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Page 2 The Skanner September 14, 2016 ® Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Opinion Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher What You Need to Know About Voting on November 8 Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor A Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Arashi Young Reporter Monica J. Foster Seattle Oice Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer 2016 MERIT AWARD WINNER The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2016 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. Local News Paciic NW News World News Opinions Jobs, Bids Entertainment Community Calendar RSS feeds MINORITY BUSINESS ENTERPRISE SPECIAL EDITION Next Week Sept. 21, 2016 re you ready to vote? Are you registered? These may seem like simplistic questions, especially for those who are aware, but every year some folks are denied access to the polls, because they didn’t reg- ister on time, or they moved and their address does not match the address the regis- trar of voters has, or SOME- THING. The Presidential elec- tion is likely to be a nail-biter, and there are local races that are also close. Your best bet is to make sure you know what the requirements for voting are in your state. Check out www.vote.com; the site lists the requirements for all 50 states. A few states allow vot- er registration on the day of an election, but most states require you to register be- tween 11 and 30 days before the vote. Some states allow online registration, most al- low registration by mail (with requirements about the date a registration is postmarked), and almost all allow in-per- son registration. The terms and conditions of voting are still being negotiat- ed in some states so it makes sense to stay on top of voting rules. A federal appeals court recently kicked discrimina- tory North Carolina voting terms to the curb, saying that that state discriminated Julianne Malveaux NNPA Columnist against African Americans with “surgical precision.” Ef- forts to reduce the number of days available for early vot- ing, or to eliminate Sunday voting, disproportionately af- fect African American voters. North Carolina Republians are deliberate and mindful in “ and others. Disputes revolve around things like absentee ballots, purges of inactive voters, and issues of whether ballots will count if they are cast in the wrong precincts. In our “Democracy,” it seems that we do more to discourage voters than encourage them, and while the voting process could be seamless, plans to prevent as many as 50,000 Kansas voters from going to the polls, for example, make no sense in a “participatory democracy.” Some folks don’t want it to be participatory, though. Re- Your best bet is to make sure you know what the requirements for voting are in your state their attempt to sideline Af- rican American voters, since most African Americans are Democrats. They want to deliver their state to Don- ald Trump and they want to ensure that Senator Richard Burr and Governor Pat Mc- Crory, both Republicans, are also re-elected. North Carolina isn’t the only state with electoral shenani- gans. Texas, Kansas, Georgia and Alabama have also imple- mented restrictive measures that are being appealed by civ- il rights groups, the League of Women Voters, the NAACP publicans now control most state legislatures, and have been passing voter suppres- sion laws since 2010, when they began to take control of state houses. Civic participa- tion organizations, like the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Nation- al Coalition for Black Civic Participation, and others, are ighting back, preparing to have people available to help voters, especially in battle- ground states, and with hot lines (1-866-OUR-VOTE) and other forms of voter assis- tance. In an election that is likely to be close, it is import- ant that every voice be heard. I’m still not clear why poll- ing suggests that this vote is so close. Secretary Hillary Clinton, for all her imper- fections, is a stunningly su- perior candidate to Donald Trump, who just recently praised Russia’s Vladimir Pu- tin as a “better leader” than President Obama. Now, that’s just downright unpatriotic, not to mention short-sided, and tone-deaf. Donald Trump goes to one Black church and gets all kind of mainstream media cover- age. Hillary Clinton visits nu- merous Black churches, and the mainstream media is ab- sent. Donald Trump blusters his way through an interview with Matt Lauer on national security, and is hardly chal- lenged and, certainly, never interrupted. We have stark choices in this election, but some of us won’t be making choices be- cause we won’t be prepared to vote on November 8. Now is the time to make sure you are prepared. Are you registered? Where will you vote? Will you be out of town or unable to get to the polls on November 8? Can you do early voting or vote via an absentee ballot? These aren’t questions to ask on No- vember 5. The Moral Origins of Trump’s Improbable Rise to Power A s if to compound the in- sult to American pow- er represented by the world’s vociferous re- jection of the Bush doctrine, the U.S. found itself in 2008 facing the biggest econom- ic disaster since the great recession. The collapse was so stark, so sudden, and so unavoidable that several of America’s largest and most venerable inancial institu- tions collapsed overnight. The recession in America led to a global recession, as liquidity dried up, debts got called in, and entire nations went bankrupt. This blow to Americans’ conidence would provide fertile ground for doubt, re- sentment and rebellion. It quickly became apparent that the economic status quo that existed before the Iraq War and the Great Recession was giving way to a ‘new normal.’ The country limped along in this new normal; Ameri- can businesses experienced very slow economic growth amidst massive economic dis- location. The Federal Reserve used every trick at its dispos- al to ward of total catastro- phe. It was successful in its aim, although the resulting ‘Franken-economy’ it created began to resemble a monster that moved and walked, but Armstrong Williams NNPA Columnist was somehow strangely also dead. To wit: even though em- ployment ‘recovered,’ labor force participation dropped to a thirty year low. People “ and political establishment that irst found expression in the Tea Party (on the political right) and the Occupy Wall Street movement (on the po- litical let). Both movements were essentially defeated – the former was co-opted by the Republican Party, and the latter was crushed by the po- lice (at the bidding of ‘liberal’ elected oicials). The pressing unanswered question of why Wall Street got bailed out while Main Administration from putting its’ own proposals forward. Over the past six years, the Congress has done practically nothing in the way of helping the American people out of the mess they are in. The lack of commitment to a national project for reconstruction seemed strange in a country that had just demanded such brave sacriice from its war- riors. The political impasse sty- mied American progress, and extended the econom- ic recession beyond its reasonable shelf life. Amidst the doldrums of eco- nomic and political stagna- tion, Donald Trump’s bold rhetoric, a stark departure from the normal fare, seemed to be a strong wind. It didn’t really matter whether that wind was blowing America forwards or backwards — to- wards a safe harbor or fur- ther out to sea. At least, for the irst time in six years, there seemed to be some movement. When one is stuck in the same place for what seems like an eternity, even going back- wards can seem like making progress. The pressing unanswered question of why Wall Street got bailed out while Main Street loundered was never successfully answered came back to jobs that paid less, ofered fewer beneits and demanded more of their labor. American workers were hailed by economists for their increasing productivity, although, to most workers, it just seemed like a pay cut. Never had industrial perfor- mance and the state of the labor market seemed less con- gruent; and this strained an unspoken assumption about the trickle-down beneits of capitalism. The twin monsters of insult- ed national pride and injured economic prospects began to foment a visceral, growing resentment to the economic Street loundered was never successfully answered either by a Republican Congress or a Democratic White House. The midterm elections of 2010 promised to bring about major changes as a Tea Party insurgency came to power in Congress. However, the insur- gency did not prove strong enough to enact its agenda – slashing government debt and spending on entitlements, and reducing regulatory bur- dens on small businesses. Not able to advance its’ own agen- da, The Republican Congress settled for a role as a spoiler caucus, mainly concerned with preventing the Obama Read the rest of this commentary at TheSkanner.com
