THEOCRACY IN AMERICA - South Carolina

"theocracy" noun

1. Government under the control of a state-sponsored religion. (like Iran)
2. Rule by a God.

They are trying (over and over) to impose their religious belief on everyone else, by use of the law of the land.

"South Carolina places stringent new restrictions on abortions" PBS NewsHour 2/18/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  South Carolina is the latest state to place tough new restrictions on abortions.  It is part of a renewed focus on abortion access with a new conservative majority on the Supreme Court.  Gavin Jackson a public affairs reporter for South Carolina ETV, and Mary Ziegler a Florida State University law professor, join John Yang to discuss.

GREED FILE - Wal-Mart and Winnsboro, South Caroline

"What happens when Wal-Mart leaves small towns behind" by Christopher Booker, PBS NewsHour 2/20/2016

Lets see; first Wal-Mart opens almost killing any local business, then leaves town.  Typical 'we don't care' and 'money before people' big business.

Excerpt

Around 90 percent of Americans live within 10 miles of a Wal-Mart store, according to the company.  Residents of Winnsboro, South Carolina, however, are no longer part of that overwhelming majority.

In January, as part of a company-wide restructuring, Winnsboro's Wal-Mart became one of 154 stores that shuttered its doors across the country over the past year.  As with the rest of the closures, the town's employees were given two week's notice before the store closed for good, rapidly removing what had become a commercial and social center of the small, rural community for the past 18 years.

The debate over Wal-Mart is a heated one.  And while the effects of the store coming to town have been seen more frequently, less is known about an area's economic and social implications of when the big box giant pulls out.

What's clear in Winnsboro, though, is that Wal-Mart's exit could potentially transform the town as much as its arrival.

GUNS IN AMERICA - Mass Shootings

"Shooting at movie theater kills two, injures nine" PBS NewsHour 7/24/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A shooting at a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana, has left two dead, and nine injured.  The shooting comes in the wake of two recent mass shootings; one in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where four Marines and a sailor were killed; and another in Charleston, South Carolina, where nine members of the Charleston AME church were killed.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  We take a deeper look now at last night’s deadly shooting in Louisiana and the broader questions raised after tragedies involving guns.

William Brangham starts us off.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour):  Police and emergency responders quickly descended on the Grand 16 movie theater after gunfire erupted during a showing last night of the comedy “Trainwreck.”

WOMAN:  We were buying popcorn at the concession stand when a whole group of people, teenagers mainly, running out, telling everyone to run for their life.  And then we saw a lady with blood all over her leg.  I just grabbed my child.  I mean, we just all ran.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  The gunman, identified as 59-year-old John Russel Houser, opened fire on the crowd just 20 minutes into the film.  Investigators this morning characterized Houser as a drifter.

JIM CRAFT, Lafayette, Louisiana, Police Chief:  It is apparent that he was intent on shooting and then escaping.  What happened is that the quick law enforcement response forced him back into the theater, at which time he shot himself.

"Why is it so difficult to stop mass shootings in the U.S.?" PBS NewsHour 7/24/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Following recent mass shootings, NewsHour begins a series called “Guns in America” where we will talk with people intimately involved in the gun control debate.  Tonight we speak to author and advocate Mark Kelly, husband of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head in 2011, and Meghan Hoyer, part of the team at USA Today producing “Behind the Bloodshed:  The untold story of America’s mass killing.”

OPINION - Brooks and Dionne 7/10/2015

"Brooks and Dionne on Trump’s anti-immigrant talk, Confederate flag retirement" PBS NewsHour 7/10/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including whether presidential candidate Donald Trump is hurting the Republican party, the historic removal of the Confederate flag from South Carolina’s state house and whether Sen. Bernie Sanders’ momentum poses a viable challenge to Hillary Clinton.

SOUTH CAROLINA - The Confederate Battle Flag

"Decades of debate end with S.C. vote to remove Confederate flag" PBS NewsHour 7/9/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  After 54 years flying at the South Carolina state house, the Confederate battle flag is coming down.  The state legislature voted to remove the flag after pressure grew in the wake of a mass shooting at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston.  William Brangham reports on how the change is resonating in Washington.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM (NewsHour):  It was a moment that many, on both sides of the issue, thought would never come:  the Governor of South Carolina signing a bill to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the state capitol grounds.

GOV. NIKKI HALEY (R), South Carolina:  We are a state that believes in tradition.  We’re a state that believes in history.  We’re a state that believes in respect.  So we will bring it down with dignity, and we will make sure that it is put in its rightful place.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  Governor Nikki Haley’s actions mean the flag will be lowered tomorrow and taken to a museum for display.  All this follows 13 hours of debate in the state House that went into the early hours of this morning.  Lawmakers from both sides gave impassioned pleas, many of them, like Representative Jenny Anderson Horne, in favor of bringing down the flag.

JENNY HORNE (R), South Carolina State Representative:  I cannot believe that we do not have the heart in this body to do something meaningful, such as take a symbol of hate off these grounds on Friday.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM:  Others, including Representative Eric Bedingfield, objected to its removal.

ERIC BEDINGFIELD (R), South Carolina State Representative:  I understand that there are differing views on what a symbol represents.  It grieves me too that some people see that in a hurtful and dishonorable fashion.

SURVIVING DISASTERS - Rising Sea Levels, Two Cities, Two Responses

"Two cities, two very different responses to rising sea levels" PBS NewsHour 7/2/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  While New York City is taking aggressive action to prevent future catastrophes like Hurricane Sandy; other vulnerable cities, such as Charleston, South Carolina, are not tackling the threat of rising sea level and climate change with the same urgency.  Special correspondent Jackie Judd reports.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Tonight, the NewsHour begins a series on the way communities prepare and survive disasters, both natural and manmade.

NewsHour special correspondent Jackie Judd brings us a tale of two cities, both on the Atlantic Seaboard.

JACKIE JUDD (NewsHour):  The crane towering over Rockaway Beach is a symbol of New York City’s urgent, almost frantic effort to prevent a repeat of what happened in 2012, when Hurricane Sandy nearly brought the city to its knees.

DANIEL ZARRILLI, Mayor’s Office and Recovery and Resiliency, New York City:  We have 520 miles of shoreline. We have always been at risk of coastal inundation, but Sandy really changed the way we think about that risk and how we engage with the waterfront.

JACKIE JUDD:  The response is not simply about minimizing hurricane damage.  The larger issue, the issue making hurricanes more destructive, is sea level rise caused by climate change and a warming planet.

BENJAMIN STRAUSS, Climate Central:  We’re not labeling things with sea level rise when we should be.

JACKIE JUDD:  Ben Strauss is a scientist with the research organization Climate Central.

BENJAMIN STRAUSS:  A storm comes in, we have a damaging flood, and we say we had a storm, we had a flood.  But every flood is deeper, bigger, and more damaging because of the sea level rise we’ve already had.

JACKIE JUDD:  In the last century, the sea rose at least eight inches, and the rate has been accelerating since the 1990s.

In the Rockaways, Mayor Bill de Blasio, recently and with great fanfare, opened the first stretch of a new concrete boardwalk built above the floodplain to replace the wooden one Sandy destroyed.

ROOTS OF VIOLENCE - Dylann Roof

"Finding the roots of Dylann Roof’s radical violence" PBS NewsHour 6/22/2015

Transcript of podcast corrected to match actual text presented in video.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The mass shooting in Charleston isn’t just an isolated event, but can be seen as part of a troubled history of racial hatred and violence in the United States.  What makes someone embrace racist ideology and what can be done to stop it?  Gwen Ifill talks with Richard Cohen of the Southern Poverty Law Center, former FBI special agent Gregg McCrary and Paul Butler of Georgetown University Law Center.

GWEN IFILL (NewsHour):  While lawmakers moved to quell the Confederate Flag controversy, a debate continued about the roots of the Charleston attacks.  Were they motivated by racial animus or individual alienation?

In an unusually blunt contribution to the discussion, President Obama weighed in Friday during a podcast that was posted online today.  In the interview with comedian Marc Maron, he was asked to comment on the roots of racism and, in making his point, employed a racial epithet.

We are not editing that portion of the president’s remarks.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  It is incontrovertible that race relations have improved significantly during my lifetime and yours, and that opportunities have opened up, and that attitudes have changed.

MARC MARON, Podcast Host:  Yeah.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  That is a fact.

What is also true is that the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination, in almost every institution of our lives, you know, that casts a long shadow.  And that’s still part of our DNA that’s — that’s passed on.  Uh, it, we’re not cured of it.

MARC MARON:  Racism.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA:  Racism, we are not cured of.

MARC MARON:  Clearly.

And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say nigger in public.  That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not.  It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination.  We have — societies don’t overnight completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior.

GWEN IFILL:  The President’s comments spurred a lively online debate that ranged from cause to effect.

Among the questions being asked:  Was this attack a form of domestic terrorism?

For our discussion, I’m joined by Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler who has specialized in tracking and understanding violent predators, Paul Butler, a professor of law at Georgetown University who teaches about race relations, and Richard Cohen, president of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

RACE IN AMERICA - Emanuel AME Church Shootings and FBI Hate Crime Report

"What we know so far about suspected shooter Dylann Roof’s motivations" PBS NewsHour 6/20/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Reuters reporter Luciana Lopez has been in South Carolina covering the fallout of the tragic shooting in Charleston on Wednesday, where nine people were killed at Emanuel AME Church.  What do we know about the motives of Dylann Roof, who has been charged with nine counts of murder?  Lopez joins Hari Sreenivasan from Mt. Pleasant, S.C. for more.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Reuters reporter Luciana Lopez has been in South Carolina covering the story.  She joins me now from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.

So, what more do we know today about Dylann Roof and his motivations?

LUCIANA LOPEZ, Reuters:  Well, one interesting thing that surfaced is that what appears to be a white supremacist manifesto has surfaced, and we’re trying to verify that — this does, indeed, come from Dylann Roof.  But it lays out a little bit about how he was radicalized, looking up information about Trayvon Martin, and it lays out some of his feelings about other racial groups as well.

Again, we’re trying to verify that this is, indeed, his.  But this goes a little bit deeper into his ideology.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  And what’s in there?  What does he think of and why — was there an explanation for why he did this?

LUCIANA LOPEZ:  There is an explanation of sorts.  Again, he talks about how he was radicalized and looking up information about different racial and ethnic groups in the United States, and then he says he’s picked Charleston, in fact, because of its significance, and because of its historical significance.  And he says that he felt like he really needed to make a statement and that this was really the place to do it.

And he also implies that there wasn’t anyone else to do this, and so, he felt like this was something that he had some sort of mission to go out there to do.

"FBI: Blacks most often targeted in hate crimes" PBS NewsHour 6/20/2015

IMHO:  This is a 'DUH, no kidding' article.

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  An estimated 260,000 suspected hate crimes happen in the U.S. every year.  More than 50 out of every 1 million black citizens was the victim of a racially motivated hate crime in 2012, the highest of any group, according to FBI data.  Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham joins Hari Sreenivasan from Baltimore to put this week’s attack in perspective.

OPINION - Shields and Brooks 6/19/2015

"Shields & Brooks on church shooting, Pope’s environmentalism" PBS NewsHour 6/19/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  From a racial hate crime that rocked the nation, to the Pope’s call for action on climate change, there has been no shortage of issues to spark national debate and discussion this week.  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks discuss these topics and more.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  So, another terrible race-related story to talk about, this horrible shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, David, where a young white man killed nine black churchgoers.

How — what are we left with?  I mean, is this an isolated — should we think of this as an isolated incident, a racist young man, or do we — or does the whole country need to do some soul-searching?

DAVID BROOKS, New York Times:  Yes.

First, we should mention that the uplifting part of this story, of this terrible story is what happened today in the courtroom, the families forgiving the young man in such a heartfelt and heartrending way.  Mark and I were talking before that is living the faith, that is walking the walk.

And we have a society and certainly a politics filled with people who aren’t forgiving each other, filled with vengeance.  Well, that speech should be seared in our minds.  And so that was an uplifting moment today…

JUDY WOODRUFF:  It was.

DAVID BROOKS:  … which wasn’t all negative.

The horror is the horror.  I confess, I’m a little confused about how much to generalize.  We have a race problem in this country.  That is so obvious.  But we also have an angry solitary young man problem.  And I’m not sure a lot of the angry solitary young men are directly connected.

They are obviously loosely connected to the history of race in this country.  But they are angry solitary young men looking for hateful and vicious ideologies.  Some of them turn into neo-Nazi skinheads.  I don’t think we have a Nazi problem in this country.  They are solitary and they’re hate-mongers.  And the guy sits with the Bible study group for an hour and then starts shooting them.  That’s beyond — beyond imagination.

And so I — it’s obviously connected, but I’m a little wary of the too pat causations that are linked between our general race problem and this specific, completely bizarre, and completely evil incident.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  How are you seeing this?

MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated columnist:  I just want to underscore what David said about those people in the courtroom today and them saying, may God have mercy on you, and I forgive you.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  It was extraordinary.

MARK SHIELDS:  It is.  These are people of faith.  These are people who do practice their faith.  And it’s a lot more than preaching.

What hit me, Judy, was President Obama, who some of his greatest and most eloquent moments have been at times of crisis and tragedy and sort of putting things in perspective, how yesterday almost seemed — making the announcement, dispirited and a sense of resignation.

And there was a little feeling, I think.  For example, after the Birmingham church in 1963, when the four little girls were blown up in Sunday school, there was a moment in the country.  You could feel it, an inflection moment, where we moved on civil rights.  The passage of the 1964 act was almost assured by that terrible, terrible, inhuman act.

But that was — so there was a sense that we were moving in a direction.  After Newtown and after the slaughter of the innocents there and the teachers, where 90 percent of Americans endorsed a background check, three-quarters of NRA members, according to polls, endorsed universal background checks, and nothing happened.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  On guns.

MARK SHIELDS:  On guns.  And nothing happened.

There’s a sense of, how many more, the enormity of it, what’s it going to take?  And so I just think there was a — there was really just sort of a sadness that permeated everything.  And for him to sit — for this alleged killer to sit there for an hour while these people welcome him into their church and the Bible study, and then to do it, I mean, it’s beyond comprehension.

VIDEO - For Animal Lovers

Orangutan Adopts Tiger Cubs - Myrtle Beach Safari, South Carolina

AMERICA - BMW Offers Jobs AND Apprenticeship Program to U.S. Workers

"BMW apprenticeship program trains workers to rise through the ranks without 4-year degree" PBS NewsHour 6/4/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  On Friday, we’re going to get the latest snapshot from the federal government about the state of the job market.  A separate payroll report issued today found private companies created almost 180,000 jobs in May, fewer than in April.  The unemployment rate remains very high for those under the age of 25 — it’s in the double digits — and at higher rates for teens without degrees.

The NewsHour’s economics correspondent, Paul Solman, has a report about one program from an auto manufacturer that offers possibilities for some of those workers.

It’s part of his reporting on Making Sense of financial news.

PAUL SOLMAN (NewsHour):  The BMW factory in Spartanburg, South Carolina, BMW’s only U.S. auto plant, built 20 years ago, mainly for access to the American market, it’s now the sole production facility for their popular X model line of luxury crossover SUVs, 1,200 vehicles a day.

But BMWs, and the occasional Teutonic executive, aren’t the only German imports around here.  There are also apprenticeships.

WERNER EIKENBUSCH, Head of Work Force Development, Americas, BMW:  I actually grew up in Germany in a little village, and my daddy and my mom were of a blue-collar background, so for them college wasn’t something that they had really envisioned for me.

PAUL SOLMAN:  And so Werner Eikenbusch, BMW’s head of workforce development for the Americas, left high school in 10th grade for an apprenticeship, combining on-the-job training with vocational school.

WERNER EIKENBUSCH:  This German dual system has a long history in Europe.  It goes back hundreds of years, so it’s really very much embedded and it is actually a recognized, you could call it educational pathway that, for whatever reason, didn’t make it over into the U.S.

MEDICAID - When You Fall Into the Gap

"In a state without Medicaid expansion, uninsured South Carolinians mind the gap" PBS Newshour 2/3/2014

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MARY JO BROOKS (Newshour):  Sixty-year-old Walter Durst had hoped the Affordable Care Act meant he could finally get health insurance.  Laid off from a retail job six years ago, he now makes less $1,000 a month working odd jobs.

WALTER DURST, South Carolina resident:  Its like stepping on eggshells.  You’re just afraid all the time of catching something.  There are a few things that I know I need done, like a colonoscopy, that I can’t — I can’t do.

MARY JO BROOKS:  But Durst isn’t getting coverage any time soon, since he falls into a gap:  He can’t afford plans on the health exchange, but also isn’t eligible for Medicaid in South Carolina.  Under the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid was to be expanded to include anyone under 65 who made up to 133 percent of the poverty level.  That’s basically $15,000 a year for an individual.

However, the Supreme Court ruled that states could opt out.  And South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was among the first to announce that her state would do just that.