True Left

An explosive new report says a US State Department official was the head of a Washington chapter for a white nationalist group and published extremist propaganda online.

Matthew Gebert, who serves as a foreign affairs officer in the State Department’s Bureau of Energy Resources, actively promoted white nationalist sentiments and was a prominent member of white nationalism circles, the Southern Poverty Law Centre’s Hatewatch reported Wednesday.

Hatewatch said Mr Gebert often discussed the need for a country exclusively built for white people that featured a “nuclear deterrent.” His wife, Anna Vuckovic, was also a blogger who published white nationalist views, according to the report.

The two went by the pseudonyms “Coach Finstock” and “Wolfie James,” according to the researchers’ sources.

They also regularly invited other white nationalists over their house in Leesburg, Virginia, Hatewatch reported.

“[Whites] need a country of our own with nukes, and we will retake this thing lickety split,” Mr Gebert reportedly said on a podcast last year while using his alias.

“That’s all that we need,” he added, “we need a country founded for white people with a nuclear deterrent. And you watch how the world trembles.”

Mr Gebert first joined the State Department as a fellow in 2013 before eventually being promoted to his current position at the Bureau of Energy Resources.

A senior Berlin-based Croatian diplomat has been accused of damaging her country's reputation after she wrote inflammatory Facebook posts alongside idyllic images of the Adriatic coast.

"Just white Europeans as it used to be only 30 years ago in the whole of Europe," wrote Elizabeta Madjarevic.

The foreign minister said she was being recalled.

The incident has embarrassed Croatia, which only joined the EU in 2013 and takes over its presidency next January.

The Facebook account of Ms Madjarevic, who is first secretary at the Berlin embassy, has now been deleted.

But the diplomat's views were exposed by Croatia's Index.hr website, which said that in an 8 August post, under sun-drenched images of Croatia, she referred to "white Europeans" and a "pure and authentic Europe". The comments were characteristic of white nationalists and neo-Nazis, it said.
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However, Index.hr reported that in earlier Facebook posts she had written about the "Islamisation agenda" of Muslims and espoused homophobic views. In one post she linked LGBTQ to paedophilia.

Ms Madjarevic was also outspoken about German attempts to integrate migrants into society, it said.

The Rogers County Sheriff’s Department hired former Tulsa police officer Wayne Brown as a detention officer today, following his termination from the Tulsa force in early September.

TPD fired Brown following the discovery of anti-government and Islamaphobic posts on his personal Facebook page between 2013 and 2016, three years before he was hired on by TPD.

Rogers County Sheriff Scott Walton said Brown was chosen from three candidates who applied for an open position at the county jail.

"Hands down, we all felt that he was the best candidate," Walton said.

The head of Maine’s regulatory body for boxing and mixed martial arts events is under fire for alleged anti-Muslim posts on his personal Facebook page.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, called Tuesday for the resignation of Hal Pierce, chairman of the Combat Sports Authority of Maine.

The governor appoints board members to the Combat Sports Authority of Maine, which was created by state law to regulate and promote boxing and mixed martial arts in the state. The authority was established by the Legislature in June 2009 to ensure that all mixed martial arts and professional boxing exhibitions, events, performances, and contests are safely regulated and controlled.

Warren Hurst, who sits on the Sevier County Commission, spoke up during a discussion on an upcoming vote to become a gun sanctuary city. He told the crowd, many of whom were holding little American flags, that it was time to “wake up people.”

“We got a queer running for president if that ain’t about as ugly as you can get,” he said, in comments captured by Knoxville-based station WVLT. “Look what we got running for president in the Democratic Party. We can go over here to Hoss’ jail [the Sevier County sheriff] and get better people out of there than those running for [the] Democratic [nomination] to be president of the United States.”

Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is running in the Democratic primary. If elected, he would be the first openly gay president. His campaign didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

At least one woman objected to Hurst’s remarks and stormed out, but others applauded and agreed with him.

“I’m not prejudiced, but by golly, a white male in this country has very few rights and they’re getting took more every day,” the commissioner added.

An emergency medical technician has been placed on unpaid leave after racist comments surfaced of him comparing black patients to gorillas and claiming to take "immense satisfaction" as he "terrorized" an African American boy with a needle.

A veteran law enforcement officer, Corporal Pablo Lima, has been placed on administrative leave amid allegations that he violated his department’s social media policy by “liking” social media posts made by people who supported his Israeli-born Jewish wife and her political views.
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Cpl. Lima’s wife, Hallandale Beach City Commissioner Annabelle Lima-Taub, was condemned by the commission in a 3-2 vote one year ago, after she spoke out against Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib in a Facebook post.
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n January 2019, a vote was held in Hallandale Beach City Hall to condemn Lima-Taub for her Facebook posts targeting Tlaib, including calling her a “Hamas-loving antisemite,” and said that she might be a “martyr and blow up Capitol Hill.”

Dozens of people came to the city hall waving Israeli flags and holding signs in support of her statements. In addition, she was unapologetic about her posts, and doubled down on them in further posts.

“I am offended by anyone who is NOT OFFENDED by Rashida Tlaib’s hateful rhetoric and pro BDS and other radical dangerous views calling for the obliteration of Israel, literally off the face of the map,” she said in one of her posts.

“I remain unapologetic for my views that she is a danger to the peace process and demand an apology of her for relabeling Israel as Palestine on a map hanging on her wall in her congressional office.”

Judge Robert Ruehlman told The Cincinnati Enquirer Wednesday: "They're committing a crime by being here illegally, and then, if they're in front of me, they've allegedly committed a felony."

And how does he know someone is here illegally? If the person needs an interpreter, is accused of drug smuggling or has international connections, Ruehlman said he acts on his hunch.

"I set a high bond and I call ICE," he said. "I'm batting a thousand. I haven't got one wrong yet."

Ruehlman said he calls ICE about a dozen times a year. He said he has a good relationship with the agency.

Kubicki said, for him, issues of immigration are between the defendant and the federal government.

"I never call ICE," he said. "I don't know their number."

He said if a person decides to plead guilty to a charge, the court is required to ask about their citizenship and inform those who aren't citizens that their immigration status could be affected by a conviction.

Kubicki said even if a person were to admit to him then they were in the country illegally, he would feel no obligation to report them.

(CNN)The White House's nominee for a top position at the Pentagon has a history of making Islamophobic and inflammatory remarks against prominent Democratic politicians, including falsely calling former President Barack Obama a Muslim.
Retired Army Brig. Gen. Anthony Tata, a frequent guest on Fox News and ardent defender of President Donald Trump, was nominated to become the under secretary of defense for policy.

If confirmed by the Senate, Tata would become the third highest official in the Pentagon overseeing the Defense Department's policy shop, including its national security and defense strategy, nuclear deterrence and missile defense policy, and security cooperation plans and policies. The policy chief also closely advises the secretary of defense on national security and supports the Department of Defense's program and budget decisions.

In several tweets from 2018, Tata said that Islam was the "most oppressive violent religion I know of" and claimed Obama was a "terrorist leader" who did more to harm the US "and help Islamic countries than any president in history." Following the publication of this story, Tata deleted several of his tweets, screenshots of which were captured by CNN's KFile.

Tata, in one radio appearance, speculated the Iran deal was born out of Obama's "Islamic roots" in an attempt "to help Iranians and the greater Islamic state crush Israel."

Tata is a regular defender of the President and his policy decisions, including Trump's intervention in the war crimes case of Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher that forced Navy Secretary Richard Spencer to resign.
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In 2018, Tata falsely said Obama was a "Muslim" and a "terrorist" while on Twitter, writing "Obama normalized Islam for America."

After a Twitter user wrote to him that "Obama was not a terrorist sympathizer," Tata replied, "No he was just a terrorist leader," adding in another tweet, "He gave $150B to #1 state sponsor of terror so they could destroy Israel."

The Obama administration did not give $150 billion to Iran. The deal, which was approved by six countries and the European Union, gave Iran access to its own frozen assets and it's unclear how much those assets were worth.

In another Twitter engagement, Tata reiterated that Obama was a terrorist because of his dealings with Iran, noting that the only joke was that it was considered a conspiracy theory.

"I was joking! Of course it's not a conspiracy theory. He did more to harm US vital interests and help Islamic countries than any president in history. The Iran deal alone is more than enough evidence of his drive to subvert US national interests to Islam and a globalist agenda," Tata wrote.

In a follow-up tweet, Tata wrote Obama "is a Muslim who got other countries involved via corporate greed to support a regime (Mullahs) that sponsors anti West hatred and violence using money US unfroze or gave. He made no secret of his belief that a weaker America made for a stronger world." After a user said there was no evidence that Obama was a Muslim, Tata replied, "Other than him saying he is, no."

Obama has written extensively about his Christian faith and has never claimed to be a Muslim.

Tata made similar comments about Obama while appearing on radio programs in 2017 and 2018.

During a radio appearance from 2018, Tata called Obama an anti-Semite who wanted to give Iran money so the country could fund terrorist organizations, and that unlike Obama, Trump wanted to defeat ISIS.

"The reason Obama did that was he wanted nothing to impact his Iran nuclear deal because what he wanted was Iran to be flushed with cash so that they could support Hezbollah and Hamas and their fight against Israel because Obama is an anti-Semite," said Tata. "That was all of the machinations of the Obama administration and he gave birth to ISIS and he also allowed what weapons of mass destruction to use in the Middle East. And so President Trump is simply allowing us to defeat ISIS now which Obama did not want to happen."

In a radio appearance from March 2017, Tata said Obama "really disliked Israel" and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and speculated that the Iran deal was born "sorta from [Obama's] Islamic roots to help Iranians and the greater Islamic state crush Israel."

"I think President Obama really disliked Israel and know he disliked Netanyahu. I think this was in part, you know, sorta from his Islamic roots to help the Iranians and the greater Islamic state crush Israel," said Tata on the radio show. "If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's probably a duck. And so that was what Obama did. He propped up our enemies and the Islamic world, and he undercut Netanyahu in Israel."

A supervisor with Philadelphia's Family Court was fired after a video circulated online showing him tearing down Black Lives Matter signs and telling bystanders that black lives don't matter to him.

The video shows Michael Henkel marching along a sidewalk tearing Black Lives Matter signs from fences and walls. When a bystander yells "black lives matter" at him, Mr Henkel replies "not to me, they don't."

The fence was surrounding a public playground and was on public property. During the video, a woman off-camera yells that the signs weren't his property.

"My taxes pay for this place, just so you know. So I can do whatever I want ... I'm always around here too," Mr Henkel says to an individual during the video.

Middlesbrough's Dennis McCabe shared a post which read "White lives matter!!! Bet you won't repost", while another claimed people sailing to the UK on rubber dinghies were "fast tracked" to council houses with benefits.
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Two council group leaders have called for him to resign.

The Pennsylvania Judicial Conduct Board filed a formal complaint against Allegheny County Judge Mark Tranquilli on Wednesday. Tranquilli is accused of racist behavior against Black jurors and defendants since at least 2015, in violation of the state's constitution and code of judicial conduct.

"The allegations contained within the board complaint undermine both public confidence in the judiciary and its reputation," the board wrote. "If Judge Tranquilli is permitted to continue exercising judicial duties during the pendency of the board complaint, the public's confidence in the judiciary will continue to erode."

Tranquilli has been on administrative leave since February, not long after he allegedly dubbed a Black juror who wore her hair in a wrap "Aunt Jemima." The judge is said to have used the racist moniker during a discussion on jury selection he initiated with lawyers after becoming "visibly affected" when the jury returned a "not guilty" verdict.

He is also said to have remarked that he believed the juror had a "baby daddy" at home who he speculated was "probably slinging heroin," while he called a different juror a "knucklehead."

During a 2015 custody case involving Black parents, the complaint states that Tranquilli said "that his only concern is his own three children" while noting that he "did not care" about the children involved in the case.

He told the parents that he had been a homicide prosecutor and was "merely passing time in the family division" as he waited for criminal cases, describing himself as a "butcher" and saying he would "split [their] baby in half like Solomon and sleep like a baby that night.

At one point during the hearing, the judge allegedly "affected an accent and dialect described as 'Ebonics'" while speaking to the parents about communication.

"When I say communication, I don't mean 'and den da **** done dis, and den da **** done dat," Tranquilli said, according to the complaint.

Arkansas County Sheriff Todd Wright resigned Friday after a recording of him using racial slurs made its rounds on social media.
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The recording was five minutes long. Wright can be heard using the n-word nine times, while berating a female for speaking to a Black person at a grocery store.

LANSING – A Michigan prison supervisor who admitted using the N-word at a Michigan Department of Corrections Christmas party is facing more allegations of racism from a former corrections officer who is Muslim.

And court records show Capt. Frank Sawyer — who admitted in sworn testimony he has used the N-word racist slur between 30 to 100 times — did not lose a single day's pay as part of his discipline for using the word at a 2017 department social event.

That raises questions about whether the department is treating racism seriously enough in a prison system where 55% of the prisoners who officers are supposed to monitor and protect are people of color, according to the department's latest statistical report.

Sawyer is accused of calling a Muslim prison officer a terrorist and a "goat f---er," amid allegations of widespread workplace racism directed at the officer that included tricking him into eating pork — a food off limits to devout Muslims — at a prison chili cook-off.
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Other officers, including supervisors, regularly made cracks about Yehia being a terrorist or ISIS recruiter and one regularly greeted him with the words, "Allah, allah akbar boom," in an apparent reference to Yehia setting off a bomb, according to evidence in the case. Others suggested he brought a camel to work or was carrying a bomb or wearing a bomb vest if he set off the metal detector when entering the prison to start his shift, according to sworn testimony
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Lt. Michael Doss said in an Aug. 10 declaration that he saw a co-worker telephone Yehia at work, using a Corrections Department phone line, and say: "I want to report that there is a terrorist in the building. He is a tall, heavy-set guy." The co-worker — not Sawyer — was referencing Yehia "in a derogatory, racist way by insinuating that Mr. Yehia was a terrorist because he is Muslim," Doss said in the signed statement.

Doss said he heard from co-workers that Yehia got harassed "all the time," and that Sawyer told Yehia not to "blow the place up while I'm working." This "was a discriminatory remark, aimed at harassing Mr. Yehia because of his race and religion," Doss said.
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One officer brought in chili that contained pork, and Yehia ate it "because he didn't know what was in it," Sawyer testified.

In his own deposition, Yehia, who is seeking unspecified monetary damages, plus attorney fees, described how someone switched the lids on two pots of chili so that it appeared the one that had pork in it did not contain pork.

"They laughed, they all laughed, and said: 'Dude, I don't see you turning into fire,' " Yehia testified. " 'Aren't you supposed to go to hell right away after you eat this?' "
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"I didn't go tell the supervisors because those guys were in on it, too," he said. "It's just very mind-boggling."
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"The harassment was regular, consistent, and pervasive, and I personally observed it at least once a week," Herman testified.

He said when officers checked Yehia's identification at the gate, when he reported to work, they would refer to him as a terrorist. If there was a terrorist incident in the news, colleagues would say things like, "Don't blow up the place now." They also made false claims that Yehia was married to his cousin, rode a camel to work, and was a member of ISIS, Herman testified.

The harassment often took place in front of supervisors and "sometimes the supervisors participated in it," Herman said.

Sawyer also testified that reports about his use of the slur spread quickly through the department. He received a five-day suspension over the incident, following an internal affairs investigation, but did not miss a day of work or lose any money from his paycheck, he testified. Instead, he had five days of annual leave time deducted from the leave time he had banked.

Doss alleged in his lawsuit that Sawyer "laughed and bragged about" his light punishment, and said he "would drink a beer for each day" of banked vacation time that was deducted.

NEW YORK — One white court officer in Brooklyn posted an illustration of President Barack Obama with a noose around his neck on social media. Another white officer referred to a Black court officer as “one of the good monkeys.”

A third white court officer commented to a white colleague that he would have done better on a firearms test if he had been given a “Sean Bell target,” a reference to an unarmed Black man killed by police in 2006.

The incidents of overt racism were among several mentioned in a new report about racial bias in the New York state court system commissioned by Chief Judge Janet DiFiore after national protests this summer against institutional racism in the criminal justice system.

Jeh Johnson, a former Homeland Security secretary under Obama, led the team that did the review. His report, released with little fanfare last week, found pervasive racism in New York courts, both explicit and implicit, from judges, court officers and lawyers. The accounts of racial bias the team collected bore a striking similarity to testimony in another review from three decades ago, the report said.
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“The sad picture that emerges is, in effect, a second-class system of justice for people of color in New York State,” Johnson wrote. “This is a moment that demands a strong and pronounced rededication to equal justice under law by the New York State Court system.”
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The officer, Sgt. Terri Napolitano of Brooklyn Criminal Court, was accused of uploading to Facebook an illustration of Obama with a noose around his neck and of Hillary Clinton being taken to a wooden apparatus to be hanged. Napolitano did not respond to a request for comment.

She was suspended for 30 days, her firearm was taken away, and she remains on paid leave with disciplinary charges pending, court officials said. After the posts appeared, three Black court officers sent a letter to DiFiore saying the racist memes were “only the tip of the iceberg.”

The sergeant’s behavior had long been tolerated, the report said, which was evidence of a broader institutional acceptance of racist conduct. It recommended “more robust bias training for nonjudicial personnel, particularly the court officer community.”
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Johnson’s team found that some court officers, in dealing with people of color who were defendants, lawyers or the public, were disrespectful, condescending, and at times, racist.

Court officers were heard using racial slurs and berating minority litigants about the clothes they wore. Black defendants were often handcuffed when appearing in court for minor infractions, while white defendants were not, the report found.
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As part of the review, Johnson and his team interviewed nearly 300 people throughout the court system, including many Black and Hispanic lawyers who recounted incidents of bias.

These lawyers said that they were often mistaken for criminal defendants and were asked to show identification to enter the courthouse while most white lawyers were not questioned. They also said they were often asked to identify themselves when they sat in the front row of the courtroom, which is reserved for lawyers.

Black and Hispanic lawyers told the report’s authors that they are “believed less often” when making statements to judges, a problem that is magnified when their client is also a person of color.

One lawyer said she has been called “aggressive” while her white male counterparts have not when they have made similar arguments before the court, the report said.

Chrishana White, a Black woman who is the director of diversity and inclusion for Brooklyn Defender Services, a public defender organization, said the kind of pervasive racism in courthouses that the report highlighted had led her to stop practicing law. She said when she walked into court she was often “assumed to be less than an attorney.”
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Judges interviewed for the report said there were challenges to diversifying the judiciary. The appointment process, some judges said, required candidates to go through judicial screening committees that were predominantly white.

One judge said the electoral process also tends to marginalize Black and Hispanic candidates. Like the appointive process, it depends on a candidate’s personal connections, and the nominating system, which is controlled by party loyalists, “causes candidates of color to be bypassed or discouraged by party leadership, particularly in upstate counties.”