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solarbirdKnow anyone who went to William Barr's law school?
----- 1 -----
Steve Deace Wants to See Trump ‘Hang Some Antifa Members’
Kyle MantylaBy Kyle Mantyla | June 24, 2020
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/steve-deace-wants-to-see-trump-hang-some-antifa-members/
Right-wing radio host Steve Deace said on his Monday program that he wants to see anti-fascism activists “hanging from gallows in Trump ties.”
Deace, whose program airs on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze network, was taking calls from listeners regarding President Donald Trump’s lackluster rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, over the weekend. A listener named Matthew called in to share his experience at the rally, which he said was poorly organized and generally uninspired. Matthew faulted Trump for appearing tired and for needlessly rambling on about being able to drink water and walk down a ramp instead of talking about how he is going to protect the Constitution.
Deace agreed that he doesn’t want to hear Trump prattle on but wants to see him take action.
“I want to see him take his tie off, Matthew, and hang some antifa members with it,” Deace said. “I want to see antifa members hanging from gallows in Trump ties. That’s what I would like to see.”
----- 2 -----
My Little Pony Fans Are Ready to Admit They Have a Nazi Problem
Even a niche subculture built around magical cartoon horses is reckoning with racism.
Kaitlyn Tiffany
June 23, 2020
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/06/my-little-pony-nazi-4chan-black-lives-matter/613348/
[EDITOR: NAZIS. RUIN. EVERYTHING.]
June 23, 2020.
My Little Pony fans have had a Nazi problem for a long time.
That sounds just as strange no matter how many times you say it. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a cartoon television show about friendship, compassion, and a group of magical horses with names such as Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy who live in a fantastical land called Equestria. It’s marketed to children. Nevertheless, it has an extremely dedicated adult fandom, which is mostly made up of men, or “bronies,” as they’ve been referred to for nearly a decade. Most of these men are white. Some of these men are vocal white supremacists.
The brony subculture is about as niche as they come, born in internet forums in the early 2010s, an era when hyper-specific interests were the organizing principle of social media. Even so, bronies have long captured the world’s attention. They hold well-attended fan conventions; they’ve been the stars of multiple documentaries. Many of the show’s adult fans genuinely enjoy My Little Pony and the wholesome escapism it provides. Others, however, delight in the irony of their fandom. To them, it’s edgy and provocative to be an adult obsessed with cartoon ponies.
That’s where the Nazis come in. My Little Pony fans primarily express their enthusiasm for the show by sharing their own cartoon drawings of the main characters, which they usually upload to the image boards. The most popular of these sites is called Derpibooru, a combination of a character’s name and a common term for image boards. Derpibooru hosts millions of My Little Pony artworks, plenty of which are simple tributes to magic, friendship, and magical friendship. But a substantial number of them are extremely, jarringly violent. An image that I recently viewed on the site depicts a My Little Pony character presiding over three lynchings and one beheading of cartoons drawn to represent various marginalized groups. Derpibooru even lists “racist” as a searchable category, and more than 900 pieces of art are tagged as such.
For years, this has been the status quo in the world of My Little Pony. In supposed deference to principles of free speech and openness on the internet, the presence of self-described Nazis within a fandom that idolizes compassion-oriented cartoon characters has become a coolly accepted fact. The community has sorted itself largely into two camps: those who think anything goes as long as someone finds it funny, and those who would rather ignore toxic elements than admit that not everything is perfect.
Until now. Following a new wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the United States, the fandom is in an all-out civil war, forced to either confront or deny what it’s let go on for so long. The abrupt reckoning has raised an existential question for internet spaces large and small: If you’ve gone online to live in a fantasy space, can you avoid taking responsibility when the real world finds its way in?
----- 3 -----
William Barr's Law School Calls For His Censure, Investigation, And Resignation
Jun 23, 2020
The George Washington University Law School “with a heavy heart” calls for Barr to resign and be censured.
https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/william-barr-s-law-school-calls-for-his-censure-investigation-and-resignation-Ebn5vCt780aabXbeIDoerQ
The George Washington University Law School released a statement on June 23, 2020 calling for Attorney General William Barr to resign, for Congress to censure him, and for the Justice Department’s Inspector General to investigate him.
Barr received a juris doctorate from the Law School in 1977, served on its board of advisors, and has previously been honored by the school.
“80% of the active full-time faculty with voting privileges” signed the letter, in addition to 18 emeritus professors, deans, and legal professionals.
The signers include members of “both major political parties, and of none.”
The statement also endorses the recommendation of 2,500 Department of Justice alumni from both Republican and Democrat administrations who call for Barr to resign, for Congress to censure him, and for an inspector general to begin a formal inquiry into his conduct.
----- 4 -----
US inmates got virus relief checks, and IRS wants them back
Rebecca Boone, Associated Press Updated 12:55 pm PDT, Wednesday, June 24, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/US-inmates-got-virus-relief-checks-and-IRS-wants-15362632.php
[EDITOR: Included here because it's being done lawlessly]
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of dollars in coronavirus relief payments have been sent to people behind bars across the United States, and now the IRS is asking state officials to help claw back the cash that the federal tax agency says was mistakenly sent.
The legislation authorizing the payments during the pandemic doesn’t specifically exclude jail or prison inmates, and the IRS has refused to say exactly what legal authority it has to retrieve the money. On its website, it points to the unrelated Social Security Act, which bars incarcerated people from receiving some types of old-age and survivor insurance benefit payments.
“I can’t give you the legal basis. All I can tell you is this is the language the Treasury and ourselves have been using,” IRS spokesman Eric Smith said. “It’s just the same list as in the Social Security Act.”
Tax attorney Kelly Erb, who's written about the issue on her website, says there's no legal basis for asking for the checks back.
...
The IRS seems to have decided by itself to pull back the payments approved by Congress, said Wanda Bertram, a spokeswoman for the Prison Policy Initiative, a think tank focusing on the harm of mass incarceration. She says prison officials are accustomed to intercepting tax documents to screen for potential scams, priming them to follow this request.
“It appears that the IRS is just making this up,” Bertram said.
----- 5 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275830505003528192
[THREAD]
Republicans are wasting no time turning the House Judiciary Committee hearing into a clown show
[EMBEDDED VIDEO: Cascading and contradictory interruptions from GOP members of the committee]
[NEXT]
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275832019243630592
Donald Ayer: "I was privileged to serve in the DOJ under 2 Republican and 1 Democratic president, and I am here because I believe that William Barr poses the greatest threat in my lifetime to our rule of law and to public trust in it."
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[EDITOR: THIS IS GOOD. GO WATCH IT.]
[NEXT]
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275833526982754309
"There's no rules about when you can make noise" -- Louie Gohmert tried to cut off Ayer's opening statement, but Ayer was undeterred.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[NEXT]
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275833865505046528
Democrats ask for the Sergeant at Arms to remove Gohmert from the hearing room because he refuses to stop banging on a table
[NEXT]
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275843574895181827
Louie Gohmert uses his questioning time to thank his wife for not leaving him
[NEXT]
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275846400027373574
Ayer says Barr is "essentially using the DOJ to support the president's campaign."
"The most serious problem I'm concerned about is his accelerating recitation of this narrative about Obamagate, or deep state conspiracy ... that's a totally improper misuse of the DOJ."
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 6 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1275836612669251587
In March, Kellyanne Conway said the term "kung flu" was "highly offensive" and that she'd like to tell whoever said it that it was "hurtful" and "unhelpful". She mentioned her kids are Asian-American.
The President has now used the phrase 3 times.
This morning she said this:
[QUOTED TWEET]
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1275803144744771585
"The President has made very clear that he wants everybody to understand, and I think many Americans do understand that the virus originated in China," KAC said.
I asked her to walk me through the logic, since the phrase "Kung Flu" does not refer to a place.
[NEXT]
"How do you know, how do you know, excuse me, how do you know the way people, how do you know people aren't anticipating that or not connecting that?" She asked, before adding, "You can ask him. How's that?"
She would not answer if she counseled him against saying it again.
[NEXT]
However, when I asked if she told him it was unhelpful she said, "We don't always agree on everything and that's why I work here, because I feel like I can. I have a relationship with the president, where I privately brief him to the best of my ability+the best of my knowledge."
----- 7 -----
DC Circuit orders judge to dismiss case against Michael Flynn
June 24, 2020
By Matthew Chapman
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/dc-circuit-orders-judge-to-dismiss-case-against-michael-flynn/
On Wednesday, by a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order directing the federal judge in the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to be dismissed.
The DOJ moved for a dismissal of the charges weeks ago, claiming prosecutorial misconduct. However, Judge Emmet Sullivan refused to immediately dismiss the case, calling for a full review of the evidence.
----- 8 -----
Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes
The Complete Listing (So Far):
Atrocities 1-759
by Ben Parker, Stephanie Steinbrecher, Kelsey Ronan, John McMurtrie, Sophia DuRose, Rachel Villa, and Amy Sumerton
24 June 2020
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-complete-listing-so-far-atrocities-1-759
Early in President Trump’s term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We called this list a collection of Trump’s cruelties, collusions, and crimes, and it felt urgent then to track them, to ensure these horrors — happening almost daily — would not be forgotten. This election year, amid a harrowing global health, civil rights, humanitarian, and economic crisis, we know it’s never been more critical to note these horrors, to remember them, and to do all in our power to reverse them. This list will be updated between now and the November 2020 Presidential election.
- Steve Deace Wants to See Trump ‘Hang Some Antifa Members’
- My Little Pony Fans Are Ready to Admit They Have a Nazi Problem
- William Barr's Law School Calls For His Censure, Investigation, And Resignation
- US inmates got virus relief checks, and IRS wants them back
- "Republicans are wasting no time turning the House Judiciary Committee hearing into a clown show" - making noise over witnesses, disrupting testimony, and so on.
- Trump continues to use racist terms to describe COVID-19
- DC Circuit orders judge to dismiss case against Michael Flynn
- Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes - The Complete Listing (So Far)
----- 1 -----
Steve Deace Wants to See Trump ‘Hang Some Antifa Members’
Kyle MantylaBy Kyle Mantyla | June 24, 2020
https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/steve-deace-wants-to-see-trump-hang-some-antifa-members/
Right-wing radio host Steve Deace said on his Monday program that he wants to see anti-fascism activists “hanging from gallows in Trump ties.”
Deace, whose program airs on Glenn Beck’s The Blaze network, was taking calls from listeners regarding President Donald Trump’s lackluster rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, over the weekend. A listener named Matthew called in to share his experience at the rally, which he said was poorly organized and generally uninspired. Matthew faulted Trump for appearing tired and for needlessly rambling on about being able to drink water and walk down a ramp instead of talking about how he is going to protect the Constitution.
Deace agreed that he doesn’t want to hear Trump prattle on but wants to see him take action.
“I want to see him take his tie off, Matthew, and hang some antifa members with it,” Deace said. “I want to see antifa members hanging from gallows in Trump ties. That’s what I would like to see.”
----- 2 -----
My Little Pony Fans Are Ready to Admit They Have a Nazi Problem
Even a niche subculture built around magical cartoon horses is reckoning with racism.
Kaitlyn Tiffany
June 23, 2020
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/06/my-little-pony-nazi-4chan-black-lives-matter/613348/
[EDITOR: NAZIS. RUIN. EVERYTHING.]
June 23, 2020.
My Little Pony fans have had a Nazi problem for a long time.
That sounds just as strange no matter how many times you say it. My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a cartoon television show about friendship, compassion, and a group of magical horses with names such as Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy who live in a fantastical land called Equestria. It’s marketed to children. Nevertheless, it has an extremely dedicated adult fandom, which is mostly made up of men, or “bronies,” as they’ve been referred to for nearly a decade. Most of these men are white. Some of these men are vocal white supremacists.
The brony subculture is about as niche as they come, born in internet forums in the early 2010s, an era when hyper-specific interests were the organizing principle of social media. Even so, bronies have long captured the world’s attention. They hold well-attended fan conventions; they’ve been the stars of multiple documentaries. Many of the show’s adult fans genuinely enjoy My Little Pony and the wholesome escapism it provides. Others, however, delight in the irony of their fandom. To them, it’s edgy and provocative to be an adult obsessed with cartoon ponies.
That’s where the Nazis come in. My Little Pony fans primarily express their enthusiasm for the show by sharing their own cartoon drawings of the main characters, which they usually upload to the image boards. The most popular of these sites is called Derpibooru, a combination of a character’s name and a common term for image boards. Derpibooru hosts millions of My Little Pony artworks, plenty of which are simple tributes to magic, friendship, and magical friendship. But a substantial number of them are extremely, jarringly violent. An image that I recently viewed on the site depicts a My Little Pony character presiding over three lynchings and one beheading of cartoons drawn to represent various marginalized groups. Derpibooru even lists “racist” as a searchable category, and more than 900 pieces of art are tagged as such.
For years, this has been the status quo in the world of My Little Pony. In supposed deference to principles of free speech and openness on the internet, the presence of self-described Nazis within a fandom that idolizes compassion-oriented cartoon characters has become a coolly accepted fact. The community has sorted itself largely into two camps: those who think anything goes as long as someone finds it funny, and those who would rather ignore toxic elements than admit that not everything is perfect.
Until now. Following a new wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the United States, the fandom is in an all-out civil war, forced to either confront or deny what it’s let go on for so long. The abrupt reckoning has raised an existential question for internet spaces large and small: If you’ve gone online to live in a fantasy space, can you avoid taking responsibility when the real world finds its way in?
----- 3 -----
William Barr's Law School Calls For His Censure, Investigation, And Resignation
Jun 23, 2020
The George Washington University Law School “with a heavy heart” calls for Barr to resign and be censured.
https://mavenroundtable.io/theintellectualist/news/william-barr-s-law-school-calls-for-his-censure-investigation-and-resignation-Ebn5vCt780aabXbeIDoerQ
The George Washington University Law School released a statement on June 23, 2020 calling for Attorney General William Barr to resign, for Congress to censure him, and for the Justice Department’s Inspector General to investigate him.
Barr received a juris doctorate from the Law School in 1977, served on its board of advisors, and has previously been honored by the school.
“80% of the active full-time faculty with voting privileges” signed the letter, in addition to 18 emeritus professors, deans, and legal professionals.
The signers include members of “both major political parties, and of none.”
The statement also endorses the recommendation of 2,500 Department of Justice alumni from both Republican and Democrat administrations who call for Barr to resign, for Congress to censure him, and for an inspector general to begin a formal inquiry into his conduct.
----- 4 -----
US inmates got virus relief checks, and IRS wants them back
Rebecca Boone, Associated Press Updated 12:55 pm PDT, Wednesday, June 24, 2020
https://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/US-inmates-got-virus-relief-checks-and-IRS-wants-15362632.php
[EDITOR: Included here because it's being done lawlessly]
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of dollars in coronavirus relief payments have been sent to people behind bars across the United States, and now the IRS is asking state officials to help claw back the cash that the federal tax agency says was mistakenly sent.
The legislation authorizing the payments during the pandemic doesn’t specifically exclude jail or prison inmates, and the IRS has refused to say exactly what legal authority it has to retrieve the money. On its website, it points to the unrelated Social Security Act, which bars incarcerated people from receiving some types of old-age and survivor insurance benefit payments.
“I can’t give you the legal basis. All I can tell you is this is the language the Treasury and ourselves have been using,” IRS spokesman Eric Smith said. “It’s just the same list as in the Social Security Act.”
Tax attorney Kelly Erb, who's written about the issue on her website, says there's no legal basis for asking for the checks back.
...
The IRS seems to have decided by itself to pull back the payments approved by Congress, said Wanda Bertram, a spokeswoman for the Prison Policy Initiative, a think tank focusing on the harm of mass incarceration. She says prison officials are accustomed to intercepting tax documents to screen for potential scams, priming them to follow this request.
“It appears that the IRS is just making this up,” Bertram said.
----- 5 -----
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275830505003528192
[THREAD]
Republicans are wasting no time turning the House Judiciary Committee hearing into a clown show
[EMBEDDED VIDEO: Cascading and contradictory interruptions from GOP members of the committee]
[NEXT]
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275832019243630592
Donald Ayer: "I was privileged to serve in the DOJ under 2 Republican and 1 Democratic president, and I am here because I believe that William Barr poses the greatest threat in my lifetime to our rule of law and to public trust in it."
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[EDITOR: THIS IS GOOD. GO WATCH IT.]
[NEXT]
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275833526982754309
"There's no rules about when you can make noise" -- Louie Gohmert tried to cut off Ayer's opening statement, but Ayer was undeterred.
[EMBEDDED VIDEO]
[NEXT]
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275833865505046528
Democrats ask for the Sergeant at Arms to remove Gohmert from the hearing room because he refuses to stop banging on a table
[NEXT]
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275843574895181827
Louie Gohmert uses his questioning time to thank his wife for not leaving him
[NEXT]
Aaron Rupar
twitter.com/atrupar
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1275846400027373574
Ayer says Barr is "essentially using the DOJ to support the president's campaign."
"The most serious problem I'm concerned about is his accelerating recitation of this narrative about Obamagate, or deep state conspiracy ... that's a totally improper misuse of the DOJ."
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 6 -----
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1275836612669251587
In March, Kellyanne Conway said the term "kung flu" was "highly offensive" and that she'd like to tell whoever said it that it was "hurtful" and "unhelpful". She mentioned her kids are Asian-American.
The President has now used the phrase 3 times.
This morning she said this:
[QUOTED TWEET]
Weijia Jiang
twitter.com/weijia
24 June 2020
https://twitter.com/weijia/status/1275803144744771585
"The President has made very clear that he wants everybody to understand, and I think many Americans do understand that the virus originated in China," KAC said.
I asked her to walk me through the logic, since the phrase "Kung Flu" does not refer to a place.
[NEXT]
"How do you know, how do you know, excuse me, how do you know the way people, how do you know people aren't anticipating that or not connecting that?" She asked, before adding, "You can ask him. How's that?"
She would not answer if she counseled him against saying it again.
[NEXT]
However, when I asked if she told him it was unhelpful she said, "We don't always agree on everything and that's why I work here, because I feel like I can. I have a relationship with the president, where I privately brief him to the best of my ability+the best of my knowledge."
----- 7 -----
DC Circuit orders judge to dismiss case against Michael Flynn
June 24, 2020
By Matthew Chapman
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/06/dc-circuit-orders-judge-to-dismiss-case-against-michael-flynn/
On Wednesday, by a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit issued an order directing the federal judge in the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to be dismissed.
The DOJ moved for a dismissal of the charges weeks ago, claiming prosecutorial misconduct. However, Judge Emmet Sullivan refused to immediately dismiss the case, calling for a full review of the evidence.
----- 8 -----
Lest We Forget the Horrors: A Catalog of Trump’s Worst Cruelties, Collusions, Corruptions, and Crimes
The Complete Listing (So Far):
Atrocities 1-759
by Ben Parker, Stephanie Steinbrecher, Kelsey Ronan, John McMurtrie, Sophia DuRose, Rachel Villa, and Amy Sumerton
24 June 2020
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-complete-listing-so-far-atrocities-1-759
Early in President Trump’s term, McSweeney’s editors began to catalog the head-spinning number of misdeeds coming from his administration. We called this list a collection of Trump’s cruelties, collusions, and crimes, and it felt urgent then to track them, to ensure these horrors — happening almost daily — would not be forgotten. This election year, amid a harrowing global health, civil rights, humanitarian, and economic crisis, we know it’s never been more critical to note these horrors, to remember them, and to do all in our power to reverse them. This list will be updated between now and the November 2020 Presidential election.
