The federal budget bill was passed by the House and the Senate recently. It is worth more than 1.1 trillion dollars in funding. A bulk of it goes to the military and repressive functions in the federal government like spying, prisons, and the police. The omnibus spending resolution is representative of the interests of Wall Street. The White House including the President Barack Obama believes that the measure is a “bipartisan effort to include full-year appropriations legislation for most government functions that allows for planning and provides certainty, while making progress toward appropriately investing in economic growth and opportunity, and adequately funding national security requirements.” In other words, the bill makes it possible for the administration to continue waging war around the world and building up the apparatus for a police state at home. Many policies measures were added at the last minute without public discussion. There are hundreds of policy measures. One bad part of the bill is that it repealed a major section of the Dodd-Frank legislation. The repeal prevents the enforcement of the restrictions of banks using derivatives. This was done after the 2008 financial crash. The language in this section, permitting banks to use federally insured deposits to gamble in the swaps and derivative markets, was literally drafted by the banks. According to an analysis by the New York Times, 70 of the 85 lines in that section of the bill come directly from Citibank, which spearheaded the lobbying by Wall Street on this issue. 93 percent of all U.S. derivatives trading were conducted by the four largest Wall Street banks. The Washington Post reported that Jamie Dimon or the CEO of JP Morgan Chase (one of the four banks) telephoned congress people personally to urge them to vote for the amendment to Dodd-Frank. Many Democrats voted for the bill and some opposed it. The people who opposed it include Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren. Democrats Minority Whip Steyn Hoyer and Deputy White James Clyburn voted for the passage of the bill. Over a half of trillion dollars of the bill deals with spending on the military including on domestic police and security operations against the American people domestically. Billions of dollars of the budget will aid Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and other Western allies of the Middle Eastern region. The bill bans enforcement of a series of environmental and labor regulations, ensuring that the air and water will be more polluted and workers will be more brutally exploited. So, we know the truth. The truth is that the budget promotes the status quo and not real freedom.
There is no place for misogyny in any social movement or in any revolutionary movement at all. In our generation, many people who call themselves “conscious” or “black nationalist” are hardcore misogynists (like some who make a living by cursing women out with whom they disagree with, etc. These acts are evil and wrong). They promote white supremacy patriarchy and they are proud of it. They also want to peddle pseudo-intellectualism and discord in the black community. So, patriarchal supremacist views is a mimic of white male patriarchal supremacy. That is disgraceful and we must confront and end misogyny once and for all. Feminism is the advocacy of the rights of women including females and it believes in the political, social, and economic equality of all genders. Many people have used the debate about feminism as an excuse to promote the lie that all feminists hate men or that all feminists are a bunch of anti-black male extremists. The truth is that tons of feminism respect men. These faux conscious women haters call black women slurs and many of them love capitalism (under the guise of “economic empowerment”). The truth is that feminists respect men, but not sexism. You can't be pro-black and want black women to be deprived of their human rights. Also, the Sisters have every right to call themselves womanists too. Dominance over women is about tyranny not freedom. Liberation of men and women from oppression does deal with freedom instead. Many black feminists have contributed a great deal of intellectual insights on the viciousness of the system of white supremacy. Also, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, Amy Garvey, Ida B. Wells, not only stood up for the rights of black people, but they fought for women’s rights as well. These Sisters were strong leaders. Men and Women can be strong leaders. Their life stories refute the lie that women can't be strong leaders. Black women have every right to be unapologetically feminist. Capitalist exploitation should end and ironically enough the same faux conscious types who bash black women love the capitalist exploitative system. We should expose outrage when black males are murdered and when black females are murdered too. Therefore, we should always oppose racism, discrimination, lookism, classism, environmental degradation, and any evil oppression in the world.
Russian politics and its relationship to the Western elite is complex. To get a better picture of it all, it is important to understand the end of the Cold War. The Soviet Union was in the decline, because of human rights issues, the over extension of resources in their fight against Afghanistan, and collapse of political plus economic infrastructure. The Soviet Union was spending from 15 to as high as 27 percent of its GDP (not the annual budget on the military. Even today in America, the U.S. only spends about 5.5 to 5 percent of its GDP on the military) on its military. Many Russian oligarchs were in touch with British aristocratic economists and MI6 assets before Yeltsin. These oligarchs wanted to promote a neoliberal path for Russia. During the late 1980’s, Gorbachev ruled the Soviet Union. He knew that the Soviet Union was about to end, so he made concessions with the Western establishment. Soon, a crisis occurred in Russia and Yeltsin along with the oligarchs took over. Yeltsin and the Western oligarchs have links to Western financial elites. The West wanted to use Yeltsin as a means for the Western establishment to transform Russia not into a real progressive, social democracy, but a client state filled with neoliberal policies. Throughout the 1990’s, the Russian economy became devastated. Yeltsin became more and more corrupt. The Russian oligarchs are linked to Western banks and Israeli plus Jewish bankers too. They control much of Russia’s wealth. The Russian mafia grows their power during the 1990’s as well. The Neo-cons James Woolsey and Le Cerle member Fritz Ermath are accused of using Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky to manipulate Russian politics and siphon off IMF aid to the country. Others named in the IMF and related financial scandals are the oligarchs Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Vladimir Gauziness and Roman Abramowich. Yeltsin and his family members are accused of looting funds meant for the development of Russia. The West wanted to pacify Russia. In 1999, things change. Former KGB/FSB chief Vladimir Putin comes into power and people accuse him of being involved in the Russian apartment bombings of September 1999. Russians re-invade Chechnya, because they want its territories. Chechnya is heavily Muslim. Putin also uses a program to retake the possessions of the oligarchs Boris Berezovsky and Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Berezovsky soon flees Russia and is given asylum in England. Khodorkovsky teams up with Henry Kissinger, Jacob Rothschild, Zbigniew Brzezinski and George Soros, but is later imprisoned by Putin. So, the West wants to limit the growth of Russia and China for the sake of the West wanting hegemony over the resources of Central Asia and the Middle East. Even Zbigniew Brzezinski admitted this plan in his 1997 book entitled, “The Grand Chessboard.” Samuel Huntington’s “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order” from 1996 talks about similar subjects. Vladimir Putin’s legacy has not yet been totally written. He has worked to develop the Russian military. Its economy has been harmed via Western sanctions. He has supported Crimean self-determination, which is great, but his problem is that some of his domestic policies are overtly anti-democratic. Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft system is a powerful weapon too. Now, Russia and the West are dealing with Ukraine. Ukraine is having its civil war. The West wants the Ukraine to join with the European Union while Russia wants Ukraine to be more in line with the Russian orbit of influence. So, Ukraine should not be some puppet Western/EU/IMF client state. It should be independent and truly free. Future and time will tell what will happen.
The organization called Mothers Against Police Brutality and others have been brave in allowing their voices to be heard. Fighting evil is necessary. People have the right to protest. That is part of the freedom of assembly and the freedom of speech. Also, people have to do more than just protest. People have to mobilize and organize in political groups. We are opposed to the evil actions of the 1% elite whose policies have contributed to the unemployment of millions of human beings. Our economic power must grow and we should continue to stand against not only police brutality (when the police have used tear gas even against children. Many innocent journalists and innocent protesters have been arrested by the police in Ferguson). We need revolutionary change. We should stand for the demilitarization of the police, the end to the War on Drugs, the punishment of any crooked officers, and massive structural changes in society. Society must change since the system is not working. Change should be global not just national. We live in an international world. There must be real change. We must not only resist police terrorism. We must oppose gentrification, poverty, lax housing, bad education, and other evils that plague our communities in the world. Imperial policies (which are supported by capitalist exploitation) must be rejected as well. This movement must be controlled by the masses of the people not by corporate sponsored entities. There must be outright prosecution of crooked officers. This movement must reject the aims of the establishment. Real action must be thorough, real, and uncompromising. We should express our political independence too.
One thing about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize’s speech was about his anti-war and pro-economic justice message. Dr. King always opposed war as a concept ideologically. His words have a lot of relevance in our time, because even now we face huge economic inequality, unemployment, underemployment, and other problems as a community. Ironically, Dr. King and Malcolm X (who reminded people that the emancipation of women is very important to advance, which Brother Malcolm X said in 1964) questioned the capitalist economy and wanted radical change, so black people can have true justice and liberation. Dr. King was a much more radical man when he was in Memphis in 1968 than when he gave his “I Have a Dream Speech” from 1963 (in D.C.). Dr. King by 1968 wanted an Economic Bill of Rights, an end to the Vietnam War, and an end to imperialism. So, we should continue to fight for justice and help our Brothers and our Sisters. In our generation, we still have to deal with oppression including fascistic police violence. The oppression is controlled by the white capitalist power structure. The black community have every right to be angry at police terror. It (or the discussions about Michael Brown, Eric Garner, politice brutality in general, etc.) has been talked about on buses, subways, schools, churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, barbershops, and everywhere else where black people live or gather. Crooked police, by their nature, want to use the force of arms as a means to maintain the system of oppression. The police protect the privileged better than communities of color and communities of the poor. That is why when a social justice movement grows and more solidarity occur in our communities, there is a marked decline in crime. The Movement should be directed against the Establishment. Real social movements and revolution are needed in our world. There is nothing wrong with solidarity. We have to build in our community while resisting oppression. All Power should be to all of the People.
By Timothy
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