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Conservative dad arrested after delivering bizarre and angry rant about 'Black America' at school board meeting
May 14, 2021
A New Jersey dad who went on a racially-charged rant at a school board meeting was later arrested last Friday, the New York Post reports.
Robert Vessechia, 55, was arrested on charges of disorderly conduct and criminal trespassing after he refused to leave the high school where the meeting was held and became "verbally abusive" with staff, police say. The incident reportedly took place on April 26.
Chatham police says Vessechia was "causing a disturbance" outside his son's school and had been told "numerous times that he was not wanted on school property, including the Board of Education Building, but he ignored their requests to leave."
"What I'm about to say is going to offend people, and I really don't care," Vessechia said at the meeting, adding, "I'm a person that this town believes is a racist."
"I'm a volunteer fireman, and the first thing we do when we get a call is find out if they are a minority, and if they are, we disregard them. Now, clearly, that's false," he said in the speech, which confused the school board members. Vessechia then quoted conservative commentator Candace Owens, claiming the greatest issue facing Black America "is father absence."
As the New York Post points out, the township of Chatham is made up of more than 80 percent white residents and fewer than 2 percent Black residents.
Watch the video below. The relevant portion begins at around 2:03:00:
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Trump in talks to partner with these alternative social media networks after getting booted from Facebook and Twitter
May 14, 2021
Donald Trump has struggled to engage with his supporters online after being banned from major social networking platforms like Twitter and Facebook in the aftermath of the January 6th insurrection.
"Donald Trump, sidelined by Twitter Inc. and Facebook Inc., has been talking with numerous platforms as he seeks a new online megaphone. Jeff Brain, the chief executive of CloutHub, a fledgling social media network that has become popular with conservatives, thinks his company fits the bill," The Wall Street Journal reported. "He took a trip to Mar-a-Lago last month and chatted with the former president, and has been talking to Mr. Trump's advisers as they consider what his new social-media home should be. 'We believe that of all the platforms that have come out, we are the right platform for the president,' Mr. Brain said in an interview."
"CloutHub is one of several companies the Trump camp is considering, people familiar with the discussions say. Another is FreeSpace, a Facebook alternative. Its parent company, Skylab Apps Inc., promises customers—which range from CBD sellers to Promise Keepers, an evangelical Christian group—autonomous social-media networks that can't easily be blocked or shut down," the newspaper noted.
Trump reportedly wants to get paid -- and get the money up front.
"The former president is interested in being paid in exchange for the followers he would presumably bring to the new social networks, people familiar with the situation said. Mr. Trump had nearly 89 million Twitter followers. 'He's not that interested in equity. He wants cash money up front, like a license fee,' said one person familiar with the process," the newspaper noted. "Mr. Trump and his team have held more than two dozen meetings on potential social-media plans, according to people familiar with the discussions. One of Mr. Trump's primary objectives is to find what he has called an 'indestructible platform' that can't easily be taken down, according to people with the former president's remarks on the topic."
Read the full report.
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Scathing editorial torches Republicans for becoming 'an increasingly radicalized, weaponized, and fascist entity'
May 14, 2021
Confederates may have lost the Civil War back in the 1800s but, according to a new Daily Beast editorial, it appears they are on the road to victory when it comes to the present-day, intraparty war with the Republican Party. The piece highlights the evolution of a new disturbing breed of lawmakers and politicians within the Republican Party.
Describing the Republican Party's rising "heroes" as "killers, kooks, and creeps," Wajahat Ali, Beast editor and Senior Fellow at The Western States Center, details the blind support of former President Donald Trump's Big Lie and how it may not only impact the political party but U.S. government in its entirety.
According to Ali, "we are witnessing the end of a long molting process as the GOP slithers into its final form: a counter-majoritarian, fascist entity."
Those who were once silently supportive of far-right ideologies are now "shedding their masks and hoods, spitting out their dog whistles" as the party's Trumpists, racists, conspiracy theorists, and violent insurrectionists are increasingly gaining representation in Congress.
While Trump may no longer be walking the halls of the White House, that has not stopped his agenda as many an overwhelming number of Republican leaders and lawmakers are still out to do his dirty work. The former disgraced president's influence, alone, is enough for his supporters to continue down the path he paved.
"Trump was not a cancerous growth but the end product of the party's decades-long molting process. He's the beating heart. He's Republicans' orange avatar, their unrestrained ID, their boiling, festering rage that quenches its appetites while securing power and wealth by any means necessary," he wrote, later adding, "Just because Trump is golfing in Mar-a-Lago instead of rage-tweeting from the White House, doesn't mean the threat has been removed. His tactics and tantrums have merely been picked up and copied by Republicans desperate to ride the same strategy to power in 2022 and 2024, perhaps with less sensationalism and fanfare."
With the path Republicans are embarking on, the party appears to be in what is described as "the final molting stage," which consists of "an increasingly radicalized, weaponized, and fascist entity."
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