Voronwë the Faithful wrote: ↑Wed Oct 18, 2023 8:50 pm
I don't think any comment about this is necessary.
[CREW: "Harlan Crow made a maximum allowed donation to Cornel West's presidential campign"]
N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2023 7:53 pm
O brother, who art thou?
Forbes reports on "Why Cornel West Is Broke," explaining that "new uncovered divorce filings reveal allegations of a 'secret life' and help explain why" the philosopher, political activist, and 2024 presidential candidate, "who has earned millions of dollars over the years, has hardly anything left."
Independent presidential candidate Cornel West has announced that his running mate will be Dr. Melina Abdullah, a professor at California State University, Los Angeles and formerly the chair of the Pan-African Studies department there. Abdullah co-founded the L.A. chapter of Black Lives Matter. Naturally reporters are looking at her social media activity. In a lighter vein (I guess), she once
asked, "Why do I feel it's slightly racist to be a Taylor Swift fan?" and just recently
criticized Beyonce for including an American flag on the cover of her
Cowboy Carter album because it "symbolizes the genocide of indigenous people, the theft of their land, the enslavement, dehumanization, and exploitation of Black people, and settler colonialism." And while that argument may not be entirely without merit, it's unlikely to appeal to many voters.
Dave Weigel also
notes a 2020 tweet in which Abdullah took an odd swipe at a presidential candidate later cabinet secretary:
Nobody White should ever refer to the nation of Niger. Periodt.
@PeteButtigieg #DemDebate
The extra "t" is original to the tweet. I found the
transcript of the Jan. 14, 2020 Democratic debate in Des Moines. Pete Buttigieg referenced that African nation while discussing the need to replace the 2001 Congressional order authorizing the use of military force to combat terrorism, which has been used to permit U.S. operations all over the world. Buttigieg said, "When we lost troops in Niger, there were members of Congress who admitted they didn't even know we had troops there. And it was all pursuant to an authorization that was passed to deal with Al Qaida and 9/11. And often, Congress has been all too happy to leave aside its role." He was referring to the "
Tongo Tongo" ambush in 2018 in which four U.S. troops and four Nigerian troops were killed in a firefight with members of a chapter of ISIS. I can't find video of that moment, but while searching for it, I came across
this video of clips from several debates and noticed "Mayor Pete," who is, as you may recall, a veteran who served in Afghanistan, which by the time of this debate had been the site of fighting by U.S. troops for more than eighteen years, making a simliar point when he said one thing he hoped to accomplish as president was "an end to endless war." That caught my ear because he said it when so-called "Donald the Dove" was president, and because we hear people now asking for the same thing even though the U.S. has left Afghanistan.
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Meanwhile, the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that a Republican "outreach center in the metro Atlanta suburbs is now home to a sex toys shop. It is one of at least three GOP offices in Atlanta that have now shuttered after opening to much fanfare and promises of reaching voters of color. #gapol
Such divas!
