Discussion for article #242374
Black Lives Matter needs to have its targeting computer adjusted. First Bernie Sanders, and now Hillary Clinton? Are they showing up at Trump events? Cruz rallies?
10 Likes
BLM needs to avoid this common mistake:
9 Likes
In a series of tweets, Clinton said the United States needs to end private prisons and mass incarceration. Clinton also criticized punishment for drug offenses and other aspects of criminal justice that she said disproportionately affect African-Americans.
Meanwhile …
Lobbyists for two major prison companies—Corrections Corporation of America and the Geo Group—are serving as top fundraisers for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The implication is that laws governing crime and incarceration will deliver more inmates and profits to private prison companies if Clinton is elected.
Lee Fang reports at The Intercept:
Last week, Clinton and other candidates revealed a number of lobbyists who are serving as “bundlers” for their campaigns. Bundlers collect contributions on behalf of a campaign, and are often rewarded with special favors, such as access to the candidate.
Richard Sullivan, of the lobbying firm Capitol Counsel, is a bundler for the Clinton campaign, bringing in $44,859 in contributions in a few short months. Sullivan is also a registered lobbyist for the Geo Group, a company that operates a number of jails, including immigrant detention centers, for profit.
As we reported yesterday, fully five Clinton bundlers work for the lobbying and law firm Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private prison company in America, paid Akin Gump $240,000 in lobbying fees last year. The firm also serves as a law firm for the prison giant, representing the company in court.
2 Likes
If lobbyists for private prisons are bundling for Hillary, what does this imply? I can’t think of an answer. 
That they think they need to have access to get her to change her mind.
Has anyone checked who else the lobbying firms have members bundling for? Granted that a Republican administration would be an economic disaster and that most businesses know that, it remains the case that most such firms raise money for both sides because they need to have access to whoever wins.
9 Likes
You might have included this link from the same source which says
the Hillary Clinton campaign has agreed to stop accepting contributions from lobbyists and campaign committees that serve the private prison industry
18 Likes
It implies that there is always someone ready to slam the front runner.
8 Likes
I’m not sure it’s a bad strategy. Go after your “friends” first, the people you have the least distance from. Every movement pisses more people off than gains supporters at the beginning, since you basically do have to be pricks to get reported on. Plus wouldn’t you want to practice a little where you didn’t have to worry about getting beaten up before trying the majo® leagues?
3 Likes
Shouting down your natural allies is a good strategy? They should consider showing up at events where the candidates are accepting questions from the audience, like town hall meetings, and asking some pointed questions: “If you were President, what would you do about X or Y?” If fact, even doing that at a G.O.P. event might be a more productive approach.
1 Like
I agree it’s not without drawbacks. I’m just saying it gets you on the news while the ways you suggest, while more polite - don’t.
5 Likes
Are we still pretending that we are past racism in this country? No political party since the early 60s has been more racist than todays Republican Party.
But the media pretend not to see it … and it keeps growing.
- The right wing is racist.
- The Republican Party is racist.
- The Tea Party is racist.
- Voter Suppression is racist.
- Closing DMVs so that African Americans can’t get IDs to vote is racist.
Take it to the GOP. Protest at the Republicans events. Force them to come out
of hiding.
BLM, If you want to do something … that’s where you do it.
28 Likes
Memo to protesters: Keep your eyes on the prize. Hillary may not be perfect, but she’s the odds-on favorite to the Democratic nominee, and you and your supporters are a whole lot better off with her in the White House than any of the Republicans.
8 Likes
And here is what BLM got across in that display: “we continue to assholes slapping the faces of the only folks that have tried to help us”
BLM will become the bane of modern Civil Rights movement. They will become hated by the people they call their own.
4 Likes
Hillary Clinton has agreed to stop accepting contributions from federally registered lobbyists and PACs for private prison companies, her campaign staff confirmed with Fusion early Friday morning.
The campaign has promised to donate any previous direct contributions from private prison lobbyists to charity.
“It’s an encouraging step forward,” said Rashad Robinson, executive director of the online civil rights group ColorOfChange.
Robinson said the Clinton campaign agreed to stop taking contributions from private prison lobbyists after a lot of “substantive and open conversations.”
“substantive and open conversations.”
Translation: She got caught.
1 Like
You are assuming BLM is about something other then themselves. There is no evidence of that. As for racism…you and I are racists too. Everyone is. It’s in us. We didn’t put it there but it’s there and what matters is how we deal with it. You don’t let it hurt other people. You investigate it inside yourself and you corral it up…tame it and rise above it. Its the worst part of you. You treat it as such.
I am a White aging professional man. But I can look at a young Black kid and not let our differences make me hate him. They want me to but I don’t allow it. I can’t imagine what it must be like to have that Black skin. Let me guess. To know it is going to hold you back. To fear a job interview even though you are supremely qualified. To be so tired of skeptical blue eyes or fair haired edginess. I was able to raise my family with little guff because of my race. ( I did get shit for my Dutch origins though ). But I wonder what it must be like to be a dedicated family man, Black, knowing that all other things being equal…his family would be in better shape if he was not Black. What a beating…daily beating that is. Well I will not do it to him. If he comes to me for a job he’ll probably get it and he will be treated only as a man. Because that’s what I demand and allow of myself no matter what demons are encoded in my DNA.
Racism is an emotion and you can’t make it go away. You can control it and refuse to allow it to steer you. You can better and best it. You can push it so damn deep into your back spaces you hardly ever know it is there.
6 Likes
The Republican Party is the most damaging of the racist organizations in the United States. More damaging than scarier groups, because, through Congress and various state governments, the Republican Party has done, is doing and will do–in the foreseeable future–INCALCULABLE damage to this country.
I have seen this business of going after Democrats with Latinos. Both Diaz-Balart and Ramos have been highly critical of President Obama, with regard to Immigration…with far less mention of the Republican Party.than is warranted.
Finally, both groups (especially among the young) have been far less aggressive than the average. bingo-playing grandpa with regard to going to the polls and using the right to vote.
In the case of minorities, the right to vote is one, for which their ancestors gave their lives.
VOTING
LEGISLATION
SOCIAL POLICY
QUALITY OF LIFE
It seems that the so-called “natural” Democratic constituencies cannot fathom this sequence.
6 Likes
Nice, honest post. I can relate to what you’ve said. We all have our own prejudices, but it’s what we do with them, how we respond to them when they arise. Exploring dark, ugly emotions isn’t comfortable at all – but man, what an eye-opener, a humbling thing. Doing so makes us better humans, better friends and neighbors.
3 Likes
Here is the Number One reason I will be voting for the Democratic nominee next year: United States Supreme Court.
Pick your fights carefully. Always use a wide lens and look to the future.
12 Likes
Well and honestly said. I have advocated to my Latino and African American students travel to countries in which their physical appearance is similar to that of the “average” phenotype…with a bunch of caveats. Just some of the main ones.
- The natives will make you as an American
- The standard of living will be different
- The customs will be different
- If the language is the similar, the dialect will be different
- You will get homesick
- Touring is not the same as living
Invariably. coming back home will be just that: coming HOME.
But coming home with a perspective both more critical and less critical of your FELLOW AMERICANS…because, when all is said and done, Americans who are black or Latino are usually far more “American” than they realize.
8 Likes