DEMOCRACY NOW! DAILY DIGEST:Pandemic, Wildfires & Heat Wave: Undocumented Farmworkers Face "Triple Threat" as West Coast Burns, "These Are Climate Fires": Oregon Firefighter Ecologist Says Devastating Blazes Are a Wake-Up Call, "Trump Is Criminality Personified": Rev. William Barber on Protecting the Vote & Mobilizing the Poor, Costs of War: After 9/11 Attacks, U.S. Wars Displaced at Least 37 Million People Around the World

 

Pandemic, Wildfires & Heat Wave: Undocumented Farmworkers Face "Triple Threat" as West Coast Burns As devastating fires burn across the West Coast, some of the most vulnerable people are farmworkers — many of whom are undocumented. Despite the risks of the ... Read More →

"These Are Climate Fires": Oregon Firefighter Ecologist Says Devastating Blazes Are a Wake-Up Call President Trump has said little about the wildfires raging in California, Oregon and Washington for three weeks, other than to suggest poor forest management ... Read More →

"Trump Is Criminality Personified": Rev. William Barber on Protecting the Vote & Mobilizing the Poor With less than two months before November, the Poor People's Campaign has launched a push to register tens of millions of poor and low-income voters, who could ... Read More →

Costs of War: After 9/11 Attacks, U.S. Wars Displaced at Least 37 Million People Around the World As the United States marks 19 years since the September 11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people, a new report finds at least 37 million people in ... Read More →

Big update about Breonna Taylor 14SEP20

KNOW JUSTICE, KNOW PEACE, NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE

 FINALLY Breonna Taylor's family might get justice for the police murder of Breonna almost six months after her death. Still pressure has to be maintained on the Kentucky criminal justice system to make sure they aggressively and effectively prosecute brett hankison, jonathan mattingly and myles cosgrove for the murder of Breonna Taylor. From UltraViolet.....

After six months, news outlets are reporting that Breonna Taylor's case could possibly go before a grand jury this week.¹

Attorney General Daniel Cameron has made the Louisville community and the country wait half a year for any movement in Breonna's case. But in that time, her community has achieved several things.

Community members successfully exposed the County Attorney's Office for trying to pin a crime on Breonna months after police officers killed her.² They exposed the Louisville Metro Police Department for trying to frame Breonna's partner, Kenneth Walker, for defending his and Breonna's home.³ They pressured officials so well that they banned "no-knock" warrants, fired the former LMPD chief, released the 911 call that proved Kenneth's innocence, and dropped the charges against him.⁴

None of these things could have happened without the movement behind Breonna and the movement for Black lives. We need to keep at it. Will you call the Attorney General's office to demand justice for Breonna Taylor?

• (502) 429-7134 - Louisville office of Attorney General Daniel Cameron

Click here to tell us how it went.

I (Craig Schwanke) called, Had to leave a message demanding the arrest, charging, and prosecution of brett hankison, jonathan mattingly, and myles cosgrove. I said these people should be convicted of murder if AG Daniel Cameron does his job and they should be sentenced to life in prison without parole. I also stated it is disgusting this has gone on this long without any action by AG Cameron and that Breonna and her family deserve justice.

Make a call for Breonna Taylor now, then tell us how it went here.

Thanks for speaking out!

--Black Lives Matter Louisville and the UltraViolet team

 

Sources:

1. Grand Jury Will Soon Hear Case On Breonna Taylor's Killing, Essence, September 10, 2020

2. Tweet, Roberto Aram Ferdman, August 31, 2020

3. LMPD officer investigating police conduct in Breonna Taylor case also testified in her boyfriend's grand jury hearing, WRDB, July 9, 2020

4. No-Knock Warrants Banned In Louisville In Law Named For Breonna Taylor, NPR, June 11, 2020

Prosecutor dismisses charges against Breonna Taylor's boyfriend, more investigation 'necessary', USA Today, May 22, 2020

911 call from Breonna Taylor's shooting death released: "Somebody kicked in the door and shot my girlfriend", CBS News, May 29, 2020

Louisville police chief fired after no body camera footage of shooting, WDRB.com, June 1, 2020

Standoff ends hours after armed man shot at employees at Arrowhead Stadium & Man arrested after standoff outside Arrowhead & KCK man charged in weekend attempted shooting outside Arrowhead 12,13&14SEP20

KANSAS CITY, MO can be very proud of  their police department for the way they handled this situation, bringing it to an end without anyone being shot or killed. Very interesting that KMBC or the AP did not mention the shooter's ethnicity as they could have used this story to show the Kansas City, MO police department is addressing racial, prejudice, bigotry and police violence problem sin their department. Also from KCTV5....

Standoff ends hours after armed man shot at employees at Arrowhead Stadium

Police say the man fired at employees but no one was hit. He is believed to be having a mental health crisis.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —

Police shut down the Truman Sports Complex Saturday afternoon after an armed man fired shots at Arrowhead Stadium from the parking lot.

Around 6:15 p.m. Saturday, police said the standoff had come to an end and the suspect was taken into custody without incident. The suspect, a man in his 30's, was believed to be having a mental health crisis, according to officers. They said he did not meet the criteria for a psychiatric evaluation at a hospital, but received an evaluation at the scene and would be booked into jail.

Police said they were called to the sports complex around 10:30 a.m. for a man firing shots at employees, but no one was hit by the gunfire. Officers were able to move employees to safety.

Officers were in a stand-off with the armed individual for more than seven hours. Police said tactical officers and negotiators made contact with the suspect, and that he was contained to the south side of the complex during the standoff. Police say he had two handguns.

According to officers, several verbal deescalation techniques were used without success. The decision was made to use less lethal weapons to get the suspect in custody. The suspect was not injured, and police recovered two handguns and a knife.

There were no sporting events being held at the complex Saturday afternoon, but police were asking everyone to avoid the area.

There was a Royals game scheduled for 6:05 p.m., but a Royals spokesperson tells KMBC 9 it was delayed to 6:35 p.m. because of the standoff situation. Manager Mike Matheny said all players arrived safely at Kauffman Stadium and used alternate entrances to avoid the standoff. As usual, no fans are allowed due to COVID-19.

Police say at this time, they don't know the motivation behind the shooting.

Man arrested after standoff outside Arrowhead Stadium

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A man who fired shots at employees outside Arrowhead Stadium was arrested Saturday after a daylong standoff.

Kansas City police spokesman Capt. David Jackson said the man arrived at the Truman Sports Complex around 10:30 a.m. Saturday and fired several shots at employees but did not hit anyone. The man was arrested shortly after 6 p.m. on suspicion of several charges related to the shooting.

Jackson said the man pointed guns during the standoff and at some times he placed the guns in his waistband as he moved around a parking lot. Jackson said the man didn’t appear to have any connection to the Kansas City Chiefs or Royals.

During the standoff, some stadium employees took shelter inside the complex.

The Kansas City Royals’ game against the Pittsburgh Pirates was delayed about half an hour because of the standoff but was played after the man was arrested.

KCK man charged in weekend attempted shooting outside Arrowhead

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV) – Authorities in Jackson County have charged a Kansas City, Kansas, man with multiple crimes in connection with reports of gunfire and an armed standoff over the weekend at Arrowhead Stadium.

Prosecutors said 33-year-old Joshua D. Newton has been charged with unlawful use of a weapon, armed criminal action and making a terrorist threat in the first degree in connection with the Saturday incident. He is being held on a $40,000 cash only bond.

Police responded to the stadium around 11 a.m. after receiving reports of a disturbance involving a weapon. When they arrived, they found a groundskeeper for the Kansas City Royals who said he was disposing of grass clippings when he saw Newton walking through the parking lot.

The groundskeeper told police that when Newton saw him, he turned and pulled two handguns and began firing at the groundskeeper, who ran from the scene.

Video from the area showed Newton walking around the stadium holding something that looked like a gun and raising it in the air. When officers investigated the man’s social media profile that showed he had posted threatening messages related to heading to the stadium.

When officers were able to take Newton into custody, they found loaded handguns with him. Police said that Newton acknowledge that he had pointed a gun at someone during the incident.

 

LOUDOUN COUNTY’S FIRST COMMERCIAL MEADERY GETS ITS LIQUOR LICENSE 4SEP20

 I love a good mead and bee stings are one of my favorite drinks. Looking forward to Capital Hive Meadery opening in Leesburg and to checking out Stone House Meadery in Purceville, I had know idea they were there. From The Burn.....

LOUDOUN COUNTY’S FIRST COMMERCIAL MEADERY GETS ITS LIQUOR LICENSE

Capital Hive Meadery, the first commercial meadery in Loudoun County and all of the Northern Virginia suburbs, has started construction on its new space and just this week officially received its ABC license. If all goes as planned, they hope to start selling their products around the holidays.

The meadery is opening in Leesburg in a space on Sycolin Road just across from the Leesburg Airport. To start, the enormous space will primarily be a production facility making a wide variety of mead each month — available for retail sales or shipping in state and out of state. There is also a membership option that puts you first on the list for batches of mead and special perks. The principals behind Capital Hive hope to open a small tasting room for the general public in early 2021.

The company was actually founded three years ago, but there have been a lot of hurdles getting to this point. That’s because Loudoun County zoning laws weren’t written with a meadery in mind. Technically, mead is a type of wine made with honey. But zoning laws for wineries usually expect huge amounts of land for vineyards. They struggled to place a winery in a commercial business park.

The meads at Capital Hive Meadery will run the gamut from sweeter, slightly thicker meads akin to a dessert wine to lighter meads closer to a cider. Some may even have carbonation. Flavors will include their popular Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake, as well as others flavored with blackberry currants, vanilla, cinnamon and other fruits and spices. A word of warning — the alcohol content in mead can also be higher than some might expect. Some are in the 5 percent range, but many of them will be around 14 percent ABV, so watch out.

Meanwhile, Stone House Meadery has been making honey fermented meads for several years at their farm winery property in Purcellville. While not a commercial meadery, we’ve heard their meads — including a lavender mead — are delicious.

SMOKE DETECTORS

 

MY FAVORITE PART OF THE BIBLE

 

BROMANCE

 

FEATURE THIS.....

 

DICK IS A KILLER (VIDEO) 12SEP06

 JUST  a reminder we are still at war in Afghanistan and Iraq because of the war pigs of the bush-cheney administration.

Dick is a Killer

IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO TURN FROM THE DARK SIDE.....

IT makes me sick to think there are enough people in this country who no longer want to live in a democratic republic that drumpf / trump-pence might actually get elected for a second term. Here's just a reminder of the darkness pro drumpf / trump-pence supporters are endorsing....

Trump Thinks He Can Win the Election With Off-the-Rails Memes

BEN DREYFUSS

Editorial Director for Growth and StrategyBio | Follow

On Thursday, the Washington Post published a long profile of former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams and her campaign to be Joe Biden’s VP. It included a photo by Dana Scruggs.

Yesterday, Donald Trump’s official campaign Twitter account tweeted its own version. 

It took me a while to figure out what the hell this was even supposed to be, but after talking to some Top Scientists (ie some colleagues) it was explained to me that it is Joe Biden smelling her hair. (Get it? I’m very sorry if you get it.)

In the early days of the Trump presidency there was a regular refrain that you would hear from Resistance types. “This is not normal.” You don’t see it very much anymore because after almost 4 years what isn’t normal anymore? This. This is fucking insane. It is not normal for the president’s reelection campaign to post things like this.

Where did this image come from? Was it created by the campaign? (I reached out to them but haven’t heard back.) If I had to bet though I would guess this was something made by Trump’s “Keyboard Warriors” on Reddit or something. Just a few days ago Trump was celebrating these folks!

Setting aside the fact that Donald Trump apparently doesn’t think his internet hive supporters have seen Mad Men, it is true that Trump & co. rely on media that bubbles up from his supporters online. There was the GIF he retweeted of him hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball, the one he tweeted of him attacking CNN at a wrestling event, the Kingsman video of him shooting journalists to death. One of his earliest controversies was when he tweeted an image with Nazis on it instead of American soldiers. These are memes that his team is pulling from the depths of the internet. Team Trump is very proud of them. Indeed, the memes have become central to how the right wing exists online. 

But that doesn’t make it normal. It’s not. It’s insane!

Trump retweets video hitting Hillary Clinton with golf ball

Trump Tweets Mock Video of Him Beating CNN

"FANTASY" FAKE TRUMP IN KINGSMAN KILLING VIDEO

TRUMP TWEET WITH NAZI SOLDIERS

Setting aside the fact that Donald Trump apparently doesn’t think his internet hive supporters have seen Mad Men, it is true that Trump & co. rely on media that bubbles up from his supporters online. There was the GIF he retweeted of him hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball, the one he tweeted of him attacking CNN at a wrestling event, the Kingsman video of him shooting journalists to death. One of his earliest controversies was when he tweeted an image with Nazis on it instead of American soldiers. These are memes that his team is pulling from the depths of the internet. Team Trump is very proud of them. Indeed, the memes have become central to how the right wing exists online. 

But that doesn’t make it normal. It’s not. It’s insane!

Yesterday, Vanity Fair published a story by Peter Hamby about Joe Biden’s somewhat tenuous relationship with the internet. 

I asked Biden about the drubbing he’s taking in the meme universe, in which he’s often portrayed as doddering and creepy. Biden laughed it off, claiming that “the vast majority of the voters out there, including young people, are not getting all their news from the internet.”

In the story, Hamby talks to Rob Flaherty, Joe Biden’s digital director. He asks about the worry that Biden losing the internet augurs poorly for his chances in November. Flaherty allays these worries: “The job of a digital person is to build the program that is a reflection of the person they work for.” That’s true, and Flaherty admits that in that sense, Trump’s digital campaign succeeds. It is a reflection of the candidate. “Trump is scammy as hell. He’s controversial and just sort of brazen. His program looks like that.” 

Biden and Trump are very different people, but this is a very on the nose example of how different they are. Donald Trump has internet poison. He has been Very Online for a decade now and he thinks in tweets and chases the ADD dopamine hit of Likes and Retweets. If you are not Very Online, figuring out what the hell he is even talking about requires research and effort, a suspension of disbelief. Joe Biden is very much offline. Probably too much! And his candidacy is characterized by its unflinching focus on normal people. People who do not live in the high-strung land of pure imagination that is social media. 

And so we have two competing theories of the election: Trump is not normal. His campaign shows that. That is how he thinks he won in 2016 and how he thinks he will win in 2020. Biden’s campaign argues that the former vice president is very much normal, and that normalcy is what normal people desperately want. 

The question for November is: Whose theory is right?