Friday News.

It is obvious that the cop was belligerent, aggressive, and disrespectful. That cop mocked the epilepsy of the Sister, which shows his abhorrent character. The first autopsy being called defective shows the corruption found in the officials who conducted it. There should obviously be a transparent, independent investigation to find the total truth. The obscene thing is that the officer Encinia has not been charged. We live in the era of the militarization of much of the local police, the epidemic of police brutality, and cover ups. Sandra Bland's social activism was courageous. There is no question that there will be a civil suit in the future. The police institution is corrupt. They have killed black leaders, black men, black women, and black children for decades. One thing that the old school Black Panthers did was that they monitored the police, established grassroots programs in helping the community directly, and used self-defense if necessary to protect our communities. The drill does seem the same, which is that no cops are prosecuted and a token settlement is made out to the victims' families. Pessimism is no solution and that will never work. What works will have to be us using resistance against oppression. We have to establish boycotts, educate black youth on the threat of terrorist cops, form more of our own institutions, and even organize self-defense when it's necessary to defend our communities. There are many independent black organizations doing the real work.
RIP Brave Sister Sandra Bland.

I do believe in an increase of the national minimum wage, a federal law to ban mandatory minimum sentencing. I believe in the elimination of all unfair tax loopholes too. I believe in an infrastructure plan (which has been proposed by many, but has been blocked by reactionaries in Congress) where our communities are properly invested. I believe in a public option for health care (I agree with universal health care, but that's a different topic. It has worked in Ghana and in other nations of Europe and Asia). I believe in national paid sick leave and national paid family leave, which exist in industrialized nations worldwide. I believe in the expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit and the strengthening of Social Security. I believe in protecting our civil liberties as I don't agree with the NDAA, NSA warrantless wiretapping, etc.
I have no problem with public and private investments in grassroots community organizations that are helping the black community too. I believe in banning racial profiling via a federal law, and other solutions which aren't ambiguous. They are very clear. Police brutality must be addressed in this nation also. That is what the Black Lives Matter movement has done too. Beauty is diverse. One aspect of beauty or pretty is authenticity (or someone showing their real self in the Earth). A beautiful person can express their own soul unashamedly, and without compromise. People with insecurities can be beautiful too. Beauty is never about one, limited image. Look at nature. We see flowers of different colors and petals, yet they are all beautiful. We know that beauty is found in a variety of hues, heights, and other phenotypes, which refutes the evil white supremacist beauty "standards" in our society. A lot of young people and older people get it. Many beautiful people don't care what others think, but they show their being to the world because they are human. Beauty is human as humanity has beauty inheritably.

Cornell West is right on many issues (on foreign policy issues, on economics, etc.), but he's totally wrong on this issue. Coates has gone out of his way to talk about reparations and he has criticized the current administration policies for years. Coates' article on reparations is one of the greatest articles that I have read in my life. Morrison certainly is a literary genius and she has the right to classify Coates as she desires. Coates has used his eloquence to refute not only American exceptionalism, but he has stood up for the dignity of black human lives. There have been massive discussions about Donald Trump. Donald Trump is the face of capitalism and demagogic rhetoric. He leads in the Republican polls, which shows that some people in America love extremism and not progressive enlightenment. Trump is representative of the decay found in the American political system. Trump grew his wealth after the new bankruptcy of New York City in 1975. The city was bailed out via massive concessions by the union including the looting of the workers’ pension funds to fuel the speculative investment. The conditions were created for the transformation of Manhattan into a gated community for the extremely rich. Trump’s family has been involved in real estate. Trump has invested in luxury apartments for the ultra-rich individuals like his Trump Tower. A 91-page financial report filed with the Federal Election Commission this week confirms that the self-styled “master builder” is mainly engaged in servicing the vices of the super-rich, specializing in casinos, golf courses and luxury resorts. He represents capitalist exploitation. “The Apprentice” show was promoted by him. Trump is known for his egomania and for his ignorance about politics and issues of the state. He has a reluctance to read books and outlines a distorted view of foreign policy affairs. His bigoted and reactionary pronouncements have not stopped his campaign. He appeals to a certain demographic with his anti-immigrant bigotry. He has flipped flopped on universal health care, abortion, expanding Social Security benefits, and tax increases on the rich. He once contributed to the political campaigns of Hilary Clinton before he declared himself a Republican in the past decade. He has shown the phone number of Lindsey Graham in public without his permission (which is sick. Also, Graham is wrong to want to authorize drone missile strikes on any American who even thinks of joining ISIS).

The Allies gained momentum during 1943-44. After the Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies started more operations against Japan in the Pacific. In May of 1943, Allied forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians. They also began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands and to breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the Gilbert and Marshall Islands. By March of 1944, the Allies completed both of those objectives. The Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline Islands was neutralized.  In April, the Allies then launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea. In the Soviet Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and the early summer of 1943 to make preparations for large offensives in central Russia. On July 4, 1943, Germany attacked Soviet forces around the Kursk Bulge. In a week, the German forces had exhausted themselves against the Soviets’ deeply echeloned and well-constructed defenses. For the first time of the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it has achieved tactical or operational success. That decision was influenced by the Western Allies’ invasion of Sicily (which was launched on July 9th). Later, Mussolini and ousted and arrested later that month. In July of 1943 also, the British firebombed Hamburg, which killed over 40,000 people. That firebombing was an outright war crime. July 12, 1943 was when the Soviets launched their own counter offensives. This ended the hopes of the Nazis to have victory or stalemate in the Eastern front. The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the beginning of the end of the Nazi Germany Empire. The Soviets continued onward. The Nazis tried to fortify the Panther-Wotan line, but the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Offensives. On September 3, 1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland after an Italian armistice with the Allies. Germany responded to this by disarming Italian forces and seizing military control of Italian areas. The Germany formed defensive lines. German Special Forces rescued Mussolini and there was the Italian Social Republic formed in German occupied Italy. This resulted in an Italian civil war. The Western Allies fought through many lines until reaching the main German defense line in mid-November. In the Atlantic Ocean, the Allies were defeating German submarines massively by May of 1943. This caused a temporary halt of German Atlantic naval actions.

In November 1943, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo (to talk about the return of Japanese territory to the Chinese, etc. in post-war) and then with Joseph in Tehran (to agree that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany’s defeat and for the Western Allies to invade Europe in 1944). . The seven week Battle of Changde came about in November 1943, which forced the Japanese to fight a costly war of attribution while awaiting Allied relief. The Allies attacked Italy in January of 1944. They fought against the line at Monte Cassino and attempted to outflank it with landings at Anzio.  By the end of January, a major Soviet offensive expelled the German forces from the Leningrad region. This ended the longest and most lethal siege in history. The next Soviet offensive was stopped temporarily on the prewar Estonian border by the German Army Group North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay slowed future Soviet operations in the Baltic region. In late May 1944, the Soviets liberated Crimea from the Axis. The Axis forces were largely expelled from Ukraine. The Soviets made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by Axis troops. The Allied forces were successful in their offensive of Italy. Many German divisions retreated and on June 4, 1944, Rome was captured. The Allies experienced mixed results in mainland Asia. By March of 1944, the Japanese launched the first of two invasions. This was an operation against the British positions in Assam, India. They soon besieged Commonwealth positions at Imphal and Kohima. The British mounted a counter offensive in May of 1944 to drive the Japanese troops back to Burma. The Chinese forces, that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943, besieged Japanese troops in Myitkyina. The second Japanese invasion of China tried to destroy China’s main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese held territories and capture Allied airfields. In June of 1944, the Japanese had conquered the province of Henan and started to have another attack against Changsha in the Hunan province.

By Timothy