At first glance, the Iran nuclear deal appears to be another “other people’s problem” issue that does not relate to the everyday “bread-and-butter” concerns of the nationwide Black community. It’s not about another negative police relationship in which the police-as-warriors conflicts with the police-as-guardians. It’s not even about Cuba, or immigration (which both affect the Black community) or Obamacare. No, it doesn’t at first appear to be all that important to the Black community.
Category: Opinion
Posted inCounting the Cost
Can Hillary survive email controversy?
If you had asked me just a year ago if former Secretary of State and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would be the Democratic nominee for president of the United States, I’d have replied “no question.” I expected a near-coronation on the Democratic side, and a little rough-and-tumble on the Republican side.
Posted inCounting the Cost
Mike Huckabee doesn’t understand what matters
The 17-person race for the Republican nomination for president closely resembles a clown show, starring Donald Trump. The unfortunate contrast to Trump has been the tepid rhetoric of Jeb Bush, and the usual antics of New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Posted inCounting the Cost
Counting the Cost
Two prominent Black Maryland officials– Montgomery County Executive Issiah Leggett and Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III–have endorsed White Rep. Chris Van Hollen, over Black Congresswoman Donna F. Edwards in the race to replace retiring Maryland Sen. Barbara Mikulski.
Posted inPractical Politics
The politics of President Obama in Africa
Cementing his role as the African Diaspora president and hero of everywhere Africans, President Barack Obama spoke recently to a huge audience at the African Union headquarters in Addis Abba, Ethiopia. This was the headquarters featuring the great statue of Pan Africanist Kwame Nkrumah outside welcoming guests in, and the headquarters built for the African Union by the Chinese. The latter is part of the reason Mr. Obama was there.
Posted inOpinion
Feinstein files drought legislation; Chinook salmon near extinction?
Sen. Diane Feinstein this week filed her long-anticipated legislative response to the California drought. The veteran lawmaker wants to broker a compromise that has for four years eluded Congress as her home state reveals each day more fallowed fields and brown lawns.
Posted inPractical Politics
The politics of building presidential legacies
Lately we’ve been assaulted daily with details of speeches and sound bites from a deluge of Republican presidential hopefuls, especially Donald Trump. Sorry Republicans, none of you have a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the presidency in 2016. However comfortable and likeable a candidate the Republicans finally put up—most probably Jeb Bush—it really doesn’t matter. Barring some major scandal or national catastrophe that frightens everybody, a Democrat—most probably Hillary Clinton—will win.
Posted inCounting the Cost
For centuries, Black lives did not matter
It should be unnecessary for an activist movement to hinge on the principle of the equivalency of life. In the worlds of Democratic presidential candidates, there is a compelling need to point out that Black lives matter. The problem with stating the obvious is that White lives have always mattered, and institutional racism has structured a lesser value for Black lives.
Posted inCounting the Cost
Counting the Cost
Jerry Alan Bailey was sentenced to more than 30 years in federal prison for conspiring to violate federal narcotics laws.
Shauna Barry-Scott was sentenced to 20 years for having cocaine in her possession and intending to distribute it.
Posted inCounting the Cost
Tear down the walls of economic inequality
After a spirited debate, the South Carolina House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to remove the Confederate battle flag from Statehouse grounds at the urging of Gov. Nikki Haley, who quickly signed the measure into law.
