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https://twitter.com/slpng_giants/status/1311766777378951168

With hundreds of mourners planning to gather in Pearland, Texas, on June 9 for the burial of George Floyd, local and federal authorities braced for “rioting and looting” in the Houston suburb — and they were willing to use deadly force.

As a horse-drawn carriage took Floyd’s body to its final resting place in Pearland’s Houston Memorial Gardens cemetery, planning records show that at least six “sniper teams” were in place on rooftops and authorized to open fire if the situation spiraled out of control. The records, labeled highly confidential, also state that an FBI surveillance aircraft was flown over the burial, and that “overwatch units” were sent to monitor the crowd for violent “agitators.”

Pearland officials also welcomed a large contingent of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents to the city, including dozens of members of the immigration agency’s militarized tactical unit. Known as BORTAC, it’s equipped with military-grade firepower and commando-style uniforms, and deploys to conflict zones “around the world,” according to the agency.

With the burial occurring in the wake of nationwide protests that in some instances turned violent, city records show that law enforcement prepared for the worst-case scenario in Pearland. The records show local and federal officials were ready and willing to open fire, even as the nation was undergoing a reckoning over systemic racism and excessive use of force by police in the aftermath of Floyd’s death.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dz7zd/border-patrol-snipers-were-authorized-to-use-deadly-force-at-george-floyds-burial

Why would I allow the Debate Commission to change the rules for the second and third Debates when I easily won last time?

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1311731462589292544

BREAKING: Gov. Abbott issues proclamation CLOSING (as of Oct. 2) satellite offices where voters can drop off completed mail-in ballots.
Counties can only have 1 dropoff point, he says.
Travis has 4, including 3 downtown.
Harris has 12.

Abbott says move, which also requires early voting clerks to let poll watchers observe ballot delivery, is an election security measure.
Clerks said the multiple dropoff spots were to help voters, particularly amid questions about Postal Service efficiency.

If Tommy Mottola, the powerful American music executive whose net worth is estimated at some $450 million, thought that by preemptively being diplomatic about his ex-wife Mariah Carey, in advance of the publication of her memoir, he could neutralize its impact, he is in a for a rude awakening.

For Mottola emerges as the No. 1 bad guy in Carey’s bombshell just-published autobiography, in which she devotes hundreds of pages to recounting, in granular detail, how Mottola, 21 years her senior, held her “captive” and exerted mind-boggling control over every aspect of her life.

Mottola, who has previously admitted to having been a controlling husband, appeared to be attempting to get out ahead of the story when he told Page Six, ahead of the launch of The Meaning of Mariah Carey: “I am deeply gratified to have played that role in Mariah’s well-deserved and remarkable success, and continue to wish her and her family only the very best.”

Those careful well wishes, however, are likely to be swept aside by the devastating picture Carey paints in her new book of the multiple torments Mottola, the then-boss of Sony whom she met when she was 18 and he was 39, allegedly inflicted on her.

...

Carey writes that, “Every move I made, everywhere I went, I was monitored—minute by minute, day after day, year after year… I was living my dream but couldn’t leave my house. Lonely and trapped, I was held captive in that relationship. Captivity and control come in many forms, but the goal is always the same—to break down the captive’s will, to kill any notion of self-worth and erase the person’s memory of their own soul.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/mariah-careys-shocking-new-allegations-of-coercive-control-and-racism-against-ex-husband-tommy-mottola