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And the insanity continues… Video

What happens when you do what the police wants you to do and you’re still attacked and brutalized? It seems hopeless. It seems that no matter what you do, blacks are still being attacked unnecessarily by those we pay to protect us.

He stands in the street with his hands on his head waiting for the cops to arrest him. The police arrives and without provocation, kicks the black man in the back, because, I guess the officer was scared for his life. Then the brutality escalated.

This is America…

https://twitter.com/ShannonSharpe/status/1299427348211625984

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Black Panther Star Chadwick Boseman Dies at 43

Rest in Peace to Chadwick Boseman, the actor who found fame as the star of the groundbreaking film “Black Panther” and who also portrayed pioneering Black figures such as Jackie Robinson, James Brown and Thurgood Marshall, died on Friday. He was 43.

A statement posted on Mr. Boseman’s Instagram account said the actor learned in 2016 that he had Stage 3 colon cancer, which had progressed to Stage 4. It said he died in his home, with his wife and family by his side.

“A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much,” the statement said. “From ‘Marshall’ to ‘Da 5 Bloods,’ August Wilson’s ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ and several more, all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy.”

News of Mr. Boseman’s death elicited shock and grief among many prominent figures in the arts and civic lifeMartin Luther King III, a human-rights activist and the eldest son of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said that the actor had “brought history to life on the silver screen” in his portrayals of Black leaders.

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BLM Featured

The Trump Riots

Let’s face facts: Americans are protesting because, in part, the Trump administration and the president himself refuse to acknowledge the racial problems that are wracking the country. Even worse, the president continues to make baldly racial appeals to suburban voters by opposing and demonizing affordable housing plans. This is in addition to his dismissive attitude towards Blacks, and the Black Lives Matter movement, who have been killed or wounded by police officers and calls for racial justice from all corners of American society.

The resulting responses are what we have now: The Trump Riots. He owns them. He owns the response. He owns the neglect. He owns the feeble response. He owns the divisiveness.

Of course, the president is not one to see the reality of what’s going on, so he’s trying to say that terrible things will happen if Joe Biden is elected president. The problem is that terrible things are happening because Donald Trump is president and because of Donald Trump’s racist domestic policies. Worse, the disorder and divisiveness will continue as long as Donald Trump is in the White House. The president is uninterested in actually solving the racial problems, which means that things might get worse before they get better.

The best action this country can make is to elect Joe Biden as president, because he will actually do something to address the concerns of those who are protesting, making it less likely that we will have more violence. Make sure you register and vote.

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Reporter to Trump: ‘Do you regret all the lying to Americans?’ – Video

I’ve joked many times about the questions I would ask Donald Trump if given the chance to do so. And one, if not the main question, is why do you lie all the time to the American people?

I never thought I’d hear a reporter ask Trump that very question, but its been asked, by a Senior White House reporter. And instead of answering the reporter’s question by defending his claims, Trump ignored the question. If you’re being falsely accused of something, you’ll want to attack and not wimp away. Trump wiped away.

Meanwhile, Trump will go down as the lying…est president in this nation’s history.

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Joe Biden Picks Kamala Harris for VP

Joseph R. Biden Jr. selected Senator Kamala Harris of California as his vice-presidential running mate on Tuesday, embracing a former rival who sharply criticized him in the Democratic primaries but emerged after ending her campaign as a vocal supporter of Mr. Biden’s and a prominent advocate of racial-justice legislation after the killing of George Floyd in late May.

Ms. Harris, 55, is the first Black woman and the first person of Indian descent to be nominated for national office by a major party, and only the fourth woman in U.S. history to be chosen for a presidential ticket. She brings to the race a far more vigorous campaign style than Mr. Biden’s, including a gift for capturing moments of raw political electricity on the debate stage and elsewhere, and a personal identity and family story that many find inspiring.

Mr. Biden announced the selection over text message and in a follow-up email to supporters: “Joe Biden here. Big news: I’ve chosen Kamala Harris as my running mate. Together, with you, we’re going to beat Trump.” The two are expected to appear together in Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday.

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Former First Lady Michelle Obama admits going through “Low-grade Depression”

Former First Lady, Michelle Obama recently admitted to going through a stage of low-grade depression because of the quarantine, racial unrest after the killing of George Floyd and Trump’s response or lack of a response to both.

“There have been periods throughout this quarantine where I just have felt too low,” Mrs. Obama said, adding that her sleep was off. “You know, I’ve gone through those emotional highs and lows that I think everybody feels, where you just don’t feel yourself.”

“I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression,” she added. “Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting.”

She suggested that her depression was related to the ongoing protests and racial unrest around the United States since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May.

“I have to say, that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a Black man or a Black person somehow being dehumanized or hurt or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting,” she said. “It has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life — in, in a while.”

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Kim and Kanya Heading for Divorce

His music is okay, but his politics suck. Don’t know if that was one of the contributing reasons for Kim’s decision, but she’s had enough.

Kim Kardashian recently returned to Los Angeles after what appeared to be a super emotional on-day trip to Wyoming to see her husband, Kanye West. And while Kim has made it clear she’s focused on Kanye’s mental health and wellness, sources say the reality star’s trip to Wyoming was, in part, to tell him the marriage is over.

“She isn’t getting back what she needs from Kanye,” a source told People. “She was to the point that she flew to Cody to basically tell him their marriage is over and to say goodbye.”

Kanye still wants to work on the marriage, but the source says “He hasn’t changed anything that she told him needs to change.” That said, the source also adds that “Kim is very torn” and that “The last thing she wants is to be divorced with four kids. She knows that she will be fine financially, but her concerns are the kids and the partnership. She is moving towards a divorce, but who knows if she will actually sign papers.”

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Coronavirus Featured

Former Republican Presidential Candidate Herman Cain Dies from Coronavirus

Shortly after attending Donald Trump’s campaign event in Tulsa Oklahoma, former Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain revealed a positive test for Coronavirus and was hospitalized. The man who shared Trump’s belief that masks don’t work, passed away today adding to the more than 150,000 Americans dead from Coronavirus.

The former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has died after being hospitalized with COVID-19. He was 74.

“Cain, who recently joined Newsmax TV and was set to launch a weekly show, died in an Atlanta-area hospital where he had been critically ill for several weeks,” the conservative website Newsmax reported on Thursday. “He was admitted on July 1, two days after being diagnosed with COVID-19.”

Cain’s official website also announced the news in a blog post.

“Herman Cain — our boss, our friend, like a father to so many of us — has passed away,” wrote Dan Calabrese, an editor for the website. “He’s entering the presence of the Savior he’s served as an associate minister at Antioch Baptist Church in Atlanta for, and preparing for his reward.”

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Coronavirus Featured

Trump Laments – “nobody likes me” but everyone loves Dr. Fauci

Maybe its the fact that Dr. Fauci is not lying to the American people every chance he gets…

At today’s “coronavirus update” press conference – which usually has nothing to do with coronavirus and everything to do with Trumps reelection campaign – Trump responded to a reporter’s question about his relationship with Dr. Fauci.

“I get along with him very well and I agree with a lot of what he’s said,” Trump insisted.

“It’s interesting: he’s got a very good approval rating. And I like that, it’s good,” he went on. “Because remember: he’s working for this administration. He’s working with us. We could have gotten other people. We could have gotten somebody else. It didn’t have to be Dr. Fauci. He’s working with our administration. And for the most part we’ve done what he and others — and Dr. Birx and others — have recommended.”

Trump continued: “And he’s got this high approval rating. So why don’t I have a high approval rating with respect — and the administration — with respect to the virus? We should have it very high.”

“So it sort of is curious,” Trump said, “a man works for us, with us, very closely, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx also, very highly thought of — and yet, they’re highly thought of, but nobody likes me?”

“It can only be my personality, that’s all,” he said.

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Trump Would Not be Paying Respect to John Lewis in Washington

As the civil rights icon’s body lay in Capitol Hill, Donald Trump said he would not pay respect to the man who almost died while fighting for equal rights in this country.

Donald Trump, who in recent weeks has stirred racial tensions, says he has no plans to visit the late Congressman John Lewis as the civil rights icon lies in state at the US Capitol.

“No I won’t be going,” the president said. “No.”

The president delivered the news as he left the White House for a trip to North Carolina. As he took reporters’ questions, Mr Lewis’ casket had just arrived at the Capitol, where a military honour guard carried his American-flag draped casket up the white stairs and into the rotunda.

Meanwhile, leaders from around the world join the grieving of Rep. John Lewis.

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The Education Revolution Will Not Be Zoomed

So much of the debate about how to open K-12 schools next month is based on the effects that having remote school will have on children.

The newest C.D.C. guidance, released on Friday is, quite honestly, another example of this country thinking small, thinking politically, thinking  that teachers will somehow avoid the virus, and thinking that it can get back to some semblance of normal, when it is clear that we need new thinking and new ideas. Of course, none of that will come from either the president or the Secretary of Education, so we’re on our own here.

What’s so disappointing about what the C.D.C. said was that it assumes that very little will change about American society and education before school opens. Indeed, much of the assumptions that other writers have discussed say that children need to go back to school because they might not have food or computers or the Internet or parental support or emotional and physical safety if they are home. And that, in and of itself, is the indictment of where we are as a country right now.

The decision to open schools full-time, then, must put adults and older students in jeopardy for their lives and force defunded school districts and devastated state budgets to endure more pressure in order to mitigate, not solve, this immoral dilemma that four decades of blame have produced. The simple fact that conservative members of Congress are actually against an economic package that might begin to help schools and states tells you everything you need to know about why we’re facing this peril. And it’s exactly why many teachers are considering retiring or asking to teach remotely or taking bold actions against their state legislators and governors rather than putting their lives at risk so that we can open the economy.

What the CDC and every other person in this country should be doing is agitating for Congress to make Internet access a regulated utility like the lights and heat so that everybody in this country has access to it. All students should also be given a computer they can use at home. They should make sure that we are spending our money wisely on community programs, public schools, health care, food security, and effective counseling, and stop spending money on military grade weapons to local police forces. That will create instances where the police are protecting more literate, more secure, more educated, more healthy, and more politically and socially involved communities which will be of tremendous help because those are the communities that have the lowest crime rates.

Much of the guidance the CDC recommends is also predicated on the idea that distance learning will look the same as it did in the spring. Much of that was considered a failure, but this lack of imagination is disturbing. Where is Betsy DeVos when we need her to mobilize the country’s educational establishment to address the deficiencies of remote instruction? Where is the training and experimenting and exchange of ideas that will lead to more effective classroom methods? Where is the emergency money to support the children that all Americans see as desperately needing to learn? Where is the support for areas of this country–urban, suburban and rural–that are not wealthy enough to obtain these resources?

Where indeed?

Unfortunately, the answers we are getting are full of threats to withhold the very funds schools need if they don’t open, which will result in even more desperate conditions for the children the administration and its supporters says they care so much about. Teachers are also being blamed for not carrying their weight as heroes in the same way that medical professionals have been lauded. I applaud and support our medical professionals, but nowhere in my training was there anything about giving my life for my profession. It’s unconscionable that every teacher has to withstand Code Blue drills where students have to hide in a classroom as preparation in case someone wants to shoot up the school, then go back to the supportive, protective learning environment when the principal announces the end of the drill. Two years ago, proposals for arming teachers were actually taken seriously by a wide swath of the public. As if there was money to buy guns for teachers while school lunch programs and technology were seemingly intractable political problems.

This pandemic has uncovered what has always been hidden in plain sight about American society and its education system. It is underfunded, it is in many ways ineffectual, it excludes not only based on finances but also in the curricular choices communities make, focusing on an America that exists for Whites, but not for Blacks, it is the last refuge for many children who are starved nutritionally and emotionally, and it is not reflective of the promise and opportunity that form the bedrock of what it should mean to be an American.

We need change and we need it now. For the C.D.C. to base its recommendations on the notion that the country will not change is nearsighted and dangerous. Let’s use this opportunity to make our education system responsive to all people.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV, Insanity

Fantastic. This proves our president is finally a stable genius. “How did he do that,” the doctors asked themselves in bewilderment, for they had never seen a patient aced the cognitive test like this. They were in the presence of a stable genius. Amazing!

“Person, woman, man, camera, TV” is now the bragging point of the president of the United States. In the middle of a Pandemic where over 145,000 Americans have died so far, Donald Trump takes pleasure in telling reporters that his special brain is capable of remembering “person, woman, man, camera, TV.”

In less than 100 days, Americans will vote again for a president. And it is my hope that we will choose someone who is capable of guiding us through the many challenges facing this country, instead of a man who thinks that the ability to recite five words in a row means he’s exceptional.

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