3/23/16 ~ Today's TILT! (THINGS I LEARNED TODAY)

March is Women's History Month

On May 2 1973, Black Panther activist Assata Olugbala Shakur (fsn) Joanne Deborah Chesimard, was pulled over by the New Jersey State Police, shot twice and then charged with murder of a police officer. Assata spent six and a half years in prison under brutal circumstances before escaping out of the maximum security wing of the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey in 1979 and fleeing to Cuba where she was given asylum.

[See #12 for more info about Assata Shakur]

1) Only female mosquitoes will bite you.

“We need you to shut down his websites, research and expose what he doesn’t want the public to know,” a person wearing the group’s trademark Guy Fawkes mask says in a video posted to an Anonymous YouTube channel. “We need you to dismantle his campaign and sabotage his brand.”

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8) On this day in 1839, the initials“O.K.” were first published in The Boston Morning Post.

via history

Meant as an abbreviation for “oll korrect,” a popular slang misspelling of “all correct” at the time, OK steadily made its way into the everyday speech of Americans.

During the late 1830s, it was a favorite practice among younger, educated circles to misspell words intentionally, then abbreviate them and use them as slang when talking to one another. Just as teenagers today have their own slang based on distortions of common words, such as “kewl”for“cool” or “DZ”for“these,” the “in crowd” of the 1830s had a whole host of slang terms they abbreviated. Popular abbreviations included “KY” for “No use” (“know yuse”), “KG”for“No go” (“Know go”), and “OW”for all right (“oll wright”).

Of all the abbreviations used during that time, OK was propelled into the limelight when it was printed in the Boston Morning Post as part of a joke. Its popularity exploded when it was picked up by contemporary politicians. When the incumbent president Martin Van Buren was up for reelection, his Democratic supporters organized a band of thugs to influence voters.

This group was formally called the “O.K. Club,” which referred both to Van Buren’s nickname “Old Kinderhook” (based on his hometown of Kinderhook, New York), and to the term recently made popular in the papers. At the same time, the opposing Whig Party made use of “OK” to denigrate Van Buren’s political mentor Andrew Jackson. According to the Whigs, Jackson invented the abbreviation “OK” to cover up his own misspelling of “all correct.”

The man responsible for unraveling the mystery behind “OK” was an American linguist named Allen Walker Read. An English professor at Columbia University, Read dispelled a host of erroneous theories on the origins of “OK,” ranging from the name of a popular Army biscuit (Orrin Kendall) to the name of a Haitian port famed for its rum (Aux Cayes) to the signature of a Choctaw chief named Old Keokuk. Whatever its origins, “OK” has become one of the most ubiquitous terms in the world, and certainly one of America’s greatest lingual exports.

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"When Twitter users saw that actor Scott Baio was trending, some thought he had died or that a ‘Joanie Loves Chachi’ remake was in the works.

The former‘Happy Days’and‘Charles in Charge’ star was actually gaining notice for his politics rather than his work.

Baio endorsed Donald Trump for president during an appearance on Fox News'"Justice with Judge Jeanine" show Saturday, and his announcement began picking up steam on social media soon after."

[NOTE* See the ADDENDUM for a long list of Celebrity Endorsements for Bernie Sanders]

Wait, was there an election last night? You'd hardly know it, listening to the pundits talk! Not even Bill Press or Thom Hartmann were WOOTING AND HOLLERING!! And they SHOULD have been!

Here it is in a nutshell. For the first time, Bernie won in EVERY sense of the word yesterday. Not only did he win more states, but for the first time, he also won MORE DELEGATES.

Although the final results have not been announced, it is evident that Bernie took the night.  Arizona had more delegates up for grabs (75), and even though Hillary won there, the fact that Bernie won by bigger margins in Utah and Idaho, gave him a total net gain of more "pledged Delegates" than Hillary received. This SHOULD BE HUGE NEWS! The upstart candidate who started out at 3% approval, has now surpassed his competition!

Nope.

ESTIMATE OF PLEDGE DELEGATES to be AWARDED from 3/22/16

STATE	DELEGATES	CLINTON	SANDERS	TYPE	ELECTION
AZ	75	44	30	Primary	Closed
ID	23	5	17	Caucus	Open
UT	33	6	26	Caucus	Semi-Open

via realclearpolitics

Hillary won one state, Arizona "by a large margin" (57.8%-40%)

The GOP reduced the number of voting precincts, ostensibly to “save money” especially in Maricopa County, which is the largest county in the state, with 30% Latino voters.  Elsewhere in the state, the average was 2500 voters per precinct, however, in Maricopa County, it came out to one polling location for every 21,000 voters, thus causing huge lines.

Many elderly people couldn't take it, and went home. In many precincts they ran out of ballots, or had to provide "Provisional Ballots", in some places, there are reports that the precinct leaders did not have a clue about how to operate the machines. This is the one state that Hillary won.

This is a big deal.  Senator Sanders commented about it today, and how undemocratic the voting process was.  There is already an online petition going around demanding an investigation into the possible incidences of Voter Fraud, Suppression and Disenfranchisement.

On Monday, Cenk Uygur, of the member-supported online news network, TYTNetwork(dot)com, mentioned on his weekday online news show that he was sad that Bernie Sanders had never chosen to give Cenk an interview. An online petition was created. 17,000 people signed it. Two days later, Bernie Sanders was interviewed by Cenk on TYT today! That's why they call their following "The TYT Army". You can catch their show every weekday at 6 pm EST.

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[I received this email from the Tim Canova campaign. He is a Progressive Democrat, giving Debbie Wasserman Schultz a strong Primary Challenge in her Florida District. Schultz is openly anti-Medical Marijuana, and stands a good change of landing a position in the Cabinet of a Clinton Presidency. It would be electoral justice if she lost her seat. A vote for Canova is a vote against Schultz. That's reason enough to take notice and try to help him out.]

“Tara - 

‘A committee spokesperson… confirmed to New Times that the Florida Democratic Party does not offer data access ‘to candidates challenging incumbent members of Florida’s Democratic congressional delegation… We stand with our incumbent members of Congress and we’re proud of the job they do representing the people.’’

Proud?  That’s not the word we would have gone with.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz has a record of accomplishments, but it isn’t for the people — it is for her wealthy campaign donors. In Congress, few representatives have done more to help Wall Street banksters and payday loansharks than our opponent. Her record is not something for Democrats to be proud of — period. 

The establishment is simply throwing up another obstacle for our campaign to overcome...Our volunteers on the ground are ready to make calls and knock on doors. All we need to do now is give them the tools to even the playing field. 

If Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the Democratic establishment in Florida (or in Washington for that matter) think we are going to let them disrupt us, then they have another thing coming. 

Together, we can finally give the voters a real reason to be proud again. 

"My name is Assata ("she who struggles") Olugbala ( "for the people" ) Shakur ("the thankful one"), and I am a 20th century escaped slave.

I am an ex political prisoner, and I have been living in exile in Cuba since 1984. I have been a political activist most of my life, and although the U.S. government has done everything in its power to criminalize me, I am not a criminal, nor have I ever been one.

Because we were black, and riding in a car with Vermont license plates, he claimed he became "suspicious." He then drew his gun, pointed it at us, and told us to put our hands up in the air, in front of us, where he could see them. I complied and in a split second, there was a sound that came from outside the car, there was a sudden movement, and I was shot once with my arms held up in the air, and then once again from the back.

Never in my life have I felt such grief. Zayd had vowed to protect me, and to help me to get to a safe place, and it was clear that he had lost his life, trying to protect both me and Sundiata. Although he was also unarmed, and the gun that killed trooper Forester was found under Zayd’s leg, Sundiata Acoli, who was captured later, was also charged with both deaths.

In 1977, I was convicted by an all- white jury and sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison. In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in prison, and knowing that I would never receive any justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who understood the depths of the injustices in my case, and who were also extremely fearful for my life.

…Like most poor and oppressed people in the United States, I do not have a voice. Black people, poor people in the U.S. have no real freedom of speech, no real freedom of expression and very little freedom of the press. The black press and the progressive media has historically played an essential role in the struggle for social justice.

We need to continue and to expand that tradition. We need to create media outlets that help to educate our people and our children, and not annihilate their minds. I am only one woman. I own no TV stations, or Radio Stations or Newspapers. But I feel that people need to be educated as to what is going on, and to understand the connection between the news media and the instruments of repression in Amerika.

All I have is my voice, my spirit and the will to tell the truth. But I sincerely ask, those of you in the Black media, those of you in the progressive media, those of you who believe in truth freedom, To publish this statement and to let people know what is happening. We have no voice, so you must be the voice of the voiceless.

Free all Political Prisoners, I send you Love and Revolutionary Greetings From Cuba, One of the Largest, Most Resistant and Most Courageous Palenques (Maroon Camps) That has ever existed on the Face of this Planet."

Bess is driven to a restaurant so she "could try to convince the Shakur character (Afeni Rahim) to come back to America willingly. Bess tells Rahim that she would be treated fairly if she came back and that it’s not like how it was when she was convicted. Rahim tells her that she was not the one that shot the cop that night and it wouldn’t be different, citing Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner.

As it turns out, the FBI did in fact suppress evidence and wiretap Rahim's defense team, so the attorney general offers Rahim a new trial. Bess promises to release the old files, which state that Rahim didn’t shoot anyone. Rahim could come home, stand trial, and have everyone see that she’s innocent of the crime." ~ via ew

In real life, however, it's a different story. With the new relationship between the United States and Cuba, there is speculation that Cuba may be pressured to extradite Shakur back to the United States.]

To read Shakur's whole statement (it's 5 pages, or I'd print it all here!), go to Shakur's web site assatashakur(dot)org, or get her new book, "In Her Own Words".

ADDENDUM*: Actors and Comedians who have endorsed Bernie Sanders: