The Civil War Was About Free Speech.

Sid Miller. CREDIT: AP Photo/Eric Gay.

Sid Miller. CREDIT: AP Photo/Eric Gay.

For bigots, the Civil War was never, ever about slavery, oh my no. It was about everything and anything under the sun, but not slavery. Sid “Jesus Juice” Miller is pushing the “it was about freedom of speech!” button.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is planning to the restrict the display of Confederate flags by “amend[ing] our policy to make clear that Confederate flags will not be displayed from any permanently fixed flagpole in a national cemetery at any time.”

As expressed in a letter written by Roger Walters, interim undersecretary for memorial affairs, “We are aware of the concerns of those who wish to see Confederate flags removed from public venues because they are perceived by many as a symbol of racial intolerance.”

But a recent vote indicated a majority of House Republicans oppose the VA’s attempt to restrict where and when the Stars and Bars can be displayed. So does Sid Miller, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner who was recently tapped to be Donald Trump’s national co-chairman of his agriculture advisory team.

In a Facebook post published Thursday, Miller suggests the Civil War was first and foremost about protecting free speech — not slavery. He also strikes a skeptical note about whether Confederates who fought against the United States behaved treasonously.

Responding to a Washington Post column supportive of the VA’s move, Miller writes that the piece “makes my blood boil” and says the Post isn’t “entitled to… attempt to read the minds of my long-dead Confederate ancestors and determine that their actions and motivations during that awful war were treasonous.”
He also denounces “politically correct bureaucrats” pushing for the Stars and Bars to be banned.

“With all that is going on around our world and the serious threats that exist to our country and our constitiional [sic] freedoms by those who carry black flags with Arabic writing upon them, I would think that those in our national government would simply leave alone the flags marking the burial grounds of our Confederate dead,” Miller writes. “Unfortunately, I fear that is just wishful thinking on my part and highlights why the outcome of the upcoming election is so very, very important.”

https://www.facebook.com/MillerForTexas/posts/1884355138453315

Full story at Think Progress.

“You Shoot the Enemy.” Guess Who the Enemy Is?

CREDIT: AP/MICHAEL DYWER.

CREDIT: AP/MICHAEL DYWER.

Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) has been mouthing off, a lot. He has frothed about every group he doesn’t like, and it seems if you aren’t a hetero christian white man, you’re in one of the hated groups. Mr. LePage has a particular hatred of anyone who is not verifiably pasty white, and he doesn’t seem to care who knows it, either. He is an ardent Trump fan, which I’m sure is no surprise. In his latest screed, Mr. LePage identifies the enemy: People of Colour, and what you do to the enemy: you shoot them.

In a Friday press conference following his homophobic remarks about a state lawmaker, Maine Governor Paul LePage (R) called people of color and people of Hispanic origin “the enemy” and implied they should be shot.

“A bad guy is a bad guy. I don’t care what color he is. When you go to war, if you know the enemy, the enemy dresses in red and you dress in blue, you shoot at red,” he said. “You shoot the enemy. You try to identify the enemy. And the enemy right now, the overwhelming majority of people coming in are people of color or people of Hispanic origin.”

The governor has offered a veritable potpourri of racist and homophobic remarks over the years. In his voicemail to state Rep. Drew Gattine (D) on Thursday, in an apparent attempt to convince people that he is not a racist, he said, “I want to talk to you. I want you to prove that I’m a racist. I’ve spent my life helping black people and you little son-of-a-bitch, socialist cocksucker.”

Oh, yes, helping black people, but you just can’t stand having them in your pristine state of Maine. I’d be willing to bet your idea of help is not the same as mine.

On Wednesday, he called Khizr Khan, the father of a fallen Muslim soldier, a “con artist.” During a town hall on that same day, he said nearly all of Maine’s drug dealers are black or Hispanic. “I don’t ask them to come to Maine (to) sell their poison, but they come,” he said. “And I will tell you, that 90 percent-plus of those pictures in my book — and it’s a three-ring binder — are black and Hispanic people from Waterbury, Connecticut, the Bronx and Brooklyn.”

LePage grabbed national headlines earlier this year when he said men named “Smoothie, D-Money, and Shifty” were dealing drugs in Maine. He added, “Incidentally, half the time they impregnate a young, white girl before they leave, which is a real sad thing because then we have another issue that we’ve got to deal with down the road. We’re going to make them very severe penalties.”

Among his other comments, he told the NAACP to “kiss my butt,” accused asylum seekers of bringing the “ziki fly,” and told the president to “go to hell.” LePage is an enthusiastic supporter of the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump.

It’s not just the presidential vote that’s important. It’s equally important to usher these asses who run on bigotry and stereotypes out of office, too.

Via Think Progress.

Post-Racist. Right.

Colin Kaepernick -- via Facebook.

Colin Kaepernick — via Facebook.

I keep running into people who insist that Amerikka is post-sexist and post-racist. I have no idea how they keep this delusional illusion in their heads, because every day, we are drowning in evidence that’s not so. Rapists continue to receive slaps on the wrist, and racists continue to shout their bigotry to the skies. The latest example is the reaction to Colin Kaepernick’s refusal to stand during the anthem.

In a post-game interview on the NFL Network, Kaepernick explained that he was taking a different kind of stand, referencing Black Lives Matter in a roundabout way.

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color,” Kaepernick told reporters. “To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

Criticism on Twitter ran from attacks on Kaepernick by questioning his patriotism in light of the millions he earns as an NFL star, to extensive use of the “N-word” from racists who are a source of many of the problems African Americans face in the U.S,.

Some of the tweets are below the fold, because they are explicit and vile.

[Read more…]

Lummi Totem Pole To Be at Sacred Stone Camp.

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The Lummi Nation of Washington held a blessing and send-off ceremony on Thursday for the 2016 Totem Pole Journey.

Master carver Jewell James created a 22-foot tall pole that will travel 5,000 miles to raise awareness of the impacts of fossil fuel development in Indian Country. One of the first stops will be the Camp of the Sacred Stones near Cannon Ball, North Dakota.

“We need to be heard as many people and one voice,” James of the House of Tears Carvers said in a press release announcing this year’s journey. “We need to let them know they cannot in the name of profits do this to the people, the water, the land, and to the future generations. We will never give up. They must not pass!”

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe established the Camp of the Sacred Stones to protest the $3.8 billion Dakota Access Pipeline, which comes within a half-mile of the reservation. The pole is expected to arrive at the site on Tuesday, August 30, before departing on Friday, September 1. This year marks the fourth Totem Pole Journey It comes after the Lummi Nation successfully defeated a coal export terminal on its treaty territory in Washington.

You can read more at Indianz.com, and the Journey’s route is here. Support Sacred Stone Camp. Legal Fund Help. Support Native Youth.  Sign the Petition. Sign urgent petition.

New Stories: Dakota Access: Stars From Hollywood to Washington Support Water Protectors.

Important Message from Keeper of Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe.

When Man Changes the Land, It Is Changed Forever.

A Tale of Two T-Shirts.

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Rush Limbaugh’s rant that the Obama administration intends to flood conservative rural areas with lesbian farmers has inspired not only a musical tribute but an “America Needs Lesbian Farmers” T-shirt.

T-shirt maker Raygun unveiled the shirt on its Facebook page Thursday. It’s bright green with gold lettering and sells for $21.

News of the Department of Agriculture’s outreach program to rural LGBT people, designed to increase awareness of helpful government nonprofit programs, had Limbaugh warning that the federal government was attacking conservative values and conspiring to fill rural enclaves with LGBT liberals.

Full story here. This is a good idea, and I hope to see people wearing these Tees all over the place. On the other hand, there’s…

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A new “LGBTQ for Trump” shirt will set you back $30 — and set your rights back even further.

LGBTQ for Trump? That’s what the Republican presidential candidate is selling on his website, even if his stances on equality leave you feeling more “LGBTQ against Trump.”

Trump has been aggressively suggesting he’s the better candidate for LGBT people. After the horrific attack in Orlando that left 49 people dead and 53 others injured at a gay nightclub on June 12, the Republican candidate spoke out against the attack. “Ask yourself, who is really the friend of women and the LGBT community. Donald Trump with his actions, or Hillary Clinton with her words?” said Trump. A simple fact-check would answer that question.

Full story here. I shouldn’t even have to mention what a terrible idea this is, and I can’t help but speculate how much Trump has spent on this utter isht.

Dakota Access: A Familiar Story.

Kim Ryu.

Kim Ryu.

David Archambault II, tribal chairman of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe has a column up at the NYT, Taking A Stand at Standing Rock. Read, share, light those signal fires, get the word everywhere. Some mainstream media is finally starting to pay attention, but we need more. We need people to join us, to help us, because this issue affects every single one of us. People outside Indian country, and even a whole lot of them smack in the middle of it need to learn, need to educate themselves about the reality of this situation right now, and the workings of the past, because most people only know the white-washed “history” fed to them in school. We stand, not only for ourselves, but for all people. Please, don’t lapse back into resignation, don’t let weariness win. We have been fighting for hundreds of years. The camps in this one resistance have been standing for 5 months now, since April, and we are not going to stop now, so please, don’t you stop either. We must endure, and every voice, every signal boost, every supply, every donation, every person who comes to the camps, you hold us up, you brace the foundation of our obligation to and protection of our earth, our water.

Near Cannon Ball, N.D. — It is a spectacular sight: thousands of Indians camped on the banks of the Cannonball River, on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. Our elders of the Seven Council Fires, as the Oceti Sakowin, or Great Sioux Nation, is known, sit in deliberation and prayer, awaiting a federal court decision on whether construction of a $3.7 billion oil pipeline from the Bakken region to Southern Illinois will be halted.

The Sioux tribes have come together to oppose this project, which was approved by the State of North Dakota and the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The nearly 1,200-mile pipeline, owned by a Texas oil company named Energy Transfer Partners, would snake across our treaty lands and through our ancestral burial grounds. Just a half-mile from our reservation boundary, the proposed route crosses the Missouri River, which provides drinking water for millions of Americans and irrigation water for thousands of acres of farming and ranching lands.

Our tribe has opposed the Dakota Access pipeline since we first learned about it in 2014. Although federal law requires the Corps of Engineers to consult with the tribe about its sovereign interests, permits for the project were approved and construction began without meaningful consultation. The Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior and the National Advisory Council on Historic Preservation supported more protection of the tribe’s cultural heritage, but the Corps of Engineers and Energy Transfer Partners turned a blind eye to our rights. The first draft of the company’s assessment of the planned route through our treaty and ancestral lands did not even mention our tribe.

The Dakota Access pipeline was fast-tracked from Day 1 using the Nationwide Permit No. 12 process, which grants exemption from environmental reviews required by the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by treating the pipeline as a series of small construction sites. And unlike the better-known Keystone XL project, which was finally canceled by the Obama administration last year, the Dakota Access project does not cross an international border — the condition that mandated the more rigorous federal assessment of the Keystone pipeline’s economic justification and environmental impacts.

The Dakota Access route is only a few miles shorter than what was proposed for the Keystone project, yet the government’s environmental assessment addressed only the portion of the pipeline route that traverses federal land. Domestic projects of this magnitude should clearly be evaluated in their totality — but without closer scrutiny, the proposal breezed through the four state processes.

Perhaps only in North Dakota, where oil tycoons wine and dine elected officials, and where the governor, Jack Dalrymple, serves as an adviser to the Trump campaign, would state and county governments act as the armed enforcement for corporate interests. In recent weeks, the state has militarized my reservation, with road blocks and license-plate checks, low-flying aircraft and racial profiling of Indians. The local sheriff and the pipeline company have both called our protest “unlawful,” and Gov. Dalrymple has declared a state of emergency.

[Read more…]

The Last Word.

MSNBC. Via #NoDAPL.

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

Transcript, copied from Daily Kos:

Dakota means friend…friendly. The people who gave that name to the Dakotas have, sadly, never been treated as friends. The people whose language was used to name the Dakotas and Minnesota, Iowa, Oklahoma, Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts and other states, the Native American tribes, the people who were here before us… long before us, have never been treated as friends. They have been treated as enemies.. and dealt with more harshly than any other enemy. In any of this countrys’ wars.

After all of our major wars we signed peace treaties and live by those treaties. After world war II when we made peace with Germany we then did everything we possibly could to rebuild Germany. No Native American tribe has ever been treated as well as we treated Germans after World War II.

Donald Trump and his supporters now fear the country being invaded by foreigners who want to change our way of life.  A fear that Native Americans have lived with, every day,… for over five hundred years.

The original sin of this country is that we invaders shot and murdered our way across the land killing every Native American that we could, and making treaties with the rest. This country was founded on genocide before the word genocide was invented. Before there was a War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague.

When we finally stopped actively killing Native Americans for the crime of living here before us, we then proceeded to violate every treaty we made with the Tribes. Every. Single. Treaty.

We piled crime on top of crime against a people whose offense against us was simply that they lived where we wanted to live.

We don’t feel the guilt of the crimes because we pretend they happened a very long time ago, in ancient history. And we actively suppress the memories of those crimes.. but there are people alive today whose grandparents were in the business of killing the Native Americans. That’s how recent these crimes are.

Every once in a while there is a painful and morally embarrassing reminder, as there is this week in North Dakota near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation where hundreds of people have gathered and camped out in opposition to an interstate pipeline being built from North Dakota to Illinois.

The protest being led by this countrys’ original environmentalists. Native Americans.

For hundreds of years they were our only environmentalists. The only people who thought that land and rivers should be preserved in their natural state. The only people who thought a mountain or a prairie or a river could be a sacred place.

Yesterday a federal judge heard arguments from the tribes against the federal governments approval of the pipeline and said he will deliver his decision on whether the pipeline can proceed next month.

There are now over ninety tribes gathered in protest of that pipeline. That protest will surely continue even if the judge allows construction to proceed.

And so we face the prospect next month of the descendants of the first people to ever set foot on that land,.. being arrested by the descendants of the invaders who seized that land.

Arrested for trespassing.

That we still have Native Americans left in this country to be arrested for trespassing on their own land is testament, not to the mercy of the genocidal invaders who seized and occupied their land, but to the stunning strength and the five hundred years of endurance and the undying dignity of the people who were here long before us. The people who have always known; what is truly sacred in this world.

Burkini Ban Overturned.

The French beach ban on Islamic garb has caused controversy over women's rights and secularism and confusion over what constitutes a burkini (AFP Photo/Raymond Roig).

The French beach ban on Islamic garb has caused controversy over women’s rights and secularism and confusion over what constitutes a burkini (AFP Photo/Raymond Roig).

This whole snarl of nonsense has been one massive facepalm from the beginning. There was absolutely zero reasons for choosing a single type of beach wear and banning it. Hello, racism! And no, none of the supposed “reasons” made a damn bit of sense. Buzzfeed had a very good response to this idiocy. Some people at any beach anywhere will be covered up in one way or another, and it’s never been any sort of big deal. Oh, but Muslim women? No, no, nope. Can’t have that, expose your body for no good reason, or no beach for you!

France’s highest court has suspended a ban on the “burkini” in the town of Villeneuve-Loubet, in a decision likely to lead to the overturn of 30 more such bans in towns across France.

The French League of Human Rights this week asked that the Council of State, a top French court, overturn the ban. The Council of State’s judgment, released Friday afternoon, quashed the earlier ruling of a Nice court that on August 22 said the ban was legal.

The Council of State judgment said that the ban had breached “fundamental freedoms.”

Human rights league lawyer Patrice Spinosi told reporters that the decision should set a precedent, and that other mayors should conform to it, the Associated Press reported.

Amnesty International welcomed the decision, saying in a statement: “By overturning a discriminatory ban that is fueled by and is fueling prejudice and intolerance, today’s decision has drawn an important line in the sand.”

The bans, put in place throughout August by local authorities citing security concerns and issues of cultural cohesion, have been locally decided and enforced, but were backed by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who said the burkini was not welcome in France.

I’m having trouble believing this actually had to go to court. Hey, France, when you do this sort of isht, you’re becoming a lot more like Amerikka. Don’t do that.

Full story here.

Facebook, Oh Facebook VI.

Current Midland City, AL Mayor Patsy Skipper's swearing-in photo from February (Twitter.com).

Current Midland City, AL Mayor Patsy Skipper’s swearing-in photo from February (Twitter.com).

Yet another person who doesn’t seem to understand that posting on FB or other social media is akin to shouting from the rooftops. “I lost. The nigger won”. I am so glad you lost, Ms. Skipper, it’s the very least that could happen to you.

The Republican mayor of Midland City, Alabama got nasty on Facebook after losing her seat to a black candidate in this week’s mayoral election.

“I lost. The ni**er won,” griped Mayor Patsy Capshaw Skipper when someone asked her how the election turned out.

WTVY said that Skipper was defeated by Jo Ann Bennett Grimsley, former assistant city clerk and an employee of the Dale County government for 27 years. She has previously served as the city’s water clerk and county court clerk.

Mayor Skipper was named interim mayor last February when her husband — former Mayor Virgil Skipper — retired for health reasons. County officials voted 3 to 1 for Patsy Skipper to take over her husband’s position.

Voters, however, preferred to see Grimsley at the city helm, casting 233 votes for Grimsley as opposed to Skipper’s 148.

Congratulations to Ms. Grimsley! I’m sure she will do a great job, although doing better than Ms. Skipper is a low bar.

Via Raw Story, where you can see a screen capture of the post.

In Trump We Trust.

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“In Trump We Trust.” Yes, that’s really the title of Ann Coulter’s latest book, a paean to what she calls the great orange hope.  Christ. Well, if that wasn’t enough to get the facepalm going, this certainly is:

She also attempts to answer for his past mistakes, including when he mocked New York Times reporter Serge Kovaleski, who has a musculoskeletal disorder.

Coulter, in a chapter entitled “Disabled Reporter Joins Media Effort to Create More Disabled Americans,” writes that Trump wasn’t making fun of Kovaleski’s disorder; he was just doing an impression of a “standard retard”:

Trump denied knowing that Serge was disabled, and demanded an apology, saying that anyone could see his imitation was of a flustered, frightened reporter, not a disabled person. It’s true that Trump was not mimicking any mannerisms that Serge has. He doesn’t jerk around or flail his arms. He’s not retarded. He sits calmly, but if you look at his wrists, you’ll see they are curved in. That’s not the imitation Trump was doing—he was doing a standard retard, waving his arms and sounding stupid: “’Ahhh, I don’t know what I said—ahhh, I don’t remember!’ He’s going, ‘Ahhh, I don’t remember, maybe that’s what I said!’”

Right. Well, that clarification makes it…much, much worse. There’s an old saying that’s apt here: with friends like these, you don’t need enemies.

Via Jezebel.

Oh, That Evil Anti-White Agenda.

Richard Spencer (Facebook).

Richard Spencer (Facebook).

Poor, poor Richard Spencer. His um, appeal to Ms. Clinton didn’t work at all. Neither did his frothy demands. Ms. Clinton went right ahead with her speech, the full text of which can be read here. Back to Mr. Spencer’s wish life:

Right Wing Watch notices that Richard Spencer, who last year hosted a conference on white racial identity that proposed the creation of whites-only states in the U.S., has issued a preemptive strike against Clinton’s speech that attacks her for allegedly hating white people.

“Over the past few months, Hillary Clinton has engaged, rhetorically and directly, with an array of groups that support an anti-White agenda,” Spencer wrote. “Whether that’s endorsing the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement, which is directly responsible for a rise in violence throughout America, or her surrogates chastising European-Americans for their background and heritage.”

Spencer then called on Clinton to apologize for hating white people so much, despite the fact that Clinton herself is white.

“We call on her and her allies to issue an apology to European-Americans everywhere and confront her own troubling links to extremism and the civil unrest she has stoked for months,” he wrote.

Spencer attended a pro-Trump party at this year’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland, where he was quoted as saying he and his movement have “taken over the right” by nominating a presidential candidate who addresses the alt-right’s major concerns.

Goodness. You’d think treating people like people was genocide of white folks or something. Is it wrong of me to hope that Mr. Spencer gets stuck some place where Ms. Clinton’s speech is on a loop?

Via Raw Story.

This Time, Acceptance Takes the Flag.

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Oh, I am loving all the small stories of accepting, loving pushback. In this very stressful and trying time, these are good to see, and we all need this, we need to know that our fellow humans are, and can be, truly terrific people.

A same-sex couple has received a colorful show of support from neighbors.

Rainbow flags were unfurled at over 40 houses in Natick, a suburb of Boston, after the home of Cari and Lauri Ryding was vandalized, according to The Boston Globe.

While the couple was on vacation, the house had been egged. And a rainbow flag, which the Rydings had ordered after the Orlando shooting, had been stolen.

The neighborhood was quick to act after the couple reported the incident to the police last Wednesday, and no suspects were immediately identified.

“We said, ‘Why don’t we all have the flags? They can’t take them from all of us,’” said Dennis Gaughan. A response team sent a flurry of donation and requests to the Rainbow Peace Flag Project, which offers free flags to local residents.

“It just happened so quickly — the whole neighborhood said, ‘Get me a flag. Get me a flag. Get me a flag,’” said Penni Rochwerger. “If we can stop whatever hate is out there, I think that’s really important.”

On Sunday, a group of children on bicycles delivered the rainbow flags across the neighborhood. Lauri Ryding was awed to see the bright banners unfurl after cleaning up the damage from her porch.

“One person’s act of fear and maliciousness created such a powerful statement of love,” she said. “We are very blessed, very fortunate.”

“Somebody’s fear called them to action,” she added of the vandals. “But our neighbors support and love called them to action, and love conquers hate. Love wins. We win.”

A huge shout out to this neighbourhood, you did great!

Via The Advocate.

McCrory Hits A New Low.

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Just when you thought Pat McCrory couldn’t get any lower, he goes diving straight into an isht filled sewer of lies.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) has released a fear-mongering campaign ad that paints transgender people as dangerous predators who are out to rape children.

LGBTQNation.com posted the 30-second campaign spot on Wednesday, which accuses Democratic NC Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper of willfully endangering the state’s children by not upholding the so-called “bathroom bill,” H.B. 2.

The ad begins with a woman named Gina Little of Greensboro, NC saying, “At 9, I was molested by a teenager.”

She continues, “When I heard that Pres. Obama and and Roy Cooper want to force schoolchildren to share the same locker room, shower and restroom with someone who claims to be the opposite sex, I was horrified.”

“Gov. McCrory knows this is not about discrimination, money or politics,” Little claims. “He’s standing up under intense pressure and doing what’s right. Our governor is on our side.”

The implication is clear. Little is saying that if trans men, women and children are allowed to use the facilities corresponding with their expressed gender, they will rape and molest children.

The truth, however, is that the overwhelming majority of sex crimes against children are committed by men who identify as heterosexual and the bulk of these crimes happen in the home.

Oh yes, most of these crimes do indeed happen in the home, and are most often committed by family members or close family friends. It happened to me, I was raped by a family member for six years as a child, and it had absolutely nothing to do with queer people or any sort of shared facility. I know McCrory is desperate, but this is lower than low, and he is such an immoral, evil person for doing this. Transgendered people already face high levels of violence, and this will do nothing except make that worse. McCrory is out to harm people.

Via Raw Story.