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General Discussion Forum / One this day in 1972

« on: Yesterday at 01:24:03 PM »

On this day - Jul 24, 1972
Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment Exposed by Washington Star Newspaper

On July 24, 1972, the Washington Star newspaper in Washington, D.C., published an article exposing details of an ongoing syphilis experiment that withheld diagnosis information and treatment from Black men in Alabama in order to study the effects of the disease. The article incited public outrage over the unethical treatment of participants, leading to the experiment’s termination later that year.

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Politics / When Does the Greed Stop?

« on: July 17, 2021, 07:26:24 AM »

Hartmann again makes the connection to Reagan as one should.

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Politics / There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia ......

« on: July 15, 2021, 02:26:06 PM »

Give it up folks.

There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, according to fact-checkers and journalists
There is no evidence any 2020 presidential ballots were counted more than once in Fulton County, Georgia, according to The Atlanta-Journal Constitution, The Washington Post and the Georgia Recorder. President Joe Biden won more than 70% of votes cast in Fulton County in 2020, according to public election records, and state officials certified his victory last December following two hand recounts. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 Georgia elections, according to federal and state officials.

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Politics / The Multiracial Democracy Ulysses Grant Was Willing to Die For is in Danger

« on: July 15, 2021, 10:33:01 AM »

Republicans, conservatives, and right wingers are playing for keeps.  They always have and always will.  It is time that democrats, liberals, progressives, and leftists completely understand that.

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The Multiracial Democracy Ulysses Grant Was Willing to Die For is in Danger
The old Confederacy, like Freddy Krueger, is trying to rise from the dead and slash our nation with its “superstition, ambition and ignorance”
   
Thom Hartmann

Prior to 1965, the only American president to have both promoted and presided over a multiracial democracy was Ulysses Grant, the former general in Lincoln’s army who became president when impeached Southern slaveowner Andrew Johnson’s term expired on March 4, 1869.

Grant (and Johnson, but grudgingly) saw freed African Americans not only voting but taking political office by the hundreds. It lasted until the day Grant left office, when the Tilden/Hayes election “compromise” of 1876 ended the period known as Radical Reconstruction the following year.

During this brief time, more than 600 African Americans were elected to state legislatures (the majority in South Carolina and Louisiana) and 16 served in the US House of Representatives.

The year before he left office President Grant was troubled by the schisms reemerging as racist white politicians fought to reverse the outcome of the Civil War and the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments that not only ended slavery (except for punishment of crimes) but guaranteed to formerly enslaved people both equal protection under the law and the right to vote.

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General Discussion Forum / Thousands of pages documenting slavery found in attic of Eastern Shore house

« on: July 08, 2021, 08:39:45 PM »

Thousands of pages documenting slavery found in attic of Eastern Shore house

Rescued from the garbage, the documents are back in the hands of the community.
By Anagha Srikanth | July 2, 2021

Story at a glance

    About 2,000 pages of historical documents related to the lives of free and enslaved Black Americans from the 1600s to 1800s were discovered in the attic of a house in Maryland.

    The 200-year-old house was being demolished, and the papers were put up for sale by a local auction house.

    Historians and members of the local Black community raised funds to preserve the documents and archive them for the public.

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Politics / Column: Why America Can't Have "Nice Things"

« on: July 07, 2021, 12:54:00 PM »

Why America Can't Have "Nice Things"
So, if the majority of Americans want Scandinavian/European healthcare, schools, unions, wages and taxes-on-the-rich, why don’t we have these things?
   
Thom Hartmann

Some time back a woman living in Sweden, “Caroline” @SweResistance on Twitter, posted a thread that said:

    “I live in Sweden. We have social security, affordable health care, strict gun laws, 5 weeks paid annual leave, 1 year maternity leave, etc.  And no, we're not a communist country, and not even strictly socialistic but socio-democratic. And our freedom is not inhibited.

    “For example, health care can cost a maximum of around $130 per year for visits to health care centrals etc., hospital nights costs $12 per night with a $175 roof per month. Prescription drugs have a yearly roof of $250.”

Sweden is a democratic republic that practices an economic system often referred to as “democratic socialism” or “social democracy.”  Although Karl Marx popularized the word “socialism” in 1848 to describe his proposed utopian economic/political system, outside of the realm of Marxists and rightwing cranks, Marx’s system is usually today referred to as “communism” and “socialist” is the modern tag used to describe countries like Sweden.

As such, it’s describing an economic system made possible by the political system of democracy.  Swedes have what they have because the majority of their population has repeatedly voted for politicians who promised to put democratic socialism into place.

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Modern democracy began in 1789 in America, but “conservatives” have fought a truly multiracial democracy every step of the way, particularly as low-wage workers and racial minorities have struggled to gain equal representation and equal rights.

It’s a tragic commentary that countries like Sweden that initially emulated us have now become more “free” than we have…just because rightwing billionaires here have so successfully mobilized racism as a political strategy.

Americans deserve better, and the only thing standing in the way is a group of billionaires who’d rather shoot themselves into outer space than let unions into their workplaces or pay reasonable taxes…and can pay politicians and stack our courts with racist judges to keep it that way. 

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General Discussion Forum / Black Community in Memphis Defeats Oil Pipeline That Threatened Water Supply

« on: July 07, 2021, 10:59:19 AM »

Black Community in Memphis Defeats Oil Pipeline That Threatened Water Supply
Headline Jul 06, 2021

In Tennessee, environmental activists are celebrating the cancellation of the Byhalia Connection pipeline, which would have carried crude oil over an aquifer that provides drinking water to 1 million people. The company dropped its bid to build the 50-mile pipeline through predominantly Black communities in the Memphis area amid intense community opposition. Community leader Justin J. Pearson called the pipeline’s cancellation an “extraordinary testament to what Memphis and Shelby County can do when citizens build power toward justice.” The fight against the Byhalia Connection drew the support of civil rights leaders including Rev. William Barber, as well as former Vice President Al Gore, who called the pipeline a “reckless, racist rip-off.”

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Politics / Why it may be time for Biden to enter the fight for filibuster reform

« on: July 06, 2021, 01:03:11 AM »

Why it may be time for Biden to enter the fight for filibuster reform

“The president has a responsibility here. It has been nearly four months since he spoke to George Stephanopoulos and said he supports a reform of the filibuster. I’ve heard nothing from the president since,” says Mehdi Hasan.
July 5, 2021

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General Discussion Forum / July 3, 1919: The Battle of Brewery Gulch

« on: July 03, 2021, 08:26:22 AM »

July 3, 1919: The Battle of Brewery Gulch

During the Red Summer of 1919, white mobs repeatedly targeted Black World War I veterans and servicemen.

On July 3, 1919, active members of the Army’s segregated 10th Cavalry Regiment (“Buffalo Soldiers”) were in Bisbee, Arizona, to participate in the town’s Independence Day parade. In the early 20th century, Bisbee was a mining town with a history of racial stratification and unrest. The white residents actively discriminated against Arizona’s Mexican, Chinese, and African American laboring communities. It was a “sundown town” for Chinese Americans and Black laborers had limited employment options.

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General Discussion Forum / On this day: Civil Rights Act of 1964

« on: July 02, 2021, 08:12:27 PM »

We cannot let SCOTUS get their hands on this.

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Updated:  Jan 25, 2021
Original:  Jan 4, 2010

Civil Rights Act of 1964

History.com Editors

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, is considered one of the crowning legislative achievements of the civil rights movement. First proposed by President John F. Kennedy, it survived strong opposition from southern members of Congress and was then signed into law by Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. In subsequent years, Congress expanded the act and passed additional civil rights legislation such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Following the Civil War, a trio of constitutional amendments abolished slavery (the 13 Amendment), made the formerly enslaved people citizens (14 Amendment) and gave all men the right to vote regardless of race (15 Amendment).

Nonetheless, many states—particularly in the South—used poll taxes, literacy tests and other measures to keep their African American citizens essentially disenfranchised. They also enforced strict segregation through “Jim Crow” laws and condoned violence from white supremacist groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

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Politics / Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's former staffers detail a 'demoralizing' office environment

« on: July 02, 2021, 03:18:32 AM »

She needs to go.

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https://twitter.com/davelevinthal/status/1410569675541516295

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's former staffers detail a 'demoralizing' office environment
Sinema has emerged as one of the most pivotal figures in Washington, given her position as a swing vote with the ability to make or break President Joe Biden's agenda in a Senate that Democrats control by the thinnest of margins.

Insider interviewed seven of her former staffers and interns, with some describing the job as a "demoralizing" experience where those at junior-level struggled to pay bills while they were regularly criticized by senior aides, and Sinema herself was rarely around.

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Sports Forum / US sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson could miss Olympics after testing positive.....

« on: July 02, 2021, 02:47:21 AM »

https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1410802719183577090

US sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson could miss Olympics after testing positive for cannabis, reports say
According to Reuters, The New York Times and Jamaica Gleaner, US 100m champion Sha’Carri Richardson could face a 30-day suspension after failing a drug screening for a prohibited substance. The 21-year-old qualified for the 2020 games at the Olympic Trials in June after running the 100m final in 10.86 seconds.

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Sports Forum / Bobby Bonilla Day

« on: June 30, 2021, 06:55:08 PM »

Tomorrow is Bobby Bonilla Day, when the retired baseball player will collect a $1.2 million check from the New York Mets as he has and will continue to do so every July 1 from 2011 through 2035 thanks to a buyout deal with the franchise (link).

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General Discussion Forum / Stokely Carmichael's (Kwame Ture's) birth

« on: June 30, 2021, 09:39:53 AM »

June 29, 1941: Happy Birthday to Stokely Carmichael, The Philosopher Behind The “Black Power” Movement
0 Posted by Walter Opinde - June 29, 2018 - Black History, BLACK MEN, CIVIL RIGHTS, LATEST POSTS

BY WALTER OPINDE

On this day, 29th June, 1941, a prominent figure in the Civil Rights Movement and the global Pan-African movement, Stokely Carmichael, was born in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. He moved to New York when he was 11 years of age, and joined his parents, who had settled there 9 years earlier. Carmichael attended the elite Bronx High School of Science, where he met veteran black radicals and Communist activists. In 1960, as a senior in high school, Carmichael learned about the sit-in movement for desegregation in the South and joined activists from the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) protesting in New York against Woolworth stores. This was a chain that maintained segregated lunch counters in the South. Kwame Ture, born Stokely Carmichael, would eventually become active in the Black Power movement, first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), later as the “Honorary Prime Minister” of the Black Panther Party (BPP), and finally as a leader of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP).

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General Discussion Forum / Bob Johnson wants his check.

« on: June 29, 2021, 06:07:00 PM »

I did not check out the responses to his comments.

America’s First Black Billionaire Wants His Reparations Check, Now
Robert L. Johnson, the founder of BET and America’s first Black billionaire, is pushing for a $14 trillion reparations proposal.