CASH IN THE APPLE FOR 08-24-17
By Cash Michaels
FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS? IT TOLLS FOR WHITE SUPREMACY! - Pick up any
newspaper, or turn on any news program within the past two weeks since the Charlottesville tragedy,
and you’ll swear that white folks were the ones who discovered white supremacy. Seriously. There was
a time that to hear a white person on TV say anything about white supremacy without denying that it
existed was virtually impossible.
And yes, Bill O’Reilly comes to mind. He never accepted that white supremacy existed, and he
never will.
Of course, the current impassioned conversation about white supremacy comes at a price, namely the
precious life of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, the young woman who was senselessly assassinated by an
alleged neo-Nazi coward who killed her with his car.
I don’t care what color you are, your human heart had to bleed for this young woman who came out
to take a peaceful stand against those spouting, and promoting hate in this nation. White supremacists.
In case you’re new to the country, white supremacy, to put it bluntly, is when those of caucasian
European descent believe the age-old lie that GOD made them superior to other human beings, especially
those of color. To add insult to injury, these deluded folks believe GOD has given them dominion over other
People…to rule the Earth, as it were.
What idiots! Common sense tells us that Almighty GOD has made us all His children to be equal in His
sight. But of course I guess we can blame this on Adam and Eve for committing the Original Sin, causing
greed, envy and a thirst for unfettered power, among other sins.
But not to be outdone by the Bible, naturally white supremacists have taken GOD’s Word an twisted it
to justify their superiority beliefs, thus, killing and raping people of color, let alone each other, for hundreds
of years. Indeed world wars have been started because of this sickness. Anyone every hear of a man called
Adolf Hitler?
So to hear white people today talk disparagingly about white supremacy today as if they have always
been against it is startling indeed. And yet, I’m glad it’s happening. And I’m especially glad its happening
among white young people who have studied their history, and are now putting that knowledge to good use.
You see, right-wing conservatives are always complaining about what is taught on our liberal arts
campuses, and the fact that there is little diversity of thought in our colleges and universities.
But let me ask you this… when is the last time you heard Tucker Carlson, or any of those other
bright-boy conservative know-it-alls ever so much as admit that white supremacy even exists? In fact, does
Carlson and the rest of his dim-witted crew on Fox work over-time trying to prove that Black Lives Matter
is responsible for all of the ills of the world?
And the very fact that Fox (even though it is being trounced by MSNBC everyday) still has an audience
after all of the sexual harassment that goes over there, tells you that there are still plenty of white
supremacists left in the world.
And they all depend on Fox…especially the one in the White House!
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WILL THE FEDERAL COURT ACCEPT
NEW REDISTRICTING MAPS?
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
After much ado, the newly proposed legislative redistricting maps were released last
weekend, with statewide public hearings held on Tuesday, House and Senate committee
votes scheduled for today and /or Friday, and possibly a state House floor vote scheduled
either Friday or Monday. Before the process is completed, both legislative houses are
expected to have ratified each other’s maps, and Democrats are expected to unveil their own
maps.
Unlike in 2011, race was not among the criteria used in drawing the new maps.
Democrats, as expected, have already turned thumbs down on the new GOP-leaning maps,
which, by order of a three-judge US District panel, are supposed to remedy the 28 out of 170
illegal and unconstitutional racial gerrymanders drawn into the 2011 legislative redistricting
maps. The three-judge panel ordered the districts redrawn year ago, and the US Supreme Court
affirmed that decision last June.
The judicial panel has since, after blasting Republican legislative leaders for deliberately
dragging their feet, ordered them to produce remedied maps by Sept. 1st (Sept. 15th at the
latest) or else face having a court-appointed special master draw them, something that Democrats,
and many critics of the pending new Republican maps would welcome because it would take the GOP
partisanship out of the process.
“My initial impression of the maps is that they’re up to the same shenanigans they were up to before the
court slapped them on the wrist. So now maybe the court will smack ‘em upside the head and they’ll get the
message more clearly,” Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue told Spectrum News Monday. Blue added that even
Though the Republicans said they would not employ race as one of the criteria in redrawing the maps, there’s
little question they use it to their advantage where they could.”
Speakers at the satellite public hearings were just as damning of the maps. In Raleigh, a young mother
named “Eva” said she was embarrassed that North Carolina was “no longer a democracy.” She added that the
the process “feels like computerized apartheid.”
Eva closed by warning Republicans, ‘Don’t act like nazis - gerrymandering is white supremacy.”
As they stand now, 33 of the proposed Senate districts, and 76 of the proposed 120 state House districts
could be won by Pres. Donald Trump, based of election criteria used to draw the new maps. Only ten of
50 Senate districts will be competitive, an analysis shows, with seven of them leaning Republican.
Only 19 of the 120 House districts are deemed competitive, with 12 leaning Republican. In effect, the
GOP would retain their current super majorities in both houses for the 2018 midterm elections (Republicans
currently hold 74 House seats and 35 Senate seats).
“The map-drawing process was terrible,” opined Bob Hall, executive director of Democracy NC,
a non-partisan public policy group. “The end result may be a small improvement, but overall, our quick
review shows that about 90% of the new General Assembly districts are solidly tilted to favor one party
or another – mostly to the advantage of the Republican mapmakers.”
“With these new maps, legislative leaders continue to rig our elections, reduce competition,
and protect themselves from being held accountable for their actions in Raleigh,” Hall continued.
“They want us to pay our taxes and shut up.”
Even though there was double-bunking” of a handful of incumbent lawmakers in some of the
newly redrawn districts, for the most part, incumbents were protected. If the maps hold as planned, at least
three African-American Democrat state lawmakers will have to fend off a Republican incumbent drawn
into the same district come the 2018 mid-term elections.
Sen. Erica Smith-Ingram, a two-term District 3 Democrat representing Edgecombe, Chowan and
Northampton counties, will have to face three-term District 1 Republican State Sen. Bill Cook from
Beaufort, Camden and Currituck counties in a race for District 3.
In the state House, Rep. Robert Reives II, Democrat from Chatham and Lee counties, is double-bunked
with Republican Rep. John Sauls of District 51, currently representing Harnett and Lee counties. Rep. Jean
Farmer-Butterfield, Wilson County Democrat, has also been double-bunked against Republican Rep. Susan
Martin, but that district went to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Also, Rep. Bobbie Richardson, a District 7 three-term Democrat representing Franklin and Nash counties,
has also been drawn into a Republican-leaning district.
Back to the state Senate, Sen. Angela Bryant, District 4 Democrat of Halifax, Nash and Wilson counties
and chair of the NC Legislative Black Caucus, is being moved into District 11 that is Republican-leaning, and
went for Trump in 2016 56-40 percent over Hillary Clinton.
In Forsyth County, Sen. Paul Lowe’s district would change to District 29. Rep. Evelyn Terry and Ed Hanes
will retain their current district designations with few precinct changes. Republican representatives Lambeth and
Conrad will see changes.
Still, Rep. Terry, who was present at the redistricting hearing in Guilford county Tuesday,
is not pleased at all with the Republican-leaning House map.
On both the House and Senate maps there are four new districts drawn that currently don’t have incumbents.
In Guilford County, House Rep. Amos Quick III, District 58 Democrat, was also not pleased with how his
district was redrawn, saying that people he’s spoken with wanted more stability. Still, regardless of the final configuration,
he promises to serve the constituency that he’s given.
“In the totality of the maps, they only tweaked, but did not remedy the reasons why they needed to be redrawn
anyway,” Rep. Quick said Tuesday, adding that black voters have told him that their voice and vote should be treated fairly and constitutionally.
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NCLBC SAYS ATMOSPHERE TOO HOT
FOR FREEDOM MONUMENT PROJECT
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The chair of the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus says her members believe the political atmosphere
is too racially caustic now, especially after the tragic events of Charlottesville two weeks ago, and subsequent growing controversy surrounding the removal of confederate statues and monuments statewide, to publicly lobby for funding for the long-planned Freedom Monument project.
“The consensus of our group is that we didn’t want to conflate the issue of the African-American monument, and lack thereof, to the confederate monument issue at this point,” said State Sen. Angela Bryant (D - District 4), NCLBC chair. “We think [both issues] should be addressed separately. We don’t want them to get into a competitive issue.”
It was last March when Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, first appropriated in his proposed budget a one-time funding of $200,000 towards the design and other planning surrounding the Freedom Monument, a state monument to be erected in honor of African-American contributions to the state. The project had been originally planned under the previous
administration of Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who wholeheartedly endorsed the project as “…an appropriate way to recognize the contributions to North Carolina’s history.”
Public hearings had been held statewide, and the NC Dept. of Natural and Cultural Resources, along with the NC African American Heritage Commission and NC Historical Commission, was coordinating.
But when Republican legislative leaders unveiled their final $24 billion fiscal budget in June, the Freedom Monument Project was nowhere in sight. But $5 million towards a $65 million Civil War Center in Fayetteville was.
With no funding from the GOP-led legislature, the Freedom Monument Project was automatically placed in limbo.
“Budgets show what you value,” said NC Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin. “Governor Cooper, through his budget, outlined how important it is that our state remember and honor our shared history. Republicans clearly feel otherwise – they’d rather give their offices an upgrade. I’m not sure the difference could be any clearer: Republicans value
themselves and their power, while Governor Cooper wants to see our state remember on capital grounds our full heritage.”
Jamal Little, a spokesperson for Gov. Cooper, said the governor still wants to see the African-American monument erected near the state Capitol in Raleigh.
"The Freedom monument is long overdue, and Governor Cooper still strongly supports funding the project,” Little said. “Unfortunately, the same legislative Republicans who are standing by North Carolina's confederate monuments neglected to include Governor Cooper's $200,000 request in the final budget. That's just wrong, and Gov. Cooper supports efforts by the NC Legislative Black Caucus to have the program funded.”
The governor’s strong and steady support is indeed important, but given the events of the past two weeks, even that is not enough to get Republican legislative leaders to drop their defenses, and realize that the Freedom Monument Project that all North Carolinians should share.
Since the violent Charlottesville demonstrations that saw the murder of a counter-protester by an alleged Neo-Nazi sympathizer, and then the taking down of a confederate statue by demonstrators in front of the Old Durham County Courthouse, the atmosphere has been highly charged, especially after Gov. Cooper announced that he wanted to see all confederate statues and monuments on state property removed because they celebrated white supremacy, and a 2015 law prohibiting such repealed.
State Senate President Pro-tem Phil Berger replied that that wasn’t going to happen, and that those monuments were important memorials to North Carolina’s southern heritage.
Sen. Bryant says trying to successfully navigate funding for the Freedom Monument Project in these current treacherous political waters would be foolhardy at best, so she and the rest of the NCLBC work continue to work behind the scenes until further notice.
“We still have negative risks that come with this project that we don’t necessarily need,” Sen. Bryant says.
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STATE NEWS BRIEFS for 08-24-17
THREE ARRESTED AS HUNDREDS PROTEST “SILENT SAM” STATUE
[CHAPEL HILL] An estimated 800 protesters jammed the site around the “Silent Sam” statue
on McCorkle Place on UNC- CH campus, demanding that the confederate soldier monument be removed. Three people
were arrested as university officers had trouble controlling the crowd. Earlier in the day, authorities had installed
double barricades around the statue to keep demonstrators from doing damage to it. Some protestors quipped that
given the barricades, Silent Sam was better protected than the students on campus. Others suggested that the
Statue be placed in a museum.
GREENSBORO CITY COUNCIL APOLOGIZES FOR 1979 KLAN-NAZI MURDERS
[GREENSBORO] In an unexpected move, undoubtedly because of the tragic events in Charlottesville, Va.
where a young woman was killed by allegedly by a neo-Nazi, the Greensboro City Council voted 7-1 to
apologize for the city’s role in the November 3, 1979 so-called “Greensboro Massacre.” Five anti-Klan demonstrators
were gunned down by Ku Klux Klan and Nazis in the predominately black Morningside Homes community. Ten
other demonstrators were wounded.After two trials, all of the white supremacists were acquitted of murder. During
a later investigation, it was determine that Greensboro police officers assigned to the area that day were nowhere to
be found when the shooting broke out.
ALAMANCE COMMISSIONER CALLS SLAVES “WORKERS”
[BURLINGTON] An Alamance County commissioner said during Monday evening’s county commission meeting
That he preferred calling slaves who worked for his family while he was growing up “workers.” Republican Commissioner
Tim Sutton, during a discussion about confederate statues, said, referring to his great-grandfather’s service in the
Confederate Army, “ “It is my understanding that when he died ... that some guys on the farm, you can call them slaves if
you want to, but I would just call them workers, that they raised a good bit of my family. When the time came, my
great-grandmother gave them land.” Sutton added, “I am not going to be a victim of political correctness. I am just not
going to do it. Label me all you want, say what you will about me.” Citizens attending the commission meeting were asking
that confederate statues be removed.
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