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Speaking outside a courthouse in Glynn County, Georgia, Reverend Al Sharpton said Wednesday's guilty verdict in the case of Ahmaud Arbery's murder signaled that the almost all-white jury decided that "Black lives do matter."

"A jury of 11 whites and one Black, in the Deep South, stood up in the courtroom and said that Black lives do matter," Sharpton said at a press conference.

Leading the group in prayer, Sharpton said "[God] came in the state of Georgiaa state known for segregation, a state known for Jim Crowand you turned it around. You took a young, unarmed boy...and you put his name in history."

"Years from now, decades from now, they'll be talking about a boy named Ahmaud Arbery that taught this country what justice looks like," he added.

The jury reached a relatively quick verdict on Wednesday, given the number of defendants and the fact that each defendant faced multiple felony counts. After roughly ten and a half hours of deliberations, the jury found all three defendants guilty of felony murder.

Travis McMichael was found guilty on all nine counts he faced.

Greg McMichael was acquitted on one count of malice murder, but found guilty on the other eight charges. William "Roddie" Bryan was acquitted on one count each of malice murder, felony murder and aggravated assault, but found guilty on the other six charges.

Sharpton thanked everyone who marched in the Black Lives Matter protests demanding justice for Arbery and his family and for marching and rallying outside of the courthouse, despite comments from the defendants' defense attorneys referring to them as a "lynch mob."

"They kept on marching and let us know that all whites are not racists and all the Blacks are not worthless," he said.

The trial in Georgia has drawn crowds of people demanding a guilty verdict in the death of Arbery, including an influx of Black pastors who poured into the city of Brunswick after one of the defense attorneys raised issue with the number of Black pastors, like Sharpton, who accompanied the Arbery family during the trial.

Sharpton added that while Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday will still be a somber holiday for the Arberys, with an empty chair at the table for Ahmaud, his mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones "can look at that chair and say to Ahmaud, 'I fought a good fight and I brought you some justice.'"

"Even though it will be a somber and solemn Thanksgiving, you can thank God you didn't let your boy down," Sharpton told the Arbery family.

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Al Sharpton Says Almost All-White Jury in Arbery Case ...

On Saturday's installment ofVelshion MSNBC, left-wing activist,provocateur, and PoliticsNationhost Al Sharpton joined fill-inhost Lindsey Reiser to say that the country is heading back to the days of Jim Crowand to criticize Democrats for not passing Sharpton's partisan wish list.

Reiser got the hyperbolic segment started by quoting Sharpton's recent comments to Politico, declaring and wondering: "Do you feel,I feel like it was much more on thefront burner several months agowhen we were seeing states passthese restrictive voting laws and then likeany news cycle the attentionshifted.So, do you think the publicattention will shift also?"

Sharpton claimed the shift in media attention "is whatopened up the door to states likeGeorgia and North Carolina andOhio and Texas to start changingstate election laws and they've changed them right now." Adding: "Youve seen in certaincounties in Georgia where they literally changed theelection boards of certaincounties.Which means they would be able tocount the vote.Well, those counties being stacked up byright-wingers appointed by statelegislators would not have certifiedBiden as the winner."

There is no evidence to suggest that what Sharpton said is true, but he was just getting started. Next, Sharpton lumped abortion in with "voting rights" and claimedfederalism equals Jim Crow:

So, we are going back to a states' rights model where they are nolonger respects the UnitedStates of the union.They are saying we will decidestate by state what is going tobe the election laws, the abortionlaws, the voting laws, the civilrights laws, and who would be thepresident.We cannot go back to the JimCrow states' rights era all theway back until to the Civil War.We are in a state of emergencywhen it comes to the urgency ofthis moment.

Of course, even if Sharpton gets everything he wants, the states will still choose the president through the Electoral College. Reiser put this civic illiteracy aside and asked, "Rev, do you feel almost ayear into the Bidenadministration that black votersfeel let down, that nothing has been significantly passedon this issue?And again, if we go into 2022 and we dont see important action, do you think it willimpact the midterms?"

After declaring Biden has done some good things, he lamented there has been no progress on "voting rights" or police reforms and concluded by continuing his self-appointed leader of all black people schtick, "I think inaction on that levelwill lead to inaction on a lotof voter turnout.I'm getting it on my syndicated radio show, Im getting it from chapters all over National Action Networkwhich I lead."

Despite Sharpton's over-inflated view of his own importance, 63 percentof black Georgians support voter ID for absentee ballots.

This segment was sponsored byT-Mobile.

Here is a transcript for the December 18 show:

MSNBC'sVelshiDecember 18, 20218:46 AM ET

(...)

LINDSEY REISER: You know, reverend, in an interview with Politico, you said that the, quote, urgency could not be morepalpable than it is right now to take action onvoting rights.So, why is this current moment that were in socritical? And do you feel,I feel like it was much more on thefront burner several months agowhen we were seeing states passthese restrictive voting laws and then likeany news cycle the attentionshifted.So, do you think that the public's attention will shift also?

AL SHARPTON: I think that, that is our job whichis why we continue rallying andmarching and doing what isnecessary to keep the public'sattention.The shift, in my opinion, is whatopened up the door to states likeGeorgia and North Carolina andOhio and Texas to start changingstate election laws and they've changed them right now.

Youve seen in certaincounties in Georgia where they literally changed theelection boards of certaincounties.Which means they would be able tocount the vote.Well, those counties being stacked up byright-wingers appointed by statelegislatures would not have certifiedBiden as the winner.This is not something that wouldvebe bad for Biden, it would have disenfranchised the voters.

So, we are going back to a statesrights model where they are nolonger respectingthe UnitedStates of the union.They are saying that we will decidestate-by-state what is going tobe the election laws, the abortionlaws, the voting laws, the civilrights laws, and who would be thepresident.

We cannot go back to the JimCrow states rights era all theway back until to the Civil War.We are in a state of emergencywhen it comes to the urgency ofthis moment.

REISER: Rev, do you feel almost ayear into the Bidenadministration that black votersfeel let down, that nothing has been significantly passedon this issue?And again, if we go into 2022 and we dont see important action, do you think it willimpact the midterms?

SHARPTON: I think that we made it clear when we supported overwhelming theBiden ticket that we wanted votingrights and police reform.We are now a week from Christmaswith neither.Thereve been other things that have beengood.He helped fairly, I think, in someareas.But, the areas we most voted andrallied for, theres notbeen significant movement. AndI think inaction on that levelwill lead to inaction on a lotof voter turnout.

I'm getting it on my syndicated radio show, Im getting it from chapters all over National Action Networkwhich I lead.I'm saying it not to make athreat, but to give a forecast.Sometimes the weatherman tellsyou the storm is coming.Don't blame the weatherman forthe storm.I'm telling you inaction issetting in.If theres no action on thereason there was action in thefirst place.

(...)

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Sharpton Claims U.S. Going 'Back To Jim Crow' | Newsbusters

For 90% of these: (Kim K voice) "It's what she deserves."

Warner Bros. fired Sheen after a public fall from grace and drug use, citing theirreasonable good faith opinion that Mr. Sheen has committed felony offenses involving moral turpitude (including but not limited to furnishing of cocaine to others as part of the self-destructive lifestyle he has described publicly). Warner Bros. also cited self-destructive conduct, difficulty at work, and inflammatory comments these include calling co-creator Chuck Lorre a "stupid, stupid little man." His character was killed off, and Ashton Kutcher took over a lead role on the show. At the time, Sheen was the highest-paid actor on TV.

Spacey was fired from his hit Netflix show after actor Anthony Rapp made sexual assault allegations against him. Production on the show's final season was put on hold it ultimately aired with Robin Wright as its main star. Netflix also refused to work with Spacey at any future point, scrapping his film Gore. He was later ordered to pay $31 million in damages to the production company due to the money they lost for halting production and rewriting the season.

Spacey was fired from the film after he completed filming, due again to the same sexual assault allegations. He was replaced by Christopher Plummer, who re-filmed all his scenes in nine days and was nominated for an Oscar for his performance.

Barr was fired after making offensive and racist comments about Obama advisorValerie Jarrett, which ABCs entertainment president, Channing Dungey, called, abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values.

Carano, who had made controversial comments on social media before, was asked not to return to the Lucasfilm and Disney show, and plans were scrapped for her character to have her own show.

It was announced series regular Hartley would not return for the upcoming season of The Flash after screenshots of many of his old racist, misogynistic, and homophobic tweets surfaced on social media. One tweet read,The only thing keeping me from doing mildly racist tweets is the knowledge that Al Sharpton would never stop complaining about me.

He'd later claim it wasn't directed at anyone, though some sources claim he used it in connection with his costarT.R. Knight, who is gay. The word was apparently uttered after a physical and verbal altercation between Washington and male lead Patrick Dempsey. He was later fired for his comment.

Spelling, who also said Doherty got into a physical fight with costar Jennie Garth, admitted in 2015 that she'd called her father, producer Aaron Spelling, to get Doherty fired after rising tensions on set. Doherty did return as the character in reboot/sequel90210 and as herself alongside her costars inBH 90210.

Smollett shocked fans when he revealed he'd been at the center of a homophobic and racist attack and then it came out that he'd made the entire thing up. He was charged with making a false police report and fired from the series, which was in its fifth season.

It actually took a few arrests for Downey Jr. to be fired from the show, but he was eventually fired in March 2001, just after being arrestedfor investigation of being under the influence of drugs and then checking into rehab.

Surprisingly, he wasn't kicked off the show until his second arrest for domestic abuse, and he still returned for a Season 7 episode as a guest.

Masterson denied the allegations, claiming they'd already been investigated and dismissed years prior and saying he was "disappointed" in Netflix's decision. His character Rooster was killed on the show.

Alongside her husband, Loughlin was convicted of paying half a million dollars to get their daughters into USC (for which she fabricated evidence that her daughters were on the rowing team in high school), and served two months in jail. She was not in the fifth and final season of the show after appearing in the first four.

FX shut down their deal with Louis and his production company after he admitted to masturbating in front of multiple female colleagues, saying, "Now is not the time for him to make television shows.Now is the time for him to honestly address the women who have come forth to speak about their painful experiences."

His character, who he had played since 1991, was killed off after Burton decided to leave the show rather than get the vaccine.

The exact events that led to Mitchell's firing are a bit murky Mitchell claims it had more to do with him asking for more money and that he doesn't even know what he's been accused of. However, show creatorLena Waithe says she'd been made aware of issues between Mitchell and costar Tiffany Boone, and Season 2 showrunnerAyanna Floyd Davis said, "Ultimately everyone was well aware of Jasons behavior and his multiple HR cases." Mitchell had also recently been fired from the Netflix filmDesperados.

He was fired from Billion Dollar Spy, Shotgun Wedding, and TV seriesThe Offer, leaving him fired from everything he was set to appear in that hadn't wrapped production yet. He was also dropped by his agency and publicist.

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These Actors 100% Deserved To Be Fired From Their Hit TV Shows And Series Because They Did Some Messed-Up Stuff - BuzzFeed

ALBANY Gov. Kathy Hochul often talks about her self-described humble beginnings that culminated in her accession to be the 57th governor of New York. Along the way, the Erie County native has made many friends, some of whom have coalesced into her inner circle.

Ahead of Hochul's first legislative session as governor, she has generally kept her top priorities close to her. She has emphasized her desire not to negotiate policy in the press. Instead, Hochul looks to speak directly with those involved in the decisions, including state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl. E Heastie.

Hochul also has a wide range of people she has met along the way to becoming governor that she can trust and turn to for input. As lieutenant governor, from 2014 until former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo resigned in August, Hochul often crisscrossed the state, cutting ribbons, touting economic development and cultivating relationships with people at all levels of government and commerce.

Here are a few people who the governor has said she turns to for advice.

Hochul refers to the leader of the New York conference of the NAACP, Hazel Dukes, as her "mom on Earth." Hochul, who lost her mother seven years ago, views Dukes, 89, as someone who has "stood with me through thick and thin" and is a "spiritual advisor.

"She calls me all the time and I pick up the phone and say, 'What do you need, Hazel?'" Hochul said when she introduced then-state Sen. Brian Benjamin as her lieutenant governor in Harlem.

Dukes was one of the first noteworthy people to endorse Hochul for governor. Dukes has significant influence in New York City and is close with the similarly influential Rev. Al Sharpton. The two appeared on stage with Hochul and Benjamin during their press event in August.

An activist, but also representative of an older guard of Democrats, Dukes could be among the influential voices advisingHochul on how far to take criminal justice policies that are set to be among the most contentious issues this session.

This story appears in the Times Union's new quarterly magazine devoted to the major trends driving the Capital Region's economy.

Assembly Majority Leader Crystal D. People-Stokes may not outrank Heastie, but her long relationship with Hochul is likely to play a major factor in the dynamics during session.

While Peoples-Stokes, a Buffalo Democrat, has championed marijuana reforms, she has pushed back against more progressive policies. In the recent divisive race for mayor of Buffalo, she supported incumbent Byron Brown, who ran a successful write-in campaign, over the partys primary nominee, Democratic-Socialist India Walton. Hochul avoided offering an endorsement.

Peoples-Stokes has a long history in elected office. She was a member of the Erie County Legislature from 1993 to 2002, and has since represented the 141st Assembly district, which includes the city of Buffalo.

Peoples-Stokes recalled her close, decades-long relationship with Hochul in the days prior to Hochuls appointment as governor.

When Peoples-Stokes ran for Congress in 1998, Hochul, then on the Hamburg Town Council, was the only Democrat who was willing to walk me through her community as a candidate, Peoples-Stokes told Buffalo TV station WVIB in August.

In 2014, when Cuomo tapped Hochul to be his running mate, Peoples-Stokes was named as co-chair of Cuomos campaign.And when Hochul did take over from Cuomo, Peoples-Stokes swiftly supported her fellow Erie County politician. She was among the first state lawmakers to endorse Hochul for a full term.

Hochul often talks about her time in local government and the importance of supporting the needs of those governments, as opposed to unilaterally placing unfunded and unpopular mandates that have been drawn up out of Albany or New York City.

One person Hochul has often referenced is Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz. When Hochul was county clerk, Poloncarz was comptroller there.

On Nov. 22, prior to the emergence of the omicron variant of COVID-19, Hochul issued a statement specifically thanking Poloncarz for a mask mandate he put in place as that county was dealing with overwhelmed hospitals. This is an example of the leadership we need to see at the local level to combat this deadly virus, Hochul said.

Three weeks later, defending her statewide mask policy, Hochul once again gave a shout out to Poloncarz and then vaguely referenced other, unnamed county executives.

With the state mask policy, which by this news conference already had been receiving substantial political blowback, Hochul said the county leaders are certainly appreciative now that the state will give them air cover in a sense.

The president of the influential Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York has quickly become a frequent attendee at news conferences for the governor. While Hochul looks to advance an agenda of building up the city, in step with President Joe Bidens infrastructure goals, the governor has turned to the labor leader for support.

Although LaBarbera has yet to formally endorse Hochuls bid for a full term for governor, he has appeared alongside Hochul multiple times. In December, the two joined up at events celebrating the multi-billion dollar expansion of the John F. Kennedy Airport in Queens. LaBarbera, in a statement, thanked Hochul for her effective leadership in moving this landmark infrastructure project forward.

Hochul is continuing to look to unions for political and financial support in her run for governor. Many of the trades union leaders, including LaBarbera, were politically close to Cuomo, but have generally signaled that they are moving forward with Hochul, the states top Democrat.

In 2018, when Hochul was running against New York City Public Advocate Jumaane Williams for reelection for lieutenant governor, LaBarbera endorsed Hochul as someone who has stood by our side on every one of our issues, bar none, according to news reports at the time. One of Hochuls potential Democratic primary opponents for governor is Williams.

As much as there are political and business people that may have the ear of Hochul, she perhaps references her faith and family as guiding her more than any other North Star.

Hochul, a Roman Catholic, has peppered her speeches with religious allegories at certain times. She had also made it an early habit to frequent churches for Sunday service and subsequent speeches.

She may not be back home in Erie County for every Sunday, but the governor has shown she is often rooted in her view of her faith, which includes a deep desire to support the homeless. Hochul, though, is a strong supporter of womens rights and their rights to abortion.

When Hochul was sworn in as governor, her immediate family members were alongside. It included her two children, her father and others. Hochul has emphasized the need to protect the elderly during the pandemic.

Hochul has also referenced her familys personal experience with losing a loved one to addiction issues, which is a guiding principle for her views on the opioid epidemic and recovery.

Hochuls husband, William J. Hochul Jr., is general counsel and secretary to Delaware North Companies, a major statewide player that deals in hospitality and gambling. Her spouse is the former U.S. attorney for the Western District of New York, serving under President Barack Obama, a point Hochul likes to discuss.

The two have vouched they would maintain a firm firewall on any potential issues of conflict and her husband has pledged to recuse himself from work that could be viewed as a conflict of interest.

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Allies in the governor's inner circle - Albany Times Union

Kevin Cole 'When Blessing Follows you' (2020) Mixed Media. 43 x84x9 inches. In the Collection of ... [+] John and Barbara Knox, Elgin, Illinois.

Bold colors erupt in an array of painterly strokes, from splatters to precise lines to geometric and organic shapes, applied to a labyrinthine three-dimensional sculptural canvas. The viewers gaze engages in a vibrant visual journey celebrating abstraction and multi-media textures.

The title, When Blessing Follows you (2020), evokes solace and spirituality. But a painful history is told through the vivid colors and interconnected shapes, that upon closer inspection, reveal themselves as neckties. Artist Kevin Coles work elegantly and eloquently shares narratives of Black struggle and Black power, creatively fighting to expose this nations shameful history.

Neckties emerged as a deeply personal and political symbol in Coles work after a formative conversation with his grandfather.

When I graduated high school, I didn't want to register to vote. I kept telling him I didn't think it was going to count, because Im just one person, Cole recalled. He was 91 years old, and he kneeled down and drew me a map and told me to go to a certain area on his property. He took me to a tree where Black people were lynched by their neckties on their way to vote.

His grandfather made a persuasive argument that compelled 18-year-old Cole to begin a lifelong research journey that is woven into the dialogue of decades of artworks spanning themes from powerful Black women to his appreciation of music.

Cole began studying the lynchings of Black people by white mobs in Jefferson County, Arkansas, where his grandfather lived. The area and this nation have long been confronting their racist legacies. The Equal Justice Initiative created of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, honoring more than 4,400 Black people who were lynched, burned, mutilated, or brutally assaulted in the United States between 1883 and 1940. A necktie is likened to hangman's noose, a symbol long associated with lynching and racism.

Kevin Cole 'Ballot Box Series: Box of Many Colors' (2021) 10x14x8 inches Mixed Media. From the ... [+] collection of Brenda A. and Larry D. Thompson of Atlanta.

Born in Arkansas, Cole, now 60, earned a M.F.A in drawing from Northern Illinois University in Dekalb, a M.A. in art education and painting from the University of Illinois in Champaign, and aB.S. in art education from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, and moved to Georgia where he has a studio in Fairburn, some 17 miles south of Atlanta. His mixed-media work appears in more than 3,600 prominent public, private, and corporate collections throughout the country. Hes won more than 66 art awards, 27 fellowships and grants, and 51 teaching awards. His work has been on view at 22 solo, group, juried, and invitational exhibitions since 1998.

Neckties are prevalent in Coles latest Gerrymandering series, which includes an array of large-scale works that amplify the charge for social justice. The ongoing series depicts the shapes of seven Southern states where Black votes are suppressed, each etched into aluminum with symbols and imagery, including neckties and scars, and dirt from that state adhered to the canvas. Seven works he calls Banners will be suspended from the ceiling to represent the swing states. Each Banner will hang nine-feet long and will be etched with necktie and scarf shapes to symbolize various court cases or information associated with each state. Cole also created life-size Poll Tax Ballot Box works, both monochromatic and brightly colored, as well as a series of smaller ballot boxes.

Some years ago, I introduced the concept of mapping as the foundation for pieces related to certain counties and certain Southern towns that were hotbeds of hate over the last century. This spawned further work on lynching with the series Tied Up in Politics, said Cole.

Kevin Cole 'Ballot Boxes Series Where Fate Lies' 2021 3046x24 inches Mixed Media

Cole an educator who serves as an Advanced Placement art consultant for the New York city-based College Board representing more than 6,000 of the world's leading colleges, schools, and other educational organizations extensively researches each state and its people before creating artworks.

I stumbled upon the work of several authors who focused on gerrymandering and how it has become the last firewall for those who would rather continue their indefensible dominance in society rather than abide by the rules they made up which gave power to the idea of one man, one vote, said Cole. Through gerrymandering, even though each man and woman has a vote, districts are so drawn that the balance of power still remains with those who have always been in power. This must continue to be addressed.

Coles wide-reaching academic sources include Freedom Is Not Enough: Black Voters, Black Candidates, and American Presidential Politics, a 2007 book by Ronald W. Walters. The American author, speaker, and scholar of African-American politics who died in 2010, examined the 2000 electoral results and the potential impact of disenfranchised Black voters in Florida. Walters explored the effect that Jesse Jackson had on the Democratic party and the electorate in 1984 and 1988, and the influence that Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton had on voters during the 2004 Democratic debates.

I've tried to get rid of the neckties and just move forward, but its a political statement that stays in there, just like a lot of my titles are positive titles. The reason they're positive titles is because we've come a long way, but we have so far to go. When you listen, when you look at someones work, you find the phases of human experiences. I listen to a lot of sermons, a lot of speeches, and that's where I get my titles from. And from music, because its a universal language.

Cole is particularly inspired by jazz and gospel music. His mother was devoted to the church and his grandmother owned a jazz club.

I've always listened to all types of music, depending on what I'm working on, said Cole, underscoring the complex processes, materials, and themes across his oeuvre.

Every medium I use has to do with the situation, said Cole. I started working with aluminum after September 11 (2001). I was supposed to be in New York with a friend looking at galleries, and (the attacks) happened the day before, so I decided I wouldn't go. An artist by the name of Bill Stevens sent me a picture of a little boy holding a piece of metal and tar paper which was some of the debris from the Twin Towers.

Kevin Cole 'Arkansas: Where Faith Meets Opportunities' (2020) I15x20 inches Mixed Media on paper

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Artist Kevin Cole Depicts Complexities Of The Black Experience Through Large-Scale Multi-Media Works That Re-Examine U.S. History - Forbes