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CASH IN THE APPLE for 10-27-16
http://triceedneywire.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7216:first-lady-michelle-obama-leading-black-women-clergy-condemn-trump-remarks&catid=54&Itemid=208
CASH IN THE APPLE for 10-27-16
By Cash Michaels
On the first day of early voting, I can honestly say I certainly
earned my “I VOTED EARLY” sticker, in more ways than one.
To my surprise after I dropped my daughter KaLa off at middle
school, there was a long line at my polling place, the Herbert C. Young
Community Center in Cary.
I hate long lines for anything, but I had just told my
13-year-old about how inspiring it was to cover the 2008 presidential election,
and to see all of the older black citizens - some with canes and walkers, some
in wheelchairs, come out and do something they never thought they'd have the
opportunity to do in their lifetime - vote for the first black president of the
United States. The memories of that still warm my heart.
I vowed that if they could make it to the polls to prove their
citizenship and right to be heard, then I had no business waiting 20 days until
the last minute. I needed to take the time NOW! So I was determined no matter
how long the line was, to park my car, wait, and cast my ballot. Determination
and duty were going to see me through.
Too bad common sense wasn't part of my equation. When I drove up
to the Young Center, they had parking folks as always directing all traffic to
the parking deck entrance. I should have asked for the handicapped parking area
since I'm a stroke/cancer victim who still has some difficulty walking.
No, instead I never gave any of that any thought. So I just
drove where they directed me to without asking any questions. BIG MISTAKE! I
ended up not parking near the first floor where I wouldn't have to walk far,
but on the top level.
Because of my hindered left leg, I decided to walk back down
through the deck driveway, realizing that to get to the building, I'd have to
take the stairs to the bottom level and then walk over.
No, I didn't fall down the stairs (Thank GOD), but once I left
the stairwell, I looked ahead to see where the voting line was so I could walk all
the way over and take my place in line to wait.
In doing so, I didn't look down to see that I was not on the
ground, but a platform you had to step off of to the ground. By the time I
realized that, all of sudden there was no there there, and I was placing my
considerable weight on nothing moving forward, my 304 lb. immense body
stumbling forward uncontrollably.
I immediately tried to almost dance my way down, hoping I could
slow my barely standing stumble so I wouldn't hit the ground, but it was too
late. With no cars parked anywhere near, and only a cement wall to stop me if i
went too far. I ended up slamming to the cement parking deck floor HARD.
Luckily I put my left arm out to brace my descent, but it was
still a hard tumble that cut up my arm pretty bad. Yes I was stunned for
moment. I don't fall much, so when it does happen, it IS an experience.
I laid there for a moment to assess if I broke anything (I could
have), but after moving my arm up and down, I realized I was damned lucky. Now
all I have to do is get up and walk down to get in line, I thought.
Except that I COULDN'T GET UP. I do have problems with both legs
getting up out of chairs and sofas because of the stroke two years ago, so
getting up off the ground was near impossible. That meant I had to swallow my
overblown pride and seek help.
Silly me! Here I am, on the ground sitting up as not one, not
two, but three cars leaving the parking deck come down where i am and pass me
going out, each driver seeing me without question. Why would I think ANY of
them would slow down after seeing a 300 lb. black man in a tee-shirt on the
ground with a bleeding arm obviously in trouble, and ask if I needed help? I
didn't expect them to stop or get out of their cars or anything. JUST ASK!
Nope. Finally I realized I better swallow my pride and actually
call out to the next car to please advise the police that I'm injured back
here, which is what I did.
Soon the precinct supervisor and another lady walked back, asked
if I needed an ambulance or 911. I assured them I didn't, just wanted to have
my wound attended to stop the bleeding, get off the ground, and be able to
vote, then be taken back to my car at the top (which I was steadily cussing
myself out for).
The supervisor's name was Peggy, and her assistant was Carol.
Those two ladies took care of my wound, determined that I was now eligible for
curbside voting (well I was disabled), signed me up (I'm still on the ground
now) and finally got two strong men to help me to my feet so I could finally
walk over to where all of the action was, which I did. After going to the
special section where curbside voting was officially being done on the other
side of the parking deck, they got me a chair, gave me my ballot to fill out,
and were super nice to me.
At one point I thanked the lady behind the table for allowing me
to vote out of turn. She responded, "Of course, sir. After all, you did
shed blood today to do it." Amen, Ma'am. AMEN!
When I finished, I noticed an elderly couple who were also
waiting for their ballots. The man had a walker, and the workers got him a
chair. His wife, who apparently was also his caretaker, was standing, however,
because there were no more seats.
Yes, folks had bandaged me up and my arm was still hurting, but
the way my mother reared me hurt me even more. So as soon as I handed my ballot
to Carol, since I had to wait for her to walk inside to put it in the machine
for me, I decided to stand and give my chair to the lady. Clearly the couple,
(they were elderly and white) were shocked, and tried to refuse, but I insisted,
bringing the chair to the lady to sit
in.
At that point, the poll worker who was behind the curbside
voting table saw what I did, got up, and insisted I take her seat after she
brought it to me, saying she had no problem standing doing her job.
These were good moments of decency that made everyone feel good.
One of the men drove me to my car at the top of the deck, and I
paused for a breath once i got behind the wheel of my car. My right hand had
dried blood on it from the wound on my left elbow. My left knee felt a little
banged up as well. But all in all, I VOTED, and had my sticker, given to me by
Carol, to prove it.
So the next time someone talks about "Our forefathers bled
for our right to vote," you tell 'em, "Yeah, Cash Michaels did
too."
And I was proud to do it!
-30-
[FOR WILMINGTON JOURNAL ONLY!]
FORMER SEC. OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON SPEAKS WITH CASH MICHAELS
[FOR WILMINGTON JOURNAL ONLY!]
NC NAACP PROBES LOCAL
E-VOTING MACHINE
PROBLEM
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
At least
three early voters report that after casting electronic ballots for Hillary
Clinton for president at the New Hanover County Government Center Saturday, the
touch-screen machine displayed that their votes actually tabulated for
Republican Donald Trump. The voters were subsequently able to correct the
mistake after reviewing their on-screen e-ballot, but now there is concern that
the electronic voting machines are not recording votes accurately in five
counties so far, and that has drawn the attention of the state NAACP
conference.
These
machines do not produce paper ballots, and have to be electronically calibrated
each day of use.
“The
machine is not working, and people are groaning on it. That’s just as bad as
suppressing the vote when the vote is not counted properly, ”Rev. Kojo
Nantambu, Director of Religious Advocacy for the NCNAACP, told WECT-TV, further
adding that legal action may be forthcoming.
“The North Carolina NAACP has now received reports
from NC NAACP membership in at least 5 counties that, in some instances,
electronic voting machines may be malfunctioning and improperly identifying a
voters’ selected choice as a choice for a different candidate,” a press release
from the civil rights organization stated earlier this week. “Voters report
that they have experienced this problem voting on ballot items that include,
but are not limited to, the Presidential ballot. In all instances of which we
are currently aware, voters were able to fix the problem by reviewing their
choices and fixing the error before submitting their electronic ballots.”
The release went on to indicate that the NCNAACP would be
investigating “all complaints received by our members.” Rev. William Barber,
president of the NCNAACP, went on to say that they “are
gravely serious at this time about protecting the voting rights of North
Carolinians. No voter should feel intimidated in this election or concerned
that your vote will not count.”
“Any
voter who experiences a problem with a voting machine, or other problems that
leave you worried about whether your vote has been correctly counted are to
immediately call the national voter protection hotline: 1-866-OUR-VOTE.
You can also text your information directly to the NC NAACP at 1-919-308-9085,”
the release added, noting that every voter has the right to review their
e-ballot before submitting it in the voting machine to be counted. All voters
have the right to request a paper ballot instead of using the electronic
machine.
The
four counties beyond New Hanover where problems with the e-voting machines have
been reported are Cumberland, Iredell, Mecklenburg, and Catawba.
The
NC Board of Elections says in response that it is “aware” of the “concerns” and
reports about the touch-screen electronic voting machines, and further
acknowledged problems with them in the past.
“…[W]e
take them very seriously,” the NCBOE press response says.
The
electronic touch-screen voting machines in questions are the Ivotronic direct
record brand, manufactured by Election Systems & Software Co. (ES&S), that
has logged in so many problems over the past ten years that the North Carolina
Legislature passed a 2013 law effectively outlawing them by 2018, requiring machines
that produce paper ballots instead.
In
many counties across the state, Ivotronic machines are used only for early
voting, not on Election Day. New Hanover County has 112 of them, but uses them
for the disabled on Election Day.
Brunswick
and Pender counties also employ the Ivotronic machines, as do an estimated
one-third of the state’s 100 counties.
Research
shows Ivotronic machines have reportedly been “vote flipping” candidates and
political parties in elections in states like Pennsylvania, Texas, Florida and
West Virginia, among others. A November 2010 report from Fox News indicated
that the NC Republican Party “…sued
to
force election workers to notify all voters of problems with the machines,
preserve all ballots and personal electronic programs and have voting officials
keep detailed records of all complaints at voting stations.”
An October 2002
report from Florida International University showed the Ivotronics machine
malfunctioned in 15.4% of Miami-Dade County voting precincts with less than 50%
black voters, and in 27.7% of polling places with 50% of black voters or more.
-30-
BLACK PRESS EXCLUSIVE
HILLARY CLINTON’S
MESSAGE
TO NC’S BLACK
COMMUNITY
by Cash Michaels
[RALEIGH] In
an exclusive interview with North Carolina’s African-American press, Hillary
Clinton said even though she is running to benefit all Americans, the first
woman expected to be elected president of the United States on Nov. 8th
does have a special focus on working with the African-American community and
its leaders – both local and national - to improve employment, business,
education, and other important quality of life issues.
“I want to
pay particular attention to Americans who feel left out and left behind by the
economy, or the situation in their communities,” the former First Lady, senator
and US secretary of State said Sunday at St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh,
during perhaps one of her last sit-down interviews of the campaign.
“I’ve laid out a really extensive agenda for
African-Americans, starting with improving the economy so that its producing
more jobs for more people; raising the national minimum wage – [we’ve] got
mostly women earning minimum wage, often times being the sole support of their
children, and they deserve a better economic opportunity,” she said. Mrs.
Clinton also cited more affordable housing as a need.
She maintained that getting equal
pay for women as a “particularly big issue for African-American women,” adding
that black female small business owners are “the fastest growing segment of the
small business world in our country.”
“[But] they’re running into credit…
[and] regulatory problems. We’ve got to look at those, not just from a 30,000-foot
view, but right down on the ground. What is it that stands in the way of men or women getting their businesses
going?”
Improving higher education not only
through the proposal she and Sen. Bernie Sanders have developed to make public
universities “tuition-free” for students from families making $125,000 or less,
but also creating a “dedicated $25 billion fund” to help private historically
black colleges and universities like St. Augustine’s and Shaw universities to
continue to grow.
After reading that one in five
North Carolina homes have no access to the internet, noting that they are disproportionately
African-American or Latino, Mrs. Clinton said emphatically, “I want to fix
that,” continuing that those families are left out of so many economic and
educational opportunities as a result.
“Taking on systemic racism,”
something she has “talked very openly and specifically about,” is something
Clinton added to her pronounced agenda for African-Americans. She points towards
reforming the criminal justice system “from end to end” to help stem the tide
of questionable fatal police shootings of black people, improving police
training, and building greater respect between law enforcement and the
African-American community.
“I particularly want to provide
more diversion from the criminal justice system and more second chance programs
for people who have paid their debt to society so that we begin to reverse what
has been an over incarceration that has really disrupted communities.”
“But I also have to do more to heal
the divides that we face in our country, and I’m taking all of this on because
I want to build on the progress that Pres. Obama has made. I don’t want to see
it reversed or ripped away.” And yet, a “President” Hillary Clinton’s approach
would be from “a different perspective that will hopefully get even more people
listening,” she says.
Clinton certainly disagrees with
Donald Trump’s assessment that African-Americans “live in hell,” instantly
exclaiming, “Oh that’s so wrong,” and then adding “One of many insulting, divisive
comments that Trump made was his characterization of African-American
communities. It just shows he’s never been in any, he doesn’t know any people,
he has no idea of the dynamism of small business or the importance of
historically black colleges and universities, or the role that black churches
play, or black professionals, and every walk of life.”
“He has
characterized in such a negative way what I see as a part of America that has a
lot going for it, but [also] has some challenges that we must honestly address.
“
Clinton
expressed support for South Carolina Congressman James Clyburn’s “10-20-30” plan – ten percent of federal
funds should go to the twenty percent of communities that have been living with
generational poverty and lack of development for thirty years. Clinton says
she’s developed a plan that not only implements 10-20-30 into the federal
budget, but also the empowerment and enterprise zones that helped build black
businesses under President Bill Clinton’s “New Markets” tax credits to be able
to further invest, and hire people within their communities.
Mrs.
Clinton said she’d like to see “a much bigger effort” when it comes to
upgrading skills training so that more people can actually qualify for the 1.2
million available jobs in the marketplace. She says she wants to accomplish
this challenge literally on a “neighborhood by neighborhood” basis, working
with local officials, businesses and faith leaders who know the most about
their own communities, and bring different perspectives to the table.
Clinton
lauds President Obama’s leadership in getting the country out of the greatest
financial crisis since the great Depression – an economic collapse she says was
caused by a combination of huge tax breaks for the wealthy, and Republicans taking
the regulatory eyes off of Wall Street and the financial markets. Clinton says
that Obama “doesn’t get the credit that he deserves for pulling us out of that
big ditch.”
She credits
the president’s “steadiness” in guiding the economy with a substantial stimulus
and recovery package and the reinstatement of a higher tax rate on the wealthy,
all resulting in over 75 consecutive quarters of economic growth. Last year until
now, Clinton adds, more people are finding work, incomes went up and more
people are entering the jobs market.
“I want to
build on that foundation,” Mrs. Clinton says of Pres. Obama’s achievements,
“and I don’t want to see it ripped up and thrown away by a false ideology that
the way you create economic wealth and equality in America is top down. I think
its middle out, and bottom up. I will build on what the president has done.”
When asked
if “President” Hillary Clinton’s US Justice Department would continue to pursue
the strengthening of voting rights, keeping in mind the US Fourth Circuit Court
of Appeals ruling that the Republican-led NC General Assembly deliberately suppressed
African-American voters with “surgical precision,” Clinton immediately said,
“Yes, a hundred percent.”
She
furthered that she was “proud” of the efforts of both US Atty. Gen. Loretta
Lynch and her predecessor, Eric Holder, to beat back unconstitutional voter ID
laws in North Carolina and across the nation. However Clinton also blasted the
US Supreme Court for striking down Section 4(b) of the 1965, effectively taking
away the Justice Dept’s most effective tools in policing how various states are
upholding the 1965 Voting Rights Act [VRA].
Clinton
lamented that the High Court crippled the VRA, especially since Democrats and
Republicans in the US Senate when she served voted 98-0 to renew the VRA, and
then-Pres. George W. Bush signed it.
“I want to
appoint people to the [US] Supreme Court who understand, based on what you read
in the Fourth Circuit [and other court findings against Republicans trying to
suppress the vote]. I also want to go back to Congress and try to get
legislation to fix the heart of the Voting Rights Act…” noting that Congressman
John Lewis (D-GA) is leading a
bi-partisan effort now “…to reinstate the full reach and power of the VRA.”
Mrs. Clinton
is currently leading in the polls over Republican Donald Trump. Today she joins
First Lady Michelle Obama during a rally in Winston-Salem.
Her
husband, Pres. Bill Clinton, led a bus tour throughout eastern North Carolina Tuesday
and Wednesday this week campaigning for his wife.
-30-
PRINCEVILLE TO FLINT,
URGES STATE ASSISTANCE
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Saying that
North Carolina “cannot be let off the hook,” the chairman of the Congressional
Black Caucus compared the plight of the embattled residents of Princeville –
the historically black Edgecombe County town that has been destroyed by
floodwaters twice in 17 years – with the tribulations of predominately-black
Flint, Michigan, where residents discovered their drinking water was polluted with
lead because state government refused to spend the money to purify their
supply.
“The state
bears responsibility,” Congressman G. K. Butterfield declared in an exclusive
interview about the growing needs of the 2200 residents of Princeville and
surrounding areas ravaged in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew three weeks
ago. While some federal disaster relief assistance is on the ground, and Rep.
Butterfield [D-NC-1] and colleague Rep. David Price [D-NC-4] plan to introduce
legislation in Congress for more appropriations targeting Princeville, he makes
clear that Gov. McCrory and state lawmakers must do more.
“We learned
that in Flint, Michigan, and the water crisis [there],” Butterfield said,
adding, “”We’re not talking negligence here. What we’re talking about is a
natural disaster, and the [state] government has some money in reserve for
natural disasters, and the rainy day fund needs to be utilized to some degree.”
“So state and federal, it has to be a
coordinated effort between both of these entities,” Rep. Butterfield continued,
“and I support [the North Carolina state lawmakers] who have joined together to
call for a special session of the legislature.”
“It has to
be a joint [state and federal effort] and no one gets a free pass,” said Rep.
Butterfield. “What better way to use a [state] surplus than to help families
who have been displaced by a natural disaster. I think this is a big deal, and
is deserving of a special session of the legislature, because this is a
500-year flood that has come to our state and caused $2 billion in damage, and
more than 25 individuals who have died. The least the legislature can do is to
come to town for a day or two, and legislate sensibly on this natural disaster.
There are
those who believe Gov. McCrory is hoping that the federal government and
private charities can fill in the financial and public assistance gap in the
aftermath of Hurricane Matthew flooding until the NC General Assembly
reconvenes in January.
The 2200 residents of Princeville certainly
hope not, and during a contentious meeting with their elected leaders Monday
night at the Edgecombe County administration building, angrily expressed their
frustration with not being allowed to return to their homes., and needing more
assistance now.
Over 80 percent of Princeville was
submerged under approximately ten feet of polluted floodwater before it was
pumped out. However many of the homes and government buildings were destroyed
in the process, left uninhabitable with toxic fumes and wastes. Now many of those homes have been condemned,
leaving those residents without a place to live.
It is the second time in 17 years
that Princeville has been ravaged by a massive flood, and many there have
decided to leave, saying that rebuilding again is too risky.
At least 20
of the over 30 counties crippled in the aftermath of Matthew are eligible for
disaster unemployment assistance, and federal financial assistance, including
temporary housing after victims leave shelters.
But as the
aftermath of Hurricane Floyd proved in 1999, the mounting needs will go far
beyond housing, food and lost employment, and the federal government will
require North Carolina to shell out hundreds of millions in matching funds in
order to get full disaster assistance for property buyouts, relocation and
maintaining public health.
That’s why many state leaders agree
that the $12-18 million in the state’s disaster relief fund is not nearly enough,
and the governor needs to call a special session immediately to at least
supplement the relief fund out of the $1.6 billion rainy day fund, or the $200
million in surplus budget savings, until lawmakers can consider a final bill.
Thus far, McCrory has refused to do
so, preferring to wait until January.
“I do think there should be a special
session at some point, which should be as soon as reasonably possible,” House
Minority Leader Larry Hall says. “In December 1999, 2.5 months after Floyd hit,
the legislature had a special session and appropriated $836 million for
relief. We can learn a lot from that experience, and should apply those
lessons here.”
-30-
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