2016-11-30

Congressman Cedric Richmond Elected Next Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus



NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
November 30, 2016

Rep. Cedric Richmond Elected Next Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Representative Cedric Richmond (LA-02) was elected chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) for the 115th Congress.

"I commend Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana on becoming the new Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus,” said outgoing CBC Chairman G. K. Butterfield. “We have much work ahead of us during the 115th Congress and I am confident Rep. Richmond will provide strong leadership on the issues we champion to ensure all Americans have an equal and equitable opportunity to achieve the American Dream.”

Also elected in today’s leadership elections were: Andre’ Carson (IN-07), 1st Vice Chair; Karen Bass (CA-37), 2nd Vice Chair; Brenda Lawrence (MI-14), Secretary; and Gwen Moore (WI-04), Whip.

The new CBC executive board will officially take their offices when the 115th Congress opens on January 3, 2017.

# # #

Since its establishment in 1971, Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) have joined together to empower America’s neglected citizens and address their legislative concerns. For more than 40 years, the CBC has consistently been the voice for people of color and vulnerable communities in Congress and has been committed to utilizing the full Constitutional power and statutory authority of the United States government to ensure that all U.S. citizens have an opportunity to achieve the American Dream. To learn more about the Congressional Black Caucus, visit http://cbc-butterfield.house.gov.

Media inquiries: Candace Randle Person at (202) 593-1331 or Candace.Person@mail.house.gov

District attorney tells why charges will not be brought against Charlotte officer in killing of Keith Scott

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department released body- and dash-cam videos of the fatal police shooting of Keith Lamont Scott on Saturday after days of mounting public pressure. In a press conference, Chief Kerr Putney said while the videos show no “absolute, definitive visual evidence" that the 43-year-old black man had a gun in his hand, other evidence from the scene does prove it.

Story by Charlotte Observer
Written by Michael Gordon, Mark Washburn and Fred Clasen-Kelly

No charges will be brought against Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer Brentley Vinson in the September shooting death of a man in University City, District Attorney Andrew Murray announced Wednesday.

Keith Lamont Scott, 43, was shot Sept. 20 in a confrontation with officers outside his apartment.

“I’m extremely convinced that Mr. Vinson’s use of deadly force was lawful,” Murray said.

Evidence in the case shows that Scott stepped out of his SUV with a gun in his hand, Murray said, and ignored at least 10 commands from the five officers on the scene to drop it.

Murray said that Scott bought the gun – a Colt .380 semi-automatic that had been stolen in Gaston County – 18 days before the confrontation for $100. One bullet was found in the chamber of the cocked gun, the safety was off and Murray said Scott’s DNA was found on the grip and slide.

The person who sold the gun to Scott admitted to doing so when confronted by state and federal law enforcement, according to a prosecutor’s report on the shooting. “The seller said that Scott asked him to find him a weapon because he was having problems with his wife and her family, specifically his nephew,” the report said.

Murray said that speculation in the community that Scott was unarmed – initial reports from a family member on Facebook said he was holding a book – were untrue.

“A reading book was not found in the front or back seats of Mr. Scott’s SUV,” Murray said.

Officer Vinson’s gun was examined after the shooting and four bullets were missing, Murray said. Analysts determined that the four shell casings found on the scene were fired from Vinson’s weapon. Guns taken from the other officers at the scene had not been fired, he said.

People who claimed on social media that they had seen the shooting and Scott was unarmed were later found to be in error – three people who’d made the claim told State Bureau of Investigation agents in interviews that they hadn’t actually seen the shooting.

Murray said he ran the evidence in the case past 15 veteran prosecutors in his office and they were unanimous in their recommendation that there was insufficient evidence to charge Vinson in the case.

In the aftermath of Scott’s death, Charlotte was roiled by two nights of rioting and nearly a week of street demonstrations. After street violence, dozens of arrests and the death of one man in uptown, Gov. Pat McCrory declared a state of emergency.

CMPD was the original agency investigating Scott’s shooting, but the State Bureau of Investigation took over when his wife, Rakeyia Scott, exercised her right under N.C. law to have the independent agency do the inquiry.

Scott, father of seven, the son of a police detective and a former shopping mall security officer, suffered from traumatic brain injury sustained during a motorcycle crash in South Carolina in November 2015.

Medical records obtained during the SBI inquiry showed that Scott had difficulties with aggression and anger management.

“Scott was battling an array of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety, hallucinations and paranoia,” the report said. “Two weeks prior to his death, Rakeyia Scott told her husband’s therapist that his temper and impatience had increased, and as she stated, ‘something has to give.’”

Scott was a convicted felon who was sentenced in 2005 to seven years in Texas for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

City’s reaction

After Murray’s announcement, the city of Charlotte released a statement:

“We recognize that for some members of our community, this news will be met with different reactions. No matter where you stand on the issue, the events surrounding the Scott shooting have forever changed our community, and we intend to learn from and build a stronger Charlotte because of it,” the statement said.

“The city is committed to continuing its work with the community to preserve safety, trust and accountability.”

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police were put on alert for the city’s reaction to the announcement.

All the department’s specialized units, including its riot squad, were mobilized. CMPD’s command center, which was used during the 2012 Democratic Convention and other high-profile events, also was activated.

Officers were notified that they may have to work 12-hour shifts.

Murray met Wednesday morning with Scott’s wife, Rakeyia Scott, and Charles Monnett, an attorney representing the family. “The family was very gracious,” he said.

Monnet and other attorneys representing the family said that CMPD’s handling of the confrontation was flawed.

“We believe this situation....could have ended with everyone alive,” Monnet said. “We look forward someday to obtaining justice for this family.”

He also said it still wasn’t clear whether officers had been properly trained or followed departmental policy when they confronted Scott.

Murray’s account

Murray said that rumors and social media reports about the case did not stand up to scrutiny, among them: That Scott was unarmed, that he was holding a book not a gun, that he didn’t own a weapon, that other officers at the scene shot Scott besides Vinson.

Rakeyia Scott gave statements after the shooting, Murray said, that her husband did not have a gun. She has maintained that he did not have a firearm after January 2016, though Murray said the two had quarreled over text messages in the weeks before the shooting about his gun.

In all, 63 SBI agents were assigned to the investigation, about a quarter of the agency’s force, Murray said.

In laying out a timeline of the case, he said officers were staked out in the parking lot of Scott’s apartment complex looking for a suspect in an unrelated case. They saw Scott pull in, then leave.

Murray then showed a surveillance video from a nearby 7-Eleven store of Scott walking in. Murray said there was a bulge clearly visible at the right ankle where Scott holstered his gun.

Then, Murray said, Scott returned to the parking lot next to the officers, hollowed the tobacco out of a cigarello and began stuffing what appeared to be marijuana into it from a pill bottle.

Only when Vinson saw Scott hold up a semi-automatic pistol did officers decide to confront him, Murray said. Vinson and another officer drove away, put on tactical vests labeled “Police” and called for other officers to help them and a marked police SUV with a uniformed officer.

When they arrived, they blocked Scott’s SUV and called upon him to come out, then told him at least 10 times to drop the gun, Murray said.

“Mr. Scott did not comply with those commands,” Murray said.

Scott held the gun in his hand, though he didn’t raise it, Murray said. Officers said in interviews with investigators that Scott appeared to have a blank stare and was in a trance-like state, Murray said.

When Scott fell, the gun landed near his waist and one of the officers pushed it away from him, then stood over it, Murray said.

Gun is key fact

Robert Taylor, a professor of criminology at the University of Texas at Dallas and a former police officer in Portland, Ore, said clearing Vinson of any criminal wrongdoing in the shooting was an easy call.

A person with a gun under those circumstances, represents a danger to officers and the public, Taylor said.

“This is pretty cut and dry,” he said.

Taylor said CMPD likely intensified public outcry by initially refusing released video footage that captured the confrontation. Given the outrage in recent years about police use of force, Taylor said, it remains baffling why CMPD didn’t make the video public sooner.

CMPD said at the time that it was holding off on releasing the video until the State Bureau of Investigation had interviewed all witnesses.

Now, he said, Charlotte leaders must try to rebuild the fractured relationship between the police department and the African-American community.

“I try to stay positive and remind people that before any great change in this country there has been conflict,” Taylor said.

“There are real feelings of fear in the African-American community. You have to build trust over a long period of time. You just can’t wait until something else happens ... The onus is on the police department to take a positive approach and look for what good can come out of this. Where do we go as a community?”

Samuel Walker, a criminal justice professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and nationally-known police accountability expert, said it was always unlikely that Vinson would be criminally charged.

Nationwide, few officers face legal consequences following police shootings, Walker said. Even when they are charged, judges and juries usually exonerate them, he said.

Prosecutors are reluctant to bring cases against officers, Walker said, because they depend on a cooperative relationship with police to do their jobs.

“Chances of increasing the number of prosecutions is very low,” Walker said. “These are people you know. That’s tough. Then they start calculating the odds of getting a conviction. It’s pretty low.”

Jury’s view

Darrel Stephens, former CMPD chief and executive director of the Major Cities Police Chiefs Association, said Murray's decision seems to validate CMPD’s account of the confrontation.

It maintained from the beginning that Scott was holding a gun and that he failed to follow commands, Stephens noted.

While protesters and others have criticized how the officers approached Scott, Stephens said the presence of a gun reduces law enforcement’s ability to safely negotiate with a suspect.

“You don’t know what the person is going to do,” Stephens said.

“De-escalation is always an expectation, but it’s easy to stand on the sidelines and say they should have done this or that. They were not there. It’s very different to be there.”

Kenneth Williams, a professor at the Houston College of Law and an expert on police use of force, said the key fact from the video footage was that it appeared Scott ignored commands from officers to drop a weapon.

That meant Scott did not have to raise a gun or point the weapon to be considered an imminent threat, Williams said.

“I find it hard to believe a jury of 12 people would convict an officer under those circumstances,” Williams said. “The prosecutor is in a difficult position. Juries give police the benefit of the doubt.”

Even so, Williams said, many people will remain unhappy with Murray’s conclusion that the officer acted lawfully.

He said has repeatedly watched the video and it is not clear that Scott had a gun in his hand. The public also sees an “inherent conflict” when local prosecutors who side-by-side with police decide whether officers will be charged.

“You’re going to have a real credibility problem,” Williams said. “There should be an independent prosecutor. The problem here is you don’t have distance. That makes it harder for the public to accept the conclusion.”

Legal boundaries

North Carolina law allows the use of lethal force by police “only when it appears reasonably necessary ... to defend himself or a third person from what he reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of deadly physical force.”

One of the clarifying gauges: Would another “reasonable officer” in the same situation act the same way?

The so-called “objective reasonableness” standard used in courtrooms originated from a Charlotte excessive force case that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1980s. It asks jurors to assess an officer’s conduct on one key factor: Given the same set of circumstances, would reasonable officers react the same way?

N.C.’s Basic Law Enforcement Training Manual says elements of “objective reasonableness” include the capability of a subject’s ability to carry out the threat of deadly force, whether the threat is imminent and whether the subject has indicated by word or deed that he intends to cause harm.

Criminal charges against police officers related to on-duty shootings are rare. In 2013, Officer Wes Kerrick was arrested and charged with voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of Jonathan Ferrell, an unarmed African-American.

Then-police chief Rodney Monroe argued that there was no evidence of malice on Kerrick’s part, ruling out a murder or a stronger manslaughter count. Kerrick used bad judgment and excessive force in defending himself, but did not have any premeditation, Monroe said.

Kerrick’s 2015 trial ended with a deadlocked jury that had voted 8-4 for acquittal. Later, the city of Charlotte paid a $2.25 million settlement with Ferrell’s family.

Put on Leave

Vinson, who fired the shots, was immediately put on administrative leave, which is routine in such cases.

Vinson, 26, was in plain clothes but wore a vest that identified him as a police officer. He joined CMPD in 2014 and was assigned to the Metro Division. At the time of the shooting, he had no disciplinary actions on his personnel record.

Vinson played football for Ardrey Kell High School and was an all-conference safety and wide receiver in his junior year. He missed playing his senior year because of injury.

He studied criminal justice at Liberty University, where he was football captain and defensive back with a team-high 69 tackles in 2012, his senior year.

Account of shooting

CMPD Chief Kerr Putney gave this account in the days after the confrontation:

Scott drew the attention of officers trying to serve an arrest warrant on an unrelated suspect at the Village at College Downs apartments because they saw him rolling marijuana in his vehicle.

Police were going to let it go and continue on their original mission until an officer spotted a weapon in the vehicle, Putney said.

“It was not lawful for him to possess a firearm,” Putney said. “There was a crime he committed and the gun exacerbated the situation.”

Putney said he found nothing in the days after the shooting to indicate that Vinson, who shot Scott, acted inappropriately, given the totality of the circumstances, and said he did not think his officers broke the law that day.

Officers made repeated commands for Scott to drop his weapon, Putney said. Police were, he said, reacting to what appeared to be an imminent threat.

Carrier says it has deal with Trump to keep jobs in Indiana

Story by Fox News/AP
Written by John Roberts

Carrier tweets: "We are pleased to have reached a deal with President-elect Trump & VP-elect Pence to keep close to 1,000 jobs in Indy. More details soon."

Donald J. Trump tweets: "I will be going to Indiana on Thursday to make a major announcement concerning Carrier A.C. staying in Indianapolis. Great deal for workers."

Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence, Indiana's outgoing governor, planned to travel to the state Thursday to unveil the agreement alongside company officials.

Details of the agreement were not immediately available. A Trump transition source told Fox News that Carrier executives went to Trump Tower Tuesday to hash out the deal.

Trump spent much of his campaign pledging to keep companies like Carrier from moving jobs overseas. His focus on manufacturing jobs contributed to his unexpected appeal with working-class voters in states like Michigan, which has long voted for Democrats in presidential elections.

In a September debate against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, he railed against Carrier's decision to move hundreds of air-conditioner manufacturing jobs from Indianapolis to Mexico.

"So many hundreds and hundreds of companies are doing this," Trump said. "We have to stop our jobs from being stolen from us. We have to stop our companies from leaving the United States."

In February, Carrier said it would shutter its Indianapolis plant employing 1,400 workers and move its manufacturing to Mexico.

The plant's workers would have been laid off over three years starting in 2017.

United Technologies Electronic Controls also announced then that it planned to move its Huntington manufacturing operations to a new plant in Mexico, costing the northeastern Indiana city 700 jobs by 2018. Those workers make microprocessor-based controls for the HVAC and refrigeration industries.

Carrier and UTEC are both units of Hartford, Connecticut-based United Technologies Corp. -- which also owns Pratt & Whitney, a big supplier of fighter jet engines that relies in part on U.S. military contracts.

Carrier wasn't the only company Trump assailed. He pledged to give up Oreos after Nabisco's parent, Mondelez International, said it would replace nine production lines in Chicago with four in Mexico. He criticized Ford after the company said it planned to invest $2.5 billion in engine and transmission plants in Mexico.

Trump tweeted on Thanksgiving Day that he was "making progress" on trying to get Carrier to stay in Indiana.

Chuck Jones, president of United Steelworkers Local 1999, which represents Carrier workers, said of Tuesday's news: "I'm optimistic, but I don't know what the situation is. I guess it's a good sign. ... You would think they would keep us in the loop. But we know nothing."

Thursday's event will mark a rare public appearance for Trump, who has spent nearly his entire tenure as president-elect huddled with advisers and meeting with possible Cabinet secretaries. He plans to make other stops later this week as part of what advisers have billed as a "thank you" tour for voters who backed him in the presidential campaign.

2016-11-29

Michigan Certifies Trump as Winner of State's Presidential Race

Story by ABC News
Written by Ryan Strunk

A Michigan elections panel has certified Donald Trump as the winner in the State's Presidential election, according to the Associated Press.

Trump won the State by 10,704 votes — a mere two-tenths of a percentage point — the tightest Presidential race in the state's almost 200-year history.

The result pushes Donald Trump's total to 306 electoral votes to 232 for Hillary Clinton.

2016-11-28

President-Elect Donald J. Trump meets with fiery Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke as he mulls Homeland Security pick


Sheriff David Clarke of Milwaukee County, Wis., salutes the audience before a speech at the National Rifle Association convention in May. (Photo: Mark Humphrey/AP)

Story by Yahoo
Written by Liz Goodwin

Donald Trump is meeting with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke at Trump Tower on Monday afternoon as he seeks to fill out his remaining Cabinet positions.

Clarke, who has called the Black Lives Matter movement “vile” and “slimy,” is reportedly in the running to lead the Department of Homeland Security and its 240,000 employees, who span immigration enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service, the TSA and other functions.

Clarke, who ran for sheriff as a Democrat, has become a hero in the conservative movement in recent years for opposing the Black Lives Matter movement and efforts to reform the criminal justice system. In a fiery July speech at the Republican National Convention, Clarke brought the crowd to its feet as he chanted “Blue Lives Matter,” a reference to police uniforms. He celebrated the acquittal of a Baltimore police officer in the death of Freddie Gray during the speech.

“These are truths that are self-evident to me, and which I practice, and they are the truths that Donald Trump understands and supports,” he said. “Donald Trump is the steadfast leader our nation needs.”

Clarke is currently in charge of about 250 officers and is the author of a soon-to-be-released memoir called “Cop Under Fire.” In it, he argues that U.S. citizens suspected of terrorism should be treated as “enemy combatants” and tried in military tribunals, not U.S. courts, according to a summary of the book in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Clarke proposed creating a new federal agency to track down homegrown terrorists that reports directly to the White House.

Like Trump, Clarke has occasionally had an adversarial relationship with the press. When questioned about a claim in his upcoming memoir by local reporter Daniel Bice, Clarke responded by email: “Bice your obsession with me is an illness and you are in need of professional help.” He said the reporter reminded him of attempted presidential assassin John Hinckley Jr., who stalked actress Jodie Foster. “Make sure you quote me on this Bice,” he added.

David Clarke addresses delegates at the Republican National Convention in July. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster/AP)

Trump is also reportedly considering Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, for the Homeland Security position. On Monday, he also met with Frances Townsend, a Homeland Security official under George W. Bush, and earlier this month, Trump met with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, another contender for the role. Kobach was photographed holding a sheet of paper apparently revealing some plans for the department, which included barring all Syrian refugees from the U.S. and reinstating a registry for visitors from “high risk” countries.

2016-11-27

Fidel Castro's mixed legacy

Supporters saw Fidel Castro as a tireless defender of the poor; critics say he drove his country into economic ruin.

Story by Al-Jazeera
Written by Tracey Eaton

Havana, Cuba - Fidel Castro, a titan of the Cold War who defied 10 American presidents and thrust Cuba onto the world stage, is dead at age 90.

The US government spent more than $1bn trying to kill, undermine or otherwise force Castro from power, but he endured unscathed before old age and disease finally took him.

His supporters in Havana described him as a tireless defender of the poor.

Castro was "a giant of the Third World", said Agustin Diaz Cartaya, 85, who joined Castro in the 1953 attack in eastern Cuba that launched the revolution. "No one has done more for the Third World than Fidel Castro."

Critics say Castro drove the country into economic ruin, denied basic freedoms to 11 million Cubans at home and forced more than a million others into exile.

"In 55 years, the Cuban government has not done anything to help the Cuban people in terms of human rights," said Hector Maseda, 72, a former political prisoner who lives in Havana. "I don't believe in this regime. I don't trust it."

Doubtlessly, Castro leaves a legacy that will be hotly debated for years to come.

For five decades, he worked to turn the island nation into a place of equality and social justice. His government produced tens of thousands of doctors and teachers and achieved some of the lowest infant mortality and illiteracy rates in the Western hemisphere.

But Cuba never shook off its dependence on foreign dollars and the state-run economy failed to bring prosperity to most Cubans.

"The Cuban model doesn't even work for us any more," Castro admitted in 2010, startling a visiting US journalist

The US had tried for years to topple the Cuban government. Cuba stumbled along even after the collapse of its chief sponsor, the former Soviet Union.

The CIA plotted to assassinate Castro using everything from exploding seashells to lethal fungus, American officials cut off almost all trade to Cuba and they financed dissidents and pro-democracy activists. But nothing worked during 11 successive administrations, from Dwight Eisenhower to Barack Obama.

On December 17, 2014, Obama announced that the US planned to renew diplomatic ties with Cuba and loosen some trade and travel restrictions.

Obama's critics were enraged, saying he was throwing a lifeline to the socialist government and undermining the work of democracy activists who were regularly arrested and beaten.

Obama vowed to continue supporting democracy activists in Cuba, but said the US embargo hadn't worked and lawmakers should lift it.

As part of the deal he struck with Cuba, the US agreed to send three Cuban spies back to the island in exchange for jailed American development worker Alan Gross and Rolando Sarraff Trujillo, a Cuban agent who spied for the CIA.

It was the Cuban government's biggest political victory in decades, yet Fidel Castro was silent.

Castro had made the return of the Cuban spies an international crusade. But it was his long overshadowed younger brother who announced the news to the Cuban people.

"Now we have won the war," Raul Castro, 83, proclaimed on December 20, 2014.

The longtime chief of Cuba's armed forces took the helm after his older brother fell ill in 2006. Since then, Raul Castro has pushed through economic reforms, expanding the private sector and allowing Cubans to buy and sell homes and cars.

But he has not earned the same reverence as his older brother, who remains the icon of the revolution for many Cubans.

"Fidel is the father of all Cubans," said Euxiquio Del Toro, 57, a farmer in Granma province.

His "struggle for good and equality for all" makes him "one of the great ones. Fidel is like a myth. He's like Che," said Del Toro, referring to the late Argentinean revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara.

Castro's early life

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz was born on August 13, 1926, and grew up on a sugar plantation near the town of Birán in eastern Cuba.

His father, Angel Castro y Argis, was from the Spanish province of Galicia and journeyed to Cuba as a 13-year-old orphan during the Spanish-American War. His mother, Lina Ruz Gonzalez, was a servant.

Castro went to Jesuit schools before enrolling at the University of Havana, where he was a student leader. He became a lawyer and was soon caught up in political causes aimed at toppling then-dictator Fulgencio Batista

On July 26, 1953, Castro led a disastrous attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba. Half the rebels were killed and Castro was thrown in jail.

At his trial, Castro condemned the Batista regime. His speech - "History Will Absolve Me" - became the manifesto of the revolution and captivated ordinary Cubans, weary of the violent, corrupt Batista regime.

Journalist Marta Rojas covered the trial. Even then, she said, Castro was a skilled orator and strategic thinker.

"You can't write the history of Latin America in the 20th century without Fidel Castro. Impossible!" Rojas, now 86, said from her apartment in Havana.

Castro and his brother Raul were found guilty and sentenced to 13 years in prison.

"I went over there and sure enough, I saw him go by, and I said, 'Oh! A nice-looking young man. A tall man with light hair, fair skin.'"Maria Antonia Figueroa remembers catching a glimpse of Fidel Castro after his arrest. She had heard that authorities were going to escort him along Enramadas Street in Santiago de Cuba.

Figueroa, now 96, and other supporters pushed for amnesty, and the Castro brothers were freed on May 16, 1955, less than two years after the Moncada assault.

The Castro brothers then journeyed to Mexico to reorganise. Figueroa said Fidel Castro asked her to help raise money and named her treasurer. She quoted him as saying: "Look, I don't want the millions from the politicians, any rich guy or millionaire whose money is tainted. I prefer cents from the poorest of the vendors of newspapers, vegetables or fruits in Santiago, because that unites them.

"They say, 'I gave to the Revolution.' Even if it's 10 cents, they deprive themselves of food for themselves and their children to help the Revolution. That, to me, has more merit than anything."

A yacht called Granma

"Che" Guevara soon joined the cause and the rebels set out for Cuba aboard a yacht called Granma on November 25, 1955.

Arsenio Garcia was one of the 82 expeditionaries. He said they brought along little food other than 3,000 oranges. But many rebels were so seasick during the first days that they couldn't eat.

As they neared the Cuban coast, one of the men, Roberto Roque Nuñez, grabbed an antenna to steady himself, but it bent and he fell into the dark waters below.

Risking capture and running short of time, Fidel Castro ordered the boat to turn around to pick up the man. No one could be left behind, he said.

Garcia said the incident showed how much Castro cared about his followers.

"Really, Fidel always was a dreamer. I think history will remember him as a man who gave his life for the well-being and the benefit of others."

Castro and the 81 other expeditionaries reached Cuba on December 2. Batista's soldiers killed 61 of them.

If Castro made any mistakes, Garcia said, "they were made with good intentions. Fidel never sought personal benefit. Fidel is an extremely honest man".

Castro and two other fighters fled into a sugarcane field. They had just two rifles and didn't know if any other rebels were still alive.

Despite their impossible straits, Castro whispered, "We are winning. Victory will be ours." The Cuban leader had so much courage, "it borders on the insane", the late Castro biographer Tad Szulc wrote.

The surviving rebels headed for an eastern mountain range, the Sierra Maestra, and waged a quixotic war against Batista's US-supplied army of more than 10,000 soldiers.

On May 20, 1958, Batista launched Operation FF - Fin de Fidel or End of Fidel. It was a 76-day campaign to kill the guerrilla leader.

Secret command post

By then, Fidel Castro had set up a secret mountain command post called La Plata. He and nearly three dozen followers took refuge there.

In June 1958, US-supplied aircraft bombed the Cuban rebels. Castro wrote to his then-confidant, the late Celia Sanchez: "I have sworn that the Americans will pay very dearly for what they are doing. When this war has ended, a much bigger and greater war will start for me, a war I shall launch against them. I realise that this will be my true destiny."

Batista's forces never found La Plata. The revolutionaries prevailed, Batista fled Cuba and Castro declared victory on January 1, 1959.

Certainly many Cubans who fought with Castro remain loyal. "I think Fidel planted the seed and the roots are there to continue," said Osmani Dias Peña, 43, a guide at La Plata, which is now open to tourists.

"The hope of the Revolution is in our hands and I hope other Cubans think like I do so that the Revolution can be saved. Fidel is the hope of the Americas, the hope of the poor."

"In every inch of Cuba is the work of Fidel Castro," said Figueroa, the rebel movement's ex-treasurer. "Agrarian reform, he did. Educational reform, he did - everything that he promised. The years have passed and Fidel continues being our great love, our father."

Castro has admirers in the US, too.

Anti-embargo activist Bob Schwartz described him as "a giant".

"His literacy campaign and his commitment to public health are what will be remembered for in generations to come," said Schwartz, director of New York-based Disarm Education Fund, which has delivered more than $120m in medical supplies to Cuba.

'Smart psychopath'

Many Cuban Americans don't remember Castro quite so fondly.

"Biggest liar, biggest ego, biggest bank account of any Cuban politician. He was a very smart psychopath and history will not absolve him," said Humberto Capiro, 54, a residential building designer.

Havana film-maker Rebeca Chavez defends Castro.

"You can believe or think of Fidel what you want, but what nobody can deny is that he is the most important figure of 20th century Cuba and a very, very important figure in Latin America," she said.

Some Cubans are so "full of bitterness" that they can't "see the brilliance of this man, a man who is not perfect. Thank God, he's not perfect and made many mistakes."

But he guided Cuba through the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Chavez said. He stressed the importance of culture and education.

He gave Cubans "a sense of dignity and belonging - and that helped us to resist", she said.

Some Cubans thrived under Castro. Others didn't. But that's the nature of a revolution, she said.Chavez said Castro influenced not only her work, but her life "and the lives of all Cubans".

"Cuba has never been a bed of roses."

Roberto Alvarez, 52, a teacher in Havana, said Castro is irreplaceable. "He's the historic leader of Cuba, I'd say, of all of Latin America."

"Cuba has problems like any other country," added Alvarez, who sat on a bench along Fifth Avenue in Havana's posh Miramar neighbourhood. But "you don't see anyone living on the street. Everyone has a house".

Angel Mario Gonzalez, 51, who sat nearby, recalled running into Castro while working at the Palace of Conventions in Havana.

"Up close, he's a very friendly person. Wherever he went, he said hello, he touched you. He asked you how you were feeling, whether there were any problems."

Longest speech at UN

Castro tried to win over Cubans in speeches that sometimes lasted more than seven hours.

A four-hour and 29-minute spiel in 1960 earned him the Guinness Book of Records title for the longest speech ever delivered at the UN.

"I was fighting for them to let me go," Castro said later. In June 2001, Castro fainted two hours into a speech under the sweltering sun. He recovered, took his own pulse and decided to go back on stage. But his bodyguards had pushed him into an emergency vehicle.

"I had to exercise a little bit of my authority. I said, 'I'll cooperate with you, but you cooperate with me.'"

After that episode, Castro began sprinkling speeches with light-hearted remarks about his eventual demise.

Cuban authorities kept details of his health secret, calling it a national security matter.

In October 2004, Castro tripped and fell after a speech, breaking his right arm and shattering his kneecap. But he quickly recovered, walking in public just two months after his fall.

On July 31, 2006, the Cuban government announced that Castro's duties as president had been transferred to Raul Castro while he underwent surgery to address "an acute intestinal crisis, with sustained bleeding".

Dangers of nuclear war

Castro never returned to politics. He wrote columns for state-run media and occasionally received guests at his home on the edge of what used to be the Havana Biltmore golf course.

In his speech, he warned of the dangers of nuclear war and climate change and he urged young people to fight for world peace.

On September 3, 2010, Castro gave his last speech. He spoke at the University of Havana, telling students he never imagined he'd return 65 years after he studied there.

On January 8, 2013, Castro visited the Havana art studio of his friend, Alexis Leiva Machado, nicknamed Kcho.

It would be the Cuban leader's last public appearance.

"There were people there who never thought they were going to see him in their lifetimes," Kcho said. "Suddenly, Fidel showed up in a car. It parked at the door of the house. The neighbour looked at him like she couldn't believe it. She said, 'How is it possible? I thought that in my life I'd never see Fidel Castro.'

"His presence said a lot."

Kcho considers Castro a "maker of dreams" and said he probably wouldn't have become a successful artist if the government hadn't opened an art school on the Isle of Youth where he grew up.

Years later, Castro recognised Kcho's work.

"When I shook his hand, the man squeezed my hand really hard, with strength, with energy. He looked me in the eye and he told me, 'Congratulations. Good job.' It was something special. I still have photos of that moment," Kcho said.

"Fidel is a person who has influenced many people. I'd say millions of people. I am one of those influenced by Fidel."

Cubans will miss Castro, the artist said.

Cuban blogger Harold Cardenas is not sure all Cubans are ready to decipher Castro's legacy."He had the ability to face - together with his people - the most powerful enemy on earth. And I think [his] ideas will live on forever."

Many young people have a stereotyped or cartoonish image of Castro, Cardenas said. Some think "all he's done is make mistakes".

Others say he's the "perfect leader". That's dangerous, Cardenas said, because when they learn that he's made mistakes, they'll think they were lied to in school and soon they'll believe that everything about the revolution is a lie.

What's needed, he said, is an honest debate about Castro's legacy. But for now, Cardenas said, "We don't have the maturity to speak objectively about Fidel."

2016-11-23

The Coretta Scott King Story: 'My Life, My Love, My Legacy' is Shared With World Audience

For Immediate Release
Nov. 23, 2016

Book written by Dr. Barbara Reynolds

Coretta Scott King, wife of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), and twentieth-century American civil and human rights hero toward the end of her life commissioned Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds to write her memoir. It will be released on January 17th 2017.

Dr. Reynolds, a journalist and author of six books, first came into contact with Coretta King in 1975 when she was assigned to write a magazine article for the Chicago Tribune. From that encounter a 30-year life-changing relationship of mentorship and friendship evolved, resulting in King turning to Reynolds, an ordained minister, to write about her most note-worthy accomplishments but also her deepest pain and setbacks.

From the pages of this compelling book, Coretta King emerges from the shadows, the margins of history and more importantly from behind the labels of wife of...mother of...and leader of...which - while correct - never went deep enough to reveal the fullness of her life.

In her memoir, readers will see both character and courage, a woman who was not only married to Dr. King, but was married to the movement of which she was a partner. She was born in April 27, 1927 into the troubled and twisted times in Alabama, where her house was burned down as a teen-ager; she was in her home with her 2-year-old baby when her home was fire-bombed during the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. Although she never knew if the same hate that killed the love of her life would also claim her life and those of her children, she refused to step aside even as threats continued long after the assassination of her husband.

In her own voice, the book reveals a Coretta, moving on through many lonely days as the architect of her husband's legacy, working tirelessly to found and develop The King Center as a quasi-international West Point of Non-violence, lobbying for 15 years for the US national holiday in honor of her husband and campaigning for the rights of the disadvantaged around the globe and at home.

In this memoir, for the first time Coretta King talks candidly about her marriage and the rumored reports of Dr. King's infidelity; she offers her thoughts on the reasons behind SCLC co-founder Ralph Abernathy's unfavorable characterization of Martin in his autobiography, as well as some unproductive characteristics within the inner circle of the civil rights movement.

Legendary leaders, such as Maya Angelou, former U.N. ambassador and U.S. congressmen Andrew Young; Myrlie Evers-Williams, a past chairman of the NAACP, whose civil rights active husband Medgar Evers was assassinated; Rep. John Conyers, who played a major role in legislating the King Holiday bill as well as Dr. Bernice King, also provide reflections in this historic work.

Dr. Reynolds views Coretta King as one of the world's most trusted moral leaders, and effective disciples of non-violent direct action, who left a model of selfless, compassionate leadership that is sorely needed today.
____________________________________________________________

Dr. Reynolds is available for interviews and speeches on the King book through her representative Traycee Gales. To reach Dr. Reynolds, please contact Traycee at 301-741- 5254 or trayceegales@yahoo.com

2016-11-21

Civil Rights Leaders Vow to Oppose Threats to Racial Justice Under Trump Presidency

Discriminatory Voting Laws, Voter Intimidation Appear To Have Taken A Toll

Story by National Urban League
Written by NUL President Marc Morial

NEW YORK (November 14, 2016) -- Seven leading civil rights organizations today issued the following statement in response to the 2016 Presidential and Congressional election:

“As civil rights leaders working for racial justice and economic opportunity, we join much of the nation in our apprehension about the incoming administration. We cannot ignore that the campaign was characterized by divisive racial rhetoric, and has emboldened white supremacists across the country. The wave of hate crimes sweeping the country, with perpetrators invoking the name of the President-elect, is an ill omen, as is the appointment of a chief strategist with an appalling record of promoting racial, anti-Semitic and anti-woman rhetoric.

“We were appalled by the calls for intimidation of voters at urban and rural polling places and will not forget. Voter suppression had a measurable effect on elections in a number of states. While racial voter suppression was widespread, voter suppression was generational as well. Millennials, as a multiracial demographic, also were targeted by strict ID laws and poll closings affecting millions of youth, college and high school students, as well as young professionals. Addressing this threat to our most vulnerable citizens and our still young democracy will be a top priority for our organizations in the coming weeks and months.

"We have a responsibility to vigorously oppose any policies or actions which are inconsistent with our agenda or would serve to turn back the clock on hard-fought gains. America’s advance toward diversity is not interrupted by the results of Tuesday’s election.

“We will continue to battle discrimination, racial injustice and barriers to equal opportunity as we have done for decades. As always, we will advocate for the next President of the United States to honor and prioritize the Constitutional guarantee of equal protection, due process and full citizenship for every American. The President-elect needs to begin by repudiating hate crimes and attacks undertaken in his name and by announcing a commitment to abandon the divisive rhetoric and policy proposals of his campaign that are inconsistent with equality and opportunity for all.

"Having earned a minority of the popular vote, elected with the support of only about a quarter percent of the adult population, the President-elect must recognize the challenge of his extremely narrow appeal to the American people. His obligation is to be President for All Americans.

“Other important races on the ballot were significant for the advancement of the nation. While Congress remains in control of leaders with a demonstrated history of obstructionism, we take encouragement from the election of the most diverse Congress in United States history. When the 115th United States Congress is seated in January, it will include 100 women – notably Kamala Harris among the 23 elected to the Senate -- and the largest-ever Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.

"We encourage every American to stand firm in the fight for the protection of civil rights and in opposition to racism and hate."

​The statement was issued jointly by the following (listed alphabetically):

Cornell William Brooks, President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
Melanie Campbell, President and CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener, Black Women’s Roundtable
Kristen Clarke, President and Executive Director, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
Wade Henderson, President and CEO, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc.
Marc H. Morial, President and CEO, National Urban League
The Rev. Al Sharpton, Founder and President, National Action Network

CONTACTS:
Daniel Valentine (NAACP): dvalentine@naacpnet.org | (410) 580-5220
Enid Doggett (National Coalition on Black Civic Participation): enid@insprmedia.com | 202- 246-3982
Stacie B. Burgess (Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law): sburgess@lawyerscommittee.org | 202-662-8317
Scott Simpson (Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights) simpson@civilrights.org | 202-466-2061
Kelly Landis (NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund) klandis@naacpldf.org | 202-216-5565
Teresa Candori (National Urban League): tcandori@nul.org | 212-558-5362
Rachel Noerdlinger (National Action Network): rnoerdlinger@mercuryllc.com | 347- 821-9678

2016-11-18

NAACP on the Trump nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions as United States Attorney General

Story by NAACP

BALTIMORE, MD – NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks issued the following statement regarding the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions as potential Attorney General by President-elect Donald J. Trump:

“The nomination of Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III to be Attorney General, to serve as chief law enforcement officer of the United States, is deeply troubling. Based on the disdain for our nation’s civil rights laws that Senator Sessions has consistently demonstrated throughout his career, his fitness to be the chief protector and enforcer of them falls into dire question.

“Senator Sessions was denied appointment as a federal judge in 1986 for a slew of racist comments, including calling the work of the NAACP and ACLU ‘Un-American.’ He has also repeatedly spoken out against the federal Voting Rights Act. We just lived through the first presidential election in over 50 years without the Act’s full protections and witnessed the suppression of millions of votes. To appoint an Attorney General who dismisses the need for these critical protections is even more despicable and unacceptable.

“Senator Sessions’ record suggests that he will carry on an old, ugly legacy in this country’s history when civil rights for African-Americans, women and minorities were not regarded as core American values. While Lady Justice may be said to be blind, we need an Attorney General with 20-20 vision in seeing racial injustice. Whether Senator Sessions, with decades of failing grades on the NAACP’s report card, possesses a racial vision and commitment to justice is in serious question.

“We need to move forward, not backward. Our nation needs federal action to protect basic voting rights, to reform outrageous abuses and racial profiling by police departments in Ferguson, Baltimore, Chicago and across the country, and to protect rights for LGBT Americans and other vulnerable populations in an era of rising hate and in the face of an administration threatening to wage war on basic civil liberties.

“Through Congress, our membership and by every means available, the NAACP will continue to stand against the regressive and intolerant views that Senator Sessions espouses.”

The Democrats Double Down

Story by Wall Street Journal
Written by Kimberley Strassel

We teach our children that what matters isn’t how we handle success, but how we handle defeat. Tell that to the collapsing Democratic Party.

Here’s what Democrats know: They got thumped last week. Donald Trump cleaned their clocks, despite his disorganization, controversies and lack of money. Senate Democrats blew at least seven competitive races, and they remain in the minority. House Democrats blew even more, and they remain in the minority. Democratic governors got thumped. Democratic state legislators got thumped. Democratic dog catchers—if there were any on the ballot—got thumped.

What Democrats should realize, because everyone else does, is that voters rejected both their policies (which have undermined middle- and low-income families) and their governance (which has fueled rage at a power-hungry federal government). Hillary Clinton proposed more of the same. Coal workers said no. Blue-collar union workers said no. Suburban moms said no. Small businessmen, drowning under Dodd-Frank and ObamaCare, said no.

Instead Democrats think last week was an accident. Mrs. Clinton tells donors that she only lost because of FBI Director Jim Comey.Barack Obama faults Hillary’s tactics—she didn’t spend enough time in the right states. Michael Dukakis says Democrats only lost because of the Electoral College. Rachel Maddow blames third-party candidates.

All this denial has cleared the field for Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the leading voice now calling on the party to recognize it has erred and needs change. She is telling the masses, however, that Democrats lost because they didn’t go big enough. They didn’t spend enough. Didn’t regulate enough. Didn’t socialize health care enough. Her prescription:

That is precisely what Democrats are doing. The party is falling in line to install a Minnesota radical, Rep. Keith Ellison, as head of the Democratic National Committee. No one seems concerned that Mr. Ellison is a progressive to make even Mrs. Warren blush, utterly out of tune with the concerns of average Americans.

The party’s only real interest? Mr. Ellison is black and Muslim, which checks the diversity boxes. But might not the party help itself more by electing a Latino leader? Maybe even a Latino woman? This is exactly the approach that Mrs. Clinton pursued by practicing identity politics and catering to specific blocs of voters, while alienating whites and ignoring core issues.

Nancy Pelosi in 2010 oversaw the loss of 63 Democratic House seats, the biggest wipeout in 70 years. After last week, her third failure to retake the House, that net loss figure remains virtually unchanged. Her response was to make another run for House minority leader, though Ohio Rep.Tim Ryan announced Thursday that he will challenge her.

New York’s Sen. Chuck Schumer this week attained his dream of ascending to lead his party in the Senate, and rumors are that he didn’t always agree with the obstructionist tactics of his predecessor Harry Reid. So he has already reached out to Mr. Trump. Sen. Schumer has an interest in doing so, if only to try to save the skins of the 10 Democrats up for re-election in 2018 who hail from states that Mr. Trump won—among them, Indiana, West Virginia, Montana and North Dakota.

But this assumes that Mr. Schumer will be running the show. The party’s two super-senators, Ms. Warren and Bernie Sanders,have other ideas. Both intend to rally the furies of the progressive movement to oppose any Republican reform. Even Mr. Schumer’s polite outreach to Mr. Trump provoked a progressive meltdown, with screams that Senate Democrats are already “selling out.” This might be why Mr. Schumer, in penance, threw his support behind Mr. Ellison to lead the party.

A few lone dissenters are shouting in the gale. Boyd Brown, a Democratic National Committee member from South Carolina (and therefore a dying breed), told Politico this week: “When you have Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer making the sale for you, that dog don’t hunt. It’s time to reshuffle the deck and get some younger folks in there with some more diverse backgrounds.” Mr. Boyd is likely to be ignored, and for reasons that go beyond his folksy reference to hunting dogs.

That’s because Democrats right now look a lot like the House Republicans of the early 2000s, who became ever more desperate to hold on to power in the face of scandal, laziness and a loss of principle. As more voters abandoned them, the GOP became ever more interested in culturally catering to a shrinking circle of supporters, in particular the religious right. Remember the explosion over Terri Schiavo? That was the GOP version of executive orders on transgender bathrooms.

Republicans had the benefit of a broad grass-roots movement in the Tea Party that soon after defined the terms of the party’s re-election: If it wanted power again, it would have to embrace a reform agenda for a center-right country. It would have to give up earmarks and self-dealing, focus on fixing taxes, entitlements, health care. The GOP took back the House in 2010.

In Mrs. Clinton’s defeat, progressives see their chance to finally run the Democratic Party. And they may run it—in the minority—for a very long time.

Write to kim@wsj.com

Congressman James E. Clyburn (D-SC) statement on recent Trump administration appointment of Steve Bannon and nomination of Jeff Sessions


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 18, 2016
CONTACT: Patrick Devlin, 202-226-3210

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn (D-SC) released the following statement today:

“Donald Trump’s recent staffing and nomination announcements are a sad but predictable continuation of his spiteful, divisive campaign,” said Assistant Democratic Leader James E. Clyburn. “Steve Bannon has taken pride in giving voice and an online home to radical white-supremacist groups. There should be no place in the White House for his brand of misogynistic, bigoted, anti-Semitic and xenophobic normalcy.

“Senator Sessions has faced serious allegations throughout his career and was rightly rejected for a federal judgeship because of them. His civil rights record is appalling and should disqualify him from Senate confirmation.

“Together the Bannon appointment and nomination of Senator Sessions for Attorney General represent a frightening return to a dark and dangerous past for minority communities in Donald Trump’s America. They threaten the civil rights progress we’ve made and are significant roadblocks to healing the racial divisions laid bare by the recent election. I firmly oppose both and urge Donald Trump to rescind the appointment of Steve Bannon as Chief Strategist and the nomination of Senator Sessions for Attorney General.

Electoral College Math

African Colonies after the Berlin Conference of 1884


On November 15th, 1884, about a dozen European nations gathered in Berlin to divide up the African continent. The Berlin Conference of 1884–85, also known as the Congo Conference (German: Kongokonferenz) or West Africa Conference (Westafrika-Konferenz), regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period, and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power.

Cummings Requests Documents Relating to Michael Flynn’s Apparent Conflicts of Interest



Washington, D.C. (Nov, 18, 2016) — Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter (below) to Vice President-Elect Mike Pence requesting information about the apparent conflicts of interest of the Vice Chairman of the Presidential Transition team, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was reportedly offered the job of National Security Advisor.

Cummings also released a Memorandum of Understanding signed on November 8, 2016, by the former Chair of the Transition Team, Chris Christie, and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, which provides that in order to obtain non-public and classified information, the Transition Team member must sign a statement that “he or she has no financial interest or imputed financial interest that would be directly and predictably affected by a particular matter to which the information is pertinent.”

Cummings issued the following statement:

“President-elect Trump promised during his campaign that he would ‘drain the swamp,’ but his top national security advisor is Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, whose firm is reportedly being paid to lobby the U.S. Government by a close ally of Turkey’s president. It is unclear how Lt. Gen. Flynn was reportedly allowed into intelligence briefings during the campaign despite these apparent conflicts of interest.”

________________________________
Below read today’s letter:
________________________________

November 18, 2016

The Honorable Mike Pence
Vice President-Elect
Presidential Transition Office
1800 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20006

Dear Vice President-Elect Pence:

I am writing to raise questions about the apparent conflicts of interest of the Vice Chairman of the Presidential Transition Team, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who reportedly has been selected by the President-elect to be his National Security Advisor.

Recent news reports have revealed that Lt. Gen. Flynn was receiving classified briefings during the presidential campaign while his consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, Inc., was being paid to lobby the U.S. Government on behalf of a foreign government’s interests. Lt. Gen. Flynn’s General Counsel and Principal, Robert Kelley, confirmed that they were hired by a foreign company to lobby for Turkish interests, stating: “They want to keep posted on what we all want to be informed of: the present situation, the transition between President Obama and President-Elect Trump.” When asked whether the firm had been hired because of Lt. Gen. Flynn’s close ties to President-elect Trump, Mr. Kelley responded, “I hope so.”

Flynn Intel Group apparently was hired by a company whose founder, Kamil Ekim Alptekin, is the Chairman of the Turkish-American Business Council, represents Turkey in the Board of the United States Nowruz Commission, and reportedly helped organize the Turkish President’s 2016 visit to Washington, D.C. Mr. Ekim Alptekin has described himself as being “committed to boosting Transatlantic trade and bolstering the commercial angle of decades-long Turkish-American partnership.”

On Election Day, November 8, 2016, Lt. Gen. Flynn published an op-ed in The Hill advocating on behalf of the government of Turkey, entitled: “Our Ally Turkey Is In Crisis and Needs Our Support.”[1] In that op-ed, Lt. Gen. Flynn wrote: “The U.S. media is doing a bang-up job of reporting the Erdogan government’s crackdown on dissidents, but it’s not putting it into perspective.” He also wrote: “We need to adjust our foreign policy to recognize Turkey as a priority. We need to see the world from Turkey’s perspective.”

Lt. Gen. Flynn also was paid to travel to Moscow in December 2015 and join Vladimir Putin at the head table during a dinner honoring the Kremlin-backed media network RT. During the event, Lt. Gen. Flynn gave a speech that was highly critical of the United States, stating, “The United States can’t sit there and say, ‘Russia, you’re bad.’” Lt. Gen. Flynn has stated that he was paid by his speaker’s bureau, LAI, but he has not disclosed how much he made or what entity hired LAI.

Lt. Gen. Flynn’s involvement in advising Mr. Trump on matters relating to Turkey or Russia—including attending classified briefings on those matters—could violate the Trump for America, Inc. Code of Ethical Conduct, which states:

I will disqualify myself from involvement in any particular transition matter which to my knowledge may directly conflict with a financial interest of mine, my spouse, minor child, partner, client or other individual or organization with which I have a business or close personal relationship. Where there is no such direct conflict, but there may be an appearance of a conflict, I will address this issue for resolution to the TFA General Counsel. I currently have no knowledge of any such conflicts.

In addition, a Memorandum of Understanding signed on November 8, 2016, by the former Chair of the Transition Team, Chris Christie, and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough requires that in order to obtain non-public information, including classified information, the Transition Team must:

Require the Transition Team member to sign a statement representing that, to the member’s knowledge, he or she has no financial interest or imputed financial interest that would be directly and predictably affected by a particular matter to which the information is pertinent.

The Memorandum of Understanding also requires the Transition Team to ensure that each member “has agreed to abide by the Transition’s Code of Ethical Conduct, and has thereby represented that he or she has no conflict of interest that precludes the individual from working on the matters the individual has been assigned to work on with the EOP or relevant Department or Agency.”

In order to address this issue, I request that you provide the following information by November 28, 2016:

1. a copy of Lt. Gen. Flynn’s signed Trump for America, Inc., Code of Ethical Conduct;

2. a copy of any other signed statement by Lt. Gen. Flynn representing that he does not have a financial conflicts of interest provided either to the campaign or to the Transition Team;

3. a copy of any information provided by Lt. Gen Flynn to the Transition Team in order to determine his business clients and to vet any potential financial conflicts of interest; and

4. a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding Regarding Transition Procedures, signed by you as the Designated Chair of the Team.

I appreciate your prompt attention to this serious matter.

Sincerely,



Elijah E. Cummings
Ranking Member

cc: The Honorable Jason Chaffetz

CBC Chairman G.K Butterfield statement on the selection of Senator Jeff Sessiona for Attorney General



NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
November 18, 2016

CBC CHAIRMAN G. K. BUTTERFIELD STATEMENT ON THE SELECTION OF SENATOR JEFF SESSIONS FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairman G. K. Butterfield (D-NC) released the following statement regarding the selection of Alabama junior Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General:

“We face an alarming choice in the selection of Senator Jeff Sessions to serve as the chief law enforcer for the United States of America,” said CBC Chairman G. K. Butterfield. “Senator Sessions’ civil rights record is appalling and should disqualify him from Senate confirmation.

“Senator Sessions has continuously obstructed the progress that we’ve made since the historic Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s. Senator Sessions has blocked legislative efforts to ensure racial equality in minority communities, including his opposition to President Obama’s judicial nominations and full enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.

“Having previously been denied a nomination by members of the U.S. Senate over concerns about his views of African Americans, Senator Jeff Sessions will very likely face an uphill battle in being confirmed as the next Attorney General of the United States.

“The Attorney General must run the Department of Justice with a total commitment to the rule of law and must guarantee minority citizens their fundamental constitutional rights. The Congressional Black Caucus stands ready to oppose Senator Sessions’ confirmation as we adamantly believe his appointment will set us back in the advancement of civil rights and race relations across the country.”

# # #

Since its establishment in 1971, Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) have joined together to empower America’s neglected citizens and address their legislative concerns. For more than 40 years, the CBC has consistently been the voice for people of color and vulnerable communities in Congress and has been committed to utilizing the full Constitutional power and statutory authority of the United States government to ensure that all U.S. citizens have an opportunity to achieve the American Dream. To learn more about the Congressional Black Caucus, visit http://cbc-butterfield.house.gov.

Media inquiries: Candace Randle Person at (202) 593-1331 or Candace.Person@mail.house.gov

2016-11-15

Nina Simone


Nina Simone - Interview 1984


Nina Simone - Interview 1988


Rare Film & backstage footage of the Late, Great NIna Simone, performing at Paris Olympia in 1990 (Bruno Coquatrix) includes songs Blue Sky, Mississippi Goddam - the protest song she penned after the 1963 murder of civil rights leader Medgar Evers and four African American school girls in an Alabama church bombing, and the perfect I Put A spell On You. Enjoy

Links of Nina Simone bio:
http://www.ninasimone.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone


Song: Nina Simone - Strange Fruit


Song: Nina Simone - Feeling Good


Song: Nina Simone - Ain't Got No, I Got Life


Song: Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam (Live in New York 1964)

2016-11-14

Congressional Black Caucus Recognizes the Life of Renowned Journalist Gwen Ifill



NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
November 14, 2016

CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS RECOGNIZES THE LIFE OF RENOWNED JOURNALIST GWEN IFILL



WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Chairman G. K. Butterfield (D-NC) released the following statement on the passing of prominent journalist and news anchor Gwen Ifill:

"Our hearts are deeply saddened upon hearing news of the sudden passing of renowned journalist Gwen Ifill. Regarded as one of the most prominent African American journalists in the country, Ms. Ifill began her news career in the 1970s during a time when there were very few African American and female journalists. She was a trailblazer in media and went on to serve as the moderator and managing editor of Washington Week and co-anchor and managing editor of the PBS NewsHour. She was also a bestselling author and moderator of two vice presidential debates.

“Ms. Ifill was among the nation’s finest political correspondents as she was gracious and poised when addressing some of the most pressing issues facing the country. Her voice will be missed among journalism and broadcasts, but her legacy will continue to have a lasting impact on how we view news and journalism today. We offer our sincere condolences to Ms. Ifill’s family, friends, followers and colleagues around the world.”

PBS NewsHour Co-Anchor Gwen Ifill Dies at 61



Story by PBS

It is with extremely heavy hearts that we must share that our dear friend and beloved colleague Gwen Ifill passed away this afternoon following several months of cancer treatment. She was surrounded by loving family and many friends whom we ask that you keep in your thoughts and prayers.

A note from Sara Just, PBS NewsHour executive producer and WETA SVP

“Gwen was a standard bearer for courage, fairness and integrity in an industry going through seismic change. She was a mentor to so many across the industry and her professionalism was respected across the political spectrum. She was a journalist’s journalist and set an example for all around her.

So many people in the audience felt that they knew and adored her. She had a tremendous combination of warmth and authority. She was stopped on the street routinely by people who just wanted to give her a hug and considered her a friend after years of seeing her on tv.

We will forever miss her terribly.”

2016-11-11

Happy Veterans Day Weekend


Welcome to the US Marines

Noam Chomsky: Reagan Was an ‘Extreme Racist’ Who Re-Enslaved African Americans

Story by Alternet
Written by Scott Kaufman

Links:
http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/ Author: Douglas Blackmon
http://newjimcrow.com/ Author: Michelle Alexander

In an interview with GRITtv’s Laura Flanders, linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky discussed how the events in Ferguson, Missouri and the protests that followed demonstrate just how little race relations in the United States have advanced since the end of the Civil War.

“This is a very racist society,” Chomsky said, “it’s pretty shocking. What’s happened to African-Americans in the last 30 years is similar to what [Douglas Blackmon in Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II] describes happening in the late 19th Century.”


Author Douglas Blackmon speaks to PBS's Gwen Ifill about film "Slavery by Another Name..."

Author Blackmon speaks with Jim Moyer's Journal regarding to film "Slavery by Another Name..."

Blackmon’s book describes what he calls the “Age of Neoslavery,” in which newly freed slaves found themselves entangled in a legal system built upon involuntary servitude — which included the selling of black men convicted of crimes like vagrancy and changing employers without receiving permission.


SLAVERY BY ANOTHER NAME, above, is a 90-minute documentary that challenges one of Americans' most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film above tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in 1865, thousands of African Americans were pulled back into forced labor with shocking force and brutality.

“The constitutional amendments that were supposed to free African-American slaves did something for about 10 years, then there was a North-South compact that granted the former slave-owning states the right to do whatever they wanted,” he explained. “And what they did was criminalize black life, and that created a kind of slave force. It threw mostly black males into jail, where they became a perfect labor force, much better than slaves.”

“If you’re a slave owner, you have to pay for — you have to keep your ‘capital’ alive. But if the state does it for you, that’s terrific. No strikes, no disobedience, the perfect labor force. A lot of the American Industrial Revolution in the late 19th, early 20th century was based on that. It pretty much lasted until World War II.”

“After that,” Chomsky said, “African-Americans had about two decades in which they had a shot of entering [American] society. A black worker could get a job in an auto plant, as the unions were still functioning, and he could buy a small house and send his kid to college. But by the 1970s and 1980s it’s going back to the criminalization of black life.”

“It’s called the drug war, and it’s a racist war. Ronald Reagan was an extreme racist — though he denied it — but the whole drug war is designed, from policing to eventual release from prison, to make it impossible for black men and, increasingly, women to be part of [American] society.”

“In fact,” he continued, “if you look at American history, the first slaves came over in 1619, and that’s half a millennium. There have only been three or four decades in which African-Americans have had a limited degree of freedom — not entirely, but at least some.”

“They have been re-criminalized and turned into a slave labor force — that’s prison labor,” Chomsky concluded. “This is American history. To break out of that is no small trick.”


Noam Chomsky interview with GRITtv’s Laura Flanders

2016-11-10

Saxophonist Grover Washington Jr.


California residents - Here’s what you can and can’t do now that marijuana is legal

Story by The Orange County Register
Written by Brooke Edwards Staggs

Under state law, the passage of the measure means it takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. For California residents and visitors 21 and older, here’s what becomes legal:

• Consuming marijuana at home.

• Carrying, giving away or accepting free of charge up to an ounce of flowers or up to 8 grams of concentrated cannabis.

• Growing as many as six pot plants per home, discreetly, and keeping the harvest. But check on local policies, since some cities are rushing to say grows for personal use must be indoors or permitted.

• Petitioning to have criminal records or jail sentences changed, with some felonies converted to misdemeanors and some misdemeanors or infractions made legal.

Here’s what remains illegal under Prop. 64:

• Smoking weed on the street or in a bar, since public consumption is banned.

• For now, buying or selling recreational cannabis. Licensed shops won’t open for another year. So anyone who doesn’t have a doctor’s recommendation and wants to get cannabis legally needs to either wait until their homegrown supply is ready or get an ounce (or less) for free from another adult.

• Consuming in a vehicle or getting high and driving. Drugged driving laws still apply and, as with alcohol, it’s not legal to have an open container of pot in a car.

• Going to work high. Employers can still enforce their own drug policies, including firing workers who test positive for weed.

Germany’s Chancellor Just Issued A Powerful Warning to President-Elect Donald J. Trump

Story by Occupy Democrats
Written by Grant Stern

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel sent a shrewdly coded, introductory message to Republican President-elect Trump, which firstly indicates that she is prepared to seize the notional title of Leader of the Free World away from America’s racist President-elect come January. Notably, the German leader’s remarks indicate cooperation with our country is based on values – a concept entirely lacking from this year’s GOP campaign – which our nations have shared since the end of World War II.

Merkel’s message reads like the kind of statement of admonishment that America’s State Department might issue to a fairly backwards county, who is more concerned with maintaining apartheid under intense pressure, than a welcome message to the President of the United States. Shamefully, our new President-elect needs that kind of public chiding from minute one:

“Germany’s ties with the United States of America are deeper than with any country outside of the European Union. Germany and America are bound by common values — democracy, freedom, as well as respect for the rule of law and the dignity of each and every person, regardless of their origin, skin color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, or political views. It is based on these values that I wish to offer close cooperation, both with me personally and between our countries’ governments.”

If Angela Merkel just set the tone for the rest of the world’s leaders, by dealing with the mess that misled American voters have elected head on, then it’s clear, that outside of the walls of the GOP, foreign governments will not kiss his ass.

Her deputy chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, was far more blunt: “Trump is the trailblazer of a new authoritarian and chauvinist international movement. … They want a rollback to the bad old times in which women belonged by the stove or in bed, gays in jail and unions at best at the side table. And he who doesn’t keep his mouth shut gets publicly bashed.”

Being a racist loudmouth might excite members of the Republican Party, but the consequences of a minority of Americans electing a KKK supported are just beginning to arrive.

Trump’s blatantly weak moral standing is uniquely unsuitable for diplomacy, and our nation’s vital alliances rely upon intangibles like common ground, trust and understanding which are foreign concepts to the American demagogue.

World leaders, like Merkel will have to step up and guide our planet while the American democracy is broken under the weight of a narcissistic President, who was sadly elected without a mandate of the voters, by a minority of the popular plebiscite.

It’s our only hope to stave off global disaster.

President Barack H. Obama and President-Elect Donald J. Trump display unity in their White House meeting

President Obama and President-elect Donald Trump put on a show of unity during their first meeting at the White House on Thursday.


Story by New York Times
Written by Jordan Fabian

The two men, who have been sworn enemies for years, met for more than half an hour in the Oval Office, even though they were only scheduled to meet for 15 minutes, according to President-Elect Trump.

“I have been very encouraged by the interest in President-elect Trump’s wanting to work with my team around many of the issues that this great country faces,” President Obama said after what he called an "excellent" and “wide-ranging” discussion.

“I believe it is important for all of us, regardless of party and regardless of political preferences to come together to work together and deal with the many challenges we face,” the President added.

President-Elect Trump called the meeting “a great honor” and said he would seek out President Obama’s counsel during the whirlwind, 10-week transition period before he enters the Oval Office.

“We discussed a lot of different situations, some wonderful and some difficult,” President-Elect Trump said. "I very much look forward to dealing with the president in the future.”

The two leaders handled an admittedly difficult moment gracefully.

Lame Duck President Barack Obama and President-Elect Donald Trump were seated in high-backed armchairs at the end of the room, an arrangement typical for when the president meets with foreign leaders.

2016-11-09

Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings Statement on Election Results



Washington, D.C. (Nov. 9, 2016)— Today, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) issued the following statement on the results of the 2016 presidential election:

“I congratulate President-elect Trump on winning the electoral college, and I thank Hillary Clinton her decades of service to the American people.

“I have always believed that we as a nation fare best when our eyes are focused on the road in front of us, rather than looking in the rear-view mirror. The campaign was difficult and hard-fought, but now is the time for us to look forward, not back. Now is the time to work together as a nation, not as two parties competing against another. Now is the time to unite as Americans not merely to find common ground, but to aspire to lift our nation to higher ground.

“President-elect Trump said last night that he wants to unite our country; I take him at his word. It is now more important than ever that Congress does the very important business that the American people sent us to Washington to do: passing laws that uplift all Americans.

“The President-elect and I may not agree on all things, but we both are determined to grow our economy and create more jobs to lift up America's working families. I am especially encouraged about Mr. Trump's expressed desire to increase infrastructure spending and begin repairing our roads, bridges, train stations and airports. I look forward to working with him on these issues and all matters that protect our rights and improve our lives.”

Funeral Services for Black Radio Station Owner the Legendary Bill Shearer is this coming Tuesday in Los Angeles


Services for Bill Shearer, former owner of Los Angeles heritage radio station KGFJ, will be held on Tuesday, November 15th at 11 a.m., First AME Church, 2270 S. Harvard Blvd, LA, CA 90018. Repast immediately following. Please tell others in your network who may want to pay their respects

Donald Trump wins the United States Presidential Election

Donald Trump will be President Donald Trump in January 2017.

2016-11-08

Trump wins Florida, Georgia, Iowa, and Winning Key State Michigan....Currently Trump 244 Clinton 209

Florida: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/07/politics/live-election-results-coverage/index.html
Michigan: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/07/politics/live-election-results-coverage/index.html

Trump Surges: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/08/politics/election-day-2016-highlights/index.html
NBC News Trump 244 Clinton 209: http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/president

The Hill: http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/305014-high-anxiety-as-first-polls-close
NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/08/us/politics/election-live.html
Fox News projects Trump winner: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/11/08/trump-projected-to-win-wisconsin-florida-iowa.html

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump took a significant step toward the White House Tuesday with crucial battleground victories in Florida, North Carolina, Iowa, Georgia, and Ohio.

The Ohio victory is especially important for Trump as no Republican has won the White House without taking the Buckeye State. North Carolina is a serious blow to Clinton, who fought hard for the state and held the final rally of her campaign there in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

An election season that has defied expectations from the very beginning is staying true to form to the very end. Trump has an increasingly viable path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win. And even if Clinton were to win, it would likely be by the slimmest of margins.

Clinton pulled out desperately needed wins in Virginia and Colorado. Still, she faces a much stronger than expected challenge from Trump in Michigan and Wisconsin. Those Midwestern states form the bedrock of her Democratic firewall.

Read More via CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/08/politics/election-day-2016-highlights/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/election/results/president

Donald J. Trump takes North Carolina, putting White House within reach

Written by The Hill staff

Republican Donald Trump is defying expectations, running strong in battleground states and edging out Democrat Hillary Clinton in a presidential election where he appears on the brink of a stunning upset.

All over the electoral map, things are looking up for Trump. While exit polls had Republican operatives privately despairing about his chances, he's already proven them wrong, as he long said he would.

He has already taken Ohio, North Carolina and Florida, bringing his total to 220 electoral votes, 54 shy of the 270 needed to win the White House.

Trump leads in the electoral college, 222-209.

It increasingly appears the election will be decided in the Upper Midwest states of Wisconsin and Michigan. In the past, those two states had been safe territory for Democrats, but the Republican has jumped out to an early lead in both places.

In Michigan, where Clinton campaigned furiously in the closing days of the race, Trump leads by more than 14,000 votes with 57 percent of precincts in.

In Wisconsin, the early outlook is similar, with Trump ahead by around 63,000 votes with 58 percent reporting.

Trump has so far been projected the winner of 22 states. Clinton has been projected to take 17 states, including the swing states of Virginia and Colorado.

Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, said earlier in the evening that the campaign was feeling "really good" about where the race stands.

"The movement that Donald Trump has built has been able to grow the party in a very different way — be more pro-worker, a little less elitist," Conway said on MSNBC.

The battleground of Pennsylvania also hasn't been called. The state has 20 electoral votes, and losing it would be a crushing blow to Clinton. With 66 percent of precincts reporting, the state is a dead heat.

Two other swing states, New Hampshire and Nevada, have also not been called. Trump leads by 2 points in New Hampshire, with 64 percent of votes in.

Trump is seeking to turn Michigan red for the first time since 1988, a stunning turn in a state where Democrats spent few resources.

“If we win Michigan, we will win this historic election. Then we’ll truly be able to do all of the things we want to do,” Trump said early Tuesday morning at his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Mich.

As the night has progressed, the mood has changed dramatically in the two campaigns, with gloom falling over Clinton headquarters in Brooklyn and the mood rising in Trump Tower.

Polls ahead of Tuesday had given Clinton confidence, with most showing her leading the race by at least 4 points.

But those polls dramatically underestimated support for Trump, who appears to be outperforming Mitt Romney by big margins among white, working class voters.

While Trump called in for several radio and TV interviews Tuesday, Clinton mostly kept out of the spotlight, save for casting her vote in Chappaqua, N.Y., on Tuesday morning. She called the experience “humbling.”

“I know how much responsibility goes with this and so many people are counting on the outcome of this election, what it means for our country, and will do the very best if I am fortunate enough to win today,” she said.