Renel Brooks-Moon is the public address announcer for the San Francisco Giants. She was only the second woman to get that job in Major League Baseball when she took over for the first, Sherry Davis, in 2000. She’s also one of the few Black public address announcers in MLB.
There aren’t a lot of these jobs, and they’re extremely hard to get. So it was a big risk on Friday when Brooks-Moon called out the owner of the Giants, Charles Johnson, for his financial support of QAnon-sympathizing Congresswoman Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
It’s not just Boebert that Johnson funneled money to during the 2020 election cycle. The Giants owner funded many of the biggest insurrectionists in Congress, including Sen. Tommy Tuberville and Reps. Madison Cawthorn, Jim Jordan, and Nicole Malliotakis.
Called out on having directed money basically toward the overthrow of the American system, Johnson released a statement late Friday, in which he said, “It is often difficult to predict the future behavior of candidates and I would never have imagined that any legitimate candidate would participate in undermining the core values of our great country. Nor was I aware that any candidate to whom I contributed was associated with QAnon.”
Really? When Axios compiled a list of QAnon-friendly candidates in July, Boebert was mentioned ahead of Marjorie Taylor Greene. She was literally at the top of the list. And her radio ads during the primary talked about how she helped “stop Democrats from stealing our votes for President Trump.” (Note that the still image on her own YouTube page misspells the word “fought” as “FAUGHT.”)
Johnson’s $2,800 donation to Boebert’s campaign was made in September, when it was very clear who she was and what platform she was running on. And even if you’re a billionaire, maybe don’t just flip $2,800 to political candidates when you’re not sure what their stand is on a cultish conspiracy theory that’s become widespread throughout the political party you primarily support?
Nowhere in his statement does Johnson say that he’s stepping back from political donations, nor is he asking for any money back from those he funded who were involved in a coup attempt. All he says is, “My contributions are mine alone and are not associated in any way with the San Francisco Giants.”
Bullshit. When you’re the owner of the San Francisco Giants, everything you do is associated with the San Francisco Giants. And when the owner of the San Francisco Giants gives money to insurrectionists, San Francisco Giants employees are going to notice and ask questions.
Angel Cabrera, the 2009 Masters champion, was arrested in Brazil and is being held for extradition to Argentina after an Interpol red notice went out for the 51-year-old.
That makes it sound like he was involved in a really cool movie plot with spies and stuff. In reality, Cabrera was wanted by Argentine authorities for assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
Interpol red notices, it turns out, are fairly common. There are nearly 7,500 active ones right now, including one for Josephine Sunshine Overaker, who is wanted by the United States for a variety of crimes including conspiracy to commit arson, arson affecting interstate commerce, and destruction of an energy facility.
According to the FBI, Overaker has several aliases, including Lisa Rachelle Quintana and Josie, and she “may seek employment as a firefighter, a midwife, a sheep tender, or a masseuse.” The feds rudely note that she “may have a light facial moustache,” while saying that “many of the crimes she is accused of participating in were claimed to be committed by the Earth Liberation Front or the Animal Liberation Front.”
Overaker is the only remaining fugitive at large from Operation BACKFIRE, which investigated crimes that never killed anyone, but caused $45 million worth of damage in the name of the environment. This is a way better movie plot (or arc for Homer Simpson’s mom) than some washed-up golfer doing domestic violence. That one is just sad.
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