Boycott MLB!
Boycott Coca Cola!
Boycott Delta Airlines!
Boycott United Airlines!
Boycott UPS!
Boycott Merck!
Boycott JPMorgan Chase!
Boycott American Express!
Boycott Citigroup!
Boycott Microsoft!
Boycott Bank of America!
Boycott Viacom CBS!
Boycott Google!
Boycott Cisco!
And boycott the rest of the Woke crowd, especially MLB whose commissioner moved the All-Star game and draft from Atlanta to Denver, Colo., with a voting law more restrictive than the one the Georgia legislature passed this year. Georgia has 17 days of early voting.
Colorado has 15. And both require voter ID.
Don’t go anywhere. Don’t spend any money. Don’t do anything. Just stay home and watch TV like the government’s been forcing you to do for the past year, but boycott programs sponsored by the Woke corporations listed above and many more. Of course, that means you might be reduced to watching home movies.
MORE: Sylvia Cooper on Davis’ Discrimination Ordinance
Smarten up! Come on, man! There are more of us than there are of them. Stop sitting there waiting to be canceled.
Women and Children Suffering on Steroids 0.20
With the fiasco at the southern border, caused by “Senility on steroids 0.20 Joe Biden,” I keep waiting for Mayor King Hardie Davis and the other compassionate Democrat mayors to go down to El Paso to protest kids being in cages like they did in 2019 when Donald Trump was president. They’re needed down there now more than they were in 2019 because things are a lot worse now. Children are being abandoned. Women and girls are being raped. Drug cartels are running the show. A mutation of COVID-19 and potential terrorists are streaming into the country, and to make matters worse, the illegal immigrants aren’t wearing masks.
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Smarten up! Stop it! Come on, man!
Maybe King Hardie isn’t the hypocrite I’ve come to believe he is with all of his empty politically motivated mouthing. Maybe he’s just waiting for Kamala to go to the border like Joe asked her to before he goes there again. Yeah, that’s probably it.
Off the Sidelines and Back in the Game
I received a photo on Facebook from former state Senate Majority leader Charles Walker last week with a message stating he was back, so I called him up and asked what he was back from.
“It’s just that I’ve been sitting on the sidelines watching what’s been going on,” he said. “Now I want to use my political skills for the enhancement and betterment of my community. I really have more political experience because all of my peers have passed – Mike Padgett, Tom Allgood, Jack Connell. I’m really the last of the Mohicans.”
Many, many people have told him that nothing good for Augusta has happened in the legislature since he left, he said.
“With my political skill set, I think I can help Augusta,” he said. “For example, we’re going to have a mayor’s race next year. People get together and decide to put one candidate up for election. I don’t subscribe to that. I believe the more the merrier. If the water is warm, jump in.”
Walker’s attitude about running for office hasn’t changed since I interviewed him in 2015, after he’d spent eight years in federal prison, recovered from a near-fatal car wreck and months of keeping a low profile.
Outwardly, nothing seemed to have changed since he stood before U.S. District Court Judge Dudley Bowen in 2005, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of felony fraud, conspiracy, inflating the circulation of his newspaper and pocketing charity fund. He paid more than $1 million in restitution, fines and court fees.
He tried not to voice bitterness over what he was – and still is – convinced it was: a Republican politically motivated prosecution that led to his “captivity” in Estill Federal Prison in Estill, S.C., all of which was detailed in his autobiography “From Peanuts to Power, The Road to Wealth, Success and Happiness.”
Walker says now as he said in the 2015 interview that he has no real interest in running for public office except perhaps for the 12th District congressional seat.
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“But I’m not interested in running at this time,” he said.
He is, however, interested in and highly critical of a major item in Augusta’s recently approved SPLOST 8 package.
“The black mayor and six black commissioners voted $250 million for a James Brown Arena. A lot of people think that is a big deal,” he said. “But their constituents will never enjoy an economic return on it because they will not be able to book shows. They will not get the construction contracts. James Brown’s people won’t get a nickel. A quarter of a billion dollars. And no real return on that. Based on history, they ain’t going to get a nickel. Everybody knows it.”
As for what happened in the past that led to his conviction and imprisonment, he says, “There’s no need to worry about what’s happened in the past. I don’t allow other people to downsize my hopes and dreams.”
Still, he asks, “How in the hell could the federal government and local prosecutors in good conscience indict someone for the sale of hot dogs, pickles and potato chips and for allegedly overstating the readership of a local, black newspaper?
“The Augusta Focus is the only weekly newspaper or daily newspaper that has ever been indicted and prosecuted for overstating how many people read the paper. That’s the only one in the country. It was not done before me, and it has not been done since. It’s unbelievable.
“They wanted to shut down all voices that were effective,” he said.
Out of the Frying Pan
Congratulations to former Augusta City Administrator Janice Jackson! She has found a place to work that’s more screwed up than Augusta. The city council of Stonecrest, Ga., voted to appoint her as their new acting city manager.
Stonecrest has been in political turmoil since Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation that revised the city’s charter and stripped the mayor of his voting powers, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
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The legislation gave the new acting city manager a larger role in the government while reducing the mayor’s power. The political upheaval is taking place amid a state lawmaker’s call for the FBI to investigate potentially misspent COVID-19 relief funds, according to AJC staff writer Zachary Hansen.
Mayor Jason Lary attended the first council meeting since the state reduced his power and apparently did not say a word.
While Augusta’s mayor doesn’t have any power to take away, it would be nice if he would just call the meeting to order and then not say a word until adjournment instead of bloviating all the time.
Jackson was forced to resign as Augusta Administrator in 2019.
MORE: Sylvia Cooper Examines Augusta’s ’COVID-19 Operating Plan’
That was Quick
Augusta City Administrator Odie Donald hasn’t been in town very long, and he’s almost as impressed with Augusta as he is with himself.
A week after removing his two deputy administrators, Jarvis Sims and Tony McDonald, Donald is advertising for a deputy county administrator and praising the Garden City in glowing terms. To wit:
“Augusta, GA is a dynamic, multicultural, future-focused, diversity driven high-performing consolidated government. There are five essential and enduring principles that guide Augusta’s actions and decision making: Exceptional Public Service, Stewardship and
Commitment to Employees, Integrity and Innovation. Augusta values its employees and their contributions. The organization is committed to investing in its employees and encourages and rewards employee growth and development.”
Hmmm. I wonder whether Sims and McDonald would agree.
He continues: “Augusta is noted for its diversity, community involvement, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits, and being the home of the late Godfather of Soul (James Brown) and the Augusta Nationals.”
Augusta Nationals? Who knows what they are? Donald’s consultant who’s not from Augusta must have written that.
Sylvia Cooper is a Columnist with The Augusta Press. Reach her at sylvia.cooper@theaugustapress.com.
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