Political and Social Issues in Early April of 2019.

There are a lot of news going on. Attorney General William Barr spoke to Congress about the Mueller report. The Democrats want Congress to have total access to the report without redactions. Also, he has refused to answer the question on whether he told the Trump administration contents of the Mueller report before or after he released the findings to the public. Since Barr is refusing to show an unredacted Mueller report, then he will face a subpoena from Congressional Democrats. Barr didn't explain why he cleared Trump of obstruction when Mueller stated that he is possibly culpable in obstruction. Barr is a Trump team player, so he wants to paint a picture of exoneration. Barr wants to defend his findings (of blocking grand jury testimony and other items) and controls how the report is released. Barr must follow transparency as found in the law. Also, far right conservative Candice Owens said that the Southern Strategy is a myth. That is false. I am not surprised by her statement since she hates liberalism. People of her philosophy want to minimize racism found in the GOP in order to try to gain more recruits to the GOP or the overall conservative movement. The Southern Strategy is about GOP exploiting racial and social issues in the USA as a means for them to gain more votes for the Republican Party (especially in the South).

In 2005, Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman formally apologized to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a national civil rights organization, for exploiting racial polarization to win elections and ignoring the black vote. Even Kevin Phillips, Lee Atwater, and mainstream historians admitted to the existence of the Southern Strategy. The reason that I am not a far right conservative is that its philosophy is about preserving the interests of oligarchy (or those in massive privilege) at the expense of the majority of the people. Also, many in that circle are composed of racists, sexists, xenophobes, etc. Kodak Black's comments about Lauren London are despicable and inappropriate. Our response to that is to condemn his comments and not buy his music. His music is anti-woman and anti-black period. Also, Kodak Black has a long history of making anti-black and colorist remarks about black people (especially against dark skinned black women. That is why colorism must be condemn period. We have to teach young black girls and young black boys that Black is Beautiful). This isn't a young vs. old issue. Tons of young and older people are filled with wisdom. This has to do with some people making ignorant statements and then being held to account by their own words. This is bigger than sellouts and colorists. It is about a whole industry and world society that profits from anti-black lies and anti-black caricatures worldwide. We know that Black is Beautiful, and we have to work together in establishing solutions.

The shakeup of the DHS is all about Trump's ideology of anti-immigrant zealotry. Stephen Miller is an ally Trump. Miller is known to abhor immigration in general just like Trump. Trump even tried to allow former cabinet members to try to ignore immigration laws in order to advance the separation of families at the border. There is a vacant ICE director. There is no DHS Secretary. Ronald Vitiello, acting head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, is gone now. Kirstjen Nielsen was fired recently too. The Department of Homeland Security is the largest government department outside of the Defense Department. Stephen Miller is the authoritarian who is driving Trump's immigration policies. Miller promoted the Muslim ban. There is no question that Trump wants an unitary executive branch, which is against the separation of powers (as advanced by Montesquieu, who stated that the three branches of government must be co-equal). Cutting assistance programs to Central American countries make no sense whatsoever. This isn't just about Trump doing it. Historically, the leaders of both major parties have executed evil policies of illegal wars, attacks on democratic rights, and the growth the military industrial complex. The contradiction of massive economic inequality and record corporate profits have caused the increase of strikes in America from teachers, factory workers, store workers, and other people in the labor movement. This has not happened in decades in America. That should tell us that the fighting spirit for social change is still strong. We must always be about our business to make sure that Americans and all people worldwide have the same justice.

Trump and other Wall Street bankers have used speeches and propaganda to slander socialism as authoritarian, destructive, and evil. History refutes these deceptions. The truth is that the famous socialist Norman Thomas fought for New Deal policies, the 40 hour work week, Medicare, Medicaid, and other benefits for the common people. It wasn't capitalists that promoted the Maymarket revolt that advanced labor rights. It was the workers and socialists in the streets of Chicago that did that. It wasn't the Wall Street bankers who helped to cause the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act to become law. It was the pro-democratic socialist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, socialist A. Philip Randolph, and other progressive leaders (including women like Fannie Lou Hamer, Gloria Richardson, Ella Baker, Septima Clark, and others) to fight for these laws to be signed in the first place. Therefore, you don't have to be a socialist to be a revolutionary. Yet, some of the greatest revolutionaries in human history were socialists. That's a fact. DuBois was a socialist. There is a difference between Stalinist Communism (that was brutal, evil, and murderous) and socialism. Utah Congressman Chris Stewart announced the formation of an “anti-socialist caucus” in the House of Representatives. Last week, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon condemned socialism as destructive. He is a hypocrite since he was the man who received billions of dollars in taxpayer funded public bailouts. Dimon’s bank received tens of billions of dollars in government bailouts and many billions more from the Obama administration’s ultra-low interest rate and “quantitative easing” money-printing policies.

If you believe in capitalism and support big banks receiving record bailouts, then you're a hypocrite since capitalism is solely about free market promotion without any massive government bailouts for any corporations. That is why we must address income inequality when we have more than half a million US workers went on strike, a 20-fold increase over 2017. Hitler murdered socialists in concentration camps. Fascists hate socialists which is why Trump hates socialism. Socialism means that the government controls the means of production or the workers control it. Trump's economic nationalism and xenophobia is a reflection of the worldwide far right, anti-refugee sentiment that is found in Europe. Economic exploitation by multinational corporations (which is aided by the military industrial complex) along with the exploitation of natural resources is a recipe for disaster. That is why we want real change. Class struggle among the poor and the working class is necessary for a solution.


By Timothy