Sure that is actually going on a lot of poor white Trump supporters are hurting badly right now. We are not going to come out and scream about it.
UPDATE: Donald Trump Takes Office as the 47th US President
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Democrats hold an 8-point advantage over Republicans on the generic congressional ballot, 47% to 39%. CNN’s David Chalian also points to independent voters, who favor Democrats by an 11-point margin, 40% to 29%.
www.threads.com
Well she's not profiting while still in office...that's honorable
DSA has a race problem
The Arab v. Black collision
Greg PalastAug 13, 2026
“I can distinctly remember reporting on a number of Arabic men that willingly referred to Kamala Harris as all kind of b*****s and horrible, horrible names, horrible, horrible opinions.”
— Cleopatra Draper, WVON, “Voice of the Black Community”
A rally for Democratic Socialist candidate for governor, Francesca Hong, Wisconsin.
African-American radio host Cleopatra Draper is worried. The victory of Democratic Socialist Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Democratic primary for US Senate has revealed a growing political schism between Black and Arabic voters. According to the Cook Report, Stevens led El-Sayed by about 8 percentage points in counties with higher Black populations, while El-Sayed underperformed in traditional African-American strongholds like Detroit.
And yesterday in Wisconsin, Francesca Hong, the gubernatorial candidate of the Democratic Socialists of America, was upset in her primary race by David Crowley, the African-American County Executive of the Black township known as Milwaukee.
WVON’s Draper saw this backlash coming. She told me, “The videos that came out of Michigan of Arabic men and how they felt about Kamala Harris was heart-wrenching.”
Uh, oh. It’s not the Mideast conflict that is splitting up the Democratic Party, it’s the Midwest conflict between Black and Arab voters, a division promoted by new friends of the Muslim community, higher-income white progressives.
There are coastal variants. In New York, the DSA celebrated its defeat of five-term Democratic Congressman Adriano Espaillat, Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, in the 13th Congressional District. Way to go, DSA! A brilliant redux of the GOP Tea Party insurgency.
Palast discusses the DSA’s race problem on WVON’s Cleopatra Show.
And then there’s the DSA heartthrob William Lawrence, who won the Democratic nomination in Michigan’s 7thCongressional. Lawrence said that, “Black political leadership are a pillar, frankly, for establishment, capitalist, imperialist American power … It really defangs the White Left.” Yep, they really do some pretty good de-fanging. Ever ask WHY?
Lawrence doesn’t have to worry, though. His district, which takes in yuppie-heavy Michigan State college towns, is 81.6% white, allowing Lawrence to write off the tiny 5.5% of voters who are African-American.
Look, I don’t have a dog in this race. But most Americans do. As my guru Jello Biafra would say, these midterm races could be bedtime for democracy. I take my journalist’s non-partisanship very seriously. But I am permitted to take note of the Dems’ preference for circular firing squads.
Back to the question DSA’s Lawrence didn’t ask. WHY do Black and Hispanic leaders “defang” the Left? WVON host Draper says: “I was watching some of the reporting from Black men in Michigan that did not feel confident that El-Sayed could be the victor, and they just wanted a safe bet.”
[Listen to Draper and Palast on WVON’s The Cleopatra Show.]
Why would Black men go “safe”? Because, as De La Soul explained,“Stakes is high.”
College students and gentry in Madison and Ann Arbor may worry more about Gaza than about food stamps and state employee pensions. I get that. They’re entitled to their opinions. (Emphasis on “entitled.”)
Mandela Barnes campaigning for Governor of Wisconsin in 2026. Photo courtesy of the Mandela campaign.
But I admit to some shock that DSA pushed former Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes out of the Governor’s race. I know Barnes well and for the life of me, I don’t see him as less progressive than DSA’s Hong, except that the soft-spoken, but militant Black man — an auto worker’s son — did not think the State of Wisconsin needed its own foreign policy.
As a kid in my twenties, I had a disagreement with my bud Jesse Jackson, who, though a democratic socialist at heart, pushed Black Capitalism. Reverend had a sophisticated Marxian analysis that in capitalist America, Black folk first need to get some capital to get in the game.
In 2016, to Hillary Clinton’s chagrin, Jackson stuck with Bernie Sanders all the way through the 2016 Convention. But Reverend hadn’t the least question about how he would vote in the general election — for Clinton — given the danger of Trump to his community. Opposing Jackson, some of my Hollywood friends joined up with Bernie or Bust and walked away from the election. So, I ask my friends, How’s bust treating you?
As a statistician (a grim business, nailed to facts), I calculate that the massive Arab community vote for Jill Stein in Michigan handed the state to Trump in both 2016 and 2024. This is based on the findings of the Council on American-Islamic Relations that, for example, in 2024, 59% of Michigan Muslims voted for Stein, the Green Party candidate, while Kamala Harris won only a dismal 14%, half the number of Muslim voters who backed Trump.
Now you see why WVON’s Draper warned that the Muslim rejection of Harris, a Black woman, would create lasting animosity. “I don’t see how you come back from that.”
Palast’s Wisconsin purge report, issued in 2020 by Black Voters Matter.
It’s not a question of political positioning — it’s political suicide for progressives to target “establishment” Black and Hispanic leadership. These leaders were chosen by their communities, not because they have passed a policy purity test, but because they can deliver and protect the life-and-death services for those not born on the sunny side of the privilege line.
In 2020, Black Voters Matter Fund issued my report showing that the state was illegally purging tens of thousands of voters from the rolls. Almost all of those who lost their rights were either Black voters in Milwaukee or students in Madison. In other words, these two Democratic demographics are being strangled in the same electoral noose. So, Dems, listen to the wisdom of a great community organizer, Benjamin Franklin, who said, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.”
Are progressives conducting a long-overdue purge of the Democratic Party’s ideological weaklings or creating an ugly racial, religious, class divide?
I can’t say. All I know is, stakes is high.
Greg Palast, former adjunct professor of statistics at Indiana University, Gary, will release his series of video reels, Jim Crow Reloaded, next month, as part of voting rights groups’ Save Your Vote campaign. Palast’s opinions are his own. But you know that.
Daily Boulder
3͏h͏ ·The CIA reportedly had “low confidence” in a warning from Israel that Iran might try to assassinate Donald Trump. That apparently didn’t matter much.
According to The Washington Post, U.S. intelligence officials received the warning from Israel ahead of Trump’s departure from Turkey following the NATO summit in Ankara. But officials reportedly didn’t consider the information particularly compelling when they passed it along to Trump administration officials.
Trump, however, believed he was in danger, so the Secret Service decided to put him at ease.
Details here: https://dailyboulder.com/cia-doubted-trump-assassination.../
They saw Rondo Numba 9 in the cut.
nypost.com
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s decision to sneak off Air Force One aboard a catering truck and use a military plane to fly out of Turkey last month was motivated by fears that Iranian operatives could use a shoulder-launched rocket to blow the presidential jet out of the sky.
Shoulder-fired missile threat prompted Trump’s Turkey plane switch: report
US intelligence officials learned Iran had tracked down information about which hotel floor Trump was staying on in Ankara, according to the New York Times.
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s decision to sneak off Air Force One aboard a catering truck and use a military plane to fly out of Turkey last month was motivated by fears that Iranian operatives could use a shoulder-launched rocket to blow the presidential jet out of the sky.
Gaming skills are an advantage for this job apparently.Alarm after Trump admin hires 2,000 gamers to fill air traffic controller jobs: ‘If they f*** up, people die’
The Trump administration is facing backlash after transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced 2,000 video gamers have been hired to serve as air traffic controllers.
Duffy first unveiled the plan to meet the national shortfall this spring and recently took to social media with an update revealing the recruitment drive had been a success.
"In April, we launched a NEW CAMPAIGN to recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers – and supercharged the entire hiring process to get the BEST & BRIGHTEST in faster. The results are HISTORIC."
Duffy said the 2,000 appointments so far was the most in a single year, adding that a further 2,000 were "in the pipeline". His post was accompanied by a video compilation of testimonials from some of the new hires expressing their excitement about passing their interviews and getting down to work.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has announced that 2,000 new air traffic controllers have been hired this year after reaching out to gamers with transferable skills (Getty)
In announcing the policy, the Federal Aviation Administration explained its reasoning behind the new approach by saying: "With only about 25 percent of controllers holding a traditional college degree, this effort is focused on reaching talented young people pursuing alternative career paths, many of whom are active in gaming.
"Feedback from controller exit interviews reinforces this, with several controllers pointing to gaming as an influence on their ability to think quickly, stay focused, and manage complexity."
Michael O'Donnell, an aerospace consultant and former FAA official, sounded a note of caution at the time, commenting: "When you bring on someone who has gaming experience, particularly with air traffic control, they have an edge up.
"They're coming in with a skill set. But it doesn't replace aptitude, or discipline, or decision making under pressure."
His concern is now being widely shared in response to Duffy's announcement about the hiring spree.
"Just one problem…. If they f*** up people die," one person responded to the secretary's video. "They can't just restart a new game."
"Great thinking," another said. "One failure mode: Be sure a culture of responsible sleep is created. Don't want planes falling out of the sky when GTA 6 releases or a new WoW [World of Warcraft] expansion comes out."
Duffy's plan to address the national shortfall has been met with public skepticism (Getty)
Another claiming to have prior experience of working in air traffic control wrote: "As someone with experience in the job, I can tell you that how many you hire doesn't mean a damn thing.
"It's how many actually make it through and get certified at their facilities. It's a very difficult job."
However, the reaction to Duffy's post was largely positive, with the more critical commentators shouted down as "Debbie Downers" and "Negative Nellys."
Among those expressing support for the policy were the billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and actress Justine Bateman.
"BRILLIANT move to hire YOUNG MEN into stable, well-paying positions," one person wrote. "As any nation should. Note that it took a Gen Xer to launch this program. A boomer would never."
"This is creativity in government hiring, love to see it," applauded another.
Asked about the concerns raised by the naysayers, the FAA told The Independent: "The FAA is continuing its supercharged hiring and is onboarding new controllers at a record pace. The president's supplemental budget request includes additional funding for controller hiring.
"Deploying modern staffing models and scheduling tools will improve controller staffing efficiency and reduce the need for excessive overtime, which can lead to fatigue and burnout."
The Independent also reached out to the Department of Transportation for comment.
Federal Aviation Administration | The Independent
The latest breaking news, comment and features from The Independent.www.independent.co.uk
What's left of their conscience kicked in. It helps that it's military members who are suffering. If it were civilians, particularly if they weren't rich and/or minorities, they'd still be burying the story.
With regard to the Iran war, we’re fucked. Trump can’t accept a deal that would give Iran millions of dollars or allow them to impose a toll on the Strait. At the same time, he can’t send in ground troops if there’s a possibility that hundreds of Americans could die—not with the midterms approaching.
After the midterms, he might have more flexibility and could potentially make another questionable decision. But ultimately, none of that may matter because Israel would also have to agree to any deal, and I don’t see them agreeing to it.
After the midterms, he might have more flexibility and could potentially make another questionable decision. But ultimately, none of that may matter because Israel would also have to agree to any deal, and I don’t see them agreeing to it.
Alarm after Trump admin hires 2,000 gamers to fill air traffic controller jobs: ‘If they f*** up, people die’
The Trump administration is facing backlash after transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced 2,000 video gamers have been hired to serve as air traffic controllers.
Duffy first unveiled the plan to meet the national shortfall this spring and recently took to social media with an update revealing the recruitment drive had been a success.
"In April, we launched a NEW CAMPAIGN to recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers – and supercharged the entire hiring process to get the BEST & BRIGHTEST in faster. The results are HISTORIC."
Duffy said the 2,000 appointments so far was the most in a single year, adding that a further 2,000 were "in the pipeline". His post was accompanied by a video compilation of testimonials from some of the new hires expressing their excitement about passing their interviews and getting down to work.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has announced that 2,000 new air traffic controllers have been hired this year after reaching out to gamers with transferable skills (Getty)
In announcing the policy, the Federal Aviation Administration explained its reasoning behind the new approach by saying: "With only about 25 percent of controllers holding a traditional college degree, this effort is focused on reaching talented young people pursuing alternative career paths, many of whom are active in gaming.
"Feedback from controller exit interviews reinforces this, with several controllers pointing to gaming as an influence on their ability to think quickly, stay focused, and manage complexity."
Michael O'Donnell, an aerospace consultant and former FAA official, sounded a note of caution at the time, commenting: "When you bring on someone who has gaming experience, particularly with air traffic control, they have an edge up.
"They're coming in with a skill set. But it doesn't replace aptitude, or discipline, or decision making under pressure."
His concern is now being widely shared in response to Duffy's announcement about the hiring spree.
"Just one problem…. If they f*** up people die," one person responded to the secretary's video. "They can't just restart a new game."
"Great thinking," another said. "One failure mode: Be sure a culture of responsible sleep is created. Don't want planes falling out of the sky when GTA 6 releases or a new WoW [World of Warcraft] expansion comes out."
Duffy's plan to address the national shortfall has been met with public skepticism (Getty)
Another claiming to have prior experience of working in air traffic control wrote: "As someone with experience in the job, I can tell you that how many you hire doesn't mean a damn thing.
"It's how many actually make it through and get certified at their facilities. It's a very difficult job."
However, the reaction to Duffy's post was largely positive, with the more critical commentators shouted down as "Debbie Downers" and "Negative Nellys."
Among those expressing support for the policy were the billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and actress Justine Bateman.
"BRILLIANT move to hire YOUNG MEN into stable, well-paying positions," one person wrote. "As any nation should. Note that it took a Gen Xer to launch this program. A boomer would never."
"This is creativity in government hiring, love to see it," applauded another.
Asked about the concerns raised by the naysayers, the FAA told The Independent: "The FAA is continuing its supercharged hiring and is onboarding new controllers at a record pace. The president's supplemental budget request includes additional funding for controller hiring.
"Deploying modern staffing models and scheduling tools will improve controller staffing efficiency and reduce the need for excessive overtime, which can lead to fatigue and burnout."
The Independent also reached out to the Department of Transportation for comment.
Federal Aviation Administration | The Independent
The latest breaking news, comment and features from The Independent.
Training requirements
Entry-level applicants must complete required training courses and spend several months at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City. Applicants are paid while in training. After graduating the academy, individuals are placed in locations across the country and must gain 2-3 years additional training, both classroom and on-the-job experience, before becoming a certified professional controller. This rigorous training includes close supervision and evaluation by senior controllers that ensures controllers are competent, professional, know their airspace environment and can deal with the pressures and high pace of the job.
Specific training requirements can be found in FAA Order JO 3120.4S.
Training is an ongoing process. Every controller undergoes Proficiency Training to maintain the knowledge and skills necessary to remain a certified air traffic controller.
Last updated: Thursday, February 27, 2025
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