This is a good visual depiction of the meaning of equality, equity and social justice, as compared to the socio-cultural reality in many instances in the U.S.
Category: Ethnic/Minority
Cody Davis, Cringeworthy, Education, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Generic idiocy, Weird western slope stuff
Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis uses offensive term in public hearing about the county budget
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To be fair, Mesa County Commissioner Cody Davis (R) probably had no idea what he was saying when he said it, but it was highly offensive.
23 minutes or so into the Commissioners’ meeting on December 12, 2023 to approve the annual budget (video), Commissioner Davis discusses how difficult it is for him to understand the budgeting process and said,
“Mongoloid” is an offensive term used to refer to people with Down Syndrome
“If I didn’t have help sometimes, reading this budget I’d feel like a knuckle-dragging Mongoloid.”
He was apparently unaware that “knuckle-dragging Mongoloid” is a highly offensive term.
For a long time the term “Mongoloid” was a pejorative term used to refer to people affected by Down Syndrome. It is also a racist term used to refer to people of Asian descent.
Anti-semitism, Domestic terrorism, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Hate, Racism, Safety, Violence, White Supremacists
Activities of Neo Nazis and violent white supremacists documented in the Grand Valley
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In the Daily Sentinel on Sunday, January 8, Jacob Richards authored a column titled “The Grand Valley has a problem with hate,” in which he discussed leaked videos of local activity by the violent white supremacist group Patriot Front that were posted by Unicorn Riot, a noncommercial, decentralized nonprofit media organization of journalists.
One of those videos is above. It shows members of Patriot Front holding military-style training drills in Canyon View Park in Grand Junction on October 10, 2021. Members of the group came from Utah and Idaho to participate in this training. Some of the known Patriot Front members in the video have been identified as 26 year old Nathan David Brenner from Louisville, CO, 23 year old Cameron Pruitt of Utah, Richard Jacob Jessop and Nathaniel Taylor Whitfield.
Andrea Haitz, Angela Lema, Dangerous Republicans, Education, Embarrassing Republicans, Equal rights, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Harassment, Homophobia, Hompphobia, Intolerance, LGBT issues, Racism, Transphobia
D-51 School Board members attend seminar in how to fight equity and inclusion policies
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“Stand for the Constitution,” the right wing extremist Mesa County group that endorsed and defended Tina Peters, also endorsed and promoted Angela Lema, Andrea Haitz and Will Jones for School Board. All three candidates ran as a far right wing extremist slate. Now two of them are getting training in how to battle policies that aim to help all children feel welcome and accepted at D-51 schools.
The Colorado Times Recorder is reporting that D-51 School Board President Andrea Haitz and D-51 Board Member Angela Lema attended a seminar at a Grand Junction hotel on August 26 called “Save Our Schools,” put on by Heritage Action for America, an affiliate of the right wing Heritage Foundation. The seminar taught people how to fight equity and inclusion policies in schools and provided resources to help them.
What are equity and inclusion policies, anyway?
Anti-semitism, Conspiracy theories, Dangerous Republicans, Democracy under threat, Domestic terrorism, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Gun violence, Lauren Boebert, Racism, Safety, Vile Republicans
House Rep. Boebert (R) touts “replacement theory,” the white supremacist conspiracy theory increasingly behind mass shootings
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In a video taken last September, House Rep. Lauren Boebert says the U.S. is undergoing “replacement theory,” the white supremacist ideology behind an 18-year old’s gun massacre of ten Black people at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York on Saturday, March 14, 2022. Payton Gendron, the shooter, left behind a 180-page manifesto that showed he was fixated on the conspiracy theory that White people in the U.S. are being intentionally replaced — the same idea Boebert spouts in this video.
Andrea Haitz, Cindy Ficklin, Dangerous Republicans, Education, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Hate, Intolerance, LGBT issues, Lies, Racism, Transphobia
D-51 School Board President Andrea Haitz belonged to anti-transgender Facebook group
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Screenshot of members of the transphobic Facebook group, Reboot 2022, taken on Wednesday, May 11, 2022, after which time her name was removed.
A May 13, 2022 Daily Sentinel article discussed the outrage District 51 School Board President Andrea Haitz’s recent anti-transgender social media posts generated among people in the valley.
In her own defense, Haitz told the Sentinel she didn’t mean the memes to be hurtful, and that she “has gay and lesbian friends.” Haitz said the “memes had been misunderstood” because “people don’t always understand satire,” and said that people “made up what they thought I meant by it.”
But people didn’t make up anything, and they most definitely did not misinterpret the intent of Haitz’s posts.
How do we know?
Diversity, Education, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Racism
Central High unveils new Warrior logo, replacing racist Indian-head logo from last century
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After months of deliberating ideas for an updated logo, Central High School finally unveiled its new logo today, January 4, 2022, replacing the outdated and embarrassingly racist Indian head symbol the school has had since 1947.
Anti-semitism, Cindy Ficklin, Crazy Republicans, Dangerous Republicans, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, politics
Response from a local citizen to Republican CO House 55 candidate Cindy Ficklin’s spreading anti-semitic tropes and misinformation on social media
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Cindy Ficklin (Photo Credit: video by Stand for the Constitution)
On November 21, 2021, the Daily Sentinel published an article titled “Ficklin denies anti-Semitic leanings,” that examined statements and outrageous, unfounded claims made by Republican Colorado House Representative District 55 candidate Cindy Ficklin in her social media posts.
Ficklin’s writings included anti-semitic tropes about prominent Jews being “monsters in the shadows” who “control all the banks in the world.”
Conservatives, Cringeworthy, Dangerous Republicans, Deplorables, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Harassment, Homophobia, Intolerance, Lauren Boebert, politics, Stupid Republicans, Vile Republicans
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) makes homophobic comments about Transportation Secretary Pete Butigieg taking parental leave to care for prematurely-born newborn twins
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Colorado Republican House Rep. Lauren Boebert, has been lobbing homophobic comments at U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Butigieg at fundraisers, on television shows, and in a YouTube video of her own making that she calls “Bullet Points.”
Boebert berated Butigieg, the first openly gay person ever appointed to a cabinet-level position in the federal government, for taking parental leave to help care for his and his partners’ prematurely-born adopted twin babies.
Activism, Children, Education, Equal rights, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Grassroots advocacy, Harassment, Homophobia, Intolerance, LGBT issues, Racism, Safety, Security, Weird western slope stuff, Xenophobia
Former Delta County School District students pressure district to end racism in schools
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Jordan Evans (L) and Marisa Edmondson (R) are graduates of Paonia High School and are pushing the Delta County School District to actively work to end what they see as pervasive racism in Delta County Schools
Two alumni of the Delta County School District (DCSD) began an all-out effort last year to pressure the Delta County School District to address the pervasive racism and discrimination they and others say they have experienced in Delta County Schools. Edmondson says while they have made some progress, the School District and School Board have largely stonewalled them and resisted the change.
City of Grand Junction, Conservatives, Dangerous Republicans, Elections, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Fake patriotism, Hate, Intolerance, Lies, politics, Racism
G.J. City Council candidate Mark McAllister known for posting false, xenophobic and racist memes
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Meme that appeared on Mark McAllister’s Facebook page in early January, 2020
In 2013, former G.J. Mayor Bill Pitts said that the most money anyone had ever spent on a City Council race up until that time was around $3,000.
In 2013, that amount had jumped to $10,000 to $12,000 per candidate for city council campaigns.
Now, in 2021, candidates for local office are routinely spending up to $20-30k on their campaigns.
That marked increase in the amount of spending should be accompanied by an equally higher level of scrutiny of candidates by the local press and media, but it hasn’t. The local paper seems to be giving candidates a pass by doing nice things like sending candidates a softball questionnaire and publishing their answers in full, without even verifying whether the candidates filled in the answers themselves.
Voters deserve more information — a deeper dive, like verifying candidates’ educational levels, their social, political and business affiliations, and verifying the claims they make on their campaign pages about what groups they belong to. We should also know if any information has been published about them elsewhere, and check their social media streams to see what they had been posting before they decided to running for office.
One thing we’ve managed to find here at AnneLandmanBlog about the current candidates for Grand Junction City Council is that one candidate really stands out when given this kind of scrutiny, and not in a good way: Mark McAllister.
City of Grand Junction, Conservatives, Dangerous Republicans, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, politics
What’s up with the four City Council candidates who are ditching forums and questionnaires?
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An attendee at the “Stand for the Constitution Freedom Rally” last July 4 (Photo: Facebook). Stand for the Constitution endorses Haitz, Andrews, Green and McAllister, calling them “our candidates.”
Kristin Wynn of Citizens for Clean Air Grand Junction reported that her group has not received responses to questionnaires they sent to City Council candidates Mark McCallister, Kraig Andrews, Jody Green, and Greg Haitz. Nor did any of these candidates bother to respond to a short questionnaire from the Outdoor Recreation Coalition of the Grand Valley and none of them participated in the City Council Candidate Forums organized by the Western Colorado Alliance, which were held virtually on Zoom.
So why are these four candidates dodging public forums and refusing to answer City residents’ questions? And what do they all have in common that the other four candidates don’t?
For one thing, they are all endorsed by the local right-wing extremist group “Stand for the Constitution,” who calls the slate of them “our candidates.”
Activism, Children, Crazy Republicans, Dangerous Republicans, Education, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Lies, politics, Propaganda, Public health, Republican lies, Safety, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
Application by Cindy Ficklin to be D-51 Superintendent raises alarm
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Cindy Ficklin (L), an applicant for the job of D-51 School Superintendent, flashes the hand signal of the “Three Percenters” militia while scuba diving in Hawaii. (Photo credit: Facebook). Right photo & caption are from Wikipedia. The Anti-Defamation League lists this gesture as a racist hand sign. [UPDATE 2/20/21]: We have since been informed that in the context of scuba diving, this symbol is used to say a diver is “OK.” That was likely the case in this scenario, although since Mesa County is largely a desert, very right wing politically, has numerous elected officials who have in fact advanced QAnon theories and Trump’s lies about the election, and since few people here scuba dive, many people interpreted this symbol in its political context rather than its scuba diving context.]
Who is Cindy Ficklin?
Ficklin is a 40-something GOP firebrand known for her extremist right wing views and her outspoken manner.
In a red-meat speech she gave on July 4, 2020 to a mostly un-masked crowd at the “Stand for the Constitution Freedom Rally” in a local park, Ficklin railed against masking and contact tracing — the only tools available to control the Coronavirus. She said that “CDC guidelines for opening schools … are literally formed of human torture and child abuse,” and spread the false narrative that government was forcing vaccines on people. She railed against public health recommendations to “stay home to stay safe” and whipped up anger at community efforts to control the virus, saying “the new normal” we’re all living with is “an attempt to infringe on our civil rights.”
Activism, Education, Ethnic/Minority, Pop culture, Racism, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
Central High’s team name may be in for a change
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Central High’s outdated, racist “Warriors” team name and logo may be in for a change this summer.
The Cleveland Indians baseball team announced yesterday that they will be dropping their team’s name after 105 years, because it has long been considered racist.
Cleveland’s move follows the NFL team, the Washington Redskins’, announcement last July 23 that after 87 years they are changing their name for the same reason: the name is outdated and racist.
What of our local schools’ racist athletic team names?
Activism, Ethnic/Minority, Local scut, Racism, Safety, Secrecy
32 year old Black man found hanging in carport in Grand Junction
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DeAndre Rogers
In an alarming case that has received little to no attention, Deandre H. Rogers (pdf), a Black man aged 32, was found hanging in a carport in Grand Junction, Colorado on September 21, 2020. He had participated on June 1, 2020 with a group of local Black Lives Matter activists who met with G.J. Police Chief Doug Shoemaker in the lobby of the Grand Junction Police Department to protest unjust treatment they had experienced at the hands of local law enforcement. The discussion took place about a month after the murder of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis Police on May 25, 2020.
Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Harassment, Hate, Intolerance, Racism, Trump Insanity, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
More hate in Grand Junction
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Some of the 30-40 racist, sexist and homophobic memes and cartoons sent anonymously to the author in the mail this week
Grand Junction’s “Inclusivity Proclamation” notwithstanding, there is plenty of hate and racism in Grand Junction. The above represents a small fraction of the 35 to 40 hate-filled memes and cartoons someone took the time to copy, cut out and mail us in an anonymous snail mail letter, received on Tuesday, 9/22/20. The rest were similar, many were worse, and many focused on Trump worship, denigrating Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, liberals, non-white people, etc.
Atheism, Conservatives, Consumer advocacy, Corruption, Elections, Embarrassing Republicans, Equal rights, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Extremism, Local scut, Mesa County Republican Party, politics, Religion, Republican incompetence, Secularism, Tina Peters, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters takes exception to atheists on social media
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Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters’ biased comment on the “Transparency in Mesa County” Facebook page.
Embattled Republican Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters expressed contempt for atheists yesterday in a comment on social media, sowing further doubt about whether she can truly conduct her office in an impartial manner.
Here is how the comment came about:
Participants on the public group Facebook page “Transparency in Mesa County” had been discussing the County Clerk’s office after it was found that they forgot to collect and count 574+ ballots from the November, 2019 combined general election.
Advertising, Cronyism, Diane Schwenke, Diversity, Embarrassing Republicans, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Grand Junction Chamber, Grand Junction City Council, Racism, Weird Grand Junction Stuff
Shadowy Chamber “social welfare” group funds billboard thanking racially tone-deaf members of G.J. City Council “for their service”
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The Chamber and WCBA’s billboard thanking the most tone-deaf city council members when it comes to racism in Grand Junction
The little-known, seedy political arm of the Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce, the Western Colorado Business Alliance (WCBA), has appeared again in Grand Junction, this time funding a billboard praising four sitting Grand Junction City Council members who recently earned the reputation for being the most tone-deaf regarding racism: Philip Pe’a, Duke Wortmann, Phyllis Norris and Kraig Andrews.
Pe’a was the councilman who was so threatened by what he claimed was the presence of G.J. Police Department’s “swat team” at the June 3 Council meeting that he proclaimed he thought he might need to bring his Glock handgun into the meeting. That was the meeting that was attended by a crowd of City residents who showed up to protest pervasive racism they had seen or experienced in Grand Junction, or to support friends who had experienced it.
Grand Junction’s Police Chief later confirmed there were no SWAT team members at the meeting that day.