Monday News

The government shutdown continues in the United States. There is a lot at stake in the shutdown of the government. It is not the Affordable Care Act. The real danger is the gutting of the social safety net. Both parties love the Grand Bargain agenda. The government shutdown has been harsh. Federal workers' wages have been frozen for the past 2 years. This was done by the White House. Both parties have accepted austerity and the Grand Bargain. There has been a recent Republican imposed gridlock indeed in 2013. In the final analysis, the ACA will still be here. Yet, some want to cut Social Security under the guise of shared sacrifice and a domestic peace. The rich are not markets, but the some of the rich think so. The government shutdown will have a minimal effect on the National Security Agency's spying on Americans and the rest of the Earth's inhabitants. The NSA circulated a memo stating that it, “intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities required to support national or military requirements necessary for national security” are exempt from the fiscal exercise, as are all programs that are necessary for “protection of life and property.”  This presumably means that the White House can still spend next Tuesday morning selecting the week's victims for his Kill List. The protection of property is the agenda of both wings of the Corporate Party. That is why there is harm done to Detroit and other Michigan areas. The markets want to devour the nation's pension funds, and have chosen Black locales to perfect the model, secure in the knowledge that nobody of consequence will raise a finger to stop them from filching the nest-eggs of the undeserving classes. Both parties have members ignore the need to have social justice. Also, the debt ceiling issue is coming up. The US Treasury notes hold the global empire together. As the “liberal” economist Paul Krugman writes, “Financial markets have long treated U.S. bonds as the ultimate safe asset; the assumption that America will always honor its debts is the bedrock on which the world financial system rests.”  This means that when that the U.S. maintains its hegemony via its dollar value, it can end when the dollar value decreases radically. The Republicans and Democrats are battling it out, but at the end of the day, there will be slashes to social spending as a compromise. That is not a compromise, but it is a victory for financial interests. The harm done to Medicare and Social Security is a disgrace. That is why some want to place a tax on outsourcers and reward those who bring jobs in America. Some want to have a 15 dollar minimum wage, affordable housing, an expanded public transit, etc. paid for by taxes on the super-rich. I have no issues with these plans at all.

In any police state society, there is always a justification for killing human beings. Miriam Carey was a victim of the licensed to kill atmosphere among some police officers. As more facts come out in the case, we see that she deserved to live not to die. Similar incidents happen across America and across the globe. Many Blacks and Latinos are vulnerable for extrajudicial murder by the police. The police shoot innocent suspects for any reason or none at all. We realize that tons of officers or their superiors are held accountable for their actions. On average, U.S. police kills one or two human beings daily. Many incidents go unnoticed. Violence is a systemic problem in America. Many folks have talked about how America glorifies war under the guise of peace (which is sick double think to say the least). We have the highest homicide rate among all developed nations. The USA is obsessed with violence as other nations are. There are violent films, violent video games, etc. We know that we have to fight for peace, etc. Yet, war mongering never leads into true security or true stability in society at all. We know that imperial wars and domestic violence are evils. Communities, neighborhoods, schools, work places, commercial areas and city streets are affected. Driving while black is dangerous. A 1999 ACLU report discussed it. Titled “Driving While Black: Racial Profiling On Our Nation’s Highways,” it said: "...It’s longstanding practice in America. In 1967, dozens of witnesses told Kerner Commission members that “stopping of Negroes on foot or in cars without obvious basis” was a key reason for riots the previous summer in cities across America..." The Fourth Amendment assures “(t)he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” The Eight Amendment prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments.” What’s crueler than state-sponsored cold-blooded murder. The Fifth Amendment prohibits “depriv(ing) (anyone) of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” The 14th Amendment forbids states from “depriv(ing) any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” It affirms “equal protection of the laws.” Police nationwide in America spurn constitutional and U.S. statue laws. They do so with impunity. Police brutality is still a serious problem in the USA. Overwhelming evidence proves it. In 2010, Injustice Everywhere (IE) published a National Police Misconduct Statistical Report. It found thousands of instances of police misconduct. Hundreds of civilian deaths followed. When officers are held accountable, most often discipline imposed is mild. Criminal justice in America is systemically unfair. Victims are cheated. We know what happened to Trayvon Martin. We know that killing a non-threatening, unarmed teenager is evil and it is murder. Jim Crow justice should never trump fundamental civil rights at all. Now, On October 3, Washington D.C. police gunned down Miriam Carey. They did so in cold blood. They did it willfully. There are the epidemic levels of state sponsored violence across Americans. Now, cops continue to kill non-threatening civilians and they justify it as justifiable homicides. The police are more militarized. Mariam Carey was a 34-year old Stamford, CT dental hygienist. Previously she lived in Brooklyn. She was unarmed. Capitol police killed her after a car chase. Reportedly she tried to breach a White House security barrier. The police banged on her car window. They ordered her stop. She appeared to back up into a police vehicle. She fled. She did so after the cops opened fire. Capitol police and Secret Service officers gave chase. The police fired multiple shots at her vehicle. She fled. She did so after the cops opened fire. Capitol police and Secret Service officers gave chase. They fired multiple times at her vehicle. Why did they do this on busy D.C. streets? Why did they do this when backup units could have blocked her safely? She was not taken alive, detained, and questioned. The cops shoot first. Now, they are going to be allowed to get away with it. Cops shot her to death. They riddled her body with bullets. Doing so was cold-blooded murder. Bystanders nearby could have been harmed. Miriam had her one-year daughter with her when she was killed. Family members said she suffered from postpartum depression. The Mayo Clinic says many new mothers experience the “baby blues” after childbirth. This form of depression can cause mood swings, but they never justify this treatment by the cops at all. Miriam's Sisters want answers. Amy Carey-Jones said there should’ve been “another way instead of shooting and killing” her. Valerie Carey said she “didn’t deserve to have her life cut down” this way. Her mother, Idella, said she had no history of violence. She threatened no one. Mariam’s friends, neighbors and associates were shocked. The police knew that there was an infant in the care, yet they still shot in the care. An independent investigation of the entire facts should be known. Shooting first and asking questions later is evil and an injustice. We need real answers. A militarized society makes all folks unsafe. Trayvon Martin, Miriam Carey, and other victims show the imperfections of Western society. There was no blocking of city streets or shooting of tires at all.

The assassination of President John F. Kennedy came about on Friday, November 22, 1963. On that day on 11:40 am. CST, John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline arrived at Love Field in Dallas, Texas. They left off of Air Force One after a very short flight from nearby Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth. The late President John F. Kennedy was with his presidential entourage as well. The motorcade cars had been lined up in a certain order earlier that morning. The original schedule was for the president to proceed in a long motorcade from Love Field through downtown Dallas, and end at the Dallas Business and Trade Mart. JFK was to deliver a speech and share a steak luncheon with Dallas government, business, religious, and civic leaders including their spouses. At 12:29 pm. CST, the Presidential limousine entered Dealey Plaza after a 90 degree right turn from Main Street onto Houston Street. There were over two dozen known and unknown amateur and professional still and motion picture photographers that captured the last living images of President John F. Kennedy. Just before 12:30 pm CST, President Kennedy was riding on Houston Street and slowly approached the Texas School Book Depository head on. By 12:30 CST, shots were fired. Witnesses heard the shooting start after the limousine made the turn form Houston onto Elm Street. Most of these witnesses recalled the first shot happened after the president had started waving with his right hand. Most of these witnesses recalled hearing three shots, with the second and third shots bunched distinctly much closer together than the first and second shots. As seen in the Zapruder film when the President first emerges from being temporarily behind the Stemmons Freeway sign at Zapruder film 224 to 225 his mouth is widely open in a shocked expression and his hands clench into fists, then he quickly raises his arms dramatically in front of his face and throat as he turned leftwards towards his wife. Secret Service Agent Clint Hill testified that he heard one shot, then jumped off the running board of the Secret Service follow-up car directly behind Kennedy (Hill was filmed jumping off his follow-up car at the equivalent of Zapruder frame 308; about a quarter of a second before the president's head exploded at frame 313). Hill then rapidly ran towards the Presidential limo and then a shot hit Kennedy in the head, opening up the right side of his head. As the limousine began speeding up, Mrs. Kennedy was heard to scream. She climbed out of the back seat onto the rear of the limo. At the same time, Hill managed to climb aboard and hang onto the suddenly accelerating limo, and Mrs. Kennedy returned to the back seat. Hill then shielded her and the President. Both of the Connallys stated they heard Mrs. Kennedy say, "I have his brains in my hand!" The limo driver and police motorcycles turned on their sirens and raced at full speed to Parkland Hospital, passing their intended destination of the Dallas Trade Mart along the way, and arriving at about 12:38 pm. During the shots Governor Connally was also struck, and his wife pulled him closer to her. He suffered several severe wounds that he survived; a bullet entry wound in his upper right back located just behind his right armpit; four inches of his right, fifth chest rib was pulverized; a two-and-a-half inch sized chest exit wound; his right arm's wrist bone was fractured into seven pieces; and he had a bullet entry wound in his left inner thigh. Although, there is controversy about exactly when he was wounded. During the shots a witness, James Tague, was also wounded when he received a minor facial wound on his right cheek. The Main Street south curb he had been standing 23.5 feet away from was struck by a bullet or bullet fragment that had no copper sheath, and the ricocheting bullet fragment struck Tague. At Zapruder frame 313 Tague's head top was located 271 feet away from and 16.4 feet below President Kennedy's head top. The bullet or bullet fragment that struck the cement curb was never found. Although President Kennedy was pronounced dead at 1:00 pm CST, the official announcement would not come for another half hour. Immediately after receiving word of the president's death, acting White House press secretary Malcolm Kilduff told Vice President Lyndon Johnson that Kennedy died. News of it spread globally.

In life, human beings have the right to disagree or agree with Christianity. Human beings have the right to agree or disagree with spirituality in general. Yet, some folks hate spirituality so much that they want to use false information or exploit those in the street as a means to show their religious bigotry (they want to take advance of Brothers and Sisters in certain religious sects as a means to degrade these Brothers and Sisters, which is highly disgraceful). Now, religious bigotry has nothing to do with showing historical facts though. We know about the Crusades, the Bartholomew Day Massacre, the Maafa, Jim Crow, the Islamic slave trade, etc. These evils have been done by those who use religion as an excuse to justify their evils. Showing this in the world has nothing to do with religious bigotry, but truth telling. Religious bigotry is irrational hatred of another human being because they embrace some form of spirituality or religion. Religious bigotry is just as ignorant as bigotry against those who are atheist or agnostic. We should stick to the facts and allow human beings to decide to believe in what they want without oppression. Some claim that the Hebrew name of piniel found in Genesis 32:30 is linked to the English world pineal (as in pineal gland). The reality is that the Hebrew word of  “Piniel” in Genesis comes from the roots “Panim” meaning face and “El” meaning God. The English word of pineal from which get the word pineal gland derives from the Latin root pinea (which means like a pine cone). That is why the pineal gland is indeed named such in English in reference to its cone shape. There is not link between the Hebrew roots Panim-El, because the language families from which both roots derive are entirely separate. Even the Lord's Prayer never originated from ancient Egypt, but from Jesus in the first century. Now, legitimate ancient Egyptian inventions, their legitimate mathematics, their legitimate medicine, and their legitimate architecture should be respected in my view. You have no issues from me on that front. I am black and my ancestors came from Africa. I will never slander Africa or ancient Egypt at all as white racists do on a daily basis. Africa is beautiful. Black is beautiful and the human beings I Africa are wonderful. Africa is a blessed land with great resources and soulful power. I love Africa with a deep love as my Motherland. At the same time, I will not worship Nature or objects as God though. Nature is representation of God's Power and it is a Creation. It is not the Ultimate Creator. There is a difference. Also, the Gospel of Judas doesn't date back to 260 B.C. at all. Historians know that Gnostic texts are historically inaccurate, distinctly Greek, and very much embellished. Irenaeus talked about the Gnostic errors in general in his work called Against All Heresy (he refutes their works including the Gospel of Judas).  Judas is a second century A.D. Gnostic forgery composed by a religious group called the Cainites. It was never quoted as an authoritative text by the early Church. Stefan Lovgren of National Geographic states that the Gospel of Judas is a second to third century A.D. text. The New York Times say it was composed around 300 A.D. Darrel Block states that it was composed in the second century A.D. In his article "On Raising Osiris in 1 Corinthians 15"(American Theological Association p.127) Nicholas Perrin P.h.D. documents that during the time of Paul "Osirian worship was at its low point." and "went into considerable decline. In the first century CE Mediterranean world." There is no evidence that Osiris was a dying and rising god. Mary Jo Sharp (M.A.) who created a scathing refutation of the internet film Zeitgeist part 1 has an excellent audio podcast addressing this subject here under the title "The Story of Christ and Pagan Mystery Stories." The “Serapis letter” is a late forgery. The forged nature of the document is taken as axiomatic among scholars of the Historia Augusta from which it derives. Another twenty early Christian authors and four heretical writings mention Jesus within 150 years of his death on the cross. Moreover, nine secular, non-Christian sources mention Jesus within the 150 years: Josephus, the Jewish historian; Tacitus, the Roman historian; Pliny the Younger, a politician of Rome; Phlegon, a freed slave who wrote histories; Lucian, the Greek satirist; Celsus, a Roman philosopher; and probably the historians Suetonius and Thallus, as well as the prisoner Mara Bar-Serapion. In all, at least forty-two authors, nine of them secular, mention Jesus within 150 years of his death. The pre-Nicaean writings like Hermas, Polycarp, Clement of Rome, Ignatius, or the Didache, all of which refer to Jesus by name as a historical individual and none of which hint at a Serapis connection.  Besides that, Romans like Pliny the Younger, Celsus, Lucian, the Jewish historian Josephus and Tacitus mention Jesus, all within 150 years of his life.  In fact, the Gospels were written at the end of the first century, about thirty-five to sixty-five years after Jesus’s death, and we have physical proof: one fragment of a Gospel manuscript dates to the early second century. The Chester Beatty Papyri and Bodmer papyri contain most of the New Testament dating long before Nicea.

I think that Samantha Lewthwaite is a disturbed person. She should have done something better by advocating more rational actions as a means to build up the social institutions of the world. She is dead wrong in her manifesto. Killing any innocent human being is wrong. She is wrong to advocate terrorism. The war on terror has been a bloody occurrence. The terrorist attack inside of the Kenyan mall was evil. What is also evil was when the CIA funded such mujahedeen terrorists decades ago (via Operation Cyclone under the Carter administration where the CIA funded groups to overthrow a democratically elected government in Afghanistan). What is evil is drone strikes destroying civilians. What was evil was when the White House during the 1980's gave Saddam chemical and biological weapons. What is evil are many laws in the United States that blatantly violate human civil liberties from the policies of the NSA to the Patriot Act. What is evil is covert spying by the federal government against even innocent protestors and even against innocent activists that just seek real change in the world (like economic justice, social justice, and environmental improvement in a radical fashion). What is evil is how the West backed reactionary regimes for decades and now claims some moral high ground in terms of their foreign policy positions. So, the system of white supremacy is evil and the terrorist attack in the mall was evil as well. FOX News is FOX News. They always have shown some hysteria when dealing with the President. They loved to advance the deceptions that led into the Iraq war. FOX News notoriously is in the hands of Murdoch and other reactionaries. Many use FOX News as a means to advance the lie that President Barack Obama is some closet Muslim when he is not. Studies and other forms of documentation have exposed FOX News' biases and errors before. It is not just one network that has been involved in disinformation and deception. So, I want to make that perfectly clear. Real issues deal with NSA spying, the war on terror, civil liberties, TAFTA, the Federal Reserve, the BIS (a very powerful central bank), economic inequality, the Syrian civil war, and other issues.

By Timothy