[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The first black mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma has unveiled an ambitious reparations plan that would see more than $100 million invested in the descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre.
Mayor Monroe Nichols announced on Sunday that the city is opening a $105 million charitable trust comprising private funds to address issues including housing, scholarships, land acquisition and economic development for north Tulsans.
Has the money already been donated, or is he building castles in the air?
Of that money, $24 million will go toward housing and home ownership for the descendants of the attack that killed as many as 300 black people and razed 35 blocks, according to Public Radio Tulsa.
Another $21 million will fund land acquisition, scholarship funding and economic development for the blighted north Tulsa community, and a whopping $60 million will go toward cultural preservation to improve buildings in the once prosperous Greenwood neighborhood.
'For 104 years, the Tulsa Race Massacre has been a stain on our city's history,' Nichols said at an event commemorating Race Massacre Observance Day.
No part of his plan would require city council approval, the mayor noted, and any fundraising would be conducted by an executive director whose salary will be paid for by private funding.
'The massacre was hidden from history books, only to be followed by the intentional acts of redlining, a highway built to choke off economic vitality and the perpetual underinvestment of local, state and federal governments.
'Now it's time to take the next big steps to restore.'
But the proposal will not include direct cash payments to the last known survivors, Leslie Benningfield Randle and Viola Fletcher, who are 110 and 111 years old.
They had been fighting for reparations for years, and earlier this year their attorney Damario Solomon-Simmons argued that any reparations plan should include direct payments to the two survivors as well as a victim's compensation fund for outstanding claims.
However, a lawsuit Solomon-Simmons - who also founded the group Justice for Greenwood - was struck down in 2023 by an Oklahoma judge who declared the claimants 'don't have unlimited rights to compensation.'
The ruling was then upheld by the Oklahoma Supreme Court last year, dampening racial justice advocates' hopes that the city would ever make financial amends.
But after taking office earlier this year, Nichols said he reviewed previous proposals from local community organizations like Justice for Greenwood.
He then discussed his plan with the Tulsa City Council and descendants of the massacre victims.
'What we wanted to do was find a way in which we could take in a number of these recommendations, so that it's reflective of the descendant community, of the folks that brought forth some recommendations,' Nichols said as he also vowed to continue to search for mass graves believed to contain victims of the massacre and release 45,000 previously classified city records.
No part of his plan would require city council approval, the mayor noted, and any fundraising would be conducted by an executive director whose salary will be paid for by private funding.
A Board of Trustees would also determine how to distribute the funds.
Still, the city council would have to authorize the transfer of any city property to the trust, something the mayor said was highly likely.
The violence in 1921 erupted after a white woman told police that a black man had grabbed her arm in an elevator in a downtown Tulsa commercial building on May 30, 1921.
The following day, police arrested the man, who the Tulsa Tribune reported had tried to assault the woman. White people surrounded the courthouse, demanding the man be handed over.
World War One veterans were among black men who went to the courthouse to face the mob. A white man tried to disarm a black veteran and a shot rang out, touching off further violence.
White people then looted and burned buildings and dragged the black people from their beds and beat them, according to historical accounts.
The white people were deputized by authorities and instructed to shoot the black residents.
No one was ever charged in the violence, which the federal government now classifies as a 'coordinated military-style attack' by white citizens, and not the work of an unruly mob.
Of all the demands for reparations that come and go, this one is the one that makes some kind of impression with me, and one that makes some amount of sense. It appears that the money has been already rounded up; and that it's going to real matters that it can actually help. It doesn't seem like anywhere enough to do the things they want to do, but maybe things are less expensive there. Let's see what happens.
My concern is that this is the camel's nose in the tent.
According to historian Jeffrey Ostler, "Any discussion of genocide must, of course, eventually consider the so-called Indian Wars, the term commonly used for U.S. Army campaigns to subjugate Indian nations of the American West beginning in the 1860s. In an older historiography, key events in this history were narrated as battles. It is now more common for scholars to refer to these events as massacres. This is especially so of a Colorado territorial militia's slaughter of Cheyennes at Sand Creek (1864) and the army's slaughter of Shoshones at Bear River (1863), Blackfeet on the Marias River (1870), and Lakotas at Wounded Knee (1890). Some scholars have begun referring to these events as “genocidal massacres,” defined as the annihilation of a portion of a larger group, sometimes to provide a lesson to the larger group."
#4
When do I get my reparations for my ancestors 400 years of slavery in Egypt? Plus, I want a percentage of the tourist fees collected from visitors to the Pyramids that my ancestors helped build.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] An eruption of Mount Etna has begun on the Italian island of Sicily. Volcanic tremors had previously occurred in this area, the first of which was recorded on the evening of June 1.
Local residents posted videos on social media taken in the vicinity of the volcano. The footage shows a powerful ash cloud rising above the crater. The height of the ash emission reached almost three kilometers.
The intensity of the emission of hot rocks is increasing, the ANSA news agency reported, citing the Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.
"According to preliminary observations, the hot material apparently did not pass the edge of Valle del Leone. At the same time, explosive activity from the Southeast Crater was replaced by a lava fountain," the article says.
The eruption is also reported to be visible in all parts of the island. The region was initially placed on red alert, later downgraded to orange.
Etna is the highest and most active volcano in Europe and is considered one of the most dangerous on the planet. In April 2024, the volcano emitted smoke rings, photos and videos of which were distributed in the press and social networks. Later, in July, Etna emitted lava fountains, a column of ash and smoke.
Two towers of smoke, as alarming
As ever the scenery is charming,
Rise up to the sky.
Cries a Mafia guy,
"The Camorra was warring on warming!
So naturally we had to join in and do our part. To save the planet!"
With what funds? They’re spending it faster than they take it in, between the National Health Service and tender care for the mostly Moslem illegals they so strongly desire to acquire.
[Regnum] The United Kingdom intends to build up to 12 new nuclear-powered attack submarines in response to growing threats from Russia. This was reported on the country's government website on June 1.
It is specified that the submarines will be developed and built within the framework of AUKUS, a military alliance of Australia, Great Britain and the United States. The new submarines will belong to the SSN-AUKUS class, with a nuclear propulsion plant and conventional weapons. It is planned that from the late 2030s they will replace seven Astute-class attack submarines.
"With new, sophisticated submarines patrolling international waters and our own programme to station nuclear warheads on British shores, we keep the UK safe at home and strong abroad," said UK Defence Secretary John Healey.
The nuclear warhead programme will be given $15 billion. It is noted that the announcement on the submarines' construction will be made by Prime Minister Keir Starmer on June 2 as part of the presentation of the strategic review on defence issues.
#8
Just where are they planning to get the crews from?
The RN has new destroyers tied up to piers for lack of sailors, and it's always been harder to crew subs.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/03/2025 10:30 Comments ||
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#9
Perfidious Albion is very adept at getting someone else to shoulder the load.
[Breitbart] Political newcomer Karol Nawrocki has pulled off a stunning come-from-behind victory in the Polish presidential elections on Sunday, defeating neo-liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski of Prime Minsiter Donald Tusk’s globalist Civic Platform party.
UPDATE 0500: According to Gazeta Wyborcza, Law and Justice (PiS) party candidate Karol Nawrocki will become the next president of Poland after winning 50.89 per cent of the vote, with a total of 10,606,628 votes. In comparison, the progressive mayor of Warsaw Rafał Trzaskowski won 49.11 per cent, with 10,237,177 votes. The paper reported that turnout in the hotly contested election stood at 71.6 per cent.
UPDATE 0145: A third exit poll from Ipsos covering 90 per cent of voting areas has projected conservative PiS candidate Karol Nawrocki to secure 51 per cent, §]ping liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski at 49 per cent, with a margin of error of 0.5 per cent for both candidates.
UPDATE 2245: A "late" exit poll has seen the projected results flip, although the race is still too close to call. The Ipsos exit poll conducted for broadcaster TVN projected that PiS conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki won 50.7 per cent of the vote, compared to 49.3 per cent for his liberal Civic Platform rival Rafał Trzaskowski. This reversed the initial exit poll, which gave Trzaskowski a 0.6 per cent lead.
UPDATE 2200: While the race is still too close to call, the votes from the Polish diaspora community in the United States have been fully counted. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, PiS conservative candidate Karol Nawrocki won 28,070 votes in America, or 56.65 per cent, compared to 21,479 votes, or 43.35 per cent, for liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski.
The original story continues as follows... Read the rest at the link
And they are, or will be, making money off of the oil field they’re making for Somalia, too.
[Rudaw] Turkey’s energy minister said on Saturday that the Gabar oil field in the southeastern Kurdish-majority province of Sirnak generates $2 billion annually and has created more than 3,200 jobs in the province.
“Two billion dollars annually is obtained from that (Gabar field). We hope that with increased production, revenue will increase. Under this project, we have now provided job opportunities for 3,200 people in Sirnak and Gabar,” Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said during a meeting of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
In December 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the discovery of the oil field on Sirnak’s Mount Gabar, containing an estimated 150 million barrels valued at approximately $12 billion.
Sirnak is a small province in southeastern Turkey, bordering the Kurdistan Region.
“Over the past 22 years, the money we spent on energy imports was one trillion dollars. The story of our energy independence is actually a story identical to the story of our economic independence,” Bayraktar added.
The oil field produces 80,000 barrels per day, according to Bayraktar.
Last month, Erdogan said that the Gabar field had produced nearly $2 billion worth of oil in total, over a combined 26 million barrels.
Turkey is struggling with crippling economic woes, its currency is losing value and people are facing soaring inflation and a cost of living crisis.
In March 2023, former Sirnak mayor Mehmet Yarka said that the city's booming economy due to the Gabar field had kickstarted a reverse migration from the bigger cities back to Sirnak.
“Sirnak has grown and developed a lot. People build homes and invest, and those who left the city due to issues, are now returning from Adana, Ankara, Mersin, and Istanbul,” Yarka said at the time.
Sirnak province has one of Turkey’s highest unemployment rates.
[Newsweek] Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon railed against Republican Senator Lindsey Graham over Graham's support for a flurry of drone strikes Ukraine launched over the weekend that battered Russia's strategic aviation capabilities.
Newsweek reached out to Graham's office for comment via email.
The scale and sophistication of Ukraine's strikes were unprecedented and could have far-reaching geopolitical consequences.
The drones were transported to Russia and stored in trucks carrying cargo units with retractable roofs that were parked near the air bases and launched remotely.
Kyiv said its attack, which has been described as Russia's "Pearl Harbor," struck four bases and took out 41 (about one-third) of Russia's strategic bombers.
Moscow has said only several of its warplanes were struck.
Graham, who visited Ukraine on Friday along with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, praised the strikes on Sunday, calling Kyiv "ever-resourceful."
"The ever-resourceful Ukraine used creative drone warfare tactics to successfully attack Russian bombers and military assets used to kill Ukrainian citizens and destroy their country," the South Carolina senator posted on X, formerly Twitter.
#1
So Senators cheering the escalation is really bad form. Not criminal, but this is going to cost Ukraine. Putin will make them pay dearly for this stunt and it will derail any form of peace talks.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/03/2025 12:59 Comments ||
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#2
President Zelenskyy isn’t anywhere near ready for meaningful peace talks, as far as I can tell. But given that President Putin is uninterested in anything other than Ukraine’s surrender, perhaps they will be ready to address things more seriously in the fall.
[FoxWeather] Mumbai customs officers seized three spider-tailed horned viper snakes, five Asian leaf turtles and 44 Indonesian pit viper snakes in checked bag. An Indian traveler from Thailand was arrested.
Nate Silver pointing out the uncomfortable truth for Democrats I’ve mentioned before…
There’s an entire demographic who take antidepressants and go to therapy, and then think we should all listen to them on how to run the country. pic.twitter.com/9aAMZ7XJpn
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
