July 25, 2018

North Carolina republicans quickly pass a law to Throw State Supreme Court Race to a Republican

North Carolina Republicans Pass Yet Another Law to Throw State Supreme Court Race to a Republican

How far are North Carolina Republicans willing to go to throw an upcoming state Supreme Court election? The GOP-dominated legislature has already altered state law in an effort to protect the incumbent Republican justice and thwart her Democratic challenger. But on Tuesday, the party took even more drastic action to prevent a Democratic victory: It rushed to pass a bill during a special session that will retroactively strip a judicial candidate of his party affiliation. The move is plainly designed to shield the incumbent from Republican competition that could split the GOP vote. Tuesday’s bill isn’t just another legislative coup—it’s a blatant effort by the Legislature to crush separation of powers and shatter judicial independence in the state once and for all.

The saga of the North Carolina Supreme Court goes back to the 2016 election, in which Democrat Michael R. Morgan trounced a Republican incumbent, giving the court a 4–3 liberal majority. Many GOP legislators concluded that Morgan only won because he was listed first on the ballot, without any party affiliation. So, in advance of the 2018 election—in which another GOP incumbent, Barbara Jackson, is up for election—Republicans changed the rules. They added explicit partisan affiliation to state Supreme Court races, and ensured that the Democratic candidate, Anita Earls, would be listed last. Most importantly, the Legislature abolished judicial primaries—hoping that multiple Democrats would compete against each other in the general election, thereby splitting the progressive vote, while no Republican would dare challenge Jackson.

Their plan didn’t work. Instead, Earls, a civil rights attorney, drew no Democratic challengers. Jackson, though, drew a GOP competitor: Chris Anglin, a Raleigh attorney who was actually a registered Democrat until he filed for the race as a Republican. Anglin’s motivations are unclear; he describes himself as a “constitutional Republican” running to “stand up for the independence of the judiciary.” He has also declared that he is running in protest of the North Carolina GOP’s assault on “the judiciary as a coequal branch of government.” Regardless of his intent, Anglin had every right to run as a Republican in the general election when he filed in June.

Republican legislators quickly realized that Anglin’s candidacy effectively foiled their plans to safeguard Jackson’s seat. So, on Tuesday—in the midst of a special session called to deceive voters about six radical GOP ballot measures—the Legislature took aim at Anglin. In just hours, Republicans drafted, introduced, and passed SB 3, which prohibits Supreme Court candidates from running with a party affiliation unless they were registered with that party at least 90 days before filing.


https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/north-carolina-republicans-pass-bill-to-strip-state-supreme-court-candidate-chris-anglin-of-his-gop-affiliation.html

July 25, 2018

Trump's start on the Hollywalk of fame was destroyed by a guy with a pickax...AGAIN

Trump's Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame Is Now Rubble
It was basically destroyed, again, by a guy with a pickax


(NEWSER) – Vandalism has once again hit President Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This time, a man who had a pickax hidden in a guitar case almost completely destroyed the star, reducing it to mostly rubble, NBC Los Angeles reports. The suspect left the pickax at the star and reported the incident to police himself, around 3:30am Wednesday, and later turned himself in. Graffiti was later added to the already-destroyed star, CBS Los Angeles reports. In 2016, a man used a pickax and sledgehammer to deface the star of then-candidate Trump (who received it in 2007 for his role as the Miss Universe producer, Fast Company explained in 2016). It has also been spray-painted, covered with stickers, and had a 6-inch-high wall placed around it to symbolize Trump's proposed border wall. It's not clear when repairs will begin this time around. See the destroyed star here.



http://www.newser.com/story/262434/trumps-star-on-hollywood-walk-of-fame-is-now-rubble.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=uol&utm_campaign=rss_top

President Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was destroyed Wednesday morning by a man with a pickax that witnesses say he concealed in a guitar case, police said.

Officers were called around 3:30 a.m. to the star's location on Hollywood Boulevard near Highland Avenue, where they found a small pile of rubble in place of the star that Trump received in January 2007 for his role in the NBC show "The Apprentice."

The star-smashing suspect, who reported the crime to police, later turned himself in to Beverly Hills police after leaving the pickax at the scene, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. He called police and said, "See you soon," Lt. Karen Leong of the LAPD's Hollywood Division told the Los Angeles Times.

The suspect was identified as Austin Clay, 24, who was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism. His hometown was not immediately available.

July 25, 2018

white backlash politics at the heart of Trumpism

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/7/24/17603190/trump-evangelicals-race-status-threat

This conversation explains a vital reason why Trump is so popular on the right
“It’s about the survival of the Christian nation,” said one woman — expressing the white backlash politics at the heart of Trumpism.


https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/ZW6veiezEU0NEt8nxosPSpGsYpw=/0x0:1601x1601/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1601x1601):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/10586035/minority_racial_attitudes_chart.jpg

Craig and Robinson dubbed this effect “group-status threat”: When whites felt like their control over society was slipping, they were more likely to embrace anti-minority ideas and support policies that might slow the rate of demographic change (like immigration restrictionism). When whites feel like the privileged status of their group in society is threatened, they will want to do something to preserve it.

This study wasn’t a one-off: As my colleague Brian Resnick documents, study after study has confirmed that white status threat is a major force driving white Americans to the right on issues of race and tolerance. And since the Republican Party has become overwhelmingly white, this has an effect on the party as a whole. A July poll found that 50 percent of Republicans felt that “increased racial diversity” had a negative impact on the United States, while only 43 percent thought the effect was positive.

The University of Maryland’s Janelle Wong looked at the political attitudes of white evangelicals like Sheila and found that status threat is the key reason why they, as a group, have been so overwhelmingly supportive of Trump.

“Rank-and-file white evangelicals have the most negative attitudes toward immigrants of all U.S. religious groups,” Wong writes at the Monkey Cage. “Their conservative reaction to demographic change is at the heart of their political agenda.”

This is how you make sense of the shocking, seemingly un-Christian lack of charity toward the vulnerable that you see in the conversation between Sheila and Linda.

July 25, 2018

trump voter ashamed to be American after daughter in law deported

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/398616-trump-voter-says-she-is-ashamed-to-be-american-after-ice-deports-her


A Missouri woman who voted for President Trump now says she is “ashamed” to be an American after her daughter-in-law, a Mexican immigrant who had been in the U.S. for nearly 20 years, was deported.

Shirley Stegall told the Associated Press that while she supported Trump’s campaign promises to deport more criminal immigrants, she did not think her son’s wife, Letty, fell into that category.

“I’ve always been proud to be an American,” Stegall said. “But now I’m ashamed.”


Letty Stegall came illegally to the U.S. in 1999 and was living with her husband, Shirley's son, and a 17-year-old daughter from an earlier marriage.

Letty Stegall was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in February, six years after a misdemeanor drunken driving charge, for which she spent a month in jail, alerted authorities to her undocumented status.

She was deported and forced to rejoin her family in Mexico.

July 25, 2018

protestors shut down convenience store after video shows owner, then employee, kicking black woman

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--7jheJ8mZ--/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,q_80,w_800/gvbllvnxdkifnlr45cje.png

video of kick here:
https://www.facebook.com/miika.baybiie/videos/vb.100000344431435/1935433416478121/?type=2&theater

https://www.theroot.com/protestors-shut-down-convenience-store-after-video-show-1827848821

It turns out that black Twitter is not just a place for memes and watching the Shiggy Challenge. Protesters in St. Louis gathered to shut down a convenience store and block the exits after a video emerged of the store’s owner and another employee attacking a woman, prompting people who viewed the assault on social media to actually do something about it.

Around 10 a.m. this morning, Shemika Russell recorded an employee of Gas Mart confronting a woman outside the store. As the woman and the man from the store argued, another man, alleged to be the owner of the gas station, came outside and kicked the woman to the ground.

After the first kicker goes back into the store, the other man, apparently jealous of his boss’ racist kung-fu, decide to join in on the treat-a-black-woman-worse-than-Putin-treats-Trump festivities and kicked the woman again.

--------

An employee of the store said that police took two men into custody, one of whom was the gas station’s owner. The 50 or so protesters also made sure that the woman who was attacked, Kelli Adams, received medical attention.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/two-arrested-dozens-protest-apology-issued-after-workers-kick-woman/article_620bc2ba-7a9b-54d7-9c67-f5985b8be7dc.html

Gas Mart later issued an apology about the assault.

"On behalf of the entire Gas Mart family, we want to extend our sincerest apologies for the negative experience that has occurred at our location 5745 Delmar Blvd," the statement said.

"Gas Mart does NOT condone this kind of behavior nor is it tolerated. We will take all the appropriate measures needed to assure an incident like this does not happen again. Encounters of violence will not be tolerated at ANY capacity at any of our locations."

In a tense moment at the gas station protest, Gas Mart representatives appeared in person to apologize to Adams, who returned to the store after receiving treatment for an injury. Protesters chanted "you don't hit no woman" before the representatives were allowed to speak. Adams told the crowd that she'd like to see the store shut down, but thanked and hugged the Gas Mart representatives for the apology.

July 25, 2018

they sound like two mobsters... the tape.

CNN just played the Cohen tape

July 25, 2018

Disapproval of trump increases per Real Clear Politics average of polls

A majority thinks Russia has dirt on Trump, a new poll shows
By a 51-to-35 percent margin, U.S. voters are convinced the Russian government has dirt on Trump, according to a Quinnipiac University National Poll.
His overall approval rating now sits at 38 percent, compared with 58 percent disapproval, according to the poll.
The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows that Trump's rating is underwater by nearly 10 points.




The new poll also showed a decline in Americans' approval of Trump's overall job performance. His approval now sits at 38 percent, compared with 58 percent disapproval. His approval rating fell five points from a June 20 Quinnipiac poll that followed the president’s summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows that Trump's rating is underwater by nearly 10 points.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/24/majority-believes-russia-has-dirt-on-trump-poll.html

July 24, 2018

ACLU sues officer Sean Lojacono, "stop and frisk" of black men involves pushing finger into rectum

The lawsuit claimed that District of Columbia Officer Sean Lojacono violated M.B. Cottingham’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures by government officers. The ACLU is now calling other people subjected to the same treatment to come forward.

https://newsone.com/3817944/police-abuse-stop-search-aclu-dc-cops/

Cottingham, a 39-year-old father, and a few friends were sitting in lawn chairs on a public sidewalk with an open container of alcohol in October 2017. Several officers approached them and asked if they had weapons, which they didn’t.

Lojacono noticed a small bulge in Cottingham’s sock that turned out to be a small bag containing less than an eighth of an ounce of marijuana, a quantity that’s legal to possess in the District of Columbia. Cottingham gave the officers permission to conduct a quick pat down. But it turned out be much more invasive.


“Come on man! Come on man!” Cottingham protested on the video. “He stuck his finger in my crack, man!”

Lojacono put handcuffs on Cottingham and did it a few more times. “Come on man! Stop fingering me, though, bruh!” he stated. The cops didn’t cite any of the men.

-----------------

https://sputniknews.com/us/201807201066524766-ACLU-Sues-DC-Cop-Buttocks/


https://sputniknews.com/us/201807201066524766-ACLU-Sues-DC-Cop-Buttocks/


longer video here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=93&v=zXILS80IyyU

July 24, 2018

$625,000 raised for Tia Coleman through gofundme (Duck boat survivor who lost 9 family members)

https://www.gofundme.com/branson-duck-boat-survivor

July 24, 2018

The Parkland generation is reg to vote in serious numbers in swing states. 61% of new regs in PA

The Parkland generation is registering to vote in serious numbers in swing states.Ever since February 14, when 17 students and staff members were killed by a gunman at Stoneman Douglas High School in Southern Florida, “registration rates for voters aged 18-29 have significantly increased in key battleground states,” according to a new study from the Democratic data firm TargetSmart. Young people comprised 61 percent of new registrants in Pennsylvania, a 16-point increase. Virginia and Indiana saw 10-point increases, and Arizona and Florida saw 8.

https://newrepublic.com/minutes/150079/parkland-generation-registering-vote-serious-numbers-swing-states

?w=600&q=65&dpi=1&h=393

Much of this may have to do with the efforts Parkland student activists have undertaken to help students register to vote. Back in May, David Hogg partnered with the New York–based organization HeadCount to organize registration drives in about 1,000 high schools across 46 states.

A group of Parkland student activists, including Hogg, Cameron Kasky, and Emma Gonzàlez, also announced a summer-long bus tour devoted to encourage students to “get young people educated, registered and motivated to vote,” Kasky said in June. “At the end of the day, real change is brought from voting and too often voting off as nothing in our country.”