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.