UMTerp01
UMTerp01's JournalSo they were singing "We Shall Overcome" at the Bernie Sanders rally in Oakland? (AA GROUP)
Pardon me but what the hell do you have to "overcome" that you feel the need to sing THAT particular song? My emotions are already high from watching Roots and now this foolishness? That song has particular meaning for the Civil Rights Movement. To appropriate THIS song for your butt hurt feelings about the Democratic primary process is insulting. Just clueless!!!!
The End of Black Harlem
The End of Black Harlem
Newcomers say gentrification is about wealth, not race. But that's a distinction without a difference.
by Michael Henry Adams
May 27, 2016
I HAVE lived in Harlem for half my life — 30 years. I have seen it in all its complexities: a cultural nexus of black America, the landing place for Senegalese immigrants and Southern transplants, a home for people fleeing oppression and seeking opportunity. Harlem is the birthplace of so much poetry and music and beauty, but in the eyes of many who have never set foot here, it has long been a swamp of pain and suffering.
It is also changing, rapidly. A few years ago I was on Eighth Avenue, also known as Frederick Douglass Boulevard, picketing a fund-raiser for a politician who was pushing for denser mixed-use zoning along 125th Street, the “Main Street” of my sprawling neighborhood. Harlem has seen an influx of tourists, developers and stroller-pushing young families, described in the media as “urban pioneers,” attracted by city tax abatements. New high-end housing and hip restaurants have also played their part. So have various public improvements, like new landscaping and yoga studios. In general all this activity has helped spruce the place up. Not surprisingly, on that day a few passers-by shot us ugly looks, as if to say, “Why can’t you accept a good thing?”
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/29/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-black-harlem.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
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Interesting article. Before I was old enough to go away for summer camp, I spent most of my summers with my aunt and cousin who lived in Greenwich Village. One of the reasons that I never moved from the northeast/mid atlantic area of the country is because I can't imagine being so far from NYC. I drive up at least once a month for a weekend to hang with friends in the city. I have seen the city change so much and I've seen Harlem go from this Black mecca of culture and history and community to what it is today. Gentrification is tough. You have people who come in and redevelop/enhance areas considered urban blight, but you push out long term residents who can't afford the increase in rents. One of my friends moved from Harlem a few years ago because he refused to pay for the increased rents and just couldn't stand the hipster takeover. And he makes good money. Its been really interesting seeing the city change so much through the years. From SoHo to the Meatpacking District to Chelsea it has really changed. I still love it though. The annual Halloween party in Greenwich Village, seeing Broadway shows, going to the US Open every year, shopping at the Ralph Lauren mansion, jogging through Central Park, seeing the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City. There's so many great things about NYC but gentrification has really diminished the cultural uniqueness of a lot of its enclaves. Harlem is probably the most notable.
St Bernard fans and surrogates can drool over today's State Dept report about Hillary's emails abuse
Oh look I can do it to.
Anyway...we get it. You believe the indictment fairy is coming for Hillary and she will go down for this email issue. Got it for the 1 bazillionth time.
BYE NOW!!!
Yes Bernie, the System is Rigged. Whining about it won't win you Black votes. Here's why.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/05/yes_bernie_sanders_the_system_is_rigged_what_else_is_new.htmlYes, Bernie Sanders, the System Is Rigged—What Else Is New?
Whining won’t win the Democratic presidential candidate black votes. Here’s why.
BY: JASON JOHNSON
Posted: May 21 2016 7:05 AM
Bernie Sanders has no reason to be angry. He’s done more to raise his profile in the last 18 months than he’s done in over 30 years in the House and Senate. He’s managed to drag the Democratic Party left after years of centrist posturing by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He’s raised millions and galvanized millions more. However, he and his supporters still complain that the primary system is rigged and the Democratic Party isn’t treating them fairly. It was the belief that the Democratic establishment is out to get Sanders that led to the violence and disruptions at the Nevada State Democratic Party Convention last week. This attitude is also the main reason Sanders has failed to consistently resonate with African-American voters. Black folks have always known that the system is rigged—what they want is someone to change it, not just complain about it.
Objectively speaking, there is a great deal to like about Sanders’ political positions, regardless of your party affiliation. Who isn’t in favor of taking money out of the hands of big business and putting it back into the pockets of consumers? Who isn’t in favor of making Washington, D.C., more accountable to voters? You may quibble with how Sanders proposes to accomplish his goals, or whether he can actually achieve them, but the goals themselves are pretty party-neutral, which is befitting a lifelong independent senator (more on that later). Despite a strong message about economic inequality, Sanders has never managed to be competitive with African-American Democrats in primary states. Many have argued ad nauseam about why the Sanders campaign has struggled with black voters, and the arguments generally fall into two equally simplistic and nominally insulting categories: 1) Black folks are foolishly loyal to the Clintons in some form of electoral Stockholm syndrome; or 2) Black folks don’t ultimately know what’s best for them and don’t know Sanders well enough to realize that he’s the best choice.
I’ve avoided stepping into this fray because not only are both arguments faulty, but neither one in any way reflects the black Democrats and independents I know. The real reason Sanders has failed to connect with many mainline African-American Democrats is what happened at the Nevada convention May 14. Sanders and his surrogates represent a discomfiting liberal white privilege that has always made African-American voters feel ill at ease, even when ultimate goals are in sync. Stop me if you’ve had this experience before: You are driving downtown on a Friday night with one of your white friends in the passenger seat. Suddenly, those all-too-familiar red and blue lights start to flash behind you and you’re pulled over. The police officer plays cops’ favorite game, which is to ask a lot of perfectly legal, but thoroughly insulting and inconvenient, questions in search of a post hoc rationalization for pulling you over to begin with.
While you try to calmly navigate the situation, your white friend is going ballistic now that real, live, actual racism is happening in front of him or her. Which hits you with two simultaneous feelings: first, that it’s nice your friend has your back; and second, annoyance that it took a routine example of racial discrimination for your friend to finally realize your daily reality. And your friend’s reaction, while sincere, is way out of proportion to the offense. If anything, it reflects a sort of alienating privilege. In a nutshell, Sanders is your white friend in the car. Of course the Democratic primary system is rigged, Bernie Sanders. What else is new? Party systems have always been rigged—ask any African-American candidate over the last 100 years. Sanders is angry because the Democratic Party put debates on weekends to help Clinton? How about when the Republicans handcuffed Alan Keyes to keep him out of the Atlanta debates in 1996?
Sanders is angry because the Democratic National Committee state bosses are in the tank for Clinton? In 2008, then-Sen. Obama had to start his own national organization, Obama for America, because he knew that party leaders wanted Clinton. At no point did you see supporters of Obama or Keyes or half a dozen other black candidates throw chairs or make death threats because they were losing. The problem with Sanders and his supporters goes even deeper, though. Sanders just became a Democrat about 15 minutes ago so that he could run for the party nomination. For almost 40 years he’s been a proud independent, remember? Legally and structurally, the Democratic Party has every right to make things difficult for a relative outsider to snag the nomination.
When Sanders complains that the Democratic primary is rigged against an independent candidate, he sounds like a white sorority complaining that they lost the step show on points because this year’s theme was “Dark and Lovely.” It takes a lot of gall to show up with a membership card so new the ink is wet and start complaining about the process. Now that same sorority is tearing up the gym, throwing chairs and threatening to go all the way to the Pan-Hellenic Council if they don’t get their way. Just because you lost something doesn’t mean it was stolen—unless you’re dipped in the kind of privilege that tells you something is owed to you to begin with. African-American Democrats have every right not to like Hillary Clinton, who wore her white privilege like a ski mask in 2008 and whose policy history leaves a lot to be desired. But that doesn’t make the self-righteous complaining of Sanders any easier to stomach. Yes, Sanders has been a freedom fighter for progressive causes for decades, but when it comes to the Democratic primary, he and his supporters have been consummate whiners reeking of privilege.
You want to talk about a rigged system? Look at Shirley Chisholm, Keyes, the Rev. Jesse Jackson or, even better, ask Democratic state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal of Missouri, Republican Lenny McAllister in Pennsylvania, or dozens of other African-American Democrats and Republicans who are actual long-term party members who were betrayed in their primaries. If Sanders wants to be a part of the system, he has to find a way to beat it, then take it apart from the inside—not start halfway, then begin flipping chairs when the numbers aren’t adding up in his favor. Protest appeals to black voters, revolution appeals to black voters, but whining doesn’t. It has not always been clear that the Sanders campaign knows the difference.
Jason Johnson, political editor at The Root, is a professor of political science at Hiram College in Ohio and an analyst for CNN, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera and Fox Business News. Follow him on Twitter.
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This is one of the best arguments I've seen to challenge so many of those claiming that Blacks must have "Stockholm Syndrome" to be voting for Hillary Clinton. They just don't get it. I flirted with Bernie for awhile. I went from solid Hillary to undecided. But my state voting later in the process probably helped me go back to Hillary's side because you could see the unraveling of Bernie's campaign begin. Had my state voted in February or Mid-March I may have pulled the lever for Sanders. But voting later on actually didn't work in his favor. So that whole "once people get to know Bernie more they will like him" narrative that his supporters always used was actually the opposite for me. I still like the guy, but the more I have gotten to see this process play out I knew he wasn't the one I wanted to pick. Don't get me wrong. I'm not thrilled to bits with Hillary either, but she is my choice for a number of reasons and I will vote for her in November.
I'm all for peaceful protesting but don't bring any of that NV mess to Philadelphia
I'm from Philadelphia originally. I will be in Philadelphia for the convention. Philadelphia is NOT Nevada. Don't bring any mess to Philadelphia because we won't stand for it. Yell, chant, hold your signs, make your case. You put a single solitary hand on me or someone I know, hit me with a sign, or threaten me in any way, you'll be limping away. Don't let the "City of Brotherly Love" motto fool you. We don't play that!!
Chris Hayes showing 2008 Hillary Clinton referencing Bobby Kennedy assassination for staying in race
Umm.....yeah I remember that shit and haven't forgotten. I also remember Keith Olbermann's epic takedown of her for those remarks on Countdown that same night. I mean he crucified Hillary for suggesting that she should stay in the race because perhaps another Bobby Kennedy incident may happen. No she didn't say exactly that but the idea of even bringing up the Bobby Kennedy assassination was just so low.
I may have voted for Hillary Clinton but be clear there's a lot of stuff from the 2008 campaign that I have not forgotten. Its just that for me she's the better choice this cycle.
Republicans' Refusal to help Puerto Rico Could Cost Them The 2016 Election
Republicans' Refusal to help Puerto Rico Could Cost Them The 2016 Election
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/05/18/3778526/republicans-puerto-rico-florida/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Republicans' Refusal To Help Puerto Rico Could Cost Them The 2016 Election
by Alice Ollstein May 18, 2016
The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico is collapsing under the weight of tens of billions of dollars of debt and there is no end in sight for the economic pain. The island has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, at over 12 percent, and a higher rate of poverty than any U.S. state. Home foreclosures are up 89 percent from 2008. More than 100 schools and a children’s hospital have been forced to close. As it faces an outbreak of the Zika virus, the island is losing, on average, a doctor a day.
The situation could deteriorate further if the territory defaults on another debt payment on July 1. Yet bills in Congress to allow the island to restructure this debt have stalled, largely due to Republican opposition. If Puerto Ricans continue to arrive here, Florida may cease to be a battleground state.Without federal relief for their economic woes, the island is hemorrhaging its population. Nearly 100,000 people moved from Puerto Rico to the U.S. mainland last year alone, and more than 360,000 people left during the four years before that. Expert demographers estimate that the territory could lose as much as 8 percent of its population of 3.5 million over the next few years, if the economic crisis continues.
Though U.S. citizens, Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico can only vote in presidential primaries, not the general election. But when they move stateside, they gain full voting rights, and could upend the political calculus for both parties this November.
A growing majority of them have made their homes in the key swing state of Florida. The Sunshine State’s Puerto Rican population swelled to more than 1 million people over the past few years, and is on track to soon outnumber the Cuban American community that has long defined Southern Florida politics. And unlike the state’s Cuban Americans, the Puerto Rican population is not “reliably Republican.” In fact, they are helping Florida Democrats pull ahead in the race to register voters for November.
“There is a huge possibility that if Puerto Ricans continue to arrive here, Florida may cease to be a battleground state,” said Phillip Arroyo, the former chair of the Young Democrats of America’s Hispanic Caucus and a Florida resident originally from Puerto Rico. “The Republican party has made a devastating mistake of completely ignoring not only Puerto Rico’s financial crisis but Hispanic issues in general.” Andres Lopez, an attorney in Puerto Rico and a Democratic National Committee superdelegate, agreed. He told ThinkProgress that millions of Puerto Ricans both on the island and the mainland are growing increasingly frustrated with the Republican-controlled Congress, especially because their lack of statehood means they have no vote on Capitol Hill. “On this issue, Congress has felt a special kind of license to take their time and act when they’re good and ready,” he said. “We’ve already had one pretty massive default on the books and there’s another one forthcoming.
Yet Congress doesn’t seem moved to act expeditiously. And this is happening without any Puerto Rican representation at the table, which is incomprehensible elsewhere in our democracy. We are disenfranchised and dis-empowered, with these mostly white guys far away — since Congress is predominantly white — making decisions that will fundamentally impact every aspect of our lives.”
You think they would have learned from the 2012 election, but instead they let extremists hijack the party.
Lopez, who worked on President Obama’s 2008 campaign, said Republican foot-dragging on aid for Puerto Rico will have “unintended consequences.” “They’re creating anger in Florida, the state where Puerto Ricans are going to have the most power going forward,” he said. “Now that there will soon be more Puerto Ricans in Florida than Cubans, it’s going to upend what people have thought of that state. If they turn out to express themselves at the ballot box, the Puerto Rico issue is going to take on the political power of the Cuba issue.”
Frustration with Republican inaction was palpable outside the GOP’s Miami debate in March, where a large group of Puerto Rican residents took to the streets in protest. “They’ve forgotten about us. They ignore us. They’ve turned their back on us,” Kissimmee resident Madeline Ortiz told ThinkProgress in Spanish. “But now, we Puerto Ricans are starting to vote and more. We’re going to show them. If they don’t talk about this issue, we Puerto Ricans will not support them.” Ortiz, who moved from Puerto Rico 20 years ago, says she has been helping register hundreds of Puerto Rican voters in her community and has worked to educate them about the Republican Party’s silence on the debt issue. “We have to vote so they pay attention to us,” she said.
Over the past few years, the hedge funds that hold the majority of the island’s debt and are profiting from the crisis have been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying Congress, pushing for members to vote against giving Puerto Rico the power to declare bankruptcy and restructure its debt. Some of these lobbyists are influential former members of Congress. Dark money groups like the Center for Individual Freedom are also blanketing the airwaves with ads attacking supporters of the debt relief bill, accusing them of “bailing out” Puerto Rico at the expense of “savers and seniors” on the mainland. In the face of this onslaught, Republicans in Congress have been divided on how and when to assist Puerto Rico with its mountain of debt, with some opposing any aid for the territory at all. Yet the two parties’ likely presidential nominees are offering Puerto Rican voters a clear choice.
Donald Trump has said he does not support extending federal aid to assist Puerto Rico, while both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have urged Congress to do just that.
Trump’s penchant for labeling Latino immigrants as drug dealers and rapists, vowing mass deportations, and offering half-hearted pandering may only be digging the Republicans’ deeper into a hole with Puerto Rican voters. “It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that those already here see the GOP as synonymous to racism, extremism, and anti-Puerto Rico sentiment,” Arroyo said. “You think they would have learned from the 2012 election, but instead they let extremists hijack the party. That’s why the Democrats are on their way to winning the White House for a third consecutive term.” Top Republican strategists warned earlier this year that Donald Trump will doom the GOP with Latino voters for “at least a generation” — just as Latinos are becoming one of the fastest growing and most influential voting blocs. To win the White House in November, Trump may need anywhere between 42 and 47 percent of the Latino vote, especially in key battleground states like Virginia, Ohio, New Mexico, Florida, Nevada, and Colorado, according to the polling group Latino Decisions. The GOP won less than 30 percent in 2012.
A national poll released in April found that 79 percent of Latino voters had a “very unfavorable” opinion of Trump, and 87 percent regarded him as generally unfavorable.
As Republicans, Democrats, unions, Latino advocacy groups, and the Koch brothers all scramble to register the ever-expanding Puerto Rican community in central Florida, strategists say that even if they don’t turn out in large numbers this November, the writing is on the wall. “There is no path to the presidency that doesn’t run through Florida,” Lopez told ThinkProgress. “Looking beyond 2016, this is the type of issue that will earn party loyalty potentially for a generation.”
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This may be news to some but its not news to me. I'm half Puerto Rican. I have family who is still on the island who are fortunately in a good financial position to not have to flee the island due to lack of employment opportunity. I volunteer for Voto Latino. I have long been talking about Florida becoming a more reliably blue state instead of a toss up because of the influx of Puerto Ricans in the state. Not only have many Nuyoricans (New York Puerto Ricans) moved to Florida because of the high cost of living in NY, but Florida is seen as a great choice for Puerto Ricans fleeing the island because it is still relatively close to their native home and because they know there is a thriving Puerto Rican population in Florida. From data that we crunched from 2012, the Puerto Rican influence helped President Obama eek out that win against Romney in Florida. Well, its 4 years later and the Puerto Rican population has only increased in Florida. While I do wish that Puerto Rico would get help from their economic issues, it is true that Republican inaction on this will only go to Florida going blue again this November.
Wow. This year's Kindergarten class nationally will be majority non white for 1st time ever
Just heard from Chris Hayes on MSNBC that this year's upcoming Kindergarten class will be majority non white for the 1st time ever. Wow. Very interesting and shows the continued increase in the diversity of America.
Congrats to Senator Sanders and his supporters on your Oregon win
Onward to the next. Congrats 
Hillary doing better in Oregon than I thought she would
I thought Sanders would win by at least 10-15 points. Figured that it would be a blowout like Washington was.
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