[Poor white men] “ate Jim Crow, a psychological bird that told him that no matter how bad off he was, at least he was a white man, better than the black man. And he ate Jim Crow.” ~Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King wanted the crowd to understand...
Civil Rights
Sidney Poitier was a dual citizen of the Bahamas and the United States, born in Miami when his parents were in Florida. He has shown brightly in my life since 1966. The Bahamas’ national flower is the Tecoma stans, commonly called the Yellow Elder. It is bright yellow with a...
“I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office,...
The tens of tens who showed up in Washington, DC Saturday had a face, former Trump staffer Matt Braynard. Braynard, who presents himself as one of the many “voter fraud experts,” investigating the presidential election, was front and center Saturday afternoon in the Justice for J6 huddle. Braynard, who once...
If you were old enough and curious enough, most of us can remember where we were when tragedy struck. Historically sad events have a way of freezing that point in time like it is suspended in dry ice; only thawed by the heat of another heartbreak. Again, if you are...
The 2019 arrest outside Monroe, Louisiana, is the subject of a federal civil rights investigation. Louisiana state troopers were captured on body camera video stunning, punching and dragging a Black man as he apologized for leading them on a high-speed chase — footage of the man’s last moments alive that...
Likely Trump will continue to be banned from Facebook, but just in case, it is worth speculating what would happen if he returns. His general laying-low these days is probably in hopes of getting a reprieve. Facebook’s oversight board will announce its ruling on whether former President Donald Trump’s account should...
Likely Trump will continue to be banned from Facebook, but just in case, it is worth speculating what would happen if he returns. His general laying-low these days is probably in hopes of getting a reprieve. Facebook’s oversight board will announce its ruling on whether former President Donald Trump’s account should...
A little over a year ago, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham postured that helping out hungry Americans would make them lazy. “Very few people would choose work over unemployment benefits that provided moderately more money,” said Graham. Not only was this an attack on those in need but their work ethic...
Statistically, the state with the highest black population by percentage in America is Mississippi; or is it? I came of age in Washington, D.C. in the 1970s and at the time D.C. had a predominantly black population, as it does now. The number of black residents has dwindled significantly. At...
A new book suggests now the necessity of reexamining the historical materialist project of Walter Benjamin recognizing those moments of historical contact as acts of recognizing the constructed historical object. “Historicism tends to be hermeneutic because it values cautious, rigorous, and contextualized interpretation of information; or relativist, because it rejects notions of universal, fundamental...
“Today, a jury did the right thing. But true justice requires much more.“ x Opinion | Caught on camera Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is found guilty of all three counts of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd.https://t.co/Wi66rRx6iO pic.twitter.com/alUPrS7W4u— Ann Telnaes (@AnnTelnaes) April 20, 2021 The...
It is exceedingly disturbing that media outlets are playing the game of ‘Where’s QAnon,’ searching to unravel the GOP’s puzzle of voter restrictions. The use of voter suppression and the excusing of insurrectionists by Republican lawmakers have made the GOP a group of Q-watchers. Despite the circumlocutive excuses made by...
LIVE Q&A | BEGINS 2:30 PM EDT APRIL 5, 2021 As the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community continues to grapple with violence, many are searching for ways to prevent further harm toward Asians. Join Wall Street Journal reporter Ang Li in conversation with John C. Yang, president and executive director...
Q&A | APRIL 5, 2021 As the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community continues to grapple with violence, many are searching for ways to prevent further harm toward Asians. Join Wall Street Journal reporter Ang Li in conversation with John C. Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice,...
Hank Aaron was a giant of a man, not just a legendary baseball player. Not only did he break Babe Ruth’s “unbreakable” home run record, he was also a civil rights hero who never missed a chance to fight for equality. Eventually his efforts led to a Presidential Medal of Freedom...
Is US progressive politics, especially in cultural issues, incapable of attracting majority support. Not so much in terms of the usual self-fulfilling marginalization, but there are absolute limits to the mutability of moderate ideologies in order to build working majorities. In these conditions, it seems almost certain that tit-for-tat will...
Black Girl Magic has become the nouveau riche way modern society describes the accomplishments of the current crop of black women and girls, but have existed throughout history. What could be more magic than the lonely trips as a conductor on the Underground Railroad rescuing enslaved Africans led by Harriet Tubman;...
In September of 2013, Republicans attempted to curtail full funding of the Affordable Care Act but their efforts came to an absurd end. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) spent just over 21-hours regaling the public with a tale penned by Dr. Seuss, the wisdom of Ashton Kutcher, and the World Wrestling...
Steve Bannon’s path to a pardon included appeals to a range of RWNJ groups including some dangerous proto-fascist cults. “The Fourth Turning” by Strauss & Howe returns to our attention, because of Bannon. But are we shifting to a more liberal era or are we on the brink of a greater series of disasters....
“The universe has been to them.” (Resident Alien) Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share a virtual kitchen table with other readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by to talk about music, your weather, your garden, or what...
Oprah Winfrey’s query of the exiled Royals was a superfluous gesture to most black Americans. That was until she brought up the subject of the baby royal, Archie. By exposing what most black men and women around the world know, that racism exists from the commoners to literal Kings and...
Plenty of dimwittedness to share as Trump demands via a cease and desist order that the GOP not use his likeness or name unless they pay for it. Also, Trump threatens to negative campaign against Lisa Murkowski in yet another empty threat. And finally Trump returns to NYC, the reasons for...
From Rolling Stone: The Covid relief package is providing a platform for a historic Senate newcomer to deliver for a long-struggling constituency: black farmers. Led by Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, Senate Democrats are touting a $5 billion provision in the relief bill that will wipe out federal debts...
“There is nothing about equality in that act! If anything, it’s, the, uh, it’s supremacy of gays, lesbians, and transvestites. This is what this is about, it’s about putting them higher than anyone else!” Lauren Boebert Trumpanzee Representative Lauren Boebert (QAnon CO) does what she does best while speaking with disgraced traitor...
Darn those class commitments, aligning us to our political choices in a democracy, made worse by all those folks who knew they were in that Gilded Age. “If the future of the Democratic Party is in the rich suburbs, the future of American politics is another long Gilded Age.” Matt...
If you listen to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and conservative media silos, like Fox News, black Capitol police officer Harry Dunn, who was called the N-word a “couple dozen times” by Confederate flag-waving insurrectionists, is crazy to believe the ‘hoax’ that white supremacy exists. The supremacy deniers would also have...
Received this e-mail from MoveOn.org: Dear MoveOn member, This is a make-it-or-break-it week for Democrats, who are poised to start voting on President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, including an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 an hour.1 All 50 senators in the Democratic caucus are needed to...
Big news today out of Pennsylvania: x After 10 years in the State House, I’ve taken the lessons that my parents taught me & reinforced them in my work as a legislator: to take responsibility, commit to service, be courageous, & push for fairness. I’m ready to take these values...
From the Human Rights Campaign, “Biden’s Executive Order is the most substantive, wide-ranging executive order concerning sexual orientation and gender identity ever issued by a United States president. Today, millions of Americans can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that their President and their government believe discrimination based on sexual...
Please practice greater situational awareness from January 17 to January 20. We all trust that those whose jobs it is to keep the nation safe are doing that effectively despite the numbers of law enforcement officials participating in violent anti-government demonstrations. x Police departments across the United States are opening probes...
Almost immediately after the siege on the Capitol ended, people started both-sidesing the event. You know, liberals didn’t care about the violence and property destruction that arose in the wake of the racial justice protests over the summer (erm, false), so why do we care about this? In other words, the...
It’s not the Bastille. Trump did incite a riotous mob to disrupt the legislative branch. People died. Trump got excited about the chaos he’d caused. The last day of Trumpstock. x White House officials were shaken by Trump's reaction to a mob of his supporters descending on the Capitol today....
As with most faculty politics, there is a subtext to the story of a professor fired for specious reasons. Garrett Felber was fired for failing to “communicate face-to-face” with his department chair at University of MIssissippi, even as he was outspoken about a variety of university actions after the selection of...
Received this e-mail today from U.S. Senator-Elect John Hickenlooper (D. CO) in support of Jon Ossoff (D. GA) and Rev. Raphael Warnock’s (D. GA) U.S. Senate campaigns: Rev. Raphael Warnock (D. GA) & Jon Ossoff (D. GA) We can’t forget, folks — the Senate majority is still up for grabs!...
This is a view from abroad as I have been an expat since the middle of the second term of W.J. Clinton. I am not a Democrat, I am middle of the road European Left and Bernie still makes sense to me. The Republicans have been sprinting to the right...
The post-presidential Trumpian revisionist history continues because the grift continues, portending an attempt to attach itself to other pseudo-grievances that have persisted because of cultural and regional divisions. Trump will fundraise off a 2024 reelection myth the instant he concedes(sic), with the goal of establishing some permanent media presence. Check-out this...
Lemmings, with the Secret Service locked and loaded. Was this also a protest of DC gyms’ occupancy limits? x This loser parade must’ve left their self respect at home. https://t.co/ztC8SLOMUC— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) November 14, 2020 x MOMENTS AGO: Trump supporters rush to see the president's motorcade driving by. pic.twitter.com/h0brs4gfC0...
There is a critical reality beyond the waiting for the “next two weeks” in which Trump has promised multiple times over the four years a plan for health care and a plan to combat COVID-19. The pandemic crisis has given us some real relations from which we can gain some insights...
Some good news today out for South Carolina courtesy of Data For Progress: x #SCsen:Harrison (D) 47% (+1)Graham (R-inc) 46%@DataProgress/@IndivisibleTeam (D) LV, 10/8-11https://t.co/TEi0L5YL4G— Political Polls (@Politics_Polls) October 14, 2020 In South Carolina, Democrat Jaime Harrison, the former chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, is going up against incumbent Republican...
Some of you may disagree, but the idea that the United States Constitution is not a living, breathing document is absurd. Were it not imbued with the capacity for expanding its judicial lungs, America would have suffocated on the choking fluids of its’ past injustices. If the Constitution were not breathing,...
I have written two posts about suggested questions for Nominee Barrett — here and here. But watching a good deal of today’s confirmation hearing, and listening to her dodge way too many questions, I realize I should also have set out some suggested questions to highlight how thin are her qualifications...