Friday News in late January 2016

The debate in FOX on Thursday happened without Donald Trump. The candidates from Cruz, Rubio, Dr. Ben Carson, and others debated issues and expressed their views. Cruz has recently opposed Trump and Cruz has said that he doesn’t wanted questions about Trump, which caused the crowd to issue an applause. This was the last Republican debate before the Iowa primaries. The primaries have cizens of Iowa voting for many Republican candidates and three Democratic candidates (who are Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley). Donald Trump refused to go to this debate, because he didn’t want to be asked questions from Megan Kelly. He called her disrespectful names and his sexism is abhorrent. Trump exploited the suffering of veterans for political gain when he participated in a rally with Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee. The earlier debate featured Santorum and Gilmore. Gilmore wanted Muslims to be scapegoated. Gilmore called Trump a person who spews fascist talk, which is accurate. Trump lectures people about political correctness, but his fascism is far worse than political correctness. Rubio in the debate was a faithful follower of American exceptionalism. He has postured moral indignation, but he is a neocon warmonger. Rubio had to deal with his conflicting views on immigration on the debate too. A lot of people in the GOP party are overt xenophobes and haters of people from another country. Rubio even praised the blizzard with a sick joke, which killed 31 people. So, I have no respect for him as a man. Chris Christie said that he has the experience as a state executive to debate and defeat Hillary Clinton. Christie is notorious for being a union buster, even Kasich (even though he is slicker about it than Chris Christie). Ben Carson spoke about many issues in the debate too. Rand Paul has boasted about his ground infrastructure in Iowa.  He believes in the free market, which I don’t. An unregulated free market has increased pollution, racism, discrimination, and other forms of oppression. We believe in the rights of humanity, dignity shown to immigrants, and an end to oppression internationally.

This is an emergency and a national crisis. When Flint residents (among men, women, and children) suffered this direct poisoning, it is also an attack against every American and against the rest of the human family. We know that Flint is heavily black and a lot of poor people live in Flint too. The responsibility for this disaster is found not only in the Governor, but in state including local officials involved in this tragedy. Both Republicans and Democrats have used bad policies involved in this crisis. A federal lawsuit should exist. The pipes in Flint are poisoned and corrosive, therefore they ought to be replaced ASAP. Billions of dollars have been spent in the military industrial complex where bombs kill and maim human beings, but some people refuse to send millions of dollars to repair and rebuild the infrastructure of the city of Flint. Also, this incident represents how the corporate oligarchy refuses to care for the lives of black people. Emergency managers use their anti-democratic powers to dominate the lives of people in Michigan. Two officials of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the regional head of the Environmental Protection Agency have resigned in disgrace. The DEQ failed to instruct the Flint water department to add anti-corrosive chemicals to the water when Flint stopped using water from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department and began tapping into the polluted Flint River. Governor Rick Snyder is a reactionary Republican who fought against workers' rights. Elevated levels of lead have been found in certain areas of Baltimore, Boston, including counties in Texas plus Louisiana. This week, the head environmental regulator in the state of Ohio called national water regulations “broken,” saying that they dramatically understate the true scale of lead poisoning in American cities. Many pipes in certain places of America are over 100 years old and austerity can't solve this problem. According to the Congressional Budget Office, public capital investment in transportation and water infrastructure, already underfunded for decades, has been slashed by 23 percent since its peak in 2003. Laissez faire capitalism is never a solution as Bobby Seale, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Fannie Lou Hamer, and other revolutionaries have taught us. Flint residents should not be paying for poisoned water. Snyder and others ought to be arrested for their nefarious actions. Having water is a human right and we want racial justice. This is a class struggle. We want the forces of oligarchy and exploitation to end their reign of oppression. We also want environmental justice too.

The whole tragedy is melancholy in Chicago. Of course, so far, no officer is being held accountable, which is part of the injustice. In any other occupation, many people are fired for much less, but the cops involved in the deaths of these people have not experienced a settlement or prison for even involuntary manslaughter. Also, the phone operator should have never hanged up when someone was calling for help. A 911 operator has the technology to find out where someone is calling from and that operator should have executed more diligence than that. Bettie Jones was a grandmother and she was killed after she just opened a door. Jones was heard to yell, “Whoa! Whoa!” several times before the cops fired. This unjustified killing of a black grandmother should outrage anyone. Also, the story of Quintonio LeGrier shows us that we are in need of federal, state, and local funding for mental health services. All of the facts about the killing of LeGrier haven't been publicly revealed too. Austerity is not only evil, but it can cause many negative consequences in the world too. I believe that the poor and the working class must unite (in an independent, revolutionary fashion) to fight back against the system of capitalist oppression. We still have an epidemic of police terrorism in America. Crooked cops have no respect from me at all. We not only want an independent investigation of this incident. We want accountability and justice too. That is very important, because Black Lives will always Matter.

 

Both women have the right to establish their own enterprises. Patti Labelle has inspired people with her sweet potato pie product. I love sweet potato pie too. Also, we should never get into the divide and conquer nonsense that has been advanced by evil people in society. Aretha Franklin is a talented Sister in her own right and she wants to establish her products too. We desire both women to experience much more success in the midst of these circumstances. The growth and the development of black enterprises is something that I support. Also, it is important to not just support our own. It is important to fight poverty and imperialism. Any revolutionary abhors poverty and imperialism. Liberation is about the total transformation of society, so the black poor, the black middle class, etc. can have economic and political empowerment to develop as a community and as a people internationally.


Janet Hubert made excellent points in her statements. She is right that we, in the black community, must confront and end colorism once and for all. Colorism is a total evil. She is right that we must build ourselves up internally. She is right to call out the double standards about how Will and Jada Pinkett Smith have issued post-racial statements before and now they want to talk about the Oscars. We have to reject selfish individualism and follow community solidarity. She is right that bad behavior has been rewarded in our society. We don't want strife, deception, violence, and unjust hatred glamorized in our society. I don't agree with her giving a negative connotation to the term ghetto. Bad behavior is not limited to the ghetto. Black people are diverse not monolithic. Many black people are standing up for what is right, taking care of their families, and speaking truth to power. Ghetto is a location not a state of mind. Many people have used the term "ghetto" to disrespect and stereotype poor black people. Just because someone is from the ghetto doesn't mean that this person is a criminal or a destructive person. Bad Behavior is not limited by zipcode as bad behavior exists among people among every race and every demographic. Other than that, Janet Hubert have issued great points that people should take into consideration. We want the black community worldwide to grow and flourish. This movement for justice is international. We want Afro-Caribbeans, Africans (not just Black Americans) to have liberation and independence. We desire an end to imperialism and the system of plutocracy and oligarchy. We want economic justice too.

By Timothy