Oh, all the gods No. Fuck No.

Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin.

…According to reports, former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is a top contender for secretary of the interior.

Trump mentioned he would like to appoint Palin to a position within his administration when she endorsed him in January 2016.

[…]

It looks like that role might be secretary of the interior, according to Politico. The secretary of the interior leads the Department of the Interior, responsible for the nation’s public lands and natural resources. The department oversees land, water and other natural resources, protects fish and wildlife and preserves the environment and historic places around the country. The department also coordinates relations with tribal communities and island territories.

Palin has developed a political platform based on making the U.S. energy independent.

“Energy is my baby,” she said in an interview with CNN in September 2015. “Oil and gas and minerals – those things that God has dumped on this part of the earth for mankind’s use instead of us relying on unkind foreign nations for us to import their resources.”

[…]

Other contenders for Trump’s secretary of the interior pick include Forrest Lucas, the founder of Lucas Oil, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin and venture capitalist Robert Grady, among others.

Via Raw Story. The Southern Poverty Law Center has an article up about the Trump Team, and to say it’s a nightmare is an understatement. Every corrupt, hateful person you can think of, they are there. Politico is also covering this.

I barely have words here. It doesn’t really matter who is appointed, whoever it is will go full scale rapacious, ensuring we have land which cannot support life, and water that is poisoned. Congratulations, all you fucking Trumpidiots,* you’ve signed the beginning of our death warrant.

* Yes, if you voted for a third party, wrote someone in, or abstained, you are a Trumpidiot. No, I’m not letting you off the hook. This was a binary choice, that was blindingly obvious, and no one can honestly deny that. Rather than do the right thing, you made a conscious decision to do the wrong thing. Your little act of rebelliousness may have given you satisfaction at the time, but I hope with all my heart it has been slammed home to you what you have done, the immense wrong you have helped to perpetrate against millions of people; against our planet, and all the life on it.

“Hey Nigger. Pick that up. Keep my streets clean.”

Shaun King has been tracking hate incidents, which are piling up at an alarming rate. I read about 30 something of them in this article at Raw Story, and I just can’t take anymore. The tweet I posted above is one of the milder ones. This is, I don’t know, I don’t have a word. Nightmare sounds positively pleasant in comparison to what is taking place now. Going by the words and the actions of all the Trumpians, and the children of those toxic people, they’d be just great with concentration camps. They are already busy treating people as worse than animals, they are treating people as things, and that always leads to the greatest of ills.

White Power and Bigotry Echo in the Halls of Education.

https://www.facebook.com/rayalexandertv/videos/10207493761174137/

The group “Parents of York County School of Technology Students” said on Facebook that members had received reports that “Trump’s presidential win was announced at school today amidst chants of ‘white power.’ That white students referred to other races as their slaves, and at some points even spit on those students.”

[…]

Social media accounts collected by WHP indicated that the racial tensions had caused fights at the school. One student said that she had her breasts grabbed by another student who claimed “it was his right.”

The school confirmed to WHP that the incidents were being investigated. Via Raw Story.

Racist graffiti at Maple Grove High School also supports Donald Trump (Facebook).

Racist graffiti at Maple Grove High School also supports Donald Trump (Facebook).

Just hours after Donald Trump won 2016 presidential race, students at Maple Grove High School returned to class to find racist messages inspired by the GOP candidate.

On Wednesday, a father of a Maple Grove student posted on Facebook images of graffiti that were taken by his son.

“He does not feel safe at his own school any more,” Fred Ndip said. “I am not sure what to tell him!”

The photos show a locker door with large letters that read: “F*ck N****rs”

Other messages on the door included: “F*ck all porch monkeys,” “Whites only” and “White America.”

The words “Trump Train” were also on the door.

[…]

“I went in and looked on the bathroom door and honestly was in shock. That’s the first time I honestly felt like crying at school,” junior Moses Karngbaye told WCCO. “I just walked back to class with my head down, I was like I can’t believe people actually took the time out of their day to write something this offensive.”

Karngbaye said that he took photos of graffiti that said “All you ‘N’ go back to Africa” and “Now the white people are going to take over.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Osseo Area Schools confirmed that the photos were real, and that an investigation was underway.

Via Raw Story.

https://www.facebook.com/immigrationtalk.mexicanamerican/videos/1144505275587036/

For those wondering how Donald Trump could ever have won a state like Michigan after it supported Barack Obama this video explains a lot.

A small group of students at Royal Oak Middle School in Detroit, Michigan broke out into chants of “Build the wall” the day after the election, according to The Detroit News.

According to a Facebook video of the event that has now gone viral, “Latino children were crying.” Dee Perez-Scott, who posted the video, said, “the taunts, the “Build that Wall” with such bullying power and hate from children to children. Just Horrifying!”

“We addressed this incident when it occurred. We are addressing it today,” Royal Oak Schools superintendent Shawn Lewis-Lakin said in a statement today. “We are working with our students to help them understand the impact of their words and actions on others in their school community,” the statement continued.

As of Thursday morning, officers from the Royal Oak Police Department have been on hand and will be throughout the day, Lt. Keith Spencer said.

Via Raw Story.

Doll hanging from noose at Canisius College (Twitter).

Doll hanging from noose at Canisius College (Twitter).

Students at a western New York college are alarmed after they found a black doll hung in effigy on campus — and they wondered whether racial harassment will grow worse with the election of Donald Trump.

The doll hanging from a noose was discovered Wednesday in an elevator at Canisius College in Buffalo, where the student government has promised to address the incident, reported WKBW-TV.

A black student-athlete told the TV station he was considering leaving the campus, saying he’d experienced similar racist bullying since enrolling at Canisius, where 71.9 percent of students are white and 6.9 percent are black.

The college president said Canisius would investigate the incident and punish anyone responsible for the “stupid act.”

Several students told the TV station they feared racial harassment would grow worse with the election of Trump as president.

About 90 miles away, in Wellsville, New York, residents painted over swastika graffiti found on a baseball dugout in town.

[…]

Swastika graffiti, including the words, “Sieg heil 2016,” was also spotted on a building Wednesday in Philadelphia.

Via Raw Story.

I would really like to think that every single person who voted for Trump was deeply ashamed by what they have done, that there was an ounce of decency in them somewhere, but I can’t think that, because this is what they wanted. This is the poisonous shit you have force fed your own children. You should be beyond shamed, but you are not.

This Is Racism.

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump react as they watch the election results during Trump’s election night rally, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in New York. CREDIT: AP/John Locher.

Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump react as they watch the election results during Trump’s election night rally, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in New York. CREDIT: AP/John Locher.

[…] America’s demographics are changing, and they’re changing quickly. By 2055, there will no longer be a single racial or ethnic majority in the United States and 14 percent of the country will be foreign born, according to the Pew Research Center. Forty-three percent of Millennials are people of color.

Let’s be clear: This is scaring white voters. White people believe that they are more often the victims of racism than black people, according to a 2011 new study from researchers at Tufts University’s School of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Business School. The research also found that white voters perceived social progress for people of color to be much swifter than it actually is.

The authors wrote, “These data are the first to demonstrate that not only do whites think more progress has been made toward equality than do blacks, but whites also now believe that this progress is linked to a new inequality — at their expense.”

Research has also established that as U.S. demographics shift, the pro-white and racist attitudes of white people become more apparent, according to a study from New York University and Northwestern University. The same researchers also found those who read about these demographic changes often are generally more supportive of conservative policies and more likely to identify as conservative.

Throughout history, there are many examples of how the racism of white voters has been mobilized to favor a candidate for president. We saw Barry Goldwater and President Richard Nixon employ the Southern Strategy, which took advantage of white people’s anxieties about the economic and social advancement of people of color. Writing in Slate, Jamelle Bouie describes this pattern of progress and white backlash, starting with the Reconstruction:

Like clockwork, white Americans embraced a man who promised a kind of supremacy. We haven’t left our long cycle of progress and backlash. We are still the country that produced George Wallace. We are still the country that killed Emmett Till.

We have also seen these fears manifest themselves overseas as European far-right political parties with anti-immigrant sentiments win historic victories.

The fear of white voters — the fear we will no longer be at the center of American politics and culture, having our needs tended to first, and the fear that we will be asked to acknowledge our role in white supremacy and to stop doing harm to people of color, whether it be violence or perpetuating racist stereotypes — has always been there. Now, we need to acknowledge that it is largely what motivated Trump voters. A majority of Trump supporters said they saw black people as “less evolved” than white people, according to a Slate survey with a sample of 2,000 non-Hispanic white people.

When we say that class is what takes a Trump voter from dangerous to misguided and confused, we are condescending to low-income people living in rural areas. By doing this, the media takes away their agency and suggests they didn’t know any better. But they know exactly what they have done. […]

Yes, they do know exactly what they’ve done, and they all have their little justifications for doing it, and it all goes back to the comfort of being on top of the people pile, being assured that yes, of course white people are superior, and you have every right in the world to stomp all over those others. My state, nDakota, had a great deal to do with Trump being elected, and I can’t even begin to express how uncomfortable I am right now, how much anxiety and fear fills me whenever I look at any white person in this state, knowing there’s a high probability they voted for that xenophobic, homophobic bigot, open racist, a rapist, a sexual predator, a con man, an open fraud, a sociopath, pathological liar, climate change denier and ignorant asspimple. Much like my country, my home [state] has disappeared, swallowed whole by intolerant assholes who think they are owed the right to stomp on other people, to oppress, to marginalize, to own, to rule. There just aren’t enough fucks in the universe for those of you to whom nothing was more important than your shallow need to control other people, to safeguard your racism. *spits*

The full story is at Think Progress.

November Is…

Speaking of, Alysa Landry has an excellent article up at ICTMN, about spending the last forty-five weeks writing about all the U.S. presidents, and their impact on Indigenous peoples: Indians Are Invisible: What I Learned Researching US Presidents. Highly recommended reading. The whitewash goes deeper than anyone thought.

Seven Young Artists…

Today, Americans will decide who will be the 45th President of the United States of America. An online exhibition considers the national and international consequences of this election. The group exhibition entitled, Pulling Down The Walls, organized by Galerie Number 8, examines some of the bigger issues—immigration, race, gender and equality—of the year. Featuring artists, Campbell Addy, Ivan Forde, Justin French, Nicolas Henry, Hector Mediavilla, Leonard Pongo, and David Uzochukwi, the pop-up show uses portrait, landscape, and reportage photography, to show what’s at stake in this presidential election. Read and see more at The Creators Project.

Justin French, Patriot, 2015, 20 x 30 inches. © Justin French.

Justin French, Patriot, 2015, 20 x 30 inches. © Justin French.

 

Hector Mediavilla, Latingo Border #6, 2010, 48 x 60 inches. © Hector Mediavilla.

Hector Mediavilla, Latingo Border #6, 2010, 48 x 60 inches. © Hector Mediavilla.

Right Wing Terrorism Awaits.

Shutterstock.

Shutterstock.

[…] Already there are militias preparing for “civil unrest in the days following a victory by Democrat Hillary Clinton. They are convinced “the Islamic State, or agents sent by Mrs. Clinton, or both, may soon descend” on them. At Trump rallies, supporters warn of coming riots nationwide and “another Revolutionary war” to remove Clinton from office.

This rhetoric can be dismissed as fantasies stewing in the overheated imagination of reactionaries who envision race wars and their neighborhood going “up in flames” every time a centrist Democrat is elected or Black people march for justice. But there is another grave risk likely to explode after a Clinton victory: right-wing terrorism, particularly mass shootings.

Over the last year, as white male anger congealed around Trump, there has been a lull in mass shootings, about 60 percent of which are carried out by white men. While a causal relationship between his campaign and domestic terrorism can never be proved, there are reasons to think the drop in mass shootings is linked to Trump’s candidacy as well as it is more probable there will be an outburst of right-wing terrorism after a Clinton victory.

The foremost reason is recent history. The day after Obama’s inauguration in 2009, Keith Luke, a 22-year-old neo-Nazi, went on a rampage of murder and rape in Brockton, Massachusetts, saying he was “fighting for a dying race.” Over the next two years there were at least seven other cases of deadly right-wing political terrorism carried out by white men, with targets including a Planned Parenthood clinic, the Holocaust Museum, an IRS building, and massacre in Arizona that nearly claimed the life of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. There were other aborted political terrorist attacks or ones that ended in the death of the gunman only. The common thread was attackers were motivated by anti-government sentiment, often fueled by the likes of Fox News, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin.

[…]

The violence is already bubbling up. One examination of the public Facebook pages of more than 240 active militias found a significant spike in recent activity of members vowing insurrection and violence if Clinton wins. These groups also wax and wane according to who is president. Under George W. Bush, the number of Patriot groups, which include many militias, declined by 85 percent from the peak of the Clinton era, to a low of 131 in 2007. Within five years, under Obama, the number of Patriot had grown an astonishing 10-fold.

[…]

If anything, the danger of right-wing terrorism is greater than ever. Much of that aggression has been channeled into Donald Trump’s campaign, which may account for the drop-off in mass shootings. That’s why his defeat is likely to see a rise in attacks. The militias preparing for insurrection are a vector of future terrorism. Shane Bauer’s eye-opening look into these militias found they walk “a delicate line between stoking its members’ paranoid fears and fantasies of rebellion and holding them in check.” Some militia leaders admitted they expelled or even reported members to authorities whom they suspected were planning to kill Muslims or assassinate politicians.

[…]

Trump has convinced millions of heavily armed Americans that if he doesn’t win, then it will be the end of America. And with many followers going around with an itchy finger on the trigger, convinced war is inevitable, how long before some of them start shooting?

Arun Gupta’s full article is well worth reading. Our interesting times are about to get more interesting, and much more terrifying.

Cops, nothing better to do.

Mariza Ruelas with her children. Photograph: Courtesy of Mariza Ruelas.

Mariza Ruelas with her children. Photograph: Courtesy of Mariza Ruelas.

When cops aren’t busy murdering people of colour, they’re busy mounting sting operations to harass them out of existence. All that blue service, so much to be proud of, and not to leave our so-called justice system out of things, piling on charges and punishments into a great big pile, just the sort of thing a single mother of six can handle without blinking. Right.

A single mother could face three years in jail in California for selling homemade ceviche and chicken stuffed fried avocado on Facebook after law enforcement conducted an undercover operation and accused her of running a food business without a permit.

The story of Mariza Ruelas’ charges has gone viral since the Stockton woman spoke out about police targeting her in an online investigation of a local Facebook group that members used to share recipes, organize potlucks and sell dishes.

The misdemeanor charges of “operating a food facility without a valid permit” and “engaging in business without a permit to sell” have drawn widespread criticisms of California police and health inspectors and raise fresh questions about how law enforcement agencies use social media for surveillance.

[…]

Ruelas said she helped run the 209 Food Spot group on Facebook, which is named after Stockton’s area code.

In December, someone who contacted her through the group asking for ceviche turned out to be an undercover San Joaquin county investigator who conducted a “sting” on behalf of the district attorney’s office.

She and five other users of the page faced citations for two misdemeanors, but Ruelas was the only one to refuse to sign a plea deal. She said she would be happy to do community service and pay a fine, but she didn’t want a misdemeanor on her record.

San Joaquin County deputy district attorney Kelly McDaniel told the Guardian that Ruelas used the page to sell food after her initial arraignment, resulting in a total of four counts that add up to a maximum of three years and a possible fine of more than $10,000.

Ruelas said she sold her signature chicken stuffed fried avocado dish to try and raise money for her legal costs.

Mariza Ruelas said she sold her signature chicken stuffed fried avocado dish to try and raise money for her legal costs. Photograph: Courtesy of Mariza Ruelas.

Mariza Ruelas said she sold her signature chicken stuffed fried avocado dish to try and raise money for her legal costs. Photograph: Courtesy of Mariza Ruelas.

That looks pretty tasty to me. This was a local thing, not someone who was out to get rich, it was about building community, sharing food, and recouping the costs a bit. I know Stockton, or I used to. It’s a place widely avoided by those who don’t have reason to be there or stay, it’s a dangerous place. Lots of crime. I guess it’s much better to spend all that tax money and resources on hunting down community minded women. Great job, Stockton cops!

Full story here.

Oh Yuengling.

beer-protestx750

Gay bars in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., are boycotting Yuengling after the beer company’s owner, Richard “Dick” Yuengling Jr., came out in support of Donald Trump. Last week the fifth-generation businessman gave the Republican nominee’s son Eric a tour of a Yuengling brewery located in Pottsville, Pa.

“My father’s going to make it a lot easier for business to function,” the younger Trump claimed during a news conference. “We’re going to do it right here in the U.S.”

“Our guys are behind your father,” Yuengling responded. “We need him in there.”

Following the owner’s endorsement, Rep. Brian Sims, Pennsylvania’s first openly gay state legislator, called on gay-owned businesses in the Keystone State to stop serving the company’s products. Forbes described Yuengling as boasting a “cult-like status” in the 19 states — primarily in the East Coast and Southwest — where the beer is distributed. Even President Obama is a fan.

But the buck has to stop somewhere, as Sims wrote on Facebook.

“One of the most prevalent brands in the gayborhood and in LGBT bars across the Commonwealth, is using our own dollars to back a person and an ideology that says that our lives … matter less,” he said. “More to the point, those dollars are being used right now to give power to his bigoted messages attacking our black and brown neighbors and all of the women in our lives.”

“Our communities know a thing or two about voting with our dollars,” Sims added, “and I won’t be using my hard-earned dollars to give power to any company or person who hates me. What about you?”

Following Sims’s call to arms, several gay bars swiftly dropped the brand.

[…]

Many of Yuengling’s most loyal drinkers have joined the call to #DumpYuengling. Todd Bird, who lives in Louisville, Ky., regularly drives 90 miles to Ohio for a drink of his favorite beer, but he said those days are over.

“Supporting racist, misogynist nut-job Trump is the end of the line for me,” he wrote on Twitter.

The money power of the queer community is not something to be scorned, as many companies have found before, and have had to make a decision to not be such bigoted asswipes, when they’ve seen what has happened to their bottom line. Yuengling has quite the following, and to have people dump it cold is going to hurt, even if Dick Yuengling hasn’t quite figured that one out yet. He will, eventually.

Full story at The Advocate.

A thumbs-up, a grin, and a corpse.

Leaked photo of Omar Rahman's body and a North County Police Co-Operative officer (Screen capture).

Leaked photo of Omar Rahman’s body and a North County Police Co-Operative officer (Screen capture).

Just in case anyone was getting warm and fuzzy feelings about cops here in uStates. This photo was leaked, not much information about that right now, out of St. Louis, Missouri, of a cop giving a happy thumbs up over the corpse of Omar Rahman, who was shot and killed in August this year. I don’t really care what anyone did, or how any given cop might feel about any given person, this is unconscionable, no matter how you slice it. The St. Louis cop shop isn’t saying much about this, claiming their crime scene camera is missing, along with any hard copies. I find that interesting, given how cop shops everywhere are always plaintively crying about restrictive budgets and never having enough money. Cameras are expensive, I know, I have one, and it’s not even close to one of the high ends, just a Nikon D90. It was expensive enough, and lenses, well, anyone with a camera can bend your ear about lens lust and the costs which leave most of us in a state of drooling dreams. A camera used for forensics can’t be a cheap one, there has to be an initial lay out for a good camera body, and a number of lenses would be required. Not the most expensive ones, I’m sure, but at least two good workhorse lenses, and one macro lens, I’d think. Rather odd for something like that to go missing. I’ll be generous and assume they have more than one, they must have been using something since August. The old saying goes, one picture is worth a thousand words. I think that applies here.

Full story here.

Standing Rock Needs You.

6

We’re at the Red Line. If you can come to Standing Rock, now is the time. Please, if you can make it, please, please come. If you can come, please pledge. We need you.

Pledge to Resist the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Sunday Facepalm: Rick-rolling Westboro.

download-1-1478286198

Photo: Playbill.

This was a wonderful response to Westboro’s standard hate. The facepalm here is reserved just for little Westboro, who seems to be out of steam, and out of ideas. Julliard? Really? I’m thinking someone just wanted an excuse to hit NY for some fabulous shopping.

“This [Julliard] is the heart and soul of the arts community,” Phelps-Roper reportedly yelled over the music. She added that Juilliard staff “have taught this nation proud sin” and “have filled the nation with proud sodomites.”

[…]

They were quickly surrounded by a group of 100 students who “rick-rolled” the hate mongers with a classical version of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”

Via NewNowNext.

Standing Rock Camp: Day’s End.

Our last day. In the 8th photo, you can see the construction equipment, and the lights which are shone down on the camp every night now. The last four shots, going through cop land on the way home. It’s unnerving. Click for full size.

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