The Unsung Heroes: Fannie Hamer and Ella Baker

by Nomad

A photo of two African-American women and the story behind the image. 

Recently, I found this photo while scouring the net, totally unaware that these two women were a lot more than just patriotic Americans. 

They are that, but they are much more too. A bit of research led me to uncover who these women were and the fascinating part they played in struggle for full equality.

According to the caption, Fannie Lou Hamer (holding the flag) and Ella Baker are shown in the photo, attending the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) in 1964. The organization was formed when blacks and whites from that state came together  to challenge the legitimacy of the regular Mississippi Democratic Party (MDP). 

The MDP had refused to allow the blacks to participate even though African American made up around 40% of Mississippi's population.

Such a purposeful oversight could not be ignored. Their solution was ingenious and elegant.  With Robert Parris Moses, Hamer and Baker set up a new and more inclusive organization and called it MFDP.

Conservative Family Values and Reality: The Secret Ted Cruz's Mother Tried to Hide

by Nomad

The Party of Personal Responsibility

Recently, during the Republican debates, Presidential candidate, and Senator Ted Cruz, while taking a swing at front-runner Donald Trump, attempted to employ his brand of divisive politics by slighting New York values, presumably as a contrast to the true values of the heartland.

Along with faith and patriotism, one of those values Cruz says he prizes above all else is family. As defined by conservatives. that's a mother, father, and children under the same roof. Except for abstinence-endorsing Bristol Palin, single mothers with children born out of wedlock are strictly unwelcome. This is, after all, the party of personal responsibility.    

That's why the details of Cruz's family history come as a bit of a shock. Although the facts have been camouflaged and dates have been skillfully blurred or altered if one account is correct, the unofficial story is a different -and much more interesting- one.

Sanity Break: John Prine- Beautiful World

by Nomad

Here's How Trump Dealt with Little People Who Stood In His Way

by Nomad

A 27-year-old exposé about Donald Trump sheds some light on the character of the man who is today running for president.

Back in 1989, real estate mogul, Donald Trump worked extremely hard to keep the public from seeing the expose film, Trump: What's the Deal?
He did everything in his power to suppress its release.
It's easy to see why he thought it would damage the image he had spent years crafting. 

The battle between Trump and the producers of this documentary included public insults and threats of lawsuits and involved PR firms and dozens of attorneys. The primary financier of the project was business mogul Leonard Norman Stern, so it was something of a war of Manhattan titans. For the full story of that war, click here.