Racism is alive and well, Thanks Trump and his supporters!

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A Republican Legislator Said Slavery Wasn't Racist Because Slave Owners 'Were Making Money.' Then Things Got Even Weirder

A New Hampshire state legislator is under fire for insisting that “owning slaves doesn’t make you racist.” In a private interaction with a former New Hampshire resident and during an interview with The Root, the Republican lawmaker doubled and tripled down on his assertion by altering the definition of the word “racist,” rewriting history and explaining that chattel slavery wasn’t necessarily racist because slaveowners really liked money.

Werner Horn serves in New Hampshire’s House of Representatives for a district that includes the 99.5 percent white town of Hill, N.H., and his 95.9 percent white hometown of Franklin, N.H. His voting record shows that he has voted against repealing the death penalty, allowing undocumented immigrants the opportunity to obtain drivers licenses, raising the minimum wage, increasing access to absentee voting, repealing voter ID laws and prohibiting discrimination based on gender identification. Horn is rated 79 percent by the American Conservative Union and is endorsed by the NRA. But just because he’s a member of the Republican Party who doesn’t live around black people doesn’t necessarily mean one should assume Horn is a racist.

No, there are plenty of other reasons.

Last week, Horn shared his public views on American history, slavery and racism in a now-deleted Facebook post. USA Today writes:

Horn initially drew attention for his comments in a Facebook post by former state House member Dan Hynes, who posed the question: “If Trump is the most racist president in American history, what does that say about all of the other presidents who owned slaves?”

Horn responded, “Wait, owning slaves doesn’t make you racist...”

“I guess not,” Hynes answered Tuesday. “Which is surprising since everything else makes someone a racist.”

Horn then added, “It shouldn’t be surprising since owning slaves wasn’t a decision predicated on race but on economics. It’s a business decision.”

After media outlets questioned Horn’s choice of words, Eboni Sears, who is a black woman and a past resident of the comparatively more diverse town, Dover, N.H., (89 percent white, 1.3 percent black), decided to contact the state representative to challenge his views after seeing the story in the Boston Globe.

“They don’t really get to interact with a whole lot of black people on a regular basis, so I was really just trying to show him a different viewpoint,” Sears told The Root. “I didn’t realize that he didn’t care. So that’s how it started.”

Sears contacted Horn on Facebook, thinking that he wouldn’t respond. However, Horn engaged Sears in an hourlong exchange obtained by The Root that both Horn and Sears confirmed is accurate. The conversation included accusations that Sears was actually the one who was being prejudiced, that Horn couldn’t be racist because of his military background and, of course, the infamous “racist bone” diagnosis where Horn absolved himself of racism. (It should be noted that Sears served in the Navy for five years, which, by Horn’s logic, makes her nearly two times less racist than he is.)

To be fair, Facebook messages can be misinterpreted, so I contacted Horn to clear up any misinterpretations. What followed was a baffling display of what is either a misunderstanding or a complete fabrication of America’s past.

When asked if his initial comment that “owning slaves doesn’t make you racist” may have misconstrued, Horn emphatically replied: “No. When your actions are motivated by your feelings on the race of an individual, that is racism.”

For context, Merriam-Webster defines “racism” as:

1: belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race

2a: a doctrine or political program based on the assumption of racism and designed to execute its principles

b: a political or social system founded on racism

3: racial prejudice or discrimination

To be clear, buying, selling or owning a human being requires inherent superiority because it is impossible to own an equal. But when I asked Horn if the literal concept of owning another human being fits the definitions of racism, Horn replied: “No.”

“You have to ask and then answer the question: ‘Why is that person owning another person?’” Horn added. “That’s how you figure out if something is racist, sexist, homophobic. You have to figure out what’s the motivation behind the action. If there was a purely financial motivation to owning a slave, then it is not racist.”

OK, well fuck definitions, then.

Anticipating that he would eventually trot out the overused, vapid argument that “black people sold slaves” and “slavery has been around since ancient times,” I restricted our discussion to slavery as it existed in America. Still, the lawmaker went on to recount a revised version of history where slavery wasn’t racist until 1800. He reeled off a contorted, ahistorical view that contradicts every objective account of America’s past:

“Parsing out slavery in America, as opposed to slavery in general, is significant only because of how people behaved themselves after around 1800,” Horn said. “After around 1800, the northern abolitionists tried to destabilize the institution of slavery in the South. So to justify and continue the practice, they [Southerners] came up with a bunch of racist garbage where the blacks, specifically, were a subhuman race. It’s racist garbage.”

But Horn’s “alternative facts” contradict the research of almost every legitimate scholar and historian including Henry Louis Gates, Jr., director of Harvard’s Hutchins Center for African & African American Research (and co-founder of The Root), who notes that the Mid-Atlantic slave trade coincided with the enlightenment in Europe, whose “theorists posited that the key dividing line between a free man or woman and a slave wasn’t religion but race.

“I have no idea where [Horn’s] line of logic comes from,” Gates told The Root. “You can simply look at the 18th century philosophers from David Hume to Immanuel Kant—starting in 1754 with Hume’s racist footnote to his essay Of National Characters in which he claimed that in all of Africa, there were no arts, no sciences, an idea upon which Kant elaborated 10 years later in his Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and the Sublime—also expounded on the racial differences between white and black people.”

Undeterred by logic or facts, Horn argued that slavery was an economic decision because, he explained: “When you look at the ledgers, the prices brought for men were the highest. Women and children brought lesser prices. That’s an economic driver because if it was racist, they would just be buying everybody at the same price.”

I know, I know. It makes absolutely no sense. Using this explanation, many of the well-paid ISIS soldiers aren’t terrorists because their “motivating factor” is money. Apparently, in Horn’s world, actions can’t be racists, only intent.

Bringing up the regurgitated argument that racism has less to do with the actions of the enslavers and more to do with their intent, what’s in white people’s hearts or what Horn repeatedly referred to as “motivating factors,” the elected official segued into the claim used by every white supremacist ever: “In the 1600s, Africans were enslaving other Africans so that would seem to take the race aspect out of it,” he explained, conveniently leaving out the fact that European and American traders also raided villages and kidnapped Africans, and the untold number of whites who kidnapped free blacks in America and forced them in to slavery.

“The Europeans...transported them to the New World and the Caribbean not because they were racist, but because they were making money and did not care that they were making money off the suffering of human beings. That’s the key part of it. That’s the key part of it. They’re making money off it.”

And there you have it from the horse’s mouth.

They did not care because they were making money off the suffering of human beings.

Not only were all of those “human beings” black, but the very act of placing an “economic decision” above the suffering of the enslaved indisputably means that the financial needs of white enslavers were considered to be superior to the humanity of the black slaves. But, of course, Horn doesn’t see it that way.

“Calling Thomas Jefferson and George Washington racist puts a stain of hatred on the Founding Fathers,” Horn told The Root. “And since Washington and Jefferson aren’t here to defend themselves, I’ve got no problems pointing out the differences between how slavery was perceived prior to 1800 and how slavery was perceived after 1800. That was the whole thrust of the comment.”

That version of history is not true. Contrary to Horn’s opinion, both men thought that slavery was an immoral institution. Both men advocated for the abolition of slavery. In their writings, both Washington and Jefferson distinctly referenced the racial aspect of the peculiar institution while continuing to own slaves.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson placed wealth and power above the humanity of black people.

George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were racists.

I informed Horn of all of this. But when I asked Horn how he reconciles his definition of racism with these facts, Horne admitted that Thomas Jefferson was a racist, but for totally different reasons…kinda.

“Jefferson for sure was a racist. For sure,” said Horn. “Not because he owned slaves but because he recanted his position that he was going to free his slaves and he didn’t...But let me be clear: When you look at the motivation factor behind the decision, the response is very important. But that’s the difference. If the motivating factor was race, then it is racist. But I don’t buy into the narrative that slavery is automatically racist.”

If that doesn’t make sense to you, you should know that you’re not alone. Gates notes that the Enlightenment-era belief in racial inferiority was, in part, fueled by Jefferson, explaining that Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, which was written the same year as the Constitution, fit the definition of racism.

“In it, Jefferson, in a scientific pose, theorized about the racial differences between the white and black races,” Gates explained. “Jefferson opined that, ‘the blacks, whether originally a distinct race, or made distinct by time and circumstances, are inferior to the whites in the endowments both of body and mind.’”

If that’s not “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race,” then maybe racism doesn’t exist.

Washington, on the other hand, remained a slaveowner despite repeatedly saying that the institution was racist. He knew it but did it anyway. At the end of his life, Washington called slavery his “only unavoidable subject of regret,” writing:

Ages to come will read with Astonishment that the man who was foremost to wrench the rights of America from the tyrannical grasp of Britain was among the last to relinquish his own oppressive hold of poor unoffending negroes. In the name of justice what can induce you thus to tarnish your own well earned celebrity and to impair the fair features of American liberty with so foul and indelible a blot.

George Washington, meet the fulfillment of your prophecy—Werner Horn.

Asked whether Horn’s defense of his beloved Founding Father George Washington was correct, Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Chair of Howard University’s Department of Afro-American Studies, Dr. Greg Carr dispelled the notion with a simple command:

“Show me the white slaves.”

“If [Horn] redefines racism as caring about black people, then yes, Washington loved slaves like Hercules and Ona Judge in the same way that white people love LeBron James,” said Carr. “And all those negroes ran away as fast as they could as soon as they saw a crack of daylight.

“Ask [Horn] to explain why those Founding Fathers came to the conclusion that a slave was worth three-fifths of a white person and enshrined it in the Constitution...in 1787,” Carr continued. “Ask him to explain John Jay, James Madison and Alexander Hamilton debating the very nature of black life in the Federalist Papers in 1788.”

Indeed, Federalist Paper No. 54, which became the basis for the three-fifths compromise, reads:

But we must deny the fact, that slaves are considered merely as property, and in no respect whatever as persons. The true state of the case is, that they partake of both these qualities: being considered by our laws, in some respects, as persons, and in other respects as property...The federal Constitution, therefore, decides with great propriety on the case of our slaves, when it views them in the mixed character of persons and of property. This is in fact their true character.

But Carr completely destroys Horn’s fiction by pointing to scholars like Gerald Horne, whose Counterrevolution of 1776 explained that racism was one of the underlying factors of the American Revolution.

“England was debating ending the trading of enslaved Africans in the late 18th century and offering them extended rights,” Carr explained. “This scared the hell out of the British North American colonies, led by Virginia, which had 40 percent of the enslaved Africans in the colonies. Even though they provided the most eloquent defenses of freedom and liberty and all that crap, they were imprisoning four out of every 10 enslaved persons in the British colonies.

“What people call the American Revolution involved George Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and the Founders getting the hell away from the British precisely because the British were considering creating a legal form of humanity for the Africans,” Dr. Carr said. “There is absolutely no historical evidence to back up what [Horn] said.”

Gates, concurring with Carr, added: “While arguments that slavery was a ‘positive good’ exploded in the Antebellum era, as advocates for emancipation put Southern slaveholders on the defense, there is no doubt that earlier generations had already made a link between race and slavery in order to justify it.”

Ultimately, one New Hampshire legislator’s Facebook comments and fictional history lesson will not affect most people’s lives in any meaningful way. Sears even indicated that she wasn’t offended by his comments as much as she was surprised at Horn’s lack of understanding and thought that people should know what he thinks about race.

“That’s the disturbing part,” explained Sears.

“He really believes it.”

#Resist

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'I would say it again,' says woman who used racial slur in North Hills restaurant confrontation

A Tuesday night dinner at a North Hills restaurant ended in accusations and a racial slur, and the Raleigh woman who uttered it says she would say it again.

Chanda Stewart and Lakesha Shaw said they were at Bonefish Grill with a friend when Nancy Goodman called them rude and complained that they were being too loud.

"We’ve had people come to our table and say, 'Hey, you girls look like you’re having fun. We want to join you,' but never to come to my table and tell me I’m rude," Shaw said Wednesday.

Goodman's remarks irritated the women, and Stewart pulled out her cellphone to record Goodman in the restaurant as they expressed their displeasure with her.

"We're paying for our food just like everyone else, and she told us that we are the rudest people," Stewart says in the cellphone video.

Goodman is then seen pulling out her own phone and walking around some tables to confront the women.

"I've got real good friends who are black, and I love them," Goodman tells the women.

"We never said anything about color," Stewart responds.

"You're too loud," Goodman says.

"In your opinion," Shaw replies. "Let me show you my money. It's just as green as yours."

"Why are you so stupid (racial slur)?" Goodman tells Shaw as she walks off.

"Do you call your black friends [that]?" the women ask her.

Goodman shakes her head, and as she picks up her purse to leave, says, "They're not like you."

On Wednesday evening, in a post on her Facebook page, Goodman apologized "to my family, friends and other patrons in the bar at North Hills Bonefish."Shaw and Stewart were still stinging from the slur.

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around it all," Stewart said. "It’s disheartening, it is. But this is the society that we’re living in right now."

"I don’t care how you feel like we should have been acting," Shaw said. "If I was standing on the table with three heads in a purple jumpsuit, nothing justifies you to come to my table and call me a stupid (racial slur)."

Goodman said Wednesday that she should have handled the situation differently.

"Looking back on it now, I wish I would have asked the waiter to ask management if they would just quiet down," she said. "Instead, I went off on them, which I shouldn’t have done. But I had had it. It was out of my control to calm down my anxiety."

Still, she said she knew the slur was offensive and wasn't sorry she used it.

"I’m not going to say I’m sorry to them because they kept pushing at it," she said. "I would say it again to them. They are the rudest individuals I have ever seen."

Shaw was stunned when she learned Goodman was ready to use the slur again.

"The fact that you’re willing to say you will repeat that again shows me the hate that you harbor in your heart for the black African-American race," she said. "I don’t care what color I am. Give me the respect of being a human being, just like everyone else deserves."

Goodman said she's not racist.

"I have many black friends, and I have never encountered three people that ugly in a bar," she said. "I wish those women well, and maybe there’s a lesson learned for them, too, that you don’t disrespect an elderly person."

Shaw and Stewart said they have no plans to return to Bonefish Grill, saying a manager should have stepped in after Goodman first went to their table to complain. Instead, they said, a waiter told them that everyone could have handled themselves differently.

Bonefish Grill officials are reviewing the incident, according to Elizabeth Watts, a spokeswoman for the restaurant chain's parent company, Bloomin' Brands Inc.

"We are a place for all people to gather for good food in a comfortable atmosphere, including positive interactions among guests. We do not tolerate hate speech or disrespect in our restaurants," Watts said in a statement. "We are reviewing the incident to see how we can do better at de-escalating something like this in the future."

#Resist

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Sen. Sylvia Allen Warns the U.S. Will Soon 'Look Like South American Countries'

Arizona State Senator Sylvia Allen — speaking at a Republican event this month — expressed concern that the United States is "going to look like South American countries very quickly," warning that new immigrants will not be able to "assimilate" at the rate that they are arriving.

Allen made her remarks during a July 15 event commemorating "Mormon Political Pioneers" at the Arizona Republican Party headquarters in Phoenix.

Phoenix New Times obtained audio of Allen's comments on Thursday, the full version of which is posted at the bottom of this page. In a text message, Allen told New Times that her comments on assimilation were inspired by a study from a University of North Carolina professor.

"I said we needed to be able to control our immigration process so that we have time to assimilate people into our society and economic system. Jobs, housing, education, and health care," she said. "Plus to be able to teach them about the American form of government. That's all there was to it."

Allen cited the same professor again in response to follow-up questions regarding her comments about South American countries, a reference she made to declining white birthrates, and a criticism of Democratic State Senator Martín Quezada.

During a rambling, 25-minute speech peppered with religious and autobiographical references, Allen expressed a worldview that the founding principles of the United States are under attack by feminists, secularists, and immigrants.

Allen's discussion of assimilation occurred near the end of her speech, following a reference to Dr. James Johnson, a business professor at the University of North Carolina who studies demographics.

"Another thing that Dr. Johnson talked about is the 'Browning of America,'" Allen said. "That America is fast becoming ... we're going to look like South American countries very quickly."

Allen, a Snowflake resident who represents a legislative district comprising parts of Coconino, Gila, Yavapai, and Navajo counties, raised alarm over the declining birth rates of whites in the United States.

"The median age of a white woman is 43. The median age of a Hispanic woman is 27," Allen said. "We are not reproducing ourselves, the birthrates. But here's what I see is the issue. It's because of immigration."

Johnson has been widely cited for his work identifying six ongoing demographic changes in the U.S, including population growth in the South, increasing interracial marriage, longer life expectancy, declining economic prospects for men, a rise in children living with grandparents, and immigration-driven population change that he calls "the Browning of America."

Allen expressed fears that the United States does not have the resource capacity for new immigrants. She also cautioned that immigrants are arriving at a rate that does not allow them to learn "the principles of our country."

"We have a right as a country to have people coming in an organized manner, so we know who are coming. So we can have jobs for them. So we can provide education for them, and health care, and all these things that people need," Allen said. "We can't provide that when people are just flooding us and flooding us and flooding us and overwhelming us so we don't have time to teach them the principles of our country any more than we're teaching our children today."

Allen's interpretation of Johnson's research does not align with how he presents it in public lectures. In frequent talks to business groups, Dr. Johnson describes the trend of increasing immigration from Hispanic countries as a reality that the U.S. will need to adapt to if it wants to maintain its "competitiveness in the global marketplace."

In a 2013 lecture to the National Entrepreneur Center in Florida, Johnson disputed the notion that immigrants place a burden on society. He distinguished between the "fiscal impact" of immigrants, such as healthcare and education costs, with the "economic impact," which factors in the spending power of immigrants and other benefits.

"There are these spin-off jobs that wouldn't be there if you didn't have the immigrant. They are pay taxes. They spend money goods and services," Johnson said. "If you shut down the borders and run everybody home, what happens to the immigration attorney? They ain't got no money. They're out of a job. And everything he spends on goes down the tube."

In her speech, Allen also made a reference to her colleague Quezada.

"When Senator Quezada says we don't want to assimilate, then what do you want? What do you plan for America to look like in 10 years? What kind of form of government are we going to live under in 10 years?"

After listening to a copy of the July 15 audio, Quezada told New Times he could not say for certain what remarks of his Allen was referring to. But Quezada pointed to tweets he sent two weeks prior in which he advocated for "acculturation" of immigrants over "assimilation."

Quezada was referring to comments by a Democratic presidential candidate, who explained in an interview that he did not grow up speaking Spanish due to a legacy in which the language was "looked down upon."

"Some of us have been victimized by this nation's culture of forced assimilation rather than acculturation," Quezada wrote on Twitter on July 1. "Some of our families were able to pass on aspects of our culture like language. Others were beaten in school for speaking native or indigenous languages."

Quezada compared Allen's remarks to those of former Republican State Representative David Stringer, who famously called immigration an "existential threat" and decried that there "aren't enough white kids to go around" in Arizona public schools.

"This is David Stringer all over again. It was very much Stringer-esque, in the tone and perspective she has on immigrants," Quezada said. "It’s insulting, to say the least."

Stringer's comments on immigration — which were widely publicized in June 2018 — led top Republican officials to call for his resignation. He eventually vacated his seat in March over revelations that he was arrested in Baltimore in the '80s for allegedly molesting underage teenage boys.

Prior to her comments on immigration, Allen used her speech to rehash her opposition to an Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), the proposed constitutional amendment that would guarantee equal rights regardless of sex. During the most recent legislative session, the Arizona Legislature rejected the ERA for the third time in three years.

Allen repeated her earlier criticism that the ERA refers to "sex," rather than "gender," before launching into a broader criticism of feminism. What's really hurting society, Allen said, is the decline of the patriarchy.

She cited research by Johnson showing that women are enrolling in college at greater rates than men, and that men accounted for most of the job loss during the 2008 recession.

"We have been taught in our society that the patriarchal order is horrible and awful for children, going after our families and destroying our families. That is the basis of our foundation of society. You destroy the family, you destroy the society. And we are working overtime to destroy our society," Allen said. "Our boys are struggling to know how to be men. This feminist movement is not doing favors for us, at all."

A charter school owner, Allen was first elected to the Arizona State Senate about a decade ago, representing District 5 from 2008 to 2012. She joined the Legislature again in 2014 as a District 6 senator in 2014 and has twice won re-election.

Allen previously drew headlines in 2015 for saying that Arizona should consider adopting a law that would require mandatory church service. "Probably we should be debating a bill requiring every American to attend a church of their choice on Sunday to see if we can get back to having a moral rebirth," Allen said.

In 2009, speaking in support of uranium mining, Allen falsely claimed the Earth was 6,000 years old.

#Resist

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Border Patrol Chief Says She Didn't Know the Violent and Racist Facebook Group She Joined Was Bad

The head of Border Patrol told lawmakers this week that she didn’t know the secret Facebook group she joined was bad. Carla Provost, who’s been leading the Border Patrol since April of 2017, said that the Facebook group’s racist and violent posts were “not indicative of the Border Patrol that I know.”

Provost testified in front of the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, where she was asked about a secret Facebook group called “I’m 10-15,” a reference to Border Patrol lingo for “an alien in custody.” The private Facebook group was first revealed by ProPublica on July 1 and the Border Patrol initially issued a statement denouncing it. But the Intercept later uncovered on July 12 that Provost herself was a member of the group and had even posted a comment.

Provost testified that a “colleague” invited her to the group and that she is “on Facebook very, very rarely.” Provost suggested that she was unaware of the violent imagery posted there, but no member of Congress at the hearing asked questions about the most horrifying graphics, including a photoshopped image of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being raped by President Donald Trump. Gizmodo has chosen not to reproduce the image but a censored version is available at ProPublica.

The Facebook group included news stories about detainees who have died while in U.S. custody and encouraged throwing burritos at Congresswomen of color who were visiting an American concentration camp.

“There should be no photo ops for these scum buckets,” one member of the Facebook group said, following another post that read, “fuck the hoes.” Others joked about the deaths of asylum seekers and some suggested that an Associated Press photo showing a father and daughter who had recently died had been staged by Democrats.

Provost testified that the people who posted in the group, which, again, included multiple racist comments and violent rape memes, were “a few bad apples,” within the organization. The Facebook group had roughly 9,500 current and former Border Patrol members from across the country. The Border Patrol staff is currently comprised of roughly 20,000 people.

“I am as outraged as everyone else when it comes to the statements that were made on that page,” Provost said. Strangely, Provost went on to compare her “bad apples” to those of other professions, and promised to hold her people accountable.

“There are bad doctors, there are bad nurses, there are bad teachers, but we don’t vilify the entire group of those individuals,” Provost said. “We need to take action on those who have violated our standards of conduct, and we need to hold them accountable, and we will do that.”

Provost failed to mention that nurses and teachers aren’t currently running a vast system of concentration camps on U.S. soil as the Department of Homeland Security currently does.

“Let me be clear, on July 1 was the first time I saw those highly offensive and absolutely unacceptable posts, when I saw them in the ProPublica report,” Provost claimed.

Provost says that she gave an auditor access to her Facebook account to look at her activity and verify that she was an infrequent user. And while that’s all well and good, the problem is that members of Border Patrol sometimes lie to Congress and all we have is her word on this issue. For example, Border Patrol’s Chief of Law Enforcement, Brian Hastings, testified this week that the 18-year-old that it detained for nearly a month in inhumane conditions never told them that he was an American. That appears to be a lie, based on documents obtained by the Dallas Morning News.

The teen who was detained, named Francisco Galicia, lost 26 pounds while he was in Border Patrol custody and was denied access to a lawyer. Galicia’s mother even presented his birth certificate, which officials said must be fake. He was later served with paperwork from the Department of Homeland Security that said he falsely claimed to be a U.S. citizen, despite the fact that he was born in Dallas, Texas.

From the document, obtained by the Dallas Morning News:

On or about June 27, 2019, you were found at the Falfurrias, Texas, Border Patrol Checkpoint, a distance of more than 25 miles from the United States border with Mexico ... You did not receive the permission of an immigration officer to proceed beyond that 25 mile limit ... At that time, you falsely represented yourself to be a citizen of the United States for the purpose of furthering your entry into the United States.

Border Patrol and its broader parent organization, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, are perpetrating unimaginable cruelty at the border on a daily basis. Recently a 3-year-old Honduran girl was forced to choose between her parents as one of them was deported.

“The agent asked her who she wanted to go with, mom or dad,” the girl’s mother Tania told NPR recently. “And the girl, because she is more attached to me, she said mom. But when they started to take my husband away, the girl started to cry. The officer said, ‘You said you want to go with mom.’”

When Provost was asked on Wednesday about the separation of children from other family members, she said that it was the law. Historically, “I’m just following the law” has not been a valid defense of gross human rights abuses committed around the world.

“We do have many children that are either coming with other siblings, some are coming with other siblings that are minors, aunts, uncles,” Provost told the committee. “By law, I cannot keep those individuals together.”

There’s a misconception among the American public that family separation at the border has stopped after an outcry about parents and children who were forcefully pulled apart by the Trump regime. But families are still being broken up, as grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings are regularly separated from kids. The media often refer to the kids who have been separated as “unaccompanied minors” despite the fact that they were not, in the strictest sense, actually unaccompanied at all. Toddlers don’t travel hundreds of miles by themself. They’re classified as “unaccompanied” because they traveled with someone who isn’t an immediate, blood-related parent.

The full 2-hour hearing with Provost about the crimes against humanity that she continues to perpetrate on American soil is available on YouTube.

#Resist

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Ole Miss Students Face Possible Civil Rights Investigation After Posing With Guns in Front of Emmett Till Memorial

Three University of Mississippi students have been suspended from their fraternity house and face possible investigation by the Department of Justice after posing with guns in front of a bullet-riddled sign honoring slain civil rights icon Emmett Till.

One of the students posted a photo to his private Instagram account in March showing the trio in front of a roadside plaque commemorating the site where Till’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River. The 14-year-old black youth was tortured and murdered in August 1955. An all-white, all-male jury acquitted two white men accused of the slaying.

The photo, which was obtained by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica, shows an Ole Miss student named Ben LeClere holding a shotgun while standing in front of the bullet-pocked sign. His Kappa Alpha fraternity brother, John Lowe,  squats below the sign. A third fraternity member stands on the other side with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle..

LeClere posted the picture on Lowe’s birthday on March 1 with the message “one of Memphis’s finest and the worst influence I’ve ever met.”

Neither LeClere nor Lowe responded to repeated attempts to contact them.

It is not clear whether the fraternity students shot the sign or are simply posing before it. The sign is part of a memorial effort by a Mississippi civil rights group and has been repeatedly vandalized, most recently in August 2018. Till’s death helped propelled the modern civil rights movement in America.

Five days after LeClere posted the photo, a person who saw it filed a bias report to the university’s Office of Student Conduct. The complaint pointed out there may have been a fourth person present, who took the picture.

“The photo is on Instagram with hundreds of ‘likes,’ and no one said a thing,” said the complaint, a copy of which was reviewed by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica. “I cannot tell Ole Miss what to do, I just thought it should be brought to your attention.”

The photo was removed from LeClere’s Instagram account after the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica began contacting fraternity members and friends. It had received 274 likes.

Kappa Alpha suspended the trio on Wednesday, after the news organizations provided a copy of the photo to fraternity officials at Ole Miss. The fraternity, which honors Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee as its “spiritual founder” on its website, has a history of racial controversy, including an incident in which students wore blackface at a Kappa Alpha sponsored Halloween party at the University of Virginia in 2002.

“The photo is inappropriate, insensitive and unacceptable. It does not represent our chapter,” Taylor Anderson, president of Ole Miss’ Kappa Alpha Order, wrote in an email. “We have and will continue to be in communication with our national organization and the University.”

After viewing the photo, U.S. Attorney Chad Lamar of the Northern District of Mississippi in Oxford said the information has been referred to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division for further investigation.

“We will be working with them closely,” he said Thursday.

University officials called the photo “offensive and hurtful.”

University spokesman Rod Guajardo acknowledged that an Ole Miss official had received a copy of the Instagram picture in March. The university referred the matter to the university police department, which in turn gave it to the FBI.

Guajardo said the FBI told police it would not further investigate the incident because the photo did not pose a specific threat.

Guajardo said that while the university considered the picture “offensive,” the image did not present a violation of the university’s code of conduct. He noted the incident depicted in the photo occurred off campus and was not part of a university-affiliated event.

“We stand ready to assist the fraternity with educational opportunities for those members and the chapter,” Guajardo said.

He said the university will continue to build programs to engage students in “deliberate, honest and candid conversations while making clear that we unequivocally reject attitudes that do not respect the dignity of each individual in our community.”

Since the first sign was erected in 2008, it has been the object of repeated animosity.

Vandals threw the first sign in the river. The second sign was blasted with 317 bullets or shotgun pellets before the Emmett Till Memorial Commission officials removed it. The third sign, featured in the Instagram photo, was damaged by 10 bullet holes before officials took it down last week. A fourth sign, designed to better withstand attacks, is expected to be installed soon.

News of the suspensions and referral to the Justice Department came as Till’s cousin, Deborah Watts, co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, was already planning a moment of silence Thursday to honor her cousin with a gathering of supporters and friends dressed in black and white in “a silent yet powerful protest against racism, hatred and violence.” Thursday is Till’s birthday. Had he lived, he would have been 78 years old.

This is not the first time Ole Miss fraternity students have been caught up in an incident involving an icon from the civil rights movement.

In 2014, three students from the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house placed a noose around the neck of a statue on campus of James Meredith, the first known black student to attend Ole Miss. They also placed a Georgia flag of the past that contains the Confederate battle emblem.

According to federal prosecutors, the freshmen students hatched the plan during a drinking fest at the house, where one student disparaged African Americans, saying this act would create a sensation: “It’s James Meredith. People will go crazy.”

One pleaded guilty and received six months in prison for using a threat of force to intimidate African American students and employees because of their race or color. Another student also pleaded guilty. He received probation and community service after he cooperated with the FBI. A third man wasn’t charged.

All three students withdrew from Ole Miss, and the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity’s national headquarters shuttered its chapter on the Ole Miss campus after its own investigation, blaming the closing on behavior that included “hazing, underage drinking, alcohol abuse and failure to comply with the university and fraternity’s codes of conduct.”

#Resist

[psiberzerker]

Damn.



That's pretty racist even for Mississippi.

[joan1984]

"...Guajardo said the FBI told police it would not further investigate the incident because the photo did not pose a specific threat..."
Kind of sums it up. Not illegal to take pics, no action needed.

[psiberzerker]

Kind of sums it up. Not illegal to take pics, no action needed.

Yes, it is illegal to take certain pictures, even in Mississippi.  It didn't pose a Specific threat?  They're brandishing weapons in front of a plaque commemorating a LYNCHING.  Of a black man for talking to a white woman, in a grocery store.

The threat is specific to Black People.

What did Santayana say about history?  I forget.

[Athos_131]

WALL OF RACIST REACTION

Fuck off you racist, child rapist supporting shitbag.

#Resist

[Athos_131]

We are African Americans, we are patriots, and we refuse to sit idly by

We’ve heard this before. Go back where you came from. Go back to Africa. And now, “send her back.” Black and brown people in America don’t hear these chants in a vacuum; for many of us, we’ve felt their full force being shouted in our faces, whispered behind our backs, scrawled across lockers, or hurled at us online. They are part of a pattern in our country designed to denigrate us as well as keep us separate and afraid.

As 148 African Americans who served in the last administration, we witnessed firsthand the relentless attacks on the legitimacy of President Barack Obama and his family from our front-row seats to America’s first black presidency. Witnessing racism surge in our country, both during and after Obama’s service and ours, has been a shattering reality, to say the least. But it has also provided jet-fuel for our activism, especially in moments such as these.

We stand with congresswomen Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib, as well as all those currently under attack by President Trump, along with his supporters and his enablers, who feel deputized to decide who belongs here — and who does not. There is truly nothing more un-American than calling on fellow citizens to leave our country — by citing their immigrant roots, or ancestry, or their unwillingness to sit in quiet obedience while democracy is being undermined.

We are proud descendants of immigrants, refugees and the enslaved Africans who built this country while enduring the horrors of its original sin. We stand on the soil they tilled, and march in the streets they helped to pave. We are red-blooded Americans, we are patriots, and we have plenty to say about the direction this country is headed. We decry voter suppression. We demand equitable access to health care, housing, quality schools and employment. We welcome new Americans with dignity and open arms. And we will never stop fighting for the overhaul of a criminal-justice system with racist foundations.

We come from Minnesota and Michigan. The Bronx and Baton Rouge. Florida and Philadelphia. Cleveland and the Carolinas. Atlanta and Nevada. Oak-town and the Chi. We understand our role in this democracy, and respect the promise of a nation built by, for and of immigrants. We are part of that tradition, and have the strength to both respect our ancestors from faraway lands and the country we all call home.

Our love of country lives in these demands, and our commitment to use our voices and our energy to build a more perfect union. We refuse to sit idly by as racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia are wielded by the president and any elected official complicit in the poisoning of our democracy. We call on local, state and congressional officials, as well as presidential candidates to articulate their policies and strategies for moving us forward as a strong democracy, through a racial-equity lens that prioritizes people over profit. We will continue to support candidates for local, state and federal office who add more diverse representation to the dialogue and those who understand the importance of such diversity when policymaking here in our country and around the world. We ask all Americans to be a good neighbor by demonstrating anti-racist, environmentally friendly, and inclusive behavior toward everyone in your everyday interactions.

The statesman Frederick Douglass warned, “The life of a nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful and virtuous.” This nation has neither grappled with nor healed from the horrors of its origins. It is time to advance that healing process now through our justice, economic, health and political systems.

Expect to hear more from us. We plan to leave this country better than we found it. This is our home.

Saba Abebe, former special assistant, Office of Economic Impact and Diversity, Energy Department

Tsehaynesh Abebe, former adviser, U.S. Agency for International Development

David Adeleye, former policy specialist, White House

Bunmi Akinnusotu, former special assistant, Office of Land and Emergency Management, Environmental Protection Agency

Trista Allen, former senior adviser to the regional administrator, General Services Administration

Maria Anderson, former operations assistant, White House

Karen Andre, former White House liaison, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Caya Lewis Atkins, former counselor for science and public health, Department of Health and Human Services

Roy L. Austin Jr., former deputy assistant to the president, White House Domestic Policy Council

Kevin Bailey, former special assistant, White House; senior policy adviser, Treasury Department

Jumoke Balogun, former adviser to the secretary, Labor Department

Diana Banks, former deputy assistant secretary, Defense Department

Desiree N. Barnes, former adviser to the press secretary, White House

Kevin F. Beckford, former special adviser, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Alaina Beverly, former associate director, Office of Urban Affairs, White House

Saba Bireda, former senior counsel, Office for Civil Rights, Education Department

Vincent H. Bish Jr., former special assistant to the assistant secretary of strategic program management, Department of Health and Human Services

Michael Blake, former director for African American, minority and women business enterprises and county and statewide elected officials, White House

Tenicka Boyd, former special assistant, Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Education Department

Tanya Bradsher, former assistant secretary for public affairs, Department of Homeland Security

Stacey Brayboy, former chief of staff, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Agriculture Department

Allyn Brooks-LaSure, former deputy associate administrator for external affairs, Environmental Protection Agency

Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, former director of coverage policy, Office of Health Reform, Department of Health and Human Services

Quincy K. Brown, former senior policy adviser, Office of Science and Technology Policy, White House

Taylor Campbell, former director of correspondence systems innovation, White House

Crystal Carson, former chief of staff to the director of communications, White House

Genger Charles, former general deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Housing, Federal Housing Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Glorie Chiza, former associate director, Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, White House

Sarah Haile Coombs, special assistant, Department of Health and Human Services

Michael Cox, former special assistant to the assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs, Commerce Department

Adria Crutchfield, former director of external affairs, Federal Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Joiselle Cunningham, former special adviser, Office of the Secretary, Education Department

Charlotte Flemmings Curtis, former special adviser for White House initiatives, Corporation for National and Community Service

Kareem Dale, former special assistant to the president for disability policy, White House

Marco A. Davis, former deputy director, White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics

Russella L. Davis-Rogers, former chief of staff, Office of Strategic Partnerships, Department of Education

Tequia Hicks Delgado, former senior adviser for congressional engagement and legislative relations, Office of Legislative Affairs, White House

Kalisha Dessources Figures, former policy adviser, White House Council on Women and Girls

Leek Deng, former special assistant, Bureau for Global Health, U.S. Agency for International Development

Tene Dolphin, former chief of staff, Economic Development Administration, Commerce Department

Monique Dorsainvil, former deputy chief of staff, Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, White House

Joshua DuBois, former executive director, Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships; former special assistant to the president, White House

Dru Ealons, former director, Office of Public Engagement, Environmental Protection Agency

Rosemary Enobakhare, former deputy associate administrator for public engagement and environmental education, Environmental Protection Agency

Karen Evans, former assistant director and policy adviser, Office of Cabinet Affairs, White House

Clarence J. Fluker, former deputy associate director for national parks and youth engagement, White House Council on Environmental Quality

Heather Foster, former public engagement adviser and director of African American affairs, White House

Kalina Francis, former special adviser, Office of Public Affairs, Treasury Department

Matthew “Van” Buren Freeman, former senior adviser, Minority Business Development Agency, Commerce Department

Cameron French, former deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Jocelyn Frye, former deputy assistant to the president and director of policy and special projects for the first lady, White House

Bernard Fulton, former deputy assistant secretary for congressional relations, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Stephanie Gaither, former confidential assistant to the deputy director, Office of Management and Budget, White House

Demetria A. Gallagher, former senior adviser for policy and inclusive innovation, Commerce Department

Lateisha Garrett, former White House liaison, National Endowment for the Humanities

W. Cyrus Garrett, former special adviser to the director of counternarcotics enforcement, Department of Homeland Security

Bishop M. Garrison, former science and technology directorate adviser, Department of Homeland Security

Lisa Gelobter, former chief digital service officer, Education Department

A’shanti F. Gholar, former special assistant to the secretary, Labor Department

Jay R. Gilliam, former special assistant, U.S. Agency for International Development

Artealia Gilliard, former deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy, Transportation Department

Brenda Girton-Mitchell, former director, Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Education Department

Jason Green, former associate counsel and special assistant to the president, White House

Corey Arnez Griffin, former associate director, Peace Corps

Kyla F. Griffith, former special adviser to the secretary, Commerce Department

Simone L. Hardeman-Jones, former deputy assistant secretary, Office of Legislative and Congressional Affairs, Education Department

Thamar Harrigan, former senior intergovernmental relations adviser, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Dalen Harris, former director, Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison, Office of National Drug Control Policy, White House

Khalilah M. Harris, former deputy director, White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans; former senior adviser, Office of Personnel Management

Adam Hodge, former deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, Treasury Department

Valerie Jarrett, former senior adviser, White House

Will Yemi Jawando, former associate director, Office of Public Engagement, White House

Karine Jean-Pierre, former northeast political director, Office of Political Affairs, White House

A. Jenkins, former director, Center for Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Commerce Department

Adora Jenkins, former press secretary, Justice Department; former deputy associate administrator for external affairs, Environmental Protection Agency

W. Nate Jenkins, former chief of staff and senior adviser to the budget director, Office of Management and Budget, White House

David J. Johns, former executive director, White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans

Brent Johnson, former special adviser to the secretary, Commerce Department

Broderick Johnson, former White House assistant to the president and Cabinet secretary for My Brother’s Keeper Task Force

Carmen Daniels Jones, former director, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, Agriculture Department

Gregory K. Joseph II, former special assistant, Office of the Executive Secretariat, Energy Department

Jamia Jowers, former special assistant, National Security Council

Charmion N. Kinder, former associate, Press Office of the First Lady, White House; former assistant press secretary, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Elise Nelson Leary, former international affairs adviser, National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Kimberlyn Leary, former adviser, White House Council on Women and Girls

Daniella Gibbs Léger, former special assistant to the president and director of message events, White House

Georgette Lewis, former policy adviser, Department of Health and Human Services

Kevin Lewis, former director of African American media, White House; former principal deputy director of public affairs, Justice Department

Catherine E. Lhamon, former assistant secretary for civil rights, Education Department

Tiffani Long, former special adviser, Economic Development Administration

Latifa Lyles, former director, Women’s Bureau, Labor Department

Brenda Mallory, former general counsel, White House Council on Environmental Quality

Dominique Mann, former media affairs manager, White House

Shelly Marc, former policy adviser, Office of Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs, White House

Tyra A. Mariani, former chief of staff to the deputy secretary, Education Department

Lawrence Mason III, former domestic policy analyst, Office of Presidential Correspondence, White House

Dexter L. McCoy, former special assistant, Office of the Secretary, Education Department

Matthew McGuire, former U.S. executive director, The World Bank Group

Tyrik McKeiver, former senior adviser, State Department

Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, former assistant to the administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development

Solianna Meaza, former special assistant to associate administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development

Mahlet Mesfin, former assistant director for international science and technology, Office of Science and Technology Policy, White House

Ricardo Michel, former director, Center for Transformational Partnerships, U.S. Agency for International Development Global Development Lab

Paul Monteiro, former associate director, Office of Public Engagement, White House

Jesse Moore, former associate director, Office of Public Engagement, White House

Shannon Myricks, former specialist, Office of Management and Administration Information Services, White House

Melanie Newman, former director of public affairs, Justice Department

Fatima Noor, former policy assistant, Domestic Policy Council

Bianca Oden, former deputy chief of staff, Agriculture Department

Funmi Olorunnipa, former ethics counsel, White House Counsel’s Office

Elizabeth Ogunwo, former White House liaison, Peace Corps

Stephanie Sprow Owens, former deputy director, Reach Higher, Education Department

Denise L. Pease, former regional administrator of the northeast and Caribbean region, General Services Administration

Danielle Perry, former special adviser to the assistant secretary, Agriculture Department

Allison C. Pulliam, former special assistant, Office of Presidential Personnel, White House

Colby Redmond, former advance specialist, Office of the Secretary, Commerce Department

Derrick Robinson, former researcher, Office of Communications, White House

Lynn M. Ross, former deputy assistant secretary for policy development, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Sarah Rutherford, former press and media operations assistant, White House

Alexander Sewell, former special assistant, Export-Import Bank

Michael Smith, former special assistant to the president and senior director of Cabinet affairs for My Brother’s Keeper, White House

Russell F. Smith, former deputy assistant secretary for international fisheries, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Commerce Department

Jackeline Stewart, former press secretary, General Services Administration

Angela Tennison, former leadership development director, Education Department

Kenny Thompson Jr., former special assistant to the president and director of message events to the vice president, White House

Ivory A. Toldson, former executive director, White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities

Fred Tombar, former senior adviser to the secretary for disaster recovery, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Christopher R. Upperman, former assistant administrator for public engagement, Small Business Administration

Malik Walker, former senior adviser for congressional and legislative affairs, Office of Personnel Management

Jason R.L. Wallace, former director of scheduling and advance, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Myesha Ward, former assistant U.S. trade representative for intergovernmental affairs and public engagement

Clarence Wardell III, former presidential innovation fellow

Benjamin E. Webb, former executive director of policy and planning, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Homeland Security

C’Reda J. Weeden, former executive secretary, Department of Health and Human Services

Tonia Wellons, former associate director, Office of Strategic Partnerships, Peace Corps

Antonio White, former senior adviser, Treasury Department

Monae White, former special projects manager, Education Department

Aketa Marie Williams, former director of strategic communications, Office of the Undersecretary, Education Department

Jonta Williams, former adviser to the assistant administrator for Africa, U.S. Agency for International Development

Jessica Wilson, former special assistant, Office of Policy, Department of Homeland Security

Taj Wilson, former deputy associate counsel, White House

Candace Wint, former director of advance, Department of Housing and Urban Development

Brent C. Woolfork, former managing director, Overseas Private Investment Corporation

Tarrah Cooper Wright, former special assistant to the secretary, Department of Homeland Security

Ursula Wright, former associate assistant deputy secretary, Education Department

Carl Young, former adviser and assistant, Office of Management and Budget, White House

Stephanie Young, former senior adviser, Office of Public Engagement, White House

David N. Zikusoka, former senior adviser for weapons of mass destruction and nonproliferation, Office of the Vice President, White House

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Trump attacks Rep. Cummings’s district, calling it a ‘disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess’

President Trump ranted Saturday morning on Twitter about an African American lawmaker by disparaging the Baltimore district that Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.) represents as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”

As chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Cummings has initiated most of the investigations into the Trump administration’s operations and policies, including recently the reports of inhumane treatment at migrant detention centers.

Trump, seemingly borrowing from a Fox & Friends segment on the same topic, tweeted that Cummings’s district is “FAR WORSE and more dangerous” than conditions at the border. He suggested Cummings focus his attention instead on cleaning up “this very dangerous & filthy place.”

Trump’s attack on Cummings is reminiscent of his recent racist attacks on four minority congresswomen who he said should “go back” to the “crime infested” places they were originally from and fix them before trying to improve America. All four women are U.S. citizens, and only one was born abroad.

In a series of three tweets, Trump wrote:

“Rep, Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA......

....As proven last week during a congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place.

Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!”

Cummings responded a few hours later, defending his dedication to his constituents and pivoting to Trump’s failure to work with him on lowering drug prices.

“Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors,” Cummings tweeted. “It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”

An hour before Trump went off on Cummings, Fox & Friends ran a piece called, “How do living conditions in Rep. Cummings’ Baltimore district compare to those at the border?” It showed footage of Baltimore streets overrun with garbage and claimed that Cummings was ignoring the problems of his own constituents.

Baltimore is the third most dangerous city in the country behind Detroit and St. Louis, according to the FBI’s 2017 crime report. But Maryland’s 7th district, which Cummings has represented since 1996, includes about half of Baltimore city and has a median household income of around $60,000 and a higher percentage of college graduates than the country as a whole.

Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. Young released a statement defending both Cummings and his city, calling the president a “disappointment to the people of Baltimore, our country and to the world.”

“It’s completely unacceptable for the political leader of our country to denigrate a vibrant American City like Baltimore, and to viciously attack U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings a patriot and a hero,” he said. “Mr. Trump’s rhetoric is hurtful and dangerous to the people he’s sworn to represent.”

Trump isn’t the first politician to comment on Baltimore’s struggles, but others have done so from a position of wanting to help.

In 2016, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), then fighting Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for president, took a walking tour of an impoverished Baltimore neighborhood. He said it looked like a “Third World country,” as he decried America’s vast economic inequality.

Notably, Ben Carson, the only black member of Trump’s Cabinet, made his career as a neurosurgeon in Baltimore. A spokesman at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which Carson now leads, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), whose 2020 presidential campaign headquarters is in Baltimore, tweeted that she’s “proud” to have it based there.

“Baltimore has become home to my team and it’s disgraceful the president has chosen to start his morning disparaging this great American city,” she wrote.

Many other Democrats rushed to Cummings’s defense. Former vice president Joe Biden, also a presidential candidate, said the Maryland congressman “is one of the finest people I’ve served with.”

“It is despicable for you to attack him and the people of Baltimore this way,” Biden tweeted. “Once again you have proved yourself unfit to hold the office. A President is supposed to lift this nation up. Not tear it down.”

Trump’s tweets and the Fox News report seem to be in response to a July 18 hearing, at which Cummings became furious when acting homeland security secretary Kevin McAleenan said his department was doing its best with a difficult situation.

“When a child is sitting in their own feces, can’t take a shower?. . . I want to concentrate on these children, and I want to make sure that they’re okay. . . . We are the greatest country in the world,” Cummings bellowed. “Come on. We’re better than that.”

But the president’s ire with Cummings may also have to do with the chairman securing permission from his committee this week to subpoena all emails and texts dealing with official government business sent to or from administration officials on their personal accounts, which would include communications to and from the president’s daughter and adviser Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, who reportedly have used private emails to carry out White House work.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. was a U.S. congressman representing parts of Baltimore and then the mayor of the city, forcefully defended Cummings, calling him “a champion in the Congress and the country for civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague.”

“We all reject racist attacks against him and support his steadfast leadership. #ElijahCummingsIsAPatriot,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) tweeted.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who served in the House alongside Cummings for many years, also tweeted praise for his colleague and condemned the president.

“Elijah Cummings grew up facing racist bullies like Trump and learned to confront them with qualities unknown to Trump: courage and integrity,” Van Hollen wrote. “The great people of Baltimore have something Trump craves but will never have as he degrades the Office of the President: dignity.”

In an emotional monologue about Trump’s latest comments, CNN’s Victor Blackwell pointed out that Trump has often used the word “infested” to refer to places where black and brown people live. To Trump’s contention that “no human being” would want to live in Baltimore, Blackwell said, his eyes filled with tears, that he did.

“I don’t want to sound self-righteous, but people get up and go to work there,” he said. “They care for their families there. They love their children who pledge allegiance to the flag just like people who live in districts of congressmen who support you, sir. They are Americans, too.”

#Resist

[Athos_131]

Better to have a few rats than to be one

In case anyone missed it, the president of the United States had some choice words to describe Maryland’s 7th congressional district on Saturday morning. Here are the key phrases: “no human being would want to live there,” it is a “very dangerous & filthy place,” “Worst in the USA” and, our personal favorite: It is a “rat and rodent infested mess.” He wasn’t really speaking of the 7th as a whole. He failed to mention Ellicott City, for example, or Baldwin or Monkton or Prettyboy, all of which are contained in the sprawling yet oddly-shaped district that runs from western Howard County to southern Harford County. No, Donald Trump’s wrath was directed at Baltimore and specifically at Rep. Elijah Cummings, the 68-year-old son of a former South Carolina sharecropper who has represented the district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1996.

It’s not hard to see what’s going on here. The congressman has been a thorn in this president’s side, and Mr. Trump sees attacking African American members of Congress as good politics, as it both warms the cockles of the white supremacists who love him and causes so many of the thoughtful people who don’t to scream. President Trump bad-mouthed Baltimore in order to make a point that the border camps are “clean, efficient & well run," which, of course, they are not — unless you are fine with all the overcrowding, squalor, cages and deprivation to be found in what the Department of Homeland Security’s own inspector-general recently called “a ticking time bomb."

In pointing to the 7th, the president wasn’t hoping his supporters would recognize landmarks like Johns Hopkins Hospital, perhaps the nation’s leading medical center. He wasn’t conjuring images of the U.S. Social Security Administration, where they write the checks that so many retired and disabled Americans depend upon. It wasn’t about the beauty of the Inner Harbor or the proud history of Fort McHenry. And it surely wasn’t about the economic standing of a district where the median income is actually above the national average. No, he was returning to an old standby of attacking an African American lawmaker from a majority black district on the most emotional and bigoted of arguments. It was only surprising that there wasn’t room for a few classic phrases like “you people” or “welfare queens” or “crime-ridden ghettos” or a suggestion that the congressman “go back” to where he came from.

David Zurawik: Trump’s Twitter attack on Cummings and Baltimore: undiluted racism and hate »
This is a president who will happily debase himself at the slightest provocation. And given Mr. Cummings’ criticisms of U.S. border policy, the various investigations he has launched as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, his willingness to call Mr. Trump a racist for his recent attacks on the freshmen congresswomen, and the fact that “Fox & Friends” had recently aired a segment critical of the city, slamming Baltimore must have been irresistible in a Pavlovian way. Fox News rang the bell, the president salivated and his thumbs moved across his cell phone into action.

As heartening as it has been to witness public figures rise to Charm City’s defense on Saturday, from native daughter House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young, we would above all remind Mr. Trump that the 7th District, Baltimore included, is part of the United States that he is supposedly governing. The White House has far more power to affect change in this city, for good or ill, than any single member of Congress including Mr. Cummings. If there are problems here, rodents included, they are as much his responsibility as anyone’s, perhaps more because he holds the most powerful office in the land.

Finally, while we would not sink to name-calling in the Trumpian manner — or ruefully point out that he failed to spell the congressman’s name correctly (it’s Cummings, not Cumming) — we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are “good people” among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post. Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.

#Resist

[joan1984]

So, was it illegal to take this particular pic?
Seems not. No legal charges. Only school, SJW Facebook shaming.

The group who placed this sign, have replaced it several times, and perhaps if they are concerned about the physical sign itself, could place it higher, or somehow out of range, if that is their major concern.  Of course, placing it higher or otherwise out of range, no one could see the bullet holes, so no repairs may be necessary.

Kind of sums it up. Not illegal to take pics, no action needed.

Yes, it is illegal to take certain pictures, even in Mississippi.  It didn't pose a Specific threat?  They're brandishing weapons in front of a plaque commemorating a LYNCHING.  Of a black man for talking to a white woman, in a grocery store.

The threat is specific to Black People.

What did Santayana say about history?  I forget.

[psiberzerker]

So, was it illegal to take this particular pic?

The legal technicalities are to be determined by a judge, not the police, and not the Court of Public Opinion.  The crimes here are Brandishing, and Menacing, the picture just shows the boys documenting that.  

You said it wasn't a threat, when clearly it was.  Also, that taking pictures isn't illegal, also wrong on that point.

Only school, SJW Facebook shaming.

Or, you could look at the notoriety the boys got, from this picture being shared all over the web, and offending the "SJWs" they were trying to offend.  That doesn't really strike me as a loss of Power for those entitled white boys.

perhaps if they are concerned about the physical sign itself, could place it higher, or somehow out of range, if that is their major concern.  Of course, placing it higher or otherwise out of range, no one could see the bullet holes, so no repairs may be necessary.

So, keep it out of the reach of Children?  The sign was put up so that the victim of the crime (the real crime, of lynching a black man for talking to a white lady in a grocery store) isn't forgotten.

You're right, if they just took it down, or just buried it, instead of standing out on the roadside with headlights shining on it, then nobody would see it.  Not to charge the boys with destruction of public property, it's up to the state to move it where nobody will read it, or shoot it, with a tricked out carbine.  You know what the range on .223 Remington is?  Of course not, so here's a hint:  >The range you can read the history that sign is supposed to commemorate.

So, rather than tell these boys that celebrating a historic murder by showing their willingness to lynch black folk is offensive, you would have them take down the "Offensive" sign.

That would be censorship.  Government censorship, since the state of Mississippi would be the ones to take it down, for being offensive.

Funny, how you defend the photo being up on facebook, then suggest taking the SIGN down for being offensive.  If I didn't know any better, I'd think you sympathize more with the racists with guns, than the victim of the actual crime, and his decendants.

[psiberzerker]

The FBI have used pictures like these:







To prove INTENT.  Not racism, Clyde Barrow, and Lee Harvey Oswald didn't pose like that to threaten the colored folk, but they did send them to the media outlets of the time, because they didn't have the Internet back in the day.

That's the THREAT.  The current events the good young boys are alluding too are terror attacks on schools, and black churches.  Not to mention the historic lynching of a black man, for talking to a white lady at the grocery store.

Legally?  They made the pictures, and they posted them.  So, they can be used against them, in a court of law.

[joan1984]

So, it was not illegal for the people to take the picture.
No charges are brought against the people pictured.

You, others, presume to know the people's intentions who are in the pic.
The State Of Mississippi has not charged them with anything, according to what was posted. Only because a friend or relative posted the pic on social media, did anyone even know the pic was taken.

You, and the OP, determine from this article that Racism is being committed?

Or, is it that because multiple times the sign has been damaged by gunfire, and those who put up the sign believe this is the best place for it, and are willing to pay to replace the sign multiple times, that they WISH the pic were depicting people whose motives they claim/infer are Racist, and this time they know who the people are. 

And for that, you are willing to attribute Racism to these three people...
Do I have that about right?

[psiberzerker]

You, others, presume to know the people's intentions who are in the pic.

It was a pretty damned clear message, yeah.  A declaration of intent is a declaration of intent.  Do I want to know what's going through their little minds?  No, but brandishing guns in front of a tombstone, after shooting it, is pretty fucking clear.

This isn't a tombstone, but it's about as close as they can get to dancing on it.  The only reason you don't get that, or pretend to argue hat it's anything other than exactly what it looks like is political affiliation with the "Good people" in the American Nazi Party, and the Klan.

You remember that?  The good people on both sides.  You chose your's clearly.  You chose the good guys with guns, on the sides of Nazis, sepratists, xenophobes, and lynchers.

You're not hiding it any better than those boys are.

[psiberzerker]

Since you claim to know their intent, you tell us.  Are they there to protect the sign from Vandalism?

Otherwise, it doesn't take a genius detective to see the guys standing proudly in front of it, with guns, to suspect who all's been shooting it.

Do you want to see more historical photos posed like that, as evidence of exactly who they're emulating?

I'm not suggesting the photo, nor the sign be taken down.  I'm suggesting those boys be watched, before they decide who they want to use those guns for.

They brought them for something.  I doubt they'll be happy with petty vandalism.

[Athos_131]

Yellow Wall is just upset the sign was memorializing Emmett Till's murder instead of celebrating his killers.

Next he'll be upset the three racists in the photo weren't awarded the Nathan Bedford Forrest Scholarship.

#Resist

[psiberzerker]

Yellow Wall is just upset the sign was memorializing Emmett Till's murder instead of celebrating his killers.

Next he'll be upset the three racists in the photo weren't awarded the Nathan Bedford Forrest Scholarship.

 

Can't repeat a Karma Action for teens of hours.

I would have said those boys.  Little Sister doesn't have that much ambition.

1984.  That would make you Big Brother.