TO COMMENT CLICK HERE
welcome to amerikkkans
home of the deplorables, despicables, & disgusting americans
a shithole's FINEST trash
feb 22, 2020
It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.
James A. Baldwin
David Cross: “At least 25% of America has always been ignorant, racist, xenophobic and backwards, people prone to demagoguery. That’s not a surprise,” he says. “The surprise is that there’s this loud, brash, arrogant narcissist giving these people a voice and making them feel proud.”
--------------------------------------------------------
Mark Twain: “How much longer are we going to think it necessary to be ‘American’ before (or in contradistinction to) being cultivated, being enlightened, being humane, & having the same intellectual discipline as other civilized countries? It is really too easy a disguise for our shortcomings to dress them up as a form of patriotism!”
-------------------------------
Soph0571@Du: Could you get any less American than that?
We all know when Trump rants incoherently to America he is talking to certain sections of white America. This cohort of the electorate are so fervent in their adoration because this racist wanker has reaffirmed some very sad and rather ridiculous idea that somehow, they are more American than everyone else. It is all a bit stupid really, I mean has anyone ever suggested that they are not American. Of course not. Their problem is that they cannot accept that in the same way they are American so are the Muslims they despise, the women they denigrate, the LGBTQ community they scorn, the Hispanics they work to keep down, the African Americans they shoot. In fact, I would suggest that those who still support Trump at this stage are less American than everyone else. They have demonstrated that they despise the constitution and would happily forsake their democratic freedoms for a great big orange faced wannabee tyrant. Could you get any less American than that?
----
President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was a son of the South, said: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
---
white trash's america
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
...white Americans have lived in a country where the celerity with which they mask their racism matters as much as the color of their skin. One might look forward, unhappily, to white conservatives disassociating themselves from this massacre by claiming, in effect, that they're not "white trash"—meaning, in effect, that they've profited enough from their racism that they can afford to dress it up better; or look forward to white liberals disassociating themselves by claiming, in effect, that they're not "white conservative" hypocrites—meaning, in effect, that they've profited enough from their racism that they can afford to dress it up better still; or to white leftists disassociating themselves by claiming, in effect, that they're not "white liberal" hypocrites.
Why Are White Racists Always Called “White Trash"?
By Frank Guan
------------------------------------------------------
Headlines: ignorance, racism, and stupidity america's trinity
of the bottom 70%
the people who make-up the shithole
(sources: raw story, politicus usa, daily kos)
*Trump Supporter Yells 'Lock Him Up' At Mention of 'Barack Hussein Obama'
At the Keep America Great rally in Phoenix, Arizona, President Trump also touted the economy, jobs, and new trade deals.
*George Zimmerman ripped to shreds for latest lawsuits: ‘Only job he’s qualified for is GOP Congressman’
*Man arrested for threatening to kill Schiff, Schumer over impeachment
He's charged with threatening to assault and murder federal officials. A Western New York man was arrested Wednesday on charges that he threatened to kill Rep. Adam Schiff and Sen. Chuck Schum ... (ABC News)
*Tennessee lawmaker files resolution to ‘congratulate’ Trump on impeachment acquittal
*Aubrey Huff — who called to make Iranian women slaves — blames Trump support after Giants’ celebration snub
*‘Communist’ FOX network angers Trump fans at Daytona 500 by cutting to commercial as he begins speech
*Medal of Freedom honoree Rush Limbaugh hurls homophobic, sexist and racist attacks at Trump's rivals
*TRUMP-LOVING CONSPIRACY NUT FACES YEARS IN PRISON AFTER PLEADING GUILTY TO TERRORISM CHARGE
*‘ULTIMATE GRIFTER’ SEAN SPICER DOUSED IN MOCKERY FOR SELLING VALENTINE’S DAY MESSAGES FOR $199
*Georgia man dies in a ditch after hit-and-run driver calls state rep friend instead of calling 911
*Ohio woman arrested for racist tirade and assault on Muslim Uber driver after she asks him about Trump
*Fox News pastor defends Trump for ignoring Jesus’ teachings and attacking Pelosi at National Prayer Breakfast
*WATCH: Racist college student’s classmates toss him out of lecture room – then cops show up and arrest him
A Racist Judge, An Alleged Affair and N-Word Laced Text Messages Put 8 Years of Cases Under Review
zack linly - the root
2/22/2020
Ideally, you really don’t want racists working in any position where they have to interact with the general public regularly.
You don’t want them in education because black children just aren’t safe around racist teachers. It’s no good having them in finance or making decisions on who can and can’t buy a home because black people will certainly get the shaft there. It’s not even safe to have them serving your food because of what they may do to it if you give them even the slightest bit of your black ass attitude.
But if you were to ask black people at random in what profession racists do the most damage in society and especially in the black community, most of them will likely tell you that it’s in law enforcement.
According to ABC affiliate WBRZ2, Assumption Parish, Louisiana’s 23rd Judicial District Judge Jessie Leblanc stands accused of sending a series of racist text messages to a former deputy chief — who she’d been previously accused of having an affair with — regarding one of his African-American deputies and an African-American law clerk.
Sheriff Leland Falcon sat down with WBRZ and told them that former Chief Deputy Bruce Prejean received messages from Leblanc in December of 2018 that refer to Assumption Deputy Erick Taylor as a dirty thug cop and a nigger. They also refer to Judge Alvin Turner’s law clerk, Brianne Sterling as a nigger.
Here is a transcript of a text conversation between Leblanc and Prejean provided by WBRZ:
LEBLANC’S PHONE: Goodbye
LEBLANC’S PHONE: And you don’t have to pretend we are friends in front of other people. I’ve also learned not to be fake.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: So if someone has a question refer them to me.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: And if you feel the need to share my text messages-please share them all so they get the FULL story.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: I’m sure you are with thug nigger Erick. He is such a good friend.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: I can’t wait till the day he is called out for what he is. Dirty cop. Thug. Nigger.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: I guess this time ends with sour grapes too and an inability to talk. It’s ok. I’ll be just fine.
PREJEAN: I see how you feel. I’m still your friend.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: Friends don’t call friends liars.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: I suppose we have different definitions of what a friend is.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: If Brianne makes you happy- good for you. I just feel sorry for your kids and grandkids.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: What an embarrassment
PREJEAN: I’m not seeing Brianne
LEBLANC’S PHONE: At least I was NEVER unfaithful to you with ANYONE- much less a niigger.
Leblanc’s attorney Jill Craft denied that the judge sent the messages and claims the copies provided to WBRZ have been altered, but Prejean signed a sworn affidavit saying the messages are, in fact, real and undoctored.
Sheriff Falcon said Prejean turned the messages over to him this week.
“We have again had a dialogue with Captain Prejean and he has informed us that the two copies of text messages in question were received on Captain Prejean’s private cell phone and came from cell phone number 225-***-****, that phone being that of Judge Jessie Leblanc,” Falcon said. “There is other supporting evidence to confirm Captain Prejean’s statement of authenticity of the messages as received by him.”
Now for the good part:
According to District Attorney Ricky Babin, now that these texts have come to light, every case Leblanc has presided over in her eight years as an Assumption Parish judge will be under new scrutiny and letters will be sent to every defendant who has ever appeared in her courtroom as well as their attorneys regarding her racist language.
“It’s a daunting task,” Babin said. “We are still going through all the other cases in Assumption Parish.”
To give you an idea of just how bad this looks for Leblanc, the embattled judge already has had some 600 of her cases under review since last month when Prejean admitted to having an affair with her which came to light in December after Leblanc refused to sign a warrant citing the personal relationship she had with the former deputy chief (who has since been demoted).
Leblanc denies ever being involved with Prejean (apparently her favorite n-word next to “nigger” is “nah”) and instead insists that her affair was actually with an undercover agent who was also named in the warrant. (Because that’s somehow better.) According to WBRZ Prejean admitted to the affair after a long investigation ensued and Leblanc fled to Florida after the affair was revealed, leaving Supreme Court-appointed temporary judges to fill in for her. She returned to the bench this month.
Because Leblanc presided over many cases Prejean was involved in during the alleged affair, the district attorney sent notices to hundreds of defendants and attorneys to alert them of the possible conflict. These new letters sent after the text messages were revealed are in addition to those.
So it’s been a bad last few months for Judge Leblanc, but good times for anyone who loves to see racists in positions of authority being held accountable. It would be even better if she is removed from the bench.
You don’t want them in education because black children just aren’t safe around racist teachers. It’s no good having them in finance or making decisions on who can and can’t buy a home because black people will certainly get the shaft there. It’s not even safe to have them serving your food because of what they may do to it if you give them even the slightest bit of your black ass attitude.
But if you were to ask black people at random in what profession racists do the most damage in society and especially in the black community, most of them will likely tell you that it’s in law enforcement.
According to ABC affiliate WBRZ2, Assumption Parish, Louisiana’s 23rd Judicial District Judge Jessie Leblanc stands accused of sending a series of racist text messages to a former deputy chief — who she’d been previously accused of having an affair with — regarding one of his African-American deputies and an African-American law clerk.
Sheriff Leland Falcon sat down with WBRZ and told them that former Chief Deputy Bruce Prejean received messages from Leblanc in December of 2018 that refer to Assumption Deputy Erick Taylor as a dirty thug cop and a nigger. They also refer to Judge Alvin Turner’s law clerk, Brianne Sterling as a nigger.
Here is a transcript of a text conversation between Leblanc and Prejean provided by WBRZ:
LEBLANC’S PHONE: Goodbye
LEBLANC’S PHONE: And you don’t have to pretend we are friends in front of other people. I’ve also learned not to be fake.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: So if someone has a question refer them to me.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: And if you feel the need to share my text messages-please share them all so they get the FULL story.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: I’m sure you are with thug nigger Erick. He is such a good friend.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: I can’t wait till the day he is called out for what he is. Dirty cop. Thug. Nigger.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: I guess this time ends with sour grapes too and an inability to talk. It’s ok. I’ll be just fine.
PREJEAN: I see how you feel. I’m still your friend.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: Friends don’t call friends liars.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: I suppose we have different definitions of what a friend is.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: If Brianne makes you happy- good for you. I just feel sorry for your kids and grandkids.
LEBLANC’S PHONE: What an embarrassment
PREJEAN: I’m not seeing Brianne
LEBLANC’S PHONE: At least I was NEVER unfaithful to you with ANYONE- much less a niigger.
Leblanc’s attorney Jill Craft denied that the judge sent the messages and claims the copies provided to WBRZ have been altered, but Prejean signed a sworn affidavit saying the messages are, in fact, real and undoctored.
Sheriff Falcon said Prejean turned the messages over to him this week.
“We have again had a dialogue with Captain Prejean and he has informed us that the two copies of text messages in question were received on Captain Prejean’s private cell phone and came from cell phone number 225-***-****, that phone being that of Judge Jessie Leblanc,” Falcon said. “There is other supporting evidence to confirm Captain Prejean’s statement of authenticity of the messages as received by him.”
Now for the good part:
According to District Attorney Ricky Babin, now that these texts have come to light, every case Leblanc has presided over in her eight years as an Assumption Parish judge will be under new scrutiny and letters will be sent to every defendant who has ever appeared in her courtroom as well as their attorneys regarding her racist language.
“It’s a daunting task,” Babin said. “We are still going through all the other cases in Assumption Parish.”
To give you an idea of just how bad this looks for Leblanc, the embattled judge already has had some 600 of her cases under review since last month when Prejean admitted to having an affair with her which came to light in December after Leblanc refused to sign a warrant citing the personal relationship she had with the former deputy chief (who has since been demoted).
Leblanc denies ever being involved with Prejean (apparently her favorite n-word next to “nigger” is “nah”) and instead insists that her affair was actually with an undercover agent who was also named in the warrant. (Because that’s somehow better.) According to WBRZ Prejean admitted to the affair after a long investigation ensued and Leblanc fled to Florida after the affair was revealed, leaving Supreme Court-appointed temporary judges to fill in for her. She returned to the bench this month.
Because Leblanc presided over many cases Prejean was involved in during the alleged affair, the district attorney sent notices to hundreds of defendants and attorneys to alert them of the possible conflict. These new letters sent after the text messages were revealed are in addition to those.
So it’s been a bad last few months for Judge Leblanc, but good times for anyone who loves to see racists in positions of authority being held accountable. It would be even better if she is removed from the bench.
Lewd tweets, the N-word and just plain weirdness: A wild-card candidate rattles Texas education board races
February 21, 2020
By Texas Tribune - raw story
With his history of sexist, racist rhetoric and incomprehensible, conspiracy-laden rants, Robert Morrow has become one of the most unifying political figures in Texas.
Almost no one — Democrat or Republican, wealthy or poor, old or young — wants to see him elected to the State Board of Education, the 15-member body that decides what millions of public school children learn. Yet according to political pollsters, Morrow’s chances in this March’s Republican primary can’t be ruled out.
“The probability is probably pretty low that he comes out of this, but it’s not zero,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
Morrow is known for wearing a jester’s hat, and his top campaign issue is “to impeach, convict and remove Donald Trump and throw his sorry ass in prison.” He faces two other Republicans in the District 5 primary. The district picks up communities along the Interstate 35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin and stretches out into the Hill Country. Incumbent Ken Mercer, a Republican who held the seat for 14 years, decided not to run for reelection.
Seven other seats on the 15-member board are also in play this year, including those held by three other Republicans who decided not to run again. Four incumbents are fighting to keep their seats, including three Republicans and one Democrat.
The primaries offer little drama. Four districts — 1, 8, 9 and 15 — have no contested primaries. District 5, where Morrow is running, has drawn the largest field of candidates, with two Democrats and three Republicans vying for their party’s nominations. Districts 6 and 10 have multiple Democrats running to take on unchallenged Republicans, and in District 14, two Republicans and one Democrat are running.
Democrats make up a third of the board and could ultimately pick up at least two more seats, including Mercer’s, in November, slightly shifting the power dynamic. Donna Bahorich, a Houston Republican and former board chair, is also stepping down from District 6, which stretches from west Houston to the northwestern edge of Harris County.
Even with two more Democrats, the board’s political dynamic is likely to remain predictably conservative, according to David Anderson, an education lobbyist. “It probably doesn’t change the board that much because the board’s strength right now is you have a strong middle … and the agenda they’re driving is not radical by any means,” he said.
The same could not be said several years ago, when board meetings easily drew comparisons to circus acts, garnering national attention for dramatic debates about racist ethnic studies textbook proposals, abstinence-focused sex education standards and creationist biology standards.
Although ideological differences among the board members remain, the public displays of dysfunction have largely dissipated. Onlookers and board members from both parties attribute that to stronger leadership and the election of more people knowledgeable about public education.
“Short of an extremist being elected, we’re an incredibly strong board,” said board member Georgina Pérez, an El Paso Democrat who is likely to keep her seat in November.
It’s possible that extremist could be Morrow. In 2016, he unexpectedly won the race for chairperson of the Travis County Republican party, with more than 56% of the vote, likely because voters simply did not know anything about him. He was forced to give up the position when he filed to run for president as a write-in candidate that year.
The District 5 seat is widely considered one of those most likely to flip to Democratic in November for the first time since it was redrawn in 2011, as suburban communities lining I-35 begin to trend blue. Whoever wins the Republican primary could easily end up losing later this year.
Despite opposition from his own party, the indefatigable Morrow is pressing on with his campaign.
Asked how Trump’s impeachment was related to the State Board of Education, Morrow responded that he could “make any issue my No. 1 issue if I want to. .. I don’t have to play by the rules of other people in the Republican Party.” In the summer of 2016, his “Trump is a Child Rapist” sign got him kicked out of a rally for then-candidate Trump. Morrow’s Twitter feed is full of videos of scantily clad women, conspiracy theories and rants against Trump.
The Travis County GOP put out a statement last month opposing Morrow’s candidacy because of his “history of misogynist and vulgar language,” as well as his “outrageous and slanderous allegations” against “Trump, members of the Bush family, and Governor Rick Perry.”
Mercer, the District 5 incumbent, has endorsed Lani Popp, a speech language pathologist in Northside Independent School District who has been an educator for almost three decades. Mercer’s record is conservative and has included arguments for teaching American exceptionalism in history courses and abstinence as the main form of contraception in health lessons. Popp has been spending her time and money canvassing the enormous district, promising to ensure more historically and scientifically accurate textbooks and to support teachers and parents of students with special needs.
Mercer is vehemently opposed to seeing Morrow take his seat. “I’m not sure we orbit the same planet,” he said, calling Morrow’s rhetoric “anti-woman” and “pretty bizarre.” He worries Morrow’s name will be a draw for Republican voters who don’t know his reputation.
In 2016, Mercer narrowly beat his Democratic opponent, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a Texas State University English and film professor; she is facing former North East ISD school board President Letti Bresnahan in the Democratic primary this March.
Inga Cotton, a parent activist and founder of San Antonio Charter Moms, faces Morrow and Popp in the Republican primary. She wants to help high-quality charter schools expand in Texas and to improve the curriculum to ensure all public education students, including those with disabilities, have the resources they need. “Hopefully at least Lani or me will make it to a runoff,” Cotton said. “I mean, I hope I just win.”
Morrow does have some education-related positions: He is against privately managed charter schools, opposes state vouchers for private education and wants to cut public education spending. He also has at least one strong opinion on what to include in state-approved textbooks: “I will tell everyone that Lyndon Johnson murdered John Kennedy, and it should be in all our textbooks.”
Even he knows he’s unlikely to win in November, convinced that the seat is almost certainly going to be won by a Democrat. “Anybody worried about me being in the SBOE, well it’s less than 1 out of 1,000,” he said.
And that’s a true relief for many closely watching the primary unfold. Former Republican board member Thomas Ratliff was not alone in his simple summation of the race: “Anybody but Robert Morrow will be fine.”
Almost no one — Democrat or Republican, wealthy or poor, old or young — wants to see him elected to the State Board of Education, the 15-member body that decides what millions of public school children learn. Yet according to political pollsters, Morrow’s chances in this March’s Republican primary can’t be ruled out.
“The probability is probably pretty low that he comes out of this, but it’s not zero,” said Jim Henson, director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
Morrow is known for wearing a jester’s hat, and his top campaign issue is “to impeach, convict and remove Donald Trump and throw his sorry ass in prison.” He faces two other Republicans in the District 5 primary. The district picks up communities along the Interstate 35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin and stretches out into the Hill Country. Incumbent Ken Mercer, a Republican who held the seat for 14 years, decided not to run for reelection.
Seven other seats on the 15-member board are also in play this year, including those held by three other Republicans who decided not to run again. Four incumbents are fighting to keep their seats, including three Republicans and one Democrat.
The primaries offer little drama. Four districts — 1, 8, 9 and 15 — have no contested primaries. District 5, where Morrow is running, has drawn the largest field of candidates, with two Democrats and three Republicans vying for their party’s nominations. Districts 6 and 10 have multiple Democrats running to take on unchallenged Republicans, and in District 14, two Republicans and one Democrat are running.
Democrats make up a third of the board and could ultimately pick up at least two more seats, including Mercer’s, in November, slightly shifting the power dynamic. Donna Bahorich, a Houston Republican and former board chair, is also stepping down from District 6, which stretches from west Houston to the northwestern edge of Harris County.
Even with two more Democrats, the board’s political dynamic is likely to remain predictably conservative, according to David Anderson, an education lobbyist. “It probably doesn’t change the board that much because the board’s strength right now is you have a strong middle … and the agenda they’re driving is not radical by any means,” he said.
The same could not be said several years ago, when board meetings easily drew comparisons to circus acts, garnering national attention for dramatic debates about racist ethnic studies textbook proposals, abstinence-focused sex education standards and creationist biology standards.
Although ideological differences among the board members remain, the public displays of dysfunction have largely dissipated. Onlookers and board members from both parties attribute that to stronger leadership and the election of more people knowledgeable about public education.
“Short of an extremist being elected, we’re an incredibly strong board,” said board member Georgina Pérez, an El Paso Democrat who is likely to keep her seat in November.
It’s possible that extremist could be Morrow. In 2016, he unexpectedly won the race for chairperson of the Travis County Republican party, with more than 56% of the vote, likely because voters simply did not know anything about him. He was forced to give up the position when he filed to run for president as a write-in candidate that year.
The District 5 seat is widely considered one of those most likely to flip to Democratic in November for the first time since it was redrawn in 2011, as suburban communities lining I-35 begin to trend blue. Whoever wins the Republican primary could easily end up losing later this year.
Despite opposition from his own party, the indefatigable Morrow is pressing on with his campaign.
Asked how Trump’s impeachment was related to the State Board of Education, Morrow responded that he could “make any issue my No. 1 issue if I want to. .. I don’t have to play by the rules of other people in the Republican Party.” In the summer of 2016, his “Trump is a Child Rapist” sign got him kicked out of a rally for then-candidate Trump. Morrow’s Twitter feed is full of videos of scantily clad women, conspiracy theories and rants against Trump.
The Travis County GOP put out a statement last month opposing Morrow’s candidacy because of his “history of misogynist and vulgar language,” as well as his “outrageous and slanderous allegations” against “Trump, members of the Bush family, and Governor Rick Perry.”
Mercer, the District 5 incumbent, has endorsed Lani Popp, a speech language pathologist in Northside Independent School District who has been an educator for almost three decades. Mercer’s record is conservative and has included arguments for teaching American exceptionalism in history courses and abstinence as the main form of contraception in health lessons. Popp has been spending her time and money canvassing the enormous district, promising to ensure more historically and scientifically accurate textbooks and to support teachers and parents of students with special needs.
Mercer is vehemently opposed to seeing Morrow take his seat. “I’m not sure we orbit the same planet,” he said, calling Morrow’s rhetoric “anti-woman” and “pretty bizarre.” He worries Morrow’s name will be a draw for Republican voters who don’t know his reputation.
In 2016, Mercer narrowly beat his Democratic opponent, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, a Texas State University English and film professor; she is facing former North East ISD school board President Letti Bresnahan in the Democratic primary this March.
Inga Cotton, a parent activist and founder of San Antonio Charter Moms, faces Morrow and Popp in the Republican primary. She wants to help high-quality charter schools expand in Texas and to improve the curriculum to ensure all public education students, including those with disabilities, have the resources they need. “Hopefully at least Lani or me will make it to a runoff,” Cotton said. “I mean, I hope I just win.”
Morrow does have some education-related positions: He is against privately managed charter schools, opposes state vouchers for private education and wants to cut public education spending. He also has at least one strong opinion on what to include in state-approved textbooks: “I will tell everyone that Lyndon Johnson murdered John Kennedy, and it should be in all our textbooks.”
Even he knows he’s unlikely to win in November, convinced that the seat is almost certainly going to be won by a Democrat. “Anybody worried about me being in the SBOE, well it’s less than 1 out of 1,000,” he said.
And that’s a true relief for many closely watching the primary unfold. Former Republican board member Thomas Ratliff was not alone in his simple summation of the race: “Anybody but Robert Morrow will be fine.”
WHITE CEO FIRED AFTER RACIAL VERBAL ATTACK ON BLACK UBER DRIVER CAUGHT ON TAPE
by Justin Barton - black enterprise
February 7, 2020
The white former CEO of organic fertilizer company Agroplasma USA, based in Tempe, Arizona, has been fired after being caught on camera racially abusing a black Uber driver.
The altercation started when Uber driver Randy Clarke told the former CEO, Hans Berglund, that he had a policy of passengers not sitting in the front seat of his car unless there are three passengers or more. That’s when Berglund, originally from Sweden, insisted he sit in the front. According to ABC15.com, Berglund then said, “Are you fucking serious with me? Is it because I’m White? And you’re a fucking Nigger? You are a fucking idiot.”
Clarke, 25, said “I was in a state of shock, I almost wanted to laugh. Some people need to be educated about people who don’t look like them. But in this case, the fact that he blatantly said the N-word, I just couldn’t let that go,” Clarke told 12 News.
The video showed Clarke asking Berglund to sit in the back seat and if he did not agree to it, Clarke would initiate a refund. They both agreed to cancel the ride and when Clarke asked Berglund to leave his car, that’s when Berglund used the N-word.
Agroplasma released a statement to ABC15, saying the company was firing Berglund as CEO.
“In light of the events of this past Friday, Agroplasma CEO Hans Berglund has been relieved of his duties while the company performs a full internal investigation. The incident is not at all reflective of Agroplasma’s values and ethics. Our relationships with our employees, customers and the community are the cornerstones of our success, and we are doing everything in our power to rebuild their trust and repair the harm that has resulted from this incident,” the statement read, adding that Jeffrey Ziehmer was being appointed as interim CEO.
After the incident, Berglund told ABC15, “I deeply regret and apologize for the hurtful and derogatory language I used during the altercation with Mr. Clarke. I firmly believe that there is no excuse for the use of racial slurs under any circumstance, so I will not offer any. It is my sincere hope that Mr. Clarke hears and accepts my apology and believes me when I say it is honest and heartfelt.”
Uber responded to ABC15 by saying, “Discrimination has no place on the Uber app or anywhere. What’s been described is a clear violation of our Community Guidelines and we launched an investigation as soon as we learned of it.”
The altercation started when Uber driver Randy Clarke told the former CEO, Hans Berglund, that he had a policy of passengers not sitting in the front seat of his car unless there are three passengers or more. That’s when Berglund, originally from Sweden, insisted he sit in the front. According to ABC15.com, Berglund then said, “Are you fucking serious with me? Is it because I’m White? And you’re a fucking Nigger? You are a fucking idiot.”
Clarke, 25, said “I was in a state of shock, I almost wanted to laugh. Some people need to be educated about people who don’t look like them. But in this case, the fact that he blatantly said the N-word, I just couldn’t let that go,” Clarke told 12 News.
The video showed Clarke asking Berglund to sit in the back seat and if he did not agree to it, Clarke would initiate a refund. They both agreed to cancel the ride and when Clarke asked Berglund to leave his car, that’s when Berglund used the N-word.
Agroplasma released a statement to ABC15, saying the company was firing Berglund as CEO.
“In light of the events of this past Friday, Agroplasma CEO Hans Berglund has been relieved of his duties while the company performs a full internal investigation. The incident is not at all reflective of Agroplasma’s values and ethics. Our relationships with our employees, customers and the community are the cornerstones of our success, and we are doing everything in our power to rebuild their trust and repair the harm that has resulted from this incident,” the statement read, adding that Jeffrey Ziehmer was being appointed as interim CEO.
After the incident, Berglund told ABC15, “I deeply regret and apologize for the hurtful and derogatory language I used during the altercation with Mr. Clarke. I firmly believe that there is no excuse for the use of racial slurs under any circumstance, so I will not offer any. It is my sincere hope that Mr. Clarke hears and accepts my apology and believes me when I say it is honest and heartfelt.”
Uber responded to ABC15 by saying, “Discrimination has no place on the Uber app or anywhere. What’s been described is a clear violation of our Community Guidelines and we launched an investigation as soon as we learned of it.”
stupid people come in all colors!!!
South Dakota lawmaker pushing bills to ban same-sex marriage and make getting
divorced more difficult
February 3, 2020
By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement - raw story
One South Dakota Republican state legislator is pushing several bills he has authored that would attack the entire LGBTQ community, and make it harder for anyone, regardless of who they married, to get divorced.
South Dakota state Rep. Tony Randolph‘s HB 1215 would make it illegal for two people of the same gender to marry. It would also ban benefits from being given to existing married same-sex couples, ban protections for LGBTQ people, ban any recognition of transgender people, ban conversion therapy, and even ban “drag queen storytime.”
One line in Rep. Randolph’s bill exposes what he thinks of LGBTQ people, looping them in with “zoophilia.”
The bill says: “The state may not enforce, endorse, or favor policies that” “Condone or affirm homosexual, transgender, zoophilia, objectophilia, polygamy, or sexual orientation doctrines.”
The policy director for the ACLU of South Dakota calls it “the legislative version of ‘saying the quiet part out loud.'”:
Libby Skarin
@LibbySkarin
Replying to @LibbySkarin
HB 1215 is the legislative version of “saying the quiet part out loud.” It lays bear what’s really happening in South Dakota. We are seeing an all out assault on the LGBTQ and two spirit communities.
Transgender advocate and triathlete Chris Mosier weighs in:
The Chris Mosier✔
@TheChrisMosier
The #SDleg is out of control - lawmakers there have a clear agenda to attack, suppress, and remove LGBTQ+ people from South Dakota. HB1215 is the latest.
2:05 PM - Jan 30, 2020
Rep. Randolph is not satisfied attacking just LGBTQ people. He’s also trying to make it harder for anyone in South Dakota to divorce.
HB 1158 would eliminate “irreconcilable differences” as a legal reason for filing for divorce. It would also swap “Conviction of felony” with a new reason: “Criminal conviction that resulted in incarceration.”
Last week a bill supported but not authored by Rep. Randolph easily passed through the South Dakota House.
HB 1057 would make it illegal for physicians to perform gender confirmation surgery on transgender youth or teens, and even make it illegal to prescribe hormones to them.
It would also legally define “sex” as “the biological state of being female or male, based on sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous hormone profiles.”
Randolph is also the author of legislation that would make sex education “opt-in,” requiring parental approval before students are allowed to attend. HB 1162 would also direct that South Dakota sex education classes “Stress the importance and benefits of abstinence from all sexual activity before marriage,” “Stress the importance of fidelity after marriage for preventing certain communicable diseases and strengthen the bond between spouses,” and “Communicate that sexual abstinence is the only effective method of eliminating the risk of unplanned or out-of-wedlock pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases.”
That bill would also make sex education classes extremely ineffective:
“Sexual abstinence programs may not include models of instruction, based on risk reduction, encouraging or promote or provide instruction on the use of contraceptives products or methods. Materials and instruction may not be excessively graphic or explicit and may not include explicit descriptions of sexual activity that encourage erotic, lewd, or obscene behavior.”
South Dakota state Rep. Tony Randolph‘s HB 1215 would make it illegal for two people of the same gender to marry. It would also ban benefits from being given to existing married same-sex couples, ban protections for LGBTQ people, ban any recognition of transgender people, ban conversion therapy, and even ban “drag queen storytime.”
One line in Rep. Randolph’s bill exposes what he thinks of LGBTQ people, looping them in with “zoophilia.”
The bill says: “The state may not enforce, endorse, or favor policies that” “Condone or affirm homosexual, transgender, zoophilia, objectophilia, polygamy, or sexual orientation doctrines.”
The policy director for the ACLU of South Dakota calls it “the legislative version of ‘saying the quiet part out loud.'”:
Libby Skarin
@LibbySkarin
Replying to @LibbySkarin
HB 1215 is the legislative version of “saying the quiet part out loud.” It lays bear what’s really happening in South Dakota. We are seeing an all out assault on the LGBTQ and two spirit communities.
Transgender advocate and triathlete Chris Mosier weighs in:
The Chris Mosier✔
@TheChrisMosier
The #SDleg is out of control - lawmakers there have a clear agenda to attack, suppress, and remove LGBTQ+ people from South Dakota. HB1215 is the latest.
2:05 PM - Jan 30, 2020
Rep. Randolph is not satisfied attacking just LGBTQ people. He’s also trying to make it harder for anyone in South Dakota to divorce.
HB 1158 would eliminate “irreconcilable differences” as a legal reason for filing for divorce. It would also swap “Conviction of felony” with a new reason: “Criminal conviction that resulted in incarceration.”
Last week a bill supported but not authored by Rep. Randolph easily passed through the South Dakota House.
HB 1057 would make it illegal for physicians to perform gender confirmation surgery on transgender youth or teens, and even make it illegal to prescribe hormones to them.
It would also legally define “sex” as “the biological state of being female or male, based on sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous hormone profiles.”
Randolph is also the author of legislation that would make sex education “opt-in,” requiring parental approval before students are allowed to attend. HB 1162 would also direct that South Dakota sex education classes “Stress the importance and benefits of abstinence from all sexual activity before marriage,” “Stress the importance of fidelity after marriage for preventing certain communicable diseases and strengthen the bond between spouses,” and “Communicate that sexual abstinence is the only effective method of eliminating the risk of unplanned or out-of-wedlock pregnancy and sexually-transmitted diseases.”
That bill would also make sex education classes extremely ineffective:
“Sexual abstinence programs may not include models of instruction, based on risk reduction, encouraging or promote or provide instruction on the use of contraceptives products or methods. Materials and instruction may not be excessively graphic or explicit and may not include explicit descriptions of sexual activity that encourage erotic, lewd, or obscene behavior.”
the white trash march!!!
‘Can you imagine a group of black men walking around with masks and guns?’ Virginia rally sparks questions of racism and privilege
January 20, 2020
By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement - raw story
Caroline Patrickis
✔
@Cpatrickis
Crowd from above at the Richmond 2A protest
It’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and for several hours now countless mostly white, mostly male pro-gun, anti-gun control activists have been marching throughout the streets of Richmond, Virginia, claiming to merely be exercising their Second Amendment rights. Many appear to be dressed in military garb, including camouflage, masks, and donning various types of firearms over their shoulders or at their side.
Some Virginians have been so concerned about the possibility of violence that Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency and banned guns from the capitol. His ban survived a state supreme court challenge. Some say the ban does not appear to have been enforced.
Thousands are marching, including some white nationalists, far-right militia members, anti-government extremists, and neo-Nazis. As NBC News reports, members of some of those groups from across the country have been planning on attending.
---
Many online noted the reception from pro-gun advocates might be far different if the activists were Black instead of white, given the nation’s history – and that of Virginia.
Walter Shaub✔
@waltshaub
Imagine how Fox News would cover this if these guys weren’t white. Imagine what Trump would tweet. Imagine how much danger they’d be in. But these guys are allowed to silence counter protesters by showing up armed to the teeth after some of their allies have threatened violence.
RELATED: WATCH: Virginia gun rights activist trashes MSNBC reporter’s live shot by shouting F-bombs
RELATED: ‘Emasculated’ Virginia gun nuts mocked for ‘purchasing toys, dressing up in costumes, and playing fantasy games’
Some Virginians have been so concerned about the possibility of violence that Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency and banned guns from the capitol. His ban survived a state supreme court challenge. Some say the ban does not appear to have been enforced.
Thousands are marching, including some white nationalists, far-right militia members, anti-government extremists, and neo-Nazis. As NBC News reports, members of some of those groups from across the country have been planning on attending.
---
Many online noted the reception from pro-gun advocates might be far different if the activists were Black instead of white, given the nation’s history – and that of Virginia.
Walter Shaub✔
@waltshaub
Imagine how Fox News would cover this if these guys weren’t white. Imagine what Trump would tweet. Imagine how much danger they’d be in. But these guys are allowed to silence counter protesters by showing up armed to the teeth after some of their allies have threatened violence.
RELATED: WATCH: Virginia gun rights activist trashes MSNBC reporter’s live shot by shouting F-bombs
RELATED: ‘Emasculated’ Virginia gun nuts mocked for ‘purchasing toys, dressing up in costumes, and playing fantasy games’
A Pilot and a Racist Trump Supporter All Wrapped in One:#MAGA Pilot Arrested for Racist Airport Graffiti
Zack Linly - the root
1/18/20
I mean... not that we needed yet another story tying Trump support to good-old-fashion American racism, but we got one via a 53-year-old pilot for Endeavor Air, a regional subsidiary of Delta, in today’s “Yep, Water is Still Wet as Hell” news.
James E. Dees, whose name was probably not intentionally made to sound eerily similar to Robert E. Lee (although, who am I to speculate?), was arrested Friday after police say he tagged bathrooms, elevators and cars at the Tallahassee International Airport with racial slurs and messages supporting President Donald Trump, USA Today reported.
According to the Tallahassee Police Department, a covert camera in the airport caught Dees in the act of painting graffiti that read “#MAGA,” “Send them all back” and included various racial slurs directed at African-Americans and Hispanics.
To make matters worse, this, apparently, wasn’t Dees’ first rodeo. In fact, this angry white man, this pilot, who may have held scores of black and brown lives in his hands at 30 thousand some odd feet in the sky at any given time, had been suspected of 20 different instances of this kind of vandalism tracing back to just two days before Christmas 2018, according to court records.
On Dec. 12, investigators believed they captured footage of the graffiti in progress. Dees, who at that time had only been identified as a pilot, entered the elevator in the airport’s parking lot at about 5 p.m.
Dees was captured after a surveillance camera was hidden in an elevator at the airport following the spate of graffiti.
On Jan. 7, Dees was approached by Tallahassee Police officers as he waited for his outbound flight. When officers told about the camera he didn’t see getting his bigotry on tape, he admitted he was behind the graffiti.
He copped to vandalizing vehicles in the parking lot as well as walls in the elevator and in the men’s bathroom. He told police he has been going through a “really rough time,” and has anger issues. (You guys reading at home may not know this but “anger issues” is general whitey speak for “racism.” I tried to get the translation to the Whypipo Urban Dictionary but, apparently, nobody’s created that yet.)
According to the report, Dees (for whatever damn reason) wasn’t arrested at the scene. He was told he was allowed to leave, and he began to board the flight. But he, instead, returned and told police he was not in the “right state of mind” to fly a plane, and he left the airport.
Yep, you read that right: the cops were about to allow a confessed racist to go back to work leaving God knows how many passengers of color in his care. Meanwhile TSA is confiscating my shaving cream at the check point, presumably, to keep fellow flyers safe from my clean-shaven hansom-ness.
Dees is being charged with nine counts of criminal mischief and posted bond around 1 p.m. EST Friday. The damage is estimated to be close to $200.
If convicted, the Perry, Florida, resident faces a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. One would hope he’d also be fired but, well, let’s just say I may be avoiding flights through Tallahassee for a while.
James E. Dees, whose name was probably not intentionally made to sound eerily similar to Robert E. Lee (although, who am I to speculate?), was arrested Friday after police say he tagged bathrooms, elevators and cars at the Tallahassee International Airport with racial slurs and messages supporting President Donald Trump, USA Today reported.
According to the Tallahassee Police Department, a covert camera in the airport caught Dees in the act of painting graffiti that read “#MAGA,” “Send them all back” and included various racial slurs directed at African-Americans and Hispanics.
To make matters worse, this, apparently, wasn’t Dees’ first rodeo. In fact, this angry white man, this pilot, who may have held scores of black and brown lives in his hands at 30 thousand some odd feet in the sky at any given time, had been suspected of 20 different instances of this kind of vandalism tracing back to just two days before Christmas 2018, according to court records.
On Dec. 12, investigators believed they captured footage of the graffiti in progress. Dees, who at that time had only been identified as a pilot, entered the elevator in the airport’s parking lot at about 5 p.m.
Dees was captured after a surveillance camera was hidden in an elevator at the airport following the spate of graffiti.
On Jan. 7, Dees was approached by Tallahassee Police officers as he waited for his outbound flight. When officers told about the camera he didn’t see getting his bigotry on tape, he admitted he was behind the graffiti.
He copped to vandalizing vehicles in the parking lot as well as walls in the elevator and in the men’s bathroom. He told police he has been going through a “really rough time,” and has anger issues. (You guys reading at home may not know this but “anger issues” is general whitey speak for “racism.” I tried to get the translation to the Whypipo Urban Dictionary but, apparently, nobody’s created that yet.)
According to the report, Dees (for whatever damn reason) wasn’t arrested at the scene. He was told he was allowed to leave, and he began to board the flight. But he, instead, returned and told police he was not in the “right state of mind” to fly a plane, and he left the airport.
Yep, you read that right: the cops were about to allow a confessed racist to go back to work leaving God knows how many passengers of color in his care. Meanwhile TSA is confiscating my shaving cream at the check point, presumably, to keep fellow flyers safe from my clean-shaven hansom-ness.
Dees is being charged with nine counts of criminal mischief and posted bond around 1 p.m. EST Friday. The damage is estimated to be close to $200.
If convicted, the Perry, Florida, resident faces a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. One would hope he’d also be fired but, well, let’s just say I may be avoiding flights through Tallahassee for a while.
Involuntary Celibates are an ‘emerging domestic terrorism threat’: Texas warns of an ‘Incel Rebellion’
January 11, 2020
By Bob Brigham - raw story
Misogynistic men who identify as part of the “Involuntary Celibate” movement are domestic terrorism threats, according to a new report.
The Texas Department of Public Safety included the warning in their 2020, “Texas Domestic Terrorism Threat Assessment” (PDF).
“Although not a new movement, Involuntary Celibates (Incels) are an emerging domestic terrorism threat as current adherents demonstrate marked acts or threats of violence in furtherance of their social grievance,” the report noted. “Once viewed as a criminal threat by many law enforcement authorities, Incels are now seen as a growing domestic terrorism concern due to the ideological nature of recent Incel attacks internationally, nationwide, and in Texas.”
“What begins as a personal grievance due to perceived rejection by women may morph into allegiance to, and attempts to further, an Incel Rebellion. The result has thrust the Incel movement into the realm of domestic terrorism,” the report explained.
“The violence demonstrated by Incels in the past decade, coupled with extremely violent online rhetoric, suggests this particular threat could soon match, or potentially eclipse, the level of lethalness demonstrated by other domestic terrorism types,” the report warned.
The Texas Department of Public Safety included the warning in their 2020, “Texas Domestic Terrorism Threat Assessment” (PDF).
“Although not a new movement, Involuntary Celibates (Incels) are an emerging domestic terrorism threat as current adherents demonstrate marked acts or threats of violence in furtherance of their social grievance,” the report noted. “Once viewed as a criminal threat by many law enforcement authorities, Incels are now seen as a growing domestic terrorism concern due to the ideological nature of recent Incel attacks internationally, nationwide, and in Texas.”
“What begins as a personal grievance due to perceived rejection by women may morph into allegiance to, and attempts to further, an Incel Rebellion. The result has thrust the Incel movement into the realm of domestic terrorism,” the report explained.
“The violence demonstrated by Incels in the past decade, coupled with extremely violent online rhetoric, suggests this particular threat could soon match, or potentially eclipse, the level of lethalness demonstrated by other domestic terrorism types,” the report warned.
Virginia gun nuts are threatening civil war in the wake of Democrats’ election win: report
January 10, 2020
By Sky Palma - raw story
After winning control of Virginia’s state government this November, Democrats promised to pass a series of run-of-the-mill gun control laws, including background checks and a ban on military-style assault weapons — policy proposals that sparked the furor of the state’s gun rights activists. Now, some of these activists are warning of violence, even sending death threats to multiple lawmakers, Lois Beckett reports for The Guardian.
“At heated public meetings across the state and in long social media comment threads, some gun rights supporters are openly discussing the possibility of civil war,” Beckett writes. “Many have warned of the need to fight back against ‘tyranny’ or have compared Democratic lawmakers to the British forces during the revolutionary war.”
Extremist gun rights groups also attract militias and white supremacists who hope to use the growing pro-gun protest movement “as a potential flash point that could lead to civil war and social breakdown, according to an analyst at the Anti-Defamation League.”
“Some observers worry these tensions may come to a head on 20 January, when a lobby day against gun control at Virginia’s state capitol is expected to attract thousands of people, including members of anti-government groups from other states,” writes Beckett. “Local residents are concerned the day could turn violent, like the 2017 Unite the Right rally in nearby Charlottesville, Virginia.”
Read Beckett’s full report over at The Guardian.
“At heated public meetings across the state and in long social media comment threads, some gun rights supporters are openly discussing the possibility of civil war,” Beckett writes. “Many have warned of the need to fight back against ‘tyranny’ or have compared Democratic lawmakers to the British forces during the revolutionary war.”
Extremist gun rights groups also attract militias and white supremacists who hope to use the growing pro-gun protest movement “as a potential flash point that could lead to civil war and social breakdown, according to an analyst at the Anti-Defamation League.”
“Some observers worry these tensions may come to a head on 20 January, when a lobby day against gun control at Virginia’s state capitol is expected to attract thousands of people, including members of anti-government groups from other states,” writes Beckett. “Local residents are concerned the day could turn violent, like the 2017 Unite the Right rally in nearby Charlottesville, Virginia.”
Read Beckett’s full report over at The Guardian.
This is from September 17, 2009
Never let them pass it off as “Trumpism”
resign fool!!!
Jersey City Board of Education official blames the Jews for deadly attack on kosher deli
December 17, 2019
By Sky Palma - raw story
A member of the Board of Education in Jersey City is under fire after she made posts on social media that seemingly blamed Jews for the deadly attack on a kosher deli this Tuesday.
“Where was all this faith and hope when Black homeowners were being threatened, intimidated and harassed by I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE brutes of the jewish community? (sic) They brazenly came on the property of Ward F Black homeowners and waved bags of money,” Joan Terrell wrote on Facebook, according to screenshots obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Terrell was reportedly responding to an article about an event that was attended by faith and community leaders to honor the attack’s victims. She also floated a conspiracy theory that claimed “6 rabbis were accused of selling body parts.”
“Mr. Anderson and Ms. Graham went directly to the kosher supermarket,” she wrote, referring to the shooters. “I believe they knew they would come out in body bags. What is the message they were sending? Are we brave enough to explore the answer to their message? Are we brave enough to stop the assault on the Black communities of America?”
Calls for Terrell to resign were swift, one of them coming from the city’s mayor, Steven Fulop.
“I saw this and I’m saddened by the ignorance her comments demonstrate,” he tweeted. “Her comments don’t represent Jersey City or the sentiment in the community at all. The African American community in Greenville has been nothing short of amazing over the last week helping neighbors.”
“Where was all this faith and hope when Black homeowners were being threatened, intimidated and harassed by I WANT TO BUY YOUR HOUSE brutes of the jewish community? (sic) They brazenly came on the property of Ward F Black homeowners and waved bags of money,” Joan Terrell wrote on Facebook, according to screenshots obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Terrell was reportedly responding to an article about an event that was attended by faith and community leaders to honor the attack’s victims. She also floated a conspiracy theory that claimed “6 rabbis were accused of selling body parts.”
“Mr. Anderson and Ms. Graham went directly to the kosher supermarket,” she wrote, referring to the shooters. “I believe they knew they would come out in body bags. What is the message they were sending? Are we brave enough to explore the answer to their message? Are we brave enough to stop the assault on the Black communities of America?”
Calls for Terrell to resign were swift, one of them coming from the city’s mayor, Steven Fulop.
“I saw this and I’m saddened by the ignorance her comments demonstrate,” he tweeted. “Her comments don’t represent Jersey City or the sentiment in the community at all. The African American community in Greenville has been nothing short of amazing over the last week helping neighbors.”
Georgia mayor being recalled for racism resigns from office: report
December 14, 2019
By Bob Brigham - raw story
Hoschton Mayor Theresa Kenerly resigned in a special city council meeting held on Saturday, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported Saturday.
“The resignation came just days after Councilman Jim Cleveland resigned saying he‘d rather leave office on his own terms than face voters in a recall election next month,” the newspaper reported. “Both resignations follow an AJC investigation launched seven months ago into claims that an African American candidate for city administrator was sidetracked by Mayor Theresa Kenerly because of his race.”
“Both long-serving officials had weathered calls for their resignation and a bipartisan campaign that would have put the question before voters in a recall vote next month,” the newspaper reported. “Members of both the Jackson County Republican and Democratic parties called for both officials to leave office.”
“In November, voters elected [Adam] Ledbetter and Shantwon Astin to seats on the City Council, forcing out another of Kenerly’s allies at City Hall. Ledbetter, who is white, and Astin, who is black, campaigned together on restoring the reputation of the city,” the newspaper noted.
“The resignation came just days after Councilman Jim Cleveland resigned saying he‘d rather leave office on his own terms than face voters in a recall election next month,” the newspaper reported. “Both resignations follow an AJC investigation launched seven months ago into claims that an African American candidate for city administrator was sidetracked by Mayor Theresa Kenerly because of his race.”
“Both long-serving officials had weathered calls for their resignation and a bipartisan campaign that would have put the question before voters in a recall vote next month,” the newspaper reported. “Members of both the Jackson County Republican and Democratic parties called for both officials to leave office.”
“In November, voters elected [Adam] Ledbetter and Shantwon Astin to seats on the City Council, forcing out another of Kenerly’s allies at City Hall. Ledbetter, who is white, and Astin, who is black, campaigned together on restoring the reputation of the city,” the newspaper noted.
The False Romance of Russia
American conservatives who find themselves identifying with Putin’s regime refuse to see the country for what it actually is.
Anne Applebaum - the atlantic
DECEMBER 12, 2019
Sherwood Eddy was a prominent American missionary as well as that now rare thing, a Christian socialist. In the 1920s and ’30s, he made more than a dozen trips to the Soviet Union. He was not blind to the problems of the U.S.S.R., but he also found much to like. In place of squabbling, corrupt democratic politicians, he wrote in one of his books on the country, “Stalin rules … by his sagacity, his honesty, his rugged courage, his indomitable will and titanic energy.” Instead of the greed he found so pervasive in America, Russians seemed to him to be working for the joy of working.
Above all, though, he thought he had found in Russia something that his own individualistic society lacked: a “unified philosophy of life.” In Russia, he wrote, “all life is focused in a central purpose. It is directed to a single high end and energized by such powerful and glowing motivation that life seems to have supreme significance.”
Eddy was wrong about much of what he saw. Joseph Stalin was a liar and a mass murderer; Russians worked because they were hungry and afraid. The “unified philosophy of life” was a chimera, and the reality was a totalitarian state that used terror and propaganda to maintain that unity. But Eddy, like others in his era, was predisposed to admire the Soviet Union precisely because he was so critical of the economics and politics of his own country, Depression-era America. In this, he was not alone.
In his landmark 1981 book, Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, Paul Hollander wrote of the hospitality showered on sympathetic Western visitors to the Communist world: the banquets in Moscow thrown for George Bernard Shaw, the feasts laid out for Mary McCarthy and Susan Sontag in North Vietnam. But his conclusion was that these performances were not the key to explaining why some Western intellectuals became enamored of communism. Far more important was their estrangement and alienation from their own cultures: “Intellectuals critical of their own society proved highly susceptible to the claims put forward by the leaders and spokesmen of the societies they inspected in the course of these travels.”
Hollander was writing about left-wing intellectuals in the 20th century, and many such people are still around, paying court to left-wing dictators in Venezuela or Bolivia who dislike America. There are also, in our society as in most others, quite a few people who are paid to help America’s enemies, or to spread their propaganda. There always have been.
But in the 21st century, we must also contend with a new phenomenon: right-wing intellectuals, now deeply critical of their own societies, who have begun paying court to right-wing dictators who dislike America. And their motives are curiously familiar. All around them, they see degeneracy, racial mixing, demographic change, “political correctness,” same-sex marriage, religious decline. The America that they actually inhabit no longer matches the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America that they remember, or think they remember. And so they have begun to look abroad, seeking to find the spiritually unified, ethnically pure nations that, they imagine, are morally stronger than their own. Nations, for example, such as Russia.
The pioneer of this search was Patrick Buchanan, the godfather of the modern so-called alt-right, whose feelings about foreign authoritarians shifted right about the time he started writing books with titles such as The Death of the West and Suicide of a Superpower. His columns pour scorn on modern America, a place he once described, with disgust, as a “multicultural, multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual ‘universal nation’ whose avatar is Barack Obama.” Buchanan’s America is in demographic decline, has been swamped by beige and brown people, and has lost its virtue. The West, he has written, has succumbed to “a sexual revolution of easy divorce, rampant promiscuity, pornography, homosexuality, feminism, abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, assisted suicide—the displacement of Christian values by Hollywood values.”
This litany of horrors isn’t much different from what can be heard most nights on Fox News. Listen to Tucker Carlson. “The American dream is dying,” Carlson declared one recent evening, in a monologue that also referred to “the dark age that we are living through.” Carlson has also spent a lot of time on air reminiscing about how the United States “was a better country than it is now in a lot of ways,” back when it was “more cohesive.” And no wonder: Immigrants have “plundered” America, thanks to “decadent and narcissistic” politicians who refuse to “defend the nation.” You can read worse on the white-supremacist websites of the alt-right—do pick up a copy of Ann Coulter’s Adios America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole—or hear more extreme sentiments in some evangelical churches. Franklin Graham has declared, for example, that America “is in deep trouble and on the verge of total moral and spiritual collapse.”
What a terrible place all of these people are describing. Who would want to live in a country like that? Or, to put it differently: Who wouldn’t sympathize with the enemies of a country like that? As it turns out, many do. Certainly Buchanan does. Russian cyberwarriors work with daily determination to undermine American utilities and electricity grids. Russian information warriors are trying to deform American political debate. Russian contract killers are murdering people on the streets of Western countries. Russian nuclear weapons are pointed at us and our allies.
Nevertheless, Buchanan has come to admire the Russian president because he is “standing up for traditional values against Western cultural elites.” Once again, he feels the shimmering lure of that elusive sense of “unity” and purpose that complicated, diverse, quarrelsome America always lacks. Impressed with the Russian president’s use of Orthodox pageantry at public events, Buchanan even believes that “Putin is trying to re-establish the Orthodox Church as the moral compass of the nation it had been for 1,000 years before Russia fell captive to the atheistic and pagan ideology of Marxism.”
He is not alone. The belief that Russia is on our side in the war against secularism and sexual decadence is shared by a host of American Christian leaders, as well as their colleagues on the European far right. Among them, for example, are the movers and shakers behind the World Congress of Families, an American evangelical and anti-gay-rights organization that Buchanan has explicitly praised. One of the WCF’s former leaders, Larry Jacobs, once declared that “the Russians might be the Christian saviors of the world.” The WCF even has a Russian branch, which is run by Alexey Komov, a man in turn linked to Konstantin Malofeev, a Russian oligarch who has hosted far-right meetings all across Europe. At the WCF’s most recent meeting, in Verona, senior Russian priests mingled with leaders of the Italian far right, the Austrian far right, and their comrades from the American heartland.
Carlson’s support for Russia, by contrast, takes the form of snarling sarcasm rather than open admiration. Much as Jane Fonda once posed, just for the provocative kick of it, with a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, Carlson has started teasing his viewers and his critics with his amusingly contrarian views on Russia. “Why shouldn’t I root for Russia?” he asked recently. A couple of days later, he tried it again: “I think we should probably take the side of Russia, if we have to choose between Russia and Ukraine.”
Ironically, during the Reagan administration, Carlson’s father ran Voice of America, the radio station that broadcast American values into the U.S.S.R. Or maybe this is not an irony, but rather an explanation. In his book, Hollander described the prestige that Albanian communism once enjoyed in Sweden and Norway. Few Scandinavians had ever been there, but that didn’t matter: “Albania is picked up simply because it seems to be a club with a particularly sharp nail at the end of it with which to beat one’s own society, one’s own traditions, one’s own parents.” Now Carlson is using Russia as a club with which to beat his own society and his own traditions.
Fortunately for all such critics, they don’t have to spend much time in the country they are “rooting” for, because there is no greater fantasy than the idea that Russia is a country of Christian values. In reality, Russia has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, nearly double that of the United States. It has an extremely low record of church attendance, though the numbers are difficult to measure, not least because any form of Christianity outside of the state-controlled Orthodox Church is liable to be considered a cult. A 2012 survey showed that religion plays an important role in the lives of only 15 percent of Russians. Only 5 percent have read the Bible.
If American Christians would find little to cheer for in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, American white nationalists would be disappointed too. Carlson has wondered aloud about America’s racial mix, asking, “How precisely is diversity our strength?” He would have a real dilemma in Russia. Nearly 20 percent of Russian citizens do not even identify as Russian, telling pollsters that they belong to different nationalities, ranging from Tartar and Azeri to Ukrainian and Moldovan; more than 6 percent of Russians are Muslims, as opposed to 1.1 percent of the U.S. population. And that might be a gross underestimate of the actual number of Russian Muslims, since in some parts of the country, Muslims are off-limits to census takers. Remember all those phony stories about Swedish and British neighborhoods that are supposedly no-go zones ruled by Sharia law? Russia has an actual province, Chechnya, that is officially ruled by Sharia law. The local regime tolerates polygamy, requires women to be veiled in public places, and tortures gay men. It is a no-go zone, right inside Russia.
As for Putin himself, there is no evidence that this former KGB officer has actually converted, but plenty of evidence that Putin’s recent public displays of Christianity are just as cynical as Stalin’s vaunted love for the working classes. Among other things, they are useful precisely because they can hoodwink naive foreigners. But you don’t need to listen to me say so. Listen, instead, to the words of a young Russian, Yegor Zhukov, who was put on trial for publishing videos critical of the regime. In an extraordinary courtroom speech, he addressed the loud support for “the institutions of the family” that Putin often offers in Russia, and contrasted it with reality:
An impenetrable barrier divides our society in two. All the money is concentrated at the top and no one up there is going to let it go. All that’s left at the bottom—and this is no exaggeration—is despair. Knowing that they have nothing to hope for, that no matter how hard they try, they cannot bring happiness to themselves or their families, Russian men take their aggression out on their wives, or drink themselves to death, or hang themselves. Russia has the world’s [second] highest rate of suicide among men. As a result, a third of all Russian families are single mothers with their kids. I would like to know: Is this how we are protecting the institution of the family?
The reality of Russia isn’t the point, just as the reality of Stalinism wasn’t the point, not for Sherwood Eddy and not for George Bernard Shaw. The American intellectuals who now find themselves alienated from the country that they inhabit aren’t interested in reality. They are interested in a fantasy nation, different and distinct from their own hateful country. America, with its complicated social and political as well as ethnic diversity, with its Constitution that ensures we will never, ever all be forced to feel as if “all life is focused in a central purpose”—this America no longer appeals to them at all.
Most of them know that this fantasy foreign nation they admire seeks to put an end to all of that. It seeks to undermine American democracy, beat back American influence, and curtail American power. But to those who dislike American democracy, despair of American influence, and are angered by American power? That, truly, is the point.
Above all, though, he thought he had found in Russia something that his own individualistic society lacked: a “unified philosophy of life.” In Russia, he wrote, “all life is focused in a central purpose. It is directed to a single high end and energized by such powerful and glowing motivation that life seems to have supreme significance.”
Eddy was wrong about much of what he saw. Joseph Stalin was a liar and a mass murderer; Russians worked because they were hungry and afraid. The “unified philosophy of life” was a chimera, and the reality was a totalitarian state that used terror and propaganda to maintain that unity. But Eddy, like others in his era, was predisposed to admire the Soviet Union precisely because he was so critical of the economics and politics of his own country, Depression-era America. In this, he was not alone.
In his landmark 1981 book, Political Pilgrims: Travels of Western Intellectuals to the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba, Paul Hollander wrote of the hospitality showered on sympathetic Western visitors to the Communist world: the banquets in Moscow thrown for George Bernard Shaw, the feasts laid out for Mary McCarthy and Susan Sontag in North Vietnam. But his conclusion was that these performances were not the key to explaining why some Western intellectuals became enamored of communism. Far more important was their estrangement and alienation from their own cultures: “Intellectuals critical of their own society proved highly susceptible to the claims put forward by the leaders and spokesmen of the societies they inspected in the course of these travels.”
Hollander was writing about left-wing intellectuals in the 20th century, and many such people are still around, paying court to left-wing dictators in Venezuela or Bolivia who dislike America. There are also, in our society as in most others, quite a few people who are paid to help America’s enemies, or to spread their propaganda. There always have been.
But in the 21st century, we must also contend with a new phenomenon: right-wing intellectuals, now deeply critical of their own societies, who have begun paying court to right-wing dictators who dislike America. And their motives are curiously familiar. All around them, they see degeneracy, racial mixing, demographic change, “political correctness,” same-sex marriage, religious decline. The America that they actually inhabit no longer matches the white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant America that they remember, or think they remember. And so they have begun to look abroad, seeking to find the spiritually unified, ethnically pure nations that, they imagine, are morally stronger than their own. Nations, for example, such as Russia.
The pioneer of this search was Patrick Buchanan, the godfather of the modern so-called alt-right, whose feelings about foreign authoritarians shifted right about the time he started writing books with titles such as The Death of the West and Suicide of a Superpower. His columns pour scorn on modern America, a place he once described, with disgust, as a “multicultural, multiethnic, multiracial, multilingual ‘universal nation’ whose avatar is Barack Obama.” Buchanan’s America is in demographic decline, has been swamped by beige and brown people, and has lost its virtue. The West, he has written, has succumbed to “a sexual revolution of easy divorce, rampant promiscuity, pornography, homosexuality, feminism, abortion, same-sex marriage, euthanasia, assisted suicide—the displacement of Christian values by Hollywood values.”
This litany of horrors isn’t much different from what can be heard most nights on Fox News. Listen to Tucker Carlson. “The American dream is dying,” Carlson declared one recent evening, in a monologue that also referred to “the dark age that we are living through.” Carlson has also spent a lot of time on air reminiscing about how the United States “was a better country than it is now in a lot of ways,” back when it was “more cohesive.” And no wonder: Immigrants have “plundered” America, thanks to “decadent and narcissistic” politicians who refuse to “defend the nation.” You can read worse on the white-supremacist websites of the alt-right—do pick up a copy of Ann Coulter’s Adios America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole—or hear more extreme sentiments in some evangelical churches. Franklin Graham has declared, for example, that America “is in deep trouble and on the verge of total moral and spiritual collapse.”
What a terrible place all of these people are describing. Who would want to live in a country like that? Or, to put it differently: Who wouldn’t sympathize with the enemies of a country like that? As it turns out, many do. Certainly Buchanan does. Russian cyberwarriors work with daily determination to undermine American utilities and electricity grids. Russian information warriors are trying to deform American political debate. Russian contract killers are murdering people on the streets of Western countries. Russian nuclear weapons are pointed at us and our allies.
Nevertheless, Buchanan has come to admire the Russian president because he is “standing up for traditional values against Western cultural elites.” Once again, he feels the shimmering lure of that elusive sense of “unity” and purpose that complicated, diverse, quarrelsome America always lacks. Impressed with the Russian president’s use of Orthodox pageantry at public events, Buchanan even believes that “Putin is trying to re-establish the Orthodox Church as the moral compass of the nation it had been for 1,000 years before Russia fell captive to the atheistic and pagan ideology of Marxism.”
He is not alone. The belief that Russia is on our side in the war against secularism and sexual decadence is shared by a host of American Christian leaders, as well as their colleagues on the European far right. Among them, for example, are the movers and shakers behind the World Congress of Families, an American evangelical and anti-gay-rights organization that Buchanan has explicitly praised. One of the WCF’s former leaders, Larry Jacobs, once declared that “the Russians might be the Christian saviors of the world.” The WCF even has a Russian branch, which is run by Alexey Komov, a man in turn linked to Konstantin Malofeev, a Russian oligarch who has hosted far-right meetings all across Europe. At the WCF’s most recent meeting, in Verona, senior Russian priests mingled with leaders of the Italian far right, the Austrian far right, and their comrades from the American heartland.
Carlson’s support for Russia, by contrast, takes the form of snarling sarcasm rather than open admiration. Much as Jane Fonda once posed, just for the provocative kick of it, with a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun, Carlson has started teasing his viewers and his critics with his amusingly contrarian views on Russia. “Why shouldn’t I root for Russia?” he asked recently. A couple of days later, he tried it again: “I think we should probably take the side of Russia, if we have to choose between Russia and Ukraine.”
Ironically, during the Reagan administration, Carlson’s father ran Voice of America, the radio station that broadcast American values into the U.S.S.R. Or maybe this is not an irony, but rather an explanation. In his book, Hollander described the prestige that Albanian communism once enjoyed in Sweden and Norway. Few Scandinavians had ever been there, but that didn’t matter: “Albania is picked up simply because it seems to be a club with a particularly sharp nail at the end of it with which to beat one’s own society, one’s own traditions, one’s own parents.” Now Carlson is using Russia as a club with which to beat his own society and his own traditions.
Fortunately for all such critics, they don’t have to spend much time in the country they are “rooting” for, because there is no greater fantasy than the idea that Russia is a country of Christian values. In reality, Russia has one of the highest abortion rates in the world, nearly double that of the United States. It has an extremely low record of church attendance, though the numbers are difficult to measure, not least because any form of Christianity outside of the state-controlled Orthodox Church is liable to be considered a cult. A 2012 survey showed that religion plays an important role in the lives of only 15 percent of Russians. Only 5 percent have read the Bible.
If American Christians would find little to cheer for in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, American white nationalists would be disappointed too. Carlson has wondered aloud about America’s racial mix, asking, “How precisely is diversity our strength?” He would have a real dilemma in Russia. Nearly 20 percent of Russian citizens do not even identify as Russian, telling pollsters that they belong to different nationalities, ranging from Tartar and Azeri to Ukrainian and Moldovan; more than 6 percent of Russians are Muslims, as opposed to 1.1 percent of the U.S. population. And that might be a gross underestimate of the actual number of Russian Muslims, since in some parts of the country, Muslims are off-limits to census takers. Remember all those phony stories about Swedish and British neighborhoods that are supposedly no-go zones ruled by Sharia law? Russia has an actual province, Chechnya, that is officially ruled by Sharia law. The local regime tolerates polygamy, requires women to be veiled in public places, and tortures gay men. It is a no-go zone, right inside Russia.
As for Putin himself, there is no evidence that this former KGB officer has actually converted, but plenty of evidence that Putin’s recent public displays of Christianity are just as cynical as Stalin’s vaunted love for the working classes. Among other things, they are useful precisely because they can hoodwink naive foreigners. But you don’t need to listen to me say so. Listen, instead, to the words of a young Russian, Yegor Zhukov, who was put on trial for publishing videos critical of the regime. In an extraordinary courtroom speech, he addressed the loud support for “the institutions of the family” that Putin often offers in Russia, and contrasted it with reality:
An impenetrable barrier divides our society in two. All the money is concentrated at the top and no one up there is going to let it go. All that’s left at the bottom—and this is no exaggeration—is despair. Knowing that they have nothing to hope for, that no matter how hard they try, they cannot bring happiness to themselves or their families, Russian men take their aggression out on their wives, or drink themselves to death, or hang themselves. Russia has the world’s [second] highest rate of suicide among men. As a result, a third of all Russian families are single mothers with their kids. I would like to know: Is this how we are protecting the institution of the family?
The reality of Russia isn’t the point, just as the reality of Stalinism wasn’t the point, not for Sherwood Eddy and not for George Bernard Shaw. The American intellectuals who now find themselves alienated from the country that they inhabit aren’t interested in reality. They are interested in a fantasy nation, different and distinct from their own hateful country. America, with its complicated social and political as well as ethnic diversity, with its Constitution that ensures we will never, ever all be forced to feel as if “all life is focused in a central purpose”—this America no longer appeals to them at all.
Most of them know that this fantasy foreign nation they admire seeks to put an end to all of that. It seeks to undermine American democracy, beat back American influence, and curtail American power. But to those who dislike American democracy, despair of American influence, and are angered by American power? That, truly, is the point.
Fort Worth teacher who asked Trump to deport students said her tweets were protected by the First Amendment. Texas officials agreed.
December 3, 2019
By Texas Tribune - raw story
Commissioner of Education Mike Morath wrote that Georgia Clark did not waive her First Amendment rights when she signed her contract with Fort Worth ISD.
A former Fort Worth teacher argued in an appeal to the state that her tweets asking President Donald Trump to “remove” undocumented immigrants from her school were protected speech.
The Texas Education Agency agreed.
In a decision issued Nov. 25, Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath wrote that the teacher, Georgia Clark, should get her job back at Carter-Riverside High School and receive back pay and benefits, or receive one year’s salary.
Clark and her attorney could not be reached for comment.
Siding with Clark, Morath rejected Fort Worth ISD’s argument that Clark waived her First Amendment rights upon signing an employment contract.
Clark was fired after sending a series of tweets to the president in May, writing that Fort Worth ISD “is loaded with illegal students from Mexico.”
“Anything you can do to remove the illegals from Fort Worth would be greatly appreciated,” she tweeted to Trump. Hispanic students account for almost 87% of enrollment at Carter-Riverside High School, according to state data.[...]
A former Fort Worth teacher argued in an appeal to the state that her tweets asking President Donald Trump to “remove” undocumented immigrants from her school were protected speech.
The Texas Education Agency agreed.
In a decision issued Nov. 25, Texas Commissioner of Education Mike Morath wrote that the teacher, Georgia Clark, should get her job back at Carter-Riverside High School and receive back pay and benefits, or receive one year’s salary.
Clark and her attorney could not be reached for comment.
Siding with Clark, Morath rejected Fort Worth ISD’s argument that Clark waived her First Amendment rights upon signing an employment contract.
Clark was fired after sending a series of tweets to the president in May, writing that Fort Worth ISD “is loaded with illegal students from Mexico.”
“Anything you can do to remove the illegals from Fort Worth would be greatly appreciated,” she tweeted to Trump. Hispanic students account for almost 87% of enrollment at Carter-Riverside High School, according to state data.[...]
Actual Nazi who got 26% of the vote in his first bid is running for Congress again as a Republican
December 2, 2019
By Sky Palma - raw story
Holocaust denier and actual Nazi, Arthur Jones, is taking another shot at a running for Congress, just two years after his first bid saw him getting 26 percent of the vote, CBS Chicago reports.
Arthur, who hails from Lyons, Illinois, is running as a Republican in Chicago’s 3rd congressional district. His opponent in the upcoming 2020 race will be fellow Republican Mike Fricilone.
Jones’ website, which hasn’t been recently updated, rails against immigrants and demands that English be made America’s “official language,” and claims that “any two-legged vagabond from any Third-world, non-white, or non-Christian country is given preference whether they arrived legally or illegally. Either, learn America’s language, our culture, and respect our laws or get out of our country.”
During his first bid for Congress, Jones openly shared his antisemitism proudly and posted articles on his campaign website that called the Holocaust an “extortion racket” and Kosher certification a “Jewish scam.”
Arthur, who hails from Lyons, Illinois, is running as a Republican in Chicago’s 3rd congressional district. His opponent in the upcoming 2020 race will be fellow Republican Mike Fricilone.
Jones’ website, which hasn’t been recently updated, rails against immigrants and demands that English be made America’s “official language,” and claims that “any two-legged vagabond from any Third-world, non-white, or non-Christian country is given preference whether they arrived legally or illegally. Either, learn America’s language, our culture, and respect our laws or get out of our country.”
During his first bid for Congress, Jones openly shared his antisemitism proudly and posted articles on his campaign website that called the Holocaust an “extortion racket” and Kosher certification a “Jewish scam.”
south carolina justice!!!
He Defended the Confederate Flag and Insulted Immigrants. Now He’s a Judge.
Former state Rep. Mike Pitts made anti-immigrant and racially charged remarks seemingly at odds with South Carolina’s judicial code. He sailed through an appointment process as a magistrate nominee with little scrutiny and no debate.
by Joseph Cranney, The Post and Courier - pro publica
Nov. 29, 5 a.m. EST
When South Carolina lawmakers confirmed a batch of new magistrates this year, one nominee stood out from the pack: Mike Pitts.
The former state House member had made a name for himself in Columbia as a staunch defender of the Confederate flag, and on Facebook he has penned anti-immigration screeds and used racially charged language. In May, for example, he posted a photo of New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, an African American Democrat running for president. His caption: “Cory Booker alway [sic] looks like he just hit crack real hard.”
None of this, however, prompted any discussion in June, when the state Senate confirmed Pitts along with 33 other nominees for the lower courts.
Unlike South Carolina’s felony and appellate court judges, magistrates are not subjected to legislative hearings before lawmakers sign off on their appointments. In fact, there’s rarely any public debate at all. Nominations typically sail through the upper chamber with a single voice vote.
Although magistrates oversee mostly misdemeanor matters, their authority is substantial; each year, they decide hundreds of thousands of cases, including criminal ones that can send someone to prison for months or saddle them with thousands of dollars in fines.
But the confirmation process allows new recruits to escape public scrutiny and sitting magistrates to remain on the bench even after they’ve been disciplined for misconduct, an investigation by The Post and Courier and ProPublica found.
Some appointees have gone on to make racist and sexist comments from the bench.
Magistrate Willie Bethune in Clarendon County, for example, said a defendant was attractive and asked her to show off her bellybutton. He was later accused of pressuring that woman into giving him sexual favors. While he denied the charges, he resigned amid an investigation by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which polices judges and lawyers in the state.
Charleston Magistrate James Gosnell, who is white, used a racial slur during a bond hearing for an African American defendant and was reprimanded by the disciplinary office; he described it as an ill-considered attempt to get the man to change his path in life. The judge remains on the bench today, reappointed in May.
Beaufort County Magistrate Peter Lamb called crack cocaine “a black man’s disease” and later resigned. As part of an agreement with the state Supreme Court, he acknowledged misconduct in that instance — and in others — and promised to never seek judicial office again, without permission.
The Post and Courier and ProPublica found Pitts’ Facebook page while researching the backgrounds of all 319 magistrates in South Carolina. Like many magistrates, Pitts, a retired police officer, doesn’t have a law license; to qualify for nomination to the lower courts, applicants need only to earn an undergraduate degree and pass a basic competency exam. Several of his posts appear at odds with key tenets of the state’s judicial code of conduct, which stresses impartiality and strict avoidance of words or actions that demonstrate bias or prejudice.
In a November 2017 post, he complained about people “from the Middle East” in Walmart and wrote, “after being subject to this incident I now support shutting down all immigration until we stop the demise of our culture.” And he has been recently photographed wearing a shirt reading, “Welcome to America Learn the Damn Language!”
In another post, Pitts criticized transgender people, saying “they aren’t sure what the hell they are.”
Pitts, a Republican who recently took the bench, didn’t respond to messages left by phone and email.
Civil rights advocates condemned Pitts’ remarks.
Brenda Murphy, president of the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP, said her group is “totally against” the idea of Pitts donning the robe. “We would not want someone who has made those comments appointed as a magistrate in a local community,” she said.
Some state lawmakers also questioned Pitts’ fitness for the bench.
Republican state Rep. Gary Clary, a former state circuit judge, said the posts could be “grounds for recusal” in cases where people of color or transgender people appear before Pitts.
“That’s the reason judges don’t normally have Facebook and Twitter accounts,” Clary said. “You are supposed to be fair and impartial.”
State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Democrat, went further.
“None of us were aware of these posts, or his ethnic and racially insensitive comments, which I think disqualify him as a fair or impartial judge,” Harpootlian, a longtime trial lawyer, said after The Post and Courier described Pitts’ posts.
“If I was Muslim or of Middle Eastern descent, I would be fearful of appearing in front of him.”
A spokesman for Gov. Henry McMaster said no one brought the posts to his attention before McMaster, a Republican, signed off on Pitts’ appointment this year. The governor declined to expand on the issue.
Chief Justice Donald Beatty of the South Carolina Supreme Court, who oversees all of the state’s court officials, also declined to comment.
A Republican who served 13 years in the legislature, Pitts has long stoked controversy. When state leaders pressed to remove the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds in 2015 after the mass shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, Pitts was a chief opponent.
The former state House member had made a name for himself in Columbia as a staunch defender of the Confederate flag, and on Facebook he has penned anti-immigration screeds and used racially charged language. In May, for example, he posted a photo of New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, an African American Democrat running for president. His caption: “Cory Booker alway [sic] looks like he just hit crack real hard.”
None of this, however, prompted any discussion in June, when the state Senate confirmed Pitts along with 33 other nominees for the lower courts.
Unlike South Carolina’s felony and appellate court judges, magistrates are not subjected to legislative hearings before lawmakers sign off on their appointments. In fact, there’s rarely any public debate at all. Nominations typically sail through the upper chamber with a single voice vote.
Although magistrates oversee mostly misdemeanor matters, their authority is substantial; each year, they decide hundreds of thousands of cases, including criminal ones that can send someone to prison for months or saddle them with thousands of dollars in fines.
But the confirmation process allows new recruits to escape public scrutiny and sitting magistrates to remain on the bench even after they’ve been disciplined for misconduct, an investigation by The Post and Courier and ProPublica found.
Some appointees have gone on to make racist and sexist comments from the bench.
Magistrate Willie Bethune in Clarendon County, for example, said a defendant was attractive and asked her to show off her bellybutton. He was later accused of pressuring that woman into giving him sexual favors. While he denied the charges, he resigned amid an investigation by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, which polices judges and lawyers in the state.
Charleston Magistrate James Gosnell, who is white, used a racial slur during a bond hearing for an African American defendant and was reprimanded by the disciplinary office; he described it as an ill-considered attempt to get the man to change his path in life. The judge remains on the bench today, reappointed in May.
Beaufort County Magistrate Peter Lamb called crack cocaine “a black man’s disease” and later resigned. As part of an agreement with the state Supreme Court, he acknowledged misconduct in that instance — and in others — and promised to never seek judicial office again, without permission.
The Post and Courier and ProPublica found Pitts’ Facebook page while researching the backgrounds of all 319 magistrates in South Carolina. Like many magistrates, Pitts, a retired police officer, doesn’t have a law license; to qualify for nomination to the lower courts, applicants need only to earn an undergraduate degree and pass a basic competency exam. Several of his posts appear at odds with key tenets of the state’s judicial code of conduct, which stresses impartiality and strict avoidance of words or actions that demonstrate bias or prejudice.
In a November 2017 post, he complained about people “from the Middle East” in Walmart and wrote, “after being subject to this incident I now support shutting down all immigration until we stop the demise of our culture.” And he has been recently photographed wearing a shirt reading, “Welcome to America Learn the Damn Language!”
In another post, Pitts criticized transgender people, saying “they aren’t sure what the hell they are.”
Pitts, a Republican who recently took the bench, didn’t respond to messages left by phone and email.
Civil rights advocates condemned Pitts’ remarks.
Brenda Murphy, president of the South Carolina chapter of the NAACP, said her group is “totally against” the idea of Pitts donning the robe. “We would not want someone who has made those comments appointed as a magistrate in a local community,” she said.
Some state lawmakers also questioned Pitts’ fitness for the bench.
Republican state Rep. Gary Clary, a former state circuit judge, said the posts could be “grounds for recusal” in cases where people of color or transgender people appear before Pitts.
“That’s the reason judges don’t normally have Facebook and Twitter accounts,” Clary said. “You are supposed to be fair and impartial.”
State Sen. Dick Harpootlian, a Democrat, went further.
“None of us were aware of these posts, or his ethnic and racially insensitive comments, which I think disqualify him as a fair or impartial judge,” Harpootlian, a longtime trial lawyer, said after The Post and Courier described Pitts’ posts.
“If I was Muslim or of Middle Eastern descent, I would be fearful of appearing in front of him.”
A spokesman for Gov. Henry McMaster said no one brought the posts to his attention before McMaster, a Republican, signed off on Pitts’ appointment this year. The governor declined to expand on the issue.
Chief Justice Donald Beatty of the South Carolina Supreme Court, who oversees all of the state’s court officials, also declined to comment.
A Republican who served 13 years in the legislature, Pitts has long stoked controversy. When state leaders pressed to remove the Confederate flag from Statehouse grounds in 2015 after the mass shooting at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church, Pitts was a chief opponent.
Trump administration
‘His beliefs are appalling’: email scandal sparks calls for Stephen Miller to resign
Members of Congress, civil rights groups and a conservative columnist among those demanding Trump adviser step down
Amanda Holpuch in New York
the guardian
Thu 21 Nov 2019 04.00 EST
More than 80 members of Congress, 55 civil rights groups, three Democratic presidential candidates and one conservative columnist are among those demanding that the White House senior adviser Stephen Miller resign, or be fired, in the wake of a leaked email scandal.
The communications had revealed the top aide’s obsessive focus on injecting white nationalist-style talking points on immigration, race and crime into the far-right website Breitbart, both during and after Donald Trump’s successful bid for the White House.
In the past week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has released multiple reports showing Miller promoted racist fears, disseminated conspiracy theories and injected a white nationalist agenda into the website Breitbart News.
The SPLC said the findings come from a 900-email correspondence between Miller and Katie McHugh, a former writer for Breitbart. McHugh was fired in 2017 for making anti-Muslim comments and has since renounced the far right.
The day the first batch of emails was released, Tiana Lowe, a columnist at the conservative newspaper the Washington Examiner, criticized the SPLC, but said “interns have been fired for less” than what was revealed about Miller in the emails.
“We can’t say with certainty what hate is or isn’t in Miller’s heart, but we know that he was happy enough to use the work of hatemongers and kill the GOP’s last shot at immigration reform, apparently because it would help predominantly Mexican immigrants,” Lowe wrote. “It’s long past time for Trump to dump Miller.”
That same day, the Democratic presidential hopeful Julián Castro, tweeted: “Donald Trump put a Neo-Nazi in charge of immigration policy. Both him, and Stephen Miller, are a shame to our nation.”
In the ensuing days, fellow Democratic hopefuls Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar tweeted that Miller should resign.
Ilhan Omar, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, tweeted that the emails proved what she had said earlier in the year: “Stephen Miller is a white nationalist.”
Omar’s comment touched on a frequent theme in the calls for Miller to resign: that before SPLC published the emails, there were many public incidents in which Miller displayed animosity towards people of color and immigrants.
The country’s largest American Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), said Miller should resign immediately, and if he does not, the president should fire him.
“Now we have the emails to back up previous perceptions of his racism and xenophobia,” said Robert McCaw, Cair’s director of government affairs,. “Miller must resign immediately.”
Miller, one of the few people to remain in the administration since Trump took office in January 2017, is understood to be the architect behind hardline immigration policies including family separation and the Muslim ban.
Before joining Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Miller worked for Jeff Sessions, then a Republican senator for Alabama. Sessions was known for being a strident opponent to legal and illegal immigration.
The White House did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. In statements to the media, they have not denied the emails came from Miller or addressed the content of the emails.
Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, said that the SPLC was an “utterly discredited, long-debunked far-left smear organization” and Hogan Gidley, the deputy White House press secretary, claimed the criticism was related to Miller’s Jewish identity. “He loves this country and hates bigotry in all forms – and it concerns me as to why so many on the left consistently attack Jewish members of this administration,” Gidley told the New York Times.
The criticism, however, has not died down.
Leaders of congressional caucuses which advocate for issues affecting the Hispanic, Black and Asian-Pacific communities as well as the progressive wing of Congress, issued a joint statement calling Miller a white nationalist and demanding his resignation.
“His beliefs are appalling, indefensible and completely at odds with public service,” the statement said.
“We feel like it is up to us to point out the obvious – someone who writes, talks and governs like a white nationalist is in fact a white nationalist,” the caucuses wrote. “Stephen Miller is a white nationalist and he has no business serving in the White House.”
As of 15 November, more than 80 members of Congress had called for Miller’s resignation. The Democratic New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez started a petition for people to support his resignation.
Some 55 civil rights groups, including Cair, the NAACP, SPLC and Lambda Legal have signed a letter to Trump demanding he remove Miller.
“Stephen Miller represents white supremacy, violent extremism and hate – all ideologies that are antithetical to the fundamental values that guide our democracy,” the letter said. “Allowing him to remain a White House adviser is a betrayal of our national ideals of justice, inclusion and fairness.”
The communications had revealed the top aide’s obsessive focus on injecting white nationalist-style talking points on immigration, race and crime into the far-right website Breitbart, both during and after Donald Trump’s successful bid for the White House.
In the past week, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has released multiple reports showing Miller promoted racist fears, disseminated conspiracy theories and injected a white nationalist agenda into the website Breitbart News.
The SPLC said the findings come from a 900-email correspondence between Miller and Katie McHugh, a former writer for Breitbart. McHugh was fired in 2017 for making anti-Muslim comments and has since renounced the far right.
The day the first batch of emails was released, Tiana Lowe, a columnist at the conservative newspaper the Washington Examiner, criticized the SPLC, but said “interns have been fired for less” than what was revealed about Miller in the emails.
“We can’t say with certainty what hate is or isn’t in Miller’s heart, but we know that he was happy enough to use the work of hatemongers and kill the GOP’s last shot at immigration reform, apparently because it would help predominantly Mexican immigrants,” Lowe wrote. “It’s long past time for Trump to dump Miller.”
That same day, the Democratic presidential hopeful Julián Castro, tweeted: “Donald Trump put a Neo-Nazi in charge of immigration policy. Both him, and Stephen Miller, are a shame to our nation.”
In the ensuing days, fellow Democratic hopefuls Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar tweeted that Miller should resign.
Ilhan Omar, a Democratic congresswoman from Minnesota, tweeted that the emails proved what she had said earlier in the year: “Stephen Miller is a white nationalist.”
Omar’s comment touched on a frequent theme in the calls for Miller to resign: that before SPLC published the emails, there were many public incidents in which Miller displayed animosity towards people of color and immigrants.
The country’s largest American Muslim advocacy group, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (Cair), said Miller should resign immediately, and if he does not, the president should fire him.
“Now we have the emails to back up previous perceptions of his racism and xenophobia,” said Robert McCaw, Cair’s director of government affairs,. “Miller must resign immediately.”
Miller, one of the few people to remain in the administration since Trump took office in January 2017, is understood to be the architect behind hardline immigration policies including family separation and the Muslim ban.
Before joining Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, Miller worked for Jeff Sessions, then a Republican senator for Alabama. Sessions was known for being a strident opponent to legal and illegal immigration.
The White House did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. In statements to the media, they have not denied the emails came from Miller or addressed the content of the emails.
Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary, said that the SPLC was an “utterly discredited, long-debunked far-left smear organization” and Hogan Gidley, the deputy White House press secretary, claimed the criticism was related to Miller’s Jewish identity. “He loves this country and hates bigotry in all forms – and it concerns me as to why so many on the left consistently attack Jewish members of this administration,” Gidley told the New York Times.
The criticism, however, has not died down.
Leaders of congressional caucuses which advocate for issues affecting the Hispanic, Black and Asian-Pacific communities as well as the progressive wing of Congress, issued a joint statement calling Miller a white nationalist and demanding his resignation.
“His beliefs are appalling, indefensible and completely at odds with public service,” the statement said.
“We feel like it is up to us to point out the obvious – someone who writes, talks and governs like a white nationalist is in fact a white nationalist,” the caucuses wrote. “Stephen Miller is a white nationalist and he has no business serving in the White House.”
As of 15 November, more than 80 members of Congress had called for Miller’s resignation. The Democratic New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez started a petition for people to support his resignation.
Some 55 civil rights groups, including Cair, the NAACP, SPLC and Lambda Legal have signed a letter to Trump demanding he remove Miller.
“Stephen Miller represents white supremacy, violent extremism and hate – all ideologies that are antithetical to the fundamental values that guide our democracy,” the letter said. “Allowing him to remain a White House adviser is a betrayal of our national ideals of justice, inclusion and fairness.”
White Nationalists Caught Shooting Propaganda Video at Emmett Till Memorial, Then Scatters When Alarm Sounds
By Tanasia Kenney - atlanta black star
November 4, 2019
A memorial honoring Emmett Till was dishonored over the weekend by a group of white nationalists attempting to shoot a propaganda video at the historic site in Mississippi.
The video, released by Sumner Courthouse and the Emmett Till Interpretive Center on Saturday, shows the men filming a video in front of the memorial, which has been a repeated target for racist vandalism in recent years.
The group was caught red-handed, thanks to a newly installed surveillance system that was updated when crews erected a bulletproof memorial at the site late last month, Patrick Weems, executive directed for the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, told NBC News.
In the clip, a group of five white people can be seen gathered at the sign in Sumner, Mississippi with the state flag, as well as another flag depicting the St. Andrews cross. Two other people are standing off to the side, appearing to record with their cellphones.
A man in the video describes the memorial as a “monument that represents the civil rights movement for blacks.”
He then asks: “What we want to know is, where are all of the white people?”
Moments later, the group is sent scattering as security alarms for the memorial begin to sound.
Weems said the sirens, a new security feature, are a part of the updated surveillance system that was installed after a previous marker honoring Till, 14, was riddled with bullet holes on several occasions. He added that Saturday’s incident was the first of what looked “to be white nationalists making a propaganda video.”
Weems also told NBC News that the flag bearing the St. Andrews cross is linked to an Alabama-based neo-Confederate group called the League of the South.
Till, a Black teen visiting from Chicago, was kidnapped and lynched by two white men in 1955 after he supposedly had whistled at a white woman. His body was recovered days later in the Tallahatchie River.
It would be several decades before Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman who claimed Till made advances toward her, confessed to lying about the events that led to the teen’s brutal murder.
The Justice Department re-launched the investigation into Till’s lynching last year and remains among the active cases under review by the agency. However, the teen’s relatives have grown weary waiting for justice.
“We want them to go ahead and do something,” the Rev. Wheeler Parker, 80, who was with Till the night he was abducted, told the Associated Press earlier this year. “What’s the holdup?”
Till’s newest memorial was dedicated Oct. 19 and remains under surveillance by local authorities after Saturday’s incident.
The video, released by Sumner Courthouse and the Emmett Till Interpretive Center on Saturday, shows the men filming a video in front of the memorial, which has been a repeated target for racist vandalism in recent years.
The group was caught red-handed, thanks to a newly installed surveillance system that was updated when crews erected a bulletproof memorial at the site late last month, Patrick Weems, executive directed for the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, told NBC News.
In the clip, a group of five white people can be seen gathered at the sign in Sumner, Mississippi with the state flag, as well as another flag depicting the St. Andrews cross. Two other people are standing off to the side, appearing to record with their cellphones.
A man in the video describes the memorial as a “monument that represents the civil rights movement for blacks.”
He then asks: “What we want to know is, where are all of the white people?”
Moments later, the group is sent scattering as security alarms for the memorial begin to sound.
Weems said the sirens, a new security feature, are a part of the updated surveillance system that was installed after a previous marker honoring Till, 14, was riddled with bullet holes on several occasions. He added that Saturday’s incident was the first of what looked “to be white nationalists making a propaganda video.”
Weems also told NBC News that the flag bearing the St. Andrews cross is linked to an Alabama-based neo-Confederate group called the League of the South.
Till, a Black teen visiting from Chicago, was kidnapped and lynched by two white men in 1955 after he supposedly had whistled at a white woman. His body was recovered days later in the Tallahatchie River.
It would be several decades before Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman who claimed Till made advances toward her, confessed to lying about the events that led to the teen’s brutal murder.
The Justice Department re-launched the investigation into Till’s lynching last year and remains among the active cases under review by the agency. However, the teen’s relatives have grown weary waiting for justice.
“We want them to go ahead and do something,” the Rev. Wheeler Parker, 80, who was with Till the night he was abducted, told the Associated Press earlier this year. “What’s the holdup?”
Till’s newest memorial was dedicated Oct. 19 and remains under surveillance by local authorities after Saturday’s incident.
A US citizen says he had acid thrown in his face after being told to go back to his country
By Hollie Silverman and Amanda Watts, CNN
Updated 7:15 AM ET, Mon November 4, 201
(CNN)A man has been arrested after allegedly throwing acid in the face of a US citizen, who says his attacker told him to "go back to (his) country."
Milwaukee police say they arrested a 61-year-old man in connection with the attack against Mahud Villalaz that caused second-degree burns. Charges will be brought forward to the District Attorney's Office in the next couple of days, Milwaukee Police Public Information Officer Sgt. Sheronda Grant confirmed to CNN.
The attack occurred after the two men got into an argument Friday night, and the suspect threw acid on Villalaz, the police department said.
Villalaz told CNN affiliate WISN the argument was over how Villalaz had parked his car.Villalaz said his attacker called him an "illegal" and told him to "get out of this country" before throwing acid in his face, WISN reported
"I believe (I) am a victim of a hate crime because (of) how he approached me," Villalaz told WISN.
Villalaz is a 42-year-old welder who has been in the United States for 19 years, according to Darryl Morin, president of Forward Latino. Morin is helping the family manage media requests and deal with the incident, he told CNN.
Morin said Villalaz is a United States citizen originally from Peru.
"He's doing ok," Morin told CNN about Villalaz's condition. "He's in relatively good spirits understanding how bad things could have been."
Morin said Villalaz had to explain the incident to his wife and two young children. "They weren't able to understand how somebody could do this to a person without knowing them."
The attack is now "being probed as a hate crime," according to a statement from Alderman Jose Perez.
"The acid attack last night near 13th and Cleveland was a heinous crime that will have a long-term impact on the life of the victim," Perez said in the statement. "This was senseless violence, it needs to stop."
Perez added the community is encouraged that the attack is being investigated as a hate crime.The Milwaukee Police Department did not specify whether hate crime charges are possible, telling CNN "this is still an open investigation."
Milwaukee police say they arrested a 61-year-old man in connection with the attack against Mahud Villalaz that caused second-degree burns. Charges will be brought forward to the District Attorney's Office in the next couple of days, Milwaukee Police Public Information Officer Sgt. Sheronda Grant confirmed to CNN.
The attack occurred after the two men got into an argument Friday night, and the suspect threw acid on Villalaz, the police department said.
Villalaz told CNN affiliate WISN the argument was over how Villalaz had parked his car.Villalaz said his attacker called him an "illegal" and told him to "get out of this country" before throwing acid in his face, WISN reported
"I believe (I) am a victim of a hate crime because (of) how he approached me," Villalaz told WISN.
Villalaz is a 42-year-old welder who has been in the United States for 19 years, according to Darryl Morin, president of Forward Latino. Morin is helping the family manage media requests and deal with the incident, he told CNN.
Morin said Villalaz is a United States citizen originally from Peru.
"He's doing ok," Morin told CNN about Villalaz's condition. "He's in relatively good spirits understanding how bad things could have been."
Morin said Villalaz had to explain the incident to his wife and two young children. "They weren't able to understand how somebody could do this to a person without knowing them."
The attack is now "being probed as a hate crime," according to a statement from Alderman Jose Perez.
"The acid attack last night near 13th and Cleveland was a heinous crime that will have a long-term impact on the life of the victim," Perez said in the statement. "This was senseless violence, it needs to stop."
Perez added the community is encouraged that the attack is being investigated as a hate crime.The Milwaukee Police Department did not specify whether hate crime charges are possible, telling CNN "this is still an open investigation."
white trash speaks!!!
‘We’ve got a queer running for president!’ Tennessee official bursts into a racist, anti-gay rant at council meeting
October 22, 2019
By Matthew Chapman - raw story
On Monday in Sevier County, Tennessee, during a county commission meeting to discuss a pending vote to become a gun sanctuary city, Commissioner Warren Hurst exploded in a racist, homophobic tirade that stunned onlookers.
“It’s time we wake up people, it’s time, it’s past time,” said Hurst, in footage originally captured by WVLT News. “We got a queer running for president, if that ain’t about as ugly as you can get. Look what we got running for president in the Democratic party. We can go over here to [Sevier County Sheriff] Hoss’ jail and get better people out of there than those running for Democratic [sic] to be president of the United States.”
Presumably Hurst is referring to South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is a married gay man.
Many in the audience clapped at Hurst’s speech, but one woman got up and stormed out, saying “Excuse me. This is not professional. This is bullshit.”
Hurst continued on. “I’m not prejudice [sic], a white male in this country has very few rights and they’re getting took more every day.”
Hurst later insisted to reporters that he isn’t racist, and some of his best friends are African-Americans.
“It’s time we wake up people, it’s time, it’s past time,” said Hurst, in footage originally captured by WVLT News. “We got a queer running for president, if that ain’t about as ugly as you can get. Look what we got running for president in the Democratic party. We can go over here to [Sevier County Sheriff] Hoss’ jail and get better people out of there than those running for Democratic [sic] to be president of the United States.”
Presumably Hurst is referring to South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is a married gay man.
Many in the audience clapped at Hurst’s speech, but one woman got up and stormed out, saying “Excuse me. This is not professional. This is bullshit.”
Hurst continued on. “I’m not prejudice [sic], a white male in this country has very few rights and they’re getting took more every day.”
Hurst later insisted to reporters that he isn’t racist, and some of his best friends are African-Americans.
Trump Is Tinder for the White Nationalist Explosion That John Tanton Stoked
BY Steven Gardiner, Truthout
PUBLISHED October 6, 2019
A fter a decade of avoiding addressing the growth of white nationalist violence, the Department of Homeland Security has acknowledged its threat and issued a “Strategic Framework” document that clarifies “the dangers posed by domestic terrorists, including racially- and ethnically-motivated violent extremists, particularly white supremacist violent extremists.” The department will, among other “priority actions,” form partnerships with local stakeholders, seek partnerships with private sector tech companies to combat the spread of violent ideologies online, and increase grants to local law enforcement to combat all kinds of “extremism.”
The move runs contrary to President Trump’s repeated minimizing of white nationalism and seems to be the result of both years of prodding from researchers and the sheer amount of carnage inflicted. The pivot should be welcomed, but we must recognize that it is not just white nationalist violence that is a problem, but also the related politics of racial and ethnic exclusion that have animated the current administration from its inception.
The Trump administration has now reached agreements with three Central American countries — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — that requires would-be asylum seekers passing through those countries apply for asylum there instead of proceeding to the U.S. This comes fast on the heels of a Supreme Court decision that paved the way for the Trump administration to block most asylum seekers at the southern border — one of dozens of policies, from limiting immigrants’ access to services to increased detention, recommended by anti-immigrant groups founded by the late John Tanton.
Since his death in July, Tanton has been eulogized as the architect of the contemporary anti-immigration movement. Tanton was an ophthalmologist based in Petoskey, Michigan, whose dread of so-called cultural contamination, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, led to his founding or funding of 13 organizations, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), dedicated to restricting the flow of immigrants to the U.S. or protecting “American culture” from foreign influences.
Twenty-five years before the El Paso gunman wrote a manifesto opposing a supposed “invasion” of immigrants and killed 22 people and injured two dozen more, Tanton co-authored The Immigration Invasion with Holocaust denier Wayne Lutton. Tanton acted as a bridge between explicit white nationalism obsessed with race as a biological reality and the realm of public policy. The line between policies that seek to restrict immigration flows for environmental, economic or “cultural cohesion” reasons and open racists who see the influx of immigrants of color as the greatest threat to white people both racially and culturally is often anything but clear. Tanton himself circulated a memo intended only for movement insiders in which he wrote, “As whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?”
Explicitly white nationalist organizations have, in symmetry with the work of the groups Tanton founded, increasingly seen non-white immigration as both the biggest threat to their vision of a “whites only” homeland and their best chance to win allies in the political mainstream. Much of the traction gained by the anti-immigrant policy organizations in the 1990s (and supplemented in the following decade by the Tea Party) led the Tanton-founded and funded groups to disavow explicit white nationalism. This does not mean, of course, that the more mainstream groups never slip into racist rhetoric, such as CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian’s analysis that, “Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough,” or NumbersUSA President Roy Beck’s assertion that immigrants are “enabling pools” of crime and terrorism. FAIR’s current president, Dan Stein, has said that repealing explicitly racist immigration laws from the 1920s is a “way to retaliate against Anglo-Saxon dominance” that “will continue to create chaos down the line”
What should astonish us is that President Trump and his supporters are now far less discreet in their white nationalist dog-whistles than movement stalwarts like Krikorian and Beck. With Trump’s references to Mexican “criminals, drug dealers, rapists,” condemnation of immigrants from “shithole countries,” justification for excluding refugees from Muslim-majority countries because he claims they are “terrorists,” and most recently, turning away Bahamian refugees after Hurricane Dorian and maligning them as “very bad people,” “gang members” and “drug dealers,” Trump has lowered the bar all the way to ground on fear-mongering and resentment of immigrants. And, just so it is clear whom he means by immigrants, the president — echoing Pat Buchanan, another bridge figure between white nationalism and the more accepted “anti-immigrant” movement — noted that, “We should have more people from places like Norway.”
If Tanton was warning of an explosion resulting from whites believing that their lives are declining (read: losing demographic majority), Trump waging an explicitly anti-immigrant and obviously racist rhetoric campaign is tinder. The manifesto writers and mass murderers who have inflicted so much carnage in places such as Pittsburgh, Poway and El Paso, throw Trump’s words back at him when they assess no one is going far enough to protect the U.S. from what they imagine as “white genocide” being plotted and enabled by Jews, liberals and socialists.
They are communicating that if there is really an “invasion,” then it’s time for violence.
Those of us for whom such delusions trigger dread and revulsion, however, must not rest in outrage. Tanton’s vision of defending an imagined “white culture,” shared with the explicit white nationalists, is now being realized in both U.S. border policies and bigoted violence. Anyone and everyone who believes in inclusive democracy is now under a heavy obligation to work together to stop white nationalism, whether we find it in the form of racist violence, the enabling rhetoric or the policies that treat those seeking a new home as “enemies.”
The move runs contrary to President Trump’s repeated minimizing of white nationalism and seems to be the result of both years of prodding from researchers and the sheer amount of carnage inflicted. The pivot should be welcomed, but we must recognize that it is not just white nationalist violence that is a problem, but also the related politics of racial and ethnic exclusion that have animated the current administration from its inception.
The Trump administration has now reached agreements with three Central American countries — El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — that requires would-be asylum seekers passing through those countries apply for asylum there instead of proceeding to the U.S. This comes fast on the heels of a Supreme Court decision that paved the way for the Trump administration to block most asylum seekers at the southern border — one of dozens of policies, from limiting immigrants’ access to services to increased detention, recommended by anti-immigrant groups founded by the late John Tanton.
Since his death in July, Tanton has been eulogized as the architect of the contemporary anti-immigration movement. Tanton was an ophthalmologist based in Petoskey, Michigan, whose dread of so-called cultural contamination, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, led to his founding or funding of 13 organizations, including the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), NumbersUSA and the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), dedicated to restricting the flow of immigrants to the U.S. or protecting “American culture” from foreign influences.
Twenty-five years before the El Paso gunman wrote a manifesto opposing a supposed “invasion” of immigrants and killed 22 people and injured two dozen more, Tanton co-authored The Immigration Invasion with Holocaust denier Wayne Lutton. Tanton acted as a bridge between explicit white nationalism obsessed with race as a biological reality and the realm of public policy. The line between policies that seek to restrict immigration flows for environmental, economic or “cultural cohesion” reasons and open racists who see the influx of immigrants of color as the greatest threat to white people both racially and culturally is often anything but clear. Tanton himself circulated a memo intended only for movement insiders in which he wrote, “As whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?”
Explicitly white nationalist organizations have, in symmetry with the work of the groups Tanton founded, increasingly seen non-white immigration as both the biggest threat to their vision of a “whites only” homeland and their best chance to win allies in the political mainstream. Much of the traction gained by the anti-immigrant policy organizations in the 1990s (and supplemented in the following decade by the Tea Party) led the Tanton-founded and funded groups to disavow explicit white nationalism. This does not mean, of course, that the more mainstream groups never slip into racist rhetoric, such as CIS Executive Director Mark Krikorian’s analysis that, “Haiti’s so screwed up because it wasn’t colonized long enough,” or NumbersUSA President Roy Beck’s assertion that immigrants are “enabling pools” of crime and terrorism. FAIR’s current president, Dan Stein, has said that repealing explicitly racist immigration laws from the 1920s is a “way to retaliate against Anglo-Saxon dominance” that “will continue to create chaos down the line”
What should astonish us is that President Trump and his supporters are now far less discreet in their white nationalist dog-whistles than movement stalwarts like Krikorian and Beck. With Trump’s references to Mexican “criminals, drug dealers, rapists,” condemnation of immigrants from “shithole countries,” justification for excluding refugees from Muslim-majority countries because he claims they are “terrorists,” and most recently, turning away Bahamian refugees after Hurricane Dorian and maligning them as “very bad people,” “gang members” and “drug dealers,” Trump has lowered the bar all the way to ground on fear-mongering and resentment of immigrants. And, just so it is clear whom he means by immigrants, the president — echoing Pat Buchanan, another bridge figure between white nationalism and the more accepted “anti-immigrant” movement — noted that, “We should have more people from places like Norway.”
If Tanton was warning of an explosion resulting from whites believing that their lives are declining (read: losing demographic majority), Trump waging an explicitly anti-immigrant and obviously racist rhetoric campaign is tinder. The manifesto writers and mass murderers who have inflicted so much carnage in places such as Pittsburgh, Poway and El Paso, throw Trump’s words back at him when they assess no one is going far enough to protect the U.S. from what they imagine as “white genocide” being plotted and enabled by Jews, liberals and socialists.
They are communicating that if there is really an “invasion,” then it’s time for violence.
Those of us for whom such delusions trigger dread and revulsion, however, must not rest in outrage. Tanton’s vision of defending an imagined “white culture,” shared with the explicit white nationalists, is now being realized in both U.S. border policies and bigoted violence. Anyone and everyone who believes in inclusive democracy is now under a heavy obligation to work together to stop white nationalism, whether we find it in the form of racist violence, the enabling rhetoric or the policies that treat those seeking a new home as “enemies.”
New study finds people who have low emotional IQs tend to be racist right-wingers
September 6, 2019
By Sky Palma - raw story
According to a recent study published in the journal Emotion, people who score low on emotional intelligence tests tend to hold right-wing and bigoted views more often than not.
As Big Think points out, the study is the first of its kind when it comes to people with emotional deficits and right-wing views, whereas previous studies focused on people with intelligence deficits and their predisposition to right-wing ideologies.
Researchers took 983 Belgian undergraduates and assessed their political views and gave them three tests: the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding, the Situational Test of Emotion Management, and the Geneva Emotion Recognition Test. Participants who had lower emotional IQ scores scored higher when it came to “right-wing authoritarianism” and “social dominance orientation” — revealing that they’d be more willing to submit themselves to political authority and favor inequality within social groups.
Additionally, low emotional IQ scorers were more likely to agree with statements such as “the white race is superior to all other races.”
“The results of this study were univocal. People who endorse authority and strong leaders and who do not mind inequality — the two basic dimensions underlying right-wing political ideology — show lower levels of emotional abilities,” study author Alain Van Hiel told PsyPost.
Van Hiel warned that the results should be interpreted with caution.
“One cannot discredit any ideology on the basis of such results as those presently obtained,” he said. “Only in a distant future we will be able to look back upon our times, and then we can maybe judge which ideologies were the best. Cognitively and emotionally smart people can make wrong decisions as well.”
As Big Think points out, the study is the first of its kind when it comes to people with emotional deficits and right-wing views, whereas previous studies focused on people with intelligence deficits and their predisposition to right-wing ideologies.
Researchers took 983 Belgian undergraduates and assessed their political views and gave them three tests: the Situational Test of Emotional Understanding, the Situational Test of Emotion Management, and the Geneva Emotion Recognition Test. Participants who had lower emotional IQ scores scored higher when it came to “right-wing authoritarianism” and “social dominance orientation” — revealing that they’d be more willing to submit themselves to political authority and favor inequality within social groups.
Additionally, low emotional IQ scorers were more likely to agree with statements such as “the white race is superior to all other races.”
“The results of this study were univocal. People who endorse authority and strong leaders and who do not mind inequality — the two basic dimensions underlying right-wing political ideology — show lower levels of emotional abilities,” study author Alain Van Hiel told PsyPost.
Van Hiel warned that the results should be interpreted with caution.
“One cannot discredit any ideology on the basis of such results as those presently obtained,” he said. “Only in a distant future we will be able to look back upon our times, and then we can maybe judge which ideologies were the best. Cognitively and emotionally smart people can make wrong decisions as well.”
A racist hate site is posting photos of Jewish students and staffers — and university officials are extremely concerned
September 4, 2019
By Travis Gettys - raw story
Two universities contacted the FBI after hundreds of Jewish students and staffers had their photos dumped online by a notoriously anti-Semitic white nationalist.
Student journalists from Brandeis University and Yeshiva University have reported the photos posted online on the anti-Semitic and racist VNN Forum associated with white nationalist Alex Linder, who has frequently endorsed violence against Jewish people, reported The Daily Beast.
Linder praised the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue last year in Pittsburgh, and one of the site’s senior members killed three people in an attack on a Jewish community center five years ago near Kansas City.
A source familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast that Yeshiva University officials had reported the posting to the FBI field office in New York, which then contacted agents in St. Louis, which has jurisdiction over Linder’s hometown in Missouri.
An FBI spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny whether Linder or the Vanguard News Network were under investigation.
The discussion thread showing the photos has been deleted from the forum.
The photos were posted by a user under the likely pseudonym Stewart Meadows, who has made more than 4,300 posts since joining the site in May 2018.
He has posted photos of various Jewish people, most of whom are women, for more than a year.
The Brandeis student newspaper first reported the photos, which included current and former students and staffers, and campus security issued a statement claiming they found no evidence of a “direct threat.”
Yeshiva’s student newspaper reported the photos the following day, and the university’s campus security urged students to “ignore the site.”
But the targets of the online campaign are concerned about Linder’s history, and his outspoken endorsement of and association with anti-Semitic violence.
Linder’s site has lost much of its traffic since Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., a Ku Klux Klan leader in the 1980s and a VNN regular, killed three outside a Jewish community center in Overland Park, Kansas, and was sentenced to death.
Student journalists from Brandeis University and Yeshiva University have reported the photos posted online on the anti-Semitic and racist VNN Forum associated with white nationalist Alex Linder, who has frequently endorsed violence against Jewish people, reported The Daily Beast.
Linder praised the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue last year in Pittsburgh, and one of the site’s senior members killed three people in an attack on a Jewish community center five years ago near Kansas City.
A source familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast that Yeshiva University officials had reported the posting to the FBI field office in New York, which then contacted agents in St. Louis, which has jurisdiction over Linder’s hometown in Missouri.
An FBI spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny whether Linder or the Vanguard News Network were under investigation.
The discussion thread showing the photos has been deleted from the forum.
The photos were posted by a user under the likely pseudonym Stewart Meadows, who has made more than 4,300 posts since joining the site in May 2018.
He has posted photos of various Jewish people, most of whom are women, for more than a year.
The Brandeis student newspaper first reported the photos, which included current and former students and staffers, and campus security issued a statement claiming they found no evidence of a “direct threat.”
Yeshiva’s student newspaper reported the photos the following day, and the university’s campus security urged students to “ignore the site.”
But the targets of the online campaign are concerned about Linder’s history, and his outspoken endorsement of and association with anti-Semitic violence.
Linder’s site has lost much of its traffic since Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., a Ku Klux Klan leader in the 1980s and a VNN regular, killed three outside a Jewish community center in Overland Park, Kansas, and was sentenced to death.
Armed mob attacks Houston Popeyes — after being told they were out of chicken sandwiches
September 2, 2019
By Bob Brigham - raw story
Police were called to a Popeyes in Houston, Texas after a violent confrontation — over chicken sandwiches.
“An armed group of people rushed the door of a Popeyes Chicken restaurant in southeast Houston Monday night demanding chicken sandwiches,” KTRK-TV reported Monday evening.
Employees told ABC13 a mob of two women, three men and a baby were told at the drive-thru that the chicken sandwiches were sold out, but that apparently triggered the would-be customers. That is when police said they tried to get inside the restaurant,” KTRK reported.
“One man had a gun, but a restaurant worker was able to lock them out,” the station noted.
“An armed group of people rushed the door of a Popeyes Chicken restaurant in southeast Houston Monday night demanding chicken sandwiches,” KTRK-TV reported Monday evening.
Employees told ABC13 a mob of two women, three men and a baby were told at the drive-thru that the chicken sandwiches were sold out, but that apparently triggered the would-be customers. That is when police said they tried to get inside the restaurant,” KTRK reported.
“One man had a gun, but a restaurant worker was able to lock them out,” the station noted.
US Attorney Cuts Neo-Nazis Down To Size With Brutal Press Conference Remarks
"If you want to waste the blessings of liberty by going down a path of hatred and failed ideologies, that is your choice," said a visibly determined Justin Herdman.
By Aliza Worthington - Crooks & Liars
8/30/19 7:19am
Another day, another white guy living with his mom threatening to shoot up a synagogue. This one, James Reardon, a 20-year-old Nazi-wannabe threatened to shoot up a Jewish Community Center in Youngstown, Ohio. He was caught because a someone brought the threat he'd posted on Instagram to the attention of the police, and police took it seriously enough to search his house (his mom answered the door.) When they found all the weapons and ammo, they arrested him, having also seen all the anti-Semitic content he gleefully posted on his social media accounts.
On Thursday, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Justin Herdman, announced charges against Reardon, but what made this presser unusual was his message for the other pathetic Hitler-ites who think that they can not only say whatever they want, but do whatever they want with impunity. Here are some excerpts from Herdman's remarks, which were unusually powerful because of their strength and determination, but also for the way they cut white supremacists down to the size they deserve. Dare I say, the size of insects?
Now, let me speak generally to those who are advocates for white supremacy or white nationalism. I am talking directly to you. The Constitution protects your right to speak, your right to think, and your right to believe. If you want to waste the blessings of liberty by going down a path of hatred and failed ideologies, that is your choice.Democracy allows you to test those ideas in a public forum. If you want to submit your beliefs to the American people and get their reaction, please be our guest. Keep this in mind, though.
Thousands and thousands of young Americans already voted with their lives to make sure that this same message of intolerance, death, and destruction would not prevail. You can count their ballots by visiting any American cemetery in North Africa, Italy, France, or Belgium, and tallying the white headstones. You can also recite the many names of civil rights advocates who bled and died in opposing supporters of that same ideologies of hatred. Their voices may be distant, but they can still be heard.
Go ahead and make your case for Nazism, a white nation, and racial superiority. The Constitution may give you a voice, but it doesn't guarantee you a receptive audience. Your right to free speech does not automatically mean that people will agree with you. In fact, you have a God-given and inalienable right to be on the losing end of this argument.
[...]
Threatening to kill Jewish people, gunning down innocent Latinos on a weekend shopping trip, planning and plotting to perpetrate murders in the name of a nonsense racial theory, sitting to pray with God-fearing people who you execute moments later - those actions don't make you soldiers, they make you cowards. And law enforcement does not go to war with cowards who break the law, we arrest them and send them to prison.
[...]
Together, we are united to ensure that you commit no further acts of violence in the name of your beliefs. When you wake up tomorrow morning, no matter what time that is, I want you to remember something. You can’t set your alarm clock early enough to beat us out of bed. The men and women of law enforcement don’t wake up. We never go to sleep. We are always awake. And arm in arm with the public, when your hatred leads you to break the law, we will do everything we can to be there to stop you.
If only our president, attorney general, and Senate majority leader agreed.
On Thursday, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, Justin Herdman, announced charges against Reardon, but what made this presser unusual was his message for the other pathetic Hitler-ites who think that they can not only say whatever they want, but do whatever they want with impunity. Here are some excerpts from Herdman's remarks, which were unusually powerful because of their strength and determination, but also for the way they cut white supremacists down to the size they deserve. Dare I say, the size of insects?
Now, let me speak generally to those who are advocates for white supremacy or white nationalism. I am talking directly to you. The Constitution protects your right to speak, your right to think, and your right to believe. If you want to waste the blessings of liberty by going down a path of hatred and failed ideologies, that is your choice.Democracy allows you to test those ideas in a public forum. If you want to submit your beliefs to the American people and get their reaction, please be our guest. Keep this in mind, though.
Thousands and thousands of young Americans already voted with their lives to make sure that this same message of intolerance, death, and destruction would not prevail. You can count their ballots by visiting any American cemetery in North Africa, Italy, France, or Belgium, and tallying the white headstones. You can also recite the many names of civil rights advocates who bled and died in opposing supporters of that same ideologies of hatred. Their voices may be distant, but they can still be heard.
Go ahead and make your case for Nazism, a white nation, and racial superiority. The Constitution may give you a voice, but it doesn't guarantee you a receptive audience. Your right to free speech does not automatically mean that people will agree with you. In fact, you have a God-given and inalienable right to be on the losing end of this argument.
[...]
Threatening to kill Jewish people, gunning down innocent Latinos on a weekend shopping trip, planning and plotting to perpetrate murders in the name of a nonsense racial theory, sitting to pray with God-fearing people who you execute moments later - those actions don't make you soldiers, they make you cowards. And law enforcement does not go to war with cowards who break the law, we arrest them and send them to prison.
[...]
Together, we are united to ensure that you commit no further acts of violence in the name of your beliefs. When you wake up tomorrow morning, no matter what time that is, I want you to remember something. You can’t set your alarm clock early enough to beat us out of bed. The men and women of law enforcement don’t wake up. We never go to sleep. We are always awake. And arm in arm with the public, when your hatred leads you to break the law, we will do everything we can to be there to stop you.
If only our president, attorney general, and Senate majority leader agreed.
‘There’s No Logical Answer’: North Carolina Father Charged With Rape, Murder After Admitting to Killing Biracial Daughter
By Tanasia Kenney - Atlanta Black Star
August 28, 2019
Joshua Burgess (left) remains jailed on kidnapping, rape and murder charges in the death of his 15-year-old daughter, Zaria Burgess. (Photos: WSOC-TV / video screenshot)
A North Carolina man who confessed to killing his own daughter is now charged with rape and kidnapping in the teen’s tragic death.
Authorities have charged Joshua Lee Burgess, 32, with with statutory rape of a person 15 years of age or younger, first-degree statutory sex offense, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, the Union County Sheriff’s Office announced this week.
Burgess also faces a charge of first-degree murder after deputies say he walked into the sheriff’s office Sunday and described to dispatchers in detail how he’d killed his 15-year-old daughter Zaria Joshalyn Burgess. Now, authorities and the community are struggling to make sense of the bizarre incident.
“The details of this murder are indescribable,” said Sheriff Eddie Cathey. “Every officer and detective involved in this case is feeling the effects of what happened to this child. There’s no logical answer to explain why this man did what he is accused of doing.
“Our hearts and prayers are with Zaria’s mom and her family,” he added.
Burgess reportedly admitted to strangling his daughter before slitting her throat, according to documents read in court last week. Police would find Zaria’s lifeless body inside her father’s home on Sunday.
According to a medical examiner’s report, the 15-year-old died as a result of a “sharp force injury to the neck.”
Zaria’s relatives are still reeling from her tragic death. Her cousin, Dytaysha Wadsworth, remembered her as a fun-loving girl who enjoyed being around family.
“She was the type of kid to come in a room come or in a house and say, ‘Hey everybody,’ just wanting to make everybody smile,” Wadsworth told local station WSOC-TV.
“She was so young and nobody deserves to leave this world like that, especially by someone they thought was gonna protect them and be there for them,” she added.
Burgess remains jailed without bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for September.
Funeral services for Zaria Burgess are planned for this Sunday.
Authorities have charged Joshua Lee Burgess, 32, with with statutory rape of a person 15 years of age or younger, first-degree statutory sex offense, first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, the Union County Sheriff’s Office announced this week.
Burgess also faces a charge of first-degree murder after deputies say he walked into the sheriff’s office Sunday and described to dispatchers in detail how he’d killed his 15-year-old daughter Zaria Joshalyn Burgess. Now, authorities and the community are struggling to make sense of the bizarre incident.
“The details of this murder are indescribable,” said Sheriff Eddie Cathey. “Every officer and detective involved in this case is feeling the effects of what happened to this child. There’s no logical answer to explain why this man did what he is accused of doing.
“Our hearts and prayers are with Zaria’s mom and her family,” he added.
Burgess reportedly admitted to strangling his daughter before slitting her throat, according to documents read in court last week. Police would find Zaria’s lifeless body inside her father’s home on Sunday.
According to a medical examiner’s report, the 15-year-old died as a result of a “sharp force injury to the neck.”
Zaria’s relatives are still reeling from her tragic death. Her cousin, Dytaysha Wadsworth, remembered her as a fun-loving girl who enjoyed being around family.
“She was the type of kid to come in a room come or in a house and say, ‘Hey everybody,’ just wanting to make everybody smile,” Wadsworth told local station WSOC-TV.
“She was so young and nobody deserves to leave this world like that, especially by someone they thought was gonna protect them and be there for them,” she added.
Burgess remains jailed without bond. His next court appearance is scheduled for September.
Funeral services for Zaria Burgess are planned for this Sunday.
Weapons cache, grenade launcher, Neo-Nazi literature and instructions for owning slaves found in man’s home
August 20, 2019
By David Edwards - Raw Story
A New Jersey man is facing life in prison after he was found to have a cache of illegal firearms and Neo-Nazi literature.
According to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito, State Troopers became suspicious after 57-year-old Joseph Rubino wrecked his vehicle on July 24. Officers noticed a number of firearms at the scene of the accident.
Inside the vehicle, officers found “a semi-automatic assault handgun, a 9mm semi-automatic assault pistol with a high-capacity magazine, a loaded 9mm pistol, two barrels sawed off from a double-barrel shotgun, a sight for an assault rifle and a stripped AR-15 bolt carrier,” NJ.com reported.
A subsequent search of Rubino’s home turned up an additional cache of 14 weapons.
From NJ.com:
Police then obtained a search warrant for Rubino’s home, where they found 14 more firearms, including assault rifles, shotguns, and handguns, authorities said. They also found four high-capacity magazines, ammunition, a grenade launcher, silencer tubes and a ballistics vest, authorities said.
Officers also found methamphetamine, more than 6 pounds of marijuana, 200 cannabis vape cartridges and marijuana edibles, authorities said.
Inside both the vehicle and the home, police found clothing and bumper stickers with white supremacist and Neo-Nazi slogans along with a document “containing racist material and purporting to be an instruction manual for owning a slave,” the complaint states.
Rubino was charged with “possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.”
He was previously sentenced to three years probation for writing bad checks.
According to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito, State Troopers became suspicious after 57-year-old Joseph Rubino wrecked his vehicle on July 24. Officers noticed a number of firearms at the scene of the accident.
Inside the vehicle, officers found “a semi-automatic assault handgun, a 9mm semi-automatic assault pistol with a high-capacity magazine, a loaded 9mm pistol, two barrels sawed off from a double-barrel shotgun, a sight for an assault rifle and a stripped AR-15 bolt carrier,” NJ.com reported.
A subsequent search of Rubino’s home turned up an additional cache of 14 weapons.
From NJ.com:
Police then obtained a search warrant for Rubino’s home, where they found 14 more firearms, including assault rifles, shotguns, and handguns, authorities said. They also found four high-capacity magazines, ammunition, a grenade launcher, silencer tubes and a ballistics vest, authorities said.
Officers also found methamphetamine, more than 6 pounds of marijuana, 200 cannabis vape cartridges and marijuana edibles, authorities said.
Inside both the vehicle and the home, police found clothing and bumper stickers with white supremacist and Neo-Nazi slogans along with a document “containing racist material and purporting to be an instruction manual for owning a slave,” the complaint states.
Rubino was charged with “possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession of firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, and possession of firearms by a convicted felon.”
He was previously sentenced to three years probation for writing bad checks.
Great parents or do we blame video games???
California High-School Students Sang Nazi Song and Gave Hitler Salute
Athletes performed an homage to the Third Reich before an awards ceremony. Their school won’t say how they were disciplined.
Davis Richardson - Daily Beast
Updated 08.19.19 9:46AM ET
A group of high-school students in Southern California gave a Nazi salute and sang a Nazi song during an awards ceremony last year, according to video reivewed by The Daily Beast.
The video shows about 10 members of the boys’ water polo team at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, California, throwing the salute once used to greet Adolf Hitler while singing a Nazi marching song played for German troops during World War II. It’s the second such incident in the region in the year.
The video was uploaded to Instagram by one of the athletes, who also posted lyrics to the song in his Instagram bio. After the video expired, the athlete removed the reference. He did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the Garden Grove Unified School district where Pacifica High School resides said the school administrators first became aware of the incident and video four months later in March, but did not say if they disciplined anyone.
“While the district cannot comment on student discipline, the school did address this situation with all involved students and families,” the spokesperson said. “The district adheres to strong policies about harassment and cultural sensitivity, and we condemn all acts of anti-Semitism and hate in all forms. We remain focused on educating students about cultural sensitivity and are committed to holding students accountable, educating them on the consequences of their choices, and the impact these actions have on our schools and community at large.”
However, one parent of a student at Pacifica, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation from school officials, told The Daily Beast they were concerned educators never addressed the wider community about the video, especially since it had circulated among students. A current student likewise said the incident was never spoken about by the administration and was not sure whether the students involved were suspended.
Rabbi Peter Levi, director of the Anti Defamation League’s Orange County chapter, criticized the school for apparently failing to address the incident with the community.
“Generally speaking, especially when something like this involves a group, we would think a more meaningful approach would be to use this as a learning opportunity, as an opportunity community-wide to state what our values are,” continued the rabbi. “This requires investigation and conversation… We’d like to see a more systematic response.”
The song the athletes were singing was written by German composer Herms Niel during the rise of Hitler, and was played to inspire Nazi troops serving in Germany’s armed forces forces from 1935 until 1945, when the Third Reich fell. Niel was a member of the Nazi party and conducted bands at the infamous Nuremberg rallies for Hitler’s disciples.
Peter Simi, a professor on extremism studies at Chapman University who lives nearby in Orange County, told The Daily Beast the song is so obscure it raises questions about how the athletes learned about it.
“It’s not something you’d expect somebody to accidentally know about. There’s some means by which they acquired knowledge about the song and associated Nazi issues,” he said. “Are they on websites or web forums or other social media platforms where they’re engaging with others informed on these issues?”
This is the second recent incident involving Nazi portrayals by students in Southern California. In March, Orange County high-school students were suspended after photos of them playing beer pong with cups set up in a swastika formation went viral. Like Pacifica’s water polo team, the students in the videos were seen extending their arms in Nazi salutes.
In the aftermath of the Orange County scandal, the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum invited students who attended the party to tour its museum and meet with Holocaust survivors. The museum also plans to extend an invitation to the Pacifica students seen in last fall’s video.
“I would definitely love to reach out to the principal of [Pacifica High School] and see if we can do the same thing we did with the Newport Harbor students,” Beth Kean, the museum’s CEO, told The Daily Beast. “Once you see those artifacts, you realize what these symbols like the German nationalist song really represent. That is really the best way to learn and make sure we can move forward and prevent these types of incidents from happening.”
The video shows about 10 members of the boys’ water polo team at Pacifica High School in Garden Grove, California, throwing the salute once used to greet Adolf Hitler while singing a Nazi marching song played for German troops during World War II. It’s the second such incident in the region in the year.
The video was uploaded to Instagram by one of the athletes, who also posted lyrics to the song in his Instagram bio. After the video expired, the athlete removed the reference. He did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for the Garden Grove Unified School district where Pacifica High School resides said the school administrators first became aware of the incident and video four months later in March, but did not say if they disciplined anyone.
“While the district cannot comment on student discipline, the school did address this situation with all involved students and families,” the spokesperson said. “The district adheres to strong policies about harassment and cultural sensitivity, and we condemn all acts of anti-Semitism and hate in all forms. We remain focused on educating students about cultural sensitivity and are committed to holding students accountable, educating them on the consequences of their choices, and the impact these actions have on our schools and community at large.”
However, one parent of a student at Pacifica, who requested anonymity out of fear of retaliation from school officials, told The Daily Beast they were concerned educators never addressed the wider community about the video, especially since it had circulated among students. A current student likewise said the incident was never spoken about by the administration and was not sure whether the students involved were suspended.
Rabbi Peter Levi, director of the Anti Defamation League’s Orange County chapter, criticized the school for apparently failing to address the incident with the community.
“Generally speaking, especially when something like this involves a group, we would think a more meaningful approach would be to use this as a learning opportunity, as an opportunity community-wide to state what our values are,” continued the rabbi. “This requires investigation and conversation… We’d like to see a more systematic response.”
The song the athletes were singing was written by German composer Herms Niel during the rise of Hitler, and was played to inspire Nazi troops serving in Germany’s armed forces forces from 1935 until 1945, when the Third Reich fell. Niel was a member of the Nazi party and conducted bands at the infamous Nuremberg rallies for Hitler’s disciples.
Peter Simi, a professor on extremism studies at Chapman University who lives nearby in Orange County, told The Daily Beast the song is so obscure it raises questions about how the athletes learned about it.
“It’s not something you’d expect somebody to accidentally know about. There’s some means by which they acquired knowledge about the song and associated Nazi issues,” he said. “Are they on websites or web forums or other social media platforms where they’re engaging with others informed on these issues?”
This is the second recent incident involving Nazi portrayals by students in Southern California. In March, Orange County high-school students were suspended after photos of them playing beer pong with cups set up in a swastika formation went viral. Like Pacifica’s water polo team, the students in the videos were seen extending their arms in Nazi salutes.
In the aftermath of the Orange County scandal, the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum invited students who attended the party to tour its museum and meet with Holocaust survivors. The museum also plans to extend an invitation to the Pacifica students seen in last fall’s video.
“I would definitely love to reach out to the principal of [Pacifica High School] and see if we can do the same thing we did with the Newport Harbor students,” Beth Kean, the museum’s CEO, told The Daily Beast. “Once you see those artifacts, you realize what these symbols like the German nationalist song really represent. That is really the best way to learn and make sure we can move forward and prevent these types of incidents from happening.”
Conservative evangelicals on Trump: The racism and cruelty is fine, but must there be swearing?
Hunter - Daily Kos Staff
Monday August 12, 2019 · 10:17 AM PDT
This Politico story about conservative evangelicals who have stood by Donald Trump's every scandal, lie, and act of cruelty suddenly now becoming profoundly upset because Trump said goddamn is further indication that the conservative evangelical movement is every bit the cesspool of insincere cultish malevolence its critics claim it to be. We do not have to be polite about this: After decades of the same behavior, no group of malevolent faux-Christians has ever stumbled into decency after a kind-hearted talk from other Americans has convinced them not to be raging, toxic asses working to the detriment of their nation, their communities, and their own families. It does not happen.
Anyone who still supports Trump after his myriad racist comments, after child separation, after his attacks on refugees fleeing violence, after his comments on women, two dozen reported assaults and several alleged rapes, and absolute indifference to any suffering other than his own is a garbage human being and will, barring an epiphany that it is beyond our power to manufacture, remain one, no matter how large a gold-colored cross they tuck themselves behind. To tolerate the steady drumbeat of lies and cruelties but get envapored over the embedded swear words is the perfect encapsulation of religious conservatism, as phenomenon and as movement.
In this version of Jesusness, torture is fine. Swear words are not. Blocking food distribution to the hungry and medical aid to the sick is Christlike; swear words are not. Turning away refugees fleeing violence, calling them diseased, or inherently criminal, or ethnic dangers to our "culture," is what Jesus Himself would do, in the red-letter sections of the New Testament. Swear words, however, are right out. Whether a child should live or die should be determined, as the Lord instructed, by whether the child's friends and relatives can raise sufficient funds in a bake sale to render treating the child at least marginally profitable; for government itself to step in is an abomination unto the private sector. But swear words, we must reiterate, are forbidden.
And any and all sin is forgivable, and is in fact so inconsequential as to not even require forgiving, from sexual assault, adultery, and rape to financial scammery to bearing false witness to a deep-seated personal vindictiveness that elevates do harm to perceived enemies into a foremost daily obsession—so long as you do not say shit or fuck or goddamn, words that poke through the tissue-thin veneer of decency that wraps loosely over all the worst of personal vulgarities and allows even the darkest and most self-absorbed soul to insist that they harbor the voice and will of The Lord Our God and you, Outsider, do not.
---
We've been here, literally, for decades. At this exact point. We have long hosted our own movement of casserole-bearing theocrats, all clamoring to do to America what they imagine the Apocalypse will do to Israel, but sooner—so that they can enjoy it properly and see off each person on their you had it coming list. But you're going to eff it up completely, fellow traveler, if you say swear words in your speech and break the illusion of holy decree. Holier than thou doesn't work if the thou suspects you are not in fact God's literal gift to humanity, Town Gossip Edition, and much in the same way that virulent racists are now using cartoon frogs or the okay gesture as ironic self-identifier, religious conservatives who have long removed themselves from abiding by the most exhausting of New Testament edicts have chosen the but at least we do not say “goddamn” to identify themselves to their peers.
Your neighbor may be a front-lawn racist, may sport a bumper sticker on their car demanding we nuke the Arabs and take their oil, may own three guns, two of which are reserved for pre-emptive murder if somebody needs murdering, may be a domestic abuser, may be a liar and a cheat, may cackle with cruelty in conversations about what to do with certain children or certain immigrants, but you will know they are your specific subsect of something-resembling-Christian if they say gosh darn instead of the other thing. The rest is open to interpretation.
Of course they support Trump—Trump is the very embodiment of what conservative Christianity ought to look like, an endless cycle of nasty score-settling and giving other Americans the what-for interspersed with ritualistic mysticism like the laying-on of hands. Then it's back to the torture-promotion, the barring of refugees, and the insistence that the poor and the sick pay their own way or die trying. Materialistic charlatans have been sitting themselves down on spray-painted golden thrones and claiming to be television messiahs since the invention of the medium; every one of them has claimed that they are closer to God than you are because they have their own private jet.
Anyone who still supports Trump after his myriad racist comments, after child separation, after his attacks on refugees fleeing violence, after his comments on women, two dozen reported assaults and several alleged rapes, and absolute indifference to any suffering other than his own is a garbage human being and will, barring an epiphany that it is beyond our power to manufacture, remain one, no matter how large a gold-colored cross they tuck themselves behind. To tolerate the steady drumbeat of lies and cruelties but get envapored over the embedded swear words is the perfect encapsulation of religious conservatism, as phenomenon and as movement.
In this version of Jesusness, torture is fine. Swear words are not. Blocking food distribution to the hungry and medical aid to the sick is Christlike; swear words are not. Turning away refugees fleeing violence, calling them diseased, or inherently criminal, or ethnic dangers to our "culture," is what Jesus Himself would do, in the red-letter sections of the New Testament. Swear words, however, are right out. Whether a child should live or die should be determined, as the Lord instructed, by whether the child's friends and relatives can raise sufficient funds in a bake sale to render treating the child at least marginally profitable; for government itself to step in is an abomination unto the private sector. But swear words, we must reiterate, are forbidden.
And any and all sin is forgivable, and is in fact so inconsequential as to not even require forgiving, from sexual assault, adultery, and rape to financial scammery to bearing false witness to a deep-seated personal vindictiveness that elevates do harm to perceived enemies into a foremost daily obsession—so long as you do not say shit or fuck or goddamn, words that poke through the tissue-thin veneer of decency that wraps loosely over all the worst of personal vulgarities and allows even the darkest and most self-absorbed soul to insist that they harbor the voice and will of The Lord Our God and you, Outsider, do not.
---
We've been here, literally, for decades. At this exact point. We have long hosted our own movement of casserole-bearing theocrats, all clamoring to do to America what they imagine the Apocalypse will do to Israel, but sooner—so that they can enjoy it properly and see off each person on their you had it coming list. But you're going to eff it up completely, fellow traveler, if you say swear words in your speech and break the illusion of holy decree. Holier than thou doesn't work if the thou suspects you are not in fact God's literal gift to humanity, Town Gossip Edition, and much in the same way that virulent racists are now using cartoon frogs or the okay gesture as ironic self-identifier, religious conservatives who have long removed themselves from abiding by the most exhausting of New Testament edicts have chosen the but at least we do not say “goddamn” to identify themselves to their peers.
Your neighbor may be a front-lawn racist, may sport a bumper sticker on their car demanding we nuke the Arabs and take their oil, may own three guns, two of which are reserved for pre-emptive murder if somebody needs murdering, may be a domestic abuser, may be a liar and a cheat, may cackle with cruelty in conversations about what to do with certain children or certain immigrants, but you will know they are your specific subsect of something-resembling-Christian if they say gosh darn instead of the other thing. The rest is open to interpretation.
Of course they support Trump—Trump is the very embodiment of what conservative Christianity ought to look like, an endless cycle of nasty score-settling and giving other Americans the what-for interspersed with ritualistic mysticism like the laying-on of hands. Then it's back to the torture-promotion, the barring of refugees, and the insistence that the poor and the sick pay their own way or die trying. Materialistic charlatans have been sitting themselves down on spray-painted golden thrones and claiming to be television messiahs since the invention of the medium; every one of them has claimed that they are closer to God than you are because they have their own private jet.
Homegrown traitors!!!
Why is this Texas secession group’s flag hanging in Moscow?
With years of links in Russia, the Texas Nationalist Movement pushes on.
CASEY MICHEL - Thinkprogress
AUG 11, 2019, 10:22 AM
For years, the Texas Nationalist Movement has cultivated ties in Russia, especially among those who’ve received financing directly from the Kremlin.
Now, as ThinkProgress discovered, one of the Texas-based secessionist group’s flags is actually hanging outright in Moscow — highlighting the ongoing questions surrounding their links overseas.
Last week, Alexander Ionov posted a video to his Instagram page, which remains one of his preferred platforms for highlighting his ties to other groups. Ionov runs the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, a group that helps organize secession movements across the West, and which has received financing from the Kremlin in the past.
In the video, the Texas Nationalist Movement’s flag can be seen hanging prominently in the office. The caption of the video read, “If your office doesn’t look like this, don’t even call me.”
Ionov confirmed to ThinkProgress that the Texas Nationalist Movement flag is hanging in his group’s office, saying it had been hanging there a “long time.” When asked why the flag is hanging, Ionov responded, “It’s beautiful.”
The flag joins other items Ionov has previously hung in his office, including a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin personally thanking Ionov for his “work to strengthen friendship between peoples.” (Ionov has also been involved in raising money for Maria Butina, the convicted Russian agent who successfully infiltrated the National Rifle Association.)
The Texas Nationalist Movement did not respond to ThinkProgress’s questions, but Ionov said the flag was a “gift.”
The flag highlights the years of strange ties between the Texas-based group and patrons in Moscow. The Texas Nationalist Movement, the leading pro-secession group in Texas, claims that its “mission is to secure and protect the political, cultural and economic independence of the nation of Texas and to restore and protect a constitutional Republic and the inherent rights of the people of Texas.”
But since at least 2015, representatives from the Texas Nationalist Movement have traveled to Russia to stake their case for those in Russia to back their cause.
The Texas Nationalist Movement’s Nathan Smith has led multiple trips to Russia, building links with Ionov’s group along the way. Smith, for instance, represented the Texas Nationalist Movement at a secessionist conference in Moscow in 2016, just a few months before the U.S. presidential election. The website for the far-right Russian Rodina party — a party co-founded by sanctioned Russian official Dmitry Rogozin — even featured Smith on its website during one of his visits. (Other American representatives, including those supposedly backing California independence, also attended the 2016 conference.)
Texas Nationalist Movement officials later revealed that Ionov’s organization had helped fund the Texas group’s 2016 travels directly. In a December 2016 interview with KQED, Texas Nationalist Movement head Daniel Miller “declined to say how much money the Kremlin gave” to the Texas Nationalist Movement.
While the Texas Nationalist Movement built its links in Moscow, the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) spent 2015-2017 specifically targeting those backing Texas secession, primarily via Facebook and Twitter. For instance, the IRA’s “Heart of Texas” Facebook page grew wildly popular on the platform: not only was it the largest Facebook page dedicated to Texas secession, but it at one point had more followers in 2016 than the official Texas GOP and Texas Democratic Facebook pages combined.
The “Heart of Texas” page claimed that it was collecting names of supporters to pass along to the Texas Nationalist Movement, although Texas Nationalist Movement members denied they ever collaborated with the “Heart of Texas” page.
Regardless, Ionov and his group aren’t the only Kremlin-funded movement with whom the Texas Nationalist Movement has cultivated links. In late 2014, according to The Telegraph, the Texas Nationalist Movement confirmed it had met with a representative from the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, and announced that they had a “fundamental right” to self-determination. The separatists have received years of funding, arms, and direction from the Kremlin, acting as an effective proxy for Russian designs in breaking up Ukraine. They have also been accused of human rights atrocitiesalong the way, none of which stopped the Texas Nationalist Movement from meeting with one of their representatives.
Looking forward, Ionov told ThinkProgress that he’s planning on trying to host another secession conference in Russia this year. Whether the Texas Nationalist Movement makes another appearance remains to be seen.
Now, as ThinkProgress discovered, one of the Texas-based secessionist group’s flags is actually hanging outright in Moscow — highlighting the ongoing questions surrounding their links overseas.
Last week, Alexander Ionov posted a video to his Instagram page, which remains one of his preferred platforms for highlighting his ties to other groups. Ionov runs the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia, a group that helps organize secession movements across the West, and which has received financing from the Kremlin in the past.
In the video, the Texas Nationalist Movement’s flag can be seen hanging prominently in the office. The caption of the video read, “If your office doesn’t look like this, don’t even call me.”
Ionov confirmed to ThinkProgress that the Texas Nationalist Movement flag is hanging in his group’s office, saying it had been hanging there a “long time.” When asked why the flag is hanging, Ionov responded, “It’s beautiful.”
The flag joins other items Ionov has previously hung in his office, including a letter from Russian President Vladimir Putin personally thanking Ionov for his “work to strengthen friendship between peoples.” (Ionov has also been involved in raising money for Maria Butina, the convicted Russian agent who successfully infiltrated the National Rifle Association.)
The Texas Nationalist Movement did not respond to ThinkProgress’s questions, but Ionov said the flag was a “gift.”
The flag highlights the years of strange ties between the Texas-based group and patrons in Moscow. The Texas Nationalist Movement, the leading pro-secession group in Texas, claims that its “mission is to secure and protect the political, cultural and economic independence of the nation of Texas and to restore and protect a constitutional Republic and the inherent rights of the people of Texas.”
But since at least 2015, representatives from the Texas Nationalist Movement have traveled to Russia to stake their case for those in Russia to back their cause.
The Texas Nationalist Movement’s Nathan Smith has led multiple trips to Russia, building links with Ionov’s group along the way. Smith, for instance, represented the Texas Nationalist Movement at a secessionist conference in Moscow in 2016, just a few months before the U.S. presidential election. The website for the far-right Russian Rodina party — a party co-founded by sanctioned Russian official Dmitry Rogozin — even featured Smith on its website during one of his visits. (Other American representatives, including those supposedly backing California independence, also attended the 2016 conference.)
Texas Nationalist Movement officials later revealed that Ionov’s organization had helped fund the Texas group’s 2016 travels directly. In a December 2016 interview with KQED, Texas Nationalist Movement head Daniel Miller “declined to say how much money the Kremlin gave” to the Texas Nationalist Movement.
While the Texas Nationalist Movement built its links in Moscow, the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) spent 2015-2017 specifically targeting those backing Texas secession, primarily via Facebook and Twitter. For instance, the IRA’s “Heart of Texas” Facebook page grew wildly popular on the platform: not only was it the largest Facebook page dedicated to Texas secession, but it at one point had more followers in 2016 than the official Texas GOP and Texas Democratic Facebook pages combined.
The “Heart of Texas” page claimed that it was collecting names of supporters to pass along to the Texas Nationalist Movement, although Texas Nationalist Movement members denied they ever collaborated with the “Heart of Texas” page.
Regardless, Ionov and his group aren’t the only Kremlin-funded movement with whom the Texas Nationalist Movement has cultivated links. In late 2014, according to The Telegraph, the Texas Nationalist Movement confirmed it had met with a representative from the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, and announced that they had a “fundamental right” to self-determination. The separatists have received years of funding, arms, and direction from the Kremlin, acting as an effective proxy for Russian designs in breaking up Ukraine. They have also been accused of human rights atrocitiesalong the way, none of which stopped the Texas Nationalist Movement from meeting with one of their representatives.
Looking forward, Ionov told ThinkProgress that he’s planning on trying to host another secession conference in Russia this year. Whether the Texas Nationalist Movement makes another appearance remains to be seen.
Black woman confronts ‘white power’-shouting racist who ran into her car
August 8, 2019
By Brad Reed - Raw Story
A black woman this week found herself in a confrontation with a racist man who shouted “white power” at her after he ran into her car.
Ohio resident Jolean Dailey this week posted videos on her Facebook page showing the aftermath of a car accident involving herself and two white people who were driving a gray sedan.
The first video shows the immediate aftermath of the accident, in which the white man in the car drove away while yelling, “Ain’t nothing wrong with your car, nigger!”
Dailey proceeded to follow the car, which eventually pulled over into a parking lot. The white man got out of the car to confront her and yelled, “White fucking power!” at her before returning to the vehicle.
“White power?” an incredulous Dailey replied. “Did you say white power to me?”
According to a report published by the Akron Beacon Journal, police eventually tracked down the man and charged him with “a fifth-degree felony charge of ethnic intimidation and a misdemeanor charge of aggravated menacing.”
Ohio resident Jolean Dailey this week posted videos on her Facebook page showing the aftermath of a car accident involving herself and two white people who were driving a gray sedan.
The first video shows the immediate aftermath of the accident, in which the white man in the car drove away while yelling, “Ain’t nothing wrong with your car, nigger!”
Dailey proceeded to follow the car, which eventually pulled over into a parking lot. The white man got out of the car to confront her and yelled, “White fucking power!” at her before returning to the vehicle.
“White power?” an incredulous Dailey replied. “Did you say white power to me?”
According to a report published by the Akron Beacon Journal, police eventually tracked down the man and charged him with “a fifth-degree felony charge of ethnic intimidation and a misdemeanor charge of aggravated menacing.”
Confederate-lovers attempt to destroy a chocolate business – and it hilariously backfires
August 6, 2019
By Bob Brigham - Raw Story
Defenders of slavery suffered an embarrassing public defeat after their community turned out to not be as racist as they had assumed.
“A handful of people carrying flags have targeted Hillsborough for a few years in large part because of steps taken to limit Confederate flags and symbols in the county and towns, and a ban against divisive symbols like the Confederate battle flag in the Orange County Schools dress code. Some of the flag bearers are affiliated with the pro-Confederate group Alamance County Taking Back Alamance County,” The News & Observer reports.
The Confederacy seceded from America to preserve the institution of slavery. Over 365,000 United States armed forces service members died putting down their insurrection in the American Civil War.
“On July 27, Matthew Shepherd, who owns Matthew’s Chocolates, at 104 N. Churton St., encountered a pro-Confederate demonstration about 100 feet from his shop’s front door,” the newspaper reported. “As he walked past, rolling his eyes, one of them turned to him, saying, “boy in the pink shirt, why don’t you go back to your chocolate shop,” he said in an interview Monday.”
He told the newspaper he had also heard from customers worried about crossing the street while the Confederate protesters were there.
Police said there was nothing they could do.
So Shepherd put up a sign outside his store reading, “Burn a Rebel Flag … Get a Free Chocolate!”
Police told Shepherd he shouldn’t put out the sign, but he did so anyway.
The supporters of the Confederacy posted a picture with the sign, posting it online.
“The sign went viral when three men with the Confederate group posted a photo of themselves behind the sign on social media, evoking angry responses nationwide and overwhelming the shop’s Facebook page and Yelp review site,” The News & Observer.
Shepherd told the paper he received “many, many death threats.”
But the community also rallied around Shephered.
Hillsborough Progressives Taking Action held a rally on Saturday in support of the store.
“The rally was a boon for business at Matthew’s Chocolates, where the line of customers stretched down the sidewalk. Supporters on both sides of Churton Street waved American and rainbow flags, listened to music, and chatted while holding up signs against hate,” the newspaper reported.
The outpouring from the community was so substantial that the store had to close on Sunday.
“We have sold out of everything! There is nothing to sell. No gelato, no chocolates,” the store posted on Facebook. “Thank you ALL for your support, it is overwhelming and I am touched by the love and support pouring in from all over the state.”
“A handful of people carrying flags have targeted Hillsborough for a few years in large part because of steps taken to limit Confederate flags and symbols in the county and towns, and a ban against divisive symbols like the Confederate battle flag in the Orange County Schools dress code. Some of the flag bearers are affiliated with the pro-Confederate group Alamance County Taking Back Alamance County,” The News & Observer reports.
The Confederacy seceded from America to preserve the institution of slavery. Over 365,000 United States armed forces service members died putting down their insurrection in the American Civil War.
“On July 27, Matthew Shepherd, who owns Matthew’s Chocolates, at 104 N. Churton St., encountered a pro-Confederate demonstration about 100 feet from his shop’s front door,” the newspaper reported. “As he walked past, rolling his eyes, one of them turned to him, saying, “boy in the pink shirt, why don’t you go back to your chocolate shop,” he said in an interview Monday.”
He told the newspaper he had also heard from customers worried about crossing the street while the Confederate protesters were there.
Police said there was nothing they could do.
So Shepherd put up a sign outside his store reading, “Burn a Rebel Flag … Get a Free Chocolate!”
Police told Shepherd he shouldn’t put out the sign, but he did so anyway.
The supporters of the Confederacy posted a picture with the sign, posting it online.
“The sign went viral when three men with the Confederate group posted a photo of themselves behind the sign on social media, evoking angry responses nationwide and overwhelming the shop’s Facebook page and Yelp review site,” The News & Observer.
Shepherd told the paper he received “many, many death threats.”
But the community also rallied around Shephered.
Hillsborough Progressives Taking Action held a rally on Saturday in support of the store.
“The rally was a boon for business at Matthew’s Chocolates, where the line of customers stretched down the sidewalk. Supporters on both sides of Churton Street waved American and rainbow flags, listened to music, and chatted while holding up signs against hate,” the newspaper reported.
The outpouring from the community was so substantial that the store had to close on Sunday.
“We have sold out of everything! There is nothing to sell. No gelato, no chocolates,” the store posted on Facebook. “Thank you ALL for your support, it is overwhelming and I am touched by the love and support pouring in from all over the state.”
must have been interesting conversations at the dinner table!!!
White teen from powerful political family gets banned from school over insanely racist gun video
August 6, 2019
By Matthew Chapman - Raw Story
On Monday, WOLO reported that a 16-year-old South Carolina student has been expelled from the Cardinal Newman School, banned from the property, and faces criminal charges following a violent, racial-slur-laden social media post in which he shoots a box of shoes representing black people.
“Howdy. I’m Parker Mustian, and I hate black prople,” he can be heard saying in the video as he loads a rifle. “They’re the worst. They’re stinky and they just suck. They’re just bad people. You’ll notice over there, there’s a box of Jordans — the favorite pair of shoes for a black man. I’m gonna show you what I think of the black man.”
“Fuck all niggers,” he adds after shooting the box several times.
According to Heavy, Mustian comes from a powerful political family. He is the grandson of Richard Quinn, a legendary GOP strategist, and the son of Benjamin Mustian, a prominent Columbia attorney.
The videos went up in May, and he was expelled in mid July. Parents at Cardinal Newman were informed of the incident on Friday.
“This young man is so clearly filled with so much hate that he feels the freedom to share this publicly, in a video,” said local lawyer Annabelle Robertson. “I believe that he poses a clear and present danger, and a true threat to other students and other people.”
This report comes amid harrowing news of the hate-motivated mass shooting in El Paso that killed nearly two dozen people.
“Howdy. I’m Parker Mustian, and I hate black prople,” he can be heard saying in the video as he loads a rifle. “They’re the worst. They’re stinky and they just suck. They’re just bad people. You’ll notice over there, there’s a box of Jordans — the favorite pair of shoes for a black man. I’m gonna show you what I think of the black man.”
“Fuck all niggers,” he adds after shooting the box several times.
According to Heavy, Mustian comes from a powerful political family. He is the grandson of Richard Quinn, a legendary GOP strategist, and the son of Benjamin Mustian, a prominent Columbia attorney.
The videos went up in May, and he was expelled in mid July. Parents at Cardinal Newman were informed of the incident on Friday.
“This young man is so clearly filled with so much hate that he feels the freedom to share this publicly, in a video,” said local lawyer Annabelle Robertson. “I believe that he poses a clear and present danger, and a true threat to other students and other people.”
This report comes amid harrowing news of the hate-motivated mass shooting in El Paso that killed nearly two dozen people.
FBI warns that conspiracy theories like QAnon pose a domestic terror threat
It's first time the Feds have waded into the swamp of the pro-Trump conspiracy theory.
LUKE BARNES - Thinkprogress
AUG 1, 2019, 5:34 PM
For the first time, an FBI intelligence bulletin has assessed that fringe, internet-based conspiracy theories pose a domestic terror threat that “[encourage] the targeting of specific people, places and organizations, thereby increasing the risk of extremist violence against such targets.”
The intelligence bulletin was written by the FBI’s Phoenix Field Office and released in May, but was first reported by Yahoo News on Thursday. It specifically mentions Pizzagate, the conspiracy that the Clintons and other elite Democrats were indulging in child sacrifice at a D.C. pizzeria, as well as a host of other terms common on fringe, far-right internet ecosystems like False Flags, Zionist Occupied Government, and, of course, QAnon.
For those lucky enough to not spend their days following the latest QAnon news, a brief primer: QAnon is the theory that President Donald Trump, along with Attorney General William Barr, the U.S. military, and a shadowy insider known only as “Q,” are all secretly working to take down a Deep State cabal, made up primarily of Democrats, who are controlling the world and also like to traffic and/or eat children.
Supposed promises by “Q,” posted first on fringe sites like 4chan and 8chan, keep failing to come to fruition, but that has done little to dampen the popularity of the conspiracy, both online and off. QAnon supporters make frequent appearances at Trump rallies, and the president keeps adding fuel to the fire by re-tweeting QAnon accounts on Twitter and thereby — at least in the eyes of Q adherents — validating the theory.
While it’s easy to laugh at, QAnon and other fringe conspiracies have motivated some very real-world violence.
As the FBI memo notes, in December 2016, a man entered Comet Ping Pong in Washington, DC — the restaurant supposedly at the center of Pizzagate — with an AR-15 rifle, firing a shot and pointing his rifle at an employee. The man was later arrested and pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges in March 2017.
In June 2018, a QAnon supporter in an armored truck blocked the Hoover Dam Bypass, armed with several firearms and magazines of ammunition. After a 90-minute standoff with police, he fled to Arizona where he was arrested. He has since been charged with terrorism as well as aggravated assault, unlawful flight, and weapons offenses.
As ThinkProgress reported last year, a QAnon-affiliated group also harassed police officers and civic leaders in Arizona over claims that the Deep State was operating a child sex camp in the desert there. A QAnon believer is also believed to have used the conspiracy as inspiration to gun down alleged New York crime boss Francesco Cali in March.
Travis View, a QAnon researcher who also co-hosts the QAnon Anonymous podcast, said he was relieved by the memo, as it showed that the Feds understood the real dangers that QAnon poses.
“It was an unknown beforehand whether the FBI or law enforcement was taking QAnon and other conspiracy-driven extremist movements seriously at all,” View told ThinkProgress. “This is the first confirmation that the feds are very aware of QAnon and the threat they pose.”
View described QAnon as “very much like a decentralized cult.”
“They get separated from their families and get taken down this rabbit hole to super delusional beliefs that cause them to do violence and violent things … most QAnon followers are harmless, they’re just shacked up in their room, but a few of them get so delusional that they act out in the real world.”
The FBI’s memo also specifically mentions how the internet has allowed these theories to thrive.
“The advent of the Internet and social media has enabled promoters of conspiracy theories to produce and share greater volumes of material via online platforms that larger audiences of consumers can quickly and easily access,” the report reads. “Based on the increase volumed and reach … it is logical to assume that more extremist-minded individuals will be exposed to potentially harmful conspiracy theories, accept ones that are favorable to their views, and possibly carry out criminal or violent actions as a result.”
To be clear, QAnon is not a movement that explicitly encourages members to engage in acts of violence; a large percentage of Q-related content simply encourages followers to “enjoy the show” that is always just about to begin.
However, as proven by recent mass attacks in New Zealand, Pittsburgh, and California — to name just a few — it only takes one self-radicalized individual to carry out a major terror attack, especially at a time of heightened political polarization, a point that both View and the FBI made.
“Because some conspiracy theories are highly partisan in nature, political developments, including those surrounding major election cycles such as the 2020 presidential election, likely will impact the direction of these conspiracy theories and the potential activities of extremists who subscribe to them,” the report reads.
“My most important takeaway [from the memo] is that this isn’t a fading threat,” View said. “It is a growing threat. As the political season and rhetoric gets more heated, conspiracy theories get an over-sized importance in people’s lives — it’s certainly something to watch out for.”
The FBI assessment concludes it is “very likely” that, in the future, domestic extremists will be motivated, whether wholly or in part, by “anti-government, identity based and fringe political conspiracy theories.”
And as for QAnon? Despite its continual failure to deliver on its promises, View predicts it won’t be going anywhere any time soon. The FBI assessment, he noted, was already being explained away by QAnon followers as more evidence of the Deep State, or something planted as a way to move the media to ask Trump about Q, a long-held ambition of QAnon followers.
“The ‘Clinton body-count‘ conspiracy theory, [which claims multiple people close to the Clintons have died under ‘mysterious circumstances,’ suggesting the Clintons have something to do with it], was created in early 1990s and it trended last week on Twitter, so these sort of conspiracy theories, when they catch on and resonate with a community, they don’t go away,” View said.
He added, “I have no idea when they might give up the game, but if I were to speculate based on psychological research [into conspiracy theories and followers], this is something with us for at least a generation.”
RELATED: Inventor of anti-Democrat #WalkAway hashtag comes out as a QAnon supporter at Trump rally
On Thursday, during a speech before President Donald Trump’s rally in Cincinnati, pro-Trump activist Brandon Straka proudly proclaimed his allegiance to the QAnon conspiracy theory.
The intelligence bulletin was written by the FBI’s Phoenix Field Office and released in May, but was first reported by Yahoo News on Thursday. It specifically mentions Pizzagate, the conspiracy that the Clintons and other elite Democrats were indulging in child sacrifice at a D.C. pizzeria, as well as a host of other terms common on fringe, far-right internet ecosystems like False Flags, Zionist Occupied Government, and, of course, QAnon.
For those lucky enough to not spend their days following the latest QAnon news, a brief primer: QAnon is the theory that President Donald Trump, along with Attorney General William Barr, the U.S. military, and a shadowy insider known only as “Q,” are all secretly working to take down a Deep State cabal, made up primarily of Democrats, who are controlling the world and also like to traffic and/or eat children.
Supposed promises by “Q,” posted first on fringe sites like 4chan and 8chan, keep failing to come to fruition, but that has done little to dampen the popularity of the conspiracy, both online and off. QAnon supporters make frequent appearances at Trump rallies, and the president keeps adding fuel to the fire by re-tweeting QAnon accounts on Twitter and thereby — at least in the eyes of Q adherents — validating the theory.
While it’s easy to laugh at, QAnon and other fringe conspiracies have motivated some very real-world violence.
As the FBI memo notes, in December 2016, a man entered Comet Ping Pong in Washington, DC — the restaurant supposedly at the center of Pizzagate — with an AR-15 rifle, firing a shot and pointing his rifle at an employee. The man was later arrested and pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges in March 2017.
In June 2018, a QAnon supporter in an armored truck blocked the Hoover Dam Bypass, armed with several firearms and magazines of ammunition. After a 90-minute standoff with police, he fled to Arizona where he was arrested. He has since been charged with terrorism as well as aggravated assault, unlawful flight, and weapons offenses.
As ThinkProgress reported last year, a QAnon-affiliated group also harassed police officers and civic leaders in Arizona over claims that the Deep State was operating a child sex camp in the desert there. A QAnon believer is also believed to have used the conspiracy as inspiration to gun down alleged New York crime boss Francesco Cali in March.
Travis View, a QAnon researcher who also co-hosts the QAnon Anonymous podcast, said he was relieved by the memo, as it showed that the Feds understood the real dangers that QAnon poses.
“It was an unknown beforehand whether the FBI or law enforcement was taking QAnon and other conspiracy-driven extremist movements seriously at all,” View told ThinkProgress. “This is the first confirmation that the feds are very aware of QAnon and the threat they pose.”
View described QAnon as “very much like a decentralized cult.”
“They get separated from their families and get taken down this rabbit hole to super delusional beliefs that cause them to do violence and violent things … most QAnon followers are harmless, they’re just shacked up in their room, but a few of them get so delusional that they act out in the real world.”
The FBI’s memo also specifically mentions how the internet has allowed these theories to thrive.
“The advent of the Internet and social media has enabled promoters of conspiracy theories to produce and share greater volumes of material via online platforms that larger audiences of consumers can quickly and easily access,” the report reads. “Based on the increase volumed and reach … it is logical to assume that more extremist-minded individuals will be exposed to potentially harmful conspiracy theories, accept ones that are favorable to their views, and possibly carry out criminal or violent actions as a result.”
To be clear, QAnon is not a movement that explicitly encourages members to engage in acts of violence; a large percentage of Q-related content simply encourages followers to “enjoy the show” that is always just about to begin.
However, as proven by recent mass attacks in New Zealand, Pittsburgh, and California — to name just a few — it only takes one self-radicalized individual to carry out a major terror attack, especially at a time of heightened political polarization, a point that both View and the FBI made.
“Because some conspiracy theories are highly partisan in nature, political developments, including those surrounding major election cycles such as the 2020 presidential election, likely will impact the direction of these conspiracy theories and the potential activities of extremists who subscribe to them,” the report reads.
“My most important takeaway [from the memo] is that this isn’t a fading threat,” View said. “It is a growing threat. As the political season and rhetoric gets more heated, conspiracy theories get an over-sized importance in people’s lives — it’s certainly something to watch out for.”
The FBI assessment concludes it is “very likely” that, in the future, domestic extremists will be motivated, whether wholly or in part, by “anti-government, identity based and fringe political conspiracy theories.”
And as for QAnon? Despite its continual failure to deliver on its promises, View predicts it won’t be going anywhere any time soon. The FBI assessment, he noted, was already being explained away by QAnon followers as more evidence of the Deep State, or something planted as a way to move the media to ask Trump about Q, a long-held ambition of QAnon followers.
“The ‘Clinton body-count‘ conspiracy theory, [which claims multiple people close to the Clintons have died under ‘mysterious circumstances,’ suggesting the Clintons have something to do with it], was created in early 1990s and it trended last week on Twitter, so these sort of conspiracy theories, when they catch on and resonate with a community, they don’t go away,” View said.
He added, “I have no idea when they might give up the game, but if I were to speculate based on psychological research [into conspiracy theories and followers], this is something with us for at least a generation.”
RELATED: Inventor of anti-Democrat #WalkAway hashtag comes out as a QAnon supporter at Trump rally
On Thursday, during a speech before President Donald Trump’s rally in Cincinnati, pro-Trump activist Brandon Straka proudly proclaimed his allegiance to the QAnon conspiracy theory.
Kris Kobach releases racist video to disprove racism allegations
The Republican Kansas senate hopeful was flagged by Trump transition for white supremacy concerns.
JOSH ISRAEL - Thinkprogress
JUL 31, 2019, 12:11 PM
Kansan Kris Kobach, the Republican former secretary of state who lost the 2018 gubernatorial election by five points to Democratic nominee Laura Kelly in a state that President Donald Trump carried by more than 20 points two years earlier, is back and running for U.S. Senate. In a new kickoff video, he suggests that if Kansas Republicans give him another chance, he will be better prepared for the “propaganda” attacks on him for his racist and white supremacist views.
In the same video, he demonstrates exactly why even Trump’s presidential transition vetting team flagged him for “white supremacy” concerns.
While waving a coffee mug around in front of a black screen, Kobach began his ad quoting the late climate-science denier Michael Crichton about the threat of fantasy propaganda winning out over truth.
“When someone is called a racist, a fascist, even a white nationalist, over and over, on a daily basis, even Kansans will eventually doubt themselves and start to believe what is false,” he argued. “Sorry to say, but by the end of the campaign, Democrats and their media allies had convinced many people — even Republicans — that I was an extremist. If I were one, I would tell you. But I am not.”
Kobach then defends his voter suppression conspiracy theories and harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric as consistent with the views of “over 90% of Republicans,” “the vast majority of Kansans,” and “many Democrats.”
Next, he went through a litany of misleading attacks on the same Democratic congresswomen of color that Trump has attacked. “The Democrats are obsessed with race, sex, and sexual orientation. They use it as a weapon to stifle debate, especially with Republicans.”
But while Kobach attempts to blame his white supremacist image as false propaganda from liberal news outlets, a huge amount of the criticism has actually come from those in his own party.
In last year’s gubernatorial campaign, a shocking array of prominent Kansas Republicans — including two former U.S. senators, a two-term former governor, a former state senate president, and dozens of others — deemed Kobach to be too extreme and crossed party lines to endorse Kelly.
And when Trump’s transition team considered him for possible positions in the administration, they found serious concerns.
“Past political opponents have accused Kobach of allying himself with groups that had connections to white supremacist groups,” Trump’s transition researchers noted in their warning about the then-Kansas secretary of state — likely referencing reports that Kobach had accepted support from white supremacist groups during his unsuccessful 2004 U.S. House of Representatives race.
In the same video, he demonstrates exactly why even Trump’s presidential transition vetting team flagged him for “white supremacy” concerns.
While waving a coffee mug around in front of a black screen, Kobach began his ad quoting the late climate-science denier Michael Crichton about the threat of fantasy propaganda winning out over truth.
“When someone is called a racist, a fascist, even a white nationalist, over and over, on a daily basis, even Kansans will eventually doubt themselves and start to believe what is false,” he argued. “Sorry to say, but by the end of the campaign, Democrats and their media allies had convinced many people — even Republicans — that I was an extremist. If I were one, I would tell you. But I am not.”
Kobach then defends his voter suppression conspiracy theories and harsh anti-immigrant rhetoric as consistent with the views of “over 90% of Republicans,” “the vast majority of Kansans,” and “many Democrats.”
Next, he went through a litany of misleading attacks on the same Democratic congresswomen of color that Trump has attacked. “The Democrats are obsessed with race, sex, and sexual orientation. They use it as a weapon to stifle debate, especially with Republicans.”
But while Kobach attempts to blame his white supremacist image as false propaganda from liberal news outlets, a huge amount of the criticism has actually come from those in his own party.
In last year’s gubernatorial campaign, a shocking array of prominent Kansas Republicans — including two former U.S. senators, a two-term former governor, a former state senate president, and dozens of others — deemed Kobach to be too extreme and crossed party lines to endorse Kelly.
And when Trump’s transition team considered him for possible positions in the administration, they found serious concerns.
“Past political opponents have accused Kobach of allying himself with groups that had connections to white supremacist groups,” Trump’s transition researchers noted in their warning about the then-Kansas secretary of state — likely referencing reports that Kobach had accepted support from white supremacist groups during his unsuccessful 2004 U.S. House of Representatives race.
DOCUMENTING HATE
We Found Photos of Ole Miss Students Posing With Guns in Front of a Shot-Up Emmett Till Memorial. Now They Face a Possible Civil Rights Investigation.
Three students were suspended from their fraternity house, Kappa Alpha, after we shared an Instagram photo one of the men posted that was taken in front of a sign commemorating the murder of the 14-year-old black youth in 1955.
by Jerry Mitchell, Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting - Pro Publica
July 25, 1:35 p.m. EDT
OXFORD, Miss. — Three University of Mississippi students have been suspended from their fraternity house and face possible investigation by the Department of Justice after posing with guns in front of a bullet-riddled sign honoring slain civil rights icon Emmett Till.
One of the students posted a photo to his private Instagram account in March showing the trio in front of a roadside plaque commemorating the site where Till’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River. The 14-year-old black youth was tortured and murdered in August 1955. An all-white, all-male jury acquitted two white men accused of the slaying.
The photo, which was obtained by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica, shows an Ole Miss student named Ben LeClere holding a shotgun while standing in front of the bullet-pocked sign. His Kappa Alpha fraternity brother, John Lowe, squats below the sign. A third fraternity member stands on the other side with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. The photo appears to have been taken at night, the scene illuminated by lights from a vehicle.
LeClere posted the picture on Lowe’s birthday on March 1 with the message “one of Memphis’s finest and the worst influence I’ve ever met.”
Neither LeClere nor Lowe responded to repeated attempts to contact them.
It is not clear whether the fraternity students shot the sign or are simply posing before it. The sign is part of a memorial effort by the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, a Mississippi civil rights group, and has been repeatedly vandalized, most recently in August 2018. Till’s death helped propel the modern civil rights movement in America.
Five days after LeClere posted the photo, a person who saw it filed a bias report to the university’s Office of Student Conduct. The complaint pointed out there may have been a fourth person present, who took the picture.
“The photo is on Instagram with hundreds of ‘likes,’ and no one said a thing,” said the complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica. “I cannot tell Ole Miss what to do, I just thought it should be brought to your attention.”
The photo was removed from LeClere’s Instagram account after the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica began contacting fraternity members and friends. It had received 274 likes.
Kappa Alpha suspended the trio on Wednesday, after the news organizations provided a copy of the photo to fraternity officials at Ole Miss. The fraternity, which honors Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as its “spiritual founder” on its website, has a history of racial controversy, including an incident in which students wore blackface at a Kappa Alpha sponsored Halloween party at the University of Virginia in 2002.
“The photo is inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable. It does not represent our chapter,” Taylor Anderson, president of Ole Miss’ Kappa Alpha Order, wrote in an email. “We have and will continue to be in communication with our national organization and the University.”
After viewing the photo, U.S. Attorney Chad Lamar of the Northern District of Mississippi in Oxford said the information has been referred to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for further investigation.
“We will be working with them closely,” he said Thursday.
University officials called the photo “offensive and hurtful.”
University spokesman Rod Guajardo acknowledged that an Ole Miss official had received a copy of the Instagram picture in March. The university referred the matter to the university police department, which in turn gave it to the FBI.
Guajardo said the FBI told police it would not further investigate the incident because the photo did not pose a specific threat.
Guajardo said that while the university considered the picture “offensive,” the image did not present a violation of the university’s code of conduct. He noted the incident depicted in the photo occurred off campus and was not part of a university-affiliated event.
“We stand ready to assist the fraternity with educational opportunities for those members and the chapter,” Guajardo said.
---
Since the first sign was erected in 2008, it has been the object of repeated animosity.
Vandals threw the first sign in the river. The second sign was blasted with 317 bullets or shotgun pellets before the Emmett Till Memorial Commission officials removed it. The third sign, featured in the Instagram photo, was damaged by 10 bullet holes before officials took it down last week. A fourth sign, designed to better withstand attacks, is expected to be installed soon.
News of the suspensions and referral to the Justice Department came as Till’s cousin, Deborah Watts, co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, was already planning a moment of silence Thursday to honor her cousin with a gathering of supporters and friends dressed in black and white in “a silent yet powerful protest against racism, hatred and violence.” Thursday is Till’s birthday. Had he lived, he would have been 78 years old.
This is not the first time Ole Miss fraternity students have been caught up in an incident involving an icon from the civil rights movement.
In 2014, three students from the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house placed a noose around the neck of a statue on campus of James Meredith, the first known black student to attend Ole Miss. They also placed a Georgia flag of the past that contains the Confederate battle emblem.
According to federal prosecutors, the freshmen students hatched the plan during a drinking fest at the house, where one student disparaged African Americans, saying this act would create a sensation: “It’s James Meredith. People will go crazy.”
One pleaded guilty and received six months in prison for using a threat of force to intimidate African American students and employees because of their race or color. Another student also pleaded guilty. He received probation and community service after he cooperated with the FBI. A third man wasn’t charged.
All three students withdrew from Ole Miss, and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity’s national headquarters shuttered its chapter on the Ole Miss campus after its own investigation, blaming the closing on behavior that included “hazing, underage drinking, alcohol abuse and failure to comply with the university and fraternity’s codes of conduct.”
One of the students posted a photo to his private Instagram account in March showing the trio in front of a roadside plaque commemorating the site where Till’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River. The 14-year-old black youth was tortured and murdered in August 1955. An all-white, all-male jury acquitted two white men accused of the slaying.
The photo, which was obtained by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica, shows an Ole Miss student named Ben LeClere holding a shotgun while standing in front of the bullet-pocked sign. His Kappa Alpha fraternity brother, John Lowe, squats below the sign. A third fraternity member stands on the other side with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. The photo appears to have been taken at night, the scene illuminated by lights from a vehicle.
LeClere posted the picture on Lowe’s birthday on March 1 with the message “one of Memphis’s finest and the worst influence I’ve ever met.”
Neither LeClere nor Lowe responded to repeated attempts to contact them.
It is not clear whether the fraternity students shot the sign or are simply posing before it. The sign is part of a memorial effort by the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, a Mississippi civil rights group, and has been repeatedly vandalized, most recently in August 2018. Till’s death helped propel the modern civil rights movement in America.
Five days after LeClere posted the photo, a person who saw it filed a bias report to the university’s Office of Student Conduct. The complaint pointed out there may have been a fourth person present, who took the picture.
“The photo is on Instagram with hundreds of ‘likes,’ and no one said a thing,” said the complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica. “I cannot tell Ole Miss what to do, I just thought it should be brought to your attention.”
The photo was removed from LeClere’s Instagram account after the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica began contacting fraternity members and friends. It had received 274 likes.
Kappa Alpha suspended the trio on Wednesday, after the news organizations provided a copy of the photo to fraternity officials at Ole Miss. The fraternity, which honors Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as its “spiritual founder” on its website, has a history of racial controversy, including an incident in which students wore blackface at a Kappa Alpha sponsored Halloween party at the University of Virginia in 2002.
“The photo is inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable. It does not represent our chapter,” Taylor Anderson, president of Ole Miss’ Kappa Alpha Order, wrote in an email. “We have and will continue to be in communication with our national organization and the University.”
After viewing the photo, U.S. Attorney Chad Lamar of the Northern District of Mississippi in Oxford said the information has been referred to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for further investigation.
“We will be working with them closely,” he said Thursday.
University officials called the photo “offensive and hurtful.”
University spokesman Rod Guajardo acknowledged that an Ole Miss official had received a copy of the Instagram picture in March. The university referred the matter to the university police department, which in turn gave it to the FBI.
Guajardo said the FBI told police it would not further investigate the incident because the photo did not pose a specific threat.
Guajardo said that while the university considered the picture “offensive,” the image did not present a violation of the university’s code of conduct. He noted the incident depicted in the photo occurred off campus and was not part of a university-affiliated event.
“We stand ready to assist the fraternity with educational opportunities for those members and the chapter,” Guajardo said.
---
Since the first sign was erected in 2008, it has been the object of repeated animosity.
Vandals threw the first sign in the river. The second sign was blasted with 317 bullets or shotgun pellets before the Emmett Till Memorial Commission officials removed it. The third sign, featured in the Instagram photo, was damaged by 10 bullet holes before officials took it down last week. A fourth sign, designed to better withstand attacks, is expected to be installed soon.
News of the suspensions and referral to the Justice Department came as Till’s cousin, Deborah Watts, co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, was already planning a moment of silence Thursday to honor her cousin with a gathering of supporters and friends dressed in black and white in “a silent yet powerful protest against racism, hatred and violence.” Thursday is Till’s birthday. Had he lived, he would have been 78 years old.
This is not the first time Ole Miss fraternity students have been caught up in an incident involving an icon from the civil rights movement.
In 2014, three students from the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house placed a noose around the neck of a statue on campus of James Meredith, the first known black student to attend Ole Miss. They also placed a Georgia flag of the past that contains the Confederate battle emblem.
According to federal prosecutors, the freshmen students hatched the plan during a drinking fest at the house, where one student disparaged African Americans, saying this act would create a sensation: “It’s James Meredith. People will go crazy.”
One pleaded guilty and received six months in prison for using a threat of force to intimidate African American students and employees because of their race or color. Another student also pleaded guilty. He received probation and community service after he cooperated with the FBI. A third man wasn’t charged.
All three students withdrew from Ole Miss, and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity’s national headquarters shuttered its chapter on the Ole Miss campus after its own investigation, blaming the closing on behavior that included “hazing, underage drinking, alcohol abuse and failure to comply with the university and fraternity’s codes of conduct.”
Trumper Crop
Black couple’s marriage proposal party interrupted multiple times by white security guards accusing them of theft
July 23, 2019
By Tom Boggioni - Raw Story
According to a report at WHEC, a black couple who drove to a park where the man intended to propose were interrupted and harassed three times by security guards who accused them of stealing a T-shirt at a gift shop.
In a Facebook post, Cathy-Marie Hamlet explained that she and her fiancé, Clyde Jackson, were sitting at a table outside the Angry Orchard gift shop when a female security guard approached them and accused Jackson of stealing the shirt and asked to check his pockets.
As Hamlet wrote, “A group of 8 of us went there to enjoy an afternoon with some hard cider. My boyfriend walked me out to an empty table on the lawn, and before we could sit down, a young lady from security approached us and said to him, ‘I’m sorry sir, but I have to check you back pocket. I was told that you stole a T-shirt from from the gift store.’ My boyfriend then emptied all of his pockets, while still trying to keep the ring box hidden from my sight.”
She added, “She then walked away, and my boyfriend and I sat down at the table and he began his proposal speech. MID PROPOSAL, the same young lady from security walks back towards and says to me, ‘I’m sorry, I need to check your bag. I was told that he gave it to you, and you put it in your bag.’ Mind you, my bag isn’t even large enough to fit a T-shirt. I emptied my entire bag in front of her, and since this was the SECOND time she had walked over, I said, “I know you’re just doing your job, but I can’t help but wonder if this is because we’re Black. We’re the only Black people here at your establishment.’”
Hamlet added that the woman denied she was racially profiling, but that confrontation was not the end of it.
“She departs again, and shortly after my boyfriend pops the question! I say yes, of course. People started cheering. And then the other 6 our friends walked over to us to hug and congratulate us,” she wrote. “Then surprise, surprise…the same young lady from security walks over to the group of us and says, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you all were a part of the same party. I have to check all of your purses and pockets.’ So at this point, the rest of security walks over and there’s 6 of them approaching us.”
“Of course my friends told them none of us stole a T-shirt from their establishment, at which point they started getting aggressive and saying that not only them, but also patrons saw my boyfriend steal the shirt and/or transfer it to me to put in my bag!!” she continued. “Another woman in security yelled to one of the male security, ‘Call the police! I saw you steal it.’ I asked them, “Do you have security cameras here?” And they said yes. So I said, ‘Well then you need to go and roll back your tape and see that nobody here stole anything from you guys.'”
She then explained that the white guards took their pictures, started videotaping them and then took a picture of her license plate when she and her group gave up on trying to have their party there.
“We as a group decided to leave rather than be attacked by the multiple security guards of Angry Orchard,” she recalled, adding, ” I have never been so humiliated in my life, myself and some of my friends left Angry Orchard in tears. On what was supposed to be one of the best days of my life, I was chased out of Angry Orchard by security who followed us all the way to the parking lot. I’m sorry, and not to sound pretentious, but as a doctor, I have no reason to steal a $28 T-shirt when I could afford to buy ALL of the T-shirts in their gift shop.”
In a Facebook post, Cathy-Marie Hamlet explained that she and her fiancé, Clyde Jackson, were sitting at a table outside the Angry Orchard gift shop when a female security guard approached them and accused Jackson of stealing the shirt and asked to check his pockets.
As Hamlet wrote, “A group of 8 of us went there to enjoy an afternoon with some hard cider. My boyfriend walked me out to an empty table on the lawn, and before we could sit down, a young lady from security approached us and said to him, ‘I’m sorry sir, but I have to check you back pocket. I was told that you stole a T-shirt from from the gift store.’ My boyfriend then emptied all of his pockets, while still trying to keep the ring box hidden from my sight.”
She added, “She then walked away, and my boyfriend and I sat down at the table and he began his proposal speech. MID PROPOSAL, the same young lady from security walks back towards and says to me, ‘I’m sorry, I need to check your bag. I was told that he gave it to you, and you put it in your bag.’ Mind you, my bag isn’t even large enough to fit a T-shirt. I emptied my entire bag in front of her, and since this was the SECOND time she had walked over, I said, “I know you’re just doing your job, but I can’t help but wonder if this is because we’re Black. We’re the only Black people here at your establishment.’”
Hamlet added that the woman denied she was racially profiling, but that confrontation was not the end of it.
“She departs again, and shortly after my boyfriend pops the question! I say yes, of course. People started cheering. And then the other 6 our friends walked over to us to hug and congratulate us,” she wrote. “Then surprise, surprise…the same young lady from security walks over to the group of us and says, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you all were a part of the same party. I have to check all of your purses and pockets.’ So at this point, the rest of security walks over and there’s 6 of them approaching us.”
“Of course my friends told them none of us stole a T-shirt from their establishment, at which point they started getting aggressive and saying that not only them, but also patrons saw my boyfriend steal the shirt and/or transfer it to me to put in my bag!!” she continued. “Another woman in security yelled to one of the male security, ‘Call the police! I saw you steal it.’ I asked them, “Do you have security cameras here?” And they said yes. So I said, ‘Well then you need to go and roll back your tape and see that nobody here stole anything from you guys.'”
She then explained that the white guards took their pictures, started videotaping them and then took a picture of her license plate when she and her group gave up on trying to have their party there.
“We as a group decided to leave rather than be attacked by the multiple security guards of Angry Orchard,” she recalled, adding, ” I have never been so humiliated in my life, myself and some of my friends left Angry Orchard in tears. On what was supposed to be one of the best days of my life, I was chased out of Angry Orchard by security who followed us all the way to the parking lot. I’m sorry, and not to sound pretentious, but as a doctor, I have no reason to steal a $28 T-shirt when I could afford to buy ALL of the T-shirts in their gift shop.”
Black US lawmaker says white man told her to 'go back where you came from’
State representative Erica Thomas says she was verbally attacked in supermarket while shopping with her nine-year-old daughter
Associated Press
The Guardian
Sat 20 Jul 2019 11.47 BST
A pregnant African American lawmaker in Georgia said she was verbally attacked in a supermarket Friday by a middle-aged white man who used profanity, called her vulgar names and told her to “go back where you came from” as her nine-year-old daughter looked on.
Erica Thomas, a Democrat and Georgia state representative from Austell, said the man was irate that she was in an express line with too many items. Thomas said she was in a line for customers with 10 items or less because she cannot stand for long periods of time.
“And this white man comes up to me and says, ‘You lazy son of a bitch,”’ Thomas said, sobbing as she described the confrontation in a Facebook video. “He says, ‘You lazy son of a bitch; you need to go back where you came from.”’
Thomas said she was stunned by his anger. “I said, ‘Sir, you don’t even know me. I’m not lazy. I’m nine months pregnant.”’
Thomas said she never identified herself to the man as a public official. She said she was so taken aback by his actions that she didn’t think to try to record them.
The incident came days after Donald Trump tweeted that four congresswomen of color, including the US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, should go back to the “broken and crime infested” countries they came from.
In Thomas’ video, she alludes to Trump’s attacks on Omar. Thomas never mentions Trump’s name but says, “There’s so much hate in this world and it’s being incited by our president every single day.”
Thomas told the Associated Press that it appeared the man had already paid for his groceries when he approached her.
“He ran up on me and just verbally assaulted me,” she said in the AP interview. At one point, Thomas said, the man told her “You people are ignorant.”
Thomas said a store employee at some point approached the man and told him to leave. She said she believes store employees were slow to respond to the assault.
She said the incident happened at a Publix store in Mableton. A phone and email message requesting comment from Publix in Georgia did not receive an immediate response Friday evening. Thomas told the AP she notified police and that she would seek store video of the incident.
Erica Thomas, a Democrat and Georgia state representative from Austell, said the man was irate that she was in an express line with too many items. Thomas said she was in a line for customers with 10 items or less because she cannot stand for long periods of time.
“And this white man comes up to me and says, ‘You lazy son of a bitch,”’ Thomas said, sobbing as she described the confrontation in a Facebook video. “He says, ‘You lazy son of a bitch; you need to go back where you came from.”’
Thomas said she was stunned by his anger. “I said, ‘Sir, you don’t even know me. I’m not lazy. I’m nine months pregnant.”’
Thomas said she never identified herself to the man as a public official. She said she was so taken aback by his actions that she didn’t think to try to record them.
The incident came days after Donald Trump tweeted that four congresswomen of color, including the US congresswoman Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, should go back to the “broken and crime infested” countries they came from.
In Thomas’ video, she alludes to Trump’s attacks on Omar. Thomas never mentions Trump’s name but says, “There’s so much hate in this world and it’s being incited by our president every single day.”
Thomas told the Associated Press that it appeared the man had already paid for his groceries when he approached her.
“He ran up on me and just verbally assaulted me,” she said in the AP interview. At one point, Thomas said, the man told her “You people are ignorant.”
Thomas said a store employee at some point approached the man and told him to leave. She said she believes store employees were slow to respond to the assault.
She said the incident happened at a Publix store in Mableton. A phone and email message requesting comment from Publix in Georgia did not receive an immediate response Friday evening. Thomas told the AP she notified police and that she would seek store video of the incident.
Are you a right-wing extremist? This quiz may help — and you've got company
British military has a quiz for identifying dangerous right-wingers. Trump and other world leaders would fail
CHAUNCEY DEVEGA - Salon
JUNE 5, 2019 12:00PM (UTC)
Right-wing extremism threatens the security, safety and prosperity of countries around the world. Democracies — especially those in crisis — are especially vulnerable to right-wing extremism when it hides behind the benign-sounding banner of "populism."
On one extreme of the global right-wing movement are terrorists and other evildoers such as the Nazis or white supremacists who recently attacked mosques and synagogues in New Zealand, Pittsburgh and Southern California. On the other extreme are "respectable" right-wing politicians who use normal politics to take power. In the middle of this continuum are many millions of people who are either active members of the New Right or are sympathetic to its goals and aims.
In total, right-wing extremism is a multi-spectrum threat which extends from the president of the United States all the way down to street hooligans.
In response to several high profile incidents involving Nazis among its ranks, the British Ministry of Defense in conjunction with the British Army developed a chart to help officers identify right-wing extremists.
This chart, "Extreme Right Wing (XRW) Indicators & Warnings," was developed in 2017 and circulated as a leaflet for officers in the British military. Its existence became public last week when a copy appeared on right-wing websites. The British Ministry of Defense has confirmed the authenticity of the chart.
The XRW chart contains 20 examples of behavior which could indicate right-wing extremist values and suggest that a person is being radicalized into joining that dangerous movement.
Some of these warnings are:
Donald Trump, the Republican Party's elected officials and many of the leading voices in the right-wing media, as well as rank-and-file conservatives and other Trump supporters, meet many if not most of those criteria.
In a mix of mockery and concern, the usual right-wing voices are objecting that the XRW) chart is too broad and somehow "unfair," and stands as further proof of a conspiracy against "conservatives."
These objections fail in a number of ways.
The facts: the British Ministry of Defense chart is an accurate description of the individual behavior and collective worldview of today's right-wing extremists.
The New Right and its defenders are operating from a broken logic where everyone's sin is somehow no one's sin. In reality, the increasing prominence of right-wing extremism is simply a symptom of much larger social and political problems in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Ultimately, the apparent popularity of an idea or thing in politics or other areas of life does not indicate its merit.
One must also be cautious in these discussions of "right-wing extremism": This language can disguise how common and increasingly "normal" such toxic values have become in the United States and elsewhere.
This is a function of what historian Nancy MacLean details in her book "Democracy in Chains": The American right has successfully executed a long-term plan to drag the country farther to the right, with the goal of undermining and eventually ending its multiracial democracy. This corruption of democracy is in many ways most effective when it is done gradually. In this way right-wing extremism becomes the norm, a cancer in the body politic that metastasizes to a point where it becomes fatal to democracy.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." History often does this in an upside-down, cruel fashion. This week Donald Trump is touring Britain and Europe on the 75th anniversary of the American-led Allied landings of D-Day. This is the president who has abdicated American global leadership, harmed longstanding alliances, and given aid and comfort to the descendants of Nazism and other authoritarians around the world.
America, which was once celebrated as the world's greatest democracy, has now slumped toward fascism. During World War II and then the Cold War, the United States helped to save Europe and the world from fascism and authoritarianism. Perhaps it is now time for America's allies to reciprocate by helping to save American democracy from Donald Trump and all that he represents.
On one extreme of the global right-wing movement are terrorists and other evildoers such as the Nazis or white supremacists who recently attacked mosques and synagogues in New Zealand, Pittsburgh and Southern California. On the other extreme are "respectable" right-wing politicians who use normal politics to take power. In the middle of this continuum are many millions of people who are either active members of the New Right or are sympathetic to its goals and aims.
In total, right-wing extremism is a multi-spectrum threat which extends from the president of the United States all the way down to street hooligans.
In response to several high profile incidents involving Nazis among its ranks, the British Ministry of Defense in conjunction with the British Army developed a chart to help officers identify right-wing extremists.
This chart, "Extreme Right Wing (XRW) Indicators & Warnings," was developed in 2017 and circulated as a leaflet for officers in the British military. Its existence became public last week when a copy appeared on right-wing websites. The British Ministry of Defense has confirmed the authenticity of the chart.
The XRW chart contains 20 examples of behavior which could indicate right-wing extremist values and suggest that a person is being radicalized into joining that dangerous movement.
Some of these warnings are:
- Describe themselves as 'Patriots'
- Refers to Political Correctness as some left wing or communist plot
- Describe multicultural towns as 'lost'
- Looks at opponents as 'Traitors'
- Use the term 'Islamofascism'
- Make generalisations about Muslims and Jews
- Have XRW extreme group stickers or badges on clothing and personal items
- Make inaccurate generalisations about 'the Left' or Government
- Talk of an impending racial conflict or 'Race War'
- Threaten violence when losing an argument, although claiming that XRW groups protest peacefully
- Become increasingly angry at perceived injustices or threats to so called 'National Identity'
Donald Trump, the Republican Party's elected officials and many of the leading voices in the right-wing media, as well as rank-and-file conservatives and other Trump supporters, meet many if not most of those criteria.
In a mix of mockery and concern, the usual right-wing voices are objecting that the XRW) chart is too broad and somehow "unfair," and stands as further proof of a conspiracy against "conservatives."
These objections fail in a number of ways.
The facts: the British Ministry of Defense chart is an accurate description of the individual behavior and collective worldview of today's right-wing extremists.
The New Right and its defenders are operating from a broken logic where everyone's sin is somehow no one's sin. In reality, the increasing prominence of right-wing extremism is simply a symptom of much larger social and political problems in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. Ultimately, the apparent popularity of an idea or thing in politics or other areas of life does not indicate its merit.
One must also be cautious in these discussions of "right-wing extremism": This language can disguise how common and increasingly "normal" such toxic values have become in the United States and elsewhere.
This is a function of what historian Nancy MacLean details in her book "Democracy in Chains": The American right has successfully executed a long-term plan to drag the country farther to the right, with the goal of undermining and eventually ending its multiracial democracy. This corruption of democracy is in many ways most effective when it is done gradually. In this way right-wing extremism becomes the norm, a cancer in the body politic that metastasizes to a point where it becomes fatal to democracy.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." History often does this in an upside-down, cruel fashion. This week Donald Trump is touring Britain and Europe on the 75th anniversary of the American-led Allied landings of D-Day. This is the president who has abdicated American global leadership, harmed longstanding alliances, and given aid and comfort to the descendants of Nazism and other authoritarians around the world.
America, which was once celebrated as the world's greatest democracy, has now slumped toward fascism. During World War II and then the Cold War, the United States helped to save Europe and the world from fascism and authoritarianism. Perhaps it is now time for America's allies to reciprocate by helping to save American democracy from Donald Trump and all that he represents.
EXTREMISTS
CousinIT - demo underground
amerikkkans funnies
THOMAS JEFFERSON CALLED THEM "RUBBISH" PEOPLE
BEN FRANKLIN CALLED THEM "WASTE" PEOPLE
TRUMP CALLS THEM his "base"
These idiots are the people who lack the intelligence and morality to understand they are just FOOLS.
White Supremacists show their stupidity once again.....
|
|
|
|
DJT - lie-brary
|
|