Category Archives: Uncategorized

On Endorsements, Campaign Donations, The #BlackVote, #MediaBias and #Polling | #BernieSanders on Blog#42

We are bombarded daily with opinion pieces declaring Hillary Clinton miles ahead of Bernie Sanders in the polls, campaign contributions and endorsements. Let’s take a closer look… Continue reading On Endorsements, Campaign Donations, The #BlackVote, #MediaBias and #Polling | #BernieSanders on Blog#42

Your Congress in its own words: what they can’t say about the TPP | Blog#42

Here are your representatives in the U.S. Congress, in their own words, about what they are allowed and not allowed to see and do, when it comes to doing YOUR business in the context of a trade agreement that will affect your jobs, the prices you pay for certain things and the legal rights of corporations vis a vis the laws your Congress passed.

This is not how a Democracy is supposed to operate. Continue reading Your Congress in its own words: what they can’t say about the TPP | Blog#42

#NYPD turn their backs, again. Why are we surprised? | #BlackLivesMatter

January 4, 2014

We were again treated to the spectacle of NYPD officers turning their backs on their mayor. The press, again, fails to properly characterize Commissioner Bratton’s memo to his rank and file. Bratton didn’t plead for decorum. He left it up to his officers. His memo, as reported by the AP, read as follows: Continue reading #NYPD turn their backs, again. Why are we surprised? | #BlackLivesMatter

Anne Marie Slaughter: Don’t Fight in #Iraq and Ignore #Syria – NYTimes

By Anne-Marie Slaughter

WASHINGTON — FOR the last two years, many people in the foreign policy community, myself included, have argued repeatedly for the use of force in — to no avail. We have been pilloried as warmongers and targeted, by none other than President Obama, as people who do not understand that force is not the solution to every question. A wiser course, he argued at West Point, is to use force only in defense of America’s vital interests.

Suddenly, however, in the space of a week, the administration has begun considering the use of force in , including drones, against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, which has been occupying city after city and moving ever closer to Baghdad.

The sudden turn of events leaves people like me scratching our heads. Why is the threat of ISIS in Iraq a sufficiently vital interest, but not the rise of ISIS in Syria — and a hideous civil war that has dismembered Syria itself and destabilized Lebanon, Jordan and now Iraq?

I suspect White House officials would advance three reasons.

First, they would say, the fighters in Iraq include members of Al Qaeda. But that ignores recent history. Experts have predicted for over a year that unless we acted in Syria, ISIS would establish an Islamic state in eastern Syria and western Iraq, exactly what we are watching. So why not take them on directly in Syria, where their demise would strengthen the moderate opposition?

Continue reading Anne Marie Slaughter: Don’t Fight in #Iraq and Ignore #Syria – NYTimes

When Brooklyn juries gentrify, defendants lose | New York Post

By Josh Saul

Brooklyn’s courthouses are being rocked by the “Williamsburg Effect.”

The influx of well-off and educated white people to trendy neighborhoods such as Williamsburg is rapidly “gentrifying’’ the borough’s jury pool — and transforming verdicts, lawyers and judges told The Post.

It’s good news for prosecutors in criminal cases — and bad news for plaintiffs in civil lawsuits, they said.

Continue reading When Brooklyn juries gentrify, defendants lose | New York Post

.@ThinkProgress: The #Myth Of The Absent #BlackFather

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently published new data on the role that American fathers play in parenting their children. Most of the CDC’s previous research on family life — which the agency explores as an important contributor to public health and child development — has focused exclusively on mothers. But the latest data finds that the stereotypical gender imbalance in this area doesn’t hold true, and dads are just as hands-on when it comes to raising their kids.

In fact, in its coverage of the study, the Los Angeles Times noted that the results “defy stereotypes about black fatherhood” because the CDC found that black dads are more involved with their kids on a daily basis than dads from other racial groups: Continue reading .@ThinkProgress: The #Myth Of The Absent #BlackFather