We are so busy talking about Colin kneeling...

that everyone appears to have forgotten about Chicago officer Jason Van Dyke and his role in the Laquan McDonald killing. 

The fallout over the dashboard-camera video of the white police officer shooting the black teen has caused the most severe crisis for Mayor Rahm Emanuel in his time in office and led to a blistering report by the U.S. Department of Justice that portrayed a broken Police Department in which officers commit misconduct and use excessive force with little fear of repercussions.

The video showed Van Dyke opening fire within seconds of exiting his police SUV as McDonald walked away from police with a knife in his hand in the middle of 41st Street and Pulaski Road shortly before 10 p.m. Oct. 20, 2014.

McDonald emptied his service weapon, striking McDonald 16 times in the scalp, neck, both sides of his chest, back, both arms and his right hand and leg, according to the autopsy report.

Hundreds of pages of Chicago police reports showed that Van Dyke and at least five other officers claimed that the McDonald moved or turned threateningly toward officers, even though video of the shooting showed McDonald walking away.

What a blessing for Rahm these athlete-entertainer sideshow "protests" have been...  #DivideAndConquer  #NeverLetAGoodCrisisGotoWaste

(Google those two names, read the stories and watch the videos.  Learning, not kneeling, is the first step in creating Change. )

#WatchMeWork

Nevermind the NFL today or the antics of some of the overpaid players, looking for a cheap symbolic show. #DividedCommunitiesFall

Today, the Minnesota Lynx take on the LA Sparks at the University of Minnesota's Williams Arena in the first game of the WNBA championship.  Tip off is at 2:30pm Central Time.  It should be a good game.

Tune in if you are into solid athletic competition in a growing league where the athletes are not overpaid and do not think that their name recognition and physical ability qualifies them as social critics or amateur activists.  It's a game, and at this level, it's a good one.

#WatchMeWork.

Free Speech.

As a longtime First Amendment scholar, let me just go on the record saying I am perfectly ok with the President of the United States calling activist athletes "sons of bitches".  He is simply expressing his beliefs.  If you support the athletes disrespecting the national anthem and our country* by making a pre-game scene, then surely you have to respect when other people also express their beliefs by answering back?
-------------------------

* This goes to the heart of the problem with the kneeling-during-the-anthem protest.  What exactly are these boys protesting against?  Police brutality against all people?  Police brutality against black people?  Wars?  Soldiers?  The flag?  The South and the Confederacy?  The lack of reparations, and the imposition of jail sentences on convicted criminals?

I understand the symbolism, but this is the problem with having under-educated men, who are paid to remain boys playing games, serving as the face of your "movement":  the message gets muddled.  It's laudable to want to create Change in society by addressing injustice.   It's much harder to achieve than dissing the national anthem, or shutting down freeways during rush hour...

First:  figure out your message.  Remember: don't be exclusive;  be inclusive.  If you want to create Change, you need allies, not more enemies.   And not everyone will bow to you.  "King James" doesn't understand that.  "Steff" Curry is learning that a White House invite is a privilege, not an expectation or reward for winning a game championship.   Good.

(Just because you can bounce a ball or toss a pigskin does not mean you qualify as a respected national leader or thinker.  Know your role...)
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ADDED:  To top the sitting-during-the-song trick, some have suggested flag burning. I think the "movement" would garner a lot more attention if these athletes showed their commitment to rejecting America by burning all of the white males represented on the dollar bills in their pockets and portfolios...

That would really shake things up!
More than symbolism, that would show that these American athletes truly reject the American Dream that has clearly not worked well for them...

"For the master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.  They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change."   (For the record, I don't believe the sister got this right... Maybe she was never properly trained in how to use the tools? Or lacked the creativity to apply their use to her own situation?)

Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah...

Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah...
Hey, Hey, Hey...
Good-Bye!

(If there was any doubt that we truly live in Two Americas, Harvard's hiring and subsequent firing of Chelsea Manning as a visiting scholar confirms this.  Whoever thought the idea would fly in the first place is well divorced from current reality...)

#NotPersuaded

Doubling Down.

After President Trump challenged lawmakers this week to address how the American Dream is being impacted via unchecked borders, exploitable labor, and unending calls for amnesty, with more still undocumented people coming in, two House Dems step up to demand "a select committee on “the rise of white supremacy and domestic terrorism.”

Here's what the politicians -- representing voters in New York and California -- look like:

Bill Clark/Associated Press

 and here is their... call to action:

In their letter to Mr. Ryan, the lawmakers cited the Department of Homeland Security and other authorities in writing that there is “substantial energy behind the white supremacist movement, with traffic on leading websites soaring over the past year alongside a wide-reaching effort to recruit young people on college campuses.”

(You really can't make this stuff up...)

The lawmakers, in a letter sent Wednesday to Mr. Ryan, argued that Congress needed to study an “outbreak of hate” brought on by last year’s presidential election, as well as the threat that white supremacist groups pose to “the security and stability of our nation.”
...
“Given the surge of support for terror,” they wrote, “a more focused effort is needed to understand what is happening and how we can work together to protect our fellow Americans.”

Will these two sit down already, and let Colin Kaepernick work the job? (or do they just not see it, yet?)

From the Inbox...

President Trump invited the Pope

for lunch on his mega yacht, the Pope accepted and during

lunch, a puff of wind blew the Pontiff's hat

off, right into the water.  It floated off

about 50 feet, then the wind died down and it just floated

in place.

The crew and the secret service

were scrambling to launch a boat to go get it, when Trump

waved them off, saying, "Never mind, boys, I’ll get

it."

The Donald climbed over the

side of the yacht, walked on the water to the hat, picked it

up, walked back on the water, climbed into the yacht, and

handed the Pope his hat. 

The crew was speechless. The

security team and the Pope's entourage were

speechless. 

No one knew what to say, not

even the Pope. 

But that afternoon, NBC, CBS,

ABC, MSNBC, and CNN reported

"TRUMP CAN'T

SWIM!”