A Familiar Position For Jared Goff

Myles Simmons

http://www.therams.com/news-and-events/article-feature/A-Familiar-Position-For-Jared-Goff/5fc43c88-b06a-4c94-86e9-3be059e0c619

A trip to Jared Goff’s hometown reveals a lot about the QB who starred at Marin Catholic and Cal and is now aiming for big things with the Rams.

NOVATO, Calif. — When Jared Goff was a freshman at Cal, the Golden Bears finished 1-11.

If that piece of information is familiar to you, it should be. As one of the widely heralded top quarterbacks of the 2016 draft class, Goff’s record was repeatedly dissected and scrutinized in the lead up to the Rams selecting him with the No. 1 overall pick.

Despite the team struggles of that first college season, Goff helped put the program in a position to go 8-5 in his junior year, winning a bowl game for the first time since 2008. And in the process, Goff became one of the most prolific passers in Pac-12 history.

The situations are not the same, but it’s easy to draw parallels between that freshman season and Goff’s first year in the NFL. Speaking with the quarterback and a few of those close to him in his hometown over a weekend in late June, it’s clear why they are all eager and optimistic as Goff’s second season gets underway.

“I was always a quarterback since I was about 7 or 8 years old,” Jared says. “Always a quarterback.”

The Rams No. 1 overall pick has been hosting a youth flag football tournament over the last two days at his alma mater, Marin Catholic, where he starred as the high school’s varsity signal-caller from 2010-2012. Jared led the program to a 39-4 record in that time, winning three Marin County Athletic League championships and one CIF North Coast Section title.

As he said himself, Jared has been a quarterback long before he was torching high schools from all over the Bay Area. But always?

“It’s kind of funny. He was never the biggest kid. He’s gotten to the point now where he can handle himself, but back then, he was lean,” Jared’s father, Jerry Goff, recalls. Jerry played Major League Baseball in the 90s as a catcher for the Montreal Expos, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Houston Astros. “So we walked up the first day of football practice, and sent him out there with the rest of the kids. And he got in the linemen line.”

“Nobody knows — they’re seven years old, right?” Jerry laughs. “So he’s over there with the linemen and I’m like, ‘Man… I don’t want him to be a lineman.’ Because I had just played high school football and I knew his body wasn’t meant for that. So we had a little chat after and I said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to get out of that group and try this group.’ And that’s when he ended up doing what he’s doing now.”

“He loved it,” Jared’s mother, Nancy Goff, says of her son playing quarterback. “He just took off and loved it from Day 1.”

While quarterbacks don’t traditionally drop back much at that age, part of Jared’s love for the position came from his early ability to pass.

“I was just throwing the ball further than everyone so that’s why I started it,” Jared says. “And then as I grew older, I kind of grew into the position and everything that kind of goes along with it. And it’s kind of shaped me a little bit.”

Shaped him?

“Just the way I carry myself. [Being a quarterback] gives you confidence, and you have to have confidence at the position,” Jared says. “Leadership, energy, and everything else has shaped into my personality.

But if you ask his mom, Jared may have simply been innately suited to play what’s often described as the most difficult position in sports.

“I think he’s a natural leader. He loves telling people what to do, orchestrating things — even not just in football, but when he gets friends together,” Nancy says. “He likes orchestrating and leading, and he’s good at it.”

“He’s got a real strong sense of himself, a real strong sense of confidence,” she continues. “We get asked a lot that question — ‘Where does that come from?’ And I think the real explanation is the easiest: It’s just who he is.”

By the time Jared reached Marin Catholic, he’d been playing football for years. He clearly had arm talent, but no one quite knew how he would fare at the high school level.

Mazi Moayed has been Marin Catholic’s football coach since 2010, and remembers his first impression of Jared well.

“Tall, skinny kid who wanted to play quarterback,” Moayed says. “You have a lot of guys with that type of frame, and everybody wants to play quarterback.”

But there was something different about the way the ball would come off of Jared’s hand.

“You watch him throw the football, and you’d be like, ‘Wow, that looked really easy.’ Like, you felt like you could do it,” Moayed says. “You could tell he was special then. And he had the tools and the gifts — just had to see, at that point, was he going to have the head and the heart for it?”

Moayed and his staff learned Jared possessed both as he began his sophomore year.

“You could see right away [that] he was mature, just a mature athlete,” Moayed says. “And his competitive toughness was pretty awesome. He would compete like crazy at practice.”

Even though he was the starter, Jared wanted to be the scout-team quarterback, too. And so Moayed sent him out there in each practice as a sophomore, with Jared always trying to get the best of the first-team defense.

“It was fun — it was a good rivalry. A lot of his best friends were on the other side of the football, so it made it that much sweeter,” Moayed says. “That stood out right away, though, his sophomore year, was wanting to even be the scout-team guy. And we let him. And I think it made him better because it was always good-on-good.”

Growing up with a professional athlete as a father likely fostered that spirit in Jared.

“He’s got a very competitive side. I mean, he and my husband, they’ll compete over ping pong to where it gets a little nasty sometimes,” Nancy says. “Neither of them can stand to lose.”

But along with the intangibles, Jared’s skill-set allowed him to flourish.

Moyaed says Jared had an “ability to stand in the pocket and [keep his] eyes downfield. It didn’t matter what was happening — he’d be willing to stand in there and take a hit. You saw that in high school all the time and that was the No. 1 thing recruiters noticed when they’d come through, is, ‘Wow, he stays in the pocket and his eyes are downfield the whole time.’”

“He was pinpoint accurate and that was really helpful,” Moyaed adds. “It helped the average guys become a lot better, and the good guys become great because of how he was able to place the ball.”

Even then, Jared was exhibiting qualities that would help him get selected at the top of the draft — including his on-field demeanor.

“His calmness no matter the situation — he takes a hit, just playing the next play staying focused, and cool, and sort of calming the other guys down,” Moyaed says. “He has the energy to keep it fun and loose so he can be efficient.”

That sense of calmness was another significant point of Jared’s evaluation when he was entering the NFL. He says it’s just a quality he thinks he’s always had.

“I don’t know, I think it comes from trying to enjoy the game,” he says. “Trying to not make it more than it is, trying to have fun and don’t make the moment bigger than it is. It’s still just a game at the end of the day — a fun game we all play — and just try to enjoy it everyday.”

“I think he has a way of calming himself and knowing it’s going to be OK,” Jerry says. “You want to succeed at whatever you do. But there’s going to be some failures. And for his ability to push those off and push to the next play, or the next game — whatever it may be — is a really nice way to be wired as a quarterback.”

Whenever a high school player is putting up numbers like Jared — he threw 44 touchdowns as a junior — colleges are going to start giving him some attention. And so during that 2011 season, Jared started getting the sense that he had a future in football.

“I knew my junior year I could do it,” Jared says. “My junior year, I had a pretty good year — a bunch of touchdowns and not many interceptions and we were really good. I had some pretty good receivers around me that year and that’s when I kind of knew I could do it, started getting some interest.”

“Probably his junior year of high school where I knew, ‘You know, maybe he can play in college,’” Jerry says. “I’m like, ‘OK, he’s doing some things now that he has a chance to play in college. I don’t think he can for sure, because he’s still got to get better.’ And he kept getting better.”

So college programs began to show interest, and eventually Jared was offered Washington State, Boise State, and a school just a half hour away from his hometown: University of California, Berkeley.

“He had talked to a few other colleges, offers from a few others, and was still talking to a few others,” Nancy says. “And at one point he said to both Jerry and I, ‘I know I can’t do better than Cal. I know that’s where I want to go.’ And Jerry said, ‘Then just declare. Let’s do it.’ And so he did.”

“It was close to home, that was part of it,” Jared says. “It was nice to be close to home but ultimately, it was the chance to compete in the Pac-12. Great school — if football didn’t work out, you get a great degree.”

It was a choice that elicited plenty of family pride, as both Jerry and Nancy had attended Cal, too. Back then, Jerry not only excelled on the baseball field, but was also a punter for the football program.

“We were so happy — I was so happy. It’s unreal, it really is unreal, as a mom who went to school there, to have your son then deciding that he’s going to play there. And, hopefully, be the starting quarterback at Cal,” Nancy says. “I watched Jerry play there. So to be back on that field, Memorial Stadium, with Jared starting was unreal.”

“Yeah, selfishly it was great, because we could see every home game — we’re a half hour away,” Jerry says. “And then we were able to go on the road, too, because it wasn’t that big of a deal being on the West Coast. It meant a lot, in terms of just his legacy. He’s a second generation Cal guy, which is good.”

There were, however, a couple of factors that could have complicated Goff’s ascent. The first, was that Cal wanted Jared to enroll in the spring of 2013 so he could participate in spring practices. That meant the quarterback would have to graduate Marin Catholic early, which wasn’t something normally done.

“We got on the phone with Marin Catholic and said, ‘What do we need to do?’” Nancy says. “He had to take a few summer school classes. He had to do a few things because Marin Catholic has some other requirements. And they didn’t waive any of them — he had to finish the way everyone else finishes, but within three-and-a-half years. So we went online, he took some classes and he got it done.”

“That was just kind of new, believe it or not, in 2013,” Jerry says. “A lot of kids hadn’t been doing that. It started maybe in 2012 with a few kids. That’s your only chance to play as a freshman at the quarterback position — is to get out of high school a semester early. And he felt, you know, he’s like, ‘I want to do this. I want to get this done.’”

The opportunity to start as a freshman was a significant factor for why Jared wanted to graduate in that time frame. In a way, it’s an example of his highly competitive nature.

“I could’ve played baseball and still enjoyed my spring semester [in high school],” Jared says. “But it was the fact that I knew, if I’m sitting in class here, and it’s second semester senior year — you know how it goes. It’s like every class is kind of a joke towards the end. So sitting there and they’re doing practice across the bridge, and they don’t have a quarterback, and I’m like, ‘What am I doing here?’ I knew I didn’t want to be in that situation. So that’s why I went.”

“I obviously did miss my friends a little bit but there were times where they would come over and see me at Cal or I’d go back home on weekends all the time. It really wasn’t too bad, because I was so close,” Jared adds. “But that was the best decision I’ve ever made, going there early.”

“I think, obviously, when you look back on it, that could be why he is where he is now,” Jerry says. “If he doesn’t go there [early], he probably doesn’t start, and who knows? Things happen for a reason, and it was a good call on his part wanting to do that.”

The other complicating factor: Cal relieved head coach Jeff Tedford of his duties after the 2012 season, meaning Jared would walk into an unfamiliar situation with a coach who hadn’t recruited him. But even though there were potential opportunities to go elsewhere, Jared never wavered in where he wanted to be.

“I committed to the school,” he says. “I love coach Tedford, I thought he was great, I loved his whole staff. But I was committed to Cal as a school and as the institution it is.”

“I think he’s an ‘all-in’ type of guy with whatever he does — very loyal guy,” Moayed says of Jared. “And I think after he’d been committed that long, his heart, mind, and soul was into Cal. In his mind and heart, he had already played there, practiced there, walked-through there. He was already there.”

In some ways, the coaching change may have worked to Jared’s advantage. Cal hired Sonny Dykes and he brought with him an air-raid offense that bore a closer resemblance to what Moayed ran at Marin Catholic.

“With coach Tedford’s scheme, although very successful, it’s hard to come in and learn his system right away in one spring,” Moayed says. “You’re better off [red] shirting to grow in that offensive system.”

Under Dykes, Jared effectively learned the new offensive system and seized the starting role as a true freshman in August.

“I went in there not really knowing what was gonna happen, but just trying to do my best. And through probably a few weeks of early spring training, I thought, ‘Man, I could do this. I feel like I’m better than all these guys and I feel like I could do it,’” Jared says. “And I worked, and worked, and worked all the way through the summer and worked hard all the way through training camp and was named the starter about two weeks before the first game.”

Though he earned the starting role and set a number of passing records in 2013, Goff’s first college season was tough.

“It was rough, there’s no doubt about that. He lost four games throughout his whole high school career, and he loses 11,” Jerry says. “And not only did they lose, they got rolled.”

It was the program’s worst record in history, with Cal’s only win coming Week 2 against Portland State.

Nevertheless, there were positives. Two of those new Cal records were yards passing (3,508) and completions (320) — both of which he’d later break. And it was during that year that Jared and those around him began to realize what his ceiling might be.

“When I played my freshman year, we were terrible but I was still throwing it around pretty good, and completing some balls, and completing some big plays,” Jared says. “So I was like, ‘Alright, I can do it.’”

“Even through that 1-11 season, you would hear a lot of bright things about Jared,” Nancy says. “Especially on TV by the commentators about his pocket presence, his arm, his quick feet — things that they talk about when players can go on, attributes that you kind of need to have to go on. Not that they won that often, but Jared’s physical attributes. So I think it was right his freshman year when we started hearing people talk about it on TV, and I was like, ‘Hmm, OK, this could happen for him.’”

Part of that was Jared’s attitude. Even though his freshman season went south quickly, he stayed even keel.

“He hung in there and kept it together,” Jerry says. “He could’ve fell apart real easily — because there was another guy there who was highly recruited who got there before him. He could’ve [started] looking over his shoulder — never ever flinched the whole time.”

“To see him perform consistently at the level he was, the way he was throwing the ball, that, to me, said a lot,” Moayed says. “Just to keep throwing for all the yards that he did even though the team was struggling the way that it was. And to keep your head about you to be executing efficiently, and re-set every week. When you have a fresh approach, you’ve got to be really tough minded to do that. And after that year, I was like, ‘Hey, it’s only going to get better from here. It’s not going to be any worse.’”

But in order to make that happen, Jared had plenty to overcome. He had the support of his coaches and teammates, but also the confidence in himself to put the 1-11 season behind him and take Cal football in the right direction.

“I think there were a lot of things we went through and had to learn from and ultimately, it was changing the culture, and changing the expectation in the building,” Jared says. “And I was a part of that but I wasn’t the only part of that — there were a bunch of guys there with me that were pulling their weight as well. And I’m proud to say I was a part of it but by no means was I the only person behind that. It was a group effort.”

“No team has ever gone 1-11 and then to a bowl game the next year in college football. And they could’ve done that. There were a couple of games that they probably could have won [but] didn’t,” Jerry says. “They ended up 5-8, and then yeah, they moved on.

“So I think the fans in L.A., just to push this forward a little bit, are going to see that, too, out of this kid,” Jerry continues. “Being that he played seven games and didn’t win any of them — that’s no secret — you guys, hang with this guy. He’s going to be alright.”

As Jerry says, the similarities between Jared’s freshman year at Cal and his rookie season in the NFL are plainly apparent. After L.A. traded up to No. 1 overall to select him, Jared started seven games, but the Rams finished the year 4-12. And completing just 55 percent of his passes for 1,089 yards with five touchdowns and seven interceptions was not an ideal first year by any stretch.

“I learned a lot,” Jared says. “I think I learned, ultimately, that winning in this league is not easy and doesn’t come without sacrifice. There’s a lot of things that you need to lay on the line a little bit to get what you want. And, ultimately, that is winning. And I think I learned that — I think our whole team learned that.”

“Definitely want to use some of the things I did learn last year, though, to continue to move myself forward and our team.”

Those close to Jared all have a strong sense that the quarterback will have a much improved 2017. They say he’s proven he has the ability to do it through his resolve and resiliency.

“His track record shows it — he gets better every year,” Jerry says. “Every year, no matter what he does, at whatever level he plays, he gets better. And he’s going to get better, and get better, and get better. He’s not going to stay static — that’s not in his DNA.”

“I think the biggest thing is going to be taking that 1-11 year and using that to his advantage, just sort of being himself and staying the course,” Moayed says. “He’s been playing football all his life and I always hear these different things on interviews or write ups, and sometimes it’s like they’re talking about a guy like he’s never played football before, you know? It’s sort of funny. But there’s a lot of elements involved. And I think he’s going to bounce back and have a great year coming up with the Rams.”

“I think things are on the rise there. I think it’s kind of similar to Cal, where it’s kind of a shift in culture, new coach, they’re kind of turning some things around,” Nancy says. “And I think it’s going to get better just like Cal — I really do. I have a lot of confidence. Jared, obviously, has a lot of confidence. And I think his teammates do. I mean, you can feel it.”

Wide receiver Nelson Spruce — who helped out at Jared’s camp in June — says he’s noticed a difference not just within the dynamic of the team, but also with the way his quarterback handled the offseason program.

“I just think that leadership role that he’s taken is where I’ve seen the most growth,” Spruce says. “He knows he’s going to be the guy Day 1, and he’s kind of taken the position as the leader of our offense, and the leader of our team. And I think a lot of that has to do with the year that he had, and seeing what goes into an NFL season, and what it takes to lead an NFL team. And I think on the field as well, he’s kind of taken some big strides.

“Being the No. 1 overall pick, and coming in [last year] as a quarterback in that situation — I couldn’t imagine the pressure,” Spruce adds. “Anyone in that situation is going to have their speed bumps. But I think what he did was learn from that. That’s one thing I’ve noticed he does well — he won’t repeat the same mistakes. So I think that he’s kind of taken all the lessons he’s learned from the past year. We did have a lot of negative moments last year, and I think he learned from all those. And he’s doing his best to make sure we don’t repeat them.”

Part of that certainly has to do with Los Angeles’ new staff, led by head coach Sean McVay. Between McVay, offensive coordinator Matt LaFleur, and quarterbacks coach Greg Olson, Jared has plenty of support to help guide him to a much more successful 2017. But it’s the environment McVay implemented in and around the building that Jared feels can make an even bigger impact.

“I think what coach McVay has done so far with the new culture he’s instilled and the new expectations and all that stuff is exactly on line with what we need,” Jared adds. “And I’m really excited about what we’ve got working now.”

Jared has the skills. He has the intangibles. He feels he has the right teammates and coaches around him. He has the experience.

That’s why when you ask him what to expect from the Rams this upcoming season, he eagerly replies, “A lot more.”

“It’s turning — you can feel it in OTAs, you can feel it in minicamp. The tide is turning,” Jared says. “And, again, I think it starts with coach McVay and everything he’s instilled. Just the expectation level is much higher this year — much higher. I know it’s higher on myself. And I know I’m ready to go.”

…

Why Roman concrete still stands strong while modern version decays
Scientists have cracked the secret to Roman water-based structures’ strength – and findings could help today’s builders

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/04/why-roman-concrete-still-stands-strong-while-modern-version-decays

Their structures are still standing more than 1,500 years after the last centurion snuffed it: now the Romans’ secret of durable marine concrete has finally been cracked.

The Roman recipe – a mix of volcanic ash, lime (calcium oxide), seawater and lumps of volcanic rock – held together piers, breakwaters and harbours. Moreover, in contrast to modern materials, the ancient water-based structures became stronger over time.

Scientists say this is the result of seawater reacting with the volcanic material in the cement and creating new minerals that reinforced the concrete.

“They spent a tremendous amount of work [on developing] this – they were very, very intelligent people,” said Marie Jackson, a geologist at the University of Utah and co-author of a study into Roman structures.

As the authors note, the Romans were aware of the virtues of their concrete, with Pliny the Elder waxing lyrical in his Natural History that it is “impregnable to the waves and every day stronger”.

Now, they say, they’ve worked out why. Writing in the journal American Mineralogist, Jackson and colleagues describe how they analysed concrete cores from Roman piers, breakwaters and harbours.

Previous work had revealed lime particles within the cores that surprisingly contained the mineral aluminous tobermorite – a rare substance that is hard to make.

The mineral, said Jackson, formed early in the history of the concrete, as the lime, seawater and volcanic ash of the mortar reacted together in a way that generated heat.

But now Jackson and the team have made another discovery. “I went back to the concrete and found abundant tobermorite growing through the fabric of the concrete, often in association with phillipsite [another mineral],” she said.

She said this revealed another process that was also at play. Over time, seawater that seeped through the concrete dissolved the volcanic crystals and glasses, with aluminous tobermorite and phillipsite crystallising in their place.

These minerals, say the authors, helped to reinforce the concrete, preventing cracks from growing, with structures becoming stronger over time as the minerals grew.

By contrast, modern concrete, based on Portland cement, is not supposed to change after it hardens – meaning any reactions with the material cause damage.

Jackson said: “I think [the research] opens up a completely new perspective for how concrete can be made – that what we consider corrosion processes can actually produce extremely beneficial mineral cement and lead to continued resilience, in fact, enhanced perhaps resilience over time.”

The findings offer clues for a concrete recipe that does not rely on the high temperatures and carbon dioxide production of modern cement, but also providing a blueprint for a durable construction material for use in marine environments. Jackson has previously argued Roman concrete should be used to build the seawall for the Swansea lagoon.

“There’s many applications but further work is needed to create those mixes. We’ve started but there is a lot of fine-tuning that needs to happen,” said Jackson. “The challenge is to develop methods that use common volcanic products – and that is actually what we are doing right now.”

Link: https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/01/portland-far-right-rally-republicans-militia-security

link:http://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2016/01/some_oregon_schools_can_keep_n.html

The Oregon Board of Education will allow some Oregon public schools to keep their Native American mascots.

The board had previously ruled that 14 schools with Native American mascots must choose new ones by 2017. Under a new amendment approved Thursday, schools who secure permission from one of Oregon’s nine tribes can keep their Native American mascots.

Some Native Americans have been asking state leaders since 2006 to ban tribal-themed mascots such as the Warriors, Braves, Indians and Chieftains.

The state board spent years reviewing studies that said Native mascots promote discrimination, harassment of students and stereotyping. In 2012, the board ordered all schools with Native Americans mascots to choose new ones. Those who didn’t could lose state funding.

Republicans legislators fought back, and in 2014, the Oregon state legislature passed a bill allowing school boards and tribes to work together to keep the mascots. The bill directed the state board of education to come up with the rules for those agreements.

State officials created work groups to advise them on these rules. Last May, the board unanimously voted not to approve an amendment allowing schools to gain permission from tribes.

Thursday’s decision reverses that ruling. What changed?

State officials have spent more time talking with each of Oregon’s nine tribes, Department of Education spokeswoman Crystal Greene said. Some tribes and school districts have worked together to create plans that would keep the mascots and teach students more about tribal history and culture.

In Banks, for instance, members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde have proposed an agreement that would allow the high school athletics teams to still call themselves the Braves. In exchange, the district will begin using a curriculum the tribe developed to teach its history. The district will also create a Native Club for all middle and high school students.

But activist Sam Sachs said the move is a step backward for Oregon.

“It’s just extremely disappointing that they didn’t have the courage to stand up for the Native American students,” said Sachs, the former chair of Portland’s Human Rights Commission. “They can talk to all the tribes. The nine tribes don’t speak for every Native American person in Oregon or the students who have to go to these schools. It doesn’t change the research. The use of these names and mascots have a negative impact on students, especially their self esteem. There’s no research that says these mascots empower Native American people.”

Sachs said a group of five Native American students plans to file a lawsuit against the state and the board of education this spring.

It is this Thursday Night.

Round 1
1. Philadelphia 76ers f/Celtics via Nets – Markelle Fultz PG Washington
2. LA Lakers – Lonzo Ball PG UCLA
3. Boston Celtics f/76ers via Kings – De’Aaron Fox PG Kentucky
4. Phoenix Suns – Josh Jackson SG Kansas
5. Sacramento Kings f/76ers – Malik Monk SG UNC
6. Orlando Magic – Jayson Tatum SF Duke
7. Minnesota Timberwolves – Frank Ntlikina PG France
8. New York Knicks – Dennis Smith PG NC State
9. Dallas Mavericks – Lauri Markkanen PF Arizona
10. Sacramento Kings f/Pelicans – Jonathan Isaac SF/PF FSU
11. Charlotte Hornets – Harry Giles PF/C Duke
12. Detroit Pistons – Zach Collins C Gonzaga
13. Denver Nuggets – Bam Adebayo PF/C Kentucky
14. Miami Heat – Donovan Mitchell SG Louisville
15. Portland Trailblazers – Justin Patton C Creighton
16. Chicago Bulls – Jarrett Allen C Texas
17. Milwaukee Bucks – Luke Kennard SG Duke
18. Indiana Pacers – John Collins C Wake Forest
19. Atlanta Hawks – Justin Jackson – SF UNC
20. Portland Trailblazers f/Nuggets via Grizzlies – DJ Wilson PF Michigan
21. Oklahoma City Thunder – Jordan Bell PF Oregon
22. Brooklyn Nets f/Wizards – Ivan Robb PF/C California
23. Toronto Raptors – Terrance Ferguson SG Australia
24. Utah Jazz – Kyle Kuzma PF Utah
25. Orlando Magic f/Raptors via Clippers – Frank Jackson PG/SG Duke
26. Portland Trailblazers f/Cavaliers – TJ Leaf PF UCLA
27. Brooklyn Nets F/Celtics – Caleb Swanigan PF/C Purdue
28. LA Lakers f/Rockets – Wesley Iwundu SG/SF Kansas State
29. San Antonio Spurs – PJ Dozier PG South Carolina
30. Utah Jazz f/Warriors – Ike Anigbogo

Round 2
31. Atlanta Hawks f/Nets – Isiah Hartenstein C Germany
32. Phoenix Suns – OG Anunoby SF/PF Indiana
33. Orlando Magic f/Lakers – Anzejs Pasecniks C Latvia
34. Sacramento Kings f/76ers via Pelicans – Semi Ojeleye SF/PF SMU
35. Orlando Magic – Sidarius Thornwell SG South Carolina
36. Philadelphia 76ers f/Knicks via Jazz – Dillon Brooks SF Oregon
37. Boston Celtics f/Wolves via Suns – Jawun Evans PG Oklahoma State
38. Chicago Bulls f/Kings- Damyeon Dotson SG/SF Houston
39. Philadelphia 76ers f/Mavericks – Josh Hart SG Villanova
40. New Orleans Pelicans – Frank Mason III PG Kansas
41. Charlotte Hornets – Tyler Dorsey SG Oregon
42. Utah Jazz f/Pistons – Tom Bradley C UNC
43. Houston Rockets f/Nuggets – Tyler Linton PF Syracuse
44. New York Knicks f/Bulls – Jonathan Motley PF Baylor
45. Philadelphia 76ers f/Heat – Aleksandar Vezendov SF/PF Bulgaria
46. Houston Rockets f/Blazers – Jonah Bolden PF Australia
47. Indiana Pacers – Dwayne Bacon SG/SF FSU
48. Milwaukee Bucks – Cam Oliver PF Nevada
49. Denver Nuggets f/Grizzlies – Vlatko Cancar SF Slovenia
50. Philadelphia 76ers f/Hawks – Alec Peters PF Valparaiso
51. Denver Nuggets f/Thunder – Neil Williams-Goss SG Gonzaga
52. Washington Wizards – Nigel Hayes PF Wisconsin
53. Boston Celtics f/Cavaliers – Derrick White SG Colorado
54. Phoenix Suns f/Raptors – Melo Trimble PG Maryland
55. Utah Jazz – Alberto Abadale SF Spain
56. Boston Celtics f/Clippers – Devin Robinson SG FSU
57. Brooklyn Nets f/Celtics – Mathias Lessort PF France
58. New York Knicks f/Rockets – Jaron Blossomgame SF Clemson
59. San Antonio Spurs – Kennedy Meeks C UNC
60. Atlanta Hawks f/Warriors – Edmond Sumner PG/SG Xavier

Witnesses: Man Cut the Throats of Two MAX Passengers Who Tried to Stop Anti-Muslim Bullying of Women on Northeast Portland Train

http://www.wweek.com/uncategorized/2017/05/26/witnesses-man-on-northeast-portland-max-train-cut-the-throats-of-two-men-who-tried-to-stop-anti-muslim-bullying-of-women-passengers/

The attack occurred in the Hollywood District. “He said, ‘Get off the bus, and get out of the country because you don’t pay taxes here.'”Gateway Transit Center (TriMet)
By Aaron Mesh | Published May 26 at 7:00 PM
A man riding the MAX in Northeast Portland fatally stabbed two passengers who tried to stop him from hurling racial and anti-Muslim insults at women on the train, witnesses tell WW’s news partner KATU-TV.

The suspect is currently in Portland police custody. The stabbing occurred at about 4:30 this afternoon as the light-rail train pulled into the Hollywood Transit Center.

Details of the triple stabbing, which killed two men, are still emerging. But eyewitness reports to KATU and The Oregonian indicate it was an anti-immigrant hate crime.

KATU reports:

Witnesses told KATU’s Joe Douglass the stabbing suspect was hurling racial insults at two women with dark skin, one of whom was wearing a headdress. Two men who came to the woman’s defense had their throats slashed by the suspect, witnesses said.

Another witness says she saw two women who appeared to be of Middle Eastern-descent get on the train. At least one of them was wearing a headdress. The suspect was asking them questions when he got belligerent. When another bystander tried to calm him down, the man took out a knife and began stabbing people.

“He said, ‘Get off the bus, and get out of the country because you don’t pay taxes here,’ [he said he] doesn’t like Muslims, they’re criminals,” Evelin Hernandez said.

COMMENTS

Robert Battlehammer • 10 hours ago
Trump emboldens racists and perpetuates violence
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Michele MacKay Robert Battlehammer • 9 hours ago
It’s no coincidence the man who opened fire in a mosque here in Quebec City was a Trump fanatic and that he committed the islamophobic hate crime right after Trump took office. Quebec City is normally such a peaceful place we go whole years without a single murder.
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Ed Michele MacKay • an hour ago
I remember that horrific attack at that mosque – and this president had absolutely ZERO to say about it. If the attacker was any other race other than white, he would’ve been all over it as usual. So infuriating!
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Chris Prothero jimmy matho • 9 hours ago
I’d expect no less a comment from a schmuck with a traitorous leader as a profile pic to defend an other traitorous leader. Idiots like you scream ‘fake news’ any time someone says something you disagree with.
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carrnark1 Chris Prothero • 8 hours ago
You are not working wih logic. If you blame all violence against Muslims on Trump, blame all violence by Muslims against Radical Islam.
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Art Jackson carrnark1 • 7 hours ago
Here’s a question. Do we blame the Holocaust on Hitler, at all? How about the actions taken against those who were not white/Christian/heterosexual/”of sound mind according the ruling group definition”/far right conservative in Nazi Germany? Holding Hitler responsible for hate crimes would follow from his vicious rhetoric inciting/excusing/lauding same even for those hate crimes committed before official policies were enacted. And noone who was around and actually listening and watching during the campaign didn’t know Trump was using hate speech to whip up his supporters, and that he incited/excused hate crimes…or that he has done the same in regards to the real press for some time.
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Leslie Hand Art Jackson • 2 hours ago
Saw it with my own two eyes. If you went to a Trump Rally you’d understand what he unleashed, by blaming immigrants, muslims and inner city blacks for everything these poor white folks at his rallies were suffering from. Pathetic
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Indie Leslie Hand • 2 hours ago
Too bad you never attended a Trump rally.
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Sophisticated Computer User Indie • an hour ago
How do you know what she did or didn’t do?
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David Parsons Sophisticated Computer User • 40 minutes ago
He/she doesn’t…just another Trump supporter talking out their rear end. About all they’re good for
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Sophisticated Computer User David Parsons • 35 minutes ago
Why do trump supporters have to be such filth? I mean,they are seriously disgusting human beings.
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JLo Indie • an hour ago
She did, too bad you are full of hate in your heart. If you support Trump there’s nothing more to say about you. You are a hater. Period.
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Leslie Hand Indie • 38 minutes ago
Too bad your wrong. I attended them all so I could make an informed decision. I was truly the undecided voter until I saw all the hate he unleashed at the rally. I heard it come directly out of his mouth. Didn’t need “fake news” to make up my mind lol
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Brendan Doran Leslie Hand • an hour ago
Unleashed implies it was leashed power waiting to get loose.

It was.

Our enemies bought this on themselves.
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Alfred Brendan Doran • 36 minutes ago
No it means that you, a limited being, not able to think further than your own narrow little world, have been thoroughly brainwashed, so as to become an active potential terrorist …
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Josie Ekstrand Leslie Hand • an hour ago
we are suffering, enough is enough, our health care is not affordable, the immigrants, and inner city folks on welfare, getting everyting for free, and hard working americans paying for it, and still they want more to come in, paying for college tuition and yet the poor snowflakes disrupting campuses and my kid can’t say or do anything that might hurt someones feelings,lest he be beat up, yea, we are suffering, and it has to stop
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cb1913 Josie Ekstrand • 35 minutes ago
You DO know that the majority of welfare recipients (MANY fraudulently and generationally) are white, right? Folks who’ve never faced slavery, Jim Crow, systemic racism, mass lynchings, mass incarceration, redlining, discriminatory hiring, government-sponsored health experimentation, government-planted drugs, etc are the most likely to be on government assistance. Furthermore, you should be thankful for the ‘disruptions’ considering the ‘disruptions’ that led to things like affirmative action have played more to your favor if you’re a working white woman (& I sure hope you’ve consistently carried a FT job as you sit here complaining about everyone else). I know you’d rather blame your ills on others since that’s so much easier than facing the truth, but the numbers don’t lie.
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Edis Edo Nikšić Josie Ekstrand • 33 minutes ago
The amount you personally pay in taxes for “immigrants and inner city people” (even though hicks use welfare as much or more) is insignificant compared to the amount you pay for corporations and military. They have you complaining about the wrong thing. Ya’ll rather give money to CEOs in hopes of them improving the economy while they just simply line their pockets and pay off politicians and the media to keep us, the working class, bickering over bs.
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Lynd Art Jackson • 6 hours ago
Well said!
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Dolly Muñoz Art Jackson • 4 hours ago
Stupid comparison. This is more akin to Obama inciting violence against police officers. Or having the DNS categorize Christians as the nations number one threat to our national security. What an evil and vile person! But, hey, that’s just fine with you, because when it comes to propaganda people like you will say anything to push their murderous agenda.
Why don’t you ask yourself, how come so many people preparing to expose the DNC turn up DEAD? And you have the nerve to say Trump is Hitler? You’re a bold face liar.
Let’s talk about the Democrats promoting the murder of millions of babies. But that’s fine with you! Hypocrite!
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Trump_troll Dolly Muñoz • 3 hours ago
The DNC murder accusations out you as nutbag. What does anything you have to say make it ok for a man to a slit 2 people’s throat for defending two women? Ate you saying that is ok?
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Josie Ekstrand Trump_troll • an hour ago
of course is it not ok, but people are sick and tired of all this crap, enough is enough
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Stephany Hammond Dolly Muñoz • 2 hours ago
Repugnant Republicans are fueled by hate, racism and misogyny,. If you are not a white male, you are sub human in their eyes. Ten worst attacks on America has been evil white hatefu Christian males like the Oklahoma bombing, Sandy hook where a Christian white male looked beautiful babies in the face and slaughtered them. You are evil as they are so is you ignorant dangerous president
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Josie Ekstrand Stephany Hammond • an hour ago
and a Muslim just took out little girls in England, whats your point, should we blame all the Muslims for what he did, should we judge a whole race of people on the actions of a wack a doodle, should we be judged as country by the rapes committed by a sitting President, should we be judged by the crimes committed by Hillary and Bill Clinton, you PUTZ
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Kirsten Seiverd Josie Ekstrand • 34 minutes ago
Stephanys point us that republicans are inclined to blame everything on immigrants, inner city African-Americans, and, of course, ‘liberals’, without ever acknowledging the horrific crimes committed by their own followers, who, as far as I’m concerned, I find much more threatening than anyone else.
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disqus_WlanNurZuB Dolly Muñoz • 3 hours ago
I don’t know nuthin about killing babies I know plenty about freedom and individual choice over my body.

Why do you hate freedom and America?
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George Oscar Bluth Jr. or Gob disqus_WlanNurZuB • an hour ago
What America has is not called Freedom, It is called “The Great Illusion of Freedom”
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VT George Oscar Bluth Jr. or Gob • 41 minutes ago
Not really an illusion. Just Republicans slowly but surely eroding Freedoms away from as many as they can. A plan a half a century in the making being implemented by design. Run government as a Christian theocracy, thus taking away freedoms from anyone who does something that is ‘forbidden’ by Christians, which means 95% of them are ‘going to hell’ since they pick and choose whats a sin and what’s not. Pathetic.
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Sophisticated Computer User disqus_WlanNurZuB • an hour ago
Dolly is referring to the thoroughly debunked pizzagate claims that a pizza shop in D.C. Had a child sex dungeon in its basement where satanic rituals were carried out ending with a human sacrifice and cannibalism. This lead to some rightwinger driving for hours to go shoot up said pizza shop just to find out that there was no child sex dungeon in the basement. Hell, there’s no basement.

The whole basis of this belief was a bunch of rightwingers reading Podesta emails and drawing really stupid conclusions from incredibly mundane things. Seriously, they read pepperoni pizza and thought that was code for virgin sacrifice and crap like that. I just want to slap anyone that evokes that stupid conspiracy theory.
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Brendan Doran disqus_WlanNurZuB • an hour ago
Which America you belong to determines American enemy and so Hate.
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Sophisticated Computer User Dolly Muñoz • an hour ago
Obama never incited violence against police officers or anyone else.
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William Z. Cohen Dolly Muñoz • 3 hours ago
Dolly, you are an idiot. Lol Lol Lol 😂
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Esteban Dolly Muñoz • an hour ago
With 70 percent of the U.S. identifying as Christian, when will this fabricated “Christian persecution” baloney come to an end? Psst… Your Christian leaders are lying to you and if you had the sense to look beyond Right Wing Media sources you’d clearly see none of this garbage that your religion has been feeding you. Besides, doesn’t the book of Revelations warn of “false prophets”? Would these “Christian leaders” that glorify hating LGBT people and Muslims be considered as such by a biblical definition? Would Jesus approve of violence against people of color and those that are not white, conservative “Christians”?
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cb1913 Dolly Muñoz • 33 minutes ago
Do not pretend to care about babies when you support taking away their public education and their healthcare, and their food. Having a “form of religion” does not a Christian make.
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cyrenecj Dolly Muñoz • an hour ago
I am sorry you are suffering from some kind of psychosis. The parents of the young man I assuming to whom you are referring, asked the right wing hate monger to stop invoking his name. You apparently didn’t get the memo….
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VT Dolly Muñoz • an hour ago
Obama inciting violence against police officers? Oh boy do tell this fantastic tale of fallacy fun. Let me get the fire going and the popcorn ready. OK go ahead…
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jelun Dolly Muñoz • an hour ago
Share with us the statements made by President Obama that were inciting violence against police, please.
I am so very anxious to see this twisted perception of yours.
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Champski2012 Dolly Muñoz • 37 minutes ago
You are a crazy person who is LITERALLY using fake news to make an argument. Go away, educated yourself with some facts, and then come back to have a real conversation.
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Mike James Dolly Muñoz • 41 minutes ago
Shock radio is warping your brain, Dolly.
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Richard Banville FZ • 6 hours ago
“Those killing us and attacking us” obviously includes right-wing extremists, since they’re the ones responsible for the majority of politically-motivated attacks since September 11, 2001.
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Dolly Muñoz Richard Banville • 4 hours ago
That is the biggest lie I’ve read in a looooong time! You couldn’t prove that even if your life depended on it.
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Trump_troll Dolly Muñoz • 2 hours ago
Your kidding right? Since Timothy McVeigh have been 117 known attacks by white supremists and far right wing nuts.
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paddles57 Trump_troll • an hour ago
You know those don’t count-they’re white conservative males. Move along, nothing to see here.
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JLo Dolly Muñoz • an hour ago
He doesn’t need to. It’s already been proven. Quit watching Fox News or any other fake right winged rag and you’ll know (possibly depending on your comprehension) that you are the problem. Full of hate, fear and stupidity.
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jaggedlittlepill Dolly Muñoz • an hour ago
It’s not hard to prove at all. There’s this amazing thing you can do on a computer. It’s called a search and you just type in what you’re searching for and voila! The answers pop right up on the screen for you to read!! Oh, you CAN read, can’t you? In short it’s called JFGI. Just Fucking Google It.
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Sophisticated Computer User Dolly Muñoz • an hour ago
http://time.com/3934980/rig…
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Cliff Smith FZ • 4 hours ago
Please re-read the article, and try to remember who was killed here, and who did the killing.
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CYB0RG FZ • 6 hours ago
You’re not very bright are you?
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Rams (From Jets through Buccaneers) Ebukam, Samson OLB 6’3″ 240 Eastern Washington

..

SAMSON EBUKAM, OLB
SCHOOL: EASTERN WASHINGTON | CONFERENCE: BSKY
COLLEGE EXPERIENCE: SENIOR | HOMETOWN: PORTLAND, OR
HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6-2 / 240 LBS.

Record-breaking wide receiver Cooper Kupp earned most of the attention from NFL scouts traveling to tiny Cheney, Washington but Ebukam was nearly as dominant over his career on the defensive side of the ball for the Eagles.
Ebukam’s path to the NFL is a long one that started in Nigeria, where he was born and lived until the age of nine, not learning English until after he arrived in the United States. He focused more on soccer, as well as track and field (shot put and javelin) before football and was only offered scholarships by two programs – EWU and Portland State.

Rather than redshirt to acclimate to the new surroundings and sport, however, Ebukam (pronounced “ay-boo-com”winking smiley proved an immediate difference-maker for the Eagles, earning Second Team Freshman All-American honors as an edge rusher despite not starting a single game. Earning post-season honors became the norm for Ebukam, who was recognized with All-Big Sky accolades each year of his career with the Eagles, ultimately capping it off with career-highs in tackles (68), tackles for loss (13.5), sacks (8.5), fumble recoveries (three) and forced fumbles (two) as a senior, splitting time between “Buck” defensive end, outside linebacker, inside linebacker and even defensive tackle.

Though his lack of ideal size and level of competition are obvious concerns, scouts will be intrigued by Ebukam’s raw athleticism and upside.

STRENGTHS: Boasts undeniable athleticism, including the quickness and mobility to potentially handle the conversion to an off-the-line linebacker role. Has a compact, well-built upper body with disproportionately long arms, which helps him generate power as a bull rusher, as well as slip blocks. Good initial quickness off the snap out of the three-point stance to cross the face of tackles and shows the agility and awareness to be quite effective looping back inside on stunts. Appears comfortable dropping back into coverage, showing the body control to change directions quickly as well as good speed and effort in pursuit. Good length and strength for the drag down tackle. May be only scratching the surface of his potential.

WEAKNESSES: Lacks the desired length and bulk to remain as a full-time defensive end in the NFL and is very raw as a linebacker, relying on his athleticism and motor to make plays. Too often is out of control as an edge rusher, allowing himself to get off-balance and knocked to the ground. Wasted motion as a pass rusher, flailing his arms rather than swiping away at the efforts of blockers to slow him. Needs to do a better job of anticipating and protecting himself against cut blocks.

IN OUR VIEW: Ebukam plays with a Tasmanian devil style of aggression and relentlessness that could earn him a spot on special teams while learning the nuances of the game. Until then, his burst off the edge could help as a pass rush specialist.

COMPARES TO: Marquis Flowers: Like the 6-3, 245 pound third year pro out of Arizona, Ebukam has athleticism, motor and frame to warrant a late round flyer in the hopes of developing.

The Real Irish-American Story Not Taught in Schools
by
Bill Bigelow
link:http://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/03/17/real-irish-american-story-not-taught-schools

“Wear green on St. Patrick’s Day or get pinched.” That pretty much sums up the Irish-American “curriculum” that I learned when I was in school. Yes, I recall a nod to the so-called Potato Famine, but it was mentioned only in passing.

Sadly, today’s high school textbooks continue to largely ignore the famine, despite the fact that it was responsible for unimaginable suffering and the deaths of more than a million Irish peasants, and that it triggered the greatest wave of Irish immigration in U.S. history. Nor do textbooks make any attempt to help students link famines past and present.

Yet there is no shortage of material that can bring these dramatic events to life in the classroom. In my own high school social studies classes, I begin with Sinead O’Connor’s haunting rendition of “Skibbereen,” which includes the verse:

… Oh it’s well I do remember, that bleak
December day,
The landlord and the sheriff came, to drive
Us all away
They set my roof on fire, with their cursed
English spleen
And that’s another reason why I left old
Skibbereen.

By contrast, Holt McDougal’s U.S. history textbook The Americans, devotes a flat two sentences to “The Great Potato Famine.” Prentice Hall’s America: Pathways to the Present fails to offer a single quote from the time. The text calls the famine a “horrible disaster,” as if it were a natural calamity like an earthquake. And in an awful single paragraph, Houghton Mifflin’s The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People blames the “ravages of famine” simply on “a blight,” and the only contemporaneous quote comes, inappropriately, from a landlord, who describes the surviving tenants as “famished and ghastly skeletons.” Uniformly, social studies textbooks fail to allow the Irish to speak for themselves, to narrate their own horror.

These timid slivers of knowledge not only deprive students of rich lessons in Irish-American history, they exemplify much of what is wrong with today’s curricular reliance on corporate-produced textbooks.

First, does anyone really think that students will remember anything from the books’ dull and lifeless paragraphs? Today’s textbooks contain no stories of actual people. We meet no one, learn nothing of anyone’s life, encounter no injustice, no resistance. This is a curriculum bound for boredom. As someone who spent almost 30 years teaching high school social studies, I can testify that students will be unlikely to seek to learn more about events so emptied of drama, emotion, and humanity.

Nor do these texts raise any critical questions for students to consider. For example, it’s important for students to learn that the crop failure in Ireland affected only the potato—during the worst famine years, other food production was robust. Michael Pollan notes in The Botany of Desire, “Ireland’s was surely the biggest experiment in monoculture ever attempted and surely the most convincing proof of its folly.” But if only this one variety of potato, the Lumper, failed, and other crops thrived, why did people starve?

Thomas Gallagher points out in Paddy’s Lament, that during the first winter of famine, 1846-47, as perhaps 400,000 Irish peasants starved, landlords exported 17 million pounds sterling worth of grain, cattle, pigs, flour, eggs, and poultry—food that could have prevented those deaths. Throughout the famine, as Gallagher notes, there was an abundance of food produced in Ireland, yet the landlords exported it to markets abroad.

The school curriculum could and should ask students to reflect on the contradiction of starvation amidst plenty, on the ethics of food exports amidst famine. And it should ask why these patterns persist into our own time.

More than a century and a half after the “Great Famine,” we live with similar, perhaps even more glaring contradictions. Raj Patel opens his book, Stuffed and Starved: Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World’s Food System: “Today, when we produce more food than ever before, more than one in ten people on Earth are hungry. The hunger of 800 million happens at the same time as another historical first: that they are outnumbered by the one billion people on this planet who are overweight.”

Patel’s book sets out to account for “the rot at the core of the modern food system.” This is a curricular journey that our students should also be on — reflecting on patterns of poverty, power, and inequality that stretch from 19th century Ireland to 21st century Africa, India, Appalachia, and Oakland; that explore what happens when food and land are regarded purely as commodities in a global system of profit.

But today’s corporate textbook-producers are no more interested in feeding student curiosity about this inequality than were British landlords interested in feeding Irish peasants. Take Pearson, the global publishing giant. At its website, the corporation announces (redundantly) that “we measure our progress against three key measures: earnings, cash and return on invested capital.” The Pearson empire had 2011 worldwide sales of more than $9 billion—that’s nine thousand million dollars, as I might tell my students. Multinationals like Pearson have no interest in promoting critical thinking about an economic system whose profit-first premises they embrace with gusto.

As mentioned, there is no absence of teaching materials on the Irish famine that can touch head and heart. In a role play, “Hunger on Trial,” that I wrote and taught to my own students in Portland, Oregon—included at the Zinn Education Project website— students investigate who or what was responsible for the famine. The British landlords, who demanded rent from the starving poor and exported other food crops? The British government, which allowed these food exports and offered scant aid to Irish peasants? The Anglican Church, which failed to denounce selfish landlords or to act on behalf of the poor? A system of distribution, which sacrificed Irish peasants to the logic of colonialism and the capitalist market?

These are rich and troubling ethical questions. They are exactly the kind of issues that fire students to life and allow them to see that history is not simply a chronology of dead facts stretching through time.

So go ahead: Have a Guinness, wear a bit of green, and put on the Chieftains. But let’s honor the Irish with our curiosity. Let’s make sure that our schools show some respect, by studying the social forces that starved and uprooted over a million Irish—and that are starving and uprooting people today.
—
bill Bigelow taught high school social studies in Portland, Oregon for almost 30 years. He is the curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools and the co-director of the Zinn Education Project. This project offers free materials to teach people’s history and an “If We Knew Our History” article series. Bigelow is author or co-editor of numerous books, including A People’s History for the Classroom and The Line Between Us: Teaching About the Border and Mexican Immigration, and most recently, A People’s Curriculum for the Earth: Teaching Climate Change and the Environmental Crisis.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Armed antigovernment protesters led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy were acquitted Thursday of federal conspiracy and weapons charges stemming from the takeover of a federally owned wildlife sanctuary in Oregon last winter.

This is sickening. It’s okay, apparently, to be a terrorist if you’re white, Christian and right-wing. If blacks or Native Americans had done the exact same thing, they’d likely be shot, and any survivors would be doing hard time. Same goes for leftist activists.

To me, one of the most striking things about America’s current reality is this: The angriest Americans are white, Christian males, ideologically aligned with the far right. And they are easily the most privileged, pampered, pandered to, protected and propped up Americans. In short, they have the least reason to be so angry. The system in general is “rigged” in their favor, not against them, unless they’re poor — and the Bundys aren’t.

OTOH, the people who actually do have legitimate grievances — ethnic, sexual and religious minorities, women, leftists — virtually never resort to violence, arms, etc, and all too often accept their lot stoically. If they protest, they do so non-violently. And they’re far, far more likely to be jailed for this than right-wing white, Christian males.

A percentage of this country, especially those who look to nutcase, paranoid, freak-show, far-right fringe media like WND, Breitbart, Infowars, Zerohedge, etc. etc. etc. . . . has a seriously screwed up vision of what America is. They’re beyond divorced from reality. They’ve invented their own parallel universe.

• This topic was modified 10 years ago by Billy_T.

WHAT THE DATA REALLY SAYS ABOUT POLICE AND RACIAL BIAS
Eighteen academic studies, legal rulings, and media investigations shed light on the issue roiling America.

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/07/data-police-racial-bias

the nation reels from a series of high-profile fatal shootings of black men by police officers, many have decried the lack of readily available data on how racial bias factors into American policing. But while it’s true that there is no adequate federal database of fatal police shootings (F.B.I. director James Comey has described the lack of data as “embarrassing and ridiculous”), there exists a wealth of academic research, official and media investigations, and court rulings on the topic of race and law enforcement.

The Hive has collected 18 such findings below. This list is not exhaustive, and does not purport to comment on the work of all police officers. It is, rather, merely a digest of the information available at present. Sometimes, studies and investigations reveal evidence of intentional bias; other studies point to broader societal and institutional factors that lead to implicit bias. Taken together, the research paints a picture of a nation where a citizen’s race may well affect their experience with police—whether an encounter ends with a traffic stop, the use of police force, or a fatal shooting.

POLICE KILLINGS OF UNARMED AMERICANS
1. A study by a University of California, Davis professor found “evidence of a significant bias in the killing of unarmed black Americans relative to unarmed white Americans, in that the probability of being black, unarmed, and shot by police is about 3.49 times the probability of being white, unarmed, and shot by police on average.” Additionally, the analysis found that “there is no relationship between county-level racial bias in police shootings and crime rates (even race-specific crime rates), meaning that the racial bias observed in police shootings in this data set is not explainable as a response to local-level crime rates.”

2. An independent analysis of Washington Post data on police killings found that, “when factoring in threat level, black Americans who are fatally shot by police are, in fact, less likely to be posing an imminent lethal threat to the officers at the moment they are killed than white Americans fatally shot by police.” According to one of the report’s authors, “The only thing that was significant in predicting whether someone shot and killed by police was unarmed was whether or not they were black. . . . Crime variables did not matter in terms of predicting whether the person killed was unarmed.”

3. An analysis of the use of lethal force by police in 2015 found no correlation between the level of violent crime in an area and that area’s police killing rates. That finding, by the Black Lives Matter–affiliated group Mapping Police Violence, disputes the idea that police only kill people when operating under intense conditions in high-crime areas. Mapping Police Violence found that fewer than one in three black people killed by police in 2016 were suspected of a violent crime or armed.

HOW POLICE DETERMINE WHOM TO STOP
4. A report by retired federal and state judges tasked by the San Francisco district attorney’s office to examine police practices in San Francisco found “racial disparities regarding S.F.P.D. stops, searches, and arrests, particularly for Black people.” The judges, working with experts from five law schools, including Stanford Law School, found that “the disparity gap in arrests was found to have been increasing in San Francisco.” (Officers in San Francisco were previously revealed to have traded racist and homophobic text messages, and those working in the prison system had reportedly staged and placed bets on inmate fights.)

In San Francisco, “although Black people accounted for less than 15 percent of all stops in 2015, they accounted for over 42 percent of all non-consent searches following stops.” This proved unwarranted: “Of all people searched without consent, Black and Hispanic people had the lowest ‘hit rates’ (i.e., the lowest rate of contraband recovered).” In 2015, whites searched without consent were found to be carrying contraband at nearly two times the rate as blacks who were searched without consent.

5. The Department of Justice’s investigation into the behavior of police in Ferguson, Missouri, found “a pattern or practice of unlawful conduct within the Ferguson Police Department that violates the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, and federal statutory law.” The scathing report found that the department was targeting black residents and treating them as revenue streams for the city by striving to continually increase the money brought in through fees and fines. “Officers expect and demand compliance even when they lack legal authority,” the report’s authors wrote. “They are inclined to interpret the exercise of free-speech rights as unlawful disobedience, innocent movements as physical threats, indications of mental or physical illness as belligerence.”

“African Americans are more than twice as likely as white drivers to be searched during vehicle stops even after controlling for non-race based variables such as the reason the vehicle stop was initiated, but are found in possession of contraband 26% less often than white drivers, suggesting officers are impermissibly considering race as a factor when determining whether to search,” the authors wrote. Nearly 90 percent of documented uses of force by the Ferguson Police Department were used on African-Americans, and every documented use of a police canine bite involved African-Americans.

6. In Chicago, a 2016 Police Accountability Task Force report found that “black and Hispanic drivers were searched approximately four times as often as white drivers, yet [the Chicago Police Department’s] own data show that contraband was found on white drivers twice as often as black and Hispanic drivers.” The police department’s own data, the report found, “gives validity to the widely held belief the police have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color.”

7. A 2014 analysis of Illinois Department of Transportation data by the American Civil Liberties Union found the following: “African American and Latino drivers are nearly twice as likely as white drivers to be asked during a routine traffic stop for ‘consent’ to have their car searched. Yet white motorists are 49% more likely than African American motorists to have contraband discovered during a consent search by law enforcement, and 56% more likely when compared to Latinos.”

8. A 2015 analysis by The New York Times found that in Greensboro, North Carolina, police officers “used their discretion to search black drivers or their cars more than twice as often as white motorists—even though they found drugs and weapons significantly more often when the driver was white.” That pattern held true for police departments in four states. In Greensboro, “officers were more likely to stop black drivers for no discernible reason. And they were more likely to use force if the driver was black, even when they did not encounter physical resistance.”

9. A 2013 ruling by a New York Federal District Court judge found that the New York Police Department’s “stop and frisk” practices violated the constitutional rights of minority citizens of the city. Between January 2004 and June 2012, the city conducted 4.4 million stops. Eighty-eight percent of those stops resulted in no further action, and 83 percent of the stopped population were black or Hispanic, despite the fact that those minority groups, together, made up just over half of the city’s overall population. (The number of stop-and-frisk stops has dropped dramatically since its peak in 2011.)

10. A 2011 investigation by the Justice Department found that the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, headed by Joe Arpaio, had “a pervasive culture of discriminatory bias against Latinos,” and that the office also tried to interfere with the department’s investigation. The sheriff’s office “engages in racial profiling of Latinos; unlawfully stops, detains, and arrests Latinos; and unlawfully retaliates against individuals who complain about or criticize [the office’s] policies or practices,” the report’s authors said. (Arpaio responded by saying, “We are proud of the work we have done to fight illegal immigration.”)

RACE AND THE USE OF NONLETHAL FORCE
11. A controversial working paper by Harvard professor Roland Fryer Jr. found that police officers are more likely to use their hands, push a suspect into a wall, use handcuffs, draw weapons, push a suspect onto the ground, point their weapon, and use pepper spray or a baton when interacting with blacks. The study found no evidence of racial bias when it comes to police shootings, but Fryer’s methodology has come under criticism. The study relied on police reports, which have been previously shown to be a flawed data set, and its finding on justified shootings focused largely on data from Houston, Texas. (Fryer defended his work, but admitted his research is far from perfect.)

12. A study by the Center for Policing Equity found, as characterized by a preview in The New York Times, that “African-Americans are far more likely than whites and other groups to be the victims of use of force by the police, even when racial disparities in crime are taken into account.” The study looked at 19,000 use-of-force incidents between the years 2010 and 2015.

13. A 2016 study by a team of professors from U.C.L.A., Harvard, Portland State University, and Boston University analyzed suspects’ booking photographs for phenotypical signs of whiteness to test the following hypothesis: “the Whiter one appears, the more the suspect will be protected from police force.” Their findings: “police used less force with highly stereotypical Whites, and this protective effect was stronger than the effect for non-Whites.”

14. At least one study found that Latino populations suffer from similar effects. A Department of Justice investigation into the Seattle Police Department found that more than 50 percent of cases “determined to be unnecessary or excessive uses of force” involved minorities. “Analysis of limited data suggests that, in certain precincts, S.P.D. officers may stop a disproportionate number of people of color where no offense or other police incident occurred,” the report said, though it stopped short of determining that the department was engaging “in a pattern or practice of discriminatory policing.” (The investigation found that, regardless of the race of the suspect or victim, police using force were doing so unconstitutionally nearly 20 percent of the time.)

WHEN OFF-DUTY OFFICERS ARE KILLED BY POLICE
15. A 2010 governor’s task force examining police-on-police shootings found even black and Latino police officers face a greater risk of being killed by police. In cases of mistaken identity, 9 out of the 10 off-duty officers killed by other officers in the United States since 1982 were black or Latino. “Inherent or [subconscious] racial bias plays a role in ‘shoot/don’t-shoot’ decisions made by officers of all races and ethnicities,” the report found.

FINDINGS ON THE USE OF HANDCUFFS
16. A Stanford study of police practices in Oakland, California, found that officers were disproportionally handcuffing blacks. “Regardless of the area of the city, disproportionate treatment by race was similar and the raw totals were stunning,” according to a Washington Post summary of the findings. The Post continues: “2,890 African Americans handcuffed but not arrested in a 13-month period, while only 193 whites were cuffed. When Oakland officers pulled over a vehicle but didn’t arrest anyone, 72 white people were handcuffed, while 1,466 African Americans were restrained.” The researchers also found significant differences in the way officers spoke to African Americans: “Using only the words an officer uses during a traffic stop, we can predict whether that [officer] is talking to a black person or a white person” with 66 percent accuracy.

STUDIES THAT FOUND LITTLE OR NO EVIDENCE OF ANTI-BLACK BIAS
17. There are some studies that draw other conclusions. Research by a Washington State University professor found that, while shown video simulations, officers were less likely to shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed white suspects. They also took an extra 0.23 seconds, on average, before firing on black suspects in the simulations. “We found that officers were slightly more than three times less likely to shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed white suspects,” the researchers noted, while allowing for the possibility that the officers might act differently in live situations, and that the officers may have adjusted their behavior because they were being tested.

18. In a 2007 study, University of Chicago researchers used simulations to compare the abilities of police officers and the general population to determine whether to shoot a target that was flashed before them. The targets featured a mix of armed and unarmed black and white people. While “both samples exhibited robust racial bias in response speed,” researchers concluded that “officers outperformed community members on a number of measures, including overall speed and accuracy.” The bias related to response speed was found to be anti-black.

Wondering What a Trump Presidency Would Be Like? Look to Maine.

Sophie DiCara

link: http://harvardpolitics.com/united-states/48723/

Ever since Donald Trump declared his candidacy for president, many have tried to envision what a Trump presidency would be like. A ready-made example exists in Maine, where Republican Governor Paul LePage has held the governorship since 2011.

The similarities between Trump and LePage are striking. Both men are vehemently anti-immigrant. In the past, LePage has characterized immigrants as vectors for diseases in the United States and has strongly opposed accepting Syrian refugees in Maine. Likewise, Trump has characterized immigrants as “killers and rapists,” and his platform includes building a wall along the Mexican-American border.

However, perhaps the most obvious parallel between Trump and LePage is their “tell it like it is” attitude. Both men have been unafraid to speak bluntly on sensitive topics. When asked if he thought that Islam was at war with the West, Trump infamously replied ,“I think Islam hates us.” LePage once said that Maine’s drug problem was due to “the traffickers … these guys are by the name D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” who come to Maine and impregnate young white girls. Obviously, neither is afraid to speak their mind.

Both men are marked by a boldness to say anything—regardless of its accuracy. In 2014, LePage stated that “about 47 percent of able-bodied people in the state of Maine don’t work.” PolitiFact determined that the correct statistic is around 3.6 percent. Similarly, in 2015 Trump tweeted an image displaying murder statistics attributed to “Crime Statistics Bureau – San Francisco”, a bureau which doesn’t even exist. The infographic claimed that in 2015 blacks were responsible for 81 percent of white homicides. According to the FBI, that statistic is actually only 15 percent.

LePage and Trump have both indulged in dangerous fabrication. LePage cited an alleged event at Deering High School where a student overdosed and was treated three times with Narcan before going back to class as proof that naloxone without rehab isn’t effective. Portland School Superintendent Jeanne Crocker denounced the claim, telling the press, “Unequivocably no. This did not happen at Deering High School.” In fact, Deering High doesn’t even keep Narcan on their campus. Yet, LePage refused to concede that he was wrong and said that he was considering calling Attornery General Loretta Lynch to investigate. Likewise Trump claimed that he saw “thousands and thousands” of New Jersey Muslims celebrating on 9/11, an assertion that has been thoroughly disproven. Just like LePage, Trump refused to back down. After George Stephanopoulos told Trump that the police said the incident never happened happen, Trump responded by saying “it did happen” several times.

LePage’s penchant for dishonesty in the public sphere—although good for generating entertaining sound-bites—has led to bad governance. He began his time in office by appointing his 22-year daughter as his assistant chief of staff, despite promising during his campaign that he would steer clear of cronyism. In 2011, just two months after taking office, he had become the object of protest and a federal lawsuit after ordering the removal of a mural displaying moments from Maine’s labor history from the Department of Labor building. LePage claimed he did so because of complaints from business owners that the mural was too pro-union. His office later office released a puzzling anonymous letter as evidence.

A spokesperson added that the mural was “not in keeping with the department’s pro-business goals”. In an interview with Brian Williams, LePage changed his stance, claiming that he had “absolutely nothing against organized labor” and that he only opposed the mural because it was funded from the unemployment insurance fund. The mural removal was upheld in court as a protected form of government speech. However, the damage to LePage’s reputation was done. Mike Tipping of the Maine People’s Alliance remarked of the incident, “People elected Governor LePage hoping he would create jobs and not get involved in the interior decoration of state offices.”

In 2013, LePage clashed with state Democrats over the placement of a TV outside of his office which advocated his budget and state hospital debt repayment. Democrats wouldn’t permit the TV since no partisan messages are allowed on display outside of State House offices. LePage claimed that he was being censored. In protest, he moved out of the State House and worked from the Governor’s Mansion for several days.

In another power play, LePage threatened to withhold funding to a charter school run by the Good Will-Hinckley School, an organization for at-risk youth, because they hired Democratic political opponent Mark Eves as president. He openly boasted to a reporter about his actions, saying “Yeah, I did! If I could, I would. Absolutely. Why wouldn’t I? Tell me why I wouldn’t take the taxpayer money, to prevent somebody to go into a school and destroy it.” The Good Will-Hinckley School subsequently denied Eves the job offer following LePage’s threats. Eves sued, but his case was dismissed.

In an administration marred by inconsistency, one thing has been consistent: LePage’s abuse of veto power. LePage has utilized his veto as a tool to wage war against the legislative branch rather than to signal specific objections. In his first year in office alone LePage vetoed 187 bills; as of May he had vetoed over 450 bills. LePage’s fondness for the Veto is so great that in May he even named his new dog “Veto”.

Tensions came to a head in June 2015 after the state legislature rejected his constitutional amendment to eliminate the income tax. Legislators reasoned that the amendment would be irresponsible since LePage hadn’t proposed a plan to fill the resultant $1.7 billion hole in the state’s budget. In response LePage vetoed all Democrat-sponsored bills, even if they had bipartisan support. Most notably, he returned the 700-page state budget with 64-line item vetoes. LePage’s vetoes were overridden 70 percent of the time in 2015, a shocking statistic considering Republicans controlled the state senate. University of Maine political scientist Howard Cody told Governing that LePage “has become so unpopular with the legislature, many members have become predisposed to override on principle, regardless of the details of the bill”.

Yet, the enormous number of LePage’s vetoes overwhelmed the legislature. His vetoes added 252 extra votes to the legislative calendar and forced them to extend the session an extra week at a cost of $100,000 to the state. LePage openly admitted that the legislative log-jam was his intention, telling reporters, “I want to show that for five months they wasted our time and this time I’m going to waste a little of their time.”

LePage possess a dangerous cocktail of unyielding hubris and bigotry. In his eyes he is right and everyone else is wrong—right about murals, right about the placement of TVs, right about depriving funding from a charter school, right about abusing his veto power and clogging up the legislature. LePage has been content to abuse his power, then act like a toddler—being disruptive and uncooperative—when he doesn’t get his way. If anyone is wondering what a Trump Presidency might be like, just look towards Maine.