miamizsun wrote:
 
I generally agree that you want to sway people to your side. But this issue had been and continues to be a festering would. There have been many peaceful calm aplogetic attempts to engage in a dialogue and the problem persisted.  He felt he had an opportunity to use his platform for a louder message. 

Initially he sat for the anthem. After a conversation with a fellow player who was a veteran Marine he switched to the kneel to show respect. I won't try to speak for everyone who didn't receive the message, but I will say there are many who would never receive this message no matter how it was delivered. 

Here are police now kneeling with protesters:

respect and solidarity. Why is it that is respectful, but not from Kaepernick?  Could he have done things better? - sure. Would it have mattered? -  I doubt it. We are here today because we (collectively) were not willing to listen to the message he was sending and chose to quibble over the delivery.

So will we hear the message this time?  Or will we continue to complain that it is not presented in the manner we are willing to hear it?  How loud do you think it will get before we hear?

 kcar wrote:
 
"Doctor, I keep having these recurring fantasies."

Our own KarmaKarma, played like a fiddle. KK even posted that very tweet bolded in the article below. 

White supremacists pose as Antifa online, call for violence

New York (CNN Business)




A Twitter account that tweeted a call to violence and claimed to be representing the position of "Antifa" was in fact created by a known white supremacist group, Twitter said Monday. The company removed the account.

"This account violated our platform manipulation and spam policy, specifically the creation of fake accounts," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. "We took action after the account sent a Tweet inciting violence and broke the Twitter Rules."Although the account only had a few hundred followers, it is an example of white supremacists seeking to inflame tensions in the United States by posing as left-wing activists online.

 The revelation of the account comes as President Donald Trump increasingly blames left-wing activists for violence occurring at protests across America.

...



Antifa positions can be hard to define, but many people espousing those beliefs support oppressed populations and protest the amassing of wealth by corporations and elites. Some employ radical or militant tactics to get out their messages.

The fake account, @ANTIFA_US, tweeted Sunday, "ALERT Tonight's the night, Comrades Tonight we say "F**k The City" and we move into the residential areas... the white hoods.... and we take what's ours #BlacklivesMaters #F**kAmerica."

Twitter said that the account was in fact linked to Identity Evropa, a white power fraternity.Though Twitter referred to the group as Identity Evropa when discussing the account's removal, the Anti Defamation League (ADL) states that the group dissolved and reformed under the name the American Identitarian Movement, which it also calls a white supremacist group.

The group promotes itself as "identitarian," that white people should preserve their racial and cultural identity. The American Identitarian Movement says it prohibits violence and illegal activity.

CNN has reached out to the group for comment.

Twitter said it had shut down other fake accounts linked to Identity Evropa, too.

The phenomenon of people on the right creating fake Antifa accounts predates the current wave of protests. The takedown Monday is not the first time a fake Antifa account linked to white supremacists has been suspended by Twitter, the spokesperson confirmed.

Police officers are targeting journalists covering protests.

Reporters and news photographers say they are being roughed up by the police, shot with projectiles and arrested while covering demonstrations against racism and police brutality across the country. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker and a writer for the Bellingcat website have each tracked about 100 instances of reporters being harassed or injured at the protests.

In interviews, reporters said they had identified themselves as members of the press before police drew their weapons or pepper-sprayed them.

Tyler Blint-Welsh, a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, said he was hit multiple times by police officers while covering a protest in New York on Sunday. “I was backing away as request, with my hands up,” Mr. Blint-Welsh, who is black, wrote on Twitter. “My NYPD-issued press badge was clearly visible.”

Andrea May Sahouri, a reporter for The Des Moines Register, was pepper-sprayed and handcuffed with zip-ties after identifying herself as a journalist while covering a protest at a Des Moines mall on Sunday evening. She streamed video live from the back of a police vehicle, and was later released.

The arrest of journalists covering demonstrations and riots is common in autocratic countries, but has been rare in the United States, where freedom of the press is protected by the First Amendment.

Many reporters, photographers and press advocates said the treatment of journalists by police officers in the last week reflected an erosion of trust in the news media that has seeped into law enforcement under President Trump, who has deemed critical coverage of his administration “fake news” and has frequently labeled some news organizations and journalists with variants of the phrase “enemies of the people.”

On Sunday, Mr. Trump blamed the news media for the protests in a tweet, calling journalists “truly bad people with a sick agenda.”

 cc_rider wrote: 
random thoughts

i don't know a lot about that guy off the field but kaepernick probably had good intentions with less than "thoughtful" execution

in the charity fundraising world working with a stadium in the concession is gold

the reason (here anyway) that a beer cost ten dollars at the stadium is because about half of that goes to the charity staffing it

there's an ecosystem around big sporting events, from the peeps selling beer, soda, water and peanuts walking up and down the stadium stairs, the people selling other trinkets, shirts, etc. to the folks in the parking lot selling stuff (probably parking too)

it doesn't stop there, local sports bars offer food and transport to and from the games and watch parties

i'm sure i'm glossing over some other vendors but i think you can get the idea

his actions probably have an unintended effect on a lot of people depending on that income

lots of emotions around the act too (some people like veterans probably see kneeling during the anthem as a sign of disrespect)

if i was trying to influence someone to consider my point of view i'd do a couple of things:

first don't insult/demean/disrespect them

second make my best case by being inclusive (police violence affects everyone)

third partner with human rights groups, celebrities, etc and call a news/press conference

fourth isolate/focus the concern (get to the point) and offer to engage those highly influential and directly involved (police chiefs, mayors, politicians, etc.)

fifth offer solutions and further dialog

off the top of my head but i'm sure we could come up with more suggestions

regards

 buddy wrote:
 
Promises, promises.  You also said that LAST time. And the time before that.  And the time ...  lol

 buddy wrote:

 


https://twitter.com/LeighTauss/status/1267085577419186178

Unpossible!  Fake news!

 buddy wrote:
 

hear, hear

Looting is transition to freedom

"The task we've got ahead of us now is an awkward one ... It's untidy. And freedom's untidy. And free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things. They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here (...)"

"And for suddenly the biggest problem in the world to be looting is really notable."

 cc_rider wrote:

 

 miamizsun wrote:
 Yes, they are doing it wrong. The inciters of violence, I mean. I believe there is a small subset of 'protesters' who really just want to tear the whole thing down, consequences be damned. I believe most protests start out peacefully - then the agitators get involved, and it all goes to $hit.

HOWEVER, there was a guy who really tried to do it right. He used his considerable public presence to bring attention to black and brown deaths at the hands of 'peace' officers. He made a silent, peaceful gesture, on live TV. At first he just sat during the Anthem, but a fellow NFL player, Nate Boyer, encouraged him to take a knee instead - a sign of respect while still a sign of protest. Silent, peaceful, respectful protest.
Remember him? He lost his job and was blackballed by his industry, for making a silent, peaceful political protest.

Point is, what is it going to take? Is it going to take an 'Edmund Pettus Bridge' event? Or another Kent State? Worse? Peaceful hasn't worked, clearly violence hasn't either, what's next?

By the way, 'protesters' who show up at state capitols, heavily armed, with racist symbols held high, have been treated quite differently from unarmed protesters waving homemade signs.

peace - we need some
c.

 islander wrote:
 


I agree with some of your thoughts, islander, but it doesn't take long for America, especially American government officials, to turn from sympathy to rejection when people start rioting. It's very hard to build plans for constructive change and progress that prevent backsliding by destroying property and physically attacking the establishment. Martin Luther King said in a March 14, 1968 that "a riot is the language of the unheard", but he said in the same speech that "I'm absolutely convinced that a riot merely intensifies the fears of the white community while relieving the guilt." In the 9/27/66 video clip below, King calls riots "self-defeating and socially destructive." 

In an echo of your points, islander, King notes that the "mood of the Negro community now is one of urgency" and that he expects similar protests in 1967 and 1968 and..

But we are at a crossroads as a country NOW. It should be crystal clear to us all that the United States is in drastic need of change. It wouldn't surprise me if the riots we're having across the country today have something to do with our economic crisis. In the 4/14/68 speech, MLK states that  

All too often when there is mass unemployment in the black community, it's referred to as a social problem and when there is mass unemployment in the white community, it's referred to as a depression. But there is no basic difference. The fact is, that the negro faces a literal depression all over the U.S. The unemployment rate on the basis of statistics from the labor department is about 8.8 per cent in the black community. But these statistics only take under consideration individuals who were once in the labor market, or individuals who go to employment offices to seek employment. But they do not take under consideration the thousands of people who have given up, who have lost motivation, the thousands of people who have had so many doors closed in their faces that they feel defeated and they no longer go out and look for jobs, the thousands who've come to feel that life is a long and desolate corridor with no exit signs. These people are considered the discouraged and when you add the discouraged to the individuals who can't be calculated through statistics in the unemployment category, the unemployment rate in the negro community probably goes to 16 or 17 percent.

...

There is the problem of under-employment, and there are thousands and thousand, I would say millions of people in the negro community who are poverty stricken - not because they are not working but because they receive wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the main stream of the economic life of our nation. Most of the poverty stricken people of America are persons who are working every day and they end up getting part-time wages for full-time work.



We can focus on the spectacle of the riots or we can realize that our economy inequality and federal government—now captured by the rich and corporate giants—have pushed tens of millions of us into poverty, perhaps for the long term. We can and should fight across social, economic and color lines for justice and greater equality in all walks of life.

It sucks that most of the US have ignored the points that King made about the economic and emotional depression that blacks faced back then, along with the working treadmill they were trapped on. But guess what: we're at 16-17% unemployment across the nation. The middle class is disappearing and working people are struggling to make it on the wages they get. Many white people are suffering economically now as much as black people have for decades.

The riots should be the starting point for serious and lasting structural change, peacefully achieved. Every crisis presents an opportunity. We have multiple crises but also pressing chances to make our country a land of equality and opportunity. We can either watch our country burn down or unite to change it for the better.

This 4:30 interview between MLK and Mike Wallace is prescient.

 miamizsun wrote:
 

They have been protesting (relatively) peacefully for years. They show up and march after every unjustified shooting. They have been doing what 'they were supposed to have been doing' for years now and we just keep putting bodies on the pile.   At what point are they allowed to give up on the party/society sanctioned protest  line?  Shouldn't we (larger we) have stopped killing unarmed /innocent black people after say Rodney King, or one of the other several dozen cases?  How many time do you get to poke the bear without getting a big reaction?  Why are we surprised all of the sudden?

Honestly, I can't believe it took this long to get here. And really I expect it to die down with other current events until next year when the police kill again and then we'll see some real shit... unless it takes a few more bodies to really get the dander up.  I'm ashamed at our response to the perfectly rational responses to the last 347* killings. 

* -  number may be skewed by coverage and atrocity level chosen. 

 Steely_D wrote: 
isn't this the opposite of what they should be doing?

if people are inciting or provoking violence towards innocent and peaceful people they may be doing it wrong

it seems this will lead to problems that will probably hurt their cause

peace

The Chaser goes viral with provocative post mocking Zuckerberg’s position on Facebook factchecking

Rumor Mill
Watching fake news spread in 1942.

“In a total war,” argued the War Department’s Bureau of Public Relations, “words are weapons.” Phony stories that circulated throughout communities and regions were especially dangerous. “Rumor is one of the weapons employed by the enemy against the effectiveness of the Army.” Office of Facts and Figures head Archibald MacLeish warned that “Hitler thinks Americans are suckers,” and an educational periodical suggested that many rumors “are Nazi-inspired.”

While the nation’s enemies might have wished to plant rumors among Americans to damage morale, they could not have invented anything better than the rumors coming from within the country itself. Modern readers concerned about the spread of misinformation may be interested to know that this is not a recent development.

The impact of rumormongering on national morale was on President Roosevelt’s mind just days after Pearl Harbor. In his first fireside chat after the attack, he urged Americans “to reject all rumors,” noting that “these ugly little hints of complete disaster fly thick and fast in wartime.” Many of the rumors flying through the nation’s capital concerned the true extent of the damage done at Pearl Harbor and what city would be targeted next.

To stay atop the most widespread rumors and perhaps find a way to counter them, in 1942 the Roosevelt administration began systematically monitoring Americans. The Office of War Information, created by executive order on June 13, 1942, initiated the War Rumor Project, which relied on barbers, bartenders, doctors, hairdressers, police officers, and drugstore owners to eavesdrop on their neighbors and customers and report what they heard to their local OWI office. The use of such “rumor reporters” was not new; Roman emperors had appointed delatores to mingle with the general population and report back any criticisms of the emperor. The OWI’s army of “reporters,” who surreptitiously listened to offhand remarks, conversations, and idle speculation, left us a remarkable window into the darker corners of wartime America’s psyche. (...)

In South Carolina, the fear of what black domestic workers might do was so pervasive that Governor Richard Jefferies ordered state police to scour every county for reports on “Eleanor Clubs.” While no evidence was found, the police reported that “the white people appear to be considerably disturbed” over what they were hearing about the clubs. (...)

 kcar wrote:

via GIPHY

Jesus Christ Fined $1000 After Police Deem Resurrection A Non-Essential Outing

 jahgirl8 wrote:
 

"Many surely appreciate the rare apology."


Hamster of mother, father in elderberry fragrance.