Teresa Klein Called the Police on a Black Child Who Bumped Into Her

In Brooklyn last week, Teresa Klein, a white woman called the police claiming that a young black boy touched her behind in a Brooklyn deli.

Yes, she did. Klein was quickly labeled “Cornerstore Caroline” by Jason Littlejohn, a Flatbush resident who recorded the commotion outside of the Sahara Deli Market, in which Klein rails in a phone call to police:

“I was just sexually assaulted by a child. The son grabbed my ass and she decided to yell at me.”

The boy, who is about 9, burst into tears as bystanders confronted Klein about the incident.

Here’s what happened … Klein was in the bodega and a young boy was standing nearby; as that child turned, his backpack brushed against Klein’s backside and she went off, accusing a nine-year-old boy of sexual assault.

But he was a black child … shades of Emmett Till who was murdered years ago because a white woman lied about him making advances toward her. Thank the goddess we moved on a half-step from those days.

And thank the goddess for cell phones and surveillance cameras, because now everyone, including Teresa Klein, knows that she overreacted.

For three days this story was all over social media, with cellphone and instore camera footage, detailing the events, and finally, at the end of the week, Teresa Klein returned to the store to buy cigarettes and to face her neighbors, who heckled her as she spoke to journalists.

Then, and only after being prompted by a reporter, Klein entered the store to see the footage of this little bump with a backpack. And only then did Klein apologize:

“Young man. I don’t know your name but I’m sorry.”

Klein denies acting out of bigotry toward the boy but complained that the child’s mother reacted aggressively when she said the boy had touched her.

Huh; you shriek at a child, and accuse him of sexual assault, and then, when his mother steps in to defend her child, she acts defensively? Go figure.

Stop it. White people, just stop it. I don’t care who the president is, or how he acts, we should be better than this.

If you scared a black child’s gonna grab your ass, stay home!

If you’re afraid of black people barbecuing in the park stay out of the park!

If you’re nervous about two black men sitting in Starbucks, drink your goddamned coffee at home!

If seeing a young black child mowing a neighbor’s lawn causes you concern, sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up!

If you spot a black man babysitting two white kids and you think there’s something sinister happening, go home!

And as for you white people who also see these things and hear these things and find this kind of blatant racist behavior unacceptable, you need to speak up, too, or you might just wanna stay home yourselves.

Say something to the racists. Shine a light on them and their behavior will crawl back under a rock where it belongs.

NYT

SCOTUS Enables Disenfranchisement of Native American Voters

Mere minutes after Brett, AKA Justice Penis In Your Face, joined them, the Supreme Court chose to do nothing and allow the war against voting to continue by choosing not to block North Dakota’s restrictive voter ID law, which will make it harder for people in that state to cast their ballots.

That’s why voting is so important.

Now, Republicans, who you know are lying because their lips are moving, say that this law is necessary to prevent voter fraud even though there is no evidence that any voter fraud exists; it’s just the GOP using fear to help themselves.

That’s why voting is so important.

This new voter ID law was introduced a few months after Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a Democrat, eked out a narrow upset victory in the 2012 election, winning by less than 3,000 votes. And because that scared them GOP lawmakers responded by passing restrictive voter ID legislation that all but guaranteed that large numbers of Native Americans—who tend to vote Democratic—won’t be vote because this new law requires voters to bring to the polls an ID that displays a “current residential street address”.

Not such a big deal, right? A street address? We’ve all got one, but …  this new law is likely to disenfranchise thousands of Native Americans, many of whom live on reservations and don’t have street addresses; and because the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t provide residential mail delivery in remote areas, many members of North Dakota’s Native American tribes list their P.O. boxes on their IDs. But this new law says a P.O. box isn’t enough and since the Supreme Court refused to block the law, people who show up at their polling station with a P.O. box on their ID will be turned away.

Declaring the law unconstitutional and a violation of the Voting Rights Act, the Native American Rights Fund sued North Dakota in early 2016. A federal district judge agreed, issuing a ruling in April that blocked the ID requirement, but the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit overturned that ruling in a 2-1 decision in September and the Supreme Court’s denial of the Native American Rights Fund’s emergency appeal means that the law will stand, creating a huge amount of confusion for thousands of voters whose IDs were valid for the June primaries but are no longer adequate for them to vote this November.

That’s why voting is so important.

In an election that may wind up being decided by just a few thousand votes, the court’s decision could be deeply consequential for the country, not just those who live in North Dakota.

It boils down to this: the Republican party, putting their own interests over the country, is doing everything it can to restrict access to the voting booth. This is an attack on democracy, a threat to democracy, and along with what’s happening in Georgia, where people of color are finding themselves removed from voter registration lists, the GOP is taking away the right to vote, the right to choose, the right to have a say in government, from people of color.

And since the Supreme Court has demonstrated that it doesn’t care about protecting people’s right to vote, then it’s up to us, those who can vote, to get out and vote, and vote out any and all Republicans who want to deny anyone the right to cast a ballot.

That’s why voting is so important.

ACLU

The Funny Papers

Jim Morin, Reynold Phillip, Ben Jennings, RJ Matson, Pat Bagley, Drew Sheneman, Steve Benson, Adam Zyglis, Mike Luckovich, Clay Bennett

It's Snarkurday!

Color me not surprised, but swimming moron Ryan Lochte is seeking treatment for issues with alcohol, after he, and this is real, got into a fight with his hotel room door in Newport Beach last week.

Lochte ALLEGEDLY returned to his hotel room at 3 AM and, rather than use a key like a sober person, tried to kick it in. Hotel management called the police but, this time, Ryan managed to avoid arrest, though it did push him into rehab.

Score? Door – 1; Lochte – 0.

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Also having issues with sobriety and making good choices is Pooch Hall, Daryll Donovan, on Ray Donovan, who was arrested last week after police were alerted to calls about Pooch driving around with a toddler on his lap.

Does he think he’s Britney, bitch? Worse yet is that it appears Pooch was letting his toddler steer the vehicle, because he was ALLEGEDLY under the influence. And it gets worse, because Pooch and two-year-old Djulian crashed into a parked car and when police arrived, they found a car seat laying among some junk in the backseat, not installed in any way.

Police smelled booze on Pooch’s breath, and he was given a blood alcohol test, which allegedly rang in at .25—three times the legal limit—and he was arrested for DUI and felony child endangerment.

Djulian probably won’t be removed from the home since Pooch and the child’s mother live together, and she wasn’t involved.

Still, maybe Pooch needs an adjoining room with Ryan?

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It was just a few months ago that Clayne Crawford was fired from Fox’s Lethal Weapon TV reboot after ALLEGEDLY scuffling with crew members and his co-star Damon Wayans. Clayne was replaced with Seann William Scott and the show was picked up for a third season but the off-screen drama has continued. Now, it’s Damon Wayans who wants out of the show after its current 13-episode run is done:

“I’m going to be quitting the show in December after we finish the initial 13… So, I really don’t know what they’re planning, but that’s what I’m planning.”

And why is Damon quitting the show?

“I’m a 58-year-old diabetic and I’m working 16-hour days. I’m too old for this.”

Gosh, you’d think he might have said something when they fired Crawford and just shut the whole thing down. But is this just a ploy for more coins? See, it was just a few weeks back that Wayans was raving about the new season, the new Crawford-less season:

“We’re only the first [episode] in but it is definitely a lot lighter in tone, and we are having fun, on and off set … It’s just a lot looser, nobody’s overthinking, just doing and having fun doing it.”

He went from having a lot of fun to overworked and too old in thirty days, so what’s Wayans gonna do?

Return to standup and tour the country because that easier than a steady job.

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Remember when Kim Kardastrophe was “robbed” at gunpoint in Paris two years ago. It was a fairly horrific experience for her because E! hadn’t sent any cameras along to film what would have been a Very Special Episode.

But still, Kardastrophe has recovered nicely. She’s still an empty-headed reality star married to an empty-headed lunatic and she also got paid $6.1 million from her insurance company for the stolen items.

Not so nice are those people who provided security for Kim’s big ass and jewels. Her bodyguard,

Pascal Duvier and the company he was working for, PROTECTSECURITY, are being sued by the insurance company for the $6.1 million they paid Kardastrophe.

But, hey, Kim gets her coins and E gets a new episode, and all’s right with the world of vacuous empty-headed reality stars.

photo, inset photo

We haven’t heard much from Tommy Cruise of late, because, well, his career is slowly tanking and so he’s probably in a Scientology bomb shelter in Laguna Hills asking Xenu for advice.

But now, thanks to Leah Remini, who claimed that Kate Holmes could lose custody of Suri because she talked to Leah for her anti-Scientology show, we learn that it’s been years since Tom has set eyes upon his daughter.

Rumor has it that Tom could see Suri, if he wanted to, but doesn’t because she’s not a Scientologist. Tom and Suri have not been photographed together in five years, but a Co$ source—no doubt Kirstie Alley after being fed a bushel of donuts—said:

“Every person is allowed to see their child if they wanted to … He chooses not to because she is not a Scientologist.”

The custody agreement allows Tom to see Suri 10 days a month but so far, he has opted in to doing that a total of zero times.

Ooh, I see a Father of the Year award at the next Scientology HoeDown!

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Repost: Matthew Shepard Died Today

*originally posted October 12, 2009

He was just a kid. A slight kid, a sweet kid. A gay. But it wasn't the kid who got noticed on this day seventeen years ago, it was his murder that caught us all, gay and straight, off-guard.

Matthew Wayne Shepard was a twenty-one year-old college student at the University of Wyoming. And he was gay. And, for being gay, he was tortured and left to die near Laramie, Wyoming. His attack occurred on October 6, but Mathew didn't die until almost a week later.

Matthew was born in Wyoming, and grew up there, though he spent his last high school year at The American School in Switzerland. After that he returned home to attend Catawba College and Casper College before becoming a first-year political science major at the University of Wyoming.

Political science. Matthew might have been a politician, or a community organizer, or a gay rights activist. Or a teacher or a bartender or any number of other things which we'll never know because he never got the chance to be anything else.

He was described by his parents, Judy and Dennis, as "an optimistic and accepting young man [who] had a special gift of relating to almost everyone. He was the type of person who was very approachable and always looked to new challenges. Matthew had a great passion for equality and always stood up for the acceptance of people's differences."

He might have done so much.

But Matthew knew he was gay, and so did many other people. And like so many in the LGBT community, he faced physical and verbal abuse all throughout his life, and death. In 1995, during a high school trip to Morocco, he was beaten and raped, leaving him withdrawn from friends and family and battling depression and panic attacks. But he soldiered on, went back to school and seemed to be coming out of his depression.

Then, just after midnight on October 7, 1998, Matthew met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson in a bar. McKinney and Henderson offered Shepard a ride in their car. They took him to a remote area, tied him to a fence, robbed, pistol whipped, tortured him, and left him to die. They also found his address and decided to rob his home as well.

Matthew Shepard was discovered 18 hours later by Aaron Kreifels, who mistook the beaten, dying young man for a scarecrow. Matthew was barely alive. And suffering. There was a fracture from the back of his head to the front of his right ear. He had severe brain stem damage, which affected his body's ability to regulate heart rate, body temperature and other vital functions. There were also a dozen or more lacerations around his head, face and neck. His injuries were deemed too severe for doctors to operate.

Matthew Shepard never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead on October 12, 1998.

Police arrested McKinney and Henderson shortly thereafter, finding the bloody gun as well as the victim's shoes and wallet in their truck. The two men had attempted to persuade their girlfriends to provide alibis, and used the "Gay Panic" defense, arguing that they beat, tortured and killed Matthew Shepard because he came on to them. They even tried to say they only wanted to rob him, not hurt him.

But they hurt an entire community.

Russell Henderson pleaded guilty in April, 1999, and agreed to testify against Aaron McKinney to avoid the death penalty; he was given two consecutive life sentences. The jury found Aaron McKinney guilty of felony murder, and as they began to deliberate on the death penalty, Shepard's parents brokered a deal, resulting in McKinney receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

In a statement read to the court, Dennis Shepard told McKinney the sentence means:

“You won’t be a symbol. No years of publicity, no chance of commutation, no nothing—just a miserable future and a miserable end. It works for me…. Mr. McKinney, I give you life in the memory of one who no longer lives. May you have a long life, and may you thank Matthew every day for it.”

Matthew. He was just a kid. A slight kid, a sweet kid. A gay kid. And he could have been any one of us, but in death, Matthew did what hadn't really been done before. He shone a light on hate crimes against the LGBT community. He gave us a face and a smile that needn't have been snuffed out so readily.

He could have been any one of us. He is every one of us.

Bobservations

The other night Carlos and I sat down to watch Madam Secretary. Although filmed, I’m sure, months ago, it was an episode directly aimed at _____, and featured three surprising guest stars: Hillary Clinton, Colin Powell, and Madeleine Albright, playing themselves.

But the funniest moment was when one of the characters was undergoing surgery and a doctor came out to tell her parents about it all; he was rather attractive and so I said:

“Hello Doctor!”

At the precise moment Carlos said:

“Hello Doctor Delgado!”

We looked at each and both said:

“What did you just say?”

Cuz Doctor Delgado was adorable. Carlos then pointed out that he had heard the doctor’s name while I didn’t not, so I replied:

“Who cares about his name! Wheel me into the operating room, Doctor!”

It was surprising since we rarely agree on a good looking man.

After casting her vote the way old white men told her, Maine’s GOP Senator Susan Collins slammed opponents’ efforts to fundraise against her vote to confirm Brett, calling them nothing more than blatant ploys to buy votes in a future election:

“They are asking me to perform an official act and if I do not do what they want, $2 million plus is going to go to my opponent. I think that if our politics has come to the point where people are trying to buy votes and buy positions, then we are in a very sad place. This is a classic quid-pro-quo as defined in our bribery laws.”

Um, actually, you pandering fuck, the people of Maine were telling the Senator who works for them how they wanted you to vote, but you ignored them and cast your lot with fans of sexual predators. And so, as is their right, your constituents will give that money, some $3.5 million to whomever runs against you in 2020.

That’s quite a war chest to start with.

Say Goodnight Susan, cuz you’ll be going home in 2020.

No doubt you’ve heard about the Banksy painting, “Girl With Balloon”, that sold at auction this week for $1.4 million dollars.

As soon as the deal was set, the painting shredded itself in a shredder built into the frame while onlookers gasped.

Banksy, whom no one has seen, is notorious for not loving his art being sold, and so this prank was perfect. Especially given that it appears he was in the room and set off the shredder with a remote control!

Even better? After the shredding the value of the painting allegedly doubled!

Last week Fox News … because, of course … host Greg Gutfeld actually compared the Democratic treatment of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of sexual assault, to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Yes, he did.

“Crucifixion was an important event because it was designed to establish a wall between justice and mob rule—Christ died so that the mob wouldn’t survive. What Democrats have tried to do is tear down the wall between justice and mob rule. They decided to crucify someone once again.”

Gutfeld claims to be a religious agnostic. I’m not sure about that, but I know he’s a pandering illiterate dumbass.

Last week, Melanie _____ played with orphaned elephants in Kenya.

Odd, that, since her stepson, Junior, plays with elephants with guns, and then takes pictures of himself holding a severed elephant tail in one hand and a knife in the other during a big game hunting trip in Africa.

Hypocrites, all.

PS What was this, some kind of Melanie fashion shoot? I mean, she donned more outfits than Cher during a farewell tour.

Hayward Duresseau contracted Meningitis eight months ago during a trip to San Francisco to visit his family; as a result, he lost his sight, his hearing, and was paralyzed from the waist down. During a three month stay in the hospital, he was able to regain his sight and mobility, but not his hearing.

Then, with the help of a cochlear implant, Hayward Duresseau was finally able to regain his hearing and the first words he heard those of his partner Kerry Kennedy proposing:

“I wanted the first thing that I said to him to be asking for his hand.”

Duresseau says he was shocked:

“I’m hearing all these click sounds ... and I can hear Kerry, and the first thing that comes out of his mouth — it’s this big spiel about what we’ve been through and he’s down on one knee.”

Love.Love.

The Big Baby in the White House hates protestors—at least the ones who protest him—and now wants to limit the right to demonstrate near the White House and on the National Mall.

I guess the protests disrupt the Fat Bastard’s nap?

The proposal would close 80 percent of the White House sidewalk, put limits on spontaneous demonstrations, and open the door to charging fees for protesting … I wonder who would get the money for that?

Seriously, we need to shut this Mushroom Dick—see what I did there—tator down.

So, there’s a TV show called God Friended Me, about an atheist who is getting friend suggestions from, um, God, and then realizes he needs to help them.

It really isn’t a show I gravitate too, you know, all touchy feely and happy ending and shiz, but … it does star the adorable Brandon Micheal Hall—yes, that’s the correct spelling—and the equally adorbs Suraj Sharma.

It’s kind of nice to see people of color represented on TV, especially the cute kind, but does this mean I’m getting soft in my older age?

F**k that! Just sayin’.

Architecture Wednesday: Arkles Bay Residence

This four-bedroom home, in Whangaparaoa … and wouldn’t you just love saying that …  is nestled amongst the branches of protected Pohutukawa trees and looks out toward the Wade River as it flows into Arkles Bay.

The architects designed the home brief for complete privacy from the street yet maximum views over the water. In order to fulfill this purpose, vertical metal cladding wraps up and over an angular form that sits close to a cliff edge. From the street, glimpses of windows, living areas, vertical cedar cladding and low-maintenance bagged masonry can be seen, but the visual impact of the metal cladding provides a sense of the mysterious.

Out back, though, façades are softened with the careful combination of materials and forms and generous windows looking out to the bay. There are separate outdoor living areas, some screened and sheltered to provide protection against the winds.

The angular roof form ties a single-story garage to the first-floor bedroom and living spaces and folds gently over the south-eastern façade.

A central stairwell framed by double-height glazing works with a skylight to create a light well through the heart of the home over an interior garden. Bedrooms face the rear yard, or private gardens, water views, or seem nestled in the tree tops.

It might be in a tightly packed neighborhood, but this home, with the way it’s been sited, and with those amazing views and trees, seems all alone and completely private.

Now, if I could learn to pronounce those words …

Click to emBIGGERate...

Creative Arch

Three Americas

A middle school in Stafford, Virginia held a lockdown drill—what to do in case of an active shooter … don’t get me started on that—but one student was barred from participating.

When the drill began, a group of students took shelter in the locker room nearest them as they were in PE but one student, a trans girl, was prevented from entering either the boys or girl’s locker room and had to wait while teachers debated where she should go.

Had this been an actual active shooter situation that young girl might have been killed, but by all means let’s stop and talk about where to “put” her to make other students feel safe. After that back-and-forth, the girl was put in a locker room hallway, away from her peers.

Just because she’s transgender.

Ain’t that America …and so is this … Corey Lewis is a black man, a career youth mentor in Marietta, Georgia, and one day he was looking after the children of family friends. He and his mother took the kids to Walmart and then to a Subway for a bite to eat

According to Lewis, an unnamed white woman accosted him and demanded to speak to the oldest of the two children, because the kids were white, and he was black and what was a black man doing with white children.

After threatening to take down his license plate number and call the police, this person followed Corey Lewis, his mother, and the kids, to a local gas station; then they left, with the woman following them to Lewis’ home.

Lewis went on Facebook Live to document the stalker and when police arrived, and questioned Lewis and his mother, they ordered the children out of the car, and quizzed them on who Lewis was and why they were with him.

The kids said "Mr. Lewis" was their babysitter. The officer, however, wasn’t convinced—again, black man, white kids, sandwiches—and he contacted the children’s parents to ask why their children were with Lewis.

The officer questioned the 10-year-old and the 6-year-old before calling their parents—David Parker and Dana Mango—who were stunned:

“I said are you saying that because there’s an African American male driving my two white kids, that he was stopped and pulled over and questioned and he said I’m sorry ma’am that’s exactly what I’m saying.”

Babysitting While Black. Ain’t that America …and so is this … Christopher Mirasolo, a convicted sex offender, and a white man, who raped a Michigan woman when she was only 12 years old, has been granted joint custody of his victim’s 8-year-old son.

Back in 2008, a twelve-year-old girl and her sister slipped out of the house late one night to meet a boy; that boy brought along Christopher Mirasolo, who asked them if they’d like to go for a ride.

Mirasolo held the girl’s captive for two days in a vacant house before releasing the older sister in a park—after allegedly threatening to kill both girls if they talked—and then he raped the twelve-year-old girl.

He was arrested a month later when the girl became pregnant. He was sentenced to one year in county jail but only ended up serving six-and-a-half months so he could care for his sick mother.

A rapist gets out of jail to care for his sick mother, and then, years later, is granted joint custody.

Only in America.

Oh, and don’t think I didn’t notice the differences between being transgender in America, and Black in America, and White in America.