#america is a terrorist county

[robertreich]

How Trump is Following Hitler's Playbook

You’ve heard Trump’s promise:

TRUMP: I’m going to be a dictator for one day.

History shows there are no “one-day” dictatorships. When democracies fall, they typically fall completely.

In a previous video, I laid out the defining traits of fascism and how MAGA Republicans embody them. But how could Trump — or someone like him — actually turn America into a fascist state? Here’s how in five steps.

Step 1: Use threats of violence to gain power

Hitler and Mussolini relied on their vigilante militias to intimidate voters and local officials. We watched Trump try to do the same in 2020.

TRUMP: Proud Boys, stand back and stand by.

Republican election officials testified to the threats they faced when they refused Trump’s demands to falsify the election results.

RAFFENSPERGER: My email, my cell phone was doxxed.

RUSTY BOWERS: They have had video panel trucks with videos of me proclaiming me to be a pedophile.

GABRIEL STERLING: A 20-something tech in Gwinnett County today has death threats and a noose put out saying he should be hung for treason.

If the next election is close, threats to voters and election officials could be enough to sabotage it.

Step 2: Consolidate power

After taking office, a would-be fascist must turn every arm of government into a tool of the party. One of Hitler’s first steps was to take over the civil service, purging it of non-Nazis.

In October of 2020, Trump issued his own executive order that would have enabled him to fire tens of thousands of civil servants and replace them with MAGA loyalists. He never got to act on it, but he’s now promising to apply it to the entire civil service.

That’s become the centerpiece of something called Project 2025, a presidential agenda assembled by MAGA Republicans, that would, as the AP put it, “dismantle the US government and replace it with Trump’s vision.”

Step 3: Establish a police state

Hitler used the imaginary threat of “the poison of foreign races” to justify taking control of the military and police, placing both under his top general, and granting law-enforcement powers to his civilian militias.

Now Trump is using the same language to claim he needs similar powers to deal with immigrants.

Trump plans to deploy troops within the U.S. to conduct immigration raids and round up what he estimates to be 18 million people who would be placed in mass-detention camps while their fate is decided.

And even though crime is actually down across the nation, Trump is citing an imaginary crime wave to justify sending troops into blue cities and states against the will of governors and mayors.

Trump insiders say he plans to invoke the Insurrection Act to have the military crush civilian protests. We saw a glimpse of that in 2020, when Trump deployed the National Guard against peaceful protesters outside the White House.

And with promises to pardon January 6 criminals and stop prosecutions of right-wing domestic terrorists, Trump would empower groups like the Proud Boys to act as MAGA enforcers.

Step 4: Jail the opposition

In classic dictatorial fashion, Trump is now openly threatening to prosecute his opponents.

TRUMP: if I happen to be president and I see somebody who’s doing well and beating me very badly, I say, ‘Go down and indict them.’ They’d be out of business.

And he’s looking to remake the Justice Department into a tool for his personal vendettas.

TRUMP: As we completely overhaul the federal Department of Justice and FBI, we will also launch sweeping civil rights investigations into Marxist local district attorneys.

In the model of Hitler and Mussolini, Trump describes his opponents as subhuman.

TRUMP: …the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country…

Step 5: Undermine the free press

As Hitler well understood, a fascist needs to control the flow of information. Trump has been attacking the press for years.

And he’s threatening to punish news outlets whose coverage he dislikes.

He has helped to reduce trust in the media to such a historic low that his supporters now view him as their most trusted source of information.

Within a democracy, we may often have leaders we don’t like. But we have the power to change them — at the ballot box and through public pressure. Once fascism takes hold, those freedoms are gone and can’t easily be won back.

We must recognize the threat of fascism when it appears, and do everything in our power to stop it.

[maplewoodstreet]

CONTENT WARNING: police, violence

Some Stop Cop City TikToks caught my attention

and got me interested in learning more about Cop City. I thought I would share some of the information I found.

from Police Foundations. These are not necessarily corporations that donated to Cop City, but they are to show that donating to police is something corporations regularly do.

Cop City is another name for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Funded with $90,000,000 in taxes and donations.

Largest police training facility in the United States.

Located in the densest black populated area in Georgia.

Cop City is being built in one of Atlanta’s last forests.

Stop Cop City protester and environmentalist activist Manuel Esteban Paez Terán was shot “12 or 13” times by a police officer despite Terán not firing at the police. The cop did not face charges because the killing was “objectively reasonable under the circumstances of this case”.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr described Defend Atlanta Forest as “an anarchist, anti-police, and anti-business extremist organization” and 61 activists have been charged with domestic terrorism.

The Israel Defense Force (IDF) directly shares strategies with the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE). “The Atlanta Police Department and Fulton County SWAT teams had conducted training exercises in an abandoned hotel to remove “Hamas terrorists’.”

Corporations like Dunkin Donuts parent corporation Inspire Brands, Coca-Cola, Chic-Fil-A, Bank of America, UPS, Norfolk Southern, and more help fund Cop City with multimillion-dollar donations. Coca-Cola, UPS, Chic-Fil-A, and more made statements during the murder of George Floyd with things like “…end the cycle of systemic racism”, “creating social impact, advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion”, and “building stronger communities.” Corporations often donate to police foundations.

Articles sourced:

https://prismreports.org/2023/11/14/stop-cop-city-gilee-palestinian-genocide/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/morgansimon/2023/03/14/cops-and-donuts-go-together-more-than-you-thought-the-corporations-funding-cop-city-in-atlanta/ 

I’m not a professional or even a hobbyist journalist, so if I have wrong information here, please let me know.

[antihumanist]

List Of Criminals And Killers, Crimes/Cases That Pekka-Eric Auvinen Knew About:

Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold (Columbine High School Massacre)

Robert Steinhauser (Erfurt School Massacre)

Jeff Weise (Red Lake Shootings)

James Oliver Huberty (San Ysidro McDonalds Massacre)

Ted Kaczynski, The Unabomber

Timothy McVeigh (Oklahoma City Bombing)

Seung-Hui Cho (Virginia Tech Massacre)

Eric Rudolph (US domestic terrorist)

Ted Bundy

Jeffrey Dahmer

Franz Fuchs, The Austrian Unabomber

1995 Tokyo Subway Sarin Attacks

Charles Whitman (1966 University Of Texas, Austin Tower Shooting)

Jack The Ripper

Graham Young, The Teacup Poisioner

Dennis Rader, The BTK Killer

Eugen Schauman (Assassin)

9/11

JFK Assassination

2002 Moscow Theatre Siege

2004 Madrid Train Bombings

Halabja Massacre (Also known as the Halabja Chemical Attack)

Sebastian Bosse (Emsdetten School Shooting)

Waco Siege

Assassination Of Julius Caesar

Jack Gilbert Graham (United Airlines Flight 629 Bombing)

Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln

Assassination Of Leon Trotsky

Assassination Of Mahatma Ghandi

RFK Assassination

Woo Bum-kon (Uiryeoung County Massacre)

According to his mother, she was worried her son would also end up like Petri Gerdt, perpetrator of the Myyrmanni Bombing, It's likely Auvinen was aware of this case.

She had also talked with him about school shootings in America.

Auvinen had also debated with his mother whether if violent crimes were justified if given the right motive.

These are all that I know of to the best of my memory, if anyone has more please comment.

[yuinterrobangapologist]

I feel like I need to make this it's own post, so here, to reiterate.

Politics is a formal environment.

If Kamala Harris just went out and said "Israel is a settler colony and should be abolished," then Israel would fucking paint Gaza fucking red, and start working with even the most fringe and volatile foreign and domestic entities to stir problems here. America funded terrorism in the Levant, why do you think Israel couldn't do that here?

I know we all fucking hate it. But the Vice President can't always can't call a genocide a genocide the same we she's not allowed to say the f-bomb.

We truly have no idea what Kamala's actual personal goals towards Palestine are. She is calling for a ceasefire and two state solution, and maybe that is what she wants, but if she did want more, she couldn't say it, she'd still have to say this instead.

And before you say "Trump spoke freely!" Trump's enemies were American minorities, celebrities and other politicians below him in tangible social power, and then, stable nations and limited nations. Insulting China day in and day out does cause problems, but China isn't a rogue state. Insulting North Korea is different than insulting Israel, because North Korea has far fewer corporate and American allies.

Our enemies are white supremacists and domestic terrorists, who've been consistently committing mass shootings and other miscellaneous hate crimes, the police, who you know...are an unchecked martial law (which is something the President couldn't fix quickly), a Supreme Court with no checks whatsoever, and Israel, which is currently committing genocide, and has the power to escalate the violence even further for any reason they want.

Progressive Politicians don't have the privilege of being allowed to be brash, confrontational, or assertive that Conservative Politicians have.

If you actually ever want to be politically involved, involved in changing the real world for the better, the first pill you have to goddamn swallow is that You have to be polite to the enemy. Not you specifically as an individual. But the politicians who make laws and decide our fate who we need to ally with.

Again, this isn't claiming Kamala is more progressive than what we know, again, that's essentially unknowable. But she's as progressive as is pragmatically possible in the current situation.

Politics is an abusive household. You can fantasize about beating the shit out of your abuser and taking you and your siblings to safety. That's. Not. Real. You have to appease the abuser at times to minimize the damage so you can your siblings can fucking survive. The difference is there is no C.P.S. There is no one to save us, we have to survive ourselves, and that means we have to talk to our abuser as if everything's okay or they'll fucking beat us to death.

I know how tempting it is to say this is a "lesser of two evils" situation, and if that's what you need to see in order to vote Blue, then fucking do it. But if you honestly think we could have a candidate just say what we're all screaming on social media to like an audience of a small state county, to the entire fucking planet, then you seriously would genuinely benefit from watching a single live action U.S. tv show to understand that if you act like a dick in front of the wrong people, they will retaliate disproportionately.

[the-silver-chronicles]

Music Monday + "What Are You Doing Here?" Quiz

Tagged by @g0dspeeed and @inafieldofdaisies

Tagging @socially-awkward-skeleton @direwombat @derelictheretic @shallow-gravy @strangefable @strafethesesinners @josephslittledeputy @purplehairsecretlair @deputyash @afarcryfrommymain @depyotee @voidika @onehornedbeast @softtidesworld @snake-in-the-garden @nightbloodbix @adelaidedrubman @wrathfulrook @chazz-anova @cassietrn @jacobmybeloved @henbased @carlosoliveiraa @ladyoriza @minilev @vasiktomis @neverthesameneveranother @thewanderer-000 @corvosattano and @vampireninjabunnies-blog

Here's three songs for my other Far Cry The Silver Chronicles stories, known as the following; Call To Arms duology starring Nadi Sinclair, Ain't It A Joy? staring Alexander Khaos and finally No One's Safe At Home starring Gavin Turquoise. The Quiz will be for an OC who appears in A Radioactive Calamity of Love, Bombs & Gore (a Fallout fanfic series). The quiz can be found here.

The Call To Arms fanfic duology of the Call Of Duty Modern Warfare games (at least only one and two, both taking elements from the original and reboot) starring Nadi Sinclair, a sharpshooter and recon for Task Force 141, fighting off terrorists like Makarov alongside her brothers (and sisters) from other misses and misters. This will only be a few years before she eventually leaves and joins the Project at Eden's Gate in Montana, Hope County.

"Come on

Come on, people Stand tall for the beast of America Lay down like a naked dead body Keep it real for the people workin' overtime They can't stay livin' off the government's dime

Stand tall for the people of America Stand tall for the man next door We are free in the land of America We ain't goin' down like this, come on, now

Come on, people Come on, people Come on, people Ha!

Come on, people Come on, people Come on, people Ha!

I will be right to you I will be right to you I will be right to you And together we can stand up to the beast."

Ain't It A Joy? is a modern-ish fanfic adaption of the We Happy Few game, starring Alexander Khaos as the main protagonist, as he finds out the lies behind Wellington Wells, the self-proclaimed happiest city of England which is closed from the rest of the country, is in fact nothing more than a cult stuck in a perpetual state of drugged bliss with the inhabitants believing they're clean of atrocities and stuck in a 1940s/60s mindset while being taken advantage of by a pharmaceutical tycoon, Crawford Klaus, as he replays old videos of a TV personality named "Uncle Jack" and supplies the next batches of "Joy"... and the newest variant called "Glee".

"A brilliant day is dawning A million smiles are forming Our shimmering isles are all enthralled No, there's nothing like conforming

Perish the thought of mourning Did you ignore the warnings? All negative thoughts abhorred "My Lord! Did you take your Joy this morning?"

Ask anybody in Wellington Wells They'll tell you it's terribly swell Delirious denizens swell where there's nary a speck between heaven and hell

They say that the empire fell "Oh, but you never could tell!" You say you remember it well? "You'd better forget it or else!"

Why try to better yourself? Reach for the medical shelf Just take your medicine, death and the pestilence melt into pleasant locales

Another rebellion quelled Dust off your suspenders and belts It's horrendous to dwell, so remember how splendid it felt to surrender yourself The roses we grow have a terrible smell

It's a Joy! It's a Joy (it's a Joy) It's a Joy (it's a Joy) To be among we happy few It's a Joy It's a Joy (it's a Joy) It's a Joy (it's a Joy)!"

No One's Safe At Home is a fanfic set in the Welcome To The Game universe, where the inner circles of "the Ministry" run their illegal activities behind the dark web as it reigns at the top, with constant murder, kidnappings, trafficking of all kinds and the most vile corruption persist in a world where morals are a joke. Until Gavin Turquoise starts going to great lengths in his intent on wiping their repulsive stain out of society and rigging the Game in his favor. In his crusade, he finds a strange child with... the most abnormal abilities. I can't help but laugh at the irony that this feared vigilante eventually becomes a lawyer in Hope County, being a bane to the Project at Eden's Gate and John Seed's existence.

"As Property Manager, my job is sorting the utilities Disposal of the garbage and the laundering facilities Why would I compile a full report on your activities? I'm just a standard landlord, "Glory to the Ministry"

Lock the doors and close the curtains, hold your breath lest you should speak your sins But you can't keep a secret from the building that you keep it in Befriend your fellow tenants, show a smile and keep it pleasant But know everyone's a friend until you need to turn some people in It's the breathing on the phone, hiding just beneath the tone It's the things that shift when no one's home Well, you may be on your own, but you'll never be alone Yes, we all live here, but it's no one's home

("They're here!")

To get through the day It behoves you to play by the rules and behave Do the state preapprove all the tunes that you play? When alone in a room, well, to whom do you pray?

Assume that your neighbours are moving away When the black van comes in the night And you're numb to the sight Of another fumbling for somewhere to hide As their wife just runs for their life 'Fore the ones with the guns can arrives And they're gone 'fore the Sun can arise To a government provided bunker for some realignment It's just fine, you can trust it's a wonderful time

Just go about your business normally No one's following, I'm not recording Your paranoia is awfully boring According to all of your friends that talk to me

Most importantly, please speak clear when you're broadcasting Your honest thoughts on the law or economy My provided mics are tiny And I can't transcribe properly Should you ever behold Me with my peepers pressed to a keyhole You can trust I'm just checking the tumblers for rust I'm a custodian, not a Ministry mole

Settle in for a night on the couch No questioning what that red light is about Now bleeping on your ceiling since the time you were out It's just a little gaslighting, put aside any doubts

You're fine in your house, so you confide to your spouse any crimes carried out Any tiny amount of new ideas found just a mite out of bounds 'Cause I'm writing them down in a timestamped account

What's it matter, every night or two? If I sneak in, have a rifle through? But depending what I find, well, You'll be faced with another kind of rifle, too

Privacy is the cry of the defiant to compliancy But grease my palm and I might not see Those books they banned from the libraries What do you mean, that's not yours? It appeared one night in your cabinet drawers? I have to report it, I regret But, of course, I could forget

Societal ideals are reliably pliable So the rise of a tyrant becomes entirely viable You will find that the spying is really quite justifiable Why are you crying when it's your blind eye that's liable?

Handy landlord here to fix your ventilation whistling Too many questions and it's not the air that needs conditioning That telephone's not tampered with Of course it isn't listening But were it, it prefers the words: "Glory to the Ministry!"

And last the results from the quiz! From my character:

Ortega "Ore" Brantley (A Radioactive Calamity of Love, Bombs & Gore, a Fallout fanfic series)

Ore has this "hope" that he carries with him. Despite the Wasteland he walks in, just as his sister Ress does, unlike her and their father, he can't help but focus on the beauty that has thrived even after the destruction. He's no fool, the world he lives in is dangerous, and as powerful as he is being a half-human, half-magical-creature-from-another-dimension, there are beings like his father, Arcane Urias, and his lackeys, like Aggravor, who can and will kill him if given the opportunity. Ress is hopeful... hopeful that with his efforts, the Wasteland can heal. That the people he's bonded with can live long content lives. That his sister can appreciate the lives of who she views as "weak" and see the strength these folks have despite the disadvantage they have against the likes of the Super Mutants, Synths and the Occult Urias founded. To see the responsibility to protect these people that they as the "strong" must carry. He hoped he could have seen the day where him, his sister and their companions could just lay down underneath the blue sky one day and just share with each other without the burden of death and destruction hovering over them in a moment of peace. Though he himself never lives to achieve this vision, he at least was glad to look at his sister and reassure her one last time before Aggravor's curse cut his long life short.

[racefortheironthrone]

I have come to realize, I don't quite understand what a back-up story is? Like, do some comic issues just sometimes have too much space for the main story so they include another, smaller comic at the back?

No, it's usually the reverse: the creators have a story they like, but that's too short to make up a full comic, so they attach it as a bonus feature after the A-story.

To me, the acme of how to do backup stories are Chris Claremont's Classic X-Men. In an era before trade paperback and omnibus collections were common, in an era before there were digital comics libraries where you could access the entire back catalogue of entire companies on demand, Classic X-Men reprinted everything from the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams Silver Age through to the big hits of the first hundred or so issues of the Claremont run with edited captions and dialogue and interstitial panels and pages of new art.

However, Chris Claremont wasn't satisfied with tinkering around the edges, so the first 44 issues of Classic X-Men included backup stories by him and Ann Nocenti. These short (usually ~8 page) stories included a lot of "deleted scenes" - so you get to see how things that are alluded to but not shown in the main narrative, like the beginning of Logan and Jean's attraction in the immediate wake of Giant-Size #1, or Emma Frost's Hellfire Club scheming against Jason Wyngarde or Selene during the Dark Phoenix Saga, or Jean Grey wrestling with what it means to be the Phoenix with the help of Storm and Misty Knight, or why Nightcrawler stopped using his image inducer and came out of the closet as a mutant, etc. These scenes "danced between the raindrops" of canon, where they added richness and flavor to the main story without being essential reading.

But more and more, Claremont and Nocenti used these backup stories to fill out backstories through "period pieces." It is in these stories that we see Max Eisenhardt escape Auschwitz and tragically lose his daughter Anya, or go from being a Nazi hunter in South America to a mutant separatist terrorist when he learns the truth about Operation Paperclip. It is in these stories that we see Jean Grey's psychic powers awaken when she experiences the tragic death of her childhood friend Annie Richardson from inside Annie's mind, and how that shaped her understanding of life and death and what it means to be a mutant.

I would argue that these stories are essential reading, because they're often where Claremont (and Nocenti) found the emotional core of his characters, the motivational drives that make them who they are.

Alternatively, backup stories are where creators could take advantage of free "real estate" in anthology books, team-up books, and annuals to tell more fantastical and imaginative B-stories that wouldn't have fit within an overarching narrative. So we get weird stuff like Margali Szardos casting her adopted son Kurt Wagner into the literal Inferno of Dante Alighieri, or straight-edge Harlan County miner's son Sam Guthrie romantically abducted by an intergalactic cat burglar who also happens to be a cockney Joan Jett, and so on.

And that's what I like about backup stories - they're like miniature paintings, where the artists get to stretch their creative muscles free of the burden and pressure of the magnum opus.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Paul V. Fontelo at Roll Call:

Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., a New Jersey Democrat first elected to the House in 1996, died on Wednesday, his office announced on X. He was 87 and would have been the oldest member of the House if reelected in November.  “Bill fought to his last breath to return to the job he cherished and the people he loved,” the post said. “Bill lived his entire life in Paterson and had an unwavering love for the city he grew up in and served. He is now at peace after a life time devoted to our great nation America.” A veteran of New Jersey’s brand of politics who dominated his home Passaic County, Pascrell was known for his pugnacious demeanor in promoting tax enforcement and ensuring “tax fairness” for all income levels. To achieve that, “everybody’s got to pull on the rope the same,” he said.

An Army veteran and one-time semi-professional baseball player, Pascrell was a teenager when his uncle took him to his first ward meeting in the city of Paterson, then a factory town with a thriving textile business. The rough-and-tumble political arena left an impression on Pascrell. “There’s a lot of fist fights … I’m gonna like this,” he recalled in an interview. “I did. I stayed with it since I was 16 years old.” While he saw far fewer physical melees between parties in Congress, Pascrell said he stuck by the lessons he learned from his first exposure to politics. “See it through or else don’t start it,” he said. And when you are in a fight, “never yield.” In the 118th Congress, Pascrell was the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, having previously spent more than two years as the panel’s chairman. He and fellow Ways and Means Democrats scored several victories in the final months of the previous Congress, including enacting a major tax and social spending budget reconciliation law and, after years of legal battles, acquiring six years of former President Donald Trump’s tax returns in the lame duck session after the 2022.

Pascrell waged a long campaign to tax “carried interest,” a form of compensation for investment fund managers that is not taxed like ordinary income, a situation he called a loophole that allows rich individuals to avoid fair taxation. He repeatedly introduced legislation to change inheritance rules as well. His bill on the so-called stepped-up basis would have changed existing tax law so that when someone dies and passes on property, the inheritor would pay capital gains taxes based on the fair market rate of the inherited assets, with a few exceptions. Pascrell’s position on the Ways and Means Committee also gave him a platform to fight to restore deductions for state and local tax payments, which Republicans capped in their 2017 tax law. The cap on the SALT deduction hit people in the top income brackets hardest, but in states with high local property and income taxes such as New Jersey, it was also felt by less wealthy families. As a result, Pascrell framed his tax proposals as benefiting the middle class.

Representing a manufacturing-heavy district, he was a close ally of labor unions and focused on ensuring that countries trading with the U.S. complied with international labor standards.  One recurring bipartisan cause for Pascrell was research on and treatment of brain injuries. Inspired by the plight of a constituent, he co-founded the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force in 2001. The issue took on added importance after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks because of a spike in veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with wounds from improvised explosive devices.  Pascrell was born in Paterson, N.J., where his Italian immigrant grandparents settled. His father worked for the railroad. The first member of his family to go to high school, Pascrell was an all-state third baseman, played semi-professional baseball for a team in Clifton and tried out for the Philadelphia Phillies after finishing his schooling in the early 1960s. 

New Jersey Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) died today at the age of 87.

[shirayuki7]

Ok your tags on the reblog were very cool, would love to hear more about this project. Also, this is entire based on vibes of just existing in or near PA and having incredibly revisionist (and religious) history books, yeah. Sounds right.

Yeppppp! Get ready for a long answer cause i am in the thick of it! I'm pretty much a complete outsider to this topic. USA history doesn't interest me as much as ancient history does. The whole theme of the project is religious in/tolerance, and I picked Pennsylvania because my in-laws are all in Pittsburgh and I thought getting to know the state more would be fun! I've already got a pretty good background in religious history, so most of my research has been contextual colonial history. But the primary source I'm basing my project on is AWESOME. It's "Gottlieb Mittelberger's Journey to Pennsylvania" (free in the Library of Congress btw) and it's just so full of amazing information about colonial PA and how it was viewed by outsiders at the time (for Gottlieb, it was pretty godless and not worth the hype despite how beautiful the country is. He lived in Lancester county for about 4 years before returning to Germany).

The basis of my research is that in Europe, most Protestant sectarians (Quakers in particular) were seen as anti-state/anti-authoritarian. Being a dissenter was the same as being a treasonous terrorist because religion was the basis for most if not all laws and public policy within a country. So dissenters like William Penn were heavily discriminated against based on their beliefs and punished by the state as tho they were public enemies number one (spiritual danger = real danger). So quite frankly, because the America's were the place for criminals to be sent anyway, it kinda made sense to let dissenters leave and rotten themselves and their communities else where. So William Penn gets permission from his buddy King James 2 to create Pennsylvania as a "holy experiment" for liberty of conscience (and Quakers) to go. Penn advertises in England and Germany for the most part about this land of religious freedom and opportunity. With a little censure from the crown about how he sets up the colony, Penn makes it law that people can believe what they want and therefore worship and do what they want (within reason). From the outset of the colony, we have a very diverse environment full of very diverse people. No single people's settled PA, despite Quakers being a majority for a time and even when they weren't the majority they still held most of the power in the colony.

Anyway, all the secondary literature I've read all say the same thing: Penn's holy experiment was a success. Religious tolerance helped make PA economically and politically successful and set up all the American colonies for an equally successful revolution. But I've noticed that they're all ignoring, or just plain forget because 'MURICA, that the colonies were not completely separate entities from their parent country and are enabling the narrative of usa supremacy and individualism that DID NOT EXIST at the time. Individualism sure as hell did exist, but not in the sense of "im an american." It was "I'm an English Quaker" or "I'm a German Lutheran" or other ethnic or religious identification. These historians make it sound like everyone thinks PA was a great thing... but here we have over 100 pages of a German immigrant's travelog that heavily criticizes Penn's colony, telling his fellow Germans that it's just not worth the risk and they're better off at home. Obviously there's a ton more nuance to the account than I'm giving here, but the whole book is him saying "here's this bad thing, here's this good thing but here's the dark side of the good thing that isn't immediately obvious but I will explain it to you for your own good, and here's another bad thing." Most of the negativity he gives about PA in particular is religiously based: anarchy and atheism (exaggerations, but it was how he saw it as a faithful Lutheran). He tells stories of women running the show (heaven forbid!) And how the courts and laws are so lax that everybody does what they want even if theyre sued! These are seen as bad things to him, but obviously to a modern person (and to many a modern Pennsylvanian) it sounds like libertarian paradise. The idea of "success" is what I'm challenging with the Gottlieb account; we as historians are always needed to challenge the narrative. Complicate the story. The 13 colonies as a melting pot and overall success story is a good story and we use it to reinforce murican values in our public schools (something i greatly disagree with but it is what it is). But it's not the whole story and never will be. We've got the puritans in New England doing their thing and the Quakers in PA doing theirs, but what did that actually mean to people at the time? Did they see it as success? I should probably stop now haha! This is getting long. Thanks for asking about my project, it helps me articulate it for my prospectus due in a few days. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[mariacallous]

(New York Jewish Week) – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the prominent progressive Democratic New York congresswoman from New York City, condemned a pro-Palestinian rally that took place over the weekend in Times Square, calling it “unacceptable and harmful.”

“It should not be hard to shut down hatred and antisemitism where we see it,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a statement on Monday night. “That is a core tenet of solidarity. The bigotry and callousness expressed in Times Square on Sunday were unacceptable and harmful in this devastating moment.”

The rally on Sunday came as news was still emerging of widespread atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists who invaded Israel, killing more than 900 people, wounding more than 2,000 and taking more than 100 captive. It coincided with a pro-Israel rally taking place outside the United Nations.

The pro-Palestinian rally has drawn criticism from a broad swath of city and state officials. Mayor Eric Adams posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, that “it is disgusting that this group of extremists would show support for terrorism.”

But Ocasio-Cortez’s condemnation of the rally is notable because of her frequent criticism of Israel as well as her membership in the Democratic Socialists of America, a far-left group that endorsed Sunday’s rally. The group’s New York chapter posted on X on Saturday that the gathering was “In solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to resist 75 years of occupation and apartheid.”

In her statement, Ocasio-Cortez said the rally “also did not speak for thousands of New Yorkers who are capable of rejecting both Hamas’ horrifying attacks against innocent civilians as well as the grave injustices and violence Palestinians face under the occupation.”

Earlier this year, Ocasio-Cortez skipped President Isaac Herzog’s address to Congress during a visit to Washington, D.C. In 2021, she switched her vote from “no” to “present” during a Congressional vote to approve $1 billion in new U.S. funding for Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system. That same year, during a previous conflict with Hamas, she called Israel an “apartheid state.”

She wasn’t the only vocal progressive official in the city to denounce the rally. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, who is Jewish and has previously identified as a member of the DSA, called the rally “abominable.” “Today’s DSA rally – which effectively celebrated Hamas’ murder & kidnapping of hundreds of Israeli civilians, including children & grandparents – was abominable. There is no place for glorifying terror, left, center, or right,” Lander said in a statement.

Jamaal Bowman, another member of New York’s congressional delegation who belongs to the DSA, has not commented on the rally but released a statement condemning Hamas’ attacks on Israel. 

“I strongly condemn the horrific attacks by Hamas and am saddened by the loss of precious lives, especially on the holy day of Simchat Torah,” said Bowman, whose congressional district includes parts of Westchester County and the Bronx, in a statement.

“We need a way to end this deadly violence that is killing and traumatizing generations of Israelis and Palestinians alike—including the blockade of Gaza. I have been to the Gaza border and know that Israelis and Palestinians are constantly living in fear. We must work harder to ensure peace in the region,” his statement added.

Ocasio-Cortez released a similar statement — separate from her comments on the rally — about the attacks on Monday. Others in the group of progressive congress members known as the “Squad,” including Missouri’s Cori Bush and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib, released statements that primarily attributed the blame to Israel.

“Today is devastating for all those seeking a lasting peace and respect for human rights in Israel and Palestine. I condemn Hamas’ attack in the strongest possible terms,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote.

She also called for an immediate ceasefire and de-escalation in the region. 

“No child and family should ever endure this kind of violence and fear, and this violence will not solve the ongoing oppression and occupation in the region,” the statement read. 

[beardedmrbean]

Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri is facing a massive polling deficit behind her primary challenger, prosecuting attorney for St. Louis County, Wesley Bell, according to a poll obtained by the New York Post on Sunday.

Bush, who like other ‘squad’ members has been vocally anti-Israel, is now up against a 23-point deficit against Bell as her primary approaches on Aug. 6, according to the poll conducted by McLaughlin & Associates for the CCA Action Fund. In June, fellow ‘squad’ member Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York was also confronted with a massive polling disadvantage after being outspokenly anti-Israel, going on to eventually lose his primary against now Democratic nominee George Latimer on June 25.

WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 07: (L-R) U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) speak at a press conference on the Israel-Hamas war outside of the U.S. Capitol on December 07, 2023 in Washington, DC. A group of Democratic lawmakers joined by members of Doctors Against Genocide called on a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Like Bowman and other squad members, Bush has previously been criticized by pro-Israel Democrats for her comments and legislative action following the Oct. 7 massacre. Bush has continuously called for a ceasefire while at the same time voting against legislation that would condemn Hamas and antisemitism, prompting various pro-Israeli groups to endorse her opponent.

Shortly after Oct. 7, the House voted to condemn Hamas for beginning an “unprovoked war on Israel” after “slaughtering Israelis and abducting hostages in towns in southern Israel, including children and the elderly.” Bush, along with Democratic ‘squad’ members Bowman, Rep. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Rep. Ilan Omar of Minnesota and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, all voted against the bill.

In February, Bush and Tlaib were the only two members of the House to vote against a bill that “imposes immigration-related penalties” on Hamas terrorists.

Many pro-Israeli groups, including the Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA), the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) PAC and the American Israel Affairs Public Committee (AIPAC), have now publicly endorsed Bell over Bush.

“Mr. Bell’s record stands in sharp contrast to his opponent, Congresswoman Cori Bush, whose opposition to the Democratic agenda and longstanding enmity towards Israel was underscored by her vituperative statements and votes since the October 7th terrorist attacks,” Mark Mellman, Chairman of DMFI PAC, said in a press release. “We’re going to do everything we can to help Wesley Bell defeat Congresswoman Cori Bush.”

The poll surveyed 300 likely Democratic voters from June 28 to July 1 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.7%.

Bush’s congressional campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Ann Telnaes, Washington Post :: [h/t Robert Scott Horton]

* * * *

Standing up to Trump's political terrorism.

August 18, 2023

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

          Trump knows that a jury of his peers will convict him in a fair trial. He has therefore resorted to extra-judicial efforts to intimidate and prejudice the jury pool. His efforts are not only extra-judicial, they are undemocratic, thuggish, and illegal. Like a crime lord with feral instincts, Trump knows how to threaten without threatening and brutalize without leaving fingerprints at the scene of the crime. Instead, he grants permission to his followers to violate laws and norms, encouraging them to do the dirty work necessary to defend the indefensible.

          Over the last several days, the breadth and viciousness of Trump’s assault on the legal system became manifest as MAGA extremists attacked the judge and jurors in Trump's various criminal proceedings. Before reviewing the latest insults to the rule of law, let’s skip to the end to discuss the solution: We must recognize that Trump is engaged in political terrorism designed to frighten good people who are the backbone of democracy. We cannot let that happen. The solution is not to shrink in fear, but to swell in numbers, strengthen our resolve, and dispel the exaggerated fears created by a skulk of cowards who hide in internet shadows.

          In America, there is an ever-present risk of violence that cannot be entirely dismissed. Law enforcement and prosecutors should, therefore, vigorously pursue and prosecute the small, frightened, impotent cultists who threaten jurors, judges, and prosecutors. But we must recognize that the business model of political terrorism is for a few individuals to instill outsized and unwarranted fear in the masses. Recognizing that truth should allow us to keep in perspective the fact that a few thousand online pseudo-terrorists vanish to nothingness compared to 335 million Americans.  

          America is bigger than Trump and his minions. We should not cower in fear but should pursue justice with confidence and righteousness. We are protecting the Constitution and our system of laws. We cannot fail in that task—and there is nothing that cowards with keyboards can do to deter us.

          Against that background, let’s look at the events on the ground.

          Abigail Jo Shry of Alvin, Texas, threatened Judge Tanya Chutkan in a voicemail message that began with racial slurs and ended with threats of violence. Shry was quickly questioned, arrested, and charged in federal court. The magistrate ordered that she remain in pretrial detention for at least 30 days pending a determination of her danger to the community. That is type of federal response that will deter future threats.

          At Shry’s detention hearing, her father provided background on Abigail Shry’s threats:

Her father, Mark Shry, testified at her detention hearing and said his daughter is a “non-violent alcoholic,” according to the court filing. [Her father] testified, “that she sits on her couch daily watching the news while drinking too many beers. She then becomes agitated by the news and starts calling people and threatening them.” Her father said, “his daughter never leaves her residence and therefore would not act upon her threats.”

          There have also been threats against members of the Fulton County grand jury that indicted Trump and eighteen other defendants on RICO charges. See NYTimes, Officials Investigate Threats Against Trump Grand Jurors in Georgia (accessible to all). The Fulton County sheriff issued an anodyne statement acknowledging the threats and stating that the sheriff was investigating. (The statement said the sheriff was “aware of online threats against grand jurors and was working with other agencies to track down their origin.”)

          A stronger statement from the sheriff and the quick arrest of several perpetrators would go some distance to damping the false bravado of other beer-fueled couch terrorists. A stronger reaction is necessary because the online threats are directed not only against the grand jurors, but future jurors who will preside over Trump’s criminal trials.

          But there is more.

          Trump released a video in which he attacked special prosecutor Jack Smith as a “deranged lowlife” for obtaining Trump's Twitter feed. See Forbes, Trump Attacks Jack Smith For Gaining Access To His Old Twitter Account. This is the type of statement that should cause Judge Tanya Chutkan to remand Trump into custody. At the very least, the statement should be added to the list of offenses that will finally cause Trump to be detained pending trial.

          Detaining Trump before tria is not only inevitable but also necessary. Trump's continued attacks are having a corrosive effect that seeps into the nooks and crannies of the justice system everywhere. Many readers have commented on the raid on a Kansas newspaper because of efforts by the newspaper to report on the failure of local police to enforce DUI laws against a local businessman. Based on a questionable search warrant issued by a local magistrate, police seized computers, cell phones, and files—a gross violation of federal protections granted to members of the news media.

          The public outcry and obvious illegality of the seizure forced the police to return the seized items and the local prosecutor to withdraw the questionable warrant due to 'insufficient evidence’. But the question remains, “How could this happen? How is it that local police and magistrate could ignore constitutional and statutory protections for the press?” Some of the sordid answers are detailed in this investigative piece by The Wichita Eagle, Judge Laura Viar, who approved newspaper raid, has DUI arrests.  

          Apart from the local magistrate’s questionable potential bias due to her own history of DUI troubles, another answer is that the police and magistrate are modeling themselves after a national GOP in which the rule of law is an impediment to power. In short, they thought they could get away with trampling the Constitution. Fortunately, they were wrong—and will likely be charged with crimes and serve time in jail. As should Trump.

          If Americans see that Trump is punished for his attacks on the justice system pending trial, others will realize that they, too, must respect the justice system. We owe the Constitution nothing less.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[mightyflamethrower]

And it is the terrorists with whom Joe Biden apparently wants to side. Angry that Israel wishes to win the war that Hamas and the Gazans started, Biden announced that he would withhold weapons from Israel until they stop trying to attack Hamas where they have hidden themselves -- in Rafah. For some reason, Biden sets a larger store on the survival of Hamas than of the American ally that Hamas pledges to destroy:

Mr. Biden hopes the selective pause will prompt Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel to forgo a long-threatened invasion of Rafah, the southern Gaza city where more than one million Palestinians have taken refuge. The president has objected to such an operation out of fear that widespread civilian casualties could be caused by American bombs. He said on Wednesday that he would also block the delivery of artillery shells that could be fired into the urban neighborhoods of Rafah. “I’ve made it clear to Bibi and the war cabinet, they’re not going to get our support if in fact they go on these population centers,” the president said in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Wednesday, referring to Mr. Netanyahu by his nickname. “We’re not walking away from Israel’s security; we’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas.”

Biden added that Israel's operations are "killing civilians":

He acknowledged in a way that he has rarely done that American bombs have killed innocent Palestinians. “Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Mr. Biden said

Yes, and ... ? Name one war operation against brigade-size enemy forces conducted by the US that didn't generate civilian deaths. (Don't look in Iraq or Syria!) This is why the Gazans and their elected (and popular!) government should not have started a war. But this is an even more malicious and intellectually dishonest argument, because Hamas deliberately stages its operations in civilian areas to prevent Israel from fighting back. That in itself is a war crime, which puts responsibility for those deaths on Hamas. By making this argument, Biden is endorsing Hamas' war crimes and enabling its tactical and strategic terror operations, essentially arguing that Hamas is untouchable because it uses human shields.

Is that the act of an ally? Or someone who wants to let an ally get defeated by terrorism?

At least Biden acknowledges that Israel is in a war. Hamas has waged war continuously since taking power in Gaza in 2007, firing a never-ending volley of missiles and rockets at Israeli civilian centers, even during supposed cease-fires. The US routinely brokers these cease-fire agreements only to see Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad routinely violate them to re-start the hot war they and the Gazans desire. 

The US, especially in the Obama and Biden years, chose to treat Hamas as the legitimate representative government of the Gazans, rather than the terrorists they are. They continued to negotiate with Hamas for a two-state solution Hamas refuses to accept under any circumstances, mainly for the domestic political benefit of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And even after Hamas demonstrated their barbaric and monstrous nature on October 7 far past the point of any denial as to their evil nature, Biden still cares more about preserving Hamas for his two-state-solution fantasy than he does the liberal democracy Hamas seeks to destroy and replace with yet another brutal Islamist dictatorship. 

And Biden has done all this without any pressure on Hamas to return hostages. Indeed, the US proposals during the negotiation with terrorists -- another Obama-Biden change to US foreign policy -- have put all of the onus on Israel to make concessions. The US tried to leverage Hamas' shabby propaganda ploy this week on a hostage 'deal' to accept terms that would leave Hamas in place, still holding most of the hostages and releasing hundreds if not thousands of its operatives into the West Bank. 

Don't think people in Israel have missed Biden's priorities. 

That's from the Israeli nat-sec minister Itamar Ben Gvir. Other officials pledged that this would only strengthen their resolve and perhaps even prompt them to escalate attacks on Rafah in order to settle the issue quickly:

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stated bluntly that the strong American opposition would only reinvigorate Israel’s drive to eliminate Hamas. “We must continue this war until victory, despite, and to a certain extent precisely because of, the opposition of the administration Biden and the stopping of arms shipments,” he said in a statement. “We simply have no other choice that does not endanger our existence and security.” ... In New York, UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan called Biden’s remarks “difficult and very disappointing,” and expressed concern that they would be interpreted by Israel’s foes Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah as “something that gives them hope to succeed.”

It's not just in Israel where Biden's shocking betrayal will have an impact. My friend Jonah Goldberg from the Dispatch has his finger on the pulse of the never-Trumpers, and he senses a sea change:

Trump is given to hyperbole, but not in this instance. Biden really has taken the side of the terrorists. 

Jewish Insider reported last night that it's not just Trump and Republicans who are aghast at this move from Biden. He's losing Democrats in Congress, and Jewish groups that tend to support them:

President Joe Biden’s CNN interview threatening to cut off offensive weapons transfers to Israel if Israel invades Rafah drew quick criticism from Israel-backing Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill, and from mainstream Jewish and pro-Israel organizations across the country. ... Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) told Jewish Insider before Biden’s interview, addressing previously disclosed moves by the administration to pause certain arms sales, that Hamas has little incentive to agree to a hostage deal. “The hope by now is that we would have gotten to a ceasefire and the Rafah operation would not have been necessary in exchange for at least some hostages. But the problem is there’s no pressure on Hamas,” Moskowitz said. “If Hamas is watching American television, which I guarantee you they are, they’re seeing more division and their power growing in this country, which means less pressure on Hamas… The only pressure that is left is the military pressure.”

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) allowed that Biden may be sending a message, but not the one Biden thinks he's sending. Plus, if Biden's really worried about civilian casualties in Rafah ...

Sherman said he found the administration’s delays in sending the guided munitions and guided munitions kits, known as JDAMs, particularly concerning. “How in the hell do you criticize Israel for being imprecise in its bombing and then refuse to deliver them what they’re willing to pay for to make the bombs precise?” Sherman said. “I mean, my god.”

Like every other Biden policy decision, it's comprehensively bad. It expresses incoherence, disloyalty, cravenness, and abject submission to America's enemies. It will backfire in any number of ways, but the very first result will be that Israel will really take the gloves off in Rafah now, and not just with the use of 'dumber' bombs. The war cabinet laid out intricate plans that put IDF troops at far greater risk to satisfy American demands on civilian protection. The IDF is routinely far better at that than any fighting force, even the US, but they jumped through those hoops to help Biden look as though he was accomplishing something with Israel. They have zero incentive to kiss his ass now, which means that Biden just lost any influence on Israel's war plans for the duration of this conflict.

It's an utter disgrace. Biden backstabbed the Afghan government we helped build as a bulwark against the Taliban and abandoned 14,000 American citizens and legal permanent residents to the terrorists in Afghanistan in his haste to vindicate himself. This time, Biden wants to abandon American hostages and nine million Israelis to Hamas in order to appease Iran. Biden stabs his allies in the back while kneeling before his enemies. And Hamas and Iran won't be the only people who notice that. 

We ship millions of tons of military equipment to the Ukraine....a county most of us hadn't heard of until two years ago.......and then cut of aid to Israel.......the only allie we have in the middle east. This is what Obama meant when he predicted a fundamental change in America's government???

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in CHICAGO (Apr 17), Torino (Apr 21) Marin County (Apr 27), Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!

#20yrsago EFF guide to Gmail privacy https://web.archive.org/web/20040516090804/https://blogs.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/001425.php#001425

#20yrsago Stephenson’s money-centric interview on Wired News https://web.archive.org/web/20040510183726/http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,63050,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1

#15yrsago Somali pirates versus European toxic-waste dumpers https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-you-are-being-lied-to-about-pirates-1225817.html

#15yrsago If you lose your Amazon account, your Kindle loses functionality https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44350&highlight=amazon+banning

#15yrsago Secretive US prisons hold “terrorists” including animal rights activists and people who gave to the wrong charity http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/communication-management-units-mcgowan/1747/

#5yrsago The #ShellPapers: crowdsourcing analysis of all correspondence between Shell and the Dutch government https://www.ftm.nl/dossier/shell-papers

#5yrsago Air tanker drops are often useless for fighting wildfires, but politicians order them because they make good TV https://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-wildfires29-2008jul29-story.html

#5yrsago America today feels like the last days of the Soviet Union https://eand.co/how-american-collapse-resembles-soviet-collapse-94773b44fe17

#5yrsago EFF to Facebook: enforce your rules banning cops from creating sockpuppet accounts and be transparent when you catch cops doing it https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/facebook-must-take-these-four-steps-counter-police-sock-puppets

#5yrsago Not just Apple: Microsoft has been quietly lobbying to kill Right to Repair bills https://medium.com/u-s-pirg/microsoft-named-as-stopping-right-to-repair-in-washington-b880bf4ad052

#5yrsago Silicon Valley’s techie uprisings reveal growing support for socialism in tech https://www.salon.com/2019/04/11/silicon-valley-once-a-bastion-of-libertarianism-sees-a-budding-socialist-movement/

#5yrsago Investors controlling $3B in Facebook stock demand Zuckerberg’s ouster, and they will lose https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-investors-will-vote-to-oust-mark-zuckerberg-as-chairman-2019-4

#5yrsago Starz abuses the DMCA to remove EFF’s tweet about Starz abusing the DMCA https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/effs-tweet-about-overzealous-dmca-takedown-now-subject-overzealous-takedown

#5yrsago RIP, science fiction and fantasy Grand Master Gene Wolfe, 1931-2019 https://reactormag.com/gene-wolfe-in-memoriam-1931-2019/

#5yrsago Leaked, “highly classified” French report shows that the slaughter in Yemen depends on US support https://theintercept.com/2019/04/15/saudi-weapons-yemen-us-france/

#1yrago SVB bailouts for everyone – except affordable housing projects https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/15/socialism-for-the-rich/#rugged-individualism-for-the-poor

[the-garbanzo-annex-jr]

by Joe Kaufman

A prominent educator and activist in South Florida will be removed from two committees associated with the Broward County School Board, after officials learned of her ties to radical Muslim groups and promotion of antisemitism. The decision came after her connections to Islamist organizations and her own promotion of antisemitism were brought to their attention by this author.

Officials will remove Naima Khan-Ghany from her seats on the Broward County School Board Diversity and Human Relations Committees, at the end of June.

‘In light of what has taken place,’ Khan-Ghany’s duties have been ‘put on hold,’ and come July 1st, she will no longer be affiliated with either committee and will be replaced by other appointees.

Janysse Edouard, the Executive Secretary of School Board member Dr. Jeff Holness stated, on June 6th, that “in light of what has taken place,” Khan-Ghany’s duties have been “put on hold,” and come July 1st, she will no longer be affiliated with either committee and will be replaced by other appointees.

For over seven years, Trinidad-born Naima Khan-Ghany has served in different capacities within the Broward County School Board, most notably on the Diversity and Human Relations Committees, the latter of which she chairs. Through much of that time and well before, she has affiliated with several Islamist groups, many of which are extensions of international terrorist entities.

Khan-Ghany has worked with the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which, in July 2014, co-sponsored a Miami rally where event goers repeatedly chanted “We are Hamas” and “Let’s go Hamas.” She has worked with the South Asian terror-linked Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and spoke at a 2015 banquet for ICNA’s social services division, ICNA Relief. She has been photographed with ICNA Relief USA’s Government Affairs Coordinator Syed Ammar Ahmed, who once joked about threatening to blow up a school, and ICNA Relief USA’s COO Abdul Rauf Khan, who has used his social media to target Jews and gays.

[dnaamericaapp]

Justice Denied: Judge Dismisses Tulsa Race Massacre Lawsuit

The stinging defeat for survivors of one of the most violent racial domestic terrorist attacks against the wealthiest Black community in U.S. history echoes across Black America.

A years-long legal effort to secure restitution for the three last known living survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre has ended after Judge Caroline Wall dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice.

According to court filings posted on Friday, Tulsa County District Judge Caroline Wall granted City of Tulsa attorneys’ motion to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning the case can’t be refiled.

“Upon hearing the arguments of counsel and considering the briefs filed by counsel for plaintiffs and counsel for defendants the court respectfully finds and order the plaintiffs’ second amended petition should and shall be dismissed with prejudice,” Judge Wall wrote.

Attorneys for the city of Tulsa had argued that the case should be dismissed because the lawsuit didn’t lay out how Judge Wall should remedy the harm. Meanwhile, attorneys for Justice for Greenwood argued that state law doesn’t require them to provide those answers before a trial has even begun.

Many were hopeful that a win in Tulsa would set a precedent for other communities harmed by white supremacy.

Attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons, who leads Justice For Greenwood, previously told The Black Wall Street Times the City of Tulsa was hypocritical for using the story of the survivors for cultural tourism while denying them reparations.

“The city will not even have the decency to acknowledge” the survivors, attorney Solomon-Simmons said.

The defeat for Black Tulsans and Black Americans around the country comes as the State Superintendent of Public Instruction told a group of citizens in Norman, Oklahoma that teachers shouldn’t teach that the Tulsa Race Massacre was about race.

Meanwhile, survivor “Mother” Fletcher has written a memoir, the oldest living person to do so, about her experiences, titled, “Don’t Let Them Bury My Story.” -(source: the black wall street times)

DNA America

“it’s what we know, not what you want us to believe.”

#dna #dnaamerica #news #politics

[ausetkmt]

A German Shepherd lies on a stretcher in a sterile exam room, tucked in a fleece blanket. The room's perimeter is lined with men in crisp khaki uniforms, handguns strapped to their sagging utility belts. A shrill beep sounds over a radio, and an impassive dispatcher's voice is heard over the men's gentle sniffling.

"TBP 743, Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office to all units, clear channel for last call. Standby on all radio traffic. Sheriff's Office to K-9 Argo… End of watch for K-9 Argo. On October 10th, 2015. Rest in peace, K-9 Argo. TBP 743. Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office. Clearing out at… 11:16."

Four more beeps. The dog lifts his head, and the uniformed men step forward. "Good boy," mutters one man between sniffles, ruffling the fur on its head. The dog's jaw plops open as he pants, and the titanium caps on his incisors catch the glint of the fluorescent exam lights. Another hand reaches forward to pull the blanket over the dog's shoulders as he nestles into the stretcher and closes his eyes.

On October 15, a police dog named Argo from Hidalgo County, Texas, was facing euthanasia after a battle with an aggressive strain of bone cancer. As a local hero of the South Texas law enforcement community, Argo was granted a last radio call—a traditional ceremony which suspends activity on the police scanner to put out a final "call" for a fallen officer.

A lieutenant's grainy cellphone video of the intimate service went viral. In the following week it was picked up by The Today Show, Fox News, MSNBC, Buzzfeed, and The Daily Mail. As the video spread, the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department was inundated with outpourings from the strangers across the world, ranging from donations and emotive poems, to an open invitation for a free fishing trip from a charter boat company across the country.

Within a few days the video had been shared hundreds of thousands of times, a spectacle of public mourning.

Argo was one of thousands of dogs in America working for the state, referred to within the law enforcement community as K-9s. The mechanism of the modern K-9, with which many are unfamiliar, delineates it as more of a weapon than a pet. Engineered and imported from Europe by breed specialists, dogs on the force are now equipped with titanium teeth and thousands of dollars' worth of protective technology, from ballistic vests to custom canine body cams.

The majority of domestic K-9s are "dual purpose," meaning they're trained rigorously to both sniff out drugs and protect their handlers by any means necessary. Traditionally and presently, most dogs are trained from puppyhood primarily to relish in the activity of biting and tearing into human limbs, and to detect of drugs or IEDs.

Tales of K-9 heroism abound, which is one reason they're so beloved by their handlers—and the public. When a French bomb-sniffing dog named Diesel was killed in a police raid following the Paris terrorist attacks in November, tens of thousands of people tweeted in support. And for human police officers, the dogs' singular sense of mission inspires their own loyalty.

"They don't sleep in our houses, and they don't play with our families," Sergeant Michael Goosby, the chief K-9 trainer for the LAPD's Metropolitan Division, told the New York Times in November. "They exist for one reason: hunting bad guys."

But these dogs are dynamic systems. Their capacity for decision and error is both their biggest flaw and greatest strength. The dog, a learning machine, makes its own exceptions to situations based on an array of variables, including tells from their handler. Since these decisions ultimately lead to reception of a reward, then they are no longer innocent agents but cybernetic mercenaries, with decision making that is open to influence.

Given their inherently imperfect judgment and the dire consequences of their mistakes, why do dogs remain in the forefront of law enforcement?

Argo was imported to Central California from a Czech kennel in 2006 by bovine genetics giant Michael Osmundson. In 1998, Osmundson's artificial cattle insemination company Creative Genetics released the ProCross system, a trademarked cross-breeding technique that is internationally renowned in the dairy cow community. The success of his agricultural empire has allowed Osmundson to pursue his true passion in the meticulous import, breeding, and training of German Shepherds. This second business, Kreative Kennels, is carried out on a sprawling property in Oakdale. Osmundson plans each litter with careful precision, considering the genetic makeup of the pup's antecedents.

"It all comes down to knowing your animals—knowing each dog and its personality," he tells me over the phone. Although he works tirelessly to strike a perfect balance of "nervy" and "stable" dogs, he says that his breeding program is attuned more to health than personality traits, attempting to overcome the genetic hips and elbow problems that have plagued the breed since its inception.

With the help of his family, a six-man staff of experienced trainers, and a group of women focused on early socialization that he refers to as the "puppy gals", Osmundson is one of the most sought-after working dog breeders stateside. The dogs available to purchase from Kreative Kennels run the gamut, ranging from family pets, to personal guard dogs, to highly attuned soldiers for use by the police and military. According to Osmundson, "probably 90-95 percent turn out exactly the way we've planned," in no small part thanks to his careful eye toward the art and science of optimal genetics. Argo, however, was not bred under Osmundson's watchful eye.

"We got him from some close friends over there," he says. "They used to be very involved with government breeding programs. We have our own agent that we have test every dog before we buy 'em."

On the KK website, he states, "we started searching in Germany and the Czech Republic for people who we could trust so we could find dogs for our breeding program. Those people have done a great job in finding excellent dogs for our program. Our breeding goals are to breed many top police-type dogs per year… We want to breed dogs that are very dominant and serious with very high drives and active aggression." [emphasis theirs]

The significance of Argo's Czech origins are not lost on Osmundson. For the duration of the Cold War, the notoriously ruthless Czech Border patrol, known as the Pohranicni Straze, created a state-sponsored K-9 breeding program. The K-9s produced were exceptionally aggressive, intended to stop any Soviet defectors to Western Europe. Current-day breed aficionados boast that the P.S. dogs caught and killed 20-30 escapees per day on the borders between East Germany and Austria. The New York Times reported that dogs on sliding leashes were stationed along the un-walled sections throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

The ruthlessness of the Czech dogs are etched into the cultural memory of the Cold War, and the Platform of European Memory & Conscience, an anti-totalitarian research group, recently called for trial and punishment of P.S. dog handlers for war crimes, although the dog breeding program continued long after the fall of the Iron Curtain. According to one former P.S. veterinarian, the police kennels produced over 1,500 puppies between 1991 and 2005.

Going back three generations in his detailed family tree, one of Argo's ancestors carries the Czech surname "od Police," which translates to "from the police"; after four generations, many of his ancestors hold the surname "z Pohranični stráze" ("of the Border Patrol"). After the Cold War, dogs like Argo's predecessors were folded into Czech and German police departments.

There are, like Osmundson's colleagues abroad, former P.S. soldiers who raise and train the descendants of war dogs under military guidelines for private clients. A fully-trained adult dog sells for between $7,000 and $10,000. The dogs are purchased by middle class families seeking a highly aggressive personal protection dog, Western European and Israeli military forces, American law enforcement departments, and intermediaries like Osmundson who can fine-tune a dog like Argo before it hits the streets.

His prices are on the higher end. But purchasing a working breed dog from a meticulous professional like Osmundson does help some people sleep at night, knowing that the dogs he designates as "green" will be ideal family companions, and that dogs he deems suitable for police are destined for a lifetime of hard work.

But working dogs like Argo face a new threat.

The introduction of Boston Dynamics' canid military robot prototype, BigDog, triggered the dystopian visions that torment our collective subconscious. Several writers have considered the ethical and dystopian implications of this self-righting mechanical monster, and most have concluded that we should accept a menagerie of robotic animals as inevitable in our military future.

The unease with BigDog is in stark contrast to the veneration of the US military's working dogs, one of which was apparently deployed during the capture of Osama bin Laden. Military working dogs are media darlings. Their adventures, both real and imagined, have recently spawned several bestselling books and at least one film, Max, which grossed over $40 million in 16 weeks.

Working dogs are engineered as much as they are bred. Several universities, including the prestigious University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School, operate multi-million dollar programs to perfect the genetics of working dogs. Add to that an entire industry dedicated to technology enhancing the mettle of K-9s, spanning from elaborate vehicle cooling systems, dog-sized ballistic vests, and head-mounted cameras with accompanying recon units, to treadmills, obstacle courses, and nutritionally-enhanced raw carrion diets to keep them in top shape.

But advanced technology does little to improve the precision of weaponized K-9s. Despite a lifetime of training, dogs are inherently imperfect machines, and high-stakes errors do occur in the field. In the event of a broken leash or a misinterpreted signal, there is little that can be done to stop an attack once it starts. The dogs are unaware of the line between excessive and necessary force, lacking the situational awareness to decipher the grey area that is our American judicial system. As a result, the dogs, when they are "on" and ready to work, tend to latch onto anything that runs. They are unlikely to distinguish between good guys, bad guys, and the fleeing innocent. An accidental death or debilitating injury can therefore be blamed on enthusiasm, a hard-working dog simply doing what it was trained to do.

Weaponized dogs have been used as tools of war and control for thousands of years, tracing as far back as Ancient Greece. Yet throughout the latter half of the 20th century, human rights groups have questioned the necessity of dogs who bite to maim, most visibly during the Civil Rights movement and again in the wake of Abu Ghraib.

In 2013, Martin Lee Hoogveldt of West Jordan, Utah, was attacked by a K-9 after he put his hands up to surrender to police, which was caught on graphic body cam footage. Earlier this year the West Jordan Police Department settled with Hoogveldt for $125,000, but said its officers acted appropriately.

In August of 2009, Argo arrived in South Texas via airmail. He was the newest addition to an armada of dual-purpose law enforcement dogs working in Hidalgo County, a small community in the southernmost tip of Texas, abutting the Mexican border.

Dr. Justin Cerelli, Argo's veterinarian, told me in a phone call that he's under contract for dozens of K-9s throughout the region, including two police departments, the Border Patrol, US Customs, the Constable's Office, and the county school district. (K-9s accompany school resource officers in this district at the behest of the FBI.)

With a per capita income of $14,222, Hidalgo County is one of the poorest counties in the United States. The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department Facebook page is a throwback to the Wild West, continuously updated by staff with the 2015 equivalent of wanted posters fluttering in the sun-drenched Texas sky. Features such as "Wanted Wednesday" are posted to track down small town crooks like The Bubble Gum Bandit, whose total haul ultimately was worth $750.

The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office has a long and well-documented history of corruption, with a track record of officers implicated in the drug and arms trafficking that flourishes near the Mexican border. The department has faced internal strife in recent months. On December 10, Sheriff J.E. Guerrera announced the suspension of a deputy for a DWI, the third alcohol-related offense by a deputy in the span of a few weeks.

Law enforcement in Hidalgo County doesn't balk when it comes to outfitting their K-9s with the latest equipment and care. The cottage industry of police dog technology is a booming, with popular retailers of highly specified technical gear like Argo's custom "SHERIFF" vest moving half a million dollars' worth of product per year. One of the most popular vendors is Kentucky-based Elite K-9, owned and operated by a former police officer.

Agencies like the Hidalgo County Sheriff spare no expense when it comes to veterinary enhancement. When I spoke with Argo's veterinarian, he declined to go into detail about dentistry, which is pertinent to K-9 veterinary practice. One of the only hazards, in fact, of long-range track and bite is that the bite is so hard (with a force that has been likened to getting run over by a small car) and so prolonged (it takes several minutes for officers to catch up to a dog "holding" a suspect) that the dog's incisors often break. As a solution, veterinarians across the country replace broken teeth with sharp titanium points.

Dr. Erich Rachwitz, a veterinarian in Bellevue, Nebraska, described the procedure as "blinging out" the dog. At a cost of $600 to $2,000 per tooth, the colorful expression feels appropriate.

The bling has also been heralded as an intimidation tool, presumably to warn victims in the half-second gap between the flash of metal teeth and the moment they sink into flesh.

"The four big canines are what you first see when a dog opens its mouth or bares its teeth," Jim Watson, the secretary of the North American Police Work Dogs Association, said in an interview with The Telegraph. "So having metallic canines will draw a person's attention and scare them more. If the dog is barking and someone sees the sunlight sparkling on his metal teeth, it may encourage the person to back down."

There is no escape once the jaws are set and tearing; thanks to training exercises intended to desensitize dogs to self-defense tools, the dogs bite harder when struck with sticks. Harming a working dog is considered felony officer assault. In 2013, a 19-year-old who attempted to cross the border through Hidalgo County stabbed a Border Patrol K-9 when it bit down on his leg, which he argued in court to be an attempt at self-defense. He served a six-month term in federal prison, and was faced with a $100,000 fine.

Working dogs used by military handlers are trained in IED scent detection as well as biting. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the training and work ethic of a bomb-sniffing dog can mean the difference between life and death. Although bomb-disarming bots deployed under the US military's Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization (now Joint Improvised-Threat Defeat Agency) have saved tons of lives, the capability of a dog's bomb-scenting abilities are beyond replication. After spending $19 billion since 2004 on attempts to create bomb-detection robots, the JIEDDO program failed to create any device that out-sniffed a dog. At $50,000 or less, a kitted-out K-9 is much cheaper.

However, the sniffing itself is not so much a problem as the fact that they bring potential bias and error to police and military encounters. In a recent study, scent detection dogs have been determined to be up to 80 percent inaccurate. A handler can also easily manipulate a dog to falsely detect drugs, a loophole that has resulted in K-9 scent detection being ruled as barely more accurate than a coin flip in a recent federal appeals court decision. Sometimes the dogs are determined to signal only in reaction to tells or small shifts in body language by their handler.

The same goes for dual-purpose dogs like Argo. As a result of years of targeted training and breeding, Argo and K-9s like him are ultimately making life or death decisions. This thought process can be seen in a video by the Durham, UK Police, which recently outfitted their K-9s with $22,000 custom canine body cams designed by Tactical Electronics. In the video, a K-9 is sent to chase someone posing as a decoy down on a field, then the back of a car, and finally running into a mockup apartment during a simulation of a no-knock raid, excitedly searching for a suspect among decoy mannequins:

Video: Tactical Electronics/YouTube

It's not just the military and police, either. As detailed in a 2006 report from Human Rights Watch, work dogs are also being used by prisons. Mike Knolls, a member of the Special Operations Unit of the Utah Department of Corrections, describes the effectiveness of using K-9s to drag noncompliant inmates out of their cells: "Obviously a dog is more of a deterrent [than a Taser gun]. You get more damage from a dog bite. I think it's right up there with impact weapons."

A Connecticut inmate describes his long-term injury from a cell extraction dog, which bit his left hand as he reflexively tried to block the dog's bite: "[I]t sank its teeth completely through my hand… I lost a lot of feeling in my middle and ring fingers and I have a 'pin and needles' feeling in my index finger and thumb. This is due to multiple nerves being severed from the dog bite."

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And yet, K-9s remain esteemed by the general public. Dogs are the fuzzy, beloved law enforcement mascots of which PR dreams are made. Their popularity has helped police and military soften their image, as the dogs themselves are divorced from danger and menace. Many departments even use dogs as community outreach tools, orchestrating community events and school visits to put a furry face on men in uniform (this sometimes backfires).

After several decades of lionizing weaponized dogs, people like Argo's tens of thousands of mourners trust that K-9s are normal dogs with petlike motivations. Many smaller police departments are even able to use third-party nonprofits or donations from outreach events to pay for their K-9 programs.

Conservative pundits are calling for armed drones at the border, but dogs like Argo are already on the ground, without widespread pushback. Weaponized detection dogs working on behalf of the state are likely to continue to beat out replicants like BigDog for the foreseeable future, because they remove accountability from the handler for committing acts of violence and conducting unwarranted searches. And dogs, even with all the technological trappings, are a bargain.

For now, at least, they are keeping their robotic competitors at bay.

When I ask Osmundson if he remembers Argo, he sighs and recalls him fondly. I can hear the smile break through in his voice. "Argo was a great dog. A big dog, he was the ideal shepherd dog, he was very loyal, very loving, very sweet, but also very protective of his handler and very willing to go get the bad guy. He was a super super dog."