79 Years Ago

On 10 June 1944, four days after D-Day, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Haute-Vienne in Nazi-occupied France was destroyed when 643 civilians, including non-combatant women and children, were massacred by a German Waffen-SS company as collective punishment for resistance activity in the area.

The Germans essentially murdered all people they found in the village at the time, as well as people brought in from surroundings. The death toll includes people who were merely passing by in the village at the time of the SS company's arrival. Men were brought into barns and sheds where they were shot in the legs and doused with gasoline before the barns were set on fire. Women and children were herded into a church that was set on fire; those who tried to escape through the windows were machine gunned. Extensive looting took place.

All in all, 643 individuals are recorded to have been murdered. The death toll includes 17 Spanish citizens, 8 Italians, and 3 Poles.

36 people escaped the massacre. The last living survivor, Robert Hébras, known for his activism for reconciliation between France, Germany, and Austria, died on 11 February 2023, aged 97. He was 18 years old at the time of the massacre.

The village was never rebuilt. A new village was built from scratch nearby after the war. President Charles de Gaulle ordered that the ruins of the old village be maintained as a permanent memorial and museum.

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As reported by USAAF navigator Raymond Murphy - shot down 2 months before the massacre, and hidden by French resistance:

About 3 weeks ago, I saw a town within 4 hours bicycle ride up [sic] the Gerbeau farm [of Resistance leader Camille Gerbeau] where some 500 men, women, and children had been murdered by the Germans. I saw one baby who had been crucified.

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Odd Quotes

Google "this day in history" = 9.4 billion hits

Google "this day in black history" = 5.6 billion hits

So now all I need is a bot that will look to see how many "black history" events are included in the "history" results.

A cursory, randomly-clicking sampling is not encouraging.

• White people living today are not to blame for the shitty things black people have had done to them - since even before 1619 - by WASPy white people in the past.
• That doesn't mean we have no responsibility for what's going on now, and it has to be obvious that some shitty things are still happening to black people.

How It's Done

This is how you do it, BTW. There's been some snarky japery online about how Thunberg was joking with the cops and kinda jockeying for good camera angles - implying she wasn't serious about it and so that proved she was "just doing it for the publicity".

Well - yeah - that's how you do this kinda thing. You're not there looking to pick a fight. You're not there to hurt anybody, or to get hurt. You're there to bring a little attention to what you think is an injustice of some kind.

Getting arrested is part of the deal.

It may seem a little weird that there are rules on how you go about breaking the rules, but that's how civilized honorable people behave.

Greta Thunberg detained by the Norwegian police

during pro-Sami protest this Wednesday, March 1

OSLO (Reuters) -Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg was twice detained during a demonstration in support of Indigenous rights in Oslo on Wednesday, with police removing her and other activists from the finance ministry and later the environment ministry.

Thunberg had on Monday joined protesters demanding the removal of 151 wind turbines from reindeer pastures used by Sami herders in central Norway. They say a transition to green energy should not come at the expense of Indigenous rights.

The demonstrators have in recent days blocked access to some government buildings, putting the centre-left minority government in a crisis mode and prompting Energy Minister Terje Aasland to call off an official visit to Britain.

Norway's supreme court ruled in 2021 that the turbines, erected on two wind farms at Fosen and part of Europe's largest onshore wind power complex, violated Sami rights under international conventions, but they remain in operation more than 16 months later.

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IOKIYAR

Daddy State Awareness, rule 7

The law is my sword, but not your shield

The law is my shield, but not your sword

(pay wall)

Opinion
To clarify, I meant ban abortion except for Republican politicians

Ah! I see the confusion! Did I say total abortion ban? I apologize. I did mean “total,” of course, for you. But I intended it to be implied that the law would not be binding to all. I thought that would be audible — as most of my remarks are these days — as a kind of dog whistle?

All the particularly deserving were to be exempt from the ban — no, not children, necessarily; I think forced birth might be a powerful growth experience for them. No, not those for whom it is medically necessary, although I certainly would like voters to feel that probably the law was not a death sentence, whether or not that’s true. Victims of rape, or incest? No, no, I meant: Republican politicians.

I understand your confusion. You think that because I am invoking a value, I believe in it for myself. Actually myself is the last person who should have to be bothered by it! And if you have any questions, please consult my T-shirt, which has a little arrow pointing at my chin and says “I’m With The In-Group The Law Protects But Does Not Bind.” No, I don’t have any more of those (they sold out almost immediately!), but I have lots of “I’m With The Out-Group The Law Binds But Does Not Protect.” What size do you wear?

Do not come to me with my own logic and reasoning and ask me to apply it to myself or my candidates of choice, as though I were of the sort who is bound by law! Law is for other people! You saw me complaining about state secrets being shared, or files being improperly stored, and thought you could repeat my own words back to me as a “gotcha,” when I seemed to fall short in the same way? No chance! I cannot be gotten!

Don’t you understand? To me, everything is permitted! Judging myself by my own standards sounds, frankly, exhausting and impossible.

Do not think for a fraction of a second, though, that I will offer you any of the same leniency. I’m sorry, but you simply don’t have the leeway, given that you have to uphold your values and mine — and some other ones you probably didn’t even know I have you upholding!

Hypocrisy? For this to be hypocrisy, I would have to profess one thing and do another. So let me take this opportunity to apologize: If I have appeared to profess anything other than the raw desire for power, that was not my intention. If I at any point seemed to espouse values, that was a huge misunderstanding. I am very, very sorry!

See? No hypocrisy here! What a relief! Now, back to this ban. And, next, if we’re lucky, my plan to seize control of elections so I can weed out the votes with which I disagree. Remember, if I do it, it’s solving voter fraud, not committing it! Then, will I show my intense concern for the deficit by making it bigger, with tax cuts? Who knows! I am hypocrisy-proof and free as the wind!

Today In History

11-DEC-1917

Equal Justice Initiative:

U.S. Army Executes 13 Black Soldiers in Houston, Texas

On December 11, 1917, the U.S. Army executed 13 Black soldiers who had been previously court-martialed and denied any right to appeal. In July 1917, the all-Black 3rd Battalion of the 24th United States Infantry Regiment was stationed at Camp Logan, near Houston, Texas, to guard white soldiers preparing for deployment to Europe. From the beginning of their assignment at Camp Logan, the Black soldiers were harassed and abused by the Houston police force.

Early on August 23, 1917, several soldiers, including a well-respected corporal, were brutally beaten and jailed by police. Police officers regularly beat African American troops and arrested them on baseless charges; the August 23 assault was the latest in a string of police abuses that had pushed the Black soldiers to their breaking point.

Seemingly under attack by local white authorities, over 150 Black soldiers armed themselves and left for Houston to confront the police about the persistent violence. They planned to stage a peaceful march to the police station as a demonstration against their mistreatment by police. However, just outside the city, the soldiers encountered a mob of armed white men. In the ensuing violence, four soldiers, four policemen, and 12 civilians were killed.

In the aftermath, the military investigated and court-martialed 157 Black soldiers, trying them in three separate proceedings. In the first military trial, held in November 1917, 63 soldiers were tried and 54 were convicted on all charges. At sentencing, 13 were sentenced to death and 43 received life imprisonment. The 13 condemned soldiers were denied any right to appeal and were hanged on December 11, 1917.

The second and third trials resulted in death sentences for an additional 16 soldiers; however, those men were given the opportunity to appeal, largely due to negative public reactions to the first 13 unlawful executions. President Woodrow Wilson ultimately commuted the death sentences for 10 of the remaining soldiers facing death, but the remaining six were hanged. In total, the Houston unrest resulted in the executions of 19 Black soldiers. NAACP advocacy and legal assistance later helped secure the early release of most of the 50 soldiers serving life sentences. No white civilians were ever brought to trial for involvement in the violence.

Today's Eternal Sadness

We don't know the details on this one of course, but I think it's safe to say it seems we're not making a lot of progress on the "Cops Need To To Stop Killing People" issue.

Axios;

Unarmed Virginia Black man shot by sheriff's deputy while on 911 call

Virginia state police are investigating reports that an unarmed Black man was shot by a sheriff's deputy who mistook his cordless house phone for a gun. The deputy had earlier given him a ride home, authorities said.

Driving the news:

• Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Office released video late Friday of the shooting of Isaiah Brown, 32, who's in critical condition in a hospital with 10 bullet wounds following the shooting early Wednesday.

Details:

• Sheriff Roger Harris released body camera footage and a 911 call from Brown at a news conference confirming that the unnamed deputy had been placed on administrative leave.
• During the call, a man identified as Brown can be heard saying he'll kill his brother and "give me the gun" after his brother won't let him in to retrieve his car keys. He tells the dispatcher several times he does not have a gun.
• The deputy who gave Brown a ride home some 45 minutes earlier after his car broke down responded to the call as a "domestic incident."
• The deputy can be heard saying "he's got a gun to his head" before telling him to drop it and to stop walking toward him. Gunshots can be heard ringing out.

What they're saying:

• Brown’s lawyer, David Haynes, said in a statement to news outlets, "The officer mistook a cordless house phone for a gun.
• "There is no indication that Isaiah did anything other than comply with dispatch’s orders and raised his hands with the phone in his hand as instructed."

Can we at least acknowledge one tiny detail that should be obvious to anyone who's not blind, deaf, quadriplegic and lobotomized - the assumption that everybody's got a fucking gun has to be part of the fucking problem!?!

Today's Quote

The fullness of racism’s cruel bounty is not found in the bodies of the dead alone, but also in the spirits of the living. Most of us will not be killed by police officers. White supremacy will not kill us so directly, so flagrantly. Instead it dogs our steps, wages niggling wars on our peace itself. Its power is in the daily theft of our joy, our dignity, our sanity. It is in the way we always have to weigh and calculate, how we can never assume good intentions and honest mistakes. Because it is always there, in swirling eddies around our ankles, waiting to drag us under.

“Slow Poison,” Ezekiel Kweku

A Death In Minneapolis

Those 4 cops got fired with uncommon alacrity.

Maybe it's because the mayor is in knee-jerk mode ...



... and maybe it's because he knows there's a lot more to the story that's yet to come out.

Over to you, Justin King:

We can hope we're seeing one of those "Jesus-Fuck-Enough-Of-This-Racist-Cop-Shit-Already" moments.

844-WYT-FEAR

NYT Opinions

"...I learned he's my neighbor - and I'm a racist."

Today's Tweet

Along the lines of: Bill Gates walks into a soup kitchen, and the Average Personal Wealth goes up to several hundred million dollars, but you've still got a room full of homeless people plus Bill Gates.

Fun with arithmetic.

If I give 10 apples to one person and no apples to nine people, the average person has one apple.

Why are nine people mad at me? https://t.co/ezQWsReU6i

— Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) October 23, 2017

Not Just Another Dumb Jock

Gregg Popovich struggles at times to find the words, but if this is at all representative of how people in positions of influence are thinking, then we're doing better than I thought.

And Steve Kerr talks about the Warriors taking a pass on their White House visit - making a very solid statement on values:

BTW - nobody is protesting the national anthem, and nobody is protesting the flag.

BTW2 - stop telling me 45* has accomplished something positive. You might as well say it was a good thing those 300 passengers were killed in just about the most gruesome way imaginable because we got all these great new data points on how to improve airline safety.

Playing The Differences

Comey's testimony, explaining why you prosecute one guy and not the next regarding their handling of classified material.

"He" in this discussion is David Patraeus.

Hillary sent an email: Lock her up! Petraeus leaked "highly classified" information: Make him Secretary of State.pic.twitter.com/ygL13Phf15

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) November 28, 2016

Let's review:

• Hillary's private server and 3 document attachments not properly identified by the sender = Lock Her Up
• Patraeus sharing actual classified info with his mistress = Secretary of State

Today's Quote

"When wealth is passed off as merit, bad luck is seen as bad character. This is how ideologues justify punishing the sick and the poor. But poverty is neither a crime nor a character flaw. Stigmatize those who let people die, not those who struggle to live."

--Sarah Kendzior

hat tip = Facebook friend LM-M

Crumbling

hat tip = FB buddy LM-M

Basically - we don't wanna bust the biggies because that'll be bad for business; it could hurt some companies that are very important to all of us in a lot of ways, and could have a really bad impact on the economy as a whole.

By that logic, we don't wanna bust the meth peddler on the corner down the block because that could drive down the property values of the whole neighborhood(?)

Shocked But Not Surprised

Today's Worst

Seems like every other day or so, something pops up about something I've really loved for a long time that makes me have to consider blowin' it off for a while or telling it to take a flying fuck at a rollin' doughnut.

The world just kinda sucks right now.

In Contrast

Two kinds of people in the world - those who have more time than money and those with more money than sense.

People (and remember, "corporations are people, my friend") who have enough money get to pay for their crimes by donating cash to whatever government agency gets in on the action.  When the government is being starved of the funds it needs to operate properly, you're going to see the evolution of semi-entrepreneurial efforts to make up those short-falls.  Eventually you get exactly what we're seeing now - people in government selling freedom to wealthy law-breakers for whatever price can be negotiated over a few breakfast meetings downtown.

So Credit Suisse "pleads guilty" and mails a few big fat checks to Eric Holder and to Andrew Cuomo et al, and they go on their merry way.  A few upper management suits have been fired, but are you willing to bet they don't land on their feet somewhere else?  Or that they didn't picked up a nice severance package on their way out the door?

Meanwhile, a woman named Cecily McMillan is going to prison because she elbowed a cop who (essentially) sexually assaulted her while trying to arrest her during one of the dust-ups between NYPD and Occupy Wall Street - and she was sentenced to 90 days in jail and 5 years probation even tho' something like seven jurors wrote letters to the judge saying that while they had to vote to convict, they think she deserves leniency and shouldn't be punished by having to serve time in jail.



No peace without justice.

Zimmerman Walks - Reax

I Am Not Trayvon Martin

From Ebony:

Can you imagine the outcry if seven White youths had been gunned down by police and security guards in a matter of months? Can you imagine the extensive political interest, the media stories that would saturate the airwaves? Can you imagine Fox News or any number of newspapers reporting about a school suspension for one of the victims or doctoring pictures in an attempt to make these victims less sympathetic? Can you imagine a person holding up a sign calling these victims “thugs” and “hoodlums.”Just think about the media frenzy, the concern from politicians, and the national horror every time a school shooting happens in Suburbia or every time a White woman goes missing...can you imagine if women routinely went missing from your community and the news and police department simply couldn't be bothered?

No, you can't. And you don't have to.

And I just kinda hate thinking that somebody who's probably young enough to be my granddaughter has a better handle on this than I do.


(hat tip = Democratic Underground)

Punish The Do-Gooders

A high school girls' basketball team wore pink unies as part of a fund-raiser for Make-A-Wish and the opposing team's AD and coaches used the "violation" to try to gain a competitive edge.

From NE (Nebraska) Prep Zone:

Before the third quarter began, Columbus coach Dave Licari discussed the uniforms with the officials. State rules require the home team's uniforms to be predominantly white.

The officials then called a technical foul on Burke, and a Columbus player sank both free throws. The Discoverers went on to win 62-47.

Some people have no soul and no honor.  Order solely for the sake of order is exactly the kind of bureaucratic tyranny that everybody rightly hates.