Tag: Behaving Badly

Racial Profiling in the Heartland

When a police officer stops a white woman for a minor infraction and asks to see her black passenger’s ID, is it justified? No, it’s racial profiling. And it’s illegal.

Passengering While Black/Brown (PWB). Or Is It Plain Ol’ LWB?

The police officer approached the idling car from behind in a Fargo, N.D., parking lot off of 13th Avenue South. He flipped on his flashers, opened his door and approached the vehicle.

The driver, a 17-year old white female, and her passenger, an 18-year-old black male, were scared.

Let’s call them Shelly* and Andrew*. They’re friends and classmates who had been to a high school soccer match earlier that evening, and afterward they decided to hang out at a local restaurant for a while. Now they exchanged confused glances as the white cop approached the driver’s side.

Shelly rolled the electric window down.

Minutes before, at around 10:20 p.m., the friends had been driving behind the squad car in the middle lane of the three-lane thoroughfare.

Continue reading “Racial Profiling in the Heartland”

Trump Tactics: Revisionism and Bait-and-Switch

Run-of-the-mill voters are believing revisionist and bait-and-switch storylines that Trump, his minions, enablers and supporters are spinning. This is what we’re up against.

On Storylines and Who’s Buying the Lines of Bull

The guy was buying into Trump Revisionism whole hog, not to mention accepting the kind of bait-and-switch game that’s another of 45’s favorite tactics.

My guy said he’d heard about “some lady” who tried to cut $13 million from Special Olympics funding. Then Trump swooped in and saved the day.

“Not only did Trump put a stop to that, but he added an additional 18 million dollars to the funding,” he said.

He believed it unequivocally.

My guy is someone I like and, for other reasons, respect. I believe he’s at least average when it comes to intelligence. And yet, here he was, repeating misinformation as fact that could easily be disproved via dozens of reputable news organizations.

Hook. Line. Sinker.

This is what we’re up against.

Continue reading “Trump Tactics: Revisionism and Bait-and-Switch”

Life in a Northern Town – Nicked by a Snowbank

AND THE SNOWBANK GETS THE ARREST ASSIST!

Only in North Dakota/Minnesota….

This story by KFGO radio was picked up by several local media outlets last week (Feb. 19, 2019) –

Chase, Crash and Arrest From Moorhead Into Fargo

Fargo, N.D. (KFGO) – A Fargo man was arrested after backing a stolen vehicle into a Moorhead police squad and fleeing Moorhead and Fargo authorities early Tuesday morning.

The Moorhead Police Department says around 1:30 a.m., an officer spotted a stolen vehicle. When the officer pulled behind the vehicle in a driveway, the driver backed into the squad and fled.

A pursuit followed. The vehicle led officers through Moorhead and eventually onto westbound I-94 and into Fargo. Moorhead terminated their pursuit and the vehicle was able to get away as it exited onto South University Drive.

Around 2:30 a.m., a Moorhead officer on her way home to Fargo, spotted the stolen vehicle again. Fargo police responded to the area and the vehicle continued to flee anytime it spotted an officer. The vehicle, however, eventually got stuck in a snow bank in the 5100 Block of 44 Street South.

The vehicle’s two occupants were taken into custody.

The passenger was later released.

The driver, 36-year-old Dennis Merritt, was taken to the Cass County Jail. He is being held on charges for Moorhead Police including fleeing, possession of stolen property, criminal damage to property, leaving the scene of an accident, and no driver’s license.

The squad car has moderate damage to the front bumper area.

F*@% Trump’s Fake “National Emergency”

“An irony here is that the United States today is in fact haunted by many actual and interrelated national emergencies. Here below are the top thirty-one that came to the present writer’s mind this last weekend….” – Paul Street

There are plenty of real national emergencies that need our attention.

President Donald J. Trump declared a national emergency last week, calling the “situation” at the border between the United States and Mexico a “national security crisis.”

“It’s an invasion,” (Trump) added. “We have an invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our country.”

He did so to gain access to funds to build his dream of a useless, ineffectual border wall.

Image of a red ladder reaching toward a blue sky (re: Donald Trump border wall)

IV Words calls bullshit. After all, Trump manufactured the problems at the border himself. This is an abuse of presidential power, and he’s being sued by multiple states and organizations to stop it.

Paul Street and Rick Cooley call BS, too.

In a post shared on the Dandelion Salad blog and re-shared on Rcooley123’s Blog,  Street shares 31 actual emergencies this nation needs to address. And these are just the ones from the top of his head. Check them out.

Personal logo of Martin C. Fredricks IV

© Martin C. Fredricks IV, 2019
Political cartoon by Mike Luckovich from the ArcaMax “Political Cartoon Digest.” Copyright 2019 Creators Syndicate Inc. Subscribe here.

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Mr. Bison on the Radio

Image that accompanies CLICK TO LISTEN – Jason Anderson, host of “The Solidarity Effect” on Radio Free Fargo 95.9 FM, reads “Mr. Bison Goes to Washington” on air.

“The Solidarity Effect” host and IV Words friend Jason Anderson shared “Mr. Bison Goes to Washington” on Radio Free Fargo, FM 95.9 this morning.

I grabbed a (ghastly quality) recording – click to listen.

Thank you, Jason Anderson, “The Solidarity Effect” and Radio Free Fargo. Keep tellin’ it like it is!

Personal logo of Martin C. Fredricks IV

© Martin C. Fredricks IV, 2019

Mr. Bison Goes to Washington

The North Dakota State University Bison football team is going to Washington, D.C. What an honor. Now, if only…

If Only They Were Going to Be Greeted by a Fellow Champion

NDSU’s football team is going to Washington, D.C. Good for them. If any athlete or sports team deserves it, the Bison do. Fifteen national titles and seven of the last eight. Wow.

No matter who the president is, being invited to the White House is an honor.

Or so someone recently pointed out. Made my skin crawl at first. But I’ve come around.

Continue reading “Mr. Bison Goes to Washington”

Trump Delivers Shortest #SOTU in History

New York Times copy editor suffers exclamation-point-induced heart attack.

Speech Dubbed “First #SOTU of the Tweetstorm Age”

President Donald J. Trump gave the shortest State of the Union address in the history of the United States last night to a joint session of Congress and nearly a dozen Americans watching on live television.

Pundits have dubbed it “The First #SOTU of the Tweetstorm Age.”

Prior to the address, Trump’s staff released the text to the media:

Continue reading “Trump Delivers Shortest #SOTU in History”

There’s No Art in Trump’s Fake Deals

Trump’s self-made messes don’t make for positive negotiations to end the government shutdown. Make a mess, clean it up. And don’t expect special dispensation for doing the right thing.

Self-Made Messes Don’t Make for Good-Faith Negotiations

Apparently “The Art of the Deal” is creating a problem, then offering to fix it in exchange for getting what you want.

It’s hard to be certain without reading the book – not about to – but the actions of President Donald Trump lately make it a fair assumption.

Trump has offered to address certain problems to get the $5.7 billion he wants for his wall on the United States-Mexico border. There’s just one problem with that – he caused them in the first place.

Continue reading “There’s No Art in Trump’s Fake Deals”

Blizzard Drive-By

We got the car out. Finally. We were incredibly thankful to Mr. Jackwagon for rolling down his window and scolding us about the vehicles pulled off to the side with their hazards on. In blizzard conditions.

Dear Mr. Supreme Jackwagon:

You know who you are.

You’re the guy who just drove past me and four other people who were trying to get a car unstuck at the entrance to a side street right off of 17th Avenue South, Fargo.

In blizzard conditions.

You’re the guy who did not stop to help. You’re the guy who, instead, took the time to lower your power driver’s side window and yell, in a menacing voice as you drove on by, “Hey, you can’t just park your cars in the middle of the street!”

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Call B.S. on the Hoodwinkers

Stop Congressional Republicans from Breaking OUR Social Contract – We refuse to be hoodwinked again.

Stop Congressional Republicans from Breaking OUR Social Contract

Sen. Robin Hoodwink, R-U.S., is at it again.

Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate majority leader, errand boy for the rich and entitled, and Hoodwink’s primary spokesperson (a.k.a., misdirector), stood up last week and declared, with gusto, “Entitlements are the reason the federal debt is running wild!”

He shouted something like this throughout the great halls – and to Bloomberg News – mere months after his party handed a $1.5 trillion tax cut to the wealthiest among us.

Continue reading “Call B.S. on the Hoodwinkers”