Tag: Racism

Activism, Cringeworthy, Dangerous Republicans, Extremism, Local concerns, Racism, White Supremacists

Demonstration to protest fascism and white supremacist Jared Taylor’s appearance at CMU to be held Thurs., 3/27 @ 4:00 p.m., 12th & North

by Anne Landman • March 25, 2025 • 4 Comments

The Mesa County Democratic Socialists of America is promoting what they hope will be a massive, peaceful protest against fascism and white supremacist Jared Taylor’s appearance at Colorado Mesa University. Jared is scheduled to speak at 6:00 p.m. on March 27 in room 213 of the University Center.

Below is the press release about the event:

Denton County TX, mugshot of attorney Jason Lee Van Dyke, who will be at CMU. He was accused of interfering with a witness in a pending criminal case. He was suspended for six months, followed by one year of probation.

A large crowd is gathering on 12th and North at Colorado Mesa University corner on March 27th at 4:00 pm to march peacefully to the CMU University Center to protest against racism and Colorado Mesa University (CMU) President John Marshall’s decision to platform the avowed fascist and white supremacist Jared Taylor. Organizing for the protest is being led by the Mesa County Chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (MC-DSA), in solidarity and in coalition with other grass-roots organizations, student groups and community members.

Jared Taylor in 2008 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

MC-DSA, the student body and local community at large are strongly opposed to Jared Taylor being allowed to speak at CMU. “It’s up to everyday people to keep their communities safe,” says Nikoli Weir, CMU student and Organizer of MC-DSA. “MC-DSA firmly believes that white supremacy and fascism of any kind is dangerous to the freedom and well-being of the working class, and it is especially dangerous to minority groups. MC-DSA is dedicated to doing everything in its power to advance the interests of our community, and oppose fascism in all its forms.”

Isabel De La Canal, CMU student and Co-Chair of MC-DSA, says that CMU’s choice to allow Jared Taylor to speak on campus is hypocritical. “Every school day, I walk up and down the steps of Houston Hall, reading CMU’s messages preaching love, dignity, and courage— most strikingly, ‘use power for good.’ This is the same university that grants white supremacists platforms to spew their hatred. A university is an institution of learning. CMU claims that it wants to model ‘the world we want to create.’ Is this truly the world we want to create? To plaster these words on its walls while allowing white supremacy within them is not just hypocrisy, it is something far worse.”

Kylie Mayfield, CMU student and MC-DSA member, says that she is abhorred by John Marshall’s decision. “I am shocked and disappointed with CMU’s administration. It is ludicrous to me that John Marshall justifies this as free speech, as Jared Taylor’s rhetoric is hateful and is intended to provoke violence.”

MC-DSA is working with local community based organizations to oppose Jared Taylor, who is coming to our town to sow division and breed hatred. MC-DSA wants our community to be strong and resilient in the face of the oncoming wave of fascist agitators and disruptors.

Alongside Jared Taylor, Texas based Attorney Jason Lee Van Dyke is also in town. He represents the Western Culture Club, the student organization responsible for sending out the initial invitation to Taylor. According to the Criterion, CMU’s student newspaper, Van Dyke is also the one who sponsors the event financially. Van Dyke has a long history of representing right-wing extremist organizations such as Patriot Front, who have in the past committed violent acts against peaceful protestors.

Colorado Mesa University President John Marshall poses, smiling, with Lauren Boebert, who supported the violent January 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol

“Taylor and Van Dyke are here to disrupt our peaceful town and spread hatred and division, bringing white supremacist organizations here on the 27th to cause chaos and violence,” says Nikoli Weir. “Our community cannot let that happen. We must unite around our shared interests as working class people and come together peacefully to oppose Jared Taylor and white supremacy.”

“I am peacefully marching because we are all equal,” says community member and concerned citizen Nick Allan. “The racism and segregation supported by Jared Taylor should have no place in our city, state, nation or world.”

MC-DSA brings together in solidarity the working class community of Grand Junction to oppose fascism and hatred and fosters a multicultural and multiracial socialist movement that fights for the common people against fascists and the billionaire elites they represent.

###

Where: 12th and North, CMU Corner, Grand Junction, CO (North West)

When: Thursday, March 27, 4:00 pm

Who: MC-DSA

What: Protest and March against fascism, Jared Taylor, and CMU President John Marshall’s choice to allow Taylor to speak on campus.

How: Bring signs, drums, noise makers, water, snacks and your humanity

Anti-vaccine, Conspiracy theories, Crazy Republicans, Dangerous Republicans, Disinformation, Extremism, Public health, Racism

Trump’s nominee to head public health agencies pushed FDA to revoke approval of Covid vaccines during a deadly phase of pandemic

by Anne Landman • January 18, 2025 • 2 Comments

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has no medical background and no experience running a large agency. (Photo: Encyclopedia Britannica).

Activist and vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy, whom Trump has nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) despite his having no experience in public health, formally petitioned (pdf) the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in May of 2021 to revoke the Emergency Use Authorization for Covid vaccines at a time when thousands of Americans were dying weekly from Covid infections.

Arrest affidavit: Trump’s racist, anti-immigrant rhetoric motivated strangulation attack on local TV reporter

by Anne Landman • December 28, 2024 • 22 Comments

Patrick Thomas Egan, 39, who attacked and attempted to strangle KKCO TV reporter Ja’Ronn Alex

KKCO TV News reporter Ja’Ronn Alex was followed and physically attacked December 18 by a Trump supporter who yelled “Are you even a U.S. citizen! This is Trump’s America now! I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”

MAGA customer spews racist insults at employees of 5 Guys hamburger restaurant in G.J.; restaurant fires employees

by Anne Landman • November 9, 2024 • 14 Comments

A customer wearing a Trump “Never Surrender” T-shirt was emboldened to hurl racist insults at employees at 5 Guys hamburger restaurant at 2480 U.S. Highway 6 in Grand Junction on the evening of Election Day, Nov. 5, calling them “beaners” and “f*cking invaders” as they filled his order.

The Trump campaign’s most recent blatantly racist social media post

by Anne Landman • August 14, 2024 • 9 Comments

Racist post by @TrumpWarRoom on Instagram on Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024

On Tuesday, the official Instagram account of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, “@TrumpWarRoom,” posted a blatantly racist meme implying that if Vice President Kamala Harris wins the presidency in November, placid suburban neighborhoods will be overrun with hordes of Black people and immigrants.

It can’t be a mistake because the Trump campaign tweeted the exact same post on X.

The meme showed a peaceful middle class neighborhood next to a photo of mostly Black recent immigrants waiting outside the Roosevelt Hotel in New York in hopes of securing shelter. The nice neighborhood is labeled “Your neighborhood under Trump,” and the photo with Black people is labeled “Your neighborhood under Kamala.”

Trump’s comment accompanying the post is, “Import the third world. Become the third world.”

Trump has a long, well-documented history of racism and emboldening racist ideology.

Trump, at National Association of Black Journalists convention in Chicago, says VP Kamala Harris “happened to turn black”

by Anne Landman • July 31, 2024 • 7 Comments

[Clip from CSPAN]

Republican Party nominee for U.S. President Donald Trump, the first former U.S. president ever convicted of multiple felonies, was asked by ABC News journalist Rachel Scott about his fellow Republicans referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as “a DEI hire.” Scott asked Trump if he believes Harris is only on the ticket because she’s a Black woman. He responded that he didn’t know she was Black.

Trump said,

“I have known her a long time, indirectly, not directly very much, and she was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I did not know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black, and now she wants to be known as black. Is she Indian or is she Black?”

Audible laughing and gasping from the audience can be heard in the CSPAN video clip.

Trump seems unaware that people can identify as being of more than one race, a characteristic that is known as being “multiracial.”

Many people in Mesa County favor Trump for president.

Activism, Homophobia, Human rights, Intolerance, LGBT issues, Local business, politics, Pop culture, Propaganda, Racism, Trump Insanity

Tractor Supply throws LGBTQ+ customers and investors under the bus

by Anne Landman • July 1, 2024 • 18 Comments

Tractor Supply Company, a farm, ranch and feed company which previously had touted its efforts at diversity and inclusion, did an about-face June 27 after it issued a press release saying it will stop sponsoring events like gay pride festivals and voter registration drives, stop submitting data to the Human Rights Campaign, eliminate its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) roles, “retire” its DEI goals and will “withdraw our carbon emission goals and focus on our land and water conservation efforts.”

The company says they “work hard every day” to “represent the values of the communities and customers we serve. We have heard from customers that we have disappointed them. We have taken this feedback to heart.”

Mesa County Commissioners’ new chair of the Public Health Board refuses to say if he believes Covid-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people” and spare Jews and Chinese people

by Anne Landman • July 19, 2023 • 17 Comments

On of the many Facebook and Instagram posts by Mesa County Board of Public Health chair Stephen D. Daniels, lauding Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., a vocal anti-vaxxer who has spread lies and conspiracy theories for “the better part of two decades.”

The Mesa County Commissioners’ newly-appointed Chair of the Public Health Board, Stephen D. Daniels, has made it known that he is a strong supporter of anti-vax conspiracy theorist and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK). In multiple posts on his social media accounts, Daniels urges people to be open to discussion about Kennedy’s views and believe what Kennedy has to say.

But does Daniels support what RFK told a table full of people last week at a press event in Manhattan (video), that the Covid-19 virus is “ethnically targeted” to attack Caucasians and Black people, and to spare Jews and Chinese people?

RFK’s comments were widely reported as being a “Bigoted new Covid conspiracy about Jews and Chinese” (NY Times), as being “deplorable” and “hurtful” (Fox News), as spreading “false claims” about Covid-19 (CBS News) and being “antisemitic and racist” (ABC News).

Specifically, RFK said in part,

“There is an argument that it [Covid-19] is ethnically targeted. COVID-19 attacks certain races disproportionately. COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.”

Anti-transgender, racist hate mail sent to 92 year old School District 51 retiree; Local Republican political leaders may be contributing to undercurrent of hatred in Mesa County

by Anne Landman • October 14, 2022 • 8 Comments

“Citizens District 51 Defund Vote” sent hate mail postmarked Oct. 11, 2022 to a 92 year old School District 51 retiree in Grand Junction

My 92 year old neighbor, who worked for School District 51 over forty years ago, received this hate mail yesterday, with the following computer-printed in screaming all-caps, racist, anti-transgender hate letter glued to the back of the picture with the child at the chalkboard:

My neighbor is pretty tough, but the line that said “OL’ BITCH” really saddened her.

In addition to showing that racism and homophobia in Grand Junction are alive and thriving, this rude correspondence raises several questions:

— How did the sender get the address of this person?

When and where to watch the Jan. 6 Select Committee hearings locally — will keep this page updated

by Anne Landman • June 12, 2022 • 40 Comments

Update July 8, 2022 – The next hearing of the Jan. 6 Select Committee will be on July 12, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time, 8:00 a.m. Mountain (local) Time. A summary of what previous hearings have revealed is here.

Update – Wed., June 22, 2022 –The next January 6 Committee hearing will be Thursday, June 23 at 1:00 p.m. local time (3:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time). After posting a tipline with its last hearings, the Committee has received additional video footage and is also talking to Ginni Thomas about her cooperation, and because of all the new information, following hearings will be held in July.

Update – Tuesday, Jan. 21- The Jan 6 Select Committee examining the assault on the U.S. Capitol convenes today for its fourth public hearing this month. This session will focus on Trump’s efforts to pressure state officials into falsifying election results to make it appear as though he had won, as part of his broader campaign to cling to office for a second term after he was informed by his White House attorneys, aides and family that he had lost the election. Today’s hearing starts at 11:00 a.m. local time and will be broadcast live on CBS (KREX, Ch. 5) ABC (KJCT Ch. 8) and NBC (KKCO Ch. 11) television stations starting at 11:00 a.m. Mountain Daylight (local) Time, (1:00 p.m. Eastern). You can also watch the hearings live on the website of the PBS News Hour and the Jan. 6 Committee’s YouTube channel.

***WARNING – the hearing may contain video of violence and foul language***

House Rep. Boebert (R) touts “replacement theory,” the white supremacist conspiracy theory increasingly behind mass shootings

by Anne Landman • May 17, 2022 • 13 Comments

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.

D-51 School Board President Andrea Haitz belonged to anti-transgender Facebook group

by Anne Landman • May 14, 2022 • 15 Comments

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?

CO House Rep. Lauren Boebert (R) uses bigoted joke to disparage Democratic colleague

by Anne Landman • November 27, 2021 • 4 Comments

While speaking at a campaign event in Pueblo on Saturday, November 20, during Congress’ Thanksgiving break, Republican CO House Rep. Lauren Boebert made a bigoted, anti-Muslim joke at the expense of her Muslim colleague, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), intimating Omar could be a suicide bomber if she was wearing a backpack.

Boebert told the crowd she had just entered an elevator at the Capitol when a Capitol Police security guard came running just up as the doors were closing. Boebert said she turned and saw Omar and said to the guard, “Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine.”

According to Rep. Omar, Boebert lied about the scenario, because the incident never happened. Omar condemned “hateful and dangerous Muslim tropes,” saying they don’t belong in Congress.

School Board candidate Haitz sends out offensive fundraising email

by Anne Landman • August 7, 2021 • 6 Comments

Fundraising email from Andrea Haitz announcing her campaign for D-51 school board

School District 51 Board Candidate Andrea Haitz sent out a red-meat fundraising email in July that offended teachers, parents and D-51 employees who have been working hard to give kids the best education possible while struggling with all the difficulties imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Haitz said,

“Politics is in the way of our children’s future. Political agendas are being jammed down our kids’ throats. Necessary tools that were once taught, like critical thinking, have now been replaced with divisive ideologies and revisionist history.

I will not watch our kids be brainwashed. I am taking a stand!

Will you join me by making a contribution to my campaign?”

The email was a dog-whistle designed to extract donations from far-right conservatives who fear “Critical Race Theory,” (CRT) a body of legal and academic scholarship that proposes that race is a social and not a biological construct, and that discusses how race and a history of institutionalized racism have created and perpetuate a system that broadly disadvantages people of color in American society.

G.J. citizens get anonymous racist hate mail in response to yard signs promoting social justice, inclusiveness

by Anne Landman • August 2, 2021 • 3 Comments

An example of the yard signs Grand Junction, CO, that are prompting far right wingers to target homeowners with anonymous, racist hate mail

Grand Junction’s undercurrent of hatred showed itself again this week after several City residents reported they’ve gotten anonymous racist hate mail that they think was prompted, at least in part, by signs in their front yards indicating support of social equity, inclusion and justice.

A bi-racial downtown resident reports having gotten a total of nine racist hate letters so far, saying they have been coming steadily, approximately monthly, for about a year now, starting in 2020.

A Redlands Village resident got the following racist poem in the mail, authored by a “A. Wyatt Mann,” a pen name used by an American filmmaker named Nick Bougas, who produced racist, homophobic and anti-semitic material under the pseudonym. She also got a “Fuck Biden and fuck you if you voted for him” note, also posted below:

Former Delta County School District students pressure district to end racism in schools

by Anne Landman • June 10, 2021 • 2 Comments

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.

G.J. City Council candidate Mark McAllister known for posting false, xenophobic and racist memes

by Anne Landman • March 15, 2021 • 7 Comments

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.

Rep. Lauren Boebert’s mother and friend complain about all the “brown people” in the Rifle WalMart

by Anne Landman • January 16, 2021 • 178 Comments

In this cringeworthy December, 2010 “things we hate” YouTube video reminiscent of a Saturday Night Live skit, Colorado CD-3 House Rep. Lauren Boebert‘s mother, Shawna Bentz (on the left), and a friend who identifies herself as “Lauren,” (not Bentz’s daughter, House Representative Lauren Boebert) complain about Mexicans and all the “brown people” in the Rifle Walmart on Sundays.

Beneath the video, Bentz wrote, “In noway way Do we hate brown people, We love all of Gods People….This is just a Rant of the everyday life.”

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