Stephen King Responds.

stephen-king-800x430

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.

Sunday Facepalm: God Can’t Read the Clinton Emails!

Trey Gowdy. Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Trey Gowdy. Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Hillary Clinton’s legal team took such painstaking efforts to delete the former secretary of state’s emails that “even God can’t read them,” according to Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

Gowdy argued the use of BleachBit, a software whose website says it can “prevent recovery” of files, further bolsters accusations that Clinton, the Democratic nominee for president, had something to hide in deleting all the personal files from her time at the State Department.

According to Clinton, the emails she deleted were all of a personal nature, most of which pertained to yoga and her daughter’s wedding. Gowdy, though, isn’t so sure and wants to know if the presidential hopeful considered emails about the Clinton Foundation personal.

“She and her lawyers had those emails deleted. And they didn’t just push the delete button; they had them deleted where even God can’t read them,” the lawmaker said during an appearance on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” Thursday. “They were using something called BleachBit. You don’t use BleachBit for yoga emails or bridemaids emails. When you’re using BleachBit, it is something you really do not want the world to see.”

You really can’t mock these people sufficiently, they do such a good job of mocking themselves. “Where even God can’t read them.” No god is specified here, but I will assume Mr. Gowdy is referencing good ol’ Jehovah. A god which Christians insist is all powerful and all seeing. Can’t hide from God, oh no! God sees everything, every dirty thought, and where you put your naughty hands! Unfortunately, it seems software has breached that all powerful thing god had going. Tsk.

Via The Blaze, so take along a truck full of salt if you click over.

“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.

Lummi Totem Pole To Be at Sacred Stone Camp.

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The Lummi Nation of Washington held a blessing and send-off ceremony on Thursday for the 2016 Totem Pole Journey.

Master carver Jewell James created a 22-foot tall pole that will travel 5,000 miles to raise awareness of the impacts of fossil fuel development in Indian Country. One of the first stops will be the Camp of the Sacred Stones near Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

“We need to be heard as many people and one voice,” James of the House of Tears Carvers said in a press release announcing this year’s journey. “We need to let them know they cannot in the name of profits do this to the people, the water, the land, and to the future generations. We will never give up. They must not pass!”

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe established the Camp of the Sacred Stones to protest the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, which comes within a half-mile of the reservation. The pole is expected to arrive at the site on Tuesday, August 30, before departing on Friday, September 1. This year marks the fourth Totem Pole Journey It comes after the Lummi Nation successfully defeated a coal export terminal on its treaty territory in Washington.

You can read more at Indianz.com, and the Journey’s route is here. Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Support Native Youth.  Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition.

New Stories: Dakota Access: Stars From Hollywood to Washington Support Water Protectors.

Important Message from Keeper of Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe.

When Man Changes the Land, It Is Changed Forever.

A Tale of Two T-Shirts.

lesbian-farmers-t-shirt-750

Rush Limbaugh’s rant that the Obama administration intends to flood conservative rural areas with lesbian farmers has inspired not only a musical tribute but an “America Needs Lesbian Farmers” T-shirt.

T-shirt maker Raygun unveiled the shirt on its Facebook page Thursday. It’s bright green with gold lettering and sells for $21.

News of the Department of Agriculture’s outreach program to rural LGBT people, designed to increase awareness of helpful government nonprofit programs, had Limbaugh warning that the federal government was attacking conservative values and conspiring to fill rural enclaves with LGBT liberals.

Full story here. This is a good idea, and I hope to see people wearing these Tees all over the place. On the other hand, there’s…

lgbtq-for-trump-tshirt-x750

A new “LGBTQ for Trump” shirt will set you back $30 — and set your rights back even further.

LGBTQ for Trump? That’s what the Republican presidential candidate is selling on his website, even if his stances on equality leave you feeling more “LGBTQ against Trump.”

Trump has been aggressively suggesting he’s the better candidate for LGBT people. After the horrific attack in Orlando that left 49 people dead and 53 others injured at a gay nightclub on June 12, the Republican candidate spoke out against the attack. “Ask yourself, who is really the friend of women and the LGBT community. Donald Trump with his actions, or Hillary Clinton with her words?” said Trump. A simple fact-check would answer that question.

Full story here. I shouldn’t even have to mention what a terrible idea this is, and I can’t help but speculate how much Trump has spent on this utter isht.

Dakota Access: A Familiar Story.

Kim Ryu.

Kim Ryu.

David Archambault II, tribal chairman of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has a column up at the NYT, Taking A Stand at Standing Rock. Read, share, light those signal fires, get the word everywhere. Some mainstream media is finally starting to pay attention, but we need more. We need people to join us, to help us, because this issue affects every single one of us. People outside Indian country, and even a whole lot of them smack in the middle of it need to learn, need to educate themselves about the reality of this situation right now, and the workings of the past, because most people only know the white-washed “history” fed to them in school. We stand, not only for ourselves, but for all people. Please, don’t lapse back into resignation, don’t let weariness win. We have been fighting for hundreds of years. The camps in this one resistance have been standing for 5 months now, since April, and we are not going to stop now, so please, don’t you stop either. We must endure, and every voice, every signal boost, every supply, every donation, every person who comes to the camps, you hold us up, you brace the foundation of our obligation to and protection of our earth, our water.

Near Cannon Ball, N.D. — It is a spectacular sight: thousands of Indians camped on the banks of the Cannonball River, on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Our elders of the Seven Council Fires, as the Oceti Sakowin, or Great Sioux Nation, is known, sit in deliberation and prayer, awaiting a federal court decision on whether construction of a $3.7 billion oil pipeline from the Bakken region to Southern Illinois will be halted.

The Sioux tribes have come together to oppose this project, which was approved by the State of North Dakota and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The nearly 1,200-mile pipeline, owned by a Texas oil company named Energy Transfer Partners, would snake across our treaty lands and through our ancestral burial grounds. Just a half-mile from our reservation boundary, the proposed route crosses the Missouri River, which provides drinking water for millions of Americans and irrigation water for thousands of acres of farming and ranching lands.

Our tribe has opposed the Dakota Access pipeline since we first learned about it in 2014. Although federal law requires the Corps of Engineers to consult with the tribe about its sovereign interests, permits for the project were approved and construction began without meaningful consultation. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation supported more protection of the tribe’s cultural heritage, but the Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer Partners turned a blind eye to our rights. The first draft of the company’s assessment of the planned route through our treaty and ancestral lands did not even mention our tribe.

The Dakota Access pipeline was fast-tracked from Day 1 using the Nationwide Permit No. 12 process, which grants exemption from environmental reviews required by the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by treating the pipeline as a series of small construction sites. And unlike the better-known Keystone XL project, which was finally canceled by the Obama administration last year, the Dakota Access project does not cross an international border — the condition that mandated the more rigorous federal assessment of the Keystone pipeline’s economic justification and environmental impacts.

The Dakota Access route is only a few miles shorter than what was proposed for the Keystone project, yet the government’s environmental assessment addressed only the portion of the pipeline route that traverses federal land. Domestic projects of this magnitude should clearly be evaluated in their totality — but without closer scrutiny, the proposal breezed through the four state processes.

Perhaps only in North Dakota, where oil tycoons wine and dine elected officials, and where the governor, Jack Dalrymple, serves as an adviser to the Trump campaign, would state and county governments act as the armed enforcement for corporate interests. In recent weeks, the state has militarized my reservation, with road blocks and license-plate checks, low-flying aircraft and racial profiling of Indians. The local sheriff and the pipeline company have both called our protest “unlawful,” and Gov. Dalrymple has declared a state of emergency.

[Read more…]

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.

A Universal Income Plan.

Euros (AFP).

Euros (AFP).

Switzerland may have voted against the controversial idea of paying all its citizens a guaranteed income, but Finland indicated Thursday it plans to try out a monthly basic payment of 560 euros ($600).

The government said it had chosen the figure for an unconditional basic income in line with a manifesto pledge by centrist Prime Minister Juha Sipila, who took office 15 months ago.

Former businessman Sipila wants to see if the measure can boost employment and simplify the welfare benefits system, and plans to test the idea on a 2,000-strong sample of randomly selected working-age residents.

“The primary goal of the basic income experiment is related to promoting employment,” said the health and social affairs ministry, adding that it also aimed to simplify the complicated benefits system in a sustainable way regarding public finances.

Amid a growing debate on the subject, Finland now wants to be the first European country to test the idea nationwide.

In June, voters in Switzerland decisively rejected a far more generous proposal to pay a monthly 2,500 Swiss francs (2,300 euros/$2,500) to each adult and 625 francs for each child.

The idea has support on the political left and right with the former wanting a guaranteed safety net while some liberal voices feel that money for nothing can dissuade some jobless people from seeking work.

I am seriously envious of any country socialized enough and stable enough to give this a try. I think of how great this would be here in uStates, how it would not only help a vast amount of people, but it would go a very long way in stabilizing people mentally and emotionally, allowing people to ease up on feeling a constancy of anxiety, stress, and anger. That said, I don’t even want to imagine this being proposed in good ol’ Amerikka, we’d all go deaf from the screaming.

Via Raw Story.

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.

The Inconsistency of Conservative Outrage.

George Bush.

George Bush.

If anything can be counted on, it’s the inconsistency of conservatives, especially the scarily right wing conservatives. Their howls over this outrage, that outrage, and the other outrage tend to be remarkably convenient. There’s always a noted lack of balance, and there’s scant evidence of thinking going on. Right now, the far right won’t let go of the Clinton email issue. They are like a starving dog with a bone, and they are not about to let go.

The frenzy and furor over Hillary Clinton’s email habits while at the State Department, now into their 16th month and still going strong, have predictably and effectively chipped away at her reputation, so a sizable majority of Americans (67 percent in a poll last month) find her “untrustworthy.”

That’s what a year of FBI investigation—leading to no recommended charges—a budding congressional investigation and a relentless right-wing watchdog’s lawsuit buy you in American politics.

But take a moment away from pawing through the tens of thousands of her personal and professional emails now on public view and consider the long list of elected and appointed Republicans who have done exactly the same thing as Clinton—and worse.

Between 2003 and 2005, the George W. Bush White House “lost” around 5 million emails, including messages related to the firing of federal prosecutors who didn’t adhere to Bush’s conservative agenda. A federal judge ruled that the White House didn’t have to look for them.

Those emails were among some 22 million messages that the Bush administration “lost” during its time in power, most from right around the period that it was crafting a scaffolding of lies to sell what turned out to be the greatest American foreign policy debacle in a generation: the Iraq War. The emails were eventually found in 2009, when Bush and Dick Cheney were safely back at their ranches, but long after thousands of young Americans were dead and maimed and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis were dead, and as Islamists were mustering to eventually capture swathes of lawless, war-ravaged turf for their hideous “caliphate.”

Colin Powell—Bush’s secretary of state and the team player dispatched to the floor of the U.N. to deliver some of the lies about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction—also used a personal email account while at the State Department. He didn’t even bother to set up his own home server but chose the eminently hackable public email giant AOL. And he was hacked, by an Eastern European criminal who used the nom de plume Guccifer.

Years later, at a 2009 dinner party in Washington, he recommended to Clinton that she use a private email account. In his upcoming book, Man of the World: The Further Endeavors of Bill Clinton, Joe Conason describes the conversation, which took place at a dinner for Hillary Clinton soon after she was appointed secretary of state: “Toward the end of the evening, over dessert, [former Secretary of State Madeleine] Albright asked all of the former secretaries to offer one salient bit of counsel [to Clinton]…. Powell suggested that she use her own email, as he had done, except for classified communications, which he had sent and received via a State Department computer on his desk. Saying that his use of personal email had been transformative for the department, Powell thus confirmed a decision she had made months earlier.”

Goodness me, all those lost emails, all that hacking, all that carelessness! Can we bring Bush back to give him a proper spanking now?

Full story here.

Resistance: Photo Essay.

San Carlos Apache Tribe council member Wendsler Nosie Sr. embraces Standing Rock Sioux Tribe David Archambault II at the Camp of the Sacred Stones near the Standing Rock reservation, where Nosie came to offer support and prayers to those taking a stand against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The Apache Stronghold has been fighting for more than a decade to stop the takeover of sacred Oak Flat for copper mining by Rio Tinto. Apache Stronghold is one of nearly 90 tribes that have expressed support.

San Carlos Apache Tribe council member Wendsler Nosie Sr. embraces Standing Rock Sioux Tribe David Archambault II at the Camp of the Sacred Stones near the Standing Rock reservation, where Nosie came to offer support and prayers to those taking a stand against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. The Apache Stronghold has been fighting for more than a decade to stop the takeover of sacred Oak Flat for copper mining by Rio Tinto. Apache Stronghold is one of nearly 90 tribes that have expressed support.

Riders on horseback exit the campsite and keep a watchful eye to ensure that folks stay safe and protected. Some paint their hoses in traditional designs. Thosh Collins.

Riders on horseback exit the campsite and keep a watchful eye to ensure that folks stay safe and protected. Some paint their hoses in traditional designs. Thosh Collins.

Each morning at the Cannon Ball prayer camps, participants walk and ride horse from the campsite to the construction site, about a half-mile away. Songs are sung and prayers are offered by all. (Photo: Thosh Collins)

Each morning at the Cannon Ball prayer camps, participants walk and ride horse from the campsite to the construction site, about a half-mile away. Songs are sung and prayers are offered by all. (Photo: Thosh Collins)

Veterans from tribal nations, including several bands of Lakota and Ojibwe people, carry staffs to lead the crowd toward the pipe ceremony just outside the gate of the construction site. (Photo: Thosh Collins)

Veterans from tribal nations, including several bands of Lakota and Ojibwe people, carry staffs to lead the crowd toward the pipe ceremony just outside the gate of the construction site. (Photo: Thosh Collins)

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