Oh my

 

When are the Dem elites going to figure it out?

 Special election primary in New Jersey.

Resistance pays off

 

Because there aren't nearly enough Minneapolis police.  There are 3,000 Gestapo goons deployed in the area. 

This is crazy.  National Guard to protect from Federal Agents.

Lawless

 

No one is safe

 The Trump reign of fear ups the stakes.

Two harrowing stories: one in Massachusetts, one in New Jersey.

Worcester, MA:

A woman was led by federal agents in cuffs away from her family, through a throng of community organizers trying to stop it, and into an unmarked car. The local police arrived to prevent the community from protecting their neighbor from an unlawful kidnapping. They succeeded, and in the process arrested two of the people who tried to stop it.

[...]

And then I see the mother, a young woman in a green shirt, wailing, crying, held on either side by menacing white men in tactical vests, black neck warmers pulled over their noses in the style du jour for our secret police forces.

Surrounding them are a few dozen community members who were tipped off about the ICE raid and got to it before the police did. Before I arrived, they demanded to see a warrant. The ICE agents refused to provide one, so they created a human chain, which the ICE officers eventually broke through.

[...]

An ICE agent opens the door and the woman's daughter shrieks—an unforgettable noise of agony. Her mother is about to disappear, into the purposefully vague bureaucratic world of forced removal.

[...]

A Worcester cop comes over, stepping between the open car door and the community, past the ICE agents stuffing the mother into the back seat, and he looks at a woman holding the shrieking daughter's baby.

[...]

The woman's daughter then jumps on the hood of the car. A Worcester cop pulls her off.

[...]

These federal agents were wearing a myriad of badges and few of them had name tags. Most of them had "POLICE" written somewhere on their tactical vests. There were ICE insignias, but also Customs and Border Patrol, and one ATF.

[...]

[F]ederal agents showed up, without saying why, intending to bring [the woman] to an undisclosed somewhere without even proving they had the legal right.

[...]

In the background, a Worcester police officer looks at the desperate woman holding her baby trying to stop the agents from taking her mother and says "Do you want to stay with your baby?" The tacit threat of separation for her protestation of another separation. Later he would complain "She's putting the baby in harm's way." A classic move: "harm" goes undefined because the harm is him.

[...]

Another officer, frustrated, says "They don't need a warrant." Finally, one of them tells the truth. Due process is not a matter they're concerned with. The deportation must proceed. Trying to stop it is the unlawful thing.

[...]

A cop pulls his cruiser behind us—we're boxed in now—and from the intercom says "This is the Worcester Police Department. This is an unlawful assembly, I'm warning you to disperse right now or you will be subject to arrest."

[...]

As the car pulls away, nudging into the thick crowd, the daughter shrieks another horrible horrible horrible shriek, communicating the non-communicable as the disappearers take another step toward disappearing her mother. As the car breaks from the crowd she runs after it. A Worcester police officer, his voice frothing with anger, shouts "Arrest her right now. You are under arrest." And then four cops swarm her, grab her, throw her to the ground. All the while she's crying crying crying. Her hair's caught in her mouth and matted to her face, wet with spit and tears. Four cops hold her pinned to the ground.

[...]

Next to me is a TV reporter from a Spanish language station and her cameraman. She yells out, "What's your name?" and the woman responds in Spanish. I can't make it out. She asks her age and this one I catch: “dieciséis.”

Not a woman—a girl. A 16-year-old girl. Now in custody for the crime of reacting in an unruly way to the sudden forceful disappearance of her mother.

I keep asking about the charges. The only cop who doesn't ignore me explains "I'm not the arresting officer." The arresting officers go on ignoring me.

[...]

Eventually I get an answer, and it's the usual package job: disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, unlawful assembly. The charges they throw on anyone they want to arrest for the sake of arresting them, knowing they're unlikely to stick. But sticking isn't the goal. The officer who tells me this has a tactical K9 Unit vest on. He tells me the 16-year-old girl was interfering with police business.

[...]

In a statement posted to the department's Facebook page Thursday night, the WPD said they responded to "a report of a federal agent who was surrounded by a large group of about twenty-five people." The daughter was charged with reckless endangerment of a child, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. [A] community organizer faces charges of assault and battery on a police officer, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (unknown liquid), disorderly conduct, and interfering with a police officer. Both were out on bail by Thursday night, according to local organizers. The name and whereabouts of the woman taken by ICE remains unknown.

  Welcome to the World

Newark, NJ:

Fox News angle:

The mayor of Newark was arrested Friday at an ICE detention facility in New Jersey where congressional leaders had scheduled an afternoon "oversight" visit.

  NBC

Why is oversight in BS quotes?

A spokesperson confirmed Mayor Ras Baraka was taken into custody by federal police outside Delaney Hall, a detention facility run by private prison operator GEO Group, in Newark.

[...]

Baraka had visited the facility in recent days amid efforts to close the recently reopened prison. The mayor has made public claims that the detention center is not operating legally.

Witnesses said the arrest came after Baraka attempted to join a scheduled tour of the facility with three members of New Jersey’s congressional delegation, Reps. Robert Menendez, LaMonica McIver, and Bonnie Watson Coleman.

"We’re at Delaney Hall, an ICE prison in Newark that opened without permission from the city & in violation of local ordinances," Rep. Coleman wrote in a post on X.

When federal officials blocked Baraka's entry, a heated argument broke out, according to Viri Martinez, an activist with the New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice. It continued even after Baraka returned to the public side of the gates.

“The agents started intimidating and putting their hands on the congresswomen. There was yelling and pushing,” Martinez said. “Then the officers swarmed Baraka. They threw one of the organizers to the ground. They put Baraka handcuffs and put him in an unmarked car.”

In a statement, The Department of Homeland Security said that the lawmakers had not asked for a tour of the facility, contrary to witnesses' accounts. The department said further that as a bus carrying detainees was entering the facility, “a group of protestors, including two members of the U.S. House of Representatives, stormed the gate and broke into the detention facility.”

It said Menendez, Watson Coleman, and a number of protesters were currently “holed up in a guard shack” at the facility.

[...]

[I]n February, ICE awarded a 15-year contract to The Geo Group Inc. to run the Newark detention center. Geo valued the contract at $1 billion, which is an unusually long and large agreement for ICE.

The announcement was part of President Donald Trump’s plans to sharply increase detention beds nationwide from a budget of about 41,000 beds this year.

Baraka sued GEO Group soon after the deal was announced.

Geo touted the contract with Delaney Hall during its earnings call with shareholders Wednesday, with CEO David Donahue saying it was expected to generate more than $60 million a year in revenue.

Private prisons in a police state.

UPDATE 05/09/2025:  Also, in DC today...

The politics of fear.

UPDATE 07:56 pm:

UPDATE 05/10/2025:

It's Sunday

In 2018, inspired by public accountability efforts in Pennsylvania, New Jersey’s then-attorney general vowed to investigate decades of sexual abuse by Catholic priests across the state. The goal was to convene a grand jury and produce a report detailing allegations of wrongdoing.

More than 500 survivors reached out to share their stories of abuse.

Yet seven years later, no grand jury has been convened, and no report has been produced. Newly unsealed court documents reveal that the church has stymied the state’s efforts by arguing that Jersey law shields it from the type of legal action being sought.

The state’s Supreme Court will hear arguments today from the church and the attorney general’s office on whether prosecutors should be allowed to move forward with their investigation. Meanwhile, the years of inaction have left some survivors feeling pained and asking for transparency.

  Philadelphia Inquirer

Shameful.

I guess I assumed all these cases were dealt with years ago when the Boston Globe's Spotlight investigation came to light.

Fallout from the guilty verdict

The New Jersey attorney general's office is investigating the eligibility of the liquor licenses of three Trump-owned golf courses in the state following former President Donald Trump's conviction on felony charges in New York, officials confirmed Tuesday.

The three properties under review by Attorney General Matthew Platkin and the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which is a part of the AG's office, are Bedminster, Pine Hill and Colts Neck.

[...]

New Jersey law says, “No license of any class shall be issued to any person under the age of 18 years or to any person who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.”

The ABC handbook defines that as "a serious crime from the viewpoint of society in general and usually contains elements of dishonesty, fraud or depravity."

  NBC News

The Trump Organization pushed back against a new probe into the liquor licenses of three Trump-owned golf courses in New Jersey, stating the inquiry is baseless because former President Trump is not the holder of the licenses.

“President Trump is not the holder of any liquor license in New Jersey, and he is not an officer or director of any entity that holds a liquor license in New Jersey — or anywhere in the United States for that matter,” a spokesperson for the Trump organization said in a statement to The Hill.

[...]

State alcoholic beverage control records show the three golf clubs have licenses issued in the name of corporate entities including Lamington Farm Club LLC, Trump National Golf Course Colts Neck LLC and TNGC Pine Hill LLC.

  The Hill

The owner doesn't hold the license, I suppose.

But is Trump not on the board of - or somehow a part of - those entities? I guess that's what the AG's probe will uncover.

Upon being sworn into the White House in January 2017, Trump turned over management of the Trump Organization to two of his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.

And didn't retake it after he left office? I'm skeptical. Also, he was intricately involved in all affairs of the organization even while in office. And I'm assuming all those LLCs are part of the organization.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

January 1, 2024

New Jersey, New York, and Kansas join the ranks of states arguing over districting maps

The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday voted 5-0 to side with Democrats and dismiss a GOP lawsuit that asked the court to remand the map to the redistricting commission for further consideration and require the tie-breaker commissioner, former Supreme Court Justice John Wallace, to recuse himself.

[...]

Democrats won the redistricting process when Wallace voted with the six Democratic members of the commission, installing a congressional district map that, barring a major wave election, would likely result in a 9-3 Democratic majority in the New Jersey's House delegation. Democrats currently have a 10-2 majority.

[...]

The state's highest court ruled that for all the Republicans’ complaints about the process, the lawsuit did not challenge the map itself as unlawful or unconstitutional.

“Historically, after meeting in private with the respective partisan delegations to discuss their proposals, the independent member serves as the tiebreaker and selects one party’s preferred map,” Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote for the court. “The outcome commonly garners praise from one party and criticism from the other. This redistricting cycle was no different … This Court has no role in the outcome of the redistricting process unless the map is ‘unlawful.’”

  Politico

Will they take it to the Trump Supreme Court?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

New rules: every time there's a close race and a Democrat wins, Republicans cry foul

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Not good

Republican Glenn Youngkin pulled off the upset in Virginia, defeating Terry McAuliffe in the governor's race. And in perhaps an even bigger stunner in New Jersey, Republican Jack Ciatarelli leads by about 1,200 votes out of 2.3 million over incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who had been favored.

The New Jersey race is likely headed for a recount, but just the fact that the election is this close shows how much energy Republicans had on their side heading into Tuesday night.

  NPR

If Democrats can't deliver, the country will be turning to authoritarians.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  Interesting...

But she is also a Republican.

UPDATE:  Murphy wins, and GOP cry foul.  They're going to do this every time a Democrat wins a close race.

New Jersey Republicans ignore Trump

New Jersey has had practice.  They're not afraid of goombahs.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Speaking of court orders...

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit from President Trump’s reelection campaign to block New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) plan to send mail-in ballots to all registered voters as a safety precaution during the pandemic.

U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp wrote that the plaintiff's claims that unsolicited mail-in ballots would lead to rampant illegal voting “are largely conjectural, hypothetical, and lacking in imminence."

[...]

The judge pointed to how state election officials have implemented several security measures, including bar codes on each ballot and laws making it a third-degree crime to engage in voter fraud.

“Any suggestion of these measures’ imminent failure is also speculative,” wrote Shipp.

[...]

The statewide July 7 primary was conducted entirely through mail-in ballots and encountered some problems. Approximately 1,666 ballots in Sussex County were accidentally left uncounted for more than two months, according to elections officials.

But despite the issues, Murphy heralded the process as “not perfect, but overwhelmingly a success.”

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Before Marine One departed for New Jersey [on Thursday], some White House staffers who had contact with Hicks were pulled off the presidential helicopter, but Trump plowed ahead. He was diagnosed with Covid-19 in two separate tests later that evening, after returning to Washington. In a televised phone call shortly before 10 p.m. with Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, Trump said he had “just heard” about Hicks’s diagnosis — which wasn’t true — and didn’t disclose he had already tested positive. That was in keeping with other efforts Trump has made to keep a lid on the emerging crisis. “Don’t tell anyone,” Trump told an adviser who had also tested positive, according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump waited until nearly 1 a.m. on Friday to reveal publicly, on Twitter, that he had Covid-19.

So why did he take such a risk — and put so many others in danger — by visiting Bedminster?

  Bloomberg

Because he's an asshole?

“It was deemed safe for the president to go,” said White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, who has since tested positive for Covid-19, in a press briefing last week. “He socially distanced, it was an outdoor event and it was deemed safe by White House operations for him to attend that event.”

Most accounts note that Trump went for a political fundraiser. And yes, a lucrative campaign event was afoot. An email to supporters said individuals who paid $2,800, and couples who paid $5,600, could attend a reception with Trump in Bedminster. For $50,000, supporters also got a photo-op with the president inside the clubhouse. For $250,000, donors could join an exclusive roundtable discussion with Trump. (None of this sounds particularly socially distanced or entirely outdoors, but McEnany and I may have different definitions of those terms.) About 100 people attended, and millions of dollars flowed to the president’s re-election campaign.

But most of the reporting on Trump’s trip has overlooked another reason he was intent on being at Bedminster. There was another event taking place there last Thursday that could have held greater sway with the president than the political fundraiser.

One of Trump National’s most important annual events, a tournament known as the Gentlemen’s Invitational, kicked off that day. It’s the largest golf event the club hosts each year. Participants were invited for practice rounds on Thursday, the tournament began Friday, and it continued over the weekend.

[...]

And it’s likely that the club, like many of Trump’s golf properties, has been ailing financially; it had to shut down entirely earlier this year after the coronavirus began its stampede.

[...]

[A] person directly familiar with the club’s operations and the Gentlemen’s Invitational, who requested anonymity because he feared retribution from the club and Trump, told me that hosting the Gentlemen’s Invitational added hundreds more bodies to the crowds milling around Trump National on Thursday.

[...]

A Trump appearance in Bedminster, while a burden on the town and residents who live nearby because of the crush of traffic and security, is good for his business — especially this year. [...] Trump openly mingled political and business affairs at Trump National last week, with an added measure of irresponsibility around his own health and those he came into contact with in Bedminster.

[...]

Given the opportunity to cross-fertilize his business, his political prospects and his ego, Trump didn’t blink, despite the public health dangers involved.

[...]

This person said that the tournament was originally limited to 60 members and their guests, but because Trump National “needed the money” it expanded the event to 91 members and their guests, for a roster of about 182 golfers.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, a Democrat, said his state has opened an investigation of the Bedminster fundraiser to find out whether Trump National complied with the state’s coronavirus rules for large gatherings.

A picture should be enough investigation.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Absolutely

The outrage is that the slimebucket at the head of the postal service has said states will not be able to pay for mailing ballots by the usual bulk rate, but instead, have to pay first class postage on every single ballot mailed.

Caveat: I do understand that not all states are prepared to do this,  but they should all be working on it.

UPDATE:

Not a civilian

The White House has indicated that President Trump will not be quarantining for the required 14 days when he visits New Jersey this weekend.

"The president of the United States is not a civilian,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement to The Hill on Thursday.

  The Hill

Is that an admission that he's not human?

Because he most definitely IS a civilian if he's human.

“With regard to Arizona, the White House followed its COVID mitigation plan to ensure the President did not come into contact with anyone who was symptomatic or had not been tested,” Deere added on Thursday. “Anyone traveling in support of the president this weekend will be closely monitored for symptoms and tested for COVID and therefore pose little to no risk to the local populations.”

TTo be clear, it's not the president's health we're concerned about.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Oh my

If you're from those states, I hope you don't have business in New York.

The advisory applies to people arriving from states with an infection rate above 10 cases per 100,000 people on a 7-day rolling average.

As of now, that means the advisory applies to travelers from Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas, Cuomo said.

  The Hill

What about people traveling to those states from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and then back home?

Cuomo indicated that police would not be patrolling the borders of the state, saying the move is not a "blockade," but that people could be subject to judicial orders for a mandatory quarantine or fines of $2,000 for the first offense if they are found to be violating the quarantine.

Yeah, toothless.

"It was never a choice between saving lives and reopening the economy," [New York mayor Andrew Cuomo] said. "It was always you have to do both or you do neither."

"What New York is doing is counter to what you see across the nation," he added. "They are going up and we are going down."

Yeah, but you were just several weeks ahead of everybody else. You were going up not so long ago.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

States are told to buy their own equipment and the feds confiscate it when it comes through ports

Jared says the national stockpile is "ours", meaning the federal government. The Trump administration is nothing but a mob outfit.

Perhaps those supplies are going to Trump lickspittle Ron deSantis and Mar-a-Lago.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

US shutting down

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

In the Trump era

The New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) increased the threat level of white supremacist extremists from moderate to high, according to a report released by the state agency Friday.

The change comes amid increased rates of crimes linked to white supremacist groups, such as a New Jersey man who allegedly conspired with members of a neo-Nazi network to vandalize synagogues in the Midwest.

"The threat from white supremacist extremists is also high due to the number of threats, plots, and attacks in 2019," the report read. "In 2020, white supremacist extremists are likely to cite accelerationism as a motivation for future violent acts, and recruitment efforts promoting extremist ideology continue throughout the State."

The report gave anarchist, anti-government, black separatist, militia and sovereign citizen extremists a moderate threat level. It gave Islamic terror groups such as al Qaeda, Boko Haram, Hamas, Hezbollah and ISIS a low threat level, though the report said that ISIS's inspiration of supporters in the U.S. "makes homegrown violent extremists a consistently high threat."

  The Hill