Monday Open Thread | Protests Erupt in St Louis After Ex-Cop Acquitted of Murder

Posted on September 18, 2017 by SouthernGirl2

About SouthernGirl2

A Native Texan who adores baby kittens, loves horses, rodeos, pomegranates, & collect Eagles. Enjoys politics, games shows, & dancing to all types of music. Loves discussing and learning about different cultures. A Phi Theta Kappa lifetime member with a passion for Social & Civil Justice.
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45 Responses to Monday Open Thread | Protests Erupt in St Louis After Ex-Cop Acquitted of Murder

  1. SouthernGirl2 says:
    September 18, 2017 at 9:13 pm

    #TheLastWord: US GOV’T wiretapped Paul Manafort under secret court orders before & after election.

    Reply
  2. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 8:57 pm

    Damn , she going ALL THE WAY

    His Nigra Wake-up call is about to be Fierce!!

    Political commentator Scottie Nell Hughes filed a lawsuit against Fox News on Monday accusing the network of retaliating against her after she claimed she was raped by Fox Business anchor Charles Payne.

    The New York Times reports that in the lawsuit, Hughes said Payne coerced her to have sex with him even though she has repeatedly refused him by saying “no” and “stop.”

    https://twitter.com/thehill/status/909905389487104003

    Reply
    • rikyrah says:
      September 18, 2017 at 8:42 pm

      Anika Noni Rose’s Patience With Cicely Tyson Is the Blackest Thing That Ever Happened This Week
      Damon Young
      Today 11:38am

      ……………………………………

      Ultimately, all we got is us. Which is why Issa Rae’s comment about rooting for everybody black was so beautiful. As was Lena Waithe’s speech on the superpowers of the LGBTQIA community. And Donald Glover’s shot at the white progressives in the room where he “joked” that Trump’s election and the subsequent white guilt are the only reason his work on Atlanta was recognized by them. And Sterling K. Brown not allowing the timer music to end his speech, especially not when Nicole Kidman was allowed to read the entire first chapter of Gone Girl just moments earlier. And Riz Ahmed articulating the ambivalence of winning an Emmy while playing a marginalized character.

      And no moment better exemplified the beauty of that edict than when Anika Noni Rose and Cicely Tyson presented the Award for Outstanding Limited Series. Overcome with nerves, the 92-year-old Tyson—one of the few people who can legitimately be considered a living legend—struggled when reading her speech. But the sublime Rose put her arm around Tyson, bent down to her ear and encouraged her with graciousness, patience and love. I don’t know exactly what she said, but the message communicated by that gesture was “It’s OK, I got you.” And also “They’re on your time; you’re not on theirs. So take your time.”

      All we got is us. And Anika Noni Rose reminded us that’s all we need.

      Reply
  8. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 8:35 pm

    Spandan @ TPV‏ @thepeoplesview

    Stop harassing Nancy Pelosi. If you wanted a ‘clean’ Dream Act, you needed to have worked a LOT harder to elect Hillary Clinton.
    2:45 PM – 18 Sep 2017

    Reply
  9. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 8:32 pm

    The FBI raid on Manafort’s House – they got permission from the judge to PICK HIS LOCK. He didn’t know that they were in his house -UNTIL THEY POUNDED ON HIS BEDROOM DOOR.

    Reply
  12. Lonnie Starr says:
    September 18, 2017 at 3:36 pm

    Rachel Maddow has the goods on Donald T. His farther Fred marching in full KKK regalia, my guess is that as a Klansman his dad would be so proud he’d have almost certainly put a few pictures of him and his fellow Klansmen in the family album, not to mention the stories he’s likely to have told his sons. Thus, this is the background against which Trump is trying to play off his terrible remarks as some sort of mistake. But no, that dog won’t hunt. If you live in a family headed by a Klansman, there’s no way you won’t be very knowledgeable about racism in all it’s horrific gory. Here, have a look: http://themindlesspraetorianblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/rachel-maddow-show-91717-has-your-whole.html

    Reply
  14. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 1:33 pm

    As Russia scandal moves forward, Team Mueller isn’t done growing
    09/18/17 11:30 AM
    By Steve Benen

    It might’ve been easy to miss this Politico piece – it was published around midnight on Friday evening – but for those following the Trump-Russia scandal closely, the piece was chock full of interesting news. Let’s start with the 16th lawyers to join the Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s legal team.

    An attorney working on the Justice Department’s highest-profile money-laundering case recently transferred off that assignment in order to join the staff of the special prosecutor investigating the Trump campaign’s potential ties to Russia, POLITICO has learned.

    Attorney Kyle Freeny was among the prosecutors on hand Friday as Jason Maloni, a spokesman for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, testified before a grand jury at federal court in Washington.

    Freeny’s background in examining potential money-laundering is significant given the money-laundering questions surrounding this controversy. See this TRMS segment from mid-August, for example.

    ………………………

    The same Politico piece also noted that the “Wolf of Wall Street” case is a product of the Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative, “an effort to pursue the proceeds of foreign corruption and return such monies to the public in the affected countries.” This is the same initiative that’s investigating Ukrainian officials, including former President Viktor Yanukovych – who was a benefactor of Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman.

    Reply
  15. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 11:46 am

    They only need to flip 1 vote by end of September to ruin your healthcare. Light up the phones, please. This really is their last chance.
    — Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) September 17, 2017

    Reply
  16. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 11:39 am

    We’ve got less than 2 weeks to kill #TrumpCare (again). Everything you need: https://t.co/TOZfcL78Rd
    — ☪️ Charles Gaba ✡️ (@charles_gaba) September 18, 2017

    Reply
  17. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 11:39 am

    *deep breath*
    🚨RED ALERT🚨
    THREAD: GOP HEALTH CARE REPEAL IS BACK
    Danger real • Activism needed
    – timeline
    – targets
    – how to fight back
    — Ben Wikler (@benwikler) September 17, 2017

    Reply
  18. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 11:38 am

    From Krugman’s piece on Cassidy-Graham

    From Krugman’s piece:

    In reality, Graham-Cassidy is the opposite of moderate. It contains, in exaggerated and almost caricature form, all the elements that made previous Republican proposals so cruel and destructive. It would eliminate the individual mandate, undermine if not effectively eliminate protection for people with pre-existing conditions, and slash funding for subsidies and Medicaid. There are a few additional twists, but they’re all bad — notably, a funding formula that would penalize states that are actually successful in reducing the number of uninsured.

    Did this bill’s sponsors — Lindsey Graham, Bill Cassidy, Ron Johnson and Dean Heller — manage to get through months of health care debate without learning anything about the issue? Maybe. But surely the rest of the Senate, not to mention much of the public, has wised up about false Republican promises. A huge majority of voters, almost two to one, consider it a good thing that previous attempts at repealing and replacing Obamacare failed.

    Yet there is a real chance that Graham-Cassidy, which is similar to but even worse than previous Republican proposals, will nonetheless become law, because not enough people are taking it seriously.

    Reply
  19. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 11:16 am

    Shrink at least 4 national monuments and modify a half-dozen others, Zinke tells Trump
    By Juliet Eilperin
    September 17 at 9:44 PM

    Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended that President Trump modify 10 national monuments created by his immediate predecessors, including shrinking the boundaries of at least four western sites, according to a copy of the report obtained by The Washington Post.

    The memorandum, which the White House has refused to release since Zinke submitted it late last month, does not specify exact reductions for the four protected areas Zinke would have Trump narrow — Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, Nevada’s Gold Butte, and Oregon’s Cascade-Siskiyou — or the two marine national monuments — the Pacific Remote Islands and Rose Atoll — for which he raised the same prospect. The two Utah sites encompass a total of more than 3.2 million acres, part of the reason they have aroused such intense emotions since their designation.

    The secretary’s set of recommendations also would change the way all 10 targeted monuments are managed. It emphasizes the need to adjust the proclamations to address concerns of local officials or affected industries, saying the administration should permit “traditional uses” now restricted within the monuments’ boundaries, such as grazing, logging, coal mining and commercial fishing.

    If enacted, the changes could test the legal boundaries of what powers a president holds under the 1906 Antiquities Act. Although Congress can alter national monuments easily through legislation, presidents have reduced their boundaries only on rare occasions.

    Reply
  20. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 11:13 am

    UH HUH
    UH HUH

    ‘Put the Panic Back in Hispanic’: Photo at Robertsdale pep rally sparks criticism
    Posted on September 16, 2017 at 3:33 PM

    By John Sharp jsharp@al.com
    For the second time in recent months, the Baldwin County School System finds itself investigating a politically-charged incident at one of its schools.

    The latest involves a picture, shared on social media Saturday, of two Robertsdale high school students standing and smiling with the school’s mascot. One of the girls is holding a President Donald Trump political sign, that reads “Making America Great Again.” The other is holding a homemade sign that reads, “Put the Panic Back in Hispanic.”

    “We are aware of a photo that appears to be taken at a Robertsdale High School football pep rally Friday, Sept. 15, that is circulating on social media containing political banners and unacceptable language,” Baldwin County Superintendent Eddie Tyler said in a statement. “School administrators, as well as my office, are following up on the matter.”

    The photo stoked criticism on Facebook and Twitter. One current student said she is “sad” to be a member of the senior class, and others demanded the school system and Robertsdale high school officials be held accountable.
    Krystal Austin Moore, who identifies herself as a former class president, shared the photo on Facebook and claimed she was “confused” as to why the banners were acceptable at a public high school.

    Reply
  24. SouthernGirl2 says:
    September 18, 2017 at 10:16 am

    Wow! A gang of thugs w/ a badge & gun w/ no respect for the law whatsoever. #stlouisprotests

    @SLMPD chanting “Whose streets, our streets”

    https://twitter.com/PDPJ/status/909678305640685568

    Reply
  25. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 10:08 am

    ‘Putin’s favorite congressman’ sought deal for WikiLeaks founder
    09/18/17 11:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    As a rule, it’s best not to get too worked up about random quips from Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). The California Republican, for example, recently argued that last month’s violence in Charlottesville was staged by liberals and was “a total hoax.”

    But while foolish palaver like this is easy to dismiss, some of Rohrabacher’s antics are harder to overlook. The Wall Street Journal reported the other day, for example, that the GOP lawmaker reached out to the White House last week about brokering a deal in which Donald Trump would help WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and in exchange, Assange would provide evidence exonerating Russia in the scandal surrounding the attack on American elections.

    The proposal made by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R., Calif.), in a phone call Wednesday with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, was apparently aimed at resolving the probe of WikiLeaks prompted by Mr. Assange’s publication of secret U.S. government documents in 2010 through a pardon or other act of clemency from President Donald Trump.

    The possible “deal” – a term used by Mr. Rohrabacher during the Wednesday phone call – would involve a pardon of Mr. Assange or “something like that,” Mr. Rohrabacher said. In exchange, Mr. Assange would probably present a computer drive or other data-storage device that Mr. Rohrabacher said would exonerate Russia in the long-running controversy about who was the source of hacked and stolen material aimed at embarrassing the Democratic Party during the 2016 election.

    Reply
  27. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 10:02 am

    The politics of the Equifax mess pose challenges for Republicans
    09/18/17 10:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    It’s been a week since the Equifax controversy first broke, and the scope of the story is still coming into focus. One of the nation’s largest credit reporting agencies was apparently the target of a major hack that “may have exposed private information belonging to 143 million people,” including Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, birth dates, home addresses, and in some instances, driver’s license numbers.

    Making matters worse, three Equifax executives sold stock in the company after the breach was discovered (they deny any wrongdoing). Making matters worse still, it took about six weeks for the company to tell the public about the breach.

    So, what does this have to do with politics? Quite a bit, actually. The Equifax mess has made it vastly easier for progressives to make the case that federal officials should be regulating the heck out of the credit-reporting agencies, but as the New York Times reported, that’s unlikely to happen given the direction of the prevailing political winds.

    The credit bureaus have for decades successfully fended off calls in Congress for more oversight, despite warnings about potential problems that go back to Senator William Proxmire, a Wisconsin Democrat, in the 1960s. Now, the industry is likely to find support in the agenda of President Trump, who has pledged to strip away “burdensome” business regulations. […]

    Equifax spent $1.1 million on lobbying last year, up from $300,000 in 2006, according to data collected by the Center for Responsive Politics.

    Roll Call reported last week that Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee have been pressing for hearings on the Equifax scandal, but Banking Committee Chairman Michael Crapo (R-Idaho) was undecided on whether to bother. (The bipartisan leadership of the Senate Finance Committee, however, sent a written request for information to Equifax last week.)

    And what about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which congressional Republicans have been trying to gut?

    Reply
  28. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 9:02 am

    This is nothing but a GRIFT.

    PERIOD.

    Questions surround Trump’s $25 million inaugural concert
    09/18/17 08:30 AM
    By Steve Benen

    We’ve been keeping an eye in recent months on Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, which by some metrics, was a great success. After his election, the Republican eliminated caps on individual contributions – caps that George W. Bush and Barack Obama both utilized – and sold “exclusive access” for seven-figure contributions.
    The result was a fundraising juggernaut: Trump’s inaugural committee took in $107 million, much of which went unspent during poorly attended festivities.

    The Associated Press picked up on the thread over the weekend, shining a light on an increasingly interesting mystery.

    President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee raised an unprecedented $107 million for a ceremony that officials promised would be “workmanlike,” and the committee pledged to give leftover funds to charity. Nearly eight months later, the group has helped pay for redecorating at the White House and the vice president’s residence in Washington.

    But nothing has yet gone to charity.

    What is left from the massive fundraising is a mystery, clouded by messy and, at times, budget-busting management of a private fund that requires little public disclosure.

    Of particular interest was the AP’s discovery that Trump’s committee spent $25 million on a pre-inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial, which the Associated Press described as “head-scratching” for good reason. Barack Obama’s pre-inaugural concert at the same location eight years earlier featured far higher-profile entertainers, roughly 40 times as many attendees, and cost one-fifth as much.

    Reply
  29. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 8:57 am

    Trump admin shields Mar-a-Lago visitor logs from scrutiny
    09/18/17 09:30 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Americans wondering about the visitors getting an audience with Donald Trump at the White House will have to keep wondering: soon after taking office, Trump World decided to scrap Obama-era transparency rules and announced White House visitor logs would be kept secret.

    But this president doesn’t just hold meetings with visitors to the presidential residence; Trump also hosts conversations at the Florida resort he still owns and profits from. Perhaps the public can see the visitor logs from Mar-a-Lago?

    In July, a federal judge sided with watchdog organizations, which sued to gain access to the information, asking not for club members’ names, but only the names of those who’d met with the president. On Friday afternoon, following a hurricane-related delay, the Trump administration responded to the request, and as the Washington Post reported, it wasn’t much of an answer.

    The list had just 22 names, all from the same group of visitors: a delegation of Japanese officials and assistants who accompanied Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on a February stay at Trump’s resort…. Of course, that’s not the full list of visitors to Mar-a-Lago.

    Many hundreds of other people entered the club during the days when the president was there. They included club members: Initiation now costs $200,000. Nonmembers, who came for one of the charity galas in the club’s ballrooms. Members’ friends, who joined them on the dining terrace. Chinese officials, including President Xi Jinping, who famously shared “the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake” (in Trump’s words) with the president at the club while U.S. Navy ships were preparing to launch missiles at military installations in Syria.

    None of those names were released.

    Reply
  30. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 8:53 am

    A Nightmare in New Hampshire
    by D.R. Tucker
    September 18, 2017

    They might as well have been shouting “You will not replace us!”

    State authorities in New Hampshire are investigating a possible hate crime after a family reported that their 8-year-old boy was pushed by teenagers off a picnic table with a rope around his neck, injuring him. The boy, who is biracial, was treated in the hospital and released, the police said.

    The attack occurred Aug. 28 in Claremont, a city of about 13,000 in the western part of the state, and came to light after the boy’s mother, Cassandra Merlin, posted a photograph of her son’s bloodied neck and a statement about it on her Facebook page. “It truly saddens me that even in a city so small, racism exists,” she wrote.

    Ms. Merlin could not be reached for comment. She and other relatives told news outlets that their understanding of events came from the boy and his 11-year-old sister, and that there were no adults present at the time.

    The boy’s grandmother, Lorrie Slattery, told Valley News, a New Hampshire newspaper, that he and others were playing in a yard in their neighborhood when the teenagers, who are white, started calling the boy racial epithets and throwing sticks and rocks at his legs.

    Ms. Merlin, the boy’s mother, said in an interview with The Root that one attacker used a dangling rope that had held a tire swing. “The older boys had put the ropes around their necks,” she said, adding that they then told her son it was his turn. She said her son “got up on the table and put the rope around his neck, and another kid came up from behind him and pushed him off of the picnic table. And they walked away and left him there hanging.”

    Ms. Merlin said the boy’s sister screamed for help and described her brother kicking his feet, grabbing at his neck and turning purple before dropping to the ground.

    Reply
  31. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 8:51 am

    Obamacare Repeal Could Still Actually Pass. Really.
    by David Atkins
    September 17, 2017

    While most of America looks the other way, Republicans are once again trying to pass tax cuts for the rich by way of taking away the healthcare of millions. Though it has flown mostly under the radar until the last few days, the Republicans’ last-ditch effort at Obamacare repeal called Graham-Cassidy has reportedly far greater chances of passage than many suspect. Senator John McCain, who famously helped kibosh earlier Republican efforts, has tentatively come out in favor of the bill. If he were to follow through all other Republican votes remain aligned as previously, then Graham-Cassidy would make its way out of the Senate.

    September 30th is the deadline for any bill to be considered under reconciliation, which allows Republicans to pass budget-related legislation with only 50 votes. So action would need to come quickly, perhaps even before a full scoring by the CBO. Of course, the less the public knows about the legislation and the less actual analysis of its effects, the better for Republicans. As with previous versions of Obamacare repeal, it’s not so much a conservative good-faith effort at healthcare reform as it is a tax cut for the wealthy (though it retains more of the taxes than previous versions) and a pathway to damage President Obama’s legacy.

    The legislative path would also be tricky. As Dylan Scott explains:

    The odds are stacked against it. The window is small, few other Republicans seem particularly interested in revisiting health care, and the actual policy of the bill still needs to be litigated. Senators haven’t even had a chance yet to unpack how the bill’s complex funding formula would impact their specific states.

    “No Senate GOPer will say anything negative about the bill because in concept, sure, more state flexibility is a good thing,” one health insurance lobbyist told me.

    Reply
  32. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 8:50 am

    Senate Dems issue a ‘red alert’ on Republican repeal efforts
    09/18/17 09:00 AM
    By Steve Benen

    Senate Republicans only have 13 days remaining, including today, to pass the final iteration of their regressive health care plan, and most of the stakeholders continue to act as if the GOP crusade will fail. In recent days, Senate Democrats have become far less sanguine about the possibility.

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued a “red alert” to health care advocates late Friday, and we’ve seen similar sentiments from Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand‏ (D-N.Y.), and Al Franken (D-Minn.). Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) told health care proponents, “Drop what you are doing to start calling, start showing up, start descending on DC.” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been focused on his single-payer proposal, but he added yesterday, “Our immediate concern is to beat back yet another disastrous Republican proposal to throw millions of people off health insurance.”

    Among opinion leaders, progressive voices like the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne and the New York Times’ Paul Krugman both devoted their columns today to warning the public that the threat to the existing health care system is quite real.

    Politico reported over the weekend, “Obamacare repeal is on the brink of coming back from the dead.”

    Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and his leadership team are seriously considering voting on a bill that would scale back the federal government’s role in the health care system and instead provide block grants to states, congressional and Trump administration sources said.

    It would be a last-ditch attempt to repeal Obamacare before the GOP’s power to pass health care legislation through a party-line vote in the Senate expires on Sept. 30.

    Reply
  33. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 8:31 am

    Another reminder of how to use communications to fight Trumpcare:

    MomSense says:
    September 18, 2017 at 9:05 am

    Going to call at lunch today. I’m just about to send another fax, too.

    Text “resist” to 504-09 and in about a minute you will be able to fax your Rep, Senators, and Governor. There is an option to send a letter and I read on twitter that @resistbot is amassing a huge team of volunteers to deliver the letters.

    Reply
  34. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 8:29 am

    More help on fighting Trumpcare:

    Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Ohio, Tennessee, and West Virginia,trumpcareten.org has special scripts for you.

    Reply
  35. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 8:27 am

    Mayhew, from Balloon Juice, is calling again to stand up against Trumpcare:

    To the phones
    by David Anderson
    at 8:11 am on September 18, 2017

    One last push, two more weeks, thirteen more calls to make to protect that ACA and our vision of a just society.

    Right now Cassidy-Graham is chugging along with the hope that the need to do SOMETHING means that the last bill standing is SOMETHING.

    We can do something about it.

    Call your Senators today. If you are from North Carolina, Florida or the Upper Midwest, tell your Senators that you don’t want your state to get whacked to reward Texas’ intransigence. If you are not from those states, ask your Senators to vote for Murray-Alexander as the only health care bill.

    Call your Governors as they would be handed an incredible mess.

    Call…

    Reply
  36. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 4:44 am

    Now they have the video of the cop throwing the brick, pretending that it was a protestor 😠

    Reply
    • sunshine616 says:
      September 18, 2017 at 12:01 pm

      It amazes me how the PD there is also publishing names and addresses of those arrested. Wtf is that? But all of this secrecy for the officers that do bad. The irony and gross unfairness of it all and they don’t care. Never have, never will

      Reply
  37. rikyrah says:
    September 18, 2017 at 4:43 am

    Good Morning, Everyone 😐😐😐

    Reply

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