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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[josh]

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2019/06/28/matthew-delmont-biden-harris-busing-segregation/

Matthew Delmont on Biden comments: Idea that desegregation requires local buy-in 'farcical'

“I think part of what the exchange last night illustrated was that, the scholars who have looked at outcomes of the busing programs that were actually put in place, looking back to see how students did a decade and two decades later — I’m thinking of Amy Stuart Wells at Columbia — found that by and large, students had positive experiences, had different opportunities. So that the reality on the ground was a lot of busing programs succeeded, or rather that school desegregation plans that used busing succeeded.”

“But busing as a political term, I argue in the book, was a failure, because the narrative that came out of it from the media and politicians was almost only negative. It only emphasized the inconvenience to white families and white students. It emphasized that it was going to be costly, it emphasized all of the negative things without talking about the constitutional rights of black students. It talked about the feelings of white people rather than the constitutional rights of black students.”

”And I think in that very small soundbite, that exchange between Harris and Biden, illustrated that. Harris was speaking to her positive experience as a student, and Biden was speaking more to what this is politically — it doesn’t always poll well, particularly with white parents.”

[josh]

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/06/20/company-runs-immigration-detention-centers-top-donor-two-texas-congressmen

It's actually three.

[josh]

The notion that the state has the power to assume consent for a blood test if you are unconscious is horrifying, possibly worse than the case in which if you do not declare that you are invoking you right to remain silent, the police can assume you are not doing so and use your silence against you.

These are eroding rights.

It's a problem.

Or it would be if we actually dealt with the climate crisis. If we don't, then I suppose the fraying Bill of Rights really doesn't matter much, does it?

[bodiddley]

https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2019/06/28/matthew-delmont-biden-harris-busing-segregation/

Interesting analysis.

But Biden was full of ish throughout the topic.
He says that he wasn't against busing, just federal involvement in mandating busing.  But that was the whole key.  Plenty of local gov'ts were either staunchly against integrating their schools, or were just not going to do anything about it (either being racist or simply not wanting to piss off the white and vocal majority).

So without fed mandated busing, integration wasn't going to occur in many places.  leaving it up to local gov'ts meant the racists, segregationists, and foot-draggers would triumph in many parts of the country.

[bodiddley]

I agree with a lot of folks that most Americans don't know the racial history of America.  Many seem to think that brown v. Board was decided and then things got better.  Well, there was another case a full decade later, usually referred to as Brown II, in which the SCOTUS, clearly frustrated that little desegregation enforcement had occurred in the 50's and early 60's, said essentially, segregation must be ended/remedied immediately.

Plenty of school districts tried to ignore this order, and lawsuits proliferated trying to enforce desegregation.  Busing became a favored solution, because housing patterns were so segregated, partly or even largely due to other forms of illegal racial discrimination, such as not hiring blacks so they didn't have the jobs/money to move into middle class neighborhoods, and redlining, in which real estate agents and banks often colluded to prevent integrated neighborhoods.

Resistance to desegregation and busing was so strong that a couple of counties in Virginia simply closed all of their public school rather than allow integrated public schools.

But it is true that "busing" makes it sound like an inconvenient shuffling around, while ignoring the very real and positive change and opportunity it opened up for many minorities (good well-funded schools; a chance to meet and compete with more privileged kids, etc.).  And the very real and beneficial changes it brought about in American society.

[LarryBnDC]

If your electoral strategy depends on fewer people voting it means you know your policies suck for most people.

GOP strategy: if you can’t win elections fairly, cheat.

https://medium.com/@a_gillum/how-to-fight-floridas-new-poll-tax-c0c930a926d2

[josh]

On the subject of busing:

“Well, [busing is] something that they’ve done for a long period of time. You know, there aren’t that many ways you’re going to get people to schools… It is certainly a primary method of getting people to schools,” Trump said.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-busing-853745/

As for Biden... he's made all sorts of claims of what his prior position was. He said he was opposed to Education Department ordered busing, but not other busing. He said he was only opposed to federal mandated busing. And he said he was only opposed to court ordered busing. Depends on when you listen to him.

In the debate, he said to Harris:
“What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That’s what I opposed,”

"On Friday, Biden emphasized that he had always supported federally imposed busing to overcome official, rather than de facto, school segregation. "

These ae in stark contrast to what his position really was:
“I oppose busing. It’s an asinine concept, the utility of which has never been proven to me. I’ve gotten to the point where I think our only recourse to eliminate busing may be a constitutional amendment.”

Then again, he opposed Head Start; He opposed affirmative action. And he hasn't exactly embraced them since.

[barton]

If your electoral strategy depends on fewer people voting it means you know your policies suck for most people.

GOP strategy: if you can’t win elections fairly, cheat.

https://medium.com/@a_gillum/how-to-fight-floridas-new-poll-tax-c0c930a926d2

How do those people look at themselves in the mirror?   I am sending money to Desmond Meade's WGTV initiative.   DeSantis and the FL legislature are craven barbarians who need to be voted out.  Before this country invests further in restoring democracy in some faraway country, it needs to restore democracy in its swampy peninsula.

[josh]

If your electoral strategy depends on fewer people voting it means you know your policies suck for most people.

GOP strategy: if you can’t win elections fairly, cheat.

https://medium.com/@a_gillum/how-to-fight-floridas-new-poll-tax-c0c930a926d2

How do those people look at themselves in the mirror?   I am sending money to Desmond Meade's WGTV initiative.   DeSantis and the FL legislature are craven barbarians who need to be voted out.  Before this country invests further in restoring democracy in some faraway country, it needs to restore democracy in its swampy peninsula.

Not to mention making sure that either its swampy peninsula remains habitable or that the folks who will lose their homes to the rising waters have safe harbor.

[barton]

Yup - I've seen projected maps where 60+ percent of FL is submerged late in the century.   Relevant to that is another story I wanted to pass along here....

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/29/737029654/north-carolina-tries-to-clean-up-its-electricity

It's a hot issue in North Carolina. Last fall, Gov. Roy Cooper declared that the state would try to reduce its greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2025, compared 2005 levels.

The state can do this most quickly and easily at power plants, replacing coal and gas with wind and solar power. So energy experts now are trying to hammer out a plan for how to do it. The goal is controversial, but the debate isn't nearly as partisan as it used to be. That's mainly because wind and solar power have become much cheaper.

They've won over state legislator John Szoka. "I would describe myself as a conservative Republican who has come to believe in renewable energy based on the economic facts behind it," he says.   

[josh]

Yup - I've seen projected maps where 60+ percent of FL is submerged late in the century.   Relevant to that is another story I wanted to pass along here....

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/29/737029654/north-carolina-tries-to-clean-up-its-electricity

It's a hot issue in North Carolina. Last fall, Gov. Roy Cooper declared that the state would try to reduce its greenhouse emissions by 40% by 2025, compared 2005 levels.

The state can do this most quickly and easily at power plants, replacing coal and gas with wind and solar power. So energy experts now are trying to hammer out a plan for how to do it. The goal is controversial, but the debate isn't nearly as partisan as it used to be. That's mainly because wind and solar power have become much cheaper.

They've won over state legislator John Szoka. "I would describe myself as a conservative Republican who has come to believe in renewable energy based on the economic facts behind it," he says.   

This is, to me, the only hope for the world: pragmatism and self-enlightened greed.

[Driver125]

As for Biden... he's made all sorts of claims of what his prior position was.

Just prior to his entering the race there was much talk as to wether Joe was yesterday’s news….people wondering if he was going to be in touch with the newer, more leftist positions of some of the Democratic hopefuls. So what does Joe the Bonehead do, right out of the box? Gets himself embroiled in some useless argument about his co-operation with segregationist senators from some 30 or 40 years ago. Smart, Joe. You could not have dug yourself a swampier hole if you had dug it yourself. Wait a minute, you did dig it yourself! Nobody wanted to hear about how cozy you were with some chicken-eaten’, finger lickin’ good ole boys from way back. What they wanted to hear about was how you were going to get rid of the Big Mac eating orange blob currently camped in the Oval Office. That is priority one. Personally, I am glad Harris torched him in the debates the other day. I think Joe is like an old ballplayer who’s mind tells him he could still play but whose body tells him something different. The sooner he eases into retirement and allows one of the more energetic Dems to come forward the better.

[FlyingVProd]

Where I grew up, out in the Desert of Southern California, we did not have very many Black kids.

Then, Lancaster elected a Black Mayor, Mayor Henry Hearns.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Henry_Hearns,_mayor_of_Lancaster.jpg

https://henryhearns.org/

Mayor Hearns started bringing the poor Black people from Los Angeles to Lancaster, and he built welfare housing in the Desert, and brought the poor Black people from Los Angeles to the free welfare housing in Lancaster.

Lancaster used to be a small aerospace town, where the Space Shuttles were built, and top secret aircraft, and satellites, and stuff. Now the population of Lancaster is 150,000 people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancaster,_California

And the population of the Antelope Valley is about 500,000.

Because of Henry Hearns the population of Lancaster became mixed quickly, and now there are a large number of Blacks in Lancaster. Unfortunately as they left Compton and Watts and South Central to go out to the peaceful Desert, they brought the gangs with them to the Desert. The Desert was peaceful, and now the Desert has gang violence. And the Desert is full of meth addicts. What was once a good place to live and to raise your kids, with a local job making spaceships and airplanes, etc, became a ghetto with high crime.

You tell me how the white people ruin a neighborhood, go look at the Antelope Valley. And the proof is in the pudding, you gotta clean it up to prove that Black people do not ruin neighborhoods.

The Antelope Valley has great schools, and a great community college.

Here is an example of a class at AVC...

-------------

Antelope Valley College’s Aircraft Fabrication & Assembly Rapid Training Program. This program is a great partnership between AVC and local community partners. Cohorts of 24 students take classes in compressed 8 week sessions, gaining valuable hands on training in aircraft fabrication while earning transferrable college credits. The program is rigorous with students spending well beyond 40 hours per week in this classroom and lab setting. With two cohorts, classes begin at 6:30 a.m. and end at 10 pm, six days per week. The program has a 90% job placement rate.
 
Link...
 
https://www.avc.edu/

---------------

The Black people in the Antelope Valley have all of the benefits that I had, and they are behaving foolishly, they need to clean up their act. If they want to they can work, and have a good life in the Antelope Valley. And even just a little thing like mowing your neighbors' lawns will pay your bills, it is not "dog eat dog" and it is not the "jungle" it is the Desert of Southern California, and you can mow a couple of lawns and buy a steak dinner. We even had hot air balloons, and I earned sixty dollars an hour working as a hot air balloon crew.

A lot of my friends have Black girlfriends now, I have family with Black girlfriends too. Everyone is mixing.

They are calling Lancaster a "ghetto." It pisses me off. We built the fucking Space Shuttles. Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier at Edwards. Watch the movie "The Right Stuff." Lancaster is not a "Ghetto."

And they call Anaheim a "ghetto" too. What a bunch of bullshit. Anaheim is not a ghetto, Anaheim is great.

Salute,

Tony V.

[josh]

https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/30/politics/stephanie-grisham-north-korea-scuffle/index.html

Working for Donald is different from working for Melania, wouldn't you say, Stephanie Grisham?

Been there for less than a week and in trouble already.  Wonder how long this Communications Director will last.

[LarryBnDC]

This shit should really piss you off.

https://mobile.twitter.com/aodespair/status/1145167207330193408?s=21