Monday, February 17, 2014

Monday news in late February of 2014




I am not stunned. I knew that this would be the case. It is wild to witness that black life is further disrespected. It is so disgraceful to witness the defense outline the life of Jordan Davis in such slanderous terms during the duration of the trial. Malcolm X had it right when he said that in a racist society, the victim is slandered as equivalent to a criminal. Jordan Davis was an innocent, unarmed human being. The 2 black jurors have shown strength, so I will never scapegoat them. They heroically fought the good fight. The murderer was never convicted of murder. It is a shame. They give us a bone, because obviously they hate our existence. There are no other words to describe it. SYG gives nothing but license for deranged, racists to kill Brothers and Sisters in the world. It has ambiguities and it encourages vigilantism. SYG has been funded by the organization ALEC, so we know what time it is. SYG should be eliminated from the books. The prosecution did not show the racist letters, Michael Dunn's previous evil conduct, and other powerful evidence strongly enough. Killing a young, unarmed black human being over music is truly evil. They give us a bone since they view us with contempt and abhorrence. So, we should not be satisfied with some bone as others (like my Homegirl from Texas) have eloquently mentioned. In the final analysis, the judicial system is corrupt. When you got folks from across the political spectrum exposing the corrupt judicial system, then you know we have a serious problem. I knew this would happen. He was convicted on 4 out of the 5 counts. The other count deals with a mistrial. This is such an open and shut case in my view. As far as I am concerned, he should have been found guilty on all counts. I knew that he would never have been found not-guilty on all counts by the jury, because the injustice against Jordan Davis was so blatantly evil. So far, he is acquitted of murder and manslaughter. Every count that he has been convicted of doesn't deal with direct murder at all. Therefore, we should never tone down our call for justice here. We should continue to speak out and to help our people day in and day out. We all pray for the family of Jordan Davis and Trayvon Martin. Also, the SYG law has to be eliminated completely. We have to continue to value the life of black males. Angela Corey failed in both the Zimmerman case and the Michael Dunn case. She should not lead any effort for a retrial of the first degree murder charge at all. Governor Scott has been an extremist in Florida. It is not surprising to see a white racist man to be acquitted of murder when he murdered an innocent, unarmed black male. As others have said, it is open season of black youth in Florida and throughout the Earth too. They could care less about black people's lives in general. As a great Sister from Texas has written, we have to learn the law, so we can adequately address the unjust laws that are in existence (these laws have blood on their lands literally). This trial proves that we need each other to fight back period. The family of Jordan Davis is gracious, strong, and very compassionate. I am speechless too. It is a shame that some blacks refuse to get the message about these crimes against our people. We are in a state of emergency and war. We all send prayers to the family of Jordan Davis.


The U.S. Congress lifts the federal debt ceiling. The reality of the Congressional votes to suspend the federal ceiling until March 2015 outlines the power of Wall Street calling the shots in Washington not the reactionary Tea Party elements. The debt ceiling increased passed the House on a Tuesday. The U.S. Senate approved the deal on a Wednesday afternoon. Republican Senators and congressmen couldn't block the measure. Corporate America via the Chamber of Commerce and other major banks and brokerage houses demanded that Congress raise the debt ceiling and authorize payment of interest and principal on U.S. government bonds. The debt ceiling was reset on February 7 after the temporary extension approved last October expired. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said that due to the payment of tax refunds and other seasonal outlays, the federal government would exhaust its cash resources before the end of the month. The major financial interests didn't want to repeat the partial federal shutdown last October or threat of default on the federal debt. There has been a deteriorating condition in financial markets including a sharp fall in the stock market last week. There has been the rapid flow of capital out of the emerging markets of Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, etc. which is making Wall Street wary of any financial shocks. Now, both the House and the Senate Republican leaders broke ostentatiously with their Tea Party factions. They gave just enough votes to enable the Democratic minority in the House to push through the debt ceiling increase and the Democratic majority in the Senate to top the 60 vote threshold required to halt debate and force a vote. At a Monday meeting of the House Republican caucus, Speaker John Boehner announced that there was no way to get the 218 votes required for passage of a debt ceiling increase tied to any specific policy measure, such as a restoration of cuts in military pensions or changes in the Affordable Care Act. Nearly all 200 Democrats were committed to a clean debt ceiling bill or one that has no policy measures attached to it (as demanded by the White House). Many dozen or so Republicans were committed to opposing any increase in the debt ceiling, no matter what policy measures were attached to it as a "sweetener." Boehner was compelled to drop his insistence that only bills with majority support from the Republican caucus would be brought to the floor of the House for a vote. This allowed the debt ceiling to pass by 221 to 201. It has near unanimous Democratic support and the votes of 28 of the 233 Republicans. The 28 Republicans included Boehner himself and the bulk of the party leadership in the House (as well as a group of more senior Republicans who have announced plans to retire and hence will not be facing challenges in the 2014 primaries or the general election). The climb down by the House Republican leadership and setback for the Tea Party faction were widely were widely noted. McClatchy News Service headlined its report, “Tea Party loses as House approves debt ceiling increase without condition.” The later Senate vote to approve the suspension of the debt ceiling was equally revealing of the crisis in the Republican Party. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas objected over it and Cruz is a Tea Party person. Since such a vote (or to cut off debate), called “cloture” in Senate parlance, requires 60 votes out of the 100 members of the Senate, the Democratic majority of 55 could not close debate on its own. Cruz’s parliamentary maneuver thus had the effect of forcing a section of the Republican caucus to join with the Democrats to close debate, or else the debt ceiling measure would have failed. In the end, McConnell, Cornyn and 10 other Republican senators joined with the Democrats to impose cloture by a 67-31 vote. The actual debt ceiling measure was passed by a 55-43 vote, with all Democrats voting for it and all Republicans opposing it. The Tea Party crowd denounced Boehner, McConnell, and other Republicans who voted for the bill. But Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, a corporate-backed lobby for lower taxes on business and the wealthy, pointed to the fact that the bill followed a bipartisan budget deal that maintained the “sequester” spending cuts and left tax rates unchanged. The Tea Party came about in 2009. It never had a majority of popular support on all of its agendas at all. It has been funded by a handful of billionaires like Charles and Edward Koch. The role of the Tea Party is the mobilize sections of the upper middle class as a means to push the U.S. two party system further to the right. They exploited fears as a means to mischaracterize a centrist ACA law as government run health care. But the Tea Party elements never enjoyed wide political support either in the working class or middle class for the ultra-right policies promoted by the Koch brothers and their retinue of paid propagandists. Under conditions of deepening financial crisis, the most powerful sections of the US ruling elite have now stepped in, brushing aside the Tea Party demagogues and insisting that the interests of Wall Street be served. This proved the phony character of this supposed grassroots movement. Both parties in their leadership serve the interests of big business.

The movement for educational justice is real and it continues. Studies have documented that smaller class sizes will develop into better education for children. Yet, the powers that be still want large class sizes. Now, in Portland, people are fighting for smaller class size. School officials want another agenda. Since 2007, Portland Public Schools (PPS) has spent over $2.5 million on this employee training program, and the district has plans to spend another $1 million a year to fund its own equity office based largely around these ideas. About half of $2.5 million has gone directly to PEG--the rest was spent on travel and related costs for teachers and administrators to attend conferences in San Antonio, Texas, and San Francisco. The issue is that the PEG and the PPS must deal with institutional biases and class size more adequately. There should be alternative ways to address inequality in Portland schools. There is the battle between PPS and the Portland Association of Teachers or the PAT. There is the teachers strike looming on February 20 over the union's demands for a contract that addresses not only their working conditions, but the learning conditions for all of their students. MULTIPLE STUDIES (here and here, for example) have shown that while reducing class size has a positive effect on all students in every way that can be measured--including improved grades, improved attendance and higher test scores--it has a disproportionately positive effect on minority and low-income students. One Princeton University study concluded that class size reduction is "one of very few educational interventions that have been proven to narrow the achievement gap." For example, the Princeton researchers found that attending what they classified as small-sized classes, compared to regular-sized classes: "...raises the likelihood that Black students take the ACT or SAT college entrance exam from 31.8 to 41.3 percent, and raises the likelihood that white students take one of the exams from 44.7 to 46.4 percent. As a consequence, if all students were assigned to a small class, the Black-white gap in taking a college entrance exam would fall by an estimated 60 percent..." More students found that reduced class size for minority students extend beyond academic achievement like improved reading and math test scores. The studies prove that black teenage males who attended small-sized classes were 40 percent less likely to become fathers at a young age, compared to their peers in regular-sized classes. One issue is that more minorities should be in smaller class sizes. We should address the roots of racial disparity in student experience, etc. There are institutional biases in the system that must be eliminated as a means to handle resources. We know about the schools in the Jefferson cluster located in Portland's historically Black North Portland area. It has the only majority black high school in the school. 75 percent of the students are on free or reduced lunch, but it has been underfunded all of the time, closed down, or restructured via market based strategies based on the idea of "school choice." For the last 10 years, the Jefferson cluster has seen more schools closed than the rest of the PPS clusters combined. The cluster's students and families have disproportionately suffered disruptions to their educational experiences. Schools in the cluster are systematically underfunded. This leads to a downward cycle: Transfer policies allow families who can manage to do so to put their children in other schools, which leads the district to pull more money out of the "failing" schools as enrollment goes down. The students left behind often attend classes with over 40 students--or in other cases, can't get into the classes they need to graduate after teacher positions and entire programs are slashed. So, reasonable people want smaller class sizes, an end to stop and frisk, and an end to mass incarceration (which is related to the school to prison pipeline). So, the PPS including Carole Smith should spend money on resources and programs that deal with minorities and low income students in the classroom. The PPS can fund programs in the arts, music, theater, and P.E. including advanced courses. That can cause students to grow and be challenged in the world. Health programs food programs, qualified counselors, and Head Start is key solutions too. True educational justice when that we fight corporate interests that wants public education to benefit them (that deals with consulting firms, money sent to private charter schools, etc.). Communities in Portland, Medford, and other cities in America are standing behind real teachers, and real students who want better conditions in the educational field. It is all about the people at the end of the day.


Architecture is important to know, study, and understand. It has existed for thousands of years. There are complex reasons for architecture to exist or to be formulated. In life, we see that corporations and material objects are not superior to the human mind and the human spirit. There is the intrinsic value of the human life. With the recent events, we certainly need to reject mass consumption and materialism.  These items are preventing what America has its potential to become. We are the generation that has discovered more of the secrets behind much architecture spanning the four corners of the world. Many famous buildings are built on ley lines. Many of ancient man believe that ley lines have spiritual power and many cities and buildings are built on them to harness energy, etc. Also, the Sochi Winter Olympic complex is famous too for many reasons. First, the symbolism must be shown about the original ceremony and other things about the event. The 2014 Winter Olympic Games has the Russian built a huge Olympic Stadium. It shows the history of Russia via various symbolism and scenes. There was the huge double headed eagle that was splashed across the screen among other various Russia symbols. One of the symbols was the double headed eagle. The double headed eagle existed for thousands of years. It was famous for its usage in the Byzantine Empire and it was been used in the ancient secrets of the mysteries. The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is famous for incorporating the double headed eagle and Russian Coat of Arms. The double headed eagle represents the law of opposites or balance in equilibrium. In the ancient doctrines of the mystery schools, human and Nature want be in balance among opposites as a means for life to have completion and enlightenment. The two heads in the doubled headed eagle image acts as one. The three horses in the opening ceremony were symbolic of the troika bird or a famous cultural icon of Russia. The horses pull a sun. There ceremony shows the history of the Soviet Union as gears in motion.  The whole Fisht Olympic Stadium is named after Mount Fisht. It has a 40,000 person capacity. The stadium was created by Populous and British design consultancy Buro Happold. The stadium's walls and roof are one continuous glass surface. They are designed to reflect sunlight off the sea during the day. It was opened in 2013 and it cost $779 million to build the stadium. In October 2013, the Central Bank of Russia issued a commemorative 100 ruble note. This was a hundred days before the start of the winter Olympic Games in Sochi. The blue tinted banknote depicts a flying snowboarder on one side, and on the other the Fisht Olympic Stadium and a firebird. The location of the Sochi Olympics is taking place in the Caucasus Mountains. We know the historical significance of those mountains. Now, the Sochi mascots are called Snowflake and Ray of Light. There is a coin called Prometheus, which has tons of esoteric meaning. Prometheus in legend stole fire form Mount Olympics and gave it to the people. A commemorative coin of copper-nickel with a denomination of 25 roubles featuring mascots of the XI Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi – Ray of Light and Snowflake – will also be released. Prometheus is said to be chained in the Caucasus Mountains. Not to mention that the countdown Sochi clock is triangular in shape looking similar to a Pyramid. Many other researchers have found out about the Merkahah connection to the ceremony.





Clarence Thomas believes in a quasi-post racial narrative (the Jewish people are told to never forget the Holocaust and many Native Americans are told to never forget their oppression either), which I disagree with profoundly. Ideologically, I don’t agree with Clarence Thomas’ total agenda. Clarence Thomas has the right to his views. In a free society, even views that I abhor has the right to be expressed, so human beings can listen to many perspectives and make up their own minds. To be independent, you even have to allow folks that you disagree with have that opportunity to outline their views. In that fashion, you can more readily refute their arguments in my view. At the final analysis, with the events of Michael Dunn’s death, you can never have black liberation with the minimization of the discussion of race. The problem is that we are not too sensitive when dealing with the subject of race. It is that we are not sensitive enough when discussing about race, because many young blacks just try to go along to get along without the true KNOWLEDGE OF SELF (and some black youth even support non-blacks calling them slurs and degrading them). Our people are dying in the streets and many blacks want to ignore that we are at war literally. So, Clarence Thomas is allied with corporate interests like Monsanto, he supported the ruling that restricted voting rights, and he is allied with the reactionary movement (that could care less about ending white supremacy and establishing a system of justice for all black people and the rest of the human race). CLARENCE THOMAS ALLYING WITH THE WHITE RACIST BIGOT RUSH LIMBAUGH IS ENOUGH FOR ME TO NOT ALLY IDEOLOGICALLY WITH THOMAS AT ALL. THAT IS THE SMOKING GUN. Also, bigotry has been shown by folks from across the political spectrum. That is true, but we can never see the light unless we expose the origin of the cause of our OPPRESSION in the first place. Thomas’ error is that he refuses to expose the corruption in the system of WHITE SUPREMACY that harms the black community. See, you need to both believe in BOTH INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY among all black people and COLLECTIVE power among black people to fight oppression. Also, the GOP establishment has oppressed black people with their Southern Strategy, their invention of the War on Drugs, anti-voting laws, law and order reactionary agenda, and other acts. It is bigger than Clarence Thomas since we have to confront our own issues that deal with crime, poverty, educational issues, etc. We have to confront the racist judiciary system in the States and it is racist. Every other industrialized nation has universal health care except the United States of America. That is a disgrace. The social systems of the Netherlands, France, Denmark, etc. aren't perfect, but they embrace universal health care and other social democratic principles. There is nothing right with the right of collective bargaining, the right to fight for full employment, etc. There should be a shift of resources form military spending to programs of social uplift including social reconstruction. We also know of the hypocritical, nefarious nature of capitalism in society. Later Malcolm X, noting King's comments about how countries in Scandinavia less wealthy than the USA accomplished these things, queries King and asks whether he (King) understands the significance of his own report. Malcolm X pointed out explicitly and PUBLICLY what King wrote privately: That these countries were SOCIALIST, and that this was an essential difference between Sweden and the USA. The reason why our country has sprawling slums while Sweden does not. (You can find Malcolm's comments in MALCOLM X SPEAKS. Malcolm and Martin were LEFT radicals, not liberals, but revolutionaries. At a 1967 "National Conference for a New Politics" held in Chicago King said: "[W]e have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifices. The fact is that capitalism was built on the EXPLOITATION and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad..." There must be a revolutionary change of society in order for us to witness a real society. Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was right to say that we need a radical redistribution of political and economic power as a means to witness our liberation. We have seen the gap between the super-rich and the rest for over three decades. The menace of the prison industrial complex has grown in part of the War on Drugs.


By Timothy

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