Saturday, January 16, 2021

Rebekah Jones Turns Herelf Into Florida Gestapo To Protect Family From More Police Violence

 

Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon, Florida Today

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Rebekah Jones, the fired Florida Department of Health data scientist-turned-whistleblower, said Saturday she will be "turning herself in" to Florida police on Sunday after a warrant was issued for her arrest.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger confirmed there is an active arrest warrant for Jones.

"FDLE agents have been working with her attorney to have her turn herself in," Plessinger said. "Our case remains active. Once she turns herself in, we’ll be able to provide additional information."

In a series of tweets Saturday, Jones alleged the state failed to connect her to a message sent on the state's emergency management system last year calling on civil servants to blow the whistle on Gov. Ron DeSantis' COVID-19 pandemic response. That had been the basis for a search warrant executed by armed FDLE agents of Jones' home on Dec. 7 where they seized phones, computers and memory drives.

"The state has issued a warrant for my arrest – even though the 'crime' is not related to the warrant," Jones tweeted Saturday, referring to the December search warrant.

"To protect my family from continued police violence, and to show that I'm ready to fight whatever they throw at me, I'm turning myself into police in Florida Sunday night. The Governor will not win his war on science and free speech. He will not silence those who speak out," she tweeted.

More: Rebekah Jones, former Florida COVID-19 data manager, files suit over law enforcement's 'sham' raid on her home

Jones has been a frequent critic of DeSantis since she was fired last May for what she said was refusing to doctor the state's COVID-19 numbers. State officials said she was fired for insubordination. Following the raid she moved to Washington, D.C., last week, citing the trauma of the raid on her family and fears for their security.

In her tweets she claims that "FDLE found no evidence of a message sent last Nov. to DOH staff telling them to 'speak out' on any of the devices they took – the entire basis for the raid on my home."

The FDLE's warrant affidavit was heavily criticized by legal and digital rights experts for being vague, overreaching and based on poor evidence.

More: Under fire for strong-arm tactics, DeSantis lashes out at former data scientist Rebekah Jones

"The warrant was based on a lie," Jones said, alleging that instead it was merely a means to seize her computer hardware and phones and let the state see who she was communicating with.

"Police did find documents I received/downloaded from sources in the state, or something of that nature... it isn't clear at this point what exactly they're saying I had that I shouldn't have had, but an agent confirmed it has nothing to do with the subject of the warrant," she said.

An unidentified Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent holds Rebekah Jones as other officers prepare to search her home.
An unidentified Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent holds Rebekah Jones as other officers prepare to search her home.

The FDLE's Plessinger in a follow-up email to a reporter said, "I can say agents analyzed forensic evidence that was within the scope of the December search warrant."

Jones sued the state for violating her civil rights following the raid and filed a motion to have the FDLE return the seized equipment on the basis they were not investigating a crime. Indeed no charges were filed against Jones before the raid or in the weeks since.

A judge earlier this week put off a decision on whether to return Jones' property, saying a decision couldn't be made until it was clear whether Jones was being charged.

"They didn't find proof of anything related to the warrant, so they invented something new to come after me for in retaliation," Jones tweeted.

After being ousted from her role managing the state's COVID-19 dashboard, Jones created her own competing information portal. She has also used her platform, and online following, to criticize DeSantis and actions by Florida's DOH.

Follow Alessandro Marazzi Sassoon on Twitter: @alemzs

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida whistleblower Rebekah Jones 'turning herself in' to face charge

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Ariel Pink A MAGAt That Got What Was Coming

 

Indie-rock artist Ariel Pink, who came under fire and was dropped by his label after controversy arose over his support for Donald J. Trump, went on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Thursday night to answer the host’s questions about being “stripped of his livelihood,” telling Carlson he is “destitute” as a result of cancel culture.

In response to Carlson’s statement that Pink is “a recording artist who can’t record,” Pink said, “I can’t tour either at this point. So it pretty much leaves me destitute and on the street. I’m sort of overwhelmed right now and I don’t know exactly what to do.”

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“You’re taking a huge risk coming on this show,” Carlson said, an implicit acknowledgement that receiving the support of the conservative host may not improve his battered status in his musical community. “Why are you doing it?”

“I don’t have any other recourse,” the singer-songwriter replied. “What am I gonna do? Am I gonna be able to get my statement out in magazines? Right now the narrative is being pushed, and there’s not very many people that are gonna let a counter-narrative enter into the fold. I mean there’s no nuance… I don’t know, man. I don’t know what I’m gonna do,” he said, appearing on the verge of becoming emotional. “I had no choice. There’s nothing else for me to do. I can’t even afford my lawyer right now.”

Pink does still have legal representation, according to a story that appeared earlier Wednesday in Pitchfork, which quoted an attorney for Pink, Thomas Mortimer. The Pitchfork piece was about a L.A. County Superior Court ruling against Pink earlier in the month. involving claims he and an ex-girlfriend — musician and video director Charlotte Ercoli Coe — have made against one another accusing the other of harassment. Pink’s bid to get a restraining order against his ex was denied by the court, which concluded her claims against him were “constitutionally-protected activities.” citing California’s “anti-SLAPP” statute, which is designed to protect against intimidation through frivolous lawsuits. The court also ordered Pink to pay Coe’s legal fees, according to Pitchfork.

Carlson did not bring up Pink’s legal slap-down in the seven-minute interview, nor did he bring up any of the other controversies that have swirled around Pink over the years, maintaining focus on the rocker as a typical musician whose career was destroyed solely as the result of attending the Trump rally on Washington, D,C. Jan. 6.

“When reasonable people like you are destroyed, all of us should take notice,” Carlson said in wrapping up the interview.

The Mexican Summer label did cite “recent events” as a reason for announcing it was dropping Pink from the roster Jan. 9 after a three-year run, although it had been under pressure to do so from some of Pink’s many antagonists in the music community long before the Trump controversy upped the ante, for past comments widely viewed as homophobic and other issues of personal behavior.

“When did you find out that your career had been destroyed?” Carlson asked at the beginning of the sit-down conversation.

“Two days later,” he replied. In the immediate aftermath of Pink receiving heat for attending the rally — but not the Capitol siege that followed — Pink said that “my label had written to inform me that they were getting a lot of heat and a lot of backlash for supporting me, and they reassured me that they were not gonna drop me.”

“They always reassure you first, don’t they?” interjected Carlson with a bitter laugh.

There were no such smiles from Pink. “I didn’t make any apologies,” he said. “I felt like I hadn’t done anything. But these articles obviously placed me at the siege, which I was not at. And of course I don’t advocate for violence at all… I was there for a peaceful rally. That’s all it was to me. but there was no fact checking or anything like that (as) 130 articles went out in the course of 24 hours. And the backlash was just… they succumbed to cancel culture. Twenty-four hours later they wrote back; they texted me telling me that they were going to go public and drop me at that point.”

“So for going to a political rally,” said Carlson, “not participating in violence, not seeing any violence, not even being aware there was any violence — you went to bed in your hotel (while the riot ensued) — for that, your career disappeared in one day. Your livelihood gone.”

“Yeah. No apologies, no support,” Pink said. “I mean, my family has been getting death threats. They don’t even know that I’m here. I had to sneak away because they were so terrified of me coming on TV. Because they’ve been getting (threats) all week… me too. I mean, the hate is just overwhelming. There’s new articles being written. People are so mean.”

Carlson: “You’ve lived in this country all your life. Do you recognize it?”

Pink: “Not at all. I mean, I’m terrified. I mean, this is what I voted against. I didn’t vote so much for Trump as against cancel culture and this environment that’s been blazing for about four years and is about to ramp up and get even worse.”

When Carlson asked Pink what he thought “the purpose” of his being canceled was, Pink responded, “I think it’s desperation and feat that’s driving this whole thing. I think there’s been a very big effort to unseat the president, or at least not let him have four more years — which I think is fair. He lost, and I think he lost fairly. I’m not disputing anything. Biden is perfectly fine with me as president. But I think that they’re still scared of something like that. It seems like they’re sore winners at this point. And people seem to want to kick me down as well, much like they have Trump. Kick us down when we’re down.”

The appearance of a one-time favorite of the indie scene on the top-rated right-leaning show on television was cause for cognitive dissonance for many.

“I definitely had Tucker Carlson pretending to know who Ariel Pink is on my 2021 bingo card,” tweeted Phoebe Bridgers. Wrote A.C. Newman of the group New Pornographers, “Ariel Pink is a guest on Tucker Carlson’s show. Sure, why not… Am I the only person that’s liked Ariel Pink’s music over the last decade, thinking it’s the great work of a disturbed mind? This truly feels ‘on brand’.” Other tweets included remarks like “Ariel Pink on Tucker Carlson used to just be a Cards Against Humanity winning combo; now it’s real,” and “We’re only TWO WEEKS into 2021 and Tucker Carlson is conducting a sit-down interview with Ariel Pink… Safe to say this year will be one massive fever dream.” Also: “The fact that MAGA people have to pretend to like Ariel Pink now is hilarious.”

Pink’s statements to Carlson about the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s election, and his being “fine” with Biden as president, are at odds with contrary statements he made on the Wrong Opinion podcast in late December, which became more widely disseminated as the controversy over his rally attendance grew.

On the podcast, Pink characterized Jan. 20 as “the day of the guillotine” and expressed concern for the state of the country if Trump was not certified as president for a second term, against all odds. “I don’t see how things can go on,” he said then. “I think that Trump being in office right now is the only reason we’re up and running… We’ll never see another one like him (Trump).” He said the Democratic side “did cheat. They’ve been on the path toward acquiring these Dominion systems… in some sort of collaboration with China.”

He also disparaged the intelligence of all Democrats, telling the podcast host that anybody who can “still be a Democrat at this point… to me it’s like all of a sudden all their intelligence just got shown to be a complete farce. All the smarts in the world that they had, all their artistic fucking genius… was just window dressing… Literally everything the Democrats stand for, every single platform, is bullshit. So Trump for me is an indictment on anything bullshit,” He concluded, with some levity: “I’m so gay for Trump, I would let him fuck me in the butt.”

Those comments in and of themselves — along with other remarks Pink made about doubting climate science and COVID vaccines — may not have been cause for dismissal from a label, but Pink had already been under fire for years for earlier remarks in which he compared gay marriage to allowing pedophilia and necrophilia. As far back as 2014, Pitchfork had run an unsigned staff editorial urging fans and musicians to stop indulging Pink after “trollish” behavior.

Pitchfork’s Wednesday account of the latest developments in Pink’s legal proceedings retells the story of how Coe alleged that he “physically and mentally abused [her] during [their] relationship, including the 2017 incident at the San Francisco concert,” where she said he “physically attacked” her on stage. Coe initially called the encounter “having fun” but later claimed she was coerced to say so by Pink, and that it actually constituted “battery”; Pink later apologized for the incident. Coe’s statement to the court that ultimately ruled in her favor cited a “a tumultuous relationship, characterized by a power imbalance” because of their disparity in both fame and age (she was 19 and he was 38 at the time).

Coe acknowledged complaining about Pink to the Mexican Summer label in mid-2020 after learning the label “was adopting a zero tolerance policy toward abuse and harassment.” As part of his attempt to get a restraining order against Coe, Pink provided the court a copy of an email she wrote to his label in July 2020 saying that “he is 10000% a predator.”

In his petition for a restraining order, Pink told the court that Coe had “directly threatened… (and) attempted to blackmail him with false allegations of sexual misconduct to his record label and financial supporters, to the media, including Pitchfork and Variety, and to the general public.” (Variety staffers do not have any recollection of being contacted by Coe or her representatives.)

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Friday, January 15, 2021

Trumpism In Freefall? MAGAts Committing Suicide

 Op Ed: Don't hold your breath because all the MAGAts are evil and delusional to one degree or another but this will certainly disrupt them. Trumpers are fighting among themselves and that will probably continue. They irrationally and ignorantly turned on Mike Pence and called for his death in spite of Pence being as treasonously loyal to Trump as anyone. 

Online far-right movements are splintering in the wake of last week’s Capitol riot, as some radical anti-government movements show signs of disillusionment with the relatively hands-off approach of some QAnon conspiracy theorists amid warnings of future violence.

Users on forums that openly helped coordinate the Jan. 6 riot and called for insurrection, including 4chan and TheDonald, have become increasingly agitated with QAnon supporters, who are largely still in denial that President Donald Trump will no longer be in the Oval Office after Jan. 20.

QAnon adherents, who believe Trump is secretly saving the world from a cabal of child-eating Satanists, have identified Inauguration Day as a last stand, and falsely think he will force a 10-day, countrywide blackout that ends in the mass execution of his political enemies and a second Trump term.

Several QAnon supporters were arrested after storming the Capitol last week, including Jacob Chansley, whose lawyer said his client believed he was “answering the call of our president.”

QAnon believers have spent the last week forwarding chain letters on Facebook and via text message, often removing the conspiracy theory’s QAnon origins, in an effort to prepare friends and family for what they believe to be the upcoming judgment day.

According to researchers who study the real-life effects of the QAnon movement, the false belief in a secret plan for Jan. 20 is irking militant pro-Trump and anti-government groups, who believe the magical thinking is counterproductive to future insurrections.

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Travis View, who hosts the QAnon-debunking podcast QAnon Anonymous, said Q supporters are waiting for a “miracle that prevents Biden from being inaugurated,” and it is beginning to grate on those anxious for more real-world conflict.
 
“I have seen some Trump supporters chastising people promoting QAnon-like conspiracy theories," he said. "It seems some Trump supporters are reassessing their coalition and laying judgment on the QAnon wing."
 
The split has become apparent on extremist forums like TheDonald, from which QAnon adherents have fled to an identical sister site due to constant pillorying for their fantastical thinking on the original site. The new website is named after The Great Awakening, the mythical judgment day of mass arrests and executions.
 
It is also apparent on viral TikToks and Facebook posts on the more mainstream parts of the web.
 
“I can’t believe the number of the gullible people who are still out there saying Q is going to run to the rescue in the next five days and you’re going to see military tribunals,” a user in one viral TikTok video said. “Look, I’m a full Trump supporter and I enjoyed reading all the stuff about the deep state and I believe most of it.”
 
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who has frequently quibbled with QAnon supporters, also lashed out at believers of the conspiracy theory in a viral video earlier this week.
 
QAnon supporters have predicted blackouts for years, citing posts from “Q,” the false digital prophet at the center of the conspiracy theory. Q frequently posted about routine outages of major services, alluding to them as potential warning signs of the Great Awakening. In August 2018, Q posted three times about outages on the video game service Xbox Live, wondering “Anybody have problems with their X-Box Live accounts?” to the conspiracy theory’s followers.
 
While several specific doomsdays have passed without any prophecies coming true, experts who study QAnon believe another failed prophecy on Inauguration Day could further decimate the movement.
 
Fredrick Brennan, who created the website 8chan where “Q” posts and has spent the last two years attempting to have the site removed from the internet for its ties to white supremacist terror attacks, said he believes reality may devastate the movement on Inauguration Day.
 
“This week has been hugely demoralizing so far and that will be the final straw,” he said. “Even though Q is at the moment based on Donald Trump, it is certainly possible for a significant faction to rise up that believes he was in the deep state all along and foiled the plan.”

Donald IS a Piece of Shit and So are His Supporters

    Donald Trump is a piece of sh!t and so are his supporters Donald Trump is a hypocrite and so are his supporters. so are his supporters ...