comments)

It's probably disingenuous at best. An insurance payout probably helped Donnie's daddy get started but my understanding is old man trump was actually good at the business and Donald just funded up everything he touched.

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Speaking of a Trump’s money...

The President’s reëlection campaign has released an ad attacking Hunter Biden’s connection to a Chinese bank, but Trump has benefitted from Chinese investment, too. 

Donald Trump’s Debt to China

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/donald-trumps-debt-to-china?mbid=social_facebook&utm_social-type=paid&utm_brand=tny&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&kwp_0=1645330&kwp_4=4877806&kwp_1=2069127

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Sheriff’s Deputy Charged After Leading Armed Mob to Home of Black Teen: DA

Dameon Shepard, a high school student, was reportedly playing video games when a large group of armed white people showed up and tried to force their way in.

A white sheriff’s deputy in North Carolina is facing criminal charges after allegedly leading an armed mob to the home of a black teenager and trying to force their way inside as part of a botched vigilante mission.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/sheriffs-deputy-charged-after-leading-armed-mob-to-home-of-black-teen-da-says?ref=home

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19 hours ago, The Unknown Poster said:

 

Trump hater. Biased. Hypocrite. Slander Trump all you want with these fake news Media lying deep state sources that set out day one to destroy him the moment he announced he was running for president. Listen I am no fan of him and I am not sharing any of my personal opinions here. All I’m looking for is equal treatment. Here are the 97 links to verify my unbiased objective post that clearly shows Biden and Obama equally bad that you chose to ignore. All I’m asking is for fair due process. Wow you left leaning unbearable hypocrite Lib’s at it again. Sad.

just trying to get out in front of this. :) Happy Mother’s Day to all your favourite women in your life. We’re sorry in how we’ve screwed everything up. Please take over.

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17 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Trump hater. Biased. Hypocrite. Slander Trump all you want with these fake news Media lying deep state sources that set out day one to destroy him the moment he announced he was running for president. Listen I am no fan of him and I am not sharing any of my personal opinions here. All I’m looking for is equal treatment. Here are the 97 links to verify my unbiased objective post that clearly shows Biden and Obama equally bad that you chose to ignore. All I’m asking is for fair due process. Wow you left leaning unbearable hypocrite Lib’s at it again. Sad.

just trying to get out in front of this. :) Happy Mother’s Day to all your favourite women in your life. We’re sorry in how we’ve screwed everything up. Please take over.

I'm afraid that there is no reason to believe that women are inherently smarter than men. 

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Pence had CEOs remove masks before meeting with him — hours after his press secretary tested positive for COVID-19

Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement May 10, 2020

The Trump administration is not only ignoring CDC and medical experts’ guidelines it is actively working to make Americans less safe.

On Friday Vice President Mike Pence flew aboard Air Force Two to Des Moines, Iowa, to meet with food industry CEOs. His flight was delayed after his press secretary, Katie Miller, tested positive for coronavirus. Several staffers were forced to exit the plane before it took off. Also board were Iowa Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue.

Pence held a roundtable discussion at the headquarters of the Hy-Vee supermarket chain. As The Intercept reports, five industry executives, seated at the table, all wearing masks, were approached by a staffer who asked them to remove their masks before the Vice President would come to the table (video below.)

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/pence-had-ceos-remove-masks-before-meeting-with-him-hours-after-his-press-secretary-tested-positive-for-covid-19/

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19 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Meanwhile, most of my American friends / contacts are complaining about the 'unconstitutional overreach' by their state governments.  They don't get it, and many truly do see it as a conspiracy and fake news.  Or they live in a state where the governor has not taken any measures at all.  I honestly have no idea how some people sleep at night - they live in a world where someone is always out to get them, and reality is never reality. 

You’re an educator, find new friends. :)

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Damning’: Top Colorado Republican orders official to report false election results in leaked audio

Written by Igor Derysh / Salon May 10, 2020

U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, who is also the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, was captured ordering a local party official to report false election results in a primary race for a state Senate seat in a leaked audio recording released earlier this week. Eli Bremer, the Republican chairman for state Senate District 10, alleged to The Denver Post that Buck had tried to “bully” him into violating the law.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/damning-top-colorado-republican-orders-official-to-report-false-election-results-in-leaked-audio/

Anyone willing to bet that there will be an investigation and charges resulting?

 

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1 minute ago, Tracker said:

Damning’: Top Colorado Republican orders official to report false election results in leaked audio

Written by Igor Derysh / Salon May 10, 2020

U.S. Rep. Ken Buck, who is also the chairman of the Colorado Republican Party, was captured ordering a local party official to report false election results in a primary race for a state Senate seat in a leaked audio recording released earlier this week. Eli Bremer, the Republican chairman for state Senate District 10, alleged to The Denver Post that Buck had tried to “bully” him into violating the law.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/damning-top-colorado-republican-orders-official-to-report-false-election-results-in-leaked-audio/

Anyone willing to bet that there will be an investigation and charges resulting?

 

Sadly we’ve really come to the point that none of this matters. However grave any of this is you post and share with others, it’s just white noise. There are literally no safeguards, checks and balances in place to a) deter this and b) hold people accountable for any of these actions. None. For the last 3 plus years the United States of America has come to realize this. The system isn’t broke, there was no system in place, it was a mirage. Trump, his administration and his followers have proven that over and over and over again. Sorry to be Debbie.

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