Nigeria and other News

The actions of the reactionary, theocratic group of Boko Haram ought to be condemned fully. The video of one of its leaders is chilling, disturbing, and blatantly evil. Only cowards like the members of Boko Haram would exploit a religion as a way for them to talk about agreeing to the perversions of kidnapping and forced marriages. It is obvious that leaders of the Nigerian government have not done all they could to rescue the young girls. I am glad of the real Nigerians standing up and advocating the return of girls. Fundamentally, the women in that country have every right to protest. The African Union should step up to the plate and help the Nigerians. I am glad that many of the girls escaped from the terrorist thugs. Also, we should not exploit this tragedy as an excuse to advocate imperialism. The focus should be on the return of the innocent girls. The White assisting the Nigerian government recently is fine. Certainly, religious conflicts have killed millions since the 1500's alone. If a person just expresses their spiritually peacefully or use their spirituality for the benefit of humanity, then that is cool. It is when some use religion as a means for them to execute retrograde actions that must be condemned. Believers and non-believers should realize that authoritarian theocratic terrorists are totally wrong. It is just plain commonsense to advocate healthier foods in schools. Students eating healthier foods correlates into higher test scores and other tangible benefits for the student body in general. Healthier food changes are needed in schools. No rational human being wants to feed children unhealthy foods. I do believe that the Sister First Lady Michelle Obama is sincere in desiring schools to embrace healthier foods. Her work in promoting exercise in the world (especially among the youth) is truly admirable. In this situation, there has to be adjustments, so any healthy food program can function more efficiently. The White House should heed the advice and concerns from school nutrition directors, because they are the experts. There can be some flexibility, but we should not revert back to the status quo. It is too late to go back to a time when high sodium, highly trans-fat filled foods were commonplace in many educational locations. The goal is always to make healthier foods available in all schools in this country.

The words from Coughlan were immature, ignorant, and disrespectful. White privilege and white racism are evils that we ought to oppose firmly. Cursing someone out has nothing to do with authentic political discourse. It is one thing to mention dissent about Melissa Harris-Perry’s policies, but Coughlan was just plain wrong. Also, there is nothing wrong with embracing the power of the community in raising a child. Parents raising a child should be respected. Parents have the responsibility to care for a child, but that doesn't mean that the community has no role to help a child. No one is an island. Not to mention that there is power in the individual and power in the collective. There should be no contradiction in respecting the individual and the collective. There is nothing wrong with parents and the neighborhood looking out for children at all. That view is not controversial from Melissa Harris-Perry at all. Now, we should clean up our house. We have to recognize both the positive and negative statistics in our communities, so we can be honest to find ways to solve our problems. We need to strengthen our families and deal with poverty. If folks want to see a reduction in poverty then we should end QE including big bank bailouts (and use that money to invest in our infrastructure, in our education, and in our legitimate social services). There should be an end to abusive credit practices and make sure that consumer disclosure of financial entities is enhanced. Repealing all of the Bush tax cuts can be a benefit to society too. There should be an elimination of unfair tax breaks (i.e. ending offshore tax abuses by the super wealthy. I have no issue with a speculation fee on Wall Street speculators too. There is nothing wrong with ending subsidies for Big Oil) found among big corporations. There should be more programs to expand access to health care too. Voters have the right to use their voice to prevent Coughlan from gaining public office. 

Any immigration bill should be fair to African Americans' socioeconomic and political interests. If it is not fair to us, then we should reject it outright. I find it ironic that the same ones complaining that the President should not talk about black American interests overtly are silent when the President overtly talks about the interests of Hispanics, and other people of diverse backgrounds. Our immigration situation is a mess, so we should have changes as a means for America to address the complex nature of immigration. Even Republican Ron Unz advocated an increase of the minimum wage as a way for illegal immigration to decline. Also, there is no radical increase of illegal immigration and much of President Obama's policies in dealing with immigration issues are more conservative (like the President deporting over one million undocumented workers) than even the previous President. So, his bill is not some full amnesty. The solution had to deal with a balance of maintaining human rights (I don't care if a human is undocumented or a citizen. All humans should have basic human rights as validated by national and international law) and making sure that Americans are treated equitably in the job situation. The President should advocate more strongly a national jobs plan. There has been a lot of talk about cooperatives. Cooperatives can be one solution that can help economically the people. We don’t need gentrification and reckless economic exploitation at all in order for us to be free. Democratically owned, worker run cooperatives for factories, health care, retail, auto repair, child care, etc. are fine in my eyes. This is developing in Jackson, Mississippi. We witness huge black child poverty, black incarceration, black underemployment, and black land plus wealth loss. Even many jobs now have starvation wages and the relentless abuse of workers (found in hundreds of fast food and other restaurants nationwide). That is why hundreds of activists have gone into Jackson and other areas of Mississippi to discuss about Jackson Rising. They want to express experiences about collective self-help, collective wealth building, and the power of mutual cooperation. They discussed about using democratically self-managed cooperatives. They talked about their plans dealing with the establishment of laundries, recycling, construction, trucking firms, etc. that deal with cooperative economic enterprises. They cite the success of the Mondragon cooperative in Spain. Where it operates its cooperatives in the Basque county, the unemployment rate is down to 5 percent. We must have a solidarity economy or an economy that focuses on mutual cooperation to satisfy the needs of all (in that sense, neighborhood and communities are stabilized. Jobs and services are provided for the people). We know the errors made by Walmart. They receive 7.8 billion dollars in tax breaks, loophole funds, and public subsidies from state, federal, and local governments every year. Unlike democratically run cooperatives which share their profits and power, traditional corporations are dictatorships. Their workers don't, in most cases, have the freedom of speech at work or the opportunity to form unions, and certainly don't get to share in the wealth their labor creates for their bosses. To normal capitalist corporations, those workers, their families and communities are completely disposable. So, I support the Jackson Rising cooperative movement. We must have democracy. We must have the collective ownership of business, collective responsibility, and collective uplift. We are in this together and no one is an island.

She or Condoleezza Rice made a voluntary decision to not speak at Rutgers. That is her right. Her legacy is a combination of things. She is a very intelligent Black Woman. She overcame many challenges that many of the Rutgers students will never experience. She is not worse than many of the vicious neo-conservatives that executed a blatantly aggressive war mongering policy. Those from Rutgers have the right to express dissent with her policies and to participate in peaceful protests. That is part of the freedom of speech obviously. Yet, Condoleezza Rice made the error of allying with such brutal neo-cons in dealing with the Iraq War including other foreign policy measures. George W. Bush, Blair, Richard Perle, and others are an unsavory group of people who should not be admired at all. I hope that Condoleezza Rice would just let it out and admit her error (and seek revolutionary solutions for humankind. She should publicly condemn the wicked war on terror including any form of imperialism). The Bush team not only allowed depleted uranium to be used in Iraq (as documented by the writer Dahr Jamail), but their torture policy has been exposed too. The mistakes done by the Cheney administration are truly unjustifiable. We have seen the evils done by capitalism. Wars, environmental destruction, imperialism, and economic exploitation have come about by capitalism. There is the rise of the global South, but Western countries are still grabbing wealth of the global South as a means to benefit them. It is harder for Washington to accomplish, because of trade and budget deficits. The Western capitalists have looted the global South and now they are looting their own people via austerity measures, bailouts, and other evils. The subprime mortgage fraud contributed to the financial crisis (like the big banks exploited the poor to buy into loans which were very expensive. This was a huge fraud, but the criminal U.S. banks and the U.S. insurance banks responsible for these crimes were never heavily prosecuted). There has been a record transfer of public wealth from the people to the Wall Street banks. The richest 20% owns 90% of the American wealth. The transfer of money to the rich is a threat to the economy. Privatized banks and war crimes are blatantly a byproduct of the capitalist system. The war crimes by the US/NATO network against Libya will never be forgotten by me. The bombs from NATO killed hundreds of civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure like airports, roads, seaports, and communication centers not just military locations. 

By Timothy