#thesouth — Public Fediverse posts

Bouncing into the weekend like…

https://youtu.be/206f0dLjtds

#EatTheRich #NoBillionaires #corona #thesouth

A Short Song for a Long and Precious Season

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/songs-of-summer/a-short-song-for-a-long-and-precious-season

A Short Song for a Long and Precious Season

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/songs-of-summer/a-short-song-for-a-long-and-precious-season

‘Tell me, South’: Life in Lebanon explored through voices, photographs and memories

The Beit Beirut museum’s “Tell Me, South” exhibition has had a constant stream of visitors since its opening…
#EuropeSays #Headlines #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Lebanon #AbiRached #DelphineAbiRached #Exhibition #SouthLebanon #thesouth
https://www.europesays.com/iran/228798/

https://www.europesays.com/iran/228798/ ‘Tell me, South’: Life in Lebanon explored through voices, photographs and memories #AbiRached #DelphineAbiRached #Exhibition #Lebanon #SouthLebanon #TheSouth

‘Tell me, South’: Life in Lebanon explored through voices, photographs and memories

The Beit Beirut museum’s “Tell Me, South” exhibition has had a constant stream of visitors since its opening…
#EuropeSays #Headlines #News #Europe #Europa #EU #Lebanon #AbiRached #DelphineAbiRached #Exhibition #SouthLebanon #thesouth
https://www.europesays.com/iran/228747/

https://www.europesays.com/iran/228747/ ‘Tell me, South’: Life in Lebanon explored through voices, photographs and memories #AbiRached #DelphineAbiRached #Exhibition #Lebanon #SouthLebanon #TheSouth

Danny McBride Leaves You Wandering

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://defector.com/danny-mcbride-thrilling-tales-modern-men-review

For Louisiana: Midterms 2026, pt 3 – You just ain’t found where the piece goes YET

[Adapted and expanded from a July 11, 2026 Threads post series.]

Geaux Vote app and what you geaux voting for later this year

The “Geaux Vote” app – spelled just like that with the E, A, U, and X – is free in your app store. Check your registration, your election dates, voting locations, ballots, and more up in there.

WE VOTE AGAIN this year in November. EARLY VOTING IS OCTOBER 20-27.

This will be the general election aka midterms this year (called that because it’s held 2 years into a 4-year presidential term). Even if the Landry foolery stopped you from voting for a Senate candidate in the primary and runoff in May and June, ANY registered Louisiana voter can vote for U.S. Senator for Louisiana in November. (Vote for Jamie Davis, obviously. To be clear, yes, I am saying vote for this candidate. Use the tool of voting to get this person in office. Then we can hopefully, further engage with this person in that office to get our collective needs met. It would be nice for a change. As a treat.)

The U.S. House of Representative races will also all be in November in a jungle primary. This means every candidate who qualifies in a district will all be on the same ballot no matter what party they are. You will have both Democrats and Republicans on your ballot unless you’re district 2 which is just a couple Democrats. If any candidate gets over 50% they win. If no one does, the top two go to a runoff election on December 12. (Early voting dates are November 28-December 5.) Here’s the new 5-1 congressional maps. (Meaning they were designed for majority white political representation in 5 districts and majority Black political representation in 1 district. District 2 is the 1 majority Black.)

Check the Geaux Vote app to be sure where you fall in the districts and who you’re voting on. There will be other things for different districts, parishes, and cities to vote on like public service commissioner, judge, and whatever is going on in your neck of the woods. Again, check the Geaux Vote app and it will let you know what all your wards and districts are and what you have the options to vote on.

We can do things. We can solve puzzles.

Overall, I think it’s good the candidates/campaigns came through I-20 way (the campaign tour for the day was Shreveport then Ruston then Monroe) and let people see who they are, that they see and value us, and that they want us to be informed. Voters and people in general need a lot of education and accurate information. Often they don’t know how or where to go find the correct and useful information on their own, there’s a sense of learned helplessness (people give up trying after repeatedly facing negative situations they have been unable to control), we have a literacy problem in this country (as Rubia said), and there are people deliberately causing confusion and/or (deliberately or not) spreading incorrect information.

I think we can improve upon this low political and general literacy, and it won’t come from either babying or browbeating people. It will come from removing barriers and empowering them as individuals and groups to feel that they can do what is needed to work out solvable problems and that what they do can lead to positive outcomes. Their confidence needs to be built. I’m not talking about egotistical confidence that says “Everything I say is the most important thing that will be said in this room. I am owed titles and power over others.” Rather, I’m talking about confidence to be of service that says “I can do this for me and for us even if there are things in the way that make it harder. WE can do this.”

People, you (we) need to know that someone in human history has faced the same or something similar and thought “How the hell are we gonna get through this?” yet somehow figured out a path even if they didn’t make it the whole length. Or you need to know that someone right now is facing the same as you or something similar and your energy together is what will help the “unsolvable” puzzle get solved.

Aight, this was the finale of this series! That’s it! You can go back to part 1 or 2 or do something else with ya life like check your registration or feed somebody in your community.

Sources

• The Gander Newsroom Facebook – WATCH: Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud says a single change to how local police handle traffic stops helped cut tickets issued to Black drivers by half in the first year.
• Cori Bush Facebook – “A full year after a tornado devastated our community, it’s clear that the relief, recovery, and rebuilding effort has been a complete failure. St. Louis deserves a Representative who will stand up for us and fight for the federal recovery funding that we deserve.“
• Aliya Uteuovah for The Guardian – “Babies born in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ weigh less at birth, more likely to be preterm – report.”
• Lauren Bourg for The Audobon Society – “Louisiana Pulls the Plug on Nation’s Largest Ecosystem Restoration Project.”
• Louisiana Secretary of State – Louisiana State Wide Post-Election Statistical Report: Election Date 05/16/2-26
• Louisiana’s Geaux Vote app
• Pecukonis, E., & Wenocur, S. (1994). “Perceptions of Self and Collective Efficacy in Community Organization Theory and Practice.” Journal of Community Practice, 1(2).
• Videos and pics by me (Joi) at the Ruston stop on the Road to the Polls: Teach and Vote Tour, Saturday, July 11, 2026
• Completing a 1,000 piece puzzle with an assist from my 2 younger sisters then they visited from Tennessee

For Louisiana: Midterms 2026 pt 2 “Jamie HAS to be in that room”

[Adapted from a July 11, 2026 Threads post series. The Threads content is under the second heading. It has videos and pics.]

I saw Jamie Davis and folks at the Jamie Davis event

Here’s where we go into a li bit more of a diary format because I’m quoting my Threads posts. Picture it, July 12, 2026. It’s a muggy and off-and-on rainy Saturday in north Louisiana. You ventured out to the fellowship hall of a church to a campaign event for someone who will be your state’s next U.S. Senator if enough people are moved to act and create good fortune. It was hot in that room, so you’re sweating the whole time. And you were late because your brain told you the event started at 3:30 instead of 3:00 pm. There was a good amount of motion in the room – people moving back and forth, inside and outside, grabbing bottles of water on ice from a chest near the door. After you left, you made a few stops then came home, scanned through the videos and few pictures, captioned clips from the videos, and posted about it to Threads like so:

I went to the @jamieforlouisiana campaign event in Ruston today and came about 20 mins late because my brain has been playing a 30 over or under game this week. I planned to hang in the back anyway to observe the room better. The room was warm and sometimes noisy, so some things were hard to catch.

Here’s some pics from after of Jamie and @conrad4congress separately talking to folks.

Jamie was in the middle of his time when I came in, but I got some of it. He talked about the need for us not just to get mad but to STAY mad and do something about it. First vid, guy is telling Jamie he thinks the visual of seeing him as a farmer and “1 of us” is needed and is what did it for him.

2nd one, a woman thanks Jamie for showing up at Grambling and talks about getting people to buy in and understand the policy implications of voting or not (SNAP, hospital access, etc.)

James Green (running for public service commissioner in District 5) spoke and did a few “tell your neighbor” moments. He also discussed why the public service commission (and thus who is on it) is important to our lives and wallets.

Rubia Garcia @rubiagarciaforcongress (running for House of Reps in the latest version of LA 05 now including Lincoln/Ouachita parishes) came ready to educate. She talked about law school (teased the Southern-Grambling rivalry 😄), voters not being informed (like thinking she was running for Senate), the lawsuit they filed against Jeff ‘nem after he disrupted elections underway, poor literacy in America since No Child Left Behind, and how Jamie MUST be in the room to help shape upcoming policy.

I didn’t get it on camera, but Dr. Nelson (you can see her in a black dress off to the side in the 2nd Jamie pic) talked about the numbers and strategy. She said she’s from Oakland and 3 of 4 of her grandparents are from Louisiana. Her grandma told her not to come back because she has a mouth on her and “they’ll kill you.” She told her grandma “I’m willing to die for your freedom and mine.” (I got a mouth on me, too, Doc. Been here most of my 43 years.)

She told us she went to Howard and that she got a PhD in poli sci at 27. Dr. Nelson told us how she crunched the numbers (not based on historical data since this year threw everything off, but on May 2026 instead) and what turnout was needed to win. She told us state turnout needed then told us specific numbers for Lincoln Parish and 3 surrounding parishes. The crowd got a good laugh correcting her mis-pronunciation of Bienville.

A reporter from our local newspaper was standing near me. I know because I used to work at the newspaper in circulation. Plus she was the announcer for my high school band then my college band.

She turned to Rubia Garcia looking perplexed and asked “where did they get these numbers??”

Rubia told her about the doc doing the calculations. Reporter remarked those numbers seem low, and I said “Well, we had about 900,000 in May.”

The numbers ARE low but still a high turnout compared to pretty much everything for many years except May 2026. I think she may have also missed the parts earlier where people mentioned there are about 100k more Dems than Republicans and a large chunk of no party voters in Louisiana. Enough of these people turnout to reach in the ballpark of May 2026 numbers, and that equals a win.

I forgot to put this earlier in the thread, but Jamie (and others) pointed out he’s “got something for everybody” whatever their party registration (position on carbon capture sequestration, Medicare, etc) and he’s a candidate not for Democrats or Republicans but for Louisiana. Which sounds cliché on the national level, but in Louisiana (and other places in the South like Mississippi) it means something different because we’re something different. You have to be for us because we all we got.

“The Farmer from Farmerville” @conrad4congress (running for House of Reps in the latest version of LA 04 which now excludes Lincoln/Ouachita), spoke briefly near the end. (It was loud and busy in the room toward the end.) He just came to support Jamie. Spoke passionately about families struggling. Told us he’s from Marion (Union Parish) but connected to Lincoln and Ouachita Parish and had sold at the Ruston Farmers’ Market. Said he won’t be on our parishes’ ballots due to redistricting.

70k off, up the ramp things, and how to get attention

I misspoke when I said the May 2026 turnout. It was around 800,000 voters instead of 900,000. Specifically, it was 831,893 according to the Louisiana Secretary of State statistics. My bad. My brain: she tired. The temperature: it hot.

One thing I left out of the Threads is that the people moving about throughout the event included photographers, the local reporter (Nancy), the candidates, campaign people, and the crowd. Some disappeared into an area up the ramp leading toward the main part of the church. I thought these may have been church members doing church things. But at one point after Dr. Nelson (political analyst Sherice Janaye Nelson, Ph.D.) spoke, she and reporter Nancy disappeared up the ramp. My GUESS (I don’t know – just a guess) was that Rubia Garcia passed along a message to allow Nancy to follow-up with her about those numbers and maybe a few more details. I hope it cleared things up if that was the case.

I also forgot to mention that Dr. Nelson said that campaigns determine where to target their efforts based on areas’/people’s voting patterns. The more people/an area have voted, the higher their score, the more likely they are to get attention and be focused on by campaigns. Basically, you want to be heard more? Vote. Which sucks for the people who are disenfranchised (due to age, criminal legal system involvement, disability, or other barriers the state introduces), and puts more responsibility on those who don’t have all those barriers to listen to these community members and help amplify their concerns and needs and get people in decision-making roles who will address them.

Aight, let’s wrap this up. PART THREEEEEE!

(Or go back to PART 1 because you need to grab something you forgot.)

Sources

• The Gander Newsroom Facebook – WATCH: Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud says a single change to how local police handle traffic stops helped cut tickets issued to Black drivers by half in the first year.
• Cori Bush Facebook – “A full year after a tornado devastated our community, it’s clear that the relief, recovery, and rebuilding effort has been a complete failure. St. Louis deserves a Representative who will stand up for us and fight for the federal recovery funding that we deserve.“
• Aliya Uteuovah for The Guardian – “Babies born in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ weigh less at birth, more likely to be preterm – report.”
• Lauren Bourg for The Audobon Society – “Louisiana Pulls the Plug on Nation’s Largest Ecosystem Restoration Project.”
• Louisiana Secretary of State – Louisiana State Wide Post-Election Statistical Report: Election Date 05/16/2-26
• Louisiana’s Geaux Vote app
• Pecukonis, E., & Wenocur, S. (1994). “Perceptions of Self and Collective Efficacy in Community Organization Theory and Practice.” Journal of Community Practice, 1(2).
• Videos and pics by me (Joi) at the Ruston stop on the Road to the Polls: Teach and Vote Tour, Saturday, July 11, 2026
• Completing a 1,000 piece puzzle with an assist from my 2 younger sisters then they visited from Tennessee

For Louisiana: “Jamie HAS to be in that room”, things “directly to your pocketbook,” and empowerment

[Adapted from a July 11, 2026 Threads post series. The Threads content is under the second heading. It has videos and pics.]

Do you know who makes decisions about your life?

You might immediately respond, “I do, of course!” If you’re of a particular western Christian inclination, you might say, “God is over everything. He orders my steps and directs my path. I follow Him.” Maybe you’re not convinced free will exists and your view is that things just happen to you. Or your line of thought is something else entirely or a combination of things.

I’ll let you go on that philosophical journey. What I actually mean by this question is who decides what food is available for you to get at the grocery store (or for you to grow)? Who decides how high your utility bill is? Who decides how much it costs when you go to the doctor? Who decides how far you have to go to get to the doctor? Who decides if the doctor can treat you completely? Who decides if your rent can be hiked up or you can be evicted during a crisis or national emergency? Who decides if your community gets money to rebuild your houses and schools and gathering places after a tornado, flood, hurricane, or fire? Who decides the lowest amount you can be paid for busting your butt at work? Who decides if police focus more on ticketing certain people for non-moving violations – like expired license plates or dangling ornaments hanging from the rearview – than other things that would improve road safety? Who decides if the local government, state, or country spends more money and energy on locking up people in your community than making sure they can read, eat, have a place to live in the community, access help to improve their lives, behave in safe ways, and prevent harm? Who decides if people are allowed to make your air or water worsen your asthma, give you cancer, or increase risk of miscarriages? Who decides if the land is protected from being washed away or poisoned? Who decides what and who thrives in your community?

The answer is complex because there are different layers of people can give a “yes” or a “no” and millionaires, billionaires, and corporations pulling puppet strings, but for the sake of simplicity, here is one valid answer: The people who hold public office. The people who hold public office make decisions about your (our) lives. They accept, create, shape, and enforce policy (proposals or frameworks that guide decision-making) and laws (rules that say what people must or must not do to avoid penalty or punishment from a controlling authority). These public offices include:

• Local city council
• Mayor
• Police jury (parish government)
• Public service commission
• School boards (local and state)
• Judges (every level from city to Supreme Court)
• State government (governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, state legislature, etc.)
• Congress aka the legislative (law making) branch (U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives)
• U.S. President and administration (Vice President, cabinet members, etc.)

Some of these offices you get to vote on. Some you don’t get to vote on, and someone in an office you did get to vote on picks them. For example, the U.S. President nominates a Supreme Court justice (judge) when there’s an opening, the Senate votes to confirm or not, and the President appoints the confirmed judge. (This is a very simplified version of what happens with that.) But ALL these people have power to make decisions about the big and little decisions you make – even about if you have a choice at all in some cases. Whoever has that role and has the power is an important matter. Whether they will listen to you and how much is an important matter. What they will do with that information is an important matter.

I’m not a “voting is THE one thing you can do” person. I’m not a person to answer “VOTE!” if you tell me that today you can’t afford your medicine or you don’t know how you’ll pay this bill or you’re worried about your child’s education. There’s a hell of a lot that happens and can/could be done beyond elections. I’m not a person who believes voting is the most important tool we have and is a universal answer to fixing community issues – whether local, state, national, or global. I’m a person who believes voting is one tool that we have and can use when appropriate to determine who is making these decisions on our behalf. Take, for example, a crowbar. It’s not the answer when you need to to clear a nasty clog in your tub (drain auger), remove the screws from your laptop casing (small Phillips head screwdriver), or chop down a tree (axe or saw). But if you need some leverage to lift something or pull some things apart, a crowbar could be just the tool you’re looking for to get things going.

That said, this weekend I went to see some folks who are working to be in those decision-maker roles – people that can be useful to us to get things going in our favor.

I saw Jamie Davis and folks at the Jamie Davis event

Here’s where we go into a li bit more of a diary format because I’m quoting my Threads posts. Picture it, July 12, 2026. It’s a muggy and off-and-on rainy Saturday in north Louisiana. You ventured out to the fellowship hall of a church to a campaign event for someone who will be your state’s next U.S. Senator if enough people are moved to act and create good fortune. It was hot in that room, so you’re sweating the whole time. And you were late because your brain told you the event started at 3:30 instead of 3:00 pm. There was a good amount of motion in the room – people moving back and forth, inside and outside, grabbing bottles of water on ice from a chest near the door. After you left, you made a few stops then came home, scanned through the videos and few pictures, captioned clips from the videos, and posted about it to Threads like so:

I went to the @jamieforlouisiana campaign event in Ruston today and came about 20 mins late because my brain has been playing a 30 over or under game this week. I planned to hang in the back anyway to observe the room better. The room was warm and sometimes noisy, so some things were hard to catch.

Here’s some pics from after of Jamie and @conrad4congress separately talking to folks.

Jamie was in the middle of his time when I came in, but I got some of it. He talked about the need for us not just to get mad but to STAY mad and do something about it. First vid, guy is telling Jamie he thinks the visual of seeing him as a farmer and “1 of us” is needed and is what did it for him.

2nd one, a woman thanks Jamie for showing up at Grambling and talks about getting people to buy in and understand the policy implications of voting or not (SNAP, hospital access, etc.)

James Green (running for public service commissioner in District 5) spoke and did a few “tell your neighbor” moments. He also discussed why the public service commission (and thus who is on it) is important to our lives and wallets.

Rubia Garcia @rubiagarciaforcongress (running for House of Reps in the latest version of LA 05 now including Lincoln/Ouachita parishes) came ready to educate. She talked about law school (teased the Southern-Grambling rivalry 😄), voters not being informed (like thinking she was running for Senate), the lawsuit they filed against Jeff ‘nem after he disrupted elections underway, poor literacy in America since No Child Left Behind, and how Jamie MUST be in the room to help shape upcoming policy.

I didn’t get it on camera, but Dr. Nelson (you can see her in a black dress off to the side in the 2nd Jamie pic) talked about the numbers and strategy. She said she’s from Oakland and 3 of 4 of her grandparents are from Louisiana. Her grandma told her not to come back because she has a mouth on her and “they’ll kill you.” She told her grandma “I’m willing to die for your freedom and mine.” (I got a mouth on me, too, Doc. Been here most of my 43 years.)

She told us she went to Howard and that she got a PhD in poli sci at 27. Dr. Nelson told us how she crunched the numbers (not based on historical data since this year threw everything off, but on May 2026 instead) and what turnout was needed to win. She told us state turnout needed then told us specific numbers for Lincoln Parish and 3 surrounding parishes. The crowd got a good laugh correcting her mis-pronunciation of Bienville.

A reporter from our local newspaper was standing near me. I know because I used to work at the newspaper in circulation. Plus she was the announcer for my high school band then my college band.

She turned to Rubia Garcia looking perplexed and asked “where did they get these numbers??”

Rubia told her about the doc doing the calculations. Reporter remarked those numbers seem low, and I said “Well, we had about 900,000 in May.”

The numbers ARE low but still a high turnout compared to pretty much everything for many years except May 2026. I think she may have also missed the parts earlier where people mentioned there are about 100k more Dems than Republicans and a large chunk of no party voters in Louisiana. Enough of these people turnout to reach in the ballpark of May 2026 numbers, and that equals a win.

I forgot to put this earlier in the thread, but Jamie (and others) pointed out he’s “got something for everybody” whatever their party registration (position on carbon capture sequestration, Medicare, etc) and he’s a candidate not for Democrats or Republicans but for Louisiana. Which sounds cliché on the national level, but in Louisiana (and other places in the South like Mississippi) it means something different because we’re something different. You have to be for us because we all we got.

“The Farmer from Farmerville” @conrad4congress (running for House of Reps in the latest version of LA 04 which now excludes Lincoln/Ouachita), spoke briefly near the end. (It was loud and busy in the room toward the end.) He just came to support Jamie. Spoke passionately about families struggling. Told us he’s from Marion (Union Parish) but connected to Lincoln and Ouachita Parish and had sold at the Ruston Farmers’ Market. Said he won’t be on our parishes’ ballots due to redistricting.

70k off, up the ramp things, and how to get attention

I misspoke when I said the May 2026 turnout. It was around 800,000 voters instead of 900,000. Specifically, it was 831,893 according to the Louisiana Secretary of State statistics. My bad. My brain: she tired. The temperature: it hot.

One thing I left out of the Threads is that the people moving about throughout the event included photographers, the local reporter (Nancy), the candidates, campaign people, and the crowd. Some disappeared into an area up the ramp leading toward the main part of the church. I thought these may have been church members doing church things. But at one point after Dr. Nelson (political analyst Sherice Janaye Nelson, Ph.D.) spoke, she and reporter Nancy disappeared up the ramp. My GUESS (I don’t know – just a guess) was that Rubia Garcia passed along a message to allow Nancy to follow-up with her about those numbers and maybe a few more details. I hope it cleared things up if that was the case.

I also forgot to mention that Dr. Nelson said that campaigns determine where to target their efforts based on areas’/people’s voting patterns. The more people/an area have voted, the higher their score, the more likely they are to get attention and be focused on by campaigns. Basically, you want to be heard more? Vote. Which sucks for the people who are disenfranchised (due to age, criminal legal system involvement, disability, or other barriers the state introduces), and puts more responsibility on those who don’t have all those barriers to listen to these community members and help amplify their concerns and needs and get people in decision-making roles who will address them.

Geaux Vote app and what you geaux voting for later this year

The “Geaux Vote” app – spelled just like that with the E, A, U, and X – is free in your app store. Check your registration, your election dates, voting locations, ballots, and more up in there.

WE VOTE AGAIN this year in November. EARLY VOTING IS OCTOBER 20-27.

This will be the general election aka midterms this year (called that because it’s held 2 years into a 4-year presidential term). Even if the Landry foolery stopped you from voting for a Senate candidate in the primary and runoff in May and June, ANY registered Louisiana voter can vote for U.S. Senator for Louisiana in November. (Vote for Jamie Davis, obviously. To be clear, yes, I am saying vote for this candidate. Use the tool of voting to get this person in office. Then we can hopefully, further engage with this person in that office to get our collective needs met. It would be nice for a change. As a treat.)

The U.S. House of Representative races will also all be in November in a jungle primary. This means every candidate who qualifies in a district will all be on the same ballot no matter what party they are. You will have both Democrats and Republicans on your ballot unless you’re district 2 which is just a couple Democrats. If any candidate gets over 50% they win. If no one does, the top two go to a runoff election on December 12. (Early voting dates are November 28-December 5.) Here’s the new 5-1 congressional maps. (Meaning they were designed for majority white political representation in 5 districts and majority Black political representation in 1 district. District 2 is the 1 majority Black.)

Check the Geaux Vote app to be sure where you fall in the districts and who you’re voting on. There will be other things for different districts, parishes, and cities to vote on like public service commissioner, judge, and whatever is going on in your neck of the woods. Again, check the Geaux Vote app and it will let you know what all your wards and districts are and what you have the options to vote on.

We can do things. We can solve puzzles.

Overall, I think it’s good the candidates/campaigns came through I-20 way (the campaign tour for the day was Shreveport then Ruston then Monroe) and let people see who they are, that they see and value us, and that they want us to be informed. Voters and people in general need a lot of education and accurate information. Often they don’t know how or where to go find the correct and useful information on their own, there’s a sense of learned helplessness (people give up trying after repeatedly facing negative situations they have been unable to control), we have a literacy problem in this country (as Rubia said), and there are people deliberately causing confusion and/or (deliberately or not) spreading incorrect information.

I think we can improve upon this low political and general literacy, and it won’t come from either babying or browbeating people. It will come from removing barriers and empowering them as individuals and groups to feel that they can do what is needed to work out solvable problems and that what they do can lead to positive outcomes. Their confidence needs to be built. I’m not talking about egotistical confidence that says “Everything I say is the most important thing that will be said in this room. I am owed titles and power over others.” Rather, I’m talking about confidence to be of service that says “I can do this for me and for us even if there are things in the way that make it harder. WE can do this.”

People, you (we) need to know that someone in human history has faced the same or something similar and thought “How the hell are we gonna get through this?” yet somehow figured out a path even if they didn’t make it the whole length. Or you need to know that someone right now is facing the same as you or something similar and your energy together is what will help the “unsolvable” puzzle get solved.

Sources

• The Gander Newsroom Facebook – WATCH: Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud says a single change to how local police handle traffic stops helped cut tickets issued to Black drivers by half in the first year.
• Louisiana Secretary of State – Louisiana State Wide Post-Election Statistical Report: Election Date 05/16/2-26
• Louisiana’s Geaux Vote app
• Pecukonis, E., & Wenocur, S. (1994). “Perceptions of Self and Collective Efficacy in Community Organization Theory and Practice.” Journal of Community Practice, 1(2).
• Videos and pics by me (Joi) at the Ruston stop on the Road to the Polls: Teach and Vote Tour, Saturday, July 11, 2026
• Completing a 1,000 piece puzzle with an assist from my 2 younger sisters then they visited from Tennessee
• Jamie Davis for U.S. Senate campaign website
• James Green for Public Service Commission (PSC district 5) website
• Lindsay “Rubia” Garcia for Congress (district 05) campaign website
• Conrad Cable for Congress (district 04) campaign website

https://www.europesays.com/people/144837/ Newsom kicks off swing-state run as polls show support dipping #2026Elections #california #DemocraticParty #GavinNewsom #nevada #Polling #TheSouth

The Intimate Legacies of a White-Supremacist Coup

https://web.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/the-intimate-legacies-of-a-white-supremacist-coup

The Intimate Legacies of a White-Supremacist Coup

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-south/the-intimate-legacies-of-a-white-supremacist-coup

A Kentucky church is under fire after performing a mock execution by firing squad in front of kids during bible school.

Pastor #DewayneWalker of #MountOlivet #BaptistChurch says the skit is designed to "make church a fun place, a happy place" while teaching kids to love each other and hate Satan.

#Kentucky #TheSouth #Baptist #Church #Pastor #Childrens #SundaySchool #FiringSquad #Kill #Skit #Lesson #NotFunny

Southern Garden Glider

https://www.nateshivar.com/32759/southern-garden-glider/

This is why I've always thought it dubious the claim the "new South" was better or more "honest" for Black communities than northern cities, culturally. Underneath it all has always been Jim Crow culture and the fact that the powerful down there see the black community as slaves to be manipulated without worry. This type of thing would never fly in Illinois, or even Wisconsin --- cities would burn. It's 1950 again.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/05/opinion/voting-rights-act-black-voters-south.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

#disenfrachisement #civilrights #votingrights #thesouth

Why US restaurant owners will not pay their workers standard wages and instead shift labor costs onto customer's fancy: https://www.epi.org/publication/rooted-racism-tipping/

#racism #theSouth #worldCup #restaurants #tipping #tips #history #BlackHistory #AmericanHistory

Hype for the Future 174M → Rural Counties in Arkansas

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/04/23/hype-for-the-future-174m-%e2%86%92-rural-counties-in-arkansas/

Hype for the Future 174I: Hot Springs, Arkansas

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/04/23/hype-for-the-future-174i-hot-springs-arkansas/

Hype for the Future 173/284: Greater Atlanta Rxplained

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/04/22/hype-for-the-future-173-284-greater-atlanta-rxplained/

Hype form e Future 170L: City of Apalachicola, Florida

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/04/19/hype-form-e-future-170l-city-of-apalachicola-florida/

Hype for the Future 170K: Amelia Island, Florida

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/04/19/hype-for-the-future-170k-amelia-island-florida/

Hype for the Future 168E: List of Public State Colleges and Universities in the Deep South 🇺🇸

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/04/17/hype-for-the-future-168e-list-of-public-state-colleges-and-universities-in-the-deep-south-%f0%9f%87%ba%f0%9f%87%b8/

Hype for the Future 167F: Historic Slave Plantations of the American South (outside Mississippi and Louisiana)

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/04/16/hype-for-the-future-167f-historic-slave-plantations-of-the-american-south-outside-mississippi-and-louisiana/

Hype for the Future 154D: Local Communities in South Carolina

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/04/05/hype-for-the-future-154d-local-communities-in-south-carolina/

Hype for the Future 141D: Upson County, Georgia

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/03/21/hype-for-the-future-141d-upson-county-georgia/

Hype for the Future 138K: Mississippi’s College Towns

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/03/18/hype-for-the-future-138k-mississippis-college-towns/

I just finished The South, without realising it's the first of four books. This makes me really happy, because The South is absolutely sublime. I've loved most of Tash Aw's books that I've read, but this is really special. Can't wait for the next one!

#TheSouth #TashAw

The South by Tash Aw review – an intimate epic begins
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/feb/13/the-south-by-tash-aw-review-an-intimate-epic-begins?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

https://www.europesays.com/africa/103961/ The Mississippi Delta Is a Testing Ground for the Nation #BeaconPress #Ethiopia #MISSISSIPPI #MississippiDelta #RalphEubanks #TheSouth #WRalphEubanks

Hype for the Future 116O: New Vrindaban, West Virginia 🕉️

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/02/24/hype-for-the-future-116o-new-vrindaban-west-virginia-%f0%9f%95%89%ef%b8%8f/

Hype for the Future 113/284: Western North Carolina Superlatives

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/02/21/hype-for-the-future-113-284-western-north-carolina-superlatives/

A Childhood in Jewish New Orleans

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-weekend-essay/a-childhood-in-jewish-new-orleans

Hype for the Future 104H: Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/02/12/hype-for-the-future-104h-francis-marion-and-sumter-national-forests/

Hype for the Future 104E: The National Forests of North Carolina

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/02/12/hype-for-the-future-104e-the-national-forests-of-north-carolina/

Hype for the Future 100K: The History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/02/08/hype-for-the-future-100k-the-history-of-the-commonwealth-of-kentucky/

Hype for the Future 100F: Town of Sparta, North Carolina

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/02/08/hype-for-the-future-100f-town-of-sparta-north-carolina/

Hype for the Future 99C: Unicoi County, Tennessee

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/02/07/hype-for-the-future-99c-unicoi-county-tennessee/

Hype for the Future 69J: New York and Philadelphia Compared

https://novatopflex.wordpress.com/2026/01/08/hype-for-the-future-69j-new-york-and-philadelphia-compared/

The South forced into a backline reshuffle ahead of Glasgow & The West clash

Meanwhile, the South pack, led by skipper Angus Runciman, is unchanged from the eight which lined-up against Edinburgh…
#Glasgow #UnitedKingdom #UK #GB #Scotland #Headlines #News #Europe #EU #Britain #Divi #GreatBritain #thesouth
https://www.europesays.com/uk/638858/

https://www.europesays.com/uk/638858/ The South forced into a backline reshuffle ahead of Glasgow & The West clash #Britain #Divi #Glasgow #GreatBritain #Scotland #TheSouth #UK #UnitedKingdom

In These Times, We Need Consciousness Raising — and Radical Unlearning

https://murica.website/2025/10/in-these-times-we-need-consciousness-raising-and-radical-unlearning/

I recently read Patrick Cox -- Ralph W. Yarborough, the People's Senator.

It's a must read for anyone interested in Texas, but it's not just Texana; in fact, it's a scholarly work that merits attention from anyone who wants to understand the political history of the USA from the the twenties to the Civil Rights movement.

I found fascinating Yarborough's evolution from an East Texas Democrat who hemmed and hawed about Brown and "forced integration" to his becoming the only US senator from the South to have voted for all of the major Civil Rights bills.

Following Yarborough's political career can help the reader understand the broader transformation of the Democrats in the postwar era.

His often frosty relationship with LBJ is an important theme of the book. Their differences were not just personal, but arose from Yarborough's unwillingness to join LBJ in forging bonds with the major industrial and financial powers of Texas to facilitate both campaigning in the giant state and the passgage of modernizing and desegregating legislation.

As Cox notes, Yarborough remained in many ways a figure from an earlier era; a teetotal Southern Baptist happier with courthouse square stemwinder oratory than TV campaigning, an old style hands on politician who tried to answer his mail personally, much to the frustration of his staff. Yet his part in pushing forward measures on civil rights, education, health care, and the environment also shows him pushing into a future that we still have not realized in full.

The account of his battles with Allan Shivers will remind you of just how barf making these southern conservative Democrats were!

#RalphYarborough #Texas #USHistory #USPolitics #CivilRights #LBJ #Democrats #AllanShivers #Liberals #SouthernPolitics #TheSouth #ConservativeDemocrats

https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292722163/

#Men #Manhood #TheSouth #Southener #Video

FROM ONE SOUTHERN MAN:
FOR SOUTHERN MEN

https://youtu.be/TNN5gIVS4Co?si=ekOTDAIbsIavtduf