The 2012 election was a masterpiece in the role of money versus real issues in the future of the United States.
According to some accounts, over 6 billion dollars in ad buys flushed through the media system. And while it was like Christmas in newsrooms, in radio stations and TV accounting rooms, the glut of advertising was mind-numbing.
In truth, this campaign wasn’t run on big ideas, but on personality, on aura, or on likability. On this score, Barack Hussein Obama had more of this stuff than his challenger, Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney. This election was inspired, in part, by the unpopular Citizens United opinion by the U.S. Supreme Court which decided that corporations were people, and that limits on campaign spending were unconstitutional.
It wasn’t a blowout, but it was a solid win, one that was done by hard-core organizing, and by the votes of a large majority of Jews, 71% of Latinos, the majority of women, the LGBT folks, and working class people in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
In 2008, Obama won by some 9 million votes. This year, he won by roughly 21/2 million votes. But a win is a win is a win.
Obama, once a community organizer (and derided for it), organized the hell out of the electorate – and won big in the Electoral College. With 270 votes the winning margin, Obama scored over that number with the Ohio win, even with Florida undecided for hours.
It should be noted that the majority of whites did not vote for him.
But that wasn’t necessary to score.
Barack Hussein Obama made history in 2008; he made it again on election night.
It means something that a Black man won the U.S. presidency back to back.
It means that the U.S. electorate is changing, and in some ways, the president reflects that change.
But it is also true that Republicans shot themselves in the foot by nominating a man who was so open to so many attacks. The crazy comments about rape by 2 GOP senatorial candidates and Mitt Romney’s refusal to disavow their remarks, certainly didn’t help them among the largest constituency of all – women.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
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