#all presidents are war criminals we cannot get hung up about that at this point

[chrispineofficial]

i'm definitely planning to vote but damn. it's like... constant? it's always been like this? it just sucks forever? and we just do the thing we've always done so that it gets the least bad it could get? while it all continues to get worse? that sucks.

unless you yourself are planning some kind of massive militarized coup to effect an immediate upheaval of the us government for the 100% certain betterment of the people then yeah you have to fucking vote bc positive change is neither swift nor linear and you have a responsibility to everyone around you not to act like a whiny little bitch just because you personally do not have the vision nor experience to understand that things really do get better when you exercise your civil rights

[garrettrulefivewhitlock]

Why saying “Fuck the entire South” is incorrect and toxic

The Republican voting record of the Southern region in the US is not reflective of the entire population. It is reflective of the white population.

Since this country started giving the right to vote to people other than white man, the South has done all it can to stop these people from voting.

- After the Civil War, white men stood outside voting centers with weapons to intimidate black people who came to vote.

- State constitutions were rewritten to suppress the votes of newly enfranchised African Americans.

- Colfax Massacre: Former Confederate soldiers/KKK/White League mob opened fire on courthouse full of black men. After the black men surrendered, many were shot and hung. It’s estimated that anywhere from 60 to 150 free black men were killed.

- Efforts to deny black men the right to vote was so bad, we literally made a new Amendment to further protect the right (14th).

- Texas, in particular, worked to stop black women from voting decades after the 19th Amendment was passed. There was poll tax, literacy test, grandfather clause, violence, economic coercion that kept most black women ineligible.

- In 1923, Texas created the white primary, by declaring the Democratic party was a private organization, which cleared the way for Democrats to allow only white people to vote in the primary. At the time, the Republican party barely existed in Texas. The white primary was, in effect, the general election. (Keep in mind at this point in history, Democrats were conservative and Republicans were liberal).

- Texas had a pole tax until it was banned in 1964. The tax discouraged many from voting, as it cost $1.50 and later $1.75, which was a day’s wage. If you were poor, you couldn’t afford to spend a day’s wage on the vote.

- It wasn’t until 1965, with the passing of the Voting Rights Act, that literacy tests were banned and federal oversight of elections across the country was applied.

These efforts to stop anyone but white men from voting have created systematic oppression, government built upon decades of law created by white men, and a society that perpetuates all of this.

Sources: https://www.history.com/news/voter-suppression-after-reconstruction-southern-states https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/1873-colfax-massacre-crippled-reconstruction-180958746/ https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/in-depth/2019/06/28/338050/100-years-ago-with-womens-suffrage-black-women-in-texas-didnt-get-the-right-to-vote/

Here are modern examples to show how the South does all it can to remove non-white voters/votes.

- “In the 2000 presidential election...Florida kept African Americans from the polls or ensured that their votes would never be added to the state’s tally...On election day, there were faulty voting machines, purged voter rolls (purges that targeted minorities) and locked gates at polling places that should have been opened. There was also a Florida Highway Patrol checkpoint at the only road leading to the polls in key, heavily black precincts in Jacksonville. Then there were the piles of ballots, especially in counties with large minority populations, left uncounted. The US Civil Rights Commission ‘concluded that, of the 179,855 ballots invalidated by Florida officials, 53% were cast by black voters. In Florida,’ the commission’s report continued, ‘a black citizen was 10 times as likely to have a vote rejected as a white voter’ ”.

****Bush won Florida by 537 votes. According to the article, about 95,323 black votes weren’t counted. If even a fraction of those votes had been Democratic, Bush could have lost the election.

- In North Carolina, “after the US supreme court gutted the necessary protection of the Voting Rights Act in 2013...The state required ID’s which its research showed a disproportionate number of black people did not have...the GOP slashed the number of early voting sites in Guilford county, which is nearly 30% African American, from 16 in 2012 to a single location in 2016. Pleased with what they had accomplished, North Carolina Republicans ‘celebrated’ mowing down black access to the voting booth.”

- In Indiana, “The Republican-dominated legislature mandated that counties with more than 325,000 residents could only have one early voting location unless approved on a bi-partisan basis. The governor, Mike Pence, signed this into law in 2013. Once again, the targeting was clear. Only three counties in Indiana have more than 325,000 people and account for 72% of the state’s black population. The result, as the Indianapolis Star reported, is that Marion county, including the state’s largest city, Indianapolis, lost two of its sites and was reduced to only one early voting precinct, which was inaccessibly located downtown with no available parking. Not surprisingly, by design, in the 2016 election, early voting in the county plummeted by 26%.”

- There are a number of states who have laws in place to stop felons from voting. Georgia and Florida have laws saying anyone convicted of a “felony involving moral turpitude” cannot vote or require that “convicted felons must wait at least five years after serving their full sentences before they can apply” respectively.

Here’s incarceration rates by race in Georgia:

Here’s incarceration rates by race in Florida:

Here’s another statistic: “about one out of every 37 blacks in Florida is living in a prison, jail or detention facility, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Blacks make up 48 percent of all Florida inmates -- far exceeding their 15.5 percent share of the state's population.”

- In 2019, voters in Texas face new barriers like the Texas voter ID law and the recent statewide voter purge that removed 95,000 people from the rolls.

- Gerrymandering is still a very real issue.

- Disenfranchisement is not unique to black voters. The Asian and Hispanic voter turnout is also far lower that white turnout:

There is conclusive evidence that non-white populations do not vote as much as white populations in the South. This is not because they are lazy, this is not because they don’t have differing opinions, this is not because they don’t care. Non-white populations do not vote in Southern elections because they live in a society that tells them their votes don’t matter. The local/state governments have created a system that does everything in its power to stop these people from voting. They stop criminals from voting (again incarceration rates are significantly disproportionately non-white across the country), they make voting centers hard to access, they require ID that non-white people rarely have, and so on.

The non-white voters who do come out to vote, tend to disagree with white voters.

Here are exit polls from the 2016 presidental election:

If more non-white people voted, it is easy to assume this difference in opinion would remain, if not increase. If more non-white people voted, maybe non-white votes would have an impact on elections. But in the current state of the South, that won’t happen.

Do not dismiss these minority groups. They are victims of a biased system that works against them with a malicious tenacity. Dismissing the whole region and saying “Fuck the entire South” does nothing but further disenfranchise these people. They have grown up in a society that says they don’t matter and statements like “Fuck the entire South” further isolates the good people stuck in the quagmire of racism and oppression that is the South. Say “Fuck the white conservative South”. Say “Fuck the Southern government that enables this to continue in 2019”. But do not say “Fuck the entire South”.

Sources: https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/in-depth/2019/06/28/338050/100-years-ago-with-womens-suffrage-black-women-in-texas-didnt-get-the-right-to-vote/ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jun/07/black-voter-suppression-rights-america-trump https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/21/us/felony-voting-rights-law.html https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/georigia-s-strictest-possible-reading-law-stop-felons-voting-n1011056 https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-2001-07-25-0107250314-story.html https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/11/hispanic-turnout-2016-election/ https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/exit-polls/texas/president https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/FL.html https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/GA.html

TL;DR: Saying “Fuck the entire South” is incorrect as the entire Southern population is not responsible for the current red wall of Republican voting that occurs in the region. Minorities have been silenced and/or oppressed by the society and legislature of the area to the point that their votes don’t matter. Saying “Fuck the entire South” is toxic because it doesn’t help the situation and discourages disenfranchised minorities from continuing to fight the uphill battle for their voices to be heard. Statements like “Fuck the entire South” are ignorant and make you a part of the problem.

[marilynngmesalo]

WATCH: New York cops rip toddler from mom’s arms, pull out stun gun during benefits office scuffle

WATCH: New York cops rip toddler from mom’s arms, pull out stun gun during benefits office scuffle WATCH: New York cops rip toddler from mom’s arms, pull out stun gun during benefits office scuffle https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

NEW YORK — Outrage built Monday over a video showing police officers violently yanking a toddler from his mother’s arms at a Brooklyn public benefits office, with officials criticizing police for not de-escalating the situation and clients of the facility complaining it is indicative of how the city treats social-services recipients.

The video, taken by a bystander, captured the chaotic scene that unfolded last Friday as officers tried to remove mother Jazmine Headley from the crowded office, where she had sat on the floor for two hours because of a lack of chairs. Police were called when she refused a security guard’s order to leave. The woman ended up lying face-up on the floor during a tug of war over her 18-month-old son.

“The baby was screaming for his life,” Nyashia Ferguson, who posted video on Facebook under the name Monae Sinclair, told The New York Times. “The lady was begging for them to get off of her. I was scared.”

WARNING: Video contains graphic language

Other clients shouted at the officers. At one point, an officer can be seen pulling her stun gun and pointing it at people in the angry crowd.

Headley was charged with obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest, endangering the welfare of a child and trespassing. As of Monday afternoon, she was still in jail because there was a warrant for her arrest in New Jersey, prosecutors said. Bail was not requested and prosecutors were reaching out to New Jersey officials to “expedite her release.”

A family member was taking care of the child, authorities said.

The Brooklyn public defender’s office called on prosecutors to dismiss the charges.

At a news conference outside the benefits office Monday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, a Democrat and former police officer, likened the officers involved in Headley’s arrest to “Border Patrol police snatching away” a baby. He called the arrest “a blemish on our entire city.”

“The mother didn’t endanger the welfare of the child. The actions of the department endangered the welfare of the child,” Adams said. “If it’s wrong in Mexico, then it’s wrong in New York City.”

City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, a Democrat, called the incident “appalling and heart breaking,” and criticized both the police and the city agency where Headley had gone for help.

“It is unacceptable that Human Resources Administration has such little capacity to handle its core functions that folks seeking their assistance must sit on the floor with their children while waiting for an appointment,” he said in a statement.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday tweeted, “This was a disturbing incident. Like anyone who’s watched this video, I have a lot of questions about how this was handled.”

Steve Bank, commissioner of the Department of Social Services, said he was “deeply troubled” by the incident and a “thorough” review had been launched. He said two HRA employees, whom he described as peace officers, are being placed on modified duty pending that investigation.

The New York Police Department is also reviewing the situation. Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said the video was “very disturbing.”

“We were called to a chaotic situation, & we’re looking at all available video to determine why certain decisions were made,” O’Neill said in a tweet.

It wasn’t clear from court charging documents or the video why security guards at the centre had ordered Headley to leave or why she refused to go.

Patrick Lynch, the head of the union that represents patrol officers, said the officers were “put in an impossible situation” and blamed shouting bystanders for making a tense situation worse.

“The event would have unfolded much differently if those at the scene had simply complied with the officers’ lawful orders,” he said. “The immediate rush to condemn these officers leaves their fellow cops wondering: when confronted with a similar impossible scenario, what do you want us to do? The answer cannot be ‘do nothing.”‘

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office said it was investigating and hoped to reach a swift decision on whether to prosecute Headley.

Lisa Schreibersdorf, executive director of Brooklyn Defender Services, the legal aid office handling Headley’s case, said at a news conference that it isn’t uncommon for stressed clients of the city’s overburdened social serve agencies “to find themselves arrested because of an incident that wasn’t really criminal.”

Benefits recipients like Karen Blondel, 56, a former client at the Brooklyn office, said the atmosphere inside the city aid offices was oppressive.

“The way they treat people in here from the time you get here in the morning, it’s absolutely inhumane,” she said.

Jeremy Friedman, 32, a massage therapist who has received food stamps, said he was regularly “treated like I’m not even human” at the office, and rudely hung-up on when he tried to call with questions.

Jennifer Roman, 33, said she works but has used public benefits for 13 years. She went to the Brooklyn office for the first time Monday after moving to the neighbourhood from the Bronx.

There’s a system-wide problem of disrespect, Roman said, and she was not surprised by what the video showed.

There’s a perception, she said, that “since we need help, we’re no good, we’re scum.”

“Being poor is not a crime,” said Democrat Letitia James, the city’s public advocate and the state’s attorney general-elect, in a statement. “No mother should have to experience the trauma and humiliation we all witnessed in this video.”

//<![CDATA[ ( function() { pnLoadVideo( "videos", "v4gJ0m1ZEQo", "pn_video_359177", "", "", {"controls":1,"autoplay":0,"is_mobile":""} ); } )(); //]]> Click for update news Bangla news https://ift.tt/2zTBHfR world news

[quakerjoe]

As we, as a people, careen deeper into the time of Trump, it never hurts to take a deep breath, lean back and contemplate, and try to gain some context and perspective. There’s a natural tendency to wonder whether this is the most pivotal Presidency of our lifetime, maybe even one of the most pivotal in the country’s history. Well, maybe. Too early to know, really. Keep in mind that the Nixon years, especially near the end, when we had a Constitutional crisis that resulted in our only resignation of a President, were tumultuous and trying. And that a widespread criminal conspiracy led by the President himself was at the heart of it. And just before that were the 1960s, when the nation was deeply divided over the Vietnam war, race and social change (sexual mores, sudden rises in more varied immigration, etc.) Deeper back in our history were the 1850s and the disastrous Presidency of James Buchanan. Buchanan’s lean in the direction of southern states and slavery, coupled with a pro-southern Supreme Court decision in the Dred-Scott case, led directly to the Civil War. The point is that we Americans have been through times before when survival as a Constitutional republic based on the principles of freedom and representative democracy hung in the balance, when our ability to remain “..one nation..indivisible” was in serious question. But we managed to not only survive but moved forward to thrive. We did it before, we can do it again. Will we? In much of the world, especially in places such as China, Russia and Iran, there is doubt. It is up to us, and how we respond now collectively and as individuals, to determine what happens to the American idea and ideal. Given the present circumstances, it will take all we can muster to echo history and prevail once again. Being gentle and tolerant with one another, pouring help to our neighbors and communities, and vowing to be active citizens not just bystanders can help us get started. Not a minute to waste. And about this, we cannot, must not waver, hesitate or cower. We are, as a nation, as a people walking moment to moment on the razor’s edge of danger. Every man, woman and child has a role to play in keeping our balance.

Dan Rather