brooklynite

brooklynite's Journal

July 8, 2019

Pete Buttigieg lost black support between 2 mayoral runs, data shows

Source: Politico

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — As Mayor Pete Buttigieg contends with the fallout from the shooting of a black man by a white police officer in his city, a POLITICO analysis of data from his earlier mayoral elections shows he struggled to win the confidence of the city’s black voters following a series of controversies in his first term.

Detailed precinct results from South Bend's 2011 and 2015 mayoral races show Buttigieg repeatedly lagging in contests against black primary challengers in many of western South Bend's predominantly black neighborhoods. And though Buttigieg still managed to win those precincts in two general elections against white Republican opponents, his support in these areas fell after his first term.

In the 2011 general election, Buttigieg had some of his highest margins of victory in these neighborhoods — a typical result for a Democrat facing a Republican opponent in South Bend. But by 2015, western South Bend gave him his weakest results after his support plunged more than 20 points in some precincts.

Interviews with city council members, former political opponents and local residents suggest that Buttigieg's management style — heavy on outside expertise and top-down implementation — may have alienated grassroots voices, a complaint that registered strongly in South Bend's black communities, where the desire to be heard and consulted has historic resonance.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/08/pete-buttigieg-black-voters-support-1395471

July 8, 2019

Man who says Kevin Spacey groped him asserts Fifth Amendment right

Source: PBS Newshour

NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — The man who accused Kevin Spacey of groping him at a Massachusetts resort island bar in 2016 asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to testify after being questioned by the actor’s lawyer about text messages the defense claims were deleted.

The man’s refusal to testify caused the judge to question the viability of the case against the two-time Oscar winner.

The man was ordered to testify after he failed to turn over the phone he used that night to the defense and then said it was lost. Spacey’s lawyers say the man deleted messages from his phone that would support Spacey’s claims of innocence and then provided investigators with manipulated screenshots of conversations from that night.

Spacey’s lawyer urged the judge to dismiss the case, calling it “completely compromised.”

Read more: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/man-who-says-kevin-spacey-groped-him-asserts-fifth-amendment-right

July 8, 2019

John Hickenlooper holds a meeting with the DES MOINES REGISTER (livestreamed)

https://twitter.com/Hickenlooper/status/1148334067584098304

July 8, 2019

Saudi carrier cancels troubled Boeing 737 order for Airbus

Source: AP News

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Boeing’s campaign to restore the reputation of its best-selling plane after two deadly crashes suffered a blow with a Saudi airline canceling an order worth up to $5.9 billion in favor of a European rival of the U.S. manufacturer.

Flyadeal, the budget airline arm of Saudi Arabian Airlines Corp., ordered 30 A320neo jets from Airbus and took options on 20 more, meaning that its entire fleet will consist of planes from that company.

It’s a potentially troubling sign for Boeing, which has not seen customers divert orders to Airbus en masse.

A small number of airlines have threatened to cancel 737 Max orders since crashes off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia killed 346 people. The Max has been grounded since March.

Read more: https://apnews.com/966fdc30da98450f87342769d15b125c

July 8, 2019

Student comes out as Bisexual in Valedictorian Speech

Mason Bleu, a teenager from Brooklyn, New York, didn’t have a conventional “coming out” moment. As valedictorian of his class, it was expected that he would stand up in front of the school to give a speech. What was less expected was that he would take the opportunity to announce that he was a “proud bisexual man.” The moment was caught on camera and went viral, even landing Bleu on morning talk shows. But over the phone, Bleu told me he wasn’t sure he was going to go through with it at all.

“I was completely nervous. I downed, like, three bottles of water,” he told me of the moments leading up to his speech. “Two of my teachers and my best friend knew what I was about to do. But I asked them, ‘Should I do it? Should I not?’ And it was my best friend who was like, ‘Do it.’”

Before becoming a social media sensation, Bleu was a Dominican kid traveling back and forth from New York to the Dominican Republic every summer with his family. “Every year we saw my family there, we brought clothes and canned food so they could survive,” he said. “I stayed with my aunt and cousins and it would be a big reunion. Sometimes we would go years without seeing them, so it was always a big deal to be all together.”

Both sides of his family are Dominican, he said, and his mother’s side moved to New York when she was 13. They still live within a mile of Bleu today. Growing up in his neighborhood wasn’t always easy, though, and became even harder when he started to understand that he was bisexual during his freshman year of high school. “I started to realize how LGBT people were treated in general, and we didn’t speak about it in my family,” he said. “I could tell there wasn’t acceptance in the area I grew up in. There’s a lot of toxic masculinity going around. If someone was gay, people would say something to him, people had a problem with it.”

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/2019/07/08/student-comes-out-as-bisexual-in-valedictorian-speech/

Brave; Brooklyn isn't always as liberal as you think it is...

July 8, 2019

Democrat Eric Swalwell drops out of presidential race

Source: CBS News

"Pass the torch," Rep. Eric Swalwell told former Vice President Joe Biden two weeks ago. But if he does, Swalwell won't be around to take the handoff.

The longshot 2020 candidate, who tried to make a name for himself on cable news shows as the voice of a younger political generation, dropped out of the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential race on Monday.

"Today ends our presidential campaign, but it is the beginning of an opportunity in Congress with a new perspective shaped by the lives that have touched mine and our campaign throughout these last three months to bring that promise of America to all Americans," Swalwell told reporters at a press conference.

Swalwell ran with gun control at the center of his platform, and he was the first presidential candidate to call not only for a ban on assault-style rifles, but also for the government to buy the ones already in public hands.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/democrat-eric-swalwell-drops-out-of-presidential-race/

https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1148324707499937792

July 8, 2019