Drinking the Orange Kool-Aid.

Cult-of-Trump-4

Rebecca Nelson at GQ has a very good article up about the current ‘crazy for Trump’ going on, and Rick Alan Ross, a cult expert and republican was watching this all with distaste, until a bell rang, and rather loudly. What he’s watching is the rise of a cult leader. The article goes through a number of points:

Sign I: His campaign is fueled by charisma.

Sign II: He’s a raging narcissist.

Sign III: What he says is always right. Even when it’s not.

Drinking the Orange Kool-Aid.

What has long bothered (and scared) me is that no one who follows Trump is remotely interested in seeing him subject to the same things the other candidates are, it’s always “different” in Trump’s case. That did not, and does not read like enthusiastic political support. This is more “alright, we can finally set up a dictatorship and start killing all the ___! Yes!”

The final note from the GQ article:

Trump doesn’t consider all women his spiritual wives, like the Branch Davidians’ David Koresh. And we can reasonably assume that he does not have plans to kill his supporters by giving them cyanide-laced Kool-Aid, as the Rev. Jim Jones did at his Guyana compound in 1978. Still, his ascendency could very well start a nuclear war. “We’re not talking about a compound with a thousand people,” Ross says. “We’re talking about a nation with over 300 million people. So the consequences of Trumpism could affect us in a way Jim Jones never did.”

Especially if you don’t drink the Trump Kool-Aid™.

Full story here.

Twitter, Oh Twitter V.

White supremacists (Twitter).

White supremacists (Twitter).

White nationalists and self-identified Nazi sympathizers located mostly in the United States use Twitter with “relative impunity” and often have far more followers than militant Islamists, a study being released on Thursday found.

Eighteen prominent white nationalist accounts examined in the study, including the American Nazi Party, have seen a sharp increase in Twitter followers to a total of more than 25,000, up from about 3,500 in 2012, according to the study by George Washington University’s Program on Extremism that was seen by Reuters.

[…]

Berger said in an interview that Twitter and other companies such as Facebook Inc faced added difficulties in enforcing standards against white nationalist groups because they are less cohesive than Islamic State networks and present greater free speech complications.

Oh really. Hmmm. Interesting how there aren’t any greater free speech complications when it comes to stomping on Islamic extremism, but boy oh boy, does it ever get complicated when it’s white extremists. Sure.

The data collected, which included analysis of tweets of selected accounts and their followers, represents a fraction of the white nationalist presence on Twitter and was insufficient to estimate the overall online size of the groups, the report said.

Accounts examined in the study possessed a strong affinity for U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, a prolific Twitter user who has been accused of retweeting accounts associated with white nationalism dozens of times.

Three of the top 10 hashtags used most frequently by the data set of users studied were related to Trump, according to the report, entitled “Nazis vs. ISIS on Twitter.” Only #whitegenocide was more popular than Trump-related hashtags, the report said.

Yeah, there’s shocking news. I’ll try to work up a shocked expression or something.

Full story here.

About that poor, patriotic anthem…

The_Star-Spangled_Banner_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_21566

Almost no one seems to be aware that even if the U.S. were a perfect country today, it would be bizarre to expect African-American players to stand for “The Star-Spangled Banner.” Why? Because it literally celebrates the murder of African-Americans.

Few people know this because we only ever sing the first verse. But read the end of the third verse and you’ll see why “The Star-Spangled Banner” is not just a musical atrocity, it’s an intellectual and moral one, too:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

“The Star-Spangled Banner,” Americans hazily remember, was written by Francis Scott Key about the Battle of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during theWar of 1812. But we don’t ever talk about how the War of 1812 was a war of aggression that began with an attempt by the U.S. to grab Canada from the British Empire.

As with most colonial relics, they are aggressive, immoral paeans to bigotry, hatred, fear, and murder. I have little use for the concept of patriotism, and even less for mindless jingoism, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out why anyone would stand to honour this utter shit, this disregard for any life which was not that of the conquering white man. I might be able to spare some spit.

The Intercept has the full, very interesting story of this blood-soaked anthem to murder and slavery.

The Speech.

The Lakota people refer to warriors as “akicita” and still use this term while referring to veterans. The akicita lead the way toward the prayer site in the rain. (Photo: Thosh Collins)

The Lakota people refer to warriors as “akicita” and still use this term while referring to veterans. The akicita lead the way toward the prayer site in the rain. (Photo: Thosh Collins)

Trump’s toxic mess of a speech in Arizona. You can read the transcript of the speech. I just have one comment on one small section, for now:

These are valid concerns expressed by decent and patriotic citizens from all backgrounds, all over. We also have to be honest about the fact that not everyone who seeks to join our country will be able to successfully assimilate. Sometimes it’s just not going to work out. It’s our right, as a sovereign nation to chose [sic]  immigrants that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish and love us.

Now I know Trump has no love for Indians, he makes that clear at every opportunity. Here’s the thing, though, us Indians were declared sovereign nations some time ago, so how about if we choose the immigrants to this county that we think are the likeliest to thrive and flourish and love us? Seems about right to me.

Sausage Party.

A 'Sausage Party' movie moment between ‘Frank’ (Seth Rogen) and an Indian Chief that is a bottle of alcohol labeled ‘Firewater’ (Bill Hader), as well as the Indian’s compatriots, an African American who is a box of grits and a white man who is a Twinkie.

A ‘Sausage Party’ movie moment between ‘Frank’ (Seth Rogen) and an Indian Chief that is a bottle of alcohol labeled ‘Firewater’ (Bill Hader), as well as the Indian’s compatriots, an African American who is a box of grits and a white man who is a Twinkie.

I admire Vincent Schilling for sitting through this mess of juvenile idiocy, sexism, and unabashed racism, so I won’t have to do it. I was absolutely appalled by the 2nd Despicable Me flick, and almost killed my own television set, because we only netflixed that monstrous mess of racism, sexism, and casual violence.

To the excitement of Seth Rogen fans, his toilet-humored animated film “Sausage Party” hit theaters this August. To the dismay of anyone with a social conscience, the movie has a slew of racially charged epithets that seem contrived to offend just for the sake of being offensive.

I am a Native American, and I grew increasingly uneasy watching the moments between ‘Frank’ (Seth Rogen) and an Indian Chief that is a bottle of alcohol labeled ‘Firewater’ (Bill Hader), as well as the Indian’s compatriots, an African American who is a box of grits and a white man who is a Twinkie. (Video Clip – Caution: Strong Language)

https://youtu.be/wRLQ0g9z0P0

The film, directed by Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon, and written by Kyle Hunter, Ariel Shaffir, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, is also filled with sexual references involving any phallic shaped foods, and there are a minor few funny moments reminiscent of life during recess in sixth grade, but the racially charged moments only seem to qualify themselves by continuing to attack all races without any real attempt to call forth a social commentary.

Shortly after the film gets started – it was off to the races with racially charged humor. Food products in the Chinese food section had slanted eyes and spoke in broken english, German food products were led by a Hitler looking product screaming “Kill the Juice” and the relationship between a bagel (Edward Norton) and a lavash (David Krumholtz) laid upon the issues of the Jews and Palestinians.

[Read more…]

I didn’t know that was racist! #512.

Shutterstock.

Shutterstock.

A Texas teacher claims she had no idea she’d chosen a misspelled racial slur to nickname one of her racially mixed classes.

The white teacher gave each of her sixth-grade classes a nickname and laid out a set of goals for students at Bell Manor Elementary School in suburban Fort Worth, reported KDFW-TV.

A parent said he learned his son’s class had been nicknamed the “jigaboos,” although the teacher misspelled the racial slur for black people, when he asked about his child’s day at school.

So the father, who asked to remain anonymous in the TV report, went to school and photographed the laminated sign, which read: “Mrs. _______’s Jighaboos are at school today to achieve our 6th grade goals and prepare for 7th grade.”

“She makes them recite that out loud,” said the father, who is white.

[…]

Officials from Hurst-Euless-Bedford Independent School District said they had apologized to the father who photographed the sign, which they agreed was not appropriate for school use.

“[We] would like to extend an apology for the inappropriate actions taken by one of our elementary teachers who failed to vet a class name,” district officials said in a statement. “We take this situation seriously and the issue was immediately addressed with the principal and classroom teacher. Both the principal and the teacher have apologized to the parent reporting this concern.”

Officials told the father the teacher was unaware she’d chosen a racial slur to nickname some of her students.

Ignorance can be corrected, but I have trouble buying the ignorance claim when it comes to teachers, who, generally speaking, tend to be a bit more knowledgeable than most people. Okay, I’m an old woman who has definitely heard ‘jigaboo’ and is aware of the racism inherent in that term. I don’t know how old the teacher is in this case, and I also don’t know if most younger people, say 20 to 35, are aware of it. That said, this teacher had to pull this term out of somewhere, it didn’t just magically pop into existence. Even misspelled, I expect a few moments of searching on the net would have let this teacher know it wasn’t appropriate. I can only hope against hope that this isn’t a case of a deeply bigoted teacher, who will find ways to introduce bigotry and stereotypes into young minds.

Via Raw Story.

Washington State Natives: No DAPL.

Indian Nations from the Pacific Northwest came to support the Standing Rock Sioux. Courtesy Gyasi Ross.

Indian Nations from the Pacific Northwest came to support the Standing Rock Sioux. Courtesy Gyasi Ross.

Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II welcomed a delegation of eight Indian nations from Washington State on Tuesday August 30 who joined the growing opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline that threatens the tribe’s water supply and sacred places on Oceti Sakowin Treaty lands.

The Yakama Nation, Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, Lummi Nation, Puyallup Tribe, Nisqually Indian Tribe, Suquamish Tribe, Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe and Hoh Tribe traveled with a large delegation from the Pacific Northwest with a sacred totem pole to demonstrate spiritual support. After a blessing at the Standing Rock camp near the river, the totem pole will be permanently raised at the Turtle Lodge on the Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba next week.

“Yakama is humbled and honored to stand beside our brothers and sisters of the Standing Rock Sioux. We’re observing a peaceful and prayerful gathering to move an entire country. We stand united in solidarity with the natural laws of this land, advocating for responsible decision making and honorable communications,” said Yakama Chairman JoDe Goudy.

“Together, we express to the U.S. government that now, more than ever, is the time to fulfill the trust obligations laid out within the treaties and historical interactions with the Native peoples of this land. Until such things come to pass, the spirit and voice of all peoples shall unite with Standing Rock. One voice, one heart, and one spirit to speak for those things that cannot speak for themselves.”

[…]

Swinomish Chairman Brian Cladoosby, who also serves as NCAI president, said, “We are a placed-based society. We live where our ancestors are buried. Our culture, laws, and values are tied to all that surrounds us, the place where our children’s future will be for years to come. We cannot ruin where our ancestors are buried and where our children will call home, uproot ourselves and move to another place. We cannot keep taking for granted the clean water, the salmon and buffalo, the roots and berries, and all that makes up the places that our First People have inhabited since time immemorial. Our futures are bound together.”

More than 150 tribes so far have sent resolutions and letters of support to show solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux and the Seven Council Fires of the Lakota’s efforts to stop the pipeline.

“Words can’t express how thankful we are for all of the prayers, support, letters and donations we have received,” said Archambault. “It inspires us every day on our mission to protect this area for future generations and all who use it.

[…]

“I am here to stand with the Standing Rock people because my people are facing the same threats to bear the risk of development for the Puyallup Tribe,” said Councilman David Bean. “It’s an LNG terminal that will be built in the middle of our reservation and threaten our treaty protected resources.”

[…]

“Everyone has heard that this pipeline would be more than 1,100 miles long and would transport more than half a million barrels of crude oil every day across our lands,” said Cedric Good House, a traditional leader for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

“What they don’t know are the irreplaceable sacred places across the landscape and the deep cultural and spiritual knowledge that is tied to them,” he said. “These are the places and the knowledge that make us who we are today as a tribe. I plan on telling my grandchildren about the time when tribes across the country stood up and fought for treaty, culture, and the future. And we fought for the future of safe drinking water for all Americans. No longer is the world watching us, the world is with us.”

Water protectors at Standing Rock. (Photo: Courtesy Steven Sitting Bear/Standing Rock Sioux Tribe).

Water protectors at Standing Rock. (Photo: Courtesy Steven Sitting Bear/Standing Rock Sioux Tribe).

Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Support Native Youth.  Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition.

Dave Archambault Sr. has an excellent column up at ICTMN: Anti-DAPL: Are You a TRAITOR or PATRIOT? – Also, Navajo Nation Lends Support to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Against Dakota Access.

Via ICTMN.

Trump’s America: Bully Nation.

Student activist protests hateful environment in schools (Screen capture).

Student activist protests hateful environment in schools (Screen capture).

An ad from progressive group Move On shows how around the country, nonwhite and Muslim students are getting bullied by racist whites who’ve been emboldened by the unvarnished racism of the Donald Trump campaign.

Titled “Our Kids,” the video shows excerpts from news stories in which black, Muslim and Latino schoolchildren across the U.S. have been threatened and harassed by their white peers.

In Oregon, vandals hung a banner aimed at Latino students that said “Build a wall” — a reference to Trump’s promise to build a wall along the Mexican border to keep Latino immigrants out of the country.

At a high school basketball game in Chicago, white students chanted “Trump! Trump! Trump!” at black and Latino players and their supporters.

As the 75-second video moves from incident to incident, an ugly picture emerges of what’s motivating Trump voters, no matter what the candidate and his TV surrogates say about “economic anxiety” and “outsider politics.”

“Donald Trump is endangering our kids,” the ad says, before cutting to footage of students describing their experiences.

This country is caught in a whirlpool of shit. This hatred has to stop. Please, share this, get this out everywhere, it’s an important message for all.

Via Raw Story.

Council for National Policy.

Stephen Bannon.

Stephen Bannon.

If you’re like me, you went “who?” Yet another nasty group of people, who revel in extremism, and one I had not heard of before. As it turns out, two Trump henchpersons have not only heard of it, they are part of it. How surprising, right?

According to an SPLC statement, Breitbart.com CEO Stephen Bannon and pollster Kellyanne Conway — hired as Trump 2016’s CEO and campaign manager, respectively — are members of the Council for National Policy (CNP), a highly secretive group that includes a roster of controversial white supremacists and rightwing agitators.

“The CNP is not controversial so much for the conservatives who dominate it — activists of the religious right and the so-called ‘culture wars,’ along with a smattering of wealthy financiers, Congressional operatives, right-wing consultants and Tea Party operatives — as for the many real extremists who are included,” wrote SPLC senior fellow Mark Potok.

The SPLC was able to obtain the CNP’s closely-guarded 2014 membership directory and found that it included “people like Michael Peroutka, a neo-Confederate who for years was on the board of the white supremacist League of the South; Jerome Corsi, a strident Obama ‘birther’ and the propagandist hit man responsible for the ‘Swift boating’ of John Kerry; Joseph Farah, who runs the wildly conspiracist “news” operation known as WorldNetDaily; Mat Staver, the Liberty Counsel leader who has worked to re-criminalize gay sex; Philip Zodhaites, another anti-gay activist who is charged with helping a self-described former lesbian who kidnapped her daughter from her former partner and fled the country; and a large number of other similar characters.”

Conway and Bannon’s names both appear on the CNP’s 2014 membership roster. The SPLC was unable to determine their current membership status.

The Center noted that the CNP has every right to keep its membership secret, but the membership roster opens a window on how purportedly moderate Republicans meet and network with right-wing extremists in formulating their policy agenda and crafting legislation.

The CNP roster of members includes “real extremists, people who regularly defame LGBT people with utter falsehoods, describe Latino immigrants as a dangerous group of rapists and disease-carriers, engage in the kind of wild-eyed conspiracy theorizing for which the John Birch Society is famous, and even suggest that certain people should be stoned to death in line with Old Testament law,” the SPLC said.

Well. That’s terrifying. These are the people the so-called not completely batshit repubs are networking with, and we are now living in interesting times, with the rise of white nationalism and open bigotry. I think I could have lived without this particular knowledge, but it’s best to as knowledgeable as possible these days.

Via Raw Story.

Oh, Canada, For Effing Shame.

Jennifer Dorner posted this image after dropping her kids off on the first day of school in Montreal. (Courtesy Jennifer Dorner/Facebook).

Jennifer Dorner posted this image after dropping her kids off on the first day of school in Montreal. (Courtesy Jennifer Dorner/Facebook).

A picture posted by mother Jennifer Dorner has started yet another conversation about why not to wear costume headdresses. She took the image while dropping her children off for their first day of school at Montreal’s École Lajoie on Monday, August 29. The image shows a Grade 3 teacher in a headdress in front of the children, and according to Dorner, smaller headdresses were being handed out for the children to wear.

Sarah Dorner, Zoe’s mother, told thestar.com that her daughter refused to wear the headdress.

“We have been teaching our children that costumes like that are inappropriate,” Dorner also said. “The other kids in the class were all wearing them.”

“A lot of children aren’t necessarily taught cultural sensitivity or have much awareness about indigenous cultures,” she went on to say. “But in our family we have many indigenous friends, so it’s a conversation we’ve had many times.”

Gina Guillemette, a Margeurite-Bourgeoys school board spokesperson, told news outlets that the two teachers seen sporting headdresses have backgrounds in anthropology and history and are introducing indigenous history into the curriculum. Guillemette also told CBC News the headdresses worn by teachers were a way for the kids to know which “family, or class, to go to.”

Guillemette told the Gazette that “the teachers decided to wear hats to symbolize that they were Native chiefs,” to separate their students from another Grade 3 class.

Right. So naturally, you could not be bothered, as educators, to thoughtfully choose a particular tribe, maybe one in your actual part of the world, find out what their traditional regalia might be, and actually ask members of that tribe if it would be okay to dress in a certain item. Oh, that would be bringing Indians into things, and I guess you can’t have that in a school, it might poison young minds with the truth or something. As Adrienne Keene wrote on Native Appropriations, this is not a lightweight matter:

Adrienne K of Native Appropriations writes that a non-Indian casually wearing an Indian headdress “furthers the stereotype that Native peoples are one monolithic culture, when in fact there are 500+ distinct tribes with their own cultures. It also places Native people in the historic past, as something that cannot exist in modern society. We don’t walk around in ceremonial attire everyday, but we still exist and are still Native.” She also draws attention to the deep spiritual significance of a headdress and maintains that when a non-Indian wears one “it’s just like wearing blackface.”

Getting back to the teachers at  École Lajoie, they seem to not only miss the point, they are determined to miss the point:

“No offence was intended—if any parents were offended, we apologize,” Guillemette told the Gazette. “We didn’t want to offend anyone. It was the opposite; we wanted to sensitize the students to the contributions of native communities.”

Oh For Fuck’s Sake! What about the children you offended, do they not count? And there’s that magical if – if you were offended, words of the classic notpology. You sensitize students to the contributions of native communities by appropriating a headdress unique to specific tribes, and mashing up all tribal cultures into one messy clump? You sure as hell don’t sound like educators to me, you sound like flaming assholes who live to perpetuate stereotypes.

“How can they possibly be teaching an authentic understanding of indigenous culture? Dorner asked thestar.com. “It doesn’t help their cause to say that. If anything, it makes it even more distressing.”

This isn’t the first time Dorner has addressed cultural sensitivity with the school either. In 2014, “they were doing a play where Santa goes to Africa and gets Ebola and gets sick and the local tribes are dancing around him and my daughter was going to be in blackface,” she told the Gazette.

“We managed to convince the school not to do blackface at the time, but they still kept the story line. Santa ends up being saved by scientists who come from the North Pole.”

She met with the school multiple times in 2014, according to the Gazette to discuss “cultural appropriation and this kind of insensitivity and was hoping that we had come to some kind of understanding, but apparently not. Which is why I’m particularly upset this time. The message doesn’t seem to be sinking in.”

Canadians, please, wake the fuck up. This school, and its staff, should be shamed into the ground by a whole lot of very angry people. Apparently, the open bigotry at this school strikes too many people as just fine, and that is seriously fucked up.

Full story at ICTMN.

Bigot, Bigot, Bigot, Racism!

Former Missouri GOP head Ed Martin with Phyllis Schlafly (Facebook.com).

Former Missouri GOP head Ed Martin with Phyllis Schlafly (Facebook.com).

Holy moly, the bigotry just keeps piling up and up and up and up. There’s just no end to it all. First up, Ed Martin, who is a Tea Party person, who was assuring people at a rally that no, they weren’t bigots, and that’s it’s not racist in the least to hate Mexican people. Or Muslims. Or the whole variety of brown people.

Riverfront Times writer Danny Wicentowski attended the rally, which he described as a scene where “some 200 patriots who really, really hate Hillary Clinton listened to a succession of speeches delivered by a string of local conservative luminaries who also really, really hate Hillary Clinton.”

Before featured speaker Jim Hoft — also known as conservative blogger The Gateway Pundit aka “The Stupidest Man on the Internet” — took to the stage, former Missouri Republican Party director Ed Martin reassured the crowd that they’re not racist for hating Mexicans.

“Donald Trump is for Americans first,” Martin said of the Republican Party’s presidential nominee. “He’s for us first. It is not selfish to support, or to be for, your neighbor, as opposed to someone from another nation. And Mexico, Mexicans, that’s not a race. You’re not racist if you don’t like Mexicans. They’re from a nation.”

:Momentarily typeless: Wow. I don’t even want to know what he thinks about us Indians, because we’re nations too. I imagine in our case, he thinks differently about all that nation stuff.

He applied the same logic to Trump’s proposed ban on Muslim immigrants.

“If you don’t think Muslims are vetted enough because they blow things up, that’s not racist,” Martin said. “There’s white Muslims, black Muslims, green Muslims. This is not racism.”

Um. There are green Muslims? Where? There’s also this issue of Muslims in general “blowing things up”. There have been a lot of white men prone to “blowing things up” too, so are they going to be uber-vetted also?

On Monday, Martin released a statement to the St. Louis Dispatch newspaper attempting to walk back the racist remarks, saying that by “Mexicans” he actually meant “illegal immigrants.”

Honestly, it should be an automatic indictment of these people, that they have walk back just about every comment, because they can’t manage to think before they speak.

Next up, why it’s LePage again, and his feelings are hurt, yes they are!

Per Politico, LePage told reporters in Maine on Wednesday that he was deeply wounded when he heard a report that he’d been called a racist by Maine lawmaker Drew Gattine. Even though the report turned out to be false, LePage called Gattine and left a threatening voicemail last week where he called him a “c*cksucker” and a “son of a b*itch.”

But really, it’s LePage who is the victim here.

“I may not supposed to be that sensitive to these things, but I am,” LePage confessed. “I lose sleep over this, and it’s frustrating when you hear people talk about cheap political stunts to hurt their opponent and not do the right thing. Being called a racist was a horrible thing for me. It was enormously hurtful. It hurt my family.”

LePage then declared that he would never talk to the news media ever again as punishment for hurting his feelings.

“I will no longer speak to the press ever again after today,” LePage said. “And I’m serious. Everything will be put in writing. I am tired of being caught — the gotcha moments.”

I…I…uh, oh man. Here’s a thought, Mr. LePage, shut the fuck up. That would be best for everyone.

Rounding out the racism report, the NFL.

Professional football players who commit violent crimes almost always get a second chance in the NFL, provided that they can still play well.

However, it seems that many NFL executives are drawing a line against signing a player who doesn’t stand during the national anthem.

Bleacher Report’s Mike Freeman has talked with several NFL execs who said they wanted no part of having Colin Kaepernick on their teams, even though the athletic quarterback could still help a team in need of a player at the game’s most important position.

“I don’t want him anywhere near my team,” one front office exec told Freeman. “He’s a traitor.”

“He has no respect for our country,” said another. “F*ck that guy.”

“In my career, I have never seen a guy so hated by front office guys as Kaepernick,” said an NFL general manager.

Golly, and here I thought they were all about the money. Let’s see:

Defensive end Greg Hardy viciously assaulted his former girlfriend and left her covered in bruises. Despite this, he was welcomed with open arms by the Dallas Cowboys after serving his suspension.

Former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice knocked out his wife Janay Palmer in an elevator in 2014, and his team still publicly praised him as a man of great character. In fact, the team even posted an article written by a Ravens PR bigwig that was titled “I Like Ray Rice.” The team only released Rice once video of the incident came to light.

Quarterback Michael Vick ran a brutal dog-fighting operation in which pitbulls were tortured and killed. He was nonetheless scooped up by the Philadelphia Eagles right after he finished serving his prison sentence.

Minnesota Vikings running back was indicted for whipping his four-year-old son with a tree branch, leaving his legs covered in slash wounds. Nonetheless, he was welcomed back as a hero the year after he served his suspension.

Wide receiver Donte Stallworth killed a pedestrian while driving under the influence of alcohol — that didn’t stop the Baltimore Ravens, Washington Redskins or New England Patriots from signing him after he served his time.

But Colin Kaepernick isn’t good enough to spit on. Interesting, ennit? The NFL has finally decided to get all moral and righteous, right up until another player does something terrible, then they’ll be back to supporting criminals again, I’m sure.

Dakota Access: Indigenous Round Up.

DAP

As the number of water protectors continues to burgeon on the banks of the Cannonball River in protest of the Dakota Access oil pipeline’s route across Standing Rock Sioux ancestral, treaty-protected lands, national media outlets are starting to pick up the story.

Both The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have run pieces, and The New York Times published an op-ed by Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairman David Archambault II, as well as a detailed explanation of the issues. But Democracy Now! has been out in front with in-depth reports on more than one night. Last week we brought you the independent news show’s initial report.

Anchor Amy Goodman has since interviewed both Standing Rock Sioux Chairman David Archambault II and Ojibwe activist, journalist, author and sometime vice presidential candidate Winona LaDuke. Both reports aired last week, as support from Indian nations and people continued to grow to several thousand.

Watch Archambault and LaDuke below, and read the stories at Democracy Now!, including an August 30 report on the Black Lives Matter movement’s visit to the spirit camps..

Full Story.

[Read more…]

#VeteransForKaepernick.

Colin Kaepernick.

Colin Kaepernick.

Finally, people have spoken up for Colin Kaepernick’s sit down in an attempt to bring attention to the ongoing murders of brown people, and those people are veterans.

In the days since San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick refused to stand for the national anthem as a way to protest the oppression of people of color in the United States, journalists, fans, and NFL players both past and present have expressed their outrage.

Most of their criticism focuses in on the disrespect that Kaepernick was supposedly showing the flag and the U.S. military members who have fought and died for our freedom.

Well, on Tuesday, veterans from all over the country took to social media, not to attack Kaepernick for his actions, but rather to show their support. The #VeteransForKaepernick hashtag took off and ended up trending worldwide.

And others pointed out that black veterans are not immune from being shot by police once they return to civilian life. Just last September, India Kager, a 28-year-old navy veteran, was shot and killed by police in her parked car while her four-month-old son was in the backseat.

My thanks to all the veterans who stood up and put those nasty bigots in their place. Full story and more tweets at Think Progress.