BY RONALD BLUM AP BASEBALL WRITER
APRIL 02, 2021
NEW YORK
Atlanta lost Major League Baseball’s summer All-Star Game on Friday over the league’s objections to sweeping changes to Georgia voting laws that critics — including the CEOs of Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola — have condemned as being too restrictive.
The decision to pull the July 13 game from Atlanta’s Truist Park amounts to the first economic backlash against Georgia for the voting law that Republican Gov. Brian Kemp quickly signed into law March 25.
Kemp has insisted the law’s critics have mischaracterized what it does, yet GOP lawmakers adopted the changes largely in response to false claims of fraud in the 2020 elections by former President Donald Trump and his supporters. The law includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred made the decision to move the All-Star events and the amateur draft from Atlanta after discussions with individual players and the Players Alliance, an organization of Black players formed after the death of George Floyd last year, the commissioner said in a statement. A new ballpark for the events wasn’t immediately revealed.
Manfred said he also spoke with the Major League Baseball Players Association, which at the time of the commissioner's decision said it had still not taken a stance.
“I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB draft,” Manfred said. “Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”
The White House said President Joe Biden supports the decision.
“The President has made his concerns about the bill passed in Georgia clear, given its extreme provisions that impact the ability of so many citizens to cast their votes," the White House said. "He said earlier this week that if the decision was made by Major League Baseball to move the All-Star game, he would certainly support that decision – and now that MLB has made that choice, he certainly does.”
In a statement, Trump blasted the move and urged his supporters to “boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections.”
Kemp called MLB's action a “knee-jerk decision” that means “cancel culture and woke political activists are coming for every aspect of your life, sports included. If the left doesn’t agree with you, facts and the truth do not matter.”
“This attack on our state is the direct result of repeated lies from (President) Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams about a bill that expands access to the ballot box and ensures the integrity of our elections," Kemp said in a statement, referring to the Democratic candidate whom he narrowly defeated in the 2018 election. "I will not back down. Georgians will not be bullied.”
Georgia state House Speaker David Ralston, a powerful Republican, vowed to stand behind the new law, which adds strict identification requirements for voting absentee by mail, limits the use of ballot drop boxes and makes it a crime to hand out food or water to voters waiting in line, among many other provisions.
Georgia Republicans say changes were needed to maintain voter confidence in the election system. Democrats and voting rights groups say the law will disproportionately affect communities of color. On Wednesday, two of Georgia's most prominent business leaders sided with the law's opponents.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian labeled the law “unacceptable,” while Coca-Cola chief executive James Quincey called the legislation a “step backward.”
The Atlanta Braves issued a statement Friday saying the team is disappointed by Manfred's decision.
“We are saddened that fans will not be able to see this event in our city,” the team said. “The Braves organization will continue to stress the importance of equal voting opportunities and we had hoped our city could use this event as a platform to enhance the discussion."
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who is to guide the National League All-Star team, applauded MLB for moving the game from Georgia.
“I think in a world now where people want and need to be heard — and in this particular case, people of color — for Major League Baseball to listen and do something about it, to be proactive, it sets a tone,” said Roberts, the son of a Black father and Japanese mother.
Abrams, who has championed voting rights since her loss to Kemp, blasted the new voting law. The Democrat is being closely watched to see if she seeks a rematch against Kemp in 2022.
“Georgia Republicans must renounce the terrible damage they have caused to our voting system and the harm they have inflicted on our economy,” Abrams said.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, said she supports MLB's decision. Atlanta will no doubt share in the economic loss, though the Braves' home stadium is now located outside the city, in suburban Cobb County.
“Unfortunately, the removal of the MLB All-Star Game from Georgia is likely the first of many dominoes to fall until the unnecessary barriers put in place to restrict access to the ballot box are removed,” Bottoms said in a statement.
Some Democrats from the Georgia county where the game was to be held said they oppose MLB's move. Lisa Cupid, the Black chairwoman of the Cobb County Commission, said she urged the league to stay rather than harm hotels and other businesses still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.
State Rep. Teri Anulewicz, a Democrat whose district includes the stadium, added: “I don’t know who Major League Baseball feels they are punishing. The governor, from his statement, has made clear he doesn’t feel he is being punished.”
The relocation of high-profile sports events from cities in response to social issues has a long history in the U.S.
The NFL originally awarded the 1993 Super Bowl to Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Arizona, but decided in March 1991 to move it to Pasadena, California, after the state failed to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day an official holiday. Arizona became the last state to adopt an MLK Holiday when voters approved it in November 1992.
The NBA first scheduled its 2017 All-Star Game at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, then shifted it in July 2016 because of its objections to a North Carolina law that limited anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people. The law was partially repealed in 2017, and the 2019 All-Star Game was held in Charlotte.
Manfred said despite the change of venue, MLB still plans to use the All-Star Game this year to honor Hank Aaron, the Braves’ Hall of Famer and former career home run champion who died on Jan. 22 at age 86.
Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker, a former teammate of Aaron's, applauded the move and said the late outfielder "always had the rights of the people in the forefront of his mind and in his heart.”
“This is what Hank would have liked, even if it was his town,” Baker told reporters.
FILE - Cardboard cutouts of fans in the otherwise empty seats face the field during the sixth inning of a baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and Tampa Bay Rays in Atlanta, in this Thursday, July 30, 2020, file photo. Georgia’s new voting law _ which critics claim severely limits access to the ballot box, especially for people of color _ has prompted calls from as high as the White House to consider moving the midsummer classic out of Atlanta. The game is set for July 13 at Truist Park, the Braves’ 41,000-seat stadium in suburban Cobb County.(AP Photo/John Amis, File) JOHN AMIS AP
By Jesse O’Neill
April 3, 2021
The Republican called for a boycott in a statement he issued hours after MLB announced it is pulling
Former President Trump called Friday night for a boycott of Major League Baseball, Coke and Delta Airlines — and all other companies that have pulled out of Georgia or otherwise protested the state’s controversial new voting reform bill.
The Republican called for a boycott in a statement he issued hours after MLB announced it is pulling the All-Star Game from Atlanta in response to the bill, which President Biden has labeled “Jim Crow in the 21st century.”
“Baseball is already losing tremendous numbers of fans, and now they leave Atlanta with their All-Star Game because they are afraid of the Radical Left Democrats who do not want voter ID, which is desperately needed, to have anything to do with our elections,” Trump’s statement read.
“Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with Free and Fair Elections. Are you listening Coke, Delta, and all!”
On Wednesday, Atlanta-based Coca Cola’s CEO appeared on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” to oppose the bill’s voting restrictions, after a growing chorus of critics called for a Coke boycott over the company’s silence following the March 25 passage of the bill.
On the same day, Delta’s CEO called the bill “unacceptable” and “based on a lie,” after the Georgia company was criticized for not speaking out harshly against the measure.
The new GOP-led law includes new restrictions, including ID requirements, on voting by mail and limits the number of drop boxes for mail-in ballots.
It increases legislative control over elections in the state, moves that conservatives said will improve election integrity.
Democrats said the law is full of “voter suppression tactics,” and a response to Georgia turning blue in the 2020 election, a result that Trump falsely claimed was due to fraud.
Trump Urges MLB Boycott After
All-Star Game, Draft, Pulled
Saturday, 03 April 2021 NEWSMAX
Former President Donald Trump is urging baseball fans to boycott Major League Baseball over its decision to pull this year's All-Star Game and 2021 Draft out of Georgia over its recently passed election law.
"Baseball is already losing tremendous numbers of fans," Trump said in a statement Friday night, reports Fox News. "Now they leave Atlanta with their All-Star Game because they are afraid of the Radical Left Democrats who do not want voter I.D., which is desperately needed, to have anything to do with our elections.
He also called for a boycott of "all of the woke companies that are "interfering with Free and Fair Elections. Are you listening Coke, Delta, and all!"
Coca-Cola and Delta are among companies based in Georgia whose CEOS have spoken out agains the new law.
Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey told CNBC this week that the law is "unacceptable" and a "step backward. (It) is wrong and needs to be remedied, and we will continue to advocate for it both in private and now even more clearly in public."
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, meanwhile, also called the law "unacceptable," in a memo circulated to staff and said "entire rationale for this bill was based on a lie" about widespread voter fraud in 2020.
More than 100 other companies around the country, including Twitter, Zillow, and Uber on Friday issued a joint statement through Civic Alliance to express concern about the new voting law.
"We believe every American should have a voice in our democracy and that voting should be safe and accessible to all voters," the statement says. "We stand in solidarity with voters 一 and with the Black executives and leaders at the helm of this movement 一 in our nonpartisan commitment to equality and democracy. If our government is going to work for all of us, each of us must have equal freedom to vote and elections must reflect the will of voters."
MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred said Friday that the league would move both events out of Atlanta this year because it would be the "best way to demonstrate our values as a sport," as the league "fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box."
Georgia's new law, signed by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, has come under fire by critics who say it makes voting more difficult for Black people and other racial minorities and is already facing legal challenges from civil rights groups.
President Joe Biden has derided the measure as "Jim Crow on steroids," and told ESPN this week that he would back MLB moving the game out of Atlanta.
"Today's professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly. I would strongly support them doing that. People look to them, they're leaders," he told ESPN's Sage Steele.
The new law prohibits electioneering within several dozen feet of a polling station, including giving food or water to voters waiting in line, requires identification when people register for an absentee ballot and expands early voting on weekends.
Kemp has made a series of television appearances in the past week to defend the new law, which came into play after controversy following Trump's election to Biden in Georgia.
Trump's call for a boycott is not the only time the former president spoke out against sports leagues. He slammed the National Football League for allowing players to take a knee while the national anthem was being played before games, and last year called the National Basketball Association a "political organization" after teams called off playoff games to protest police brutality.
He also accused the NBA of being "bought off" from China and claimed the basketball league favored its overseas profits over supporting pro-democracy policies.
Trump, in a separate statement, railed against the "fake news media" on the topic of election fraud, reports Fox News.
"Why is it that every time the 2020 ELECTION FRAUD is discussed, the Fake News Media consistently states that such charges are baseless, unfounded, unwarranted, etc?" Trump said.
"Sadly, there was a massive fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election, and many very angry people understand that. With each passing day, and unfortunately for the Radical Left CRAZIES, more and more facts are coming out."
"Other than that," he finished, "Happy Easter!"
Meaghan Ellis, AlterNet
April 03, 2021
HBO screenshot
It's Easter weekend and several months after the presidential election, but former President Donald Trump is not done ranting about his landslide loss and his latest remarks have set Twitter ablaze.
On Friday, April 2, Trump released a second statement after sounding off about the MLB All-Star game relocation. In that statement, the former president targeted the "radical left crazies" as he reiterated his complaints about the presidential election and "the Fake News Media" insisting his claims are "baseless, unfounded, unwarranted."
"With each passing day, and unfortunately for the Radical Left CRAZIES, more and more facts are coming out," Trump wrote. He even closed the bizarre rant by saying, "Other than that, Happy Easter!"
Twitter users wasted no time slamming the unhinged former president for his bizarre rant. Some users pointed out how Trump, widely supported by evangelical Christians, seemed to refer to Easter as if it were an afterthought. A user wrote, "Loving the message from Trump on the holiest of days in the Christian calendar "OTHER THAN THAT, HAPPY EASTER"
Another user offered a simplified interpretation of Trump's remarks. "Sadly, there was massive fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election, and many very angry people understand that ... Unfortunately for the Radical Left CRAZIES, more and more facts are coming out. Other than that, Happy Easter!"
Trump's latest mindboggling statement also reminded Twitter users of his series of epic blunders in April of last year. Around that time, the former president's COVID circus was in full swing as he appeared on national television nearly every day with countless unfounded claims that kept fact-checkers quite busy.
The latest Easter statement reminded many Twitter users of the running claim last Easter: despite the country being under nationwide lockdown, the United States would likely be reopening so people could attend church for the religious holiday. To make matters worse, Trump also claimed the virus would "miraculously" go away by April with the arrival of the warmer spring weather.
Now, Trump is being mocked for those remarks yet again.
It's been a year since Trump's Easter claims and the United States has reported more than 30 million coronavirus cases and over 560,000 COVID-related deaths since then.
'Racist much Mike?': Huckabee slammed for anti-Asian and anti-Trans tweet amid rise in violent hate crimes
David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement
April 03, 2021
www.rawstory.com
Amid near-daily reports of horrific hate crimes against Asian Americans and transgender Americans, Mike Huckabee is under massive criticism for posting a hateful, racist, anti-Asian, transphobic tweet that's also anti-democracy, amid a rise in vicious and violent hate crimes.
Huckabee is the host of “Huckabee" on the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), and is the father of Arkansas GOP gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former Trump White House press secretary. For decades Huckabee has played the part of a conservative Christian, using his faith as a sword and a shield.
“I've decided to 'identify' as Chinese," Huckabee tweeted Saturday. “Coke will like me, Delta will agree with my 'values' and I'll probably get shoes from Nike & tickets to @MLB games. Ain't America great?" he asked, mocking the millions of Americans furious about Georgia Republican Governor Brian Kemp signing the nation's worst voter suppression bill into law. On Friday Major League Baseball pulled the All-Star Game out of Atlanta and hundreds of corporations and organizations have denounced the legislation designed to make voting even more difficult, especially for the state's Black and low-income voters.
Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister who ran for the Republican Party's presidential nomination but failed twice, is the former Arkansas governor. He has a long history of attacking minorities, especially LGBTQ people.
Many across the nation reacted in horror when video of a New York City man attacking a 65-year old Asian American woman in a hate crime, including repeatedly kicking her in the stomach, causing her to fall to the ground, then stomping her head multiple times, went viral last week. Just weeks ago a gunman massacred eight people at a Asian spa in Atlanta. Six of the eight murdered were Asian American.
Huckabee's attack comes on Holy Saturday, just one day before Easter, a highly important holiday for people around the world of the Christian faith who celebrate what they believe is Christ's resurrection.
This is far from the first time Huckabee has been accused of racism.
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“2020 was the deadliest year for the transgender community," according to ABC Tampa.
“There were 122 incidents of anti-Asian American hate crimes in 16 of the country's most populous cities in 2020, an increase of almost 150%," Voice of America reports.
On social media many expressed their outrage in response to Huckabee's tweet:
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