A Vote For Trump Is A Vote For Radical Right Terrorism

A new poll by the Military Times of active-duty service members shows Trump job favorability underwater, just 38% saying he's doing a good job. Officers have the most unfavorable view of Trump-- 59.1% disapproving. As for voting... Biden's ahead among all service members by nearly 6 points.

And this was even before it came out that Trump has been knowingly been accepting at least 30 campaign contributions from American Nazi movement leader, Morris Gulett-- and other known Nazis. And before it came out that Trump has been stoking vigilantism and violence in American cities to cause chaos. Washington Post reporters David Nakamura, Matt Viser and Robert Klemko wrote Sunday that Trump spent the weekend fanning the flames of partisan tensions between his supporters and social justice protesters in Portland and Kenosha, underscoring the threat of rising politically motivated violence.

In tweeting a video of the caravan on the move, Trump called the participants “GREAT PATRIOTS!” The reaction marked a sharp contrast to his silence during a large and peaceful civil rights march on Friday in Washington that drew thousands to the Mall, where some speakers denounced his leadership.

In a statement Sunday afternoon, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden “unequivocally” condemned the Portland shooting and accused Trump of “fanning the flames of hate and division in our society and using the politics of fear to whip up his supporters.”

“We must not become a country at war with ourselves; a country that accepts the killing of fellow Americans who do not agree with you; a country that vows vengeance toward one another,” Biden said. “But that is the America that President Trump wants us to be, the America he believes we are.”

The violence has escalated as Trump has seized on the social justice protests as a campaign wedge, attempting to tie Biden to “radical” elements on the left. Eager to shift the political debate from the rising deaths and economic toll of the pandemic, Trump has relentlessly attacked Democratic mayors and governors for failing to quell protests, and he dispatched federal law enforcement authorities into cities to help arrest demonstrators.

...Trump aides, including White House senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, asserted recently that the violence and chaos will help his reelection bid.

“The only people to blame for the violence and riots in our streets are liberal politicians and their incompetent policies that have failed to get control of these destructive situations,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement. “This President has condemned violence in all its forms. Americans want peace in their streets and for their children to grow up in safe neighborhoods, and only President Trump has shown the courage and leadership to achieve law and order and deliver results.”

Trump’s conservative supporters, including Fox News host Tucker Carlson, have seized on Rittenhouse as a figure of sympathy, suggesting that he acted legally and in self-defense. The president on Sunday appeared to offer his support by liking a tweet from a self-described former liberal activist who cited Rittenhouse as a reason to vote for Trump.

Conservatives also rallied around the Trump caravan in Portland, where the man who was killed was wearing a hat bearing the words “Patriot Prayer,” the name of a far-right group organized in 2016 to bring pro-Trump rallies to liberal strongholds.

In a tweet, Trump referred to Biden as a “puppet” of “crazed leaders” on the left who envision the Portland chaos as emblematic of “Joe Biden’s America.”

“This is not what our great Country wants,” Trump wrote. “They want Safety & Security, and do NOT want to Defund our Police!”

Biden has stated that he does not support efforts of some liberals to drastically cut funding for local police departments and instead has outlined a proposal that would increase funding for community policing programs by $300 million as long as local departments agree to conditions such as adopting new use-of-force standards and increasing diversity among their ranks.

In recent months, Trump has increasingly used official White House events, along with campaign rallies, to vilify protesters as violent and to fan fears along racial lines.

During his renomination acceptance speech, delivered Thursday on the South Lawn of the White House for the Republican National Convention, Trump attacked Biden for failing to condemn “rioters and criminals spreading mayhem in Democrat-run cities” even though the former vice president had already spoken out against the violence and looting, saying the day before that “violence that endangers lives, violence that guts businesses and shutters businesses that serve the community-- that’s wrong.”

“Trump has been inciting violence for years and with deadly effects,” said author Ruth Ben-Ghiat, who studies authoritarian regimes. She pointed to a mass shooting in El Paso last summer by a gunman who cited anti-immigrant views with echoes of Trump’s rhetoric in a manifesto.

In 2018, Cesar Sayoc, a Trump supporter, mailed inoperative pipe bombs to Trump’s critics, a crime for which he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. And in 2017, a white nationalist in Charlottesville drove a car into a crowd, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer as she protested the extremist “Unite the Right” march-- a movement the president failed to condemn unequivocally.

“Now he’s trained his aim on Black Lives Matter protesters and antifa,” said Ben-Ghiat, referring to a loosely connected set of left-wing, anti-fascist groups. “So what is happening now with an escalation of violence is something beneficial to Trump. Strongmen leaders incite crises so they can pose themselves as the law-and-order solution.”

...Homeland security experts said the combustible mix of sharply polarized and ideologically minded agitators mixing on the streets in cities where law enforcement authorities are strained and, in some cases, inadequately trained is a recipe for potential violence.

“It’s important for government leaders at all levels to calm everyone and keep political rallies peaceful,” said Tom Warrick, an Atlantic Council expert who left government service last year after serving as a career official at the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.

“The problem is that things can quickly get out of control and the uncertainty and chaos become weapons in the fight,” Warrick said. “Merely the uncertainty that it will take days, or weeks, to sort out something that’s happening in itself becomes a tool for division of the country, rather than the unity.”

Yesterday, another Post team, Joshua Partlow and Isaac Stanley-Becker, reported that some local police departments-- which don't even try to screen out facsists and racists-- are supporting neo-Nazi Trump supporters, militants and vigilantes. Many people think officers in the Kenosha police department should be charged with abetting and encouraging the Kyle Rittenhouse murders in Kenosha.

The trio wrote that "As protesters march against racism and police violence in cities and towns across the nation, they are being confronted by groups of armed civilians who claim to be assisting and showing support for police battered and overwhelmed by the protests. The confrontations have left at least three people dead in recent days: In addition to the two protesters killed Tuesday in Kenosha, a man thought to be associated with a far-right group called Patriot Prayer was fatally shot late Saturday in Portland, Oregon. Both incidents have drawn complaints that local authorities abetted the violence by tolerating the presence of these self-appointed enforcers with no uniforms, varied training and limited accountability. The stated motives of these vigilante actors, who are virtually indistinguishable from one another once massed on the streets, range from protecting storefronts and free speech to furthering White supremacy and fomenting civil war."

Many sheriffs and police chiefs, including in Kenosha, have disavowed these armed civilians, saying police don’t want their help. Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said he responded “hell no” when asked to deputize civilians. And Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian said this week, “I don’t need more guns on the streets in this city when we are trying to keep people safe.”

But elsewhere, local authorities have at times appeared to support people who took up arms against protests that have occasionally turned violent and provided cover for vandals and looters. In Snohomish, Washington, the police chief was ousted in June after welcoming dozens of armed men, including one waving a Confederate flag, who responded to false Internet rumors that “antifa” looters planned to ransack the town, referring to a loosely knit movement of far-left activists.

In Hood County, Texas, a constable in May encouraged the Oath Keepers-- an armed group that claims to have thousands of members of current and former law enforcement and military members-- to defend a Dallas hair salon after rumors of possible looting. And in Salem, Oregon, a police officer was captured on video in June advising armed men to “discreetly” stay inside while police began arresting protesters for violating curfew.

On other occasions, police officers have been photographed smiling or fist-bumping with members of far-right armed groups. Even in Kenosha, individual police officers seemed to welcome the help of armed civilians, including Rittenhouse, a member of police and fire cadet training programs who said on video before the shooting that it was “our job” to help people and protect property.

We were welcomed very warmly,” said Kenosha Guard leader Kevin Mathewson, 36, a former city alderman who summoned men with guns to gather in Kenosha on the night of the shooting. “I was at the entrance to my neighborhood. [Police] rolled down their windows and said, ‘Thanks for being here. We can’t be everywhere.’”

Mathewson has said that he does not know Rittenhouse. The teen, from the nearby town of Antioch, Ill., has been charged with first-degree homicide. His attorneys say he acted in self-defense after being “accosted by multiple rioters.”

In a letter last week to Kenosha officials, Mary B. McCord, legal director at Georgetown University Law Center’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, said “the bloodshed . . . throws into sharp relief the danger posed when private and unaccountable militia groups take the law into their own hands.”

McCord has called on police and prosecutors to enforce laws that prohibit private militias from usurping law enforcement functions. In her letter, she noted that “several provisions of Wisconsin law prohibit private paramilitary and unauthorized law enforcement activity.”

Raul Torrez (D), the district attorney in Bernalillo County, N.M., agrees. In June, one person was shot after members of an armed group that calls itself the New Mexico Civil Guard clashed with protesters trying to tear down a monument to Spanish conquistador Juan de Oñate in Albuquerque. Torrez filed suit against the militia, seeking to block it from assuming law enforcement duties.

“I don’t think a lot of Americans understand how fragile democracy is,” Torrez said. “One of the early signs of a troubled democracy is when people decide that they’re no longer going to address their political differences at the ballot box-- or in elected legislatures or in Congress-- but they’re going to do it on the street, and they’re going to do it with guns.”

“Police officers, district attorneys, leaders in law enforcement here and across the country have to make it unambiguously clear to anyone that it is not their job-- it is the role of law enforcement-- to” defend property, Torrez said. Militia groups are “not hearing that message from enough leadership in law enforcement. And this takes us down a very, very dangerous path.”

While racial justice protests typically condemn police behavior and include calls for defunding police departments, militia-style groups are predominantly pro-police and often rally behind slogans such as “Blue Lives Matter” and “Back the Badge.” In Portland and other places, law enforcement has been accused of treating far-right groups more leniently than leftist protesters.

“The vigilantes will come out, and their rally will be ‘Back the Blue,’” said Alexander Reid Ross, a doctoral fellow at the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right, a London-based group.

Ross has compiled a database of 497 public appearances of militias and far-right groups in about 300 U.S. counties since May, including 56 that he says suggest collaboration with police.

This summer, for instance, a commissioner in Bonner County, Idaho, called on residents to mobilize against a Black Lives Matter protest planned for Sandpoint, the county seat. His Facebook post asked people to “help counter anything that might get out of hand,” drawing a rebuke from Sandpoint Mayor Shelby Rognstad, who called it “grossly irresponsible.”

The commissioner, Dan McDonald, said he stood by his message, despite critics who derided the assemblage as “Dan’s private army.”

“Most of the guys that showed up-- I would bet because I know some of these folks-- are former law enforcement, former military,” he said. “They’re well trained and continue to train just for their own self-defense.”

Elsewhere, local officials have advised civilians to be prepared to use violence to defend themselves. At a June news conference responding to rumors on social media of possible riots, the sheriff in Polk County, Fla., warned would-be lawbreakers that local residents “have guns. I encourage them to own guns. And they’re going to be in their homes tonight, with their guns loaded.”

The sheriff, Grady Judd, also encouraged people to shoot intruders.

“Shoot them so much you can read the Washington Post through them,” he said in an interview last week, adding: “I want people to take matters into their own hands when they’re protecting their homes.”

...“Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder?” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said last week. “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”

Let me turn to the student newspaper of Louisiana State University, Reveille and writer Gabrielle Martinez, who had a few things to say over the weekend about Tucker's racism and hate-mongering on Fox. "With an average audience of 4.33 million viewers each night," she wrote, "frozen dinner heir and political pundit Tucker Carlson consistently spews hate through misinformation and misdirection as the host of the highest-rated program in U.S. cable news history, Tucker Carlson Tonight. A defining trait of the millionaire’s TV persona is his hatred for the American 'elite.' He repeatedly discusses his distaste for the 'pompous' rich, like Barack Obama, to an almost anti-capitalist degree; ironically, it’s estimated Tucker Carlson Tonight has sold $108.3 million in commercials alone this year, making up 16 percent of Fox’s billion-dollar ad revenue. Yet Carlson still attempts to portray himself as a figurehead of America’s working class. A supposed patriot, he wants the best for the United States-- or at least enough to relentlessly push Fox’s ultra-conservative narrative on their elderly white viewership."

To Carlson, "maintaining order” apparently means murdering two innocent people, a crime even our current president refuses to condemn. This is the result of Carlson’s inability to distance himself from radical far-right rhetoric in turn for higher ratings and publicity.

It’s becoming more and more clear that Carlson is intentionally pushing a narrative that he himself is writing. While it’s humorous to acknowledge as an outsider, it’s dangerous to the people who actually take his word seriously and believe the liberal left wants to destroy the American way of life.

While the left advocates for race equality and climate change, Carlson somehow twists these movements into what he views as socialist corruption. Instead of acknowledging things as they are, Carlson falsely portrays himself as a heroic character trying to save America from ruin. This tactic only heightens dramatics to further divide the country along race and party lines.

Oh, and John Oliver is... on fucking fire! Please do not miss this clip-- and all the way to the end!

Congress Voted Overwhelmingly To Remove Confederate Statues From The Capitol

Yesterday the House passed H.R.7573 which directs "the Architect of the U.S. Capitol to replace the bust of Roger Brooke Taney with a bust of Thurgood Marshall, to remove certain statues from areas of the Capitol which are accessible to the public, to remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served Confederate States of America displayed in Capitol. The vote was 305-113, every Democrat, as well as 72 Republicans (+ independent Justin Amash) voting in favor. 113 Republicans voted against the resolution including:

Earl Carter (GA)
Doug LaMalfa (CA)
Alex Mooney (WV)
Jason Smith (MO)
Roger Williams (TX)
Ted Yoho (FL)

The Republican House leadership was split, with McCarthy and Scalise voting for the bill and Liz Cheney voting with the racists against it. The bill would cause the removal of 11 Confederate statues which have been publicly displayed and turning loyal Americans' stomachs since the Jim Crow era. Each was contributed by a Southern state. Arkansas has decided to replace its two statues of Confederate traitors with statues of Johnny Cash and civil rights activist Daisy Gatson Bates. Florida is taking back its statue of Edmund Kirby Smith, a Confederate general, and contributing one of civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. Each state gets to contribute two statues for display in the Capitol.
In case you forgot who Taney was, he's the asshole Chief Justice the Supreme Court (1836-1864, when he died at 87, completely senile). He's best known for the Dred Scott decision, which he wrote and which says that blacks could not be considered citizens and that Congress could not prohibit slavery in American territories. He was pro-Confederacy but did all he could to sabotage Lincoln instead of resigning from the Court. The Dred Scott ruling is widely considered to be one of the worst-- if not the worst-- Supreme Court decisions ever made and Taney is considered the worst supreme Court Chief Justice in history. He wrote that blacks-- free or slaves-- had always been "regarded as beings of an inferior order, altogether unfit to associate with the white race... and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect."

According to The Hill, "The House has taken additional legislative actions this week to eliminate Confederate imagery. Earlier this week, the House passed its version of the annual defense policy bill with a provision to require renaming military bases honoring Confederate officers. And starting Thursday, the House is slated to take up a government spending package with measures to order the National Park Service to remove “all physical Confederate commemorative works” within 180 days and prohibit using taxpayer funds for construction projects on military installations named after Confederate officers unless they are being changed. House Democrats are further planning to unveil voting rights legislation later this week in honor of Lewis. It’s expected to build upon a bill that Democrats passed in December to restore a provision in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that established a process for states with histories of voter suppression to obtain federal clearance before making changes to election laws."

None of this will pass the Senate until McConnell is either dead or deposed and until Trump is driven out of the White House (or dead).

Progressive Democrat Julie Oliver, running to replace racist Republican Roger Williams in central Texas, told us-- after Williams' vote against removing the Confederate statues-- that "We should hold no place of honor for those who who were in open revolt to the United States of America in defense of slavery and white supremacy. From slavery to Jim Crow, redlining, the War on Drugs, criminalization of poverty, mass incarceration-- racism is this country's original sin. We can't stop fighting for an America based on the principles of racial, economic, and environmental justice. In this moment of national pain, following the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and too many others, when thousands of Texans have risked their lives to get in the streets and speak out against racial injustice and institutional racism, Rep. Williams’ vote to enshrine those who glorified racialized chattel slavery is out of step with the majority of Americans, the people in this district and, yet again, puts him on the wrong side of history. Texas deserves so much better."

We spoke with two more progressive Democrats running strong popular races in the South, Lisa Ring (coastal Georgia) and Adam Christensen (north central Florida). Both of the Trumpist incumbents, respectively Buddy Carter and Ted Yoho, voted against removing the Confederate statues. Lisa: "Should we really be surprised that 1st Congressional District Representative, Buddy Carter of Georgia voted against removing statues of Confederates and defenders of white supremacy from the U.S. Capitol? Since 2017, I have been vying for his seat because he refuses to represent the people of Coastal Georgia and has no problem saying so. From telling his constituents that he didn’t care what they wanted when they begged him not to take away their healthcare at one of his last in-person town halls, to being the only legislator in Georgia ready to drill for oil off the Georgia coast, Carter consistently chooses corporate interests that line his pockets, or aligning with the current administration to advance his career rather than listening to the will of the people. Of course Carter remains out of touch with our changing times and the collective will of the American people as he supports 'states’ rights' and a heritage of oppression. I would expect nothing more of him."

Adam Christensen is up for the seat Yoho is abandoning and told us this morning that "Yoho’s vote today is just one of the many times that he has been on the wrong side of history. He has previously has-- disagreed with the reauthorization of violence against women act in 2018 and again in 2019-- he does not want the equal right amendment or the survivor bill of rights to pass. He was 1 of only 2 people to vote against the Emit Till Anti-Lynching bill, and has repeatedly stated that the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional. Yoho does not represent my community or the people who live here in north central Florida. He is a political hack and he will not be missed when he retires in November. What we are focused on now is dismantling his legacy and the political infrastructure he built here. Because if his donors and backing just puts up another person with his ideology then nothing has fundamentally changed with his retirement."

Maybe It Really Is Time For the South To Rise Again-- But Without The Built-In Racism This Time

On Friday the House voted, 232-180 to admit Washington, DC-- which has more people than Wyoming and Vermont-- as a state. Every Republican-- ironically, the party of unadulterated and unashamed racism-- voted no, as did the most Republican of the House Dems, Minnesota Blue Dog Collin Peterson. There were 8 other Democrats who wanted top vote NO-- and in fact did vote with the GOP on their motion to recommit, but who felt their best strategy was to have it both ways, voting with the GOP on the motion and with the Democrats on the bill:

• Anthony Brindisi (Blue Dog-NY)
• Angie Craig (New Dem-MN)
• Joe Cunningham (Blue Dog-SC)
• Jared Golden (careerist-ME)
• Kendra Horn (Blue Dog-OK)
• Conor Lamb (careerist-PA)
• Ben McAdams (Blue Dog-UT)
• Collin Peterson (Blue Dog-MN)
• Xochitl Torres Small (Blue Dog-NM)

McConnell already declared it DOA as far as the Senate is concerned, somehow deciding statehood for Washington is-- wait for it-- "socialist." So his virulent and disgusting racism had nothing to do with it at all. And if McConnell were to be hit by a car tonight and whisked off to his place in Satan's bed, Trump has already said he would veto it, although didn't mention he's the most racist president to ever occupy the White House. The District, by the way, is 49% African-American so, the thinking goes among racists like McConnell and Trump and, generally all the Republicans in Congress... why give them a House seat and two Senate seats?

So I asked myself why is there still so much racism in our country. Why is it still a thing? Inequality politically and economically are bad enough but what about in our hearts? Why?

Stuart Stevens, a Mississippi Republican had something to say about that yesterday at The Bulwark-- at least for part of the problem: My Confederate Past. Before we get to Stevens' reflections, a little news (beyond Faith Hill's call for Mississippi to get a new Confederate-free state flag): there's plan to do just that and that started today, a flag that was adopted in 1894 at the height of the white backlash to Reconstruction.

As of Friday at noon, the plan-- which several sources reiterated was “extremely fluid”-- is for the House of Representatives to begin the legislative process to remove or replace the flag on Saturday morning.

A resolution will be filed that would suspend the rules so that legislators could take up a bill to address the flag. This resolution is expected to be the most difficult part of the process because it requires approval of a two-thirds majority in each chamber (82 of 122 House members, 35 of 52 Senate members). And the resolution must be passed by both chambers before either chamber could actually begin the process of debating the actual bill. [It did pass the House today-- 85 to 35-- and Gov. Reeves announced he will sign the final bill into law if it passes the state Senate too.] UPDATE: Last in the day, the Senate passed it too!

If the two-thirds threshold to suspend the rules is met, a simple majority would be required to pass the actual bill (62 of 122 House members, 27 of 52 Senate members).

Sources close to House leadership say they have-- for now-- the two-thirds majority votes to suspend rules, but they stress the margin is very thin.

On the Senate side, reports are that the leadership is “close”-- within one or two votes-- to having a two-thirds vote to suspend rules. Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said the plan is for the House to move first.

...Many Republican lawmakers have for years opposed changing the flag, particularly without a popular vote on the issue. Some who want the Legislature to change it fear a backlash from constituents.

And  Republican Gov. Tate Reeves-- the de facto head of the state GOP-- opposes the Legislature changing the flag.

But that sentiment appears to be changing among some lawmakers.

Rep. Karl Oliver, R-Winona, in a 2017 social media post said that those who support the removal of Confederate monuments should be “lynched.” In recent weeks, he declined to comment on the flag issue.

But on Thursday, Oliver issued a statement that said: “I am choosing to attempt to unite our state and ask each of you to join me in supporting a flag that creates unity-- now is the time.” Oliver’s statement said the flag issue is growing “more divisive by the day” and “History will record the position I chose.”

A growing list of businesses, cities, counties and other groups have either stopped flying the flag or asked leaders to change it. Religious leaders have spoken out, saying changing the flag is a “moral issue.”  The NCAA, SEC, and Conference USA this month took action to ban post-season play in the state until the flag is changed.

"It’s difficult to explain to a non-Southerner," wrote Stevens, "the role the Confederate flag has played in our lives. I suspect that’s more so for a Mississippian than for someone from any other state as Mississippi is the most Southern of the states. Put it this way: If you have connections to the University of Mississippi-- the most Southern school in the most Southern state-- then your connection to the Confederate flag is what the shamrock is to Notre Dame. I was born in the 1950s to parents who met at Ole Miss. The role Ole Miss football played in my life was basically what the Catholic Church is to the Jesuits. It was both a belief system and the organizing principle of life. Saturdays in the fall were the Holy Days when the Faithful would gather and reinforce our devotion through the shared communion of ritual."

These were not football games but celebrations of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy. Only this time our 11 soldiers on the field of battle more often than not emerged victorious. At halftime the band marched in Confederate battle gray uniforms while Colonel Reb led the cheerleaders in unfolding what was billed as the world’s largest Confederate flag. (Even as a 10-year-old I remember wondering, “How big was the second-largest flag?”) Cheerleaders threw bundles of Confederate flags into the stands. We stood and swayed together singing Dixie, always ending in the stadium-shaking cry, “The South Shall Rise Again.”

It was at halftime in the 1962 Ole Miss-Kentucky game at Jackson’s Memorial Stadium-- walking distance from my home-- that Governor Ross Barnett gave his famous speech calling for states’ rights. We beat Kentucky that afternoon and the next day in Oxford there began the last pitched battle of the Civil War. It took 30,000 troops to force the University of Mississippi to accept a single black student.

Today you’re more likely to get a student riot if a top-ranked black athlete committed to Ole Miss and then switched at the last minute to Alabama.

...Mississippi has the highest percentage of African Americans of any state in the country. I ask myself now why did it take so long for me to realize what it might be like for nearly 40 percent of my state to go to school and work under a flag that represented a cause dedicated to the right to own their ancestors? Why is it that I had written books about traveling through China, Africa, and Europe, fascinated by every cultural quirk I came across, before I looked up at my own state flag and thought about the dehumanizing brutality it represented?

I don’t have any good answers, most likely because there are none. I was given every opportunity in this life, an open door to the world, a chance at the best education in the United States and England, a family that supported my odd passions that I was lucky enough to turn into professions. I had passport stamps from 61 countries with different flags before I began to think about my own state’s flag. It wasn’t that I was actively for the flag . . . but that indifference was just as toxic as active support.

Today many white Mississippians of my generation-- and even more of the younger generation-- are eager to change. Faulkner wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” We can’t undo what we didn’t do.

But my regret is mixed with a hope. Hope that perhaps we can take steps-- small and inadequate as they might be-- to face the truth of our Confederate past. And in doing so change the future.

It will never be enough. But I hope today we can take one more step out of the shadows of a bloody past into the brighter sun of a better day.

This morning, the NY Times released a poll by Siena that showed how out of touch Trump-- who reflexively and unceasingly stokes The Lost Cause and American divisiveness over race-- is on sentiments about race seem to be heading. 59% of voters, including 52% of white voters, believe the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis was "part of a broader pattern of excessive police violence toward African Americans. Black Lives Matter is seen as favorably as the police as an institution is (44% for BLM, 43% for the police). "The numbers add to the mounting evidence that recent protests have significantly shifted public opinion on race, creating potential political allies for a movement that was, within the past decade, dismissed as fringe and divisive. It also highlights how President Trump is increasingly out of touch with a country he is seeking to lead for a second term: While he has shown little sympathy for the protesters and their fight for racial justice, and has continued to use racist language that many have denounced, voters feel favorably toward the protests and their cause."

My Jewish Trumpist Friend Is Offended By Mobs Tearing Down Statues Of Notorious Racists

My old friend-- let's call him "Mordecai X"-- a Floridian Trump parrot, says he's not a racist because:

1- he has a black cousin he likes and
2- he donated $70 (it was supposed to be $35 but he couldn't navigate ActBlue efficiently) to Mondaire Jones, who is black and gay.

Yesterday he shared this: "My grandmother was very very progressive artist socialite and actually gave way more love to her black grandchildren then to us white ones. I think she thought they needed it more." see? Not a racist bone in his body.

Like Señor Trumpanzee, X freaks out daily when he reads about a statue being defaced, let alone torn down. It offends him no end and considers it left-wing censorship and insists "they're" banning books and plays as well, something I assume he gets from Reddit or 4chan, which is where he gets his news.

But X, who is Jewish, is also a rabid Zionist and Judeo-nationalist. I don't want to further stoke his statue-mania with another discussion of the topic but I nearly sent him the Aiden Pink story in The Forward yesterday: 8 American Monuments Celebrating Anti-Semites. I wonder if X would take part in tearing them down-- or perhaps just approve if it were to happen. "In the weeks since protests against racism began after the killing of George Floyd," wrote Pink, "activists around the world have been toppling statues, either by pressuring public officials or by tearing the monuments down themselves. Activists have naturally focused on memorials to Confederate leaders or others who enacted racist policies, and associate monuments to anti-Semites with Europe, where they are common."

We don't have to look to the cheesy statue of King Edward I in Burgh-le-Marsh, England, standing in memory (since 2007, when it was erected) of the 700th anniversary of his death. Edward, if you're not up on your history of notorious anti-Semites, issued the 1290 Edict of Expulsion, expelling Jews from England. But here in the U.S. we also have memorials to rabid anti-Semites.

General George Patton's diaries, posthumously published in 1996, "reveal," wrote Pink, "that his opinion of the Jewish prisoners he encountered was scarcely different than the Nazis he had just defeated. He described the Jewish displaced persons as 'locusts,' 'lower than animals,' 'lost to all decency,' and 'a subhuman species without any of the cultural or social refinements of our times.' A monument to Patton was unveiled at the United States Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. in 1950, and then rededicated in 2009-- 13 years after his diary was published."

Who knew? But one we all did know about was Nazi-sympathizer Henry Ford... who did more than write in his secret diary. He was the owner and publisher of the Nazi propaganda newspaper, the Dearborn Independent, which were distributed in Ford auto dealerships nationwide. "The Independent," Pink reminds us, "frequently published screeds and conspiracy theories against Jews, including several under Ford’s own name, as well as copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a notorious anti-Semitic forgery. Ford was also frequently praised by Nazi leadership, which gave him a medal in 1938. Today, a statue of Ford is present at the Henry Ford Centennial Library in Dearborn, Mich. Another statue of him is found on the property of The Henry Ford, a history and science museum he founded."

You didn't have to watch The Plot Against America to know that Charles Lindbergh was a Jew-hating Nazi stooge. He was, after all the spokesperson for the MAGA-organization of his day, the America First Committee. "Lindbergh publicly claimed Jews were pushing the United States needlessly into World War II," wrote Pink. "He also was a close friend of Henry Ford, who said in 1940, 'When Charles comes out here, we only talk about the Jews.' Today, a statue of Lindbergh, depicting him both as a child and an adult, is found on the lawn of the state capitol complex in St. Paul, Minn., his home state. A bust of his face also graces the Lindbergh Terminal of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport."

Going back a little further, there is Peter Stuyvesant, the last Dutch governor of New Amsterdam before it was taken over by the British and renamed New York. Pink reminded his readers that "Stuyvesant initially refused to allow Jews to settle permanently in New Amsterdam, and while he later changed his mind, he made them pay a special tax. He also referred to Jews as 'the deceitful race, such hateful enemies and blasphemers of the name of Christ.' Today, several New York City locations are named after him, including the Bed-Stuy neighborhood and Stuyvesant High School. Statues of him can be found at Stuyvesant Square in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Bergen Square in Jersey City, N.J. An Israeli legal advocacy group in 2017 called on New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to remove the Stuyvesant Square statue, saying that the former governor was an 'extreme racist.'"

And what about Jew-hating fanatic Martin Luther whose virulent and deranged anti-Semitism influenced Europe for centuries. And although "the official Protestant organizations of Germany and Norway officially condemned Luther’s anti-Semitism in 2015, owing to his historical and theological significance, statues of Luther are still present at Protestant universities and seminaries across the United States. But there is one monument to him sitting on public lands: an 18-foot-tall statue in Baltimore administered by the city’s department of parks and recreation. The statue was erected in 1936 and had a rededication ceremony in 2011."

Last week, when his statue was pulled down in San Francisco, many of us learned that President Ulysses S. Grant, hero of the Civil War, once owned a slave. But did you know that as a conquering hero he expelled all Jews from Tennessee? The largest equestrian monument in the United States is a memorial to Grant in the nation's capital and isn't his visage on the $50 bill a monument to his memory we're all carrying around in our pockets from time to time?

And then there's notorious Kansas Jew-hater, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Actually, populist and suffragette Mary Elizabeth Lease-- upon who Dorothy was based-- has a statue standing in Wichita. While campaigning for women's and farmers' rights she was a crusader against the banksters, but "often veered into anti-Semitic conspiracy theories," wrote Pink. "People who were forced to take out bank loans were 'paying tribute to the Rothschilds of England, who are but the agent of the Jews,' claimed Lease."

A statue of former Georgia Senator Thomas Watson used to stand on the steps of the Georgia state capitol until it was moved to the park across the street in 2013. "Watson," wrote Pink, "was a Georgia congressman and newspaper publisher who served as a vice-presidential nominee for William Jennings Bryan’s Populist Party in 1896. During the 1913 trial of Leo Frank, a Jewish man falsely accused of murdering a 13-year-old Christian girl, Watson’s paper whipped up anti-Semitic sentiment. After Frank was convicted and his sentence was commuted, Watson advocated for Frank to be lynched, which he eventually was. Watson was elected to the Senate in 1922 but died in office a year later. In addition to his anti-Semitism, Watson was also a white supremacist and anti-Catholic."

Just sayin'. But GovExec.com also noted yesterday that it isn't just military bases named for disgraced figures but that civilian federal buildings are also named after confederates, KKK members and segregationists. Eric Katz wrote that "In recent weeks as protesters nationwide have demanded new steps to promote racial justice, pressure has mounted for the U.S. military to rename its bases that honor Confederate leaders and for local governments to remove monuments. A review of civilian federal buildings shows a number of offices and federal courthouses named after Americans with racist histories as well... Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA), who oversees GSA and federal buildings as chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s panel on Government Operations, called for a change. 'The federal government must be a beacon of inclusivity,' Connolly said. 'Having federal buildings named after Confederate generals and members of the KKK is shameful and they must be renamed.'"

Here are a few from Katz's list of buildings named for notorious racists:

• John A. Campbell U.S. Courthouse; Mobile, Ala.: Campbell resigned from the U.S. Supreme Court at the outbreak of the Civil War to accept a role as Confederate assistant secretary of war. After the war, Campbell fought as an attorney against reconstruction in the South.

• Clifford Davis - Odell Horton Federal Building; Memphis, Tenn.: Davis served as a Democratic congressman in Tennessee for 25 years. He first rose to political power with the support of the Ku Klux Klan, a group in which he was actively a member. Davis went on to become a signatory to the Southern Manifesto in 1956, a resolution introduced in Congress to decry Brown v. Board of Education’s mandate that states end segregation in schools.

• William M. Colmer Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse; Hattiesburg, Miss.: Colmer, a Democratic congressman, helped spearhead what became the Southern Manifesto, a document that implored southerners to use all "lawful means" to resist the "chaos and confusion" that school integration would cause. It was signed by 82 House members and 19 senators. He fought “tooth and nail” to block the passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s, according to the New York Times. Of early court rulings against segregation, Colmer lamented there would be "an even increasing intermingling of negroes and whites in public places." Colmer went on to author a second manifesto in Congress that warned of “grave” dangers of federal legislation protecting civil rights.

• Thomas G. Abernethy Federal Building; Aberdeen, Miss.: Abernethy also signed the Southern Manifesto, as well as a letter to the administrator of Veterans Affairs in 1957 requesting VA segregate its medical facilities. A Democratic House member for 30 years, Abernethy left a significant trail of racist speeches and writings. In one such address on the House floor, Abernethy said, “There can be no dispute that a negro problem does exist in our country; that it exists in each and every section where negroes have collected in number; and that the problem is in proportion to the number in each area or city,” adding that, “for nearly 200 years we have lived in peace with our Black brethren of the South.” He went on to say God supported segregation. “Had he intended us to all be alike-- an amalgamated, mulattoed mixture of man-- surely he would have so created us.” Abernethy suggested the push for civil rights was part of a Zionist and communist conspiracy.

• Strom Thurmond Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse; Columbia, S.C.: Thurmond served in the Senate for 48 years and was one of the leading voices against desegregation and civil rights. He ran for president as a Dixiecrat in 1948 on a pro-segregation platform and vehemently opposed all civil rights legislation, launching the longest-ever speaking filibuster in an attempt to defeat the 1957 Civil Rights Act. When running for president, Thurmond said at one event, “There’s not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches.” While he served in the Senate through 2000, he never publicly renounced his segregationist views.

• J.L. McMillan Federal Building and Courthouse; Florence, S.C.: McMillan served in the House for more than 30 years. He spent two decades as head of the District of Columbia Committee, and “made little attempt to hide his contempt for the capital’s African-American majority,” according to John Lawrence, a long-time congressional staffer and author of "The Class of '74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship." When Washington’s black mayor sent the district’s first budget to Congress as it pushed for autonomous rule, McMillan responded by sending a truckload of watermelons to the mayor. McMillan was a signatory to the Southern Manifesto.

• Richard B. Russell Federal Building; Atlanta, Ga.: Russell, a senator for nearly 40 years, co-authored the Southern Manifesto. He led a boycott of the 1964 Democratic convention after President Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, calling the landmark legislation, “shortsighted and disastrous.” Gilbert Fite, a historian who wrote a biography of Russell, said, “White supremacy and racial segregation were to him cardinal principles for good and workable human relationships. He had a deep emotional commitment to preserving the kind of South in which his ancestors had lived. No sacrifice was too great for him to make if it would prevent the extension of full equality to blacks.” One of the Senate office buildings next to the Capitol Building is also named after Russell.

Morty did have a good point, though: who decides? Also, where do you draw the line? I'm all for renaming bases and removing statues of Robert E. Lee and other traitors to the country, but, at the same time, toppling a statue of George Washington offends me. But who exactly should be the judge of the balance of history? Yesterday I got a press release entitled "Teddy Roosevelt supporter to offer to spend $1 million to save statue at American Museum of Natural History." Frank Scurlock, public masturbator, founder of Scurlock Entertainment Global, Positive Sky and Air World Enterprises, and the owner of Space Walk Inc, a company specializing in bounce houses, ran for mayor of New Orleans in 2017 and came in 9th in the crowded field, garnering 385 votes (0.47%). He has now "announced a rally to save the statue and has offered $1 million to purchase the statue if it was to be taken down. Scurlock announced a rally of local residents this week. Scurlock says taking down this iconic monument defames the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt and believes that the history of our first environmentalist president should be preserved for future generations to learn from. Scurlock has been a controversial figure in fighting for statues that memorialize history and was arrested attempting to preserve the Jefferson Monument in New Orleans."

Racism? In Texas? Here's Why Mike Siegel Will Never Stop Fighting Against It

Mike Siegel is a civil rights lawyer and former public school teacher, who nearly beat right-wing Republican Michael McCaul in 2018 in a gerrymandered district the DCCC never took a serious look at. He intends to finish what he started this cycle and was endorsed last week by Bernie and is a long-time top priority Blue America candidate.

Yesterday, Mike demonstrated the kind of coalition-- and movement-- he's building with an online event featuring Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), author and former Texas Agricultural Commissioner Jim Hightower, Sunrise Movement founder Varshini Prakash, DFA chief Yvette Simpson, Texas state Rep Sheryl Cole, Texas AFL-CIO president Rich Levy and others. "The way we beat a $300 million Republican," said Mike in closing, "is with people power, and that’s what we’ve been building... This is a race where organizing can beat money. Mike and his team are fighting for Medicare-for-All, a Green New Deal to combat climate change and create millions of good new jobs, building a renewable economy, racial justice and to end the War on Drugs, to stop voter suppression and strengthen voting rights.

"There is this conventional wisdom," he said that to win a "swing district" like this one, with a Republican incumbent, that the Democrat needs to be conservative, that you shouldn’t fight for transformative change, and policies like these, but this campaign is about a different approach... Fighting for progressive policies helps us build a broad movement. My commitment is to support these movements, and to bring the streets into the halls of Congress." I asked Mike to write about the struggle that's going on in the streets right now. If you like what he has to say, please contribute to his campaign by clicking on the Take Back Texas thermometer on the right.



The Murder of George Floyd Started With Three Words: "Forgery In Progress."
-by Mike Siegel
Congressional candidate (TX-10)

You may know the story that brought us here. Mr. Floyd went to a grocery store and paid with a $20 bill-- but the currency was no good. The shop called the police. And like so many times before, the officers who responded took a Black man's life.

For $20.

This may go without saying, but I will say it: if I had paid with that bill, I would be alive today. My body would not have been on a Minneapolis street. No officer would have pushed their knee into my neck.

If a white man from a privileged background pays with a fake $20 bill? 99 times out of 100, it would be dismissed as "a mistake."

The moment we are in is historic massive nationwide protests to demand an end to racist police killings. During a health pandemic that has taken over 100,000 lives. During an economic crisis. Under a dictatorial and vindictive president.

Yet I am struck by this incident in another way-- as a father.

Because I have a counterfeit $20 bill in my possession right now, given to me by my daughter.



How did she get it? Well, she's eight years old, and a Girl Scout. Like countless girls across the nation, she was busy selling cookies this Spring. Learning economics and team-building and communication skills and more.

And one day, someone bought several boxes of cookies and gave her a fake $20 bill.

We didn't realize it until later. If you haven't sold Girl Scout cookies before-- the parents buy cookies in advance, and then pay ourselves back as we make sales. Weeks ago, my wife went to deposit the money we collected, and happened to notice this bill. It didn't feel right. On closer inspection, even though much of the design is the same, you can see words that are different. It says "Motion Picture Use Purposes."

So we wrote it off as a loss. And I had the bill on my desk when I learned how George Floyd was killed.

You may know this: my daughter is Black. Her mother is Nigerian-American. Living in Texas-- let's be honest, living in the United States-- she is perceived differently than I was at her age.

And maybe at 8-years old, a shop owner wouldn't perceive her as a threat if she tried to buy candy or Pokémon cards with this counterfeit bill. Maybe.


But what if she was a little older? 10 years old? 12 years old? At what point does your life become expendable in this country, by virtue of the color of your skin?

It shouldn't be this way. Racism may be the "original sin" of the United States, as some have said, but it does not have to be our destiny.

That is why we are in the streets. That is why in every state in the Union, in towns big and small, people young and old are marching for justice.

And to demand that Black Lives Matter.

As a candidate for Congress, my pledge is to fight for major criminal justice reforms. Several leading members of Congress, including Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley and Barbara Lee, have put forward essential bills that will create accountability for local police. A database of police abuse; ending qualified immunity for officers who violate constitutional rights; stopping the transfer of military equipment to local police; and investing in Black and other over-policed communities, to lay the foundation for transformative change.

I will certainly fight for these reforms. In the Texas 10th, we have our own history of racist policing. Sandra Bland died in police custody in Waller County, after a racist and unconstitutional arrest. Rodney Reed has been on Texas Death Row for decades-- for a crime likely committed by a white former police officer.

There are countless reasons to demand change at every level of government, right now.

And one of those reasons is for the future. To protect our children as they grow up in this society. To ensure that their lives will be treated as sacred. To make certain that Black Lives Matter.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

From: The Bigly Book of Unintended Consequences!

Yes folks, Trump and his toady William "Kneepads" Barr thought they were so smart to erect a "bonus wall" between themselves and America. So what happened? The new wall, which, by the way, we paid for, became a memorial to the very people the White House cultists despise. That's yet another example of the "stable genius" of the Mad Republican King and his team. At this point, if you got six people to stand outside Moscow Mitch's house chanting "Black Lives Matter," he'd put up a new bigly fence, too. So go ahead Mitchy. Make our day!

By the time you read this, all of those heartfelt signs and homemade posters that served as a remembrance will have been taken down. Apparently, the Trumpanzee wanted to have the military remove them with flamethrowers. Nice. Personally, I'd rather see Trumpanzee try to do that himself. Maybe there'd be a horrible accident. I bet Lindsey Graham would go with him and eagerly volunteer to hold the hose just to make sure everything worked out a-ok.

Fear not though, we'll always have the photos. Ideally, they would go to the Smithsonian for future exhibits on Republican bigotry. Until then, If you ever feel the need to piss off any republican you have the misfortune to know, just email them a picture of this memorial wall and do it every day until they block you. Then you can just call them on your phone and scream "Black Lives Matter" in their ear! Nothing pisses off a Republican more than those three words. Well, maybe a picture of Colin Kaepernick taking a knee does.


Addendum:

As it turns out, the Smithsonian is currently taking steps to document, collect and preserve some of the signs and posters that anti-racism protesters affixed to the barricade that Trump had built to protect him from us. They will be currated by the Smithsonian's Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC.





We can now expect angry tweets from Trump and demands from Republican congresscretins to cut funding for the museum.

Defund The Police: Good Idea, Poor Choice Of Words

-by Noah and Exile Johnny

The police have not just been incidentally tainted by racism. For much of U.S. history, law enforcement meant enforcing laws that were explicitly designed to subjugate black people.

-Jon Oliver, HBO's Last Week Tonight, June 7, 2020

Of course, unfortunately, much of that law enforcement structure still exists, as most recently exemplified by a career criminal cop's knee on the streets of Minneapolis. George Floyd is dead but a lot of traditions die hard. Those 4 cops that we've seen on film thanks to a 17-year-old armed with a smartphone thought they had permission, not just from the President of the United States but even more so by the police culture they live in, and, certainly, as events have proven for decades, there is nothing unusual about the Minneapolis Police Dept. and no amount of sensitivity training has or will change a sociopath in a blue uniform.

So what happens now? We will always need some sort of entity to "protect and serve" but simply chanting "Defund The Police" is an offer of words that are way too easily used against those who chant them and justifiably demand change. For a large segment of the population, those three words are a non-starter. Older citizens, whether they are Democrats or easily scared FOX viewers aren't going to buy in. This has bothered me for the last several days as I heard the phrase. As a person who witnessed police violence live and in person 50 years ago, I got it but as an adult who marketed pop culture, I knew it was a poor choice of wording.

Yesterday morning, I got an email from a close friend. He goes by the name Exile Johnny and he shares the byline of this post. As you can see below, he feels the same. It ain't what you say. More often than not, it's how you say it. My friend grew up in a right wing working class neighborhood in the Bronx. It was the kind of neighborhood where, if you sold your house, you should offer it to your neighbors or members of your own extended family rather than put it on the market. That might lead to, you know, "the wrong kind of people" moving into the neighborhood. His own family inhabited a political mindset that was slightly better but was either apolitical or definitely leaned to the right. Until he was almost 40, he was of the apolitical variety and rarely voted. Then George W. Bush came along, followed by the passing of Obamacare which has been "a godsend" to his family. That was enough to set his mind seriously in motion about politics and he is particularly focused on the messaging used by the two major parties while painfully aware of the shortcomings of both. Here's Johnny:

...of why Republican win elections and Democrats lose them consistently:

Republicans pay millions of dollars to people like that guy, Frank Luntz, to come up with names and slogans like "The Freedom Caucus," or "Make America Great Again." They never give you a hint as to what these things really are. They never call their groups or causes "Make America White Again" or "The Racist Coalition" or "The Economic And Social Injustice League."

Could Democrats tee it up any better than they just have? Defund The Police? Surely, they could have taken 3 or 4 minutes and called this movement something like "The Social Unity Project or "The And Justice For All Movement." And those headings, at least would have been honest. If this was a Republican movement, they would be certain to name this something that is the opposite of what it really is. Instead of "Defund The Police," they'd call it the "New Law And Order Regime."

As usual, Democrats have gone out of their way to give Republicans fuel that they can use. There are swarms of older Democrats right now, who are saying aloud "Defund The Police, what the hell are they talking about? I'm not for that!" Even in a best case scenario, one where Dems get the presidency and both houses, I guarantee you this branding costs them at least a few elections where a candidate has already said that they are looking into or sympathize with "Defund The Police" and their opponent was able to use it against them, getting voters to think that that means the democrat wants to totally do away with their local police department.

Obviously, there's a ton of discussion on the subject to be had. As members of the Minneapolis City Council have said, you can't reform something that is rotten to the core. Across the country, city councils and the voting public are discussing variations on the same theme. Most center around restructuring what police departments should be doing. We've given way too much money and power to the police. We have 911 for a variety of services. Do so many have to be handled by the police? In some cities and towns, more people are taken to the hospital by police squad cars because there are many more squad cars than ambulances. It's an imbalance. Do cops always have to go to every domestic dispute or petty crime episode? Might a lot of the money we give police departments, including the money for tanks and high end military gear be better used for social programs that alleviate crime in the first place? Might the money be better used for prevention in the form of youth summer programs, job and economic development, more easily obtainable medical care, food security, and other things that provide hope and end despair? Here's an idea, how 'bout we do things that level the playing field and not literally steal whatever gains impoverished citizens can achieve if given a fair chance? Well, that's not the republican way at all, no matter what they say. They come up with frauds like "Trickle Down Economics" and laugh. "Trickle Down Economics" is one of the Republican Party's greatest hits. As Kimberly Jones says, the social contract is badly broken.