Republicans: continued

[Sean Hayden]

[Tero]

I spared you their faces

cruz trump.jpg (49.46 KiB) Viewed 1231 times

[Tero]

Senate Democrats
@SenateDems
· 6h Tweet:
Senator Mitch McConnell: “100 percent of my focus is on stopping this new administration.”
One hundred percent.

[L'Emmerdeur]

Louie Gohmert is going to have to work harder if he wants to continue to dominate the 'one oar in the water' sweepstakes. His prominent position is in danger of being usurped by a woman. Or two.

'Rep. Lauren Boebert Decides To Streisand Parody Site Making Fun Of Her, Threatens To Take Legal Action Against It'

Rep. Lauren Boebert is one of the new crew of elected Republicans who claims to be "pro-Constitution" and "pro-freedom" but when you get down into the details, it seems that the only part of the Constitution that matters to her is the 2nd Amendment. The website for her campaign proudly states that she's "Standing for Freedom" and is "Pro-Freedom, Pro-Guns, Pro-Constitution."

You do have to wonder if she skipped over the 1st Amendment in her rush to defend the 2nd, however. This morning, her press secretary Jake Settle (who came to her office after working on Mike Pence's communications team) sent quite a fascinating threat email to the operator of a Lauren Boebert parody site, TheLaurenBoebert.com.

The operator of that site, comedy writer Toby Morton, tweeted an image of the letter this morning:

To whom it may concern,


This website (https://www.thelaurenboebert.com/)
needs to be taken down since the photos on here
are copyrighted property of the U.S. Federal
Government. They are the property of the office
of Congressman Lauren Boebert, and your use
of them is unauthorized and illegal.

Additionally, the entire website is a defamatory
impersonation, and it goes against relevant
terms of service and the U.S. law. Please
remove immediately or face further action.

...

Before we even dig into the legal analysis of Settle's threat letter, let's just make one thing clear: whether or not there's a legal leg to stand on, Settle's threat is stupid. All this has served to do is to Streisand a parody site that likely wasn't receiving much if any traffic prior to this. Indeed, Morton has confirmed to me that the site hadn't received much traffic, but now tons of people are looking at it. At best, Boebert comes off looking like a thin-skinned insecure whiner who can't take a mild parody. At worst, she comes off as a censorial bully who has no respect for "freedom" if it's associated with the 1st Amendment.

As for the legal issues... Settle's email is a mess of confusing concepts, so it's not even remotely clear what any actual legal claim might look like (which is not to say there are none -- just that Settle's email most certainly does not lay out a clear theory of one). First up, the copyright claims are a mess.

This faux-legalese posturing has encouraged a Colorado 'vote Boebert out' organisation to auction off the logo for her gun-fetishist greasy spoon. She failed to renew the trademark and they yoinked it.

'Boebert opponents auctioning off Shooters Grill logo in response to demand to shut down parody site'

A group devoted to defeating U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert at the ballot box is auctioning off the logo used by Shooters Grill, the Silt Republican's gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, after a comedian said Boebert's congressional office demanded he take down a parody website filled with unflattering posts about the controversial lawmaker.

Rural Colorado United, a Pueblo-based independent expenditure group that has been campaigning against Boebert since last summer, said it acquired the distinctive, western-themed Shooters Grill logo after discovering earlier this year that Boebert had let the restaurant's state and federal trademarks lapse.

"There are a lot of people out there more clever than us, and we sure don't want to let this opportunity go to waste," the group tweeted Tuesday along with a link to the online auction.

The logo is being sold as an NFT — short for "nonfungible token," unique data stored in a digital ledger known as a blockchain — with bidding open until noon May 14. The trademarked image is currently owned by an individual who has pledged to donate the proceeds to Rural Colorado United, Bri Buentello, a former Democratic state lawmaker and spokeswoman for the group, told Colorado Politics.

"It’s pretty hilarious when the consequences of your own actions show up — and it’s pretty on-brand for Boebert that she can’t even be responsible enough to keep up with her restaurant paperwork," Buentello said in a text message.

"How can we possibly expect her to do the basic functions of her job, like read a bill, hold a town hall, or fight for our fair share in DC gridlock?"

[Brian Peacock]

I didn't realise one could do a streisand.

[Hermit]

Doing a Streisand

[Brian Peacock]

Ha! What a numpty!

[Tero]

Fuck this nonfungible thing, but trade marks I understand.

The logo is being sold as an NFT — short for "nonfungible token," unique data stored in a digital ledger known as a blockchain — with bidding open until noon May 14. The trademarked image is currently owned by an individual who has pledged to donate the proceeds to Rural Colorado United, Bri Buentello, a former Democratic state lawmaker and spokeswoman for the group, told Colorado Politics.

Shooters Grill logo
The logo of Shooters Grill, a gun-themed restaurant in Rifle, Colo., owned by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Silt, and her husband, Jayson. Rural Colorado United, an independent expenditure organization devoted to unseating Boebert, said it acquired the logo after the restaurant let its trademark lapse and is selling it in an online auction.

(courtesy Rural Colorado United)
"It’s pretty hilarious when the consequences of your own actions show up — and it’s pretty on-brand for Boebert that she can’t even be responsible enough to keep up with her restaurant paperwork," Buentello said in a text message.

[Tero]

On this Trump Cruz photo, AOC tweets:
Nothing like reminiscing about attempted coups over a bouquet of flowers

[Tero]

[Tero]

"What's wrong with a white rich guy having a cult?" He could use that cult himself. Maybe some of it will rub off Trump.

[Tero]

[Brian Peacock]

If Biden's stimulus package works out well Republicans will line up to claim that Trump and they made it possible by.... voting against it?!?

[Tero]

Texas passed a law protecting "the purity of the ballotbox." This very wording kept blacks from voting 1875-1940s.

[JimC]

It's only a matter of time before some of your states make "voting while black" a crime...