Sunday, June 12, 2022

And another day of evidence, charges, hoping the Justice Department is listening, bipartisan agreement on gun control, white supremacists arrested in ID, Kremlin cracks down on protestors, sexual assault in church settings, and two approaches to the homeless comes to a close:

“No matter what Republicans hit you with, respond with "but you tried to end American democracy." -- Rachel Bitecofer

Deaths

US: 1,035,847

World: 6,331,474

Cases

US: 87,321,703

World: 540,545,035

Jan. 6 panelists: Enough evidence uncovered to indict Trump. Members of the House committee investigating the Capitol riot said Sunday they have uncovered enough evidence for the Justice Department to consider an unprecedented criminal indictment against former President Donald Trump for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The committee announced that Trump’s campaign manager, Bill Stepien, is among the witnesses scheduled to testify at a hearing Monday that focuses on Trump’s effort to spread his lies about a stolen election. Stepien was subpoenaed for his public testimony.

Does the Justice Department want to charge Trump? Here's what could happen. With a growing body of evidence that Cheney and others say points to criminal acts involving Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results, Attorney General Merrick Garland may ultimately be faced with an excruciatingly difficult decision about whether prosecuting a former president is in the national interest. -- Yes, it would be in the national interest, because no one, not even the fucking President of the United States, should be above the law.

The Jan. 6 committee's evidence spoke for itself. Is the Justice Department listening? "While the violence is stunning and probably elicits the strongest emotions because you can see how horrible it is that officers are being beaten," she said, "the scheming, the alternate legal theories, the cultivation of the 'big lie,' the use of social media to gin up anger and undermine the election results — those things are more insidious."

Thousands gather at March for Our Lives rallies nationwide to push for gun control. Thousands of demonstrators gathered at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., while others protested in hundreds of other cities in at least 45 states.

Bipartisan group of senators announce agreement on gun control. A bipartisan group of senators announced an agreement on principle for gun safety legislation Sunday, which includes “needed mental health resources, improves school safety and support for students, and helps ensure dangerous criminals and those who are adjudicated as mentally ill can’t purchase weapons,” they said in a statement. Notably, the announcement includes the support of 10 Republican senators, which would give the proposal enough support to overcome the Senate filibuster. The agreement is significant given how divided lawmakers have been over the gun issue, but the actual legislative text is not yet written...Critically, the legislation includes a so-called red flag provision, with the government providing “resources to states and tribes to create and administer laws that help ensure deadly weapons are kept out of the hands of individuals whom a court has determined to be a significant danger to themselves or others,” according to the release. The proposal would also include “major investments to increase access to mental health and suicide prevention programs; and other support services available in the community, including crisis and trauma intervention and recovery.” -- They left out all the stuff that will actually make a difference.

A tiny Texas school district 'in the middle of nowhere' is arming half its staff. The leaders of the Harrold Independent School District hope that if violence comes to their tiny town on the Texas/Oklahoma border, they'll be ready. Half of the district's 27 employees — men and women; teachers, janitors and coaches — are training to shoot to kill an intruder to protect their students. "Our situation is a lot different," says Cody Patton, superintendent of Harrold schools. "I know some of your bigger schools and a lot of the people are against it. But they're not in our situation. We are a rural school in the middle of nowhere."

From Fringe to the Frontline. How Alex Jones stoked many of the conspiracy theories taking hold in today’s Republican party. If the object of an actual news show is to inform viewers in a compelling way, the object of Infowars is to whip up the ever-dormant flames of populist fear and resentment in service of going viral — without a thought to who gets hurt or who is driven to violence. It’s doom-porn, and the name of the game is to get eyeballs and sell products.

Patriot Front leader among those arrested near Idaho Pride. After the arrest of more than two dozen members of a white supremacist group near a northern Idaho pride event, including one identified as its founder, LGBTQ advocates said Sunday that polarization and a fraught political climate are putting their community increasingly at risk. The 31 Patriot Front members were arrested with riot gear after a tipster reported seeing people loading up into a U-Haul like “a little army” at a hotel parking lot in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, police said. Among those booked into jail on misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to riot was Thomas Ryan Rousseau of Grapevine, Texas, who has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as the 23-year-old who founded the group after the deadly “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017...Patriot Front is a white supremacist neo-Nazi group whose members perceive Black Americans, Jews and LGBTQ people as enemies, said Jon Lewis, a George Washington University researcher who specializes in homegrown violent extremism. Their playbook, Lewis said, involves identifying local grievances to exploit, organizing on platforms like the messaging app Telegram and ultimately showing up to events marching in neat columns, in blue- or white-collared-shirt uniforms, in a display of strength.

Russians opposed to war in Ukraine face their own battle: Kremlin’s crackdown on anti-war protest. Swapping out price tags for antiwar leaflets, wearing green ribbons, flashing a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace.” Those are things that can get ordinary Russians who don’t agree with the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine detained, fined or even jailed. Since the start of Moscow’s incursion, media in Russia have been cautioned against calling it a “war,” and new draconian legislation has been put in place to stop people from “discrediting” the Russian army, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. -- Tactics Republicans would love to implement here in America.

#ChurchToo revelations growing, years after movement began. Survivors of sexual assault in church settings and their advocates have been calling on churches for years to admit the extent of abuse in their midst and to implement reforms. In 2017 that movement acquired the hashtag #ChurchToo, derived from the wider #MeToo movement, which called out sexual predators in many sectors of society. In recent weeks #ChurchToo has seen an especially intense set of revelations across denominations and ministries, reaching vast audiences in headlines and on screen with a message that activists have long struggled to get across. “For us it’s just confirmation of what we’ve been saying all these years,” said Jimmy Hinton, an advocate for abuse survivors and a Church of Christ minister in Somerset, Pennsylvania. “There is an absolute epidemic of abuse in the church, in religious spaces.” -- Religion is often abused to exert power over others. Religion is neither necessary nor sufficient to be a good person. #EmptyThePews

'Homosexuality' to finally be removed from Pennsylvania's crime code. The bill will also erase “homosexuality” completely from the state’s definition of sexual conduct in a section on “obscene and other sexual materials and performances”.

Phoenix, Vegas, Denver post records amid Southwest heat wave. The National Weather Service in Phoenix reported a temperature of 114 degrees Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius), tying the record high for the date set back in 1918. Las Vegas tied a record for the day set in 1956, with temperatures soaring to 109 F (43 C). The National Weather Service said there was a chance the high temperatures in both cities could rise even more. In Colorado, Denver hit 100 F (38 C), tying a record set in 2013 for both the high temperature and the earliest calendar day to reach 100 F.

Tennessee made homeless camps a felony. Colorado is trying something else. In Tennessee, a law enacted by the Republican Legislature that goes into effect July 1 makes it a felony for homeless people to camp in parks and on other public property — a measure advocates say is “unprecedented.” In Colorado, meanwhile, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis recently signed into law two bills creating campuses where people can get help in their transition out of homelessness by supplying housing, mental health services and job training. “We tend to see communities reacting to all of that in one of two ways. One is with empathy and concern for their fellow citizens and residents who are losing their housing, while the other is to pretend that it’s their fault that they’re becoming homeless and to use the criminal justice and legal systems to deter behavior they think is bad," said Eric Tars, the legal director at the National Homeless Law Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit advocating for housing rights. -- Vote all Republicans out of office.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.