Note to St Barnabas: I'm Not Sure This Is A Good Topic For Wendy Bell.

Let's start here:

Oh look! @StBarnabasHS WJAS in-house racist claims there is no systemic racism! pic.twitter.com/FJnQmVrnlo

— JON (@JonInPGH) April 4, 2021

I may be out of my lane but I'm thinking that it might not be a good idea for America's Worst White Woman to be defining our nation's status on race.

And why shouldn't Wendy Bell ever ever comment on race? Damon Young explains:

Well, years ago, when Wendy Bell was still an anchorwoman at WTAE-TV (Pittsburgh’s ABC affiliate), six people were killed in a horrific mass shooting in a predominately black Pittsburgh suburb. A week after the shooting, Bell went to her Facebook fan page and published what historians now refer to as the “Moby Dick of White Privilege.” (By “historians” I mean “I.”)

She began with some “thoughts” on how she hadn’t been able to walk or talk since the shooting, continued by effectively calling the mothers of the suspected shooters “broke black hoes,” described the shooting with Pulitzer-level black poverty porn imagery, and then ended with a pitch-perfect screed on how a recent family night at the Cheesecake Factory with a smiling and skipping black server gave her hope for us. (If you think I’m making this up, please—I beg of you—read what she wrote. And even if you don’t think I’m making this up, read it for your own entertainment.)

Bell was eventually fired from WTAE. She subsequently sued them for racial discrimination, and the case was settled. [Italics in original.]

Yea, she should probably just stay away from the topic as it got her fired from TAE.

On the other hand, at about 8:40 into Wendy's lecture on race, she states:

But I don't believe that the issue that is really most troubling most in defining at this point in American is systemic racism.

We have systemic irresponsibility. We have a problem with people not being accountable for their own decisions.

And a minute or so later she says:

But then there are elements in here where we're covering up for the systemic failures of generations of Americans – who've been allowed to become victims and blame other people for their lack of achievement, who use outrage as their cover for lack of progress.

You know when you're very young, your parents, if you're fortunate enough and they're part of your life and you have two of them, you have mom and you have dad, they teach you from the very early age about being accountable for the decisions that you make and trying to make the best decisions you can.

Gee, I wonder who she means. I wonder exactly who she's describing?

I wonder. Hmm.

Anyway, did you catch the homophobia sprinkled in there? Did you catch how Wendy Bell thinks that you're fortunate to be raised in a two parent household just as long as it's a mom and a dad.

And that's just the first 12 minutes or so. I didn't have the stomach to go any further.

Feel free to do so - I'm off to look at things in bloom (for fifty springs are little room).

Great Moments in Black History Month

Toomey "Virtual" Town Hall Recap

Caller: "Hi. This is Linda from Pottstown. First time caller, long time racist."

Sen. Pat Toomey: "Thank you for your support, Linda."

This has been your Toomey "Virtual" Town Hall Recap.

They want all brown people out

"Ethnic Cleansing" via Atrios (2/3/17):

It's what they're trying to do, and I get livid when people respond with "wahh wah you're minimizing the real episodes of ethnic cleansing in history." No, I'm doing my best to put a stop to yet another incident. They want all the brown people out, especially but not just Muslims, and they'll use whatever authority they can to do it. They didn't just prevent new people from coming in, they tried to prevent legal long term residents (green card holders) from returning. They've revoked who knows how many existing student and H1-B visas. Again, not just new arrivals or even people trying to re-enter, but revoking the legal status of people already here - people who have invested time and money in education and careers. Those people can be declared in violation, and even if they aren't being deported momentarily, they will be unable to return due for years or ever due to visa violation they weren't even aware they had made. Employers will have workers who have no right to work here - again, unknown to them. Families will continue to be ripped apart.

Kneel With Woodland Hills

Via Facebook:

Woodland Hills will be playing their first game in the playoffs at home this Sunday, October 23, 2016 at 6:30pm. We ask that you come and support these young men at their game and kneel with them in solidarity and support of their stand against police brutality. 

During their last game against Bethel Park, the Woodland Hills 12U (12 years old and under) team had the resolve to kneel in protest against police brutality during the national anthem as modeled by the San Francisco 49ers Quaterback, Colin Kaepernick. Their action was met with racial slurs from audience memeber and the Bethel Park team, the consession stand attendants refusing to serve the Woodland Hills guests, and the referees making several bad calls on the field against Woodland Hills. In the face of such pressing adversity, WH still managed a 20-6 win against Bethel Park, however the affects of what happened that day are lasting. 

We stand in support of these young men and their coach, Marcus Burkley Sr., for their integrity. We also seek justice and action from the Municipality of Bethel Park as well as the Parkway Youth Football League to reprimand the actors in this event as well as adopting policy that ensures that racially charged violence such as that displayed at Bethel Park will not go without reprecussion that matches the damage that it causes. 

We hope that you will stand with us and these young men this Sunday and #KneelWithWoodlandHills 

News:  

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/real-time/Racial-slurs-heard-when-youth-football-team-takes-a-knee.html 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/13/crowd-shouts-racial-slurs-at-all-black-youth-football-team-when-some-players-kneel-during-anthem-coach-says/ 

http://www.wpxi.com/news/tensions-escalate-at-youth-football-game-after-some-players-kneel-during-national-anthem/456133237

Kneel With Woodland Hills
Where: Sunday, October 23, 2016, 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM
When: The Wolvarena High School, Lynn Avenue, Turtle Creek, PA 15145

Wendy Bell To Fox News CEO: "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Ailes!"

With reverse discrimination lawsuit and new blonde 'do in tow,

Wendy Bell readies for an audition with FOX News (we assume).

Inside the Mind of Wendy Bell (UPDATE)

Pittsburgh's WTAE News anchor Wendy Bell majorly stepped in it when she decided to profile the yet unknown killers of the March 9 mass shooting in Wilkinsburg by stringing together a bunch of stereotypical racist insults on her Facebook page. She then contrasted them with a virtually tap-dancing Mr. Bojangles, Jr. version of a young man who happened to be busing tables at a restaurant where Miz Wendy was eating with her family. 

The post was so disgusting, that she received a great deal of push-back. Then came the inevitable blocking of people and removal of comments, and, eventually, some editing of the original post*. It's led to a "Demand WTAE Hold Wendy Bell Accountable" Facebook campaign and a Post-Gazette article. But the best analysis comes from Damon Young at verysmartbrothas.com. Here's a taste, but please, read the whole article:

There are so many layers and layers and layers to Bell’s abject obliviousness to how racist this is; all made clear by the fact that she thought it was fine to print it. She’s practically a White privilege lasagna caught in the throat of a White privilege turducken. 

[snip] 

Seriously, read this scribbled-on-some-toilet-paper-at-a-Hallmark-factory-bathroom bullshit again. And think about the state of mind that allows someone to juxtapose that awful tragedy with a night at the Cheesecake Factory. As if there’s any connection between the two besides the race of the server and the race of the victims. And, I don’t know, the fact that they’re both made out of space dust.

* To read her original version of the post, click on the arrow in the upper right corner and hit "View edit history."

UPDATE: In an AP story at ABC News (WTAE is an ABC affiliate), Wendy Bell gave a pro forma apology. The entire Facebook post has been removed.

Hey, Trump! Your slip is showing.

Trump Doubles Down on Closing Mosques: 'We're Gonna Have No Choice'

Trump on rally protester: ‘Maybe he should have been roughed up’

Donald Trump Tweets A Wildly Inaccurate Graphic To Portray Black People As Murderers

Trump’s outrageous claim that ‘thousands’ of New Jersey Muslims celebrated the 9/11 attacks

God knows what he'll say today...

Question

Question: Are the other GOP presidential candidates more happy or sad today? Happy because Trump's comments slamming McCain for being "captured" in Vietnam make them all look less extreme? Or, sad because his racist comments about Mexicans are going to lose the few Latino voters the Republicans had?

Call it what it is

We already knew Wednesday night shortly after the killings at the historic African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Charleston, SC--the oldest AME church in the south--that the act was committed by a young white man against nine African Americans. Only someone who hadn't lived in this country for more than five minutes wouldn't have had it cross their mind that the attack was racially motivated. Later that same evening, it was already being labeled a "hate crime" by authorities. And yet, by the next morning, Fox & Friends was already pushing the idea that the crime was an attack on Christians and Christianity (and the solution was more guns in churches--but more about that later).

Still later that morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on "The View" said, "There are people out there looking for Christians to kill them." Another GOP presidential hopeful, Rick Santorum, jumped on the bandwagon, calling it part of a broader assault on "religious liberty" in America. And, Congressman Mark Sanford (R-SC) was all over the TV as slippery as a greased pig refusing to say the new R-word (racism)--alternately describing the attack as the Devil's work or trying to get out of explaining why the Confederate flag still flies in front of South Carolina state capitol.

Meanwhile, America had long heard the words uttered by shooting suspect Dylann Roof:

When a man pleaded with him to stop, the shooter replied, "You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go," she said. 

A law enforcement official says witnesses told authorities the gunman stood up and said he was there "to shoot black people."

But it wasn't just politicians pushing this anything-but-race "alternative" theory of the crime. Comment after comment on articles and Facebook posts and other social media had average Joe's and Jane's--well, white ones anyway--earnestly insisting that the murders were due solely to mental illness, or attacks on religion, or incredibly whining "why was it being made about race" or "why am I being called a racist" when nobody had called them that in the first place.

The sheer will it must take to wonder "why this happened," or to subscribe alternate motives, or to gloss over the racial aspect of this when the POS who did it was absolutely clear why he murdered nine black people is astounding.

(The usually smart Amy Poehler's Smart Girls initially being pretty clueless which

they thankfully rethought here by linking to Charles P. Pierce's great article in "Esquire.")

Besides what he said himself, this is the same man who proudly displayed Rhodesia and apartheid-era South Africa flags on his jacket, a Confederate flag license plate on his car, whose friends admitted he was a racist, and whose racist views were apparently spilled all over his social media postings, and who drove hundreds of miles to go to an historic black church to murder black people.

This was first and foremost about race (so stop "wondering"). It was a deliberate attack on black bodies. And, yes, while it did occur in a church, it was not about religion:

It was also an act of terror. As Crooks & Liars pointed out, "The New York Times" tried to warn us just one day before this attack:

The main terrorist threat in the United States is not from violent Muslim extremists, but from right-wing extremists. Just ask the police. 

... 

An officer from a large metropolitan area said that “militias, neo-Nazis and sovereign citizens” are the biggest threat we face in regard to extremism. One officer explained that he ranked the right-wing threat higher because “it is an emerging threat that we don’t have as good of a grip on, even with our intelligence unit, as we do with the Al Shabab/Al Qaeda issue, which we have been dealing with for some time.” An officer on the West Coast explained that the “sovereign citizen” anti-government threat has “really taken off,” whereas terrorism by American Muslim is something “we just haven’t experienced yet.”

And, while this was about race, the accessory to these murders--to this act of terrorism--was our twisted gun culture and our refusal to stand up to it. From President Obama's statement:

I've had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times. 

We don't have all the facts, but we do know that once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hand on a gun. 

Now is the time for mourning and for healing. But let's be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency.

And, from the "Washington Post":

Dylann Roof, the man accused of a shooting spree that left nine people dead at a historic black church in Charleston on Wednesday night, should not have been able to get a gun. 

Federal law prohibits people with pending felony charges from obtaining firearms. In February, Roof was arrested and later charged with felony possession of Suboxone, a narcotic prescription drug. He was released, and the case is pending. 

Because of his criminal record, Roof would not have been able to buy a gun from a store. Federally licensed gun dealers are required to run background checks on gun purchasers, and Roof’s pending charges should have turned up as a red flag. 

But Roof didn’t need to go to a dealership. According to his uncle, Roof received a .45-caliber pistol from his father in April for his birthday, Reuters reports.

And, lastly, this: 

In case you can't tell, that sticker on the newspaper is an ad for a gun shop...

I appreciate

This being Law Enforcement Appreciation Day, I appreciate Pittsburgh Police Chief Cameron McLay for posing with this sign when it was offered to him and for not backing down despite all the ridiculous controversy. I also appreciate Mayor Bill Peduto for standing by him, as well as for hiring him in the first place.

Thank you.

Roll Back Those Lazy-Crazy-Hazy-Days Of Summer

It's the summer of 1963, err, 2013 in the Good Ol' U.S. of A and everything is A-okay!

Any 'War on Poverty' Is Thankfully Still Just A Dream
Poverty? What poverty? This is the greatest nation on the face of the Earth!

(80 Percent Of U.S. Adults Face Near-Poverty, Unemployment: Survey)

We Will Arrest Those Who Practice The Love
That Dare Not Speak Its Name
Really, what do they expect?

(Gays in Baton Rouge arrested under invalid sodomy law)

The Little Lady Knows Her Place (As She Should)
We're working hard to ensure that the only abortions will be back alley ones!
(As abortion limits sweep US, even 'purple' states join the crackdown)

Negroes Know Their Place Too
Because they know death lies only a whistle at a white woman (or a hoodie) away!

(George Zimmerman Found Not Guilty And Goes Free)

And For the Ones Who Are Still Too Uppity...
We'll make it as hard as legally possible to vote!

(North Carolina Passes the Country's Worst Voter Suppression Law)

Yes siree, Bob! We wish that summer would always be here!

#PghBlog4Justice - Trayvon Martin's Murder & George Zimmerman's Acquittal: It's About Race & Politics

I'm not a racist, but... 

The President is making this about race...  

The media is stirring up trouble and making this about race...  

It can't be about race because Zimmerman isn't white...  

What about black-on-black crime...  

You dress like a thug, people are going to treat you like a thug...  

They always get away...

Yes, it's about race. It was about race when this country was built on the backs of slaves. It was about race when there was a one-drop rule. It was about race when there were Jim Crow laws. It was about race when the first African American president had to show his birth certificate to prove he is a real American. It was about race when Acorn was attacked and destroyed. It's about race when states pass laws to try to suppress voting. It's about race when the NRA doesn't say that Trayvon Martin would be alive today if only he had a gun (like they do in every other newsworthy case where an unarmed victim is killed). And, it's about race when, "Only in America can a dead black boy go on trial for his own murder" (SyreetaMcFadden).

Trayvon Martin is dead because George Zimmerman saw black skin and assumed the worse. It all springs from that same ugly well of racism.

And George Zimmerman is not in jail today largely because of politics. First, because the NRA's answer to gun violence is "more guns." And, second, because Florida has a "Stand Your Ground" law which can make prosecution absurdly difficult when someone claims self-defense -- especially when their victim is not alive to give their side.

And, Stand Your Ground was most certainly used in this case. It's one of the reasons that the police didn't initially charge Zimmerman (even though he did not evoke it by name). It was written into the jury instructions. And, it was a reason given by one of the jurors for Zimmerman's acquittal. Not surprisingly, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) adopted Stand Your Ground as a model for other states in early just months after the NRA pushed it through Florida's legislature.

Race and Politics is why the man with the gun is alive and free and the teen with the Skittles is dead and buried.

Thankfully, many Pittsburghers -- of all races -- recognize this intersection of race and politics. There were two protests the day after the verdict (Thank you Commander Rashall Brackney for your cool head). The group, Pittsburgh for Trayvon, had a rally turned into a sit-in, turned into a sleep-in, turned into a visit to the missing mayor's home. They have issued a list of demands to city officials. You can see it here. And, on Saturday there was a rally Downtown.

I'll leave you with an amazing poem by Paradise Gray which was performed at some of the above events. It somehow manages to hit every damn mark:

From Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district

 

(h/t to The MaddowBlog)

Romney lets out dog-whistle: "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate"

Mitt Romney in Michigan today:

"I love being home, in this place where Ann and I were raised, where but the both of us were born," Romney said after introducing his wife, fellow Michigan native Ann. "No one's ever asked to see my birth certificate. They know that this is the place where we were born and raised."

Yes, I know we are supposed to see this as a joke, but it's certainly not the first time that Romney or his campaign and surrogates have let loose with the racial and "othering" dog-whistles:

Romney's running an ad which falsely claims that Obama has ended work requirements for Americans receiving welfare benefits (Shades of Reagan's "Welfare Queen").

Romney boasts proudly about the NAACP crowd who booed him,  "If they want more stuff from the government, tell them to go vote for the other guy — more free stuff." (Because, you know, all blacks only want free stuff.)

Romney follows up comments made by campaign surrogate John Sununu, that President Obama needs to "learn to be an American" by saying himself that Obama doesn't understand "what it is that makes America such a unique nation."

Romney calls Obama "angry" (right, cause No Drama Obama is such an angry black man) and says Obama wants to "to smash America apart."

A Romney advisor claims that Obama doesn’t "fully appreciate" America’s "Anglo-Saxon heritage."

Yes, yes. Obama is the angry, black foreigner who wants to give all the free shit that real Americans work hard for to the other blacks because he doesn't understand America because he wasn't born here.

[sigh]

And yes, Mitt, you're white and rich so no one has ever asked to see your birth certificate (just the black guy's), but everyone and his brother has asked to see your tax returns -- including fellow Republicans -- so what about that?

Primary Wrap Up

Chris Potter on the wins by young, progressives Erin Molchany and Ed Gainey and Matt Merriman-Preston's role in the election. Also, how this bodes well for a bid for mayor by Bill Peduto.

Sue Kerr on Brian Sims being on course to becoming PA's first openly gay state representative.

Howard Fineman on the 'Clinton Party' wins in PA.

And, kudos to the Post-Gazette for their unendorsement.

Photos and video from Justice for Trayvon Martin Rally in Pittsburgh

Here are photos and video from the Justice for Trayvon Martin Rally which was held today in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University (click on each photo to enlarge).


Photo by Kesha Silver


Photo by David Chang


Photo by Joy Sabl


Photo by Joy Sabl


Photo by Joy Sabl


Photo by Joy Sabl


Photo by Joy Sabl


Photo by Joy Sabl
Speakers included Brittany Claud, Ricky Burgess (Councilor Burgess' son) and Kimberly Ellis (Dr. Goddess) seen here:

We'll stop calling them racists when they stop acting like racists

Via The Washington Post:

Paint Creek, Tex. — In the early years of his political career, Rick Perry began hosting fellow lawmakers, friends and supporters at his family’s secluded West Texas hunting camp, a place known by the name painted in block letters across a large, flat rock standing upright at its gated entrance.

“Niggerhead,” it read.

[snip]

“My mother and father went to the lease and painted the rock in either 1983 or 1984,” Perry wrote. “This occurred after I paid a visit to the property with a friend and saw the rock with the offensive word. After my visit I called my folks and mentioned it to them, and they painted it over during their next visit.”

[snip]

Perry’s version of events differs in many respects from the recollections of seven people, interviewed by The Washington Post, who spoke in detail of their memories of seeing the rock with the name at various points during the years that Perry was associated with the property through his father, partners or his signature on a lease.

[snip]

Of those interviewed, the seven who said they saw the rock said the block-lettered name was clearly visible at different points in the 1980s and 1990s. One, a former worker on the ranch, believes he saw it as recently as 2008.

Oh, and on a side note, he also thinks it would be a good idea to send US troops to Mexico...

Michele Bachmann: John Wayne...John Wayne Gacy...Whatever

She sure does seem to have a problem with facts. Via Talking Points Memo:

In an interview with Fox News, Bachmann boasted: "But what I want them to know, just like John Wayne was from Waterloo, Iowa, that's the kind of spirit that I have, too."

As it turns out, John Wayne was from Winterset, Iowa. It was serial killer clown John Wayne Gacy who actually spent some time living in Waterloo, Iowa.

As for John Wayne's "spirit" that was decidedly racist. Via Wikipedia:

In an interview with Playboy magazine published on May 1, 1971, Wayne made several controversial remarks about race and class in the United States. The interview became a hot topic and many stores had trouble keeping the issue in stock.

[snip]

"There were great numbers of people who needed new land the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves"

[snip]

"I believe in white supremacy until blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people."

I'm going to spot her on this one and assume that this is just one more thing she doesn't know.
.

New Willie Horton-style Web Ad -- Now with Misogyny!

Not Safe For Work:

Talking Points Memo is spot on when they called this ad against Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn (D) -- running in a special election to replace the retired Democratic Rep. Jane Harman (CA-36) -- "Willie Horton on steroids." But its all that and more. Let's go down the check list:

False accusations about her actions regarding gang members: ☑

False inference that the gang members in question are African-American -- Obama! -- when they were primarily Latinos: ☑

Depicting the opponent as demonic: ☑

Calling the opponent a "ho" and a "bitch": ☑

Depictions of various gangsters (Al Capone), gang members, Che Guevara and Charlie Manson (?!): ☑

Depicting the opponent as a pole dancing stripper with (bonus!) a smelly crotch: ☑

Depicting Hahn as about to be sexually violated with an automatic weapon...WHAT?...WTF? This has got to be the sickest, most vile ad ever.

And, we get to thank Citizens United for this one. The ad is not being run by her opponent, tea party Republican Craig Huey. It's being run by the brand-new Turn Right USA PAC. Via TPM:

Turn Right USA, the sponsor, is a brand new political action committee which only filed its paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Monday. The paperwork indicates that Turn Right USA intends to operate as a so-called "super PAC," capable of raising funds in unlimited amount, but will not use those funds to directly support federal candidates or committees.