The law does not protect those it was never intended to protect.

Originally shared by David Cameron Staples

“””Acquittal is different from a hung or deadlocked jury; it means Yanez is “not guilty.” It means that even if a black man complies with every letter of the law, it is still OK for a law-enforcement officer to kill him.

It means that even if a black man is legally carrying a gun but never pulls it out, he can still be killed for carrying a gun.

Which means—even though the Constitution guarantees every American the right—a black man cannot carry a gun.

Which means that a black man’s constitutional rights can be arbitrarily taken away from him.

Which means that a black man has no constitutional rights.

America is bullshit.”””

http://www.theroot.com/this-lying-murdering-whore-called-america-1796184773

a nation of temporarily embarrassed superheroes 😁

Originally shared by ****

Most viewers I know identify with the superhero, not the hapless citizens. We are a nation of temporarily embarrassed superheroes, I guess. 🙂

The Age of Superhero Politics

If you’ve often felt like a meaningless cog in a vast machine, just be thankful you’re not a random citizen in a superhero flick. Stripped of your free will, you’d be subject to the whims of a vast super-machinery you cannot comprehend. In these films, the public plays a background role to superheroes and citizens are easily fooled by villains. They rarely have a say in what the elites — good or evil — decide is best for them. Does this sound familiar?

You might even argue that the rise of a self-perceived Übermensch like Donald Trump is tied to our nation’s myopic tendency toward superhero politics. After all, Trump positioned himself, again and again, as a superhero, a lone leader who could save us. “I alone can defeat ISIS,” and “Nobody knows the system better than me, which is why I alone can fix it,” were both phrases he actually said.

Though Bernie Sanders and Trump are often compared to each other given their populist undertones, actually listening to their rhetoric separates them. Sanders, in word and deed, has distinguished himself as the opposite of a superhero. “No, it’s not ‘Bernie can.’ ‘We can,’” he said at a summer 2016 campaign rally in California. It underscored the degree to which the candidate saw his cause as a movement, not a rally around a figurehead. Contrast that to Trump, who seems convinced that he can govern by diktat.

via Jeremiah Junken​

http://www.salon.com/2017/06/02/superhero-films-are-bad-for-democracy/

Chapo Trap House interviews China Miéville about his book on the 1917 Russian Revolution(s), a moment in history currently undergoing a centenary that most people are doing their best to ignore.

The interview starts about half way through but the whole thing is pretty good.

https://soundcloud.com/chapo-trap-house/episode-110-the-rocktober-revolution-feat-china-mieville-52217

Correction: Even bozos think he’s a mega-bozo. He is the greatest of bozos.

Originally shared by Roberto Bayardo

Heh. Trump is such a bozo even “respectable” politicians have trouble refraining from making fun of him.

In a closed-door speech Wednesday night to journalists and lawmakers at Australia’s equivalent of the White House correspondents dinner, Turnbull imitated Trump speaking about online opinion polls: “They are so easy to win. I have this Russian guy…believe me, it’s true, it’s true.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2017-06-15/aussie-leader-lampoons-trump-in-speech-mentioning-russian-guy