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turbinetree's JournalHow Sean Hannitys Charlottesville Propaganda Works
Source: National Memo
Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters.
It’s been a bad few days for President Donald Trump. His approval ratings hit new lows yesterday in the wake of his widely criticized failure over the weekend to specifically denounce a violent rally of white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, VA. Perhaps because many of his supporters are white racists, the president instead blamed bigotry “on many sides”; while those supporters appreciated it, journalists and pundits from all stripes pointed out this was wildly insufficient, forcing the White House to send Trump out again yesterday afternoon to issue a subdued, paltry, but specific declaration that such groups are bad. Grasping for a familiar foe to blame for his own failures, the president tweeted Monday evening that he had learned a valuable lesson from the fracas: the “Fake News Media will never be satisfied” because journalists are “truly bad people!”
For Trump, the “fake news media” constitutes any journalist who isn’t willing to say nice things about the president regardless of the circumstances. And so the president likely enjoyed last night’s performance from leading lickspittle Sean Hannity, whose Fox News program was largely devoted to explaining that the “destroy Trump establishment media” had unfairly attacked the blameless president. This combination of staunch defense of Trump, no matter what, with a willingness to lash out at the president’s foes characterizes the propagandistic tenor of Hannity’s broadcasts. Like any good propaganda, Hannity’s show has its heroes (Trump and the Republicans who support him) and its villains (Democrats and the media who smear them).
Read more: http://www.nationalmemo.com/sean-hannitys-charlottesville-propaganda-works/
Misdemeanor Defendants Facing Jail Time Not Told They Have A Right To Counsel, Bar Association Finds
Source: National Memo
Reprinted with permission from ProPublica.
The defendants were booked, photographed, fingerprinted and then led into Court 1A in the county courthouse in Nashville. There was no judge. Prosecutors handling the misdemeanor cases invited the accused who were interested in pleading guilty to step forward and finalized plea deals for suspended sentences and an array of fines. There were no defense lawyers, nor were any of the defendants advised they were entitled to one.
Later that day in September 2016, a group of five defendants was called up by a local prosecutor and offered the previously arranged plea deals, some of which might have resulted in days behind bars. One defendant asked to see a judge. The prosecutor said that was not possible, and that her only choice at that moment was to plead guilty, or to plead not guilty and go to trial. The defendant could only speak to the judge, the prosecutor said, if she rejected the plea offer. Again, none of the defendants was told they had the right to see a lawyer before entering any plea.
Read more: http://www.nationalmemo.com/misdemeanor-defendants-facing-jail-time-not-told-right-counsel-bar-association-finds/
Where the hell is due process in this country.................apparently not in this court
Leader of neo-Nazi group linked to Charlottesville attack was a US marine
Source: The Guardian
The leader of the neo-Nazi group that James Fields marched with in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Saturday before allegedly killing a protester with his car served in the US marine corps until earlier this year.
Dillon Hopper, the self-styled “commander” of Vanguard America, is a recently retired marine staff sergeant and veteran of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Members of his white supremacist group marched in Virginia last weekend.
Hopper, 29, has been using his former name, Dillon Irizarry, when appearing in public for Vanguard America. But he officially changed his name to Dillon Ulysses Hopper in November 2006, according to court records in his native New Mexico.
Hopper’s active duty with the marines ended in January this year, according to a Department of Defense record. He has lived in California and Ohio since returning to the US. Hopper’s full service record could not immediately be obtained. His Facebook avatar is currently a cartoon image of Donald Trump building a wall.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/14/charlottesville-attack-vanguard-america-james-fields-dillon-hopper
Two undocumented Americans are spending a lot of time in courtas attorneys, not defendants
On the morning that Alfonso Maldonado Silva was set to argue his first case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, Ca., he was too nervous to even drink a glass of juice for breakfast.
So he decided to head to court early to review the case one last time. He said a short prayer asking for wisdom, then he showered, dressed in a neatly pressed gray suit, and on an overcast morning last April, headed out the door with his evidence binder in hand. He had been up since 5 a.m.
Maldonado, a third-year law student at Western State College of Law in Orange County, had left nothing to chance. This would be his first time arguing a case in court before any judge. So he had arrived the night before to stay in a Pasadena hotel to avoid the clogged commute from his Corona apartment during rush-hour.
The only thing on the 28-year-old’s mind was the law.
Much was riding on this case. Maldonado and his fellow law student, Cristel Martinez Medina, were representing an undocumented Salvadoran immigrant, Juan Carlos Beltran, whose ability to stay in the United States to fight his deportation order depended on today’s argument before the federal appeals court.
https://thinkprogress.org/the-unlikely-story-of-the-undocumented-attorneys-fighting-for-the-lives-of-their-undocumented-clients-07209cb95282/
Trump remains silent on 14 imminent executions in Saudi Arabia
Source: Think Progress
With the fate of 14 men facing execution in Saudi Arabia hanging in the balance, rights groups and anti-death penalty activists are pushing President Donald Trump to speak up.
All 14 defendants are Shia Muslims, an oppressed minority in Saudi Arabia, and were sentenced with the death penalty after being accused of terror-related activities that threaten national security, including killing of security forces and civilians during anti-government protests. But rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch, point out that most of the convictions were based on problematic confessions that the defendants, most of whom are in their twenties, later rejected in court.
But despite pressure from activists, the Trump administration as so far remained silent on their plight.
Maya Foa, the director or UK-based rights group Reprieve, had harsh words for the president, telling ThinkProgress that Trump’s silence on the pending executions is “appalling,” and noted that one of the convicted, Mujtaba al-Sweikat, was a teenager at the time of his arrest. Al-Sweikat was bound for the United States where he hoped to study, but was arrested and sentence to execution by beheading for allegedly attending a protest.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/trump-silent-on-imminent-executions-in-saudi-91fd614fb33f/
Megalomaniacs of the world
ESPN airs sketch where black NFL player is auctioned off to highest bidder
Source: Think Progress
The NFL season kicks off in just a few weeks, which means it’s time for everyone to prepare for their fantasy football drafts. ESPN marked the occasion with a 28-hour Fantasy Football Marathon running from 7 p.m. ET on Monday night to 11 p.m. ET on Tuesday night.
Let’s just say the marathon did not get off to a good start.
During the first hour of the extravaganza, ESPN showcased a sketch that featured a white man auctioning off the rights to black New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. to a predominantly white crowd.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/espn-sketch-auction-player-33596c422cff/
GOP Sen. Heller Reveals He Voted For Trump In November
Source: Talking Points Memo
By CAITLIN MACNEAL Published AUGUST 15, 2017 8:50 AM
After dancing around his support for Donald Trump throughout the 2016 campaign and Trump’s first few months as president, vulnerable Sen. Dean Heller (R-NV) finally acknowledged that he voted for the President in November.
“Yes, I voted for Donald Trump,” he told the Nevada Independent on Monday.
Throughout the 2016 campaign, Heller, who faces a tough re-election fight in 2018, criticized Trump but never said outright that he would not support him for president. The senator said in October 2016 that he was 99 percent sure he would not vote for Trump, but it now appears Heller came around.
In April, Heller told constituents at a town hall that he would support Trump when he agrees with him and try to change his mind when the two differ. For much of the health care debate, Heller was a thorn in Republican leadership’s side. He did end up voting for a motion to proceed on a bill to repeal Obamacare, but the effort went down in flames thanks to three other Republican senators.
Heller was also targeted by a pro-Trump group with ads over his opposition to the Senate bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. However, the super PAC, America First Policies, nixed the ad campaign after complaints from Republican senators.
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gop-sen-heller-reveals-he-voted-for-trump-in-november
Surprised, not in the least, a sitting Senator went up to a voting booth and voted for a "sexual predator" and a fascist, and racist, and he wants to to go back to Washington to perform his duty to support a sexual predator, fascist and racist, and talk out of both sides of his mouth and is still a hypocrite, that wants to take away health care, he is a spineless hypocrite, a yes man for his right wing fascist, racists party "republican".
Texas A&M Officials Cancel Scheduled White Supremacy Rally
Source: Talking Points Memo
By NICOLE LAFOND Published AUGUST 15, 2017 8:50 AM
Texas A&M University officials have canceled a planned “White Lives Matter” rally at the school scheduled for next month, in light of Saturday’s deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va. at a white supremacists rally.
The rally was scheduled for Sept. 11 on a plaza at the center of campus, KBTX-TV reported.
University officials said the event organizer — Preston Wiginton — did not have the permission of the university to hold the rally on campus and announced the gathering to the media under the headline “Today Charlottesville, Tomorrow Texas A&M,” according to a statement from the school.
“After consultation with law enforcement and considerable study, Texas A&M is cancelling the event scheduled by Preston Wiginton at Rudder Plaza on campus on September 11 because of concerns about the safety of its students, faculty, staff, and the public,” the statement said. “Linking the tragedy of Charlottesville with the Texas A&M event creates a major security risk on our campus. Additionally, the daylong event would provide disruption to our class schedules and to student, faculty and staff movement.”
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/texas-am-officials-cancel-schedule-white-supremacy-rally
Boston Blocks Free Speech Rally, Tells Organizers: We Dont Want You Here
Source: Talking Points Memo
By NICOLE LAFOND Published AUGUST 15, 2017 10:57 AM
On Monday, Boston officials announced plans to block a free speech rally scheduled in the city this weekend.
The Boston Free Speech rally was organized by a group that claims to be different than the white supremacists who organized a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia last weekend that ended in deadly violence, despite having similar speakers and supporters.
Some supporters tweeted Monday that the rally — scheduled for Saturday on the Boston Common— had been cancelled because city officials revoked the group’s permit request, but the city said the group never applied for a permit, according to Mass Live.
Boston Free Speech later posted on Facebook that the group had submitted a permit in July and it had been approved by the city. They also said the rally on Saturday is not cancelled.
Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/boston-blocks-free-speech-rally-tells-organizers-dont-want-you-here
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