Requiem for a Hero

I am referring to John Raines, who was part of the team who broke into the Media, PA FBI office and secured documents revealing systematic misdeeds by the bureau. 

He was 84:

One day in May 1971, John C. Raines, a religion professor at Temple University, had just returned to his home in Germantown, Pa., from playing tennis when two F.B.I. agents knocked on the door.

For weeks, hundreds of agents had been combing Philadelphia for the amateur burglars who had embarrassed the F.B.I. by raiding a suburban field office and stealing a thousand files, and then baffled the bureau by evading capture.

The documents were delivered anonymously to journalists and congressmen as proof that the bureau had systematically and illegally infiltrated, intimidated and disrupted protest groups.

………

The burglary, and subsequent lawsuits by NBC and others, prompted a groundbreaking investigation in 1975 by the so-called Church committee, a special Senate panel led by Senator Frank Church of Idaho. The committee revealed details of the F.B.I.’s secret Cointelpro, or counterintelligence, operation, which included illegal sabotage of dissident groups deemed to be subversive.

Dr. Raines died on Sunday in Philadelphia at 84. His wife said the cause was congestive heart failure.

………

Among the files was an F.B.I. order to interview dissidents aggressively. The bureau’s goal, the order said, was to “enhance the paranoia endemic in these circles” and “to get the point across there is an F.B.I. agent behind every mailbox.”

What that proved, Dr. Raines said, was that J. Edgar Hoover, the F.B.I. director, “was not simply into surveillance; Hoover was into taking the voice of dissent away from dissent.”

The cache also included a routine routing slip with the word “Cointelpro.” The burglars overlooked the document, but the Church Committee later exposed the program in detail.

This man was a hero, like Ellsburg and Snowden.

Resurgent Germany, Revolt in Spain, Right Wing Populists Taking Power, What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

I don't think that Catalonian independence would happen if the Madrid had even the vaguest concept of deconfliction strategies.

Unfortunately for Spain, and for Catalonia, Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy has based his entire career on n*****baiting the Catalans and the Basques, so everything is going pear shaped:

The Spanish government has taken control of Catalonia, dissolved its parliament and announced new elections after secessionist Catalan MPs voted to establish an independent republic, pushing the country’s worst political crisis in 40 years to new and dangerous heights.

Speaking on Friday evening, the Spanish prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, said his cabinet had fired the regional president, Carles Puigdemont, and ordered regional elections to be held on 21 December.

Rajoy said the Catalan government had been removed along with the head of the regional police force, the Mossos d’Esquadra. The Catalan government’s international “embassies” are also to be shut down.

………

The actions came hours after Spain’s national unity suffered a decisive blow when Catalan MPs in the 135-seat regional parliament voted for independence by a margin of 70 votes to 10.

 If Madrid's response had been a bit more measured, this would not be racing toward disaster.

Catalan Farmers PWn Police

Catalan farmers announced plans to block roads with their tractors at the French border.

Police raced to the border so that they could, as is their wont, break some Catalan heads.

They found no one.

The farmers had decoyed the police and established the blocked further south, effectively marooning the police and national guard. (Google translate link)

Even if I were not inclined to support the Catalans, (Rajoy and his PP party are Franco's heirs, and the King of Spain is, well, the King of Spain, the heir of Ferdinand and Isabella, who I am even less inclined to suppor) I would admire the sheer level of protest craft in this deception.

Well played.

H/T Anti-Fascist News on Facebook, the source of the picture.

Not Again………

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's goons just beat more protesters in the United States again:

Violence erupted at a New York hotel after protesters heckled a speech by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with chants of "terrorist".

Mr Erdogan was addressing supporters in Turkish at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square when he was interrupted by several demonstrators.

"You're a terrorist, get out of my country," one protester shouted before he was punched and dragged away.

Mr Erdogan is in New York for the UN General Assembly.

In footage from the speech on Thursday, protesters are seen being pushed and punched in the head as they are ejected from the venue by suited men.

It is not clear at this stage if they were pro-Erdogan attendees, presidential bodyguards, or guards providing security at the hotel.

It's pretty clear what they were.

We saw this in DC as well. It's his goons.

We need to declare his entire security detail personae non grata, and let some more responsible entity, say for example Blackwater, manage his security.

Clueless Protesters

Some fans in the Monster Seats hung a banner over the wall that said, “Racism Is As American As Baseball.” Security removed them. pic.twitter.com/tVSai9XocY

— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) September 14, 2017

Given Boston's history of racism, I'm inclined to think that protesting racism at Fenway Park during a Red Sox game is a good thing.

Boston is NOT a "woke" place, and getting in the face of the town in what is arguably the most Boston place in Boston is a good thing.

That being said, if you do protest, run it by an editor to make sure that your actual words are unambiguous:

Fans draped a sign reading “Racism is as American as baseball” over the Green Monster at Fenway Park during the Red Sox-Athletics game Wednesday night.

Red Sox spokeswoman Zineb Curran replied with the following statement via email when asked about the incident:
“During the 4th inning of tonight’s game, four fans unfurled a banner over the left field wall in violation of the club’s policy prohibiting signs of any kind to be hung or affixed to the ballpark. The individuals involved were escorted out of Fenway Park.”

According to The Boston Globe, the sign was visible for about two minutes and no arrests were made in connection to the incident.

………

One member of the group spoke to CSNNE anonymously Wednesday night, telling the network they expected to be kicked out of Fenway but were surprised by some people’s interpretation that their message wasn’t clear.

“I guess we should have seen that coming, but we also didn’t think of it as an ambiguous message,” the group member said. “It’s kind of telling that it is being interpreted as one.”

When I first heard about this, I thought that it was a group of white supremacists endorsing racism.

For F%$#'s sake, you need to run you slogans by an someone who wasn't involved in drafting the slogan, and maybe a trained copy editor.

To quote a an internet meme, "Get a brain, morans."

Tweet if the Day

a good statue:
a bronze shoe statue built for Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who threw his shoes at Bush pic.twitter.com/oGg0fuZpR0

— SubMedina (@SubMedina) August 22, 2017

H/t naked capitalism for finding this engaging bit of history.

These days, we have a surfeit of targets for such a protest.

Paging Paul T. Riddell!!!*

It appears that dog lovers of San Francisco have decided to to let their dogs' colons express their distaste for the latest white supremacist theater:

When a group of far-right activists come to San Francisco to hold a rally this Saturday, they will be met by peace activists offering them flowers to wear in their hair.

Also, dog sh%$. Lots and lots of dog sh%$.

Hundreds of San Franciscans plan to prepare Crissy Field, the picturesque beach in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge where rightwing protest group Patriot Prayer will gather, with a generous carpeting of excrement.

“I just had this image of alt-right people stomping around in the poop,” Tuffy Tuffington said of the epiphany he had while walking Bob and Chuck, his two Patterdale terriers, and trying to think of the best way to respond to rightwing extremists in the wake of Charlottesville. “It seemed like a little bit of civil disobedience where we didn’t have to engage with them face to face.”

Just a word of note:  Don't exclude all those folks who keep Vietnamese Potbellied Pigs.  Pig sh%$ is even worse.


^*He is an author who related what might be the ultimate fecal sabotage tale.

Between the Ages of 7 & 13, I Lived in Charlottesville

What the Dead Kennedy's Said


Goddamn Virginia Nazis!

Nazis, not an exaggeration, see the photo, marched in Charlottesville over the weekend carrying firearms and wearing body armor, and were greeted by counter protesters.

One of the Nazis drove his car into protestors, killing one. (He's been caught and jailed.

There is video of the attack, but I strongly recommend avoiding it.

Trump, who has called this sort of attack terrorism repeatedly in the past, responded with a lame ass "both sides do it" statement, which was quickly followed by widespread condemnation from a chorus of critics, including the New York Times and a startlingly large number of Republicans.

Following this, and the resignation of 3 members of his council of U.S. business leaders, Trump finally issued a grudging condemnation of white supremacists:

President Trump is facing a crossroad in his presidency — a choice between adopting the better-angels tone of a traditional White House or doubling down on the slashing, go-it-alone approach that got him elected in 2016.

On Monday, he tried to walk both paths — and satisfied neither supporters nor critics.

Mr. Trump, bowing to overwhelming pressure that he personally condemn white supremacists who incited bloody weekend demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., on Monday labeled their views as racist and “evil” after two days of issuing equivocal statements.

“Racism is evil,” said Mr. Trump, delivering a statement from the White House at a hastily arranged appearance meant to halt the growing political threat posed by the unrest. “And those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the K.K.K., neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”

When law enforcement needs to pursue what happened as terrorism, and the media needs to describe it as terrorism.

The fact that this term, and those laws, are never applied when white people are involved has contributed to this problem.

Right wing terrorism accounts for more than 3 x the number of attacks from Islamists in the United States, but it's not a priority, because of their ineffable whiteness.

It is white privilege writ large.

Adventures in Inventive Protests

Protesters in Minneapolis have put up street signs warning people that the local police are easily startled:

Joe Morino brought an incredulous friend to see the orange street sign he just spotted in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis.

The official-looking metal sign read: “WARNING: TWIN CITIES POLICE EASILY STARTLED.” It featured a graphic silhouette of a police officer, a gun in each raised hand, shooting in both directions.

“There’s a side of truth to the sign,” Morino said after snapping a picture of it. “That tells you there is something wrong with the system.”

The sign, which was still up at 8 p.m. Sunday, was one of at least two seen in the Twin Cities Sunday.

A photo of the same sign, reportedly near the corner of Snelling and University avenues in St. Paul, circulated Sunday on social media. A Facebook post said that sign later was removed.

Each was screwed into upright metal posts in the same fashion as conventional street signs.

The signs reference the killing of Justine Damond just over a week ago by Minneapolis police officer Mohamed Noor. Noor’s partner, Matthew Harrity, told the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that he heard a loud sound right before Noor fired his gun, hitting Damond.

Do not underestimate the power of mockery.

True

The founder of the Russian punk bank Pussy Riot, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, is saying that liberals are using Putin as a scapegoat to avoid looking at the problems of the Democratic party.

Considering the fact that Putin had her thrown in jail for over a year for their protests of his regime, it is a remarkable statement:

Sirota: Do you believe the American political class and media exaggerate the threat of Putin for its own ends?

Tolokonnikova: Yeah. They're just looking for a scapegoat and, you know, for Trump it's Muslims and Mexican workers. And for liberal media in America it is Putin.

I've been saying this for how long?

This Business Will Get out of Control. It Will Get out of Control and We'll Be Lucky to Live through It.

It appears that a woman may have attempted to run her Congressman off the road over his vote for Trumpcare:

A Tennessee woman hated that her congressman voted for the controversial Republican health-care bill in the House of Representatives, authorities said.

So Wendi L. Wright tried to run Rep. David Kustoff (R-Tenn.) off the road after he visited the University of Tennessee at Martin, they said.

The Weakley County Sheriff’s Department said Wright tailed the car carrying Kustoff. At some point, the congressman and his aide became afraid and worried that Wright wanted to force them off the road.

They then turned into a driveway and stopped. That’s where Wright got out, screamed at the congressman and struck the windows of his vehicle, even reaching inside the car, the sheriff’s department said.

Authorities said Wright then stood in front of the vehicle to try to keep Kustoff from leaving. At some point, someone called 911, but Wright left before authorities arrived.

The incident happened on May 8, four days after House Republicans narrowly passed a bill to overhaul the country’s health-care system.

Wright, 35, has been charged with felony reckless endangerment and was released after posting a $1,000 bond. Authorities say they found her after she posted details of the encounter with Kustoff on Facebook.

I think that characterizing this as an attempt to run the Congressman off the road is a bit much. It's more of a stalking and a rant.

Still, this is major league crazy sh%$, and it is a profoundly unproductive course of action.

Human Sacrifice, Dogs and Cats Living Together... Mass Hysteria!

It appears that we are now having Pennsylvania Mennonites protesting Donald Trump policies:

Mary Beth Martin and Lindsey Martin Corbo each held one side of the large cardboard poster, the mother and her adult daughter eager to deliver a personal if unconventional message to their congressman, Republican Rep. Lloyd Smucker.

“Hey Smucker,” said the sign, written in red, green, and blue marker. “300 years ago our Mennonite family took sanctuary in PA, just like yours did.

“Lancaster values immigrants.”

The anger might have been directed at Smucker, but Martin and Corbo were really there – like 100 others – because of President Donald Trump.

The two women were among a hundred newly engaged activists assembled in Republican-heavy Lancaster County – an area that went to Trump in November by 57 percent – braving toe-freezing temperatures to protest Trump and the lawmaker, who was 200 yards away at a chamber of commerce breakfast.

That Martin and Corbo were protesters was – by their own admission – a remarkable development. Both are members of the Mennonite Church, a religion that encourages its members to stay away from politics just as it asks them to shun the wider culture.

This is like a half step away from the Amish engaging in civil disobedience, and I ain't talking about Rumspringa here.



H/t Charlie Pierce.

Protest Sign of the Day

H/t JR at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

Quote of the Day, Tinfoil Hat Edition

How do we know that black bloc is run by police informers? Because they break windows and burn cars but leave surveillance cameras unmolested.

—Reported as said by, "A correspondent," on Naked Capitalism

Considering the numerous times that undercover law enforcement has been the primary motivator in violent protests, I'm not sure if this is a tinfoil hat, or just a Panama hat with a red and black band.

Not Gonna Happen

There are reports that ren-a-cops who used attack dogs on Dakota access pipeline protestors might be prosecuted for this.

It ain't gonna happen. If one of these guys took a baby from a protestor, roasted it on the flames of his breath, and ate it on while being filmed, the local constabulary would site the mother for preparing food without a license.

The DA has been charging journalists with incitement to riot. They will do nothing to rein in the excesses of public and private law enforcement.

This Would Not Have Happened 3 Years Ago

When Tulsa police officer Betty Shelby shot Terence Crutcher last week, I'm sure that she thought that therw would be little or no repurcussions.

Before Black Lives Matter protests, and the increasing frequency of videos of police misconduct, the worst that could be expected was that she might have been fired, and then gone to work at another police department.

Not today.  The district attorney charged officer Shelby with 1^st degree manslaughter:

The police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Friday has been charged with manslaughter, prosecutors announced on Thursday afternoon.

Tulsa County’s district attorney, Steve Kunzweiler, said he had filed a first-degree manslaughter charge against Betty Shelby, the white police officer who killed Terence Crutcher last week.

………

A court filing by prosecutors said Shelby “unlawfully and unnecessarily” shot Crutcher because he was refusing to comply with her orders.

Shelby “reacted unreasonably by escalating the situation”, according to an affidavit from Doug Campbell, Kunzweiler’s chief investigator, who alleged that she became “emotionally involved to the point that she overreacted”.

Kunzweiler said a warrant has been issued for Shelby’s arrest and “arrangements are being made for her surrender to the Tulsa County sheriff’s department,” where Shelby was previously employed.

The video of the shooting is pretty clear on what happened, and what did not happen.

When even Donald Trump thinks that this was a bad shoot, you know that something seriously went wrong that day:

Donald Trump has expressed concern over the recent police killing of an unarmed black man in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Speaking to a crowd of black pastors at an Ohio church, the Republican nominee said he was "very, very troubled" by the shooting.

………

But Mr Trump has billed himself as the "law and order candidate", making his remarks stand out as a rare criticism of police actions.

The New York billionaire, who has been a vocal critic of the Black Lives Matter movement, received an endorsement by The Fraternal Order of Police on Friday.

"I must tell you, I watched the shooting in particular in Tulsa and that man was hands up. That man went to the car, hands up, put his hand on the car," Mr Trump said at the New Spirit Revival church in Cleveland Heights.

When a shooting of a black man draws public doubt from Donald f%$#ing Trump, it is not a good shoot.

Between this shooting and the shooting in Charlotte, which has experienced unrest and a curfew, it is no surprise that distrust of the police is at the highest level in at least a generation.

Seriously?

After swearing out an arrest warrant for Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein, they have followed up by issued an arrest warrant for radio host Amy Goodman for filming the protests and the ensuing brutality of the pipeline's Pinkertons:

So much for the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Despite well-established freedom of the press protections that outline and guarantee the rights of reporters who cover breaking news stories—including confrontations between demonstrators and authorities—North Dakota officials have charged Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman with criminal trespassing after she documented private security personnel’s use of dogs to attack Native American foes of the Dakota Access Pipeline project.

Video footage obtained by Goodman, an internationally respected and frequently honored independent journalist, helped to alert Americans to the tactics being used to stop demonstrations against the pipeline by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their allies. On Friday, the Obama administration halted work on key portions of the $3.8 billion pipeline project—recognizing concerns raised by the tribe and environmental activists.

To quote Tallyrand,^* it is worse than a crime, it is a mistake.

The behavior of the pipeline company, as well as the behavior of local and state law enforcement has been abhorrent, and their natural response is to go after the reporter.

I think that contaminants in North Dakota from fracking have melted their so-called minds.

 ^*Again, this is probably not an actually a quote from Tallyrand. It was likely said by Joseph Fouché, but, "C'est pire qu'un crime, c'est une faute," is all too frequently credited to Talleyrand.

This is Not a Gaffe, This is Walking the Walk

I am not a fan of the Green Party, I think that they play politics to lose, as a way to assauge liberal white guilty.

I am also not a fan of their current Presidential candidate, Jill Stein, who is winking and nodding at some of the more unsavory aspects of her base, most notably anti-vaxxers.

That being said, the fact that Stein has been charged as a result of her role in the protest against the Dakota access pipeline, which is demolishing holy Indian burial sites, is a plus in my book:

Jill Stein, the Green Party presidential candidate, is facing misdemeanor criminal charges in North Dakota after she spray-painted a bulldozer at a rally protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, law enforcement officials said on Wednesday.

Warrants charging Ms. Stein, 66, and her running mate, Ajamu Baraka, with criminal trespass and criminal mischief were issued after several Caterpillar bulldozers were found to have been defaced at the protest, which was held on Tuesday, according to an affidavit prepared by the Morton County Sheriff’s Department.

“Officers were alerted to video that displayed presidential candidate Jill Stein painting the front of one of the Caterpillars with the message ‘I approve this message,’ ” the affidavit said.

The warrants are valid only in North Dakota, said Rob Keller, a spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, adding that Ms. Stein and Mr. Baraka would be arrested only if they returned to the state.

………

The pipeline project has met with resistance from many who say that it will destroy sacred Native American sites and potentially threaten the quality of the drinking water at a nearby reservation.

I still ain't gonna vote for her, but my disdain for her, and her campaign, is no longer complete.

Snark of the Day ……… Week ……… Month ……… Year ……… Decade ……… Century ……… Mellenium

The anarchist group INDECLINE decided that they need to show that the emperor had no clothes, with said emperor being Donald J. Trump.

To do this, they erected 5 naked sculptures of him all across the nation: (This is amusing, but not truly great snark)

For much of the past year, Donald Trump proved uniquely untouchable, a political force of such mind-boggling invulnerability that he even bragged about attracting voters after hypothetically shooting someone on Fifth Avenue.

Hoping to strip away the Teflon Don’s legendary confidence to reveal the fleshy mortal beneath the expensive suits and long ties, members of the anarchist collective INDECLINE decided they would showcase the aspirant president in the most humiliating way they could imagine: without his clothes.

The group unveiled life-size statues of Trump in the nude Thursday morning in public spaces in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Cleveland and Seattle.

“The Emperor Has No B—s,” [Balls because WaPo is too chickensh%$ to say it] as the project is called, arrives several months after the group covered stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with the names of African Americans who have been killed by police. In the past, the collective has also claimed responsibility for an anti-Trump “Rape” mural on the U.S.-Mexico border and a massive piece of graffiti art in California’s Mojave Desert.

Yes, this is amusing, but it still isn't great nark.

The great snark was from the New York City Parks Department, which promptly removed the statue, and a spokesman explained their reasoning as follows:

NYC Parks stands firmly against any unpermitted erection in city parks, no matter how small.

Brilliant! 

You win the internet.

H/t DC at the Stellar Parthenon BBS.

More of This

I support Black Lives Matter and related groups, but this does not mean that I necessarily approve of some of their tactics.

That being said, I wholeheartedly approve of BLM activists blockading the Chicago Police's secret torture site:

Activists on Wednesday night marched in North Lawndale and also blocked the entrance to the Chicago Police Department’s notorious Homan Square site.

The Homan Square building has been a source of controversy ever since the Guardian exposed the “off-the-books interrogation compound” in February of 2015. The profile documents claims that detainees were routinely kept from contacting family or legal representation.
The protest was organized by the Let Us Breathe Collective and Black Youth Project 100 to demand a transition in how tax dollars are allocated, namely an “investment into new alternatives to keep Black communities safe and a divestment from police and legislative systems that are violent towards Black communities,” according to a statement.

Activists used chains, tubes, bike locks and ladders to bind themselves together, blocking the entrance path. Other nearby protesters set up tents and a “Free Store” that offered provisions.

 Well done.