More Violent Republicans
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Re: More Violent Republicans
I'm for keeping the electoral college, but I think states should have to apportion their number of votes along to whatever the percentages were in their state. I don't like a state giving all of it's votes to one candidate when that candidate may have only carried 51% of the state.
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Re: More Violent Republicans
Kentucky governor pardons convicted killer whose brother hosted
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The family of a man pardoned by Gov. Matt Bevin for a homicide and other crimes in a fatal 2014 Knox County home invasion raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser last year to retire debt from Bevin’s 2015 gubernatorial campaign.
The brother and sister-in-law of offender Patrick Brian Baker also gave $4,000 to Bevin’s campaign on the day of the fundraiser, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance database.
A photo of Bevin attending the July 26, 2018, fundraiser at the home of Eric and Kathryn Baker in Corbin was published six days later in a local paper, the News Journal.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Jackie Steele, who prosecuted Patrick Baker and other defendants for the 2014 death of Donald Mills, told The Courier Journal on Wednesday that it would be an “understatement to say I am aggrieved” by Bevin’s pardon.
Steele identified Patrick Baker as the brother of Eric Baker, who hosted the Bevin fundraiser at his Corbin home.
The Dec. 6 order was one of 428 pardons and commutations Bevin issued since his narrow loss in November to Democrat Andy Beshear, who was sworn into office Tuesday.
The beneficiaries include one offender convicted of raping a child, another who hired a hit man to kill his business partner and a third who killed his parents.
Steele noted Baker served two years of a 19-year sentence on his conviction for reckless homicide, robbery, impersonating a peace officer and tampering with evidence.
Steele, who, like Bevin, is a Republican, also cited the fact that two of Baker’s co-defendants are still in prison.
"What makes Mr. Baker any different than the other two?" he asked.
Answering that question, he said he believes Baker was pardoned while the others remain locked up because Baker’s family has given generously to Bevin. State records show that Victoria Baker, who lives at the same Corbin address where the fundraiser was held, donated $1,000 in 2015 and that Kathryn Baker gave another $500 to Bevin’s reelection in March.
In a pardon order Dec. 6, Bevin said Baker had made “a series of unwise decisions in his adult life” and that his drug addiction “resulted in his association with people that in turn led to his arrest, prosecution and conviction for murder.”
Bevin wrote that the evidence supporting Baker’s conviction is “sketchy at best. I am not convinced that justice has been served on the death of Donald Mills, nor am I convinced that the evidence has proven the involvement of Patrick Baker as a murderer.”
(Although the pardon says Baker was convicted of murder, court records show that was amended to reckless homicide.)
Bevin commuted his sentence to time served and gave him a pardon.
State prison records showed that Baker, 41, was still at Northpoint Training Center on Wednesday.
If not for Bevin’s clemency order, Baker would not have been eligible for parole until July 2027. The minimum date for expiration of his sentence would have been January 2034.
Eric Baker could not be reached for comment. A woman who identified herself as Kathryn Baker immediately hung up on a Courier Journal reporter Wednesday night after he mentioned the pardon of Patrick Baker and did not answer follow-up phone calls.
There was no answer at Eric and Kathryn Baker's listed address Thursday morning when a reporter rang the buzzer at the gate.
The manager for Bevin’s reelection campaign, Davis Paine, and the governor's former chief of staff, Blake Brickman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Judge David Williams, the former president of the Kentucky Senate, sentenced Baker in 2017. He said that in 30 years of practice: “I’ve never seen a more compelling or complete case … the evidence was just overwhelming.”
Steele said in an email that Baker was the most culpable of the defendants because “he was the one who shot Mr. Mills.”
According to his indictment, Baker and co-defendant Christopher Bradley Wagner posed as law enforcement officials to force their way into Mills’ home, where they fought with Mills before Baker shot him.
They also restrained Mills' wife and took various items from the house. Three children were also in the home at the time of the crime.
Wagner, who was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter and robbery, is still serving his sentence, as is Elijah Message, who got 20 years for second-degree manslaughter and robbery
Bevin issued 428 pardons and commutations from Election Day through the end of his term Monday, according to the Secretary of State's Office.
He pardoned Micah Schoettle, who was convicted last year of raping a 9-year-old child in Kenton County and sentenced last year to 23 years in prison.
Bevin wrote that Schoettle was convicted of a heinous crime "based only on testimony that was not supported by any physical evidence.” He added that the case “was investigated and prosecuted in a manner that was sloppy at best. I do not believe that the charges against Mr. Schoettle are true.”
But that explanation infuriated Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders, who prosecuted Schoettle.
“So, I guess Matt Bevin thinks he’s smarter than the 12 citizens that heard the actual evidence,” Sanders said. “I’ve got news for him: Child molesting rarely happens in front of witnesses or leaves physical evidence. If we didn’t pursue those cases, 99% of child rapists would never be prosecuted.”
"This irresponsible manipulation of the justice system is why the public’s confidence is constantly eroded. No one from the Bevin administration gave any warning this was coming. If they had, we’d have shown them why these rapists and killers were behind bars to begin with. These pardons regurgitate false statements of defense attorneys that juries of Kentucky citizens obviously didn’t believe."
Bevin also pardoned:
Kathy Harless, who was convicted of murder in Grayson County in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison after she gave birth in a flea market outhouse and threw the baby in a cesspool. Bevin wrote that she had "paid enough for the death of her newborn son.”
Blake Walker, who was convicted in 2003 in Adair County of killing his parents, Barbara Peterson, 55, a Lindsey Wilson College teacher, and her husband, Brian Walker, 54, who worked in construction and was a former Peace Corps volunteer, and leaving their bodies in a basement. He was 16 at the time.
Bevin wrote that Walker, now 33, is "blessed by a loving and forgiving family and it is this alone that tips the delicate balance in the direction of his request."
He also said that while Walker committed a crime "for which only God can provide true forgiveness," he was commuting Walker's sentence "so that he can proceed with his life, unrestricted in his efforts to serve the world and the needs of others in a way that would best honor the lives and life work of his mother and father."
But Adair Commonwealth’s Attorney Brian Wright, who prosecuted Walker, said he was "disgusted, frustrated and upset" by the pardon, which he called a travesty. He said Bevin's office never consulted him about it, and that Walker agreed to the sentence in a plea agreement.
Irvin Edge, who was convicted of murder and solicitation to murder for hiring a hit man to kill his business partner in 1991 in Daviess County. According to court records, the killer came to victim Charles Westerfield’s door, asked to see him, and then shot and killed him in front of his family members. Edge was sentenced to life, and in 2004, the Parole Board ordered him to serve out that sentence.
Bevin gave no reason for the pardon.
Leif Halvorsen, who was sentenced to death in Fayette County for the murder of three people — Jacqueline Green, Joe Norman and Joey Durham — in 1983.
Bevin commuted Halvorsen's two death sentences to life with the possibility of parole, stating only that “Leif has a powerful voice that needs to be heard by more people.”
Kurt Robert Smith, who as a 17-year-old was convicted in 2002 in Fayette County of the murder of his 6-week-old baby, Blake, whose brain was so swollen that the seams between the bones in his skull were pushed half an inch apart, a state medical examiner testified.
Bevin said Smith had been "duly punished" for a crime 18 years ago. "I am confident that he will become a productive member of society and encourage him to use his life experience to educate and help others," Bevin wrote.
Daniel Scott Grubb, who was sentenced to life in prison in Knox County in 2010 for the murder of Jeremy Johnson. According to news accounts, Grubb claimed both were drunk when he threw a cinder block at him, and after finding his body the next day, panicked and enlisted a friend to bury the body.
Bevin wrote that "drugs, alcohol and a tragic accident resulted in the death of one friend perpetrated by another. Daniel Grubb made a series of bad decisions that forever altered the lives of many people in a negative way.”
Bevin said the pardon came with “the expectation that Mr. Grubb will live his life as a model citizen in a way that will bring honor to his family and to the memory of his friend."
Bevin conditioned one pardon — of Michael Hardy, who was convicted in Warren County of the 2014 wanton murder of Jeremy Pryor — on Hardy refraining from any consumption of alcohol and sharing his story “in schools, churches and other gatherings no less than six times per year for at least the next 20 years.”
“I do not believe that society, as a whole, or the memory of Jeremy Pryor more specifically, will be best served by the continued incarceration of Mr. Hardy,” Bevin wrote.
He said he hoped Hardy's pardon would provide “a teachable lesson for others of all ages (but especially young people).”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The family of a man pardoned by Gov. Matt Bevin for a homicide and other crimes in a fatal 2014 Knox County home invasion raised $21,500 at a political fundraiser last year to retire debt from Bevin’s 2015 gubernatorial campaign.
The brother and sister-in-law of offender Patrick Brian Baker also gave $4,000 to Bevin’s campaign on the day of the fundraiser, according to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance database.
A photo of Bevin attending the July 26, 2018, fundraiser at the home of Eric and Kathryn Baker in Corbin was published six days later in a local paper, the News Journal.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Jackie Steele, who prosecuted Patrick Baker and other defendants for the 2014 death of Donald Mills, told The Courier Journal on Wednesday that it would be an “understatement to say I am aggrieved” by Bevin’s pardon.
Steele identified Patrick Baker as the brother of Eric Baker, who hosted the Bevin fundraiser at his Corbin home.
The Dec. 6 order was one of 428 pardons and commutations Bevin issued since his narrow loss in November to Democrat Andy Beshear, who was sworn into office Tuesday.
The beneficiaries include one offender convicted of raping a child, another who hired a hit man to kill his business partner and a third who killed his parents.
Steele noted Baker served two years of a 19-year sentence on his conviction for reckless homicide, robbery, impersonating a peace officer and tampering with evidence.
Steele, who, like Bevin, is a Republican, also cited the fact that two of Baker’s co-defendants are still in prison.
"What makes Mr. Baker any different than the other two?" he asked.
Answering that question, he said he believes Baker was pardoned while the others remain locked up because Baker’s family has given generously to Bevin. State records show that Victoria Baker, who lives at the same Corbin address where the fundraiser was held, donated $1,000 in 2015 and that Kathryn Baker gave another $500 to Bevin’s reelection in March.
In a pardon order Dec. 6, Bevin said Baker had made “a series of unwise decisions in his adult life” and that his drug addiction “resulted in his association with people that in turn led to his arrest, prosecution and conviction for murder.”
Bevin wrote that the evidence supporting Baker’s conviction is “sketchy at best. I am not convinced that justice has been served on the death of Donald Mills, nor am I convinced that the evidence has proven the involvement of Patrick Baker as a murderer.”
(Although the pardon says Baker was convicted of murder, court records show that was amended to reckless homicide.)
Bevin commuted his sentence to time served and gave him a pardon.
State prison records showed that Baker, 41, was still at Northpoint Training Center on Wednesday.
If not for Bevin’s clemency order, Baker would not have been eligible for parole until July 2027. The minimum date for expiration of his sentence would have been January 2034.
Eric Baker could not be reached for comment. A woman who identified herself as Kathryn Baker immediately hung up on a Courier Journal reporter Wednesday night after he mentioned the pardon of Patrick Baker and did not answer follow-up phone calls.
There was no answer at Eric and Kathryn Baker's listed address Thursday morning when a reporter rang the buzzer at the gate.
The manager for Bevin’s reelection campaign, Davis Paine, and the governor's former chief of staff, Blake Brickman, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Judge David Williams, the former president of the Kentucky Senate, sentenced Baker in 2017. He said that in 30 years of practice: “I’ve never seen a more compelling or complete case … the evidence was just overwhelming.”
Steele said in an email that Baker was the most culpable of the defendants because “he was the one who shot Mr. Mills.”
According to his indictment, Baker and co-defendant Christopher Bradley Wagner posed as law enforcement officials to force their way into Mills’ home, where they fought with Mills before Baker shot him.
They also restrained Mills' wife and took various items from the house. Three children were also in the home at the time of the crime.
Wagner, who was sentenced to 10 years for manslaughter and robbery, is still serving his sentence, as is Elijah Message, who got 20 years for second-degree manslaughter and robbery
Bevin issued 428 pardons and commutations from Election Day through the end of his term Monday, according to the Secretary of State's Office.
He pardoned Micah Schoettle, who was convicted last year of raping a 9-year-old child in Kenton County and sentenced last year to 23 years in prison.
Bevin wrote that Schoettle was convicted of a heinous crime "based only on testimony that was not supported by any physical evidence.” He added that the case “was investigated and prosecuted in a manner that was sloppy at best. I do not believe that the charges against Mr. Schoettle are true.”
But that explanation infuriated Kenton County Commonwealth's Attorney Rob Sanders, who prosecuted Schoettle.
“So, I guess Matt Bevin thinks he’s smarter than the 12 citizens that heard the actual evidence,” Sanders said. “I’ve got news for him: Child molesting rarely happens in front of witnesses or leaves physical evidence. If we didn’t pursue those cases, 99% of child rapists would never be prosecuted.”
"This irresponsible manipulation of the justice system is why the public’s confidence is constantly eroded. No one from the Bevin administration gave any warning this was coming. If they had, we’d have shown them why these rapists and killers were behind bars to begin with. These pardons regurgitate false statements of defense attorneys that juries of Kentucky citizens obviously didn’t believe."
Bevin also pardoned:
Kathy Harless, who was convicted of murder in Grayson County in 2003 and sentenced to life in prison after she gave birth in a flea market outhouse and threw the baby in a cesspool. Bevin wrote that she had "paid enough for the death of her newborn son.”
Blake Walker, who was convicted in 2003 in Adair County of killing his parents, Barbara Peterson, 55, a Lindsey Wilson College teacher, and her husband, Brian Walker, 54, who worked in construction and was a former Peace Corps volunteer, and leaving their bodies in a basement. He was 16 at the time.
Bevin wrote that Walker, now 33, is "blessed by a loving and forgiving family and it is this alone that tips the delicate balance in the direction of his request."
He also said that while Walker committed a crime "for which only God can provide true forgiveness," he was commuting Walker's sentence "so that he can proceed with his life, unrestricted in his efforts to serve the world and the needs of others in a way that would best honor the lives and life work of his mother and father."
But Adair Commonwealth’s Attorney Brian Wright, who prosecuted Walker, said he was "disgusted, frustrated and upset" by the pardon, which he called a travesty. He said Bevin's office never consulted him about it, and that Walker agreed to the sentence in a plea agreement.
Irvin Edge, who was convicted of murder and solicitation to murder for hiring a hit man to kill his business partner in 1991 in Daviess County. According to court records, the killer came to victim Charles Westerfield’s door, asked to see him, and then shot and killed him in front of his family members. Edge was sentenced to life, and in 2004, the Parole Board ordered him to serve out that sentence.
Bevin gave no reason for the pardon.
Leif Halvorsen, who was sentenced to death in Fayette County for the murder of three people — Jacqueline Green, Joe Norman and Joey Durham — in 1983.
Bevin commuted Halvorsen's two death sentences to life with the possibility of parole, stating only that “Leif has a powerful voice that needs to be heard by more people.”
Kurt Robert Smith, who as a 17-year-old was convicted in 2002 in Fayette County of the murder of his 6-week-old baby, Blake, whose brain was so swollen that the seams between the bones in his skull were pushed half an inch apart, a state medical examiner testified.
Bevin said Smith had been "duly punished" for a crime 18 years ago. "I am confident that he will become a productive member of society and encourage him to use his life experience to educate and help others," Bevin wrote.
Daniel Scott Grubb, who was sentenced to life in prison in Knox County in 2010 for the murder of Jeremy Johnson. According to news accounts, Grubb claimed both were drunk when he threw a cinder block at him, and after finding his body the next day, panicked and enlisted a friend to bury the body.
Bevin wrote that "drugs, alcohol and a tragic accident resulted in the death of one friend perpetrated by another. Daniel Grubb made a series of bad decisions that forever altered the lives of many people in a negative way.”
Bevin said the pardon came with “the expectation that Mr. Grubb will live his life as a model citizen in a way that will bring honor to his family and to the memory of his friend."
Bevin conditioned one pardon — of Michael Hardy, who was convicted in Warren County of the 2014 wanton murder of Jeremy Pryor — on Hardy refraining from any consumption of alcohol and sharing his story “in schools, churches and other gatherings no less than six times per year for at least the next 20 years.”
“I do not believe that society, as a whole, or the memory of Jeremy Pryor more specifically, will be best served by the continued incarceration of Mr. Hardy,” Bevin wrote.
He said he hoped Hardy's pardon would provide “a teachable lesson for others of all ages (but especially young people).”
wut?
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Re: More Violent Republicans
Denver talk radio show canceled after host wishes “for a nice school shooting” to interrupt impeachment
A conservative Denver talk show radio host’s show was canceled Wednesday after he wished “for a nice school shooting” while speaking on air — a comment that brought a quick backlash from families of Colorado shooting victims.
“All right, Chuck Bonniwell, Julie Hayden here, a little after 1:30, talking about the never-ending impeachment of Donald Trump,” host Chuck Bonniwell said on his show Tuesday, chuckling. “You know you wish for a nice school shooting” to interrupt the impeachment news, he said, as his co-host jumped in, decrying the statement.
“Don’t even — don’t even say that. No, don’t even say that,” Hayden said. “Don’t call us. Chuck didn’t say that.” As he laughed, Bonniwell continued, “– which no one would be hurt.”
On Wednesday evening, 710 KNUS posted on Twitter that Bonniwell’s program was canceled: “Given the history of school violence that has plagued our community, 710 KNUS confirms that an inappropriate comment was made on the Chuck & Julie show by co-host Chuck Bonniwell. A programming decision was made to end the program immediately.”
The statement made by Bonniwell, first reported by the Colorado Times Recorder, spurred an outcry from activists, politicians and others — the latest controversy for a radio station that has already gained notoriety for the alleged dismissal of one host partly over anti-Trump comments and recent allegations that the station has given white supremacists a platform.
Sandy Phillips, who lost her daughter Jessi in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, called for Bonniwell to be fired.
“Total ignorance,” she wrote on Twitter. “Shootings hurt us all…just ask witnesses and first responders. You don’t have to be shot to be wounded.”
The state has been the site of several high-profile school shootings. Mostly recently in Colorado, two students are accused of opening fire and killing two while injuring others at the STEM School Highlands Ranch in May.
John Castillo, the father of 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo, who was killed while trying to protect his classmates in the STEM School shooting, took to Twitter to call the suggestion for a school shooting to distract from impeachment news “unbelievable.”
The Chuck and Julie twitter account issued an apology shortly after 7 p.m. saying the comment was originally meant as a joke: “Chuck Bonniwell has this comment.”I made an inappropriate comment meant as a joke. I’m sorry it was not received that way.”‘
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/12/18/r ... ting-knus/
A conservative Denver talk show radio host’s show was canceled Wednesday after he wished “for a nice school shooting” while speaking on air — a comment that brought a quick backlash from families of Colorado shooting victims.
“All right, Chuck Bonniwell, Julie Hayden here, a little after 1:30, talking about the never-ending impeachment of Donald Trump,” host Chuck Bonniwell said on his show Tuesday, chuckling. “You know you wish for a nice school shooting” to interrupt the impeachment news, he said, as his co-host jumped in, decrying the statement.
“Don’t even — don’t even say that. No, don’t even say that,” Hayden said. “Don’t call us. Chuck didn’t say that.” As he laughed, Bonniwell continued, “– which no one would be hurt.”
On Wednesday evening, 710 KNUS posted on Twitter that Bonniwell’s program was canceled: “Given the history of school violence that has plagued our community, 710 KNUS confirms that an inappropriate comment was made on the Chuck & Julie show by co-host Chuck Bonniwell. A programming decision was made to end the program immediately.”
The statement made by Bonniwell, first reported by the Colorado Times Recorder, spurred an outcry from activists, politicians and others — the latest controversy for a radio station that has already gained notoriety for the alleged dismissal of one host partly over anti-Trump comments and recent allegations that the station has given white supremacists a platform.
Sandy Phillips, who lost her daughter Jessi in the 2012 Aurora theater shooting, called for Bonniwell to be fired.
“Total ignorance,” she wrote on Twitter. “Shootings hurt us all…just ask witnesses and first responders. You don’t have to be shot to be wounded.”
The state has been the site of several high-profile school shootings. Mostly recently in Colorado, two students are accused of opening fire and killing two while injuring others at the STEM School Highlands Ranch in May.
John Castillo, the father of 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo, who was killed while trying to protect his classmates in the STEM School shooting, took to Twitter to call the suggestion for a school shooting to distract from impeachment news “unbelievable.”
The Chuck and Julie twitter account issued an apology shortly after 7 p.m. saying the comment was originally meant as a joke: “Chuck Bonniwell has this comment.”I made an inappropriate comment meant as a joke. I’m sorry it was not received that way.”‘
https://www.denverpost.com/2019/12/18/r ... ting-knus/
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Re: More Violent Republicans
I don't see why, schoolchildren getting shot in the face with a AR-15 doesn't bother Conservatives.
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk
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Re: More Violent Republicans
Doesn't make you sad that you feel the need to repeatedly lie in order to attack me?BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:37 pmHe is an inept human being. Thats why he has no benefits and makes minimum wage.
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk
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Re: More Violent Republicans
You want me to prove I don't work at Walmart?BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:39 pmProve me wrong loser.CaptQuint wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:39 pmDoesn't make you sad that you feel the need to repeatedly lie in order to attack me?BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:37 pmHe is an inept human being. Thats why he has no benefits and makes minimum wage.
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk
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Re: More Violent Republicans
You think people that make minimum wage have brand new pickup trucks and sports cars they drive on nice days in the summer?BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:42 pmProve you dont make minimum wage up thar in appalachia.CaptQuint wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:41 pmYou want me to prove I don't work at Walmart?BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:39 pmProve me wrong loser.CaptQuint wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:39 pmDoesn't make you sad that you feel the need to repeatedly lie in order to attack me?BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:37 pmHe is an inept human being. Thats why he has no benefits and makes minimum wage.
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk
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Re: More Violent Republicans
Well I proved how unintelligent you are.BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:46 pmYes I do!CaptQuint wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:45 pmYou think people that make minimum wage have brand new pickup trucks and sports cars they drive on nice days in the summer?BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:42 pmProve you dont make minimum wage up thar in appalachia.
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk
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Re: More Violent Republicans
So I make minimum wage at Walmart AND I'm on welfare? You're not embarrassed by your behavior at all?BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:48 pmYour welfare check covers the payment.CaptQuint wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:47 pmWell I proved how unintelligent you are.BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:46 pmYes I do!CaptQuint wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:45 pmYou think people that make minimum wage have brand new pickup trucks and sports cars they drive on nice days in the summer?BigRedRetard wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:42 pmProve you dont make minimum wage up thar in appalachia.
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Re: More Violent Republicans
The two Matts
You got one guy who pardons a 9 year old's rapist because her hymen was still intact and then we have this guy......and he ain't alone.
WA Rep. Matt Shea engaged in ‘domestic terrorism,’ helped plan Malheur standoff, investigation finds
A report says the Spokane Valley Republican aided three armed conflicts against the U.S. government and ‘condoned political violence and intimidation.’
An independent investigation has concluded that Washington state Rep. Matt Shea “participated in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States” by helping plan the armed takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon three years ago.
The investigation found that Shea similarly played a key role in two other armed conflicts against the U.S. government — not only by showing up and participating in the standoffs, but by helping plan them, which involved recruiting armed militia members to oppose federal law enforcement agents.
On Thursday, shortly after the report was released publicly, House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox confirmed that Shea had been suspended from the House Republican caucus, a serious form of discipline. That means Shea’s access to legislative staff will be limited, and he will be barred from House Republicans’ internal meetings to discuss pending legislation.
The 108-page report, released publicly Thursday after first being posted online by Crosscut, includes several other serious findings against Shea.
Among them: that the Spokane Valley lawmaker took part in a group chat in 2017 where he “condoned violence and intimidation” of his political opponents, and offered to conduct background checks on them.
That allegation, first reported by The Guardian in April, was largely what spurred House leaders to commission the outside investigation into Shea’s conduct.
But the incident wasn’t an isolated one, according to the four-month investigation, which was led by a former FBI agent and former law enforcement officer.
The investigation says Shea, a leader of the anti-government Patriot movement, routinely encouraged his supporters to intimidate “activists, government officials, Muslims, and others who speak or act in opposition to his personal beliefs and political agenda.” Those activities occurred over a five-year period from 2014 to 2019, the report says.
The four-month investigation similarly confirmed other media reports about Shea, including that he “engaged in and supported the training of youth and young adults to fight a holy war” (also reported by The Guardian), and that he wrote a document called “Biblical Basis for War" (first reported by The Spokesman-Review).
According to the investigators’ report, Shea’s “Biblical Basis for War” document called for replacing the U.S. government with a theocracy, as well as the “killing of all males who don’t agree.”
Shea, who didn’t respond to the investigators’ requests for an interview, has previously said the biblical warfare document was merely a summary of Old Testament sermons.
In a statement released by his attorney, Mark Lamb, Shea said he was not allowed to review and respond to the report before it was released — a denial of due process, in Shea’s opinion.
"When due process is thrown out the window for political expediency we all, as Americans, are in danger," he wrote.
2015 standoff in Idaho
Other revelations contained in the newly released investigation have been less widely reported.
Shea was already known to have traveled to the Malheur standoff in 2016, as well as to Nevada two years earlier to support Cliven Bundy, a rancher who let his cattle graze illegally on federal land.
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But the investigation says Shea also took part in a third armed standoff against federal officials, this one in Priest River, Idaho, in 2015.
That confrontation involved blocking federal officials from seizing firearms from an elderly veteran who was no longer legally eligible to possess guns, according to the investigators’ report.
After the veteran suffered a stroke, a health care professional added the man to a federal database of people ineligible to purchase firearms. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had planned to remove the veteran’s guns, the report says, “pursuant to VA regulations for individuals receiving VA benefits.”
Shea called on members of the Patriot movement to assemble at the man’s house to stop the firearms seizure.
It worked, the investigators wrote: “Reports indicated that approximately 100 individuals showed up, many armed, and stood with Representative Shea at the veteran’s home to prevent the VA employee from entering.”
No one was hurt in the incident. But the investigators found evidence that Shea was heavily involved in planning the standoff, and was prepared for a prolonged encounter that could lead to violence.
2016 Malheur refuge takeover
Shea also had a greater role in planning the 2016 Malheur standoff than previously known, according to the investigation. The armed takeover of the Oregon wildlife refuge lasted 41 days, and led to law enforcement agents shooting and killing one person, a rancher named LaVoy Finicum.
According to investigators, Shea “authored and circulated an operations plan” for militia members to use during the Malheur standoff.
“The action was portrayed as a spontaneous act, but this investigation has obtained information that the armed takeover was meticulously planned in December 2015 by conspirators that included Representative Shea,” the report says.
Shea also met with law enforcement officers without sharing his involvement in planning the standoff, according to the report. Shea used that meeting to “gather intelligence regarding law enforcement strategies,” the report says, then met with leaders of the takeover, going against the wishes of local law enforcement.
One of those leaders was Ammon Bundy, the son of the Nevada rancher who was at the center of the 2014 conflict over grazing rights. Shea also met with Ammon Bundy several times before the standoff to help plan it, according to the report.
Shea’s involvement in planning the 2016 Malheur takeover contrasts with his statements to a House ethics investigator at the time. Back then, Shea had said he traveled to the armed conflicts in Nevada in 2014 and Oregon in 2016 on “fact-finding” missions and to help “ensure a peaceful resolution.”
“However, this investigation has determined Representative Shea went to Nevada and Malheur specifically to support armed insurrections at both locations in furtherance of his Patriot Movement agenda,” the report says.
The Patriot movement, which is active primarily in Western states, rejects the idea that the federal government can control and own land.
In the 2014 standoff in Nevada, that sentiment led armed militia members to try to block federal officials from seizing Cliven Bundy’s cattle, which Bundy had continued to let graze on federal land, in defiance of court orders.
In the 2016 Malheur refuge takeover, Ammon Bundy, Cliven’s son, helped assemble militia members to protest the criminal sentencing of two ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who had been convicted of intentionally setting fires on public land.
Other findings in the newly released investigation included that Shea personally intimidated his opponent in the 2012 election.
According to the report, Shea stood in his political rival’s driveway and took a photo, then posted the image on social media and would not remove it when asked.
Shea also “engages in and promotes annual Patriot Movement militia training” to prepare for future armed conflicts against law enforcement and the government, the investigation found.
Next steps
House Republicans' decision to remove Shea from their caucus is a significant step, although he remains in the Legislature as an elected member. The GOP lawmaker, who represents the 4th Legislative District, previously served as the House GOP caucus chair, after first being elected to the Legislature in 2008.
It also possible that Shea could be removed from the state House entirely.
Expelling Shea would require a two-thirds majority vote of House members, and has happened only once in the history of Washington’s Legislature.
In that case, which took place more than 85 years ago, a House member had been tried and convicted of statutory rape. Then-Rep. Nelson Robinson was later pardoned by the governor, but House members voted to expel him from the chamber anyway.
For his part, Shea has not been convicted of any crime associated with the investigators’ report.
Legislative leaders said the House clerk had forwarded the report to the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI.
State Rep. Laurie Jinkins, a Tacoma Democrat who was recently selected to be the next speaker of the House, said in a written statement that it is important to review the full report before determining what steps to take.
Still, Jinkins said, throughout the institution's 130-year-history, she was "unaware of House members ever having received such a comprehensive and disturbing investigatory report about another member."
Wilcox, the Republican House minority leader, said that Shea "absolutely should resign."
Shea is next up for re-election in fall 2020.
https://crosscut.com/2019/12/wa-rep-mat ... estigation
You got one guy who pardons a 9 year old's rapist because her hymen was still intact and then we have this guy......and he ain't alone.
WA Rep. Matt Shea engaged in ‘domestic terrorism,’ helped plan Malheur standoff, investigation finds
A report says the Spokane Valley Republican aided three armed conflicts against the U.S. government and ‘condoned political violence and intimidation.’
An independent investigation has concluded that Washington state Rep. Matt Shea “participated in an act of domestic terrorism against the United States” by helping plan the armed takeover of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge in Oregon three years ago.
The investigation found that Shea similarly played a key role in two other armed conflicts against the U.S. government — not only by showing up and participating in the standoffs, but by helping plan them, which involved recruiting armed militia members to oppose federal law enforcement agents.
On Thursday, shortly after the report was released publicly, House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox confirmed that Shea had been suspended from the House Republican caucus, a serious form of discipline. That means Shea’s access to legislative staff will be limited, and he will be barred from House Republicans’ internal meetings to discuss pending legislation.
The 108-page report, released publicly Thursday after first being posted online by Crosscut, includes several other serious findings against Shea.
Among them: that the Spokane Valley lawmaker took part in a group chat in 2017 where he “condoned violence and intimidation” of his political opponents, and offered to conduct background checks on them.
That allegation, first reported by The Guardian in April, was largely what spurred House leaders to commission the outside investigation into Shea’s conduct.
But the incident wasn’t an isolated one, according to the four-month investigation, which was led by a former FBI agent and former law enforcement officer.
The investigation says Shea, a leader of the anti-government Patriot movement, routinely encouraged his supporters to intimidate “activists, government officials, Muslims, and others who speak or act in opposition to his personal beliefs and political agenda.” Those activities occurred over a five-year period from 2014 to 2019, the report says.
The four-month investigation similarly confirmed other media reports about Shea, including that he “engaged in and supported the training of youth and young adults to fight a holy war” (also reported by The Guardian), and that he wrote a document called “Biblical Basis for War" (first reported by The Spokesman-Review).
According to the investigators’ report, Shea’s “Biblical Basis for War” document called for replacing the U.S. government with a theocracy, as well as the “killing of all males who don’t agree.”
Shea, who didn’t respond to the investigators’ requests for an interview, has previously said the biblical warfare document was merely a summary of Old Testament sermons.
In a statement released by his attorney, Mark Lamb, Shea said he was not allowed to review and respond to the report before it was released — a denial of due process, in Shea’s opinion.
"When due process is thrown out the window for political expediency we all, as Americans, are in danger," he wrote.
2015 standoff in Idaho
Other revelations contained in the newly released investigation have been less widely reported.
Shea was already known to have traveled to the Malheur standoff in 2016, as well as to Nevada two years earlier to support Cliven Bundy, a rancher who let his cattle graze illegally on federal land.
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But the investigation says Shea also took part in a third armed standoff against federal officials, this one in Priest River, Idaho, in 2015.
That confrontation involved blocking federal officials from seizing firearms from an elderly veteran who was no longer legally eligible to possess guns, according to the investigators’ report.
After the veteran suffered a stroke, a health care professional added the man to a federal database of people ineligible to purchase firearms. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs had planned to remove the veteran’s guns, the report says, “pursuant to VA regulations for individuals receiving VA benefits.”
Shea called on members of the Patriot movement to assemble at the man’s house to stop the firearms seizure.
It worked, the investigators wrote: “Reports indicated that approximately 100 individuals showed up, many armed, and stood with Representative Shea at the veteran’s home to prevent the VA employee from entering.”
No one was hurt in the incident. But the investigators found evidence that Shea was heavily involved in planning the standoff, and was prepared for a prolonged encounter that could lead to violence.
2016 Malheur refuge takeover
Shea also had a greater role in planning the 2016 Malheur standoff than previously known, according to the investigation. The armed takeover of the Oregon wildlife refuge lasted 41 days, and led to law enforcement agents shooting and killing one person, a rancher named LaVoy Finicum.
According to investigators, Shea “authored and circulated an operations plan” for militia members to use during the Malheur standoff.
“The action was portrayed as a spontaneous act, but this investigation has obtained information that the armed takeover was meticulously planned in December 2015 by conspirators that included Representative Shea,” the report says.
Shea also met with law enforcement officers without sharing his involvement in planning the standoff, according to the report. Shea used that meeting to “gather intelligence regarding law enforcement strategies,” the report says, then met with leaders of the takeover, going against the wishes of local law enforcement.
One of those leaders was Ammon Bundy, the son of the Nevada rancher who was at the center of the 2014 conflict over grazing rights. Shea also met with Ammon Bundy several times before the standoff to help plan it, according to the report.
Shea’s involvement in planning the 2016 Malheur takeover contrasts with his statements to a House ethics investigator at the time. Back then, Shea had said he traveled to the armed conflicts in Nevada in 2014 and Oregon in 2016 on “fact-finding” missions and to help “ensure a peaceful resolution.”
“However, this investigation has determined Representative Shea went to Nevada and Malheur specifically to support armed insurrections at both locations in furtherance of his Patriot Movement agenda,” the report says.
The Patriot movement, which is active primarily in Western states, rejects the idea that the federal government can control and own land.
In the 2014 standoff in Nevada, that sentiment led armed militia members to try to block federal officials from seizing Cliven Bundy’s cattle, which Bundy had continued to let graze on federal land, in defiance of court orders.
In the 2016 Malheur refuge takeover, Ammon Bundy, Cliven’s son, helped assemble militia members to protest the criminal sentencing of two ranchers, Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steven Hammond, who had been convicted of intentionally setting fires on public land.
Other findings in the newly released investigation included that Shea personally intimidated his opponent in the 2012 election.
According to the report, Shea stood in his political rival’s driveway and took a photo, then posted the image on social media and would not remove it when asked.
Shea also “engages in and promotes annual Patriot Movement militia training” to prepare for future armed conflicts against law enforcement and the government, the investigation found.
Next steps
House Republicans' decision to remove Shea from their caucus is a significant step, although he remains in the Legislature as an elected member. The GOP lawmaker, who represents the 4th Legislative District, previously served as the House GOP caucus chair, after first being elected to the Legislature in 2008.
It also possible that Shea could be removed from the state House entirely.
Expelling Shea would require a two-thirds majority vote of House members, and has happened only once in the history of Washington’s Legislature.
In that case, which took place more than 85 years ago, a House member had been tried and convicted of statutory rape. Then-Rep. Nelson Robinson was later pardoned by the governor, but House members voted to expel him from the chamber anyway.
For his part, Shea has not been convicted of any crime associated with the investigators’ report.
Legislative leaders said the House clerk had forwarded the report to the U.S. Attorney's office and the FBI.
State Rep. Laurie Jinkins, a Tacoma Democrat who was recently selected to be the next speaker of the House, said in a written statement that it is important to review the full report before determining what steps to take.
Still, Jinkins said, throughout the institution's 130-year-history, she was "unaware of House members ever having received such a comprehensive and disturbing investigatory report about another member."
Wilcox, the Republican House minority leader, said that Shea "absolutely should resign."
Shea is next up for re-election in fall 2020.
https://crosscut.com/2019/12/wa-rep-mat ... estigation
I blame Biker.
- CHEEZY17
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Re: More Violent Republicans
Fuck that guy. Throw the book at him.
"When governments fear the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."
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- Biker's Biatch
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Re: More Violent Republicans
I don't pay rent for his empty head either
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk
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Re: More Violent Republicans
I blame Biker.
- necronomous
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Re: More Violent Republicans
lolStapes wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:44 pm The whole cadet class will be fired.
https://www.wsaz.com/content/news/Inves ... 40332.html
Ok
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Re: More Violent Republicans
You realize that is a news story and not Stapes prediction?necronomous wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 8:22 pmlolStapes wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 7:44 pm The whole cadet class will be fired.
https://www.wsaz.com/content/news/Inves ... 40332.html
Ok
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Re: More Violent Republicans
Gurantee there were a few Democrats in that class. Stupidity is bipartisan.
- Stapes
- World's Only Blue Collar Guy
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Re: More Violent Republicans
Joe "marijuana is a gateway drug" Biden. His politics is anyway the wind is blowing.
I blame Biker.
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Re: More Violent Republicans
Was he talking about the church where the armed parishioners stopped the shooter?
- CaptQuint
- Biker's Biatch
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Re: More Violent Republicans
lol gotta blame the other side no matter what
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk
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- Location: South Carolina
Re: More Violent Republicans
Ok, come up with a viable method to prove how every one of those in the picture votes and I’ll concede. Problem is you can’t and the whole thing is conjecture on the OP end that all, most, some, or any are Republicans. Being that was WVa I’m betting 50!50 no worse than 75!25.
- Stapes
- World's Only Blue Collar Guy
- Posts: 12853
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Re: More Violent Republicans
I'm going to bet every one of those Hitler youth vote Republican
I blame Biker.
- CaptQuint
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Re: More Violent Republicans
BOTH SIDES!!!!!Antknot wrote: ↑Mon Dec 30, 2019 10:22 pmOk, come up with a viable method to prove how every one of those in the picture votes and I’ll concede. Problem is you can’t and the whole thing is conjecture on the OP end that all, most, some, or any are Republicans. Being that was WVa I’m betting 50!50 no worse than 75!25.
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk
- CaptQuint
- Biker's Biatch
- Posts: 30361
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Re: More Violent Republicans
White National Socialists? You bet your bottom dollar. You need a history lesson again?
Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good sailor to do it drunk