Black History Month
Bloomberg's Stop & Frisk February 13, 2020
Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg did not invent
racism or
Stop & Frisk,
the New York City Police racial profiling practice of detaining,
questioning, and searching mostly African-Americans or Latinos aged
14–24. However as the following chart by the
New York Civil Liberties Union shows, Stop & Frisk became a signature of Bloomberg's time in office (2002-2013).
Mayor Mike Bloomberg's Stop & Frisk program in NYC, targeting young African-Americans and Latinos. (source: NYCLU)
Of
those stopped, 70% were found to be innocent. It was a public policy to
harass minorities for not being white. In 2015, Bloomberg defended Stop
& Frisk by saying:
“Ninety-five
percent of murders, murderers and murder victims, fit one M.O. You can
just take the description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops.
They are male, minorities, 16-25. That’s true in New York.
That’s true in virtually every city. And that’s where the
real crime is. You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of
people that are getting killed. So you want to spend the money on a lot
of cops in the streets. Put those cops where the crime is, which means
in minority neighborhoods.”If
Mike... he goes by Mike now according to his commercials... if Mike
wants to run for president as a wealthier (9th richest in the U.S.,
14th richest in the world), more successful, and almost-equally racist
adversary to Donald Trump, running as a
distraction to Donald Trump, then
bravo. (Slow claps.) Two billion dollars well spent.
SarcasmOtherwise, the United States doesn't need another Donald Trump. We already have two.
Music Association:
Dolly Parton - Here You Come Again
Impeachment - the Sequel
Trump Doubles Down February 7, 2020
There are many ways of defining Donald Trump:
liar,
gaslighter,
racist,
rapist (
multiple allegations),
misogynist,
cursing swearing adulterer (
multiple allegations),
kompromat-compromised traitor, or
malignant narcissist.
A
New York Times opinion article by Frank Bruni talks about the
whining victim Donald Trump. Bruni says, “
Donald
Trump obviously relishes the role of bully. But his greatest talent by
far lies in playing the victim. He’s a victim of Adam Schiff. A
victim of Nancy Pelosi. A victim of all Democrats, really, and of his
own seedy henchmen (Michael Cohen, Lev Parnas) and of the ‘deep
state’ and of the ‘fake news media’ and of the entire
establishment, whatever that is. He’s a victim of so many forces
so many times over that even ‘martyr’ doesn’t do
justice to his lot... No president has ever been treated so badly.
I’m not being sarcastic. I’m taking dictation: He has made
this exact claim — repeatedly. His victimhood is front and center
in his defense against the articles of impeachment and in the legal
papers... so soggy with Trumpian self-pity it weeps.”
Bruni says
columnist
Rich Lowry crowned Trump, “the most fabulous whiner in all of
American politics.” CNN anchor Chris Cuomo subsequently asked
Trump about Lowry’s words. “I am the most fabulous
whiner,” Trump conceded. “I keep whining and whining until
I win.”Bruni misunderstands Trump.
Donald
Trump the bully is also Donald Trump the whining, mendacious victim.
He
whines and bullys at the same time, as both the victim and the victimizer. Both are tools to Trump to beat down all others (Republicans,
Democrats, women, men, minorities, whites, U.S. allies, and U.S.
veterans), anyone who is not Donald Trump.
As
Stephanie Sarkis
has said, Trump creates crises (like illegal border crossings) to solve
them. He fabricates enemies to bully and whine about.
Candidate
Trump defeated candidate Clinton to become president, succeeding
President Obama, yet he is still obsessed with Clinton and Obama.
During Trump's impeachment trial on January 17, 2020, he rolled back
Michelle Obama's
school nutritional guidelines... on her birthday.
After
the
Special Counsel investigation into
Russian interference in the 2016
U.S. election and suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian
officials (
Mueller Report), Trump went a step further to
divert attention from Russian
hacking to Ukraine and bribing Ukraine to announce an investigation
involving his potential
2020 rival Joe Biden. That led to Trump's impeachment. Now
that
Trump has been acquitted of two articles of impeachment, he will
do much more to get reelected. Trump will double down. He always
doubles down.
When
the tariffs didn't work with China, he doubled down, increasing them on
China and involving more countries. Two months
after
negotiating a border deal with Mexico, he threatened Mexico with
tariffs to prove the China tariffs would work. When the New York Times
revealed the earlier Mexican border deal, Trump tweeted, “They
are truly the enemy of the people!”
When he golfs, Trump doesn't just cheat, he “
cheats
like a three-card Monte dealer. He throws it, boots it, and moves it.
He lies about his lies. He fudges and foozles and fluffs. At Winged
Foot, where Trump is a member, the caddies got so used to seeing him
kick his ball back onto the fairway they came up with a nickname for
him: ‘Pele,’” according to Rick Reilly author of
Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.
Trump
will double down. He will make all his other effects to get reelected seem like a warm-up act.
And Congress may have to impeach him again, as the Constitution
mandates.
Music Association: Carly Simon - You're So VainState of the Union
Climate Emergency February 4, 2020
The house is on fire, and the firefighter in chief is rigging the 2020 election.
There. That's the state of the union.
Music Association: The Inkspots - I Don't Want To Set The World On FireQuotation Association:
“I don't want your hope. I don't want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic... and act as if the house was on fire.” - Greta Thunberg
Economic Inequities
Capitalism & Socialism January 20, 2020
![The profit motive encourages cuthroat competition and selfish ambition that is [more] about making a living than making a life.](img/mlk-capitalism-profit.jpg "The profit motive encourages cuthroat competition and selfish ambition that is [more] about making a living than making a life.")
“The
profit motive, when it is the sole basis of an economic system,
encourages a cutthroat competition and selfish ambition that inspires
men to be more concerned about making a living than making a life.” - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“We all too often have socialism for the rich and rugged free market capitalism for the poor.” - Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Music Association: George Harrison - What Is Life?
Crowd Control
Climate Emergency January 15, 2020
Have
you ever tried to get a whole group of people to agree on pizza or
something for lunch? People worry over their decisions as if either
they have never eaten before or they will never eat again. It can be
really tough to get consensus on any dire questions like lunch.
And yet just last November, 11,258 scientists from 153 countries signed a statement announcing a
Climate Emergency, published in the journal
BioScience:
“Scientists
have a moral obligation to clearly warn humanity of any catastrophic
threat and to 'tell it like it is.' On the basis of this obligation...
we declare... clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a
climate emergency... The climate crisis is closely linked to
excessive consumption of the wealthy lifestyle. The most affluent
countries are mainly responsible for the historic [greenhouse gas]
emissions and generally have the greatest per capita emissions.
Profoundly
troubling signs from human activities include sustained increases in
both human and ruminant livestock populations, per capita meat
production, world gross domestic product, global tree cover loss,
fossil fuel consumption, the number of air passengers carried, carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions, and per capita CO2
emissions since 2000... Especially disturbing are concurrent trends in
the vital signs of climatic impacts. Three abundant
atmospheric greenhouse gases (CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide) continue to increase, as does global surface temperature.
Despite
40 years of global climate negotiations, with few exceptions, we have
generally conducted business as usual and have largely failed to
address this predicament. The climate crisis has arrived and is
accelerating faster than most scientists expected. It is more severe
than anticipated, threatening natural ecosystems and the fate of
humanity. Especially worrisome are potential irreversible climate
tipping points and nature's reinforcing feedbacks (atmospheric, marine,
and terrestrial) that could lead to a catastrophic 'hothouse Earth,'
well beyond the control of humans.
To secure a sustainable
future, we must change how we live... We suggest six critical and
interrelated steps (in no particular order):
1. Energy
The
world must quickly implement massive energy efficiency and conservation
practices and must replace fossil fuels with low-carbon
renewables and other cleaner sources of energy if safe for people
and
the environment...
2. Short-lived pollutants
We
need to promptly reduce the emissions of short-lived climate
pollutants, including methane, black carbon (soot), and
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)...
3. Nature
We must protect and restore Earth's ecosystems...
4. Food
Eating
mostly plant-based foods while reducing the global consumption of
animal products, especially ruminant livestock, can improve human
health and significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions...
5. Economy
Excessive
extraction of materials and overexploitation of ecosystems, driven by
economic growth, must be quickly curtailed to maintain long-term
sustainability of the biosphere...
6. Population
Still
increasing by roughly 80 million people per year, or more than 200,000
per day, the world population must be stabilized—and, ideally,
gradually reduced—within a framework that ensures social
integrity. There are proven and effective policies that strengthen
human rights while lowering fertility rates and lessening the impacts
of population growth on greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity
loss. These policies make family-planning services available to all
people, remove barriers to their access and achieve full gender equity,
including primary and secondary education as a global norm for all,
especially girls and young women.”
Music Association: Yes - I've Seen All Good People
Voter
Suppression
Music
Videos
Landmine
Hopscotch
Superman
Impact
Investing
Holiday
Gifs of Cats and Kittens Part 1
Part 2
Part
3 Part
4 Part
5
Southdale
Hennepin Library, Edina Library 
Wonder
Woman
Food
Fraud 
