Simon Moya-Smith: Does the Liberty Bell Ring For Native Americans?

Peggy

Peggy Flanagan, White Earth citizen and Minnesota State Representative became first Native Woman to address DNC from the podium. Credit: Suzette Brewer.

If you missed Simon Moya-Smith’s first column on the DNC, it’s here.

DNC. Notes spanning days 2 & 3 & 4: All a blur now. This bar reeks of vomit. Old vomit. At a joint called Fridays in Philly. “I think the president or Hillary Clinton is staying across the street,” the black bartender tells me. “Right there. At The Logan.” Secret Service man the hotel doors. “That’s a lot of guns and sunglasses,” I utter. “Best to stay inside.”

[…]

Meanwhile, back here at the scene, the DNC, people can’t find a seat. Volunteers in yellow shirts block the doorway with their bodies against a hoard of excited Dems. “Try section 204. I hear they’re still letting people in there,” one says. I walk a full 360-degrees ‘round the Center. No luck. No seats. No hope. A woman in a Hillary hat, once excited, now stands in tears. No chance of getting in the arena. What’s left, then? The hallway. The muffled echo of the speaker blows in. For a moment I consider inviting the poor lady to a drink. Something to take the edge off. Dull the pain. But in an instant she’s gone, running into the fray, sobbing, asking God for a seat. “Please! Please!” Amen. Right. And to those who did land a seat they got watch Peggy Flanagan, Ojibwe, take the lectern and read a letter to her daughter where she affirmatively stated, “We (Native Americans) are still here.”

I head to the men’s room. A man in the stall sniffs once. Sniffs twice. He booms out the door. Bang! Ready, he is. Wired, for sure. Good idea. Coke and a stale hot dog it is. But the concession line’s too long. I’ve never seen a more dapper crowd clamoring for wieners. And what is the difference between something like the DNC and live theater? Is all of this just The Show? It has all the moving parts of a Broadway production. Lights! Make-up. Celebrities. Dance numbers. A script on the screen. Exhausted interns hoping to make it, break into the biz. And what does any of this have to do with Indian country? Everything, goddamnit. This is our land. Our ancestral home. The old country. “We never left,” Suzan Harjo said. During roll call a few days ago, a torrent of indigenous languages rumbled the walls of the Center in a roar of revitalization. Life again. But then on the final night of the DNC, presidential nominee Clinton failed to mention Native Americans when she spoke of systemic oppression. What a disappointment. Should we take this as an indication of her awareness of racial violence in Indian country? Has she heard the names Allen Locke or Sarah Lee Circle Bear or Mah-Hi-Vist Goodblanket or Rexdale Henry or (more names here) before? Not sure. Here’s hoping.

Note: Links added by me.

I slept four hours last night, and I don’t expect to sleep much again tonight. Delayed flight after delayed flight. People fleeing Philadelphia all at once. Bottleneck City. Where’s the Liberty Bell? It didn’t ring for Native Americans then. Does it ring for us now? … Something to contemplate over cheesesteak and fries and and pie at Reading Terminal, the massive market here in Philly where gluttony is god and the chicken sandwiches are good-not-great. But I digress. I always digress.

I met a Trump fan at pub on I think Broad St. A grumpy fucker. Later, I was denied service at an ostensibly straight bar. Can’t remember its name at the moment. Blurry. Ended up at Woody’s, a gay bar. Instant service. Intelligent talk. No ostentatious erudition in here. Just people woke. People aware. A drag queen blows me a kiss. I smile and nod, kinda dorky like. I am a dork, though. A socially awkward Hobbit. And I’m OK with that.

The epilogue to this story is this: When the GOP elected Donald Trump as their presidential nominee they officially became the party of racism and misogyny. No indigenous North American languages were spoken during roll call at the Republican National Convention last week. No recognition of Native American sovereignty at all. Just dystopian soothsayers in sandwich boards shouting “the end is near!” I’m convinced the Democratic Party is the party for Native Americans. We just have to convince Clinton that no good comes from fracking:

“Would you like a glass of water, madam nominee? … No, it’s actually not from this tap here. This is fracked water, madam. You can light it on fire if you want. … And since I have you, can we talk about Leonard Peltier? … Your husband, Bill, claims to be a descendant of the Cherokee. Has he been back home lately? How does he take his fry bread? … Yes, ma’am, I have had a several coffees – well, cappuccinos. The DNC was quite the spectacle, wasn’t it? Man, Bill loves balloons, doesn’t he? Peggy Flanagan was wonderful, wasn’t she? Debra Haaland, too. All the Natives there that night. So about that water. I see you haven’t taken a sip. I wouldn’t either. A filthy water is a filthy earth, and it’s our fault. Fracking. Just say no.”

The full article is at ICTMN, and as usual, is vividly brilliant. Click on over to read the whole thing.

When Will There Be a Native American President?

Pinterest.

Pinterest.

Gyasi Ross has a great article up on the possibilities and problems of a Native president, When Will There Be a Native American President? [Part 1] ‘Sigh,’ It’s Gonna Be Awhile…  Click over to read the whole thing, because I’m only going to include part here.

QUESTION:

Can we honestly tell our beautiful and brilliant Native children that, in 2016, they can grow up and be President of the United States of America?

SHORT ANSWER:

Probably not. Based upon the evidence (as opposed to optimism or good feelings), America does not seem to fully accept Natives as real-life human beings — thus it will likely be a few generations before we can seriously contemplate that.

After this, Ross takes some time to explain the normalization which has taken place in regard to Black people, Hispanic people, and Women. No, things aren’t all cherries and thornless roses with these groups, but they have been included enough in pop culture, normalized enough, that it’s not a complete shock for people to see any one of these peoples in high office.

But what about Natives?

Unfortunately, it looks like that’s still a long ways off. Here are a few reasons why.

First, Americans still have not normalized interactions with Natives.  This is manifest in many ways in pop culture today—pop culture is very important toward normalizing a group of people. For example, for decades there are have been movies where a black person plays a president on-screen, making folks more comfortable with the idea.  There have also been movies where women and Latinos/as, Asians play presidents, and every other role under the sun.  That gets rid of the sticker shock of seeing a person of that group in that position.  Moreover, it’s also not unusual to see folks from all backgrounds acting as a different ethnicity or in a leading role where race is not contemplated.  For Natives, though? Not so much. Natives are still a novelty, a character to be played on-screen and not just an ethnicity that a person happens to be. There is no Fresh off the Boat or Chico and the Man or Blackish or The Jeffersons or The Cosby Show for Native people. Plus, the prospect of a Native playing, for example, a President? Hasn’t been on the radar, even in the most subversive of films.

Natives have largely been only deemed competent to play a Native no matter how incredible that Native actor is. “How well can you be a Native, Native person?”

Similarly, in my work as a writer and commentator, I largely am asked to only comment or write about “Native stuff.”  Now, I love commenting and writing about “Native stuff” but I’ve also found that “Native stuff” is a HUGE category. It’s ALL Native stuff! Whether we’re talking about national politics to public school funding to infrastructure and trade policy.  Now, similar to acting black folks, women, Latino/a, Asians, etc. are all considered competent to speak about things that are outside their communities and universal. It is not one bit unusual for a black person, a woman, a Latino/a or an Asian to comment or write on national news. For Natives? Not so much. It’s still a novelty and Natives are not deemed competent to have opinions on matters that are universal and aren’t uniquely Native.

We can’t speak about things that are just “human” or “American.”  It would be hard enough for a Native person to get a role as a doctor or teacher on TV, much less a Native President.

We also see it in regards to our tragedy.  Simply stated, the mainstream largely does not care or cannot relate to Native pain or outrage. The mainstream ignores the structural and institutional barriers, for example, that allow Native women to be raped at a rate exponentially higher than other women. It likewise ignores those same structural barriers that forbid Native nations from prosecuting outsiders who peddle drugs and/or murder our people.  Those same structures then, adding insult to injury, refuse to utilize its own resources to prosecute those bad actors, allowing them to prey upon our communities with impunity.

But nobody mentions that outside of our communities. If they do mention our communities, they mention the poverty without explaining how those barriers help to create and sustain that economic poverty.

As shown above, there is a perception that Natives cannot partake in these larger conversations.  As we discussed, there is a lack of empathy or understanding about our communities.  When those two things are combined with the mathematical fact that Natives are a tiny percentage of the population, it doesn’t bode well for a Native rising to be President anytime soon.  At some point, it’s a humanity question as it was for women, black folks, Latino/as, etc.; are Natives reflective enough of America generally to sometimes not be considered “Native” and instead just “human?”

Can a Native person represent America?  Stupid question. OF COURSE. The truth is, Natives are the story of America and are more America than America. Natives are America’s dental record and thumbprint and spinal cord. You cannot intelligently tell the story of America without Native people being one of the main characters.  Yet, it seems like mainstream America is a ways away from recognizing that truth.

When Will There Be a Native American President? [Part 1] ‘Sigh,’ It’s Gonna Be Awhile…

Seceding Over Slavery.

fox_of_trump_jesus_160511e-800x4301-440x270Most people know about Bill O’Reilly’s unbelievably idiotic remarks about slaves building the White House, and his subsequent doubling down, attempting to justify his previous commentary and digging quite the hole for himself. O’Reilly spent a fair amount of time opining that liberals literally want him dead. I don’t want you dead, Bill, I want you off the air.

Anyroad, the idiotic remarks about slaves and the astonishing distortion of actual history inspired Marcus Ranum to do a very in-depth post about slavery. Here’s a little bit:

The Odious Institution

The colonies in America had been priming themselves for a revolution for some time. Unpopular legislation from England, in the form of taxes and regulations – notably The Stamp Act, The Sugar Act, The Townshend Act – had provoked protest, violence, tax collectors being brutalized, and civilian protestors shot down by redcoats. England was trying, simply enough, to extract some of the colony’s massive wealth through taxation, to pay for its various wars. The colonial leaders were trying, simply enough, to keep their wealth – a great deal of which was at best semi-licit: whenever the crown would levy a new tax, the colonial entrepreneurs would smuggle the goods, anyway.

The “triangle trade” was taking place “off the books” to a significant degree, and was at least partly designed to facilitate smuggling. It was a hugely profitable trade-route, and underpinned much of the New England economy as well as that of the American south’s most powerful and wealthy state, Virginia. From 1770 to 1780 the people who became the political leaders in the colonies were all wealthy, and that wealth depended on smuggling, slavery, land speculation, tobacco or cotton farming, or “trade” (which meant: buying and selling alcohol, tobacco, slaves, etc) – the unhappiness the colonial political leaders were feeling with England was that their tax-sheltered existences were threatened. They were already hugely wealthy, in terms of the time, with some notable exceptions (Jefferson was really really good at spending money!) George Washington was the largest land speculator in the colonies, John Hancock was a smuggler “trader” of large but unknown fortune, Jefferson owned lots of land, slaves, and farmed tobacco and cotton.* They had time and inclination to get involved in politics because they had a great deal of wealth at stake and had enough wealth that they could take the time – literally afford – to travel about protecting their interests.

For the colonial elite, the Somerset decision had the attention-riveting effect of a dagger pressed against the throat. It was immediately seen as a threat to their interests for the simple reason that: the colonies were under England’s law. If English law had finally come down on the issue of slavery as odious, immoral and – what really mattered: unenforceable – the colonial elite had a serious, serious problem on their hands.

So they did what any justice-loving group of leaders would do: they worked out how to emancipate the slaves, apologized and compensated them with grants of land** and started tithing a reasonable percentage of their gains to England.

Of course they didn’t.

It’s an excellent read, so click on over for the full article.

Rubio Starring at Anti-LGBT Rally.

Marco Rubio. Wikimedia Commons.

Marco Rubio. Wikimedia Commons.

When Marco Rubio cited the deadly attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando as a reason he was changing his mind and running for re-election to the U.S. Senate, many LGBT allies immediately noted that the Florida senator and failed presidential candidate has never been an ally of the LGBT community.

“To be using the tragedy in Orlando as a time to reflect on his Senate career, when his career and his promises on the campaign trail have been anti-LGBTQ consistently, it’s just staggering to think he would be using this moment for his own personal ambitions,” said Jay Brown of the Human Rights Campaign at the time.

It comes as no surprise, then, to see that Rubio is slated to address an event in Orlando next month that will feature some of the country’s most vehement anti-LGBT activists.

The Orlando-based Liberty Counsel Action, an extreme anti-LGBTgroup whose affiliate is famous for representing Kentucky clerk Kim Davis in her stand against the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision, announced in an email today that the Florida Renewal Project will be hosting an event called “Rediscovering God in America” in August. The event will be headlined by Rubio, who will speak alongside anti-LGBT activists David Barton, Bill Federer, Ken Graves and Mat Staver.

[…]

The event will put Rubio in the company of some of the most extreme anti-gay activists in the country:

  • David Lane, whose organization is hosting the event, believes that gay rights will lead to the “utter destruction” of the U.S. and “car bombs in Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Des Moines, Iowa.” (Learn more about David Lane here).
  • Mat Staver, whose Liberty Counsel Action sent out the invitation to the event and who is scheduled to speak, has gained a national reputation by representing Davis and Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore through the affiliated Liberty Counsel. Last month, Staver denounced memorial gatherings for the victims of the Orlando nightclub attack as “homosexual love fests.” Staver has claimed that gay people are “demonic,” seek to abuse children and are similar to terrorists, and has warned that gay rights victories could lead to “forced homosexuality” and “another civil war.” At the same time, he has praised countries that outlaw same-sex relationships. (Learn more about Mat Staver here).
  • David Barton, a Republican Party activist who styles himself as a historian, thinks that God is justly preventing a cure for HIV/AIDS because it is a divine “penalty” for homosexuality, and has lamented that public schools try to “force” students “to be homosexual” when homosexuality really should be regulated by the government. (Learn more about David Barton here).
  • Maine pastor Ken Graves preaches against “militant homofascism” that he says “seeks to take over our land and make it Sodom” and argues that gay people cannot build happy families because they are “depressed.”

Via Right Wing Watch.

Conservative Whine: Confusing, Bizarre, Very Disturbing!

CREDIT: Twitter/@SarahWoodwriter.

CREDIT: Twitter/@SarahWoodwriter.

We’ve already seen the one All Gender lav at the DNC, in the previous post. At that time, it was reported that the lav in question was full of different gendered people, with no problems at all. Now, it seems, conservatives have had time to pull themselves together and whine about it.

One of the bathrooms at the Democratic National Convention this week has been labeled an “all-gender restroom.” According to BuzzFeed, most people using the facility were unfazed by the experience, but a few members of the conservative press have been baffled about what they’re supposed to do.

Sarah Westwood of the Washington Examiner seemed to be unsure if she had a gender or not:

How is that confusing at all, let alone unnecessarily so? Here’s some help, Ms. Westwood – look at the cute little picture.

Westwood told ThinkProgress that her concern was pumping breast milk in a space in which her male coworkers could enter. She did not explain why the stall doors did not suffice to provide her with the privacy she desired like they would in any other restroom. She also did not seem to be aware that the convention center is equipped with two lactation suites specifically to meet her needs.

There we are, conservatives creating problems where there are none. Privacy? Stall doors with locks. Breast feeding? Oh look, lactation suites! Why, you don’t have to sit in a pee station for that at all.

On Fox News, Tucker Carlson described the bathrooms as “bizarre” and “disgusting.” “I mean, I guess we’re liberated by this? Everyone should come visit one and see the reality of it. It’s unbelievable.”

Just how are they bizarre and disgusting? Let’s see, a room equipped with stalls, toilets, and sinks. There are people in there, doing what they have to do. Seems like business as usual to me.

Elizabeth Harrington of the Washington Free Beacon bemoaned that setting aside the all-gender restroom “leaves female convention goers with one fewer bathroom than male attendees,” a complaint that seemed to ignore the fact that female convention goers can actually use that restroom. She decided to film a short tour of the facility as a male colleague entered a stall:

On her twitter feed, it finally dawned on Ms. Harrington that she had made Mr. Scher very uncomfortable, following him into the lav and filming him. She managed a weak apology. The irony is simply too much.

Harrington also shared a reader’s concern that toilet seats might be left up or down or have urine on them. It’s unclear if she has ever lived in a house or existed in any other space that only has a single-use restroom.

Harrington went on to say she walked by the all gender lav again, and it smelled so very, very bad, oh my yes! I wonder if she was this busy poking her nose in the gender designated lavs. The course of the great pee debate seems clear: ban all conservatives from lavs outside their own homes.

Conservative activist Dinesh D’Souza, who is peddling his new film Hillary’s America attacking Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party, decided to stage a photo demonstrating his wife’s reaction to having used the all-gender restroom.

She complained to another Twitter user that when she used it, “a man walked in,” calling the experience “very disturbing.” She did not explain why.

Marcus made a just right sign for the conservatives:

pee

Full story at Think Progress.

McCrory and the failure mode of clever.

pat-mccroryx750Pat McCrory saw fit to make jokes about transgender people at the RNC, still referencing his beloved HB 2, even with the latest massive cost to the state with the withdrawal of the NBA.

McCrory took the stage and immediately started acting like a flight attendant.

“All right, let’s be safe now. We’ve got a big crowd, so if you need to leave suddenly, we’ve got exits this way, exits this way and exits this way,” McCrory said, motioning straight ahead, to his right and to his left. “And if any of you need to use the restrooms …”

McCrory paused as the crowd of several thousand laughed and cheered his reference to legislation passed earlier this year that requires individuals to use the restroom that matches the gender they were born with, not the one they identify with.

[…]

As Politico reported, the backlash [to HB 2] reached the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on Monday, where an executive with the Raleigh-based company Citrix, Jesse Lipson, accused McCrory of not understanding how business worked by backing the law.

“Republicans may think they’re telling people which bathroom to go into,” Lipson said. “They’re actually telling people which market to stay out of.”

The Wells Fargo Center, where the event is being held, also had at least one all-gender restroom. Buzzfeed’s Dominic Holden posted a picture:

One estimate of the NBA withdrawal of the all star game is 100 million in lost revenue, and McCrory thinks he’s being clever joking about HB 2? Seriously, I don’t know how much more NC can possibly take of this – the sheer amount of lost revenue is staggering, and people cannot be happy about watching their state’s economy plunge down a hole. Right now, McCrory is a bit player in the political scene, but outside of Trump, I can’t think of anyone else who so very badly needs to be forcibly ousted from his position. The amount of damage he has done is in the phenomenal range, and on many levels.

Via Washington Post and Raw Story.

No True Catholic.

Tim Kaine.

Tim Kaine.

While Tim Kaine’s pastor describes Kaine as “very compassionate, approachable, available, and friendly,” a Washington DC-based priest, a member of the Dominican Order, has told Tim Kaine that he is not a true Catholic and not entitled to receive communion. The issue? Tim Kaine has stated his personal opposition to abortion, but refuses to enact laws as a public official that would interfere with a woman’s right to choose.

The anti-abortion site LifeNews reported that Father Thomas Petri took to Twitter to condemn Kaine. “Senator @timkaine. Do us both a favor. Don’t show up in my communion line.” The priest also told Kaine that his beliefs that women should be priest and that “abortion is fine” makes him either “poorly catechized or a dissenter.”

I can’t say I was thrilled with the Veep pick, but anyone who pisses off priests gets credit from me. Nothing riles up priests like the disobedience of thinking. Perhaps Father Petri should spend more time praying than tweeting. I’m sure if he prays hard enough, god will do something or other, right?

Full story here.

Simon Moya-Smith at the DNC.

Simon Moya-Smith's beaded medallion, a anti-R-word button, and other neck wear.

Simon Moya-Smith’s beaded medallion, a anti-R-word button, and other neck wear.

DNC. Day 1. No press credentials. Hot and humid. Sweat on my brow and back. “No hope of a press pass,” the handlers say. To hell with waiting. “Where are the protesters?” I ask. City Hall, they said. I elbow through a parade of middle-aged demonstrators in downtown Philly. Hillary haters. They gum up the sidewalk. Stuck again. Sun barrels down. “Where are you?” a text reads. “I don’t know,” I respond. “But bring a lawyer.” A Hillary fan and a Bernie Bro battle it out on the curb. Newsmen and women scramble to eavesdrop. Mics in faces. Both sides posture. The crowd swells. Everyone dripping sweat. No shade. Just sun. And noise. A raucous noise. An ominous noise. Growling. More marching in the distance. More cops coming in. I take photo after photo after photo after photo. “What’s your medallion mean?” a man asks. “Means a lot to me,” I blurt. No patience at this point. Taking my blazer off. No help. Still hot as hell. Sweet jeezus. Meanwhile, the argument continues: “She deleted emails … She doesn’t release her speeches …” the Hillary head says. “His policy proposals are impractical … Writing is on the wall. … Not voting for Hillary is a vote for Trump!” the man in a ‘Bernie or Bust’ shirt blurts. “Bernie’s busted!” a man blares from somewhere behind me. Jeers erupt. More shouting and clamoring. A rush of photographers take aim behind my head. I turn to look. A man hoists a cut-out of Bernie’s head and hands. A child’s laugh breaks the rising tension in the circle. I feel faint. Who cares? Not me … at least not right now. This is the nucleus of rotten politics in the mosh pit that has become the U.S.A.

[…]

Got a text again. This time from Marlon WhiteEagle, an editor from Wisconsin. We meet at Fatso Foggerty’s, a pub on the south side of Philly. Two older black ladies laugh hysterically at the bar. A dog at their feet barks at anyone leaving the place like an adorable bouncer. Marlon has a Coke. I have two Jack and Cokes. Bartender eyes Marlon and I. “Who the fuck are these two?” I imagined her saying. This is indeed a local pub with a revolving door of regulars. The whole place is clam-baked with cigarette smoke. Makes me want one again. “You have smokes for sale?” I ask the bartender. “Across the street,” she says. Suddenly, Marlon gets a text telling us to zip to the Wells Fargo Center – The DNC. I down my drink, we crawl into an Uber, and get dumped about a mile away from the entry. “This is as far as I can take you,” the driver says. Cops blocked the road. Ten minutes of walking in 93-degree temps and suffocating humidity, and again I’m back in the mad mix of demonstrations. A child is dressed in a suit and tie, walking among the fray, shouting, “Bernie or bust!” A white boy goes around smudging people with sage. Cops here aren’t rushing him like they rushed Josie Valadez Fraire in Denver earlier this month outside of a Trump event. They allegedly told the indigenous woman that “smoke alarms” them.

The full column and photos at ICTMN.

Trump: Ask Me Anything.

Trump’s AMA, much like his presidential campaign, is expected to be a little different. Firstly, it’s scheduled right in the middle of the Democratic National Convention and, secondly, it will be hosted on a thread that openly refers to Trump as the “God Emperor.”

Redditors on the /r/The_Donald are already excited to host Trump’s AMA Wednesday, praising the move as “tremendous” and potentially a good show of momentum for Trump’s campaign. But there is some concern the AMA could be derailed by non-Trump supporters.

Think Progress has the full story.

30.

John Calvin Coolidge granted automatic citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States in June 1924, but he also began desecration of Mount Rushmore in August 1927.

John Calvin Coolidge granted automatic citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States in June 1924, but he also began desecration of Mount Rushmore in August 1927.

With a sweep of his pen in June 1924, John Calvin Coolidge granted automatic citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.

Afterward, Coolidge, wearing a dark suit and grasping a hat in his hands, posed for a photo outside the White House with four tribal leaders—three of whom were dressed in traditional attire. Although the photograph likely was taken several months after Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act it came to symbolize a new era in federal-Indian relations.

President Calvin Coolidge with four Osage Indians after Coolidge signed the bill granting Indians full citizenship. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.)

President Calvin Coolidge with four Osage Indians after Coolidge signed the bill granting Indians full citizenship. (Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.)

Also known as the Snyder Act, the Indian Citizenship Act, sought to reward Indians for service to their country while also assimilating them into mainstream American society. Because two-thirds of the indigenous population had already gained citizenship through marriage, military service or land allotments, the act simply extended citizenship to “all noncitizen Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States.”

Passage of the act came partly in response to Indians’ overwhelming service during World War I. About 10,000 Indians enlisted in the military and served during the war, despite not being recognized as U.S. citizens.

[Read more…]

Twitter, Oh Twitter II.

Megan-Olson-Facebook-800x430

Megan Olson, Facebook.

Perhaps the title of this post should be What Trump Hath Wrought. Trump’s open embracing of racism has people all over the place cutting loose with what they really think about all those others. It’s not as if race relations were all wondrous rainbows and unicorn farts, but they have gotten remarkably worse in a very short amount of time.

A Colorado waitress reacted to customers leaving an unsatisfactory tip by fantasizing on social media about killing Mexicans in a “purge” — and then she lost her job.

Megan Olson, who goes by the name “megatron” on Twitter, posted the violent message referring to to movie “The Purge: Election Year” earlier this month on her personal account, reported KMGH-TV.

Megan-Olson-tweet

“If we had a real life purge I would kill as many Mexicans as I could in one night,” Olson tweeted, followed by the hashtag “learn how to tip you fucking twats.”

Olson apologized on her Facebook page and promised she would never say something like that again.

“I wrote hurtful, inconsiderate, insensitive and careless words and I understand the amount of people I have offended by that,” she posted. “There are no excuses for what I have done. I sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, apologize to everyone for my momentary lack of judgment. I want you all to know that I do not actually feel this way.”

Maybe I shouldn’t, but I’m inclined to believe her. About a hundred years ago, I waited tables, and it’s hard work, and often thankless, and more often than that, badly tipped. Some days, your temper gets the better of you. Anyroad, Ms. Olson lost her job, and I think that’s for the best. It might be better to lay off the whole working with the public for a while, that’s insanely stressful.

Back when I waited tables, it was known that the worst tippers were the Sunday church crowd, and from what I hear these days, that hasn’t changed. Somehow, I imagine anyone who had an unglued moment and wrote “If we had a real life purge I would kill as many Christians as I could in one night,” would probably be under arrest with people baying for blood, because that would be seen as much more terrible than racism. And that leads to the massive problem hanging over all our heads:

One activist said Olson’s tweet was part of a growing trend of anti-Latino violence and rhetoric inspired by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

“We have seen a fear-mongering campaign that has legitimized racist comments like this across all social media networks,” said Maria Handley, executive director of Generation Latino. “This hateful racist comment from a Greeley waitress is not unique. We are seeing it acted out in public, at schools and in our neighborhoods. This vitriol and hate that we are seeing in our communities is real and the man leading that is running for president.”

I read this morning that Trump has gained the lead in a current poll. If you aren’t fucking terrified yet, get that way. We’re halfway down the path to total destruction here.

Via Raw Story.

#GOPSoWhite

I think this sets a record for the most number of #CapitolHill interns in a single selfie. #SpeakerSelfie.

A photo posted by Speaker Paul Ryan (@speakerryan) on

Last Saturday, Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) posted an Instagram photo featuring Capitol Hill interns with the caption, “I think this sets a record for the most number of #CapitolHill interns in a single selfie.”

That may be true, but people took note of the photo for a different reason — almost everyone in it appears to be white.

Some Twitter users noted the lack of diversity, posting about the photo with a #GOPSoWhite hashtag.

A few days later, interns working for Congressional Democrats decided to respond. Audra Jackson, an intern working for Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), decided to take her own selfie — one showcasing the diversity of interns on her side of the aisle.

Pictures, worth thousands of words. Via Think Progress.