Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Tonight. 9pm ET. pic.twitter.com/uQR3INMnGd
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 7, 2020
I doubt I have the stamina to watch it live, but she is a very capable debater, and her defenders are fierce!
Hot off the twitters…
Taylor Swift Endorses Joe Biden for President, Throws Support Behind Kamala Harris Ahead of VP Debate https://t.co/Uh5q9m9zfg
— People (@people) October 7, 2020
Open Thread: Kamala Harris Versus Mike <del>Dense</del> PencePost + Comments (196)
Updated to add a photo of Jonathan Price.
His name was #JohnathanPrice. In Wolfe City, TX he was known as a hometown hero. Motivational speaker, trainer, professional athlete and community advocate— he was dearly loved by so many.
Yesterday he noticed a man assaulting a woman and he intervened. When police arrived, I’m told, he raised his hands and attempted to explain what was going on. Police fired tasers at him and when his body convulsed from the electrical current, they “perceived a threat” and shot him to death.
Here is a link to support his family is.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/25o7kmjy5c…
I have spoken to the family and have agreed to do whatever it takes to get justice for JP. – Lee Merritt
This is big. https://t.co/UpHKqaDjGd
— Jolie McCullough (@jsmccullou) October 6, 2020
WOLFE CITY: This statement from the Texas Rangers confirms witness accounts in the death of Jonathan Price.
Price was walking away when the officer used his taser, then fired the fatal shots from his service weapon. The Wolfe City police officer is now charged with murder. pic.twitter.com/hc8HbZavsh
— Morgan Chesky (@BreakingChesky) October 6, 2020
A hopeful sign in a horrible story. More of this, please. Or better, stop killing people of color.
Open thread
A mentally ill man, a heavily armed teenager and the night Kenosha burned https://t.co/RDjU224dhG
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 4, 2020
Anti-police-brutality demonstrators were converging on Kenosha from all over Wisconsin for a second night of marches. An armed right-wing group had put out a call for “patriots willing to take up arms and defend [our] City tonight from the evil thugs.”
Joseph Rosenbaum — depressed, homeless and alone — didn’t belong to either side. He had spent most of his adult life in prison for sexual conduct with children when he was 18 and struggled with bipolar disorder. That day, Aug. 25, Rosenbaum was discharged from a Milwaukee hospital following his second suicide attempt in as many months and dumped on the streets of Kenosha.
His confrontation hours later with Kyle Rittenhouse, a heavily armed teenager who had answered the call for “patriots,” kicked off a chain of violence — the deadliest of the summer — that left Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, dead. A third victim, Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, lost a chunk of his right biceps but survived.
Within hours, the three men and the teenager who shot them were assigned roles in the country’s churning partisan drama. On the right, Rosenbaum, Huber and Grosskreutz were cast as antifa foot soldiers, bankrolled by shadowy forces and determined to set fires and spread anarchy. On the left, the three shooting victims, all of them White, were celebrated as anti-racist martyrs battling armed vigilantes who had coalesced to support police departments accused of racism and brutality…
Look up what’s trending now on #ProudBoys. You’re welcome, Internet.
— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) October 3, 2020
Mr. Takei outed the Nazis, and his followers responded in… kindness!
Taking over #ProudBoys https://t.co/d2bHLmCEtc pic.twitter.com/sTWXDRcY7F
— Eric Alper 🎧 (@ThatEricAlper) October 4, 2020
Late Night Open Thread: #ProudBoys Hashtag HijackedPost + Comments (132)
NEW: Trump and GOP aim to complete reshaping of federal judiciary with new SCOTUS nominee https://t.co/xX8aTSboff pic.twitter.com/NtVeToUntk
— The Hill (@thehill) September 29, 2020
This administration is threatening the very legitimacy of the Court — and all of us — by trying to rush through a nominee.
We must take action.
Message your senator NOW to delay a SCOTUS confirmation ⬇️ https://t.co/irLAqi5OKj
— ACLU (@ACLU) September 28, 2020
While the odds, at this moment, are in Coney Barrett’s favor, when it comes to seating a new Supreme Court Justice, “rush” is a relative term. The first hearing isn’t scheduled until October 12th, which is two weeks or approximately 750 internet news cycles from now. The AP put out a good explainer on the process over the weekend. Here’s the latest from the NYTimes:
… The White House planned to send paperwork to the Senate formally nominating Judge Barrett, a Notre Dame law professor and appeals court judge in Chicago, on Tuesday, when lawmakers reconvene after the Jewish high holidays. She was also scheduled to begin courtesy visits to Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader who championed her selection; Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee; and many Republicans on the panel.
Some top Democrats, still steaming over Republicans’ rush to fill the seat so close to an election, turned down offers to meet, laying the first bricks in a wall of opposition to the nomination they plan to erect in the coming weeks. Others pledged to use the meetings to begin pressing Judge Barrett to explain her views on politically divisive issues that could come before the court, like abortion rights, gay rights, the Affordable Care Act and affirmative action…
Out of public view, the Judiciary Committee was already working at full tilt to prepare for four days of nationally televised hearings set to begin in just two weeks. The committee typically has more than a month for such preparations, but Republicans insist no more time is necessary because Judge Barrett’s record was studied by many of the same lawmakers in 2017, when she was nominated to sit on the appeals court.
Both sides were quickly bringing on extra help, with close to 20 lawyers and law clerks temporarily joining the committee between the Democrats and Republicans. The additions were reported earlier by Politico…
Per the AP:
… Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Lindsey Graham says his panel will hold four days of confirmation hearings the week of Oct. 12.
Once the committee approves the nomination, it goes to the Senate floor for a final vote. This could all happen by Nov. 3 if the process goes smoothly. Graham said he hopes the committee can move the nomination to the Senate floor by the week of Oct. 26 for a confirmation vote…
Republicans are privately aiming to hold the final vote the last week of October, but acknowledge the tight timeline and say they will need to see how the hearings go. McConnell has been careful not to say when he believes the final confirmation vote will happen, other than “this year.” …
GOP Death Cult Open Thread: The SCOTUS RushPost + Comments (132)
Tonight, I’m thinking of Breonna Taylor’s family who is still grieving the loss of a daughter and sister.
We must never stop speaking Breonna’s name as we work to reform our justice system, including overhauling no-knock warrants.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) September 24, 2020
Radley Balko, at the Washington Post:
Wednesday’s announcement from Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron about criminal charges in the Breonna Taylor case set off a frenzy of misinformation on social media. Based on what we do know — which I’ve culled from my own reporting, reporting from the New York Times and the Louisville Courier-Journal, as well as from conversations with the lawyers for Taylor’s family — the decision to charge Detective Brett Hankison with wanton endangerment was probably correct, as was the decision not to charge the other officers involved in the shooting. If ballistics had conclusively shown that one of the bullets from Hankison’s gun killed Taylor, he could be charged with reckless homicide, but according to Cameron, the bullets that struck Taylor could not be matched to Hankison’s gun. There’s the problem that the police who conducted the raid were relying on a warrant procured by another officer, which was then signed by a judge. There were many flaws and abrogations in that process, but it would be unfair and not legal to hold them accountable for any of that.
But “not illegal” should not mean “immune from criticism.” Part of the problem was Cameron himself, who was selective in what information he released to the point of misleading the public about key facts in the case. (This raises real questions about whether the grand jury was also misled. That’s why an attorney for Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker, who fired at the police during the raid, is demanding that Cameron release the evidence that was presented to the grand jury.)
Furthermore, Taylor’s death was not, as Cameron suggested, simply a tragedy for which no one is to blame. The police work in this case was sloppy, and the warrant service was reckless. Taylor is dead because of a cascade of errors, bad judgment and dereliction of duty. And it’s important that the record on this be clear. So here are some correctives for the misinformation I’ve seen online…
“This is just an all-around tragedy. We shouldn’t focus on who to blame, whether its police, prosecutors, Walker or Taylor.”
The most serious questions here concern the investigation itself, and why these officers were asked to serve a warrant on Taylor’s home in the first place. There’s the lie about the postal inspector. There is the fact that despite the surveillance on Taylor’s home, the police didn’t know there was another person inside. There are the police bullets that were inadvertently fired into surrounding apartments. There’s the cut-and-paste language used to secure the no-knock portion of the warrant. There’s also the fact that the officer who procured the warrant was not part of the raid team. There’s the fact that five officers involved in the Taylor raid were involved in another violent, botched raid on an innocent family in 2018…
Excellent Link: “Correcting the misinformation about Breonna Taylor”Post + Comments (43)
??MUST-WATCH??
Amy Klobuchar is on FIRE and did NOT come to play.???? pic.twitter.com/Poh8MVbDjF
— DeMarcus ?? (@semperdiced) September 24, 2020
Because these were too good not to share!
Ruth Bader Ginsburg chose, over and over again, not to let awful circumstances crush her determination to fight towards a better world. We owe her to keep that relentless determination alive, as best our individual circumstances permit.
Opinion: Justice Ginsburg leaves us our marching orders https://t.co/WiBOR2QIAY
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 25, 2020
… Ginsburg was arguably the most influential Jew in U.S. history (perhaps tied with Sandy Koufax for the most loved). Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt’s remarks at the ceremony centered on “tzedek, tzedek tirdof” — the phrase from Deuteronomy 16:20 meaning “justice, justice you shall pursue,” featured in an inscription on a piece of art in Ginsburg’s office. There are many rabbinical discussions on why the word “justice” is repeated, but my favorite — one certainly applicable to Ginsburg — is that you must pursue justice in a just way. Justice is not merely the result that matters, but the means by which you seek it. Ginsburg exemplified this idea by pursuing justice for all Americans, case by case, through the steady progress of the law. Might does not make right. It is through rational and creative thinking that justice is advanced. Justice does not come as a bolt from the blue, but as the result of tenacious, fierce, careful and inspired work.