Fire every fucking white cop and start the fuck over with public SERVANTS

AND take every penny, every square inch of personal property, vehicles and belongings from these pieces of shit masquerading as cops and give it to this innocent, abused young man.

It is exactly this kind of stormtrooper behavior that CAUSES the problems these motherfuckers claim they need abuse and torture to deal with.

I am so fucking sick of this SHIT. Fire every white cop in the state, burn the stations to the ground and salt the earth so nothing can be built there again.

From the Courier:

He was homecoming king at Central High School and had just graduated with several scholarships.

He had never been arrested or in trouble before and had a steady job selling new cars at a major dealership.

But 18-year-old Tae-Ahn Lea is black and lives in Park Duvalle, in Louisville’s West End. And when he borrowed his mom’s car to go get a slushie one day last August, he found himself being pulled over by the Louisville Metro Police Department's Ninth Mobile Division for the most minor of traffic violations — making a "wide turn" onto another street.

Before he was let go 25 minutes later, he was pulled from his car, frisked and handcuffed. His car was searched by a drug-sniffing dog, then by police officers who went through his wallet and even looked under the lid of his drink for contraband.

He was forced to stand on the street, embarrassed, as traffic drove by, with the cuffs chafing his wrists, as one officer asked him, "Why do you have this negative view towards the police?"

Nearly 1 million people have since viewed a video of the traffic stop on YouTube, and more than 17,000 have commented on it. Many said it shows exactly why minorities distrust law enforcement.

Louisville is not taking this lying down.

From the Courier:

Civil rights leaders and several Metro Council members said Thursday they were enraged by a traffic stop in which a teenager was pulled from his car, frisked and handcuffed last summer after an alleged minor traffic violation.

Councilwoman Jessica Green, who chairs the council’s public safety committee, said she has asked Louisville Metro Police Chief Steve Conrad to appear before Metro Council to answer questions about the stop of Tae-Ahn Lea and the department’s tactic of "hyper-policing" to fight violent crime in the West End.

Green, D-District 1, said the stop described in a Courier Journal story and viewed a million times on YouTube shows how Louisville residents are "hunted down because of the color of their skin and where they live."

Sadiqa Reynolds, president and CEO of the Louisville Urban League said when she watched the video with a group of black parents on spring break, "We found ourselves talking back to the video, holding back tears."

"We understand the violence, we understand the drugs," she said. "But one fact remains, many of our children are innocent. 

"Police need to find a better way."

Conrad has declined to comment on Lea’s stop, saying it is the subject of a pending internal-affairs investigation, although he has defended the department's strategy of aggressive policing in high crime corridors. A police spokeswoman said the department has no plans on dropping the strategy.

I give it three days before Conrad absolves the cops and gives them medals for refraining from killing Lea, which they could have done with no consequences.

Mitch Landrieu, You Are Full of Shit.

And you owe me 25.00 for the copy of your book that I bought based on your interview with Trevor Noah on the Daily Show, in which you strongly indicated that the book was all about the fight to take down Confederate statues in New Orleans.

It is not.  It is all about why Trump voters who may, deep down, feel a little guilty about being motherfucking racists, should vote for Mitch Landrieu for president in 2020.

The very first page and the last chapter are about the statues, and even those are more about you and the statues, and you and the modern confederacy, and you and your internal struggle with your white privilege.

Chapter after chapter about you and your house in a mixed neighborhood, you and all your many black friends down the block and in school, you and the insults you took from racist whites for having black friends.

And the biggest section about Katrina - well, not so much about the actual flooding and massive damage to lives and property, but about how you personally brought the city back to life.  That is, if you can call a corporatized, disaster capitalismed, privatized sinkhole of for-profit destruction a "city." Or "life."

And jesusfuckingchocolatecoveredchristonapogostick, one story that should keep you from getting within 100 miles of the Democratic nomination for dog catcher, much less president: the time in a pickup basketball game with two black guys when one of them knocked you down and glared at you, saying "blond-haired, blue-eyed devil!"

You called it a revelation, and for a moment I thought you were going to realize how deeply embedded in the lives of black people is the understanding that white people are and always have been the enemy.

But no. Your "revelation", I swear to dog, was: "Black people are racist, too."

If the 2020 primary comes down to you and Andrew Cuomo, we'll know that Trumpism has triumphed.

Kill yourself now, Mitch, before every real Democratic voter in the country has to explain why we're not going to try to explain you, much less apologize for you.

And one more thing. Your book, which I have not named for obvious reasons, has Not. One. Fucking. Word. about Black Lives Matter, which fought the statue battle long before you came along (except for mentioning those three words on the back of a church sign, jesus.)

What Trump-Driven Terrorism?

I don't see any domestic terrorism. Especially not any domestic terrorism committed by white people.  And certainly not any domestic terrorism committed by white people emboldened by the Orange Loser's blatant racism to kill black kids

D.R. Tucker at Political Animal:

Maybe he thought blowing the kid away would make America great again.

In the midst of the media madness over Stormy and Syria, it’s easy to ignore seemingly minor stories that have major implications. One such story comes to us from Michigan, where an innocent 14-year-old was nearly killed due to what can only be described as Trumpian ideology:

The 14-year-old was walking to high school after sleeping late and missing the bus when he decided to ask a neighbor for directions.

It was a banal request, but it nearly got the student from Rochester Hills, Mich., killed Thursday.

The woman who opened the door after Brennan Walker, who is black, knocked on it started yelling at him. Then the woman’s husband grabbed a shotgun and fired it at him, Walker and police officials said.

Walker told WJBK-TV that “she was like, ‘Why are you trying to break into my house?’ I was trying to explain to her that I was trying to get directions to Rochester High. And she kept yelling at me. Then the guy came downstairs, and he grabbed the gun, I saw it and started to run. And that’s when I heard the gunshot.”

After sprinting away from the house, Brennan, who was not hit, hid and broke down in tears, the outlet reported.

“I’m kind of happy that, like, I didn’t become a statistic,” Brennan told the outlet, saying his mother had told him that black boys were at risk of being shot by others.

What would make the homeowner assume that a 14-year-old kid was a dangerous home invader? What would motivate the homeowner want to grab a shotgun and take this young man’s life?

 

Is it too far-fetched to conclude that the homeowner likely had the same thought process Donald Trump had back in 1989 (and afterwards), when he called for the execution of the individuals falsely accused of assault in Central Park?

Anyone who thinks progressives exaggerate when they say Trump has freed Americans to act on their prejudices needs to speak to young Brennan Walker. In one moment, this young man’s hopes and dreams could have been taken from him because of the assumption that he was a criminal–an assumption promoted by the man in the White House and his political and media allies.

The horror of what happened to young Brennan Walker cannot be overstated. This young man is psychologically wounded for life. He will never forget the morning he knocked on a door asking for help–just help–and barely avoided having a bullet in his chest.

These are the bitter wages of Trumpism. This is the natural consequence of a President effectively declaring that it is moral to be malevolent towards minorities. Thanks to Trumpism, it is no longer safe for American citizens to ask for directions when they’re lost…or walk home at night after a 13-hour shift…or even wait for friends at Starbucks.

I can’t help wondering what HUD Secretary Ben Carson–or, for that matter, Diamond and Silk–would say to young Brennan Walker, and what their rationale would be for continuing to support a President who obviously doesn’t believe Walker’s life matters. Then again, it’s probably reasonable to assume they’d use the same excuses right-wing commentator Walter E. Williams used nearly two decades ago when he attempted to downplay the dangers of racial profiling. Yet there’s no excuse for what happened to Brennan Walker.

At some point, Trump will go. Yet Trumpism will remain with us, a social malady that must be resisted with as much political and cultural force as possible–because, as a real President declared over fifty years ago:

These are the stakes. To make a world in which all of God’s children can live, or to go into the dark. We must either love each other, or we must die.

The Resistance: Seeds Coming Up

From Nancy LeTourneau at Political Animal:

Finally, as a budding gardener pinning for spring up here in the tundra, I love this!

Racist KY Police Chief Is Just Tip of Iceberg

The Orange Loser gave this motherfucker the freedumb to put his lethal racism on the record, but don't think there's not at least one White Supremacist asshole on every city and county police force in the state. 

Zandar:

Prospect, Kentucky is a suburb of Louisville just north of the 265 loop near the river, about an hour from where I live.  It's a nice little town of 5,000 or so with broad streets and trees and good schools and oh yeah, a screamingly racist police chief who tells his new recruits that it's okay to shoot black kids for smoking pot.

A former assistant police chief for a Kentucky police department allegedly instructed a police recruit to shoot black minors if he were to catch them smoking marijuana, according to court documents.

In an Aug. 31 letter to Prospect, Kentucky Mayor John Evans, Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell wrote that he has "serious concerns" about the then-assistant police chief Todd Shaw, who at the time was acting chief for the city of Prospect, a suburban city in the Louisville metropolitan area.

When senior Jefferson County prosecutors met with members of the Louisville Metro Police Department, they reviewed "highly disturbing racist and threatening Facebook private messages" Shaw exchanged with a former LMPD police recruit, the letter states. The prosecutors were at the department to conduct an investigation to determine whether to file criminal charges against Shaw, O'Connell said.

The prosecutors found the messages while investigating a case in which Shaw allegedly tried to assist another officer by improperly accessing the National Crime Information Center database, his attorney in the criminal case, Nick Mudd, told ABC News. Prosecutors have dropped efforts file criminal charges against Shaw in that case, Mudd said, adding that he "did nothing wrong."

The Facebook messages of concern, which accompanied the letter O'Connell sent to Evans, occurred from September to October 2016, O'Connell said.

In the Facebook messages, Shaw and the recruit discussed a scenario for the recruit's training in which he had to write a paper on the "right thing to do" if he were to come across three juveniles who were smoking marijuana, O'Connell wrote. The recruit appears to have come to Shaw for advice, telling him, "I'm so confused about this paper," in the message, dated Oct. 5, 2016.

"F--- the right thing," Shaw allegedly wrote. "If black shoot them."

Shaw allegedly made other "racially threatening statements," which included instructions on "how to handle the juveniles' parents," according to the letter.

"...if mom is hot then f--- her," Shaw allegedly wrote. "...if dad is hot then handcuff him and make him s--- my d---."

Shaw allegedly continued, "Unless daddy is black...Then shoot

I have friends who live in Prospect. Not liberals, but voting Democratic recently.  Nice people, but my guess is that their reaction to this story is horror not at the racism, but at the stupidity of saying it out loud.  We keep our racism - even the deadly kind - behind closed doors in the Bluegrass State.

him..."

Recognizing Sacrifice vs Collaboration

Speaking of racist murdering cops, someone who made real sacrifices to stop it finally got some deserved recognition.

Think Progress:

Public appearances have been few and far between for Colin Kaepernick since he parted ways with the San Francisco 49ers in the spring, but on Tuesday night, he was in New York to receive Sports Illustrated’s Muhammad Ali Legacy Award for the movement he began in late 2016 when he took a knee during the national anthem at NFL games to protest police brutality and racial injustice.

The award was presented by none other than Beyonce, who famously paid tributeto the Black Lives Matter movement at the 2016 Super Bowl halftime show.

The performer thanked Kaepernick for his “selfless heart,” “conviction,” and “personal sacrifice” — alluding to the fact that despite his talent and history of success, the quarterback has not been signed by an NFL team this season because of the protest.

“Colin took action with no fear of consequence or repercussion, only hope to change the world for the better,” Beyonce said. “To change perception, to change the way we treat each other, especially people of color. We’re still waiting for the world to catch up.”

She also called out the people who have questioned Kaepernick’s patriotism because of the protest, and have tried to twist his message from being anti-police brutality to anti-military and anti-American.

“It’s been said that racism is so American, that when we protest racism, some assume we are protesting America,” she said. “So, let’s be very clear. Colin has always been very respectful of the individuals who selfless serve and protect our country and our communities and our families. His message is solely focused on social injustice for historically disenfranchised people. Let’s not get that mistaken.”

Kaepernick, who has not spoken publicly often this year, expressed his gratitude for the honor, and reinforced his commitment to continue following in Ali’s activist footsteps and fighting to end the systematic oppression of minorities in America, with or without a job as an NFL quarterback.

Kaepernick tweeted:

Though I never had the pleasure of meeting Muhammad Ali, he mentored me without ever meeting me. He in many ways laid the foundation of what I saw as the zenith of athlete-activism and perfecting the utilization of your platform as an athlete to force conversations about how America was not living up to what America professes to be. Lonnie Williams, the wife of Muhammad Ali was in attendance tonight. I am equally honored to share this space with her. She once said that, “Muhammad’s legacy is not just for me and his children and grandchildren, it’s a legacy for the world.” I accept this award, not for myself, but on behalf of the people, because if it were not for my love of the people, I would not have protested. If it were not for the peoples willingness to support me, I would not be on this stage today. Thank you very much to Sports Illustrated for the honor of the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. I am humbled and honored to share this with the people. 

“I say this as a person who receives credit for using my platform to protest systemic oppression, racialized injustice and the dire consequences of anti-blackness in America,” Kaepernick said. “I accept this award not for myself, but on behalf of the people. Because if it were not for my love of the people, I would not have protested. And if it was not for the support from the people, I would not be on this stage today. With or without the NFL’s platform, I will continue to work for the people because my platform is the people.”

The 30-year-old is currently suing the NFL and its owners, alleging that the league has colluded to keep him unemployed during the 2017 season because of his protest during the national anthem. He’s also kept busy during his time as an unsigned free agent, continuing his million dollar pledge, which donates $100,000 a month to organizations fighting oppression, and running the Know Your Rights Camp, a free youth campaign that teaches participants about education, opportunities, self-empowerment, and their rights when interacting with law enforcement.

Unfortunately, some players are letting themselves be co-opted, while others are standing strong with Kaepernick.

DaveZirin:

NFL owners have, to much fanfare, offered to donate $89 million to “aid causes important to the African American community”—in return, although this is not explicit, they expect players who have been protesting racial inequality during the anthem to shut up and play. Instead of being received as a victory, this offer has caused very public divisions among these activist athletes. Some are describing this offer as a vindication and want to take the money. Others are rejecting the offer as “a farce,” and splitting from the “Players Coalition” that has been negotiating with ownership.

SNIP

On one side is the Players Coalition led by Malcolm Jenkins. Jenkins has been attempting to address criminal-justice reform by meeting with law enforcement, doing ride-alongs with police, endorsing small-bore legislation in Congress, and taking chummy photos in DC with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. (After speaking to Ryan about criminal-justice issues, Ryan tweeted their photo with the caption, “That moment when half of your fantasy football team shows up at your workplace.”) This is the Players Coalition strategy for change.

On the other side are those like San Francisco 49er Eric Reid, Seattle Seahawk Michael Bennett, and Miami Dolphins Kenny Stills and Michael Thomas: players inspired to act by Colin Kaepernick’s use of the anthem space to protest racism and police violence. They see change coming from a willingness to organize outside the official corridors of power and look to support grassroots political action agitating for change. They don’t want to sit down with Paul Ryan and hear about his fantasy football team. They want to pressure him. It’s a disagreement about where change actually comes from: whether it is handed down from above or achieved from below. It’s the difference between calling for peace and calling for justice.

SNIP

First, while $89 million sounds like a big number, it is stretched out over a number of years and works out to roughly $250,000 per year per owner, or almost half the minimum salary for a drafted player.

This money is also not going to be just handed over to players to distribute as they see fit. The NFL owners—30 white billionaires and one South Asian billionaire—will have decisive say over where their funds flow.

SNIP

These speak to the different goals of the Eric Reid faction of players: They want to keep the spotlight on police violence, social justice, and aid organizations that help people navigate oppression. It’s the difference between philanthropy and activism.

No, a jury did NOT find a white cop guilty of murdering an unarmed black man.

After a state jury mistrial on murder, the piece of shit pleaded guilty to federal charges of violating civil rights.  He'll get 20 years in prison, and the judge called it "murder,"but This. Is. Not. Justice.

Not until white cops stop shooting black men and women because the cops are sure that even an all-white jury will find them guilty.

From Crooks and Liars.

Poor Little WATB Cops

The Orange Loser and the confederate pixie between then are guaranteeing that no cop in the land will lack the military or legal firepower to steal from and torture and kill at will any peaceful citizen they choose.

Yet all cops can do is cry that they are so oppressed.

Erik Loomis at LGM:

For all the tough guy antics around service and respect, the police whine and cry at the slightest criticism, not to mention when they actually murder someone. Killing a 12 year old black kid? Totally OK! Engaging in a mild form of silent protest against that action? Browns Stadium might as well be a Khmer Rouge killing field!

Nonetheless, stripping the police of their collective bargaining rights will do nothing to solve these problems.

So the police are special snowflakes and the national anthem is their safe space that needs protection from big mean protestors? I am sure glad these tough guys can handle the most difficult situations without crying.

All Lives Matter ... Not

vacuumslayer at LGM:

... nobody should be saying “All lives matter” because it’s a bullshit distraction from the unique systemic prejudice African Americans face.

But Blue Lives Matter

It ends with Sam DuBose and Philando Castile and Eric Gardner and Tamir Rice and all the rest.  

 

This is how it starts: 

But if anyone has any further lingering questions about why black people might have some issues with the police, I suggest they take a moment and think about how they would feel if this was how they were treated for getting caught jaywalking or selling water, and reconsider things. Because boy, this is all very fucked.

New Rule:  saying, writing or typing "Blue Lives Matter" or "All Lives Matter" is irrefutable proof of irredeemable racism.

Unity, Not Compromise

Conservatives used to sneer at liberal "open-mindedness" by pointing out that an open mind lets your brains fall out.  

They were wrong.  But now I say that a too-open tent that lets your enemies in is suicidal.

People who fought for the other candidate in the Democratic presidential primary are not our enemy. 

 

People who want to deny our basic human rights are our enemy.

• People who think it's OK for cops to shoot and kill unarmed black people with impunity are not our allies.
• People who think women are mindless wombs who must be forced to give birth are not our allies.
• People who think it's OK to treat non-cis, non-straight people like criminals or sub-humans are not our allies.
• People who think it's OK to discriminate against somebody else's religion but demand special favors for their own are not our allies.
• People who think workers are drones who don't deserve a living wage or a union are not our allies.
• People who descended from immigrants but think all other immigrants should be deported are not our allies.
• People who think torture works are not our allies.
• People who support the death penalty are not our allies.
• People who think climate change is real but we need fossil fuels so there's nothing we can do about it are not our allies.
• People who think for-profit corporations can operate public services like schools and water and parks better than government can are not our allies.
• People who think rich people need more money are not our allies.
• People who think poor people are lazy, criminal drug addicts are not our allies.
• People who think health care is a privilege reserved for those who can afford it are not our allies.
• People who think the War on Drugs is a great idea are not our allies.
• People who think marijuana is worse than heroin but alcohol is not are not our allies.
• People who think war is the answer are not our allies. 
• People who think that some people shouldn't be allowed to vote are not our allies.

Open the Democratic tent to everyone who shares ALL our values.  And no one else.

Political Animal:

The issues that suddenly divide us? Apparently whether we, as a party, will be unyielding in a woman’s right to choose. Taking a page out of the right’s playbook, Jane Sanders called fighting for that right “political correctness.” I see it as core and just as central to who we are as a party as the bullet points above. We’re apparently arguing over whether economic equality would keep immigrant families from being torn apart by immigration authorities (it wouldn’t), or keep African Americans from being shot in the streets and killed in jail cells (it wouldn’t), or keep Donald Trump from grabbing a woman’s pussy (it hasn’t).

From there Markos discusses where he sees the current divide.

It is interesting to me that these are sometimes referred to as “cultural issues.” But if you are a woman whose economic survival is threatened by a pregnancy, I’m sure that the right to chose can’t simply be relegated to a cultural phenomenon. Same would be true if your family’s survival depends of what an ICE officer decides to do with his time, or if you are a black man in the middle of getting pulled over by a police officer. In all of those instances, these are life and death matters. That is why women and people of color react so strongly to being told that speaking up about them is divisive. It is actually the other sides trampling of their lives that is divisive. We need to be clear about that.

A lot of this discussion was reignited when Bernie Sanders chose to endorse a Democratic candidate who was openly anti-choice. I tend to think about that this way: would I vote for an anti-choice Democrat if the only alternative was the mini-me Trump that is my current representative? You betcha I would! That is what politics is often about in a two-party system.

On the other hand, this morning I read an article from Politico about why the Christian right is so thrilled with Donald Trump’s presidency and have become the one constituency he can rely on. It is all based on what we call “cultural issues” – and that is overwhelmingly about the steps this president has taken (and promised to take) to strip women of their right to chose. So let’s be honest…these are the battles we face right now. Any backing off from fighting them will destroy decades of progress that our predecessors fought for so valiantly.

The challenge Democrats have always faced can be summed up with questions like this:

• Are men prepared to fight for a woman’s right to chose?
• Are white people prepared to fight against racism?
• Are citizens prepared to fight for those who are undocumented?
• Are white collar workers prepared to fight for unions?
• Are the wealthy prepared to fight for the middle class?
• Are those who have good health insurance through their employer prepared to fight for those who don’t?
• Are members of the upper and middle class prepared to fight for those in poverty?
• Are the middle-aged prepared to fight for seniors?
• Are seniors prepared to fight for young people?

I could go on, but perhaps you get the point.

Whenever the answer to one of those questions is “no,” or when the message is sent either directly or indirectly that “my issue is more important than yours,” the divide widens. That is what makes the challenge more difficult for Democrats than Republicans. We can’t afford to play a zero-sum game. We have to care about people who aren’t like us because that is the definition of what “liberal” means.

Marcos ends his piece with a powerful quote from Australian Aboriginal activist Lilla Watson.

If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time.

But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.

The over-arching goal of liberalism is that “your liberation is bound up with mine.” That is what it means to form a coalition. That was Bernice Johnson Reagon’s message way back in 1981 and it is what Rev. William Barber is talking about when it comes to “fusion politics.” It is the only path forward for Democrats.

The Return of Boiling Alive

Every single supposedly progressive white person who says "I don't see color" should be held to account for horrific torture like this.  Because it is exactly the refusal to acknowledge what happens every fucking day to non-white people that makes it not even a crime to murder them by literally boiling them alive.

Erik Loomis At LGM:

Another day, more police officers getting off scot free after the wanton murder of African-Americans.

On June 23, 2012, Darren Rainey, a schizophrenic man serving time for cocaine possession, was thrown into a prison shower at the Dade Correctional Institution. The water was turned up top 180 degrees — hot enough to steep tea or cook Ramen noodles.

As punishment, four corrections officers — John Fan Fan, Cornelius Thompson, Ronald Clarke and Edwina Williams — kept Rainey in that shower for two full hours. Rainey was heard screaming “Please take me out! I can’t take it anymore!” and kicking the shower door. Inmates said prison guards laughed at Rainey and shouted “Is it hot enough?”

Rainey died inside that shower. He was found crumpled on the floor. When his body was pulled out, nurses said there were burns on 90 percent of his body. A nurse said his body temperature was too high to register with a thermometer.

And his skin fell off at the touch.

But in an unconscionable decision, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle’s office announced Friday that the four guards who oversaw what amounted to a medieval-era boiling will not be charged with a crime.

“The shower was itself neither dangerous nor unsafe,’’ the report says. “The evidence does not show that Rainey’s well-being was grossly disregarded by the correctional staff.’’

What is there even to say at this point?

 Only Blue Lives Matter.

Your Hero of the Day

Fuck You, Trumpians:  John Choi is on the job.

Minneapolis Tribune:

Philando Castile’s fatal encounter last July with St. Anthony police Officer Jeronimo Yanez lasted only a minute, but quickly escalated from a “respectful and compliant” exchange to one steeped in confusion and fear.

In an extraordinary move by a Minnesota prosecutor, authorities said the officer, not the civilian, is to blame for the tragic events that turned a traffic stop in a Twin Cities suburb into a flash point in the national debate over racial profiling and police use of force.

Yanez pulled Castile, a 32-year-old, over at 9:05 p.m. July 9 on Larpenteur Avenue near Fry Street in Falcon Heights. By 9:06 p.m., the young officer had fired seven shots into Castile’s car, killing him as his girlfriend and her 4-year-old daughter watched.

For those actions, Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said at a news conference Wednesday morning, Yanez will be charged with three felony counts — second-degree manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm. He’s the first Minnesota officer charged in an on-duty killing in modern memory.

“To those of you who may say this incident was Philando Castile’s fault, I would submit that no reasonable officer — knowing, seeing and hearing what officer Yanez did at the time — would have used deadly force under these circumstances,” Choi said. “I have given officer Yanez every benefit of the doubt on his use of deadly force, but I cannot allow the death of a motorist who was lawfully carrying a firearm under these facts and circumstances to go unaccounted for.”

Where Trump Rules Don't Apply

Lucky bastard, living in a blue state.  But those of us hanging on in red states need to put our envy and desperation to work.  There are people like Dylan Orr in Kentucky; they're just not in positions of power.  Yet.

Let's get them there.

Dennis Hartley at Hullabaloo:

This is why I love living in a city like Seattle:
[from an email I received from Seattle’s Labor Standards office]

Our Commitment to
Equity, Inclusion and Openness 

As Mayor Ed Murray stated last week, Seattle remains a city guided by the values of equity, inclusion and openness. “Seattle is a city that supports women and the LGBTQ community, that welcomes our Muslim brothers and sisters, that embraces immigrants and refugees, and that believes that Black Lives Matter.” 

As the Director of the Seattle Office of Labor Standards, and an openly transgender individual, I assure you that we in the Office of Labor Standards are deeply committed to upholding these values, and ensuring that we continue to be a supportive resource and partner to Seattle’s most vulnerable communities. We will re-double our efforts to advance labor standards through thoughtful community and business engagement, strategic enforcement and innovative policy development with a commitment to race and social justice. 

To our immigrant community partners, Mayor Ed Murray has promised that the City of Seattle will remain a welcoming city, committed to serving all the residents of Seattle regardless of their immigration status. Under a local law passed in 2003, Seattle city employees are NOT allowed to ask about people’s immigration status when providing city services, unless required by law or a court order. We in the Office of Labor Standards are proud to enforce labor standards for all of Seattle’s workers, regardless of immigration status. We also have strong anti-retaliation provisions across all our labor standards ordinances. 

If you have any questions about our work or services, feel free to contact us. We look forward to our continued work ahead. 

In solidarity, 

Dylan Orr
Director, Seattle Office of Labor Standards

We’re circling the wagons, folks. We have to stay strong.

 Right here in Kentucky, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray ran for U.S. Senate as an openly gay Democrat. And nobody cared about his sexuality.

Tiny progress, but I'll take it. And run with it.

The Racism, the Whole Racism, and Nothing But the Racism

Via LGM, Jamelle Bouie explodes all the "economic anxiety" bullshit:

The Donald Trump who won the presidency on Tuesday is the Donald Trump who demanded execution for five boys, wrongly accused of a crime. He is the Trump who ran on a platform of “law and order.” The age of Trump will be an age in which police can act with impunity. And as an officer of color, he knew, perhaps better than anyone, that it’s people who look like us—who are brown and black—who will face the brunt of that impunity.

Pundits and observers will attribute Trump’s win to “populism” or his “anti-elite” message. This is nonsense. Trump ran for president as a nationalist fighter for white America. He promised to deport Hispanic immigrants. He promised to ban Muslims from the United States. He refused to acknowledge Barack Obama’s legitimacy, casting him—until the end—as a kind of usurper of rightful authority. When faced with the fetid swamps of white reaction—of white supremacists and white nationalists and anti-Semites—he winked, and they cheered in response. And for good reason.

More than anything, Trump promises a restoration of white authority. After eight years of a black president—after eight years in which cosmopolitan America asserted its power and its influence, eight years in which women leaned in and blacks declared that their lives mattered—millions of white Americans said enough. They had their fill of this world and wanted the old one back. And although it’s tempting to treat this as a function of some colorblind anti-elitism, that cannot explain the unity of white voters in this election. Trump didn’t just win working-class whites—he won the college-educated and the affluent. He even won young whites. Seventeen months after he announced his candidacy, millions of white Americans flocked to the ballot box to put Trump into the White House. And they did so as a white herrenvolk, racialized and radicalized by Trump.

 Or as the Rude Pundit put it so eloquently, Trump voters are shit.

This Is What Fearless Patriotism Looks Like

Without Patriots like this, we'd still be a British colony.

Yet Another Vicious Black Lives Matter Attack on a Harmless White Supremacist

These motherfuckers aren't expressing political opinions.  They're a clear and present danger to our democratic republic.

Think Progress:

On Tuesday night, a white supremacist in Olympia, Washington stabbed a black man on the street in an apparent crusade to fight Black Lives Matter. The suspect later reported to police that he’d taken “a blood oath to to fight on the street” and was acting on behalf of law enforcement.

The unidentified victim was standing outside a bar in downtown Olympia, smoking a cigarette with his white girlfriend, when the suspect ran up and stabbed him in the abdomen. The woman was also injured. The two survived — and were able to catch the perpetrator and report him to the authorities.

The suspect had multiple racially-charged tattoos with phrases like “White Power” and “Skinhead,” and told police that he was downtown because word had spread about anti-police graffiti there. He claimed Black Lives Matter was responsible for the graffiti, even though law enforcement never confirmed that was the case.

According to court documents filed after the incident, the suspect assured officers that he was acting on their behalf.

“At one point he stated that he knew we couldn’t hurt the black groups on the street so he wanted to let us know that he takes care of them for us,” police wrote. “That he is able to fight those fights and will continue the fight against all of the Black Lives Matters people.”

The suspect, who told police he’d done time at the Washington State Penitentiary, also informed them that he wanted to attend a Donald Trump rally to continue “stomping out more of the Black Lives Matter group.”

The stabbing on Tuesday fits into a surge of white supremacy in the U.S., which has been supported — and encouraged — by the Republican presidential nominee. Trump frequently reposts racist messages and memes on social media and refers to his “heritage” in speeches — coded language that’s earned him the support of the KKK. On Wednesday, he likened Hillary Clinton to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, borrowing language from white supremacist groups. And last week, Trump made a veiled call for white supremacists to gun down Hillary Clinton.

Black Lives Matter has been targeted in the past year. Last November, as members of the group gathered in Minneapolis to protest the police shooting of Jamar Clark, white supremacists showered them with bullets. And on Wednesday, the Ku Klux Klan announced that it would crash a Black Lives Matter rally in Long Island, New York.

And no, the murderer is not going to be tried, much less convicted, much less executed. If he gets more than a week of jail time before he gets released on his own recognizance while waiting for the charges to be dropped, I'll be amazed.

 

The Black Lives Matter Manifesto

Hot Damn!  Now we can get down to some real action!

 

Wait ... where is the "kill all the pigs" provision?  And the "eliminate Whitey" clause?  I can't find "loose shoes, tight pussy and a warm place to shit" mentioned anywhere.

From The Nation:

One commonly asked question about this moment in black-led organizing—what some broadly refer to as the Black Lives Matter movement—is what its participants want. What are BLM’s goals and why, some critics ask, is the movement so reactive, only vocal and visible in response to police violence against black people?

What may seem at first glance like dreamy rhetoric that lacks the teeth to ensure real change is actually a toolkit. 

Starting today, anyone with such questions can refer to the Vision for Black Lives, a document that lays out six demands and 40 corresponding policy recommendations to paint a picture of what today’s black activists are fighting for. At both the Democratic and Republican national conventions last month, there were plenty of indications that the current movement to end anti-black racism has made it to the national stage. The “Mothers of the Movement”—women whose children were killed by police or vigilantes or who died while in police custody—shared their stories at the DNC, making the case that their fights for justice would be in good hands with a Clinton presidency. At the RNC, meanwhile, Milwaukee County’s Sheriff David Clarke, a black man, tried to calm the nerves of the largely white audience, assuring them that Donald Trump can restore law and order and put an end to the “anarchy” that BLM inspires.

The platform released today emphasizes the movement’s independence from party politics and its desire to prioritize solutions that address root causes over the quick fixes more likely to win a presidential candidate’s support or move through an obstructionist Congress. For example, the nearly 40 policy recommendations include the following (quoting the group’s August 1 press release):

Demilitarize law enforcement, end money bail, end deportations, and end the systematic attack against Black youth, and Black trans, gender non-conforming and queer folks.

Immediately pass state and federal legislation that requires the U.S. to acknowledge the lasting impacts of slavery, and establish and execute a plan to address those impacts.

“Democrats and Republicans are offering anemic solutions to the problems that our communities face,” said Marbre Stahly-Butts, a member of the eight-person Movement 4 Black Lives leadership team that steered the collaborative research and writing process over a year-long period. “We are seeking transformation, not just tweaks.”

 SNIP

Authors of the Vision for Black Lives say policy is just one of many necessary tactics. Protest, direct action, advancing conversations that critique norms around race, gender, and sexuality are all part of the movement’s work as well, said Thenjiwe McHarris, another member of the eight-person leadership team that guided the process. But articulating a set of demands then advocating for those demands to be met is critical too. Throughout their collaboration, the co-authors referred to earlier policy statements, such as the Black Radical Congress’s Freedom Agenda and the Black Panther Party’s 10-point platform in an effort to better understand similar black-led policy efforts that had come before.

“It builds on the legacy of the black radical tradition,” McHarris said of the document released today.

Guess Their Race!

Caught with semi-automatic weapons, body armor and - wait for it - marijuana.  And the cops let them go.  Guess their race!

Linda Blackford at the Herald:

Police were called to the Richmond Road Walmart Saturday night after a witness noticed a car full of men in body armor holding semi-automatic weapons. A six-month old baby was also in the car.

Lt Jackie Newman said when Lexington police officers got the three men out of the car at about 11:15 p.m., they said were preparing for Doomsday and needed supplies. The men were armed with pistols and semi-automatic rifles, police said. A license is not required to have semi-automatic weapons in a car, police said.

Police also found marijuana in the car.

All three subjects voluntarily came down to police headquarters for questioning that night, said Lt. Richard Willoby of the Lexington Police Department. They were given a citation for the marijuana but were not charged with any other violations, and were later released.

Willoby said police took photographs of the car and the weapons in order to complete a report to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services because of the baby in the car.

“There appeared to be nothing criminal,” Willoby said. “They’re in the mindset of preparing for the end of the world, accumulating weapons and things like that, but the weapons appear to be legally owned.”

If those drug-dealing preppers had been black they and their baby would be dead.

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.