Two American women who were detained by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent for speaking Spanish in a convenience store in Montana have reportedly agreed to a settlement after suing the agency. Martha “Mimi” Hernandez and Ana Suda and were buying groceries in a store in the town of Havre on May 16, 2018, when CBP Agent Paul O’Neal stopped them and asked for their IDs. He told the pair (on video) that he was stopping them because he overheard them “speaking Spanish which is very unheard of ‘up here.'” Note – Hernandez was born in El Centro, California, and moved to Montana in 2010. Suda was born in El Paso, Texas, and moved to Montana in 2014. USA Todayreports that during the lawsuit, text messages were found on O’Neill’s phone that contained derogatory and racist language. According to the ACLU, the lawsuit also found O’Neill belonged to a secret Facebook group called the “I’m 10-15,” where CBP agents and former agents shared ugly comments and joked about the deaths of migrants. The group has since been disbanded. A video statement obtained by the ACLU showed a CBP supervisor admitting that his agents routinely viewed people speaking Spanish with suspicion in Havre, which is majority white but has a growing Latino population. “[Havre] is a small place,” the CBP supervisor said on the video. “And we have a lot of agents here, and nobody really has much to do… I was sitting at the mall off duty with my family. I’m sitting there at the restaurant, I look up it’s — there’s two Mexicans. Maybe I should call about this.” The amount of the settlement has not been disclosed. Hernandez and Suda eventually moved away from Havre after facing backlash for speaking out.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) took a moment this morning to clap back against Donald Trump’s comment yesterday when he floated a birther theory that Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) might not be eligible to run for vice president. Trump told reporters on Thursday, “I heard today that she doesn’t meet the requirements. I have no idea if that’s right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president.” Ahem, Harris was born in Oakland, California – on US soil – in 1964. The 14th Amendment makes it very clear she is a natural-born citizen and can run for veep. Graham made note of this on Twitter:
President Trump on claims that :Kamala Harris isn't eligible to run for Vice President because she's an anchor baby: "I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements…I have no idea if that's right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out." pic.twitter.com/H887X43GJK
However, there is no issue as to whether or not she is an American citizen.
She was born in the United States in 1964 to parents who were legally present. Under the Constitution and Supreme Court precedent, she is unequivocally an American citizen. — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) August 14, 2020
Just to let you know this stuff really IS out there. Via The Gaily Grind:
The man, who was later identified as 19-year-old Colton Allen of Bedford, Indiana, posted the video after someone left a note on his windshield saying, “f*ck you.”
After showing off the note, Allen goes around his pickup truck with an unidentified cameraman to show why someone might be compelled to leave the hostile note.
The video, originally posted on Snapchat by Allen’s friend, Brady Headrick, went viral after it was shared on social media by former NBA player Rex Chapman on July 12.
The cameraman asks “What are they are hating on, Mr. Colton?”
He replied, “I honestly don’t understand why they’re so upset,” grabbing the noose and characterizing it as his “dog’s leash.”
Near the end of the video, the cameraman suggests the noose is “just hanging” in the event the driver needs to “pull somebody out.”
“It’s not like it can be a noose or anything. That’s racist,” the cameraman said, to which Allen agreed.
There’s a lot more about Allen, who graduated from Bedford North Lawrence High School in 2020, over at Heavy.com. Before he made his Facebook profile more private, his Facebook page included several memes and posts about his right-wing views and his support of President Donald Trump.
Man from Indiana doesn’t think the noose on the back of his Confederate truck is racist pic.twitter.com/8UgczAKtV1
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) July 12, 2020
L-R Billy Eichner, the late Paul Lynde (via Back2Stonewall) Some news items you might have missed: • Back2Stonewall: Out actor-comedian Billy Eichner is set to play TV icon Paul Lynde in the upcoming biopic Man in the Box. While Lynde never officially “out,” his sexuality was well-known in front of and behind the camera throughout a run on television beginning in the ’50s up until his death in 1982. • KOMO: The cast and creators of the Emmy-nominated cult HBO classic The Comeback will reunite on July 21 as part of the Stars In the House daily live-streamed series. The show’s creator and star Lisa Kudrow will be on board to chat on the satirical reality show that followed one woman’s journey as a B-list sitcom actress trying to reclaim A-list status via reality TV. Hot hubby Michael and I loved the series – Kudrow was brilliant walking the fine line of reality/scripted TV. • ABC News: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell revealed Tuesday morning that Senate Republicans plan to support another round of stimulus checks to Americans in their next coronavirus relief proposal. This time around, however, Republicans would like to lower the income threshold to qualify. The cap on payments in the first CARES bill was $99,000. • NPR: Teachers in Florida are suing the state to block an emergency order requiring schools to open next month with in-person instruction. They say, with the surge of coronavirus cases, the order violates a provision in Florida’s constitution requiring the state to ensure schools are operated safely. • BroBible: A teen employee at a Lowe’s store in Washington, Kyle Sales, was forced to change his tee-shirt reading “Black Panther Wakanda Forever” after a ‘Karen’ complained the shirt was racist. After the exchange, Sales went home and put a jersey over his Black Panther movie shirt. The next day, ‘Karen’ returned demanding to know how Sales was punished. • Boy Culture: Donald Trump, at his daily coronavirus presser, was asked about Ghislaine Maxwell — perhaps you’ve heard of her? The lady accused of running a child-sex ring for Jeffrey Epstein, who died on Trump’s watch? Yeah, he said — twice — “I wish her well.”
Trump coolly admits to having met Ghislaine Maxwell several times, and says — twice — “I wish her well.” Astounding. Video: pic.twitter.com/R8lwDfTKhR
Just grotesque… (screen capture via YouTube) Here’s a sad example that there’s a jerk in just about every demographic. A video shared on social media shows a confrontation between a driver and a pedestrian escalate to violence after the driver realized he was captured on video calling a Black sanitation worker a “f*cking n****r.” The incident took place on New York City’s Upper East Side over the weekend. After shouting the racist slur, the driver noticed a pedestrian was recording the ugliness. “Are you recording me?” asked the driver. “Yeah,” says the pedestrian. “Why?” the driver asks. In a pretty spot-on assessment, the pedestrian replied, “Because you’re an asshole.” “I’m an asshole? Honey, look in the mirror, okay? The only person who is an asshole is you for recording,” says the racist driver. During the exchange, the motorist asked the pedestrian, “Are you gay, too?” “Too?” Oh god, he’s gay? Dang it… “No,” the pedestrian replies. “No, you’re not? Well, you look like it,” the driver snaps back. When the pedestrian shares he plans on uploading the video to the internet, the driver scoffs, “Okay, I’ll get fans, honey. That’s what I’ll do.” It’s at that point the driver exits his car and assaults the pedestrian. Along the way snatches the phone recording the incident and hurls it to the ground. The driver probably thought he’d solved his internet problem, except others nearby noticed the exchange and were recording as well.
The YouTube poster writes that prior to the beginning of the clip, the driver “was repeatedly shouting at a Black sanitation worker, yelling “you’re a n*****”. The noise was enough for several residents to come down to street level.” Folks in the Twitterverse were NOT having the hideous behavior.
Racist on the Upper East Side. Find out who this racist person is and let us hold them accountable. This and any other act of racism will NOT be tolerated. As City Council Member of #District45, I will be holding these racists accountable.https://t.co/41nCXEP0Fqpic.twitter.com/ariaOSFGF4
— Anthony Beckford (City Council Candidate)🌹 (@Vote4Beckford) July 19, 2020
As a gay we don’t claim him
— Absolute trash mammal ✊🏾BLM (@Fox2Fox5) July 19, 2020
Remind NYC gays that all of the rights they take for granted are thanks to black Lgbtq civil rights leaders of stonewall, and the gay community’s modern rights are because of the civil rights work of blacks in the 50’s and 60’s. This guy should have more respect.
It’s horrifying. This person grows up somewhere else, as a racist, and at some point decides that they want to go live (uninvited) in NYC. Then comes to NYC so he can shout N$%^*R at black New Yorkers whom were probably born there.#GoHome#BlackLivesMatter#GoHomeRacist
Another Trumpster who knows the party is OVER as he loses in Nov.
— Darryl D (DEEP STATE Warrior) (@OregonDarryl) July 19, 2020
Another Karen is on the loose and this one is one of the worst! He was angry because HE WAS CAUGHT out on his racist bs thus he tries to destroy the evidence. Pathetic!
Michael Lofthouse (via screen capture) Another crazy racist acts out with full knowledge of a camera recording his foolishness and ends up issuing an empty ‘apology.’ According to USA Today, Jordan Chan and her family were celebrating her aunt’s birthday Saturday when one patron, Michael Lofthouse, CEO of Solid8, LLC, a San Francisco cloud computing services company, began harassing the family from a nearby table.
Chan began recording Lofthouse as he continued harassing her family at Bernardus restaurant in Carmel Valley, California.
The video starts with Lofthouse flipping off Chan after she asked him to repeat what he’d said previously. People at the table can be heard saying “you need to leave.”
After getting up, Lofthouse then says, “You f—— need to leave! You f—— Asian piece of s—!”
A server, in frame, then immediately yells at him, “No, you do not talk to our guests like that. Get out of here.”
When confronted on social media after the incident, Lofthouse doubled down on his ugly behavior. And then, once busted by the news media, Lofthouse ‘apologized’ in a statement to ABC7:
My behavior in the video is appalling. This was clearly a moment where I lost control and made incredibly hurtful and divisive comments. I would like to deeply apologize to the Chan family. I can only imagine the stress and pain they feel. I was taught to respect people of all races, and I will take the time to reflect on my actions and work to better understand the inequality that so many of those around me face every day.
You have to wonder: Is Lofthouse mentally ill that he would have such enormous emotional mood swings? Or is this a case of the obvious – he got caught and wrote a hollow apology that ‘sounds like’ what he should say in order to save his butt?
Lisa Alexander (screen capture via Boy Culture) Oh, lord, another ‘Karen’ telling a Black American what he should or shouldn’t do. Twitter user Jaimetoons shared this video of a woman reportedly named Lisa Alexander, who apparently owns LaFace Laboratories – a makeup company – who politely asserts (as politely as a white person can assert) that he is committing a crime ‘defacing’ his own private property. And she tells him she knows the owner – which is him – so, there’s that. What is wrong with these people? Her Twitter and Instagram accounts were filled with Candace Owens and anti-CNN messaging – until she deleted them.
A white couple call the police on me, a person of color, for stencilling a #BLM chalk message on my own front retaining wall. “Karen” lies and says she knows that I don’t live in my own house, because she knows the person who lives here. #blacklivesmatterpic.twitter.com/rOpHvKVwgP
Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) After nine terms in the U.S. House, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) fell short in Tuesday’s Republican primary to state Sen. Randy Feenstra. According to the New York Times, Feenstra garnered 45.7 percent of the vote while King lagged nearly ten points behind with 36 percent. The remaining candidates were in single digits. Long-known for his anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant statements, King found himself rebuked via a House resolution after he made comments suggesting he supported white nationalism. As a result, he was stripped of all his committee assignments. No friend to the LGBTQ community, over his years in office he virulently opposed marriage equality. He railed against the Iowa Supreme Court when same-sex marriage became legal in Iowa in 2009. So much so that he spent $80,000 in campaign advertising against three of those justices when they were up for retention in 2010. None of the justices retained their seats. King called the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made marriage equality the law of the land, “perverted.” He then called for a House resolution to defy the ruling. King also introduced an amendment in 2012 seeking to ban same-sex weddings on military bases, even though the GOP-controlled House had approved of the weddings. The 17-year veteran of Congress also argued in support of Donald Trump’s ban of transgender military service members. But, to be clear, Mr. Feenstra is not much better on LGBTQ issues. In 2011, he introduced a state constitutional amendment that would wipe out the 2009 state supreme court decision that legalized marriage equality in Iowa. Feenstra also voted in favor of an appropriations measure that would prohibit the use of Iowa Medicaid dollars to pay for transgender surgeries. Feenstra will face J.D. Scholten in November’s general election. In 2018, Scholten came close to beating King (47% – 50%) in the 2018 race for Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District
NowThis News shares this clip of another racist ‘Karen’ berating a Latinx family for playing music while barbecuing in a park. I have to wonder if she would have demanded ‘American music’ if the Puerto Rican family had been playing ABBA? p.s. Puerto Ricans ARE Americans. Puerto Rican music IS American music.
‘F*ck this music. It sucks. You’re in America.’ — This Trump supporter berated a Latinx family for playing music while barbecuing in a park pic.twitter.com/e1NwZAfxEV
(screen captures) A white woman in New York City called the police and accused a black man of threatening her and her dog after he asked her to put the dog’s leash on while in Central Park. From NBC News:
Christian Cooper captured part of the exchange in a now-viral video that was posted to Twitter by his sister. The woman, later identified as Amy Cooper, is shown on video asking Cooper to stop recording her, or she was going to call the cops and tell them “there’s an African American man threatening my life.” She repeated the statement several times, each time sounding more distressed, while appearing to call 911 dispatch.
Meanwhile, Christian didn’t appear to move any closer to Amy. He tells NBC New York that he’s an avid bird watcher who was in The Ramble, a popular spot in the park for birders, around 8 a.m. Monday morning. He says he only asked Amy to put her dog on the leash in the area where it’s required to have your dog on a leash at all times.
“If the habitat is destroyed we won’t be able to go there to see the birds, to enjoy the plantings,” Christian explained on Monday night. When Amy refused, he says he offered her dog a treat and started recording the incident.
As the video begins, Amy Cooper is yanking her dog by the collar and demanding Christian Cooper to stop recording. “Please don’t come close to me,” Christian Cooper says, as she approaches. “Sir, I’m asking you to stop recording me,” Amy Cooper says. He asks her again not to come close. That’s when Amy Cooper says she’s going to call the police. “I’m going to tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life,” she says. “Please tell them whatever you like,” Christian Cooper says. The video shows Amy Cooper on her phone. “There’s a man, African American, he has a bicycle helmet,” she says. “He is recording me and threatening me and my dog.” While she’s on the phone, her dog appears to be straining and trying to get free while she tries to restrain it. “I’m being threatened by a man in the Ramble,” she continues even though it’s apparent the man isn’t threatening her. “Please send the cops immediately!” At this writing the video has been viewed over 30 million times.
Oh, when Karens take a walk with their dogs off leash in the famous Bramble in NY’s Central Park, where it is clearly posted on signs that dogs MUST be leashed at all times, and someone like my brother (an avid birder) politely asks her to put her dog on the leash. pic.twitter.com/3YnzuATsDm
Amy Cooper spoke to CNN and says that since the video was posted, her “entire life is being destroyed right now.” She told NBC New York on Monday that she admits she overreacted but she claimed that Christian was screaming, and that she felt threatened because she didn’t know what was in the dog treats. “I sincerely and humbly apologize to everyone, especially to that man, his family,” she said in a phone call. “It was unacceptable and I humbly and fully apologize to everyone who’s seen that video, everyone that’s been offended…everyone who thinks of me in a lower light and I understand why they do.” “When I think about the police, I’m such a blessed person. I’ve come to realize especially today that I think of [the police] as a protection agency, and unfortunately, this has caused me to realize that there are so many people in this country that don’t have that luxury,” she continued. Her employer, investment company Franklin Templeton, placed her on administrative leave Monday night and CNN reports she was fired as of Tuesday afternoon. According to a Facebook post from Abandoned Angels Cocker Spaniel Rescue Inc., the dog in the video has been surrendered to the shelter. “The dog is now in our rescue’s care and he is safe and in good health,” the post said. Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted his disgust over the overt racism displayed in the video saying, “This kind of hatred has no place in our city.”
The video out of Central Park is racism, plain and simple.
She called the police BECAUSE he was a Black man. Even though she was the one breaking the rules. She decided he was the criminal and we know why. This kind of hatred has no place in our city. https://t.co/6PP7jIwL1g — Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) May 26, 2020
Two American women who were detained by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent for speaking Spanish in a convenience store in Montana have reportedly agreed to a settlement after suing the agency. Martha “Mimi” Hernandez and Ana Suda and were buying groceries in a store in the town of Havre on May 16, 2018, when CBP Agent Paul O’Neal stopped them and asked for their IDs. He told the pair (on video) that he was stopping them because he overheard them “speaking Spanish which is very unheard of ‘up here.'” Note – Hernandez was born in El Centro, California, and moved to Montana in 2010. Suda was born in El Paso, Texas, and moved to Montana in 2014. USA Today reports that during the lawsuit, text messages were found on O’Neill’s phone that contained derogatory and racist language. According to the ACLU, the lawsuit also found O’Neill belonged to a secret Facebook group called the “I’m 10-15,” where CBP agents and former agents shared ugly comments and joked about the deaths of migrants. The group has since been disbanded. A video statement obtained by the ACLU showed a CBP supervisor admitting that his agents routinely viewed people speaking Spanish with suspicion in Havre, which is majority white but has a growing Latino population. “[Havre] is a small place,” the CBP supervisor said on the video. “And we have a lot of agents here, and nobody really has much to do… I was sitting at the mall off duty with my family. I’m sitting there at the restaurant, I look up it’s — there’s two Mexicans. Maybe I should call about this.” The amount of the settlement has not been disclosed. Hernandez and Suda eventually moved away from Havre after facing backlash for speaking out. 
