(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Black Kos: Kudos to a trio of kick-ass Black sisters - Fani, Tish, & Tanya [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-24 Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez They get death threats. They get disrespected daily by MAGA Trumpsters and RepubliKlan elected officials. Pundits (who I think of as pun-idjits) question their competency daily on a loop on cable news shows and political blogs. The misogynoir is so thick you need a machete to cut through it. I just want to take a little time today, to once again thank these three Black women, (and a whole lot more of us) who stand up for democracy, justice and the rule of law in this nation which ain’t given them or the rest of us any of those things over the centuries we’ve been here. They persist, and we persist and are not gonna be scared off, shut up or take this shit laying down. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan I often see stories posted about them, that have a top photo not of these women, but of the lying rapist Donald Dump, the former POTUS. Frankly I’m tired of seeing his ugly mug plastered all over the news. So let’s celebrate the 3 Sisters today. Judge Chutkan, who is 61, born July 5, 1962, is a Jamaican immigrant who also catches hell from our xenophobes who loathe immigrants — especially Black and brown ones. Here’s a quick Chutkan refresher bio: Judge Tanya Chutkan was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in June 2014. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, she received her B.A. in Economics from George Washington University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where she was an Associate Editor of the Law Review and a Legal Writing Fellow. After law school, she worked in private practice for three years, then joined the District of Columbia Public Defender Service (“PDS”), where she worked as a trial attorney and supervisor. During her tenure at PDS, she argued several appellate cases and tried over 30 cases, including numerous serious felony matters. Eleven years later, she left PDS to join Boies, Schiller, & Flexner LLP, where she specialized in litigation and white collar criminal defense. During her 12 years at the firm, her clients included antitrust class action plaintiffs, as well as individual and corporate defendants involved in complex state and federal litigation. From 1996 – 2000 Judge Chutkan was a member of the Steering Committee for the Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section of the District of Columbia Bar. She is a frequent lecturer on trial techniques and she has served as a faculty member at the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop. As a New Yorker, I’m proud to have voted for DA Letitia James. ​​ James just celebrated a birthday — she was born October 18, 1958, and is 65. Letitia “Tish” James is the 67th Attorney General for the state of New York. With decades of experience and a long record of achievements, she is a powerful, effective attorney and lifelong public servant. When she was elected in 2018, she became the first woman of color to hold statewide office in New York and the first woman to be elected Attorney General. Attorney General of New York Letitia Ann James Before serving as Attorney General, Letitia James was the public advocate for the City of New York. When she was elected in 2013, she became the first woman of color to hold citywide office. During her tenure as public advocate, her office passed more legislation than all previous public advocates combined, including a groundbreaking law that banned questions about salary history from the employment process to address the pervasive gender wage gap. Prior to serving as public advocate, Letitia James represented the 35th Council District in Brooklyn in the New York City Council for 10 years. As a council member, she passed the Safe Housing Act, legislation that forced landlords to improve living conditions for tenants in New York City’s worst buildings. Before her election to the City Council, Letitia James was head of the Brooklyn Regional Office of the New York State Attorney General’s Office. Letitia James began her career as a public defender at the Legal Aid Society. A proud Brooklynite, she is a graduate of Lehman College and Howard University School of Law. Atlanta DA Fani Taifa Willis was born October 27, 1971 in Inglewood, California. Happy upcoming birthday! Fulton County DA Fani Ellis Fani has served as a lawyer for 24 years. She studied and graduated from Howard University in Washington D.C. in 1992, and later graduated from Emory University School of Law in 1996. Her studies only encouraged her willingness to serve the people of Georgia. After her educational accomplishments, Fani moved forward to become a lawyer for the private sector, where she dutifully served thousands of members within her community as a representative for criminal justice, juvenile cases, and plenty of various civil matters. Only five short years later, in 2001, Fani accepted the substantial opportunity to serve as an assistant district attorney for Fulton County and has honorably served her community ever since. In 2018, Fani opened a firm, The Offices of Fani T. Willis, LLC., in Atlanta, where she has continued to specialize in Criminal Defense and Family Law—particularly for fathers’ rights, which is a particular realm after her own heart. Fani soon became one of the few African-Americans in Georgia to serve the Judicial Qualification Division, where she prosecuted unethical judiciary actions. Fani has also effectively welcomed other ventures into her life aside from her law career, including her non-profit organization, Love for Carla. The institution was initially founded in 2015 to raise awareness for sickle cell anemia—a red blood cell disease that has afflicted a dear friend of Fani’s. Not only has she accomplished compassionate possibilities, but Fani was also awarded the Most Powerful and Influential Woman of the Year in 2018 due to her career dedication. Fani’s African-American History Fani has a seemingly proud family background as an African-American woman. As what can now be considered a conscious foreshadowing to her future endeavors, she describes her Swahili name’s intended meaning, saying: “My name is actually Fani (fah-nee), Taifa is my middle name, and my last name is Willis. So, my father was a Black Panther, so he was very Afrocentric… my name is Swahili. Fani actually means ‘prosperous,’ and Taifa means ‘people’.” I was delighted to find this Q&A with her: x YouTube Video ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In a world where Black people have the highest death rate for most forms of cancer, the compassionate efforts of The Gathering Place shine bright, ensuring its fighters and survivors can focus less on their appearance and more on finding solace and support. TGP is a nonprofit that offers support services to individuals and families affected by cancer. The organization recently launched a fundraising campaign to purchase a mobile unit, including a wig salon, to assist the inner-city neighborhoods of Cleveland, Ohio’s Ward 5. The mobile unit’s services beyond the wig salon will include emotional, nutrition and physical wellness programs; support for children, teens, families and friends; plus consultations on practical concerns such as medical, legal and job-related issues, financial planning and end-of-life care. So far, the campaign for donations — which has a $497,500 goal — has raised over $91,000. “The Gathering Place’s commitment to individuals and families on the cancer journey began over twenty years ago,” its mission states. “Over that time, the ag ency has continually developed and implemented innovative programs and services that work to break down the isolation and lower the stresses that come with a cancer diagnosis.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Activist organization wipes out $10M in loan debt for former Morehouse students. USA TODAY: These former HBCU students owed their college nearly $10 million. The debt was just erased ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On or around Monday, nearly 3,000 former college students were expected to be getting letters with the kind of news millions of Americans probably wish they could receive right now: that their outstanding debts have been cleared. The 2,777 former students attended Morehouse College, a historically Black liberal arts school for men in Atlanta. And collectively, they owed Morehouse $9,707,827.67 through the fall 2022 term, some of the accounts dating back decades. With the help of the Debt Collective, a union of debtors, and in collaboration with the college, a 501(c)(4) known as the Rolling Jubilee Fund bought that debt out. This is a tiny sliver of the national student debt pie. And the action, notably, did not apply to any federal student loans, which nationwide now amount to more than $1.6 trillion and for which payments resumed a few weeks ago after a yearslong, pandemic-era hiatus. This was a debt owed directly to the college – whether loans to attend, unpaid tuition, or even parking fees. Across the country, many former students are held hostage by these kinds of institutional debts. Some colleges refuse to release records for students who owe them money, for example: A 2021 Hechinger Report found that 6.6 million students were blocked from accessing their transcripts. It's debt that, like federal student loans, disproportionately hampers families of color. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Nigerian action thriller that tells a gripping story of corruption and police brutality in Africa’s most populous country has reached record viewership numbers on Netflix charts globally. It’s a reminder of the power and potential of Nigeria’s rapidly growing film industry. “The Black Book” has taken the streaming world by storm, spending three weeks among the platform’s top 10 English-language titles globally, peaking at No. 3 in the second week. It garnered 5.6 million views just 48 hours after its Sept. 22 release and by its second week was featured among the top 10 titles in 69 countries, according to Netflix. “Films are made for audiences, and the bigger the audience for a film, the better the chances of your message going out,” producer Editi Effiong told The Associated Press. “The reality for us is that we made a film — made by Nigerians, funded by Nigerian money — go global.” Nollywood, Nigeria’s film industry, has been a global phenomenon since the 1990s when it rose to fame with such films as “Living in Bondage,” a thriller with Kunle Afolayan’s Aníkúlápó released in 2022 and peaking at No. 1 on Netflix’s global chart. It is the world’s second-largest film industry after India based on number of productions, with an average of 2,000 movies released annually. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sudan’s capital has become Africa’s Aleppo. The Economist: After six months of civil war, little remains of Khartoum ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mohammed hussain, a merchant, is a refugee in his own city. A few months after civil war broke out in Khartoum’s streets in April, he tried to take his sick father to hospital. But the roads were blocked by soldiers from the Rapid Support Forces (rsf), a rebellious paramilitary group that is trying to seize control of the country. Unable to get medical help, his father died. Last month, fighters from the rsf seized Mr Hussain’s home, robbing him and threatening to kill him. He fled to relatives in another part of the city. Khartoum, he says, echoes to the sound of gunfire and shelling “every day and every night”. The first shots of Sudan’s civil war were fired in Khartoum, where the two rival warlords had their headquarters. On one side is Sudan’s de facto president, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who leads the Sudanese Armed Forces (saf). On the other is the leader of the rsf, Muhammad Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti. Since then the fighting has spread far beyond the capital’s barracks. In West Darfur, the rsf and allied Arab militias are waging a genocidal campaign against the Masalit, a black African ethnic group. Nationwide, some 9,000 civilians have reportedly been killed, though this is probably a massive underestimate. More than 5.6m have been driven from their homes. Though the fighting has spread, Sudan is unusual in the degree to which the centre of its war is the country’s capital. Ever since British imperialists founded the modern city on the banks of the Nile, power and wealth in Sudan have been concentrated in Khartoum. The rsf, whose rank-and-file are mostly drawn from far-flung and downtrodden regions, are now exacting their revenge. “The rsf believe they cannot create a state in their own image unless they violently destroy the old one,” argues Kholood Khair of Confluence Advisory, a Sudanese think-tank. In recent weeks, rsf fighters are alleged to have burnt land-registration records and taken over whole residential neighbourhoods. “Every house is occupied,” says another Sudanese analyst. “The city is theirs.” Though the rsf controls most of downtown Khartoum, including districts that host the presidential palace and other government ministries, the saf remains holed up in several well-fortified bases in the city centre. It also controls the air base at Wadi Saidna, to the north. For months the rsf has been trying to overrun these redoubts of the army. The saf has responded with a combination of air strikes, including by armed drones, and the occasional raid on residential districts and warehouses used by the rsf, says Nathaniel Raymond, a conflict monitor at Yale University. Mr Burhan, who fled from the army headquarters in August, now runs what is becoming a de facto capital in Port Sudan, on the Red Sea. Since the civil war began six months ago, more than half the capital’s population has fled. “Everyone I know has left now,” says Waleed Adam, who escaped in July after rsf troops raided his apartment. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Waste from the Jamaican capital has for years poured into the sea – but now a partnership between Dutch technology and local expertise is offering a solution that could go global. ‘We want to see it back in its glory’: can the Kingston Harbor cleanup be a model for the world? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Kingston, Jamaica, boasts the world’s seventh largest natural harbour, at nearly 10 miles long by two miles wide. Trade has thrived here for hundreds of years. In 1720, this was where British colonialists hung and gibbeted John “Calico Jack” Rackham, often cited as inspiration for Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. In the 20th century, up until the late 1980s, it hosted an annual cross-harbour race. These days, however, swimming here is ill-advised. The city’s waste management systems struggle to cope with the volume of waste Kingston produces, with several gullies from communities around the city’s edge running directly into the harbour. When it rains, waste from communities and businesses as far inland as the foot of the Blue Mountains is pushed out into the harbour. That presents a massive pollution problem – a problem the Kingston Harbour Cleanup Project (KHCP) plans to tackle. Launched in 2021, it has now collected more than 1.3m kg of waste. But the KHCP is not typical of such projects: it is based on sustainable technology and incorporates barrier solutions pioneered in the Netherlands. More than this, it is all being done in close collaboration with the local community, private companies and nonprofit foundations. Clean Harbours Jamaica’s managing director, Michael McCarthy, describes the project as a shared vision. “We got in touch with the GraceKennedy Foundation [a Jamaican corporate body that gives grants for projects] two years before launch, and it was a no-brainer because our visions align. We both want a sustainable environment model for the harbour. We both want to see it back in its glory,” McCarthy says. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Voices & Soul “… But it’s alright, in my country, everyone is asleep: at the wheel, on the job, even with their fingers on the trigger, asleep with their distant continents, the glittering silence of their shattered histories… “ - Tim Siebles ”The Debt” by Justice Putnam, Black Kos Poetry Editor I was involved in a rather spirited discussion recently, with some former classmates whose brains have been consumed by the ghastly MAGA walking dead, and have become mouth-gnawing-bone-breaking-mindless-shuffling-toward-any-loud-noise-or-smell-of-blood Zombies themselves. It was sad to see once beautiful and sexy women reduced to spittle-flecked, red-eyed rage, and once lithe and athletic men now gray and bloody and mad, frantically tearing at corpses long void of any discernible nourishment. These weren't Zombies from some Caribbean Mythic conjuring though, so I had no choice but to retreat to the high ground to gain some better bearings. One would think, that if these Zombies looked in the mirror, they would know their mortal coil has been conquered, that their Souls have left the vessel, that their broken and flailing limbs, their skulls absent of brain tissue, the ganglia hanging loose and dripping a slimy green liquid, you would think that would give them a clue to their predicament. But they only respond to a bright flash, a jarring thud and the smell of raw meat. So they shuffle and grasp and mouth senseless words that are mere recitations embedded in a lizard-center of a forgotten hormonal gland activated by Right Wing Media wireless electrical shocks. Maybe it's cruel for me to say so, maybe it's inflammatory to call these folks the walking dead and use such a ghastly, grade-b monster movie metaphor. Maybe it's simplifying matters to call these folks mindless Zombies, when they know damn well what they are doing. Just as the Good Germans, they so mightily resemble, did before, during and after the fall of the Third Reich. These MAGA complain of brown people harassing them with cupped hands begging for something not due. These MAGA complain of the jobless as losers who should be left to disappear in some other ether, just don't park on their street or ask for a job at their shop. These MAGA consume the most and give back the least, and cheer when doctors are assassinated while advocating for a woman's right to choose. The MAGA say they harken to the Silent Majority from the time of Nixon and Reagan. Rather than silent, they are a loud, crass and cruel cabal, a loud, crass and cruel cabal that would rather see a child die of sickness than extend healthcare. A cruel cabal that will kick a man or woman when they are down and then penalize them for complaining about it. A cruel cabal that expects the unflinching fealty any bully demands, from any who comes between them and what they wish to possess. I have the blood of the conquerors in my veins and the blood of the enslaved and the slaughtered, so where shall I rest with this mixed river of blood painting my heart—what city wants me, which woman will touch my neck? Nigeria is sleeping in the angles of my skull and maybe two small French towns— one in each leg—are also sleeping, and of course, the first people in this land, with their long black, black hair, seven of them are napping along my ribs And with all these people adrift my body, I am asleep as well— dreaming their good wishes, their strained whispers, sleepwalking all over America. But it’s alright, in my country, everyone is asleep: at the wheel, on the job, even with their fingers on the trigger, asleep with their distant continents, the glittering silence of their shattered histories and the long pull of a thousand thousand moons inside them. They don’t remember how once we swam inside our mothers, that once our mothers floated inside their mothers, just as their mothers once waited inside those before them and before that it was the same— all the way back to the first mother in Africa, that slim, short, quick-tempered woman whose children crawled all over the planet, then got big and started hurting each other—with the conquerors in their bright armor, trying to finish everything. I know where the blame falls. I know I could twist my brown skin, my mixed nations, my kinky hair into a fist. I know. I know. But I hear a stranger music in my bones— the windy shimmer of long fields, a quiet of birds stunned by dusk, the singular tree of all blood rising, the future awake singing from these wounds and what is the lesson of history, if not that we owe each other more bread, more friendship, fewer lies, less cruelty. - Tim Seibles “The Debt” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WELCOME TO THE TUESDAY PORCH [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/10/24/2200994/-Black-Kos-Kudos-to-a-trio-of-kick-ass-Black-sisters-Fani-Tish-amp-Tanya Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/