Cocoa

Tallahassee to DC. Avid political junkie. Policy nerd. A mom. Football fan-Go’Noles. Black Southern belle with beach bum tendencies.

[Ghosts of DC @GhostsofDC]

In 1791, a free Black astronomer laid down at Jones Point to fix the first corner of Washington by starlight. 36 of the 40 stones he and Ellicott planted are still in the ground. Here's where to find them.

https://t.co/PpbmFPHn20

[Judd Legum @JuddLegum]

"An opaque White House office staffed largely by veterans of Musk’s DOGE has quietly rebuilt some of the federal government’s most sensitive websites – for passport applications, voter registration, prescription-drug pricing and children’s savings – in ways critics say appear to violate federal law"

[Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1]

BREAKING:

MIAMI (AP) — More than 100 Venezuelans deported from the US hours before earthquakes are missing after their hotel collapses.

[Emoluments Clause @Emolclause]

#BREAKING: Sen Tammy Duckworth: “If you have a different name on your birth certificate than is on your drivers license, you CANNOT vote, and so for the 69 MILLION American WOMEN who took their husband’s names, you cannot vote. That birth certificate is not valid. By the way, military IDs will not be valid for you to be able to vote, neither will your REAL ID…So you have to go in with a passport that matches your current ID, and you know how hard it is to get a passport? Number one, it’s expensive and number two, theres such a backlog in the State Department, some people are waiting 3-6 months to get a passport. And so, think about the 69 million American women who married and took their husband’s name, you can no longer vote under the #SAVEAct…and in order to have housing for young people who…don’t see home ownership as being something that they can achieve, he’s going to hold women who are married and took their husband’s name hostage.” 🤦‍♀️

[Cocoa @cocoachic76]

@solomonmissouri @TMobile Just got this too. I am not amused. Was with sprint forever before they took it over. May be time to find another carrier.

[Cocoa @cocoachic76]

@GeorgeFoster72 No skips! Used to have that album on repeat for hours.

[The Root @TheRoot]

Lauryn Hill accepted the Living Legend Icon Award at the 2026 #BETAwards with a message rooted in purpose: “Somebody out there needs your gift. So don’t sell your gift short.”

[The Hollywood Reporter @THR]

"Somebody out there needs your gift."

Lauryn Hill is honored with the Living Legend Icon Award at the #BETAwards

[Yuie @YusufYuie]

We have lived long enough to see Zion on stage tributing his mother. Incredible.

[Tristan @AyoTristan]

That is Janet fucking Jackson up there and we can't name 5 Teyana songs

[Quinn @Mikeedakid1]

This whole situation makes the King look incredibly weak.

Forget the palace spin. Forget the headlines. Forget the public relations.

Your own son has to question whether it’s safe to bring his wife and children to the country he served in uniform.

Think about that for a second.

Prince Harry served his country in Afghanistan. He dedicated years of his life to public service. Yet here we are, once again, debating whether his family can safely visit the United Kingdom.

Their grandfather is the King.

Meanwhile, reports continue that King Charles is privately helping provide accommodations for his brother, Prince Andrew—a man whose association with Jeffrey Epstein and the allegations against him helped create one of the biggest scandals the monarchy has faced in decades.

That’s the contrast people see.

You can debate constitutional limits. You can debate RAVEC. You can debate who technically signs off on security.

But leadership isn’t just about legal authority.

It’s about priorities.

And if your own son has to publicly wrestle with whether it’s safe to bring your grandchildren to their grandfather’s country, that reflects on the institution whether Buckingham Palace likes it or not.

I also can’t ignore the timing of all this.

Every day there’s another headline about uncertainty. Another story about security. Another anonymous briefing. Another round of speculation.

Then if Harry arrives with Meghan and the children under appropriate security, watch what happens.

Suddenly the headlines become:

“The King found a way.”

“The King extended an olive branch.”

“The King stepped in.”

That’s great public relations.

But I don’t think the palace—or the press pushing these narratives—realizes the flip side.

It doesn’t make the King look compassionate.

It makes people ask why it ever reached this point.

Why should there have been years of public uncertainty over the safety of the King’s own son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren?

You can spin that however you want.

To me, it doesn’t project strength.

It projects weakness.

It makes the institution look small.

And it makes the King look like a man who has never convincingly shown the world that protecting his own family is a priority. @RoyalFamily

[The Bulwark @BulwarkOnline]

Tapper: "I just looked at the State Department's website. They have a Level 4 'Do Not Travel' advisory for Haiti…That doesn't sound safe to me."

Mullin: "That advisory is to American citizens traveling to Haiti, not Haitians going back home."

Tapper: "It doesn't sound safe."

[Michelle Boorstein @mboorstein]

Black. Educated. Unemployed. Over the past year, economists and civil rights leaders have observed the unemployment rate between Black and White Americans widening at a nearly unprecedented clip

https://t.co/45w1AHIvXA

[A'ja Smith @AjaSmith_]

He synthesized the medicine that stopped arthritis pain for millions, so they threw explosives through his window.

In 1950, Dr. Percy Julian, a pioneering chemist who synthesized steroids, bought a home in Oak Park, Illinois. He was fifty-one. He was also a Black man moving into an all-white suburb. The local water company refused to turn on his service. The town wanted him out.

Julian didn't leave. He went to work. At his laboratory in Chicago, he studied plant sterols. At the time, cortisone was extracted from the bile of slaughtered oxen. It cost hundreds of dollars. Only the rich could afford to stop hurting.

Julian changed the math. He figured out how to mass-produce cortisone using cheap soybeans.

But a brilliant mind couldn't buy him peace at home. On Thanksgiving Eve in 1950, before the family even unpacked, attackers threw a firebomb onto their property. Eight months later, dynamite exploded under his children's bedroom window.

The police chief advised him to move to a different town.

According to historical records from the Oak Park police, Julian instead climbed into a tree in his front yard with a shotgun. He sat in the dark branches. He guarded his own front door.

He held more than 130 chemical patents. U.S. Patent No. 2,752,339 details the exact process that brought affordable steroids to pharmacy shelves worldwide.

He stayed in Oak Park until his death in 1975. Genius rarely gets a quiet neighborhood. Today, millions of people swallow a daily pill that stops their joints from aching. They do not know his name. The house on East Chicago Avenue is still standing.

Percy Julian: the man who synthesized relief.

Source: PBS NOVA "Forgotten Genius" Historical Archive.
Verified via: Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
#AmericanHistory #UnsungHeroes #PercyJulian #BlackHistory #SciencePioneers

[Cocoa @cocoachic76]

@SaintSmith_ Her new book, Kin, has a similar effect. Absolutely stunning and beautifully written novel.

[philip lewis @Phil_Lewis_]

Hana Sharif, the artistic director of Arena Stage, abruptly resigned hours before the opening of “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Musical”

She made it clear that she was leaving under pressure https://t.co/ZlPi8PASw2

[Jeffrey Goldberg @JeffreyGoldberg]

Admiral (ret.) William H. McRaven: "In recent months, President Trump, upon advice from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, has relieved or forced the retirement of some of the finest officers that have ever served this nation."
Read the whole piece:
https://t.co/m9og4RFfLI

[Blue Georgia @BlueGeorgia]

Bill Maher: You can legally be a senator but also be a pastor? Could you be the president and also a pastor?

Raphael Warnock: I don't know that as practical to be the president and be a pastor. But yeah, of course.

Larry Wilmore: You can be president and be a felon.

[Geoff Bennett @GeoffRBennett]

Tony Brown was a pioneering broadcaster who helped redefine what public television could be. Through "Tony Brown's Journal," he created a space for thoughtful, substantive conversations that informed and challenged generations of viewers.

He also shaped generations of journalists as the founding dean of Howard University's School of Communications and later dean of Hampton University's School of Journalism and Communications.

We learned of his passing while we were on the air tonight. I'm grateful to our team for making sure we could honor a true broadcasting pioneer before we signed off.

[Blue Georgia @BlueGeorgia]

Raphael Warnock: The United States of America has become the mass incarceration capital of the world.

Bill Maher: There's a lot of ways to go to jail in America.

Warnock: Unless you're in the Oval Office.