Purple and Black
Taking Independent and Unofficial Back

US elections ~ 2024

barnswallow, I had to LOL when I read this article...NOW they're focusing on black men...I wonder why?

What the Vice-President should do is meet with black folks at the grassroots level, in NYC, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Philly. Listen to average citizens to find out why they're ticked off, and stop talking to entertainers, rappers, or even business leaders. None of them speaks for me.

 
uPtoWnNY said:
barnswallow, I had to LOL when I read this article...NOW they're focusing on black men...I wonder why?

What the Vice-President should do is meet with black folks at the grassroots level, in NYC, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Philly. Listen to average citizens to find out why they're ticked off, and stop talking to entertainers, rappers, or even business leaders. None of them speaks for me.

Click to expand...
That’s an interesting article.

The article speaks of Harris trying to meet w influencers in Black communities but she also tells of a meeting with 18-35 yo’s at some venue in DC.

Both meetings built on a session she did last year with about 30 young Black men aged 18-35 at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building near the White House and on ongoing frustration from supporters that the Democratic Party needs to be spending as much time specifically reaching out to Black men as to Black women.

President Joe Biden talks with patrons and employees at a barber shop in Columbia, South Carolina, on January 27.
RELATED ARTICLEBlack voters stood with Biden in 2020. Four years later, he needs their help again
The discussions often got intense around the small-group tables set up in the Observatory that Harris rotated around. Biden keeps talking about macroeconomics and stability, some complained, but what they’re hearing from their communities are complaints about checks not going as far as they used to. Acronyms like “ARPA” and “IRA” are going over people’s heads, they said, and the president and the campaign need to do a better job of distilling the impact on people’s lives.

“I fully get that,” Harris said.

They talked about the way the situation in Gaza is hitting Black communities who feel connected to the sense of another marginalized community under attack. They talked about criminal justice reform. Not matching the Republicans for aggressiveness and Trump’s success in dominating the news makes Democrats overlooked at best, and often just weak – and that itself is driving some Black men to Trump, they said.
Click to expand...
Yeah! She needs to do more of that. That seems like a really good role for her. It’s concerning reading that Biden’s own campaign manager/team harbors any grudges against her for anything that happened on the campaign of 2020. Jeez. That’s not helpful.

Hopefully, in the near future, Kamala will try some Town Hall type stuff in the communities you name. Clearly, she’s trying to get the most bang for the buck by meeting w social media influencers, celebrities, and people in the business community. But more meetings within communities would mean a lot to people, as you say. I wonder about the logistics of organizing those. It sounds like the Biden campaign has loads of cash and could pull it off.
 
Last edited:
barnswallow said:
Hopefully, in the near future, Kamala will try some Town Hall type stuff in the communities you name. Clearly, she’s trying to get the most bang for the buck by meeting w social media influencers, celebrities, and people in the business community. But more meetings within communities would mean a lot to people, as you say. I wonder about the logistics of organizing those. It sounds like the Biden campaign has loads of cash and could pull it off.
Click to expand...
They better do it barnswallow, and fast. See, the anger isn't coming from the black elites, but from poor & working class black (& hispanic) folks. Folks who have seen the migrant crush affect them and their neighborhoods. As I've stated before, Biden needs what he had in 2020 (87%) to have a chance at winning. According to the article below, 63% of blacks support the president. If that 24% holds, and they switch to Trump, vote third party or stay home, Joe is cooked. Kamala and the Democratic leadership better go into the fire, and change their tactics. Stop with the Trump fear-mongering, the paternalism and the symbolic s*** they're famous for. Listen to what the grassroots people are saying and give them tangibles, not Hip-Hop Appreciation Month.

thehill.com

Democrats feel entitled to the Black vote, and only now are they ‘concerned’

Blacks don’t owe Democrats their votes, and increasingly polls suggest they may not supply them in as great abundance as in the past.
thehill.com thehill.com
 
As usual, so many things have happened. I keep planning to post and then a day or two goes by. By then, another two or three items demand attention. It feels like a game of Tetris filling up the screen. So, just to re-start with a simple reminder of how our news sites need to be scrutinized before swallowing the proffered meal. . .

Spate of Mock News Sites With Russian Ties Pop Up in U.S. [NYTimes;3.7.24]

It's not the Russian government alone doing this stuff. We have our own disinformation outfits right here at home. And, likely, there are other actors. We can all be fooled.
 
Last edited:
I’m posting 3 videos here, which might easily go in other threads but which, for me provide light on the big issues of this presidential election.

The first is a Frontline documentary on the Congressional hearings on January 6, 2021.

Democracy on Trial (full documentary) | FRONTLINE [PBS; 1 month ago (February? 2024)]

It’s long, 2h 23m. I haven’t finished watching it. It’s a handy reminder of the events that comprise the effort to overturn the 2020 election. There were several moving parts.

Oh. Checked to ensure I’d pasted in the correct link and realize it is correct but launches far in, coincidentally to the testimony of Judge Luttig, which person I link to 2 posts below. Rather than re-do the link, I’ll just alert you to my mistake so you can return to the beginning, if you want.
 
Last edited:
Second, here’s the State of the Union address by President Joe Biden just a few days ago (was that last Thursday?!)

LIVE: STATE OF THE UNION 2024 [Meidas Touch; 3.7.2024]

I watched it, live. I actually laughed out loud a couple of times. I don’t know if I’d really thought about Biden’s sense of humor before. Anyway, there was a lot riding on this speech. To hear pundits, it was a success. Biden did what he needed to do. Beyond that, I think there’s a lot to learn here, from republicans sitting on their hands, to the guests that the Bidens (Jill and Joe) invited, to the difficult topics he didn’t avoid. Wanted to post this.
 
Last in this set is something I was just listening to. It’s Judge Luttig, conservative, legal scholar, who was a low profile, apolitical guy for his whole career until the events of Jan 6 2021. You may have seen him coming out publicly since then, speaking to his concerns for our democracy in this perilous time.

Here is an excerpt from a longer interview with Michael Popok of Meidas Touch. I’ve been listening to Meidas Touch a lot lately.

Anyway. This one is about the recent Supreme Court ruling on the appeal by t—— against the Colorado Supreme Court decision to exclude d——- t—— from the state’s 2024 ballot, based on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. That amendment states that any individual holding political office in the U.S. who engages in insurrection against the U.S., shall not be eligible to hold public office again. Oh. That’s my lazy, late-at-night / early morning layperson’s likely inaccurate account of what the amendment says. Listen to these guys speak much more carefully about the ruling.

Supreme Court MASSIVE ERROR has Major Consequence [Meidas Touch; 3.12.24]
 
Thought you'd be interested in this, barnswallow. It's what I've been saying for months. I agree with Miss Salvati. Both parties are corporate and corrupt. I'm going the third party route.

 
Thanks, uPtoWnNY. I appreciate understanding better what’s driving some previous Biden supporters to make other choices. The other day a friend said Dems can’t just frame this election as a choice for or against democracy. People are hurting. I don’t know if food prices are still rising. Just staying at the same level, makes me gasp when I get to the end of check-out. Where’d that big hole in my pocket come from? As for the perception that immigrants have it easy, I think it’s not a piece of cake, really. But what people see and experience matter. I get it.
 
barnswallow said:
Thanks, uPtoWnNY. I appreciate understanding better what’s driving some previous Biden supporters to make other choices. The other day a friend said Dems can’t just frame this election as a choice for or against democracy. People are hurting. I don’t know if food prices are still rising. Just staying at the same level, makes me gasp when I get to the end of check-out. Where’d that big hole in my pocket come from? As for the perception that immigrants have it easy, I think it’s not a piece of cake, really. But what people see and experience matter. I get it.
Click to expand...
I live in the Bronx and work in the heart of NYC, and I'm telling you, this anger has been festering for a few years now. The fact that this administration is still using the fear-mongering tactics shows they have zero clue. It's not working with the Muslim community in Michigan....they told Biden to kick rocks. Last month the Dems launched a 'hip-hop task force' which is an insult to black voters intelligence and nothing but more symbolism. What these clowns should do is go into the fire....meet with voters at the grass roots level (in Chicago, NY, Boston, Detroit, Denver) and talk serious policy. No, instead they're begging rappers, actors, celebrities and these pulpit pimps to get the masses "in line".
 
uPtoWnNY said:
I live in the Bronx and work in the heart of NYC, and I'm telling you, this anger has been festering for a few years now. The fact that this administration is still using the fear-mongering tactics shows they have zero clue. It's not working with the Muslim community in Michigan....they told Biden to kick rocks. Last month the Dems launched a 'hip-hop task force' which is an insult to black voters intelligence and nothing but more symbolism. What these clowns should do is go into the fire....meet with voters at the grass roots level (in Chicago, NY, Boston, Detroit, Denver) and talk serious policy. No, instead they're begging rappers, actors, celebrities and these pulpit pimps to get the masses "in line".
Click to expand...
I don't know why Dems aren't doing this.

After reading your post, I thought I'd check to see if VP Kamala Harris was doing any of this sort of outreach into black communities. I don't have time to look into validity of sources, which is so necessary these days. However, when I came across this post (admittedly the first I clicked on), I thought, hey, this looks a lot like what @uPtoWnNY is saying, and it looks like an interesting non-profit, comprised of black newspaper editors from many different states.

Opinion: The Comeback Campaign of Kamala Harris [Word in Black;8.14.23]

Dems taking a different strategy seems critical.

Still looking to see what she has been doing. . .

Opinion: It's time for Kamala Harris to shine [CNN;3.14.24]

And, what President Biden is doing . . .

Politics From the Hill: Biden steps up efforts to reach voters of color [22NewsWWLP.com;3.24.24]
 
Last edited:
oH. yeah. So, in a campaign ploy that backfired, t---- asked, "Are you better off than you were 4 years ago?"

The Biden campaign quickly put out a response ad, reminding everyone where we were 4 years ago.

Biden Bluntly Answers Trump's 'Are You Better Off' Question With Scathing Video [Huffpost;3.21.24]

While t---- was particularly awful around the covid response (with the exception of providing funding for vaccines, which probably did accelerate their development), we should also remember he dismantled the pandemic response force that Obama had previously installed. As an aside, the vaccines were developed so rapidly because of scientific advances that allowed the manipulation of viral genetic material, and accelerated its utilization as a harmless fragment of DNA to train our immune systems to build immunity to the virus.

Here's a reminder:

How Trump Gutted Obama's Pandemic-Preparedness Systems [Vanity Fair;5.1.2020]

The real reason I started this post was to provide the following article, which actually shows real steps that President Biden has taken to improving our lives.

Opinion: Other than Trump, virtually no one was doing better four years ago [The Washington Post[WaPo]3.24.24]
 
I have one more article to give away this month and this seems worthwhile. It's a comparison of Biden's and t----'s differing policies toward China.

It's also about China's reaction to a key part of Bidenomics:
China just filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization about the Inflation Reduction Act, which, despite its name, is at its core an attempt to fight climate change by subsidizing the transition to a low-emission economy. Specifically, China complained about electric vehicle subsidies that it says unfairly discriminate against production using car battery components made in China.
Click to expand...

Bidenomics Is Making China Angry. That's OK. [NYTimesOpinion;3.28.24]
 
Another article about the Black vote. @uPtoWnNY

Could Biden's problems with Black voters help Trump win? [WaPo;3.30.24]

I don't think this article says anything particularly new. . . except that various analysts seem to be downplaying the idea that t---- is in any way garnering Black American's support. The consistent worry concerns turnout and polls showing diminished support for Biden, however the article doesn't mention anything about voter suppression and gerrymandering which might also negatively impact enthusiasm.
 
Okay. This post does not belong in the ‘elections’ thread b/c there’s nothing in it about the election. Except. It’s about d——- t—— and the depth, the bottomless pit of rot and corruption. The house of flimsy cards. It’s a storybook based on the narrative just-when-you-thought-it-couldn’t-get-any-worse. And it just goes to show we can still be shocked.

LIVE: Trump CRASHING AND BURNING Fast on EVERYTHING [MTN-Political Beatdown;4.4.24]
 
Last edited:
Here's a 3-day-old essay from Heather Cox Richardson who posts a daily wrap-up of political events titled 'Letters from an American.'

open.substack.com

April 24, 2024

This morning, President Joe Biden signed into law the $95 billion national security supplemental bill providing military aid to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo-Pacific, as well as humanitarian aid to Gaza and other peoples suffering humanitarian crises. The Pentagon immediately sent about a...
open.substack.com open.substack.com

Highlights include funding for Ukraine and the negotiations that made it possible, and an endorsement from another trade union.
North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) acknowledged the power of Biden’s approach today when it endorsed Biden for president in 2024. The union’s president, Sean McGarvey, noted that Trump had promised to protect pensions and to pass infrastructure laws that would help employment in the building trades, but did neither. In contrast, Biden worked to pass the American Rescue Plan, which protected pensions, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Chips and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which McGarvey said “have brought life-changing, opportunity-creating, generational change focused on the working men and women of this great country who have for far too long been clamoring for a leader to finally keep their word.”
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Links to Folks we Support

  • Cranky Beads
    •

    Back
    Top