A comment on the midterm elections
Commentary by Chitown Kev
As a teenager, I once considered a career of being a Vegas bookie.
I think that the years of spiral notebooks in which I meticulously predicted college and professional football games have, sadly, been trashed but I do remember that for at least a couple of those years, my prognostication record (winning percentage wise) was better than Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder.
My uncle even used to bring home one of his football sheets from the Chrysler plant especially for me to mark up.
Other than taking the occasional brief glance at the point spreads in the Chicago Sun-Times, I don’t dabble with sports prognostication all that much anymore but I do remember some general rules that I observe; for example, all other things being equal or almost equal, it is critical to know whether one team matches up with another team by, for example, having the exact strengths needed to neutralize what the opponent does best.
Historical precedent is also an important factor. For example, I never picked a Peyton Manning-led football team in a big game because of Manning and his teams tendency not to win the important games, be it the Florida Gators in college or Tom Brady and the New England Patriots in the National Football League (meaning that I was on the wrong side of a few predictions).
Other than reading and observing, I have little to no experience in predicting the outcome of the nation’s elections. I do know some of the necessary components that go into making such predictions (i.e. poll averages and aggregates, notating significant geographical changes in districts, etc.) and some of the components that go into such forecasting, after all, have some similarities to the way in which I do football predictions.
Let’s take historical precedent, for instance.
Yes, historical precedent says that the party of the president frequently loses seats during midterm election campaigns with some exceptions.
Another historical precedent: Number 45 is a loser.
And a sore loser at that.
Not only did Number 45 lose the national popular vote in 2016, the Republican Party actually lost seats in both houses of Congress in 2016, remember? (Albeit, the Republicans did retain diminished majorities in both houses of Congress.)
2018 was the Year of the Blue Wave, with Democrats winning a majority in the U.S. House and a majority of gubernatorial elections (granted, the Republicans won and even added to their Senate majority).
In 2020, the Democrats, of course, won the presidency, maintained a diminished majority in the U.S. House, and managed to reach a tie in the battle for the U.S. Senate and, with the tie-breaking vote of Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, win effective control of that chamber.
And in 2022?
In a year where historical precedent would seem to indicate a “Red Wave”, the Democrats won 2 gubernatorial seats, will maintain and, perhaps, even expand their majority in the United States Senate but might lose their majority in the U.S. House by a slim margin, as of this writing. And whole state legislative chambers.
True enough, every win, even little ones, by the Republican Party comes at a great cost to America.
But in spite of the media projection of a creeping and enveloping MAGA movement headed by a criminal fool that winning, the MAGA enterprise is captained by a sore loser, in reality.
And we need to keep on keepin’ on.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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Remember those colorful, clickable little bricks that littered your childhood bedroom? They're having a major comeback, thanks to Fox’s hit show LEGO Masters, now in its third season. The addictive competition series pits two teams against each other in out-of-this-world building challenges, leading to some mind-blowing designs that leave us in awe.
We can't deny that there's something so enticing about LEGOs, which have gone from just kid’s play to a viable art form, allowing Black builders to express themselves in inventive ways that speak to the expansiveness of our culture. Here are six talented Black LEGO masters who show us just how far it can go, one brick at a time.
LEGOs to represent a culture? Definitive yes. That’s the mission of Toronto-based, international artist Ekow Nimako. His intricate designs explore Black, Ghanaian and world culture through Afrofuturistic sculptures, Adinkra symbols and Black mythology figures. “Afrofuturism and Africanfuturism give us unlimited potential and possibilities,” shared Nimako. “It is a great vehicle to change the world perception of Africa and the people of the African diaspora.”
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The Black Futures Lab, in the final throes of an ambitious, nationwide survey, wants to reach 250,000-plus Black Americans to gauge their experiences and how they hope to see things change.
The answers from the lab’s Black Census will give elected officials a roadmap to address the needs of the Black community. Organizers said that respondents numbering in the hundreds of thousands will make the survey the largest ever of Black Americans who the political process has marginalized for far too long.
The lab, enlisting the help of more than 100 partners, plans to survey “LGB+ communities, trans communities, incarcerated Black people, Black immigrant communities, and Black people in rural areas. Black Futures Lab will use the findings to shape a robust public policy agenda focused on the lives of Black people, with an anticipated release of an updated Black agenda,” according to organizers.
“At this moment in American politics, it’s necessary not just to talk at Black people [or] about Black people, but to talk directly to Black people about what it is that we experience every day and what we want for our futures,” said Alicia Garza, principal of the Black Futures Lab whose idea spurred the survey.
“For democracy or participatory government to be achieved, you have to talk to everybody who has a stake in it,” she said.
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The Woman King. Till. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Nope. Nanny. The Inspection.
What do all these phenomenal films have in common? Powerhouse Black women at the forefront.
I’m talking about women like Viola Davis, Lashana Lynch, Thuso Mbedu, Sheila Atim and Adrienne Warren; Danielle Deadwyler and Whoopi Goldberg; Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira, and Lupita Nyong’o; Keke Palmer; and Anna Diop and Gabrielle Union, respectively.
All the aforementioned women each brought something unforgettable and undeniable with their portrayals on the big screen this year. And while some have begun to be recognized with early awards nominations such as the Gotham Awards, (namely Diop, Union, and Deadwyler) given the history Hollywood has with notoriously overlooking the phenomenal artistry that comes from Black people, and Black women, in particular, it remains to be seen whether or not they’ll be given their just due when the broader awards season rolls around.
Of course, there are already talks of the biggest awards buzz of them all, a.k.a. the Oscars for certain veteran actors such as Davis and Bassett for their roles in The Woman King and Wakanda Forever. But the industry would be remiss if they didn’t take into account the amazing talents brought forth by Mbedu, Lynch, Palmer, Deadwyler, Wright and more, who may not have as many years in the game as Davis and Bassett but bring just as much passion and brilliance in their performances.
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The West African nation of Benin adopted one of the continent’s most liberal laws on abortion last year after hearing testimony from gynecologists about women dying from illegal abortions. NYT: While Abortion Rights Shrink in U.S., This Small Country Expanded Access
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When lawmakers in the West African nation of Benin met last year to consider whether to legalize abortion, they heard shocking testimony from Dr. Véronique Tognifode, the country’s minister of social affairs, about what she had seen during her years working as a gynecologist.
She recounted how she and her peers had struggled to save women who had tried to end their pregnancies by ingesting dubious pills or bleach, inserting sharp objects into their bodies or getting illegal abortions from the dangerous hacks known locally as “mechanics.”
The death toll was unacceptably high, she told them: One in five maternal deaths in Benin resulted from unsafe abortions, according to the government — more than twice the average on the African continent, which is the most unsafe region in the world to terminate a pregnancy.
“Young women and girls are getting abortions one way or another, and those ways are unthinkable,” said Dr. Tognifode, who is one of three gynecologists serving as senior officials in Benin’s government. “We can’t live with what we see in hospitals.”
A year after that testimony, Benin, with a population of 12 million, mostly Christians and Muslims, has become one of the few countries in Africa where abortion is broadly available.
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