TGIF.

Hillary Clinton Speaks At The Democratic National Convention.

Democratic National Convention.

Heal The Black/Blue Divide: Disarm Police, No Vicious Dogs.

Heal the black/blue divide: disarm police, no vicious dogs.
by Larry Webster

I grew up in a county where there was no crime and no police.

I went home once and asked my little sister if anything exciting had happened in town and she said yes, that a Catholic had a wreck on the bridge. She had spotted the plastic saint on the dashboard. It would have taken the nearest cop a couple hours to show up and write up his report, and he probably did not arrive wearing a belt with a stick, a Taser, Mace and a Glock, and he probably did not have a dog with him. He did not ask for backup. He probably did not have military-like training.

We had black people in Owen County. Is it racist to lump them all together and announce that they were all peaceful, hard-working and well-educated people? They lived at or near a town called New Liberty. New Liberty is older than Liberty, and both are west of West Liberty. When segregation tended to keep people of a hue close to each other, police did not feel compelled to start trouble with people of one color who wandered into the territory of people of another color. When blacks, they were colored people then, came to Gratz to play baseball, they came in a caravan of used Buicks and Oldsmobiles. There was safety in a caravan.

So I may not be the person to reform the relations between police and black lives, but will offer a few suggestions anyway.

We need to get those cops out of cars and on foot. We actually got a good start on this, when Ford quit making Crown Victorias. Police went to Chevrolets and couldn’t catch anybody. A good bicycle would be better, and if a cop wants to take somebody to jail, he can call a cab.

We need gun control. More specifically, we need to disarm the police. In England, police do not carry firearms, and thus do not have to use them.

In America, the people who adore weapons and collect them and caress them and spend their time going through Joe Rosenberg catalogs usually end up being police. I have always said that those of us who do not know martial arts never seem to be accosted by gangs of Indonesians carrying bamboo sticks, while those who do always seem to, and likewise, somebody who has devoted his life to thinking about how to use a weapon is far more apt to create in his own mind a need to use one.

We need to get rid of those police dogs. Maybe not antifreeze, but civilized people do not need the symbolism of vicious dogs snarling at the poor.

Police are not soldiers, and we need to quit supplying them with military stuff and training them to see themselves as soldiers. Soldiers need enemies, and police do not.

Judges and juries need to quit pretending they believe what police swear to. No one else in court is allowed to lie routinely. People who have a police car behind them do not weave. Police do not stop people merely because they have a tail light out. Not all those stopped for DUI have the exact same characteristics.

Gov. Bevin just appointed a panel to study criminal law in Kentucky, and just like always, it is 90 percent full of prosecutor/police/punishment-freak types. There are almost no defense attorneys on this panel.

Criminal defense attorneys probably understand the problems in the criminal justice system better than anybody, including judges, but they never get respect enough to be consulted on matters of public policy. It was just such panels and their lack of diversity that recommended us into the mess we are now in, in which everything that is not prohibited is mandatory.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article91425632.html#storylink=cpy

AmeriKKKa's Discussion On Race.

Ronald Reagan's Dad Killed Abraham Lincoln!

White Voters.

TGIF: Republicans Wrap Up Their #GOP Convention, Proclaim U-N-I-T-Y!

Did You Miss Donald Trump's Speech To Republicans Last Night? Here It Is Below.

Not every Life Matters!

CONgress.

more From The #GOP National Convention From Joel Pett.

Republican National Convention Opens In Cleveland.

Why France Has A More Fraught Relationship With Its Muslim Communities Than The U.S. .

News that the attacker who killed at least 84 people in France was a Tunisian citizen and a Muslim legally working in the country quickly became ammunition for American politicians suggesting that the United States also faces a serious threat from within.

Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, reiterated his call to ban Muslims from entering the country. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich recommended that Muslims be deported if they believe in Islamic law.

But France and the United States are markedly different in their relationships with their Muslim immigrant populations, with several factors making the threat of organized Islamist extremism — as opposed to attacks by individuals who were simply inspired by the ideology — more likely in France. They include the country’s colonial history in North Africa, its insistence on assimilation and the greater isolation of its Muslim communities.

In addition, France's proximity to the Middle East increases the chances that young men may have traveled to Syria to join Islamic State militants and then returned to France with the intent to carry out attacks like the ones that took place in Paris last year. However, no evidence has emerged to suggest that was the case in the deadly assault Thursday in Nice, in which the assailant drove a truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day.

After the Nice attack, an angry public wants to know: Why doesn't the violence stop?
After the Nice attack, an angry public wants to know: Why doesn't the violence stop?
France does not collect census data on religious affiliation, but it estimates that Muslims make up 5% to 10% of its 65 million people, which would give it the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

Many trace their roots to Algeria and Tunisia, both former French colonies. Their parents and grandparents arrived as immigrant laborers to help rebuild France after World War II — with more than 470,000 coming from Algeria alone by 1968. Over the next dozen years, that number reached 800,000.

Their arrival, however, had an ugly backdrop: For more than a century, the colonies were locked in a vicious fight with France for independence. Battling brutal repression by the French, the insurgents latched on to Islam as a organizing tool.

Algeria and Tunisia became the birthplace of some of the earliest militant Islamist groups. It is little surprise to experts that today Tunisia is the largest supplier per capita of Islamic State recruits to Syria.

By the time Algerian independence came in 1962 — six years after Tunisian independence — France’s relationship with its Muslim immigrants from North Africa was showing signs of trouble.

As their construction and manufacturing jobs began to dry up, many recommitted to their religion as a way of restoring their sense of dignity, said Gilles Kepel, a French political scientist and Islam specialist. Ever since, social mobility has been severely limited.

Nice's Promenade des Anglais reopens, drawing throngs of mourners
Nice's Promenade des Anglais reopens, drawing throngs of mourners
France struggles much more than the U.S. to absorb its immigrants.

Muslims in France today — even second and third generation — are concentrated in their own enclaves, suburbs known as banlieues that are usually little more than a cement jungle of decrepit high-rises where frustration is the dominant feeling.

Clichy-sous-Bois was the epicenter of race riots in 2005, when two teenagers, the children of African immigrants, were electrocuted while hiding from the police in a power station. Though the suburb is only 10 miles from central Paris, it takes more than an hour to reach due to the absence of a rail link. Its cafes are more likely to serve Moroccan mint tea and merguez sausages than French cafe and croissants.

Children of immigrants identify as French and bristle at questions about their origin. But they also complain of not enjoying the same opportunities as other French citizens.

“Muslims or people perceived as such do not have equal access to education, jobs, housing or even healthcare,” Yasser Louati, a spokesman for the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, said in an interview via social media on Friday.

“You can't tell generations of kids ‘You don't belong here’ and be surprised they grow up like they don't belong here.”

The divisions appear to be worsening. In 2011, a government-sponsored study found that the children of immigrants were twice as likely as their parents to report a sense of discrimination linked to origin, even though they speak French fluently.

Nice truck rampage
Nice truck rampage
The ideal of diversity espoused in the United States has not been embraced in France, where being seen as French means giving up the culture where you came from.

Kepel, the political scientist, has written that the French government sees Islam as an impediment to Muslims becoming fully integrated citizens.

It has discouraged — and in some cases banned —  certain forms of religious expression in an attempt to promote assimilation and unity.

In 2004, the French Assembly passed a law prohibiting the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in public schools. The controversy dates back to at least 1989, when a high school principal barred three girls from wearing the hijab on school grounds because it violated France's tradition of secular education.

But critics say those policies have had the opposite effect, deepening a feeling among some Muslims that the government is anti-Islam and they will never be fully accepted.

The relationship between French Muslims and their countrymen has only become more fraught amid terrorist attacks claimed by Islamic State.

Bulos is a special correspondent. Read more here.

Blacks And Police In #ameriKKKa!

Donald Trump Narrows His VP Choice.

update 7/26:

Bill Clinton Feels The Bern.

Feel The Bern For Hillary Clinton!

Miss Veep For Donald Trump.

Like The Police Use!

Yes, In #ameriKKKa, Everyone Deserves To Go Home!

Stopping violence requires America to change its culture

by Kathleen Parker

WASHINGTON — Horror. Shock. Disbelief. Numbness. Grief. Anger. And terrible sadness.

These fractured thoughts were all I could muster upon waking Friday to news of the ambush on Dallas police. They were still fresh in my mind from the night before when I’d turned in early, exhausted by the images of 32-year-old Philando Castile dying in Minnesota after a police officer shot him.

As we all know by now, the officer was white and Castile, African-American. It started as a routine stop for a broken taillight and ended in what has become a routine shooting followed by a routine headline.

Black man shot by white police officer. How many times must we read those words?

Just 24 hours earlier, another black man, Alton Sterling, 37, was shot to death by police while being restrained in Baton Rouge, La.

Like Sterling, Castile did have a gun. Castile also had a conceal permit, which he apparently told the officer as soon as he was stopped. Why would someone tell a police officer he had a gun if he intended to use it?

Castile was reaching for his driver’s license and registration when the officer opened fire, says his girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds.

Reynolds used her cellphone to film the aftermath of the shooting, careful to address the officer as “sir” and follow his instructions. Over and over I watched the video, trying to imagine being in that car, while at the same time feeling shame about watching a stranger who is mortally wounded.

Nothing is more intimate than death, which we all hope to face with dignity in the comforting presence of loved ones. Castile had no such luck. Instead, he was surrounded by millions of onlookers, most of whom, I feel certain, suffered with and for him.

“(Expletive)!” “(Expletive)!” “(Expletive)!” On the video, we hear the officer repeating the F-word as he realizes what has happened. Reynolds is saying, “Please don’t tell me this, Lord. Please, Jesus, don’t tell me that he’s gone,” she said. “Please, officer, don’t tell me that you just did this to him.”

My God.

Friday morning, Castile’s mother bore into the television camera. She said people can look into her eyes, at that point 48 hours without sleep, and know that she’s not going away until justice is served. Across the country, protesters had gathered peacefully Thursday evening to demonstrate against the shootings.

Enough.

Then suddenly in Dallas, the peace was shattered when shots were fired from a high vantage point. A shiver. Not again. When it was all over, five officers were dead and another seven were wounded.

A suspected shooter is dead, too, killed by a police bomb robot. Why not? An un-human kills the in-human. Before he died, the man told officers he was upset about Black Lives Matter. He wanted to kill white people, and white policemen, reported Dallas Police Chief David Brown at a news conference.

In Minneapolis, Gov. Mark Dalton said he thinks that if Castile had been white, the officer wouldn’t have shot him. A retired New York City police detective wept as he spoke to CNN’s Chris Cuomo about the bravery of the Dallas officers who, carrying only pistols, were wearing protective vests they knew couldn’t deflect the bullets of the shooter’s weapon.

Imagine.

Then, too, imagine being a young black man who is taught early on that he has to be extra careful around the police. The worst will be expected of him.

“He shot his arm off,” we hear Castile’s girlfriend saying on the video. We see Castile’s blood-soaked shirt; we hear him groan and watch his head drop.

Black lives matter. White lives matter. Blue lives matter. Does anything matter anymore? What is happening to this country? A wall-mounted gun manufacturer’s video ad welcomes visitors to the Columbia, S.C., airport. In Chicago today, no one will be surprised if a child is killed in gang crossfire. Will another black avenger try to kill another white cop? Will police still give black neighborhoods protection? “They’re hunting us,” said Castile’s mother.

Madness.

For now we grieve with the families of the dead and talk of ways to stem the violence. But there’s really only one way to stop the killing and it lies in changing our culture, beginning with recognizing every single person’s humanity – the black youth’s, the white officer’s, and every other in between. As Charles Blow, the New York Times columnist put it: “Everyone deserves to go home.” 

Meanwhile, In #ameriKKKa!

Yes, We Better!

Donald Trump.

Enjoy Your TGIF in #ameriKKKa!

Donald Trump And Adolph Hitler.

If You Are Black In #AmeriKKKa, #criminalkkkkillerroguecops Assassinate You!

Past Time For Kentucky (And The Federal Government) To Legalize Marijuana

Past Time For Kentucky (And The Federal Government)  To Legalize Marijuana

by Thomas Vance

An interim joint hearing of the Licensing and Occupations Committee will be held at 10 a.m. Friday in Room 129 of the Capitol Annex to focus on the legalization of medical marijuana in Kentucky.

The committee has held many hearings on the issue over the last four years, and we were told in 2012 that we would have interim hearings in the summer and do something in 2013.

This year we have been told by Sen. John Schickel, committee co-chair, that “we will do something next year.”

It is hard to imagine what we could possibly uncover that hasn’t been found by the 26 states and District of Columbia that have already legalized marijuana. There’s plenty of proof of the safety and efficacy of marijuana.

I attended what was billed as a marijuana summit, sponsored by an anti-drug group, in Covington on Dec. 1. During one segment, a speaker regaled us with a story about how he broke California law and got a medical-marijuana program card and how easy it was to lie and get one.

I immediately spoke up: “The citizens of California have had a medical cannabis program since 1996 — 20 years. You must tell me exactly when the harms of marijuana legalization predicted by you guys are gonna show up? How much longer should we wait for these terrible things to rear their ugly heads?”

The reality is that not one of the predicted harms has happened in any of the states with medical cannabis laws or recreational cannabis laws.

What has happened is truly remarkable. Colorado is a perfect example of what a comprehensive marijuana-legalization policy can accomplish. Colorado collected $135 million in taxes from $947 million in sales for 2015. Slightly more than half was from recreational sales. More than 20,000 jobs have been created in the industry and these numbers do not take into account the millions in ancillary economic activity driving the state economy.

Legalizing marijuana, an industry that traditionally belongs to Kentucky, has such far-reaching benefits for our people it is a wonder we were not the first to legalize rather than being one of the last.

Many of our citizens claim they do not trust or believe the federal government, yet on this issue they somehow do, even when the evidence of the government’s deception is indisputable.

The cover story in the April 2016 edition of Harper’s magazine titled, “Legalize it all,” with the subtitle, “How to win the war on drugs” written by Dan Baum recalls an interview with President Richard Nixon’s aide John Ehrlichman.

Baum was asking about the politics of drug prohibition and, as he tells it, Ehrlichman said: “You want to know what this was really all about?”

He went on to say: “The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I’m saying? We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”

Let’s stop this drug-war game, take what works best from those who have already legalized it and build a program that will revitalize our eastern counties and benefit all our citizens.

Thomas Vance, of Alexandria, is a senior adviser for Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access and a retired Air Force master sergeant.

OP-ED

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/opinion/op-ed/article88064582.html#storylink=cpy

#Lyinghillaryclinton And FRAUD Bureau Of Investigation (FBI).

Enjoy Your Wednesday Afternoon, And Don't Forget To Weep For America.

FBI Suggests #Lyinghillaryclinton Not Be Indicted.

WHY I RENOUNCED ISLAM, ALLAH, AND MUHAMMAD.

WHY I RENOUNCED ISLAM, ALLAH, AND MUHAMMAD.

And my challenge to every muslim.

I never thought I would have the courage to publicly announce that I have left Islam. I have been hesitating to openly declare this; according to many Muslim leaders, I am now an “infidel,” the worst thing I can possibly be in their eyes. I was mostly concerned about the repercussions and risks to my family and relatives. But, in the face of the horrors that have spread throughout the world, I have finally made the decision to write my life story in “The Muslim Renegade: A Memoir of Struggle, Defiance, Enlightenment, and Hope.”

A Muslim believes that the Qur’an contains the verbatim words of Allah and should be implemented without reservation, regardless of time and geographical location. The Islamic reward for killing an unbeliever or apostate, someone who departs from Islam and renounces Allah and Muhammad, is receiving the best place in heaven, according to some Islamic teachings. The penalty for renouncing Islam is execution, legally administered in Islamic societies by governments, Islamic courts, or some religious groups and individual Muslims who desire to fulfill their duty prescribed by God (Allah), Muhammad, and the Qur’an. These Islamic and Sharia laws did create some concerns, fear and caution in me to tell my story.

If you are born into, or become a follower of Islam, abandoning it is not an easy task. A Muslim is indoctrinated from the early childhood. I believe the indoctrination evolves and transforms into deep-seated fear about questioning, let alone rejecting, Allah, Islam, and Muhammad’s rules. Deciding to be free and independent, liberating oneself from being the slave of Islam, become inconceivable and out of question. Once one becomes the slave of Islam, it kills his/her courage and will to leave it. As was also mentioned, Islam and Muslim leaders also punish abandonment of Islam, Allah, and Muhammad with death.

I grew up in a religious family in Islamic societies until a few years ago. I was one of the few who genuinely read the whole Qur'an word by word. I read it several times, and attempted to follow the rules meticulously, line by line. I didn't just see my religion as a title; I wanted to live it as a devout Muslim. To do that, I had to be a strict follower of Islamic rules. I was the "good" Muslim according to many imams I spoke with.

But who is this "good" Muslim, according to Islamic teaching? A good Muslim follows Allah's verses word by word. You cannot cherry pick the rules that you like or that you want to apply in certain situations. You must follow every legal, social, and spiritual rule. Not just anyone can be a good Muslim; a good Muslim feels a deep-down belief that they have been "chosen." Only you are on the right path, and everyone else from other religions, even other Muslims, is not on this sacred path that leads to salvation. A good Muslim must also be a follower of his imam or ayatollah in addition to Allah, Muhammad and the Qur'an. Socially and legally speaking, according to Allah’s words in the Qur'an, you must accept “Allah’s rules” that a man can marry more than one wife simultaneously without asking for their permission (as my father did), that the testimony of a woman is not equal to that of a man in the court of law, that women inherit much less than men (half of what their brothers inherit), that you can have as many temporary marriages as you want, that having slaves is not an issue, that you should not be a passive Muslim, but you should be a jihadist who is willing to impose Allah’s rules in any society by following three steps: telling those who are not following Islam the correct path, if they do not listen, warn them, and if they still defy, punish them (resort to violence). A good Muslim believes in the superstitions that the Qur'an details such as the “evil eye.” A good Muslim hides some of his/her true feelings, avoids having normal fun, and views other religions as incomplete since Allah states in the Qur'an that Islam is the last religion that completes all the deficiencies of other religions, and so on.

When I came to the United States a few years ago -- before the Paris, Orlando, San Bernardino, London and other recent terrorist attacks -- I attempted to raise awareness and warn about the inevitable terrorist attacks that were going to happen in the name of Islam. Islam can provide a powerful language and tool to commit some of the worst crimes against humanity, while simultaneously the perpetrators of those attacks feel blessed, privileged, rewarded, and on the winning side.

Unless we gain a better understanding of the nature of Islam, its transformation and reliance on Qur'anic verses, as well as its norms, values, principles, and ideology in the modern world, we will not be capable of addressing this threat. It will only to continue to increase in intensity and spread further than most can imagine.

I am not suggesting this based solely on an academic and epistemological view of world cultures, but on my first-hand experience of growing up, studying, and working in predominantly Muslim societies for most of my life. I was born in the Islamic Republic of Iran and grew up in both Arab and Persian cultures.

It is my opinion that those who try to convert people into Islam first begin with some appealing notions from Islam. Once you sign up to the religion (by pronouncing two sentences: Ash hadu an la ilaha ill Allah wa ash hadu anna Muhammadar Rasul Allah; "I declare there is no god but Allah and I declare that Muhammad is the Messenger"), then gradually the restrictions, discriminatory rules against women, etc. will slowly follow. Without the new convert noticing, he/she becomes the slave of the Islamic ideology as well as the imam. Your freedom will be taken, and a new world, new God (Allah), and new set of rules will be created for you. Once you submit to Islam, there is no way to return, because if you leave this ideology, you are an infidel, an apostate who deserves to be killed, according to Allah’s words in the Qur'an.

In my book I share my own experiences in part because I believe deeply that as people become more interconnected, the most dire challenge to the current world order—to Western democratic values, universal human rights, the rule of law, social justice, gender equality, civilized society and all of humanity—is not nuclear bombs, chemical weapons, or other military capabilities, but it is modern Islamic ideology. For how long will the mainstream media and politicians remain “politically correct” on this issue? My intent is to raise awareness of what is happening in the very shielded and silent corners of fundamental Islam. To me it is imperative that the American people be educated about extremist Islamists who view them with such intense hatred.

Is the Islamic ideology an ideology of peace as many Muslims and imams argue? There are some verses and ideas in the Qur'an (likely plagiarized from the ideas of Christianity and Judaism) that do promote positive things.

But the violent and discriminatory rules in the Qur'an overshadow any hint of peace.

Would you consider an ideology or a leader peaceful if that leader tells you one good thing, but, at the same time, tells you that you can kill in the name of this ideology (as stated by Allah in the Qur'an)? Will you follow someone who tells you one good thing, but then tells you that women should not be considered equal to men in the legal system?

The Islamic ideology, its harsh teachings, and impossible rules, created contradictions inside me. I began soul-searching, which led to my inner transformation and revolution. I was born as a slave into this ideology, and finally I had to be free to make my own life choice (when I was in Iran few years ago) to liberate myself from the chains of this ideology. Doing so, leaving everything I had been taught for more than two decades, was not an easy task.

If you are born into a Muslim family and live in a Muslim society, where Sharia and Islamic laws are being legally implemented by the system, it is heartbreaking and dangerous. The fear of violence and death has permeated my life from the moment I was born -- up to this very moment. Despite the risks, I feel I must speak my truth. The chains and cruel threats of this ideology will haunt you wherever you are. Knowing that I would become a target, along with my family and friends, knowing that I would lose everything I ever held dear (including many of my family and friends), I could have given in to my fear. Instead, I decided not to. It was a decision I had no choice but to make.

ABOUT DR. MAJID RAFIZADEH

Dr. Majid Rafizadeh, an Iranian-American political scientist, author, business advisor and public speaker, is president of the International American Council and serves on the board of the Harvard International Review (Harvard University).  Harvard-educated, Rafizadeh grew up most of his life in Muslim countries (both Sunni and Shiites nations). He is the author of the memoir “A God Who Hates Women” and the upcoming memoir “The Renegade.” Dr. Rafizadeh can be reached at Dr.Rafizadeh@post.harvard.edu. Follow him at @Dr_Rafizadeh.

Terrorists.

Happy Independemce Day.

Happy 4th Of July.

Fight Fire With Fire.

Benghazi Smoking Gun.