DL Open Thread: Sunday, Jan. 28, 2024

Arizona Rethugs Go Full MAGAt.  Because it worked so well for them in 2020:

Arizona Republicans chose a new party chair on Saturday, a move that tightened the grip on the state party hierarchy by far-right supporters of former President Donald J. Trump and that came days after a scandal that forced the last chairman to resign.

Gina Swoboda, who directed election-day integrity operations in Arizona for Mr. Trump in 2020 and runs a nonprofit group that has falsely claimed to have found huge discrepancies in voting records in a number of states, was picked to replace Jeff DeWit, who stepped down as chairman on Wednesday.

Kari Lake, a far-right candidate for U.S. Senate and close ally of Mr. Trump who had a central role in Mr. DeWit’s fall, took to the stage on Saturday to nominate Ms. Swoboda. But she was met with a din of boos and heckling from the crowd, an apparent rebuff to her involvement in the scandal.

How does Sen. Ruben Gallego sound to you?  A whole lot better than Sen. Kyrsten Sinema.  I’m calling it.  That’s what we’re gonna get in November.

“Peace Through Earth”.  You don’t even have to guess who said it.  He’s in the throes of dementia.  Can he get through a campaign without it becoming obvious?

My Fave Rant Of The Week! Read it.  It’ll make you feel good because I think it’s all gonna come to pass.

NYC Cops Arrest Kids For Being Black On Halloween.  Bury Bodycam Footage:

New York City adopted body-worn cameras in 2017, against the backdrop of the Black Lives Matter movement that had emerged after the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. The cameras were supposed to bring transparency and accountability. But policymakers in most states, cities and towns left the police in control — with the power to decide what is recorded, who can see it and when.

Last year, I noticed a line in a story about the killing of Tyre Nichols. The New York Times mentioned that a number of the Memphis, Tennessee, officers knew their body cameras were on and pummeled Nichols anyway. The fact that they were being recorded didn’t deter them at all.

That’s when I decided to dive in. Over several months, I learned how the police have undermined the promise of transparency and accountability that accompanied the body-camera movement.

The result is a December story published in collaboration with The New York Times Magazine, detailing how departments across the country have routinely refused to release footage and frequently failed to discipline or fire officers even when cameras document abuse.

All of which brings me back to Halloween.

A city agency charged with handling complaints of police abuse did a thorough investigation. What the Civilian Complaint Review Board found was a long litany of misconduct: An officer did hit a kid with his car, another one had pointed his gun at one of the other boys and those boys were in fact arrested without justification.

After “extremely substantial delays” by the NYPD, the board had gotten footage showing exactly what happened. It had 21 videos from body-worn cameras. The CCRB concluded that five officers, including a precinct commander, should face disciplinary trials, which is the highest level of discipline within the department.

But in New York, the police commissioner can invoke an almost magical power: to “retain” a case, or take it back from the civilian review board. That’s exactly what the commissioner did in four of the cases. There would be no trials. There would be no significant punishment for the officers.

A blatant cover-up.  Nobody should be surprised.  Just outraged–and motivated to do something about it.  Like helping to pass genuine LEOBOR Reform in Delaware.

The Unfettered Boom In Sports Betting–And The Inevitable Results:

The Supreme Court struck down a decades-old law in 2018 that had banned sports betting across much of the nation. The market is now legal in 38 states, attracting billions of dollars in wagers every month. Its rapid growth has coincided with a spike in addiction cases, according to clinicians, counsellors and campaigners.

Diverting taxes already raised on sports wagers towards compulsive gambling support services would make “the entire industry healthier”, said Salinas, a Democrat representing Oregon’s sixth district. “I, as much as anybody, enjoy the recreation of gambling, in a fun casino. When done, like everything, in moderation, it’s fun, right?

“But the access to these applications for sports betting has taken us in a direction that is harmful. Nearly 7 million Americans are struggling with the gambling addiction.”

The Grit (Gambling addiction Recovery, Investment and Treatment) Act, proposed this month by Salinas and the Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal, is pinned around the federal sports excise tax. Receipts from the tax, which dates back to the early 1950s, have surged in recent years as the legal market expanded; it raised an estimated $271m last year.

Under the proposed law, half of the revenues raised by the tax would be set aside for gambling addiction treatment, prevention and research. Taxes would not rise and the funds for treatment would go through an existing federal grant program.

You can accurately predict the gambling industry’s response.  Yes, it’s just like the NRA and the tobacco lobbyists:

“Our industry’s growth means that there’s never been more attention paid to, or money invested in, problem gambling support than there is today,” Chris Cylke, senior vice-president at the American Gaming Association, said.

Suggesting the Grit Act would “give criminals a leg up”, Cylke argued that the excise tax – upon which it is based – should be repealed. “Today, this antiquated policy puts the nascent legal market at a competitive disadvantage against offshore illegal operators, who do not pay any taxes and prey on vulnerable customers.”

I think ESPN would go out of business were it not for all the gaming ads.  I’m to the point where I’d not miss it.

What do you want to talk about?