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Obama: Climate Deniers in Congress Are Undermining Our Troops

by AutumnSidwell69 Posted on May 20, 2015

Mother Jones

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Speaking to graduating cadets at the US Coast Guard Academy Wednesday, President Obama once again outlined his administration’s case for ambitious climate action. At the heart of today’s speech: the president’s contention that global warming constitutes an immediate threat to America’s national security and will cost the country hundreds of billions of dollars if left unchecked.

Watch the highlights from the speech above.

Obama took direct aim at climate change deniers in Congress. “Denying it—or refusing to deal with it—endangers our national security and undermines the readiness of our forces,” he said. “Politicians who care about military readiness ought to care about this, too.”

“Climate change constitutes a serious threat to global security, an immediate risk to our national security,” Obama added. Refusing to act, he said, is “a dereliction of duty.”

Casting climate change as major threat at home and abroad, Obama detailed how warming could accelerate political instability and civil strife, prompt expensive and complex rescue missions in the wake of natural disasters, and hit US military assets along the coast. In the Arctic, he said, “we’re witnessing the birth of a new ocean.”

Obama also focused on the economic costs of rising seas: “A further increase in sea level of 1 foot…by the end of this century could cost our nation $200 billion,” he said.

“We need the coast guard more than ever,” Obama said. “Cadets, the threat of a changing climate cuts to the very core of your service.”

Today’s remarks are the latest in a string of climate-focused speeches by Obama in the run-up to global climate talks in Paris later this year. The commencement address contained very similar language to the president’s State of the Union speech in January. “The best scientists in the world are all telling us that our activities are changing the climate, and if we do not act forcefully, we’ll continue to see rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves, dangerous droughts and floods, and massive disruptions that can trigger greater migration, conflict, and hunger around the globe,” he said then. “The Pentagon says that climate change poses immediate risks to our national security. We should act like it.”

In the Florida Everglades last month, Obama also took a shot at Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) for bringing a snowball onto the Senate floor in a bizarre effort to dispute climate science. “If you have a coming storm, you don’t stick your head in the sand,” he said. “You prepare for the storm.”

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Obama: Climate Deniers in Congress Are Undermining Our Troops

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The Truth About How Obama Has Handled the Pacific Trade Deal

by ScarletJoy Posted on May 20, 2015

Mother Jones

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While Kevin Drum is focused on getting better, we’ve invited some of the remarkable writers and thinkers who have traded links and ideas with him from Blogosphere 1.0 to this day to contribute posts and keep the conversation going. Today we’re honored to present a post from Daniel Drezner.

One of the enduring memes of the Obama administration has been the notion that the president is a lousy politician. One of the things that Bill Clinton and George W. Bush had in common is that they knew how to schmooze. Obama, on the other hand, does not have any close friendships on the international stage, nor is he particularly tight with Republican or Democrat members of Congress. Indeed, this has been a sufficiently common lament for someone to write “A Brief History of President Obama Not Having Any Friends” last year.

So let’s stipulate that the president is a cold fish. What remains contested is whether this matters in terms of getting things done. There are DC insiders who argue that personal relationships and one-on-one politicking really do matter. These are the pundits who tend to bemoan presidential passivity and write “Why won’t Obama lead?” ledes and ask why Barack Obama doesn’t drink more whiskey with Mitch McConnell or play more golf with John Boehner. And then there are structuralists who argue that what really matters are the separation of powers written into the Constitution and the incentive of opposition parties to, you know, oppose the president’s policies.

Last week’s machinations over trade promotion authority (TPA) regarding the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) will not definitively settle this debate, but they did offer a few data points that suggest the relative merits of each side of this debate.

First, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave a delightfully blunt interview to the New York Times‘ John Harwood. On TPA/TPP, McConnell and most of the Senate Republicans are working with Obama, which puts him in strange territory. To explain this to Harwood, McConnell flatly debunked the notion that Obama would have accomplished more in the GOP-controlled Congress if only he’d been more sociable with Republican members of Congress:

In the caricature of how Washington works, Mr. McConnell and other congressional Republicans were supposed to bond with Mr. Obama at a so-called bourbon summit meeting, as though a soothing, generous pour would bring them together.

It has never happened—which, as far as Mr. McConnell is concerned, counts for exactly zero.

“It’s all good stuff for you all to write, but it has no effect on policy,” Mr. McConnell said. He dismissed “press talk” that social outreach could bridge the deep ideological and partisan divisions of 21st-century American politics.

“It wouldn’t make any difference,” he concluded. “Look, it’s a business.” (emphasis added)

And that sound you just heard was the combined egos of the “why can’t Obama lead” crowd visibly deflating.

McConnell’s Hyman Roth-like answer would seem to validate the structuralist position of the president’s ability to get legislation passed—at least when it comes to dealing with the opposition party.

When it comes to dealing with his own party, however, I’m not sure that the structuralists can claim victory. One could argue that Democrats are just as constrained on trade as Republicans because of their base’s public opinion, but I don’t think it’s really that simple.

There were a lot of things going on in last Tuesday’s initial failure of TPA to pass the Senate, including genuine policy differences between Obama and elements of the progressive movement. But as Reuters noted, at least part of it was Obama’s alienation of Senate Democrats:

As for Obama, he may have hurt his chances with Democrats by minimizing concerns about trade’s impact on labor, the environment and regulations, and his explicit criticism of the anti-trade stance of leading liberal Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren.

“The president was disrespectful to her,” Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown told reporters. “When he said that a number of us, not just Senator Warren, don’t know what we’re talking about…he shouldn’t have.” Brown opposes the fast-track bill.

Indeed, there has been a lot of Democrat grumbling about Obama’s rhetorical jabs at Warren and other anti-TPP Democrats, to the point where Sherrod Brown accused Obama of sexism.

Of course, twenty-four hours later, a deal had been struck for a vote on TPA in the Senate. If Edward Isaac-Dovere and Burgess Everett’s Politico recap is accurate, then Presidential Leadership (TM) played a pivotal role in the process:

The White House named names. And not 24 hours later, President Barack Obama and his aides had a deal to get fast-track back on track…

Obama aides strategically put out word to reporters of the meeting, even before senators had arrived at the White House. Shortly after the meeting ended, they released the list: the seven Democrats who’d voted for fast-track in committee, plus Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.). A few hours before, every Senate Democrat except Tom Carper of Delaware had publicly rebuked his trade effort. Now the White House put on the spot the other nine who had either publicly or privately indicated they would support the underlying fast-track and Trade Adjustment Assistance package, but who voted against opening debate.

In other words, the president had more than enough votes just in the room to get the trade bill moving. According to senators who were there, the president took his time, spending 90 minutes to explain why they needed to get their act together.

Now this does sound like some Old Time-y Presidential leadership, and so maybe, when it comes to managing his own party, there is something to the “Why can’t Obama lead?” meme.

But not a lot. My colleague Greg Sargent’s take suggests that last Tuesday’s vote was more about Reid/McConnell dynamics than anything to do with Obama. And even the close of Politico‘s story:

Then again, some Senate Democrats said this all would have been resolved even without Obama—though maybe not in time for the House to take up the bill in June, keeping it on track to help Obama seal the Trans-Pacific Partnership with 12 Pacific Rim countries.

“This was going to end up there anyway,” Nelson said. “But I would say the meeting with the president accelerated the discussion.”

So, to sum up: Most of the time, the structuralists are mostly right when it comes to presidents exercising leadership in pushing legislation through Congress. But they’re not completely right. On the margins, when dealing with one’s own party, maybe presidential leadership matters just a wee bit.

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The Truth About How Obama Has Handled the Pacific Trade Deal

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This Is Mike Huckabee’s Brain on Ethanol

by FNEVaughnzo Posted on May 20, 2015

Mother Jones

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Mike Huckabee said the right things at the Iowa Ag Summit in March. Charlie Neibergall/AP

On the campaign trail, GOP presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has been a vocal supporter of the ethanol industry. The former Arkansas governor has repeatedly spoken out in defense of the Renewable Fuel Standard—the federal policy that requires energy companies to blend billions of gallons of biofuels into the nation’s gasoline and diesel supply. That makes political sense in Iowa, where corn is big business. Ethanol made from corn constitutes the vast majority of domestic biofuel consumption. And roughly 40 percent of corn grown in the United States is used to produce ethanol.

So it was a bit surprising when Huckabee used his latest book to take direct aim at biofuels such as ethanol. In the middle of a chapter questioning the science of climate change, he suggested that biofuels have been propped up by unscientific “environmentalist policies” that drive up food prices and make global warming worse. Here’s the relevant passage from God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy, which was published in January:

Climate change isn’t the only field in which the environmental movement has claimed to represent unassailable scientific truth, only to be brought up short by new data.

For years, we were told that biofuels were the future. Skeptics who questioned whether it took more energy to create a gallon of fuel from corn than was generated by burning it were dismissed. But as we devoted more and more of our food crops to energy production, we discovered yet again that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. (Science!) In this case, so-called environmentalist policies hurt the poor when the supply of corn and other grains fell, causing skyrocketing food prices and shortages that led to riots in undeveloped nations. At this writing, the European Union has just agreed to limit biofuels, for those reasons and also because they were found to make some engines run less efficiently, to cause more pollution than expected, and to harm the environment and contribute to global warming, due to the need for clear-cutting more farmland.

Huckabee’s professed skepticism about biofuels actually echoes the views shared by a number of conservative activists and environmentalists. But it diverges greatly from much of what he has said and written elsewhere. For example, here’s what Huckabee wrote in his 2007 book, From Hope to Higher Ground:

One energy source that makes perfect sense for America to aggressively explore and dramatically increase is the production and use of biofuels. The most common biofuels are ethanol and biodiesel, both of which have the potential of decreasing our dependence on oil, but could also have a dramatic and positive impact on America’s agricultural production. It could give our farmers the ability to feed and fuel us. While the cost of converting a biofuel source to usable fuel has been historically expensive and therefore not as attractive as gasoline, creating incentives with potential hefty financial rewards could be valuable in the production of ethanol and biodiesel. New technologies using forms of biomass are increasingly viable, and the production of these would be controlled within our own borders. An added advantage of biofuels is that unlike gasoline and conventional diesel, they contain oxygen, which allows petroleum products to burn more completely, reducing air pollution and cutting back on the buildup of greenhouse gases.

Huckabee reportedly backed the Renewable Fuel Standard during the 2008 campaign (although, in at least one debate, he appeared to reject the idea of biofuel mandates). At the time, his campaign website said that “we need more ethanol.”

This past March—less than two months after slamming biofuels in his book—Huckabee attended the Iowa Ag Summit in Des Moines, where spent 20 minutes answering questions posed by ethanol kingpin and GOP megadonor Bruce Rastetter. “You’ve been an unabashed supporter of the RFS,” Rastetter said.

“Yeah,” responded Huckabee, adding that the biofuel mandate was part of a “bigger picture of energy independence and energy security” that could help the United States “turn the tables” on Russia and Iran. He didn’t say anything about “skyrocketing food prices.” You can watch the exchange here:

Huckabee addressed the issue again at a May 7 campaign event in Sioux City, where he argued that ending government support for ethanol puts farmers and companies “out of business, and it destroys what is beginning to become a more reasonable, responsible, and economically viable industry.”

I asked Huckabee’s campaign how they reconcile the candidate’s campaign-trail biofuels boosterism with the sharp criticism leveled in his book. They didn’t respond.

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This Is Mike Huckabee’s Brain on Ethanol

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Here Are 13 Killings by Police Captured on Video in the Past Year

by AmberSuttor Posted on May 20, 2015

Mother Jones

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Screenshot from police video of the shooting of Jason Harrison in Dallas on June 14, 2014. Harrison’s family obtained the footage in a civil rights lawsuit and chose to publicize it.

From Ferguson last summer to Baltimore this spring, police killings of unarmed black men under questionable circumstances have sparked outrage, civil unrest, and a heated national debate about policing in the United States. As Mother Jones and others have reported, there isn’t sufficient data available for determining how many people are shot to death or otherwise killed by police each year, or how the issue might be trending. But more such incidents appear to be getting captured on video than ever before, due in part to the ubiquity of cellphone cameras. The footage—not only from cellphones, but also surveillance cameras, dashboard cameras in police cars, and police-worn body cameras—has caused a tectonic shift in public awareness.

More MoJo coverage on police shootings:


Itâ&#128;&#153;s Been 6 Months Since Tamir Rice Died, and the Cop Who Killed Him Still Hasn’t Been Questioned


The Tamir Rice Killing: “I Feel So Disgusted With the City of Cleveland.”


Exactly How Often Do Police Shoot Unarmed Black Men?


2 Shootings Caught on Camera, 2 Young Black Victims, Zero Charges


The Cop Who Choked Eric Garner to Death Won’t Pay a Dime


Philly Cops Shoot and Kill People at 6 Times the Rate of the NYPD


Here’s What Happens to Police Who Shoot Unarmed Black Men

Below are 13 videos of fatal police encounters recorded between March 16, 2014, and April 4, 2015. Most of the suspects killed were black. A majority of the suspects were unarmed. In three cases, the suspects killed reportedly had serious mental-health problems—which may have been known to the police in at least two of those cases at the time of the shootings.

Mother Jones has contacted law enforcement officials about the status of these 13 cases: Investigations are ongoing in eight of them. In one case, now six months old, the two officers involved still haven’t been questioned by investigators. Officers in the five other cases have been absolved of wrongdoing via local or state proceedings. (One of those five cases is currently under review by the US Department of Justice.) Three of the 24 officers total who were involved in the 13 cases are currently facing criminal charges.

WARNING: The videos below contain graphic footage that some viewers may find disturbing.

Suspect killed: James Boyd
Race: White
When: March 16, 2014
Where: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Footage from: Police-worn body camera

What happened: James Boyd, a homeless man who reportedly suffered from mental illnesses for years, was shot by Albuquerque police officers Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez after a standoff over Boyd’s hillside encampment in March 2014. Randi McGinn, the special prosecutor appointed to take over the case in April 2015, told Mother Jones that she is likely to pursue homicide charges, originally brought by the district attorney, and will make a determination in the next few weeks.

Suspect killed: Richard Ramirez
Race: White/Hispanic
When: April 14, 2014
Where: Billings, Montana
Footage from: Police dashboard camera

What happened: Richard Ramirez was in the back of a car that was pulled over by officer Grant Morrison. Morrison later testified that, after he ordered the passengers to put up their hands, Ramirez repeatedly dropped his left hand. Morrison stated that he thought Ramirez—who’d been identified as a suspect in an armed robbery the prior night—was reaching for a gun, so he shot him three times. Ramirez was unarmed. (In February 2013, Morrison shot and killed another man while on duty, and was cleared of any wrongdoing.) In January 2015, a coroner’s jury ruled the action a justifiable homicide.

Suspect killed: Jason Harrison
Race: Black
When: June 14, 2014
Where: Dallas
Footage from: Police-worn body camera

What happened: Harrison’s mother called police saying that her son was off his medication and acting out, and requested help to get him to a hospital. When Dallas police officers John Rogers and Andrew Hutchins arrived at the front door, Harrison’s mother stepped out, letting the officers know that her son was bipolar and schizophrenic. When Harrison came to the door, the officers told him to drop a screwdriver he was holding, and shot him when he failed to comply. According to the Dallas Morning News, the officers’ attorney said that they feared for their lives, because killing someone using a screwdriver would be “pretty easy. It’ll only take one blow.” In April 2015, a grand jury decided not to indict the officers.

Suspect killed: Eric Garner
Race: Black
When: July 17, 2014
Where: Staten Island, New York
Footage from: Bystander’s cellphone

What happened: In July 2014, police approached Eric Garner on a Staten Island street after Garner had broken up a fight, and then started questioning him about selling loose cigarettes. NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo wrapped his arm around Garner’s neck from behind in a takedown maneuver and held Garner on the ground as Garner repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe.” Garner was later pronounced dead at the hospital. In December 2014, a grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo.

Suspect killed: John Crawford III
Race: Black
Where: August 5, 2014
Where: Beavercreek, Ohio
Footage from: Walmart surveillance camera

What happened: Crawford, 22, was walking around in a Walmart holding a BB gun that had been for sale on the store’s shelves. Responding to a 911 call about a man waving a gun, Beavercreek officer Sean Williams and Sergeant David Darkow arrived at the Walmart. The officers later told investigators that Williams opened fire after Crawford failed to comply with their orders to drop the gun. A grand jury decided in September 2014 not to indict the officers. The US Department of Justice launched a review of the case last September, which is ongoing, a DOJ spokesperson confirmed to Mother Jones.

Suspect killed: Dillon Taylor
Race: White
When: August 11, 2014
Where: Salt Lake City
Footage from: Police-worn body camera

What happened: Dillon Taylor, his brother, and his cousin were outside a convenience store and allegedly matched the description from a 911 call about three men, including one brandishing a gun. Officer Bron Cruz confronted the trio and began following Taylor, who initially walked away with his back toward Cruz. Taylor then turned around and kept walking backward, and had both hands in his waistband, according to Cruz. Cruz said he thought Taylor had a gun, and he repeatedly yelled at Taylor to get his hands out, before firing two shots. Taylor was unarmed. In September 2014, the Salt Lake City District Attorney determined the shooting was justified.

Suspect killed: Kajieme Powell
Race: Black
When: August 19, 2014
Where: St. Louis
Footage from: Bystander’s cellphone

What happened: A bystander’s cellphone video shows Powell, 25, walking around outside a corner grocery store after allegedly stealing energy drinks and pastries. As he paced back and forth, a police car pulled onto the sidewalk just up the street and two police officers got out. Powell, who was brandishing a knife, began to approach the officers (whose names have not been released), telling them to shoot him. After a pause, he took another step toward the officers and they opened fire. St. Louis Metro police chief Sam Dotson later stated that Powell “came at the officers” while gripping the knife. In February, the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department did not request charges when it handed off its investigation to the circuit attorney’s office, whose probe is ongoing, a spokesperson confirmed.

Suspect killed: Tamir Rice
Race: Black
When: November 22, 2014
Where: Cleveland
Footage from: Surveillance camera

What happened: Rice, 12, was playing in a local park when someone called 911 and reported that a person, “probably a juvenile,” was waving a gun around that was “probably fake.” Police officers Timothy Loehmann and Frank Garmback pulled up to Rice in their patrol car and Loehmann got out and shot Rice almost instantly. No charges have been filed in the case. As Mother Jones first reported last week, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department, which took control of the case in January, has yet to interview the two officers in its ongoing investigation.

Suspect killed: Jerame Reid
Race: Black
When: December 30, 2014
Where: Bridgeton, New Jersey
Footage from: Dashboard camera

What happened: Reid was a passenger in a car that was pulled over for allegedly running a stop sign. Officers Braheme Days and Roger Worley approached the car, and despite verbal warnings from the officers, Reid opened his door and reportedly got out of the car with his hands up, after saying “I ain’t doing nothing. I’m not reaching for nothing, bro,” according to the Associated Press. Both Days and Worley shot him. The officers were placed on paid administrative leave pending the investigation, and Reid’s family has filed a civil rights lawsuit in federal court against the city of Bridgeton. (Days is also facing a separate lawsuit for alleged rape.)

Suspect killed: Antonio Zambrano-Montes
Race: Hispanic
When: February 10, 2015
Where: Pasco, Washington
Footage from: Bystander’s cellphone

What happened: After responding to a call of a man throwing rocks in a grocery store parking lot, three Pasco police officers tried to arrest Zambrano. They pursued him on foot, shooting at him as he ran, and they fired at close range as he turned around to face them. In the video, his hands appear to have been empty. Officers Ryan Flanagan, Adam Wright, and Adrian Alaniz were placed on paid leave, and an investigation is ongoing.

Suspect killed: Charly Keunang
Race: Black
When: March 1, 2015
Where: Los Angeles
Footage from: Bystander’s cellphone

What happened: Six police officers were responding to a 911 call about an alleged robbery and assault on LA’s Skid Row, in which Keunang was reportedly a suspect. During a struggle with police, Keunang, who reportedly suffered from mental health problems, allegedly reached for an officer’s gun, prompting several officers to open fire. The three officers who fired their guns—Sergeant Chand Syed, and Officers Francisco Martinez and Daniel Torres—have been reassigned to administrative duty and an internal police department investigation is ongoing, the LAPD confirmed to Mother Jones. Keunang’s family has filed a $20 million civil claim against the city.

Suspect killed: Phillip White
Race: Black
When: March 31, 2015
Where: Vineland, New Jersey
Footage from: Bystander’s cellphone

What happened: Responding to a call of a man acting erratically, police handcuffed and restrained the 32-year-old White. According to investigators, White became unresponsive and received CPR in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, where he eventually died. Police called it an “in-custody non-shooting death,” but witnesses on the scene said the officers beat White and that a police dog bit him in the face. An investigation by the Cumberland County prosecutor’s office is ongoing. The officers in the case, Louis Platania and Rich Janasiak, are both on administrative leave, according to news reports.

Suspect killed: Walter Scott
Race: Black
When: April 4, 2015
Where: North Charleston, South Carolina
Footage from: Police dashboard camera and bystander’s cellphone

What happened: Dashboard camera footage showed Scott running away from his vehicle after North Charleston police officer Michael Slager pulled Scott over for a broken brake light. In the following minutes, recorded on a bystander’s cellphone, Slager caught up to Scott in an open field, and after a short struggle, Scott, who was unarmed, broke free and began to run away. Slager then shot Scott multiple times from behind. Slager was fired from his job and faces a felony murder charge.

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Here Are 13 Killings by Police Captured on Video in the Past Year

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This Is Actually the First Tweet @POTUS Ever Sent, Back in 2008

by MadgePiddington Posted on May 19, 2015

Mother Jones

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A social-media frenzy greeted President Barack Obama’s announcement on Monday that he had “finally” joined Twitter with a verified @POTUS Twitter account. Of course, the president has long used the official @barackobama handle, run by his political group Organizing for Action (followers: 59.3 million), with the sign-off “-bo.” But what was new, we were told, is that this account will be pure Barack Obama—a personal account, all his own. The White House says the president “launched” the @POTUS account from the Oval Office:

By the end of Monday, that tweet had been shared and favorited hundreds of thousands of times, and generated hundreds of news articles welcoming the “Tweeter-in-Chief.”

But it turns out that this is not the first tweet sent from the @POTUS Twitter account, according to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. The first tweet preserved in the archive from the @POTUS account is a mysterious message about someone named “Roy”:

Who is Roy? What did he do to POTUS? Internet Archive

According to the tweet’s time stamp, it was sent on March 11, 2008. It reads: “wondering what Roy got me into now.” Twitter started in 2006. This tweet was sent while George W. Bush was still in office.

At the time, the @POTUS account only had one follower. The archive has not preserved who that solitary follower was, but @POTUS was soon to gather another three: By the end of January 2009, @POTUS was broadcasting to four followers.

But then, sometime between 2009 and September 2013, the account went silent, and was locked down to outside viewers. This message appeared in various languages across the archive’s 37 “captures” (as of Monday night). In English: “Only confirmed followers have access to @POTUS’s Tweets and complete profile.” Click the “Follow” button to send a follow request.”

Who is Roy? And what mischief did he create for @POTUS? We may never know. But in the meantime, Mother Jones has reached out to the White House with a variety of questions, including:

  1. Who owned and ran the @POTUS Twitter account prior to the White House?
  2. When did the White House come into possession of the account?
  3. Did any money change hands to get the account?
  4. Was Twitter involved in ensuring access to the account?
  5. Who is Roy?

We will update this post when we hear back.

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This Is Actually the First Tweet @POTUS Ever Sent, Back in 2008

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Obama Just Announced a Plan to Restrict Police Use of Military-Style Equipment

by DaniloErnst Posted on May 18, 2015

Mother Jones

On Monday, the White House announced a plan to set new restrictions on local police departments from obtaining military-style equipment from the federal government. The limitation on military gear is part of an ongoing effort to rebuild trust between community members and law enforcement officials following the unrest seen in Ferguson, Missouri, particularly the police response to protesters there.

The announcement is in response to a report put forth by a task force created by the president in December to address broken police relations, especially in minority communities, across the country. Banned items include wheeled-armored vehicles, battering rams, grenade launchers, and more.

“We are, without a doubt, sitting at a defining moment in American policing,” Ronald Davis, head of the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, told reporters on Monday. “We have a unique opportunity to redefine policing in our democracy, to ensure that public safety becomes more than the absence of crime, but it must also include a presence for justice.”

For a deeper look into how local police departments became so militarized, check out our in-depth report, “The Making of the Warrior Cop,” here.

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Obama Just Announced a Plan to Restrict Police Use of Military-Style Equipment

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Grinning, Sparring, Losing: Mitt Romney’s Surreal Night Inside a Salt Lake City Boxing Ring.

by JeromeGott Posted on May 16, 2015

Mother Jones

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Muhammad Ali’s winning formula for boxing was to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” There was plenty of floating, but not much stinging, for former presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday night, during a two-round charity bout in Salt Lake City, against former five-time heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.

Revealing some prime #grandpabod in bright red satin shorts (remember, he only ate organic on the campaign trail?), and sporting an “I can’t believe I’m doing this but WTF” grin, the former governor’s sparring skills just couldn’t cut it.

The Associated Press captured what’s been dubbed the “Quake on the Lake“:

Romney, 68, and Holyfield, 52, sparred, if you could call it that, for just two short rounds before Romney ran away from the boxer and threw in the towel, giving up a round early in the lighthearted fight that came amid several other fights by professional boxers and an auction.

The two barely threw any punches and largely just danced around, occasionally lightly jabbing each other in the midsection in what was much more of a comedic event than an actual bout.

Let’s be honest: Holyfield, who once famously lost part of his ear in a fight with Mike Tyson, could have knocked out the former governor of Massachusetts with a single punch. But the joyous thing, the meaningful thing, was that he tried. Please proceed, governor:

Romney landed at least one solid jab, it seems:

Kapow! Rick Bowmer/AP

Holyfield then took a fall to make things interesting:

In the end, a ring-side Anne Romney—who always has her boyfriend’s back—threw in the towel on Mitt’s behalf, and Holyfield emerged victorious:

The black-tie affair raised at least $1 million for Charity Vision, a Utah-based nonprofit that helps doctors perform surgeries for the blind in developing countries. That amount of money is apparently equivalent to Holyfield’s net worth, and 1/25 of Romney’s, according to Buzzfeed’s Tale of the Tape.

After the match, Holyfield apparently quipped to Romney: “You know what? You float like a bee and sting like a butterfly.”

And so everyone had an enjoyable time, especially Ann Romney:

Continued:  

Grinning, Sparring, Losing: Mitt Romney’s Surreal Night Inside a Salt Lake City Boxing Ring.

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What the "Mad Men" Theme Music Has Been Trying to Tell Us All Along

by KennethDiesendo Posted on May 15, 2015

Mother Jones

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This Sunday we bid Don Draper and the rest of the Mad Men characters a final farewell. The question on everyone’s mind: Will Don ride off into the sunset or will he fall to his death and reunite with Bert Cooper in the big ad agency in the sky?

Many have opined on whether the animated opening title sequence, in which the silhouette of a man plummets from a skyscraper, represents a literal or metaphorical window into Don Draper’s future. Beyond that soon to be settled matter/question, has Matthew Weiner been trying to tell us something with the show’s opening title music all these years?

Weiner originally wanted Beck to write the music. Beck declined, though, betting that a show about 1960s ad executives would be a bore. Weiner later chose RJD2’s “A Beautiful Mine” after he stumbled on the song while listening to public radio. I suspect that Weiner wanted from Beck something similar to what he ended up with: a delicious collage of pop postmodernity. And while the RJD2’s music wasn’t created for Mad Men, it was scrupulously cut from its original length of 5 minutes, 29 seconds to just 37 seconds. It has a “big old movie quality to it, and updated beat to it, it had drama,” Weiner has said. “I just loved it.”

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What the "Mad Men" Theme Music Has Been Trying to Tell Us All Along

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When Homemade, Untraceable, Military-Style Semi-Automatic Rifles Go Bad

by ScarletXHU Posted on May 14, 2015

Mother Jones

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It’s perfectly legal to build your own unregistered and untraceable semi-automatic firearm if you buy the components online and craft the gun “for personal use.” But handing off such a gun in private sale that doesn’t require background checks is another matter. Last March, a team of state and federal law enforcement agencies concluded a five-month investigation by charging four California men with illegal firearms trafficking for doing exactly that. Many of the 50 weapons seized were home-assembled assault-style rifles, constructed from parts purchased legally.

“These weapons are particularly dangerous because they bear no manufacturer markings or serial numbers, making them virtually impossible to trace,” said Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent in Charge Carlos A. Canino in a statement.

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When Homemade, Untraceable, Military-Style Semi-Automatic Rifles Go Bad

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Investigators About to Break Silence on Police Killing of 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice

by COEMonikaof Posted on May 11, 2015

Mother Jones

On Tuesday, nearly half a year since 12-year-old Tamir Rice was shot and killed at a community center park by a Cleveland police officer, the Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department will make its first public statement about the progress of its criminal investigation. Sheriff Clifford Pinkney will review the timeline of the investigation from the day Rice was shot until present, and what remains to be done, according to a county official familiar with the case. Citing the ongoing investigation, Pinkney’s office says he plans to take no questions from the media following the statement.

The Sheriff’s department has remained quiet about the investigation ever since taking it over from the Cleveland Police Department in January, despite mounting questions about how long the process has taken in light of explicit video footage of the killing and the troubling police record of Timothy Loehmann, the officer who fired the fatal shots. The few details about the investigation that have come to light so far have been via court filings issued as part of the Rice family’s wrongful death suit against the city of Cleveland. Last week, Loehmann and fellow officer Frank Garmback filed a motion in that case seeking to invoke their fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination.

The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department declined to comment on the record about the two officers’ role in the ongoing criminal investigation.

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Political infighting may have been a factor in the prolonged process: After Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson asked the county to take over the investigation in early January, the sheriff’s department requested help from Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, against Jackson’s wishes. DeWine had previously said that a 2012 police shooting involving another officer, Michael Brelo, revealed a “systemic failure” at the Cleveland PD. Brelo currently faces voluntary manslaughter charges for shooting and killing two unarmed black suspects during a car chase, and a verdict is expected this month. (Thirteen officers were involved that case, but Brelo was the only one charged.) The handover of the Rice case also coincided with the start of a new Cuyahoga County executive’s term.

Still, particularly against the backdrop of ongoing national news about officer-involved killings, the pace of the Rice investigation has been troubling, says Ayesha Bell Hardaway, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University and a former Cuyahoga County assistant prosecutor. “The lapse of time from Tamir’s death until now has been too great,” she says, adding that “the public’s confidence in the police department and the city of Cleveland is hanging in the balance.”

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Investigators About to Break Silence on Police Killing of 12-Year-Old Tamir Rice

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