SPY Vs I

In Bill Maher's New Rules - he opined about the price we're paying for the lack of privacy in America, whether it's the NSA, or the telecoms or social networking and what should be done about it.

VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

SANTA ANA COPS HAVE SOME SPLANIN TO DO

A medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Ana, California plans to sue police for their conduct while raiding the facility last month, after producing footage showing two officers disparaging an amputee woman who was in a wheelchair.

OC Weekly published the footage on Thursday, which shows one officer asking an unidentified female colleague, “Did you punch that one-legged old benita?”

“I was about to kick her in her f*cking nub,” the woman responds, an apparent reference to Marla James, a local marijuana activist who was at the Sky High Collective when the officers conducted the raid. The same female officer is seen walking with James, who uses a motorized wheelchair.

“You know what, I was really nice to that woman,” James said of the officer. “I even complimented her on her hair. I treated that woman with respect and I have no idea why she wanted to kick my stump.”

The video was recorded on cameras secretly installed by the facility’s owners, who were expecting to be raided after Sky High failed to qualify for a lottery held earlier this year that granted 20 local dispensaries permission to operate within the city.

James and her husband said they were at the dispensary because they had been informed by their attorney, David Pappas, about the raid. Pappas said he was tipped off by City Attorney Sonia Carvalho.

“We were there to make sure that the employees did not offer resistance,” she said.“We had trained them what to do, which was not to talk and do exactly what the police told them to do.”

Pappas released a 7-minute clip showing excerpts of the footage, which also shows the officers apparently disabling the dispensary’s security cameras. The video also shows one male officer taking a bite out of what Pappas said was a marijuana “edible,” a

“I don’t know if that’s [a marijuana] edible,” Police Chief Carlos Rojas told Voice of OC after watching the excerpts. “Where did the officer get it?”

While Rojas said his department is investigating the incident, police spokesperson Chris Revere told KTLA-TV that authorities want to see the full recording of the raid.

“We’re obviously concerned about the conduct that we saw in the edited video,” Revere said. “We’re also concerned that the video was heavily edited.”

[h/t] the raw story





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STAFF WRITER

SEAN TOON NO ORIDNARY IDIOT

SEAN TOON ANIMAL ABUSER

Sean Toon, who called police to complain about group of black teenagers trying to enter a party on Friday, was jailed for violent behavior and animal torture

The man who called 911 to complain about a group of black teenagers at a pool party in Texas, and defended the controversial police response as a “good amount of aggression”, is a convicted felon who spent time in jail for violent behavior and torturing animals.

Sean Toon was sentenced to more than nine months in jail after pleading guilty to killing and maiming prize farm animals and covering them in paint, according to court records in Texas. He was separately sentenced to two and a half months for an assault.

Toon, 33, called police on Friday to allege that a group of predominantly African American young people were climbing over fences to get into a party and cookout at a community pool in his neighborhood of Craig Ranch in McKinney, a suburb of Dallas.

Corporal Eric Casebolt resigned from the McKinney police department on Tuesday amid a growing outcry from protesters and activists over video footage showing him roughly manhandling a black teenage girl and pointing his handgun at two black teenage boys.

His attorney is expected to give a press conference shortly.

In an interview with Fox News this week, Toon defended Casebolt’s actions. “It was chaos when he arrived there and he kind of had to match that situation with a good amount of aggression to kind of calm the crowd down,” he said.

Toon said the teenagers had started the dispute by accusing residents of racism for alerting a security guard to fence jumpers. He also accused the crowd of intimidating his seven-year-old child.

Toon complained that the neighborhood had a problem with “out of control kids”.

As a teenager, Toon had two serious encounters with the criminal justice system. He could not be reached for an interview. Asked whether he had any comment about his past crimes, his wife said in a text message: “In the end you will get what you deserve.”

In November 1999, aged 18, Toon and three high school friends were arrested and expelled from school after vandalizing the agricultural center of a rival high school district and attacking animals housed there, many of which were owned and cared for by school children.

“Cows and pigs were cut and bruised, apparently beaten with wooden boards. And baby turkeys were slain, their limbs torn apart,” the Dallas Morning News reported at the time. Dale Gardner, a teacher in the school district’s agriscience and technology program, told the newspaper: “It was brutal. There’s no way to describe it. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

About a dozen prize turkeys, which were reportedly being bred by a student aiming to win money for his scholarship fund, were feared killed.

Animals and buildings were covered in green and gold paint, according to reports. These were the colors of Toon’s high school, Newman Smith, whose football team rivaled that of RL Turner High, whose students used the agricultural center.

Sean Toon, you are this worlds worst person of the day asshat, congratulations Einstein! 

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

“RACE PIMP”

News host Sean Hannity and conservative radio host Kevin Jackson tried to paint Ferguson activist Deray McKesson as a “professional protester” during a contentious interview on Tuesday.

“You haven’t been to the funeral of any cop that was killed in the line of duty, I’ll bet you that,” Jackson told McKesson. “I bet you haven’t saved up for that. I bet you haven’t been to the celebration ceremonies of cops who protected many, many black people for decades. I bet you haven’t been to the funeral of any of the kids that are killed that aren’t in these types of scenarios where race-baiters and race pimps like you appear.”

Jackson also accused McKesson of traveling around the US “starting problems” in the hopes of gaining notoriety.

“So, Kevin, have you been to the funerals of all the victims of Sandy Hook?” McKesson responded. “Or all the victims of Katrina? Do you not care about those, Kevin? Do you not care, Kevin?”

As McKesson went on, Jackson yelled at him, repeating his accusations.

“You should stop yelling,” McKesson said. “You want me to feed into this narrative. I’ve answered the question many times, and I’ll say it again to you: I’m going to places like many others, where the police have killed people.”

Before McKesson could continue, however, Hannity began chiming in on top of Jackson’s yelling.

“Do you believe cops are innocent until proven guilty?” the host asked.

McKesson responded by citing the attack on 15-year-old Dajerria Becton by former McKinney, Texas police officer Eric Casebolt. Casebolt resigned his position on Tuesday after video of the incident spread online.

“What I believe is that that girl should not have been abused, and Mike Brown should be alive,” McKesson said. “Freddie Gray should be alive.”

Hannity — who argued earlier this week that Casebolt could have been “shanked” by black teenagers during the encounter — began the segment by bemoaning the increase in “anti-police protesters” focusing on “select incidents,” and scoffed at McKesson’s intent to organize a 501 (c)(3) group to continue his work.

“Is this what you do for a living, you want to set up a 501 (c)(3) tax-exempt organization?” Hannity asked. “Is this your profession now?” 

“I’m somebody who’s focused on justice,” McKesson told him. “Is this a question you’re asking me because I’m a person of color? Would you ask white people this, too?” 

“It has nothing to do with race,” Hannity replied after stammering. “It has to do with, is this your profession? You’re tweeting out that you’re a professional protestor.” 

Later, Hannity asked if McKesson had been involved in any “rioting” or “looting,” adding, “A lot of minority store owners lost their life’s possessions in these riots.” 

“There has been property damage in some cities, and I’ve not participated in that,” McKesson said. 

“Do you still believe that false and proven false narrative of ‘Hands Up, Don’t Shoot’?” Hannity asked. 

“I think that Michael Brown should be alive today,” McKesson replied. “And that he was murdered by a cop who used his power because he knew that power would be protected.”

cript type="text/javascript" src="http://video.foxnews.com/v/embed.js?id=4286724157001&w=425&h=263">

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

“MCKINNEY HAS A RACE PROBLEM AND THEY NEED TO GET IT UNDER CONTROL”

Appearing on Fox4, a former McKinney police officer blasted the conduct of Officer Eric Casebolt, who threw an unarmed teenage girl to the ground, before saying local police authorities need to nip their race problem in the bud before it grows.

According to former officer Pete Schulte, Casebolt was over the line when he roughly pulled 15-year-old Dajerria Becton to the ground, saying, “I don’t care what she was yelling at that officer. Anything would not have justified throwing her to the ground and pushing her down and throwing her face into the concrete like he did.”

Commenting on Casebolt drawing his service weapon as spectators came to help the screaming girl, Schulte called it “crazy,” before noting that one of the fellow officers who came to Casebolt’s aid grabbed his arm as if pulling the weapon down.

Schulte, who is now an attorney, had advice to the McKinney Police Department, saying they needed to get the fallout from the viral video “under control,” due to the racial implications.

“There is an indication based on watching the video that the white people who were around the officers weren’t talked to, they weren’t pushed away, they weren’t told to get on the ground, they weren’t put in handcuffs. The only individuals McKinney police were doing that to were those that were African-American,” he said.

“McKinney police have got to get this under control before tomorrow,” he stated “At this point in America, in policing, there’s too much out there right now with Ferguson. They got to get out there in front of this and make sure that citizens, even outside of the city of McKinney, understand that they’re going to do the right thing and take corrective action and that this was not racially motivated.”

Watch the video below from Fox4:

Fox4News.com | Dallas-Fort Worth News, Weather, Sports

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

“OFFICER OF THE YEAR” SUSPENDED FOR ACTIONS AT POOL PARTY

ERIC CASEBOLT PROTECTING AND SERVING THE SHIT OUT OF MCKINNEY RESIDENTS

UPDATED 10:52 AM: LONGTIME MCKINNEY COP SAYS POOL INCIDENT UNJUSTIFIED AND THAT THE DEPARTMENT HAS A RACE PROBLEM

A video uploaded to YouTube on Saturday shows predominantly white cops detaining, handcuffing and, at one point, physically holding down black teenagers at a neighborhood pool. At one point, an unidentified white officer grabs a black teenage girl in a bikini by the hair and wrestles her to the ground. When other black teenagers try to intervene, that cop draws his weapon and briefly chases after two black young men. After these two African American young men flee, the cop returns to the girl in the bikini, forcing her face into the ground and then sitting on her in an apparent effort to prevent her from standing up.



This cop may face disciplinary charges. A statement issued by the McKinney, Texas Police Department says that “McKinney Police later learned of a video that was taken at the scene by an unknown party. This video has raised concerns that are being investigated by the McKinney Police Department. At this time, one of the responding officers has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of this investigation.”

The statement also claims that police responded to a “disturbance at the Craig Ranch North Community Pool” regarding “multiple juveniles at the location, who do not live in the area or have permission to be there, refusing to leave,” and that “Police received several additional calls related to this incident advising that juveniles were now actively fighting.”

It’s unclear whether some or all of the teens were actually at the pool without permission, but it appears likely that they believed that they were attending a pool party that was open to the public. Zahid Arab, a reporter for a local Fox affiliate, reported that a party at the local pool was advertised on social media.

The police department’s claim that “juveniles were now actively fighting” may also be literally true, but subsequent reporting suggests that white adults who lived in the neighborhood bear the lion’s share of the blame for this fighting. According to teens interviewed by BuzzFeed News, “the police were called after a fight broke out between adults and youths at the pool after the adults made racist comments telling the black children to leave the area and return to ‘Section 8 public housing.’” One white teen added that “when she and her friends objected to the racist comments about public housing an adult woman then became violent.”

RELATED:

[h/t thinkrpogress]

The police’s brutal treatment of black teens attending a pool party in McKinney, Texas has sparked a nationwide outrage. The video shows Officer Eric Casebolt grabbing 15-year-old Dajerria Becton, unarmed and wearing a bikini, by the hair and wrestling her to the ground. The seven-minute clip, posted Saturday, has already been viewed over 1 million times on YouTube and the incident was the number one trending topic in the United States on Twitter for much of Sunday.

But a reporter for Fox4 in Dallas, Zahid Arab, interviewed local homeowners who witnessed the incident and defended the officers’ conduct. These homeowners, according to Arab, say they believe the “officers’ safety was at risk.”

One of these homeowners appeared on camera, but allowed only her hands to be filmed. “I feel absolutely horrible for the police and what’s going on… they were completely outnumbered and they were just doing the right thing when these kids were fleeing and using profanity and threatening security guards,” she said.

Officer Eric Casebolt:
Officer Eric Casebolt was identified Sunday afternoon as the McKinney Police Department employee who was suspended after appearing in a viral video showing him roughly arresting teenagers at a Texas pool party, KDFW-TV reporter Zahid Arab reported.

Sources confirm:McKinney Patrol Supervisor Cpl. Eric Casebolt placed on admin leave following conduct at pool partypic.twitter.com/JaJMFWR5Ef

— Zahid Arab (@ZahidArabFox4) June 7, 2015

Casebolt was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into this incident. According to a LinkdIn profile in his name, Casebolt has worked as a police officer in McKinney since August 2005. He was named Officer of the Year in 2008, and his duties included neighborhood patrol, community policing and crime prevention.

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

LOCK THE DOORS, JOSH IS IN THE HOUSE

The Duggar family put locks on their children’s doors and put a stop to games like hide-and-seek after they found out that oldest child Josh Duggar had sexually molested four of his sisters, two of the sisters revealed Friday.

Jessa Seewald and Jill Dillard revealed to Fox News’ Megyn Kelly Friday that they were two of Josh’s victims. The sisters spoke about the steps their parents took to try to minimize the risk of another molestation after they learned of Josh’s actions.

“My parents said, OK, we’re not going to do this hide and seek thing where two people go off together,” Jill said. “As a mother now, I look back and think my parents did such an amazing job…Not only taking care of Josh, but us girls.”

The sisters said that revealing themselves as Josh’s victims “wouldn’t have been our first choice,” but they chose to tell their story to Fox News after the story of Josh’s actions broke “to come out and set the record straight.”

Last month, news broke that Josh, the oldest of the family’s 19 children, had admitted to his parents that he’d inappropriately touched five girls. Josh committed the acts back in 2002 and 2003, when he was 14 and 15 years old, but the family’s patriarch, Jim Bob Duggar, waited for more than a year to report the incident to authorities. Josh resigned as head of the conservative Family Research Council’s lobbying arm late last month.

In the interview, Jill and Jessa said they didn’t know about the molestation's — which they said happened while they were about 12 and 10 years old — until their parents told them what had happened. Jessa said that the molestation amounted to “mild inappropriate touching on fully clothed victims, most of it while girls were sleeping.” She said that Josh’s actions were “very wrong” and “not permissible,” but she also defended her brother against some of the media’s claims.

“I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him a child molester or a pedophile or a rapist…I’m like, that is so overboard and a lie really,” she said. “In Josh’s case, he was a boy — a young boy in puberty, and a little too curious about girls. And that got him into trouble.”

Jill said that Josh also asked each girl to forgive him, and that she made the choice to do so.

The sisters’ interview came a few days after parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar also spoke to Megyn Kelly. In that interview, Jim Bob minimized the actions of his son, saying that what Josh did “was not rape or anything like that.”

“He had gone in and just basically touched them over their clothes while they were sleeping. They didn’t even know he had done it,” Jim Bob said. He added later that there “were a couple incidents where he touched them under their clothes, but it was like a few seconds.”

The Duggars have been strongly criticized for not reporting Josh immediately to the police and for downplaying Josh’s actions. Questions have also been raised about the Duggars’ homeschooling curriculum, the Advanced Training Institute (ATI). ATI has a lesson on Counseling Sexual Abuse, which includes a section titled “Why did God Let It Happen?” and lists “Immodest dress, Indecent exposure, Being out from protection of our parents, Being with evil friends” as potential reasons why the “defrauding” occurred. It’s not known whether or not the Duggars used ATI’s handout on sexual abuse to counsel their daughters.

[h/t thinkprogress]

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

CHRISTIANITY UNDER ATTACK? ONLY IN THE EYES OF THE WING-NUT

Bill Maher is getting tired of conservatives and Wing-Nuts complaining about Christians being persecuted in America, despite Christians being a significant majority of the American population.

He ran through a series of quotes from 2016 candidates and conservative pundits decrying Christian persecution or attacks against the right. Bill O’Reilly said a few weeks ago that it’s open season on Christians and white men in America; Maher sarcastically pointed to “all those recent videos of police shooting unarmed white clergymen” as evidence.

VIDEO COURTESY OF HBO




And what set Maher off the most about these cries of Christian persecution is that he’s the only one they can really argue is doing it, and doesn’t want the credit going to anyone else for his efforts.

Maher demanded to know where the persecution is coming from. Maher went through a whole list of people and institutions the right claims is persecuting Christians and, one by one, said it’s just not happening.

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

AS DUGGAR’S CONTINUE SLAMMING TRANSGENDERS, AMERICA AWAITS TO SEE IF JIM BOB WILL INSIST ON SONS EXECUTION FOR DIDDLING HIS SISTERS

CRAZY EYES MICHELLE DUGGAR FULL THROTTLE HYPOCRISY

During Wednesday night’s interview with Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar about their son Josh’s history of molesting his younger sisters, Fox News’ Megyn Kelley pressed the conservative couple to justify their advocacy against LGBT equality. Specifically, she asked Michelle about her robocalls against Fayetteville’s LGBT ordinance, in which she smeared transgender people as a threat to the safety of women and children. “How could you unfairly… compare transgender people to child molesters, suggest they are child molesters, knowing what you know about Josh?”

Michelle doubled down on her comments, erasing the very experience of transgender people’s identities by saying, “I think that protecting young girls and not allowing young men and men in general to go into a girls’ locker room is just common sense.”

Kelley insisted, “But this is different because you injected child molestation into it.” Jim Bob interrupted to clarify that Michelle said “pedophile,” which requires the perpetrator to be of a certain age, but Josh was younger — “a child preying on a child,” not a pedophile — so it’s not a fair comparison. Michelle then claimed that they were the ones being victimized by these charges of hypocrisy, explaining, “This is more about — there’s an agenda, and there’s people that are purposing to try to bring things out and twisting them to hurt and slander.”




What Michelle actually said last summer was that Fayetteville’s nondiscrimination order was that men — “yes, I said men!” — would be allowed into “women’s and girls’ restrooms, locker rooms, showers, sleeping areas, and other areas that are designated for females only.” She referred to “males with past child predator convictions” — not “pedophiles” — who might “claim they are female” to enter women’s spaces. “We should never place the preference of an adult over the safety and innocence of a child.” A transgender woman is neither a man nor somebody with a “preference,” and there has never been an incident of gender identity protections somehow enabling or protecting such predatory behavior. Since the Duggars waited well over a year to even report Josh’s behavior and because criminal charges were never filed, he has no “past child predator convictions” for his admitted past child perversion.

Kelley missed an opportunity to call out another example of hypocrisy from the Duggars’ past public statements. In 2002, when Jim Bob was running for U.S. Senate, he actually argued that rape and incest “represent heinous crimes and as such should be treated as capital crimes.” As part of his justification for opposing abortion even in cases of rape, he suggested, “If a woman is raped, the rapist should be executed instead of the innocent unborn baby.” Despite the fact that Josh inappropriately touched multiple young girls on multiple occasions, Jim Bob has yet to advocate for his son’s execution.

The Duggar’s are just another example of the hypocrisy that oozes from Conservative Christian Family Values.

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

TARA LYNN BELCHER, RACIST MUCH?

Tara Lynn Belcher told police she had just been fired from her job after arguing with and calling customers racial slurs, but a video shot the same day shows she didn’t learn from the experience. Belcher was caught on camera going off on a racist rant in a second, violent incident that led to her arrest.

According to police, Belcher, 28, of Myrtle Beach, was walking to catch a cab after being sacked when an African American man started walking alongside her, asking her questions and filming her with the intention of posting the video online,MyHorryNews.com reported. The video is now on YouTube and has nearly 430,000 views.

The video, posted May 25, starts with the man holding the camera on Belcher and saying, “But you called that man a n**ger for no reason,” to which Belcher responds, “Fuck you. Because he’s a n**ger.”

She then launches into a racial slur-laden rant.

“I call people n**gers if they act like n***ers,” she says into the camera, then to someone on her cell phone she says, “Yeah this filthy n***er is filming me so you need to hurry up.”

TARA LYNN BELCHER, BEING TARA LYNN BELCHER

She told police the man spit on her, punched her and stole her cell phone.

But the video reveals it’s Belcher who spit in the man’s face. He recoils and slaps her in response. The two then scuffle with each other. Police did not find her cell phone on him.

According to a police report obtained by MyHorryNews, Belcher grabbed the man’s dreadlocks and pulled “a bunch of hair” out of his head.

Belcher was arrested and charged with assault and battery and marijuana possession. She is currently free on $1,401 bond.

The man’s video was downloaded for use as evidence by police and then posted to social media.

According to Supreme Justice John Roberts, racism is dead. Ah, maybe not so much Einstein! 

[h/t the raw story]

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

UNCLE SUGAR HUCKABEE WANTS TO RELIVE CHILDHOOD AS A TRANSGENDER SO HE CAN PEEK AT GIRLS IN LOCKER ROOM

MIKE HUCKABEE AS TRANSGENDER HIGH SCHOOL PERV

Right-wing nut job and republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee joked that he wished he was young again — so he could pretend to be transgender and watch girls shower in locker rooms.

During his speech at the 2015 National Religious Broadcasters Convention in February, Huckabee attacked laws to allow transgender students to use facilities that correspond to their gender identity. His speech was posted online by World Net Daily over the weekend, and his comments were highlighted by BuzzFeed on Tuesday.

“For those who do not think that we are under threat, simply recognize that the fact that we are now in city after city watching ordinances say that your seven-year-old daughter, if she goes into the restroom cannot be offended and you can’t be offended if she’s greeted there by a 42-year-old man who feels more like a woman than he does a man,” Huckabee said.

“Now I wish that someone told me that when I was in high school that I could have felt like a woman when it came time to take showers in PE,” Huckabee continued. “I’m pretty sure that I would have found my feminine side and said, ‘Coach, I think I’d rather shower with the girls today.’ You’re laughing because it sounds so ridiculous doesn’t it?”

He complained that conservatives were ridiculed for “pointing out the obvious.”

It is not the first time that Huckabee has joked about pretending to be transgender to shower with girls. He made similar comments after California enacted a law to allow transgender students to use school facilities consistent with their gender identity.

“And by the way, it is a good thing that that didn’t come up when I was in high school ’cause I’m pretty sure that every boy in my high school would have suddenly felt like that he was just a little more comfortable showering with the girls no matter how uncomfortable the girls might have been with it,” Huckabee said in 2013.

Mike Huckabee, today’s worst sexual predator of the day! Conservative Christian Family Values, something we all shouldn’t have.

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

“BYE BYE BUGGIE”

Jon Stewart mocked lawmakers and President Barack Obama for trying to scare Americans into supporting the Patriot Act.

He played clips of several senators blasting Sen. Rand Paul, who forced the expiration of some provisions of the legislation passed in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“I’ve run for president twice, but I would never stoop to something like this,” said Sen. John McCain, in one video clip.

Stewart showed a photo of Sarah Palin and wondered how McCain had not yet learned not to set himself up for jokes about his former running mate.

“I imagine McCain out jogging with an out-of-shape friend, and he’s like, you’re the most useless running mate I’ve ever had – what, why are you laughing?” Stewart said.

To celebrate the break in the collection of bulk metadata by phone companies, Stewart decided to call an old friend – John Oliver.

“Penis, penis, penis,” he shouted into the phone to a bewildered Oliver.

Stewart pointed out that the surveillance provisions had not prevented terrorist attacks at Fort Hood, the Boston Marathon, and the anti-Islam comic show in Garland, Texas – even though the government was tracking each of those suspects.

“If the Patriot Act is acting so poorly, why do we have to keep it?” he said.

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STAFF WRITER

SANDERS SAYS HE WOULD TAX THE RICH AT 90%

In an interview with CNBC’s John Harwood, Sen. Bernie Sanders , who is running for the Democratic presidential candidacy, said he could back a 90 percent top marginal tax rate.

Harwood brought up that some have likened efforts to combat income inequality to Nazi Germany. Sanders noted sarcastically, “When radical, socialist Dwight D. Eisenhower was president, I think the highest marginal tax rate was something like 90 percent.”

Harwood followed up by asking, “When you think about something like 90 percent, you don’t think that’s obviously too high?” to which Sanders replied, “No.”

He continued, “What I think is obscene…when you have the top one-tenth of one percent owning almost as much as the bottom 90.”

VIDEO COURTESY OF TYT




Sanders is right that the top marginal tax rate, that paid by the wealthiest Americans, was around 90 percent under Eisenhower — it was actually 92 percent in the 1950s. Today, the top marginal tax rate is 39.6 percent, although the richest 1 percent end up paying less than that on average and the average rate actually fell for many years.

Republicans have consistently claimed that higher tax rates on the wealthy will hold back economic growth, while lowering rates further will spur it forward.

But that’s not likely the case. Last year, economists found that the point at which the top tax rate is high enough to maximize government revenues but not so high that it discourages the rich from trying to earn more is quite high: about 95 percent for the 1 percent. History bears that out. Economists have pointed out that post-war American growth has been higher during periods with much higher top marginal tax rates and lower when tax rates were substantially lower. When the top rate was more than 90 percent in the 50s, economic growth averaged more than 4 percent a year. But recently when the top rate has been closer to 35 percent, growth has been less than 2 percent a year on average.

The point of higher tax rates isn’t just to penalize the rich, of course. They would need to serve a policy function. For Sanders, that’s combating income inequality. “If you have seen a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the top tenth of one percent, you’ve got to transfer that back,” he told Harwood.

A 90 percent top tax rate could achieve that goal. The same economists who found that the rich can swallow a 95 percent rate also found that a 90 percent tax rate for the 1 percent could significantly reduce the Gini index, a measure of income inequality. It would also help lower wealth inequality. Meanwhile, everyone’s well-being would improve, rich and poor alike.

So far, many Republican presidential candidates have proposed a radically different approach: a flat tax. Sen. Ted Cruz , Sen. Rand Paul , and Ben Carson have all backed this idea. The details of each proposal differs, but the basic premise is an attempt to simplify the tax code by only having one rate that everyone pays, rather than the current system in which rates increase as income increases. Analysis is of one flat tax plan put forward by Texas Gov. Rick Perry found that it would raise taxes for those at the bottom of the income scale by between $102 and $462, while the tax bill for those making more than $1 million a year would decrease by about a half million dollars.

It would also lower government revenue by between $500 billion and $1 trillion a year. If a candidate wanted to maintain the current level of revenue, it would require taxing everyone, rich or poor, by at least 25 percent.

[h/t thinkproress]

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STAFF WRITER

AMORY MISSISSIPPI COUPLE AT WALMART SHOW TRUE COLORS

In a video uploaded to YouTube, a black woman and her daughter got into a confrontation with a white couple over their inability to access their car in a Walmart parking lot, with the man calling her a “stupid-ass fucking n****r just trying to get someone.”

With both oversize SUV’s filling their parking spaces making it almost impossible for anyone to open the car doors, the argument escalated leading the black woman to call 911 as her daughter implored her, “Mom, come on.



With her daughter filming the interaction, the black woman argues with the man over the car door banging into her car as his wife looks on while smirking.

Watch the video below, uploaded to YouTube by D Worthington:

“M’am, all I wanted to see is if you left a bad mark,” she tries to explain. “Y’all are making a big deal.”

Turning to the man, she says, “You already got a chip on your shoulder that says I’m a n****r.”

“What’s the difference in me sayin’ it and you sayin’ it?” he asks, to which she replies “Is there something wrong with you?” before his wife jumps in with “You call yourselves that.” 

Calling him a “prejudiced racist motherfucker” the man casually stands smoking a cigarette repeating, “So are you.” 

Turning to her daughter the woman, says, “Baby, there is something wrong with him. He’s got a chip on his shoulder. He’s fat and he’s homely.”

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

JEB BUSH'S BROTHERLY LOVE

VIDEO COURTESY OF MARK FIORE

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Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

“IF YOU FUCK WITH ME I’M GOING TO BREAK YOUR LEGS”

How many more of these stories do I need to post before we admit that we have a police problem, and it’s not “just a few bad apples”?



“Can you tell me why I’m being arrested?” Hamza Jeylani asks an officer in a video captured on his cell phone.

“Because I feel like arresting you,” the officer, who the American Civil Liberties Union identifies as Officer Rod Webber, replies in the short video.

This exchange happens after Webber calmly threatens Jeylani, who does not appear to be offering any resistance whatsoever. “Plain and simple,” Webber tells Jeylani, “if you fuck with me I’m going to break your legs before you even get a chance to run.”

According to the ACLU, Jeylani and four of his friends — all of whom are black teenagers — were pulled over after making a U-turn in a parking lot in South Minneapolis. The four young men had been playing basketball at a YMCA. Despite Officer Webber’s statement that Jeylani was arrested because the cop felt like arresting him, the police claim that they suspected the four youth of stealing the car they were driving.

Jeylani, however, says that the driver of the car had documents showing that he owned the car. And the ACLU adds that “police said the stolen car they were after was a blue Honda Civic. The teenagers, however, were driving a blue Toyota Camry.”

The video of Jeylani’s arrest was released alongside a report detailing racial arrest patterns in Minneapolis. It concludes that African Americans in Minneapolis “are 8.7 times more likely than white people to be arrested for low-level offenses, like trespassing, disorderly conduct, consuming in public, and lurking.” Meanwhile, Native Americans are “8.6 times more likely to be arrested for low-level offenses than white people.”

When cops go rogue and get sued and lose, it should come from their pension fund and not tax payers’ dollars. That might deter the “protecting and serving” the shit out of the black community!

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

IN BARSTO CALIFORNIA BLACK PREGNANT WOMEN GET TREATED DIFFERENTLY THAN WHITE WOMEN

Officials with the city of Barstow, California insisted this week that officers had acted properly when they used force to arrest a pregnant woman who refused to show them her identification, even though the charges were later dismissed.

In police body camera video obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), an officer is responding to an apparent traffic dispute between Charlena Michelle Cooks, who is 8 months pregnant and black, and an unidentified white woman.



From THE RAW STORY:

The officer first talks to the white woman, who accuses Cooks of acting “all crazy.”

“I don’t see a crime that has been committed,” the officer admits after examining the woman’s car. After promising the woman a police report, the officer heads over to talk to Cooks.

Cooks explains that the argument occurred because the woman disagreed with the way she was driving in the parking lot. Cooks also said that the woman frightened her daughter, who was in second grade.

“She called the police for whatever reason, I don’t know,” Cooks says. “Should I feel threatened by her because she’s white? Because she’s white and she’s making threats to me?”

At that point the officer asks for Cooks’ name, but she insists that she does not have to tell him.

“I actually do have the right to ask you for your name,” the officer replies.

“Let me make sure,” Cooks says as she makes a phone call to someone.

The officer says he will give Cooks two minutes to verify his right to ask for her identification. But less than 20 seconds later, the officer and a colleague are performing a painful wristlock takedown on Cooks. The pregnant woman screams as she is forced belly first into the ground.

“Why are you resisting?” the officer demands.

“Please! I’m pregnant!” Cooks exclaims. “Please, stop this!”

ACLU SoCal staff attorney Adrienna Wong pointed out that Cooks had a right to refuse to show her ID.

“It would be a wrongful arrest, but it would be an arrest,” she noted. “Even if an officer is conducting an investigation, in California, unlike some other states, he can’t just require a person to provide ID for no reason.”

“Officers in California should not be using the obstruction law, Penal Code 148, to arrest someone for failing to provide ID, when they can’t find any other reason to arrest them,” Wong added.

ACLU SoCal staff attorney Jessica Price observed that Cooks, who is black, was handled very differently than the white woman.

“Imagine getting wrestled to the ground and handcuffed in front of your child’s elementary school,” Price remarked. “Imagine interacting with other parents afterwards. Imagine what kids who saw the incident tell your child. And if you think the whole incident happened because of your race, how does that impact your view of police?”




NFTOS

STAFF WRITER

137 SHOTS FIRED AND PUNISHMENT FOR CLEVELAND POLICE A CAKE WALK

Back in 2012, an unauthorized car chase ended in the shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams, who were both unarmed. Nearly 60 police vehicles were involved in the chase, as was one-third of Cleveland’s police force. When the pursuit ended, 13 officers shot a total of 137 rounds at Russell and Williams. But before Saturday morning’s not-guilty verdict in the case against Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo, Brelo was the sole person charged with voluntary manslaughter because he stood on the hood of the victims’ car and shot 15 rounds — many of which were fired after the other officers stopped shooting. In the end, Judge John O’Donnell ruled that Brelo was justified in using lethal force because he feared for his life, and said he could not conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Brelo’s shots killed Russell and Williams.

Even as he faced criminal charges, Brelo remained on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the investigation, and Cleveland hasn’t been able to permanently fire a single officer involved in the incident. Indeed, the ruling and events that transpired after the fatal encounter highlight just how difficult it is to discipline officers who use lethal force.

Out of 100 officers who had a hand in the car chase, 85 officers were disciplined. However, not one of the officers was permanently fired for his or her role in the pursuit or subsequent shootout, despite their tactical blunders and disregard for department rules and instructions. In 2013, 12 supervisors were penalized for various infractions, such as breaking emergency driving protocol, but many disciplinary actions were reversed. For instance, one fired sergeant was rehired after an arbitrator concluded the supervisor was wrongfully terminated. The same arbitrator decided that two demoted supervisors could also return to their previous positions. Both determinations were backed by a county judge.

On the flip side, a contingent of nine “non-African American” officers who shot at Russell and Williams filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging they were unfairly sanctioned due to their race and media bias. According to the lawsuit, the City of Cleveland subjects non-African American officers to stricter disciplinary measures. The plaintiffs point to “assignments to boring and menial tasks in the gym with no of chance overtime, secondary employment, pay for court appearances, no chance to apply for promotions or transfers to specialized units, and being prohibited from engaging in active police work as they had grown accustomed and contracted for,” after the 2012 shooting. Should they win, the officers would receive monetary compensation for damages incurred.

While it may seem unprecedented that all 13 officers who fired at Russell and Williams were allowed to continue their policing duties, that privilege is par for the course. Across the country, officers are terminated - then reinstated with back pay, thanks to police unions and the arbitration process — a problem that persists in Cleveland, according to the DOJ. Through the arbitration process, independent mediators, or arbitrators, meet to review excessive force cases to determine whether or not officers are guilty or deserving of disciplinary action. In many cases, they reverse charges and disciplinary measures.

During its investigation of the CPD, the DOJ found that very few officers are disciplined for use of force, despite rampant police brutality. In fact, most punishments were doled out for smaller procedural violations, like not completing an official report. Last February, Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, decried the arbitration process, claiming the system makes ridding the CPD of troublesome officers extremely difficult. For instance, Officer Shani Hannah stabbed her boyfriend multiple times, after which she was charged with felonious assault, sentenced to 6 months of jail time, and fired. After a police union rallied for her reinstatement, however, an arbitrator decided Hannah could return to her job.

The tendency for arbitrators to overturn police attempts to impose discipline is so strong that even Washington, D.C.’s Chief of Police Cathy Lanier has lamented that she can’t fire cops. “The arbitrator also limits what I can and can’t do with them…Some of the decisions they say I have to put them back in their old assignment. So, as the Chief of Police I’m not really the one making the decisions here,” she said.

Nevertheless, in response to the DOJ’s findings, the city of Cleveland agreed to implement systematic changes to police procedures. Under the consent decree, the CPD will alter its hiring and recruitment policies, reorient its crisis intervention strategy, and push for “bias-free policing.” Every officer will be equipped with a body camera by year’s end. And the department’s progress will also be closely monitored by a federal court. But the extent to which those changes can and will impact police accountability remains to be seen, especially with the pending investigation into 12-year-old Tamir Rice’s death.

Let's be real readers. For all the flag-waving talk about preserving freedoms and keeping government small and less obtrusive, a great number of Americans, mostly "Don't Tread On Me" tea nuts, prefer an authoritarian surveillance state with mass imprisonment and lengthy, mandatory sentencing as long as the authoritarianism is selective enough to only put the hammer down on people of color and the poor of any color. It's as simple as that.

[h/t thinkprogress]

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

SHERIFF JOE’S BILLS STACK UP AND HE WANTS YOUR HELP FOOTING THE BILL

An anti-immigrant Arizona sheriff is asking the public to help with his legal fees while he waits for a decision on a contempt of court hearing about his department’s systemic racial profiling of suspected undocumented immigrants. In an email to supporters last week, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio wrote that he doesn’t have the “personal wealth” to pay for a lawyer and felt “targeted” by pro-immigration reform advocacy groups that are suing him to stop his acts of racial bias against Latinos.

As the Los Angeles Times reported, Arpaio wrote in his email, “In some instances I have to personally pay for attorneys to represent me in these cases. I do not have the personal wealth or the wherewithal to keep up with the costly demands of paying for attorneys to defend me.”

The hearing stems from a May 2013 landmark ruling by U.S. District Judge G. Murray Snow who said that Arpaio’s office broke the law when he profiled Latinos during traffic and immigration stops. The ruling called on Arpaio and his officers to implement changes, like improving training and technology equipment, to show that the sheriff’s office would no longer systemically single out Latinos. But since then, Arpaio has made insincere efforts to address racial biases, including holding court-required community outreach meetings in districts with few Latino residents and declining to show up at meetings.

Arizona taxpayers already shell out a lot of money for Arpaio, who has racked up numerous violations and lawsuits and was ordered a court-appointed monitor for his unconstitutional racial profiling tactics.

Documents submitted by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office last year in Arizona indicate that it would cost around $21.9 million for taxpayers to implement court recommendations to fix Arpaio’s acts racial bias. As of last year, Maricopa County ponied up $1.6 million in legal costs and expenses for Arpaio’s court proceedings. And an internal investigation found that Arpaio’s security detail cost taxpayers more than $120,000 between June 2012 and June 2013.

The Los Angeles Times reported that Arpaio asked for the judge to be taken off the case because “the judge is personally involved.” Arpaio revealed in April that his former lawyer had hired a private agent to investigate a claim that Snow’s wife said her husband “wanted to do everything to make sure I’m not elected.”

Arpaio is no stranger to using provocative tactics against suspected undocumented immigrants. Since 1993, his sweltering outdoor jail known as “Tent City” has held thousands of immigrant detainees in the brutal Phoenix heat. His immigration raids are indiscriminate to age and medical condition, arresting children as young as 6 and pregnant women. Arpaio also once promised to issue automatic weapons to his deputies to catch “illegal aliens attempting to escape.”

Years of racial profiling may likely put public safety at risk. Researchers found that immigrants are less likely to report crimes to the police because they are afraid of being asked about their immigration status.

Still, there have been some improvements made for undocumented immigrants in Maricopa County since the state passed some of the harshest immigration laws in 2010. Earlier this month, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled for some so-called DREAMers, or undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children, to pay in-state tuition.


Sheriff Joe, you are today’s asshat of the day! Congrats numbnuts!

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY

From NFTOS, our mere words can never thank you enough for what you all do.

You are soldiers and you guard honor and wage war. In between you wait like a stone, until your chance comes again.

VIDEO COURTESY OF FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

137 SHOTS FIRED AND BRELO WALKS A FREE MAN

A judge found Cleveland Police Officer Michael Brelo not guilty Saturday morning for the fatal shooting of two unarmed black victims fleeing police in their car. Brelo was part of an unauthorized 59-car police chase in which 137 shots were fired, leaving Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams dead. Protests were immediate in the wake of Judge John O’Donnell’s public announcement.

Investigators found that 13 officers had fired shots in what started as a routine police drug patrol. But Brelo, who fired 49 of those shots, was the only one charged because prosecutors said he stood on the hood of his car and opened fire even after other officers had stopped shooting. He faced charges of voluntary manslaughter.

In his ruling Saturday morning, O’Donnell reasoned that he couldn’t find beyond a reasonable doubt that the deaths of Russell and Williams were caused by Brelo’s gunshots, since some of the 12 other officers who fired gunshots could have contributed to their deaths. He also said the actions of all of the officers were justified by their reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm at the time, even though the officers later learned that neither Russell nor Williams had a gun in their car as they fled from officers.

“Brelo did not fire too quickly or at a person that was clearly unarmed or clearly unable to run him over,” O’Donnell said. “He did not fire at someone walking or running away.”

But in the hours following his announcement, the outrage over O’Donnell’s legal distinctions was swift. U.S. Rep. Marcia Fudge called the ruling a “stunning setback.” “Today we have been told — yet again — that our lives have no value,” she said in a statement.

“We are witnessing failure of legal technicalities in accounting 4 black death,” Georgetown professor Michael Eric Dyson tweeted

The 2012 incident occurred several years before national attention turned to police brutality after the death of Michael Brown. Since Brown’s death, at least two deaths involving the police in Cleveland have sparked particular outrage — that of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, and Tanisha Anderson, a mentally ill woman who police said “went limp” in their hands, while family members say they saw her thrown to the ground.

Speaking for almost an hour, O’Donnell attempted to urge nuance in the face of acknowledged community outrage over police brutality.

“Every week I pass a mound of stuffed animals left for a 12-year-old that many people believe was murdered by the police,” O’Donnell said. He said “this animosity is fed” not just by “clickers” but by “honest people treated as criminals” and “unnecessarily brutal treatment of suspects.” He nonetheless rejected notions that his ruling should have bearing on this larger debate

“If the evidence did not show beyond a reasonable doubt that he knowingly caused their deaths … then I will not sacrifice him to a public frustrated,” O’Donnell said.

The chaotic 2012 car chase was considered a department-wide malfunction and prompted an investigation by the Department of Justice into the city police department’s use of excessive force and the “the adequacy of CPD’s training, supervision, and accountability mechanisms.” In spite of a police policy that no more than 2 vehicles be involved in a chase, more than 59 vehicles joined the pursuit “without the sector supervisor’s knowledge or permission,” according to a state investigation of the incident. The chase began after a car pulled over for a turn signal violation drove away, and was later identified by several other officers driving at a high speed. Due to faltering communication, and the misimpression that the individuals were armed and fired a shot, the incident escalated until one-third of the police department had joined the chase.

Brelo was the only officer who faced criminal charges. But Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said he was encountering resistance from potential police witnesses known as the “blue wall of silence.” He said 16 police officers declined to meet with him prior to the trial to review their testimony. In court filings, he compared their refusal to cooperate to actions of an “organized crime syndicate” and asked the court to consider them hostile witnesses.

O’Donnell acknowledged that Brelo violated his training and put other officers at risk when he stood on the hood of a car without any cover and continued firing. But he nonetheless maintained the action was justified.

“I reject the claim that 12 seconds after the shooting began it was patently clear from the perspective of a reasonable officer in Brelo’s position that the threat had been stopped,” he said.

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL MIKE HUCKABEE ENSURES BY BACKING DUGGARS - THAT HE'LL NEVER BE PRESIDENT OF AMERICA

SEXUAL PERVERT,  AND CHILD MOLESTER JOSH DUGGAR HAS PHOTOS TAKEN WITH MAJORITY OF WING-NUT PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFULS

Wing nut conservative presidential candidate Mike Huckabee offered a full-throated defense Friday of the embattled Duggar family against the “blood-thirsty media” reporting on molestation claims involving their eldest son.

“No one needs to defend Josh’s actions as a teenager, but the fact that he confessed his sins to those he shamed, sought help, and has gone forward to live a responsible and circumspect life as an adult is testament to his family’s authenticity and humility,” said Huckabee, a family friend and former Arkansas governor, in a Facebook post

Josh Duggar resigned his post Thursday with the anti-LGBT Family Research Council after admitting to “inexcusable” actions when he was 14 – described in police reports as fondling the sex organs of his younger sisters and other girls.

TLC has canceled all airing of “19 Kids and Counting” as the network ponders the show’s long-term future.

“Good people make mistakes and do regrettable and even disgusting things,” Huckabee said. “The reason that the law protects disclosure of many actions on the part of a minor is that the society has traditionally understood something that today’s blood-thirsty media does not understand—that being a minor means that one’s judgment is not mature.”

Jim Bob Duggar said he took his son a year after learning of the abuse to meet with state trooper and personal friend who gave the teen a “very stern talk” but took no official action, and the statute of limitations had run out by the time police investigated in 2006.

“He and his family dealt with it and were honest and open about it with the victims and the authorities,” Huckabee said. “No purpose whatsoever is served by those who are now trying to discredit Josh or his family by sensationalizing the story.”

The former Fox News pundit questioned the motives of anyone unwilling to accept at face value the family’s claims that the sex abuse claims had actually brought them “closer to God.”

“Those who have enjoyed revealing this long ago sins in order to discredit the Duggar family have actually revealed their own insensitive bloodthirst, for there was no consideration of the fact that the victims wanted this to be left in the past and ultimately a judge had the information on file destroyed—not to protect Josh, but the innocent victims,” Huckabee said.

Huckabee repeatedly affirmed his love for the Duggar family and said their supporters should continue to stand by them.

“They are no more perfect a family than any family, but their Christian witness is not marred in our eyes because following Christ is not a declaration of our perfection, but of HIS perfection,” Huckabee said.

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief
Roger West

"DC POLICE UNDER GO POTTY TRAINING"

Capitol Police are undergoing special training after three incidences in which they were found to have left their firearm in a restroom, including one case in which it was discovered by a small child. Yes, that means potty training.

Jimmy Kimmel obtained the special training video, “So You Want to Use the Restroom While Carrying a Firearm.

VIDEO COURTESY OF ABC

NFTOS
Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

ARIZONA TO GUT THOUSANDS FROM WELFARE

Arizona’s legislature has decided to try to plug a $1 billion budget deficit in part by kicking people off of welfare after just 12 months, the strictest time limit in the country.

The change will mean that at least 1,600 families, including more than 2,700 children, will lose the benefit on July 1, 2016 and save the state at least $4 million.

All states cap benefits at some point, but the majority cut recipients off after five years. Some states have shorter limits than that: four impose a cap at four years; one at three years and nine months; four a three years; and 13 at two years or less. Only one state, Texas, imposes a 12 month limit for some parents, but their children can keep getting benefits for up to five years. Arizona’s won’t have the same exemptions. In a given year, about 51,000 cases across the country, or 3 percent of the total, are closed because of time limits. While not all states have always had them, the trend recently has been to add them and to tighten the restrictions.

This is an outgrowth of the way Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), or welfare, is designed. In 1996, it was turned into a block grant, meaning that states get a fixed amount of money from the government no matter what need and demand might look like. That amount also hasn’t been increased in the intervening time, losing 28 percent of its value since then. States are largely responsible for designing their programs, but the incentives are to reduce how many people participate, rather than increase assistance to low-income people, to free up funds that often get used for other purposes like plugging budget holes, as in Arizona.

But while there may be savings for states, time limits can impose severe hardship on families already at the brink. One examination of Maine’s a five-year limit found that the families that lost assistance weren’t likely to find work thanks to disabilities, low education levels, child care responsibilities, and/or few job opportunities and experienced “severe hardships.” Forty percent had no income afterward and median income for those who lost assistance was just $3,120 a year. People who lost benefits after Washington enacted a five-year limit in 2011 had lower rates of employment and higher rates of homelessness. Studies of time limits in a handful of other states have similarly found that they lead to lower incomes and increased hardship for the families who lose benefits and these families have few job prospects.

States have found other ways to impose harsh restrictions on those who need welfare assistance. Kansas recently limited recipients to withdrawing just $25 of their benefits a day as well as accessing them from places like movie theaters, pools and spas, and cruise ships. Even though states are given quite a lot of leeway in designing their programs, this might violate federal law, which would mean it could lose the $102 million it gets in block grant funding from the federal government. The state had previously instituted other reforms that kicked more than 23,000 people off the rolls. Many others have instituted drug testing, barring those who test positive from getting benefits, even though positive rates are lower than drug use rates for the general population and the testing programs cost thousands of dollars.

NFTOS
STAFF WRITER

BALTIMORE VIOLENCE AND TEA BAGGER BLAMES ABSENT FATHERS, WACO MASS MURDER - CRICKETS

In the aftermath of protests surrounding the deaths of unarmed black men and women, outspoken members of the GOP, including Sens. John Cornyn is quick to contextualize the tragedies and criticize black people for violent behavior. But in the wake of a deadly gunfight between two biker gangs — which left nine people dead, 18 wounded in Waco, and 170 charged for criminal activity — two of Texas’ most prominent leaders have yet to respond to the violent shootout.

Days into the Baltimore protests sparked by Freddie Gray’s death, Cornyn spoke on the Senate floor about how to understand and address deeply-ingrained tension in Baltimore and Ferguson. “The whole idea of a young man dying in police custody, the confrontations with police, the looting and burning of innocent minority-owned businesses…these are all scenes we would expect perhaps in other countries…but that’s what we saw,” he said of events that transpired in both cities. “We’re doing a great disservice to ourselves and everyone else so clearly frustrated by the status quo, if we isolate Baltimore or Ferguson as just individual instances of civic unrest, and if we don’t step back and see how they fit into the broader issue of our entire criminal justice system.” He also called on families, civic organizations, faith groups, and Congress to “correct injustice” and “remedy basic instability” in similar communities nationwide.

Two days later, Cornyn went so far as to blame riots in Baltimore on absent fathers, linking to a Bloomberg article about the breakdown of traditional family structures in the black community and the raising of children out of wedlock.

Cornyn has yet to responded to the deadly shootout between the Bandidos and Cossacks — two rival biker gangs that exchanged gunfire outside of a Hooters-like restaurant last weekend. Although the two condemned violent means of expressing anger in Ferguson and Baltimore, in reference to rioting and the looting of local businesses, they have yet to acknowledge the bikers who turned their weapons on law enforcement. Both have stayed quiet about the Bandidos and Cossacks’ long-standing involvement in organized crime, and neither senator has addressed the gangs members’ white supremacist leanings, despite bringing up race in the context of Baltimore and Ferguson.

However, this not the first time conservatives, including Cruz, have been slow to denounce outlaws who’ve resorted to violence against police. When the Bureau of Land Management tried to take cattle away from Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who owed $1 million in grazing fees, Bundy and a host of right-wing supporters engaged in an armed standoff with federal rangers for several days. Without touching on Bundy’s use of force, Cruz blamed Obama for the armed standoff, arguing it was “the unfortunate and tragic culmination of the path that President Obama has set the federal government on.” Former Gov. Rick Perry also said, “I have a problem with the federal government putting citizens in the position of having to feel like they have to use force to deal with their own government. That’s the bigger issue.”

Since the massive gunfight on Sunday, much has been written about the media terminology used to describe the shootout and bikers involved, compared to descriptions of black demonstrators and victims elsewhere in the country. But the absence of commentary from vocal politicians marks another significant difference in the way race and violence are addressed at a national level.

[h/t thinkprogress]

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West

TEXAS LAW MAKERS LET IT BE KNOWN, DON’T FUCK WITH OUR FRACKING

“Small Government” Texas lawmakers have made it clear you don’t mess with Texas when it comes to extracting fossil fuels. Even if you’re a Texan.

On Monday, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed legislation that prohibits cities across Texas from banning hydraulic fracturing from their home turf. In what was a major agenda item for Texas lawmakers this session, towns like Denton, Texas — which passed the state’s first local fracking ban last November — will no longer be able to exercise local control over the oil and gas industry when it comes to nearby extraction.

The law will take effect immediately as it passed both chambers by more than a two-thirds margin. Communities will now only be able to impose ordinances that regulate aboveground activity related to oil and gas operations, such as things relating to traffic, noise, lights, or “reasonable setback requirements,” which dictate how far away drilling must be from buildings. The law is meant to ensure that these local surface regulations are commercially reasonable and do not “effectively” prohibit oil and gas operations.

In signing the bill, Gov. Abbot said it “does a profound job of helping to protect private property rights here in the State of Texas, ensuring those who own their own property will not have the heavy hand of local regulation deprive them of their rights.”

Many opposed to the bill found this type of rhetoric hypocritical, especially for a state with such a strong foundation in limited government oversight and local property rights.

“These bills absolutely conflict with longstanding conservative principles of local control and self-determination,” Luke Metzger, the founder and director of Environment Texas said. “Many of these legislators are speaking out of both sides of their mouths, decrying federal preemption of state sovereignty on the one hand, while pushing one-size fits all mandates from Austin overriding local ordinances.”

After Denton outlawed fracking in 2014, it was sued by the Texas General Land Office and Texas Oil and Gas Association. In another extreme reaction to the Denton fracking ban, lawmakers introduced a total of 11 bills this session to limit local oversight over fracking before settling on HB 40, which was signed into law on Monday.

“It’s a bad situation when city leaders’ hands are tied,” Denton Councilman Kevin Roden told the Wall Street Journal. “There seems to be an attitude that big state government knows better than the citizens of a city. I just think — conservative or liberal — that is something you don’t do in Texas.”

Texas is the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, and it rests on two massive shale gas deposits — the Barnett Shale in the north and the Eagle Ford Shale in the south. Other oil- and gas-rich states like New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma are pursuing similar laws. In Oklahoma both chambers of the legislature have passed a bill limiting communities from imposing drilling ordinances.

Fracking is a process in which a mixture of pressurized water, sand and chemicals is sent underground to free up oil and natural gas reserves. Fracking operations are increasingly being tied to unusual earthquake swarms in states like Texas and Oklahoma. Local residents also worry about water and air pollution, as well as the heavy use of water in areas that are in short supply.

It looks as though Looks like Texas shouldn't be worried about the feds and Jade Helm 15. It's the state government that's screwing them.

[h/t thinkprogress]

NFTOS

Blogger-In-Chief

Roger West