Dec. 22, 2019

Donald the Fool is Not Jesus the Christ
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The hours before the House of Representatives impeachment vote were a study in contrasts. While Democrats approached the debate leading up the vote somberly, with all due consideration, and with historical references, Republicans seemed to think they were starring in a comedy show. And the now-impeached President added to the comedy with an unhinged and delusional letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that clearly illustrated the break he has taken from reality. So he compared himself to the people who were executed (yes, executed!) during the Salem witch trials in 1692-1693. Yes the fool had to go back more than 300 years to find a parallel for his “poor” treatment.

More egregiously, Mr. Trump was compared to Jesus the Christ, an abomination especially during this holiday season. We who are Christian celebrate the birth of the Christ child each year. It renews our faith. It provides us with hope. It should not be marred or besmirched by a paranoid charlatan who has the temerity to think he is anything like Jesus the Christ.

Who was Christ, anyway? The Jesus that the Bible celebrates was full of love for the least and the left out. In the Holy Bible, Matthew 25:40 Jesus said, “whatever you do for the least of these you do for me”. Yet our 45^th President has had nothing but contempt for the least of these, cutting food programs, caging innocent children, sputtering hate and nonsense at every opportunity. There was no Christ in the way that 45 attacked deceased Congressman John Dingell (D-Michigan), deliberately mocking his widow, now-Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. Mrs. Dingell was painfully transparent in her reaction to Mr. Trump’s ignorance. She lost her husband less than a year ago, and our “Commander in Chief” is spinelessly attacking her and her husband. Where is the compassion of Christ in that?

Beyond utter hubris, the Christ comparison is pure delusional arrogance, but this is what we have come to expect from this putrid and paranoid President and his pitiful minions. And while partisan discord is the name of the game, too many Republican who know better have decided that their oath of allegiance is not to the Constitution but to a morally flawed, constitutionally indifferent President. The fact that Republicans, many who know better, many who acknowledge it “off the record” march in lockstep behind someone who has abused his power, is disturbing. Even more disturbing in the fact that too many Republicans think it’s okay.

Meanwhile, a mix tape of Christmas songs runs through my mind as I think of the temerity of Donald the Fool comparing himself to Jesus the Christ. “Oh Come Let Us Adore Him”. That’s what Donald the Fool wants – adoration. There is no sane Christian who will adore him because he is not the Christ, but a terribly flawed man who lies (15,000 y’all) and steals with impunity.   Or the refrain from “Silent Night”. Sleep in heavenly peace. But this Divider-in Chief has brought us absolutely no peace, no quiet, no calm. As many of us spend these days around Christmas caroling and worshiping, it is repugnant that this charlatan compares himself to the virtuous Christ. Where are his virtues?

This comparison is also indicative of how conservative Christians (words that should not be used in the same sentence) have fractured faith by describing 45 as “the chosen one.” Chosen by whom and to what end? It is the height of hubris that one would pick such a venal man as chosen, God did not choose this lying, genital grabbing crook for anything but to force us to organize, mobilize, and tap into the power we all have within.

It would take days to unpack the several lies that Republicans used in their “defense” of their President. They said Democrats were out to get him from day one. It is true that a few were but the fact is that Speaker Nancy Pelosi was always measured in her approach to impeachment. She resisted it for the longest time, only capitulating when the Ukraine matter was too egregious to be ignored. The spoke of Democrats “hating” Trump, but disdain is not hate. The mangled the Constitution to their own end.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author, media contributor and educator. Her latest project MALVEAUX! On UDCTV is available on youtube.com. For booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visit www.juliannemalveaux.com

Dec. 17, 2019

Trump is Leading a Revolution That is Destroying America
By Jesse Jackson 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - As the House of Representatives moves toward impeaching President Donald Trump this week — by what all predict will be a vote divided largely by party — it is time for reflection. The House will indict the president for abuse of his office — trying to enlist a foreign government to intervene in our election by announcing an investigation of his potential opponent in the upcoming presidential race and for obstruction of justice in his extreme efforts to block the congressional investigation of his abuses. This is an indictment focused, for simplicity sake, on a single course of action and its coverup. In fact, the challenge posed by Trump is far greater than that.

Trump is leading a counterrevolution against the America that is, and the America that will be. He does so by savagely attacking American institutions — and by unrelenting lies designed to produce a cocoon of misinformation — an alternative reality — to con his ardent supporters. Trump has scorned the Constitution and its tripartite division of power. He scorns the Congress — both the Democratic House and the Republican Senate, ignores its subpoenas, dismisses its powers and holds himself and his administration immune from its oversight.

He traduces the courts, appointing right-wing activist judges while impugning the motives of any justice that rules in ways he does not like. He floods the courts with lawsuits, many groundless, to delay and to avoid accountability both personally and as president. He abuses the press, accusing them of being the enemy of the people and of spreading “fake news,” even as he retweets and recycles false conspiracy theories and big lies. He has dismantled the interagency national security process, upended American policy — often with the sole apparent motive of reversing anything President Barack Obama accomplished — while abusing allies, his own appointees and the career professionals with sudden reversals of policy and pronouncement. He has clearly decided that the presidency is above the law, as well as beyond the reach of Congress and courts.

While I, and many other reformers, agree with some of Trump’s stated goals — to bring the “endless wars” to a close, to transform our trading policy, to pressure the Federal Reserve to keep its foot off the brakes of the economy without clear evidence of rising inflation — Trump’s imperious and impetuous actions do more to discredit those goals than to serve them. In other areas — most significantly in the existential threat posed by catastrophic climate change — Trump has abandoned the most important responsibility of the president to defend the nation’s security. His conscious political strategy is to foster division, inflaming racial, gender and other divides. This has fed an already rising tide of hatred that is breeding more violence in this land.

Rather than signing the bipartisan immigration reform that he had previously agreed to support, he chose instead to preserve the contention rather than to move to solve the challenge. The result of this reckless and ruthless course is a country ever more divided. Trump clearly has cemented the support of about 40 percent to 45 percent of the American people. That support has cowed Republican legislators — senators and representatives — who now rise to defend behavior that they know is dangerous and policies that violate their previously cherished conservative principles — from free trade to support for allies to presidents serving as moral examples. Now, as senators gear up for holding what looks to be a sham trial on the impeachment charges brought from the House, they might pause for reflection. For many, this vote may be their last historic vote, one which will help define their legacy. All face constituents — Trump’s so-called “base” — who demand that they support the president no matter what he does.

This is a test of leadership. True leaders don’t follow opinion polls, they mold opinion. They do not allow the fervent few to drown out the call of their conscience. They recognize the obligations of party, but also the call of honest patriotism, of acting in moments of historic decision for the sake of the country. They realize that history will hold them to account, as well as their own children and grandchildren. Trump’s minions are demanding abject loyalty. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell has already confessed that he is taking his clues from the White House. Before bowing to that pressure, senators should pause, reflect, look in the mirror and probe their conscience. Who are they? What are they prepared to stomach?

Dec. 19, 2019

House impeaches President Donald J. Trump

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - The U.S. House of Representatives - on a party line vote Wednesday night, Dec. 18 - approved two articles of impeachment against President Donald J. Trump, making him the third president in U.S. history to be impeached.

The issue now moves to the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate where members will hold a trial. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not said when she will send the articles to the Senate.

Pelosi, wearing black to symbolize that this is a dark day in the country’s history, banged down the wooden gavel, saying that both articles of impeachment had been approved in the House as members milled around waiting for the final results.

The vote in the House follows a vote earlier this month by the House Judiciary Committee which approved the two articles of impeachment.

Article I charged President Trump with abuse of power by soliciting the interference of a foreign government in the political affairs of the United States.

Article II of the Articles of Impeachment charged that President Trump obstructed Congress, one of three equal branches of government outlined in the U.S. Constitution. The Executive and Judicial Branches are the other branches of government.

“Donald J. Trump has directed the unprecedented, categorical, and indiscriminate defiance of a lawful subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives pursuant to its sole power of impeachment,” reports Article II of impeachment.

If Trump is convicted of impeachment, he will be removed from office. Vice President Mike Pence then will be sworn in as president, serving out the remainder of Trump’s term.

Trump is one of three presidents who have been impeached. The other two were Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Both escaped conviction for impeachment.

Dec. 16, 2019

Report: Police Killings are a Leading Cause of Death of Black Men
By Frederick H. Lowe

Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from NorthStarNewsToday.com

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Police violence is a leading cause of death among young men, especially young Black men, according to a scientific report published recently.

The study, which looked at police use of force, found that Black men are 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police than White men.

“Our models predict that 1 in 1,000 Black men and boys will be killed by police over the life course,” the report said.

The report titled “Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race-ethnicity, and sex” reported that 1 in every 1,000 black men can expected to be killed by police. In 2018, police killed 1,018 people, not all of them black men, according to the database “People Killed by Police.”

The report is contained in the August 20, 2019, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States or America ( PNAS).

“Police in the United States kill far more people than do police in other advanced countries industrial democracies,” PNAS reported.

The report listed the names of Black-male victims of police violence. The are: Oscar Grant, Michael Brown, Charleena Lyles, Stephon Clark and Tamir Rice and many others who have been murdered by the police.

The killings have sparked protests, and the U.S. Attorney General William Barr angrily reacted.

Recently, at an awards ceremony in Washington honoring policing, Barr warned that critics of policing must display more deference or risk losing police protection.

The PNAS report challenged the widely accepted belief promoted by corporate media that more murders of young Black men were committed by other young Black men but in reality it’s the police who are killing large numbers of Black men.

The murders also affect Black men’s mental health and reinforce inequality in society between blacks whites, according to The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal. In a report titled “Police killings and their spillover effects on the mental health  of Black Americans: a population-based, quasi-experimental study” it was reported that police killings of Black men affects the mental health of people not directly affected.

“Our estimates therefore suggest that the population mental health burden from police killings among black Americans is nearly as large as the mental health burden associated with diabetes,” Lancet wrote.

“Violent encounters with the police have profound effects on health, neighborhoods, life changes and politics. Policing plays a key role in maintaining structural inequalities between people of color and white people in the United States,” the study reported. “Our results show that people of color face a higher likelihood of being killed by police than do White men and women, that risk peaks in young adulthood, and that young men of color face a nontrivial lifetime risk of being killed by the police.”

PNAS researchers from Rutgers University, Washington University and the University of Michigan estimated the risk of being killed by race and sex using data from 2013 to 2018.