#NNPA BlackPress
Maui, The GOP Debate, an Ex-President’s Arrest, Who Shall Lead America?
By Emil Guillermo On a week that an ex-president is arrested and arraigned for an historic fourth time, one must wonder what kind of leader the American public really wants. Especially when the four-time indicted ex-president is leading all Republicans to be our next president. Here’s one measure. On Aug. 21, 1983, Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino, […]
The post Maui, The GOP Debate, an Ex-President’s Arrest, Who Shall Lead America? first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

By Emil Guillermo
On a week that an ex-president is arrested and arraigned for an historic fourth time, one must wonder what kind of leader the American public really wants.
Especially when the four-time indicted ex-president is leading all Republicans to be our next president.
Here’s one measure. On Aug. 21, 1983, Benigno (Ninoy) Aquino, the Philippine political activist in exile in the U.S., went home to win back freedom for Filipinos living under the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.
Aquino never made it out of the airport, assassinated on the tarmac, apparently by a single gunman. After an investigation, his murder was pinned to 16 members of the Philippine Army loyal to Marcos.
Within 10 days of the assassination, I was in Manila at Santo Domingo Church reporting for the San Francisco NBC station from the funeral Mass, and then observing the procession to the Manila Memorial Park.
More than 2 million people were in the streets following the casket of Ninoy, their exiled leader. But they were also angered by the lost chance at real democracy.
That demonstration was the precursor to People Power, which would lift up Ninoy’s wife, Cory Aquino, and ultimately topple Marcos.
I have never seen 2 million people in one place, before or since.
That’s the spark missing in American politics. We just don’t have leaders who are beloved and respected as we’ve had in the past.
Instead, we have a personality cult that has a stranglehold on our politics. And even after this week, some people still won’t quit the indicted one.
Think of the Philippines. Could we even see 2 million people on the streets for a real bi-partisan pro-democracy movement in the U.S. today?
Maui Disaster a Test in Leadership
President Joe Biden went to Maui on Monday, as he should. Last week, he announced $700 per household in cash aid to victims of the Maui wildfires. By Friday, FEMA pledged $5.6 million in assistance to nearly 2,000 families in Maui. But money isn’t everything. This will be the time for Uncle Joe to act like ohana (family).
We needed to see some compassion from Biden. And he delivered. He wasn’t like Trump who threw toilet paper at the Puerto Ricans in 2017 after Hurricane Maria.
In Maui, Biden stood by a surviving banyan tree, saw it as a symbol, and vowed that the whole country will be behind Maui. And then he said the government would be respectful of the traditions, and “rebuild the way that the people of Maui want.”
That was an important acknowledgment if you know Hawaiian history.
We need leaders to admit that Hawaii is ground zero for a form of economic imperialism. A reminder about how Hawaii did not come begging for statehood and how it was made a U.S. protectorate via a coup staged against her.
Those are the words of Marianne Williamson from her Substack article, “Hawaii’s Broken Heart.”
“Hawaii is deeply sacred land,” she wrote “And her heart has been wounded by the soulless economic overreach of everyone from Dole to Monsanto.”
Specifically, James Drummond Dole, who was known as “The Pineapple King.” Aided by exploited Filipino labor, he colonized the spiky fruit and sent it around the world.
He was inspired by his cousin Sanford Dole, a Republican appointed by the U.S. imperial president William McKinley as territorial governor. That wasn’t enough for Dole, who then led a coup against Queen Lili’uokalani in 1893 and became the first president of Hawaii.
Corruption, connections, and greed. This is how paradise has been co-opted in the past. In the modern day, it falls victim to the fury of climate change.
We’ve got to help Hawaii and make sure we don’t have another wildfire disaster that kills more than 100 people.
It can’t happen again.
“If this country cannot ramp down the fossil fuel extraction that is exacerbating these weather catastrophes, then the message is loud and clear that we are on the wrong road,” Williamson said last week.
Williamson is one of those candidates for president you don’t hear much about. She’s the other Democrat who is running, who speaks from the heart about people and government in a way that seems more honest and caring.
If more politicians talked like that, could we end our divides and work together? Or does the loving language of Williamson only deepen the divide?
It’s surely a moral rhetoric from left of center that exposes the right-wing theocracy and all its hypocrisies.
But few people talk about Marianne Williamson.
Maybe because she makes too much sense?
GOP’s Anti-Asian Hate and the Personal Debate of Tucker /Trump
You’re likely not going to hear much candor about Maui from Republicans at this week’s first GOP debate.
But there will be a debate, and Donald Trump won’t be there.
Trump will show his stranglehold on Republicans by refusing to debate the also-rans. Instead, at the same time, he’ll submit to an interview by the disgraced former Fox host Tucker Carlson, a noted Trump sycophant.
I will be watching the debates mostly because Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign has been exposed as adopting an anti-Asian, name-calling approach against Vivek Ramaswamy, the businessman who’s quickly catching up to DeSantis.
There’s a reason to go after Ramaswamy — wanting to cancel the Juneteenth holiday is one.
But what we’re seeing is standard after conservatives won the Harvard affirmative action case.
White people going after affirmative action was a no go. The folks who led the Harvard case saw that. With a white plaintiff, they lost. With an Asian plaintiff, they won.
So, the model for conservative causes will be to lead with the Asian. Let the ‘model minority’ do it. It may even be the reason we see so many Asians in local races leading conservative recall efforts.
Vivek is a congenial panderer who will do anything for attention – even rap like Eminem last week at the Iowa State Fair.
He’s making headway by being the likeable non-white white.
It hasn’t worked that well in this campaign for Nikki Haley. But it may yet work for Tim Scott.
For now, Vivek is the dynamo among the also-rans and it’s getting to DeSantis. If you hear DeSantis say “Vivek the Fake,” you’ll know he is running out of gas.
Call it model minority politics, acceptable for white consumption. And after the conservative win over Harvard to defeat affirmative action, expect to see more of that in the future.
It’s fighting race with the non-white face.
You won’t get 2 million marching in the streets. But it gets a candidate what he needs in our polarized society, one more vote than the minority.
Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See his web talk show on http://www.amok.com
The post Maui, The GOP Debate, an Ex-President’s Arrest, Who Shall Lead America? first appeared on Post News Group. This article originally appeared in Post News Group.
The post Maui, The GOP Debate, an Ex-President’s Arrest, Who Shall Lead America? first appeared on BlackPressUSA.
#NNPA BlackPress
PRESS ROOM: Top Climate Organizations React to Trump’s Executive Orders Attacking Health, Environment, Climate and Clean Energy Jobs
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Climate Action Campaign (CAC), along with partners and allies, voiced strong concerns about the executive orders and the confirmation of Lee Zeldin as the 17th Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

Voice concerns about the New EPA Administrator
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump wasted no time implementing the Project 2025 playbook. Within his first hours as the 47th President, he issued executive orders aimed at dismantling crucial climate, health, and economic protections, which could have dire consequences for the country and the environment. His actions of disservice to our communities on the first day of his presidency coincided with Martin Luther King Jr. Day which was meant for service and reflection. The policies introduced by President Trump, along with his new Environmental Protection Agency administrator, stand in stark contrast to the spirit of Dr. King’s commitments to service others and improve society.
Climate Action Campaign (CAC), along with partners and allies, voiced strong concerns about the executive orders and the confirmation of Lee Zeldin as the 17th Environmental Protection Agency administrator. “The new administration has moved to undo hard-earned generational progress like Justice40 that was created to ensure every American has an opportunity to be healthy and thrive,” said Dr. Margo Browne, Senior Vice President of Justice and Equity, at Environmental Defense Fund. “These actions threaten the rights of tens of millions of Americans to breathe clean air, drink clean water, and use products free of toxic chemicals, particularly those people whose zip code or race add undue burdens.
We must stay focused. Leaders change, but our work remains the same. And we will do everything we can to uphold the progress made with our partners and allies and to uplift the people on the frontlines fighting for equity every day.” “As we enter into an era of weaponized phrases and issues, we must remember that environmental justice means that all people should have equitable access to a healthy, sustainable, and resilient environment,” said Leslie Fields, Chief Federal Officer, WE ACT For Environmental Justice. “Trump’s day one acts – including rescissions of nearly 80 vital executive orders while adding dozens of new, anti-democratic orders – roll back popular policies that promote clean, renewable, and affordable energy. These actions also place vulnerable communities in even greater danger from pollution and the dire, real-time consequences of the climate crisis. In the face of these assaults, we will not stop pursuing justice.”
“The President of the United States is elected to lead and protect all Americans,” said Ben Jealous, Executive Director, Sierra Club. “Donald Trump promised to be a president who fights for working families, but his bluster of action shows he’s fighting harder to protect corporate polluters and their profits, all at the expense of our health, our safety, and our jobs. The American people want cheaper energy bills, safe drinking water, and clean air. Donald Trump should listen and offer actual solutions instead of exploiting their pain for political gain while he further lines the pockets of the wealthiest instead of American workers.”
On the Confirmation of Lee Zeldin, 17th administrator of the EPA:
“Lee Zeldin’s confirmation as EPA administrator is a catastrophic blow to the health of Americans, the climate, and the economy,” said Margie Alt, Director, Climate Action Campaign. “Under Zeldin’s leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency will no longer protect the American people and our communities – it will protect polluters. Zeldin’s public statements and record make it clear he will implement Trump’s anti-science, anti-clean energy Project 2025 agenda, prioritizing the interests of oil and gas CEOs at the expense of the clean air, water, and energy that Americans overwhelmingly support and rely on. Americans deserve an EPA administrator who will prioritize the health and safety of families over polluter profits. Zeldin’s confirmation is a tragic failure for all Americans.”
“The new head of the EPA must ensure that neither he nor the President denies vulnerable communities their most basic rights—the right to breathe clean air, drink water free from poison, and live on land that does not make them sick,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali, Executive Vice President, National Wildlife Federation. “Environmental Justice is not a privilege; it is the foundation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To neglect it is to abandon the people who need protection the most.” “Confirming a director who normalizes baseless conspiracies, while failing to earnestly accept the facts of climate change, is a threat to the health of everyone in the United States and especially the most vulnerable Justice 40 communities,” said KeShaun Pearson, Executive Director, Memphis Community Against Pollution. “Lee Zeldin is the antithesis of environment and climate justice. We are amid a climate crisis that demands a protector, not a big oil pawn.” Climate Action Campaign is a vibrant coalition of advocacy organizations working together to drive ambitious, durable federal action to cut carbon pollution, address the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and accelerate the transition to clean energy.
#NNPA BlackPress
BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2025 We Proclaim It
NNPA NEWSWIRE — In the history of this country, in the ongoing fight against racial oppression, against a white supremacist narrative, and against the racial apartheid laws that were passed and upheld, there have always been gear-shifting moments when individual people have taken a stand.

By Dr. Karsonya Wise Whitehead
Former Georgia Representative Julian Bond and Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver once said that when Rosa Parks chose to stay seated on that bus in Montgomery, Alabama, somewhere in the universe, a gear in the machinery shifted, and everything changed.
A gear-shifting moment.
In the history of this country, in the ongoing fight against racial oppression, against a white supremacist narrative, and against the racial apartheid laws that were passed and upheld, there have always been gear-shifting moments when individual people have taken a stand. It happened in 1850, when Harriet Araminta Tubman, a year after her self-emancipation, chose to go back to Baltimore, Maryland, to help lead her niece and her niece’s two children to freedom. A gear shifted. It happened in 1770, when Crispus Attucks, a Black and Indigenous sailor and whaler, chose to get involved with the growing kerfuffle in Boston. In 1864, when the 22nd Infantry Regiment of the U.S. Colored Troops marched from Camp William Penn through the streets of Philadelphia on their way to fight, gear shifted.
When Mamie Till told them in 1955 to leave her son’s casket open so that the world could see what those white men had done to her son, a gear in the machinery of the universe shifted, it happened again in 1966 with Kwame Ture and Mukasa Dada’s declaration of Black Power after the “March Against Fear.” In 2014, after police officers killed unarmed Eric Garner in New York and unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Black people came together under the banner and hashtag of Black Lives Matter to march, protest, and demand change. Gears shift when we choose to fight, when we choose to stand up, and when we refuse to back down. The moral arc of the universe does not bend on its own toward justice, it bends because we push it and because we are willing to continue to do it until change does happen.
In 1926, when Dr. Carter G. Woodson—the founder of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), the son of formerly enslaved parents, a former sharecropper and miner, and the second Black person to receive a Ph.D. in History from Harvard University—sent out a press release announcing the first Negro History Week, a gear shifted. He chose February because the Black community was already celebrating the historic achievements on the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln (2/12) and Frederick Douglass (2/14). Dr. Woodson did not wait for the celebration of our history to be proclaimed, he proclaimed it. He did not wait for someone to permit him to celebrate what we had contributed to this country, he celebrated it. Dr. Woodson understood that Black parents had been teaching their children our history since we arrived in this country. Our stories and achievements had been carried by the wind and buried in the soil. It had been whispered as bedtime stories, spoken from the pulpits on Sunday mornings, and woven throughout our songs and poems of resistance and survival. America did not have to tell us who we were to this country; we told them.
[This post contains video, click to play]
America did not have to tell us that we built this country, our fingerprints are etched into the stone. America does not have to proclaim Black History Month, we proclaim it. We live in the legacy of Dr. Woodson, and as we have done for 98 years, we will celebrate who we are and all that we have accomplished. We stand at the intersection of the past and the future; what we do at this moment will determine how the next gear shifts. The 2025 Black History Month theme is African Americans and Labor, which focuses on the various and profound ways that work and working of all kinds – free and unfree, skilled and unskilled, vocational and voluntary – intersect with the collective experiences of Black people and the transformational work that we have done throughout the U.S., Africa, and the Diaspora. We are celebrating our visible labor—from the work we did back then to build the White House to the work we do right now to hold the White House accountable, from repairing the roads to teaching in our schools, from stocking shelves to packing and unloading trucks; from working in the federal government to our ongoing labor in the state and local offices—and, our invisible labor—from raising and teaching our children to caring for our aging family members, from finding ways to practice revolutionary self-care to finding ways to hope beyond hope in a country that frequently targets and terrorizes Black people. We bear witness to what it means to work hard every day and to get sick and tired of working so hard.
As the president of ASALH, one of the many legacy keepers of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, I am excited to proclaim and uplift the start of Black History Month 2025. I believe that ASALH is a lighthouse that you do not notice until you need it. When boats are caught in a storm or fog, they look for the lighthouse to help guide them safely back to the shore. We have been standing as a lighthouse proudly proclaiming the importance of Black History and helping people to understand that it is only through studying the quilted narrative of our historical journey that one can see the silences, blind spots, hypocrisies, and distortions of American history. We do not celebrate because we are given permission, we celebrate because we are the permission givers. We do not wait for Black History Month to be proclaimed, we proclaim it. We do not wait to be seen, we see ourselves. We do not have to be told the story of America because we are writing it, we are telling it, we are owning it, and we are pointing the way to it. We invite you to join us as we once again celebrate and center the incredible contributions that Black people have made to this beautiful and imperfect nation.
Dr. Karsonya (Kaye) Wise Whitehead is the 30th person and the eighth woman to serve as the national president of ASALH. She is a professor of Communication and African and African American Studies at Loyola University Maryland and the host of the award-winning radio show “Today with Dr. Kaye” on WEAA, 88.9 FM. She is the author of the recently released “my mother’s tomorrow: dispatches from Baltimore’s Black Butterfly” and a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She lives in Baltimore with her family.
#NNPA BlackPress
Black Reaction to Trump DEI Blame on The Plane Crash
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Before the completed investigation officially began, President Trump laid the blame for the accident on the Army helicopter. He felt it should have been flying at a different altitude, higher or lower, than the jet

By April Ryan
“We are dealing with a vicious adversary,” according to Rev. Al Sharpton, the head of the National Action Network speaking of President Donald Trump and his hate diatribe Thursday morning. President Trump blamed DEI, the Obama and Biden administrations along with former Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg for the deadly midair crash over the Potomac last night. 67 people died after an accident between an American Airline Plane and an Army Helicopter. When asked why President Trump thought diversity had something to do with the crash, he said,” I have common sense and most people don’t.” Reverend Al, who is investigating the impact of the Trump anti-DEI efforts in retail believes Trump is “obsessed with race” and he is a “raw, insensitive, uncaring man.”
Former Secretary Buttigieg immediately went to social media making a statement saying, Trump should be leading, not lying.” Buttigieg also fact-checked Trump saying we grew Air Traffic Control and had zero commercial airline crash fatalities out of millions of flights on our watch.” Pete Buttigieg (@PeteButtigieg) / X During Trump’s rant on DEI at the White House briefing room podium, he asserted, “the FAA’s diversity push includes a focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. And then it says, the FAA says, people with severe disabilities, the most underrepresented segment of the workforce, and they want them in, and they want them. They can be air traffic controllers. I don’t think so.” Trump went on to say the prior administrations felt those departments were “too white.”
According to reports FAA staffing has been an issue since Inauguration Day January 20, 2025. Also, Elon Musk, the head of the White House Office of Government Efficiency is reported to have asked the head of the FAA to resign. Musk FAA Ax Former Black Obama Administration Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx exclusively told this reporter after the Trump statements,” I would caution against any definitive conclusions until that work [investigation] is done by trained, experienced professionals.”
Foxx, who also worked as a transportation consultant in the Biden administration admonished the Trump address saying, “There is no sugar-coating the tragic midair collision that occurred last night. In my experience, safety has always been the number one focus of the Federal Aviation Administration.” Foxx says there is a safety mission to be completed after this tragedy. “There is a well-practiced root cause process that has been taken in the past. It should be used now with competent professionals. A comprehensive, fact-based investigation will answer the many questions we all have. It would also help guard against future accidents of this type,” according to the transportation expert.
Before the completed investigation officially began, President Trump laid the blame for the accident on the Army helicopter. He felt it should have been flying at a different altitude, higher or lower, than the jet. When it comes to the president’s corrosive comments, reaction has been swift from the civil rights community. In a statement from the President and CEO of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Derrick Johnson, “The NAACP is disgusted by this display of unpresidential, divisive behavior.” Johnson told this reporter in a text message, “The President has made his decision to put politics over people abundantly clear as he uses the highest office in the land to sow hatred rooted in falsehoods instead of providing us with the leadership we need and deserve.”
As Trump worked to distract with his words on DEI, the questions still abound as to what caused the deadly plane crash. Former Sec. Foxx, immediately following the fatal crash last night said. “My worst fear is that something happened with the avionics. I hope and expect that this is not the case. But most aircraft these days run in a form of GPS. Could a warning system have failed? But then, how can two systems fail? That leads to some even more grave concerns about interference with the systems. There are many other potential causes.”
-
Activism4 weeks ago
Barbara Lee Launches Campaign for Mayor of Oakland
-
Activism4 weeks ago
Oakland Post: Week of January 8 – 14, 2025
-
#NNPA BlackPress4 weeks ago
Supreme Court Decision Confirms Convicted Felon Will Assume Presidency
-
Activism3 weeks ago
Oakland Post: Week of January 15 – 21, 2025
-
Activism2 weeks ago
Oakland Post: Week of January 22 – 28, 2025
-
#NNPA BlackPress2 weeks ago
Trump’s First Week Back in Office Marked by Racist Actions, Rollback of Worker Protections
-
Activism1 week ago
Oakland Poll: Tell Us What You Think About the Cost of Groceries in Oakland
-
#NNPA BlackPress2 weeks ago
Nancy Leftenant-Colon, Trailblazing Army Nurse and Air Force Veteran, Dies at 104