America for sale

 

Completely despicable Trump MAGA

 

Just fucking despicable.

And here's another.

Truly disgusting.

FFS.

UPDATE 07/01/2025:

Right out loud.

You can't win

 You can't break even. And you can't get out of the game.

It has taken nearly a decade for St. Louis’ Civilian Oversight Board to find the footing needed to effectively investigate police misconduct and give residents the tools to hold police accountable, says board member Keith Rose. The city established the board in the years following the Black Lives Matter protests in nearby Ferguson, where grassroots organizers amplified calls to end police violence. But the board faced obstacles at every turn, from legal battles with police unions to the police department’s refusal to cooperate with investigations.

“It feels like we only just now got to the place where we have a path to do the work, after delays from lawsuits and police noncooperation. It finally feels like the board is ready to do the work,” Rose told Bolts.

But the state of Missouri is poised to wreck community oversight over policing in St. Louis. Governor Mike Kehoe on Wednesday signed a bill that ends the city’s ability to run its own police department, transferring control to the GOP-run state government. Going forward, the department will be led by a board mostly appointed by the Republican governor.

[...]

There is a dark precedent for Missouri state officials seizing control of law enforcement in this city. On the eve of the Civil War, a secessionist governor took over the local police, worried that the city may otherwise resist his hopes of having Missouri join the Confederacy. He proceeded to pack the new state-run board with secessionist members.

[...]

This state control then remained in place for well over 150 years. Only in 2012 did 64 percent of Missourians approve a measure to let St. Louis, which has a large Black population, run its own police force. The new law overrides that reform, returning control to the state leadership, which is largely white.

[...]

In signing the bill on Wednesday, Kehoe argued that the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department will still be run locally because the commissioners he appoints will have to be residents of the city.

  Bolts Magazine

White nationalist residents, and perhaps one black "Uncle Tom". Yes, I know that's offensive. MAGA

MAGA heroes

A New York City subway rider who was acquitted this week of killing a homeless man during a confrontation on a train has joined US President-elect Donald Trump as a guest of honour at a popular American sporting event.

[...]

A jury cleared [Daniel] Penny of criminally negligent homicide on Monday for using a fatal chokehold to restrain Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man, who had been shouting at other passengers and asking for money, last year.

[...]

Speaking about Mr Penny's acquittal earlier this week, Vance said this week on X that Mr Penny was "a good guy, and New York's mob district attorney tried to ruin his life for having a backbone".

  BBC

[Kyle] Rittenhouse was acquitted on five charges for fatally shooting two people – Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber – and seriously wounding a third at a 2020 racial justice protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. No matter what else he is or isn’t, Mr Rittenhouse is someone who, as a teen, shot three people with an assault rifle at a Black Lives Matter demonstration and didn’t go to jail for it.

[...]

[S]ince before his murder trial was even finished, Mr Rittenhouse became a strange, uniquely American kind of famous: reviled by many, but beloved on the right, where Donald Trump defended him and Tucker Carlson lavished him with documentary-style coverage. Using crowdfunded donations and merch like t-shirts and sports bras, the Illinois teen raised more than a million of dollars in crowdfunded donations for his legal defence.

Since he’s been acquitted, the spotlight has only brightened. Under the banner of a purported campaign to clear his name, facing a sprawling civil lawsuit from the family of one of the people he shot, Mr Rittenhouse has become a full-blown right-wing influencer, garnering money and influence through brand collaborations, a video game, a media watchdog organisation, a speaking slot at CPAC, meetings with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, visiting Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, and appearing as the draw at various conservative events around the country.

  UK Independent

Trump's MAGA base reveres and lionizes you if you hate (and even - maybe especially - kill) the people they hate.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Fascism on the march

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

No longer any pretense of "law and order"

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Police state brutality

Read this article about the police killing of Tyre Nichols and then ask yourself this question:  if those five black police officers had been white, would they also have been quickly fired and charged with murder?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 11:45 am:

UPDATE 01/31/2023:

That's in addition to two additional police officers being suspended.

UPDATE 02/08/2023:  I'm guessing this is why those officers were shut down so fast.  They had severely beaten another man at a traffic stop just three days earlier.

MAGA world is beyond the pale

Kyle Rittenhouse was quizzed about his previously stated support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement at an event popular with conservatives, before security personnel removed the journalist asking the questions on Monday.

  MSN

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

So proud of Georgia

The south lost the civil war in 1865, but today is the day the South fell. The people of Georgia now know what they can do. And the people of Mississippi and Alabama were watching. I look forward to a new black holiday. Janteenth doesn't quite fit, but January 5 is a red-letter day. Black Lives DO Matter.

Democrats appear on the brink of taking control of the U.S. Senate with Raphael Warnock the projected winner over Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Jon Ossoff leading Republican Sen. David Perdue in Georgia’s two Senate runoff elections.

  USA Today

And Mitch McConnell has lost his seat! The whole country won. (I'm assuming a win for Ossoff if the votes they're counting now are mail-in and those fall the way they did in the general election.)

Trailing much of the night, Ossoff surged ahead of Perdue by more than 8,500 votes after batches of votes from Democrat-heavy DeKalb County were released. Most uncounted votes remain in Democratic strongholds in the metro Atlanta area.

[...]

Around 2 a.m. ET Wednesday, the Associated Press projected Warnock the winner over Loeffler after the Atlanta pastor built his statewide lead to more than 46,500 votes.

And that should widen under my assumption about the mail-in votes.

Warnock made history with his election win, becoming the first Black Democrat elected as a U.S. senator from a state in the South and only the 11th Black senator in the history of the nation. He becomes the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in Georgia in 20 years.

[...]

The Perdue campaign was not ready to concede.

Of course not.

“We will mobilize every available resource and exhaust every legal recourse to ensure all legally cast ballots are properly counted. We believe in the end, Senator Perdue will be victorious.”

Gabriel Sterling, Georgia voting system implementation manager, said he expects most ballots to be counted by Wednesday but for final counts not until Friday.

[...]

The possible Senate sweep in Georgia would give Democrats control of the Senate for the first time since 2004 and boost President-elect Joe Biden’s ability to carry out his early legislative agenda.

Not to mention take McConnell's foot off the throat of the Senate and actually allow bills to come to the floor for votes.*

Tuesday’s election was a rare double run-off. Ossoff and Warnock ran against Perdue and Loeffler in the Nov. 3 general election, but no candidate in that race passed the 50% threshold under state law to win the Senate seats outright, forcing Tuesday's runoffs.

And don't think the MAGAts won't be screaming about being cheated because of it. In fact, I'm actually rather surprised Georgia uses that system. I suppose that reveals a level of arrogance on the part of the GOP that no other state has dared reach.

Georgia election officials said turnout Tuesday shattered the previous record for a run-off in the state, including more than 3 million who voted early.

[...]

Following the playbook that helped Republicans retain control of the Senate after the general election, Loeffler and Perdue attacked their opponents as "radical socialists" and said the fate of nation was at stake with the race.

Well, they were right about that last part.

Congratulations, Georgia! You may have just saved democracy in America.

P.S.  A lot of credit goes to power house Stacey Abrams, who worked tirelessly organizing blacks to vote.  Governor Kemp's days are numbered.

UPDATE 8am:

Democrat Jon Ossoff, who leads Republican David Perdue by about 16,000 votes in the Georgia runoff that could give Democrats control of the U.S. Senate, claimed victory Wednesday in the race. The Associated Press, which NPR relies on for its results, has not yet called the contest.

  NPR 

*I didn't realize Senate Majority leader does not automatically go to the party with the most senators. (I thought that would be a tie, broken by Kamala Harris.) I just read this tweet that seems to indicate the Senate votes on the leader, no matter who has the most seats. Manchin better not bail on the Democrats. Surely he wouldn't, would he?

 

This is happening on a regular basis

Maybe this needs to be a crime all its own with special penalties.

One woman was arrested after allegedly driving her car into a crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters in Manhattan Friday afternoon, injuring six, the New York police department (NYPD) said.

[...]

The car charged forward in a terrifying, lightning-quick sequence of events where eyewitnesses said protesters were sent “flying” and people were screaming and running in panic.

The woman in the car, Kathleen Casillo, has been charged with reckless endangerment. Casillo, 52, was released early Saturday and is due in court on 22 February, authorities said.

[...]

When officers arrived at the scene, they encountered injured pedestrians whom they described as “conscious and alert in the roadway”.

[...]

There have been similar incidents between protesters and cars elsewhere in the US since BLM protests began. Between 27 May and 5 September, there were at least 104.

  Guardian

One hundred and four!

Ditto this shit...

The fascist Trump flag flies over his rallies now

https://twitter.com/JeffSharlet/status/1321843659248177154

Oh, gee, it wasn't antifa or BLM after all

Unrest flared throughout Minneapolis following [George] Floyd’s death.

[...]

Ivan Harrison Hunter, a 26-year-old from Boerne, Texas, [ a member of the “Boogaloo Bois”,] is charged with one count of interstate travel to incite a riot for his alleged role in ramping up violence during the protests in Minneapolis on May 27 and 28. According to charges, Hunter, wearing a skull mask and tactical gear, shot 13 rounds at the south Minneapolis police headquarters while people were inside. He also looted and helped set the building ablaze, according to the complaint, which was filed Monday under seal.

[...]

As police clashed with protesters, Hunter and other members of the Boogaloo Bois discussed in private Facebook messages their plans to travel to Minneapolis and rally at the Cub Foods across from the third precinct, according to federal court documents. One of the people Hunter coordinated with posted publicly to social media: “Lock and load boys. Boog flags are in the air, and the national network is going off,” the complaint states.

[...]

Hunter had bragged about his role in the Minneapolis riots on Facebook, publicly proclaiming, “I helped the community burn down that police station” and “I didn’t’ protest peacefully Dude ... Want something to change? Start risking felonies for what is good.”

[...]

Hunter is the third member of the Boogaloo Bois, a loose-knit group intent on igniting a second American civil war, to be charged in Minneapolis as a result of the unrest that followed Floyd’s death.

Michael Robert Solomon and Benjamin Ryan Teeter were indicted in September with conspiracy to provide material support for a foreign terrorist organization.

  Star Tribune

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

DHS internal documents regarding Kenosha killing

Federal law enforcement officials were directed to make public comments sympathetic to Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with fatally shooting two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, according to internal Department of Homeland Security talking points obtained by NBC News.

[...]

Rittenhouse, 17, supported Trump and police on his social media pages before he traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to Kenosha on Aug. 25 with an AR-15-style rifle, authorities said. Rittenhouse was arrested on first-degree murder charges and is fighting extradition to Wisconsin. His attorneys argue that he was acting in self-defense.

[...]

In preparing Homeland Security officials for questions about Rittenhouse from the media, the document suggests that they note that he "took his rifle to the scene of the rioting to help defend small business owners."

[...]

It is unclear whether any of the talking points originated at the White House or within Homeland Security's own press office.

  NBC

It doesn't much matter any more since Trump has installed cronies at all the federal agencies who take their cues from him.

Trump and other officials in his administration have been quick to blame left-wing extremists. Acting Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan has repeated Trump's claim that organized black-clad members of "antifa" were being flown to protests across the country to incite violence.

[...]

Four former Homeland Security officials, two of whom worked for Republican administrations, said it was unusual for law enforcement officials to be instructed to weigh in on a case involving a particular group or individual before investigations had concluded.

"It is as unprecedented as it is wrong," said Peter Boogaard, who was a spokesperson for Homeland Security during the Obama administration.

"What strikes me about the talking points is that they didn't call for calm among the public,” said Elizabeth Neumann, who served as DHS's assistant secretary for threat prevention and security policy in the Trump administration.

[...]

Officials were instructed to bring conversations back to the need to preserve law and order.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Other killers were on their way to Kenosha

Two Missouri men were arrested on the way to Kenosha, Wis., on Tuesday for illegal possession of firearms, according to court documents.

Michael Karmo, 40, and Cody Smith, 33, were charged with illegal possession of firearms after being arrested at a hotel in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., the Department of Justice announced Thursday.

The complaint included photos of Karmo posing with a gun in front of a pro-law enforcement Blue Lives Matter flag. Karmo allegedly told the FBI that he and Smith are members of an organization called the 417 Second Amendment Militia, the complaint said.

Authorities recovered several weapons from their hotel room, including an AR-15, a shotgun, handguns and magazines, as well as a dagger, a saw and other gear.

Law enforcement received a tip warning that the two were on their way to Kenosha.

  The Hill

The killer Kyle Rittenhouse also claimed to be a militia member.

And there were probably plenty who didn't get caught.

Good for Saban

However...

He isn't going to march very far in those shoes.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

"You don't need to be black to be outraged"

I'm outraged by this:

And this:

The caravans bent on destroying this country have arrived.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Wow

The times they are a-changin'.

NBA Statement:

We had a candid, impassioned and productive conversation yesterday between NBA players, coaches and team governors regarding next steps to further our collective efforts and actions in support of social justice and racial equality. Among others, the attendees included player and team representatives of all 13 teams in Orlando. All parties agreed to resume NBA playoff games on Saturday, Aug. 29 with the understanding that the league together with the players will work to enact the following commitments:

1. The NBA and its players have agreed to immediately establish a social justice coalition, with representatives from players, coaches and governors, that will be focused on a broad range of issues, including increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform.

2. In every city where the league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to COVID. If a deadline has passed, team governors will work with local elections officials to find another election-related use for the facility, including but not limited to voter registration and ballot receiving boards.

3. The league will work with the players and our network partners to create and include advertising spots in each NBA playoff game dedicated to promoting greater civic engagement in national and local elections and raising awareness around voter access and opportunity.

These commitments follow months of close collaboration around designing a safe and healthy environment to restart the NBA season, providing a platform to promote social justice, as well as creating an NBA Foundation focused on economic empowerment in the Black community. "We look forward to the resumption of the playoffs and continuing to work together – in Orlando and in all NBA team markets – to push for meaningful and sustainable change.

  Yahoo Sports

Amazing.

Courage is contagious

First the NBA, now MLB.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The RNC ends Thursday...what happens Friday?

A civil rights rally timed to the 57th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s seminal “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered in 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, is expected to bring thousands to the same spot on Friday.

Headlined by the Rev. Al Sharpton, who will be joined by King’s eldest son, Martin Luther King III, and family members of several men and women who were killed by law enforcement officers, the [the Friday march — dubbed the “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks” March on Washington — ] will conclude a week of large-scale events in the nation’s capital, including days of protests and a fireworks display over the Washington Monument to mark the end of the Republican National Convention.

  MSN

NBA protest

Wait a minute....NBA playoffs in August???  I obviously have not been paying attention for some years.  Am I imagining that once upon a time the playoffs and the season were over and done in March?

I guess Trumpland will be denouncing the NBA now.  Soon there will be no sports they're allowed to watch.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.