January 31, 2020

The PETA Super Bowl Ad the NFL Apparently Doesn't Want You to See: 'Don't Stand for Injustice'

Fox rejected this Peta Ad. I guess animals kneeling for justice for animals is too similar to Kap's message.

[link:

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January 31, 2020

Senate Chaplain Barry Black's prayer - Sounded like he was speaking directly to Republicans

My favorite part of this is "let this nation and world know that you alone are sovereign."
Mind you, I am not even religious. I just thought that was powerful for him to say in a time when we have arguments that Trump is basically sovereign. If we are using the sovereign definition - noun -supreme ruler, adjective -possessing supreme or ultimate power.

“Let us pray,” Black, who has served in that position for nearly 17 years, said before launching into what could be seen as a powerful rebuke in the name of God against Republican senators inching closer to this impeachment trial becoming the first in history to receive an article of impeachment without allowing a single witness or a single document of evidence to be admitted.

“Eternal lord god, you have summarized ethical behavior in a single sentence: Do for others what you would like them to do for you,” Black continued. “Remind our senators that they alone are accountable to you for their conduct. Lord help them to remember that they can’t ignore you and get away with it, for we always reap what we sow. Have your way, mighty God. You are the potter our senators … are the clay. Mold and make us after your will. Stand up, omnipotent God. Stretch yourself and let this nation and world know that you alone are sovereign. I pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.”
[link:https://newsone.com/3900989/senate-chaplain-barry-black-impeachment-trial-video/|

January 29, 2020

Former NFL player now leader/member of a cult? 2 of his followers are facing weapons charges

This is a follow up to another thread.
][link:https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212919185|

I think GBJ and those 2 young men need psychiatric help and I just wonder if anyone has tried to intervene. Also gotta wonder if this is another CTE case. In older interviews, he spoke glowingly of his commitment to his family and even to the school itself, he spoke about being on the board. His behavior now is quite a drastic change.
][link:https://www.foxsports.com/other/story/gbaja-biamila-focused-on-family-not-football-021213|

Something else I found interesting, in 2016 GBJ endorsed Ted Cruz for president. Prior to that, he endorsed Rick Santorum. He was active in WI Republican politics. One report described GBJ as a right wing nut job. He was even encouraged to run for office
[link:https://totalpackers.com/2016/04/ted-cruz-trotted-kabeer-gbaja-biamila-today/|


The Crazy Case of Ex-NFL Player’s Pageant-Crashing Lackeys
The retired Green Bay Packer now runs a fringe ministry. Two of his followers spouted “sovereign citizen” buzzwords in a bizarre court appearance.

Two men associated with a fringe church have filed handwritten court documents demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars and international flights after being accused of carrying guns to a children’s Christmas pageant at the request of their church leader, a former NFL star.

Jordan Salmi, 24, and Ryan Desmith, 22, were charged last month with trespassing, disorderly conduct, and carrying concealed weapons to Providence Academy’s pageant in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Both men were members of a church led by former Green Bay Packers player Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, who told reporters he’d asked the men to photograph the event, which his children were attending.

In an interview, he told The Daily Beast that his conflict over the Christmas pageant “has been going on for the last two years,” since his wife left him over his new religious beliefs. He wrote the school a letter forbidding his children’s participation in 2018, prompting the school to call police, he said, adding that “in 2019, I was really proactive. In September, I sent an email to the school forbidding them from going.”

The day before the pageant, Gbaja-Biamila said, he and the school headmaster “met at another church at a parking lot and I gave him a bill for $150,000…. I let him know if you use my property, known as my sons and daughters, I’ll have to be compensated.” The headmaster probably thought it was a joke, he said. After the meeting, he called the headmaster again. “I said, 'Am I your slave? You’re gonna use my property without compensation?'.... He took offense and hung up on me.”
When it became clear the Gbaja-Biamila children would appear in the pageant, he allegedly sent Salmi and Desmith to photograph or film it, so that he could charge the school for use of his “property,”

][link:https://www.thedailybeast.com/duo-accused-of-bringing-guns-to-kids-xmas-pageant-demand-cash-and-planes-in-court|

January 26, 2020

Listened to Jamie Harris - Lindsay Graham's Opponent talk about this today - More hypocrisy

He was speaking about the challenges facing South Carolina. He mentioned 12 hospitals closed. Towns without OB//GYN providers. It just shows how the Republican Party has managed to keep their electorate voting against their own interests. The party that continues to talk about right to life. Does not think pregnant mothers should have access to care during pregnancy. Should they not be demanding better than this? Jeezus H. Crist! -

An article discussing the issue
MARLBORO COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Why is maternal care is disappearing in rural communities in South Carolina?

Many mothers with high risk pregnancies live in counties without an OB/GYN resulting in pregnant moms driving for hours just to see a doctor.

In Marlboro County, there is no obstetrician who delivers babies.

The March of Dimes says seven other counties in South Carolina have no OB/GYN at all.

They are: Abbeville, Allendale, Barnwell, Lee, Mccormick, Saluda and Williamsburg counties, impacting nearly 60,000 women of child-bearing age.



[link:https://abcnews4.com/news/local/no-doctor-aroundpregnant-moms-risking-it-on-the-road|

January 26, 2020

I really want to like this BUT - NFL's Botham Jean Ad

After demonizing and blackballing Kaepernick for his message - NOW they have an ad/PSA about police violence and a slogan that says we are all in this together? Uhm, OK. When the fuck were they in this together with Kap? or the players that were being punished for taking a stand? Much respect to the Jean family. I truly respect and support them wanting to keep his legacy alive. The NFL, on the other hand, can kick rocks.

Though the NFL has undertaken several social justice initiatives in recent years, including the Responsibility Program and its Inspire Change initiative, the league continues to face criticism over its treatment of Colin Kaepernick amid his public displays of protest.
[link:https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nfl-releases-botham-jean-psa-highlighting-police-brutality-ahead-super-n1121196|

If we are all in this together, why no mention of Kaepernick and why he was kneeling in the first place?

The ad itself is fantastic. Worth watching.
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January 20, 2020

Amtrak conductor asks Sherilyn Ifill to give up seat. Be careful who you mess with!

NAACP Lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill Blasts Amtrak Conductor for Asking Her to Give Up Seat

They got the right one on the wrong day!

The head of NAACP’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund went off on social media about an Amtrak employee who asked her to give up her seat on the train to accommodate someone else—on the weekend of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

WTF Is Really Going On?

Sherrilyn Ifill nearly broke the internet when she tweeted about the incident, claiming a conductor asked her to move with no explanation during her trek out of Washington D.C. to Baltimore on Friday.

Her initial tweet was liked by nearly 50,000 accounts and retweeted over 11,000 times.

“There are no assigned seats on this train,” Ifill started in her original tweet Friday. “The conductor has asked me to leave my seat because she has ‘other people coming who she wants to give this seat.’ Can you please explain?”

According to Ifill, she later spoke to the agent who asked her to move and the lead conductor told her she wanted to keep empty seats at the front, in contradiction of what she told the noted attorney earlier.

[link:https://www.theroot.com/naacp-lawyer-sherrilyn-ifill-blasts-amtrak-conductor-fo-1841096981|

January 20, 2020

Watchmen will not have a 2nd season. I am so disappointed

I am so upset about this. I was really looking forward to a 2nd season

This is like who shot JR all over again.


HBO won't pursue second season of 'Watchmen' after creator bows out

PASADENA, Calif. – "Watchmen" won a loyal following and critical acclaim, as the superhero comics series was adapted into a politically relevant drama about race and the criminal justice system.

But don't look for a second season of the drama, which wrapped up its nine-episode run last month, largely because creator Damon Lindelof isn't interested in doing it.

HBO programming chief Casey Bloys told USA TODAY Wednesday that Lindelof, the co-creator of ABC's "Lost" who also created HBO's "The Leftovers," "brilliantly took this graphic novel and just kind of broke it open and created a whole new world," in which Regina King starred as a masked cop in Tulsa, in a 2019 when Robert Redford is president.

[link:https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/tv/2020/01/16/watchmen-second-hbo-season-wont-happen-after-creator-bails/4491269002/|

January 19, 2020

US NAVY Honors Black WWII Hero

The U.S. Navy says it will name an aircraft carrier after Doris "Dorie" Miller, the African American mess attendant who heroically leapt into combat during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It marks the first time that an aircraft carrier has been named for an African American, and the first time a sailor has been so honored for actions taken as an enlisted man.

In 1941, Miller was a 22-year-old mess attendant on the USS West Virginia. At the time, black sailors were consigned to roles in the messman branch — work that entailed swabbing decks, cooking and shining officers' shoes.
He had awoken at 6 a.m. and was collecting laundry when the Japanese attack began and an alarm sounded on the ship, according to the Navy. Miller headed to the antiaircraft battery magazine, but it had already been destroyed by torpedo damage. He proceeded to the deck, where he was assigned to carry his wounded comrades, including the ship's captain. Miller was strong: a former high school football player in Waco, Texas, he was the ship's heavyweight boxing champion.

"Miller went topside, carried wounded on his shoulders, made several trips up and down, wading through waist-deep water, oil-slicked decks, struggling uphill on slick decks," Navy Rear Adm. John Fuller said in 2016.
The young sailor then took over a .50-caliber anti-aircraft machine gun and fired it until the ammunition ran out. No matter that he'd never been trained on the weapon.

"It wasn't hard," he remembered, according to a Navy history. "I just pulled the trigger and she worked fine. I had watched the others with these guns. I guess I fired her for about 15 minutes. I think I got one of those [Japanese] planes. They were diving pretty close to us.
The ship's communications officer, Lt. Cmdr. Doir C. Johnson, said that Miller was "blazing away as though he had fired one all his life," according to the Navy Times.



[link:https://www.npr.org/2020/01/19/797756016/u-s-navy-to-name-aircraft-carrier-after-wwii-hero-doris-miller|

January 19, 2020

So an illegal immigrant crossed the border and planned a terror attack, where is the outrage?

Where is Fox News' wall to wall coverage?

Oh wait, it was the wrong border, wrong skin color

FBI arrests reveal shocking details in case against former Canadian reservist Patrik Mathews


After leaving Manitoba and crossing into U.S., he appeared to become target of a murder plot he helped plan

FBI officers have arrested more alleged members of a racially motivated and violent extremist group that a former Manitoba reservist has been accused of recruiting for — and court documents tell a chilling tale that includes plans to murder a married couple and overthrow the U.S. government.

In separate sweeps Friday, American law enforcement arrested three men in Georgia and another in Wisconsin.

The arrests came just one day after three alleged members of The Base were arrested in Delaware and Maryland — including 27-year-old Patrik Mathews. The Manitoba man had been missing for nearly five months, ever since he was accused of recruiting for a global neo-Nazi group, while at the same time serving in Canada's army reserves.

Mathews is believed to be connected to the group arrested in Georgia, based on an affidavit used to secure the arrest warrants, which was released by the Floyd County police.

It describes an unnamed member of The Base who "crossed into the United States illegally." That detail, along with others in the affidavit, match the description of Mathews from the FBI complaint against him filed in court.

[link:https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/fbi-arrests-the-base-georgia-wisconsin-1.5432006|

January 19, 2020

So has DeSantis or any one that got money from Parnas commented on the cash their campaign received?

As Joy Reid mentioned this morning, what if Andrew Gillum had won? What would Republicans be saying now if it was found that he got 50K from Parnas? And that this was an illegal donation.