Jeff Sessions has a long history of racism. He was nominated for a federal judgeship and rejected by a Republican-led Senate because of his history of racist comments and actions. More recently, before entering the U.S. Senate, he was attorney general of Alabama. In that role, he fought to preserve the unequal funding of public schools in Alabama.
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Senator Jeff Sessions as Attorney General in his administration, the person who is supposed to enforce all the laws.
This is a dark time.
But it may lead to a rebirth of energy, vitality, and focus on the other side of the aisle.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Trump lost his last chance to disown and repudiate his brown shirt fan confederate flag fan club when he selected Bannon. In picking Sessions he has signaled that it’s going to be double down all the way down from here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Brown Shirts. So exactly and frighteningly described.
LikeLike
What a pathetic waste of a comment linking brown shirts to Sessions.
I offer an opposing view: For eight years, we have had not the rule of law but a Ruler of Law — the imperial president, Barack Obama, aided and abetted by his hyper-political courtiers Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch, derelict in the fundamental duty of his office to execute the laws faithfully. The Obama Justice Department has been the most politicized in the nation’s history using It as a weapon against the president’s political adversaries and scapegoats, while insulating the president’s allies against investigation and prosecution. It has made progressive political activism the touchstone of Justice Department hiring, stacking various departmental sections with social-justice warriors who see the law as their arsenal to achieve fundamental societal transformation. It has exploited the legal process as an extortionate tool to shakedown deep-pocketed institutions for the purpose of funding progressive rabble-rousers. It has used law-enforcement to craft political narratives that, for example, propped up Obama’s “blame the video” fraud after the Benghazi massacre; framed the nation’s financial institutions for the mortgage meltdown, to the exclusion of reckless government policies; and undermined Second Amendment rights while getting federal agents killed (see the “Fast and Furious” debacle, over which Holder was held in contempt of Congress). It has injected racial discrimination into the enforcement of civil-rights laws in blatant violation of the equal-protection principles those laws are supposed to assure. It has exhibited a contempt for Congress and a propensity to obstruct legislative oversight that would have made the Nixon administration blush. It has repeatedly engaged in appalling prosecutorial misconduct and then lied to federal judges to cover it up. It has not only refused to enforce the immigration laws and sued to prevent sovereign states from enforcing them, but has also endorsed the president’s claimed power to ignore congressional statutes. It is abetting a war on the nation’s police departments, seeking to nationalize them under the guise of baseless and ruinously divisive smears that cops are hunting down African-American men, and that the justice system is rigged against black people.
He will meet the Justice Department’s traditions and its mission of vigorous, apolitical law-enforcement — amply demonstrated by his prosecutions of civil-rights violations that helped break segregation in Alabama’s public-school system. Having also been a state prosecutor as Alabama’s attorney general, Sessions understands the Justice Department’s place in our federal system. He would respect state sovereignty and work cooperatively to support state and local police, not take them over. Finally, as a United States senator for 20 years, he appreciates the necessity of oversight by the people’s representatives to keep federal law-enforcers attuned and responsive to the concerns of Americans — crime, terrorism, border security, and threats to our liberties. Senator Sessions, an accomplished lawyer and a good and decent man, is the right remedy for the Justice Department’s extreme ailments. It has become a tired refrain among would-be grand reformers that “our immigration system is broken.” For the most part, however, it is broken because of Washington’s unwillingness to enforce the law. When this is pointed out, the reformers habitually resort to caricature, claiming that people who want sensible law-enforcement are calling for mass deportations. As Senator Sessions knows, sensible law-enforcement means managing crime problems: calculating the right allocation of finite resources so that (a) action is taken against the major offenders, and (b) the laws become sufficiently vibrant that law-breakers are encouraged to cease their criminal conduct and potential law-breakers are discouraged against commencing criminal conduct. That is how a broken system gets fixed.
LikeLike
This, I hope , puts the ‘racist” issue of Session’s to the graveYesterday, the Times published a powerful letter to the editor about Sessions. It’s from a former colleague who worked so closely with the future senator that they often shared hotel rooms. He said that Sessions would carry out his duties as attorney general in a “professional, thoughtful, and balanced manner.”
It ends, “I am a 71-year-old African-American man, and I think I know a racist when I see one. Jeff Sessions is simply a good and decent man.” That writer is Larry Thompson, deputy attorney general of the United States from 2001 to 2003.
Others, such as the FCC’s Ajit Pai noted that Sessions demonstrated his character in his conduct toward his own staff. He talked about his own time working with Sessions, noting that he “employed a diverse staff of attorneys — during my tenure, his staff consisted of an African-American man, two women, and me, a first-generation Indian-American.”
Is this the view of your racist?I do not need you to find it in your liberal leftists hearts to support and allow Sessions to succeed, but at least stop its slanders. Your problems with Trump’s selection might be the fact that he is a conservative. Maybe, you will finally get your “hope and change” that was promised 8 years ago –
And since it’s close to turkey day celebrations, hopefully the “fowl” comments come to an end.
LikeLike
Sessions is a ‘good ol’ boy’ segregationist that will suppress the vote in communities of color and help Trump implement regressive policies. We should fasten our seat belts as we head straight to the dark ages.
LikeLike
Now, they’re out saying Jeff Sessions is a racist, that Jeff Sessions has ties to the KKK.
I’m amazed by this because it’s the Democrats that have ties to the KKK, and they elect them. The Democrats elected a former Grand Kleagle from the Ku Klux Klan, a man by the name of Robert “Sheets” Byrd from West Virginia, where practically every public building and highway is named after the guy. Did you know Hugo Black, a well-known Supreme Court justice had ties to the KKK? These are all Democrats.
The Ku Klux Klan was the military wing of the Democrat Party back in the days of segregation, back in the forties and the fifties. All of those sheriffs and governors and university presidents that wouldn’t let African-Americans in the doorways or on the bus or at the lunch counter were all Democrats. There wasn’t a Republican among them, the segregationists.
In fact, one of the biggest ones was a senator from Arkansas by the name of J. William Fulbright. Bill Clinton referred to Fulbright as one of his mentors. The Republicans have never elected a Klan member to the United States Senate, but the Democrats have, and Robert “Sheets” Byrd actually went on Fox News Sunday and used the N-word one day. He wasn’t calling anybody the name. He used to it in a discussion about it, and nobody cared a whit because as a Democrat he could do whatever he wanted.
But he was a recruiter! That’s what a Grand Kleagle is. He recruited people to join the Klan. So all of these allegations about Sessions and everybody else they want to tar and feather as a Klan member absurd.
As U.S. attorney, Sessions filed several cases to desegregate schools in Alabama. That means he filed several cases to integrate, to allow African-Americans into public schools. And he also prosecuted Klansman Henry Francis Hays, son of Alabama Klan leader Bennie Hays, for abducting and killing Michael Donald, a black teenager selected at random. Sessions insisted on the death penalty for Hays. When he was later elected the state Attorney General, Sessions followed through and made sure Hays was executed.
The successful prosecution of Hays also led to a $7 million civil judgment against the Klan, effectively breaking the back of the KKK in Alabama.” Jeff Sessions did it!
Always pays to balance the picture of truth not told by the left after 30 years.
LikeLike
Google “Southern Strategy” to understand how most of those Democrats became Republicans. Except Byrd who repudiated his own racism.
But thanks for playing.
LikeLike
Thanks Dienne. These folks always drag out their selective views of history when it suits them. But for some reason they gloss over inconvenient facts, especially since the advent of the Southern Strategy. That “Party of Lincoln” stuff is getting old. Even Kevin Phillips, arguably an architect of the Southern Strategy, has repented for his sins. Too bad Roger Ailes, Lee Atwater, Karl Rove and Kellyanne Conway refined it so well.
LikeLike
Did David Duke run as a Democrat? Hugo Black and Robert Byrd are long dead and Byrd repudiated his KKK past. Truman desegregated the army. LBJ enacted landmark civil rights legislation causing the southerners to leave the D party for the R party. Today’s KKK is no friend of the Democrats. Which party has more blacks and minorities in the House and Senate? It’s Democratic party not Democrat party. Would you say Republic party?
LikeLike
For the record: Duke ran as a Republican for the Louisiana State House in 1989 (winning), the US Senate in 1990, Louisiana governor in 1991, and the US Senate this year…and he cheered the election of Donald Trump. Hugo Black and Robert Byrd were public servants who made positive contributions to the United States despite their youthful transgressions (although some may quibble with Byrd’s use of the appropriations process to enrich West Virginia, but the process has been broken since he retired). Modification: the KKK is no friend to the concept of the United States. Democrats also have more cumulative votes for the House and still have fewer seats due to DeLay-esque redistricting that has gone national. Finally, I would say Repug party, as in repugnant to the idea of fundamental American principles.
Thanks, Joe. Just needed to get that off my chest. The pressure was building.
LikeLike
Joe,
If I read your post correctly, the history of the KKK and the Democrats who originated it no longer counts, yet this group of like minds can’t let Sessions comments etc of 30 years ago be discounted ?
LikeLike
Well, we knew Trump is a racist. Now he’s making it clear. There should be no muffled criticism or tamped-down satire of this man. His image and ideas need to be shredded continually until there is nothing left of them.
LikeLike
One of many of Trump appointees who will renounce the true values of liberty for us all,ad nauseum.
LikeLike
Rhee is out!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/education/wp/2016/11/22/michelle-rhee-takes-herself-out-of-the-running-for-trumps-education-secretary/?client=safari
LikeLike
And her Tweets are really dumb.
“It’s our job as Americans to want [Trump] to succeed.”
Succeed in doing exactly what? Destroying ideals and education? Branding the nation as a bunch of jackasses and frauds?
LikeLike
We don’t need 8 years under a crypto-supremacist.
LikeLike
She’s not really out of the running.
She said she is “not pursuing” the job.
In politician-speak, that means “Ask me.”
LikeLike
“In politician-speak, that means “Ask me.””
Didn’t know you were bi-lingual, Diane!!
LikeLike
No short pudgy finger pointing in her direction amid pronouncements like “she’s a great lady!” is Trump-speak for “I’m looking at other people, and I’m going to take a look at them closely. Very talented people, very talented.”
LikeLike
I do not know whether Sessions is any worse than Bill Gates, sanctimoniously labeling his cluelessness as reform.
LikeLike
I’d call him a neanderthal, but he makes neanderthal man look like Bertrand Russell.
LikeLike
“But it may lead to a rebirth of energy, vitality, and focus on the other side of the aisle.” I think it is a mistake waiting for “the other side of the aisle.” That is the problem, only 2 sides.
LikeLike
There should be an in depth background check of Jeff Sessions to see if he used the N word in his private comments with friends, former employees, colleagues, relatives and others. The use of the N word is more powerful than all his racist actions and policies
LikeLike
http://www.mcdonalds.com/365black/en/home.html
LikeLike