Charles Koch: Campaign Donations = New Civil Rights Movement

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Monday August 03, 2015 · 6:07 PM PDT

2015/08/03 · 18:07

The full scoop can be found on: http://www.usatoday.com/....

Repugnantly, while speaking to a crowd of donors at a summer seminar, billionaire Charles Koch compared his actions to those carried out by the people who fought and campaigned for change in the American Revolution, Civil War, and civil rights movement:

“All of these movements struck a moral chord with the American people. They all sought to overcome an injustice,” Koch said to a ballroom of hundreds of donors gathered for his network’s annual summer seminar. “We, too, are seeking to right injustices that are holding our country back
...
“If we can just change the trajectory of this country from where it is headed — one of control, dependency, hopelessness and poverty — to one that moves toward this free society, the innovation, the improvement in the standard of living, the helping of the poor uplift themselves will be staggering,” he added.

The crowd was composed of 450 wealthy donors (part of a group that donated $900 million earlier this year to the Koch brothers, gathered at a luxury resort, certainly a crowd that obviously closely reflects the demographics of those who ardently fought in the civil rights movement.

Man Takes Hilarious Photo With Scott Walker

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Monday August 03, 2015 · 4:29 PM PDT

2015/08/03 · 16:29

Thank you so much to Reddit for showing me this (original thread: https://www.reddit.com/... + photo originally uploaded: http://imgur.com/...).

A member of the organization 350 Action, an organization that seeks to press Scott Walker on climate change, asked Scott Walker to take a photo holding a sign that said "Scott Walker 4 President." Scott Walker agreed and when the picture was taken, the man flipped over his sign to reveal:

Scientistocrat

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Tuesday December 16, 2014 · 5:50 PM PST

2014/12/16 · 17:50

In response to Eric Garner's death, a tragedy that is still echoing across the nation, one Mishawaka police officer and business owner seems to have his own take on the man's last words of "I can't breathe." According to WSBT News:

He owns South Bend Uniform and came up with the phrase "Breathe Easy Don't Break the Law."
He's putting it on t-shirts and they're selling pretty quickly.
The phones at his business have been ringing off the hook and he's already received more than 100 online orders.

The police officer argues that it's an attempt to reconnect any divides that have happened in the wake of police brutality, and while I can appreciate the fact that not all police officers out there are terrible, I find a hard time reconciling this with the widespread perversions of our justice system in the wake of Mike Brown and Eric Garner. Any thoughts?

Daily Show and Kristen Schaal's Hilarious Segment on GOP's Attempt to Win Over Female Voters

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Thursday October 09, 2014 · 6:48 PM PDT

2014/10/09 · 18:48

I already have high regard for her as the ever-talented voice actor of Mabel Pines on Gravity Falls (Seriously any Gravity Falls fans on here? My younger relatives have gotten me hooked), but my respect for comedian and actress Kristen Schaal has actually increased following a segment she did on the Daily Show, hosted by Jon Stewart, yesterday. This skit deals with the GOP's hilariously incompetent attempts to win over female voters.

Jon Stewart starts out by establishing the fact that the female demographic will play a powerful role in shaping the 2014 elections and transitions by bringing Kristen Schaal onboard to comment on the powerful advertising techniques the conservatives are using to woo over the voters.

The first comes with the (clearly obvious) assumption that women do not vote for politicians off of leadership and political belief, but traits like attractiveness and appeal.
As Kristen Schaal notes:

Women don't see men as possible leaders. We see them as possible soulmates.

And obviously elections are relationships. And that's important because:

Women don't think about getting into relationships. We also think about getting out of them. Like the one with Obama.

As Kristen Schaal concludes:

Republicans have finally figured out how women work. (Gestures to her entire brain) This part here is devoted to relationships.

Scientistocrat

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Friday September 26, 2014 · 8:41 PM PDT

2014/09/26 · 20:41

A beautiful video on Liveleak emerged recently debunking the concept and general pejorative of "talking white". Choice quotes include:

There's no such thing as talking white. It's called speaking fluently. Speaking your language correctly.

I don't know where we've gotten to a point that as a culture, if you sound as if you've had more than a 5th grade education, it's a bad thing.

I find that our culture is one of the few that frowns upon personal evolvement.

Having proper diction does not belong to the Caucasian race.

In the same conversation, you'll say the white man is bringing us down, but at the same time you're elevating them by saying that they're the only ones that are allowed to speak as if they were educated.

For me personally, I felt this woman raised an important concern on a phrase that we often think little of the implications of and is largely institutionalized. Any thoughts?

Fox News Mocks Female UAE Pilot, Calls Her "Boobs on the Ground"

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Friday September 26, 2014 · 4:49 AM PDT

2014/09/26 · 04:49

Female UAE pilot, Mariam al-Mansouri, made the news recently after taking social media by storm in partaking in bombing missions. However, Fox of course, has reserved its own judgment.

Just last night, on Fox News (video can be seen in the link), a presenter came on the show to discuss al-Mansouri:

One presenter, Kimberly Guilfoyle, tried to pay tribute to Major Mariam al-Mansouri, 35, one of four UAE fighter pilots to take part in the operation. “Hey, Isis, you were bombed by a woman,” she said. “Very exciting, a woman doing this … I hope that hurt extra bad because in some Arab countries women can’t even drive.”
She continued: “Major Mariam al-Mansouri is who did this. Remarkable, very excited. I wish it was an American pilot. I’ll take a woman doing this any day to them.”

Fox decided to show their respect in a different way:

But after the segment, co-host Greg Gutfeld interrupted Guilfoyle, mocking the pilot. “The problem is after she bombed it she couldn’t park it,” he said. Another presenter, Eric Bolling, joined in, asking: “Would that be considered boobs on the ground or no?” The conversation between panellists, which was broadcast on Wednesday, was part of discussion show The Five on Fox News.

If there's one thing I'd absolutely love to see, it's those hosts in Fox partaking in those bombing missions against ISIS.

No Charges Against Officer Who Shot Man Carrying Toy Gun in Wal-Mart

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Wednesday September 24, 2014 · 8:34 PM PDT

2014/09/24 · 20:34

Just today, a special grand jury acquitted an officer of shooting John Crawford III, who had been holding an air rifle in a Walmart. Notably 1) everything has been caught on tape, which you can watch on the link if you can stomach it and 2) this is the 3rd time in 5 years that a police has shot and killed an unarmed civilian in this county and 3rd time in 5 years that the police officer in question was acquitted.

Choice quotes from those who decided to stick with the side of "justice" include:

Vince Pope, attorney for the officers involved in the shooting, released the following statement: "I believe the grand jury's decision, it's absolutely the right decision, that the officers acted well within their training."

In Williams' 2010 case, a grand jury looked at evidence, including Facebook messages, photos of the butcher knife Brogli raised at officers and testimony from Brogli's son. "He said that they did what they had to do," wrote the detective who informed Christian Brogli that his father had died.

I'll just leave things off with a quote that best summarizes how any rational person would view the incident:

Yates, a member of Millennial Activists United, joined with other groups in calling for the release of the Walmart surveillance video. "Transparency, that's what we look for from our government," she said. "After the release of the tape, we want to see justice served. .... This is an open-carry state if I'm correct. So even if had been a real gun, John Crawford had every right to carry it where he was. There's no reason he should be dead now."

Fox News' Groundbreaking Science: Fossil Fuels are Renewable

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Tuesday September 23, 2014 · 7:50 PM PDT

2014/09/23 · 19:50

I'll leave the commentary on the low, because the quote does enough speaking by itself.

Yesterday night, Fox was leading a panel discussion on the issue of climate change. Gregory Gutfeld said:

"Isn't fossil fuels the ultimate renewable energy? It's renewed once. It used to be a dinosaur. Now it's fuel. How is that not renewable?"

With that smirk, I want to say that Gregory Gutfeld was joking. However, that's giving Fox too much credit.

Beautiful Song and Cause Against Police Brutality

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Thursday September 18, 2014 · 6:00 AM PDT

2014/09/18 · 06:00

Not sure how many of my fellow Daily Kos readers and writers are hip-hop fans, but I found a recent song and cause I stumbled upon extremely interesting and worth sharing. Entitled Another Man Down, the site which has been around since late August but has not attracted significant attention, aims to address systematic abuses of human rights and racial profiling perpetrated by the police recently, bringing attention to several "senseless murders" from the past.

The site lists its goal as:

Another Man Down is a phrase to bring awareness to all mankind; from all walks of life and ethnicities. This is a movement formed to put an end to the on-going brutal assault against the human race.
This is not a race issue!
This is a human rights issue!

This movement is to ensure freedom in commerce without being racially profiled by another citizen or policing authorities.

In the song that plays with the site, also entitled "Another Man Down", while a rapper mentions that he's tired of watching "mothers pick up their kids' bodies in a world full of madness where killing's a hobby" and about victims like Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, and Dylan Taylor, a female singer sings in the chorus:

Hands up, don't shoot, man down,
Hold the trigger, now my life is in your hands now.
Only God can judge us, so why you want to hurt us?

While a lot of what I've written dealt with specific anecdotes when it came to abuse of power or brutality by police, I decided to cover something differently this time. I feel that it's time that we also brought attention to recent community efforts, like this one, to become part of the solution we want to see.

Officer Given Paid Leave After Killing Teen, Participates in NRA-Sponsored "Killer Cop Competition"

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Monday September 15, 2014 · 7:49 PM PDT

2014/09/15 · 19:49

I'm frankly speechless. Alternet gives us an extremely heartwrenching and significant story on the state of police brutality in our country, one that shows the level of ignorance and hypocrisy is rife among our alleged warriors of justice.

Alternet reports:

Around 3am one night in May 2011, 22-year-old Alan Gomez was outside his brother Eric’s house in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Nervous because she believed Gomez was acting erratically, Eric's girlfriend called the police. After about an hour, Albuquerque police officer Sean Wallace arrived.
Wallace saw Alan Gomez leave the house and then turn to go back inside. According to a subsequent Department of Justice report, Gomez was unarmed and did not pose an immediate threat to the officers or anyone inside the house. Sean Wallace, however, fired a shot, striking Gomez in the back. Gomez died on the scene, while Wallace was never punished.
“He was never indicted, never suspended, nothing,” Mike Gomez, Alan’s father, said. “It was like it never happened.” The officer was given three days of paid leave and $500 from the police union to decompress after “stressful events."

The real kicker is in what Officer Wallace decided to do with his with his pathetic career:

When Mike Gomez heard Sean Wallace was going to represent the Albuquerque Police Department in an annual National Rifle Association-sponsored tournament this week, he was horrified. The Albuquerque Police Pistol Combat Tournament, which is being held September 10-18, is designed for public and private law enforcement, as well as select U.S. military members, to compete against each other, shooting human silhouette targets in a wide range of scenarios. Past scenarios include “Drunk Buddies,” in which friends of a drunk individual getting arrested approach the cop wielding knives and “shouting ‘kill the cops.’” Another scenario, “School Gang Violence” takes place in a high school. The event also includes a weapons expo show and concludes with an awards ceremony in which officers are given trophies and certificates.
The NRA describes the tournament as filled with “days of shooting challenges, lots of fun and a chance to meet fantastic law enforcement professionals from all over the United States and international shooting team members.”

I've always wondered what the NRA would say to growing police brutality in our nation, but it seems that they're completely cool with it. Another injustice comes through the fact that:

Gomez said he recently sent a letter to the mayor and the police chief, asking for the results of the internal investigation of his son’s killing three and a half years ago. He was told they had not done the investigation yet. That lack of accountability and responsibility is what keeps pushing Gomez to fight for a reformed Albuquerque police force.

The Gomez prayer will remain in my prayers along with countless other families who've had their lives irreparably changed and I hope they find will find their long-due justice someday.

Mic: LAPD Confuses African-American Woman Kissing Her Husband for Prostitute

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Saturday September 13, 2014 · 10:31 PM PDT

2014/09/13 · 22:31

To be honest, at first glance I thought (and hoped) that this was an article from The Onion. Unfortunately, it seems like the police have transcended even the bounds of parody. I'll keep the commentary on the downlow: the story is self-explanatory. An informative article from The Mic gives us the details.

African-American actress Danièle Watts claims she was "handcuffed and detained" by police officers from the Studio City Police Department in Los Angeles on Thursday after allegedly being mistaken for a prostitute.
According to accounts by Watts and her husband Brian James Lucas, two police officers mistook the couple for a prostitute and client when they were seen showing affection in public. When the officers asked Watts to produce a photo ID when questioned, she refused. Watts was subsequently handcuffed and placed in the back of a police cruiser while the officers attempted to figure out who she was. The two officers released Watts shortly afterwards.

Even more disturbingly (a phrase that it seems I always find use for when discussing the police nowadays), this is not an isolated trend:

In 2008, a Galveston, Texas couple sued three police officers who arrested and beat their 12-year-old daughter after mistaking her for a prostitute. And at the 2011 Netroots Nation convention in Minneapolis, Minn., Cheryl Contee of Jack and Jill Politics asked a panel of African-American women to raise their hands if they had ever been mistaken for a prostitute. Everyone’s hands went up.

Even if justice is blind, her "warriors" sure aren't.

Stop and Seize: America's Police Have Unjustifiably Taken $2.5 Billion From the Public

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Sunday September 07, 2014 · 10:48 AM PDT

2014/09/07 · 10:48

A subculture is rising among America's police, turning them into the modern-day equivalents of "Robin Hood". The police are increasingly turning to cash seizing, especially when it's completely unnecessary or unwarranted. The Washington Post has analyzed thousands of database entries in the Justice Department and the statistics are staggering.

The Washington Post first details how an incident happens:

In case after case, highway interdictors appeared to follow a similar script. Police set up what amounted to rolling checkpoints on busy highways and pulled over motorists for minor violations, such as following too closely or improper signaling. They quickly issued warnings or tickets. They studied drivers for signs of nervousness, including pulsing carotid arteries, clenched jaws and perspiration. They also looked for supposed “indicators” of criminal activity, which can include such things as trash on the floor of a vehicle, abundant energy drinks or air fresheners hanging from rearview mirrors.

The statistics found in the wake of this phenomenon are staggering:

There have been 61,998 cash seizures made on highways and elsewhere since 9/11 without search warrants or indictments through the Equitable Sharing Program, totaling more than $2.5 billion. State and local authorities kept more than $1.7 billion of that while Justice, Homeland Security and other federal agencies received $800 million. Half of the seizures were below $8,800.
Only a sixth of the seizures were legally challenged, in part because of the costs of legal action against the government.
Hundreds of state and local departments and drug task forces appear to rely on seized cash, despite a federal ban on the money to pay salaries or otherwise support budgets. The Post found that 298 departments and 210 task forces have seized the equivalent of 20 percent or more of their annual budgets since 2008.

Obviously, the fact that these illegal seizures are padding the pockets of these police departments is yet another reason why these police seem to get off on their infringement of our rights.

And if it wasn't a surprise already:

The Justice Department data released to The Post does not contain information about race. Carr said the department prohibits racial profiling. But in 400 federal court cases examined by The Post where people who challenged seizures and received some money back, the majority were black, Hispanic or another minority.

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Charles Koch: Campaign Donations = New Civil Rights Movement

Man Takes Hilarious Photo With Scott Walker

Michigan Police Office Shirts: "Breathe Easy, Don't Break the Law"

Daily Show and Kristen Schaal's Hilarious Segment on GOP's Attempt to Win Over Female Voters

African-American Woman Beautifully Debunks the Concept of "Speaking White"

Fox News Mocks Female UAE Pilot, Calls Her "Boobs on the Ground"

No Charges Against Officer Who Shot Man Carrying Toy Gun in Wal-Mart

Fox News' Groundbreaking Science: Fossil Fuels are Renewable

Beautiful Song and Cause Against Police Brutality

Officer Given Paid Leave After Killing Teen, Participates in NRA-Sponsored "Killer Cop Competition"

Mic: LAPD Confuses African-American Woman Kissing Her Husband for Prostitute

Stop and Seize: America's Police Have Unjustifiably Taken $2.5 Billion From the Public