The Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads and the White Male Dominated Media Didn't Win This Time in #SweetHomeAlabama

On https://t.co/ytdertc5Ry NOW Media&Pundits made the #AlabamaSenateRace seem unwinnable.Yet we maintained that if the #BlackVote were mobilized & made aware of the stakes, & if Rainbow coalitions were built, TOGETHER they would turn out&deliver a VICTORY. Call 866.594.HOPE #KHA pic.twitter.com/mTOJorpgt3

— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) December 17, 2017

Attention Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads and White Male Dominated Media Charles Barkley is NOT the messenger.

Like black women all over the country, who voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 at a rate of 95 percent, in Alabama a whopping 98 percent of black women chose Jones in this week’s election. Overall, black voters have tended to pickmore progressive candidates when presented with facts and good media coverage. But as many have pointed out, the Democratic Party has often taken the concerns of black women for granted. Charles Barkley, who stumped for Jones, made an excellent point hours after the election during a CNN interview. Rather than targeting Trump, Barkley wisely called out Democrats. “They’ve taken the black vote and the poor vote for granted for a long time. It’s time for them to get off their ass and start making life better for black folks and people who are poor,” he said. “This is a wakeup call for Democrats to do better for black people and poor white people.”

You won't see this on TeeVee or in #TheMedia

Alabama Democrat Doug Jones was elected to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday by a mere 21,000 votes. That margin would have been much larger if Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a strident partisan Republican, would have taken steps to inform his state’s voters than thousands of ex-felons were eligible to vote under a 2017 state law.

EYE blame the white male dominated media for this #HotMess

A study from Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center provides overwhelming evidence that the mainstream media were instrumental in electing Donald Trump. 

The mainstream media’s stubborn refusal to admit culpability in Trump’s election is curious, considering a number of prominent journalists are on record conceding broad-based antagonism toward Clinton in the press.

As far back as 2014, Chuck Todd said, “I don’t think the country has Clinton fatigue. I think the media has Clinton fatigue. You can sort of feel it.”

In the summer of 2015, Jonathan Allen explained the Clinton Rules: “The Clinton rules are driven by reporters’ and editors’ desire to score the ultimate prize in contemporary journalism: the scoop that brings down Hillary Clinton and her family’s political empire.”

In 2016, Mark Halperin admitted that “there’s a deep well of anti-Clinton sentiment in the press.”

It's the white male dominated media. 

 #Stupid. 

EYE am not sure which is more pathetic.. tRump still chanting "lock her up" or the brainless supporters who still cheer him on?

For those who have been living under a rock for the past 24 hours, Donald J. tRump jetted into the Rocket City, not to be confused with Rocket Man and made #SweetHomeAlabama proud to be in America.  Not.

The president's rambling speech lasted nearly 90 minutes. He repeatedly cursed, mocked the leader of North Korea, jokingly threatened to fire a Cabinet member who endorsed Moore, called on professional football team owners to fire players who kneel during the national anthem, promised to build a new “see-through wall” on the southern border, called allegations of Russian interference in the election a “hoax,” accused unions of protecting “sadists” who abuse elderly veterans, and repeatedly relived the 2016 election.

 

The taxpayer-funded campaign rally would have been whites only if not for the two black males in the background.  There is a rumor circulating on Facebook that some people who showed up for the Strange/Tump rally were paid but EYE digress. 

One thing for sure is the fact Trumpster lied when he said thousands were watching outside on because they couldn't get inside the Von Braun Civic Center.  EYE think he confused protesters with supporters.

The most #deplorable highlight of the rally was when 4.5 called the mothers of #NFL players protesting against police brutality and oppression female dogs.  EYE guess the mothers of the eight-year-old ballplayers in the photo above are B^tches too.  It all starts in the home.  Parents are the first teachers.

White America, It's Time To Take A Knee

We should stop defending songs and flags and pre game ceremonies, and some cheap, ornamental nationalistic pageantry—and actually be about the work of life and liberty those things are all supposed to point to. We should be binding-up wounds instead of people of color, instead of heaping on the salt of shame and disdain.

Word.

#NeverForget the #4LittleGirls who were murdered at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama on this day in 1963

#SayTheirNames

#CarolDeniseMcNair

#AddieMaeCollins

#CaroleRobertson

#CynthiaWesley

Funerals[edit]

Carole Rosamond Robertson was laid to rest in a private family funeral held on September 17, 1963.[47] Reportedly, Carole's mother, Alpha, had expressly requested her daughter be buried separately from the other victims due to her distress at a remark Martin Luther King had made in which he (King) said the mindset that had allowed the murder of the four girls was the "apathy and complacency" of black people in Alabama.[48]

The service for Carole Rosamond Robertson was held at St. John's African Methodist Episcopal Church. In attendance were 1,600 people. At this service, the Reverend C. E. Thomas addressed the congregation, informing them: "The greatest tribute you can pay to Carole is to be calm, be lovely, be kind, be innocent."[49] Carole Robertson was buried in a blue casket at Shadow Lawn Cemetery.[50]

On September 18, the funeral of the three other girls killed in the bombing was held at the Sixth Avenue Baptist Church. Although no city officials attended this service,[51]present at the girls' funerals were an estimated 800 clergymen of all races. Also present was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In a speech conducted before the burial of the girls, Dr. King addressed an estimated 3,300[52] mourners—including numerous white people—with a speech which included: "This tragic day may cause the white side to come to terms with its conscience. In spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not become bitter ... We must not lose faith in our white brothers. Life is hard. At times as hard as crucible steel, but, today, you do not walk alone."[53]

As the girls' coffins were led to their graves, Dr. King ordered that those present remain solemn and forbid any singing, shouting or demonstrations. These instructions were relayed to the crowd present by a single youth with a bullhorn.[54] At the time of the funerals, two of those critically injured in the bombing were still hospitalized, as was a 16-year-old white teenager named Dennis Robertson, who had been hit on the head with a brick thrown by a black youth as Robertson cycled home from his job.[47][55]

#WhiteTerror  #BlackPain 

Again, the reason I oppose the republican party has nothing to do with me being a democrat, and I don't oppose republicans just to support democrats. I oppose republicans because the people who perpetrated the 16th Street Baptist Church bombings and other terrorist acts joined the GOP.

#NeverForget Birmingham Sunday

If you never read another thing EYE post Ta-Nehisi Coates "Donald Trump is the first white president" is a must read

"The First White President" Is Required Reading, No Matter How Sick You Are of DFT

It's the bluntest and bleakest analysis yet of the America that slit its own throat last November to punish itself for having allowed a black man to become president. It's also the first one that has rung all-the-way true—true like something you've always known but never fully realized—about the nasty petulance that resides deep in the American psyche.

Read it and weep.

IT IS INSUFFICIENT TO STATE the obvious of Donald Trump: that he is a white man who would not be president were it not for this fact. With one immediate exception, Trump’s predecessors made their way to high office through the passive power of whiteness—that bloody heirloom which cannot ensure mastery of all events but can conjure a tailwind for most of them. Land theft and human plunder cleared the grounds for Trump’s forefathers and barred others from it.

RedEye

RedEye's Rundown and "White Folks Explainer"

"Whiteness is a constantly changing, made up idea used as a tool to preserve power. Let's break it down."

Whiteness is a constantly changing, made-up idea used as a tool to preserve power. Let's break it down: pic.twitter.com/7dSPtGRKqn

— Splinter (@splinter_news) August 22, 2017

Remember when candidate Trump asked black people what the hell they had to lose?

Trump is the new and improved George C. Wallace. 

Maybe it's time to rethink that  counter protesting thingy.

 The A$$e$ of Evil can spare me their white tears.

What's worse?  The 10% of Republicans that are Nazis, or the 85% that are cool with it? https://t.co/uszeohG8DQ

— Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) August 22, 2017

It's time to #BlackOut the #NFL #NoKaepernickNoNFL

They have shown that they do not care about people of color and we must stop spending our time, efforts, energy, money and resources where it is clear that we do not have a voice... Support the movement. Share this video.

The truth and nothing but the truth about #Charlottesville you won't see/hear on TV #HeatherHeyer

Swanson Charlottesville Sanity. https://t.co/8Av6WQe4Zk https://t.co/5KBHDZZ5QB

— Cynthia McKinney PhD (@cynthiamckinney) August 14, 2017

Charlottesville’s mayor voted against taking down the Lee statue, even if he now sounds on NBC News as if it had been his idea. Seen from a certain angle, that’s progress. I want people to get on board with the idea of taking down all racist monuments and all war monuments, and this one is both. But it is a misconception to imagine that the decision to take down General Lee came from the top or that it came without extensive public input. It’s true that City Council member Kristin Szakos publicly proposed the dominance of our public space by Confederate statues as a problem, and that City Council member Wes Bellamy pushed for that. But it was the national movement of Black Lives Matter, and local activism, that created the demand in the first place, as well as making Bellamy a member of City Council. The City held very lengthy and public and extensive hearings and gathering of facts and views. A Blue Ribbon Commission produced a report. And when the City Council voted to take down Lee (but leave up Jackson) it did so because City Council Member Bob Fenwick joined Szakos and Bellamy in a 3-2 vote, in which Mayor Mike Signer was on the losing and cowardly side. Because that is typical of him, we should be wary of false perceptions of him as a leader, until he really becomes one. It’s possible that had he shown the leadership of the Mayor of New Orleans in taking down statues and explaining why, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

EYE would like to thank Donald Trump for defining the republican party for who/what they really are

All The Presidents Men

Hey, Republicans!  This is your guy.

Republicans who stood by Trump through the Muslim ban and “grab ‘em by the pussy” and a million flirtations with white supremacists got us here. They got us to the KKK and neo-Nazis joining together and marching on Charlottesville confident that they had an ally in the White House. They got us to the president of the United States of America both-sidesing white supremacist violence and complaining that anti-racist counter-protesters failed to get a permit.

Paul Ryan, you own this. So does every Republican in the House.
Mitch McConnell, you own this. So does every Republican in the Senate.
Statements about how disappointed you are won’t cut it. Statements about how inappropriate it was won’t cut it. You own Trump until you put real distance between yourselves and him, not just mushy words.

There can be no more pretenses.

And here in the heart of Trump Country – where people cheer the reality TV star’s hateful rhetoric – we place less emphasis on competency and far more emphasis on whether or not the candidate will back our God, our race and our beliefs – no matter how stupid and misguided they might be.
Never mind that this way of thinking has left us last in all things good and first in all things bad, as our former, resigned-in-disgrace governor once said.
We just keep whipping that dead horse.

He is exactly who we thought he was

Own it.   

Let us pray for Heather Heyer.

"Violence from many sides" My Donkey #DeondreHarris #HeatherHeyer #Charlottesville

So the next time you see a poll that says tRump has a 36% approval rating and you wonder who they polled....think about this video.  

WARNING.

Criminal evidence.

The vicious criminal assault of Deandre Harris by white supremacists. The clearest video.

ARREST THESE MEN. pic.twitter.com/oV13SGv1Uw

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 15, 2017

This is who/what "won"

A savage attack on a counter-protester during Saturday’s violent “Unite the Right” rally in Virginia evoked memories of the ugliest days of the civil rights movement, an original Freedom Rider said Monday.
Among the victims of the Charlottesville violence was a local resident who joined his friends to demonstrate against the organizers of the white nationalist event in the city’s Emancipation Park.
Deandre Harris, 20, was attacked in a parking lot by a group of white supremacists who kicked him, punched him and pummeled him with metal poles.

The system is rigged and not in favor of We The Peeps.

Shock and Awe aren't coming....they are already here.

This statement from Seth Meyers is a real statement from someone who has spoken strongly against Trump throughout.pic.twitter.com/FB0sG17xNY

— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) August 15, 2017

"Fire and fury like the world has never seen before" #HeatherHeyer #CharlottesvilleVirginia

H/T DownWithTyrnny

Don't be a Chump 

The problem with the continued begging, ‘why won’t he denounce, why won’t he denounce’ is that at some point, maybe later today, President Trump will go before a podium and read off through gritted teeth a pro-forma denunciation of Nazis and it will seem to a lot of people like it means something when it doesn’t. He’s already made crystal clear where he stands here.

Profile in Cowardice 

It's hilarious to me how some folks (see white people) are shocked at what they are seeing in Charlottesville, Virginia They are openly wondering how we could have come to this. "We have taken a step back when it comes to race relations." Or, "What happened? We are a better country than this."
Ahhhm, no we are not.

Let the Hippie blaming begin 

Blaming the hippies for right-wing violence is a venerable conservative tradition.

We know Trump is in bed with White Supremacist 

When Steve Bannon was head of Breitbart News. He proudly referred to Breitbart as the “platform of the Alt-Right.” They have an even bigger platform now. Bannon whispers in Trump’s ear. Stephen Miller writes his speeches and Jeff Sessions enforces his laws. Sebastian Gorka is always willing to promote the White Nationalist agenda and defend Trump about never denouncing them.

Mike Pence is no better  

Pence defended Trump’s display of equanimity in blaming the people who stood up to hate and bigotry. After all, Donald Trump didn’t jump to the immediate conclusion that racist, swastika-wearing, Hitler-praising, club-wielding Nazis were the bad guys at Charlottesville.

Many sides aren't palling around with Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, and racist

The First Amendment protects your execrable spewage. But it also protects mine and I will not be cowed or silenced by your terrorism. I and others will shame you, shun you, and make sure you lose your jobs and job opportunities. We will out you for vile subhumans that you are. You are few and we are many and we will not stop until you crawl back into the sewer from which you slithered and where you belong and the heavy lid that Donald Trump removed is put back in place.
To paraphrase our president, we will rain down non-violent fire and fury on you like the world has never seen.
You will NOT be allowed to terrorize us and you will NOT rise to power in the United States of America.

Heather Heyer is the Viola Luzzio of our times 

Heather Heyer

Yesterday was a day to remember - that I'm trying to forget. The capper on the day of the worst racist riot on American soil in generations was when some psychotic little bozo named James Alexander Fields plowed his automobile at full speed into a crowd of hundreds, injuring twenty-seven and killing a young woman named Heather Heyer. To the best of my knowledge, she is the first white woman to be martyred in the name of civil rights since Detroit school teacher Viola Liuzzo was gunned down by the KKK in March of 1965.

Edited~ Rest in Peace, Power, and #Resistance #HeatherHeyer, and If you voted for Trump and Pence you voted for this.

Heather Heyer.

An American martyr. A hero. My hero.

Last words on FB "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."

2017. pic.twitter.com/cQU0ljZLhG

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 13, 2017

"RIP #HeatherHeyer #Charlottesville. She last wrote "If you are not outraged, you are not paying attention". -@Trevor_Gervais On #KHA pic.twitter.com/gBfCDNaAfE

— Rev Jesse Jackson Sr (@RevJJackson) August 13, 2017

These are the faces of white supremacy, and they should be shared. It's a public protest. If they wanted privacy should've worn their hoods. pic.twitter.com/bDBu362Qun

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) August 12, 2017

Trump told the police to "ruff up" arrestees last week. Yesterday right on cue they stood down against white supremacist. #Charlottesville

— TruthBeTold (@Big6domino) August 13, 2017

Mother of White Terrorist "thought it was a rally for President Trump, not for white nationalists." - SAME THING  #BlackLivesMatter

— TrueBlackResist (@trueblackresist) August 13, 2017

It all starts in the home.  

Yes, this is racism.

Everyday there is something new but that's OK #RussiaGate

Trump shakes-and-yanks President Macron off his feet at Bastille Day parade https://t.co/vv9iR08dci via @AMERICAblog pic.twitter.com/aE5gDQLgza

— John Aravosis (@aravosis) July 14, 2017

Drip

Drop

Support Trump or else!

The most odious of those who are letting Trump drag America into the gutter include Vice President Mike Pence, the leaders in Congress and the pious shepherds of a white evangelical community that continues to give an awful man a pass for every awful thing he does.

When all else fails, blame it on the black guy/gal 

But President Trump is doing what he does best: blame someone else for all his self-inflicted problems. Trump’s usual scapegoats are Hillary Clinton, the media, and former President Obama. In fact, Trump blamed the Obama administration for letting a Russian lawyer who initiated the meeting, into the country. Trump claimed that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch permitted Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya to travel into the country, ultimately blaming her for the meeting. Trump exclaimed: “She was here because of Lynch.”

B-But You.  Built.  That.

RussiaGate: the Cliff Notes

Remember when republicans enabled by the white male dominated media accused candidate Obama of "palling around with terrorists"?

WATCH: Trump's full answer on Don, Jr.: "From a practical standpoint, most people would have taken that meeting." pic.twitter.com/FHa3q11uya

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 13, 2017

Let's recap

During the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign, controversy[1] was manufactured regarding Barack Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers, a Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a former leader of the Weather Underground, a radical left organization in the 1970s.[2] Investigations by CNN, The New York Times and other news organizations concluded that Obama did not have a close relationship with Ayers.[3][4][5]
Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, hosted a gathering at their home in 1995,[6] where Alice Palmer introduced Obama as her chosen successor in the Illinois State Senate.[4][7] Obama and Ayers' nine years of service on the board of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago overlapped for three years from 1999 to 2002.[4][6][7]
The matter was first raised by the British and American press, then by conservative blogs and talk radio programs,[8][9][10]and then by moderator George Stephanopoulos during a debate between Hillary Clinton and Obama in April 2008. The Obama-Ayers connection was used as a major campaign issue by Republican presidential candidate John McCain and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin during the 2008 presidential election campaign. Obama has condemned Ayers' past,[11][12] and stated that he does not have a close association with him.

Remember when republicans enabled by the white male dominated media forced candidate Obama to renounce reject and repudiate his longtime pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright for preaching truth to power? 

The Jeremiah Wright controversy gained national attention in the United States, in March 2008 when ABC News, after reviewing dozens of U.S. Presidentialcandidate Barack Obama's pastor Jeremiah Wright's sermons,[1] excerpted parts which were subject to intense media scrutiny.[2][3] Wright is a retired senior pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago and former pastor of President Obama.[4] Obama denounced the statements in question, but critics continued to press the issue of his relationship with Wright. In response to this, he gave a speech titled "A More Perfect Union", in which he sought to place Wright's comments in a historical and sociological context. In the speech, Obama again denounced Wright's remarks, but did not disown him as a person. The controversy began to fade, but was renewed in late April when Wright made a series of media appearances, including an interview on Bill Moyers Journal, a speech at the NAACP, and a speech at the National Press Club.[5] After the last of these, Obama spoke more forcefully against his former pastor, saying that he was "outraged" and "saddened" by his behavior, and in May he resigned his membership in the church.[6]

Fast forward to today and the media's mass hysteria over collusion with Russia is out of control 

Anyway, Trump Jr. took the one-off meeting, and nothing happened. Is that not proof of non-collusion in and of itself? If you choose to believe otherwise, your disdain for President Trump is getting the best of you and you need help.

B-But the damn emails..... 

RedEye's #MondayMotivation BlogStoll

State of our town flag seems an apt metaphor for our democracy:  constricted and tangled.
Save our country!#resist pic.twitter.com/LtWVVqTf5Y

— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) July 10, 2017

Education Blogger geekpavaler is back on the case and so is Larry Lee.  #HCS isn't the only school board fiddling while Rome burns, which explains why #SweetHomeAlabama is number 1 in college football and last in everything else.  

Surprise!  Surprise!  Surprise! Says, no one.   The Trump Administration is"Making America Great Again" by trampling on black and poor people. 

As the young people say, let's flip the script, what if Chelsa Clinton had met with a Russian Lawyer to get dirt on Donald Trump?  EYE am just saying.

So, where are the pro-TrumpCare rallies?

#resist

Psst! Compassionate Christian Conservatives... How is that deal with the #Devil working out for you now?

Is America Great Again yet?  

How Can Any Christian Support Trump? Here are five reasons why Trump is the opposite of a Christian.  Special thanks to Cindi Brady.  Shared by Occupy Democrats,

Trump Can't Revese the Decline of White Chrisitan America

One of the most perplexing features of the 2016 election was the high level of support Donald Trump received from white evangelical Protestants. How did a group that once proudly identified itself as “values voters” come to support a candidate who had been married three times, cursed from the campaign stump, owned casinos, appeared on the cover of Playboy Magazine, and most remarkably, was caught on tape bragging in the most graphic terms about habitually grabbing women’s genitals without their permission?

EYE am just saying...there is more than a whiff of hypocrisy.  

So how is that peaceful transfer of power thingy working out for you?

Former Vice President Joe Biden presiding over the Electoral College Certification

It's been a little over 4 months since that fateful day when the reigns of power were peacefully handed over to tRump and Company. To say things have gone to hell in a handbasket is an understatement.  From firing the director of the FBI after he refused to take the loyalty pledge to GOP attempts to repeal and replace ObamaCare with TrumpNoCare,  the miseducation secretary doing everything she can to undermine public education, cabinet members under investigation including the AG who is threatening to deny federal funds to Sanctuary Cities, not to mention the attack on women, the environment, the Muslim Ban and voter suppression.

There are calls for impeaching tRump but that would not free us from the dark specter of collusion, cronyism,  corruption, and betrayal that swept in when the Electoral College selected tRump and Pence.

Colluding w/ Russia
Blackmailing Morning Joe
Unpopular healthcare bill
Muslim Ban hates grandma
Sanctuary Cities fight back
& yet the GOP👇🏿 pic.twitter.com/78bH7qdBl0

— W. Kamau Bell (@wkamaubell) June 30, 2017

So now the rattlesnakes are beginning to turn on each other.  But it's too late.  It.  Is.  Over.

Remember?  

EYE am going to let Raymond Nat Turner speak for me today #Resist

Department of War Poetry by BAR Poet in Residence Raymond Nat Turner

Look Away, Look Away

For us living in the US, our poet reminds us, imperial atrocities are at worst collateral damage, and most often invisible. Only when they come into sight need we look away.... look away...

Read on.  Read often. 

RedEye's #Resist Blog Round Up and Mini #Rant

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

EYE want my democracy back! #Gerrymandering

Our democracy is fading. Until we clean up our election process we will be stuck w illegitimate corrupt leadership like Trump and McConnell.

— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) June 23, 2017

Can you say rigged?

The 2016 presidential contest was awash with charges that the fix was in: Republican Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that the election was rigged against him, while Democrats have accused the Russians of stacking the odds in Trump’s favor.
Less attention was paid to manipulation that occurred not during the presidential race, but before it — in the drawing of lines for hundreds of U.S. and state legislative seats. The result, according to an Associated Press analysis: Republicans had a real advantage.

It's the #Stupid #Gerrymandering. 

Any party that relies on voter suppression, the Russians and gerrymandering to obtain power can't say it's patriotic or supports democracy.

— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) June 25, 2017

Update: The double standard on environmental racism and justice in black and white in #SweetHomeAlabama

Then State Representative Oliver Robinson also argued against the listing before the Alabama Environmental Management Commission. It was also opposed by the Jefferson County Commission. The site has not been not added to the National Priorities List.

Meet Oliver Robinson, who was once one of the most decorated basketball players in UAB history, but now is a toxic waste of talent.

Former Alabama state Rep. Oliver Robinson had it going on. He was a basketball star at UAB, and his political star had been rising in the Alabama Legislature where he served for 18 years until he suddenly resigned last year.
Robinson was a rarity in red-state Alabama politics - a Democrat with power. On the other hand, it turns out he was just another in a long line of crooked Alabama politicians.

 And therein lies the problem, Democrats, especially black Democrats are more likely to be prosecuted for conspiracy, bribery, and fraud than Republicans in Alabama.  But EYE digress.  Back to Oliver Robinson

Robinson pleaded guilty, it was announced on Thursday by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, to fraud, conspiracy, bribery and tax evasion charges. It was also announced that Robinson is actively working with the FBI, IRS and other agencies to build cases on other conspirators.
All of this stems from Robinson’s involvement, as a representative from Birmingham, in the North Birmingham Superfund Site (officially tabbed the 35thAvenue Superfund by the EPA).
That site, located in the area of Birmingham where steel mills operated for decades, is an environmental mess. Testing has found toxins in neighborhoods to be so high that the top layers of soil have been removed from hundreds of yards, businesses and school grounds. There’s pollution in the waterways and in the air, as well.

So all of a sudden the powers that be care about environmental racism?

Per the white male dominated media

His campaign implored residents in Inglenook and Tarrant not to allow the EPA to test their soil for poisons -- the same soil some of them use to garden in, the same dirt some of their children play in.

And as it turns out, Robinson wasn't pushing back against the EPA because he had strong feelings about federal encroachment or neighborhood property values. He did it because he was getting paid.
He was being paid to tell mostly poor residents, some of them in his own district, that their neighborhoods were safe places to live, when he should have had every reason to know that wasn't true.

 And why is Oliver Robinson the poster boy?

He is going to jail because be spent at least a quarter of a million dollars on personal items rather utilizing the money for the purposes for which it was solicited from corporations--to publish a magazine touting African-American businesses, organize a conference bringing African-American entrepreneurs together with business and political leaders, or produce an event celebrating black achievement.
He is going to jail because he spent campaign funds on personal items, like whatever he bought for whomever at Victoria's Secret for $400 in February 2014.

Really?  Or is he going to jail because he is a powerful African American Democrat?

Civil rights activist Angela Yvonne Davis will speak in Birmingham next week, but for some in Alabama, the Birmingham native might not be welcome.
Two weeks ago, the Alabama Legislature passed a feel-good resolution, sponsored by Rep. Oliver Robinson, D-Birmingham, honoring Davis. However, Gov. Robert Bentley refused to sign it.

Is this about environmental racism or about sending a message to powerful African American Democrats?

It's like Langford himself is pitching this thing. 

Free money! Free money! Refinance now and we can spend $65 million in "profits" on schools and mass transit and the zoo and all those things we haven't been able to spend it on because too many corrupt politicians made too many bad bond deals.
If we remember anything from those days, it's that there much (sic) be a catch.

 And there is. Because in the bill Robinson is expected to sponsor, there will be money left over. Left over, that is, for politicians to steer to their own pet projects or to bolster their own campaigns.

The bill would create a committee to oversee distribution of the cash, but legislators would pick the members and would still suggest how it is spent. It is pass-through pork. Period. And don't forget it. 

Just like former Jefferson County Commission Jeff Germany used. Before it sent him to prison. 

Just like Sen. EB McClain used. Before it sent him to prison. 

In 2004 the county, led by Langford, passed a 1 cent sales tax for a $1 billion bond issue to help schools. He was more interested in the bond deal and political points than the schools. But he rammed it through. Before he went to prison.

EYE suspect the later

Despite being a Democrat in a Republican-controlled Legislature, he held considerable power before he resigned. He had seats on the House Rules Committee, the House Financial Services Committee, and served as co-chair of the Jefferson County delegation.
The foundation later paid Robinson's daughter, Amanda, who actively sought to discourage poor north Birmingham and Tarrant residents from testing their property for pollutants.
Robinson's daughter has not been charged related to the federal investigation.

EYE report.  You decide.

A RedEye Twitter Rant about #tRumpCare

Today's protesters dragged out from McConnell office. pic.twitter.com/ZelV9oGzft

— RogelioGarcia Lawyer (@LawyerRogelio) June 22, 2017

Bend over, becuz unless you're filthy rich, Trumpcare is virtual sodomy performed by Trump & the GOP upon you & your family. #HealthcareBill

— Bill Madden (@activist360) June 22, 2017

Dawn Russell being loaded onto police bus for processing with her fist raised in POWER! #ADAPTandRESIST #SaveMedicaid #FreeOurPeople pic.twitter.com/HY7TTMLrhd

— DC Metro ADAPT (@DCAdapt) June 22, 2017

To go from ObamaCare to Trump Don't Care is deplorable. 

It just is.  

RedEye Rant Over.  For now.

"Did the Russians Hack Black Voters Because Nobody Would Care?"

EYE turn this blog over to ENIGMA IN BLACK
“I suspect a bit of both is true because the people most heavily impacted by the voting problems whether caused by Russians or Republicans, were Black!”

Photo: slate.com

On June 5th, a Top-Secret NSA report was leaked showing Russia had done much more than was commonly known in their attempts to influence the US Presidential Election in 2016. The Russians hacked a Florida-based software provider that helped manage voter registration programs in several states. The media duly reported the potential problems this could create including people showing up and finding they were removed from the voting rolls or processes could be slowed to create long lines in targeted areas. The narrative we were asked to focus on was that there is no evidence any votes were actually changed and there was nothing to see here.

EYE report what YOU decide.

What we have here is a #FakeDemocracy

If voting is the only power that we have, and our voting and choice processes are manipulated by outside forces, what power do we have left?

— Mark H. Brainard (@Draniarb) May 31, 2017

EYE weep for our country redux

No Democrat has won the majority of the white vote since 1964, when Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. Of course it's about race. pic.twitter.com/96vEwVNCMj

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) May 26, 2017

EYE had a feeling the black, EYE mean, backlash in response to America's first African American President was going to be fierce, but EYE had no idea how fierce.  Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine the depth of the hatred for people of color.  It's one of the reasons EYE didn't buy into the post racial America narrative.  There is a mean spirit on the loose that is just too big and too mean to fight.

Republicans bite off their noses to spite their faces.  

The Trump administration unveiled a budget for 2018 on Tuesday that seeks to overhaul many of the country’s safety-net programs for low-income and struggling Americans. Though these cuts are popular among Republican lawmakers, they affect programs that are actually more commonly used in Republican-leaning states than in Democratic ones, and that in many cases benefit white voters without college degrees — a demographic group that strongly supported President Donald Trump in the 2016 election.
The programs experiencing the deepest cuts provide assistance for health care services to children, the poor and disabled, and that supplement food and housing for those with low incomes. Most of the programs were created decades ago by Democratic presidents.

Hatred is a powerful motivator 

If a Republican-controlled Congress has its way, the results would be "apocalyptic":

Hundreds of thousands would lose health insurance; medical debt and untreated conditions would surge; and there would be an explosion in extreme poverty, including a lot of outright hunger.

Don't think.  Support Trump. 

You may recall Trump’s remark during the campaign that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters.” Well, he hasn’t done that, at least so far. He is, however, betting that he can break every promise he made to the working-class voters who put him over the top, and still keep their support. Can he win that bet?

You Betcha 

To Blog or not to Blog.... that is the question

Say, have you seen my democracy?  You know the land of the free and the home of the brave with liberty and justice for all?  It seems like every day there is a new assault on every right we have except the right to bear arms, and even that right doesn't apply to all.  EYE am scared to Blog but EYE am more scared not to Blog so here goes.  

From the Files of Freedom isn't Free

Trumpsters can dish it out but they can't take it.

This Colbert joke was the bridge too far for Trumpers. Sure, they were on board when during the campaign Trump mocked a disabled reporter. And when Trump demonized Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and stoked hate versus Muslims by saying “Islam hates us.” Many of them defended Trump’s bragging about grabbing women by the genitals as “locker room talk.” And Trumpers literally cheered at his campaign rally in October when he called the courageous women who came forward to report that Trump had sexually assaulted them “horrible liars”.

So they call on the government to take care of it for them 

Late night talk show host Stephen Colbert’s controversial joke about President Trump drew the attention of the Federal Communications Commission. The agency received “a number” of complaints about Colbert’s commentary earlier in the week, according to the FCC’s chief.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai promised to “take the appropriate action” following a comprehensive investigation of Colbert’s remarks.
The FCC's response will depend on whether Colbert’s remarks are considered “obscene.”

In Case You Missed It

The Trump administration is making Fox News into official State TV

The televisions in public areas at the Health and Human Services Department headquarters in Washington have been switched to Fox News. Now the same change appears to have applied to other HHS buildings, including Food and Drug Administration buildings in Maryland.
According to two people who work at the agency, the televisions at the Hubert Humphrey building had previously rotated among the three main cable channels every three days or so. But since shortly after the Trump administration took over, the televisions have been on Fox News.
One of the sources suggested that the information came from "high up" in the agency. (Our colleague Dan Diamond first pointed out in January that the televisions were tuned to Fox.) Now, a new internal email that appears to be from the agency's White Oak campus in Silver Spring, posted to Twitter by several reporters, says current administration officials ordered the change.

They hate us for our freedom 

To be black in America means to live in a state of constant vulnerability. 

So far in 2017, black people have constituted 25 percent of the police shooting victims, according to the Washington Post.
Out of the 339 people shot and killed by police this year, 85 of them are black—and it’s only May.

And we dare not protest 

We are in an era where the White House considers Black Lives Matter to be a terrorist organization. Deliberate attacks against black people who are fighting for justice—whether the Rev. Clementa Pinckney of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., or half a dozen other activists killed by white nationalists in the last decade—are not far-fetched.

If you are scared then say you are scared 

Don't underestimate Trump

As far back as 2006, Lakoff saw the writing on the wall. “A dark cloud of authoritarianism looms over the nation,” he wrote in his book Thinking Points, A Progressive’s Handbook. ”Radical conservatives have taken over the reins of government and have been controlling the terms of the political debate for many years.” The progressives couldn’t hear him, either.

Why we can't wait

Am I just paranoid—or perhaps merely still sufficiently medicated—to wonder if these giddy omadhauns who went to the White House kegger on Thursday afternoon did so because they have faith unbroken in voter suppression, gerrymandering, and other activities within the margin of chicanery that has come to mark close elections in this country?

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray....