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Monday, July 16, 2012

Inspiration, Hope, and Power in July of 2012


One taboo comment to make in today's political world is about facing up to the fact that we live in a very conservative nation of America. I know what you're thinking. The President  of the United States is Barack Obama. Yet, on domestic and foreign policy matters, the 2 Presidential candidates are heavily similar. Romney and his policies are influenced heavily by the Tea Party extremists. President Barack Obama and the Democrats are speaking words like they are similar to the moderate Republicans from decades ago. For example, decades ago, the Rockefeller Republicans talked about middle class tax cuts, urban development, and environmental improvement like the President is speaking today in 2012. There is the Affordable Care Act or the ACA health insurance plan. This plan was upheld by the Supreme Court two weeks ago. The ACA's blueprint ironically came from the Republicans (who hypocritically now are fighting against it). Almost 20 years ago, the Heritage Foundation promoted this idea or an private insurance mandate as a means to oppose a Medicare for everyone system (as admitted by the liberal Keynesian economist Paul Krugman). A similar law was passed by then Governor Mitt Romney in 2006 inside of the state of Massachusetts. The Times is wrong to assume that the ACA is the most significant piece of social legislation since the New Deal. Medicare, Medicaid food stamps, and civil rights achievements of the 1960's have more important than the ACA. ACA has strengthens and weaknesses (like potentially leaving over 25 million people without insurance and allowing states to deprive millions more of poor families of Medicaid). Even the free market cap and trade plan was supported by Reagan, Bush Sr., and Bush Jr. The plan tries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere as a means to fight against global warming. This flexible market-based program allowed high greenhouse gas emitters to buy the right to continue polluting the atmosphere from companies with low emissions. Cap-and-trade was a less stringent alternative to tougher regulations. James Hansen, head the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has been leading a campaign against cap-and-trade for several years, charging it "does little to slow global warming or reduce our dependence on fossil fuels." Cap and trade was scuttled in the Senate and the House (led by Big Oil and Dirty Coal influenced Republicans). So, on health care and environmental issues, the current President opted for more moderate plans, because of the obstructionism in Congress. Some blue dog Democrats and Republicans refused to vote for or against the Employee Free Choice Act. Today, radical reactionaries want to end the social reforms from the 1960's and the early 1970's. The reason is that some Republicans believe in an extreme philosophy that the poor must help themselves (without any assistance hardly) in order to improve their ownselves. Now, the Republicans moved so much more reactionary in their views that many Democrats are center right today. The counterrevolution evolved for decades with the corporate weakening of the labor union movement, the redistribution of wealth to the rich, offshoring, deregulation, privatization of government services, and the cutting of social programs. Even cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security could come in the future under this administration. There are setbacks for our civil liberties too and an increase in the prison population. The conservative establishment grew in the Presidencies of Reagan (1981-1989), Bush I (1989-1993), Clinton (1993-2001), Bush II (2001-2009), and during this current administration of Obama from 2009 to the present. Even during the Clinton years, Bill Clinton passed the welfare reform act that harmed the poor and he continued with NAFTA. He repealed the Glass Steagall Act in 1999 which influenced the recession. We have economic stagnation, unemployment, and housing foreclosures. People already know the President's concessions to the Republicans. The Tea Party movement is the union of conservatives, libertarians, and some religious conservatives that are funded in the billions of dollars. Some of the Tea Party folks believe that the poor are undeserving, some call immigrants freeloaders, some of them are racist, and many of them hate people of certain lifestyles. They rage against big government and wasteful spending, but the Bush II administration caused increases in government and created deficits (when they advocated a smaller state and lower spending). Also, they support big government in the military.




It is obvious to see that many Republicans don't want a smaller government per se. They want the government to be controlled by laissez faire capitalism and entirely ruled by Wall Street, monopoly corporations and the 1 percent. They want most regulations gone. They want collective bargaining to be eliminated. It is obvious that the Affordable Care Act and cap and trade are conservative Republican initiatives orginally. Therefore, why are the Republicans including Mitt Romney fighting against these policies? One reason is that the Republicans are radically shifting to the right than even 5 years ago and later the Democrats are following suit. Even conservative Republican Richard Nixon in his first term of 1969 to 1972 issued some social programs. Our time is far beyond the old domestic liberalism of the 1930's and the 1960's. It seemed that the center left Clinton and Obama administrations made concession when the Republicans push back on progressive reforms. There are many examples of this. One is the health care law. When the big business and insurance interests opposed a public option or a more inclusive Medicare singler payer for all health care, the President  dropped the public option in favor of the Republican originated plan. The administration worked with the major pharmaceutical and health insurance companies plus hospitals telling them that will make profits if this law comes about. Despite the great parts of the law, the President made concessions to the Republicans and the traitorous Blue Dog Democrats. Now, Republican leaders falsely call this new law (in the slur of "Obamacare") as part of socialism. Meanwhile, some Democrats compromise instead of fighting for progressive objectives. The President could of lost fighting for single payer but he may cause many more victories. Medicare for all has important advantages in addition to covering everyone. Overhead is only 3% compared to about 30% for the profit making insurance companies. Single-payer type health coverage exists in virtually all the leading industrialized capitalist countries of the world but will remain ridiculously overdue in the U.S. until a mass progressive movement or party takes up the challenge. By not daring to struggle, the Democrats don't dare to win. Republicans use long terms goals and tactics in trying to get what they want. They act as obstructionists in Congress. The system is broken heavily now. There should be policies to benefit the poor not just the middle class. There is corruption and compromises among both the Republicans and the Democrats. We have a plutocracy than a democracy. The election system is dominated by big money and economic inequality is the norm. Our civil liberties are being shredded or destroyed. The compromise is stirring away from revolutionary changes in the world. 




There is a Florida man who was threatened with prosecution for registering voters. Sabu Williams wanted to register voters on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend. Soon he received a letter from the state supervisor of elections that threatened him with prosecution. The letter said that Williams (or the President of the Okaloosa County NAACP) was violating the Florida's new voter suppression law. This law was passed by the Republican controlled legislature last year. The law cut the state's early voting period in half. The law created new requirements on voter registration groups. Now people in Florida must turn in completed forms within 48 hours exactly or face a fine. A federal judge blocked the 48 hour rule. After the rule was first put in place, the NAACP was the only group in Okaloosa County that braved the new pitfalls and continued to register voters. However, when they registered voters over MLK weekend, they were charged with submitting the forms an hour late on Tuesday, despite the fact that they were unable to submit forms on Monday because it was a holiday. “We’re here the very first day that you’re open at 2 o’clock in the afternoon and you’re saying that we’re an hour late?” Williams asked. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The state supervisor of elections sent a letter to him saying: "...We appreciate you going out and registering voters,” the letter read. “However, you were late for two of those and if you’re late anymore we’re going to turn this over to the Florida Department of Justice for prosecution.” Voting rights are being suppressed by these voter ID laws since it doesn't give enough time for people to register, there is rare voter fraud, and people have admitted that these laws are being instituted in order for Republicans to be voted into office.  A new study from the Sentencing Project proved that nearly 6 million voting age adults are blocked from the ballot box this year because of a felony charge. Also, innocent human beings have been falsely eliminated from voting rolls in various states.

In our generation it is time for action. A lot of violence in communities from across the country is wrong. Even some of the younger generation possess naiveite, apathy, and self-hated. The only way that self hatred can be overcome is not by historical revisionism or ignoring racial oppression by white supremacy. It is done by self love, us sending a real education to people about black history (this history should outline the real history of brothers and sisters acting like warriors too) & black culture, and we should fight back against any form of injustice in the world. Sometimes, being politically incorrect is a solution to our problems. Bowing down before their nefarious system of laissez faire economics and Eurocentric religious supremacy never worked to psychologically benefit people of black African descent. You can look to history to see that. The day I started to pray to the Creator about my heritage and learned about my people was the time when I became more healthier, more confident, and more strong socially. This action of reform entails many things. It means that we should support successful black businesses (that have love for black people) in communities for real. It means that we should at least help our family members, our neighbors, and others in our own communities (it can be a neighborhood project, mediation to solve crime issues, dialogue, and other programs). Another solution is to maintain a strong moral conduct. That means that we should treat our sisters and brothers with respect. We should never intentionally try to hurt some one's feelings in an evil, vicious fashion. We should be strong and act with dignity too. A real man doesn't mimic the behavior of the oppressors (these wicked oppressions orchestrated the Black Codes, mass incarceration, Jim Crow, various genocides within the scope of human history, the War on Drugs, and other forms of atrocities for centuries, especially against people of color), but follow real moral actions in his daily life. A real man shouldn't dress up his words either. As a black I man, I will present my strength, my insight, and my wisdom to the world. I will never give up and I will show the fierceness of manliness unashamedly and without apology. Also, this is a war that we're in. We are at war especially psychologically (or our problem isn't just with external racism, but internal racism. This is why we as black people should lift up and inspire a brother or a sister suffering in life (for in that instance we should oppose publicly and privately the degradation of women). My mother and father inspired me to be humble to treat my neighbors as myself. That is one reason why I show images of black men and black women loving each other, which outlines present healthy, stable relationships. That is important, because black people wouldn't exist without black men and especially black women. We should respect many black people being eclectic and expressing their talents in the realms of art, history, legal affairs, engineering, cooking, building things, etc. In this war , we should uplift and defend the interests of the poor and the oppressed in the world. 






It's easy to see that the Jesuits influenced Hollywood for a long time. the Jesuit Daniel J. Stack used his Blessed Sacrament church as a place for movie studios. Many of the parishioners from his church were used as extras in the film. The first professional organization for screen writers and actors (that was before the Writers' and Screen Actors' Guilds) was created at the Blessed Sacrament. When the Blessed Sacrament needed economic assistance, studios like Universal, Keystone, Lasky, the Francis Ford Company and Christie Studios  would help it out. Even the old Production movie code was created by the Jesuits. This code was known as the Hays Code being named after its founder named Will H. Hayes. This code's intention was to regulate which words, images, and subject matter would be presented in the films. The Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), which later became the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), adopted the code in 1930, began effectively enforcing it in 1934, and abandoned it in 1968, in favor of the subsequent MPAA film rating system.    The Catholic laypeople didn't want the federal government to censor movies, but they accepted a form of self censorship. For several months in 1929, Martin Quigley, Joseph Breen, Father Daniel A. Lord S.J., Father FitzGeorge Dinneen S.J., and Father Wilfred Parsons (editor of Catholic publication America) discussed the desirability of a new and more stringent code of behavior for the movies. With the blessing of Cardinal George W. Mundelein of Chicago, Father Lord authored the code, which later became known as "The Production Code", "The Code", and "The Hays Code." So, many Jesuits presented their code of behavior to movies to Will Hays in 1930. Hays immediately accepted their request in forming a system where movie content can be regulated or influenced by behavioral rules. The Knight of Malta Amadeo Pietro Giannini funded motion picture and win industries in California. He died in 1949. Vigilantcitizen.com did an excellent job in exposing the symbolism found in the video called "“I, Pet Goat II." The massive esoteric symbolism in I, Pet Goat II is astounding. I Pet Goat was the story that then President George W. Bush read to children in Florida. This was precisely the moment when the attacks of 9/11 were going on. Soon, Bush told the students about why he was leaving abruptly and he soon organized an evaluation of 9/11 (which was a huge immoral ritualized murder of almost 3,000 human beings by terrorists being facilitated by the military industrial complex in my opinion. It is certain a fact that the Western elite exploited these attacks as an excuse to promote domestic plunder of our economic resources, domestic violation of our civil liberties, and imperialism that has damaged foreign countries in a reckless, evil fashion). The goat in esoteric lore has many occult meanings. The computer illustrated video represents a journey in the eyes of an enslaved goat in a FEMA camp. The catch is that the computerized story tries to promote a New Age Christ as the savior of an imperfect world. 


By Timothy

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