Today I’m feeling a bit groggy, because I did get some sleep last night. Tomorrow I have to venture out into the world to get my ears lowered. I’m starting to look like a hermit. The weekend should be cool, but we have another heat wave next week, just in time for my next volunteer day in prison.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today’s took me 4:11 (average 5:18). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Fantasy Football Reminder:
Lefty Blog Friends, don’t forget that our live online draft is Saturday at 11 AM Pacific (12 Noon Mountain, 1 PM Central, 2 PM Eastern) Daylight Savings Time. If you haven’t already done so, I recommend participating in a mock draft or two between now and then.
Short Takes:
From MSNBC: Sanders speaks out on Sandra Bland
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders issues a forceful statement on the case of Sandra Bland, days after a tense confrontation with #BlackLivesMatter activists. Sanders joins Ed Schultz to explain.
I liked Bernie’s response. I hope that it will evoke a positive response from Black Lives Matter, but I fear that it will not, because he did not focus on their issues to the exclusion of everything else. Note that Bernie wanted to focus on immigration at ,Netroots, not because he dis not care about institutional racism, but because immigration is what the conference had asked him to present.
From The New Yorker: Businessman Donald Trump’s failure to insult fellow G.O.P. hopeful John Kasich a full twenty-four hours after the Ohio governor entered the 2016 Presidential race has sent Trump’s poll numbers plummeting, as many supporters expressed a sudden loss of confidence in the real-estate mogul.
Trump’s Kasich gaffe occurred at a campaign rally in Des Moines on Wednesday, when the former reality-show star admitted that he did not yet know enough about the Ohio governor to properly insult him.
“I could get up here and call Kasich a loser, because my gut tells me that’s what he is, but you’ve come to expect something more special out of me,” Trump said. “If you bear with me, I promise you that I’ll come up with a world-class insult that we can all be proud of.”
Good catch, Andy! Hairball had better hurry up, because KKKasich needs some of his special treatment.
From Daily Kos: via rawstory
Sheriff’s deputies arrested a Georgia “sovereign citizen” who twice attempted to pull one of the half-dozen guns he had within reach inside his car decorated with a hand-painted Confederate flag.
A Towns County sheriff’s deputy and an agent from the Appalachian Regional Drug Enforcement Office stopped 30-year-old Dustin Lee Gunnells, of Hiawassee, for an unspecified misdemeanor traffic offense Wednesday, reported WKRK-AM.
“Immediately the driver exhibited aggression towards the officers and began making statements consistent with ‘sovereign citizen type beliefs,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement. “Rather than comply with deputies, the driver reached for a gun.”
The deputies feared for their safety but did not shoot, and instead broke out a window in Gunnell’s car and physically removed him from the vehicle.
So this guy has loaded weapons in his confederate flag painted truck, refuses to comply, the cops tussle with him and he is not dead. See cops can get it right, if the color of skin and ideology is right.
While I may not always agree with the Black Lives Matter movement about tactics, I fully agree with them about the elevated danger black people face from Republican racists wearing badges and the immediate need to do something to stop it.
Cartoon:
23 Responses to “Open Thread–7/23/2015”
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Ice cream does help one survive a heat wave.
The differential treatment compared to Bland is deeply disturbing and exemplifies why this is the issue the voices in the Black Lives Matter movement tell us must be addressed before they can support any politician or listen to positions on issues of lesser concern to them. Respect and a view of equality demands that we let people speak for themselves and hear them and that we do not tell them what they should value, consider important, etc.
Bernie described the scope of entrenched racism that is of concern pretty well and sketched the broad stroke of territory effective policy and legislative responses must encompass; I look forward to reading or hearing the details and specifics like he has given us on economic concerns. I believe that is what those who interrupted him deserve to hear.
Will the GOP allow either Kasich or Trump to join their debate in Iowa?
The Nation has a new piece on the Netroots Nation and Sanders FYI:
Bernie Sanders Blew a Huge Opportunity at Netroots Nation
He still has a chance to convince voters of color that he cares deeply about racial justice—but time is running out.
http://www.thenation.com/article/bernie-sanders-blew-a-huge-opportunity-at-netroots-nation/
I disagree. Sanders had a specific assignment at netroots. That is what he came prepared to do.
Time will tell if he ever succeeds in getting votes of people of color or not–he needs to get a whole lot more specific and speak of it everywhere to have a hope of their support, and his is the best hope of the party so this may become worse than 2014 with no reason to vote for this group
4:29 average 5:19. Ring-a-ding-ding.
MSNBC – Video is strobing the sound, will have to listen later.
New Yorker – Priceless.
DKos – Now there's someone who actually was a "thug," "no angel," "not a model." (And would, in my opinion, have been no loss.) Still alive – even unharmed. Just saw a headline where cops in Denver killed a mentally ill Lakota man, too. I didn't have time to read it before coming here but I know where to find it. Immediate need – yes.
Cartoon – And thank God for it!
I managed to get to YouTube to see it (I don't know why the glitch, Rachel worked perfectly.) Bernie is definitely my candidate. I hope and pray people of color will realize that we whites, even those of us with credentials, are just beginning to learn what they already know, and it isn't easy to see past ones own privilege.
#BLACKLivesMatter is important because of the genocide of people of color we are seeing in just about every day's news. #BlackLIVESMatter is also important, as Dr. Barber says, because not killing people is a pretty minimal standard of care. We all need to be working for better lives of people of color as well. Given a chance, I am convinced they can handle anything. They continually amaze me with their grace.
We do need to stop responding to "Black Lives Matter" by saying "All Lives Matter." Black Lives Matter is not a put down, just as people who are saying "Save the Rainforests" are not implying "To hell with all other kinds of forest.'" The thing is, non-black lives have always mattered to society. Black lives haven't always. Society has some catching up to do.
Kudos and many green stars to you, Joanne. I couldn't agree more nor have said it so well.
Very well said.
So finally you got some sleep, TomCat, but now all the tasks that have been piling up when you live in slow-motion during the heat are keeping you bothered. And a new heat wave in the future, it's not letting up this year, is it. Climate change really sucks.
MSNBC: Bernie says exactly the right things, there's nothing inherently wrong with his message and he should be applauded for taking this stance, but it is a bit of what we call "mustard after the meal". And I fear that Bernie has the wrong color to get to the heart of the matter. The black community has had a black president for seven years now, a man who could truly empathize with them, because he's lived their lives. And still, racism seems to have increased over that period, perhaps more so because Obama is black. There is a very long road to go on both sides of the chasm and despite all his sincerity Bernie, nor any other white candidate or black ex-brain surgeon, will be able to convince all black people that things can and will change in a more progressive, social-democratic America.
The New Yorker: You can leave it to Andy to paint an accurate, life size caricature of Trump in just half a page. Excellent, thanks for my belly laugh, Andy.
Daily Kos: A guy with an arsenal in his car which he had decorated with the confederate flag reaches for the guns twice after being stopped by police and walks away without a scratch?! Let me take an educated guess: that guy was white, right? Well, the flag was a give-away. I imagine that the Sheriff's deputies at no time noted the terrible irony when the reported the incident. They were probably very proud of the way they handled things, never questioning why they never felt threatened and "in fear of their lives" from this ammosexual and never felt compelled to turn him into a Swiss cheese.And that is exactly where the problem lies: it has become normal and the norm to react differently, i.e. negative by default to black people.
Cartoon: I think the cones (cone shaped waffles) have existed before that, but on that date in 1904 was the first time someone thought to put ice-cream in them 😉 and then call it an invention 😉 😉
Mother Jones tells of advice from a kindergarten teacher on how to deal with Trump:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/donald-trump-baby-kindergarten-teacher
Thanks jla, very funny indeed yet to the point. Big smile.
4:09 I got to the bell just before the TomCat.
3:38 Is it too early to sing "Ding dong! The wicked witch is dead! Long live the Sasquatch!"?
3:51 You rang the bell, Lynn!
Was it a dinner bell?
I hope you don't get another heat wave. We have another starting Saturday and my AC is still out.
MSNBC: Bernie"s record on Civil rights speaks for itself. His campaign committee needs to get that out there. Yes, he was blind sided.
The New Yorker: I have a friend who lives in Ohio who could give Trump plenty of material to use on Kasich. She detests him.
Daily Kos: If this guy had been black, he would be dead.
Cartoon: A genius at work!
Love the photo TC – your fur has gone quite ginger with pleasure!
New Yorker – Andy is brilliant as usual, though I would suggest that the less Trump knows of his opponents, the more he is able to insult them, not the other way round.
Daily Kos – as others have said, if that man had been black he would have been dead long since.
Puzzle — 3:38 Is it too early to sing "Ding dong! The wicked witch is dead! Long live the Sasquatch!"?
MSNBC — That's Bernie . . . straightforward, direct and honest. Given the way he was interrupted at Netroots — blindsided — and not given the chance to speak, this became a no win situation. But Bernie has now been able to provide broad stroke coverage. I wonder if he will engage some of the people from #BLACKLivesMatter to help flesh out issues and develop potential strategies?
The New Yorker — I'm sure Kasich will get over it. But Trump . . . that's a different matter.
Daily Kos — "So this guy has loaded weapons in his confederate flag painted truck, refuses to comply, the cops tussle with him and he is not dead. See cops can get it right, if the color of skin and ideology is right." The question is: Why can't they get it right all the time? It isn't difficult . . . it's about respect. . . . or am I too feeble minded?
In the news today, a California female police officer was found guilty and sentenced to 3 years in the county jail for, I believe, the assault of a prisoner that resulted in that prisoner's death in 2012. No further details were given but sometimes the law gets it right.
Cartoon — Hmmmmm . . . I don't need a cone. Just give me the bucket!
(My Mom & aunt from Illinois came down Thursday for a brief visit. Some relatives from North Carolina are in town. They'll go back Monday – so I'll probably be scarce.
(My Mom LOVES blueberries, and they have them all sale now for ONE DOLLAR A PINT! We'll be making a blueberry pie and delicious lemon-blueberry bars. Plus have fresh peaches and blueberries for breakfast every morning!)
Drooling!
Excellent interview with Bernie Sanders re. Sandra Bland – Have a listen to it in PP.
Democracy Now: Videos re: Sandra Bland:
Sandra Bland’s Sister Responds to Suicide Allegations, Lawyer Says Waller County Withholding Details
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/7/24/sandra_bland_s_sister_responds_to
Outrage Grows After Mysterious Death of #BlackLivesMatter Activist Sandra Bland in Texas Jail
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/7/17/outrage_grows_after_mysterious_death_of
"I Don’t Believe Sandy Committed Suicide": #BlackLivesMatter Co-Founders Speak Out on Sandra Bland
http://www.democracynow.org/2015/7/24/i_dont_believe_sandy_committed_suicide
As everyone has said, if he had been black and without the confederate flag, he would have been so full of holes they wouldn’t have been able to embalm him. That, in and of itself, is what is wrong with our system of government! That’s why President Obama is having so much trouble with his presidency! He is half black and to all of the RepukkklicanTs, he may as well be all black. They don’t give a crap what blacks think, let alone if they are in the right!
Thanks all. Big hurry. Hugs!!