Speaking to a colleague this morning who asked if I was tired of writing about racial ‘strife.’ The answer was—no—I am tired of living it. In less than two weeks a white Ohio police chief thought it was a joke to leave a KKK reference on the desk of one...
Mississippi
Ikaria Washington and Layla Temple did what they were asked to do. Following the rules, taking difficult classes made them valedictorian and salutatorian. There was great coverage by Ali Velshi. Valedictorian and Salutatorian award fraud See full episodes here. Mississippi’s West Point High School denied them the sole winners of the...
The addition of the 1982 amendments to the Voting Rights Act was a turning point in terms of minority representation. Redistricting is the process of drawing electoral district lines every ten years intended to bring about racially proportional representation. While its purpose was to give weight to minority votes, it...
The US and the world continue with efforts to contain Covid. While the rate of vaccinations in the US has been slowing, the CDC reports that 60.2% of US adults have received at least one dose as of yesterday. About 47.9% of all Americans have taken at least one shot...
Delusional previous guy thinks he’s still POTUS. And in Arizona the cyber-ninjas are looking for traces of bamboo in the ballots. Also, Trump got caught trying to sneak back into Twitter. “Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid...
President Joe Biden set a new goal of having 70% of adult American vaccinated for Covid (with at least one dose) by the Fourth of July. About 56.4% of adults in the US were vaccinated with a dose as of yesterday. The pace of vaccinations has slowed dramatically with only...
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...
Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) was born in the heart of the old Democratic south. He is a devout southerner, born in Mississippi, and attended college at both the University of Virginia and Vanderbilt in Tennessee. At age sixty-nine, I believe it is safe to say that the one-time southern Democrat,...
I watched the celebration of former police officer Derek Michael Chauvin’s conviction of three various counts of murder yesterday, and my feelings were mixed. No, no, I felt no sorrow for the man who not only took George Floyd’s life away but broke the hearts of countless Americans, both black...
President Joe Biden announced today that every state has removed age eligibility for Covid-19 vaccinations so anyone 16 or over can received a Pfizer/BioNtech shot and anyone18 or over can receive a dose of Moderna’s vaccine. Biden’s goal of 200 million vaccinations in his first 100 days should be reached this Wednesday, eight days...
Previous guy colluded with Russia, led a Capitol insurrection, and is not rotting in a prison cell. But if it happens, could there be enough secessionist nut-logs ready and willing to bust him out. “I think this blending of the far-right militia movement with overt secessionism is something I think we’re...
With vaccination rates averaging 3.2 million per day, this should be the week when one half of all US adults will have been injected with at least one vaccine dose for Covid-19. http://www.wsfa.com/… Just over 120.4 million Americans have received at least one jab, according to the CDC’s report for...
The Center for Disease Control reports that 4.6 million injections were added to the US vaccination total on Friday. About 35.3% of all Americans have now received at least one dose of vaccine. The percentage of US adults who have received at least one shot is 45.1%, and the percentage for seniors is 78.1%....
Neofeudalism redux: more playing into the hands of the Russian support for syncretic RW groups in the US. For the US, it is an act of violence and the GQP is fomenting it at the state level for a Trumpist constituency. Imagine that moment when they rationalize secession to keep the...
There are a lot of people I’d like to keep home on Election Day—about 74 million, by last count. But they have every right to tick a sad little box for a bloviating mound of venal earwax, no matter what I think about it. I’ve also known my share of ignorant college...
There has been some slowing of vaccinations for Covid in the last couple of days but that is typical in reports for Sundays, Mondays, and holidays. The CDC reports 32.6% of US residents had received at least one dose as of Monday. Among the adult population, 41.7% have had at...
As you listen to this, remember that Southern slave owners used the Bible to defend slavery for generations. Also, NASCAR races are often held on Sundays. And Cracker Barrels are packed stem to stern on the Lord’s holy day. And the Creation Museum? Yup, open on Sundays. But Black people voting?...
More than 110 million Covid-19 vaccinations have taken place in the United States, of which about 90 million happened after Joe Biden took office. The 100 million vaccination pledge will be reached about March 20. Alaska and Mississippi are the first two states to widen eligibility to all adult residents. But...
More than 110 million Covid-19 vaccinations have taken place in the United States, of which about 90 million happened after Joe Biden took office. The 100 million vaccination pledge will be reached about March 20. Alaska and Mississippi are the first two states to widen eligibility to all adult residents. But...
Ok, this is Sunday and I try to stay away from political posts on Sunday. Something happened yesterday and took me back 30 years and I smiled. My car had just stopped and would not crank at the drive through at CVS. I called my husband to come down and jump...
Back on March 2, President Joe Biden implored the states of Mississippi and Texas not to jump the gun by lifting their mask mandates. “I hope everyone's realized by now these masks make a difference,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office. “The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking...
Yeah, this was easy enough to predict. Part of voting against a COVID relief measure that polls better than dolphins riding glitter-farting unicorns on enchanted rainbow highways to free breadsticks and blowhole-waxing night at Olive Garden is that you’re morally obligated to sit back and take your lumps. But as we well...
I watched Jake Tapper yesterday repeatedly try, and fail, to get the Mississippi Governor to say plainly that Joe Biden was legitimately elected president. We all see this same variations over and over – “Joe Biden is the president. He was elected president by a majority of the electors.” Tapper (or...
Apparently Marsha Blackburn has a lot of personal knowledge of the lives of Neanderthals, even if they are extinct. Republicans are split on whether Neanderthal is an insult or a compliment. American nationalism does seem to have a branding problem as Texas and Mississippi end mask requirements because something, something… patriotism. Psaki...
Likely there will some stunt somewhere today, perhaps not in DC. Hopefully there will be no casualties, but nothing will match the easing of mask mandates in Texas and Mississippi. Perhaps there’s a numerological formula for predicting the next stupid QAnon event. x Anti-Trump Republicans are facing punishment back home. But...
Because Trumpists are all about the cosplay: Person Woman Man Camera TV. Aren’t we in an age where US Senators pretend to be patriots while supporting an election nullification, and there’s all those 2020 instances of voter fraud, not. No evidence for the widespread right-wing lie that Antifa members disguised...
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...
Now this is what I like to see. A comeuppance. Of sorts. Donald Trump is reportedly concerned that his enemies—raise your hand if you’re among them—will be “suing me for the rest of my life.” Hmm, let’s see. Dude is 74. He needed some special magic fairy dust hardly anyone else...
Rush Limbaugh was more of a conservative index and perhaps a reactionary icon. He claimed whenever cornered with a political lie that he was an entertainer rather than any credible media source. “Rush Rooms” everywhere should be festooned with black crepe. x This is a metaphor for Trump’s presidency. Everything...
Efforts to increase vaccinations for Covid-19 involve finding and reallocation doses that are not being used, removing bottlenecks in manufacturing, testing the efficacy of mixing and matching different types of vaccines, and improving the reporting of daily vaccinations. The two approved vaccinations from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna are now averaging about...
The best explanation of short selling (as it applies to GameStop) that I've read pic.twitter.com/o9ZL5HqsKf — John M. Cunningham (@jmcunning) January 28, 2021 1/2Short selling means borrowing shares and immediately selling them. When the price goes down, they buy them back for cents and return them to the lender. This...
On the day when Republicans lost control of the US Senate, Mitch McConnell is being warned that he could be voted out as Republican leader if he votes to convict former President Trump during the impeachment trial. Republicans who know McConnell well believe he will take the temperature of the Senate...
No doubt there are Trump pardons, but the cluster falls close to the _____. Apparently Trump has been advised that the optics of guilt are greater exposure to his soon to be mounting legal woes. This includes even the Trumpian small insults, a hastily assembled 1776 position paper to prescribe...
This continues the diary of two days ago. Nostalgia is a coping mechanism at the place known for its association with William Faulkner. Oxford Mississippi is a place where the nostalgia for a lost cause remains a kind of delusion. When injuries are imagined and retribution seems easy, this happens where...
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...
One of the weapons of a warming climate is changing rainfall patterns. Atmospheric changes and changes in the Jet Stream are causing more hurricanes to stall. These phenomena were seen with Hurricanes Wilma in Cozumel, Harvey in Houston, and Dorian in the Bahamas dropped feet of rain. It is the...
“In order to flip the election, Trump would need 37 Biden electors to flip their vote. There have been 16 total since 1900. Being a faithless elector is now illegal in 33 states.” x Stephen Miller on Fox & Friends says “an alternative” group of electors is also voting today: “As...
Lack of standing is the reason for SCOTUS dismissing the Ken Paxton suit to overturn the votes of four states. Meritless frivolity remains. x #BREAKING: #SCOTUS throws out Texas's suit attempting to challenge presidential election results in four battleground states, granting Texas leave to file its complaint but summarily dismissing its...