September 7, 2020

MLB Umpire Joe West Says He'll Vote For Trump While Explaining Game Ejection

(HuffPost) Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo was ejected from their 10-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Sunday afternoon.

Umpire Joe West and his crew weren’t happy with him. And West later worked in an endorsement of President Donald Trump to explain why he kicked out the team executive. .....(more)

http://huffp.st/YXXjKu5

September 7, 2020

Florida Man - Darwin's Nightmare

After accepting a $100 bet, man learns important lesson about sharks at Florida beach


After reportedly accepting a $100 bet to mess with a shark, a man found himself with the animal latched onto his arm at a Florida beach last weekend.

A video posted to Facebook on Monday, which has now been widely shared, shows an unidentified man calmly standing around with his right arm firmly wedged in the jaws of a baby nurse shark.



After reportedly accepting a $100 bet to mess with a shark, a man found himself with the animal latched onto his arm at a Florida beach last weekend.

A video posted to Facebook on Monday, which has now been widely shared, shows an unidentified man calmly standing around with his right arm firmly wedged in the jaws of a baby nurse shark.

....(snip)....

Orlando realtor Jeremy Porter, who filmed the video, told WKMG the man’s buddy bet him $100 that he wouldn’t touch or grab the shark. Well, indeed he touched the shark, and though he is probably now $100 richer, hopefully he learned an important lesson that sharks will indeed bite your dumb ass. ...............(more)

https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2020/09/05/after-accepting-a-100-bet-man-learns-important-lesson-about-sharks-at-florida-beach

September 7, 2020

Florida man arrested after crashing into 'Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over' sign

CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. – A North Port man was arrested for DUI Sunday after crashing his car into a digital county sign board reading ‘Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.’

According to the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office, Bounty Cheramy, 22, was arrested after deputies found him near the turned over sign in a damaged Mazda on Tamiami Trail.

Cheramy, reportedly, told deputies he was on the phone with a friend when he hit something, but was unsure of what he had hit.

The man failed field sobriety tests and blew over twice the legal limit in a breathalyzer test reaching a BAC of .166, according to the arrest report. ............(more)

https://nbc-2.com/news/2020/09/01/drunk-driver-arrested-after-crashing-into-drive-sober-or-get-pulled-over-sign/

September 7, 2020

Democrats eye Arizona, Georgia and Texas as potentially winnable

(Guardian UK) Former vice-president Joe Biden’s presidential campaign sees Arizona, Texas and Georgia as possible pathways to victory and ousting Donald Trump from the White House.

During a press briefing with reporters top Biden campaign officials displayed a map of the states that they see as winnable. The map showed Arizona, Texas and Georgia in the light pink color marked as “expand” states.

“We really feel like all of these states are legitimately in play,” Biden’s campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, said.

Democrats have not won any of those three states in the past two election cycles. They all have Republican governors. Texas in particular is a state Democrats have long hoped to put in their column, but so far to no avail. .............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/05/democrats-arizona-georgia-texas-election-in-play

September 6, 2020

Gretchen Whitmer and Jocelyn Benson: Legislature's inaction risks integrity of November election

Whitmer and Benson: Legislature's inaction risks integrity of November election
Gretchen Whitmer and Jocelyn Benson


(Detroit Free Press) The state legislature has just two months to enact changes to improve our election system. We hope they’ll do so to support local clerks, election workers and voters, and to protect the integrity of Michigan elections.

The need for legislative change was made crystal clear in the August 4 primary. Michigan citizens want to vote, even in the midst of a global pandemic, and a record-setting 2.5 million cast ballots in August because they were provided clear, reliable and safe choices for how to do so.

In fact, voters set another record when more than 1.6 million cast absentee ballots through the mail, at their clerk’s office before Election Day, or at a secure ballot drop box.

Meanwhile, traditional polling places were clean, calm, accessible and sanitized repeatedly throughout Election Day by volunteer election workers — including the state employees and others we recruited to serve — using personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies bought with federal CARES Act funds and provided to every jurisdiction by the Michigan Bureau of Elections. ..............(more)

https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2020/09/06/michigan-needs-new-legislation-safeguard-elections/5721661002/

September 5, 2020

Nearly all Black Lives Matter protests are peaceful despite Trump narrative, report finds

(Guardian UK) The vast majority of the thousands of Black Lives Matter protests this summer have been peaceful, with more than 93% involving no serious harm to people or damage to property, according to a new report tracking political violence in the United States.

But the US government has taken a “heavy-handed approach” to the demonstrations, with authorities using force “more often than not” when they are present, the report found.

And there has been a troubling trend of violence and armed intimidation by individual actors, including dozens of car-ramming attacks targeting demonstrators across the country.

The new data on protests and the US government’s response comes from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (Acled), an organization that has long tracked political violence and unrest in regions around the world, together with Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative. .............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/05/nearly-all-black-lives-matter-protests-are-peaceful-despite-trump-narrative-report-finds

September 4, 2020

How a pro-Trump Black group became an off-the-books Turkish lobbying campaign

Exclusive: How a pro-Trump Black group became an off-the-books Turkish lobbying campaign
A Salon investigation reveals a strange tale of Black Trump surrogates who tried to leverage Turkish billions

ROGER SOLLENBERGER
SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 10:00AM (UTC)


(Salon) In 2018, officials with a controversial pro-Trump nonprofit called the Urban Revitalization Coalition (URC) — which recently lost its tax-exempt charity status and made headlines earlier this year with suspicious cash giveaways to Black voters — facilitated an off-the-books foreign influence campaign on behalf of powerful people in Turkey, according to social media posts and people familiar with the organization.

URC officials Darrell Scott and Kareem Lanier, both prominent Trump surrogates in the Black community, are said by multiple sources to have used the organization as a vehicle to "solicit donations," including from wealthy Turkish nationals. Some of these solicitations came by way of former MAGA-world star Rabia Kazan, whom they brought on strictly for that purpose, according to Kazan and people familiar with the arrangement.

Furthermore, an associate of Scott and Lanier named Bruce Levell, a Trump surrogate, former congressional candidate and Small Business Association advocate — who was reportedly at one time in the running to head that cabinet-level agency — allegedly shook down Kazan for cash, then asked her to destroy records after reports of government raids on former Trump attorney Michael Cohen's home and offices, according to Kazan and others familiar with the events.

This foreign influence campaign was aimed at shaping U.S. policy in anticipation of an overarching trade deal with Turkey. It also intersected with Turkey's release of Andrew Brunson, an American pastor whom the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had been holding as a political prisoner.

Text messages from an Erdogan aide obtained by Salon describe the exchange as a "gift" from Turkey — in other words, a quid pro quo intended to benefit each country. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/09/04/exclusive-how-a-pro-trump-black-group-became-an-off-the-books-turkish-lobbying-campaign/

September 3, 2020

Joe Exotic launches 'Tiger King' underwear with his face on the crotch

Joe Exotic launches ‘Tiger King’ underwear with his face on the crotch




Exotic was convicted of orchestrating a murder for hire plot to have Carole Baskin killed, and various animal abuse charges in 2019, for which he is now serving 22 years in prison.

The erstwhile zoo owner is releasing a cheeky line of leopard print underwear for both men and women, and the styles feature his face emblazoned on the crotch. ...........(more)

https://vt.co/entertainment/film-tv/joe-exotic-launches-tiger-king-underwear-with-his-face-on-the-crotch/?

September 2, 2020

Where is his African American?

(BET) Facebook has reportedly removed dozens of accounts of “Black Trump supporters” discovered to be generated by a troll farm in Romania. The social media company says the farm of accounts violated its policies against coordinated inauthentic behavior.

A July enforcement activity report states that Facebook removed 35 personal accounts, three pages and 88 Instagram accounts for “violating our policy against foreign interference, which is coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign entity.”

Activity by the pro-Trump network originated in Romania, according to the report, with some of the hashtags on Instagram reading “#BlackPeopleVoteForTrump.” The pages had about 1,600 followers on Facebook, and about 7,200 people followed the accounts on IG. ........(more)

https://www.bet.com/news/national/2014/08/08/facebook-removes-troll-network-black-trump-supporters.html

September 2, 2020

Hunter dies after being gored by elk he had wounded with bow and arrow

Hunting is one of the most controversial "sports" on the planet and has been repeatedly slammed by animal rights activists.

But it's not just a dangerous pastime for the animals pursued, it can also put the hunters themselves in danger, regardless of how unlikely it may seem.

Now, a hunter has lost his life after being killed by an elk that he had previously wounded with a bow and arrow.

The Hillsboro man passed away on Sunday morning in Tillamook County, Oregon Live reports, after being fatally gored by an elk that he had shot the day before. .........(more)

https://vt.co/animals/hunter-dies-after-being-killed-by-elk-he-had-wounded-with-bow-and-arrow?