"All Lives Matter when All Lives Care" #SayHerName #CourtlinArrington #NeverAgain

This shamefully ignored school shooting is why kids should walk out for 18 minutes, not 17 | Will Bunch https://t.co/qsVVYourO2 via @phillydotcom

— Red Eye (@RedEyesPage) March 14, 2018

RedEyes Wednesday Rundown #GunReformNow #HuffmanHighSchool #SayHerName #CourtlinArrington #NeverAgain

Making America Hate Again




Over the objections of the majority of Americans, let's arm some public school teachers!

Florida middle school teacher calls students "n*ggers," says black kids are dumb and tells white girls not to date black boys; @DuvalSchools gives him 10 day suspension/vacation because Florida: https://t.co/dVTwPvMVjn pic.twitter.com/NCwLHPoUKQ

— Billy Corben (@BillyCorben) March 8, 2018

There was a school shooting in #SweetHomeAlabama yesterday at a school with armed officers present and metal detectors at the doors. But you probably won't see/hear much about it in the mainstream media because the schools is an "inner city school" and the victim is black. 

She was going to college to be a Nurse. She was going to help save lives one day. IF WE DON’T CHANGE THE LAWS THIS WILL CONTINUE TO HAPPEN AND THAT CANNOT BE ALLOWED, FOR EVERY PERSON IN AMERICA RIGHT NOW HELP US FIGHT THIS FIGHT #NEVERAGAINhttps://t.co/016nwAcRk8

— Emma González (@Emma4Change) March 8, 2018

#NeverAgain 

There is more than a whiff of #hypocrisy and #racism #ParklandTeens #Nevermore #BlackLivesMatter2

Black and Brown people are not political pawns. The @NRA doesn't get to use us to prove a point-while repeatedly devaluing Black and Brown lives.

View my latest for @Mic.pic.twitter.com/HAuZMCehhC

— Brittany Packnett (@MsPackyetti) March 6, 2018

In the wake of the tragic Parkland shooting, it's become clear that there’s a hypocrisy when we talk about America’s gun violence problem — @MsPackyetti explains for Mic. pic.twitter.com/cQ5jMWgfbP

— Mic (@mic) March 6, 2018

Update: What looks like #STUPID on an ordinary day in #GOP controlled Alabamastan

An Alabama lawmaker will propose arming school teachers after the Florida massacre, says children in school are 'sitting ducks'. Is this the right solution? https://t.co/r2GYm8Qx31 pic.twitter.com/5nvJsiTv85

— AL.com (@aldotcom) February 15, 2018

Josh Moon nails it 

This dream that Mr. Upton, the algebra teacher, is going to put down a mass shooter is really, really stupid.

A picture is worth thousands of lives

As attorney general, Eric Holder saw the carnage of Sandy Hook firsthand. “If the American people had access to those pictures, if the American people had seen those pictures, the calls for reasonable gun safety measures would have been passed,” Holder said in a 2016 interview. “If members of Congress perhaps had a chance to see those pictures and see what happened to those little angels I think we would’ve seen a different result.”

RedEye's Rundown #BlackHistoryMonth2016

White America's Broken Heart 

Much of America’s past is the story of white people benefiting from a system that white people designed and maintained, which increased their chances of success as it suppressed those same chances in other groups. Those systems persist to this day in some disturbing ways, but the current, vociferous naming and challenging of those systems, the placing of the lamp of truth near the seesaw of privilege and oppression, has provoked a profound sense of discomfort and even anger.

SaLuTe #BlackLivesMatter

Black Struggle is Not a Soundbite

Here we go again.

You know the drill. 

Mass shooting

Thoughts and prayers. 

President offers condolences.  

Legislators shrug, do nothing.

Repeat. 

#gunsense

#BlackHistoryMonth2016

Today is a day of remembrance as we celebrate the life of #MalcolmX! 51 years ago today Malcolm X was assassinated at the Audubon Ball Room in Washington Heights!


“No, I don’t worry,” Malcolm X said. “I tell you, I’m a man who believes that I died 20 years ago and I live like a man who is dead already. I have no fear whatsoever of anybody or anything.”

Sound Familiar?

RedEye

Governor Bentley: We need to protect people of our state from them there refugees

#PatelAlabama: Governor apologizes to the government of India for Alabama police treating one of their citizens like "a skinny black man"

Just in case you missed it, our Governor was interviewed on CNN this morning pontificating about his stand on the state line to keep Alabamans safe from them there Muslims, EYE mean, Syrian refugees.  He really didn't have a good reason to offer, so he named dropped that he was with Condolezza Rice yesterday, who allegedly told him Syria should set up a refugee camp over there to contain them.

This is the same Condolezza Rice who was the National Security Advisor that gave pResident George W. Bush a daily briefing one month prior to the 9/11 attacks that said Osama determined to attack inside the U.S. and didn't know what that meant.  The same Condolezza Rice who was the Secretary of State before, during and after Hurricane Katrina.

Governor Bentley also name dropped the director of Homeland Security, and the FBI, both of which are federal agencies, as in the federal government, as in the federal government he plans to obstruct and defy in order to keep Alabamans safe from them there refugees.  The same federal government that is the largest employer in Sweet Home Alabama.

Governors, 1950s: No black kids in our schools, some might be violent Governors, 2010s: No Syrian kids in our states, some might be violent

— Max Fisher (@Max_Fisher) November 16, 2015

More Alabamians have died from guns, natural disasters, and because they don't have access to quality affordable health care than from Muslims, EYE mean, refugees.  But don't let a little thing like facts get in the way of bigotry in the name of The Lord.  Our Governor kept saying he was at war with his heart and his head, and his head was winning.  As someone who claims to be a Christian doesn't he realize baby Jesus and His parents were refugees?

OH BOOM! pic.twitter.com/g5r0cCnWd0

— philip harris (@pharris830) November 16, 2015

EYE wish the citizens of Alabama had somewhere to run.

Governor Robert Bentley has made it clear: Alabama is open for business, but is closed for compassion. https://t.co/5TihHgU8vP

— AL.com (@aldotcom) November 16, 2015

To make the irony more explicit, Bentley will be joined at the conference with the Japanese by Martin Luther King III. An Alabama Governor is meeting with the Japanese – a population that America once forcibly detained for fear of the color of their skin – and is accompanied by the son of a man who Alabama once detained for fear of the color of his skin. The only thing that could make it more ironic would be if they convened in Huntsville, a city that prospered as the result of Alabama welcoming German scientists in the wake of World War II.

"SO WHY DON'T WE STOP AND FRISK GUYS LIKE THIS EVERY TIME THEY LEAVE THE HOUSE?"

No More Mister Nice Blog: SO WHY DON'T WE STOP AND FRISK GUYS LIKE THIS EVERY TIME THEY LEAVE THE HOUSE? (updated)

When John Russell “Rusty” Houser was evicted from [his] quiet corner house in March 2014, sheriffs said, he trashed the place, dousing it in paint and gasoline and stuffing concrete down its pipes.
When the new home-owners decided to renovate, they had to call the fire department twice in one day after booby-trapped doors burst into flames.
“There was some tampering with the gas line that ran into the fireplaces,” said Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor. Tracie Chancey, who has lived on 32nd Street with her husband and children since 2007, feared that the arson could have been much worse. “It shook us up when we found out what he did to that home.”And even after that he was walking around free and with access to guns. What a country.

 Probably because Homeland In-Security is too busy surveying the Black Lives Matter Movement

As if to echo the FBI surveillance of the civil rights movement and Black liberation organizations in the 1960s, The Intercept has learned through a Freedom of Information Act request that the Department of Homeland Security has been monitoring the Black Lives Matter movement since its formation in the protests of Ferguson.
“The reports confirm social media surveillance of the protest movement and ostensibly related events in the cities of Ferguson, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and New York. They also show the department watching over gatherings that seem benign and even mundane. For example, DHS circulated information on a nationwide series of silent vigils and a DHS-funded agency planned to monitor a funk music parade and a walk to end breast cancer in the nation’s capital,” according to George Joseph in the Intercept report.
Joseph also raises the question as to whether DHS, which was formed largely to combat terrorism, has engaged in mission creep as its budget has exceeded $60 billion. 

Louisiana Shooting Suspect Obtained Gun Legally, Had Extensive Criminal History In Georgia http://t.co/w3J3lNtYlv How is this ok, America?

— Propane Jane (@docrocktex26) July 27, 2015

How indeed.

The fear of blacks with guns was one of the reasons behind the Supreme Court’s notorious decision in the Dred Scott case. Chief Justice Roger Taney’s opinion insisted that blacks could not be citizens because, if they were, they’d have all the protections of the Bill of Rights, including the right to “full liberty of speech... to hold public meetings on political affairs, and to keep and carry arms wherever they went.”
America’s most horrific racist organization, the Ku Klux Klan, began with gun control at the very top of its agenda. Before the Civil War, blacks in the South had never been allowed to possess guns. During the war, however, blacks obtained guns for the first time. Some served as soldiers in black units in the Union Army, which allowed its men, black and white, to take their guns home with them as partial payment of past due wages.

  Fear of the Black Gun Owner, white gun owners not so much. 

This young man better be glad he is not a student enrolled in Huntsville City Schools #SpyGate

.@Keith_Dailey @Kroger  I've been a customer for 27 years. You'd rather have this guy? #GroceriesNotGuns #MomsDemand pic.twitter.com/NeNqggPDbS
— Cornelia (@PaladinCornelia) October 10, 2014

Update~ Throwback Thursday #Ferguson Round Up

How ppl in the media look when you turn down interviews bcz racial justice isn't abt more white talking heads. pic.twitter.com/BfHsjqJ5ei
— Brian Dominick (@BrianDominick) August 28, 2014

The fickle, white, male dominated, mainstream media is bored with #Ferguson and #MikeBrown. They have shut this story down tighter than a drum, and moved on to the next, bright, shiny object.  The Revolution may not be televised, but it will continue to be blogged about on RedEye's Page.

 In order to halt any real conversation, one of the tools often used by right wing media is to cast every issue as an either/or. Media Matters has been doing a pretty good job lately of showing how Fox News edited the remarks of President Obama and AG Eric Holder about the situation in Ferguson by eliminating the balance in their statements. They aired only the side of these remarks that was sure to inflame their audience and eliminated the side conservatives might have agreed with.

I  must say Fox News is doing their part.

 It didn’t take long for people to start rallying to Darren Wilson’s defense.  In less than a week, several hundred thousand dollars had been raised on his behalf — with a healthy smattering of hateful racist messages in support, such as “I would have donated double this amount, but you missed his accomplice” — and Fox News had run a flood of false, unsourced stories, claiming that Wilson’s eye socket had been broken, implicitly “proving” that he had been in a heroic struggle for his life.

Only in America can you kill a black teen and earn 6 figures.

When you shoot and kill an unarmed Black teenager, you can expect the racists of America to crack their piggy banks open and reward you a six-figure sum.
Over the weekend, Darren Wilson’s supporters gathered for a rally, and sadly, they had much to celebrate now that it’s being reported that they’ve managed to best supporters of Michael Brown’s family in online fundraising. Indeed, the page in support of Wilson raised $235,010 from 5,902 people before organizers stopped accepting donations on Friday. They surpassed their goal of $100,000 in just four days. They have since opened another fundraising page, which has already amassed more than $100,000.
Meanwhile, a fundraising page in support of the Michael Brown Memorial Fund raised $214,000. According to Brown family laywer Benjamin Crump, “the funds will assist his family with costs that they will acquire as they seek justice on Michael’s behalf.”
What exactly does Darren Wilson need money for? He’s on paid leave, and wherever he is, I presume it’s on the state’s dime. After all, Darren Wilson was concealed long enough to get out of town before the national media arrived.

An Open Letter to the People of Ferguson, Mo.

 "We have felt your frustration at the uncomfortable realization that your protestors have been unfairly branded as looters, vigilantes, and rioters by segments of the ignorant, sensationalist news media".

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.  It's a good thing it wasn't held 50 years later because protesters would have been greeted (snark) with tanks, guns, snipers with assault rifles, dogs,tear gas, and police masquerading as the military.  It's not like the #Ferguson protestors were protesting against  paying taxes or something.

#nojusticenopeace
#BlackLivesMatter

Only in America

Do this?... no problem. Sell cigarettes on the Street?....Deadly choke hold. pic.twitter.com/imT912hmEL
— esd2000 (@esd2000) July 29, 2014

Eric Garner:  Tall, Dark, and Threatening

Eric Garner may not have been a saint. Pro-law enforcement media, under the guise of fair and balanced reporting, has made a point to note that Garner had a fairly extensive arrest record (not all convictions; there is an important difference). Still, even as he was no stranger to the criminal justice system, Garner had been in custody over 25 times…and somehow managed to live to tell about it before being choked to death. I say this because for those who would want to push the “he was a known perp who resisted arrest” angle, it is much harder to understand why someone familiar with the system would “resist” to that degree unless there was indeed a life-threatening level of discomfort. Generally, telling someone “I can’t breathe” counts as life threatening.

Watch The Difference Between a White Guy and a Black Guy Committing the Same Crime

Guns don't kill people....

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

RedEye's Wednesday Rant

#OutInTheCold Nuts ruling the asylum!!  #gop #obama #teaparty #republicans #goodbyegop #conservatives pic.twitter.com/v3uQSRGug3
— Larry  (@crazylary51) January 7, 2014

What do you want to bet if Rodger Shuler's second amendement rights were being violated instead of his first amendment rights they Righty's would be on this like right, I mean, white on rice?  This is proof that democrats and liberals don't have the same rights as republicans and conservatives in Alabama.

This might be the last thing I write about the Crucifixion of Melissa Harris Perry, ....and it might not be.  First of all,  Melissa Harris Perry is not going to be fired because she apologized for something she didn't say or do, so there is no need to stand with her, OK?    White supremacy wins again.  As blogger Mack Lyons said, it's an adventure in double standards. All I can say is I don't know how she can repair her credibility with me after this.

I thought republicans were pro life and pro guns?

The trouble with black sock puppets is not that they are wrong – sometimes they are right – but that they are arguing in bad faith. ~Abagond

"Your Tax Dollars at Work"

H/T No More Mister Nice Blog

The first screening of this pro-gun propaganda documentary starring Ted Nugent, Wayne LaPierre, and other borderline-psychopathatic talking heads will be tomorrow -- followed by theatrical and DVD releases and, apparently, distribution through PBS:

 What  Victor said...This also shows the extent to which Conservatives have bent PBS and NPR to their will, by threatening to defund them for being excessively Liberal.

 "You know what, schmucks? If you hate government, and think that you guys and not the government should be responsible for protecting citizens from crime, then don't ask the damn government to spend money retransmitting your agitprop. But what do you expect from people who openly declare that they'd be delighted to overthrow the government -- and expect the government to give them the means to do so?"

Today's Must Read(s)
A report says that Alabama is a leading exporter of guns used in crimes in other states at Governor Bentley signs a sweeping gun bill into to law that allows people to carry their guns to work and  3 young people are shot  while attending a  graduation party.

RedEye's Week In Review

Republicans fabricated evidence on Benghazi to win a political battle with the black man in the White House

 Instead of following Rush Limbaugh’s lead and his hatred for that “negro in the White House”, Republicans should try embracing diversity, stop the obstructionism, and get back to work. President Obama is not that “Kenyan, socialist, secret Muslim, dictator” in the White House. He’s our President, elected by a majority of us Americans; one of only 6 presidents to have been elected twice with at least 51% of the popular vote. Its the will of the American people. Its time to accept it and move on. Or, you could continue down your wrong-headed path and be the best fundraisers the Democratic Party ever had. By the time you’re through, the 2014 election will look like 2006.

Over half of U.S. Households Have an Inadequate income but the media enabled, Confederacy of Dunces are focused on umbrellagate, and turning the IRS controversy into a scandal of epic proportions, instead of telling we the public what we need to know instead of what they don't want us to know.

Today's Must Read
In the South, a love a guns and a loss of life, gun violence in black and white

Between 2001 and 2010, 4,519 people were killed by guns here, more than a thousand more losses than U.S. combat troops suffered during the Iraq War. More than 75% of those victims were African-American. Haunted by the losses, members of the Black Caucus try again and again to introduce some measure of gun control legislation.
But their efforts are always thwarted while a far more powerful group of Republicans and white Democrats stokes Louisiana’s love affair with guns.

What I'm working on
With an Alabama Democratic Majority like this who needs an Alabama Republican Majority?

Stay tuned.

field negro: I guess having all these guns does have its advantages.

field negro: I guess having all these guns does have its advantages.

I don't always agree with Philadelphia Daily News columnist Jill Porter---if I remember correctly, she even ripped family court a time or two when I was an administrator there---.

But her article concerning guns, gun violence, and its disturbing and frightening effects on our community was right on point. And she raises some relevant economic issues that I didn't even consider.

Here is what she wrote:

I DON'T KNOW about you, but I'm going to spend my tax-refund incentive check to buy a gun.
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that individuals - and not just members of militias - have the right to bear arms, it's the least we can do.
Really.

I was going to buy a dining-room rug, but that won't boost the economy nearly as much as having more guns in circulation.

Read on.

 I keep hoping A-merry-cans will wake up, but sadly, I know we won't. I mean if someone can execute a schoolhouse full of little Amish children and it doesn't get a rise out of the sick f#$ks at the NRA, I don't know what will. I mean a bunch of n***ers killing each other in the inner cities is fine. We all know those Negroes don't have anything better to do than take drugs and kill each other. But what about those good citizens [*wink wink*] in places like Kentucky and Virginia? Do they deserve to die? I don't know, call me crazy, but I bet if there were less guns there would be less killings.

Read often.

"Do you feel safer with a gun in the house? When you bring a gun into your home, you dramatically increase the risk of someone you love being injured by that gun. Research has shown that with each 1,000 gunshot victims that come to our hospitals, less than two victims are actually using a gun for self-defense at the time.(5) The majority of gunshots are due to suicide, homicide (due to escalated arguments between loved ones), and accidental firings than to self defense. In fact, more guns are fired in the United States in the act of suicide than for any other reason.(6) To put simply: suicides, homicides (due to arguments), and accidental firings would be much less likely if the gun were not in the house in the first place."

~~Physicians For Social Responsibility-Los Angeles~~

How Many More Rounds?

Correction~ Justice and Change for Trayvon Martin

 

Correction/edit to original post contained  in the last paragraph.~RedEye

Today is the one year anniversary of the death of Trayvon Martin.  Instead of celebrating his 18th birthday, getting ready for prom, playing sports, getting ready to graduate from high school and possibly head off to college, he is lying in his grave.  May God grant comfort and mercy to his parents and those who mourn with them. 

Driving in my car this morning, listening to a radio talk program on XM128 The Power , the question was posed,  "What if George Zimmerman is found not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin?"  I didn't get to hear the response, but I thought about it and this is what I say....If George Zimmerman is found not guilty, not to be confused with innocent, we (black folks)  will accept the verdict without throwing rocks, bricks, or setting stuff on fire, because that is what they (white folks) expect black folks to do.  No, black folks will except the verdict with calm, dignified, outrage, out of respect for the memory, and the legacy, of Trayvon Martin.

It's not like we aren't used to injustice.

I do believe a not guilty verdict will send the chilling message to black and brown boys everywhere they are viewed with a deadly combination of  fear and loathing,  sometimes even  by those who are sworn to protect and serve.

 Correction~Trayvon Martin is dead because George Zimmerman was suspicious of him.  Why was he suspicious of Trayvon?  Because of the color of his skin.  If George Zimmerman had just been suspicious of Trayvon... and didn't have a gun..... Trayvon would be alive today.

Post State of the Union Rundown

 

 Fist Dap Daily Kos 

Tweet of the night via JackandJill politics. 

The Daily Edge‏@TheDailyEdge
How did asking whites to pass background checks to buy a gun become more offensive than asking minorities to provide photo ID to vote? #SOTU

 

You can fool some of the people some of the time.....But make no mistake, there is practically nothing in common between Marco Rubio and the people who the Republicans believe will be fooled by their shallow, cosmetic attempt at minority outreach. 

What's that you say?  AL Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III votes to protect modern day slavery?  I'm shocked!  Shocked I tell you!  Not.

 

President Obama declared a progressive mandate for everybody but black folks, I wonder why?

RedEye's Abbreviated Week in Review

 

So  much gun violence, so little time to write about it.....real life duties and obligations are calling.

Para Quoting The Rude Pundit, if you wanted to make a case for mental illness as the primary cause of gun violence all you had to do was watch the Senate Judiciary Committee  hearings on gun violence in the Wild Wild West, I mean, the United States of America on TeeVee.

Today's Must Read
10 Pro Gun Myths Shot Down (pun intended)

Meanwhile in Sweet Home Alabama, the republican state Senator who replaced the Democratic state Senator said he will make protecting the unborn his top legislative priority.  I guess that means children who are born on their own.

If it's February it's  Black History Month!  Have you ever wondered why Black History month is the shortest coldest month of the year?

Yes, February is the shortest month of the year. However, Kwanzaa runs from December 26 to January 1, and no sooner is it over, than we begin to think of Martin Luther King whose birthday is celebrated on the second Monday in January. And right after the King holiday, we begin to prepare for Black History Month. Therefore, the 64 days between December 26 and February 28, are, in reality, Black History Season. Thus, for the bulk of the winter we have the opportunity, and the encouragement, to celebrate and meditate upon what we have accomplished against all odds.

RedEye signing out....for now

"It was the best of times it was the worst of times"

 

Three against Two  at Senate Hearing on gun violence

"My problem with background checks is you're never going to get criminals to go through universal background checks," Wayne LaPierre, CEO and chief lobbyist for the NRA, said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun violence, the first since President Barack Obama laid out new measures to curb gun crime. "None of it makes any sense in the real world."

"Mr. LaPierre, that’s the point. The criminals won’t go to purchase the guns because there’ll be a background check. We’ll stop them from original purchase. You missed that point completely. It’s basic." Senator Dick Durbin (D.IL)

The shooting death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton came up in a U.S. Senate hearing and a White House press briefing Wednesday.

"She was an honor student and a majorette," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois. Performing at inaugural events last week "was the highlight of her young, 15-year-old life," he said.

 “I bet there are people on our side that can’t believe Obama won because everyone they know voted against him,” Graham said. “The point is that we have different perspectives on this.”

"Thank you for inviting me here today. This is an important conversation for our children, for our communities, for Democrats and Republicans. Speaking is difficult, but I need to say something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something. It will be hard but the time is now. You must act. Be bold. Be courageous. Americans are counting on you. Thank you."

 

GRAHAM: Well I hope your right, but I can tell people throughout this land, because of the fiscal state of affairs we have, there will be less [SIC] police officers, not more, over the next decade. Response time are gonna be less, not more. So, Captain Kelly, I really do want to get guns out of the hands of the wrong people. I honest to god believe that if we arbitrarily “say nobody in this country can own a 10-round magazine in the future, the people who own them are the kind of people we’re trying to combat to begin with.” There can be a situation where a mother runs out of bullets because of something we do here.

 “Young women are speaking out as to why AR-15 weapons are their weapons of choice,” said Trotter. “The peace of mind that she has knowing that she has a scary-looking gun gives her more courage when she’s fighting hardened, violent criminals.”

At this moment you have an outraged public against the gun profiteers and the gutless politicians. I believe in the end the people will win.

Today's Must Read

What Gun Owners Really Want

Growing up around guns and owning them as an adult affords a person memories and experiences that strangers to guns may have trouble understanding. The divide is phenomenological, not political (or not political until it gets to be), like the gulf between those who’ve had sex and those who haven’t or those who smoke and those who’ve never lit up. Pulling a trigger and being prepared to do so cuts patterns in the self. Depending on the nature of your social life, which time around guns can shape and color in ways that I’ll describe, you might forget that these patterns are even there, because you’re surrounded by people who share them—until someone or some event challenges you to answer for your thinking.