Breaking News Events

[PlatinumPearl]

For criminals who are convicted of sex crimes with minors under the age of 13, Alabama will now require chemical castration as a condition of parole.

The measure was signed into law by Alabama's Gov. Kay Ivey on Aug. 10, and had been introduced by Republican state representative Steve Hurst of Calhoun County. Hurst would prefer that those offenders who have been convicted of these crimes were permanently castrated through surgical means, according to NBC News.

Hurst said "My preference would be if someone does a small infant child like that, they need to die. God's going to deal with them one day."

Under the new law, the prospective parolee would be required to begin the drug treatment at least one month prior to the date of their release. The drugs would be administered for as long as a judge deems necessary before the parolee would be permitted to live a regular life.

This makes Alabama one of at least seven states that either require or allow chemical castration on a voluntary basis for sex offenders before they are released. Those others include Wisconsin, Florida, Texas, Montana, Louisiana, and California. Guam also has this measure as a voluntary procedure from sex offenders of this type who are after parole.

The ACLU has taken issue with the law, and the Alabama chapter has called it "unconstitutional." Randall Marshall, the executive director for Alabama's ACLU, has said that chemical castration for sex offenders who harm minors under 13 shows that legislators "really misunderstand what sexual assault is about. Sexual assault isn't about sexual gratification. It's about power. It's about control."

Representative Hurst disagrees. "If they're going to mark these children for life, they need to be marked for life," he said.



Source: thepostmillennial.com
Website: https://bit.ly/3gT9sBC
Date: August 12, 2020

[homoe]

President Trump amplified a false claim Thursday that California-born Kamala Harris might be ineligible to serve as vice president, a smear that recalls the racist "birther" campaign he waged against former President Obama.

It marked a new turn in Trump's scattershot response to Democratic rival Joe Biden's selection of Harris as his running mate. Trump and his allies have careened through a jumble of contradictory attacks on the California senator's ideology, demeanor and background, using well-worn sexist and racist tropes. Harris is the first Black woman and first Asian American on a major-party ticket.

In questioning Harris' American citizenship, Trump is returning to what fueled his rise in Republican politics — his insistence that Obama, the nation's first Black president, was born in Kenya instead of Hawaii.

"This is only the second time that that has happened in our nation’s history. And the first time was with President Barack Obama. So why is it that only the two Black candidates are questioned about the legitimacy of their citizenship?" said Valerie Jarrett, a former top Obama advisor.

The conspiracy theory about Harris' standing to be vice president began on Wednesday, when John C. Eastman, a law professor and failed Republican candidate for California attorney general in 2010, wrote a column in Newsweek stating that Harris may not meet the constitutional requirements for the vice presidency of being a "natural-born citizen." He questioned whether Harris' parents — her father is from Jamaica and her mother was from India — were naturalized citizens at the time that Harris was born in Oakland.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/baseless-...014841856.html

[homoe]

Originally Posted by homoe

CHICAGO (AP) — More than 100 people were arrested Monday following a night of looting and unrest that left 13 officers injured and caused damage in the city's upscale Magnificent Mile shopping district and other parts of the city, authorities said.

Police Superintendent David Brown said it “was not an organized protest” but instead “an incident of pure criminality” that began following the shooting of a person by police the previous day in the city's Englewood neighborhood. At one point early Monday, shots were fired at police and officers returned fire. Brown said a heavy police presence is expected in the downtown area until further notice.

“This was straight up, felony criminal conduct,” said Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot. "This was an assault on our city.”

https://www.yahoo.com/news/crowds-cl...100903478.html

A day after looters smashed-in retailer’s windows, carried away loads of high-end merchandise and overwhelmed police officers in downtown Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot says the violence was an organized raid and not a demonstration of angry protest.

“When people showed up on Michigan Avenue in the downtown area with U-Haul trucks and cargo vans, and sophisticated equipment used to cut metal, and the methods that were used, and how quickly it got spun up… that wasn’t any spontaneous reaction,” Lightfoot told TIME in her fifth-floor offices at Chicago’s City Hall on Tuesday.

The chaos that unfolded Sunday night, and into the predawn hours Monday, was initially blamed on a police shooting in the city’s southside Englewood neighborhood. News of the incident—along with misinformation that a minor had been shot—pinballed on social media, resulting in “caravans” of cars headed north downtown, Lightfoot says.

“To be sure, there are people that did join in that were motivated by lots of different reasons, and certainly were motivated by social media posts encouraging people to come downtown,” Lightfoot says. “But the core of what happened — that’s organized criminal activity… It was a planned attack.”

For three hours that night, Chicago was under virtual siege. Hundreds of people flooded the streets. Looters broke into buildings and came out with armfuls of jewelry, clothes, electronics and other goods. The 911 switchboard was swamped with 1,800 calls between midnight and 3 a.m., a figure that’s typically in the teens at those hours. Lightfoot says the looters knew that police staffing would be low that early Monday morning and therefore picked “the moments where they feel like they have the best opportunity to make a move.”

[homoe]

Originally Posted by homoe

SEATTLE — Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best has announced that she will be resigning next month. The news of Best's resignation comes on the same day the Seattle City Council voted to cut spending for the Seattle Police Department.Best has been with SPD for 28 years. She was the first Black police chief in Seattle's history. She took on the role as chief of police on Aug. 13, 2018.

Excerpt from her letter:

"To the Women and Men of the Seattle Police Department –

I wanted to notify you that I will be retiring from the Seattle Police Department, effective September 2nd, 2020. I wanted you to hear this from me, but some media have reached this conclusion on their own.

This was a difficult decision for me, but when it’s time, it’s time.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/l...3-8f3d9787d0c3

Seattle police Chief Carmen Best’s decision to abruptly retire next month was driven by City Council members who didn’t consult her as they sought to cut the Police Department’s budget this summer, and who showed a lack of respect for the department’s employees, Best said Tuesday.

In a news conference with Mayor Jenny Durkan, who praised her leadership during a turbulent time, Best said she realized she couldn’t bring herself to carry out officer layoffs the council had unanimously voted for Monday. The chief had opposed the move, warning that a rule mandating layoffs by reverse seniority would result in new officers, who are more likely to be officers of color, losing jobs. Council members had asked her to pursue a waiver allowing out-of-order layoffs, arguing cops with sustained misconduct complaints should be let go first.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...ruptly-retire/

[homoe]

SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council voted Monday to impose a new payroll tax on big businesses. The measure passed 7-2. This tax targets big earners and the companies that employ them. Companies with more than $7 million in annual payroll will be charged a percentage based on how many people they employ with salaries of at least $150,000. Companies that have billion-dollar payrolls will pay an even bigger share for high wage workers.The tax rate will range from 0.7% to 2.4%, depending on annual payrolls and individual salaries. Lead sponsor of the bill and Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda says the new tax targets companies with many highly paid employees, whereas the 2018 "head tax" would have applied to all employees at large companies.

[homoe]

Originally Posted by homoe

SEATTLE — The Seattle City Council voted Monday to impose a new payroll tax on big businesses. The measure passed 7-2. This tax targets big earners and the companies that employ them. Companies with more than $7 million in annual payroll will be charged a percentage based on how many people they employ with salaries of at least $150,000. Companies that have billion-dollar payrolls will pay an even bigger share for high wage workers.The tax rate will range from 0.7% to 2.4%, depending on annual payrolls and individual salaries. Lead sponsor of the bill and Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda says the new tax targets companies with many highly paid employees, whereas the 2018 "head tax" would have applied to all employees at large companies.

Amazon.com Inc. is offering Seattle-based employees a choice of smaller offices outside the city, suggesting the Covid-19 outbreak and a new local employers tax have pushed the e-commerce giant to consider alternatives to its hometown.

In a message to employees Thursday, Amazon asked which communities near Seattle — including Tacoma and Redmond — they’d prefer. The title on the message, which was shared on Reddit and later deleted, was “office workplace options.” Amazon declined to comment on the matter.

Amazon, which reported a total global workforce of almost 877,000 as of June 30, has been expanding beyond Seattle for years. It is building a second major office center in suburban Virginia near the nation’s capital and has satellite locations in cities including New York, Austin and Los Angeles.

https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...de-of-seattle/

[homoe]

President Trump called for additional stimulus checks to be sent to Americans amid stalled talks with Democrats over a new bill to address various issues related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Both Republicans and Democrats agree that another round of stimulus checks should be included in any legislation, which is stalled after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ceded the GOP-side of negotiations to the White House and Trump attempted to bypass negotiations with unilateral action on a looming eviction crisis, student loans, extra weekly unemployment benefits, and payroll taxes.

The president tweeted that he had directed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “to get ready to send direct payments ($3,400 for family of four) to all Americans.” The tweet added that Democrats are holding up the stimulus payments, though there are several actual disagreements unrelated to stimulus checks.

Sidebar: Perhaps a bribe or to ingratiate himself with voters?

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Stone Mountain, Georgia is once again the potential scene of left vs. right-wing bloodshed.

I live near Stone Mountain (like close enough to barely hear the fireworks), and occasionally right-wing activists, including chapters of the KKK, decide to have a rally. They apply for a permit, the permit gets denied, and they show up anyway (complete with guns and rebel flags). Far left-wing activists, including Antifa followers, show up with guns and protest against the protesters. Sometimes Stone Mountain Park, the organization that runs and maintains the attractions and landscaping, decides to close the park for a day, rather than deal with the crazies. So then, all the protesters decide to congregate in the City of Stone Mountain.

The county government sends out texts to citizens who have signed up for emergency notifications. I received one today for tomorrow's anticipated rally. The park is closing, which means the city will be overrun with freaks with guns. For those who may recall my past posts, I am not totally opposed to gun ownership - but these people are nuts. All it would take is one lame-ass gun novice to make a mistake, and a chain reaction bloodbath could take place. The best we can hope for, other than a peaceful rally where no one makes any mistakes, is that all the uninvolved people stay far, far away. Most of the businesses in the city will also be closed. Hopefully, the police have a plan - it's not like this is the first time this has happened. This one is just projected to attract more people than in the past.

Keep us in your thoughts, please.

[homoe]

Sean Hannity on Friday blasted an attack video on Donald Trump that used Hannity’s own words to mock the president. Twitter labeled the video “manipulated media” after complaints from the Fox News host. The video, which racked up more than 2.2 million views after he brought it up, was not “corrected,” but rather marked with a “manipulated media” label, which links to a Twitter policy explaining that Twitter “may label Tweets containing synthetic and manipulated media to help people understand their authenticity and to provide additional context.”

The video, made by super PAC MeidasTouch, flipped the script, using Hannity’s criticisms of Biden to mock Trump.The video featured scenes of Hannity talking about Democratic conspiracy theories, and mocking Joe Biden as a “frail guy” with questionable “cognitive fitness.” Those accusations were spliced with clips of Trump spinning his latest birther conspiracy theory, looking frail and not making sense.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/sean-...b69fa9e2fbd988

[GeorgiaMa'am]

Originally Posted by GeorgiaMa'am

Stone Mountain, Georgia is once again the potential scene of left vs. right-wing bloodshed.

I live near Stone Mountain (like close enough to barely hear the fireworks), and occasionally right-wing activists, including chapters of the KKK, decide to have a rally. They apply for a permit, the permit gets denied, and they show up anyway (complete with guns and rebel flags). Far left-wing activists, including Antifa followers, show up with guns and protest against the protesters. Sometimes Stone Mountain Park, the organization that runs and maintains the attractions and landscaping, decides to close the park for a day, rather than deal with the crazies. So then, all the protesters decide to congregate in the City of Stone Mountain.

The county government sends out texts to citizens who have signed up for emergency notifications. I received one today for tomorrow's anticipated rally. The park is closing, which means the city will be overrun with freaks with guns. For those who may recall my past posts, I am not totally opposed to gun ownership - but these people are nuts. All it would take is one lame-ass gun novice to make a mistake, and a chain reaction bloodbath could take place. The best we can hope for, other than a peaceful rally where no one makes any mistakes, is that all the uninvolved people stay far, far away. Most of the businesses in the city will also be closed. Hopefully, the police have a plan - it's not like this is the first time this has happened. This one is just projected to attract more people than in the past.

Keep us in your thoughts, please.

Follow up:
Thanks for the good juju to everyone who sent us some. About 500 people showed up, mostly counter-protesters. It was peaceful for a few hours, and then some fights broke out. Police in riot gear then quickly shut things down. Apparently, downtown Stone Mountain was cleared out by 2 p.m. Thank the Goddess it didn't seem to amount to much more than a pissing contest.

[homoe]

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Sunday denied reports that several U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter sorting machines were decommissioned after orders from the postmaster general. Meadows told CNN’s “State of the Union” that reports about hundreds of postal service sorting machines being taken out of service are a “political narrative” and “not based on fact.”

NBC News reported on Friday that an internal document showed that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is decommissioning 671 of USPS’s letter sorting machines across the U.S.

“There's no sorting machines that are going offline between now and the election,” Meadows said. “That’s something that my Democrat friends are trying to do to stoke fear out there. That’s not happening.”
Meadows also called on House Democrats to return to D.C. to negotiate Postal Service funding along with enhanced unemployment benefits, stimulus checks and small-business reform, adding that the president will “sign that.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper pushed back on the chief of staff, saying, “Are you saying that sorting machines have not been taken offline and removed?” “I’m saying that sorting machines between now and the election will not be taken offline,” Meadows replied, prompting Tapper to ask about the “ones that have been taken offline in the last couple of months.” “Why were these sorting machines taken offline?” Tapper asked. Meadows answered, “Get your producer to share where exactly those sorting machines were taken offline. Let them whisper in your ear because what I’m telling you is you’re picking up on a narrative that’s not based on facts.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-...-machines-were

[homoe]

After reports surfaced in the past week of postal workers removing those iconic blue mail collection boxes from street corners in multiple states, the U.S. Postal Service said it will halt further removals for 90 days, citing "recent customer concerns."

Local news outlets in places from Montana to Oregon and New York have reported on mailboxes being "hauled away in flatbed trucks" and "seen discarded behind a post office" in recent days.

On Sunday, the Postal Service said the removals were in keeping with "routine" efforts to "identify redundant/seldom used collection boxes."" This process is one of the many ways the Postal Services makes adjustments to our infrastructure to match our resources to declining mail volumes," said Postal Service spokeswoman Kimberly Frum.

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/citing-cus...193600715.html

[homoe]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday she is calling the House back into session over the crisis at the U.S. Postal Service, setting up a political showdown amid growing concerns that the Trump White House is trying to undermine the agency ahead of the election.

Pelosi is cutting short lawmakers' summer recess with a vote expected the Saturday after the Democratic National Convention on legislation that would prohibit changes at the agency as tensions mount. President Donald Trump's new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, has sparked nationwide outcry over delays, new prices and cutbacks just as millions of Americans will be trying to vote by mail to avoid polling places during the coronavirus outbreak.

Earlier Sunday, Democratic lawmakers demanded that leaders of the Postal Service testify at an emergency oversight hearing Aug. 24 on mail delays.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee said it wants to hear from DeJoy and from the chair of the Postal Service board of governors, Robert “Mike” Duncan.

With heightened scrutiny of its operations, the Postal Service is now requesting a temporary preelection rate increase, from mid-October through Christmas, although not for first-class letters.

The agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment about whether the two men would appear before the House committee.

https://apnews.com/8cd319f66ae12bc23f4cadd38cc21f5f

[homoe]

Canada has extended its ban on American tourists at least one more month, until September 21 Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced Friday.

An estimated 80% of Canadians want their southern neighbors to be kept out until 2021 at the earliest as the coronavirus pandemic continues to escalate in the United States. Fear of American travelers bringing the coronavirus into Canada has led some citizens to begin reporting cars with foreign license plates to the police.

The US-Canada border has been closed since March 31, when the two countries banned all nonessential travel between in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus and extended several times. The border closure was just one part of Canada's somewhat successful national effort to shut down the pandemic, while the number of both confirmed cases and deaths has continued to spiral in the United States. "We're taking this step to keep people in both our countries safe - because your health and safety is always our top priority," Canadian Prime Minister Justin Treadeu tweeted Friday.

https://www.businessinsider.com/auth...-nicole-rogers

[homoe]

e former head of the Food and Drug Administration criticized Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for casually comparing COVID-19 to the common flu during an interview Sunday.

“We need to be careful about making comparisons to flu — and the death and disease we see in flu relative to COVID,” former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on CBS News’ “Face The Nation.”

The number of COVID-19 cases and deaths has remained “fairly persistent” over the last few weeks, noted Gottlieb, a Republican who served in both the Obama and Trump administrations.

“There’s been a fairly persistent level of infection, hospitalizations and deaths over the last couple of weeks,” he said. “We’ve had over a thousand deaths a day for at least two weeks now, over 50,000 infections a day on average.”

Gottlieb called out the White House adviser after Kushner said on the same program earlier that he would “absolutely” send his children back to school this fall. His children’s school, however, will “principally use distance learning” with some in-person “opportunities” for “outdoor education and community building,” according to the school’s plan.

“Our school is not opening up five days a week; I wish they were,” Kushner stated. Kushner insisted his children have a “six times greater risk of dying from the flu as from COVID-19, adding: “I don’t believe that’s a risk.” Gottlieb said he had no idea where that figure came from, and Kushner didn’t mention a source. Kushner dismissed the significance of COVID-19 for children just as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Saturday that cases in children 17 and younger have been “steadily increasing” from March to July. Children can develop severe illness and complications, even if that risk is lower compared to adults, the CDC cautioned.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jared...b6959911e61d0b

[BullDog]

Corrupt Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has agreed to House Democrats’ request for him to testify next Monday August 24 before the Oversight and Reform Committee.

Kate Porter is on the committee! She tweeted this: “I hope the Postmaster General comes prepared. I know I will.”

Also on the committee:

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Ayanna Pressley
Rashida Tlaib
& More

He better show up. This is going to be epic!

[homoe]

~~

...........

[homoe]

Twenty years after their romance ended, Anne Heche looks back on her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres fondly.

"Our time was a beautiful part of my life and one that I wear with honor," the actress, 51, said her cover interview with Mr. Warburton magazine for the September issue.

"I was a part of a revolution that created social change, and I could not have done that without falling in love with her," Heche said, recalling the mistreatment she and DeGeneres received in the 1990s for being open about their same-sex relationship. For example, Heche says she was escorted out of her own premiere for the 1997 disaster flick Volcano because she brought DeGeneres, who had just come out as gay in her sitcom Ellen.

"The difference between what would happen today and what happened then is that I would not have been ushered out of my own premiere and fired from a multi-million dollar picture deal with Fox for taking a girl as my date," Heche said.

https://people.com/tv/anne-heche-has...eres-in-years/

[homoe]

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he is suspending changes to mail service that raised concerns over slow delivery of ballots in the fall election after Democrats accused President Donald Trump of hampering the vote-by-mail process.

“To avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail, I am suspending these initiatives until after the election is concluded,” DeJoy said in an emailed statement Tuesday.

DeJoy said that mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are, and no mail processing facilities will be closed. Overtime work will “continue to be” approved as needed, he said.

The announcement follows concerns from Democrats and others over apparent mail slowdowns as the coronavirus pandemic leads to the necessity for increased mail-in voting options. DeJoy is to appear twice before Congress in coming days: on Friday at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and on Monday before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.

[homoe]

Today on Celebrity Death Match: COVID-Edition: CNN anchor Anderson Cooper vs. MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell. Check out some of the action below.

On Monday, Lindell told CNN that President Donald Trump was “enthusiastic” about an unproven and untested oleander-based therapeutic for coronavirus that he and POTUS discussed in a White House meeting last month. Today, Cooper had Lindell on his primetime show for a sometimes-heated interview.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/...191727779.html