Harris blasts critics of ‘identity politics’

Sen. Kamala Harris accused critics of “identity politics” of weaponizing the term to diminish issues of race, gender and sexual orientation, pressing Democrats on Friday to address those issues head on.

“I have a problem, guys, with that phrase, ‘identity politics,’” Harris told the progressive gathering Netroots Nation, wading into a messaging debate roiling Democrats ahead of the midterm elections. “Because let’s be clear, when people say that, it’s a pejorative. That phrase is used to divide, and it is used to distract. Its purpose is to minimize and marginalize issues that impact all of us. It is used to try and shut us up.”

Harris blasts critics of ‘identity politics’ – POLITICO

mmmhmmm

Mobile moves ahead with Amtrak plans

Amtrak service left Mobile and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina damaged tracks in 2005. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida have already signed off on bringing the service back.

“It would be a shame to send these grant resources back when we can utilize it to have a shovel-ready plan so the governor can hopefully support what we’re trying to do in the near future,” Manzie said.

Mobile moves ahead with Amtrak plans

Very cool.

Alex Jones’s Attorneys Argue That No Reasonable Person Would Believe What He Says

Jones’s brand is built upon the idea that he’s a lone crusader against the mainstream media, telling his audience bold truths about a world that he claims lies to them constantly. 

…Jones’s attorneys had to walk a tightrope in the courtroom between acknowledging that part of his persona is, in fact, an act he plays up for the cameras—lest the jury find him an unfit father—and maintaining for the sake of his audience that he actually does believe every word he says.

Now, he’s once more facing a legal challenge—and his attorneys are once more tasked with arguing that Jones doesn’t really mean what he says on his broadcasts, while also doing their best to maintain his credibility.

…Lucy Richards was sentenced to five months in prison for sending threats to Pozner and De La Rosa, accusing them of participating in a hoax and threatening their lives for it. In that case, the court found that Jones and Infowars so influenced Richards’s thinking on the matter that,  … after her release, Richards would “be prohibited from viewing Infowars programming.”

…There are plenty of ethical questions worth asking about Infowars with regard to these cases. Chief among them: does a media company that spreads inaccurate information, without citing its sources or attempting to run basic diligence (like reverse image searches), about private citizens like Fontaine bear responsibility for threats made by its readers?

Alex Jones’s Attorneys Argue That No Reasonable Person Would Believe What He Says – Texas Monthly

hmmm

Smith College Employee Called Police On Black Student Eating Lunch

Smith College Employee Called Police On Black Student Eating Lunch | HuffPost

Jeezus kerrrr-eyest.

You know, fellow white people? Maybe it’s time for a conversation on how it’s nice that you are able to see the police as helpful and protective of you but perhaps we as a people need to slow our fucking roll on calling them up every freaking time something makes one of us the least fucking bit uncomfortable or confused.

Confused about something? Not understand why somebody is doing whatever they’re doing? (Ahem, like, say, being alive while black???) Try actually fucking speaking with the person. See what they are about. You know, BEFORE you snap to judgement and way the fuck before you reach for that phone to try to have them dragged off to jail???!

Fucking A….

A grandmother at the Border was “ineligible” to stay with her grandchild because she was not his mother. In 6 months, can be put up for adoption in Texas.

Congressmember Bass on Twitter

 

NH State education department official posted a lot of racist crap on his own personal facebook page. …And then whined and complained when he was called out for it

Schinella posted on his Facebook page, “Northern New England is the way it is because we’re the only people who want to be here. We’re very welcoming (see the Free State Project), but don’t come here if you’re going to change everything. We like it the way it is, which is why we are here and not where you live now.”

…“We don’t want or need New Hampshire to become any kind of cesspool. We have enough problems and many of us don’t want or need to pay more taxes because the new people moving in expect the same things they had in their other states. We are small; we don’t have the ability to tax our way out of problems.”

…“Diversity for diversity’s sake doesn’t bring us anything. An extreme example? 1,300 illegal alien Dominican drug dealers moving from Lawrence to, say, Concord will make the state 1 percent more diverse; but it would also bring more crime, higher taxes for public safety, and higher taxes for schools to teach their children.”

…”The people involved in this movement think they can bring in the ‘right’ kinds of people, but there is no guarantee of that. Central planners can’t control where people go and what they do; people move because they want to or they find opportunities; they don’t move because they don’t want to. It’s really that simple.”

NH Primary Source: State education department official says Facebook post not racially motivated

sigh….

Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance in a Year

Walmart’s low-wage workers cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $6.2 billion in public assistance including food stamps, Medicaid and subsidized housing.

…A single Walmart Supercenter cost taxpayers between $904,542 and $1.75 million per year, or between $3,015 and $5,815 on average for each of 300 workers.

…Other large retail chains have been the focus of similar reports in recent months. In October, two studies released to coincide showed that American fast food industry outsourced a combined $7 billion in annual labor costs to taxpayers. …[McDonald’s] alone accounted for $1.2 billion of that outlay.

Yum Brands came in at a distant number two, with its Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC subsidiaries costing $648 million in benefits programs for workers each year.

Report: Walmart Workers Cost Taxpayers $6.2 Billion In Public Assistance

No shit, Sherlock?

4 Environmental Activists Are Killed Every Week

Latin America is by far the world’s most dangerous place to be an environmental defender. Almost 60 percent of the environmental killings recorded in 2017 took place in the region.

Mexico’s tropical forests, for example, have been ravaged by everything from illegal cattle ranching to avocado farming. In January 2017, Isidro Baldenegro López, a prominent indigenous activist who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for his work protecting the forests of the Sierra Tarahumara mountain range in northern Mexico from logging, was shot dead.

…The Global Witness report records several massacres in countries such as Brazil and the Philippines ― in the latter country, the military reportedly killed at least eight indigenous people in December as they tried to protect their land from a coffee plantation.

Brazil remains the most deadly country for environmental activists, with 57 murders last year ― the highest ever recorded by any country. Twenty-two members of one tribe ― the Gamela ― were assaulted in one land-grabbing incident. Some had their hands cut off.

4 Environmental Activists Are Killed Every Week So We Can Have Snacks, Meat And Coffee | HuffPost

Sigh….