User-Supported News Commentary Hosted by Craig Crawford
Cops Beat
A post 9/11 phenomenon: militarizing police to treat public as enemies, not neighbors to protect. We gotta get on this.
Author: craigcrawford
Trail Mix Host. Lapsed journalist, author & retired pundit happily promoting nothing but the truth for Social Security checks.
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pogo pointed out last night “in case anyone has forgotten, 106,000 Americans have died in the last 4 months” from an ongoing pandemic. approx. 26,000 of those dead are black americans who met an avoidable death before their time.
according to APMresearch
Collectively, Black Americans represent 13% of the population in all areas in the U.S. releasing COVID mortality data, but they have suffered 25% of deaths.
where are the protesters for these wrongfully killed and those that are still being killed by the virus due to the bigotry, negligence and malfeasance of trump? why are they being forgotten? and why why why is he not being held accountable ?
my comment above in no way excuses the horrors perpetrated on persons of color by the police. it’s just to point out that we seem to have forgotten an ongoing and much bigger crime happening before us.
Why would protestors damage CNN, AFLCIO, church where presidents prayed? These are white supremacist SFB targets, white supremacist targets and skin head targets.
Patd, don’t you dare stop posting political cartoons. This is a political blog. They are always subject to interpretation, and that forwards the discourse. You are not offending everyone (e.g. me) and an occasional offense does not justify silence.
bbronc, they know that violent protests lead to more repression and furthers their “race war” plans. studies like the ones TED-talked below have concluded that non-violent protest lead to more liberal laws. those skinheads & supremacists’ certainly don’t want that; ergo what we see going on.
Between 1900-2006, campaigns of nonviolent civil resistance were twice as successful as violent campaigns. Erica will talk about her research on the impressive historical record of civil resistance in the 20th century and discuss the promise of unarmed struggle in the 21st century. She will focus on the so-called “3.5% rule”—the notion that no government can withstand a challenge of 3.5% of its population without either accommodating the movement or (in extreme cases) disintegrating. In addition to explaining why nonviolent resistance has been so effective, she will also share some lessons learned about why it sometimes fails.
The New York Times “disciplined” the unnamed editor responsible and announced that it would no longer be publishing any syndicated cartoons provided by CartoonArts International. But that wasn’t enough, and now the NYT cartoons are no more. Just like any other commercial enterprise, the New York Times can do what it likes, and I look forward to seeing some scathingly satirical tie-dyes in the pages of its international edition. But this cuts deeper than an over-reaction to an ill-judged cartoon. Cartoons have been the rude, taunting part of political commentary in countries around the world for centuries, and enhance newspapers globally and across the political spectrum, in countries from the most tolerant liberal democracies to the most vicious totalitarian tyrannies. As we all know, they consequently have the power to shock and offend. That, largely, is what they’re there for, as a kind of dark, sympathetic magic masquerading as a joke.
That’s also why the Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart is in jail, why the Malaysian cartoonist Zunar was facing 43 years imprisonment for sedition until a change of government last year; why five cartoonists were murdered in the offices of Charlie Hebdo in January 2015; why dozens of British cartoonists – including William Heath Robinson – were on the Gestapo death list.
[…]
As Kart said at his trial, cartoonists are like canaries in the coal mine – when they come for us, you know the politics is getting toxic. But we’re not just subject to the shallow vanity of tyrants or the fury of mobs. The greatest threat to cartoonists has always been the very newspapers we parasitise on….
[…]
We are, in short, expendable. Nonetheless, the New York Times’ decision is particularly irksome in its intoxicating combination of cowardice, pomposity, over-reaction and hypocrisy.
All I can say Pat is do what you have too. But if you can’t take a mild critique of a work that you didn’t create but only reposted here then it is probably a good idea.
Jack
We’ve gone insane. God, I’m glad I’m old. I’m going to set here draw my social security check and watch the world burn down.
“Revolution for the hell of it” Abbie Hoffman’s dream came to realization this weekend.
It was a strange collection of images.
On a weekend billed as an expression of black rage we had rich white kids rioting and young black kids trying to stop them. My favorite image for the weekend is a white woman in the face of a black cop giving him the finger.
*sigh*
Mean while the presidents supporters are hunting for the mysterious Antifa to keep from dealing with the presidents failings.
The lefties are hunting for men in Hawaiian shirts who supposedly were the cause of all the vandalism, rather than dealing with the fact that for some reason they draw a bunch of nihilistic vandals and opportunistic criminals to their “peaceful protest” and they believe organizing is just posting a message on their favorite social media. With a big “y’all come”
Jennifer Rubin is right on target with her piece at WaPo today – A President Few Want to Hear From.
It is extraordinary that at a time of racial unrest, national protests and inflamed tension between police and communities of color, President Trump has had nothing to offer. Even more extraordinary: There is widespread agreement that a speech would make matters worse.
A president who made a false equivalence between neo-Nazis and anti-Nazi protesters in Charlottesville and says “MAGA loves the black people” — as condescending and exclusionary a comment as he could make (implicitly conceding MAGA does not include African Americans) — lacks the credibility to speak. He literally is incapable of doing his job, which includes uniting and comforting the country.
***
In my lifetime, we have not had a president so totally incapable of addressing America’s original sin, racism and slavery. He has made perfectly clear that he is only interested in race insofar as it can instill fear, resentment and anger among the MAGA crowd. The country knows all too well that he has zero understanding of the problem, let alone a clue as to how to heal deep racial wounds. As a result, the greatest service — aside from leaving office — would be to stay out of sight and off Twitter.
I always love an opportoonery for Political cartoonery about governmental goonery and general buffoonery. It’s never too soonery to laugh at all the loonery along with all the serious commentoonery.
That cartoon you posted, patd, is the least of anyone’s problems. Yes, i found it offensive. No, it’s not a big deal.
Your, and the cartoonist’s intentions were good, it was just an inelegantly expressed point. Am personally guilty of such all the time.
Incidentally, i didn’t find offensive the cartoon, from months ago, with trump playing golf over the body of dead migrants, and i think it’s because, in contrast to the Floyd/liberty cartoon, it wasn’t making a comparison between an actual crime(murder of Floyd) and a more esoteric political concept.
The ever-shifting boundaries of socially-acceptable humor is an interesting topic for me.
agree with OP btw- police no longer protect and serve, they enforce and punish.
The causes and solutions to police incompetence and cultural toxicity have been well-documented and discussed for years, and yet, here we are🤷♂️
Oh, and to be fair, it’s hard to blame cops for being so skittish during encounters in a country awash with firearms. Just like i approach everyone i meet assuming they have Covid-19 and are therefore a potential threat, cops must assume everyone they meet is armed and therefore a potential threat. Thanks, Samuel Colt, you made us all equally fucked.
Ok, keep your hands clean and your head down✌️❤️🇺🇸
I was listening to the TeeVee with one ear and heard it saying that the President was rushed down to to his safety cavern in the White House last night. I, of course, had visions of Donald la Merde being dragged down the stairs of la Maison-Blanc à la Louis XVI.
I’m in touch with someone who’s on the governors’ call with President Trump right now. They and others listening in are alarmed. The president is urging governors to take back the streets, not be “weak,” and use force as the nation faces growing racial unrest.
VanillaBirdies
4 years ago
Good morning,
Crap it’s June?
A few years ago, I had to work with the police and the last day I was with a particular detective, he brought up that “everyone hates the cops” — It wasn’t an admission of guilt and yeah, there was a fair bit of sympathy for himself. But it was an interesting and vulnerable moment — And I’ve never fully shook it. Concerning my case, yes they were great and I will be forever indebted to that. Should I be? It is their job. However, I’d gone in very leery and came out wondering exactly what might have been different had I not looked or sounded the way I did. Or hadn’t had a situation that was familiar enough to a detective to make him pursue it.
Most of my friends in Brooklyn were at the protests — many of which turned into riots. From their visual experiences, the biggest aggressors to the cops were young white adults — And there were a number of trucks filled with teenagers of color being arrested.
I did not attend a protest because I have a mixed relationship with protests even when we’re not in the middle of a pandemic. I think that privilege and fervor exacerbate and continue a lot of the issues in (perfectly apt description) a petri dish. Yes, it is phenomenal to see an outpouring of the same feelings you are feeling through solidarity. But at the end of the day, it is often more about the individual feeling better or letting out anger. The anger is absolutely justified. This is beyond horrific and triggering for so many people.
Cops look out for cops. The police coverage and momentum when a cop is killed? Unmatchable.
As for the staggering percentages of POC infected or dying from COVID, this is far from the first time this country has ignored them in the midst of any number of epidemics. I imagine it is as wrapped up in the protests as everything else is.
Trump’s words to the nations’ governors: “You have to dominate or you’ll look like a bunch of jerks, you have to arrest & try people…if you don’t put it down it will get worse & worse. The only time its successful is when you’re weak & most of you are weak.” @ryanobles reports
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.texastribune.org/2020/05/31/texas-greg-abbott-state-disaster-george-floyd/amp/Federal enforcement now acting as local “peace” officers in TX, after protests here triggered a disaster declaration from Gov. Abbott.
Why aren’t state and city governments asking to meet with community leaders about police brutality?
Kamala said the Fed is doing something, but darned if I remember what.
Where is Congress on more stimulus money? Where are the states and counties on extending eviction proceedings longer?
It seems that those with power have done nothing except try to secure their own power.
Why do the magaTs think that anyone but white folks getting treated fairly hurts them? Liberty and justice are not limited resources. tRump wants you to believe that they are, as do many others in power, but it just ain’t so. It’s time to wake up.
FWIW I didn’t find the cartoon offensive, but political cartoons generally will offend some and please others. It’s kind of the nature of the beast. I would hope SFB’s lemmings would take offense.
I think the interesting thing here is that we have 2 council districts, the 3rd and the 5th that are predominately African American, about 60%. the 3rd( where I live) is made up of the old jimcrow black neighborhoods, neighborhoods where they spread out, Plus some old traditionally white immigrant working class.
The 3rd lead the city early on with Covid-19 cases but the 5th had the fewest. I don’t know if that changed or not. One reason why is explained just down the street from me. There is a 7or8 story high-rise originally built for senior housing but now filled with both elderly and people with health issues so bad they are on disability. For some of the elderly it is the closest thing to a nursing home they can afford. With in a mile of me there are at least 4 of these. Plus the 3rd is where they stick most of the subsidized housing and we get the homeless shelters too.
So not only is this district majority black, I suspect it maybe majority people most susceptible to Covid-19. My area with its Hispanic families may be the exception.
I would like to see some up dated numbers to see if the 5th has caught up.
Jack
The Posse Comitatus Act, which passed after the Civil War to keep federal troops from policing the South, limits federal troops’ deployment on U.S. soil and forbids using them to enforce domestic laws. The President can deploy troops if there’s an insurrection or invasion on U.S. soil
…funny that trumpies like to make photoshops of macho-man trump’s face on, like “Rambo’s” body, or whatever, but when faced with a test of courage, trump runs away like Sir Robin.
Proposal #1 for post-trump reconstruction is a Constitutional amendment requiring a President to have some form of previous public-service: military, police, community-outreach organizations, Congress, state-congress, mayor, councilperson, dog-catcher… anything. SOMETHING.
Following up on sturg’s comments from Jim Sciutto, WaPo’s update on that call from SFB to the governors:
President Trump on Monday berated the nation’s governors on a conference call, describing them as “weak” in the face of growing racial unrest and urged them to try to “dominate” unruly protests, according to three people on the call who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation.
Trump also called on them to take back the streets and use force to confront protesters and said if they did not, they would look like “fools,” alarming several governors on the call as they communicated privately, according to the officials.
“If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time,” Trump said, according to a person on the call. A second person on the call said Trump praised Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) and thanked Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper for his assistance.
The president told the governors that “you have to use the military” and “we have a wonderful military,” said this person.
Trump also mused about the Occupy Wall Street movement, saying it was a “disgrace” which was ended by governors and mayors being tough on it, according to two people on the call.
The president said that people arrested at the protests should serve a 10-year prison sentence, according to another person familiar with the call.
bink, 106,000 dead people, children in cages, food stamps denied the hungry, vital health care denied immigrants to say nothing of destruction of fundamental democratic institutions – in short the actual and observable killing of this country by trump is more than what you call an “esoteric political concept.” it’s a reality.
Here is why it trivializes it in my opinion
What the police did in Minneapolis is a moral issue, they deliberately killed a man.
Trump for all his issues (and you did a good job of listing them) hasn’t risen to that level. Some time in the next 5 years Trump will be gone. Trump and all his issues are a political problem
But long after Trump is gone the Minneapolis police department will be killing people. It doesn’t matter who is president , governor or even mayor they are still going to be killing people.
This is a major moral problem for that department and us.
To bring the killing of that man down to the political level is to diminish it.
It is just a political problem, ” here we will pave an alley for you, some curbs and sidewalk repair to.”
Just as long as they can shut up the local neighborhood leaders. Then the issue will go away but the killing continues.
This is a moral issue and needs to be kept there. It isn’t about Trump never has been , never will be.
I guess you have to live in one of these neighborhood for a while. Have a few bad encounters, and we all have our stories. Urban policing and suburban are totally different even in the same police department. The total lack of respect that goes on in urban areas just doesn’t happen the same way in the suburbs.
I guess this is a bit personal to, as there was a time 30 years ago when I said, “If a stray dog and a Kansas City police officer got hit on the street I would go check on the dog.”
I like to think that the KCPD has improved but then I’m an old man and they don’t beat on old men as much.
Jack
Remember that BIG, strong man? The tough guy. The one who bullies and puts down everyone. The one who diminishes everyone. The one who mocks everyone because he’s so BIG & STRONG. Well that useless, orange tub of lard hid out in a BUNKER because he’s SCARED of a few demonstrators. Besides being useless in a pandemic, a crashed stock market,a depression level unemployment, and racial unrest, he’s YELLOW BELLIED. and SCARED.
Re: George Floyd’s death, Dr. Baden comes to a different conclusion than the County. Wapo:
Breaking: Floyd died of ‘asphyxia due to neck and back compression,’ his family’s autopsy report finds — contradicting county’s initial exam
The independent autopsy of George Floyd, appears to contradict information from the criminal complaint, which said that the autopsy “revealed no physical findings that support a diagnosis of traumatic asphyxia or strangulation,” saying that “the combined effects of Mr. Floyd being restrained by the police, his underlying health conditions and any potential intoxicants in his system likely contributed to his death.”
Baden swings a heavy stethoscope (well, you know…)
Preface: DFW news said that protesters were from OUT OF TOWN! Turned out they were from Denton, the next freakin’ county! I thought they were going to say, they’re from Russia or Bulgaria. Denton is a county and a small college town town. Gah!
I can’t believe that folks don’t know why demonstrators are rioting and LOOTING! WHY? Oh, why would this be? They’re frustrated, as am I. As Nick Hanauer pointed out, there’s inequality in this country. There’s economic inequality. There’s health inequality. There’s housing and food and education and everything else inequality. That’s WHY they’re looting places. They’re FRUSTRATED!!
I heard a youngish CNN reported in Atlanta on the street describing what was going on the other night at the CNN building. His voice kept getting higher & high pitched. It was awful. How could this happen.? OMG! There’s a car on fire! Look, they’re rocking a vehicle trying to push it over! It’s HORRIBLE!! ARMAGEDDON!!
Well, I say in a calm, but very annoyed voice: 1968, The Chicago 7, Rodney King. Remember Watts burning? Nuttin’s changed in over 50 years and then 350 years before that. It’s just that the reporter was 40 something and young.
I also watched a bunch of mayors and governors speak to the CRISIS. All damned platitudes. This shouldn’t happen. We’re better than this. Our better angels. We need to discuss and work this out. We need to change this. YADDA, YADDA, YADDA….
I’m mad as hell and don’t want to take it anymore. And I’m not ‘of color’, and I don’t live in the inner city. I have taught in them for years, though. YOU CAN’T GO AROUND KILLING PEOPLE IN THE STREET!!!
Two “I can’t breath” on TAPE. Botham John in Dallas shot while eating ice cream in his own apartment by the white, girl cop. Atatiana Jefferson was shot dead in her home, through her bedroom window while baby sitting her nephew. Christian Taylor, 19, was shot multiple times at a car dealership in Arlington,Texas (between Dallas and Ft. Worth). Others: the kid with the squirt gun, the guy walking down the street, the woman in the car with the cigarette. Charles Kinsey, a mental health therapist. (1) The sad thing is, there are so freakin’ many, I can’t remember them all. SAD!
Just look at this list. This is WHY there’s unrest, demonstrations. rioting, and looting.
And then the white bitch, Amy Cooper, in Central Park! Called the police on a black man who asked her to leash her dog, only. The video is all over the web. At least she was fired from Franklin Templeton. She was the Head of Insurance Solutions at Franklin. Maybe she can get a job cleaning houses.
This is why I’m frustrated and why they’re frustrated.
(1) This one is particularly egregious! “On July 18, 2016, Charles Kinsey, a mental health therapist, was shot by police in North Miami, Florida. Kinsey had been retrieving his 23-year-old patient with autism, Arnaldo Rios Soto, who had wandered from his group home. Police encountered the pair while searching for an armed suicidal man. Kinsey was lying on the ground with his hands in the air and trying to negotiate between officers and his patient when he was shot.
Both Kinsey and his patient were unarmed. Following the shooting, Kinsey said he was handcuffed and left bleeding on the ground for 20 minutes with police giving him no medical aid. ” Wiki. There’s a picture of him with his arms up in the air.
And while I’m spending way too much time today bitching, I’m also really annoyed by the state of Native American affairs. They often have no running water, no electricity and no street addresses. With no address, harder to vote. They have a heavy hit of Covid-10, of course. No hospitals. The whole situation is pathetic. This is the richest country in the world, or it was. WHY? This is a disgrace!
If you go back and read SFB inaugral address you find his wet dream of America now exists. That he is hiding in a blacked out White House says he understands his failures created this mess.
TT
To get somebody to listen you have to go talk to them, I think he made a valid point most of the issues will be settled on the local level. It is at the local level that the individual has the most power. Be there at the meetings and walk up after each one and introduce your self. Be nice and polite and soon they will know who you are before you even have to say it. Find things to build connections because local politics is all personal. Politics 101.
Oh and lay off the pompous attitude style that I’m important because I’m a voter.
Jack
Clean environment, we don’t need no stinking clean environment – so says tRumps Environmental Destruction Agency (recently renamed by Pogo). As WaPo aptly brings to our attention:
EPA limits states and tribes’ ability to protest pipelines and other energy projects
The move changes the way the Clean Water Act has been applied for half a century.
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Monday curtailing the rights of states, tribes and the public to object to federal permits for energy projects and other activities that could pollute waterways across the country.
The move, part of the Trump administration’s push to weaken environmental rules it sees as standing in the way of new development, upends how the United States applied a section of the Clean Water Act for nearly a half century. The energy industry hailed the change as a way to speed up pipelines and other projects, while environmentalists warned it could undercut state and tribal efforts to safeguard rivers and drinking water.
The new rule would set a one-year deadline for states and tribes to certify or reject proposed projects — including pipelines, hydroelectric dams and industrial plants — that could discharge pollution into area waterways. It also would limit any reviews to include only water quality impacts, based on a more narrow definition the Trump administration finalized last year.
Continues
Not everything going on is related to his fecklessness over COVID or absolute insanity over policing the responses to George Floyd’s death.
But Association of Clean Water Administrators Executive Director Julia Anastasio, who represents state water permit administrators in all 50 states, said in a phone interview that the rule doesn’t respect state roles in maintaining water quality and does not address a 1994 Supreme Court ruling empowering them to set “other limitations” that could ensure a project meets “any other appropriate requirement of state law.”
Looks like SFB has the First Amendment in his sights. One of those nasty impediments to being a dictator. It looks like most attempts to over through the government by SFB are going to fail. He talks a bit story, but his results are as big as his hands.
OK, Trump ordered his security to attack peaceful protestors so he can take a walk, do a photo op with a bible He doesn’t know how to use and then walk back. Any other President/politician/human being would have at least paused to bow his head and pray. But no. It is Caligula, what next a senator who is a horse?
Jack
Covid was the second wave of the virus exposing the fragility of our society.
The first wave of the virus happened when tRump took the oath of office. By the way, that was a lie, too.
Why haven’t city and state governments figured out that to diffuse the situation they need to schedule talks with community leaders, families of victims, and, protestors who are there for change? (The kids who see this as the only chance to get something by looting a store, which is a symptom of economic hopelessness and also needs to be addressed.)
Where are the effing grownups who were elected to office? Do your jobs!
Look at his tiny hands. That is not a giant Bible. His press secretary, dime-store Ivanker, was probably commanded to hide her hands behind her back.
It was said when he hosted SNL, that he did not like to read.
I listened to about 2 minutes of SFB’s get tough, antifa has, blahdyblahdyblah bullshit address before I got home. He sounded like a freshmen running for student body president. WHAT A FUCKING MORON. Second Amendment rights? WTF? Use the National Guard and military to eradicate First Amendment rights in the name of second amendment rights? What the shit is that? I just can’t stand the dumbass any longer.
The US Mail just delivered a self-aggrandizing letter from SFB for the check they sent me of my money. I thought he was just wasting postage for direct depositors. The postage, paper, envelopes, toner ink, and, labor to get them in the mail should be charged to his campaign, ‘cuz he’s clearly trying to get votes with his nonsense.
pogo – Your last post was spot on.
This weekend after Trump bashed China, China replied with, “What about Minneapolis?” The whole world is laughing at us? Well, Trump didn’t like China’s comment.
Bishop Mariann Budde on CNN just now: “The President just used a Bible, the sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message that is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything our churches stand for.”
With money flowing to candidates, bail funds and charities, the Democrats’ online donor platform processed over $60 million between Friday and Monday, a sign of strength for the party.
Jack, it was not an intended listening. I was listening to MSNBC on the way home from work and they cut in with dumbass and his chest thumping bullshit. In the 2 minutes I stopped at the garbage can and mailbox so it wasn’t An uninterrupted 2 minutes.
Poobah, while I was sitting down for dinner MSNBC was showing SFB at the church holding up the Bible (telling someone to his left what it was, or confirming it for himself – I couldn’t tell which) while he brought his idiot staff up for a photo op. It was utterly disgusting. Kudos to MSNBC for refusing to broadcast whatever bullshit he was uttering.
I never thought I’d see in effect martial law in the US. But then again I never thought I’d see such a dunderhead in the WH. So much for American exceptionalism. Ahhh, I remember the First Amendment. It’s being hung in effigy in DC. What a fucking shame. Oh, and the cartoon posted by patd, it was right on.
That orange bucket of lard kept saying the protesters have to be DOMINATED! DOMINATE!!! That from a yellow-bellied, scared, failed president who hid in a bunker afraid of a few protesters!
He invoked the MAGAots. They didn’t show up for “MAGA night” at the WH. Then the thang with the Bible. Did he PRAY? NO! Did he worship? NO! He used the church as a backdrop & Bible as a prop for his basket of deplorables.
The orange bucket of lard’s problem is two fold: He can’t bully the virus into submission. And he can’t control the protesters.
ALL the repubes who are up for reelection are going to LOSE bigly! Especially those senators who failed to remove the orange bucket of lard before he could do further damage to the United States!
There once was a man from New YorkWell known as the magnificent dorkBut if weight does matterAnd he gets any fatterHe’ll look like the planet of Ork.
He thought being President a gameThat would surely enhance his fameLike Russian RouletteAnd much to his regretHe won – it’s a national shame.
As a politician Trump is crassBut Republicans give him a passTerrible in schoolAnd a complete foolLlightening shoots out his ass.
His slogans were a flash in the panThe antithesis of “Yes We Can”We all miss ObamaWith a lot less dramaBut at least they both got good tans.
pogo pointed out last night “in case anyone has forgotten, 106,000 Americans have died in the last 4 months” from an ongoing pandemic. approx. 26,000 of those dead are black americans who met an avoidable death before their time.
according to APMresearch
where are the protesters for these wrongfully killed and those that are still being killed by the virus due to the bigotry, negligence and malfeasance of trump? why are they being forgotten? and why why why is he not being held accountable ?
my comment above in no way excuses the horrors perpetrated on persons of color by the police. it’s just to point out that we seem to have forgotten an ongoing and much bigger crime happening before us.
so as not to further offend, I will forego posting of political cartoons.
Why would protestors damage CNN, AFLCIO, church where presidents prayed? These are white supremacist SFB targets, white supremacist targets and skin head targets.
Patd, don’t you dare stop posting political cartoons. This is a political blog. They are always subject to interpretation, and that forwards the discourse. You are not offending everyone (e.g. me) and an occasional offense does not justify silence.
Keep the cartoons. You have much better sources and I would miss even the ones that I don’t agree with.
Let’s hope we turn to something more joyous
https://youtu.be/0I-790dGx-o
bbronc, they know that violent protests lead to more repression and furthers their “race war” plans. studies like the ones TED-talked below have concluded that non-violent protest lead to more liberal laws. those skinheads & supremacists’ certainly don’t want that; ergo what we see going on.
Between 1900-2006, campaigns of nonviolent civil resistance were twice as successful as violent campaigns. Erica will talk about her research on the impressive historical record of civil resistance in the 20th century and discuss the promise of unarmed struggle in the 21st century. She will focus on the so-called “3.5% rule”—the notion that no government can withstand a challenge of 3.5% of its population without either accommodating the movement or (in extreme cases) disintegrating. In addition to explaining why nonviolent resistance has been so effective, she will also share some lessons learned about why it sometimes fails.
pogo, your comment on my self-imposed cartoon ban reminded me of this from last year’s guardian on NYT ban
:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jun/12/new-york-times-cartoonists-ban-antisemitism
The New York Times “disciplined” the unnamed editor responsible and announced that it would no longer be publishing any syndicated cartoons provided by CartoonArts International. But that wasn’t enough, and now the NYT cartoons are no more. Just like any other commercial enterprise, the New York Times can do what it likes, and I look forward to seeing some scathingly satirical tie-dyes in the pages of its international edition. But this cuts deeper than an over-reaction to an ill-judged cartoon. Cartoons have been the rude, taunting part of political commentary in countries around the world for centuries, and enhance newspapers globally and across the political spectrum, in countries from the most tolerant liberal democracies to the most vicious totalitarian tyrannies. As we all know, they consequently have the power to shock and offend. That, largely, is what they’re there for, as a kind of dark, sympathetic magic masquerading as a joke.
That’s also why the Turkish cartoonist Musa Kart is in jail, why the Malaysian cartoonist Zunar was facing 43 years imprisonment for sedition until a change of government last year; why five cartoonists were murdered in the offices of Charlie Hebdo in January 2015; why dozens of British cartoonists – including William Heath Robinson – were on the Gestapo death list.
[…]
As Kart said at his trial, cartoonists are like canaries in the coal mine – when they come for us, you know the politics is getting toxic. But we’re not just subject to the shallow vanity of tyrants or the fury of mobs. The greatest threat to cartoonists has always been the very newspapers we parasitise on….
[…]
We are, in short, expendable. Nonetheless, the New York Times’ decision is particularly irksome in its intoxicating combination of cowardice, pomposity, over-reaction and hypocrisy.
All I can say Pat is do what you have too. But if you can’t take a mild critique of a work that you didn’t create but only reposted here then it is probably a good idea.
Jack
We’ve gone insane. God, I’m glad I’m old. I’m going to set here draw my social security check and watch the world burn down.
“Revolution for the hell of it” Abbie Hoffman’s dream came to realization this weekend.
It was a strange collection of images.
On a weekend billed as an expression of black rage we had rich white kids rioting and young black kids trying to stop them. My favorite image for the weekend is a white woman in the face of a black cop giving him the finger.
*sigh*
Mean while the presidents supporters are hunting for the mysterious Antifa to keep from dealing with the presidents failings.
The lefties are hunting for men in Hawaiian shirts who supposedly were the cause of all the vandalism, rather than dealing with the fact that for some reason they draw a bunch of nihilistic vandals and opportunistic criminals to their “peaceful protest” and they believe organizing is just posting a message on their favorite social media. With a big “y’all come”
Welcome to the revolution.
Jack
Well I know where the righties get their Hawaiian shirts, they are at Walmart. But where do the lefties buy their cool ninja outfits?
Jack
did someone say cartoons….
and another one…
Jennifer Rubin is right on target with her piece at WaPo today – A President Few Want to Hear From.
We couldn’t be so lucky…
I always love an opportoonery for Political cartoonery about governmental goonery and general buffoonery. It’s never too soonery to laugh at all the loonery along with all the serious commentoonery.
here’s one I really like…
That cartoon you posted, patd, is the least of anyone’s problems. Yes, i found it offensive. No, it’s not a big deal.
Your, and the cartoonist’s intentions were good, it was just an inelegantly expressed point. Am personally guilty of such all the time.
Incidentally, i didn’t find offensive the cartoon, from months ago, with trump playing golf over the body of dead migrants, and i think it’s because, in contrast to the Floyd/liberty cartoon, it wasn’t making a comparison between an actual crime(murder of Floyd) and a more esoteric political concept.
The ever-shifting boundaries of socially-acceptable humor is an interesting topic for me.
agree with OP btw- police no longer protect and serve, they enforce and punish.
The causes and solutions to police incompetence and cultural toxicity have been well-documented and discussed for years, and yet, here we are🤷♂️
Oh, and to be fair, it’s hard to blame cops for being so skittish during encounters in a country awash with firearms. Just like i approach everyone i meet assuming they have Covid-19 and are therefore a potential threat, cops must assume everyone they meet is armed and therefore a potential threat. Thanks, Samuel Colt, you made us all equally fucked.
Ok, keep your hands clean and your head down✌️❤️🇺🇸
Movie of the Week. (Or Book of next Month)
”A Clockwork Orange”
“It’s Either/Or,” said Sad Soren, “They both have much to offer.”
Oh, it bears repeating that in a time of national crisis, President Trump literally scurried into a hole like a coward.
Yes to CARTOONS!!!
106,000 dead is more than the battle dead of the American Revolution + WWI + the Viet Nam War combined.
I was listening to the TeeVee with one ear and heard it saying that the President was rushed down to to his safety cavern in the White House last night. I, of course, had visions of Donald la Merde being dragged down the stairs of la Maison-Blanc à la Louis XVI.
Robert Costa
@costareports
·
29m
I’m in touch with someone who’s on the governors’ call with President Trump right now. They and others listening in are alarmed. The president is urging governors to take back the streets, not be “weak,” and use force as the nation faces growing racial unrest.
Good morning,
Crap it’s June?
A few years ago, I had to work with the police and the last day I was with a particular detective, he brought up that “everyone hates the cops” — It wasn’t an admission of guilt and yeah, there was a fair bit of sympathy for himself. But it was an interesting and vulnerable moment — And I’ve never fully shook it. Concerning my case, yes they were great and I will be forever indebted to that. Should I be? It is their job. However, I’d gone in very leery and came out wondering exactly what might have been different had I not looked or sounded the way I did. Or hadn’t had a situation that was familiar enough to a detective to make him pursue it.
Most of my friends in Brooklyn were at the protests — many of which turned into riots. From their visual experiences, the biggest aggressors to the cops were young white adults — And there were a number of trucks filled with teenagers of color being arrested.
I did not attend a protest because I have a mixed relationship with protests even when we’re not in the middle of a pandemic. I think that privilege and fervor exacerbate and continue a lot of the issues in (perfectly apt description) a petri dish. Yes, it is phenomenal to see an outpouring of the same feelings you are feeling through solidarity. But at the end of the day, it is often more about the individual feeling better or letting out anger. The anger is absolutely justified. This is beyond horrific and triggering for so many people.
Cops look out for cops. The police coverage and momentum when a cop is killed? Unmatchable.
As for the staggering percentages of POC infected or dying from COVID, this is far from the first time this country has ignored them in the midst of any number of epidemics. I imagine it is as wrapped up in the protests as everything else is.
@jimsciutto
· 38m
Trump’s words to the nations’ governors: “You have to dominate or you’ll look like a bunch of jerks, you have to arrest & try people…if you don’t put it down it will get worse & worse. The only time its successful is when you’re weak & most of you are weak.” @ryanobles reports
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.texastribune.org/2020/05/31/texas-greg-abbott-state-disaster-george-floyd/amp/Federal enforcement now acting as local “peace” officers in TX, after protests here triggered a disaster declaration from Gov. Abbott.
Why aren’t state and city governments asking to meet with community leaders about police brutality?
Kamala said the Fed is doing something, but darned if I remember what.
Where is Congress on more stimulus money? Where are the states and counties on extending eviction proceedings longer?
It seems that those with power have done nothing except try to secure their own power.
Why do the magaTs think that anyone but white folks getting treated fairly hurts them? Liberty and justice are not limited resources. tRump wants you to believe that they are, as do many others in power, but it just ain’t so. It’s time to wake up.
FWIW I didn’t find the cartoon offensive, but political cartoons generally will offend some and please others. It’s kind of the nature of the beast. I would hope SFB’s lemmings would take offense.
VB – Glad you are safe.
patD – Keep up the ‘toons please. Everyone has a different filter for life.
I think the interesting thing here is that we have 2 council districts, the 3rd and the 5th that are predominately African American, about 60%. the 3rd( where I live) is made up of the old jimcrow black neighborhoods, neighborhoods where they spread out, Plus some old traditionally white immigrant working class.
The 3rd lead the city early on with Covid-19 cases but the 5th had the fewest. I don’t know if that changed or not. One reason why is explained just down the street from me. There is a 7or8 story high-rise originally built for senior housing but now filled with both elderly and people with health issues so bad they are on disability. For some of the elderly it is the closest thing to a nursing home they can afford. With in a mile of me there are at least 4 of these. Plus the 3rd is where they stick most of the subsidized housing and we get the homeless shelters too.
So not only is this district majority black, I suspect it maybe majority people most susceptible to Covid-19. My area with its Hispanic families may be the exception.
I would like to see some up dated numbers to see if the 5th has caught up.
Jack
Flatus, he’s just a big PWussy. Talks tough, but in reality just a scared oldish man.
apparently Posse Comitatus means nothing to the great orange slug who has been tweeting violent garbage all morning.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act
The Posse Comitatus Act, which passed after the Civil War to keep federal troops from policing the South, limits federal troops’ deployment on U.S. soil and forbids using them to enforce domestic laws. The President can deploy troops if there’s an insurrection or invasion on U.S. soil
“…if you don’t put it down it will get worse & worse.”
– trump via Jim Sciutto via Mr Sturgeone
In other words, the problem of violence is solved by MORE VIOLENCE ! GRRRRR
trump is an outside agitator, aggravater and woobey dick tater.
…funny that trumpies like to make photoshops of macho-man trump’s face on, like “Rambo’s” body, or whatever, but when faced with a test of courage, trump runs away like Sir Robin.
Proposal #1 for post-trump reconstruction is a Constitutional amendment requiring a President to have some form of previous public-service: military, police, community-outreach organizations, Congress, state-congress, mayor, councilperson, dog-catcher… anything. SOMETHING.
Paul Jacobson
He could have called Bush, Clinton, or Obama. Instead he talks to Putin. Unreal.
If he’s supposed to be the great dealster…….oh, never mind.
trump called Putin?!
link, corroborated by the Kremlin, not U.S.:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN238314
🤮🤮🤮
Following up on sturg’s comments from Jim Sciutto, WaPo’s update on that call from SFB to the governors:
Dummass thinks it’s like pro wrestling.
Dummy doesn’t even understand the 1st Amendment
bink, 106,000 dead people, children in cages, food stamps denied the hungry, vital health care denied immigrants to say nothing of destruction of fundamental democratic institutions – in short the actual and observable killing of this country by trump is more than what you call an “esoteric political concept.” it’s a reality.
ok fine but that cartoon expressed none of those concepts. It was just a shitty cartoon patd- they can’t all be home-runs🤷♂️
Ok i’m arguing about a fucking cartoon. Deep breaths.
✌️❤️🇺🇸
bink, you must admit those caricatures in it of mitch and barr were spot on – well, maybe a tad flattering. evil can be hard to capture.
Bink…
yep, guess i’m beating a dead horse for sure; but it’s frustrating to be watching trump deliberately taking apart the country.
I feel like henny penny running around yelling “the sky is falling, the sky is falling!”
no, no, no patd….. you win!
thanks, renee
Here is why it trivializes it in my opinion
What the police did in Minneapolis is a moral issue, they deliberately killed a man.
Trump for all his issues (and you did a good job of listing them) hasn’t risen to that level. Some time in the next 5 years Trump will be gone. Trump and all his issues are a political problem
But long after Trump is gone the Minneapolis police department will be killing people. It doesn’t matter who is president , governor or even mayor they are still going to be killing people.
This is a major moral problem for that department and us.
To bring the killing of that man down to the political level is to diminish it.
It is just a political problem, ” here we will pave an alley for you, some curbs and sidewalk repair to.”
Just as long as they can shut up the local neighborhood leaders. Then the issue will go away but the killing continues.
This is a moral issue and needs to be kept there. It isn’t about Trump never has been , never will be.
I guess you have to live in one of these neighborhood for a while. Have a few bad encounters, and we all have our stories. Urban policing and suburban are totally different even in the same police department. The total lack of respect that goes on in urban areas just doesn’t happen the same way in the suburbs.
I guess this is a bit personal to, as there was a time 30 years ago when I said, “If a stray dog and a Kansas City police officer got hit on the street I would go check on the dog.”
I like to think that the KCPD has improved but then I’m an old man and they don’t beat on old men as much.
Jack
Recording of Trump’s rant to the governors
https://www.thedailybeast.com/listen-to-trumps-unhinged-rant-to-guvs
Remember that BIG, strong man? The tough guy. The one who bullies and puts down everyone. The one who diminishes everyone. The one who mocks everyone because he’s so BIG & STRONG. Well that useless, orange tub of lard hid out in a BUNKER because he’s SCARED of a few demonstrators. Besides being useless in a pandemic, a crashed stock market,a depression level unemployment, and racial unrest, he’s YELLOW BELLIED. and SCARED.
Re: George Floyd’s death, Dr. Baden comes to a different conclusion than the County. Wapo:
Baden swings a heavy stethoscope (well, you know…)
TT, he’s just a pwussy.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1267547098070867970
A message from President Obama
Preface: DFW news said that protesters were from OUT OF TOWN! Turned out they were from Denton, the next freakin’ county! I thought they were going to say, they’re from Russia or Bulgaria. Denton is a county and a small college town town. Gah!
I can’t believe that folks don’t know why demonstrators are rioting and LOOTING! WHY? Oh, why would this be? They’re frustrated, as am I. As Nick Hanauer pointed out, there’s inequality in this country. There’s economic inequality. There’s health inequality. There’s housing and food and education and everything else inequality. That’s WHY they’re looting places. They’re FRUSTRATED!!
I heard a youngish CNN reported in Atlanta on the street describing what was going on the other night at the CNN building. His voice kept getting higher & high pitched. It was awful. How could this happen.? OMG! There’s a car on fire! Look, they’re rocking a vehicle trying to push it over! It’s HORRIBLE!! ARMAGEDDON!!
Well, I say in a calm, but very annoyed voice: 1968, The Chicago 7, Rodney King. Remember Watts burning? Nuttin’s changed in over 50 years and then 350 years before that. It’s just that the reporter was 40 something and young.
I also watched a bunch of mayors and governors speak to the CRISIS. All damned platitudes. This shouldn’t happen. We’re better than this. Our better angels. We need to discuss and work this out. We need to change this. YADDA, YADDA, YADDA….
I’m mad as hell and don’t want to take it anymore. And I’m not ‘of color’, and I don’t live in the inner city. I have taught in them for years, though. YOU CAN’T GO AROUND KILLING PEOPLE IN THE STREET!!!
Two “I can’t breath” on TAPE. Botham John in Dallas shot while eating ice cream in his own apartment by the white, girl cop. Atatiana Jefferson was shot dead in her home, through her bedroom window while baby sitting her nephew. Christian Taylor, 19, was shot multiple times at a car dealership in Arlington,Texas (between Dallas and Ft. Worth). Others: the kid with the squirt gun, the guy walking down the street, the woman in the car with the cigarette. Charles Kinsey, a mental health therapist. (1) The sad thing is, there are so freakin’ many, I can’t remember them all. SAD!
Just look at this list. This is WHY there’s unrest, demonstrations. rioting, and looting.
https://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed
And then the white bitch, Amy Cooper, in Central Park! Called the police on a black man who asked her to leash her dog, only. The video is all over the web. At least she was fired from Franklin Templeton. She was the Head of Insurance Solutions at Franklin. Maybe she can get a job cleaning houses.
This is why I’m frustrated and why they’re frustrated.
(1) This one is particularly egregious! “On July 18, 2016, Charles Kinsey, a mental health therapist, was shot by police in North Miami, Florida. Kinsey had been retrieving his 23-year-old patient with autism, Arnaldo Rios Soto, who had wandered from his group home. Police encountered the pair while searching for an armed suicidal man. Kinsey was lying on the ground with his hands in the air and trying to negotiate between officers and his patient when he was shot.
Both Kinsey and his patient were unarmed. Following the shooting, Kinsey said he was handcuffed and left bleeding on the ground for 20 minutes with police giving him no medical aid. ” Wiki. There’s a picture of him with his arms up in the air.
Jack, thanks for the Obama post. Read it. How much did he get permanently done during his 8 years? Kinda just more latitudes with some suggestions.
WHY are they frustrated? Because no one LISTENS! When the city burns, some at least pay attention.
And while I’m spending way too much time today bitching, I’m also really annoyed by the state of Native American affairs. They often have no running water, no electricity and no street addresses. With no address, harder to vote. They have a heavy hit of Covid-10, of course. No hospitals. The whole situation is pathetic. This is the richest country in the world, or it was. WHY? This is a disgrace!
If you go back and read SFB inaugral address you find his wet dream of America now exists. That he is hiding in a blacked out White House says he understands his failures created this mess.
TT
To get somebody to listen you have to go talk to them, I think he made a valid point most of the issues will be settled on the local level. It is at the local level that the individual has the most power. Be there at the meetings and walk up after each one and introduce your self. Be nice and polite and soon they will know who you are before you even have to say it. Find things to build connections because local politics is all personal. Politics 101.
Oh and lay off the pompous attitude style that I’m important because I’m a voter.
Jack
Clean environment, we don’t need no stinking clean environment – so says tRumps Environmental Destruction Agency (recently renamed by Pogo). As WaPo aptly brings to our attention:
Not everything going on is related to his fecklessness over COVID or absolute insanity over policing the responses to George Floyd’s death.
From the article about the EP(D)A regulations –
Buckle up, it will be a long, wild ride.
Even the coroner’s office tried to protect the police.
Looks like SFB has the First Amendment in his sights. One of those nasty impediments to being a dictator. It looks like most attempts to over through the government by SFB are going to fail. He talks a bit story, but his results are as big as his hands.
OK, did you see how Trump held that bible? It is obvious that he doesn’t know how a book works. I will bet money, Donald Trump can not read.
Jack
Trump is a “Law and Order” president? Well, I’ve seen Law & Order and he’s no Mariska Hargitay!
Was his hand burning, Jack?
Corey
Well the picture I saw he was carefully holding like it might be painful.
Didn’t see any smoke though
Jack
OK, Trump ordered his security to attack peaceful protestors so he can take a walk, do a photo op with a bible He doesn’t know how to use and then walk back. Any other President/politician/human being would have at least paused to bow his head and pray. But no. It is Caligula, what next a senator who is a horse?
Jack
Here it is Corey
Covid was the second wave of the virus exposing the fragility of our society.
The first wave of the virus happened when tRump took the oath of office. By the way, that was a lie, too.
Why haven’t city and state governments figured out that to diffuse the situation they need to schedule talks with community leaders, families of victims, and, protestors who are there for change? (The kids who see this as the only chance to get something by looting a store, which is a symptom of economic hopelessness and also needs to be addressed.)
Where are the effing grownups who were elected to office? Do your jobs!
Cheer up, all…….I just read about Sen. Susan Collins being very concerned
Look at his tiny hands. That is not a giant Bible. His press secretary, dime-store Ivanker, was probably commanded to hide her hands behind her back.
It was said when he hosted SNL, that he did not like to read.
craig, bun in oven if you need it
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/us/national-guard-protests-states-map-trnd/index.html
tRump declares war against America.
My family in CA said their curfew is 6pm. Six? Yes, six.
TT -Wasn’t that crack reporting? Protestors from “out of town.” Pfft. Denton. Ha!
There was a protest in Lewiston, Maine today. I guess it got Sue’s attention. How long is she gonna say she cares this time?
bet the minute after photo op, he quickly
handedtossed the bible to the body man and immediately grabbed for a bottle of hand sanitizerI listened to about 2 minutes of SFB’s get tough, antifa has, blahdyblahdyblah bullshit address before I got home. He sounded like a freshmen running for student body president. WHAT A FUCKING MORON. Second Amendment rights? WTF? Use the National Guard and military to eradicate First Amendment rights in the name of second amendment rights? What the shit is that? I just can’t stand the dumbass any longer.
The US Mail just delivered a self-aggrandizing letter from SFB for the check they sent me of my money. I thought he was just wasting postage for direct depositors. The postage, paper, envelopes, toner ink, and, labor to get them in the mail should be charged to his campaign, ‘cuz he’s clearly trying to get votes with his nonsense.
pogo – Your last post was spot on.
Whelp, it looks like tRump finally got his military parade in DC.
This weekend after Trump bashed China, China replied with, “What about Minneapolis?” The whole world is laughing at us? Well, Trump didn’t like China’s comment.
Bishop Mariann Budde on CNN just now: “The President just used a Bible, the sacred text of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and one of the churches of my diocese without permission as a backdrop for a message that is antithetical to the teachings of Jesus and everything our churches stand for.”
Pogo
Thankyou for your service, 2 min is a long time. I skipped it and got the condensed version from twitter.
Jack
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/01/politics/george-floyd-police-doj-investigations-invs/index.html
All roads lead to tRump.
Bid
I had a neighbor who said the letter made good toilet paper, in case you can’t get any down your way.
Jack
From the nytimes
Jack, it was not an intended listening. I was listening to MSNBC on the way home from work and they cut in with dumbass and his chest thumping bullshit. In the 2 minutes I stopped at the garbage can and mailbox so it wasn’t An uninterrupted 2 minutes.
Poobah, while I was sitting down for dinner MSNBC was showing SFB at the church holding up the Bible (telling someone to his left what it was, or confirming it for himself – I couldn’t tell which) while he brought his idiot staff up for a photo op. It was utterly disgusting. Kudos to MSNBC for refusing to broadcast whatever bullshit he was uttering.
I never thought I’d see in effect martial law in the US. But then again I never thought I’d see such a dunderhead in the WH. So much for American exceptionalism. Ahhh, I remember the First Amendment. It’s being hung in effigy in DC. What a fucking shame. Oh, and the cartoon posted by patd, it was right on.
That “dunderhead” has declared war on us.
That orange bucket of lard kept saying the protesters have to be DOMINATED! DOMINATE!!! That from a yellow-bellied, scared, failed president who hid in a bunker afraid of a few protesters!
He invoked the MAGAots. They didn’t show up for “MAGA night” at the WH. Then the thang with the Bible. Did he PRAY? NO! Did he worship? NO! He used the church as a backdrop & Bible as a prop for his basket of deplorables.
The orange bucket of lard’s problem is two fold: He can’t bully the virus into submission. And he can’t control the protesters.
Such a pathetic, loser!
ALL the repubes who are up for reelection are going to LOSE bigly! Especially those senators who failed to remove the orange bucket of lard before he could do further damage to the United States!
trump HATES the United States!
Words that rhyme with trump.
Bump Chump Clump Crump Dump Frump Grump Gump Hump Jump Klump Lump Plump Pump Rump Slump Stump Sump Thump
Mine would all be obscene.
http://www.thehypertexts.com/Donald%20Trump%20Limericks.htm
There once was a man from New YorkWell known as the magnificent dorkBut if weight does matterAnd he gets any fatterHe’ll look like the planet of Ork.
He thought being President a gameThat would surely enhance his fameLike Russian RouletteAnd much to his regretHe won – it’s a national shame.
As a politician Trump is crassBut Republicans give him a passTerrible in schoolAnd a complete foolLlightening shoots out his ass.
His slogans were a flash in the panThe antithesis of “Yes We Can”We all miss ObamaWith a lot less dramaBut at least they both got good tans.
http://www.topplebush.com/joke107.shtml
Tiptoe’s axiom …There’s profit in chaos.
…and, in through the nose…
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