Month: September 2015

Bernie goes to Lynchburg
by Tom Sullivan

Sen. Bernie Sanders is scheduled to speak at Liberty University this morning in Lynchburg, Virginia, following in the steps of Donald Trump and others. That’s one way for Sanders to “generate widespread national media attention“:

Indications from local Democrats show that many Sanders supporters may try to fill in the seats not occupied by Liberty students. Katie Cyphert, the Lynchburg Democratic Committee chairwoman, said she has been fielding many phone calls and emails.

“This is not a Democratic Committee event,” Cyphert said. “By virtue of this being in Lynchburg, we are fielding an exorbitant number of phone calls.”

One of those students, Erin Kotlan, came to further her faith in Jesus and actually found him through Liberty:

Many of my conservative Christian peers are baffled by the idea that my political beliefs could be grounded in my faith in Jesus Christ; but I believe the best way to find any sort of concrete truth among the shifting cultures of Christianity is to go directly to the Bible. From my studies, I have concluded that the Bible clearly indicates all life is valuable. Jesus calls his followers to care for those on the fringes of society: the poor, orphans, immigrants, and other disenfranchised groups. His calling leads me to a strong passion for social justice and an interest in hearing Senator Sanders speak.

[snip]

For me, applying these truths to my political life puts me somewhere in between the two political parties. There is not a candidate for the upcoming election with whom I fully agree; but the majority of Sanders’s political ideas seem to fit well with my faith. According to his campaign site, Sanders’s political focus is on issues such as strengthening the middle class, racial justice, women’s rights, and a better immigration policy. These types of policies help more people gain equal access to political, economic, and social rights. Sander’s economic policies have the potential to shift our countries’ mindset from profit motive to a focus on communal well-being and equality. A governmental focus on these policies could help America to create a more inclusive community; a community that would allow us to decrease the number of people left on the margins of society.

Oops. Liberty officials must be worrying if it’s contagious.

No harm, no foul?

by digby

As long time readers know I’ve been writing about taser torture for a very long time. I used to try to catalog the incidents as I came across them but it eventually became overwhelming. Then I just catalogued taser deaths for a while but that too became overwhelming. And in an era where we are debating whether or not police should have the right to shoot down unarmed citizens because they “feel afraid”, taser torture just doesn’t rank in public concern.  In fact, most people would rather see more tasering if it means less shooting, even if the taser is used as a torture device and sometimes results in death as well. That’s how fucked up we are — we have to prioritize police abuse of power.

Still, maybe someday we will, as a society, decide that it’s not ok for the state to shoot people full of electricity whenever one of its agents gets his ego bruised or has a bad day.

Here’s an update on a story I’ve written about before:

A former Missouri police officer pleaded guilty Friday to violating the civil rights of a 17-year-old boy that he dropped face first onto the ground during a routine traffic stop, leaving him with serious brain damage, court records show.

The guilty plea comes nearly a year after former Independence Police Officer Timothy Runnels pulled over Bryce Masters, who is now 18, on Sept. 14, 2014. Authorities say Runnels threw Masters face down and “continuously” Tasered him while he was restrained, according to the civil complaint.

Runnels later submitted false police reports and gave false statements to the FBI agents and the Independence Police Department during their investigation into the incident, according to court records filed in the Western District Court of Missouri.

Masters suffered brain damage as a result of incident, putting him into cardiac arrest, authorities said. He was also placed into a medically induced coma for a weekend because his heart stopped after being Tased in the chest.

Runnels was ultimately indicted in March with two counts of constitutional rights violations and two counts of obstruction of justice. However, Runnels on Friday ultimately pleaded guilty to one felony count of violating Masters’ constitutional rights. The other three counts will be dropped against him as a part of a plea agreement. He faces up to 10 years in prison, as well as a $250,000 fine.

Note that it took a federal investigation. The locals thought this was no biggie.This officer was previously accused of using excessive force and nothing was done.

The kid was tasered out of the car, dropped on his head and then tasered to the point of brain damage. Afterwards, while he was having convulsions, the police officer casually wandered around occasionally kicking him to see if he responded.

None of this would be known if someone hadn’t surreptitiously filmed the altercation. I’m sure people all over the country get a good, hearty laugh out of this scene. We all love a good taser torture video, amirite?

Just ride off into the sunset already

by digby

How much do I miss Ari “watch what you say” Fleischer? Oh so much.

Joe Conason caught him catapulting the propaganda on 9/11 as only he can:

I don’t doubt that Bush said all that puerile 1950s cowboy bullshit. I just can’t over the fact that even after their massive, epic failures in foreign policy and national security they continue to think that’s something to be proud of.

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Sunday funnies

by digby

This one by Brian McFadden in the Times may be on to something real. Murdoch buying National Geographic may very well be an attempt to skew popular understanding of science.

Sometimes a chickpea is just chickpea

by digby

Dan Abrams may have found the most perfect example of Villager idiocy I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot.

Near the top of his premiere show, Colbert unveiled what he called an “ancient, cursed amulet” which, as part of his deal to host the show, he agreed to obey. A deal with a devil, he jokingly claimed, which demanded of him “certain regrettable compromises.”

The first of such compromises? “Ladies and gentleman, the amulet commands me to inform you of the delicious taste of tonight’s sponsor, Sabra Red Pepper hummus, made from simple fresh ingredients that bring people together one bite at a time.”

A harmless, humorous, and lucrative way to incorporate a sponsor into an entertainment program. But for New York Times reporter Robert Mackey, it demonstrated a different type of opportunity––a chance to plug a Palestinian effort called “B.D.S.” (Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions), which seeks to boycott products made in Israel.

Lets start with the absurd fact that Sabra hummus is not even made in Israel, but in the United States. Yes, its 500 employees are all right here in the U.S of A. But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a controversy for a cause. As even Mackey himself wrote:

Mr. Colbert’s viewers were quite likely unaware of any political implications of the tongue-in-cheek endorsement.

No doubt. But that is why we can be thankful we have The Times to raise awareness:

…fans who support a Palestinian-led campaign to pressure Israel through boycotts, divestment and sanctions, or B.D.S., were dismayed by the gag. The hummus, which is produced in the United States, has been subject to calls for a boycott because it is made in a joint venture between PepsiCo and the Strauss Group, an Israeli food company that has provided financial support to the Israel Defense Forces’ elite Golani Brigade.

So much hidden spice to digest in that one phrase. Yes, a tiny group of “fans” who support B.D.S. were apparently dismayed and expressed that disappointment on social media. But that’s enough for the Times to assign or accept an entire piece to amplify that handful of advocates? I’m confident there were a host of other fringe groups offended by various Colbert interviews and gags this week as well. Just as troubling is the tortured connection The Times creates between Sabra and the Israel Defense Forces.

Maybe it’s just a hummus bias. After all, a Middle Eastern delicacy like this chickpea mash just makes for a delectable news “spread.” But, of course, far more likely and disappointing, is just a shameless desire to amplify and support B.D.S.:

Any fans who expected him to champion a boycott of Israel — a country that enjoys nearly unanimous support from Republicans — were always likely to be disappointed.

Wait what? “Any fans who expected him to champion a boycott of Israel?” Sure, Colbert’s Comedy Central character seemed to be a satire of mostly Republican pundits, but this is an entertainment program. Yes, Letterman could get political, but even if Colbert believed in said boycott, how exactly, could or should he “champion it” on The Late Show?

And then Colbert brought in that soda-stream pitching Palestinian loving terrorist wannabe Scarlett Johansson the next night. Can there be any doubt about Colbert now? I think not.

So what conclusions to draw from this insidious anti-Palestinian conspiracy brewing behind the scenes at this nascent network broadcast? First, Mackey informs us that there is more to the name of this evil appetizer than meets the eye:

Although calls to boycott Sabra have been heard on college campuses for several years, and the product’s name is a term for Jews born in Israel, there was no sign in the segment that Mr. Colbert was aware of the debate.

Ah, so it’s really just a handful of advocates, and The Times, who even noticed. . .that is, until they built an entire piece around it. Alas, maybe this piece, like Colbert’s shameless plug, was demanded by an evil ancient amulet. But in this case, that amulet might just be a particular bias at the paper of record.

It’s not a joke. The New York Times actually published this nonsensical drivel.

For some reason the Villagers are coming back to life in a big way. I don’t know if it’s Clinton or the fact that the Republicans are such a clown show they feel they need to balance the scale by making the so-called “liberal” media into their proxy. Whatever it is, fasten your seatbelts. The Kewl Kidz are back.

Update 9/15/15:

@MaxBlumenthal @digby56 Dan Abrams completely misrepresented my piece and I honestly am baffled by your post. What are you arguing about it?

— Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) September 15, 2015

It appears that I precipitously popped this post off last Saturday morning without fully vetting the New York Times account or the considering the serious issues underlying the complaint about Colbert. I shamefully admit that I didn’t give it a lot of thought.

I’m still not entirely sure why Colbert’s joke was taken so seriously by anyone but then that happens often these days and I should probably not ever post anything that has to do with comedy because it’s a minefield that I no longer understand (or frankly enjoy very much.) I do understand that this is a way of raising awareness, however, but it’s not something I’m particularly suited to sort through. I should know better after all these years than to be flippant or thoughtless about such an important issue. For that I apologize.

I also apologize to Mr Mackey for being dismissive of his work and calling him a Villager. That was a misinterpretation of the intention of the piece on my part.  I will be more careful in the future.

Against 100 to 1 odds
by Tom Sullivan

This news from across the pond broke while I was writing yesterday morning:

Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader of the British Labour party, in a stunning first-round victory that dwarfed even the mandate for Tony Blair in 1994.

He won with nearly 59.5% of first-preference votes, beating rivals Andy Burnham, who trailed on 19%, and Yvette Cooper who received 17%. The “Blairite” candidate Liz Kendall came last on 4.5%.

Minutes after his victory, Corbyn said the message is that people are “fed up with the injustice and the inequality” of Britain.

“The media and many of us, simply didn’t understand the views of young people in our country. They were turned off by the way politics was being conducted. We have to and must change that. The fightback gathers speed and gathers pace,” he said.

I can’t profess a grasp of the nuances of British politics, but given the insurgent campaigns on these shores, it has been fascinating to watch Corbyn’s rise over the summer. The initial odds against the left-wing Corbyn winning were around 100-1, reports the Guardian, “but his campaign was boosted when he won the support of two of the biggest unions, Unite and Unison, and became the only candidate to vote against the Conservatives’ welfare bill while the others abstained.”

Within hours of victory, more conservative Labour members refused to serve in a shadow cabinet under Corbyn. One had already described a prospective Corbyn win as “a disaster for the party.” He’s been accused by rivals of trying to “turn back the clock.” The “left-of-centre” New Statesman warned that a tilt towards the Corbyn wing of the party would consign Labour to “permanent minority status.” Tony Blair (now there’s the voice of authority) argued against Corbynistas and, essentially, for more centrism.

Nigel Green of the deVere Group, slammed Corbyn’s tax and economic policies as “disastrous” for business:

“He seems utterly determined to drag Britain back to the 1970s, an era in which the UK was strangled by high taxes and an inflexible labour market.

“Mr Corbyn seems so far removed from reality that he is unwilling or unable to accept that if you significantly increase taxes and disincentivise work and investment, people will change their behaviours.

Yet in Old England, Corbyn’s policies seem to have wide support among voters. Go figure.

The echoes on this side of the Atlantic with regard to Democrats in general, and Bernie Sanders in particular, are obvious. Republican candidates, reports the New York Times, are anything but hopeful, even though “by Republican standards” the economy is doing well. “Even if the debate is held under GOP rules,” writes Steve Benen, “looking at Obama’s economic record, it’s hard to know what Republicans are complaining about.” They are complaining because it is their job to.

If Bernie Sanders’ political insurgency continues to grow, expect to hear more of the same, and a prediction that unless Democrats support more center-left policies, America faces doom. Doom, I tell you.

Back when I got into this game around 2004, old Democratic hands whispered that “those progressives” were going to ruin everything. Then with a little help from a guy named Obama, our county won every race on the ballot in 2008 – 36 for 36. And in an off-year election when Democrats across the South lost big, we were the only state to pick up seats in the legislature, two from our county. Doom, I tell you.

Deporting 12 million people? No sweat.

by digby

Via TPM, Trump talks about thedetails of his deportation plan:

“I think it’s a process that can take 18 months to two years if properly handled,” Trump said on Thursday, according to CBS.

And the wall along the southern border that Trump plans to build? He said he won’t build it “until all the undocumented immigrants are out,” according to the report.

“I will get them out so fast that your head would spin, long before I even can start the wall,” Trump said. “They will be out of here. You know we have tremendous problems of crime.”

Here’s one of Trump’s supporters standing up for freedom:

@DREAMIowa pic.twitter.com/sj2TB9anGJ

— Samuel Van Oort (@GoodSam10) September 12, 2015

She’s a very attractive person. And I think she’ll look awesome in a nice brown shirt.

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Who are the Trumpsters?

by digby

Ron Brownstein has an interesting analysis of Trump’s appeal today in the National Journal:

But two oth­er dis­tinc­tions emerged more clearly from the Quin­nipi­ac and Mar­ist sur­veys that could loom lar­ger as the race de­vel­ops. Trump drew some­what more sup­port from men than wo­men in the Quin­nipi­ac and Mar­ist sur­veys. And he con­sist­ently ran more strongly among Re­pub­lic­ans who did not hold at least a four-year col­lege de­gree than those who did. Those blue-col­lar Re­pub­lic­ans are grow­ing in in­flu­ence in the GOP nom­in­at­ing pro­cess, as a tor­rent of White work­ing-class voters have re­aligned from the Demo­crat­ic to Re­pub­lic­an Party over the past gen­er­a­tion.

The class and gender dy­nam­ics play­ing out in the GOP field com­pound each oth­er, as fig­ures provided to Next Amer­ica by Quin­nipi­ac and Mar­ist make clear. The two polling or­gan­iz­a­tions ana­lyzed the res­ults among White Re­pub­lic­an voters (who com­prise nearly all of the GOP elect­or­ate in Iowa and New Hamp­shire, and about 90 per­cent na­tion­ally) based on gender and edu­ca­tion, and found that Trump’s sup­port gen­er­ally fol­lowed con­sist­ent pat­terns.

In each of the three sur­veys, Trump runs best among White men without a col­lege de­gree, the blue-col­lar core of the mod­ern Re­pub­lic­an co­ali­tion. These work­ing-class White men give Trump 38 per­cent of their sup­port both na­tion­ally and in New Hamp­shire, and 37 per­cent in Iowa. Those are stun­ning num­bers in a field with 16 can­did­ates di­vid­ing the vote. No one comes close to Trump among these men in any of the three polls. In the na­tion­al sur­vey, sur­geon Ben Car­son ranks second with these men at just 11 per­cent. No oth­er can­did­ate at­tracts more than 17 per­cent of these men in Iowa or 13 per­cent in New Hamp­shire.

Trump’s show­ing among White wo­men without a col­lege edu­ca­tion was also strong, though not quite as dom­in­ant: He drew 32 per­cent of them in the na­tion­al poll, 30 per­cent in Iowa, and 27 per­cent in New Hamp­shire. Trump led among them in all three sur­veys, though Car­son (at 24 per­cent in Iowa and 19 per­cent in New Hamp­shire) showed com­pet­it­ively with the so-called “wait­ress moms” as well.

He doesn’t do nearly as well with the white college educated Republicans, especially college educated women. (People of other races pretty well hate him for obvious reasons.) But according to Brownstein, he’s starting to gain support among the college educated too. Still, Trump is at this point mostly a class phenomenon.

This should be interesting:

In the 2012 GOP primar­ies, voters without a col­lege de­gree cast a ma­jor­ity of the vote in 13 of the 20 states where exit polls were con­duc­ted, and at least 45 per­cent in four oth­ers. Those voters also gen­er­ally dis­play much more re­ceptiv­ity than col­lege-edu­cated Re­pub­lic­ans to the sharp anti-im­mig­ra­tion mes­sage Trump is de­liv­er­ing.

In the past two GOP pres­id­en­tial races, can­did­ates lead­ing the na­tion­al polls in the fall be­fore the first votes were cast ul­ti­mately faded without cap­tur­ing a single state. But Trump’s re­si­li­ence through re­peated con­tro­ver­sies over the past sev­er­al months have sug­ges­ted that his rivals can­not count on sup­port for him simply evap­or­at­ing: They will need to find a way to ec­lipse him.
Even­tu­ally, the oth­er can­did­ates who had been count­ing on mo­bil­iz­ing the GOP’s “pop­u­list” voters—led by Wis­con­sin Gov. Scott Walk­er and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas—will need to find a way to dent Trump’s strong early stand­ing with these volat­ile, deeply dis­af­fected, blue-col­lar Re­pub­lic­ans. Mean­while, the Re­pub­lic­ans aim­ing more at the party’s more up­scale “ma­na­geri­al” wing—a list headed by Kasich and former Flor­ida Gov. Jeb Bush—will need to con­sol­id­ate the col­lege-edu­cated Re­pub­lic­ans who are already prov­ing the least sus­cept­ible to the Trump wave.

And please don’t tell me that this is the Democrats’ failure to appeal to blue collar workers. It might be, but that ship sailed over a generation ago. These blue collar white folks are now dyed in the wool Republicans and have been Republicans since Nixon decided to make the GOP into the white person’s party and Ronald Reagan consolidated it. What’s interesting is that the coalition those leaders formed is starting to fracture as the working class whites are finally getting fed up with the elites promising them the moon and failing to deliver.

Unfortunately, the moon they want delivered is a world in which a man on a white horse rounds up and deports “bad people” they don’t like.

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MSM dictation, trolling the troll, and misinformation all in one fascinating story

by digby

So you’ve undoubtedly heard about the internet troll named Joshua Goldberg who took all kinds of identities online to harass people he didn’t like and otherwise create havoc, allegedly in the name of defending free speech. He came to the attention of American authorities after Australian investigative journalists unmasked him and told the Australian authorities about his fake identity as an Australian jihadist. The FBI arrested him last week for passing on information about bomb building online.

I linked to this article in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday in which the whole story is laid out in fascinating detail.

Guess how the American media reported this?

Here’s the CNN story, dutifully repeating it exactly as dictated by the authorities no doubt:

His communications were conversational and his instructions specific, federal authorities claim.

Here’s how to make a pipe bomb, he allegedly wrote. Here’s how to make it deadlier, by adding shrapnel dipped in rat poison. And here’s where to have it explode — at a 9/11 commemoration event in Kansas City, Missouri.

None of the above came to be. And the man who federal authorities allege tried to make it happen — by offering advice online to someone who was actually an FBI informant — is now behind bars.

Joshua Ryne Goldberg of Orange Park, Florida, has been charged with distribution of information relating to explosive, destructive devices and weapons of mass destruction, U.S. Attorney A. Lee Bentley III of the Middle District of Florida said Thursday in a news release.

This is an amazing story of internet identity, investigative journalism, ideological cross-currents and the phenomenon of trolling. It is also about someone who played with some very dangerous fire and got himself badly burned by taking his trolling into the volatile area of online jihadism, which is as dumb as it gets.

What it is not is a glorious tale of American shoe leather investigators tracking down terrorists and stopping them before they can kill us all in our beds. Not by a long shot.

And yet … there are the headlines, you can see them for yourselves. There have been many such headlines over the years. And very often they add up to much less than meets the eye. In this case there is a real story there albeit not the one the FBI wants to tell since they clearly did not have a handle on this foolish young man from Florida who pretended to be a member of ISIS.  Evidently they didn’t have a clue until the journalists went to the Australian Federal POlice and they notified the Americans.

Not that the FBI didn’t take full credit for tracking him down.  They did:

The FBI said it became aware of him through Twitter messages under the Australi Witness handle that encouraged attacks “with your weapons, bombs or knives” on the Muhammad Art Exhibit and Contest in Garland, Texas, before they happened in May. Two men did attack, but didn’t get into the building after being shot to death by police.

Authorities tied a June post from “Australi Witness” to an ISIS-related website in which he boasted of “inspiring the attacks in Garland” and having “successfully encouraged (two people in Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia) to carry out jihad in their respective cities.”

“Both of these mujahideen will, using guns, shoot up local synagogues when the maximum amount of Jews are praying,” the post said. “The entire thing was my idea, and I helped them every step of the way.”

He goes on to claim he lives in Perth, Australia, and has “a vast network of mujahideen around the world. And I will continue to inspire and coordinate jihad attacks around the world.”

So, what happened here was that reporters did the investigation and went to the authorities in Australia to show that this alleged ISIS member was some 20 year old internet troll in Florida.The Australian authorities went to the FBI which instigated a sting to get him to share bomb making materials so they could arrest him on terrorism charges — and then take credit for the big investigation and arrest.

None of this is to say that Goldberg isn’t truly a blight on humanity. He may have even been implicated in that Pamela Geller shooting in Florida, egging the so-called jihadi’s on and then calling them martyrs in his fake ISIS persona. This was a “free speech” event after all, which was his crusade, so the ultimate trolling tactic would be to instigate violence to prove the point. In fact, there’s good reason to believe that Geller got exactly what she was hoping for.

But this is also yet another case of the cops sending in an “informant” to coerce someone with bad ideas into doing something that will allow them to arrest him or her. One might even call it trolling.

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