Banksy Mural Satirizing Racism Is Erased After Complaint

NYT

A mural by the artist Banksy satirizing racism has been removed by the governing council of a British town where the anti-immigration U.K. Independence Party hopes to win its first parliamentary seat — after a complaint that the painting itself was “offensive and racist.”

The mural, in Clacton-on-Sea, showed a group of dark gray rock pigeons holding signs reading “Migrants not welcome,” “Go back to Africa” and “Keep off our worms,” all directed at a small, more exotic green bird, possibly a swallow, that appears to be cowering at some distance on the same wire.

Why the mural was interpreted as racist rather than satirical is unclear. The Tendring District Council said on Thursday that it had not known that the mural was by Banksy, an anonymous artist whose street art has sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He has painted obviously political murals at locations like the separation barrier in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the headquarters of Government Communications Headquarters, the British spy agency that monitors communications.

The council said it had received a complaint on Tuesday that the work contained “offensive and racist remarks.” After officials examined the mural, they decided to remove it chemically, said Nigel Brown, a spokesman for the council, leaving behind a discolored white wall.

Clacton-on-Sea, the largest town on the Tendring Peninsula in southeast England, is the center of an election district whose seat is held by Douglas Carswell, who defected this summer from the Conservatives to the Independence Party, which campaigns on restricting immigration and ending Britain’s membership in the European Union. Mr. Carswell is expected to retain the seat in a by-election next Thursday, becoming the party’s first member of Parliament.

The mural was presumably a commentary on the party’s anti-immigration policy, and an image of it appeared on Banksy’s website, but only after it had been destroyed. [MORE]

U.S. Will Increase Production of the Ebola Drug ZMapp, but May Not Meet Demand

NYT

Federal officials are planning to sharply increase production of ZMapp, which is viewed by many experts as the most promising experimental drug for treating people infected with Ebola in West Africa.

The Department of Health and Human Services is in advanced discussions to enlist Caliber Biotherapeutics, a Texas company that can produce the drug in millions of tobacco plants, according to federal officials and pharmaceutical industry executives.

Federal officials, along with two of the world’s biggest charities — the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust — are also looking at arranging for production of ZMapp in animal cells, the more conventional method used by the biotechnology industry. Although that would take longer, it would allow for greater output by tapping into the biotechnology industry’s huge production capacity.

“We’re going with multiple manufacturers,” a federal official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because contracts have not yet been signed. “Caliber is certainly one we’re considering.”

Despite the new efforts, supplies of the drug are expected to be limited to hundreds or thousands of treatment courses by early next year, which would not be nearly enough if the epidemic continues to spiral out of control.

“The biology just doesn’t allow you to do it tomorrow,” said Alan Magill, who heads the malaria program at the Gates Foundation and is trying to arrange for more ZMapp production.

ZMapp was able to protect monkeys from Ebola even when administered five days after infection. And it may have helped a few people infected during the current outbreak, including two American aid workers who got Ebola in Liberia and recovered at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.

Still, there was only enough ZMapp for seven patients, two of whom subsequently died.

Experts say it is impossible to tell from such limited experience how well ZMapp works. And there are other experimental drugs that have shown promise in animal testing, and production of those might also be increased.

But for now, ZMapp may offer the best shot because it consists of proteins called monoclonal antibodies, widely used as drugs in the biotechnology industry, which latch onto the virus and neutralize it. “It’s extremely rational that an antibody against Ebola would be effective,” said Dr. Susan Desmond-Hellmann, chief executive of the Gates Foundation and a former biotechnology industry executive. “It is extremely rational that it would be safe.”

ZMapp, which is actually a cocktail of three different antibodies, is being developed by Mapp Biopharmaceutical, a tiny San Diego company, with funding from the United States and Canadian governments.

The doses used to treat the American aid workers were produced in tobacco leaves at a facility in Owensboro, Ky., that is owned by Reynolds American, the tobacco company.

That facility has now resumed production, but the federal official said it was expected to produce only about 10 to 20 treatment courses by the end of the year, and the same amount every month going forward.

So the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, is considering additional production from Caliber, which is based in Bryan, Tex., and co-operates on projects with Texas A&M University.

Caliber also produces proteins, including antibodies, in hydroponically grown tobacco plants but has a larger production capacity than the Kentucky facility.

No official contract has been signed, so plans could still change. But federal officials have visited Caliber regularly.

“They are actively engaged, pretty much on a daily basis, working with Caliber and A&M,” Dr. Brett P. Giroir, the chief executive of the Texas A&M Health Science Center, said Wednesday. Executives at Caliber and Mapp declined to comment for this article.

Both Caliber and the Kentucky facility sprang from a project sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which was looking for a way to quickly produce vaccines or therapeutic proteins in the event of an emergency like a flu pandemic.

Now these facilities are likely to get their first big test.

“It’s not been tested, live-fire,” the federal official said. “And now we’re doing it.”

The system involves infecting tobacco with a genetically engineered virus that contains the instructions to make the antibody.

“Every time the virus tries to replicate, it spins out a copy of a monoclonal antibody,” said Charles J. Arntzen, a professor at Arizona State University who has long worked on such systems. The leaves are ground up to extract the antibody.

The federal official said that Caliber and other facilities that will be brought on line could produce 40 to 100 treatment courses per month.

But Dr. Giroir of Texas A&M and a biotechnology industry executive familiar with Caliber said Caliber could potentially produce hundreds of treatment courses a month.

Researchers say the dose used in the monkey experiments, which was also used to treat the patients in Africa, is probably more than needed. If monkey testing can confirm that a lower dose is sufficient, then many more human treatment courses can be made.

There are also efforts underway to increase the amount of protein produced by each plant. Mapp is said to be working with another small company, Novici Biotech, which has a method of tweaking the genetic instructions for the antibodies in a way that could boost production.

Heroin Overdoses In the U.S. Doubled In Just Two Years

Think Progress

Heroin overdoses doubled within just two years, and painkiller addiction played a part in the sharp increase, according to a recent federal government report. The study, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), provides further confirmation about the dangers of opioid addiction, which has reached “epidemic proportions” in some parts of the country.

CDC researchers collected data from death certificates in 28 states — which represents more than half of the U.S. population — and found a dramatic increase in instances of heroin overdose. Their findings showed that the overall rate of death increased by one percentage point between 2010 and 2012.

While the rate at which people died from narcotic painkillers dropped by less than a percentage point within the same time frame, Paulozzi, also a medical epidemiologist at CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said that 75 percent of heroin users began their journey by using narcotic painkillers, highlighting what researchers consider a conspicuous link between two commonly abused substances.

“There is a growing population of people who are using narcotics, whether the prescription variety or heroin,” Dr. Len Paulozzi, co-author of the study, told WebMD. “A fraction of these people are using heroin in addition to narcotic painkillers, depending on price and availability, or have gone over entirely to heroin.”

Heroin — an opioid drug that’s synthesized from a naturally occurring substance known as morphine — commonly appears as a white-brown powder or a sticky, black substance known as “black tar heroin.” The drug can be injected, smoked, or inhaled by snorting — all three methods that create a high risk of addiction, compelling the user to search for the drug by any means.

In 2011, 4.2 million Americans older than the age of 12 reported having used heroin at least once. According the CDC report, use among that demographic has increased by nearly 75 percent within three years. The Northeast and South regions of the U.S. saw the greatest increase between 2010 and 2012 — 211 percent and 181 percent respectively. Overdoses also increased 62 percent in the Midwest and 91 percent in the west, according to the report.

Quitting heroin usually proves to be a huge undertaking for addicts. Within 12 hours of ceasing use, a host of withdrawal symptoms — including yawning, anxiety, agitation, runny nose, sweating, and abdominal cramps — start to appear. These symptoms mirror that of painkillers, further signaling the danger both drugs pose.

The National Institute of Health recently reported that nearly half of young people surveyed in three studies reported turning to heroin after abusing painkillers because they found the former cheaper and easier to attain. Many of these users reportedly crushed opioids before sniffing them, a practice experts say prepares them to consume heroin in a similar fashion. Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder called opiate and heroin addiction an “urgent and growing public health crisis” that deserved immediate attention.

“The underlying problem we have in the United States is not about prescription drug abuse or heroin abuse, it’s the epidemic of people addicted to narcotics,” Dr. Andrew Kolodny, president of Physicians for Responsible Opioid Prescribing, told WebMD. “Without treatment, overdose deaths are very common among people with this disease.”

That’s why the Obama administration has called for equipping police officers with naloxone — a drug that’s commonly used in emergency rooms to reverse heroin overdoses — since they’re often the first officials to make contact with someone who’s overdosing. Unfortunately, some lawmakers — including Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) — have expressed their opposition to expanding use of the substance. Earlier this year, LePage railed against a measure that would allow first responders, police officers, and family members of opiate addicts to have access to the safe and cost-effective drug, even as heroin overdoses quadrupled in the state within a year.

Experts also agree that it’s necessary to implement effective long-term treatment that addresses the external factors — which include depression and post-traumatic stress disorder — that compel one to depend on opioids. In recent years, that practice has been found to be as effective as using oxycodone, a substance similar to heroin that’s used during clinical rehabilitation.

Guantanamo Force-Feeding Torture Videos to Be Released, & Coincidentally a New ISIS Beheading Video Conveniently Emerges

CLG

Today we learn that a federal judge has ruled that videos depicting detainees' force-feeding torture at the Guantánamo Bay prison must be released, tapes that the U.S. military and the U.S. Department of 'Justice' have been keeping secret. See, from the Guardian: Judge orders Guantánamo Bay force-feeding videos to be released 3 Oct 2014 A federal judge has ordered the disclosure of videotapes that show the force-feeding of an inmate at Guantánamo Bay. Days before the first legal challenge to the force feeding is expected to begin, Judge Gladys Kessler of the Washington DC district court on Friday ordered the government to prepare public versions of 28 videos showing a Syrian detainee prisoner, Abu Wa'el Dhiab, forcibly removed from his Guantánamo Bay cell and fed through a tube inserted through his nose into his stomach. Immediately following the judge's ruling, ISIS aka I-CIA-SIS, suddenly (allegedly) beheads another captive!

Israel seeks to fine African asylum seekers’ employers

Haaretz

The tax would ostensibly encourage employers to hire Israelis and discourage asylum seekers from settling in the country

The FCC considers a ban on using the term 'Redskins'

White People Mad b/c Amazon & iTunes use disclaimer that Tom & Jerry Cartoon "may depict ethnic and racial prejudices that were once commonplace in American society.”

Slate.com

White Arizona teacher fired after defending Black 4th grade student from racist insults

RT

An elementary school teacher in Fountain Hills, Arizona, believes she did the right thing when she defended a young black student from racist insults. However, allegations that she was the one doing the bullying caused her to lose her job.

The incident took place at Four Peaks Elementary School back in May 2014, when teacher Pam Aister said she came to the defense of an African-American fourth grader who was being bullied by other students.

"He was called the n-word, 'monkey,' and 'coon,'" Aister told ABC 15 News on Wednesday.

When the teacher of 25 years noticed this was happening, she decided to make clear that the comments would not be tolerated.

"I said [the student] is in my room now, he's not alone any more, and if you're picking on him, you're picking on me," Aister recalled to a local radio show on KTAR News. "It's not five against one, it's five against two, and there will be no more taunting, teasing or racial names."

But while Aister may have thought the situation was resolved as the students nodded their heads and listened as she spoke, the conflict was really only starting to unfold. When the scolded students went home, they said Aister had told them to “shut up” and commented that one student had an “ugly face.”

When the school board at Fountain Hills Unified School District considered the case on Monday, it voted to fire the teacher immediately.

While Aister certainly had her supporters – one of whom held a sign at the school board meeting declaring that the instructor taught children the value of hard work and having respect for other people – other parents agreed with the decision to fire her.

“We are very saddened by the situation but we feel that the board did the right thing,” one parent told ABC 15.

Aister responded by saying she is not sure if she will fight the decision. She did note that the student being bullied had asked to be reassigned to her classroom in order to escape the harassment he was experiencing beforehand.

Meanwhile, two of the boys she said were insulting the African-American student had been removed from her class at the request of their parents.

Plan to sanitize the apartment of Ebola Patient Delayed

CNN

Kissinger Planned Attacks on Cuba

BlackListedNews.com

Secretary of State Henry Kissinger ordered a series of secret contingency plans that included airstrikes and mining of Cuban harbors in the aftermath of Fidel Castro’s decision to send Cuban forces into Angola in late 1975, according to declassified documents made public today for the first time.

News Chopper 8 caught crews cleaning the sidewalk outside the Ivy Apartments where the Ebola patient stayed - cleaning vomit w/no protective gear

From [HERE] 

Newest Androids will join iPhones in offering default encryption, blocking police

Wash Post

The next generation of Google’s Android operating system, due for release next month, will encrypt data by default for the first time, the company said Thursday, raising yet another barrier to police gaining access to the troves of personal data typically kept on smartphones.

Android has offered optional encryption on some devices since 2011, but security experts say few users have known how to turn on the feature. Now Google is designing the activation procedures for new Android devices so that encryption happens automatically; only somebody who enters a device's password will be able to see the pictures, videos and communications stored on those smartphones.

The move offers Android, the world’s most popular operating system for smartphones, a degree of protection that resembles what Apple on Wednesday began providing for iPhones, the leading rival to devices running Android operating systems. Both companies have now embraced a form of encryption that in most cases will make it impossible for law enforcement officials to collect evidence from smartphones – even when authorities get legally binding search warrants.

“For over three years Android has offered encryption, and keys are not stored off of the device, so they cannot be shared with law enforcement,” said company spokeswoman Niki Christoff. “As part of our next Android release, encryption will be enabled by default out of the box, so you won't even have to think about turning it on.”

The move, which Google officials said has been in the works for many months, is part of a broad shift by American technology companies to make their products more resistant to government snooping in the aftermath of revelations of National Security Agency spying by former contractor Edward Snowden.

Expanded deployment of encryption by Google and Apple, however, will have the most direct impact on law enforcement officials, who  have long warned that restrictions on their access to electronic devices make it much harder for them to prevent and solve crimes. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that police needed search warrants to gain access to data stored on phones in most circumstances. But that standard is quickly being rendered moot; eventually no form of legal compulsion will suffice to force the unlocking of most smartphones. [MORE]

MD Governor says: Baltimore City Detention Center will stop honoring most Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers

ACLU

Today, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maryland and CASA de Maryland hailed an announcement by Governor Martin O’Malley that the Baltimore City Detention Center, which is run by the state, will stop honoring most Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers. The reform significantly expands a policy enacted earlier this year, in light of Fourth Amendment and due process concerns raised by the groups. 

"We are delighted that the Baltimore jail will stop detaining most people for ICE and hope that all Maryland counties follow the Governor's lead in enacting similar policies in their jurisdictions," said Sirine Shebaya, attorney directing the ACLU of Maryland's immigrants' rights advocacy. "We will continue to work with the Governor's office to ensure that the policy is implemented in a way that truly respects the constitutional rights of all of Maryland's residents."

In June, the ACLU sent a letter to all county detention centers and the Baltimore City Detention Center notifying them of recent federal court decisions finding that detention on the sole basis of an immigration detainer request violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. Three federal courts have found that such detention raises constitutional concerns and that counties are liable in damages to the individuals they detain on that basis. 

The Governor’s revised policy was issued in response to a request for advice from the Washington County’s Sheriff’s Office, which was sent after receiving the ACLU letter. The revised policy cites a Maryland Attorney General opinion that concludes that "if a local law enforcement officer does not have probable cause to extend custody over the subject of an ICE detainer, the continued detention likely constitutes a violation of the Fourth Amendment."

"We applaud this news from the Governor recognizing the fundamental constitutional rights of all Marylanders," said Gustavo Torres, Executive Director of CASA de Maryland. "Under Governor O’Malley’s leadership, Maryland has knit together a community and we look forward to counties across the state following suit."

Immigration detainers are not judicial warrants and are issued without probable cause. Compliance with these detainers is not mandatory, yet virtually all Maryland counties detain immigrants with no greater offense than a traffic violation - effectively transforming their local law enforcement officials into proxy immigration agents. The Baltimore City jail joins hundreds of jurisdictions across the country in enacting this no-hold policy.

In 2013, the ACLU of Maryland released a report, Restoring Trust: How Immigration Detainers in Maryland Undermine Public Safety Through Unnecessary Enforcement, that describes how immigrants in Maryland are detained after they are eligible for release, in state and local facilities and at state and local expense, for the sole purpose of transferring them to federal immigration authorities even when they are picked up solely on traffic or other minor violations.

ACLU Demands Info on Execution Witnesses

Courthouse News

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed another lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Corrections, seeking information on state-selected execution witnesses.
     The ACLU and two people sued the Missouri DOC on Tuesday in Cole County Court. It is the sixth lawsuit ACLU has filed against the Missouri DOC, involving the state's execution protocol.
     "Troubled by the secrecy surrounding Missouri's execution process and Missouri's use of execution witnesses to vouch for its narrative that those killed by the state do not suffer, plaintiffs began investigating the process by which such witnesses are selected," the complaint states.
     The ACLU says it submitted a written request for public records on May 2 to the Missouri DOC's Custodian of Records. It sought records identifying invitees of the DOC to witness scheduled executions in the past 12 months; the records of the responses from those invitees; all records of requests by the public or the media to witness executions in the past 12 months; all records of consideration of those requests; and all records of actual witnesses to executions in the past 12 months.
     "So far, all we have received are a handful of heavily censored documents," said ACLU legal director for Missouri Tony Rothert said in a statement.
     "We want to know if the Missouri Department of Corrections is selecting witnesses in an impartial manner, which is questionable, given that potential candidates are first asked their position on the death penalty."
     The ACLU claims the state's response was not a full and complete response to its Sunshine Law request.

Ebola outbreak 'out of control,' says CDC director

CLG

Just back from a week in the Ebola hot zone, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Tom Frieden had a dire assessment of the situation on the ground there. "The bottom line is that despite tremendous efforts from the U.S. government, CDC, from within countries, the number of cases continues to increase and is now increasing rapidly," Frieden told a press conference at the CDC today. The virus is moving faster than anyone anticipated and that's why we need to move now, he said.

Ebola virus disease (EVD) or Ebola hemorrhagic fever (EHF) is a disease of humans and other primates caused by an ebolavirus. Symptoms start two days to three weeks after contracting the virus, with a fever, sore throat, muscle pain and headaches. Typically, vomiting, diarrhea and rash follow, along with decreased functioning of the liver and kidneys. Around this time, affected people may begin to bleed both within the body and externally.[1]

The virus may be acquired upon contact with blood or bodily fluids of an infected animal.[1] Spreading through the air has not been documented in the natural environment.[2] Fruit bats are believed to carry and spread the virus without being affected. Once human infection occurs, the disease may spread between people, as well. Male survivors may be able to transmit the disease via semen for nearly two months. To make the diagnosis, typically other diseases with similar symptoms such as malaria, cholera and other viral hemorrhagic fevers are first excluded. To confirm the diagnosis, blood samples are tested for viral antibodies, viral RNA, or the virus itself.[MORE]

The War Propaganda Works

BlackListed News

Public opinion has transformed over the past year, with wide opposition to using military force against Syria changing into wide support for using force against ISIS militants in Syria

The Lessons of Ferguson, Part I: Economic Inequality

ND Gazete

Michael Brown’s death was the spark that ignited a long-smoldering fire in Ferguson; and while the immediate goal of the National Urban League and our affiliate network is the arrest and indictment of Officer Darren Wilson, this column represents the first in a three-part series that aims to examine some of the root causes and identify solutions that must be implemented to avoid crises similar to Ferguson in the future.

Let’s begin with the lack of jobs and the epidemic of unemployment in Ferguson, a city that is 67 percent Black. The National Urban League’s 2014 “State of Black America Report” found that the St. Louis metro area, which includes Ferguson, had a Black unemployment rate of 19.6 percent and a White unemployment rate of 6.9 percent – resulting in an unemployment Equality Index of 35.2 percent on a 100-point scale.

This level of economic inequality reflects a glaring disparity of opportunity and has created a chasm of misunderstanding and distrust that is behind much of the violence that has erupted between police and citizens.

Four years out of the recession, America’s private sector is expanding, but too many people have been left behind. In fact, many communities like Ferguson are worse off. According to a recent Brookings study, “Between 2000 and 2010-2012, Ferguson’s poor population doubled.”

The National Urban League has long been leading the charge for targeted federal and state action to bring jobs and opportunity to hard-pressed communities across the nation. Our “Jobs Rebuild America” campaign is a $100 million, five-year effort to engage federal government, business, and nonprofit resources to create economic opportunity in 50 communities across the country through the Urban League affiliate network with a special emphasis on vulnerable youth.

Why Are So Many Wealthy (white) People Building Futuristic High Tech Security Bunkers?

BlackListedNews

The wealthy are spending more to protect themselves from all the rest of us than ever before.  So why are they so concerned about the future?  Do they know something that the rest of us don’t?  Or do they just have the money to buy the type of security that the rest of us would if we could?  Over the past few years, wealthy people all over America have been equipping their homes with futuristic high tech security systems that go far beyond the kinds of things portrayed in recent Hollywood films such as “The Purge“.  We are talking about security bunkers with their own sustainable sources of food and water, hidden passageways that lead to ballistics-proof panic suites, and thermal heat detectors that can detect someone hiding up to 15 kilometers away.  Most of these security measures will probably never even be needed if things stay pretty much as they are today.  But if the thin veneer of civilization that we all take for granted on a daily basis continues to disintegrate and we see massive civil unrest in the years ahead, then those security measures are going to come in very handy indeed. [MORE]

Fox's Dangerous Advice To Millennials: Opt Out Of Health Insurance Until You Get Into An Accident

MediaMatters

Fox News proposed that uninsured young adults should reject coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) because they can gain it at any point after an accident to cover medical expenses -- irresponsible advice that could wreak havoc on millennials' financial futures.

Gretchen Carlson hosted Fox contributor Guy Benson on the October 11 edition of her new daytime program The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson to discuss whether young adults will sign up for health coverage on the exchanges. The two repeatedly suggested that "healthy" millennials may pay for coverage "they are not going to need," going so far as to suggest it would be more fiscally responsible for young adults to go uninsured until a major trauma occurs:  

BENSON: If they say, 'forget it I'm going to wait, pay the relatively cheap tax and then if I get sick and if I get into an accident, then the insurers have to take me because I have a pre-existing condition,' it just makes more sense to do that --

CARLSON: You just brought it full circle for us.

BENSON: -- from a dollars and cents perspective. I'm not trying to make a political point there, I'm trying to make an economic point. And a lot of people are realizing that.

Like Potted Plants: Washington Redskins Honor Navajo Code Talkers During Monday Night Football

ThinkProgress

Awash in controversy over its refusal to even consider the fact that its name may offend some Native Americans, the Washington Redskins used an in-game timeout Monday night to honor the Navajo Code Talkers, the group of Native American men who used their rare language to develop a code and transmit communications for the American military during World War II.

The tribute was part of both the NFL’s Salute to Service month and Native American Heritage month.

It immediately sparked controversy on Twitter and other social media outlets, and with good reason. For any other team, honoring the Navajo Code Talkers would be taken at face value. For Washington and owner Dan Snyder, though, it’s nearly impossible to view it as anything but a cynical public relations stunt meant to help shield the team from criticism around its name, which has been the focus of an ongoing campaign from Native American groups who say it is racist and offensive and have asked both the franchise and the NFL to change it.

If there was any doubt about the public relations tilt of the tribute, MLB Network analyst and NBC Sports radio host Brian Kenny noticed that the team is also marketing a “Code Breaker” t-shirt for sale on its NFL Shop web site. “Quite the campaign,” Kenny remarked on Twitter.

Native American groups, including the Oneida Nation and National Congress of American Indians, have ramped up their efforts to change the name this season. Oneida has participated in protests outside other NFL stadiums where Washington has played and run radio ads on local stations during those games — it announced two more, in Detroit and Baltimore, that will air on Thanksgiving — as part of its Change the Mascot campaign. NCAI has pushed reports showing that racial stereotypes like “Redskins” have negative implications beyond just being a name. There’s also a lawsuit challenging the name’s trademark protections in federal court.

This isn’t the first time that Washington and Snyder have used Native Americans to defend the name. Last year, the team hosted a supposed Native chief on its television show. Deadspin later found that the man who played the role was not a chief and possibly wasn’t even a Native American.

Using the Navajo Code Talkers, though, is an even bigger deal. These are men who played an integral role in American military operations during World War II. Their accomplishments deserve actual honor, not a place in a half-baked PR campaign to defend a football team’s name from scrutiny. Perhaps that was indeed Snyder’s intention. And perhaps any claim to that end would be easier to take seriously if Snyder and his franchise would quit insisting that his team name “honors” people who find it offensive.

The post Washington Redskins Honor Navajo Code Talkers During Monday Night Football appeared first on ThinkProgress.