Stevie Wonder wants us to come together. The legendary artist dropped a
new track on Friday (Aug. 30), fittingly titled, “Can We Fix Our
Nation’s Broken Heart?”
The track features a strong call for unity over an acoustic guitar as
he demands in the hook: “Can we fix our nation’s broken heart?/ Are we
brave enough to try?”
While the song is not political in its lyrics, the track’s release is
timely with the presidential elections coming up in November. Wonder
took the stage on the third night of the Democratic National Convention
earlier this month, sharing some powerful remarks for the audience
before performing “Higher Ground,” off his 1973 album, Innervisions.
“This is a moment to tell your children where you were and what you
did,” he declared. “When we stand between history’s pain and tomorrows
promises we must choose courage complacency.”
The song features breezy harmonica solo by Wonder, who according to info posted on his YouTube channel,
also contributed piano, bass, and percussion to the track. The tune
also features a fluid acoustic guitar from Japanese musician Kay-Ta.
Wonder co-wrote “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” with Mauli
Bonner, a vocal director and screenplay writer.
Wonder’s message in his new song is clear, as he implores people to find common ground
“Can we fix our nation’s broken heart? / Are we brave enough to try?”
he sings. “Can we fix our nation’s broken heart, and leave a better
world behind? / ’Cause if we listen to different thoughts and point of
views / All my brothers and sisters, we don’t have to lose humanity /
We’re family.”
The single’s cover image is a black-and-white photo of Wonder his
right hand across his heart. On his jacket is a red, heart-shaped
brooch.
She also thanked him for playing the instrument after she accepted iHeartRadio‘s Innovator Award, from the legendary musician, earlier this year.
“Thank you so much Stevie, I love you. I love you and I honour you. I
want to thank you for making a way for all of us,” she said at the
time.
“I’m honoured to receive this recognition from you, Stevie Wonder.
Whenever anyone asks me if there’s anyone I can listen to for the rest
of my life, it’s always you. So thank you, God bless you.”
Beyoncé then added: “And thank you for playing the harmonica on ‘Jolene’.”
Friday August 30, 2024. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz sit down with CNN,
the Convicted Felon and Miss Sassy continues to struggle as fire
fighters openly boo JD, Jill Stein in all her Unbearable Whiteness of
Being signifies political death for the Green Party, and much more.
Last
night, CNN aired their interview (conducted by Dana Bash) with the
Democratic Party's presidential ticket of Kamala Harris (presidential
nominee) and Tim Walz (vice presidential nominee).
Asked what she would do on Day 1, Harris said she would look for ways
to “strengthen” the middle class and start trying to implement her
“Opportunity Economy” plan she laid out last week to bring prices down
and try to make homes more affordable.
Specifically, Harris talked in this interview about:
Extending a $6,000 child tax credit to families for first year of a child’s life, and her
A $25,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit
She
has noted other proposals in the course of this truncated campaign,
like wanting to try to pass the John Lewis voting rights bill, which
Republicans have blocked, and wanting to revive the border-security bill
Biden drafted with conservative Republicans that Trump opposed and the
GOP-led House then killed.
In all, the joint interview in Savannah with her running
mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz – their first since becoming the Democratic
presidential ticket – provided one of the clearest looks into Harris’
positions and her plans for the presidency.
Asked to describe her day-one objectives should she win,
Harris did not list any specific steps, like signing executive actions
or orders.
Instead, she reiterated her focus on strengthening the
economy: “First and foremost, one of my highest priorities is to do what
we can to support and strengthen the middle class.”
In the post-convention phase of the race, Harris is seeking
to address scrutiny of her record and add substance to her pitch to
American voters on how she would govern if elected president.
Harris also said she would be open to appointing a Republican member of her Cabinet.
"I've
got 68 days to go with this election, so I'm not putting the cart
before the horse," Harris said. "But I would, I think. I think it's
really important. I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I
think it's important to have people at the table when some of the most
important decisions are being made that have different views, different
experiences. And I think it would be to the benefit of the American
public to have a member of my Cabinet who was a Republican."
Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance, apparently believing Trump’s ticket needed even more misogyny,
suggested in a social media post Thursday that Harris would be
incapable of holding her own. It is as it has ever been since Trump has
been on the political stage: We watch to see if anything Trump says
isn’t a lie, and we watch to see if other politicians say anything
that’s the least bit false. In an ideal world, nobody would have been
sitting on the edge of their seats wondering if Harris would sound
knowledgeable or prepared for an interview — if only because she could
never sound less knowledgeable or less prepared than her opponent so
often does.
Oh, Miss Sassy
JD Vance has to inject himself always. If he's not the belle of the
ball, you know he's crying in the punch bowl. And it was already a
rough week for Miss Sassy. Mike covered some of it in "Oh, Miss Sassy JD Vance, what's gotten into you?"
noting that, while the International Association of Fire Fighters in
Boston strongly welcomed Tim Walz's appearance this week, they booed
JD. Poor Miss Sassy. Then there was JD's insistence that Kamala could
"go to hell."
Actually, oddsmakers in Vegas will tell you JD's got a stronger chance of doing that. Mike notes:
The
same report tells you that Miss Sassy was boasting of how no
teleprompter was needed and Miss Sassy doesn't make mistakes like Kamala
Harris. But then he spoke of Arlington Cemetery families who had died
in Afghanistan's Abby Gate . . . but Miss Sassy called it Abbey Road.
ABBEY ROAD, for those who don't know, is a Beatles album. (Also the favorite Beatles album of my wife Elaine.)
Oh, Miss Sassy. You are the dumbest drag queen in all the land.
Miss Sassy may also be the bitchiest. Miss Sassy declared Kamala Harris "can go to hell."
Why?
I
have no idea. Maybe she wore a dress that Miss Sassy was planning to
debut? Maybe Miss Sassy was feeling bloated and Kamala looked like
Kamala (she's an attractive woman) and it was too much for Miss Sassy.
Who knows why Miss Sassy ever does what Miss Sassy does?
JD
remains an enigma. It's even a big question mark as to how he got on
the ticket -- the sinking ticket. As Ruth explains in "As a nation, we have reached our fill with the Convicted Felon,"
Donald's appearance at Arlington Cemetery involved his staff attacking a
worker there as he used the setting for political purposes -- which are
prohibited:
That
is disgusting as is Mr. Trump. Charges should have been filed over the
assault -- that is what it was -- and he needs to take down the videos
immediately.
He will not
because he has no respect for anyone who served in the military. He
continues to spit on those people. He is corrupt and is rotting before
our eyes.
It really is outrageous. The Convicted Felon's running mate Miss Sassy insists that it is no big deal, it is "little."
I think Miss Sassy may have been looking in his Fruit of the Looms when
he found something "little." Or maybe he tapes it down when he gets
into his wig and women's clothes?
On Thursday morning the panel on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" was stunned by Donald Trump's faltering presidential campaign which is finding itself spending precious time pushing back on gaffes and scandals as it slips behind in the polls.
With fill-in host Jonathan Lemire pointing to blowback from Trump's controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery for
a photo-op which has resulted a furious backlash from veterans and
their families, he also highlighted Republican vice presidential nominee
J.D. Vance telling Vice President Kamala Harris to "go to hell."
That led one MSNBC political analyst to claim the Trump campaign is derailing itself.
Noting
that a complaint was made about Trump aides engaging an altercation
with a cemetery staffer that then allegedly led to Trump's spokesperson
attacking that person afterward, Lemire remarked, "In a normal campaign,
campaign of years past, if there had been an altercation between a
staffer, a campaign staffer and someone who works the cemetery, it'd be
the campaign staffer immediately fired or at least suspended."
"Instead,
we have the Trump team doubling, tripling down, and defending that
staffer and attacking the person at the cemetery," he added. "It does
reiterate what the Harris team is saying and others in the political
world are saying: the nation is exhausted by Donald Trump."
Yes, I do believe we have all reached our fill.
Yes,
Donald's campaign continues to sputter along -- this despite the
glowing endorsements from the charisma free Tulsi Gabbard and Robert
Kennedy Junior. Someone thought those two could pull in voters. The
only thing anyone wants to hear from Junior is him answering how guilty
he feels for cheating on Cheryl Hines.
It's
the gruesome Jill Stein, Green Party presidential nominee. For the
third time. Some e-mails to the public account are asking me about the
Green Party and the White remark. Isaiah's did the cartoon, you could
certainly ask him. Ann has her own community site and she is and was raised a Green so you could ask her that (as well as why she's voting for Kamala Harris -- the first time she's ever voted for a Democratic presidential nominee).
But
sure, I'll take a crack at it. The Green Party has never been able to
build upon the 2000 momentum -- in part because after Ralph Nader pulled
in voters, they wouldn't let him on their ticket again.
Ralph's
Arab-American. We all realize, right, that the only other person of
color in the party's history to be named their presidential nominee was
Cynthia McKinney.
In retrospect, that bold move
looks more craven with each day. I'm not insulting Cynthia but I am
pointing out that in 2008 the Democrats ran Barack Obama.
So would Cynthia have gotten the nomination if it weren't for Barack?
The
Green Party is awfully White for a new party that supposedly wants to
lead this country into the future. And who knew that like Donald Trump,
they don't support diversity and inclusion?
Or do even Greens ignore their own party at this point?
This week, a press release from the Green Party opened:
The
new co-chairs are Cassandra Lems (from New York), Justin Paglino
(Connecticut), and Charles Ostdiek (Nebraska). Brief biographies of all
three follow below.
How sweet. Three spots open and our 'left' Green Party finds three White people to fill each spot.
National Green Party, your true colors are showing and they scream "Racist!"
They're
the GOP, that's all they are now. They committed political suicide by
making Jill their nominee for the third time. The party really needs to
run one person three times? There's no one else in the party that can
run?
As the geriatric nature of our
representatives becomes a bigger and bigger issue after the deaths of
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Senator Dianne Feinstein,
as people say Donald Trump's too old to be running and said the same of
Joe Biden before he stepped aside in July, the Green Party wants to
pretend to show us an 'alternative' with 74-year-old Jill Stein?
The
same Jill Stein who promised before she was officially the nominee that
her running mate would be a Palestinian American and that this was
important because of the genocide in Gaza. But then that dropped down
to an Arab-American. And then, in the end, an African-American man who
was Muslim.
You're not seeing the Whitness of
that party? They're never going to win a presidential election. So
they nominate a White person to get attention and no one pays attention
to the running mate.
In 2020, Howie Hawkins had
an interesting running mate, Angela Walker. She actually had enough
for several human interest features in the press. But the press wasn't
interested and the Green Party wasn't interested in selling her to the
press or calling out the silence from the press because their v.p. slot
is not important to them. It's just a name and they don't promote the
people in that slot -- they don't promote them in terms of to the media
or, for that matter, in terms of the party itself.
Rosa
Clemente, Angela Walker, Ajamu Baraka, Winona LaDuke -- do we want to
go down the full list of people of color that the Green Party has
repeatedly tokenized?
They're good enough to be
v.p. nominees but apparently not to ever graduate above that. No, they
can run Jill Stein for president three times but they won't run Rosa
even once.
You don't get the racist nature of leadership within the national Green Party?
In
the Democratic Party? Joe Biden was Barack Obama's vice president.
And Joe could work up to being the party's nominee. Kamala was Joe's
vice president and running mate and could rise to the party's nominee.
But
over at the Green Party, where they tokenize the vice presidential
nominee, they never let them move up the chain. Instead, it's trot that
elderly (and annoying) White woman Jill Stein for a third run while
pretending that the Green Party finally has something to offer this
presidential election cycle.
B-b-b-but Cornel West!!!!
The People's Party wanted Cornel as their nominee.
Had
Cornel run for the Green Party's nomination, there's a chance -- strong
-- that he would have gotten it. He is running as an independent
candidate instead.
Why? Because he would have been a puppet, because he was lied to, because he was tricked.
White
Mama Jill Stein's attacks on Cornel started early on and they are about
what she fears he will spill because, while Cornel's called out some of
the nonsense Jill pulled, he hasn't called out all of it. She knows it
would destroy her.
And the other liar? If
you've not noticed, he's not endorsed Jill. He always endorses Jill.
But he's afraid endorsing Jill right now would tick Cornel off so much
that Cornel would spill all the beans.
So
congratulations to Jill Stein for helping the Green Party commit
assisted suicide. In 2024, they're running the same White woman for the
third time. While pretending to be the voice of the future, the voice
of Young America. But in each step that they take, they make sure the
country registers that it's eternally 1953 for them. BROWN V BOARD OF
EDUCATION comes along in 1954 and that's just change the Green Party
can't support or get behind.
Until
that party gets its act together, people of color will always be
rendered Tituba to Jill Stein's Elizabeth Parris and Abigail Williams.
Turning to Gaza, Tom Bennett (BBC NEWS) reports, "Israel has agreed to a series of 'humanitarian pauses' in Gaza to allow for the vaccination of children
against polio, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. The
campaign will aim to vaccinate around 640,000 children across the Gaza
strip and will begin on Sunday, senior WHO official Rik Peeperkorn said."
Polio
is a risk in Gaza because the area has been reduced to rubble and
public infrastructure is gone leading to desperate living conditions.
So isn't it interesting the wording used? "Humanitarian pause." In
genocide? They keep up this misreporting and War Criminal Netanyahu is
going to end up with a Nobel Peace Prize.
“The way we
discussed and agreed, the campaign will start on September 1, in central
Gaza, for three days, and there will be a humanitarian pause during the
vaccinations,” said Rik Peeperkorn, the WHO representative for the
Palestinian territories.
That
will be followed by another three-day pause in southern Gaza, then
another in the north, but more days may be needed to complete the
vaccination programmes, Mr Peeperkorn said.
Mr Peeperkorn
said the aim is to vaccinate 640,000 children under the age of 10 and
that the campaign has been co-ordinated with Israeli authorities.
“I’m
not going to say this is the ideal way forward but this is a workable
way forward,” he said. “It will happen and should happen because we have
an agreement.”
The
pauses are not the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that mediators
from the US, Egypt and Qatar have been seeking, including in talks that
are taking place this week.
An Israeli official said a tactical pause is expected to allow for vaccinations. The Israeli army has previously announced pauses in limited areas to allow for international humanitarian operations.
Mr
Peeperkorn said the campaigns are being planned in close collaboration
with aid agencies, Gaza's Health Ministry and other agencies.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has announced that it is
suspending staff movement across Gaza after Israeli forces attacked WFP
employees in a vehicle this week, as hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians starve under Israel’s famine campaign.
On Tuesday, an armored WFP vehicle was approaching an Israeli checkpoint in central Gaza when Israeli forces shot the vehicle 10 times,
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said. None of the staff members were
hurt. The workers had been returning from escorting a convoy of trucks
carrying humanitarian aid to central Gaza.
A picture of the vehicle shared by the group shows that it was
clearly marked as a UN car, and WFP noted that the group had received
“multiple clearances” from Israeli officials for its route.
The group said on Wednesday that its movement is paused “until
further notice.” WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain condemned the
attack as “totally unacceptable.”
“As last night’s events show, the current deconfliction system is
failing and this cannot go on any longer,” said McCain. “I call on the
Israeli authorities and all parties to the conflict to act immediately
to ensure the safety and security of all aid workers in Gaza.”
Gaza remains under assault. Day 326 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza
by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction.
But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge
for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel,
the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover
for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.
Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily
basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to
school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe
Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll.
The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom
believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The
slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US
Congressional Research Service. THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll rises to 40,602, with 93,855 wounded." Early on, Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) pointed out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned
the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." Months ago, United Nations Women noted,
"More than
1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza --
have
been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million
women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million
people -- are in crisis levels of of acute food insecurity or worse." Months
ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained
on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000
Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of
their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe
Lazzarini Tweeted:
April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as
killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000
Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has
estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into
Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."
An Israeli missile hit a convoy bringing supplies to a UAE hospital
in Gaza, killing several people from a local transport company, aid
officials said on Friday.
Thursday's strike on Salah Al Din Road
targeted vehicles bringing medical supplies and fuel to the Emirates Red
Crescent Hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza, said the
American Near East Refugee Aid non-governmental organisation.
Sandra
Rasheed, Anera’s director for the Palestinian territories, said a
number of people employed by a Gazan company were killed.
“The
convoy, which was co-ordinated by Anera and approved by Israeli
authorities, included an Anera employee who was fortunately unharmed,”
Ms Rasheed added.
She said the convoy was able to continue and deliver aid to the hospital.
An
Israeli army spokesman claimed that troops opened fire after gunmen had
seized the convoy. The military did not provide evidence of this.
Anera said it would release more information on Friday.
The Biden administration is
urging Israel's military to make major changes to its evacuation
policies in Gaza. That's according to a U.S. Embassy memo obtained by
NPR. It comes after the Israeli military has significantly increased
evacuation orders for Palestinians in Gaza over the past month. Those
orders are driving tens of thousands of civilians into smaller and
smaller areas. The memo, dated yesterday, warned that that pace of
evacuation orders could, quote, "debilitate remaining humanitarian
operations in Gaza." We're joined now by NPR's Kat Lonsdorf in Tel Aviv.
Hi, Kat.
KAT LONSDORF, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: Kat, tell us more about this memo. Where did it come from, and what else does it say?
LONSDORF:
Yeah. So it was a diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem
addressed to Secretary of State, Antony Blinken. It contained an
assessment by officials from the U.S. Agency for International
Development, USAID, on the effects of Israel's evacuation orders on the
Palestinian population. And it had some very strong language in it. For
example, it said the Israeli military, quote, "has issued evacuation
orders under unsafe conditions and in quick succession and with little
warning before operations begin," saying that this has led to civilian
harm.
It also talked about the so-called humanitarian
zones. These are small slices of land that the Israeli military says
will be safe for Palestinians to shelter. The memo said they had, quote,
"long been problematic." That echoes warnings from aid groups who say
that it has become near-impossible to get to these areas, and
Palestinians describe them as crowded, with squalid conditions, little
access to clean water or bathrooms.
SUMMERS: I mean, given
that in this moment evacuation orders are increasingly frequent, the
timing of this memo feels really significant.
LONSDORF:
Yeah. That's right. There have been at least 16 evacuation orders just
this month, according to the U.N. It's a huge increase from what we've
seen in the previous 10-plus months of war there. And one thing to note
is that these evacuation orders don't get lifted by the Israeli
military. So basically, if an evacuation order was issued back in
October, when the war began, it's still in effect today. That means that
areas deemed safe are steadily shrinking. The U.N. estimates more than
88% of Gaza is under evacuation orders right now.
SUMMERS:
Kat, as I understand it, this memo also indicates that the U.S.
government has urged the Israeli military to change the way it handles
evacuations. Tell us how.
LONSDORF: Yeah. So the memo
basically acknowledged that the likelihood of Israel stopping these
evacuations was low. So instead, it focused on how the Israeli military
could be doing them differently. It said the U.S. government has
advocated for three main things - one, for Israel to rescind evacuation
orders it no longer deemed necessary to allow for greater freedom of
movement for people; two, to wait at least 48 hours to begin military
operations after an evacuation order is issued to allow civilians more
time to safely leave; and three, to protect humanitarian sites and allow
for ongoing accessibility.
