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loudlytransparenttrash · 5 years ago

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Goodbye 2019: A review of the lies that shaped the year

January

One Twitter user posted this thread, describing how there were “50-70 white men” wearing MAGA apparel who “surrounded us” and “sought to intimidate, mock and scare us” by “chanting ‘build the wall’ and “other trumpisms.” “The group was clearly looking for ANY opportunity to get violent,” they were “bumping into us and daring us to get physical.” Video was then clipped and shared on social media, the mainstream media spread the edited footage and within hours the story about “racist white MAGA hat wearing teens cornered an innocent Native elder while chanting build the wall” consumed the country.

Slate wrote an article comparing the student’s “cruelty” to Jim Crow mobs and neo-Nazis. BuzzFeed’s Anne Petersen tweeted how the students and Brett Kavanaugh are the epitome of “white patriarchy.” Kathy Griffin called for doxing the kids and Stormy Daniels in a now-deleted tweet fantasized about putting these children behind electrocuted walls. New York Times author Kurt Eichenwald wished that these kids should be doxed and denied work for the rest of their lives. Headlines included, “White students in MAGA hats taunt Native American elders,” “Covington Catholic High Student's White Privilege Didn't Win,” “White America, come get your children,” “White victimology, white privilege and the Covington Catholic rules of race,” “Boys Will Be Boys. Covington's Showed Yet Again Why Only White Boys Can Smirk Through That.”

The students and their families were doxed, harassed and threatened for weeks after. Covington Catholic High School was forced to close over security concerns. Then the original video was released that provided context: A group of Covington Catholic High School students went to the March for Life during a field trip to Washington, DC. While there, the students were confronted by the radical black supremacy group, Black Hebrew Israelites, where they were verbally harassed and racially abused, calling them crackers, fa*gots and told them to go find a school to shoot up. A black student was berated as a race-traitor and told his white classmates were going to harvest his organs. A Native activist later approached the kids and started continually banging a drum inches from their face. One student, Nick Sandmann, stood calmly in typical teenage bemusement. That’s it. That’s the story. Once it was realized not a single accusation made by the original poster or the media who spread it was true, everyone went silent, and despite many retractions, no apologies.

February

Empire actor Jussie Smollett was approached by two white men wearing Trump’s Make America Great Again caps and yelled racist and homophobic slurs at him before attacking him, dousing him with bleach and tying a noose around his neck, all while chanting, “This MAGA country!” Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Al Sharpton were among those calling it a modern-day lynching and evidence of the fear and hate black people live with. Harris and Booker even wrote an “anti-lynching bill.” Everybody gobbled this story up and quickly used it to push their idea that it said something more important about the state of race in the United States. Essentially they argued that Trump and his supporters are agitating for this kind of violence and, well, here it is.

Afterwards, Smollett proudly bragged how he had fought off his attackers to the loud cheers of a crowd, a true badass. He then appeared in an ABC interview where his eyes welled with tears as he recounted his traumatic experience and how defiant and inspirational he’s gotta be now. When asked why he thinks he was targeted, Smollett blamed Trump and his evil supporters.

But then some red flags started. 1. He held onto his sandwich during the attack and waited 45 minutes to call police. 2. When police arrived to take a report, Smollett asked that the officers turn off their body cameras. 3. He was still wearing the noose around his neck and wore it “like a tie” throughout their entire 40-minute interview. 4. He said he was on the phone with his manager when the attack happened but he refused to show his phone log to police. 5. He supposedly received a threatening letter a week prior to the “attack” which had child-like writing and drawings on it of his name and the word MAGA, and cliche magazine cutouts of letters pieced together to spell out “black fag.” In summary, we were supposed to believe white Trump supporters wearing MAGA hats were roaming around Chicago, carrying a noose, they saw Smollett, knew who he was, knew his show, his sexuality and singled him out for a lynching.

As the police connected the dots, they found the whole thing was a giant hoax plotted by Smollett himself. When the “black fag” serial killer letter stunt failed to receive national attention, Smollett orchestrated the attack by paying two Nigerian brothers he worked with $3,500 to stage the attack on him while getting Subway. Chicago police spent days and worked overtime poring over security footage and devoting resources that could have been put toward real victims. On February 20, Smollett was charged with a class 4 felony for filing a false police report and was later indicted on 16 felony counts of false reporting. Smollett joined a long list of hate crime hoaxes since Trump took office. I can only assume because reality isn’t at all matching their delusion of the gloomy Nazi “MAGA country” they keep going on about, they’re forced to create these endless hate crime hoaxes to validate the delusion.

March

After spending two years perpetuating allegations that Trump colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election from Hillary and wet dreams of Trump being removed from office and even imprisoned, the entire left, every Democrat and the mainstream media were visibly shaken by Mueller’s investigation ending with zilch. When the news broke that there would be no indictments against Trump nor anyone associated with his campaign, and Attorney General William Barr had exonerated him, those who were so certain of victory and so locked into their conspiracy, were once again forced into utter meltdown mode. Mueller spent tens of millions of dollars, employed 19 prosecutors, more than three dozen FBI agents and an analyst and issued 2,800 subpoenas, 500 search warrants, 280 demands for phone and email records and interviewed 500 witnesses throughout the course of the investigation. No evidence was found.

There was however a major abuse of the rule of law by Obama administration officials and Department of Justice and FBI employees, a shameful politicization of the Russia investigation by Democrats and an end of journalistic integrity by many members of the media who all did their best to delegitimize and undermine the election. The DOJ and FBI used unverified research to obtain a court order to surveil the Trump campaign, and thereby obtain access to past campaign communications. In applying for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) order, the DOJ and FBI did not disclose to the secret surveillance court that the debunked Christopher Steele dossier (Trump/pissing prostitutes) was funded by the DNC and Clinton, the whole basis for the probe. The FISA application also did not inform the court of Steele’s bias and his desperation to keep Trump out of the White House. It was all a setup.

Since Election Day 2016, the Trump-hating political and media establishment have been in a cute relationship to achieve their desired end of destroying Trump. Their shared hatred of the man is indisputable. But the idea of them colluding in this information operation to maximum political and legal effect is altogether more disturbing. Russiagate put Trump’s presidency under a cloud of suspicion for more than half of his days in office, delaying his agenda through forcing the administration to expend valuable time and resources defending itself from the constant hounding. The Five F’s seems to be the Democrat’s only tactic, all they can do is deceive, degrade, deny, disrupt and hope that it all will eventually wear Trump down enough to ultimately destroy him.

April

On Easter Day, churches across Sri Lanka were targeted by radical Islamist suicide bombers. The Muslim terrorists walked into several crowded churches and murdered masses of people. They also targeted international hotels popular with Western travelers. The bombings marked the country’s deadliest violence in a decade, leaving 290 dead and over 500 injured. After the quick condemnation of white supremacy and Islamophobia after the Christchurch shootings a few weeks prior, the media and Democrats avoided at all costs condemning Islamic terrorism and recognizing the victims as Christians. A host of politicians such as Obama, Hillary Clinton and Julian Castro all refused to condemn Islamic terrorism and none called the victims Christians, while others such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Portland mayor Ted Wheeler stayed silent altogether. Christians being killed at the hands of Islamists goes against the entire left-wing doctrine, despite it happening all over the world.

It’s not the only time we’ve seen the media and politicians cover for Islamic extremism. Under Obama, officials were so afraid of the phrase “Islamic terrorism” that they redacted the very mention of Islam and even Islamic State from the Orlando gay nightclub massacre transcripts, despite 49 people being killed and 50 others injured by a Muslim terrorist who had pledged allegiance to ISIS. In the UK, police and child protection workers were so afraid of the phrase “Islamophobia” that they ignored and refused to investigate Muslim human trafficking and child rape rings, allowing 1,400 young British girls to be raped with knives, bottles and their tongues nailed to tables. In Sweden, the police and media were so scared of “anti-immigration sentiment,” they covered up dozens of sexual assaults against teenage girls. Not wanting to make their new waves of Muslim refugees look bad, German media and the government also covered up mass sexual abuse across the country where 1,200 women were sexually assaulted and raped in just one night. Who exactly are we protecting by refusing to tell the truth and call something what it is?

May

Alyssa Milano, an actress who has been a valiant fighter for progressive causes, demanded for American women to undertake a “sex strike.” The idea is that women should not risk pregnancy until they have an insurance policy. Uh, so like exactly what Christian conservatives already believe in. There’s something funny about Milano embracing the banner of Christian conservatives in order to own Christian conservatives. Just like when Janelle Monáe advocated for women to go on a sex strike, saying that “people need to start respecting the vagina.” Once again, that’s what conservatives have already been screaming, respecting your vagina, respecting yourself, respecting sex and the good and bad product of sex.

In championing this “revolutionary” concept of women withholding sex in order to attain bodily autonomy, Milano and her blue-check buddies unwittingly preached the same message you often hear during Sunday sermons, especially in youth groups. The Christian perspective posits that the way for women to attain bodily autonomy is to have self-control over your body and choices, to not give away your body so carelessly and to be aware of the consequences of sexual activity outside of committed relationships. Most Christians embrace Milano’s message, not just because the only women who’d participate and use sex as a political bargaining chip in the first place are those who probably need to reevaluate their sex lives anyway, but it also places greater meaning on sex and the power and responsibility of it, which again is another Christian view.

Milano, like many others, also referred to abortion as “reproductive rights,” which is a pretty new term that replaces abortion and is also much catchier on picket signs when used alongside “human rights.” The problem is the term isn’t even close to being accurate. Abortion has nothing to do with reproductive rights. By the time abortion is even a possibility, post-fertilization has already created a tiny human and the mother has discovered that she is pregnant. In other words, reproduction is already complete. That “right” to reproduction was already exercised when you gave it up, literally and figuratively.

June

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tried her best to compare Trump to Hitler by comparing illegal migrant detention centers to actual concentration camps: “This administration has established concentration camps on the southern border of the United States for immigrants, where they are being brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying,” she tweeted. Ocasio-Cortez continued this claim during an Instagram Live video, where she said, “The United States is running concentration camps on our southern border. That is what they are. The fact that concentration camps are now an institutionalized practice in the home of the free is extraordinarily disturbing.”

Of course, the claim that conditions at U.S. border facilities are anything like Nazi concentration camps or Japanese American internment camps is absurd. Detainees are not subjected to forced labor, malnutrition or executions. They also chose to enter these facilities by willingly coming to the United States and either illegally crossing or turning themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol, while obviously concentration camp inmates were forced to be there. Let’s not forget the little detail that any of the migrants may opt for voluntary departure at any time. I don’t remember concentration camps ever having that policy. Concentration camps detained and persecuted their own citizens because of who they were, not temporarily detained people who chose to illegally break into a different country. I don’t think there were many Jewish people trying to sneak into Nazi Germany. Even the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum released a statement rejecting such ridiculous comparisons.

But it’s not just AOC driving this rhetoric. MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough showed photos of border officers escorting kids to showers and compared it to Nazi officers marching Jews into gas chambers. Former CIA chief Michael Hayden posted photos of the Auschwitz death camp, also comparing it to the temporary housing policy at the border. The New York Times published an article that called for U.S. Border Patrol agents to be doxed so they can be “publicly shamed" and “held accountable.” Almost the entire Democrat Party and mainstream media have made similar comparisons. Yet the CBP detention centers are not operating any differently today than they were during the Obama administration. The famous photos of caged kids are from Obama’s time in office. Even when the most anti-Trump news network CNN went to investigate, the kids had full bellies, they were watching soccer, playing video games on big flat-screen TVs, sleeping in comfy beds and participating in tai chi classes, rather than ya know, being caged, gassed and worked to death.

July

The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal held a hearing on complaints from Jessica Yaniv, a man formerly called Jonathan who now identifies as a woman, after multiple small business beauticians refused to wax Yaniv’s penis and testicles. The defendant in the case was a young mother who operates in her family home, but there were also 12 other female beauticians Yaniv filed human rights complaints against which put some of them out of business while others paid settlements to save further legal action. Up until July 17, Yaniv’s name was fiercely protected by the Canadian government, as well as technology platforms like Twitter, which banned numerous women and some men who’d tried to warn others about his predations. But once the ban was lifted, it was revealed Yaniv had used “connections” to a band to help solicit advice from both women and teenagers on how to approach young girls and talk to them about tampons and menstruation in female washrooms. You can read the whole thing here.

Yaniv also recently tweeted shock to be turned away from a gynecologist. “So a gynaecologist office that I got referred to literally told me today that ‘we don’t serve transgender patients. And me, being me, I’m shocked... and confused… and hurt. Are they allowed to do that, legally?" I’m sure Yaniv will be taking gynecologists to human rights courts next for refusing to inspect anuses. We have to be careful to not misgender Yaniv as several journalists have been banned from Twitter for this crime against Yaniv. Any concerns about women being forced to touch male genitalia or biological men being allowed into women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, rape crisis shelters and prisons, you’re done for. This whole story resembles a new trend forming, such as the Christian cake shop owner who was sued for not wanting to bake a cake for a same-sex marriage: An individual from a politically designated victim class seeks out a service, intentionally from a small business owner who they know they can exploit, and the moment the businessperson declines - voila! A movement is born with a slew of lawsuits, powerful interest groups and media backing.

August

Dave Chappelle’s newest Netflix special was only uploaded for a few hours before the PC grievance mob went to work trying to sink it. Buzzfeed lectured Chappelle for his “truly vile” jokes and instructed him “to be more thoughtful.” Salon spoke out against “the cruelty” and Slate compared him to that "uncle who doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, how much he’s disappointing you.” While “Uncle Dave” was once cool, they say, his jokes in 2019 make you “wince.” Vice went a step further and gave a total trigger warning to its audience, writing "you can definitely skip” it altogether. As of today, “Sticks & Stones” shows a 38 percent score from media critics on Rotten Tomatoes, while 39,881 of viewers have given it a 99 percent audience score, reflecting the massive disconnect between the media and the general public and proving the only ones who are “out of touch” are themselves. This same pattern can be seen with “woke” movies too. Media critics sing their praises and hail their progressive activist messaging and pandering, yet in reality, these movies completely bomb.

Hollywood wants to water down comedy as not to hurt anyone’s feelings, but in doing so quickly turns into telling people what’s funny and what’s not and who can laugh and who can’t. Even the most devoted left-wing activist surely can see the problem. But a comedian like Dave Chappelle makes fun of everyone and doesn’t believe in a protected class during a stand up routine, as it should be. He also made fun of things that the right cares about, yet they still applauded the special as a celebration of comedy. But no, because Chappelle didn’t obey by their rules, because he didn’t stand on stage and call Trump a Cheeto (the pinnacle of left-wing comedy), he too must be one of those Nazis we keep hearing about. Chappelle isn’t running for public office. He’s a comic, and we’re not meant to seek the ultimate answers from him. It’s his job to talk about and then joke about current events, trends, what’s going on in the world, his only sin was talking about them a little too honestly.

September

Teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations through teary eyes and gritted teeth, claiming that the world is about to end and how unfair it is that she has to save it. Throughout the melodramatic speech warning of “mass extinction” and attacking capitalism, Thunberg repeatedly declared “how dare you!” and “You have stolen my dreams and my childhood!” Sadly, she’s right. How dare a child from one of the most healthiest, progressive, wealthiest, safest and most peaceful countries known to man be indoctrinated to believe adults have failed her and the weight of the world is on her shoulders to save mankind from apocalypse. It’s not her fault.

It’s the fault of the schools who pile on the panic-stricken talk of environmental disaster starting from kindergarten. It’s the fault of the ideologues who obsess over every weather event as if it were Armageddon, whether it’s hot or cold, rain, sun or snow, it’s all evidence of the end looming. And it’s the fault of the politicians, too cowardly and desperate for votes to tell people that utopian visions of a world run on windmills is a pipe dream. And why the hell isn’t China being lectured by the Swedish teenager? Their emissions from aviation and maritime trade alone are twice that of the United States, and more than the entire emissions of most nations in the world, but we’re the ones being told to ban straws, stop eating meat, roller skate to work and stop having kids? Really? Then again, it’s easier to go after countries which roll out the red carpet, gives her a platform and awards her with prizes in return for her criticisms. The real pollution culprits aren’t nearly as accommodating.

Climate activists could learn something from Thunberg’s honesty, though. She argues that “money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth” have to come to an end. Thunberg’s dream for the future means technocratic regimes will have to displace capitalistic societies. We can see this future in the radical environmentalist plans of AOC’s Green New Deal, one supported by leading Democratic Party candidates. It’s authoritarianism. There is no other way to describe a regulatory regime that dictates exactly what Americans can consume, sell, drive, eat and do in their personal lives. As Hawaii Democrat senator and climate change enthusiast encouraged fellow activists to think of climate change as a religion rather than a science, we can only hope that most Americans will continue to reject these regressive ideas. One reason we should is so that Greta Thunberg’s generation, including her army of schoolchildren, can continue not having to suffer needlessly.

October

Media outlets responded to Trump’s announcement of the U.S. military’s successful mission against ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was not met with much praise and excitement that the world’s most wanted terrorist leader had been stopped, but with anger and snark. Many media outlets, the Washington Post for one example, worked hard to spin the killing of Baghdadi into, somehow, a negative story for Trump, beginning with a look at Baghdadi as not as a brutal terrorist and murderer, but as an “austere religious scholar.”

The Washington Post followed it up with a chain of negative stories: “Three ways the Baghdadi raid undermines Trump’s chaotic policy,” “Despite the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, some analysts question U.S. ability to prevent ISIS resurgence,” “The U.S. kills an ISIS leader. But Trump is giving the group a new lease on life.” They even complained how long Trump talked for and how using words such as “dog” and “coward” weren’t as presidential as Obama. Oh, and a Washington Post and CNN journalist tweeted how wrong it was for Trump to call al-Baghdadi a coward because it takes guts to blow yourself up rather than allow yourself to be captured...

If only it ended there. The Washington Post joined other media outlets including the New York Times in debunking the “doctored” and “faked” photo Trump tweeted of himself giving a Medal of Honor to the dog that chased down al-Baghdadi. White House reporter Steve Herman also debunked the meme by breaking news on Twitter, "I've requested details on this photo! There was no such a canine event on today's schedule!" He later confirmed in a tweet after speaking to a White House official that the meme was indeed Photoshopped. Jim Acosta of CNN also made sure everyone was aware, "The dog is not at the White House." The Huffington Post wrote, “A photo tweeted by Donald Trump is getting dogged by accusations that the pic is the very definition of fake news. The photo didn’t really happen,” then proceeded to show side-by-side photos to prove it was photoshopped. Everywhere the meme was called “fake news.”

Once the media confirmed that the very clearly photoshopped dog was not at the White House after all, and the meme was just a meme, they moved onto asserting the meme was insulting and disrespectful to the original recipient of the Medal of Honor, James McCloughan, which the photo was taken from. Yet when the meme was shown to McCloughan, he laughed and said he wasn’t offended and he liked it. Now that another outrage had fizzled out, the only thing that was left for them to complain about was... Trump hates dogs because he used the term negatively to describe the ISIS leader. Yep.

November

Nine American Mexican family members were slaughtered in broad daylight in an ambush by a drug cartel in Northern Mexico, less than a hundred miles from the Arizona border. The family were traveling to visit family when they were attacked by the cartel which left three women and six children dead, including a pair of infant twins. As Trump voiced outrage over the attacks, condemning the violence and offering the Mexican government help to come down harder on the cartels, not a single one of the seventeen Democrats in the race issued a statement on the attacks.

That’s probably because they’ve already established it’s racist and bigoted to point out that some Mexicans can do bad things and there’s gonna be some bad eggs illegally crossing the southern border, despite leading Democrats including Clinton and Obama holding the same view just a few years ago. Let’s forget those behind most illegal border crossings are actually rapists or in just one city, over just a few weeks, seven illegal immigrants were convicted of rape. For the record, Trump never called all Mexicans rapists. He said there are rapists among those being sent over, along with drugs and MS-13 members, all true. He also said in the very next breath that there’s also good people crossing. Now, it’s also racist to call MS-13 gang members “animals” despite them being known for beheadings, dismemberments and cutting out hearts. And now we know we’re not even allowed to talk about the epidemic of terrorism and violence along the border, even when nine American women and children are massacred as it runs counter to the new, insane Democrat narrative mocking the need for stronger border security or the need for borders at all.

This is the latest incident that has shined a spotlight on Mexico’s growing crime problem as drug cartels have launched an insurgency in the failing country. A month earlier, hundreds of gunmen stormed the city of Culiacan after Mexican National Guards arrested one of the sons drug kingpin “El Chapo.” In a stunning display, the Mexican president told his National Guards to surrender to the cartel and release El Chapo’s son. The day after the family massacre, more murders and bus burnings were unleashed on the city of Juarez. The mayor of Juarez said the chaos was the cartel’s response to police arresting suspects involved in an ongoing drug turf war. We’ll have to wait and see if the new Mexican president’s policy of “hugs not bullets” will end the endless territory being controlled by different armed groups, similar to the Middle East and Africa. Maybe love and giving into cartel demands will bring law and order back.

December

Democrats finally did what they’ve been promising to do since Trump won the election, they impeached their mortal enemy. The obsession with impeachment has little to do with anything Trump did, and everything to do with who he is. Democrats never expected to lose the 2016 election, especially not to Donald Trump, which humiliated them even more. And ever since, they have been trying every trick in the book to prove what a horrible mistake voters have made. Democrats have floated the idea of impeachment over fake Russian collusion conspiracy theories, drivel about porn stars and even the president’s criticism of his critics. All of them bombed. With time running out before the 2020 presidential race gets into full swing, they seized on the only thing they had left: bogus “concerns” with a phone call to the newly elected Ukrainian president.

The evidence Democrats have rallied on makes for the weakest impeachment ever launched in American history, highlighting gross abuse of congressional power and serving as a national embarrassment. The impeachment inquiry was kicked off by an unknown person during a phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. An unredacted transcript of the phone call was quickly released to the public, putting the conversation between the two leaders in plain sight for all to see in an unprecedented move. There was nothing to hide. Democrats and media outlets took slices from the transcript and came up with a story about Trump pressuring Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden’s family in exchange for nearly $400 million in military aid. Yet when Trump mentioned “do us a favor,” in the very next sentence, he referred to Ukraine looking into the 2016 election meddling after Mueller did such a poor job, it had nothing to do with Biden. Zelensky himself said there was no pressure and he didn’t even know about the military aid being delayed.

But House Democrats still held four weeks of impeachment hearings and not a single piece of incriminating evidence to impeach the president of any kind of crime was found, whether it be a “quid pro quo,” “bribery,” or “extortion. In fact, to the contrary, witnesses called by Democrats actually exonerated the president of any wrongdoing. Ousted former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovich blatantly admitted that Trump committed no crime. “Do you have any information regarding any criminal activity that the president of the United States has been involved with at all?” “No,” Yovanovitch said. Former State Department Special Envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker was asked, “In no way, shape or form did you receive any indication whatsoever, or anything that resembled a quid pro quo, is that correct?” “That’s correct,” Volker said.

Despite clearly having no case against the president, Democrats still voted to deliver their promise, it was now or never. Unlike other impeachment cases, it wasn’t at all bipartisan, the House’s impeachment inquiry passed without a single Republican vote. In fact two Democrats joined GOP lawmakers in voting against the resolution, ironically making opposition to impeachment the more bipartisan vote. One Democrat even switched parties after he was pressured by his Democrat colleagues to vote against his will. Now, Pelosi is refusing to send the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial. She knows Trump will be swiftly exonerated and claim another monumental victory, so let’s savor in the impeachment juices that nobody cares about for as long as we can. At least until the next “existential threat” or “constitutional crisis” they can whip up.

#trump #politics #impeachment #2019 #new year #2020 #democrats #dnc #happy new year #donald trump #conservative #republican

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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Oscar Stanton De Priest

Oscar Stanton De Priest (March 9, 1871 – May 12, 1951) was an American politician and civil rights advocate from Chicago. A member of the Illinois Republican Party he was the first African American to be elected to Congress in the 20th century. During his three terms, he was the only African American serving in Congress. He served as a U.S. Representative from Illinois' 1st congressional district from 1929 to 1935. De Priest was also the first African-American U.S. Representative from outside the southern states and the first since the exit of North Carolina representative George Henry White from Congress in 1901.

Born in Alabama to freedmen parents, De Priest was raised in Dayton, Ohio. He studied business and made a fortune in Chicago as a contractor, and in real estate and the stock market before the Crash. A successful local politician, he was elected to the Chicago City Council in 1914, the first African American to hold that office.

In Congress in the early 1930s, he spoke out against racial discrimination, including at speaking events in the South; tried to integrate the House public restaurant; gained passage of an amendment to desegregate the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the work programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal; and introduced anti-lynching legislation to the House (it was not passed because of the Solid South Democratic opposition). In 1934, De Priest was defeated by Arthur W. Mitchell, the first African American to be elected as a Democrat to Congress. De Priest returned to Chicago and his successful business ventures, eventually returning to politics, when he was again elected Chicago alderman in the 1940s.

Early life

De Priest was born in 1871 in Florence, Alabama, to freedmen, former slaves of mixed race. He had a brother named Robert. His mother, Martha Karsner, worked part-time as a laundress, and his father Neander was a teamster, associated with the "Exodus" movement. After the Civil War, thousands of blacks left continued oppression by whites in the South by moving to other states that offered promises of freedom and greater economic opportunities, such as Kansas. Others moved later in the century.

In 1878, the year after Reconstruction had ended and federal troops been withdrawn from the region, the De Priests left Alabama for Dayton, Ohio. Violence had increased in Alabama as whites had tried to restore white supremacy: the elder De Priest had to save his friend, former U.S. Representative James T. Rapier, from a lynch mob, and a black man was killed on their doorstep. The boy Oscar attended local schools in Dayton.

Career

Business

De Priest went to Salina, Kansas, to study bookkeeping at the Salina Normal School, established also for the training of teachers. In 1889 he moved to Chicago, Illinois, which had been booming as an industrial city. He worked first as an apprentice plasterer, house painter, and decorator. He became a successful contractor and real estate broker. He built a fortune in the stock market and in real estate by helping black families move into formerly all-white neighborhoods, often ones formerly occupied by ethnic white immigrants and their descendants. There was population succession in many neighborhoods under the pressure of new migrants.

Politics

From 1904 to 1908, De Priest was a member of the board of commissioners of Cook County, Illinois.

De Priest was elected in 1914 to the Chicago City Council, serving from 1915 to 1917 as alderman from the 2nd Ward, on the South Side. He was Chicago's first black alderman. In 1917 De Priest was indicted for alleged graft and resigned from the City Council. He hired nationally known Clarence Darrow as his defense attorney and was acquitted. He was succeeded in office by Louis B. Anderson.

In 1919, De Priest ran unsuccessfully for alderman as a member of the People's Movement Club, a political organization he founded. In a few years, De Priest's black political organization became the most powerful of many in Chicago, and he became the top black politician under Chicago Republican mayor William Hale Thompson.

In 1928, when Republican congressman Martin B. Madden died, Mayor Thompson selected De Priest to replace him on the ballot. He was the first African American elected to Congress outside the South and the first to be elected in the 20th century. He represented the 1st Congressional District of Illinois (which included The Loop and part of the South Side of Chicago) as a Republican. During the 1930 election, De Priest was challenged in the primary by noted African-American spokesperson, orator, and Republican Roscoe Conkling Simmons. De Priest defeated Simmon's primary challenge and won the general election afterward. During De Priest's three consecutive terms (1929–1935), he was the only black representative in Congress. He introduced several anti-discrimination bills during these years of the Great Depression.

DePriest's 1933 amendment barring discrimination in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a program of the New Deal to employ people across the country in building infrastructure, was passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. His anti-lynching bill failed due to opposition by the white conservative Democrats of the Solid South, although it would not have made lynching a federal crime. (Previous anti-lynching bills had also failed to pass the Senate, which was dominated by the South since its disenfranchisement of blacks at the turn of the century.) A third proposal, a bill to permit a transfer of jurisdiction if a defendant believed he or she could not get a fair trial because of race or religion, was passed by a later Congress.

Civil rights activists criticized De Priest for opposing federal aid to the poor. Nevertheless, they applauded him for making public speeches in the South despite death threats. They also praised De Priest for telling an Alabama senator he was not big enough to prevent him from dining in the private Senate restaurant. (Some Congressmen ate in the Senate restaurant to avoid De Priest, who usually ate in the Members Dining Room designated for Congressmen.) The public areas of the House and Senate restaurants were segregated. The House accepted that De Priest sometimes brought black staff or visitors to the Members Dining Room, but objected when he entertained mixed groups there.

De Priest defended the right of students of Howard University, a historically black college in Washington, D.C., to eat in the public section of the House restaurant and not be restricted to a section in the basement near the kitchen, used mostly by black employees and visitors. He took this issue of discrimination against the students (and other black visitors) to a special bipartisan House committee. In a three-month-long heated debate, the Republican political minority argued that the restaurant's discriminatory practice violated 14th Amendment rights to equal access. The Democratic majority skirted the issue by claiming that the restaurant was a private facility and not open to the public. The House restaurant remained segregated through much of the 1940s and maybe as late as 1952.

In 1929, De Priest made national news when First Lady Lou Hoover invited his wife, Jessie De Priest, to a traditional tea for congressional wives at the White House.

De Priest appointed Benjamin O. Davis Jr. to the United States Military Academy at a time when the only African-American line officer in the Army was Davis's father.

By the early 1930s, De Priest's popularity waned because he continued to oppose higher taxes on the rich and fought Depression-era federal relief programs under President Roosevelt. De Priest was defeated in 1934 by Democrat Arthur W. Mitchell, who was also African American. After returning to his businesses and political life in Chicago, De Priest was elected again to the Chicago City Council in 1943 as alderman of the 3rd Ward, serving until 1947. He died in Chicago at 80 and is buried in Graceland Cemetery.

Personal life

Oscar married the former Jessie L. Williams (c. 1873 – March 31, 1961). They had two sons together: Laurence W. (c. 1900 – July 28, 1916), who died at the age of 16 and Oscar Stanton De Priest, Jr. (May 24, 1906 – November 8, 1983) A great-grandson of Oscar De Priest, Jr., Philip R. DePriest, became the administrator of his estate after his grandmother's death in 1992. This included his great-grandfather's Oscar Stanton De Priest House, now a National Historic Landmark, which still held his locked political office. This had not been touched since about 1951. This great-grandson has been working to restore the office and house, and assessing the political archives—"a veritable treasure trove."

Legacy and honors

The Oscar Stanton De Priest House in Chicago, at 45th and King Drive, has been designated as a National Historic Landmark and city landmark.

See also

List of African American firsts

List of African-American United States Representatives

Oscar Stanton De Priest House

Jessie De Priest

References

Bibliography

Day, S. Davis. "Herbert Hoover and Racial Politics: The De Priest Incident". Journal of Negro History 65 (Winter 1980): 6-17

Nordhaus-Bike, Anne. "Oscar DePriest lived Pisces's call to service, unity." Gazette, March 7, 2008.

Olasky, Martin. "History turned right side up". WORLD magazine. 13 February 2010. p. 22.

Rudwick, Elliott M. "Oscar De Priest and the Jim Crow Restaurant in the U.S. House of Representatives". Journal of Negro Education 35 (Winter 1966): 77–82.

External links

United States Congress. "Oscar Stanton De Priest (id: D000263)". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

Search for National Historic Landmark: Oscar De Priest House, National Park Service

“DE PRIEST, Oscar Stanton”, History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives

Shelley Stokes-Hammond, Biographical sketch: "Pathbreakers: Oscar Stanton DePriest and Jessie L. Williams DePriest", The White House Historical Association

"The DePriest Family Legacy", Video Interview/YouTube, White House Historical Association

#03/09 #05/12

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bragancalawllc-blog · 5 years ago

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Braganca Law LLC

Lisa recovers investment losses and represents individuals and firms in SEC, state, and FINRA regulatory investigations. Lisa served as a Branch Chief in the Division of Enforcement of the Chicago Office of the Securities & Exchange Commission, where she handled investigations of accounting fraud, Ponzi schemes, insider trading, churning, and unsuitable investments. Since leaving the SEC, Lisa has helped recover millions of dollars in investment losses in court and in FINRA arbitrations.

She has represented individuals and entities in numerous investigations by the SEC and other regulators of cryptocurrencies and token offerings, insider trading, financial fraud by public companies, and other conduct. While at the SEC, Lisa collaborated with the DOJ in investigating $2 billion in losses arising out of subprime auto lender Mercury Finance Company’s cooking the books and investigated Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations arising out of bribery of Haitian customers officials. Both resulted in criminal convictions of CEOs and other senior executives.

Lisa writes and speaks about elder financial exploitation, securities and cryptocurrency regulation, and recovering investment losses including the following: St. John's Law School Securities Arbitration Clinic (guest lecturer); 2019 Concordia University elder financial abuse program; CBA program, Truth Without Proof - getting blockchain transactions into evidence; co-author of Truth Without Proof article on Law360; Cryptocurrencies and Tokens: What are they and who regulates them, co-author with Lou Straney, PIABA Bar Journal, Vol. 25, No. 1 (2018); PIABA and CBA meetings and programs on cryptocurrency and token regulation, investor protection, and behavioral finance; American Bar Association TechShow 2019 – speaker on cryptocurrency and token regulation; National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) training on elder abuse by financial advisors; Chicago Bar Foundation / NITA trial advocacy and deposition skills programs instructor.

Lisa serves as Chair of the CBA Securities Law Committee and is a member of the Women's White Collar Defense Association (WWCDA), the CBA Financial and Emerging Technology Committee, and the Trial Bar of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She has a B.A. (with honors) and J.D. / M.B.A. (Order of the Coif, honors) from the University of Chicago.

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masterofd1saster · 2 years ago

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CJ court watch 3oct22

SCt kicked its current term today.

The Term of the Court begins, by law, on the first Monday in October and lasts until the first Monday in October of the next year. Each Term, approximately 7,000-8,000 new cases are filed in the Supreme Court. This is a substantially larger volume of cases than was presented to the Court in the last century. In the 1950 Term, for example, the Court received only 1,195 new cases, and even as recently as the 1975 Term it received only 3,940. Plenary review, with oral arguments by attorneys, is currently granted in about 80 of those cases each Term, and the Court typically disposes of about 100 or more cases without plenary review. The publication of each Term’s written opinions, including concurring opinions, dissenting opinions, and orders, can take up thousands of pages. During the drafting process, some opinions may be revised a dozen or more times before they are announced. https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/courtatwork.aspx

***

Most amusing case is Novak v. Parma, 22-293. Novak had published a parody fb page aping the Parma, Ohio police dep’t. They were not amused.

Novak was arrested, detained, tried, and acquitted. He was not amused, and he sued.

The Onion has an amusing amicus curiae brief.

The Onion is the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events. Rising from its humble beginnings as a print newspaper in 1756, The Onion now enjoys a daily readership of 4.3 trillion and has grown into the single most powerful and influential organization in human history.

In addition to maintaining a towering standard of excellence to which the rest of the industry aspires, The Onion supports more than 350,000 full- and parttime journalism jobs in its numerous news bureaus and manual labor camps stationed around the world, and members of its editorial board have served with distinction in an advisory capacity for such nations as China, Syria, Somalia, and the former Soviet Union. On top of its journalistic pursuits, The Onion also owns and operates the majority of the world’s transoceanic shipping lanes, stands on the nation’s leading edge on matters of deforestation and strip mining, and proudly conducts tests on millions of animals daily.***

Americans can be put in jail for poking fun at the government? This was a surprise to America’s Finest News Source and an uncomfortable learning experience for its editorial team. Indeed, “Ohio Police Officers Arrest, Prosecute Man Who Made Fun of Them on Facebook” might sound like a headline ripped from the front pages of The Onion—albeit one that’s considerably less amusing because its subjects are real.***

***

Interesting contrast to Chicago, LA, etc

[If the corpse of a murder victim is found.]

6Then all the elders of that city nearest the corpse shall wash their hands* ***

7and shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood,* and our eyes did not see the deed.

8Absolve, O LORD, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not let the guilt of shedding innocent blood remain in the midst of your people Israel.” Thus they shall be absolved from the guilt of bloodshed,

9and you shall purge the innocent blood from your midst, and do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.b

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/deuteronomy/21?23=#05021023

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sandrabuloc · 4 years ago

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meryriana · 4 years ago

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go-redgirl · 4 years ago

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The History of Presidents Using Military to Restore Order Within US

The National Guard has stepped in to quell the violence in Minneapolis in the wake of riots that occurred over the death of George Floyd.

President Donald Trump tweeted, “The National Guard has arrived on the scene. They are in Minneapolis and fully prepared. George Floyd will not have died in vain. Respect his memory!!!”

Trump also tweeted last week, “Just spoke to Gov. Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way.“

The liberal Left continue to push their radical agenda against American values. The good news is there is a solution.

In a statement Sunday, Attorney General William Barr said:

It is the responsibility of state and local leaders to ensure that adequate law enforcement resources, including the National Guard where necessary, are deployed on the streets to reestablish law and order. …

Federal law enforcement actions will be directed at apprehending and charging the violent radical agitators who have hijacked peaceful protest and are engaged in violations of federal law.

Since the military is supposed to fight international conflicts and not be engaged in domestic law enforcement, the use of federal troops has been rare. However, it has happened under several presidents, not just Abraham Lincoln, who had to use the military to stop a full-scale rebellion.

Both Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush, respectively invoking the Insurrection Act of 1807, sent federal troops to respond to emergencies. President Dwight D. Eisenhower used the act to have federal troops enforce federal civil rights laws. Before that, Presidents Herbert Hoover and Woodrow Wilson used federal troops to respond to emergencies.

Two laws deal primarily with federal troops in domestic matters, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Under the Insurrection Act of 1807, Congress delegated authority to the president to call the military during an insurrection or civil disturbance. Under one provision of the law, a president can use the military to suppress an insurrection at the request of a state government in order to protect states against “domestic violence.”

After the passage of the 14th Amendment, another provision was added to the Insurrection Act that allows the president to use the military without the consent of a state government to suppress any “insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.”

This is only if state law enforcement is unable to protect citizens and the criminal conduct “obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”

This section was enacted to implement the 14th Amendment, which gave citizenship and other legal rights to African Americans, and does not require a request from or even the permission of the governor of the affected state.

The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 further defined but didn’t supplant the Insurrection Act. The law was enacted as post-Civil War reconstruction was winding down in the south, and outlawed the use of the military for law enforcement.

This law made it illegal for civilian law enforcement to use military investigators, prohibits use of the military if it “pervades the activities” of the civilian officials and prohibits subjecting citizens to military power that is “regulatory, prescriptive, or compulsory in nature.”

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush used the Insurrection Act to place armed soldiers throughout U.S. airports.

His father, President George H.W. Bush, used the insurrection law to send federal troops to Los Angeles in 1992 to restore order in the city after the riots that erupted after a jury acquitted police officers who were caught on camera beating up Rodney King, an African American.

The elder Bush also sent federal troops to St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, at the request of the territorial government, in 1989 to restore order from civil unrest after Hurricane Hugo.

Among the most dramatic events occurred in 1957 when Arkansas’ Democrat Gov. Orval Faubus tried to face down Republican President Dwight Eisenhower over desegregation of schools.

In 1957, the Little Rock, Arkansas, school board voted to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling from three years earlier to desegregate schools. Nine black high school students tried to attend the all-white Central High School in Little Rock.

Faubus announced days before the school year was to begin he would send the National Guard to prevent the black students from entering. The students that became known as the “Little Rock Nine” were denied entry to the school by the National Guard troops, who were under state command.

Eisenhower initially sought to defuse the matter peacefully and made what he thought was an agreement with Faubus—the Guard troops at the school to maintain order while keeping the black students safe. Faubus instead removed the Guard troops and put the state police at the school to keep the students out.

In late September, about 1,000 whites formed outside the school and a riot ensued.

So, Eisenhower issued Executive Order 10730 that specifically noted the provision of the Insurrection Act that allows federal troops to take action in lieu of a request from the state government. Eisenhower federalized the Arkansas National Guard and then sent the 101st Airborne Division into Little Rock to quell the riots.

In a televised address, Eisenhower said, “Our enemies are gloating over this incident and using it everywhere to misrepresent our nation. … Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of the courts.”

Finally, on Sept. 25, 1957, the “Little Rock Nine” attended Central High for their first full day of classes, this time protected by the Arkansas National Guard and the other federal troops. The students continued to face threats, but still attended school until the end of the school year.

The defeated Faubus retaliated in September 1958 by closing down Little Rock high schools for the year, but the high schools reopened in August 1959 after a federal court struck down the closing.

Other cases in the 20th century would include notable presidents.

In 1946, President Harry Truman, a Democrat, sent federal troops to act against striking railroad workers.

In 1932, an already unpopular Republican President Herbert Hoover sent U.S. troops to disperse a group of 20,000 World War I veterans in the Washington Mall. The unemployed veterans were seeking bonus payments from Congress, and it became known as the “Bonus March.”

However, some of the veterans ended up in a physical confrontation with police. So Hoover called in the military, which included tanks. Gen. Douglas MacArthur led armed military men against unarmed veterans, a bad look for the government in newspaper photos and in newsreels then being shown at movie theaters.

Accompanying MacArthur were two other future World War II heroes, then-Maj. Eisenhower and then-Maj. George S. Patton. The military fired mostly tear gas at the veterans. Still, The Washington Post would report one veteran was killed and 60 were hurt after the gas bombs and flames.

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, ordered federal troops to stop race riots in 20 cities across the United States. The first of the riots occurred in Chicago, erupting in part from the post-war social tensions and competition over jobs.

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loudlytransparenttrash · 7 years ago

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This Week Within Our Country

An illegal immigrant who was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement by San Francisco police is to be awarded $190,000. Pedro Figueroa-Zarceno sued the city of San Francisco for violating its own sanctuary laws when police officers at Southern Station allegedly cooperated with immigration authorities to detain him. “It’s really important for San Francisco to remain a sanctuary city not in name only but also in practice,” said Saira Hussain, the attorney who represented Figueroa-Zarceno. She says that she hopes the settlement will encourage the city to follow its own sanctuary laws.

California became the seventh state to join the lawsuit challenging President Trump’s revised travel ban. So they’re against travel bans, eh? State Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the same guy who blasted Trump’s travel ban, announced the state is extending its state-funded and state-sponsored travel ban to four more red states: Alabama, Kentucky, South Dakota and Texas, which join Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina and Tennessee in being targeted by AB 1887, which attacks states that it says have laws discriminating against the LGBTQ community. AB 1887 became law on January 1; it states that California does not support or finance "discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people." Yet it boasts sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants and fights to welcome people from countries where killing, imprisoning and torturing LGBT people is legal and common practice.

A black Mississippi high school graduate sued her school district this week after she shared valedictorian status with a white student. The student and her mother are under the impression that the white student had a lower GPA and the only reason she wasn’t the outright winner was because of racism, despite the Mississippi school district confirming both students had the exact same GPA. As such, under school board policy, they were both named valedictorian of their graduating class. Still, it’s racism. The student and her mother have launched a “Justice for Jasmine” Facebook page. “The outpouring of good wishes and prayers have brought encouragement at some of the most darkest hours,” a recent post reads. The lawsuit seeks an unknown amount of money and wants Shephard to be declared the only valedictorian.

There is a growing split among Black Lives Matter and the LGBT movement. First they demanded for black and blown stripes to be included into the flag, now Black Lives Matter have published an open letter slamming NYC Pride for having police helping protect their parade, saying Pride events are not doing a good enough job at recognizing the dangers blacks face by the military forces (police). Black Lives Matter NYC said they hoped a dialogue with NYC Pride organizers would begin "about the safety of black and brown folks." BLM had three main demands for Pride: The removal of uniformed police from future events, a commitment to transform Pride events to center the lives of black communities and “the honoring of our ancestors and elders with true integrity.”

The White House notched a policy win when the House of Representatives passed a pair of Trump-backed immigration enforcement bills. The bills, which target sanctuary cities and illegal immigrants who re-enter the U.S. after being deported, are the first immigration legislation that Congress has advanced since Trump took office. If the 52 Senate Republicans want to get Trump’s signature, they will have to persuade at least eight of their Democratic colleagues to break party ranks. Kate’s Law looks the most likely to pass, while the “No Sanctuary for Criminals” bill on the other hand enjoys far less support on the Democratic side, just three House Democrats voted for it.

A self-professed asexual, genderqueer woman hopes her five year-old daughter also turns out to be “queer,” after already converting her daughter to identify as a boy. B.R. Sanders, a woman who identifies as transgender and a member of a polyamorous relationship, raises “Arthur” with her two other queer partners, Jon and Samantha. “Arthur” was actually born a female, but they decided at the age of three that he was a boy. Now Arthur presents as a boy. “When Arthur displayed a great deal of gender non-conforming behavior as a teensy child, we all welcomed it.” Sanders also says it would be strange for them if her child decided she was straight. “We do joke that it will be strange if Arthur comes out to us as straight,” she says. “We’re all half-expecting him to turn out like us.”

CNN has been exposed for pushing the false Russia-Trump collusion myth. There has been a number of instances now in which CNN either misrepresented the facts or completely botched a story. Recently they have had to retract several stories and several employers have been laid off. Employees have also been caught saying the Russia story doesn’t exist and they are only pushing it for ratings and because they don’t like Trump. Leadership at CNN decided to impose new rules on Russia coverage because the latest bungled stories seemingly proved to be the tipping point for the higher-ups. The New York Times have also had to retract their Russia claims.

Members of a Jewish LGBT group in Chicago were harassed, screamed at and berated before being publicly ousted from the Chicago’s “Dyke March,” which is part of Chicago Pride but is meant to be “more inclusive.” The organizers said their Jewish rainbow banner made other marchers feel “unsafe” so it was within their rights to remove the Jewish LGBT group altogether. Dyke March participants said that the attendees were “pro-Palestinian” because “Dyke Marches across the country are meant to represent the struggle of oppressed people.”

A black Mississippi man who thinks the state flag symbolizes white supremacy is taking his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. His lawsuit claims the flag to be “state-sanctioned hate speech” and wants it removed. He also claims the flag violates his constitutional right to equal protection. Several cities and towns, as well as all eight of the state’s public universities, have stopped flying the flag due to concerns that it is offensive to the state’s black population. Should the Supreme Court decide to take the lawsuit, a decision in favor could mean the banning of all official use of Confederate imagery across the country. The Supreme Court will address the case in October.

A gender-neutral option was made available on Washington, D.C. driver’s licenses, making D.C. the first in the nation to offer such and option. “X,” the new gender neutral identifier, is now featured alongside “M” and “F,” to accommodate D.C. citizens who identify as a “non-binary” gender. D.C. residents will also now be allowed to change the gender on their I.D. to whichever they identify as, without being required to get signed approval from a health care provider before changing their gender. Oregon is the next jurisdiction lined up to offer a gender neutral option in its state issued licenses.

In a worrying growing trend, another black criminal filmed himself starting a gun battle with police. He started streaming what was happening on his cellphone, telling this audience, "They're about to kill me.” The incident was precipitated by officers serving a warrant as part of an investigation into a March 31 killing. Officers noticed one of the homicide suspects, who fled with the police in pursuit. That pursuit led to El Segundo where the suspect ditched his car and ran through an apartment complex shooting at multiple officers.

Canadian Conservative senators have blocked a bill approved by Justin Trudeau that would have made the country’s national anthem lyrics gender neutral and more inclusive of women. It tried to change the national anthem lyrics by altering the line “in all thy sons commands” to “in all of us command” in a bid to make the anthem more inclusive and remove gendered language from the anthem. Senator David Wells explained his opposition to the bill, saying national symbols shouldn’t be changed to the “flavor of the day” and added that the Canadians weren’t actually consulted on the change.

#SJW #social justice #anti sjw #united states #us #trump

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garofalolawgroup-blog · 7 years ago

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If you are looking for elder law related helps, you can easily contact with Garofalo law group. If you are looking for someone who can plan for long term care for you, who can determine Medicaid eligibility, planning asset spend downs. Who will create a living will or advance health care directive, who can create a power of attorney, who can preserve assets for heirs through wills and trusts etc. Who can update an existing wills etc. At Garofalo law firm, we will help you with all these areas of legal thing. Call us or email us today.

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thetcreator1 · 7 years ago

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There are lots of things in probate, you need to locate and file last testament, you need to file probate documents, you need to locate, inventory, custody, and transfer personal assets/ accounts etc. Garofalo law firm will help you.

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vinklerlawoffices · 5 years ago

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3 Basic Traits To Look For In Your Nursing Home Abuse Attorney in Chicago

When your loved one has been a victim of nursing home abuse, all you want is justice. Although the harm suffered cannot be undone, you can seek financial compensation for the abuse with the help of a nursing home abuse attorney in Chicago and elsewhere in the country. Choosing the perfect lawyer for the purpose, however, might be a challenge. Let us help you out. Read on to find out some qualities that you should look out for in the nursing home abuse attorney that you appoint for handling your case.

Experience - Nursing home abuse attorneys handle various types of nursing home abuse cases that deal with issues like wrongful death, elder abuse, personal injury, nursing home malpractice, and so on. If yours is a case that falls under their purview, refrain from hiring a lawyer not trained or experienced in the field. Also, as the cases relating to nursing home abuse can be of many types, hire a nursing home abuse attorney who has specifically handled cases like yours. An experienced attorney will have specialized knowledge of nursing home regulations, elder law, local state laws, and the like. Again, an attorney experienced in handling cases related to your issue will be able to ask the right questions, anticipate problems beforehand, avoid making any mistakes that can harm your claim.

Reviews and References - Read reviews online on. Talk to your friends, family, acquaintances. Try to find out how the nursing home abuse attorney in Chicago that you have shortlisted, has performed in the past. What do his/her clients have to say about him/her? How many cases has he won? How does he conduct himself in the court and otherwise? How does he handle sensitive information? How much knowledge does he have of nursing home abuse laws? Getting an answer to these will help you decide.

Fees - The most reputed and experienced nursing home abuse attorneys do not charge any fees upfront. That is, they work on a contingency basis, taking fees from you only after they win your case. However, if you have shortlisted an attorney you are confident of handling your case successfully and comfortable with sharing all the sensitive information, despite the fact that he/she charges upfront fees, you can go ahead with your choice, given that, he/she is transparent about the charges and has communicated to you clearly the details of the same, including the terms, if at all.

Vinkler Law Office Ltd., is one of the leading personal injury law firms in Chicago, handling cases in the Chicagoland area, including Cook County, Lake County, DuPage County, and throughout the state of Illinois. They develop every case in a convincing and powerful way, as if it were to go to trial. Their practice areas include handling cases relating to medical malpractice, birth injuries, traumatic brain injuries, sexual abuse, truck accidents, construction accidents, nursing home abuse and product liability. Contact the Vinkler Law nursing home abuse attorneys in Chicago for a case evaluation.

About Vinkler Law Offices LTD:

Vinkler Law Offices, LTD located in Chicago and Burr Ridge, Illinois is a personal injury law firm. If you have been in a recent vehicular accident and are seeking help in claiming or filing a lawsuit, you may contact Vinkler Law today. We passionately represent clients throughout Chicago and the suburbs for wrongful death and catastrophic injury including medical malpractice, auto and trucking crashes, construction, premises liability and product liability.

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anntyler3 · 5 years ago

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An Employee's Guide to Federal and State Minimum Wage Laws

Labor Day is right around the corner, a welcome day off from work (for many of us) and a time to reflect on the rights of workers won by the labor movement, like the 40-hour work week and minimum wage. Minimum wage laws, in particular, have been getting a lot of attention recently as states and cities continue to raise the floor of what employers must pay. With federal, state, and local laws overlapping, it may be difficult to determine what the minimum wage is where you work.

So, here's a primer on current minimum wage laws, and how they might apply to your job.

The Federal Wage Floor

The Fair Labor Standards Act sets the minimum wage from coast to coast lays out the rules for overtime pay. That wage is $7.25 per hour for covered nonexempt employees, and applies to any employer that has at least two employees and either "an annual dollar volume of sales or business done of at least $500,000," or "hospitals, businesses providing medical or nursing care for residents, schools and preschools, and government agencies." There are a few exceptions and exemptions, like students in retail or service establishments, agriculture, or institutions of higher education, and certain service industry workers.

The FLSA also mandates "time and a half" overtime for work over forty hours per week. However some workers (like executive, administrative, and professional employees; farm workers and seasonal employees; and casual babysitters and some elder care workers) are exempt from minimum wage and overtime pay statutes .

State and Local Labor Laws

As the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division points out, "Federal minimum wage law supersedes state minimum wage laws where the federal minimum wage is greater than the state minimum wage. In those states where the state minimum wage is greater than the federal minimum wage, the state minimum wage prevails." Therefore, states can set their own minimum wage laws, as long as they are higher than the federal minimum.

A total of 29 states -- plus D.C., Guam, and the Virgin Islands -- have minimum wage rates higher than the federal minimum wage, and many of them have scheduled annual adjustments to raise wages. Five states, however, don't have a state-mandated minimum wage, so they must adhere to the federal statute. State minimum wages range from New Mexico's $7.50/hour to Washington's $12/hour and the District of Columbia's $14/hour.

Several cities and counties have enacted minimum wage ordinances higher than that set by their respective states , from Berkeley ($15.59), Los Angeles ($14.25), and Sunnyvale ($15.65), California to Seattle ($16.00), Washington, and Chicago ($13.00) and Cook County ($12.00), Illinois. In response, 25 states have passed minimum wage preemption laws, prohibiting local governments from setting their own wage laws higher than the state minimum.

Employers subject to minimum wage laws are required to display a poster detailing their wage and hour requirements where employees can readily see it. To find out whether and which federal, state, or local minimum wage laws apply to your job, or if you think your employer is violating wage laws, contact a local wage and hour attorney for help.

Related Resources:

Find Wage & Hour Lawyers Near You (FindLaw's Lawyer Directory)

5 Things a Wage & Hour Lawyer Can Do (That You Probably Can't) (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)

Which States Increased Their Minimum Wage This Year? (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)

A Labor Law Primer for Employees (FindLaw's Law and Daily Life)

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8246803 http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2019/08/an-employees-guide-to-federal-and-state-minimum-wage-laws.html

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maxwellyjordan · 5 years ago

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Strategic Planning for Law-Firm Success and Growth

“Practice Management: Plan to Grow,” by Ed Finkel, was originally published in the March 2015 edition of the Illinois Bar Journal.

“The world is complicated. It doesn’t stay the same forever.”

While nothing is guaranteed in life or law, attorneys and firm management consultants say law firm strategic planning—that is, taking a step back and looking at the big picture—is essential to know where you’ve been, where you’re going, and how you will keep growing whether you’re a solo practitioner or at a large firm. Your law firm strategic planning process is the best way to achieve success in the long run, even if it seems like you’ve been doing just fine dealing with the day-to-day.

Managing Change

“The world is complicated. It doesn’t stay the same forever,” says Craig Caldwell, department chair in marketing and management at Butler University and a speaker on law firm strategic planning at the Solo & Small Firm Institute program in Peoria. “Firms can get blindsided by getting too down into the weeds of their business. It’s necessary at times, for the livelihood and success of the firm, to pop your head up, see what’s going on in the marketplace, and see whether your firm needs to make some changes.”

Lack of strategic planning might not negatively impact a law firm as quickly as another type of business—say, a technology firm—because of the highly regulated legal environment, which provides a buffer of sorts from economic and other changes, Caldwell says. “But if there are aspirations for growth or skill sets within the law firm that simply aren’t as in demand as they used to be, you’re going to find yourself in a scenario where strategic planning is going to be critical,” he says.

Related “Offer Unbundled Legal Services to Compete in Today’s Legal Market”

One current scenario that’s affecting consumer-oriented firms, in particular, is the trend toward websites that help people handle some of their own legal matters, Caldwell says. “They have a choice to make—do we find other ways to get those dollars that we’ve lost to law.com, or do we join that site?” he says. “If we decide the Internet’s the thing, let’s chase that business.”

The most common law firm strategic planning issue facing firms in recent years has been how to respond to the economic shift in the legal market since the Great Recession, with fewer clients and a tighter bottom line, says John Olmstead, principal at St. Louis-based consultancy Olmstead & Associates.

“The process doesn’t change. The need for law firm strategic planning doesn’t change,” John says. “Sometimes what changes is the fundamentals and what’s going on, and what firms need to develop strategies to deal with. In recent years, most of the challenges firms are having are the same, everything from pressure on the economics, to resistance from clients to fee increases.”

Don’t React. Have a Plan.

It’s easy for firms to lose sight of the big picture as they’re working through day-to-day matters, says Terrence Truax, managing partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago.

“Every day is filled with new opportunities and new curveballs.”

“You have your nose to the stone, you’re working flat out as hard as you can, and it’s difficult to step back and ask those important questions: What is my priority? Where do I want to be in 24, 36 months?” he says.

“That doesn’t mean you don’t react to the moment,” Truax adds. “Every day is filled with new opportunities and new curveballs.”

For smaller firms and solos, there’s always a temptation to do nothing but react to the moment, says Bill Wilson, principal at The Law Offices of Wilson & Wilson and The Center for Estate Planning and Elder Law, based in west suburban LaGrange.

“But then you’re just going to work each day and letting your environment dictate to you how you’re going to manage and work your law firm,” Wilson says. A strategic plan provides “a guidebook where you’re intentionally doing things to get you to a certain point, instead of having clients or other external forces dictate to you where you’re going,” he says.

Firm Size Matters for Law Firm Strategic Planning

Olmstead figures that probably three-quarters of large firms have strategic plans, while mid-sized firms in the 50-attorney range are closer to 50-50, with the likelihood shrinking to 15 percent or less of firms with 10 attorneys and fewer. “Different approaches to strategic planning [for different-sized firms] would be appropriate,” he says. “The challenges and issues are different.”

Big Firms Hire Big Help

In larger firms, top partners typically sit down, figure out where their practice has been growing and where it’s become stagnant, and decide whether and how to recast lines of business that fall into the latter category, Caldwell says. His talks aren’t tailored to large firms because “they have a lot of their own educational systems—they hire some hotshots and bring them in and pay them a lot of money to walk them through the strategy,” he says.

Jenner has its practice broadly divided between litigation and business transactions groups, with several disciplines in each, and at the beginning of each year, each group develops its own strategic plan. Those are then “vetted and cross-examined, and people are being encouraged and challenged in a positive way,” Truax says.

“We ask all the basic questions any business enterprise would be asking. What do we look like today? What are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats? Where do we want to be in 12 months, and in five years?”

The plans are revisited throughout the year iteratively, Truax says, which “requires focus and discipline, making sure everybody stays on message. They’re refined throughout the year; we ask people to pull together their plans and test them.”

Breaking Out of Crisis Mode at Small Firms

“It’s hard to think long term when you can’t think through the current day.”

In smaller firms, there are fewer people involved and fewer decisions to make but also less time, Caldwell says. “People don’t engage with the same discipline because they’re doing work,” he says. “They’re fighting fires, meeting deadlines, getting things filed in court.” Plus, he adds, “They don’t have the resources to hire an expert to do it for them.”

Small firm attorneys need to pick out a time and day, on a regular interval, to pop their heads out and look around, Caldwell says. “It requires the discipline to say, Friday afternoon, from noon to 5, we’re going to sit down, and not be billable, and work through some stuff about what we’re going to be when we grow up,” he says. “Three to five years from now, what are we going to be doing?”

Wilson finds it very important to “disconnect” when he creates his strategic plans, “meaning I get off premises,” he says. “I need to do that where the phone isn’t ringing, or I’m tempted to look at my e-mails.

“I go off-site and hibernate. Then I come back and talk to the people I need to talk to, my bookkeeper, marketing person, other attorneys, to figure out how are we going to get there, and what do we need to do? I start soliciting some advice. I have my own ideas, but they’re more down in the trenches and know a lot of things I don’t know, or forgot, or need to keep in mind.”

Firms should not confuse strategic planning with crisis management, Olmstead says. The latter is more urgent. “In some of the smaller firms, especially, I’ve run across somewhere I’ve advised them, ‘You guys have so many tactical issues going on in the swamp; you’re trying to survive day to day. Until you do some things as far as operations in the short term, maybe you shouldn’t think about strategic planning,'” he says. “It’s hard to think long term when you can’t think through the current day.”

For example, Olmstead has worked with firms who have legal accounting software but need to hire a consultant to pull reports for them. “If they’re not using technology right, and they can’t even pull any basic reports to know how they’re performing financially, they can’t pull together reports as far as what they’re paying their people, if they don’t have a website or some of those basic things – and you’d be surprised how many don’t. If they’ve got 14 or 15 attorneys and don’t have an office manager in place,” they should take care of that first, he says.

The Challenge Intensifies For Solos

Related “Going Solo: Debunking the Top Ten Fears”

Sole practitioners face particular challenges, Olmstead says, because figuring out what they are trying to do and where they want to take their practice – and what steps they need to take to get there – ideally should not be a solo activity. “It’s hard to do a long-range strategic plan by yourself,” he says. “It’s not something you do in one sitting, and you need somebody looking over your shoulder, whether that somebody might be your spouse or your staff person.”

Olmstead worked with a solo practitioner in Iowa who did not realize he was only paying his associate of 10 years a $60,000 salary – or that he himself had only cleared $20,000 the previous year. “He sent me his numbers, and I’m looking at the financials, and they’re terrible,” he says. “When I say I ought to be seeing $300,000 in fee revenue per year, that’s an achievable number, and I’ve got some who are barely doing $100,000. I told one guy, ‘I hate to say this, but your effective rate is $45 per hour.’ It involves internal analysis and benchmarking.”

Implementing and Measuring Strategic Planning Results

Because attorneys tend to enjoy discussion and debate, the process of putting together a law firm strategic plan can seem natural and appealing, Olmstead says. “The bigger challenge is getting them to implement anything. [The plans] go into books, they go on shelves, and very little happens as a result,” he says.

A plan that isn’t implemented is only a list of suggestions. Here’s how to increase the odds that strategic planning will lead to real progress.

Don’t Bite Off too Much

It’s important to keep things manageable, Caldwell says. He cautions smaller firms not to take on more than one or two significant strategic initiatives at one time. “To take on more is simply not tenable because there are not enough horses,” he says.

That goes for the law firm strategic planning document, too, Olmstead adds. “Most of the [plans] I’ve done for 15 and 25 attorney firms and under, particularly even smaller ones, will typically be 10 pages or less,” he says. “To me, if you can keep them briefer and to the point, as opposed to carrying on and making these things too elaborate, they’ve got a much better chance of implementation.”

Define Goals Clearly

Related “The Importance of Long-Term Goals for Your Practice”

“If you’re going to get into family law going forward, you have to have some ideas about what success is going to look like before you launch it,” Caldwell says. “If you’re wanting to grow your corporate law practice, maybe it’s the snagging of three to five major accounts, something that will let you know you’re getting a little bit closer to what the plan had set out for you.”

Make Results Accountable

Be sure to assign responsibility for specific planks of the law firm strategic plan, Caldwell says. “To the extent you can reduce implementation down to metrics that let you know how much progress you’re making, that’s critical,” he says. “And then also, it’s important to get back to people in the organization with feedback about how things are going.”

Olmstead agrees. “I want to know: When are we going to do it, and whose name am I putting in the box, and when is this task going to start,” he says. “It needs to get down to the nitty-gritty, hold people accountable for some of the action items you’re going to get done. Otherwise, it’s just one of those non-billable activities.”

Move Quickly

While a larger firm might take six months from the kickoff meeting to the presentation at the end, smaller businesses can get the law firm strategic plan finished in a month—and that’s probably wise given that they don’t have the professional administrators and other support staff in place to help out, Olmstead says.

“They may only have one shot at doing it,” he says. “They’re not going to have the patience for a time commitment over a period of months. It might have to happen in a retreat setting. You do the pre-work, financial review and analysis, beforehand. And then we lock ourselves up for a day or two in a retreat-type setting and basically work through the whole process.”

Measure Results

To measure law firm strategic planning success financially and otherwise, Jenner uses a range of metrics and compares performance throughout the year against the strategic plan, monthly, biannually, and annually, Truax says. “That will guide us as to whether we’re moving forward with respect to that strategic objective,” he says. “There may be all kinds of reasons why your performance deviates from the plan, but we measure that on an ongoing basis.”

Related “Strategic Planning for Small Law Firms”

What sort of metrics? Wilson’s strategic plans go out five years and attempt to project for each year the gross revenue, net income before taxes, the number of people he will employ, and numbers of matters he expects to handle. He measures his marketing success in terms of numbers of articles published, newsletters contributed to, seminars delivered, and new contacts and referral sources. “From that, we would also try to back in the number of new clients we would get each year,” he says. “These obviously are all projected goals.”

Wilson considers his plans living documents that he revisits continuously to see how well the law firm’s strategic planning efforts are matching the vision laid out. “If my plan is to increase estate administration and asset planning, and I see we’re putting too much time into real estate, I’m not adhering to my plan,” he says. “The reason it’s important is that it’s a guide for a firm to keep on topic and on goals, so we can always look back and bring it up at a monthly meeting.”

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lesliepump · 5 years ago

Text

Strategic Planning for Law-Firm Success and Growth

“Practice Management: Plan to Grow,” by Ed Finkel, was originally published in the March 2015 edition of the Illinois Bar Journal.

“The world is complicated. It doesn’t stay the same forever.”

Managing Change

Related “Offer Unbundled Legal Services to Compete in Today’s Legal Market”

Don’t React. Have a Plan.

It’s easy for firms to lose sight of the big picture as they’re working through day-to-day matters, says Terrence Truax, managing partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago.

“Every day is filled with new opportunities and new curveballs.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t react to the moment,” Truax adds. “Every day is filled with new opportunities and new curveballs.”

Firm Size Matters for Law Firm Strategic Planning

Big Firms Hire Big Help

Breaking Out of Crisis Mode at Small Firms

“It’s hard to think long term when you can’t think through the current day.”

The Challenge Intensifies For Solos

Related “Going Solo: Debunking the Top Ten Fears”

Implementing and Measuring Strategic Planning Results

A plan that isn’t implemented is only a list of suggestions. Here’s how to increase the odds that strategic planning will lead to real progress.

Don’t Bite Off too Much

Define Goals Clearly

Related “The Importance of Long-Term Goals for Your Practice”

Make Results Accountable

Move Quickly

Measure Results

Related “Strategic Planning for Small Law Firms”

The post Strategic Planning for Law-Firm Success and Growth appeared first on Lawyerist.com.

from Law and Politics https://lawyerist.com/strategically-planning-law-firm-success-growth/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

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