CASH IN THE APPLE FOR
11-17-16
By Cash Michaels
THE WORLD
IS NOT ENOUGH – If you and yours are still reeling from last week’s shocking
presidential election results, trust me, you’re not alone. A night hasn’t gone
by since Donald Trump was declared the next president of the United States when
thousands of people have taken to the streets of various American cities,
expressing their profound disgust and discontent with the outcome.
Obviously
those protests can’t last ever, at least not in that form. But clearly
America’s worst nightmare has come true in the form of a deeply unhinged, power
hungry ego-maniac who, at the age of 70, has achieved his greatest quest beyond
riches and fame.
More power
than he ever dreamed of having.
It is a
critical civics lesson for all of us to make note of. It doesn’t take much to
capture the hearts and minds of those who were always raised to believe that
they’re not sittin’ pretty as God intended just because the government is
taking care of different folks who are not worthy. Doesn’t take much at all to
convince folks that their place in the world, let alone their country, is no
longer on cherished ground because their kind is no longer in charge.
Mix a
little religious bigotry in there, add a healthy handful of racial bias, a shovel full of sexism, wrap it
all up in an American flag, and voila – something Joe and Jane Sixpack have
been hankering for.
I know, I
know, there I go, one of those high-minded liberal “elites” making fun of
the “real” Americans who “cling to their
guns and Bibles.” Heck, the only thing “elitist” about me are the bubbles that
spring out of my glass of ginger ale…on the rocks. Otherwise, I’m no more
elitist than the school crossing guard up the block.
But I do
consider myself intelligent enough to know a mass flim-flam game when I see
one, and I saw a sure ‘nough big one last week. Over 60 million Americans,
frustrated with whatever hardships life has dealt them not because groups of
foreign color folk have taken their jobs, but because rich industrialists like
Donald Trump have taken their jobs and shipped them overseas where the costs,
and the salaries, are ten cents on the dollar. Then these same greedy pigs pay
off politicians to keep the working class divided by race and class, angrily
pointing ay each other as the reason they just can’t make ends meet for their
families.
No less
than Sen. Bernie Sanders figured this out, and developed a strong national
following during the Democratic presidential primaries. Problem was as good as
Bernie was at pointing out the problems at their source, when you asked for a
plan to deal with the situation at the source, he didn’t have one. You know,
he’s like that guy from the commercials who is there only to tell you have a
problem with termites in your home, but is not there to do anything about it.
That’s the
tragic realization many a Trump supporter is going to arrive at. This guy
promised lots of action, but is not going to be able to deliver on anything
that will make the lives of the little people he suckered any better in the
long run. Trump was slick enough to get folks to vote against their own self
interests, under the guise that they would be sticking it to “Corrupt Hillary”
and those lousy Democrats in the process.
Who knows?
This charade may last the full four years, maybe not. But one thing is for sure….it’s
going to get a whole lot worse for everybody, before it gets better for
anybody.
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HISTORICAL MARKER
COMMEMORATING
WILMINGTON TEN
DEDICATED TODAY
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Thanks to
the drive and vision of a group of committed community leaders, an historical
marker commemorating the legacy of the Wilmington Ten and their struggle
against racism was unveiled earlier today near Gregory Congregational United
Church of Christ on 609 Nun Street.
The marker,
approved by the Wilmington City Council and Commission on African-American
History, is the culmination of events in recent years that led to the 2012
official pardoning of the ten civil rights activists- nine black males and one
white female - who stood against racial
bias in the New Hanover County Public School System after the force closing of
all-black Williston Senior High School
in 1968.
The ten –
the Rev. Benjamin Chavis,
Jr.; Connie Tindall; Marvin "Chili" Patrick; Wayne Moore; Reginald
Epps; Jerry Jacobs; James "Bun" McKoy; Willie Earl Vereen; William
"Joe" Wright, Jr.; and Ann Shepard, were all falsely convicted in
connection with the Feb. 1971 firebombing of a white-owned grocery store and
subsequent sniper attack on police and firemen during citywide unrest, and
sentenced to 282 years in prison.
A worldwide movement saw the Ten
labeled as “politcal prisoners” by Amnesty
International, spurring marches and demonstrations across the globe as
their case was repeatedly being appealed. Finally, in Dec. 1980, the US Fourth
Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the state convictions against the Ten based on
prosecutorial misconduct.
Thirty-two years later, in an effort
led by The Wilmington Journal, the National Newspaper Publishers Association,
the NCNAACP and the Wilmington community, then NC Governor Beverly Perdue
issued six pardons of innocence for the surviving members of the Wilmington
Ten, and four certificates posthumously for the late Connie Tindall, Ann
Shepard, Jerry Jacobs and William “Joe” Wright, Jr.
Today’ historical marker
commemorates the courageous stand the city’s boycotting black students took as
they sought sanctuary in Gregory Congregational Church during that first week
in February 1971, only to be targeted by white supremacists who attacked the
church to stop their cause.
“I’ve been saying for quite some
time that they needed soemthing that people could visualize about the movement
which occurred at that time,” Karen Clay Beatty of the Friends Committee of the
Wilmington Ten told The Journal. She had been pondering the idea of some kind
of marker for some time, but decided over a year ago that the time had come to
act, so Beatty began floating the idea in the community in order to build a
base of support.
Soon Beatty was urged to develop a
proposal to present to the city, and she eventually enlisted the aid of local
citizens, Wilmington Ten family members , and Class of 1971 alums from New
Hanover High School and Hoggard High School. – all who later formed the Friends
of the Wilmington Ten Committee.
The proposal was presented to the
Comission on African-American History, which, after several months, eventually
presented the proposal to a city committee. Once reviewed, the proposal, with
Councilman Dr. Earl Sheridan’s assisatnce, was ultimately presented to the
Wilmington City Council for approval, which it was last July through
resolution.
The Wilmington Ten marker reads, “ON
THIS BLOCK AT GREGORY CONGREGATIONAL UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST WAS THE FOCAL
POINT OF THE WILMINGTON TEN PROTESTS. STEMMING FROM PROTESTS SURROUNDING SCHOOL
DESEGREGATION IN 1971. THE WILMINGTON TEN WERE IMPRISONED FOR A DECADE ON THE
CHARGE OF FIREBOMBING A LOCAL GROCERY STORE KNOWN AS “MIKE’S.” THEIR CASE DREW
INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION FROM HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS AS BEING COMMUTED AND THEY
WERE PARDONED IN 2012 BY N.C. GOVERNOR BEVERLY PERDUE.”
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EXCLUSIVE
JUSTICE-ELECT MORGAN
PROUD OF HIGH COURT
WIN
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
If there
was one undisputed Democratic winner from North Carolina’s Nov. 8th
general election, it was Wake Superior Court Judge Mike Morgan, who unseated
Republican Associate state Supreme Court Justice Robert Edmunds, 54 to 45.6
percent.
“I feel tremendously
wonderful about it,” the new justice-elect, 60, said Sunday morning during an
exclusive phone interview with The
Chronicle. “The voters of North Carolina have given me a resounding victory
and are allowing me to serve the state at the highest level of the North
Carolina Supreme Court. So I’m very pleased, very proud and very humbled at
this opportunity.”
Compared to many other marquee race
results on the ballot election night, “resounding” is certainly an appropriate
description of Justice-elect Morgan’s victory.
According
to final unofficial numbers in the Morgan-Edmunds race, the Democrat won with
2,134,015 votes statewide, bolstered by 1,383,585 One Stop early votes between
Oct. 20-27, and 676,836 ballots on Election Day, as well as a number of mail-in
absentee ballots and provisional votes.
Justice
Edmunds was over 300,000 votes short across all categories.
Some
observers have been particularly curious about how, and why Morgan was able to
do so well against Edmunds, while every Democratic appellate court candidate,
even the incumbents, fell to a Republican opponent.
Unlike the
Court of Appeals races, the NC Supreme Court race was not partisan labeled on
the ballot, so neither Judge Morgan or Justice Edmunds were identified with
their respective parties under their names. Some observers believe this was key
because, in order to gain partisan advantage, GOP lawmakers determined that
Republican candidates would be listed first in each partisan contest.
With
straight ticket balloting eliminated, all Republicans had to do was simply vote
for the first name in every category on the ballot. But for some reason, Judge Morgan’s name, not Justice Edmunds’, was
listed first in the non-partisan Supreme Court race, which may have caused some
confusion with Republican voters not familiar with either candidate, resulting
in the over 300,000-vote win for Morgan, some analysts, who called it “a
mistake,” believe.
Justice-elect
Morgan disagrees, calling that “ just speculation.” Morgan noted that he ran on his almost 30
years in the judiciary serving at every level, including as a trial judge,
something Justice Edmunds couldn’t claim. Morgan campaigned “vigorously” in
every part of the state and established “…personal contact with the voters.”
Morgan also
credits his campaign team for great organizing and establishing a good,
“strong” social media presence.
“I had a
message that was embraced by the voters, and that is that the state Supreme
Court needs to be fair, impartial, above reproach, and clear of any politics. So
to speculate and say that the lack of designation of Democrat and Republican,
is not only sheer speculation, but also sour grapes.”
Justice
Edmunds also found himself targeted by an outside progressive special interest
group in a campaign television commercial called “the snake ad,” for writing
the lead opinion upholding the Republican-led state legislature’s 2011
redistricting map that was later ruled unconstitutional by a panel of
three-federal District Court judges last August for creating congressional voting
districts by race.
Edmunds did
write that overturned 4-3 opinion, but maintained that the campaign ad
suggesting that he was somehow racist because he did, were unfair.
In the aftermath of Justice-elect
Morgan’s election victory came reports that Republican legislative leadership,
in a move to counter a Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, is considering offsetting
what would be a 4-3 Democrat majority on the state Supreme Court with Morgan’s
addition, by appointing two additional, presumably Republican associate
justices during the special session Gov. McCrory is planning to call for Hurricane
Matthew disaster relief.
The state Constitution allows for a
total of nine justices to serve, which includes the chief justice.
The Charlotte Observer called the
alleged Republican plot “…blatantly offensive.” Many activists, including
NCNAACP President Rev. William Barber, are blasting the idea as a “power grab.”
“This is wrong because it is a
form of partisan scheming designed to go around the people, and a vote of the
people,” Rev. Barber says. “This also violates the fundamental concept of
separation of powers when a partisan-elected governor and legislature seeks to
stack the judicial body, a totally separate part of government, for partisan
control. We will fight and stand against this immoral and
unconstitutional power grab as should all North Carolinians.”
Justice-elect Morgan also wasn’t pleased.
“The concern is, in light of the
fact that the voters have stated by their votes Tuesday that they reject the
politicalization of our North Carolina Supreme Court, [they] do not want the
justices to have any political leanings, and the voters want to make sure that
our highest court is perceived as being fair and impartial in every decision,”
Morgan said. “I cannot comment on the
pending or impending actions of the legislature, but I will say it causes me
some concern in light of the most recent election results.”
When told that many in North
Carolina’s African-American community are proud of not only his election to the
state’s High Court, Justice-elect Morgan said he was proud to be the first
African-American to be elected to the state Supreme Court without first being
appointed by a governor. Morgan added that he is now the only African-American
male on the High Court (Associate Justice Cheri Beasley is currently the only
black female on the court).
Justice-elect
Morgan added that his election now means, not only for African-Americans, but for
all citizens of North Carolina “…the strengthening of the [state Supreme Court]
through diversity.”
Justice-elect
Mike Morgan will be sworn into office in January 2017.
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BLACK DEMOCRATS
LAMENT TOUGH ELECTION
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Most
Democrats agree that the damage they suffered nationally and statewide after
the 2016 general election cannot be underestimated. For black Democrats in North Carolina and Forsyth County, beyond the decisive victory of Wake Superior
Court Judge Mike Morgan for the state Supreme Court, and Lynne Johnson, the first
African-American elected as county Register of Deeds, there is particular consternation.
With the
2018 congressional midterm elections the next electoral challenge, black
Democrats say the lessons learned from the party’s poor showing should not be
ignored.
From a statewide perspective, Linda
Wilkins-Daniels, president of the African-American Caucus of the NC Democratic
Party, says Democratic “…party
elites weren’t listening to the cries of the people whose screams for help fell
on deaf ears. Politicians who were elected to represent the people opted to
serve corporations, lobbyists and special interest groups. Thus, a silent
majority of
Republicans,
independents and disgruntled Democrats who felt invisible to the Democratic
Party emerged, and decided to stay home or vote for a flawed man who promised
hope.”
Wilkins-Daniels also charges that if
African-American turnout was down, it’s because “… an infrastructure for
African American mobilization wasn’t properly addressed or implemented.”
“The lack of African American
enthusiasm and failure to turn out record levels, as in 2008 and 2012, lies
with the lack of investment in the African American community from the
Democratic National Committee (DNC), Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee (DCCC), National Governors Association (NGA), Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Super PACs,” Wilkins-Daniels continued.
“Democratic insiders and
Progressives have been oblivious to investing in voters of color and have taken
this vote for granted. This is a sad commentary that African American Democrats
are disgusted and feel as though they’re being taken for a ride down the same
old road. Washington insiders holding the purse strings consider African
American Democratic voters irrelevant or simply do not care to invest in an
infrastructure that will mobilize African Americans. Values are
where
your budget is. “
Wilkins-Daniels continued that it
was a mistake for party leaders to believe that African-Americans would
automatically vote Democrat, instead of choosing to stay home this election,
which many did.
“The American people sent an
additional message that economic reform requires political reform. Why has the
federal government worked so long only for those at the top? The answer is
money – and the people want this system changed.”
Saying that the American people
“…sent a thunderous message that the system is rigged,” Pres. Wilkins-Daniels
further charged that progressive Democrats have mistakenly invested as much as
$200 million in other election priorities besides African-American voter
mobilization.
“It pains me to see African
Americans literally begging for funds to get out the vote in the African
American community and the status quo viewing and questioning our commitment to
the party,” she said. It’s shameful that
Washington insiders send money to white organizations that promise to galvanize
African Americans and get them to the polls, but lack credibility and have no
connection with African Americans. They simply want the vote. When white
organizations fail they quickly blame African Americans. When numbers are
unfavorable, Democrats panic and in a last-ditch effort bring a few leftovers
for African Americans to get out the vote. “
Wilkins-Daniels further charges that
the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign failed to listen to grassroots
workers who knew their communities better than most.
“Many complained about the lack of
enthusiasm on the ground for Hillary Clinton in their communities, people
identified in the system as strong supporters of
Barack
Obama constantly hung up on phone bankers, yet the campaign didn’t want to hear
those things.”
“After Democratic Party
introspection, the Democratic National Committee (DNC), Democratic
Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), National Governors Association (NGA),
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and Super
PACs
must invest in an African American mobilization infrastructure,” AAC-NCDP Pres.
Wilkins-Daniels concluded. “The Democratic Party has been my party of choice
but the voices of many have been replaced by a few and that’s a sad commentary
on democracy. The time of reckoning is now and it starts in Washington.”
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 11-17-16
KALVIN MICHAEL SMITH
RELEASED FROM PRISON AFTER 20 YEARS
[WINSTON-SALEM]
After almost 20 years in prison, Kalvin Michael Smith was ordered released from
prison last week after serving time for brutal beating and armed robbery he’s
always maintained he did not commit. Smith, 45, was convicted of the 1995
assault on an assistant store manager and sent tp prison for 29 years. Experts
have always maintained that the original police investigation was “sloppy” at
best, and Smith said he wasn’t even in the neighborhood of the crime at the
time. His new attorneys petitioned the court that Smith received ineffective
counsel at the first trial, failing to introduce mitigating evidence during
original sentencing that would have decidedly lowered his time behind bars.
Based on a motion of time served, Smith was released last week. He is now
proceeding to prove his innocence to clear his name.
CHARLOTTE POLICE
SHOOTING VICTIM FATALLY SHOT IN THE BACK, AUTOPSY SHOWS
[CHARLOTTE]
Keith Lamont Scott, the black man a Charlotte police officer fatally shot in
the parking lot of an apartment complex in September, was shot once in the back,
and in the abdomen, an autopsy reveals. Police say Scott had pulled a handgun,
and ignored repeated police orders to drop it. Scott’s killing ignited several
days of protest marches and some violence.
DURHAM ELECTION
OFFICIAL SAYS VOTE COUNT WON’T HELP MCCRORY
[DURHAM]
Amid charges that something was untoward with Durham County not counting over
90,000 votes on Election night that helped Democrat Roy Cooper to outpoint
Republican Gov. Pat McCrory by almost 5,000 votes, the Republican chairman of
the Durham County Board of Elections maintains that nothing wrong was done, and
the late addition of the 90,000+ ballots was purely because a machine
malfunction would not allow it to be any other way but manually. An attorney
for the state GOP has filed a protest with the state Board of elections. The
official canvass of all ballots in the state elections are scheduled to be
finished on Friday, Nov. 18th.
ABSENTEE BALLOTS IN BLADEN COUNTY CHALLENGED
[BLADEN
COUNTY] The re-election campaign of Gov. Pat McCrory has filed a formal
complaint against a political action committee funded by the NC Democratic
Party, alleging that hundreds of fraudulent absentee ballots were cast in
Bladen County on behalf of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Roy Cooper and
other Democratic candidates. Both the Cooper campaign and the NCDP deny any
wrongdoing. The State Board of Elections
is investigating.
MCCRORY ASKS CONGRESS
FOR $1 BILLION IN HURRICANE DISASTER RELIEF
[RALEIGH] Gov. Pat McCrory is asking Congress for over
$1 billion in disaster relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew to help
with recovery and repairs. According to the Governor’s office, over 30,000
businesses were impacted by massive flooding in several counties, along with
$400 million in crop losses. Over 3700 people were moved to shelters, as 48
counties qualified for disaster relief.
The economic losses total approximately $2 billion, the Governor’s
Office adds. McCrory is expected to call a special session of the legislature
to determine how much of the $1.6 billion rainy day fund should be used.
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