Where the Confederacy Is Rising Again.

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John Savage at Politico has an in-depth article about the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who not only continue their constant fight to keep confederate statues, symbols, and flags in place and protected, but are now planning a massive confederate monument, at the intersection of Interstate 10 and Orange’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard, in the town of Orange, East Texas. Nothing subtle about that.

…Throughout this tempest, the Texas chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, an aging army of deeply religious, federal government distrusting, neo-Confederate true believers, has emerged as a steadfast defender of Confederate iconography. The Texas SCV only claims about 5,000 members, but their ideology carries significant weight in the state. SCV members sued the University of Texas in an effort to stop the removal of the Jefferson Davis statue. They distributed more than 1,000 Confederate flags in Fort Worth after the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo banned the Confederate battle flag. Wherever someone wants to rename a school or remove a statue that honors the Confederacy, the SCV’s members soon follow.

But the Texas SCV is not only fighting against the disappearance of Confederate symbolism, they are behind the construction of what is likely the largest Confederate memorial built in a century — a multi-ton shrine nearing completion in an east Texas town near the Louisiana border. For the SCV, this battle is not just about protecting a Confederate heritage, it’s about resurrecting it, restoring that heritage so that they will continue to have something to protect.

[…]

Jim Toungate is the adjutant of the Williamson County chapter of the Texas SCV, and Savage had a long interview with him at his residence.

[Read more…]

“Until I am out of ammo or out of blood, I WILL FIGHT”

trump-rnc-afp-800x430A lawsuit has been filed by a Trump campaign staffer, because it seems NC campaign director Earl Phillip was fond of motivating staffers with a gun. Phillip was relieved of his job just last week.

According to WBTV in Charlotte, when Vincent Bordini approached higher-ups in the campaign, they did nothing. Another campaign official confided to Bordini that he, too, had been threatened at gunpoint by Phillip.

WBTV’s Nick Ochsner posted the first page of Bordini’s complaint on Twitter. The incident took place in Phillip’s Jeep in February of this year, reportedly, when Phillip “produced a pistol, put his right index finger on the trigger, and drove the barrel into Vincent’s knee cap.”

Bordini went straight to campaign officials, the suit says, speaking first to the Trump campaign’s regional director of western North Carolina. “The Director told Vincent that he, too, had been brandished upon by Phillip,” the lawsuit says. “He was terrified.”

According to Ochsner, “campaign leadership, including then-camp mngr Lewandowski, refused to act.”

[…]

Phillip’s Facebook timeline is littered with pro-gun memes. “Until I am out of ammo or out of blood, I WILL FIGHT,” says one post.

“Life is about kicking ass,” says one image depicting an Army special forces operative brandishing an assault weapon, “not kissing it.”

Via Raw Story. I don’t have words for this, I really don’t. At this point, I’m not the least bit surprised, and like most everyone else, the constant stream of awful has left me numb. I know that’s bad, but I’m having trouble maintaining an effective sense of outrage. At this point, I’m just grateful this doucheweasel didn’t manage to kill or maim anyone.

You’re never “just joking.” Nobody is ever “just joking.”

Jason Steed’s tweet storm has gone viral, and with good reason. He tackled the idea that Trump was “just joking” about that whole 2nd amendment people taking care of Clinton.

But in a certain sense, it doesn’t really matter what Trump intended. This tweetstorm, from Dallas lawyer Jason P. Steed, explains why.

Before becoming a lawyer, Steed was an English professor. He wrote his PhD dissertation on “the social function of humor” and found something important: Jokes about socially unacceptable things aren’t just “jokes.” They serve a function of normalizing that unacceptable thing, of telling the people who agree with you that, yes, this is an okay thing to talk about.

This, Steed explains, is why “it’s a joke” isn’t a good defense of racist jokes. By telling the joke, the person is signaling that they think racism is an appropriate thing to express. “Just joking” is just what someone says to the people who don’t appreciate hearing racist stuff — it shouldn’t matter any more than saying “no offense” after saying something offensive.

Likewise, Trump is signaling that assassinating Hillary Clinton and/or her Supreme Court nominees is an okay thing to talk about. He’s normalizing the unacceptable.

This is very much the same as the standard you walk past is the standard you accept, but people are always trying to exempt humor from that, and it is not exempt, in spite of all those who wish it to be.

Vox has the whole tweet storm, and Think Progress has an in depth article and interview with Steed.

Ireland: Yes Equality.

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Joe Caslin tackles Ireland’s steadfast refusal to legalize same sex marriage. Caslin’s art is printed out using biodegradable inks, then papered onto a suitably large surface. You can read about Yes Equality here. Caslin has also done a series, Our Nation’s Sons, dealing with mental health, depression, and suicide in Ireland’s men. Joe Caslin’s website is here, and there’s lot a lot to explore!

Send in the Drones.

Drones

“Packed out church tonight as I got to reveal our brand new mission project,” the pastor’s caption on Instagram said.

“@livetsord will start using military drones, three meters wide, to drop thousands of electronic Bibles over closed areas in the Middle East. Let’s pray the message of God’s love in Christ will conquer that of darkness and hate!”

The apparent logic of the Swedish church Livets Ord, or “Word of Life,” is that by using a tactic that simulates the airstrikes that have traumatized a region, they will bring light and love and maybe convert some Muslims to Christianity.

“We start our project in a few weeks and hope to drop thousands of Bibles,” the church’s website says. The Bibles are “pillbox”-size and will supposedly be dropped from high altitude by a contractor hired by the church.

Faced with scorn from the media, Christian Akerhielm, the church’s missions director, has emphasized that the drone campaign adds to their good work in the region, which involves distributing aid at refugee camps.

[…]

The evangelical church was founded in 1983, and its founders have since left it and converted to Catholicism. It is a massive entity in the city of Uppsala, an hour’s drive north of the Swedish capital, Stockholm. It is run by the charismatic preacher Joakim Lundqvist, who introduced the drone mission to church attendees.

[…]

The Bibles are electronic but don’t need to be plugged in to work. One assumes they have been translated into Arabic, but that isn’t indicated in any of the publicity around the mission.

Leave it to Christians to be such utterly oblivious, insensitive assholes. Once again, they demonstrate that shining on light on their supposed good works is the most important consideration, much like Stuart with his constant refrain of Look what I can do!

Via Washington Post.

Kinetic Insects.

Mechanical Horn Centaur Beetle, 2015. 100 x 100 x 150 cm. Jati Wood, Pine Wood, Electric Dynamo.

Indonesian artist Dedy Shofianto creates unusual kinetic sculptures of insect-like creatures by carving almost every component from wood. Though powered by hidden electronics it’s the exquisitely detailed mandibles, wings, antennae, and gears of these hybrid creatures crafted from locally sourced jati (teak) wood that take center stage. It would seem that a lifetime of wood craftsmanship would have been brought to bear on each piece, all the more impressive considering Shofianto created these pieces when he was only 24 years old while still in school—he graduated from the Art Institute of Indonesia just last year.

The Power of Kumbang Tanduk 120 x 120 x 120 cm Mindi and Acacia Wood 2014.

The Power of Kumbang Tanduk. 120 x 120 x 120 cm. Mindi and Acacia Wood, 2014.

 

Photo © Tirana House.

Photo © Tirana House.

You can see much more of Dedy Shofianto’s work here. Via Colossal Art.

Darnell Wicker.

Darnell Wicker (Photo: Family of Darnell Wicker).

Darnell Wicker (Photo: Family of Darnell Wicker).

Darnell Wicker was pronounced dead around 2 a.m. from multiple shots to his torso, upper right extremity and lower extremities after police officers opened fire on him. The Jefferson County Coroner’s office in Louisville, KY admitted that they don’t know exactly how many times the 57-year-old man was shot.

Police officers Taylor Banks and Beau Gadegaard were responding to a domestic violence call when Wicker came outside holding a knife and a tree saw, according to WDRB.

“He came outside — he came out the door and was holding a knife in his hand, he started kind of swinging it around a little bit and he kind of came at us and so we shot,” an officer explains on the video.

Two women who witnessed the event tell a different story, however. Anita Jones, Wicker’s girlfriend and Denita Jones blame the police.

“They just ran up past him — around him — and just said, ‘Drop your weapon!’ Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!” Anita Jones described police not waiting for Wicker to drop the items. “He had no chance to drop the weapon.”

“The officers jumped out, came around, pushed her out of the way,” said Denita Jones. “I was far enough over here that he ran beside me, pushed her out of the way, said, ‘Ma’am move!’ ran up, the other one went that way. ‘Put it down!’ Pop! Pop! Pop!”

The officers also didn’t perform any kind of first aid on Wicker and the EMTs arrived nine minutes after he was shot.

“I was the person who actually had called them, and I didn’t want that to actually happen,” Denita Jones said. “That was my thing. I just wanted the situation to be okay.”

Once again, you have cops shooting someone, and once again, you have cops who refuse to render aid, even the simple act of calling for an ambulance. This has happened time and time again. Michael Brown. Paul O’Neal. And so many more. Pretty much all the people shot by cops. This is a demonstration of ingrained callousness, the dehumanization of bigotry. Body cam footage is below the fold, and it is graphic, so all the warnings.

[Read more…]

Some Cops Fired.

Riot police holding their position during a protest in Baltimore, Maryland against the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody, on April 25, 2015 (AFP Photo/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds).

Riot police holding their position during a protest in Baltimore, Maryland against the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody, on April 25, 2015 (AFP Photo/Andrew Caballero-Reynolds).

Some Baltimore bigots have been fired, which is a good thing, but I want to address a different part:

Baltimore police have fired some officers in the wake of a scathing review by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Kevin Davis, the city’s police commissioner, said Wednesday that the department has already fired officers who committed the most egregious violations outlined in the federal report, the Associated Press reported.

The report found that Baltimore police officers routinely target and discriminate against black people, use excessive force and are not adequately disciplined for misconduct.

The Justice Department is seeking a court order to force the police department to commit to improving its procedures to avoid a lawsuit.

There, that last sentence. Why does the justice department need a court order and the threat of a lawsuit to get one cop shop to do the right thing? If this does not highlight how utterly rotten the police system is, I don’t know what will get through to people, to make them wake the fuck up. Considering the current state of police – citizen relationship right now, I’d think they would be eager to clean house without being threatened, if for no other reason, for appearance’s sake. Naturally, there was the all too expected mealy-mouthed cop response:

Davis said the department was committed to making meaningful changes, but he said those could take some time.

Right. Go fuck yourself, Davis, and after that, clean house.

Via Raw Story.

Lethal Incompetence.

Mary Knowlton.

Mary Knowlton.

A 73 year old librarian was shot to death by a cop in what I suppose you could call friendly fire, but is a clear case of lethal incompetence. It is quite clear that cops cannot be trusted with guns, anymore than they can be trusted with cameras, or trusted to tell the truth.

Mary Knowlton arrived at the Punta Gorda, Fla., police station Tuesday night to learn how to be a community steward.

The 73-year-old was there as a student in the citizen police academy, a two-hour course intended to give an intimate look at what makes the department in the quaint Florida town work. On this night, the group of 35 would tour the station and talk with officers, an essential part of academy curriculum that has gained popularity across the country amid a heated national debate about police violence.

When it came time to get involved, Knowlton volunteered.

The hosting officers chose two students to role-play in a lethal force simulation, a scenario intended to demonstrate how and when officers decide to pull the trigger. Knowlton played the victim, Charlotte Sun photographer Sue Paquin told the newspaper, and a Punta Gorda police officer played a “bad guy.” These scenarios are usually safe, acted out with either fake or empty weapons.

But when the officer’s gun was fired, Knowlton — a mother, wife and career librarian — was hit with live ammunition.

She was rushed to a local hospital and pronounced dead.

The article goes on, much “deeply shocked, prayers”, along with a remarkable use of the passive voice, as if this just sort of happened, without any cop involved. It’s also noteworthy just how protective the statements are of the shooter. Cops and guns, a seriously bad combination.

Via the Washington Post. UPDATED.

No Wands for the Harry Potterfied Muggles.

Richard Carter of Mystical Moments who sells magic wands in Huddersfield but has banned Harry Potter fans Credit: Ben Lack Photography Ltd.

Richard Carter of Mystical Moments who sells magic wands in Huddersfield but has banned Harry Potter fans Credit: Ben Lack Photography Ltd.

Okay…might want to pad your desk or start some eyeroll protection here.

A shop which makes magic wands for real life witches and wizards has been blasted by Harry Potter fans for refusing to serve them. The business, called Mystical Moments, is making a name for itself in the wizarding world by supplying wands to cast healing spells and charms for good luck.

But wand-maker Richard Carter says he is selling “spiritual tools” – not toys for young Muggles – and he is barring Hogwarts fans. The wands can be used to draw protective circles to ward off dark forces while owners meditate, bring them money, and help them find love. They can also be used to cure aches and pains and stress, speed a sick relative’s recovery or wish for happiness, courage or physical strength.

Local mystic Mr Carter, 57, spends whole days standing at his lathe in a trance lovingly crafting each wand and anointing them with oil. He says he does not know one end of a lathe from another and works while controlled by the spirits in his shop in Slaithwaite village, near Huddersfield.

He says all you need is faith in the product for it to work wonders – literally.

Riiiight. I’ve been around lathes. You definitely need to know one end from another, because if you don’t, that’s a good way to lose bits of your body you just might be fond of, and I doubt any spirit is overly concerned about that particular problem. Lathes aren’t exactly the cheapest tool around, either, but Mr. Carter just happens to have a tool he can’t use at all in his shop.

[…] In the few months the shop has been open, sandwiched between a church charity shop and shabby chic store on the village’s high street, it has attracted sorcerers from all over the country. But Richard says he only wants to attract true believers in magic and can detect Hogwarts fans wanting his wands for their collections of memorabilia by their aura. He said: “JK Rowling has obviously done her research but Harry Potter is for children. It has done nothing for business.

“You wouldn’t believe how many real witches and wizards there are knocking about. You would be amazed. They know they can come here in reveal themselves without people thinking they’re mental. “I don’t have customers who have been Harry Potterfied. If I had someone come in wanting a wand just because they liked Harry Potter I would not sell them one, not matter how much money they were offering.

“I can tell what people are like when they walk in by their aura.” He would also spot dark wizards and witches the same way and will not sell wands to those wanting to hex other people or perform curses.

Oooh, are they Death Eaters, maybe?

Former textile worker Mr Carter, opened the shop in April with partner and fellow spiritualist Jackie Restall, 43. He claims he does not make a penny out the wants, costing £15 to £25, which he uses to spread the spiritual message.

Different types of wood give each wand different magical properties – oak for strength and courage, yew for those seeking immortality and rebirth, sweet chestnut for love and healing, elm for balance and calm, sycamore for boosting feminine intuition, and mahogany for spiritual growth.

He says: “I have no training in woodwork. I use spiritual guidance and don’t know how any of the wands will turn out. All you need for them to work is faith.”

Jackie said: “Personally, I’m a big Harry Potter fan but I’m afraid it is just about escapism so I respect Richard’s views.”

Zak Cohen, 20, President of York University Potter fan club, the HP Muggle Society, said: “I don’t know what our members will make of this. “My personal view is it’s a bit weird to say the least. I can understand they don’t want it treated as a joke. “But I did not think it was allowed for a shop to say they won’t sell things to a specific group of people. “If they sold to Harry Potter fans, rather than just equipping real witches and wizards, they would sell loads more wands and we wouldn’t treat them like toys.”

GP Taylor, the former Yorkshire vicar turned fantasy author, said: “Magic wands do work by being a focus for your inner desires and powers. “But I think this is terrible. Harry Potter fans should be served. They are going crazy over the Cursed Child and need their wands. It is discrimination against Potter fans. They should go to court for justice.”

The full story is here.