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Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Former President Donald Trump and Sen. JD Vance have made anti-immigrant hate the centerpiece of their campaign for the White House, and that campaign stooped to a new low Monday. Vance amplified bogus "reports" that "people have had their pets abducted and eaten by people who shouldn't be in this country." First of all, the claim is false: There are no credible reports that "people who shouldn't be in this country" are eating pets. read more


US consumers may finally be getting some relief from their grocery bills - especially if they shop for food online. Data by Adobe Inc. shows that online grocery prices fell 3.7% in August from a month earlier, the largest decline since the firm began tracking the numbers in 2014. read more


While nearly all states suspend or withdraw people's right to vote when they are convicted of felonies, most allow restoring that right after they have served their sentences. Tennessee has moved in the opposite direction, making the process significantly more difficult. (Think: bureaucratic maze from hell.) About 9 percent of the state's voting-age population is prohibited from voting because of felony convictions. read more


Monday, September 09, 2024

U.S. prosecutors unveiled criminal charges on Monday against two alleged leaders of a white supremacist gang, accusing them of soliciting attacks on Black, Jewish, LGBTQ people and immigrants in hopes of inciting a race war. read more


Mark Leibovich - In the summer of 2015 ... he was in the early phase of his first campaign for president. I was struck by one theme that Trump kept pounding on over and over: that he was used to dealing with "brutal, vicious killers" - by which he meant his fellow ruthless operators in showbiz, real estate, casinos, ... "I will roll over them," he boasted, referring to the flaccid field of Republican challengers he was about to debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library that September. read more


Comments

Who negotiated with the Taliban for the safety of US soldiers as we left Afghanistan?

When President Trump took office in 2017, there were more than 10,000 troops in Afghanistan. Eighteen months later, after introducing more than 3,000 additional troops just to maintain the stalemate, President Trump ordered direct talks with the Taliban without consulting with our allies and partners or allowing the Afghan government at the negotiating table. In September 2019, President Trump emboldened the Taliban by publicly considering inviting them to Camp David on the anniversary of 9/11. In February 2020, the United States and the Taliban reached a deal, known as the Doha Agreement, under which the United States agreed to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by May 2021. In return, the Taliban agreed to participate in a peace process and refrain from attacking U.S. troops and threatening Afghanistan's major cities - but only as long as the United States remained committed to withdraw by the agreement's deadline. As part of the deal, President Trump also pressured the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters from prison, including senior war commanders, without securing the release of the only American hostage known to be held by the Taliban.

Over his last 11 months in office, President Trump ordered a series of drawdowns of U.S. troops. By June 2020, President Trump reduced U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 8,600. In September 2020, he directed a further draw down to 4,500. A month later, President Trump tweeted, to the surprise of military advisors, that the remaining U.S. troops in Afghanistan should be "home by Christmas!" On September 28, 2021, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley testified that, on November 11, he had received an unclassified signed order directing the U.S. military to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan no later than January 15, 2021. One week later, that order was rescinded and replaced with one to draw down to 2,500 troops by the same date.

During the transition from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration, the outgoing Administration provided no plans for how to conduct the final withdrawal or to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies. Indeed, there were no such plans in place when President Biden came into office, even with the agreed upon full withdrawal just over three months away.

www.whitehouse.gov

#Biden'sFault With Trump, it always comes back to the Big Lie. Because of the Big Lie, Trump refused to extend the usual transition access and courtesies to Biden's incoming crew, leaving them to deal with whatever Trump left in their lap. On top of that, Trump left no plans for a withdrawal he tried to accomplish before he left office. And one only needs to imagine how this scenario would have played out if the protagonists were reversed. Republicans would have rushed to impeach Joe Biden after he left office had he done to Trump what Trump did to him. Of that, I have no doubt.

If I know Kamala Harris' personal fastidiousness, Trump might be walking into a ticking timebomb of his own if he he tries to gaslight America like Strawlighter is gaslighting us on this thread:

Kabul airport bomber was an ISIS operative freed from prison by the Taliban

The man who detonated a bomb outside the Kabul airport in August 2021, killing 170 Afghans and 13 American service members, was an Islamic State operative who had been held in a coalition detention facility in Afghanistan but was freed by the Taliban, according to a new U.S. military review that has identified him for the first time.

Some service members who were at the airport that day claimed they had spotted the suicide bomber at the site and were ordered not to engage. But the review found that those service members had the wrong man in their sights, and the strike was not preventable.

The actual bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, according to the U.S. military. A facial comparison analysis determined that al-Logari and the bald man in black could not be the same person, the review found.

The team of military investigators reviewed photos and video taken of the scene before the attack and found no footage of al-Logari. He was determined to have arrived immediately before the blast and blended in with the massive crowd gathered outside the airport.

The officials involved in the review said that given the density of the crowd, the U.S. military members at the scene did not have time to identify him.

Al-Logari was among the thousands of militants released from Afghan prisons after the Taliban seized control of Kabul in mid-August 2021.

Who negotiated the withdrawal agreement which stopped US forces from engaging the Taliban, allegedly, for assurances that Taliban fighters would no longer attack our soldiers on the way out?

Who allowed the Taliban to decimate the American-trained Afghan Army - that basically threw down their guns and refused to fight, knowing that the rickety "government" in Kabul wasn't long for the world - as Trump announced a date certain for our withdrawal - something we did not do when leaving Iraq or any other active theater of war in this or the last century?

And how was Biden supposed to stop an attack by ISIS-K - again, something Trump negotiated on a promise from the Taliban that they wouldn't let ISIS-K to use Afghanistan as a base for terrorism, but with no other security assurances against those ISIS-K already there or in Afghani prisons, being released to attack the remaining US troops?

It's my fervent wish that Harris has these facts ready to counter anything about the withdrawal that Trump will throw at her. And after the debate is over, every single channel - including Fox - will have to admit what's written above is indeed the truth, regardless of what the House GOP smear-job report tries to ignore.

Constitution is silent on this matter but it also predates prisons.

What do you mean "predates prisons"?

That's not what I found. There were only a few state disenfranchisement laws from the Constitution's signing up until Reconstruction.

After that, these laws exploded to keep newly-freed slaves from threatening white majority rule, period, end of sentence.

For the syrupeans, it means she tried to take credit for it, so she rightly deserves to be attached to it's failure.

Being the "last one in the room" only means that the President will seek her counsel before making his final decision. She has the last chance to make her case, but it doesn't mean that her viewpoint will be the one the President chooses. And if he chooses something she didn't like or would have seen go another way, it's still her job to tell the public that she supports the President's decision without ever wavering from it come hell or high water.

That is simply what Vice Presidents do, that is one of the few defined jobs that they have.

And lastly, the part of this argument that is missing is this: Given the same conditions and the same options from the military charged with completing the mission, what precisely would Trump have done differently and how does he deduce that his way would have repelled the bomb attack? It's not like the brass designed different withdrawal plans for Biden than they had for Trump if he remained President. And Trump knows this, and uses the public's ignorance to his political advantage.

It's easy to criticize without offering alternatives, but it's far worse to leave someone else with your pile of crap and then blame them for the smell after you're gone.

PS: The only correct answer based on what we know would have been having more troops in Afghanistan to provide the level of security that wouldn't have allowed the bomber the access that he got. And in no world was Biden going to send more troops BACK into Afghanistan for the ones Trump prematurely removed, which became even less possible because we could no longer support Bagram Airbase - which was far more secure than Kabul International - due to lack of manpower because of Trump's withdrawals prior to his leaving office.

There are women out there who will use their ----- to get ahead

You mean use it to marry a rich older man and then exist in a loveless marriage of convenience for two decades?

After Kamala left the relationship with Willie, everything she's done since has been due to her own skills, intelligence, and initiative. While it's undeniable that Willie helped open doors that Kamala entered almost 30 years ago, there is nothing in her biography since then showing fealty or subservience to any "man" as her career took off to the point she's now a coinflip from becoming POTUS.

For better or worse, Kamala navigated and traveled her own path to now, not one that any man or men - even Willie Brown - paved for her.

A day after Miami Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill was detained and handcuffed by police shortly before his team's season opener, Miami-Dade police released body-cam footage of the incident. The Dolphins subsequently said Monday in a strongly worded statement that the footage showed "there are some officers who mistake their responsibility and commitment to serve with misguided power."

Some of Hill's teammates, two of whom were identified later by the Dolphins as defensive lineman Calais Campbell and tight end Jonnu Smith, begin to appear at the scene. Campbell also was briefly placed in handcuffs and Smith was given a citation after they did not immediately comply with requests to leave the scene.

In its statement following the release of the body-cam footage, the Dolphins said they were "saddened by the overly aggressive and violent conduct" directed toward Hill, Campbell and Smith by Miami-Dade police.

"It is both maddening and heartbreaking," the team said, "to watch the very people we trust to protect our community use unnecessary force and hostility towards these players, yet it is also a reminder that not every situation like this ends in peace, as we are grateful this one did."

Noting their "strong and positive relationship" with Miami-Dade police and an understanding that "the vast majority of officers do serve the community with the utmost character," the Dolphins urged the department to take "swift and strong action against the officers who engaged in such despicable behavior."

www.washingtonpost.com

It's wholly typical that some will use former acts to assassinate the character of someone, using their own earlier actions in the attempt to shade the conduct of officers acting without that foreknowledge during the encounter now in question.

The Dolphins - therefore the NFL family - are standing by Tyreek and the other Dolphin players in this instance, so no, age has not changed anything regarding the veracity of the speculative narrative some articulated from the initial reporting of this incident.

"You're a little effing confused... Stop crying... Did you have surgery on your ears?... Don't play like that's special ..."

You're right Gracie, it's just the normal demeaning and disrespectful interlude that blacks encounter every single day from some in law enforcement, even from leos of color. Blue is usually greater than any other color within their circles, but blue isn't always representative of the actual law or the simple basic understanding that not every person police encounter are automatically criminals or threats to their sensitive egos if they don't immediately respond to verbal orders while remaining still and offering no verbal or physical threat to the officers. I don't know anyone that doesn't experience anxiety when pulled over by police, and not everyone deals with it in the same way.

While I'd never disobey a direct order - like to roll down my window, I can easily understand how Tyreek didn't want to be seen by the wider passing public who might force the stop to another level if hoards started to gather due to recognizing Hill and wanting to make sure nothing egregious happened to him at the hands of the leos. It is a reasonable and understandable conclusion from Hill considering his experience with celebrity, while in that moment I'm sure the leos weren't thinking about a potential mob scene and escalating numbers of both police and the general public - which did happen to an extent as both players and fans stopped and started filming the incident.

Neither Tyreek nor some of the officers acted completely as they should have. But trust me, had the police injured Tyreek when they manhandled him after he warned them of specific bodily injuries - which they then mocked and ignored said warning, the team or league would likely sue them to pay for his salary should the leos have forced him to miss time because of their physical maltreatment - especially if the health insurance/car insurance companies refused to pay, deeming the police responsible for the injuries keeping him from working in his occupation. Didn't happen, but interesting thought exercise anyway.

Body Cam footage released. Another thread that did not age well to for the ASSume crowd of the DR.

#9 | Posted by gracieamazed

Are you sure?

Hill told CNN's Kaitlan Collins on Monday night that he rolled his window back up because of concern about drawing unwanted attention to himself.

"If I let my window down, people walking by, driving by, they're going to notice that it's me," Hill said. "And they're going to start taking pictures, and I didn't want to create a scene at all. Like, I just really wanted to get the ticket and then go on about my way."

The officer again told Hill to put his window back down or "I am going to get you out of the car. As a matter of fact, get out of the car."

After the officer ultimately asks Hill to exit his vehicle, Hill then says, "I'm gonna get out, I'm gonna get out." As the officer opens door and removes Hill, the receiver says, "I'm getting out!" At that point, another officer grabs Hill by the back of the head and neck area and forces him to the pavement to put him in handcuffs.

"It just went from 0 to 60, man, from the moment that those guys pulled up behind me, knocked on my window, it went from 0 to 60 immediately," Hill said Monday in an interview with "NBC Nightly News."

"I was opening my door and I was going to get out, you know what I'm saying, but it felt like they was wanting me to move fast."

Hill was able to call the Dolphins' director of security, Drew Brooks, before he was pulled out of his car. The officer who forced Hill to the ground kept him in place with a knee to Hill's back, telling Hill to "stop crying."

"When we tell you to do something, you do it, you understand?" the officer tells Hill. "Not when you want, but when we tell you. You're a little ---- confused."

Hill is escorted to the sidewalk and told to sit down, to which Hill replies that he recently had knee surgery and asks the officers to "hold on." The same officer who pulled Hill out of his vehicle, who was not the closest officer to Hill, then rushes toward Hill, wraps his arms around his shoulders and forces him to the ground again, at one point putting his hands around Hill's neck.

The officer expresses skepticism of Hill's surgery.

"Oh really? What a coincidence," he said to Hill. "Did you have surgery on your ears when we told you to put the window down?"

When Hill complains about being held in place, the officer forces him to the ground before allowing him to sit back up.

"I'll tell you like this -- your job is to serve and protect, right?" Hill says. "You're doing a horrible job of protecting right now. I told you, I'm not going to run. ... That's only going to make matters worse."

Hill verbally complies with the officers' orders throughout the footage. At least one officer attempts to reason with Hill and de-escalate the situation as bystanders film the incident from both the sidewalk and their vehicles.

"I'm just being a Black man, that's it," Hill calls out. "I'm just being Black in America."

"We're dark, too, brother," one officer replies. "We're people of color, too. Don't play like that's special."

www.espn.com

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