There is stubborn deniability on the part of white women in America, a failure to recognize that color is only skin-deep, that they are first and foremost members of the human race, and that who we are as members of the human race [trumps] skin color. The 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution granted American women the right to vote, a right known as women’s suffrage, and was ratified on August 18, 1920, ending almost a century of protest. In 1848 the movement for women’s rights launched nationally with the Seneca Falls Convention organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott. Following the convention, the demand for the vote became a centerpiece of the women’s rights movement. Stanton and Mott, Susan B. Anthony, and other activists raised public awareness and lobbied the government to grant voting rights to women. After a lengthy battle, these groups finally emerged victorious with the passage of the 19th Amendment.[History.com]
As they have done to black Americans, white men were quite comfortable with preventing white women from voting. White men believed that they and they alone were smart and responsible enough to elect leaders through the ballot box. In fact, they were basically the only candidates for elected office, with the exception of a few cases.
During America’s early history, women were denied some of the basic rights enjoyed by male citizens. For example, married women couldn’t own property and had no legal claim to any money they might earn, and no female had the right to vote. Women were expected to focus on housework and motherhood, not politics. Hillary Clinton’s early decision not to follow traditional first lady roles in Arkansas may have forever ruined how she is perceived.
The undeniable truth is that white men were quite comfortable denying their white women the right to vote, own property, and even have autonomy over their financial resources. They were, and in many regards, still comfortable with having babies with their women while denying them the right to make decisions over their own reproductive rights. Thanks to the struggles of progressive women like those aforementioned and other unsung heroines and heroes, women have had some autonomy to make decisions on their own.
Seneca Falls Convention 1848
Nevertheless, today some of the same challenges women faced pre-August 18, 1920, are still in play. It is inconceivable that in 2018 women would still be at risk of losing the right to make decisions as it relates to their own bodies. Yet the looming confirmation battle of potential Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh poses exactly those same risks and far worse, not just for all women, including white women, but also for all people of color.
The shocking truth is that white women have benefitted from the struggles of progressives outside of the narrow confines of reproductive rights. The civil rights fights won battles allowing them to vote, own property, and handle their own money, and did not come without major fights. The sad reality is that though white women have largely benefitted from the sacrifices of others and may arguably be said to be a protected class in America, they are reluctant to speak out in defense of the rights of others who still struggle to be afforded their rights.
On the contrary, white women of varying classes have demonstrably taken a stance against protecting the rights of those less protected and have engaged in systemic oppression and support of oppressive and discriminatory practices against others. That kind of behavior is reprehensible and must be seen for what it is, a clear and unequivocal attempt to kick away the ladder and side with the very same forces which once had them in subjugation. It is reprehensible and shameful, but it is mostly ignorant.
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Mike Beckles is a former Police Detective, businessman, freelance writer, black achiever honoree, and creator of the blog mikebeckles.com.
Suspended Special Reserve Policeman Sgt Gary Alexander had been living in his car for several months after the court awarded his wife Debbie occupation of their marital home at Avocat Village, Fyzabad.
A quarrel over the property on Sunday morning is what police believe is what may have triggered off the homeless Alexander to attempt suicide by setting himself on fire in the car which he called home.
President of the Police Social Welfare Association (PSWA) Insp Michael Seales said he did not know the circumstances of the court award but understands that Alexander had been living in his car for the greater part of the year since he was ejected from the marital home.
“He had no fixed place of abode,” Seales confirmed in a telephone interview.
He said Alexander’s situation was not known to the PSWA before Sunday because he was an SRP and out of the system after being charged with malicious damage and attempted arson.
Seales said representatives from the PSWA were assigned to visit Alexander to determine how best they can assist.
“At this time, I have no report on his circumstances. The officers on a fact-finding mission. I am waiting for them to present us with something so we would know how best to assist. We don’t know if there are children, how many, it is promotion time we don’t know if the children are of school age if we may need to assist with books.”
Newsday understands that Alexander and his wife Debbie had two children.
Sources at the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) told Newsday Alexander continues to fight for his life. “He suffered 75 percent burns to his body and remains in a critical condition. He is warded at the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital,” the source said.
Oropouche police are investigating the circumstances under which the SRP allegedly set himself ablaze outside his home at Jebodhsingh Avenue, in the presence of his wife Debbie and their two children Shenise and Jacy.
There are remarkable events which become indelible markers for us in our lives. Those events, some tragic, some consequential, all serve to remind us of our past and guides us in the future.
[The-supposed] moon landing. The day President John F Kennedy was assassinated. The day Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. The day Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. The Day Ronald Reagan was shot. The day they knocked the Twin Towers down. The day we witnessed the Trump Helsinki summit with Russian despot Vladimir Putin.
Regardless of what happens from here on in, those of us who watched the highlights, whether we know it or not, are witnesses to a monumental event in modern history the full extent of which we may or may never ever fully be told.
Former US Senator, Secretary of State and Presidential Candidate John Kerry
US Senator Arizona and former Presidential Candidate John McCain
“Today’s press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory. The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naiveté, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate. But it is clear that the summit in Helsinki was a tragic mistake.
“President Trump proved not only unable but unwilling to stand up to Putin. He and Putin seemed to be speaking from the same script as the president made a conscious choice to defend a tyrant against the fair questions of a free press and to grant Putin an uncontested platform to spew propaganda and lies to the world.
“It is tempting to describe the press conference as a pathetic rout – as an illustration of the perils of under-preparation and inexperience. But these were not the errant tweets of a novice politician. These were the deliberate choices of a president who seems determined to realize his delusions of a warm relationship with Putin’s régime without any regard for the true nature of his rule, his violent disregard for the sovereignty of his neighbors, his complicity in the slaughter of the Syrian people, his violation of international treaties, and his assault on democratic institutions throughout the world.
“Coming close on the heels of President Trump’s bombastic and erratic conduct towards our closest friends and allies in Brussels and Britain, today’s press conference marks a recent low point in the history of the American Presidency. That the president was attended in Helsinki by a team of competent and patriotic advisors makes his blunders and capitulations all the more painful and inexplicable.
“No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant. Not only did President Trump fail to speak the truth about an adversary; but speaking for America to the world, our president failed to defend all that makes us who we are — a republic of free people dedicated to the cause of liberty at home and abroad. American presidents must be the champions of that cause if it is to succeed. Americans are waiting and hoping for President Trump to embrace that sacred responsibility. One can only hope they are not waiting totally in vain.”
Arkansas US Senator Tom Cotton
Trump
“My people came to me,[Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coates came to me, some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be” [Donald Trump]
Demonstrators in the South Shore neighborhood protesting the shooting death of 37-year-old Harith Augustus have a heated exchange with police on Sunday in Chicago.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Early Saturday evening, a Chicago police officer shot and killed Harith Augustus, a 37-year-old black American barber working in the neighborhood where the police had confronted him. The Chicago Police Department released body-camera video that shows Augustus becoming agitated after being surrounded and grabbed by officers. As he attempts to flee and appears to reach for a gun in his waistband, an officer begins firing on him, and Augustus falls. In a statement, the CPD said that Augustus — who had a firearm license but no permit for concealed carry — had initially been approached for “exhibiting characteristics of an armed person.”
The bodycam footage of the confrontation was released Sunday morning, after a night of protests that began when an agitated crowd of nearly 100 gathered at the scene of the shooting not long after Augustus was killed. A series of scuffles broke out between protesters and responding officers who later began assailing some in the crowd with batons as bottles and rocks were thrown at them. The video was released alongside official talk about the need to jump ahead of misinformation impugning the conduct of the CPD officers who confronted Augustus. “We can’t have another night like that,” Chicago Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson told the press. “If we don’t get in front of things, the narrative will spin out of control.”
In truth the CPD lost the benefit of the doubt some time ago. There are, indisputably, a lot of bad apples in the Chicago Police Department. This has always been so. Investigators have spent years uncovering the 20 years of torture and abuse by officers under the command of Jon Burge, who sought confessions from more than 100 black men through suffocation and genital electrocution with cattle prods, among other methods. Another infamous cadre of officers, the Skullcap Crew, has been accused dozens of times of physical and sexual abuse and harassment in Chicago’s old housing projects and has been named in more than 20 federal lawsuits. All but one Skullcap Crew member are still active on the force today. In November, Cook County prosecutors dropped 18 convictions for 15 men arrested under the authority of Ronald Watts, a CPD sergeant who routinely ordered his subordinates to plant drugs and falsify police reports. Joshua Tepfer, an attorney with the University of Chicago Law School’s Exoneration Project representing 63 other men who say they were also wrongfully arrested by Watts, told the New Yorker’s Jennifer Gonnerman that hundreds more may have been framed, in a story published by the magazine in May.
The DOJ report paints a picture of a department whose officers have been given free rein to terrorize and abuse black Americans they happen to comeacross.
The malfeasance within the department goes well beyond the activities of isolated crews of rogue officers. In 2015, the Guardian reported that over the previous decade, more than 7,000 people — 6,000 of whom were black — had been detained under allegedly abusive conditions at a secret warehouse in the city’s Homan Square neighborhood without access to attorneys or public knowledge of their whereabouts. In 2016, the CPDrevealed that 80 percent of the dashboard cameras equipped by its squad cars could not record audio and that 12 percent had experienced “video issues” — technical problems caused, they said, by “operator error or in some cases intentional destruction.” “Chicago Police Department officers stashed microphones in their squad car glove boxes,” DNAinfo Chicago’s Mark Konkol and Paul Biasco wrote in a review of dashcam maintenance logs. “They pulled out batteries. Microphone antennas got busted or went missing.”
Dashcam footage, with its audio missing, proved crucial to adjudicating the fatal shooting of Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old black teen, in 2014. The video — released in the fall of 2015 after a monthslong legal battle between a local journalist and the city — showed that McDonald had been shot 16 times as he was walking away from officers. McDonald had been accused of lunging at responders in incident reports written by three CPD officers set to face trial later this year for conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and official misconduct in their attempt at a cover-up.
The McDonald shooting triggered an overdue Department of Justice investigation into the CPD’s practices. The DOJ’s report, released in January 2017, charged that the CPD routinely violated the Fourth Amendment with its deployments of force, including “numerous incidents where CPD officers chased and shot fleeing persons who posed no immediate threat to officers or the public” and “tactical decisions that unnecessarily increase the risk of deadly encounters.” The report also examined and criticized several nonlethal encounters including the tasing of a 16-year-old girl who was asked to leave school for using a cellphone and the tasing of a woman in a “mental health crisis” who had “stiffened” and stopped responding to verbal instructions. The report paints a picture of a department whose officers have been given free rein to terrorize and abuse black Chicagoans they happen to come across. This is particularly descriptive of officers who would pick up black children and teens in their vehicles for questioning:
We were told by many community members that one method by which CPD will try to get individuals to provide information about crime or guns is by picking them up and driving them around while asking for information about gangs or guns. When individuals do not talk, officers will drop them off in dangerous areas or gang territories. We reviewed a publicly available video that appears to capture one instance of an officer displaying a youth in police custody to a group of individuals gathered in a rival gang territory. The video shows CPD officers standing around a marked CPD vehicle with the back doors wide open and a young male detained in the rear. Officers permit a crowd of male youths to surround the car and shout at the adolescent. The crowd can be seen flashing hand gestures that look like gang signs and threatening the cowering teenager in the backseat.
[…] The video does not show any legitimate law enforcement purpose in allowing the youth to be threatened. Residents told us that this has happened for years, with several individuals recounting their personal experiences. A young black man told us that when he was 12 or 13 years old, he and his friends were picked up by CPD officers, dropped off in rival territory, and told to walk home. Another black teen told us that his brother was picked up in one location, dropped off in another location known for rival gangs, and told: “Better get to running.”
According to the DOJ report, 98 percent of the more than 30,000 misconduct complaints that had been brought over the previous five years had not resulted in any penalties for the officers accused. And some of the complaints that had were resolved through “mediation” deals that allowed officers to acknowledge some level of misconduct in exchange for reduced penalties before the conclusion of full investigations into their behavior. Half of the mediated cases from 2013 to 2015 were cases of alleged excessive force or domestic violence. Of mediations in the case of domestic violence, the report noted that the practice “allows abusers to avoid meaningful punishment, which may empower them to continue the cycle of abuse.”
It is plain that abuse — for Trump and most of his supporters — is part of the tool kit necessary to beat back the phantasm of “Americancarnage.”
As of April, the city of Chicago has fully implemented only 20 of the 99 recommendations for reform outlined in the DOJ’s report. It’s plausible that more progress might have been made under the terms of a federal consent decree with the department that would have given the city’s reform efforts federal oversight. That’s unlikely under the Trump administration. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a review of existing oversight agreements for cities around the country last March, and he hasn’t taken much of an interest in Chicago’s policing beyond blaming the American Civil Liberties Union’s anti – stop-and-frisk advocacy for the city’s spike in homicides in 2016. Chicago will instead negotiate a consent decree with the state of Illinois, and the city has reached an agreement with the ACLU and various community and activist organizations that will allow those groups to provide input both during those negotiations and in the reform implementation process.*
It is plain that abuse — for Trump and most of his supporters — is part of the tool kit necessary to beat back the phantasm of “American carnage” or, at worst, the regrettable but inevitable consequence of brave and commendable police officers trying to do so. The president and his supporters argue that those who speak out against police violence and the racial inequities of the criminal justice system are by contrast too fixated on race talk to do anything about the violence plaguing their communities. This narrative both erases constant, dogged anti-violence work and activism happening within black communities — like the massive demonstration that shut down the Dan Ryan Expressway just over a week ago — and implicitly advances the idea that unrestrained state violence should be visited upon black people who are by implication lawless and untamed. Of course, the wanton lawlessness present in departments like the CPD — the sadistic violence, the codes of silence — make them rather similar to the gangs the law-and-order crowd wants so dearly to stamp out.
It should come as no surprise that criminal justice politics post – Black Lives Matter and post-Ferguson has given rise to activists who want to raze the framework of policing itself to the ground. In Chicago, a community of activists like Mariame Kaba and organizations like the Black Youth Project 100 have been driving forces behind a movement for police and prison abolition, advancing a vision of a future in which unarmed mediation, community-administered justice, and intensive efforts to fight poverty and inequality obviate the need for law enforcement as currently conceived. It’s still a largely amorphous vision, but one, activists point out, with seeds in the already-existing culture within heavily profiled minority communities of avoiding calls to the police at all costs.
It’s also a vision now supported by the Democratic Socialists of America, who backed a resolution calling for the abolition of police and prisons at their national convention last August. The calls to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, one of the centerpieces of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s congressional campaign and now the subject of legislation in Congress is best understood not only as a proposal shaped by our current immigration policy debate, but a rhetorical and ideological cousin of the left’s interest in rethinking policing completely. It’s not at all clear how far that push will go or how many Americans will sign on to the project. But the status quo — in Chicago and too many other cities besides — is no longer tenable.
Update, July 16, 2018: This sentence has been updated to clarify the status of Chicago’s consent decree with the state of Illinois.
One more thing
Since Donald Trump entered the White House, Slate has stepped up our politics coverage — bringing you news and opinion from writers like Jamelle Bouie and Dahlia Lithwick. We’re covering the administration’s immigration crackdown, the rollback of environmental protections, the efforts of the resistance, and more.
Our work is more urgent than ever and is reaching more readers — but online advertising revenues don’t fully cover our costs, and we don’t have print subscribers to help keep us afloat. So we need your help.
You simply cannot make this up. In order to find this reasonable, one would have to be totally turned off to over four hundred years of Slavery, Jim Crowe, the Prison Industrial Complex and the continued fight of black people against racial oppression and police abuse in America. One would, however, be able to understand why these maladies have been so intransigent and difficult to stop
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A group of black Christian conservative leaders are calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan, R‑Wis., to censure Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters of California for comments she made last month urging supporters to directly harass administration officials at “anytime” and “anywhere” they see them.
African-American conservative activists and religious leaders gathered on Capitol Hill Thursday to pressure Ryan to formally condemn Waters on the House floor and proclaimed that Waters doesn’t speak to the “faith of all black America.”
In question are Waters’ comments at a California rally in late June in which she called for critics of the administration to confront Donald Trump administration officials when they see them at a restaurant, a gas station, a department store or wherever else they might be found in public.
Waters’ remarks came as there was much media coverage over Trump administration officials — White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — being kicked out of restaurants because they work for the Trump administration.
“Her call to extremism based on where another American citizen works and who they associate with must be sternly addressed by Speaker Paul Ryan,” Star Parker, president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, said at a press conference. “An apology is not enough, nor did she offer one when asked by House Speaker. As we move into two months of intense debate over SCOTUS nomination, the censuring of Maxine Waters becomes of extreme urgency.”
The birth and development of the American police can be traced to a multitude of historical, legal and political-economic conditions. The institution of slavery and the control of minorities, however, were two of the more formidable historic features of American society shaping early policing. Slave patrols and Night Watches, which later became modern police departments, were both designed to control the behaviors of minorities. For example, New England settlers appointed Indian Constables to police Native Americans (National Constable Association, 1995), the St. Louis police were founded to protect residents from Native Americans in that frontier city, and many southern police departments began as slave patrols. In 1704, the colony of Carolina developed the nation’s first slave patrol. Slave patrols helped to maintain the economic order and to assist the wealthy landowners in recovering and punishing slaves who essentially were considered property.
Dr. Kappeler has received numerous awards by both academic institutions and governmental agencies for his contributions to criminal justice.
Policing was not the only social institution enmeshed in slavery. Slavery was fully institutionalized in the American economic and legal order with laws being enacted at both the state and national divisions of government. Virginia, for example, enacted more than 130 slave statutes between 1689 and 1865. Slavery and the abuse of people of color, however, was not merely a southern affair as many have been taught to believe. Connecticut, New York and other colonies enacted laws to criminalize and control slaves. Congress also passed fugitive Slave Laws, laws allowing the detention and return of escaped slaves, in 1793 and 1850. As Turner, Giacopassi and Vandiver (2006:186) remark, “the literature clearly establishes that a legally sanctioned law enforcement system existed in America before the Civil War for the express purpose of controlling the slave population and protecting the interests of slave owners. The similarities between the slave patrols and modern American policing are too salient to dismiss or ignore. Hence, the slave patrol should be considered a forerunner of modern American law enforcement.”
The legacy of slavery and racism did not end after the Civil War. In fact, it can be argued that extreme violence against people of color became even worse with the rise of vigilante groups who resisted Reconstruction. Because vigilantes, by definition, have no external restraints, lynch mobs had a justified reputation for hanging minorities first and asking questions later. Because of its tradition of slavery, which rested on the racist rationalization that Blacks were sub-human, America had a long and shameful history of mistreating people of color, long after the end of the Civil War. Perhaps the most infamous American vigilante group, the Ku Klux Klan started in the 1860s, was notorious for assaulting and lynching Black men for transgressions that would not be considered crimes at all, had a White man committed them. Lynching occurred across the entire county not just in the South. Finally, in 1871 Congress passed the Ku Klux Klan Act, which prohibited state actors from violating the Civil Rights of all citizens in part because of law enforcement’s involvement with the infamous group. This legislation, however, did not stem the tide of racial or ethnic abuse that persisted well into the 1960s.
Though having white skin did not prevent discrimination in America, being White undoubtedly made it easier for ethnic minorities to assimilate into the mainstream of America. The additional burden of racism has made that transition much more difficult for those whose skin is black, brown, red, or yellow. In no small part because of the tradition of slavery, Blacks have long been targets of abuse. The use of patrols to capture runaway slaves was one of the precursors of formal police forces, especially in the South. This disastrous legacy persisted as an element of the police role even after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In some cases, police harassment simply meant people of African descent were more likely to be stopped and questioned by the police, while at the other extreme, they have suffered beatings, and even murder, at the hands of White police. Questions still arise today about the disproportionately high numbers of people of African descent killed, beaten, and arrested by police in major urban cities of America.
Victor E. Kappeler, Ph.D. Associate Dean and Foundation Professor School of Justice Studies Eastern Kentucky University
There is much back and forth regarding a video in which a Jamaican so-called disc jockey who goes by the moniker “POPCAAN” is seen firing two weapons. On the one hand, he fires a weapon which appears to be an AR15 then simply drops the weapon on the ground and pulls a semi-automatic weapon from his waistband and commences to fire the weapon as he jumps around like a previously caged monkey happy to be free from bondage.
In a statement, Popcaan’s management team said they wanted to assure fans that the “gun-shooting exercise took place in a supervised and safe setting, an official shooting range, a specialized facility designed for firearms qualifications, training, or practice”. According to the deejay’s handlers, he was at the Lower Trent Valley Fish and Game Club, in Ontario, Canada where the entertainer had been on tour at the time.
Whether the shooting occurred in Canada or Cassava piece what we witnessed was a lunatic careless misuse of weaponry the maniac had no business handling. The moronic display regardless of where he was, was a case study in how never to handle dangerous weapons and why those dangerous weapons should be kept out of the hands of imbeciles.
The way in which he discarded the automatic weapon after use and the mindless discharge of the handgun is eerily reminiscent of what Jamaican police officers and innocent civilians face at the hands of these moronic cretins. As for the arguments that this was done in a supervised setting„ that gibberish makes a mockery of any sane person’s understanding of what constitutes a safe and supervised setting.
You remember when we were supposed to be spreading democracy around the world? When nations were invaded and tens of thousands killed all in the name of spreading democracy, how is that working out today? It seems to me that when you sow seeds you should have expectations of a harvest, that is not an alien concept. The thing is that the road to hell is fraught with good intentions. When the most powerful nation in the world act it impacts the actions of other nations. Those nations are looking on and they are learning. And did Russia ever learn? In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. – Thomas Jefferson
One has to be either willfully ignorant or just plain stupid to ignore the assessment of all of the US intelligence agencies, that Russia intervened (not meddle) in the 2016 elections to aid Donald Trump at the expense of Hillary Clinton. I am really annoyed at the Media’s use of the term (meddled), in the context of what the Russians did in 2016. Children meddle in their parent’s stuff. Busy-body gossips meddle in other people’s business. Powerful nations do not employ active measures on behalf of one candidate against another simply because they want to meddle. “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” ‑John Adams
America’s white founding fathers
They engage because they have designs which vastly outsize simply putting Trump in office. Russia does not like former Soviet states in their backyard joining the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance(NATO). Russia would like nothing more than to relive it’s former Soviet glory days, those designs do not include its former Sattalites having allegiances to, and being protected by a western defense alliance. Russia understands that if there are fractures in the world trade organization and nations cannot get along they do not have the economic power to challenge its designs in Eastern Europe and beyond. The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and to influence their actions. – John Hancock
And so Russia is waging a multi-pronged attack on NATO the WTO and the entire order which emerged after the second world war. This all while reaping the added rewards of a disunited America with its different ethnic groups at each other’s throats and the Government disrespecting and alienating it’s closest and most loyal allies. Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike. ‑Alexander Hamilton
America’s Black founding fathers: The Untold Stories.
The American exceptionalism of which we hear much talk only existed because to a large extent most American Presidents adhered to existing norms. No matter how close they colored to the lines there was an expectation that regardless of the recklessness of their actions they acted on behalf of America, until now. We are realizing shockingly, that past presidents were constrained not so much by laws but by respect and awe for the position they held, until now. What we thought were laws were just norms, those norms were always there to be exploited. The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure, when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. – Patrick Henry
It wasn’t difficult for the Russians to exploit America’s simmering racial divide. For four hundred years plus, America has exploited, abused and mistreated its racial minorities. Regardless of the successes of its white majority, there has always a cold indifferent lack of empathy for their black and native American brothers and sisters. Their failures and anxieties, coupled with the possibility of becoming a minority among the nations combined ethnic groups have rekindled old hatreds. Those fissures did not need much to make them gaping crevices, all that was required was a divisive con-man with an agenda. A perfect storm which presented the perfect opening for a hostile foreign power. A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right. ‑Thomas Paine
Racism has a price, hatred has a price. Unless we refuse to see what is happening right in front of our eyes, or we stupidly tell ourselves that it is something else, we must agree that Trump is upending the existing order to aid Vladamir Putin’s Russia. The strangest part of all this is that the entire Republican party which always wrapped itself in the American flag[faux patriots]and paraded as patriots are in on it. The shocking inevitability of its unfolding, coupled with the robotic acceptance of the population, seems almost Biblical in proportion. How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them. – Benjamin Franklin
In a revealing and consequential article (CNN.com) report on a little fact which just elude us as Donald Trump announced DC insider Brett Kavanaugh to fill the supreme court seat made vacant by the retirement of Anthony Kennedy. Since the Supreme Court first convened in 1790, 113 justices have served on the bench.
In the 228-year history of the Supreme Court, only 5.3% of justices have been women or minorities. That, of course, is if you buy into the idea that Clarence Thomas the black tool of the right wing actually sees himself as a minority.
From left, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Sandra Day Oconnor.
Of the 113 justices, 109 — or 96.5% — have been men.
Until 1981, every Supreme Court justice was male. But Ronald Reagan promised he’d put a woman on the court, and during his first year in office he kept that promise by appointing Sandra Day O’Connor.
Before that, presidents had appointed women to lower courts, but no one gave serious thought to putting one on the Supreme Court. President Harry Truman thought about nominating a woman, but justices at the time said they “would inhibit their conference deliberations.”
Bill Clinton made the second female appointment by nominating Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993.
And Barack Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor in 2009, followed by Elena Kagan a year later.
DIDYOUKNOWTHATINTHEHISTORYOFTHEFBITHEBUREAUHASNEVERHAD A DEMOCRATASDIRECTOR?
In January of this year
RONELVING writing for (NPR.org)
Let’s talk about Teddy Roosevelt for a moment. He started the precursor agency called the Bureau of Investigation way back in 1908. He did it because he wanted someone to look at the books of some of the country’s largest and most powerful businesses, which he suspected of violating the anti-trust laws meant to rein in the activities of monopolies.
Similarly, when the bureau was tasked with finding German spies during the World War I, it could be called law enforcement — pure and simple. But what about when it went rounded up and detained citizens who had not yet registered for the draft? Or harassed political radicals of various stripes whom the administration saw as security risks for their unorthodox ideas?
Hoover hounded Martin Luther King Jr. for years — at one point sending him tape recordings of his tapped telephone and urging him to commit suicide. I have always been skeptical at the trust black Americans have in the FBI., They always seemed to believe that when their rights are violated by local cops and the FBI is brought in to investigate they are on the road to receiving justice. The history of the FBI certainly does not support this degree of trust in my estimation.
TRUMPPARDONSWHITEARSONISTRANCHERSWHOSETFIRETOFEDERALLANDS. Donald Trump is pardoning two cattle ranchers convicted of arson in a case that case sparked the armed occupation of a national wildlife refuge in Oregon.
America steels for major fallout as it officially launches its trade war with China on Friday.
President Donald Trump’s trade war was officially launched at 12:01 Friday morning as U.S. officials were already strategizing a controversial move to use emergency funds to mitigate the damage to farmers facing punishing retaliatory tariffs.
The Trump administration officially levied tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese products at the start of a major trade battle predicted to exact significant costs on consumers and businesses. China was expected to announce its own comparable tariffs on $34 billion of U.S. goods Friday. Chinese officials had said they would not announce the tariffs until after the U.S. did so. The Chinese tariffs, including a 25 percent charge on soybeans, are expected to hit U.S. farmers particularly hard, since the country currently buys nearly two-thirds of the soybeans produced by U.S. farmers.
But Trump, who has attacked Harley-Davidson for plans to move some production to its overseas plants to avoid retaliatory European tariffs, is looking to save “my farmers” from the trade war he launched. Rural support was critical to his presidential victory. Unhappy farmers could spell trouble for midterm elections.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said last month at a Chicago convention that the Commodity Credit Corporation is a “tool” he’s considering to comply with Trump’s instructions to “craft a strategy to support our farmers against retaliatory tariffs. The program, which was started to help farmers during the Great Depression, allows the Agriculture Department to borrow as much as $30 billion from the U.S. Treasury that could be used to buy crops from farmers that would go unsold in a trade war.
It’s a whole lot easier not to wreck the car in the first place than it is to think about what a repair might look like.American Soybean Association
Rep. Collin Peterson (D‑Minn.), the ranking Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, has said using the funds would set a bad precedent by politicizing farm payments, Bloomberg reported.
“I am against a one-time bailout of a situation created by the administration,” Peterson said earlier this year. Farmers “want their markets left intact and not screwed up by some policy. Giving them money isn’t necessarily going to buy them off.”
Even Republican farm state Sen. Chuck Grassley (R‑Iowa) said last month in a call with reporters that subsidies are “not what farmers in Iowa want — help from the federal Treasury,” the Des Moines Register reported.
Critics say that spending the massive fund is a waste of public money to mitigate a Trump bungle. It would also be a significant expenditure just as the U.S. debt is on track to be the biggest in historydue to corporate tax cuts and spending hikes.
Former USDA chief economist Joseph Glauber told The Financial Times earlier this month that many farmers already have some safeguards from government-backed price and income supports and insurance.
As for using CCC money, Glauber added: “I just don’t like the idea of the government coming up with some balm to spread over wounds that are self-inflicted. It seems to be a huge moral hazard problem.”
Even those who support using the funds say they won’t be enough to save farmers grappling with decreasing demand triggered by retaliatory foreign tariffs. Farmer also risk losing key markets in the long term even as they’re subsidized. Farmers in Brazil are boosting soybean production to scoop up the Chinese market.
Brian Kuehl, executive director of Farmers for Free Trade, called the trade war “downright scary.”
“When American soybeans and corn become more expensive, South America wins,” Kuehl said in a statement.
Farm lobby groups had been battling against the imposition of the U.S. tariffs, arguing instead for negotiations over specific issues.
Earth’s resources are by no means infinite, as the planet heats up scientist warns that our planet is getting warmer each year. It is time for us to take stock of how we treat the precious resources at our disposal. The wealthiest among us are the most liberal with the use and dispensation of earth’s resources, that is not to say that those of us on the consumer end of the spectrum are not equally as reckless in the way we use and consume precious resources.
Sure, the processes which produced those resources may still be at work replenishing them in some instances but do we want to run out of drinking water and wait on the replenishment process? Are we prepared to destroy our oxygen supply then wait for replenishment? Even with the abundance of food, poverty, droughts, famine, wars and other forces are wreaking havoc, forcing millions into starvation, and the death of countless others.
The United Nation’s Council for Human Rights says War and hunger are driving displacement.
The monied powers which drill for oil and natural gas, destroy mountains and other lands for coal have a vested interest in denying climate change. Sure we need those resources to maintain the modern lifestyle we have come to treasure and enjoy but in as much as the mega-corporations and governments have a responsibility to be judicious with our natural resources we all have that same responsibility to protect the environment. That responsibility can come in the form of simply turning off the tap while brushing our teeth. turning the lights out in rooms we are not using.
On average about two gallons of fresh water flows from a tap each minute. According to (sustainability.nscu.edu), although 70 percent of planet Earth is covered with water, only 1 percent of it is available for human consumption? Our surging population is leaving our lakes, rivers, and aquifers struggling to meet this growing demand for fresh water. In fact, water demand is expected to climb 50 percent from 2007 to 2025.
In Yemen today over 8 million people face starvation and certain death because of wars
With the Polar ice caps melting even more rapidly than scientists had initially anticipated, the warming of the earth is effectively assured, the less ice on the planet is the more dark ocean which attracts the suns rays and the process is self-fulfilling. Melting ice caps means rising ocean levels. Rising ocean levels means cities and towns submerged under water. More violent storms. Population centers forced to move further inland. Disputes over living space. Contamination and stress on fresh drinking water sources. And conflicts associated with the foregone. I doubt that there is a rational person who would disagree that these events are not happening today, not abstract predictions for future generations?
Of course, we can scroll past these images quickly, or simply turn away and pretend, but we know whats happening in our world. We know. Ethiopia in 2015, catastrophic famine, over 15 million people affected.
The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is extremely likely (greater than 95 percent probability) to be the result of human activity since the mid-20th century and proceeding at a rate that is unprecedented over decades to millennia.
The heat-trapping nature of carbon dioxide and other gases was demonstrated in the mid-19th century.2 Their ability to affect the transfer of infrared energy through the atmosphere is the scientific basis of many instruments flown by NASA. There is no question that increased levels of greenhouse gases must cause the Earth to warm in response.
In India lack of water poses serious challenges to agriculture.
Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that the Earth’s climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels. Ancient evidence can also be found in tree rings, ocean sediments, coral reefs, and layers of sedimentary rocks. This ancient, or paleoclimate, evidence reveals that current warming is occurring roughly ten times faster than the average rate of ice-age-recovery warming.3 argues https://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
These images are not sexy, we tend to quickly turn the page and move on because these things are only happening to those people. But are they really? In our increasingly interconnected world, how long are the consequences of famine drought wars, and other maladies going to avoid our doorsteps? The truth of the matter is that the policies of powerful governments and corporations have direct causation on some of these events playing out in real time.
Policies which upend the fragile stability in less powerful nations have a ripple effect on where we live. When we wage wars or destabilize other nations we cause the mass migration of people. When we destabilize the delicate and fragile peace within those countries borders, by choosing one side over another, we are contributing to the movement of people. It is one of the most natural things for humans to become nomadic as they look for food water and a better life.
When powerful energy corporations are given carte blanch to upend our eco-system just so that they may have more zeroes on balance sheets, we are by default contributing to the mass migration of people to our shores. These are the hard challenges which face the leaders of powerful nations. Building walls as a means of safety and security is a tried and failed concept, history is replete with the examples. Subsequently, the order which came out of the Marshall plan after the second world war despite its imperfection has held to date. There has been stupid uncalled for war since 1945, we all know that when moronic leaders are given power they are going to make moronic decisions.
Nevertheless, the period of relative peace between the ending of the first world war and the beginning of the second began is a mere 21 years. Between the end of the second world war in 1945 and today is 73 years. Seventy-three years and still no worldwide violent conflagration. The world order has held. It is up to present leadership to strengthen the existing order so that future generations may have a planet on which to live. Those who went before us did not destroy the earth, we have a responsibility to ensure that others have the same opportunities on this another American Independence day.
As an avid animal lover, I tried my best to let be a trending story about a Kentucky woman’s slaughter of a South African Giraffe and the subsequent fallout. Of course, I couldn’t. But I couldn’t because in the story are other stories which still persist on the African continent which are hardly any different than that which existed when our people were stripped away and sent to the western world as human chattel.
The story involves a Kentucky woman Tess Thompson Talley a big game hunter who posted to her social media account, her celebration of her ]kill] of a fully grown Giraffe. On her Facebook page, Thompson-Talley wrote,“Prayers for my once in a lifetime dream hunt came true today! Spotted this rare black giraffe bull and stalked him for quite a while. I knew it was the one. He was over 18 years old, 4000 lbs. and was blessed to be able to get 2000 lbs. of meat from him.”\
Many people including celebrities have come out strongly against Talley. One celebrity wrote on Twitter quote,“What’s 16 feet tall and has a c**t on the back of its neck?” Actress Debra Messing wrote: “Tess Thompson Talley from Nippa, Kentucky is a disgusting, vile, amoral, heartless, selfish murderer.”
Look, every human-being is vested with the ability to differentiate between wrong and right and so I am constrained from disagreeing with those who shoot verbal darts at Thompson-Talley. After all, there is a certain majesty and awe in all of these wonderful creatures, it takes a special kind of retardation to kill one of these majestic creatures just to fulfill a bloodlust.
Beautiful Africa
THEREALISSUE
Those who would destroy our eco-system, and by extension our planet deserve every bit of condemnation that they receive. Nevertheless, the larger question ought to be, why is Trophy hunting legal in South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe? In 2015 there was another uproar when Walter Palmer, a Minnesota dentist was raked over the coals for slaughtering Cecil the Lion. On this occasion as well, Palmer was well within what Zimbabwe’s laws allowed.
Eric and Donald Trump Jr the two sons of US President Donald Trump have also caught flack in 2015 when photos surfaced of them posing with a dead elephant and other animals several years earlier. In as much as animal lovers are justified in their wrath against the mindless slaughter of these innocent animals, the real anger must and should be directed at these African Nations.
The fundamental issues which existed in the 15th century which allowed the enslavement of people and their ultimate debasement which reduced them to chattel are clearly still existent on the African continent today. Set aside any protestations about the need to thin out certain species of animals on the continent. The fact that foreigners are allowed to visit any African nation and be allowed to degrade its natural resources should be cause for condemnation of the corrupt leadership which exist in these countries.
Over the last four hundred years, Europeans have plundered, raped and pillaged the rich and varied resources which were abundant and in many cases unique to the African continent. Not only have Europeans pillaged the natural resources they have also destroyed and laid destitute the human resources. As a consequence, the entire continent of Africa is now exposed to rampant famines, drought, massive outbreaks of disease and is essentially a basket case when considered against most of the other continents.
TANZANIA — MARCH 03: Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis), Giraffidae, Serengeti National Park, Tanzania. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)
In many parts of the continent, including South Africa, and more so in Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe the only thing left other than the impoverished people, are the precious animals which have managed to survive the murderous onslaught of Europeans and Americans. Conventional wisdom would suggest that these precious animals would be protected at all cost and a tourism product developed which includes the showcasing of these majestic animals in their natural habits where possible.
Shockingly, this crop of African leaders is no better than what obtained four hundred years ago when Africans aided and abetted the sale and enslavement, murder and other abuse of their fellow men and the resultant genocide which has been waged on the continent for over four centuries.
Michael Annon, 29 years old, Mason/Security Guard of Sheffield, Westmoreland was discovered floating in the sea at Paradise Westmoreland. Reports are that fishermen saw the body of Annon afloat and summoned the police. The body was retrieved and it was discovered that the hands and feet were bound. A stone was tied around the neck and the body had what appeared to have two (2) gunshot wounds to the forehead. The Police are investigating.
I want to add this little bit of additional information in support of my theory that Democratic voters want stronger more clearly defined policies from their party as opposed to the lukewarm Republican-lite approach which has clearly alienated many voters the least of which is the militant left.
According to ( politics.myajc.com) Turnout among black voters soared in last month’s Georgia primary, a show of strength that could bode well for Democrats in this year’s contests for governor and other statewide offices. The data show the broad majority of African-American voters pulled Democratic ballots, which could bolster the hope of Stacey Abrams, who is racing to be the nation’s first black female governor. Her Republican opponent will be decided in a July 24 runoff between Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and Secretary of State Brian Kemp.
Abrams built her electoral strategy around energizing left-leaning voters, including minorities, with liberal stances on gun control, criminal justice initiatives, and tax policy. Her approach was vindicated with a whopping victory over her opponent, who aimed for a more centrist appeal.
A strong case to be made for the Democratic party to stop being a doormat for the Republican party which has now become a right-wing Fascist party of white men. Sure voters who leave the Republican party or more appropriately whom the Republican party has left need a party which reflects their values. Nevertheless, the idea that so-called moderate Republicans will not support a stridently left-leaning Democratic Party which supports workers rights, universal healthcare for all, among other working class issues is patently wrong.
Never lose sight of the fact that many of those voters were actually called Reagan Democrats, and many of them voted for Barack Obama twice. Voters want political parties which reflect their values.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties have wedge issues in which they believe, On which they campaign and generally govern. For the Republicans, it was[is] small government. Gun ownership. States Rights. Against abortion. Strong military and religion, to name a few. Except that Republicans are only fiscally conservative when there is a Democrat in the white house. Democrats believed in social programs. And expanded role of Government in helping to take care of those unable to take care of themselves. Over the last few election cycles, Democrats have become champions for abortion rights. Gay rights, as a [civil right] and, have signed on to illicit wars even though their voters are generally opposed to America’s militaristic forays into other countries.
Ronald Reagan
Republicans have had an uncanny ability to formulate policies and stick to their talking points. They exercise discipline as they push those policies even when they are proven to be destructive. (See the Iraq war). Republicans slavishly stick to the script when it comes to the tenets of the policies which they believe in. One example of that has been how they purged the party of moderates as it lurched to the far right, through the process of primary challenges to establishment moderate. The right labeled moderate republicans (republicans in name only )[RINOS].
Colin Powell former chairman joint chiefs, former secretary of state under President GW Bush
That process forced from its ranks moderates like the late Pennsylvania US Senator Arlen Specter, former Secretary of state Colin Powell, former Indiana US Senator Richard Lugar to name a few. In fact, the party’s platform has been so radicalized that the hero of the former right, Ronald Reagan, would potentially be excommunicated from what now obtains as the Republican Party. Others like John McCain have either been sidelined or forced to adopt the toxic rabidity of the right, or risk expulsion from the party. Gone is the party of George H W Bush or even George W Bush who was arguably more conservative than his dad, but who was a man who proposed Immigration reform, and talked about compassionate conservativism.
George W Bush
The Democratic party in my estimation never seemed to have a political identity, except that it isn’t the Republican party. Democrats are split into different categories, moderates, conservative, blue dogs, and of course progressives. The Democratic party has been out-hustled by the right which has cultivated a web of grass-roots organizations which act as factories for their brand of conservatism. The gazillion different organizations, think-tanks, and interest groups which drill home the conservative agenda to the faithful are well funded by wealthy Industrialist and Billionaires like Charles and David Koch, Sheldon Alderson, Foster Friess, Robert Mercer, The [JETS] Woody Johnson, to name a few.
Schumer & Pelosi
The Democratic Party has no credible grass-roots organization which presses home at the local level the values of the party. The Democrats which seemingly only care about Presidential elections have completely lost the war at the local level. Even in deep blue states like New York, Connecticut, Massachutes and others local counties and town politics are dominated by Republicans. The lack of grass-roots organizations and organizing makes it harder for Democratic presidents to enact their agendas because Republicans control the foundations and can simply say no.
Trade Unions which were once a bulwark of support for the democratic party have seen their influence eroded through strategic assaults against them like that which was waged by Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker who has eviscerated unions in his state. Other states have enacted right to work laws which have gutted the power and strength of public sector unions, knee-capping an integral support structure of the democratic party. The Supreme court’s most recent decision which now prevents unions from collecting dues from non-members all but removes that slush of funds unions once had to donate to Democratic candidates. Thanks to Anthony Kennedy’s parting gifts to his pal Donald Trump.
Additionally, the group which usually made up the bulk of union membership[white males] have largely moved on to the Republican Party as a matter of course. Not that the unions have not been serving their interests but with the changing face of America along racial lines, white men are wont to support any other party other than one whose purpose is the protection of white supremacy.
Barack Obama
On the other hand, the Democrats are old, out of ideas and confused about who they are and what the party stands for. The rise of Barack Obama out of nowhere to win their nomination 10 years ago against the establishment neanderthals, ought to have been a warning to the party that the progressive voters who are forced to support the party wants more focused leadership. The lesson was staring the Dems in the face yet they failed to recognize that there was a faction of the party which was unhappy with the Republican-lite approach the party was invested in.
That disquiet among younger progressive voters was squandered by the Democrats, and so Ralph Nader was able to split the vote twice, eventually costing them a President Al Gore. Still not recognizing the systemic progressive shift of it’s younger supporters the party missed the message and so Bernie Sanders the Vermont Socialist was able to launch his leftist-populist movement which ultimately split the 2016 vote on the one hand and kept enough progressive voters at home to give rise to Trump.
Supporters watch the election results on a larger television monitor during Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s election night rally in the Jacob Javits Center glass-enclosed lobby in New York, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
For years Democrats followed the mainstream media’s narrative that younger voters were not dependable voters. I have always believed that young people are far more focused than the left gave them credit for. Younger voters and leaders on the right are some of the most focused and dedicated to their cause, as a consequence, I believed that Democratic leadership was woefully myopic in adopting the media’s talking points about apathy on the part of young voters.
Then came a young, bright, focused, and convincing messenger,“Yes we can” and to the disbelief of the brackish Democratic establishment Barack Obama was elected with a large plurality of younger voters and an impressive coalition of interest groups, not once but twice. The Republicans recognized the threat Obama posed through his message-deliver, coalition-building and his stated goal of transforming America into a country where all people could compete equally and live their best lives and so the embarked on a plan to obstruct whatever he proposed even policies they themselves once supported.
Though many in the house and senate owed their respective wins to Obama’s coat-tails, rather than stand steadfast with Obama they fought amongst themselves about who were blue-dog democrats as against who was not. By 2010 Republicans recaptured control of the House, increased their number of seats in the Senate and gained a majority of governorships to boot. In 2012 Republicans lost 7 seats in the house but retained control. By the 2014 midterms, Republicans took control of the Senate, gaining 9 seats. With a final total of 247 seats in the House and 54 seats in the Senate, Republicans accomplished their largest majority in the Congress since1929.
Despite the foregone, it is clear that the Democratic party has not learned a single lesson, that supporters of the Democratic party want a party with clear de-marked lines of distinction between itself and the Republicans, not a Republican-lite party. The voters who giddily supported Bernie Sanders and even those peeled of by Jill Stein are still looking for that party with a difference.
That reality is lost on Party leaders like Nancy Pelosi who name is poisonous in middle America. Speaking to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s primary win in the Bronx and QueensPelosi dismissively said: “they made a choice in one district, so let’s not get ourselves carried away as an expert on demographics and the rest of that within the caucus outside the caucus”. Talk about showing bravado as captain of a sinking ship.
But Pelosi is certainly not the only one being dismissive of the Latina’s victory. Iraq war veteran herself a minority, Illinois US Senator Tammy Duckworth who ought to know better had issues with the Democratic party moving too far to the left, warning it could ostracize midwestern voters. Asked whether Ocasio ‑Cortez represents the future of the Democratic party, Duckworth retorted shockingly, quote, “I think it is the future of the party in the Bronx where she is”.
These comments represent the brain-dead stupidity of a party searching for an identity but are stubbornly unwilling to heed the signs. The stark reality is that many Democrats have moved to the Republican party, if for nothing the Republicans do what they say they are going to do, we can argue about the merits afterward. Over the last four election cycles, the Republican party has gone through a complete metamorphosis, moving decisively to the right. It is incredibly silly to suggest that voters on the left do not want their party thus clearly defined. Today despite lurching decisively to the right Republicans control the white house and both chambers of the legislature and have 5 hard right votes on the supreme court. Additionally, they control ore state houses, state legislatures, all the way down to dog catcher. So much for not going too far to the left.
According to the (WashingtonTimes.com)“Enthusiasm for the Democratic Party is waning among millennials as its candidates head into the crucial midterm congressional elections,” according to a Reuters/Ipsos survey of some 11,000 voters ages 18 – 34 conducted during the first three months of the year.
Two years ago, young white people favored Democrats over Republicans for Congress by a margin of 47 to 33 percent; that gap vanished by this year, with 39 percent supporting each party,” the analysis said. “The shift was especially dramatic among young white men, who two years ago favored Democrats but now say they favor Republicans over Democrats by a margin of 46 to 37 percent.
In an opinion piece for the New York Times Thomas B. Edsall wrote Democratic losses among working-class voters were not limited to whites; that crucial constituencies within the party see its leaders as alien;A consistent theme is that the focus on white defections from the Democratic Party masks an even more threatening trend: declining turnout among key elements of the so-called Rising American Electorate— minority, young and single voters. Turnout among African-Americans, for example, fell by 7 points, from 66.6 percent in 2012 to 59.6 percent in 2016.
Even as many Trump-fatigued Americans talk of a November blue wave Donald Trump is predicting a red wave of his own. Arguably he knows something the rest of us doesn’t. After the débâcle of the polling in 2016, I dare not challenge anything Trump predict. The Democratic party continues to be out of touch directionally as well as how it treats black women, it’s most loyal base of support. As part of the resistance against the Trump agenda, many young females have stepped forward to mount challenges to the old guard of democratic wishy-washy republican-lite democrats. Many are African-American women, who like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have received zero funding or support from the national Democratic party. Say what you want about the Republican Party or Donald Trump for that matter, they never ever forget that their most hardcore base of support comes from white males.
Donald Trump
In the meantime, the (NewRepublic)reports that Democrats are losing their most loyal voters: black women. At a moment when so much attention is focused on how Democrats can win white working-class voters who backed Donald Trump, new data shows support for the party is slipping among its most reliable voters—African-American women. I am absolutely not mad that there is a lull in support by black women for the Democratic party, despite their loyal support and fidelity to the party there is no Black-Women in the party’s leadership or what passes for leadership. Most importantly, the party is duplicitously silent when their sons are abused and murdered by police.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters
It was rather offensive to hear Nancy Pelosi chastize Senior Congresswoman Maxine Walters for telling supporters to push back against Administration officials. It did not take long for Charles Schumer to jump on the anti-Maxine Walters train, after all, why not berate the black woman and cry tears about civility to Republicans while neither dinosaur had a single word of chastisement for the thinly veiled threat Trump made against Ms. Walters.
I don’t pretend to know what is going to happen in November save to say that as far as we are told the Russians are still working to meddle in America’s elections and the view of many of the nation’s intelligence chiefs is that nothing is being done to stop them. The Supreme court has all but gutted the voting rights act for no reason except that the court had the power to do it as so it did. Trump is packing the courts at all levels with white men, many of whom are white supremacists and the Democratic party doesn’t even have a leader. Though imperfect, the Media is the only line of defense which stands between the American people and the right’s attempt at turning this country into a full-fledged white ethnostate. Trump did say the media is the opposition. His push-back against the fourth estate is emblematic of how one responds to an opposition party. Many Republicans are beginning to attack the media as well, Litt;e Marco Rubio being chief among them. There is really no Democratic party of consequence to speak of, Trump and his cult of followers knows it quite well.
Rep. Maxine Waters (D‑Calif.) has canceled weekend events in Alabama and Texas due to a “very serious death threat,” according to a statement reported by CNN Thursday.
The threat follows Waters’ call to protesters to confront members of the Trump administration in public over their support for the president’s zero tolerance policy against immigrants.
Waters’ statement says she received an increased number of hate calls and death threats after President Donald Trump attacked her on Twitter Monday and in a series of other comments.
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!
“As the president has continued to lie and falsely claim that I encouraged people to assault his supporters, while also offering a veiled threat that I should ‘be careful,’ even more individuals are leaving [threatening] messages and sending hostile mail to my office,” Waters said.
“There was one very serious death threat made against me on Monday from an individual in Texas which is why my planned speaking engagements in Texas and Alabama were canceled this weekend … individuals threatened to shoot, lynch, or cause me serious bodily harm,” she added.
Waters’ speech at a rally last Saturday in Los Angeles and later on MSNBC set off a furious debate about civility in politics, with some of Waters’ colleagues in the Democratic Party criticizing her too. Her supporters say that Trump himself has set a basement standard for civility and that policies such as separating immigrant children from their parents are monstrous and should be denounced.
Waters issued her call for protesters to confront members of the Trump administration on the street and at businesses, after White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to leave a Virginia restaurant last Friday.
Restaurant owner Stephanie Wilkinson told The Washington Post that she’d explained to Sanders that her business has “certain standards” to uphold, “such as honesty and compassion.” Last Tuesday, protesters hounded Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen out of a Mexican restaurant in Washington.
Trump accused Waters of threatening harm to people. The congresswoman said Monday that she believes in “very peaceful” protests and never called for violence or harm against anyone. Story originated here()
This is what’s happening in Lancaster county Pennsylvania, while in Maryland a white mass shooter killed five people yesterday and was taken into custody without a shot fired. He was not assaulted or tased, they simply took him into custody without incident.
Please call the Lancaster Police Department in Pennsylvania & ask them if this is how they treat unarmed & non-violent black men who are complying. The number is: (717) 735‑3300.pic.twitter.com/dtGelcgxvh
The FBI has long warned that police departments all across America are being infiltrated by neo-nazis and white supremacists. As far as we know nothing has been done about it. In fact, it appears that prosecutors and the courts have gone out of their way to both avoid charging these murderous fascists for the crimes they commit, or convict them on the rare occasion that they have murdered maimed and seriously assaulted people of color.
Despite these warnings, the FBI itself has gone out of its way to report on a fictitious strawman which exists only in their minds. “Black identity extremists” a term coined by the FBI to legitimize law-enforcement attack on Black people whom it says are likely to attack law enforcement officers.
Not only is there no such group, all attacks against police are by white shooters. All of the mass shootings being carried out in schools and other workplaces across the country are being done by white terrorists not people of color. This kind of escalation, in order to abuse citizens through the use of unwarranted force. It is a direct result of what Donald Trump told them to do.
NYPD murderous cop Daniel Pantaleo
This is not happening in the abstract, it is happening right here in New York State. Eric Garner was baited and harassed simply for selling loose cigarettes before he was murdered by NYPD cop Daniel Pantaleo on Staten Island. The then district Attorney destroyed the case by having a corrupt and fraudulent grand jury decide that the murderous Pantaleo would face no charges despite what we all saw with our own eyes, murder in real time. The district Attorney Dan Donovan is now a member of Congress, Pantaleo has not faced justice and Eric Garner is still dead.
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Both the Democratic and Republican parties have wedge issues in which they believe, On which they campaign and generally govern. For the Republicans, it was[is] small government. Gun ownership. States Rights. Against abortion. Strong military and religion, to name a few. Except that Republicans are only fiscally conservative when there is a Democrat in the white house.
