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Election 2019: Virginia Republicans attack transgender Delegate Danica Roem's identity as a parent

Election 2019: Virginia GOP Sends Racist Mailer Attacking Democratic Incumbent

With just days before the Nov. 5 election in Virginia, the Republican Party of Virginia sent out a racist mailer attacking Delegate Kelly Fowler of Virginia Beach, depicting Fowler, who is of Mexican and Filipino descent, as a criminal gang member. The mailer was authorized by Fowler’s opponent, Republican Shannon Kane.

The front of the mailer depicts Fowler holding a sign that says “ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ARE WELCOME HERE!” in front of a scene of a large number of brown-skinned people walking, with no location or context for the photo noted.

And if the pandering to racists wasn’t clear enough to anyone viewing the front of the mailer, the graphic on the back makes it plain. There a Photoshopped picture of Fowler shows her standing with three mean-looking, shirtless MS-13 gang members with tattoos on their faces and bodies. They stand against a graffitied backdrop. Below the photo, block-letter text describes Fowler as an “extremist” and claims that she “openly welcomes Illegal Immigrants into our community putting our families safety at risk.” (Perhaps it was the copyeditor’s day off.)

The mailer also attacked Fowler’s voting record in misleading language. Governor Ralph Northam vetoed a bill banning so-called sanctuary cities, and in keeping with Democrats, Fowler did not vote to override him. And Fowler supports in-state tuition rates—not simply “free” tuition as the mailer would have you believe—for DACA recipients (should the DACA program be eliminated) and individuals under 27 who have filed for permanent residency or asylum.



https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/virginia-gop-sends-racist-mailer-attacking-democratic-incumbent/

Trump staged Situation Room photo.

Pete Souza, the White House photographer for Presidents Obama and Reagan, pointed out that the time stamp on a photo released by the White House of Trump in the Situation Room with a group of aides and military officials monitoring the raid on ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s compound did not match up with the reported time of the raid. This prompted users on social media to suggest the photo was “staged”, a word which immediately began trending. Trump was also reported to be golfing at the time of the raid.

rump aide Dan Scavino tweeted: “President Trump is joined by VP Mike Pence, National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien, left; Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Army General Mark A. Milley, and Brig. Gen. Marcus Evans, Deputy Director for Special Operations……on the Joint Staff, at right, Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019, in the Situation Room of the White House monitoring developments as U.S. Special Operations forces close in on notorious ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s compound in Syria with a mission to kill or capture the terrorist.”



https://www.towleroad.com/2019/10/staged-trump-photo/

MI-SEN: Peters Moves to Lean Democrat

After serving three terms in the U.S. House, Democrat Gary Peters won this open seat in 2014 with 55 percent to 41 percent for former Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land. This was supposed to be among the most competitive races of the cycle, but Land proved to be a weak candidate. But, as Peters gears up to run for a second term next year, Republicans believe that he is very vulnerable, citing polling that shows that the incumbent is not very well known and thus undefined in the minds of voters.

Peters had careers in banking and education before politics became a full-time job. He worked as an assistant vice president at Merrill Lynch from 1980 until 1989 when he joined UBS/Paine Webber as a vice president. In 2003, he left banking to become the commissioner of the Michigan Lottery. After leaving that post in 2007, he taught at Central Michigan University.

Peters got his start in politics in 1990 when he won a seat on the Rochester Hills City Council. In 1994, he won a seat in the state Senate that he held until 2002. In 2008, Peters ran against then-GOP U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg in what was the 9th congressional district. The district included Southfield and West Bloomfield, and had a Partisan Voting Index of D+1, meaning that it voted one point more Democratic than the nation as a whole. Since 2008 was a very good year for Democrats nationally, it wasn’t a big surprise that Peters beat Knollenberg, 52 percent to 43 percent, in such a marginal district. President Obama carried the district with 56 percent, one point lower than his 57-percent performance statewide.

Given how competitive the district was, Republicans targeted Peters in 2010. His GOP challenger was state Rep. Rocky Raczkowski. While it was a good year for Republicans nationally, Raczkowski struggled to raise money and was tripped up by comments he made questioning Obama’s citizenship. It still ended up being a close contest; Peters won that race, 50 percent to 47 percent.



https://cookpolitical.com/analysis/senate/michigan-senate/peters-moves-lean-democrat

Florida Man arrested for sexual act with stuffed toy inside Target store.

One Pinellas County man’s love for “Frozen” ventured into the extreme.

Cody Meader, 20, was hit with a criminal mischief charge after allegedly getting a little too friendly with a “Frozen” stuffed toy.

Meader strolled into a Pinellas Park Target on Tuesday afternoon, authorities said. With lust in his eyes, he headed straight toward a display of Disney Frozen merchandise. The St. Petersburg resident surveyed his options before selecting a large stuffed Olaf the snowman.

“[Meader] then proceeded to lay it on the floor and ‘dry hump’ the item,” the arrest affidavit says.

The defilement of the animated character didn’t stop there.

“He ejaculated onto the merchandise before placing it back on display,” the affidavit continued.





https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article236652848.html#storylink=cpy

Former Michigan Rep. John Conyers has passed away.

Via breaking news everywhere.

Donovan - Season Of The Witch

Election 2019: The "Trump Effect" Turns Local School Board Races From Staid to Strident.

Fairfax County and Loudoun County Republicans are leaning on national arch-conservative media and national anti-LGBTQ organizations in trying to take control of their counties’ local School Boards.

With a Daily Caller article much touted by Republican School Board candidates, interviews and endorsements of candidates by Sebastian Gorka, and anti-LGBTQ (in particular anti-trans) conferences, campaign efforts and endorsements by the anti-LGBTQ “hate group” Family Research Council personnel, these national figures are getting involved in our local school board politics.

These national figures and groups are focusing on local School Boards, because they know that voter participation in these elections is super low, and they see an opportunity to have a major impact by riling up and turning out their most dedicated followers. Inclusion and protection for LGBTQ students and staff has made much progress in Fairfax and Loudoun over the past few years, and these Republican operatives would desperately like to turn back the clock. They know that Fairfax and Loudoun have set precedents for the rest of the state, and clearly don’t want that precedent to spread further.

In the far-right Daily Caller, which you can link to but which I won’t link to, Luke Rosiak wrote an article about how “George Soros backed activist groups” are bringing “racial equity policies” to counties and school systems across the country. Rosiak focused on the “One Fairfax” policy, which he falsely claims will lead to county-wide busing and pulling children out of their neighborhood schools. In fact, this claim is a red herring which is absurd on the face of it—FCPS has no intention of implementing busing, and no one has suggested it—it’s just a straw man Rosiak can knock down.Thus, Rosiak refers to scary-sounding “radical activist groups” which imposed One Fairfax from outside. The reality is that “One Fairfax” is a home-grown policy that was motivated by the need to make sure that equitable resources are directed to our low-income schools.




https://bluevirginia.us/2019/10/the-trump-effect-turns-local-school-board-races-from-staid-to-strident-with-nasty-anti-lgbtq-views-and-republican-candidates

Sondland sang like a canary.

Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, told House committees last week that efforts by President Trump and his allies to press Kyiv to open investigations in exchange for a White House meeting with Ukraine’s president amounted to a quid pro quo, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Trump has denied that his decision to hold up aid was related to his push for investigations, repeatedly declaring there was “no quid pro quo.” Asked by a lawmaker whether that arrangement was a quid pro quo, Sondland cautioned that he wasn’t a lawyer but said he believed the answer was yes.



https://politicalwire.com/2019/10/26/sondland-testified-trump-demanded-quid-pro-quo/