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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Three Kansas Men Found Guilty Of Bomb Plot Targeting Somali Muslim Immigrants
:
Just a day after beginning deliberations, a federal jury found Curtis Allen, 50; Gavin Wright, 49; and Patrick Eugene Stein, 49, each guilty of one count of conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction as well as one count of violating the housing rights of their would-be victims.
Wright was also convicted of lying to the FBI.
All three men face life in prison.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions called the verdict "a significant victory against domestic terrorism and hate crimes."
The men were arrested in 2016 just weeks before prosecutors say they had hoped to carry out mass murder at the apartment complex the day after U.S. voters elected the next president.
Prosecutors say the men, part of a militia group called the Kansas Security Force, prepared a manifesto saying their attack "would wake people up."
Prosecutor Risa Berkower said at the trial, "They wanted to send the message that Muslims are not welcome here – not in Garden City, not in Kansas, not in America," reports KCUR.
The men were charged following a months-long FBI investigation and sting operation.
They called themselves "the Crusaders" and had scoped out several potential targets, stockpiling firearms and bomb-making parts, say prosecutors.
Court documents say they then settled on 312 West Mary Street in Garden City, a cluster of eight buildings housing more than 100 people — mainly East African immigrants, KCUR's Frank Morris reported for NPR.
@Hey, T Vrules: can we please refrain from sexist slurs like that? It helps absolutely nothing. Yes, I know you're referring to a guy, but you're still referring to a guy with a sexist slur.
And yet, all these little militia groups aren't getting labeled as terrorists groups, which makes Session's statements ring very hollow.
First and most importantly, I want to encourage everyone to check out the podcast Trump Inc.
It's a joint venture between NYC's NPR station and Propublica, the first online news source to win a Pulitzer Prize. The podcast aims to take long, serious looks at Trump's past and current business dealings. Episodes come out once a week, and the subject this week is Michael Cohen, who has a long history of connections with Russian organized crime. While Cohen has always avoided being charged, convicted of a crime or disbarred until now, basically everyone he has any connection with has either been put in jail or lost the right to practice law or medicine due to either being an actual criminal or ethics violations. Cohen has also practiced remarkably little actual law as he has seldom been in court or been involved in a suit. He mainly seems to have been specializing in helping business partners skirt the law, use loopholes for fraud, or remain in legal gray areas.
I highly recommend listening to anyone who wants in-depth coverage/knowledge of this and all Trump business related information, and how that effects what Trump does in office.
A couple of quick notes:
The law would have affected funding for Planned Parenthood programs for mothers’ and infants’ health, HIV counseling and testing, and sex education. Planned Parenthood offers abortions in some of its Ohio clinics, but not all of them.
According to court papers, Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio and Southwest Ohio said they stood to lose nearly $1.5 million in funding annually if the law took effect.
“We are thrilled that today’s decision will safeguard our patients’ access to care,” Jerry Lawson, the chief executive of Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio, said in a statement.
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Republican Ohio Attorney General Mike De Wine, who defended the law in court, said his office was reviewing the ruling to determine whether to seek further appellate review.
Unsurprisingly the group is made up of Tea Party/Freedom Caucus types, with the most notable figures being Ron DeSantis, (a young Republican who some think may be a rising star, and who threw his hat into the race for Governor of Florida [Trump endorsed, naturally]) Todd Rokita, who is in the primary for the Senate seat currently held by Democrat Joe Donnelly in Indiana, Eric Brat, (the Bannon & Steve Miller connected guy best known for the massive upset of Eric Cantor, then a member of the Republican leadership) and Claudia Tenney. (Upstate NY congrsswoman representing the Utica/Oneida/Oswego area who became infamous after the Las Vegas shooting for claiming that most mass murderers turn out to be Democrats.)
That said, my "favorite" might be Paul Goslar
, an Arizona congressman who boycotted Pope Francis' visit to congress because Francis was talking about Climate Change instead of denouncing "violent Islam" and Planned Parenthood. He also claimed the Charlottesville Nazis were a False Flag Operation, attempted to impeach an Obama era EPA administrator for making EPA regulations, tried to give sacred Native American land to a copper mine, (while saying all Native Americans were "wards of the Federal Government") and previously accused Comey, McCabe, Rosenstein, and Sally Yates of treason.
Now, to be clear, this is not going to go anywhere and is likely political theater for their constituents, but I did think it was worth noting due to it apparently being a rise of undemocratic authoritarianism in the legislature as well as the executive branch.
Trump's pick as NASA administrator (a Republican congressman with no science background) was nearly defeated... until Jeff Flake, the only Republican to vote against him, changed his vote from no to yes after a recess
Also noteworthy: Tammy Duckworth, who recently gave birth, missed the vote. Had she voted, the nomination would have failed. (Unless Flake only initially voted no for political leverage related to Mike Pompeo, see the quote from below for more on that.)
"He has an issue he wants to talk to (CIA) Director (Mike) Pompeo about. He was looking for assurances he would have that opportunity and I'm confident he will have that chance this afternoon," Cornyn said. "I think there are some issues related to travel restrictions to Cuba."
Flake later told CNN he had submitted questions to Pompeo after his confirmation hearing to be secretary of state and added, "I'm still waiting for satisfactory answers."
Flake, who is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and whose vote is significant, said he is still undecided on how he will vote on Pompeo's nomination and indicated he "still has some issues."
Separately, Flake said he has problems with Bridenstine and at one point had a "hold" on his nomination.
"I wasn't enthusiastic about him but that wasn't the point," Flake explained.
The party-line vote against Bridenstine reflects the steep opposition from Democrats about Trump's nominee to head the space agency, who they believe is not a "space professional" in the words of Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat. One Republican, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, had previously expressed concerns about Bridenstine but voted for him in the end. Democrats also complained about his views on climate change.
"NASA is one of the few remaining areas that has largely avoided the bitter partisanship that has invaded far too many areas of government and our society today," Nelson said in a floor speech.
When he was nominated, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called Bridenstine a "strong, principled and effective leader" who will "work hard to advance our national space policy goals, expand human space exploration and secure America's leadership in space."
A final confirmation vote for Bridenstine is expected Thursday.
Oklahoma
is burning
A "megafire" has burned more than 260,000 acres (1052 square kilometers, 406 square miles) and remains completely uncontained. Worse, that's only one of four major wildfire currently active in the state.
And in addition to Greitens' sexual abuse, which is his most famous scandal thus far, there's now significant evidence he committed a felony when he used a charity for veterans that he runs as a way to build a list of political donors
.
“Leaders at all levels of government are entrusted with an incredible responsibility to the Missourians we represent,” said a joint statement from House Speaker Todd Richardson, House Majority Leader Rob Vescovo and House Speaker Pro Tem Elijah Haahr. “When leaders lose the ability to effectively lead our state, the right thing to do is step aside. In our view, the time has come for the governor to resign.”
Senate President Pro Tem Ron Richard of Joplin issued a similar statement, saying the governor should step aside. If he doesn’t Richard said, “it is my wish that we immediately start impeachment proceedings.”
The governor responded on Twitter, saying he would not resign. “In three weeks, this matter will go to a court of law — where it belongs and where the facts will prove my innocence,” he said. “Until then, I will do what the people of Missouri sent me here to do: to serve them and work hard on their behalf.”
The statements, issued Tuesday evening, followed a Tuesday morning announcement by Attorney General Josh Hawley who said that his office had uncovered evidence that Greitens may have committed a felony by using a charity donor list to solicit donations to fuel his 2016 campaign for governor.
Hawley, who like Greitens is a Republican, said his office found evidence that Greitens obtained and transmitted a donor list without the permission of the St. Louis-based charity The Mission Continues, which Greitens founded in 2007 but left in 2014.
“If proven, these acts could amount to the unauthorized taking and use of property, in this case, electronic property,” Hawley said at a news conference. “Under Missouri law, this is known as computer tampering. And given the value of the list in question, it is a felony.”
The Missouri legislature has never impeached a sitting governor before. The process is complex and could take months. That’s bad news for Hawley, who would undoubtedly like Greitens and his scandal to disappear as soon as possible. It’s also a boon for Mc Caskill, who has benefited from Republican scandals in the past. In 2012, her campaign spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to get the ultraconservative Republican Todd Akin to win the Republican primary for Senate.
The reason? Mc Caskill was making a big bet that Akin would say something alarming during the general election. And that’s exactly what he did: Explaining his anti-abortion stance, Akin argued that instances of men raping women were rare, and during “legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Mc Caskill went on to win that race by 12 points.
Republicans backed Hawley because they hoped he wouldn’t be another Akin. But with months to go until his primary, Hawley already has to cope with a massive scandal that is casting a cloud over Missouri Republicans and his own campaign.
By responding quickly and coming down hard on Greitens, Hawley can sidestep some of the drama, Keller said. But he admitted it would be much better if Greitens wasn’t something Hawley had to deal with.
“I think Josh was smart and forceful about it,” Keller said. “I think the people who know the governor, they do not expect the governor to resign regardless of how much pressure he’s under. This could potentially be a long and arduous process.”
If Greitens creates enough of a stink, he could hurt the chances of local Republicans, which in turn might help Senator Claire McCaskill, (who is as sharp and savvy a political operator as you can find and perhaps the most successful red state Democrat in the country) keep her seat for another term. Especially if Greitens, who was relatively popular until recently in the state, creates a Republican civil war and it causes a chunk of the Greitens die hards to stay home.
edited 19th Apr '18 1:53:16 AM by TheWanderer
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |A retired senior four-star who served both W and Obama came out blasting Trump for making it harder for the military to operate
because of his erratic shifts in policy and Twitter mood swings. Full article text
Regarding the Vietnamese thing: That's just... wow.
I mean, okay, sure. It's hilariously racist and offensive. It's also amazingly stupid since Vietnam is one of the very few countries that actually favors this administration. Sending them people they don't want (and who by the way will not have kind words to say about America) who have been in the US for at least 23 years is absolute insanity.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.But whose idea is it? Bannon? The article says they started in April of last year. Frankly, I don't think Trump would even think of it (or really even care, I think as far as he cares the Vietnamese diaspora begins and ends with nail salons). This isn't his idea.
I mean, it's such a bad idea because it erodes our soft power and weakens an ally against China so that does sound like Trump. But I can't envision it ever actually occurring to him.
edited 19th Apr '18 6:55:58 AM by Larkmarn
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I don't see why we should assume that, it's more than possible that he heard about the Vietnamese immigrants and decided that they had to be gone.
Honestly this is just one important little bit of horribleness in an administration chock full of the stuff.
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang
Because those Vietnamese would be the only justification you could use for US involvement in The Vietnam War. They didn't want to be Communist, they lost, and thus, they had to flee to the US.
Turning on them now just seems like painting the US involvement in the Vietnam War as "Moscow sucks, take down Ho Chi Minh".
I think you're being pretty reductive about Trump. He's an irrational idiot, but usually there's a cause to his irrationality. Handwaving every decision he makes with going "ah well, Donald be Donald" is exactly the normalization we don't want. Because in this case (and most cases) figuring out what set him off on this (because usually there's a trigger of some sort, 9 times out of 10 being Fox News) it critical in trying to stop it. It's like trying to figure out the cause of an illness rather than just treating the symptom.
I mean, every other page has megz talking about how Trump's behavior is consistent with NPD to just handwaving Trump as just crazy for crazy's sake isn't helpful, either.
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I don't see how, he's a racist idiot who has no grasp of strategy or realistic consequences. That perfectly describes this decision and even if it is reductive that doesn't mean it's fallacious or wrong.
Also when it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and acts like a duck then it's probably a duck, same with Trump and Narcissism.
edited 19th Apr '18 7:32:42 AM by Fourthspartan56
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji YangBecause there's still a cause for him to reach that decision, if only because Trump would never even think about Vietnamese refugees unless prompted. Basically, it takes effort to exercise this act of racism which doesn't sound like him.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.I'm just sort of curious why you're so dismissive of this, saying "what's the point of discussing this" when the same could be true of... literally anything here. This is a discussion thread and you're just trying to shut it down for... why exactly?
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Watch the next headline read: "US seeks to deport thousands of illegal immigrants who came to America to colonize it between the 1500s and 1700s."