Cops, What Are They Good For?

Chicago police officer listening to Rhymequest -- (Twitter screen grab).

Chicago police officer listening to Rhymequest — (Twitter screen grab).

A Chicago rapper who was held up at gunpoint in the early morning hours attempted to file a police report — only to have desk officers blow him off and then tell him to leave when he became aggravated about their lack of interest, reports the Chicago Tribune.

In a video clip posted to Twitter under the comment, “You wonder we don’t report crimes? The police treated me disgustingly,” rapper Rhymefest (real name Che Smith) is heard attempting to get a desk officer to take his report only to have her tell him to get out.

 

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The Bigot’s Answer to Everything: Fire.

A bunch of bigots have decided that it’s necessary to set fire to their Kaepernick Jerseys in a dandy show of hatred, over Colin’s unfathomable concern for People of Colour. This is just one, there’s more at Buzzfeed.

Prophet Trump.

Image Credit: Lance Wallnau: God is raising up Trump as a Cyrus to destroy political correctness.

Image Credit: Lance Wallnau: God is raising up Trump as a Cyrus to destroy political correctness.

Trump’s Wall ‘Isn’t About Mexico,’ it’s About Biblical Prophecy, so sayeth one Lance Wallnau. I hear a chorus of “whos?” In honesty, I don’t know, I hadn’t heard of Mr. Wallnau until today. It seems he’s not a pastor, but a Seven Mountains Dominionist theologian, or so people say. His current attempt at convincing Christians to vote for Trump is that Trump is just like Cyrus in the bible, an unbeliever who was used by god.

Seven Mountains dominionism advocate Lance Wallnau has been one of t he most creative defenders of Donald Trump on the Religious Right, explaining that Trump has an “anointing” from God similar to that of King Cyrus, whom God used despite the fact that he was not a believer.

Wallnau continued explaining his spiritual defense of Trump in two recent podcasts with Charisma magazine founder Steve Strang, explaining that Trump has an “unappreciated prophetic gifting” and that the candidate’s calls to build a border wall are not about the border at all but about instigating a revival among American Christians.

Wallnau recalled that Cyrus issued a decree that “opened a gate in heaven” and led the way for spiritual revival in Jerusalem.

“He opened a gate, Stephen,” Wallnau said, “he opened a gate in heaven with proclamation so that all the prophecies and prayers that were stored up for Jerusalem could suddenly begin to be manifested, beginning with the House of God getting revived and continuing on through Darius and to Artaxerxes until Nehemiah, on the basis of Cyrus’ decree, petitioned to build the wall.”

“And then I started looking at, my gosh, there’s more prophetic dialogue on Trump than Christians realize,” he continued. “This whole thing about building a wall isn’t about Mexico, it’s about in the Bible, from my perspective, Nehemiah’s project was to restore the boundaries around that which had collapsed where God’s people were concerned.

“I think that in the Bible, building a wall has to do with like Proverbs 25, ‘a man without self-control is like a city without walls,’ it’s broken down. Our fiscal situation is broken down, our race relations are broken down, our definitions of sexuality and gender are broken down. I believe that if Trump is allowed to be president, there will be a release of that stored up potential that we’ve been praying, fasting and prophesying into for the past 20 years for revival in America.”

Wallnau went on to describe to Strang how “if God can anoint a secular individual, then they are operating in a sense with God’s wisdom and guidance on them.”

Trump, he said, “has a remarkable and uncelebrated, I think, or perhaps I should say unappreciated prophetic gifting.”

He recalled how Trump told conservative religious leaders at a recent meeting in New York that “leadership is about seeing the future,” something that he said Trump had demonstrated with his predictions about radical Islam, the national debt, the inner cities, terrorism in Belgium and the fact that “he saw the Brexit before it happened.”

Liberals say that Trump’s rhetoric is “dark and dystopian,” he said, but “in fact, he’s merely describing, like a Churchillian gift, what is on the horizon.”

So, there you have it. Trump is an anointed prophet of Churchill’s caliber. Yes indeedy. Via RRW.  There’s a bit more information about Wallnau’s nonsense here, but you’ll need a tanker full of salt, and some way to guard yourself from fatal eyerolls. The comments, while depressing, are an interesting insight as to how christians are handling this political mess.

Stephen King Responds.

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Yesterday, I posted about the extraordinarily racist governor of Maine: “You Shoot the Enemy.” Guess Who the Enemy Is? – and Stephen King, a very famous Maine resident, has responded.

“Our governor, Paul LePage, is a bigot, a homophobe, and a racist. I think that about covers it,” King tweeted.

LePage made news this week for claiming that most drug dealers are black or Hispanic, and then calling a lawmaker who criticized his comments a “son-of-a-bitch socialist c*cksucker.” The incident provoked Maine’s largest newspaper to apologizing on behalf of the state for electing LePage.

It looks like LePage has pretty much the whole state cringing in embarrassment.

This is not the first time that King, who lives in Maine, has criticized his state’s Tea Party governor.

“One must admit LePage has elevated assholery to a level far past the extraordinary and into a rarified sphere that might be termed divine,” King said in January after LePage complained that urban drug dealers named “D-Money” were coming to Maine and impregnating “young, white girls.”

Then, in March, he said LePage was “full of the stuff that makes the grass grow green” for claiming he had moved out of the state to avoid taxes. “Tabby and I pay every cent of our Maine state income taxes, and are glad to do it,” King continued. “We feel, as Governor LePage apparently does not, that much is owed from those to whom much has been given. We see our taxes as a way of paying back the state that has given us so much. State taxes pay for state services. There’s just no way around it. Governor LePage needs to remember there ain’t no free lunch.”

It’s a genuine pity LePage will not be out of office until 2019. I think perhaps people of Maine should look to possible ways to boot LePage now.

Via Raw Story.

The Civil War Was About Free Speech.

Sid Miller. CREDIT: AP Photo/Eric Gay.

Sid Miller. CREDIT: AP Photo/Eric Gay.

For bigots, the Civil War was never, ever about slavery, oh my no. It was about everything and anything under the sun, but not slavery. Sid “Jesus Juice” Miller is pushing the “it was about freedom of speech!” button.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is planning to the restrict the display of Confederate flags by “amend[ing] our policy to make clear that Confederate flags will not be displayed from any permanently fixed flagpole in a national cemetery at any time.”

As expressed in a letter written by Roger Walters, interim undersecretary for memorial affairs, “We are aware of the concerns of those who wish to see Confederate flags removed from public venues because they are perceived by many as a symbol of racial intolerance.”

But a recent vote indicated a majority of House Republicans oppose the VA’s attempt to restrict where and when the Stars and Bars can be displayed. So does Sid Miller, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner who was recently tapped to be Donald Trump’s national co-chairman of his agriculture advisory team.

In a Facebook post published Thursday, Miller suggests the Civil War was first and foremost about protecting free speech — not slavery. He also strikes a skeptical note about whether Confederates who fought against the United States behaved treasonously.

Responding to a Washington Post column supportive of the VA’s move, Miller writes that the piece “makes my blood boil” and says the Post isn’t “entitled to… attempt to read the minds of my long-dead Confederate ancestors and determine that their actions and motivations during that awful war were treasonous.”
He also denounces “politically correct bureaucrats” pushing for the Stars and Bars to be banned.

“With all that is going on around our world and the serious threats that exist to our country and our constitiional [sic] freedoms by those who carry black flags with Arabic writing upon them, I would think that those in our national government would simply leave alone the flags marking the burial grounds of our Confederate dead,” Miller writes. “Unfortunately, I fear that is just wishful thinking on my part and highlights why the outcome of the upcoming election is so very, very important.”

https://www.facebook.com/MillerForTexas/posts/1884355138453315

Full story at Think Progress.

“You Shoot the Enemy.” Guess Who the Enemy Is?

CREDIT: AP/MICHAEL DYWER.

CREDIT: AP/MICHAEL DYWER.

Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) has been mouthing off, a lot. He has frothed about every group he doesn’t like, and it seems if you aren’t a hetero christian white man, you’re in one of the hated groups. Mr. LePage has a particular hatred of anyone who is not verifiably pasty white, and he doesn’t seem to care who knows it, either. He is an ardent Trump fan, which I’m sure is no surprise. In his latest screed, Mr. LePage identifies the enemy: People of Colour, and what you do to the enemy: you shoot them.

In a Friday press conference following his homophobic remarks about a state lawmaker, Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) called people of color and people of Hispanic origin “the enemy” and implied they should be shot.

“A bad guy is a bad guy. I don’t care what color he is. When you go to war, if you know the enemy, the enemy dresses in red and you dress in blue, you shoot at red,” he said. “You shoot the enemy. You try to identify the enemy. And the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority of people coming in are people of color or people of Hispanic origin.”

The governor has offered a veritable potpourri of racist and homophobic remarks over the years. In his voicemail to state Rep. Drew Gattine (D) on Thursday, in an apparent attempt to convince people that he is not a racist, he said, “I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son-of-a-bitch, socialist cocksucker.”

Oh, yes, helping black people, but you just can’t stand having them in your pristine state of Maine. I’d be willing to bet your idea of help is not the same as mine.

On Wednesday, he called Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen Muslim soldier, a “con artist.” During a town hall on that same day, he said nearly all of Maine’s drug dealers are black or Hispanic. “I don’t ask them to come to Maine (to) sell their poison, but they come,” he said. “And I will tell you, that 90 percent-plus of those pictures in my book — and it’s a three-ring binder — are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Connecticut, the Bronx and Brooklyn.”

LePage grabbed national headlines earlier this year when he said men named “Smoothie, D-Money, and Shifty” were dealing drugs in Maine. He added, “Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue that we’ve got to deal with down the road. We’re going to make them very severe penalties.”

Among his other comments, he told the NAACP to “kiss my butt,” accused asylum seekers of bringing the “ziki fly,” and told the president to “go to hell.” LePage is an enthusiastic supporter of the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump.

It’s not just the presidential vote that’s important. It’s equally important to usher these asses who run on bigotry and stereotypes out of office, too.

Via Think Progress.

Post-Racist. Right.

Colin Kaepernick -- via Facebook.

Colin Kaepernick — via Facebook.

I keep running into people who insist that Amerikka is post-sexist and post-racist. I have no idea how they keep this delusional illusion in their heads, because every day, we are drowning in evidence that’s not so. Rapists continue to receive slaps on the wrist, and racists continue to shout their bigotry to the skies. The latest example is the reaction to Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand during the anthem.

In a post-game interview on the NFL Network, Kaepernick explained that he was taking a different kind of stand, referencing Black Lives Matter in a roundabout way.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told reporters. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Criticism on Twitter ran from attacks on Kaepernick by questioning his patriotism in light of the millions he earns as an NFL star, to extensive use of the “N-word” from racists who are a source of many of the problems African Americans face in the U.S,.

Some of the tweets are below the fold, because they are explicit and vile.

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Facebook, Oh Facebook VI.

Current Midland City, AL Mayor Patsy Skipper's swearing-in photo from February (Twitter.com).

Current Midland City, AL Mayor Patsy Skipper’s swearing-in photo from February (Twitter.com).

Yet another person who doesn’t seem to understand that posting on FB or other social media is akin to shouting from the rooftops. “I lost. The nigger won”. I am so glad you lost, Ms. Skipper, it’s the very least that could happen to you.

The Republican mayor of Midland City, Alabama got nasty on Facebook after losing her seat to a black candidate in this week’s mayoral election.

“I lost. The ni**er won,” griped Mayor Patsy Capshaw Skipper when someone asked her how the election turned out.

WTVY said that Skipper was defeated by Jo Ann Bennett Grimsley, former assistant city clerk and an employee of the Dale County government for 27 years. She has previously served as the city’s water clerk and county court clerk.

Mayor Skipper was named interim mayor last February when her husband — former Mayor Virgil Skipper — retired for health reasons. County officials voted 3 to 1 for Patsy Skipper to take over her husband’s position.

Voters, however, preferred to see Grimsley at the city helm, casting 233 votes for Grimsley as opposed to Skipper’s 148.

Congratulations to Ms. Grimsley! I’m sure she will do a great job, although doing better than Ms. Skipper is a low bar.

Via Raw Story, where you can see a screen capture of the post.

In Trump We Trust.

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“In Trump We Trust.” Yes, that’s really the title of Ann Coulter’s latest book, a paean to what she calls the great orange hope.  Christ. Well, if that wasn’t enough to get the facepalm going, this certainly is:

She also attempts to answer for his past mistakes, including when he mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a musculoskeletal disorder.

Coulter, in a chapter entitled “Disabled Reporter Joins Media Effort to Create More Disabled Americans,” writes that Trump wasn’t making fun of Kovaleski’s disorder; he was just doing an impression of a “standard retard”:

Trump denied knowing that Serge was disabled, and demanded an apology, saying that anyone could see his imitation was of a flustered, frightened reporter, not a disabled person. It’s true that Trump was not mimicking any mannerisms that Serge has. He doesn’t jerk around or flail his arms. He’s not retarded. He sits calmly, but if you look at his wrists, you’ll see they are curved in. That’s not the imitation Trump was doing—he was doing a standard retard, waving his arms and sounding stupid: “’Ahhh, I don’t know what I said—ahhh, I don’t remember!’ He’s going, ‘Ahhh, I don’t remember, maybe that’s what I said!’”

Right. Well, that clarification makes it…much, much worse. There’s an old saying that’s apt here: with friends like these, you don’t need enemies.

Via Jezebel.

Oh, That Evil Anti-White Agenda.

Richard Spencer (Facebook).

Richard Spencer (Facebook).

Poor, poor Richard Spencer. His um, appeal to Ms. Clinton didn’t work at all. Neither did his frothy demands. Ms. Clinton went right ahead with her speech, the full text of which can be read here. Back to Mr. Spencer’s wish life:

Right Wing Watch notices that Richard Spencer, who last year hosted a conference on white racial identity that proposed the creation of whites-only states in the U.S., has issued a preemptive strike against Clinton’s speech that attacks her for allegedly hating white people.

“Over the past few months, Hillary Clinton has engaged, rhetorically and directly, with an array of groups that support an anti-White agenda,” Spencer wrote. “Whether that’s endorsing the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, which is directly responsible for a rise in violence throughout America, or her surrogates chastising European-Americans for their background and heritage.”

Spencer then called on Clinton to apologize for hating white people so much, despite the fact that Clinton herself is white.

“We call on her and her allies to issue an apology to European-Americans everywhere and confront her own troubling links to extremism and the civil unrest she has stoked for months,” he wrote.

Spencer attended a pro-Trump party at this year’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where he was quoted as saying he and his movement have “taken over the right” by nominating a presidential candidate who addresses the alt-right’s major concerns.

Goodness. You’d think treating people like people was genocide of white folks or something. Is it wrong of me to hope that Mr. Spencer gets stuck some place where Ms. Clinton’s speech is on a loop?

Via Raw Story.

McCrory Hits A New Low.

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Just when you thought Pat McCrory couldn’t get any lower, he goes diving straight into an isht filled sewer of lies.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) has released a fear-mongering campaign ad that paints transgender people as dangerous predators who are out to rape children.

LGBTQNation.com posted the 30-second campaign spot on Wednesday, which accuses Democratic NC Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper of willfully endangering the state’s children by not upholding the so-called “bathroom bill,” H.B. 2.

The ad begins with a woman named Gina Little of Greensboro, NC saying, “At 9, I was molested by a teenager.”

She continues, “When I heard that Pres. Obama and and Roy Cooper want to force schoolchildren to share the same locker room, shower and restroom with someone who claims to be the opposite sex, I was horrified.”

“Gov. McCrory knows this is not about discrimination, money or politics,” Little claims. “He’s standing up under intense pressure and doing what’s right. Our governor is on our side.”

The implication is clear. Little is saying that if trans men, women and children are allowed to use the facilities corresponding with their expressed gender, they will rape and molest children.

The truth, however, is that the overwhelming majority of sex crimes against children are committed by men who identify as heterosexual and the bulk of these crimes happen in the home.

Oh yes, most of these crimes do indeed happen in the home, and are most often committed by family members or close family friends. It happened to me, I was raped by a family member for six years as a child, and it had absolutely nothing to do with queer people or any sort of shared facility. I know McCrory is desperate, but this is lower than low, and he is such an immoral, evil person for doing this. Transgendered people already face high levels of violence, and this will do nothing except make that worse. McCrory is out to harm people.

Via Raw Story.

Healthcare for Trans People? Oh no. No, no.

Texas-Governor-Greg-Abbott-800x430

Greg Abbott speaking at FreePac, hosted by FreedomWorks, in Phoenix, Arizona (Gage Skidmore/Flickr).

Chalk up another one for the persecution files. Texas and four other states are filing lawsuits, and crying the extra-large tears of religious persecution at the thought of providing proper healthcare to transgender persons. Oh gods, we can’t be discriminating ‘phobes!? Whatever shall we do, I know, sue!

Texas and four other states sued the Obama administration on Tuesday over extending its healthcare nondiscrimination law to transgender individuals, saying the move “represents a radical invasion of the federal bureaucracy into a doctor’s medical judgment.”

Texas, along with Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kentucky and Kansas sued on behalf three medical organizations, two of which are affiliated with Christian groups.

They argue the medical groups would be forced to violate their religious beliefs “and perform harmful medical transition procedures or else suffer massive financial liability,” according to the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, named as a defendant in the suit, was not immediately available for comment.

On Sunday, a judge for the same district blocked an Obama administration policy that public schools should allow transgender students to use the bathrooms of their choice, granting a nationwide injunction sought by 13 states, led by Texas.

I am seriously starting to think that it would be just fine to set Texas aside, get federal aide to get all the decent people out, herd all the fanatical asses in, then cut them off. There, there’s your kingdom, go figure it out and eat each other alive. Bye.

Full Story Here.

Stockpiling Piss.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock

The Intercept directs our attention to a Bloomberg report from earlier this year that reveals Robert Mercer — a hedge fund manager who is also a major funder of a pro-Trump Super PAC — has been funding the creation of a massive stockpile of human urine in Oregon.

The urine is being collected by the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, a research outfit founded by Arthur Robinson, a chemist who unsuccessfully ran for Congress in 2010 with financial help from the Mercer family. So far, Robinson and his institute have collected and 14,000 frozen samples of human urine.

What is Robinson’s interest in urine?

It seems that he believes that analyzing urine with an expensive piece of equipment called a mass spectrometer will be able to help him predict patients’ future likelihood of contracting diseases, thus creating a whole new era in the realm of preventative medicine.

“He’ll use the spectrometer to decode the chemical patterns in urine, the red flags that warn of disease before it strikes,” Bloomberg writes. “The human life span will stretch. It’s hard to judge the credibility of his claims; although he earned a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego in the 1960s, he hasn’t published peer-reviewed research on diagnostic medicine in decades.”

Despite the fact that Robinson hasn’t produced any recent peer-reviewed research, Mercer has spent $1.4 million funding this gigantic urine storage center.

Blood transfusions, miracle pee! Oh all the things the super rich think will magically extend life. Given the intense fright and paranoia all that wealth seems to engender, I’m glad I’m not rolling in money. Not that I wouldn’t mind having a bit more, life’s rough when you’re prone to outbreaks of stone brokeness. That said, I think all around, I’m a whole lot happier, enjoying life moment by moment and day by day, rather than constantly fretting how I can stick around longer, so no one can get my money, power, or privilege. Strikes me as a miserable way to live.

Via Raw Story.