Wednesday, April 20, 2016

The New York State Primary

The news is out. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump won the New York state primaries. They have received huge victories. This event caused former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and billionaire Donald Trump to increase their front runner status. Hillary Clinton defeated Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders by a margin of 57 percent to 47 percent. She had about 1.1 million votes as compared to the 800,000 votes that Bernie Sanders have received. Democratic turnout in NY was up about 10 percent as compared to the last contested primary in 2008 when Clinton defeated Barack Obama by nearly the same percentage margin. There is the delegate count, which was divided proportionally. The Democratic National Convention will be held in Philadelphia. Media tabulations have Clinton with 1,424 elected delegates to 1,149 for Sanders, a margin of 275. When unelected super delegates—party officials and officeholders, who overwhelmingly favor Clinton—are included, Clinton’s lead more than doubles to 713, with 1,893 for Clinton compared to 1,180 for Sanders. A total of 2,382 are required to win the Democratic nomination. Hillary Clinton rolled up her majority in New York City and its suburbs. She won all five boroughs of the city and the five suburban counties (Nassau and Suffolk on Long Island and Westchester, Rockland and Orange north of the city). Upstate, Clinton won narrowly in Erie County (Buffalo), Monroe County (Rochester) and Onondaga County (Syracuse). Sanders actually won 49 of New York’s 62 counties, including the rural areas and the smaller manufacturing centers like Schenectady, Utica and Binghamton, as well as the state capital, Albany. NY is a closed primary where only registered Democrats can vote. Most of the remaining primaries have the same rules, which is in favor of a Hillary victory. Sanders have won a lot of independent and young voters. On the Republican side, Republicans won 60 percent of the vote. John Kasich won 25 percent of the vote and Ted Cruz won on 15 percent of the vote. The total Republican vote was up more than 20 percent compared to 2008, but still far below the total in the Democratic contest. All three Republicans combined won fewer votes than Hillary Clinton in the heavily Democratic state. Under Republican Party rules awarding delegates on a winner-take-all basis if a candidate wins 50 percent of the vote in a congressional district or statewide, Trump won at least 90 of the 95 delegates elected Tuesday, with Kasich taking the remainder. Cruz won zero delegates, finishing a poor third in all 27 congressional districts in the state. Trump now leads the Republican contest with 849 delegates compared to 559 for Cruz, with 1,237 required for the nomination. The New York result does not clinch the nomination for Trump, but it makes it considerably more difficult to prevent him accumulating the needed delegates in the 15 states still to vote. This is a new era where there is a high risk of a Hillary vs. Trump race (who are unpopular among many people). Hillary Clinton in her victory speech in Manhattan (on Tuesday night) talked about Roosevelt, Obama, education, infrastructure, heath care, and other issues. Yet, she omit her pro-war mongering policies and her support of the escalation of military actions in the Middle East. Hillary criticized Cruz and Trump for their extremist views. The Sanders campaign is still going. Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver said on MSNBC that Sanders must win 3 of the 5 next contests on April 26 in order to have a path for the nomination. Next Tuesday, primaries will happen in five East Coast states of: Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. This is the beginning of the end of the Democratic and Republican nomination races.



It is a disgraceful punishment. It's a type of "punishment" that shows how the criminal injustice system treats black families readily. We have a serious problem where police brutality is real and crooked police are treated in a level of genuflection (by some individuals) on an obscene level. This person not only shot and killed an unarmed black man. He also did nothing to call an ambulance for about 20 minutes (NYPD cops are trained in CPR before they graduate from the Academy). He argued with another police officer about what to do. He and the other officer enacted blatant negligence. Both officers violated their own police protocols. They or those cops stepped over a dying Akai Gurley, and walked down one more flight of stairs to speak with the neighbor (whose name is Melissa Lopez) on the phone with 911, leaving an untrained civilian to perform CPR on a bleeding victim. Neither Liang nor Landau ever called for an ambulance. It was Gurley's girlfriend (whose name is Melissa Butler) who ultimately administered CPR initially not those cops. People who have done far less have received longer sentences than that cop. It is something that people should be outraged about.  Doing what is right sometimes will make you hated by some. It is best to be hated by some for doing what is right than to be a coward and placate an injustice. Thompson enacted compromise in order to promote the status quo. When he or the DA Thomspon wrote a letter about wanting no jail time for a killer, it showed what he was all about. His political career is totally gone since folks won't forget how he disrespected Akai Gurley's family. I can't fathom how anyone can protest in support of some crooked cop who refused to give immediate medical assistance to an innocent human being. Like the saying goes, we are all be got. We know that police misconduct is a problem found nationally and globally. I express condolences to the family of Akai Gurley. They (or Gurley's family) deserve much more respect than this.

This is a great story (of the eight black women who are about to get their PhDs) and we all express joy and happiness at the momentous accomplishments of eight black women. Eight black women are making a historic endeavor and we honor their sacrifices. Their stories pronounce clearly and unquestionably the principle that Yes She Can. Yes she can since black women are the mothers of human life. Yes she can, because the human mind is powerful and black women have always utilized education in an enthusiastic, positive, and sacred fashion. Bless all 8 Sisters. It is important to fight for the human rights of the poor and promote the separation of church and state. It is important to improve the environment and to stand up for racial justice. It is important to expose the corrupt actions from Wall Street interests. We know that health care is a human right and the criminal justice system is corrupt (the mass incarceration state has harmed many of our families). We believe that the human autonomy of women must be protected and that police terrorism must be gone. We know how one candidate (whose husband supported NAFTA and other repugnant neoliberal policies) supported a coup in Honduras, believes in aggressive talk against Iran, and voted for the Iraq War (those positions from Hillary are position that I obviously disagree with). Education should be expanded among American citizens. Also, we are against imperialism and any form of evil oppression. We reject torture when Trump (who is a vulgar misogynist) supports torture. We reject unjust violence against protesters as Trump is evil to advocate violence against protesters (by his own words). We believe in investments in our communities and we abhor the system of oligarchy. We love our civil liberties and we believe that power should be in the hands of the people not exclusively to the 1 percent. It will be interesting to see what will happen in the NY primaries and others. So, people should vote their conscience and I do believe in social justice wholeheartedly.


The Buzzfeed video played on racial stereotypes, the video included inaccurate statements, and it was disrespectful to black people (in saying that we are a bunch of contradicting, lazy, and dancing bigots when the people who originated the modern system of racism/white supremacy aren't black people). The ironic part is that far right people actually believe in the lies and stereotypes found in the video. Many conservative extremists actually say those erroneous statements in real life. It is a positive development for a lot of black people to condemn the torrid essence of the Buzzfeed video. The reality is that black people have expressed self reflection, condemned oppression, promoted education, and seek social change for a long time. It is a past time for black people to be made the scapegoats for every problem in society unfortunately. Black people are diverse and our dignity shouldn't up for sale. Also, we have a lot of power. It is certainly imperative for us to grow our own media services that we control. In that sense, we can control more of our voices and we can express views in a widespread fashion about our interests and about our goals. There should be a real fight against poverty not a minor skirmish. Poor people are the notorious scapegoats for the actions of multinational corporations. I congratulate the Black Lives Matter movement and the Fight for 15 movement protesting side by side. Austerity doesn't work and we realize that our standard of living have been harmed by bad trade deals, economic exploitation, and by neoliberal economics in general. Welfare as we know it is gone and we see the continued growth of economic inequality since the 1980's as Reaganomics damaged communities nationwide. Many of the homeless are restricted of their rights in urban and rural communities. So, we believe in racial justice and economic justice. We not only want working people to have justice. We want the poor, the homeless, the disabled, and others to have shelter, to have health care, and to have their human dignity respected. That is what we want wholeheartedly.

This is one of the most heartbreaking, disturbing stories that I have read in my life. All those involved in the abuse and murder of the Army veteran should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. This is why we are opposed to the massive corruption found in the corporate-sponsored prison industrial complex. This is why folks are protesting in the streets in desiring the criminal injustice system to change radically. This is why the BLM movement is very powerful in America and in other places of the world. The cops involved in the late man's abuse violated protocols and many legal statues. They have expressed cruelty and brutality on a massive scale. I'm outraged and I can't mention the words that I really wanted to say about the abusers who did this to this man. These criminals left this human being to die and we believe in justice. I send my condolences to the family of Elliot Williams and we are in solidarity with his family.
RIP Brother Elliot Williams.

By Timothy

No comments: