Category: Domestic Affairs,

Puerto Ricans still waiting for aid a week after Maria’s devastation 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

A week after Hurricane Maria ravaged Puerto Rico, the US commonwealth’s residents are struggling to survive without basic necessities as federal officials say aid is still on the way.

Puerto Ricans still waiting for aid a week after Maria’s devastation – CNN

Where’s Kanye when we need his mouthy ass? Guess Trump hates Hispanics. Seems like he’s content to just let people die.

Federal judge permanently blocks Indiana abortion limits 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

A federal judge permanently struck down provisions of an Indiana law passed last year that would have banned abortions sought due to fetal genetic abnormalities and required that aborted fetuses be buried or cremated.U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt’s decision, issued Friday, found that those two provisions and a third one are unconstitutional. She granted an order permanently blocking all three from being enforced and granted summary judgment in favor of Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky, which had sued the state in April 2016 after then-Gov. Mike Pence signed the provisions into law.

Federal judge permanently blocks Indiana abortion limits | WGN-TV

hmmmm

Chicago Police Officers Discplined for Taking a Knee in Solidarity With Colin Kaepernick

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,Leave a comment

In her caption to the photo with the officers, Clarke, who posts on Instagram under the name @englewoodbarbie, wrote “That Moment when you walk into the police station and ask the Men of Color are they Against Police Brutality and Racism & they say Yes… then you ask them if they support Colin Kapernick… and they also say yes… then you ask them to Kneel.!”

Chicago Police Officers Discplined for Taking a Knee in Solidarity With Colin Kaepernick

Chicago is such a putrid cesspool.

Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit America’s racial and religious divisions 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

The batch of more than 3,000 Russian-bought ads that Facebook is preparing to turn over to Congress shows a deep understanding of social divides in American society, with some ads promoting African American rights groups, including Black Lives Matter, and others suggesting that these same groups pose a rising political threat, say people familiar with the covert influence campaign.

The Russian campaign — taking advantage of Facebook’s ability to send contrary messages to different groups of users based on their political and demographic characteristics — also sought to sow discord among religious groups. Other ads highlighted support for Democrat Hillary Clinton among Muslim women.

…The divisive themes seized on by Russian operatives were similar to those that Trump and his supporters pushed on social ­media and on right-wing websites during the campaign. U.S. investigators are now trying to figure out whether Russian operators and members of Trump’s team coordinated in any way.

…In addition to the ads described to The Post, Russian operatives used Facebook to promote anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim messages. And Facebook has said that one-quarter of the ads bought by the Russian operatives identified so far targeted a particular geographic area.

Russian operatives used Facebook ads to exploit America’s racial and religious divisions – The Washington Post

hmmmm

Jared and Ivanka’s Personal Email Server

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

“Jared Kushner has corresponded with other administration officials about White House matters through a private email account set up during the transition last December,” Dawsey wrote. “Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, set up their private family domain late last year before moving to Washington from New York, according to people with knowledge of events as well as publicly available internet registration records.”

…it takes a special sort of hypocrisy, or dark sense of humor, or lack of self-awareness for Trump’s daughter and son-in-law to do this after watching a race in which Donald Trump campaigned for, and arguably won, the presidency because of Clinton’s imprudent decision to use the private email server. She was cleared by the FBI and the Justice Department of any crimes, though then-FBI Director James Comey called her “extremely careless” with classified information. It was the political sin of looking like she had something to hide, and was trying hard to hide it, that stuck to Clinton. Somehow, Kushner and Trump still decided to set up their own family server, and no one convinced them it was a bad idea.

…A common knock on the Clintons was that they behaved as though the rules did not apply to them. Already, some members of Trump’s inner circle are acting the same way.

The Brazenness of Jared and Ivanka’s Personal Email Server – The Atlantic

hmmmm

At Least 6 White House Advisers Used Private Email Accounts 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser, used a private email account to send or receive about 100 work-related emails during the administration’s first seven months. But Mr. Kushner was not alone. Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief White House strategist, and Reince Priebus, the former chief of staff, also occasionally used private email addresses. Other advisers, including Gary D. Cohn and Stephen Miller, sent or received at least a few emails on personal accounts, officials said.

Ivanka Trump …used a private account occasionally [after] she formally became a White House adviser.

…Officials are supposed to use government emails for their official duties so their conversations are available to the public and those conducting oversight.

…The acknowledgment of private email use came as the White House is responding to a wide-ranging Justice Department request for documents and emails as part of the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling.

…It is not clear why even sporadic use continued after a campaign in which email habits became a source of controversy. 

…The private email accounts immediately triggered questions in Congress. Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, who was among those who most vociferously criticized Mrs. Clinton’s email use, sent a letter to the White House and federal agencies asking about the Trump administration’s personal email use.

Representative Elijah E. Cummings, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, asked the White House to make sure that none of Mr. Kushner’s emails are deleted.
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hmmmmm

Little Rock Nine: the day young students shattered racial segregation

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Race,Leave a comment

Brown v Board of Education, the landmark 1954 supreme court ruling that segregated schools were unconstitutional, should have meant she and fellow pupils could take their places at Central High. But Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas, in the deep south, remained defiant and used the national guard to block their enrollment. The African American children were left in limbo for three weeks.

On the first day of term, the national guard were there to stop the nine entering Central High, where all 1,900 attendees were white.

…On 23 September 1957, the group did get into the building with police protection. But an angry mob of more than a thousand white people had gathered in front of the school, chanting racist abuse such as “Go back to Africa.”

The mob started a riot and police decided to remove the students for their own safety. “At about 10am they said: ‘You’ve got to come down to the office,’ and we went down into the basement. They put us in these cars and the cops driving the cars were shaking. They had the guns and sticks and they were scared. ‘Oh wow, this is scary.’ Some of us were told to keep our heads down

……President Dwight Eisenhower sent in 1,200 paratroopers from the 101st airborne division. 

…On 25 September, the group braved a hostile white crowd, climbed the school steps and were escorted to class by US army troops. …The soldiers escorted the students single file into the school for their first full day of classes and dispersed the demonstrators.

…But although 25 September is the date people remember, troops remained at Central high school for the rest the school year and the Little Rock Nine ran the gauntlet of hatred every day. They were taunted, assaulted and spat upon by their white counterparts; a straw effigy of a black person was hung from a tree. They were kept apart in different classes so they could not vouch for each other’s claims.

Little Rock Nine: the day young students shattered racial segregation | World news | The Guardian

Only sixty years ago!

Sanders, Sexism and how millennial feminists saw HRC

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

[Sanders voters] are my natural colleagues, and most are as upset as I am by Trump’s victory. But they played a big role in the thin edge (not a landslide, as Trump would have us believe) that gave Trump the election. For while Trump supporters hooted and cheered for their candidate, forgiving him every lie, every crime, every bit of disgusting [behavior], too many young Democrats made it very clear (in newspaper and internet interviews, in polls, and in the mainstream media) that they were only voting for Hillary Clinton as the lesser of two evils, “holding their noses”, tears still streaming down their faces over the primary defeat of the person they felt truly deserved their votes. Some didn’t vote at all. And as much as I am in agreement with many of his ideas, Bernie Sanders splintered and ultimately sabotaged the Democratic party – not because he chose to run against Hillary Clinton, but because of how he ran against her.

… When Sanders denied that badge of [honor] to Clinton he wasn’t distinguishing his agenda from hers (their positions on most issues were, in reality, pretty similar), he was excluding her from the company of the good and pure – and in the process, limiting what counted as progressive causes, too. His list didn’t include the struggle for reproductive rights or affordable child care. Nor, at the beginning of his campaign, was there much emphasis on racial justice.

…Sanders gave Clinton no credit for her longstanding progressivism in [equal rights for women and minorities,] while identifying her with the corruption he was dedicated to cleaning up. …Portraying Clinton as the enemy of systemic change …was not only factually incorrect, but proved politically disastrous in the general election.

…Like progressive, establishment is a pretty meaningless term, particularly when lobbed at one Washington politician by another. Neither Sanders nor Clinton had been working outside the system.

Appearances to the contrary, Sanders was not a union organizer, but rather a longtime member of the Senate. And if Clinton had more support from the Democratic party, that was due in large part to the relationships she had cultivated over the years, working with others – something Sanders was not particularly good at.

…[Sanders later described] Planned Parenthood and NARAL as “establishment” and abortion as a social issue.

…[The media] posted pictures of him being arrested at a protest against the University of Chicago’s real estate investments, while making no mention of the work Hillary had done, when she was the same age, investigating racist housing practices with Marian Wright Edelman. 

The destruction of Hillary Clinton: sexism, Sanders, and the millennial feminists | Susan Bordo | Opinion | The Guardian

hmmmm

Hillary Will Sit Down and Shut Up When Bernie Does 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

 

Hillary Will Sit Down and Shut Up When Bernie Does – The Daily Banter

Stuff like,

Clinton ran a good campaign, won a massive popular vote victory and required an equally massive effort on the part of disparate groups to eke a technical win out for Trump.

…is a little much. It wasn’t a terrible campaign, compared to the history of American politics it probably can be called a good campaign but it could have been much better. It was a decisive win but I’m not sure that I’d go all the way to massive.

The author’s defensiveness of HRC does not lend itself to persuasion. If the facts were presented without the hyperbole the point would still be made, with the added bonus of added potential to actual open and change minds to the author’s point. (Liberals, this is why we can’t have nice things.)

All that said, there are some interesting things in here.

 

Chris Sommers Responds After Police Union Puts Him — and Pi Pizzeria — on Blast 

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,Leave a comment

Yes, I had to lock down my restaurant for the first time from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. I then had to close the restaurant, buy dinner for remaining guests and ensure that my team, who were now all terrified from the gas and rush by the police, had a safe ride home. I repeat, we only closed our restaurant this weekend out of fear of police, not protestors or the shitheads vandalizing. 

… Despite the SLMPD catching none of the criminals who have assaulted and robbed me, my businesses and employees, or home, I have continued to support them. They have NOT protected me and often never showed up when I’ve called them, but I’ve continue to serve them, with free meals and cash.

…The systematic racism and corruption in our SLMPD and beyond is well-known and documented. (What I’ve experienced the past few days, however, is trivial when compared to what African Americans do on a daily basis. I don’t at all mean to create a false equivalency with this. I know the gun they used on me could have been different if I were black.) I’ve had many cops and relatives of cops and former cops approach me since this incident to tell me of their own experiences with it, and why they had to leave the force because they could not ethically continue. A co-worker of mine was dining in St. Louis on Friday, when six cops came in bragging about killing Smith, saying “so what, we killed him, St. Louis needs to move on.”

…But it’s so much larger than that. Cops can do no wrong in their minds, and they will defend each other to no end. The authoritarian code in the police departments transcends their work, influences their politics and informs their “faith.” It’s disgusting….

Chris Sommers Responds After Police Union Puts Him — and Pi Pizzeria — on Blast | Food Blog

This. So much this!

Trump Praises Africa for Making “So Many Friends” Rich 

On By peanutgallerynhIn Africa,, Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

…Naturally, his praise quickly took on a vaguely colonialist tone.

“I have so many friends going to your countries to get rich,” he actually said to them, adding that “six of the world‘s 10 fastest growing economies are in Africa.” Perhaps getting himself a little too worked up about all the ways in which Africa poses an opportunity for his close personal friends to further enrich themselves, the president referred to a country called “Nambia,” which has the unique distinction of not existing.

…In fairness to Trump, we should probably award him partial credit for refraining from telling the group “I love Africa. Great colonialism. Excellent mineral extraction opportunities,” which we can only assume was how the first draft of his speech began.

Trump Praises Africa for Making “So Many Friends” Rich | Vanity Fair

Jeezus….