Friday, July 22, 2016

A New Time in our World

Today, Trump gave fascistic rant to conclude the Republican National Convention. In his speech, he accepted the nomination as the Republican Party candidate in the 2016 Presidential election (which was given to him officially). His gave his speech in crowd of his supporters. He expressed his words in a long time in over an hour. He showed his stream of consciousness words. He didn’t offer a specific political program. Instead, Trump has shown non-sequiturs and they outline his vicious views and his own self-obsession. Trump outlined a bleak picture of American society. He said that America was wracked by crisis, but he didn’t say that the origin of the crisis came from economic inequality, endless war, the capitalist system, and racism. He wanted to scapegoat undocumented workers instead. He wanted to talk about terrorism in monolithic terms instead of saying that terrorism has complex origins and a progressive approach is necessary to solve our problems. He talks about crime and the defense of the police, but he refuses to tell the truth that many innocent black people, etc. have been wounded and killed by police terrorists. He wants to expand the powers of the police under the guise of “law and order.” He is the law and order candidate just like Nixon. Law and order have been coded language to describe unconditional support of the police while blaming black people for crime in general, which is racist. He believes that he alone can improve America while ignoring the Congress and other governmental bodies that must pass legislation. Using the language of any would-be dictator, Trump declared, “Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored” to the United States. If elected, “Americans will finally wake up in a country where the laws of the United States are enforced.” He is bombastic and he promotes extreme nationalism. He promotes building a border wall in the southern border, which won’t happen and Mexico won’t pay for it. He claims to want to stop the gangs and the violence, but he promotes violence overseas. He promotes the policies of reaction.

He wants to ban immigration from “any nation that has been compromised by terrorism until such time as proven vetting mechanisms have been put in place.” That policy is impossible to enforce. He said that the catastrophe in the Middle East has been created by 15 years of war, but he turns to advocate a massive escalation of military violence in the region. He wants to destroy ISIS fast. He condemns China for “theft of intellectual property” and their illegal product dumping. He blames China for currency manipulation. He wants to end the abolition of existing trade deals and replace them with, “a new, fair trade policy that protects our jobs and stands up to countries that cheat.” According to the political theory propounded by Trump, the massive global economic contradictions that have arisen out of the protracted decline of American capitalism are to be resolved through the methods outlined in his book, The Art of the Deal. In fact, the logical corollary of his “America First” nationalism is world war, with the American military used as the instrument for enforcing the interests of American business all over the world. In essence, American exceptionalism hasn’t solved our problems. It has expanded them. In essence, the Great Recession and the economic devastation in the world caused a section of the conservative middle class to embrace more far right policies (and the free market economics that they love have deliver no real solutions to American society). He is not the champion of the working class. He is of the financial elite. He has laid off workers for years. His proposals include reducing taxes, especially for corporations, refusing to have a federal increase of the minimum wage, and eliminating government regulations. The Republicans have heavily restricted voting rights in 19 states, and add more anti-union right to work laws in various states too. In the RNC, speakers and delegates have issued calls for violence and repression, including the arrest and even assassination of political opponents. But behind the bombast and raucous cheering of the delegates, an air of demoralization and desperation prevailed throughout—expressive of a ruling class terrified of social upheavals on the horizon. We see a decline of capitalism. Trump comes as a representation of how extremism is common in Western society. Now, we see that the Republicans and Democrats in their leaders deal with right wing views, pro-war policies, and embracing of the political establishment. Soon, we will have the Democratic convention in Philadelphia on Monday. The Democrats will cite the hate fest of Cleveland in the RNC as an excuse for people to vote for Hillary Clinton. Yet, we should have political independence and vote our conscience.

It is certainly important to send great sympathy to Samaria Rice. She is going through a lot of pain and heartache. Her son was killed by a cop. To this very day, she has promoted the human rights of black people. She spoke tons of truth in her interview with Joy Reid. We, as black people, should never be lectured on our pain. We have every right to express righteous anger at this situation. We live in a crisis in our country where police officers have more impunity, more rights, and more sympathy than ordinary citizens. Police can kill and in tons of cases not receive any punishment. There is a recent story where a black man was shot by the police (in Florida) when he had his hands up in the middle of the street on camera (and that man was still shot by the police for no reason). Therefore, it is bigger than some "few bad apples." This is an emergency and a systemic problem, because most cops don't publicly speak up against police terrorism for fear of losing their privileges or their jobs. Many cops who, have spoke up, are either fired, suspended, or demoted in real life. Therefore, we should reject the views of the hypocrites who talk about "Blue Lives Matter" when they or the police receive all of the sympathy in the world whereas black people aren't given that equivalent sympathy or respect by mainstream society. The President has enacted tons of policies to enrich the lives of other constituents (via executive orders, speeches, and other policy decisions), but he seems to refuse to overtly condemn police terrorism in a revolutionary fashion in public. The President can do many things. First, he can speak out in public to condemn police terrorism, the injustices that black Americans experience, and the system of racism/white supremacy by name in many speeches. That can set the tone that we have a serious problem in our land that existed from centuries of oppression against black people by evil racists.

He can push for federal legislation to allow federal prosecutors to investigate incidents of police misconduct. Therefore, we shouldn't view every political leader as infallible. Some people believe in the myth that the President is immune from any legitimate critique, because of his background. That is wrong, because legitimate criticism is part of the freedom of speech and critique can in many incidents can cause progressive change in the world. Frederick Douglas critiqued Lincoln. Dr. King critiqued Kennedy and even Johnson at times. Therefore, when we critique President Barack Obama, we aren't blaming him totally for police terrorism in general. We are holding him to a high standard as we pay that man's salary and he is obligated to defend the human rights of all Americans (not just the police). The President doesn't tell Latinos, Jewish people, and other groups of people that he is not the President of those human beings alone. So, change must come. The President didn't attend the funerals of Sterling Alton and Castile. He can easily use executive orders to deal with cameras, community policing, better training, collection of better federal data on police killings, etc. The President can go into many states to advocate legislation in state governments to address this problem. He is the chief executive of American society and he must do his job to prosecute cops who murder our Brothers and our Sisters. So, we believe in the Dream and democratic egalitarianism. Yet, we have to fight for that Dream. It won't easy, but victory is better than defeat. Ultimately, long term, comprehensive change must originate from the masses of the people or us. We want our victory by any means necessary.
We want justice.


Jackie Joyner-Kersee is a legend. She is much more than a legend. She is one of the greatest athletes in human history period. She is a trailblazer and a living example of how excellence is part and parcel of our people's existence. She was born in 1962 in East St. Louis, Illinois. From her childhood, she had many dreams of success and her relatives gave her great love and a sense of motivation to fulfill her dreams. She loved track and field for decades and her great athleticism and compassion has inspired the world. When she was in college, she played basketball as well. She participated in 4 Olympic Games and she performed magnificently in the long jump and the heptathlon. Her first Olympics was the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. Her last Olympics would be in Atlanta, GA in 1996. I watched that one on TV. I also watched the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain on television as well. She made earned awards and acknowledgments. Her humble spirit is glorious and she loves her family a great deal. In 1988, Jackie Joyner-Kersee established the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Foundation. This foundation sends resources to help the youth, adults, and other people in the East St. Louis community and throughout America. She has given to many charities and she has worked tirelessly for the improvement of our society in general. She has inspired other athletics to get involved in charitable organizations that are geared to improve communities too. Her life story is a glorious one. It teaches us that helping others is important and it promotes the valuable lessons that athletics can teach us. We are near 2020 now. She is a great, beautiful black woman and we praise her forever. It is our priority to love mercy and to help our neighbors. We should continue to live our lives in service for the truth and promote the value of love and benevolence. Bless Sister Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Jeanette Jenkins have helped people for years. I remember seeing a BET commercial a while ago showing her promoting more awareness of heart health for the African American community. Being an African American, I certainly took that commercial to heart. I knew from then on, she will achieve even greater accomplishments. Her purpose in life in part is to promote exercise and fitness for humanity. Jeanette Jenkins was born in Ottowa, Canada. She is a tremendous inspiration for people. She has not helped out celebrities, but unsung human beings too. You can always tell that she loves to workout and assist people, because she is smiling and  has a gregarious personality. Her workouts deal with cardio, kickboxing, stretching, and other forms of plyometrics. In our generation, plyometrics and stretching along with the usage of weights is highly popular. Likewise, we want any human being to experience happiness and joy in their lives. Keep up the Great Work Jeanette Jenkins.

By Timothy





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