Tag: Extremism

Lauren Boebert votes against bill to reauthorize U.S. to combat international human sex trafficking

House Rep. Lauren Boebert (L), with her former campaign manager, Sherronna Bishop.

On July 26, 2022 Colorado House Rep. Lauren Boebert voted against the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act of 2022 HR 6552, which continues funding the Department of State and Department of Justice to combat human sex trafficking internationally through fiscal year 2026.

The law has been in place since 2020.

The bill sailed through the House on a vote of 401 to 20. The 20 who voted against it were all Republicans and included Ken Buck of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Louis Gohmert (R-TX).

Tina Peters on the judge in her criminal case: “This is a dirty, dirty player”

NOTE: YouTube removed this video of Tina Peters’ appearance on Steve Bannon’s show because in it, Peters persistently tells a raft of blatant lies about election fraud in Colorado. I am trying to explain to YouTube that the video is being used for purposes of commentary and criticism, and this has worked for YouTube’s removal of other video clips of Tina’s talks, but so far they have not agreed to restore this particular one. Fortunately I transcribed some passages of her talking in this video here:

In the video she made in Pitkin County the night she bonded out of jail in Aspen on 7/22, Republican Tina Peters called Mesa County Court Judge Matthew Barrett, the judge overseeing her criminal case, “partisan” and “malicious,” and claimed “his goal is to incarcerate an innocent woman.” She further accused Judge Barrett of “legislating from the bench,” and urged her followers to “file a lot of ethics complaints” against him.

Just two days later, on 7/25, while appearing on Steve Bannon’s internet talk show “War Room,” in a segment titled “Deep Dive of a Few Bad Men,” Peters continued assailing Judge Barrett:

The moment everyone is talking about from the last Jan 6 Select Committee hearing

Above are out-takes of Donald Trump recording a video message to the public on the evening of January 7th, 2021, under pressure from his White House aides, advisors, lawyers, his family members and right wing media figures who were telling him he was at risk of being removed from office using the 25th Amendment or impeachment. Below is sample of that communication to the White House from Fox News talk show host Sean Hannity:

Text from Sean Hannity to White House Communications Director Kayleigh McEnany on the evening of Jan. 7, 2021, saying Trump needed to stop his “stolen election talk.” Hannity explained that threats to removeTrump from office through the 25th Amendment or impeachment “are real.”

The playing of these out-takes was arguably the most-talked about moment from the last hearing of the House Jan 6 Select Committee on July 21, 2022.

Even by January 7, 2021, when Congress was on the brink of certifying the results of the November, 2020 general election, Trump was still unable to say the election was over, despite losing the electoral college to Joe Biden by a count of 306 to 232, exactly the same margin by which he had won  against Hillary Clinton in 2016 — a margin he had previously called “a landslide.”

 

 

In new video, Tina Peters assails Judge Matthew Barrett, who oversees her criminal case, calling him “malicious,” “partisan” and saying his “goal is to incarcerate an innocent woman.”


In her latest unhinged Facebook video made around 9:30 p.m. last night (Thursday, July 21) after turning herself in at the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Department Tina Peters calls Mesa County Court Judge Matthew Barrett, the judge in her criminal case, “partisan” and “malicious,” and says “his goal is to incarcerate an innocent woman.” She accuses him of “legislating from the bench.”

Barrett was the judge who kept her out of jail last week after her unauthorized trip to speak in Las Vegas on July 12. She had traveled to Nevada without Court permission, and the judge had also issued a “no travel” order for her the same day. In spite of this, the judge was lenient with her and gave her the benefit of the doubt that it could have been her attorney’s fault for not informing her of the no-travel order.

Boebert votes against bill to protect Americans’ right to contraceptives

House Rep. Lauren Boebert

Republican Colorado House Rep. Lauren Boebert may tell you she stands for freedom, but she is actually working to undermine your freedom.

A recent case in point: on July 21, 2022, Boebert voted against House Bill 8373, the “Right to Contraception Act.”

After the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade in June and Clarence Thomas threatened to reconsider other privacy issues including the right to contraception, Democrat Kathy Manning of North Carolina introduced the Right to Contraception Act, to “protect a person’s ability to access contraceptives and to engage in contraception, and to protect a health care provider’s ability to provide contraceptives, contraception, and information related to contraception.”

Who doesn’t want to be assured they will have the personal freedom to learn about, access and use contraceptives as they see fit?

Lauren Boebert and 194 other House Republicans, that’s who. Only eight House Republicans who voted for the bill.

You can read the full text of the Right to Contraception Act here.

So Boebert had a chance to protect a crucial freedom, and voted against it.

Fortunately, House Democrats advanced the bill to the Senate.

If you love freedom, it’s crucial to vote Democratic up and down the next ballot, since we now have a Christian activist Supreme Court that is taking action to restrict Americans’ rights in accordance with their own personal religious beliefs.

But if you want to be assured removal of more of your personal rights and freedoms, vote Republican.

 

The next Jan 6th House Select Committee Hearing is Thursday, July 21 at 6:00 p.m. local time

The next hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol is this Thursday, July 21 in prime time starting at 6:00 p.m. local time. The hearing will be broadcast on all the major TV networks ABC, CBS and NBC, and PBS. It will also be live on CSPAN (cable) and CNN will stream it live at CNN.com without requiring a cable login. It can also be viewed live on the Select Committee’s YouTube Channel. Many media outlets will also stream the hearing on their Facebook pages. The first hearing, also held in prime time, had 20 million viewers.

This hearing will focus on what former President Trump was doing, and not doing, minute by minute during the 187 minutes after Trump-supporting rioters began attacking the Capitol and before he issued he a public response. Two former Trump White House officials, Trump deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Matthews and former Trump Deputy National Security Advisor Matthew Pottinger, both of whom were in the White House on the day of the attack and both of whom resigned that day, will testify.

January 6 Committee Chair Bennie Thompson has tested positive for Covid and will miss the next hearing. Committee members Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) and Rep. Elaine Luria (D-VA) are expected to take central roles chairing the proceedings.

 

Tina Peters fails to meet deadline to pay for recount

Tina Peters waves around a letter to the Colorado Secretary of State at the July 12 Las Vegas conference she attended, demanding a recount of her race in the primary. She failed to meet the deadline last Friday to pay over $236,000 for a state-wide recount. She lost by over 88,000 votes or a margin of over 14% between her and the winner.

For all the bluster Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters made over demanding a recount in her June 28 primary loss, she failed to get the necessary funds in to the Secretary of State by the deadline last Friday to commence the recount, so it won’t happen.

For the state pay for a recount, the difference between the leading candidate’s total votes and the next highest candidate’s total votes must be less than or equal to one-half of one percent (0.5%). Peters lost to her opponent, Pam Anderson, by 88,000 votes, a margin of more than 14% between her and the front runner.

At a speech she gave at a conference of election-denier sheriffs in Las Vegas on July 12 (video), Peters waved around a notarized letter (pdf) to the Colorado Secretary of State that she told the crowd she was sending to demand a recount, claiming without any evidence that she lost because of “extensive malfeasance” in the June 28 primary. She failed to mention ore recognize how her being indicted on 7 felonies related to election tampering might have affected the vote.

There was no fraud or malfeasance in the June 28 primary, and Peters’ loss has been accepted as legitimate.

Sherronna Bishop increasingly implicated in Tina Peters’ election-tampering conspiracy

Sherronna Bishop in January, 2022

Every arrest in connection with the Tina Peters case reveals deeper involvement in the election tampering scandal by “America’s Mom,” Sherronna Bishop.

On July 13, The Colorado Sun published a 15-page arrest affidavit (pdf) for former Mesa County Election Manager Sandra Brown.

Brown was fired from the Elections Department in November, 2021 and was arrested on July 13, 2022 in connection with Peters’ voting equipment tampering scandal. The arrest affidavit for Brown concluded that there was probable cause to charge her with conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and attempt to influence a public servant.

But the affidavit also reveals that Sherronna Bishop, who was never an employee of the Clerk’s office, attended a key meeting of selected Elections Department staff where the plot was being formed, and that she was even the one who spurred the initial discussion of the plot.

Peters gets off again, but here is some interesting info that emerged at her Friday, 7/15/22 arrest warrant hearing

D.A. Dan Rubinstein and Investigator Michael Struwe give their presentation to the County Commissioners about their findings of no election tampering found in the local 2020 and 2021 elections

The latest effort by District Attorney Dan Rubinstein and the people of Mesa County to hold Republican Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters accountable for her actions fell flat on Friday, 7/15, as the judge gave Tina the benefit of the doubt yet again and quashed a warrant issued for her arrest after she left the state without permission to attend a conference of election-denier sheriffs in Las Vegas July 12.

Judge Matthew D. Barrett was incredulous at claims made by Tina’s highly-paid Denver attorney, Harvey Steinberg, that he didn’t know about or inform Tina of a no-travel order the Court had issued on July 11. Barrett said the idea that neither Steinberg nor her other two defense attorneys knew about the order, and that all three of them had failed to tell Tina about it, was “incredible,” “unfathomable” and “remarkable.” Despite this, the judge still gave Tina the benefit of the doubt and quashed her arrest warrant.

Should we doubt attorney Harvey Steinberg’s motion to quash Tina’s arrest warrant?

Harvey Steinberg (Photo: BestLawyers.com)

Tina Peters’ attorney, Harvey Steinberg, submitted a Motion-to-Quash her arrest warrant on 7/14 for her travel out of state to Las Vegas without court permission on 7/12, violating the terms of her bond. In the motion, Steinberg blames himself for Tina making the trip to Las Vegas, saying she emailed him her plans for the trip and relied on him to get permission from the Court before leaving the state, but he didn’t see the email that contained her plans. In the body of the motion, Steinberg writes that it was “part of an email thread that he didn’t notice.” But Steinberg did not include for the Court a print out of the entire email thread for the Court to see, for context, or to see what other talk surrounded it.

Plus, we have reason to doubt the veracity of what Steinberg has written in his motion.

After all, he has a lot less to lose than Tina in this matter. Tina is the Goose that Laid the Golden egg for attorneys. Based on what Mike Lindell alone says he donated to Tina’s legal defense fund, she likely has at least $1 million to spend on attorneys, making her an extremely attractive deep pocket.

Tina Peters’ unhinged talk in Las Vegas

By now everyone has probably heard that Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters had her bond revoked today for leaving the state without first getting permission from the court, which violated the terms of her release in her criminal case. Peters traveled to Las Vegas for a July 12 conference of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a group of anti-government sheriffs who are also election deniers.

While there, Peters gave an unhinged 9 minute talk that appeared to even confuse her audience.  In her talk, she made a slew of bizarre statements, like:

  • “Our crooked DA arrested [my election manager] knowing today is her birthday.”
  • “They arrested three grandmothers for defending your elections.”
  • “They’re stealing our elections.”
  •  DA Dan Rubinstein “is the guy who let 26 pounds of fentanyl go.”
  • “Our candidates were offered to step aside and they would be propelled over the finish line if they did not talk about election security.”
  • “They took away my husband, too. 36 years we would’ve been married. The DA went in there and had him sign divorce papers in a nursing home. He has advanced dementia. These people are criminals.”
  • “They’re coming after you.”

Lauren Boebert, Sherronna Bishop, Tina Peters and “a county commissioner candidate” dined with Conan Hayes, the man who illegally took the images of Mesa County Voting machine hard drives


The Colorado Times Recorder is reporting that Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, speaking at a conference of anti-government sheriffs in Las Vegas July 12, called Gerald Wood, the Mesa County man whose identity she is accused of stealing, “a liar and a cheat,” and confessed to the audience that she had dined with former pro surfer turned professional-election-denier Conan Hayes, the person who made the illegal images of Mesa County’s election equipment.  Peters says other guests at the dinner included “one of the candidates for county commissioner,” (presumed to be Republican Bobbie Daniel), Sherronna Bishop and Republican House Rep. Lauren Boebert. When people in the room applauded at the mention of Boebert’s name, Peters said tersely “No, do NOT clap for her. Do NOT clap for her,” indicating a rift now exists between the two women.

Hutchinson’s testimony was a blockbuster, but here’s the real “wow” moment from the last hearing of the January 6 Select Committee

On June 28, 2022, former White House Aide Cassidy Hutchinson gave explosive testimony to the January 6 Select Committee: She described how an unhinged President Trump urged a crowd of his supporters — that possessed bear spray, guns, knives and spears — to march to the Capitol. She told how Trump lashed out at his Secret Service agents in the car, how he demanded they take him to the Capitol to be with his supporters, and how he petulantly hurled his lunch plate against a wall. She revealed that her boss, Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, had sought a pardon from the President before leaving the White House.

Everyone’s been talking about her testimony since.

Yet the testimony that drew the most audible gasp from the audience at the June 28 hearing Select Committee wasn’t even from Cassidy Hutchinson.

It was from former three-star General Michael Flynn, who had been Defense Intelligence Agency head, and had served as National Security Advisor under the Trump.

That testimony is in the above video clip, which is under 2 minutes and can also be seen here on YouTube.

The next hearing of the January 6 Committee is Tuesday, July 12 at 8:00 a.m. 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time/ 11:00 a.m. Mountain Time and will feature testimony from Trump’s White House attorney Pat Cipollone, who was present with Hutchinson in the White House in the run-up to January 6.

Rep. Boebert: “I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk”


Speaking to an audience at the Cornerstone Christian Center in Basalt on June 26, 2022 — two days before the primary election — House Rep. Lauren Boebert called for America to become a theocracy, a system of government in which the church directs the government.

Strutting back and forth across the stage like a televangelist, Boebert told the audience,

“The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our founding fathers intended it. And I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk. That’s not the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter and it means nothing like what they say.”

New Supreme Court Justices lied under oath to get on the Supreme Court, then changed U.S. law to force people, including child rape victims, to carry pregnancies to term. Justice Thomas indicates Court may go after the right to buy & use contraception next.


Three of the new, Republican-appointed Supreme Court justices intentionally misled the Senate and the public during their confirmation hearings about their intent to overturn Roe V. Wade, the 1973 ruling that established a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion. Among the three judges who were dishonest was Coloradan Neil Gorsuch.

The Court’s ruling ended the 50 year-old established constitutional right of American women to determine their own futures with regard to child rearing, and gives states the ability to enact laws that force women to remain pregnant against their will. The ruling effectively imposes extremist right wing Christian religious beliefs upon half the country, and instantly creates two classes of people: one class fortunate enough to live in states that protect people’s right to make decisions about their own pregnancies and child-rearing, and a second class in the other states with no such protections, with laws in place that force females to carry all pregnancies to term, no matter a woman’s age, health, emotional or economic circumstances, how many children she already has, or whether she wants to be pregnant or not.

The Mesa County GOP needs to apologize for creating, aiding and abetting the Tina Peters debacle

Mesa County GOP Chair Kevin McCarney defends Tina Peters at a “Stand for the Constitution” meeting at Appleton Christian Church in Grand Junction in September, 2021. Tina Peters’ wild, egregious election-lie fiasco has embarrassed Mesa County on a national scale. 

It was clear back in 2018 when she was elected that Tina Peters was unqualified to be Mesa County Clerk and Recorder. She had had zero experience in government or in the Clerk’s office, had never worked in public administration or worked on an election in any capacity.

At the time, the qualifications between the two candidates for County Clerk couldn’t have been more stark:

Close Trump aides and campaign officials all testify Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud are baseless, unfounded

For those in Mesa County who still believe Trump’s big lie that he lost the 2020 election due to widespread election fraud, this 4 minute video presents testimony by close Trump aides, including top Trump campaign lawyer Alexander Cannon, who previously worked as Assistant General Counsel for the Trump Organization; Matt Morgan, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief Counsel to the Vice President of the United States, former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, and Trump’s daughter and Senior White House Advisor Ivanka Trump.

Trump’s AG Barr on Trump’s claim the election was “stolen”: “The idea was bullshit” and “I didn’t want to be a part of it.”

In this testimony before the January 6 Committee released on June 14, former U.S. Attorney General under Trump, William Barr, says he disagreed with Trump telling the public the election was stolen and he told the president the idea was “bullshit”:

“I did not agree with the idea of saying the election was stolen and putting out this stuff which I told the President was bullshit, and you know, I didn’t want to be a part of it. 

And that’s one of the reasons that went into me deciding to leave. When I did, I observed, I think it was on December 1st, you know, how can … we can’t live in a world where where the incumbent administration stays in power based on its view, unsupported by specific evidence, that … there was fraud in the election.”