#Ex-NAACP president wins

[mediamonarchy]

https://mediamonarchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20240216_MorningMonarchy.mp3 Download MP3 American conspiracy, Alicia off-Keys and get me Carlucci + this day in history w/Epstein document dump and our song of the day by Remy on your #MorningMonarchy for February 16, 2024. Notes/Links: “This Is Scary”: Soros Prepares Takeover Of 200 Radio Stations Ahead Of US Presidential Election https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/scary-soros-prepares-takeover-200-radio-stations-ahead-us-presidential-election Huma Abedin and George Soros’ son Alex reveal relationship in Valentine’s Day photo from Paris https://nypost.com/2024/02/14/us-news/huma-abedin-and-george-soros-son-alex-share-romantic-valentines-day-dinner-in-paris/ Video: Huma Abedin hooked up with George Soros’s soy boy son for cash? (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFu2NxFbAuc Image: @Hybrid’s Cover Art – ALEX’s ‘THE AUDACITY’ https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/983208466481029191/1207901722727420006/20240216_MorningMonarchy.jpg?ex=65e15524&is=65cee024&hm=a8ff4c499151b8c2fd4bbcd25dc157a2369269c8f6045bf861a686d975f9ef86& #MorningMonarchy: June 12, 2023 – ALEX’s ‘MORE POLITICAL’ https://mediamonarchy.com/20230612morningmonarchy/ White to black-identifying transracial woman Rachel Dolezal has been fired from her teaching role in the Catalina Foothills Unified School District in AZ after they learned she was selling p—rn content on OnlyFans. She previously lost role at NAACP. https://vxtwitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1757965472975487125 Video: Former NAACP President Nkechi Diallo, formerly known as Rachel Dolezal, has been fired from her job as a teacher in Arizona. (Audio) https://vxtwitter.com/RealBrittain/status/1757879956204388498 Image: Dems Wish You A Very Happy Black History Month https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/414600236783239168/1207871522778255422/dems_blackface_black_history_month.jpg?ex=65e13904&is=65cec404&hm=9194f9c3d74545a817343c6f56af36eb4baa4e63663a0cffedb8683099bff304& American Conspiracy Trailer Previews Netflix’s Octopus Murders Docuseries https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/american-conspiracy-trailer-previews-netflix-204130206.html Video: American Conspiracy: The Octopus Murders | Official Trailer | Netflix (Audio) https://youtu.be/mHcBh4EBudk ‘Octopus’ Radio Play (Digital Download) https://newworldnextweek.com/products/octopus Kanye West’s ‘Vultures 1’ Already Has a New Distributor; After a brief dalliance with FUGA, West’s new album moved back to Label Engine, which had distributed the lead singles. https://www.billboard.com/business/streaming/kanye-west-vultures-new-distributor-label-engine-1235608833/ Kanye West & Ty Dolla $ign’s ‘Vultures 1’ Album Returns to Apple Music After Brief Removal; The album and its songs were previously wiped from the streamer as well as iTunes on Thursday (Feb. 15). https://www.billboard.com/music/rb-hip-hop/kanye-west-ty-dolla-sign-vultures-album-removed-apple-music-1235608704/ Sinéad O’Connor nominated for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68267253 Michael Jackson: Stake in catalogue sells for $600m https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68261217 Iowa’s Caitlin Clark breaks NCAA women’s basketball scoring record https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/15/sport/caitlin-clark-ncaa-scoring-record-spt-intl/index.html Fans fighting and beer sales stopped as PGA Tour golf event descends into chaos https://archive.is/eNTpX Arthur Blank on “Private Equity” in the NFL: ‘There Are Models That Can Work’ https://frontofficesports.com/arthur-blank-on-pe-in-the-nfl-there-are-models-that-can-work/ Shooting after Chiefs Super Bowl parade seemed to stem from dispute among several people, police say; Three detained https://archive.is/B73Pe More than 120 million viewers for Chiefs’ overtime Super Bowl win https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/02/super-bowl-record-audience-120-million-cbs-chiefs-49ers/ Super Bowl ratings breakdown: Biggest gains in young, female, demos https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/02/super-bowl-ratin...

[africanamericanpeople]

29 notable African Americans who helped change the world

From activists to entertainers to record-breaking athletes to a postal worker, 6abc shines a spotlight on the contributions of 29 influential African Americans in Philadelphia and beyond as we celebrate Black History Month.

Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander | Writer | 1898-1989

A native Philadelphian, Alexander was the first black woman to receive a Ph.D. in economics in the United States, the first black woman student to graduate with a law degree from Penn Law School, and the first African-American woman to practice law in Pennsylvania. Alexander's work and views are recorded in speeches kept in the Penn archives. The Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander University of Pennsylvania Partnership School ("Penn Alexander") in West Philly is named after her.

Richard Allen | Minister | 1760-1831

A minister, educator and writer, this Philadelphia native founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent black denomination in the United States. He opened the first AME church in Philly in 1794. Born into slavery, he bought his freedom in the 1780s and joined St. George's Church. Because of seating restrictions placed on blacks to be confined to the gallery, he left to form his own church. In 1787 he turned an old blacksmith shop into the first church for blacks in the United States.

Maya Angelou received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from former President Barack Obama in 2010.

Maya Angelou | Poet | 1928-2014

Angelou was an American poet, singer, memoirist, and civil rights activist with a colorful and troubling past highlighted in her most famous autobiography, "I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings". She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies and television shows spanning over 50 years. Her works have been considered a defense and celebration of black culture.

Arthur Ashe | Tennis Player | 1943-1993

Ashe's resume includes three Grand Slam titles and the title of the first black player selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. In July 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack while holding a tennis clinic in New York. His high profile drew attention to his condition, specifically to the hereditary aspect of heart disease. In 1992, Ashe was diagnosed with HIV; he and his doctors believed he contracted the virus from blood transfusions he received during his second heart surgery. After Ashe went public with his illness, he founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS, working to raise awareness about the disease and advocated teaching safe sex education. On June 20, 1993, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton.

James Baldwin | American novelist | 1924-1987

Baldwin was an American novelist, playwright and activist, most notably known for "Notes of a Native Son", "The Fire Next Time" and "The Devil Find's Work". One of his novels, If Beale Street Could Talk, was adapted into an Academy Award-winning dramatic film in 2018.

"It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have."

U.S. Deputy Marshals escort Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans, La.

Ruby Bridges | Civil Rights Activist | 1954-present

At age 6, Bridges embarked on a historic walk to school as the first African American student to integrate the all-white William Frantz Elementary School in Louisiana. She ate lunch alone and sometimes played with her teacher at recess, but she never missed a day of school that year. In 1999, she established The Ruby Bridges Foundation to promote tolerance and create change through education. In 2000, she was made an honorary deputy marshal in a ceremony in Washington, DC.

Kobe Bryant | NBA star, humanitarian| 1978-2020

Drafted right out of Lower Merion High School at the age of 17, Bryant won five titles as one of the marquee players in the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. He was a member of the gold medal-winning U.S. men's basketball teams at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2012 London Olympic Games. In 2015 Bryant wrote the poem "Dear Basketball," which served as the basis for a short film of the same name he narrated. The work won an Academy Award for best animated short film. A vocal advocate for the homeless Bryant and his wife, Vanessa started the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation aimed to reduce the number of homeless in Los Angeles. Bryant, his daughter Gigi, and seven other passengers died in a helicopter crash in late January.

Kobe Bryant inspired a generation of basketball players worldwide with sublime skills and an unquenchable competitive fire.

Octavius V. Catto | Civil Rights Activist | 1839-1871

Known as one of the most influential civil rights' activists in Philadelphia during the 19th century, Catto fought for the abolition of slavery and the implementation of civil rights for all. He was prominent in the actions that successfully desegregated Philadelphia's public trolleys and played a major role in the ratification of the 15th amendment, baring voter discrimination on the basis of race. Catto was only 32 when he was shot and killed outside of his home on South Street in1871, the first Election Day that African Americans were allowed to vote. In 2017, a monument to Catto was unveiled at Philadelphia's City Hall.

Philly unveils first statue dedicated to African-American. Vernon Odom reports during Action News at Noon on September 26, 2017.

Bessie Coleman | Civil Aviator | 1892-1926

Coleman was the first black woman to fly an airplane. When American flying schools denied her entrance due to her race, she taught herself French and moved to France, earning her license from Caudron Brother's School in just seven months. She specialized in stunt flying and performing aerial tricks. Reading stories of World War I pilots sparked her interest in aviation.

Claudette Colvin | Civil Rights Pioneer | 1939-present

Colvin was arrested at the age of 15 for refusing to give up her seat to a white woman, nine months before Rosa Parks' more famous protest. Because of her age, the NAACP chose not to use her case to challenge segregation laws. Despite a number of personal challenges, Colvin became one of the four plaintiffs in the Browder v. Gayle case. The decision in the 1956 case ruled that Montgomery's segregated bus system was unconstitutional.

Medgar Evers | Civil Rights Activist | 1925-1963

Evers was an American civil rights activist in Mississippi, the state's field secretary for the NAACP, and a World War II veteran serving in the United States Army. After graduating from college with a BA in business administration, he worked to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi after Brown v. Board ruled public school segregation was unconstitutional. Evers was assassinated by a white supremacist in 1963, inspiring numerous civil rights protests which sprouted countless works of art, music and film. Because of his veteran status, he was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.

Mary Fields | Mail carrier |1832-1914

Known as "Stagecoach Mary", Fields was the first African-American to work for the U.S. postal service. Born a slave, she was freed when slavery was outlawed in 1865. At age 63, Fields was hired as a mail carrier because she was the fastest applicant to hitch a team of six horses. She never missed a day, and her reliability earned her the nickname "Stagecoach". If the snow was too deep for her horses, Fields delivered the mail on snowshoes, carrying the sacks on her shoulders.

Rudolph Fisher | Physician | 1897-1934

Fisher was an African-American physician, radiologist, novelist, short story writer, dramatist, musician, and orator. In addition to publishing scientific articles, he had a love of music. He played piano, wrote musical scores and toured with Paul Robeson, playing jazz. He wrote multiple short stories, two novels and contributed his articles to the NAACP all before his death at the age of 37.

James Forten | Abolitionist |1766-1842

Forten was an African-American abolitionist and wealthy businessman in Philadelphia. Born free in the city, he became a sailmaker after the American Revolutionary War. Following an apprenticeship, he became the foreman and bought the sail loft when his boss retired. Based on equipment he developed, he established a highly profitable business on the busy waterfront of the Delaware River, in what's now Penn's Landing. Having become well established, in his 40s Forten devoted both time and money to working for the national abolition of slavery and gaining civil rights for blacks. By the 1830s, his was one of the most powerful African-American voices in the city.

Robert Guillaume claimed the 1979 Emmy for Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Soap".

Robert Guillaume | Actor | 1927-2017

Robert was raised by his grandmother in the segregated south but moved to New York to escape racial injustice. There, he performed in theatre for 19 years, gaining momentum and a Tony nomination for his portrayal of Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls. In 1976, he landed his infamous role as Benson on Soap which won him an Emmy and his spin-off, Benson for which he won another Emmy. He returned to the stage in 1990, playing the role of the Phantom in Phantom of the Opera at the infamous Ahmanson Theatre. He voiced one of Disney's most beloved animated characters, Rafiki, and can still be heard as the narrator for the animated series, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales For Every Child.

Francis Harper | poet | 1825-1911 (died in Philadelphia)

Born free in Baltimore, Harper was an abolitionist, suffragist, poet, teacher, public speaker, and writer. She helped slaves make their way along the Underground Railroad to Canada. In 1894, she co-founded the National Associated of Colored Women, an organization dedicated to highlighting extraordinary efforts and progress made by black women. She served as vice president.

Langston Hughes was instrumental figure in the Harlem Renaissance and jazz poetry.

Langston Hughes | Poet | 1902-1967

Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. Born in Missouri, he moved to New York at an early age becoming one of the earliest innovators of a new art form, jazz poetry. In the early 1920's, his first book of poetry was published and he wrote an in-depth weekly column for The Chicago Defender, highlighting the civil rights movement. His ashes are interred beneath a floor medallion in the middle of the foyer in the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, the entrance to an auditorium named for him.

Zora Neale Hurston | American author | 1891-1960

Hurston became an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker but as a child she was unable to attend school after her father stopped paying her school fees. In 1917 she opted to attend a public school but had to lie about her age in order to qualify for a free education. She studied hoodoo, the American version of voodoo, and found her way to Hollywood by working as a story consultant. One of her most notable works, Their Eyes Were Watching God was turned into a film in 2005.

Nipsey Hussle | Rapper, entrepreneur | 1985-2019

Born Ermias Joseph Asghedom, Hussle, was an American activist, entrepreneur, and Grammy Award winning rapper. Raised in South Central, he joined gangs to survive before eventually attaining success in the music industry. Hussle focused on "giving solutions and inspiration" to young black men like him, denouncing gun violence through his music, influence and community work, while speaking openly about his experiences with gang culture. Hussle was shot and killed a day before he was to meet with LAPD officials to address gang violence in South Los Angeles.

If you stop and look around near the intersection of Grand and Ellita Avenues, a brightly-colored mural of Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle is sure to catch your eye.

Harriet Jacobs | Writer | 1813-1897

Born a slave, her mother died when she was 6. She moved in with her late mother's slave owner who taught her to sew and read. In 1842 she got a chance to escape to Philadelphia, aided by activists of the Philadelphia Vigilance Committee. She took it and worked as a nanny in New York. Her former owners hunted for her until her freedom was finally bought in 1852. She secretly began to write an autobiography which was published in the U.S. in 1860 and England in 1861. She lived the rest of her life as an abolitionist, dedicated to helping escaped slaves and eventually freedmen.

Cecil B. Moore | Lawyer |1915-1979

Moore was a Philadelphia lawyer and civil rights activist who led the fight to and successfully integrate Girard College. He served as a marine in WWII and after his honorary discharge, he moved to Philadelphia to study law at Temple University. He quickly earned a reputation as a no-nonsense lawyer who fought on behalf of his mostly poor, African-American clients concentrated in North Philadelphia. From 1963 to 1967, he served as president of the Philadelphia chapter of the NAACP and served on the Philadelphia City Council. Moore is cited as a pivotal figure in the fields of social justice and race relations. He has an entire neighborhood named after him in the North Philadelphia area.

Bayard Rustin | Civil Rights Activist | 1912-1987 (Born in West Chester, PA)

Bayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. He was a key adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2013. Rustin has local ties as he was born in West Chester and attended Cheney University of Pennsylvania, a historically black college. A gay man, he adopted his partner to protect their rights and legacy.

Nina Simone | Musician | 1933-2003

Born Eunice Waymon in Troy North Carolina, Simone was an American singer, songwriter, musician, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music crossed all genres from classical, jazz, blues and folk to R&B, gospel, and pop. She learned to play the piano as a toddler and played in church where her father was a preacher. She would cross tracks to the white side of town to study classical piano with a German teacher and was later accepted into The Juilliard School. She went on to record more than 40 albums and in 2003 just days before her death, the Curtis Institute awarded her an honorary degree.

Big Mama Thornton | Singer | 1926-1984

Thornton is best known for her gutsy 1952 R&B recording of "Hound Dog," later covered by Elvis Presley, and her original song "Ball and Chain," made famous by Janis Joplin. Affectionately called "Big Mama" for both her size and her powerful voice, she grew up singing in church and eventually caught the ear of an Atlanta music promoter while cleaning and subbing for the regular singer at a saloon. An openly gay woman, she joined the Hot Harlem Revue and danced and sang her way through the southeastern United States. She played at the Cotton Club and the Apollo Theatre and continued performing sporadically into the late 70's.

Sojourner Truth | Abolitionist |1797-1883

Truth was born into slavery but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. She then sued and won the return of her 5-year-old son who was illegally sold into slavery. In 1851, Truth began a lecture tour that included a women's rights conference where she delivered her famous "Ain't I a Woman?" speech, challenging prevailing notions of racial and gender inferiority and inequality. She collected thousands of signatures petitioning to provide former slaves with land.

Denmark Vesey | Carpenter | 1767-1822

Vesey was born a slave but won a lottery which allowed him to purchase his freedom. Unable to buy his wife and children their freedom, he became active in the church. In 1816, he became one of the founders of an independent African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and recruited more 1,800 members to become the second largest "Bethel Circuit" church in the country after Mother Bethel in Philadelphia. In 1822, Vesey was alleged to be the leader of a planned slave revolt. He and five others were rapidly found guilty and executed.

Muddy Waters | Singer | 1913-1983

An American blues singer-songwriter and musician who is often lauded as the "father of modern Chicago blues", Waters grew up on a plantation in Mississippi and by the age of 17 was playing the guitar and the harmonica. In 1941, he moved to Chicago to become a fulltime musician, working in a factory by day and performing at night. In 1958, he toured in England, reviving the interest of Blues and introducing the sound of the electric slide guitar playing there. His performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960 was recorded and released as his first live album, At Newport 1960. In 1972, he won his first Grammy Award for "They Call Me Muddy Waters", and another in 1975 for "The Muddy Waters Woodstock Album".

Phillis Wheatley| Poet |1753-1784

Born in West Africa and sold into slavery, she learned to read and write by the age of 9 and became the first African American woman to publish a book of poetry. In addition to having to prove she had indeed written the poetry, no one in America would publish her work. She was forced to go to England where the pieces were published in London in 1773. Years later, she sent one of her poems to George Washington who requested and received a meeting with her at his headquarters in Cambridge in 1776.

Serena Williams is arguably the greatest women's tennis player of all time, with 73 singles titles and an overall record of 831-142.

Serena Jameka Williams |Tennis Player |1981-present

Williams emerged straight outta the streets of Compton to become the world's No. 1 player. She has won 23 major singles titles, the most by any man or woman in the Open Era. The Women's Tennis Association ranked her world No. 1 in singles on eight separate occasions between 2002 and 2017. She has competed at three Olympics and won four gold medals.

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

There has long been conflict in the United States over who gets to vote and how. In the years since Barack Obama’s election as president, those voting debates have become increasingly partisan, with Republican elected officials often pushing measures like requiring photo IDs that make it harder for people to vote, and Democratic officials advancing provisions like same-day registration that make it easier to vote.

That long-running conflict over voting has reached a new, more critical phase for two reasons. First, the outbreak of COVID-19 means that people might be risking their health if they opt to vote in person. Secondly, Donald Trump, unlike previous presidents, regularly breaks with democratic norms and values and is now openly suggesting that he might manipulate the electoral system to help him win a second term.

“Trump aides exploring executive actions to curb voting by mail,” was the headline of an article in Politico last weekend (that was a news article, not an opinion piece). Politico’s reporting found that the White House was considering using executive actions to insert itself into the election process, which is usually run by states, including finding ways to make it harder for people to vote by mail.

I think it’s totally appropriate for people to, well, freak out about the potential undermining of the electoral process by Trump and his allies. That said, there is now a flurry of lawsuits, judicial rulings, decisions by election officials at the local and state levels, and claims of voter fraud and voter suppression that can be a bit of minefield to wade through. It’s a lot and it can get confusing.

So to better understand what’s a really big deal versus something that might be problematic but perhaps not as important, we broke out the potential ways that Trump and the GOP could limit voting or undermine the electoral process into five general tactics. These tactics are roughly ordered from least to most alarming. This is not any kind of formal legal guide, although we consulted with some experts for this piece, and some of those experts have law degrees. This analysis also includes some details of the Democrats’ approach to voting rights issues. But we opted to focus on the Republicans because their approach is more controversial than the Democratic one (which is largely to make it easier to vote) and because perhaps the most important figure in the current voting wars is the Republican president.

Here are the tactics:

1. Opposing changes to make it easier to vote amid COVID-19

A lot of the litigation around voting this year pits groups allied with liberal-leaning parts of the electorate, like the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) and lawyers affiliated with the Democratic Party, against officials in charge of administering elections (secretaries of state, for example). In these cases, the litigants are trying to get judges to change or invalidate existing laws and force officials to make it easier for Americans to vote and have their vote counted.1

The litigants often invoke the pandemic in demanding these changes, but they are changes in the voting process that these litigants would likely prefer outside of the COVID-19 context, too. For example, the LDF and the Southern Poverty Law Center are trying to get struck down a requirement in Alabama that voters include a copy of their photo ID with their application for an absentee ballot. Getting a copy of your photo ID does potentially increase your chances of getting COVID-19, their brief argues. But the LDF opposed provisions requiring people to present photo IDs as part of the voting process well before the coronavirus pandemic.

Marc Elias, a leading Democratic election attorney, is filing lawsuits in more than two dozen states (including basically every key swing state), to enforce his “four pillars” for mail-in voting in the 2020 election:

The government prepays the postage for mail-in ballots.

Ballots postmarked before or on Election Day are counted (as opposed to counting only ballots received by Election Day).2

Signature requirements for mail-in ballots are administered in a voter-friendly way. (Elias suggests requiring election officials across the country to contact voters before their ballots are ruled invalid because the signature on the ballot does not match the signature election officials have on file.)

Individuals or groups are allowed to collect the ballots of people and turn them in (to ease voting for people who might not have easy access to mail services).

Liberal-leaning lawyers like Elias are losing some of these cases in court (or at least not getting all the accommodations that they want), with Republicans — including the Trump campaign — filing briefs opposing changes that might make it easier for Americans to vote and have their vote counted. It’s not ideal that Republicans are taking this tact, as the right to vote is so important. And the GOP often uses false or misleading rhetoric to oppose measures making voting easier, such as dubbing efforts by groups to collect and turn in mail-in ballots “ballot harvesting” and suggesting, without evidence, that the process will lead to widespread voter fraud.

That said, we cast this tactic as the least problematic one Republicans are employing because there are instances of Republicans opposing new steps to make voting easier, rather than creating new barriers to voting. Also, even most blue states don’t currently have all four of Elias’s pillars in place. Only seven states (California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington) got “A” ratings for their vote-by-mail systems in a recent Brookings Institute report.

2. Seeking to invalidate laws that make it easier to vote amid COVID-19

During the pandemic, some states, particularly those run by Democrats, are taking affirmative steps to make it much easier to vote. For example, California and Nevada are planning to send mail-in ballots to all the registered voters in their states. Election officials in Pennsylvania have set up boxes for people to drop off their absentee ballots, as opposed to requiring all voters to send them through the mail.

The Trump campaign is filing lawsuits to stop the moves in Nevada, Pennsylvania and other states. The Republican National Committee (which is tightly aligned with the Trump campaign) is involved in litigation in 17 states, again including virtually every battleground state, to enforce its voting agenda, which includes:

Requiring ballots to be received by Election Day.

Keeping current photo ID and signature laws in place.

Opposing people or groups being able to turn in mail-in ballots of other voters.

Opposing newly enacted plans to allow basically all voters in a given state to vote by mail.

You can see why this is more problematic in terms of democratic values than the previous category: Local and state officials are taking affirmative steps to make it easier for Americans to vote and have their vote counted amid a pandemic and the sitting president’s campaign is trying to reverse those decisions.

For this category, the actions of the five justices on the U.S. Supreme Court appointed by Republican presidents are likely to be particularly important. In all four of the most recent Supreme Court decisions on voting rights issues, the court’s conservative majority rejected attempts by liberal litigants to get existing law changed to make it easier to vote amid COVID-19 (the first category we listed above). Those rulings have infuriated liberals, but I can’t say that I’m surprised by them — Chief Justice John Roberts regularly votes both to uphold existing legal precedents and to show deference to the judgements of local officials and other branches of government in ways that sometimes align with the more liberal justices and other times with the court’s conservatives. So it would be more surprising (and alarming) if Roberts and the high court struck down new laws, like those in California, making it easier to vote.

3. Advancing new practices and provisions that make it harder to vote

This tactic refers to moves like rolling back the number of early voting days in a state or making it harder for students to vote. These are all strategies that Republicans have employed pre-COVID-19. Republicans aren’t rolling out a lot of new provisions to make it harder to vote in 2020 because they already passed a lot of them from 2011 to 2018, and they couldn’t pass a lot of them in 2019 and 2020. (Democrats made a lot of gains at the state level in 2018, and it would have been controversial to adopt such measures after the virus outbreak.)

But Republicans are trying two new strategies, with liberals seeking to get each struck down by courts. First, in Florida specifically, Republicans are complicating the process for ex-felons who have served their sentences to regain their voting rights, despite a 2018 ballot initiative, supported by 65 percent of Florida voters, that was intended to do just that. And in states around the country, GOP officials are planning to send an unusually large number of people to individual voting locations as “poll watchers.” Poll watchers have been used by both parties. But the rhetoric about voter fraud from Fox News and Trump in particular creates the potential for GOP poll watchers to show up at voting places specifically to look for voters they might view as both illegitimate and liberal-leaning (people of color and people around age 18 in particular) and push for the officials running those polling locations to more closely scrutinize those voters.

I view this category as particularly problematic, in terms of democratic values, because it raises the specter of people facing increased difficulty voting in large part because they are perceived to likely to oppose Republican candidates. (The ex-felons who would be newly eligible to vote in Florida are disproportionately Black.)

4. Anti-democratic rhetoric

What I’m talking about here is largely rhetoric that has no direct impact, but has the potential to undermine confidence in the election system. Think about Trump’s comments about potentially changing the day of the election or the unfounded suggestions by the president, Attorney General William Barr and other conservatives that mail-in voting will lead to fraud.

How this tactic affects the election depends on two factors. First, do other members of the Republican Party, such as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, echo Trump’s rhetoric, thereby creating a situation where one of the country’s two major political parties is questioning the electoral system? And second, do GOP elected officials start acting on this rhetoric, such as trying to roll back existing vote-by-mail programs or not counting ballots received after Election Day in states where it is legal to count them?

In other words, this kind of rhetoric presents two potential risks, undermining the public’s confidence in the legitimacy of the election and — if the rhetoric leads to action — literally compromising the legitimacy of the election.

5. Fundamental changes to the electoral process

Speaking of actually compromising the election … The recent changes at the U.S. Postal Service that are slowing down mail delivery across the country are arguably the biggest threat to the American election system in 2020. If mail delivery continues to be slowed down, that creates two very important potential problems. First, in states where ballots must be received by officials before Election Day (33, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures), a slowed-down mail system could disenfranchise thousands and perhaps even millions of people. Secondly, a slower system creates the potential for a ton of ballots to arrive either just before, on or after Election Day, meaning that the counting of votes might stretch on for days or weeks and Americans wouldn’t know the winner of the presidential election for a long time. That’s not ideal in any circumstances, but particularly with a president like Trump who can’t be expected to wait for election results before trying to declare himself the winner.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a longtime GOP donor who has given more than $2 million over the last few years to Trump’s campaign and other Republican causes, says the changes he has made since taking his post in June are intended to reduce the USPS’s spending and make it more cost-efficient. I don’t have any proof he is lying, but it’s also doubtful that DeJoy would be candid about it if his real goal was complicating vote-by-mail systems and helping Trump win. Either way, it’s a strange decision to overhaul the mailing system in a way that appears to be making it harder to send things through USPS quickly when the U.S. will be relying on the Postal Service more than ever before as part of the electoral process.

And if Trump followed through on changing the day of the election (which he cannot do on his own) or limiting vote by mail, those changes would go into this category as well.

It’s worth thinking about these categories both in terms of the horse race and in terms of broader questions of democratic norms and values. The first three are problematic in terms of democratic norms and values because Republicans seem to be intentionally making it harder for people to vote. And if this race gets tighter, those moves could prove decisive. If we reach the later stages of the campaign and polls still show Biden with a clear lead nationally and in most swing states, it’s less likely that these tactics would literally swing the election. (Then again, we haven’t really faced a situation like this before.)

On the other hand, the last two categories are huge, both in terms of democratic values and electoral repercussions. If people’s mail-in ballots aren’t received until way after Election Day, and Trump and his allies are falsely suggesting that mail-in ballots are somewhat fraudulent anyway, that undermines the election results and creates the potential for Trump to try to remain in office even if Biden is the rightful victor.

[investmart007]

WASHINGTON | The Latest: Ex-NAACP president wins Dem gov nom in Maryland

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/BwqlsY

WASHINGTON | The Latest: Ex-NAACP president wins Dem gov nom in Maryland

WASHINGTON — The Latest on primaries and runoffs in seven states (all times local):

10:45 p.m.

Former NAACP President Ben Jealous has won the Democratic nomination for governor in Maryland, setting up a battle between the liberal candidate and a popular Republican incumbent.

Jealous beat Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker. Both candidates are black, and Jealous now has a shot at becoming the state’s first black governor and the country’s third elected black governor.

Jealous faces Gov. Larry Hogan in the general election.

Jealous won support from leading liberals on the national stage, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Kamala Harris of California.

Jealous supports tuition-free college educations and expanding Medicare to all. He also advocates raising teacher pay by 29 percent and funding full-day, universal pre-kindergarten with tax revenue from his proposal to legalize recreational marijuana.

___

10:40 p.m.

Turnout is up significantly in Colorado’s primary, thanks in large part to a new state law allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in the two parties’ nominating contests for the first time.

According to preliminary figures from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, more than 32 percent of the state’s 3.2 million active voters cast ballots in Tuesday��s primary election, up from 21 percent in 2016.

Unaffiliated voters, who make up roughly a third of the state’s electorate, represent the bulk of the increase. They cast more than 250,000 votes, or about 8 percentage points of the turnout.

Preliminary voter turnout among members of the two major parties was up about 3 percentage points.

Enthusiasm is one possible factor. Turnout has been high in primary elections across the country, among Democrats in particular. This year’s ballot also had interesting races. Colorado did not have a presidential primary in 2016. This year, both parties have contested gubernatorial primaries atop the ticket.

___

10:35 p.m.

A state senator in South Carolina has won the Republican nomination for U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy’s open seat.

William Timmons was nominated after Tuesday’s runoff. He had finished second to former state Sen. Lee Bright in the June 12 primary.

Timmons was the choice of establishment Republicans, picking up a number of endorsements and quiet support. He is similar to Gowdy, who spent eight years in the House and led a highly partisan panel investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Timmons was a prosecutor and successful businessman who spent more than $900,000 of his own money on his campaign.

Timmons will take on businessman Brandon Brown, who won the Democratic runoff Tuesday.

___

10:30 p.m.

Gov. Henry McMaster says he will use his relationship with President Donald Trump to bring prosperity to South Carolina.

McMaster told supporters gathered to celebrate his victory in Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial runoff that he was glad to have a friend in the president and knew that the state would benefit from their relationship.

Trump endorsed McMaster in his pursuit of a first full term in office and campaigned for him just hours before polls opened for Tuesday’s voting.

Greenville businessman John Warren congratulated McMaster on his victory but told his own supporters he hoped they could continue their momentum in forging a new brand of conservatism in South Carolina.

___

10:27 p.m.

Mitt Romney has won the Republican primary for a Utah Senate seat, setting him on the path to restart his political career with a Senate seat left open by retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch.

Romney secured the nomination Tuesday against state lawmaker Mike Kennedy after fending off attacks on his onetime criticism of President Donald Trump.

Romney was the heavy favorite to win the race in Utah, where he moved after his failed 2012 presidential run and is a beloved adopted son.

Romney blasted Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, though the two men have largely buried the hatchet, and Romney has accepted the president’s endorsement.

He now faces Democratic Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, though GOP candidates have an upper hand in the conservative state.

___

10:25 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley says he wishes “the best” for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the challenger who beat him in the Democratic congressional primary in New York in a highly unexpected upset.

The 10-term incumbent thanked supporters and expressed his love Tuesday for the people of the 14th Congressional District, which includes parts of the Bronx and Queens.

Twenty-eight-year-old Ocasio-Cortez has never held elected office. She worked for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

She was outspent by an 18-1 margin but won the endorsement of some influential groups on the party’s left, including MoveOn.

Crowley says, “I want nothing but the best for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. I want her to be victorious.”

Crowley had been considered a candidate to become the next House speaker if Democrats win the majority.

Republican candidate Anthony Pappas is running unopposed.

___

10:20 p.m.

Oklahoma voters have backed the medicinal use of marijuana despite opposition from law enforcement and business, faith and political leaders.

State Question 788 was the result of an activist-led signature drive. It allows physicians to approve medical marijuana licenses for people to legally grow, keep and use cannabis. The proposal doesn’t list any qualifying medical conditions, allowing doctors to prescribe it for a wide range of ailments.

Opponents had argued the proposal was too loosely written, and Republican Gov. Mary Fallin said it would essentially allow recreational use. She recently warned that if the measure passed, she would have to call lawmakers into a special session to develop rules regulating the industry in Oklahoma.

It’s the first marijuana question on a state ballot in 2018. Elections are scheduled for later this year in Michigan and Utah.

___

9:50 p.m.

In a shocking upset, U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley has been defeated by a 28-year-old Bernie Sanders supporter in the Democratic congressional primary in New York.

Crowley had been considered a candidate to become the next House speaker if Democrats win the majority.

He was defeated Tuesday by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has never held elected office.

Ocasio-Cortez ran a low-budget campaign and was outspent by an 18-1 margin. She won the endorsement of some influential groups on the party’s left, including MoveOn.

Crowley has been in Congress since 1999. He represents New York’s 14th Congressional District, which includes parts of the Bronx and Queens.

Ocasio-Cortez has been a community organizer in the Bronx and worked on Sanders’ presidential campaign.

___

9:47 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis has won the Democratic primary in the race to replace Colorado Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Polis secured the nomination Tuesday against former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy, former state Sen. Mike Johnston and Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne.

Polis is a five-term congressman, former state board of education member and self-made millionaire and philanthropist.

He supports publicly-funded preschool and kindergarten, forgiveness of college debt, single-payer health care and promoting renewable energy.

State law prohibits Hickenlooper from serving a third consecutive term.

Tuesday’s primary was the first in which unaffiliated voters, the state’s largest voting bloc, could participate in one or the other of the major party primaries.

Colorado hasn’t elected a Republican governor since Bill Owens, who served from 1999 to 2007.

___

9:45 p.m.

Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has defeated ex-state Sen. Connie Johnson to win the Democratic nomination in the race to be the state’s next governor.

Edmondson will face the eventual Republican nominee in November.

Edmondson’s victory Tuesday was something he was unable to do in 2010. He was upset in that Democratic primary by then-Lt. Gov. Jari Askins.

The 71-year-old Edmondson is a Vietnam War veteran from Muskogee who served four terms as Oklahoma attorney general and had a huge fundraising advantage over Johnson. The $1.5 million he raised was more than 20 times as much as Johnson, a 66-year-old former state senator from Oklahoma City.

Johnson has been a longtime champion of legalizing marijuana and abolishing the death penalty.

___

9:40 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan has survived a fierce challenge in New York’s Republican primary from Michael Grimm, a former congressman who resigned to go to prison for tax fraud.

Donovan represents New York’s 11th Congressional District, which covers Staten Island and part of Brooklyn.

Grimm served more than seven months in prison after pleading guilty in 2014 to cheating the government out of taxes at his Manhattan restaurant.

He was leading in at least one poll when President Donald Trump weighed in on the race last month, urging voters to stick with Donovan.

Trump said in a tweet that a vote for Grimm risked handing the seat to Democrats.

Donovan is New York City’s only Republican congressman.

He is seeking a third term.

___

9:35 p.m.

Mississippi Democrats have nominated state Rep. David Baria to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, lining up behind a party stalwart as they reject a bid by a newcomer.

Baria is a Bay St. Louis attorney. He beat venture capitalist Howard Sherman of Meridian in Tuesday’s runoff.

Many Democratic politicians backed Baria, the state House minority leader, arguing that Sherman was an unknown quantity. The husband of actress Sela Ward, Sherman voted as a Republican in California and donated to Wicker. Sherman said that was an effort to prevent a tea party conservative from winning office.

Baria says he has the experience to make the uphill campaign against Wicker and be a productive senator.

The Reform Party’s Shawn O’Hara of Hattiesburg and Libertarian Danny Bedwell of Columbus also are running in November.

___

9:30 p.m.

State Treasurer Walker Stapleton has won the Republican primary for Colorado governor.

Stapleton secured the nomination Tuesday against businessmen Victor Mitchell, Doug Robinson and Greg Lopez.

Stapleton led a field that collectively vowed to defend any attempt to tamper with Colorado’s constitutional Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which leaves it to voters to approve tax hikes. He also aligned himself with President Donald Trump on immigration, health care and the federal tax plan.

Stapleton has aired an ad in which he states, “I’ll stand with Donald Trump to get illegal aliens who commit crimes deported.” In the ad, Stapleton blames Congress for an immigration policy that separates children from their parents along the border.

State law prohibits Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper from serving a third consecutive term.

___

9:25 p.m.

Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin has won the Democratic nomination for his bid to earn a third term, beating Chelsea Manning and six others.

The popular and well-funded incumbent easily took victory in Tuesday’s crowded primary.

Cardin’s best-known rival was Manning, the convicted leaker of U.S. government secrets. She ran an unorthodox, grassroots campaign that failed to resonate with many voters.

Outside Manning’s involvement, the contest attracted such little attention that there were no debates, few candidate forums and hardly any polling.

Cardin has name recognition within the state. He served 20 years in the U.S. House before becoming a senator in 2006. In his last primary, he easily defeated eight challengers.

___

9:15 p.m.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has secured the Republican gubernatorial nomination for a first full term in office, after President Donald Trump publicly embraced him at a rally and followed up with a tweet encouraging voters.

McMaster defeated Greenville businessman John Warren in Tuesday’s primary runoff.

McMaster became governor when Nikki Haley left the office in 2017 to join the Trump administration as U.N. ambassador. As lieutenant governor, McMaster was the first statewide elected official in the country to back Trump’s candidacy.

The runoff pitting McMaster against Warren threatened to embarrass the White House if the governor fell short. Trump has a mixed track record when going all-in for candidates.

McMaster was unsuccessful in his previous bid for the governorship in 2010, losing a four-way GOP primary to Haley.

___

9 p.m.

Polls have now closed in New York and Colorado on a night when seven states are holding primary or runoff elections.

Polls closed in New York and Colorado at 9 p.m. Tuesday. Polls have already closed in South Carolina, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Maryland but remain open in Utah.

New York City’s only Republican congressman will try to hold off a fierce challenge in the state’s primary election from a former congressman trying to make a political comeback after serving prison time for tax fraud. The fight between U.S. Rep. Daniel Donovan and former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm is the most closely watched race in New York congressional primaries.

In Colorado, the contest to succeed Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper tops the primary. He is prevented by term limit laws from running again.

___

8 p.m.

Polls have closed in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Maryland on a night of primary or runoff elections.

Polls closed in those states at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Polls closed an hour earlier in South Carolina, while polls close later Tuesday in Colorado, New York and Utah.

In Maryland, the outcome of races might be delayed because of an issue with voter registration that election officials said could affect as many as 80,000 voters. Those voters tried to change information through the Motor Vehicle Administration, but the MVA didn’t transmit the information to election officials.

In Mississippi, Democratic voters are picking a nominee to challenge an incumbent Republican senator, and Republicans are choosing a congressional nominee for an open seat.

Oklahoma’s gubernatorial race is at the top of the primary election ballot in that state.

___

7 p.m.

Polls have closed in South Carolina as seven states across the nation hold primary or runoff elections.

Polls closed in South Carolina at 7 p.m. for Tuesday’s runoff. Primary elections are also unfolding in Colorado, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma and Utah, while a runoff was being held in Mississippi.

President Donald Trump has put his name on the line in several races, especially in South Carolina, where he implored voters at a rally Monday to support incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster over newcomer John Warren. The winner faces Democrat James Smith in November.

Voters in one U.S. House District in South Carolina are also set to pick the replacement for U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy. Former state Sen. Lee Bright takes on state Sen. William Timmons for the Republican nomination in Gowdy’s 4th Congressional District.

___

2:15 p.m.

Maryland residents are voting in a primary amid some confusion created by a major voter-registration snafu.

But election officials say they haven’t received any reports of problems thus far in Tuesday’s elections.

A computer error at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration failed to send changes some voters made in address and party affiliation to the state elections board.

As a result, as many as 80,000 voters could be forced to cast provisional ballots that won’t be counted until next week.

Officials say the problem affects information that was entered either on the administration’s website or at self-serve kiosks.

State elections deputy administrator Nikki Charlson says she hasn’t heard of any problems related to the issue.

___

7 a.m.

Voters in seven states are voting in primary or runoff elections Tuesday. They’re facing decisions on everything from whether to return a convicted felon to Congress to whether marijuana laws should be loosened.

Primary elections are unfolding in Colorado, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma and Utah. South Carolina and Mississippi are holding runoffs.

President Trump has put his name on the line in several races, especially in South Carolina, where he implored voters Monday to support incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster. In New York, Rep. Daniel Donovan hopes to avoid becoming the third House Republican to lose a primary this year. His rival is former Rep. Michael Grimm, who went to federal prison for tax evasion.

And in Utah, Mitt Romney is the favorite to win the GOP nomination for Senate.

__

By Associated Press

___

[blackkudos]

Wayne Brady

Wayne Alphonso Brady (born June 2, 1972) is an American actor, singer, comedian, and television personality, known for his work as a regular on the American version of the improvisational comedy television series Whose Line Is It Anyway? He was the host of the daytime talk show The Wayne Brady Show, the original host of Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics!, and has hosted Let's Make a Deal since its 2009 revival. Brady also performed in the Tony Award–winning musical Kinky Boots on Broadway as Simon and as drag queen Lola from November 2015 to March 2016.

Early life

Brady was born in Columbus, Georgia to West Indian parents, and moved to Orlando, Florida, as a young child to live with his grandmother and aunt. Brady refers to his grandmother, Valerie Petersen, as his "mom", since she raised him. Brady is second cousin to professional footballer Jozy Altidore who currently plays for Toronto FC. At 16, Brady started performing in community theater and at the Orlando improv troupe SAK Comedy Lab, where he first started developing his improv skills. He attended Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, where he graduated in 1989. In 1990, he enrolled at the University of Miami. In 1996, he moved to Los Angeles, where he continued developing his acting skills.

Career

Brady's career began as one of the improvisational theater performers in the original (British) version of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, along with Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and host Clive Anderson in 1998 when the last season was filmed in Hollywood, after which he became a regular on the American version, hosted by Drew Carey, which was his first stateside television exposure. In 2003, Brady won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Variety, Musical or Comedy Series for his work on the show, the only person to win the award for a television series, as opposed to a special, since Dana Carvey in 1993.

He went on to star in his own ABC variety show in 2001 called The Wayne Brady Show, and a daytime talk show of the same name in 2002, which lasted two seasons and won four Daytime Emmy Awards, two of which went to Brady for Outstanding Talk Show Host. Brady guest-starred on The Drew Carey Show in 1999 and 2000 to take part in "Drew Live" and "Drew Live II". On the show, Brady played several games taken from Whose Line Is It Anyway? for the two episodes with other characters.

In 2004, Brady joined the Broadway revival of Chicago, playing the role of lawyer Billy Flynn. He appeared briefly in the final episode of the 2004 season of the comedy Reno 911!. He guest-starred on the Sci Fi Channel's hit series show Stargate SG-1 as Trelak, the first prime of Goa'uld System Lord Ares. He made an appearance on Chappelle's Show, poking fun at his squeaky-clean persona.

Brady wrote and sang the theme song for Disney's animated series The Weekenders. In 2005, he sang and recorded Jim Brickman's original Disney song "Beautiful" (a cover of All-4-One's 2002 hit "Beautiful As You") and its Christmas version.

In 2006, Brady became the host of TV Land's That's What I'm Talking About, a talk show discussing the role of African-Americans in the entertainment industry. From August 29 to September 29, 2006, Brady hosted the Fox show Celebrity Duets.

Brady made several guest appearances on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, playing James Stinson, the gay brother of Neil Patrick Harris's character, Barney Stinson. Brady has also appeared as a guest star for the MTV show Wild 'N Out, and lent his voice to the Adult Swim show Robot Chicken.

Brady has also guest-starred in the CBC comedy, Getting Along Famously, alongside his Whose Line is It Anyway? costar Colin Mochrie. He has also appeared on the episode "You Don't Know Jack" on the television show Dirt and also guest-starred on the show 30 Rock, where he played the role of Steven Black, Liz Lemon's date for the Source Awards.

Brady was the co-host of the short-lived VH1 show Vinyl Justice in 1998. In 2007, he starred in the ABC Family film The List. He starred in Flirt, a comedy pilot developed for The CW Television Network, which, if it had been picked up, would have aired in the 2006–07 television season.

Brady guest-starred as Julius Rock's gifted younger brother, Louis, in the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris, and hosted a singing game show called Don't Forget the Lyrics! on Fox until its cancellation in June 2009. He also performs "Wayne Brady: Making $%!^ up" at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada four nights a week. He was also on two episodes of Kevin Hill. Brady's debut album was released on September 16, 2008. Brady's version of Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come" earned Brady a Grammy nomination in the Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance category.

Brady started hosting an updated version of the game show Let's Make a Deal for CBS in October 2009, which taped at the Tropicana Resort and Casino in Las Vegas and currently tapes in Los Angeles. The show replaced the soap opera Guiding Light, which ended its long-time run. The original host of Let's Make a Deal was Monty Hall, who serves as consultant for the new show. Drew Carey currently hosts The Price Is Right, and thus, both game shows in the CBS daytime lineup (as of May 2013) hold the distinction of being hosted by an alumnus of Whose Line Is It Anyway?.

Brady was the guest host on the May 3, 2010, episode of WWE Raw, where he was involved in an in-ring segment with Edge and Randy Orton, eventually getting RKO'd by Orton. Later that year, in August, Brady played the role of Tom Collins in a staged production of Rent at the Hollywood Bowl. The production was directed by Neil Patrick Harris.

Brady appeared alongside Let's Make a Deal announcer Jonathan Mangum in two episodes of Fast and Loose, a new improvisational series on BBC2 hosted by Hugh Dennis, in January 2011. Then, along with Holly Robinson Peete, he co-hosted the 42nd annual NAACP Image Awards on March 4, 2011.

On May 3, 2011, he appeared on Dancing With The Stars as the lead performer in a tribute to James Brown, celebrating what would have been Brown's 78th birthday in the Macy's Stars of Dance segment. He has also been a special guest of Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza on GSN.

Brady made a cameo in the 2011 song "Dedication To My Ex (Miss That)" by Lloyd featuring Lil Wayne and Andre 3000, narrating Lil Wayne's section of the song. He also appeared as a special guest star in the March 14, 2012, episode of the TV series Psych.

Brady starred in the 2012 ABC improvisational comedy series Trust Us with Your Life, and returned for the revival of Whose Line Is It Anyway? in the summer of 2013.

Brady guest-starred as Don in the Phineas and Ferb episode, "Where's Pinky?" on June 7, 2013, and for one week February 9 to 13, 2015, guest host on The Late Late Show on CBS.

In November 2015, Brady replaced Billy Porter as Lola in Kinky Boots on Broadway.

Brady assumed the lead role of Aaron Burr in the PrivateBank Theatre production of Hamilton in Chicago from January 17 to April 9, 2017.

Personal life

Brady has been married twice. He married Diana Lasso on December 31, 1993. They divorced on September 21, 1995. On April 3, 1999, he married dancer Mandie Taketa. He and Taketa have one child, a daughter named Maile Masako Brady, born on February 3, 2003. Brady and Taketa separated on April 5, 2006, and Taketa filed for divorce on July 2, 2007.

In 2007, Brady became an official supporter of Ronald McDonald House Charities and is a member of their celebrity board, the Friends of RMHC.

In 2013, Bill Maher compared Brady to President Barack Obama, in that they were both supposedly "not black enough". Brady took issue with this statement, suggesting that Maher should "be careful when you make statements like that because it will allow his viewers to make the same stereotypical assumptions about black people."

As a child, Wayne struggled with stuttering due to a great deal of anxiety he felt from being bullied by other children. Wayne stated in a November 2014 Entertainment Tonight interview that he suffers from clinical depression and that he suffered a mental breakdown on his 42nd birthday. He credits Taketa for helping him recover.

Wikipedia

[districofcolumbiaprelawland-blog]

The Social And Legal Background To Brown V. Board Of Education

By Esra Aydogdu, The George Washington University Class of 2023

February 10, 2021

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court made history with the well-known Brown v. Board of Education decision, declaring the unconstitutionality of segregating public schools. Here is a brief look into the legal and social contexts that ultimately led the way to the renowned Supreme Court case.

During the Reconstruction era, a series of amendments were passed to address the status of African Americans in the United States. The 13th Amendment was the first amendment passed during this time, in 1865, abolishing slavery. The 14th Amendment guaranteed equal protection of laws to all in 1868, and in 1870 the 15th Amendment guaranteed the right of citizens to vote, regardless of race. Yet, African Americans were still far from reaching equality, with the presence of Jim Crow laws and the continuation of racist practices. In 1896, the Supreme Court ruled in the historical case of Plessy v. Ferguson that racial segregation was constitutional under the “separate but equal” doctrine.[1] In response to the repression and violence faced by African Americans, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed in 1909.[2]

Charles Hamilton Houston, typically known as “the man who killed Jim Crow” played a critical role in the legal push for equality and the build-up to Brown.[3] Serving as the first counsel to the NAACP, Houston strongly believed that addressing unequal education was the cornerstone of tackling Jim Crow laws. He developed a strategy of focusing on segregation in law schools–the reason for this being that judges would likely be more sympathetic to plaintiffs pursuing law.[4] This was the first step that would then open the doors to attacking segregation in all schools, and, all of society. In Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, Lloyd Gaines had graduated from Lincoln University, a university for black students.[5] Lincoln did not have a law school, so Gaines applied to the University of Missouri Law School–but he was denied admission. Charles Houston took this case to court, arguing that the university had violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment by denying Gaines admission based on his race. The Supreme Court ruled in a 6-2 decision that this was, in fact, a violation of the Equal Protection Clause; they further noted that states must provide equal facilities for blacks if they decide to segregate their schools.[6] World War II also played a role in a changing society as a precursor to Brown. Following the end of the war, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981 in 1948, calling for the desegregation of the U.S. armed services.[7] Cultural changes were occurring, such as Jacki Robinson breaking the color barrier in baseball in 1947 and becoming the first black player in Major League Baseball.[8]

Prior to Brown, scientific–including social scientific–research only recently began making its way into the courtroom, specifically with the help of attorney Louis D. Brandeis. Brandeis, the attorney representing the state of Oregon in Muller v. Oregon, introduced a brief of non-legal, scientific data to argue his case, which was never seen before in court history.[9] After a triumphant win in 1908, the use of scientific information in making legal arguments became common, and given the name “Brandeis briefs”. The new development of utilizing science in legal issues played a significant role in the Brown v. Board of Education decision, as the lawyers involved used sociological research in the trial to show the inherent inequality of segregation. The key study presented was the “doll tests”, conducted by psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark in the 1940s.[10] The Clarks tested black children’s racial perceptions with the use of dolls. A majority of children correlated positive characteristics with the while doll and negative characteristics with the black doll. Their findings led them to conclude that the constant discrimination and segregation had created a sense of inferiority for African American children, which they ended up testifying for in Brown v. Board of Education.[11] Each of these social and legal changes acted as a precursor paving the road for Brown, playing just as important of a role in the Supreme Court’s decision to determine the unconstitutionality of segregating public schools. 

______________________________________________________________

[1] Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896)

[2] “NAACP.” History, History, 25 January 2021. 

[3] “NAACP History: Charles Hamilton Houston.” NAACP.

[4] “NAACP History: Charles Hamilton Houston.” NAACP. 

[5] Missouri ex rel. Gaines v. Canada, 305 U.S. 337 (1938)

[6] Ibid. 

[7] Executive Order 9981, July 26, 1948; General Records of the United States Government; Record Group 11; National Archives.

[8] “Jackie Robinson Biography.” Jacki Robinson.

[9] “The Brandeis Brief--in its entirety.” Louis D. Brandeis School of Law Library, University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law.

[10] “The Significance of ‘The Doll Test.’” LDF Celebrates the 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

[11] Ibid. 

[dailynewswebsite]

A century ago, James Weldon Johnson became the first Black person to head the NAACP

These NAACP leaders met at a 1916 convention. Library of Congress

On this second of nationwide racial reckoning, many Individuals are taking time to find out about chapters in U.S. historical past disregarded of their faculty texbooks. The early years of the Nationwide Affiliation for the Development of Coloured Folks, a civil rights group that originally coalesced round a dedication to finish the brutal observe of lynching in the USA, is value remembering now.

An interracial group of ladies and men based the group that might quickly turn into often called the NAACP in 1909. A coalition of white journalists, attorneys and progressive reformers led the trouble. It might take one other 11 years till, in 1920, James Weldon Johnson grew to become the primary Black individual to formally function its high official.

As I clarify in my forthcoming ebook “Nonviolence Earlier than King: The Politics of Being and the Black Freedom Wrestle,” interracial organizing was extraordinarily uncommon within the early 20th century. However the place it did happen – like in most of the summer time of 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests – it was as a result of some white Individuals united with Black Individuals over their shared concern about wanton violence directed in opposition to Black individuals.

W.E.B. Du Bois and Mary White Ovington had been among the many NAACP’s founders. David/Flickr, CC BY-SA

Lynching in America

Between 1877 and 1945, greater than 4,400 Black Individuals had been lynched. Many of those lynchings had been public occasions that attracted 1000’s of spectators in a carnival-like ambiance.

A violent assault by white individuals on the Black neighborhood in Abraham Lincoln’s longtime hometown impressed the NAACP’s founding. In August 1908, two African American males in Springfield, Illinois had been accused with out clear proof of homicide and assault and brought into custody.

When a white mob that had organized to lynch the 2 males, Joe James and George Richardson, didn’t find them, it lynched two different Black males as a substitute: Scott Burton and William Donnegan. White mobs raged for days afterwards, burning black properties and companies to the bottom.

Solely after Illinois Gov. Charles Deneen referred to as in 1000’s of the state’s Nationwide Guardsmen was the white mob violence quelled.

‘The decision’ for racial justice

Two of the NAACP’s most distinguished African American founders had been W.E.B. Du Bois, a sociologist, historian, activist and creator, and the journalist and activist Ida B. Wells, who had been publicly difficult lynching because the early 1890s.

They had been joined by a variety of white individuals, together with New York Put up writer Oswald Garrison Villard and social employee Florence Kelley in issuing “the decision” for racial justice on the centenary of Abraham Lincoln’s beginning: Feb. 12, 1909.

Ida B. Wells was among the many NAACP’s founders. Library of Congress

The group organized a precursor to the NAACP often called the Nationwide Negro Committee in 1909, which constructed on earlier efforts often called the Niagara Motion. This free affiliation of Black and white individuals referred to as on “all believers in democracy to hitch in a nationwide convention for the dialogue of current evils, the voicing of protests, and the renewal of the battle for civil and political liberty.” Du Bois chaired a Could 1910 convention that led to the NAACP’s official formation.

Because the historian Patricia Sullivan writes the NAACP emerged as a “militant” group targeted on making certain equal safety of below the regulation for Black Individuals.

The NAACP’s founders, of their phrases, envisioned an ethical battle for the “mind and soul of America.” They noticed lynching because the preeminent menace not solely to Black life in America however to democracy itself, and so they started to prepare chapters throughout the nation to wage authorized challenges to violence and segregation.

The group additionally targeted its early efforts on difficult portrayals of Black males as violent brutes, beginning its personal publication in 1910, The Disaster. Du Bois was tapped to edit the publication, and Wells was excluded from this early work regardless of her experience and prominence as a author – an exclusion she later blamed on Du Bois.

Though the group’s early work was an interracial effort, in response to historian Patricia Sullivan, all members of its preliminary government committee had been white.

The NAACP produced this anti-lynching poster in 1922. Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition

James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson joined the group as a discipline secretary in 1916 and rapidly expanded the NAACP’s work into the U.S. South. Johnson was already an achieved determine, having served as U.S. consul to Venezuela and Nicaragua below the Taft and Roosevelt administrations.

Johnson additionally wrote a novel referred to as “The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man” – a strong literary work a couple of Black man born with pores and skin mild sufficient to move for white. And he wrote, together with his brother J. Rosamond Johnson, the music “Elevate Each Voice and Sing,” which to today serves because the unofficial Black nationwide anthem.

As discipline secretary, Johnson oversaw circulation of The Disaster all through the South. The NAACP’s membership grew from 8,765 in 1916 to 90,000 in 1920 because the variety of its native chapters exploded from 70 to 395. Johnson additionally organized greater than 10,000 marchers within the NAACP’s Silent Protest Parade of 1917 – the primary main avenue protest staged in opposition to lynching within the U.S.

James Weldon Johnson grew to become the primary Black American to go the NAACP in 1920. Library of Congress

These clear successes led the board to call Johnson to be the primary individual – and the primary Black American – to function the NAACP’s government secretary in November 1920, cementing Black management over the group. He united the tons of of newly organized native branches in nationwide authorized challenges to white violence and anti-Black discrimination, and made the NAACP essentially the most influential group within the struggle for Black equality earlier than World Warfare II.

Johnson united native chapters in advocating for the introduction of an anti-lynching invoice in Congress in 1921. Regardless of efforts in 2020 to lastly accomplish this objective, the U.S. nonetheless lacks a regulation on the books outlawing racist lynching.

Johnson did, nonetheless, preside over the NAACP when the group notched its first of many main Supreme Courtroom wins. In 1927, the court docket dominated in Nixon v. Herndon {that a} Texas regulation barring Black individuals from taking part in Democratic Social gathering primaries violated the structure.

Johnson’s tenure on the NAACP’s helm led to 1930, however his means to unite native chapters in nationwide litigation laid a lot of the groundwork for quite a few Supreme Courtroom wins within the years forward, together with the 1954 Brown v. Board of Schooling Supreme Courtroom resolution which marked the start of the tip for legalized segregation in the USA.

In later years, Johnson grew to become the primary Black professor to show at New York College.

Alicia Keyes performing ‘Elevate Each Voice and Sing.’

The work continues

Amongst Johnson’s contributions to the NAACP was hiring Walter White, an African American chief who succeeded Johnson as government secretary. White presided over the group between 1930 and 1955, a interval that included many profitable authorized actions.

The battle launched by Du Bois, Wells and Johnson and their white allies a century in the past continues in the present day. The killing of Black Individuals that led to the NAACP’s founding stays a harrowing continuity from the Jim Crow period.

[Deep knowledge, daily. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.]

In 2020, 155 years after the Civil Warfare ended, the individuals of Mississippi voted to take away the Accomplice battle flag from their state flag, confirming an act Mississippi lawmakers undertook a number of months earlier. Utah and Nebraska stripped archaic slavery provisions from their state constitutions. Alabama nixed language mandating faculty segregation from its state structure.

These adjustments had been the results of hundreds of thousands of Individuals becoming a member of collectively to take motion in opposition to racism, an indication that an interracial motion for justice in America has by no means been stronger.

Anthony Siracusa doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or group that might profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their educational appointment.

from Growth News https://growthnews.in/a-century-ago-james-weldon-johnson-became-the-first-black-person-to-head-the-naacp/ via https://growthnews.in

[mrsbluebertgreggleson]

A federal judge raised serious constitutional questions about the Legislature’s crackdown on Amendment 4, saying lawmakers created a “mess” that has left felons afraid to register to vote.

“What we have now is an administrative nightmare,” said U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, who is overseeing a challenge to the law by the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups, during a Tuesday hearing in Tallahassee.

The ACLU asked Hinkle to temporarily stop the law, which requires felons to pay back all court fees, fines and restitution to victims before being allowed to vote. Hinkle is expected to rule on it in the coming weeks.

But Hinkle made clear that the Legislature’s law, which critics have called a “poll tax,” raises constitutional questions that attorneys for Gov. Ron DeSantis, Secretary of State Laurel Lee and county elections supervisors were unable to answer after two days of arguments.

It’s become an administrative nightmare, he said, because of problems created by lawmakers. Even so, he said it was the Legislature that was best suited to fix the law, which he said was preferable to judges like himself trying to fix it.

Amendment 4 was supposed to reverse a 150-year-old racist law and restore the right to vote to most felons in Florida who completed “all terms of sentence, including probation and parole.”

An attorney for those who helped pass Amendment 4 in 2018 had said “all terms” included court fees, fines and restitution, and the state’s GOP-controlled Legislature imposed those terms this year, despite nationwide criticism that their plan would stop poor people from voting.

Hinkle on Tuesday agreed that lawmakers created a system that kept people from voting who couldn’t ever afford to pay back those fees.

And that was a problem, he said, because of a crucial 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling from 2005, Johnson v. Bush, which was also a challenge to the state’s Jim Crow-era law preventing felons from voting.

“Access to the franchise cannot be made to depend on an individual’s financial resources,” the opinion states.

Because whatever he decides is almost certain to be appealed, Hinkle told lawyers that the opinion was his “starting point” on whether the Legislature’s law is legal.

He said his view wasn’t radical, noting that eight of the 12 circuit judges signed off on the 2005 ruling.

“These are not judges on the fringe,” he said.

On top of that, Hinkle questioned whether the Legislature’s actions might have run afoul of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The amendment states that voting in federal elections “shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.”

Hinkle did not call it a “poll tax.” But he did wonder whether requiring felons to pay court fees constituted an “other tax.”

Court fees are created to subsidize the court system, and judges have no discretion over them, Hinkle noted.

“Why is that not a tax?” he asked lawyers for the state.

They had no good answers.

Attorney Mohammad Jazil represented Lee, who as secretary of state oversees Florida’s elections systems. He said court fees were merely another burden felons had to pay back to society for their actions.

Hinkle seemed unconvinced.

What was apparent after the day and a half of debate is that lawmakers created an almost hopelessly complicated process for felons to restore their rights.

Felons have no easy way to determine if they can vote. Clerks of court are unable to confirm whether some felons have paid back all their fees. And elections supervisors are using voter registration forms that are different from those used by Lee.

Lawmakers now require voters to check one of three boxes when they register: (a) that they’ve never been convicted of a felony; (b) if they have been convicted of a felony, to affirm they’ve had their right to vote restored by the state’s clemency board; (c) if they have been convicted of a felony, to affirm they’ve had their right to vote restored by Amendment 4.

Submitting false information on the form is a third-degree felony, carrying up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Hinkle said the options on the form make no sense, and don’t even apply to people who were convicted in other states. Amendment 4 only applies to convictions in Florida state courts. Leon County’s elections supervisor said he was still using the old form because it was less confusing.

Hinkle wondered whether the new form was intended to discourage felons from registering, since they could later discover they still owe fees from some long-ago felony case.

Lawyers for the state again had no good answer. Jazil conceded that the language was “inartfully worded,” and that the secretary of state was considering adding additional check boxes to cover people convicted in other states.

Felons described for Hinkle the byzantine, and sometimes insurmountable, efforts they’ve had to go through to find out if they owe any fines, fees or restitution, or the damages felons must pay as part of their sentence.

No agency in Florida tracks restitution, for example, meaning felons who stopped paying it can’t find out how much they still owe. And while county clerks of court track payment of court fees and fines, they’ve had massive trouble with older cases.

Betty Riddle, 61, has drug-related felony convictions dating to 1975. She testified that the Sarasota County clerk hasn’t been able to dig up her old records to tell her how much, if anything, she owes on cases before 1990. The clerk in Hillsborough County couldn’t produce any records at all from her 1988 case, she said.

A supervisor at the Leon County clerk of court testified the office didn’t even have records about court fees and fines for convictions before 1998.

Other felons said the sources of information were unreliable. Attorneys showed two examples where the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s criminal database showed felons owed nothing, but county clerk websites showed felons owed thousands of dollars.

The Legislature allowed felons to pay their financial obligations another way: by converting them to community service hours, typically at $10 per hour. But Hinkle scoffed at the idea.

“You’re not going to win on the argument you’ve come up with some alternatives,” Hinkle told lawyers for the state and supervisors. “If you had a $25,000 fine in a drug case, nobody’s going to work that off through community service hours.”

Hinkle said the Legislature could, and probably should, make changes to the law, saying they were “free to adopt provisions more generous to felons than Amendment 4.”

Lawmakers had the chance to do that during this year’s legislative session. State Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, advocated for a bill that would allow felons to vote while they paid down their fines and fees.

But in the last week of session, GOP lawmakers instead chose the more restrictive route.

Hinkle said a new law could resolve many issues felons are facing and that action by lawmakers would be better than a judge like himself deciding how the law should be implemented. He set a trial date for April 6, three weeks after the next legislative session ends.

“The Legislature,” he said, “can make it a whole lot easier.”

Article published and updated October 8, 2019, written by Lawrence Mower.

And:

Clifford Tyson wants to help choose America’s next president. But the Florida resident fears his vote might return him to jail.

Tyson, 63, owes court-ordered fines and fees for three felony convictions, one for robbery, two for theft, all decades old. Under a Florida law that went into effect July 1, he must pay those penalties before casting a ballot or risk being prosecuted for voter fraud.

Tyson searched court records, first on his own, then with the help of a nonprofit legal advocacy group. They say that because Florida has no comprehensive system for tracking such fines, the documents don’t make clear what he owes. The records, viewed by Reuters, show potential sums ranging from $846 to a couple thousand dollars related to crimes he committed in the late 1970s and 1990s. Tyson says he won’t risk voting until Florida authorities can tell him for sure.

“Until there is clarity, as much as I want to vote, I won’t do it,” Tyson said.

The Tampa pastor is now a plaintiff in a lawsuit challenging the payments law, which was crafted by Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature and signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, also a Republican. The law came just months after Floridians approved a ballot initiative restoring voting rights to more than 1 million felons who have completed their sentences; that change to the state’s Constitution created a potentially huge new crop of voters in a critical battleground state ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

The lawsuit, filed in June by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Brennan Center for Justice, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Legal Defense and Educational Fund, alleges the fees requirement defies the will of Florida voters and amounts to an illegal poll tax on newly enfranchised Florida felons, many of them minorities.

But another argument is shaping up to be central to the plaintiffs’ case: Florida has no consolidated system for determining what felons owe or certifying that they have paid up. It’s a situation that ex-offenders say makes it virtually impossible for them to prove they are eligible to vote.

Those claims are bolstered by state election officials who say they can’t calculate what felons owe, either, according to a Reuters review of 7 depositions, emails and other internal correspondence from voting administrators submitted by plaintiffs’ attorneys as part of the lawsuit.

Florida has no centralized database where records of court-ordered fines and fees - and any payments of those penalties - are stored, election and court officials say. To get that information, felons typically must search documents in courts where they were convicted, be they federal or state, inside or outside Florida. Records have been found to be incomplete, contradictory or missing, plaintiffs’ attorneys say.

With the Feb. 18 deadline to register for the state’s 2020 presidential primary approaching, the issue is taking on urgency. An estimated 436,000 felons have fees to settle before they can vote, according to a study by University of Florida political scientist Daniel Smith, an expert witness for the ACLU. The study was based on court data and Department of Corrections records.

The stakes are high. Florida commands 29 of the 538 electoral votes that are used under the U.S. Electoral College system to select the American president. In Florida and most other states, the candidate who places first in the popular vote – even if just by a hair – wins all the electoral votes. Florida has a history of tight elections and contested outcomes.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys say Florida has shifted all responsibility for compliance with the new payments law to ex-offenders, who risk prosecution if they get it wrong. The state contends the legislature merely implemented the constitutional amendment as it was written on the ballot.

The legislation, known as SB 7066, “sows seeds of confusion,” said Leah Aden, deputy director of litigation at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “It will chill participation.”

Some of the state’s 67 county elections supervisors - the public servants who ultimately decide which felons get culled from the rolls and which can stay - expressed concern in their depositions and to Reuters about making mistakes that could invite challenges to future election results.

Five testified recently in the lawsuit that they lack the manpower to do detailed searches or have no way of ascertaining for certain whether ex-offenders have met their financial obligations under SB 7066.

They said they are relying on Florida’s Department of State, which manages the state’s elections, to help them determine who is ineligible. That agency is developing a procedure to send counties regularly updated lists of felons on their rolls who have unpaid fines and fees, but it has no timetable as to when it will be ready, said Maria Matthews, the director of the Department of State’s Division of Elections, in a September deposition. Matthews did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

For now, the agency is providing counties only with names of Florida felons who are incarcerated, and thus ineligible to vote, Toshia Brown, chief of the department’s Voter Registration Services, said in an August deposition. Brown did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

An early list sent to Leon County in Florida’s Panhandle region appeared to contain inaccuracies, Deputy Elections Supervisor Christopher Moore said in a July email to his staff, which was viewed by Reuters. Moore’s office researched a June list provided by the Department of State containing 66 names of allegedly incarcerated felons, but could not determine whether felony convictions existed for 24 of them – 36% of the total - emails exchanged between Moore and his staff show.

“This process is not off to a very accurate start and we are playing with people’s eligibility to vote,” Moore said in the July email. Moore told Reuters that subsequent data his office has received from the Department of State has gotten better.

Sarah Revell, a spokeswoman for the agency, said the Department of State reviews information from a variety of sources, makes an initial determination on a voter’s eligibility, then passes that along to county supervisors. She said the agency is working to “improve the accuracy and efficiency of the information,” but said it’s up to those elections supervisors to make the final call.

Some backers of the payments law say the responsibility should be on ex-offenders, not the state, to figure out how to comply with SB 7066.

“If you’re going to register to vote and you’re a former felon, it’s worth double checking to make sure you took care of everything,” said J.C. Martin, chairman of the Polk County Republican Party in central Florida.

A federal judge in the Northern District of Florida has set a Monday hearing on the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction to throw out the fees requirement. A decision could come as early as this month.

NO CENTRALIZED DATABASE

Florida stripped felons of their votes during the Jim Crow era in 1868, a ban that endured 150 years and disproportionately affected black voters. As recently as 2016, more than 1.4 million people with felony convictions were barred from voting in Florida, including one in five African American adults, according to The Sentencing Project, a criminal justice nonprofit, which used state conviction and incarceration records for the study.

In November 2018, nearly 65% of Florida voters approved a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to felons, except those convicted of murder and sex crimes.

Through the end of July, Florida recorded around 337,000 new voter registrations, 45,000 of them by African Americans. That’s a 22% increase in new black voters compared to the same period in 2015, the year preceding the last presidential election, a Reuters analysis of Florida voting data shows.

The ballot initiative said felons must first complete “all terms of their sentence including parole or probation.” Republican lawmakers interpreted that to include any court costs, fines, fees and restitution to victims imposed at sentencing. In May, they passed a bill requiring repayment as a condition for voting.

DeSantis, the governor, signed it into law in June amid criticism by voting rights advocates that the legislation was intended to suppress potential votes of African Americans, who tend to vote Democratic. DeSantis has dismissed claims that the law is a poll tax.

The state is still discussing ways to centralize data to track payments. Building a consolidated system could take years and cost millions, according to lawmakers and officials who debated the issue before the law’s passage.

“Right now, the system is just a mess,” ACLU attorney Julie Ebenstein said.

Sean Morales-Doyle of the Brennan Center said the group spent weeks trying to track down what Tyson owes, but couldn’t get a clear answer.

For example, Tyson has a 1998 theft conviction in Hillsborough County on Florida’s Gulf Coast. A judgment order on the clerk’s online docket shows he was ordered to pay $661 in costs, fines and fees. But a separate subpage on the website indicates he was ordered to pay $1,066. Still another shows a total of $573. Tyson’s lawyers say no officials have been able to explain the discrepancies.

State Representative Jamie Grant of Tampa, a Republican supporter of SB 7066, said critics of the law are the ones trying to defy the will of the electorate.

“You don’t get to change what the definition and terms are after people vote for it,” Grant said.

Article published October 7, 2019, written by Linda So (link here), article link here.

[gibsongirlselections]

Donald Trump Has More Fans That You Might Think

The polls show Donald Trump losing to Joe Biden by a wide margin, and yet the president seems to have more support than many might think. And I’m not just talking about Americans afraid of being “cancelled” if they express a politically incorrect opinion such as support for Trump—although a recent poll by the Cato Institute did reveal that 62 percent of Americans are now fearful of publicly expressing their opinions.

Indeed, Trump might have some fans that do a really good job of hiding their affection for him. I’m talking, of course, about Antifa, the folks smashing up cities, most notably, Portland and Seattle. They could yet prove to be Trump’s most potent supporters.

A ridiculous assertion? Well, consider the words of Democratic stalwart Lanny Davis, tweeting on July 27: “Violent protesters lighting fires and using violence in Portland should wear @realDonaldTrump buttons. That is who they are helping. Progressives in Portland need to call them out, including the Mayor. ReTweet please. Don’t allow violent people help @realDonaldTrump.”

Back on June 4, here at TAC, this author made precisely that argument: that Antifa wanted to Trump to win a second term, following the revolutionary Leninist dictum of “the worse the better.” That is, Trump is the figure that Antifa wants in power, because in its view, the incumbent heightens the contradictions of capitalism, white supremacy, and cis-patriarchy.

By contrast, Biden is the sort of consensus-minded figure that could reduce the general level of societal anger—and that, of course, would be bad news for Antifa.

Indeed, in the preferred scenario of partisan and pragmatic Democrats such as Lanny Davis, a President Biden would accommodate enough of the left’s agenda, so that most leftists would be happy, thereby isolating Antifa on the fringe. As a result, Biden would preside happily over the center-left.

To be sure, Republicans say that Biden as the 46th president would cave in to Antifa craziness; and yet that wasn’t the story of his presidential campaign, in which he took on the left, albeit in muted terms—but then, the future is always unknowable.

Yet in the meantime, an emerging fear of Democrats—joined, now, by many ex-Republicans supporting Biden—is that Antifa’s antics will keep Biden from getting elected.

For instance, here’s Steve Schmidt, who has traversed from supporting John McCain to supporting Howard Schultz (remember his short-lived independent presidential campaign?) to now supporting Biden: “This violence is a criminal act and destroys the moral legitimacy of the important messages that peaceful protesters are in the street for. It desecrates the memory and affronts the grave of the late American Hero John Lewis and it helps Trump.”

Schmidt’s denunciation led sly pundit Mickey Kaus to ask about the street-fighting, “If these guys can no longer pretend it’s not happening . . . Has Schmidt maybe seen some polling on the violence?”

Indeed, there’s some evidence that Antifa is driving a wedge inside the Democratic coalition—and that wedging could hurt Biden’s chances. For instance, in a report on the ongoing of violence in Seattle, CBS News reported the reaction of one victim: “Daryl Breaux, whose car was seriously damaged in the melee, said those using the demonstrations as cover for mayhem are drowning out the positive meaning of the protests. ‘Almost 45 years I’ve been Black. This is what Black Lives Matter does? I’m not with it.’”

In fact, the split between mostly white Antifa types and blacks and others angry at the police—but who are not seeking a new Bolshevik revolution—seems to be widening. Here’s Naveed Jamali, an avowed progressive: “I’m a POC who lives in Seattle and has been covering these protests. They have less and less to do with George Floyd or #BlackLivesMatter. It’s a shame, but this movement for equality has been hijacked.”

Indeed, E.D. Mondainé, president of the Portland branch of the NAACP, headlined his op-ed in The Washington Post, “Portland’s protests were supposed to be about black lives. Now, they’re white spectacle.” As Mondainé put it, “As the demonstrations continue every night in Portland, many people with their own agendas are co-opting, and distracting attention from, what should be our central concern: the Black Lives Matter movement.” Asking, “What are antifa and other leftist agitators achieving for the cause of black equality?” Mondainé had a blunt answer: nothing.

As of now, it’s hard to show that this division is actually costing Biden votes, but plenty of Biden supporters are worried—after all, it’s still more than three months till Election Day. MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, who, way back when, won four elections as a Republican Congressman, recently tweeted, “How does breaking windows at a courthouse, setting fire to a federal building, firing guns in crowds, and committing acts of vandalism forward any cause?” Scarborough is referring, of course, to liberal and progressive causes; he’s choosing to ignore Antifa’s cause.

Of course, for its part, as its hazy agenda would indicate, Antifa has its own ideas. After all, if its goal is active and demonstrative “self-defense” against the imagined threats of fascism and Nazism, then it’s not so easy to corral it within the Democratic Party, or even within the norms of the democratic process.

Yet in the meantime, of course, Trump is eager to conflate Biden, the Democrats, and Antifa. The president has said, in fact, that Biden will be a “puppet” of the radical left,” and so, if he wins, “nobody will be safe.” If Trump could truly make that charge stick, he would, in fact, likely win the election.

Indeed, Trump is always upping the ante. Just on July 27, he tweeted, “Anarchists, Agitators or Protestors who vandalize or damage our Federal Courthouse in Portland, or any Federal Buildings in any of our Cities or States, will be prosecuted under our recently re-enacted Statues & Monuments Act. MINIMUM TEN YEARS IN PRISON.”

Here, Trump is referring not to an act of Congress, but rather to a June 26 Executive Order, parts of which read like a campaign speech, viz:

Anarchists and left-wing extremists have sought to advance a fringe ideology that paints the United States of America as fundamentally unjust and have sought to impose that ideology on Americans through violence and mob intimidation. They have led riots in the streets, burned police vehicles, killed and assaulted government officers as well as business owners defending their property, and even seized an area within one city where law and order gave way to anarchy. During the unrest, innocent citizens also have been harmed and killed.

So it would seem that candidate Biden needs to distance himself from Antifa. That is, he needs a “Sister Souljah” moment, recalling the time during the 1992 presidential campaign when Bill Clinton used a majorly symbolic speech venue—appearing before Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition—to separate himself from a black rapper who had called for killing white people. That November, Clinton won the election in a landslide.

Applying the Sister Souljah dynamic to today, Biden would condemn Antifa, making it clear that, during his presidency, maniacal violence would not be tolerated. Were Biden to do so in a loud and steady voice, he would greatly reassure Middle America—to say nothing of easing the angst of prominent supporters Davis, Schmidt, and Scarborough.

Yet here’s the thing: Biden hasn’t done that yet. Maybe he will, but he hasn’t yet. Yes, on July 28, Biden denounced “arsonists and anarchists,” while mostly, of course, attacking Trump. Thus he has yet to make a full-throated denunciation of Antifa by name, making it plain that under his presidential leadership, the violence would be stopped.

So what’s the holdup? What’s the blockage? Why isn’t Biden going full Sister Souljah on Antifa?

The answer could have something to do with the changing nature of the Democratic Party. Back in 1992, when Clinton Sister Souljah-ed Sister Souljah, the party still had much of its traditional Dixie orientation, including presidential campaign buttons boasting the Confederate stars and bars. Indeed, in 1994, President Clinton signed Joe Biden’s tough anti-crime bill, and in 1996, Clinton signed right-wing welfare reform legislation, which Biden voted for. As we can gather, for the Democratic Party of the Clinton era, slamming Antifa would have been a no-brainer.

Yet a quarter-century later, the party has changed. In July 2018, in the wake of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s upset victory in a New York Democratic primary, this author speculated that AOC, as she’s now universally known, would push the Democrats to the hard left. In addition, last year, this author also noted the “McGovernization” of the Democratic Party, referring back to an earlier lurch to the left. Indeed, earlier this month, I wondered aloud whether the Democrats would be able to separate themselves from their “summer of love.”

So maybe that’s why Biden is so quiet. Nobody thinks that he himself supports Antifa, but maybe his strategists think that he must walk a fine line, such that he doesn’t seem to tolerating violence and yet, at the same time, doesn’t seem to be siding with Trump. Great politicians walk fine lines for a living—so now we’ll have to see about Biden.

Because in the meantime, the violence rages, not just in Portland and Seattle, but in just about every big city in the country. And if the violence continues, the words of Elon Musk, a man of indeterminate political views, will seem all the more true: “The left is losing the middle.”

Of course, if the left loses the middle, if more chaos ensues, and if Trump gets re-elected, that’s just fine with Antifa.

      The post Donald Trump Has More Fans That You Might Think appeared first on The American Conservative.

[hail-to-the-republic]



July 2019 • Issue No. 30</--> </--> </-->

Why Does the Media Only Talk About Guns? 

BY TIM SCHMIDT - USCCA FOUNDER I came across an interesting op-ed a few days ago that really got me thinking.

The opinion piece, titled "Kyoto Animation arson killings didn't get much attention because we couldn't demonize guns," was written by James Alan Fox and appeared in USA TODAY.

It was Fox's first line that sort of stopped me in my tracks:

"The Kyoto Animation killing left 34 dead, but it didn't have much impact because we don't pay attention to mass killings without guns. We should."

I have to admit that I had heard little about the massacre, which occurred last Thursday in Kyoto, Japan.

The New York Times reported that "much was still unknown about the Thursday fire, which appeared to be Japan's worst mass killing in decades. The police ... identified a suspect in the case," and that suspect "told the police that he started the fire because he believed the studio, Kyoto Animation, 'stole a novel' from him."

The more I read, the more unsettled I became. Why was it that one country's "worst mass killing in decades" made but a splash on the media's radar?

According to Bearing Arms, "The reason the fire in Japan [didn't] get more play is that it [didn't] do anything for them. They [couldn't] spin it, make it a bigger story, so they [didn't] devote the coverage to it. They'll save that for when they can push to take away our right to keep and bear arms."

In his op-ed, Fox agrees: "The limited attention here in the United States cannot be explained away on account of distance. Compare the coverage with that of the mosque shootings last March in Christchurch, New Zealand, a location even farther from our shores. U.S. newspapers and wire services featured the Christchurch massacre five times as much as the Kyoto mass murder." 

He continues: "Mass shootings remain one of the most widely discussed topics here in the United States. By comparison, we just don't seem to be as unnerved by mass killings carried out by other methods, unless of course they hint of terrorism, be it of foreign or domestic origin."

He makes an incredibly logical point and even points out how, in our own country — maybe especially in our own country — people tend to move on quickly from any mass murder that doesn't involve guns.

He writes, "It would be hard to find adults anywhere in this country who do not remember when 12 victims were gunned down at a cinema in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012. It would be equally difficult to find folks outside of Nevada who do recall when 12 victims succumbed to smoke inhalation at a Reno hotel in 2006, when an irate resident set fire to a stack of old mattresses and caused the building to become engulfed in flames. Few outside of New York City likely recall the 87 killed in 1990 at the Happy Land nightclub in a fire deliberately set by an ex-boyfriend of an employee. The death toll was nearly twice as high as Orlando's Pulse nightclub massacre in 2016, a crime that remains fresh in our collective memories."

Disturbing ... yet true.

Fox goes on to cite the Associated Press/USA TODAY/Northeastern University Mass Killing Database to point out how, of some 391 massacres in the United States since 2016, more than one-fifth involved weapons other than a gun. (He also reiterates how the media never called for the banning of knives or trucks or gasoline in any of those 85 instances.) 

Fox claims "it is surely fruitless to assess the relative severity of mass killings on the basis of weaponry," and I couldn't agree more. 

The bottom line is that evil is evil, regardless of how it's carried out. All life is precious, and��all victims of these horrendous crimes deserve to be honored and remembered instead of used to push a political agenda.

And it bears repeating: We must stay vigilant at all times. We must be ready for anything. And if we are ever faced with a deadly threat — be it someone armed with a knife or a gun or a truck or fire — we must fight like hell to prevail.

Take Care and Stay Safe,



Tim Schmidt

Publisher - Concealed Carry Report

USCCA Founder

P.S. - Have you picked up your copy of Should I Shoot? yet? Get your book now to save 36% and you'll uncover 31 deadly force scenarios that will change the way you think about concealed carry...

Who Needs Guns? Some More Than Others...

BY: KEVIN MICHALOWSKI I support LGBTQ rights. I do so without equivocation. I also really feel like I have made that clear in my past writings and videos. So when someone asked me about…

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The Constitution Didn't Intend for Us to Have So-Called 'Assault Rifles'

BY: BETH ALCAZAR In my home state of Alabama, law enforcement officers from the city of Tuscaloosa recently attended a press conference on gun violence. This was organized by local NAACP chapter president Jerry Carter in response to…

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Maintaining Your Everyday Carry Gun

BY: JOHN CAILE During a defensive shooting class that I conducted for a young couple last week, the husband's gun failed to function properly several times. In his first trip to the firing line, the malfunction was a simple stovepipe, which he…

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Summertime: Concealed Carry Is Easier Now

BY: SCOTT W. WAGNER After an Ohio spring and early summer consisting of record, crop-drowning rainfall and high temperatures in the mid-to-upper 60s, summer finally hit with a vengeance. Temperatures here have soared into the 90s (with loads of humidity). Gross. I am counting the minutes to…

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Wailing About Guns

BY: RICK SAPP The world is full of professional wailers. Bemoaners, complainers and whiners. Unfortunately, many of these whimpering citizens either hold an elected office or try their darnedest to get one. The allure, I suppose, is salary and benefits ... with the ability to…

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[VIDEO]: Hand Sizing Tips When Fitting Handguns for Women

BY: PERSONAL DEFENSE NETWORK Handguns for women — is there such a thing? Each person is an individual with a unique hand that his or her defensive gun must fit. PDN's Rob Pincus looks at five handgun designs and offers tips for …

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Virginia governor doesn’t believe he’s in blackface-Klan yearbook photo he apologized for: Democrat

Virginia governor doesn’t believe he’s in blackface-Klan yearbook photo he apologized for: Democrat Virginia governor doesn’t believe he’s in blackface-Klan yearbook photo he apologized for: Democrat http://bit.ly/2BgGY1H

RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia Democrat who has spoken with Gov. Ralph Northam has told The Associated Press that the governor now does not believe he was in a racist picture in his 1984 medical yearbook and has no immediate plans to resign.

The official was not authorized to speak on the record to detail a private conversation. The official told the AP on Saturday that Northam plans to address the issue with the public in the afternoon.

Northam is calling Virginia Democrats to try and gain support. Nearly his entire political base has called for him to resign.

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Northam’s 1984 yearbook page shows a picture of a person in blackface and another wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood next to different pictures of the governor.

After the picture went public Friday, Northam issued a statement saying he was “sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo.”

But the Democrat who spoke to Northam said that after further reflection the governor said he has no memory of wearing either of the racist costumes and doesn’t believe he is in the picture.

Northam’s efforts do not appear to be successful so far. The Virginia Democratic Party issued a statement demanding Northam’s immediate resignation.

Demonstrators hold signs and chant outside the Governors office at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019.

The Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, the state House Democratic Caucus and the state Senate Democratic Caucus all called on Northam to resign late Friday, along with several key progressive groups that have been some of the governor’s closest political allies.

The yearbook images were first published Friday afternoon by the conservative news outlet Big League Politics. The Virginian-Pilot later obtained a copy from Eastern Virginia Medical School, which Northam attended. The photo shows two people looking at the camera — one in blackface wearing a hat, bow tie and plaid pants; the other in a full Ku Klux Klan robe.

An Associated Press reporter saw the yearbook page and confirmed its authenticity at the medical school.

This image shows Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s page in his 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook.

The president of Eastern Virginia Medical School apologized on behalf of the school for “past transgressions of your trust.” In a statement on the school’s website, President Richard Homan said the photo “absolutely antithetical” to the school’s principles, morals, and values. He said he would convene a meeting of school leadership to address the issue.

Meanwhile, Northam — in his first apology, issued in a written statement Friday — called the costume he wore “clearly racist and offensive,” but he didn’t say which one he had worn.

He later issued a video statement saying he was “deeply sorry” but still committed to serving the “remainder of my term.”

“I accept responsibility for my past actions and I am ready to do the hard work of regaining your trust,” Northam said.

A small number of protesters stood outside the governor’s mansion Saturday to demand his resignation.

Demonstrators hold signs and chant outside the Governors Mansion at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Saturday, Feb. 2, 2019.

Northam’s departure would mean current Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax, a Democrat who is only the second African-American to win statewide office in Virginia, would be the next governor. Northam’s term was set to end in 2022.

Black lawmakers said they met with Northam Friday evening, and said in a statement they appreciate his service.

“But given what was revealed today, it is clear that he can no longer effectively serve as governor,” the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus said.

State Sen. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, a close ally of Northam and longtime African-American lawmaker, said she told the governor Saturday that he should have denied he was in the photo immediately after it went public. The delay and his apology raises questions about why he thought it was possible he could have been in the picture.

“That’s hard for me to swallow. I don’t think I’m being unreasonable. But golly Jesus, he could have said that the minute he saw the picture,” Lucas said.

Others said there was no question he should step down. Among them: Democratic presidential hopefuls Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren; newly elected Democratic U.S. Reps. Elaine Luria and Abigail Spanberger of Virginia; the NAACP and Planned Parenthood.

Northam spent years actively courting the black community in the lead up to his 2017 gubernatorial run, building relationships that helped him win both the primary and the general election. He’s a member of a predominantly black church on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, where he grew up.

“It’s a matter of relationships and trust. That’s not something that you build overnight,” Northam told the AP during a 2017 campaign stop while describing his relationship with the black community. Northam, a folksy pediatric neurologist who is personal friends with many GOP lawmakers, has recently come under fire from Republicans who have accused him of backing infanticide after he said he supported a bill loosening restrictions on late-term abortions.

Last week, Florida’s secretary of state resigned after photos from a 2005 Halloween party showed him in blackface while dressed as a Hurricane Katrina victim.

The photos obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat were shown to the Governor's Office on Thursday morning. Hours later it issued a statement: "The governor accepted Secretary Ertel's resignation." https://t.co/quleb5ZMGX

— Tallahassee Democrat (@TDOnline) January 24, 2019

Click for update news Bangla news http://bit.ly/2Sl7PDO world news

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Last US Senate race of midterms up for vote in Mississippi

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/last-us-senate-race-of-midterms-up-for-vote-in-mississippi/

Last US Senate race of midterms up for vote in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Mississippi voters are deciding the last U.S. Senate race of the midterms, choosing between a white Republican Senate appointee backed by President Donald Trump and a black Democrat who was agriculture secretary when Bill Clinton was in the White House.

History will be made either way: Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, 59, would be the first woman ever elected to Congress from Mississippi, and Democrat Mike Espy, 64, would be the state’s first African-American U.S. senator since Reconstruction.

Mississippi’s past of racist violence became a dominant theme after a video showed Hyde-Smith praising a supporter in early November by saying, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” She said it was “an exaggerated expression of regard.” More than a week after the video’s release, she said she apologized to “anyone that was offended by my comments,” but also said the remark was used as a “weapon” against her.

Hyde-Smith was seen in another video talking about making voting difficult for “liberal folks,” and a photo circulated of her wearing a replica Confederate military hat during a 2014 visit to Beauvoir, a beachside museum in Biloxi, Mississippi, that was the last home of Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

Critics said Hyde-Smith’s comments and Confederate regalia showed callous indifference in a state with a 38 percent black population, and some corporate donors, including Walmart, requested refunds on their campaign contributions to her.

Mississippi – which still has the Confederate battle emblem on its state flag – has a history of racially motivated lynchings. The NAACP website says that between 1882 and 1968, there were 4,743 lynchings in the United States, and that nearly 73 percent of the victims were black. It says Mississippi had 581 lynching during that time, the highest number of any state.

Hyde-Smith was in her second term as Mississippi’s elected agriculture commissioner when Republican Gov. Phil Bryant chose her to temporarily succeed longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, who retired in April amid health concerns. Tuesday’s winner will serve the last two years of Cochran’s six-year term.

Hyde-Smith has campaigned as an unwavering supporter of Trump, who campaigned with her Monday, praising her at a rally in the northeastern Mississippi city of Tupelo for voting to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.

“She stood up to the Democrat smear machine,” Trump said.

With the Mississippi election undecided, Republicans hold 52 of the 100 Senate seats.

Mississippi last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1982, but Espy was trying for the same kind of longshot win that fellow Democrat Doug Jones had nearly a year ago in neighboring Alabama, another conservative Deep South state where Republicans hold most statewide offices.

Espy campaigned as someone who would be able to bridge the partisan divide in Washington. He was endorsed by former Vice President Joe Biden, and three Democrats who are potential 2020 presidential candidates – former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey – traveled to Mississippi to campaign for him.

“I ask you tonight, Mississippi. It’s the third decade of the 21st century. Why are we still fighting about the color line?” Espy said during a speech Monday night at a predominantly African-American church.

“This is a campaign that goes to the color line and it reached across the color line, across the chasm of racial division, across the chasm of racial acrimony,” Espy said.

If white voters outnumber black voters 2-to-1 on Tuesday, Espy would have to win 30 percent or more of white votes, a tough task in a state with possibly the most racially polarized electorate in the country. But if black voters rise to 40 percent of the electorate and Espy wins 9 out of 10, he needs less than a quarter of white votes to squeak out a victory.

“If Espy wins that race, it represents a huge breakthrough for America,” said the Rev. Jesse Jackson, a longtime civil rights activist and former Democratic presidential candidate. “If he loses, it’s a brief statement about Mississippi being unrepentant.”

Meanwhile, federal and state authorities are investigating seven nooses that were found hanging from trees outside the Mississippi Capitol on Monday, along with handwritten signs that referred to the Senate runoff and the state’s history of lynching.

Hyde-Smith campaign hammered Espy for his $750,000 lobbying contract in 2011 with the Cocoa and Coffee Board of the Ivory Coast. She noted that the country’s ex-president, Laurent Gbagbo, is being tried in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

“I don’t know how many Mississippians can really relate to an income that can command a $750,000 check from one person for a lobbying job,” Hyde-Smith, who is a cattle rancher, said during a Nov. 20 debate.

Espy, who is an attorney, said: “I found out later that this guy, the president, was a really bad guy. I resigned the contract.”

Federal registration papers show Espy terminated the contract two weeks before its scheduled end.

Espy resigned the Cabinet post in 1994 amid a special counsel investigation that accused him of improperly accepting gifts. He was tried and acquitted on 30 corruption charges, but the Mississippi Republican Party ran an ad this year that called Espy “too corrupt for the Clintons” and “too liberal for Mississippi.”

Espy said he refused to accept offers of plea deals.

“I put my reputation on the line, went through a trial, went through 70 witnesses against me, went through the special prosecutor who spent $26 million against me and I was found not guilty. Because I was not guilty,” Espy told The Associated Press in October. “In fact, I was so not guilty, I was innocent.”

____

Associated Press writer Jeff Amy contributed to this report.

____

For AP’s complete coverage of the U.S. midterm elections: http://apne.ws/APPolitics . Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus .

Copyright © 2018 The Washington Times, LLC.

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WASHINGTON | The Latest: Hoeber again wins Maryland GOP nom for US House

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/bwjA54

WASHINGTON | The Latest: Hoeber again wins Maryland GOP nom for US House

WASHINGTON — The Latest on primaries and runoffs in seven states (all times local):

10:55 p.m.

Defense consultant Amie (AH’-mee) Hoeber has won the Maryland Republican primary for U.S. House in her second consecutive nomination for the seat.

Hoeber beat three other Republicans in Tuesday’s race.

In 2016, she lost the general election to incumbent Rep. John Delaney, who isn’t running for re-election this year. He’s seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020.

Hoeber served as deputy undersecretary of the Army during President Ronald Reagan’s administration. She oversaw the Army’s research and development programs and managed environmental cleanup of decommissioned bases.

She’s pointed to her defense expertise as a background to help steer defense work to the district.

The district includes western Maryland and portions of the Washington suburbs. It’s criticized as one of the state’s most gerrymandered districts.

___

10:48 p.m.

Former Oklahoma City mayor Mick Cornett has advanced to the August runoff to decide who gets the Republican nomination in the state’s governor’s race.

The 59-year-old Cornett is among top vote getters in Tuesday’s GOP primary election in the crowded 10-man field seeking to replace Republican Gov. Mary Fallin, who is term limited. The primary runoff is Aug. 28. The general election is in November.

Cornett is a former television reporter who was first elected mayor of Oklahoma City in 2004 and served four consecutive terms during a revitalization of the state’s capital city.

Political newcomer and businessman Kevin Stitt and Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb are also considered favorites headed for the Republican runoff.

___

10:45 p.m.

Former NAACP President Ben Jealous has won the Democratic nomination for governor in Maryland, setting up a battle between the liberal candidate and a popular Republican incumbent.

Jealous beat Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker. Both candidates are black, and Jealous now has a shot at becoming the state’s first black governor and the country’s third elected black governor.

Jealous faces Gov. Larry Hogan in the general election.

Jealous won support from leading liberals on the national stage, including Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Cory Booker of New Jersey, and Kamala Harris of California.

Jealous supports tuition-free college educations and expanding Medicare to all. He also advocates raising teacher pay by 29 percent and funding full-day, universal pre-kindergarten with tax revenue from his proposal to legalize recreational marijuana.

___

10:40 p.m.

Turnout is up significantly in Colorado’s primary, thanks in large part to a new state law allowing unaffiliated voters to participate in the two parties’ nominating contests for the first time.

According to preliminary figures from the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office, more than 32 percent of the state’s 3.2 million active voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s primary election, up from 21 percent in 2016.

Unaffiliated voters, who make up roughly a third of the state’s electorate, represent the bulk of the increase. They cast more than 250,000 votes, or about 8 percentage points of the turnout.

Preliminary voter turnout among members of the two major parties was up about 3 percentage points.

Enthusiasm is one possible factor. Turnout has been high in primary elections across the country, among Democrats in particular. This year’s ballot also had interesting races. Colorado did not have a presidential primary in 2016. This year, both parties have contested gubernatorial primaries atop the ticket.

___

10:35 p.m.

A state senator in South Carolina has won the Republican nomination for U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy’s open seat.

William Timmons was nominated after Tuesday’s runoff. He had finished second to former state Sen. Lee Bright in the June 12 primary.

Timmons was the choice of establishment Republicans, picking up a number of endorsements and quiet support. He is similar to Gowdy, who spent eight years in the House and led a highly partisan panel investigating the 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.

Timmons was a prosecutor and successful businessman who spent more than $900,000 of his own money on his campaign.

Timmons will take on businessman Brandon Brown, who won the Democratic runoff Tuesday.

___

10:30 p.m.

Gov. Henry McMaster says he will use his relationship with President Donald Trump to bring prosperity to South Carolina.

McMaster told supporters gathered to celebrate his victory in Tuesday’s Republican gubernatorial runoff that he was glad to have a friend in the president and knew that the state would benefit from their relationship.

Trump endorsed McMaster in his pursuit of a first full term in office and campaigned for him just hours before polls opened for Tuesday’s voting.

Greenville businessman John Warren congratulated McMaster on his victory but told his own supporters he hoped they could continue their momentum in forging a new brand of conservatism in South Carolina.

___

10:27 p.m.

Mitt Romney has won the Republican primary for a Utah Senate seat, setting him on the path to restart his political career with a Senate seat left open by retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch.

Romney secured the nomination Tuesday against state lawmaker Mike Kennedy after fending off attacks on his onetime criticism of President Donald Trump.

Romney was the heavy favorite to win the race in Utah, where he moved after his failed 2012 presidential run and is a beloved adopted son.

Romney blasted Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, though the two men have largely buried the hatchet, and Romney has accepted the president’s endorsement.

He now faces Democratic Salt Lake County Councilwoman Jenny Wilson, though GOP candidates have an upper hand in the conservative state.

___

10:25 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley says he wishes “the best” for Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the challenger who beat him in the Democratic congressional primary in New York in a highly unexpected upset.

The 10-term incumbent thanked supporters and expressed his love Tuesday for the people of the 14th Congressional District, which includes parts of the Bronx and Queens.

Twenty-eight-year-old Ocasio-Cortez has never held elected office. She worked for Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.

She was outspent by an 18-1 margin but won the endorsement of some influential groups on the party’s left, including MoveOn.

Crowley says, “I want nothing but the best for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez. I want her to be victorious.”

Crowley had been considered a candidate to become the next House speaker if Democrats win the majority.

Republican candidate Anthony Pappas is running unopposed.

___

10:20 p.m.

Oklahoma voters have backed the medicinal use of marijuana despite opposition from law enforcement and business, faith and political leaders.

State Question 788 was the result of an activist-led signature drive. It allows physicians to approve medical marijuana licenses for people to legally grow, keep and use cannabis. The proposal doesn’t list any qualifying medical conditions, allowing doctors to prescribe it for a wide range of ailments.

Opponents had argued the proposal was too loosely written, and Republican Gov. Mary Fallin said it would essentially allow recreational use. She recently warned that if the measure passed, she would have to call lawmakers into a special session to develop rules regulating the industry in Oklahoma.

It’s the first marijuana question on a state ballot in 2018. Elections are scheduled for later this year in Michigan and Utah.

___

9:50 p.m.

In a shocking upset, U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley has been defeated by a 28-year-old Bernie Sanders supporter in the Democratic congressional primary in New York.

Crowley had been considered a candidate to become the next House speaker if Democrats win the majority.

He was defeated Tuesday by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has never held elected office.

Ocasio-Cortez ran a low-budget campaign and was outspent by an 18-1 margin. She won the endorsement of some influential groups on the party’s left, including MoveOn.

Crowley has been in Congress since 1999. He represents New York’s 14th Congressional District, which includes parts of the Bronx and Queens.

Ocasio-Cortez has been a community organizer in the Bronx and worked on Sanders’ presidential campaign.

___

9:47 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Jared Polis has won the Democratic primary in the race to replace Colorado Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper.

Polis secured the nomination Tuesday against former state Treasurer Cary Kennedy, former state Sen. Mike Johnston and Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne.

Polis is a five-term congressman, former state board of education member and self-made millionaire and philanthropist.

He supports publicly-funded preschool and kindergarten, forgiveness of college debt, single-payer health care and promoting renewable energy.

State law prohibits Hickenlooper from serving a third consecutive term.

Tuesday’s primary was the first in which unaffiliated voters, the state’s largest voting bloc, could participate in one or the other of the major party primaries.

Colorado hasn’t elected a Republican governor since Bill Owens, who served from 1999 to 2007.

___

9:45 p.m.

Former Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has defeated ex-state Sen. Connie Johnson to win the Democratic nomination in the race to be the state’s next governor.

Edmondson will face the eventual Republican nominee in November.

Edmondson’s victory Tuesday was something he was unable to do in 2010. He was upset in that Democratic primary by then-Lt. Gov. Jari Askins.

The 71-year-old Edmondson is a Vietnam War veteran from Muskogee who served four terms as Oklahoma attorney general and had a huge fundraising advantage over Johnson. The $1.5 million he raised was more than 20 times as much as Johnson, a 66-year-old former state senator from Oklahoma City.

Johnson has been a longtime champion of legalizing marijuana and abolishing the death penalty.

___

9:40 p.m.

U.S. Rep. Dan Donovan has survived a fierce challenge in New York’s Republican primary from Michael Grimm, a former congressman who resigned to go to prison for tax fraud.

Donovan represents New York’s 11th Congressional District, which covers Staten Island and part of Brooklyn.

Grimm served more than seven months in prison after pleading guilty in 2014 to cheating the government out of taxes at his Manhattan restaurant.

He was leading in at least one poll when President Donald Trump weighed in on the race last month, urging voters to stick with Donovan.

Trump said in a tweet that a vote for Grimm risked handing the seat to Democrats.

Donovan is New York City’s only Republican congressman.

He is seeking a third term.

___

9:35 p.m.

Mississippi Democrats have nominated state Rep. David Baria to challenge incumbent U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, lining up behind a party stalwart as they reject a bid by a newcomer.

Baria is a Bay St. Louis attorney. He beat venture capitalist Howard Sherman of Meridian in Tuesday’s runoff.

Many Democratic politicians backed Baria, the state House minority leader, arguing that Sherman was an unknown quantity. The husband of actress Sela Ward, Sherman voted as a Republican in California and donated to Wicker. Sherman said that was an effort to prevent a tea party conservative from winning office.

Baria says he has the experience to make the uphill campaign against Wicker and be a productive senator.

The Reform Party’s Shawn O’Hara of Hattiesburg and Libertarian Danny Bedwell of Columbus also are running in November.

___

9:30 p.m.

State Treasurer Walker Stapleton has won the Republican primary for Colorado governor.

Stapleton secured the nomination Tuesday against businessmen Victor Mitchell, Doug Robinson and Greg Lopez.

Stapleton led a field that collectively vowed to defend any attempt to tamper with Colorado’s constitutional Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which leaves it to voters to approve tax hikes. He also aligned himself with President Donald Trump on immigration, health care and the federal tax plan.

Stapleton has aired an ad in which he states, “I’ll stand with Donald Trump to get illegal aliens who commit crimes deported.” In the ad, Stapleton blames Congress for an immigration policy that separates children from their parents along the border.

State law prohibits Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper from serving a third consecutive term.

___

9:25 p.m.

Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin has won the Democratic nomination for his bid to earn a third term, beating Chelsea Manning and six others.

The popular and well-funded incumbent easily took victory in Tuesday’s crowded primary.

Cardin’s best-known rival was Manning, the convicted leaker of U.S. government secrets. She ran an unorthodox, grassroots campaign that failed to resonate with many voters.

Outside Manning’s involvement, the contest attracted such little attention that there were no debates, few candidate forums and hardly any polling.

Cardin has name recognition within the state. He served 20 years in the U.S. House before becoming a senator in 2006. In his last primary, he easily defeated eight challengers.

___

9:15 p.m.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has secured the Republican gubernatorial nomination for a first full term in office, after President Donald Trump publicly embraced him at a rally and followed up with a tweet encouraging voters.

McMaster defeated Greenville businessman John Warren in Tuesday’s primary runoff.

McMaster became governor when Nikki Haley left the office in 2017 to join the Trump administration as U.N. ambassador. As lieutenant governor, McMaster was the first statewide elected official in the country to back Trump’s candidacy.

The runoff pitting McMaster against Warren threatened to embarrass the White House if the governor fell short. Trump has a mixed track record when going all-in for candidates.

McMaster was unsuccessful in his previous bid for the governorship in 2010, losing a four-way GOP primary to Haley.

___

9 p.m.

Polls have now closed in New York and Colorado on a night when seven states are holding primary or runoff elections.

Polls closed in New York and Colorado at 9 p.m. Tuesday. Polls have already closed in South Carolina, Oklahoma, Mississippi and Maryland but remain open in Utah.

New York City’s only Republican congressman will try to hold off a fierce challenge in the state’s primary election from a former congressman trying to make a political comeback after serving prison time for tax fraud. The fight between U.S. Rep. Daniel Donovan and former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm is the most closely watched race in New York congressional primaries.

In Colorado, the contest to succeed Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper tops the primary. He is prevented by term limit laws from running again.

___

8 p.m.

Polls have closed in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Maryland on a night of primary or runoff elections.

Polls closed in those states at 8 p.m. Tuesday. Polls closed an hour earlier in South Carolina, while polls close later Tuesday in Colorado, New York and Utah.

In Maryland, the outcome of races might be delayed because of an issue with voter registration that election officials said could affect as many as 80,000 voters. Those voters tried to change information through the Motor Vehicle Administration, but the MVA didn’t transmit the information to election officials.

In Mississippi, Democratic voters are picking a nominee to challenge an incumbent Republican senator, and Republicans are choosing a congressional nominee for an open seat.

Oklahoma’s gubernatorial race is at the top of the primary election ballot in that state.

___

7 p.m.

Polls have closed in South Carolina as seven states across the nation hold primary or runoff elections.

Polls closed in South Carolina at 7 p.m. for Tuesday’s runoff. Primary elections are also unfolding in Colorado, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma and Utah, while a runoff was being held in Mississippi.

President Donald Trump has put his name on the line in several races, especially in South Carolina, where he implored voters at a rally Monday to support incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster over newcomer John Warren. The winner faces Democrat James Smith in November.

Voters in one U.S. House District in South Carolina are also set to pick the replacement for U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy. Former state Sen. Lee Bright takes on state Sen. William Timmons for the Republican nomination in Gowdy’s 4th Congressional District.

___

2:15 p.m.

Maryland residents are voting in a primary amid some confusion created by a major voter-registration snafu.

But election officials say they haven’t received any reports of problems thus far in Tuesday’s elections.

A computer error at the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration failed to send changes some voters made in address and party affiliation to the state elections board.

As a result, as many as 80,000 voters could be forced to cast provisional ballots that won’t be counted until next week.

Officials say the problem affects information that was entered either on the administration’s website or at self-serve kiosks.

State elections deputy administrator Nikki Charlson says she hasn’t heard of any problems related to the issue.

___

7 a.m.

Voters in seven states are voting in primary or runoff elections Tuesday. They’re facing decisions on everything from whether to return a convicted felon to Congress to whether marijuana laws should be loosened.

Primary elections are unfolding in Colorado, Maryland, New York, Oklahoma and Utah. South Carolina and Mississippi are holding runoffs.

President Trump has put his name on the line in several races, especially in South Carolina, where he implored voters Monday to support incumbent Gov. Henry McMaster. In New York, Rep. Daniel Donovan hopes to avoid becoming the third House Republican to lose a primary this year. His rival is former Rep. Michael Grimm, who went to federal prison for tax evasion.

And in Utah, Mitt Romney is the favorite to win the GOP nomination for Senate.

__

By Associated Press

___

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THE ENEMY WITHIN (HUBRIS)

                                                  -NOTICE-

Greetings!

      Usually I come to you (my constituency) w/good news. Usually I try my best to be positive w/o lying to anyone. I send you legal "suggestions" and give you energy to fight for your freedom. You guys, prisoners, who are actually doing these Constitutionally infirmed, immoral, race-based and unjust sentences. For the following reasons below I come to you w/ a different spectrum of energy. Please remember my fight for justice is not anchored in criminal justice. It is anchored and premised in Spiritual justice. I just believe, w/complete resolve, that MAN's LAW has been and continues to be used against minorities to stunt and rob them of growth and experiencing the promise of the American Dream. I think it is egregious and detestable. I believe several organizations who say they fight, for  "THE CAUSE OF JUSTICE", either do not know what that means or are complacent and therefore complicit. So I write.

   (Greatest Foe)

    The greatest foe we will face is our so-called friends. Our so-called champions. Those who fight for us. Do they fight? Of course! However, do they fight w/RESOLVE; no! These are our greatest foe. The enablers of the correction of a GRAVE INJUSTICE. Do I need to name a few? Who is the first to come to mind when I speak w/minorities? NAACP. Why? B/c minority prisoners look around and see NO ONE from the advancement of colored people fighting for them. Sure we see them once an unthought-of of or precedential act of human deprivation occurs. However, the day-to-day work of fighting injustice is non-existent and succinct at best.

    Where do we need them to fight? Fighting against the existing law and the existing legal and law enforcement tactics is a start. Because this is not done prisoners lose faith and lose trust in organizations who say they help. How I see it is that  any ORGANIZATION that DOES NOT ENGAGE on a day to day basis is incredulous and only concerned about specific swaths of minorities.

   I was warned by a great man who championed a civil rights movement. I will not say his name it will taek from my point. But he was at the White House speaking to President Johnson and he marched in Alabama and Mississippi. He was a leader & critical to the civil Rights movement in general. He told me my greatest foe will be those who pretend to help. He also told me to never begin a movement b/c all movements have a life span. What I find the most appalling in all this is the Hubris of those who "fight for us". It is STINGING. They believe they are doing the best job possible and that we are ungrateful for their efforts.

    THEIR HUBRIS has grown sickening. The ACLU once told me they didn't have enough money to fight for Fair Sentencing practices even though, federal judges, the U.S. Sentencing Commission and ex-prosecutors agreed w/my assertion that LIFE for non-violent drug crimes was disproportionate, per the 8th Amendment. The U.S. District Court's Opinion in Bannister was my Premise. However, they refused to help. Implying they do enough more cost-effective work on other judicial fronts. This is the hubris that I speak of.

    (Questions)

   So I have questions that directly surround the Sentencing Reform bills that pro athletes back, that the majority of  minorities "effected" want. The questions have been asked to me by prisoners so I am asking them to you.

    1. How is it possible no one anticipated Jeff Sessions efforts and the White Houses efforts to derail Sentencing Reform?

    2. Why were NO strategies developed to combat any obstruction to this bill BEFORE it passed thru the Senate judiciary? Its been over a year since this new self proclaimed Law & Order administration came into power. It is beyond logic that Organizations who claim to combat Harsh sentencing had NO strategy in place to take on nay-sayers. Wouldn't this be at best a dereliction of duty?

    3. Who are the democrats who are saying this bill won't pass? We need to know, we want to vote them out. We want names. And further if you were us would you trust yourself to deliver on "ACTUAL" Reform? And why?

   4. Why don't Organizations work together? It seems you all are looking for recognition by those who obstruct your very agenda. You want awards for making absolutely no difference in Effect. Why?

  5. Why do you work to pass laws that don't work? Everyone knows that in the past Crime, Sentencing or PRISON reform bills will merely sound great and have NO EFFECT. The bill which does this the best and has the least effect is always passed. Why, haven't you recognized the same?

    (Guidance)

    What all prisoners wonder, especially the minorities who have been incarcerated over 15 years, if organizations get that these bills are only correcting decades of injustice. That the laws they look to correct have decimated minority communities and sown distrust in minorities for these institutions. That NO ONE is doing us any favors? Furthermore, that these laws are so egregious and garner so much distrust that even when minorities "MAKE IT BIG" they speak out against them and the people who enforce them. Not because of the people but because of the techniques and tactics and zeal that is used when enforcing these laws on minorities. This is so engrained in them that they feel obligated to speak out against it. To kneel, to tweet to NOT SHUT UP AND JUST DRIBBLE. Why haven't you contacted these entertainers (sports, movie music).

    So this is what is going to happen. GUIDANCE. I will form an effort to guide all the Organizations and people who say they fight for us. Fair? I believe so. What I will do is spend my every waking hour razing these Organizations who say they fight for prisoners and against injustice. It is clear you are not getting the picture. So understand these 5 basic things.

     1. We no longer need you to "help" it is ineffective and wanton and you are not helping us, what you are doing is helping those who have made careers out of obstructing A CORRECTION OF EVIL (which is many of the laws). Why do I use the term evil? Because I believe anything done outside of God's will is evil. So when you meet your small adversities. And have NOT prepared for the eventuality that CONGRESS who has not done anything for decades will again try to derail and foil the correction of racism (Which is these laws the Sentencing form looks to correct) then we see you or your organization as part of the problem. MLK Jr. spoke of people like you in his ' Letter from a Birmingham Prison'.

   2. We will advocate for your resignation and/or replacement. Whether you be a politician or an organization.

   3. We will work within other Organizations and movements to derail any effort you make act winning favor with those who have done NOTHING for 30 years to correct these racist Sentences.

   4. We will cease any interaction with you. Thru any and all digital formats.

   5. When one of us is release we will let everyone know what you ARE NOT DOING and why they should not believe in you. And how you have failed the people as a whole! How you have exploited them and what we intend to do about. B/C we have friends aswell. We know entertainers aswell. We do not need to know politicans. The politicians will soon know who we are. This is a new era. A new existence and it will prevail.

(Cause & Effect)

   Let me explain how this works. My spiritual belief is premised in this Universal Law. So how I see it is that organizations work on "EFFECTS". You are the people of effects. Meaning something has to cause you to WANT or TRY to do something. You give it persistent but minmal effort and when you are met w/enough adversity you give up and tell us you will win at the next fight. And you don't. the Slaevs went thru the same thing.

  The problem is organizations do not fight for CAUSES anymore. An effect can become someones cause. I am not saying that, what I am saying is that the CAUSE for PRISON REFORM is due to the DECADES OF SENTENCING minority defendants disporportionally. Which has effected our communities and infringes upon our own civil rights to fairness equality and justice. OUR rights our over-looked. We are told as the SCLC told MLK Jr.WAIT! Next YEar! Stop expecting now. Be patient. People have waited years for resolution. We do not want to make enemies. However, 30 years have passed since the SRA. And we still wait. HOW MUCH LONGER? How much longer would you wait?

  Alot of you use the fact that Obama's administration couldn't get this Bull passed. But all minortities do not see Obama in the same light.  The fact he was black means nothing to us. He did exactly what everyone else has done for decades. USE us and our families for votes and do nothing for us.  He is no different. The fact that this is pointed out verifies that you know that these laws are racist. B/c what is implied is that if it didn't happen under a black president it is not going to happen now. Which is the precise reason why these laws are BIGGER than just Sentencing Reform. Also it is the precise reason why we see you as ineffective. You do not understand the gravity or importance of any of this.

   See for the minority communities these laws STAND FOR THE SIGNALING THAT Congress knows that what was done in the past destroyed a community and the laws that were passed were race-based. Both violate the constitution. However, THEY have the power alone, when they want to weild it, to end it. SO since they feel like that and Organizations feel like they will due "what is usually proscribed"; we will ACT and not talk.

  You will test our will and we will test your resolve. Fair? we will both see what side Histroy chooses. But no more will you send us e-mails about things you have no intention on changing. Things you do not recognize as more than JUST A LAW. This has effected a NATION of minority children. Just because other minorites do not care does not mean it is right. This is your NOTICE.

Sincerely, Eric Van Buren #11044-068 @THETAWLFOUNDAT The TAWL Foundation/fb

[districofcolumbiaprelawland-blog]

Could A 2018 Florida Law Decide The 2020 Election?

By Alessandra Ruano, George Washington University Class of 2021

June 25, 2020

On November 6, 2018, the state of Florida voted in favor of Amendment 4, which restored the right to vote to felons who have completed the terms of their sentence, except in the case of murder or sexual offenses. Nearly two years later, an estimated 1.4 million Floridians have been newly enfranchised, at least in the eyes of the law. Ever since it took effect, the restoration of voting rights has become an increasingly partisan issue in the state of Florida. Whether or not the state can resolve the challenges that have arisen as a result of this law by November’s election could have a major effect not only on the future of the state of Florida, but that of the entire country.

Florida has long been one of the most crucial states in the presidential election. With 29 electors, it is tied with New York as the state with the third-greatest number of electoral votes. Since 1964, it has consistently voted with the winner of the election, with only one exception in 1992 [1]. It is also notorious for being a strongly purple state, almost always delivering extremely close results. The combination of these factors signals that a relatively small number of voters in the state of Florida could decide a presidential election, making the question of whether or not these 1.4 million restored voters will cast their ballots in 2020 all the more urgent.

Even after an apparent victory in 2018, regaining the right to vote remains an uphill battle for the majority of ex-felons. The text of the approved amendment reads that their rights shall be reinstated “upon completion of all terms of sentence”. This is a major loophole that has prevented many otherwise-eligible voters from having their rights restored. In 2019, the Florida state legislature passed SB 7066, which extended the “terms of sentence” to financial obligations, including restitution and court fees. Opponents of this legislation, including the ACLU and the NAACP, have labelled it a poll tax. In addition to the questionable legality of linking money with the right to vote, it is difficult to determine whether or not many ex-felons owe any money. This issue may affect those whose convictions are older in particular due to obstacles such as incomplete court records and unclear databases [2]. The state itself estimated that it would take about six years to figure out the amount of money everyone owes [3]. However, the Florida Supreme Court sided with Governor Ron DeSantis in January, allowing the law to proceed.

In April, the issues with this new law went to trial in the District Court case Jones v. DeSantis. The plaintiffs argued that it violated the First, Eighth, and Nineteenth Amendments of the Constitution because of its unclear information for organizations about who can vote, excessive fines, and disproportionate effect on Black women, respectively. They also claimed that it violated the National Voter Registration Act [4]. The court ultimately sided with the plaintiffs, although the judge disagreed with allegations of racial motivations for the bill. Instead, the court ruled that the definition of a poll tax applies to the requirement that fees are paid before receiving the ability to vote [5]. Thus, SB 7066 was found to violate the 24th Amendment to the Constitution.

In spite of the court’s ruling, voting rights for ex-felons this November are far from secure. Earlier this month, DeSantis appealed the court’s decision and requested a ruling by a full appeals court after a panel of three judges upheld the original ruling. The Governor’s attorneys have argued that blocking SB 7066 strips Florida of the right to determine who makes up its electorate [6]. The future of thousands of potential voters could come down to the Appellate Court’s decision on this matter, both because of the set election date and because of the Supreme Court’s pattern of not hearing similar cases. [7]. At the same time, a win for ex-felons here could mean a loss in other areas of the country. A group of lawyers representing ten different southern states recently wrote a letter in support of SB 7066 in which they stated that a decision against DeSantis could cause other states to shut down paths to ex-felon enfranchisement [8].

Despite the Amendment passing with 64.5% of the vote, indicating bipartisan support from the electorate, this bipartisanship has not extended to the Amendment’s implementation [9]. At the beginning of 2020, only four of Florida’s 67 counties had implemented programs reducing barriers to ex-felon voter registration. All of these counties lean Democrat, thus demonstrating the clear partisan nature by which Amendment Four is being interpreted a year after taking effect [10]. Studies show that ex-felons tend to vote Democrat at a higher rate than they do Republican.This is where Florida’s notoriety as the most populous swing state comes into play.In this context, there is motivation both for Democratic leaders to implement policy rapidly and for Republican leaders to stall as much as possible. In a presidential election year, the addition of even the estimated 35% of ex-felons projected to vote as a result of the new law could be enough to sway the state blue [7]. More importantly, because Florida has so many electors, a blue Florida could cost Trump the presidency.

________________________________________________________________

1.     “Florida.” 270 to Win, Electoral Ventures LLC.270towin.com/states/Florida.

2.     Kam, Dara. “Federal Judge Refuses Delay in Order Granting Voting Rights to Florida Felons.” Orlando Weekly, June 16, 2020. https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2020/06/16/federal-judge-refused-delay-in-order-granting-voting-rights-to-florida-felons.

3.     Editorial Board, “Republicans Tried to Suppress the Vote in Florida. And It Failed.” New York Times, The New York Times Company, May 26, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/26/opinion/florida-felon-voting-court.html.

4.     Mitchell, Jackie. “Lawsuit Concerning Voting Rights Restoration in Florida Goes to Trial.” Ballotpedia News, Ballotpedia, April 29, 2020. https://news.ballotpedia.org/2020/04/29/lawsuit-concerning-voting-rights-restoration-in-florida-goes-to-trial/.

5.     Goldstone, Corey. “CLC Achieves Historic Victory for Disenfranchised Voters in Florida.” Campaign Legal Center, May 24, 2020. https://campaignlegal.org/update/clc-achieves-historic-victory-disenfranchised-voters-florida.

6.     Kam, Dara. “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Makes ‘Very, Very Unusual’ Request to Appeal to Voting Rights Decision.” Orlando Weekly, June 11, 2020. https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2020/06/11/florida-gov-ron-desantis-makes-very-very-unusual-request-to-appeal-to-voting-rights-decision.

7.     Sarat, Austin. “Stripping Voting Rights from Felons is about Politics, Not Punishment.” The Conversation, June 4, 2020. https://theconversation.com/stripping-voting-rights-from-felons-is-about-politics-not-punishment-139651.

8.     Mower, Lawrence. “’A Game Changer’: Five Takeaways from Sunday’s Ruling on Felon Voting.” Tampa Bay Times, May 25, 2020. https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2020/05/25/a-game-changer-five-takeaways-from-yesterdays-ruling-on-felon-voting/.

9.     “Florida Amendment 4.” CNN Politics, CNN. https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/results/florida/ballot-measures/1.

10.  Rivero, Daniel. “Florida Faces a Rocky Rollout to Restore Voting Rights after Felony Convictions.” NPR, January 8, 2020. https://www.npr.org/2020/01/08/794089324/florida-faces-a-rocky-rollout-to-restore-voting-rights-after-felony-convictions.

Photo Credit: Douglas W. Jones

[ninja-suffragette]

News From the USA

August 2017

Freedom Fighter Bond Fund -  Durham Solidarity Center

Natural Disasters

New Orleans under water: 12 years after Katrina, officials can't get it right - The Guardian (Tumblr Link)          15th August 2017

Donald Trump Keeps Plugging His Own Merchandise During Hurricane Harvey - The Huffington Post (Tumblr Link)     29th August 2017

By the time Joel Osteen announced that his church would soon open its doors, at least four Houston-area mosques had already transformed themselves into 24-hour relief shelters. - Splinter (Tumblr Link)      30th August 2017

“We don't like being care workers, we want to be heroes. The world does not need more heroes. We need more care.” -  Sigrid Ellis‏ on twitter (Tumblr Link)     31st August 2017

Trump and North Korea

Trump threatens nuclear war over fucking twitter - Tumblr    8th August 2017

Why reading Twitter bios is important. - Twitter and tumblr     9th August 2017 

Kal Penn‏ on Twitter (Tumblr Link)     11th August 2017

Charlottesville and Growing Fascism

Man shot dead after standing up for gay friends against homophobic attacker - The Independent (Tumblr Link)     8th August 2017

This is a picture of the heroic students from the University of Virginia that stood up to hundreds of white supremacists in Charlottesville tonight. - tumblr (double checked image source)     12th August 2017

Carnage in Charlottesville leaves 3 dead, 34 injured after white nationalist rally sparked violence, two crashes - NY Daily News (Tumblr Link)     13th August 2017 

Down the road from the white supremacist rally, this group passed out 100 bookbags & school supplies to the #Charlottesville community. - Philip Lewis‏ on Twitter (Tumblr Link)     12th August 2017  

Identifying the white in the photos from Charlottesville - Twitter and tumblr     12th August 2017

If these White Men that rarely agree, can come together and call out White Supremacists, there is no reason anyone else can’t. - Twitter and Tumblr        12th August 2017  

Hillary Clinton: "My heart is in Charlottesville today, and with everyone made to feel unsafe in their country." - Twitter (Tumblr Link with full string of tweets)     12th August 2017

Kentucky mayor announces removal of Confederate statues in wake of Charlottesville - The Hill (Tumblr Link)     12th August 2017

Imagine if these people ever faced actual oppression. -  Julius Goat on twitter (Tumblr Link)     12th August 2017

The Media, Racist Violence, And False Equivalence - Antifa International     13th August 2017

President Obama Shows Donald Trump How It’s Done With Most-Liked Tweet Ever - The Mary Sue     13th August 2017

'Unite the Right' organiser Jason Kessler chased away by protesters - BBC  (Tumblr Link)      13th August 2017

Boston is an inclusive place for all. Hate will not be tolerated in our City. - Mayor Marty Walsh‏ on Twitter (Tumblr Link)       13th August 2017 

Dan Harmon "I'm not a nazi" rant - Youtube (Tumblr Link)     13th August 2017

Feminists have been called Nazis for decades and haven't unfurled a swastika flag yet. - Alexandra Erin‏ on Twitter (Tumblr Link)     13th August 2017

Compare these snapshots of Confederate memorials in the South from 1900, 1920, 1940 and 1960. -  Kevin M. Kruse‏ on Twitter (Tumblr Link)       14th August 2017

Fascism is a virus and ignoring it won’t make it go away - Alison Kilkenny       14th August 2017

Anonymous shuts down neo-Nazi and KKK websites after Charlottesville rally - The Telegraph (Tumblr Link)       14th August 2017

Father Denounces Son Identified As Participant In White Supremacist Rally - Talking Points Memo (Tumblr Link)      14th August 2017

“We have been silent up until now, but now we see that this was a mistake. It was the silence of good people that allowed the Nazis to flourish the first time around, and it is the silence of good people that is allowing them to flourish now.”

i had a discussion today with a friend who was genuinely trying to understand why people are working so hard to ID the charlottesville nazis and contact their employers. -  robotmango on tumblr      14th August 2017

Illinois Senate passes measure calling for neo-Nazis to be classified as terror groups - The Hill (Tumblr Link)       14th August 2017

How Millennials are killing participation trophies. -  FanSince09 on twitter (Tumblr Link)       14th August 2017

Sure, the cancer was aggressive. But the chemotherapy was also very aggressive. There was aggression on both sides -  elan gale‏ on twitter (Tumblr Link)       15th August 2017

in Germany, Holocaust survivors come to our schools to talk about World War II, we study the events extensively, we visit concentration camp sites to understand the horrors of the past. it’s an integral part of our education. there’s never the question of “well, there were many sides” - factoseintolerant on Tumblr     15th August 2017

Read this chilling account of the Charlottesville Jewish community's experience this past Shabbat -  Avi Mayer‏ on Twitter (Tumblr Link)     15th August 2017

Doxxing White Supremacists Is Making Them Terrified - Broadly (Tumblr Link)     15th August 2017

“Johnny Cash was a man whose heart beat with the rhythm of love and social justice.” A message from the children of Johnny Cash - Rosanne Cash on Facebook (Tumblr Link)      16th August 2017

Heather Heyer’s mom gives heartbreaking yet stirring funeral speech - Mic (Tumblr Link)      16th August 2017

Teacher Accused Of Punching Neo-Nazi Says Standing Up To Fascism Isn't A Crime - Huffington Post (Tumblr Link)      16th August 2017

The Internet Had the Best Responses to Trump’s “Both Sides” White Supremacy Defense -  The Mary Sue     16th August 2017

White tears in Trumpville - Sociological Images on Tumblr     17th August 2017

These people are lined up to turn themselves in for removing a racist statue in downtown Durham - Tumblr via Instagram     17th August 2017

I Lost My Son to the Alt-Right Movement - The Cut (Tumblr Link with further commentary)     18th August 2017

Mother of Charlottesville victim says she won't speak with Trump - CNN (Tumblr Link)     18th August 2017

The PCAH Mass Resignation Letter Is More Patriotic Than Anything Trump’s Ever Done - The Mary Sue     18th August 2017

Anti-racism protesters totally eclipsed Boston's right-wing Free Speech rally - Vox (Tumblr Link) (Tumblr Link)     19th August 2017

“NO PLACE FOR NAZIS” Pictures from the rally in Boston - Twitter and Tumblr )     19th August 2017

Y'all should hear about my experience with BLM at the Boston Anti-Nazi Rally. - Tumblr via Tim Pierce‏ on Twitter     19th August 2017

HEATHER HEYER'S FAMILY IS NOT PLAYING WITH ANY OF YOU! -  taiwan jones‏ on Twitter (Tumblr Link)     20th August 2017

After alt-right organizers saw huge counter-protests in Boston, they've canceled 67 "America First Rallies" scheduled in 36 states - Jon Cooper on Twitter (Tumblr Link)     21st August 2017

“[Steve Bannon] is all over the map on a lot of stuff. But on one thing that he’s quite coherent, and that came through in the interview, he’s quite coherent that he thinks the winning strategy is you connect racist nationalism to anti-immigrant nationalism, to economic nationalism.” - Democracy Now (Tumblr Link)     22nd August 2017

Charlottesville Workers Have Shrouded The Robert E. Lee Statue In Black - Buzzfeed     23rd August 2017

The cover of the next Stern, a German news magazine. - Tumblr     24th August 2017

US man who said he was stabbed for looking like neo-Nazi actually stabbed himself - The Guardian (Tumblr Link)     29th August 2017

GOP lawmaker warns black Democrat may ‘go missing’ if she tries to remove Confederate statues - (Tumblr Link)      30th August 2017 

Immigrants 

U.S. Citizen Who Was Held By ICE For 3 Years Denied Compensation By Appeals Court - NPR (Tumblr Link)   1st August 2017

Trump order could give immigration agents a foothold in US schools - The Guardian (Tumblr Link)     22nd August 2017 

Comedian and vlogger Elijah Daniel became mayor of Hell, Michigan, proceeded to ban all heterosexuals, and then was impeached. - Twitter and Tumblr   30th August 2017

Black Lives Matter

NAACP Warns Black Travelers To Use 'Extreme Caution' When Visiting Missouri - NPR (Tumblr Link)     3rd August 2017

Become your ancestor's wildest dream -  Ava DuVernay‏ on twitter (Tumblr Link)     5th August 2017

Student's grades lowered for sitting during Pledge of Allegiance - WFAA (Tumblr Link)       14th August 2017

Officer to woman during traffic stop: 'We only kill black people, right?' - WSBTV (Tumblr Link)     31st August 2017 

Rest in power Fred Hampton - Twitter and Tumblr

Politics

Venezuela has the world's largest oil reserves and has pursued a path independent of imperialism for 20 years. This is not about democracy - Ben Norton‏ on twitter (Tumblr Link)  1st August 2017

If You Celebrated the Health Care Vote Last Week, You Should Probably Thank a Disability Activist - Elle  (Tumblr Link)     1st August 2017

A new state law in Indiana would close hundreds of polling locations in areas with large minority populations. - Mother Jones (Tumblr Link)          10th August 2017

Texas’ Anti-Transgender “Bathroom Bill” Dies as Lawmakers Spout Same Hateful Rhetoric About “Sexual Predators” -  The Mary Sue     16th August 2017

We've been covering Joe Arpaio for more than 20 years. Here's a couple of things you should know about him... -  PhoenixNewTimes‏Verified on Twitter,compiled on Tumblr        25th August 2017

Trump pardons ex-Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio: White House (commentary)-   Mikel Jollett‏ on Twitter (Tumblr Link)     25th August 2017 

Trump Fuckery

Here’s why a giant inflatable Trump-chicken was staring at the White House - Boston Globe (Tumblr Link)     10th August 2017

‘Trump bots’ and how Right Wing media utilizes their ‘fake media’. -Schooley‏ on Twitter (Tumblr Link)   5th August 2017 

Secret Service pays $60K to rent carts to protect Trump as agency runs out of money - Market Watch (Tumblr Link)     21st August 2017

President Donald Trump has been photographed staring directly at the sun during the solar eclipse. - Buzzfeed (Tumblr Link)       21st August 2017

Trump Gazes Directly Into Solar Eclipse Without Glasses, Abyss Gazes Back Into Him and Finds Him Wanting -     21st August 2017

Other

'Pharma bro' Martin Shkreli convicted of fraud - BBC     4th August 2017

Shkreli’s finally going to jail over securities fraud proving you can extort sick people for all the money in the world and nobody can stop you but lie to a rich person about hedge fund performance and you get the fucking horns

- fuckheadwitha on tumblr

Sure, they had search high and low to find a jury who don't hate Martin Shkreli. The sketch artist? Not held to the same standards -  James Harvey‏   on Twitter (Tumblr Link)     3rd August 2017

You gotta read this excerpt from the Martin Shkreli jury selection -Tumblr

Thread of what it was like to grow up on the Navajo Reservation here in New Mexico - @lilnativeboy on twitter (Tumblr Link)     19th August 2017