On Sunday, June 29, 2020, a crazed St. Louis couple quickly became a viral shame-sation for waving guns at protestors outside of their McMansion (in violation of every standard best practice of gun ownership; seriously, if either one of them had actually pulled the trigger, they would have ended up with a black eye and a friendly fire injury). The couple in question, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, are personal injury lawyers, and despite the fact that no one's accusing them of any crime besides being total assholes, they've still hired an attorney to make public statements for them.

And here's what that lawyer, Albert Watkins, had said:

My clients, as melanin-deficient human beings, are completely respectful of the message Black Lives Matter needs to get out, especially to whites … (but) two individuals exhibited such force and violence destroying a century-plus old wrought iron gate, ripping and twisting the wrought iron that was connected to a rock foundation, and then proceeded to charge at and toward and speak threateningly to Mr. and Mrs. McCloskey.

It's true that the McCloskeys live on a private street and claim that their wrought iron fence was destroyed by protestors. I'm not sure what they plan to do about it, or why their lawyer felt the need to include that comment about their melanin deficiency, especially given the other claims he makes in his professional bio:

Self-centered, egotistical, and a self-proclaimed expert in all matters, Watkins is unabashed about bringing to the public eye the irreconcilable nature of a position taken by an adversary in a case.

Read the rest

🤦‍♂️ Read the rest

The University of Cincinnati happily took a $2 million donation from the Marge and Charles J. Schott Foundation to build a stadium and name it Marge Schott Stadium, even though it was aware that Schott repeatedly praised Hitler and admitted to having a swastika armband at home. But suddenly, the university decided it wasn't such a good idea to have a stadium named after her, after all, and said it will rename it.

From ESPN:

Schott's foundation has encouraged discussions about naming rights. "While we cannot make excuses for the rhetoric made by Mrs. Schott decades ago, we can ask you to learn from Mrs. Schott's mistakes as well as her great love for Cincinnati," the foundation said in a statement this month. "We appreciate what these great organizations bring to Cincinnati and we fully support the decisions made by the organizations who have received grants from the Foundation."

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I can’t believe this happened in Bed Stuy wtf pic.twitter.com/H9iGPARd7s

— AIRSTEVEJOBS (@AIRSTEVEJOBS) June 18, 2020

Here's a guy who didn't like seeing a Black Lives Matter sign taped to a coffee shop window, so he refused to wear a face mask or leave the service counter and instead threw a little temper tantrum, shouting "all lives matter!? You can watch the entire 10-minute video here:

Guy loses his shit over BLM sign at a Bed-Stuy coffee shop from r/nyc

A Venn diagram of covidiots and racists makes a perfect circle.

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We strongly stand with Black Lives Matter and applaud our staff for standing up to the blinding hate that has appeared at our door. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident with this person and our priority continues to be the safety and well-being of our staff. We are overwhelmed by the generous support of our staff via our Venmo Tip Jar. The baristas that experienced this hatred will receive the tips directly. Burly will be making a contribution in support of the community we love and are thankful to be a part of. #supportbedstuy #bedfordstuyvesant #bedstuylocal #baristadaily

A post shared by Burly Coffee (@burlycoffeebrooklyn) on Jun 18, 2020 at 1:41pm PDT

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At a Senate Health Committee in Columbus, Ohio on Tuesday, state senator Steve Huffman said:

“My point is I understand African Americans have a higher incidence of chronic conditions and it makes them more susceptible to death from COVID. But why it doesn’t make them more susceptible to just get COVID. Could it just be that African Americans or the colored population do not wash their hands as well as other groups or wear a mask or do not socially distance themselves? That could be the explanation of the higher incidence?”

[via Dayton Daily News] Read the rest

A racist Karen goes ballistic when she sees a woman exercising on some park stairs in Torrance, California. Part of her long tirade: "This is not just for you! Get the fuck out of this state! Go back to whatever Asian country you belong in!"

For those asking how the racist conflict in Torrance started — this video shows the initial incident.

The woman filming the video was working out and the aggressive woman bumped into her. More —> https://t.co/y40o0TOHnI pic.twitter.com/AZmvfUd78h

— Veronica Miracle (@ABC7Veronica) June 11, 2020

From ABC7:

The incident, which was captured on video, happened Wednesday morning in Torrance's Wilson park.

It was reported to city officials and the Torrance mayor said police were investigating and "Conduct like that displayed on the video cannot be tolerated."

The incident began as a woman was filming her workout in the park.

She was exercising on a set of steps at the park when the other woman walked by and apparently bumped her. "Jesus," the exercising woman muttered. That was enough to set off the older woman, who then started on a tirade that lasted for several minutes...

Her friend who tweeted video of the incident wrote: "My friend was threatened in Wilson Park in Torrance, California today while she was working out in a public park by a Karen. She now does not feel safe to exercise in the park because of this. This is infuriating."

Torrance Mayor Patrick Furey said the city is aware of the incident and police are investigating.

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At least two of the three men charged this week with plotting violence at a Las Vegas anti-racism protest participated in “Boogaloo” groups on Facebook, an FBI criminal complaint says. Read the rest

Nick Gillespie of Reason interviewed filmmaker Errol Morris about American Dharma, his new documentary about Steve Bannon. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

When Errol Morris debuted American Dharma, his documentary about Stephen Bannon, last year at the Venice Film Festival, he received an ovation. But after early reviewers accused the Oscar-winning director of letting the former Breitbart.com head and adviser to President Trump "off the hook," Morris found it impossible to get a distribution deal in the United States.

It was the first time in decades that the acclaimed director of The Thin Blue Line and The Fog of War couldn't get a movie into theaters. "The experience was so damn weird," Morris tells Reason. "People became so angry with me and with the movie, they certainly wanted to deplatform not just Bannon, but they wanted to deplatform me."

But now his film, American Dharma, is finally in theaters.

Nick Gillespie sat down with the 71-year-old Morris, whom Roger Ebert called "as great a filmmaker as Hitchcock or Fellini," for a wide-ranging conversation about the censorious first reactions to his new film, his history with Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, and what he learned—and didn't learn—about Steve Bannon's philosophy. He also talks about why he thinks we're in a golden age of documentary filmmaking, his heated grad-school confrontations with philosopher Thomas Kuhn (detailed in his recent book The Ashtray: Or the Man Who Denied Reality), and Wormwood, his 2017 Netflix docudrama series about the CIA's notorious MKUltra mind-control program.

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White nationalist activist Martin Sellner and British YouTuber the Iconoclast are free to rake in those YouTube views—and the money that goes with it.

Infowars' “War Room” created a brand-new hate channel on YouTube exactly one day after chief executive Susan Wojcicki's letter to content creators about reducing extremist content. YouTube deleted Alex Jones's all-new garbage channel shortly after receiving reports of its relaunch from VICE. Read the rest

In Ohio, a racist 20-year-old man was arrested over the weekend for threatening to attack a Jewish community center, in a post on Instagram. Read the rest

The white power hour on Fox will be in other hands for a short while: host Tucker Carlson is headed off on an improptu "vacation" the day after claiming America didn't have a white supremacy problem and that concerns it did were a "hoax".

There is, of course, a long history of Fox hosts heading out on vacation as they become engulfed in controversy for inflammatory comments. -- Laura Ingraham announced she was going on vacation in March 2018 after mocking Parkland survivor and gun control activist David Hogg... -- Sean Hannity went on vacation in May 2017 after losing advertisers for promoting the Seth Rich conspiracy theory... -- Jesse Watters headed out on vacation in April 2017 after making a comment widely criticized as lewd about Ivanka Trump... -- Bill O'Reilly went -- and never returned from -- a vacation in April 2017 after NYT reported he had settled five sexual harassment allegations for millions of dollars...

The backlash is intense even by these standards, what with memories of the latest white supremacist mass shooting as fresh as the corpses. But Carlson has been here before, is indispensible to the movement, and will not likely be going anywhere. Read the rest

The Atlantic unearthed an old tape of Ronald Reagan yukking it up with Richard Nixon about African "monkeys" at the United Nations.

The day after the United Nations voted to recognize the People’s Republic of China, then–California Governor Ronald Reagan phoned President Richard Nixon at the White House and vented his frustration at the delegates who had sided against the United States. “Last night, I tell you, to watch that thing on television as I did,” Reagan said. “Yeah,” Nixon interjected. Reagan forged ahead with his complaint: “To see those, those monkeys from those African countries—damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!” Nixon gave a huge laugh.

P.S. Mickey Mouse is a minstrel caricature. Read the rest

When President Trump said on Sunday that "'Progressive' Democratic Congresswomen" should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came,” was he violating federal workplace discrimination law?

We aren't lawyers and we don't know, but here's something relevant from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission website, “Immigrants' Employment Rights Under Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws” —

Ethnic slurs and other verbal or physical conduct because of nationality are illegal if they are severe or pervasive and create an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment, interfere with work performance, or negatively affect job opportunities. Examples of potentially unlawful conduct include insults, taunting, or ethnic epithets, such as making fun of a person's foreign accent or comments like, "Go back to where you came from, " whether made by supervisors or by co-workers.

HT: @nick_ramsey

One things many minorities hear more than a few times in their lives is, “Go back to where you came from.” I always responded, “What, Los Angeles?”

— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) July 15, 2019

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Never forget: Trump said the Charlottesville racists were 'very fine people.'

Profiles in courage here, folks. Read the rest

None of this is a surprise. And none of it is normal or okay. Read the rest