August 25, 2022

Torrance police officers trove of racist texts leads to big payouts to victims of their violence

The city agreed to pay $500,000 to settle Bates’ lawsuit earlier this year after receiving a motion to turn over the text messages as discovery in her case, according to her attorney, Erin Darling.

Bates’ suit is one of several in which attorneys say fear of disclosing the texts cost the city heavily.

The family of Deautry Ross, a Black man who died in a 2018 struggle with several officers, including Tomsic, settled its wrongful death case against the city for $3 million last year after requesting the text messages, according to civil rights attorney DeWitt Lacy.

Mitchell’s family was awarded $7.8 million in a settlement this year after a judge granted their discovery request for records tied to the “text message scandal” dating back to 2016, according to court records and the family’s attorney, Peter Carr.

More legal bills are likely coming. Both Robinson and Kiley Swaine, the man whose car officers allegedly spray-painted a swastika inside of, have sued the department.

Despite the mounting legal bills and pile of cases dismissed due to the alleged misconduct, almost all of the officers linked to the texting scandal remain employed by the Torrance Police Department. And there’s a chance it could stay that way.

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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-25/torrance-police-officers-racist-new-texts

August 25, 2022

After Hour-Long Commute, She Noticed the Man in Her Car, He was passed out in the back of her SUV

After Hour-Long Commute, She Noticed the Man in Her Car
He was passed out in the back of her SUV

The commute sounds typical if a little long and tiring: A Rhode Island woman listened to a podcast Sunday night while making the almost hour-long drive from Providence to her job in Easton, Massachusetts. When she got to her company's parking lot, she realized she hadn't made the drive alone. Police say she discovered a nearly naked man passed out in the back of the Chevy Tahoe around midnight. The 21-year-old had a pair of shorts around a single leg and a shirt around one arm, but was otherwise naked, say police.

CBS News reports police woke him up and determined he had ingested a "large" amount of alcohol and pot before climbing into the SUV and falling asleep on the floor of the back seat. He allegedly entered the car after the woman had started it outside her house but during a moment when she went back inside. Boston 25 identifies the suspect as Jose Osorio. He wasn't known to the woman, reports NBC News. Police say he had an outstanding warrant for breaking and entering and was arrested on suspicion of breaking and entering

https://www.newser.com/story/324649/after-her-hour-long-commute-she-saw-the-man-in-her-car.html

August 25, 2022

mysterious billboards spring up in LA and SF

The slogan, 'The Texas Miracle,' highlights the former Lone Star state governor, Rick Perry, who managed to 'boom' the state's economy during the Great Recession in 2008.

Meanwhile, the prideful motto, 'Don't mess with Texas,' stemming from an anti-littering campaign in 1986, was seen crossed out on the billboard.

'Are these people happy that Uvalde happened?' an angered social media critic said as some called the message 'disgusting use of political propaganda' for 'using the tragedy to their advantage.'

Others demanded to know who put up the sinister postings.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11145583/Dont-Texas-Billboards-pop-Los-Angeles-reference-Uvalde-shooting.html

August 25, 2022

Didn't trump give rich farmers huge payouts?

I recall rich farmers getting huge payouts..we need to respond with list of entitlements when they complain about loan payoffs

August 25, 2022

Florida primary... Dem turnout was up but driven by White Democrats over age 50

Florida Democrats saw a largely positive outcome in Tuesday's primary results, with Charlie Crist and Representative Val Demings at the top of the ticket moving on to face Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Marco Rubio in November, respectively.

Turnout was also up slightly in the contested governor's race, while DeSantis ran unopposed.

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Mi Vecino, a group created in the wake of the 2020 election to turn around Democratic fortunes in the state, has raised $1.8 million so far. Data it shared with Newsweek reveals turnout among African Americans supporting Democrats ahead of election day down sharply, at less than half what it was in 2018, and Latino turnout down 7 points, from 136,193 votes to 93,899.


"The makeup of the electorate is different than it was in 2018," said co-founder Alex Berrios. "White people over 50 drove Democratic turnout in this election, and communities of color are depressed."

He argued that while some state Democrats might wave away concerns because the end result was positive, understanding the makeup of the electorate before the final push to November is critical for strategic reasons.

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Others, like Ricardo Negron-Almodovar, the Florida campaign manager for All Voting is Local, argue that new obstacles have been placed in front of voters of color since the last election, including a new election police task force and "anti-voter" groups entering polling stations to "monitor" voting.

August 25, 2022

Dems won NY#19 on turnout. Ryan lost 9 of 11 counties but got high turnout in 2 blue counties

While pre-election polls showed Ryan trailing Republican Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro, the Democrat pulled off a win by two percentage points in the special, held on the same day as party primaries for Congress and the state Senate.

Ryan lost nine of NY-19’s 11 counties, but still got 3,000 more votes than Molinaro thanks to a 9,179-vote cushion in Ulster County alongside a 2,322-vote margin of victory in exurban Columbia County.


Total turnout in the special election was 25% districtwide – but was higher in the two counties Ryan won. About 70% of voters in the district also cast ballots in 2020, while 59% voted in 2018. Just 13% of Ulster County voters took part in the 2019 special when Ryan was first elected county executive, while 29% voted Tuesday.

Molinaro conceded defeat Wednesday while suggesting the timing of the special election contributed to his loss in the 19th district, which includes parts of the Hudson Valley and Catskills.

“We knew this was an uphill battle when Democrats scheduled this special election on the same day as two Democratic Primaries with five candidates pushing their turnout,” he said.

https://nypost.com/2022/08/24/how-turnout-helped-dem-pat-ryan-get-an-upset-win-in-ny19-congressional-bellwether/

August 25, 2022

you can only save one from a fire...

https://twitter.com/Thumper18560818/status/1562380513222033408

August 24, 2022

Repubs going to try to make student loan forgiveness a divisive issue: Credentialed vs non credenti

non credentialed. Term used by repubs in rightwing rag I won't link to

August 24, 2022

Two of the GOP's Worst Ghouls Lost Their Primaries - Loomer and Paladino

Two of the GOP’s Worst Ghouls Lost Their Primaries
It’s a relief to know that Carl Paladino and Laura Loomer won’t be coming to Congress. But that doesn’t mean the Republican Party’s 2022 slate is a normal one.


On Tuesday, two of the biggest ghouls in right-wing politics failed in their attempts to win Republican nominations for Congress—races they would likely have won in these heavily gerrymandered districts, had they succeeded.

Carl Paladino, a decades-long presence in western New York’s Republican politics, who was running to represent the state’s 23rd district, has praised Hitler as “the kind of leader we need today.” He opposes abortion in all instances, including rape and incest. He has claimed that mass shootings are false flags engineered by Democrats who hope to repeal the 2nd amendment and seize privately-owned guns. He made comments so racist and vile about the Obamas that even Donald Trump’s transition team had to condemn them. In 2010, he got busted for forwarding racist emails to colleagues—and for sending bestiality porn to friends. More recently, he said that attorney general Merrick Garland should be “executed” for authorizing the raid on Donald Trump’s Florida residence. (Paladino later claimed he was being “facetious.”)

Laura Loomer, a candidate in Florida’s 11th district who is nearly 50 years younger than Paladino, but no less vile, has boasted that she is a “proud Islamaphobe.” She has celebrated the death of migrants, attacked school shooting victims, and said “no one cares” about the 51 victims of a New Zealand mass shooting that targeted Muslims. She’s a proud anti-vaxxer who once handcuffed herself to Twitter’s Manhattan headquarters to protest being banned from the platform for spreading an incessant barrage of conspiracy theories.

Paladino, running in a district that stretches from the Buffalo suburbs all the way to central New York, had tried with mixed success to distance himself from his reputation for saying outlandish things—which earned him the nickname “Crazy Carl.” Loomer made no such attempt and immediately began crying voter fraud as soon as she lost. Both, in true Trumpian fashion, refused to concede.


The candidates that Loomer and Paladino were running against, moreover, are hardly bastions of decency; they do not represent a turn toward the normal.

https://newrepublic.com/article/167528/two-gops-worst-ghouls-lost-primaries

August 24, 2022

Proposal to put abortion protections in California Constitution appears headed for BIG victory

SACRAMENTO — A measure to amend the state Constitution to add protections for abortion rights appears on track for victory this fall as the issue of reproductive rights appears to be strongly motivating the state’s voters.

A UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released Wednesday showed 7 in 10 California voters support the proposed constitutional amendment, and majorities back other policies aimed at protecting abortion rights.

Voters’ strong convictions on the issue appear likely to bolster election fortunes of Democrats in the state this November.

Eight in 10 voters called abortion an important issue as they decide how to vote in congressional, state and local races this November, with 63% describing the issue as “very important.”

Among Democrats, 77% said abortion is “very important” heading into Election Day, according to the poll, which was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times. Forty-three percent of Republicans prioritized abortion similarly.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-24/abortion-california-voters-2022-california-election-poll