Race in America - Riots Explode in Chicago

[Farfromgeneva]

Just to be clear, the thread is Race in America -Riots Explode in Minneapolis.

Is posting in this thread about gun violence, tragic deaths, whether in a small town like Annapolis, mid-tier like Rochester, or a big city, supposed to be suggesting something about race?

My bad, because nobody that posts on this forum ever deviates one iota from the thread topic. Who do you think most of the victims of this gun violence are? They are primarily young African Americans. You really have to make such a nonsensical observation? Sorry to inform you in my little mid level city of Rochester NY there is a mini holocaust occuring on our streets. Since January 1st there have been 120 shootings. The last shooting was 5 minutes from my house. Let me guess, your rolling your eyes and getting ready to gripe at me about another rant. MD when was the last wild west shootout that happened within a 2 mile radius of your humble abode?

Personal responsibility 101 here. Real manly. Fear and victim hood.

[Farfromgeneva]

Yet another innocent victim, caught in a crossfire.
This one hits close to home.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan adds an additional $10,000 to reward for information in shooting of Naval Academy mom
The reward for information regarding the shooting of a Naval Academy mother is now $32,000 after Gov. Larry Hogan authorized an additional $10,000.

Michelle Cummings, 57, of Houston, was relaxing early Tuesday morning with friends on the elevated patio outside of the Graduate Hotel on West Street when she was fatally shot. She was in Annapolis to bring her son to the Naval Academy for Induction Day. Police say she was not the intended target.

Yesterday, during a news conference on Pleasant Street, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives offered $20,000 for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for Cummings’ death. The Metro Crimestoppers are also offering $2,000.

Hogan said in a statement he spoke with the Cummings family and expressed condolences. The Maryland State Police have offered full resources and are able to support the FBI, ATF and other involved law enforcement agencies.

The investigation into Cummings’s death is still active. Police interviewed two people who were sitting in a parked car on Pleasant Street when Cummings was killed. The two, who were unharmed, are believed to be the intended targets. Police have recovered video footage and begun to interview witnesses, Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson said at the Wednesday news conference.

Cummings’ son, Leonard Cummings III, is a plebe at the Naval Academy and a football prospect. He went through Induction Day on Wednesday.
Cummings was described as a mother who was “all in” when it came to her son’s education at the academy. Before I-Day, she traveled to meet with another Naval Academy mother who gave her a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood,” a reference to the football team.

Leonard “Trey” Cummings attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School before coming to the academy, and the Cummings met other families whose children attended with the midshipman. That included Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, who set up a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral costs. Cummings will be buried in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In two days, the GoFundMe raised nearly $120,000, exceeding its goal of $100,000.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Naval Academy plebe’s mom was ‘all in,’ looking forward to Navy Football mothers group before she was fatally shot

Just a few weeks before coming to Annapolis for her son’s Naval Academy Induction Day, Michelle Jordan Cummings drove from Houston to Dallas to meet Michelle Pittman.
Pittman gave Cummings a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood” — a tight-knit group of Naval Academy football moms.
“We talked and we welcomed her into our Navy mama family and I gave her a cute little pin for her to wear on her shirt for I-day,” Pittman said. “I told her I will see her when she got to Annapolis.”

But Pittman, who lives in Bowie, didn’t get to see Cummings before she was shot to death early Tuesday morning while sitting at a patio area outside the Graduate Hotel on West Street.
Cummings, 57, was in Annapolis to drop off her son at Induction Day, which he attended Wednesday. Her son, Midshipman Candidate Leonard “Trey” Cummings III, attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island and is a football prospect.

“She was all in,” Pittman said. “She was so excited and ready to join us and support the mission that our sons have signed up for.”
Now Cummings won’t have the opportunity to be a part of the Motherhood of the Brotherhood like she wanted and police and other law enforcement are investigating why.

Police said Tuesday the shots were likely fired on Pleasant Street, and Cummings, who was hit more than once, was not the intended target. The call for the shooting came in around 12:21 a.m., police said.
Multiple shots were fired on Pleasant Street, including at a parked car with two people in it, police said. Annapolis Police Chief Edward Jackson called it almost inexplicable how the bullets traveled from Pleasant Street to the elevated Graduate Hotel patio.

At a news conference Wednesday in Annapolis, leaders from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced they are offering a combined $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the shooting.

Jackson said he spoke to Trey Cummings and encouraged him to move forward with attending the Naval Academy to honor his mother’s memory.
“I said to him, ‘I think the best way to honor your mother’s legacy — because she’s a big part of you being here today; she raised you, she nurtured you, she loved you ... is to go forward with your education at the Naval Academy,’” Jackson said.

After he attended Induction Day, Cummings was granted leave to mourn his mother before returning for his summer training, said Lt. Col. Todd McCarthy, plebe summer officer in charge.
“He’s going to step into the brigade like nothing happened, and we’re going to keep a close eye on it, but I couldn’t be prouder of that young man,” McCarthy said. “And when I say that I speak for all the leadership. We are so proud of him.”
Cummings is showing “incredible tenacity and strength,” said McCarthy, noting that he did not think he could do the same if he were Cummings.
“I mean, I was absolutely blown away by the strength that he’s demonstrated,” McCarthy said.

Michelle Cummings served as the president of the Westfield High School Booster Club during the 2019-2020 school year, according to a statement released by the Spring Independent School District in Texas. The statement described her as a very engaged parent who was always ready to support student-athletes.
She also was an administrator on the Class of 2025 Navy Football Parents Facebook page.

Cummings became friends with Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, a fellow administrator of the Facebook page, because their sons attended the Naval Academy prep school together. Phillips said Cummings always could make her laugh.
When Phillips learned of Cummings’ death, she set up a GoFundMe to raise money for the Cummings family. In a little over a day, more than 1,600 people have donated more than $95,200. The money will be used to help transport Cummings’ body to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she will be buried, and help cover funeral costs, Phillips said.

Chet Gladchuk, the director of athletics at the Naval Academy, gave his sympathies to the Cummings family.
" No family should ever have to go through something like this, a senseless act of violence that took their loved one. The Naval Academy Athletic Association and the Navy Football family will support the Cummings family in every way possible,” Gladchuk said in a statement.
Joe DuPaix, a Navy football assistant coach, said he is looking forward to having Trey Cummings rejoin the team once he takes care of personal things related to the death of his mother.
Dupaix, who recruited Cummings, said he had the opportunity to get to know him and his family well.
“I wasn’t surprised that Trey made the mature decision to come to the Naval Academy because of the way he was raised,” he said. “I knew right off the bat they were high-character people.”
He said that the Navy Football brotherhood will always take care of its members.
“Trey and his family are part of the Navy football family” DuPaix said, “so we are going to do everything we possibly can.”

You know the drill here OS. This caring and loving mom was just collateral damage. As is the new normal the chances of finding and prosecuting whoever murdered this mom is nothing short of a pathetic joke. My "rant" here will tick off more off my fellow posters than the murder of this poor mom ever will.
Maybe a candlelight vigil or a community organized march to end the violence will finally make a difference. Sorry, my bad I am ranting again, shame on me.

No one is mad, just bored by your redundant and pointless anger.

My wife hears my boring and redundant and pointless opinion everyday. Your pointless input is bullchit that I flush down the toilet. How is that cocaine damaged ticker doing? Pathetic such a smart guy chose to snort his future up his nose. You make my defects of character insignificant by comparison. I hope you have made plans for your kids when your ticker finally explodes. You chose to get personal... Judge others lest you be judged yourself. No effing coke head will ever pass judgement on me.

Nice. I just spent $20k and my birthday working on that and you will die a miserable life. Has your nephew tied any nooses lately MR unemployed angry miserable old man? Your character was exposed the minute you went down this org when I was trying to empathize with you privately. Your character has been exposed to all and your deceit in claiming to care about others and everything you’ve written has been proven to be a lie by this post and a former one. Of course I know you’d never dare to say any of this to my face because you know I’d turn you into a scarecrow in my front yard to enhance my children’s safety.

[MDlaxfan76]

Yet another innocent victim, caught in a crossfire.
This one hits close to home.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan adds an additional $10,000 to reward for information in shooting of Naval Academy mom
The reward for information regarding the shooting of a Naval Academy mother is now $32,000 after Gov. Larry Hogan authorized an additional $10,000.

Michelle Cummings, 57, of Houston, was relaxing early Tuesday morning with friends on the elevated patio outside of the Graduate Hotel on West Street when she was fatally shot. She was in Annapolis to bring her son to the Naval Academy for Induction Day. Police say she was not the intended target.

Yesterday, during a news conference on Pleasant Street, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives offered $20,000 for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for Cummings’ death. The Metro Crimestoppers are also offering $2,000.

Hogan said in a statement he spoke with the Cummings family and expressed condolences. The Maryland State Police have offered full resources and are able to support the FBI, ATF and other involved law enforcement agencies.

The investigation into Cummings’s death is still active. Police interviewed two people who were sitting in a parked car on Pleasant Street when Cummings was killed. The two, who were unharmed, are believed to be the intended targets. Police have recovered video footage and begun to interview witnesses, Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson said at the Wednesday news conference.

Cummings’ son, Leonard Cummings III, is a plebe at the Naval Academy and a football prospect. He went through Induction Day on Wednesday.
Cummings was described as a mother who was “all in” when it came to her son’s education at the academy. Before I-Day, she traveled to meet with another Naval Academy mother who gave her a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood,” a reference to the football team.

Leonard “Trey” Cummings attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School before coming to the academy, and the Cummings met other families whose children attended with the midshipman. That included Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, who set up a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral costs. Cummings will be buried in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In two days, the GoFundMe raised nearly $120,000, exceeding its goal of $100,000.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Naval Academy plebe’s mom was ‘all in,’ looking forward to Navy Football mothers group before she was fatally shot

Just a few weeks before coming to Annapolis for her son’s Naval Academy Induction Day, Michelle Jordan Cummings drove from Houston to Dallas to meet Michelle Pittman.
Pittman gave Cummings a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood” — a tight-knit group of Naval Academy football moms.
“We talked and we welcomed her into our Navy mama family and I gave her a cute little pin for her to wear on her shirt for I-day,” Pittman said. “I told her I will see her when she got to Annapolis.”

But Pittman, who lives in Bowie, didn’t get to see Cummings before she was shot to death early Tuesday morning while sitting at a patio area outside the Graduate Hotel on West Street.
Cummings, 57, was in Annapolis to drop off her son at Induction Day, which he attended Wednesday. Her son, Midshipman Candidate Leonard “Trey” Cummings III, attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island and is a football prospect.

“She was all in,” Pittman said. “She was so excited and ready to join us and support the mission that our sons have signed up for.”
Now Cummings won’t have the opportunity to be a part of the Motherhood of the Brotherhood like she wanted and police and other law enforcement are investigating why.

Police said Tuesday the shots were likely fired on Pleasant Street, and Cummings, who was hit more than once, was not the intended target. The call for the shooting came in around 12:21 a.m., police said.
Multiple shots were fired on Pleasant Street, including at a parked car with two people in it, police said. Annapolis Police Chief Edward Jackson called it almost inexplicable how the bullets traveled from Pleasant Street to the elevated Graduate Hotel patio.

At a news conference Wednesday in Annapolis, leaders from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced they are offering a combined $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the shooting.

Jackson said he spoke to Trey Cummings and encouraged him to move forward with attending the Naval Academy to honor his mother’s memory.
“I said to him, ‘I think the best way to honor your mother’s legacy — because she’s a big part of you being here today; she raised you, she nurtured you, she loved you ... is to go forward with your education at the Naval Academy,’” Jackson said.

After he attended Induction Day, Cummings was granted leave to mourn his mother before returning for his summer training, said Lt. Col. Todd McCarthy, plebe summer officer in charge.
“He’s going to step into the brigade like nothing happened, and we’re going to keep a close eye on it, but I couldn’t be prouder of that young man,” McCarthy said. “And when I say that I speak for all the leadership. We are so proud of him.”
Cummings is showing “incredible tenacity and strength,” said McCarthy, noting that he did not think he could do the same if he were Cummings.
“I mean, I was absolutely blown away by the strength that he’s demonstrated,” McCarthy said.

Michelle Cummings served as the president of the Westfield High School Booster Club during the 2019-2020 school year, according to a statement released by the Spring Independent School District in Texas. The statement described her as a very engaged parent who was always ready to support student-athletes.
She also was an administrator on the Class of 2025 Navy Football Parents Facebook page.

Cummings became friends with Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, a fellow administrator of the Facebook page, because their sons attended the Naval Academy prep school together. Phillips said Cummings always could make her laugh.
When Phillips learned of Cummings’ death, she set up a GoFundMe to raise money for the Cummings family. In a little over a day, more than 1,600 people have donated more than $95,200. The money will be used to help transport Cummings’ body to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she will be buried, and help cover funeral costs, Phillips said.

Chet Gladchuk, the director of athletics at the Naval Academy, gave his sympathies to the Cummings family.
" No family should ever have to go through something like this, a senseless act of violence that took their loved one. The Naval Academy Athletic Association and the Navy Football family will support the Cummings family in every way possible,” Gladchuk said in a statement.
Joe DuPaix, a Navy football assistant coach, said he is looking forward to having Trey Cummings rejoin the team once he takes care of personal things related to the death of his mother.
Dupaix, who recruited Cummings, said he had the opportunity to get to know him and his family well.
“I wasn’t surprised that Trey made the mature decision to come to the Naval Academy because of the way he was raised,” he said. “I knew right off the bat they were high-character people.”
He said that the Navy Football brotherhood will always take care of its members.
“Trey and his family are part of the Navy football family” DuPaix said, “so we are going to do everything we possibly can.”

You know the drill here OS. This caring and loving mom was just collateral damage. As is the new normal the chances of finding and prosecuting whoever murdered this mom is nothing short of a pathetic joke. My "rant" here will tick off more off my fellow posters than the murder of this poor mom ever will.
Maybe a candlelight vigil or a community organized march to end the violence will finally make a difference. Sorry, my bad I am ranting again, shame on me.

No one is mad, just bored by your redundant and pointless anger.

My wife hears my boring and redundant and pointless opinion everyday. Your pointless input is bullchit that I flush down the toilet. How is that cocaine damaged ticker doing? Pathetic such a smart guy chose to snort his future up his nose. You make my defects of character insignificant by comparison. I hope you have made plans for your kids when your ticker finally explodes. You chose to get personal... Judge others lest you be judged yourself. No effing coke head will ever pass judgement on me.

Seriously cradle?
You're tripling down on using information about youthful bad choices, confidentially disclosed to you in a PM, to insult another poster? Come on, not ok.

[cradleandshoot]

Yet another innocent victim, caught in a crossfire.
This one hits close to home.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan adds an additional $10,000 to reward for information in shooting of Naval Academy mom
The reward for information regarding the shooting of a Naval Academy mother is now $32,000 after Gov. Larry Hogan authorized an additional $10,000.

Michelle Cummings, 57, of Houston, was relaxing early Tuesday morning with friends on the elevated patio outside of the Graduate Hotel on West Street when she was fatally shot. She was in Annapolis to bring her son to the Naval Academy for Induction Day. Police say she was not the intended target.

Yesterday, during a news conference on Pleasant Street, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives offered $20,000 for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for Cummings’ death. The Metro Crimestoppers are also offering $2,000.

Hogan said in a statement he spoke with the Cummings family and expressed condolences. The Maryland State Police have offered full resources and are able to support the FBI, ATF and other involved law enforcement agencies.

The investigation into Cummings’s death is still active. Police interviewed two people who were sitting in a parked car on Pleasant Street when Cummings was killed. The two, who were unharmed, are believed to be the intended targets. Police have recovered video footage and begun to interview witnesses, Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson said at the Wednesday news conference.

Cummings’ son, Leonard Cummings III, is a plebe at the Naval Academy and a football prospect. He went through Induction Day on Wednesday.
Cummings was described as a mother who was “all in” when it came to her son’s education at the academy. Before I-Day, she traveled to meet with another Naval Academy mother who gave her a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood,” a reference to the football team.

Leonard “Trey” Cummings attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School before coming to the academy, and the Cummings met other families whose children attended with the midshipman. That included Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, who set up a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral costs. Cummings will be buried in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In two days, the GoFundMe raised nearly $120,000, exceeding its goal of $100,000.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Naval Academy plebe’s mom was ‘all in,’ looking forward to Navy Football mothers group before she was fatally shot

Just a few weeks before coming to Annapolis for her son’s Naval Academy Induction Day, Michelle Jordan Cummings drove from Houston to Dallas to meet Michelle Pittman.
Pittman gave Cummings a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood” — a tight-knit group of Naval Academy football moms.
“We talked and we welcomed her into our Navy mama family and I gave her a cute little pin for her to wear on her shirt for I-day,” Pittman said. “I told her I will see her when she got to Annapolis.”

But Pittman, who lives in Bowie, didn’t get to see Cummings before she was shot to death early Tuesday morning while sitting at a patio area outside the Graduate Hotel on West Street.
Cummings, 57, was in Annapolis to drop off her son at Induction Day, which he attended Wednesday. Her son, Midshipman Candidate Leonard “Trey” Cummings III, attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island and is a football prospect.

“She was all in,” Pittman said. “She was so excited and ready to join us and support the mission that our sons have signed up for.”
Now Cummings won’t have the opportunity to be a part of the Motherhood of the Brotherhood like she wanted and police and other law enforcement are investigating why.

Police said Tuesday the shots were likely fired on Pleasant Street, and Cummings, who was hit more than once, was not the intended target. The call for the shooting came in around 12:21 a.m., police said.
Multiple shots were fired on Pleasant Street, including at a parked car with two people in it, police said. Annapolis Police Chief Edward Jackson called it almost inexplicable how the bullets traveled from Pleasant Street to the elevated Graduate Hotel patio.

At a news conference Wednesday in Annapolis, leaders from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced they are offering a combined $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the shooting.

Jackson said he spoke to Trey Cummings and encouraged him to move forward with attending the Naval Academy to honor his mother’s memory.
“I said to him, ‘I think the best way to honor your mother’s legacy — because she’s a big part of you being here today; she raised you, she nurtured you, she loved you ... is to go forward with your education at the Naval Academy,’” Jackson said.

After he attended Induction Day, Cummings was granted leave to mourn his mother before returning for his summer training, said Lt. Col. Todd McCarthy, plebe summer officer in charge.
“He’s going to step into the brigade like nothing happened, and we’re going to keep a close eye on it, but I couldn’t be prouder of that young man,” McCarthy said. “And when I say that I speak for all the leadership. We are so proud of him.”
Cummings is showing “incredible tenacity and strength,” said McCarthy, noting that he did not think he could do the same if he were Cummings.
“I mean, I was absolutely blown away by the strength that he’s demonstrated,” McCarthy said.

Michelle Cummings served as the president of the Westfield High School Booster Club during the 2019-2020 school year, according to a statement released by the Spring Independent School District in Texas. The statement described her as a very engaged parent who was always ready to support student-athletes.
She also was an administrator on the Class of 2025 Navy Football Parents Facebook page.

Cummings became friends with Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, a fellow administrator of the Facebook page, because their sons attended the Naval Academy prep school together. Phillips said Cummings always could make her laugh.
When Phillips learned of Cummings’ death, she set up a GoFundMe to raise money for the Cummings family. In a little over a day, more than 1,600 people have donated more than $95,200. The money will be used to help transport Cummings’ body to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she will be buried, and help cover funeral costs, Phillips said.

Chet Gladchuk, the director of athletics at the Naval Academy, gave his sympathies to the Cummings family.
" No family should ever have to go through something like this, a senseless act of violence that took their loved one. The Naval Academy Athletic Association and the Navy Football family will support the Cummings family in every way possible,” Gladchuk said in a statement.
Joe DuPaix, a Navy football assistant coach, said he is looking forward to having Trey Cummings rejoin the team once he takes care of personal things related to the death of his mother.
Dupaix, who recruited Cummings, said he had the opportunity to get to know him and his family well.
“I wasn’t surprised that Trey made the mature decision to come to the Naval Academy because of the way he was raised,” he said. “I knew right off the bat they were high-character people.”
He said that the Navy Football brotherhood will always take care of its members.
“Trey and his family are part of the Navy football family” DuPaix said, “so we are going to do everything we possibly can.”

You know the drill here OS. This caring and loving mom was just collateral damage. As is the new normal the chances of finding and prosecuting whoever murdered this mom is nothing short of a pathetic joke. My "rant" here will tick off more off my fellow posters than the murder of this poor mom ever will.
Maybe a candlelight vigil or a community organized march to end the violence will finally make a difference. Sorry, my bad I am ranting again, shame on me.

No one is mad, just bored by your redundant and pointless anger.

My wife hears my boring and redundant and pointless opinion everyday. Your pointless input is bullchit that I flush down the toilet. How is that cocaine damaged ticker doing? Pathetic such a smart guy chose to snort his future up his nose. You make my defects of character insignificant by comparison. I hope you have made plans for your kids when your ticker finally explodes. You chose to get personal... Judge others lest you be judged yourself. No effing coke head will ever pass judgement on me.

Seriously cradle?
You're tripling down on using information about youthful bad choices, confidentially disclosed to you in a PM, to insult another poster? Come on, not ok.

The irony of getting this lecture about violating the sanctity of violating PM protocol from the poster who wrote the book on it.

The poster in question may not remember but he has shared some of his issues openly on this forum. Since he CHOSE to make a personal attack on me I chose to throw some of his defects of character in his face. When you live in a glass house don't throw stones at other people. You of all people should understand that. I feel bad for this guy. He reminds me of my best friend who died because of his poor choices. It ticks me off how smart and talented people destroy their lives. I don't get it and I never will.

[Farfromgeneva]

Yet another innocent victim, caught in a crossfire.
This one hits close to home.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan adds an additional $10,000 to reward for information in shooting of Naval Academy mom
The reward for information regarding the shooting of a Naval Academy mother is now $32,000 after Gov. Larry Hogan authorized an additional $10,000.

Michelle Cummings, 57, of Houston, was relaxing early Tuesday morning with friends on the elevated patio outside of the Graduate Hotel on West Street when she was fatally shot. She was in Annapolis to bring her son to the Naval Academy for Induction Day. Police say she was not the intended target.

Yesterday, during a news conference on Pleasant Street, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives offered $20,000 for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for Cummings’ death. The Metro Crimestoppers are also offering $2,000.

Hogan said in a statement he spoke with the Cummings family and expressed condolences. The Maryland State Police have offered full resources and are able to support the FBI, ATF and other involved law enforcement agencies.

The investigation into Cummings’s death is still active. Police interviewed two people who were sitting in a parked car on Pleasant Street when Cummings was killed. The two, who were unharmed, are believed to be the intended targets. Police have recovered video footage and begun to interview witnesses, Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson said at the Wednesday news conference.

Cummings’ son, Leonard Cummings III, is a plebe at the Naval Academy and a football prospect. He went through Induction Day on Wednesday.
Cummings was described as a mother who was “all in” when it came to her son’s education at the academy. Before I-Day, she traveled to meet with another Naval Academy mother who gave her a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood,” a reference to the football team.

Leonard “Trey” Cummings attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School before coming to the academy, and the Cummings met other families whose children attended with the midshipman. That included Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, who set up a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral costs. Cummings will be buried in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In two days, the GoFundMe raised nearly $120,000, exceeding its goal of $100,000.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Naval Academy plebe’s mom was ‘all in,’ looking forward to Navy Football mothers group before she was fatally shot

Just a few weeks before coming to Annapolis for her son’s Naval Academy Induction Day, Michelle Jordan Cummings drove from Houston to Dallas to meet Michelle Pittman.
Pittman gave Cummings a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood” — a tight-knit group of Naval Academy football moms.
“We talked and we welcomed her into our Navy mama family and I gave her a cute little pin for her to wear on her shirt for I-day,” Pittman said. “I told her I will see her when she got to Annapolis.”

But Pittman, who lives in Bowie, didn’t get to see Cummings before she was shot to death early Tuesday morning while sitting at a patio area outside the Graduate Hotel on West Street.
Cummings, 57, was in Annapolis to drop off her son at Induction Day, which he attended Wednesday. Her son, Midshipman Candidate Leonard “Trey” Cummings III, attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island and is a football prospect.

“She was all in,” Pittman said. “She was so excited and ready to join us and support the mission that our sons have signed up for.”
Now Cummings won’t have the opportunity to be a part of the Motherhood of the Brotherhood like she wanted and police and other law enforcement are investigating why.

Police said Tuesday the shots were likely fired on Pleasant Street, and Cummings, who was hit more than once, was not the intended target. The call for the shooting came in around 12:21 a.m., police said.
Multiple shots were fired on Pleasant Street, including at a parked car with two people in it, police said. Annapolis Police Chief Edward Jackson called it almost inexplicable how the bullets traveled from Pleasant Street to the elevated Graduate Hotel patio.

At a news conference Wednesday in Annapolis, leaders from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced they are offering a combined $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the shooting.

Jackson said he spoke to Trey Cummings and encouraged him to move forward with attending the Naval Academy to honor his mother’s memory.
“I said to him, ‘I think the best way to honor your mother’s legacy — because she’s a big part of you being here today; she raised you, she nurtured you, she loved you ... is to go forward with your education at the Naval Academy,’” Jackson said.

After he attended Induction Day, Cummings was granted leave to mourn his mother before returning for his summer training, said Lt. Col. Todd McCarthy, plebe summer officer in charge.
“He’s going to step into the brigade like nothing happened, and we’re going to keep a close eye on it, but I couldn’t be prouder of that young man,” McCarthy said. “And when I say that I speak for all the leadership. We are so proud of him.”
Cummings is showing “incredible tenacity and strength,” said McCarthy, noting that he did not think he could do the same if he were Cummings.
“I mean, I was absolutely blown away by the strength that he’s demonstrated,” McCarthy said.

Michelle Cummings served as the president of the Westfield High School Booster Club during the 2019-2020 school year, according to a statement released by the Spring Independent School District in Texas. The statement described her as a very engaged parent who was always ready to support student-athletes.
She also was an administrator on the Class of 2025 Navy Football Parents Facebook page.

Cummings became friends with Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, a fellow administrator of the Facebook page, because their sons attended the Naval Academy prep school together. Phillips said Cummings always could make her laugh.
When Phillips learned of Cummings’ death, she set up a GoFundMe to raise money for the Cummings family. In a little over a day, more than 1,600 people have donated more than $95,200. The money will be used to help transport Cummings’ body to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she will be buried, and help cover funeral costs, Phillips said.

Chet Gladchuk, the director of athletics at the Naval Academy, gave his sympathies to the Cummings family.
" No family should ever have to go through something like this, a senseless act of violence that took their loved one. The Naval Academy Athletic Association and the Navy Football family will support the Cummings family in every way possible,” Gladchuk said in a statement.
Joe DuPaix, a Navy football assistant coach, said he is looking forward to having Trey Cummings rejoin the team once he takes care of personal things related to the death of his mother.
Dupaix, who recruited Cummings, said he had the opportunity to get to know him and his family well.
“I wasn’t surprised that Trey made the mature decision to come to the Naval Academy because of the way he was raised,” he said. “I knew right off the bat they were high-character people.”
He said that the Navy Football brotherhood will always take care of its members.
“Trey and his family are part of the Navy football family” DuPaix said, “so we are going to do everything we possibly can.”

You know the drill here OS. This caring and loving mom was just collateral damage. As is the new normal the chances of finding and prosecuting whoever murdered this mom is nothing short of a pathetic joke. My "rant" here will tick off more off my fellow posters than the murder of this poor mom ever will.
Maybe a candlelight vigil or a community organized march to end the violence will finally make a difference. Sorry, my bad I am ranting again, shame on me.

No one is mad, just bored by your redundant and pointless anger.

My wife hears my boring and redundant and pointless opinion everyday. Your pointless input is bullchit that I flush down the toilet. How is that cocaine damaged ticker doing? Pathetic such a smart guy chose to snort his future up his nose. You make my defects of character insignificant by comparison. I hope you have made plans for your kids when your ticker finally explodes. You chose to get personal... Judge others lest you be judged yourself. No effing coke head will ever pass judgement on me.

Seriously cradle?
You're tripling down on using information about youthful bad choices, confidentially disclosed to you in a PM, to insult another poster? Come on, not ok.

It’s actually a problem I had more recently and just spent a month in rehab at a facility to help myself and be “better” (I’ve always been present physically for them but emotionally and mentally not as much) to my children. Missed my birthday, Father’s Day and even my daughters birthday but view it as a long term investment but it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I managed to get out of a lower middle class craphole town to get a front office gig at CS when they mattered overcame parents beating the sh*t out of each other from age 0-11, my mother forcing her codependency into me as a pre teen and handing down all her inter generational baggage onto me, masters degree, inducted into an international economics honor society, played two sports one year and one the rest in college, masters degree, backpacked through 18 countries, had a cousin murdered in a Mass shooting, watched my father die of bs related to cdiff such that a doctor told me he’d be willing to testify on mistreatment if I wanted to pursue but had a child less than 4mo later, the rest of his family was wiped out from cancer and suicide within two years, a miscarriage, a boss whose redirected about $275k over two years of contractual bonus money into his pocket (“underwriting fees” on beat efforts which never existed went to the “house” on originated deals) and then I didn’t get to see my mother last year when she broke her shoulder right when Covid hit and then they discovered cancer which she died from a few months later. And a totally broken marriage where my wife lacks impulse control and is terrifying my kids (hurt both once each accidentally and has hit me a few times). I’ve picked up depression, anxiety (and adhd but what person with an advanced degree doesn’t have that?). But this was ridiculously hard. I shared with him to empathize about his friend like a year or two ago. My life hadn’t gotten easier and I fell into getting away from home and making bad choices. I finally did something to correct myself so his stupid posts only make me want to tear him down piece by piece for the theatre here but it doesn’t hurt me. I lived with a mask for so long I realize I don’t even know whi I am anymore so when they give me a checklist each day there of one to ten on-spirituality I put 1 not because I’m not religious but how can one be spiritual when one doesn’t k is themself. Only now admitting and recognizing a lot of hard truths I managed for my entire life because I accomplished a lot from where I started but it still got me to where I was. All my good friends I was afraid to ask help from who would say “you can’t help others if you don’t take care of yourself” I appreciated the sentiment but acted like it was still a platitude and confined to work hard for everyone else and degrade individually.

I don’t care about this angry old man. He’s a joke and certainly not someone I could become a better person from being around. But my empathy for him is eradicated now and my competitive, analytical side is inclined to tear him down piece by piece now.

[MDlaxfan76]

Yet another innocent victim, caught in a crossfire.
This one hits close to home.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan adds an additional $10,000 to reward for information in shooting of Naval Academy mom
The reward for information regarding the shooting of a Naval Academy mother is now $32,000 after Gov. Larry Hogan authorized an additional $10,000.

Michelle Cummings, 57, of Houston, was relaxing early Tuesday morning with friends on the elevated patio outside of the Graduate Hotel on West Street when she was fatally shot. She was in Annapolis to bring her son to the Naval Academy for Induction Day. Police say she was not the intended target.

Yesterday, during a news conference on Pleasant Street, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives offered $20,000 for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for Cummings’ death. The Metro Crimestoppers are also offering $2,000.

Hogan said in a statement he spoke with the Cummings family and expressed condolences. The Maryland State Police have offered full resources and are able to support the FBI, ATF and other involved law enforcement agencies.

The investigation into Cummings’s death is still active. Police interviewed two people who were sitting in a parked car on Pleasant Street when Cummings was killed. The two, who were unharmed, are believed to be the intended targets. Police have recovered video footage and begun to interview witnesses, Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson said at the Wednesday news conference.

Cummings’ son, Leonard Cummings III, is a plebe at the Naval Academy and a football prospect. He went through Induction Day on Wednesday.
Cummings was described as a mother who was “all in” when it came to her son’s education at the academy. Before I-Day, she traveled to meet with another Naval Academy mother who gave her a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood,” a reference to the football team.

Leonard “Trey” Cummings attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School before coming to the academy, and the Cummings met other families whose children attended with the midshipman. That included Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, who set up a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral costs. Cummings will be buried in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In two days, the GoFundMe raised nearly $120,000, exceeding its goal of $100,000.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Naval Academy plebe’s mom was ‘all in,’ looking forward to Navy Football mothers group before she was fatally shot

Just a few weeks before coming to Annapolis for her son’s Naval Academy Induction Day, Michelle Jordan Cummings drove from Houston to Dallas to meet Michelle Pittman.
Pittman gave Cummings a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood” — a tight-knit group of Naval Academy football moms.
“We talked and we welcomed her into our Navy mama family and I gave her a cute little pin for her to wear on her shirt for I-day,” Pittman said. “I told her I will see her when she got to Annapolis.”

But Pittman, who lives in Bowie, didn’t get to see Cummings before she was shot to death early Tuesday morning while sitting at a patio area outside the Graduate Hotel on West Street.
Cummings, 57, was in Annapolis to drop off her son at Induction Day, which he attended Wednesday. Her son, Midshipman Candidate Leonard “Trey” Cummings III, attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island and is a football prospect.

“She was all in,” Pittman said. “She was so excited and ready to join us and support the mission that our sons have signed up for.”
Now Cummings won’t have the opportunity to be a part of the Motherhood of the Brotherhood like she wanted and police and other law enforcement are investigating why.

Police said Tuesday the shots were likely fired on Pleasant Street, and Cummings, who was hit more than once, was not the intended target. The call for the shooting came in around 12:21 a.m., police said.
Multiple shots were fired on Pleasant Street, including at a parked car with two people in it, police said. Annapolis Police Chief Edward Jackson called it almost inexplicable how the bullets traveled from Pleasant Street to the elevated Graduate Hotel patio.

At a news conference Wednesday in Annapolis, leaders from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced they are offering a combined $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the shooting.

Jackson said he spoke to Trey Cummings and encouraged him to move forward with attending the Naval Academy to honor his mother’s memory.
“I said to him, ‘I think the best way to honor your mother’s legacy — because she’s a big part of you being here today; she raised you, she nurtured you, she loved you ... is to go forward with your education at the Naval Academy,’” Jackson said.

After he attended Induction Day, Cummings was granted leave to mourn his mother before returning for his summer training, said Lt. Col. Todd McCarthy, plebe summer officer in charge.
“He’s going to step into the brigade like nothing happened, and we’re going to keep a close eye on it, but I couldn’t be prouder of that young man,” McCarthy said. “And when I say that I speak for all the leadership. We are so proud of him.”
Cummings is showing “incredible tenacity and strength,” said McCarthy, noting that he did not think he could do the same if he were Cummings.
“I mean, I was absolutely blown away by the strength that he’s demonstrated,” McCarthy said.

Michelle Cummings served as the president of the Westfield High School Booster Club during the 2019-2020 school year, according to a statement released by the Spring Independent School District in Texas. The statement described her as a very engaged parent who was always ready to support student-athletes.
She also was an administrator on the Class of 2025 Navy Football Parents Facebook page.

Cummings became friends with Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, a fellow administrator of the Facebook page, because their sons attended the Naval Academy prep school together. Phillips said Cummings always could make her laugh.
When Phillips learned of Cummings’ death, she set up a GoFundMe to raise money for the Cummings family. In a little over a day, more than 1,600 people have donated more than $95,200. The money will be used to help transport Cummings’ body to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she will be buried, and help cover funeral costs, Phillips said.

Chet Gladchuk, the director of athletics at the Naval Academy, gave his sympathies to the Cummings family.
" No family should ever have to go through something like this, a senseless act of violence that took their loved one. The Naval Academy Athletic Association and the Navy Football family will support the Cummings family in every way possible,” Gladchuk said in a statement.
Joe DuPaix, a Navy football assistant coach, said he is looking forward to having Trey Cummings rejoin the team once he takes care of personal things related to the death of his mother.
Dupaix, who recruited Cummings, said he had the opportunity to get to know him and his family well.
“I wasn’t surprised that Trey made the mature decision to come to the Naval Academy because of the way he was raised,” he said. “I knew right off the bat they were high-character people.”
He said that the Navy Football brotherhood will always take care of its members.
“Trey and his family are part of the Navy football family” DuPaix said, “so we are going to do everything we possibly can.”

You know the drill here OS. This caring and loving mom was just collateral damage. As is the new normal the chances of finding and prosecuting whoever murdered this mom is nothing short of a pathetic joke. My "rant" here will tick off more off my fellow posters than the murder of this poor mom ever will.
Maybe a candlelight vigil or a community organized march to end the violence will finally make a difference. Sorry, my bad I am ranting again, shame on me.

No one is mad, just bored by your redundant and pointless anger.

My wife hears my boring and redundant and pointless opinion everyday. Your pointless input is bullchit that I flush down the toilet. How is that cocaine damaged ticker doing? Pathetic such a smart guy chose to snort his future up his nose. You make my defects of character insignificant by comparison. I hope you have made plans for your kids when your ticker finally explodes. You chose to get personal... Judge others lest you be judged yourself. No effing coke head will ever pass judgement on me.

Seriously cradle?
You're tripling down on using information about youthful bad choices, confidentially disclosed to you in a PM, to insult another poster? Come on, not ok.

The irony of getting this lecture about violating the sanctity of violating PM protocol from the poster who wrote the book on it.

yup, I posted, in full, the shouting attack on me by a fellow poster in a PM; nothing confidential was said to me. He'd attacked similarly on the public threads...I was fed up and posted it, again in full, to provide 'sunlight' to the way he was behaving. Can't hide bad behavior just because it was a PM.

But I shouldn't have done so without a warning first. I apologized publicly.

[cradleandshoot]

If I offended this poster I apologize to him. His story brings back memories of someone I loved like a brother. I have a hard time having compassion for very smart people that make poor decisions that involve young children.

[Farfromgeneva]

If I offended this poster I apologize to him. His story brings back memories of someone I loved like a brother. I have a hard time having compassion for very smart people that make poor decisions that involve young children.

Realize I may not be the intended audience of this in reality but it isn’t very consistent with prior statements and behavior.

[jhu72]

For those who ever thought we are alone, we clearly are not. European racism.

[Brooklyn]

Tea baggers and other demented reich wingers hate the idea of defunding criminal cops. But they have no objection to defunding the IRS. Below is a recent news item re efforts by delusionals to defund that agency:


https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/7 ... RS-funding

Republicans reverse course, say 'bipartisan' infrastructure bill can't include IRS funding


Sen. Rob Portman has been among the Republicans who have been very busy pretending to negotiate a "bipartisan" infrastructure package that Republican senators itching over their reelection prospects can point to as evidence that there is theoretically something that the nihilistic Republican Party can agree ought be done for the good of the country, even if the same Republicans couldn't agree that presidential corruption should be checked, violent sedition should be investigated, or a worldwide health crisis should be aggressively responded to. The problem is that every time the bipartisan group begins to hammer out even the most fundamental details, things get dodgy quickly. Republican senators don’t have a long list of details they’re for, but they have a nearly unending list of things they’re against.

What Sen. Rob Portman says Republicans will now ensure is not in the bill is any move to go after wealthy and corporate tax cheats by returning IRS funding levels to levels that would allow more audits. Any previous announcement that the bipartisanship bill would include boosting of tax enforcement resources is now null and void, because Sen. Rob Portman says there was "pushback" from Republicans.

Appearing on CNN (Portman is one of the Republican senators that make a second home at the Sunday talk shows), Portman attempted to pin the blame on Democratic attempts to pass a reconciliation package that might … also maybe propose doing the same thing?

"[W]e found out that the Democrats were going to put a proposal into the reconciliation package, which was not just similar to the one we had, but with a lot more IRS enforcement," Portman told Dana Bash. "That created quite a problem because the general agreement is that this is the bipartisan-negotiated infrastructure package and that we will stick with that."

Yeah, yeah. So the "bipartisan" version of the bill will, Republicans are now insisting, contain zero additional funding for IRS enforcement measures rather than the $40 billion the negotiators had previously announced, and the reason for that is because Democrats have hurt Republican feelings, again, by threatening to do it themselves if they can't get Republican buy-in.

The actual reason for the Republican "pushback" is likely fairly simple. Republicans have devoted their few attempts at actual governance to the idea of slashing taxes on the wealthy and the corporate, producing policies that are wildly unpopular with the American public but which are heavily lobbied for by wealthy and corporate Republican donors. Slashed IRS enforcement of tax law has amounted to yet another tax break to anyone wealthy enough to hire accountants to obscure their income (see: Donald Trump); the odds of getting caught become so low that sketchier and sketchier schemes become worth the risk.

If Democrats are planning on boosting funding so the IRS can better go after tax-dodging companies and rich people, there's an advantage to Republicans in being able to say to their dark money donors well we certainly didn't vote for that.

The Republican Party has gone to great efforts over these last decades to defund law enforcement ... aimed at rich criminals.

This reversal does create a new problem for Republican "negotiators," however. “Let’s just enforce the current tax laws” was low-hanging fruit, when it comes to things you might be able to squeeze out bipartisan votes for; there is widespread agreement that spending money on IRS enforcement would bring in much more tax money than it costs, and bipartisan negotiators were using the IRS boost as one of the "pay-for" planks offsetting infrastructure costs. Now they have to find that money some other way, and the two parties have been locked in bitter, bitter fights over who should pay for even the more meager infrastructure plans Republicans claim to agree to not just during these negotiations, but for years. It's going to be hard to come to agreement after Republicans take "let's just enforce the current tax laws" off the list of things they're willing to tolerate.

All that presumes, naively, that any of the efforts by Portman and other Republican negotiators are sincere. We have been down this road literally dozens of times, in recent years: Republicans demand Democrats compromise with them in order to achieve "bipartisan" consensus; when that consensus is reached, Republican senators balk and make new demands; when those demands, too, are eventually agreed to, Republican leaders come up with new reasons why Actually, they can't agree to any of this and will vote against even their own negotiated compromise—typically, for the reason Rob Portman is alluding to today, a claim that Democrats have now done some new thing to hurt Republican feelings and well now that means the previous deal is off.

It is, in other words, an entrenched strategy in which Republicans look to run out the clock on Democratic-pushed legislation (say, pandemic relief) with a series of negotiations that at no point result in actual Republican support for the negotiated things. Sen. Mitch McConnell has been a master of using insincere negotiation tactics to smother popular proposals the party does not want to be explicitly seen to be rejecting, forever coming up with new trivialities to sabotage months of previous work. He's very often done it in alliance with the so-called "moderate" Republicans who want to be seen, in public, as "bipartisan" stalwarts.

We remain at the same impasse; this is not a party that can tolerate governing. There remains no function of government that the party can abide, if that function requires spending money that could otherwise be handed out to party patrons in the form of tax cuts.

It's very much in Republicans’ interest to be seen as willing to not let our damn bridges fall down, at least in the abstract. But it's also very much in the party’s interest to come up with an unending list of cheap reasons why it's better to let the bridges fall down than (checks notes) force the wealthy tax dodgers that fund the Republican Party to pay the taxes they're supposed to be paying all along. Portman may be retiring from his current position in the Senate after the upcoming midterms, but his party is still bent on undermining even democracy itself rather than put up with non-Republican policies or non-tax-cut related government acts. There remains a near-zero chance that even half of the so-called Republican “negotiators” will end up voting for whatever proposal they actually negotiate.





The result? More welfare for the wealthy.

[old salt]

Cool ad by NYC, hoping to revive tourism.
Worth it, just to hear Chic do Good Times again.
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/OJy9/nyc-and-co ... ng-by-chic
It will be so easy to parody with videos of NYC street violence, with Good Times playing in the background.

In the late '70's/early '80's, my wife & I used to vacation for a wk in NYC every Aug.
It was great. Manhattan was empty, with many workers on holiday.
We stayed at the Coast Guard base on Governors Is, rode the ferry into/out of Manhattan every day.
Took advantage of the TKTS 1/2 price booth & saw a play or two every say & enjoyed the bars & restaurants,
Good Times indeed.

[Typical Lax Dad]

Cool ad by NYC, hoping to revive tourism.
Worth it, just to hear Chic do Good Times again.
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/OJy9/nyc-and-co ... ng-by-chic
It will be so easy to parody with videos of NYC street violence, with Good Times playing in the background.

Close!

[youthathletics]

Cool ad by NYC, hoping to revive tourism.
Worth it, just to hear Chic do Good Times again.
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/OJy9/nyc-and-co ... ng-by-chic
It will be so easy to parody with videos of NYC street violence, with Good Times playing in the background.

Close!

Nice pull.....seen that movie a dozen times.

Almost there!

[Typical Lax Dad]

Cool ad by NYC, hoping to revive tourism.
Worth it, just to hear Chic do Good Times again.
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/OJy9/nyc-and-co ... ng-by-chic
It will be so easy to parody with videos of NYC street violence, with Good Times playing in the background.

Close!

Nice pull.....seen that movie a dozen times.

Almost there!

I loved Escape From New York…..saw in the theater. Have seen it a ton of times.

[old salt]

In that NYC video, there's a shot of some roller skaters on a deck with a restored TWA Super Constellation in the background.
Anybody know the location ? Was that the restored Super Connie that was at the JFK TWA Hotel ?

[CU88]

August 6, 2021
Heather Cox Richardson
Aug 7

Fifty-six years ago today, on August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. The need for the law was explained in its full title: “An Act to enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution, and for other purposes.”

In the wake of the Civil War, Americans tried to create a new nation in which the law treated Black men and white men as equals. In 1865, they ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing enslavement except as punishment for crimes. In 1868, they adjusted the Constitution again, guaranteeing that anyone born or naturalized in the United States—except certain Indigenous Americans—was a citizen, opening up the suffrage to Black men. In 1870, after Georgia legislators expelled their newly seated Black colleagues, Americans defended the right of Black men to vote by adding that right to the Constitution.

All three of those amendments—the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth—gave Congress the power to enforce them. In 1870, Congress established the Department of Justice to do just that. Reactionary white southerners had been using state laws, and the unwillingness of state judges and juries to protect Black Americans from white gangs and cheating employers, to keep Black people subservient. White men organized as the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize Black men and to keep them and their white allies from voting to change that system. In 1870, the federal government stepped in to protect Black rights and prosecute members of the Ku Klux Klan.

With federal power now behind the Constitutional protection of equality, threatening jail for those who violated the law, white opponents of Black voting changed their argument against it.

In 1871, they began to say that they had no problem with Black men voting on racial grounds; their objection to Black voting was that Black men, just out of enslavement, were poor and uneducated. They were voting for lawmakers who promised them public services like roads and schools, and which could only be paid for with tax levies.

The idea that Black voters were socialists—they actually used that term in 1871—meant that white northerners who had fought to replace the hierarchical society of the Old South with a society based on equality began to change their tune. They looked the other way as white men kept Black men from voting, first with terrorism and then with state election laws using grandfather clauses, which cut out Black men without mentioning race by permitting a man to vote if his grandfather had; literacy tests in which white registrars got to decide who passed; poll taxes; and so on. States also cut up districts unevenly to favor the Democrats, who ran an all-white, segregationist party. By 1880 the south was solidly Democratic, and it would remain so until 1964.

Southern states always held elections: it was just foreordained that the Democrats would win them.

Black Americans never accepted this state of affairs, but their opposition did not gain powerful national traction until after World War II.

During that war, Americans from all walks of life had turned out to defeat fascism, a government system based on the idea that some people are better than others. Americans defended democracy and, for all that Black Americans fought in segregated units, and that race riots broke out in cities across the country during the war years, and that the government interned Japanese Americans, lawmakers began to recognize that the nation could not effectively define itself as a democracy if Black and Brown people lived in substandard housing, received substandard educations, could not advance from menial jobs, and could not vote to change any of those circumstances.

Meanwhile, Black Americans and people of color who had fought for the nation overseas brought home their determination to be treated equally, especially as the financial collapse of European countries loosened their grip on their former African and Asian colonies, launching new nations.

Those interested in advancing Black rights turned, once again, to the federal government to overrule discriminatory state laws. Spurred by lawyer Thurgood Marshall, judges used the due process clause and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to argue that the protections in the Bill of Rights applied to the states, that is, the states could not deprive any American of equality. In 1954, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren, the former Republican governor of California, used this doctrine when it handed down the Brown v. Board of Education decision declaring segregated schools unconstitutional.

White reactionaries responded with violence, but Black Americans continued to stand up for their rights. In 1957 and 1960, under pressure from Republican President Dwight Eisenhower, Congress passed civil rights acts designed to empower the federal government to enforce the laws protecting Black voting.

In 1961 the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) began intensive efforts to register voters and to organize communities to support political change. Because only 6.7% of Black Mississippians were registered, MIssissippi became a focal point, and in the “Freedom Summer” of 1964, organized under Bob Moses (who passed on July 25 of this year), volunteers set out to register voters. On June 21, Ku Klux Klan members, at least one of whom was a law enforcement officer, murdered organizers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner near Philadelphia, Mississippi, and, when discovered, laughed at the idea they would be punished for the murders.

That year, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which strengthened voting rights. On March 7, 1965, in Selma, Alabama, marchers led by John Lewis (who would go on to serve 17 terms in Congress) headed for Montgomery to demonstrate their desire to vote. Law enforcement officers stopped them on the Edmund Pettus Bridge and beat them bloody.

On March 15, President Johnson called for Congress to pass legislation defending Americans’ right to vote. It did. And on this day in 1965, the Voting Rights Act became law. It became such a fundamental part of our legal system that Congress repeatedly reauthorized it, by large margins, as recently as 2006.

But in the 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision, the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts gutted the provision of the law requiring that states with histories of voter discrimination get approval from the Department of Justice before they changed their voting laws. Immediately, the legislatures of those states, now dominated by Republicans, began to pass measures to suppress the vote. Now, in the wake of the 2020 election, Republican-dominated states have increased the rate of voter suppression, and on July 1, 2021, the Supreme Court permitted such suppression with the Brnovich v. DNC decision.

If the Republicans are allowed to choose who will vote in the states, they will dominate the country in the same way that the Democrats turned the South into a one-party state after the Civil War. Alarmed at what will amount to the loss of our democracy, Democrats are calling for the federal government to protect voting rights.

And yet, 2020 made it crystal clear that if Republicans cannot stop Democrats from voting, they will not be able to win elections. And so, Republicans are insisting that states alone can determine who can vote and that any federal legislation is tyrannical overreach. A recent Pew poll shows that more than two thirds of Republican voters don’t think voting is a right and believe it can be limited.

And so, here we stand, in an existential crisis over voting rights and whether it is states or the federal government that should decide them.

Right now, there are two major voting rights bills before Congress. The Democrats have introduced the For the People Act, a sweeping measure that protects the right to vote, ends partisan gerrymandering, stops the flow of cash into elections, and requires new ethics guidelines for lawmakers. They have also introduced the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which focuses more tightly on voting and restores the protections provided in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

Republican senators have announced their opposition to any voting rights bill, so any law that gets through will have to get around a Senate filibuster, which cannot be broken without 10 Republican senators. Democrats could break the filibuster for a voting rights bill, but Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) indicated earlier this summer they would not support such a move.

And yet, there are signs that a voting rights bill is not dead. Democratic senators have continued to work to come up with a bill that can make it through their party, and there is no point in doing that if, in the end, they know they cannot make it a law. “Everybody’s working in good faith on this,” Manchin told Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post. “It’s everybody’s input, not just mine, but I think mine, maybe...got us all talking and rolling in the direction that we had to go back to basics,” he said.

Back to basics is a very good idea indeed. The basic idea that we cannot have equality before the law without equal access to the ballot gave us the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution, and established the power of the federal government over the states to enforce them.

[Peter Brown]

In that NYC video, there's a shot of some roller skaters on a deck with a restored TWA Super Constellation in the background.
Anybody know the location ? Was that the restored Super Connie that was at the JFK TWA Hotel ?

If you haven’t spent a night at the TWA Hotel in nyc, you really should. The architects did a great job.

I could not find the spot in either clio you’re talking about. The Hotel does have a super constellation behind the bar area (it’s obviously outside), and you can walk inside the plane to view the cockpit and cabin, or even sit down. I’ve been twice, and both times visitors had decided to sit on the cabin seats with tables and enjoy drinks and appetizers, delivered by the bar waitresses.

[Brooklyn]

Lawsuit: Of 106 people arrested by Rodeo Drive special task force, 105 are Black


The other one was Latino.



A lawsuit announced Wednesday accuses the Beverly Hills Police Department, the city, and one Capt. Scott Dowling specifically of racial profiling after attorneys found 105 of 106 people arrested as part of a city task force are Black. The other person is Latino, CBS Los Angeles reported. The lawsuit filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court is spearheaded by noted civil rights attorneys Ben Crump, Bradley Gage, and Mark Harris. It centers the city police department’s Operation Safe Streets and the Rodeo Drive Task Force.

"This Beverly Hills task force was created under the guise of safety, but don't let anyone fool you," Crump said in the release. “In reality, these task forces were unjustifiably targeting people of color for things that white residents and visitors do all the time without incident.”

The attorneys are pursuing class-action status for the suit, the Los Angeles Times reported. Cited in the lawsuit are 60 alleged examples of racial profiling, including the case of Jasmine Williams, a Pennsylvania nurse, and her boyfriend, Kahlil White. Williams and White are the only named plaintiffs in the suit, the newspaper reported. They were arrested the first day of their vacation and accused of resisting arrest when they were stopped for riding scooters on the sidewalk, CBS Los Angeles reported. “The case was dismissed because they knew we were being charged falsely, for being Black,” White said ....


more at https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/9 ... -are-Black



The American Gestapo police make the Taliban look comparatively tame. Put yourself in these victims position, how would you feel? Just imagine the terror these innocents felt when they knew those trigger happy cops could have killed them at any moment and then pretend it was the cops who were under attack.

Let's have forum pro gun right wingers defend these people's rights to arm themselves against such wicked tactics. After all, they condemned the Taliban so it follows that they should condemn the jack booted thugs for their evils.

[Farfromgeneva]

Exclusive: Silicon Valley investor dismissed racism, called BLM "the true racists"
Courtenay Brown
Courtenay Brown
Illustration of a cursor hand making a stopping gesture
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
A notable venture capitalist and board member at the public company behind iconic brands like The North Face and Timberland was dismissive of racism in the U.S. and called Black Lives Matter "the true racists," according to emails obtained by Axios.

Details: Veronica Wu was a co-lead on a fund that it once described as the largest pool of money dedicated to seed startups. She's also on the board of VF Corporation, one of the world's biggest apparel companies.

A spokesperson for VF Corp. declined to comment and would not comment on Wu’s behalf. Wu did not respond to emails.
Background: Wu was elected to VF Corp.’s board in 2019.

At the time, she was a managing partner at Hone Capital, a U.S. venture arm of China Science and Merchants Investment Management Group (also known as CSC Group).
Wu was previously a co-lead on a CSC Upshot fund, created in 2015 to invest in companies on fundraising platform AngelList. At the time, the companies said it was the biggest-ever dedicated to seed stage funding.
In June 2020, an office manager at Hone Capital notified Wu that the firm would honor Juneteenth as a company holiday, according to email exchanges reviewed by Axios.

Wu responded that she didn’t know about the holiday, which commemorates when enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, learned of their emancipation.
After the office manager explained that — and noted other companies were honoring the day because of the country’s renewed focus on racism in the wake of George Floyd’s murder — Wu said she was “particularly not supportive.”
“I don’t believe in Black Lives Matter. If anything I think they are the true racists trying to stir up things to make this country going [sic] to socialism or even communism potentially,” Wu wrote in part.
Wu also said because the company was owned by CSC Group, the decision about making the day a company holiday wasn’t theirs to make.

The latest: VF Corp. got wind of this email exchange, investigated its contents and found them to be legitimate earlier this year, a source familiar with the matter tells Axios.

Wu was not removed from the board. Among the committees she serves on as a member, one traditionally recruits potential board members and reviews executives for top management roles.
Wu's email was not the first time she expressed similar comments while at Hone Capital — which touts a "zero-tolerance policy for ... discrimination" on its website — one of the firm's former employees alleges.

“She would say 'the reason you don't see African Americans in tech is because they're lazy and don't work,’” they said.
Black people are underrepresented in Silicon Valley because of systemic barriers to entry. Three percent of venture capital investment partner positions were held by Blacks in 2020, according to a survey by The National Venture Capital Association. And just 1.2% of all venture funding went to Black startup entrepreneurs in the first half of this year, per Crunchbase.
Axios' phone calls to the number listed on Hone’s website were not returned.
Of note: Wu was at Hone until August of last year, per her LinkedIn profile. She is on a global advisory board at CapGemini, a publicly traded technology consulting firm. CapGemini did not respond to Axios' request for comment.

She also currently lists herself as the founder and managing partner of First Bight Ventures, which invests in early-stage synthetic biology companies.
The bottom line: Corporations en masse rushed to speak out against racism as they faced increasing pressure to respond to social issues. It has raised questions about whether what companies do about racism down the line would be as vigorous as their comments.

VF Corp. — which owns a dozen household brand names including Supreme and Jansport — was among the corporations that released statements about their commitment to antiracism after Floyd was killed.
“Racism is not welcome at VF Corporation. It never has been and never will be,” CEO Steve Rendle said last June.
"[W]hile we as a company can’t create a vaccine to eradicate racism from our planet, we can do our part to lead with purpose, inspire others with our actions, break down racial and ethnic barriers and be part of the solution.”

[DocBarrister]

Yet another innocent victim, caught in a crossfire.
This one hits close to home.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan adds an additional $10,000 to reward for information in shooting of Naval Academy mom
The reward for information regarding the shooting of a Naval Academy mother is now $32,000 after Gov. Larry Hogan authorized an additional $10,000.

Michelle Cummings, 57, of Houston, was relaxing early Tuesday morning with friends on the elevated patio outside of the Graduate Hotel on West Street when she was fatally shot. She was in Annapolis to bring her son to the Naval Academy for Induction Day. Police say she was not the intended target.

Yesterday, during a news conference on Pleasant Street, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives offered $20,000 for information that leads to the arrest of those responsible for Cummings’ death. The Metro Crimestoppers are also offering $2,000.

Hogan said in a statement he spoke with the Cummings family and expressed condolences. The Maryland State Police have offered full resources and are able to support the FBI, ATF and other involved law enforcement agencies.

The investigation into Cummings’s death is still active. Police interviewed two people who were sitting in a parked car on Pleasant Street when Cummings was killed. The two, who were unharmed, are believed to be the intended targets. Police have recovered video footage and begun to interview witnesses, Annapolis Police Chief Ed Jackson said at the Wednesday news conference.

Cummings’ son, Leonard Cummings III, is a plebe at the Naval Academy and a football prospect. He went through Induction Day on Wednesday.
Cummings was described as a mother who was “all in” when it came to her son’s education at the academy. Before I-Day, she traveled to meet with another Naval Academy mother who gave her a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood,” a reference to the football team.

Leonard “Trey” Cummings attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School before coming to the academy, and the Cummings met other families whose children attended with the midshipman. That included Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, who set up a GoFundMe to help pay for funeral costs. Cummings will be buried in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In two days, the GoFundMe raised nearly $120,000, exceeding its goal of $100,000.

https://www.capitalgazette.com/news/cri ... story.html
Naval Academy plebe’s mom was ‘all in,’ looking forward to Navy Football mothers group before she was fatally shot

Just a few weeks before coming to Annapolis for her son’s Naval Academy Induction Day, Michelle Jordan Cummings drove from Houston to Dallas to meet Michelle Pittman.
Pittman gave Cummings a pin that said “Motherhood of the Brotherhood” — a tight-knit group of Naval Academy football moms.
“We talked and we welcomed her into our Navy mama family and I gave her a cute little pin for her to wear on her shirt for I-day,” Pittman said. “I told her I will see her when she got to Annapolis.”

But Pittman, who lives in Bowie, didn’t get to see Cummings before she was shot to death early Tuesday morning while sitting at a patio area outside the Graduate Hotel on West Street.
Cummings, 57, was in Annapolis to drop off her son at Induction Day, which he attended Wednesday. Her son, Midshipman Candidate Leonard “Trey” Cummings III, attended the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island and is a football prospect.

“She was all in,” Pittman said. “She was so excited and ready to join us and support the mission that our sons have signed up for.”
Now Cummings won’t have the opportunity to be a part of the Motherhood of the Brotherhood like she wanted and police and other law enforcement are investigating why.

Police said Tuesday the shots were likely fired on Pleasant Street, and Cummings, who was hit more than once, was not the intended target. The call for the shooting came in around 12:21 a.m., police said.
Multiple shots were fired on Pleasant Street, including at a parked car with two people in it, police said. Annapolis Police Chief Edward Jackson called it almost inexplicable how the bullets traveled from Pleasant Street to the elevated Graduate Hotel patio.

At a news conference Wednesday in Annapolis, leaders from the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives announced they are offering a combined $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for the shooting.

Jackson said he spoke to Trey Cummings and encouraged him to move forward with attending the Naval Academy to honor his mother’s memory.
“I said to him, ‘I think the best way to honor your mother’s legacy — because she’s a big part of you being here today; she raised you, she nurtured you, she loved you ... is to go forward with your education at the Naval Academy,’” Jackson said.

After he attended Induction Day, Cummings was granted leave to mourn his mother before returning for his summer training, said Lt. Col. Todd McCarthy, plebe summer officer in charge.
“He’s going to step into the brigade like nothing happened, and we’re going to keep a close eye on it, but I couldn’t be prouder of that young man,” McCarthy said. “And when I say that I speak for all the leadership. We are so proud of him.”
Cummings is showing “incredible tenacity and strength,” said McCarthy, noting that he did not think he could do the same if he were Cummings.
“I mean, I was absolutely blown away by the strength that he’s demonstrated,” McCarthy said.

Michelle Cummings served as the president of the Westfield High School Booster Club during the 2019-2020 school year, according to a statement released by the Spring Independent School District in Texas. The statement described her as a very engaged parent who was always ready to support student-athletes.
She also was an administrator on the Class of 2025 Navy Football Parents Facebook page.

Cummings became friends with Annapolis resident Veranna Phillips, a fellow administrator of the Facebook page, because their sons attended the Naval Academy prep school together. Phillips said Cummings always could make her laugh.
When Phillips learned of Cummings’ death, she set up a GoFundMe to raise money for the Cummings family. In a little over a day, more than 1,600 people have donated more than $95,200. The money will be used to help transport Cummings’ body to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where she will be buried, and help cover funeral costs, Phillips said.

Chet Gladchuk, the director of athletics at the Naval Academy, gave his sympathies to the Cummings family.
" No family should ever have to go through something like this, a senseless act of violence that took their loved one. The Naval Academy Athletic Association and the Navy Football family will support the Cummings family in every way possible,” Gladchuk said in a statement.
Joe DuPaix, a Navy football assistant coach, said he is looking forward to having Trey Cummings rejoin the team once he takes care of personal things related to the death of his mother.
Dupaix, who recruited Cummings, said he had the opportunity to get to know him and his family well.
“I wasn’t surprised that Trey made the mature decision to come to the Naval Academy because of the way he was raised,” he said. “I knew right off the bat they were high-character people.”
He said that the Navy Football brotherhood will always take care of its members.
“Trey and his family are part of the Navy football family” DuPaix said, “so we are going to do everything we possibly can.”

You know the drill here OS. This caring and loving mom was just collateral damage. As is the new normal the chances of finding and prosecuting whoever murdered this mom is nothing short of a pathetic joke. My "rant" here will tick off more off my fellow posters than the murder of this poor mom ever will.
Maybe a candlelight vigil or a community organized march to end the violence will finally make a difference. Sorry, my bad I am ranting again, shame on me.

No one is mad, just bored by your redundant and pointless anger.

My wife hears my boring and redundant and pointless opinion everyday. Your pointless input is bullchit that I flush down the toilet. How is that cocaine damaged ticker doing? Pathetic such a smart guy chose to snort his future up his nose. You make my defects of character insignificant by comparison. I hope you have made plans for your kids when your ticker finally explodes. You chose to get personal... Judge others lest you be judged yourself. No effing coke head will ever pass judgement on me.

Seriously cradle?
You're tripling down on using information about youthful bad choices, confidentially disclosed to you in a PM, to insult another poster? Come on, not ok.

It’s actually a problem I had more recently and just spent a month in rehab at a facility to help myself and be “better” (I’ve always been present physically for them but emotionally and mentally not as much) to my children. Missed my birthday, Father’s Day and even my daughters birthday but view it as a long term investment but it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done and I managed to get out of a lower middle class craphole town to get a front office gig at CS when they mattered overcame parents beating the sh*t out of each other from age 0-11, my mother forcing her codependency into me as a pre teen and handing down all her inter generational baggage onto me, masters degree, inducted into an international economics honor society, played two sports one year and one the rest in college, masters degree, backpacked through 18 countries, had a cousin murdered in a Mass shooting, watched my father die of bs related to cdiff such that a doctor told me he’d be willing to testify on mistreatment if I wanted to pursue but had a child less than 4mo later, the rest of his family was wiped out from cancer and suicide within two years, a miscarriage, a boss whose redirected about $275k over two years of contractual bonus money into his pocket (“underwriting fees” on beat efforts which never existed went to the “house” on originated deals) and then I didn’t get to see my mother last year when she broke her shoulder right when Covid hit and then they discovered cancer which she died from a few months later. And a totally broken marriage where my wife lacks impulse control and is terrifying my kids (hurt both once each accidentally and has hit me a few times). I’ve picked up depression, anxiety (and adhd but what person with an advanced degree doesn’t have that?). But this was ridiculously hard. I shared with him to empathize about his friend like a year or two ago. My life hadn’t gotten easier and I fell into getting away from home and making bad choices. I finally did something to correct myself so his stupid posts only make me want to tear him down piece by piece for the theatre here but it doesn’t hurt me. I lived with a mask for so long I realize I don’t even know whi I am anymore so when they give me a checklist each day there of one to ten on-spirituality I put 1 not because I’m not religious but how can one be spiritual when one doesn’t k is themself. Only now admitting and recognizing a lot of hard truths I managed for my entire life because I accomplished a lot from where I started but it still got me to where I was. All my good friends I was afraid to ask help from who would say “you can’t help others if you don’t take care of yourself” I appreciated the sentiment but acted like it was still a platitude and confined to work hard for everyone else and degrade individually.

I don’t care about this angry old man. He’s a joke and certainly not someone I could become a better person from being around. But my empathy for him is eradicated now and my competitive, analytical side is inclined to tear him down piece by piece now.

Take care and best wishes, ffg. I mean that.

DocBarrister