#Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said Thurs he was pardoning #DanielPerry, the fmr Army sergeant convicted in the fatal shooting of a protester during a #BLM march, after a review board recommended he be released from prison.
…Unsealed court records revealed that he regularly shared #racist memes & threatening content in private msgs & social media posts, including descriptions of killing protesters & minorities.
Perry was convicted of murder in the death of 28-year-old #GarrettFoster, who was legally armed w/ an AK-47 rifle, during a 2020 confrontation in downtown Austin at a racial justice demonstration.
Woman pleads guilty to conspiring with neo-Nazi leader to attack energy grid
A Maryland woman admitted to scheming with a neo-Nazi leader from Florida to destroy electrical substations surrounding Baltimore in an attack that she told a confidential FBI source would be “legendary” and “probably permanently completely lay this city to waste.”
A German court just decided the Federal Office for the Protection of the #Constitution (#Verfassungsschutz) can continue to classify the #AfD party as a "rechtsextremer Verdachtsfall" ("suspected case of #right-wing #extremism"). This is the 2nd-worst classification. The worst is "gesichert rechtsextrem" ("assured right-wing extremism").
The judge said "The smoke alarm of the constitution goes off.".
The vote came after it narrowly cleared the AZ House last wk. The bill is expected to be signed by Gov Katie Hobbs.
The 1864 #law, which predates AZ’s statehood, permits #abortion only to save the patient’s life—& provides NO exceptions for survivors of #rape or #incest.
The law also states the age of consent for a “woman” is 10 yrs.
The man doused himself w/a liquid around 1:35PM ET in Collect Pond Park, across the street from the courthouse. Onlookers screamed as bright orange flames engulfed the man. It was unclear what motivated his action.
People rushed over to try to extinguish the fire, but the intensity of the heat could be felt several hundred feet away.
After a few mins, dozens of police officers rushed over & tried to smother the flames. The man, who appeared to be alive, was loaded into an ambulance & rushed away.
The man was in an area of the park that was cordoned off for supporters of #Trump.
The man threw multicolored pamphlets in the air before lighting himself on fire.
It took several mins for officers to rush to the scene. A detective who was early to arrive tried to smother the man — who had collapsed — w/his coat to extinguish the flames. Soon, officers swarmed the scene & used a fire extinguisher.
The man was still moving as officers knelt beside him & asked his name. He was loaded into an ambulance & taken away.
A high-ranking PoliceDept ofcl identified the man as #MaxAzzarello, 37, of St. Augustine, Florida. Mr. Azzarello had appeared outside the courthouse on Thurs w/a sign displaying the address of a website where the same pamphlets were uploaded. The top post of the website says, “I have set myself on fire outside the #TrumpTrial.”
The pamphlets he threw into the air & published online before the incident espoused AntiGovernment #ConspiracyTheories.
In an interview that day, he said his critical views of the American govt were shaped by his research into #PeterThiel, the techn billionaire & political provocateur who is a major #Trump campaign donor.
#MaxAzzarello said he had planned to protest at Washington Square Park near NYU but thought that w/the cold weather, more people would be outside the courthouse.
“Trump’s in on it,” #MaxAzzarello said on Thurs. “It’s a secret kleptocracy, & it can only lead to an apocalyptic fascist coup.”
People who witnessed the fire said they were in disbelief as they saw Azzarello, who was in an area of the park reserved for supporters of #Trump, toss the pamphlets into the air & then flames shoot toward the sky. Azzarello, who was wearing jeans & dark gray T-shirt, fell to the ground amid the fire.
Some of the pamphlets referred to NYU as a “mob front” & also mentioned fmr Pres George W. Bush, fmr VP Al Gore & the lawyer David Boies, who represented Gore in the 2000 recount. Another pamphlet contained anti-govt conspiracy theories, though did not point in a discernible political direction.
In a spasm of anger, 3 #FarRight#Republicans on the #RulesCommittee, which controls what #legislation comes to the #House floor, refused to back rule needed to bring up the #aid bill, putting it on track to die in cmte. But every Democrat on the panel stepped in to save it in extraordinary breach of custom.
The #FarRightlawmakers won their seats on the #RulesCommittee as part of a deal made by fmr speaker #KevinMcCarthy, who haggled w/ #ultraconservatives opposing his leadership & only agreed to back him after he gave them critical leverage. They refused to support the measure to bring up the #aid package bc it wouldn’t allow a vote on #extremism#border security they prioritize over #Ukraine.
"There is a growing sense of two competing political universes in America. President Biden and the Democrats are doing the hard work of governing the country while Trump and MAGA extremists are play-acting in the pretend world of performative politics.
Governing is hard. Stoking outrage with lies is easy."