And the hits just keep rolling in…

Kansas City Reporter Lisa Benson Says She Was Fired From TV Station for Sharing an Article About White Privilege

Peak Beckery: Brooklyn Woman Steals from Local Black-Owned Bakery, Then Calls Her Actions ‘Harmless’

White Kansas City Security Guard Placed on Leave After Asking Black Bartender to Make a ‘Trayvon Martini’

Restaurant Serves Drink Called ‘The Tuskegee Experiment,’ the Evilest, Most Racist Cocktail Ever

Black Teen Assaulted Over the Confederate Flag at Kid Rock Concert in Oregon

Racist White Man Allegedly Stabs Black Man to Death, Then Asks Police for a Ride Home

Why Does Violence in Chicago Attract So Much Attention, Even Though It’s Not the Murder Capital of The U.S.?

Trump Just Gave the Most Racist Compliment to a Hispanic-American Border Patrol Agent

Non-Compliant: The War Against Black Students’ Hairstyles Continues

Father of Black Teen Shot in the Back by St. Louis PD Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit

Florida High School Student Denied Lunch Because She Was 15 Cents Short

Republican Senator Michael Williams Proves Why White Supremacy Will Never Die

Sacramento Police Release Video of Cop Car Hitting Teen on Sidewalk, Knocking Him Into the Air

‘Why You Got Your Guns Pointed at Me Though?’ ‘Because You’re Not White’: Viral Traffic Stop Video Raises Debate Over Racist Comment

ICE Claims Undocumented Immigrant Arrested While Driving Pregnant Wife to Hospital Is a Murder Suspect in Mexico

The White House Fired a Speechwriter After Learning He Attended a White Nationalist Event and I’m Confused

Michigan Police Accused of Tasing Black Man While He Was Holding His 2-Month-Old Son

Previously…

Over the last few days I had to tear down and then reshelve my library in order to paint the wall behind the floor-to-ceiling books case. In the process I got to review the books and reconnect with some volumes I had forgotten I owned. One of the was a paperback from October 1972: Vote! A Record, A Dialogue, A Manifesto—Miami Beach, 1972 And Beyond by Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin and Ed Sanders (No relation to Bernie that I can ascertain).

I had just turned 17 the month before when the book was published, so I didn’t get to vote for George McGovern—although I did campaign for him in a minor way in Marietta, Ohio—but I learned a great deal from the events of that year and I’ve not missed a single opportunity to exercise my franchise in the 46 years since. That election gave us Watergate and four more years 21 more months of President Richard Milhous Nixon.

The Vote! message didn’t work in 1972. The youth vote failed its country. Ralph Nader and I don’t want to see that happen again in 2018.

Nader, in Calling for Ten Million More Voters, a Few Billionaires, and a Just Congress, writes:

About 80 days separate the people from the November 6th Congressional elections. Judging by the past midterm turnout, at least 125 million age-eligible voters will stay home. Too many people say: “Can’t be bothered;” “politicians don’t care about me;” “all politicians lie so why should I be part of that game;” “I’m not into politics;” “Nobody I like.”

Whoever finds the way to bring ten million or so of these non-voters to the polls in swing Congressional Districts will solidly control the Congress. Control of the House of Representatives by the Democratic Party stops most of Trumpism in its tracks, assuming the Democrats use their power and uphold their sworn duties in domestic and military/foreign matters under the Constitution.

Ten million non-voters becoming voters may not seem so decisive. Remember, however, that John Kerry lost to George W. Bush in 2004 by less than Continue Reading »

Monique Judge, reporting in Candace Owens Gets Dragged for Politicizing the Death of an Iowa College Student for The Root, writes:

Sam Lucas—a recent graduate of the University of Missouri who is distantly related to Tibbetts through great-grandparents—told the Washington Post that she was so outraged by the tweet from Owens, she was moved to respond to her.

“Hey I’m a member of Mollie’s family and we are not so fucking small-minded that we generalize a whole population based on some bad individuals,” Lucas wrote in response to Owens. “Now stop being a fucking snake and using my cousins death as political propaganda. Take her name out of your mouth.”

Lucas was not the only family member of Tibbetts to speak out against the politicization of her death. Billie Joe Calderwood, Tibbetts’s aunt, wrote a reminder to everyone on Facebook that “evil comes in every color.”

“Please remember, Evil comes in EVERY color,” Calderwood wrote. “Our family has been blessed to be surrounded by love, friendship and support throughout this entire ordeal by friends from all different nations and races. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you.”

My head is filled with snark right now and that is wrong.

I suspect that President James Earl Carter has written more books than the current occupant of our White House has read in his life.

(Note: The original list—79 books Barack Obama recommended during his Presidency by Jack Shepherd—contained four duplicates. I’ve deleted those here.)

1. Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life, William Finnegan

2. H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald

3. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins

4. Seveneves, Neal Stephenson

5. The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead

6. All That Is, James Salter

7. All The Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr

8. The Sixth Extinction, Elizabeth Kolbert

9. The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri

10. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates* Continue Reading »

Amanda Saab knew exactly what she was doing…

I find comment impossible at this juncture. Kevin Rawlinson and Amanda Holpuch, reporting in Trump dealt double blow as Manafort convicted on eight counts and Cohen pleads guilty for The Guardian, write:

The judge, William Pawley, asked a series of questions to establish his competence. Asked his age, Cohen said: “in four days I’ll be 52.” Asked if he had any drugs or alcohol in the last 24 hours, said yes: “last night at dinner I had a glass of Glenlivet 12 on the rocks.”

Asked if he wanted to enter a plea of guilty, Cohen said: “yes sir.”

It was explained to Cohen that, if sentenced consecutively, he faced a total of up to 65 years and that any estimate of how much time he would get from his attorney might be inaccurate. Cohen said: “No estimate was given to me your Honor.”

Cohen was asked to describe what he did with regard to each crime. On the first five counts, he said: “I evaded paying substantial taxes” on income he knew was omitted from his tax returns.

On count six, he said that, in order to get approved for a home equity line of credit, he signed an application that omitted some of his liabilities.

On count seven, the illegal corporate contribution, he said that, in the summer of 2016 – in coordination with and “at the request of” a candidate for federal office, in order “to keep an individual with information that would be harmful to the candidate and the campaign from publicly disclosing this information,” he arranged a payment through a media company of which he was the chief executive.

“She received compensation of $150,000.” This was done “for the principle purpose of influencing the election”.

On count eight – the illegal excessive campaign contribution – he said that, in coordination with the candidate, he “arranged to make a payment to a second individual with information that would be harmful to the candidate and the campaign”. He said he used a company under his control and paid $130,000. These funds “were later repaid to me by the candidate”.

This was done “for the principle purpose of influencing the election”.

Asked if he knew these actions were illegal and wrong when he took them, Cohen said: “Yes your Honor.”

As for Paul Manafort, Tom McCarthy, reporting in The rise and fall of Paul Manafort: he sold composure but operated on the edge for The Guardian writes:

Manafort, 69, the former chairman of the Donald Trump presidential campaign, kept that composure on Tuesday as he listened to a Virginia jury declare him guilty of criminal fraud charges, in a verdict that meant he could die in prison.

Now what? I still don’t think we could stomach Michael Richard Pence as president.

Bad comedy is not a farce and even President Richard Milhous Nixon is shaking his head in amazement. Ed Pilkington, writing in ‘Truth isn’t truth’: Giuliani trumps ‘alternative facts’ with new Orwellian outburst for The Guardian, explains:

When the definitive history of Donald Trump’s presidency comes to be written, many years hence, 11.02am on Sunday 19 August 2018 will surely be granted a special mention.

It was the moment when the phrase was coined that might be said to sum up the spirit of the Trump era: “Truth isn’t truth.”

Truth isn’t truth. The seismic shock of the remark was so forceful it had Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s Meet the Press, struggling to contain his giggling.

“Truth isn’t truth? Mr Mayor, do you realize… I mean, this is going to become a bad meme.”

Bad or good, the meme is born and Giuliani owns his words.

What Giuliani should gave said is this: Look, right now we have very different accounts of events from the people who were actually present. One account is true, or at least is more true than the other and the other is less true or false. Until a court rules on testimony, or one of the parties acquiesces to the other’s account, no one, other than the people present, can know what transpired.

Here is what the report cited by Oliver—Policy Brief Round 3: ‘Trade Discussion’ or ‘Trade War’? The Estimated Impacts of Tariffs on Steel and Aluminum, June 5, 2018—says:

Those positive and negative impacts would ripple through the economy, affecting workers in every sector. Briefly, we find:

•The tariffs, quotas and retaliation would reduce U.S. GDP by 0.2 percent annually, in the short term. While U.S. imports would decline, so, too, would U.S. exports.

•The tariffs, quotas and retaliation would increase the annual level of U.S. steel employment and non-ferrous metals primarily aluminum) employment by 26,280 jobs over the first one-three years, but reduce net employment by 432,747 jobs throughout the rest of the economy, for a total net loss of 400,445 jobs;

•Sixteen jobs would be lost for every steel/aluminum job gained; [Emphasis mine, JH]

•More than two thirds of the lost jobs would affect workers in production and low-skill jobs.

•Every state will experience a net loss of jobs.

Yes, throwing Ziggy Shell Dust into the pool of milk will be better.

Over the weekend I listened to my brother-in-law, whose company produces steel, talk about dumping and tariffs. Everything he said made perfect sense, foreign companies are hurting his business and—like that aluminum worker in Missouri—he wants the hurt to stop. Trade, however, is a much bigger picture. Do we really want to add 26,280 jobs at the expense of 432,747 other jobs?

I don’t think so.

The Wharton School of Business cannot be happy…

The following is Roldo Bartimole’s contribution—one of 25 such memoirs—to Plain Dealing: Cleveland Journalists Share Their Stories, edited by Dave Davis and Joan Mazzolini and soon to be released in print.

In A muckraker comes to Cleveland and founds Point Of Viəw, Roldo writes (and rights):

So many years have passed since I made my way to Cleveland in 1965 to work for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. I now wonder why I didn’t seek work at one of the many New York City newspapers since I had started reporting in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the shadow of the New York City media market.

I’m happy that I didn’t think of our biggest city as a job possibility, though in 1965 I also applied to the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Washington Post. The Post showed enough interest by writing to an unhappy former editor at the then Bridgeport Sunday Post (now Connecticut Post). I had left the Post for the Sunday Herald, considered racier and leftish, because I had been barred from writing any more articles about the city’s dangerous housing situations. I had been hitting hard. The editor ignored the Post’s inquiry, I was told by a former colleague.

As I walked up Euclid Avenue headed to the Superior Avenue offices of the Plain Dealer that spring day to be interviewed, Cleveland appeared to me to be a big city. The census data of 1960 reported a city of 750,000. It was somewhat intimidating. Euclid Avenue was busy with pedestrians.

At the time I also feared I was making a step into a situation where I would have a tough time keeping up with big city reporters. I’d be outclassed.

Now, however, I don’t believe I could have made a better choice. Continue Reading »

Clearly, Cynthia Ellen Nixon has better ideas…

And the hits just keep rolling in…

White US Citizen Arrested in Uganda After Racist Attack on Hotel Workers

White Doctor in Florida Claims Police Treated Him ‘Like a Black Person’ During His Arrest

Study Shows Black Cops Just as Likely to Kill Black Suspects as White Cops

Jersey Shore Employee Fired For Telling Black School Children They Were ‘Not Welcome Here’

Georgia Police Use Taser on 87-Year-Old Grandmother With Dementia

Too Little, Too Late: Sacramento PD Changes Foot Chase Policy After Killing of #StephonClark

2 Black Utah High School Soccer Players Subject to Racial Taunts, Slurs From Fans of Rival Team

A List of Ways to Tell If a White Person Has Personally Benefitted From America’s History of Racism

Crazy Rude Asian? Seemingly Drunk Porsche Employee Gets Fired for Running Black Folks Out of Atlanta Lounge

Parking Patrol Paula Calls Cops on Black Man Who Was Trying To Get Into His Own Car

Arizona High School Student Refused to Take Off Bandanna, So He And 3 Other Students Were Arrested Because Apparently, That Makes Sense

Previously…

When celebrities die they’re a blip on the media screen and then we move on.

When London Bridge falls, when a Queen dies, the cycle extends far beyond the single event and the consequences shake the World. She is owed the attention we reserve for heads of state and great figures in our lives.

Aretha Franklin was no celebrity; she was a queen and we are still feeling the repercussions of her death. Breanna Edwards, reporting in Aretha Franklin’s Family Planning Public Viewing at Detroit’s African American History Museum for The Root, writes:

When Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, passed away on Thursday at the age of 76, the tributes immediately started churning out. The legendary singer’s passing dominated the news cycle, social media lit up with pictures and heartfelt tributes from across the globe. In her hometown of Detroit, memorials were on display across some of the most famous buildings including the Fox Theatre, Comerica Park and Little Caesars Arena.

It is an understatement to say that she will be missed, and her family probably anticipated that when planning out her funeral and how to give fans a chance to say goodbye.

According to TMZ, sources close to the family revealed that Ms. Aretha’s public viewing and memorial will be held at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit, to allow for more attendees than your average church. The location was not only chosen for its size, but due to the fact that the Queen often visited the museum.

As of now, no date for the memorial has been set, but, according to the site, the viewing is expected to be open casket, and of course, feature lots of singing.

Aretha isn’t the only legend to lay in repose at the museum. Rosa Parks’ viewing was also held there when the civil rights icon passed in 2005.

Trevor Noah’s mother knew what music to raise her son on.

The retrospectives of her music are legion and well deserved, but she touched many other parts of our lives as well. Maiysha Kai writing in Queen of Soul and Body-Positive Icon: A Look Back at Aretha’s Franklin’s Memorable Style for The Root, touches on just one of those aspects:

The icon we knew as Aretha Franklin was a lot of things: musical prodigy, Queen of Soul, church girl, teenage mother (and possible abuse/rape survivor), Detroit native, shade-master and legendary diva. But while all of those titles may apply, there is one we often overlook: Aretha Franklin, in her own, over-the-top way, was a body-positive icon.

Hear me out on this—because chances are, we’ve both chuckled or raised eyebrows at Aretha’s fashion choices over the years. In her 76 years on this planet, our Auntie Re-Re (because she was our auntie long before our beloved Maxine Waters) showed a penchant for major fashion moments—and her tastes were never subject to age or size.

Whether wearing a size six or “none-of-your-business,” Aretha always wore what she wanted—“age-appropriate” or “size appropriate” be damned. She was a diva who not only clearly loved to play dress up, but was unequivocally aware of her own greatness; rightfully feeling deserving of the space she took up in the world—however much space that may be.

Then there are the aspects of Aretha’s life that most never knew about, like her political acts; like offering to post bail in 1970 for Angela Davis:

In 1970, Aretha Franklin offered to post bail for Angela Davis, who was jailed on trumped-up charges. Aretha Franklin told Jet magazine in 1970, “My daddy says I don’t know what I’m doing. Well, I respect him, of course, but I’m going to stick by my beliefs. Angela Davis must go free. Black people will be free. I’ve been locked up (for disturbing the peace in Detroit) and I know you got to disturb the peace when you can’t get no peace. Jail is hell to be in. I’m going to see her free if there is any justice in our courts, not because I believe in communism, but because she’s a Black woman and she wants freedom for Black people. I have the money; I got it from Black people—they’ve made me financially able to have it—and I want to use it in ways that will help our people.”

Black Lives Matter ought to make her words—I know you got to disturb the peace when you can’t get no peace—part of their credo.

[Update at 1900: Fox News Is Trash: Network Celebrates Life of Aretha Franklin With Photo of Patti Labelle

Update at 1623: The Last National Anthem.

Update at 1018: Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, Has Died at 76

I’m going to go quiet for a days…]

Known as “the queen of soul”, Franklin sold more than 75m records in her lifetime and won 18 Grammy awards. She had 77 entries in the US Billboard Hot 100 and 20 No 1 singles on the R&B chart. Her last album was A Brand New Me, released in November 2017, which paired archival vocal recordings for Atlantic Records with new orchestral arrangements by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Her last original recording was Aretha Franklin Sings the Great Diva Classics in 2014, which included her take on Adele’s Rolling in the Deep.

“American history wells up when Aretha sings,” former US president Barack Obama said of her performance of (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors. “Nobody embodies more fully the connection between the African-American spiritual, the blues, R&B, rock’n’roll–the way that hardship and sorrow were transformed into something full of beauty and vitality and hope.”

Finally, this still brings tears to my eyes…

[Update on 17 August at 0610: Can you guess which president said what?

President No. 1:

America has no royalty. But we do have a chance to earn something more enduring. Born in Memphis and raised in Detroit, Aretha Franklin grew up performing gospel songs in her father’s congregation. For more than six decades since, every time she sang, we were all graced with a glimpse of the divine. Through her compositions and unmatched musicianship, Aretha helped define the American experience. In her voice, we could feel our history, all of it and in every shade—our power and our pain, our darkness and our light, our quest for redemption and our hard-won respect. She helped us feel more connected to each other, more hopeful, more human. And sometimes she helped us just forget about everything else and dance.

Aretha may have passed on to a better place, but the gift of her music remains to inspire us all. May the Queen of Soul rest in eternal peace. [We] send our prayers and warmest sympathies to her family and all those moved by her song.

And, President No. 2:

I want to begin today by expressing my condolences to the family of a person I knew well. She worked for me on numerous occasions. She was terrific—Aretha Franklin—on her passing. She brought joy to millions of lives and her extraordinary legacy will thrive and inspire many generations to come. She was given a great gift from God—her voice, and she used it well. People loved Aretha. She was a special woman. So just want to pass on my warmest best wishes and sympathies to her family.

Sadly, not very difficult, was it?

You weren’t the only one offended: Trump’s Aretha Franklin ‘Tribute’ Makes Me Want to Break Things.]

And the hits just keep rolling in…

The Dress Code Is Discrimination? First Grader Denied His First Day of School for Dreadlocks

Company Tells Woman Via Email Her ‘Ghetto’ Name Disqualified Her From Employment

Ex-Baltimore Cop Seen in Viral Video Brutally Beating Black Man Charged With Assault [Updated]

Mississippi Hospital Employee Fired after Hurling Racial Slur at a Donut Shop

NYPD Officer Allegedly Broke Into Nashville, Tenn., Family’s Home, Hurled Racial Slurs

Trump Calls Omarosa a Crazed Lowlife ‘Dog.’ We Need to Talk About Your Boy

North Carolina Mom, Pregnant with Twins, Accused of Hiding Items Under Her Shirt at Local Staples

Baltimore Cop Suspended After Viral Video Shows Him Brutally Beating Unarmed Man

How Memphis Police Created an Undercover Operation to Spy on Black Lives Matter Activists

Florida Man Facing Hate Crime Charges After Allegedly Threatening to Lynch Local NAACP President

Arkansas Cop Fired After Telling Black Men ‘You Don’t Belong In My City’

Racist Minnesota Couple Accused in Attack on Black Man Allegedly Held Him to the Ground and Threatened to Run Him Over With a Truck

‘Tired of Talking’: Nashville Community Demands Police Chief’s Resignation After Cop Shoots Black Man in Back

Florida Cop Handcuffs an 11-Year-Old Black Boy Because ‘He Was Being Disrespectful’

#BrooklynBecky Exposes ‘Wokewashed’ White Supremacy

Previously…

Like Ralph Nader, I get letters from my politicians schnorring for cash. Also, like Nader, I’m not happy with those letters. I give, generously, to local candidates and back in 2015-2016 I sent Bernie more than $1,000. I also sent the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus several hundred dollars in support. I get that we’re fighting a billionaire class that considers a million dollars in dark money a sound investment, but I don’t have a lot of discretionary cash lying about.

I do have time, but not time—nor inclination—to ask other people for money. Progressives have a message that can galvanize people to do a lot more than just write checks—just look at what the CCPC has down since 2016—and I want to be useful. Nader, writing in Going Fundamental Eludes Congressional Progressives writes that The People’s Budget from the Congressional Progress Caucus is a good start, but much more needs to be done.

I’ve recently received fundraising letters from Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Chuck Schumer on behalf of their Democratic Party’s campaign committees. Mostly, all they ask for is money, though Schumer’s letter includes a short tough letter to President Trump for us to sign which they promise to deliver to the White House.

Although politicians review and sign fundraising letters, rarely do they write them. That lucrative task is left to political consulting firms that also profitably consult for corporations. That’s why the letters are so formulaic.

Over the years I have urged incumbents and candidates for elected office to do more than ask people for money. Why not ask them for their time, their minds, and their dedication by having “time-raisers,” not just “fund-raisers”? Great Continue Reading »