Showing posts with label Bernard Kerik. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bernard Kerik. Show all posts

Friday, June 12, 2020

I Didn't Say It ...


Colin Powell, former Secretary of State, told CNN’s Jake Tapper he was voting Biden in November:

“[_____] lies. He lies about things, and he gets away with it because people will not hold him accountable. … We’re not a country of just a president. I think what we’re seeing now, those massive protest movements I have ever seen in my life, I think this suggests that the country is getting wise to this and we’re not going to put up with it anymore. … I’m very close to Joe Biden in a social manner and political manner. I’ve worked with him for 35, 40 years, and he is now the candidate and I will be voting for him.”

While Colin Powell has had his own fights with the truth back in the day—WMD anyone—I do like to see people speaking out about the lack of true leadership in this country.
Bernard Kerik, former NYPD Commissioner, pardoned by _____ earlier this year after conviction on eight felony charges, says police brutality is fine with him and no reforms are needed except for the black community:

“When you watch these videos, listen, when a police officer tells you to move when there is a curfew, you move. When a police officer told you to back up, you back up. You’re not supposed to stick your finger in his face. You’re not supposed to touch him or throw something on it. They’ve been bombarded with bricks, rocks, Mollin powotov cocktails, sticks, you name it and you know what at some point in time, you’re going to push the wrong cop and he’s going to push back. In this case, that is what happened. Everything is about reforming the police. How about reforming the community? How about teaching young black men and women, in these communities of color, things like don’t run from the police when you get stopped. Keep your hands on the steering wheel when you get stopped in a car stop. Don’t make furtive moments, don’t put your hands in your pockets, don’t poke the police in the eye when he stops you, don’t assault the police, don’t resist. These are simple, simple things that could be taught in driving school when you’re teaching kids how to get their license.”

Um, you racist fuckmonkey, black people didn’t just start running from police for no reason; it started after years and years AND YEARS of being targeted by police, brutalized by police, arrested for simply walking while black by the police. If the police do better, the communities do better; if the police become visible positive influences in our communities, then no one will feel the need to run …for their lives.
Michelangelo Signorile, SiriusXM radio host, LGBTQ activist and author, on the new round of speculation that Lindsey Graham is gay, using Aaron Schock as an example for outing Graham:

“[Aaron Schock is] the perfect example of a man who was deceiving the public in so many ways … The closet, for powerful politicians, becomes a sort of practice run at the art of deception on a grander scale. And when you will sell out your own kind, there’s really no telling how low you will go. Had journalists at mainstream outlets with vast resources, legal teams and researchers, been pursuing Schock for the hypocrisy of his anti-LGBTQ votes—and revealed that he was gay, with clear-cut evidence—it wouldn’t only have likely stopped an anti-gay hypocrite, it would likely have brought down a man who was spending campaign and taxpayer dollars to live in grand style and luxuriously travel around the world. … Some queer people don’t realize this isn’t about indiscriminately ‘outing’ the average person, the private citizens just trying to live their own lives. It’s actually about protecting them from the corruption of those who are public figures—people who go into public life knowing their lives will be open for discussion—who want to deceive people to benefit themselves and their benefactors. Senator Lindsey Graham has promoted a horrendously anti-LGBTQ agenda and now is one of the strongest defenders of a president who is the most anti-LGBTQ president in history, rolling back rights that have been won. Editors and reporters should be investigating Graham’s hypocrisy the way they investigate public figures’ hypocrisy all the time—and that means following up on reports about his sexual orientation.”

People should be allowed to come when they choose, if they choose, BUT when closted gay politicians use their power to do harm to the LGBTQ community in an effort to hide their own orientation, then all bets are off.
So, come on out, Lady G, before you’re dragged out.
And then dragged.
Mike Huckabee, presidential wannabe and rightwingnut, on the idea that some Republicans will not support _____
:
“If you have people who were nominated, and in the case of President Bush actually elected to be president by Republicans and they will no longer support the Republican nominee who went through the process and got elected, then I’m going to be not just unhappy, I’m going to be livid. And some of them say, ‘But I don’t like his personality.’ Well, get over it. This is not about electing a personality. This isn’t Hollywood. This is the rough, tumble world of politics. And maybe he’s not as genteel as some of us would like. But, by gosh, he’s getting the job done, and it’s time Republicans rally because if they don’t, they’re going to get Joe Biden, who isn’t pro-life, who is for higher taxes, open borders, he’s going to succumb to China. Everything that we find disgusting he’s going to embrace it, including the socialists out here.”

Hey Mike, you pandering fuckmonkey. _____ is a racist who uses the Bible as a prop and you, an ALLEGED Christian, are fine with that.
What you’re livid about, Blanche, is the idea that if Biden gets in the wingnuts won’t control the courts and women’s right to make their own healthcare decisions will stay put.
But, you do you, support and vote for a racist as long as it keeps the Pro-choice movement down.
God will love you for that.
John OliverLast Week Tonight, on defunding police departments:

“The police have not just been incidentally tainted by racism. For much of U.S. history, law enforcement meant enforcing laws that were explicitly designed to subjugate black people. … All week long, protesters have continued to fill the streets in all 50 states in the wake of the horrific murder of George Floyd by the police. And in response to those protests, which have been a stirring pushback against institutional racism and brutality, it’s been frankly sickening to see them met with this. As for the president himself, he initially hid from the protesters in a bunker, later claiming he wasn’t hiding, he was just ‘inspecting’ it. Then, his attorney general had police gas protesters outside the White House so that _____ could have an inexplicable photo op at a nearby church while holding up a Bible like it’s the ticket for his sandwich order that was just called. He also, in announcing jobs numbers on Friday, invoked George Floyd’s name, saying, ‘This is a great day for him,’ which is utterly f**king disgusting. [Defunding police doesn’t mean all police would be eliminated] It means moving away from a narrow conception of public safety that relies on policing and punishment and investing in a community’s actual safety—things like stable housing, mental health services and community organizations. The concept is that the role of the police can then significantly shrink because they are not responding to the homeless or to mental health calls or arresting children in schools or really any other situation where they best solution is not someone showing up with a gun—that’s the idea of defunding the police.”

Defund doesn’t mean end the police force, it means take ack some of their massive budgets and use it in the communities they serve to help our citizens of color climb out of poverty, mental health issues, drug problems. If the communities have help, then you don’t need riot gear and tanks and tear gas.
Help those communities and help everyone.
Daniel Radcliffe, actor, speaking out against transphobic statements made by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling:

“Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I. According to The Trevor Project, 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported being the subject of discrimination due to their gender identity. It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm. I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what’s important right now. While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment: to all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you. If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much.”

Bravo, Daniel.
Rowling is under fire for recent Tweets suggesting that if you don’t menstruate, you aren’t a woman. She also said:
The idea that women like me, who’ve been empathetic to trans people for decades, feeling kinship because they’re vulnerable in the same way as women—ie, to male violence—‘hate’ trans people because they think sex is real and has lived consequences—is a nonsense.”
‘In the same way as women’? They are women, you tool. She supports trans people would march with trans people but thinks trans women are not women.
Ass.
Tucker Carlson, Fox News, spreading racism and hate and fear:

“This may be a lot of things, this moment we’re living through, but it is definitely not about black lives. And remember that when they come for you and at this rate, they will. Anyone who has ever been subjected to the rage of the mob knows the feeling. It’s like being swarmed by hornets. You cannot think clearly. And the temptation is to panic. But you can’t panic. You got to keep your head and tell the truth. Tell the truth. If you show weakness of any kind, they will crush you.”

There you have it: black people are coming for white people in mobs.
Racist Tucker fucker.
Eddie Redmayne, actor who starred in the film adaptation of JK Rowling’s Fantastic Beasts franchise and played trans pioneer Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl, on Rowling’s transphobic tweets:

“Respect for transgender people remains a cultural imperative, and over the years I have been trying to constantly educate myself. This is an ongoing process. As someone who has worked with both J.K. Rowling and members of the trans community, I wanted to make it absolutely clear where I stand: I disagree with Jo’s comments. Trans women are women, trans men are men and non-binary identities are valid. I would never want to speak on behalf of the community but I do know that my dear transgender friends and colleagues are tired of this constant questioning of their identities, which all too often results in violence and abuse. They simply want to live their lives peacefully, and it’s time to let them do so.”

It’s the simplest thing: treat people with respect, because you’d like the same in return.
General Mark Milley, the nation’s top military officer, on going with ____ to that church where he was photographed in his combat uniform:

“I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics. As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from.”

Good on you now, but you really should have seen through that charade from the jump.
Milley also repeated his opposition to _____’s call for federal troops to be deployed nationwide to quell protests.

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Coins and Connections and Pardon


This week _____ got all full of himself—fuller?—and went all pardon-y. It’s what people who’ve conned an entire political party do, you know. And who did he pardon, you ask?

Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich who tried to sell Obama’s Senate seat to the highest bidder, among other things; and former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, appointed to that post by then-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Obama and Giuliani related pardons? Interesting.

The Constitution—which _____ apparently defends when it comes to pardons and ignores at every other turn—gives the president power “to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” Sadly, or happily, he can’t pardon himself, though you know he was gonna try. And while most presidents use their pardon power in the interests of mercy, not for prominent or political bedfellows or well-connected friends or cronies of the president himself, _____ uses it for the exact opposite reasons; and we know this because he’s done it before …

He granted clemency have to former Arizona Sheriff, and unrepentant anti-immigrant racist,  Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of contempt-of-court; he pardoned conservative asshat Dinesh D’Souza, who pleaded guilty to violating campaign-finance laws; and he pardoned several members of the U.S. military, including three service members accused or convicted of war crimes.

And now Blagojevich and Kerik.

 Rod Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 of several counts of corruption, including trying to sell Obama’s vacant Senate post to Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. in exchange for $1.5 million in donations; he also wanted  Obama insiders to lean on wealthy financiers to bankroll a nonprofit advocacy group for Blagojevich to run at a generous salary. When Children's Memorial Hospital lobbied Blagojevich to raise state reimbursement rates for pediatric specialists, he withheld the $8 million funding increase in an effort to get the CEO of the hospital to hold a $25,000 fundraiser.

He withheld funds to get something? Where have I heard that before?

In November 2008, when the General Assembly voted to extend a subsidy from Illinois casinos to horse-racing tracks, Maywood Park horse-racing track owner John Johnston urged a Blagojevich associate to have the governor sign the bill. Blagojevich said he’d sign it … for a $100,000 donation from Johnston.

That’s the case of Blagojevich; a corrupt politician selling deals and Senate seats to enrich himself. Blagojevich is the exact kind of swamp dweller _____ promised to remove from politics and now he’s pardoned him.

Now for Kerik; he  was sentenced to four years in prison in 2010 after pleading guilty to tax fraud and making false statements. Among other actions, he admitted to speaking to city regulators on behalf of a contractor who had done renovations on his apartment for free. Kerik was released in 2013, and now he’s been pardoned and made to look like he never committed a crime because … Giuliani.

_____ has also pardoned Ed DeBartolo, a former owner of the San Francisco 49ers, who pleaded guilty in 1998 to concealing an extortion attempt by former Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards. And while _____ also commuted sentences for two women convicted of drug offenses, most of his pardons were for wealthy people, friends of friends, who lied and cheated and stole from others.

Basically, street criminals with coins and connections.

_____’s exercise of the pardon power has been a joke, and clearly self-serving and blatantly political. It’s all part of his revenge tour after being impeached, where he wants to show everyone that he will do whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and no one, least of all the GOP Cowards will even try to stop him.

So, for you Deplorables, is this what you wanted? _____ to drain the swamp by literally freeing the swamp dwellers; _____to pardon and release criminals cronies and friends of cronies? _____helping the rich, who lied and cheated and stole, get out of jail? _____ saying he was investigating Biden because he cared about corruption?

Asking for a country on the verge of extinction.