Black ranchers, White racism?

Maybe, maybe not. Maybe in part, and in part other things.

Black Country and white racism. That's the gist of a Barbed Wire piece saying that calling Blacks "country" is a general put-down that often has racism behind it.

Well, sometimes white racism, or the claims of White racism, to be more precise, as one of the Barbed Wire's links is WAY more complicated, and probably the Black ranchowners are as much more sinners than sinned against.

The Mallerys’ [the Black ranchers] time in Colorado has been marked by a litany of encounters with neighbors and law enforcement — and it goes beyond the dispute with Clark [the White rancher neighbor]. 

On April 7, 2021, Jake Saksteder arrived at Freedom Acres Ranch to serve Courtney Mallery with civil papers regarding a property case. 

The 24-year-old said he had delivered countless legal documents during his job as a process server. Sometimes people would try and evade him or yell, he told The Post. But he’d never had an encounter like the one at the ranch that day. 

Saksteder told The Post that he walked around the property, knocking on several doors, but didn’t get an answer. 

Nicole Mallery then burst out of the shed with a shotgun pointed at his head, Saksteder said. Much of his encounter is captured on video from his phone, which was released by El Paso County authorities this week. 

“What the (expletive) are you doing?” Nicole shouts at the process server, according to the video. Saksteder tries to tell her several times that he’s there to serve Courtney Mallery with legal papers. 

“I swear to God, relax, I’m leaving!” Saksteder says in the video. 

He told The Post that he saw Mallery cock the weapon and that’s when he took off running, chased by a dog. Audio from the video makes out the sound of a shot fired into the air. 

“It was aimed well above me,” Saksteder said. “It wasn’t a shot to kill — it was definitely a warning. Like, keep moving fast.” 

In statements to El Paso County deputies that day, Nicole Mallery allegedly gave a false date of birth and changed the state of her identification, according to an arrest affidavit. She told deputies that she kept asking the process server to produce identification, demanding he say why he was trespassing on her property.

Result? This:

Mallery was charged with felony menacing, fraud, bribery of a public servant and making a false report, court records show. She ultimately pleaded guilty to making a false report, a misdemeanor, and received two years probation, the documents show. The district attorney dismissed the remainder of the counts.

And, there is another case, that was facing trial as of the time this story was written in early 2023. 

Here's another:

In one event, in April 2021, Nicole Mallery allegedly kicked a sheriff’s deputy repeatedly in his legs and bit him on his forearm, according to a summary of the encounter. She was charged with second-degree assault of a peace officer and received a two-year deferred sentence, court records show.

As for an NAACP person asking why a SWAT team was sent? Well, if early April 2021 was after April 7, 2021, shit, that's easy to answer. 

And this old chestnut:

In body-camera video, Nicole Mallery can be heard calling one of the Black sheriff’s deputies a “field negro” and other personnel “white trash” and Klu Klux Klan members.

Well, there you are. 

Well, let's add in that the sheriff is Hispanic. And that, per other pieces at The Barbed Wire, Taylor Crumpton has a history of going over the top. 

And, the Barbed Wire's editorial staff didn't look through that piece, nor did they note the 2023 pending trial, nor do a follow-up. (The charges were dropped just months later. That still doesn't mean that El Paso County deputies were racist, nor were neighbors. That said, they claim that one neighbor — not mentioned by name —was "disapproving" of their being there from the start. We assume they're talking about Ms. Clark, who reportedly threatened the NAACP's Prescott and reportedly sexualized one interaction with CW Mallery, per this. Another story, from Springs TV, also shows the issue seems to be "complex.")

As for where we stand? The Mallerys threatened a suit when charges were dropped. No way they would have defeated sovereign immunity, if filed against El Paso County. No way they would have beaten Teresa Clark, given Nicole's past history. 

Per this long piece from another Springs TV station, El Paso County Sheriff's Office at one time had some sort of response to The Ark, the online news site beating the drum for the Mallerys, but that's been taken down. Well, except for the Wayback Machine. The SO said it was hiding nothing and asked why the Ark didn't contact it for comment. There's not much on Ark Republic's "about" page. And, it doesn't report on the process server issue at all.

Off the top of my head? 50 percent entitled old rancher privilege, 25 percent racism, 25 percent newcomers not making more effort to fit in from the start, and 85 percent of that 25 percent being Nicole. 

Colorado Springs Gazette has a lot more, including the murder conviction of a man who killed a Mallery ranch hand. Contra the Mallerys' claim, the case seems to indicate drug issues, with the Mallery hand hugely high on meth. He was killed  in 2021, shortly after the process server showed up. Per this piece, the Mallerys bought the land in August 2020. So, it took not much more than six months for everything to explode, per the guesstimated percentages above.

And, it was about an easement mentioned in several stories above, and related items, per this:

The dispute began not long after the Mallerys moved to Yoder in 2020 and set up a video security system along the fence that borders the easement between their 1,000-acre property, Freedom Acres Ranch, and Clark’s land. The easement is a spur of dirt road that, while it technically lies on the Mallery property, was set aside by the county for use by residents, including Clark, who need it to access their properties. A gate along the easement opens to the Mallery land, but it lies more than a half-mile from the main entrance to their ranch and even farther from the couple’s residence and outbuildings.

This fits the last 25 percent to a T. You just don't block easements out west. Hell, you don't do that in Tex-ass and they should know that. Also, putting up video cameras as soon as you move in makes it look like you're prepared to be untrusting from the start. 

As for the Mallerys wanting a CAREN Act passed in Colorado? Yes, Amy Cooper was a Karen. And? Jussie Smollett cried wolf. 

The sheriff's page was deleted due to charges being dropped after mediation failed. Contra both the Ark and White wingnuts, it seems like both Clark and the Mallerys were committing lawfare by 911.  Elsewhere, Sheriff Roybal called out Nicole Mallery.

And, that's another half-hour of my life wasted because modern editors are lazy and modern staff writers like to go down the advocacy hole. 

 Also, interesting, High Country News, with both its real "wokefulness" its wrongful version of this decade, has nothing about the Mallerys.

New confabulations from Ken Burns — the American Revolution

I was calling out Ken Burns for promoting American exceptionalism in his PBS documentaries (mockumentaries?) more than 15 years ago. That piece is a roundup of some of the worst of his issues, which I'll tackle in a minute.

But, the photo above, from this Pro Publica piece not actually focused on Ken Burns, but rather on Clarence Thomas, is proof positive of him as that "Empire Whisperer." 

Kudos to Pro Publica for noting in the caption that Koch has financed Burns' movies. He's also financed other things via "The David H. Koch Fund for Science," which long ago pressured PBS to tone down anything it said about climate change.

The latest egregiousness? Burns telling the BBC that he really does talk about the dark side of American history. Besides being bought off by the Kochs, which includes that David Koch apparently bought Burns' silence about the carcinogenic power of petrochemicals, this is simply not true. 

For starters, that link also notes him writing American Indians out of the picture in his librulz-acclaimed National Parks series. And, written out they are. (Also, national parks are not America's greatest idea; the First Amendment is.)

His Vietnam miniseries? A shitload of bland pro-Americanism. I mean, he doesn't interview Daniel Ellsberg, gets Tonkin Gulf wrong, ignores the imperialism and more.

He got both Roosevelts wrong in that mini-series. Well, more, he got the legends of both right, and everything that the legends obscure, wrong. 

He omitted Reconstruction as part of his Civil War series, getting back to the top link, pulling the same switcheroo that White folks both north and south of the Mason-Dixon did at the (in)famous 25th anniversary of Gettysburg.

In all of these things, he's been very White. He didn't talk about how much of the New Deal was Whites-only; he didn't talk as much as he could have about minority contributions to WWII; he didn't at all look at racial issues on Vietnam.

And now, per that Beeb link? He's going to do an American Revolution miniseries to cash in on the semiquincentennial, the 250th anniversary? And, yes, cash in it shall be.

Let's start with this:

Burns doesn't gloss over the uncomfortable parts of US history, pointing out that, for him, being patriotic doesn't mean erasing the past; for instance, the fact that Benjamin Franklin owned slaves. "He knew it was wrong, and he kept doing it," Burns says.

Really? All of the above says this ain't so true. So, Ken, I won't hold my breath over whether or not you mention the Somerset decision as a possible factor in the revolution. I won't hold my breath looking for Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment of escaped slaves.

Will you talk about the tragedy many American Indian groups faced over loyalties, above all the Iroquois Confederacy? Probably not. Speaking of slaves, will you cover the aftermath of the Revolution and the likes of Lafayette expressing dismay that Americans weren't doing more to move beyond slavery? Hah, I jest.

Then there's his pop-American historiography:

On the subject of history, Burns says he does not subscribe to the popular view that it is always doomed to repeat itself, deferring to the opinion of the 19th-Century Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," was Santanya's comment, in reference to the Holocaust. "It's [a] lovely phrase you'd wish would be true," says Burns. He also points to the famous quote that is attributed to US author Mark Twain: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does often rhyme."

Really? As I type, Donald Trump is denying that Smoot-Hawley tariffs contributed to the Depression and his sheeple all believe him. 

Beyond that, Twain and Santayana aren't in opposition. Twain was being snarky, first. Second, Twain didn't say that; it's first attributed in 1970. Third, even if he HAD said that, it wouldn't have been in opposition to Santayana, who clearly said "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," something entirely different from some "eternal recurrence" idea.

His "10th inning" add-on to "Baseball" was meh and included hero-worship of racist commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

Even when he's not actually wrong, whether for racist reasons or not, watching Burns, I once noted, is like eating stereotypical Chinese food. 

That said, per the Beeb interview, and to riff on a phrase uttered about FDR?

If he's working on a miniseries about Dear Leader Obama, "The man and the hour have met!"

Or, per NBC, that's "Must not see TV!"

About that word 'nephew,' r/NBA

I don't like it. 

Not in the way you use it.

I know its origin story, how Snoop Dogg pushed it as a more positive option to "nigga/s/z" and meant it to be used in a complimentary sense.

I can accept a putdown from another r/NBA Redditor, whether warranted or not. 

But, use another word.

I'm venturing that, as with most social media programs, the typical Redditor is Whiter, or more specific and more relevant to this issue, more likely to be non-Black than the general population. I'm likewise venturing that the average semi-regular r/NBA user is more likely to be non-Black than the average semi-serious, more than casual, NBA fan, and probably not too old. (This snarky take, on Reddit itself, is good.) And, whoever Alphr is, it says I might be overestimating the non-Blackness a bit, but not a lot, and that I'm getting the age demographic right, or maybe estimating still too high. Indeed, Statista says that, across the board, 75 percent of Redditors are under 40. And, this site says almost two-thirds of Redditors have a bachelor's degree. Given that college degrees skew White, or rather, non-Black to put it in more detail, that further supports my presupposition. And, this site says only 7 percent of users are Black.

In other words, the average r/NBA Redditor wrongly using "nephew" as an insult is a White younger Gen-Xer or Millennial trying to put off some urban vibes or something, and they're doing so while probably embodying a few quasi-stereotypes of White metrosexual hipster bros.

Well, my vibes are to block you. Capiche? Because you're chuds. And, going back to a post of mine last week, I'm going to start blocking now.

Discount Double Check for White folks only? Redlining for Blacks

State Farm says: Discount Double Check is for White folks only, as it faces new racial discrimination lawsuits. As I said on Twitter, I hope Chris Paul stops doing commercials for them, at a minimum. Per the whole background, this is why Black folks, on average, don't have the same equity as White folks.

Then, you have folks like Wells Fargo redline you on mortgages, then folks like State Farm redline you on the insurance for whatever you do buy. So, you pay more in loan overhead and then get stiffed on damage claims.

And, this all gets back to Dear Leader Obama.

I said, when he pushed for Obamacare, that it was guaranteed to be a failure without a federal department of insurance regulation. (Of course, America's Health Insurance Plans wouldn't have wanted that.) 

Such a department could obviously, if authorized, have regulatory authority over other types of insurance besides health insurance. And, given that people get sick in states other than where they live, or drive cars in states other than where they live, this would be proper under the Interstate Commerce Clause.

I'm surprised that Wells Fargo, when it originated these redlining mortgages, didn't pair up with insurers like State Farm that it thought would be more likely to not pay out on Black claims. Maybe it DID and we just don't know about it yet.

Beyond all of the above? IMO, on car insurance (as a renter, I don't have homeowners) State Farm is overpriced to boot.

Kyrie Irving, deconstructed, is no Colin Kaepernick, but neither is Kap

This is a very good piece by Brian Phillips at The Ringer. It's about the walking mass of contradictions and self-indulgence that is Kyrie Irving, while also noting that he's had a real social background at times, like the bubble last year. Phillips also notes the power of the players in the NBA, starting with LeBron James being the first player to act to assemble a "superteam," then Kyrie working to step out from his shadow from the Cavs return years and do the same himself.

But, Phillips IMO doesn't go far enough.

Did Kyrie want the NBA and Adam Silver to undo the bubble because he was worried about endorsement $$$ as well as social justice? Not asked by Phillips. If Kyrie Irving really cares about his American Indian heritage, why has he gone to events on reservations maskless? Not asked by Phillips but asked elsewhere.

(There's the added fact that, per Irving's Instagram Live clip [I don't do Instagram] he acts puzzled that the Nets wouldn't give him kid-gloves treatment,  per this Fansided blog. And, maybe that reflects part of the problem. I'd have to agree with ESPN's Bobby Marks and others that it's unlikely he plays a game for the Nets this year ... or ever. That leads to a sidebar: Can the Nets list him as physically unable to perform or in any other way get any NBA relief? Maybe they shouldn't get such relief. They chose to sign a player known to be disliked by previous teammates.)

Then there's the shitshow of some people comparing him to Colin Kaepernick, especially in light of more and more Chucky Gruden emails being unveiled, with one email saying that a team should "cut the fuck." There's the BS of him attacking Eric Reid as well, and also his bullshit over PEDing.

There's even more racism, when talking about Robert Griffin III still playing, while Tim Tebow isn't. Real answer is that Griff's second-best year was the same as Tebow's best and his third-best year was about as good, or TLDR, Tebow sucked.

That said, Colin Kaepernick may still be laughing all the way to the bank himself, as I said a couple of years ago.

We can all agree that Chucky Gruden is a racist, homophobic, misogynist dumb fuck. Are there others in NFL positions of power? The Shield claims not. Sure. We know Redscum, now WFT, GM Bruce Allen shared Gruden's email about Kaep. But to whom?

Texas Progressives: Voting shenanigans, Seth Rich news, more

Lots, lots of stuff related to elections, Texana, Trump Train snowflakes melting in the heat, Royce West kicking MJ Hegar, and more.

We've got regional, statewide and national political and non-political news both, in fact, so let's dig in.

North Texas

SocraticGadfly asks if the Sunday morning programming of Dallas' WRR, entering its centennial year, violates the First Amendment.

Let's hope Flower Mound's Jason Lata pays through the ass on the civil side, and police find more charges on the criminal side.

What, Oncor lie about environmentalism?

Houston

The Houston Chronicle and The Root give Monica Roberts a suitable eulogy. 

John Coby is puzzled by the Harris County Republican Party's latest campaign finance report.

The Texas Civil Rights Project reports how Fort Bend ISD helped gets its 18-year-old students registered to vote.

Texas-non election

Meet Nate Paul, the man behind who a bunch of (presumably now former) friends of Texas AG Ken Paxton have asked for both state and federal investigations of him.

Off the Kuff hardly knows where to begin when there's three years' worth of news in a single week, but start here and then follow the other links to get an intro and somewhat deep dive into the burgeoning new Ken Paxton scandal.

Meet Shaun Lucas, whose egregious fatal shooting of Jonathan Price was so bad the Rangers recommended a murder charge. More on Price, the incident and Wolfe City here.

Grits for Breakfast highlights the extremely politicized nature of Greg Abbott's complaints about local police funding.

Texas-elections

This is about exactly the date I expected for the SD30 runoff. Abbott buried it on Dec. 19, hoping to bury Shelley Luther enthusiasm, no doubt.

Rethugs are challenging curbside / drive-through early voting lanes. Given the state Supremes said earlier this summer that "don't ask, don't tell" was the constitutionally correct stance for county clerks and election offices on people claiming a medical reason for an early ballot, if rightly ruled, the Rethugs will lose this one. What's also funny is that you have SoS Ruth Hughs having already OKed this before Kenny Boy Paxton decided to try to bigfoot it.

Speaking of lose? A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit, at the federal level, upheld a district judge in ruling SB8, Texas' attempt last year to severely restrict second-trimester abortion, is unconstitutional.

A big regular election Texas Senate battle shapes up in SD19, as Dems hope to reclaim a seat they long have held.

Combine Lupe Valdez' mismanagement at Lew Sterrett in Dallas County with some of the wingnuttery, and wingnut-pedestaling, of Joe Arpaio, and you have Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Weybourn.

Without Green David Bruce Collins and without Libertarian Kerry McKennon, I didn't watch the Texas Senate debate between former Libertarian voter MJ Hegar, representing ConservaDems, and Ted Cruz' lapdog, John Cornyn.

And, speaking of speaking of? Royce West said he wasn't voting for her, in part because she is "crazy" (hey, Royce, she's a former Libertarian) and because she didn't ask for his endorsement. That led to this WHOPPER level lie by her:

"She has never reached out and it is what is with her and I’m not voting for her, I’m not voting in that race," West told the Statesman. ...

At the debate, Hegar said she hadn't reached out to West because it was not her style to seek such endorsements. "Personal endorsements tend to come with quid pro quo that I believe are a big part of what's broken in politics," Hegar said. 

She added that she believes "Sen. West is supporting me, because I know that we’re on the same page and we share so many of the same values."

Hegar? My newspaper email inbox has been full of endorsements you have touted. I'm sure you went hunting for them, and know they have strings attached.

Matt Angle compares our current moment in state politics to the 80s, when Texas went from Democratic to Republican.

Texana

The Monthly previews a pending Willie Nelson special issue.

Tom Hanks' new Western movie is due out at Christmastime. Assume you'll be watching it at home on pay-to-stream rather than in a theater.

Hispanic racism (as in BY, not against) remains on display in El Paso. The part about the Klan — and Gutzon Borglund — having connections to the Oñate statue is new to me; the rest of the history, to this person who grew up in New Mexico, is not.

Meet Dr. Marcellus Cooper, Texas' first black dentist, finally getting historically recognized.

National-non election

Twitter has until Oct. 20 to reveal information about who's behind the account @whyspertech, which created a fake alleged FBI document that was a major factor in fueling the Seth Rich conspiracy theory. It's about damned time. Note also my extensively updated post on Ed Butowsky and Ty Clevenger.

"Murder, They Say." Pro Publica reports that feds in Portland — including and primarily local and state law enforcement deputized by the feds — did not identify themselves before fatally shooting Michael Forest Reinoehl. (That said, and not excusing feds' behavior, this doesn't whitewash the fact that he was kind of a lefty wingnut.)

The Overton Window is real. Contra Politico, Rob Portman is not a "moderate."

"Nice" to see Orthodox Jews fully uphold being part of the Religious Right, including on being anti-mask coronavirus conspiracy theorists.

Between age and now, apparently, age-driven dementia, plus that she's never been that pergressuve, Sen. Betty Crocker, I mean Diane Feinstein, is a poster child for what's wrong with national Democrats in general, and even more, California Democrats in particular.

Silicon Valley? Hucksterman's pro-winger leanings are not an anomaly.

George Floyd's uncle lives in Gettysburg, S.D., which for JUST 11 of its 137 years, has incorporated the Confederate battle flag in its city logo until he called it out. The wingnuts, in a town settled in part by Civil War Union vets, went ballistic. Then, as an ex-Missouri Synod Lutheran, is this unsurprising bit.

Pastor David Otten of the local Emmanuel Lutheran Church declined to address the conflict. He issued broad guidance: “When you post something on Facebook, are you building the person up or are you tearing them down? We’re supposed to be building people up.”

The denomination says its officially got anti-racism initiatives, but this is more its reality.

In addition, that patch? Goes back to the old "reconciliation" meeting at Gettysburg of Union and Confederate veterans which had no Black involvement. The reunion, in 1913, got Woodrow Wilson's official whitewash imprimatur, and, we all know about Wilson's long racist history even before becoming president. So, the chief at the time saying "no harm" was meant? Either a liar or an idiot.

And, contra the wingnuts, other than one lone flyer, no, Confederate veterans were NOT involved with the settlement.

Mark Pitcavage provides a bit of background on that Michigan terrorist attempt to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

National-election

Your political laugh for the week: "Navajos for Trump."

Your political non-laugh for the week: The Dallas FBI office has warned about an election-based breakout of far-right extremism.

Havana Ted Cruz is worried about a national "bloodbath of Watergate proportions" for the GOP.

With the town hall debate cancelled, what are the odds that, due to more petulance by Trump, the final one is cancelled as well? And, if you're tired of both duopoly candidates, won't you be glad?

White fragility, SJW Manicheanism

That was the snappiest title I could think of for my review of Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility." I've not added much to the Goodreads review of this book, written in 2018 but newly trending after George Floyd's death.

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A deeply problematic book, for both better and for worse, but primarily for worse.

First, let me “qualify” myself.

I am a White leftist. Not liberal. Leftist, at least for America. Related, while I don’t go as far as Doug Henwood and claim that issues of race almost always, and almost completely, reduce to issues of class, I believe they often do at least to some degree.

Second, while I don’t always use the phrase “social justice warrior” pejoratively, I do often have healthy skepticism about those who might be characterized as such.

Third, I reject the author’s definition of racism, period. Here’s why.

Individuals of any so-called race can be racist, first, and with racist, sexist, ageist, and “religionist” (more on that in a moment), the “-ist” is always the adjective to the “-ism.” Period. So, good linguistics and philosophy of language says reject her definition on that grounds alone.

Part two of that? Minorities can be and indeed are racist, not just to Whites, but to other minorities. I’ve seen and heard instances of this.

Part three? Contra her claim that only Whites have the power to induce what we might call “sociological racism,” since I need a qualifier to her definition of racism (pace Wittgenstein) to talk about it, this is not true. First, to go to “religionism,” the religious-based parallel to racism? The anti-goy stance of certain ultra-Orthodox Jews plays out sociologically, and to some degree legally, in a place like Kiryas Joel. Anti-White (or anti-Jewish) racism by Nation of Islam plays out within in neighborhoods within Black-majority areas where NOI “patrols” have degrees of control over the neighborhood.

So, no, racism is a mindset, a mentality, a psychology, not a structure. That said, a majority group with overall national power (but see point three above) has the greatest possibility of making sociological racism systemic. I don’t argue with DiAngelo on that at all. That said, with that said, “systematic racism,” not “racism,” is what she’s talking about. Eventually, it would become tiresome to repeat that over and over, but it should have been done at the start, and on occasions after.

Of course, I’m sure she’d reject my definition as much as I reject hers.

Near the end of Chapter 2, she does around the edges cherrypicking on some stats. She also either does cultural cherrypicking or shows cultural ignorance when lumping “Chinese food” with everything else. Most Chinese food in the US that is not historically in mainland China was invented by Chinese Americans not Whites. Crab Rangoon is the only notable exception. She also totally misframes Jackie Robinson, claiming that no whites have ever seen his becoming the first Black in baseball as she says it actually was.

Chapter 3? Most examples of what she cites as things that fall under so-called “new racism” aren’t new. Well, they may be new temporally, but the ideas aren’t new. Second, without stereotyping, yes, Blacks may apply for some jobs in fewer numbers. We know that Religious Right types don’t pursue jobs in secular academia, then have people like Jonathan Haidt claim this is an example of bias in academia. Next, more of her data points are snapshots, not synchronous views of changes, and possible improvements.

I skipped the next chapter because an N=1 anecdote from her personal life isn’t data.

Chapter 5? She talks about “good-bad binary” while ignoring the irony or more, as in hypocrisy, that her whole book is about making “White fragility” into one half of a binary, one end of a polarity. This includes a presumption that “color-blind” statements are always wrong and that only “color-celebrate” statements are allowed. At this point, per John McWhorter’s review (below) I had to wonder how much of this book was coming from a place of huge lake of self-awareness.

And for all her white liberal (not leftist) earnestness? A John McWhorter, no radical (actually, overall, a Black conservative, but not a Tim Scott wingnut) says she still comes off as talking down to Black people.

“I have learned that one of America’s favorite advice books of the moment is actually a racist tract,” McWhorter says.

McWhorter totally agrees with me on Robinson and other things.

One biggie is calling her a “shape shifter,” noting how she can claim at one point that most Whites are unaware of their “privilege” but, just a few pages later, describing them in general as tribalist.

He makes a couple of other good points. One is that DiAngelo seemingly wants to have all White people wear hair shirts, saying that for her, it’s about the suffering, not the solutions.

The second, per my “introduction,” is that she writes class out of the issue entirely. McWhorter admits he has suffered “at the margins” from racism, but that in general, with the civil rights movement, he’s not done too badly.

A third point is one that, being White, I can’t speak to directly, but he says that she “infantilizes” black people.

Finally, per McWhorter’s observation that his book reads like a diversity seminar training manual, maybe that’s what it IS! There’s plenty of gold in them thar hills! From Melanin Base Camp making boatloads of false accusations in a High Country News piece to other things, can and do minorities (as well as “woke” librul Whites) with money to make off this issue lie? Well, is a bear a Presbyterian? Does the pope shit in the woods?

Speaking of, why is DiAngelo a former professor and current consultant? Did she screw the pooch at university and get her tenure bid rejected? Or, per grifting, is there more money in diversity training? That then gets back to race and class issues.

That said, while McWhorter is honest enough to admit that he has benefitted a fair amount from socioeconomic class, he fails to note the obvious corollary: Many non-White people, including Blacks, haven’t. The “why” of that is itself, per Idries Shah, an issue with MANY more than two sides.

THAT then said, this gets back to a big problem with the book: the issue IS, contra guilt-trips DiAngelo wants to put on fellow White librulz, more than two-sided.

This is one of those books that I eventually gave two stars not one, and in part for one big reason: its revelation of the author’s mindset. The other reason it gets two stars not one is that, even at 25 percent of face value, her anecdotes remind us there is still plenty of work to do in America on racial issues, even though she and people like her are NOT the ones, White or Black — or Hispanic, South Asian, East Asian or American Indian — that we need to be leading the effort.


View all my reviews

Socialism don't mean what you think, nor rewriting history nor rewriting current events over Black Lives Matter

In what is best described as an act of Kabuki theater, the Cooke County Commissioners Court considered voting Aug. 17 for pretending to put the future of a Confederate statue and memorial on its courthouse lawn in the hands of voters.

Finding a loophole in Texas law, County Judge Jason Brinkley called a special meeting of the court to vote on a nonbinding referendum on the matter. Texas law allows counties of under 40,000 to do so.

Matthew McGee got to the point of the referendum, among speakers in public forum.

 “I would like to remind people the referendum is non-binding. It’s still 100 percent up to the commissioners to act,” he said, making a reference to a “poll on racism.”

“It’s still the only county doing such a poll. It’s going to be national news and it’s going to be embarrassing,” he said.

Turns out Cooke County won't make the teevee screens. The Commissioners Court's four commissioners ignored Brinkley and voted 4-1 to reject the referendum idea and do nothing.

Surprised? No. Disheartened? Yes. No so disheartened as to hope that protestors are serious and stay out there.

As for the speakers?

Most supporters of keeping the statue ignored that Texas seceded over slavery.

Rachel Moore talked about a historic 1913 gathering of CSA and US troops at Gettysburg as healing. She either was unaware, or chose to ignore, that black US troops were excluded.

And, of course, people like this call youth protestors "socialists" as a pejorative, ignoring the meeting of that word, while accusing the protestors of rewriting history, when history was being rewritten even before Rutherford Hayes agreed to end Reconstruction.

Ignorance was not confined to past history, nor to speakers.

“I question Black Lives Matter. Is it exclusive by definition? Has Black Lives Matter produced any results?” Precinct 1 Commissioner Gary Hollowell asked.

The truth is that, just a week ago, the city of Austin voted to cut one-third of the bloat from its police budget and that it also made police actions reviewable by moving "internal affairs division" outside the department. BLM protests led a heretofore relatively conservative Austin City Council to take this bold step forward. (More from Grits here on how George Floyd and a local shooting by cop were the fuse for long-standing ideas to cross the finish line.)

Precinct 4 Commissioner Leon Klement seemed to indicate, in lines with Hollowell, that the "problem" was only one one side.

“If that rock causes you to hate somebody, that’s on you,” he said. As with Hollowell, it seemed the comment was directed only toward anti-statue protestors.

Precinct 3 Commissioner John Klement reference slavery having a global history, and slaves in the North, but didn't mention the race-based history of slavery in the U.S. He, like cousin Leon, noted his family had come from Germany after the Civil War but the statue was part of their history.

Yes? And yours truly wrote a column noting that Bismarck's Kulturkampf against German Catholics was part of your history, too, and suggesting you analogize from that. And you did not.

Precinct 2 Commissioner Jason Snuggs added that some people told him they could see the statue being moved, but not under this pressure.

So no, Bob Smith, Vince Rippy and other members of the self-styled Cooke County Activists for Truth in Society, the commissioners court did NOT display "exceptional courage." If not craven cowardice, they were closer to that than what you claim. The "Exceptional courage" was displayed a month ago by Gainesville Mayor Jim Goldsworthy and the rest of the Gainesville City Council when it voted to move the city's statue in the face of opposition from people like you.

Also of note? Mr. Young Republicans PR Tucker Craft (see here on earlier meetings and background) was not at this meeting.

I think part of what's lying behind less reactionary members of the county court, and others, is something that I've seen on Twitter, the idea that social changes happen by magic, without protest. I of course cited Martin Luther King back to the first few people who pulled that. I think a minority of people sincerely believe that, but for the majority, it's just another "talk to the back of the hand" stance.

Otherwise, it's clear that entrenched beliefs don't change, even when presented with plenty of evidence to create cognitive dissonance. Despite protestors repeatedly saying in commissioners court meetings that they're from Gainesville, opponents continue to claim they're all agitators from Denton. If people don't have the "exceptional courage" to critically examine their own belief systems, they're going to be poor judges of who else displays "exceptional courage." But, it's also easier to pretend that issues aren't real when you pretend that people in your own back yard aren't the ones raising the issue.

This all reminds me of Max Planck cracking wise about how what was really needed for a new scientific theory to become accepted was to have enough old scientists die off.

Confederate statues and Holocaust buildings

While I don't think that any U.S. military bases should be named after men who were traitors (even if Grant's surrender terms offered to Lee at Appomattox arguably let at least the Army of Northern Virginia's officers off the hook, they still were, as were officials of the CSA government), I'm more agnostic on statues.

That's especially true if a statue is not to Lee or Stonewall Jackson, but to the "Confederate war heroes."

I know the history of the United Daughters of the Confederacy erecting these statues, basically in the 1910-20 period. I know the turd-polished history they were presenting. I also know, per such things as the 1913 "great reunion" at Gettysburg, rather than the Lost Cause using a bulldozer to rewrite history, many northern Whites were at least halfway willing, and halfway actively willing, to go along.

Santayana famously said that those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat its mistakes. Maybe keeping the statues visible — albeit with modern explanatory plaques — would help.

Something on Twitter Monday night, or maybe it was Facebook, is part of this thought.

And that's that Germany did not tear down all the concentration camps inside the country. Nor did Poland tear down the true death camps. One can still go to Auschwitz today, of course.

Arguably, this alone hasn't stopped anti-Semitism, or even Holocaust denial, in Germany. It may have helped somewhat. But, Germany also has severe laws against Holocaust denial language, laws that would never fly in the U.S.

And?

Chancellor Angela Merkel's admission of Syrian refugees became the match to light the Alternative für Deutschland gasoline.

Another analogy, per this New Yorker piece, is with 1989 and the fall of Communism. Some eastern European states destroyed anything that even smacked of Leninism. Others took a more hands-off approach. So far, it's hard to argue one has done better than the other, at least where a larger educational effort wasn't applied. In much of Eastern Europe, Communism has been replaced by authoritarianism of some sort, such as in Belarus, or a drift away from democracy has started (Poland, Hungary) or gained steam (Ukraine, and of course, Russia itself). And I haven't even talked about the former Soviet Central Asia.

The museuming isn't a bad idea. That said, in many cities, racists might make a shrine, or try to, out of the now-barren spot on a courthouse lawn. Or they might demand city and county governments spend more money on the museum, put up a pro-Lost Cause sign on those lawns, etc., etc.

One might say: "But there's no statues at any of those places."

And I might respond: "The infamous 'Arbeit Macht Frei' inscription on the gates at Auschwitz is still there." Or, "Lenin's mausoleum, complete with theoretically preserved body, is still on Red Square." (That's not the best example, that one, I know, because Russia had but a limited window of semi-openness and it was largely wrecked by American capitalist grifters conspiring with Russian capitalist plunderers.)

I don't claim easy answers.

So, I refer again to old philosophy friend Idries Shah:

Some people may think him hackneyed. I don't, other than I am even more skeptical of human social psychology than him, and reject the idea of "complete solutions."

Other than the passage of time moving people beyond the desire for "complete solutions" do we get even close to that.

What is the best way, out of more than two sides, with truly moving more of America beyond this past, with making more Americans realize how deeply embedded "Lost Cause" ideas in general, and still-systemic racism in particular, are in America.

That said? More than two sides? I'm not of the position of some leftists who think issues of race almost always ultimately reduce to class, but I at least 50 percent agree with the general idea, if not more.

As far as possible ideas other than the two sides? One would be plaques on these statues that
A. Describe the UDC's history;
B. In any former CSA state, like Texas, where slavery was explicitly cited as part of the reason for secession, quoting line and verse from the secession ordinance.

Or a motion-sensor triggered audio recording that played the same. The advantage of this is, if you just place it very close to the statue or its pedestal, but don't actually attach it, you don't need Texas Historical Commission approval.

Dario Hunter "went there" (and is now pulling Jesse Ventura chickenshit)

Per a link at Independent Political Report, he's ... I"m going to be blunt, Dario ... he's "played the race card."

Here's the video from Dario. You want to listen about 30 seconds in, about the "I got into this race to break down the walls of exclusion ... especially against people who look like me."



Fuck you, Dario.

Update, July 11: Fuck you MUCH FUCKING MORE, Dario.  Dario has announced he is running as an "independent Green." Which, per Andrea Merida Cuellar, of course means "independent." (Given his refusal to work to meet some specific state GP requirements, she doesn't think it will go anywhere. She also confirms the rumor that Jesse-stanners were behind many of the delegate credentials challenges.)

And, let's Twitter-link (can't embed) the video of the new announcement. And comment on a few of the larger stupidities?

Howie's "CIA talking points"? Dario was well coached by either Jesse-stanners or stanners of Jesse-stanners. Attacking Howie for lack of charisma as he seems to woodenly read a list of bullet points? Laughable.

Speaking of? Dario admits being in collusion with Jesse, the Jesse who had already said he would write in his own name:

No reply yet from election admin., Gloria Mattera (ea2020@gp.org) as to whether Ventura submitted the req letter of intent to accept the nom by today’s 12pm deadline. [I had hoped that would give some closure to those still holding on despite repeated refusals. But no answer.]

— Dario Hunter 🏹 (@dario4america) July 10, 2020

Fuck him again. And his Veep, Darlene Elias, is a Berniecrat by self-admission with no special loyalty to the GP. All of this, in turn, officially gives his lie to his statement earlier this year to support whoever the Green Party's nominee was. 

He's also an opportunist, who, per his Wiki page, only joined the Green Party in 2018, likely only for the purpose of a presidential campaign. (Sounds like good company to Jesse Ventura there, too.)

And with that, back to the original thread as Dario isn't worth me wasting more time on his self-centered, solipsistic ass.

The Green Party nominated Cynthia McKinney in 2008. Yes, many people know that the party could do more to attract minorities, but?

Reverse racism is racism.

Especially when Howie's campaign manager, Andrea Merida Cuellar, is a minority herself.

Doubly so when Howie's own Veep nominee, Angeal Walker, is, like Cynthia McKinney, Black.

The Dario-stanners are ignorant of his putting his thumbs on the scale with Ian Schlakman. It wouldn't surprise me if he was one of the organizers of the whispering campaign claims that Howie seeking to run fusion with SPUSA violated Green Party rules. They're also ignorant of him having a hasbara past (and maybe present) and not apologizing for that, either.

Dario has also tried to play both sides of the fence on the trans activists issue. As for fairness otherwise, both Dario and Howie spoke at the 2019 Texas state convention.

And, read the comments at the video link. From here in Texas, Kat Gruene calls his ass out all OVER the place. Once is in response to Dario, who was responding to someone else calling him out for "going there." Said person noted what I did above, plus that Ajamu Baraka was Jill Stein's Veep in 2016 and other things.

Let's start with Dario's response to that:

This video doesn’t actually address racism in the Green Party. (?) It does reference the general political disenfranchisement of people who look like me, something every candidate should have in mind and take into account. But if you’d like me to do a video about racism in Green Party leadership, I certainly could. I’d have plenty of material. 

I responded that he was trying to have his cake and eat it too.

Kat just lit into him over that.

Dario Hunter and i could do one on the use of identity politics and how incapable people get elected to leadership in the gp alllll the time because of their non cis white male identity - electing tech incompetent older women for national committee for example - an almost 98% tech required position - in TX back in the day if you were not white or a woman you could get elected just because of that even if you were at your first green meeting - it became a running joke 

BOOM! And true, as I noted, in response to her.

Baraka noted this problem with GP identity politics "slots" and incapable people. The late Bruce Dixon of Black Agenda Report noted this in spades, time and time and time again.

Here's my blogging about Dixon's take on the "90 day wonders" in 2018. Here's more, from a longer, more convoluted hot take on the GP annual meeting in 2017.

Dario is just a poster child for that, now.

Finally, Dario's lies about state Green Party exclusion and more are all exposed here.

Oh, on my calling Dario out? Per Doug Henwood, being a leftist means not having white liberal guilt, so anybody trying to call ME out? Fail.

This is all just a ramping up of the Howie hatred, but now it's gotten ugly. David Bruce Collins tries to find a more nuanced take, but still doesn't like it. And, I'm inclined to be disinclined to his nuance, as we disagree somewhat on Howie and Russia, and that same "more" link above, disagree STRONGLY about Caitlin Johnstone (and, I suspect, other conspiracy theorizing between points Russia and Caity, though DBC is nowhere near Brains on this, or many other Greens).

I'm still not sure about voting Green in 2020. Howie could screw the pooch on one item at the convention, among other things. And, if he's personally involved, I won't vote for him on the SPUSA ballot line either. (His campaign treasurer, Travis Christal, had one comment on the video; I left him a comment in return, more explicit about that issue.)

Update: The Georgia GP wasn't expelled this year. Who knows in the future? Howie says he doesn't favor expulsion, but plays Just.Another.Politician.™ by not calling it expulsion, and has been a sucker for one-siderism on this issue.

Update 2: Dario wasn't the only assclown among this year's candidates.

Update 3: Michael Trudeau has more of the goods on Dario's bullshit, focusing on his hasbara history.

Texas Progrs talk more national-level policing, minorities, etc

As noted in the lead-in to state half of this week's Wrangle talking about policing, brutality, and racism issues, I noted that Camden, New Jersey, has been touted as the model for "defunding" and starting a police department over, from scratch. The truth, though, is more complicated. That reminds us that this is not a simple issue. With that, let's dig in.

Alex Vitale talks about how neoliberal mayors have turned over problems created by their acquiescence in neoliberalism to police departments. He also discusses defunding or abolition vs other reform angles.


Why does Starbucks hate Black Lives Matter? Why does it lie when it claims it's not singling it out as a movement? Finally, when will librul (not leftist) whites find the principle to kick it to the curb.

Potential Status Quo Joe Biden veep nominee Klobberin Klobuchar has yet more splaining to do from her time as Twin Cities area DA, over a case rife with jailhouse snitches, police witness intimidation and more. The fact that the Klobberer refuses to withdraw her name from consideration shows how much she, as well as Biden, just don't get it, speaking of white librulz.

Wesley Lowery, booted from the pre-Bezos Post, talks about Black Lives Matter, reform vs defunding and White Lives Getting It.

Why is Trump warning against falsely labeling people as racist if other than he doesn't like being accurately labeled as racist? Like I hope many black Tulsans label him as, loudly and vocally, if he's stupid and arrogant enough to show up there on Juneteenth.

Mad Dog Mattis is still a mad dog, but his comments about Trump have freed more active-duty military to distance themselves from Trump.

A White House divided over how Trump should respond to unrest over George Floyd's killing? Those who appeal to his baser instincts will win, as they usually do. And, people of color in his White House staff who "fear a backlash" will likely continue to be Toms, Tacos and Auntie and Tia Jemimas. (Aunt Jemima is being pulled from the grocery store shelves but not from the White House and RNC ones.)

Fox is willing to break photojournalism ethics (until caught) to tell lies about protestors. And, then, it tells lies about how it used the photos.

Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields resigned after the third incident of police brutality or over-enforcement in six weeks, per Atlanta's mayor, this one fatal. I'm not sure this incident alone constituted a need to resign, but I'm not going to argue against it, and think that in the light of the history that Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms mentioned, this had to happen, for the good of the city and the future good of the Atlanta PD. And, I definitely think murder charges in the Rayshard Brooks case are an overcharge. That was even before reading that Fulton County DA is in a runoff and also faces corruption charges. We don't need politically biased policing against minorities, nor politically biased prosecutorial actions either for or against cops.

Many Zionist groups hate Black Lives Matter, and have so from the start, primarily because of fears of situational parallels between, and budding connections with, Palestinians.

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott wants some sort of federal action on police reform, but without any real regulatory oversight. Shock me.

Long read: The devil's bargain between police unions and the larger organized labor movement.

Texas Progrs talk more on state-level policing, minorities, etc

I have probably stopped splitting off coronavirus news just in time to split off ongoing embers of rage over George Floyd, the police, corporations "blackwashing" when they're not "greenwashing" their environmental image, etc. So, let's dive in!

First, in the wake of Minneapolis PD thuggery, Camden, New Jersey, has been touted as the model for "defunding" and starting a police department over, from scratch. The truth? More complicated. Violent crimes haven't gone away. Gentrification has arrived. The "defunding" was linked to "rebranding." And more. Click that link, and read.

Second, the world of policing attracts bastards. Some ex-cops admit it.

Third, many big cities with policing problems? Either the mayor, the state DA for that county, or both, are ConservaDems, not Republicans. You can make book on that. Both are problems here in Tex-ass; witness ConservaDem DAs in both Travis and Harris counties as I type.

Fourth, besides ConservaDem mayors and elected DAs snuggling up to police unions, even when the cops on the force are majority-minority, white union chiefs are an additional problem — and often throwing fuel on the flames.

With that, and keeping in mind that fourth point as an issue when you here "no votes left of Democrats"-type "pergressuve" bloggers talking about police reform, let's dig in. I'm covering state news about policing issues here, splitting this half of the roundup in two itself.

Texas

Denton County has joined bigger ones in voting to haul down a Confederate memorial. That said, it doesn't memorialize a general, unlike Dallas' infamous old Lee statue. BUT! It, and many like it, were erected by the United Daughters of the Confederacy when racist Southern Democrat Woodrow Wilson was president. (And, yes, Southern — ignore his time at Princeton; he was born in Virginia and his family moved to Georgia when he was four. He would have been six when Sherman marched through.)

Racism is at the Dallas Fire Department, in the form of a battalion commander.

Longhorn athletes want THE University of Texas to adopt a number of changes, starting with replacing "The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You."

Off the Kuff details the state of police reform in Houston and Harris County, with a coda about HISD.

DosCentavos had a series on the possible re-hiring of Chauna Thompson. The effort failed.

Craig Mills says he should not know the names of George Floyd and so many other black men who are known to him because they were killed by police.

Abby Springs and Wesley Storey explain how Texas laws fail to hold police accountable.

Texas progressives call out Texas wingnuts for 8:46

8:46? If you don't know the reference, Google it, then come back and dig in.

In the meantime, let's look at a weekly roundup of reaction to police thuggery, police racism, and more, and how to possibly fix it. I've got so much here that I split the non-COVID part of this week's roundup in two itself.


Politics and police — Texas

Gov. Strangeabbott called on Bexar and Nueces County GOP leaders to resign after they got caught posting George Floyd false-flag conspiracy theories on Fuckbook. Besides the story itself, note that this shows racism in major urban counties is just as problematic as in the boonies. Strangebbott, beyond any degree to which he is truly disgusted, is of course worried about losing suburban swing voters in the general election. However, he did not call for Comal County's chair-elect to step down over a George Soros conspiracy theory. Nor has he called for Harris' chair-elect to not step up over more blatant racism. (Pee Bush, to his credit, wants all four to move along.) Update: It eventually became a dozen, and other folks like nutbar Ag Commish Sid Miller, who has either had way too many or not nearly enough Jesus shots. Keith Nielsen, co-chair elect in Harris County, got the message and won't step up. Other than Nielsen, nobody is stepping aside or down, and state elected officials haven't had further comment. And, once again, why post to "public" on Facebook?

Police

The problem, in a nutshell, from a long read:

State leaders have been much more adept in calling up the National Guard and coördinating police actions to confront marchers than they were in any of their efforts to curtail the virus. Can't put it any better than that. 

Well, I can. This is the New Yorker, NOT, say, Counterpunch. Most New Yorker readers have had their heads buried since Abner Louima was sodomized by some of Gotham's finest, or Amadou Diallo was shot full of holes. Maybe Upper East Side habitués are worried about a brown tide.

More and more white folks don't trust cops, and the dropoff is rapid, post-killing of George Floyd. For "pergressuve" or beyond folks, all races, David Bruce Collins describes just what we want in police reform.

I mean, even nationally known former Sundown Town Vidor, Texas, had a George Floyd support event. Christopher Hooks covered the Black Lives Matter rally in Vidor. Other than not mentioning Michael Cooper's Green Party political past, it was good.

ButtFeet's Anne Helen Peterson talks about how small-town protests in general matter. That said, she buried the secondary lede. Not until halfway through the piece does she talk about how Indians have a higher per-capita death by cop rate than even blacks do. That's WHY they're active in many of these Western small-town protests.

Lack of trust can extend to black police chiefs. U. Renee Hall is losing it in Dallas. From the Dallas Observer, hall continues to defend her cops, while the issue is splitting the Dallas City Council, and the council vs city manager Broadnax, who, up to this point has been the best one there in more than a decade, or even longer. The Snooze now reports that a majority of the council is at least interested in "defunding." Hall's apparently deliberate footdragging on providing information is a good way to shoot herself in the foot while hoping white North Dallas will bail her out. Surprisingly, Jim Schutze hasn't weighed in with a column on the issue yet, given his history of criticism of Hall.

On the Hispanic cop side, Art Acevado is trying to spin in Houston. Texas Monthly isn't buying. Houston Mayor Sly Turner has announced a task force to look at HPD reform. Kuff says it's a good thing but needs more; I say it's not a good thing because ConservaDem and political infighter Turner is surely already using the task force idea to bury more meaningful change.

DosCentavos writes about where the conversation on police reform needs to begin based on the #8CantWait campaign.

Grits tells Texas Monthly:

The police unions’ political power is a big part of it. Prosecutors are allied with police, so it doesn’t matter if you’re a Democrat or a Republican: if you have that job, you’re not gonna prosecute cops because you have to work with them every day.

But will still attack me for voting outside the duopoly for president, even when he knows the truth about qualified immunity and Democratic Supreme Court justices? No, Scott Henson, if Democrats want my vote at the state and national level, they have to earn it (back).

Bill Barr's uniformed thugs on the streets in DC represent but a sliver of the U.S. government's total of 132,000, give or take, law enforcement officers. Read the details.

Despite the visibility of George Floyd, per capita, police are killing fewer civilians in central cities. HOWEVER, they're killing more than before in both suburbs and rural areas. Side note: Without quoting anybody, in my small town media area, there's white folks who I have heard say, "Yeah, George Floyd was killed," as in ... that was deliberate. As for the why? The link notes that death by cop in some big cities has led to police reforms that appear to be sticking. "Minnesota nice" Minneapolis, librulizm and all, is NOT one of those cities.

The military looks askance at Trump again. BUT, if he explicitly tries to violate the Posse Comitatus Act, or invokes the Insurrection Act without warrant, will it explicitly resist?

Killer cop Derek Chauvin is also allegedly fraudulent voter Derek Chauvin. BUT BUT BUT we're all "told" that it's only people with darker skins who are librulz who commit vote fraud amirite?

Sometimes, papers ARE not trustworthy. Like the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has slouched toward Trumpian Gomorrah since his election, censoring its own reporters.

Ryan Cooper says Nordic countries can teach us something about better policing, better sentencing and better incarceration — the whole criminal justice system. He's largely right. BUT ... he's wrong in bits, namely on crime clearance rates. Although there are some VERY likely suspects, from Sweden's strong right wing (and it IS strong), Swedish police have, likely deliberately, let the trail of the murder of Olaf Palme grow cold, and prosecutors, likely deliberately again, surely support that. (And I've let Cooper know that on Facebook.)

Going beyond Cooper's kinder, gentler policing? Aside from ending the War on Drugs, what if we stop having cops do so much policing? (That said, per the "killing more" link above, contra the author, in many cities, police haven't come close to exhausting internal improvements, and the interviewed book author should know better.)

Drew Brees, and even more his wife, have recognized they have white privilege combined with classism. And, while I don't believe issues of race can almost always be reduced to class, class is often part of the mix, and America is NOT anywhere close to being a classless society.

Jake Tapper asked Ben Carson just how much of an Uncle Tom for Trump he was was going to continue to be, and the brain surgeon did a Stepin Fetchit tap dance around the question.

The Texas Signal reports on the Travis County DA primary runoff and how it relates to the wider criminal justice reform debate.

Via Out in SA, Equality Texas vows to do better at every level of their organization to help dismantle systems of oppression against Black Americans.

Here's the backstory on how NFL players got Commish Goodell to speak.

Finally? The Dunning-Kruger effect applies in spades to people's self-analysis of their racism, or lack thereof.