CLEVELAND — When Democrats gather for their national convention in Philadelphia, the list of speakers praising Hillary Clinton’s presidential candidacy is expected to feature the president, the vice president, the first lady, a former president and a galaxy of well-known political luminaries.

But when the Republican convention opens next week in Cleveland, presumptive nominee Donald Trump will showcase an assortment of family members, defeated primary opponents and politicians whose names barely register with the general public. Many of the GOP’s past, current and future leaders are staying away from the spotlights at the Quicken Loans Arena.

The star-power disparity between the conventions speaks volumes about the state of the two parties — one is united and marching together toward what it hopes will be its fifth win of the past seven presidential elections, while the other remains divided and still not fully accepting its new standard bearer.

“Republicans have always had a terrible star-power deficit — the Democrats have the latest hip-hop or pop act and we’ve got Lee Greenwood and the Oak Ridge Boys — but now it’s going to be even more pronounced,” said Rick Wilson, a Republican strategist who is not supporting Trump.

Looking ahead to Philadelphia, Wilson said of the Democrats, “Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren — they’re all going to be out there swinging for the fences. But the Republicans, it’ll be like a hostage video of people forced on stage.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-promises-showbiz-at-convention-but-stars-on-stage-will-be-relatively-dim/2016/07/13/2e28d14e-4453-11e6-bc99-7d269f8719b1_story.html

https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484

That's not necessarily precise, of course. If you include the margin of error, it's possible that Trump is getting -10 percent of the black vote. (That's not a typo; the margin of error is 11 percent.)

But anyway, it can get worse than that. The Wall Street Journal's Neil King reports that in the Journal-NBC-Marist poll of Ohio, Donald Trump gets a nice round 0 percent of the vote from black Ohioans.


https://img.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=&w=1484


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/13/new-polls-in-pennsylvania-and-ohio-show-donald-trump-with-0-percent-of-the-black-vote/?tid=pm_politics_pop_b

Louizandre Dauphin was having a tough week.

The Bathurst, New Brunswick, director of parks, recreation and tourism says he'd been thinking about the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile by police officers, and needed to get out of his apartment.

In an Instagram post, Dauphin wrote, "I decided to take a drive to the Stonehaven Wharf and sit by the water on this cold, rainy July day and try to pacify my mind by reading the works of Timothy Keller and C.S. Lewis."

On his drive back home, he was pulled over by an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

"Thankfully, he is kind and respectful and asks me the usual questions; where I'm from and where I'm going," Dauphin wrote. "I tell him that I was at the Stonehaven Wharf reading a book pointing to the two books in the passenger seat. He smiles and says that a few citizens in Janeville called the police because of a suspicious black man in a white car was parked at the Wharf for a couple hours."

After verifying Dauphin's identity, the police officer let the former high school English teacher go.

"So, a black male, sitting in his car, reading a book is suspicious activity," Dauphin wrote. "Good to know. At this rate, I may never leave my home again." He ended the post (below) with the hashtag "#DangerousNegro.”

http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-reading-while-black-20160712-snap-htmlstory.html

About two years ago, Tang had the idea to join the nationwide Little Free Library movement, which, according to its website, has more than 40,000 installations across the country. Small, colorful containers with shelves are stocked with free books. All patrons have to do is return the books when finished.




The idea is to encourage neighborhood interaction, but the Little Free Library at Noe and 15th streets has become an exercise in frustration.

“It’s really just been one thing after another,” said Peter

Kupfer, another resident. “It was vandalized. It was knocked down. Someone set fire to it. It was knocked apart and in pieces on the street. It was stolen completely, so a neighbor donated a cabinet, which we had painted and refinished.”

Last week, though, was the topper. The sponsors had bolted the Little Free Library to the sidewalk with metal braces.


http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/nevius/article/Vandals-trash-SF-neighborhood-s-street-corner-8353077.php?t=0f0d16d46f


There have been offers to donate a replacement, but Tang says she’s not sure it’s worth the effort.

Gov. Pat McCrory signed controversial legislation Monday regulating the release of recordings from police body and dashboard cameras.

There were growing calls for McCrory to veto the legislation because it makes it difficult for the public – including people involved in a recorded police action – to see it. But the Republican governor said the law will strike a balance between improving public trust in the police and respecting the rights of officers.

_______

McCrory referenced those deaths in his remarks and said the law “ensures transparency.”

The law allows people who are recorded, or their representatives, to see footage if law enforcement agencies agree. The police chief or sheriff would decide whether to grant access. The law enforcement agency can consider a number of factors in making the decision, including whether disclosure may harm someone’s reputation or jeopardize someone’s safety, or if confidentiality is “necessary to protect either an active or inactive internal or criminal investigation or potential internal or criminal investigation.”

Subjects of the recordings don’t have minimum guaranteed access to footage, Birdsong said in an interview. “A police chief can deny them access for any reason,” she said.

If access is denied, the subject can seek a court order to be allowed to see the video.

A court order also will be required for the general release of police camera footage. Even law enforcement agencies that want to release the footage must obtain a Superior Court judge’s order.

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article88985782.html#storylink=cpy

?quality=75&strip=color&w=1680






http://time.com/4400563/baton-rouge-protests-alton-sterling-woman-arrest-photo-iconic-reuters-jonathan-bachman/

Over the past 48 hours in Baton Rouge, La., where the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling by police officers last week has reignited a national conversation on race and policing, over 120 protesters have been arrested — including prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson.

But intense attention, however, has been focused on the image of the arrest of a lone woman in a flowing dress that has since gone viral. The woman stands, arms crossed, in front of a phalanx of officers, silent — even serene — but seemingly refusing to budge.

Although the woman’s identity is not yet confirmed, her actions were described in detail by the photographer who captured the image.

“A group of demonstrators had formed a blockade — blocked Airline Highway, which runs in front of Baton Rouge Police headquarters,” Jonathan Bachman, a New Orleans–based photographer who was on assignment for Reuters, told the Atlantic. Bachman said officers belonging to several divisions of Louisiana law enforcement, many clad in riot gear, descended on the highway to clear the protesters from its path.

Donald Trump is supposedly running for president, but instead of campaigning after a horrible week of shootings, Trump is sitting on his butt at home sending hate tweets to CNN.

Trump is losing in every credible poll. The Republican Party is flailing around deeply divided. The nominee should be leading the party, but Republican primary voters picked Donald Trump, so what they are getting is a lazy candidate who holds a few events each week, and spends most of his time obsessing about his media coverage.

Here is what Trump has been tweeting:

I heard that the underachieving John King of @CNN on Inside Politics was one hour of lies. Happily, few people are watching - dead network!


The media is so dishonest. If I make a statement, they twist it and turn it to make it sound bad or foolish.They think the public is stupid!



Donald Trump is destroying the Republican Party through a combination of incompetence, poor judgment, and neglect.


http://www.politicususa.com/2016/07/10/republican-despair-grows-campaigning-trump-hate-tweeting-cnn.html

Source: Guardian

That number is growing, in part spurred by a recent influx to Florida of Puerto Ricans fleeing the effects of the financial crisis on the island. The Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration regional office estimates that 1,000 Puerto Rican families relocate to Florida every month; as a result, the state is poised, for the first time, to edge New York out as the state with the most Puerto Ricans.

________

“Americans don’t see us as US citizens; Americans see all Latinos as Mexicans. Just like we think all Asians are Chinese – they could be Korean, Japanese, Indonesian but we see them and think ‘they’re all Chinese’. Lots of Americans see [Latinos] as all the same.


And though this issues that individual groups of Latinos might be different – from Cuba policy to the financial crisis on Puerto Rico, and from immigration enforcement to raising the minimum wage – they all eventually find themselves bound together by their daily experiences. They aren’t “all the same”; yet they too often all get treated with the same basic disrespect.


But unlike the 11 million undocumented immigrants Donald Trump has promised to deport in his first two years in office, Puerto Ricans are US citizens, and eligible to vote, whether they live in Puerto Rico or on the mainland.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/09/puerto-ricans-florida-election-immigration

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jul/09/puerto-ricans-florida-election-immigration

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https://www.gofundme.com/2d3eze7g

There are also accounts setup for families of police killed in Texas ambush

https://www.gofundme.com/2debdfk4
https://www.gofundme.com/mikesmithdpd

https://www.gofundme.com/2d8ryf34 Lavish Reynold $35k
https://www.gofundme.com/2d5wd5g Justice for Philandro $61k

https://www.gofundme.com/philando funds for family $166k