News on South Africa, Etc.

President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, and the rest their family have visited Africa. It is a historic moment in our history. The visit marks a changing time where improvements are in Africa along with huge challenges as well. The President visited Africa as a means to connect with his black roots and to advance Western interests in the Motherland. I will be fair here since I am a fair man. Yet, Western interests historically, as we know, have been detrimental to the real interests of our African brothers and sisters. The White House wants to extend U.S. relations or influence in Africa. President Barack Obama recently visited South Africa. South Africa is dealing with the issues of healthcare, HIV/AIDS, education, poverty, and other matters. There is controversy with this visit though. Africom and other U.S. troops are stationed in Africa. Some U.S. military operations are commonly executed in the Horn of Africa, West Africa, etc. as a means to advance U.S. interests irrespective of the needs of Africans. This is done as a means for the West to expand Western hegemony (in competition with China's influence in Africa) including the gaining or exploitation of African resources like oil. Obama has supported the evil overthrow of the Libyan government (where terrorists were aided by NATO as a means to lynch black men, women, and children for racist justifications). Now, the President said that he wants African youth to have self-sustainability and prosperity. He denies that he wants to exploit Africa, but he is the President (of course, he will say that). First Lady Michelle Obama is correct to fight for educational improvement in the Motherland. I have no issue with that. I do have an issue with Africom, imperialism, and Western funding of tyrants in Africa though. Many South Africans protested Barack Obama, because of the U.S. imperialism existing in the world including Mama Africa. There are many folks in this anti-imperialist icampaign, which is based in Johannesburg. They want justice to the Marikana and Cape Town communities. Western imperialism is a disgrace and Africa has suffered under neo-colonialism and obscene militarization. That is why Africom ought to leave Africa, drone attacks should end, and real strategies for Africa by Africans ought to flourish. Africans should control their own lands not the West or China. Revolutionary fervor has always been huge in Africa for thousands of years. America wants more trade in Africa, because China is doing better in trading with African countries than America is. This is why Somalia is being destroyed by Western actions.  In the final analysis, the West wants to expand their interests and those interests deal with the growing of the Western Empire. Ironically, the U.S. Empire is decline. So, Africans should advance their own self-determination. Africans are rejecting the divide and conquer strategies of the enemy completely. As for the President, I do not hate the Brother. He is a man. Yet, I do have disagreements with him, nothing more or less. I believe that the Sister First Lady Michelle Obama is always highly elegant, intelligent, very beautiful, and ought to be treated with dignity and respect. I just feel that the administration should address the agenda of AFRICOM (which deals with militarization and slick actions against African peoples) and end imperialism in Africa. The war on terrorism is a notorious disgrace and it ought to end ASAP. Also, education in Africa should be enhanced of course and Michelle Obama is right on that issue. The beauty of Africa is great to behold. As an African American, Africa is forever etched in my mind, body, spirit (as we are a spiritual people), and soul. It is part of my ancestors. Africa has a great history and legacy from the lands of Kush to the modern day African scientists, engineers, mathematicians, athletes, musicians, actors, actresses, political leaders, judges, lawyers, theologians, and other contributors to human civilization in general. That is why we should continue to fight for pan-African black liberation worldwide. We have brothers and sisters living in the four corners of the Earth, but we are one people. We are one.

 

An overview of NSA is necessary. The technology found in the NSA is complex and it is heavily involved in surveillance. The fruit of the NSA actions is found in Edward Snowden. Snowden reveled information about the secret NSA surveillance activities (some of which are illegal) and the States want him to be arrested for viewing his actions as illegal. Now, we know that the NSA has a huge illegal collection of metadata and online transactions. This NSA monitoring relates to U.S. citizens and governments globally. We know that the corporate, military, intelligence apparatus is very strong. Even on June 11, 2013, U.S. Representative Loretta Sanchez said in a C-Span interview that Snowden's disclosures were the tip of the iceberg. The author James Bamford (who is a famous journalist and intelligence expert) wrote numerous books on the NSA. These books include one entitled, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America (2008). Bamford is a very credible source, because he made extensive interviews with former NSA employees and other whistleblowers. He wrote an article during March 2012 for Wired magazine entitled, The NSA is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center (Watch What You Say). When the NSA was started during the Cold War, they tried to use infrastructure as a means to monitor communications inside and outside of America. We know that Project Shamrock or one of the first warrantless NSA surveillance operations was in existence. This project was about copying telegrams and passing them to U.S. law enforcement and the military. Every telegram was copied to microfilm without a difference between foreign and domestic communications. Many companies worked with the NSA via Project Shamrock (like Western Union, RCA and ITT made secret agreements and turned over the telegrams to the NSA every night). The program was exposed in 1975. The Senate Intelligence Committee hearings of Frank Church caused the FISA law to be established by 1978. As time came about, satellite and microwave communications grew. That is why Echelon was formed. This was a program among the US, UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. Its job was to use the most advanced satellite and software technologies of its time (to monitor intelligence globally). Echelon can monitor fiber optic cable networks and store including intercept trunk line voice. NSA monitors the Internet when the Internet grew into popularity by the 1990's. The attacks of 9/11 allowed the NSA to have the opportunity to increase their actions and for them to receive extra budget funding. The ruling class exploited the hysteria over 9/11 as a means to continue high tech eavesdropping operations in the States. The NSA is centered in Fort Meade, Maryland. It tracks billions of exchanges every day. It can tap all over the global Internet and phone call data. The new Utah Data center has 1 million square feet. It is a heavily fortified 2 billion dollar facility in Bluffdale, Utah. The data center’s four 25,000 square foot server halls will store yottabytes. A yottabyte (YB) is 1 trillion terabytes. If 64 GB micro SD cards (the most compact data storage format available) were used, the total volume of space required for a YB is approximately 2,500,000 cubic meters or the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza. The NSA has about 40,000 employees. They are filled with administrators, intercept operators, crypto-linguists, code breakers, and other area specialists. The NSA subcontracts work to ally with private corporations form Booz Allen Hamilton (or Edward Snowden's former employer), Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and SAIC (or Science Applications International Corporation). Although the NSA budget is classified, Bamford estimated it at $60 billion in 2008, with 70% being spent on subcontractors. It has satellite systems all over the world that monitor communications. The XT5 Jaguar supercomputer was developed by Cray and the NSA. It became the fastest computer in the world in 2009 at 1.75 petaflops. The system has 200 cabinets with 37,500 quad core processors, 300 TB of RAM and 10,000TB of disk storage. It is 100,000 times faster than a high-performance desktop computer. It has been estimated that total data throughput on the Internet will quadruple from 2010 to 2015 to just under 1,000 exabytes per year (1 million exabytes = 1 yottabyte). A major aspect of the Utah Data Center’s purpose is to penetrate and gather the data in the “deep web,” i.e., password-protected information that is secure, private, and not available for public browsing. The NSA new Bluffdale center is created as a means to break standard encryption technologies. A quadrillion operations per second is called a petaflop. A flop is a measurement of mathematical floating-point calculations that a computer can process per second. A very fast desktop computer today can achieve speeds of 100 gigaflops or about one hundred thousand times slower than the NSA’s goal. The super computer Jaguar broke the petaflop barrier and it was the fastest computer in 2009.  In 2011, the Oak Ridge facility hit 2.33 petaflops but it ranked third in speed behind Japan’s “K Computer,” with an impressive 10.51 petaflops, and the Chinese Tianhe-1A system, with 2.57 petaflops. The next NSA goal is to complete a project code-named “Titan” that will hit speeds of 10 to 20 petaflops by 2013. We know that the police state is a real threat now. There is a crisis of American capitalism unprecedented in world history. The unprecedented scale and scope of NSA electronic eavesdropping have caused some to expressed legitimate civil liberty concerns indeed. Therefore, the rights of humans far exceed the eavesdropping goals of the State.

 

Many heroes have criticized the ANC in recent years. The ANC lost its original salt indeed. It is not 1994 any longer and the threat of corporate corruption has not ceased when the evil of overt apartheid was extinguished. The ANC has sold out South African human beings, especially those who are poor. Now, we see that corporate power and neoliberal economics have infiltrated the ANC. The Born Free generation is a classification of the current South African young human beings. They have the right to vote and choose who will govern in a democratic society. Like all nations of the world, full equality whether social or economic is not in existence in South Africa. The oligarchy controls the vast majority of the wealth of South Africa. There are challenges and frustrations with this new reality. Many veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle are speaking up against these evil conditions. Since 1994, some improvements have existed in South Africa. We witness the growth of the construction of houses, cheches, schools, roads, and infrastructure. There are water and electrical power sent to millions. There is free education and health care. There is the growth of social grants and the increase of pension. Until the year of 2008, South Africa's economy growth was consistent. Yet, we have the issues of protests of the poor and marginalized communities. There are gross inadequacies and inequalities in education and health care sectors. In recent years, South Africa has experienced a huge rise in unemployment. There has been huge police brutality and torture. Ruling parties have power struggles as well. Since the ousting of Mbeki, political uncertainty has not been abated at all. The government of South Africa since 2008 has been more secret and authoritarian. Even a top ANC member took a cheap photo in violation of Nelson Mandela's privacy and dignity. We know the events of August 16, 2012 where the police massacred 34 striking miners at Marikana mine. That mine is owned by the London based Lonmin Company. This tragedy is called Bloody Thursday. This was similar to the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. Even the South African Communist party refused to condemn the police murder at Marikana. There was a cover up of the events too. The ANC fought for its soul from 1991 to 1996. Later, the ANC lost to corporate influence and it allowed corporations to exploit the mineral resources of gold, diamonds, etc. in South Africa. South Africa took an IMF loan with strings attached like they always do. Capitalists form the UK and the US worked together as a means to advance Western economics in South Africa. The Freedom charter's nationalization of the mines has been rejected. The debt was never canceled by the ANC. There was no wealth tax on the super-rich as a means to fund developmental projects. Many domestic and international companies never paid reparations for their involvement in apartheid. Tariff protection was eliminated, austerity, and other neoliberal policies made South Africa to experience these complications. In South Africa in 2008 the poorest 50% received only 7.8% of total income. While 83% of white South Africans were among the top 20% of income receivers in 2008, only 11% of our black population was. That is why folks are having protests all over South Africa because of economic inequality and economic oppression by the powers that be. Many reasonable, strong human beings are still in the ANC. It is just that the pact that the ANC has with the elite must be broken. Therefore, it is important to note that huge institutions and independent South African human beings are fighting for real change. The fight is never easy. I respect real grassroots efforts as a means to build up a better South Africa. Every time that you have social progress, you will experience the era of counterrevolution (as Dr. Martin Luther King eloquently said). Now, we should support the South Africans in fighting this counterrevolution and allow South Africa to experience more revolutionary solutions in their own lands. It is obvious that most in South Africa reject big business interests, more privatization, and more neoliberal economics. The hope remains and the Dream shall never die.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Angela Franks wrote a very researched and scholarly book. It is entitled, "Margaret Sanger's Eugenics Legacy." She is a very much probably one of the foremost authority on the issue of Margaret Sanger's links to eugenic activism. Franks spoke to attendees at this year’s NRLC Convention about the eugenic roots of Planned Parenthood’s founder in a talk entitled “Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood: The Eugenics Connection.” Planned Parenthood has never formerly apologized for its founder's role in eugenics and its history in eugenics during the 20th century at all. Franks exposes Margaret Sanger in numerous ways. Franks documented that Sanger stringently pushed a policy of the government compensating poor citizens in exchange with a poor person's agreement to be sterilized as a means of population control. “In this way,” Sanger said, “the moron and the diseased would have no posterity to inherit their condition.” (Franks points out in her book that bribing a poor person with money in exchange for sterilization is in fact a deeply immoral and unethical act). Franks wrote that this form of insidious bribery something that has frequently occurred in other developing countries. Franks wrote about how Planned Parenthood has dealt with this evil his of Sanger encouraging sterilizing in many years. Once, PP denied that she was an eugenicist that a lot of eugenicists existed in her time, etc. The reality is that we have conclusive historical evidence that Margaret Sanger believed in eugenics. Frank discussed the anecdote of Hilary Clinton receiving Planned Parenthood’s highest honor, the Margaret Sanger Award. When Clinton was questioned by legislators as to why she had accepted an award named after a confirmed eugenicist given her position in government, Clinton defended Sanger. She said that Thomas Jefferson was a great guy, but he supported the possession of slaves. Similarly, she posited, Sanger was a great woman who just had the little flaw of supporting forced sterilization and eugenics. Yet, 2 wrongs never make a right. Thomas Jefferson was wrong to own slaves and believe in the inferiority of black human beings. Sanger is wrong to advancing the eugenics cause. In her private letters to friends, Sanger gushed about eugenics and sterilization. She believed that certain populations had a right to bear children and dedicating the reproductive futures of everyone else is fine. Folks like Sanger hated massive child bearing in society. Now, it is fine to note that Franks is a Catholic. I don't agree with Roman Catholicism, because of theological reasons. I believe that God's grace alone through faith can save human beings. I believe in the separation of church and state. So, I do not want a theocracy where human beings are violated of their religious rights. I do not believe in the Pope as the Vicar of Christ, I don't believe in purgatory. Yet, Margaret Sanger's eugenics past is fully documented for all to witness. One quote that sums up Sanger's philosophy is the following: "How are we to breed a race of human thoroughbreds...? We must make this country into a garden for children instead of a disorderly back lot overrun with human weeds." (Margaret Sanger, in a 1924 radio interview). Now, we should realize that just because Sanger is in error on many issues, that we should be reactionaries. We should never be reactionaries. It is fine and legitimate to have age appropriate sexual education, to maintain women's rights, to have programs to address various sexual issues, to fight poverty, to improve our socioeconomic conditions in the world, and to have an end to forced abortions. Therefore, we should place the truth into context. The truth is beautiful when it is focused in the correct prism.

 

Kurt Nimmo always showed his colors for years. He loves his god of libertarianism & privatization so much that he ignores the fact that George Washington was an imperialist slave owner. He also massacred Native Americans in their own homeland via the French & Indian War back in the 1760's. He was a known Freemason and he allied with many white supremacist Founding Fathers. White supremacy and genocide of human beings of color helped to institute the modern American Empire that we witness today. I make no justifications for the mistakes of Nelson Mandela or everyone in the ANC. They were not perfect in all of their actions. Yet, Mandela is right to oppose apartheid. He suffered decades in prison and he came out to set out a course of peaceful existence in South Africa. After his prison sentence, he denounced undue violence and terrorism as a means to form an unified South Africa. After his jail sentence, he said the following words: "...I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for, and to see realized. But my Lord, if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." Also, Kurt Nimmo omits that South Africa has been exploited by corporate exploitation not by Communist domination in 2013. When the IMF sends loans to South Africa, then you can see that South Africa is not Communist. Kurt Nimmo continues with the lie that the President Barack Obama is some socialist or Communist when he gave Wall Street records bailout. I haven't heard a socialist alive endorse giving billions of dollars to big Wall Street banks in my life. The President supports military strikes of aggression in more than 6 nations alone. That is not socialism. That is neo-imperialism and Kurt Nimmo has shown much disinformation. Even George Washington believed in a strong federal government by using taxpayer dollars in funding roads and canals in the early American nation. Now, David Rockefeller did praise Mao, but he did it, because Mao became more neoliberal before he died. It was not because that David Rockefeller was some super Communist. He was a capitalist and believed in the views of von Mises. See, Mao killed Trotskyites that disagreed with Mao's compromises, so the Cold War is more complex than what Kurt Nimmo believes. Kurt Nimmo's biggest error is to ignore or downplay how vicious the system of apartheid was in the black population. See that was his agenda all along. He wants to ignore black suffering at the hands of apartheid as a means to justify white domination in South Africa. Steve Biko was murdered by racist brutes in the apartheid regime. Many rights of black human beings were curtailed by the evil white supremacist system of apartheid. Many innocent brothers and sisters were killed by merciless terrorists in the Soweto uprising. Kurt Nimmo seems to forget that and he ignores how cartel capitalists funded the Maafa, Shoah, and other fascist movements worldwide even in Pinochet's Chile (that followed Nimmo's failed Austrian economic plan).  Nimmo ignores how black human beings were killed by terrorist police in the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. Israel also provided Apartheid South Africa with nuclear bomb no-how. In fact the US opposed and broke all UN sanctions against apartheid South Africa. IBM supplied the computer id system used by the apartheid authorities to oppress blacks in South Africa. Other US companies reaped the profits of the labor of blacks - gold, diamonds and all kinds of raw materials. US auto manufacturers were also in Apartheid South Africa. The apartheid regime was fascist. Mandela is not George Washington, because he never owned slaves in his life. Mandela did allow the ending of the South African apartheid regime though.

 

By Timothy