NNPA -
http://nnpa.org/nnpa_newswire/nnpa-honors-democratic-strategist-donna-brazile-with-2017-torch-award/
CASH IN THE APPLE FOR
3-30-17
HANKERCHIEF, REPUBLICANS? – No,
I don’t read the Bible as often as I should, but that doesn’t mean I don’t
remember some of its basic tenets.
One of the
most relevant beyond “Love thy neighbor” and “Thou shalt not steal,” is “You
reap what you sow.”
While
you’re at it, tack on a companion tenet – “do unto others as you would have
things done unto you.”
Having said
all of that, then given the past two months since Pres. Donald J. Trump has
taken office, one has to wonder if the Republicans read their Bibles less than
I do, cause Lord knows those clowns don’t remember any of it.
Lessons in
human compassion and decency seem to be completely lost on The Donald and his
boys. You could also add some common sense and basic intelligence to the mix as
well.
What is not
in any short supply, it seems, is arrogance, dishonesty, and a false sense of
superiority. These people believe actually think they can drink the water they
think they walk on.
However,
given what we’ve all seen, again within the first two months of the Trump
presidency, it is quite clear that these hypocrites can’t even run their noses,
let alone run the country. Their ineptitude
is only surpassed by their arrogance, and eclipsed by their dishonesty.
After all,
just how many lies have Trump and the Republicans told the American people
since the November elections? Everything from millions committing voter fraud
to Pres. Obama personally tying two tin cans together in order to illegally
“wiretap” Trump’s telephone calls, it’s all been shoved down our throats with
reckless abandon. And of course, if anyone, like the “left-wing” news media,
dare to uncover any of it, then they are called “the enemy of the American
people.”
So, is it
any wonder why when Trump and the House Republicans last week failed to repeal
and replace Obamacare , and FAILED, I might add, in SPECTACULAR fashion, folks
overwhelmingly jumped for joy? That have seven long years, and over 60
worthless House votes to repeal Pres. Obama’s signature law, Republicans fell
flat on their collective faces last week when they just couldn’t agree with
each on how to do it?
And to add
insult to injury, White House aides to Pres. Trump, allegedly acted like thugs
in trying to strong arm conservative Republicans to pass the repeal and replace
bill the president liked, or else?
And to add
even more insult to injury, leaks from conservatives who met Trump telling the
press that he didn’t have the foggiest idea about what was really in their
repeal and replace health care bill, and didn’t seem to care either.
These are
the people who did everything they could to win (and some allege colluded with
the Russians to steal) the election in 2016, just so that they could have total
control of running the country. Well, just like the panting dog who finally
catches the truck, now what are you going to do with it?
Thus far, I’m
not impressed. And I’m even less impressed when I see Republicans wailing on TV
about how they failed, and now look weak and foolish. Makes you want to find a
hankerchief to hand to these clowns so that they can dry their crocodile tears.
But I can’t find one right now.
Here, with
toilet paper do?
-30-
EXCLUSIVE
SEN. BLUE BELIEVES
DISTRICTS WILL BE
REDRAWN, SPECIAL
ELECTION WILL HAPPEN
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The state
Senate minority leader says he is “confident” that the US Supreme Court will
affirm a federal three-judge panel’s ruling last August that North Carolina’s
2011 redistricting maps were unconstitutional because of racial gerrymandering,
and that there will be a new map drawn, and special elections held this year.
State Sen.
Daniel T. Blue, Jr. {D-Wake] made that observation during a town hall meeting
he conducted in Raleigh March 23rd. What made the Democrat Senate
leader’s remarks pertinent was that that three-judge panel ruled last year
prior to the 2016 elections, further ordering that the NC General Assembly
redrawn the 2011 maps by March 15th, and special elections be held
by this November, with primaries in late August, early September.
But US
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily blocked that order in
January after Republican state lawmakers petitioned for an emergency stay.
Subsequently, nothing has been heard from the High Court since then, leaving
both state Democrats and Republicans anxious.
Republican
legislative leaders say the 2011 redistricting maps are legal and
constitutional, therefore there should be no redo, and special elections are
not needed before the regularly scheduled 2018 NC legislative elections.
“[We]… are grateful the U.S. Supreme
Court has quashed judicial activism and rejected an attempt to nullify the
votes of North Carolinians in the 2016 legislative elections,” said Senate
President Pro tem Phil Berger (R-Rockingham) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R – Cleveland)
in a joint statement then.
Democrats,
however, disagree. They say the three-judge federal panel found that 28 of North
Carolina’s House and Senate districts around Winston-Salem, Charlotte,
Greensboro, Durham, Raleigh and Fayetteville, along with rural areas in eastern
North Carolina, were drawn in violation of the US Constitution, which prohibits
the use of race as a primary factor in redistricting. Democrats further claim
that the Republican legislative majority deliberately “stacked-and-packed”
black Democrats into as few majority-minority districts as possible, thus
illegally diluting black voting strength in predominantly white voting
districts, so that Republicans could dominate in surrounding districts and
easily win those elections.
“I’m
confident, and most of the lawyers who practice in this area [of law] …are
confident that the [US] Supreme Court, when they look at the case, because it
has been appealed up there, will uphold the findings of the federal court that
this is unconstitutional,” Sen. Blue said last Thursday in Raleigh, adding,
“The case law says they have no choice.”
One of the
reasons for Sen. Blue’s confidence, he said, was when the US High Court sent a
case back to Alabama, which was the case which opened the floodgates on this
and gave us the legal authority to bring these lawsuits, it was a 5-4 majority.
The comforting fact was that [Justice Antonin] Scalia, who died, was in the
minority, so there still is a five-vote majority, 5-3 now. Even if [Pres. Trump nominee Judge Neil] Gorsach is
confirmed, there still is a 5-4 majority.
“I really
think that the ultimate decision that comes from the United States Supreme
Court, very well could be a 7-2 decision, or maybe even an 8-0 decision,
because redistricting was so bad and so egregious in North Carolina, that
anybody who studies these maps and looks at their background…[sees] clearly
that they are unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment - equal
protection under the law.”
Time is
getting tight, however, for new maps to be drawn, and special primaries, and
November elections, to be scheduled. Still, Blue holds out hope the High Court
won’t wait much longer to decide, and the 2011 “unconstitutional” redistricting
maps will be mothballed.
“We think that that’s going to be
changed, and that will then change the veto-proof majority. [in the NC General
Assembly],” Sen. Blue said. “It will make the governor more relevant because
his statewide impressions and opinions on things will then make a difference.”
-30-
ELLISON’S BROTHER IN
NC AGREES
PARTY MUST COMPETE
HARDER
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
In words
that echoed across the Democratic Party, newly appointed Deputy Chairman of the
Democratic National Committee, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), told the annual
meeting of the New Hampshire Democratic Party Saturday that the party should continue
to challenge Republicans not only in Washington, D.C., but especially in the
state legislatures and governorships.
“We can't just
say it's all about Trump,” Rep. Ellison told the gathering, later adding that
the fight to “literally save the nation” was just beginning. “We've got to have
a higher vision than just winning an election. When we set our sights as,
really, agents and champions for the American people, people start feeling the
flow."
The DNC deputy
chairman will be pleased to know that here in North Carolina, among those
agreeing with him is his brother, Eric, chairman of the Forsyth County
Democratic Party.
“In the past
nine years, we have lost over 950 seats, and we’re talking about state Houses,
governors, in addition to the congressional seats,” Chairman Ellison, who is
also a Winston-Salem attorney, said. “North Carolina is the best example of where
state governments are in a position to do just as much harm, if not more, than
our federal government,” an obvious reference to the GOP-led North Carolina
General Assembly, and its controversial laws like HB2, and court-cases seeking
to take power away from Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
“We do need to
call out the Republican Party when they put out false news, when they put out
statements which are lies, when they put out policies that they say are helping
the American people, when they are not,” Ellison said. ”I wholeheartedly
believe that we need to bring that fight, and need to bring that hard.”
No question
that Chairman Ellison sees Republican policies as a major hurdle towards
adequately addressing the needs of the grassroots, but he cautions that
fighting those policies should not be confused with fighting Republicans.
Ellison says the Democratic Party exists to serve all people, and it must do a
better job of getting that message out.
“When we ignore
whole sections of Democrats, we aren’t competing,” Ellison continued.
“We work on
behalf of all citizens, of all workers, so we don’t want to pick fights with
people just because they’re Republicans. We do want to pick a fight, and wage a
war for the best ideas for the citizens of Forsyth County, North Carolina [and
the nation],” he said. “We’re fighting the fight of ideas and policies, and
what’s best for working class people and the working poor.”
Ellison said
Democrats need to “stick to our high ideals, stick to our high value in
democracy…but we do need to compete smarter, and better.”
Acknowledging that there are “right-wing
zealots who just want to destroy government,” he also noted that there are
“moderate, reasonable Republicans” who could join with Democrats to bring about
constructive change.
Ellison pointed
to the schism that occurred last week when ultra-conservative GOP House Freedom
Caucus members refused to go along with President Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan
on the repeal-and-replace for Obamacare, forcing Ryan to pull the bill because
of insufficient Republican support.
Now some
moderate Republicans say maybe they can work with moderate Democrats to
accomplish mutual agendas, like improving roads and bridges in the nation’s
infrastructure.
Chairman
Ellison agrees that such a partnership could work, though he’s not clear on
whether North Carolina moderate Republicans are ready and willing.
“There is an
opportunity for us to have reasoned, debatable, government and democracy with
reasonable Republicans,” he said.
“Once we take
the Democratic Party back to the communities which we represent, back to
grassroots organizing, we will win. There are more registered Democrats than
Republicans in Forsyth County, in the state and the nation. We have to engage
those people in democracy, [because] when citizens sit on the sideline and
don’t participate, we get people like #45 (Trump) elected president.”
“If we do what
we’re supposed to do,” Chairman Ellison concluded, “…we win – period!”
-30-
STATE NEWS BRIEFS FOR 3-30-17
CHRONICLE SOLD TO TWO
WINSTON-SALEM COUNCILMEN
[WINSTON-SALEM]
Two African-American members of the Winston-Salem City Council – Derwin
Montgomery and James Taylor – have announced that their company, Chronicle
Media Group LLC, has purchased the Winston-Salem Chronicle, the city’s oldest
community newspaper serving the black community for over 40 years. The purchase is scheduled for completion in
May, 2017. Mr. Taylor has been named publisher, commencing when the sale is
completed. The Chronicle was founded by Ernie Pitt in 1974. The new owners
promise to continue the legacy of the Chronicle started by the Pitt family 42
years ago.
PRINCEVILLE RESIDENTS
TOLD TO RAISE HOMES TO PREVENT FUTURE FLOODING
[PRINCEVILLE]
Residents of the small predominately black Edgecombe county town first founded
by slaves were told Monday night to raise their homes two feet above flood
plain in order to prevent future flooding. The town leaders of Princeville say
doing so will help spare the kind of mas destruction experienced during
Hurricane Matthew last year, and Hurricane Floyd in 1999. While residents
aren’t required to raise their homes according to state standards, not doing so
could raise their home insurance rates. Residents, however, are frustrated that
more isn’t being done to safeguard the Tar River from overflowing its banks,
causing the flooding.
RALEIGH-CARY METRO
AREA ONE OF FASTEST GROWING PER U.S. CENSUS BUREAU
[RALEIGH]
According to the latest population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the
Raleigh-Cary Metropolitan area is one of the fastest growing areas in the
nation, with more than 1.3 million people. Based on figures from 2016 ending
last June 30th, that’s 2.5 percent more than the previous year. That
made the Raleigh metro area the 14th fasting growing in the nation,
and the fastest growing in North Carolina, outpacing Charlotte, which came in
second.
NCAA DEADLINE FOR HB
2 REPEAL AT 12 NOON TODAY
[RALEIGH]
At press time Tuesday, the NCAA gave the NC legislature until 12 noon today to
repeal the controversial HB2 “bathroom law,” that prevents transgender people
from using public bathrooms contrary to their birth gender, or various NCAA
sporting events in the state until 2022. An Associated Press report earlier
this week projected that the state could lose $3.7 billion in business for the
next 12 years if HB2 is not taken off the books. The law marked its first
anniversary last week with hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue from
cancelled concerts, sporting events, and employment. Republican state lawmakers
have steadfastly refused to repeal HB2, blaming Gov. Cooper for the delay.
Cooper has indicated, however, that he is willing to compromise.
-30-
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