Friday, December 02, 2016

Learn History

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was arrested in Birmingham, Alabama on Good Friday, April 12, 1963. He was held in jail and denied a consultation with an attorney from the NAACP without guards present. News of his incarceration spread quickly. It was spread by Wyatt Tee Walker according to the historian Jonathan Bass (who wrote of this in 2001). His supporters sent telegrams about his arrest to the White House. He could be bailed out at any time. Jail administrators wanted him to be released as soon as possible to avoid media attention while King was in custody. Yet, the campaign organizers offered no bail in order "to focus the attention of the media and national public opinion on the Birmingham situation." A day later after his arrest, Dr. King was allowed to see local attorneys from the SCLC. When Coretta Scott King did not hear from her husband, she called Walker and he suggested that she call President Kennedy directly. Mrs. King was recuperating at home after the birth of their fourth child when she received a call from President Kennedy the Monday after the arrest. The president told her she could expect a call from her husband soon. When Martin Luther King called his wife, their conversation was brief and guarded; he correctly assumed that his phones were tapped. Several days later, Jacqueline Kennedy called Coretta Scott King to express her concern for King while he was incarcerated. During this time, many white moderate clergymen criticized Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for promoting civil disobedience against unjust laws.

Many of these clergymen falsely accused Dr. King of promoting unnecessary racial tensions when Dr. King wanted racial justice. A jailer give him an article from the April Birmingham News article where those white clergymen criticized him. The clergy people wanted the demonstrations to end. Later, Dr. Martin Luther King was inspired to write, the historic, eloquent “Latter from Birmingham Jail.” He refuted and responded to the 8 “moderate” white clergymen who criticized him. Dr. King wrote that freedom should never be given to people via delay or by gradual tokenism. Freedom should be given to oppressed people ASAP. His letter was a defense of the civil rights movement in general, its aims, and its strategies of boycotts, sit-ins, protests, and civil disobedience. Dr. King wrote on scarps of paper from a janitor. He wrote notes on the margins of a newspaper, and later a legal pad given to him by SCLC attorneys. Clarence Jones removed the handwritten words on 20 pages of paper to be edited by Wyatrt. More than a million copies of the letter spread nationwide, especially in churches. Many publications quoted the letter in full like Liberation, the Christian Century, and The New Leader. Dr. King wrote that people have the right to oppose injustice and resist unjust laws. He wrote that would resist Hitler and be willing to go to jail to resist oppressive laws against innocent Jewish human beings back during the days of Nazi Germany. He wrote that waiting for freedom for over 3 centuries is over and demonstrations must be enacted in order for freedom to come to black people. He wrote about the indignities of black people and the rejecting of waiting for equality. King's arrest attracted national attention, including that of corporate officers of retail chains with stores in downtown Birmingham. After King's arrest, the chains' profits began to erode. National business owners pressed the Kennedy administration to intervene. King was released on April 20, 1963.

The movie Ex Machina have shown many themes about A.I., transhumanism, machines, etc. The movie have female robot artificial intelligence beings. These robots are not happy about their male controllers. The movie is creepy in the sense of having a lot of sexual inneduo in dealing with robots. The movie shows dreams and we know about how many Hollywood movie focus on futuristic themes, etc. There is technological imagery in the film. The movie is about one technical person coxed into meeting a tech elite at his underground mountain facility after winning a contest. Caleb Smith (played by Domhnall Gleeson) is a low level coder at Bluebook or the world’s largest search engine. He finds out how his CEO, Nathan Bateman’s (played by Oliver Isaac) home is actually a research facility for super advanced A.I. The major A.I. character is the robotic female named Ava (who is played by Alicia Vikander). Caleb is instructed by Nathan to perform a series of Turing tests on Ava to see if she can pass by fooling him into thinking she is self-aware. Nathan is lying to Caleb. Caleb asks Ava questions. Nathan watches the session form his panoptic surveillance system. Ava dates herself as “1.” She refused to  specify whether she is one day or one year old, indicating (following the climax) that she is not concerned with dates because she is the new number 1, the first, as a fembot  equivalent of Adam. Ava can copy human emotions. Ava manipulates Caleb into thinking that she is self aware and experiences emotional attachment to him. Nathan uses deception to construct the perfect AI deception. Caleb is being used. His online footprint and psych profile is being exploited by  Nathan. It is no secret that social media and search engines are designed to give a version of the electronic “global brain.” The global brain is the make up of electronic data. Also, the NSA have supercomputers that monitor the Internet and create ways to research information. Caleb wants to free Ava in order to trap Nathan.  In the reveal, Nathan foils Caleb’s plan and explains that Caleb was the subject of the elaborate psy op all along, to see if he could be manipulated by A.I.  The psychological experiment is a success, but Ava outsmarts them both, trapping Caleb in a glass box, just like Ava had been imprisoned.  As Ava studies Nathan’s bedroom, she find former models of herself. These robot females are servicing Nathan. Ava leaves from Caleb’s copter. Caleb and Nathan aren’t freed. With help from Kyoko, Ava kills Nathan, but in the process Nathan destroys Kyoko and damages Ava. Ava repairs herself with parts from earlier androids, using their artificial skin to take on the full appearance of a human woman. She leaves Caleb trapped inside the facility, ignoring his screams, and escapes to the outside world in the helicopter meant to take Caleb home. So, this film has controversial themes and we must follow the Golden Rule. The film has won many awards for its visuals. The director and writer of the film is Alex Garland.

The rise of Stalin was antithetical to the aims of the Russian Revolution. Even Lenin and especially Trotsky disagreed with Stalin’s authoritarian agenda. Lenin had a stroke in 1922. So, the power on who was to rule the Communist party was debated by many factions. Leon Trotsky and Stalin wanted to have a big influence in the Communist movement of Russia. Stalin, even back in the 1920’s, was known as impersonal, cruel, and harsh. Stalin means “man of steel” in Russia, but Stalin was not his original name. In 1922, he was the general secretary of the Communist Party. Stalin wanted more leadership power, but Lenin before he died had questions about Stalin. Lenin viewed Stalin as not being able to handle power correctly. He was right. Lenin's last advice to the party was to warn it against Stalin's "disloyal" and "intolerant" abuse of power and to advocate his removal from the post of General Secretary. Lenin's last active days were spent organizing his fight against the Stalin faction at the Congress. He wrote a letter to Trotsky asking him to take up the defense of the Georgian comrades, and to the Georgian leaders warmly committing himself to their cause.   In 1928, Stalin completely controlled the Communist Party. Trotsky was forced into exile by 1929 and Leon Trotsky would be one of Stalin’s greatest critics. Stalin would have authoritarian power and soon to be a dictator (as in a totalitarian fashion). Stalinist Russia took over the public and private aspects of Russian society. Russia under Stalin changed. Stalin used a police state force to try to stop dissent. Stalin used the Great Purge in 1937 to execute his opposition, even the original Bolshevik leaders who fought against the Tsarist empire. Many people were sent into labor camps too. Stalin allowed censorship, indoctrination of schools, religious persecution, and other evils. Stalin executed the Five Year Plans in trying to grow the Soviet economy. During that time, there was a growth of the production of industry and agriculture. The problem was that food shortages existed. Also, Stalin tried to steal the collective farms form the peasants. People resisted in fighting for their farms. Between 5-10 million peasants were killed by the Stalinist regime, because the peasants fought for economic rights. During that time, many women gained economic and educational opportunities, which is good. Yet, many people’s civil liberties were violated in the reign of Stalin.


White racism is demonic, revolting, and evil,. This white racist woman Michelle Herren knew what she was doing when she viciously slandered First Lady Sister Michelle Obama. Michelle Obama is a gorgeous woman, who by her own merit and great intellect, graduated from college, worked in the legal occupation, and has worked worldwide to help humanity. First Lady Michelle Obama has spoken truth to power on women's rights, on how the White House was built by black slaves, and how important exercise is. That white racist doctor hypocritically disrespects a black woman when it is her job to help humanity irrespective of a person's skin color or ethnic background. Racism is evil. That white person' insecurity and white fragility is on full display by her lame, weak, and slanderous comments about a beautiful black woman. First Lady Michelle Obama have given eloquent, inspirational speeches that make us aware of the strength found in our black community. There has been increase in hate crimes since 2015. There are over 700 hate crimes since that male misogynist demagogue was elected. I'm not shocked that Helen is a Trump supporter since many of these supporters are stone cold racists. They are angry at the Beauty and Power of blackness. They (or the white racists) are deceivers, conniving, manipulative, and full of hatred. That racist has no respect from me at all. At the end of the day, we are black people. We are survivors, inventors, creators of rhythms, and the original human beings on this Earth. We have a long history and we have a glorious power that has moved people, that have ended injustices, and our power will last forevermore.


By Timothy

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