Documents show US monitoring of Black Lives Matter

Story by Al-Jezeera
Written by Sweta Vohra

Black Lives Matter protests have been monitored by the US government and have been seen as a potential threat, according to recently released documents from the FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The documents, which include internal emails and field reports, were circulated among law enforcement agencies in 2016.

They were obtained as the result of a lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and the civil rights group Color of Change (COC) and provided to Al Jazeera.

Black Lives Matter (BLM), which started as a response to US police killings of unarmed black individuals in 2014, has grown into a movement fighting to end systemic violence against black people.


Demonstrators with Black Lives Matter march during a protest in Washington, DC. [File: Joshua Roberts/Reuters]

The language in the files points to the monitoring of Black Lives Matter protests, protected by the First Amendment, based on a presumption of violence.

In July 2016, the FBI began warning of "attacks against law enforcement" after a gunman shot and killed five police officers at a rally against police brutality in Dallas, Texas.

According to the FBI's own account, the gunman, Micah Xavier Johnson, acted alone. He had no known ties to Black Lives Matter or any other group.

Yet, in a series of emails dated July 8, 2016, the day after the shooting, the agency began using racially-charged language, suggesting Johnson's actions were part a larger threat.

"Due to sensitivities surrounding recent police shootings, the threat of copycat attacks against law enforcement exists," one email read. It added that "there is a threat of black supremacist extremists attempting to violently co-opt the upcoming DNC/RNC", referring to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.

The term "black supremacist extremist" appears twice in the emails without explanation, potentially conflating two different things.



From emails with the subject: "Dallas TPs for General Taylor (***UPDATE***)" (July 8, 2016)
Michael German, a former FBI agent and fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, told Al Jazeera that the "blending of activities" of protesters and "someone they [the FBI] acknowledge is a lone actor can be misleading in police documents".

German added: "If I'm a police officer on the street trying to address the concerns raised in this report, obviously, I'm going to be focusing on black people."

The FBI has never publicly used the phrase "black supremacist extremists", but a version of the term was used as recently as August, according to an FBI intelligence report obtained by Foreign Policy magazine.

The report, which was issued more than a year after the Dallas shootings, warned that "Black Identity Extremists" were violently targeting police.

"The FBI assesses it is very likely Black Identity Extremists perceptions of police brutality against African Americans spurred an increase in premeditated retaliatory lethal violence against law enforcement and will likely serve as justification for such violence," the report, dated August 3, read.



From report titled, Black Identity Extremists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers, August 3, 2017 [Obtained by Foreign Policy]
German said that "part of this is searching for terminology that covers all the black people they are concerned about".

Brandi Collins, campaign director at Color of Change, said the FBI has "been building this narrative over time", adding that the department has been "trying to infiltrate organisations, and going to protests, to bolster this claim that black folks, in The Movement for Black Lives, are terrorist threats to this community".

Protected activity?
Another set of emailsfrom July 2016 reveal how the FBI may use specific language to justify data collection and monitoring, specifically in the case of Black Lives Matter.

While BLM demonstrations are protected by the First Amendment, the emails said that "based on known intelligence and/or specific, historical observations, it is possible the protected activity could invite a violent reaction towards the subject individuals or groups, or the activity could be used as a means to target law enforcement".

The emails add: "In the event no violent reaction occurs, FBI policy and federal law dictates no further record be made of the protected activity".


From emails with the subject: "RE: Language from the OGC Ref Collecting Info Touching On Protests ---- UNCLASSIFIED" (July 8, 2016)

Omar Farah, lead attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, which sued to get the emails made public, said the "email suggests that the FBI makes bedrock First Amendment protections conditional based on its unchallenged view that BLM protests give rise to violence".

"But the problem with surveillance - and particularly the historic and current surveillance of black-led movements for social change - is that the surveillance itself is what does all the work, even if, as the email claims, the FBI later stops recording protected activity," he told Al Jazeera.

"Surveillance is what chills people from mobilising and organising."

The emails also fail to reveal why BLM is being singled out.

"What are they actually drawing from as they're building this narrative about violent reactions that they're presuming will happen?" Collins asked.

"It definitely feels like to me it's thrown in as this after-thought, as they're going about collecting a breathtaking amount of data and information on people involved in the movement for black lives."

'Mob mentality'
A third document, dated July 8, 2016, suggests how misinformation may be playing a role in the government's handling of BLM protests.

An advisory titled "UPDATE: Day of Rage Protests across America", warned of the potential for violence at several BLM-related events taking place across the US, in the aftermath of the Dallas shooting. This document was first reported in The Washington Times.

"Being anywhere near these protests greatly increases the chance that you could become a victim of violence," the advisory read.

"When the mob mentality takes over, normally decent people can commit heinous acts."


From the advisory titled: "UPDATE - Day of Rage Protests across America" (July 8, 2016)

The "Day of Rage" event was reportedly a hoax, stemming from a YouTube video that called for a "Day of Rage" in support of BLM.

The BLM movement tweeted that no such plans existed, after the story was picked up by several news sites.

The advisory was sent to Army personnel by the US Army North. The document was released to CCR through the DHS's National Protection and Programs Directorate.

'Does not police ideology'
Responding to questions about the language included in the documents, the FBI told Al Jazeera that it "cannot initiate an investigation based solely on an individual's race".

The department added: "Our focus is not on membership in particular groups but on individuals who commit violence and other criminal acts. The FBI does not and will not police ideology. When an individual takes violent action based on belief or ideology and breaks the law, the FBI will enforce the rule of law."

DHS declined to comment on specifics, but said that "as a general matter, DHS works with federal partners, including the FBI and state and local law enforcement through the National Network of Fusion Centers, to assess threats and analyze trends in activity from all violent extremist groups, regardless of ideology."

But civil rights advocates say the reactions to recent events, and the conclusions made by the departments, which have been revealed in the released documents, point to a double standard.

'Subtext is stunning'
In 2016, white supremacists - emboldened by the rise of Donald Trump - held a series of rallies across the US, including two in California that turned violent after white supremacists and anti-racist counterprotesters clashed.

A DHS field report from September 2016 emphasised the initial protests were legal, and said counterprotesters were mostly to blame.

The report said that during the June 26, 2016 protest in Sacramento, "violent anti-fascists, including anarchist extremist elements, attacked a group of white supremacists who gathered for a legally permitted rally."

The document also makes a clear distinction between "lawfully protesting white supremacists" and "white supremacist extremists" who participated in the violence.

"Although much of the focus of this paper concerns the threat of anarchist extremists, white supremacist extremists have previously plotted against and attacked violent anti-fascists and anarchist extremists," the report read.



From DHL field analysis report titled: "California: Recent Violent Clashes Suggest Heightened Threat Environment at Lawfully Organized White Supremacist Events" (September 2016)

Mike German, who studies white supremacist movements, says the report fails to recognise that many of the people who organise and attend these rallies have documented histories of violence.

In 2017, violence erupted at a far-right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

James Alex Fields, an avowed white supremacist, allegedly drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing 32-year old Heather Heyer.

Media reports and video recorded that day show police were slow to intervene.

"They, at least, had warning that these protests were likely to become violent. So you wonder why the police weren't prepared for that eventuality," German said.

The Color for Change's Collins said the language in the DHS report is especially striking when viewed against the documents on BLM.

"The subtext here is stunning," Collins said.

"It tells us who the government is training to view as threats and the rightful targets of ongoing surveillance and which groups will be offered protection."

The Center for Constitutional Rights' Farah added: "We've obtained FBI documents that suggest protests against violence - specifically, crisis-level police killings of unarmed black people - are presumptively threatening.

"And we have obtained an entire DHS report devoted to the threat posed by groups reacting to demonstrably violent, retrograde white supremacists. Read together, the documents reflect an unsettling blindness to the real challenges our society continues to face."

The Center for Constitutional Rights and Color of Change said they continue to receive documents from the FBI and DHS related to the surveillance of Black Lives Matter.

Al Jazeera's Fault Lines recently investigated the scope and impact of police and FBI surveillance of black activists in the US in its film: Confidential: Surveilling Black Lives.


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Read More: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/documents-show-monitoring-black-lives-matter-171128110538134.html

Facebook Responds to Congressman Cleaver’s Concerns Regarding Racial Bias in Social Media

* Facebook Responds to Congressman Cleaver’s Concerns Regarding Racial Bias in Social Media

* Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg announces major changes to the website
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(Washington D.C.) - Members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) yesterday received a letter from Facebook Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, after a series of concerns were presented to Facebook and Twitter top executives.

In the letter, Sandberg specifically stated she is responding to a series of recent letters from Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II, and other Members of the CBC.

“I appreciate the CBC’s commitment to asking hard questions and holding us accountable for our progress,” the letter states. “We know that African Americans have been the victims of divisive and abusive content online and we appreciate the leadership the CBC has shown in speaking out in defense of democratic values and in favor of more diversity in technology,” the letter continues.

Last month, Congressman Cleaver and Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) sent a letter (Link: https://cleaver.house.gov/sites/cleaver.house.gov/files/Facebook%20Twitter%20Social%20Media%20Recommendations%20Letter%2010.6.17.pdf) to Sandberg and Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey, encouraging them to take immediate action to combat the spread of racially divisive communications and take seriously the threat of foreign entities’ use of the sites to undermine American democracy.

Congressman Cleaver was also among those CBC members who met with Sandberg to discuss allegations that Russian-backed agencies exploited the company’s system to influence the outcome of the 2016 election through the spread of racial and discriminatory advertisements.

Additionally, in a letter sent to Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg last year, Congressman Cleaver joined his colleagues in addressing reports of advertisers on Facebook using multicultural affinity groups to exclude certain racial and ethnic groups when placing housing ads online.
In the response letter, Sandberg stated Facebook is committed to addressing these issues, adding;

“Solving these problems will not happen overnight, but we are committed to addressing and making progress on the issues raised in our meeting and in these letters.”

Facebook stated the company would;

• Strengthen policies prohibiting discrimination in advertising
• Provide more education to advertisers about their obligation not to discriminate
• Prohibit the use of the multicultural affinity segments to advertise offers of housing, employment, or credit
• Require advertisers running ads that offer housing, employment or credit to certify compliance with our anti-discrimination policy and with applicable law

In addition to the changes on their site, Facebook recognizes that the company needs to do more to include minorities and women within the workforce, an issue that Congressman Cleaver has urged Facebook and other technology companies to prioritize when filling senior leadership positions.

“Our partnerships with minority-focused organizations have helped us build relationships, and we will continue to invest in these and many other efforts as we push for greater diversity,” Sandberg stated in the letter.
“I am pleased to hear that Facebook has announced changes both within the company and with its online advertisement policies. Ultimately we will see if these measures will hinder racial divisiveness and discrimination,“ said Congressman Cleaver.
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Letter Link: https://cleaver.house.gov/sites/cleaver.house.gov/files/Facebook%20Twitter%20Social%20Media%20Recommendations%20Letter%2010.6.17.pdf

Emanuel Cleaver, II is the U.S. Representative for Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes Kansas City, Independence, Lee’s Summit, Raytown, Grandview, Sugar Creek, Blue Springs, Grain Valley, Oak Grove, North Kansas City, Gladstone, Claycomo, and all of Ray, Lafayette, and Saline Counties. He is a member of the exclusive House Financial Services Committee, the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance, and also a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus. For more information, please contact Heather Frierson at 816-842-4545 or Heather.Frierson@mail.house.gov

NBC Fires Matt Lauer Over Sexual Misconduct Allegation

Story by NY Times
Written by Jim Rutenberg, Ellen Gabler, and Rachel Abrams

The reckoning over sexual harassment in the workplace toppled another leading television personality on Wednesday when NBC fired its leading morning news anchor, Matt Lauer, over an allegation of sexual misconduct.

“On Monday night, we received a detailed complaint from a colleague about inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace by Matt Lauer,” Andrew Lack, the NBC News president, said in a memo to the staff.

He said the allegation against Mr. Lauer “represented, after serious review, a clear violation of our company’s standards. As a result, we’ve decided to terminate his employment.”
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Read more:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/business/media/nbc-matt-lauer.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/people-hope-ann-curry-basking-171120561.html

Attorney Ben Crump stars in new A&E series 'Who Killed Tupac?'

Preview of the A&E six-part series starring Tallahassee Attorney Ben Crump (photo below). A&E Network

Six-part TV series premieres Tuesday and follows Crump as he investigates murder of Tupac Shakur

Story by Tallahassee Democrat

Tallahassee civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who gained national recognition representing the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice and other victims of gun violence, is starring in a new six-part television series, “Who Killed Tupac?”

“Who Killed Tupac?” follows Crump and a team of investigators as he conducts, for the first time ever, a no-stone-unturned investigation 20 years after Shakur’s death. The series promises to bring to light confidential, exclusive documents, interviews and information that will be used to both support and discredit some of the key theories that have surrounded the unsolved murder over the past two decades.

Crump will provide his own personal and legal analysis, based on the facts, to either corroborate or disprove those theories. He works closely with Mopreme Shakur, Tupac’s brother, over the course of the investigative series. The limited series investigates the 1996 murder of the prolific and controversial rapper and actor. It premieres at 9 p.m. Tuesday on the A&E Network.

“Tupac’s influence on society is still felt today, and the public is still keenly interested in finding out what really happened to him,” Crump said. “Some truly fascinating discoveries will be revealed each week.”

Alabama: Today is the last day to register to vote in Alabama Senate election

Story by Al.com
Written by Mike Cason mcason@al.com

Alabama voters have until 11:59 p.m. to register if they intend to vote in the Dec. 12 special election for the U.S. Senate between Democratic nominee Doug Jones and Republican nominee Roy Moore.

Under state law, the last day to register is the 15th day before an election, which is today.

Voters can register during normal office hours at Board of Registrars' Offices and other designated locations in their counties. Or they can register online until 11:59 p.m. today.

Militants Kill 235 in Attack on Sufi Mosque in Egypt

Story by NY Times
Written by DeClan Walsh and Nour Youssef

CAIRO — In the deadliest attack on civilians in Egypt’s modern history, Islamist militants detonated a bomb inside a crowded mosque on Friday and then sprayed gunfire on panicked worshipers as they fled the building, killing at least 235 people and wounding at least 109 others.

The scale and ruthlessness of the assault, which occurred in a small town in the insurgency-racked Sinai Peninsula, sent shock waves across the nation, not just for the number of deaths but also for the choice of target. Attacks on mosques are rare in Egypt, where the Islamic State has targeted Coptic Christian churches and pilgrims but avoided Muslim places of worship.

The attack injected a new element into Egypt’s volatile stew because most of the victims were Sufi Muslims, who practice a mystical form of Islam that some extremists deem heretical. And it underscored the failure of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who has insisted he needs to crush political opposition to combat the threat of Islamist militancy, to deliver on his promises of security to Egyptians.

“The scene was horrific,” said Ibrahim Sheteewi, a resident of Bir al-Abed, the north Sinai town where the attack took place. “The bodies were scattered on the ground outside the mosque. I hope God punishes them for this.”

A Sinai police officer said the dead included at least 15 children. A witness said he helped gather the bodies of 25 children.

"Guns are the problem""Religion is the problem"No. Actually humans have been killing each other every way they can for a long time. The Militants attack the military. Terrorists attack innocent people. These are innocent people. And these are terrorists.

The tricoastal Playwrights Sanctuary under direction of Dr Larry Myers of St John's University announces a new drama for the...

The Egyptian military, which has been battling a local affiliate of the Islamic State in northern Sinai for years, carried out several airstrikes in the area that targeted militants fleeing in four-wheel-drive vehicles, an Egyptian military official said.

The military declared a curfew in Bir al-Abed and in the main northern Sinai town of El Arish.

Violence in Sinai surged after 2013, when Mr. Sisi came to power in a military takeover that deposed the democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Even by recent standards in Egypt, where militants have blown up Christian worshipers as they knelt at church pews and gunned down pilgrims in buses, it was an unusually ruthless assault.

“I can’t believe they attacked a mosque,” a Muslim cleric in Bir al-Abed said by phone, requesting anonymity for fear he could also be attacked. In recent months, the Islamic State had threatened and killed a number of Sufis there but it had not attacked a place of worship, the cleric said.

The attack started midday during Friday Prayers when a bomb — mostly likely set off by a suicide bomber, according to security officials — ripped through Al Rawda mosque in Bir al-Abed, a small town 125 miles northeast of Cairo. As worshipers fled, they were confronted with group of gunmen who, witnesses said, had pulled up outside in a four-wheel-drive vehicles.
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Read More: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/24/world/middleeast/mosque-attack-egypt.html

Cumulus Broadcasting Delisted From NASDAQ

Story by Tom Taylor Now

Double jeopardy for Cumulus – it’s delisted by NASDAQ for two different reasons.

The appeals went for naught, and frankly, Cumulus CEO Mary Berner and CFO John Abbot delayed the inevitable as long as humanly possible. Cumulus had fallen out of compliance of the “minimum bid price” requirement to stay above $1 a share, and also had consistently failed to meet the “shareholder equity” minimum.

So Cumulus does what Spanish Broadcasting System did earlier this year – it moves its stock to the over-the-counter OTCQX, effective today. So it can still be bought and sold, and it even keeps the familiar “CMLS” symbol it’s used since it went public in 1998 at $14 a share.

A lot of water’s gone over the dam since then, but the company still exists and hopes to re-structure – soon. There’s a December 1 event-of-default deadline with noteholders. On its last day of trading on the NASDAQ, stock in Cumulus dropped about 3 cents to 26 cents a share – a 10% loss. See the Cumulus filing, where it says the move to the OTCQX “will have no effect on the company’s business or operations,” here: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1058623/000105862317000089/cmlsdelistingletter112117.htm

More remains of Sgt. La David Johnson, killed in Niger ambush, recovered

Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in an ambush in Niger. U.S. Army Special Operations via AP

Story by NBC News
Written by Courtney Kube and Corky Siemaszko

Four weeks after his funeral, more remains of slain U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson have been identified, the Pentagon confirmed Tuesday.

The remains were retrieved from the spot near the village of Tongo Tongo, Niger, where Johnson and three other American soldiers were ambushed and killed on Oct. 4 by ISIS-linked militants.

They were found during a Nov. 12 inspection of the site by a joint task force force of FBI and military investigators and later identified via DNA testing, Defense Department spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement.


Myeshia Johnson sobs over the casket believed to contain the remains of her husband, Sgt. La David Johnson, who was killed in Niger. (Photo: ABC News)

“We can confirm that the Armed Forces Medical Examiner has positively identified these remains as those of Sgt. Johnson,” she said.

It was not clear if the bone fragments would be buried with Johnson, who was laid to rest on Nov. 1 at a cemetery in Hollywood, Florida. And there also was no immediate response to the grim discovery from Johnson's pregnant widow, Myeshia Johnson.

But Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., a close family friend, said it was a shame she had to find out about it via the news.



"He left a Gold Star Family and to learn about his final moments on TV and in the newspaper is a shame for this nation," she told reporters Tuesday. "It is a shame for any Gold Star Family to go through the pain and agony of learning about their son’s last moments on TV."

Later, in a statement, Wilson said it "is difficult to find the words to describe how dismaying it was to learn that some of Sgt. La David Johnson's remains were found in Niger weeks after his funeral."

“I want the family to know, though, that I will continue to push and push and push for a thorough investigation of both the ambush and La David’s final hours," Wilson wrote.

Johnson, a 25-year-old father of two from Miami Gardens, was killed alongside Staff Sgt. Bryan C. Black, 35, of Puyallup, Washington; Staff Sgt. Jeremiah W. Johnson, 39, of Springboro, Ohio; and Staff Sgt. Dustin M. Wright, 29, of Lyons, Georgia.

NBC reported last month that the deadly ambush by 40 to 50 militants stemmed in part from a "massive intelligence failure."

House and Senate armed services committees are now looking into the scope of the U.S. mission in Niger and whether the Pentagon is properly supporting the troops on the ground there.

Johnson's tragic death led to a political fight with President Donald Trump after he called Myeshia Johnson as she was driving to collect her husband's body from Dover Air Base.


Myeshia Johnson, wife of U.S. Army Sergeant La David Johnson, kisses his coffin at a graveside service in Hollywood, Florida, on Oct. 21, 2017. Joe Skipper / Reuters file

Myeshia Johnson said she asked that it be placed on speakerphone so Wilson and the others in the car could hear it.

"I heard him stumbling on trying to remember my husband’s name, and that's what hurt me the most because if my husband is out there fighting for our country and he risked his life for our country, why can't you remember his name?" Myeshia Johnson told ABC's "Good Morning America." "And that made me cry even more."

Wilson confirmed Johnson's account. "He said, 'But you know he must've known what he signed up for,'" she said.

That sparked a heated denial from Trump, who called Wilson "wacky."

"I didn't say what that congresswoman said, I didn't say it at all," Trump told reporters. "And she knows it."

Later, Trump's chief of staff, John Kelly, waded into the controversy by ripping Wilson for going public with the details of the president's call to Johnson's widow. And he claimed the congresswoman delivered a 2015 speech at an FBI field office dedication in which she "talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building," rather than keeping the focus on the fallen agents for which it was named.
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Read more:
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/remains-u-soldier-found-niger-162216217.html
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/additional-remains-u-soldier-killed-niger-found-u-170237291.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/additional-remains-sgt-la-david-johnson-found-niger/story?id=51299555&yptr=yahoo

Zimbabwe's First President Robert Mugabe resigns under military pressure after 37 years as Zimbabwe’s President

Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s first president, is stepping down. The Washington Post’s Max Bearak reflects on Mugabe’s time in power. (Sarah Parnass, Max Bearak/The Washington Post)

Story by Washington Post
Written by Kevin Sieff

HARARE, Zimbabwe — Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s leader for nearly four decades, resigned Tuesday after being sidelined by the military and cast out by his own political party, marking the end of a tumultuous reign that lasted from the country’s independence through economic collapse.

The capital erupted in celebration, with crowds pouring into the streets, motorists honking horns and citizens giving high-fives to soldiers.

Mugabe’s exit marks a historic moment that will echo across Africa, where he was among the last surviving heroes of the anti-colonial struggle to remain in power, a leader who initially was lionized but came under increasing criticism as autocratic and brutal.

“The dictator is gone!” Takudzwa Jonasi, 32, chemical engineer, shouted as he celebrated with a jubilant crowd outside Parliament.

“For our generation we have never seen any change. We were not allowed to exercise our rights,” he added. Like many Zimbabweans, he has known no other leader.

“I am so happy the dictator is gone. I can’t speak, I have no words. We are finally free!” exclaimed Shoes Tazviwan, 36, a chef who had also joined the demonstrations.

In the end, the world’s oldest head of state was a victim of his own allies. After years of purging members of his inner circle, Mugabe had alienated the leaders of Zimbabwe’s military, who detained him and seized control of the country’s government.

The resignation came a week after the military announced it had essentially assumed control of the country and detained the 93-year-old president. After days of negotiations — and the largest anti-government demonstration in the country’s history — Mugabe went quietly, sending his resignation letter to parliament, where it was read by the speaker, Jacob Mudenda.

The surprise announcement came as parliament was debating Mugabe’s impeachment. Shortly before 5 p.m. local time, the speaker halted the discussion and announced the President’s departure. The body burst into cheers. After reading aloud the resignation letter, Mudenda announced that a new president would be named on Wednesday.

According to the speaker, Mugabe’s letter said he was resigning “with immediate effect” for “the welfare of the people of Zimbabwe and the need for a peaceful transfer of power.”


Zimbabwean members of parliament celebrate after Mugabe's resignation on Nov. 21, 2017, in Harare. (Jekesai Njikizana/AFP/Getty Images)

Mugabe’s resignation leaves Zimbabwe at a crossroads — with the military technically in charge of the country, but with a wide array of political groups now angling for power. Former vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was fired by Mugabe earlier this month, appears most likely to inherit the presidency, at least in the short term.

Mnangagwa is a longtime Mugabe ally, nicknamed “the Crocodile” for his reputation for shrewd but often brutal tactics. The State Department once said he was “widely feared and despised throughout the country” and “could be an even more repressive leader” than Mugabe.

For the moment, Mnangagwa appears to have the backing of Mugabe’s former party and the military, but Zimbabwe’s opposition remains fragmented, and a wide range of politicians and activists will now try to seize upon Mugabe’s resignation to carve out their own positions in whatever government comes next.

For the last week, Zimbabweans have been united by their opposition to their long-ruling, autocratic leader, and many here expressed hope that the rare period of unity would lead to the formation of a broad coalition.

“Let’s agree for this moment that the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” said Fadzayi Mahere, a lawyer and politician.

In front of parliament, people danced on car roofs and blasted music, waving Zimbabwean flags as the sun set over Harare. As soon as the news was announced on the local radio, car horns started blaring and people could be seen taking their hands from their steering wheels to pump their fists.

One man in a park fell to his knees in celebration with his arms outstretched. Another kissed the ground. Students in crisp school uniforms put down their books and marveled at the raucous scenes marking the end of the only leader they knew.

“It’s a new day for us. I’ve been carrying my exam results in my purse looking for a job. There is nothing. He has ruined our economy,” said Sibongile Tambudzi, 24, who pulled out the exam results and then vanished into a dancing crowd.


Civilians join soldiers in celebration after the resignation of Zimbabwe's president on Nov. 21, 2017, in Harare. (Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images)

“He’s so arrogant,” Tatenda Farai, a 27-year-old bank employee, said of Mugabe. “We never thought he would just give up like this. I was sure he would die in office.”

“I don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” said Precious Mazayi, the owner of a security company. “I don’t even know who the president is right now. But for now, let us just celebrate. We have waited so long for this.”

Mqondisi Dube, 42, who works for the state electrical company, struck a note of caution. “I was shocked it happened now, but I knew one way or the other it was going to come,” he said. Mugabe “was just under too much pressure.”

He added: “My relatives had to move to South Africa for work. He ruined our country. We will see what happens next. There are a lot of people who want power, but after our experience with Mugabe we have to be very, very careful.”
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Read more:
Washington Post link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/breaking-with-military-zimbabwe-ex-vp-calls-for-mugabe-to-step-down-now/2017/11/21/a580b3fc-ce67-11e7-a87b-47f14b73162a_story.html?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_with_top_mostshared_1_na&utm_term=.eb5a272b2ea2

In the midst of Zimbabwe’s crisis, China’s influence comes under scrutiny...Link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/16/in-the-midst-of-zimbabwes-crisis-some-question-chinas-influence/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.4b73d8928631

President Donald Trump to 59,000 Haitians: "You have 18 months to pack your bags"

As of July 2019, Haitians living in the US — often for more than a decade — will lose humanitarian protections to stay here. (Photo credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Story by Vox
Written by Dara Lind and P.R. Lockhart
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Caribbean Life Link: https://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2017/10/2017-10-20-nk-haiti-tps-extension-cl.html
Washington Post Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-end-provisional-residency-protection-for-50000-haitians/2017/11/20/fa3fdd86-ce4a-11e7-9d3a-bcbe2af58c3a_story.html?utm_term=.da1985b8c0e0
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The Trump administration is telling 59,000 Haitians, currently living legally in the United States, to self-deport. But it’s giving them until July 22, 2019, to do it.

On Monday night, officials from the Department of Homeland Security announced that the government will stop allowing Haitian nationals to get Temporary Protected Status — an immigration program that allows people from a certain country living in the US to remain and work here while their home countries recover from disaster.

The decision ends a period of limbo Haitians have been under since May, when the administration announced it would extend Haitians’ TPS for six more months but strongly implied that Haitians should “get their affairs in order” and plan to leave when the six months were up.

Now, it’s granted them an extra 18 months. But it’s made the possibility that they’ll have to leave the US — after an average of 13 years in the country as of early 2017 — into a certainty.

Haiti’s been covered by Temporary Protected Status since shortly after the 2010 earthquake that killed as many as 316,000 people and displaced 1.5 million more. Seven years later, the country’s recovery has been slowed by a cholera epidemic and a 2016 hurricane that destroyed much of the country’s Southern peninsula. Haitian officials argue it still hasn’t recovered enough to absorb 50,000 people — and forego the billion-plus dollars in remittances that Haitians in the US send home.

DHS’s decision is ostensibly about Haiti: Judging, as a senior administration official said on Monday, that “the extraordinary temporary conditions that served as the initial basis for Haiti’s TPS designation have sufficiently improved, so that they no longer prevent Haitian nationals from returning safety.”

But it’s really about the US.

The Trump administration’s moves to strip TPS from immigrants — including ending it for Nicaraguans and Sudanese, and punting on a decision about TPS for 57,000 Hondurans — are a sharp break from previous administrations. They reflect the administration’s view that immigrants should only be in the United States if the US government has decided they would contribute to American society. But when it comes to TPS, it’s taking immigrants who have already been contributing to American society, in their way, and plucking them out.


The Trump administration is ending the Temporary Protected Status for nearly 60,000 Haitian immigrants living in the U.S. in 2019. (Reuters)

No President wanted to end humanitarian immigration benefits. Then came Donald Trump.

Temporary Protected Status serves as a form of humanitarian relief, offered to nationals of countries struggling with the aftermath of war, natural disasters, or other humanitarian crises where conditions on the ground make it difficult for people to return safely. Ten countries — El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — are currently in the program, which is overseen by the Department of Homeland Security and is granted in six- to 18-month intervals that can be renewed as long as DHS deems a designation necessary.

To enter the program, nationals of a designated country must clear a number of conditions: They must maintain a relatively clean criminal record and pass a background check, they must pay a $495 processing fee when they first apply for the program and every time their status is renewed, and they must reside in the United States at the time of their country’s designation. This usually means that TPS beneficiaries are undocumented immigrants who were already in the US, those who overstayed a visa, or those who hold some other form of temporary immigration status.

TPS beneficiaries are granted authorization to work in the US (and in some cases the ability to travel internationally) and a reprieve from deportation. But outside of that, TPS doesn’t grant many other benefits; beneficiaries do not have legal permanent resident status, and while a small number of beneficiaries may be eligible for green cards through the sponsorship of a US citizen family member, the program is not intended to provide a path to citizenship.

In practice, that meant that once a country’s TPS was up for review, presidents had two choices: They could renew TPS for that country, kicking the can down the road; or they could terminate it and give thousands of people no way to stay legally in the US.

Unsurprisingly, most presidents chose the former. But equally unsurprisingly, the Trump administration is taking the opposite approach. With six opportunities to extend TPS over its nine months in office, it’s fully extended one of them — South Sudan — while terminating three countries’ protections on delays, and offering six-month punts twice (Honduras and the initial six-month extension for Haiti).

Indeed, there’s some evidence that the White House itself sees ending TPS as an important political goal for the administration. The Washington Post’s Nick Miroff reported earlier this month that White House chief of staff (and former Homeland Security Secretary) John Kelly called Acting Secretary Duke and pressured her to immediately end TPS for Honduras — saying that it would make life harder for his protégé Kirstjen Nielsen, nominated to succeed him at DHS, if the Honduras question were still unresolved.

The fundamental problem, from the Trump administration’s point of view, is that TPS is designed to be temporary, and a temporary program shouldn’t be leading people to settle in the US.

“The law is relatively explicit that if the conditions on the ground do not support a TPS designation, the secretary must terminate the TPS designation,” a senior administration official said Monday night. “The acting secretary is constrained by what the law says.”


DHS ended the protected immigration status of some 2,500 Nicaraguans on Nov. 6. Here is what you need to know about TPS. (Melissa Macaya, Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

Terminating TPS essentially wipes away the years Haitian immigrants have spent in American communities
Legally speaking, the senior administration official is correct. The statute creating TPS tells the secretary to look at “conditions in the foreign state” when making her decision. It doesn’t say anything about whether it would cause hardship to current TPS beneficiaries (or to US citizens) if TPS were revoked, or whether it would be in the national interest to keep TPS holders here — both of which are standards used elsewhere in immigration law.

That means that the ostensible policy argument has been about the extent of Haiti’s recovery. Haitian officials have argued that they can’t reabsorb 59,000 people back into the country just yet; Republican Sen. Marco Rubio agreed, and argued for TPS protections to be extended for 18 months, with an option to keep them after 2019, rather than terminating them at that point.

But the reason that the administration’s threats to TPS have become such a hot issue — generating an amount of attention and pushback from immigrants and Congress that’s gradually eclipsed outrage over the still-mutating travel ban — is that at this point, TPS holders aren’t just people from Haiti (or Honduras, or El Salvador). They’re people who have been living in the United States.

If TPS really had been temporary in practice, this might not be much of an issue. But countries take a long time to recover from wars or disaster, and in the meantime, people put down roots.

The average Haitian TPS holder affected by this decision has been in the US for 13 years, according to the Center for Migration Studies. 6,200 of them hold mortgages. 27,000 of them have US-born, US citizen children. (Hondurans and Salvadorans with TPS are if anything even more firmly rooted.)

They might not be the immigrants that the Trump administration has in mind when it imagines overhauling the US immigration system to be “merit-based.” The median household income for Haitian TPS holders, according to the Center for Migration Studies, is $45,000, and their unemployment rate is 10 percent, over double the national average (which was 4.4 percent in August 2017, when the CMS report was issued).

But their contributions to US communities, and the fact that they have become part of US communities, are real. “Our nation — especially my home state of Florida — has not only offered a helping hand to Haitians seeking refuge from these grave challenges, but also benefited significantly from their presence in and contributions to our country,” wrote Rubio in his Miami Herald op-ed.

Ironically, so has the government of Haiti. As of 2015, remittances sent home from the US to Haiti accounted for 25 percent of the country’s total GDP, making it the most remittance-dependent country in the Western Hemisphere.

It’s clear that to the extent that the country has recovered, money sent back from Haitians living in the US under TPS was part of the reason — and that once TPS ends, should those Haitians come home, the reduced remittances flow could slow the recovery.

And, of course, it’s not at all clear that all 59,000 Haitian TPS holders will simply return to Haiti on or before July 22, 2019. After the administration’s threats in May, some Haitians attempted to seek asylum at the Canadian border — an option that might be more popular, and more legally viable, once their TPS actually ends. And others are likely simply to remain in the US as unauthorized immigrants, knowing that ICE won’t immediately be able to arrest and deport them.

The problem is that the Trump administration’s determination to make US immigration policy serve “America First,” combined with their stricter interpretation of the laws governing TPS, have made it impossible to consider a situation in which keeping people who’ve lived in the US for a long time might be the most compassionate thing for their home country — and for Americans.
________________________________________________
Read more:
* Caribbean Life Link: https://www.caribbeanlifenews.com/stories/2017/10/2017-10-20-nk-haiti-tps-extension-cl.html
* Washington Post Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-end-provisional-residency-protection-for-50000-haitians/2017/11/20/fa3fdd86-ce4a-11e7-9d3a-bcbe2af58c3a_story.html?utm_term=.da1985b8c0e0

The Late Della Reese in movie "Harlem Nights"

Harlem Nights - My Pinky Toe Scene

Della Reese: Gifted Singer and Actress Dead at 86

Actress Della Reese speaks at the “Christmas Angel” discussion panel during the 2012 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Aug. 2, 2012, in Los Angeles. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Story by The Root
Written by Monée Fields-White

From the clubs to stages, Della Reese captured audiences with her melodic voice and ballads that crossed many genres, including jazz, blues and gospel. The songstress, who also displayed her talents as a character actress on TV and the big screen, died Sunday evening at age 86.

Born July 6, 1931, Delloreese Patricia Early grew up in Detroit with her steelworker father and her mother, a cook. Her mother had several older children, but they didn’t live with the family. Early was 6 years old when she began singing in church, and by the time she was 13, Mahalia Jackson had hired her to sing with her gospel group.

A strong student, Early graduated from high school at age 15 in 1947 and went on to study psychology at Wayne State University. She also formed her own female gospel group, the Meditation Singers, and sang occasionally with famed gospel groups like the Clara Ward Singers and the Roberta Martin Singers.

After her mother died and her father fell seriously ill, Early left Wayne State and worked to help her family financially, from doing clerical work to driving trucks and taxicabs. Early was not convinced at this point that a singing career—especially one in gospel—was viable.

It was during this time that she got a big break: performing at Detroit’s popular Flame Show Bar for eight weeks. She was exposed to jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday. Delloreese Early shortened her name to “Della Reese” for the club scene.

In 1953 she moved to New York and landed a recording contract with Jubilee Records, with whom she made six albums. Among the songs she recorded with the label were “In the Still of the Night,” “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm” and “Time After Time.” That same year she joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. In 1957 Billboard, Cashbox and Variety magazines voted her Most Promising Singer.

Reese moved on to RCA Records in 1959 and released the single “Don’t You Know?” which was based on music from Puccini’s opera La Bohème. The song reached No. 2 on the pop charts. The following year she released the album Della, which received a Grammy nomination. She continued to record during the 1960s, including The Classic Della (1962) and Waltz With Me, Della (1963).

In 1969 Reese became the first black woman to have her own television variety show, although the series was short-lived. The following year she became the first black woman to guest host The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Over the next two decades, she pursued acting and appeared in a number of TV series and movies, including Roots: The Next Generations, Chico and the Man, The Love Boat, Sanford and Son with her friend Redd Foxx and 227 with close friend Marla Gibbs. In 1989 she starred with Foxx, Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy in Harlem Nights—and stole the show with a hilarious fight scene with Murphy.

Reese had a number of health challenges over the years. In 1979 she suffered a brain aneurysm from which she made a full recovery. She announced in 2002 that she had Type 2 diabetes and subsequently became a spokeswoman for the American Diabetes Association. Reese, who was married several times, adopted several children, including a daughter who died in 2002 from a pituitary disease.

Reese had a strong faith in God and maintained that without it, her success would not have been possible. She routinely included black spirituals in her nightclub performances. She also founded the Understanding Principles for Better Living Church in 1983 and became an ordained minister in 1987.

From 1991 to 2002, the actress starred as Tess on the inspirational television drama Touched by an Angel. As the supervisor among angels, she would send them out to help people redeem their lives and show God’s love. Reese combined the series’ uplifting message with a down-to-earth persona.

The show garnered her numerous awards, including seven NAACP Image Awards for outstanding lead actress. She was also nominated for several Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. In 1994 Reese received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was also one of 25 black female honorees at Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball in 2005.

Reese published her autobiography, Angels Along the Way: My Life With Help From Above, in 1997. In it, she joyfully recalled the human angels who provided support and guidance—and miracles—in her own life.

Zimbabwean President Robert Bugabe steps down

Story by Bloomberg News

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has agreed to step down and is preparing a statement with the military, according to three people familiar with the situation who declined to be identified.

FCC Modernizes Broadcast Ownership Rules

Media Contact:
Janice Wise, (202) 418-8165
janice.wise@fcc.gov

For Immediate Release

FCC MODERNIZES BROADCAST OWNERSHIP RULES AND DECIDES TO ESTABLISH A NEW INCUBATOR PROGRAM TO PROMOTE BROADCAST OWNERSHIP DIVERSITY

WASHINGTON, November 16, 2017 — The Federal Communications Commission today voted to modernize its broadcast ownership rules and to help promote ownership diversity in the broadcast industry. These actions will provide broadcasters and local newspapers with a greater opportunity to compete in the digital age and will help ensure a diversity of viewpoints in local markets.

Congress requires the Commission to review its broadcast ownership rules every four years to determine if they are in the public interest as the result of competition and if not, to repeal or modify them. For too long, the Commission has failed to acknowledge the pace of change in the media marketplace by maintaining analog broadcast ownership rules that do not reflect today’s digital age. For instance, the Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rule that the Commission eliminates today dates back to 1975. By modernizing these outdated rules, broadcast stations and local newspapers will be able to more easily invest in local news and content and improve service to their local communities for the benefit of consumers.

Today’s Order on Reconsideration addresses several petitions for reconsideration of the Commission’s August 2016 Order in the 2010/2014 Quadrennial Regulatory Review that left the outdated broadcast ownership rules largely unchanged. Specifically, today the Commission eliminates the Newspaper/Broadcast Cross-Ownership Rule, Radio/Television Cross-Ownership Rule, and Television Joint Sales Agreement Attribution Rule.

The Order also modifies the Local Television Ownership Rule to better reflect competitive conditions in local markets by eliminating the Eight-Voices Test, which requires at least eight independently owned television stations to remain in a market before any entity may own two television stations in that market. The Order also permits exceptions to the prohibition on an entity owning two of the top four stations in a market if it can be shown that a particular transaction would be in the public interest. The Order does not address the issue of the national ownership cap and the associated UHF discount which are not part of the Quadrennial Review, and which will be considered in a separate proceeding later this year.

Lastly, in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, the Commission decides to establish, and seeks comment on how to implement and structure, a new incubator program in which established broadcasters would help facilitate entry by new voices into the marketplace by providing access to capital and/or technical expertise to new entrants and small businesses. The program has broad support and will help promote ownership diversity in the broadcast industry.

Action by the Commission November 16, 2017 by Order on Reconsideration and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC 17-156). Chairman Pai, Commissioners O’Rielly and Carr approving. Commissioners Clyburn and Rosenworcel dissenting. Chairman Pai, Commissioners Clyburn, O’Rielly, Carr and Rosenworcel issuing separate statements.

MB Docket No. 14-50; MB Docket No. 09-182; MB Docket No. 07-294; MB Docket No. 04-256; MB Docket No. 17-289

_______________________________________________________
1. Full Dissenting Statement from Commissioner Clyburn: http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db1116/DOC-347796A4.pdf

2. Full Dissenting Statement from Commissioner Rosenworcel: http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db1116/DOC-347796A7.pdf
_______________________________________________________

Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel dissenting states:

"Today the FCC dismantles those values. Instead of engaging in thoughtful reform—which we should do—this agency sets its most basic values on fire. They are gone. As a result of this decision, wherever you live the FCC is giving the green light for a single company to own the newspaper and multiple television and radio stations in your community. I am hard pressed to see any commitment to diversity, localism, or competition in that result.

We should be troubled. Because we are not going to remedy what ails our media today with this rush of new consolidation. We are not going to fix our ability to ferret fact from fiction by doubling down on just a handful of companies controlling our public airwaves. We are not going to be able to remedy the way the highest level in government is now comfortable stirring up angry sentiment, denouncing news as false facts, and bestowing favors on outlets with narratives that flatter those in power
rather than offer the hard-hitting assessments we need as citizens. Instead we clear the way for more mergers of greater magnitude—like the one presently before us—which will benefit heartily from the destruction of these policies today.

Finally, a note on diversity. Media ownership matters because what we see on our screens says so much about who we are as a individuals, as communities, and as a nation. Study a bit of history and you can only come to one conclusion: consolidation will make our stations look less and less like the communities they serve. Women and minorities have struggled for too long to take the reins at media outlets. A modest rule-making on an incubator isn’t going to get us where we need to go. It’s a high price to pay for the damage this order does and that is an exchange I am unwilling to make.

I dissent."


Commissioner Mignon L. Clyburn dissenting states:

"The problems with this Order on Reconsideration are so glaring – both on process and substance, it is truly hard to decide just where to begin.

Do I start by describing why the wholesale elimination of key media ownership rules will harm localism, diversity, and competition? Do I focus on the number of loopholes this Commission blesses through this Order? Or do I highlight how the FCC majority has chosen to take some of the same facts used by this Commission just over a year ago to reach the exact opposite conclusions? After I address each of these failures in greater detail, allow me to explain the alternative proposal I put forward to my
colleagues.

Let me begin by establishing this: that despite what you have been told about the genesis of this Order, it is not really about helping small, struggling broadcasters or newspapers. While the jury is still out on whether it could actually achieve that goal, this is really about helping large media companies grow even larger which is actually in stark contrast to what the President said just last week in discussing the importance of having as “many news outlets as you can.”1 Because if our aim were to provide help for the smallest entities in the tiniest of media markets, we would have adopted a narrowly tailored proposal focused expressly on these financially challenged stations. Instead, today’s action, coupled with recent FCC actions, including the reinstatement of the UHF discount and the elimination of the Main Studio Rule, we have paved the way for a new crop of broadcast media empires that will be light years removed from the very local communities they are supposed to serve.

These media titans will have degrees of power far beyond the imagination of our local communities. Our local outlets that inform us of what is happening in our community; our outlets investigate allegations of improprieties within government; they inform us of whether we need an umbrella or an overcoat; and they are there on the ground before, during, and after a major natural or man-made disaster. Our local stations clearly play a unique role in our communities and unlike those 24-
hour cable news networks, our local outlets deliver their broadcast signal using the public airwaves and with that comes, the responsibility to serve the public interest.

Now if you were to stop someone randomly on the street and ask them who owns their local television or radio station, how many people would be able to answer? Would they know if two out of the top four television stations in their community had the same owner and a third station was affiliated with the stations through a sharing agreement? Would they know that their local news anchor is reporting a story using the same script as dozens of other stations around the country, or even another station in their own community? While these may not be top of mind questions for most Americans, the answers matter and viewers or listeners have a right to know those answers. They should also be aware that these practices are already happening today and when this Order is adopted, the floodgates to more consolidation will come without transparency or accountability.

Black-Owned Businesses Deserve Your Support, Buy-Black this Holiday Season

President's Message:
Black-owned Businesses Deserve Your Support
Buy-Black this Holiday Season

USBC President Ron Busby supporting Black entrepreneurs during the
Maryland Black Chamber of Commerce Annual Back to Business Summit

How many Black-owned businesses are you buying from this holiday season? If the answer is less than 80%, I suggest you take another glance at your list and identify a Black-owned business that has what you need, chances are there's a Black-owned business in your local neighborhood or one online that has exactly what you need. What's the excuse?

B.O.B. Directory Link: http://www.usbcdirectory.com/?utm_source=November+USBC+News+%26+Updates+1&utm_campaign=November+Newsletter&utm_medium=email

The most common excuse has been that Black-owned businesses are hard to find. We've solved that problem by creating one of the largest Black-owned business directories with more than 100,000 Black-owned businesses, Black organizations, Black news outlets, and Black entertainment in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Caribbean Islands and in Africa. This holiday season make it an intentional effort to find and support a Black-owed business. Our Black-owned Business Directory is a key resource for patronizing Black-owned businesses.

We believe Black business owners deserve your support. It is our hope that Black-owned businesses will see tremendous gains during the holiday season. We will be buying-black this holiday season, and trust you will too.

Ron Busby, Sr.
President
U.S. Black Chambers, Inc.
______________________________

Directory Link: http://www.usbcdirectory.com/?utm_source=November+USBC+News+%26+Updates+1&utm_campaign=November+Newsletter&utm_medium=email

Major Announcement from Former Presidential Candidate (1984 and 1988) Rev. Jesse Jackson

Rev. Jesse Jackson has revealed a Parkinson's diagnosis. He's seen here speaking at the NAACP Convention in Baltimore in July. Baltimore Sun/TNS via Getty Images

MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT FROM REV. JESSE L. JACKSON, SR. ON HIS HEALTH AND FUTURE
November 17, 2017
Link: https://rainbowpush.org/blog/major-announcement-rev-jesse-l-jackson-sr-his-health-and-future

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, November 17, 2017

Dear Friends and Supporters,

On July 17, 1960, I was arrested, along with seven other college students, for advocating for the right to use a public library in my hometown of Greenville, S.C. I remember it like it was yesterday, for that day changed my life forever. From that experience, I lost my fear of being jailed for a righteous cause. I went on to meet Dr. King and dedicate my heart and soul to the fight for justice, equality, and equal access. In the tradition of the Apostle Paul, I have offered myself – my mind, body and soul – as a living sacrifice.

Throughout my career of service, God has kept me in the embrace of his loving arms, and protected me and my family from dangers, seen and unseen. Now in the latter years of my life, at 76 years old, I find it increasingly difficult to perform routine tasks, and getting around is more of a challenge. My family and I began to notice changes about three years ago. For a while, I resisted interrupting my work to visit a doctor. But as my daily physical struggles intensified I could no longer ignore the symptoms, so I acquiesced.

After a battery of tests, my physicians identified the issue as Parkinson’s disease, a disease that bested my father.

Recognition of the effects of this disease on me has been painful, and I have been slow to grasp the gravity of it. For me, a Parkinson's diagnosis is not a stop sign but rather a signal that I must make lifestyle changes and dedicate myself to physical therapy in hopes of slowing the disease’s progression.

I am far from alone. God continues to give me new opportunities to serve. This diagnosis is personal but it is more than that. It is an opportunity for me to use my voice to help in finding a cure for a disease that afflicts 7 to 10 million worldwide. Some 60,000 Americans are diagnosed with Parkinson’s every year.

I will continue to try to instill hope in the hopeless, expand our democracy to the disenfranchised and free innocent prisoners around the world. I'm also spending some time working on my memoir so I can share with others the lessons I have learned in my life of public service. I steadfastly affirm that I would rather wear out than rust out.

I want to thank my family and friends who continue to care for me and support me. I will need your prayers and graceful understanding as I undertake this new challenge. As we continue in the struggle for human rights, remember that God will see us through, even in our midnight moments.

KEEP HOPE ALIVE!

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
_________________________________________
Read More: https://rainbowpush.org/blog/major-announcement-rev-jesse-l-jackson-sr-his-health-and-future

Health Groups Balk at Obamacare Being Dragged Into Tax Debate

Story by Bloomberg
Written by Anna Edney

Some of America’s biggest health care players aren’t happy about being dragged into the debate over the Republican tax overhaul plan.

A GOP proposal to eliminate Obamacare’s requirement that every American obtain health-care coverage or pay a fine is estimated to save $338 billion over a decade. It would also destabilize the individual insurance market in Obamacare, the major lobbying groups for insurers, hospitals and doctors said in a letter to Congressional leaders Tuesday.

Eliminating the mandate “will result in a significant increase in premiums, which would in turn substantially increase the number of uninsured Americans,” the groups said in the letter.

The groups include America’s Health Insurance Plans, the American Medical Association and the American Hospital Association. They asked Congress to keep the insurance requirement unless lawmakers can enact a larger package of changes to stabilize the law.

At least 4 people dead after Northern California shooting

Story by CNN
Written by Stella Chan, Cheri Mossburg and Ray Sanchez
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/14/us/california-tehama-county-shootings/index.html

At least five people are dead, including the gunman, after a shooting Tuesday in Northern California's Tehama County, Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said.

Police fatally shot the attacker after reports of at least seven shooting scenes, including an elementary school, Johnston said.

The violence started with an apparent domestic dispute, according to neighbors, and spread out with the suspect "randomly picking targets," Johnston said.

The Corning Union Elementary School District said part of the shooting spree occurred at Rancho Tehama Elementary School. "This is a sad day for us here in Tehama County," Johnston said.

"Anne and I are saddened to hear about today's violence in Tehama County, which shockingly involved schoolchildren," Gov. Jerry Brown said in a statement. "We offer our condolences to the families who lost loved ones and unite with all Californians in grief."

Some students were transported to hospitals by helicopter, and others were moved to safe locations, the assistant sheriff's said.

At least one student was shot at the elementary school, and another child was shot in a truck along with an adult female, Johnston said.

Three children and an adult are being treated at Enloe Medical Center in Chico, officials said. Their conditions were not available.

Police were still trying to get an accurate count of the injured, Johnston said.

A semi-automatic rifle and two handguns believed to be used by the gunman, who engaged police in a shootout, have been recovered, according to Johnston.
The school district was cooperating with local law enforcement, according to its statement. No other details were available.

The shooting apparently did not start at the school.

The sheriff's office said it has requested Department of Justice evidence investigation teams. The California Highway Patrol and FBI also were assisting.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/14/us/california-tehama-county-shootings/index.html

Colin Kaepernick Will Not Be Silenced - GQ Magazine's Man of the Year

He's been vilified by millions and locked out of the NFL—all because he took a knee to protest police brutality. But Colin Kaepernick's determined stand puts him in rare company in sports history: Muhammad Ali, Jackie Robinson—athletes who risked everything to make a difference.

Story by the Editors of GQ
Photographs by Martin Schoeller

In 2013, Colin Kaepernick was on the cover of this magazine because he was one of the best football players in the world. In 2017, Colin Kaepernick is on GQ's cover once again—but this time it is because he isn't playing football. And it's not because he's hurt, or because he's broken any rules, or because he's not good enough.

Approximately 90 men are currently employed as quarterbacks in the NFL, as either starters or reserves, and Colin Kaepernick is better—indisputably, undeniably, flat-out better—than at least 70 of them. He is still, to this day, one of the most gifted quarterbacks on earth. And yet he has been locked out of the game he loves—blackballed—because of one simple gesture: He knelt during the playing of our national anthem. And he did it for a clear reason, one that has been lost in the yearlong storm that followed. He did it to protest systemic oppression and, more specifically, as he said repeatedly at the time, police brutality toward black people.



When we began discussing this GQ cover with Colin earlier this fall, he told us the reason he wanted to participate is that he wants to reclaim the narrative of his protest, which has been hijacked by a president eager to make this moment about himself. But Colin also made it clear to us that he intended to remain silent. As his public identity has begun to shift from football star to embattled activist, he has grown wise to the power of his silence. It has helped his story go around the world. It has even provoked the ire and ill temper of Donald Trump. Why talk now, when your detractors will only twist your words and use them against you? Why speak now, when silence has done so much?

At the same time, Colin is all too aware that silence creates a vacuum, and that if it doesn't get filled somehow, someone else will fill it for him. In our many conversations with Colin about this project, we discussed the history of athletes and civil rights, and the indelible moments it called to mind, and we decided that we'd use photography—the power of imagery and iconography—to do the talking.

By the end of the 1960s, Muhammad Ali's stand against the Vietnam War—he'd marched in Harlem with the Nation of Islam after he was drafted and refused to serve—resulted in him being locked out of his sport for three years, at the peak of his talent, much as Colin is now. He continued to train throughout that period, waiting for his chance to return to boxing. He was known for jogging in the streets, and kids would chase him—the People's Champ, boosted in his darkest days by the joy of his truest fans. That's why we decided to photograph Colin in public, in Harlem, among the men, women, and children he is fighting for. To connect him to a crusade that stretches back decades. And because Colin has spent a year as a man without a team, we worked with him to assemble a new one: ten of his closest confidants—artists, activists, academics, and one legend of the civil rights movement—who shared with GQ what Colin's protest means to them, and what we all should do next.



Harry Belafonte
Artist, activist, legend

In my 90th year of life, to see people like Colin Kaepernick having gotten the message and carrying the cause forward is the greatest reward I could ask for. Colin is a remarkable young man. The fact that he spoke out on police brutality against young black men—I thought it was absolutely admirable. I'm prepared to do anything it takes and whatever steps I can to support him if this insanity continues.

And this is not just confined to black athletes—any person with a high profile has to consider their responsibility to help keep the nation honorable and honest. After all the courageous things that have been done by so many courageous people, it's a cop-out to not speak up. Trump has betrayed our nation. Taking a shot at him is worthy of all of us. Not being "political" is not a solution. Any young person who takes that position would have to ask Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson and so many of us if we had anything at stake. I know how someone who is young can get the feeling that this is the worst things have been. I see how someone could think that. But it's going to be okay. Even in the Trump era, America is going to be okay.

Tamika Mallory
National co-chair for Women's March; activist on issues related to women's rights, health care, anti-violence, and ethical police conduct.

My position is that people should not be watching football right now, while we're in the middle of this, because we don't need to add to their ratings. We need to ensure that we're not on social media talking about the game as if Colin Kaepernick is not still up for deliberation. Now, I have some family members who have said to me that they don't agree. But if everybody agreed about everything, our society wouldn't be as diverse. And I think that where an opinion turns into the oppression of another human being, or a group of people, that's where we must draw the line. Some people want to argue, "But the national anthem may not be a place for this because this is about all of us as Americans, the American dream, and American freedom." And then I have to give them the history of the third verse that Francis Scott Key wrote, which refers directly to us as slaves, and being unable to escape the wrath of slave owners. When I bring that to them, they begin to understand.

Eric Reid
Safety for the San Francisco 49ers, Kaepernick's former teammate, and the first NFL player to join him in kneeling during the anthem

My goal this year has been to get the narrative back on track. We started having communications with the NFL, and they said they're going to help us make progress on these issues. But the next step is to get Colin back in the NFL. Because he's the one that started this. I think we're finally getting where me and Colin envision this going. Now it's time for him to get back in the league.

These issues are real, and people know they're real. But some will do anything to distract from that, to change the narrative, and it's gotten Colin blackballed from the NFL.

The Bible talks very explicitly in Proverbs about being the voice of the voiceless and speaking up for the vulnerable. Another verse is: "Faith without works is dead." I guess selfishly I'm trying to get to heaven.

Read More:
https://www.gq.com/story/colin-kaepernick-will-not-be-silenced
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/colin-kaepernick-apos-girlfriend-nessa-183958779.html

U.S. soldier in Niger ambush was bound and apparently executed, villagers say

Troops salute the casket of U.S. Army Sgt. La David Johnson at his burial service in Hollywood, Fla., on Oct. 21.

Story by Washington Post
By Sudarsan Raghavan

NIAMEY, Niger — The body of Sgt. La David Johnson, one of four U.S. soldiers killed in an ambush by Islamist militants in Niger last month, was found with his arms tied and a gaping wound at the back of his head, according to two villagers, suggesting that he may have been captured and then executed.

Adamou Boubacar, a 23-year-old farmer and trader, said some "children" tending cattle found the remains of the soldier Oct. 6, two days after the attack outside the remote Niger village of Tongo Tongo, which also left 'five Nigerien soldiers' dead. The children notified him.

When Boubacar went to the location, a bushy area roughly a mile from the ambush site, he saw Johnson’s body lying face down, he said. The back of his head had been smashed by something, possibly a bullet, said Boubacar. The soldier’s wrists were bound with rope, he said, raising the possibility that the militants — whom the Pentagon suspects were affiliated with the Islamic State (ISIS) — seized Johnson during the firefight and held him captive.

The villagers’ accounts come as the Niger operation is under intense scrutiny in the United States, with lawmakers expressing concern that they have received insufficient or conflicting information about what happened. The Pentagon is conducting an investigation into the attack in Niger, where the U.S. military is helping the Nigerien government confront a threat by militants associated with the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Boubacar, a resident of Tongo Tongo, said in a phone interview that he informed the village’s chief after seeing Johnson’s body. “His two arms were tied behind his back,” he said. The chief called Nigerien military forces, who dispatched troops to retrieve Johnson’s body.

Four U.S. soldiers were killed in Niger on Oct. 4, in an attack near Niger’s border with Mali.

Here's what we know (Research by Victoria Walker/Wash Post):

Hours before death in Niger, U.S. soldiers were targeting militants in Mali https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/hours-before-death-in-niger-us-soldiers-were-targeting-militants-in-mali/2017/11/05/57861ad2-c243-11e7-9922-4151f5ca6168_story.html?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.6187fd9cc679

The village chief of Tongo Tongo, Mounkaila Alassane, confirmed the account in a separate phone interview.

“The back of his head was a mess, as if they had hit him with something hard, like a hammer,” recalled Alassane, who said he also saw the body. “They took his shoes. He was wearing only socks.”

A U.S. military official with knowledge of the investigation into the ambush acknowledged that Johnson’s body appeared viciously battered but cautioned against reaching any conclusions until the probe is completed.

“When the Americans received Johnson, his hands were not tied,” said the U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

The two Tongo Tongo villagers said they also saw the bodies of the three other American soldiers — Staff Sgts. Bryan Black, Jeremiah Johnson and Dustin Wright — who U.S. officials say were killed in action. One was slumped inside the team’s pickup truck, they said. The bodies of the other two were on the ground, one clutching a walkie-talkie, they said.

They were wearing T-shirts and boxer shorts, the two men said. It was unclear whether the militants had stripped off their uniforms.

The accounts could help explain why it to took two days to find Johnson’s body, while the other men’s remains were retrieved several hours after the battle. Johnson’s widow has said that the U.S. military advised her not to view his corpse, a suggestion often made when remains are badly disfigured.

The widow, Myeshia Johnson, has emerged as a prominent figure in the uproar over the Niger attack, accusing President Trump of acting cavalierly about her husband in a condolence call, a charge the White House has denied. She also has complained of receiving little information about what happened to her spouse.

Overnight mission

FBI and U.S. military investigators have arrived in this impoverished West African nation to try to determine what happened in the Oct. 4 assault on an 11-member Army Special Forces team and 30 Nigerien troops. Among the questions they are addressing: Were there intelligence lapses? Did the unit have adequate equipment? Was the extremist threat properly assessed before the mission?

The case has received enormous attention in the United States because of conflicting accounts over whether the soldiers were on a low-risk patrol or had changed plans and set out in pursuit of Islamist insurgents.

Questions also have been raised about why the team was lightly armed, given the danger in the area.

The Pentagon has said the soldiers were on a routine reconnaissance mission. Under U.S. military rules, American troops in Niger are not supposed to go on combat missions in the country, but they can “advise and assist” on missions with local forces where the chance of enemy contact is low.

A senior Nigerien security official said in an interview that the military unit made a critical error by deciding to spend the night along the volatile Mali-Niger border. That allowed the militants to surveil the unit and plan the ambush that occurred the following morning outside Tongo Tongo as the team was heading back to their base, he said.

In fact, the official said, the team was initially on a one-day mission.

“The schedule they did was to come back the first day, but they did not,” Mohamed Bazoum, Niger’s interior minister, said in the interview. “They stayed there. And because they stayed there for all the night, the jihadists were able to target them” and follow them.

In an Oct. 23 briefing with journalists, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that the unit stayed away from its base overnight between Oct. 3 and 4. But he said, “I think a probably more accurate description than ‘stayed overnight’ was they caught a couple of hours of sleep after the 3rd and before they completed their mission on the 4th.”

He noted that previous joint patrols in the region had occurred without fatalities. There are roughly 800 U.S. troops in Niger, about a third of whom are Special Forces who take part in the “advise and assist” missions.

“Are they taking risks?” said Dunford. “They are. Are they taking risks that are unreasonable or not within their capabilities? I don’t have any reason to believe that.”

Col. Mark Cheadle, the top spokesman for the U.S. military’s Africa Command, said overnight stays by U.S. soldiers advising local forces in Niger were “mission-dependent.” He declined to respond to the interior minister’s charge or the villagers’ recollections of Johnson’s remains, deferring to senior U.S. military officials who have said answers would be provided after a thorough investigation.

Bazoum oversees Niger’s internal security and works closely with both the Nigerien military and U.S. and other Western forces in the country. Normally, he said, such joint reconnaissance missions along the Niger-Mali border do not stretch over two days. Some news accounts, citing U.S. officials, have reported at least 29 joint missions in the past six months along the border.

When asked how many of those missions lasted two days, Cheadle said in an email that he could not provide a breakdown for security reasons, “but what I can say is that U.S. forces are prepared for overnight stays should the mission require it.”

‘Failure of intelligence’

The U.S. military official with knowledge of the ambush investigation said that it increasingly appears that the soldiers’ mission did change after they left their base in the capital, Niamey. The unit, the official said, apparently was rerouted to help another military team target a top Islamic State militant named Dadou, who was code-named “Naylor Road” by the U.S. military. But bad weather prevented the commandos from reaching the area. The unit continued to search for the militant and his fighters and eventually spent the night on the border, he said.

It was not clear why a team mostly armed with rifles was ordered to assist an operation to nab a dangerous extremist.

Niger’s defense minister and Sgt. Abdou Kané, a Nigerien soldier who survived the ambush, told The Washington Post last week that the mission was not purely to gather information but also to capture or kill enemy combatants inside Mali.

The U.S. official said the unit was never inside Mali but was operating along the border, essentially a line in the sand.

Bazoum, the interior minister, said the team’s miscalculations also included lingering too long in Tongo Tongo on the way back to base. The unit had stopped to replenish its water supplies on the morning of Oct. 4, and the U.S. soldiers spent time discussing medical care for the village kids, according to Kané and Alassane, the Tongo Tongo chief. The Nigerien soldiers cooked and ate breakfast.

“It was very easy for the jihadists to mobilize themselves and have a number of fighters more than the number that composed the mission,” Bazoum said.

“There was a big failure of intelligence by both the Nigeriens and the Americans,” he added. “The Americans are supposed to have more means, more information than us. But it is our country. Our intelligence service should know that this area was not so safe. They could have told them to hurry up, to not spend time staying in Tongo Tongo.”

Around 11:40 a.m. on Oct. 4, the team was ambushed outside the village by more than 50 militants with heavy weapons, according to Kané and Nigerien and U.S. officials. The soldiers began to run out of ammunition, said Bazoum.

Air support from French Puma helicopters and French jets took an hour or longer to arrive. When it did, the militants fled, said witnesses.

It was not clear exactly how Johnson’s body wound up in the field a mile away. Dunford has said Johnson became “separated” from his colleagues.

The day after Johnson’s remains were found, Alassane was arrested on charges of aiding the militants. He was released recently, said Bazoum, because of lack of evidence.