Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Presidents are not kings, and Plaintiff is not President.

In my day, never was longer.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

Optimism opens the door to great things.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Meanwhile over at truth Social, the former president is busy confessing to crimes.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

T R E 4 5 O N

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Thoughts from Another Country

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  6. 6.

    The Dangerman

    Anyone catch any good explanation for why an announcement had to be made so late in the day? Sure seems like tossing gas on the fire before tossing the match.

  11. 11.

    beltane

    @The Dangerman: Simple darkness. It’s more difficult for the media to get a grasp of what’s going on at night. Same reason many other malefactors prefer to operate at night.

  13. 13.

    Mike in NC

    Another Country: when we took a cruise of the Baltic Sea in May, the 40-odd elderly conservatives in our tour bus group commented favorably on seeing a lack of non-white people in places like Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tallinn and Helsinki. Go figure!

  18. 18.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Like I hinted, the $400,000 in Wilson’s “defense fund” was given as a bounty. In trying economic times, there are white people who’ll open their wallet for uniformed killers of black men.

  19. 19.

    GregB

    Chris Hayes: Heard some gunfire, could have been firecrackers.

    The long shot shows fireworks going off in the background.

  20. 20.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @SatanicPanic:

    Do we really need to start lecturing protesters on how to behave?

    Think of this from the other side: this is how small-town white cops celebrate.

  21. 21.

    skerry

    Here’s Holder’s statement:

    While the grand jury proceeding in St. Louis County has concluded, the Justice Department’s investigation into the shooting of Michael Brown remains ongoing. Though we have shared information with local prosecutors during the course of our investigation, the federal inquiry has been independent of the local one from the start, and remains so now. Even at this mature stage of the investigation, we have avoided prejudging any of the evidence. And although federal civil rights law imposes a high legal bar in these types of cases, we have resisted forming premature conclusions.

    Michael Brown’s death was a tragedy. This incident has sparked a national conversation about the need to ensure confidence between law enforcement and the communities they protect and serve. While constructive efforts are underway in Ferguson and communities nationwide, far more must be done to create enduring trust. The Department will continue to work with law enforcement, civil rights, faith and community leaders across the country to foster effective relationships between law enforcement and the communities they serve and to improve fairness in the criminal justice system overall. In addition, the Department continues to investigate allegations of unconstitutional policing patterns or practices by the Ferguson Police Department.

    Though there will be disagreement with the grand jury’s decision not to indict, this feeling should not lead to violence. Those who decide to participate in demonstrations should remember the wishes of Michael Brown’s parents, who have asked that remembrances of their son be conducted peacefully. It does not honor his memory to engage in violence or looting. In the coming days, it will likewise be important for local law enforcement authorities to respect the rights of demonstrators, and deescalate tensions by avoiding excessive displays—and uses—of force.

  22. 22.

    Morzer

    Charlie Pierce is superb on the prosecutor:

    http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/The_Ferguson_Decision

    Jesus Mary, this Bob McCulloch guy may be the single greasiest public servant I’ve ever encountered. I’ve never seen a DA who was so damned proud of himself for putting a grand jury on automatic pilot. (See, “Ham sandwich, indictment of.”) And I’ve never seen such a perfect mixture of condescension and willful nonfeasance in my many years of watching how law enforcement in this country operates. This, after all, is a guy who once personally wrangled a grand jury to discover the identity of a whistleblower. This is a guy who once lied through his teeth about another police shooting, this one involving a car that allegedly “charged” a couple of officers, much as Michael Brown allegedly “charged” Darren Wilson. The kindest evaluation of McCulloch’s record is that he is a very active prosecutor with a very clear sense of what he can make a grand jury do, if he chooses to do so, which he did not in this case, for reasons that are far from unclear. In the most high-profile case of his career, prosecutor Bob McCulloch insisted he was just a feather in the wind, just gathering evidence so the grand jury could make up its own mind, not directing it at all. And then, Monday night, he hummina-hummina’ed for seven full minutes before announcing the least shocking news of the day. Darren Wilson did not commit a crime by shooting Michael Brown dead in broad daylight in the middle of the street. But Bob McCulloch, public servant, knows what the real problem with this investigation was.

  23. 23.

    JMV Pyro

    This is just fucking terrible. I didn’t feel this bad on Election Night.

    It’s just so rage inducing and their doesn’t seem to be a way around it. Peaceful protest? Gassed and Beaten. Organizing? Get’s stonewalled and doesn’t seem to work. Violent protest like our blog host has suggested? Yeah, good fucking luck with that.

    I feel like we’re moving further and further back into apartheid, if we ever left at all. And I really doubt we did. These people, the Darren Wilsons and George Zimmermans of the world and their supporters are so pathetic, so fearful, so small. And yet they have all the goddamn power, the system bends for them at every opportunity and it sickens me.

  24. 24.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @skerry:

    In addition, the Department continues to investigate allegations of unconstitutional policing patterns or practices by the Ferguson Police Department.

    This is, I think, the most likely avenue for achieving anything positive or useful.

  30. 30.

    lamh36

    BTW, when I tell you that my nephew actually looks a LOT like Mike Brown, so I can’t even really look at the pictures of him and NOT see my nephew, same coloring, same build, even same fat cheeks (I used to squeeze them when he was younger).

    So yeah, excuse me if I’m not as willing as others to joke or be snarky about this whole mess or not emotional.

    I am literally wondering what type of conversations my sister has had with him and hoping that they will be enough and feeling that it never will be.

  31. 31.

    Jake Nelson

    Trying really hard not to connect the horrible racist stuff being said on Twitter to the article I was reading earlier today about the 150th anniversary of Sherman’s March to the Sea.

    I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: the Civil War never ended. It just became a cold war. And for some people, maybe not even that.

  34. 34.

    Heliopause

    May I take this opportunity to tell the several million tweeters who are tweeting some variation of ,”pray for Ferguson” that you are quite obviously supplicating the wrong deity?

  35. 35.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @skerry: Yes, and Ben Crump, the attorney for the parents, was on MSNBC talking about it earlier this evening. A couple of options open to them are a state wrongful death suit or a federal civil rights suit.

  36. 36.

    Morzer

    @Jake Nelson:

    I was reading Doug Muder’s essay on this theme recently. I think he’s got the right take on it:

    http://weeklysift.com/2014/08/11/not-a-tea-party-a-confederate-party/

    By the time it was all over, the planter aristocrats were back in control, and the three constitutional amendments that supposedly had codified the U.S.A’s victory over the C.S.A.– the 13th, 14th, and 15th — had been effectively nullified in every Confederate state. The Civil Rights Acts had been gutted by the Supreme Court, and were all but forgotten by the time similar proposals resurfaced in the 1960s. Blacks were once again forced into hard labor for subsistence wages, denied the right to vote, and denied the equal protection of the laws. Tens of thousands of them were still physically shackled and subject to being whipped, a story historian Douglas Blackmon told in his Pulitzer-winning Slavery By Another Name.

    So Lincoln and Grant may have had their mission-accomplished moment, but ultimately the Confederates won. The real Civil War — the one that stretched from 1861 to 1877 — was the first war the United States lost.

  37. 37.

    Punchy

    Now I see a Little Ceasars on fire. Perhaps that’ll improve the taste of their za. Ferguson aint gunna have a town by daybreak if this keeps up. Good lord.

  39. 39.

    beth

    Why are all the police congregating around the peaceful protestors? They’ve got local police and the National Guard and yet Chris Hayes says there was no police near the businesses that were set on fire and looted. It’s like they let the worst do their worst to make a point.

  41. 41.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Jesus. I wish I believed Bob McCullough understands the responsibility he bears for what is going on tonight.

  42. 42.

    Morzer

    @beth:

    I am wondering how many police houses will have a new TV and VCR tonight. Judging by the way the prosecutor did things, there’s a non-trivial chance that the murderers of Michael Brown are the ones doing the looting.

  45. 45.

    beltane

    @beth: Standard operating procedure around the world to quell and/pr discredit political protests. Wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the looters were incentivized by the police to wreak havoc.

  47. 47.

    Jake Nelson

    It’s morbidly fascinating, actually, how consistently it’s mostly the same two sides having the exact same conflicts from the English Civil War to today. Probably before that, too, but that’s one of the moments when they really gelled into distinct named groups.

    Which leads inevitably to thinking about what happens in a democracy when there are no persuadable voters, so victory or defeat is solely dependent on how many of one side or the other is present in a region… the Kansas-Nebraska Act all over again.

  48. 48.

    Patrick

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Jesus. I wish I believed Bob McCullough understands the responsibility he bears for what is going on tonight.

    Not only him. Governor Nixon is also responsible. He refused to appoint a special prosecutor. Instead we got a prosecutor with very close ties to the police. If the media is going to start with their usual criticism of the protestors, they also need to blame the prosecutor and the governor.

  49. 49.

    beltane

    @Morzer: Maybe that’s what all the Oath Keepers called to Ferguson are doing. At this point we have to assume the absolute worst with the local law enforcement.

  50. 50.

    Violet

    Since the title of this thread is “Thoughts from another country,” Nellie from NZ commented in a previous thread:

    This is being covered live here in New Zealand. The death, by police, of a 12 year old yesterday was front page news. I’m being asked if it is safe to travel to the US. Kiwis travel internationally more than most any other people, but few go to the States any more.

  53. 53.

    Punchy

    Whats with all the fuckin looting? Sympathy for Ferguson residents draining exponentially as I see all the damn criminal opportunists going nuts. Beginning to understand all the guns sales there recently….probably all sold to small business owners protecting their shit.

  55. 55.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Patrick: Yeah, Nixon’s refusal to take this out of McCulloch’s hands is inexcusable, an act of pure political cowardice, and simply stupid, at the point he made the decision, to pretend that this was just one more case to be conducted through the usual channels. It was clearly a case to be treated much greater consideration.

    Here’s a link to the grand jury testimony and evidence. I wouldn’t know where to start with it

  56. 56.

    Patrick

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Yeah, Nixon’s refusal to take this out of McCulloch’s hands is inexcusable, an act of pure political cowardice, and simply stupid, at the point he made the decision, to pretend that this was just one more case to be conducted through the usual channels. It was clearly a case to be treated much greater consideration.

    I doubt it will happen. But it will be interesting to see if the media at all will criticize the governor and the prosecutor. I’m trying to remember a case/situation in recent time where both the governor and a prosecutor were so obvious in their attempt of protecting the white folks/status quo in such a public case. Sure, in the 1960’s. But in 2014?

  57. 57.

    Joel

    God, I hope Wikileaks/Anonymous is working this case. And I hope the AG’s office is as stupid/careless as they appear to be.

  58. 58.

    PhoenixRising

    LAPD doesn’t often execute their suspects anymore. All it took to change the culture of a corrupt dept was Rodney King getting brain damaged in a beat-down and 50-some people dead in the resulting riots and a DOJ consent decree and multiple lawsuits for damages on behalf of officers and citizens. So, you know, good will come of this. In mere decades.

  59. 59.

    SatanicPanic

    @Morzer: well yeah, the Republicans basically abandoned the fight after Grant because there was little to no support for it. But I wouldn’t say they won. Whites in the South didn’t suffer as much as they needed to (which is LOT) and they never again had the power to enact their white supremacist agenda that they had before the Civil War. Not that they had NO power, just a lot less. Shit, before the war they could foist the Fugitive Slave Act on the rest of the nation. After the war all they could do was whine so much that everyone left them alone, like they’re trying to do now. Fucking sad losers.

  62. 62.

    Morzer

    @SatanicPanic:

    they never again had the power to enact their white supremacist agenda that they had before the Civil War

    Give them time and enough vote suppressing measures plus stand your ground.

  66. 66.

    Elie

    @Violet:

    Well what TF! They’re WHITE aren’t they? They can travel anywhere anytime in the US. If any Kiwis are black, which I doubt — as I say, it you are black, “stay back”, as my family used to say with bitter irony.

    Kiwis are perfectly safe in the home of the brave and land of the “free”– if they are white. Of course, Americans who happen to be black, and especially MALE are not ok and are likely to wake up dead if they blink in the direction of our local occupation forces. (I wonder if the Isrealis are teaching American occupation forces or vice versa?)

  69. 69.

    Face

    Wouldnt be surprised if the gunfire is from store owners warding off these bands of thieves. Ridiculous. “Protesting” now means “roll up at a store and grab as much stolen shit as possible”.

  71. 71.

    SatanicPanic

    @Morzer: No way. This kind of thing bugs me about the left- we are much better than we were and we (meaning us on the left) should be proud that the people who preceded us made that happen. The South had the power to compel people by law in free states to return fugitive slaves. There’s no way we ever go back to anything approaching that. We’re rightly getting upset about Michael Brown, but during the 20s black men were being summarily executed daily. There were lynching parties. People made postcards. Let’s give America some credit for getting a bit better.

    ETA- obviously we have a long way to go, but I just think it does a disservice to not give credit to people who made things better to not admit that things are a little better. YMMV.

  72. 72.

    skerry

    @beltane: My daughter is in the NYC march. That’s why I’m still awake. She’s texting me regularly to let me know she’s ok. They shut down Times Sq and are now on the move.

  73. 73.

    scav

    Yeah Punch, what is all this whining about justice and endemic dubious governments and policing and death and incitement when there’s property being harmed!? Horrors!

  75. 75.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @beth:

    Why are all the police congregating around the peaceful protestors?

    It’s almost as if their “mission” is to intimidate the majority who aren’t inclined to violence and let the minority who are do their thing.

  77. 77.

    Punchy

    @lamh36: So you think stealing from innocent people is a reasonable and measured protest technique? Is setting said stores on fire acceptable, too? My disgust for looting is a sign of racism? WTF? I’d hate to see how violent this has to get before you give a shit about the people who actually have businesses in that town.

  80. 80.

    Cain

    @lamh36: I have a friend of mine who is black, and I can’t imagine what conversation he’s having with his wife about this. I would have had a great convo wtih him over thanksgiving but couldn’t make it. (I will reveal later, it involves the fucking indian govt)

    But what really kills me is the two kids they have and try to imagine Matthew, his son running into some trouble. Ugh. So, your comment about your nephew hits a note.

  81. 81.

    SatanicPanic

    @beltane: Yes. And sadly I think the South is all over the place now. Like Orange County, the mountain west, the regular parts of the South, and parts of the Rust Belt all need some lessons on behavior.

  82. 82.

    Mandalay

    @The Dangerman:

    Anyone catch any good explanation for why an announcement had to be made so late in the day? Sure seems like tossing gas on the fire before tossing the match.

    You answered your own question. If you are actually WANTING violence and rioting to ensue, 8 p.m. is probably the optimal time to choose; Much earlier and it’s still daylight, and people are at work. Much later and everyone has gone home.

    And McCulloch’s comments were the kindling. They knew exactly what they were doing.

  85. 85.

    Elie

    @SatanicPanic:

    I do,I do give us credit.

    But I pray daily that we won’t have to travel that darkest of all dark places again. My heart just breaks witnessing this… why oh why.. my people — why are we burning things. AND to make it more complex, are these events actually initiated by black people or are there other provacateurs wanting to excacerbate what is already pain beyond measure to make their point about “these people”.

    We spent so many many years climbing out of the hole of racism and hate… I can’t bear to have this swirl down this toilet of sadness and anguish. We elected the first black President of this country and the pain of experiencing this during his tenure — it is just past heartbreaking.

    Yes, we know all the reasons — the demographics and social factors. And in no way do I throw up my hands in defeat… but tonight I am hurting and I have to remind myself of what strength and determination has gone before. Of the many true patriots and heroes who have given their lives for the long view and larger vision of “this experiment”. I stick by that… I have a dream…. STILL!

  87. 87.

    skerry

    @beltane: I’m proud of her for what she is doing, but as her mother, I’m scared at the same time. I am just waiting to hear that she gets home ok. She is a NYU student and a bunch of them are out tonight.

  88. 88.

    Thoroughly Pizzled

    @SatanicPanic: Had the Confederacy won, they would have proceeded to build a slave empire, starting with Cuba and proceeding to the rest of the Caribbean. Millions upon millions more lives destroyed. As nauseatingly bad as things are and have been, it really could have been so much worse.

  89. 89.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Face: No, but the fact that you seem to presume that all (or even many of) the protestors are looting says something about you.

  92. 92.

    Cain

    @Punchy: I know where you are coming from. It does more harm than good, because all the press is going to focus on now is those goddam looters. Just like during what Hurricane Sandy? Remember that? Did anybody talk about plight of people who had to leave or the lives lost? Nope, it was all focused on the looters.

    Honestly folks, we’re all in solidarity behind the fucked up verdict and accusing people of being racist, especially those who have consistently been for equality is kind of fucked up.. emotions are riding high, and turning on each other because you see something that fits a certain profile that you see from right wing agitators is not good.

  93. 93.

    Punchy

    @lamh36: Thanks for the reasonable discourse. Nobody else sees the irony of (some) protestors “protesting” a non-prosecuted crime by committing crimes. Enjoy your evening.

  94. 94.

    lamh36

    Notice that cable media are constantly on Ferugson, and yet NONE are actually reporting on the large number of protest that erupted after the decision was televised.

    But naw…more focus on burning cars and “looters” who are ACTUALLY a small insignificant group compared to peaceful protest.

    Oh and BTW, CNN hasn’t been showing ANY of the “burning” and in fact have made it a point to say that the MAJORITY of the people ARE NOT looting or stealing or vandalizing.

    Just enough to get people like the two idiots above to believe that the whole lot of people are stealing and rioting.

    So again I say FUCK YOU to ALL of you.

    If you don’t like it I don’t fuckin’ care.

  95. 95.

    SatanicPanic

    @Elie: I typed that comment and then thought- I don’t know why I just jumped on my soapbox right there. People are rightly upset today, I’ll stop lecturing. For some reason I feel like I have to leap to optimism. Optimism is my refuge on days like this.

  96. 96.

    scav

    @Face: It’s your relative ranking of the value of innocent lives and innocent property that casts a rather, shall we say, interesting light on your shared moral universe and beings.

  97. 97.

    beltane

    @Thoroughly Pizzled: The Confederates also had racist views regarding non-Southern whites which presaged that other genocidal entity that came 80 years later. Not all Southern white people are evil, but the culture that sprang them certainly is.

  98. 98.

    Cain

    @lamh36:
    But naw…more focus on burning cars and “looters” who are ACTUALLY a small insignificant group compared to peaceful protest.

    It won’t matter.. it can be just one guy, and 10 million protestors.. it just takes one or two guys. It’s how they operate. They are assholes.

  99. 99.

    Jake Nelson

    @scav: The constant cries about property and businesses amidst this from certain people really is something, isn’t it? Then saw this:

    Jill Hyson ‏@Jewelgurl 4m4 minutes ago
    @matthewstoller This is not a protest!!! This is angry youth being terrorists of their community. No Productivity in their actions.

    “productivity”

    these people.

  100. 100.

    Face

    @Omnes Omnibus: JFC…just where did I say that all (or even many) of the crowd was looting? How the hell do I know what percent is looting? I merely commented that my TV is showing dozens of people looting a Dollar General and O’Reillys. Have no idea how that comment became a racist statement; its just restating what Im seeing. And it sucks for those businesses.

  102. 102.

    mclaren

    So now you people believe me when I say police are muggers with badges, home invaders with a license to rape, rob and kill with impunity.

    I’ve been saying it for five years plus now. And finally, after all this time, the reality finally begins to dawn on you.

    WAKE THE FUCK UP!

    You’re living in undeclared martial law in a garrison state where the occupying military force views you as the enemy. That’s what 9/11 did to us. You’re now Jews in 1942 France. All 300 million Americans, all you are regarded as Jews by the Gestapo who wear badges and drive prowl cars. Get used to it.

  104. 104.

    Elie

    @Punchy:

    There are at least a couple of hundred FBI agents there… I imagine some are not “who they appear”. Maybe

    Are you sure that some of your brethren wont be found to have their hands on accelerants and matches? Some of your peeps are malevolent fucks who would think nothing of “fanning” or making flames to suit their purposes.

    You are an irritant — but a helpful reminder of what we are up against. — you make us stronger. Occasionally you make us laugh..

  105. 105.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Face:

    just where did I say that all (or even many) of the crowd was looting?

    “’Protesting’ now means ‘roll up at a store and grab as much stolen shit as possible.’” Your exact words.

  107. 107.

    CarolDuhart2 (Aquariusmoon)

    @Punchy: Punchy, an old tactic from the sixties: Import some criminals to reinforce the racist memes. Notice the peaceful protests around the nation tonight.

  110. 110.

    lamh36

    @Cain: I just reading alot of these comments and what I’m hearing is some the of same shit that came out of folks mouths during the boycotts that lead to people being hosed and set upon by dogs.

    the whole, “see we were on your side, but the 10 people out of 500 who are being stupid, just makes me want to…”

    Just cause it’s coming form people “allegedly” just as “outraged” or “on our side” doesn’t make it any more tolerable.

  111. 111.

    SatanicPanic

    I didn’t find out today that the legal system doesn’t care if I get shot in cold blood, so I’m going to restrain myself from wagging my finger at people who did. I don’t know, if that had happened to me I might lose my shit too.

    ETA- I might be in the minority that loses my shit. I don’t know and I don’t wish it on anyone to have to find out.

  119. 119.

    Liquid

    @Comrade Luke: Yeah that one guy is right “Who shoots at the Fire Department?!”
    Watching Al-Jazeera, one guy with “PRESS” vest with a burning building behind him. And McDonalds is burning which is just goddamn high-larious.

  121. 121.

    lamh36

    @James E Powell: someone on twitter asked the same question. they can call out the national guard, but they can’t do anything about the fire.

    But now I’m seeing that at least 3 fires are reported. Again though, no lone knows who set those fires, but of course to some it must be the Ferguson protestors.

    My theory, I know that I saw some people there from “Anonymous” wearing Guy Fawkes mask and there was also reports of possible KKK folks being on the ground. I can totally see either of those two groups started fires and shit.

  122. 122.

    Morzer

    @lamh36:

    If those people are on our side, I think I prefer the overt enemies of freedom, justice and humanity. Not by much, but they have just a smidgeon more honesty to their moral depravity.

  123. 123.

    Face

    @Omnes Omnibus: This shit wasnt happening last nite. Wont be happening tomorrow nite. Clearly some assholes took advantage of these protests (and subsequent dearth of sufficient police presence) to instead loot a bunch of stores. White or Black perps, I dont give a shit. Sucks that they used tonite’s event to rook some goods. Is that better? Did I use all the appropriate qualifiers?

  124. 124.

    beltane

    @lamh36: Funny how this never applies to white people. The teabaggers can show up at a rally brandishing guns, threatening “2nd amendment remedies”, and waving the most outrageously racist posters one can imagine, and yet we are never permitted to claim that these animals are representative of white conservatives, let alone the white population as a whole.

  126. 126.

    lamh36

    @jfreewright 29s30 seconds ago
    Cynical journalism disguised as genuine concern is one of the greatest corrupting forces in America right now. #FergusonDecision

  128. 128.

    lamh36

    @beltane: of course not, cause a bunch of Black folk are a “group/mob” and White folks are “individuals” just “congregating” in the same spot

  132. 132.

    AxelFoley

    @lamh36: Ain’t this some shit? Just like with Zimmerman, you start some shit with a black kid, accost HIM, and then when he tries to defend himself/get free, you kill him yet YOU feared for your life?

    Fuck that shit. And fuck ANYONE to hell for defending it.

  134. 134.

    Mandalay

    @Face:

    just restating what Im seeing

    No, you’re not. You posted:

    Wouldnt be surprised if the gunfire is from store owners warding off these bands of thieves.

    You invented a scenario that suited your agenda. Don’t pretend that you are “just restating” what you’re seeing.

  139. 139.

    Morzer

    @Mandalay:

    The tell with Face is the typically conservative attempt to adopt a “heroic” name along with the bigoted views and cult of property. In this case, the borrowed name is from the A-Team. Frightened white men with small endowments need their guns and their new identities.

  142. 142.

    lamh36

    see here’s the thing…some ask why did McCullough et al wait until nightfall to announce the decision.

    Easy, allowing tensions to rise, anger to simmer and despair and chaos to marinate like a powder keg, wait for a time when darn near everyone ISN’T at work or school, then announce the decision, THEY ALREADY FUCKING KNEW was coming (are some of us willing now to admit that Nixon et al, while they may NOT have known the outcome…cough…bullshit…cough)…then BOOM ignite the fuse and watch as the bomb goes off.

    Now you have visual conformation to show to media and like-minded parties just waiting with baited breath for a reason to say “well see there, we knew THOSE people would turn violent”…so that they can then say bullshit as usual

    As you can see from two such commenters, it works.

    I always find it interesting when people say don’t react with vengence when someone literally has a boot at your throat. I guess it’s better to just swat at said boot or try to talk the boot wearing out of stomping your neck. Sometimes your first reaction is to fight…

  147. 147.

    Face

    @Mandalay: Whats my agenda? Is it unusual to beleive that store owners may be protecting their life’s investment? Didnt think that was so implausable (or racist), but alas.

    Next question: are the names of grand jury members subject to a FOIA request? Or do they remain sealed by the judge? If the latter, is there a statute of limitations on such a move?

  148. 148.

    Morzer

    @SatanicPanic:

    FWIW, I hate fights, because when I got into one, I just didn’t even notice I was being hit. I just got as mad as hell and started swinging. Haven’t got into a fight since high school, but I’d rather not discover what I could do to someone else now that I am 6’5″ and all growed up.

  149. 149.

    pseudonymous in nc

    There’s an old, old theme to Wilson’s testimony, which is that of the Negro Brute: Michael Brown looked like a demon to him, he feared that a punch from Brown would kill him, therefore he had to unload 12 rounds, and the grand jury understood that fear and let him walk away with half a million dollars plus whatever he’ll get from now on in wingnut welfare.

    In addition, I would like Steve from Pantswettioch to go fuck himself. Also, go fuck yourself, Steve from Whitioch.

  151. 151.

    SatanicPanic

    @Omnes Omnibus: Joe from Lowell over at LGM suggested that putting so much info in front of the grand jury was a bad faith tactic to overwhelm them so that they couldn’t figure out what actually happened. IANAL but I thought that was an interesting take.

  152. 152.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @pseudonymous in nc: @SatanicPanic: Ten shots from a distance should be enough to establish probable cause. Everything else is material for a trial.

    ETA: Putting everything in front of a grand jury can be a legitimate if uncommon tactic, but after McCulloch’s performance tonight, I have to go with bad faith.

  153. 153.

    Morzer

    @SatanicPanic:

    I wonder what the possibilities are for demanding a new grand jury on the grounds that the prosecutor threw the game. I have to say that the more I have seen of this case, the more it looks to me as if McCulloch wasn’t exactly giving it 100% in good faith.

  154. 154.

    JordanRules

    @pseudonymous in nc: Yes indeedy, the theme is there in all it’s glory…proud and unapologetic even, damnet. Added bonus of media enablers and hangers on in this here thread too.

    Oh and shout out to Nascar for being such a great white sport this year. Thug life, yall know the rules……
    SMDH

  158. 158.

    Violet

    @lamh36: Yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me if there were “outside agitators” like the anarchists and even KKK starting the fires, looting and so forth. That would work to the benefit of those in charge to justify bringing in the National Guard and for any subsequent crackdown. And the media would be happy too–get a story.

  159. 159.

    Seeya

    Gawker (and a few other places) are showing screenshots of the GJ testimony that is being released in pieces. In one screenshot, Darren Wilson testifies that Michael Brown had his hands up when he shot him – just like the witnesses said (the witnesses that McCulloch blasted and Wilson supporters have been trying to discredit). Funny how that didn’t leak out.

  160. 160.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: It does take a 3/4 majority in MO. I don’t actually know off the top of my head if a vote count can be sought or if it is private.

  161. 161.

    Cain

    @Violet: Without a doubt, there are anarchists.. those fuckers show up for all of these kind of protests because they are anti-establishment, so they go out and fucking do whatever they want.

    I saw these assholes do some similar shit in Portland, OR. Guess what, the protestors were all high school students agitating for more funding for their schools.. that didn’t stop these assholes from breaking windows and what not.

  163. 163.

    SatanicPanic

    @Morzer: I am physically kind of chicken, so I’d probably run away as fast as I could if I were in Ferguson and police showed up. But I can’t say I’ve ever walked in these peoples’ shoes so who knows.

  164. 164.

    Anne Laurie

    @peach flavored shampoo:

    Does a grand jury require unanimity to reach an indictment verdict or is it simply majority vote? IANAL.

    Nor am I, but earlier media reports were that 9 out of 12 jurors were required to indict.

  165. 165.

    wasabi gasp

    I’m a little preoccupied at the moment, so I’m gonna skip right to eating shit and dying in a fire.

  166. 166.

    Steeplejack

    @JMV Pyro:

    This is just fucking terrible. I didn’t feel this bad on Election Night.

    Exactly. And thank you for nailing this.

    Okay, back to soothing YouTube music.

  167. 167.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Morzer: Jeopardy did not attach so I don’t know why, for example, a special prosecutor could not be appointed. Especially if some new evidence is found.

  170. 170.

    Jake Nelson

    @Morzer: At this point it’s hoping the DOJ investigation goes somewhere.

    Sadly, text can’t convey the tone I want to say that in, but I think you can guess.

  171. 171.

    peach flavored shampoo

    @Anne Laurie: Thanks. A lot of this grand jury stuff I’ve never known before. Are GJ participants ordinary citizens, or specialized legal-related people? If theyre just regular people, how do we know the prosecutor did a horrible job, as opposed to simply getting a bad draw of citizens inclined to, so to say, protect a fellow tribesman? Can the DA weed out potential jurors like they do in an actual criminal trial?

  172. 172.

    Seeya

    @lamh36:

    I know I’m not the person you’re asking but it sounds to me this prosecutor did the barest minimum possible and didn’t really want an indictment returned. I’m currently reading through the GJ testimony and this is a case that screams for a trial.

  175. 175.

    lamh36

    @Anne Laurie: Ugh, I’m trying not to be cynical, I really am but I believe that grand jury was made up of 9 White jurors and 3 Black (or non-white) jurors.

    Now in my most optimistic line, I’d like to imagine an even split not to indict, but add to it my distrust for the whole process from the prosecutor on down, and the fact that apparently in all the “evidence” they released to media and court stuff, they NEVER once mention jury breakdown.

    Now maybe it’s the case of too much thought, but if all you need is 9 to indict, wouldn’t it be just as easy to find 9 people who you have an idea may lean more to a non-indictment?

    but nope, that’s just my cynicism

  179. 179.

    RaflW

    @JMV Pyro:

    These people, the Darren Wilsons and George Zimmermans of the world and their supporters are so pathetic, so fearful, so small. And yet they have all the goddamn power, the system bends for them at every opportunity and it sickens me.

    The system was built by them, by the small and fearful, 400 years ago. The entire construction of a racial narrative – that black people are inferior and it’s white man’s burden to enslave them as they are teh stoopid (or morally depraved, or both, pick your evil story) – it was a massive con job foisted on everyone, the black as well as the indentured and impoverished white, to perpetuate an economic system for the elite.

    And guess what. The elite still want all the marbles, and will use people like McCullough to keep running this system as long as damn well possible.

    I still, decades later, am amazed South Africa didn’t self-immolate when the old white order finally had to collapse. But they’d always been a country of majority blacks. We’re a long way from Whitey giving up his self-created due.

  180. 180.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: It is an instruction on two affirmative defenses that were raised by statements in Wilson’s testimony. It is rather tortuously phrased, but it may be an accurate statement of MO law (I am not licensed there so I want to be careful). However, 10 shots at a distance at an unarmed person doesn’t strike me as self defense or lawful force in making and arrest.

  182. 182.

    lamh36

    Wow. So let Darren Wilson tell it, Mike Brown was the fuckin’ Incredible “hulk” literally, the bastard compared Mike Brown to the Hulk.

    @AdamSerwer 5m5 minutes ago
    Wilson testified that Brown “was almost bulking up to run through the shots, like it was making him mad that I’m shooting at him.”

    Also Wilson testified that Mike Brown face “looked like a demon” and he called the neighborhood “hostile territory”…yeah, so no bias on his point…

  183. 183.

    beltane

    @peach flavored shampoo: Grand jurors are drawn from the same pool as trial jurors. It is almost unheard of for a prosecutor to fail to get an indictment from a grand jury. The prosecution has total discretion over what evidence is presented and how it is presented and the outcome of this is virtually assured. In this case, the scale is heavily weighted towards the malevolence, not the incompetence, of the prosecution. It takes real effort to avoid an indictment.

  184. 184.

    Morzer

    @lamh36:

    So Darren Wilson is acquainted with demons. Must have been some interesting nights in the ol’ Wilson homestead, what with guest appearances by Satan and his minions of darkness and all.

  185. 185.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    How am I supposed to know who is setting cars and buildings on fire and looting businesses and firing weapons in the midnight darkness?

    It would have been really easy to identify perpetrators at, say, 10 O’clock in the fucking morning, after a 9am announcement.

    How would anyone not assume the worst on the part of St. Louis county officials after everything we already know?

  186. 186.

    Jake Nelson

    Frustrating too, though obviously nothing compared to what other people have to deal with, so I usually stay quiet about it, is being lumped in with racists as “white”. Just because we’re both pale doesn’t mean I’m with them in any way. Wish there were an easy “I’m not with them” visual aid. My ancestors didn’t even get here until after the Civil War, and the one ancestor’s brother who did (got here about 6 months before the fighting started) joined the Union army immediately, and wrote back home for money for the war effort, saying “They buy and sell men. I will send them to the Devil they worship.”

    Like I said, nothing compared to what other people have to deal with because of their skin color, but it still bugs me.

  187. 187.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @lamh36:

    So let Darren Wilson tell it, Mike Brown was the fuckin’ Incredible “hulk” literally, the bastard compared Mike Brown to the Hulk.

    The myth of the All-Powerful Rage Negro runs strong with pants-pissing white killer-cops like Darren Wilson. It’s a myth with hundreds of years of bullshit behind it. That 12-year-old kid in Cleveland was more of a threat than a nuclear submarine, because black male.

  190. 190.

    lamh36

    @Morzer:

    yep an apparently, he testified that he looked like a Demon as “he comes back towards me again with his hands up.” #FergusonDecision

    Notice the “hands up” bit

  192. 192.

    Mandalay

    @lamh36: Your link to Wilson’s testimony to the grand jury is interesting to say the least. Lots to wade through, but I thought this was very revealing: at the very end of his testimony Wilson gratuitously raised the issue of him chasing Brown:

    [Wilson:] One thing you guys haven’t asked that has been asked of me in other interviews is, was he a threat, was Michael Brown a threat when he was running away. People asked why you would chase him if he was running away now.

    I had already called for assistance. If someone arrives and sees him running, another officer [sic] and goes around the back half of the apartment complexes and tries to stop him, what would stop him from doing what he just did to me to him, or worse, knowing that he had already done it to one cop. And that was, he still posed a threat , not only to me, to anybody else that confronted him…

    [{name redacted}:] Along those lines, you feel like as a police officer it is your obligation to follow that suspect?

    [Wilson:] Yes, sir.

    [Ms. Alizadeh:] All right. If that’s it then.

    (End of testimony….)

    That’s fucking it??? Brown had been shot multiple times by Wilson, and was fleeing from Wilson, so Wilson makes Brown appear to be a threat to the community who had to be stopped at all costs, and the Grand Jury had no fucking questions on that??? Jesus Christ.

  193. 193.

    Morzer

    @lamh36:

    Darren Wilson was the real victim. I mean, what with Michael Brown’s ability to inflict a light sunburn using his laser eyes and all….

  194. 194.

    lamh36

    Grand juror: “Did you ever think OK, maybe he don’t have a gun, I need to stop shooting?”
    A: “I wasn’t thinking about that at the time.”

  195. 195.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @beltane:

    : Grand jurors are drawn from the same pool as trial jurors. It is almost unheard of for a prosecutor to fail to get an indictment from a grand jury.

    I saw a NYT op-ed from the chief judge of New York state from back in 1990 arguing that grand juries ought to be abolished in the state because they were beholden to the prosecutor for their legal guidance.

    Grand juries are some medieval bullshit. They were inherited from England, and England got rid of them in the 1930s because England wanted to get past a criminal justice system built for the middle ages.

  198. 198.

    Mnemosyne

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    I’m assuming the only reason Wilson didn’t try to claim that Brown was on PCP was because the drug screen had already come back. That’s always been in the top 10 hit parade for cops who want to get away with murder.

  199. 199.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: @Omnes Omnibus: Jury instructions in a trial come out of a process in which each side offers proposed instructions and the lawyers and judge sit down in a conference and work out something that is more or less satisfactory to all. It can be a huge pain but it can really make a difference. In the case of a grand jury, the instructions are those that the prosecution wants to present. If they are poorly worded or confusing it is all on the prosecutor.

  200. 200.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @lamh36:

    Notice the “hands up” bit

    But because Demon Demon Demon, “hands up” don’t mean “unload the rest of my clip into him”.

  202. 202.

    beltane

    @pseudonymous in nc: The concept of a grand jury was a marked improvement over what had previously existed but then almost anything would have been an improvement. We’ve come a long way since they were introduced by Henry II in the 12th century.

  203. 203.

    beltane

    @Morzer: Anyone inclined to piss his pants like that should not be allowed to carry a weapon of any sort. What a sniveling little coward he is.

  204. 204.

    Morzer

    @beltane:

    Did you hear about the woman who was waving her handgun around in the car, proclaiming she was ready for Ferguson? She freaked her boyfriend out, he swerved, rear-ended another vehicle – and she shot herself in the head and was pronounced dead at the hospital.

    Sometimes evolution really does work fast.

  206. 206.

    Mandalay

    @beltane:

    We’ve come a long way since they were introduced by Henry II in the 12th century.

    Reasonable people may beg to differ on that. The game was rigged back then, and based on what has happened in Ferguson the game is still rigged.

    I’m not seeing much progress unless the DOJ can somehow overturn this cartload of shit.

  207. 207.

    Mnemosyne

    @Morzer:

    Apparently the police are more than a little suspicious of the boyfriend’s story, and I can’t really blame them — how many times have white murderers claimed it was really the fault of a black guy? This just seems like a less focused version of that same old Charles Stuart/Susan Smith story. It wasn’t me, it was all of those protesters in Ferguson!

  208. 208.

    mclaren

    @Liquid:

    No — America, Weimar ca. 1930.

    Wait around a few years, buckaroo. Then you’ll start seeing the crematoria working overtime.

  211. 211.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Completely OT: I was about to go to bed but now the damn plow just showed up to do my parking lot. Loud as fuck at 12:30am. Great.

  213. 213.

    lamh36

    Ok, I’ve cried enough. I’ve got to go to try to go to sleep so I am rested enough to go to my majority white workplace and be able to smile in their faces and greet them without suspicious intent, even though my heart is breaking and I’m angry as hell (and I overheard some of them saying some things amongst themselves, when they think no one is listening, so I have a pretty good idea of where there ‘allegiance” lies).

    Sadly, this is not the first time I have had to shield my emotions and I suspect it won’t be the last.

    Good night. BJ

    ETA: Just wanted to leave ya’ll with this pic of the mother of Mike Brown being carried away from Ferguson PD after sobbing in reaction to Wilson not being indicted.

    https://twitter.com/Yamiche/status/537130424355811328

  215. 215.

    trollhattan

    O/T but this good thing happened today.

    Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday nominated a deputy assistant attorney general in the Obama administration to the California Supreme Court, continuing to recast the high court with Democratic appointees from outside the judiciary.

    Leondra Kruger, 38, will be the first African American justice on the court since Justice Janice Rogers Brown left in 2005.

    Kruger, who will replace retired Justice Joyce Kennard, is Brown’s third selection to the court of his third term. His two previous selections, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar and Goodwin Liu, were both law professors.

    If confirmed, Kruger would join Cuéllar and Liu as the three Democrats on a court that still leans Republican – though increasingly less so under Brown.

    The court is also becoming younger and more diverse: Kruger will be the youngest member of the court, while Cuéllar, who was born in Mexico, and Liu, the son of Taiwanese immigrants, are both in their 40s.

    http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article4123447.html#storylink=cpy

    Luckily, not everywhere is Missouri. Or Florida.

  218. 218.

    Omnes Omnibus

    Every defense attorney who practices in St. Louis County should be committing to memory McCulloch’s talk about how eyewitness testimony is iffy and not to be trusted.

  221. 221.

    mclaren

    Pointing out that “sensitive personal information” can now be easily mined from online sources and social media, they call for policies on “Personally Identifiable Information (PII) to determine the [Defense] Department’s ability to make use of information from social media in domestic contingencies”—in other words, to determine under what conditions the Pentagon can use private information on American citizens obtained via data-mining of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and so on.

    Their study argues that DoD can leverage “large-scale data collection”…through “monitoring of individuals and populations using sensors, wearable devices, and IoT [the ‘Internet of Things’]” which together “will provide detection and predictive analytics.” The Pentagon can build capacity for this “in partnership with large private sector providers, where the most innovative solutions are currently developing.”

    Source: “How the Pentagon’s Skynet Would Automate War,” Motherboard website, 24 November 2014.

    Still think you’re not living in Weimar America?

    Still believe you’re not in an incipient totalitarian system readying its gulags for dissenters?

    If there’s anything I’ve learned in my lifetime, it’s that the atrocities the prisons subect prison inmates to today and the brutalities police get away with against demonized minorities in the street this week, courts and people from alphabet agencies with big guns and big shiny badges will do white middle-class people tomorrow unless everyone starts protesting to the point where stadiums have to be filled with arrestees because the jails are full.

  224. 224.

    trollhattan

    Oh lord, not again.

    A 3-year-old Lake Stevens boy was in serious condition Monday at Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center after he was shot in the mouth by a 4-year-old neighbor Friday. His parents had argued previously about the safety of guns in the home, court records show….

    According to court records, the boy’s mother filed a petition for a protection order against the father in January 2013, but it was dismissed a few weeks later by a judge due to insufficient evidence of domestic violence. The father filed for divorce soon after his wife sought the order, but the divorce case was dismissed in October due to inactivity, court records show.

    The mother said a week before she filed her petition that she heard her son, then 1, open the drawer to a bedside table where the father kept his Ruger handgun overnight, and she asked her husband where the gun was, the records say. He yelled back it was on the fireplace mantle, but the mother found the gun on top of the nightstand, the records show.

    In his response, the father wrote that he is a responsible gun owner and keeps most of his firearms in a locked closet with its own security system, according to the court records. He wrote that he has legally carried a gun for 20 years but has never pulled it on anyone. He also wrote that he has a clean criminal record and has undergone rigorous background checks each time he has renewed his concealed-carry permit, according to the records.

    “I am an avid collector, and my hobby is no more dangerous than if I were to collect stamps,” the father wrote — a claim his wife later said was “ridiculous” in another court document.

    She also accused him of leaving a loaded gun in the car with their then-1-year-old son and the boy’s half-sister. But the father replied that his daughter, then 13, had spent her life around guns and had completed a required safety course, the records say. He claimed his wife kept a .380-caliber handgun in her purse or the glove box of her car, while she wrote that she kept it on a high shelf in her closet, the records show.

    http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2025094334_childshotfollowxml.html

    If you’ll excuse me, I have some stamps to burn.

  225. 225.

    cckids

    This just makes me ill. The comments just about everywhere are so sickening. I’ll retreat to quoting Langston Hughes:

    “That Justice is a blind goddess
    Is a thing to which we black are wise.
    Her bandage hides two festering sores
    That once perhaps were eyes.”

    HT to a commentor from Pierce’s site.

  226. 226.

    Morzer

    @mclaren:

    Still believe you’re not in an incipient totalitarian system readying its gulags for dissenters?

    I liked you better when you were a Romanov in Portland.

  228. 228.

    mclaren

    @DTGstl314:

    And the saddest part is that both the attorney and the governor are Democrats. Purportedly.

    Since when did racism become a matter of party affiliation?

    Wake up, buckaroo, the deep South used to be solidly democratic and prior to the 1964 Civil Rights Act, massively institutionally racist.

  229. 229.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @mclaren: Yes, and after 1964, a whole shitload of the racist Democrats ran into the welcoming arms of the GOP. Some awareness of actual history might come in handy.

  230. 230.

    Morzer

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It’s interesting to see our local crazy defaulting to both sides do it plus concentration camps. Clearly the Brooks-Goldberg tapeworm has been moving through trollbrain.

  236. 236.

    Morzer

    Interesting piece here on how the rght wing gets funding for a new segregation:

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/11/rslc-redistricting-fortune-500-political-resegregation

    A major driving force behind this political resegregation is the Republican State Leadership Committee, a deep-pocketed yet under-the-radar group that calls itself the “lead Republican redistricting organization.” The RSLC is funded largely by Fortune 500 corporations, including Reynolds American, Las Vegas Sands, Walmart, Devon Energy, Citigroup, AT&T, Pfizer, Altria Group, Honeywell International, Hewlett-Packard. Other heavyweight donors not on the Fortune 500 list include Koch Industries, Blue Cross Blue Shield, and the US Chamber of Commerce. At the same time these big-name firms underwrite the RSLC’s efforts to dilute the power of black voters, many of them preach the values of diversity and inclusion on their websites and in corporate reports.

    As part of its Redistricting Majority Project—which, tellingly, is nicknamed REDMAP—the RSLC, starting in 2010, poured tens of millions of dollars into legislative races around the country to elect new GOP majorities. Next it provided money and expertise to state officials redrawing political boundary lines to favor the Republican Party—and to shrink the clout of blacks, Hispanics, and other traditionally Democratic voters. Unlike its Democratic equivalent, the RSLC has vast sums at its disposal, spending $30 million during the 2010 elections, $40 million in 2012, and $22 million in 2014.

    Hopefully we can get this front-paged, because it’s something we should know about.

  237. 237.

    trollhattan

    @? Martin: @Morzer:
    Kruger is new to me but I certainly recall the Republicans sliming Liu at his nomination to the 9th District. Here’s to better days ahead for both.

  238. 238.

    ? Martin

    I just checked and this is officially Obama’s 25th Katrina. He can pick up his free toaster oven next week.

  239. 239.

    CarolDuhart2 (Aquariusmoon)

    @DTGstl314: Leftover DLCers who hope that by pandering to the white racists they could actually get Republicans to vote for them.

  240. 240.

    Morzer

    @? Martin:

    A good piece by Ezra Klein:

    http://www.vox.com/2014/8/18/6031197/obama-ferguson-race-speech

    If Obama’s speeches often aren’t as dramatic as they used to be, this is why: the White House believes a presidential speech on a politically charged topic is as likely to make things worse as to make things better. It is as likely to infuriate conservatives as it is to inspire liberals. And in a country riven by political and racial polarization, widening those divides can take hard problems and make them impossible problems.
    …
    President Obama might still decide to give a major speech about events in Ferguson. But it probably won’t be the speech many of his supporters want. When Obama gave the first Race Speech he was a unifying figure trying to win the Democratic nomination. Today he’s a divisive figure who needs to govern the whole country. For Obama, the cost of becoming president was sacrificing the unique gift that made him president.

  241. 241.

    ? Martin

    @Morzer: I don’t think Obama should do much in this situation. St Louis and the State of Missouri created these conditions and they can clean up their own fucking mess while it remains at this level. Announcing the result at 8PM? What did they expect? Nobody riots at 8AM.

    But I was here during the LA riots. Pretty similar situation leading into it, and this is nothing compared to that. This is an annoyance, not much worse than the aftermath of a big college football game. Let Missouri choke on it for a while. The public is trying to get a message across and the state needs to hear it. Let’s not have the feds get in the way of that learning opportunity.

    By comparison, here’s what the Vice President said after the LA riots:

    “I believe the lawless social anarchy which we saw is directly related to the breakdown of family structure, personal responsibility and social order in too many areas of our society.”

    Yeah, that helps.

  242. 242.

    Morzer

    @? Martin:

    Well, I agree with you, but you should have seen John Cole going off on Obama earlier. He managed to compare him to Bill Cosby, which takes some doing. Then there was the whole violence sometimes works thing.

  243. 243.

    Morzer

    Another piece of depressing news:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/25/michael-brown-witness_n_6216366.html?1416894100

    One of the witnesses to the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown admitted to holding racist views about African-Americans in a journal entry written on the same day of the shooting, according to documents released by St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch’s office Monday.

    On Aug. 9, the day Brown was shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, the witness wrote in his or her journal: “Well I’m gonna take my random drive to Florissant. Need to understand the Black race better so I stop calling Blacks Niggers and Start calling them People.”
    …..
    In a subsequent entry that same day following the shooting, the same witness wrote in his or her journal about seeing the shooting incident: “The cop got out left hand on face Right hand on gun. The Cop Screamed but I could not understand. Everyone was Screaming … The big kid turned around had his arms out with attitude. The cop just stood there dang if that kid didn’t start running right at the cop like a foot ball player Head down. I heard 3 bangs but the big kid wouldn’t Stop … Cop took a couple steps forward then backwards and the gun went off 2 more times. The last one on the top of the kids head. OMG the blood.”

  244. 244.

    Nellie in NZ

    Seen on Tumblr:
    “Atticus–” said Jem bleakly.
    He turned in the doorway. “What, son?”
    “How could they do it, how could they?”
    “I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before
    and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and
    when they do it — seems that only children weep.”
    — To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

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