Thursday, January 30, 2014

More Research on the State of the Union

http://blackagendareport.com/content/american-state-union-festival-lies

http://blackagendareport.com/content/do-democrats-and-president-obama-really-want-raise-minimum-wage-0

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MORE ON THE MINIMUM WAGE

Excellent Article Glen
The Minimum Wage Analysis needs to go a bit further. You are correct to point out that Obama welched on the $9.50/hr minimum wage promise. And his chacanery was going further. In 2012 he had whittled down his promise to $9.20/hr. Yes that's right a reduction in his Minimum Wage proposal after Occupy. So why did Obama hawk Harkin's $10.10/hr proposal last night ? Because out of the remnants Occupy and Worker World Party came the initiative in Several Big Cities for a $15/hr. This proposal took off like wildfire amongst Fast Food Workers who SEIU is trying to organize. SEIU decided to take up the issue inorder to push WWP aside. Why is this significant ? Because Ralph Nader had been needling Richard Trumka to get on board with a campaign to boost the minimum wage since Trumka came to power of the AFL-CIO. At the time Nader was proposing $10.30/hr. Trumka had always responded with "we support a hike in the minimum wage...just check our website". Trumka's other dodge was "we need Card Check first". That was another election promise Obama tennis shoed.
Returning to the Minimum Wage the "Fight for $15" Campaign is growing in leaps and bounds. It is high visible in numerous major cities including New York, Chicago and Oakland. The City Council of San Jose passed a Local Ordinance mandating a $15/hr minimum wage. And last fall a Socialist, Kshama Sawant, was elected to the Seattle City Council based in large part a platform plank of raising the minimum wage in that municipality to $15/hr. You can bet that scared the ever loving crap out of the centers of Capitalist Power. So Obama got on his horse, reversed direction and threw in for Harkin's proposal even though it proposed a minimum wage higher than his own proposals. Obama and his Captialist Master saw the fire sweeping across the prairie and decided they had to light a back fire in order to stop the initiative.
The are a number of lessons we should take away from this episode.
1) The Democrat Party is every bit a hand maiden to Capital as their Republican Brothers. Remember that the next time and everytime you see a floor fight in the House of Representatives or the Senate.
2) The Leadership levels of Organized Labor are thorughly corrupt and in the hip pocket of the Democrat Party. Read carefully what I just wrote. I did NOT say labor is corrupt or unneeded. Nothing could be further from the truth. But the Rank and File has to get active and reclaim their unions. They need to tell their leaders this Union is run for our benefit not theat of the Democrat Party.
3) The Grassroots needs to be poked and praised for what they did. It needs to be pointed out what they can do when the stop listening to Democrats and Union Leaders who admonshed them "You can't get that through", or "That's not Politically Feasible". That kind of garbage is a not so subtle form of training. Training them to lower their expectations.
FIGHT FOR $15


The 2014 State of the Union Address






President Barack Obama gave his 2014 State of the Union address. The speech was more important than the one shown last year since more people want solutions and answers to complications in the world. He spoke mainly on domestic issues and how he will grow the economy. There were his words that didn't massively attack the GOP. It was a centrist speech. He wanted to advance executive power a great deal. President Barack Obama wants to use pro-business policies to address economic problems, he still has not addressed militarist jingoism, and he listed man proposals. He spoke about income inequality. We still witness a historically unprecedented level of social inequality and mass poverty. We have a vast police state spying apparatus, and we could see a global war. He spoke before the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate (most of them are millionaires and many of them are overt representatives of the financial aristocracy and the military intelligence apparatus). He spoke about America having a booming economic recovery, the lowest unemployment rate in over five years, a rebounding housing market, and a growing manufacturing sector. Much of the unemployment rate fell because of millions of people giving up searching for job. There has been an increase of manufacturing jobs is due to the collapse of wages. He spoke about wanting to see tax breaks for corporations as a means to develop jobs in America. The two parties, he said, were agreed that, “our tax code is riddled with wasteful, complicated loopholes that punish businesses investing here, and reward companies that keep profits abroad.” He called for a lowering of corporate tax rates, with media reports indicating that this might be as much as 7 percentage points. Detroit is in bankruptcy (with the elite forcing deep cuts in pensions, infrastructure, and other social rights) despite growth of manufacturing jobs. Many manufacturing companies like GM and Detroit Manufacturing System hire workers at a fraction of their former wages. His call for universal Pre-K is fine with me. I have no issue with that. The President has continued to allow money to funnel into Wall Street. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon (a huge bank) is unpunished despite his company's repeated, documented criminal activities. He received a 74 percent pay raise. He called for equal pay for equal work for women, which I have no issue with. He is right on that point. He wanted 1.6 million people to have unemployment benefits, but reforming them, which could mean greater restrictions on eligibility. The president was also silent on the Democrats and Republicans having just agreed to slash $8.7 billion from food stamps, only the second cut in the program since it was founded (the first coming just a few months ago). He touted a pro-Bush Jr. Reactionary immigration reform plan and his health care overhaul, an opening shot against all the social programs introduced in the 1930s and 1960s. He signed an executive order of a minimum wage of $10.10. I have no issue with this, but the problem is that only deals with new contracts among federal contractors not all workers. Obama heaped praise on the military, citing a plan for the long-term presence of tens of thousands of US troops in Afghanistan, insisting that the danger from Al Qaeda remains and threatening countries around the world. He welcomed recent moves from the Iranian regime to accommodate the demands of American imperialism and threatened that if Tehran fails to toe the line, war remains an option. The President talked about health care and the ACA, which is inferior to universal health care. He allied for focusing on the Asia-Pacific, which is about the pivot to Asia agenda (as a means to counter China's hegemony in the region). The reactionaries in the GOP should have blame in causing many of these problems, but even the White House should have accountability for its actions. So, the State of the Union speech by President Barack Obama was a mixture of legitimate ideals and many status quo centrist ideals including error filled ideals too (history proves that the status quo doesn't work, but revolutionary solutions). The President omits the evil agenda of the TPP too. Tax cuts alone for the super-rich are never a real JOBS plan. A real jobs plans deals with comprehensive public action to grow the economy, fight for full employment, and give people a livable wage. Select corporations dominate governmental policies now in favor of the interests of the 1%. When a Democratic controlled Congress came during this administration, there was no increase of the minimum wage, no end to the Empire, and other real solutions to our issues were not instituted as well. He or the President wants private companies to be encouraged to get money to grow the economy. Yet, if the private sector can never grow the economy by itself and they hoard trillions of dollars in wealth by themselves, then we need to find alternative solutions. There should be massive public initiatives to solve our problems. The vast majority of Americans want an increase of the minimum wage. I do too. The State of the Union is filled with uncertainty and we have the right to keep it real and fight for justice. 


One lie is that the effective U.S. corporate tax rate is the highest in the industrialized world. Republicans blame the corporate tax rate for discouraging job creation. The U.S. has a high statutory corporate tax rate or the rate on paper, but U.S. corporations actually pay incredibly low taxes due to the proliferating of loopholes, credits, and deductions in the tax code. There is also the usage of overseas tax havens. The U.S. corporate taxes were actually paid or the effective rate fell to a 40 year low of 12.1 percent in the fiscal year of 2011. The corporate profits have rebounded to their pre-Great Recession heights. The U.S. both taxes its corporations less and raises less in revenue from corporate taxes than its foreign competitors. America raises much less from corporate taxes than other countries. U.S. corporations pay a smaller share of their profits in income tax than corporations in most other OECD countries. As billionaire investor Warren Buffett has said, “it is a myth” that U.S. corporate taxes are high. “Corporate taxes are not strangling American competitiveness,” Buffett added. Even some Republicans refuse to follow a centrist approach of lowering the U.S. corporate income tax rate while simultaneously raising revenue to help reduce the federal deficit by closing loopholes and cracking down on tax havens. Corporate profits are at record breaking high and corporate taxes are at a 40 year low. If you look at the actual amount corporation pay in taxes after loopholes, deductions, etc. instead of 35% that's on paper, the U.S. has the third lowest corporate tax rate among developed nations at just 12.1%. The U.S. gets significantly less in revenue from corporate taxes than other nations. WereNotBrokeMovie.com has much more research on this issue. Small businesses pick up the tab for multinational corporations. Many extremists who talk about supporting the interests of tax dodging corporations want cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. One Apple executive said to the NY Times said the sick comment that giants multinationals "don't have an obligation to solve America's problems." American corporations are holdings $1.7 trillion in profits outside the country. It is just sitting there. That money is not being used to build new factories, new research facilities, and new equipment to benefit Americans. The LIFT organization wants this neoliberal agenda of massive tax cuts for super rich corporations and they are aided by the Koch Foundation. They rely on videos and materials from the Tax Foundation and the Manhattan Institute. We see that corporate tax revenue accounted for 30.5 percent of federal revenue in 1953. By 2011, the share of corporate tax revenue had fallen to 7.9 percent. We had a top U.S. corporate tax rate historically as high as 53 percent and 46 percent when Reagan took office. It was reduced from the current 35.6 percent to 25 percent or a reduction of about 30%. Between 2008 and 2011 (according to Mother Jones), there are 26 major American corporations that paid no net federal income taxes despite bringing billions in profits. This is found in research from the nonprofit research group Citizens for Tax Justice. The CTJ found that if the companies had paid the full 35 percent corporate tax rate, they would have put more than $78 billion into government coffers. Google even has 9.8 billion dollars in revenue in Bermuda back in 2011. There are real solutions to create jobs. Corporations are sitting on almost 2 trillion dollars of cash that they have. The 1000 largest U.S. corporations alone are hoarding almost $1 trillion. They are not investing in expansion per se. They are just buying back their own stocks or raising dividends. Many corporations are creating more jobs abroad than in the U.S. There should be prosecutions of criminal banks. There should be the expansion of mortgage relief programs and the punishment of predatory lenders. There should be a restoration of educational budgets and to improve our educational system. There should be a rising of the minimum wage as most Americans agree to. Even if most Americans opposed it, it is still morally right to increase the minimum wage nationally (as some states are doing). There should be the ending of the Bush tax cuts for the super wealthy costing trillions of dollars (and when the wealthy are paying historically low tax rates). There should be a crackdown of offshore tax shelters. Some even want a Wall Street speculation fee as a means to gain revenue and reduce the deficit by $350 billion over ten years. There can be a progressive estate tax. We can reduce defense spending and eliminate loopholes in the tax code. 





The Trans-Pacific Partnership agenda has been discussed massively in the world. There is the future North American Leaders Summit. It will be held in Toluca, Mexico on February 19. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently held a meeting with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts. In the past years, there has been not as much attention given to the trilateral relationship. The USA worked in a dual-bilateral approach with both Canada and Mexico on key issues including border and continental perimeter security (including regulatory and energy cooperation). There has been the NAFTA partnership, which has grown the North American integration movement. On January 17, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hosted the North American Ministerial with Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird and Mexican Foreign Secretary Jose Antonio Meade. The discussions related to the issues of regulatory, energy, trade relations, including border infrastructure and management. This meeting prepared for the February North American Leaders Summit. It will include the participation of U.S. President Barack Obama, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. During a press conference, a reporter asked about reopening NAFTA in order to update it. Secretary Kerry answered, “the TPP, is a very critical component of sort of moving to the next tier, post-NAFTA. So I don’t think you have to open up NAFTA, per se, in order to achieve what we’re trying to achieve.” Minister Baird added, “We believe that NAFTA’s been an unqualified success, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations, which all three of us are in, offer us the opportunity to strengthen the trilateral partnership.” Secretary Meade also chimed in, “We do not think it is necessary to reopen NAFTA, but we think we have to build on it to construct and revitalize the idea of a dynamic North America.” The Miami Herald in December 2013 reported that the Obama administration, “is exploring a regional trade plan for the Americas that would be the most ambitious hemispheric initiative in years.” It went on to say that Secretary of State John Kerry, “would like to first seek an agreement to deepen the existing North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada, and to expand it afterward to the rest of Latin America.” According to some of Kerry’s top aides, “the plan to relaunch NAFTA could come as early as February, when President Barack Obama is scheduled to meet with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts at a North American Leaders’ Summit in Mexico.” The recent article, U.S. lays out goals for NAFTA cautioned that, “the shared goal of a NAFTA 2.0 that wins fresh, sustainable gains for Canada, Mexico and the U.S., the Americans warn, is unlikely to come in a single, dramatic and easily digestible sound byte.” It further noted that, “Instead, the Americans are urging a more realistic approach aimed at reviving trilateral momentum, with a dogged diplomatic effort that aggressively fine-tunes, streamlines and expands the trade pact.” Back in 2013, many business leaders in North America released policy recommendations to deal with continental economic integration and competitiveness. There was a letter sent to President Barack Obama. It called for greater trilateral government areas in dealing with intelligent border system, regulatory standards and practices, as well as North American energy security and sustainability. The letter was also issued to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Enrique Pena Nieto, the Business Roundtable, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and the Consejo Mexicano de Hombres de Negocios. The business organizations explained that, “More can and should be done to promote regulatory cooperation between our three countries, to facilitate the legitimate movement of people, goods and services.” They emphasized that the time to act was now and that their specific proposals would, “help deepen our economic ties, strengthen the international competitiveness of Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. companies and their workers, and realize North American energy self-reliance.” Their goal is to create a seamless North American market. There was the third annual North American Competitiveness and Innovation Conference in October 2013. Government officials, trade experts and leaders wanted to boost NAFTA ties. There were leaders who represented the private and academic sectors from all 3 nations in the meeting as well. They wanted to have a roadmap to develop more trade and economic tis for the next 20 years. There are TPP negotiations occurring now too. In the report North American Competitiveness: The San Diego Agenda, Laura Dawson, Christopher Sands, and Duncan Wood examine the evolution of the NAFTA and provide a blueprint for deepening trilateral integration. The report deals with further integration in Mexico, the U.S., and Canada. The report stated that, “North America’s future demands deeper integration of our economies and streamlined cross-border processes. Essential elements in ensuring long-term competitiveness include infrastructure spending, energy cooperation, investing in human capital formation, increasing labor mobility and labor market flexibility, regulatory cooperation and more efficient border management.” So, these groups want bilateralism in the short storm and trilateralism in the long term. So, NAFTA is being used as an excuse for the elites to advocate more trilateral collaboration in North America. We witness that 20 years after NAFTA has been detrimental to the economies of the world. That is why others want future trade agreements. We see the TPP negotiations that are underway. The TPP wants to deal with the NAFTA failed model in more countries. The TPP is a real threat in the world. 



There is more research about the Butler movie that should be known. The Butler was film based on the life of Eugene Allen. Eugene Allen was an African American who worked in the White House for 34 years from the days of President Harry Truman to the second term of Ronald Reagan. The movie tried to encompass the period form the mid 1920's to the election of President Barack Obama in 2008. The story deals with encounters between a black worker and the upper echelons of the American political elite. Eugene Allen in real life did not grow up in a farm in Georgia. He was born in a segregated town in central Virginia. He suffered a lot of racism and discrimination in his life. He worked as a waiter in a white only resorts and country clubs.  In the Haygood article, Allen says, “We never had anything. I was always hoping things would get better.” His suffered the evils of racism and Jim Crow in the South. The evils of racism and Jim Crow were the functions of race and class. These items were instituted to harm the rights of black people and exploit the poverty of humanity among many backgrounds. Violent atrocities committed by maddened racists were commonplace. Allen's wife Helene was never an alcoholic or committed adultery against her husband. In addition, Eugene and Helene had only one son, Charles, who was never a Freedom Rider or Black Panther. He did go to Vietnam, but survived (unlike his cinematic counterpart) and went on to work for the US State Department. The movie's depictions of the black White House staff dealt with their economic oppression. The filmmakers carefully depict how these workers perform their duties, in the course of which they reveal their frustration with their demeaning conditions. (When Eugene Allen started at the White House, he was a “pantry man” washing dishes and polishing silverware. The job paid $2,400 a year [$20,800 in 2013 dollars], compared to the national average wage of $3,400). The movie deals with the evolution of the civil rights movement. It touched on well-known events and ended with the 2008 Presidential election. There was nothing shown about the August 1963 march on Washington—the largest integrated demonstration that had ever taken place in the nation’s capital.  It shows the assassination of Dr. King in April of 1968, but it also shown a video of Jesse Jackson talking about the killing. Jesse Jackson is now the Democratic Party operative. Now, we know that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in a turning point of his life. He started to see the truth that the struggles of black people in America were linked to the working class in the world (and that we should fight for social justice at home and we should oppose imperialism. He spoke out forcefully and courageously against the Vietnam War). The night before his assassination, King told a group of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee: “We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end. Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through.” This spirit of struggle is shown in The Butler, but it has omitted important parts of the struggle. Eugene Allen has an unique life that should be known, but the film deals with many omissions. The reality is that the sacrifices of made by human beings in the civil rights struggle ought to be remembered and that struggle didn't end with the election of Barack Obama (who is a center left politician with some of the most reactionary, anti-democratic foreign policy positions in the past 25 years). There is sympathy for Nixon’s downfall as shown in the film and, after all, Reagan was a good sort—didn’t Nancy Reagan (Jane Fonda) invite Cecil and Gloria to a state dinner as guests, not servants? The movie has an interesting scene where Nixon talked in promotion of black capitalism (as a means to end the Black Panther movement), which was a detriment to black America. That ideology caused the emergence of conservative, self-absorbed petty bourgeois constituencies. Also, some in the black middle class was exploited as a means to be part of the new "left" constituency for American imperialism. The movie at the end describes the Presidency of Barack Obama. Barack Obama is viewed as the culmination of many of the events of the civil rights movement. Barack Obama is part of the Dream. He is not the fulfillment of the Dream. Also, he is the spokesman of the elite showing a reactionary, pro-Wall Street, militarist agenda in the world. So, when you look at real history, we can always respect the struggle of black humanity. Also, we should know that the struggle is not ever and we should continue to fight for justice. 





I think that the Cheerios commercial has the right to exist. Anyone that who uses disrespect against a child or children in a commercial has very low character to begin with. Regardless of the background of any human being, any human being should be treated succinctly with dignity and with respect. I think that also black people should have the right to love their heritage and to affirm their dignity too in the world. There is nothing wrong with Black Love and the expression of it publicly and in private. A commercial shows Black Love among a father and a mother (with children) is fine. It is a shame that we don't see many commercials or shows now that describes the strong essence of BLACK LOVE. Anyone being racist or bigoted against any individual in the commercial just harbors serious insecurities about themselves. We can't be naive about racism too. In order to defeat racism, we have to fight it. We have to fight discrimination and we have to oppose injustices found in the current power structure. We should never beg white people for social acceptance or acting like white people are morally superior to us. We should affirm our self determination to grow our own institutions and courageously express ourselves in a righteous fashion irrespective of how any non-black person thinks. Black people should know that we are A GREAT PEOPLE created from GOD WITH THE DARKEST MELANIN IN HUMAN HISTORY. We have to stand up for justice and educate humanity on the value of black people. We should continue to stand up for human civil liberties, for anti-imperialism, for economic justice, for the defense of Nature (or the environment), and for true human justice. We have to fight the system of white supremacy in multifaceted ways. We have to confront the system of institutions of white supremacists (excluding hating each other. We have to reject the evil ideologies of mainstream society. The program of white supremacy advances self-hate & black degradation and we should advance true LOVE FOR ourselves and our communities. Some ignorant folks want to hate their own people, but are afraid to stand up against white racists). We have to defend and protect our people, especially the children and the elderly. We have to realize to expose the thugs of corporate criminals, crooked police officers, intelligence agency spies monitoring even innocent human beings, exploiters from the prison industrial complex, imperialists, and other criminals who act as instruments of white supremacy. All of these criminals are true THUGS and they reflect the greed, the unnatural activities, the selfishness, and the materialism of the current white supremacy power structure. IN ESSENCE, THE THUG NATURE OF WHITE SUPREMACY exploits black humanity (who are used as scapegoats for massive evils in the world society) as a means to maintain the current system. We can never solve anything without knowing what we are up against and the origin of our problems in the first place. Irrespective our degrees, titles, occupations, etc. if we don't take the time to help our people & fight evil in an aggressive, righteous fashion, then we can never see justice. We have to expose the CONDITIONS on why things are in the first place. That is why the 1% is heavily involved in the creation of the nefarious conditions of the 99% (filled with record income inequality, poverty, etc.). WE HAVE TO KNOW OURSELVES and love MORALITY as well. We have to thrive for excellence in our conduct and maintain a strong MORAL CODE in our daily lives. That means that we should improve our lives. Males and females should act upright, be moral, and act righteously. We should have individual responsibility in our lives. We should be made accountable for our actions. We should never justify evil action done by black people or non-black people. We can't just correct our lives and our morality, but we have to correct THE CONDITIONS IN THE FIRST PLACE (created by the SYSTEM) AND CORRECT THE MINDSET OF SELF HATE AND OTHER EVILS THAT EXISTS IN SOME BLACK PEOPLE. WE HAVE TO REJECT THE REINFORCEMENTS OF OUR OPPRESSION & WE HAVE TO REJECT FALSE STEREOTYPES. WE HAVE TO UPLIFT BROTHERS AND SISTERS. We have to give folks opportunities for folks to see that they can be better in society. We should never be limited in our dreams based on CONDITIONS. In the final analysis, we have to treat our neighbors as ourselves. These are the points that I wanted to make. 


By Timothy


Planning for War and Deception: How the Obama Administration celebrates the King Holiday

http://blackagendareport.com/content/planning-war-and-deception-how-obama-administration-celebrates-king-holiday


US House of Representatives Votes to Slash $8.7 Billion from Food Stamps

http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-house-of-representatives-votes-to-slash-8-7-billion-from-food-stamps/5366776

Trojan Pam's Research

http://racismws.com/2013/08/14/why-the-movie-the-butler-will-not-get-one-dime-from-me/

http://racismws.com/2013/11/25/new-archive-page-with-all-my-published-posts/

Monday, January 27, 2014

More Research

http://revolution-news.com/brazil-fifa-forces-evictions-for-world-cup-police-brutality-rages/

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/black-in-latin-america/resources/resources-glossary/11/

http://www.divinecaroline.com/life-etc/culture-causes/ten-african-american-women-who-changed-world



Notice the arrogant ignorance of the infinitesimal mind. The psychologically impaired mind of a pos is actually unaware of the world-historical importance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his legacy. Yet the whole world acknowledges and admires Dr. King. There are statues of Dr. King in Europe. When I travelled there I noticed that "Martin L. King" is a household name. He was one of few persons whom even the Russians dared not deny when he wanted to deliver a sermon in a Church in EAST GERMANY. He virtually received the red carpet treatment in the Vatican. And, of course, he was hailed as a hero in western Europe during this recetpion of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. His name is known in Latin America, in the West Indies, in Canada, China, and --not surprisingly--in his ancestral homeland of Africa.

He was esteemed by people like Vlac Havel(a fellow Personalist), a Czech dissident who survived USSR's repression of the Prague Spring, becoming later the President of the liberated new Czech democracy after the collapse of the Soviet empire. Stephane Hessel, Attai's courageous compatriot and hero of La Resistance, hails King along with Gandhi and Nelson Mandela as a prophet of nonviolent revolution. And progressive Muslims in the Baltimore/Washington area helped fuel the Arab Spring--mainly a NONVIOLENT REVOLUTION---by translating into Arabic films on and writings by Dr. King, and disseminating them throughout the Muslim world. The "boring" Dr. King as idiocratic "pos" labels him, had a tendecny while alive that has transcended his death, of sparking the unboring and remarkable fires of REVOLT in the hearts and minds of oppressed people everywhere. Oppressed Latin American peasants sing Civil Rights songs. Oppressed Irish folk resisting British oppression are inspired by King---the Irish wife of a local AA man remarking to me how often one finds pictures of Dr. King in Irish homes over there--marched while singing our black freedom songs and emulating our techniques of nonviolent civil disobedience.

And needless to say, the FBI wasn't so frightened of Dr. King because he was about to bore the public to sleep. They knew better. That's why he was KILLED. But leave it up to a Nazi untermenschen like "pos" to be so out of touch with the REAL WORLD. We may be entering into a new era of democratic revolutions on a global scale. And "pos" seems to be one of those people who will be, in Dr. King's words "sleeping through a revolution." But that's her problem. I will be among those fighting to change the course of history, to begin a new Dawn of Freedom for the whole of humanity. Let's do it, compatriots! FREEDOM RISING!!!



-Savant

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In fact, capitalism is even destroying labor without which even the wealth of the capitalists is impossible. Capitalism has always been known for its technological revolutions, which are partly what Marx may have had in mind when he spoke of capitalisms endless "revolutionizing of the instruments of production." These revolutions have hitherto resulted in the creation of labor saving devices; for example, the tractor to replace the plow.. In so doing capitalism has been able to maximize profit by achieving greater wealth production with less labor. But it is labor which created the technology which diminishes labor. Now as a certain point the revolutionization technical instruments of productions takes a qualitative leap. Now only do we have labor saving devices, we have LABOR REPLACEING devices. One or two robots can replace thousands of auto workers. There are ven robots that do hip replacement surgery. Once you turn that corner capitalism is doomed. Maybe not in quite the way Marx thought. Maybe not some "proletarian revolution." And yet somewhat AS he imagined--the negation of labor and the concentration of moer and more wealth into fewer and fewer hands. This could lead to revolution--or fascism---as even the upper middle classes are impoverished, and the corporate state is forced to increasingly restrict civil liberties in order to protect the interests of the masters of wealth. The system implodes from within.

Once labor is abolished or marginalized laborers cannot purchase. if they can't purchase, profits are lost. The system collapses from within. But it doesn't pass away quietly, nor do the common people quietlyu sit by as their lives are destroyed. Repression will be neeed to protect capital from the people. The people have the option of surrrender and death, or some form of resistance. We are left with the option of either a new, more democratic and COOPERATIVE society, or fascism and barbarism. The collapse of civilization, or the rebirth of the human world. A "new humanism" as fanon called it. A new world. FREEDOM RISING!!!

-Savant

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At the bare minimum Obama should have settled for nothing less than the public option. The problem is that he failed to push for universal single payer. Had he done that then he could hav4 at least negotiated down (if need be) to the pubiic option.
Obama's centrism is self-defeating.

-Savant

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Dr. King's perspective on Frantz Fanon is interesting. He notes in WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE (p.55)that within radical left Black circles of the late 1960s, many youth were no longer quoting Gandhi or Tolstoy, but Fanon's THE WRETCHED OF THE EARTH. Despite his disagreements with Fanon, who proposed armed insurgency to end racist oppression and colonialist exploitation, Kind admits that Fnaon's book is "well written" and "with many penetrating insights."(p.55). Indeed, King apparently admires Fanon's revolutionary call to maek "inventions" and "discovering", to create a new social order with radically new values leading to the self-transformaton of the human being. King clearly admires Fanon's call at the end of Les Damnes de l Terre: "For Europe, for ourselves, and for humanity, comrades, we must turn over a new leaf, we must work out new concepts, a try to set afoot a NEW MAN." NOw King actually admires these challenging words from Fanon's WRETCHED OF THE EARTH. And on p. 66 of WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE, King replies: "These are brave and challenging words; I am HAPPY that young black men and women are quoting them.But the problem is that Fanon and those who quote his words are seeking to "work out new concepts" and "set afoot a new man" with a willingness to imitate old concepts of violence." King's attitude toward Fanon, as largely also toward Marx, is to embrace the humanistic end but not the violent means. In STRENGTH TO LOVE, King describes Marx's idea of a classless society free of exploitation, poverty and racism as a "noble end," while regarding as ignoble the call for an ARMED proletarian uprising. King agrees with Fanon that humanity must end radical inequalities of wealth or be torn about by it.

He agrees whe Fanon writes "What we want to do all the time, night and day, is to go forward in the company of Man, in the company of ALL men..." In essence, King says "Bravo, Fanon. That is precisely what we want. But we cannot go forward together in the company of all men if we take a violent path to get there." Of course, even Fanon argued (as I mentioned in an essay I sent you) that there were SOME situations, some societies, where radical change may be achieved by peaceful means. But what about situations in which this is not possible. Relatively peaceful deconolinzation was possible in Ghana, but not in Algeria according to Fanon. And what about America? Is revolutionary onviolent change possible in America? Can we end plutocracy and racism withou armed struggle? Does the Occupy MOvement offer us an historical possibility of radical nonviolent transformation? Like the ultimate outcome of the Arab Spring, the jury's still out on that. But we must strive, must push forward, to achieve a more just society withut drowning the land in blood. Heaven help us all if we fail.

-Savant


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Notice the arrogant ignorance of the infinitesimal mind. The psychologically impaired mind of a pos is actually unaware of the world-historical importance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his legacy. Yet the whole world acknowledges and admires Dr. King. There are statues of Dr. King in Europe. When I travelled there I noticed that "Martin L. King" is a household name. He was one of few persons whom even the Russians dared not deny when he wanted to deliver a sermon in a Church in EAST GERMANY. He virtually received the red carpet treatment in the Vatican. And, of course, he was hailed as a hero in western Europe during this recetpion of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. His name is known in Latin America, in the West Indies, in Canada, China, and --not surprisingly--in his ancestral homeland of Africa. He was esteemed by people like Vlac Havel(a fellow Personalist), a Czech dissident who survived USSR's repression of the Prague Spring, becoming later the President of the liberated new Czech democracy after the collapse of the Soviet empire. Stephane Hessel, Attai's courageous compatriot and hero of La Resistance, hails King along with Gandhi and Nelson Mandela as a prophet of nonviolent revolution. And progressive Muslims in the Baltimore/Washington area helped fuel the Arab Spring--mainly a NONVIOLENT REVOLUTION---by translating into Arabic films on and writings by Dr. King, and disseminating them throughout the Muslim world. The "boring" Dr. King as idiocratic "pos" labels him, had a tendecny while alive that has transcended his death, of sparking the unboring and remarkable fires of REVOLT in the hearts and minds of oppressed people everywhere. Oppressed Latin American peasants sing Civil Rights songs. Oppressed Irish folk resisting British oppression are inspired by King---the Irish wife of a local AA man remarking to me how often one finds pictures of Dr. King in Irish homes over there--marched while singing our black freedom songs and emulating our techniques of nonvioleet civil disobedience. And needless to say, the FBI wasn't so frightened of Dr. King because he was about to bore the public to sleep. They knew better. That's why he was KILLED. But leave it up to a Nazi untermenschen like "pos" to be so out of touch with the REAL WORLD. We may be entering into a new era of democratic revolutions on a global scale. And "pos" seems to be one of those people who will be, in Dr. King's words "sleeping through a revolution." But that's her problem. I will be among those fighting to change the course of history, to begin a new Dawn of Freedom for the whole of humanity. Let's do it, compatriots! FREEDOM RISING!!! -Savant __________________________


http://www.topix.com/forum/afam/TGR7NOC6C0A1A5PFR/p348


Yes. I certainly had no doubts about King being socialist, at the time, based on his speeches. To me it just sounded like he crafted his words for mainstream consumption, yet never misled, always was clear about what he wanted, which I interpreted as, to put it simply: social justice. That meant economic justice and King was explicit about that. I mean, what the hell does a rally called “Poor Peoples' March” tell us exactly? And now that Fox News has everyone confused about what “socialism” means, let's keep in mind that a hell of a lot of LBJ's domestic policy was DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISM oh yes it f'ing was! If it hadn't been for Vietnam... he'd have been re-elected and things would have been different. King was demanding that it go further than LBJ's “Great Society”... he wanted to go right after the corporations (as FDR had done), which I've seen no Democrat since FDR and maybe Truman really attempt. As to what is obvious to us, that Dr. King was very interested in economic issues and from a leftist perspective, but which others like to deny (oh no he just wanted to sit in the front of the bus!), I can offer further testament in that in the UFW we were hearing a LOT as we were educated into the ways of that nascent Union about GANDHI and KING. Gandhi and King, all the time, non-violence, non-violent struggle for justice for WORKERS, and so on, and I could repeat another dozen common phrases used all of which expressed a continuity with Gandhi and King and were oriented toward social justice, as the UFW seldom dealt directly with issues of discrimination against Mexicans, though that was rampant in California. Their focus was on Unionizing farmworkers, whether they were Mexican or Philippino or whatever. 99%!!!!!!!!! 

Let me also say this about King's heroism. He steadfastly insisted on non-violence. Some black “militants” saw this as cowardice,“letting the white man beat you down” and so on. But King knew that with persistence the image of the non-violent people asking for merely their rights, yet being beaten, was powerful and would cause the cause to prevail in the public mind.

He also knew that one had to be very diligent in maintaining one's stance. Was not King tempted at times to lash out, kick a cop or whatever? Certainly as he was human he was so tempted. But he was one impressive leader, one inspirational philosophic guide for those of us who wanted justice, and as anyone around in the 60's can tell you, he had this powerful effect on all the movements, not just SCLC, voting rights in Montgomery, etc.

I know that I philosophically agree with Dr. King, and in political action I have managed to maintain non-violence as a tactic. But I am ANGRY. I suppose y'all can see that. I have also been in marches taunted by crowds of angry racist rednecks. I have friends who've been tortured and killed. I have been tortured. I am pissed off. I am very pissed off.

But if you see me at an Occupy event or other such action, I will be non-violent. I will think about King and Chávez (César Chávez, with Dolores Huerta co-founder of the UFW) and remember what it is we're fighting for and how we do it.

Dolores Huerta was beaten by SF cops to the point of internal injuries and prolonged hospitalization. César and her and all of us were reviled and spit upon. The rednecks in Salinas even spit on Ethel Kennedy for coming to support the UFW.

I bring this up to emphasize how important and powerful Dr. King was and is as a teacher and leader, and I want also that everyone be aware that the UFW was following exactly the same precepts, and its history like that of the civil rights movt in the South is quite a tale of perseverence and courage.

Let's do keep the faith, eh?




-Barros Serrano


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Harrisson wrote:

I think that PEOPLE POWER has to somehow emphasize media-consciousness and savvy about corporate-funded talking points to the progressive masses.
Generally speaking, Savant, I suspect that the higher the educational level, the easier it is to get people to realize how they are being manipulated by external stimuli. However, even people with years of post-high school education can be successfully played for fools by a well-honed corporate media machine which has all sorts of studies on communication and psychology to draw on, and which can shamelessly spout all manner of disinformation and outright lies to drive home a particular message or "talking point."
I think that Fanon and Marx alike probably underestimated just how divisible and gullible the proletariat can be.
On the other hand, they can be refreshingly progressive and open-minded at times too, which is why we must never completely give up on them.
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P.S. As a brief aside, I predict that President Obama will carry Ohio and Pennsylvania this fall and that huge swathes (if not an outright majority) of the white-working-class electorate will reject Romney's campaign of obfuscation and nonsense...and recognize that Obama's origins are far closer to their own (economically) than Romney's.
Fanon, living in the 20th Century, was aware of how manipulatable is the European proletariat, not to mention the far less mature American proletariat.
But he seemed to believe the the majority of the poor of the Third World, especially under colonialism, were still revolutionary or potentially so. He distrusted the native bourgeoisie of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Marx was convinced of the revolutionary potential of the Western working class. He was not aware of the extent to which the 1% would in the 20th Century develop means for capturing or deluding the consciousness of the Western proletariat.
The global crisis of capitalism may be creating new opportunities to create a revolutionary movement of working class and poor people. But it will be a long struggle. And we must still overcome the racial divide among the poor in America.



-Savant




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Barros Serrano wrote:

A disturbing situation indeed, and I would point out that many of those who now will vote GOP to screw themselves, I'm talking about these white workingclass folks, a few decades back would have been voting for Hubert Humphrey at least, not exactly my model for radical change, but at least a moderately pro-Union Democrat. Now they go teapartying and will vote for whichever fascist reprobate Bill O'Reilly endorses.
And THEREIN lies the problem... the right learned that if they have news actually reporting events, and people see bodybags from Vietnam, and Dr. King speeches, and demonstrations, and SDS and Black Panthers, and the radio is full of protest songs and conscious rebellious music from Beatles to Marvin Gaye, and the tradition of folk music is strong... well, then you end up with college students riotting and a President like LBJ enacting social change from the White House!!!
Can't have that!!! And so along comes the Reagan Revolution with GOPAC tactics and Rush and O'Reilly, and now the white worker repeatedly votes to have his own rectum thoroughly reamed and calls it “patriotism”!!!
This media mind control is our biggest obstacle. The corporate feudal owners-of-our-a___ have done a real good job at tying up the minds of the populace, far better than had ever been done when the 60's happened. We have a big problem...
But it's important that progressives don't throw in the towel. The adversary learns from us in order to defeat us, and we mush learn from him/her in order to win the fight for democracy and to end the plutocracy. More and more creative use of social media, and learning how to "play" the corporate media must be part of our strategy.
Most importantly, we must have an inspiring vision of a better world. Our dreamers and visionaries are indispensable. It can just be about defeating the right.
How did Robert F. Kennedy put it? "Some men look at things as the ARE and ask "why?" I envision things as they COULD BE and ask "Why not?"


-Savant



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Dr. King's SON's Observation

I happened to have switched the channel yesterday evening when Dr. KIng's son, MLK III was speaking.
He said (so many words) "My dad was not killed for the his efforts at desegregation or the fight for the ballot. He was probably killed because of his efforts to economically empower the poor and working people." \
Martin L, King, III also gave props to the OCCUPY MOVEMENT, which he suggested was continuing the same fight for economic justice as his father.

This is the point that I, Savant, has been trying to stress by starting this thread.
This is the great battle of the 21st Century.


-Savant


_______________________

 King's advice in his April 4, 1967 speech "A Time to Break Silence", if heeded, might have allowed us to avoid most of the disasters of the past 45 years. Imperialism and peace, militarism and democracy, are diametrically opposed and irreconcilable. Sooner or later--but probably sooner than we think--America will have to choose. You cannot have imperialist aggression and exploitation abroad ,and social justice and peace at home. You cannot have have militarism abroad and democracy at home. And, ss Dr. King once said "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom."(THE TRUMPET OF CONSCIENCE, P. 32) Eventually, we Americans --and others---will have to make a choice, a choice that may determine the future of civilization; or determine whether civilization will have a future. As an American I would rather we were the most JUST society than the more powerful. And to paraphrase words of Obama which Obama seems at times to forget,

I would prefer America inspire others by "the power of our examples" rather than intimidate others "by teh example of our power." For thousands of years human beings and societies have resorted to war to resolve differences. But those differences remain, often magnified, as wars continue. Continue as they have for THOUSANDS of years, and yet war continues. Perhaps it's time that we consider another path. Could it be that "impractical dreamers" like Dr. King, the Mahatma and even Asoka are really the most "practical" after all? Maybe we should listen more to the "dreamers" and less to the practical hawks. Just a thought.......


-Savant


The Needs of the People


Ron Paul has shown his cards. Some folks need to move on from his views. Ron Paul has promised to promote the evil agenda of destroying the economy by agreeing to austerity, stealing food stamps from the poor, etc. He feels that these acts will solve the depression, which they won't alone. It has been 18 months after his legendary betrayal. Some folks still worship him as some saint. Ron Paul never wanted to win his elections. Back in 2012, he never explicitly attacked Mitt Romney's reactionary political positions strongly at all. He said that he was just making sure that the youth would vote Republican in exchange for a good position for Rand Paul. Ron Paul loves the free trade agreements, which resulted in the outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing base. He even said the following words: "...There’s nothing to fear from globalism, free trade and a single worldwide currency” (Paul in Congress, 2001). If he followed up with his 1 trillion dollar austerity agenda, that would have destroyed the United States. In a ruthless libertarian fashion, he wanted to end all food stamps in a process while hardly denting the Pentagon budget. That action would create mass starvation in America. That scenario would be similar to the events of the Great Depression when millions died of hunger worldwide. This Ron Paul is the real one. He talks about central banks, but praises JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs, etc. that own the Federal Reserve Bank via its influence. He called these big banks as wonderful free market operations. A shill in my opinion always omits the crimes of Wall Street and the big banks. He promotes Austrian Economics like Lew Rockwell. Austrian Economics has been exposed as a multibillion decades old deceptive operation, which has been funded by the establishment too. Even Austrian Ed Griffin admits that the bankers own all of the gold. He evens woke up recently that the bankers are in it for usury. Bill Still was right all along including Ellen Brown. Via usury, the establishment has own big banks and tons of transnational corporations. We don't need a gold standard to have liberation. How can all the pundits miss that we had a Gold Standard up to the thirties (and via Bretton Woods actually up to 1971)? How can we forget the Rothschilds got rich from lending Gold to Sovereigns in the 18th, 19th AND 20th century? Capitalism is one giant global monopoly. Capitalism didn't bring us prosperity among the masses of the people. It brought us the despicable horrors of the Industrial Revolution with forced urbanization and the harsh 80 hour work weeks in sweatshops for corporate bosses. What brought us some prosperity was the uncompromising resistance by dedicated human beings against those horrible conditions. Many Americans are now politically independent, because folks are tired of the political games from the Republicans and the Democrats. We have repeated history as the old saying goes; those who refuse to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. The Roman Republic had an interesting history. We know that the plebs in the ancient Roman Republic constantly struggled for their rightful emancipation. There was the power of the patricians as well. The plebs lost. The Empire developed as a product of the consolidation of patrician power. When the Caesar ended the Republic, he also ended fiat money. Up to then, the Romans paid with copper coins, but from then on scarce Gold chained them until they were attacked by the Huns. They were ‘compensated’ with free grains and ever more bloodthirsty ‘games’ in the Coliseum. All paid for by the Empire’s plundering of the provinces, of course. This story sounds familiar. It sounds very similar to the History of the United States of America. Even Jesus Christ attacked the Money Changers for their economic exploitation of the sacred Temple. That is why populists want interest free credit facilities (in replacing fractional reserve banking from the FED and Wall Street. We don't have to pay interest to build up our country. Experts like Ellen Brown, Margrit Kennedy, Eisenstein, Greco, Dick Eastman, Stephen Zarlenga, and others talk about ending interest tyranny in our economic system) as a means to allow people plus businesses to refinance their mortgages and business loans there. We ought to have trials of any Wall Street banker or any person involved in the recession. We should provide interest free credit (or debt free money) to both the Government and individuals. We ought to reject imperialism and war. We should end the Empire and never give human rights to corporations. We have to condemn the evils found in the CIA, MI6, the Mossad, the FBI, etc.

We know that economists and policymakers have harmed the U.S. economy. We know that the economy has been damaged by the poor suffering and the offshoring of middle class jobs (for the benefit of corporate profits). It is self-evident that the Federal Reserve's policy of Quantitative easing has not worked. It is only primarily utilized to support oversized banks that the government protects from market discipline. QE not only distorts bond and stock markets. It threatens the value of the dollar and it has caused the manipulation of the gold price as well. It is easy to witness that when U.S. corporations send jobs offshore, the GDP, consumer income, tax base, and careers associated with the jobs go abroad with the jobs. Corporations gain the additional profits at large costs to the economy. The economy then suffers less employment, less economic growth, a reduced state, local, and federal tax revenues, wider deficits, and impairments of legitimate social services. When the policymakers allow the big banks to become independent of market discipline, they made the banks an unresolved burden on the economy. There has been no real, honest report on the condition of the banks made by the authorities. Time will tell if the Federal Reserve can create enough money to monetize enough debt to rescue the banks without collapsing the U.S. dollars. Allowing the big banks to fall and be reorganized would be much cheaper. That is why some want to break up the big banks too. Many economics and U.S. policymakers let their country bad badly. Some of them claim that these trends are necessary to develop the new economy from the old economy. Yet, for over a decade, U.S. jobs statistics show no sign of the promised new economy at all after jobs were moved offshore. The same policymakers and economists believe in the lie that the markets are self-regulating and that the financial sector could safely be deregulated (along with confusing jobs offshoring with free trade). It is obvious that offshoring jobs are destructive to the U.S. economy. As John Williams (shadowstats.com) has made clear, “the recovery” is entirely the artifact of the understated measure of inflation used to deflate nominal GDP. By under-measuring inflation, the government can show low, but positive, rates of real GDP growth. No other indicator supports the claim of radical economic recovery. John Williams writes that consumer inflation, if properly measured, is running around 9%, far above the 2% figure that is the Fed’s target and more in line with what consumers are actually experiencing. We have just had a 6.5% annual increase in the cost of a postage stamp. The Fed’s target inflation rate is said to be low, but Simon Black points out that the result of a lifetime of 2% annual inflation is the loss of 75% of the purchasing power of the currency. He uses the cost of sending a postcard to illustrate the decline in the purchasing power of median household income today compared to 1951. That year it cost one cent to send a post card. As household income was $4,237, the household could send 423,700 postcards. Today the comparable income figure is $51,017. As it costs 34 cents to send one postcard, today’s household can only afford to send 150,050 postcards. Nominal income rose 12 times, and the cost of sending a postcard rose 34 times. Americans know about the destructive "free trade agreements." These agreements are nothing more than ruling class tools to moving jobs abroad. The new effort by the corporations to loot and defraud the public is called the "Trans-Pacific Partnership." The TPP deals with fast tracking. The bill allows corporations to write the bill in secret without congressional input. Some research proves that 90% of all Americans will suffer income losses under TPP while wealth becomes more concentrated at the top. The TPP deals with our lives from what we eat, the Internet, and to the environment.  According to Kevin Zeese in Alternet, “the leak of the [TPP] Intellectual Property Chapter revealed that it created a path to patent everything imaginable, including plants and animals, to turn everything into a commodity for profit.” The TPP is secretly drafted. It allows the executive branch to change existing U.S. law to make the laws that were not passed in secret compatible with the security written trade bill. Theoretically, buy American requirements and any attempt to curtail jobs offshoring would become illegal restraint on trade. The House and the Senate should never turn over their legislative functions to the executive branch at all. The financial media has helped the FED and the banks to cover the issues with the TPP up. Last week interest rates on 30 day T-bills have turned negative or people were paying more for a bond than it would return at maturity. An event similar to the Cyprus banks' limits on withdrawals, last Friday (January 24) the BBC reported that the large UK bank HSBC is preventing customers from withdrawing cash from their accounts in excess of several thousand pounds. We see threats about the value of the dollar harmed, possible high inflation, exchange controls, pension confiscations possibly, etc. We know that capitalist greed aided and abetted by economists and policymakers have harmed America a great deal. We should fight evil. I have hope for the future though. I never lost my faith in God or in real humanity.

Regardless of what folks think about Edward Snowden, we have to endorse civil liberties in the world. The NSA spying has been greatly exposed and the NSA's action makes a mockery of human dignity and human liberty in general. We should reject imperialism in the world and possible Western military intervention in Syria or Iran. In the culture of freedom loving peoples, we see human beings loving peace, civil liberties, and social justice. We carry onward with that spirit and tradition today in the 21st century. Also, many reactionaries support Snowden for different reasons than some do. I disagree with Snowden with his rights violated, but I don't view him as a super hero nor a villain. He is the fruit of the evils found in the NSA. Many reactionaries support Snowden for the reason of advancing their evil states’ rights, austerity, and anti-social safety net agenda. The reactionaries in many cases exploit the errors made by the NSA as an excuse to try to destroy Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and other legitimate civil rights laws. We should never ally with the JBS or likeminded organizations at all. Also, we should oppose the war on terror and the ongoing drone attacks that have killed innocent men, women, and children in multiple countries. These acts are justified on the notion of "humanitarianism" when there is nothing humanitarian about these attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, Congo, Sudan, Somalia, etc. We know that the rebels in Syria have been funded by Western interests. Assad almost certainly did not use sarin against the civilian population in Syria. The rebel FSA rebels are linked to Saudi Arabia and Al-Qaeda including the CIA. These groups are linked to white supremacy. Many of these rebels have been caught on many times trying to bring sarin and other toxic agents into Syria. Assad has agreed to quickly give up his chemical weapons stock pile to avoid being attacked by US/NATO forces. So, a war mongering military imperialist mindset ought to be rejected completely. Also, I am not pro-Assad. I am anti-US/EU/NATO military imperialism. Also, we should realize that the Republicans are not only filled with errors and extremism. Some Democrats are in error about things too. Many of them refuse to condemn gentrification, privatization, or federal initiatives that are privatizing public education. Some Democrats are just as neoliberal as many Republicans are. The free market never saved my soul only THE CREATOR DID. I have not heard the free market or a penny save black humanity morally or psychologically. The economic system of the oppressor (which was integral in the creation of the international slave trade centuries ago) is an economic system that I have the right to disagree with as Kwame Ture, Malcolm X, Dr. King, and Fred Hampton disagreed with when they were alive. I have their quotations. Sacrifice is made by both activism and spiritual motivation. I wrote that protesting alone never works. I did write that folks can create mentorships and do other independent programs as a means for fight for black liberation. Confronting the government and doing multifaceted actions including working on independent businesses have worked to end the Maafa and end many overt ills. Standing up for freedom legitimately has not a single thing to do with begging the oppressor. When Ella Baker and other heroes were standing up for freedom, they were never begging the oppressor. They were confronting the ruling class and the oppressor as a means to fight for legitimate change for black people. The sacrifice of Brothers and Sisters in the black liberation movement is remembered by us. In fact, the oppressor loves the status quo and loves it when people do nothing (or when people economically exploit people). The oppressor hates it when we confront the government, confront discrimination, confront injustices, and create independent self-determination. It is not a sin to help your fellow man if your fellow man legitimately needs temporary help. It is part of African black culture to believe in the communal spirit and to have altruism.


Back people facing racism and violence by Arabic racists is real. Racism has harmed black people in the U.S., Europe, and Israel. Also, this racism is a serious problem in the Arabic world from North Africa to the rest of the Middle East. Nick Chiles and others have written about this issue. The large black population in Iraq suffers racism so bad that it is similar to African Americans suffering Jim Crow 50 years ago. Many black people are regularly called slaved and called epithets by kids and adults. The Canadian academic Salim Mansur has claimed, “Blacks are viewed by Arabs as racially inferior, and Arab violence against blacks has a long, turbulent record.” A piece broadcast on a radio station in the Netherlands took a deep look at the racism experienced by sub-Saharans Africans in Morocco, where they are viewed with such suspicion by the local Arabs that an Arab shopkeeper even warned the European reporter to stay away from the Africans because “they might eat you.” Some black Africans are forced to live in the camp deep in the woods, because they can't find work. They are also frequently victimized by criminals who know the Africans can’t report it to authorities because they would face deportation. “Arabs hate black people. And that is not from today. It is in their blood,” Aboubakr, a young man from Senegal who is hoping eventually to cross over into Europe, told the reporter for RNW (Radio Netherlands Worldwide). “Friends of mine were attacked with a knife. Bandits target us because they know we cannot go to the police, even if we are robbed and hurt. Having no papers, we will be caught instead. Blacks have no rights here.” Aboubakr is also insulted that Moroccans “cannot believe many of us are Muslims too.” According to him, people are surprised when they see him kneeling for prayer. “They don’t think a black can be Muslim.”  These same Arabic monarchies have never responded to atrocities in places like Darfur and Sudan, because black Africans were being slaughtered. Black African guest workers in Egypt, Algeria, and Libya have spoken about being publicly ridiculed and physically assaulted by Arabs. Egyptian writer Mona Eltahawy has written about watching a Sudanese girl being assaulted and tormented on the Cairo Metro, concluding, “We are racist people in Egypt and we are in deep denial.” She says the Arab world has ignored the suffering of Darfur because the victims are black. “We only pay attention when America and Israel behave badly.” Some black Africans stay in Morocco and many Europeans refuse to have immigrants to come into their nations a lot. Ironically, even as the Arab countries continue to mistreat the black Africans, they also find themselves on the receiving end of racist treatment. The United Arab Emirates national soccer team just got an apology from the Asian Football Confederation for referring to them as “sand m____s”—on the AFC website! It is important to note that not all Arabic people are racist. Many Arabic human beings are progressive. We are talking about fighting racism and oppression and defending the dignity of black African peoples. Also, it is important to note that black people have been fighting Arabic racism for a long time also. Black African peoples have fought against European and Arabic oppression historically. The Zanzibar revolution fought against Arabic imperialism in Africa.




We know that corporate welfare has bankrupted U.S. cities, destroyed pensions, jobs, and city services. The bankrupt of Detroit and the suffering in Michigan is real. There has been the subsidizing of the Big Three automakers, the pharmaceutical industry, energy, companies, and many large Michigan businesses. Corporate give ways are bankrupting cities and towns nationwide. The bankruptcy court has been used for the ruling class to destroy jobs, pensions, city services, and other public institutions. The Fortune 500 wants more handouts. What was once considered extortion or bribery has become a normal business model. The blood and sweat of the working class demand the nationalization of the ill-gotten gains of the parasitic financial elite. Folks want the establishment of a society where jobs, housing, education, pensions, and culture are considered basic rights for all of society. First, this problem is not just an issue of the middle class. It is an issue of the poor too. We have to advocate for the interests of the poor and justice for the poor (much of the poor are not lazy and they are poor by no fault of the own. Many are poor via sequester, discrimination, unfortunate circumstances, etc.). This issue of poverty and economic oppression is complex and I believe that a monolithic approach will not solve this issue of economic inequality. We should use a multifaceted approach to handle this issue. There are individual and collective approaches that we can take. Individually, we should improve our families, improve our lives, help our communities, and work to fight for change via proactive means. Collectively, we should unite with independent organizations that are seeking to address poverty (and other important issues), we have the right to allow our voices to be heard nationwide, and we should work for social change in all levels of government. We should support legitimate black businesses that are enriching the lives of our communities. Also, the government should not be used as a total solution to our problems. The government should not dictate all aspects of our lives. It should be instituted as a means to ensure justice, it should represent the interests of the people (as a true government is by and for the people), and promote the general welfare of society. A true government should serve the interests of the people. Compassion for the least of these is a golden spiritual ideology. The issue is that much of our government has been infiltrated by reactionaries, extremists, and corporate interests. That is why you see little done by Congress on the issue of record income inequality including obfuscation by certain factions. The leadership of the 2 party system has harmed our communities. Others are right that we should oppose record bailouts sent to Wall Street banks. It is hypocritical for the ruling class to fund billions for banks and the military industrial complex, but will send lax funds to the poor and the suffering in America as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was accurate to mention. Protests are fine, but we should do more like doing radical, independent programs and activist activities to address these issues. Community development programs are a must. We should focus on the gap, because the gap has been rapidly expanding in historic terms for decades (and even the rich say that the massive income gap is a threat to national security and a threat to the economy in general). Many Brothers and Sisters are right that we have to grow the culture of self-determination and self-sufficiency (especially in the long term). Pooling resources together as a means to solve our issues is fine with me as well. We created advanced civilizations, so we can solve our own problems with our own power. We also have to reject materialism, greed, avarice, and selfishness (these things contributed to the 2008 recession in the first place). We should find creative ways to grow JOBS, OUR INFRASTRUCTURE, AND OUR CULTURE.


By Timothy