No, Really, What's Up With Idaho?
Yay! Librarians Can Keep Promoting Degeneracy!
Yr Doktor Zoom just loves his Boise Library and its exclamation point.
After the state House passed a bill that would have allowed librarians and libraries to be criminally charged for "disseminating materials harmful to minors," the state Senate leadership told reporters last week the bill wouldn't get a hearing in the Senate, effectively killing any chance of the bill moving forward. State Senate President Pro Tem Chuck Winder said at a virtual luncheon with reporters, "I do not see the chamber picking this one up. I do not see it getting a hearing in committee. I think it’s very appropriately numbered, 666.”
"We don’t really tell our chairmen what to put in their drawer or not to put in their drawer. [...] But there are a lot of bills, probably moreso than normal, that are in drawers around our side of the building. I think most of them will stay there. So I don’t think you’ll see some of the craziness that the House seems to like to do get very far in the Senate."
At the same meeting, Winder said he didn't expect that another crazy House bill — HB 675, which would prohibit gender-affirming care for trans kids — would proceed, either. And as our next newspotato indicates, he was right! [Idaho Press]
Senate Kills Anti-Trans Bill Too
This week, Idaho Senate Republicans issued a statement that they will not consider HB 675, which would have banned gender-affirming care for trans kids and would have imposed life sentences in prison for doctors who provided such care, as well as parents who approved it. The Republicans were very careful to make clear that they absolutely oppose "any and all gender reassignment and surgical manipulation of the natural sex of minors," but said the House's bill went too far because it
undermines parental rights and allows the government to interfere in parents’ medical decision-making authority for their children. [...]
We believe in parents’ rights and that the best decisions regarding medical treatment options for children are made by parents, with the benefit of their physician’s advice and expertise.
Hating on trans people is all well and good, and Idaho Republicans are happy to do it, but only if that only hurts trans people themselves, like trying to ban trans athletes. Interfering with parents' decisions about their kids' healthcare, however, is more than they're ready to do, unless a woman wants to terminate a pregnancy. In that case, she needs to become a parent, and after that, Republicans don't care one way or the other about her or her brat. [Idaho Statesman]
Kootenai Dems Foil GOP Ratfuckery
In North Idaho, Republicans came up with a kooky plan by to take over the Democratic Party in Kootenai County. The place is already a GOP stronghold, but one of the brain geniuses in the county Republican leadership was recorded talking up a plan to infiltrate the Democrats by running Republicans for Democratic precinct captains in May's primary. Luckily, a non-insane GOP guy shared the recording with the media, and Kootenai Democrats chair Evan Koch wrote this week that
In less than 48 hours we identified and recruited the real Democrats needed to save our Central Committee. They turned out and committed to run in most every open precinct. In fact, many people contacted us to volunteer before being asked.
Only nineteen Republicans filed to run for Democratic precinct captain and now their names and precincts are in the public record. Although this attempted insurgence is a clear concern, it will not threaten control of the committee.
Hooray for local journalism, and hooray for local activism, too! [Kootenai County Democrats]
Ammon Bundy Has HAD IT With You Sheeple, Also Baby Is Safe Now
In that weirdass case where professional rightwing liberty provocateur (and independent candidate for governor) Ammon Bundy tried to mobilize people to make Idaho CPS return a malnourished baby to his parents, it seems the baby's family has decided to let the state take care of the 10-month-old, at least for a while. The Idaho Statesman reports the baby's grandfather, Diego Rodriguez, a Bundy adviser, said the parents "are giving custody of (the baby) to the state." No word on any details there; but that seems at least a temporary end to the saga. We'd also note that Rodriguez's blog, which had been railing about authorities "kidnapping" the child and CPS and local police engaging in "child trafficking," hasn't posted any updated outrage since Wednesday. [Idaho Statesman]
Rightwing internet talkshow guy Stew Peters said on his Thursday show that he'd received email from Rodriguez saying the judge had ordered that the baby be cared for by the state, and that Rodriguez was planning a "legal review" with his attorneys. The show also featured an interview with Idaho Lt. Gov Janice McGeachin, with more talk of how the poor baby had been "ripped away from the arms of his mother," talk of the state as "abductionists" and so on. (We're not linking, because the video includes the names and photos of medical and law enforcement personnel and a CPS social worker involved in the case.)
Very early Monday morning, Ammon Bundy posted to YouTube a video in which he again said the parents were "perfect" and that the state was lying in order to take the child away, accusing the judge of having "taken hundreds of children," which probably shouldn't be too surprising since she's a family court judge and Idaho has more than 400,000 minors in foster care, with between 1,800 and 1,900 child maltreatment victims reported each year between 2016 and 2019.
Bundy said the next hearing would be held April 8, and again claimed that the only problem was that the parents had "missed an appointment," and denied the doctors' concerns that the baby was malnourished. (Instead, Bundy insisted the baby had only gone to the hospital because he was "throwing up" a lot.)
Bundy then offered some great advice from a guy who wants to be governor:
The lesson we learn here is that you don't, don't take your kids to the hospital. Don't take your loved one to the hospital. You can't afford it. [...] There's a good chance that the state will get involved if you take your child to the hospital. This just proves it.
Bundy speculated about some "pretty eerie connections that are going on in timing" in the case, explained that the judge is a "very wicked woman, I mean very, very wicked, very wicked" who simply wanted to "destroy the family" as family court judges generally do. Finally, he reached his big conclusion:
You don't own your children. If you think you do, if you think you own 'em, that they're your children, you're a damn fool, because the state owns them, and they take them when they want, how they want, when they want. So don't you dare think that you're the one who has rights to your children. Don't you dare think that, don't even act like in any way that you do have those rights. We haven't defended them enough, and now they're taking our little children.
You know, we probably could have pointed out to him that most people regard their children as human beings that they have a moral obligation to care for and raise well, not as possessions, but Ammon Bundy never asks us about anything.
Here's Wingnut Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin Being Very Persuasive
Finally, a master class on how to interview a wingnut who won't give a straight answer, from KTVB Boise reporter Brian Holmes. He tried to get Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin on the record about a pretty simple question: When she sent a recorded video to be played at white suprempacist Nick Fuentes's "America First" hatefest, was she aware of Fuentes's racist beliefs? And if she did know, why did she go ahead and participate?
The interview aired February 28, but went viral this week when it was retwote by journalist Sergio Olmos. It's really very good: McGeachin tries to avoid the questions, and Holmes refuses to chase after her attempts to distract her.
We've cued the video up to the actual interview, but go right ahead and watch the whole report, if you need context on this shitbird Fuentes.
There's a full transcript of the interview at KTVB, and this post is already way too long, so we'll just focus in on McGeachin's brilliant hair-splitting: OK, maybe she'd heard of Fuentes, but she sent a video to express her views, not his, so why does anyone even care what he thinks? Also, she insists, it's totally unfair to ask her about the views of someone whose conference she participated in, because that's guilt by association and the media only pulls that on conservatives.
She perhaps has never heard of Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers.
Still, we guess McGeachin has a point: We're always hearing about how bad it supposedly is when Republicans speak at neo-Nazi conferences. But why doesn't the media ever report on Democrats speaking at neo-Nazi conferences? We just never hear about that, for some reason. [KTVB-TV]
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All The Crazies Flocking To Idaho Again
QAnon, Sovereign Citizens, And Family Court: Not A Great Mix
Earlier this month, East Idaho News published a story about a custody fight between Lee Jennings, of Seattle, and Sarah Stanley, of god-knows-where-she-is because she's hiding from authorities to keep Jennings from seeing their son, three-year-old River. He's a dangerously cute little guy, as you can see in this photo, which in a decent world wouldn't have to be in the context of a "Missing" poster:
The story itself is very sad, and no doubt just one of many that will eventually be collected in a doctoral dissertation on the mass psychosis of Trump and QAnon adherents in the last few years. The two met online in 2016, and broke up in November 2018, when River was just eight months old. Before they'd actually arranged custody, Stanley took off for Arizona with 1) the baby, and 2) no advance notice. After a complicated series of court appearances, Stanley ended up back in Idaho, and eventually refused to let Jennings see River at all.
Jennings has been granted full custody, but that doesn't impress Stanley, who insisted in an interview with East Idaho News that River is just fine, she's not "missing," and that she's actually a victim of government persecution. Also, a whole LOT of Sovereign-Citizen word magic hooey.
Stanley argues the family court system is a “fake system with abusive males against women who are just trying to protect their babies.” She says judges in her case do not have valid oaths of office and claims her American Disability Act rights have been violated, along with her due process rights.
“I have filed a federal lawsuit against many people,” Stanley explains. “We the people need to realize courts don’t have power over you. People’s rights are being stolen left and right. I’m standing up for my rights and I’m being retaliated against.”
Stanley argues the family court system is a “for-profit corporation” and “the largest human child trafficking sector in the state.” In her eyes, the rulings from judges on child custody are unconstitutional and illegal.
"I have not done one wrong thing. I do not consent (to the proceedings). You need my consent. What is the opposite of not consent? It’s rape. And that is what the court system is. It’s a ‘legal rape system,'” she says. “They need my consent per the constitution to continue what they’re doing, and they do not have my consent. I have said that on record time and time again.”
Funny how that never seems to carry any weight with judges. Guess that just proves how illegitimate the courts are.
Enter Conman
And now we get to the dangerous bucket of crazy who's moving events along. Ms. Stanley refuses to "co-parent with the government," and instead says the custody case should be taken care of through her "church," an outfit called "Walking for the Forgotten Ministry," founded by one Michael Lewis Arthur Meyer of Tucson, Arizona.
If those four names sound vaguely familiar, that's because Yr Wonkette has covered Mr. Meyer previously: He's the guy who was briefly Wingnut Famous in 2018 when he found an abandoned homeless camp in the desert near Tucson and proclaimed it a "child sex trafficking camp," because what else could it be? Police said no, it's a homeless camp, which just proved they were covering up for the international Soros-Clinton cabal and all that. Meyer also operates a grifty border militia he calls "Veterans on Patrol," although predictably enough, he's never been in the military.
It says a lot about the guy that his desert militia cosplay shenanigans were too flaky for the Oath Keepers and for Gateway Pundit.
Read More:
Why Did Hillary And George Soros Put Child Sex Ring In Homeless Camp? GATEWAY PUNDIT KNOWS!
Tucson Militia Loon Will Smash Soros Child Sex Ring By Stealing Water Left For Migrants
Meyer told East Idaho News that, as "pastor" of Walking With the Forgotten Ministry, he's protecting Sanders from the evil government, and that she's staying in one of the "dozens" of "safe houses" that he very definitely operates all across America. Here's that audio interview, in which Meyer explains that he's ready to protect Sanders and River as long as they need it, and to mediate the situation just as he's done "dozens of times" previously.
Meyer explains that Sarah Stanley is "in a safe location with her son, and everything she needs will be provided for her and her son." Further, he insists he's really good at helping the helpless, since he claims to have run nine homeless shelters, and to have rescued more than 5,000 children at the border, plus another 14,000 immigrant children who'd been "dumped on my property" in Arizona in July 2021. Oddly, that appears not to have made the news, which again shows how deep the conspiracy goes.
Also, Meyer explains, River has to be protected from his father's nefarious plan to "vaccinate him and virtue signal to other families in Seattle. That’s not going to happen. We’re not going to allow anyone to inject the child with a bioweapon." Meyer apparently means not just the COVID vaccine (which isn't yet approved for kids under five anyway), but all childhood vaccines. He also accused Jennings of domestic abuse, a claim Stanley has also made, although there's no evidence, Jennings has no record, and of course Jennings denies being abusive.
Needless to say, he rejects the jurisdiction of the Family Court system, because "I don’t care what law enforcement says. I don’t answer to the government. The government works for me,” and Stanley "doesn’t have to comply with any of these court orders.”
Shit Gets Scary
Also, reverting to his usual strategy, he accuses everyone in the case of being criminals and "child predators." He's been doxxing most of them, too. Meyer earlier this week posted a nice video of himself standing outside the Idaho Falls office of Jennings's attorney, Laurie Gaffney, saying she's a "democratic socialist" and that he's simply there as a "border journalist," mmm-hmm.
Nothing chilling there, just a guy accusing an attorney of perjury and of being "directly responsible for attempting to abduct 3-year-old River Stanley from his loving mother," then carefully naming the law firm: "Banks and Gaffney Trial Lawyers. Idaho Falls. We’ll be seeing you again."
This is actually getting into some potentially very dangerous territory; when he was chasing imaginary child smugglers around the desert, Meyer could confabulate all he wanted about rescuing thousands of kids, but now he's "protecting" a very real little boy, and the boy's mother appears to agree with Meyer's delusions.
In the latest turn, Meyer left a threatening phone message for Nate Eaton, the reporter who wrote the East Idaho News story.
Mr. Eaton, I want to know why you continue to pursue a woman and child in our safe house program. Do you want to get other women and children harmed? Are you interested in children getting hurt? Is that what your goal is? I’d advise you to remove your Facebook post; otherwise, you’re going to be seeing a whole lot of attention you don’t want. This woman is in protected custody. You are putting her life in danger, Mr. Eaton, and I’ll be knocking on your front door in a few days with a camera and a lot of people, your personal house, if you do not get off of her back. Leave her alone. Goodbye, Mr. Eaton. See you soon.
Eaton has filed for a protective order against Meyer; a judge signed off on it, but it can't be enforced until Meyer is served with the order. That's a bit of a challenge, since at the moment he doesn't seem to have a fixed address. Probably hanging out at one of his dozens of safe houses.
As of this morning, it appears nobody knows where Meyer is, or whether Stanley and River are with him. We're hoping this all has a peaceful resolution.
No, Mr. Bundy, we don't think your help is needed.
[East Idaho News / East Idaho News]
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North Idaho GOP's Batsh*t Plan: Take Over Local Democratic Party, Steal Donations, ?????, PROFIT
'If We Pull This Off We'll Eat Like Kings!'
The scheme came to light Wednesday when the Coeur d'Alene Press published details of a recorded phone call to John Grimm, a local Republican who ran unsuccessfully for county sheriff in 2020. In Idaho, it's legal to record phone calls with "one party" consent. The caller, Grimm says, was KCRCC Youth Chair Dan Bell, who had a simple proposition: "Long story short, we want to take over the Democrat Party. [...] If we pull this off, this will be national news."
Well golly, Yr Wonkette is certainly national.
Grimm told the paper he recorded the call because he wanted to have it on record.
I know from personal observation that certain members of the KCRCC are masters of deception with an ability to twist the meaning of even their own statements.
Grimm is a super-conservative Republican, but of the non-batshit variety that doesn't like how the full-on extremists are taking over the local GOP. (See? Idaho does so have a two-party system!)
The scheme is some pretty straightforward ratfucking that takes advantage of the fact that Kootenai County just plain doesn't have that big a Democratic Party. The KCRCC would run its own slate of candidates to be Democratic precinct captains. The Coeur d'Alene Press explains how that could work:
Elected by partisan primary voters in May of each even-numbered year, precinct captains are part of both county and legislative district central committees.
Leaders elected by these central committees then elect the state party leaders.
Kootenai County has 70 precincts. There are only 21 Democrat precinct captains. The remaining [49] precincts are vacant, compared to 10 vacant Republican precincts.
The scheme is pretty much a variation on the national plan by Donald Trump supporters to take over state and local Republican party organizations from the ground up, except in Kootenai County the idea is to seize control of the opposition party, for the sheer ratfucking joy of it.
Read More: Won't Have To Have An Insurrection If You Let The Trumpists Count All The Votes
What If They Held A Primary And Nobody Ran?
When the story ran on Wednesday, the Press reports, only 11 candidates had filed to run for those precinct captain jobs, and "At least one was reportedly a KCRCC volunteer." The deadline to file for the primary is today, Friday, at 5 p.m.
The Press reports in an updated story today that as of Thursday, the number of candidates was up to 35, with local Democrats hurrying to get more real Dems on the ballot by today's filing deadline. That said, it's not clear how many of those filings were from actual Democrats and how many were from KCRCC cuckoo birds.
Evan Koch, the chair of the Kootenai Democrats, told the Press Thursday, "We’re pretty darn close to filling the county now. [...] The threat of a takeover has galvanized us."
On the phone call, Bell said that as of Tuesday, he had commitments from 25 Republicans to help with the scheme, and that the KCRCC planned to get at least 40 of its people on the ballot before today's deadline.
“We’re going to do a bum rush on Thursday and Friday so that our people are on the ballot and theirs aren’t,” he said. [...]
After [the deadline], Bell said, Democrats will have to scramble to find write-in candidates, then spend time and money promoting them.
In the lead-up to the primary in May, Bell said, the KCRCC would use its voter lists to target Constitution Party members and unaffiliated conservatives to do a stealthy Get Out the Vote effort:
“We’re going to call these voters and say, ‘Hey, if you want to vote in the primary and take out the liberals, request a Democrat ballot and vote for our people for precinct committee,” Bell said.
Bell also told Grimm that the plan had the backing of county GOP chair Brent Regan, who also chairs the far-Right Idaho Freedom Foundation, that merry band of dark-money-funded wingnuts that's risen to prominence in its fight to promote the coronavirus and make sure everyone in the state has a gun and Bible. They also don't like diversity, because something something black cows and red cows.
Read More:
Ammon Bundy Harassing Cops At Home Now, For Freedom And Coronavirus
Idaho Legislators Make Pro-Virus Video In Stupid-Spreader Event
Idaho Republican Explains 'Diversity' Is Bad For America, Because Cows
So yeah, Bell said that Brent Regan is "totally on board” with the plan to take over Democratic precinct posts. In its updated story today, the Press says Regan had sent an email denying that the KCRCC had been recruiting its own candidates to run in the Democratic primary:
“Whatever efforts or statements Mr. Bell made, he did so as a private individual and not in any official capacity as a member of the KCRCC,” Regan said.
So that's a denial of any official involvement, all right.
Meet The New Boss, Definitely Not The Old Boss
In the recording, Bell explained what the Kootenai GOP might do if it managed to pull off the takeover of the county Democratic Party, at least once the members were done high-fiving each other. Once in control, he said, they'd elect David J. Reilly as party chair. He's the sweaty antisemite whom the KCRCC officially endorsed in his unsuccessful run for the Post Falls school board in 2020. Reilly has promoted the racist "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory, and as recently as 2019 insisted that it was actually Jews who secretly pushed white supremacy to cover supposed Jewish responsibility for "the mess the West finds itself in today."
Read More: Local GOP Proudly Endorses Sweaty Anti-Semite For Post Falls, Idaho School Board
Reilly has also claimed that Jews "pretend to be white when it's expediant [sic] for them" and has fondly wished that more Americans would believe antisemitic stereotypes. Bell seemed almost giddy at the prospect of installing him as head of the local Democratic Party:
“A guy that they call racist, antisemitic, Holocaust denier,” Bell said. “That same guy would be the chair of the Kootenai Democrat Party.”
Bell claimed on the phone call that Regan had come up with that brilliant idea. Again, in today's update, Regan denied that:
“No, it is not true,” he said Thursday. “I really don’t care who the Democrats elect as chairman.”
Perhaps inconveniently, Reilly posted on Twitter Thursday that he had "registered as a Democrat and filed to become a Precinct Captain" so that he could fix the party, you see.
Today, I registered as a Democrat and filed to become a Precinct Captain.
The Democrat Party has veered towards Left Wing Extremism, working with groups like BLM & Antifa, while promoting Abortion, Transgender ideology, & anti-2A policies.
Idaho needs a Pro-Life Democrat party.
Spoken like a true loyal member of the Democrat Party, which we all say. Or will, once we're assimilated by Reilly and his ilk.
Regan's denials aside, Bell said on the recorded call that with Reilly as chair, there'd be ample opportunities for further mischief:
In addition to using the local Democratic Party’s website and social media channels to promote conservative causes, Bell said Reilly would use his position to take money donated to Democrats and give it to Republicans.
“He’s going to revamp their website,” Bell said. “He’s going to take donations and spend that on conservative causes.”
The Press scrupulously adds that Idaho law defines "theft by false promise" as a crime involving one person taking the property of another by "representing that he or a third person will engage in particular conduct with no intention to actually engage in that conduct." Not that it's saying anyone in particular is trying to do said crime.
'There Is Another'
Also too, the Press says Grimm isn't the only Kootenai County Republican to come forward to say they'd been contacted about the alleged scheme. A woman who wished to remain anonymous told the paper that another party luminary, Greg McKenzie, had asked her at a recent KCRCC meeting if she might be willing to register as a Democrat, to help take over the local den of Dems.
“He said it’s a thing where you register and then you can get into their organization and sway votes,” she told The Press on Wednesday.
She said she wasn't interested, and that McKenzie asked if she'd at least be willing to help recruit others for what she called the "scheme." She again said no thanks. McKenzie told the paper he didn't remember the conversation.
Fortunately, McKenzie and Regan told the Press they know who the real villains are: the newspaper, obviously, which they accused of working with Democrats to ratfuck the Republican primary, don't you see?
In Idaho, Republicans have had a closed primary since 2011, and are constantly claiming that there's a widespread plot by Democrats to infiltrate the GOP primaries to elect "liberals," by which they mean non-batshit conservatives like the establishment pro-business GOP people whose hair isn't on fire.
Yr Wonkette will keep you up to date on this heinous fuckery most foul. If you happen to be a Democrat in Kootenai County, you have until 5 p.m. "Pacific Time" to file as a precinct captain candidate. NO FAKES.
[Couer d'Alene Press / Couer d'Alene Press]
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