PetSmart Manager Stands Up To Anti-LGBTQ Troll

PetSmart Manager Stands Up To Anti-LGBTQ Troll

And this fellow viewers is what we are up against. This passes as smart and witty for the radical right wing. This is the result of the hate spewing from elected republicans. They are driving this. This must not be acceptable to do. Thank you DeathSantis and other republican governors driving don’t say gay bills. I don’t know how to stop him and those like him who are so sure they are in the right and can force everyone to do as they demand. They have a right to make others act like they want them to, it is their freedom to tell you what to do and your freedom is to obey them. After Putin pushed a law making any positive mention of gays in public illegal, thugs rounded up gay men or men thought to be gay and tortured them in horrible ways and dump them on the streets. Now it is happening in the USA. I am really fed up the last few days with this shit. Hugs

Mediaite reports:

A total loser known for filming himself harassing retail employees was back on his bullshit by hectoring workers at a PetSmart.

The total loser filmed his encounter, in which he asks an employee – who is likely making the minimum wage or slightly above – about a pride flag decal displayed near a register.

“I’m just curious – what is that flag right there?” the demented dirtbag asks a cashier, knowing full well what it is. The talking pustule then claims the flag stands for “pedophilia” and demands, “Respect your customers.”

That’s all the setup you need. Just watch the first clip.

Schmidt, who has said he’s “hunting” LGBTQ rights supporters, recently said he’s also “bringing back Jew hunting” to celebrate “white history.”

Ethan Schmidt last appeared on JMG last month when he was arrested after menacing abortion rights protesters with an assault weapon.

Schmidt previously appeared on JMG when he harassed cancer patients at a wig store for wearing masks.

In January, he was banned from the Arizona Capitol after harassing a black lawmaker, saying that his mask was a “slave muzzle.”

In February, he earned national headlines when he berated store employees for selling Black History Month items.

Earlier this month he was detained after his group harassed abortion rights protesters and his accomplice was arrested for assault.

According to the Tucson Sentinel, Schmidt is currently awaiting trial for DUI. In a video posted to Reddit, Schmidt can be seen flaunting his ankle monitor.

QAnon Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has approvingly appeared in an earlier video by Schmidt.

PetSmart manager stands up to Kari Lake supporter Ethan Schmidt, kicks him out of the store for harassing employees over a pride flag. pic.twitter.com/YGvFMG4cU9
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) July 22, 2022

Wearing a “Heil Fauci” shirt, Kari Lake supporter Ethan Schmidt says he is “bringing back Jew hunting” in Phoenix to celebrate “white history.”

Kari Lake has appeared in an Ethan Schmidt promotional video and refuses to denounce him. pic.twitter.com/lGNU7f0GTw
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) July 13, 2022

Kari Lake appeared in a video promoting Ethan Schmidt’s account.

Kari Lake refuses to publicly denounce Ethan who is now stating he will “hunt LGBT supporters” at Target and across Phoenix. pic.twitter.com/FB9Ue831G9
— PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes) May 21, 2022

Sam_Handwich • 37 minutes ago

And when he shoots up a store everyone will act perplexed.

Dazzer Sam_Handwich • 34 minutes ago

Given the brains he’s exhibited thus far, it’ll probably be a kevlar store.

Happy_Housewife • 32 minutes ago

Someone needs to ask him why Christians have such dirty minds.

Philly Mike 🐸 Happy_Housewife • 26 minutes ago

Religious people really have proven themselves to be child molesters and rapists and it is independently verified by centuries of testimony, lawsuits and settlements.

TampaZeke Philly Mike 🐸 • 17 minutes ago

Ask any law enforecment person or prosecuter what gay organization, event or subculture is behind the most child molestation arrests and 100% of the time theyll tell you that the #1 place children are groomed and molested is in churches!

zhera • 30 minutes ago

Time to restrict his movements. His ankle monitor should keep him indoors in his home at all times.

Kevin Andrews • 38 minutes ago

Good on the Store Manager.
Long past time these bigots are called out and treated like the scum of the Earth that they are.

clay • 30 minutes ago

“Shame on Petco,” says the dolt.

“This is PetSmart,” the employee tells the mouth-breathing maniac.

Longpole • 30 minutes ago

Awe, he was offended.
Bet he wasn’t offended when his Orange God visited a prostitute while his wife was home with taking care of their baby.

Longpole • 37 minutes ago

The store has every right to call the police in a case like this. Especially if the idiot refuses to leave.

worstcultever • 20 minutes ago

crewman • 34 minutes ago

These are bullies looking for an excuse to pretend to be virtue warriors. They need some kind of legal accountability that hits hard.

jk105 • 24 minutes ago

This bigoted dolt can film himself harassing employees inside a store, but people can’t peacefully demonstrate outside a restaurant where Brett Kavanaugh munches on his dinner.

Guestfornow • 25 minutes ago

I wish the manager would have said that if he wants to protest child rape and grooming, take it to a Christian church. But, the manager would have been fired. And, the Christian superpower of always claiming constant victimhood and persecution would have been sent into overdrive. Imagine the screams on the right and religious.

The first guy should have been more assertive and the policy should just be to automatically call the police.

I wrote on the last thread when a tweet was posted, that if the right claims companies are people, then companies can stand their ground. This, employees are able to stand their ground. Yes, it is a joke. They have garbage dumpsters. That is a ready made disposal.

Trump Wanted to Take Back Jan. 7 Speech Admitting Biden Would Be President

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-tried-give-new-speech-biden-president-1386264/

After reluctantly agreeing to transfer power, the former president told aides he wanted to give a new White House address doubling down on the lie that the election was “stolen”

By
NIKKI MCCANN RAMIREZ
&
ASAWIN SUEBSAENG

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A video of former President Donald Trump is played as the Jan. 6 committee holds a hearing at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, June 28, 2022.

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

The day after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, then-President Trump released a video finally, reluctantly agreeing to a transfer of power to the “new” Biden administration. As soon as two days after the release of the White House video, however, Donald Trump wanted a mulligan.

A person with direct knowledge of the matter tells Rolling Stone that Trump told aides who were sticking by him that he wanted to deliver another speech to the nation, one in which he would double-down on the lie that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” via “fraud.”

The re-do speech, which Trump envisioned as a primetime address, would have been a tonal 180 from the video the White House posted the day following the Trump-inspired mob assault. The source adds that the president would have directly attacked the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s incoming administration, and vowed to supporters that he would continue “fighting” for them.

Since he left office, Trump has — in a way — delivered the follow-up address that he never got to give while in the White House, when lawyers and close advisers were warning him of his potential criminal exposure after the deadly riot. The twice-impeached former president has for months been repeating his anti-democratic lies in numerous speeches, rallies, interviews, and online posts. He has tried to argue that the violence at the Capitol took place independently of his actions. He has come out in favor of the Capitol rioters while promising to pardon them if elected to another term. He has cemented his lies about the 2020 election as widely-held mainstream conservative positions.

Trump’s push to deliver a second speech countering the one he gave on Jan. 7 came amid an internal struggle over his post-Jan. 6 messaging. The Washington Post, citing sources familiar with the work of the Jan. 6 committee, reported on Wednesday that the former president stubbornly refused attempts by staff to get him to condemn the rioters in the taped statement from the White House on Jan. 7

According to the Post, “over the course of an hour of trying to tape the message, Trump resisted holding the rioters to account, trying to call them patriots, and refused to say the election was over.” Trump was allegedly loath to call off the dogs and only agreed to do so after staff reminded him that Congress was considering invoking the 25th Amendment against him.

The public could get a glimpse of outtakes from Trump’s attempts to deliver the address during Thursday’s primetime hearing, in which the committee plans to lay out what they say are their final public arguments in their case against Trump. The committee is expected to focus heavily on Trump’s inaction in the 187 minutes between Trump’s speech at the rally at the Ellipse, and his afternoon message telling the “very special” rioters to “go home.”

In a clip released on Thursday by committee member Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh and former White House counsel Pat Cipollone testify that Trump remained in the presidential dining room watching news broadcasts of the riot unfolding at the Capitol.

What was Donald Trump doing while the Capitol was under siege? Take a look. pic.twitter.com/9mz3P6C4qK

— Adam Kinzinger (@RepKinzinger) July 21, 2022

The committee is also expected to detail how Trump reveled in the chaos and violence taking place at the Capitol. “He wanted to see it unfold,” Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) said this week, according to the Post. “And it wasn’t until he realized that it was not going to be successful that he finally stood up and said something.”

Ex-cop Lane gets 2 1/2 years on Floyd killing federal charge

https://apnews.com/article/death-of-george-floyd-police-minneapolis-thomas-lane-ffc19860301d277a32a18e1067bc4d4e

This is a complete travesty. I understand why the family is upset. I have seen this before when white rednecks ganged up on small individual gay men and beat them to death. It was that way with one of my friends. The court did everything they could to help and excuse the men, and they got the minimum time outside the guidelines. The 6 of them beat a small man walking home from a night college class to death because they were afraid he would sex them. That was their defense. We were all angered the courts were protecting them, and I can understand why these family members are upset now. This man helped. He held the dying man’s legs. The murder got 20 years or more. This guy who helped him got 2.5 years? Something needs to be done about this, an investigation, an appeal of the sentence. This is clearly a racist finger on the scale of justice. Hugs

A federal judge sentenced former Minneapolis police Officer Thomas Lane to 2 1/2 years in prison Thursday for violating George Floyd’s civil rights, calling Lane’s role in the restraint that killed Floyd “a very serious offense in which a life was lost” but handing down a sentence well below what prosecutors and Floyd’s family sought.

Judge Paul Magnuson’s sentence was just slightly more than the 27 months that Lane’s attorney had requested, while prosecutors had asked for at least 5 1/4 years in prison — the low end of federal guidelines for the charge Lane was convicted on earlier this year. He said Lane, who faces sentencing in September on state charges in Floyd’s killing, will remain free on bond until he must turn himself in Oct. 4.

Lane, who is white, held Floyd’s legs as Officer Derek Chauvin pinned Floyd’s neck with his knee for nearly 9 1/2 minutes on May 25, 2020. Bystander video of Floyd, who was Black, pleading that he could not breathe sparked protests in Minneapolis and around the world in a reckoning over racial injustice over policing.

Two other officers, J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, were also convicted of violating Floyd’s civil rights and will be sentenced later.

Floyd family members had asked Magnuson to give Lane the stiffest sentence possible, with brother Philonise Floyd rejecting the idea that Lane deserved any mercy for asking his colleagues twice if George Floyd should be shifted from his stomach to his side.

“Officer Lane did not intervene in one way or another,” he said.

Prosecutor Manda Sertich had also argued for a higher sentence, saying that Lane “chose not to act” when he could have saved a life.

“There has to be a line where blindly following a senior officer’s lead, even for a rookie officer, is not acceptable,” she said.

Magnuson told Lane the “fact that you did not get up and remove Mr. Chauvin when Mr. Floyd became unconscious is a violation of the law.” But he also held up 145 letters he said he had received supporting Lane, saying he had never received so many on behalf of a defendant. And he faulted the Minneapolis Police Department for sending Lane with another rookie officer on the call that ended in Floyd’s death.

In sentencing Chauvin earlier this month on civil rights charges in Floyd’s killing, Magnuson appeared to suggest that he bore the most blame in the case, telling Chauvin: “You absolutely destroyed the lives of three young officers by taking command of the scene.”

Lane did not speak at Thursday’s sentencing and neither he nor his attorney, Earl Gray, commented to reporters afterward. Prosecutors did not immediately comment afterward, but Philonise Floyd called the sentence “insulting” and said he didn’t understand why Lane — whom he called “an accessory to murder″ — didn’t get the toughest possible sentence.

“To me I think this whole criminal system needs to be torn down and rebuilt,” he said.

Lane’s attorney had argued that he twice asked his colleagues if Floyd should be turned on his side as officers restrained him face down and in handcuffs, as he said that he couldn’t breathe and eventually grew still.

Magnuson also said he would recommend that Lane serve his sentence at the federal prison in Duluth, a minimum-security facility about 2 1/2 hours from the Minneapolis area. The facility is classified as a “camp” and has no fence and has dormitory-style housing rather than cells. Prison assignments are made by the Bureau of Prisons.

Gray argued during the trial that Lane “did everything he could possibly do to help George Floyd.” He pointed out that Lane suggested rolling Floyd on his side so he could breathe, but was rebuffed twice by Chauvin. He also noted that Lane performed CPR to try to revive Floyd after the ambulance arrived.

Lane testified at trial that he didn’t realize how dire Floyd’s condition was until paramedics turned him over.

When Lane pleaded guilty in state court in May, Gray said Lane hoped to avoid a long sentence. “He has a newborn baby and did not want to risk not being part of the child’s life,” he said.

Chauvin pleaded guilty to separate federal civil rights charges in December in Floyd’s killing and in an unrelated case involving a Black teenager. That netted a 21-year sentence from Magnuson, toward the low end of the range of 20 to 25 years both sides agreed to under his plea deal.

Chauvin was already serving a 22 1/2-year state court sentence for second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. His federal and state sentences are running concurrently.

Kueng pinned Floyd’s back during the restraint and Thao helped hold back an increasingly concerned group of onlookers outside a Minneapolis convenience store where Floyd, who was unarmed, tried to pass a counterfeit $20 bill.

Magnuson has not set sentencing dates for Thao, who is Hmong American, and Kueng, who is Black. But he has scheduled a hearing for Friday on objections by their attorneys to how their sentences should be calculated under the complicated federal guidelines. Prosecutors are seeking unspecified sentences for them that would be lower than Chauvin’s but “substantially higher” than Lane’s.

Thao and Kueng are free on bond pending sentencing. They have turned down plea deals and are scheduled to go on trial Oct. 24 on state charges of aiding and abetting both second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

if this is not bias, anti-black, pro white, pro-cop bias then I do not think anything could be. This is why Black people in the US do not trust the police or the courts. I don’t either and I am white. Fuck all of this it needs to be changed. Hugs

Police Pull Up In Unmarked Car and Shoot Black Man in the Back

In San Bernadino, California, police exited an unmarked car and fatally shot Robert Adams after he reportedly fled and failed to comply with verbal demands, even though witnesses contest that any commands were given. Cenk Uygur and Jessica Burbank discuss on The Young Turks.

Read more HERE: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deadly-p…

“Police are investigating an officer-involved shooting that fatally wounded a Black man on Saturday in San Bernardino, California.

They say the man was armed at the time.

The incident occurred in a parking lot around 8 p.m., and was recorded by nearby surveillance cameras.

Disturbing silent footage, which shows uniformed authorities emerge from an unmarked vehicle and shoot 23-year-old Robert Adams in the back, was shared to social media and has since sparked outrage online.

In the video, which lasts about two minutes, Adams is first seen standing at the rear of a parked car speaking to someone he seems to know. He appears to face the unmarked police vehicle and briefly step toward it, at which point two officers exit the driver’s and passenger seat doors with their guns drawn.

Adams turns to run in the opposite direction and moves just a few paces before one officer discharges his weapon.

The bullet strikes Adams in the back, and he falls to the ground. Adams was transported to a hospital where he later died from his injuries.

His mother, Tamika Deavila King, responded to the shooting and surveillance footage in comments to CBS Los Angeles this week.

Like many others on Twitter and Facebook, she questioned the officer’s decision to fire his gun.”

Let’s talk about systemic failures in Uvalde….

Trump Tells Team He Needs to Be President Again to Save Himself from Criminal Probes

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-2024-criminal-probes-jan6-1384379/

Donald Trump speaks at a rally

When Donald Trump formally declares his 2024 candidacy, he won’t just be running for another term in the White House. He’ll be running away from legal troubles, possible criminal charges, and even the specter of prison time.

In recent months, Trump has made clear to associates that the legal protections of occupying the Oval Office are front-of-mind for him, four people with knowledge of the situation tell Rolling Stone.

Trump has “spoken about how when you are the president of the United States, it is tough for politically motivated prosecutors to ‘get to you,” says one of the sources, who has discussed the issue with Trump this summer. “He says when [not if] he is president again, a new Republican administration will put a stop to the [Justice Department] investigation that he views as the Biden administration working to hit him with criminal charges — or even put him and his people in prison.”

Presidential immunity and picking his own attorney general aren’t Trump’s only reasons for running again. And as he works on another run, Trump is in a tug-of-war with leaders and operatives of his own party about when to announce, according to multiple people with knowledge of the matter.

The former president is motivated to announce early — even before Election Day 2022 — in the hopes of clearing the field of primary rivals. But GOP leaders, including some of Trump’s closest advisors, don’t want him to declare his intentions until after the midterm elections. The GOP wants to keep voters focused on President Joe Biden, rather than transforming the contest into a referendum on Trump. In recent months, Trump has reluctantly agreed to hold off, only to return shortly thereafter with threats to make an early announcement, either out of self-interest, spite, or some combination of the two.

But as Trump talks about running, the four sources say, he’s leaving confidants with the impression that, as his criminal exposure has increased, so has his focus on the legal protections of the executive branch.

It’s not just liberal wish-casters or Trump critics who are acknowledging the former president’s legal jeopardy. Trump’s teams of lawyers and former senior administration officials speak about it commonly. “I do think criminal prosecutions are possible…for Trump and [former White House chief of staff Mark] Meadows certainly,” Ty Cobb, a former top lawyer in Trump’s White House, bluntly told Rolling Stone late last month.

Trump himself seems to acknowledge potential problems. He “said something like, ‘[prosecutors] couldn’t get away with this while I was president,’” another one of the four sources recalls. “It was during a larger discussion about the investigations, other possible 2024 [primary] candidates, and what people were saying about the Jan. 6 hearings … He went on for a couple minutes about how ‘some very corrupt’ people want to ‘put me in jail.’”

The powers of the presidency would offer a welcome pause to the various civil suits and criminal investigations now hanging over Trump. It’s unclear whether the Justice Department will charge Trump in connection with fomenting the January 6 insurrection, but winning the White House would be extremely helpful to him. Department policy forbids the prosecution of a sitting president, effectively insulating Trump from any federal charges for another four years.

Attorney General Merrick Garland

Jim Lo Scalzo/AFP/Getty Images

The law is less clear on whether a president can face prosecution from states while in office, but any attempt to put Trump on trial in a state case would likely be litigated in the Supreme Court. Former New York City district attorney Cyrus Vance’s efforts to subpoena Trump’s tax returns landed before the high court in 2020.

At the state level, Trump faces two criminal investigations. In Manhattan, district attorney Alvin Bragg empaneled a grand jury to investigate whether the former president committed fraud by allegedly lying about the value of his assets in financial statements. The grand jury has since expired, however, and there are few indications that Bragg intends to bring charges. In Georgia, prosecutors in Fulton County are investigating whether Trump illegally interfered in the counting of votes by pressuring Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” votes for him after the election. Just this month, Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis has subpoenaed Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Lindsay Graham and sent letters to pro-Trump Georgia state senators warning they could be prosecuted as part of the case.

Trump faces a slew of lawsuits, both for his conduct while in office and before. In previous cases Trump’s attorneys have claimed that the office of the president makes him immune to civil suits while sitting. That was Trump’s defense in a since-dismissed lawsuit by former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos.

In the 1990s, Paula Jones’ suit against then-President Clinton established that presidents do not enjoy absolute immunity. But the Zervos suit against Trump dragged on for five years before she dropped it. The case demonstrated that the presidency can help delay civil suits, even if it’s not an insurmountable obstacle.

Trump’s most recent legal headaches stem from his role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. Capitol and Washington, D.C. Metropolitan police officers have sued Trump over the physical and emotional damages they suffered during the rioting. The former president also faces two separate suits from Democratic members of Congress. The suits accuse the president of violating their civil rights by conspiring with extremist groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to prevent the count of electoral votes.

Pro-Trump Rioters attack Capitol Police on Jan. 6, 2021 in Washington, D.C.

Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

E. Jean Carroll is still pursuing a case against Trump for defamation. She has accused Trump of raping her in a store in the mid 1990s and is suing over his 2019 claim that Carroll was “totally lying.” The Justice Department, under both Trump and Biden, has claimed that Trump is immune from the suit because he was “acting within the scope of his office” when he made the claims. A federal appeals court is currently weighing the department’s arguments.

And in New York, attorney general Letitia James is pursuing a civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization lied about the value of its assets.

The suits add to mounting pressure on Trumpworld as the Jan. 6 committee and Justice Department investigations have heated up. A number of Trump aides have been pulled into a federal grand jury investigation into the effort to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. The investigation has yielded search warrants served on Trump campaign attorney John Eastman and Justice Department and former acting assistant attorney general Jeffrey Clark.

In the face of the investigations, many in Trumpworld have hoped that former aides could face prosecution for the efforts to overturn the election instead of the former president. In particular, Trump associates have tried to distance him from Eastman. And as Rolling Stone reported last week Trump’s legal advisors also view former chief of staff Mark Meadows as a potential fall guy for the former president’s post-election activities.

——————————————————————————————-

EXCLUSIVE: Trump is telling his team he wants to be president again … in part to escape criminal prosecution. “‘Some very corrupt’ people want to ‘put me in jail,’” he’s told aides. https://t.co/xOyeeSRWr1
— Noah Shachtman (@NoahShachtman) July 18, 2022

To AG Garland:

Mr. Trump is counting on your concerns about not “appearing” political when he makes clear his belief that you wouldn’t dare approve his indictment once he announces.

You MUST prove him wrong.

Make him a TARGET now. No time to lose.https://t.co/aO8OsSQlep
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) July 18, 2022

Call me Ishmael an hour ago

Seems clear that DeSantis will be the Republican nominee. If Trump is the nominee, is there any protection from prosecution before the actual election?

band💋 Call me Ishmael 36 minutes ago

There is no protection from prosecution. EXCEPT, the DoJ, as a rule, tries to avoid taking actions such as issuing indictments in the couple months before an election.

Philly Mike 🐸 an hour ago

I did hear a story on NPR that mentioned the DOJ could possibly slow the investigation if he runs but this is already started and should not be delayed.

Lestat 2 hours ago

Trump knows he’s safe while Biden is in office because Biden/Garland will not prosecute a political rival. If a Democrat wins the next presidency, Trump’s goose is cooked. That’s why he is desperate to become the next president.

Harriet Harlow 2 hours ago

This was only too predictable. No desire to serve one’s country as President…as always, the only consideration for him involves himself. Big Surprise,

unsavedheathen 2 hours ago

There is absolutely nothing in the US Constitution nor in the US Criminal Code proscribing the indictment on criminal charges of a candidate for the office of US president.

SilentMike 4 hours ago

Federal protections about “charging” per DOJ apply to a “sitting president”.

DOJ should charge TFG before he even announces his run.

If DOJ charges TFG after he announces his run TFG will lean heavily on the “it’s a political witchhunt” mantra and I believe the charges, under DOJ since he is not a “sitting president” yet, will have to be challenged in court and of course – SCOTUS.

He’s still not protected from state charges, but those too he will fight to – SCOTUS.

If DeSantis runs, what do you think the chances of him pardoning Trump, Meadows and others under the argument of “putting it behind us” and garnering more widespread GQOP support?

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Elagabalus 4 hours ago

As always, every decision, every choice he makes is done with one thing in mind: what’s in it for him. No consideration for serving the public at all, only what’s in his best interest. Some things never change.