Oct. 22, 2016

Voter Fraud and Voter Suppression
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - I watched the October 19 Presidential debate in both awe and horror.  Awe – I truly do not understand Mr. Trumps temerity to lie, interrupt, sniff, sigh, and interject offensive comments (“such a nasty woman”) in lieu of disagreement.  The horror came when Mr. Trump asserted that he would not necessarily accept the result of an election he has described as “rigged”.  (Actually, in Trump’s world, anything that does not go his way is rigged – debates, primary elections, Emmy Awards).  Trailing in the polls, Mr. Trump is playing the same racial games he has played throughout the elections, suggesting that there is massive voter fraud in cities like Philadelphia and Detroit, cities with large African American populations, that dead people are voting, and that millions of voter registration records are wrong.

There have been dozens of reports that refute the Trump claims.  A Department of Justice report indicates that only 31 of more than 1 billion votes cast since 2000 have been fraudulent.  The Brennan Center for Justice, housed at the New York University School of Law has studied voter fraud and found that allegations are most often unfounded (https://www.brennancenter.org/publication/truth-about-voter-fraud).  Trump also cited a Pew Center study that indicated that one in eight voter registrations might be inaccurate.  But Pew says inaccurate registration may not be fraudulent ones.  As an example, some people have not changed their addresses, and will do so before they attempt to vote again.  These folks aren’t committing fraud, they’ve simply moved.  The Pew Center says that our nation’s voter registration system needs an upgrade (http://www.pewtrusts.org/~/media/legacy/uploadedfiles/pcs_assets/2012/pewupgradingvoterregistrationpdf.pdf).  They have not identified massive voter fraud as a problem.  Donald Trump, though, is the master of manipulative repetition.  Just like he hammered on “Little Marco”, “Low Energy Jeb” and “Crooked Hillary”, now he is hammering on voter fraud, whether it is accurate or not.  At least one fact-checker has detailed how wrong Trump is (http://www.factcheck.org/2016/10/trumps-bogus-voter-fraud-claims/) and has described his claims as “bogus”.

Claims of voter fraud divert attention from a more significant issue, the voter suppression that may make it more difficult for many to vote.  Too many states have instituted new voter ID laws, reduced the number of early voting days, consolidated precincts (forcing people to travel further to vote), and purged people from voting registration polls.  Several organizations are providing backup for voters, including the website http://www.iwillvote.com that allows people to check their voter registration.  But with registration deadlines closing in this handful of days before the election, it is likely that some people who want to vote will not have the opportunity.

This voter suppression has been deliberately, and it has had a partisan skewing.  Why can a gun registration be used as appropriate voter identification, but not a student ID?  Rule shifting has gained the attentions of conservative appeals courts.  As an example, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas voided Texas Voter ID laws.  Wisconsin’s voter restrictions were also disallowed.  Most notably, a federal appeals court shot North Carolina down and, were uncharacteristically critical.  The court wrote that, “Although the new provisions target African Americans with almost surgical precision, they constitute inapt remedies for the problems assertedly justifying them and, in fact, impose cures for problems that did not exist.”

Is there voter fraud?  If only 31 cases, out of a billion votes, were found fraudulent, we can say that there is a bit of fraud, something that is less than a fraction of one percent.  At the same time, voting restrictions imposed in 2014 and 2015 were set to block over 1.3 million voters in Ohio, Nor Carolina, Virginia, and Wisconsin, all swing states(http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/29/courts-smash-voter-suppression-just-in-time-for-election-day.html).  Should we be more concerned about voter fraud or voter suppression, about the 31 who may have been fraudulent, or the 1.3 million who have been deliberately and “surgically” excluded from the voting process.

African Americans know rigged elections.  Our voices have too often been rigged out of the electoral process.  Fannie Lou Hamer was beaten to within an inch of her life because she dared organize people to vote.  Medgar Evers was killed because he dared organize Black folks to vote.  Our people overcame grandfather clauses, voter tests, and all kinds of other nonsense in order to vote.  We know rigged elections.  We know voter suppression.  When Donald Trump talks about elections being rigged, he exhibits, again, his historical ignorance.  Every time Black folks were excluded from the voting process, we accepted the outcome.  The democratic process.

Julianne Malveaux is an author and economist. Her latest book “Are We Better Off? Race, Obama and Public Policy” is available via www.amazon.com for booking, wholesale inquiries or for more info visitwww.juliannemalveaux.com

Oct. 18, 2016

White Terror Group Arrested on Eve of Attack on U. S.-Somalis

(TriceEdneyWire.com/GIN) – Three White American men are under arrest and charged with plotting to blow up an apartment complex and mosque in a suburb of Kansas inhabited by refugees from war-torn Somalia.

The three - Curtis Allen, 49, Gavin Wright, 51, and Patrick Stein, 47 - are charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction – a charge that carries a sentence of life in jail.

If the plot had succeeded, some 120 Somali residents could have been killed.

Mada Jama, a Somalian who works at Tyson Foods told radio station KWCH that he's always felt welcomed in Garden City.

"I see White people at Tyson, at the gas station, everywhere, and everyone is my friend," he said. "I don't know what's going on here."

Former Garden City Mayor and candidate for state senate, John Doll, said he was told he was one of the targets discussed by the three men accused in the plot.

"This is terrible, because these people they targeted are great people; they work hard, pay taxes, obey the laws," he said. "Why would anyone want to hurt them?"

Halima Farah, 26, lives in the targeted complex. She said news of the plot rocked the Somali community of about 500 people in the western Kansas city of about 25,000.

"It was so scary," she told USA TODAY. "Garden City is small and peaceful. I love living there. I didn't think something like that could happen here."

According to an affidavit, the three were a part of a group called the Kansas Security Force and the Crusaders.

According to the Washington Post, the “Crusaders” knew they wanted to kill Muslims and use the “bloodbath” to ignite a religious war — but for months they couldn’t settle on a plan.

The easiest way would be to grab guns, go to the predominantly Somali-Muslim apartment complex they’d been surveilling and start kicking in doors, court documents said. They would spare no one, not even babies.

In the end, they decided to set off bombs similar to the one Timothy McVeigh used in 1995 to kill 168 people in Oklahoma City. They planned to strike after the Nov. 8 election, investigators said.

The plan was undone by an FBI confidential informant and Allen’s girlfriend, who showed authorities Allen’s supply room after he allegedly hit her during a fight.

The men's arrest comes after an eight month long investigation.

GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK creates and distributes news and feature articles on current affairs in Africa to media outlets, scholars, students and activists in the U.S. and Canada. Our goal is to introduce important new voices on topics relevant to Americans, to increase the perspectives available to readers in North America and to bring into their view information about global issues that are overlooked or under-reported by mainstream media.

Oct. 18, 2016

First Lady Michelle Obama, Leading Black Women Clergy Condemn Trump Remarks

Open letter from 1,200 Christian women say the 'sin of misogyny has caused many of us to experience sexual assault'

By Hazel Trice Edney

First Lady Michelle Obama

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Black women across the U. S. are continuing to express outrage this week in response to a released tape of lewd comments about women, made by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In an epic speech Oct. 13, First Lady Michelle Obama told a crowd in New Hampshire that Trump’s language can never be excused as “locker room” talk as he described it, and she asked women – Republicans and Democrats – not to remain silent.

“The fact is that in this election, we have a candidate for President of the United States who, over the course of his lifetime and the course of this campaign, has said things about women that are so shocking, so demeaning that I simply will not repeat anything here today. And last week, we saw this candidate actually bragging about sexually assaulting women. And I can't believe that I'm saying that a candidate for President of the United States has bragged about sexually assaulting women,” she said.  “And I have to tell you that I can't stop thinking about this. It has shaken me to my core in a way that I couldn't have predicted. So while I'd love nothing more than to pretend like this isn't happening, and to come out here and do my normal campaign speech, it would be dishonest and disingenuous to me to just move on to the next thing like this was all just a bad dream.”

Mrs. Obama’s sentiments were among a groundswell of outrage, including a string of Republicans who withdrew their endorsement of Trump after hearing the audio. That outrage continued to grow this week as a racially diverse group of more than 1,200 leading Christian women signed an open letter also expressing their disdain and to urge other religious leaders to not only take a stand  but also “help their communities heal from the sins of sexual violence and misogyny,” said a release announcing the letter.

“As Christian women we are appalled by Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's recorded remarks that disparage women and condone sexual assault. Such language cannot be dismissed as ‘locker room talk.’ Mr. Trump must offer public contrition that fully acknowledges the seriousness and depravity of his actions. The sin of misogyny has caused many of us to experience sexual assault or sexually abusive language that threatened our safety, dignity and well-being,” states the letter, released Oct. 14. “Christian leaders cannot condone such violent speech about women as a minor mistake or an innocent attempt to be ‘macho.’ These excuses teach our young people that such language is acceptable and do further harm to those who have been abused. We urge all religious leaders to preach, teach and help their communities heal from the twin sins of sexual violence and misogyny. While we are disheartened by Mr. Trump's toxic words, we believe this moment presents an opportunity to teach our daughters and sons that they are loved, and to teach all Americans how to speak out against sexually violent language.”

The lead signature on the letter was that of Rev. Jennifer Butler, CEO of Faith in Public Life Action Fund, who spearheaded the campaign. It is joined by Dr. Barbara Williams Skinner, president, Skinner Leadership Institute; Reverend Dr. Cynthia L. Hale, senior pastor of the Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Ga.; Rev. Jacqueline Lewis, Middle Collegiate Church of New York; Lisa Sharon Harper, chief church engagement officer of Sojourners among hundreds of other women pastors and leaders.

"The violent language spewed by Donald Trump about women is not only insulting, it's laden with criminal intent. To dismiss these lewd remarks as simply 'locker room' talk would be to suggest that this type of rhetoric or behavior is acceptable," said Dr. Skinner, in the news release. "As faith leaders, we must teach all Americans how to speak out against sexually violent language and to affirm the dignity of all people."

The letter comes on the heels of Mrs. Obama’s White House celebration of the International Day of the Girl and the official launch of her new educational initiative, "Let Girls Learn".

“So I thought it would be important to remind these young women how valuable and precious they are. I wanted them to understand that the measure of any society is how it treats its women and girls. And I told them that they deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and I told them that they should disregard anyone who demeans or devalues them, and that they should make their voices heard in the world,” the First Lady said in her speech.

This week, Trump’s wife, Melania, said in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper that she had forgiven her husband for what she described as “boy talk.”

However, First Lady Michelle Obama rejects any minimization of Trump’s words: “This is not something that we can ignore. It's not something we can just sweep under the rug as just another disturbing footnote in a sad election season. Because this was not just a ‘lewd conversation.’ This wasn't just locker-room banter. This was a powerful individual speaking freely and openly about sexually predatory behavior, and actually bragging about kissing and groping women, using language so obscene that many of us were worried about our children hearing it when we turn on the TV…It is cruel. It's frightening. And the truth is, it hurts. It hurts.”

Oct. 18, 2016

Emotional Reunion for 21 Rescued 'Chibok' Girls, Home at Last

(TriceEdneyWire.com/GIN) – In a sight that could make a witness choke up with tears, a roomful of rescued Nigerian schoolgirls from Chibok ran into the arms of their overjoyed parents and smothered them with hugs. The gathering, organized by Nigerian authorities, signaled an end to their two year captivity by Boko Haram rebels and the start of a new life.

Their nightmare of imprisonment in the Sambisa forest of Nigeria since April 2014 is over.

One of the girls told of surviving for 40 days without food and how they narrowly escaped death at least once.

"We had no food for one month and 10 days but we did not die. We thank God," said one of the girls, speaking in the local Hausa language.

Still, of the more than 200 kidnapped students, 197 are still missing.

Many of the kidnapped students were Christian but had been forcibly converted to Islam during captivity. The shapeless gray chadors imposed by their captors were now replaced on their thin frames by colorful dresses and hair ties.

The girls, freed last Thursday, met their excited relatives, some of whom had trekked for days to reach the capital, Abuja. Nigeria’s vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, witnessed the handover.

The release followed negotiations between Nigeria's government and Boko Haram brokered by Red Cross and Swiss officials, a spokesman for the country's president said.

"We thank God,” said one parent. “I never thought I was going to see my daughter again but here she is... Those who are still out there - may God reunite them with their parents."

Nigerian authorities denied that captured Boko Haram fighters were swapped for the girls although one security official told the BBC that four commanders had been freed.  A "handsome ransom", in the millions of dollars, was reportedly paid by the Swiss government on behalf of the Nigerian government.

After two years in captivity and being married off to Boko Haram fighters, several girls carried children, even though they were hardly more than children themselves.

The plight of the girls never left the radar for an active diasporan community and their friends and colleagues around the world. Twitter hashtags such as #BringBackOurGirls and #chibok and #HopeEndures were updated, demonstrations were held, politicians lobbied and letters penned.

VP Osinbajo told the group: “We are also going to see to it that everything you require going forward, perhaps your education, those who need to go back to school, those who need to find employment, we are going to make that we make all the provisions for you.

“So we are all very excited that you are here. We are all happy that God has preserved your lives and brought you back.” The reunion video can be seen on www.oak.tv

GLOBAL INFORMATION NETWORK creates and distributes news and feature articles on current affairs in Africa to media outlets, scholars, students and activists in the U.S. and Canada. Our goal is to introduce important new voices on topics relevant to Americans, to increase the perspectives available to readers in North America and to bring into their view information about global issues that are overlooked or under-reported by mainstream media.