Dan Savage on the antigay push in the states | MSNBC

Dan Savage on the antigay push in the states | MSNBC

Google Penetrated China's Firewall for 102 Minutes

Google Penetrated China's Firewall for 102 Minutes

"After parting ways with The People's Republic Of China a few years back, Google saw their services replaced by local elements such as Baidu and WeChat, even as their market share grew globally, for the most part. Although they recently began an initiative to get back in the good graces of the most populous nation in the world, their services are still mostly blocked by China's Golden Shield Project, also known as the Great Firewall. This means that any IP address in mainland China cannot access Google's services without going through a virtual private network. Between the hours of 11:30 PM Sunday night and 1:15 AM, Chinese local time, Google's newest servers' IP addresses weren't registered to the Great Firewall's databases. This meant that, for just over an hour and a half, everybody in China was able to access Google."

U.S. Capitol and White House on lockdown - CNNPolitics.com

U.S. Capitol and White House on lockdown - CNNPolitics.com

"Once again  the gun nuts are at it again and politicians from Trump and Cruz who encourage this folly and Bernie  Sanders,  who is afraid of the NRA and their rabid followers have no problem with America having more gun deaths and injuries than any developed country in the world."

These Refugees Are Being Returned to the Violent Circumstances They Left Behind | The Nation

These Refugees Are Being Returned to the Violent Circumstances They Left Behind | The Nation

"Two years ago, back in their hometowns in Bangladesh, they were ordinary young men whose political involvement didn’t go beyond local support for the opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP). But political violence drove AJ, 21, Jahed, 27 (names concealed to protect their identity) on an epic journey across three continents and straight onto the battleground of American immigration politics. Now they have become national campaigners for the rights of refugees and even advised a couple presidential hopefuls on asylum policy. But they’re headed for exile again—soon to be deported back home, and, they fear, driven to an early grave."

'Burner' phones could be made illegal under US law that would require personal details of anyone buying a new handset | News | Lifestyle | The Independent

'Burner' phones could be made illegal under US law that would require personal details of anyone buying a new handset | News | Lifestyle | The Independent

Burner phones might be about to be banned in the US.

A Congresswoman has proposed that everyone buying a phone in the country would have to register with personal ID, to stop criminal activities being planned with handsets that can be bought anonymously and then thrown away.

Forcing shops to require customers to give over identification when buying cheap phones or pre-paid SIMs could be one of the most important ways that terrorists are able to communicate, according to California Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who proposed the bill.

"Burner phones might be about to be banned in the US.

A Congresswoman has proposed that everyone buying a phone in the country would have to register with personal ID, to stop criminal activities being planned with handsets that can be bought anonymously and then thrown away.

Forcing shops to require customers to give over identification when buying cheap phones or pre-paid SIMs could be one of the most important ways that terrorists are able to communicate, according to California Congresswoman Jackie Speier, who proposed the bill."

There Is No Truly Anti-Racist Presidential Candidate

There Is No Truly Anti-Racist Presidential Candidate

"Samaria Rice, mother of Tamir Rice, the 12-year-old who was killed by two Cleveland police officers in 2014, wrote a brief statement published to Medium explaining “Why I Have Not Endorsed Any Candidate.” While a number of highly visible parents of those killed by police and vigilantes have made endorsements and hit the campaign trail, Rice has elected to skip the pageantry.

“No one has been held responsible for any part of this entire traumatic experience,” she wrote. “No one has at least apologized for killing my son. Not a single politician has offered me some substantial support.”

“Twelve year old children should never be murdered for playing in a park,” she continued. “But not a single politician: local, state or federal, has taken action to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

That Samaria Rice felt compelled to write these words is one piece of a larger tragedy, but also a sober reminder that no one election, and no one presidential candidate, will bring about the sort of change that would have saved Tamir."

In 1927, Donald Trump’s father was arrested after a Klan riot in Queens - The Washington Post

In 1927, Donald Trump’s father was arrested after a Klan riot in Queens - The Washington Post

In Interview, Donald Trump Denies Report of Father's Arrest in 1927 at KKK Rally- First Draft. Political News, Now. - The New York Times

In Interview, Donald Trump Denies Report of Father's Arrest in 1927 - First Draft. Political News, Now. - The New York Times

"For a story about Donald J. Trump’s childhood home of Jamaica Estates, Queens, I talked to the presidential candidate about the role his father, Fred C. Trump, played in developing the neighborhood. I also asked him about a 1927 report in The New York Times, unearthed by the website Boing Boing, that listed Fred Trump as being among a group of people arrested, and then discharged, by the police in response to a Ku Klux Klan rally that had turned violent in Queens. The question, essentially, was, “Did you ever hear of this?”

Mr. Trump’s barrage of answers – his sudden denial of a fact he had moments before confirmed; his repeatedly noting that no charges were filed against his father in connection with the incident he had just repeatedly denied; and his denigration of the news organization that brought the incident to light as a “little website” – shows his pasta-against-the-wall approach to beating down inconvenient story lines."

NYPD Officers Arrest US Postal Worker On Duty Delivering Packages Who Criticized Them (UPDATED) - PINAC News

The police are a far greater threat to African Americans than ISIS. No your enemy. Do not someone else choose your enemy for you. Police are who kill us and harass us for no reason. They come from the same uneducated class that supports Trumps. We must put fear in their hearts when they harass us. They must know there are consequences. It looks like in this case their maybe but with the horrible NYPD police commissioner it is not likely. The killer cop who without provocation chocked Eric Garner to death is still on the force. This is America. We must wake up.





NYPD Officers Arrest US Postal Worker On Duty Delivering Packages Who Criticized Them (UPDATED) - PINAC News

Prosecutor Won’t Seek Prison for Peter Liang, Ex-Officer Convicted in Killing - The New York Times

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office announced on Wednesday that it would not seek prison time for the former New York City police officer convicted last month in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man in a housing project in East New York.



In a statement, the district attorney, Ken Thompson, said the case was about “justice and not about revenge,” and urged that the former officer, Peter Liang, receive five years of probation, including six months of home confinement, when he is sentenced next month.



Prosecutor Won’t Seek Prison for Peter Liang, Ex-Officer Convicted in Killing - The New York Times

Flint Water Crisis Inquiry Finds State Ignored Warning Signs - The New York Times

An independent panel has concluded that disregard for the concerns of poor and minority people contributed to the government’s slow response to complaints from residents of Flint, Mich., about the foul and discolored water that was making them sick, determining that the crisis “is a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction and environmental injustice.”



The panel, which was appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder in October, when he first urged Flint’s nearly 100,000 residents to stop drinking the city’s tap water, laid blame for the water problems at the feet of government employees on every level.



Flint Water Crisis Inquiry Finds State Ignored Warning Signs - The New York Times

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Border Wall (HBO)

John Oliver Never Thought He'd Have To Care About Trump

[Report] | Legalize It All, by Dan Baum | Harper's Magazine

"How did the United States entangle itself in a policy of drug prohibition that has yielded so much misery and so few good results? Americans have been criminalizing psychoactive substances since San Francisco’s anti-opium law of 1875, but it was Ehrlichman’s boss, Richard Nixon, who declared the first “war on drugs” and set the country on the wildly punitive and counterproductive path it still pursues. I’d tracked Ehrlichman, who had been Nixon’s domestic-policy adviser, to an engineering firm in Atlanta, where he was working on minority recruitment. I barely recognized him. He was much heavier than he’d been at the time of the Watergate scandal two decades earlier, and he wore a mountain-man beard that extended to the middle of his chest.



At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. “You want to know what this was really all about?” he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”



I must have looked shocked. Ehrlichman just shrugged. Then he looked at his watch, handed me a signed copy of his steamy spy novel, The Company, and led me to the door.



Nixon’s invention of the war on drugs as a political tool was cynical, but every president since — Democrat and Republican alike — has found it equally useful for one reason or another. Meanwhile, the growing cost of the drug war is now impossible to ignore: billions of dollars wasted, bloodshed in Latin America and on the streets of our own cities, and millions of lives destroyed by draconian punishment that doesn’t end at the prison gate; one of every eight black men has been disenfranchised because of a felony conviction."



[Report] | Legalize It All, by Dan Baum | Harper's Magazine

Black Americans and encryption: the stakes are higher than Apple v FBI

Black Americans and encryption: the stakes are higher than Apple v FBI

"The child of a Black Panther, Malkia Cyril grew up under the threat of surveillance and says encryption is critical for human rights

When the FBI branded Martin Luther King Jr a “dangerous” threat to national security and began tapping his phones, it was part of a long history of spying on black activists in the United States. But the government surveillance of black bodies has never been limited to activists – in fact, according to the FBI; you only had to be black.

In the current fight between Apple and the FBI, black perspectives are largely invisible, yet black communities stand to lose big if the FBI wins. A federal judge in California is set to rule on Tuesday whether the FBI will be granted a request compelling Apple to unlock the iPhone of a San Bernardino shooter.

While seemingly about protecting national security – the same rationale used to justify 20th century surveillance of MLK, the Black Panther Party and others – this case is about much more. It could establish a legal precedent used to suppress the growing movement for black lives that is deposing public officials and disrupting the daily assault on black people in cities across the country."

The Justice Department Backs Down - NYTimes: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone

NYTimes: U.S. Says It May Not Need Apple’s Help to Unlock iPhone

"RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The Justice Department said on Monday that it might no longer need Apple’s assistance to help open an iPhone used by a gunman in last year’s San Bernardino, Calif., mass shooting, leading to a postponement of a key hearing over the issue and potentially sidestepping what has become a bitter clash with the world’s most valuable company.

The dramatic turn of events came after the Justice Department said in a new court filing that as of Sunday, an outside party had demonstrated a way for the F.B.I. to possibly unlock the phone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the San Bernardino attackers. The hearing in the contentious case — Apple has loudly opposed opening up the iPhone, citing privacy concerns and igniting a heated debate with the government — was originally scheduled for Tuesday."

The Gangsta American Prison-Commercial Complex - The New York Times

"...Unless they’ve known someone who’s been incarcerated, most people don’t know that the corrections system has an entire commerce arm of its own. Everything an inmate can buy — phone calls, commissary, copays for substandard medical care, video visitation or the new email service — is purchased through a special account created by the prison or a private company.



Merely to add funds to an account, the family or friends of inmates must pay a service fee. I have an account myself with the prison phone giant Securus so that inmates I want to keep in touch with can call me. In February, I’d loaded my phone account without any fee. Then, a few weeks ago, I was charged $6.95 to add $5 of call time. So, the $11.95 that used to buy 49 minutes then purchased only 20.



It is hard to determine exactly how the fees are being applied: The commissions system is opaque, with the prison itself collecting a portion of the companies’ revenues, leading the companies to charge more service fees to an inmate’s phone account to make up the difference.



These fees are an additional money grab by the phone companies and the prison commissions system. There’s a fee to create an account, a fee to fund an account, even a fee to get a refund. The companies are also taking advantage of a loophole in the F.C.C. order that allows them to add special fees for single calls by a user who doesn’t want to set up an account with them. For the “PayNow” option from Securus, for example, the call cost is $1.80, but the transaction fee is $13.19. Before the F.C.C.’s order was implemented, ancillary fees added nearly 40 percent to phone call costs for prison customers."...





The Prison-Commercial Complex - The New York Times

Business Transformation Services | Deloitte US | Consulting

"When it came to matching words with deeds on the topic of racial equality, the most stalwart leader of the Western hemisphere, over the course of the 20th century, was Fidel Castro.

I say this as a black American who came to bond closely with Latin America as an adult, living in Mexico for almost two years, traveling and staying with families in the Dominican Republic, and making more than half a dozen visits to Cuba, where I strolled through its enchanting cities and drove into the far reaches of the countryside, forging relationships with its people, especially those of darker hue."

Black Cubans Discuss the Restoration of US Ties and How Their Experiences With Race Compare With the African-American Experience - The Root

Black Cubans Discuss the Restoration of US Ties and How Their Experiences With Race Compare With the African-American Experience - The Root

"Omar Diaz is a 28-year-old black Cuban actor living in Miami who immigrated to the U.S. when he was 4 years old. He said that while he’s rooting for a democratic Cuba, he hopes that black Cubans will continue to benefit from the Castro revolution’s decree that Cubans prioritize nationalism overrace.

Ruben* is a 52-year-old black photographer and book publisher. He is the only interviewee still living in Cuba. Even though he spoke passionately about racial inequality in Cuba, he explained why he and most black Cubans don’t quite see themselves as Afro-Cuban or black Cuban—just Cuban."+

Racial, Ethnic & Religious Equality Policy Center | Jewish Social Policy Action Network

"...The central problem the Black Lives Matter movement addresses is systemic and structural racism. There is little question that America has made some progress in decreasing what we might call interpersonal racism. But there remain many ways in which American institutions and policies systematically discriminate against Black men and women.

This is true in many areas of life and especially in the still limited economic opportunities open to Blacks. But the most important one in the current public debate involves the criminal justice system. There is little question that Black men and women are today subject to being harmed and killed by police officers at rates that far exceed those of whites.

And that is why, though all lives certainly matter equally, there is good reason for us to focus on the ways in which Black lives do not, but should, matter in our criminal justice system...."

Excerpted from the complete piece by Marc Steir

Racial, Ethnic & Religious Equality Policy Center | Jewish Social Policy Action Network

Police, protesters clash outside Trump event | MSNBC

Police, protesters clash outside Trump event | MSNBC

Where Merrick Garland Stands: A Close Look at His Judicial Record - The New York Times

"Judge Garland’s voice is most vivid in his infrequent dissents. In 2009, for instance, in Saleh v. Titan Corp., he said the majority had gone badly astray in barring a suit against American military contractors by victims of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq."



“The plaintiffs in these cases allege that they were beaten, electrocuted, raped, subjected to attacks by dogs and otherwise abused by private contractors working as interpreters and interrogators,” he wrote, adding that both the Bush and Obama administrations, along with Congress, “have repeatedly and vociferously condemned the conduct at Abu Ghraib as contrary to the values and interests of the United States.”



The majority, Judge Garland wrote, had to ignore all of that to fashion “the protective cloak it has cast over the activities of private contractors.”



Where Merrick Garland Stands: A Close Look at His Judicial Record - The New York Times

Tim Wise: On White Privilege (Clip)

Antiracist essayist, author and activist Tim Wise delivers a keynote speech at the California Federation of Teachers 74th annual statewide convention on March 11, 2016 in San Francisco on the topic of "Using racism to divide and conquer, from the 1600s to Donald Trump. - Tim Wise 3 11 16

Using racism to divide and conquer! Tim Wise.

Donald Trump and the Central Park Five - The New Yorker

And, in early May, 1989, Donald Trump took out a full-page ad in theDaily News to say what he thought he knew about the case. Trump was on the front page of the papers often enough that season; thePost’s “SPLIT!” headline marking the end of his marriage would help fill the tabloid space between the teen-agers’ arrest and their conviction, as did “MARLA BOASTS TO HER PALS ABOUT DONALD: ‘BEST SEX I’VE EVER HAD,’ ” which quoted his then-mistress and second wife; soon, there was also coverage of his baroque business failures. Perhaps he thought it gave him gravitas, that spring, to weigh in on the character of the teen-agers in the park: “How can our great society tolerate the continued brutalization of its citizens by crazed misfits? Criminals must be told that their CIVIL LIBERTIES END WHEN AN ATTACK ON OUR SAFETY BEGINS!” And his headline suggested what ought to be done with them:

BRING BACK THE DEATH PENALTY.
BRING BACK OUR POLICE!"

They were later exonerated!  Trump refused to apologize. 

Donald Trump and the Central Park Five - The New Yorker

The politician who called Donald Trump a racist Chris Hayes talks to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio about why he decided to label Donald Trump a racist and a proto-fascist. - All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC

All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC

Steve Wozniak on an Apple backdoor: 'bad people are going to find their way to it' | The Verge

In a Reddit Ask Me Anything Q&A, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has added more of his thoughts to the debate stirred by Apple and the FBI. As the government and Wozniak's former company continue their legal battle over an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino shooters, Wozniak writes in defense of Apple and "the side of personal liberties."



Steve Wozniak on an Apple backdoor: 'bad people are going to find their way to it' | The Verge

KING: Merrick Garland may push Supreme Court too far right - NY Daily News

"I understand the Merrick Garland pick, but I hate it. I really do.

I don't hate him — he seems to be a genuinely decent, moderate man with a brilliant legal mind, but he’s a worst-case scenario for those of us who are passionate about criminal justice reform.

On this issue, he is a true conservative and runs the risk of actually pushing the court to the right.

MERRICK GARLAND NAMED OBAMA'S NOMINEE FOR SUPREME COURT

On this point, Tom Goldstein, who has argued 38 cases before the Supreme Court, wrote that Garland’s record on criminal defense appeals is less than sterling.

“Judge Garland rarely votes in favor of criminal defendants' appeals of their convictions,” said Goldstein. “Most striking, in 10 criminal cases, Judge Garland has disagreed with his more liberal colleagues; in each, he adopted the position that was more favorable to the government or declined to reach a question on which the majority of the court had adopted a position favorable to a defendant. Because disagreement among panel members on the D.C. Circuit is relatively rare, this substantial body of cases is noteworthy.”

China uses Trump to make case against democracy | MSNBC

China uses Trump to make case against democracy | MSNBC

"The Chinese government does its best to limit the free exchange of ideas in its country, but there’s no doubt that the Chinese people are aware of democracy’s existence. Officials occasionally like to remind China, however, that the rival form of government is far more trouble than it’s worth.

And occasionally, Republicans in the United States offer convenient fodder that makes China’s job easier. When GOP members of Congress shut down the federal government a few years ago, for example, state-owned Chinese media ran reports that said, in effect, “See? Democracy leads to chaos and instability.” When Republicans launched their debt-ceiling hostage crisis in 2011, and threatened to crash the economy on purpose, China once again was only too pleased to tell its people about the tumult democracy brings.

As the Washington Post reported this week, with Donald Trump faring well in the GOP presidential race, China has brand new evidence to bolster their anti-democratic pitch.
Mussolini and Hitler came to power through elections, China’s Global Times reminded readers Monday. Now an “abusively racist and extremist” candidate is on the rise in the United States, it says. Maybe democracy isn’t such a good idea after all.

In an editorial Monday, China’s state-owned Global Times newspaper used Donald Trump’s rise to gloat about the fault lines in U.S. society and to argue that democracy was both a waste of time – and downright scary.

From the rise of a “narcissistic and inflammatory candidate” to the violence that surrounded his planned rally in Chicago, the paper said it was shocking this could happen in a country that “boasts one of the most developed and mature democratic election systems” in the world.
The point wasn’t subtle: Trump’s rise is powerful proof, the argument goes, that democratic systems aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. The Global Times’ report added that Trump may yet lose, but the fact that he’s already done so well has “left a dent” in the American political process."

Arizona police officer who shot unarmed man charged with murder

Arizona police officer who shot unarmed man charged with murder

"A police officer from Mesa, Arizona, who fatally shot an unarmed man in January has been charged with second-degree murder, prosecutors announced on Friday night.

The Counted: people killed by police in the United States – interactive
Maricopa County prosecutors charged Officer Philip Brailsford more than five weeks after Daniel Shaver, 26, was shot and killed in a Mesa hotel room.

“After carefully reviewing the relevant facts and circumstances, we have determined that the use of deadly physical force was not justified in this instance,” Maricopa County attorney Bill Montgomery said in a statement."

Senate Blocks Interracial, Interfaith Marriages (SB 180) - Progress Kentucky

Senate Blocks Interracial, Interfaith Marriages (SB 180) - Progress Kentucky

"A Kentucky Senate committee has passed a bill that would allow store owners and other providers of services to refuse to serve interracial couples, interracial families, or couples of different faiths. In addition, the bill would prevent the refused couples from seeking redress through the courts.

The Protected

Titled, apparently without any sense of irony, “an act relating to the protection of rights,” SB 180 creates a state-wide group of “protected activities” and “protected activity providers,” then proceeds to cover those so protected with immunity from any laws by any governmental body anywhere, and states that people so covered cannot be fined or charged with any crime.

Who are these persons so protected, and what are the activities so protected? Let’s look at the precise and clear language provided by the bill"

Bill Maher: "Donald Trump Lies Like No One Is Fact Checking"

Sanders calls for unity after Trump violence | MSNBC

Sanders calls for unity after Trump violence | MSNBC

Trump finds political utility in violence | MSNBC

Trump finds political utility in violence | MSNBC

Escalating aggression marks Trump's rally rhetoric | MSNBC

Escalating aggression marks Trump's rally rhetoric | MSNBC

Violence Erupts at Donald Trump Rally in St. Louis | KTLA

Violence Erupts at Donald Trump Rally in St. Louis | KTLA

When a young Tim Cook told a group of cross-burning KKK members to stop what they were doing

"It's no secret that Tim Cook's moral character was indelibly shaped by his experiences growing up as a kid in the deep south. Specifically, Cook passion for human rights was forged, in part, by the deep-seated racism that Cook witnessed first-hand while growing up in Alabama in the 1960s and early 1970s.



During a 2013 speech where Cook received the IQLA Lifetime Achievement Award, the Apple CEO spoke openly about witnessing a cross burning first-hand, an event which he said “was permanently imprinted” on his brain and changed his life forever.



“Since these early days,” Cook later articulated, “I have seen and have experienced many types of discrimination and all of them were rooted in the fear of people that were different than the majority.”



Interestingly enough, new information relayed by Todd Frankel of The Washington Post claims that Cook as a young boy didn't just witness the aforementioned cross burning, but actually confronted the KKK members who were engaged in the activity.



In the early 1970s, he was riding his new 10-speed bicycle at night along a rural road just outside Robertsdale when he spotted a burning cross. He pedaled closer.



He saw Klansmen in white hoods and robes. The cross was on the property of a family he knew was black. It was almost more than he could comprehend.



Without thinking, he shouted, “Stop!”



The group turned toward the boy. One of them raised his hood. Cook recognized the man as a local deacon at one of the dozen churches in town, but not the one attended by Cook's family.



The man warned the boy to keep moving.



Frankel's full piece is an interesting read and illustrates how Tim Cook's childhood in Alabama, a place which is no stranger to turbulence, helped make him the man he is today."

When a young Tim Cook told a group of cross-burning KKK members to stop what they were doing

Race and 2016: Isabel Wilkerson weighs in | MSNBC

Race and 2016: Isabel Wilkerson weighs in | MSNBC

NYTimes: North Carolina Exemplifies National Battles Over Voting Laws

NYTimes: North Carolina Exemplifies National Battles Over Voting Laws

"A high-profile lawsuit is taking on a voter identification law and other voting changes. There are four other suits challenging North Carolina’s congressional or state legislative districts on racial grounds. Three more allege unconstitutional gerrymandering of local races. And on March 4, a new law changing how judges are elected was struck down by a three-judge state panel."

The first lady who looked away: Nancy and the Reagans' troubling Aids legacy | US news | The Guardian

"Ronald Reagan, who died in 2004, was president for nearly five years before he said the word “Aids” in public, nearly seven years before he gave a speech on a health crisis that would go on to kill more than 650,000 Americans and stigmatize even more.

In recent months, published reports have revealed an administration thatlaughed at the scourge and its victims and a first lady who turned her back on Rock Hudson, a close friend, when he reached out to the White House for help as he was dying from an Aids-related illness.

“If there is a hell both Ronny and Nancy are Roasting,” wrote one Sister."

The first lady who looked away: Nancy and the Reagans' troubling Aids legacy | US news | The Guardian

Apple: government 'intended to smear' us in digital privacy fight with FBI | Technology | The Guardian

Apple said federal prosecutors are “offensive”, “desperate” and “intended to smear” them in a remarkable escalation of the digital privacy fight between America’s most valuable company and the FBI.



The remarks from Apple’s top lawyer, general counsel Bruce Sewell, were made in a conference call with reporters just hours after the Justice Department submitted a legal brief that accused the technology company of trying to usurp power from the government.



In sometimes caustic language, the government had claimed Apple had declared itself “the primary guardian of Americans’ privacy”.



Sewell responded: “In 30 years of practice, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a legal brief that was more intended to smear the other side. I can only conclude that the Department of Justice is so desperate at this point that they’ve thrown decorum to the winds.”



Apple: government 'intended to smear' us in digital privacy fight with FBI | Technology | The Guardian

Trump Supporter Who Punched Protester: 'Next Time, We Might Have To Kill Him' - Inside Edition

Trump Supporter Who Punched Protester: 'Next Time, We Might Have To Kill Him' - Inside Edition

Trump Supporter Punches Protester in the Face - Fascism In America

Gun supporter who calls guns 'toys' is promptly shot by toddler son from backseat of car

Jacksonville, Florida’s Jamie Gilt is a model. She is also a mother of a lovely young four-year-old. She really doesn’t like Donald Trump (yay!) but she’s a Ted Cruz supporter (boo!). She’s also a Jade Helm-style conspiracist and is a big gun owner/supporter. Here’s a Tweet from her.

Gun supporter who calls guns 'toys' is promptly shot by toddler son from backseat of car

College Presidents Say Race Relations Are Just Fine (Students, Not So Much) | FiveThirtyEight

Despite the recent wave of campus protests over racism, a vast majority of college presidents believe race relations on their campuses are good — and the share of presidents who believe it is even higher this year than it was last year.

Students aren’t nearly so optimistic, as the protests at campuses such as Yaleand the University of Missouri have demonstrated, and as separate survey data shows. My colleague Leah Libresco has written about student demands to address race relations on campuses nationwide; the most common request is a more diverse faculty.

The data on college leaders’ attitudes comes from the sixth annual Survey of College and University Presidents from Inside Higher Ed and Gallup, which covers 727 presidents at public, private and for-profit institutions.

The survey also asked the presidents about things like the financial health of their institutions and their views of President Obama’s performance on higher education, but the questions on race relations give the first comprehensive look since the fall protests at how administrators are thinking about these issues.

Eighty-four percent of the presidents surveyed said race relations on their campuses were good or excellent — a 3-point increase from last year. When asked how they thought race relations on campus today compare to five years ago, 69 percent said they’re about the same or better. Notably, presidents believe their own campus is doing better on the issue than others across the country, but the overwhelming majority still believe that race relations are “fair” or “good” on campuses nationwide......

...College students don’t feel quite the same way. A survey of 19,580 students at amix of 26 colleges and universities found that 57.5 percent said they had witnessed discrimination on campus, and 41 percent of those who had experienced discrimination said it was based on race. (The survey, from UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute, focused on questions of diversity on campus; it was conducted between October 2014 and June 2015 — before widespread campus protests began in the fall.)

A five-year study, also from UCLA’s HERI, found that discrimination was pervasive on the least diverse campuses, those with less than 20 percent minority representation.¹ At least half of African-American and Latino students at these schools said they had experienced discrimination in the form of verbal comments."

College Presidents Say Race Relations Are Just Fine (Students, Not So Much) | FiveThirtyEight

One of the FBI’s Major Claims in the iPhone Case Is Fraudulent | American Civil Liberties Union

In the FBI’s court order requesting Apple's assistance in unlocking the work iPhone 5c used by the San Bernardino shooter, the bureau's first and most urgent demand is that Apple disable the iPhone's “auto-erase” security feature. This feature (which is not enabled by default on most iPhones) protects user data on a device from would-be snoops by wiping the phone after 10 failed passcode attempts. This protects you and me from thieves trying to guess our passcodes and access our data for identify theft, for example.

But the truth is that even if this feature is enabled on the device in question, the FBI doesn't need to worry about it, because they can already bypass it by backing up part of the phone (called the “Effaceable Storage”) before attempting to guess the passcode. I'll go into the technical details (which the FBI surely already knows) below.

One of the FBI’s Major Claims in the iPhone Case Is Fraudulent | American Civil Liberties Union

Donald Trump's ex-wife: Trump kept book of Hitler's speeches by bed - Business Insider

Donald Trump's ex-wife: Trump kept book of Hitler's speeches by bed - Business Insider

"According to a 1990 Vanity Fair interview, Ivana Trump once told her lawyer Michael Kennedy that her husband, real-estate mogul Donald Trump, now a leading Republican presidential candidate, kept a book of Hitler's speeches near his bed."

The Supreme Court Ruling That Led To 70,000 Forced Sterilizations : Shots - Health News : NPR

The Supreme Court Ruling That Led To 70,000 Forced Sterilizations : Shots - Health News : NPR

Same-Sex Adoption Upheld By U.S. Supreme Court : The Two-Way : NPR

The U.S. Supreme Court, without hearing oral argument, has unanimously reversed an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that denied parental rights to a lesbian adoptive mother who had split with her partner. The decision is a direct repudiation of an Alabama Supreme Court decision that refused to recognize a Georgia adoption.



Same-Sex Adoption Upheld By U.S. Supreme Court : The Two-Way : NPR

The Matter of Black Lives - The New Yorker

Garza, Cullors, and Tometi advocate a horizontal ethic of organizing, which favors democratic inclusion at the grassroots level. Black Lives Matter emerged as a modern extension of Ella Baker’s thinking—a preference for ten thousand candles rather than a single spotlight. In a way, they created the context and the movement created itself. “Really, the genesis of the organization was the people who organized in their cities for the ride to Ferguson,” Garza told me in her office. Those people, she said, “pushed us to create a chapter structure. They wanted to continue to do this work together, and be connected to activists and organizers from across the country.” There are now more than thirty Black Lives Matter chapters in the United States, and one in Toronto. They vary in structure and emphasis, and operate with a great deal of latitude, particularly when it comes to choosing what “actions” to stage. But prospective chapters must submit to a rigorous assessment, by a coördinator, of the kinds of activism that members have previously engaged in, and they must commit to the organization’s guiding principles. These are laid out in a thirteen-point statement written by the women and Darnell Moore, which calls for, in part, an ideal of unapologetic blackness. “In affirming that black lives matter, we need not qualify our position,” the statement reads.



Yet, although the movement initially addressed the killing of unarmed young black men, the women were equally committed to the rights of working people and to gender and sexual equality. So the statement also espouses inclusivity, because “to love and desire freedom and justice for ourselves is a necessary prerequisite for wanting the same for others.” Garza’s argument for inclusivity is informed by the fact that she—a black queer female married to a trans male—would likely have found herself marginalized not only in the society she hopes to change but also in many of the organizations that are dedicated to changing it. She also dismisses the kind of liberalism that finds honor in nonchalance. “We want to make sure that people are not saying, ‘Well, whatever you are, I don’t care,’ ” she said. “No, I want you to care. I want you to see all of me.”



The Matter of Black Lives - The New Yorker

Still don't think Trump could win? We've elected xenophobic presidents before | James Nevius | Opinion | The Guardian

Absurd? Had you asked pundits during the 1824 presidential campaign whether General Andrew Jackson’s mug would ever grace America’s third-most populargreenback, they would have called you insane. The Washington political establishment believed that Jackson’s short temper, reckless disregard for political niceties and desire to insult (or shoot) his enemies meant he simply wasn’t presidential material. Yet in 1828 – four years after he won the popular vote but, through quirks of the system, lost the election, the American people – fed up with back-room “politics as usual” – propelled Jackson to the White House for the first of two terms.

Still don't think Trump could win? We've elected xenophobic presidents before | James Nevius | Opinion | The Guardian

Sanders and Clinton clash over guns at debate

Sanders and Clinton clash over guns at debate

Melissa Harris Perry's exit from MSNBC

Getting in "Formation"

American crossroads: Reagan, Trump and the devil down south | US news | The Guardian

Please read this article. Most otherwise educated Americans are unaware of 20th Century American history because it is not emphasized in the schools and if you live in the South it is rarely taught at all. 

"The year 1948 was a flash that led to a slow burn, a simmering fuse that wouldn’t erupt again for 16 years. The flash was the breakaway States’ Rights Democratic party, aka the Dixiecrats (motto: “segregation forever”), who recoiled from the regular Democrats’ spasm of conscience and put forward their own candidate for president, South Carolina governor Strom Thurmond. Thurmond campaigned on a platform that decried civil rights as “infamous and iniquitous”, “totalitarian” and an attempt by the federal government to impose “a police nation” on the land of the free. That fall, the Dixiecrats took four deep south states and 39 electoral votes from Harry Truman, a rippling of racist muscle that kept the Democratic party’s egalitarian impulse in check throughout the 1950s.

That decade was the slow burn, but it was coming. Occasional aberrations aside, the south stayed solid for the Democrats after Truman, though the devil felt the cracks under his feet, roamed uneasy over the land. Brown v Board of Education was a tremblor. Montgomery, Little Rock, more tremblors. At the Democrats’ 1960 convention, African American delegates walked out in protest over John F Kennedy’s concessions to the southern segs, this at a time when the Republican party, the party of Lincoln and emancipation – and thus a 90lb weakling in most of the south – was welcoming civil rights advocates to its convention. Devil stamped his feet, sniffed the air.

Across the south people were marching and sometimes dying for civil rights, though you didn’t have to march or even reach the age of majority to qualify for murder, as shown by the 1963 bombing deaths of four young African American girls, at church, in Birmingham. After Kennedy’s assassination, Lyndon Johnson, Democrat of Texas and a son of the hardscrabble south, seized JFK’s cautious civil rights agenda and turned it into a juggernaut. “If you get in my way I’m going to run you down,” he told his old Senate mentor, Richard Russell of Georgia, and it’s surely one of the great mysteries not just of American politics but of human nature in general that Lyndon Johnson, a man born and formed in one of America’s most enduring tar pits of xenophobia, would be the crucial force multiplier for civil rights.

He knew better than anyone the political risk. “I think we just gave the south to the Republicans,” he told his staff after ramming the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through Congress. His aide Bill Moyers recalled the moment in more drastic terms: Johnson feared he had delivered the south to Republicans “for your lifetime and mine”, a prediction whose proof, while not yet conclusive – we are happy that Mr Moyers is still with us – has trended ever since toward prophecy. The first hard evidence came in the presidential election that fall, when Johnson’s landslide victory over Barry Goldwater saw only Arizona (Goldwater’s home state) and the old Dixiecrat states, plus Georgia, go Republican. Goldwater had been one of only a handful of Republican senators to vote against the Civil Rights Act, and his nominating convention turned into a raucous revolt against the party’s eastern establishment. Nelson Rockefeller, millionaire governor of New York and the avatar of what’s now known as a country club Republican, was roundly booed, hooted and dissed. Goldwater delegates berated and shook their fists at the press, and African American delegates were “shoved, pushed, spat on and cursed with a liberal sprinkling of racial epithets”. Something new and nasty was afoot; Republicans were acting like a bunch of Dixiecrats. One black delegate had his suit jacket set on fire. The Southern Caucus at the convention named its hotel headquarters “Fort Sumter” after the starting point of the civil war. Jackie Robinson spent several “unbelievable hours” on the convention floor, and summed up his experience thus: “I now believe I know how it felt to be a Jew in Hitler’s Germany.”

American crossroads: Reagan, Trump and the devil down south | US news | The Guardian

Why David Duke matters Chris Hayes looks back at the political career of David Duke, a white supremacist who is now supporting Donald Trump.

Why David Duke matters | MSNBC

ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES 3/3/16 Student kicked out of Trump rally speaks Chris Hayes talks to Tahjila Davis, a student at Valdosta State University, who was kicked out of a Trump rally on Monday evening.

All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC

Trump dog whistles heard loud and clear by racists | MSNBC

Trump dog whistles heard loud and clear by racists | MSNBC

ALL IN WITH CHRIS HAYES 3/2/16 Donald Trump's white supremacist problem Chris Hayes looks at a series of incidents of violence, including one this week at a rally in Kentucky, involving a prominent white supremacist and college student.

All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC

Trump Supporters Aren’t Stupid — This has been going on since Bacon's rebellion in 1676. This is the analysis I have been trying to get white liberals to understand my whole adult life.

One thing that has been interesting to me is people use a rhetoric on other democrats that is similar to what they use on republicans. I just read this comment on facebook:



There is NO logical reason Hillary Clinton should be beating Bernie Sanders by such large margins. I’m left to believe that 1) these voters think they’re getting Bill Clinton, Part 2 or 2) they have fallen prey to the worst of logical fallacies — Hillary is a woman; therefore, she will effect policy and cultural change for both women and minorities.



Here’s the thing, I know plenty of Clinton supporters and they’re not dumb. The Clinton supporters I personally know tend to be male programmers capable of rational thought who have spoken to me at length about the policy differences between Bill and Hillary. The most frequently cited reason I’ve heard for voting for Hillary is that people perceive her to be more electable against a republican candidate. How electable either candidate will be against Trump is unknowable, but to vote based on a best guess given the information you know is not illogical. It is necessary.



If you’re a Sanders supporter and you want to win over Clinton supporters, you’re going to have to address the reasons they’re voting for Clinton. And, if you assume that Clinton supporters are too dumb to know what’s best for them, if you assume you know what they need better than they do, then you are wrong. Your arguments will be patronizing, and you will remain unconvincing.



Which, brings me to how we talk about Trump supporters. While the majority of democrats I know do tend to keep it civil with each other, nearly all of them will rail on “ignorant” republicans who “vote against their own best interests.” Thing is, Trump supporters don’t vote against their best interests, democrats just don’t understand the interest they care about most.



It’s dignity.



One of my favorite stories is Mike DeStefano interview about going on a motorcycle ride with his dying wife. It’s a beautiful, you should read it or listen to it. Anyway, at some point he says:



[Dying] people, they feel “I’m alive.” They pass away at one moment. Until that moment, they are alive, and they want to be loved, and they want to give and share, you know.

Until that moment, they want to give and share. Giving and sharing is as important to life as being loved.



We are depriving the white working classes of their means to give. As we export manufacturing jobs internationally and as we streamline labor with technology, we start moving people to the sidelines. It’s not just that they have less money, it’s that their identity as providers is being threatened. This is why they are often so against welfare. Even if it would fix their financial situation, it would not fix their identity problems. It would hurt their dignity. While the working class is undoubtedly worried about the economy, we already know many will not vote in their economic best interests. They vote for the candidate who promises a return to dignity, and it’s not because they’re dumb. It’s because they care about their dignity more than they care about their finances.



Which, by the way, directly ties in to how they are racist. Not all Trump supporters are necessarily racist, but a fair number of them explicitly are. Normally, when liberals talk about racism, they use “racist” as an end point. “Trump is racist” is, by itself, a reason not to vote for him, and “being racist” is an indicator of a person who is morally deficient.



But, if you don’t take this as an end point — if you instead ask “what do people get out of being racist?” — you’ll start to unravel the emotional motivations behind it. One of the best unpacking of this I have read is Matt Bruenig’s piece Last Place Avoidance and Poor White Racism. To summarize, no one wants to occupy the “last” place in society. No one wants to be the most despised. As long as racism remains intact, poor white people are guaranteed not to be “the worst.” If racism is ever truly dismantled, then poor white people will occupy the lowest rung of society, and the shame of occupying this position is very painful. This shame is so painful, that the people at risk of feeling it will vote on it above all other issues.



Liberals, especially white liberals, like to believe in the moral superiority of the “not racist” (which presumably includes them.) And, I agree we need to aspire to a “less racist” America, but I disagree that it is useful to think of racism as a personal moral failure. It can be, but thinking of it this way blocks progress.



The main difference between a white racist and a white “race ally” is usually social group. Marc Zuckerberg recently reprimanded some of his employees for crossing out “Black Lives Matter” and replacing it with “All Lives Matter” but of course he did. The internet went wild congratulating him, but this was not a courageous act for him. It may have been a morally correct act, but it was not a brave one. His social group rewards overt “anti-racist” behavior so being overtly “anti-racist” will only enhance his social standing.



On the other hand, for some poor white communities, solidifying racism seems like a quicker path to enhancing their social status than activism. Ironically, many white racists and white allies have the same motivation in their hearts — to look good to their peers. Yet, white allies tend to get blocked around this because it is painful to admit they have similar motivations to white racists. At least, it is painful for me to admit.



Yet, the fact that we are similarly motivated — white racists, white allies, and people of color alike — is the key to fixing this whole mess. We must find ways for the working class to maintain its dignity, we must find a way for them to have jobs that are satisfying to them, we must find a way for them to contribute to culture. We must find a way for them to feel heard. Which, by the way, are the exact same goals we need to have for oppressed races. We all need the same thing, and until we find a way to give it to more people, we will fight each other for it.



Trump Supporters Aren’t Stupid — Medium

Russian atheist faces year in jail for denying existence of God during webchat

Russian atheist faces year in jail for denying existence of God during webchat

Pennsylvania bishops hid sex abuse by 'monster' priest for 40 years, jury finds

Pennsylvania bishops hid sex abuse by 'monster' priest for 40 years, jury finds

"Graphic grand jury report reveals that bishops in a Pennsylvania diocese allegedly covered up sex crimes against hundreds of children for decades"

Shootings by LA police officers spiked by more than 50% in 2015

Shootings by LA police officers spiked by more than 50% in 2015

"The LAPD report also showed that black people were five times more likely to be shot by police than white people and 2.6 times more likely than Latinos."

Baltimore school police officer caught on video beating and cursing at student. Domestic police terrorism, our biggest and most dangerous terrorism problem,

Baltimore school police officer caught on video beating and cursing at student

Baltimore school police officer caught on video beating and cursing at student

Texas trooper indicted in Sandra Bland traffic stop and arrest is formally fired

Texas trooper indicted in Sandra Bland traffic stop and arrest is formally fired

"Grand jury indicted Brian Encinia on a perjury charge in December
Bland was found dead in jail cell days after arrest was caught on dashcam"

Louis Farrakhan praises Donald Trump - POLITICO - Farrakhan and Trump, Birds of a Feather...

Farrakhan and Trump, Birds of a Feather...

Farrakhan is and always has been an oversized, antisemitic leader of a Muslim group which at one times ran more businesses than any other Black group in the country. Trump and Farrakhan have much in common. They are both entertainers. Farrakhan started out as a Calypso singer, Trump has been a reality TV star, both are tribalistic, both seek self aggrandizement. Both motivate their followers by stirring up hate of the "other". No wonder Farrakhan sees himself and his close to megalomaniac dreams reflected in Donald Trump.

Louis Farrakhan praises Donald Trump - POLITICO

KING: Not long before someone gets killed at Trump rally - NY Daily News

On Monday, 30 black students attending a Donald Trump rally at Valdosta State University in rural Georgia were forcefully ejected — simply for being black.



On Tuesday, in Louisville, Ky., what happened to young black protesters at another Trump rally wasn’t just racist — it appears to be outright criminal.





KING: Not long before someone gets killed at Trump rally - NY Daily News

St. Louis student can't return to school because he's black - NY Daily News

A third-grader from St. Louis was told he couldn’t return to his elementary school next year—because he’s black.



Edmund Lee’s family will be moving from inside St. Louis city limits to a new suburban school district and, when they asked if the boy could still attend his school after the move, they were refused due to a twisted application of a decades-old state desegregation law forbidding black students from going to city schools.



“It was surprising to me to have on a piece of paper that he couldn’t attend because he was an African American and if he was another race he could,” LaShieka White, Edmond’s mother, told the Daily News.



The 1980 U.S. Court of Appeals law that will prevent Edmond, 9, from returning to the city charter school, Gateway Science Academy, was created with good intentions.



The desegregation law was supposed to diversify both the city schools, which were in poor condition and predominantly black, as well as the suburban schools, in better condition and predominantly white.



But in the case of Edmond’s school, which is roughly 80 percent white, this particular application of the law will actually have the inverse effect by barring a black student.



St. Louis student can't return to school because he's black - NY Daily News

Donald Trump supporters push and shove young black woman as protesters are thrown out of rally in Kentucky | Americas | News | The Independent

Donald Trump supporters push and shove young black woman as protesters are thrown out of rally in Kentucky | Americas | News | The Independent

Fact check: Trump’s David Duke amnesia

Fact check: Trump’s David Duke amnesia

Black students ejected from Trump rally in Ga. Black students ejected from Trump rally in Ga. Kicked out for being Black at their own school. No other reason. The administration did not claim any other reason.

Black students ejected from Trump rally in Ga.