Anti-Milk Protesters Were (Briefly) Scary, Still Dumb, Still Ineffectual

Jill Biden wrestling an anti-dairy protester away from her
husband, Joe Biden

A little highlight of the Super Tuesday primary last week was the noisy but very dumb anti-dairy direct action protesters that scared Joe Biden and the people surrounding him during a rally Tuesday evening.

A couple of idiots, identified as Sarah Segal and Ashley Froud from some outfit called Direct Action Everywhere yelling "Let Dairy Die!" ran toward Biden.  His wife, Jill Biden, demonstrating that she is a Philadelphia badass, physically blocked one of them.

The whole thing led to a now-iconic photograph of Jill Biden, teeth clenched, grabbing the protester's arms and wrestling her away from her husband.  Jill Biden, and Biden aide Symone Sanders, who forcefully and physically drove the anti-diary nuts away,  were the only ones who came out looking good from this.

According to Time Magazine:

"'The protest was intended to draw attention to the inherent violence of the dairy industry,' a spokesperson for Direct Action Everywhere tells Time over Twitter DM. 'We targeted Biden's rally because the Biden campaign has prominently featured appearances by former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, who now receives a million-dollar salary as CEO and President of the U.S Dairy Export Council.'"

It seems like Direct Action Everywhere is into these dumb stunts.  The anti-dairy protesters have interrupted  Elizabeth Warren events in the past.  And they made a splash at a Bernie Sanders rally earlier this year.

According to The Hill,  three topless women crashed the stage in February at a Nevada Bernie Sanders rally with the words, "let dairy die" painted on their chest. Another (clothed) protester, wrestled the mic from Sanders and declared, "Bernie, I'm your biggest supporter and I'm here to ask you to stop propping up the dairy industry and stop propping up animal agriculture,"

I really can't stand Direct Action Everywhere for lots of reasons, as you've probably figured out by now.  They emphasize they are nonviolent and I'm certain the demonstrators had no intention of harming Biden, Sanders and Warren.

But their protests come perilously close to violence, which paints Direct Action Everywhere as hypocrites.  Forcefully grabbing a mic from Sanders was vaguely violent, as was charging toward Biden on Super Tuesday. With all the nutcases running around out there, I'm sure Sanders, Biden and the people around them were briefly scared.

The Biden incident looked especially frightening to me.  Meanwhile, Direct Action Everywhere's Facebook states that they ".....ask folks who come into our spaces to be nonviolent in not only action, but tone and word."

They didn't make it to that standard at the Biden rally, did they?

One of the Biden protesters, Ashley Froud, told the Los Angeles Times she heard Jill Biden scream during the incident. (Who can blame her?)

"When you're so passionate and driven to do something, you don't even think about it. You just do it," Froud said.

By that logic, when somebody says, "I'm so mad at Bill I could kill him," they should just go ahead and kill Bill?

Froud told the Los Angeles Times how full of herself she is that everybody is talking about her message. "Looking at that photograph, I feel proud that I was able to deliver that message....If I could have done it another way that would have gained this much attraction, I would have, because I don't want to make people feel like they're in any fear. But it's hard to make people listen to these issues that matter."

It's hard to get the message out so you did this stupid stunt. Yes, a lot more people are now aware of your cause, but now, at least as many people won't take you seriously.

I'm pretty sure there are serious abuses in the dairy industry, at least in the big factory farm type operations. (I'm more familiar with the small farm operations here in Vermont, and it doesn't seem like there's a lot of animal abuse on those little dairy farms).

What Froud and her cohorts are failing to do is telling us why we should care, which is how you get people on board with your cause. People don't like animal abuse.  They don't like agribusiness cutting corners on safety. They want to know that what they're eating and drinking comes from good, ethical sources.

Instead, these demonstrators were just acting stupid. That doesn't inspire me to take their argument seriously, that's for sure.

Weird Far Right Protestors Attack Vegan Cafe With Sausages

This vegan cafe inTibilisi, Georgia was attacked
by men wielding sausages and other meats
in a very weird far right demonstration, apparently

Political protests can get really weird.

In Tbilisi, the capital of the nation of Georgia, far right demonstrators with sausages draped around their necks raided a vegan restaurant and threw meat down on people's plates, according to The Guardian newspaper.

The meat-wielding idiots then attacked customers and staff, causing several minor injuries. The meatheads left before police arrived.

The meat dummies had apparently been around before, asking a nearby shopkeeper last month whether foreigners or members ofthe LGBT community often went to the cafe.

Because, as you know, gay people and foreigners who don't eat meat are fair game for attack by the far right.  Right wing extremists hate everything. Except meat.

There probably were foreigners at the cafe at the time of the attack. When it hit, they were showing English language episodes of Rick and Morty, an animated sic-fi sitcom.

Black Lives Matter Everywhere; Vermont Needs That Reminder, Too

Part of a demonstration against racism in St Albans,
Vermont on Wednesday. Photo by Morgan True/Vermont Digger. 

I've lived in Vermont my entire life (so far!) and I must admit a dirty, big secret about my state

There's a lot of racists here.

There's a lot of racists everywhere, but some people from outside Vermont think the Green Mountain State is a liberal utopia of understanding, brotherhood and sisterhood and kumbaya.

True, most of us here in Vermont are not racists, are nice people, who try to do the right thing, who worry about racial injustice. A number of Vermonters work tirelessly to combat racism.

Then you get displays like we had yesterday in the community where I live, St. Albans, Vermont. Which proves there are a fair number of bigots here, too.

A relatively small number of African-Americans go the local high school, called Bellows Free Academy.

Those African-Americans said racial tension is a problem at the school, so they held a rally in downtown St. Albans calling attention to this issue.

According to Vermont Digger, the demonstration did not go well at all, but the events of the day did prove the students' point: Racism is alive and well in Vermont, as it is pretty much everywhere in the nation.

Here's what happened during the demonstration, writes Morgan True of Vermont Digger: 

"A young man drove past the rally with a Confederate flag mounted to the bed of his pickup truck; others drove past givin demonstrators the middle finger. A group of white students who gathered around another pickup truck pantomimed shooting guns at demonstrators."

Obviously, the yahoos who did this kind of thing are not representative of the majority of Vermonters. But it proves quite a bit of work still needs to be done in terms of race relations.

One of the demonstration's organizers, Ebony Nyone, says her nephew is racially harassed at school, and people often use racial slurs.  

A pickup truck with a Confederate flag drives
past an anti-racism demonstration in St. Albans,
Vermont Wednesday. Photo by Morgan True
of Vermont Digger.  

There is one student in particular, she says, that keeps bringing a Confederate flag to school in an effort to harass black students.

Part of the problem, Nyone told Vermont Digger, is school officials don't often understand how racism manifests itself. When an African-American student finally retaliates or reacts, it's them that get punished or suspended, and the racist taunter goes free.

Vermont Digger also interviewed a guy named Richard Miller, who owns Miller's Automotive near Bellows Free Academy. in St. Albans.

He turned out to be not an example of hate-inspired racism, but perhaps maybe a type borne of ignorance. 

Vermont has one of the smallest proportions of African-Americans of any in the nation.  I wonder if some people here, especially in rural areas, meet few African-Americans, cling to stereotypes and what they think is the proper "role" for blacks.

If Vermont Digger's reporting is correct, Miller might be that type. He appears not to like uppity blacks, as the vernacular in these situations goes.

"'I'm not a racist person, but the black man has brought a lot of his misery on himself,' Miller said. 'They got this big chip on their shoulder and they're just daring someone to knock it off,' he said looking on in disgust at the protest from his garage window.

'I've got black friends,' Miller said. 'You know what he would call them people? Niggers.' he railed, gesturing at the demonstrators across the street. 'He's a good guy, and he says I've ot all kinds of whiae friends and I've never been called a nigger. You know why? Because I don't act like a nigger.'"

I guess demonstrating against racism makes you unacceptable, in Miller's opinion.

Miller also told Vermont Digger that white people are now the 'lowest on the totem pole'

Hmm. Interesting theory.

Yep, we have some work to do in terms of race relations, don't we?

Oh, and by the way, remind me not to get my truck fixed at Miller Automotive. If he has that attitude toward blacks, imagine what he thinks about a gay guy like me.
 

Inspiring "Imagine" Moment From Paris Rally

During the largest demonstration in French history, some of the 1.5 million people marching for freedom and peace broke into singing John Lennon's "Imagine."

Gives one hope in a brutal world: