All – Page 32 – Kimi Blog

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Obama at Georgetown on breaking the cycle of poverty. Real talk.

At the Georgetown University #PovertySummit President Obama made some very real comments, tying his own background to modern society’s challenges in the areas of education and social investment; access to jobs, internet, transportation; mentoring, youth, fatherhood, families and community:

I am a black man who grew up without a father, and I know the cost that I paid for that. And I also know that I have the capacity to break that cycle, and as a consequence I think that my daughters are better off … For me to have that conversation does not negate my conversation about the need for early childhood education, or the need for job training, or the need for investment in infrastructure or jobs in low-income communities… read more

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Get what you need: ask, release and focus on gratitude

Asking for what you need is brave — Graphic by LibbyDoodle – find her at libbydoodle.com

Need keeps you stuck

As long as you need something, you will not have it. The energy of your need pushes away the reality of whatever you seek.

Instead of focusing on what you need, focus on what you have. Because somewhere in whatever you have is the pathway to whatever you desire.

That’s why gratitude is so empowering. Gratitude shines a bright light on your resources and possibilities, and enables you to make good use of them.

Focus on what you have, and on what you can do. No matter what you seek, no matter how far away it may seem, there is something you can do right now to move yourself closer. read more

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Introducing the ball thrower your dog can use without you

They’ve invented a ball thrower your dog can use without you. Isn’t that nice? (BTW, it works for big and small dogs.)

Watch it in action… Buy it on Amazon!

Hat tip to Nora Montoya for this find

20150703

Exploitation by the light-skinned a tradition in the Dominican Republic and Ted Cruz’ Cuba

Sen. Ted Cruz is an elitist Cuban-American, representative of Cuban plantation owners who imported and exploited African slaves for generations. A lesson plan from PBS’ Black in Latin America feature shows that by persecuting Haitians the Dominican Republic is simply following Cuba’s tradition of persecuting dark-skinned workers once the workers have been exploited to breaking point. This is the Cuban history:

When revolution broke out in the French colony of Saint Domingue (later known as Haiti), sugar production there came to a virtual halt. This caused a sudden demand for sugar. Cuban plantation owners quickly stepped in to fill the gap created by neighboring Haiti, placing Cubans in a position to profit immensely. By the mid-1800’s, Cuba replaced Haiti as the world’s leading producer of sugar, making Cuban plantation owners very wealthy. Sugar is a very labor intensive and the increased pressure to fill market demand for this lucrative crop resulted in a high death rate among slaves. Plantation owners responded to the labor shortage by purchasing more slaves thereby reinvigorating the Transatlantic slave trade even after the British sought to curtail it. read more

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Joint Economic Committee Releases National Report on Economic Challenges Facing African Americans

WASHINGTON – African Americans face an unemployment rate double that of white workers and are nearly three times as likely as white Americans to live in poverty, according to a new report by the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) released today by Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), Ranking Democrat on the JEC, and Congressman G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.), Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).

The report reveals that African Americans continue to confront a range of economic challenges, including disproportionately high rates of poverty, unemployment and long-term unemployment as well as significantly lower incomes and slower wealth accumulation than white households. When examining various measures to determine economic well-being, the report finds black Americans lag far behind the white population. read more

20150628

Who is Chris Cerf and why do the Feds want him kept away from Newark students?

Chris Cerf planned to replace Cami Anderson as Newark Public Schools’ state-appointed superintendent, but following his attempted return to New Jersey schools the Feds are scrutinizing his record, and they aren’t pleased with him. Let’s take a look at who this man is:

Mark Weber writes

In many ways, Cerf is the prototypical education “reformer”: he never taught in a public school, never earned a degree in education, and never ran a school building. More accurately, perhaps, Cerf is the prototype of a new sort of reformer, one who leaves a groundswell of resistance in his wake. read more

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Booker attempts to whitewash friend Cami’s black NPS record

Former Newark mayor Cory Booker, a close friend and former employer of Cami Anderson, did not resist the temptation to try to inject positive spin into Cami’s recent removal from Newark Public Schools. Anderson is the New Jersey appointed Newark Public Schools superintendent who just left Newark in the wake of widespread protests for all the damage she’s caused to the students and schools she was hired to serve and protect.

Asked about the politics surrounding Anderson vacating of the position, Booker said “I’m happy with her contributions, things we should all be appreciative of.” read more

20150623

What makes Tesla, Amazon and Apple strong is their 100% commitment to moving forward

Matt Asay writes a wicked analysis of why Tesla, Amazon and Apple work so dang well and have become such powerful forces in our society. Matt posits that it’s their common commitment to jump into the future whole-hog – no holding back – and he makes a great case for his opinion.

I noted that the automobile industry had been working on electric vehicles for years, but that’s not quite true. What the industry kept foisting on us were half-baked compromises—you know, hybrid cars that looked like hamsters (Toyota Prius) and felt like they were powered by them, too. read more

20150623

Protect your home from Killer Guns

Guns actually do kill innocent people. A lot.

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1 day left to comment to the USDA on GMOs. Pitch in!

Here’s my comment to the USDA about GMOs in less than the 1024 characters allowed. I hope you will add yours!

GMO plants:
1 Kill whole ecosystems.
2 Many GMO crops have pesticides in them. Insects that survive eating them become immune to pesticides and descend on other farmers’ land like locusts, consuming everything.
3 GMO seeds are patented and are bankrupting farmers. Seeds are investments for farmers and many do not understand that GMO seeds must be “re-purchased” every year. In India, every 30 minutes a bankrupted farmer drinks pesticide to commit suicide.
4 In silent GMO forests pesticides built into the trees’ DNA poison everything except the trees. Nothing else lives: no insects, birds, animals big or small. No undergrowth.
5 We do not know the long term effect that GMOs will have on human bodies. read more

20150621

Slavery in New York

Slavery in New York was a New York Historical Society Exhibition in 2005-6.

New York Slavery (1 of 14 chapters – follow links) is the doctoral dissertation of Dr. Vivienne L. Kruger. MA., M. Phil., Ph.D. circa 1985. Dr. Kruger can be contacted at newyorkslavery@yahoo.com

Hat tip to Elizabeth McGrady for the Kruger find.

20150621

The important US holiday not many people know about: Juneteenth

Happy belated Juneteenth! This little known holiday celebrates the announcement in Texas by Major-Gen. Granger’s statement on 19 June 1865 that slavery had come to an end.

On 20 June 2006, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee made a statement to Congress about the importance of recognizing and celebrating this holiday. This is the text of her speech:

JUNETEENTH

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 minutes.

Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to acknowledge the World Refugee Day as we keep the flame of hope alive, showing some 20.8 million internally displaced refugees fleeing persecution who are now looking to the world to ask for relief. read more

20150619

New report: Walmart has hidden 10s of $BILLIONS of revenue to evade taxes

Americans for Tax Fairness has published their findings of a Walmart tax evasion investigation. I’m not devious enough to quickly understand how Walmart is doing this, and I sure don’t know if what it’s legal, but I’m glad to know eyebrows are being raised.

Their scheme goes something like this: Walmart has lied in corporate earnings filings about how much money they’ve sent overseas. They have stashed that money in secret accounts, mostly in Luxembourg, to avoid paying United States taxes on it. An interesting sidebar is that they now Walmarts wants to bring a lot of that money back into the US in order to expand their operation – again, without paying taxes on the earnings it represents. This just stinks, don’t you think? read more

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Haitians in the DR: genocide by exclusion & statelessness

A tragedy of epic proportions will unfold in the Dominican Republic this week (15 June 2015), unless a miracle happens. Yet around the globe politicians, clergymen, public figures and We The People are by and large, not talking about it.

Friends, let us pray for Haiti. Let us talk about the plight of people on Haitian descent on both countries in the island of Hispaniola: God, please deliver the people of Haiti and those of Haitian descent who have been living in the Dominican Republic. Keep these people well! Bless them with good food, comfortable shelter and the means to rebuild their lives and make Haiti a strong and proud nation once again. read more

20150615

Billy Holiday’s Strange Fruit was written by a Jewish man

Strange Fruit, the haunting song made famous by Billy Holiday and named the Song of the Century by Time magazine in 1999, is a fearsome ballad about Black people hung from trees after lynching. An interesting little known fact about this song is that its author was Abel Meerpol, a Jewish man from the Bronx.