What the Black Men Who Identify With Brett Kavanaugh Are Missing

10/16/2018

The Confirmation Files Blacks, Crime, History, Law, Legal , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

On Tuesday night, I was in an auditorium with 100 black men in the city of Baltimore, when the subject pivoted to Brett Kavanaugh. I expected to hear frustration that the sexual-assault allegations against him had failed to derail his Supreme Court appointment. Instead, I encountered sympathy. One man stood up and asked, passionately, “What happened to due process?” He was met with a smattering of applause, and an array of head nods.

If you think Kavanaugh receiving some measure of support from black men in inner-city Baltimore is as strange as Taylor Swift suddenly feeling the need to become a modern-day Fannie Lou Hamer, then brace yourself: The caping for Kavanaugh does make a twisted kind of sense. Countless times, black men have had to witness the careers and reputations of other black men ruthlessly destroyed because of unproved rape and sexual-assault accusations. And as that Baltimore audience member also argued, if the claims were made by a white woman, expect the damage to be triple.

 

More from Jemele Hill @The Atlantic

Posted by Libergirl

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’Marriage is now equal in New Jersey’: Cory Booker stays up late for gay weddings

10/21/2013

The Confirmation Files current events, Politics, Society , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Senator-elect Cory Booker married seven gay couples early Monday, as New Jersey became the 14th state to allow same-sex marriage.

“It is officially past midnight, marriage is now equal in New Jersey,” Booker said to applause and cheers.

Booker, who had never officiated a wedding since becoming Newark mayor in 2006, called the occasion one of “the greatest privileges and honors” and “one of the most magical moments” of his life.

On Friday, the state Supreme Court refused to delay a lower court order for the state to begin recognizing same-sex marriages. Mayors in cities and towns including Newark, Jersey City, Red Bank, Asbury Park and Lambertville opened their city halls late Sunday to marry couples as soon as possible.

Booker officiated the weddings inside the rotunda at Newark City Hall. Each couple also took turns cutting cake.

More from NBC News

Related:  Chris Christie drops challenge to same-sex marriage in New Jersey

Posted by Libergirl

Kerry says US raid in Libya was ‘legal’, vows such operations will go on

10/08/2013

The Confirmation Files current events, Politics, World , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Secretary of State John Kerry has justified the capture by US forces of a terrorism suspect in Tripoli as ‘legal and appropriate’. He thus responded to Libya governments’ demand for explanations over what happened.

Image: FBI.gov

Kerry has reacted to the ‘kidnapping’ complaint from the Libyan government by recommending it “not to sympathize with alleged terrorists but to underscore the importance of the rule of law.”

“I hope the perception is in the world that people who commit acts of terror and who have been appropriately indicted by courts of law, by the legal process, will know that the United States of America is going to do anything in its power that is legal and appropriate in order to enforce the law and to protect our security,” Kerry told reporters on Monday.

Libya voiced its concern on Sunday, a day after US forces captured in Tripoli a suspected senior Al-Qaeda leader, Nazih Abdul-Hamed Ruqai, known by his alias Abu Anas el-Liby, wanted for his alleged role in the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.

More from Russia Today

Posted by The NON-Conformist

Smoke em if you got em!

12/07/2012

The Confirmation Files Politics, Society , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Image: AFP

Thursday morning was the dawn of a new era for pot-smoking Washingtonians, as state law finally approved the personal possession of up to one ounce – or roughly 28g – of marijuana, making it the first US state to fully legalize the drug.

Washington voters shocked the nation last month by voting for Initiative 502 (I-502), which legalizes the possession of up to one ounce (28g) of marijuana for personal use. Under the initiative, all penalties for marijuana possession and use have also been abolished.

Many users said they would be gathering around various public areas across the state to celebrate the landmark ruling – by breaking the law. Public marijuana use is still illegal, but the fine for smoking weed in public carries the same fine as publicly consuming alcohol.

I-502, approved by a 55.5 percent majority, will make Washington the first US state to officially legalize recreational marijuana use in the US. State penalties for possession will be eliminated, and excise taxes like those applied to alcohol and tobacco sales will be enacted.

More from Russia Today

Posted by Libergirl

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