Mediaboss Marketing

A man arrested by the feds for threatening a federal judge is a member of the North Jersey Regional Tea Party since 2010, according to his Facebook page, and an avid backer of President Donald J. Trumps reelection campaign.

Bill Kaetzs Twitter page is crammed with supportive posts of the president, including TV commercials backing the presidents reelection bid and interviews questioning COVID-19 fear mongering tactics.

According to the complaint:

William Kaetz, 56, of Paramus, was charged by criminal complaint with making an interstate communication containing a threat to injure a person and with threatening to assault and murder a federal judge. Kaetz is scheduled to have his initial appearance this afternoon by videoconference before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor.

According to the criminal complaint filed in this case:

On Sept. 24, 2020, Kaetz sent a communication via U.S. Mail to a federal district judges house, claiming to have a pending civil matter before the judge and requesting that the judge expedite the case. Kaetz was interviewed that day by investigators and admitted to being concerned about the status of his pending lawsuit before the judge. Kaetz also asked for the judge to be recused and stated that he had acquired the judges home address using a paid internet-based service. Kaetz further stated that the excessive delay on his pending case was unacceptable to him.

On Sept. 30, 2020, Kaetz left a voicemail for the judge, at the judges office, stating that he had cases pending before the judge, that the judge should have decided his matters weeks ago, and that he wanted the judge off his cases and off the bench. Kaetz further stated that he would not take no for an answer.

The man who shot and killed the son of Judge Esther Salas this past summer was also a strong backer of Trump.

From the Atlantic:

Roy Den Hollander, the self-described anti-feminist attorney who authorities say is the chief suspect in the shootings of the son and the husband of a federal judge in New Jersey, attacked that judge by name in misogynistic, racist writings he wrote over a period of years and posted in bulk on the Internet Archive. Den Hollander, who describes himself as a Trump volunteer in his writings, called the judge an affirmative action case who affiliated with those who wanted to convince America that whites, especially white males, were barbarians, and all those of a darker skin complexion were victims.'

(Visited 997 times, 1 visits today)

Click here for the full Insider Index

See the article here:
Tea Partier Kaetz Arrested by Feds an Avid Backer of Trump Reelection - InsiderNJ

Cathy Jalal Bonnard, of Garden Glamping, Kelly Simmons, of Pink Peony Weddings, and Vicky Copson-Garman, of the Jolly Hucksters Mobile Bar Company, are inviting residents to enter a grand prize draw in aid of Breast Cancer Now.

The businesswomen are offering A Pink Gin and Tea afternoon party for six, which they will come and set up in your home or garden (weather permitting), at the date of your choice, whilst respecting the government restrictions guidelines.

Cathy said: We wanted to give something back to a good cause, so we decided to choose a charity close to our hearts; we all know people who have had breast cancer.

Charities have been suffering because of Covid-19. They havent been able to fundraise on the same scale, while there will be some women who have had their treatment delayed.

The prize is valid for 12 months and redeemable within 25 miles of Leighton Buzzard.

To enter: entrants must be 18 years old or over; click on the JustGiving page link and make your donation (5 or above); once done, message one of the businesses on Facebook with your donation reference number, which will act as your raffle ticket.

The grand prize draw will be held on October 23.

Kind local business owners have also donated prizes for the draw. The owners and prizes are as follows:

Cheryl perfume bauble (choice of perfume) - Scentsational Beauty & More

Lizzy Avon Goodies Hamper Lizzy Licious Avon

Chlo pink wax melts Fizz & Scent Co

Chris Selection of greeting cards Daisy Cards - and handbag sized antibacterial gels & a holder - Chrissies American Favourites

Katie Selection of greeting cards - Pearl and Pickle

Tamsyn A specially limited-edition Pink Palm heart encasing real flowers, herbs and a healing and protection spell Lilys Room

Sophie personalised stocking - Sophies Creations

Simone treatment voucher (choice from full treatment menu) Natural Healing

Leah Body Shop pink grapefruit products

Elizabeth Unicorn magic painting book - Glidies Awesome Books

Laura wood sage and sea salt candle Scarlight Candles

Helen Scentsy goodies - Helens_Scents

Veronika moonstone pink earrings - WitchWorkRoom

Amy pair of pink glitter stemmed gin glasses - The Studio @ idcardit

Szilvia Avon shower gel and bath bubble - Your Pretty Little Things

Charlie pink sweets hamper - Sweetest Memories

Kayleigh trio of pink wax melt snap bars - Melt Mayhem

Niki Pink coat, hat, mittens and dress (6 to 9months) - J & J Rainbows.

Gemma - pink gin candle with pink gin gift Chandles

Gill pink hand decorated little wooden house - Red Poppies Studios

Read the original post:
Leighton-Linslade residents can win Pink Gin and Tea party in aid of Breast Cancer Now - Leighton Buzzard Observer

On Nov. 2, 2010, Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D., was hours away from the end of his political career. He didnt know it for sure yet he was clinging to a slim hope he might survive but he could feel that the political tides, turning in North Dakota for decades, might finally drag him under. Before results came in, he wrote a concession speech.

That night, Pomeroy sat with his staff in a Fargo hotel room and watched television reporters count the votes. Western North Dakota, as theyd expected, was looking red. But Cass County trickled in with less support than hed like. Grand Forks and Barnes were looking anemic, too.

Pomeroy, after 18 years in Congress, had seen enough. He practiced the speech hed written a few times; he wanted, he said in a July interview, to make sure he didnt choke up. Then he went downstairs and delivered it.

Just a short walk away, at another Fargo hotel, Rick Bergs night was going well. The former state House majority leader and now a GOP congressman-elect was crowing about the sudden, seismic shift in North Dakota and national politics that was sweeping him into office.

Two years ago, people wanted change, Berg told the crowd. But what they wanted was for Washington to change.

They got their wish. Pomeroys departure meant that, for the first time in three decades, the states lone congressman wouldnt be a Democrat. And across the country, the Tea Party revolution was sweeping Democrats away. The GOP would pick up 63 U.S. House seats the biggest power shift in congressional midterm elections in generations.

Its hard to pick a date that the Democratic-NPLs golden years ended. One answer might be in the early 1990s, when the governorship slipped away. In an interview, former Sen. Byron Dorgan called Ed Schafers 1992 win a watershed: It meant that the GOP could suddenly control the flow of political appointees and build a political bench ensuring theyd have better candidates in elections to come.

Another moment might be as late as 2018, when Sen. Heidi Heitkamp lost to then-GOP Rep. Kevin Cramer, surrendering the partys last statewide office. But by then, the state had become so red that it became hard to imagine when there might be another statewide Democrat again.

This is the fifth and final installment in a series produced by Forum News Service and the North Dakota Newspaper Association Education Foundation, exploring North Dakotas political history. The series has charted the course nearly from statehood, beginning with the rise of the Nonpartisan League a prairie political rebellion built on farmers grievances through the Depression years, the New Deal, the Cold War arrival of Air Force bases and the discovery of the states vast oil reserves.

Each of those has had a profound effect on state politics. Pomeroy, looking back on his career, sees his own undoing in the political fight over the Affordable Care Act the health care law that the 2010 election was nominally about but knows there was more on the ballot.

Nothing stays the same, and so North Dakotas economy changes, Pomeroy said like farms getting bigger, smaller towns withering and the arrival of an oil industry reshaping state politics. The knockout round came in 2010, but the GOP had been punching stronger for years.

Thats also true of state demographics, which Pomeroy points out are tending more and more into an overlap with the core Republican base: whiter than the rest of the country with fewer college graduates but more modest incomes and oftentimes at church on Sundays.

I think the Republican Party is going to be in pretty good shape for a pretty good while given its alignment with that demographic base, Pomeroy said.

From Cass County to Bismarck

But while it might be hard to pinpoint where the Democratic-NPLs golden age ended, its a lot easier to pick when it started. Probably the best answer is the election of Gov. Bill Guy in 1960 just a few years after the Democratic Party and the long-time populist Nonpartisan League merged.

Guy came to power after an early career as a Cass County farmer. He was a school board member, then he was a failed legislative candidate multiple times, in fact before a steep and sudden rise to high office. He was elected to the state House in 1958; he became governor in 1960 when he won just a little less than 50% of the vote, beating out his GOP rival by a little less than 5 points.

And as governor, he was recognized as a modernizer. An obituary from 2013 quotes an effusive bunch of colleagues, including Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who called him a man who brought us into the 20th Century. Guy helped build the deep Democratic bench that would rule the state for years, too appointing Dorgan, the future senator, as Tax Commissioner. Democrats success would continue for years, through two more Democratic governors.

I have no idea why he selected a 26-year-old to run a state agency, Dorgan said. I remember him very well, and I spent time with him in the car driving to events, other events in the state. I sat in his cabinet meetings. He was just very very smart, and very interested in a wide-ranging set of issues, including water policy. People knew that he was a very active, very interesting man who was going to do things that could make a difference and be positive for North Dakotans.

There are dozens of ways to explain the partys success and its eventual unraveling, which is precisely what makes it so hard to map out. While its true that North Dakota changed with farms getting bigger and oil money and Air Force bases reshaping the state the rest of the world was changing, too.

Sen. Cramer, the man who finally defeated the last Democratic incumbent in 2018, puts Democrats failures in less flattering terms. In his retelling, the party couldnt read the economic tea leaves, and crucially lost rural areas as farms got bigger by backing the wrong farm policies.

(But its clearly a cultural matter, too, as the Democratic Party becomes more diverse and urban and the GOP remains largely white and increasingly rural. Cramer, for example, pokes fun at Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Bookers veganism as not relatable)

The rise of conservative media has helped shift the loyalties of small-town America, and political alignment is now as much urban-rural as have vs. have-not. Politics are more combative, especially after the 1990s House speakership of Newt Gingrich. And the racial demographics of the U.S. are shifting quickly, heightening some white voters deep-seated racist anxieties.

But theres something almost cyclical to it though, too. Mark Jendrysik, a UND political scientist, points out that, on a long enough time scale, stretching back beyond the Democrats golden years, the state is reverting to a deeply Republican past.

You could argue whats happened in the last decade, 20 years, is a reassertion of the pattern of North Dakota politics, where the Republicans are dominant, and whatever other party exists is marginal at best, Jendrysik said. And the North Dakota Democrats of today are marginal at best, he said, without the on-the-ground organization or the high-profile leaders they need to be effective at the state level.

Which is unfortunate, he said, Because thats what keeps the majority party on its toes.

For now, the Democratic-NPL is wandering in the wilderness, its statewide candidates typically doomed to landslide losses. But Kylie Oversen, the party chairwoman, sees brighter days ahead.

We dont take for granted that winning back the governors seat, as Democrats, is probably the most important thing we could do to take back power. But, on the other hand, there is also real power in the Legislature, she said. ... Maybe we wont be in the majority in the next two or three cycles. But we can get back to a little more balance. We picked up seats in 2018. Im confident well pick up seats in 2020.

Go here to read the rest:
We The People: Earl Pomeroy and the Dem-NPL golden years - The Bowman Extra

Attorneys for the Jefferson County Board of Education (JCBE) and the Jefferson County Teachers Association (JCTA) allege Theresa Camoriano, the leader of a tax-recall petition, and president of the Louisville Tea Party, altered thousands of signatures to help the petition pass muster with the Jefferson County Clerks office.

The evidence shows Ms. Camoriano and her daughters changed thousands of handwritten and electronic petition signatures, sometimes by a little, sometimes by a lot, JCTA attorney David Tachau told the court during a virtual trial Tuesday.

The JCTA and the JCBE filed suit in August challenging the validity of Camorianos recall petition, which put a 9.5% property tax increase before voters on the November ballot. The school board and the teachers union allege the Jefferson County Clerks office incorrectly certified thousands of signatures, including duplicate signatures, and signatures with incorrect addresses and birthdays. The tax levy question is already on the ballot because the challenge came too close to the printing deadline to make any changes. The courts decision will determine whether votes cast on the issue will count.

On Tuesday, attorneys for the JCTA presented new evidence showing Camoriano and her daughters used a Republican Party database to fill out missing birth dates and addresses for voters whose names had been entered on the petition electronically, bringing into question how many of the signatures are valid. In a deposition with attorneys, Camoriano said she did not keep track of which entries she altered or added to.

In one case, records show when a man listed a Bullitt County address on a handwritten sheet, Camoriano added a second Jefferson County address, as well as a second, different birthday.

Dana Howard, an attorney for the petitioners, said Camoriano and her daughters only reformatted and corrected minor typos signers made when they entered their information through the electronic petition Camoriano circulated.

In this first-time-ever-in-Kentucky electronic online petition, people made errors, Howard told the court. They made formatting errors, they put birth dates in the wrong place. They squished numbers and letters together. They made mistakes in the address.

Camoriano was just cleaning those errors up, Howard said.

Howard said Camoriano added a handful of signatures from people who requested in writing that she add them to the petition. She also said Camoriano also threw out more than 5,000 signatures before she submitted the petition to the county clerks office.

There is nothing in the deposition testimony that evidences any type of bad intent, malintent, deliberate, misleading or any of the other words that plaintiffs have used to describe Ms. Camoriano or the petition committee, Howard said.

Arguments will continue Wednesday. The court has not yet heard evidence from petitioners attorneys.

According to witness testimony, the petition originated out of discussions at a board meeting of the Louisville Tea Party. Camoriano does not live in the Jefferson County Public School district. She lives in Anchorage Independent School District, which has a higher tax rate than JCPS. Camoriano said she spearheaded the effort against the tax increase, and pushed it forward.

Another Louisville Tea Party board member, Michael Schneider, undertook creating the website and electronic petition. Schneider told attorneys he added security features to protect the website from hackers. However, he did not add controls that would prevent users from signing more than once, nor did he add a CAPTCHA feature, to prevent signing by bots.

Schneider said he considered adding CAPTCHA, but that he worried it would limit access for the elderly and people with disabilities, who can struggle to pass the CAPTCHA tests.

Signers were asked to submit their name, address and birthday, which the Jefferson County Clerks office uses to compare against voter rolls to determine whether the signer is registered in the school district.

Lawyers for JCTA presented a spreadsheet showing a number of entries Schneider agreed were suspicious. Five names were added within five minutes, all having addresses on the same block, and no birthdays.

If I knew my neighbors name, address and date of birth, and I elected to sign that person up, would anything that the committee had done, in terms of security, catch that or prevent me from doing that? JCBE attorney Tyson Gorman asked Schneider.

I dont see how. I dont know, Schneider responded.

Schneider said each day he would download the list of signers in a spreadsheet and send it to Camoriano and her daughters, who he said would evaluate the details of each signature.

In deposition, Camoriano told attorneys she used a Republican Party database of voters to verify a person or fill in a blank when she had trouble with a certain part of it.

Camoriano said the database allowed her to search people by name, birthday or address, and that she used it to correct misspellings in addresses, or sometimes fill in missing birthdays.

I didnt invent people. I didnt create people. But I could use that to help me match to people that were already signed on the petition, she said.

Camoriano said she did not always reach out individually to contact people to let them know she was changing the record. However she did send out at least two mass emails alerting signers data that was missing.

Lawyers for the JCTA also allege that Camoriano intentionally made it difficult for the Jefferson County Clerks office to comb through and verify the signatures by providing paper copies of the signatures, and refusing to provide searchable electronic records.

In verifying records, the clerks office accepted thousands of duplicate signatures. Jefferson County Elections Center Co-Director Maryellen Allen said employees could only catch duplicates if they were on the same page of the paper copies they were provided.

Emails show Frank Friday, the government affairs executive at the Jefferson County Clerks office, asked Camoriano for the electronic records, but she never provided them.

We didnt have it in one nice clean document to give to him, Camoriano said, adding that she was afraid that if we submitted anything, in addition to what we already submitted, that that would create an opportunity for a challenge, she said, that maybe we added things or changed things or something, and I didnt want to I didnt want to introduce anything new that could create a challenge to the petition.

Camoriano said Friday told her he understood. According to their depositions, Friday and Camoriano live in the same neighborhood, and Friday said the two see each other regularly at Republican political functions.

Schneider said he had the original electronic records on his computer, but never knew about Fridays request.

Read more from the original source:
Teachers Union Says Leader of Tax-Recall Effort Altered Thousands Of Petition Signatures - 89.3 WFPL News Louisville

Five dozen bright-eyed Democrats rode an electoral wave into the House nearly two years ago on a promise to shake up Congress and enact ambitious social reform on healthcare, climate policy and immigration. They were younger, more female, less wealthy and less white than any previous freshman class.

And although these first-term representatives were noticeably more outspoken and defiant than their predecessors culminating in President Trumps impeachment they face reelection with no major legislative achievement to their credit. The 116th Congress is on pace to enact the fewest number of laws in recent history.

Our mark is more institutional than it is legislative, said Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine), one of seven Democrats from California elected in 2018. She said the impact of the 2018 class had yet to be fully seen. Changing the institution to make it work better will ultimately produce better legislation.

Though some freshman lawmakers succeeded in pushing through narrow bills that helped their constituents, several acknowledged their frustration at the lack of any major legislative wins.

Results speak for themselves, and its pretty clear there hasnt been enough progress on these issues, said Rep. Josh Harder (D-Turlock), another first-term Democrat from California. Obviously its hard when you control one half of one branch of government.

At the same time, however, these new lawmakers helped reshape and redefine the traditional role of a first-term House member. They have generally been more active on social media and more engaged with their constituents than their elder statesmen. Several quickly established national profiles by speaking out on issues at hearings and in public or pushed narrow bills that helped their constituents.

Though theyve largely eschewed corporate PAC money, several became mammoth fundraisers by focusing on small-dollar donors. And when the pandemic hit, they led the calls for Zoom hearings and remote voting. Harder hosted a drive-through town hall.

C-SPAN has never been more popular, quipped Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), who was elected by her colleagues to act as co-president of the 2018 freshman class.

First-term House members also point to their defense of the Affordable Care Act and efforts to hold Trump accountable asimportant parts of their legacy.

The 2018 Democratic takeover of the House ended GOP efforts to repeal the 2010 healthcare law, although it is under threat of elimination in a lawsuit set to be taken up by the Supreme Court in November.

Late last year, the House impeached the president for soliciting Ukraine to interfere in the 2020 election and for obstructing Congress investigation.

But outside of legislation to address the COVID-19 pandemic and keep the government funded, this Congress has enacted 175 bills so far, according to GovTrack.

That figure will certainly rise by the end of 2020, but there is little chance the 116th Congress will surpass the 284 bills passed during the 112th Congress that ended in 2012 the last record low in recent history when tea party conservatives and other Republicans controlled the House during the Obama administration.

They struck me as freshman lawmakers learning the ropes, said Joshua Huder, a senior fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University. I didnt see a revolution or unique freshman-class fingerprints on congressional operation.

Though stymied by the GOP-led Senate from realizing major reforms, House Democrats on their own approved several largely symbolic bills to address prescription drug prices, immigration, climate change, gun policy, LGBTQ equality and voting rights.

There was no real negotiation between Republicans and Democrats Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have an almost nonexistent relationship except in the most dire situations, such as funding the government and enacting coronavirus relief measures. Even those have been exceedingly difficult.

There would be compromise if we agreed on the goals, said Rep. TJ Cox (D-Fresno). We dont agree on the goals.

Voters appear to be unconcerned about the lack of major legislative wins by the new House Democratic majority.

Polls show that even many of the freshman who were elected in Republican-leaning districts and were once thought to be vulnerable are expected to win reelection. Democrats could even expand their majority in the House.

Of the seven Democrats from California elected for the first time in 2018, only three Cox, Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-Yorba Linda) and Rep. Harley Rouda (D-Laguna Beach) are facing hotly competitive races. (One of the seven, Rep. Katie Hill of Santa Clarita, left office in 2019 amid allegations that she had a relationship with a congressional staffer. Republican Rep. Mike Garcia was elected to the seat.)

If Democrats take control of the White House and Senate this fall, the next two years will be the real test of House Democrats effectiveness in enacting legislation and their political longevity, particularly after two years dominated by a historic government shutdown, impeachment, a pandemic and a national reckoning on race.

Democrats will be eager to quickly capitalize on their majority to move on major legislation. But the political fissures that emerged this year between the moderate and progressive ends of the House Democratic caucus are likely to grow when legislation becomes more realistic. Many of the major policy bills the House passed this year such as those addressing gun control, immigration and prescription drug reform were messaging bills because the House knew the GOP-controlled Senate would never take them up.

Its easier to vote along party lines if its not going anywhere, Rouda said, adding he might have voted differently on some of them had they had a chance of becoming law.

Several first-year lawmakers took an outsize public role over the last two years, becoming some of the most well-known members of Congress outside of leadership.

Four young female members of color Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley and Ilhan Omar became known as the Squad. They drew rebukes from Trump and were among the freshmen most willing to buck Democratic leadership in public votes or private meetings.

Another group of lawmakers with national security experience, including Cisneros, wrote a Washington Post op-ed article detailing why the House should impeach the president, a pivotal moment in the Democrats decision to go forward with impeachment.

Porter, with her now-trademark whiteboard, became known as one of the most successful questioners in Congress for putting corporate executives or government officials, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, Robert Redfield, through a public grilling.

There are a lot of members of the freshman class that dont hold anything back, Cisneros said.

But while much of the public attention focused on the progressive newcomers, behind the scenes Pelosi and Democratic leaders worked to protect the more moderate freshmen, who corralled dissatisfaction with Trump in the midterm to wrest away formerly GOP districts. These more politically vulnerable members had perhaps even more of an influence on the direction of House Democrats in the last two years.

Although progressives were eager to move articles of impeachment sooner, Pelosi didnt move forward until the more moderate Democrats were on board. The House hasnt had a floor vote on the Green New Deal or Medicare for all measures that progressives want to advance but that would put moderate Democrats in a tough squeeze.

Many of the moderates, dubbed front-liners, were set up by Democratic leadership to succeed by putting them on high-profile committees or having them chair subcommittees.

Several front-line freshman members got at least one minor bill signed into law an important accomplishment to tout at home.

Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano), chairman of a subcommittee on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, has focused away from the high-profile fights and drilled down instead on bipartisan bills to reform veteran housing vouchers and training programs.

If you just kind of look at the national narrative of what happens here, he said, I wouldnt blame you for thinking that were not getting much done and that the whole place is overrun by gridlock.

Harder spent months on a bill to help California eradicate nutria beaver-like, semiaquatic rodents that destroy wetlands and can damage water infrastructure, as they did in the Central Valley. The bill is now waiting for Trump to sign it into law.

Said Harder: You really can do a lot of good, if you focus on issues that are important but no one else is leading the charge on.

See original here:
The 2018 House class began with high hopes. Did it deliver? - Los Angeles Times