HBCUs and Trump

Interesting interview. Not sure where, other than Leli Baskerville, Roland dug his panel up from. The woman on the right hand side of the table, who isn’t identified is a world class Auntie Tommette, lying about what President Obama did for HBCUs.

The facts…

Under the Obama Administration, 1 million more African-American and Latino students have enrolled in college. What’s more, black and Hispanic students earned more than 270,000 more undergraduate degrees in 2013-2014 than in 2008-2009. This Administration remains focused on continuing to increase the number of students who successfully complete college. To that end, the Department has worked to make new opportunities available to HBCUs.

Federal funding to HBCUs has grown each year since 2009. Through the Higher Education Act, HBCUs received a $17 million funding increase this year—the largest increase for the federal Strengthening HBCUs program in six years. And President Obama’s FY 2017 budget seeks to maintain and strengthen these opportunities for HBCUs to build their capacity. The FY 2017 budget proposes $85 million in mandatory funding to HBCUs, an increase of $5 million from FY 2016, plus an additional $244.7 million in discretionary funds for Title III.

The Administration has also fought for and won a historic commitment to fully fund Pell Grants and expand student aid for millions of low-income students. Pell Grant funding for HBCU students increased significantly between 2007 and 2014, growing from $523 million to $824 million. This year, President Obama announced a plan to make sure that Pell Grants are fully funded, including inflationary adjustments, and used strategically by students to reduce time and cost for receiving a terminal degree. The President’s 2017 budget also proposes a $30 million HBCU and Minority Serving Institution Innovation for Completion Fund, to help students from low-income backgrounds overcome challenges and persist through graduation day.

The other facts –

The brutal truth is, at least the bottom half of these schools either need to be shut down or no longer receive federal support and funding. I would cut everything except the top 10 or 20. Close the doors on the rest, absorb them into their respective State Junior College System…Or install a granite marker where they used to be. Investing money in the top 20 schools would likely make a difference – especially in not throwing away money at the bottom 30. Spellman, Howard, Hampton, Morehouse, and Fisk have the capability to become competitive with the very best schools in America.

Time to cut bait or fish.

 

Former President George W. Bush Slams Trump Racism

Yesterday, former President George W. Bush gave an interview. He wound up slamming the Chumph

Last night, he gave an interview to People Magazine and really opened up.

‘I don’t like the racism and I don’t like the name-calling’: George W. Bush continues political assault on Trump

On the heels of an interview filled with back-handed comments about President Donald Trump, former President George W. Bush outright slammed the president and his administration for its “racism” and “name-calling.”

In an interview with People magazine, Bush went beyond the subtle jabs at Trump to accuse the new president of alienating people.

“I don’t like the racism and I don’t like the name-calling and I don’t like the people feeling alienated,” Bush began. “Nobody likes that.”

He went on to call the climate in Washington, D.C. “pretty ugly,” emphasizing, “I’m not going back nowhere!” Still, the former president said that he is “optimistic about where we’ll end up” as a country. He explained America has been through difficult periods before and figured its way out.

Bush also said that he is speaking out about Trump now because he didn’t “feel like” doing it before.

“I didn’t want to complicate the job and I’m not going to this time. However, at the Bush Center we are speaking up,” he said. “There’s a lot of ways to speak out, but it’s really through actions defending the values important to Laura and me. … We’re a blessed nation, and we ought to help others.”

The Bush Center is better known as the George W. Bush Presidential Center and serves as the former president’s library. The work will focus on immigration ceremonies, women’s reproductive-health programs in Africa and leadership training for Muslim women they bring from the Middle East to Texas. All issues that are significant contrasts to Trump. Despite Trump’s “Muslim ban,” the Bushes plan to push forward on their program to bring in women from the Middle East. “But we’ll figure out how to bring them over.”

 

Oval Office Furniture And – the Low Class Trumpazoid

Anyone old enough to remember this –

Is going to have a visceral reaction to this –

If you are a child of the 50’s until the 70’s – you probably remember the “sacred” living room.

The typical setup was formal Living room that NOBODY ever sat in. The furniture was covered in plastic , as were the lamp shades, It was kept in spotless condition for formal occasions but it was never used. There was a separate family room with the TV and an old couch, etc. Everybody spent all their time there and in the kitchen. Then there was the living room/parlor  with the fancy couch that the kids were never allowed to sit on.

Now in my house growing up as a child, you learned very quickly said plastic furniture was off limits. Momma caught you sitting with your feet up on the plastic covered furniture – and it was one of those “Go out and get a switch which I am going to wear your ass out with” times in my household. Lord help you if you were visiting friends or family and didn’t sit perfectly straight, especially when Grandma was in attendance. That was worse, because she’d swat you with whatever was handy – hairbrush, spoon, granddad’s old belt! I was pretty happy they kept the tire iron out in the garage!

So Kellyanne sitting like that, on a couch in the Oval Office doesn’t strike a good chord. Bad manners, not to mention disrespect for the Oval Office and White House. Those Presidents of HBCU’s there for a photo-op…are not looking  impressed. Most of those men and women know what she is doing is gauche.

Now I have been in the Oval Office several times (I used to fix the computers in the White House). You don’t touch the beautiful Fredrick Remington statue on the Credenza behind the desk, you don’t touch the pictures of Dead Presidents…and you don’t leave fingerprints on the desk (Which usually changes with each President). This is sacred ground relative to our country, often used for meetings with Foreign Presidents. The furniture and objects in that room are either extremely high end custom or is antique of considerable historical value – it ain’t the rec room.

The second thing is the racism and disrespect for the guests. They are black, so it’s OK to have no manners.

 

 

 

 

 

Another Yellowback Donkey Fail…DNC Chair Tom Perez

It is what it is, Perez is certainly a qualified person. For a Party rhough, which needs to make a fundamental change faced with rising fascism…

This isn’t good news.

‘Incredibly Disappointing’: Democrats Choose Tom Perez to Head Party

DNC ‘chose to continue the failed Clinton strategy of prioritizing wealthy donors over the activist base’

Democrats on Saturday chose Tom Perez to lead the party, sparking criticism from progressive organizations who say picking the former labor secretary over the other front-runner, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), was a missed opportunity for the party.

Perez’s win was secured in a second round of voting by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) gathered in Atlanta, getting 235 votes to Ellison’s 200.

It marks the end of a race many observers saw as a choice between the establishment and the progressive wing of the party. Ellison had the backing of lawmakers like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and groups including National Nurses United and the Communications Workers of America; Perez was backed by “many from former President Obama’s political orbit,” as ABC News writes, and “is viewed—with good reason—as a reliable functionary and trustworthy loyalist by those who have controlled the party and run it into the ground,” journalist Glenn Greenwald wrote this week.

Erich Pica, president of Friends of the Earth Action, which supported Ellison, said the outcome showed “[t]he DNC is out of touch with the American public and their needs. Democratic leaders were at a crossroads and today they chose to continue the failed Clinton strategy of prioritizing wealthy donors over the activist base.”

“This incredibly disappointing result is another missed opportunity for a Democratic Party desperately trying to regain relevance and proves, once again, how out of touch party insiders are with the grassroots movement currently in the streets, on the phone, and at town halls nationwide,” added Jim Dean, chair of Democracy for America.

“Nonetheless, the Resistance will persist in showing progressive leaders how to unrelentingly take on [President Donald] Trump, with or without the leadership of the Democratic National Committee,” Dean said.

Ellison, whom Perez chose as deputy, said following the results, “We don’t have the luxury folks to walk out of this room divided.” He added in a statement: “We must be united—because we live in times when the judiciary is under attack, when the press is under attack, and hate groups are desecreating Jewish cemetaries and defacing mosques.”

Ahead of the vote for chair, the DNC’s meeting got off to what one political observer described as a “very, very bad start.” The Huffington Post reports:

Democratic National Committee members on Saturday voted down a resolution that would have reinstated former President Barack Obama’s ban on corporate political action committee donations to the party.

Resolution 33, introduced by DNC Vice Chair Christine Pelosi, would also have forbidden “registered, federal corporate lobbyists” from serving as “DNC chair-appointed, at-large members.”

A majority of the 442 eligible DNC members rejected the resolution after roughly a dozen members rose to speak for and against it.

Voting down that resolution coupled with choosing Perez makes it “[p]retty clear where the official party organ stands on the divide,” tweeted Huffington Post reporter Zach Carter.

 

Moving the Donkey…

The difficult job of getting an actual Progressive Party…

 

Miller Lite – “Tap the Future”​ Competition – Daymon John, No Equity Angel Investment

Daymond gives some good advice here…

Miller Lite’s “Tap the Future” Contest is underway accepting applications through April 14th. The Contest participants (rules in link above) get $20,000 for being selected in the first round, and can get $100,000 if their idea is selected as an overall winner. As Daymon John points out above, the huge advantage in participation in the competition, is the money does not require giving up equity in the winning companies, giving the a massive leg up should their business move to the point of seeking secondary of tertiary investment. If you can get to the product prototype stage (or are already there) with $100,000, this is far better financially than pursuing “Angel” investors who will want 30-50% ownership. One of the most critical factors to success of a startup is keeping the investor/ownership group as small as possible. Winning this could mean the entrepreneur retaining majority ownership through at least the Venture Capital round.

Go for it!

 

Music – Booker T. (Formerly of the MGs, and his Hammond 17

I remember as a kid when Hammond Organs were the staple of a number of local bands. There was nothing at the time that generated to deep base notes. Two of the most famous Hammond playing musicians were Booker T. Jones and Jimmy Smith. When the band got hot, and the Hammond started heating up, was about as good as it got back in the day. The Hammond pre-dated transistor technology, and used Vacuum Tubes, mechanical coils, and an oil trough which made a sound far more complex than today’s digital synthesizers.

Takes me back…

 

And not to leave him out, Jimmy Smith in 1964 –

 

Policeman Creates New Way to Battle Hate Crimes

The Trump inspired surge in Hate Crimes calls for new methods to combat the haters. This Officer has developed a new concept to both provide safe shelter to victims, as well as to increase reporting of hate crimes to the police.

The new weapon against hate crime

Two years ago, Seattle Police Officer Jim Ritter realized his city had a major problem. People weren’t reporting hate crimes.

He’d hear about them, anecdotally. Some were horrifying incidents. But they weren’t showing up on police reports.

“After determining most of these crimes were being committed in the commercial districts throughout the city, (I) had to sit down and figure out what are we going to do about this,” Ritter said.

He started a program called Safe Place. It’s a first-in-the-nation initiative that designates local businesses as a place where victims of hate crimes can shelter while waiting for the police to arrive.

It’s a simple concept based on something he remembered from his childhood — houses with stickers that signaled to kids walking to school that if something bad happened, they could knock on the door and get help.

Ritter designed a sticker — a police shield with the LGBT rainbow symbolism. It goes on the front of any business agreeing to call police if a victim of a hate crime comes inside looking for help.

“In this day of communications, everybody just assumes someone else is calling police and we can’t afford to have that happen anymore, neither can these victims,” Ritter said.

Ritter, who is gay, admitted that he never knew so much anti-LGBT crime was going unreported in his own city, where he’d worked as a cop for nearly four decades.

Now, Safe Place has become so popular, he can barely think about anything else.

Police departments across the country are calling, asking for help implementing his program in Cincinnati, Louisville, Birmingham, Durham, Baltimore, Honolulu, Columbus — and even in Canada in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Most notably, the Orlando police launched Safe Place on the six-month anniversary of the Pulse Night Club massacre.

“I actually feel like I’m making a positive difference in society and not just going through the motions,” Ritter said. “I think the majority of police chiefs and administrators that contacted me said, ” Hey, Jim, we want to get this right, we don’t want to screw this up.”

He’s even working with the Department of Justice.

“You’ve got victims from all different kinds of minority communities that have the same thing happen to them. They are assaulted or victimized either because of who they are or who these suspects portray them to be.”

Here in Seattle, Ritter said two felony assault cases were reported from inside a Safe Place business within the program’s first week.

“One of those safe place locations, the witnesses were holding a suspect down when police arrived,” he said. And police immediately noticed an increase in the reporting of hate crimes.

“And that told me that it was starting to work as designed,” he said.

A recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center says that hate groups are on the rise, and crimes against members of the LGBT community are up from last year….

 

Immigrants as Entreprenuers

A few year back a study for Forbes showed that nearly 30% of new incorporation of companies in America were by black folks. Black folks, faced with persistent job discrimination, created businesses in reaction to discrimination.

It seems we have some competition… Immigrants.

What do Immigrants do for America? They follow the American Dream, no matter how difficult the path.

Outperforming the lazy, dumb-ass white Trumpazoids every step of the way despite their endemic racism.

 

 

Study Shows Immigrants Are Twice as Likely to Become Entrepreneurs

Research shows that the economy benefits, in a big way, from immigration.

If you’re searching for examples of big, revolutionary businesses that were started by immigrants, you don’t have to look very far. Andy Gove, one of the founders of Intel (and one of Steve Jobs’ biggest influences) fled Hungary and taught himself English while working in a restaurant and attending college.

Jobs himself was the son of a Syrian immigrant.

In fact, 40% of the Fortune 500 was founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants. But the examples of immigrant entrepreneurs aren’t just restricted to huge, household name companies. According to research conducted by The Kauffman Foundation:

• Immigrants started 28.5% of all new businesses in 2014.
• Between 2006-2012 immigrants founded one quarter of the engineering and technology companies in the United States.
• In 2012 immigrant founded engineering and technology firms employed approximately 560,000 workers and generated $63 billion in sales.
• Immigrants have seen their rate of business generation rise by more than 50% since the start of the new millennium, while native-born citizens have seen their rate of new-business generation decline by 10%.
• Immigrants are now more than twice as likely to start a business than native-born citizens.

So why are immigrants starting more businesses?

Economists theorize that many immigrants are prevented from accessing other paths to upward mobility. In other words, all those studies that show applicants are less likely to get hired with an ethnic sounding name might force new immigrants into creating their own business, rather than trying (and often failing) to find a decent paying job working for someone else.

Additionally, immigrants often live in underserved communities. If you live in an underserved market, you can spot the goods and services community members don’t have access to and fulfill that need.

Like my new friend, Ajay.

Ajay immigrated to America from India about 15 years ago, where he began working as a computer engineer for Enterprise Rental Car.

But he also saw an unserved need in his immigrant network: cricket.

His friends who grew up playing cricket had nowhere for their sons and daughters to play, so Ajay founded the American Cricket Academy and Club–which has grown from six to more than 150 members in about a year.

Ajay’s cricket academy might not be the next Intel, but that’s growth a lot of new entrepreneurs would love to experience.

Of course, immigration has many facets.

But most economists–including the ones at the Wharton School, alma mater of Donald Trump–conclude that immigration (both legal and illegal) is a net positive to the economy.

Economic studies are one way to measure the impact of immigration.

Personally, I like to measure it another way. I like to look at my son–the great-grandson of a Mexican immigrant–while he plays cricket with his friends, nearly all of whom are second-generation Indian immigrants.

When I watch my son play cricket with his friends, I come to the same conclusion the economists at Wharton do:

Our new immigrant friends are enriching our lives and making our economy better–and I’ll be really thankful when my son gets that cricket scholarship.

The Welfare State

 

Muhammad Ali, Jr Detained at Florida Airport For Being Muslim

Let’s face it, the folks who man customs stations and TSA lines aren’t usually drawn from the brightest on the block.Giving power to stupid is like…

Electing the Chumph.

Muhammad Ali, Jr with Mother, Kalilah

Son of boxer Muhammad Ali detained at Florida airport because of his Arabic-sounding name

A son of boxing legend Muhammad Ali was held for questioning for two hours at a Florida airport upon returning from Jamaica because of his Arabic-sounding name, US media reported.

Muhammad Ali Jr., 44, who was born in Philadelphia and has a US passport, was traveling with his mother Khalilah Camacho-Ali, the late sports icon’s second wife, friend and lawyer Chris Mancini told the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Mancini told the newspaper that both were held for questioning on the Fort Lauderdale International Airport on February 7 because of their Arabic-sounding names.

Camacho-Ali however was released after she showed US Customs agents a photo of herself with her ex-husband.

Ali Jr. however had no such photo — and according to Mancini was held for nearly two hours and repeatedly asked “Where did you get your name from?” and “Are you Muslim?”

When he said that he – like his father – was a Muslim, the agents asked further probing questions.

“To the Ali family, it’s crystal clear that this is directly linked to Mr. Trump’s efforts to ban Muslims from the United States,” Mancini told the Courier-Journal, a reference to President Donald Trump’s late January executive order imposing a 90-day entry ban for citizens of seven Muslim majority countries.

The travel ban has since been halted by a US federal court.

Mancini said that he and the Ali family are trying to find out how many other people were stopped for similar questioning, and are considering a federal lawsuit.

Airport and Customs officials did not answer queries from the newspaper about the case.

Muhammad Ali, one of the iconic 20th century sports heroes, died after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease on June 3. He was 74.

Ali was celebrated as much for his three world heavyweight titles as for his civil rights battles outside the ring.

In 1964 Ali dropped his birth name of Cassius Clay when he converted to Islam.

The Louisville, Kentucky native was married four times he was survived by seven daughters and two sons.

 

More People Cheer Obama’s Starbucks Visit Than Were at Trump Inaguration

Of course it is hyperbole…But fun!

 

CPAC Attendees Waive Russian Flags to Celebrate Trump Treason, and America’s New Satellite State Status

Trump Chumps wave flags to celebrate their new masters..the Russians.

President Donald Trump’s extensive connections to Russian political and business interests became noticable Friday at CPAC, right as the president was speaking to the crowd.

During his speech in front of the Conservative Political Conference on Friday, members of the crowd could be seen waiving Russian flags with Trump’s name on them.

The flags were quickly spotted and confiscated by CPAC staffers, although not before the unfortunate visual found its way all over Twitter. There are also reports that some CPAC audience members were warned they would be thrown out if they were seen waving the flag.

It is unclear who gave out the flag, although it seems unlikely that it was perpetrated by a Trump supporter. In addition to his numerous ties to Russia, Trump has had two powerful staffers resign due to their inappropriate connections with the authoritarian state: Former campaign manager Paul Manafort stepped down when it was revealed that he had worked for a Ukrainian president (and Russian puppet) Victor Yanukovych, while former national security adviser Michael Flynn resigned after it was revealed that he had inappropriate communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak about the sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama.

And, of course, there is the intelligence community consensus that Russia engaged in a widespread hacking campaign in order to help elect Donald Trump over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, during the 2016 presidential election.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6qqPGVPxFg

 

White Republicans May Be Too Racist to Appreciate Obama…But the French Aren’t. Obama 2017!

Wow! Obama for President…of France!

A Citizens’ Petition Calls For A New French President: Barack Obama

The French presidential campaign has been marked by scandal, surprises and upsets as the April election approaches.

Now a petition is calling for an even bigger plot twist: the return of President Barack Obama. As in, French President Barack Obama.

Earlier this week, the Obama 2017 campaign was launched, calling for the former U.S. president to step forward as a candidate in the French election while there’s still time.

“Barack Obama has completed his second term as President of the United States,” the site says. “Why not hire him as president of France? … [He] has the best resume in the world for the job.”

Posters for Obama 2017 have been plastered around Paris. The slogan, of course: “Oui on peut,” French for “Yes we can.” And a campaign-style website is gathering signatures to persuade Obama to run.

It’s not the first time French citizens have expressed longing for Obama’s leadership — at least two petitions were started last year — but it’s by far the most successful. According to the site’s organizers, some 27,000 people have signed the petition so far.

A group of four friends — “basic 30-year-old guys from Paris” who work in creative industries — came up with the idea “after a drink,” according to one of the people behind the site. He asked NPR not to use his name, to avoid possible legal consequences that could damage his career.

“We were thinking about French politics and saying that we were fed up with the fact that we all the time had to vote against someone,” he says, “and how it would be cool to be able to vote for someone we admire. We came up with Obama.”

“I think the whole world would love to have him as president,” he says.

They have an Island Prison where they kept their last dictator, Napoleon… Think we might be able to work a deal and use it for the Chumph?

 

Putin’s Toy on Nukes…Dumber than Dumb

The United States alone has enough nukes to kill every man, woman, and child on earth.

The issue isn’t, and hasn’t been for a long time how many nukes the major powers have.

So, when Putin’s Bitch stands up and talks about numerical superiority in nukes – he’s a flaming idiotic ass.

When you understand that at any time, the United States can destroy any major city, anywhere on the globe in 20 minutes – you begin to understand the fear and concern in handing over the keys to such weaponry to a mentally unstable, schoolyard bully, illegitimately elected, treasonous, asswipe like Trump.

Nuclear supremacy isn’t about how many marbles you’e got…It’s over how do you get them there. which is why the Russians have been building and deploying Cruise Missiles, And the US has been testing hypersonic missiles, which can travel at nearly 8,000 miles per hour of 10 times the speed of sound. Each of our SSBNs carry 24 Trident II Missiles each capable of carrying 12 separately targetable nuclear warheads in the range of 300-500 kilotons of explosive power (The bombs used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII were 15 and 20 kilotons). And the Navy typically understates public numbers on the performance and capabilities of their weapons. so in truth, those numbers are probably significantly understated. Everyone is working on Antiballistic Missile Systems which could possibly shoot down these missiles.

Ergo – the US needs more nuclear bombs like we need  a hole in the head. Neither the Russians or Chinese are actively building more bombs…But they are building new delivery platforms.

Another Chumph “small Johnson” issue…Indeed.

Ruins of Nagasaki after 20 KT bomb in WWII

 

Trump wants to make sure U.S. nuclear arsenal at ‘top of the pack’

President Donald Trump said on Thursday he wants to ensure the U.S. nuclear arsenal is at the “top of the pack,” saying the United States has fallen behind in its weapons capacity.

In a Reuters interview, Trump also said China could solve the national security challenge posed by North Korea “very easily if they want to,” ratcheting up pressure on Beijing to exert more influence to rein in Pyongyang’s increasingly bellicose actions.

Trump also expressed support for the European Union as a governing body, saying “I’m totally in favor of it,” and for the first time as president expressed a preference for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but said he would be satisfied with whatever makes the two sides happy.

Trump also predicted his efforts to pressure NATO allies to pay more for their own defense and ease the burden on the U.S. budget would reap dividends. “They owe a lot of money,” he said.

In his first comments about the U.S. nuclear arsenal since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump was asked about a December tweet in which he said the United States must greatly strengthen and expand its nuclear capacity “until such time as the world comes to its senses regarding nukes.”

Trump said in the interview he would like to see a world with no nuclear weapons but expressed concern that the United States has “fallen behind on nuclear weapon capacity.”

“I am the first one that would like to see … nobody have nukes, but we’re never going to fall behind any country even if it’s a friendly country, we’re never going to fall behind on nuclear power.

“It would be wonderful, a dream would be that no country would have nukes, but if countries are going to have nukes, we’re going to be at the top of the pack,” Trump said.

Russia has 7,000 warheads and the United States, 6,800, according to the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-nuclear group.

“Russia and the United States have far more weapons than is necessary to deter nuclear attack by the other or by another nuclear-armed country,” said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the independent Arms Control Association non-profit group.

The new strategic arms limitation treaty, known as New START, between the United States and Russia requires that by February 5, 2018, both countries must limit their arsenals of strategic nuclear weapons to equal levels for 10 years.

 

Pathetic! The Chumph Tries to Explain Executive Order to Himself

Reminds me of those vids of kids trying to explain the world around them…

Children are much better at it…