Sometimes a simple and direct example provides an extraordinary amount of understanding. We need more of this and more people who think this way.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/vir...-the-internet/
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Sometimes a simple and direct example provides an extraordinary amount of understanding. We need more of this and more people who think this way.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/vir...-the-internet/
With our nation now led (and I use that word very loosely) -- by a racist, xenophobic, immigrant-hating white nationalist, hate crimes are on the increase -- and we get articles such as this:
Editor of Alabama newspaper calls for return of Ku Klux Klan's infamous night rides
CNN, Feb 19 2019 7:34 PM ET
An editorial written in support of the Ku Klux Klan. That's something you might expect to see in 1919. Believe it or not, you can see it in 2019, too. The editor and publisher of a small-town newspaper in Alabama wrote one just last week. The editorial, with the shock headline "The Klan Needs To Ride Again," appeared in the February 14 edition of the Linden Democrat-Reporter.
"Time for the Ku Klux Klan to night ride again," begins the editorial, written by Goodloe Sutton. "Democrats in the Republican Party and Democrats are plotting to raise taxes in Alabama." Sutton told the Montgomery Advertiser he urged the white supremacist group to "clean out D.C." via lynchings. "We'll get the hemp ropes out, loop them over a tall limb and hang all of them," Sutton said. He stressed that he wasn't calling for the hangings of all Americans, just the "socialist-communists."
Beginning in the late 19th century, Klan members used night rides to terrorize blacks and their white allies with violence, including lynchings and fire-bombings. Sutton's comments have drawn calls for his resignation.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/19/media...rnd/index.html
The above story now has a (mostly) happy ending.
Alabama newspaper editor who urged Klan to 'ride again' replaced by African-American woman
CNN, Feb 23 2019 3:49 PM ET
An African-American woman is now the publisher and editor of the Alabama newspaper that recently urged the Ku Klux Klan to "night ride again." Elecia Dexter, a "strategic leader with expertise in human resources, operations and change management," took up the positions Thursday, the weekly Linden Democrat-Reporter said in a press release. Dexter replaces Goodloe Sutton, the newspaper's owner who penned a staggering editorial with the headline "The Klan Needs to Ride Again" in the paper's February 14 edition. Sutton still owns the newspaper, Dexter told CNN.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/23/media...lan/index.html
I wonder if these kids were given extra credit if they performed in blackface or did impersonations of Stepin Fetchit.
South Carolina fifth-graders told to pick cotton, sing slave song on field trip
USA TODAY, Feb 24 2019
Students at an elementary school in Greenville, South Carolina were told to pick cotton and sing a slave song as part of a class field trip during Black History Month. Cell phone video provided to Fox 46 Charlotte shows fifth-graders from Ebenezer Avenue Elementary picking cotton while being instructed to sing, "I like it when you fill the sack. I like it when you don't talk back. Make money for me."
"I think it's making a mockery," Jessica Blanchard, whose 10-year-old son attended the field trip, told the station. "A mockery of slavery. A mockery of what our people went through." The students were on a field trip to the Carroll School, which was built in 1929 for African-Americans and now serves as a teaching center for fifth-graders to learn about the effects of the Great Depression.
The TV station reported that parents signed permission slips that mentioned cotton picking as part of a history lesson on the Great Depression. A representative from the Rock Hill School District told ABC News the field trip was a "unique learning opportunity." The district issued a statement saying the songs sung were not intended "to sound like or in any way be a 'slave song' as it has been characterized."
State Rep. John King, D-Rock Hill, said, "Something has gone terribly wrong when slavery is treated as a game, when children leave a field trip with the impression that a mockery can be made of their ancestors' oppression. When we portray a sugar-coated version of history, one of happily picking cotton and singing songs, then we miss an opportunity to teach the truth."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/so...rip/ar-BBU0TYL
Donald Trump and his blindly loyal supporters mock the Democratic Presidential candidates who want to eliminate college tuition. Apparently, Trump and his blindly loyal supporters are okay with this:
Young Americans' debt tops $1 trillion as student loans pile up
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-...225-story.html
We don't have a thread for legal issues. I will post this February 26 story from Talkers.com here. Okay?
SiriusXM talk show host Dean Obeidallah sues neo-Nazi for $1 million. According to a story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Muslim-American comic and SiriusXM talk show host Dean Obeidallah is suing neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin – founder of The Daily Stormer – for $1 million for falsely accusing him of being the mastermind behind the May 2017 terror attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England. Obeidallah is asking the court for $250,000 in compensatory damages and $1 million in punitive damages from Anglin. Obeidallah’s complaint charges that Anglin libeled him by falsely naming him as mastermind of the attack and went so far as to plant fake Twitter messages claiming responsibility that appeared to come from Obeidallah's account.
Our nation's largest-denomination currency is the $100 bill. There are now more $100 bills in circulation than $1 bills. Because $100 bills are the preferred method of payment for criminals, terrorists, drug dealers and money launderers worldwide, many economists think the $100 bill should be discontinued. It wouldn't make much difference to me -- I'm lucky if I even see a hundred-dollar bill.
Debate over retiring the $100 bill resurfaces with surge in circulation
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-...305-story.html
What did I just say about feeling lucky if I see a hundred-dollar bill? Apparently millions of Americans no longer see very many hundred-dollar bills.
Americans just saw their biggest decline in net worth since the financial crisis
American households saw their equity deteriorate by $4.6 trillion last year.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...crisis-n980596
President Trump hates Muslims and wants to keep them out of the United States. President Trump hates Mexicans and wants to keep them out of the United States. But President Trump loves guns and the NRA -- so he will ignore this story:
Arrests in domestic terror probes outpace those inspired by Islamic extremists
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ar...sts/ar-BBUyN0v
"We are born free and we will stay free. America will never be a socialist country." Donald Trump spoke those words February 5 during his State Of The Union address. Hoping to boost his chance of being re-elected in 2020, he has begun painting Democrats as socialists who will destroy our nation. (He also calls Democrats "anti-Jewish" and "anti-Israel," which they are not.)
Is every socialist program as evil and unAmerican as Trump believes? That would include Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, interstate highways, police departments, fire departments, public libraries, public transportation, public prisons, public universities, the United States military and the Veterans Administration.
What are some examples of socialism in the United States?
https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-...-United-States
75 ways socialism has improved America
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/201...proved-America
"The fake news media attacked me for giving huge tax cuts to banks, big corporations and the wealthiest Americans. The fake news media will probably attack me again for the beautiful plan I came up with to help pay for those tax cuts."
Trump proposes big cuts to health programs for poor, elderly and disabled
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...led/ar-BBUDO4m
We like to hear how great we are in every area. Studies, however, show that the country is rarely in the top third of any major category - except violence. This nation is built on myth.
One of the most frequently stated myths is that anyone can make it here no matter who you are. Yes, there are some successes, but this myth leaves out the many obstacles in the way unless you have "connections."
A current scandal shows again how wrong our beliefs can be.
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/am...top-to-bottom/
Just read this. It relates to the post above and further underscores how misled we are by the "myth makers."
https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/ame...he-wrong-ways/
While we are going about our daily lives there are very dark, ugly things happening around the world. They should not be ignored and must be fought.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/03/tru...the-far-right/
And, speaking of those "dark, ugly things happening around the world," here is another hate crime perpetrated by racist, bigoted white nationalists -- or, as Donald Trump calls them, "very fine people." The "Make America Hate Again" campaign continues to be very effective.
'White Power' symbol found after fire destroys Tennessee social justice center that hosted Rosa Parks, MLK Jr.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/...center-n990271
It's time. No, it's way past time. The country's future and our need for self-respect demand it.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/her...ent-than-ever/
Ever wonder what could be if we had programs to improve society, that cared for each of us rather than only the rich and power-mad.
This would be it.
BTW, it would be nice if this stayed here for a while so that it could be easily seen and viewed and not buried. It's inspiring and needed.
https://theintercept.com/2019/04/17/...ocasio-cortez/
It happens frequently. Someone who is not a politician, or in a position of authority, like a comedian, can say things better than those who should be saying them.
This is an example. Maher's rant is accurate - especially devastating to Mueller's "conclusion" is his reference to what Preet Bharara said.
If something is not done soon, we as a country, will be done.
https://youtu.be/S4LMxMLTCps
Over a seven-year period, the biggest financial institution in Denmark was involved in a money-laundering scheme, converting $230 billion worth ofRussian rubles into "crisp, clean untraceable American dollars" and funneling the money into the United States and Europe – and yes, the Putin family was part of the scheme. Danske Bank is facing four counts of violating Denmark's anti-money laundering act. At least 18 former employees, including a former CEO and his chief financial officer, are facing criminal charges. 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft interviewed the whistle-blower:
How the Danske Bank money-laundering scheme involving $230 billion unraveled
It could be the biggest money-laundering scheme in history, with suspicious money flowing from Russia and former Soviet republics.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-the...es-2019-05-19/
Today is Memorial Day, 2019. Danny Sjursen, a retired Army major, Iraq veteran and regular contributor to Truthdig, laments in a Los Angeles Times editorial that we are engaged "in a series of forever wars that continue to claim new lives" and "we're not winning any of them." Despite the "continuing wars in the Middle East," Americans are no safer now than on 9/11, he writes. His essay's title says it all:
The best way America can honor its fallen soldiers is to create fewer of them
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-e...527-story.html