Commentary by Black Kos editor JoanMar
We totally repudiate and reject the prevailing mainstream media narrative that the Democrats should hang it up and mosey on home. They aren’t going to dampen our spirits and take our joy. Let’s remind ourselves that none of the experts saw the decisive, historic win for the forces of good on the abortion amendment in Kansas earlier this year.
Abortion opponents were shocked this week, having assumed that Kansas would be a great place to start the state-by-state struggle over abortion rights that the Supreme Court has set in motion.
It seems that they, too, had too many presumptions about Kansas.
None of them saw it coming. None of their much-vaunted polls predicted it. Not that little twit Harry Enten on CNN, not @CNNPolitics; not the hyperactive, hyperventilating Steve Kornacki on MSNBC; not the smug, self-congratulating editors and pollsters over at 538.com, and certainly not the pompous punditry class repeating the same old stale phrases over and over and over again. And now we are supposed to trust them?
To have a diary here exhorting people to go out and vote is preaching to the choir. Users on this site are well aware of their civic duty… and the need for self-preservation. Rather, we are here primarily to ask that if you have a little change left over and are looking for candidates to support, you give a thought to one or more of those listed below.
Let’s Go!
Pastor Jamal Bryant has a way with words. Here he goes to bat for Raphael Warnock:
Stacy Abrams
Val Demings
The breakout star of this election cycle has got to be Val Demings. I don’t know that I knew just how powerful a campaigner she would be. She’s been fierce! And yes, Viola Davis should absolutely play her in her biopic.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel endorses Mandela Barnes & Tony Evers:
Johnson and supporters have made crime a major issue in the campaign, falsely claiming that Barnes wants to “defund the police.” In fact, Barnes hasn’t called for defunding the police. Instead, he favors giving police the resources they need to keep the public safe but also spending money on crime prevention, including for schools and job creation.
Crime is a local issue handled by mayors, city councils and police departments — not senators. Its emergence in the Senate race this fall is simple fear-mongering on the part of Republicans, who are hoping to scare voters that the Black man running for Senate is too “different” and too “dangerous” to serve — actual words used in commercials supporting Johnson.
If you can, these folks could also do with some financial support: Maggie Hassan, Kathy Hochul & Antonio Delgado, John Fetterman (Oprah just endorsed him), Catherine Cortez Masto, Mike Franken, Tim Ryan, and even Evan McMullin of Utah (we’ll deal with the ramifications later but Mike Lee has got to go).
The closer, former President Barack Obama
I love this man. “[…] never had a cramp...”
Honorable mention goes to Ms. Jenifer Lewis.
How much do you think we can raise this evening?
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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But the 2022 cycle introduced a new reality: The conservative courts have repeatedly decided to step in to determine the fate of district lines, and potentially control of the House itself. To a degree that’s absolutely unprecedented in modern times, the midterms will be conducted with illegal maps—all of which were manipulated by Republicans to benefit their party, all of which were approved or imposed by Republican-controlled courts. Put simply, Republican-appointed judges may have already guaranteed GOP control over the House before a single ballot is cast.
The reason why is simple: In February 2022, the Supreme Court effectively suspended the Voting Rights Act’s ban on racial gerrymandering. Before that point, lower courts had applied longstanding precedent to find that congressional districts drawn after the 2020 census violated the VRA. They were following the text of the law, which outlaws maps that deny racial minorities an equal opportunity “to elect representatives of their choice.” For years, the Supreme Court interpreted this provision to prohibit racial gerrymanders that carve up Black communities to dilute their political power.
But in an unsigned 5–4 order in February, the Supreme Court majority ignored those precedents and froze a lower court order striking down Alabama’s egregiously racist gerrymander, which crammed most Black residents into a single district. It did not explain its reasoning, but the message was clear enough: The ultraconservative majority would let Republican legislators eliminate as many majority-Black congressional districts as they pleased, maximizing the number of safe GOP seats in the midterms.
Its decision had an immediate and devastating ripple effect on litigation throughout the South. A federal judge in Georgia declined to block the state’s racial gerrymandered congressional map, despite his belief that it likely ran afoul of the VRA. Another federal judge shot down Louisiana’s racist gerrymander, but the Supreme Court revived it (with all three liberal justices dissenting). Meanwhile, a district court in Texas dismissed many claims against the legislature’s attack on Latino representation. SCOTUS’ decision also empowered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to reject the Republican legislature’s moderate gerrymander and demand an extreme map that targeted Black voters with surgical precision. The legislature complied. A state judge struck down the resulting plan as a brazenly illegal racial gerrymander, but the Florida Supreme Court—stacked with DeSantis appointees—predictably reinstated it.
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A new study shows that 71% of Black voters fear voter suppression will interfere with the results of the 2022 midterm elections.
A recent TheGrio/KFF survey found that when Black voters were asked about a list of things that may have been problems for them when voting, 46% reported that they experienced waiting in long lines while trying to cast a ballot.
Leah Daughtry, co-convener of Power Rising and a leader of The Black Women’s Leadership Collective, told theGrio that Black Americans who have experienced longer wait times at polling sites are often victims of voter suppression.
“We saw in the 2020 presidential cycle where one man was in line in Georgia for eight hours. It is unconscionable that anyone should have to spend a work day, eight hours, standing in line to participate in the Democratic process,” said Daughtry.
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The Alabama Constitution, approved in 1901 to entrench white supremacy, still has language regarding segregated schools, poll taxes and bans on interracial marriage.
But a seismic change could be in store. Alabama voters on Nov. 8 will decide whether to ratify a new constitution that strips out the Jim Crow-era language. It would also reorganize the unwieldy governing document, which has been amended 978 times and tops over 400,000 words. The Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama says the size makes it the longest such document in the world.
Voters in 2020 authorized state officials and lawmakers to cut the racist language that lingers from the era of racial segregation. That work, finally completed, now goes back before voters to ratify the Alabama Constitution of 2022.
Proponents say the changes that will demonstrate Alabama is a different place today — and streamline the sprawling constitution to be more user-friendly.
“This is an effort to show, not only the rest of the country, but the world who we are today,” said state Rep. Merika Coleman, one of the lawmakers who led the bipartisan effort.
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Starr Andrews made history at just 21 years of age on Saturday by becoming the first Black US figure skater to earn the ISU Grand Prix medal. This historic feat is a first in the series’ twenty-seven year history. It took place at Skate Canada in Mississauga, Ontario
In 2010, Andrews went viral for her routine to Willow Smith’s “Whip My Hair” when she was just 9 years old. She performed her second program of the tournament (a free skate to singer Lara Fabian’s remake of “Je Suis Malade”) on Saturday, which elevated her from fifth to second place.
Andrews executed six triple jumps, including a challenging double axel euler triple salchow. Her final score was 191.26. Rinka Watanabe (from Japan) won first with a score of 197.59 points, while Young You (South Korea) received the bronze medal with 190.15 points total.
After the program, Andrew wrote on Instagram: “I can’t even put into words how I feel right now!! I couldn’t be more proud of how I skated in Canada. Thank you to all the support I’ve gotten even on the skates that weren’t my best. This is a dream come true.”
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The Food and Drug Administration in 2021 issued a warning about possible inaccuracies after a study found the devices tended to overestimate Black patients’ oxygen levels. Grio: FDA advisers meet on racial disparities in pulse oximeters
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The clip-on devices that use light to measure oxygen levels in the blood are getting a closer look from U.S. regulators after recent studies suggest they don’t work as well for patients of color.
The devices, called pulse oximeters, usually snap onto a finger and are widely used in hospitals across the globe to help guide treatment. At-home versions became popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But several recent studies have raised concerns that the pigmentation in people’s skin can throw off the readings. In 2021, the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning about possible inaccuracies after a study found the devices tended to overestimate Black patients’ oxygen levels.
“The fact that such a commonly used device could have any discrepancy at all was shocking to me,” said Michael Sjoding, a University of Michigan pulmonologist who led the study. “I make a lot of medical decisions based on this device.”
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Last year, Black, Latino and Asian Americans experienced the largest increase in homeownership since the Great Recession, thanks to COVID stimulus programs.
Based on its analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, The Washington Post reported that during the pandemic, homeownership percentages among people of color were higher than those of white Americans. Last year, fewer Americans of every race were classified as renters. For Black Americans, this represented a drop for the first time since 2000.
“We’re seeing a real spark in Black and Latino homeownership because people — in large part, millennials — were able to save during the pandemic,” said Andre Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
“Now whether it’s sustained, that’s a different story. But what you saw in 2021 is a good thing because homeownership creates wealth and other opportunities that benefit entire communities,” Perry added.
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Foreign powers have hailed the truce signed by the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan leaders to end the brutal war in the north of the country and open up the flow of aid to those at risk of famine. BBC:Ethiopia civil war: Tigray truce a triumph PM Abiy Ahmed
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The agreement emphasises that both parties will abide by the existing federal constitution.
This includes resolving the status of areas such as the agriculturally rich western Tigray - seized by the neighbouring Amhara region during the early weeks of the war - by constitutional means.
It does not say whether the Tigrayan administration - and the farmers driven out - will return first.
The humanitarian element of the agreement opens the door to ending the starvation and deprivation that have cost the lives of as many as a million people. This includes perhaps 10% of Tigray's population of around six million, according to research published by academics in Belgium.
After two years of blockade and starvation, and under relentless military pressure from the joint forces of the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies plus forces from the Amhara region, the Tigrayan leaders made huge concessions.
Their calculation appears to be that the survival of the people of Tigray was at stake.
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