Skip navigation

Tag Archives: current-events

The Senate’s Lone Black GOP Senator Gives Deeply Personal Floor Speech on Race


By BRIAN MCBRIDE 35 minutes ago Good Morning America
.
Senate’s Lone Black GOP Senator Gives Deeply Personal Floor Speech on Race (ABC News)
Sen. Tim Scott, the U.S. Senate’s lone African-American Republican, delivered a candid and emotional floor speech on his own personal encounters with police racial profiling.
“I have felt the anger, the frustration, the sadness and the humiliation that comes with feeling like you’re being targeted for nothing more than just being yourself,” Scott said to members of the upper chamber.
Even as an elected official, Scott recalled being stopped by law enforcement seven times in one year.
“Was I speeding sometimes? Sure,” said Scott. “But the vast majority of the time, I was pulled over for nothing more than driving a new car in the wrong neighborhood or some other reason just as trivial.”
“I do not know many African-American men who do not have a very similar story to tell — no matter their profession, no matter their income, no matter their disposition in life,” he later added.
Scott went on to mention several other incidents, including a Capitol police officer demanding to see his identification, and being denied entry to an event he was scheduled to attend while serving in the House of Representatives.
“I recall walking into an office building just last year after being here for five years on the Capitol. And the officer looked at me with a little attitude and said, ‘The pin I know, you I don’t, show me your ID,'” the Senator said. “I was thinking to myself either he thinks I’m committing a crime, impersonating a member of Congress, or what? Well, I’ll tell you that later that evening, I received a phone call from his supervisor apologizing for the behavior.”
Scott said it was the third phone call he’d received from a supervisor or police chief since being in the Senate.
“This is a situation that happens all across the country whether we want to recognize it or not. It may not happen a thousand times a day, but it happens too many times a day.”
Scott implored his colleagues at the end of his speech to “recognize that just because you do not feel the pain, the anguish of another, does not mean it does not exist.”
“To ignore their struggles, our struggles, does not make them disappear, it simply leaves you blind and the American family very vulnerable.”
His deeply personal comments come as the nation grapples with widening mistrust between law enforcement and communities of color following the recent killings of two black men by police caught on camera in Louisiana and Minnesota. It also follows an incident in Dallas where a gunman opened fire on police during a peaceful protest, killing five officers and wounding nine others.
Scott’s remarks Wednesday came in one of three floor speeches he is delivering about policing and race in America. Ali Weinberg contributed to this report.

Please Donate

Please Donate

Inaction on Zika funding likely to delay vaccine testing


Our Congress again doesn’t consider our health worth spending any time on

July 12, 2016
<img alt=”” class=”StretchedBox W(100%) H(100%) ie-7_H(a)” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/HNkIG.cfZuPIlWebdk7xkQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9NzUzO2g9NDg0/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/b3117adacdff44519bde4ad11afa71fe.jpg”/>

View photos

House Republicans rush to a closed-door GOP caucus with House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 12, 2016.Congress is expected to exit Washington for a months-long recess with no action on gun control, despite mass shootings in recent weeks and uproar from Democrats who have pushed for new legislation. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Tuesday cautioned top lawmakers that continued gridlock over legislation to combat the Zika virus could delay research and development of a vaccine to protect against Zika and tests to detect it.

The warning came in a letter from White House budget chief Shaun Donovan and Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and says that failure by Congress to pass anti-Zika funds before exiting Washington for its extended summer recess would “significantly impede the administration’s ability to prepare for and respond” to the Zika threat this summer and beyond.

The delay in funding vaccine development is perhaps the most damaging result of a divided Washington’s inability to agree on an anti-Zika funding bill five months after President Barack Obama’s request.

“It’s going to take that much longer to prove that the vaccine works,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, who says testing next January on a promising vaccine faces delays. “If it takes that much longer to prove that it works then you take that much longer to get it out to the people who need it.”

The impasse on Zika shows no signs of softening, even though taking a seven-week vacation without addressing the problem could be politically perilous for both Republicans controlling Congress and Democrats blocking Republicans’ $1.1 billion take-it-or-leave-it measure to battle the virus.

Democrats last month filibustered a GOP-drafted Zika measure, largely over provisions in the bill to block Planned Parenthood from receiving money. A revote is expected to produce the same result this week, but Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has rejected efforts to reopen the measure, which faces a veto threat from the White House.

Obama requested $1.9 billion in February to battle Zika, but Congress has moved slowly in response. The Senate passed a bipartisan $1.1 billion measure in May while the House adopted a smaller, more partisan measure. The House-Senate compromise, worked out by top GOP leaders last month in talks that froze out Democrats, was blocked by Senate Democrats two weeks ago on a mostly party-line filibuster vote.

A Senate Democratic aide said Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., Monday night broached a compromise with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to separate the Zika issue from a veterans funding bill, strip away the Planned Parenthood-related provision and dump a provision that would ease rules on pesticide spraying.

In exchange, Democrats would have accepted a modest package of spending cuts to help defray the cost of the measure.

McConnell, however, dismissed the offer, refusing to disavow the House GOP position on denying new money to Planned Parenthood and saying it is too late and too cumbersome to try to advance a new compromise measure in the days remaining before the recess. He said House Republicans would reject such a measure anyway in an apparent reference to the controversy over Planned Parenthood.

“This is a crisis,” McConnell said Tuesday. “Our friends across the aisle will have to decide if they feel the same or if a partisan political group is worth delaying funding to protect families from Zika.”

As issue is $95 million in social services grants for help Puerto Rico deal with its Zika epidemic. The GOP measure doesn’t explicitly mention Planned Parenthood — which is loathed by anti-abortion Republicans — but makes sure the organization’s Puerto Rico affiliates are ineligible for funding to provide contraception and Zika-related health care. That caused an uproar among Democrats, though the practical impact of the ban would be limited.

“Republicans have no desire to work with us to get a bipartisan Zika funding bill to the president — now, or any time in the future. It’s all been a charade,” Reid said. “Republicans are interested in one thing only: attacking Planned Parenthood.”

An infection by the Zika virus can cause grave birth defects. Among the other consequences of the impasse on Zika, the administration says, is a slowdown in government-funded research to develop a fuller understanding of Zika’s effects on pregnant women and their unborn children.

Meanwhile, Republicans said that because the administration has been slow to disburse almost $600 million in already available anti-Zika funds, the failure of Congress to act before recessing until after Labor Day won’t have major effects.

“At this moment they still have money, but it won’t last forever,” said Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who chairs a panel with budgeting jurisdiction over health programs, including research at the National institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We getting to the point where both the CDC and the NIH are actually running out of money, and we have important work to do,” Fauci said.

Please Donate

Please Donate

Quantum Hops


Reading so much  of the latest information on Race, privilege and the actions of law enforcement in recent times, I was prompted to look at some other events from just after civil war (this look back came after a history show about the West). 2 Presidents after Lincoln were complicit in what is occurring now due to the destruction and reconstruction of the South. The Southern leaders at that time wanted control of their own destinies without the restrictions of Reconstruction, the Native Americans became a “problem” when they resisted the forced settlement of their Native lands by the government ( coincidental creation of the Custer massacre even though Custer’s Hubris was partially to blame). These events brought us through those (approx. 1875-1975) times and up to now. Between then and now the 2 most put upon groups were African Americans and native Americans. All of these things collectively set the stage for the dismissal of the rights of non white Americans in hiring, education to name the 2 most prevalent forms of discrimination. Bear in mind that most Americans had no personal hand in this aside acting (or reacting) to the fictionalized information available at the time,  As a “modern” country we have yet to get over the “Racial” hump that would bring us close to where our neighbor to the North is. It is true that worst things we have done to our selves is ignore what our lawmakers have done  and continue to do (in our names without our consent). This hijacked consent is exactly what happened 100 years ago and continues even now. Where we need to be at this time is smart enough to read between the lines on anything our elected officials say because no matter what we are their bosses and the vote is how we control them. The party type politics is one of our worst nightmares and we as voters need to jump ship when necessary  as what the parties say and what  they do is often poles apart. One of things we have fallen prey to in politics is the one issue style of voting-get over the single issue vote, there is more to every issue and we owe it to ourselves to investigate. One well heard example is the 2nd Amendment; this is by far a very over used item that does not fill the bill in modern times but big money has beat us over the head with it until we believe it applies so we accept it at face value. Simply put this amendment meant more when there was more wilderness and threats from abroad.

Please Donate

Please Donate

Second Amendment Updated?


New (tongue in cheek) Look at The second Amendment which almost no one quotes or reads correctly

Andy McDonald Comedy Writer / Editor, The Huffington Post

Now that news of King George III’s defeat has finally reached you, it’s time to update our U.S. Constitution to reflect our modern world. Let’s start with what is literally the most dangerous amendment: the Second Amendment, the right to “bear arms.”
It’s outdated. When was the last time you said, “Do you even bear weight, bro?” or “Here, bear my beer while I go pee”?
So, after a few hundred years, it’s time for an update. If we had waited this long for a new iPhone, people would have used their own children to beat down the doors of Apple’s headquarters.

A well regulated militia (should probably get around to actually regulating, since we no longer live in a lawless land filled with marauders and bears and marauding bears) being necessary to the security of a free state (OK, not as necessary in present day sans marauding bears) the right of the people to keep and bear arms (bet if we had taken the bears’ arms they wouldn’t have been so much trouble), shall not be infringed. – 2nd Amendment, ratified in 1791, when bears terrorized the land.

Please Donate

Please Donate

Black Enough?


Many people of color have criticized President Obama for not addressing Black issues directly and being more pro black. Thinking about the current Congress, there is no way the President could spend much if any capital on specifically Black issues. Coming into office with an ongoing war and unrest in the rest of the world while some world leaders essentially took a wait and see attitude towards him. Looking at reality not much of his strategy to improve America as a whole came true due to a multitude of reasons or causes if you will. We have an overall innate bias in America which was fueled by many of our elected leaders(?) who rather than do their jobs (legislate for us to makes our lives better instead of feathering their own nests). There are several if not many other barriers to his completion of his agenda that cannot be covered here but to address the Color issue: this is one if not the first President who has made a specific attempt to preside over the entire United States of America which includes all of us no matter ethnicity, religion or race. Remembering that being even-handed in this situation carries great risk because many still cannot get beyond race and other stuff to understand what the real issues are that face ALL of us. Now the spotlight is on seemingly Racially motivated shooting of unarmed citizens and the murder of several law enforcement officers by a mentally unhinged individual. We find our selves in a time when information moves quickly and is often incomplete and by time the real facts are known the wrong information is seen as truth and unchangeable. We can ask a question about being black enough or too black from now on and still not understand or accept our role in government. Our role as voters is to provide for our selves the best government we can by properly vetting the candidates who purport be the best choice for the job. We have become so obsessed with debates as to lose site of what counts in a candidate. The major political parties have used buzz words , sound bites and slogans to sway our allegiance while delivering nothing in return for that allegiance. Until we (all) demand and get good candidates for representation we will have what we have now a media circus with clowns as the main event.

Please Donate

Please Donate

NRA Revolt-At Last?


There are 2 parts to this post, first part is generic statement by Top man at the NRA and second part from the rank and file. First part highlighted in yellow.

VICE PRESIDENT & CEO WAYNE LAPIERRE

(FAIRFAX, VA) – The following statement was issued this morning by Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President and CEO of the National Rifle Association of America.

“On behalf of the more than five million members of the National Rifle Association, and especially on behalf of our members from the law enforcement community, I want to express the deep anguish all of us feel for the heroic Dallas law enforcement officers who were killed and wounded, as well as to those who so bravely ran toward danger to defend the city and the people of Dallas.

With heavy hearts, NRA members honor their heroism and offer our deepest condolences to all of their families.”

The NRA’s internal revolt over Philando Castile
2 / 27
The Washington Post
Brian Fung 15 hrs. ago
© Eric Miller/Reuters

Diamond Reynolds weeps after she recounts the incidents that led to the fatal shooting of her boyfriend, Philando Castile, by Minneapolis area police during a traffic stop on July 6 at a “Black Lives Matter” demonstration…
After a fatal shooting in Minnesota, it wasn’t just gun control advocates criticizing the National Rifle Association.
Some blowback, surprisingly, was coming from within the organization.
People claiming to be lifelong members of the NRA challenged the group’s stance on gun rights after the organization appeared to drag its feet in addressing the police-involved shooting in Falcon Heights, Minn., of Philando Castile, a law-abiding gun owner, which had already garnered national attention.
The organization released a statement on the shooting following the attack in Dallas that left five officers dead. Although the NRA obliquely referenced Castile’s death by referring to “reports from Minnesota,” it neither named Castile directly nor took a position on the matter.
“It is important for the NRA not to comment while the investigation is ongoing,” the organization said. “Rest assured, the NRA will have more to say once all the facts are known.”
From the organization’s Facebook page:
“As the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights organization, the NRA proudly supports the right of law-abiding Americans to carry firearms for defense of themselves and others regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation.
“The reports from Minnesota are troubling and must be thoroughly investigated. In the meantime, it is important for the NRA not to comment while the investigation is ongoing.
“Rest assured, the NRA will have more to say once all the facts are known.”
The NRA statement does not mention the officers killed in the line of duty, emphasizing instead the “right of law-abiding Americans to carry firearms for defense of themselves and others.”
In tone, the NRA’s approach bore a close resemblance to its statement in the wake of last month’s mass shooting in Orlando. Two days after the massacre, a lobbyist for the gun rights group wrote an op-ed in USA Today going on the offensive against stricter firearms regulation.
“Destroy radical Islam, not the right of law-abiding Americans to protect themselves,” wrote Chris Cox, the executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action.
Cox’s broadside against greater restrictions was viewed as tone-deaf by many gun-control advocates, while gun proponents lined up on the other side.
This time, however, the NRA faces an internal division as its members argue that the group did not do enough to defend gun owners’ rights by speaking out on behalf of Castile.
Castile had a valid permit to carry a gun. He also reportedly informed the officer who shot him that he was armed, in an attempt to head off a misunderstanding.
Still, Castile was killed by police — prompting outrage among some Americans that following the rules was not enough to save Castile from a violent death.
The delay in addressing Castile’s death, as well as the promptness with which the NRA spoke out after the Dallas shooting, has prompted complaints of a double standard in the way the organization defends gun owners.
“Your lack of message concerning the Castile case disappoints me and makes me question my membership,” wrote one user, Marco Gallologic, on the NRA’s Facebook page. “…What do I pay fees for if you do not represent gun owners and our rights?”
“Your silence is causing NRA members such as myself to question/wonder what exactly you do and don’t stand for,” another user, Bruce Johnston, wrote.
© Provided by WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post
That sentiment was reflected across social media this week, with members and non-members alike demanding that the NRA voice its support for Castile.

Dallas Shooting


Sportscaster Dale Hansen: Dallas shooting was an ‘attack on our basic humanity’

Michael Walsh

Reporter
July 9, 2016

 

 

Texas sports anchor Dale Hansen gave a blistering speech about the state of violence in the United States as the nation mourns the loss of five cops who were killed in an ambush Thursday night.

The WFAA sportscaster told his viewers that he was almost embarrassed that he knows the Texas Rangers lost to the Minnesota Twins 10 to 1 that night — because news of the tragedy should have drawn his attention away from the game.

“It was another shooting in America. It was in our city this time and police officers were being killed, but it was a couple of blocks away and the Rangers were being shut out. This is what I have become. This is what too many of us have been for a long time now,” he said in a segment called “Hansen Unplugged.”

Hansen said that people will fly their flags at half-mast, say the rights things and make promises they won’t keep. In the end, he said, nothing will change.

“Our lives will go on, while the lives of so many others won’t, because we expect it now and we accept it. It wasn’t this way when I was a boy, but it is life in America now,” he said.

Hansen said police officers are great people because they run into buildings we run from and look for people we hide from, but they cannot make mistakes because they have the power of God in their hands in the form of guns. For this reason, he said, we cannot and should not defend all police officers.

“A white man in America doesn’t die for selling cigarettes on a street corner, he gets a ticket,” he said. “A white man in America doesn’t die for driving with a broken tail light, he gets a ticket, too. And the officers who abuse the badge and the power they have should be punished, but too many times they are not.”

But, he said, opening fire on the city streets of Dallas does not do anything to right the wrongs that people deal with every day and that the shooter might have killed good cops in the process.

Hansen said that minority communities hate to suffer the indignity of stereotypes but that the killer did the same exact thing by shooting at any cops “because don’t we all really know, they’re all the same.”

“It was not just an attack on the Dallas police; it was an attack on our basic humanity and the common decency we used to cherish in America,” he said. “But that’s all gone now —we lost that a long time ago.”

Please Donate

Please Donate

Gowdyism


The Dupublicans are at again, the recent expenditure of 7 million dollars (our money)  on an investigation in to Hillary Clintons Emails on top of Benghazi is ridiculous. This reminds me of the McCarthy hearings which bore no fruit and cost a ton of money. The chairman of the committee (Trey Gowdy) has spent money on this in spite of having no concrete information and being told there is no criminal issue. The FBI has determined that there were issues but no legally pursuant issues. The Dupublicans are in pursuit of some kind of ban on the Scamocrats candidate having access to classified information but they are supporting a loose cannon (quite reluctantly) who will have access to sensitive material. Apparently we (America) are still in a pre civil war mindset where people of color, women, other religions and ethnicities take a backseat to traditional “white” people. These  are commonly called “haters” but unfortunately we as voters have elected so many of them to represent us (at least  some of us). If you are a Racist then that is your choice (or option) to live with. If you are the person who thinks your religion is the best, your heritage is the best or your race(?) is the best then you are more a bigot than Racist (which is a bit different). If we continue to elect people who carry these biases into an elected office, then we have failed as a free people. Our elected officials should reflect ALL Americans while leaving the personal  biases out of the process. Our laws should be as neutral as possible with an edge of humanity. The Constitution which is often quoted out of context is a living document which means it has the ability to change with the times not at the will of an interpreter’s personal views. If we as modern citizens do not pay attention to the people we elect prior to voting for them we will continue on a path of poor government. Bear in mind that News outlets are not necessarily the whole story nor are the words of elected officials, that leaves the research to the individual which is as it should be. Remember we incarcerated millions of American citizens out of fear and panic, we imported and setup former Nazis while denigrating native-born Americans.

btn_donateCC_LG

Please Donate

Division or Just Hate?


The recent murders of Police and unarmed Black men is at once atrocious and insane. Peaceful Protest has always been a way to garner attention for a cause but we have arrived at a 60’s type protest which involved looting, riots and innocent folks being killed and injured aside from the subjects of that protest. These actions play into the irresponsible actions and rhetoric of the haters in America. Many of these folks are disenfranchised but fail to understand that their energy would be better used to correct the disconnect that is fomented by the very people we elected to represent us in Congress . This may seem to be unrelated but if we follow the trend from the 50’s until now we will realize that we  as voters have blamed everything and everyone else for Government failures. The failures sit squarely on our shoulders as we do not  (or will not) look beyond the politispeak of our representatives. We have come to hang onto the long held beliefs and misconceptions of other Races and ethnicities and our elected officials have used that to gain for themselves and mouth homilies that seemingly appease us. It is OUR responsibility to wade through the half truths and lies that have been fed to us by the very people who have conned us into voting for them. These folks occupy seats from the city level up to the Federal government. I am suggesting that as voters we read more and avoid taking the opinions of the talking heads as fact. There is no lack of truth available to all of us if we just read between the lines and look at several sources before making decisions . In the words of a now deceased victim of riots” Can we  all get along?”, if we can then we can collectively elect a better class of Office holders from top to bottom.

Please Donate

Please Donate

Divided America?


There have been statements made that America is being split or was split by President Obama. If that were true then why have we had the Racial and ethnic divides before his election. What has occurred is a highlighting of an existing divide. This divide has been pointed out overtly and covertly time after time in our Congress, in the Justice system and in too many other areas to mention. In a general sense that Mr. Obama caused the divide is at once ludicrous and absurd! If you have not been paying attention , the newest divider we have is running for the Oval office, Mr Trump has consolidated the Racists of America including the ones who serve in Congress. The Dupublicans have been more divisive than any one group in that they have not made many attempts do their job which is to legislate. In lieu of work they have blocked legislation for all of the people in America because their “backers” do not want the status quo to change. Look at who they (Dupublicans, et al) are backing to be President while not reading the real issues his backers have (which are the same as many other Americans of all ethnicities and religious views). The division of America is just a rehash of the past 100 years in a different form. My opinion is that as voters we ALL need to begin the process of electing a new Congress and be prepared to do over and over until we get real legislators and not long time neer do wells.  The term “Divided America” is just another invention of the real dividers who serve(?) in our elected offices. Just as an aside: The Party that so badly wants to control the Government is the one that has brought us to this point where we have no good options for President and they just barely support their presumptive candidate. Is it possible that the backers of that party have been mislead?

Please Donate

Please Donate