New Immigrants Taking Over Just the Way the Old Immigrants Did

My Irish and German immigrant ancestors did exactly this.  They faced down the Know-Nothing Nativists screaming "dirty Micks!" and "Kraut traitors!" and voted and ran for office just as Americans have always done, and are still doing.

Political Animal:

Over the years President Obama has come up with a line he uses whenever people at his rallies boo at things like Trump’s remarks. He always says, “Don’t boo…vote!” That is exactly what the Somali community in Minnesota did this week.

Neighborhood activist Ilhan Omar made history Tuesday by winning a fiercely competitive DFL primary in a Minneapolis House district, which means she likely will become the nation’s first Somali-American legislator next year…

Born in Somalia, Omar, 33, and her family escaped civil war and lived for four years in a Kenyan refugee camp before ultimately moving to the Somali-American neighborhood of Cedar-Riverside, where she has lived for nearly two decades and is currently director of policy initiatives at Women Organizing Women…

“Tonight we made history,” Omar told the crowd. “Tonight marks the beginning of the future of our district, a new era of representation. Tonight is about the power of you.”…

Omar’s dramatic victory threatened to overshadow another upset, this one from 24-year-old Fue Lee, who was born in a refugee camp in Thailand and currently works in the office of Secretary of State Steve Simon. He defeated 10-term incumbent Rep. Joe Mullery, DFL-Minneapolis.

Both upsets came in heavily DFL districts, which means they are virtually assured of victory in November.

And remember: unless you are a full-blooded Native, you're the descendant of immigrants, no more "American" than that Muslim Syrian refugee who just took the oath of citizenship, and who you better believe is going to be voting on November 8.

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.

 

Ru Paul Nails It

Via Digby:

Do you want a pompous braggart who doesn't know anything about diplomacy? Or do you want a badass bitch who knows how to get shit done? That's really the question.

Health Insurers Throw Tantrum Because Profits Not Obscene Any More

Poor babies.  Obamacare exchanges reduced their profits to merely outrageous and disgusting. How will they ever survive?

By bitching and pissing and moaning and holding their breath until they turn blue in the hopes somebody will kill off that health-care-for-everyone Affordable Care Act and let them get back to fucking over everybody who is not a healthy 25-year-old and making obscene profits at the expense of working people.

Governor Shitting His Pants to use this corporate fraud to justify killing off the last vestiges of kynect, along with the hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians who depend on it to keep them alive, in 3, 2, 1 ....

TPM:

Aetna’s announcement comes after UnitedHealth said in April it would be cutting its marketplace involvement significantly, and Humana has also signaled a retreat from ACA exchanges. All three decisions have prompted Republicans to declare that Obamacare is failing and that they were right all along. But experts say some of the criticisms miss the nuance on what is actually driving the cutbacks.

“It’s not a statement that the marketplaces can’t work or that they aren't working," Linda Blumberg, a healthcare policy fellow at the Urban Institute, told TPM. "It’s a statement that these insurers are by and large not terribly competitive the way they came in, and if they are going to make money in this market they're going to have restructure and re-orient to the characteristics of what the consumers want.”

SNIP

Not every carrier is struggling on the exchanges, and consumers’ willingness to shop around for deals has benefited insurers that offer plans that are on the cheaper end.

“There are insurance companies that are doing well and those are companies that have experience serving a low-income population,” Cox said.

Many of those carriers offer plans with narrow provider networks, while big insurers like Aetna and UnitedHealth have tended towards broader provider plans, which offer consumers more choices but at a higher cost.

“What consumers are showing time and again on these marketplaces is that they are very willing to trade a broad choice of providers for a low price, and the carriers that figured that out early are the ones that seem to be doing well,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms at Georgetown University's Health Policy Institute.

There is the possibility that the big insurers who are now pulling back will re-enter the marketplaces once they're better equipped to meet its demands. UnitedHealth, for instance, kept its new, more boutique-style subsidiary, Harken Health in the Indiana and Georgia exchanges where the insurer was otherwise withdrawing. It has signaled it could expand Harken Health to Florida.

"I would expect that, in a lot of those areas, they'll come back in. But they'll come back in with different looking products that are more similar to the ones that are competing well,” Blumberg said.

It's called competition, motherfuckers. 

Any Immigrant is More American Than Donald Traitor

Immigrants have to fight a mountain of obstacles to get to America.  They don't get born one day and find themselves birthright Americans.

Immigrants have to earn every dime they get, and by earn I mean bust their asses every day cleaning the disgusting toilets of privileged asses like Donald Traitor.  Who steals their wages anyway.

Immigrants have to endure the abuse and mistreatment and bigotry that every generation of immigrants endures, always from immigrant descendants who have forgotten where they came from.

Immigrants learn citizenship the hard way, by living it every day.  They don't get to ignore the rules like those who are born white, male and rich.

Immigrants have to want America bad.

Donald Traitor wants a bad America.

TPM:

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) thinks Donald Trump needs to take a test before he is elected president.

In a press release Monday afternoon, Reid called on Trump to take the U.S. naturalization test – the test that immigrants must pass to become citizens of the United States. The test includes questions about the country's history, founding, laws and Constitution.

“Since Donald Trump wants to impose new tests on immigrants, he should take the one test every immigrant has to pass to become a United States citizen. He would almost certainly fail, given his general ignorance and weak grasp of basic facts about American history, principles and functioning of our government," Reid said. "The fact is, Donald Trump is nothing more than a spoiled, unpatriotic drain on society who has earned nothing and helped no one."

Reid said that unlike immigrants,"Donald Trump represents none of the qualities that make America great. "

"Immigrants work hard to get here and become Americans, while Trump inherited everything from his father and works hardest at Tweeting insults and ripping off hard-working people with two-bit scams," Reid said.

Reid also claimed that while immigrants must denounce loyalties to foreign governments to become citizens, Trump "plays footsie with Putin and invites the Russian government to launch cyber attacks against our country."

Persecuted Christians

PZ Myers:

I recognize Christians not by their love, but by their sanctimonious arrogance and their pernicious whining about their victimhood.

Andy Barr's a Lying Idiot Who Hates Kentuckians

The War on Poverty, aimed directly at the horrific conditions in the Kentucky Mountains, failed because President Lyndon Johnson had to pay for the War in Vietnam, and then Dick Nixon and congressional repugs stripped the rest of the programs' budget.

Yes, Barr's remarks are repug orthodoxy for the past 40 years, but that does not make them any less vicious and cruel to the working poor people of the Commonwealth who are being fucked over by a repug governor and congressional repugs like Barr.

From the Herald:

The federal government’s war on poverty was an expensive failure that made generations of Americans dependent on handouts, says U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, R-Lexington, who is promoting a conservative alternative this election year.

Barr has co-authored a report for the House Republican Study Committee that recommends sweeping changes in federal benefits for the poor. There would be more work requirements and lifetime limits, similar to what Congress imposed on welfare recipients in 1996. The federal government might turn over programs, such as food stamps, disability payments and public housing, to the states in the form of block grants, while encouraging states to narrow eligibility and eliminate fraud.

SNIP

Back in Central Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, Barr’s Democratic challenger on Nov. 8, Nancy Jo Kemper, said she isn’t impressed by his suggestion that poor people “just need to get a job.” For one thing, many poor people already work or desperately want to, Kemper said.

“Part of my complaint with this,” Kemper said, holding a copy of Barr’s report at her campaign office, “is how much it blames the poor for their poverty, rather than our failure as a society to help with job training, child-care expenses, reliable transportation, health insurance, minimum-wage increases — all of which could lift people out of poverty. He says quite strongly that Washington bureaucrats cannot lift people out of poverty. And I beg to differ. You have only to point to increasing the minimum wage to see what it does to add a boon to the whole economy.”

Nancy Jo Kemper, you voters in the Sixth District.  Get the fuck off the couch and make sure she kicks Barr's lying, repug, Trumpist ass out of Congress.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article95320067.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article95320067.html#storylink=cpy

Kentucky Writers to Bevin: Take Your Award and Shove It

They see through you, motherfucker, and will not be condescended to, co-opted, bribed or otherwise disrespected by your Trumpist, austerity-loving, white privileged ass.

From Rich Copley at the Herald:

The Affrilachian Poets, a diverse Lexington-based collective of writers directly or indirectly connected to Appalachia, has rejected its 2016 Governor’s Award in the Arts, citing Gov. Matt Bevin’s positions on education, the humanities and other issues.

“It is the opinion of the group that the governor’s comments, positions and actions regarding education in general, the Humanities specifically, universal healthcare, criminal justice reform, and the LGBTQ community have been reprehensible and go against the core of who we are as writers and educators and as artists committed to resisting oppression,” the group said in a statement posted on Facebook. “It is in the spirit of Kentucky’s rich literary tradition reaching back to William Wells Brown, that we vehemently reject any award given in this governor’s name.”

No comment from Gov, Lying Coward.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/entertainment/books/article95320137.html#storylink=cpy

Bevin Turns State Employee Charity into Freakazoid Con Job

No, Gov. Lying Coward, state employees are not your private workers you can force to follow your freakazoid idiocy. 

"Servant leadership" is freakazoid code for fundamentalist proselytizing pretending to be secular.

State employees are secular representatives of a secular government providing secular services to residents of all religions and no religions.

Gov. Lying Coward does not get to appropriate the public service he does not pay for to spread his own freakazoid propaganda.

There are many excellent reasons for state employees to NOT contribute to KECC, most obviously the fact that it washes donations through the corrupt United Way, which takes a five percent cut.

But the best reason of all not to contribute is that Gov. Lying Coward has turned KECC into a freakazoid con game.

Dear Leaders of the Commonwealth,

As state employees, we work together each day to make Kentucky the greatest version of itself. Our roles may be varied and cabinet functions distinct, but we all make a significant difference. We lead by caring for others, devoting our time and talents, and lending a helping hand.

Kentucky Employees Charitable Campaign (KECC) provides a great opportunity to put this leadership into practice. Charities represented by KECC improve academic achievement, provide medical care to children and rebuild communities after disasters strike.

I am honored to serve as this year’s KECC Chair. The reason I selected Servant Leadership as our campaign theme is because servant leaders improve the well-being of their community through selfless generosity and commitment.

I challenge each of you to step up and be a servant leader. Your generous participation in KECC will touch the lives of those who need it most throughout the Commonwealth, including people and families in your community. Donations of any size help, and even more importantly, they assist Kentuckians in reaching their fullest potential.

Each year, the KECC Charities are carefully vetted, and work in partnership through this campaign to improve the lives of children, seniors and families across the Commonwealth. I encourage you to watch this year’s video and learn more about the charities through the links below. It’s important to understand how your donation can change the life of a fellow Kentuckian.

Thank you for your consideration. As citizens, we should take our state motto to heart: “United We Stand, Divided We Fall.” By working together, we can create a Kentucky that shines like a beacon for the entire world to see and emulate.

Sincerely,

Governor Matt Bevin

2016 KECC Chair

Proof Bevin is Trying to Make Working Kentuckians Sicker and Poorer

Kevin Drum:

Noam Levey reports on some new research about Medicaid expansion:

“The effects of expanding coverage will be an unfolding story over time,” said Dr. Benjamin Sommers, lead author of the study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine....Sommers and other researchers at Harvard University have been tracking the effect of Medicaid expansion by surveying some 9,000 poor residents in Arkansas and Kentucky, both of which expanded Medicaid eligibility, and in Texas, which has rejected the expansion.

In Arkansas and Kentucky, the share of poor adults without health insurance plummeted between 2013 and 2015, from more than 40% in both states to 14% in Arkansas and less than 9% in Kentucky.

In Texas, by contrast, the uninsured rate dropped only from 39% to 32%.Although Texas has not expanded Medicaid, state residents have been able to buy health insurance on the new insurance marketplaces that were also created by the law.

The new coverage in Arkansas and Kentucky dramatically improved poor patients’ access to care and relieved financial strains, the surveys show.

Billionaire Bevin is actually trying to reverse this by eliminating the Medicaid expansion by Governor Steve Beshear that has made 400,000 Kentuckians healthier and less poor.  AND cost Kentucky taxpayers $2 billion in Medicaid payments from the federal government that are the only thing keeping dozens of rural hospitals alive.

Hard to imagine how anyone could inflict more actual, lethal harm on the Commonwealth than Governor Lying Coward is doing right now.

No Voting at Church

Just remove polling sites from religious buildings.

I am quite sure that the cowardly anonymous fuckers who objected to voting in a eeeeeekkkk! mosque are anti-muslim haters, but they did the right thing for the wrong reason.

Churches serve as polling sites everywhere in Kentucky, and it is deeply, profoundly offensive to non-christians to have to pass through hallways covered with freakazoid propaganda posters and displays in order to perform their patriotic duty as citizens to vote.

Unless you're willing to set up 10 or 20 times the number of polling places so that everyone can vote in a religious building in which she feels comfortable, the only solution is to remove ALL polling sites from religious buildings.

There are plenty of secular public locations to host polling sites a grand total of twice a year: schools, fire departments, courthouses, libraries, recreation centers.

 

Of all public activities, the one constitutionally furthest from religion is voting.  Keep them separate.

Just A Primate

Divine Irony:

Gov. Pants Shitter Sobs "Please Don't Be Mean to Me"

If you can't take the Fancy Farm heat - atmospheric and rhetorical - you don't belong in Kentucky politics.

Get the fuck out of here, you carpetbagging yankee motherfucker.


Tom Loftus at the Courier:

Gov. Matt Bevin said he plans a variation of his familiar "United We Stand" speech at the Fancy Farm Picnic on Saturday and "in large measure" will conform with his message last year when he said that speeches at the event had become far too nasty.

"It has always been, and there's no reason for it not to be, enjoyable for people," Bevin said of the raucous annual political speaking at St. Jerome Catholic Church in Graves County. "It can be fun, but it doesn't have to personal. It doesn't have to be nasty. It doesn't have to be vindictive. Last year it really was."

Following a ceremonial bill-signing in the Capitol Rotunda on Friday, Bevin said, "Last year took it to a degree that frankly was very counterproductive. ... It was counterproductive to a point where it left a bad taste in many people's mouths."

You preening moron.  It's only fun when it's personal, nasty and vindictive. If it were polite, nobody would drive six hours to the middle of fucking nowhere to sit in an outdoor sauna and eat bad barbecue.

Fancy Farm is where politicians reveal whether they've got the guts to work and fight for Kentuckians.

Little whiny-ass titty baby billionaire wants to ruin Fancy Farm on top of everything else he's shit on in the Commonwealth.

Thanks for once again showing us the disgusting real you, guv.

Gov. Moneybags Steals From Working People to Give to the Obscenely Rich

Free stuff for rich people.  $20 million in tax dollars from people earning $7.25 per hour to benefit only people who can afford a private plane.  

From the press release:

Gov. Matt Bevin announced today that select general aviation airports across the state will receive $20 million over the next two years to fund overdue airport pavement renovations.

Don't be fooled: "general aviation" airports do not serve the public. Only private planes - and people rich enough to buy one - can use them.

Meanwhile, Governor Only Rich People Are Really Human is still planning to rip health care away from 400,000 working poor Kentuckians.

None of whom have a private plane.

A Little Perspective

Via Down With Tyranny:

Totally Not Racist Trump Fans

TPM:

The New York Times posted a video Wednesday compiling outbursts and epithets from supporters at Donald Trump rallies, ranging from anti-immigrant slogans to Nazi victory chants.

"Crowds seldom express disapproval of the crude slogans and angry outbursts by Mr. Trump’s supporters," according to the Times report. "Indeed, these displays have become inextricably bound with the Trump show itself."

Watch the video — which includes profanity and an overgenerous variety of slurs — below:

Anybody see a full-blooded Native American in that crowd?  Me neither.  Shocked.

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.

Bevin Puts Out $500,000 Contract on Steve Beshear

Meanwhile, 400,000 Kentuckians are about to lose their health insurance.  Not that Gov. Trumpist gives a flying fuck about anyone who's not already rich.

This is the real waste, fraud and abuse, people. Because the real question is what Gov. Trumpist is trying to hide behind this smokescreen of lies.

John Cheves at the Herald:

Gov. Matt Bevin has awarded a two-year, $500,000 contract to an Indianapolis law firm to look for corruption in the administration of his predecessor, Steve Beshear.

Taft Stettinius & Hollister will work with Kenneth F. Bohac, the newly hired inspector general of the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet. The firm is charged with investigating possible violations of state spending rules and possible coercion of state workers for campaign donations, according to its contact. However, “the investigatory scope of the contact may be expanded ... to include additional violations of the public trust,” the contract states.

In April, Bevin, a Republican, held a news conference to say that his aides had uncovered “greed and oftentimes corruption” that occurred during the eight-year administration of Beshear, a Democrat. Bevin referenced the criminal case of Tim Longmeyer, who was Beshear’s personnel secretary and who pleaded guilty this year to his role in a kickback scheme involving a state employee health insurance contract.

SNIP

Beshear issued a statement hours later saying that Bevin’s accusations “have absolutely no basis in truth.”

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article93068177.html#storylink=cpy

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.

Where's Your Garlic?

Divine Irony:

Judge Slaps Governor Trumpist Down Again

Seriously, Mattie Boy, as long as Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip "Honey Badger" Shepherd is on the bench, you're not getting away with any of that authoritarian bullshit.

No matter how many times Donald Traitor says it's OK.

From the Courier:

In a strong rebuke to Gov. Matt Bevin, a judge Friday ruled that the governor's abolition of the University of Louisville Board of Trustees was illegal and at least temporarily blocked the new one that he appointed from acting.

While allowing the resignation of President James Ramsey to stand, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd said the record "is devoid of any legal or factual precedent for a governor to abolish and recreate an entire board of trustees of a public university."

In a 22-page decision that rejected all of Bevin's arguments, Shepherd said if the governor's interpretation of the law was correct, "any university trustee or group of trustees, can be removed for no reason or any reason – good or bad, well-intentioned or malicious.” The governor could even unilaterally merge U of L with the University of Kentucky, Shepherd said.

“The governor’s unilateral action raises profound issues regarding the statutes on governance of public universities and the separation of powers under the Kentucky Constitution,” Shepherd wrote.

KY Berners Are All Right

Maybe in states so blue that repugs can't win no matter what they do, Democrats can afford to vote third-party or to sit at home and not vote at all.

 

We Democratic voters in red states know better.  We have long experience voting for imperfect Democratic candidates because that candidate is the only thing standing between us and the repug catastrophe of Kansas and Louisiana and Wisconsin.

 

We will fight to the end for our preferred candidate, but when the convention does end, and our candidate has conceded, we know our responsibility.  We know our duty.

 

We KY Berners will be voting for Hillary.

From the Courier before the convention:

Kentucky Democrats split almost evenly between Sanders and Clinton during the primary earlier this year. Of the state’s 55 pledged delegates, 28 are for Clinton and 27 are for Sanders.

There are signs within the Kentucky delegation that the two camps are finding common ground. Several Sanders delegates stood and applauded speakers who endorsed Clinton Monday night, and several Clinton delegates waved Sanders’ campaign signs when the Vermont senator took the stage at the end of the night.

“It started with a decent amount of divisiveness and then it started to come together toward the end of the night,” Bugg said about Monday's convention action. Speeches by first lady Michelle Obama, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sanders himself were helpful, he said.

SNIP

 

“I think if she continues to speak very boldly on those issues, articulates them as the deep moral center of Democratic Party, demonstrates she is committed, then she can earn many Bernie supporters and maybe even more importantly some of those volunteer hours,” Westphal said.

Two Clinton advocates who addressed the Kentucky delegation Tuesday morning used the specter of a Donald Trump presidency to woo Sanders voters and urge them to focus on electing Democrats at the state and local levels.

SNIP

 

Former Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear said the odds of Clinton winning Kentucky in the fall are long, but any efforts on her behalf will help the party in the long run.

“I’ve lost political races and I know how Bernie and his supporters feel, but in the end Sanders and Clinton supporters understand there really is no choice in November and that the only way this country is going to move forward is to elect Hillary Clinton,” Beshear said.

Appeals Court Exposes NC Legislators for the Racist Motherfuckers They Are

I imagine Notorious RBG, Kagan and Sotomayor reading this opinion over cocktails, shouting out their favorite parts and just licking their chops at the prospect of North Carolina daring to appeal to the Supremes.

One of the main plaintiffs in the case is Rev. William Barber's North Carolina NAACP.  This enormous victory coming the morning after his paint-stripping speech at the DNC is the definition of righteousness.

TPM:

A three-judge panel of the U.S Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit has found North Carolina's controversial GOP-backed voting restrictions were intended to discriminate against African American voters.

The Friday ruling is a huge win for voting rights activists in a closely watched case in a potential 2016 swing state. The appeals court reversed the ruling of a district court siding with the state.

SNIP

It permanently blocked provisions in a 2013 North Carolina law that required certain photo IDs to vote, limited early voting, eliminated same day registration, ended out-of-precinct voting and prohibited pre-registration of young voters.

In the opinion, the panel of judges said that the law restricted voting in ways that "disproportionately affected African Americans" and that its provisions targeted "African Americans with almost surgical precision." It said the state's defense of the law was "meager."

"Thus the asserted justifications cannot and do not conceal the state’s true motivation," the opinion said.

It noted that the legislation was passed as African American voter turnout had expanded to almost the rates of whites, and that the legislature enacted the legislation after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, which had required North Carolina to seek federal approval for changes to its voting policies. The appeals court -- citing a lower court's findings -- pointed out that state lawmakers sought data breaking down voting practices by race. The judges said that the law's provisions singled out the practices disproportionately popular among African Americans, such as preregisteration and provisional voting.

SNIP

The appeals court declined the request of the challengers to put North Carolina back under "preclearance" -- the requirement for federal approval of voting laws in certain states that was partially dismantled by the Supreme Court in 2013 -- as is allowed by Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act when discriminatory intent is found. The appeals court said the remedy was "rarely used" and "not necessary" in this case.

The fuck it's not necessary.  Put that state back in Voting Rights Act jail and throw away the key.  That's the only way to keep them from doing it again and the only way to put other states on notice not to Even. Fucking. Try. It.

It took the challengers two years to stop this massive, blatant disenfranchisement, during which time hundreds of thousands of voters were died their civil rights. 

If and when we ever get a Voting Rights Act with teeth, it needs to include jail time for the perpetrators. 

Also, somebody tell Nate Silver to put North Carolina back in the Likely Dem category.

The Can't-Top-This Speeches from Philly

Seriously. After Rev. Barber brought the house down, I thought that was a speech for the ages. Democrats will be able to use that one forever.

Then Khizr Khan took the floor.  And flattened Donald Traitor with two sentences.

Watch them both.

And keep this one handy to show to those ridiculous "Democrats" who say they just can't vote for Hillary because they hate her so much.  What the fuck is wrong with them?

New Racist Bullshit in Louisille Schools

So, if they can't bar them from school grounds, they'll just bar them from looking ... shall we call it "ni**erish?" 

You know what's distracting? Punishing black students for being proud African-American young people.

You know what's racist as all fucking hell?  Forcing non-white students to obey rules that aren't enforced against white students.

Absofuckinglutely unacceptable, Louisville.  Fix this shit immediately.

Think Progress:

Kentucky state representative elect Attica Scott — the first black woman to serve in the state legislature in 20 years — took to Twitter to express disbelief over a policy at her daughter’s school that doesn’t allow students to wear their hair in cornrows, braids, twists, or dreadlocks. Scott’s daughter attends Butler Traditional High School in Louisville.

Scott tweeted about the policy on Wednesday, which drew ire from many students and parents. The school district, Jefferson County Public Schools, responded to say it was not a district policy — it was established by the school’s “decision-making council,” according to WKYC.com, which first reported the story. Regardless of whether it was an official district policy or not, Scott’s tweet clearly shows that it is being represented as an actual dress code policy. Former students and parents claimed these rules have been enforced at JCPS schools for some time.

According to the text from Scott’s tweet, these hairstyles are considered “extreme, distracting, or attention-getting.” Parents, students, and members of the local community said that the policy seemed discriminatory against black students, considering dreadlocks and cornrows — misspelled “cornrolls” in the dress code Scott provided — are hairstyles traditionally worn by black people.

Attica Scott, by the way, won her seat in the legislature by beating in a primary the last DINO, Blue Dog, Conservadem fake "Democrat" left in the Louisville state house delegation. Beat him bad, too. She's unopposed in the November general election because she represents possibly the single bluest district in Jefferson County, if not in the entire state (downtown Lexington, get your fucking act together!) and repugs never expected their dem mole to lose the primary.

Liberals all over Kentucky went into insane paroxysms of joy when she won in May. Nobody better so much as whisper a non-complimentary word about her, and if it takes the combined throw-weight of Mayor Greg Fischer and Congressman Awesome John Yarmuth to force persuade Butler to change its policy, that's what it takes.

Stop Wooing Repugs, Tim Kaine: You're Wasting Time and Pissing Off Real Democratic Voters

Yep, he's exactly the repug-lite motherfucker we thought he was. 

 

How anyone with the sense dog gave a goose could have lived through the last 20 years and imagine that there is a repug anywhere who will ever, EVER vote for a Democratic candidate is beyond me.

Not only will no repug vote Democratic, but all those pearl-clutching repugs disowning Donald Traitor are going to fall in line and vote for him come November.

Meanwhile, all the easily-discouraged Democratic voters that Hillary needs to turn out in November are watching Kaine and wondering what the fuck is the point, I've got better things to do than vote for repug-lite candidates with a D next to the name.

Well done, Clinton-Kaine.  Convention's not over and you've already lost the election.

Responsible Gun Ownership, Movie Theater Edition

Hey, he didn't even shoot.  They should either give him a medal or charge him with Failure to Fully Deploy His Second Amendment Rights

Mallory Panuska at the Paducah Sun:

The McCracken County Attorney’s Office is considering charges in an altercation Saturday at the Cinemark Theater in Paducah that involved one man allegedly pulling a gun on another.

The police report released Monday, the Paducah Sun reports, said authorities are investigating charges against John Grabinski, 64, of Ozark, Ill., who reportedly pulled a gun on John Hempen, 38, of Paducah, during a fight that broke out during the showing of “Star Trek Beyond” around noon Saturday.

SNIP

According to the report, Grabinski became angry during the movie because a 14-year-old sitting behind him was kicking his seat. He reportedly cursed the teen, prompting an argument with the teen’s father, Hempen.

The verbal altercation got physical when, according to the report, Grabinski became angrier and pushed Hempen. The men then began physically fighting when Grabinski was struck in the face and knocked to the ground.

When he got up, the report said he brandished a gun, saying to Hempen, “Now what the (expletive) you going to do?” Hempen answered, “Nothing. I’m good.” According to what Grabinski told police, he was “disoriented” when he got up and pulled his gun.

Kentucky law does not prohibit carrying a firearm into a movie theater. Cinemark, however, prohibits firearms in its theaters.

Feds to Bevin on Killing Medicaid: Back Off, Motherfucker

Because Bevin really, really wants to deny healthcare to hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, close every rural hospital and cost the taxpayers billions of dollars.

 

Deborah Yetter at the Courier:

A coalition of health advocacy groups has blasted Gov. Matt Bevin's plan to restructure the state Medicaid plan "as a giant step backward for Kentucky."

"This plan threatens to undermine the health and economic gains we have made in the past two years," said the written comments filed last week by Kentucky Voices for Health, a coalition of about 200 groups and individuals.

SNIP

Meanwhile, a top federal official who must approve the changes has raised questions about Bevin's plan to dismantle or restructure health initiatives, including the Medicaid expansion launched by his predecessor, Steve Beshear, under the Affordable Care Act.

Bevin, a Republican, has pledged to dismantle kynect in favor of the federal site, healthcare.gov, and scale back the Medicaid expansion of Beshear, a Democrat.

Sylvia Burwell, U.S. secretary of health and human services, raised concerns about Bevin's plans for Medicaid expansion, citing the "historic improvements" in health coverage for Kentuckians. She also questioned Bevin's plans for dismantling kynect, the state health insurance exchange where people may shop for private plans or enroll in Medicaid.

Burwell addressed the proposed changes in two separate letters last week – one to Bevin and one to Beshear.

In a July 20 letter to Bevin, Burwell described his plans to dismantle kynect as "highly aggressive" and said it is uncertain whether "we can confirm a transition will be possible this year."

As for Bevin's plan to restructure the Medicaid expansion, Burwell, in a separate letter to Beshear, said her agency will review Bevin's request in light of federal law directing that any changes strengthen coverage and increase access to health care.

"As you know, Kentucky's Medicaid expansion has led to one of the biggest reductions of uninsured people in America," said Burwell, responding to a May 9 letter from Beshear questioning Bevin's plans for Medicaid. "We are committed to the principle that any changes to the program maintain or build on the historic improvements Kentucky has seen in access to coverage, access to care and financial security, rather than take the state backward."

Coal Power Generator To Build Solar Farm in Kentucky

This could be huge.  East Kentucky Power is the coal-generating utility that supplies electricity to the rural electric cooperatives that keep the lights on in rural homes and businesses throughout Kentucky.

For decades, East Kentucky Power has been the biggest obstacle to reforming energy generation, sale and use in Kentucky.  Or in other words, the biggest shill for Big Coal.

While a few small utilities like the one serving Berea have built solar farms for their own customers, East Kentucky Power and its client RECCs have responded to customer pleas for renewable energy with "Fuck off and die, you dirty hippies; Coal RULZ."

Until now.

From the AP:

The East Kentucky Power Cooperative is applying to build a 60-acre solar facility in Clark County.

The Winchester Sun reports (http://bit.ly/29VJ6Ms ) that the utility has filed its application with the Kentucky Public Service Commission to install 32,000 photovoltaic panels on property next to its offices on U.S. Highway 60.

Spokesman Kevin Osbourn says the 8.5 megawatt project could be completed by the end of next year if gains approval by the PSC.

Funding for the $18 million project would come from New Clean Energy Renewable Energy Bonds with federal incentives to offset interest.

 The solar facility is part of the utility's plan to diversify its power generation capabilities and to give customers a choice to buy renewable energy.

Harsh Truth for White Liberals

Just read it.  Then get the fuck out there and work.

Freakazoids Demand to Get Paid for Endorsing Candidates

That's what's really going on here. Churches get huge tax exemptions for reasons that pass understanding, and all they have to do is refrain from using their tax-free riches to endorse political candidates.

But the whiny-ass titty babies have been crying for 50 years that they have no free speech.  Bullshit.  They can say and write anything they want as long as they don't endorse.  And they can endorse their fat asses off if they stop taking tax exemptions. But that would mean they have to work for a living rather than scamming their parishioners. 

So of course they're lying their asses off about it.










Nancy LeTourneau at Political Animal:

That restriction was passed in 1954 in order to prevent donors from being able to deduct political contributions from their federal tax liability. It has applied to every nonprofit I have ever worked for – including the Washington Monthly. If you’ll notice, we write very openly about issues and politics. What we don’t do is ever explicitly endorse a particular candidate. To do so would threaten the organization’s nonprofit status.

I say all of that by way of explanation of something you might have heard Donald Trump say during his speech last night.

At this moment, I would like to thank the evangelical and religious community in general who have been so good to me and so supportive. You have much to contribute to our politics, yet our laws prevent you from speaking your minds from your own pulpits.

An amendment, pushed by Lyndon Johnson, many years ago, threatens religious institutions with a loss of their tax-exempt status if they openly advocate their political views. I am going to work very hard to repeal that language and protect free speech for all Americans.

Republicans have also called for the repeal of this amendment to the tax code in their party platform. They often call it the “Johnson amendment” because LBJ was in Congress when it passed. So let’s take a minute to look at how Trump’s description of this is all wrong.

First of all, as I’ve explained, this restriction doesn’t only apply to “religious institutions.” Even the media is bad at pointing that out. For example, here is the headline from an article on the topic in TIME: “Republican Platform Calls for Repeal of Ban on Political Organizing by Churches.” Nonprofits as large as private universities and as small as the community-based organizations I worked for have to comply with this restriction in order to maintain their tax exempt status. This is important to keep in mind when Republicans try to suggest that religious organizations and churches are being targeted. That is simply not true.
Secondly, this part of the tax code does not keep organizations from speaking their minds nor does it restrict their free speech rights. As you can observe right here at the Washington Monthly, we talk openly about politics every day. Beyond that, nonprofits like this one are always free to give up their tax exempt status if they want to advocate on behalf of a specific political candidate. Nothing in the law stops them from doing that. It is just that the benefits of tax exempt status far outweigh the narrow gains that would be made in giving it up.

What this all comes down to is that certain religious leaders (like Jerry Falwell, Jr. and Franklin Graham) want all of the benefits of their tax exempt status with none of the rules about what that means. Were they to be successful, their churches and religious organizations would be turned into funnels through which donors could contribute to a political candidate and write it off as a charitable contribution. People who advocate for that are obviously attracted to the power that would give them. But it would become a terribly corrupting influence on their own organizations.

His Precious Religious Liberties

In case you've forgotten just how narrow and exclusive are the rights that repugs claim to defend, here's a reminder from Erik Looms at LGM that with Scalia dead, the new U.S. Supreme Court defender of white, straight, right-wing male freakazoids is Sam Alito:

... his precious religious liberties that apply only to right-wingers seeking to oppress women or gays.