Mediaboss Marketing

Marches across Hampton Roads in support of the Black Lives Matter movement Monday night went mostly according to plan, officials said.

The self-described grassroots organization, Black Lives Matter 757, heldfive different marches across the region Monday night the anniversary of the group's first march in 2016.

Marches were scheduled to take place in Norfolk, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach, Newport News and Hampton, all starting at 7:57 p.m.

The only summons issued, though, was to the movement's organizer, Aubrey "JaPharii" Jones Jr. Thesummons was for obstruction of free passage of others, Hampton Police Division said in a statement Tuesday. The divisionincreased patrols for the event, officials said.

Otherwise, they said "protesters were cooperative with our officers and remained on the sidewalk during the march," the statement read.

But Jones said he'll be going to local and state legislators.

"If that's how you choose to use state and city funds, we have a huge problem," he said by phone Monday night.

He estimated hundreds of people walked in the five cities.

Virginia State Police, including those on the tactical field force team, were dispatched to the cities to assist and were on standby, said state police spokeswoman Sgt. Michelle Anaya. No unusual incidents were reported, she said.

They came with BearCats, or Ballistic Engineered Armored Response Counter Attack Trucks, she said. Some officers wore riot gear in Hampton.

"It's a unity peace march. Why are you all here with tanks?" Jones said he asked officials.

No arrests orissues were reportedin the other cities either.

In an email, Norfolk Police Department spokesman Daniel Hudson referred to the event as a "peaceful First Amendment march."

Portsmouth's Chief of Police Tonya D. Chapman called the collaboration between Portsmouthpolice and fire, the Portsmouth Sheriff's Office and Virginia State Police as "professional and admirable."

Communication, she said, is key.

"Tonight'sevents could have run more smoothly if protestershad communicated more openly with the Portsmouth Police Department," Chapman said in a statement Monday night.

Go here to read the rest:
Black Lives Matter 757 protests mostly peaceful, one summons ... - Daily Press

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images

A personal injury attorney representing Baton Rouge, La., police officers in two separate lawsuits against Black Lives Matter attempted to raise $20,000 for her cases through a crowdfunding website, but her campaign was taken down Sunday for not being within the community guidelines around promoting harmony.

YouCaring is an online fundraising site that bills itself as compassionate crowdfundingoptimized for success. People use the site to raise money for various needs, including medical expenses and funeral costs. PBS NewsHour reports that attorney Donna Grodner set up a fundraising campaign to raise funds for the two federal lawsuits she has filed on behalf of police against Black Lives Matter, both of which target activist DeRay Mckesson. YouCaring removed her campaign page Sunday.

In alignment with our mission, we removed this fundraiser because it was not within our community guidelines around promoting harmony, YouCaring Chief Marketing Officer Maly Ly told PBS NewsHour Weekend in an email. We are not the right platform to air grievances, or engage in contentious disputes or controversial public opinion.

Grodner went on to create a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe, and as of Tuesday, that campaign remained active. According to PBS, GoFundMe has not responded to its request for comment.

As previously reported on The Root, Grodner has filed two lawsuits agains Mckesson and Black Lives Matter on behalf of officers who claim the activists are responsible for injuries they received in two separate incidents.

The first lawsuit was filed in November on behalf of an unnamed officer who says he was injured during a protest of the deadly police shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, La., last summer.

The second lawsuit was filed July 7 on behalf of another unnamed officer and accuses Mckesson and Black Lives Matter of inciting violence that led to a gunmans attack on officers in Baton Rouge last summer, leaving three officers dead.

The description of Grodners GoFundMe campaign reads:

Police officers in BatonRouge have been seriously injured by militant protesters and activist. Black Lives Matter has been named in the lawsuit. Please give to help raise money to fund the prosecution of Black Lives Matter to hold them responsible for the injuries they caused whether in whole or in part through its anit-police [sic] agenda.

She told NewsHour via email that both her YouCaring fundraiser and the subsequent GoFundMe are for the same purpose.

Ly told NewsHour in her email that YouCaring was drawing a line.

We exist to empower people and communities to rally positive financial, emotional, and social support, she wrote. While different viewpoints are a part of life, you should make efforts to ensure that the content of your fundraiser does not promote discord.

Read more at PBS NewsHour.

Visit link:
Anti-Black Lives Matter Crowdfunding Page Banned By YouCaring - The Root

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (News release) - After receiving the required number of signatures, the Libertarian Party of Arkansas (LPAR) has received the green light to appear on the 2018 ballot in Arkansas.

Monday, Arkansas Secretary of State Mark Martin declared the Libertarian Party a New Political Party for the fourth consecutive time.

Now that the LPAR is officially on the ballot for 2018, candidate recruitment will be the partys next major task.

The Party had submitted 15,108 signatures to the Elections Division of the Secretary of States office on June 12. After spending almost three weeks verifying the submitted signatures, the Secretary of State notified the party that its new political party petition was sufficient. Leslie Bellamy, the Director of Elections, informed the party that 12,749 of the signatures were valid.

In accordance with Arkansas Code, new political parties are required to file a petition with the Secretary of State. The party has 90 days to collect signatures from at least 10,000 registered Arkansas voters. To retain ballot access, the partys candidate for Governor will have to receive 3% of the votes cast for Governor.

According to Stephen Wait, the partys Treasurer, Petitioning to become a new political party again cost over $25,000 and a lot of volunteer hours. Despite the obstacles the old parties put in our way, we are happy to provide freedom loving Arkansans the opportunity to vote for candidates who will represent their views.

The Libertarian Party of Arkansas is currently seeking liberty minded individuals who are interested in running for office. The LPARs elections committee has already been contacted by numerous people interested in seeking the partys nomination for various positions.

Vice-chairman, Chris Olson, said It's an important election with all constitutional officers up for election. We are committed to providing the people of Arkansas with a strong set of pro-liberty candidates. We will not shirk from our commitment to providing a consistent voice for limited responsible government. He urged those who are interested in running for office as a Libertarian to contact elections@lpar.org for more information.

Excerpt from:
Libertarian Party of Arkansas Set to Appear on 2018 Ballot - KARK

Cynics are said to be people who are prematurely disappointed about the future. Such dyspepsia is encouraged by watching Republicans struggle to move on from the dogs breakfast they have made of health-care reform to the mares nest of tax reform. Concerning which, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), whose preternatural optimism makes Candide seem morose, says: If were going to truly fix our tax code, then weve got to fix all of it. Trying to fix all of immigration in 2013 and health care in 2010 with comprehensive legislation left almost everyone irritable. Perhaps the third time is the charm. Sen.Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) is skeptical about fixing much this year, even given Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells (R-Ky.) decision to limit the August recess.

The fourth-most-senior Democrat and the ranking minority member on the tax-writing Finance Committee, Wyden, 68, is usually relaxed but now is especially so, for two reasons. He was just elected to a fourth term. And for him and other Finance Committee Democrats, tax reform is, so far, an undemanding spectator sport. This was underscored last weekend when, as he was being driven from one Oregon town hall to another, he read a Wall Street Journal article headlined GOP Tax Overhauls Fate Rests on Big Six Talks.

Five of the six were in an almost taunting photo provided to the Journal by Ryans office Ryan, McConnell, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The missing sixth person was National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn. No congressional Democrat is included. Evidently, Republicans plan to pass tax reform without Democratic votes, under reconciliation, which is inherently partisan 51 votes will suffice and limits debate to 20 hours. The 1986 reform, the gold standard of bipartisan tax legislation, was on the Senate floor for more than 100 hours spread over 20 days after seven days of hearings and 16 days of mark-up.

Ryan and McConnell say tax reform will be revenue-neutral. This might require dynamic scoring calculating that reformed incentives will stimulate economic growth to project implausible growth rates. Plausibility is, however, optional, as it was in April, when Mnuchins department produced a tax plan that resembled Lincolns soup that was made by boiling the shadow of a pigeon that had starved to death. The document shorter than a drug store receipt, says Wyden was one page long, contained 218 words, eight numbers and a thumping vacuity, the promise to eliminate tax breaks for special interests.

Last November, Mnuchin told CNBC there would be no absolute tax cut for the upper class, meaning no net cut after lost deductions. In Mnuchins January confirmation hearing, Wyden mischievously suggested calling this the Mnuchin rule, which enthralled Mnuchin, who later said: I feel like Im now in good company with the Volcker rule and the Buffett rule. In a June hearing, however, Mnuchin told Wyden: You made it a rule, I didnt make it a rule. It would be entertaining to watch Republicans try to adhere to that rule while fulfilling their promise from which they began retreating on Tuesday to repeal the 3.8 percent Obamacare tax on investment income.

No Democrat, says Wyden, likes the status quo. When he recently described the tax code as a rotting economic carcass, his wife asked him to stop scaring the children. The complexity of the code, which is about 4 million words, is why America has more people employed as tax preparers (1.2 million) than as police and firefighters. If tax compliance were an industry, it would be among the nations largest; it devours 6.1 billion hours annually, the equivalent of more than 3 million full-time workers.

Wyden knows he sounds like a one-song jukebox when he keeps stressing wage growth but he notes that last week the encouraging number of jobs created in June (222,000) was accompanied by discouraging wage growth (year-over-year, 2.5 percent, barely ahead of inflation). Many economists are puzzled that low unemployment (4.4 percent) is not forcing employers to bid up the price of labor. Wyden says he is puzzled by neither the cause (persistent slow growth, limping at about 2 percent) nor the cause of this cause insufficient money in middle-class paychecks to power an economy where 70 percent of the fuel comes from consumer spending. He favors, for example, doubling the earned-income tax credit. He seems, however, to be preemptively, but not prematurely, disappointed about a legislative process that will fall somewhat short of fixing all of what ails the rotting carcass.

Read more from George F. Wills archive or follow him on Facebook.

See the article here:
The Democrat who knows the tax code is a 'rotting carcass' - Washington Post

Democrats scored two surprising electoral wins on Tuesday night by flipping statehouse seats in one of the more unlikely locations: Oklahoma.

Michael Brooks-Jimenez, a local immigration attorney, was elected as a new state senator for District 44, an area that encompasses southwest Oklahoma City. And in Tulsas House District 75, Karen Gaddis, a retired school teacher, won a seat that had been in Republican clutches for over two decades.

The wins were owed, in part, to scandal that has beset the Republican Party in Oklahoma, where a number of state officials have been forced to resign because of sexual harassment claims and, in one instance, child prostitution allegations. Additionally, an ongoing budget crisis, which has led to four-day weeks at many Oklahoma schools, has spurred dissatisfaction with Republican leadership.

But the victories also underscore a growing backlash against the GOP that has elevated Democrats in various contests across the country.

The senate seat won by Brooks-Jimenez had been held by Ralph Shortey who resigned this year due to child prostitution allegations. Similarly, representative Dan Kirby, who held the Tulsa House seat, resigned following an investigation into sexual harassment claims made by a previous assistant.

Despite that context, Anna Langthorn, the newly elected chair of the Oklahoma Democratic Party, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday that both wins were pleasantly unexpected.

I will say that when youre in Oklahoma and we win, its always somewhat of a surprise, she said. You prepare yourself for any result.

Langthorn said that while both Democratic candidates were uniquely tailored to win in their specific districts, they also benefited from the publics souring on the states conservative political bend. Brooks-Jimenezs district has the largest Hispanic population in the state, she said, making him an appealing choice given his work in the community as an immigration attorney and his ability to connect with voters in both Spanish and English. As for Gaddis, Langthorn said that the states budget crisis -- and specifically its effects on education, paring down many five-day school weeks to four -- paved the way for the victory.

Though Democrats have failed to flip a single congressional seat in the series of national special elections that have taken place since Donald Trumps victory in November, they have made conspicuous gains both there and on the state level. Of the 29 special elections that have taken place, four seats (all of them state-based) have been flipped from Republican to Democrat. None have gone in the opposite direction. Those contests have seen an average voter swing of 11 percentage points towards Democratic candidates compared to the 2016 cycle, according to data compiled by the liberal website Daily Kos.

Langthorn was reluctant to chalk up Tuesdays wins to national politics, only conceding that it helped us more than it hurt us."

Gaddis' campaign manager, Sarah Baker, agreed with that assessment while also acknowledging that the victory came as a surprise.

"I've seen a number of stories since last night trying to make that connection [to national politics] but what we heard while knocking doors and talking to voters across the district never gave me that impression," Gaddis told The Daily Beast. "Very few people made mention of Trump and instead talked about what was going on in our own state. They talked about how voting for the Republican in this race was just going to give us more of the same in Oklahoma."

Get The Beast In Your Inbox!

Start and finish your day with the top stories from The Daily Beast.

A speedy, smart summary of all the news you need to know (and nothing you don't).

Subscribe

Thank You!

You are now subscribed to the Daily Digest and Cheat Sheet. We will not share your email with anyone for any reason.

But Carolyn Fiddler, a former top official with the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee who recently joined Kos as political editor and senior communications advisor, told The Daily Beast that Democrats were in a unique position to win statewide due to a combination of national resentment with the Republican Party and local backlash to conservative governance.

These successes are not a complete shock in light of the overall trend of strong Democratic performances in special elections this cycle, but they're certainly a surprise, considering [the] conservative nature of Oklahoma's electorate generally and in these districts specifically, Fiddler said. These Democratic pickups are two more data points in a growing set indicating nationwide Democratic electoral strength and enthusiasm this cycle.

See more here:
Democratic Candidates Just Pulled Off Surprise Wins In Two Oklahoma Statehouse Races - Daily Beast