BUCKNACKT'S SORDID TAWDRY BLOG
We should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive & well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate, bier or wein in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WHOO-HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!!!!!"
Much like the rest of the country, I am wrestling with the killing of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old ICU nurse who was shot by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis on Saturday.
My colleague Sam Van Pykeren visited the area where Pretti was pinned down and shot multiple times. The site has since been overwhelmed by grief-stricken residents, who continue to bravely decry the occupation, through tear gas and harassment by federal agents. Here’s a small glimpse of what they had to tell Sam:
“If Minnesota falls, everything falls. We’re done as a nation.”
“This is f*cking crazy, I don’t recognize our country.”
“We’re furious that our neighbors are getting kidnapped and murdered in the streets.”
It must be noted that their anguish unfolded as the Trump administration went into overdrive to push lies about Pretti’s killing. Those lies continue, even as some Republicans emerge, ever meekly, to denounce this awfulness. (They still make sure to lavish praise on President Donald Trump and try to blame all this on Democrats.)
I want to make sure you also catch Ari Berman and Abby Vesoulis on the Justice Department’s letter to Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, stating that if he wanted to “bring an end to the chaos in Minnesota,” he should comply with some “common sense solutions.” The letter is effectively a ransom note, a demand for the state’s unredacted voter roll ahead of the midterm elections. As my colleagues write:
State election officials and election security experts say [Attorney General Pam] Bondi’s letter is an outrageous attempt by the Trump administration to coerce Minnesota into providing confidential voter data that could be weaponized by the president and his allies to amplify false claims of voter fraud, wrongly remove eligible voters from the rolls, and challenge election outcomes.
After a Border Patrol agent killed Alex Pretti, Attorney General Pam Bondi tells Minnesota to hand over its voter roll to “bring an end to the chaos.”
BY ABBY VESOULIS AND ARI BERMAN
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On Wednesday, a woman was walking down Statesville Avenue in North Charlotte at around 9:00pm, with her hands holding shopping bags, when a man pulled-up next to her and jumped out, grabbed her by the throat and arm and tried to pull her into his car.
The would-be victim struggled to get free and ran down the street with her attacker in pursuit.
She ran into the first place that was open.
The clearly marked Bushiken Karate Charlotte Dojo.
Said Randall Ephraim, the owner and karate master, “There were still some kids in the dojo being picked up by parents and a couple of adult students cleaning up when a young lady came through our doors and stated that someone was trying to harm her.”
She ran behind Randall.
“A big male entered the building. I asked how i could assist him and he stated that he was there for the lady. She insisted that she did not know him and tried to kidnap her.”
Randall instructed the man to leave. At this point four of his students with black belts clearly visible stood in front of the woman and got into position.
The man, a possible Nobel Prize nominee, still tried to get to her “aggressively pushing and swinging.”
Randall effortlessly put him in submission, picked him up, and escorted him outside.
Instead of leaving, the man tried to attack Randall.
It didn’t last long.
“Once outside he attempted to attack again…. and was dealt with accordingly.”
Indeed.
He was taken away unconscious and on a stretcher to the hospital.
The grateful woman has since signed-up for classes.
THE statue should have come down decades ago, statues and memorials placed in honor of the confederacy have no place on public property. There is no justification for honoring the treason committed against the United States by the politicians, soldiers and citizen supporters of the confederacy. The organization daughters of the confederacy is an organization of traitors. The goal of the confederacy was to destroy the United States of America, and those who supported, organized, fought for and died to achieve that goal do not deserve to be honored or memorialized on public, government and government supported institution property any more than the Japanese who attacked Pearl Harbor or the terrorist who attacked us on 9/11. Get rid of all of it. This from HuffPost.....
The Silent Sam statue, located on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill, has been a target of vandalism and protests for decades.
Frustrated by the inaction of university leaders and what they described as their school’s “institutional white supremacy,” students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill stormed a controversial Confederate statue on Monday night — and toppled it with their own hands.
BREAKING NEWS: Silent Sam is down! Protesters have toppled the controversial statue on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. #WRAL
A number of counterprotesters, some of whom wore Confederate flag T-shirts, were seen arguing with student protesters. There were no reports of physical altercations.
The protesters used a rope to pull the monument to the ground, student paper The Daily Tar Heel reported. Silent Sam was toppled at around 9:20 p.m.
Erected in 1913 and funded by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Silent Sam has been a target of vandalism and protests for decades. In April, UNC doctoral student Maya Little was arrested after dousing the statue with red ink and her own blood.
According to The Raleigh News & Observer, Monday’s student demonstration began as a gathering to support Little, who faces criminal and honor court charges for her protest. But the off-campus event “quickly morphed into a march ... to the UNC campus, where police officers stood at the monument,” the newspaper reported.
“It’s time to build monuments to honor those who have been murdered by white supremacy,” Little told the crowd at one point during the rally. “It’s time to tear down Silent Sam. It’s time to tear down UNC’s institutional white supremacy.”
The university has long rejected calls to remove or relocate Silent Sam, citing state law as a barrier to action.
North Carolina, along with a number ofother southern states, has in recent years strengthened its laws protecting Confederate statues. In 2015, then-Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed a bill that prohibited state agencies and local governments from dismantling any “object of remembrance” on public property that “commemorates an event, a person or military service that is part of North Carolina’s history.” Only the General Assembly has the power to remove such a monument.
UNC spent $390,000 last year on security for the statue, the News & Observer reported.
Reacting to the news of Silent Sam’s dismantling, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) said in a statement that while he “understands that many people are frustrated by the pace of change” and that he shares their frustration, “violent destruction of public property has no place in our communities.”
The toppling of Silent Sam comes one year after a group of activists pulled down a Confederate statue in nearby Durham. Although the activists were arrested and charged for toppling the monument, a judge later dismissed all charges against them ― and the statue was never put back up.
In June, the Southern Poverty Law Center said that at least 110 Confederate monuments and symbols had been removed from public spaces across the United States since 2015 when a white supremacist opened fire in one of America’s oldest black churches and killed nine people.
More than 1,740 Confederate symbols ― including about 170 in North Carolina ― are still standing, the group said.
