Making good on his promises, President Joe Biden has green lighted another relief package. Serving more as an extension of the latest one, it will include key additions to Americans who are desperately in need. So where is the process now? Well the newly Democrat controlled Senate passed provisions, as well as the House of Representatives to steam roll the new bill into action. Whats included? Extension of unemployment benefits until September, and a $1,400 direct payment to most Americans. The bill seen a faster approval process, mostly because Democrats could technically pass the bill without Republican approval, But as a show of good faith they allowed bargaining, before going ahead with a process called reconciliation. The new provisions are expected to go forward by March, so if you miss the any of the first two the payments will likely be based on this years tax return. Have a great week!
Joe Biden
Electoral College Seals President-Elect Biden’s Election Victory
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Though largely viewed as a formality, the many challenges and the outrageous – almost treasonous – behavior displayed by Trump, his supporters, and a large swath of Republican officials made this year’s Electoral College gathering more eventful, if not uncertain.
By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Senior National Correspondent
@StacyBrownMedia
On Monday, December 14, the nation’s Electoral College officially stamped Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as President-Elect and Vice-President Elect.
A total of 538 electors from every state and Washington, DC, took part in the critical portion of the U.S. electoral process, voting to affirm the votes cast during the 2020 election.
To win, a candidate needs 270 Electoral College votes.
Biden earned 306 while outgoing President Donald Trump tallied 232.
Though largely viewed as a formality, the many challenges and the outrageous behavior displayed by Trump, his supporters, and a large swath of Republican officials made this year’s Electoral College gathering more eventful, if not uncertain.
In Michigan, where Biden won by 50.6 percent to 47.8 percent, state legislative offices closed due to safety concerns while members of the Electoral College cast their official votes.
State authorities there said they closed the offices because of “credible threats of violence.”
In Texas, the Houston Chronicle reported that state and local officials of both major political parties warned that Trump’s “increasingly desperate tweets about election fraud and the coronavirus are fueling the potential for violence as well as another ominous trend of 2020, in which public servants and others who disagree are targeted at their offices and homes with armed protests, harassing phone calls and stalkers.”
The newspaper added that an “enemies” list of state and federal officials who rejected Trump’s baseless election conspiracy theories floated up from the dark corners of the Web, with home addresses listed and red targets over their photos, the latest in a string of threats to public officials.
During a violent outbreak involving the Pro-Trump group, “Proud Boys,” conspiracy theorist Alex Jones told Trump supporters in Washington, D.C., that Biden “will be removed one way or another.”
On Monday, as the Electoral College cast its formal vote for Biden, the Daily Beast reported that Trump’s small circle of devoted legal advocates were still determined to carry on its fight to overturn the 2020 election despite the string of resounding defeats in court, including a seemingly terminal rebuke from the U.S. Supreme Court.
“But the futility of the effort is apparent in the campaign’s northern Virginia headquarters – the office that is supposed to be devoted to supporting and housing the legal crusade – which, knowledgeable sources said has virtually emptied out,” the newspaper reported, adding that many of the Trump-Pence signs had been stripped from the walls of the headquarters in Arlington, Virginia.
“The desks and memorabilia have been largely packed, thrown out, or removed from the office space too. Television sets, mounted to the walls around the rented 14th floor of the building, are being sold off for extra cash,” a source told the newspaper.
In Maryland, eight of the state’s electors are from each Congressional district and two at-large seats to represent the state’s two senators.
Because nearly two million Maryland residents voted for Biden and Harris, the presidential electors chosen by the Democratic Party cast their ballots Monday.
It marked the most presidential votes chosen in the state’s history.
The electors, chosen by party officials in the state, included two from Prince George’s County.
“On behalf of my daughter, for a vice president who looks like her, I, Kent Roberson cast my vote for Kamala D. Harris,” Kent Roberson, who serves on the county’s Democratic Central Committee, said when he announced his vote for Harris as vice president.
Gloria Lawlah, a former state secretary of aging and former state senator from Prince George’s County served as this year’s president of the electors, presiding over the state’s 59th Electoral College meeting that began in 1789.
According to the state’s election history, Maryland joins only six states to participate in every Electoral College vote.
“Our vote today is an important step in the process of building our nation back better,” Lawlah said.
“It is a repudiation of hate. A repudiation of divisiveness. It’s an affirmation of unity. We are ensuring a better nation for our children, for our grandchildren, and a better nation for generations to come.”
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan signed a Certificate of Ascertainment, which certifies that the state chose Biden and Harris. Electoral College members can depart from the will of the people – so-called “Faithless Electors.”
However, states have imposed severe penalties, from large fines to jail time. Thus, there has never been enough faithless electors to overturn an election.
Following Monday’s Electoral College gatherings, votes must arrive in Washington, D.C. by December 23, fulfilling the nine-day deadline in which certified electoral ballots are due on Capitol Hill.
On January 6, three days after the 117th Congress is sworn in, members of the House and Senate are scheduled to meet in the House chamber where the President of the Senate – Vice President Mike Pence – will preside over the reading and counting of the Electoral College votes.
Pence will then announce the vote and ask for any objections.
The House and Senate consider all objections separately and then decide how to count those votes.
The 538 electoral votes are divided – one for each Congress and senator member and three for Washington, D.C., accounting for 270.
The 435 members of the House decides the election, with each state receiving a vote.
There are more Democrats in the House, but Republicans control more state delegations, so it is possible the House could seek to select Trump.
Biden and Harris are scheduled for inauguration on January 20.
“The peaceful transition of power…is a hallmark of our democracy that has been handed down for more than 220 years,” Hogan said. “At times it has been tested, sometimes even questioned. But it is a reminder that despite our differences, we are united as Americans who honor the will of the people through the greatest and most enduring Democratic process that the world has ever known.”
Washington Informer Staff Writer William J. Ford contributed to this story.
How Conservatives Can Embrace Green Energy During The Biden Administration
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Economic growth. Melink points out that coal jobs are disappearing but that there will be many more jobs available in the solar and wind power industries. “As a transition takes place, communities and utilities can start training workers in renewable energy fields,” he says. “Biden is focused on creating the clean energy economy of the future with millions of solar and wind power jobs that are safer and healthier and pay very competitively. He recognizes the coal industry had an important role to play in the 20th century, but he knows his job is not to prop up old and dying industries of the past. Instead, we need to invest in new technologies that make our environment cleaner and our economy stronger.”
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National security. Melink says that because of our insatiable demand for oil in the world marketplace, the U.S. is unwittingly propping up the price and helping dictators and terrorists finance their wars and destruction. “Just because the U.S. has become largely energy independent over the last decade does not mean we are immune to the global ramifications of our vast consumption,” he says. “Then we have to counter this effect by sending our military to unstable regions of the world to try and maintain peace for critical commerce. In essence, we are paying for our oil twice – once at the pump and again with our tax dollars.”
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Human health. “The burning of fossil fuels and emission of pollutants in the air that we all breathe causes chronic respiratory diseases like asthma in children and COPD in the elderly,” Melink says. “This causes a drag on our education system and our economy because hundreds of thousands of children are often missing school and their parents are missing work to take them to see doctors and other healthcare specialists. This is not to mention the dangers and risks to their health and esteem and confidence as desired productive members of society.”
What them ‘Dems’ still owe us
“If you’re paying attention to it politically, Black America has saved Joe Biden once again, and Black America has saved the Democratic Party. And it’s gonna deliver the White House to Joe Biden and the Democratic Party. And Black folks need to be a priority. Period.”
-Carroll Robinson to the NNPA.
The frustration was written across my wife’s brow as she relayed the story of her failed attempt to convince a young brother to cast his first vote on election day.
She explained she hit all of the key points: we have to get that bigot out of the White House; our ancestors had fought and died for the opportunity to participate in the process; the only way for us to impact the system is to participate in it.
Nothing she said seemed to move the ‘young blood.’ He was either naïve, ignorant, or stuck on stupid.
Or was he?
His most familiar refrain, my wife said, was that ‘nothing changes’ regardless of who is in the White House. Even with Barack in the house, it didn’t alter the circumstances of those trapped in survival mode.
The young blood was not alone. The presidential election revealed an uptick in Black participation overall, but limited participation in some poverty zones.
Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 because of similar attitudes to what the brother exhibited, combined with a reluctance to vote for Hillary Clinton, who decided she didn’t need to campaign here, relying on the political pied piper and the assumption that even disenfranchised African Americans will follow the script.
She took the Black vote for granted (a common assumption by all Democrats) and lost the presidency because 25,000 apathetic Nubians stayed home.
That wasn’t the case this time around. Indeed, I have never seen the influx of money, resources, and voter encouragement campaigns I witnessed this year. It didn’t move the needle as much as we hoped, but it was enough to get the orange man to consider going back to his reality television show.
Because a Joe Biden presidency didn’t seem to generate as much enthusiasm as the orchestrators hoped, an essential strategy change shifted the emphasis from his promissory note to a ‘anybody but Trump’ campaign.
But even then, a significant number of Black young tribal members couldn’t see the forest for the trees, mainly since the trees in question were rotten timber, used for boarded-up houses and streets littered by wood by-products (along with glass and plastic bottles)
As a sister asked me a couple of months ago: “’day gonna do something about ‘dis shooting and killing?
“’Da gonna get me a job paying ’nuff for us to live on? If not, f…em.”
After laying out a few flirtatious lines about how becoming she looked in her purple wig (which, I noted, complimented her tattoos…one of which identified her as a ‘boss bitch in training’), I may have convinced her to change her mind about voting.
But I’m probably batting .500 because after explaining to another Millennial brother that the 11,891 Biden/Harris campaign ads he repeatedly referenced weren’t a list of certainties Biden would see to fruition, but instead a political ‘wish list,’ the brother’s demeanor changed.
Unless the senate flips (which is starting to look very unlikely unless two Georgia Democrats can win run-off elections), the likelihood of most of his proposals passing is remote. And even if the Democrats control both houses, other factors will come into play, as Barack Obama learned during his first two years in the White House.
Free college? They will say we ‘have money for war, but not for the poor.’
Enlarging the U.S. Supreme Court? Not as long as the filibuster remains intact. Even revengeful Democrats will probably take a chill pill when that proposal comes up.
End systemic racism?
Unless Nyame/God intervenes, you can forget that one too.
You can’t legislate attitudes, and given the fact that the majority of White Americans (54%) voted for a known bigot, it becomes even harder to see around the aforementioned trees.
Actually, each of the ‘political atheists’ mentioned earlier had legitimate—albeit myopic—points.
From a grass-roots perspective, presidential elections have resulted in little change for those at the bottom over the last century.
In 2008, Milwaukee led the nation in seven negative social indicators, including the widest academic achievement, Black male unemployment, and poverty rates.
We still hold that status.
Today, 40% of Black Milwaukeeans are living in poverty. Over 20,000 make less than $10,000 annually! Think about that?
If they can find housing that costs $500 a month; feed children noodles every day, and warm your home in winter with the stove or space heater, and jump ahead of the line to secure some aid, you might be able to elevate yourself to be ‘po, because they will not be able to afford the last two letters in the word ‘poor’ (‘o-r.’)
That’s not to say Barack Obama didn’t move the needle forward. His efforts made the world safer, addressed environmental concerns, and saved the auto industry. He pulled us from a recession, appointed more people of color to the federal courts than all previous presidents combined, his monumental health care bill extended the lives of millions.
Yet, the Black poverty rate went up under Obama. The wealth gap also widened, and educational apartheid continued to define and stagnate Black progress.
Biden may be an Obama protégé, but he’s also the author of the racist Omnibus Crime Bill. He was ripped by former presidential candidate, now his vice president (Kamala Harris) for his desegregation position.
But that’s neither here nor there. Most Black voters didn’t vote as much for Biden as they voted against 45IQ. Biden most likely will not serve out his term for the presumed eventuality and thus provide America with its first female and African American (or is she bi-racial?) president.
Whether she could win a presidential race on her own, even as an incumbent, will depend, in no small measure, on whether Biden will, or can, carry out a significant number of his ‘promises to Black America.’
History suggests that won’t happen because, generally, Black folks in this country are ignored or dissed after elections.
Or, to put it more succinctly, as maverick Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on ‘Meet the Press’ Sunday: while historically the Democratic Party exhibits great enthusiasm and interest for the grass root vote—Black and Latinos—after the elections ‘those communities are promptly abandoned.
Actually, this could be our best opportunity to force the Democratic Party to get serious about its so-called commitment to us.
When motivated, we are the most powerful special interest in the country. Even though we have never been paid our worth.
My inclination is to abandon their party and start our own. Negotiate from a position of strength. Do for selves what is not in their best interest to do for us.
But if we gotta’ play with their cards, it’s time to stop playing spades (pun intended) and start playing bid whist.
And now is a perfect time to do so.
The first step in this uncharted sojourn is to fine-tune our agenda, present it to the Biden Administration and demand he does all within his power to fulfill our mandate.
The second part of the plan would be to set a deadline. The midterm elections, in two years, is apropos. If movement is not made by then, stay at home, vote for an independent, or throw rocks at the castle walls.
In fact, this unprecedented election provides a once in a lifetime opportunity to take the donkey by the tail; to demand payback for our dedication and influence over the last half-century.
We should start by dusting off the half-dozen Black agendas that grew out of conferences, symposiums, and Black think tanks.
We don’t have to reinvent the wheel, although a new generation of tribal warriors would be well warranted to put their stamp of approval on the plan, amending as needed.
We don’t have to waste time fighting over who should lead, take center stage, get credit or feed their egos since I can all but guarantee the script has already been written, starting with reinvestment in Black America in three general areas: economic development, criminal justice overhaul and a restructure and redefinition of public education, with the same options the Black middle class, politicians and poverty pimps enjoy.
Obviously, there is much more to the equation, some of which can’t (or won’t) be solved by the political conglomerate.
But we shouldn’t compromise on putting our interests before the environmentalist, LGBTQ community, women, plantation owners, missionaries, and poverty pimps.
Start with an urban ‘Marshall Plan,’ a business bank to provide forgivable loans and insurance to Black startups, a new affirmative action program with the teeth (which ironically, Bill Clinton—Hilliary’s hubby—removed to appease other special interests), a redefinition of public education, and an overhaul of the criminal justice system.
Or, we’ll take reparations as an alternative.
Give us our just due, 40 acres and a mule (or GMC), and allow us to do for self; to build a nation within a nation.
Let us develop a distribution process based not only on need but pragmatic policies that will enrich our community, restore a spiritually grounded cultural paradigm and establish an educational system that serves all children—a system of schools versus a government school system.
Our tribe needs to have a family dinner discussion on how the political system works, how we impact it, what we should get for our participation.
After the desert, we should take a survey to determine how the political system can and should impact the myriad problems uniquely stagnating Hue-men’s, Coloreds, Negroes, Black folks, and African Americans.
Finally, we need to combine a history (His-story) class with civics and language arts to analyze the differences between symbolism and substance.
As Frederick Douglass once lamented, ‘power concedes nothing without a demand, it never did and it never will.’
In other words, we get nothing if we don’t demand anything.
Let me add to Douglass’ famous saying that “demand without a weapon to back it up is akin to a fifth-grader debating Howard Fuller.”
This year has been the most unusual in history with the elections, pandemic, massive unemployment, and political polarization that has served no one. It can also be of an awakening, offering a pathway to empowerment.
Or, we can keep doing the same things and expecting a different result.
(It’s called ‘stupidity’ folks!)
Hotep.
I can’t remember ever hearing the word ‘dichotomy’ while attending a segregated Milwaukee government school back in the 60s.
In fact, I definitely didn’t use the word since I didn’t know what it meant.
Yet, since adulthood, it has become one of my most frequently used expressive nouns, particularly since understanding how the word influenced my life journey as a journalist and African American—which is itself a dichotomous phrase.
Had I known what it meant back in my formative years, I could have used it to explain the thoughts that went through my mind when we (civil rights marchers) confronted bigots and racists-in-training on the other side of the 16th Street Viaduct in support of an open housing ordinance.
It would be an appropriate word to explain the disingenuous scenario in which we, Americans by birth and constitutional right, and Black by divine blessing, were forced to demonstrate to convince the city to rescind discriminatory laws that forbade us from living outside an area designated for Negroes, zombies, and poverty pimps.
It would have also been an appropriate word to explain why we were forced to attend overcrowded and inadequately funded government schools in dilapidated buildings.
White kids were assigned to newer schools with chemistry and science labs and state of the art athletic facilities.
It wasn’t ‘just’ that we were intellectually inferior (in white peoples’ minds). But, as the president of the Milwaukee school board explained, we were uncivilized, and if ‘integrated’ would “urinate in the water fountains.”
(That’s an actual statement.)
Dichotomous would have been the first word to come to mind when I heard white war protestors calling us (returning Viet Nam veterans) ‘baby killers’ and ‘pawns of imperialism’ as we walked through the San Francisco Airport terminal following a 16-hour flight from that war-torn Southeast Asian country.
Obviously, that scenario epitomized the definition of the word, but not as much as the awakening I underwent several months earlier when I experienced one of the most frightening episodes of my young life.
I was assigned to escort an officer to a small base at the southern tip of Vietnam. As it turned out, we separated upon arrival, and I was on my own for the next three days.
It was the most horrifying 72 hours of my tour.
When I entered the base’s mess tent, the occupants of the table I sat at promptly removed themselves. The same scenario followed when I entered the barracks.
The truth of my predicament didn’t really come to light until an hour later, when I entered the shack constructed for R&R.
It was a simple facility, a couple of speakers connected to a reel to reel player, a card table, and a makeshift bar.
It was as I was approaching the bar that the lightbulb went on.
Behind the bar was a large Confederate flag!
There was no mistaking why no one talked to me or even acted with civility. Some reeked of racism, and it quickly dawned on me that I was an easy target, being the only brother on the small base.
I kept my distance from the wanna-be Rebels during the day; walking off base despite its dangers.
At night, I slept with my .45, a round chambered, and the safety off.
I was prepared to ‘defend’ myself.
The enemy was not the North Vietnamese or the Viet Cong, but white men who referred to them as ‘zips’ and ‘sloop heads.’
If a racist used an epithet to describe the ethnicity of those he supposedly fought for, it didn’t take much imagination to figure out what he thought of me.
And the ‘dichotomy’ of that particular situation?
Here I was 10,000 miles from home, supposedly fighting for a concept alongside people who refused to see those they fought for, or me, as equals.
Racists who hated and scorned us because of our skin color. U.S. military personnel who supported a manifestation of white supremacy in a country caught up in a civil war between two minorities.
The cherry on top was the fact that I was putting my life at risk for concepts that I would not enjoy when I returned ‘home,’ if I wasn’t lynched in the interim by Americans whose ancestors probably held mine in slavery. Or wished they could.
Dichotomy? In red, white and blue.
Those thoughts came back to me a couple of days ago when I responded to a Quora internet question that asked if ‘Black soldiers were treated the same as white soldiers when we returned home?’
I confirmed that we were denounced by young, white anti-war protestors, but those scenes were not replicated when we returned to the ‘hood.’
To older African Americans, we were heroes. To many younger ones, we were fools.
Not just because Vietnam was a ‘poor man’s’ war in which the rich sent us to die so their children wouldn’t have to, but also because, as Muhammad Ali declared when he refused to be drafted: ‘No Vietnamese ever called me ‘nigger’ (n-word).’
Yeah, dichotomy.
Ali’s analysis was replicated by many African American leaders of the era. Even Martin Luther King, Jr. questioned the rationale for the war, which some theorized prompted his assassination.
King and Malcolm X didn’t agree on much but were in solidarity in their opposition to the West’s exploitation of Third World nations.
From that perspective, we—veterans– were complicit in the domination of the exploited.
You may have been taught—or probably not–Vietnam was a French colony prior to the ‘civil war,’ and when the Algerians started a revolution to throw the French out of their country, it weakened their position in the Middle East.
In some respects, I felt like the Black revolutionary war patriots, starting with Crispus Attucks, who died for a concept that Black people of his era would not have been allowed to enjoy.
I recently read of one slave who helped trick the British into believing the colonial army assembled outside of Yorktown was much larger than it actually was, prompting the British commander to keep his troops there instead of invading the southern states as he had planned.
That decision ultimately tipped the war in the colonist’s favor.
Think about that dichotomous and disingenuous scenario.
Not only did the British offer freedom to any slave who sided with them, but the slave in question never saw the light of liberty he helped secure for the Americans.
He was an African slave under the cruelest and inhumane system in history.
Yet he fought against those who would have provided him with freedom!
I haven’t worn a $25 t-shirt I purchased honoring the Buffalo soldiers for the same reason I didn’t wear my uniform after returning from Nam.
The Buffalo soldiers were put into the same dichotomous predicament that my fellow Vietnam vets were ‘forced’ into.
The freed slaves who formed the famous Army cavalry unit following the civil war had as their primary mission the protection of whites who invaded—and all but exterminated—Native Americans.
The Natives created the moniker ‘Buffalo’ soldier because from a distance, that’s what the African ‘American’ troops looked like.
And like a herd of Buffalo, they trampled on the natives, grinding them into dusk.
Obviously, on most occasions when the term dicthotomy comes to mind has nothing to do with my, or our, military service.
Indeed, our lives in America provide a blueprint for a new reality show called ‘Da Dichotomy.’
It is aptly appropriate to describe our being America’s foster children. Or you can apply it to our love (if that’s a fitting definition) for our country—our abuser— which history shows not only didn’t love us in return but has done to us what Donald Trump has done to our health and well being.
Ask Native Americans if they love the country that denied them citizenship—in their own homeland—until the 20th century! Or the Japanese who they interned during WWII.
But at least both of those groups got reparations. All we’ve received is a second class education, pork guts and $24,000 televisions from Rent-a-Center.
I’ve posited on several occasions my struggle to be a ‘good’ Christian. The dichotomy being we cultivate a theology that condones the evil institution of slavery. A religion that was used to justify the murder of millions of our ancestors.
I haven’t figured it out yet, but I don’t worship a blue-eyed, blond-haired Jeshua.
Another dichotomy?
With one or two exceptions, I’ve voted Democrat in every national election. But I would never join the party because, in word and deed, it has prioritized other special interests above its most loyal supporters—us.
Under the teacher’s union’s thumb, the party opposes programs to allow poor Black children to attend the schools teachers and politicians send their children to.
My greatest fear is the Biden/Harris administration will end the programs that allow Black families to escape failing schools. (Remember, Barack Obama tried to derail the D.C. scholarship program. But he then sent his precious daughters to an exclusive private school.)
I love Obama but wouldn’t join his party if Michelle, Oprah or the ghost of John Lewis asked me to. I’ll remain independent, viewing the Dems and Republicans as different wings on the same bird.
I could use the same rationale for canceling my membership to the NAACP.
I support the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and some of the organization’s programs. But as its Freedom Fund keynote speaker, Black journalist Roland Martin declared a few years back, the organization today is but a shadow of its former ‘independent’ self.
The venerable civil rights organization is now under the control of special interests and corporations. Worse still, it doesn’t see the dicthotomy of blocking the schoolhouse door that leads to education options for poor Black children failed by the government system.
And like the Democratic Party, the NAACP offers nothing but excuses and false hopes, refusing to even question Milwaukee’s nation-leading failures– lowest reading and math proficiency rates, academic achievement gap and drop out rates in the United States of America, Canada, England, and Cuba.
It is a penultimate dichotomy that I risk my status as a ‘Colored man’ to raise these concerns; hang our dirty laundry in public. The paradox is that an African American isn’t truly Black if he doesn’t vote for the Democratic Party candidate (Biden told us), leaves the plantation, or acts like an uppity Negro and questions party policies or its agenda to make us comfortable in our misery as the poverty pimps get rich off us.
Which brings me to my most glaring definition of ‘dichotomy.’
Can you ever be free of racism—if that is our goal—when you call and view yourselves as ‘niggers’ (n-word)?
I don’t know about yours, but my God—Nyame, Jehovah, Allah— didn’t create niggers (n-word).
Instead, we were made in His/Her image. We were the first ‘Hue-man’ beings, and our ancestors were blessed to be the architects of math, science, and medicine.
Can we be both blessed and cursed? Or curse ourselves? Now THAT’s a dichotomy!
Hotep.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Make United History
We did it! We did it! We did it! We went out there and voted. We voted early. We stood in line and voted. We mailed in our votes. We did it! This election has truly been like NO OTHER. This election went down in the books, literally.
Over the weekend the end result of the election has brought the world into a very emotional state as Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win the 2020 Presidential Election. Kamala is officially the very first woman Vice President of the United States. She’s the very first black woman to become Vice President of the United States as well.
This election showed us just how much our votes count. This election outnumbered the amount of voters to ever vote in the United States Presidential Election. This election brought the unity out of the United States.
Not to mention just how touching this moment was. Famous reporters, famous artists, children, and the community was literally in tears with the outcome of this eventful election. People were sharing their love for the way we came together to make a difference. This election outcome built our voting self esteem. No one can say our votes don’t matter because they do. No one can say our counts aren’t real because they are. It was an absolute beautiful experience and outcome once it was said and done.
One of the most exciting parts of this election was the black history that was made. So many little black girls will grow up and see another way of dreaming. Kamala has set the bar even higher for the list of things a black woman can do. Her belief in a thing that has never been done has literally blessed our thinking. All the little girls that get to see someone that looks like them in a position like the Vice President of the United States will have the confidence to chase the dream of becoming something so great.
I, personally, feel incredible being a black woman right now. I feel Kamala is representing for all of us. I feel unstoppable. What can’t a black woman do? This is beyond inspiring and heart felt. I just can’t wait to see what’s going to come from it. I have to congratulate Joe and Kamala and congratulate us at the same time.
WE DID IT! Biden/Harris 2020 for the WIN!
COMMENTARY: Trump Tries to Put Racism Genie Back in Bottle as Racists Celebrate
NNPA NEWSWIRE — “I don’t know who Proud Boys are,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. “But whoever they are they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work.” Trump was asked again by reporters if he welcomes the support of white supremacists. “I want law and order — it’s a very important part of my campaign.”
By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Contributor
During this week’s presidential debate, President Trump said a white supremacists’ organization should “stand back and stand by” at the same debate he told supporters to monitor polling places and watch what was going on.
On social media, right wing supremacists’ organizations were elated with Trump’s words and viewed it as a sign of support. By the afternoon on September 30, Trump was on defense for his lack of willingness to denounce racism and white supremacy.
“I don’t know who Proud Boys are,” Trump told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House. “But whoever they are they have to stand down, let law enforcement do their work.” Trump was asked again by reporters if he welcomes the support of white supremacists. “I want law and order — it’s a very important part of my campaign.”
Trump then repeated the words “let law enforcement do their work,” again and again. On Capitol Hill, Republicans ducked questions but when they were forced to respond, placed Trump under the bus.
“With regard to the white supremacy issue, I want to associate myself with the remarks of Tim Scott,” Mr. McConnell said. “He said it was unacceptable not to condemn white supremacists and so I do so in the strongest possible way.”
In 2016 Trump used the “I don’t know that is” tactic when asked if he welcomed the support of former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke. Trump feigned not knowing who Duke was and contorted into pretzels to avoid saying anything critical about him or that Duke was supporting him.
Though Sen. Scott, the only Black GOP U.S. Senator, called the lack of condemning white supremacy “unacceptable” he also was widely seen on camera saying Trump “misspoke.”
“I think he misspoke,” Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina, told reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. “I think he should correct it,” Scott said. “If he doesn’t correct it, I guess he didn’t misspeak.”
“The next opportunity the President has to clarify that answer — because folks like you and others are confused by it — then he should do that,” former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said on ABC News. Christie helped Trump with debate prep.
But no one was confused. Trump has a long history of giving obvious approval of racism through his silence and his affirmative public statements. The reaction after his lack of condemnation of racism on a national stage was consistent with what he has said and done in the past. But this time, Trump appeared to sense he may have gone too far. That several polls indicate Biden has a lead in several key states on the electoral college map it may not matter.
Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent journalist for NNPA and the host of the podcast BURKEFILE. She is also a political strategist as Principal of Win Digital Media LLC. She may be contacted at [email protected] and on twitter at @LVBurke
Congresswoman Gwen Moore and Wisconsin Leaders to Host Wisconsin “Sister to Sister” Voter Registration Event
On Thursday, September 10, Biden for President Wisconsin will host a “Sister to Sister” voter registration organizing event with Congresswoman Gwen Moore and Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson.
They will be joined by Black women leaders from across Wisconsin for a conversation about what Black women across the state can do to get registered to vote and request their absentee ballots.
LOGISTICAL INFORMATION
Details are subject to change
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
Biden for President Wisconsin “Sister to Sister” Voter Registration Event with Gwen Moore and Wisconsin Leaders
Start Time: 6:30 PM CT
Event Attendance: Members of the public who wish to join can RSVP HERE.
Coalition to March on the DNC to Host Pre-Event Press Conference with Families
Milwaukee, WI – With the 2020 Democratic National Convention in full swing in Milwaukee, interest in the upcoming August 20 March on the DNC 2020 – We Can’t Breathe event is ratcheting up. With only a day remaining until the action, new forces are still joining up with the Coalition to March on the DNC.
The family of Joel Acevedo, who was tragically murdered by off-duty Milwaukee police officer Matt Mattioli at a house party this past April, has confirmed that they will be attending the Coalition’s August 20 rally and march, where they will join their voices with the other families in demanding justice for the victims of killer cops and more from Democrats like Joe Biden and Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett.
The Coalition will be hosting a press conference on Thursday, August 20 beginning at 4:00pm in Dontre Hamilton (Red Arrow) Park, one hour before their event is set to begin. The press will hear directly from some of the core organizers as well as from representatives and members of the families working with the Coalition. The message remains the same, according to official Coalition leadership.
“We are here to defeat Trump, tell Biden and other Democrats to stop cops from killing Black men and other people, and build our movement,” said Ryan Hamann, one of the co-chairs of the Coalition.
The participation of the Acevedo family follows that of the families of Alvin Cole of Milwaukee, Jonathan Tubby of Green Bay, and Isaiah Tucker of Oshkosh. The hope is that through the platform provided by the protest on August 20, these cases will earn the national coverage that they deserve. While Alvin’s and Joel’s cases are still under investigation, Jonathon’s and Isaiah’s killers still roam the streets in their respective communities.
“The fact that there are murderers policing our neighborhoods or sitting at home collecting checks is an absolute disgrace. We need to jail killer cops,” said Lauryn Cross, a leader with the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression, an integral part of the Coalition.
The March on the DNC 2020 – We Can’t Breathe is set to begin at 5:00pm in Dontre Hamilton (Red Arrow) Park.
Democrats Announce Highlights from Opening Night of the 2020 Democratic National Convention: Uniting America
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Monday: Biden for President to Hold Virtual Convention Watch Parties in Every Wisconsin County
On Monday, Biden for President will host virtual Democratic National Convention watch parties in all 72 counties of Wisconsin.
“It’s an exciting week ahead for Wisconsin, as Joe Biden will accept the nomination and share his vision to unite the country and build back better. Our convention programming will reach every corner of the state — with virtual watch parties in every Wisconsin county from Bayfield to Kenosha,” said Biden for President Wisconsin State Director Danielle Melfi.“Throughout the week, our supporters and volunteers will engage with amazing leaders, hear each other’s stories, and discuss how we unite around the critical task of electing Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in November. If Donald Trump really wants to understand the challenges facing families across our state, he should tune into the Democratic Convention to listen to the stories of Wisconsinites who have been harmed by his failed leadership.”
Earlier today, Biden for President announced a slate of Convention week events in Wisconsin, including:
- Out for Biden LGBTQ Organizing Launch with Congressman Mark Pocan and Democratic National Convention Committee (DNCC) CEO Joe Solmonese
- Milwaukee Welcome Pre-Program with Mayor Tom Barrett, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, and Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chair Tom Perez
- Rural Wisconsin Roundtable with former Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and Congressman Ron Kind
- Youth Vote Rally with Ashley Biden and State Treasurer Sarah Godlewski
- Todos con Biden Organizing Event with former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, Ana Navarro, and DNC Chair Tom Perez
- Women for Biden Pre-Program with Ashley Biden, Senator Tammy Baldwin, and Jamie Lee Curtis
- Black Faith Leader Roundtable with House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver
- Voter Protection Rally with Voting Rights Advocate Stacey Abrams, Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Attorney General Josh Kaul, and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra
- Watch Party with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Tammy Baldwin, Congresswoman Gwen Moore, Governor Tony Evers, and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes
Members of the public who are interested in joining their local watch party can text WATCH to 30330 or visit https://joe.link/convention-