Tag: Hate

animal abuse, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Fake patriotism, Hate, Intolerance, Weird Grand Junction Stuff

Who Is the Woman Cutting Loose With a Racist Rant in Front of the Mesa County Health Department?

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Adding to concerns about the growing undercurrent of bigotry, hatred and intolerance that runs in western Colorado, this unidentified Grand Junction-area woman cut loose with a racist rant towards a Latino family in the parking lot of the Mesa County Health Department on Monday, August 1.

The family expressed concern about a dog that was left in a hot car in the parking lot.  The temperature that day was in the mid to high 90s.

One of the Latino family members filmed the woman’s rant as evidence in case the woman harmed them, then posted the video on Facebook, where as of August 4 it had gotten over 360,000 views. It’s also posted on YouTube.

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel ran an article about the incident and the video in today’s paper.

So far, the woman engaging in the racist rant has not been identified.

UPDATE: Here is the ranting woman’s response after the video went viral. She claims she is hispanic herself so could not be racist.

Advertising, Aesthetics, Democracy, Hate, Intolerance, politics, Pop culture, Propaganda, Stupid Republicans, Weird Grand Junction Stuff

“Merry Christmas,” Wacky Grand Junction Style

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The owner of the land at the top of the 5th Street hill has a holiday message for Grand Junctionites. The previous sign in this spot previously depicted Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as a dragon slayer battling Muslims and corporate media

The owner of the land at the top of the 5th Street hill has a big holiday message for Grand Junctionites. The previous sign in this spot depicted Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as a dragon slayer battling Muslims and corporate media. (Photo Credit: AP – which does not stand for Associated Press)

Democracy, Diversity, Education, Equal rights, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Grassroots advocacy, Gun violence, Hate

Planned Islamaphobic Rally Fizzles in Face of Opposition by Peaceful Mesa County Citizens

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Anti-Islamaphobia rally particpants in Grand Junction today had plenty of signs indicating how they felt about an armed rally by Islam-haters that was planned for the same spot, but never materialized

Participants in Grand Junction’s Anti-Islamaphobia rally had plenty of signs indicating how they felt about an planned protest by armed Islam-haters that was supposed to be held in the same spot, but never materialized

Mesa County residents blocked an armed Islamaphobic uprising from materializing today by gathering at a Grand Junction Islamic Center with enthusiasm, lots of free cookies and plenty of big, handmade signs promoting peace, love and diversity.

Anti-Islamaphobia rally participants hold signs in Grand Junction

Anti-Islamaphobia rally participants hold signs in Grand Junction

The anti-Islamaphobia rally was held to counter the so-called “Global Rally for Humanity,” an armed protest against local Muslin residents that right-wing gun nuts had planned. Similar protests aimed at intimidating U.S. Muslims were planned in 20 cities nationally; Grand Junction’s was to be one of them.

But thanks to strong, organized opposition, the Islam-hating rally pulled it’s Facebook event announcement page and never materialized.

Waves of residents who abhorred the idea of Mesa County being known as a hotbed of Islamaphobia attended the peace rally, which went on all morning and into the early afternoon. They held up signs on I-70B stating a need for a more diverse, loving western Colorado. Many cars honked as they went by and gave a thumbs-up to the event.

RealPatriotsIn one brief incident, four right-wing Islam-haters did show up, but all they did was make some rude gestures, call the group “delusional,” take a selfie with rally participants and then leave. Otherwise the group was completely successful in blocking the planned armed demonstration of hatred against Muslims that was to take place.

Congratulations, citizens of 21st century Grand Junction. You’ve showed that the culture is at long last really changing here, and it has already changed enough that political sanity can occasionally prevail.

Ethics, Hate, Intolerance, Propaganda, Public health, Safety, Security, Violence

Grand Junction’s Growing Hate Community

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This vehicle provides a sample of the hate-filled mentality of many citizens of Mesa County, Colorado

As the feds mull hate crime charges against Dylann Roof, the shooter in the June 17 massacre at a historic black South Carolina church, the presence of hatred, bigotry and intolerance is growing more evident in and around Grand Junction every day, and it’s not a comforting sight.

Remember this hate-filled, wing-nut truck spotted in Whitewater a few weeks ago?

 

The truck belongs to a local guy named “Marc” who operates a business that manufactures fake fiberglass rocks sized and shaped specifically to hide an arsenal of firearms. Marc designed the rocks to hide rifles, in particular an M4 carbine semi-automatic rifle, and according to his e-commerce website, “a butt load of ammunition.” Marc’s fake rocks come with a pocket-sized copy of the U.S. Constitution, and they sell for $925 each. Marc also makes fake, hollowed-out tree stumps designed to hide small arms, like pistols.

The front page of Marc’s e-commerce website bears a threatening “WARNING” to all potential customers. He writes,

If you…

  • Are a liberal or in anyway support the willful destruction of America by this [Obama] regime or…
  • Refuse to recognize that this “shining city on the hill” was founded on Christian principles or…
  • Regard English as your “second language” and are content to let it remain as such…

DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER PURCHASING MY PRODUCT! [MY PRODUCTS] ARE HANDCRAFTED BY PATRIOTS FOR PATRIOTS!

So right up front as part of his business plan, Marc parades his paranoia and intolerance of people with differing political opinions, religions and nationalities.  Below is a photo taken from Marc’s fake rock website, showing Marc and a friend, armed to the teeth with powerful weapons, posing along side the truck he has splattered with paranoid messages.

"Marc" proudly poses alongside his paranoid, hater truck

“Marc” proudly poses alongside his truck

What’s really troubling is that Marc is not an anomaly in the Grand Junction area. He is one of a growing number of Mesa County business owners who are “out” about the hatred and disgust they harbor towards area residents who are different from them. They revile, condemn and insult ethnic minorities, political progressives, women, people of other nationalities and religions, and people of no religion — in short, anyone who differs from them in their beliefs, physical appearance or cultural background.

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Environment, Ethnic/Minority, Food, Hate, Violence

Online Videos Reveal John L. Casey to be a Fearmonger and Racist

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Online videos of talks by John L. Casey, the 2015 Energy Forum and Expo’s keynote speaker, reveal him stimulating fear and racism by telling audiences that in the coming cold era that will occur on Earth, minority groups in urban areas will rise up to become thieves and murderers who will try to steal your food.

In videos of his talks, mostly given to Florida tea party groups, Casey tells his audiences that anthropogenic global warming is a “widespread fraud of climate science.” He says carbon dioxide (CO2) has nothing to do with climate change, that changing climate is purely related to the sun. Casey says the sun is now in a period of “hibernation” that will lead to extreme cold that will devastate crops and result of massive food shortages globally.

One of Casey’s talks in reveals his fearmongering and cultivation of racism.

In a video published to YouTube on December 4, 2014, around minute 56, Casey tells his audience:

“After the first panic, when the shelves are cleared out…your neighbor is going to come across the street — maybe your neighbor’s wife — and say ‘sorry to come to your house’ and say there’s no bread and no milk, would you give me something because we know you have a one year food supply. What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? You’re gonna try and help of course. That’s the human thing. But at some point you’re gonna have enough neighbors lining up and at some point you’re going to have to say ‘I’m sorry we need to preserve our food for ourselves.’

Guess what happens after that point? They’ll beat you up and they’ll kill you. …Nothing is more driven than a starving person. They will do anything, especially if they have children who are starving….

Worst case, have a sanctuary away from urban areas…this may not apply too much here…but it absolutely applies if you live in Miami, New York City, or Atlanta, Georgia,…I mean, pick a major metropolitan area, especially those that are heavily minority and dependent on government food. That’s another reason we need to get rid of the food stamp program, ladies and gentlemen. We need people to be self reliant, not dependent. By making them independent and self-reliant, we give them a chance…”

“The death and destruction will be biblical in scale,” Casey tells the crowd.

See the clip here.

 

 

 

Democracy, Gun violence, Hate, International, politics, Poverty, Safety, Security, Violence, Women

Sheriff Candidate Mike Harlow: The Ugliest Face of Mesa County

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Mesa County Sheriff write-in candidate Mike Harlow

Mesa County Sheriff write-in candidate Mike Harlow

It’s no surprise that Mesa County’s tea party faction endorsed custom holster-maker and write-in candidate Mike Harlow for sheriff.

What is a surprise, though, and a huge embarrassment for Mesa County citizens, is that Harlow got the endorsement of anyone at all.

Harlow’s smugness and extreme hate-filled views reveal one thing: he is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.

If his writings are any indication, contempt and hostility ooze from Harlow’s every pore.

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Atheism, Democracy, Diane Schwenke, Diversity, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Grand Junction Chamber, Hate, Human rights, politics, Religion, Secularism

G.J. Chamber Director Diane Schwenke’s Anti-Atheist Facebook Post

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As if the Rick Brainard debacle didn’t offend enough people for the embattled Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce, now Chamber president Diane Schwenke has offended the local secular community with an anti-atheist post on her personal Facebook page.  Ms. Schwenke says in her post that she finds this nasty joke “just too good not to share,” so I am sharing it with all of my readers.

Is it ever appropriate for the president of a Chamber of Commerce to attack a minority group like this? Is it more politically safe to attack atheists than it is to attack, say, Jews, Mennonites, Latinos or African Americans? To make matters worse, the G.J. Chamber continues to get public funding from the City of Grand Junction, which pays $6,325/year (updated in 2017) to be a member of the chamber at the highest level. A larger screenshot of Diane Schwenke’s Facebook Page with her joke along with her statement of affiliation with the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce can be seen here.

Post on Chamber Director Diane Schwenke's personal Facebook page takes a dig at atheists

Post on Chamber Director Diane Schwenke’s personal Facebook page takes a dig at atheists

Democracy, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Hate, politics

GOP Blows it Again with “Wetbacks” Racial Slur

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Republican House Rep. Don Young of Alaska

Republican House Rep. Don Young of Alaska

As Republicans struggle to find a way to increase their appeal to Latino voters and just days after Republican National Committee Chair Reince Priebus urged Republicans to stop saying “stupid, idiotic things” that contribute to the GOP’s demise, Veteran U.S. House Representative Don Young (R-Alaska) casually injected a racial slur about “wetbacks” into a radio interview on KRBD in Ketchican, Alaska on March 28. While discussing the economy, Young, 79, describing what life was like on his father’s California ranch, said “We used to hire 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes. It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”

The word “wetback” is a slur used to denigrate immigrant farm workers, and particularly Mexican or Mexican-American farm workers. The slur drew immediate rebuke from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the GOP leadership struggled to repair the damage. When House Speaker John Boehner demanded Young apologize, Young said he meant no disrespect and was just repeating the language of his youth. He did not, however, include an apology in his statement.

Advertising, Atheism, Consumer advocacy, Equal rights, Ethics, Ethnic/Minority, Hate, International, Secularism

Atheist Shoe Company Documents USPS Delivery Bias

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atheistshoes

AtheistShoes says their shoes are “kitten soft” and super comfortable. They’re only available through the internet.

Kickstarter, a crowd-source funding platform for creative projects, helped raise $60,000 for a group of atheist shoe makers to start an atheist shoe company in Berlin, Germany. The company, AtheistBerlin.com, also known as AtheistShoes, hand-makes trendy suede lace-up shoes with soles that say, in large, etched lettering, “Ich bin atheist” (“I’m atheist”) or “Loves Darwin.”  Presumably, when a person wearing the atheist shoes walks through a puddle or on a dusty road, for example, the shoes will stamp “I’m atheist” or “Loves Darwin” onto the road with every step. Some of the shoe styles have irreverent names like “Naughty Schnitzel Pilz,” and they come in colors like “Candy Testicle” (a limited edition), or “Kitten Testicle Gray.” But after Atheist Berlin started shipping their shoes, they encountered problems with delayed and lost orders for shoes sent to the U.S. To diagnose the problem, AtheistBerlin conducted a study: They shipped two packages to 89 different people in 49 U.S. states using the United States Postal Service for final delivery. One package had the company’s branded packing tape on it that said “ATHEIST,” and the other was shipped with neutral tape.  All packages were shipped at the same time. The results? Packages sealed with “ATHEIST” tape took an average of three days longer to arrive, and were ten times more likely to never make it to their destination. One package with the ATHEIST tape sent to Michigan arrived fully 37 days after the neutrally-marked package. The company conducted the same test in Germany and to several other European countries and found no similar bias. The results, they conclude, demonstrate a significant bias in quality of shipping in the U.S. against atheist-branded packages. The company stopped using atheist-branded packing tape on their shipments to the U.S. and have noted improvement in delivery times. Atheist Shoes also says that since they conducted the study, some people have expressed an interest in buying atheist packing tape. The company is looking into getting enough of it manufactured that they can sell it.

Ethnic/Minority, Gun violence, Hate, politics, Pop culture, Propaganda, Security, Violence

America’s Biggest Terrorist Threat? “Patriotic” Americans

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Chart showing the growth of militant "patriot," anti-government groups in the U.S.

Chart showing the growth of militant “patriot” anti-government groups in the U.S.

Forget Muslims. In 2013, America’s biggest terrorist threat is from “Patriot” groups, those radical militias and anti-government groups whose members think the federal government is conspiring to take away their guns, destroy their liberties and pave the way for a global “one-world government.” According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the only group that tracks the growth and activities of American domestic hate groups and extremists, the re-election of President Obama coupled with the president’s pursuit of gun control legislation has led to explosive growth in the number of anti-government conspiracy groups, which in turn has dramatically increased threat of domestic terrorism. The number of right wing anti-government groups in the U.S. reached an all-time high in 2012, the fourth year of explosive growth in this increasingly militant sector of the U.S population. In 2012, the SPLC counted 1,360 so-called “Patriot” groups — an increase of 813 percent since just 2008. On March 5, 2013 the SPLC sent a letter to Department of Justice Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano warning of the threat. The SPLC wrote a similar letter in 1994 to then-Attorney General Janet Reno warning of a growing threat of domestic extremism.  Just six months later, Timothy McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City federal building in the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in the nation’s history at that time. SPLC reports that over the last few years, law enforcement officials have discovered and thwarted numerous terrorist plots being formed within the militia subculture, including plans to spread poisonous ricin powder, attack federal installations and murder federal judges and other government officials. The same day it sent its letter to the DOJ and Department of Homeland Security, the SPLC issued its 2012 report on the anti-government movement. The SPLC’s website also has an interactive, state-by-state map of hate groups currently existing throughout the U.S., with their names, locations and the objects of their hatred.

Main Source: Southern Poverty Law Center, Letter to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, March 5, 2013