| A volunteer folds #HealSTL shirts. The org is selling them for a $9 donation. |
Heal STL has grown from a hashtag to a headquarters where community leaders, volunteers and would-be volunteers gather, organize, sell T-shirts and prepare for the change many hope is coming to Ferguson. French paid a six-month lease for the storefront at 9171 West Florissant Avenue and plans to re-up another six months when that runs out.
“It’s an early thing for us to get our legs up under us…learn the streets here, learn the people,” French says. “We’ve just got to get organized, that’s what this is about right now. This is a place to share.”
Technically, Heal STL isn’t even “open” yet, but that doesn’t stop the volunteers (and rap legend MC Hammer) from showing up to help.
Heal STL: Join the Movement
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-dept-to-probe-ferguson-police-force/2014/09/03/737dd928-33bc-11e4-a723-fa3895a25d02_story.html
Yeah!!!
Did you guys see this story
http://thefreethoughtproject.com/author/cassandra/
https://twitter.com/MissAngelaDavis/status/507174920582090753
These idjits will NEVER define me or other black folks on Twitter. We DEFY defining.
As for another example of White folks stealing Black folks shyt and not paying for it..
…………….
NIH finally makes good with Henrietta Lacks’ family — and it’s about time, ethicist says
Over the past six decades, huge medical advances have sprung from the cells of Henrietta Lacks, a poor, African-American mother of five who died in 1951 of cervical cancer. But Lacks never agreed that the cells from a biopsy before her death taken could be used for research. For years, her own family had no idea that her cells were still alive in petri dishes in scientists’ labs. They eventually learned they had fueled a line called HeLa cells, which have generated billions of dollars, but they didn’t realize until this spring that her genome had been sequenced and made public for anyone to see.
On Tuesday, the National Institute of Health announced it was, at long last, making good with Lacks’ family. Under a new agreement, Lack’s genome data will be accessible only to those who apply for and are granted permission. And two representatives of the Lacks family will serve on the NIH group responsible for reviewing biomedical researchers’ applications for controlled access to HeLa cells. Additionally, any researcher who uses that data will be asked to include an acknowledgement to the Lacks family in their publications.
The new understanding between the NIH and the Lacks family does not include any financial compensation for the family. The Lacks family hasn’t, and won’t, see a dime of the profits that came from the findings generated by HeLa cells. But this is a moral and ethical victory for a family long excluded from any acknowledgment and involvement in genetic research their matriarch made possible.
It took more than 60 years, but ethics has finally caught up to a particularly fast-moving area of science: taking tissue samples for genetic research. Thanks to the efforts of a dogged journalist, some very thoughtful science leaders in Europe and the U.S., and an ordinary family willing to learn about a complex subject and then to do the right thing to help you and me and our descendants, a long-standing wrong has now been fixed.
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/nih-finally-makes-good-henrietta-lacks-family-its-about-time-f6C10867941
The evolution of Rand Paul
09/03/14 08:40 AM—UPDATED 09/03/14 08:40 AM
By Steve Benen
A week ago today, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal condemning “interventionists,” who are quick to use military force abroad “with little thought to the consequences.” Over the course of his 900-word piece, the Republican senator was dismissive of the “hawkish members of my own party.”
“A more realistic foreign policy would recognize that there are evil people and tyrannical regimes in this world, but also that America cannot police or solve every problem across the globe,” Paul wrote. “Only after recognizing the practical limits of our foreign policy can we pursue policies that are in the best interest of the U.S.”
But a few days later, the Republican senator attended the annual summit of Americans for Prosperity, the Koch brothers’ main political operation, where Rand Paul took a very different line.
Speaking to a ballroom later, some of the loudest applause for Paul came when he quipped: “If the president has no strategy, maybe it’s time for a new president.”
In an emailed comment, however, Paul elaborated by saying: “If I were President, I would call a joint session of Congress. I would lay out the reasoning of why ISIS is a threat to our national security and seek congressional authorization to destroy ISIS militarily.”
Wait, what?
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/the-evolution-rand-paul
LISTEN: Koch executive warns minimum wage hike would lead US toward fascism
By Eric W. Dolan
Wednesday, September 3, 2014 11:04 EDT
At a private conference over the summer, the vice executive of Koch Industries warned that raising the minimum wage would put the United States on the road to fascism.
In an audio recording published by The Undercurrent, Richard Fink told the gathering of conservatives in California — a conference called “American Courage: Our Commitment to a Free Society” — that people who felt like victims lost meaning in life and turned to totalitarian political ideologies. Raising the minimum wage, he claimed, would cause people to lose their jobs and lose their meaning in life, giving fascism a fertile ground to grow in.
“So when you destroy someone’s meaning by making them a victim, okay, you actually destroy their purpose of life,” Fink explained. “And psychology shows that is the main recruiting ground for totalitarianism, for fascism, for conformism, when people feel like they’re victims. And what we do is we take away their jobs or their independence.”
So the big danger of minimum wage isn’t the fact that some people are being paid more than their valued-added — that’s not great. It’s not that it’s hard to stay in business — that’s not great either. But it’s the 500,000 people that will not have a job because of minimum wage, because there is no such thing as a dead end job. As Martin Luther King said, “(Inaudible) every job is an opportunity.” Okay (inaudible).”
Last week, The Undercurrent and The Nation published audio of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) complaining to the same conference that Democrats were pushing to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. Republicans have stubbornly resisted efforts to raise the minimum wage, citing a Congressional Budget Office report earlier this year estimated a federal minimum wage of $10.10 an hour could cost the nation up to 500,000 jobs
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/03/listen-koch-executive-warns-minimum-wage-hike-would-lead-us-toward-fascism/
Pennsylvania teen in KKK hood arrested for harassing black college students
By Scott Kaufman
Wednesday, September 3, 2014 11:58 EDT
A Pennsylvania teenager was arrested this week on charges related to an August 4, 2014 incident in which he harassed African-American students on Bloomsburg University’s campus while wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, BloomUtoday.com reports.
Authorities said that Walter Corey Reibsome was wearing the costume in a truck driven by his friend, Frank Rubio, and that Reibsome leaned out of the truck’s window and yelled racial slurs while Rubio blared his horn. “Get out of our town,” the victim told police Reibsome yelled.
The pair were caught because the victim was able to identify Rubio’s uniquely modified truck. Photographs of the truck — and of the duo wearing the white hoods traditionally associated with the Ku Klux Klan — were posted on Rubio’s Facebook page.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/09/03/pennsylvania-teen-in-kkk-hood-arrested-for-harassing-black-college-students/
Rod TBGWT @rodimusprime
Black Twitter done cost too many white folks’ job over the past two years. They were bound to look into this.
#FreeFerguson @yemi_isms
White people use their world of scientific studies as an exclusive institution to decide who and what is legitimate.
FreeFerguson @yemi_isms
White people “studying” us is how slavery was justified, colonization happened & how “separate but equal” was accepted.
FreeFerguson @yemi_isms
Studying Black Twitter is important but I sure as hell don’t trust some white folk to do it right.
#FreeFerguson @yemi_isms
Look at Black people across time in the context of society & history. They’ve “studied” us to delegitimize us for centuries.
2h
#FreeFerguson @yemi_isms
The intention behind “studying” Black Twitter was never to gauge the breadth of out impact or highlight our leaders.
LOL On point! We dissecting the bullshit LIES these white folks hash out as news.
Help Wanted: The Case for a Generational Challenger to Secretary Clinton
Posted by Al Giordano – September 3, 2014 at 10:47 am
By Al Giordano
When was the last time in the United States that a Democrat who was not the incumbent US President, and who was older than the Republican nominee, won the White House?
The last time that happened was 158 years ago, in 1856, when Democrat James Buchanan, 65, defeated Republican John C. Fremont, 43, and former President Millard Fillmore, 56, of the Whig Party (the last president who was neither Democrat nor Republican).
And this perfectly explains why the Democratic Party of the present, if it really is hell-bent on nominating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as its candidate in 2016, will very likely end up handing the presidency over to one of the Republican presidential hopefuls, all of whom are younger – by 6 to 21 years – than the presumed Democratic nominee.
Elections of more than 150 years ago aren’t really that relevant to the prospects for 2016. But there are five more recent presidential elections that are prologue to the present moment, because they took place in the context of how the current Democratic and Republican coalitions have formed. The only five presidential contests of the past 82 years in which a Democrat who was not the incumbent defeated the Republican candidate happened during “generational change” elections in which a younger Democrat inspired higher voter turnout at the edges of the party base to win the election.
…………………………………………
The reason why Democrats who are not already president have only succeeded in taking the White House as younger generational candidates is not about age discrimination or the qualifications of the candidates. John Kerry was certainly competent to govern when he lost to George W. Bush, four years his junior in 2004. And, agree with her policy positions or not, Secretary Clinton is at least as qualified as those who have occupied the Oval Office to date. The feeling among many Democratic Party insiders that Clinton is “next up,” that it is “her turn,” that the Secretary has “earned it,” however is precisely the kind of bureaucratic and insular thinking that has brought political parties to crushing defeat time and time again.
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/5045/help-wanted-case-generational-challenger-secretary-clinton
Black Oakland firefighter says white cop detained him, sons
Posted on Wednesday, September 3 at 8:15am | By Henry K. Lee
A black Oakland firefighter says a white city police officer kept his hand on his gun while detaining him and his two sons outside a fire station, mistakenly believing he was a burglar.
The incident traumatized his sons, said Oakland Fire Department Engineer Keith Jones, 43, of Oakland, who has filed a formal complaint with the Police Department’s internal affairs division and the Citizens’ Police Review Board.
http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2014/09/03/black-oakland-firefighter-says-white-cop-held-him-at-gunpoint/
St. Louis County Juvenile Court: Michael Brown Had No Felony Convictions or Charges
Imagine my surprise By Charles Johnson
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/43804_St._Louis_County_Juvenile_Court-_Michael_Brown_Had_No_Felony_Convictions_or_Charges/comments/#ctop
MC Hammer autographs a 24-year-old cassette tape Antonio French had of Hammer singing “You Can’t Touch This,” at French’s new office in Ferguson on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. French plans to do voter registration out of the office. Hammer came in to offer his support. Photo by J.B. Forbes
http://youtu.be/2Oc-JGEFNIw&rel=0
MC Hammer and Antonio French look at the memorial for Michael Brown in the Canfield Green apartment complex in Ferguson on Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2014. Photo by J.B. Forbes
Fox’s Ingraham: Registering Ferguson Residents To Vote Is Part Of “The Politics Of Division”
Video››› September 2, 2014 8:52 PM EDT
MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
http://mediamatters.org/video/2014/09/02/foxs-ingraham-registering-ferguson-residents-to/200611
Yeah, registering to vote and voting for the candidate of your choice is about being divisive because everyone who Ms. Ingraham knows and everyone who is stupid enough to listen to her votes for the GOP.
Thanks for the photos. Happy for Jolie, Pitt, and their children.
The attack on bad teacher tenure laws is actually an attack on black professionals
By Andre M. Perry August 28
After the Vergara v. California decision in California’s state Supreme Court, which held that key job protections for teachers are unconstitutional, anti-union advocates everywhere began spawning copycat lawsuits. But while reformers may genuinely want to fix education for everyone, their efforts will only worsen diversity in the teaching corps. The truth is that an attack on bad teacher tenure laws (and ineffective teachers in general) is actually an attack on black professionals. If theVergara clones succeed, black children will lose effective teachers and the black community will lose even more middle-class jobs.
Black workers are most likely to hold public sector union jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, among the major ethnic groups, blacks (13.6 percent) represent the highest percentage of union members among the total number of workers (whites are 11 percent; Asians are 9.4 percent; and Hispanics are 9.4 percent), and the highest unionization rates among all professions were in the education services occupations (35.3 percent). In 26 of the 48 jurisdictions (states plus the District of Columbia) where at least some black and some white teachers are covered by collective bargaining agreements, blacks are more likely to be covered by agreements than whites. This is the case in California, where the Vergara decision originated. Blacks are more likely to teach in urban areas in many states, and so are more likely to be covered by collective bargaining. Therefore, black teachers have much at stake in the Vergara decision.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/08/28/an-attack-on-bad-teacher-tenure-laws-is-actually-an-attack-on-black-professionals/
Repeat after me…
not a sliver of difference between so-called libertarians and Republicans
……….
Tuesday, Sep 2, 2014 12:24 PM CDT
Ronald Reagan’s No. 1 superfan now runs the Washington Post
The Washington Post’s new publisher is a former longtime Reagan aide. What an exciting(?) new era for the paper!
Jim Newell
The Washington Post has been a much more ambitious beast since Amazon.com founder and CEO Jeff Bezos bought the paper last year. Since it’s been in private control, and no longer subject to public shareholder pressure, the paper has invested in hiring dozens and dozens of new staffers with all sorts of cutting-edge “online experience,” writers who understand that the journalism of the future will involve getting lots of people to click on lots of stuff. No word yet on when/how this all becomes profitable. But that’s for the suits to worry about.
And that suit, apparently, will no longer be Katharine Weymouth, who’s leaving her role as publisher of the Washington Post. The exit by Weymouth, granddaughter of legendary Post publisher Katharine Graham, finally puts to rest longtime control of the paper by the Graham family. Into whose carefully chosen hands, now, shall control of the Post go? Which innovative digital prophet will lead the new Growth Era of the Washington Post?
Oh, just some old Reagan hand.
Well, we shouldn’t say “some” old Reagan hand. Fred Ryan, who’s just been named the Post’s new publisher, is among the more Reagan-y people to ever walk the earth — somewhat less Reagan-y than Ronald Reagan himself, but probably more Reagan-y than Nancy Reagan or other members of the Reagan family
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/02/ronald_reagans_1_superfan_now_runs_the_washington_post/
I didn’t even know they were dating
………………………
First look! Jenny McCarthy’s glamorous wedding dress as she marries Donnie Wahlberg
http://www.ok.co.uk/celebrity-news/first-look-jenny-mccarthys-glamourous-wedding-dress-as-she-marries-donnie-wahlberg
https://twitter.com/boldandworthy/status/507150126822215681
Can’t believe this….makes me nuts!
http://www.ajaalto.com/wp-content/uploads/images/crazy.jpg
Okay I am back now :)
Things just don’t change much.
What I see is 3 White guys attempting to put Black Twitter in a conveniently defined BOX in the hopes of gaining a handle (leash) on it so that they can figure a way to disarm it.
I could be wrong, though…..but usually my intuition is right on.
NAILED IT! This trio can try to contain black folks on Twitter all they like.
NOT.GONNA.HAPPEN.
PragmaticObotsUnite @PragObots
The lead researcher of the #BlackTwitter study is a Blk woman but she wasn’t listed on study’s website until AFTER they received backlash
Michael Tillmon, Jr.@hotterthanjuly 30m
#blacktwitterstudyresults show Black Twitter was “discovered” by whites and will soon be colonized.
Breaking: Theodore Wafer sentenced to 17 years for fatally shooting RenishaMcBride.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PORCH_SHOOTING?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
DETROIT (AP) — A suburban Detroit man was sentenced Wednesday to at least 17 years in prison for killing an unarmed woman who appeared on his porch before dawn.
Theodore Wafer was convicted of second-degree murder in the Nov. 2 death of Renisha McBride, 19. Before getting his sentence, the Dearborn Heights man apologized to McBride’s family, saying he killed a woman who was “too young to leave this world.”
“I will carry that guilt and sorrow forever,” said Wafer, often pausing to control his emotions.
Wafer was convicted last month after a nine-day trial that centered on whether the 55-year-old had a reasonable and honest belief that his safety was in peril. He testified that he was awakened by pounding on his doors and shot McBride because he feared for his life. But a jury rejected his claim of self-defense.
Good
I agree. Good.
This ought to do it and hopefully without parole.
Yes.
She certainly didn’t let any grass grow under her feet once she got the engagement ring:
Ashlee Simpson and Evan Ross’ Wedding: See the First Photos!
by Corinne Heller and Jennifer Cooper
http://www.eonline.com/news/574926/ashlee-simpson-and-evan-ross-wedding-see-the-gorgeous-photos
Will Hillary Clinton Be Our Next President?
by BooMan
Tue Sep 2nd, 2014 at 09:24:53 PM EST
I can do all the analysis I want. I can take this country, hold it up, flip it upside down, turn it around, squint at it a little bit, put it under a microscope…but, yesterday, I just took a quiet moment and tried to actually envision Hillary Clinton being sworn in as our next president. And it just didn’t seem plausible to me. It didn’t seem right. It turned out that I just couldn’t picture it actually happening.
I can’t explain why. Every time I look at the race, I can’t picture anyone else winning either the Democratic nomination or the general election. I mean, even Glenn Beck thinks she will be the next president and, amazingly, he doesn’t seem too worried about the prospect. You might even say that he sounds like he would welcome a Clinton Restoration.
………………………..
I know Glenn Beck is a crackpot and a demagogue. But the way his mind works isn’t all that unique or unusual. How many people are there in this country who think back on the Clinton Era as a simpler and better time when the economy was going gangbusters?
And, yet, I still have some kind of instinctual feeling that something is going to happen that changes the trajectory that we appear to be on. My brain says Hillary Clinton will be our next president, but my spidey-sense tells me that this is never going to happen.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2014/9/2/212453/4612
Hillary’s Clintons have never changed. nearly 50% of this country has negative feelings about her. Before you get out the gate, nearly 50% of people in this country have decided never to vote for her. I always thought this was a ridiculous place for the Democrats to BEGIN an election. IF, at the end, it winds UP that way, ok, but to BEGIN it…in this day and age of Citizens United…seriously?
In your heart and mind, you know that the support for Hillary Clinton is a mile wide and a quarter inch deep.
You know that she’s shown nothing in the entire time of her time in the public spotlight that would make you ‘ stan’ for her.
And, that troubles you.
Disagree with him or not, you believe Barack Obama is a man of great integrity, and smarts, and keeps his own council.
You know that’s not true for Hillary.
You don’t trust her on foreign policy issues. You can’t name one place where you disagree with President Obama where you could say, ‘ Hillary Clinton would have done that better’.
NOT ONE PLACE.
And then, you turn to domestic issues…
You gonna tell me you trust her on that?
Really?
Seriously?
Honestly?
And all of this is settling in the pit of your stomach, and your spidey senses are telling you..
SHE’S NOT THE ONE.
I don’t think so either. After a black man in office I don’t think America is going to welcome a woman president anytime soon. Then 20 years ago I didn’t see a blackman being president in my time.
I dunno. I might have an opinion later, but right now is just too soon. What I am sensing is very low enthusiasm for Hillary except among Clinton loyalists and worshippers. I think that once you get into the general population, it is very hard for young folks to relate to or get excited about these geriatrics who want to be president. Hillary could end up being the John McCain of 2016, except for being a woman. She may be able to generate enough enthusiasm for being the first woman to be president, but even that is questionable.
Republicans Stumbling As Their Own Poll Shows Michelle Nunn Leading Georgia Senate Race
By: Jason Easley more from Jason Easley
Tuesday, September, 2nd, 2014, 8:23 pm
Republicans continue to stumble and bumble in their quest to retake the Senate as a Republican poll has found that Democrat Michelle Nunn leads the US Senate race in Georgia 45%-43%.
The WRBL poll was conducted by a Republican strategist and revealed that Nunn leads Republican David Perdue 45%-43% with 7% supporting Libertarian Amanda Swafford. This is the second straight poll that has shown Nunn leading. Ten days ago, the Landmark/WSB-TV poll had Nunn leading Perdue 47%-40%, with Swafford at 3%.
The fact that a poll conducted by a Republican strategist revealed that the Republican candidate is trailing is especially bad news for the GOP’s hopes of retaking the Senate in November. Mitch McConnell has struggled mightily with a campaign that at times seems like it is trying to lose, but Kentucky might not be the Democrats best chance at a pickup that will help them keep their Senate majority.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/09/02/republicans-stumbling-poll-shows-michelle-nunn-leading-georgia-senate-race.html
McConnell Campaign Crumbling As Mitch Dodges Questions At Watermelon Festival
By: Jason Easley more from Jason Easley
Tuesday, September, 2nd, 2014, 12:59 pm
Sen. Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign continues to crumble. McConnell found the environment at a watermelon festival too challenging, so he avoided reporter’s questions about his former campaign manager’s bribery scandal.
According to CNHI News Service,
The day after his campaign manager quit in the wake of an expanding Iowa campaign bribery investigation, Mitch McConnell was posing for photos, shaking hands and riding in the Watermelon Festival Parade here.
What he wasn’t doing was answering a reporter’s questions.
When the reporter approached McConnell aide Terry Carmack about 10 minutes prior to the parade and asked to interview the Republican U.S. Senator, Carmack said, “We’re on a very, very tight schedule.”
After conferring with McConnell, the two men walked away. But McConnell continued shaking hands with other parade participants and posed for a photo or so before walking back to the convertible that was to carry him through downtown Tompkinsville.
http://www.politicususa.com/2014/09/02/mcconnell-campaign-crumbling-mitch-dodges-questions-watermelon-festival.html
https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/506985214451531776
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/507006599697682432
https://twitter.com/drkent/status/505737231794180096/photo/1
https://twitter.com/ErikAunapuu/status/507010399279906816/photo/1
https://twitter.com/TheObamaDiary/status/507016863336116224/photo/1
https://twitter.com/USNATO/status/506822703484248064/photo/1
I hope the president shares all the plans secretly to all us Americans. After all no one is paying attention. (Sarcasm)
BWA HA HA
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Happy HUMP day, Everyone!