Wednesday, April 28, 2021

On the Eve of President Biden's First 100 Days in Office.

  

Today, Congress has negotiations among Democrats and Republicans on police reform legislation. The GOP is concerned about qualified immunity issues that gives police nearly carte blanche escape from personal liability. The Democrats want a strong George Floyd Policing Act to pass. The truth is that we change is needed in American society. The status quo will not work.  The tragedies of police killings in America is at epidemic levels. The FBI has opened a civil rights probe into the North Carolina shooting of Anthony Brown Jr. An autopsy proved that Brown was shot 5 times. This comes after the DOJ has started to investigate the Louisville, Kentucky police department. What makes society stronger is confronting injustice, so real justice for all is made real.   Not to mention that black political power is important to grow. Black people from across the political spectrum always believe in self determination among our community and forming black independent political institutions plus bases (which is in opposition to the agenda of the one percent). I agree with those who want working class liberation. Also, people who are homeless or jobless need liberation too. There is a foundation of capitalist power built on the backs of black slaves and the genocide of the indigenous people of the Americas. That is just history. 


The center left person Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina said that he is more of a Truman Democrat than a FDR Democrat. Clyburn is part of the old school part of the Democratic party who loves neoliberal policies on foreign policy. He is half right. He is right that FDR made mistakes during his Presidency from not being militant enough on civil rights, promoting internment camps against Japanese Americans, and racists exploiting the New Deal to discriminate against black Americans. He is wrong to assume that Truman is some savior for black people like us. Truman was from the Pendergast machine in Missouri. Back in the day, Harry Truman regularly used racial slurs. Truman was the moderate that Democratic neoliberals choose as VP, because Henry Wallace was the progressive during that time. Wallace wanted civil rights, universal health care, and international cooperation long before Truman won the 1948 election. Clyburn talks about how Truman wanted health care and he integrated the Armed Forces. That is true. Yet, Truman also dropped atomic bombs on 2 Japanese cities that was opposed by even U.S. generals back then as being unnecessary. Those bombs were crimes against humanity and a crime against God. Tons of people suffering in Hiroshima and Nagasaki have their bodies destroyed instantly by those atomic weapons. Truman also red baited Americans who didn't follow his imperialistic foreign policy. So, Clyburn omits stuff like that. Also, the New Deal is complex. The Federal Housing Administration did in fact was used by racists to discriminate against black people. Also, FDR won 3 terms with a coalition of black people, poor whites, and other ethnic minorities lasting to this day. The New Deal also includes Social Security. I doubt Clyburn would want Social Security banned. Public employment programs in the New Deal employed tons of black workers. Harold Ickes fought for racial justice. The New Deal's Federal Writers' Project helped black writers like Richard Wright and Arna Bonetemps including Zora Neale Hurston. So, not everything in the New Deal was evil. It is that racists exploited parts of the New Deal to advance oppression against black people. That was wrong, not the concept of a New Deal in the first place. Oh, Clyburn omits that Truman was a heavy critic of Dr. King, and Truman opposed even peaceful civil disobedience and demonstrations. 

He or  Harry Truman even questioned Dr. King's activism in Selma, Alabama. Harry Truman has said that the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama has not accomplished anything except attracting some attention and it is silly. I got my receipts now. No one should omit FDR's imperfections (like him refusing to sign federal anti-lynching legislation), but President Franklin Delano Roosevelt led America to defeat the Nazis during WWII. Truman doesn't have the will nor the leadership to lead America to defeat the Nazis and other fascists during the beginning of WWII. Truman was President at the end of WWII constantly taking advice from FDR. The problem with the New Deal wasn't that it was some government overreach. It was that it wasn't progressive enough to radically change society for the better. See, I know how the game is. These neo-liberals are slick as they claim to be so woke, but they refuse to call out imperialism, capitalist exploitation (for over 1,000 years, the system of capitalism murdered millions of people worldwide via imperialism, slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, environmental destruction, economic instability, and other evils), and other evils. Why should I be surprised. Neoliberals always glorify imperialists like Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, now George W. Bush, and their other "heroes."


 

The family of Andrew Brown want accountability and justice. The family only got a 20 second clip of the shooting. This is a crisis in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. Elizabeth City is very close to Virginia. I have kinfolks from Halifax and other places of North Carolina. Many people in Elizabeth City watch our Hampton Roads, Virginia TV shows. We are one culturally. Protests are existing now. Brown was only 42 years old, and he was shot in his back. There is no justification for this action at all. The North Carolina state Attorney General can easily handle this case. Three deputies have resigned. That signaled to people that something is terribly wrong. The back window was shot out. Andrew Brown Jr. was a father and beloved by his family. Mayor Bettie Parker said that Elizabeth City is a microcosm of what is going on in the nation of America now. Witnesses say that the officers unloaded bullets on Andrew Brown Jr. The truth is obvious, the cover up by many cops is clear, and justice is our total aim involving this tragic situation. This is my first time writing about Ma'Khia Bryant. I have to say that I'm disappointed in many people are now slandering this late teenage black sister by dehumanizing her, by slandering her character, and even saying that she deserved to die. This sick rhetoric is not just found among racists but by boot-licking sellout black people who worship the police instead of honoring truth. Ma'Khia Bryant was a victim of a flawed foster system. She was abused by a system who doesn't the dignity of black girls. The police officer shot her 4 times on her body. Now, we know that Bryant's father was there, and he refused to protect her daughter. Now, we know that 2 adults were fighting Ma'Khia Bryant. So, Ma'Khia Bryant was mistreated all around. 

RIP to Sister Ma'Khia Bryant.


No one should be surprised at Kevin McCarthy. He recently defended Trump's response to the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump not only refused to immediately respond to the terrorists harming people at the U.S. Capitol. He wanted Pence to illegally make him the winner of the 2020 election which didn't happen at all. The Republicans in Arizona want another election recount as many of them believe in the big lie about the 2020 election. McCarthy revealed the Republican leadership as not only cowards. They promote nativism, isolationism, extremism, racism, xenophobia, and complete lies. That is what they are. That is what they promote in hatred of real democracy. We certainly live in a crossroads in American history. Police accountability is what real people want.  In the midst of these tragic times, we certainly realize that the job is not done. Policing among crooked cops is to occupy communities, harm black lives, and maintain the status quo. Yet, the truth is that corrupt policing must be rejected in favor of treating communities with respect and federal legislation to make sure that accountability, justice, and rebuilding communities are made into a reality.

 

 

By Timothy

 



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