Black Folks and Uber/Lyft/Flywheel

Massive discrimination by Uber et al drivers.

Black people can’t get Uber drivers to pick them up, and women have drivers who want to pick them up too much

A new study published Monday by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology finds that racial and gender discrimination are rampant among Uber, Lyft, and Flywheel drivers.

 The study, which studied the behavior of UberX, Lyft, and Flywheel drivers in Seattle and Boston, appeared on the National Bureau of Economic Research’s website. It involved nearly 1,500 rides across both cities.

It found that male customers with names that sounded African-American were more than twice as likely to have their rides canceled by the drivers than their white counterparts (11.2 percent to 4.5 percent), while women with African-American names were nearly twice as likely to experience that outcome than white women (8.4 percent to 5.4 percent). In areas with low population densities, the cancellation rate for African Americans skyrocketed to 15.7 percent —three times that of white males.

Similarly, black customers in Seattle could expect to wait an average of 8 percent longer than white customers in terms of overall time. Women in Boston were driven an average of 6 percent further than men. Both women and African-Americans in general had to face slightly longer and often more expensive rides as a result of drivers either choosing longer routes or simply taking more time during the ride itself.

Many of the female students in Boston also reported that drivers tended to take up more time forcing conversation with them, with the researcher observing that the motive “appears to be a combination of profiteering and flirting to a captive audience.” Even though the routes were pre-planned to not exceed a mile or two (and thus limit the study’s cost), male drivers frequently took female drivers on much longer rides, with one participant recalling a driver going through the same intersection three time during a single trip.

“It seems to be a few bad actors,” explained Stephen M. Zoepf, the executive director for the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford and one of the study’s authors. “A few drivers were taking routes that were five-times as long as they should be.”

While the especially creepy behavior seems to be limited to a handful of drivers, though, the overall pattern of sexist and racist discrimination is quite prevalent. It is clear that Uber, Lyft, and Flywheel need to find ways of guaranteeing that their companies don’t become yet one more haven for white male privilege.

 

Autistic 15 Year OLd Black KId Assaulted by White Man – Police Refuse to Prosecute

Like a kid in track shots and a High School labelled T is a threat…

This one is utter bullshit by the Syracuse Police.

Autistic black teen got lost running a 5K — and was assaulted by a man who feared getting mugged

For more than two years, Clarise Coleman faithfully attended every track practice and every cross-country meet for her son, Chase.

Part of it was being a supportive parent, proud that Chase had finally found “his sport.” Coleman loved the camaraderie that the cross-country team gave her 15-year-old freshman, even if it meant frequently road-tripping from their home in Syracuse for meets all around New York state.

But as the mother of a nearly nonverbal autistic child, Coleman also knew that she needed to be there for Chase in case he needed help. She often scouted out racecourses ahead of time, noting where the lanky teenager might get lost or confused, as he often did.

A few weeks ago, her worst fears came true when Chase — who was running in a meet in Rochester, N.Y., with his team from Corcoran High School — was assaulted by a stranger in the middle of a race.

Coleman had been waiting for him near the reservoir in Cobb’s Hill Park, at a part of the course where runners would come down a hill — but Chase never appeared. So as she often would do at meets, she went looking for him.

“I started walking that direction, and I’m screaming his name out: ‘Keep going, Chase!’” Coleman told The Washington Post. “And a young lady came up to me and said, ‘Are you looking for one of your runners?’ … She said, ‘Some man just assaulted him.’ ”

Coleman ran in the direction the woman pointed and soon saw her son walking toward her, accompanied by a bicyclist who had assisted him.

“I asked, ‘Is Chase okay?’ ” Coleman said, adding that one often needs to speak to Chase in the third person. “I check his body. I’m checking his face. I pulled his shirt. ‘Show Mommy where Chase hurts.’ ”

Chase put his hand on his back. “Back,” he said. 

When Coleman was told what witnesses saw, her fears deepened.

The female witness, identified in a police report as Collin Thompson, told police that she had seen Chase running in the middle of the road. Thompson then witnessed an older white male get out of his car, according to a police incident report. Thompson said the man approached Chase and pushed him to the ground, after which he yelled, “Get out of here.”

The other witness, Kris Van Metter, told Syracuse.com that he had just finished a bicycle ride when he saw the same scene.

“I see a grown man, who is quite tall and fairly heavy … exit the vehicle and give this young man a shove that puts him back 10 feet and flat on his butt,” Van Metter told the news site. “Like, just shoved him across the road. The kid didn’t seem to be doing anything but standing there, obviously had nothing in his hands and weighed all of 130 pounds. This guy was easily twice that.”

Neither Thompson nor Van Metter could be reached Sunday.

They had, however, caught the man’s license plate number and police used it to track down a 57-year-old man named Martin MacDonald at his home in Pittsford, a suburb of Rochester, the incident report said.

When a deputy visited MacDonald’s home, he admitted he had pushed Chase to the ground, the report said.

“When [the deputy] asked him why he did that, he replied that he thought Chase was going to mug his wife and take her purse,” the incident report said. “MacDonald’s wife was sitting in the front passenger seat at the time of the [incident]. When [the deputy] asked him why he thought that, MacDonald told him that some youths had broke into his car recently and that crossed his mind. MacDonald went on to say that Chase wasn’t responding to him telling him to move out of the road.”

Coleman said the Rochester police relayed MacDonald’s explanation to her — noting that it had been black youths who had allegedly broken into MacDonald’s car — and she was aghast that this could be used to justify an attack on Chase.

“I said, impossible. That’s a lie. Chase don’t even know how to defend himself. What? He can barely ride a bike,” Coleman said. “[Chase] was in a uniform. He had a number pinned to him. How did you think that he was out trolling to steal your car? … You can’t tell me that it wasn’t because my son wasn’t black. There were Asian kids, there were Caucasian kids. But you picked the black kid to say, ‘That crossed my mind’?” …Read the Rest Here…

 

NAACP Sues North Carolina

Hmmmmmmm….At Last! North Carolina has been arbitrarily cancelling voter registrations. You can guess in one of whose registrations are being cancelled.

North Carolina NAACP Sues State Over Voter Suppression

Thousands of voter registrations have been canceled with barely a week to go to Election Day.

The North Carolina NAACP has filed a federal lawsuit to stop county election boards in the state from canceling voter registrations ― in what the group argues is an effort by the state Republican Party to suppress the black vote.

Thousands of voter registrations have already been canceled by election boards in Beaufort, Moore and Cumberland counties because a mailing to the voters’ addresses was returned as undeliverable.

“The Tar Heel state is ground zero in the intentional surgical efforts by Republicans — or extremists who have hijacked the Republican Party — to suppress the vote of voters,” said Rev. William Barber, the North Carolina NAACP president, on Monday. “The NAACP is defending the rights of all North Carolinians to participate in this election.”

The NAACP is also seeking to have the canceled registrations restored.

Many of the voters still live at the addresses listed on their voter registrations or have moved to other residences within the same county, meaning they can still vote in that county, according to the NAACP lawsuit. The complaint argues that canceling those registrations was a violation of the National Voting Registration Act.

Under the NVRA, states may cancel registrations only if a voter provides written notice of a change in address or if a voter does not respond to a notice for two election cycles and fails to vote for two federal election cycles. The act also bars states from removing voters from the rolls 90 days or less before a federal election.

“Voter fraud is not the issue. But voter suppression is real, it’s planned, it’s intentional, and it’s ongoing against the African-American community,” Barber said Monday.

African-Americans have been disproportionately affected by the cancellations. Black voters account for 91 of the 138 canceled registrations (or over 65 percent) in Beaufort County, according to the North Carolina NAACP, even though black people are only 25.9 percent of that county’s population.

At least 3,951 registrations were canceled in Cumberland County, and around 400 were canceled in Moore County.  …Read the Rest Here…

 

How Facebook Violates Civil Rights Act

Biiig, very expensive lawsuit coming…

Facebook Makes It Easy for Advertisers to Be Racist

Imagine if, during the Jim Crow era, a newspaper offered advertisers the option of placing ads only in copies that went to white readers.

(The writers probably aren’t that up on their history…But that is exactly what they did do.)

That’s basically what Facebook is doing nowadays.

The ubiquitous social network not only allows advertisers to target users by their interests or background, it also gives advertisers the ability to exclude specific groups it calls “Ethnic Affinities.” Ads that exclude people based on race, gender and other sensitive factors are prohibited by federal law in housing and employment.

Here is a screenshot of a housing ad that we purchased from Facebook’s self-service advertising portal:

ProPublica

The ad we purchased was targeted to Facebook members who were house hunting and excluded anyone with an “affinity” for African-American, Asian-American or Hispanic people. (Here’s the ad itself.)

When we showed Facebook’s racial exclusion options to a prominent civil rights lawyer John Relman, he gasped and said, “This is horrifying. This is massively illegal. This is about as blatant a violation of the federal Fair Housing Act as one can find.”

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 makes it illegal “to make, print, or publish, or cause to be made, printed, or published any notice, statement, or advertisement, with respect to the sale or rental of a dwelling that indicates any preference, limitation, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.” Violators can face tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 also prohibits the “printing or publication of notices or advertisements indicating prohibited preference, limitation, specification or discrimination” in employment recruitment.

Facebook’s business model is based on allowing advertisers to target specific groups 2014 or, apparently to exclude specific groups 2014 using huge reams of personal data the company has collected about its users. Facebook’s microtargeting is particularly helpful for advertisers looking to reach niche audiences, such as swing-state voters concerned about climate change. ProPublica recently offered a tool allowing users to see how Facebook is categorizing them. We found nearly 50,000 unique categories in which Facebook places its users.

Facebook says its policies prohibit advertisers from using the targeting options for discrimination, harassment, disparagement or predatory advertising practices.

“We take a strong stand against advertisers misusing our platform: Our policies prohibit using our targeting options to discriminate, and they require compliance with the law,” said Steve Satterfield, privacy and public policy manager at Facebook. “We take prompt enforcement action when we determine that ads violate our policies.”

Satterfield said it’s important for advertisers to have the ability to both include and exclude groups as they test how their marketing performs. For instance, he said, an advertiser “might run one campaign in English that excludes the Hispanic affinity group to see how well the campaign performs against running that ad campaign in Spanish. This is a common practice in the industry.”

He said Facebook began offering the “Ethnic Affinity” categories within the past two years as part of a “multicultural advertising” effort.

Satterfield added that the “Ethnic Affinity” is not the same as race 2014 which Facebook does not ask its members about. Facebook assigns members an “Ethnic Affinity” based on pages and posts they have liked or engaged with on Facebook.

When we asked why “Ethnic Affinity” was included in the “Demographics” category of its ad-targeting tool if it’s not a representation of demographics, Facebook responded that it plans to move “Ethnic Affinity” to another section.

Facebook declined to answer questions about why our housing ad excluding minority groups was approved 15 minutes after we placed the order.

By comparison, consider the advertising controls that the New York Times has put in place to prevent discriminatory housing ads. After the newspaper was successfully sued under the Fair Housing Act in 1989, it agreed to review ads for potentially discriminatory content before accepting them for publication.

Steph Jespersen, the Times’ director of advertising acceptability, said that the company’s staff runs automated programs to make sure that ads that contain discriminatory phrases such as “whites only” and “no kids” are rejected.

The Times’ automated program also highlights ads that contain potentially discriminatory code words such as “near churches” or “close to a country club.” Humans then review those ads before they can be approved.

Jespersen said the Times also rejects housing ads that contain photographs of too many white people. The people in the ads must represent the diversity of the population of New York, and if they don’t, he says he will call up the advertiser and ask them to submit an ad with a more diverse lineup of models.

But, Jespersen said, these days most advertisers know not to submit discriminatory ads: “I haven’t seen an ad with 2018whites only’ for a long time.”

 

FBI James Comey In Vilation Of the Law on Hillary Email Announcement

FBI Director James Comey’s blockbuster release on the “Hillary emails” has crossed a legal line. The first being that the FBI isn’t investigating Hillary for any wrongdoing in this round (They are investigating Anthony Wiener, who apparently used his wife’s notebook when she worked for Hillary at State)… The second being releasing the information, while not making that clear during the last few days of the election.

The 1939 Hatch Act prohibits Federal Employees, cabinet members, and DC Officials from engaging in politics, or anything which may impact an election – which is why the half dozen or so prosecutions of Donald Trump for everything from child rape to fraud are on hold until after the election.

Both Republicans and Democrats are pissed about this one.

Comey needs to be fired…Like yesterday.

Former Bush Ethics Head Files Complaint Against Comey, Alleging Potential Violations Of Hatch Act

In a terse Op-Ed published in today’s New York Times, Richard Painter, the chief White House Ethics Lawyer in the Bush Administration from 2005-2007, explains why he filed a Complaint yesterday against FBI Director James Comey with the FBI’s Office Of Special Counsel, which investigates possible ethical violations within the Bureau. In particular, Painter explains why Comey’s inexplicable actions this week may warrant prosecution for abuse of power under the Hatch Act.

I have spent much of my career working on government ethics and lawyers’ ethics, including two and a half years as the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, and I never thought that the F.B.I. could be dragged into a political circus surrounding one of its investigations. Until this week.

Painter, a former George W. Bush, Marco Rubio and John Kasich supporter, explains that had the Bureau made a similar public disclosure in its connection with the ongoing investigation ties between a certain presidential candidate and hacking of Americans’ emails by the Russian government, it would have equally constituted a breach of longstanding policy and an abuse of power. Specifically, the Hatch Act bars the use by a government official of his position to influence an election. Notably, whether one has an “intent” to do so is irrelevant:

The rules are violated if it is obvious that the official’s actions could influence the election, there is no other good reason for taking those actions, and the official is acting under pressure from persons who obviously do want to influence the election.

Painter recounts the known history in establishing the basis for his Complaint:

On Friday, the director of the F.B.I., James B. Comey, sent to members of Congress a letter updating them on developments in the agency’s investigation of Mrs. Clinton’s emails, an investigation which supposedly was closed months ago. This letter, which was quickly posted on the internet, made highly unusual public statements about an F.B.I. investigation concerning a candidate in the election. The letter was sent in violation of a longstanding Justice Department policy of not discussing specifics about pending investigations with others, including members of Congress. According to some news reports on Saturday, the letter was sent before the F.B.I. had even obtained the search warrant that it needed to look at the newly discovered emails. And it was sent days before the election, at a time when many Americans are already voting.

Violations of the Hatch Act and of government ethics rules on misuse of official positions are not permissible in any circumstances, including in the case of an executive branch official acting under pressure from politically motivated members of Congress. Such violations are of even greater concern when the agency is the F.B.I.

Painter takes pains to explain that this is not a joke:

The FBI’s job is to investigate, not to influence the outcome of an election

Painter comments that absent highly extraordinary circumstances, Comey’s conduct does rise to the level of a Hatch Act violation and also may violate a prosecutor’s obligations under the Rules of Professional Conduct. He emphasizes that neither Comey’s actions, whatever their motivation, nor Painter’s action in filing such a Complaint, are something to be taken taken lightly:

This is is no trivial matter. We cannot allow F.B.I. or Justice Department officials to unnecessarily publicize pending investigations concerning candidates of either party while an election is underway. That is an abuse of power. Allowing such a precedent to stand will invite more, and even worse, abuses of power in the future.

 

Indian Brown Paper Bag Test. Colorism in India

If you ever watch any of the Bollywood productions, the thing you will almost never see is a dark skinned Indian. Intra-racism in India is alive and well, and South Indians, who tend to be darker skinned are shunned.

I’m Indian, I’m Dark, And I Don’t Care

I love being an Indian, truly I do. With the country’s powerful history, one of a kind culture and to-die-for food, how could one simply not?

But behind India’s beautiful face, there is a growing disease that our society continually fails to recognize: colorism.

Colorism is a term coined by author Alice Walker, and is defined as a discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone among people of the same racial and/or ethnic group. Also know as internalized racism.

Growing up, I’ve always had dark skin. I, personally, didn’t see anything wrong with it and ― heck, to be honest ― if you ask anyone I knew back then, it was no secret (with my plaid cargo shorts, above ear length hair and buckteeth) that I gave absolutely ZERO flips about how I looked. And to be quite honest, why should I have? I had great friends, saw the glass half full, and went to bed at 9:30 every night. There was nothing in life that could stop me!

LOL and then middle school happened.

As I got older, I really began to start noticing the things people said about my dark complexion. I remember times when the lights would be turned off in a room and people would say “Where’s Aswathi?” or  “Aswathi, smile so we can see you!” Or the times relatives that I hadn’t seen in years would greet me with “Oh my goodness, you’ve gotten so dark!” and then suggest skin bleaching products or face masks for me to use. Yeah, you read that right. Skin bleaching ― it’s actually a thing.

I distinctly remember one specific summer night when, after a church basketball practice, some of us girls had gone out to eat. While enjoying our snow cones, a few girls began looking at their arms and began to complain about how their skin had gotten darker over the summer.  I can clearly recall one girl saying to another, “Just be thankful you don’t look like Aswathi,” followed by another girl saying, “Yeah, no offense, but I’m so happy I don’t look like you.” Everyone laughed, but my blood boiled and my eyes burned. Never have I had to bite my tongue so hard. I couldn’t believe that someone had actually told me they were happy because they didn’t look like me. Those eight words have, to this day, hurt me in unexplainable ways.

That night when I got home, I ran upstairs, closed my door, sat on the ground, and cried. I cried like I had never cried before. Hours and hours had passed and there were still tears running down my face. I didn’t want to live. The words and comments those girls had said to me made me hurt in ways I never knew I could hurt before. The things those girls said to me changed the way I saw myself forever.

None of it was truly mean-spirited. The girls at my church are very kind people. But as Indians, ever since we were young, we are embedded with this false idea and mentality that “to be fair is to be pretty and to be dark is not.” Indian media only further adds onto this fallacy by whitewashing (literally) celebrities and actors, along with advertisements that promote the usage of skin lightening creams and products.

But as a young girl, these comments had really brought me down. All those stupid things people had said hurt me and the adverse effects they had on me while I grew up made me see the world, and myself, in a twisted way that I would never wish for someone else.

spent far too many summers inside and out of the sunlight. There were summers where I didn’t go swimming at all. I constantly tried out many face masks and skin bleaching products. I thought something was wrong with me. I edited pictures of myself to make me look lighter just so I could be pretty. I hated taking pictures at night and avoided wearing bright colors at all costs. There was time when it got so bad that I hated even looking in the mirror or would start crying while getting ready for school. I would even try to physically scratch the dark from my face. Yeah, it was pretty bad.

But then sophomore year came, and I joined the debate club and wrote a speech (with the help of an awesome coach) about colorism and what I went through, and it made me realize a lot of things. It made me realize that I didn’t need to bleach my skin or hide from the sun anymore. It made me realize that I could wear my favorite color, yellow, and still feel awesome. It made me realize that after years of hating myself, I truly was beautiful just the way God had made me.

That silly speech I had wrote made me change my outlook on so much. I joined groups with people who went through similar experiences as me and shared insightful conversation with people all over the world. One guy even offered me a photoshoot! Through debate tournaments, I met other Indian girls who would hug me after rounds, because they knew exactly what I had gone through. (A little side note: that silly speech and I ended up qualifying for state-level ― and even national-level ― competition.)

My experiences have helped me grow as a person and taught me that the only thing I had to change about myself was nothing.

To anyone who has been shamed for having a dark complexion, what I have to say to you is this:

There is nothing wrong with you. Don’t let others words make you ever think that there is. You don’t have to be fair to be pretty. You are absolutely beautiful just the way you are. …Read the Rest Here…

 

60 percent would rather stay single for the next four years than wind up with a Trump supporter

Nearly 40% would rather date a convicted felon than a Trumpazoid.

37 percent of Americans would rather date a convicted felon than a Trump supporter

There’s an endless cast of characters we could potentially link up with romantically, but there are certain people we don’t dare mingle with. Many Americans have recently carved out a new bottom line, and it has to do with Donald Trump.

According to a survey conducted by the online dating app Sapio, voting for Trump is becoming a bigger turn-off than most other dealbreakers out there. Out of the 2,000 people surveyed, over half said they’d rather date someone who couldn’t read than someone planning to vote for this year’s GOP candidate. Sixty-two percent would rather stick with someone still living with their parents, and another 60 percent would rather stay single for the next four years than wind up with a Trump supporter.

Turns out people prefer smokers and ex-pornstars over Trump stumpers as well.

Of the women surveyed, almost half would date someone old enough to be their dad over a Trump supporter. Men, on the other hand, weren’t so flexible with this one. Less than 30 percent of guys surveyed would date someone their mom’s age in place of dating a girl gunning for Trump.

While millennials would date almost anyone in place of a Trump supporter, there are some particularities this cohort is not willing to settle for. Turns out Trump supporters are still a better sell than those plagued with a contagious skin disease or convicted sex offenders. Incest also is still not cool. Eighty percent of survey participants said they’d rather date a Trump supporter than their cousin. That seems fair enough.

But before you give Americans a pat on the back for bringing an element of political responsibility into our dating lives, remember, we’re still a pretty shallow bunch. More than half of those surveyed said they’d rather date a Trump supporter than someone they find unattractive.

Of course, dating a Trump supporter wouldn’t be so bad for the 20 percent of individuals surveyed who are planning to vote for him.

 

Cops Wife Blames Black Lives Matter for Faked Robbery

Yeah…The black guy did it!

Police: Cop’s Wife Faked Robbery and Blamed Black Lives Matter

Police in Millbury, Massachusetts say the wife of a police officer faked a robbery and vandalized her own home before blaming the whole thing on the Black Lives Matter movement. The woman, identified by police as Maria Daly, reported the robbery on Oct. 17, but investigators later determined her account of events was false, police said Friday. “Something wasn’t quite right,” said Millbury Police Chief Donald Desorcy. “Basically we came to the conclusion that it was all fabricated,” he told CBS News. “There was no intruder, there was no burglary.” Shortly after she filed the report, Daly turned to social media, posting a photo that showed “BLM” spraypainted on the side of the house, an apparent reference to Black Lives Matter. “We woke up to not only our house being robbed while we were sleeping, but to see this hatred for no reason,” she said. Daly’s husband, Officer Daniel Daly, was found to have played no role in the incident, police said. Maria Daly now faces charges of filing a false report and misleading investigators.

 

 

Rapper Concert Cancelled for… “Unforeseen Incarceration”

“I’m sorry, but the concert has been cancelled due to unforseen incarceration. However, your tickets will be honored at a make-up concert as soon as we can schedule it.”

“Great! When can  I expect that to be?”

“10-20 years…”

In yet another case of Trump white boy justice being different for “some” folks…the black rapper got a 3 times longer sentence than a white child rapist.

Rapper’s concert performance cancelled due to ‘unforeseen incarceration’

Publicists for a festival in Louisiana say rapper Kevin Gates has cancelled his performance due to “an unforeseen incarceration.”

The Baton Rouge singer was sentenced Wednesday to 180 days in jail after being convicted of kicking a female fan at a Florida concert last year.

Organizers of the 2016 Voodoo Fest said in a tweet that the artist scratched his performance “due to an unforeseen incarceration.”

News outlets report a Polk County jury found Gates guilty of battery after he was captured on cellphone video kicking 19-year-old Miranda Dixon at Lakeland’s Rumors Nightclub, where he performed last August.

Dixon, who was in the crowd, testified that she tugged on Gates’ pants twice to get his attention for her friend. After the second time, she says Gates kicked her so hard that she fell back and passed out.

Gates’ attorney, Jose Baez, argued his client was battered by the woman before he kicked her and that Dixon has a financial motive in the case, saying that she had a civil lawyer.

The New Orleans Advocate reports Gates was slated to perform on Voodoo’s Pepsi Stage at 8:45 p.m. on Friday. No word yet on who, if anyone, will replace him. He has presumably also scrapped his post-fest show at the House of Blues, which was slated for later Friday night.

 

Clarence Thomas – Strange Day In the News

Well…It must be a conservative thing. If old conservative white guys can grope women, why not old conservative black guys. Not sure I understand the motivations behind this one coming out.

Woman accuses Clarence Thomas of groping her at a dinner party in 1999

A woman is accusing Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas of having groped her in 1999.

According to a report published Thursday by the National Law Journal/Law.com, Moira Smith, 41, alleged that Thomas repeatedly squeezed her butt during a dinner nearly 20 years ago.

Smith, vice president and general counsel at Enstar Natural Gas Co. in Alaska, was a Truman Foundation scholar helping Louis Blair, who directed the foundation at the time, prepare for a dinner at Blair’s home in Falls Church, Virginia, with Thomas and David Adkins as the featured guests. Thomas was to present Adkins, then a Kansas state lawmaker as well as a former Truman scholar, an award at the Supreme Court the following day.

Smith posted details about the encounter on Facebook the night a 2005 “Access Hollywood” video emerged in which now-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump was caught talking cavalierly about forcibly kissing and groping women with impunity because he’s “a star.”

“At the age of 24, I found out I’d be attending a dinner at my boss’s house with Justice Clarence Thomas,” Smith wrote in the post, which was initially private, then made public but no longer exists since she deactivated her account about 10 days later. “I was so incredibly excited to meet him, rough confirmation hearings notwithstanding. He was charming in many ways—giant, booming laugh, charismatic, approachable.”

“But to my complete shock, he groped me while I was setting the table, suggesting I should sit ‘right next to him,’” she continued. “When I feebly explained that I’d been assigned to the other table, he groped again…’are you *sure*??’ I said I was and proceeded to keep my distance.”

In a series of interviews conducted over two weeks since her post was published, Smith recalled setting the table to Thomas’ right while the two were alone “when he reached out, sort of cupped his hand around my butt and pulled me pretty close to him.” Thomas asked her where she was sitting “and gave me a squeeze,” she added.

“He said, ‘I think you should sit next to me,’ giving me squeezes. I said, ‘Well, Mr. Blair is pretty particular about his seating chart,’” she told NLJ. “I tried to use the seating chart as a pretext for refusing. He one more time squeezed my butt and he said, ‘Are you sure?’ I said yes, and that was the end of it.”

Thomas, who was accused in testimony during his Senate confirmation hearings by Anita Hill of sexually harassing her when she worked for him at the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, dismissed the allegations in a statement to NLJ through his spokeswoman. “This claim is preposterous and it never happened,” he said.

Thomas’ office didn’t immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.

Smith concluded her Facebook post, which included additional revelations that she was date raped in college, “accosted in a bar and groped by an acquaintance,” by remarking that she was speaking out not because of the presidential election or Trump but because, “Enough is enough.”

“Donald Trump said when you’re a star, they let you do it; you can do anything. The idea that we as victims let them do it made me mad,” she told NLJ, explaining why she went public. “Sure enough, Justice Thomas did it with I think an implicit pact of silence that I would be so flattered and star-struck and surprised that I wouldn’t say anything. I played the chump. I didn’t say anything.”

She suggested she didn’t speak up at the time because while she was “shell-shocked,” she was “also there for work” and “had a job to do.” Smith posed with Thomas for a picture after the dinner but said she was “conflicted” about it.

“On the one hand, I really liked Justice Thomas,” she said. “He was clearly smart, engaging, and hilarious—he had a booming and totally infectious laugh. On the other hand, I was so confused about what had happened. It had transgressed such a line.”

 

A second story on Thomas today, discussing the Court Nomination process. As one of the Judges whose nomination was one of the most contentious in history…He has something to say.

Actually the best question is at the end of the article where he wonders if the court may have some role in its own undoing as a respected institution. Like all those 5-4 decisions?

Justice Thomas: ‘We’re destroying our institutions’

That the judicial nomination process has grown so politicized in recent years is evidence that Washington “is broken in some ways,” Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas said Wednesday.

Speaking at the conservative Heritage Foundation, Thomas did not directly address the vacancy left on the high court when Justice Antonin Scalia died suddenly in February. But when asked about the open seat, he replied, “At some point, we have got to recognize that we’re destroying our institutions,” according to a Bloombergreport.

Republicans have steadfastly refused to hold a confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Scalia, insisting on waiting until after the presidential election before the seat is filled. Democrats have been largely unsuccessful in their efforts to pressure the GOP into taking up Garland’s nomination.

With Scalia gone and the Republican Senate in no hurry to replace him, the court’s eight justices are split evenly along ideological lines. That 4-4 tie has left the court unable to settle some contentious cases, which revert to the lower court’s ruling when the justices are deadlocked. But in an interview earlier this week, Justice Stephen Breyer said such narrow decisions are relatively rare and added that the court has functioned before with an even number of justices.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) agreed, suggesting this week that his party could indefinitely block the Supreme Court nominations of a Democratic president. The conservative firebrand said “There is certainly long historical precedent for a Supreme Court with fewer justices.”

Thomas, who was himself confirmed only after a contentious hearing that focused on allegations of sexual harassment against him, said the popular notion that the Supreme Court is an overly politicized institution is at least partially the fault of the court itself.

“I don’t think people owe us, reflexively, confidence. I think it’s something we earn,” he said. “Perhaps we should ask ourselves what have we done to not earn it or earn it.”

 

 

School Lynching in Mississippi

The school system and local law enforcement support this sort of criminal, racist behavior…

NAACP calls for federal probe after noose placed on black high school football player in Mississippi

The NAACP and the parents of a black high school sophomore who had a noose placed around his neck and “yanked backward” are continuing to call for a federal investigation of the incident as a racial hate crime.

After Derrick Johnson, the Mississippi NAACP president, on Monday morning called for a federal hate-crimes probe of an Oct. 13 incident inside a locker room at Stone County High School near the small town of Wiggins, a lawyer for the south Mississippi school district announced Monday afternoon that one student “was disciplined after due process in accordance with district policies.”

Sean Courtney, an attorney for the Stone County school district, wrote in a Tuesday email that administrators had determined that the school’s conduct code had been violated, the Associated Press reported. Courtney said he couldn’t identify the student or the specific punishment, citing privacy rules.

The NAACP has alleged that the school district and local officials have mishandled the case from the beginning.

Johnson told ESPN that the black student’s mother, Stacey Payton, reported the incident to the Stone County sheriff’s department but was discouraged from filing a report because one of the white students’ parents is a former law enforcement officer. Capt. Ray Boggs of the Stone County sheriff’s department has disputed that account, saying he told Payton that filing a criminal case could stir resentment among some students and bring her son trouble at school, according to the Associated Press.

The black student claimed he was accosted by as many as four white students and a noose was tied around his neck before he was eventually allowed to return to practice. For its part, the school has asserted that it disciplined only one student (not four) because only one had broken rules.

The school district also pushed back against claims that it had ignored the incident until the NAACP acted. “To suggest that the district did not follow its policies and procedures or otherwise not investigate and address this issue is patently false,” Courtney wrote in a statement on Tuesday. “This matter has been one that tears at the fabric of our schools and our community and the administration does not intend for it to be swept under the rug or otherwise ignored.”

At the press conference on Monday with the Paytons standing beside him, the Mississippi NAACP president called the incident a damming indictment of race relations in 2016.

“No child should be walking down the hall or in a locker room and be accosted with a noose around their neck,” Johnson said. “This is 2016, not 1916. This is America. This is a place where children should go to school and feel safe in their environment.”

The mother of a black middle school student in Wiggins who attended the NAACP press conference on Monday said that while Mississippi has long grappled with overt anti-black racism, tensions in town have recently escalated.

“I feel like it escalated from them allowing kids to bring Confederate flags” to school, Carissa Bolden told the Associated Press.

Johnson echoed Bolden’s claim, claiming that some of the students involved in the noose incident had come to school earlier in the year “brandishing Confederate flags on their vehicles.”

“Allowing students to commit blatant hate crimes without severe consequences sends a message to students that their safety and well-being are not valuable enough to be protected,” he said.

 

Another Black Freakazoid – Blacks for Trump Leader

Why is it so often when you scratch the surface of a black conservative…

Something really foul comes out?

That “Blacks for Trump” clown…Is a multiple murderer, has a string of felonies, and is part of a cult, whose initiation ritual includes murder.

That “Blacks for Trump” guy at Donald Trump’s rallies is even weirder than you think

Meet Michael the Black Man, former member of a black supremacist group turned over-enthusiastic Trump supporter

For good reason, social media was buzzing about a white woman holding a “Blacks for Trump” sign at Donald Trump’s rally in Sanford, Florida, on Tuesday.

 Unfortunately, the newsworthiness of the contradiction overshadowed the fact that the woman was with a multiracial group of people wearing matching shirts that read “Trump & Republicans Are Not Racist.” At the bottom of the shirts was printed Gods2.com.

Gods2.com redirects to the personal website of Michael the Black Man (formerly known as Maurice Woodside and Michael Symonette), once a prominent member of the Nation of Yahweh, a violent black supremacist group prominent in Miami in the 1980s.

According to Miami New Times, Michael “was accused of two gruesome Yahweh murders in the ’90s and has since been charged with — but never convicted of — four other felonies while starting his own bizarre religious enterprise.”

Michael has since reinvented himself as a musician, according to the New Times, which described him as “an anti-gay, anti-liberal preacher with a golden instinct for getting on TV at GOP events.”

During the 2012 Republican primary race, Rick Santorum invited Michael to open his campaign rally in Coral Springs, Florida. What started out as an unlistenable jazz setdevolved into an unhinged rant in which Michael called the Democrats Nazis.

“The Democrats, they’re the worst thing that ever happened to the black man,” Michael told the crowd. “They’re the slave masters.”

The Nation of Yahweh lost momentum after its founder, Yahweh ben Yahweh (born Hulon Mitchell Jr.), was imprisoned in 1990 on 18 counts of conspiracy related to 14 murders, two attempted murders, extortion and arson. He was released in 2001 and died of prostate cancer in 2007.

Former NFL player Robert Rozier found Yahweh in 1982 after he was released by the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1985, he joined the Brotherhood, a more exclusive group within the Nation of Yahweh that allegedly required aspiring members to kill a white person as part of its initiation ceremony.

Rozier described his role in the cult as a “death angel” during Yahweh ben Yahweh’s 1992 trial, in which Rozier was the star witness.

“We did everything from driving a bus to killing someone if necessary,” Rozier testified. “Beating, hanging, burning, stoning, decapitation.”

In recent years, a smaller number of followers have tried to breathe new life into the movement.

Michael, meanwhile, continues to post to his website — which declares devotion to Yahweh in the header — as well as his YouTube and Facebook pages. His posts include long-winded essays and video diatribes comparing Hillary Clinton to the biblical Whore of Babylon and/or explaining why she will start World War III.

He also attends his fair share of Trump’s campaign events

 

Thanks, Dad! Trump Name Becomes Toxic Even for His Kids

The Chumph has not only killed his Hotel business…He’s killing his daughter’s business too!

Fewer than 1 in 4 women would buy clothes from Ivanka Trump after her father’s toxic campaign

Donald Trump’s name is so toxic that it has harmed his own businesses or hotelsfor whom he has leased his name. But now that Trump name is beginning to have a huge impact on the rest of the family.

Just last month, the social media app FourSquare revealed data showing the decrease in foot traffic at Trump-named properties. The numbers were even lower for women, who are avoiding Trump brands in larger numbers.

This weekend, Raw Story explained how one woman’s boycott of Ivanka Trump’s fashion line and accessories has promoted other woman to respond in kind.

But that boycott has been turned into actual numbers. According to a Fortune report, fewer than one in four women would buy anything from Ivanka Trump’s brand. It’s unclear whether the boycott was the culprit or the bad press over the last year, but women don’t want Trump, whether for president or to wear on their bodies.

The national survey asked 1,983 voters if they would consider purchasing clothing from a Trump line and 57 percent said they would not. Only 23 percent said that they would with the remainder saying they weren’t sure. Those numbers are even worse when looking at a partisan breakdown. An overwhelming 75 percent of Democratic women refuse to buy the GOP candidate’s daughter’s products. Only 11 percent said they would.

 

 

Make America Throw Up …Again

The Chumph – like most bigots, doesn’t quite “get it” as far as the black community in America. A case in point was his speech about the “inner-city”, Sanford, Florida…Where Trayvon Martin was murdered.

Looks like some college kids in the background waving Trump signs for money.

 

Trump Warns of Inner City ‘Hell’ for Blacks Where Trayvon Martin Was Shot

As Donald Trump campaigned in central Florida today, he made his usual appeal to African-Americans, painting a grim and partially inaccurate portrait of black communities.

“African-Americans are living in hell in the inner cities,” he said. “They are living — they are living in hell. You walk to the store for a loaf of bread you get shot.”

But his comment today struck a particularly tone-deaf chord. Trump was in Sanford, Fla., where teenager Trayvon Martin had been killed four years earlier by a neighborhood watchman while walking home after getting a pack of Skittles.

Trump has garnered criticism for how he’s reached out to African-Americans, with whom his support remains low according to all major polls. He often makes his appeals in front of almost all-white crowds, harping on conditions in inner cities, neglecting to appeal to other African-Americans who don’t live in inner cities.

Across the country, the data show that more African-Americans live in suburbs than anywhere else.

During the second presidential debate, James Carter, a black man asked Trump if he believed he could be a devoted president to all the people in the United States.

Trump responded: “I will be a president for all of our people. And I’ll be a president that will turn our inner cities around.”

Some have bristled at the imagery Trump has used to appeal to African-Americans, saying it is only representative of a slice of the African-American community and disregards the wealth, education, and status that Black Americans have achieved.

Census data from 2015 show that 52.9 percent of African-Americans 25 or older have a college degree of some sort. And a report from Pew in December showed that, compared with other racial or ethnic groups, African-American adults saw the largest improvement in income status from 1971 to 2015 and were the only racial or ethnic group that saw a decline in the percentage of low-income earners.

 

7 Year Old Punched By Adult At School

Pitiful…