Virginia newspaper puts KKK recruitment flyer on front page. Oops.

Courtesy of Newsweek: 

A Virginia newspaper has come under fire from its readers after it ran a Ku Klux Klan recruitment flyer in full on its front page. 

The Westmoreland News ran a story on how KKK recruitment flyers and DVDs had started appearing in the town of Colonial Beach, Virginia. 

However, the paper decided to include a copy of the recruitment flyer, which included racist and anti-Semitic language, in full on the front page to illustrate its story. 

“They posted the whole flyer as if they were giving them free advertising,” Colonial Beach resident Betty Tate Thompson told WTVR. “It even had the number on flyer to contact the head of the KKK. Which I thought was totally ridiculous.”

Now I can see why the newspaper would do this as they are accurately relating events, and providing a visual example of what they are reporting. 

(I just did the same thing up above as well.)

However if you were the local chapter of the KKK, and you were having a devil of a time handing out enough flyers to really increase recruitment, just imagine how gratified you would be if the newspaper printed your entire invitation, including contact information, for their thousands of subscribers?

I mean that would be the kind of gift to warm an old racist's heart.

So the criticism is quite valid.

Chairman of Sinclair Broadcasting completely distrusts print media which he believes "serves no real purpose."

David Smith, killing journalism one bullshit propaganda piece at a time.

Courtesy of New York Magazine: 

David Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group, said he dislikes and fundamentally distrusts the print media, which he believes “serves no real purpose.” In emails to New York, Smith said that print — as in newspapers and magazines — is a reality-distorting tool of leftists. Print media, he said, has “no credibility” and no relevance. 

“I must tell that in all the 45 plus years I have been in the media business I have never seen a single article about us that is reflective of reality especially in today’s world with the shameful political environment and generally complete lack of integrity. Facts and truth have been lost for a long time and likely to never return,” Smith said. 

“The print media is so left wing as to be meaningless dribble which accounts for why the industry is and will fade away. Just no credibility.”

Yeah how can anybody trust the New York Times and the Washington Post with all their left leaning facts?

This statement is not one that a real newsman would ever make.

You might disagree with a story or two, but to discount ALL of print media as biased against your view of reality, really says more about your view of reality than on their reporting.

Keep in mind that Fox News was created by Roger Ailes as an alternative to the real journalism which he blamed for destroying the career of his former boss and hero Richard Nixon.

Right Wing new outlets are not about informing the public, they are about building mistrust for the media and pushing a conservative agenda that they realize is vulnerable to fact checking.

Here, let John Oliver explain it better than I can.

Oliver, as you might remember, was one of the very first to reveal to us just what Sinclair was up to way back in the summer of last year.

If this does not terrify you, well then you have lost the ability to be terrified.

Probably due to Right Wing brainwashing.

At least one political candidate is taking a stand against this obvious propaganda.

Courtesy of TPM:  

A Kentucky Democratic congressional candidate has pulled all of her campaign advertisements from her local, Sinclair Broadcasting-owned news channel after the controversy that exploded when anchors all over the country echoed the same script warning of fake news and biased reporting. 

Amy McGrath is challenging incumbent Republican Andy Barr in Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District. “Today, I have instructed my campaign team to cease and pull all campaign advertising on WDKY-TV (Channel 56), the Sinclair-owned television station in our congressional district, as soon as possible,” she wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. “Sinclair’s corporate-mandated ‘must-read’ right-wing script on its nearly 200 television stations about ‘fake news’ is itself an extreme danger to our Democracy and eerily mimics the propaganda efforts that authoritarian regimes often use to control the media in their own country.”

Admirable. But let's face it she is a Democrat, so Sinclair Broadcasting would not even tap their brakes if they saw her laying unconscious in the middle of the street.

However if others join Amy McGrath, and not just politicians but businesses as well, that might be enough to force at least the semblance of fair and balanced reporting from this conservative propaganda machine.

Hey, maybe somebody can convince the Parkland students to tweet about them, that seems to work pretty good.

Devin Nunes' own hometown newspaper rips him a new one.

Courtesy of of Alternet:  

Fresno, CA’s daily newspaper the Fresno Bee on Friday ripped into House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) for “doing the dirty work” on behalf of Donald Trump’s White House. 

In a scathing editorial, the Fresno Bee charged Nunes with failing to represent his constituents in California by “waving around a secret memo attacking the FBI” instead of focusing on “health care, jobs” and Dreamers. 

“Instead, he’s doing dirty work for House Republican leaders trying to protect President Donald Trump in the Russia investigation,” the Fresno Bee wrote. 

The editorial noted the timing of Nunes’ secret memo, which coincided with reports special counsel Robert Mueller is honing in on possible obstruction of justice by the president, having interviewed former FBI Director James Comey and Attorney General Jeff Session last week. 

“Nunes of Tulare is sheltered in a relatively safe Republican district, and may believe he will pay no political price for unfairly attacking law enforcement and protecting Trump,” the Fresno Bee wrote. “But his performance as chairman of the highly sensitive House Intelligence Committee has been nothing short of embarrassing.”

Nunes has a strong Democratic challenger for this next election in the form of a Fresno County Deputy District Attorney, so Nunes may have sacrificed his political career in a desperate attempt to defend the Kremlin's puppet in the White House.  

Kind of makes you wonder why, doesn't it?

The Dallas Morning News exposes the many ways that the Russians funneled money to the Donald Trump and many other GOP campaigns.

Explore for yourself the tangled web of Russian money that warrant special investigator Robert Mueller’s attention, according to Ruth May 12/12 https://t.co/EF9aFHpl0F pic.twitter.com/I81Hj7XYoT

— Dallas Morning News (@dallasnews) December 15, 2017

Courtesy of The Dallas Morning News:  

As Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team probes deeper into potential collusion between Trump officials and representatives of the Russian government, investigators are taking a closer look at political contributions made by U.S. citizens with close ties to Russia. 

Buried in the campaign finance reports available to the public are some troubling connections between a group of wealthy donors with ties to Russia and their political contributions to President Donald Trump and a number of top Republican leaders. And thanks to changes in campaign finance laws, the political contributions are legal. We have allowed our campaign finance laws to become a strategic threat to our country.

This is a really deep dive and there is really no way for me to effectively paraphrase it here on IM, so you are going to have to visit the link and read it for yourself.

When you finish you will realize just how deep this whole thing goes, as well as why certain Republican politicians are working so hard to provide cover for Donald Trump and fighting the Mueller investigation.

Dallas Morning News lists outline of Trump's "achievements."

Courtesy of the Dallas Morning News: 

President Donald Trump's first six months have been defined by his often angry and tasteless tweets, his ham-handed efforts to denigrate and undercut the multiple investigations into Russian influence in the 2016 election and the stalemated legislative battle to repeal and replace Obamacare.

The News then goes on to list a number of things that Trump has achieved.

Here is a sampling:

FOREIGN POLICY 

-Embraced autocrats in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Egypt and abandoned longtime U.S leadership in seeking to enhance democracy and human rights. 

-Insulted U.S. allies in Europe, especially Germany, and undercut longstanding U.S. treaty commitments. 

-Compromised Israel's intelligence sources. -Spurred more divisiveness in an already divided Middle East by setting off a squabble between Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally, and Qatar, home of the region's biggest U.S. military base.

(Trust me there's more.)

DOMESTIC POLICY 

-Proposed a budget with massive cuts that would shred the social safety net and cripple longstanding governmental functions. 

-Created uncertainty in the nation's health care system by sending inconsistent administrative signals and supporting legislation that could deprive millions of people health insurance coverage, undermine Medicaid health support for lower income Americans and give wealthy taxpayers a massive tax cut. 

-Mismanaged the federal government by failing to fill many top spots and installing an inexperienced, dysfunctional White House staff.

(Yep, there's more.)  

INSTITUTIONAL DAMAGE: 

-Committed potentially impeachable offenses of obstructing justice that prompted appointment of a Special Counsel by firing FBI Director James Comey, because of his probe into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia, and urging other intelligence officials to pressure Comey to halt the probe. 

-Undermined the courts with denunciations of judges and their decisions affecting his administration's policies, especially those curbing his hastily issued ban on Muslim travel from certain countries.

 -Without evidence, accused former President Barack Obama of illegally wiretapping his phones. -Repeatedly misrepresented his administration's policies and trashed officials with whom he has disagreements, calling the ousted Comey "a nut job," Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer the "head clown" and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi an "incompetent."

(And yes there is more. So much more.)

But that gives a fairly accurate overview of Trump's accomplishments thus far.

Hell if he accomplishes any more America will soon be a smoldering crater in the ground.

I guess this is what the Trumpsters meant by the term MAGA.

Defining Democracy.

This needs to be shared.

With everybody.

Stephen Bannon becomes the terrorist's poster child to justify religious war with the United States.

Courtesy of the Washington Post: 

The way al-Qaeda tells it, the West is locked in an existential war with Islam. This is how the terrorist group justifies its violence and its fundamentalist ideology. And now it has found a Westerner to back them up — top Trump adviser Steve Bannon. 

Bannon graced the cover (above the fold!) of the most recent al-Qaeda-linked Al Masra newspaper. That prominence, University of Oxford researcher Elisabeth Kendall told Quartz, is “striking.” The piece focused on Bannon's views of Islam, saying he believes that “the forces of Islam cannot be stopped by peaceful means.” 

The paper cited a conversation Bannon had with a Danish journalist in May 2016. It also claimed that Bannon believes that the struggle is really between Christianity and Islam, not just Islam and the West. And it suggested that Bannon has “lost confidence in secular Europe, and sees Muslim immigrants as partially responsible for the retreat of traditional Christian values.

”Like other Trump advisers (and former advisers), Bannon has spoken publicly about these beliefs. In 2014, he gave a speech to the Vatican via Skype in which he said, “We’re now, I believe, at the beginning stages of global war against Islamic fascism.” On other occasions, he's suggested that the “Judeo-Christian West” is at war with “expansionist Islamic ideology.”

I don't think it takes a terrorism expert to realize that Donald Trump and his Islamophobic advisors are doing nothing to actually fight terrorism, but quite a lot to inspire future terrorist attacks against the United States.

The war in Iraq did a great job of incentivizing up and coming Jihadists, despite Bush's attempts to argue that the war was not based on religion, but Donald Trump and his advisors are not even attempting to to do that much and with their rhetoric and policy choices seem to be turning Anti-Islamic sentiment up to eleven.

In short any future terrorist attacks in this country can most likely be linked right back to Donald Trump and his merry band Muslim bashers.

Newspaper owned by Donald Trump's son-in-law publishes op-ed calling for the FBI to investigate anti-Trump protesters. And so it begins.

Kushner, with Ivanka and Donald Trump.

Courtesy of Alternet: 

The New York Observer, a newspaper owned by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, published an opinion piece Friday calling for the FBI to launch a coordinated crackdown on nationwide anti-Trump protests, mobilizations and recount efforts. 

Titled “Comey’s FBI Needs to Investigate Violent Democratic Tantrums,” the article was written by Austin Bay, a retired U.S. Army Reserve colonel and adjunct professor at the University of Texas in Austin. 

Kushner, who is married to Ivanka Trump, purchased a majority stake in the New York Observer in 2006 for roughly $10 million and currently operates as the outlet’s publisher. 

Bay’s opinion piece appeals to FBI director James Comey to “conduct a detailed investigation into the violence and political thuggery that continue to mar the presidential election’s aftermath,” including a “thorough probe of the protests—to include possible ties to organizations demanding vote recounts.” 

“The hard left’s violent reaction to Donald Trump’s election is vile and dangerous,” writes Bay. “Peaceful protests? No, the demonstrators vandalize and destroy. They have two goals: intimidating people and sustaining the mainstream media lie that Donald Trump is dangerous.”

The op-ed also wants the FBI to find out if anybody associated with the protests are being paid by George Soros or any other left wing bogeyman. 

I'm trying to remember, how long did it take Hitler to start throwing dissenters in jail again?

Okay I think it is very immature for us to keep comparing Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler, unless of course there is evidence that he stole his ideas from him. Oh, look here's some

Courtesy of Gizmodo: 

Neo-Nazis around the world have made it clear that they’re optimistic about what a Trump presidency will do for their cause. And while countless people have already pointed out just how dangerous Donald Trump’s rise to power has been, the historical parallels to other authoritarian regimes is still shocking. Take, for instance, this article from 1934. The author explains that Hitler was promising to make Germany “great” again. 

The article was part of a series on “Modern Leaders of Men” and was syndicated in newspapers across the United States in 1934. It showed up in places like Utah, Arizona, South Carolina, and Missouri. The screenshot above is from the Green Bay Press-Gazette in Wisconsin. 

The article tells the story of the rise of Hitler, first explaining that people thought he was merely a joke and “laughed at him.” But that he soon took advantage of Germany’s dissatisfaction with their lot in life.

We are always chastised for comparing politicians and others to Hitler, but what do you do when there is no way to escape the comparison?

I mean the only way that Trump could make this more obvious is if he grew one of those tiny ridiculous mustaches.

Well that's terrifying.

Donald Trump just received an endorsement from the KKK' official newspaper. Well of course he did.

"The Crusader" is the official newspaper of the KKK. #MAGA #DonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/mBTvLOFU9u

— Billy Gee (@billygee12) November 1, 2016

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

Among the small number of American newspapers that have embraced Donald Trump’s campaign, there is one, in particular, that stands out. 

It is called the Crusader — and it is one of the most prominent newspapers of the Ku Klux Klan. 

Under the banner "Make America Great Again," the entire front page of the paper's current issue is devoted to a lengthy defense of Trump’s message — an embrace some have labeled a de facto endorsement. 

"'Make America Great Again!' It is a slogan that has been repeatedly used by Donald Trump in his campaign for the presidency," Pastor Thomas Robb wrote in the Crusader. "You can see it on the shirts, buttons, posters and ball caps such as the one being worn here by Trump speaking at a recent rally. … But can it happen? Can America really be great again? This is what we will soon find out!" 

"While Trump wants to make America great again, we have to ask ourselves, 'What made America great in the first place?'" the article continues. "The short answer to that is simple. America was great not because of what our forefathers did — but because of who our forefathers were. 

"America was founded as a White Christian Republic. And as a White Christian Republic it became great."

Apparently the Trump campaign issued a statement rejecting the endorsement and renouncing "hate in any form," but let's face it these white supremacists recognize a fellow Klan member when they see one.

Trump's entire campaign is based on white men feeling oppressed in this society and terrified that they are losing their place at the top of the food chain.

All I can say is "If the pointy white hood fits, wear it."

Not once in their 34 year history has USA Today weighed in on a presidential race. Donald Trump changed that policy.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

In the 34-year history of USA TODAY, the Editorial Board has never taken sides in the presidential race. Instead, we’ve expressed opinions about the major issues and haven’t presumed to tell our readers, who have a variety of priorities and values, which choice is best for them. Because every presidential race is different, we revisit our no-endorsement policy every four years. We’ve never seen reason to alter our approach. Until now. 

This year, the choice isn’t between two capable major party nominees who happen to have significant ideological differences. This year, one of the candidates — Republican nominee Donald Trump — is, by unanimous consensus of the Editorial Board, unfit for the presidency. 

From the day he declared his candidacy 15 months ago through this week’s first presidential debate, Trump has demonstrated repeatedly that he lacks the temperament, knowledge, steadiness and honesty that America needs from its presidents. 

Whether through indifference or ignorance, Trump has betrayed fundamental commitments made by all presidents since the end of World War II. These commitments include unwavering support for NATO allies, steadfast opposition to Russian aggression, and the absolute certainty that the United States will make good on its debts. He has expressed troubling admiration for authoritarian leaders and scant regard for constitutional protections.

The editorial board then goes on to lay out all of the reasons that Trump is unfit to lead this nation

These include the following:

• He is erratic. (Just see his Twitter rant from this morning to confirm this.)
  
• He is ill-equipped to be commander in chief. (Duh!)
• He traffics in prejudice. (Yes and it seems that every alt-Right Nazi is working on his campaign now.)
  
• His business career is checkered. (Understatement.)
• He isn’t leveling with the American people. (Yeah, how much are you really worth Donald?)
  
• He speaks recklessly. He has coarsened the national dialogue. (Once again, duh!)
  
• He’s a serial liar. (And yet everybody keeps talking about Hillary Clinton's dishonesty.)
  

Personally I would be willing to bet that almost all of us have a list eerily similar to this one for why we would never support a Trump candidacy, and the thing is that more and more people are compiling their own lists every day. 

So how many newspapers have come out in support of Hillary now, while also warning people away from Doanld Trump?

Hillary Clinton is not even President yet and she is already breaking new ground.

Source

You can read the endorsement here.

This is only the latest in a number of Right leaning newspapers to publicly endorse Hillary Clinton, many of which have no endorsed a Democrat for decades.

But let's face it, what choice do they have?

A news gathering organization cannot in good conscience endorse Trump, and endorsing a third party candidate is like putting out a forest fire by pissing on a plastic houseplant.

So yeah, Hillary is getting a whole lot of support from those who really understand just how much is at stake.

More good news for Donald Trump.

The Dallas Morning News, which hasn't endorsed a Democrat since FDR, refuses to support Trump in a new editorial https://t.co/3rj4zAsdHo

— Gabriel Debenedetti (@gdebenedetti) September 6, 2016

Yeah if you are a Republican presidential candidate who cannot get an endorsement from a newspaper in TEXAS, I think you have a very serious problem.

Donald Trump's first appearance in the New York Times. We should have known.

So as we have all observed the New York Times has been unrelenting in its unflattering Trump reportage. Which seems fair because let's face it New York has to take the blame for Trump to some degree, just like Alaskans had to take responsibility for Sarah Palin back in 2008.

However to be fair the New York Times was telling us what we needed to know about Trump from the very beginning.

This is from Trump's VERY FIRST write up in the Times:

Major Landlord Accused Of Antiblack Bias in City 

The Department of Justice, charging discrimination against blacks in apartment rentals, brought suit in Federal Court in Brooklyn yesterday against the Trump Management Corporation, a major owner and manager of real estate here. 

The corporation, which owns and rents more than 14,000 apartments in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, was accused of violating the Fair Housing Act of 1968 in its operation of 39 buildings. Most are in Coney Island, Brooklyn, and in Jamaica Estates and Forest Hills, Queens. 

Seeking an injunction to halt alleged discriminatory practises, the Government contended that Trump Management had refused to rent or negotiate rentals “because of race and color.” It also charged that the company had required different rental terms and conditions because of race and that it had misrepresented to blacks that apartments were not available. 

At the corporation's main office, 600 Avenue Z in Brooklyn, Donald Trump, president, denied the charges. 

“They are absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “We never have discriminated, and we never would. There have been a number of local actions against us, and we've won them all. We were charged with discrimination, and we proved in court that we did not discriminate.”

 So to be clear Trump's very first appearance in the Times was due to a lawsuit that the federal government filed over racism.

And the first time that he was quoted in the paper was to deny that he had done anything wrong.

Once you realize that, it kind of puts this into a whole new perspective.

Donald Trump to African-Americans: "What do you have to lose?" https://t.co/3tKdAJzqei https://t.co/a31oCRJjhz

— The Situation Room (@CNNSitRoom) August 19, 2016

The answer?

Everything.

P.S. That this was indeed Trump's first appearance in the paper was confirmed by no less a source than the New York Times itself.

This was the cover of the Daily News the day after Trump won Indiana and essentially clinched the nomination.

Source

After this win there was no end to the articles coming out declaring doom for the Republican party and indeed the country itself.

Think Progress is convinced that he will doom the economy.

Salon thinks he will doom the Republican party. (In fact after Indiana conservatives came out in droves to say that they were done with the GOP.)

However Slate isn't worried about either of those because they simply don't believe he will ever be President.

Of course not everybody is in panic

Some just sit and wait.

"Don't worry my children our time is coming."

Of course the remedy to this could not be more clear. #ImWithHer.

Iowa's largest newspaper endorses Hillary Clinton just a little over a week before the caucus.

Courtesy of the Des Moines Register: 

The presidency is not an entry-level position. Whoever is sworn into office next January must demonstrate not only a deep understanding of the issues facing America, but also possess the diplomatic skills that enable presidents to forge alliances to get things done. 

By that measure, Democrats have one outstanding candidate deserving of their support: Hillary Clinton. No other candidate can match the depth or breadth of her knowledge and experience.

That sounds eerily familiar to the sales pitch for Hillary back in 2008.

Personally I do not give a great deal of weight to newspaper endorsements these days, however with Hillary trailing Sanders in the polls 43 to 51 she needs all of the help she can get.

By the way the newspaper also endorsed Marco Rubio, which to me feels as if they are simply going with the lesser of all evils.

As you might imagine Florida is not at all happy that their Senator Marco Rubio hates his job, and has decided not to do it anymore.

"Wow debating is hard too. I'd quit if there weren't so many cameras on me."

In response to an interview during which Rubio said that he was not seeking reelection by way of explaining why he was missing votes, and a statement by a friend claiming that Rubio "hates" the Senate, the editorial board at the Sun Sentinel wrote this op-ed: 

Sorry, senator, but Floridians sent you to Washington to do a job. We've got serious problems with clogged highways, eroding beaches, flat Social Security checks and people who want to shut down the government. 

If you hate your job, senator, follow the honorable lead of House Speaker John Boehner and resign it. 

Let us elect someone who wants to be there and earn an honest dollar for an honest day's work. Don't leave us without one of our two representatives in the Senate for the next 15 months or so. You are paid $174,000 per year to represent us, to fight for us, to solve our problems. Plus you take a $10,000 federal subsidy — declined by some in the Senate — to participate in one of the Obamacare health plans, though you are a big critic of Obamacare. 

You are ripping us off, senator.

For all of you out there biting your fingernails at the prospect that Rubio will face off against Hillary Clinton in the general election, and offer her a real challenge, I think you can put those concerns to rest.

Personally I never understood the attraction to Rubio, and his poll numbers have certainly never reflected any substantial support.

However now I think it is safe to say that he has ZERO chance of winning this GOP nomination.

By essentially quitting Rubio has for all intents and purposes Sarah Palin'd himself.

After let's not forget that this is still only Rubio's first term as a Senator and he is already hating his job, and looking for an easier gig. Which for reasons that totally escape me, he seems to believe describes the job of President of the United States.

Yeah, stick a fork in him, he's done.

1927 newspaper article indicates that Donald Trump's father was arrested along with KKK members fighting against the police. Well that potentially explains a lot.

Donald Trump and his father Fred Trump

Courtesy of Boing Boing:

According to a New York Times article published in June 1927, a man with the name and address of Donald Trump's father was arraigned after Klan members attacked cops in Queens, N.Y. 

In an article subtitled "Klan assails policeman", Fred Trump is named in among those taken in during a late May "battle" in which "1,000 Klansmen and 100 policemen staged a free-for-all." At least two officers were hurt during the event, after which the Klan's activities were denounced by the city's Police Commissioner, Joseph A. Warren. 

“The Klan not only wore gowns, but had hoods over their faces almost completely hiding their identity,” Warren was quoted as saying in the article, which goes on to identify seven men “arrested in the near-riot of the parade.” 

Named alongside Trump are John E Kapp and John Marcy (charged with felonious assault in the attack on Patrolman William O'Neill and Sgt. William Lockyear), Fred Lyons, Thomas Caroll, Thomas Erwin, and Harry J Free. They were arraigned in Jamaica, N.Y. All seven were represented by the same lawyers, according to the article. 

The final entry on the list reads: “Fred Trump of 175-24 Devonshire Road, Jamaica, was discharged.”

The post goes on to point out that Fred Trump, who would have been about 21 at the time, lived at the same address listed for "The Donald's" father at the time the article was written.

It also provides other information about the incident that strongly suggests Trump senior was involved, and also provides other data strongly suggestive of Fred Trump's uncharitable attitude toward minorities.

If true, I think it goes a long way to help understand why the Donald Trump of today is garnering so much support from the white supremacists.

A commentary from the Toronto Star gives reasons why Sarah Palin should run for President. Oh this ought to be good.

First off this Bob Hepburn points out that Palin still has some rabid supporters who are always begging her to run: 

Every day Bonny Gray prays she will soon turn on her TV and see that Sarah Palin has entered the U.S. presidential race. 

“I am a believer in prayers being answered and I pray every night for you to be our next president,” Gray wrote two weeks ago in a Facebook post. “You against Hillary would be a sure victory for you.

......

Take Kristine Weaver Bryant, who like Gray is pleading with Palin to jump into the race. “If you don’t run, our country is ruined,” Bryant wrote in another Facebook post. “Please Sarah, it is time for a female president. Don’t let it be Hillary. We beg you!”

Well you know, Bob, crazy people want all kinds of things they will never get. 

I once heard a person with schizophrenia begging Jesus to take him to Disney World.

Guess who didn't get to go?

Hepburn then goes to the polls: 

A poll conducted for CBS News in January suggested 30 per cent of Republicans would like her to run, although 59 per cent disagreed. Only former Florida governor Jeb Bush, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, who isn’t running, scored higher.

So almost 60% of Republicans don't want her to run, and this guy STILL thinks she should give it a shot?

But wait, he has more: 

Still, there are many reasons why Palin should enter the Republican race, starting with the fact that she would bring fun and excitement to what now is a dull contest filled by white males with no charisma. 

Palin, whose ego knows few bounds, could actually be a strong contender if she finally started to listen to her smart, well-paid political advisers, stuck to written texts and avoided those embarrassing off-hand remarks that have tripped her up in the past. 

She has a strong base, especially among religious Republicans, and that base still believes in her. She has 4.4 million “likes” on Facebook and more than 1 million Twitter followers. She can easily raise the millions of dollars needed to run a serious campaign.

Okay, let's take these one at a time, shall we?

First off, I think Bob is mistaking barely contained lunacy for "charisma."

Second, most of Palin's well paid advisers are actually shadowy organizations that help her to laundry money, and those that actually DO advise are terrible at their job.

And thirdly, most of those Facebook and Twitter "likes" are bought and paid for with SarahPAC money, which by the way is drying up faster than water in California.

What else ya got, Bob?

And while I disagree with almost everything Palin and the Tea Party stand for, their voices do deserve to be heard.

No, Bob, no, they don't. 

In fact, allowing the rabid Right Wing fringe to have a voice is how we ended up with a Greg Abbott as governor of Texas, a Ted Cruz as a Senator from Texas, and let's face it, it's how we ended up with a Texas.

Do you want another Texas, Bob?

No, Sarah Palin is yesterday's news. In fact, it's yesterday's news that the parakeet has already pooped on, and has been rolled up and used to beat the dog for humping our legs.

Having a handful of crazy people believe something is no reason for rational people to think it's viable.

If that were true we too would start seeing Elvis at the local Quicky Mart and start telling tales of being anally probed by aliens.

If you are a black man charged with burglary in Iowa, your mugshot hits the paper. But if you're white.....

Courtesy of So Let's Talk About It:  

Why did this story get run with these criminals’ school photos, where on the same day, same situation, the article of another group of burglars featured their mug shots? 

Same day. 
Same channel. 
Same crime. 
Same author. 

So why weren’t mugshots good enough for the white guys who got arrested? Who already looks guilty before their trial? Which story plants the seed into a potential jury pool that this is a group of good kids versus this is a group of criminals?

Here are the two Gazette stories, one for the black suspects here, and the white suspects here.

As you can see the article about the white suspects now shows their mugshots, and not their yearbook pictures, but the screenshot up above shows it as it was originally published.

It is also worth noting that the three white suspects are described as "wrestlers" throughout the Gazette article, and not once as "suspects." As if this were simply a departure from their usual upstanding identities.

However the four black men are only described as "suspects."

But don't let this bother you because remember the Republican party has assured us that racism is dead.