Kamella Harris had a nice surprise outside her home this morning

[I AM IRONMAN]

6 minutes ago, DBP66 said:

and who's going to mow your lawn??...😉

Nah that’s not a bit racist!

[DBP66]

Just now, I AM IRONMAN said:

Nah that’s not a bit racist!

LOL....do you mow your own lawn?...are you allowed to do that in the state of Conn.??....I thought it was illegal?

[DBP66]

The transport of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard drew outrage. But is it a crime?

Caitlin Dickson

·Reporter

Mon, September 19, 2022 at 6:37 PM

 

 

In the days since two Republican governors transported groups of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and outside Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence in Washington, D.C., to protest Democratic immigration policies, the outrage over the use of human beings as political props has prompted calls for investigations into whether the stunts may have broken any laws.

“As someone who has been on the ground, who represents these communities who has spent time speaking with and learning from these migrants,” Massachusetts state Sen. Julian Andre Cyr, who represents Martha’s Vineyard, told Yahoo News on Friday. “I think an investigation certainly is warranted.”

On Monday in Texas, Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar announced that his office is investigating "individual(s) who lured 48 migrants from the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio," to be flown to Martha's Vineyard.

Cyr and other lawmakers have questioned whether potential crimes of human trafficking and kidnapping were committed. Although those charges seem unlikely, federal authorities — or the migrants themselves — could explore other possible violations, experts told Yahoo News.

 

A group of migrants from Venezuela gather on Martha's Vineyard, Sept. 15. (Jonathan Wiggs/Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who claimed credit for chartering two flights that delivered about 50 migrants on the affluent Massachusetts Island, said the move was necessary to “protect the state of Florida from the impact of Biden’s border policies. But it has since been reported that the flights originated in Texas, which is led by Gov. Greg Abbott, and that the migrants — mostly Venezuelan asylum seekers who had recently crossed the Mexican border — hadn’t spent any time in Florida except for a short layover en route to Martha’s Vineyard.

A number of the migrants have given interviews suggesting they were lured onto the planes under false pretenses by a recruiter who offered to take them to Boston, where they were promised expedited work papers, housing and other assistance. Instead, they were reportedly dropped off at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport with no notice given to the residents.

At a video press conference Monday, Salazar said that based on his office's understanding of the incident, a Venezuelan migrant was paid to recruit migrants in the San Antonio area.

"We are opening up a case, an investigation, with regard to the suspected activities involving the 48 migrants from Venezuela," Salazar said, "that as we understand it at this point, are that on Wednesday, Sept. 14, here in Bexar County in the city of San Antonio, our understanding is that a Venezuelan migrant was paid what we would call a bird dog fee to recruit approximately 50 migrants from the area around a migrant resource center [in San Antonio]."

 

The City of San Antonio Migrant Resource Center, where two planeloads of mostly Venezuelan migrants sent via Florida to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts had originated, is seen in San Antonio, Texas, U.S. September 16, 2022. REUTERS/Jordan Vonderhaar

Salazar said that the "48 migrants were lured under false pretenses into staying at a hotel for a couple of days. They were shuttled to an airplane where they were flown to Florida and then eventually flown to Martha's Vineyard again under false pretenses."

Salazar said the migrants were promised work and "the solution to their problems. They were taken to Martha's Vineyard from what we can gather, for little more than a photo op, video op, and then they were unceremoniously stranded in Martha's Vineyard."

In a statement, a spokesperson for Abbott said his office was not involved in the initial plans to take migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, but that they “appreciate the support in responding to this national crisis and helping Texans. Governor Abbott encourages and welcomes all his fellow governors to engage in this effort to secure the border and focus on the failing and illegal efforts of the Biden-Harris Administration to continue these reckless open border policies.”

 

Texas Governor Gregg Abbott. (Marco Bello/Reuters)

In a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland last week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, urged the Department of Justice to investigate whether the Martha’s Vineyard incident involved possible criminal or civil violations of federal law.

Newsom suggested that such “alleged fraudulent inducement” could constitute kidnapping. He also implored the DOJ to probe whether the migrants’ rights to equal protection under the law were violated, writing that “based on the allegations, the recruiters targeted the individuals based on their national origin,” with the apparent intent to “humiliate and dehumanize them.

Activists like Domingo Garcia, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, echoed Newsom’s demand for accountability at a press conference on Martha’s Vineyard on Friday, calling the state-sponsored flights a “gross abuse of power,” and urged the Justice Department to probe possible violations of human trafficking or civil rights laws.

Cyr told Yahoo News that one of the migrants he spoke with on Martha’s Vineyard said “she felt like she had been kidnapped.”

“From what I've heard and others have heard, there is clearly [a] misleading of individuals,” he said. “This appears to be human trafficking in some form or at least coercion of individuals and providing transport without knowledge of their destination.”

 

A group of Venezuelan migrants, mainly from Venezuela, who were sent by bus from detention in Texas and then dropped off outside the the official residence of Vice President Kamala Harris, Sept. 17. (Marat Sadana/Reuters)

By Sunday, state officials in Massachusetts had reportedly joined the call for a Justice Department probe. “We are requesting that the Department of Justice open an investigation to hold DeSantis and others accountable for these inhumane acts,” state Rep. Dylan Fernandes, a Democrat, tweeted. Fernandes said he had spoken with Rachael Rollins, a U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, and was "grateful to hear she is pushing for a response from the DOJ."

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.

Carl Bornstein, a former federal prosecutor, told Yahoo News on Friday that he thinks it’s “unlikely that a federal prosecutor would try to use the kidnapping statute with regard to the transportation of the migrants” based on what’s been reported, though he acknowledged that that might change as more information comes to light.

Bornstein explained that the federal kidnapping statute applies primarily to situations in which someone uses or threatens physical force to get custody of another person “for the purpose of collecting a ransom or reward.” However, he said, the one exception to that involves “inveigling” or using deception or “sweet talking” to take custody of a victim.

“There is no suggestion so far that the migrants were taken by force or threat,” Bornstein said, adding that it’s not totally clear whether whatever the migrants were promised in order to get them on the planes would constitute inveigling.

“Here it seems to have been more of a con job,” Bornstein said.

 

Volunteers gather in a circle on Sept. 16, 2022, before helping Venezuelan migrants board busses outside of St. Andrew's Parish House. Two planes of migrants from Venezuela arrived suddenly two days prior causing the local community to mobilize and create a makeshift shelter at the church. (Carlin Stiehl for The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Speaking to Politico, Stephen Block, a Chicago attorney and former assistant U.S. attorney, held a similar view regarding accusations of human trafficking.

"So far, nothing indicates they’re being held captive," Block said. “They’re not being handcuffed and put on buses. So it’s unlikely that federal criminal trafficking statutes will come into play.”

Catherine Chen, CEO of Polaris, a nonprofit that works to combat sex and labor trafficking in North America, cautioned against dismissing human trafficking accusations without all of the facts.

“Human trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to exploit other people for financial or personal gain,” Chen explained in a statement Friday to Yahoo News. “Despite popular misconception, trafficking has nothing to do with transportation.”

She added, “Without an investigation of exactly what happened before migrants were put on a plane and unwittingly used for political gain, it would be irresponsible to accuse anyone of trafficking. In the context of the events involving migrants transported from Texas and Florida to Martha’s Vineyard and Washington, D.C., Polaris is deeply concerned about reports of fraud.”

 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at a campaign stop in August. (Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Bornstein suggested that there may be another potential avenue for prosecution under federal immigration laws, which make it a crime to knowingly transport migrants who are in the country illegally, and would “require state officials to be deputized to do the work of federal employees when it comes to transporting migrants interstate.” But again, he said, more investigation would be needed to determine which laws would apply in this scenario.

Although many are asking federal authorities to investigate what happened on Martha’s Vineyard, Downing said there may be options for the migrants themselves to seek relief for their treatment under international law.

“People forget that these people who are coming to our country, they’re citizens of other countries, so they have rights,” Katalin Downing, an adjunct lecturer of political science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, told Yahoo News. “It’s not just that because you cross a border you’ve lost your rights.”

While it is up to governments to bring cases, at times on behalf of their citizens, against other governments at the International Court of Justice in the Hague, Downing noted that the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights allows individuals to bring human rights complaints against any member of the Organization of American States. Although the United States has not ratified the convention that established the IACHR, meaning it is not officially a state party, it has been brought before the court in the past.

Downing also pointed out that everyone has the right to seek asylum from persecution, and there are additional protections for asylum seekers under international law. Federal law allows anyone to request asylum in the United States once they’re physically in the country, regardless of how they got here.

 

Migrants outside St. Andrew's Parrish House on Martha's Vineyard after a lunch sponsored by the community. (Jonathan Wiggs/Boston Globe via Getty Images)

“Oftentimes people who are the most vulnerable are also the ones who experience serious violations of their human rights,” Downing said. “The question really is how do we ensure that people who are most vulnerable also have their rights as protected as others?”

The Martha’s Vineyard incident was the latest escalation of a months-long campaign by Republican governors in southern border states to send recently arrived migrants, mostly asylum seekers, from those states to Democratic cities in the northeast to protest Biden’s immigration policies. According to Abbott’s office, more than 7,000 migrants have been dropped off in Washington, and more than 2,000 have been sent to New York City, since April.

More buses arrived in New York from Texas on Sunday, Politico reported, and Adams said that his office is looking into whether to take legal action.

“Our legal team is looking at what legal challenges we could do with Texas. ... We believe there are some options we have, because when you involuntarily place someone on a bus, we believe that actually skates the law,” Adams told CBS New York.

[Wildcat Will]

59 minutes ago, I AM IRONMAN said:

Nah that’s not a bit racist!

You.........before you take the copper from their power box.

[I AM IRONMAN]

1 minute ago, Wildcat Will said:

You.........before you take the copper from their power box.

Wrong guy smart ass.

[On2whls]

1 hour ago, DBP66 said:

and what did the right do?...they separated families....why do you suppose they started busing them around right before the elections??

Are you really so naive as to think families have not been separated by immigration and deportation practices over the course of several administrations?  

[concha]

8 minutes ago, On2whls said:

Are you really so naive as to think families have not been separated by immigration and deportation practices over the course of several administrations?  

 

He's the most naïve and stupid organism on the planet.

He couldn't constructively think to save his sorry life.

 

[Wildcat Will]

38 minutes ago, I AM IRONMAN said:

Wrong guy smart ass.

Nope.

[Wildcat Will]

21 minutes ago, concha said:

 

He's the most naïve and stupid organism on the planet.

He couldn't constructively think to save his sorry life.

 

Finger sniffer.

[I AM IRONMAN]

22 minutes ago, Wildcat Will said:

Nope.

Yup….carry on junior.

[Wildcat Will]

45 minutes ago, I AM IRONMAN said:

Yup….carry on junior.

Step up.

Be a man and accept your truth.

[I AM IRONMAN]

1 minute ago, Wildcat Will said:

Step up.

Be a man and accept your truth.

Says the juvenile that says finger sniffer.  The hypocrisy is strong with you young man

[DBP66]

8 hours ago, On2whls said:

Are you really so naive as to think families have not been separated by immigration and deportation practices over the course of several administrations?  

no they have not....nice try...it was team Trump that did that....you and Don Rickels don't have a clue. What's new?

[DBP66]

8 hours ago, concha said:

 

He's the most naïve and stupid organism on the planet.

He couldn't constructively think to save his sorry life.

 

How's that "red wave" looking Don??......🤡

 

 

 

[Nolebull813]

Still waiting. Where are these migrants supposed to go? Small border towns who have been maxed out for decades? Or large sanctuary cities that want immigration. Large cities that can absorb it better than some small border town. 

[concha]

17 minutes ago, Nolebull813 said:

Still waiting. Where are these migrants supposed to go? Small border towns who have been maxed out for decades? Or large sanctuary cities that want immigration. Large cities that can absorb it better than some small border town. 

 

Preferred option 1:  Stay out of the country and use legal immigration procedures.

 

[Nolebull813]

I have heard more outrage about 50 illegal aliens taking a first class plane trip to the richest zip code in the country to mingle with the most well resourced and connected people on the planet than I heard about the 50 illegal aliens DYING in the back of a semi truck. 
 

Think about that for a second. 50 migrants died in the back of a truck in America and it made the news for a day maybe two. Then you didn’t hear about it again. You have heard about this story for almost a week now. wall to wall coverage. 
 

Border towns with populations of less than 50,000 watching tens of thousands of illegals pour into their communities and no one says a peep. Then when they get sent to liberal enclaves who WANT them, all of a sudden it’s a bad thing. 
 

if you were more outraged about 50 illegals partying with Obama on Martha’s Vineyard than the 50 migrants dying in the back of a truck, please pick up your “world biggest piece of shit” award on your way out 

[DBP66]

14 minutes ago, Nolebull813 said:

I have heard more outrage about 50 illegal aliens taking a first class plane trip to the richest zip code in the country to mingle with the most well resourced and connected people on the planet than I heard about the 50 illegal aliens DYING in the back of a semi truck. 
 

Think about that for a second. 50 migrants died in the back of a truck in America and it made the news for a day maybe two. Then you didn’t hear about it again. You have heard about this story for almost a week now. wall to wall coverage. 
 

Border towns with populations of less than 50,000 watching tens of thousands of illegals pour into their communities and no one says a peep. Then when they get sent to liberal enclaves who WANT them, all of a sudden it’s a bad thing. 
 

if you were more outraged about 50 illegals partying with Obama on Martha’s Vineyard than the 50 migrants dying in the back of a truck, please pick up your “world biggest piece of shit” award on your way out 

the 50 people dying was a tragedy...this was an ugly political stunt...nothing more...it's SAD to exploit people for political gain....😥

[Wildcat Will]

8 hours ago, I AM IRONMAN said:

Says the juvenile that says finger sniffer.  The hypocrisy is strong with you young man

Truth is truth.

Keep your hands out if your ass and they won't smell. 

Dumbazz.

[DBP66]

10 hours ago, concha said:

 

He's the most naïve and stupid organism on the planet.

He couldn't constructively think to save his sorry life.

 

...😉

Democrat Wes Moore opens 22-point lead in race to replace Gov. Larry Hogan in Maryland

 

Brad Dress

Mon, September 19, 2022 at 3:34 PM

 

 

Democrat Wes Moore is leading Republican opponent Dan Cox by 22 points in the race to be Maryland’s next governor, according to a new poll released Monday.

About 53 percent of Marylanders would currently back Moore and 31 percent would vote for Cox, according to the survey from Goucher College, The Baltimore Banner and WYPR. Moore enjoys a similar lead among voters who list how favorably they view the candidates.

Underscoring the lead further, 69 percent of voters said they are “set on this candidate,” and only 28 percent said they could change their mind.

Mileah Kromer, the director of the Sarah T. Hughes Center for Politics at Goucher College, said Democrats are in “a strong position to sweep the statewide contests this cycle” in Maryland.

 

“Moore is viewed favorably by a majority of state voters, and perceptions of his mix of progressive and moderate politics aligns with how many Maryland voters view themselves,” Kromer said in a statement.

Moore is an author and former CEO of an anti-poverty nonprofit, and Cox is a representative in Maryland’s House of Delegates. The gubernatorial candidates are seeking to replace retiring Gov. Larry Hogan (R).

[concha]

4 minutes ago, Wildcat Will said:

Truth is truth.

Keep your hands out if your ass and they won't smell. 

Dumbazz.

 

🤣

So we've reached the point where Willie the Dumbass has been pummeled so badly that all he can do is talk about his hobbies.

 

[Nolebull813]

10 minutes ago, DBP66 said:

the 50 people dying was a tragedy...this was an ugly political stunt...nothing more...it's SAD to exploit people for political gain....😥

Not at all. How else are the supposed to transport them to liberal towns who welcome them and want them? Buses and planes are the only way. Should they rent cars and drive them up??

How do they get from TX and AZ to New York and DC? What would you suggest? 

[concha]

[Nolebull813]

1 minute ago, DBP66 said:

...😉

Democrat Wes Moore opens 22-point lead in race to replace Gov. Larry Hogan in Maryland

 

Brad Dress

Mon, September 19, 2022 at 3:34 PM

 

 

Democrat Wes Moore is leading Republican opponent Dan Cox by 22 points in the race to be Maryland’s next governor, according to a new poll released Monday.

About 53 percent of Marylanders would currently back Moore and 31 percent would vote for Cox, according to the survey from Goucher College, The Baltimore Banner and WYPR. Moore enjoys a similar lead among voters who list how favorably they view the candidates.

Underscoring the lead further, 69 percent of voters said they are “set on this candidate,” and only 28 percent said they could change their mind.

Mileah Kromer, the director of the Sarah T. Hughes Center for Politics at Goucher College, said Democrats are in “a strong position to sweep the statewide contests this cycle” in Maryland.

 

“Moore is viewed favorably by a majority of state voters, and perceptions of his mix of progressive and moderate politics aligns with how many Maryland voters view themselves,” Kromer said in a statement.

Moore is an author and former CEO of an anti-poverty nonprofit, and Cox is a representative in Maryland’s House of Delegates. The gubernatorial candidates are seeking to replace retiring Gov. Larry Hogan (R).

Maryland and Baltimore specifically deserve everything they get when they vote. Just like everywhere else. 
 

If you don’t like it, leave for a place that aligns with your views better. 
 

im not cool with murdering babies, illegals, terrorists and drugs pouring in, and pedophiles trying to groom kids, so I vote republican. 

[DBP66]

So the election was "fixed" and "stolen" huh??....by who???...........

 

Video Shows Trump Allies Handling Georgia Voting Equipment

 

 

Danny Hakim, Richard Fausset and Nick Corasaniti

Tue, September 20, 2022 at 8:14 AM

 

 

 

Poll pads in an office in Coffee County, Ga., after the 2020 election. (Coffee County Elections Office via The New York Times)

Newly released videos show allies of former President Donald Trump and contractors who were working on his behalf handling sensitive voting equipment in a rural Georgia county weeks after the 2020 election.

The footage, which was made public as part of long-running litigation over Georgia’s voting system, raises new questions about efforts by Trump affiliates in a number of swing states to gain access to and copy sensitive election software, with the help of friendly local election administrators. One such incident took place Jan. 7, 2021, the day after supporters of Trump stormed the Capitol, when a small team traveled to rural Coffee County, Georgia.

The group included members of an Atlanta-based firm called SullivanStrickler, which had been hired by Sidney Powell, a lawyer advising Trump who is also a conspiracy theorist.

- ADVERTISEMENT -

“We are on our way to Coffee County, Ga., to collect what we can from the election/voting machines and systems,” one of the company’s executives, Paul Maggio, wrote Powell on that January morning. Weeks later, Scott Hall, an Atlanta-area Trump supporter and bail bondsman who also traveled to Coffee County, said “we scanned every freaking ballot” in a recorded phone conversation.

Hall said the team had the blessing of the local elections board and “scanned all the equipment, imaged all the hard drives and scanned every single ballot.”

The new videos show members of the team inside an office handling the county’s poll pads, which contain sensitive voter data. (The cases holding the equipment in the footage are labeled with the words “POLL PAD.”) In a court hearing Sept. 9, David D. Cross, a lawyer for a nonprofit group that is suing over perceived security vulnerabilities in Georgia’s voting system — and that released the new videos after obtaining them in its litigation — told a judge that his group suspected that the “personally identifiable information” of roughly 7 million Georgia voters may have been copied.

Charles Tonnie Adams, the elections supervisor of Heard County, Georgia, said in an email that “poll pads contain every registered voter on the state list.” It was not immediately clear what specific personal information about voters was on the poll pads, or what, if anything, was done with the data.

Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson for Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s secretary of state, said a poll pad “does have voter information but it’s not accessible because it’s scrambled behind security protocols.” He added that there were no driver’s license numbers or Social Security numbers on poll pads at the time.

The new videos also show that some of the Trump allies who visited Coffee County were given access to a storage room, and that various people affiliated with Trump’s campaign, or his allies, had access to the building over several days.

The new footage also shows Cathy Latham, then the head of the county’s Republican Party, with members of the Trump team, standing together in an office where the county’s poll pads were laid out on a table. Latham is among the targets of a criminal investigation in Atlanta, related to her participation as one of an alternate slate of electors who tried to overturn Trump’s loss in Georgia. That investigation, which is being led by Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, has also touched on what took place in Coffee County.

In a court filing late Monday evening, the plaintiffs in the civil case assailed what they called “the persistent refusal of Latham and her counsel to be straight with this court about the facts.” They accused her of downplaying her involvement with the Trump team when “she literally directed them on what to collect in the office.”

Robert D. Cheeley, a lawyer for Latham, declined to speak on the record Monday. This month, he told CNN that his client “would not and has not knowingly been involved in any impropriety in any election.”

Investigators from Raffensperger’s office also appear in the new videos, raising questions about what they knew. Along with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Raffensperger’s office is investigating what took place in Coffee County, 200 miles southeast of Atlanta, but voting rights advocates involved in the litigation have questioned why Raffensperger, the defendant in the civil case, did not move more aggressively.

Hassinger said the secretary of state’s office had “no idea” why its investigators were at the elections office in Coffee County in early January.

“We are looking into it,” he said. “Again, we take this very seriously. This investigation is a joint effort between the secretary of state’s office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and if it’s determined that people have committed a crime, they’re going to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Hassinger added that at that time, the secretary of state’s office was looking at “vote-counting procedures when Coffee County was unable to certify the results of their election by the time of the deadline.”

Lawyers for SullivanStrickler did not respond to requests for comment. The company’s lawyers have previously said it was “categorically false” that it was part of an effort that “illegally ‘breached’ servers” or other voting equipment, but that “with the benefit of hindsight, and knowing everything they know now, they would not take on any further work of this kind.”

Reached by phone Monday, Rachel Ann Roberts, the current election supervisor for Coffee County, said she could not comment on the matter of the poll pads because she had started the job after the visit took place.

“I’m not certain about any of that,” she said. “I wasn’t here at the time.”

Georgia is hardly the only state where such activity occurred. In Michigan, a special prosecutor is investigating efforts by Trump allies, including the Republican candidate for attorney general, Matthew DePerno, to gain access to voting machines. And in Colorado, the secretary of state’s office estimated that taxpayers faced a bill of at least $1 million to replace voting equipment in Mesa County after a pro-Trump elections supervisor was indicted on charges that she tampered with the county’s voting equipment after the 2020 election.