Weekend News

There is this hypocrisy in America. American forces claim to show “democracy” via various interventions overseas, but democratic rights are readily suppressed in Ferguson, Missouri in other areas nationwide. The NSA has been caught using warrantless wiretapping and even the FBI has monitored peacefully protesters using covert operations. Many of the same devices used in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan have been used to violate the rights of the citizens of Ferguson. The mass incarceration, the laws that compromise basic human rights, and the militarist policies make the West very hypocritical in trying to lecture other nations on human rights. Both North Korea and America should clean up their houses. I think he or Martin Baker definitely wrong on many issues. The real demonstrators don't want more crime and he's wrong on that. The demonstrators desire justice, fair treatment, and a radical, revolutionary change in society, because the status quo is not working. He's a GOP member. He claims that people are playing the race card, but folks exposing the existence of racism in the world are never about playing a card. It is about displaying the truth. Not to mention that class oppression ought to be addressed as well. It is obvious that we need political independence. Even people from across the political spectrum have exposed how both major parties have shown major folly on this issue. It was many Democrats that are silent on this issue not just some Republicans. This is an important issue and this is a national issue. The people of Ferguson have every right to organize their independent political strength to oppose the War on Drugs, economic injustices, racism, and the militarization of the local police in their areas. Also, this is a class struggle. I certainly salute the activists using civil disobedience as a means to keep the pressure going in this struggle for liberation. This is a key part of the human rights movement. People got fed up with the status quo and people have responded. Police corruption and any injustice has harmed people from across backgrounds. Many independent political leaders & the people in general have the right to voice their views on this issue.


Yes, we as black people will remember this. Her refusal (for a time until recently) to talk about this issue is cowardice. She can easily give even a token “neutral” response, yet she is not saying anything until pressure was brought to bear. Even a regular person can talk about the civil liberty violations of the protesters in Ferguson, the tragedy of the death of Michael Brown, and the problems found in the local law enforcement of Ferguson. This is a national issue and an important issue. We have to address the issues of policing, the militarization of the police, economic inequality, racism, and other important issues in America. Both of the major parties have played many people before. This is nothing new. Hillary Clinton’s militarist and neo-liberal policies are well known. That is why I am a political Independent. One thing about the Clintons is that they are strategic. Ishmael Reed (I don't agree with him on some issues) has shown amazing research on how the Clintons operate. I heard from many Brothers and Sisters that they will not vote for Hillary Clinton. She has a track record of supporting Wall Street interests and allying with the Western Empire. Her husband, when he was President, instituted laws that expanded the War on Drugs, expanded the prison industrial complex, and he has thrown Sister Soujah under the bus. So, we know the deal is with Bill. I have no issue with black people having their own political party. There have been discussions about it for years and decades. Working in our local communities is great, because at least you can make positive changes by your own hands and efforts. The masses of the people must be part of the solution indeed. We are also an international people as well. We need to form more international solidarity with our Brothers and our Sisters globally. The causes of these events are well known. They deal with misunderstanding, mistrust (among the police and the communities nationwide. Police repression of the human rights of the people of America is heavily documented), economic problems (including deindustrialization), lax political leadership, neoliberal bad policies, and other factors. In order for us to be free, we have to have the knowledge of self. We have to know who we are as black people, we have to love our black identity, and we have to execute self-determination. That is commonsense. We have to unify and work together more in establishing independent, grassroots community organizations instituted to address the needs of the people. We have to not only buildup of our infrastructure, but we have to demand changes among the police and society too. We should never worship multinational corporate power (which has exploited our communities for years and decades). Laws have to be changed and political plus economic power must be radically redistributed to help humanity (especially the poor).


The West including the White House accuses Russia of using incursions in eastern Ukrainian territory. The White House and NATO officials on Thursday have escalated threats against Russia. They accuse Russia of doing an incursion of two columns of Russian tanks and troops in eastern Ukraine. Moscow has denied the accusations that its troops are actively involved in the country. President Barack Obama said that Russian actions are confirmation that Moscow wants unrest and has “routinely violated the territorial integrity of Ukraine.” He did not characterize Russia’s actions as an invasion; he did say that it was a continuation of the sort of Russian intervention in Eastern Ukraine that has been occurring for the last few weeks. “These separatists are backed, TRAINED, armed, financed by Russia,” Obama declared. “Throughout this process we’ve seen deep Russian involvement in everything that they’ve done.” The US president pledged “additional steps” to punish Moscow for supporting the separatists, including new economic sanctions coordinated with Europe. The truth is obvious in this situation. It was not Russia that stoked the conflict in Ukraine. It was the United States along with Germany who funneled billions of dollars to opposition groups and backed a right wing coup in February (with the support of fascist forces). The White House is strongly backed the Ukrainian government of Petro Poroshenko as it carries out a brutal war against predominantly Russian-speaking cities in the East. More than 2,249 people have been killed and more than 6,000 injured in military operations in the Donbass region of Ukraine. The American government has supported the military siege of two major European cities, Donestsk, and Luhansk, cutting off electricity and running water to hundreds of thousands of civilians. Residential neighborhoods and hospitals have been subjected to artillery fire from Ukrainian armed forces. Ukrainian forces have shelled the eastern cities of Donetsk, etc. That has injured 15 people and destroyed several homes and businesses. In one day alone on Thursday, 16 civilians were killed and a further 22 were injured by continued shelling. Pro-Russian separatists are in conflict with the Ukrainian armed forces. While stating that “we are not taking military action to solve the Ukrainian problem,” Obama provocatively declared that “a number of those states who are close” to Ukraine and Russia are members of NATO, “and we take our Article Five commitments to defend each other very seriously—and that includes the smallest NATO members as well as the largest.” NATO has increased its presence in Baltic countries and Russia is experiencing a lot of economic sanctions. The West wants Ukraine to be a NATO outpost. Poroshenko will be the only non-NATO head of state attending the NATO summit in Wales soon. He is scheduled to meet with President Barack Obama at the White House next month. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin called Thursday for pro-Russian separatists to open up a corridor to allow Ukrainian troops to flee into Russia. Putin called on the rebels to, “avoid meaningless victims and provide them with the opportunity to freely withdraw from the battlefield area.” At least five Ukrainian National Guard battalions were reported to have been surrounded since Tuesday, when pro-Russian separatists engaged in a fierce battle to retake the town of Ilovaisk. The West has intervene with drones to kill people all over Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia via massive incursions, so we have to be consistent with the truth. NATO says that photos show Russian troops and weapons inside of NATO. Russia denies the accusations of course and wants a peaceful settlement to the situation in Ukraine (among all parties, which should happen).


We certainly need radical change in society. Years and centuries of oppression, inequality, and injustice should be opposed and not brushed under the son. Also, we have to learn from our heroes. Cabral, Nkrumah, C. L. R. James, Fanon, Richard Wright, Fannie Lou Hamer, Toni Morrison, Malcolm X, Dr. King, and other Brothers and Sisters have great insight that we can read and utilize in our struggle for liberation as a people. We deserve both power and justice. Our people and the poor need more empowerment via self-determination, so our interests are addressed. The injustices done by militarized cops in Ferguson, the Supreme Court weakening parts of the Voting Rights Act, and the massive economic inequality in America ought to make us aware of the seriousness of the problems in our community. We not only need laws changed and police brutality fought against. We need our communities to be rebuilt via mobilization and organization of independent political organizations (whose main goal is to support the interests of the masses of the people). All black people are entitled to freedom, justice, and equality without asterisks. Internationally, we are anti-imperialist and we oppose neocolonialism as spoken about by Fanon and Nkrumah (Dr. King admired the Ghanaian revolution and we know that Malcolm X respected the black liberators of Africa as well). So, we are in solidarity with those who want the total liberation of Africa. Ezell Ford’s mother said that she was pushed on the ground by the officers for just trying to find some answers about the tragic death to her son. I feel for the Sister. Therefore, Ezell Ford’s family and friend deserve answers. I am glad that the names of the officers have been released, but many questions must be answers. Ezell Ford was an unarmed Brother who was killed and a true independent, investigation ought to exist to figure out more critical details about what happened. There must be accountability and justice in society. “The War State” by Michael Swanson shows the origin of the modern American Military industrial Complex of the MIC. After WWII, the MIC has grown into unprecedented depths. The MIC is hugely apart of American society and heavily influenced the federal budget. During the early stages of it, Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John Kennedy, LBJ, etc. had to deal with military including foreign policy issues. Even today, after the Soviet Union fell, the MIC continues to fight the war on terror (in accordance to the agenda of the Project for the New American Century or PNAC). The people in support of PNAC want the Middle East and Central Asia to be reshaped into puppet states conducive to Western interests. During WWII, America expanded its army. WWII caused the USA to increase its spending on military forces. The Great Depression ended by an expansion of money spent to the economy and to people. By 1944, unemployment went from 14.6 % to 1.3 %. In constant dollars, FDR spent over 840 billion on the military. That figure dwarfed what he spent on the programs of the New Deal. By the end of the war, the USA had built 88,000 tanks, 97,000 bombers, 400 destroyers and cruisers and an amazing 22 aircraft carriers. (p. 13). Military spending was now 36% of GDP and had reached 86% of total budget expenditures in its biggest year. Before, WWII, mostly the rich paid the income tax. After the war, more people including the middle class paid it and it heavily was used in the American budget. Roosevelt allowed many big corporations to use no-bid contracts in building the MIC. There were talks of demobilizing after the end of the war but FDR unfortunately died before the end of the war. Harry Truman expanded the national security state heavily. Truman made a more militarist effort in the Cold War. The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were totally unnecessary as documented by Swanson, Gar Alperovitz, Stewart Udall, and others. Secretary of States James Byrnes accelerated the arms race. Ironically, before Truman died, he expressed misgivings about the excessive covert, aggressive nature of the CIA. He or Byrnes pushed Truman into using atomic bombs. Truman wanted to push back Russia from their aims at Potsdam, etc. Roosevelt allowed Russia to open up a second front in the war in Asia. The reactionary extremists were advocating even more than what Kennan wanted. Kennan wanted containment, but not militarist confrontation as a global policeman by the USA. The missile gap was over exaggerated. During the Cold War, America had more ICBMs, a stronger military, and a stronger satellite or reconnaissance system than the Soviet Union. Even though Eisenhower rightly condemned the MIC in his 1960 speech, he had hawkish advisors too. JFK was more progressive than Eisenhower and Truman on foreign policy. JFK made an agreement with Khrushchev to not invade Cuba in exchange for the Soviet missiles to leave Cuba (and for American missiles to leave Turkey). JFK later signed a limited test ban treaty, he gave wheat to the Soviets, he wanted negotiations with Cuba, and détente was soon approaching. Yet, JFK was assassinated tragically. JFK was not in favor of the radical policies of the military industrial complex. That is why we should continually be progressive on foreign policy matters.

Obviously, many House Republicans (especially John Boehner) are playing political games and the American people pay the price. Boehner is a reactionary person. Boehner is not talking about many of the real issues like petrodollars, imperialism, civil liberties, economic inequality, racism, discrimination, poverty, etc. He is using this situation as a means to play politics. The truth is that he is one of the great pushers of austerity policies (when he is allowing money to be spent on this lawsuit when it can be better utilized in enumerable ways. One issue is that economic wealth is too centralized among the oligarchs including Wall Street financial manipulation), which can further damage our fragile economy. The book entitled, “The Global Economic Crisis: The Great DEPRESSION of the XXI Century” by Michel Chossoudovsky and Andrew Gavin Marshall have a lot of research and great information on this issue. Both parties are at fault for the situation that we have in America from the expansion of the War on Drugs to many of the anti-human rights policies in America. Many people are right that these mainstream artists have to end making records that degrade their own PEOPLE in a vicious fashion. Those records are part of the action of self-hatred since a person who truly loves their own being would never show records that degrade the human dignity of black people. Certainly enough is enough. Police brutality is evil and too many Brothers and Sisters (who are unarmed) being murdered unjustly is unjustifiable. We should continue to be active in standing up against racism, police brutality, and other injustices prodigiously. Also, many multinational corporations and some artists promoting the glorifying of violence and other evils are wrong too. Yet, I will never blame all black people collectively for all ills of the world. Solomon Comissiong wrote great literature on this issue. Many independent artists even in our generation are SHOWING the truth. Many musicians are doing what is right. Not every artist is the same, but we have to live in reality not in fantasy. Structures have to change and mainstream music should be better in reflecting the needs of the people to have revolutionary change in the world. Our human rights should be protected and we should always reject white supremacist propaganda. In other words, we have to care about each other in a humanitarian, cooperative way (in establishing collective power). True love is not about condoning evil or glamorizing selfish individualism (which is linked to the evil lust of materialism). True love is about standing up against evil and fighting for real social change that can positively impact the masses of the people.


By Timothy