Black Lives Matter Definitely to Blame For This One

She took one extra second closing the car door and for that was brutally assaulted, arrested and jailed.  I'm amazed the motherfucking cop didn't shoot her dead.

Kudos to the police chief for blasting this cop, but unless he changes his hiring and training practices right now, he's full of shit.

TPM:

Patrol car video shows a white Austin, Texas, police officer violently throwing a black woman to the ground during a traffic stop, followed by another white officer telling her black people have "violent tendencies" and whites are justifiably afraid.

Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo condemned both officers' actions. He called the officer's comments on the video "disturbing" and said a criminal investigation has been opened against the officer who arrested Breaion King.

The traffic stop happened in June 2015 but was not made public until the Austin American-Statesman published the video Thursday. Acevedo called a news conference hours later and said both officers have been taken off street patrol and are on desk duty pending new internal investigations, which he said will include both officers' conduct in the year since the incident.

  The video is graphic and rage-inducing.

"Unity" Exposed: Pro Bad Cops, Anti Justice

Short version: Governor Pants-Shitter's propaganda office promoted it. Any hope of "justice" got stomped to death under the combat boots of "Blue Lives Matter" and barely-disguised white supremacy.

From the Courier:

People in shorts and sweat-stained T-shirts marched to the steps of the Kentucky Capitol alongside officers in uniform Thursday as they called for unity and showed their support for the police.

The violent deaths of law enforcement officials in Dallas and Baton Rouge this month, along with the most recent fatal shootings of black Americans by police officers, have renewed support for - and debate over - the Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements.

Thursday's "Unity March" was organized "to help try to end the violence directed at everyone," said Frankfort City Commissioner John Sower, who helped organize it. The march received support from local law enforcement agencies and other groups as well as Gov. Matt Bevin, who announced that the Capitol building and the governor's mansion would remain lit in blue for the second night in a row as a tribute to police officers.

Read the rest if you've got a high gag threshold, but all you need to know is there. Blue and White Lives Are the Only Lives That Matter.

Same thing happened in Shelbyville Sunday afternoon: it was dominated by local elected officials demanding blind allegiance to the cops and using convenient quotes from the bibble to reinforce it.

You know who else cited scripture to keep black people in their place? Yep, Traitors in Defense of Slavery.  And they're still doing it today.

Bevin Demands Forced Indoctrination for Foster Children

Violations of the Establishment Clause forbidding government from promoting religion rarely gets as blatant as this. Not that Governor Lying Coward gives a shit about the Constitution, genuine religion freedom or the well-being of foster children.

From the AP:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin's administration has asked a judge to throw out a legal settlement made under former Gov. Steve Beshear that was meant to ensure church-run foster care programs don't sway children to their religious beliefs.

Executive branch lawyers said this week that the court should undo the settlement with the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Courier-Journal reported (http://cjky.it/2atVLI1 ). The state's position and all-around "philosophy" has changed now that Bevin is in office, the lawyers said in court filings.

Bevin is a Republican, while Beshear is a Democrat.

Alex Luchenitser, an attorney for Americans United, said the state must stick to the agreement.

"It's a binding agreement and there is no basis for the state to get out of the agreement," Luchenitser said.

The state agreed in 2014 to let Americans United and the ACLU access surveys and exit interviews with children under certain conditions to ensure foster programs aren't trying to proselytize to children. According to the settlement, the two organizations can access the information only if a state inspector general investigation has been initiated.

Are Your Local Candidates REAL Republicans?

Only if they've eaten, digested and pledged allegiance to the resulting shit of this:

GOP delegates last week approved a draft of the party platform so retrograde it seems to come from another century — and not necessarily the 20th.

The draft platform takes a particularly odious stance on social issues. The document proclaims that children of same-sex parents are more likely to become drug addicts and supports harmful “conversion therapy,” prompting the Log Cabin Republicans to declare it “the most anti-LGBT platform in the party’s 162-year history.” It also describes pornography as a “public health crisis” and calls for teaching the Bible in public schools. Meanwhile, it labels undocumented immigrants as “illegal aliens” and endorses Trump’s signature proposal, building a wall along the Mexican border.

Political candidates are, of course, not bound by their party’s platform. But as a measure of where the party as a whole stands — and a marker of the direction in which they are headed — platforms still matter. What the Republican platform says is that the party stands in proud opposition to equal rights and inclusion. Worse yet, it signals clearly that the party not only is committed to impeding progress but also, compared with four years ago, is actively moving backward.

In just seven weeks, Kentucky's election campaign for the General Assembly begins in earnest.  On the line is the slim Democratic majority in the state House.

A flip of just three seats out of 100 to the repugs would destroy the last defense standing against the slavering barbarians hordes in the state Senate and the Governor's Office.

The last defense between House Democrats and defeat is ... US. You and me.  All of us going to every campaign event we can find and demanding that repug candidates either pledge allegiance to the Talibantastical National Republican Party Platform and its leader the Orange Menace or resign from the Party and forfeit the election.

If they do pledge allegiance to that sewage of a platform, make sure everybody knows exactly what that means and rake the candidate over the coals for it.

This election is a gift, people.  Don't turn your backs on it.

Fuck "Unity." Give Us Justice.

Yeah, this afternoon in Shelbyville there was a "unity rally."  The liberal white folks were so glad that it was organized by a black kid who never once referred to structural racism or injustice or a long-overdue promissory note still awaiting payment. His pastor must be so proud.

No, they could go to the "unity rally" with their black friends from the NAACP without fear they might have to confront actual injustice and instead pretend that if we all just prayed and were nice to each other racism would disappear.

I wasn't there for reasons of it would make me puke but I am quite sure that the phrase "All Lives Matter" was spoken with deep reverence more than once and "Black Lives Matter" was not.

As far as I can tell, "All Lives Matter" is a euphemism for "Only White Lives Matter," but PZ Myers has a more nuanced view:

Saying all lives matter is not racist. Trying to deny the reality of racism against minorities by drowning out their specific concerns with platitudes is.

Or, via Erik Loomis at LGM:

Stacey Patton convincingly argues that Hillary Clinton speech about racial unity was wrongheaded.

Beyond that, Clinton’s call for everyone to “do the work” to unite against hatred overlooks the fundamental fact that it’s whites — and only whites — who must work to fix the racist structures in our society.
…

To quote another historical figure, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “The thing wrong with America is white racism. … It’s time for America to have an intensified study on what’s wrong with white folks.” Clinton could have spoken about racial justice.

Instead, like so many others, she focused on the rhetoric of unity. And calling for unity places yet another burden on black people.

Look at what happens in the wake of a shooting by police like the ones last week in Minnesota and Louisiana and Texas: The relatives of the victims are clearly grieving and traumatized, yet they are pushed to extend empathy and forgiveness to those who killed their loved ones, and to the system that profits from these tragedies. Routinely now, we encounter scenes of black folks hugging racists, praying with and dancing with police officers, being asked to do the additional work of teaching white folks how not to be racist and help them find solutions to a racist system we didn’t invent — while we struggle to keep ourselves and our loved ones alive.

Talk of unity, reconciliation and restoring trust is a diversion from the raw, ugly, excruciatingly painful work of addressing the systemic racism that is tearing our nation apart. In their rush to avoid the real work in favor of a kumbaya fantasy comfort zone, they refuse to confront history and the truth about present moment.

Justice, motherfuckers.  Then we'll talk about unity.
 

Seven Tenets of Human Morality

The point being that no supernatural being presented these to human beings.  Or rather that no bunch of Bronze Age desert goat-fuckers claimed they got them from their invisible sky wizard.

These are the tenets of behavior that human beings have tried to follow since we first evolved into human beings.  These are the guidelines that allow us to live and work and love within a community of others.

No one ever has to order us to follow them.  Our conscience does that for us.

Divine Irony:

Satanic Temple: Seven Tenets Are Morally Superior To Ten Commandments

•Strive to act with compassion and empathy toward all creatures in accordance with reason.
•The struggle for justice is an ongoing and necessary pursuit that should prevail over laws and institutions.
•One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.
•The freedoms of others should be respected, including the freedom to offend. To willfully and unjustly encroach upon the freedoms of another is to forgo your own.
•Beliefs should conform to our best scientific understanding of the world. We should take care never to distort scientific facts to fit our beliefs.
•People are fallible. If we make a mistake, we should do our best to rectify it and resolve any harm that may have been caused.
•Every tenet is a guiding principle designed to inspire nobility in action and thought. The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.

Who They Really Worship

Divine Irony:

atheistcartoons:

For the same reason that any work of science fiction tells us more about the author’s present than his future, any god tells us more about the obsessions of his believers than morality.

When Hillary Crushes Trump, She Won't Get Any Credit

She could take all 50 states plus D.C. and her place in history will be just one giant asterisk.  From even her supporters, I can hear it now:

"Anybody with a pulse could have beaten Trump."

"She got only 65 percent of the popular vote. That's the highest ever, but she should have gotten 70."

"She piggy-backed on Obama's popularity."

"She only won because Bernie forced her to tack left."

"She only won because people still love Bill and were really voting for him."

"She only won because women went for one of their own."

"She only won because of black voters."

You think the conservatards and the haters and the repugs went all out to de-legitimize first black president?  That'll seem like applause compared to what they'll unleash against the first president without a dick.

Because in twenty-fucking-sixteen, this shit still happens.  

HT End Opiate Abuse: Legalize Pot

But they won't because ending opioid abuse is not the point of stupid laws like KASPER. 

 

The point of KASPER is to keep Big Pharma obscenely rich, the population permanently disabled by chronic pain and doctors cowed into obedience by the terroristic threat of losing their license and livelihood.

 

From Kevin Drum:

Here's a fascinating study. A pair of researchers at the University of Georgia took a look at what happened to prescriptions for opioid painkillers in states that passed medical marijuana laws. Over at the Washington Post, Christopher Ingraham summarizes their results:

They found that, in the 17 states with a medical-marijuana law in place by 2013,prescriptions for painkillers and other classes of drugs fell sharply compared with states that did not have a medical-marijuana law. The drops were quite significant: In medical-marijuana states, the average doctor prescribed 265 fewer doses of antidepressants each year, 486 fewer doses of seizure medication, 541 fewer anti-nausea doses and 562 fewer doses of anti-anxiety medication.

Needless to say, the painkiller industry would much rather have you gulp down their addictive and lucrative product. They are not taking the threat from medical marijuana lying down:

The tanking numbers for painkiller prescriptions in medical marijuana states are likely to cause some concern among pharmaceutical companies. These companies have long been at the forefront of opposition to marijuana reform, funding research by anti-pot academics and funneling dollars to groups, such as the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, that oppose marijuana legalization.

Pharmaceutical companies have also lobbied federal agencies directly to prevent the liberalization of marijuana laws. In one case, recently uncovered by the office of Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that naturally derived THC, the main psychoactive component of marijuana, be moved from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act — a less restrictive category that would acknowledge the drug's medical use and make it easier to research and prescribe. Several months after HHS submitted its recommendation, at least one drug company that manufactures a synthetic version of THC — which would presumably have to compete with any natural derivatives — wrote to the Drug Enforcement Administration to express opposition to rescheduling natural THC, citing "the abuse potential in terms of the need to grow and cultivate substantial crops of marijuana in the United States."

The study estimates that if all 50 states legalized medical marijuana, Medicare would save $500 million per year in painkiller spending. It's hard to extrapolate that to overall spending on painkiller medication, but the total savings would be on the order of $2 billion per year—maybe more.

Celebrate Kentucky's Nobel Laureate Evolutionary Biologist

Thomas Hunt Morgan would kick Ken Ham's lying ass. So would Kentucky scientific heroes Frank McVey, Arthur McQuisten Miller and John T. Scopes.

Tom Eblen at the Herald:

If you worry the Creation Museum and its new Noah’s Ark theme park will cause outsiders to think Kentuckians are a bunch of anti-science rubes, at least take comfort in this: Lexington was home to perhaps America’s greatest evolutionary biologist.

Sept. 25 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Hunt Morgan, who won a Nobel Prize in 1933 for pioneering research that is the foundation of much modern biology and genetics.

But aside from the University of Kentucky’s biology department, almost nobody here seems interested in marking the sesquicentennial of Kentucky’s greatest scientist.

Morgan, who died in 1945, remains world-famous. But he has always been overshadowed in Lexington by his uncle, Confederate Gen. John Hunt Morgan, a controversial cavalry raider whose statue has stood on the old courthouse lawn since 1911.

SNIP

Garland Allen, who wrote the 1979 biography Thomas Hunt Morgan: The Man and His Science, will speak at UK on Oct. 13. Cassone said the university also is trying to arrange a Lexington screening of The Fly Room, a 2014 movie about the genetics research with fruit flies in Morgan’s lab at Columbia University in New York.

The celebration will begin Oct. 1 with an open house featuring the work of biology graduate students at UK’s new Academic Science Building, which is now under construction and will replace the Thomas Hunt Morgan Biological Sciences Building.

 

SNIP

Morgan isn’t UK’s only contribution to refuting the pseudo-science of creationism. Nearly a century ago, as now, creationism was enjoying a wave of popularity among Christians who found science incompatible with their narrow interpretation of Scripture.

One result was a bill introduced in the Kentucky General Assembly in 1922 that would have outlawed teaching the evolution of man in public schools and universities. The bill was vigorously opposed by UK President Frank McVey and Arthur McQuiston Miller, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences and UK’s first football coach.

The bill was narrowly defeated, but similar legislation passed in Tennessee and several other states. The Tennessee law became famous in 1925, when the American Civil Liberties Union enlisted one of Miller’s former UK students, John T. Scopes, a high school teacher in Dayton, Tenn., to challenge the law in court.

The “Scopes monkey trial” became a national sensation that played a big role in turning public opinion away from anti-science for decades. Scopes was found guilty, but his conviction was overturned two years later. The Tennessee law remained on the books until 1967, but was widely ignored.

While Scopes remains a household name, few people remember he was a UK graduate. It seems to me that a good thing to put in front of UK’s new Academic Science Building would be an historical marker honoring the roles Scopes, Miller and McVey played in defending academic freedom.

Schools Warned Away From Myth-Promoting ArkPark

Because deliberately shoving anti-science lies down the throats of innocent children should be a crime.

Linda Blackford and Bill Estep at the Herald:

A secular foundation has contacted hundreds of public schools in Kentucky to warn them against taking field trips to the Ark Encounter, the new amusement park featuring a 500-foot replica of Noah’s Ark and a belief that the world is only 6,000 years old.

That's a representation of a myth, not a "replica" of anything real.  And if it were, the fraud built by modern construction equipment is still orders of magnitude too small to carry what they myth-mongers claim it did.

Officials with the Freedom From Religion Foundation say field trips would expose children to religious proselytizing that would violate the constitutional separation between church and state.

In reply, Kentucky Education Commissioner Stephen Pruitt sent a message to school districts late Monday saying that neither outside groups nor the Kentucky Department of Education should dictate field trip selection. But, he wrote, “it is important to remind educators that at all times and under all circumstances, field trips should be a direct extension of classroom learning. As a result, all off-site trips should be directly related to the school curriculum and should seek to maximize student learning by enhancing the classroom experience.”

All public school field trips should be approved by the school’s Site-Based Decision Making Council, made up of the principal, teachers and parents, and local school boards. Brad Hughes, spokesman for the Kentucky School Boards Association, said districts are encouraged to make sure that field trip approval policies are in place at the school and district levels.

Foundation co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor said the group sent letters to more than 1,000 school districts in Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia warning against organizing trips to the Ark.

The foundation has heard from parents concerned their districts will organize trips, such as year-end field trips.

“That would be completely inappropriate,” Gaylor said. “This is an attempt to proselytize children. The public school is to educate, not indoctrinate.”

Donald Ruberg, an attorney for the Grant County schools and an expert in education law, said he thinks the foundation’s position that school field trips would be impermissible in all cases is wrong.

“I think they are grossly overstating their case,” he said. “That’s not a correct interpretation of the law, in my opinion.”

You want to challenge the Establishment Clause, motherfucker, you better be stacking up piles of money taller than that fake boat to defend all the lawsuits from parents who don't want their children abused by freakazoid grifters.

Cops as Whiny-Ass Titty Babies

Construction, fishing and farming are more dangerous than law enforcement, but you don't hear those workers demanding they be protected from the horrible fate of being publicly criticized.

Think Progress:

On Saturday night, four off-duty Minneapolis police officers walked off their jobs working security at a WNBA Lynx game when the players wore T-shirts with the phrase “Black Lives Matter” and held a press conference focusing on healing the divide between law enforcement and the black community.

The president of the Minneapolis Police Federation, Lt. Bob Kroll, praised the action of the officers. “I commend them for it,” he said, as reported by the Minnesota Star Tribune.

The players decided to wear the shirts after having in-depth discussions at practice during a week that saw two black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, murdered by police and five police officers killed in Dallas. Castile was killed in the Minneapolis suburb of Falcon Heights.

During warm-ups, the Lynx players all donned shirts with the message “Change Starts With Us — Justice and Accountability” on the front. The back of the shirt featured the names of Castile and Sterling, the phrase, “Black Lives Matter,” and, notably, the Dallas Police Department shield.

“In the wake of the tragedies that have continued to plague our society, we have decided it is important to take a stand and raise our voices,” co-captain Rebekkah Brunson told reporters in a pre-game news conference. “Racial profiling is a problem. Senseless violence is a problem. The divide is way too big between our community and those who have vowed to protect and serve us.”

PZ Myers responded that police who don't believe in justice and accountability should be fired: 

I have to ask, what offended them? Justice? Or accountability? Or possibly it was that the names of two dead black men were listed on the back. Please be specific, Minneapolis police. Perhaps you could suggest some edits that would make acknowledging injustice and a lack of accountability palatable to you.

Meanwhile, the national effort to swaddle law enforcement in cotton wool while criminalizing First Amendment protest speeds up and gets stupider:

 

In the wake of the killing of six officers in Dallas last Thursday, legislators across the country are considering bills to offer hate crime protections to cops. Two so-called “Blue Lives Matter” bills have already been announced since the mass shooting, modeled after the law passed in Louisiana this year. But instead of making police safer, the bills may have the consequence of criminalizing protesters and groups that are already targeted by law enforcement.

In May, Louisiana became the first state to expand its hate crime protections to include police and emergency personnel. To the disappointment of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and advocates of the First Amendment, the first-of-its-kind Blue Lives Matter law enhanced the penalties for people who attack or threaten cops in the state, effectively lumping a profession into the same category as fixed or perceived traits like race, gender, and religion. When it goes into effect in three weeks, it could be put to the test right away in Baton Rouge, where protesters have taken to the streets in response to the shooting of Alton Sterling.

On Sunday, people gathered in the streets were met with police in military gear and tanks. At least one officer was filmed pointing a gun at protesters. Officers also made at least 100 arrests during the mass demonstrations, locking up peaceful protesters including activist DeRay Mckesson.

It remains to be seen if the law will have its desired effect of making police safer, but Blue Lives Matter bills that treat police like vilified minorities may gain traction in other parts of the country, following the deadly attack on officers in Dallas. And that means the people demanding an end to police violence in places like Baton Rouge could have an ever bigger target on their backs for exercising their First Amendment rights.

Treason Defenders Demand Special Treatment for Treason's President

Again, class:  The Civil War was about slavery, according to the writings of secession leaders at the time, and nothing but slavery; secession was Treason in Defense of Slavery, and confederates then and now are Traitors in Defense of Slavery.

Kentucky should be ashamed that Treason's President was born inside our borders.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

A group known as The Friends of the Jefferson Davis State Historic Site is seeking a military designation for the controversial Davis statue in the Capitol Rotunda — a move that would make it more difficult to remove the statue from the Capitol.

State curator Leslie Nigels of Louisville and Steve Collins, chairman of the state Historic Properties Advisory Commission, said Thursday they do not know the group and are studying implications of giving the statue a military designation.

Ed Georgen, president of the citizens group from Lyon County, acknowledged in a telephone interview that the designation would require the advisory commission to get approval from the Kentucky Military Heritage Commission before ever moving the statue.

Currently, the advisory commission has sole legal authority in overseeing the statues in the Capitol. Last August, it voted 7-2-1 to keep the Davis statue in the building.

A debate has raged in Kentucky for years about whether the statue of the president of the Confederacy in the Civil War should be displayed just outside the governor’s office.

SNIP

Several Kentucky politicians, including now Gov. Matt Bevin, House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Senate President Robert Stivers, advocated moving the Tennessee marble likeness of Davis, who was born in Kentucky, to the Kentucky History Center in Frankfort or to the Jefferson Davis Historic Site in Todd County.

The issue never came up in this year’s state legislative session.

Raoul Cunningham, president of the Kentucky State Conference and Louisville chapter of the NAACP, said the commission “whitewashed” the issue and promised that debate about the statue’s location would continue.

Cunningham said Thursday it would be a mistake for the historic properties advisory commission to allow the military heritage commission to have a say in whether the statue should ever be removed.

“We would oppose giving the Davis statue the military designation this citizens’ group is seeking,” he said.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article88272002.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article88272002.html#storylink=cpy

Not a Synonym

Divine Irony:

 

 

forthelove-ofscience:

Yes Peter, that grinds my gears too!!

Blue Lives Matter is Still Bullshit

Dallas notwithstanding, targeting law enforcement is already a crime with enhanced penalties, and the danger is part of the job.  

Cutting down innocent citizens should not be.

After Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, but before Philando Castile in Minnesota and before five cops in Dallas, there was this, from Charlie Pierce, about Blue Lives Matter:

Edwards signed the bill even though, as Jarvis DeBerry of The Times-Picayune pointed out, Edwards' record provided him with sufficient political cover to veto the law had he decided to do so.

But in addition to being generally concerned about hate-crime statutes, I am particularly distressed by a bill that adds police officers to the list of people who can be considered the victims of hate crimes. The primary reason is that police officers are already protected. There are already higher penalties for people who attack and or kill police officers, and it's doubtful that there's anybody around who's unaware that those higher penalties exist. But there's also another reason this bill is a noxious idea. Hate crime bills were put in to place to grant some protections to populations that have historically been powerless. Police officers are representatives of power. We call them "the law." How does it come to be that the very embodiments of the state's power are cast as weak, oppressed and in further need of the state's protection? House Bill 953 is propaganda, pure and simple, furthering the lie that police officers' lives have recently become more imperiled.

And after Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, and after Philando Castile in Minnesota, but before the five cops in Dallas, there was this, from a Louisiana police officer:

“How dare you stand next to me in the same uniform and murder somebody! How dare you! You ought to be ashamed of yourself! So, why don’t we just keep it real? If you’re that officer that knows good and well you’ve got a God complex, you’re afraid of people that don’t look like you, you have no business in that uniform! Take it off! If you’re afraid to go and talk to an African American female or a male, or a Mexican male or female because they’re not white like you, take the uniform off! You have no business being a police officer, because there’s many of us that would give our life for anybody! We took this oath and we meant it! If you are that officer that’s prejudice, take the uniform off and put the KKK hoodie on because I will not stand for that!”

And today, the total number of police officers killed in the line of duty this year stands at 58. A little more than 10 percent of the number of people killed by police officers in the same time.

In the first half of 2016, police have killed 532 people — many of whom were unarmed, mentally ill, and people of color.

This number comes from The Guardian’s police killings database, but the Killed by Police database counts 580 people who have died at the hands of police so far this year. The Washington Post also reports that 488 people have been shot and killed by cops.

Going by the Guardian’s count, 261 white people were killed by police — the highest total out of any racial group. But data also shows that black people and Native Americans are being killed at higher rates than any other group.

February and March were the deadliest months this year, with 99 people killed by police in each month. In June, the police killed 86 people, all of whom were fatally shot.

 Blue Lives Matter Is Bullshit.

  

Let's Focus, People

Via Juanita Jean:

Bevin Makes Dick Move That Is Insulting to Dicks

jesus christ even Trump is more mature than this.  What's next? Bevin leaving a flaming bad of dog shit on Beshear's front porch?

And shame on Governor Lying Coward for exploiting Gold Star families in his infantile temper tantrum against Governor Steve Beshear.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

The name of former first lady Jane K. Beshear has been removed from the Capitol Education Center on the grounds of the Kentucky Capitol.

Gone is the sign with her name in front of the building that serves as an education and welcoming facility for more than 60,000 guests to the Capitol campus every year. Gone are the plaques in the building that bore her name.

First Lady Jane Beshear introduced her husband Gov. Steve Beshear during the swearing-in ceremony Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2011 at the Capitol in Frankfort.  

 

The Bevin administration plans to rename the center, which sits adjacent to the Capitol and Executive Mansion, to honor Kentucky’s military heritage with the goal of special recognition to Kentucky’s “Gold Star” families, Pamela Trautner, spokeswoman for the state Finance and Administration Cabinet, said Thursday.

SNIP

Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear named the center in his wife’s honor last November shortly before leaving office and soon after Republican Gov. Matt Bevin was elected to succeed him. Beshear said his wife was responsible for securing private donations to help outfit the center, including $250,000 from Duke Energy, and appliances for the center’s kitchen from General Electric.

Bevin and the Beshears have been at odds since early in the Bevin administration.

Bevin removed Jane Beshear in December as a member of the Kentucky Horse Park Commission, an appointment Steve Beshear had made. The two have accused each other of corruption in their administrations and the Beshears’ son, Attorney General Andy Beshear, has taken Bevin to court for making mid-year university budget cuts and revamping governing boards.

Steve Beshear said in an email Thursday night that “it’s certainly the governor’s prerogative to change the name on this building if he chooses.”

“I named it after Jane because she raised over $250,000 from the private sector to transform that old, abandoned building into a place where Kentucky schoolchildren visiting our Capitol could eat lunch and learn about different kinds of energy used in Kentucky,” he said. “She never sought any recognition for her efforts, but I was proud to surprise her by naming the building for her.”

Steve Beshear said he hopes Bevin leaves a plaque on the inside of the center “that tells how the first lady created it, because I’m sure our military families would want to know the story of how it came about.”

It's Class vs. Trash, and I don't have to tell you which is which.

But it's the cops who need protecting

Kentucky legislators will introduce a Blue Lives Matter (Way More Than the Innocent Civilians This Bill Will Give Cops Permission to Murder in Cold Blood) bill when the General Assembly convenes in January.  
 

Find out if your legislator is one of these morons and vote the racist, pants-shitting panderer out of office in November.

 

Crooks and Liars:

It was another traffic stop. Philando Castile was driving with his girlfriend, Lavish Reynolds, when they were pulled over at a traffic stop for a broken taillight, according to a video Reynolds posted on Facebook just after he was shot.

The officer “asked him for license and registration,” she says. “He told him that it was in his wallet, but he had a pistol on him because he’s licensed to carry. The officer said don’t move. As he was putting his hands back up, the officer shot him in the arm four or five times.”

The video shows a uniformed police officer holding a pistol on the couple from outside the car. The officer can be heard to say, “I told him not to reach for it. I told him to get his hand out.”

“Please don’t tell me my boyfriend’s gone,” she says. ”He don’t deserve this, please. He works for St. Paul Public Schools. He’s never been in jail, anything. He’s not a gang member, anything.”

According to reports since she posted the video, Mr. Castile died at the hospital.

 

This happens every day. The only difference in this case is that she took video, documented her story and posted it to Facebook.

Pay special attention to the fact that Castile was armed, but carried a permit, that he informed police he was armed before he reached for his wallet.

And now he is dead. Tell me something. If he had been white and armed, would he be dead?

Gun rights are for white people only.

Bevin Attacks Fake Problem By Making Real Problem Worse

So Governor Pants-Shitter asks his overworked, underpaid, about-to-lose-their-pensions state workers to do his fucking job for him and find instances of "red tape" that he can then use to eliminate yet more state jobs and brag about saving money that he is actually wasting.

I'll just annotate this little missive with what I imagine a state employee might like to say to Kentucky's only guv:

Fellow Public Servant of Kentucky,

Stop right there, motherfucker.  You are not, never have been and never will be a "public servant." You're a freakazoid billionaire greedhead who thinks "public service" is getting serviced with public money.

This morning we are announcing a new initiative aimed at cutting red tape in government, and I am asking for your help.

There is no red tape in government.  That's a conservative shibboleth that the wingnuts have been bellowing since progressives first started making government work for people who weren't obscenely rich shitheels.

There are currently more than 4,500 administrative regulations in Kentucky. For decades, they have been put in place by state agencies to address problems, shortcomings, isolated issues or other matters state leaders deemed appropriate to regulate. 

Just 4,500?  When we need at least 10 times that number?  Every minute in this state, some private business is fucking over a Kentucky customer, resident, public building, public land, public waterway, public airspace or public investment.  And getting away with it because 4,500 regulations is not nearly enough to stop the raping.

Of those 4,500 regulations, approximately 15 percent have not been reviewed since 1974. They simply stay on the books, year after year, and regulators are required to enforce them.  This must change. 

What must change is adding more regulations to cover the countless attacks on the public purse and the public good by companies getting away with murder because they are so UNregulated.  

While some regulations are very necessary and protect the public safety, others can stifle economic growth, impose unnecessary costs on businesses and impede private sector investment. Our new Red Tape Reduction Initiative is an effort to review every regulation currently on the books. The goal is to eliminate those regulations deemed unnecessary or duplicative, simplify those considered too complex and judge each for intent and effectiveness. 

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA  oh fuck stop you're killing me.  Because killing me and all my public-spirited friends for the profit of your billionaire friends is the one and only goal of eliminating regulations.

As a state employee, you have firsthand knowledge of regulations that are unnecessary, outdated, poorly written or too complex. This is your chance to help us identify those regulations and then help us do something about them.

What state employees have is heart attacks and strokes and stress-caused early death from trying desperately to hold this state together despite not having the regulations they need to do their jobs.

A website has been established, redtapereduction.com , where you can suggest regulations that should be reviewed. Periodic updates will also be available on the progress of this initiative.

Why don't you hang from a rope until there is a single "update" on this fake-ass "initiative?"

Thank you in advance for your thoughtful response to this request.  I look forward to hearing from you.

No, you look forward to ignoring what I say and continuing to drag Kentucky down the Brownback Path to Haiti-dom.

With gratitude for your service,

Matt Bevin

Governor

No, no - fuck YOU very much.

Real Patriots Pay Taxes

After racism, this is the biggest divide between Americans: we who define patriotism as working to create and strengthen the common good vs those who define patriotism as working to enrich and strengthen selfish individualism.

Crooks and Liars:

Former Clinton Labor Secretary, Robert Reich has teamed up with MoveOn.org to celebrate our 240th birthday this Fourth of July. He understands that it's very important to not only love your country, but be aware of the responsibilities of a truly patriotic American.

SNIP
Reich outlines five basic principles of true patriotism. His definition praises the country that we love, without demonizing the institution of government.

1. First: It's not simply about waiving the American flag and it's not mostly about securing our borders putting up walls keeping others out. It's about coming together for the common good.
2. Second: Patriotism 'isn't cheap.' As such, a real American patriot pays his fair share of taxes to fund services, utilities, roadways, social programs, education, healthcare and the most expensive military on the planet. The Presumptive Republican Apricot nominee has yet to reveal his tax returns,and it's widely believed they would divulge some rather 'creative accounting', possibly to the degree that he hardly pays anything back for all the benefits he's received from this nation, the country he claims to love.
3. Third: Patriotism is about preserving fortifying and protecting our democracy, not intimidating it with big money and buying off politicians.
Trump has bragged about his own history of buying politicians who, as he so delicately pronounced, "kiss my ass."

4. Fourth: True patriots don't hate the government of the United States, they're proud of their country. They know the government is a tool to help solve our problems together.. They may not like everything it does and they justifiably worry when special interests came too much power but true patriots work to improve our government not destroy it *cough cough, like the GOP* The Conservative SCOTUS justices responsible for Citizens United decision unequivocally prove that the GOP was best served by this blatant selling of Democracy to the highest bidder.
5. Finally: Patriots don't pander to devisiveness - they don't feel racist or religious or ethnic divisions. They aren't homophobic or sexist or racist. AMEN!

Liberal Xians Just As Bad If Not Worse

I think the liberal xians who claim jeebus and their invisible wizard friend in the sky want nothing but peace and love and rainbow ponies are a bigger long-term threat to humanity than all the hate-mongering freakzoids everywhere.

 

Because all they're doing is confirming the fundamental freakazoid claim that human beings ought to do whatever they think their sky wizard friend is telling them to do.

 

Conservatard or liberal, it's the concept that's wrong.

 

PZ Myers:

This particular news program goes out of its way to get liberal ministers to oppose the hatemongers, but they’re just as bad: rationalizing your behavior as “this is what my god wants me to do” is just as fallacious when it’s supporting humanist views as when it’s supporting murderous views. How about suggesting that we not kill, because they are fellow human beings, or that we should be tolerant, because human beings have diverse views, and behavior that does not harm others ought to be accepted?

Whose Slave?

Divine Irony:

Bevin Gets Stomped by Planned Parenthood

Oh, man, I can't wait to see what unconstitutional shit the forced birthers in the Kentucky General Assembly come up with to try to get around the new judicial consensus in favor of abortion RIGHTS.

From the Courier:

A Jefferson Circuit Court judge has tossed out a lawsuit by Gov. Matt Bevin's administration against Planned Parenthood that alleged the reproductive health organization illegally provided abortions at its new clinic in downtown Louisville.

In dismissing the lawsuit filed by Bevin's general counsel, Steve Pitt, Judge Mitch Perry found that Planned Parenthood had, as it had claimed, been following directions of state officials when it began offering abortions in December as part of its effort to obtain a state license.

Lawyer Thomas Clay, who represents Planned Parenthood, said his clients were "very pleased" with the decision.

"It remains to be seen whether the Bevin will accept this decision or whether it will seek appellate review," Clay said.

You mean appellate review to the new pro-abortion majority on the Supreme Court?  Is Gov. Pants Shitter that eager for a beatdown from Notorious RBG and Sonia "Supreme" Sotomayor?

Go ahead, motherfucker. 

Abortion RIGHTS, Motherfuckers

It's not no-charge, no-questions-asked abortion-on-demand yet, but it's a big step closer.

Crooks and Liars:

Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt is completely overturned FIVE TO THREE, with Roberts, Alito, and Thomas dissenting.

Breyer and Kennedy join Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan in the majority. Scotusblog:

Both the admitting privileges and surgical center requirements place a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking a previability abortion, constitute an undue burden on abortion access, and thus violate the Constitution.

We'll have more as we have time to read the opinion. A very good day for once.

Most importantly, the women on the court finally got the chance to lay some facts and reality upside some freakazoid conservatard heads, and took full advantage.

You'll recall that Sotomayor made her opinion known during oral arguments in March, that demanding surgical centers in order to take two pills was massively stupid. We can't quote this paragraph from Slate enough. Go read the whole thing for a feel-good about the future of SCOTUS once Madam President has a few justices added on.

It felt as if, for the first time in history, the gender playing field at the high court was finally leveled, and as a consequence the court’s female justices were emboldened to just ignore the rules. Time limits were flouted to such a degree that Chief Justice John Roberts pretty much gave up enforcing them. I counted two instances in which Roberts tried to get advocates to wrap up as Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor simply blew past him with more questions. There was something wonderful and symbolic about Roberts losing almost complete control over the court’s indignant women, who are just not inclined to play nice anymore.

Damn right.

You gotta love this:

 

RBG's...conclusion is designed to give today's opinion as broad a reach as possible: ....Providers laws like H. B. 2 that “do little or nothing for health, but rather strew impediments to abortion... cannot survive judicial inspection."

This decision is expected to affect other state's efforts to put provider restrictions in place.

Anti-Terrorism Immunization in Louisville

They're all Americans now.

From the Courier:

The children — from Somalia, Burma and Iraq — had only been in the United States for weeks or days. They're refugees, forced to leave their homes because of war or persecution.

Now they were experiencing their first summer camp.

As part of a five-week Kentucky Refugee Ministries program, more than 40 children, ranging from kindergartners to seventh-graders, are taking morning classes in science, math, art and English. They'll also partake in field trips, an art show and other activities planned by the resettlement agency, which has run the camp for at least a decade.

For the students, the program provides an opportunity to learn English, socialize in the language and experience American classrooms, where they are expected to participate and ask questions.

For parents, who worry about the language barrier their child will face in school, it'll ease their kids' transition this fall.

Refugee children — who numbered roughly 600 last year in Louisville — often struggle to integrate into their schools, said Meagan Floyd, youth services coordinator for the agency.

Many suffer from post-traumatic stress, such as anxiety and learning difficulties, she said. And because their schooling abroad faced frequent disruption, they also begin below grade level, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/article85982022.html#storylink=cpy

And the Horse You Rode in On

Bevin: No money for working poor people to have health insurance that would save the taxpayers billions, but a blank check for freakazoids committing intellectual child abuse.

Shame on you, Herald, for the cutline "Life size Noah's Ark will wow guests with its large size" and I don't mean because that line is badly written.

First, Noah's Ark is a myth.  It never existed, so it can't be "life-size."  Second, as huge as that motherfucker is, it still would not hold a one-millionth of the total animals the bibble claims it did.

And third, if you're wondering why the Freedom from Religion Foundation is not all over this abomination, it's because they know the political and judicial game in Kentucky is rigged against the U.S. Constitution.

From the AP:

Kentucky is paying $190,000 in attorney fees to the Christian group that won a tourism tax benefit for a Noah's ark attraction that will open soon in central Kentucky.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/article85804012.html#storylink=cpy

330 Million Gods

Divine Irony:

religionisbs:

Because they’re not there, duh 😛

Bevin runs crying to mommy, calling Beshears mean ol' doodyheads

Well, he never claimed to be Henry Clay.  Also, projection is an amazing drug.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Gov. Matt Bevin said Thursday that former Gov. Steve Beshear is “an embarrassment” to the state and his law firm and that his son, Attorney General Andy Beshear, opposes him because “it’s clearly genetic.”

That's the same Governor Steve Beshear who was President Barack Obama's special guest at the State of the Union, the man lauded nationwide for this foresight and courage and plain genius in implementing kynect and Medicaid expansion,  the history-making leader who put Kentucky on the road to finally kill generational poverty.

Gov. Lying Coward is the one who is destroying working Kentuckians' last hopes and throwing a temper tantrum because Gov. Beshear isn't thanking him for it.

In response, former Gov. Beshear said in an email, “As a lifelong Kentuckian who gave over 30 years of public service to the people of this state, I have always worked to bring people together. As governor, even when there were disagreements on issues, we were able to have respectful and healthy discussion.

“Kentucky would be better off if Gov. Bevin followed that philosophy and realized that name-calling and insults do nothing to help Kentucky’s families.”

Attorney General Beshear said in an email that he has publicly disagreed with Bevin but has never attacked him personally. “His comments are beneath the dignity of that office. Kentuckians deserve better.”

Is Gov. Pants-Shitter trying to emulate the Orange Menace, or is self-destructive arrogance a side-effect of being filthy rich?

I know: both.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article85536627.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article85536627.html#storylink=cpy

Racist Voting Quote of the Day

Kevin Drum:

I don't have any personal axe to grind on Brexit. Except for one: I am sick and tired of watching folks like Boris Johnson, Marine Le Pen, Donald Trump, and others appeal to the worst racial instincts of our species, only to be shushed by folks telling me that it's not really racism driving their popularity. It's economic angst. It's regular folks tired of being spurned by out-of-touch elites. It's a natural anxiety over rapid cultural change.

Maybe it's all those things. But at its core, it's the last stand of old people who have been frightened to death by cynical right-wing media empires and the demagogues who enable them—all of whom have based their appeals on racism as overt as anything we've seen in decades. It's loathsome beyond belief, and not something I thought I'd ever see in my lifetime. But that's where we are.

American Greatness and Who Tried to Kill It

From Charlie Pierce:

I wonder how that possibly could have happened in this country. How did we abandon our dreams of greatness that we demanded of our self-governing Republic. We didn't dig the Panama Canal. Our government did, after it stole the land from Colombia. We, as individuals, didn't tame the West. Our government did, with railroads and homesteading and the U.S. Cavalry. We didn't ourselves build the Hoover Dam. Our government did. We didn't create our own private space exploration. Our government did. 

How could the country have come to such a sorry pass? Perhaps a clue can be found in a speech given from the U.S. Capitol by a newly elected president on a cold, clear January morning in 1981.

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. 

Sad.

How is Gov. Lying Coward Killing KY Poor People Today?

By eliminating the Medicaid expansion that has saved thousands of Kentucky lives and thousands of Kentucky health care jobs and brought billions of dollars in economic growth to the Commonwealth.

A couple of facts before we get to Bevin's lies:

• Medicaid expansion covers working poor people.  The ones holding down two or three minimum-wage jobs so they make too much money for basic Medicaid but not enough to get kynect subsidies. 
• No, shrinking Medicaid back to the pre-Obamacare levels will not "save $2.2 billion."  It will COST Kentucky taxpayers far more than $2.2 billion in emergency care for people who no longer have health insurance and in expensive long ambulance trips for people whose local hospital closed because Medicaid funding disappeared. 
• Not to mention the dead people.  Many, many dead people deliberated murdered by Governor Lying Coward.

From the Courier:

Gov. Matt Bevin announced Wednesday he's seeking a Medicaid waiver from the federal government.

Bevin said if the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services does not grant the waiver, he will still move ahead with his plan to repeal Medicaid expansion in the state. 

If the Medicaid waiver is approved, Bevin said it will result in $2.2 billion in taxpayer savings.

The waiver is asking the federal government to allow able-bodied, working-age people to "take ownership" of their coverage, Bevin said. He unveiled Helping to Engage and Achieve Long Term Health, or HEALTH, where Kentucky would impose premiums on Medicaid expansion users from $1 to $15, depending on their income levels. 

The new Medicaid program would put money toward drug addiction services.

The fuck it will.  More taxpayer dollars will flow into the pockets of Beshear's billionaire buddies running storefront addiction clinics, but no actual services will be provided. likes

Bevin said his plan isn't to kick people off health care but it will make Medicaid more accessible by making it more accountable. Requiring Medicaid expansion users to pay for their own premiums will give them "dignity and respect," he said.

The program would begin as a pilot program that will be later rolled out across the state.

The waiver will be released publicly today.