U.S. intelligence agencies will comply with a request from 11 bipartisan House Judiciary Committee members to disclose how many Americans have been caught up in our government's online surveillance of foreigners. This would amount to warrantless wiretapping, which violates our Constitution even if doesn't violate some of our laws. I'm not expecting the number of Americans spied upon to be particularly small (though I am expecting our government to lowball it). Would it be too much to ask for President Obama to give us an actual legacy, rather than the one he keeps nattering on about?
America's Last Journalist, Greg Palast, summarizes his findings after investigating recounts in Michigan and Wisconsin. Long story short: uncounted ballots in both states just-so-happened to be concentrated in black areas; Michigan's "emergency managers" failed to fund better optical scanners in those areas; Michigan actively interfered with the recount in fairly obvious and suspicious ways; Wisconsin's recount consisted of feeding ballots back through the same machines that may have missed votes the first time. Another dose of Interstate Crosscheck provided at no extra charge, making this Mr. Palast's most comprehensive report on the matter yet.
Josmar Trujillo at TruthOut asks if "community groups" can properly "replace police." Most folks who want to get rid of police (because of racist brutality) don't have an answer when you ask what they'll replace them with; at least Mr. Trujillo has that, and the violence-intervention and de-escalation groups he mentions have done some good work and promise to do more. Still, once the law gets broken, you're going to need police to enforce it. And Umi Selah deserves the last word here that he got after confronting Spike Lee over Chiraq: "How many lives you gon' save without creating jobs for those people in Chicago?"
Louisiana state legislature candidate says he'll boycott any business that employs Muslims, and also says that Muslims don't "deserve peace of our culture or the continued fruits of our society while following this religion." He can shop where he likes, I suppose, but he can't close down businesses just because they employ Muslims, which is what he's calling for without having the guts to spell it out, because that's discrimination. And I'm tired of people whining about "PC culture" while arguing for their "right" to discriminate. So I'm gonna "call it the way I see it": this guy's an asshole.
Finally, speaking of assholes, a white supremacist website publishes contact information for Jews in the small Montana town where infamous racist Richard Spencer's mother lives, because she's suffering "backlash" for her son's views. What whiny cowardice, and how unexpected! Racist demand to be called "alt-right" and want "safe spaces" for their racism, and then tell you where Jews live in the sincere hope you'll do something about it, so they don't have to. All racists are, fundamentally, cowards and whiners. I'll say it again: all racists are, fundamentally, cowards and whiners. Or is it not politically correct to say so?
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