June 24, 2017

California adds 4 states to travel ban for laws it says discriminate against LGBTQ community

Source: CNN

California has issued a ban on state-funded and state-sponsored travel to four more states that it says have laws discriminating against LGBTQ people. The travel ban was first put into effect January 1 when state measure AB 1887 became law. The law says California is "a leader in protecting civil rights and preventing discrimination" and should not support or finance "discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people." The travel ban list also includes states that California believes don't protect religious freedoms and states that it says use religious freedom as a basis of discrimination.

"Our country has made great strides in dismantling prejudicial laws that have deprived too many of our fellow Americans of their precious rights. Sadly, that is not the case in all parts of our nation, even in the 21st century," California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement Thursday. Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Tennessee were the original states banned by AB 1887, but Becerra added Alabama, Kentucky, South Dakota and Texas on Thursday, citing what he called new discriminatory legislation enacted against the LGBTQ community in those states. Alabama, South Dakota, and Texas all recently passed legislation that could prevent LGBT parents from adopting or fostering children and Kentucky passed a religious freedom bill that would allow students to exclude LGBTQ classmates from campus groups.

"While the California DOJ works to protect the rights of all our people, discriminatory laws in any part of our country send all of us several steps back," Becerra said. "That's why when California said we would not tolerate discrimination against LGBTQ members of our community, we meant it."

The law bans state-funded or state-sponsored travel by employees of state agencies and departments as well as members of boards, authorities, and commissions.

Read more: http://us.cnn.com/2017/06/23/us/california-travel-ban/index.html

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Nice job California. Good to see a large state putting some financial pressure on these states that wish to discriminate against LGBTQ people.

June 15, 2017

Now the right is calling for a Civil War.

Ok I don't know much about this whacko, other than what I have been told and what I have read. I do not listen to his show, but apparently it is quite popular amongst the far, far right in this country. Anyway I read the transcript of his show today, and he was all over the place blaming Sanders for the shooting today and then he says that a civil war is coming. He says that the right wing is getting to their boiling point and they are going to start killing people soon. I am not hyperbolizing here. That is apparently what he said. This man is calling for a civil war because one person, who says he was a Bernie Sanders supporter, went on a shooting spree. Did Rachel Maddow call for a civil war when Gabrielle Giffords was shot in Arizona or did the left go crazy and start calling for blood and right wingers heads when Dylan Roof - a white supremacist, walked in a African American church in South Carolina and executed 9 innocent people in an act of terrorism? Of course not. We reacted rationally and called for gun control, more focus on domestic terrorism groups, and basically reflected on where our country was heading.

But one man from the left, if that is accurate, commits a mass shooting and suddenly battle lines are being drawn and conservatives are calling for the deaths of Liberals all over the country.

I am just telling you guys that you can think I am crazy all you want to. You can say, "ZZ go have a beer and shut up." That is fine. I can have this post removed by the owners of this site, true enough. But are we just going to sit back and wait to be slaughtered? I never thought I would say this but there needs to be some sensible restrictions to the First Amendment. Like other countries when you deliver this kind of hate speech over the radio, you need to be locked the hell up. Canada has limitations, as does England. And you know what, there people are not being denied their liberty or freedom. It's a sensible thing to do.

Maybe we also need to revisit the idea of whether we should allow this kind of crap on the radio at all. This man is inciting violence and as all of us know these people that listen to this show are well armed to the teeth and are not afraid to use their guns to commit violence.

The left acts rationally in the face of white nationalists attacks, like the one that just happened in Oregon. But you guys can expect more of those kinds of attacks in the near future, I am just saying. Some people may want to look into arming themselves. I am not calling for violence, but some people on DU are living in areas of the country where we are not going to be protected, and so it's something that I am going to consider and I have never previously owned a gun or even thought about owning a gun.

Anyway, screw this guy Savage. I hope he gets what's coming to him one day, and he is fired and loses all of his resources and has to be out there begging in the street, since other people have told me that he likes to make fun of the poor. F*ck you you piece of shit.

Everybody on the left, all progressives, just think about arming yourself. I hate to say that and I know it is not popular opinion, but as we know we really have few alternatives as even relying on the police has not worked well for some of us on the left, especially PoC.

May 1, 2017

Shooting of black teen in Dallas suburb did not meet our core values, police chief says

Source: Washington Post

Police have retracted earlier accounts that a vehicle was reversing toward officers in an “aggressive manner” when one of the officers opened fire, striking and killing 15-year-old Jordan Edwards in a Dallas-area suburb Saturday night. In a news conference Monday, Balch Springs Police Chief Jonathan Haber said that he initially “misspoke” and that the vehicle had begun to drive away at the time the officer opened fire. He questioned whether the shooting was necessary.

“I unintentionally (was) incorrect when I said the vehicle was backing down the road … in fact I can tell you that I do have questions in relation to my observation (of) the video,” Haber said. “After reviewing the video, I don’t believe that (the shooting) met our core values.”
Haber, who declined to release the video footage of the shooting as well as the name of the officer involved, said that evidence will be presented to a grand jury.

Earlier, the police chief said that officers were dispatched to the 12300 block of Baron Drive in Balch Springs after receiving a 911 call at 11 p.m. reporting several drunken teens walking around the neighborhood. When officers arrived, they heard gunshots, Haber said. In what police described as an “unknown altercation,” a vehicle then began “backing down the street toward the officers in an aggressive manner.” By Monday afternoon, police had retracted that statement.

One officer shot at the vehicle, Haber said, striking Jordan, who was in the front passenger seat. Jordan was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office said he was killed by a rifle wound to the head.The officer was placed on administrative duty. The Dallas County Sheriff’s Department and the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office are conducting their own investigations into the shooting, and the Balch Springs Police Department will oversee an internal investigation.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/05/01/officer-fatally-shoots-15-year-old-boy-in-dallas-suburb/?utm_term=.93de30615939

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Disgusting a 15 year old boy murdered by the police. Had enough yet America?

So sorry for the families loss.

January 21, 2017

Richard Spencer gets his bell rung.

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I do not condone violence. But this nazi is having a bad day.

July 28, 2016

LOL @ Donald Trump "Treason or Bust"

July 27, 2016

Does anyone think Trump really wants to be president

I think Trump ran thinking he would get his name out there, soak up the limelight, act like an ass in a few debates, and eventually Rubio, or Cruz or somebody else would overtake him and he would bow out. I think Trump winning the nomination is actually his own worse nightmare come true. I think he realizes he doesn't possess the brains to be president, but because he is so self-centered he couldn't do the right thing and concede the race to Cruz when he had a chance. So now he has to ride this thing out to it's eventual conclusion.

I think part of the reason he keeps making these outlandish statements is because he genuinely wants to lose this race. It's the reason he offered the foreign and domestic policy to Kasich, because he doesn't want it. I think Trump is shitting his pants every new day that passes and as we get closer to the election I think he is going to completely unravel. He doesn't want to be president, he just didn't realize that his white supremacist stump speeches wouldn't get him thrown out of the race but instead would make him the front runner - oops.

I mean obviously I think it's pretty transparent right now what has happened. You don't say what Trump said today about wanting Russia to hack the DNC if you are seriously running for president. You can think it privately, sure, but you don't say that. You don't have to be smart to know that though, which I think is the final clue.

The funny thing is that Trump could have done the honorable thing and gotten out of the race and saved some of his remaining dignity. But he cares so little about anyone else that he just doesn't care the damage he is doing to the poor old grand republican party. I just wonder when he is going to finally snap to the point he can longer put up a discernible appearance of of a true campaign and which GOPer he will use to sack with what's left of this charade. My guess is Cruz ends up holding the bag, about two weeks from election day.

July 27, 2016

The biggest difference between the RNC & DNCC

The Republicans spent their convention talking about the past, while the Democrats are talking about the future. I think we can all agree that going forward Trump is going to continue to use fear, bigotry, racism and of course a litany of false information to con people into voting for him, but even Bush was not this pessimistic and time and time again presidential elections have shown that the majority of voters do not respond well to this form of pessimism and divisiveness. I am so eagerly waiting the debates because I want to see if and how Trump changes his tone, but I believe that Trump will ride this strategy out until he craps out. Hillary was born to debate and Trump is really going to get a quick and steep learning curve. He is going to learn very fast that this GOP style of debating, which allowed him to insult his opponents and basically sling poo at them, doesn't translate well presidential debate.

I just cannot wait.

July 19, 2016

Is this a joke

Ok so I was watching MSNBC tonight and their coverage of the whatever the hell is going on in Cleveland tonight, and I heard Rachel Maddow talking about how Senator Joni Ernst had been scheduled to speak earlier tonight, and how Ernst was the first female to be sent to a combat zone and her speech counters recent changes to the GOP platform that women should not be allowed to serve in a combat zone.

As it pertains to Pence and women in combat zones, according to Rachel, VP candidate Mike Pence said he got the idea that women should not be allowed to serve in combat or even go through basic training because he watched the Disney movie Mulan. He even wrote an OPed about it. So the GOP's VP candidate is getting his military policy from Disney films. And did he even watch the film, because it gives the exact opposite message than what Pence came away with.

I mean WTF, is this a joke. Is he serious. Making policy based off a misunderstanding of a Disney film. I mean, what?