June 12, 2020

This is wild. A data scientist, after tweeting about my husband @owasow 's work, was accused of

anti-blackness and fired from his job. Not for nothing, but Omar majored in Race & Ethnic Relations, co-founded BlackPlanet, got a Ph.D in African-American studies, and is black.


(The Red Rose bomb brigade radical left strikes again and takes out a liberal, an actual Democratic Party member, who worked on the Obama campaign, SMDH)


https://twitter.com/jenbrea/status/1271148784316108800

The topline of this @jonathanchait piece is stunning: a progressive data scientist at a research firm accurately tweeted an African American Princeton scholar's work showing the electoral effectiveness of peaceful protest over violence—and was fired for it

https://twitter.com/Yair_Rosenberg/status/1271097013703188480

https://twitter.com/CptTuvok/status/1271244697487343621

The Still-Vital Case for Liberalism in a Radical Age

By Jonathan Chait

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/case-for-liberalism-tom-cotton-new-york-times-james-bennet.html



David Shor is a 28-year-old political data analyst and social democrat who worked for President Obama’s reelection campaign. On May 28, Shor tweeted out a short summary of a paper by Princeton professor Omar Wasow. The research compiled by Wasow analyzed public opinion in the 1960s, and found violent and nonviolent protest tactics had contradictory effects. Shor’s synopsis was straightforward:

https://twitter.com/davidshor/status/1265998625836019712

It is easy to see why a specialist in public opinion whose professional mission is to help elect Democrats while moving the party leftward would take an interest in this research. But in certain quarters of the left — though not among Democratic elected officials — criticizing violent protest tactics is considered improper on the grounds that it distracts from deeper underlying injustice, and shifts the blame from police and other malefactors onto their victims. One universal fact of political life is that people tend not to enjoy highlighting faults committed by their own side, and often respond to others bringing up behavior they don’t want to defend outright by deflecting blame. Conservatives are united less by a zeal to affirm every one of Donald Trump’s actions than a reluctance to denounce them. Likewise, while few leftists go so far as to explicitly advocate violent or destructive acts, refraining from criticism of violent protests is, among parts of the far left, almost a social norm. And so, despite its superficially innocuous content, Shor’s tweet generated a sharp response. To take one public example, Ari Trujillo Wesler, the founder of OpenField, a Democratic canvassing app, replied, “This take is tone deaf, removes responsibility for depressed turnout from the 68 Party, and reeks of anti-blackness.” Shor replied politely:

https://twitter.com/davidshor/status/1266351666451943426

Trujillo Wesler repeated the accusation of racism (“YOU need to stop using your anxiety and ‘intellect’ as a vehicle for anti-blackness”), and then tagged Dan Wager, the CEO of Civis Analytics, the firm employing Shor, “Come get your boy.”

https://twitter.com/TheReFTW/status/1266442248826138624

At least some employees and clients on Civis Analytics complained that Shor’s tweet threatened their safety. The next day, Shor apologized for tweeting Omar’s paper:

https://twitter.com/davidshor/status/1266448606321664004

Civis Analytics undertook a review of the episode. A few days later, Shor was fired. Shor told me he has a nondisclosure agreement preventing him from discussing the episode. A spokesperson for Civis Analytics told me over email, “Out of respect for our employees and alumni, Civis does not publicly discuss personnel matters, and we don’t plan to comment further.”

++

The preconditions that permitted these events to go forward are the spread of distinct, illiberal norms throughout some progressive institutions over the last half-dozen years. When I wrote about the phenomenon in 2015, a common response was to dismiss it as the trivial hijinks of some college students, a distraction from the true threats to democratic values. It certainly was (and remains) true that the right poses a vastly greater danger to liberalism than does the far left. My own writing output reflects this enormous disproportionality. It is also true that the intended (if not always actual) target of the left’s illiberal impulses — entrenched systems of inequality — remain an oppressive force in American life, and that the cause to dismantle them is just.

snip



Omar Wascow and his wife, Jennifer Brea

June 11, 2020

Racist Donald Trump Loves Him Some Confederate Generals

Add this to the list of reasons why Trump needs to be jettisoned onto the slag heap of history

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/racist-donald-trump-loves-him-some



by Bob Cesca

WASHINGTON, DC -- Donald Trump is apparently planning to deliver a speech about race relations, to be authored by well-known racist goblin, Stephen Miller. Since we first heard about the possibility of this speech, we’ve been speculating about what exactly he’ll say. Will he pretend to give a rip about racism, while outlining police reforms, or will he continue to pursue his worst instincts the way he does on Twitter practically around the clock? Perhaps the following tweet thread he posted on Wednesday will give us a clue. In the aftermath of the latest murder of an African American man who was crushed to death by a Minneapolis cop, one of the ideas that’s been floated is to rename some of the U.S. military bases that are named for Confederate generals. Donald Trump thinks that’s a terrible idea. And of course he does. Trump wrote:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1270787974880526337
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1270787975719391233
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1270787978626052096

He. Knows. Nothing.

To be absolutely clear about all this: “Hood,” “Bragg” and “Benning” were all Confederate generals. So were (Fort) Gordon, (Fort) Pickett, (Fort) A.P. Hill and so on -- each with forts named after them today. Right now. The Confederate army, as most people learn in grade school, was composed of traitors who seceded from the United States, took up arms against the federal government and President Lincoln, and, as a consequence, precipitated a bloodbath -- the greatest number of casualties in our history -- more than all American wars combined. And they did so to defend the right of the states to allow slavery. Had these generals been successful, it’s quite possible the institution of enslaving humans as the cornerstone of the southern economy may have continued perhaps into the 20th Century.

These are the men Trump is defending. Now. In these times.

To be more specific, Trump said the Confederate generals are part of our “history of winning.” He added “victory,” even though it means the same thing as “winning.” Nevertheless, Trump could be getting this from the same nest of brain worms that told him about the many airports of 1812, because the Confederacy lost the Civil War. First, Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses Grant, then, elsewhere, Joseph E. Johnston surrendered to William Tecumseh Sherman. They lost, and the southern states were reincorporated into the Union thereafter. Sure, they won some battles during the war -- important ones -- but they lost the war. Our “history of winning/victory” has to do with, in part, the Union army and its commanders. Duh.

Trump also said the Confederate generals are part of our history of “Freedom.” Do we even need to highlight how counterfactual that is? Whose freedom? Certainly not the freedom of the captive African Americans held in the Old South. I mean, sure, the Confederacy was seeking freedom (whites only), but they were literally seeking freedom from the United States, not to mention a president who Trump and the Republican Party routinely cite as being one of them. In other words, Trump is celebrating men who hated the United States and its Republican president so much that they withdrew from the nation and launched a war against it. When Trump talks about Lincoln or when he visits the Lincoln Memorial, he’s pretending to pay tribute to a president who was the last casualty of the war that was waged by the men Trump’s defending. And do I even need to point out the absurdity of the last part of Trump’s tweet -- the part about not tampering with the United States? Secession being perhaps the ultimate tampering, given how the nation literally lost 11 states.

snip

June 11, 2020

The Confederate traitors/losers take another L

https://twitter.com/jtylerconway/status/1270820259080142852

June 11, 2020

It's The Racism. And More.

I was arrested and thrown in jail for a supposedly suspended driving license. The police in America are completely out of control.

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/its-the-racism-and-more



Late one afternoon in February 2006 I was driving south on Broadway in Manhattan when a patrol car got behind my 12-year-old gray Saturn and flashed its lights. I pulled over and watched a lone NYPD officer emerge from the patrol car and approach. I couldn’t fathom what I had done to deserve this. I wasn’t speeding—either a minute earlier or virtually ever. I hadn’t run a red light or performed a bold maneuver. All I had done was spend the afternoon inspecting pronounced structural problems in the Washington Heights building where an old friend was looking to buy an apartment. My work was pro bono. No good deed went unpunished.

Sir, I need to see your license and registration.

Absolutely. Can I ask why I was pulled over?

Failure to signal.

Knowing the tragic fate of many drivers applying sudden movement I reached into my pocket gingerly for my wallet and then in slow show-and-tell motion for the glove compartment. I thought about my lane change, which occurred only after the patrol car had signaled for me to pull over. It was a long two or three minutes waiting nearly motionless in my car while the cops ran my license, which I knew was clean. I would have to deal with a moving violation and decided I would probably fight it because of the points. Then, through the rear view mirror I saw four doors corresponding to two patrol cars open simultaneously. Four officers with steroid torsos, flak jackets and Glocks were marching toward my Saturn. A minute later I was leaning against the side of my car, being cuffed and read my rights. Reflecting on every arrest horror story I had ever heard or read about I was cooperative as could be and uncannily polite to boot. Nonetheless a large crowd had gathered at the intersection of West 140th and Broadway to watch the spectacle.

I was uncuffed and fingerprinted at the 30th Precinct and led into a dank cell about 8 by 10 feet. Two of the officers had taken my keys and my car while I sat in the back of a patrol car where one of the other officers asked if I knew I was driving with a suspended license. That was impossible, I said. No, they said, I had never paid a ticket 13 years earlier in 1993. Now as the steel bars clang shut a foot from my face, the air left my lungs the way it probably should have a half hour earlier during the arrest. I was in jail. It was real. I was completely powerless and every good thing I had done for another human being these last 43 years meant absolutely nothing. For a couple of hours conditions were bearable. My cellmate was a Columbia University adjunct professor who had been pulled over and then arrested after police found in his glove compartment a white powder he claimed was his mother’s prescription medication, because after all it was her car. Appealing several times to on-duty officers within shouting distance of the cell, I was striking out. I couldn’t arrange my proverbial one phone call or a short meeting with a urinal. However, my arresting officer visited me briefly from the other side of the bars to ask why I had a pickaxe and a shovel in the trunk of my Saturn. I’m an engineer. Sometimes I have to dig a test pit. The professor and I resumed our conversation about the increasingly aggressive tactics of the NYPD we had heard about and were now living.

Soon I would have to live it alone. My friend was pulled from the cell to be charged with drug possession and then relocated to a facility downtown. Things went downhill from there. One by one and two by two I acquired new cellmates, invariably rough-edged men in their 20s waiting to be charged with drug possession. My mobile phone had been confiscated by the police and there was no wall clock visible from the holding cell, but by what I estimated was 11 PM, there were 10 of us altogether in a room a little larger than a freight elevator. There were no seats. The cell stank of old urine, in contrast to the fresh urine I wanted to release more with every passing minute. One of the cops checking in explained that legally I needed my arresting officer to take me to the bathroom, but now he was nowhere to be found. My cellmates were unruly and bursting with testosterone. It was fuck this and fuck that and fuck you motherfucker and I knew my survival depended largely on my continuing ability to sit tightly wrapped on the floor and avoid eye contact. But now, because I had looked up for an instant while adjusting a leg that was falling asleep I did indeed stumble into a nanosecond of eye contact with the worst of the crew—a dude who had already threatened at least three of our cellmates and had, through steel bars, taunted an officer who promised if he had to open the cell door it would be the last thing this dude ever experienced. And now this dude had me in his sights.

What the fuck you looking at, you mother-motherfucker?

Nothing. I looked right back down at the floor.

Yeah, you fucking right nothing. That’s fucking right.

The pressure on my bladder increased........................

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June 11, 2020

Iowa Senate passes limits on secretary of state's power on absentee voting (Thugs trying to rig Nov)

https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2020/06/10/senate-passes-limits-on-secretary-of-states-power-on-absentee-voting/

The Iowa Legislature on Wednesday moved a step closer to limiting the secretary of state’s ability to send out absentee ballots in an emergency, a move that led to record voting in the June 2 primary. The Iowa Senate, on a party-line vote, sent the heavily amended House File 2486 back to the House.

The House started with a short bill governing the use of county seals, and got back a 30-page amendment that sets rules for voter identification. The amended bill would allow the secretary of state to declare an emergency only within 21 days of an election. Pate declared an emergency due to the pandemic and sent every registered voter an application for an absentee ballot before the primary.

The record primary turnout of more than 500,000 included 80% who voted by absentee ballot. The Senate version also would prevent the secretary of state from reducing the number of polling sites in a county by more than 35%. Democrats called the move an effort to suppress voting. Republicans said the bill would increase voting, ensure security and prevent fraud.

Sen. Roby Smith, R-Davenport, took both his Democratic colleagues and reporters to task for what he considered a mischaracterization of the bill as an attempt to suppress voting. “This will expand absentee voting, more will count and the votes will be secure,” Smith said. “If we don’t pass this, one person can come in and declare whatever he or she wants. What you like today, you might not like later,” Smith told senators. Sen. Julian Garrett, R-Indianola, said as he listened to the “doom and gloom” from Democrats during the debate, he recalled similar complaints against previous voter identification legislation. But vote totals grew after those previous changes, including in Polk, Linn and Johnson counties, three of the state’s largest.

Democrats opposed the bill. A mask- and shield-wearing Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, said he would go door-to-door encourage people to vote if the bill passes, risking coronavirus exposure. “You keep creating barriers to voting and we shall overcome,” Hogg said, raising his voice and forcefully moving his microphone away.

snip


After record primary turnout, Iowa senate Republicans try to limit vote-by-mail in presidential election

https://fortune.com/2020/06/09/vote-by-mail-iowa-senate-bill-presidential-election-trump-biden/

Iowa set a new record for primary election turnout this month after secretary of state Paul Pate sent applications for mail-in ballots to all registered voters. More than 520,000 ballots were cast, according to Pate’s office, beating the previous record of 450,000 set in 1994. Now, Republicans in the state senate are trying to prevent him from doing the same in the general election this November.

The Iowa Senate State Government Committee advanced a 30-page bill on a party-line vote late last week that would prohibit Pate, also a Republican, from proactively sending applications for mail-in-ballots to all registered voters. Anyone who wanted a mail-in ballot would need to submit a written request on their own and show proof of valid voter identification.

The bill would prohibit the secretary from taking emergency election action in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The secretary can make changes in cases of extreme weather or during wartime, it says, but not during a health crisis. It also prevents Pate from making any changes to the early or absentee voting process, even in an emergency. In addition, the bill would require election offices to send reminder notices to any voter who misses one general election and would require his or her status to be updated to “inactive” before the notices are sent. Current law says that notices should sent after four years of no voting, with no change in status unless the post office returns the notice as undeliverable.

According to Johnson County elections worker John Deeth, this could affect the status of hundreds of thousands of voters who only participate in presidential elections, rendering them “inactive,” which is the first step toward canceling a voter’s registration.

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June 10, 2020

Tennessee Republicans Rally To Preserve Statue & Holiday For KKK Founder

Republican lawmakers in Tennessee resisted a push from protesters and their Democratic colleagues to eliminate a holiday for Confederate general and KKK Founder Nathan Bedford Forrest and remove a bust of him from the State Capitol, which one black lawmaker compared to a bust of Hitler.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/06/10/tennessee-republicans-rally-to-preserve-statue--holiday-for-kkk-founder/#5ef1aa6d71f7


KEY FACTS

Protests against racism have erupted around the country in response to the death of George Floyd, leading to the removal, or planned removal, of statues and other memorials commemorating Confederate figures in several states. Protesters gathered in front of the Tennessee State Capitol on Wednesday calling for the removal of a bust of Forrest in the Capitol after a state House committee voted down a measure that would’ve done just that.

The Naming, Designating & Private Acts committee rejected a resolution, introduced in January, to remove the statue on Tuesday, with every Democrat on the committee voting to remove it and all but one Republican voting for it to remain.

Republican Governor Bill Lee, who had previously spoken out against removing the statue, said on Wednesday, “something should be done there” and that there is “a need for greater dialogue,” but stopped short of calling for its removal. Republican lawmakers also voted Wednesday to preserve Nathan Bedford Forrest Day while relieving Lee of the burden of making a public proclamation, which he has been criticized for in the past.

CHIEF CRITIC

State Rep. Antonio Parkinson, a Democrat, tweeted on Tuesday that Forrest was “one of the most vile, sadistic men to ever be born on American soil,” noting that he, “massacred thousands of people. In one case, mostly women and children.” “What if everyday you walked into the house or Senate chambers and you saw a bust of Hitler before you entered,” he concluded. “That sickness in the pit of your stomach that you're feeling right now... that's what we feel everytime we (African Americans) enter the capitol of Tennessee.”

https://twitter.com/TNRepParkinson/status/1270364300495015936
https://twitter.com/TNRepParkinson/status/1270364302164348929
https://twitter.com/TNRepParkinson/status/1270364302839611394
https://twitter.com/TNRepParkinson/status/1270364303510700032
https://twitter.com/TNRepParkinson/status/1270364304232132609

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June 9, 2020

I Went To A Trump Rally And All I Got Was This Shitty Virus

June 9, 2020

Matt Jones backs Charles Booker in Kentucky Senate primary race he had considered entering

https://eu.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/elections/kentucky/2020/06/07/matt-jones-charles-booker-kentucky-senate-primary/3172681001/

Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones once considered chasing the Democratic nomination to run against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky's 2020 Senate election. Instead, he plans to cast his ballot for Charles Booker.

“I’ve known Charles for a while, and we don’t agree on everything. But I do know this — Charles has a big heart, and he cares," Jones said in a video Sunday night. "And in the last few weeks, I’ve watched him develop into a leader that Kentucky can be proud of.” Booker, a state representative running against Amy McGrath and Mike Broihier for the Democatic nomination, has been busy lately.

He made several appearances at protests taking place in Louisville over the police killing of Breonna Taylor, speaking on the steps of the courthouse before appearing in front of a crowd at Waterfront Park on Saturday alongside several big names out of Louisville, including NFL player Jamon Brown, NBA player D'Angelo Russell and rapper Jack Harlow.

Jones cited the "leadership role" Booker has taken on in the past few weeks as a reason why he plans to vote for the 35-year-old native of Louisville's West End, along with Booker's stance on health care (supporting Medicare for All) and workers' rights.

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June 9, 2020

NYT : What Would Efforts to Defund or Disband Police Departments Really Mean?

Much is not yet certain, but here’s what is known so far about some efforts to defund or abolish police departments.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/us/what-does-defund-police-mean.html



MINNEAPOLIS — Across the country, calls are mounting from some activists and elected officials to defund, downsize or abolish police departments. A veto-proof majority of the Minneapolis City Council pledged on Sunday to dismantle the Minneapolis Police Department, promising to create a new system of public safety in a city where law enforcement has long been accused of racism. The calls for change have left people uncertain of what those changes would really mean and how cities would contend with crime. Much remains uncertain and the proposals vary between cities, but here are answers to some questions about the issue.

What does defunding the police mean?

Calls to defund police departments are generally seeking spending cuts to police forces that have consumed ever larger shares of city budgets in many cities and towns. Minneapolis, for instance, is looking to cut $200 million from its $1.3 billion overall annual budget, said Lisa Bender, the City Council president. The police budget in 2020 was $189 million. She hopes to shift money to other areas of need in the city.

If the money doesn’t go to policing, where would it be spent?

Many activists want money now spent on overtime for the police or on buying expensive equipment for police departments to be shifted to programs related to mental health, housing and education — areas that the activists say with sufficient money could bring about systemic societal change and cut down on crime and violence.

What are calls for abolishing the police seeking?

Leaders in different cities have advocated various specific plans, but generally speaking, the calls aim to reimagine public safety tactics in ways that are different from traditional police forces. Activists say their intent is to ensure safety and justice but to wind up with a different system. Years of consent decrees and investigations into human rights violations by police departments have yielded little change, they say, so a more fundamental shift is needed.

What are some of the ideas for rethinking policing?.........

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June 9, 2020

Vermont: The Country's Raddest Beer Destination Is Full of Misty Mountains and Hazy IPAs

Here are 10 of its best, most influential breweries.

https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/best-breweries-in-vermont



THE GREEN MOUNTAIN RANGE RUNS LIKE A CURVED SPINE through Vermont, bisecting it north to south. Along it, you'll find places as varied and intricately intertwined as bustling Burlington and ghost towns like Buels Gore. Route 7 runs like a zipper past farmland, maple creemee stands, and mountainside farmhouses. I-89 and serpentine Route 100 beam past ski resorts and the state-spanning Long Trail. Along these billboard-free roads, there are a few constants. Local dairy can be found at the gas station. Three-hundred general stores operate among the 251 named towns. And beer is everywhere. “Vermont beer” isn't just a geographical designation; it's a categorical distinction, both fostered and defined by its home state. Genuinely experiencing one of America's most lauded, under-visited, and influential brewing movements means going to the source.

Forty years ago, bold statements about Vermont’s influence would have seemed ironic, if not implausible. Vermont was early to prohibition and late to transition out of it -- some areas stayed dry for nearly 80 years. But the late blooming of Vermont brewing culture was one of its greatest advantages. Beer writer and food historian Adam Krakowski, a specialist on Vermont bootlegging and teetotaling, says prohibition erased most brewing traditions and heritage from the culture entirely. In other words: it wiped the slate clean. “By then, you have carte blanche,” Krakowski says. “There’s no rules, trends, or history to follow. You are not bound. Vermont was the total wild west.” Today, Vermont has about 14 breweries per 100,000 people over 21, leading the country in number of craft breweries per capita. In the last decade, the number of local breweries has tripled. What started in the '90s with breweries like Magic Hat, Long Trail, Harpoon, and Otter Creek gave way to wild innovations that took everything the state represented and distilled it -- literally -- into some of the country's most respected and beloved beers.

The Alchemist probed the now-iconic rise of hazy, drink-fresh New England IPA, originally called Vermont IPA, with Heady Topper. Lawson’s Finest Liquids created the aura of the small-batch beer drop. Hill Farmstead revolutionized the craft beer canon with the normalization of the 750ml bottles. It also, as the first brewery in the world to use (and trademark) “farmstead” in its name, intentionally shifted the vocabulary around beer to a level of reverie previously reserved for wine. Breweries like these became pilgrimage sites for beer fans, proving the viability of a contemporary craft model: can art, four packs, destination releases and limited distribution. Vermont beer is what happens when you live in a small state, topographically whittled into small towns by mountains, with some of the best brewers in the world. Here, the old trope “You’re only as good as your competition" becomes "you’re only as good as your neighbors."

Brewers share equipment, materials, and help distribute each other’s beer. Sometimes, they set up shop directly across the street. Vermont beer is not only beer: it’s a signal of community, a tight-knit one where old-guard brewers adroitly cultivate the next generation's leaders before sending them off on their own. “I think Vermont is home to the best brewers and beer in the country due to the homegrown aspect,” says Krakowski. “[In] how many places could you go to your competition and ask for help to get better?" For most, visiting these breweries isn't a current option. And though Vermont beer is best experienced in person -- against the saturated greens of summer, wine-colored leaves in the fall or a glinting tundra of snow in the winter -- getting a taste of the state's best breweries offers an extrasensory opportunity to experience what "Vermont beer" really is. The 10 essential breweries on this subjective list don't cover the full spectrum. Vermont's gems are too many to fit neatly into a compact list, and extraordinary breweries are certainly missing. So when the time is right, go to Vermont and discover them. It’s a place to experience in person, with the blue haze of Green Mountains holding court below the skyline.



Hill Farmstead

Greensboro Bend

After studying philosophy in college and brewing in Denmark, brewmaster Shaun Hill opened a brewery in his barn, a quiet sanctuary in the mountains a dozen miles from cell service. The Hill family has lived for eight generations in the belly of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, an enigmatic and arrestingly beautiful sweep of land where the rural U.S. becomes something like Narnia. In the past decade, Hill Farmstead has been named the best brewery in the world for seven consecutive years; surpassed its original business goal by millions; and expanded beyond the barn to an adjacent rustic spaceship of an onsite tasting room. Glowing pours of Anna, Edward, Poetica, and more of the best beer in the world can be sipped on the porch, a picnic blanket on the grass, or alongside a small, clear pond.

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