obama - Blogs - TheBlackList Pub
2024-03-29T04:39:13Z
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The Quick Scan by Mike Ramey
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/the-quick-scan-by-mike-ramey-203
2023-07-27T04:16:51.000Z
2023-07-27T04:16:51.000Z
Mike Ramey
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/MikeRamey
<div><p> </p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><u>THE OBAMA LEGACY UNDER THE BIDEN CLOUD</u></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size:12pt;"> You have already heard about the collapse of the Hunter Biden plea deal, and the soon-to-begin Impeachment Inquiry against President Joe Biden because of Bribery (and other) hanky-panky that took place, allegedly, during his tenure as Vice President. However, the elephant in the room (pardon the pun, since I am a Republican) is what this may do to the legacy of former President Barack Obama.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> Obama has been strangely quiet during this process involving POTUS Biden. However, as the charges, whistleblowers and evidence grow—and points—in the direction of this having happened WHILE Biden was Obama’s Vice President has JUST placed a huge cloud over the Obama legacy. Official Washington has not mentioned this issue—nor will you hear about it anytime soon in the ‘usual’ media sources fed by the ‘mainstream mess’. They are TERRIFIED!</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> For Obama, though, this is a VERY serious time in his political career.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> IF Biden goes down, the allegations will truly harm BOTH Barack and Michelle Obama, putting them in a position as being damaged political goods. Thus—in the ranks of the Democrat party—the party that claims to love and ‘represent’ Black people will--in effect--watch the destruction of the legacy of the first BLACK president.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> Such a tree falling on the Obamas will NOT be soon forgotten by some Black voters who still proudly have pictures of the 44<sup>th</sup> President displayed in their homes and churches. Nevertheless, the sawing is going on. The GOP is using a page from Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s playbook…but THIS time the Republicans have REAL evidence to take to an Impeachment Inquiry—evidence that is real and can survive any factcheck agency that you would like to sanction.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> The Democrat allies of the Democrat National Committee in the mainstream mess have already started ‘discovering’ things that Conservative commentators have been reporting on for the last several years to protect themselves as they ‘weaken’ their protection of the Bidens. Let me say this again—from a political point of view—I am on the other side of the isle from the Obamas. However, I am NOT happy about how Biden—week by week—has buzz sawed more and more of the Obama legacy. We get the FIRST Black President—and his hand-picked Veep—does a slow-motion crash into his legacy. IF Impeachment passes the House and heads to the Senate, there are Democrats who want to block it—but I don’t think this will happen. Yes, they want Biden gone—but they ALSO can’t afford to damage Obama’s legacy. What will they do? What will they do? The 2024 Elections are NOT that far off…</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <em>Mike Ramey is a Retired Gospel Minister, syndicated columnist and Bible Prophecy Specialist living in Indianapolis, Indiana. “The Quick Scan” is one of a variety of columns appearing and abounding in print and cyberspace, written from a biblical, business, and common-sense perspective since 1996. To drop him a line—or a whine—the address is still the same: </em><a href="mailto:mgmikeramey@yahoo.com"><em>mgmikeramey@yahoo.com</em></a><em>. ©2023 Barnstorm Communications International.</em></span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p></div>
“The Legacy of the First African American President: From the Bunk House to the White House”, is the Story of Obama's Presidency - new book by Dr. Samuel Brown
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/the-legacy-of-the-first-african-american-president-from-the-bunk-
2018-02-08T18:45:37.000Z
2018-02-08T18:45:37.000Z
TheBlackList-Publisher
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListPublisher
<div><h2 class="article-intro-text quote-lines"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828601662,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="450" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828601662,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="3828601662?profile=original" /></a>“The Legacy of the First African American President: From the Bunk House to the White House” from Christian Faith Publishing author Dr. Samuel Brown highlights the accomplishments of the Obama Administration and how Barack Obama’s Presidency impacted Americans of all walks of life. Through an examination of how people treated the first African American President and how he responded, Dr. Samuel Brown unveils the full legacy of a history defying leader.</h2>
<p class="responsiveNews">“The Legacy of the First African American President: From the Bunk House to the White House”: a revealing look into the work and impact of President Barack Obama. “The Legacy of the First African American President: From the Bunk House to the White House” is the creation of published author, Dr. Samuel Brown. In 1946, Dr. Brown was born in a small, rural Arkansas town where the only means of survival was farming. During the harvest season, he was able to successfully complete school despite the fact he missed school every other day to help bring in the crops. He managed to complete two grades in one year before he went on to complete high school. He attended several colleges and vocational technical schools. He married Olevia Hines Brown in 1967 and had five children. Years later, he obtained an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from St. Stevens Theological Seminary. He has worked for several governmental entities and authored several books. He is the bishop of Life Changers Outreach Ministries, which operates in the US and abroad. He is also the founder of Life Changers Ministries Press.</p>
<p class="responsiveNews">“You will see the awesome duties of the President. Oh yes, there is a little about racism. However, this book is not about hatred. It’s about history and from where the African-American came and how and the struggles they encountered. There are good, decent, gracious Americans of all walks of life, and there are a few leftover bigots, racists who tend to make some things hectic for many. This is a serious book, but you may see a little humor from time to time.” --Dr. Samuel Brown</p>
<p class="responsiveNews">Published by Christian Faith Publishing, Dr. Samuel Brown’s new book reveals the profound work President Barack Obama did with the power the People gave him.</p>
<p class="responsiveNews">After observing Barack Obama over the course of his Presidency, author Dr. Samuel Brown decided to write and publish a book on his legacy. Obama established a legacy that will not be seen again in Dr. Brown’s lifetime. It will likely never be seen in history ever again. For those who are not aware of the legacy and struggles of America’s first African-American President, he represents the African-American people as well as all other Americans, “The Legacy of the First African American President: From the Bunk House to the White House” sheds some light on this often-distorted subject.</p>
<p class="responsiveNews">“The Legacy of the First African American President: From the Bunk House to the White House” reveals how he and his supporters “acted” as well as how different groups of people received him. Many people know some of the bits and pieces of what he was all about and what he went through as an African American President. Readers will learn how it all went down. They will learn how certain people mistreated the President. They will learn what they called him. They will see that he was treated worse than a house cat. They will also see how he accomplished many wonderful things for the American people and made it easier to open closed doors.</p>
<p class="responsiveNews">View a synopsis of “The Legacy of the First African American President: From the Bunk House to the White House” on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ec8c2rhcmM">YouTube</a>.</p>
<p class="responsiveNews">Consumers can <a href="https://www.christianfaithpublishing.com/books/?book=the-legacy-of-the-first-african-american-president">purchase</a>“The Legacy of the First African American President: From the Bunk House to the White House” at traditional brick & mortar bookstores, online at Amazon.com, Apple iTunes store, or Barnes and Noble. They can also view more information and purchase the book via Dr. Samuel Brown’s Christian Faith Publishing website, at: <br /><a href="http://www.christianfaithpublishing.com/books/?book=the-legacy-of-the-first-african-american-president">http://www.christianfaithpublishing.com/books/?book=the-legacy-of-the-first-african-american-president</a> <br />For additional information or inquiries about “The Legacy of the First African American President: From the Bunk House to the White House”, contact the Christian Faith Publishing media department at 866-554-0919.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2018/02/prweb15165909.htm" target="_blank">PLANO, TEXAS (PRWEB) FEBRUARY 08, 2018</a></p>
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Making Obama Podcast Reveals Real Story Behind Barack Obama's Early Political Days In Chicago
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/making-obama-podcast-reveals-real-story-behind-early-barack-obam
2018-02-05T19:00:00.000Z
2018-02-05T19:00:00.000Z
TheBlackList-Publisher
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListPublisher
<div><p></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><em><strong><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828601380,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="400" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828601380,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" alt="3828601380?profile=original" /></a>WBEZ Chicago's Documentary Provides Insider Account from Obama and his Key Advisers, Mentors and Rivals.</strong></em></span></p>
<p>Barack Obama was once just a young man with a new job in the city of <span class="xn-location"><span><span>Chicago</span></span></span>. In "Making Obama," the new documentary podcast series from WBEZ Chicago [<a class="linkOnClick" href="https://interactive.wbez.org/obama/" target="_blank">https://interactive.wbez.org/obama/</a>], the former President and key advisers, mentors and rivals speak openly about his political career path and how <span class="xn-location"><span><span>Chicago</span></span></span> was a conduit for his ultimate success as America's first African American President. </p>
<p>Hosted by WBEZ's <span class="xn-person"><span>Jenn White</span></span> and produced by Colin McNulty, the six-part podcast pulls back the curtain on Obama's rise to national prominence, from his early days as a South Side Chicago community organizer to his time as a rookie politician being hazed in the Illinois Statehouse, to an embarrassing run for U.S. Congress. The series culminates with an epic comeback and the start of the national political movement that catapulted him into the White House.</p>
<p>"A story like mine could have happened in another city, but my story could have only happened here.., " said President Obama in an excerpt from the podcast.</p>
<p>WBEZ sat down with the former president in a candid conversation, and interviewed those around him during the early days. In addition, the podcast draws on WBEZ Chicago's coverage of his political life and dozens of hours of original interviews about his formative years. </p>
<p>"The city of <span class="xn-location"><span><span>Chicago</span></span></span> played an essential role in shaping Obama's approach to politics and WBEZ had a front row seat to that journey," said White. "For this series, we spoke with many of the key players who were part of those pre-White House years – some people you will recognize but others you probably won't."</p>
<p>In another clip from the podcast, <span class="xn-location"><span><span>Chicago</span></span></span> Mayor and former White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel describes why Obama thrived in <span class="xn-location"><span><span>Chicago</span></span></span> politics, "He has an unbelievable, warm, capturing smile. It covers a very tough, steel spine."</p>
<p>WBEZ Chicago launched the "Making" podcast series in 2016 by sharing the inside story of <span class="xn-location"><span><span>Chicago</span></span></span>icon <span class="xn-person"><span>Oprah Winfrey</span></span>. Now, in the second season, listeners are given a rich, behind-the-scenes look at another famous Chicagoan, <span class="xn-person"><span>Barack Obama</span></span>.</p>
<p>"WBEZ is nationally acclaimed for its original reporting and documentary productions, and our Making series aims to share the compelling stories of people, movements, and ideas that have profoundly shaped American life," said <span class="xn-person"><span>Steve Edwards</span></span>, vice president and chief content officer for WBEZ.</p>
<p>The first episode of the "Making Obama" podcast series debuts <span class="xn-chron">Feb. 8, 2018</span> and will be available for download or streaming on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, wbez.org/Obama and other podcast platforms. Go to wbez.org/obama for more information as well as additional background on each episode. The episodes will be released weekly, culminating <span class="xn-chron">March 15</span> with an episode about Obama stepping onto the national stage in 2004. </p>
<p><b>About WBEZ Chicago<br /></b> WBEZ 91.5 FM is Chicagoland's premier media hub for high quality, fact-based journalism and engaging, entertaining audio programs and podcasts. We seek to document our world, to tell meaningful stories, to celebrate and record the human experience. WBEZ's award-winning investigative journalists ask tough questions, dig deep for answers and expose truths that spark change. WBEZ Chicago is home to two daily local programs, <i>The Morning Shift</i> and <i>Worldview</i>, and a growing portfolio of popular podcasts, including <i>Nerdette</i>, <i>Sound Opinions,</i> and <i>Making Oprah</i>. WBEZ Chicago has a legacy launching ground-breaking and nationally-acclaimed programs including <i>This American Life, Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!</i> and the podcast phenomenon, <i>Serial.</i></p>
<p>Download the WBEZ app, available in the <a class="linkOnClick" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wbez/id587477231?mt=8" target="_blank"><span class="xn-person"><span>App Store</span></span></a> and <a class="linkOnClick" href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wbez.app&hl=en" target="_blank">Google Play</a>.</p>
<p>Learn more about WBEZ Chicago, our award-winning programming and on-demand digital content at <a class="linkOnClick" href="https://www.wbez.org/" target="_blank">wbez.org</a>, or follow us on <a class="linkOnClick" href="https://www.facebook.com/wbez915/?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a> or <a class="linkOnClick" href="https://twitter.com/wbez" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>
<p><b>MEDIA CONTACT</b>: Kate Knox | 773-454-2748 | <a class="linkOnClick" href="mailto:kknox@talktocurrent.com" target="_blank">kknox@talktocurrent.com</a></p>
<p><span><a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/making-obama-podcast-reveals-real-story-behind-early-political-days-in-chicago-300592989.html" target="_blank">CHICAGO, Feb. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/</a> --</span></p>
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"Black As A Mug", Couple Crowdfunds Iconic Black Hero Line of Mugs
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/black-as-a-mug-couple-crowdfunds-iconic-black-hero-line-of-mugs
2017-08-07T17:00:00.000Z
2017-08-07T17:00:00.000Z
LeShelle, host of MinorityReport
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/LeShellehostofMinorityReport
<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828597085,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828597085,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="3828597085?profile=original" /></a></p><p class="font_8"><span><span><span><a href="https://www.blackasamug.com/" target="_blank"><span class="color_10">Black As a Mug</span></a></span></span></span> <span class="color_10">is the dopest (I say dope, a lot) thing I have seen all year. Yeah, we have mugs with catchy statements that wash off after you've forgotten they are not dishwasher friendly, but nothing quite compares to drinking rich Colombian coffee out President Obama's dome! That's sure to piss off someone at the staff meeting that could have been an email and earn a head-nod from your only Black co-worker from down the hall. I am already putting in my bid for an Assta Shakur mug! <a href="https://www.minorityreporttvshow.com/single-post/2017/07/31/Black-As-A-Mug-Couple-Crowdfunds-Iconic-Black-Hero-Line-of-Mugs" target="_blank">Read more...</a></span></p><p class="font_8"></p></div>
The Cult Of Personality and Modern Day Idol Worship. What Does Lady Gaga, Obama, Trump, Beyoncé, LeBron James and Jay-Z Have in Common?
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/the-cult-of-personality-and-modern-day-idol-worship-what-does
2017-04-15T18:29:42.000Z
2017-04-15T18:29:42.000Z
Nana Baakan Agyiriwah
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/NanaBaakanAgyiriwah
<div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left;"><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:16pt;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Mtt-mQjsDlw/WLz453X9BCI/AAAAAAACk4U/IXJmELiw-KM5aJtOJU92rmrB2oj5OKQDACLcB/s1600/Cult%2Bof%2BPersonality.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Mtt-mQjsDlw/WLz453X9BCI/AAAAAAACk4U/IXJmELiw-KM5aJtOJU92rmrB2oj5OKQDACLcB/s400/Cult%2Bof%2BPersonality.png?width=320" width="320" class="align-left" alt="Cult%2Bof%2BPersonality.png?width=320" /></a><span style="font-size:14pt;">Humanity in the modern age, treat celebrities like their predecessors of the old days treated their gods. It seems that human beings have to have something to idolize, look up to, admire, wish to be like or live their lives for.</span></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QpGU0xnipzE?wmode=opaque"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"></div></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">Celebrities are the new age obsession of modern man, who once built altars and brought offerings to their gods, the modern day devotee (fan) now does the same, purchasing their pictures, videos, music in a frenzied state of wanting to be next to them, if only through a conduit.</span></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">The Modern day Priest is the peddler of these New Age Celebrities Gods. They<br /><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7WZjEMJLz-o/WLz7KgQLAPI/AAAAAAACk44/UfHwP0NquvAwLxNCmljeHnfT64tcI87vwCLcB/s1600/Lady-Gaga-Monster-Ball-Living-Dress.jpg" style="clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-7WZjEMJLz-o/WLz7KgQLAPI/AAAAAAACk44/UfHwP0NquvAwLxNCmljeHnfT64tcI87vwCLcB/s200/Lady-Gaga-Monster-Ball-Living-Dress.jpg" width="200" alt="Lady-Gaga-Monster-Ball-Living-Dress.jpg" /></a></div>pose as media moguls, press agents, producers and distributors of the mania that consumes the fans. These modern day idolaters scream, dance, sweat and cry over the "gods" they chose and keep their gods amply supplied with all the modern conveniences, and sometimes so modern, their "gods" can live in full furnished multi-million dollar homes.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Like any religion, the worshipers keep the Gods and their Mediators in power as the devotee depletes his resources just for one more favor or act of kindness towards them. These acts of kindness maybe inclusive of but not exclusive of, autographs, pictures, handshakes, special tokens and VIP seating at a gala affair.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2rFIkzfT-PQ/WLz68WZ2XdI/AAAAAAACk40/tipYkPyuit8N2duAhmntX5Plqd47UQV7ACLcB/s1600/Barack%2Bobama-as-christ.jpg" style="clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;"><img border="0" height="117" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2rFIkzfT-PQ/WLz68WZ2XdI/AAAAAAACk40/tipYkPyuit8N2duAhmntX5Plqd47UQV7ACLcB/s200/Barack%2Bobama-as-christ.jpg" width="200" alt="Barack%2Bobama-as-christ.jpg" /></a></div>When the devotee sees, reads or experiences the lives of their gods, they are energized living through their imagined world, or lack there of. They are excited by the challenges, the scandals, the lies, the deceit that shrouds their gods, because in order for their god to exist in the world of Celebrities they must face these and many other obstacles of success and/or failure. The Modern day devotee(fan) takes the life of the Celebrity in full scale of it's own life, moving and progressing along as the God would demand of them. Dare they fall in the disfavor of their Gods or other devotees find them trifling.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1m-qXvAIkSU/WLz7jW9chQI/AAAAAAACk48/O7ErdCooJBkJyLRUOvv-cEAegLoGToR2wCLcB/s1600/Jay_z_King_Of_Newyork-front-large.jpg" style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1m-qXvAIkSU/WLz7jW9chQI/AAAAAAACk48/O7ErdCooJBkJyLRUOvv-cEAegLoGToR2wCLcB/s200/Jay_z_King_Of_Newyork-front-large.jpg" width="200" alt="Jay_z_King_Of_Newyork-front-large.jpg" /></a>Some devotees become so obsessed they will kill for their god, or kill their god itself, destroying its life, history and perchance its effect on any other devotee other than they.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Perhaps this it is a displace madness, an obsession generated by the total lack of self ownership and self power. Perhaps the Celebrities while only temporary give the devotee the moment in time where they can feel overwhelmingly powerful and completely divorced from their miserable lives or completely disconnected from the miserable lives their very Gods live.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dI0jwYDaEIw/WLz5abDOeoI/AAAAAAACk4c/HhP0Mb5Tuis-2S8X4XC3a8Vg5B1R2NwxQCLcB/s1600/Donald%2BPresident%2Bof%2Bthe%2BUS-Superhuman%2BEffort.jpg" style="clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;"><img border="0" height="157" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dI0jwYDaEIw/WLz5abDOeoI/AAAAAAACk4c/HhP0Mb5Tuis-2S8X4XC3a8Vg5B1R2NwxQCLcB/s200/Donald%2BPresident%2Bof%2Bthe%2BUS-Superhuman%2BEffort.jpg" width="200" alt="Donald%2BPresident%2Bof%2Bthe%2BUS-Superhuman%2BEffort.jpg" /></a>It is part of the social construct. Children see parents as gods, infallible and <br /> invincible, and as adults this lifelike onus is given to the Celebrity of their own choosing. In the realm of Celebrity worship, there are no boundaries as anything that would prove disconcerting to another can be hidden in the privacy of the devotees home, away from the scrutiny of any onlooker.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Devotees can get into fierce verbal battles with other devotees of other Gods, and like the Gladiators of old, can fight to the teeth about their particular god and its "well deserved" greatness and power.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xCQTR6_vXqI/WLz5ziyEHBI/AAAAAAACk4g/VY53iaSBHxs_zdRNh9Nzg0C9-ZEM35cngCLcB/s1600/lebron%2Bjames%2Bpraised%2Bby%2Bcrowd.jpg" style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xCQTR6_vXqI/WLz5ziyEHBI/AAAAAAACk4g/VY53iaSBHxs_zdRNh9Nzg0C9-ZEM35cngCLcB/s200/lebron%2Bjames%2Bpraised%2Bby%2Bcrowd.jpg" width="200" alt="lebron%2Bjames%2Bpraised%2Bby%2Bcrowd.jpg" /></a></div>Like any usurpation of power handed over freely or forcefully taken, the taker is as much a victim as the giver. The co-dependency of this relationship between the Devotee and the god, keep them inexorably bound to each other creating a life long dance of fierce passion and need to give the each other validation. The concert hall, theater, stadium or fan club is the Church of the Celebrities. The devotees attend these churches religiously and participate in the ritual celebration of their Gods.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">The question to me becomes, what is missing from the human psyche that such props are needed? How has humanity come to this? And what is missing inside of the human being that this type of attribution of power is needed to be given to an "Idol" or object of their devotion. How is it that the social construct supports and promotes this type of mania?</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">I would suggest, that it is part of the overall Social Engineering of the masses to seek help, guidance and support outside of themselves instead of being sovereign and responsible from within themselves. I would suggest that for the many many thousands of years that humanity has inhabited this planet, there is something missing, something so intangible that it created a void that needed to be filled.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">The Ancient Gods seemed to have left its creation behind, to squander and wallow<br /><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lG4QEXvdSxs/WLz6EEPEkEI/AAAAAAACk4k/_ox--6iVdSY06iNgF81vzsiCCrHktqH-ACLcB/s1600/beyonce2.jpg" style="clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-lG4QEXvdSxs/WLz6EEPEkEI/AAAAAAACk4k/_ox--6iVdSY06iNgF81vzsiCCrHktqH-ACLcB/s320/beyonce2.jpg" width="213" alt="beyonce2.jpg" /></a></div>in the abyss, a fog, the unknown and sometimes predatory environment called Planet Earth. In man's quest to find security, he re-invented gods, the gods he barely remembered, who seem to be there to take care of him. After reinventing these Gods, certain men became empowered by their connection to these gods, relegating the rest of the masses to the position of devotee. He set up positions of governance over these devotees, promising to bring the messages of the gods back to them, pure and direct. He selected special devotees who would have just a little bit more than all the others. Then, he created powerful armies to protect these re-invented gods, along with fables, myths and legends of the Greatness of these gods. They became Super Heroes with super powers and abilities beyond what any human could even imagine having.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">He also created an economy, one that would support the enormous army that he needed to keep his re-invention secure from attack.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">He created massive imposing structures to his gods as if in a competition to prove his god's greatness over another. He also performed rituals and sacrifices to these Gods so that they could be happy and continue to support and protect them from harm.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">What he did not realize, is that he was and is the gods he created. The Gods of Old<br /><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--7kPJ71mUgo/WLz6Uy8KAxI/AAAAAAACk4o/_zwt9JGGcZcUFqho0UL5MNNOt9JFF6uuACLcB/s1600/Gods-Annunaki-around%2Bthe%2Bworld.jpg" style="clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--7kPJ71mUgo/WLz6Uy8KAxI/AAAAAAACk4o/_zwt9JGGcZcUFqho0UL5MNNOt9JFF6uuACLcB/s200/Gods-Annunaki-around%2Bthe%2Bworld.jpg" width="178" alt="Gods-Annunaki-around%2Bthe%2Bworld.jpg" /></a></div>did not shared that secret, but enjoyed the adulation they received from the ignorant masses. They played on the innocence, the ignorance and in some cases, the fear of the masses.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">The old gods were magnificent, in comparison to their human devotees. But they were fractured, imperfect, unpredictable, and flawed, just like their devotees were. They must have come from a world where this imbalance existed, or they would have never allowed the masses to worship them in the first place.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-evE0hWkIWpc/WLz6tALKEJI/AAAAAAACk4w/jKAPHAC_VdAeJQgodOiTnQpdnSjDdH29ACLcB/s1600/Colossi%2Bof%2BMemnon.jpg" style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-evE0hWkIWpc/WLz6tALKEJI/AAAAAAACk4w/jKAPHAC_VdAeJQgodOiTnQpdnSjDdH29ACLcB/s200/Colossi%2Bof%2BMemnon.jpg" width="200" alt="Colossi%2Bof%2BMemnon.jpg" /></a></div>So, in their absence, man has continued to build enormous structures, war machines, economies, myths, fables and legends to keep their re-inventions alive. It is only through the projection of power onto the gods, that the gods have any power at all and man seems to have lost the "I AM" knowledge.</div><br /><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Nowadays, the Celebrities hold the same position as the ancient Gods. However, they are only as important, magnificent, powerful as their devotees deem them to be. If every fan decided not to worship these people, they would disintegrate and fall from the pedestals (shrines) that were created for them. The idolatry of another human being would cease and man would be challenged with finding the God within.<br /> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MxS6XkJWOsg/WLz5FjmvRaI/AAAAAAACk4Y/n9dIwDPvzVkz0OrDRmVYpHsJWVH69_m2gCLcB/s1600/Beware_the_Cult_of_Personality.png" style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MxS6XkJWOsg/WLz5FjmvRaI/AAAAAAACk4Y/n9dIwDPvzVkz0OrDRmVYpHsJWVH69_m2gCLcB/s400/Beware_the_Cult_of_Personality.png" width="400" alt="Beware_the_Cult_of_Personality.png" /></a></div><div style="text-align:center;"><br /> <br /><div style="text-align:left;"><b>LINKS OF INTEREST</b></div></div><div><table border="1" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse:collapse;border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;"><tbody><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3">Cult of personality Meaning</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLMzC04uA0">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbLMzC04uA0</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="color:#0038a8;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><strong><span class="font-size-3">Cult of Personality? What Cult of Personality?</span></strong></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://the-american-catholic.com/2013/01/18/cult-of-personality-what-cult-of-personality-5/">http://the-american-catholic.com/2013/01/18/cult-of-personality-what-cult-of-personality-5/</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37B_nOdRTAA"><span style="font-family:roboto;font-size:13.45pt;">Newsweek Editor Calls Obama "sort of God" - Literally</span></a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><iframe width="640" height="390" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/37B_nOdRTAA?wmode=opaque"></iframe></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="color:#02141f;font-family:georgia;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3">“Another thing about it. It’s unabashedly the cult of personality (like Mussolini and Kennedy). It’s the epitome of symbolism over substance. It’s the kind of stuff that punk-ass kids would put on a tee-shirt ...”</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/21/trump-obama-the-cult-of-personality.html">http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/21/trump-obama-the-cult-of-personality.html</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3">Trumpismo: Eerily similar to Latin America's macho leaders</span></div><div style="margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-family:cambria;font-size:14pt;">"This cult of personality, the cult of the big man...the bravado, the machismo," says Steven Conn, a history professor at Miami University who has </span><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-conn/trumpismo-and-american-fa_b_9507034.html"><span style="font-family:cnn;font-size:13.5pt;">written</span></a><span style="font-family:cambria;font-size:14pt;"> on the subject. "For folks in Central and South America, that's a much more familiar character."</span></span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/23/news/economy/trumpismo-macho-latin-america/">http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/23/news/economy/trumpismo-macho-latin-america/</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="color:#212121;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">If you stop and think about it, the former Obama campaigns and the current Trump campaign share much in common.</span> <span style="color:#212121;">Each of them are quintessential examples of the proverbial “cult of personality.” Their followers are focused on a person rather than principles. In the case of Obama, it was all about the </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/us/politics/21vote.html?_r=0">first black president</a><span style="color:#212121;">. Here’s some breaking news for Americans – if we want to get beyond the issue of race, then we have to stop making race the issue. Pretty simple, but somehow we keep missing it.</span></span></div><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="color:#212121;">In the case of Trump, it’s all about his brash-sticking-it-to-the-man rhetoric. Another piece of breaking news – Trump did not get where he is by sticking it to people in power. Trump is where he is because he effectively cuts deals with people in power. Much like Sprint's </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG-VB5xb6KM">stick-it-to-the-man commercial</a><span style="color:#212121;">; do you really think Trump's going to stick it to himself?</span></span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://ijr.com/opinion/2016/03/254377-jesus-cult-vs-cult-personality-lesson-americas-leaders-palm-sunday/">http://ijr.com/opinion/2016/03/254377-jesus-cult-vs-cult-personality-lesson-americas-leaders-palm-sunday/</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><b>And for those liberals who don’t think that pledging allegiance to Obama is enough for their rock god/messiah, well, they can do like Madonna did last night and <a href="http://thehill.com/capital-living/in-the-know/258491-madonna-strips-for-obama-offers-profanity-laced-endorsement"><span style="font-weight:bold;">strip for him</span></a> during a DC concert.</b></span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/2012/09/25/cult-of-personality-rewind-liberal-hollywoods-new-creepy-for-all-pledge-of-allegiance-to-barack-obama-is-similar-to-demi-moore-ashton-kutchers-creepy-2009-obama-i-pledge-video/">http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/2012/09/25/cult-of-personality-rewind-liberal-hollywoods-new-creepy-for-all-pledge-of-allegiance-to-barack-obama-is-similar-to-demi-moore-ashton-kutchers-creepy-2009-obama-i-pledge-video/</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="color:#2c2c2c;font-family:cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3">Madonna strips for Obama, offers profanity-laced endorsement</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://thehill.com/capital-living/in-the-know/258491-madonna-strips-for-obama-offers-profanity-laced-endorsement">http://thehill.com/capital-living/in-the-know/258491-madonna-strips-for-obama-offers-profanity-laced-endorsement</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="color:#544b40;font-family:cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3">Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher’s “I Pledge” Video | January 2009</span><br /> <br /><div style="text-align:center;"><span class="font-size-3"><iframe width="500" height="281" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/51kAw4OTlA0?ecver=1&wmode=opaque"></iframe></span></div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">“Power,” Henry Kissinger once told The New York Times, “is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”</span> Kissinger might amend that statement today: Now, fame is power, and thus replaces power as the ultimate aphrodisiac. In fact, fame isn’t just an aphrodisiac — it’s the ultimate nepenthe, a drug causing forgetfulness. The more famous our politicians are, the more we neglect their positions and character. No wonder the most admired woman in America is criminal Hillary Clinton, the most admired man is criminal Barack Obama, and the second-most admired man is loudmouth Donald Trump.</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.freedomsback.com/ben-shapiro/donald-trump-and-the-cult-of-personality/">http://www.freedomsback.com/ben-shapiro/donald-trump-and-the-cult-of-personality/</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><span style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">The cult of personality is central to this process of spectacularization.</span> Instead of politicians, in the Weberian model, espousing substantive positions and bearing a responsible commitment to the necessity of compromise, the personages put forward by the major political parties (and here we are primarily speaking of the United States although the point could well be extended) become merely a complex of images intended to acquire value rendered in terms of electoral share. And in this way the political itself becomes an expression of economization, even in regions of political practice not structured by outright bribery.</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://souciant.com/2016/02/the-cult-of-personality/">http://souciant.com/2016/02/the-cult-of-personality/</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3">In 1943 Walt Disney turned a 100 year-old fairy tale, "The Remarkable Story of Chicken Little" into a cartoon short.</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://alittlereality.blogspot.com/2015_11_01_archive.html">http://alittlereality.blogspot.com/2015_11_01_archive.html</a></span></div><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><div style="text-align:center;"><span class="font-size-3"><iframe width="420" height="315" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3HR9vqx9oTQ?wmode=opaque"></iframe></span></div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3">Yoruba African Gods</span></div><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="https://br.pinterest.com/pin/309341068125729258/">https://br.pinterest.com/pin/309341068125729258/</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3">Painting Depicts Obama as Crucified Christ</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/painting-depicts-obama-as-crucified-christ.html">http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/painting-depicts-obama-as-crucified-christ.html</a></span></div></td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:#A3A3A3;border-style:solid;border-width:1pt;padding:4pt 4pt 4pt 4pt;vertical-align:top;width:7.2409in;"><div style="font-family:cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3">What is Obama Christ?</span></div><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3">Barack Obama is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. This fact was witnessed by the world on November 4th, 2008 when Obama became the most powerful figure in the world. Obama was sent here from heaven to save our world from sin and destruction. Only worthy souls will be permitted to travel to heaven with Obama upon Earth's demise. The Church of Obama Christ has since been formed as a way for the world to worship and praise the new savior. He is the direct reincarnation of Jesus Christ and was placed here by the Holy Spirit. The end times are near and you must repent your sins to the Son of God, Barack Obama.</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.obama-christ.com/index.html">http://www.obama-christ.com/index.html</a></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div></div>
Black Pastors Urge U.S. Senate to Confirm Senator Jeff Sessions
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/black-pastors-urge-u-s-senate-to-confirm-senator-jeff-sessions
2017-01-10T15:40:07.000Z
2017-01-10T15:40:07.000Z
TheBlackList-Publisher
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListPublisher
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<div><div class="row"><div class="col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1"><p><a href="http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/200566/family_research_council_logo.jpg?p=publish" target="_blank"><img src="http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/200566/family_research_council_logo.jpg?p=publish" class="align-full" alt="family_research_council_logo.jpg?p=publish" /></a>Today, at a news conference on Capitol Hill, black pastors from <span class="xn-location">Alabama</span> and several other states spoke out in a show of support for President-Elect Donald Trump's pick for Attorney General, Senator <span class="xn-person">Jeff Sessions</span> (R-Ala.). The news conference was a coalition effort between the Frederick Douglass Foundation and Family Research Council's Watchmen on the Wall, organizations that are urging the U.S. Senate to confirm Sen. Sessions as the next <span class="xn-location">United States</span> Attorney General.</p>
<p>Rev. <span class="xn-person">Dean Nelson</span>, Director of African-American Outreach for Family Research Council's Watchmen on the Wall, expressed his support for Sen. <span class="xn-person">Jeff Sessions</span> for U.S. Attorney General:</p>
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<div class="row"><div class="col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1"><p>"Americans are living in a toxic climate where the serious charge of racism is carelessly leveled against anyone with whom the left disagrees. We are here today to make it perfectly clear that this attack against Senator <span class="xn-person">Jeff Sessions</span> is baseless, and that he is more than qualified to be our next Attorney General.</p>
<p>"As you will hear from the men who follow, Senator Sessions has consistently demonstrated respect and care for people of all races while serving his home state of <span class="xn-location">Alabama</span>. He has in fact worked relentlessly on the side of desegregation and justice. His reputation as a formidable champion for the rule of law has benefited all the citizens he served. As you will hear, Senator Sessions worked courageously to punish whites who victimized blacks to the fullest extent of the law and to reward courageous blacks for their contributions to our country.</p>
<p>"The American people have made it clear that they are deeply frustrated with the petty partisan bickering that has so long characterized our nation's capital. They want our government to function according to our Constitution, which means the President Elect should be allowed to appoint the qualified individuals of his choice to his cabinet. Senator Sessions understands this, which is why he voted to confirm <span class="xn-person">Eric Holder</span> to the office of Attorney General under President Obama," concluded Nelson.</p>
<p><a class="linkOnClick" href="https://www.facebook.com/familyresearchcouncil/videos/10154864278197442/" target="_blank">Click here</a> to watch the archived video.</p>
<p>SOURCE Family Research Council<br /><a title="Link to http://www.frc.org" href="http://www.frc.org/" class="linkOnClick" target="_blank">http://www.frc.org</a></p>
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<p><span><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/black-pastors-urge-us-senate-to-confirm-sen-jeff-sessions-300388035.html" target="_blank">WASHINGTON, Jan. 9, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire</a>/ --</span></p>
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Reevaluating the Black Power Movement - From Mayor Richard G Hatcher to President Barack Obama
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/reevaluating-the-black-power-movement-from-mayor-richard-g-hatche
2016-12-26T14:30:00.000Z
2016-12-26T14:30:00.000Z
TheBlackList-Publisher
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListPublisher
<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828590023,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828590023,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="637" class="align-right" alt="3828590023?profile=original" /></a>By Jitahadi Imara | Though misunderstood and misrepresented by the media and its opponents, the 1960s Black Power movement touched every aspect of American culture, and like the "New Negro" Movement of the 1920s, African Americans came of age, becoming self-determining and racially conscious. Black people- sharecroppers, unionists, welfare and tenants rights organizers, students, intellectuals, poets, musicians and singers and politicians-grounded in the ideology of Black Power, began to organize around controlling their own lives and institutions. The movement pointedly questioned the capacity of America's democracy to extend justice, citizenship and equality of opportunity to African Americans, castigating America for its failure to live up to the principles of democracy.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the confrontational style and practice the Black Power Movement has obscured its pivotal role in transforming American democracy. Yet, its cultural and political mode of thought and practice- its assertive posture, strong rhetoric and uncompromising critique-permanently altered the political landscape of America as well as the identity of African Americans. At a time when blacks were still referring to themselves as "Negroes", ashamed of being black, of their hair, and their African heritage, the movement for power by black people in 1966 roared on the national stage transforming the consciousness of African Americans. Thus, coined and popularized by Kwame Toure, Black Power captured the spirit and imagination of black people, setting a new national agenda with international ramifications.</p>
<p>To be sure, the Black Power movement imagined the possibilities for black empowerment and American democracy. Its unflinching call for the promotion of black history and black studies; its Pan African impulse; its far-reaching criticism of racism at home and imperialism abroad, expanded the dialogue and parameters of the black freedom struggle. Resultantly, black people began to turn inward, using their cultural strengths to push back against racism and to affirm their own humanity and to embrace an African centric worldview. So far-reaching and so expansive was the tentacles of the Black Power movement that no venue or sector was untouched by its vision and critique. The Black Power salute in the 1968 Olympic by Tommie Smith and John Carlos, for example, was the most overly political statements in the history of the modern Olympic Games. The salute was part of a protest to call attention to the injustices black Americans were facing.</p>
<p>Another sector heavily impacted by ideology and direction of Black Power Movement, was the music industry. The music in the late 1960s began to reflect the influence of the movement- James Brown, Say it Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud, the anthem for the Black Power Movement, Nina Simone, To Be Young Gifted and Black, The Temptations, Message From A Black Man. Besides this, the "Natural", a hair style which evolved into a cultural and political statement for black men and women, and the dashiki, which became the dominant form of dress for African Americans, were representative of the African centric perspective of blacks.</p>
<p>Politically, at both the local and national level, black people started to organize around the three ends of Black Power-self-respect, self-determination, and self-defense. In 1967 the first Black Power Conference was held in Newark. A Black Power Manifesto came out of this conference, condemning "neo-colonialist control" of black populations worldwide and calling for the circulation of a "philosophy of blackness" that would unite and direct the oppressed in common cause. In 1972 Black Power advocates, organized and called for a State of the Union meeting, first National Black Political Convention. Delegates included elected officials and revolutionaries, integrationists and black nationalists, Baptists and Muslims (the widows of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X- Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz- both attended). Participants were buoyed by the spirit of possibility, and themes of unity and self-determination.</p>
<p>In a real sense, Black Power ushered in a new black politics. In Dark Days Bright Nights, Peniel Joseph, argues persuasively that the politics of Black Power included a "cultural ethos that redefined black identity by promoting defiantly popular images of racial pride and self-determination." Peniel adds that Black Power "waged a war of attrition to in order to implement Black Studies programs...established independent schools, educations centers, cultural centers, and think tanks...the new black politics featured alliances between elected officials and black nationalist militants, and a cultural movement that used art to expand black consciousness and helped forged an international legacy that viewed African liberation as the crown jewel of a global revolution." Peniel concludes that all of this in turn "planted seeds that partially inspired post-Black Power era anti-apartheid activisms," and that; "If the civil rights worked from the outside-in by paving the way for legal and legislative reforms, Black Power worked in reverse, imbuing the race consciousness and pride within the African American communities upon which much of contemporary black identity is based."</p>
<p>In brief, unlike the Civil Rights Movement, which has had its signal events incorporated into the fabric of America's political and cultural institutions and historical memory through the media and academic historians, the Black Power Movement has been defined by its excesses and demonized by the media and marginalized in history of the 1960s. Yet, failure to recognize the achievements of the Black Power Movement and rescue its legacy serves only to diminish the history of the social justice movement, including civil rights, and the contemporary racial justice movement. To be sure, this Movement made significant accomplishments in transforming African American politic and culture, and in reforming American institutions: laying the groundwork for the Jesse Jackson's candidacy for the Democratic 1984 and 1988 presidential nominations, the election of Ron Brown as the first African American chair of the Democratic National Committee, and the election of Barack Obama, the first African American elected President of the United States of America.</p>
<p>Author, Jitahadi Imara<br /> Jitahadi Imara is the CEO of the Kwanzaa Guide. His experience and expertise on Kwanzaa spans four decades. Mr. Imara has been featured in the Los Angeles Times, Stevie Wonder's radio station, KJLH, Orange County Black Chamber of Commerce, and the American Library Association. He studied with the creator of Kwanzaa, Maulana Karenga, for over eleven years and is in frequent demand as a lecturer and workshop presenter on Kwanzaa.</p>
<p>More information can be obtained on Kwanzaa by going to <a href="http://www.kwanzaaguide.com">http://www.kwanzaaguide.com</a></p>
<p>Article Source: <a href="http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jitahadi_Imara/474542">http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Jitahadi_Imara/474542</a></p>
<p>Article Source: <a href="http://EzineArticles.com/3845362">http://EzineArticles.com/3845362</a></p></div>
African-Americans Among Most Optimistic Consumers - the rise of Obama cited as key components of black Americans' high economic confidence.
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/african-americans-among-most-optimistic-consu
2016-11-08T14:30:00.000Z
2016-11-08T14:30:00.000Z
TheBlackList-Publisher
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListPublisher
<div><p><a href="http://photos.prnewswire.com/pb-large/EN/2015/08/31/18/20150831183126ENPRN262421-Packaged-Facts-Logo-1y-1441045886MR.jpg?1478615657" target="_blank"><img src="http://photos.prnewswire.com/pb-large/EN/2015/08/31/18/20150831183126ENPRN262421-Packaged-Facts-Logo-1y-1441045886MR.jpg?1478615657" class="align-full" alt="20150831183126ENPRN262421-Packaged-Facts-Logo-1y-1441045886MR.jpg?1478615657" /></a><span style="color:#993300;" class="font-size-4"><em><strong>Packaged Facts cites growing affluence and the rise of Obama as key components of black Americans' high economic confidence.</strong></em></span></p>
<p>Despite the economic and social challenges, African-Americans remain among the most optimistic consumer groups in the American economy. <b><i>African-Americans: Demographic and Consumer Spending Trends, 10th Edition</i></b>, a recent report by market research firm Packaged Facts, found that nearly half (47%) of African-Americans think they will be better off financially 12 months from now, compared to just 37% of other Americans Affluent blacks hold especially strong convictions about how their financial future will unfold, though the abiding optimism of African-Americans transcends income levels. </p>
<p>View additional information about <b><i>African-Americans: Demographic and Consumer Spending Trends, 10th Edition</i></b>, including purchase options, the abstract, table of contents, and related reports at Packaged Facts' website: <a class="linkOnClick" href="https://www.packagedfacts.com/African-Americans-Demographic-10293172/" target="_blank">https://www.packagedfacts.com/African-Americans-Demographic-10293172/</a>. </p>
<p>The reasons for the steadfast confidence of African-American consumers are many and complex. To begin, despite the growing chasm between the very rich and the rest of American society, there are strong empirical reasons for African-Americans to believe that upward mobility remains achievable for them. As highlighted in the Packaged Facts report, key social and economic indicators point to a significant increase in the number of middle- and higher-income African-Americans over the past decade. During this period, the number of African-American households with an income of <span class="xn-money">$100,000</span> or more jumped 83%, while the number of African-Americans employed in management and professional occupations grew from 3.8 million to 4.8 million, an increase of 26%. There are now nearly two million blacks who earn at least <span class="xn-money">$75,000</span> annually.</p>
<p>The confidence of black consumers may also stem from the "Obama effect," a phenomenon that among other things sparked renewed optimism among African-Americans based on their pride in the election of the country's first black president. A Packaged Facts analysis of trends in the consumer confidence index of Simmons National Consumer Study data has found a factual basis for this hypothesis. In 2007 blacks were less likely than other Americans to be ranked as "highly confident" consumers (20% vs. 25%). By 2009, the year after the election of President Obama, the positions of each segment had reversed, as 26% of blacks and just 17% of other Americans were classified as "highly confident" consumers. By 2013, following the re-election of President Obama, 42% of black consumers were rated as "highly confident" compared to just 28% of other American consumers.</p>
<p>More recent trends suggest that the Obama effect may in fact have been in play in recent years, at least when it came to boosting the optimism of black consumers. The proportion of African-American consumers categorized as "highly confident" fell from 42% in 2014 to 38% in 2015 and 31% in 2016. Nevertheless, as the Obama administration nears its end, African-Americans remain more likely than other consumers to have a high degree of consumer confidence (31% vs. 27%).</p>
<p>The most powerful factor driving the optimism of black consumers and the relative pessimism of white consumers may lie in their family backgrounds, which in turn are partly the product of history and generational experiences. Research shows that consumers who perceive that they are better off than their parents feel more positive about their economic circumstances today and more optimistic about their prospects in the future. <span class="xn-org">Johns Hopkins University</span> researcher <span class="xn-person"><span>Andrew Cherlin</span></span> has found that poor and middle-class blacks have a higher likelihood of comparing themselves to parents who are worse off than they are, whereas working-class whites—whose fathers may have enjoyed high-paying blue-collar jobs a generation ago—are more likely to perceive that their parents were better off than they are. These different reference points make black consumers feel better off, and cause their white counterparts to feel worse off, than their parents.</p>
<p><b><u>About Packaged Facts</u></b> </p>
<p>Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer demographics and shopper insights, consumer financial products and services, consumer goods and retailing, consumer packaged goods, and pet products and services. Packaged Facts also offers a full range of custom research services. Reports can be purchased at our company website and are also available through MarketResearch.com.</p>
<p>For more essential insights from Packaged Facts be sure to follow us on Twitter and Google+. For infographics, tables, charts and other visuals, follow Packaged Facts on Pinterest.</p>
<p>Please link any media references to our reports or data to <a class="linkOnClick" href="http://www.packagedfacts.com/" target="_blank">www.packagedfacts.com</a>.</p>
<p>Press Contact: <br /><span class="xn-person"><span>Daniel Granderson</span></span> <br /> 240.747.3000 <br /><a class="linkOnClick" href="mailto:dgranderson@marketresearch.com" target="_blank">dgranderson@marketresearch.com</a></p>
<p><span class="xn-location"><span><span>ROCKVILLE, Md.</span></span></span>, <span class="xn-chron">Nov. 8, 2016</span> /PRNewswire/ --</p>
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"Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act" Obama Vetoes, Congress Caves (Videos)
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/justice-against-sponsors-of-terrorism-act-obama-vetoes-congress
2016-10-07T19:00:00.000Z
2016-10-07T19:00:00.000Z
Nana Baakan Agyiriwah
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/NanaBaakanAgyiriwah
<div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jIqO7DpEFRo/V_J5o3NhkdI/AAAAAAACfDk/0C8NisCQ9agwNP25Zs7Af463Tmx_xQXkQCLcB/s1600/Congress%2BCaves%2BIn%2Bto%2BObama%2BVeto.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jIqO7DpEFRo/V_J5o3NhkdI/AAAAAAACfDk/0C8NisCQ9agwNP25Zs7Af463Tmx_xQXkQCLcB/s400/Congress%2BCaves%2BIn%2Bto%2BObama%2BVeto.png?width=320" width="320" class="align-left" alt="Congress%2BCaves%2BIn%2Bto%2BObama%2BVeto.png?width=320" /></a></div><div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">The US Congress passed a bill called the "We are gonna sue Saudi Arabia on behalf of the victims of the 911 Terror Attacks" or <span style="color:#111111;">Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which, Obama promptly vetoed by the way, in an unprecedented move against Congress.</span></div><div style="color:#111111;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Now that in and of itself should send some folks to look in the mirror and ask themselves some serious questions about this administration, and especially about our dearly beloved President, Barack Hussein Obama.</div><div style="color:#111111;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#111111;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">When the smoke cleared, Congress decided that it would override the veto, in another unprecedented move against this administration. Then they got word… sorta like the word they got when they were refusing to give the banks all that money back in 2008.. Does the words "martial Law" ring a bell anyone? I don't know what made them back pedal for sure, but looking closely at the gaul they had to even attempt to override his royal highness was unprecedented to say the least. <em><strong><a href="http://nanas-rants.blogspot.com/2016/10/justice-against-sponsors-of-terrorism.html" target="_blank">SOURCE</a></strong></em></div><div style="color:#111111;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#111111;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#111111;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><b><i>But…..</i></b></div><div style="color:#111111;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><br /><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLRwF36V2kd5xrZVdq5ceKv2S3NRNsxZK1&wmode=opaque"></iframe></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Here's the deal. Why are they blaming the Saudi government when there has been no proof that the Saudi government had anything to do with it? Does anyone remember that the 19 hijackers had Saudi passports but 9 of them were found alive?</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">How about the fact that they Bombed Afghanistan because OBL was reportedly held up in them there hills. Wanna sue Afghanistan for its rocks and hills?</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">How about they blamed Libya for the plane crash and Gaddafi wasn't responsible but he paid t<span style="color:#1d2129;">he families and you see where that got him?</span></div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">How about they sue Larry Silverstien who admitted that they had plans to build a new trade center in early 2000?</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">How about they sue BBC for foreknowledge of WTC7 collapse 20 minutes before it collapsed? </div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">How about they sue the FBI for never proving that OBL had anything to do with it and they never even put him on the Worlds most wanted list cause they had no evidence he actually orchestrated the attacks.</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">How about they go after the real person instead of dragging the blemishless Saudis thru the mud? Surely I jest cause it ain't no way the Saudis are free from blemish.. But that's a horse of a different color and does not need to be inserted in this narrative. So let me not digress in sighting the various human rights violations and supporting of ISIS and harboring of known terrorist among them and their pitiful treatment of women because that requires a whole other video.</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Let me continue with my list of folks who should be sued by the families of the 911 victims.</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Sooooo,</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">How about they dig themselves out of a hole because Pres. OBAMA knows we will surely end up in China if folks even look down that 911 rabbit hole. Just look at the wording of this thing.</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#111111;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act.</div><div style="color:#111111;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">How many heads would role if there was a real investigation and the real culprits were given their just due?</div><div style="color:#111111;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Obama is the front man for the cover-up and he most definitely is not gonna air the dirty laundry for the whole world to see.</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">At this point, most folks know it was an inside job. First responders are dying from all kinds of cancers. And whistle blowers are dying, out of jobs, fearing for their lives. How about suing the EPA for saying the air was safe to breathe?</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">But any of these so called public officials who pretend to be clueless about what happened on that fateful day, are all complicit in the cover up, and the Saudi Royals ain't gotta take the hit when they can hit back really hard with the OPEC option of dollars for oil.</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">It's noble to say he wants to protect Americans over seas, but seriously… Obama ain't no dummy and neither are the rascals he rubs elbows with.</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Time for some serious 911 truth!</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Mainstream media is still peddling the lie. It makes you wonder how folks can wake up, read the lie, know it's a lie, turn over and go back to sleep. The train wreck continues.</div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div></div><div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SBUO1Kj-Vx8?wmode=opaque"></iframe></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div style="text-align:left;"></div><div style="text-align:left;"></div><div style="text-align:left;"><b>More Reading:</b></div><div style="text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#111111;">“Reflecting the desire to keep the public placated, while at the same time giving in to Saudi demands, Sens Bob Corker (R – TN) and Lindsey Graham (R – SC) both indicated that the ‘fixes’ would be implemented after the November elections, during the lame duck session,” </span><a href="http://news.antiwar.com/2016/09/29/congressional-leaders-move-to-weaken-911-victims-bill-after-override/"><span style="color:#333333;">Antiwar.com</span></a><span style="color:#111111;"> reported. So for now, the bill is law, but after the elections it will be watered down to nothing to please the Saudi’s instead of the American people.</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><a href="http://wearechange.org/congressional-leaders-caving-saudi-pressure-911-bill/">http://wearechange.org/congressional-leaders-caving-saudi-pressure-911-bill/</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#333333;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">White House: Congress has 'buyer's remorse' after overriding Obama veto</div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/29/white-house-congress-has-buyers-remorse-after-overriding-obama-veto/91289856/">http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/29/white-house-congress-has-buyers-remorse-after-overriding-obama-veto/91289856/</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">‘Time Of Looking Away Over’: Germany Warns Saudi Arabia To Stop Funding Wahhabism</div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://www.mintpressnews.com/time-of-looking-away-over-germany-warns-saudi-arabia-to-stop-funding-radical-islamists/211859/">http://www.mintpressnews.com/time-of-looking-away-over-germany-warns-saudi-arabia-to-stop-funding-radical-islamists/211859/</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=399774">http://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=399774</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;">The Senate recently overruled a veto from President Obama on a bill that will allow the families of terrorist attacks file lawsuits against countries suspected of supporting terrorism. What's actually in the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA)? Hasan Piker gives you the breakdown on the JASTA bill.</div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBUO1Kj-Vx8">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBUO1Kj-Vx8</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://usahitman.com/wbdct911/"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Whistleblower Deaths Connected To 9/11 (You Cant Deny This One)</span></a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://templeton01436.blogspot.com/2013/09/whistleblower-deaths-connected-to-911.html">http://templeton01436.blogspot.com/2013/09/whistleblower-deaths-connected-to-911.html</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#222222;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Opec quota deal not guaranteed to force up the oil price</span> </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;">Pasted from <<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/10/01/opec-quota-deal-not-guaranteed-to-force-up-the-oil-price/">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/10/01/opec-quota-deal-not-guaranteed-to-force-up-the-oil-price/</a>></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#333333;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">OPEC Leaves Production Target Unchanged</div><br /><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/opec-leaves-production-target-unchanged-oil-price-falls-1417086606">http://www.wsj.com/articles/opec-leaves-production-target-unchanged-oil-price-falls-1417086606</a></div></div></div>
Dr Boyce & Zaza Ali: Was Obama weak on police shootings of black men?
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/dr-boyce-zaza-ali-was-obama-weak-on-police-shootings-of-black-men
2016-07-21T02:01:18.000Z
2016-07-21T02:01:18.000Z
Nana Baakan Agyiriwah
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/NanaBaakanAgyiriwah
<div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left;"><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><b><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828586698,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="320" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828586698,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" alt="3828586698?profile=original" /></a>NB Commentary:</b> Dr. Boyce Watkins & Zaza Ali discuss some things around black folks having their own business and what it means, more so than the title of the video suggests. My commentary addresses that part of the video. See my comments below.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;text-align:center;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;text-align:center;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;text-align:center;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;text-align:center;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;text-align:center;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;text-align:center;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;text-align:center;">Dr Boyce & Zaza Ali:<br /> Was Obama weak on police shootings of black men?<span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/c8TNdWe_3xU?wmode=opaque"></iframe> <br /><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"><br /> Before I comment I tend to read a lot of the comments to see what folks are talking about and to learn something new as well.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;">Watching the interaction between Dr. Boyce and ZaZa, I wondered if anyone else picked up the pixie dust. LOL</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;">On the real though, I have been independently employed for most of my adult likf, and that's about 40 years. At this point the idea of working 9-5 is terrifying to say the least. But folks who do work 9-5 for even half that long are just as terrified to step away, and that ain't got nothing to do with color. This culture does not teach us to be anything else but workers. Get and education so you can get a job. Not get an education so you can provide jobs.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;">I think that we have to be careful not to be disingenuous. There is no multi-level pyramid scheme out there that will have you living high off the hog, basking in the sun on the beach all day, while your business grows and grows without you having to do something.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"> <span style="font-size:14pt;">Having your own business is hard work. I don't know about them two, but I put in more hours than I would ever have to working 9-5 and I am more responsible for what goes out because it's mine.</span></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;">I think there are many prongs that can be used for African Americans to become more self reliant. Some are employers others are employees. It's how we play the game. I really am not too cool with doing it the capitalistic way, however, if you are going to build a business in this paradigm you are gonna have to cross the capitalistic Rubicon on some level. There are so many stipulations that are required for you to even become incorporated. And this system is set up to only let a few fish swim upstream.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;">I haven't reviewed Dr. Boyce's business work and teachings, I been too busy keeping my business afloat, but I hope that he is being real with everyone about the "paperwork" involved, and as the saying goes, "Black folks is scared of paperwork."</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;">Folks should take a few classes before you step out there. Others should have a trade. We need so many skilled workers, cause even though you have your own business you will fare much better if you have helpers. Everybody can't be a chief, but a good solid business plan, with good solid workers who share your vision.. can work wonders.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;">We as a people have a lot of "Soul Work" to do on the level of having our own business and working with or for other Black folks.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;">So, yeah, get all the information you can get about starting your own business, and if it scares you too much, then see if you can work for an already established black business owner, and if that's not an option, support Black businesses. I have seen so many come and go due to lack of support as well..</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;">There's nothing like having your own, but you gotta put in the grunt work and the sweat equity to make it happen and keep it happening. Real Talk!</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:left;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8TNdWe_3xU">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8TNdWe_3xU</a></div></div></div></div>
DALLAS POLICE SHOOTINGS: Are good cops good cops if they turn a blind eye to the evils of racist cops?
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/dallas-police-shootings--
2016-07-10T01:00:00.000Z
2016-07-10T01:00:00.000Z
Tziona Yisrael
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TzionaYisrael
<div><p></p><p><span style="font-size:14pt;">Every time a Black man or woman is brutally gunned down by cops, the police are commended on their service to the public. Nothing was any different with the two Black men murdered by cops in Baton Rouge and in Minnesota. Without any investigation, police officers received accolades and nothing was said of the grieving family members. </span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">Constantly we hear about good cops, but are they still good cops if they turn a blind eye to the evils of racist cops? How can we not forget the cop who took a stick and plunged it in the rectum of an innocent Black man <u>IN THE POLICE STATION</u> while other cops stood around watching this merciless act. Cops outside this bathroom where the incident took place didn’t hear this Black man yelling out? Puhlease!!! Blacks are beaten on a daily basis in police cars and in jail are pushed down the stairs. When they go before the judges, their relatives can’t recognize them because they are beat up so badly or bandaged up so much one doesn’t know if it is the prisoner or not. Regardless of what a Black person has done, half killing the incarcerated before the trial is rampant and illegal. And in too many cases, the Black man goes to jail for decades only to learn afterwards that he is innocent. And if you can believe it, this racist society is so quick to kill Blacks that some have endured capital punishment and were innocent.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">White cops seem to think these are the days of CHATTEL SLAVERY when Black lives weren’t worth a nickel. But in reality, these are not those days, but rather these are days of hope for better lifestyles for our progeny and for ourselves in societies of equity and prosperity. The colonists gained independence from the revolutionary war. In order for Blacks to gain FREEDOM out of this captivity, subjugation, and endless insane cruelty, we, like colonists, are forced to do whatever is necessary to end the murder of Black men, women, and children.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">What that cop did in Minnesota is unconscionable. Had a White kid been in the back seat, that officer never would have shot his gun at all. However, that was not the case. What the Hell was that cop thinking to unload all those bullets into that Black man with a little four-year-old child sitting just inches away? What are they teaching White cops in their training schools?</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">Police are dead because of their racist desire to murder Blacks and get away with it. The injustice against Blacks permeates every facet of life in this horrific system that spawns cyclical illiteracy, joblessness, and Ghetto life even on the WATCH of the Black President Barack Obama who has also stood by and watched the tragedies of Black lives fester after Blacks put him in office.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">His comment, “I am not the president of Black America”, in or out of context is painful to hear coming from a Black man. Believe me, Mr. President, after seven years of your administration, we now know that, and the fact that you want Hillary to continue your policies means that injustice against Blacks will indeed continue.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">Looking at the big picture and history, the truth of this matter in Dallas is that police are dead because of the inaction of President Obama and the presidents who preceded him. All of them who have had authority over the US Justice Department and power to alleviate racism have only made matters worse for the Black Plight. And let us not delude ourselves, this violence against cops who murder Blacks on the streets of the United States just because they want their names in the paper will continue. </span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">This is not to say that other White Slave nations treat Blacks any better, but this system is the worst in the world. And as long as it exists as such, Blacks just like Slaves will revolt and do what’s necessary to call attention to and end the oppression, infliction, and murder of our people. Everyday we know that a Black man will be incarcerated, beaten by a cop, and murdered by one, as well. Even when Blacks do everything right, according to what police require, they still get shot down. </span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">I am not racist and not under any circumstances can people say that I hate White people because I don’t. I grieve daily at the way the poor live, and I hate the pain and suffering Whites have laid on my people. I also hate that the people Blacks vote for have no desire to change this race hatred that kills and destroys us or that have no desire to improve the inferior school systems that spawn illiteracy and prevent prosperity for descendants of Slaves.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">My people have suffered enough, and I want a liberation for them like none other. The CREATOR GOD responsible for the Slave Trade that landed our forebears in this and other lands has promised to gather us out of this heinous captivity, but this is not preached in the White man’s church.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">WE HAVE A GOD AND WE DO NO NEED THE god OF OUR OPPRESSORS.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">“Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; But, The LORD liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.” Jeremiah 16:14,15</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the LORD: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the LORD; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.” Jeremiah 29:11 – 14</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">“When I have brought them again from the people, and gathered them out of their enemies' lands, and am sanctified in them in the sight of many nations; Then shall they know that I am the LORD their God, which cause them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land, and have left none of them any more there. Neither will I hide my face any more from them: for I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.” Ezekiel 39:27 – 29</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">The Slave Trade and this captivity entail Blacks taken from the shores of Africa. And the peoples who suffered hundreds of years of the worst HOLOCAUST known to man are the BLACK Children of Israel and other Black nations. This curse did not happen because Whites are so much more intelligent than Blacks, but rather because the Israelites turned their backs on the GOD of Israel and HIS Book of the Law – HIS Ways of Righteousness. Deuteronomy 28<sup>th</sup> Chapter explains the reasons for the Slave Trade and the Black dilemma perfectly.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">The White Man’s religion has Black people walking in darkness. And looking back on history, it is clear that only the super ignorant will adopt the religion of their oppressors. And in hindsight, of a Truth, this man, JC, imposed upon the Slaves has done nothing for Blacks, except enable Slavery, captivity, suppression, subjugation, and death at the hands of White rule.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">The GOD’s TRUTH must be told to give my people an opportunity to come out of this racism and gross DARKNESS and turn to the ONE True and Living GOD to let HIM give us the Exodus out of this Hell that we so desperately need. And there is a solution:</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">“And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul; That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee: And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.” Deuteronomy 30:1 - 5</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">“Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.” Jeremiah 32:37 - 42</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">“The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing. I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden. Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame. At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the LORD.” Zephaniah 3:17 - 20</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">“<b>And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered:</b> for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.” Joel 2:32</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">ONLY GOD’s TRUTH WILL SET US FREE AND OUT OF THIS HELL!</span></p><p><span class="font-size-4">My hope is that something good will come out of the events of this past week, something like an Exodus and Reparations for Blacks who want to resettle elsewhere and Reparations and tolerance for those Blacks who wish to stay in these United States.</span></p><p align="center"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thus-Saith-The-LORD-Book/dp/1494928035">http://www.amazon.com/Thus-Saith-The-LORD-Book/dp/1494928035</a></p></div>
Let's Take A Look at a Legend, Muammar Qaddafi
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/let-s-take-a-look-at-a-legend-muammar-qaddafi
2016-06-25T19:54:55.000Z
2016-06-25T19:54:55.000Z
Nana Baakan Agyiriwah
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/NanaBaakanAgyiriwah
<div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left;"><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-weight:bold;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828586010,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="320" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828586010,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" alt="3828586010?profile=original" /></a>NB COMMENTARY</span>: I am not sure why this thing about Qaddafi is coming up for me now. But when I opened my email I found an article about him and so I think I may have been called to it.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">Libya: Ten Things About Gaddafi They Don’t Want You To Know<br /> Posted by <a href="http://www.caribbeanfevercommunity.com/profile/ElBull">El-Bull</a> on April 24, 2016</blockquote></div><div style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue';font-size:10pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">So I used this article as a sign that I should go ahead and write the rant, I have been thinking about writing ever since the take down of Connel Qaddafi. I made a video playlist on YouTube and also a slideshow which was something else I wanted to do for some time now. I really liked the African Outfits he wore and the statement he was making by wearing them. He was eccentric, but being born on June 7, just like Prince Rogers Nelson and my very own son Mustafa Rashed, well, that seems to put it together, you have to be a bit eccentric to be a Gemini and particularly if you are born on June 7.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><a href="http://nanas-rants.blogspot.com/2016/06/lets-take-look-at-legend-muammar-qaddafi.html" target="_blank">SOURCE</a><br /> <br /><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/f1r3fKCDeWo?wmode=opaque"></iframe></div></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:16pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><div style="text-align:center;">Gaddafi The Truth About Libya- Documentary</div></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv4NZxGD1RSwjM5EOKVJr4Q">xBLACKxOPSxSECRETSx2</a></div></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div style="text-align:center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkTUDw0mjMA">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkTUDw0mjMA</a></div></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/videoseries?list=PLRwF36V2kd5y6keFCLlK1PnVsMCGlB1sO&wmode=opaque"></iframe></div></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#404040;font-weight:bold;"><br /></span><span style="color:#404040;font-weight:bold;"><span style="color:#000000;font-size:18.6667px;font-weight:normal;">Below is a short discussion between myself and a YouTuber who said they were from Libya. It is their response to this video that was posted on YouTube. This video is part of the playlist that I created to be added to this blog.</span></span><br /> <span style="color:#404040;font-weight:bold;"><br /></span> <span style="color:#404040;font-weight:bold;">YOUTUBER RESPONSE</span><span style="color:#404040;">:</span> I'm Libyan and thanks for uploading such an amazing documentary about Libya. I agree about all the material in this video except two things which are: 1) when Qaddafi said all his people loved him '' in fact many people didn't like him especially in the east part of Libya (Benghazi City) as Qaddafi didn't like and ignored Benghazi. moreover, some people didn't like his regime, as he made Libya centrally controlled by the Capital (Tripoli), while the capital didn't manage to provide the basic stuff for the other cities and villages, consequently if you want to be happy in Libya you have to live in the capital . 2) Qaddafi never spent Libyan's money to build and develop Libya's infrastructure.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">NB COMMENTARY:</span> I don't think this video is put up for the purpose of making folks believe that everybody loved Qaddafi, however, no country has the right to go into another country, infiltrate it with dissenters, arm them and then juice them up to kill t heir leaders. If that was done in any European country that would be the cause of world war III, and that's all we are saying. No country has all its people loving its leadership. </div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Leadership by its' very nature can be, has been and continues to be corrupt. But that doesn't give one country the right to overthrow another country and then put their puppets in power. History shows over and over again that this does not work. Perhaps that is the agenda to keep the area destabilized forever and ever and ever.</div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">But I can guarantee you, the European countries and the US would not stand for it, no way, would they let that happen. Imagine that at the end of Bush's presidency, folks really were not too happy with him at all.. Folks wanted to impeach him, but did you see foreign fighters coming into this country and fomenting a revolution? No, and you will never see that.</div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">They only do that to little small countries that can't fight back. And the beef with Qaddafi, been going on for decades. And they do that to keep their bank accounts full, and I think that is what this is about. Yet he tried to find some common ground with them, shaking hands and meeting with them to ease some of the tension, depositing funds and holding in western banks, which they seized.</div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">The people don't agree with this kind of tyranny, but our leaders do what they want. So yeah, no one is saying that everybody loved Gaddafi, but I tell you one thing,, as rich as these so call Western countries are, you ain't gonna find free electricity and the other stuff you all had there.</div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">And my last comment is, how are things now?????</div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Anybody who thinks that the Western powers care anything about the brown and black people of this world, are seriously delusional. They barely care about their own people. Anyone that would side with them against their own people are like folks wearing clothes drenched in gasoline and running into a fire. The West has shown over and over again, that it has hidden agenda. People need to stop being so mesmerized by the Western world and its lifestyle and hold on to their own cultures and traditions.<span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">YOUTUBER RESPONSE</span>: you are right, the western countries penetrate our world to make us more miserable and poorer. About the situation in Libya now,,,, it is extremely horrible but I don't lie to you to say we were living in paradise with Qaddafi he was making his won glory and greatness by Libyan's money and no one was able to ask, I used to live with only 100$ a month whereas the cost of live in Libya needs at least 600$. Believe me Qaddafi destroyed Libya from 1969 after he kicked the King Edris out and collapsed the Libyan Kingdom.</div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">NB RESPONSE:</span> <span style="color:#404040;">And that's the point too. He didn't become a bad guy until he wouldn't do what the west wanted him to do. I feel your pain, my dear. We have a lot of poverty in this so called Greatest Country in the World too, you would be surprised how much. When we had the Hurricane Katrina to hit New Orleans, Cubans came over here to help us. They were like we know how it is and we can help you. </span></div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">We think we are better off than the rest of the world but we are not able to survive without our creature comforts however minimal.</div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Priorities are all messed up and folks are oblivious to the whole game that is being played.</div><div style="color:#404040;font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><div style="font-size:14pt;">All in all, it saddened me to see what happened to Qaddafi and his family. That should not happen to anyone. Thanks for your response, much appreciated.</div><div style="font-size:14pt;"></div><div style="font-size:14pt;"></div><span style="color:#000000;font-family:cambria;font-size:small;font-weight:bold;" class="font-size-4">Libya: Ten Things About Gaddafi They Don’t Want You To Know</span><br style="color:#000000;font-family:cambria;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;" /><span style="color:#000000;font-family:cambria;font-size:small;font-weight:bold;">Posted by </span><a href="http://www.caribbeanfevercommunity.com/profile/ElBull" style="font-family:cambria;font-size:medium;font-weight:bold;">El-Bull</a><span style="color:#000000;font-family:cambria;font-size:small;font-weight:bold;"> on April 24, 2016</span><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">What do you think of when you hear the name Colonel Gaddafi? Tyrant? Dictator? Terrorist? Well, a national citizen of Libya may disagree but we want you to decide.</span></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">For 41 years until his demise in October 2011, Muammar Gaddafi did some truly amazing things for his country and repeatedly tried to unite and empower the whole of Africa.</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">So despite what you’ve heard on the radio, seen in the media or on the TV, Gaddafi did some powerful things that are not characteristic of a “vicious dictator” as portrayed by the western media.</div><div style="font-family:Calibri;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.302in;margin-top:0in;"><ol style="font-family:Calibri;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.302in;margin-top:0in;"><li style="color:#000000;font-size:14pt;list-style-type:disc;margin-bottom:0px;margin-top:0px;vertical-align:middle;"><span style="font-family:cambria;font-size:14pt;">Here are ten things Gaddafi did for Libya that you may not know about…</span></li></ol></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">1. In Libya a home is considered a natural human right<span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c9Z58uAZM1Y/V2y3GmgM_zI/AAAAAAACcvA/wjZL6MfqPGg_nx3RfhYPzuapbwxQHEVbwCLcB/s1600/1.jpg" style="clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c9Z58uAZM1Y/V2y3GmgM_zI/AAAAAAACcvA/wjZL6MfqPGg_nx3RfhYPzuapbwxQHEVbwCLcB/s320/1.jpg" width="320" alt="1.jpg" /></a></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">In Gaddafi’s Green Book it states: ”The house is a basic need of both the individual and the family, therefore it should not be owned by others”. Gaddafi’s Green Book is the formal leader’s political philosophy, it was first published in 1975 and was intended reading for all Libyans even being included in the national curriculum.</span></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">2. Education and medical treatment were all free</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Under Gaddafi, Libya could boast one of the best healthcare services in the Middle East and Africa. Also if a Libyan citizen could not access the desired educational course or correct medical treatment in Libya they were funded to go abroad.</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">3. Gaddafi carried out the world’s largest irrigation project</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-be90V16kMUE/V2y3vSyCzvI/AAAAAAACcvI/igU_1FEy5F8uEQR31gmhdVFae9DGTWBTACLcB/s1600/libya%2Bmap.gif" style="clear:right;float:right;font-family:Calibri;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;text-align:center;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-be90V16kMUE/V2y3vSyCzvI/AAAAAAACcvI/igU_1FEy5F8uEQR31gmhdVFae9DGTWBTACLcB/s320/libya%2Bmap.gif" width="308" alt="libya%2Bmap.gif" /></a>The largest irrigation system in the world also known as the great manmade river was designed to make water readily available to all Libyan’s across the entire country. It was funded by the Gaddafi government and it said that Gaddafi himself called it ”the eighth wonder of the world”..<span style="font-size:14pt;"> </span></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">4. It was free to start a farming business</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">If any Libyan wanted to start a farm they were given a house, farm land and live stock and seeds all free of charge.</div><div style="font-family:Calibri;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.302in;margin-top:0in;"><ol style="font-family:Calibri;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.302in;margin-top:0in;"><li style="color:#000000;font-size:14pt;list-style-type:disc;margin-bottom:0px;margin-top:0px;vertical-align:middle;"><span style="font-family:cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;">5. A bursary was given to mothers with newborn babies</span></li></ol></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">When a Libyan woman gave birth she was given 5000 (US dollars) for herself and the child.</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">6. Electricity was free</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Electricity was free in Libya meaning absolutely no electric bills!</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">7. Cheap petrol</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">During Gaddafi’s reign the price of petrol in Libya was as low as 0.14 (US dollars) per litre.</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">8. Gaddafi raised the level of education</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Before Gaddafi only 25% of Libyans were literate. This figure was brought up to 87% with 25% earning university degrees.</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">9. Libya had It’s own state bank</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Libya had its own State bank, which provided loans to citizens at zero percent interest by law and they had no external debt.</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">10. The gold dinar</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Before the fall of Tripoli and his untimely demise, Gaddafi was trying to introduce a single African currency linked to gold. Following in the foot steps of the late great pioneer Marcus Garvey who first coined the term ”United States of Africa”. Gaddafi wanted to introduce and only trade in the African gold Dinar – a move which would have thrown the world economy into chaos.</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">The Dinar was widely opposed by the ‘elite’ of today’s society and who could blame them. African nations would have finally had the power to bring itself out of debt and poverty and only trade in this precious commodity. They would have been able to finally say ‘no’ to external exploitation and charge whatever they felt suitable for precious resources. It has been said that the gold Dinar was the real reason for the NATO led rebellion, in a bid to oust the outspoken leader.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#000000;">Read more: </span><a href="http://www.caribbeanfevercommunity.com/profiles/blogs/libya-ten-things-about-gaddafi-they-don-t-want-you-to-know#ixzz4CKtfxyHj">http://www.caribbeanfevercommunity.com/profiles/blogs/libya-ten-things-about-gaddafi-they-don-t-want-you-to-know#ixzz4CKtfxyHj</a></div></div><div style="margin:0in;"><div style="color:#666666;font-family:cambria;font-size:14pt;"></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">FURTHER READING:</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Smoking Gun: Gaddafi Was To Receive U.N. Human Rights Award</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;color:#666666;font-family:cambria;text-align:center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V5mFunPmhWQ/V2y4U_n-VTI/AAAAAAACcvU/6y4vnu7RNosbGXZxc-lFWDygRkFPWr69ACLcB/s1600/muammar-gaddafi-3.jpg" style="clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;"><img border="0" height="184" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-V5mFunPmhWQ/V2y4U_n-VTI/AAAAAAACcvU/6y4vnu7RNosbGXZxc-lFWDygRkFPWr69ACLcB/s200/muammar-gaddafi-3.jpg" width="200" alt="muammar-gaddafi-3.jpg" /></a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#333333;">Before NATO and the U.S. started bombing Libya, the United Nations was preparing to bestow an award on Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and the Libyan Jamahiriya, for its achievements in the area of human rights. That’s right–the same man, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, that NATO and the United States have been telling us for months is a “brutal dictator,” was set to be given an award for his human rights record in Libya. How strange it is that the United Nations was set to bestow a human rights award on a “brutal dictator,” at the end of March.</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="https://libyanfreepress.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/smoking-gun-gaddafi-was-to-receive-u-n-human-rights-award/">https://libyanfreepress.wordpress.com/2011/11/14/smoking-gun-gaddafi-was-to-receive-u-n-human-rights-award/</a></div><div style="color:#362f2d;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;">Gaddafi’s mother was born Jewish, his protocol chief says At 18 she married a Muslim man and converted, according to reports. <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/gadhafis-mother-was-jewish-his-protocol-chief-says/">http://www.timesofisrael.com/gadhafis-mother-was-jewish-his-protocol-chief-says/</a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12688033">http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12688033</a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#362f2d;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Libya: Ten Things About Gaddafi They Don’t Want You to Know</div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/libya-ten-things-about-gaddafi-they-dont-want-you-to-know/5414289">http://www.globalresearch.ca/libya-ten-things-about-gaddafi-they-dont-want-you-to-know/5414289</a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Top 10 Interesting Facts About Muammar Gaddafi</div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://listdose.com/top-10-interesting-facts-about-muammar-gaddafi/">http://listdose.com/top-10-interesting-facts-about-muammar-gaddafi/</a> </div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#121312;">*</span><a href="http://alexandravaliente.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/f-william-engdahl-nato-not-gaddafi-should-be-prosecuted-for-crimes-against-humanity-at-the-icc/">F. WILLIAM ENGDAHL: NATO, NOT GADDAFI SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY AT THE ICC </a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2011/07/libya-news-backup-libyasos-01-july-30.html">http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2011/07/libya-news-backup-libyasos-01-july-30.html</a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://libyasos.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Libya S.O.S. - war diary 2011/12</span></a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2011/07/libya-news-backup-libyasos-01-july-30.html">http://libyasos.blogspot.com/2011/07/libya-news-backup-libyasos-01-july-30.html</a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#333333;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><b>African Union names Gaddafi as head</b></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2009/02/200922113838580502.html">http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2009/02/200922113838580502.html</a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">We and Our `Leaders` I Am Referring to Africa - African Leaders </div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://www.biyokulule.com/view_content.php?articleid=3849">http://www.biyokulule.com/view_content.php?articleid=3849</a></div><div style="color:#FF0000;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Will Gaddafi be missed in Africa?</div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is dead, a controversial leader who believed in revolution and to united Africa to a single government. Moreover, He funded and armed Black South African to fight against apartheid in South Africa. In 2008 Gaddafi was declared the King of Kings by the African traditional leaders, and one of those traditional leader after eard that Gaddafi was dead that what Philip Winyi said" Col Gaddafi was a <span style="color:#0000FF;">"visionary" and would be missed</span>. We saw the human side of him and not Gaddafi the colonel or the proverbial terrorist as the Americans and Europeans described him." "In spite of what many see as his weaknesses, he has done quite a lot for Africa, contributing to the building of infrastructure."<a href="http://mycontinent.co/Gaddafi.php">http://mycontinent.co/Gaddafi.php</a></blockquote></blockquote><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#464646;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Gaddafi: Africa's 'king of kings'</div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color:#464646;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">A meeting of more than 200 African kings and traditional rulers has bestowed the title "king of kings" on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.The rulers, wearing gold crowns, sequined capes and colourful robes met in the Libyan town of Benghazi in what was billed as a first of its kind.Col Gaddafi urged the royals to join his campaign for African unity.Africa's political leaders are lukewarm about his vision of merging their powers to create a single government."We want an African military to defend Africa, we want a single African currency, we want one African passport to travel within Africa," Col Gaddafi told the assembled dignitaries, who come from countries such as Mozambique, South Africa, Ivory Coast and the Democratic Republic of Congo.The BBC's Rana Jawad in the Mediterranean town of Benghazi says Libya's leader wants them to create a grass-roots movement to press Africa's political leaders to sign up to his vision. Sheikh Abdilmajid from Tanzania told the BBC that the traditional rulers could play an important role."The people believe in the chiefs and kings more than they believe in their governments," he said. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7588033.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7588033.stm</a></blockquote></blockquote><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><b>Gaddafi's female bodyguards</b> (Uggg read this article with a grain of salt, look at what they ain't saying.) <a href="http://www.ndtv.com/photos/news/gaddafis-female-bodyguards-11603#photo-149562">http://www.ndtv.com/photos/news/gaddafis-female-bodyguards-11603#photo-149562</a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Gaddafi's Greatest Outfits</div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://blackheadband.blogspot.com/2011/09/gaddafis-greatest-outfits.html">http://blackheadband.blogspot.com/2011/09/gaddafis-greatest-outfits.html</a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#303030;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Gaddafi’s Awesome Fashion Decisions Throughout The Ages</div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Pasted from <<a href="http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/66113/gaddafis-awesome-fashion-decisions-throughout-the-ages/">http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/66113/gaddafis-awesome-fashion-decisions-throughout-the-ages/</a>></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#3399ff;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">We and Our `Leaders` I Am Referring to Africa - African Leaders</div><div style="color:#000000;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;">by Alhaji Abdul-Rahman Harruna Attah August 31, 2011</div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://www.biyokulule.com/view_content.php?articleid=3849">http://www.biyokulule.com/view_content.php?articleid=3849</a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="color:#333333;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">Just two years ago, a coterie of longtime Arab leaders posed for what seemed a routine photograph.</blockquote><blockquote>But today, the snapshot from the 2010 Arab-African summit is a relic from a different time. The former leaders of Tunisia, Yemen, Libya and Egypt, all deposed and one of them dead, appear untouchable as they smile for the camera.<br /> The photo showcases just how much the Middle East has changed since the Arab Spring revolutions began sweeping through the Middle East last year and ousting its embattled leaders.<br /> In the photo, Libya's Moammar Gadhafi wears black sunglasses and distinctive robes, with his arms draped around Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, both of them grinning.<br /> To one side is Tunisia's Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, standing with his hands clasped, smiling and relaxed.<br /> Today, Saleh is out of power, Ben Ali is in exile, Mubarak is on trial and Gadhafi is dead, killed by rebel fighters. Their countries are enduring often-painful transitions. <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/arab-leaders-2010-photo-highlights-power-shakeup-1.1156487">http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/arab-leaders-2010-photo-highlights-power-shakeup-1.1156487</a></blockquote></blockquote><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#1a1a1a;font-weight:bold;">Obama: Aftermath of Gaddafi overthrow, 'worst mistake as president'</span></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://www.africanews.com/2016/04/11/obama-aftermath-of-gaddafi-overthrow-worst-mistake-as-president/">http://www.africanews.com/2016/04/11/obama-aftermath-of-gaddafi-overthrow-worst-mistake-as-president/</a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#666666;margin:0in;"><span style="font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', serif;"><span style="color:#333333;"><b>Gaddafi: the man who would be king of Africa</b> by</span> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/profile/adekeye-adebajo">Adekeye Adebajo</a></span></div><div style="color:#666666;margin:0in;"><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/26/gaddafi-legacy-meddling-africa"><span style="font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', serif;">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/aug/26/gaddafi-legacy-meddling-africa</span></a></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div></div></div></div>
Globalization, The Obama Phenomenon And Africa Refugee Crisis
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/globalization-the-obama-phenomenon-and-africa-refugee-crisis
2016-06-25T00:52:47.000Z
2016-06-25T00:52:47.000Z
TheBlackList-Publisher
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListPublisher
<div><div id="article-content"><p><strong><em><a href="http://ezinearticles.com/members/mem_pics/Esene-Matthias_871810.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://ezinearticles.com/members/mem_pics/Esene-Matthias_871810.jpg?width=350" width="350" class="align-right" alt="Esene-Matthias_871810.jpg?width=350" /></a><span style="color:#993300;">By <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/expert/Esene_Matthias/941055" title="EzineArticles Expert Author Esene Matthias"><span style="color:#993300;">Esene Matthias</span></a></span></em><span style="color:#993300;"><span class="author-divider"> |</span><em><span class="author-divider"> </span></em></span></strong>Globalization has both positive and negative sides (see J. Bayo Adekanye; 2003). But whether globalization has become a moral indicator in a social framework does not change the fact that it is an inevitable reality precipitated by the wave and tides of human civilization, anchored on science and technology. What is today christened "The Obama Phenomenon" is an effect of the Obama campaign strategy; an influence of his inspirational eloquence, a creed of change and the real "Audacity of Hope". But how much hope do the Africa people have in this face of global realities...a continent whose people are forced out of their homes; many internally displaced, and others cross international borders becoming refugees and fugitives. A people under attack by their own government and living in an environment battered by the effect of armed conflicts and still exploited by the enigma of pseudo capitalism. Many scholars believe that some Africa states operate a capitalist economic system. But they fail to realize that capitalism entails a huge capital investment and massive industrial activities. What is observed in Africa is that the few investments christened "Private sector" are actually institutions funded with public finance but administered privately by the political elite. This system of economy is not capitalistic but pseudo- capitalism because of its exploitative tendency.</p>
<p>This essay starts with an analysis of globalization viewing it in two respects; as a process and as a global culture. it puts President Barrack Obama on the spotlight as he emerged on the America political stage and focused on its implication for Africa. It then examines the nature of sovereignty and the question of governance as two necessary dimensions of globalization in relation to the Africa refugee crisis. The definition of refugee as it concerns the UNHCR is " a person under the 1951 United Nation (UN) convention relating to the status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol, the 1969 Organization of Africa Unity (OAU) Governing the specific Aspects of Refugee Problems in Africa, persons recognized as refugees in accordance with the UNHCR Statute, persons granted humanitarian or comparable status and those granted temporary protection. Though the status of an Internally Displaced Person (IDP) is not contained in this UN classification of a refugee, for the purpose this essay, the definition shall extend to such persons so identified. The significance of this assumption is predicated on the fact that the instances of refugee have become a passing face in Africa. But the reality of "natural disaster" will still remain, giving rise to a new dimension in situation of "Complex Emergencies." And complex emergencies, whether induced by natural disaster or violent conflict, require the same instrumentality for management.</p>
<p><strong>CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS</strong></p>
<p>First, there is a conceptual analysis of Globalization. Some of the issues discussed here bother on the meaning, context of usage, and dynamic nature of globalization. Globalization is relatively a new concept. It is factual to admit that the concept entered our everyday vocabulary since the post cold war era. But this does not deny the fact that its phenomenon assumed a systemic process long before the First World War. Globalization from earlier conception is the visible expansion of economic means and mode of production across international political bothers. The choice of this definition is implicative. Globalization has a multidimensional functionality. In fact, it extends beyond just economic/political aspect of social reality, but includes the socio-ethical, ideological, technological and even religious aspect of social dynamics. In recent times, the concept has been expanded to include "such indicators as the spread of liberal democracy, including the new norms about International Humanitarian Law; increasing trend towards the integration of most national economies into one global economy; transformation of systems of production as well as labour relations; dominance of market forces." (See J. Bayo Adekanye). This definition is implicative to the extent that globalization in the final analysis is essentially an economic effect driving by political dominance. In fact, politics and economic factors are not mutually exclusive. A state's political dominance among other things includes economical interest. In reality, especially at the wake of modernization, a state can only expand its economic interest across international political bothers if it is able to exact its political dominance. This is evident in the balance-of- power politics between the west, led by the United States and the Soviet Union, which characterized the cold war era.</p>
<p><strong>THE TREND OF GLOBALIZATION</strong></p>
<p>Globalization, even though it appears in our recent vocabulary, did not just occur as an event. Rather, it evolves as a process. Its evolution can be arguably traced to the history of the origin of the modern states. In fact, Immanuel Wallenstein argued that modern trend in globalization developed between the 15th and 16th century. For Wallenstein, "this was the first time that an economic system encompassed much of the world with links that superseded national or other political bothers." The modern world economic system transcends the old empire system because it took a multipolar dimension. The old empire had a system of political unit "which through commercial monopolies combined with the use of coercion, directed the flow of economic goods from the peripherals to the centre". But the modern world economic system has developed a pattern of economic relations fostered by technological advancement and specialization. And this is arguably a capitalist world economic order. In fact, Wallenstein put it thus; " only the technique of modern capitalism enabled the modern world economy, unlike earlier attempts, to extend beyond the political boundaries of any one empire." This capitalist technique is the advancement of science and technology. The 21st century has witnessed an explosion and high rate of change in communication technologies; great speed and spread of technological changes and advances; great expansion of technical expertise and skills and media explosion. It can even be contended that the charismatic hallmark of the Obama electioneering campaign became quite a global phenomenon based on the technology of media explosion.</p>
<p>Practically, the level of technological advances precipitates upon the dimensions and dynamics of globalization. It is thus rational to assume that globalization has shrunken the vacuum and increases institutional and international relation. But this does not necessarily translate into economic prosperity for all people in the global village. It appeals to common sense to admit that globalization does not bring about and political and economic or even military equality. The Africa experiences are clear demonstrations of such global contradiction. Yet this contradiction experienced in the world order cannot be directly observed in the theoretical framework of globalization. In fact globalization is not intrinsically a moral indicator. It can at best be described as "amoral" within the context of balance of economic and political power among state actors. Many scholars argue that the relationship among state within the global order is such that, " the core region of north western Europe clearly benefit the most at the expense of the peripherals from this arrangement". But this argument fails to answer why the arrangement has become an imperative. Over the last two decades, many countries especially in Asia and South America are joining the global league of core region states. Malaysia and Cuba are clear examples of such states.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, most Africa states with equal economic comparative advantage have instead dwindled down the track of national development. In mid 1985, famine had swept across Africa from the Atlantic to the Horn and south to Mozambique. (See Bob Geldof, 1999). In 2004, Africa recoded 9.2 million refugees and 25 million Internally Displaces Persons (IDPs). This figure represents more than 28% of world refugees and IDP.s (UNCHR report, 2008). As mentioned earlier, globalization does not inherently contain the politics of balance of power and economic advantage. Globalization can only afford to create a platform where nations can determine the side to which the pendulum of economic advantage must swing. In fact, those states that are moving from the periphery to the core are driven by strong political will and good governance. Where as, the continent of Africa, especially from the early 80's to the late 90's was plaque by an overwhelming refugee crisis. And this was based on internal arm conflict caused by unbridles corruption and pervasive political interest by the political class.</p>
<p><strong>THE OBAMA PHENOMENON AND GLOBAL POLITICS</strong></p>
<p>Nobody may be able to speculate correctly how long Barrack Obama had conceived and prepared himself for the presidency of the United States. But anyone that has read "Dreams from my Father" and "The Audacity of Hope" would realize that president Barrack Obama had prepared himself well for the mantle of leadership with very clear ideas on a variety of policy areas, and with the company of clear-headed intellectual and policy wonks that he kept. Pulling off back to back legislative victories do not just come out of the blue in America politics. But most Africa leaders are leaders by accident (Dr. Ifeanyi Onyeonoru). The Obama Phenomenon is an effect of media potency impressed on the global consciousness; a mode of campaign weaved on inspiring charismatic eloquence. Some social commentators see the emergence of Barrack Obama on main stream America politics as the fulfillment of Martin Luther King (Jnr)'s prophecy thus: I have a dream that a time will come when people will no longer be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character". Whether there is a direct link (which off course is not observable) between the so called "prophetic dream" of Martin Luther and the emergence of Obama, or it is pure accident, has no academic relevance here. The issue worthy of note is the socio-political and intellectual antecedence of Barrack Obama. What is the justification for the Obama Phenomenon? If the world today is moving towards a unipolar world system, the United State is contentiously the pivotal of such a global world order. It follows therefore that the president of the United State has a very strong political influence on the world political stage. Today, as the world is becoming more and more complex and the barrier of space and time shrunken by technology, it becomes imperative to put in the foreground the character of political actors within the global framework, As such, a proper analysis can influence the possibility of " confidence that now and in the future people can join together to build a cooperate and peaceful global society" ( Moravsik, 1997).</p>
<p>During his visit to Ghana in July, 2009, Barrack Obama while addressing the Ghana's parliament remarked thus "I am speaking to you at the end of a long trip. I began in Russian for a summit between two great powers...And i have come here, to Ghana, for a simple reason: the 21st century will be shaped by what happens not just in Rome...but what happens in Accra as well". First, president Barrack Obama is quite conscious of his level of political influence as the president of the United State in balancing power on the world stage. Hence, he admitted that his visit to Russia was a meeting between two great powers (Today, 08-04-2010-President Barrack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medevez signed the ground breaking treaty on the reduction of Nuclear Weapon proliferation for a generation). And to emphasize the reality of globalization i.e. the growing network of socio-political and economic nerves criss-crossing and interconnecting all the continent of the world, Barrack Obama acknowledged that decisions bothering on global issues would not just emanate from Europe and America but also from Africa. He sated thus " this is the simple truth of a time when the boundaries between people are overwhelmed by our connections... your prosperity can expand America".</p>
<p>Obama continually stated that, Africa is a partner in the scheme of global progress. As such, Africa deserves a space on the world stage. But one wonders who arrogates powers to states among the League of Nations? The answer is clear. Obama admits that:</p>
<p>"I have the blood of Africa within me, and my family's own story encompasses both tragedy and triumph of the larger Africa society....Disease and conflict have ravaged parts of Africa continent...the hope of my father's generation gave way to cynicism, even despair. And the west has often approached Africa as a Patron, rather than partner. But the west is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy over the last decade, or wars in which children are enlisted as combatant. In my father's life, it was partly tribalism and patronage in an independent Kenya that for a long stretch derailed his career, and we know that this kind of corruption is a daily fact of life for far too many"</p>
<p>The above extract is a summation of the dimensions of President Obama's political influence in international politics and the failure of governance in Africa within the global context. Even though Obama is truly Africa by his admittance, there are reservations if he could ever have made any significant impact within his local community let alone on the world stage assuming he was on the African soil. But Obama is what is referred to, in some quarters as "the America dream". Whatever that phrases denotes, it is clear that the American society contributed largely to his personal and political achievements. Obama triumph either because of his skin colour or not (with whites) but shares the "same America background". Obama represents a superb talent of gifted graduate from top rate America University and he represents the racial merging rather than a symbol for assimilation.</p>
<p><strong>GLOBALISATION AND SOVEREIGNTY</strong></p>
<p>Sovereignty today has shifted away from the traditional prerogative governments of states assume not to consider any other legitimate authority over and above it political territory. This is because the international community today is becoming more and more intolerable of gross human right violation and other acts of impunity. As such, sovereignty is valued at the ability for a state to maintain internal peace and security. Many states in Africa hide under the guise of sovereignty to perpetuate gross human right violation. In other to justify its failure to contain the refugee crisis caused by internal violence, the Sudanese government had labeled its refugees and IDP's as terrorists. President Barrack Obama admitted that the west had approached Africa as patrons instead of partners. But he denied that the west is responsible for the numerous conflicts in Africa. Much earlier literature on refugee crisis in Africa "focuses on the fact that yesterday's colonial and the boundaries that they imposed are to be held directly responsible for today's refugee crisis. (Kibreab 1985, p. 32). For Walter Rodney, slave trade and colonialism in Africa is the primary cause of underdevelopment in the region. But for J. S. Mbiti and/ or especially Peter Ekeh, the colonial experience in Africa was an epoch; an event in the history of Africa. As such, Africa should have been able to live beyond this event if it had the political will for real development. There is no doubt that the slave trade and colonial experience contributed to the underdevelopment of Africa. Indeed, Barrack Obama admitted it. In fact, Obama, in the final analysis is a product of the Africa colonial experience. But colonialism does not exclusively explain the post independent Africa refugee crisis.</p>
<p><strong>GOVERNANCE AND REFUGEE CRISIS IN AFRICA</strong></p>
<p>Africa accounted for the highest number of world refugees and IDPs caused by the effect of internal war in the 1980s-1990s. The post cold war era brought the number of international conflict around the globe on the down side. Meanwhile, internal conflict in Africa had increased. There had been crisis in Africa's Great Lakes region taking an international prominence in 1996. Conflict escalated in Burundi and eastern Zaire and the return of hundreds of thousands of refugees to Rwanda. The conflict in the Sudan remained intractable. Though election process had been initiated by the Ahmed Bashir led government in Sudan, which to a large extent, resembles an orchestration for self- secession, one wonder if this will bring lasting peace to the Darfur region. The issue of governance had been a major draw back for Africa development and management of complex emergencies. The visit of Barrack Obama to Ghana last year is very instructive. Globalization encourages the enthronement of good governance and liberal democracies. And Obama's choice of Ghana is most likely related to the relative stability in the emerging democracy in Ghana. He had emphasized that " Africa do not need strong leaders, but strong institutions". Sovereignty is no longer a legal absolute. Instead, it is been chipped away by growing number of laws, creating treaties that limit actions of pervasive impunity of states within the global context</p>
<p><strong>CONCLUSION</strong></p>
<p>For countries to industrialize successfully, they need to meet certain prerequisites such as a highly productive agricultural sector, functioning markets, and a stable government (See Walt Whitman Rostow ). Globalization is the hallmark of a capitalist world system. (See Marx and Engel). And colonialism intrinsically came with the exploitative tendencies of the capitalist economic system. There is no doubt that during the colonial period, Africa was a peripheral region providing materials for the development of the core western Europe. But Europe has experienced a steady developmental progress long after colonialism. Rather, Africa states that claimed to have a good economic advantage are faced with such contradictions of overwhelming hunger in the midst of plenty. Some Africa states like Ethiopia and Liberia that did not experience direct colonialism have had nothing to show for their self rule. Most Africa political elite argue that the United States have enjoyed over 200 years of self rule. But one wonder how long it took Malaysia (which cannot be said to have a liberal democracy) to develop it infrastructure to world class standard. Africa developmental and Refugee crisis are purely due to poor governance. Most Africa states have been grappling with good electoral process. Instead, Africa politicians are engage in a perverse political struggle. Even if election is argued to be a form of selection, it is valued by the sanctity of the ballot. (Bayo Okunade). And until Africa political elites begin to respect the sanctity of the ballot or there is a systemic revolutionary effort by the civil societies, Africa may remain a continent on the brisk of collapse.</p>
<p><strong>BIBLIOGRAPHY</strong></p>
<p><em>J., Bayo Adekanye. "Terrorism and Globalization: How should the international Community Respond? </em><br /><em>An African Perspective." In Africa Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies. Vol.1, No. 1CEPACS </em><br />publication, <em>Ibada, 2003</em></p>
<p><em>President Barrack Obama address to the Ghana's parliament on his visit to Ghana in June 2009</em></p>
<p><em>Richardson, Jeremy T., Ralph G. Carter, and Mark A. Boyer. Making American </em><br /><em>Foreign policy, 2nd ed.</em> Guilfiford<em>: New York, 1997.</em></p>
<p><em>Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.</em> B'o Vencture <em>Publication: </em><br /><em>London, 1986.</em></p>
<p><em>Rourke, John T. International Politics on the World Stage, 8th Ed.,</em> McGraw Hill<em>: </em><br /><em>New York, 2001</em></p>
<p><em>Ryan, Steven. T he united nations and international politics, St. Martins:New </em><br /><em>York, 2000.</em></p>
<p><em>Schweller, Randall Deadly. Imbalances: Tripolarity and Hitler's Strategy of </em><br /><em>World conquest, Columbia university press: 1998 </em><br /><em>UNHCR Publication, 2008.</em></p>
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<p><span style="color:#993300;"><strong>Article Source: <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/expert/Esene_Matthias/941055"><span style="color:#993300;">http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Esene_Matthias/941055</span></a></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#993300;"><strong>~<br />Article Source: <a href="http://EzineArticles.com/5917705">http://EzineArticles.com/5917705</a></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#993300;"><strong><em>By <a href="http://ezinearticles.com/expert/Esene_Matthias/941055" title="EzineArticles Expert Author Esene Matthias"><span style="color:#993300;">Esene Matthias</span></a><span class="author-divider"> | </span> <span class="submitted-date">Submitted On February 14, 2011</span></em></strong></span></p>
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New National Report Shows Mobile Devices Can Be Path to Success for Disadvantaged Young Black and Latino Males
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/new-national-report-shows-mobile-devices-can-be-path-to-success
2016-05-26T15:33:04.000Z
2016-05-26T15:33:04.000Z
Bronx Scoop
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/BronxScoop
<div><p></p><div class="section-divider"><div class="row"><div class="col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1"><p><span><a href="http://heardnotjudged.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen-Shot-2016-04-15-at-3.26.58-PM-850x300.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://heardnotjudged.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Screen-Shot-2016-04-15-at-3.26.58-PM-850x300.png" class="align-full" alt="Screen-Shot-2016-04-15-at-3.26.58-PM-850x300.png" /></a><span style="color:#993300;"><strong><em>"Heard, Not Judged" is a national report about young men of color and their need for information and services to better their lives. It's part of President Obama's My Brother's Keeper Initiative.</em></strong></span></span></p><p>A newly released report today reveals that improving life outcomes for boys and men of color will rely heavily on their access to trusted resources, both in face-to-face interactions and on-line. In "<i>Heard, Not Judged – Insights into the Talents, Realities and Needs of <span class="xn-person"><span>Young Men</span></span> of Color,</i>" researchers concluded that the creative use of mobile digital devices can be a highly effective tool to help boys and men of color (BMOC) overcome adversity and achieve their goals. The nine city report, which is part of President Obama's My Brother's Keeper Initiative, looks at the day-to-day lives of young men of color 18 to 24 and their need to connect to social services, jobs, healthcare, education, and more. The report is co-funded by the California Endowment and the Campaign for Black Male Achievement and the study was conducted by MEE Productions, a social marketing firm.</p><p>"This research tells us that if we – our communities, organizations, governments, advocates..., and even our current candidates for President of <span class="xn-location">the United States</span> – are serious about addressing the plight of young men of color in this country, then we have to not only really listen to them and judge them as individuals, but we have to also meet them where they are socio-economically and technologically, and understand that accessing critical programs and services via their smart phone could very well become a lifeline for many of them," said <span class="xn-person">Ivan Juzang</span>, President of MEE Productions and lead researcher.</p><p>Over a six-month period, the researchers delved into the everyday life, concerns and obstacles facing these young men. They explored whether a brand-driven, private sector approach using the technology young men already embrace could work better than traditional, public sector approaches in erasing disparities that have put them at a competitive disadvantage. The <i>Heard, Not Judged </i>report is based on focus groups and surveys with young Black and Latino males, ages 18 to 24, across nine cities: <span class="xn-location">Philadelphia</span>, <span class="xn-location">Oakland</span>, <span class="xn-location">Los Angeles</span>, <span class="xn-location">Long Beach, New York</span> City (<span class="xn-location">Bronx</span>), <span class="xn-location">Baltimore</span>, <span class="xn-location">Atlanta</span>, <span class="xn-location">New Orleans</span> and Detroit. The young men opened up about their lives — the myriad of challenges they face; who/what matters to them (and who/what doesn't); their use of technology; and their need for access to jobs, education, mentoring and healthcare. All participants were in the lowest 20% in income.</p><p><b>Key Findings:</b></p><p>There are two critical, missing ingredients that preclude young men of color from accessing critical services and resources. One is trust; the other is effective branding of the crucial community services, programs and resources they need.</p><p>These young men need both trusted, real-time online resources and face-to-face interactions to help them make informed decisions, build coping skills, and develop their innate talents;</p><p>The young men (and community) would benefit significantly from a digital platform made available to them for "one-stop shopping" in accessing jobs, education, healthcare, and social services. This would fill a huge access void in their lives and give them a way to lift themselves up with information, tools and resources;</p><p>Helping young men identify and act on opportunities to use their skills and talents can take them from merely surviving to thriving. They don't know where to begin to access social services (nor do their family members) and most don't take advantage of services available to them because they are unaware. </p><p>They yearn for mentors and guidance. </p><p><b>More Findings: Encouraging and Troubling:</b></p><p>Researchers found the young men's responses to interview questions both encouraging and troubling. <i>Heard, Not Judged</i>uncovers their deep love and reverence for family and valuing education as a way to better their condition. Most deal with very high levels of stress on a daily basis. Most don't know where to begin to access the information and services they need. Responses also uncovered a very narrow concept of optimal health (focused mainly on physical wellness). They are extremely concerned about crime and drugs in their community as well as the rigors of daily survival in their tough environments and whether the competition to achieve the American Dream is "rigged" against them. They recognized all of these circumstances as potential barriers to success.</p><p>"They wanted us to know they have inherent skills and talents but they need help in identifying and acting on opportunities to use them in a way that can take them from merely surviving to thriving," said Juzang.</p><p>Said one young man in the report whose thoughts mirror those of his cohorts: "I worry a lot. Waking up in the morning I worry about what's going to happen today? Who am I going to lose today, or am I going to get locked up? I worry about my family. I worry about saying the wrong things…different things like that, like just getting dressed and walking out the house before the day starts." </p><p><b>To read more findings from the report, as well as recommendations, visit </b><a class="linkOnClick" target="_blank"><b>www</b><b>.</b><b>HeardNotJudged</b><b>.com</b></a></p><p>Media contact:<br /><span class="xn-person">Pamela Weddington</span>, 215-796-9141 (<span class="xn-location">Philadelphia</span>)<br />VP of Communications, MEE Productions<br />(215) 796-9141 or <a class="linkOnClick" target="_blank">pweddington@meeproductions.com</a></p><p>This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. For more info visit:<a class="linkOnClick" target="_blank">http://www.newswire.com</a></p><p>SOURCE <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news/mee+productions+inc">MEE Productions Inc</a></p><h4>Related Links<br /><a title="Link to http://heardnotjudged.com" class="linkOnClick">http://heardnotjudged.com</a></h4></div></div></div><div class="section-divider"><div class="row"><div class="col-sm-9"><div class="social-links"><a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-national-report-shows-mobile-devices-can-be-path-to-success-for-disadvantaged-young-black-and-latino-males-300274374.html" target="_blank">PHILADELPHIA, May 24, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --</a></div></div></div></div><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p></div>
Obama: A Captive President
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/obama-a-captive-president
2016-03-23T14:00:00.000Z
2016-03-23T14:00:00.000Z
SendMeYourNews
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/SendMeYourNews
<div><p><span><a href="http://www.africanexecutive.com/images/uploaded_images/009/Obama_vs_gop.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.africanexecutive.com/images/uploaded_images/009/Obama_vs_gop.jpg" class="align-full" alt="Obama_vs_gop.jpg" /></a><em><strong><a href="http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=8891&magazine=598" target="_blank">The African Executive</a></strong></em> | America is one of the most difficult countries to rule because it is polarized on many fronts: economically, politically, racially, culturally. Any president would find it difficult to govern. It is difficult to govern and accomplish much when a segment of the democratic coalition (the Republican Party) deliberately sets out to obstruct you from accomplishing your goals.They have never or rarely done this to any other President in living memory. Because of the intense obstruction, they go on to still accuse you of not doing enough to govern the country and to deliver, knowing that you did not win the presidency to fulfill their conservative agenda or pander to their whims.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p align="justify">One of the reasons why Obama has been overwhelmingly obstructed is because of his race. There is hatred, punitiveness, jealousy and ideological irreconcilability that fuels the Republican wheels against Obama.</p>
<p align="justify">There is also a coterie of black intellectuals represented by Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, Ajamu Nangwaya, those in the Black Agenda publication and others who also perceive that Obama has done nothing or very little for his people. These intellectuals, like white critics, forget that Obama is the president of all of America and cannot do everything for everybody. He was not elected to fulfill their self-perceived narrow agenda. Every president can do a little bit more on many areas but there are just so many competing interests to be accomplished.</p>
<p align="justify">Obama's predisposition has also been an alienating factor. He is given to too much compromise with the enemy which doesn't reciprocate or compromise. Obama has been sold down by his desire to compromise. He could have done much more for African Americans, the Middle Class, the Social Justice constituency and foreign allies if he stood up much more defiantly to the Republican bullies than he did, especially in the first term when he still had a lot more political capital and had control of both houses of congress. Obama calculated that he could get more accomplished by compromising than bulldozing. History will judge this calculus.</p>
<p align="justify">Obama was obstructed on releasing the Guantanamo prisoners, the health care agenda, the foreign policy trajectory, massive criminal justice reform, immigration reform and so many other areas.</p>
<p align="justify">The critics from the left and especially from Black intellectuals, must really ponder whether their vehement criticism can still hold water in the light of Republican opposition to Obama's nomination of a Supreme Court justice to replace the deceased Antonin Scalia. The Republicans didn't care about who he was going to nominate or his qualifications. It could even have been Jesus Christ as a nominee, they didn't want Obama to nominate anyone. These are the same hypocrites who were accusing Obama of violating constitutional norms, an unfounded baloney, but when he is following the constitution, they say he cannot do it because the people have to speak first. But people have spoken twice endorsing him as President of the United States of America.</p>
<p align="justify">The answer to the critics on the left and to Black intellectuals about why Obama allegedly did not do enough for Blacks or the Social Justice Constituency is found in the insane opposition by the Republicans to Obama's chance to nominate a Supreme Court replacement. That is how precarious Obama's presidency has been held by the Republicans. He has been held hostage, for simply having won that presidency as a Black man, just like Haiti was made to pay a hefty price by France for daring to liberate itself from Slave and colonial bondage in 1804.</p>
<p align="justify">The Republican obstruction is not the only explanation here, Obama has always been given to compromise. That is how he became the first Black President of the Harvard Law Review and the President of the Untied States of America.</p>
<p align="justify">Here is the irony, despite the gargantuan opposition and obstruction to the Obama presidency by the Republican coalition, Obama has accomplished more of his agenda and induced more positive pro-America vibes in the rest of the world than just any American President in centuries. Now imagine if he didn't face that deliberate, racist and vengeful vindictiveness by the Republican Party and its counterparts in the Democratic Party and others! He would have been a shining light into eternity.</p>
<p align="justify">Obama will always have a reserved space in the annals of history. The arch of history, it has been stated, always bends towards justice. Obama has been on the side of justice, and so has justice.</p>
<p align="justify"><strong>By Dr. Munyonzwe Hamalengwa</strong></p>
<p align="justify"><span style="color:#ff0000;"><em>The author practiced law in Canada for 25 years. He is the author of The Politics of Judicial Diversity and Transformation, as well as The International Law of Human Rights in Africa and more recently, The Case Against Tribalism in Zambia.</em></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>SOURCE: <a href="http://www.africanexecutive.com/modules/magazine/articles.php?article=8891&magazine=598" target="_blank">The African Executive</a></strong></span></p>
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Why Have There Been More Mass Shootings Under Obama than the Four Previous Presidents Combined?
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/why-have-there-been-more-mass-shootings-under-obama-than-the-four
2016-01-03T06:20:18.000Z
2016-01-03T06:20:18.000Z
Nana Baakan Agyiriwah
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/NanaBaakanAgyiriwah
<div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left;"><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><b style="font-size:14pt;">NB Commentary,</b></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Great article, great research and looming question. Why have there been more mass shootings under Obama than the other four previous presidents combined?</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8wbZGjMckHw/U1DGC-hE4aI/AAAAAAABo1k/XVC0urawS5E/s1600/banner%2Bcopy.jpg" style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="38" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8wbZGjMckHw/U1DGC-hE4aI/AAAAAAABo1k/XVC0urawS5E/s320/banner%2Bcopy.jpg" width="320" alt="banner%2Bcopy.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1ZxG3L2Afyc/VmPD26ZwvmI/AAAAAAACUA4/fcysGgGG2F4/s1600/gun-control-Obama-style-610x400.jpg" style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1ZxG3L2Afyc/VmPD26ZwvmI/AAAAAAACUA4/fcysGgGG2F4/s400/gun-control-Obama-style-610x400.jpg" width="400" alt="gun-control-Obama-style-610x400.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div><br /></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">THE STORY</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:11pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><a href="http://nanas-rants.blogspot.com/2015/12/why-have-there-been-more-mass-shootings.html" target="_blank">Why Have There Been More Mass Shootings Under Obama than the Four Previous Presidents Combined?</a></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">We live in a world of short-term memories and long-term memory deficiencies. If the 24-hour news cycle was any indication, Americans appear to be bouncing from one catastrophic mass shooting to the next, with hardly any breathing room. Like this is just a regular occurrence America has learned to endure because… guns. It’s the prevalence of firearms in the hands of the people, the anti-gunners say. Calls to limit, rewrite, redefine, or outright dispose of the 2nd Amendment are rampant.</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">But no one is looking at the data. If they did, they would realize something is really, really,<span style="font-style:italic;">really</span> wrong here.</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">No, there <span style="font-style:italic;">haven’t</span> always been so many mass shootings. It <span style="font-style:italic;">hasn’t</span> always been this way. Mass shootings have skyrocketed in this country <span style="font-style:italic;">just in the last seven years under President Obama</span>.</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">The following was compiled using the database over at </span><a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/12/mass-shootings-mother-jones-full-data">Mother Jones on mass shootings in the U.S. from 1982—2015</a><span style="color:#545454;">, up to and including the shooting at Umpqua Community College in Oregon on October 1st, 2015. It also includes the Wikipedia lists for </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_by_year">mass shootings in the United States by year</a><span style="color:#545454;"> and </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_postal_killings">postal killings in the U.S.</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">The following analysis considers the </span><a href="https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/serial-murder">FBI’s definition</a><span style="color:#545454;"> of a mass murder, which is defined as “</span><span style="color:#545454;font-weight:bold;">a number of murders (four or more) occurring during the same incident</span><span style="color:#545454;">, with no distinctive time period between the murders”.</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bs43S4qLoa4/VmPEDu7k5SI/AAAAAAACUBA/bPXL176adeY/s1600/130116062320-exp-early-lothian-obama-gun-control-00012014-horizontal-gallery.jpg" style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Bs43S4qLoa4/VmPEDu7k5SI/AAAAAAACUBA/bPXL176adeY/s320/130116062320-exp-early-lothian-obama-gun-control-00012014-horizontal-gallery.jpg" width="320" alt="130116062320-exp-early-lothian-obama-gun-control-00012014-horizontal-gallery.jpg" /></a>When all incidents where four or more people were shot in a single event are broken out by president going back to Reagan (considering the database only stretches back to 1982), there just so happens to have been a startling increase in mass shootings since Obama, the most pro-gun control president America has had in modern history, took office.</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Mass Shootings under the Last Five Presidents</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Ronald Reagan</span>: 1981-1989 (8 years) <span style="font-weight:bold;">11 mass shootings</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Incidents with 8 or more deaths = 5</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">George H. W. Bush</span>: 1989-1993 (4 years) <span style="font-weight:bold;">12 mass murders</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Incidents with 8 or more deaths = 3</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Bill Clinton</span>: 1993-2001 (8 years) <span style="font-weight:bold;">23 mass murders</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Incidents with 8 or more deaths = 4</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">George W. Bush</span>: 2001-2009 (8 years) <span style="font-weight:bold;">20 mass murders</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Incidents with 8 or more deaths = 5</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Barrack H. Obama</span>: 2009-2015 (in 7th year) <span style="font-weight:bold;">162 mass murders</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Incidents with 8 or more deaths = 18</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">(You can download the full list of names, dates, locations, and numbers of deaths per mass shooting by president prepared for this article </span><a href="http://truthstreammedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Mass-Murders-1981-2015-under-5-presidents.pdf"><span style="font-weight:bold;">here</span></a><span style="color:#545454;">.)</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Look at the difference between all other presidents and Barack Obama.</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">What that looks like on a chart:<br /></div><div style="margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-atz46uAW7Eo/VmPCEdYNf4I/AAAAAAACUAk/8NyDlCozAow/s1600/MASS%2BSHOOTINGS%2BBY%2BPRESIDENT.jpg" style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="498" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-atz46uAW7Eo/VmPCEdYNf4I/AAAAAAACUAk/8NyDlCozAow/s640/MASS%2BSHOOTINGS%2BBY%2BPRESIDENT.jpg" width="640" alt="MASS%2BSHOOTINGS%2BBY%2BPRESIDENT.jpg" /></a></div></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Notice anything here? We’re talking about a more than <span style="font-style:italic;">six-fold increase</span> from the number of mass shootings in the eight years Bush Jr. was president compared to the last seven years under Obama, and his 2nd term isn’t even up yet!</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Not only that, but the number of mass shootings where the shooter killed eight or more people has also increased rather significantly:<br /></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ksATYIPMKD8/VmPCRJCP5WI/AAAAAAACUAs/SNRB3EQ9znk/s1600/Mass%2Bshootings%2Bby%2Bpresident-2.jpg" style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="498" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ksATYIPMKD8/VmPCRJCP5WI/AAAAAAACUAs/SNRB3EQ9znk/s640/Mass%2Bshootings%2Bby%2Bpresident-2.jpg" width="640" alt="Mass%2Bshootings%2Bby%2Bpresident-2.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><b>What is going on here?</b></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1328211620993954875" style="clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1328211620993954875" style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1328211620993954875" style="clear:right;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;"></a>Obviously this isn’t so easily simplified as more guns in the hands of more crazy people, the way the media likes to spin it. We have more gun laws now than ever before. Less types of guns are legally available to the average citizen than ever before. We also have more “gun-free zones,” zones where, just by the way, most of these shootings happen (because mass shooters do not follow laws or care about zones, obviously). So that’s not it.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">We have debated whether or not </span><a href="http://truthstreammedia.com/2013/06/11/cdc-to-study-gun-violence-ignore-link-to-antidepressants/">antidepressant medications are playing a role</a><span style="color:#545454;"> in these events. Even a cursory glance at the </span><a href="http://www.ssristories.net/school-shootings/">SSRI stories school shootings database</a><span style="color:#545454;"> would suggest there is some substantial evidence behind this theory. We know that many of these mass shooters were either on psychotropic medications at the time of the shooting, or withdrawing from them.</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">However, Prozac was approved for use in the United States back in 1987. Antidepressant medications have been around and in widespread use in America for decades now. That factor alone cannot entirely explain all these mass shootings recently.</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">Not to mention that </span><a href="http://gawker.com/5968561/five-of-the-twelve-deadliest-gun-massacres-in-us-history-took-place-during-obamas-first-term/">five out of the 12 deadliest mass shootings in American history</a><span style="color:#545454;"> have happened not just since Barack Obama became president, but </span><span style="color:#545454;font-style:italic;">just under his first term</span><span style="color:#545454;"> as president alone. That’s nearly half.</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Something else is going on here.</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">So… what is it?</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">After the controversial Sandy Hook shooting, Obama passed </span><a href="http://www.thedailysheeple.com/more-obama-executive-orders-on-guns-in-wake-of-navy-yard-shooting_092013">23 gun control executive orders</a><span style="color:#545454;">. He continually says wants to do more and he’s frustrated with how limited his powers as mere president are. He continually mentions wishing America’s gun control mirrored that of the </span><a href="http://sgtreport.com/2015/04/was-sandy-hook-based-on-the-dunblane-massacre/">UK</a><span style="color:#545454;"> and </span><a href="http://www.thedailysheeple.com/obama-wants-to-pass-gun-control-laws-based-on-australias-false-flag-mass-shooting-gun-control-laws_062015">Australia</a><span style="color:#545454;">, two countries that passed strict, sweeping gun bans following what many have called single mass shooting false flag events which happened just weeks apart in March and April 1996.</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Speaking of Australia’s gun control laws after the suspicious Charleston shooting, Obama said:</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">“It was just so shocking the entire country said, ‘Well, we’re going to completely change our gun laws’, and they did. And it hasn’t happened since,” </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/23/obama-backs-australias-gun-laws-while-condemning-latest-mass-shootings-in-us">Obama said</a><span style="color:#545454;">, discussing the shooting deaths of nine people at a historic black church in Charleston last week.</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">The </span><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/trutherswitzerland/school-terror/columbine-massacre-1999">suspicious April 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School</a><span style="color:#545454;"> didn’t accomplish nearly the same gun control implementation here in America, although it did happen under another highly pro-gun control president, Bill Clinton. Perhaps one false flag just isn’t enough in a country that has been built upon a Constitution with a Bill of Rights and a 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Perhaps it can only be killed death-by-a-thousand-cuts style.</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">Now Obama says gun control will be </span><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/nov/17/obama-says-gun-control-be-top-issue-final-year/">his #1 top issue</a><span style="color:#545454;"> of focus for the last year of his final term as president.</span></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">He says </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOFOFZxfiDc">his biggest frustration</a><span style="color:#545454;"> has been his inability to pass more gun control legislation.</span></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><span style="color:#545454;">He condemns </span><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/02/us/obama-oregon-shooting-umpqua-community-college-gun-control.html?_r=0">these “routine” events</a><span style="color:#545454;"> and calls for more gun control each time another one happens. After the recent Planned Parenthood shooting, he said, </span><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-28/obama-says-enough-enough-urges-gun-restrictions-after-deadly-planned-parenthood-stan">“we can’t let this become the new normal… enough is enough.”</a></div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">But when did it become the new normal? While the 2nd Amendment continues to be attacked each and every time another mass shooting occurs, just realize something: these events were never this “routine” until Obama became president.</div><div style="color:#545454;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><a href="http://truthstreammedia.com/author/melissa-melton/">Melissa Dykes</a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u37lrdReOVI/VmPFTu7KkhI/AAAAAAACUBM/EYUKF21I4_Y/s1600/Melissa%2BDykes.jpg" style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u37lrdReOVI/VmPFTu7KkhI/AAAAAAACUBM/EYUKF21I4_Y/s1600/Melissa%2BDykes.jpg" alt="Melissa%2BDykes.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-weight:bold;">Melissa Dykes (formerly Melton)</span><span style="color:#525252;font-family:cambria;"> is a co-founder of TruthstreamMedia.com. She is an experienced researcher, graphic artist and investigative journalist with a passion for liberty and a dedication to truth. Her aim is to expose the New World Order for what it is — a prison for the human soul from which we must break free.</span><br /><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><a href="http://truthstreammedia.com/2015/12/02/why-have-there-been-more-mass-shootings-under-obama-than-the-four-previous-presidents-combined/" target="_blank">Source</a>: </div></div></div>
The White House and National Parks Foundation Targeting African-American Youth with "Every Kid in a Park" Initiative
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/the-white-house-and-national-parks-foundation-targeting-african-a
2015-12-10T18:00:00.000Z
2015-12-10T18:00:00.000Z
SendMeYourNews
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/SendMeYourNews
<div><p><span><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;"><i><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ekip-prod/img/logo.png" target="_blank"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/ekip-prod/img/logo.png" class="align-full" alt="logo.png" /></a>Ohio Businessman and National Parks Foundation Member Has Partnered with President Obama to Encourage Over One-Million African-American Youth to Experience Our National Parks Across the United States,” An Extension of “Every Kid In A Park”.</i></span></strong><br /><br /></span> <span>With the unique opportunity to reach a new generation, Ohio businessman and National Parks Foundation Board of Directors member Stephen L. Hightower has partnered with President Obama and his administration on the “Every Kid In A Park” initiative, <a href="https://vimeo.com/146050522">https://vimeo.com/146050522</a>. In February, President Obama announced the launch of the “Every Kid In A Park” initiative as a lead-in to the historic centennial year of the National Park Service.</span></p>
<p><br /><br /><span>The agenda was created in an effort to engage millions of young Americans with our natural wonders and national treasures, in all 50 states. In September, every fourth grader in the nation received an “Every Kid In A Park” pass, good for free admission to all of America’s federal lands and waters—for them and their families—for a full year.</span><br /><br /><span>Stephen L. Hightower has taken this campaign a step further by reaching out to young people of color; he is eager to introduce over one-million of these children to our national wonders. Stephen, along all partners and affiliates hope to spark interest in our national parks, and forge a stronger connection to both nature and our shared history. This first level of engagement may present the first step on a path to increased educational opportunities and long‐term employment options with the National Park Service and people of color.</span><br /><br /><span>A recent Kaiser Family Foundation study showed that kids are spending eight hours a day watching videos, playing games, and listening to music. A University of Michigan report revealed a decrease of 69 percent over the last decade in time spent in outdoor activities among children ages 6 to 17. The Nature Conservancy found that the vast majority of today’s kids uses a computer, watches TV, or plays video games daily, but only about 10 percent say they are spending time outdoors every day. These statistics are even more extreme for children of color, and kids from underserved populations who are disproportionately located in urban centers and rural areas with limited access to national parks. “Every Kid In A Park” looks to aggressively close this startling gap, and simultaneously impact each child with educational and transformative curricula.</span><br /><br /><span>For more information please visit <a href="https://www.everykidinapark.gov/">https://www.everykidinapark.gov/</a></span></p>
<p>Cincinnati, OH, December 10, 2015 --(<a href="http://www.pr.com/">PR.com</a>)-- </p>
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Spike Lee Lays Another Egg - Chi-Raq, a Chi-rade.
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/spike-lee-lays-another-egg-chi-raq-a-chi-rade
2015-12-07T19:26:22.000Z
2015-12-07T19:26:22.000Z
TheBlackList News
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListNews
<div><div><table width="100%"><tbody><tr><td><div class="WordSection1"><p><span><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828577439,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828577439,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="197" class="align-full" alt="3828577439?profile=original" /></a><span style="color:#ff0000;" class="font-size-4"><strong>Spike Lee Lays Another Egg</strong></span> ~ <br /></span><em>By Raynard Jackson, Columnist</em> ~</p><p> When acclaimed director, actor, producer, Spike Lee broke onto the Hollywood scene in the 1980s; he truly had to fight the power. Hollywood was not ready for a young, brash, provocative filmmaker like Lee. </p><p>He burst on the scene with provocative movies like She’s Gotta Have It, School Daze and Do The Right Thing. These movies created spirited debates in the Black and White communities centered on the hot social issues of the day; feminism among Black women; racism within the Black community; and race relations between Black and White. </p><p>Back then, you may not always agree with Lee’s movies, but you could count on him to stimulate heated conversations throughout America. </p><p>Lee has never tried to hide or shy away from his liberal beliefs and his public support for Democrats and Obama; thus his latest movie, Chi-Raq. </p><p>The movie is a profanity laced, liberally biased, finger pointing diatribe that blames Republicans and Whites for all the murders taking place in Chicago. </p><p>Of course, as usual for Lee’s movies, there is the perfunctory swipes and ridicule of Black Republicans; in this case Ben Carson.</p><p>This is why it is extremely imperative that Republicans have an active surrogates program. Black Republicans are constantly ridiculed in movies, TV sit-coms, and in pop culture. </p><p>I have constantly expressed to party leaders the necessity of having a vibrant surrogates program where Black Republicans are seen on TV, heard on the radio, and interviewed in newspapers. </p><p>In marketing, if you product or message is not seen, heard, or read about in the media, then you and your product does not exist. Politics, after all is nothing but the art of marketing. </p><p>So, as is common for liberals like Lee, they never miss an opportunity to blame the murder rate in cities like Baltimore, New York, or Chicago on the National Rifle Association (NRA); though he never mentions that these cities are all run by liberal Democrats. He never mentions that each of these cities all have some of the most restrictive gun control laws in the country </p><p>Spike couldn’t bring himself to lay the blame where it belongs—at the feet of liberal policies being propagated by Democratic politicians.</p><p>Spike couldn’t bring himself to blame Obama for the dismal unemployment rate in the Black community; the lack of job training in cities like Chicago; or the lack of access to capital for Black owned businesses who are the job creators. </p><p>He couldn’t bring himself to blame Rahm Emmanuel, the sitting Democratic mayor of Chicago for having absolutely no answer to the crime wave taking place in his city. William Hale Thompson was the last Republican mayor of Chicago. He left office in 1931, so you are talking about 84 years ago. </p><p>Since Republicans refuse to create a surrogates program for Black Republicans, we continue to be caricatured as “sell-outs” to our community and those who want to run from our Blackness. </p><p>Republicans constantly allow liberals to spew all sorts of lies about them and allow them to go unchallenged; and as we know, a lie that goes unchallenged becomes the truth. </p><p>Name me the last big city Democratic mayor that made lives of the Black community better. It wasn’t until Republicans Dick Riordan took over from Democratic Mayor Tom Bradley in Los Angeles or Giuliani took over from Democratic Mayor David Dinkins in New York City that Blacks began to flourish.</p><p>Why Republicans continue to allow liberals to blame them for the woes of liberalism simply baffles me. The murder rate in Chicago has nothing to do with the NRA; but have everything to do with liberalism. </p><p>Liberalism says that the breakdown of the Black community has to do with the legacy of slavery; or because of Reagan and Bush; or racism. Of course, none of this is true. </p><p>Liberal policies like welfare are to blame for the breakdown of the Black community. Liberal policies like open borders for illegals are responsible for the high unemployment rate for Blacks in cities like Chicago. </p><p>So, if you are a liberal and like to blame others for the plight of the Black community, then you will love Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq; but I think a better title for the movie would me Chi-rade because the movie is exactly that, a charade.</p><p> </p><p><i>Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC is an internationally recognized political consulting, government affairs, and PR firm based in Washington, DC. Jackson is an internationally recognized radio talk show host and TV commentator. He has coined the phrase “straticist.” As a straticist, he has merged strategic planning with public relations. Visit his website at: <a href="http://www.raynardjackson.com">www.raynardjackson.com</a>.</i><b><i> </i></b></p><p><b><i>Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC is an internationally recognized political consulting, government affairs, and PR firm based in Washington, DC. Jackson is an internationally recognized radio talk show host and TV commentator. He has coined the phrase “straticist.” As a straticist, he has merged strategic planning with public relations. Call RJA to discuss how they can get you to the next level of your career.</i></b></p><p>Add me to your facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/raynard.jackson.12">https://www.facebook.com/raynard.jackson.12</a></p><p>Add me to your twitter. <a href="https://twitter.com/Raynard1223">https://twitter.com/Raynard1223</a></p><p>Add me toyour linkedin: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=5502539&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=loLR&locale=en_US&srchid=55025391407093543596&srchindex=1&srchtotal=3&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A55025391407093543596%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5502539%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary">https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=5502539&authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=loLR&locale=en_US&srchid=55025391407093543596&srchindex=1&srchtotal=3&trk=vsrp_people_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A55025391407093543596%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5502539%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary</a> </p><p><b>My book is now available for purchase on my website: <a href="http://www.raynardjackson.com/">www.raynardjackson.com</a></b></p></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><ul><li><span class="font-size-3"><b><a href="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/290c05a2ebd5c51e07820837bc35b590/msg00000.html">My Last Column of the year--Spike Lee Lays Another Egg</a></b>, <em>Raynard Jackson, 12/07/2015</em></span></li></ul><p></p><p></p></div>
Unbelievable: Media Allowed To Ransack Crime Scene At San Bernardino Shooters’ Apartment
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/unbelievable-media-allowed-to-ransack-crime-scene-at-san
2015-12-06T04:21:22.000Z
2015-12-06T04:21:22.000Z
Nana Baakan Agyiriwah
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/NanaBaakanAgyiriwah
<div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align:left;"><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><h2 style="text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:cambria;font-size:14pt;">NB Commentary</span></h2></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">I have been hesitant to be drawn into this alleged crime/false flag/hoax for the past few days as I do believe that a crime certainly had been committed and possibly several crimes to be sure but then the information came across my desk and this video is so compelling I had to share it and comment.</span></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><b>7 Things I learned today.</b></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><ol style="text-align:left;"><li><span style="font-family:georgia, palatino;font-size:14pt;">The suspects were handcuffed and drug out of the back of the SUV. Now how is that possible if they were supposedly shooting at the police while driving. See video report with family's lawyer who made this startling statement.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:georgia, palatino;">The video of the company party was taken the night before, yet the MSM broadcast it as if it was the company party that got stormed the day of the Event.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:georgia, palatino;">The woman was photographed lying on the ground dressed in a short skirt and not full body armor.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:georgia, palatino;">The number of suspects went down from 3 men to 2 people, a woman and a man but how is it that they could not tell that one of the attackers was a woman?</span></li><li><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:georgia, palatino;">There were two possibly 3 crime scenes</span></li><li><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:georgia, palatino;">The word "revenue" on the woman's official ID card was misspelled. Now they changed her name when they realized that the name they were using wasn't a typical Arabic name for a female, and some even quible about how "Farook" is spelled, citing that the a"Q" should have been used if it were authentic. But the misspelled word is more damning, as I do know folks who will spell their name differently just to keep the confusion down to a minimum. See here.</span></li><li><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:georgia, palatino;">And then there's Melissa's video and that is what took me to the point of writing my commentary. </span></li></ol><table align="center" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cS80aEOEZ30/VmOw8BCkeTI/AAAAAAACT_8/n2ICBGKJTjU/s1600/Muslim%2Blady%2Bdead.jpg" style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"><img border="0" height="188" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cS80aEOEZ30/VmOw8BCkeTI/AAAAAAACT_8/n2ICBGKJTjU/s320/Muslim%2Blady%2Bdead.jpg" width="320" alt="Muslim%2Blady%2Bdead.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align:center;">The Alleged Female Assailant</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <br /><table align="center" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gQptCgSMeL0/VmOxHhqeYDI/AAAAAAACUAE/g-0YGEPvKw8/s1600/Suspect%2527s%2BID%2Bcard.jpg" style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gQptCgSMeL0/VmOxHhqeYDI/AAAAAAACUAE/g-0YGEPvKw8/s1600/Suspect%2527s%2BID%2Bcard.jpg" alt="Suspect%2527s%2BID%2Bcard.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align:center;">Her Alleged Work ID card</td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CY53gXj9sfg/VmOyaB6YMPI/AAAAAAACUAQ/Z4_ScMYG7tE/s1600/San%2BBernardino%2BShooter%2527s%2Blawyers.PNG" style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CY53gXj9sfg/VmOyaB6YMPI/AAAAAAACUAQ/Z4_ScMYG7tE/s320/San%2BBernardino%2BShooter%2527s%2Blawyers.PNG" width="320" alt="San%2BBernardino%2BShooter%2527s%2Blawyers.PNG" /></a></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5qZ1zDO0v4o?wmode=opaque"></iframe></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">I am not quite sure why there have been so many mass shootings during Obama's Presidency. I do know that it is certainly giving me a headache and making me very, very sad.<br /> <br /> Some say it's gun control, but like I cited in my other blog, he is really the biggest gun salesman of all time, cause as soon as he threatens more control, folks run out and buy more guns. I am not too sure how that is going to keep guns out of the hands of the masses, particularly when they are even more scared than they were yesterday. Add a few terrorist into the mix and you have a recipe for disaster.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">I do believe however, that it is a smoke screen to cover up the debacle that the Middle East has become for NATO and its most powerful military force, the USA. I am not cheering Putin for his aggression in Syria, while I do understand the geopolitical nature of his involvement, but I always think about the people on the ground, something that most people seem to forget. The want Putin to tear it up over there and get it over with. Meanwhile, more and more refugees will be fleeing Syria for surely Russia's tactical team is precise. Now they are paying Turkey and some African countries to keep them in their borders.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">I have seen what refugee camps look like, and if there is any hope that the money that will be doled out to maintain will be used to improve their lives, I personally think is a huge stretch of the imagination. But at least the European countries won't have to worry about the refugees coming into their borders, to hell with what happens to them after that.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8wbZGjMckHw/U1DGC-hE4aI/AAAAAAABo1k/XVC0urawS5E/s1600/banner%2Bcopy.jpg" style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="38" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8wbZGjMckHw/U1DGC-hE4aI/AAAAAAABo1k/XVC0urawS5E/s320/banner%2Bcopy.jpg" width="320" alt="banner%2Bcopy.jpg" /></a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:center;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><b style="font-size:14pt;">THE STORY</b></div><div style="color:#1f1e1e;font-family:Cambria;font-size:17pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Unbelievable: Media Allowed To Ransack Crime Scene At San Bernardino Shooters’ Apartment</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">DECEMBER 5, 2015</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">By <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVEaFSr-jdTa_QE4PPSkVJw">Melissa Dykes</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Just in case you weren’t sure, the dog is definitely being wagged in San Bernardino. How do you know something is fake? A reporter stages a baby crib at the crime scene. When you hear someone say it’s unbelievable, sometimes it’s because it literally cannot be believed.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;text-align:center;"><iframe width="748" height="450" frameborder="0" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UxtXkoepqb4?wmode=opaque"></iframe></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><a href="http://www.activistpost.com/2015/12/unbelievable-media-allowed-to-ransack-crime-scene-at-san-bernardino-shooters-apartment.html" target="_blank">Source</a>: </div><br /><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div></div></div>
Letter To President Obama: You are as much of an oppressor as those who have led this country before you.
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/open-letter-to-president-obama-
2015-11-24T13:30:00.000Z
2015-11-24T13:30:00.000Z
Tziona Yisrael
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TzionaYisrael
<div><p></p><p>11/24/15</p><p> </p><p><span class="font-size-5"><b>OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA ON FACEBOOK:</b></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">Mr. Obama, you took the office of President of the United States with hopes of grandeur and glory for being the first black in history to reside in the White House. However, given all that you promised in your campaign speeches, you could not have been more fruitless. Yes, you became the first Black President, but that ended your hopes for renown and prosperity. Your books are cooked, Mr. President. You never came close to improving the economy, unemployment, education, poverty, homelessness, hunger, medical care for the veterans, the infrastructure, human rights, the deadly race relations between Blacks and Whites, or peace by any means, and the list goes on. You haven’t come close to ending the animosity that exits between the Congressmen and the lack of trust people have in this democracy. And in regard to being a voice for the Blacks who have none and who put you in office, you have failed miserably. And worse, you are as much of an oppressor as those who have led this country before you.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">You know nothing about the CREATOR GOD or HIS Chosen People that HE scattered from HIS Land into the hands of White nations. You know nothing about the Slave Trade that consumed HIS Chosen or the prophecy of it that is written in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28<sup>th</sup> Chapters. There is a profound reason for the Slave Trade, and <i>“Cursed be Canaan”</i> has nothing whatsoever to do with it. </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">If you take the time to seek to learn GOD’s WORD regarding the enslavement of these Black Hebrew Israelites and the reasons for this bondage, you will realize that the CREATOR GOD was enraged and furious at HIS people for forsaking HIM and HIS Book of the Law and for turning to false gods. Yes, HE was so full of Wrath that HE cast our forefathers into the hands of our enemies - the <i>“worst of the heathen”</i> (Eze. 7:24) - to be their Slaves, to serve them, and to make them wealthy off the backs of a most miserable people. Nevertheless, it is for these reasons that the US and many other White Nations are so rich, but like you, this is the last thing they want to discuss. Neither do they care to discuss the effects of the Slave Trade in Blacks who have always suffered at the hands of Whites who, incidentally, still hold us in captivity.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"> </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">This is not conjecture, Mr. President, or some wild fairy tale. The plight of Blacks is very real and we are in great distress. In that we are the SEED of the Biblical Israelites, surely you can surmise that eventually Our GOD will see our tears and hear our prayers to take us out of this Hell just as HE did for the Children of Israel who left out of Ancient Egypt. </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"> </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">“And it shall come to pass in that day, that <b>the Lord shall set his hand again <u>the second time to recover the remnant of his people</u>,</b> which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. <b>And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.</b><b>”</b> Isaiah 11:11,12</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">Whether you believe me or not, the CREATOR GOD that I serve and worship won’t let our oppressors forget their horrific acts against us. Neither will HE let descendants of Slavers forget just how they duped the Slaves into believing in a White, blue-eyed so-called “Saviour”. For your information, Mr. President, the CREATOR GOD is a Most JEALOUS GOD and detests belief and worship of another god. Read the Scriptures and see that this is the main reason HE scattered HIS Chosen People from HIS Holy Land. These are the realities that the Church and White Supremacists have tried to keep hidden from downtrodden descendants of Slaves who have been under White rule and control since the Grecian Empire and unto this day. The truth of the matter is that the writers of the “New Testament” knew what they were doing to invent another god. White World Leaders knew that for as long as GOD’s Chosen believed in and called upon another god that the True and Living GOD would not hear their cries. For a long time this scam worked, but now the CREATOR is waking up the <i>“Dry Bones”</i> to HIS TRUTH, and HE is also removing the yoke from our brains that sustains this brainwashing. In case you never took Black History, Mr. President, Blacks have endured the worst cases of ethnic cleansing and captivity written in the annals of history, and this curse upon us and our suffering must come to an end. People should find it strange that these so-called “Gospel” writers can magnify this man-god, JC, when the CREATOR GOD, Our MAKER, has said that HE does not know of another god. And of great import, HE has said that we should know no god but HIM!</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>“I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me</b>: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:” Isaiah 45:5</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">“Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; <b>I know not any.</b><b>”</b> Isaiah 44:8</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>“Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.”</b> Hosea 13:4</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">Let’s be clear on GOD’s WORD and not the deceptive religion of men who have hidden GOD’s WORD and HIS WAYS of Righteousness.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">You should also know that the same Hebrew Scriptures that prophesies of the fall of the Children of Israel also prophesies of GOD’s revenge upon our Captors for their merciless and heinous Slave Trade that barbarically carried HIS Chosen into the <i>“Four Corners of the Earth”. </i> The White Man’s Church does not teach this either, Mr. President.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>“I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke.”</b> Isaiah 47:6 </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">“For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though <b>I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee,</b> yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.” Jeremiah 30:11</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">In case you are wondering about the perils facing this world, please know that the wicked Gentile Rule of this World Order is coming to an end. Only then can we expect a “Change” for the better because right now too many groups are suffering due to the White Man’s greed, double standards, and corruption that fosters hunger, sickness, and destitution throughout the world. There are some of us who do want better lives for everyone and our voices and our actions prove it. I wish I could say the same for you, but all that the world has heard from you is empty charismatic rhetoric.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>“And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.<br /> <br /> “Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of the LORD of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.” </b> Isaiah 13:11,13</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">“The LORD hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, <b>he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted,</b> and none hindereth.” Isaiah 14:5,6</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">There’s so much more regarding these days of GOD’s WRATH upon the fall of the Presiding Powers, but let this suffice.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">GOD’s WORDS and HIS WORKS are in play! HE is wreaking havoc across the globe and especially on the White Ruling nations that grant free money to other evil and wicked oppressive nations so that they have the arms and the power and the hegemony amid defenseless nations. Your own cruel words, Mr. President, indict you:</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>President Obama: </b> “<i>We occasionally have to twist the arms of countries that wouldn't do what we need them to do</i>…”</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">Countries that know the cruel and brutal past of the United States and its merciless domination of Peoples want nothing to do with your malicious practices against others. These are obviously the countries of which you speak. </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">Nevertheless, know what’s happening as you watch one nation after another slip out of US control and watch as US leaders observe groups rise up to war with weapons made by the US and by Israelis - the notoriously vicious ones of an apartheid government who so cruelly control GOD’s Land and who endeavor to rule the Middle East. The US makes no secrets about fueling the fires of conflict and death in order that European tyrants who have taken the name of GOD’s Covenant People can control and confiscate homes and farms of Palestinians who have been in the Land of Israel since the Children of Israel made their Exodus out of Egyptian bondage. Yet, Israelis violate every UN resolution against them, and the reason is that you and Congress turn a blind eye to their terroristic acts and brutality against the defenseless Palestinians. You should be the wiser to know that these European Israelis (Askenazim, by their own admission) have no connection to the Biblical Israelites, the Land of Israel, or to the Hebrew Scriptures. GOD called Abram out of Ur (Ancient Babylon) - not out of any country in Europe, and HE promised Abram’s SEED that HE would be their GOD forever (Genesis 17:7). </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">Just know that GOD’s WORD to HIS Prophets will stand and come to pass. And HIS WORD that is yet to be fulfilled entails GOD taking back HIS Universe, HIS Land, and HIS Covenant People. We have a GOD, and by HIS WONDROUS WORKS, HE will be MAGNIFIED Magnificently when HE gathers the SEED of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob from all lands to where HE has scattered us.</span><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">“Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. <b>And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD:</b> and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken.” Isaiah 62:11,12</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>“Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return,</b> and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.” Jeremiah 30:10</span><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>“Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen,</b> then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.” Ezekiel 28:25</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>“<u>For I will take you from among the heathen</u>, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land.”</b> Ezekiel 36:24</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">“Behold, at that time <b>I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.</b><b>”</b> Zephaniah 3:19</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">And in the process, Mr. President, watch and know that it is HIS HAND causing the destruction of the wicked. At the end of the day, HE will replenish HIS Earth with people who will FEAR HIM to live in HIS WAYS of Righteousness and all for HIS Holy Name’s Sake (Ex. 3:15), so that all peoples, nations, and tongues that will remain after <b><i>“The Day of the LORD”</i></b> will worship HIM and live in HIS Peace and Happiness. </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">Yes, Mr. President, there is hope for the poor and impoverished people you have swept under the rug, you know, those Blacks you would not mention your first term in office. Did you think that we would succumb to our oppressors and love the country that terrorizes and intimidates us and that treats us like second-class citizens? Did you really believe that Blacks would simply be ecstatic about having a Black President and would forget about the need for justice served for forced migration, for the Slave Trade, for Reparations for the free labor of our forebears, and for restitution for the hundreds of years of bondage and atrocities committed against our people? Or did you think that after you would be president that Blacks would somehow be proud to be American? And did you think like Whites that Blacks would eventually put more faith in this unfounded JC that never did anything for us while the Massas beat our forebears into “seasoned” Slaves? Why didn’t it ever occur to you to step in and speak and act in our behalf since you were elected to the highest post in the land to serve all the people even with a Justice Department to boot? </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">The CREATOR GOD is working for us now and in ways no man can. In this process HE is calling attention to HIMSELF, and HE will be Magnified and receive the GLORY – ALL THE GLORY for HIS GOODNESS and for HIS Merciful KINDNESS that HE will bring to HIS Earth for all who will CALL upon HIM, FEAR HIM, and OBEY HIS LAW that the White Man’s religion has revoked (Romans 10:4)! </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">Just one more thing, Mr. President. Please understand that if the Most High GOD of Israel punished HIS Covenant People with the Slave Trade for rejecting HIM and HIS Book of the Law and for committing all manner of sins and abominations, don’t you know that the wicked Powers-that-be who have condoned Christianity and shrouded GOD’s TRUTH with a religion that promotes worship of an imaginary man-god (JC) will also receive of HIS WRATH?!</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>“The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.”</b> Psalm 9:17</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>“Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more.</b> Bless thou the LORD, O my soul. Praise ye the LORD.” Psalm 104:35</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><b>“The LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation</b>.” Jeremiah 10:10</span><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">By the way, Mr. President, to the CREATOR GOD, Our MAKER, goes the GLORY, and to HIS Covenant People and the Righteous who SEEK HIM in TRUTH to worship HIM is the privilege to show forth HIS PRAISE.</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">Glory YAH</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">FACEBOOK.com</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3">Read my book - GOD’s WORD at the Mouth of HIS Prophets and learn HIS TRUTH:</span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thus-Saith-The-LORD-Book/dp/1494928035"><b>http://www.amazon.com/Thus-Saith-The-LORD-Book/dp/1494928035</b></a></span></p><p><span style="color:#ff0000;"><strong><span class="font-size-1"><em>~(Note: Title edited by TheBlackList)~</em></span></strong></span></p><p></p></div>
Cynthia McKinney: Explaining President Obama's "Pivot" to Asia
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/from-cynthia-mckinney-explaining-president-obama-s-pivot-to-
2015-11-20T15:30:00.000Z
2015-11-20T15:30:00.000Z
TheBlackList News
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListNews
<div><div id="Stretcher"><div class="ContentBlock"><div id="msgbody"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><div><div><div><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828576612,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828576612,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="3828576612?profile=original" /></a><span style="color:#993300;" class="font-size-1"><em>U.S. President Barack Obama departs after his remarks and a tour of the Philippine Navy's BRP Gregorio Del Pilar at Manila Harbor in Manila, Philippines, November 17, 2015.© Jonathan Ernst / Reuters.</em></span></div></div></div><div>President Obama has arrived in Manila, Philippines to promote US neoliberal-fashioned “free trade.” He has come here to tout Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), an organization founded to protect US hegemony in Asia.</div><div><p>I am in Manila, along with hundreds of others bearing the brunt of these policy decisions, to greet our President with a message that he should go back home and secure the needs of the people of the US and stop the plunder, division, and warmongering in Asia. The <em>“pivot”</em> to Asia involves increased militarism in the region as well as multilateral and bilateral trade agreements spearheaded by the US that bind the region in its neoliberal web.</p><p>President Obama seems primed to open up another war front in US efforts to <em>“contain”</em> China while his war in Syria is still hot. The current new flashpoint in Asia is the South China Sea where the US is challenging China’s extension of its territorial waters after reclaiming islands and creating new islands there.</p><p>As part of its <em>“pivot,”</em> the US military has returned to The Philippines after the people’s struggle there ejected it; and seeks to use Japan as part of its military bulwark in the region even as Japan focuses on its recovery in the aftermath of Fukushima. Incredibly, now Japan is talking about amending its Constitution to allow its participation in military action to support the US while the US expands its military presence in the country. And while South Koreans would really like to focus on repairing the shattered relations with their brothers and sisters in the north, the US has ensnared South Korea in the web, also, threatening to deploy a pricey anti-ballistic missile defense system in that country. Therefore, the American military industrial complex will soak up money that is much-needed to solve local problems, including in the US.</p><div><blockquote lang="en" xml:lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Find out why <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS">@POTUS</a> was on a cutter & how we're strengthening the security of Philippines → <a href="https://t.co/tE5Yy4RL8n">https://t.co/tE5Yy4RL8n</a><a href="https://t.co/3B5985cqrg">pic.twitter.com/3B5985cqrg</a></p>— The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/666641671724122112">November 17, 2015</a></blockquote></div><p>In President Obama’s US, there is money for war, but no money for the poor. The people of the US are in crisis. Senior citizens are now absorbing the news that there will be no increased monthly allocation (known as cost of living adjustment (<a href="http://www.ssa.gov/news/cola/" target="_blank">COLA</a>) for their Social Security payments. Too many senior citizens rely on these payments as their only source of income after retirement. To steal from American seniors in this way is not necessary and only occurs because the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/American-Deep-State-Democracy-Library/dp/1442214244/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447479815&sr=8-1&keywords=peter+dale+scott+deep+state" target="_blank">‘US Deep State’</a> increasingly views seniors as disposable now that their days of labor are over. US policy, however, doesn’t stop with stripping seniors of necessary funds for living. Children’s right to education is attacked by the <a href="https://www.rt.com/op-edge/322484-obama-asia-pivot-poverty-us/therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14841" target="_blank">privatization</a> of education under President Obama that has seen public schools shut down and so-called “charter” schools—that is, private schools erected in their place.</p><p>These charter schools pay huge amounts of money to their owners and CEOs while stripping teacher’s pay to the bone. Students, more than any other group, are subjected to the worst neoliberal policies pursued by President Obama. And, with privatized prisons, always hungry for more and more prisoners, the school to prison pipeline is <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/america-tonight-blog/2014/1/22/black-students-andtheschooltoprisonpipeline.html" target="_blank">secure</a>. And the privatized <a href="http://www.correctionsproject.com/corrections/pris_priv.htm" target="_blank">prisons</a> make a <a href="http://www.aclu.org/banking-bondage-private-prisons-and-mass-incarceration" target="_blank">profit</a>, to boot!</p><p>But, poorly paid teachers are not the only insult that students in the US must absorb: the number of hungry students is at an all-time high. Every night, it is estimated that over fifteen million children go to bed <a href="http://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/impact-of-hunger/child-hunger/child-hunger-fact-sheet.html" target="_blank">hungry</a> in impoverished families inside the US. When they awake in the morning, more than ever, their families are <a href="http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/" target="_blank">homeless</a> and these students must go to school from homeless shelters. Shockingly, these homeless shelters are even under attack, like the situation with the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the <a href="http://www.atlantataskforceforhomeless.org/" target="_blank">Homeless</a>, and many are being closed as the need increases. These purposely deprived students, then, are expected to learn a curriculum that downplays the importance of critical thinking, an economic environment that saps the yearn to learn, and public policies that discourage higher education, like burgeoning student debt because of the outrageous costs of education in the US. Sadly, education, just like about everything else has become a profit center.</p><p>Now, these already-crippled students are forced to make their way to schools on pothole filled roads as investment in public infrastructure plummets in the face of profit-driven neoliberal policies. While the US war machine rages globally, the infrastructure inside the US is in a decrepit state. <a href="https://www.rt.com/op-edge/322484-obama-asia-pivot-poverty-us/water.usgs.gov/edu/sinkholes.html" target="_blank">Sinkholes</a> are mysteriously appearing, swallowing whole houses in the process; families are forced to boil their water because local clean water systems are in a state of disrepair. Rampant mining inside the US has created new emergencies like earthquakes in <a href="http://www.smu.edu/News/NewsSources/EarthquakeStudy" target="_blank">places</a> totally unaccustomed to them. Bridges are crumbling. In fact, civil engineers most recently (2013) gave overall US <a href="http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/" target="_blank">infrastructure</a> a grade D+.</p><p>American neighborhoods are becoming food <a href="https://www.rt.com/op-edge/322484-obama-asia-pivot-poverty-us/apps.ams.usda.gov/fooddeserts/fooddeserts.aspx" target="_blank">deserts</a> due to the direct attack on small family farms, especially Black farmers, in favor of corporate farms that are Monsanto-GMO laden production sites. Because of the predatory practices of US banks, the middle class has watched as its ranks have dwindled and their homes stolen by crooked banks. Sadly, President Obama’s policy supports these ‘banksters’. Incredibly, not a single one of them has even been threatened with prison for this massive theft that has seen more wealth of Black America <a href="http://www.faireconomy.org/files/pdf/StateOfDream_01_16_08_Web.pdf" target="_blank">stolen</a> than at any time since the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.</p><p>Yet, this is the same United States that hails itself to the world as the greatest democracy, a beacon of economic success, and a champion of human rights. Nothing could be further from the truth.</p><p>Therefore, I call on President Obama to pivot back home and take care of the needs of the people of the US and stop the war mongering and the projection of Russia and China as enemies.</p><p>Obama has a lot to keep him occupied in the United States, serving the urgent needs of the people. There is no need for him to inflict more pain on us. At the same time, the important work of Thomas Piketty <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_piketty_new_thoughts_on_capital_in_the_twenty_first_century?language=en" target="_blank">exposes</a> the results of US neoliberal policies: growing inequality. Therefore, President Obama should welcome local and global policies that diminish inequality not perpetuate it. I also believe such a shift in US policy would be greatly appreciated by the Americans who could finally see their needs met by a concerned and caring government.</p><p>I still believe that the US people can change the policies and direction of our country. Things in the US are now bad enough to force people to look at different ways of resolving their problems. I hope it is clear to them that neither Democrat Hillary Clinton nor Republican Jeb Bush are solutions to the problems that ail America; rather, they helped to create these problems. Therefore, I am hopeful that a critical mass of us working together to change the mission of future US governments will be successful–starting in 2016.</p><p>The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.</p></div></div><div><em><strong><span style="color:#ff0000;">From Cynthia McKinney: Explaining President Obama's "Pivot" to Asia:</span> <a href="https://www.rt.com/op-edge/322484-obama-asia-pivot-poverty-us/">https://www.rt.com/op-edge/322484-obama-asia-pivot-poverty-us/</a></strong></em></div>-- <br /><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><b> <span>-----------------------------</span><span>-----------------------------+</span><br /> <span>| __o CONTINENTAL CRITICAL MASS </span><br /> <span>| _`\;,_ come ride with me</span><br /> <span>| (*)/ (*) </span><br /> <span>| </span><a href="http://bikepeace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Bike4Peace</a><span> Across the USA </span><br /> <span>------------------------------</span><span>-----------------------------+</span></b><br /> <br /> <a href="http://claritypress.com/McKinneyII.html" target="_blank">http://claritypress.com/McKinneyII.html</a><br /> <a href="http://www.claritypress.com/McKinney.html" target="_blank">http://www.claritypress.com/McKinney.html</a><br /> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinneyOfficial" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinneyOfficial</a><br /> <a href="http://www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/CynthiaSpeaks" target="_blank">http://www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/CynthiaSpeaks</a><br /> <br /> Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction. OPEN SOURCE EVERYTHING!</div><div>"My weapon is media, lectures, protest, organization." Kenneth S. Carr (Dedon Kamathi)<br /> <br /> "The Bush family has a political dynasty that the Kennedy family was not allowed to have." <br /> Steve Cokely<br /> <br /><div><div>"Be true to who you are. Don't worry how others may view you. Society is ill, infected with racism, homophobia, and violence. Always remember, it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to such a profoundly sick society." Coretta Scott King</div></div></div>"We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.<br /><div><br /> <font size="2"><span><font face="Verdana">"</font></span></font>The biggest weapon in the hands of the oppressors is the minds of the oppressed." Steve Biko<br /> <br /> "Make your spirit flexible, and nothing will ever bend you out of shape." Wisdom by Taro Gold</div></div></div></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br /> Updates mailing list<br /> Updates@lists.allthingscynthiamckinney.com<br /> <a href="http://lists.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/listinfo.cgi/updates-allthingscynthiamckinney.com">http://lists.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/listinfo.cgi/updates-allthingscynthiamckinney.com<br /></a></div><ul><li><b><a href="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/a5e4350ea6fd72309428d7f06be40d85/msg00000.html">[hq2600] From Cynthia McKinney: Explaining President Obama's "Pivot" to Asia</a></b>, <em>HQ, 11/20/2015</em></li></ul></div></div><p></p><p></p><p></p></div>
Obama’s Continued Disdain for Africa --Raynard Jackson
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/obama-s-continued-disdain-for-africa-raynard-jackson
2015-07-18T18:30:00.000Z
2015-07-18T18:30:00.000Z
TheBlackList News
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListNews
<div><p></p><div><div class="ContentBlock"><div><table width="100%"><tbody><tr><td><div class="WordSection1"><p></p><p><a href="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/365aabf39d1b54c1394a7eef778e0a31/msg00000/image001.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/365aabf39d1b54c1394a7eef778e0a31/msg00000/image001.jpg" class="align-left" alt="image001.jpg" /></a>By <a href="http://theblacklistpub.ning.com/profile/RaynardJackson?xg_source=profiles_memberList" target="_blank">Raynard Jackson</a> | In June of 2013 Obama tried to lecture Senegalese President, Macky Sall in front of his own people on accepting homosexuality in his country. Before his trip to Africa, Obama was sternly warned by many, “do not talk about homosexuality in Africa.”</p><p>But as is his habit, Obama never misses an opportunity to lecture and talk down to Blacks in the U.S. and Africans abroad. To his credit, President Sall quickly chastised Obama with these words, “We are still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality…This doesn’t not mean we are homophobic.” </p><p>In 2014, during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, Obama again lectured Africa on the need to accept homosexuality and under his administration they even took it a step further. </p><p>For the first time in the history of the U.S., Hillary Clinton made a country’s promotion of homosexuality a criteria in whether the U.S. would continue to extend foreign aid. This was a tectonic shift in our foreign policy and should have no place in our relations with other sovereign countries.</p><p>I am very proud that almost without exception African leaders have told America and the rest of the Western world to “keep your money and foreign aid, we will not sacrifice our culture and values for your help.” </p><p>So, with this as a backdrop, I was more than stunned at the blatant disrespect Obama and his administration continues to show towards Africa; specifically in the case of South Sudan.</p><p>Two weeks ago I was invited by the Embassy of South Sudan to join them in their celebration of their 4<sup>th</sup> birthday as an independent nation. The creation of South Sudan was one of former president George W. Bush’s lasting foreign policy achievements.</p><p>The event was a nice, festive affair with diplomats from throughout the continent of Africa in attendance. There was a very short program with one of the speakers being Lucy Tamlyn, U.S. State Department, Office of Special Envoy for Sudan & South Sudan. Her remarks offended everyone in the room. She said in part, “The four year anniversary of the founding of the Republic of South Sudan should indeed be a day of celebration but when we think of the difficult situation that the people of South Sudan are experiencing on the ground it’s hard to be in a celebratory mood. Over the last few weeks, we have heard reports of abuses against civilians, including against innocent women and children. Numerous reports have confirmed that all parties to the conflict have committed offensive military actions in violations of international humanitarian law. With more than 2.2 million displaced and 4.6 million at risk of life threatening hunger. It is clear that the hopes and the aspirations of the South Sudanese people are not being met. As the government begins its extended mandate today, we call on all parties to the conflict to forge a lasting peace and work to put in place a government of national unity.”</p><p>A government of national unity? Are you kidding me? The last time I checked, Salva Kiir Mayardit was and is the duly elected president of South Sudan. If and when the people of South Sudan want to change their nation’s leadership, they will do so during the next election. It’s called democracy!</p><p>There are many legitimate areas for the U.S. to criticize the government of South Sudan. But the celebration of their independence was not the time nor the place for such a discussion.</p><p>As an American with extensive relations and travels in Africa, including South Sudan, I was deeply embarrassed by my country. We Blacks in the U.S. have come to expect this type of condescension from the Obama administration when speaking to Blacks; but to display this level of arrogance to a sovereign nation is beyond the pale.</p><p>Obama would have never sent a representative to an event hosted by the government of Saudi Arabia and had them criticize the government for their treatment of women and their aggressive support for terrorism. Obama doesn’t have the guts to do that.</p><p>But because he has so little regard for South Sudan, he doesn’t hesitate to call for the weakening of a democratically elected head of state by mandating he put a political foe in his government (Riek Machar). </p><p>How does Obama reconcile his claim to want to promote democracy around the world, with the interfering in the internal affairs of a nation?</p><p>I wish Obama would show the same amount of bravado when it came to getting our hostages out of Iran; or when it comes to challenging Putin’s aggression in Crimea; or when it comes to China manipulating their currency and hacking into our computer networks.</p><p>He doesn’t have the stomach to do this. So, he decided to make himself feel like a man by attacking and embarrassing a developing nation that he knows can’t really fight back diplomatically. </p><p>This is not just about South Sudan; but rather the entire continent of Africa. Africa has many friends and supporters in the U.S., but unfortunately they are rarely sought out for help in situations like these.</p><p> </p><p><b><i>Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC is an internationally recognized political consulting, government affairs, and PR firm based in Washington, DC. Jackson is an internationally recognized radio talk show host and TV commentator. He has coined the phrase “straticist.” As a straticist, he has merged strategic planning with public relations. Visit his website at: <a href="http://www.raynardjackson.com">www.raynardjackson.com</a>.</i></b> </p><p><b>My book is now available for purchase on my website: <a href="http://www.raynardjackson.com/">www.raynardjackson.com</a></b></p></div></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong>Attachment: <a href="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/365aabf39d1b54c1394a7eef778e0a31/msg00000/image001.jpg"><tt>image001.jpg</tt></a></strong><br /> <em>Description:</em> JPEG image</p><p>~</p></div><ul><li><b><a href="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/365aabf39d1b54c1394a7eef778e0a31/msg00000.html">Obama's Continued Disdain for Africa</a></b>, <em>Raynard Jackson, 07/18/2015</em></li></ul></div></div></div>
Black Conservatives Critique President Obama’s State of the Union Address
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/black-conservatives-critique-president-obama-s-state-of-the-union
2015-01-21T13:56:23.000Z
2015-01-21T13:56:23.000Z
TheBlackList-Publisher
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListPublisher
<div><p><span><em><span><a href="http://www.nationalcenter.org/PROJ21.gif" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.nationalcenter.org/PROJ21.gif" class="align-left" alt="PROJ21.gif" /></a>Washington, DC -</span></em><span> <strong><em>Commenting on President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address tonight, members of the <a href="http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?7un04-l4u31-sbsv984&_v=2" target="_blank">Project 21</a> black leadership network saw a presidency lacking new ideas that suggested Obama may be “running out the clock” on his presidency without much vision but with plenty of continued class warfare and big government rhetoric.</em></strong><br /></span></span>“President Obama really did not offer anything new in his address to Congress. All he did was present the American people with the same old clunker policies sprayed with a new car scent,” said Project 21 member <a href="http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?7un04-l4u32-sbsv985&_v=2" target="_blank">Kevin Martin</a> , a small business owner and Navy veteran. “President Obama wants more new taxes and more new spending, but he seems unwilling to do anything substantial to reduce our national debt, curtail unfunded liabilities, shrink the bureaucracy or really fight fraud and waste in our government. Conservatives, on the other hand, have preached that it’s the spirit of the individual — and not government — that has made America successful, and it’s that spirit that can once again return us to greatness. Massive, unrestricted government spending will not breed success.” <span><span><br /><br />Members of the Project 21 black leadership network are available for media interviews related to the State of the Union address as well as on other issues.<br /><br />“Listening to President Obama outline his plans for the remainder of his presidency tonight, it was clearly demonstrated to me that he was painfully aware he is a lame duck president presiding over an administration that is fresh out of ideas,” said Project 21 member <a href="http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?7un04-l4u33-sbsv986&_v=2" target="_blank">Christopher Arps</a>, the founder of the Move-On-Up.org black social media network. “Obama’s address to Congress contained more alleged freebies that will not, in fact, be free. And there was even more class warfare rhetoric and calls for increasing taxes on the so-called rich. The enthusiasm for hope and change that he allegedly brought to the White House appears to now be reduced to running out the clock until January of 2017.”<br /><br />Project 21 members have offered rebuttal to all of President Obama’s State of the Union addresses.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>“I am glad President Obama highlighted job creation in his address, but the reality is that over 16 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work. Many are black people in communities such as Ferguson, Missouri. What did President Obama say to them that’s really new and innovative?” asked Project 21 Co-Chairman <a href="http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?7un04-l4u34-sbsv987&_v=2" target="_blank">Cherylyn Harley LeBon</a> , a former senior counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. “The percentage of Americans participating in the labor force is at the lowest level since the late ‘70s. Tonight’s rhetoric provided no real encouragement for those seeking decent jobs. It’s a problem for parents nationwide who struggle to get food on the table. In all that Obama had to say tonight, I saw no definitive hope for the young black man who sees that the only person ‘employed’ on his block is the local drug dealer.”</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>“Having presided over the slowest economic recovery in modern American history using excess government regulation and destructive deficit spending, President Obama now plans to pursue more of the same policies. These policies, if enacted, will dampen whatever fleeting gains the economy is finally exhibiting,” said Project 21 Co-Chairman <a href="http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?7un04-l4u35-sbsv988&_v=2" target="_blank">Horace Cooper</a> , a legal commentator who taught constitutional law at George Mason University and a former leadership staff member for the U.S. House of Representatives. “Full of tax hikes that punish investors and job creators and new domestic spending plans that America can ill afford, the President’s speech epitomizes the triumph of hope over experience.” </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>“President Obama’s foreign policy is a miserable disaster. This tone-deaf president negotiates from a position of weakness with enemies of the United States while turning on allies such as Israel and France. His foreign policy follies are notable for a series of bad decisions and miscalculations, including the removal of some sanctions against Iran, normalizing relations with Cuba and misjudging the terrorist threat facing America,” said Project 21 member <a href="http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?7un04-l4u36-sbsv989&_v=2" target="_blank">Michael Dozier, PA, Ph.D.</a> , a consultant on national security issues. “Obama’s do-nothing approach, as demonstrated once again by his comments in his State of the Union address, is essentially aiding and abetting the enemy. Obama doesn’t seem to have a plan to defeat ISIS, nor does he appear to have any serious consideration of what it might take to do so. His lead-from-behind philosophy destabilizes the Middle East and has alienated America’s allies to the point that not even James Taylor can convince them that they have a friend in the United States.”</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>“President Obama’s announced plan for government to pay for a community college education for all takers is not only a typical liberal approach to a problem, but it’s also an example of choosing political pandering over the efficient management of taxpayer dollars. The President was correct that the cost of higher education is too high, but throwing money at the problem and not considering better ways to solve it is typical for liberals,” said Project 21 member <a href="http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?7un04-l4u37-sbsv980&_v=2" target="_blank">Hughey Newsome</a> , a financial analyst. “Why not propose a smaller initiative to connect needy families to scholarships and grants? That would be a less costly solution for taxpayers. That alternative may not get the splash and poll numbers the President needs, but it would be the prudent thing to do.”</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Project 21 member <a href="http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?7un04-l4u38-sbsv981&_v=2" target="_blank">Derryck Green</a> , who writes a monthly report on the federal jobless numbers and the state of the economy for Project 21, added: “Mr. President, your economic plans for middle class aren’t working. If they were, more than 92 million Americans wouldn’t be out of the workforce – more than 8 million who left since you became president. The labor force participation is at a 37-year low. Job creation and wages are stagnant. In the last six years, more businesses died than were created. As a result, the middle class is shrinking. If your policies worked, you wouldn’t be relying on divisive political rhetoric about income inequality – inequality that has increased during your presidency – to perpetuate class warfare. And your solution to this problem you preside over is little more than wealth redistribution through increased taxation. Isn’t the record $739,482,000,000 in tax revenues in the first quarter of fiscal year 2015 enough? Mr. President, the nation needs more than the perpetual emptiness of your economic agenda.”<br /><br />Project 21 members were interviewed or cited by the media over 2,000 times in 2014, including on TVOne, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Fox News Channel, One America News Network, MSNBC, the Orlando Sentinel, Westwood One, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, SiriusXM satellite radio and 50,000-watt talk radio stations such as WHO-Des Moines, KOA-Denver, WGN-Chicago, WBZ-Boston and KDKA-Pittsburgh on topics such as civil rights, entitlement programs, the economy, voter ID, race preferences, education, illegal immigration and corporate social responsibility. Project 21 is currently participating in three cases under review by the U.S. Supreme Court and provided substantial commentary regarding the Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner judicial proceedings and their aftermaths. Project 21 defended voter ID laws at the United Nations. Its volunteer members come from all walks of life and are not salaried political professionals.</span></span></p>
<p><em><strong>Project 21, a leading voice of black conservatives for over two decades, is sponsored by the National Center for Public Policy Research (<a href="http://trk.cp20.com/Tracking/t.c?7un04-l4u39-sbsv982&_v=2" name="nationalcenterorg" id="ecxauto_assign_link_num_1" target="_blank">http://www.nationalcenter.org</a>).</strong></em></p>
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President Barack Obama is no Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Beyond Vietnam"
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/president-barack-obama-is-no-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-beyond
2015-01-20T15:33:43.000Z
2015-01-20T15:33:43.000Z
TheBlackList News
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/TheBlackListNews
<div><div id="Stretcher"><div class="ContentBlock"><div id="msgbody"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><div><a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/cynthia-mckinney/president-barack-obama-is-no-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-beyond-vietnam/10152679896756139">January 19, 2015 at 5:56pm</a></div><p>Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King's Statement Against the War in Vietnam: "Beyond Vietnam." Please know that in no way would Dr. King approve of President Barack Obama's targeted assassinations, drone warfare against innocent civilians, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and torture--all military policies begun by his predecessor, but expanded by him. Listen to Dr. King here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DOC1Ru2p8OfU&h=UAQE0pax1&s=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OC1Ru2p8OfU</a> <iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/OC1Ru2p8OfU?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0"></iframe></p><p>or read the text below and know in your heart and your mind that President Barack Obama is no Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.</p><p>Text of "Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence"<br />By Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. - April 4th, 1967<br />Speech delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1967, at a<br />meeting of Clergy and Laity Concerned at Riverside Church in New York City.<br /><br />I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience<br />leaves me no other choice. I join you in this meeting because I am in<br />deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has<br />brought us together: Clergy and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam. The recent<br />statement of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own heart and<br />I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A time comes<br />when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.<br /><br />The truth of these words is beyond doubt but the mission to which they call<br />us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth,<br />men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy,<br />especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great<br />difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own<br />bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover when the issues at hand seem as<br />perplexed as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict we are<br />always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty; but we must move on.<br /><br />Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have<br />found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must<br />speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our<br />limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely<br />this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of<br />its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth<br />patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of<br />conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among<br />us. If it is, let us trace its movement well and pray that our own inner<br />being may be sensitive to its guidance, for we are deeply in need of a new<br />way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.</p><p>Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own<br />silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called<br />for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have<br />questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns<br />this query has often loomed large and loud: Why are you speaking about war,<br />Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent? Peace and civil rights<br />don't mix, they say. Aren't you hurting the cause of your people, they ask?<br />And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of their concern,<br />I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean that the<br />inquirers have not really known me, my commitment or my calling. Indeed,<br />their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which they live.<br />In the light of such tragic misunderstandings, I deem it of signal<br />importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I believe<br />that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church -- the church in Montgomery,<br />Alabama, where I began my pastorate -- leads clearly to this sanctuary<br />tonight.</p><p>I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved<br />nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation<br />Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia.</p><p>Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and<br />the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it<br />an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons<br />of virtue, nor to overlook the role they can play in a successful resolution<br />of the problem. While they both may have justifiable reason to be suspicious<br />of the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent<br />testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful<br />give and take on both sides.</p><p>Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the NLF, but rather to<br />my fellow Americans, who, with me, bear the greatest responsibility in<br />ending a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.</p><p>The Importance of Vietnam</p><p>Since I am a preacher by trade, I suppose it is not surprising that I have<br />seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision.<br />There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection between<br />the war in Vietnam and the struggle I, and others, have been waging in<br />America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It<br />seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor -- both black and<br />white -- through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new<br />beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam and I watched the program<br />broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a<br />society gone mad on war, and I knew that America would never invest the<br />necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as<br />adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like some<br />demonic destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to see the<br />war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.</p><p>Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became<br />clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of<br />the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their<br />husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative to<br />the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been<br />crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to<br />guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest<br />Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel<br />irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die<br />together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same<br />schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a poor<br />village, but we realize that they would never live on the same block in<br />Detroit. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the<br />poor.</p><p>My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out<br />of my experience in the ghettoes of the North over the last three years --<br />especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate,<br />rejected and angry young men I have told them that Molotov cocktails and<br />rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest<br />compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most<br />meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked -- and rightly so --<br />what about Vietnam? They asked if our own nation wasn't using massive doses<br />of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes it wanted.<br />Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice<br />against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first<br />spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today -- my<br />own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government,<br />for the sake of hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot<br />be silent.</p><p>For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and<br />thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this further<br />answer. In 1957 when a group of us formed the Southern Christian Leadership<br />Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of America." We were<br />convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain rights for black<br />people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America would never be free<br />or saved from itself unless the descendants of its slaves were loosed<br />completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way we were agreeing with<br />Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who had written earlier:</p><p>O, yes,<br />I say it plain,<br />America never was America to me,<br />And yet I swear this oath--<br />America will be!</p><p>Now, it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for<br />the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If<br />America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read<br />Vietnam. It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes of<br />men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined that<br />America will be are led down the path of protest and dissent, working for<br />the health of our land.</p><p>As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were<br />not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964; and<br />I cannot forget that the Nobel Prize for Peace was also a commission -- a<br />commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for "the brotherhood<br />of man." This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances, but<br />even if it were not present I would yet have to live with the meaning of my<br />commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me the relationship of this<br />ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at<br />those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do<br />not know that the good news was meant for all men -- for Communist and<br />capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for white, for<br />revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my ministry is in<br />obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he died for them?<br />What then can I say to the "Vietcong" or to Castro or to Mao as a faithful<br />minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must I not share<br />with them my life?</p><p>Finally, as I try to delineate for you and for myself the road that leads<br />from Montgomery to this place I would have offered all that was most valid<br />if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all<br />men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race or<br />nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood, and because I<br />believe that the Father is deeply concerned especially for his suffering and<br />helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them.<br />This I believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem<br />ourselves bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper<br />than nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and<br />positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for<br />victims of our nation and for those it calls enemy, for no document from<br />human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.</p><p>Strange Liberators</p><p>And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to<br />understand and respond to compassion my mind goes constantly to the people<br />of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not of the<br />junta in Saigon, but simply of the people who have been living under the<br />curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them too<br />because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution there<br />until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries.<br />They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people<br />proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and<br />Japanese occupation, and before the Communist revolution in China. They were<br />led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American Declaration of<br />Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to recognize them.<br />Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of her former<br />colony.</p><p>Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were not "ready" for<br />independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western arrogance that<br />has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With that tragic<br />decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-determination,<br />and a government that had been established not by China (for whom the<br />Vietnamese have no great love) but by clearly indigenous forces that<br />included some Communists. For the peasants this new government meant real<br />land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.</p><p>For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of<br />independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their<br />abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam.</p><p>Before the end of the war we were meeting eighty percent of the French war<br />costs. Even before the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to<br />despair of the reckless action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our<br />huge financial and military supplies to continue the war even after they had<br />lost the will. Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic<br />attempt at recolonization.</p><p>After the French were defeated it looked as if independence and land reform<br />would come again through the Geneva agreements. But instead there came the<br />United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily divided<br />nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the most<br />vicious modern dictators -- our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants<br />watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly routed out all opposition, supported<br />their extortionist landlords and refused even to discuss reunification with<br />the north. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by U.S.<br />influence and then by increasing numbers of U.S. troops who came to help<br />quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was<br />overthrown they may have been happy, but the long line of military<br />dictatorships seemed to offer no real change -- especially in terms of their<br />need for land and peace.</p><p>The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in<br />support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept and without<br />popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received<br />regular promises of peace and democracy -- and land reform. Now they<br />languish under our bombs and consider us -- not their fellow Vietnamese<br />--the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the<br />land of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs<br />are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So<br />they go -- primarily women and children and the aged.</p><p>They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their<br />crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing<br />to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the hospitals, with at least<br />twenty casualties from American firepower for one "Vietcong"-inflicted<br />injury. So far we may have killed a million of them -- mostly children. They<br />wander into the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without<br />clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the<br />children, degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the<br />children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their<br />mothers.</p><p>What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we<br />refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do<br />they think as we test our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested<br />out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe?<br />Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim to be building? Is<br />it among these voiceless ones?</p><p>We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the<br />village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in<br />the crushing of the nation's only non-Communist revolutionary political<br />force -- the unified Buddhist church. We have supported the enemies of the<br />peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed<br />their men. What liberators?</p><p>Now there is little left to build on -- save bitterness. Soon the only solid<br />physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in<br />the concrete of the concentration camps we call fortified hamlets. The<br />peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such grounds<br />as these? Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must speak for them and<br />raise the questions they cannot raise. These too are our brothers.<br />Perhaps the more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those<br />who have been designated as our enemies. What of the National Liberation<br />Front -- that strangely anonymous group we call VC or Communists? What must<br />they think of us in America when they realize that we permitted the<br />repression and cruelty of Diem which helped to bring them into being as a<br />resistance group in the south? What do they think of our condoning the<br />violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can they believe in<br />our integrity when now we speak of "aggression from the north" as if there<br />were nothing more essential to the war? How can they trust us when now we<br />charge them with violence after the murderous reign of Diem and charge them<br />with violence while we pour every new weapon of death into their land?<br />Surely we must understand their feelings even if we do not condone their<br />actions. Surely we must see that the men we supported pressed them to their<br />violence. Surely we must see that our own computerized plans of destruction<br />simply dwarf their greatest acts.</p><p>How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less<br />than twenty-five percent Communist and yet insist on giving them the blanket<br />name? What must they be thinking when they know that we are aware of their<br />control of major sections of Vietnam and yet we appear ready to allow<br />national elections in which this highly organized political parallel<br />government will have no part? They ask how we can speak of free elections<br />when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military junta. And<br />they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we plan to help<br />form without them -- the only party in real touch with the peasants. They<br />question our political goals and they deny the reality of a peace settlement<br />from which they will be excluded. Their questions are frighteningly<br />relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth again and then<br />shore it up with the power of new violence?</p><p>Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence when it<br />helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know<br />his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic<br />weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and grow<br />and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the opposition.<br />So, too, with Hanoi. In the north, where our bombs now pummel the land, and<br />our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable<br />mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in Western<br />words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. In Hanoi<br />are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese and the<br />French, the men who sought membership in the French commonwealth and were<br />betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the colonial<br />armies. It was they who led a second struggle against French domination at<br />tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land they<br />controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a temporary<br />measure at Geneva. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem to prevent<br />elections which would have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power over a united<br />Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again.</p><p>When we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be<br />remembered. Also it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the<br />presence of American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the<br />initial military breach of the Geneva agreements concerning foreign troops,<br />and they remind us that they did not begin to send in any large number of<br />supplies or men until American forces had moved into the tens of thousands.<br />Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the<br />earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed that<br />none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched as<br />America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has surely<br />heard of the increasing international rumors of American plans for an<br />invasion of the north. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are<br />doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense<br />of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation of<br />the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a poor<br />weak nation more than eight thousand miles away from its shores.<br />At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last<br />few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless on Vietnam and to understand<br />the arguments of those who are called enemy, I am as deeply concerned about<br />our troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what we are<br />submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process that<br />goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy. We are<br />adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a short<br />period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are really<br />involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent them<br />into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely realize<br />that we are on the side of the wealthy and the secure while we create hell<br />for the poor.</p><p>This Madness Must Cease</p><p>Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God<br />and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose land<br />is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being<br />subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double price<br />of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam. I speak as a<br />citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have<br />taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great<br />initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.</p><p>This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one<br />of them wrote these words:</p><p>"Each day the war goes on the hatred increases in the heart of the<br />Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of humanitarian instinct. The<br />Americans are forcing even their friends into becoming their enemies. It is<br />curious that the Americans, who calculate so carefully on the possibilities<br />of military victory, do not realize that in the process they are incurring<br />deep psychological and political defeat. The image of America will never<br />again be the image of revolution, freedom and democracy, but the image of<br />violence and militarism."</p><p>If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the<br />world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. It will become clear<br />that our minimal expectation is to occupy it as an American colony and men<br />will not refrain from thinking that our maximum hope is to goad China into a<br />war so that we may bomb her nuclear installations. If we do not stop our war<br />against the people of Vietnam immediately the world will be left with no<br />other alternative than to see this as some horribly clumsy and deadly game<br />we have decided to play.</p><p>The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to<br />achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning<br />of our adventure in Vietnam, that we have been detrimental to the life of<br />the Vietnamese people. The situation is one in which we must be ready to<br />turn sharply from our present ways.</p><p>In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the<br />initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war. I would like to suggest<br />five concrete things that our government should do immediately to begin the<br />long and difficult process of extricating ourselves from this nightmarish<br />conflict:<br />1. End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.<br />2. Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action will<br />create the atmosphere for negotiation.<br />3. Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast<br />Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in<br />Laos.<br />4. Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has<br />substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any<br />meaningful negotiations and in any future Vietnam government.<br />5. Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in<br />accordance with the 1954 Geneva agreement.<br />Part of our ongoing commitment might well express itself in an offer to<br />grant asylum to any Vietnamese who fears for his life under a new regime<br />which included the Liberation Front. Then we must make what reparations we<br />can for the damage we have done. We most provide the medical aid that is<br />badly needed, making it available in this country if necessary.</p><p>Protesting The War</p><p>Meanwhile we in the churches and synagogues have a continuing task while we<br />urge our government to disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We<br />must continue to raise our voices if our nation persists in its perverse<br />ways in Vietnam. We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking<br />out every creative means of protest possible.</p><p>As we counsel young men concerning military service we must clarify for them<br />our nation's role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative of<br />conscientious objection. I am pleased to say that this is the path now being<br />chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma mater, Morehouse<br />College, and I recommend it to all who find the American course in Vietnam a<br />dishonorable and unjust one. Moreover I would encourage all ministers of<br />draft age to give up their ministerial exemptions and seek status as<br />conscientious objectors. These are the times for real choices and not false<br />ones. We are at the moment when our lives must be placed on the line if our<br />nation is to survive its own folly. Every man of humane convictions must<br />decide on the protest that best suits his convictions, but we must all<br />protest.</p><p>There is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us<br />all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war<br />in Vietnam. I say we must enter the struggle, but I wish to go on now to say<br />something even more disturbing. The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far<br />deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering<br />reality we will find ourselves organizing clergy- and laymen-concerned<br />committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala<br />and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be<br />concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these<br />and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end unless there is a<br />significant and profound change in American life and policy. Such thoughts<br />take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living<br />God.</p><p>In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him<br />that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past<br />ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which now has<br />justified the presence of U.S. military "advisors" in Venezuela. This need<br />to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the<br />counter-revolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why<br />American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Colombia and why<br />American napalm and green beret forces have already been active against<br />rebels in Peru. It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late<br />John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who<br />make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution<br />inevitable."</p><p>Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has<br />taken -- the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by<br />refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the<br />immense profits of overseas investment.</p><p>I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world<br />revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We<br />must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a<br />"person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and<br />property rights are considered more important than people, the giant<br />triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being<br />conquered.</p><p>A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and<br />justice of many of our past and present policies. n the one hand we are<br />called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside; but that will be only<br />an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho road must<br />be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and<br />robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more<br />than flinging a coin to a beggar; it is not haphazard and superficial. It<br />comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. A<br />true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of<br />poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas<br />and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in<br />Asia, Africa and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern<br />for the social betterment of the countries, and say: "This is not just." It<br />will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say:<br />"This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything<br />to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true<br />revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war: "This<br />way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human<br />beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows,<br />of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of people normally humane,<br />of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped<br />and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and<br />love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on<br />military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual<br />death.</p><p>America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead<br />the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing, except a tragic<br />death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the<br />pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is<br />nothing to keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands<br />until we have fashioned it into a brotherhood.</p><p>This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against<br />communism. War is not the answer. Communism will never be defeated by the<br />use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join those who shout war<br />and through their misguided passions urge the United States to relinquish<br />its participation in the United Nations. These are days which demand wise<br />restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not call everyone a Communist or<br />an appeaser who advocates the seating of Red China in the United Nations and<br />who recognizes that hate and hysteria are not the final answers to the<br />problem of these turbulent days. We must not engage in a negative<br />anti-communism, but rather in a positive thrust for democracy, realizing<br />that our greatest defense against communism is to take offensive action in<br />behalf of justice. We must with positive action seek to remove thosse<br />conditions of poverty, insecurity and injustice which are the fertile soil<br />in which the seed of communism grows and develops.</p><p>The People Are Important</p><p>These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against<br />old systems of exploitation and oppression and out of the wombs of a frail<br />world new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and<br />barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. "The people who<br />sat in darkness have seen a great light." We in the West must support these<br />revolutions. It is a sad fact that, because of comfort, complacency, a<br />morbid fear of communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the<br />Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the<br />modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven<br />many to feel that only Marxism has the revolutionary spirit. Therefore,<br />communism is a judgement against our failure to make democracy real and<br />follow through on the revolutions we initiated. Our only hope today lies in<br />our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a<br />sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and<br />militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the<br />status quo and unjust mores and thereby speed the day when "every valley<br />shall be exalted, and every moutain and hill shall be made low, and the<br />crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain."</p><p>A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that ourloyalties<br />must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop<br />an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in<br />their individual societies.</p><p>This call for a world-wide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond<br />one's tribe, race, class and nation is in reality a call for an<br />all-embracing and unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and<br />misinterpreted concept -- so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the<br />world as a weak and cowardly force -- has now become an absolute necessity<br />for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not speaking of some<br />sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the<br />great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is<br />somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This<br />Hindu-Moslem-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is</p><div>beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John:<br /><br />Let us love one another; for love is God and everyone that loveth is born of<br />God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. If<br />we love one another God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.<br />Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the day. We can no<br />longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of<br />retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising<br />tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and<br />individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold Toynbee<br />says : "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice of life<br />and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore the first<br />hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have the last<br />word."<br /><br />We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted<br />with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and<br />history there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still<br />the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected<br />with a lost opportunity. The "tide in the affairs of men" does not remain at<br />the flood; it ebbs. We may cry out deperately for time to pause in her<br />passage, but time is deaf to every plea and rushes on. Over the bleached<br />bones and jumbled residue of numerous civilizations are written the pathetic<br />words: "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that faithfully<br />records our vigilance or our neglect. "The moving finger writes, and having<br />writ moves on..." We still have a choice today; nonviolent coexistence or<br />violent co-annihilation.<br /><br />We must move past indecision to action. We must find new ways to speak for<br />peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing world -- a world that<br />borders on our doors. If we do not act we shall surely be dragged down the<br />long dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess<br />power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without<br />sight.<br /><br />Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter --<br />but beautiful -- struggle for a new world. This is the callling of the sons<br />of God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the<br />odds are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our<br />message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival<br />as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another<br />message, of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of<br />commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and though<br />we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human<br />history.<br /><br />As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated:<br />Once to every man and nation<br />Comes the moment to decide,<br />In the strife of truth and falsehood,<br />For the good or evil side;<br />Some great cause, God's new Messiah,<br />Off'ring each the bloom or blight,<br />And the choice goes by forever<br />Twixt that darkness and that light.<br />Though the cause of evil prosper,<br />Yet 'tis truth alone is strong;<br />Though her portion be the scaffold,<br />And upon the throne be wrong:<br />Yet that scaffold sways the future,<br />And behind the dim unknown,<br />Standeth God within the shadow<br />Keeping watch above his own.</div></div><br />-- <br /><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><b> <span>-----------------------------</span><span>-----------------------------+</span><br /><span>| __o CONTINENTAL CRITICAL MASS </span><br /><span>| _`\;,_ come ride with me</span><br /><span>| (*)/ (*) </span><br /><span>| </span><a href="http://bikepeace.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Bike4Peace</a><span> Across the USA </span><br /><span>------------------------------</span><span>-----------------------------+</span></b><br /><br /><a href="http://claritypress.com/McKinneyII.html" target="_blank">http://claritypress.com/McKinneyII.html</a><br /><a href="http://www.claritypress.com/McKinney.html" target="_blank">http://www.claritypress.com/McKinney.html</a><br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinneyOfficial" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinneyOfficial</a><br /><a href="http://www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/CynthiaSpeaks" target="_blank">http://www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/CynthiaSpeaks</a><br /><br />Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.<br /><br />"The Bush family has a political dynasty that the Kennedy family was not allowed to have." <br />Steve Cokely<br /><br /><div><div>"Be true to who you are. Don't worry how others may view you. Society is ill, infected with racism, homophobia, and violence. Always remember, it is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to such a profoundly sick society." Coretta Scott King</div></div></div>"We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.<br /><div><br /><span><font face="Verdana">"</font></span>The biggest weapon in the hands of the oppressors is the minds of the oppressed." Steve Biko<br /><br />"Make your spirit flexible, and nothing will ever bend you out of shape." Wisdom by Taro Gold</div></div></div></div>_______________________________________________<br />Updates mailing list<br />Updates@lists.allthingscynthiamckinney.com<br /><a href="http://lists.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/listinfo.cgi/updates-allthingscynthiamckinney.com">http://lists.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/listinfo.cgi/updates-allthingscynthiamckinney.com</a></div><div>~</div><ul><li><b><a href="https://lists.riseup.net/www/viewmod/theblacklist/a7d260362d5adf1f5bc2283a098cbb9b/msg00000.html">[hq2600] President Barack Obama is no Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: Listen to Dr. King's speech "Beyond Vietnam"</a></b>, <em>HQ, 01/20/2015</em></li></ul></div></div><p></p><div class="clearfooter"> </div><p></p><p></p><p></p></div>
OPEN LETTER TO Laura Washington of Sun-Time re: Black Agenda
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/open-letter-to-laura-washington-of-sun-time-re-black-agenda
2014-10-22T17:03:00.000Z
2014-10-22T17:03:00.000Z
Jimmy Lee Tillman, II
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/JimmyLeeTillmanII
<div><div>OPEN LETTER TO LAURA WASHINGTON REGARDING A BLACK AGENDA</div><p><span>Dear Ms. Washington:</span></p><div>This is in response to your article written in <a href="http://www.suntimes.com/news/washington/30121691-452/no-black-agenda-on-election-table.html#.VCr3OfldWVM" target="_blank">September 29, 2014 edition of the Sun-Times.</a> My name is Jimmy Lee Tillman, II and I am an independent republican candidate for the US House of Representatives 1st Congressional District with a strong African-American agenda. I have not received much media attention from the mainstream or Black press. </div><div>I have counted on the many voices in the grass root community to talk about my campaign. Some of them are afraid to speak out because of a fear of saying the "R" word. To those who remember, it was the Republican Party that enacted laws that freed the slaves and legislation that allowed us to have civil rights in this country. </div><div>It is important that our community has a voice in the Majority party to make certain that issues relating to us are addressed while President Barak Obama is still in office. Some of these issue are table ready and can be enacted immediately like the <b>Stop Militarization of Law Enforcement Act, HR 40, HR 93,</b>and <b>the re-authorization of 1965 Voting Rights Act.</b></div><div><b> </b></div><div>Other issue that I will bring to Capitol Hill includes a<b> Universal Police Code of Conduct</b>, <b>end the mandatory minimum sentencing requirement</b>, <b>reform of the immigration policy as it relates to Haiti, increase federal grant funding to HBCU's, support clemency for low level non violent drug offenders </b>; and<b> remove barriers that prevent non- violent felons from re-uniting with families, receiving Pell Grants or access to public housing.</b></div><div>African Americans in Illinois do have a choice of candidate with an announced Black agenda in the November election. I am not ashamed to be Black or advocate for Blacks. That is how I was raised. I am not ashamed to be a Black republican because I am in the company of Rev. Fredrick Douglass. WEB DuBois, Monroe Trotter, Martin Delaney, Dr.Martin Luther King, Jr., Oscar DePriest, and Edward Brooks.</div></div>
50 Years After Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" Speech—Amerikkka Is Still A Goddamn Nightmare! 3 Points and a Challenge in Response to Obama's Speech!
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/50-years-after-martin-luther-king-s-i-have-a-dream-speech
2013-08-30T16:16:02.000Z
2013-08-30T16:16:02.000Z
Carl Dix
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/CarlDix
<div><p><span><strong>1)</strong></span> Barack Obama stepped to the mic and spoke of the importance of non-violence … for oppressed people. When any representative of the U.S. ruling class preaches non-violence, they mean non-violence for those who might get in the way of their empire. Obama was referring to people who had suffered under Jim Crow segregation and lynch-mob terror. This from the commander-in-chief of the global Amerikkkan empire, who has presided over more than 280 drone missile strikes, maintains a torture chamber prison at Guantánamo Bay and presides over a criminal injustice system that is carrying out a slow genocide aimed at Blacks and Latinos. There might as well have been blood dripping from his jaws as he spoke.</p><p><span><strong>2)</strong></span> Obama said: "If we're honest with ourselves, we'll admit that during the course of 50 years, there were times when some of us, claiming to push for change, lost our way. The anguish of assassinations set off self-defeating riots." That's Bull Shit! People didn't lose their way in the '60s: In fact, they were beginning to find their way, coming to see that the horrors they were up against were built into the very fabric of this set-up and couldn't be reformed away. But they were met with vicious repression—leaders assassinated, activists dragged into court on trumped-up charges, and railroaded off to prison and more. In the face of all that, the movement of that period wasn't able to develop the understanding needed to do what was needed: make revolution and end the horrors Amerikkka enforced on humanity then and continues to enforce today.</p><p><span><strong>3)</strong></span> Many, many people are asking big questions about the unjust nature of this system, and this has forced Obama to speak to some of the problems Black people face today. But he doesn't get into the depths of these problems or what to do about them, except to say rely on him to work on them. For example, he didn't say a fucking word about the more than two million people warehoused in prison. He did say that the unemployment rate for African-Americans has consistently been about twice that of whites and that the wealth gap between Blacks and whites has GROWN over the past decades. But he talked about this like it had nothing to do with the system he presides over.</p><p><span><strong>THE CHALLENGE</strong></span>—There is a way to uproot all these horrors. It'll take Revolution—Nothing Less! I speak to this in depth in a recent talk: "<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/73295340" target="_blank">We Don't Need a New Civil Rights Movement—We Need Revolution!</a>" Watch that talk at <a href="http://www.revcom.us/revolution/current-en.html">revcom.us</a>. And dig into <a href="http://www.revcom.us/movement-for-revolution/BAE/film.html"><em>BA Speaks: REVOLUTION—NOTHING LESS!</em></a></p></div>
Why Black African Americans Should Care About Fracking?
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/why-black-african-americans-should-care-about-fracking
2013-07-22T20:41:45.000Z
2013-07-22T20:41:45.000Z
Charles E. Campbell
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/CharlesECampbell
<div><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="font-size-4"> Why Black African Americas Should Care About Fracking?</span></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="font-size-4">by</span></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span class="font-size-4">C. Earl Campbell DA 3rd, MSW</span></p><p style="text-align:center;"></p><p>The answer is clear. We too value clean air and water. Black African Americans have all too often been the victims of environmental racism caused by Corporate greed. Hydraulic fracturing is a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and toxic chemicals (poisons) are pumped underground to break apart Shale Rock in order to release the gas trapped there. Scientists are worried that the poisonous chemicals used in fracturing may pose a threat either underground or when waste fluids are handled and sometimes spilled onto the surface. This process is leaking millions of gallon into the nation’s underground fresh water reservoirs, which are linked to every state in the country. The immoral practices exhibited by both politicians and gas companies across the country are placing America at great risk while the Obama Administration stands idly by and does nothing to stop or regulate it.</p><p>Gas Companies lease the right to search for and extract natural gas from mostly White Land Owners and pay them lump-sum payments and a small percentage of the revenue from natural gas extracted from gas wells on their property. Large numbers of employment opportunities in rural jurisdictions are being created that allow politicians to claim credit for job creation. These land owners have few complaints, until their children or other family member suddenly fall ill; perhaps from the water supply and/or the methane leaked into the air. See the following link for a graphic illustration by Al Grandberg <a href="http://www.propublica.org/special/hydraulic-fracturing-national" target="_blank">http://www.propublica.org/special/hydraulic-fracturing-national</a></p><p>The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged with protecting the nation’s air and waterways. Lisa Jackson served as its Secretary under President Obama. She recently retired, rather than continue to fight against those in her party, including the President who are allowing the gas industry to continue a process that’s pumping millions of gallons of poison into gas shales that are spewing into the nation’s fresh water reserves. I believe that my renewable energy company has a solution that can meet the world’s energy demands. <a href="http://www.ahecEnergy.com" target="_blank">http://www.ahecEnergy.com</a></p><p>The world’s total fresh water supply is estimated to be 2.5%; and 70% of that water is in the form of groundwater. What happens when we don’t have clean water and droughts reduce the amount of foodstuffs? Fracking is a National Civil Rights issues. When these poisons seep into urban areas where a majority of Black African Americans live, it will be too late to join the fight against Fracking. If we cannot afford to buy large quantities of bottled water, we will die from contaminated tap water. Black African American Leaders are always a day late and ten dollars short when it comes to providing true leadership for their people. When our children and seniors become sick from breathing and drinking poisons only then will the matter appear on the radar of many Blacks in positions of leadership. By that time the matter may be so grave that we will be helpless to ameliorate the problem.</p><p>I encourage all Americans, but especially Black African Americans to watch the HBO Documentary entitled <a href="http://www.gaslandthemovie.com" target="_blank">Gasland</a> by Josh Fox to gain a better understanding about Fracking and demand that President Obama stop the Fracking Gas Industry from poisoning us all. If he continues to do nothing, his legacy will reflect that he failed to prevent the poisoning of an entire nation.</p><p></p></div>
President Obama: Please Call Home
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/president-obama-please-call-home
2013-02-13T06:40:46.000Z
2013-02-13T06:40:46.000Z
Raynard Jackson
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/RaynardJackson
<div><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;"><a style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;color:#444444;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:bold;vertical-align:baseline;" href="http://www.blackpressusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Raynard-Jackson17-873x1024.jpg"><img style="font:inherit;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;vertical-align:baseline;" class="alignnone wp-image-3346" alt="Raynard-Jackson17-873x1024" src="http://www.blackpressusa.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Raynard-Jackson17-873x1024.jpg" width="150" height="150" /></a></p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">By Raynard Jackson</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">NNPA Columnist</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;"> </p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">Last week, I criticized President Obama for his anemic, voiceless, almost whispered response to the tragic death of Hadiya Pendleton. She was a 15-year-old honor student who was shot and killed in Chicago two weeks ago after having performed at Obama’s inauguration.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">To my total amazement, there was a torrent of criticism from within the Black community about Obama’s tepid public statement about Hadiya’s death. I was proud that many in the Black community finally were angry enough at Obama to finally do something about it. I was happy and sad simultaneously.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">I was happy that Blacks stopped hiding their displeasure with Obama, but were totally embarrassed that they had to organize an online petition begging Obama to attend Hadiya’s funeral. This was not necessary for the Newtown killings. It’s almost as though Obama instinctively connected with that community—though there was some type of kindred spirit so much so that his reaction was as natural as his breathing.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">But, somehow Chicago and Hadiya’s death was different. There was no apparent instinctual connection, though her murder took place a mile from Obama’s house in Chicago. As is typical for this president, he couldn’t muster up the nerve to confront this issue directly, so he decided to send a group of surrogates to Hadiya’s funeral – First Lady Michelle Obama, Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. His actions speak so loud, I can’t hear anything he has to say about Hadiya’s tragic death.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">I find it just as amazing, that with all the emotion surround the issue of gun control, there is absolutely no talk about a very simple fact—the president, the governor, and the mayor are all liberal Democrats. Chicago has some of the most restrictive gun control laws in America, yet one of the highest levels of violent crime in the country.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">A discussion about gun control without a simultaneous discussion about controlling the heart of a man and the culture of a society is like watching a football game on the radio—it’s impossible.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">The NAACP gives image awards to singers, actors, and producers, etc. who dump toxins into our community and call it entertainment. The Congressional Black Caucus is afraid to force Obama to address the issue of values within the Black community because they want to be invited to the next White House’s Christmas party. And ministers want to be celebrities so they preach a “feel good” gospel that is devoid of values.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">How can we ask others to address issues within our own community that we are not willing to address ourselves?</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">Obama is like an absent father who criticizes his teenage son for how he turned out? Well, President Obama, your “son” doesn’t need another lecture from you; he needs your time, your love, your legislation to address the internal problems he and his family has.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">You find every opportunity to confer your support for a homosexual agenda to the point that you have compared it to the Civil Rights Movement, but in four years as president, you refused to use your presidential bully-pulpit to address the negative pathologies within the Black community or the racism in some sectors of the White community.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;">Did you think so little of Hadiya’s death that you sent surrogates to represent you? Could you not empathize with her family and the broader community enough to make the trip yourself? So, enough with the speeches, your family needs you at home.</p><p style="margin:0px 0px 5px;padding:5px 0px;border:0px;text-align:left;color:#666666;text-transform:none;line-height:20px;text-indent:0px;letter-spacing:normal;font-family:Arial;font-size:inherit;font-style:normal;font-variant:normal;font-weight:normal;word-spacing:0px;vertical-align:baseline;white-space:normal;background-color:#ffffff;"><em style="margin:0px;padding:0px;border:0px;line-height:inherit;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:italic;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;vertical-align:baseline;">Raynard Jackson is president & CEO of Raynard Jackson & Associates, LLC., a Washington, D.C.-based public relations/government affairs firm. He can be reached through his Web site, <a href="http://www.raynardjackson.com">www.raynardjackson.com</a>. You can also follow him on Twitter at raynard1223.</em></p></div>
Write President Obama to Protect UN Ambassador Susan Rice from Racist Republicans
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/write-president-obama-to-protect-un-ambassador-susan-rice-from-ra
2012-11-24T02:00:00.000Z
2012-11-24T02:00:00.000Z
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/GloriaDulanWilson
<div><p><br /><font color="#800000" size="5"><b><span> </span></b></font> <br /> By Gloria Dulan-Wilson <br /> <br /> Well, the Eagles have won the election, but the turkeys and buzzards are already circling to try to thwart the progress that has been made. According to the communique below from the CEO of the International Association for Women of Color Day, Susan Brooks, 97 racist Rep-ugh-blicans have written a letter to President Obama claiming that UN Ambassador Susan Rice is unfit to assume the role of Secretary of State when Hillary Clinton vacates the post. <br /> <br /> <span style="color:#990000;"><b><span style="font-size:large;">Of course, intelligent minds know that anything, or anyone, the Rep-ugh-blicans don't like must be good. Or they wouldn't be against them. What a great endorsement for Ambassador Rice!!!</span></b></span><br /> <br /> I'm supporting Susan Rice and think she would make an excellent Secretary of State. So I'm posting the articles on my blog and circulating it to you, as well, to write letters of support - as they have done - to President Obama endorsing Ms. Rice for the position. We have proven that our voices and our votes make a difference; we've stood together in the re-election of President Obama, we've sent some 49 newly elected Democrats to Washington, DC. <br /> <br /> We have the momentum of victory moving us forward, we have the proof that united we stand and we make things - great things - happen. It is absolutely imperative that we maintain the same momentum. Please make sure you circulate this to your friends, associates, relatives, and urge the to write President Obama as well. Our TeamWork makes the Dream Work.<br /> <br /> Stay Blessed &<br /> ECLECTICALLY BLACK<br /> Gloria Dulan-Wilson<br /> <br /> The letter from Susan Brooks follows below:</p><div id="outer-wrapper"><div id="wrap2"><div id="wrap3"><div id="main" class="main section"><div id="Blog1" class="widget Blog"><div class="blog-posts hfeed"><div class="date-outer"><div class="date-posts"><div class="post-outer"><div class="post hentry uncustomized-post-template"><div id="post-body-692840863414207938" class="post-body entry-content"><blockquote style="border-left:2px solid #1010ff;margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px;"><div id="yiv1011794812"><div><div class="yiv1011794812WordSection1"><div><div class="yiv1011794812MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Tahoma, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">97 House Republicans wrote President Obama that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice is unfit to be Secretary of State. 94% of Black Women voted for Obama.<br /> <i><b><br /></b></i></span> <i><b><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">Please read the article below and help rally millions of African American women to stop the racism plus sexism being hurled without reason against Susan Rice. Here is another blatant example that despite overwhelming participation as voters--the highest voting group for any candidate--yet until now it has benefitted others and not African American and other women of color. In the entire history of this country, women of color have been on the bottom of the country--the poorest, the most abused, the most excluded--and it is continuing. <br /> <br /> Today is the day for all of us, African American women, Latinas, Asian American women, Native American women, Pacific Island women and all those men of color and White women and White men who stand with us, recognizing that only women of color experience both racism and sexism. If we don't take a massive stand now, we will not have the opportunity later. <br /> <br /> It has taken 236 years to get to this point--the possibility of a woman of color, an African American woman who is not the token that the 97 Republicans want. Yes, Condeleeza Rice was Secretary of State under President Bush. She is educated and intelligent but minimized the racism in her own life and remains unknown to the majority of women of color because she was never our ally or champion.</span><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /> Now we are at a moment in history in which we, women of color, along with our true allies, can trump the pressure of 97 Republicans because of the 94% of African American women who voted for Obama--more than any other group (87% of African American men voted for Obama.) Our voices will count as much as our votes, if we speak out now. We must end the practice of taking our votes, our support, our money, our volunteer service and being given nothing in return that speaks directly to our most unique experience, the experience of racism plus sexism.</span> <span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /> <br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">This year during the presidential campaign, I wrote and called numerous candidates and political party representatives. Many others did the same. Neither Democrats nor Republicans had a single person willing to say the words "women of color" followed by the expression "racism plus sexism." As long as that condition continues, we will make no progress on anything else. With all the celebration of 4 new women senators, the fact that none were women of color was unmentioned. Only one African American woman (she was also the only woman of color ever in the Senate) served a single term in the US Senate in the entire history of this country. We are grossly underrepresented in the House of Representatives and not yet in every state legislature. We are without enough representation in the government at all levels with the result that we remain virtually enslaved. No slave owner, no overseer in the service of slavery, ever gave up their privileges, including life-death power over us without a struggle.</span></b></i> <span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /> <br /></span> <span style="color:#990000;"><i><b><span style="font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">No other people walk in our shoes. No one will save us if we don't save ourselves.No one who doesn't stand with us is our friend or ally. For these reasons, I am forwarding this letter to President Obama and to 100 other people tonight. If each of those people would do the same, across the country in every state, we would stop the efforts of too many Republicans to block access of women of color, as they have been committed to do against Obama. The irrationality of their efforts has led to people in 30 states filing lawsuits enabling their states to secede from the United States. When we stand up for Susan Rice, we will also have the strength to stop the starving of our people through reductions in food stamps and school lunches. We will also have the strength to stop the wars and the attacks on Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid and bring about jobs, education and services for all of the people of this country as we begin eclipsing the domination of the country by White males with the inevitable increases in diverse groups, making this country multicultural in fact. It is no longer just a concept. It is an idea whose time has come.</span></b></i></span><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">Suzanne Brooks, CEO</span><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">International Association for Women of Color Day </span><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><a href="http://www.womenofcolorday.com/" target="_blank">http://www.womenofcolorday.com</a></span> <span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /> <br /> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">WASHINGTON --</span> <i><strong><span style="color:#800080;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">A group of 97 House Republicans sent a letter to President Barack Obama on Monday, saying that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice misled the nation about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, making her unfit to be a candidate to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.</span></strong> <strong><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">{ Note: Susan Rice had no responsibility related to the events in Libya. She only answered questions in a manner consistent with the official information provided to here}</span></strong></i></div><div class="yiv1011794812MsoNormal"><i><strong><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span></strong> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">The letter, organized by South Carolina freshman Jeff Duncan, said Rice's "misleading statements" about the attack that led to the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans "caused irreparable damage to her credibility both at home and around the world.</span></i></div><div class="yiv1011794812MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">It was the latest GOP effort to single out Rice for the mixed signals sent out by the administration in the immediate aftermath of the September attack in Benghazi.</span></i></div><div class="yiv1011794812MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham have led criticism in the Senate, saying Rice is unqualified and untrustworthy and promising to block her nomination if Obama picks her to take over the State Department after Clinton steps down.</span></i></div><div class="yiv1011794812MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">Obama responded last week at a news conference, saying McCain and Graham should "go after me" if they want to criticize administration actions. He said Rice had nothing to do with the Benghazi affair and "to besmirch her reputation is outrageous."</span></i></div><div class="yiv1011794812MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">On Friday a dozen Democratic female members of the House also came to Rice's defense, saying the criticisms of her smacked of sexism and racism. R</span><span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">ice became a target when she went on the Sunday talk shows five days after the attack on the Benghazi diplomatic mission on Sept. 11 and said that, from the best information she had at the time, the attack was a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Muslim video and not a premeditated attack. That assessment later proved to be incorrect.</span></i></div><div class="yiv1011794812MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">Rice, the House Republicans said in their letter, "is widely viewed as having either willfully or incompetently misled the American public in the Benghazi matter." As a result, they said, "we believe that making her the face of U.S. foreign policy in your second term would greatly undermine your desire to improve U.S. relations with the world and continue to build trust with the American people."</span></i></div><div class="yiv1011794812MsoNormal"><i><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><br /></span></i> <span style="color:#000000;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;"><i>Clinton has not formally announced when she is leaving her post and Obama has not said who might succeed her, although Rice has often been named as a leading candidate. Senior-level positions must be confirmed by the Senate</i>.</span><span style="color:#1f497d;font-family:Arial, 'sans-serif';font-size:10pt;">" ###</span></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote><span style="color:#990000;"><i><b>Please pass this information on - circulate it nationally and locally to make sure that we don't allow ourselves to be lulled into a false sense of security. As we all know, we can't leave any gaps in our vigilance - you leave one crack open, the Rep-ugh-blicans have a way of oozing their way in and taking over. We now know that we have stay alert, involved and empowered.</b></i></span><br /> <br /> Stay Blessed &<br /> ECLECTICALLY BLACK<br /> Gloria Dulan-Wilson</div><div class="post-footer"><div class="post-footer-line post-footer-line-1"><span class="post-author vcard">Posted by <span class="fn"><a title="author profile" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/10697937958373924179"><span>Gloria Dulan-Wilson</span></a></span></span> <span class="post-timestamp">at <a class="timestamp-link" title="permanent link" href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/2012/11/write-president-obama-to-protect-un.html"><abbr class="published" title="2012-11-23T20:23:00-05:00">8:23 PM</abbr></a></span> <span class="post-icons"><span class="item-action"><a title="Email Post" href="http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=8661755859413500477&postID=692840863414207938"><img class="icon-action" alt="" src="http://img1.blogblog.com/img/icon18_email.gif" width="18" height="13" /></a></span> <span class="item-control blog-admin pid-893759891"><a title="Edit Post" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8661755859413500477&postID=692840863414207938&from=pencil"><img class="icon-action" alt="" src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" width="18" height="18" /></a></span></span><div class="post-share-buttons goog-inline-block"></div></div><div id="comments" class="comments"><div class="comment-form"><a id="comment-form" name="comment-form"></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div id="footer-wrapper"><div id="footer" class="footer section"><div id="HTML1" class="widget HTML"><h2 class="title">Gloria Dulan-Wilson Blog</h2><div class="widget-content"><strong>Gloria Dulan-Wilson New York Author, Writer & Speaker</strong> <br /> <br /> <strong>Gloria Dulan-Wilson Blog © 2009-2014</strong><br /> <br /> <strong>Copyright 2009 Gloria Dulan-Wilson Media, LLC</strong></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
Having An Attitude of Gratitude, or Happy Thanksgiving
https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/having-an-attitude-of-gratitude-or-happy-thanksgiving
2012-11-22T13:00:00.000Z
2012-11-22T13:00:00.000Z
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
https://www.theblacklist.net/members/GloriaDulanWilson
<div><div id="yiv1652217035"><div id="yiv1652217035outer-wrapper"><div id="yiv1652217035wrap2"><div id="yiv1652217035wrap3"><div id="yiv1652217035header" class="yiv1652217035header yiv1652217035section"><div id="yiv1652217035Header1" class="yiv1652217035widget yiv1652217035Header"><div id="yiv1652217035header-inner"><div class="yiv1652217035titlewrapper"><h1 class="yiv1652217035title"> </h1></div></div></div></div><div id="yiv1652217035sidebar-wrapper"><div id="yiv1652217035sidebar" class="yiv1652217035sidebar yiv1652217035section"><div id="yiv1652217035Profile1" class="yiv1652217035widget yiv1652217035Profile"><div class="yiv1652217035widget-content"><img class="yiv1652217035profile-img" alt="My Photo" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9HiRqRhD2pk/S5rhtBSaC9I/AAAAAAAAAC8/AUlXfdUVyGo/S220/Gloria+Dulan-Wilson" width="80" height="60" /><br /> By Gloria Dulan-Wilson<br /> •<br /> Every year some one of our politically savvy Black activist leaders will come up with question of whether or not we should be celebrating Thanksgiving. And this year is no different. That weird question reared its ugly head in the guise of a joke, and there was the nervous laughter to open guffaws around the room, which set me thinking:<br /> <br /> "Hmmmm...don't we - individually and collectively - have something to be thankful for in our lives? Are we now so cynical that even when things go right we keep looking for something bad to happen. Can we be grateful for another day of life (remember the song, "I just want to celebrate another day of living"?) Wonder what would happen if we all assumed an attitude of gratitude, as opposed to the overwhelmingly ascerbic, snarky tones we've been imparting as of late?"<br /> <br /> Metaphysically speaking - according to the LAWS OF ATTRACTION & ASSUMPTION - you get back what you send out. If you send out gratitude, you generally attract more blessings and more things to be grateful for. If you continuously send out complaints, suspicion and negativity, that's what you'll keep getting. Even as little kids we were taught to say "grace" before eating - a form of being thankful for having food to eat. I.e. a form of gratitude for being provided for. <br /> <br /> I think we are the only country that actually sets aside an entire day to show our gratitude. Interestingly enough it was started by Pilgrims who were so grateful for being out from under the thumb of oppressive British rule, for having survived the rigors of a perilous passage to what was then the New World; and for having been befriended by the original Americans (a/k/a Indians - "natives" in caucasian parlance), who showed them how to survive here. The first Thanksgiving celebrations actually included all the people. They all sat down and all shared in the bounty.<br /> <br /> Now, today, we got let's get the meal done so we can go shop for Black Friday Bargains. We got family feuds; who hates whom, who's doing what to whom; who cooks better than whom, or who can't cook at all. It can run the gamut soup to a 25 lb. Turkey, depending on your budget.<br /> <br /> I say it's time we put the THANKS back into Thanksgiving, and show our gratitude for loving, being loved; the fact that we are not only blessed to be here another day, but have another day to be blessed and do things differently. Smile folks, we re-elected the Best President Since Roosevelt! Smile, we don't have to deal with "Mitt-Twit Romney". Smile - Good things are coming your way now. You're twice blessed if you have your family and friends around you. Triple the blessings if they are also loved ones who love you in return.<br /> <br /> Smile if you have grandchildren who love and respect you and are well behaved. Be grateful if you still have all your teeth and can enjoy the good food prepared for this special day. Let's send up a prayer for those who suffered Hurricane Sandy, as well as gratitude for the help they are receiving so they can rebuild their homes and their lives. And, yes, you can likewise be grateful if you were spared the tragedy.<br /> <br /> If there's something that you don't have, that you want, be grateful that it's on its way; if there's something that you don't want that you have, release it in peace and send it on its way.<br /> <br /> We have to learn to celebrate every good thing that happens to us, every accomplishment, every victory not just on Thanksgiving Day, but each time it occurs. That's one thing I learned from my Japanese friends that I try to practice regularly - celebrate now, so the good can keep coming.<br /> <br /> So in answer to my comedic friend, "Yes! We owe it to ourselves to celebrate Thanksgiving. No matter who we are or where we are - especially we Black people, though - we can look back and see how far we've come, and look forward and see how close we are, and give thanks in advance for smooth roads and bountiful blessings in our lives from this moment on (as long as we do what we are supposed to do, individually and collectively. The only way we can go from this point on is up.<br /> <br /> So have a happy, joyous, wonderful, prosperous, blessed fun filled and loving Thanksgiving - and don't over spend on Black Friday - even though they're calling it Black, make sure you spread some of that Green with the Black merchants and business owners so they'll have something to be thankful for too. <br /> <br /> Stay Blessed &<br /> ECLECTICALLY BLACK<br /> Gloria Dulan-Wilson</div></div></div></div><div id="yiv1652217035main" class="yiv1652217035main yiv1652217035section"><div id="yiv1652217035Blog1" class="yiv1652217035widget yiv1652217035Blog"><div class="yiv1652217035blog-posts yiv1652217035hfeed"><div class="yiv1652217035date-outer"><div class="yiv1652217035date-posts"><div class="yiv1652217035post-outer"><div class="yiv1652217035post yiv1652217035hentry yiv1652217035uncustomized-post-template"><div class="yiv1652217035post-footer"><div class="yiv1652217035post-footer-line yiv1652217035post-footer-line-1"><span class="yiv1652217035post-author yiv1652217035vcard">Posted by <span class="yiv1652217035fn"><a title="author profile" href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/10697937958373924179" target="_blank"><span>Gloria Dulan-Wilson</span></a></span></span> <span class="yiv1652217035post-timestamp">at <a class="yiv1652217035timestamp-link" title="permanent link" href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/2012/11/having-and-attitude-of-gratitude-or.html" target="_blank">6:57 AM</a></span> <span class="yiv1652217035post-icons"><span class="yiv1652217035item-action"><a title="Email Post" href="http://www.blogger.com/email-post.g?blogID=8661755859413500477&postID=1030847799867362136" target="_blank"><img class="yiv1652217035icon-action" alt="" src="http://img1.blogblog.com/img/icon18_email.gif" width="18" height="13" /></a></span> <span class="yiv1652217035item-control yiv1652217035blog-admin yiv1652217035pid-893759891"><a title="Edit Post" href="http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=8661755859413500477&postID=1030847799867362136&from=pencil" target="_blank"><img class="yiv1652217035icon-action" alt="" src="http://img2.blogblog.com/img/icon18_edit_allbkg.gif" width="18" height="18" /></a></span></span><div class="yiv1652217035post-share-buttons yiv1652217035goog-inline-block"></div></div><div class="yiv1652217035post-footer-line yiv1652217035post-footer-line-2"><span class="yiv1652217035post-labels">Labels: <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/Black%20People" target="_blank">Black People</a>, <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/Blessings" target="_blank">Blessings</a>, <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/gratitude" target="_blank">gratitude</a>, <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/Indians" target="_blank">Indians</a>, <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/Japanese" target="_blank">Japanese</a>, <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/Law%20of%20Assumption" target="_blank">Law of Assumption</a>, <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/Law%20of%20Attraction" target="_blank">Law of Attraction</a>, <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/metaphysical" target="_blank">metaphysical</a>, <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/Pilgrims" target="_blank">Pilgrims</a>, <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/President%20Obama" target="_blank">President Obama</a>, <a href="http://gloria-dulan-wilson.blogspot.com/search/label/Thanksgiving" target="_blank">Thanksgiving</a></span></div><div class="yiv1652217035post-footer-line yiv1652217035post-footer-line-3"><br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>