What is known about the year 2015 with two days to go:
Back to the Future Day came at last – but it was not quite like in the movie:
The 2016 US presidential race began. Those currently with the most support among US voters (and their apparent political philosophies):
- 16%: Bernie Sanders, liberal Democrat
- 23%: Hillary Clinton, moderate Republican
- 4%: Marco Rubio, Republican
- 7%: Ted Cruz, Tea Party
- 4%: Ben Carson, Christian right
- 16%: Donald Trump, Fascist
The first two are running as Democrats, the rest as Republicans.
Donald Trump is the most nakedly racist person to run for president since George Wallace in 1968. The press cannot get enough of him.
Black Lives Matter (BLM), a protest movement against police brutality, spreads as Chicago, Baltimore, Minneapolis, Cincinnati and other cities get Michael Browns of their own. BLM protests against Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump.
#BlackOnCampus: protest spreads to universities, like Mizzou and Yale.
The Confederate flag at long last was taken down in front of South Carolina’s capitol building, in the wake of the Charleston massacre and the protest by Bree Newsome.
#LoveWins: The US Supreme Court makes same-sex marriage legal.
People:
- Bruce Jenner came out as Caitlyn Jenner.
- Rachel Dolezal was outed as White.
- Bill Cosby was accused of sexual assault by 50 women.
- Raven-Symoné continued to be clueless.
- Spike Lee updated “Lysistrata” by Aristophanes as “Chi-Raq”, his film about Black-on-Black crime.
- Ta-Nehisi Coates became the new James Baldwin, says Toni Morrison, with his book “Between the World and Me”.
Iran, long suspected of making an atom bomb, agreed not to build one for the next ten years.
COP 21: to lessen global warming, all nations agreed to reduce their carbon emissions for the first time.
The Islamic State (ISIS), which took over eastern Syria and western Iraq in 2014, has stopped growing. It won Ramadi in May but lost it in December.
The deadliest events of 2015 (those in bold got markedly worse in 2015):
- death toll: name (% increase over 2014)
- 50,373: Syrian Civil War (-34%)
- 34,475: War in Afghanistan (+141%)
- 20,023: Iraq War (-41%)
- 10,882: Boko Haram insurgency (+0.3%)
- 8,964: Nepal earthquake
- 6,028: Mexican Drug War (-20%)
- 5,924: Yemeni Crisis (+29%)
- 4,344: War in Ukraine (-9%)
- 3,724: Somali Civil War (+25%)
- 3,692: European migrant crisis (+20%)
- 3,565: War in North-West Pakistan (-35%)
- 3,424: West African Ebola epidemic (-57%)
But what the Western press went nuts over was:
- 137: November 13th Paris attacks
- 12: Charlie Hebdo shooting
Pluto: New Horizons, after nine years, reaches Pluto at last.
Mars: Liquid water discovered.
Top US television show: “Empire” (among 18-to-49-year-olds in the 2014-2015 season, not counting sports.).
Top Hollywood film: “Jurassic World”, but “Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens”, the best Star Wars film since the 1980s, looks set to pass it at the box office.
- New James Bond film: “Spectre”.
Top song on iTunes: “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars.
In memoriam:
- Bobbi Kristina Brown,
- Eduardo Galeano,
- John Trudell,
- Sandra Bland,
- Freddie Gray,
- Walter Scott,
- Sam Dubose,
- Jeremy Mardis,
- Corey Jones,
- Kalief Browder,
- Chapel Hill 3:
- Deah Barakat,
- Yusor Abu-Salha,
- Razan Abu-Salha
- Charleston 9:
- Ethel Lance,
- Tywanza Sanders,
- Cynthia Hurd,
- Depayne Middleton Doctor,
- The Rev. Clementa Pinckney,
- Susie Jackson,
- Myra Thompson,
- The Rev. Dr. Daniel Simmons, Sr,
- Sharonda Coleman-Singleton
– Abagond, 2015.
Update (January 3rd): In the last two days of the year Bill Cosby was charged with the crime of sexual assault and Natalie Cole passed away.
Update (January 17th): “Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens” did in fact pass “Jurassic World” at the box office.
See also:
583
haha! >> “Hillary Clinton, moderate Republican”
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Having seen Chi-raq, I didn’t see it as being about “black-on-black” crime so much as I saw it as a critique of the global epidemic of violence, told through a black American lens. But it seems like I’m the only one who feels that way.
Anyway, what a sad year.
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I love me some Bruno Mars yes Uptown Funk was my song of the Summer this 2015 and Bruno Mars’s music made me happy.🤓
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For me 2015 was just sad with the death of black people dying at the hands of police and each other. Horrors abroad in different parts of the world. Global warming and stupid presidential campaign and the candidates.
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In the “death toll” column it would be interesting to see (a) the number of Americans killed by police in 2015 (somewhere north of 1,000 as I understand it) (b) the number of Americans killed on US soil by Islamic extremists, and (c) the number of Americans killed on US soil by Christian extremists. I realize (b) and (c) may be difficult to quantify because of the subjectivity and lack of uniformity in recording that sort of data.
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Another record set in 2015 is the amount of money police confiscate through civil Forfeiture laws. It now exceeds what criminals steal from private citizens.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-17/police-civil-asset-forfeitures-exceed-value-all-burglaries-2014
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Reblogged this on Raimanet.
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This year has been a roller coaster ride and ball of emotions. So much has happened to really open the eyes of society, yet it still seems like so many are in the dark.
On another note, I have spoken to many white people on their take of the new Star wars. A great deal were a huge fan of John Boyega as Finn. I will take more thoughts to that thread, but will say the tides are changing in regards to what people want to see.
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me personally? my criminal charges per year has gone down, but it’s still non-zero, i’ve had no traffic charges, hmmm
it’s the year of the annoying invasive .gif file! well that’s wordpress
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‘drawin’ a blank’ on a witty ‘back to the future’ quote,
mcfly!
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Update: “Star Wars VII: The Force Awakens” did in fact pass “Jurassic World” at the box office.
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