us - Blogs - TheBlackList Pub2024-03-28T17:58:19Zhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/us"If You Don't Like It Here, Then Leave!".https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/if-you-don-t-like-it-here-then-leave-2017-09-29T05:30:00.000Z2017-09-29T05:30:00.000ZNana Baakan Agyiriwahhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/NanaBaakanAgyiriwah<div><div style="text-align:left;" dir="ltr"><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><img width="320" class="align-left" style="font-family:'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-f2mUQoxOC5w/Wc3SnTVl81I/AAAAAAACrxw/Pi01bK_OZo4yXiUFNpY0Zefjv5FumsW_wCLcBGAs/s400/If%2BYou%2BDon%2527t%2BLike%2BIt%2BHere%252C%2BThen%2BLeave%2521.png?width=320" alt="If%2BYou%2BDon%2527t%2BLike%2BIt%2BHere%252C%2BThen%2BLeave%2521.png?width=320" /></div><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><span style="font-size:large;font-weight:bold;">"If You Don't Like It Here, Then Leave!"</span></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">One of the strangest things that I hear from folks these days who seem to believe that I have a problem with living in the US, is this,</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">"If you don't like it here, then leave, go back to Africa or some other Socialist Country."</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">I say to them.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">My response, "can all those folks who told me to leave the US, pay for my airline ticket to Ghana?"<br /></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="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GzhmRGJsAFI?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></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;"><span style="font-size:14pt;">So let's first start with the definition of Socialism.</span></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Definition of socialism</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;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">1: any of a various economic and political theories advocating collective or any of governmental</span> ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Too bad we have people living in the United States who are unaware of the way their country operates. There are so many governmental fingers in every aspect of the production and distribution of goods. Particularly as it relates to rules and regulations to the point where the government can confiscate your business, regulate your business, demand you get a business license, shut your business down, deny you access to trading with other businesses, foreign and domestic, prevent you from competing in certain markets, force you to comply to governmental regulations in the manner you handle your business, or prevent you from even establishing a business at all, due to the many laws, regulations, codes, and fines that a person may incur. In the US the energy services are provided by big corporations who become monopolies over time, squeezing out the small guy. If this country was ever purely capitalist, that has certainly changed over the past hundred years.</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;">2a :a system of society or group living in which there is no private property</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;">Is there really any private property in this country? How can that be when there is the concept of Imminent Domain and Asset forfeiture? In other words, if the city, state or federal government decides to run a highway through your neighborhood, you can no longer claim a hold on your property as the government own the ground your property sits on, and the bank owns the mortgage.</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;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AOnQJyH4hTY/Wc3TyShyYOI/AAAAAAACr0E/jsTL8vlQo4cQNdiZ2_VEYN9Ps8GJgGZwgCLcBGAs/s1600/Eminent%2BDomain%2BDefined.jpg"><img width="320" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AOnQJyH4hTY/Wc3TyShyYOI/AAAAAAACr0E/jsTL8vlQo4cQNdiZ2_VEYN9Ps8GJgGZwgCLcBGAs/s320/Eminent%2BDomain%2BDefined.jpg" border="0" alt="Eminent%2BDomain%2BDefined.jpg" /></a></div>So let's look at this concept of <span style="font-weight:bold;">Eminent Domain.</span></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">"Federal, state, and local governments may take private property through their power of eminent domain or may regulate it by exercising their <a href="http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Police+Power"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Police Power</span></a>. The <a href="http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/fifth+amendment"><span style="font-weight:bold;">Fifth Amendment</span></a> <span style="font-size:14pt;">to the U.S. to the U. S. Constitution requires the government to provide just compensation to the owner of the private property to be taken. A variety of property rights are subject to eminent domain, such as air, water and landrights. the government takes Private property through condemnation proceedings. Throughout these proceedings, the property owner has the right of due process."</span></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 style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sgH1rmTmeog/Wc3TvifyXSI/AAAAAAACry4/fEYg7BP0eccG0UOgIS27_PJte6dxn5r0wCEwYBhgL/s1600/A-F%2Bimages.jpg"><img src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sgH1rmTmeog/Wc3TvifyXSI/AAAAAAACry4/fEYg7BP0eccG0UOgIS27_PJte6dxn5r0wCEwYBhgL/s1600/A-F%2Bimages.jpg" border="0" alt="A-F%2Bimages.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-weight:bold;">"Asset forfeiture </span>or asset seizure is a form of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confiscation">confiscation</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assets">assets</a> by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_(law)">state</a>. It typically applies to the alleged proceeds or instruments of crime. This applies, but is not limited, to terrorist activities, drug related crimes, and other criminal and even civil offenses. Some jurisdictions specifically use the term "confiscation" instead of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forfeiture_(law)">forfeiture</a>. The alleged purpose of asset forfeiture is to disrupt criminal activity by confiscating assets that potentially could have been beneficial to the individual or organization."</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">In other words, whenever the state which is government, decides to seize an individuals assets they have the right to do so based on their conclusions that they are within their right to do so. So out the window goes the notion of "private property" and a nicely veiled socialistic policy conscripted within the laws of this nation.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">We can also take a look at the IRS which is a governmental agency that has the right to "seize" the product of a citizen of the US's labor through taxation. In other words, your earnings, or assets, are not totally yours but are taken from you without your consent.</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;">b :a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">This is a hot topic for many especially with Google, YouTube, Facebook who on their face appear to be "private" companies but have the right to determine, in collusion with the government, what is real news and safe to allow on their platforms. If these entities were truly free, they would not have to comply for fear of facing any penalties, loss of revenues or pressure from governmental agencies, lobbyists and the like.</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 style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mi-dJjhVG-A/Wc3UBb9q3dI/AAAAAAACr74/XESdrlCtwLsjNcZpwIMO0ivePcCdQ1gowCEwYBhgL/s1600/censorship-on-Social-Networking.jpg"><img width="320" height="194" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Mi-dJjhVG-A/Wc3UBb9q3dI/AAAAAAACr74/XESdrlCtwLsjNcZpwIMO0ivePcCdQ1gowCEwYBhgL/s320/censorship-on-Social-Networking.jpg" border="0" alt="censorship-on-Social-Networking.jpg" /></a></div>We also have the FCC which regulates what comes over the airwaves via radio and television broadcasting. They spend a great deal of time determining and re-determining what is fit to air and what is not according to governmental regulations. Thus we have government regulations effecting the means of production, making government in effect, in control of production.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">At the risk of making this part of the video too long, I simply ask citizens of the United States to take a good hard look at how their government runs their lives and then make a honest determination if this is or is not ALREADY a socialist country.</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;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vc1RFa4io9Q/Wc3T1Ixt8LI/AAAAAAACr1I/R_rmT_NqPckl6X70aUNWpVICx6q9JCLggCEwYBhgL/s1600/Ghanaflag.gif"><img src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vc1RFa4io9Q/Wc3T1Ixt8LI/AAAAAAACr1I/R_rmT_NqPckl6X70aUNWpVICx6q9JCLggCEwYBhgL/s1600/Ghanaflag.gif" border="0" alt="Ghanaflag.gif" /></a></div>Man, 50 years ago, black folks may have been insulted when they told our parents to go back to Africa, where you came from. Heck, I heard that when I was a little girl in Catholic School, but honestly, nowadays, all we need is an airline ticket. And Ghana ain't too expensive to live there. One USD is = to approximately 5 of theirs mas o menos. They are very hospitable, will feed you before they feed themselves, they love Americans, and as long as you are humble and respectful, they will let you stay with them. They are wonderful people. But my first choice of all time is getting off this Godforsaken planet altogether, but Scottie ain't been gettin my messages. These folks don't know, they ain't saying nothing slick, telling me to get out the country! They ain't hurt none of my feelings.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">The other thing I don't understand about this mentality, is why does leaving the US have to even be an option? </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">If folks are not happy here, how will leaving make things better? or make "<span style="font-weight:bold;">you"</span> happier, or maybe make "<span style="font-weight:bold;">them"</span> happier? I'm confused.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">I mean, I don't like living here for a lot of reasons, but there are some folks who live here who don't like it and want to change it. Bless their little fatally optimistic hearts. </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">So leaving is simply not an option for them, they want to change it! </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Telling someone to leave as an answer to someone's discontent about how things are ran here, just tells me that this person doesn't want things to change, at least not while things are going in their favor. </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">But one day, they too may become discontent. Will leaving be an option for them? Funny thing is, where would they go? They're so stubborn about being an American, where would they go?? </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Bottom-line; we are all in the same boat, I don't know how many of us are of pure blood. White folks have mixed blood to, from various different heritages, so which one would they choose, and there are some of them that, just like black folks, don't even know where their ancestors came from passed their lineage going back to the settlers. </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 style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GfN0RmO9Ukk/Wc3UDSKpyzI/AAAAAAACr74/CCDk8-O0IfsrHf3wpo92vX9wYx0aD1atwCEwYBhgL/s1600/donald-trump-nfl-sons-of-bitches.jpg"><img width="320" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GfN0RmO9Ukk/Wc3UDSKpyzI/AAAAAAACr74/CCDk8-O0IfsrHf3wpo92vX9wYx0aD1atwCEwYBhgL/s320/donald-trump-nfl-sons-of-bitches.jpg" border="0" alt="donald-trump-nfl-sons-of-bitches.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-weight:bold;">Colin Kaepernick’s Protest Shows Concern For “Legitimate Issues” and he</span> wants to kneel during the playing of the National Anthem. His supporters who share his concerns want to kneel too. Folks are angry, up in arms calling him and others "son of bitches" all in the same breath calling themselves Christian. And I wonder how many of them stand in their viewing rooms at home? Not to mention the number of folks who are in the stands and don’t stand during the National Anthem. Besides, is it in his contract that he should stand for the pledge of allegiance?</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">These people are so hyped about him not complying and standing but they claim that they don't worship Idols, but isn't pledging allegiance to a flag, Idol worship, particularly if folks are willing to die for the flag. What does it symbolize to them if not something they have given honor, respect, admiration, recitation, saluting, folding in a certain way, reverence, etc….. They don't give that much reverence to their churches. These Christians also rally around statues, hoist their flags on Holidays, and then go to Church on Sundays where the preacher preaches against idolatry, magic, witchcraft and soothsaying.</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;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f8U4MFFiVM4/Wc3T0Z6YtAI/AAAAAAACr78/BAHKhaJ86rEMUQpFG6bN5kSSzsUfiVJngCEwYBhgL/s1600/Flag%2BWorship-%2BA%2BPatriot%2527s%2BFalse%2BIdol.jpg"><img width="320" height="183" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-f8U4MFFiVM4/Wc3T0Z6YtAI/AAAAAAACr78/BAHKhaJ86rEMUQpFG6bN5kSSzsUfiVJngCEwYBhgL/s320/Flag%2BWorship-%2BA%2BPatriot%2527s%2BFalse%2BIdol.jpg" border="0" alt="Flag%2BWorship-%2BA%2BPatriot%2527s%2BFalse%2BIdol.jpg" /></a></div>So, let's look at the definition of "idol"</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">"an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship. </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">synonyms: icon, representation of a god, image, effigy, statue, figure, figurine, fetish, totem; a person or thing that is greatly admired, loved, or revered. synonyms: hero, heroine, star, superstar, icon, celebrity."</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Your Christian God says set no thing beside me, that includes all of the above. Therefore, my question is, are you a Christian? then what's with the idolatry? Flag, statues, etc. And dying for one?? yeah that sounds like idolatry to me.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Then a Patriot says in defense of this, what I call "idol worship",</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">"And Jesus answering said unto them, Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. And they marveled at him. -Mark 12:17 KJV"</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">And my response to this is,</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ul9IOVALqEk/Wc3UHwbc4KI/AAAAAAACr74/PBXbaaPgO1884z8wAlX3dMrZnQ1wpNraQCEwYBhgL/s1600/mark-12_17.jpg"><img width="320" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ul9IOVALqEk/Wc3UHwbc4KI/AAAAAAACr74/PBXbaaPgO1884z8wAlX3dMrZnQ1wpNraQCEwYBhgL/s320/mark-12_17.jpg" border="0" alt="mark-12_17.jpg" /></a></div>"Excuse me? Caesar? the brutal-dictator? Didn't he have something to do with getting Jesus Killed? I have no respect for that man. How can anyone who claims to be a Christian? What about morals? If government says give me all your guns, are you gonna render them too?"</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">There must be some serious cognitive dissonance going on here, when these people speak so highly of a flag, die for it, honor it, and at the same time say it is not idol worship. The flag is a symbol, it's an idol, it's an effigy, it represents something that is behind it, it has power to illicit tears and battle cries, it has had songs written for and about it. It sails on all governmental buildings in the US. There are laws against the desecration of it. It must never hit the ground, and when a famous government official dies, it flies at half mast. I mean what else can it be but an idol??</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 style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HU0DHYxBLFk/Wc3UCwKicdI/AAAAAAACr74/xVHPVXdqMucoKZRMl_E2a55pVNSiFht_wCEwYBhgL/s1600/died%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bflag.jpg"><img width="200" height="149" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HU0DHYxBLFk/Wc3UCwKicdI/AAAAAAACr74/xVHPVXdqMucoKZRMl_E2a55pVNSiFht_wCEwYBhgL/s200/died%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bflag.jpg" border="0" alt="died%2Bfor%2Bthe%2Bflag.jpg" /></a></div>Then they say, we stand because of the men and women who fought for our freedoms in this country. And I'm like what freedoms? The men and women defending this country have been duped, they are protecting opium and oil fields and the petro dollar. They are slaves who have been brainwashed. The argument is mute, if you say freedoms are not granted by governments, they are given by God, then how can anyone take them away and why do you need to fight for them? I'm confused.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">"Who the frick and frack dies for a flag?"</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">And those poor soldiers are not protecting my freedoms either. The cause they are dying for is far from noble.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">No one can grant me freedoms!</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ky_qcct3sQ4/Wc3UCDaVuVI/AAAAAAACr5E/a19yoZcCPUAurhpvyZ-x7BfIBX-m8MCuACEwYBhgL/s1600/constitution.jpg"><img width="320" height="212" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ky_qcct3sQ4/Wc3UCDaVuVI/AAAAAAACr5E/a19yoZcCPUAurhpvyZ-x7BfIBX-m8MCuACEwYBhgL/s320/constitution.jpg" border="0" alt="constitution.jpg" /></a></div>No one has that kind of power over my life. I need no Constitution to grant me anything. If the Constitution can grant something then it can take it away. That's too much power for anyone to have over another, unless they are Almighty God. They're not, just government.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Besides, if freedom is so free why are there so many laws? You gotta have a license to do just about anything in this country, fish, hunt, swim, marry, divorce, teach, practice medicine, law, social work, cook, clean, deliver the mail, drive, be an electrician, plumber, carpenter..etc., how is that freedom?</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Don't folks realize that what we have here are considered privileges and that they can be taken away at anytime? Besides, those soldiers, at a rate of 20 or so per day, are killing themselves, for a lie, or should I say many lies. </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">This and much more should make everyone take to their knees. </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">The idea that I want to stay here under this intolerable regime is laughable to me, as they think they are insulting me or threatening me by telling me to "Go Back to Your Homeland" and let me keep mine.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">I just don't get it, how in the world did they come to that conclusion that this country is their homeland, or better yet, that it is more their homeland than mine. </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">So that's why I say, give me an airline ticket and I will be out of your hair in a heart beat!! For sure.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">And while we are on the subject of <span style="font-weight:bold;">Colin Kaepernick let's take a look at this recent article in Atlanta Black Star entitled</span></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;"><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T2gDnaifPbw/Wc3T_Iz23MI/AAAAAAACr74/dYHtcw8OsbAolIMILvUy2ZStzZcbWSBnQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Why_Jesse_Williams_Calling_National.png"><img width="400" height="268" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-T2gDnaifPbw/Wc3T_Iz23MI/AAAAAAACr74/dYHtcw8OsbAolIMILvUy2ZStzZcbWSBnQCEwYBhgL/s400/Why_Jesse_Williams_Calling_National.png" border="0" alt="Why_Jesse_Williams_Calling_National.png" /></a></div></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">"Why Jesse Williams Calling National Anthem a ‘Scam’ Isn’t Too Far Fetched"</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">Count Jesse Williams as one of the proponents of protesting the national anthem at sporting events. The <a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/07/03/alice-walker-responds-to-jesse-williams-speech-with-poem-about-white-fear-of-blackness/">political activist</a> and actor <a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/12/21/staywoke-20-celebs-refused-remain-silent-2016-racism-injustice/">spilled some truths</a> about the long-time tradition that could blow the minds of self-proclaimed patriots. As it turns out, those boycotting the NFL over athletes kneeling during the anthem may want to read up on where that tradition came from to begin with.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">“It’s important to realize that this anthem thing is a scam,” Williams says on “MSNBC Live” Sunday, Sept. 24. “This is not actually part of football. This was invented in 2009 [by] the government paying the NFL to market military recruitment to get more people to go off and fight wars to die. This has nothing to do with [the] NFL, or American pastime, or tradition. This is to get boys and girls to go fly overseas and go kill people. They’re marketing. They’re pumping millions and millions of dollars into the NFL to get us to put on a pageant in front of the NFL football games to get you to go off and fight.”</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 style="margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;" href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RvvR1ohFLDc/Wc3Tx5OE8FI/AAAAAAACr78/yQGB7MR5pyINrQJM02nXiOFrK-l9XIg0gCEwYBhgL/s1600/Defense_Department_Paid_sports_Teams.png"><img width="400" height="270" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RvvR1ohFLDc/Wc3Tx5OE8FI/AAAAAAACr78/yQGB7MR5pyINrQJM02nXiOFrK-l9XIg0gCEwYBhgL/s400/Defense_Department_Paid_sports_Teams.png" border="0" alt="Defense_Department_Paid_sports_Teams.png" /></a></div><br />Williams is referring to a 2015 <a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/09/19/defense-department-paid-sports-teams-53m-taxpayer-dollars-play-anthem-stage-over-the-top-military-tributes/">Senate report</a> that detailed the Department of Defense spent $53 million “on marketing and advertising contracts with sports teams between 2012 and 2015.” A huge chunk of that money — $10 million — went toward the NFL. Contracts for “paid patriotism,” as the report referred to the findings, called for national anthem performances, field-sized American flags, on-field color guards and tributes to wounded war heroes. The DOD admitted that the contracts were meant for recruitment, but didn’t indicate how the activities impacted recruitment.</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">“Given the immense sacrifices made by our service members, it seems more appropriate that any organization with a genuine interest in honoring them, and deriving public credit as a result, should do so at its own expense and not at that of the American taxpayer,” the report said. “Americans deserve the ability to assume that tributes for our men and women in military uniform are genuine displays of national pride, which many are, rather than taxpayer-funded DOD marketing gimmicks.”</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">This divide and conquer strategy that is in full swing is so ridiculous and counter productive. </div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-size:14pt;margin:0in;">We are all crabs in this here barrel, and they don't care about none of us. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/texas?hc_location=ufi">#Texas</a><a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/florida?hc_location=ufi">#Florida</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/mexico?hc_location=ufi">#Mexico</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/california?hc_location=ufi">#California</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/beruda?hc_location=ufi">#Beruda</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/virginislands?hc_location=ufi">#VirginIslands</a> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/puertorico?hc_location=ufi">#PuertoRico</a><br /> <br /><b>MORE READING:</b><br /><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t2kqHuOniv0?wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div style="text-align:center;"></div><div style="font-family:cambria;margin:0in;"><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Why Jesse Williams Calling National Anthem a ‘Scam’ Isn’t Too Far Fetched</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2017/09/25/jesse-williams-calling-national-anthem-scam-isnt-far-fetched/">http://atlantablackstar.com/2017/09/25/jesse-williams-calling-national-anthem-scam-isnt-far-fetched/</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_forfeiture">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asset_forfeiture</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">Defense Department Paid Sports Teams $53M of Taxpayer Dollars to Play Anthem, Stage Over-the-Top Military Tributes</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><a href="http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/09/19/defense-department-paid-sports-teams-53m-taxpayer-dollars-play-anthem-stage-over-the-top-military-tributes/">http://atlantablackstar.com/2016/09/19/defense-department-paid-sports-teams-53m-taxpayer-dollars-play-anthem-stage-over-the-top-military-tributes/</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><a href="http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Police+Power">http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Police+Power</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><a href="http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/fifth+amendment">http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/fifth+amendment</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forfeiture_(law)">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forfeiture_(law)</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confiscation">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confiscation</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">5 Reasons It Doesn’t Make Sense to Tell People, “If you don’t like America, leave!”</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"><a 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href="http://www.brownpoliticalreview.org/2015/10/public-needs-abuse-eminent-domain-for-economic-development/">http://www.brownpoliticalreview.org/2015/10/public-needs-abuse-eminent-domain-for-economic-development/</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">White House says it’s okay for Trump to call citizens ‘sons of b*tches’</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/25/white-house-says-its-okay-for-trump-to-call-citizens-sons-of-btches-6955238/">http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/25/white-house-says-its-okay-for-trump-to-call-citizens-sons-of-btches-6955238/</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">How people are living a week after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico</div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/26/how-people-are-living-a-week-after-hurricane-maria-hit-puerto-rico-6957283/">http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/26/how-people-are-living-a-week-after-hurricane-maria-hit-puerto-rico-6957283/</a></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"></div><div style="font-family:Cambria;font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;margin:0in;">The U.S. military is the single greatest institutional contributor to the growing natural disasters intensified by global climate change.</div><br /><div style="color:#666666;font-family:Cambria;margin:0in;"><a href="http://climateandcapitalism.com/2015/02/08/pentagon-pollution-7-military-assault-global-climate/">http://climateandcapitalism.com/2015/02/08/pentagon-pollution-7-military-assault-global-climate/</a></div></div></div></div>Prepping for World Warhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/prepping-for-world-war2014-08-09T14:50:28.000Z2014-08-09T14:50:28.000ZJunious Ricardo Stantonhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/JuniousRicardoStanton<div><p><b> From The Ramparts</b></p><p> Junious Ricardo Stanton</p><p><b> Prepping for World War</b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><i> “Russia is being placed at the top of the United Kingdom's defence threat list, on a par with terrorism and cyber warfare, it has been revealed. Speaking to IHS Jane's on 4 August, Rory Stewart, chair of the House of Commons Defence Committee, said: ‘Until recently threats from Russia have been rated at the bottom level Tier 3. They are now seen and will soon be graded as the top level, Tier 1.’”</i> <a href="http://www.janes.com/article/41618/russia-to-top-uk-threat-assessment-levels">http://www.janes.com/article/41618/russia-to-top-uk-threat-assessment-levels</a>?</p><p> Western warmongers are ramping up their propaganda and their overt preparations for war. An article in <b><i>IHS Janes Defence Weekly</i></b> a military and intelligence publication that is a key player in the military industrial complex, reported that Britain has placed Russia at the top of their threat list. Using disinformation to justify their rush to war IHS Janes actually implied Russia had seized Crimea. This blatant lie was published in a publication that purportedly is about “military and political intelligence”. Just like the US media which is demonizing Vladimir Putin and Russia IHS Janes is not so subtlety beating the drums for war and increased military spending.</p><p> “Following the committee's 22 July Defence and Security Review Report on the implications of the Ukraine conflict and the seizure of Crimea, there has been a complete turnaround in UK government defence policy, with the adoption of "95% of the committee's recommendations", he said. Stewart said that assurances by the UK's previous defence secretary, Philip Hammond, that UK forces could fully meet all contingencies have also been brushed aside. He added that there are difficulties involved in this policy change and the turnabout in priorities, as Baltic deterrence and protection requires air defence and submarine defence in particular. The recent 'Steadfast Jazz' exercise in the Baltic states in November 2013 involved 6,000 troops, whereas exercises in the 1980s and those currently staged by Russia involve hundreds of thousands, he said. On 2 August UK Prime Minister David Cameron wrote to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, ahead of the alliance's September summit, recommending that NATO should transform its rapid reaction capabilities into a 21st century update of the ACE Mobile Force, a move which will require expense and commitment from all member countries, including the UK.” Russia to Top UK Threat Assessment Levels by Bruce Jones HIS Janes Defence Weekly <a href="http://www.janes.com/article/41618/russia-to-top-uk-threat-assessment-levels">http://www.janes.com/article/41618/russia-to-top-uk-threat-assessment-levels</a>?</p><p> Meanwhile Britain’s partner in crime, the United States, is ramping up its rhetoric demonizing Putin and calling for additional economic and trade sanctions against Russia. The US has pressured the European Union to act against their own best interests by issuing sanctions against Russia, the nation that supplies most of Europe with natural gas and oil. “A stark preview of what could be ahead was prepared last month by <a href="http://www.total.com/en/corporate-profile-global-energy-operator" title="www.total.com">Total</a>, one of Europe’s largest energy companies. The unpublished study, provided by a company official, shows that by scrambling, Europe could cope with a cutoff of Russian gas exports through Ukraine this winter. But it would be severely affected by a halt in Russian deliveries. The Total study estimated that about <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-07-17/u-dot-k-dot-gas-rises-to-2-week-high-on-new-russia-sanctions" title="www.businessweek.com">30 percent of Europe’s natural gas comes from Russia</a> and that more than half this volume is transported through Ukraine. If Russia interrupted these Ukraine flows, the study forecast that it would be “feasible” to compensate through adjustments. These would include: use of gas stored in such countries as Italy and Hungary; transport of Russian gas through two alternative corridors, the<a href="http://www.gazprom.com/about/production/projects/pipelines/yamal-evropa/" title="www.gazprom.com">Yamal pipeline through Belarus</a> and a Baltic line known as <a href="http://www.gazprom.com/about/production/projects/pipelines/nord-stream/" title="www.gazprom.com">Nord Stream</a>; increased gas shipments from Norway, the Netherlands and North Africa; and increased imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).” The Risk of Tougher Sanctions on Russia by David Ignatius <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-tougher-sanctions-on-russia-could-make-things-very-chilly-in-europe/2014/07/17/eac68f52-0df6-11e4-8341-b8072b1e7348_story.html">http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-tougher-sanctions-on-russia-could-make-things-very-chilly-in-europe/2014/07/17/eac68f52-0df6-11e4-8341-b8072b1e7348_story.html</a></p><p> What will these Bozos tell their people if or when Putin cuts off the flow of natural gas and oil to Europe next winter? The sanctions against Russia are also hurting the US and EU businesses but the ruling oligarchs don’t care. “MOSCOW/DONETSK Ukraine (Reuters) - Russia will ban all imports of food from the United States and all fruit and vegetables from Europe, the state news agency reported on Wednesday, a sweeping response to Western sanctions imposed over its support for rebels in Ukraine. The measures will hit consumers at home who rely on cheap imports, and on farmers in the West for whom Russia is a big market. Moscow is by far the biggest buyer of European fruit and vegetables and the second biggest importer of U.S. poultry. RIA quoted the spokesman for Russia's food safety watchdog VPSS, Alexei Alexeenko, as saying all European fruit and vegetables and all produce from the United States would be included in a ban drawn up on the orders of President Vladimir Putin to punish countries that imposed sanctions on Russia.” Russia bans all U.S. food, EU fruit and vegetables in sanctions response; NATO fears invasion – Reuters <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/nato-fears-ground-invasion-russia-masses-troops-ukraine-142159887.html"><b>http://news.yahoo.com/nato-fears-ground-invasion-russia-masses-troops-ukraine-142159887.html</b></a></p><p> In the modern world, sanctions, trade and currency wars are precursors to shooting wars. The so called BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South African) nations have just launched an international development bank that will rival the IMF, World Bank and Bank of International Settlements. Their bank along with the BRICS intention to trade amongst themselves and other commercial partners using currencies other than the US dollar poses a direct global challenge to US petro dollar hegemony. That will not be tolerated. Just like the US deposed and murdered Saddam Hussein for daring to circumvent the US dollar by using the Euro to sell his oil and Muammar Gaddafi for creating an African gold based currency respectively, the BRICS are courting a similar US/NATO response. But Russia and China do not appear to be afraid of the US and its allies. </p><p> US politicians doing the bidding of the international banksters are actually setting us up for World War Four. I say WW IV because all the proxy wars and covert operations from the end of WWII to now (Korea, Vietnam, Kosovo, Afghanistan in the ‘80s and the anti-colonial liberation struggles in Africa, Asia and Latin America) were/are really global in scope and could be construed as an ongoing world war. The big difference is those were proxy wars; if the psychopathic Neo-Cons, warmongers and banksters are not reined in, the US, its NATO and Israeli allies could be rumbling head to head against Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and an assortment of other nations.</p><p> As we speak, the US and NATO are moving military assets into the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Europe. Russia is moving ships from its Pacific fleet and Baltic into the Mediterranean Sea and moving troops along its border with Ukraine. China is making moves in the South China Sea and there have been near provocations between Chinese and Japanese ships and planes. China submarines have been spotted off the US West coast and Russian bombers have flown close to US and European airspace probably to test US and NATO reaction time and tactics. Both sides are conducting joint military exercises and rattling their swords and sabers as the US jingoistic propaganda intensifies.</p><p> Meanwhile the situation in Iraq is deteriorating and the West’s attempts to topple the Assad government in Syria have been thwarted (thanks to Russian and Iranian logistical and tactical support) for the time being, not a good sign if the US actually thinks it can win a conventional war against Russia. The US and NATO left a trail of disaster and destabilization in Libya and is causing havoc in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. The other partner in the Western Axis of Evil, Israel, is slaughtering civilians in Gaza using US jets and bombs; which will not endear either country to the world, despite unconditional support by the US propaganda machine. Israel is losing the PR battle in the court of public opinion thanks to the Internet and alternative media that are showing the devastation and carnage in Gaza. </p><p> The crazies want a war; in their minds war is the only way to preserve their dollar/banking hegemony and predatory lifestyle. All the moves they are making point to war. The ruling elites never learned how to share and their failed economic policies, greed and avarice have brought the West to the brink of fiscal ruin and economic collapse. The system as it stands is unsustainable, they know it but they don’t care! The question is, will we passively go along with their plans or will we determine to save the planet and humanity from these psychopaths and murderers? </p><p> </p><p> -30-</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p></div>THE GENOCIDAL FRUITS OF U.S. AFRICA POLICYhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/the-genocidal-fruits-of-u-s-africa-policy2012-07-13T07:00:00.000Z2012-07-13T07:00:00.000Zhakimhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/hakim<div><div id="node-13142" class="node odd full-node node-type-ba_radio"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><b>A Black Agenda Radio commentary by <a href="http://BlackAgendaReport.com" target="_blank">Glen Ford</a> ~<br /></b></font></div><div class="node odd full-node node-type-ba_radio"><div class="content"><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"> </font></font></p><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"> Rwanda’s crimes against Congo are the subject of another United Nations report. The U.S., Rwanda’s ally and protector, “is also liable for the genocide in Congo.” Washington has placed its guns and money in the hands of an aggressive, minority regime – which is not surprising. “U.S. policy in Africa has almost always been to choose chaos in those places where it cannot rule directly.”</font></font></p><p> </p><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="4"><b><font color="#280099">The Genocidal Fruits of U.S. Africa Policy</font></b></font></font></p><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><b>A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford</b></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#2323DC">“<font face="Arial, sans-serif"><i>Why does the United States place its strategic interests in the hands of the elite of a warlike minority in the heart of Central Africa?”</i></font></font></p><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">The United Nations has finally released </font></font><font color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/07/u-n-report-links-rwanda-to-congolese-violence/"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">a report</font></font></a></u></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"> detailing Rwanda’s latest destabilization of the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. As usual, the delay was caused by the United States, which routinely blocks criticism of its military and political client-state, Rwanda, which has since 1996 been deeply complicit in the death of 6 million Congolese. The United States is, therefore, also liable for the genocide in Congo – the largest mass killings since World War Two.</font></font></p><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">Apologists for U.S. policy in Central Africa are fond of using the word “strategic.” The United States, they say, arms and protects Rwanda because America has “strategic” business and defense interests in the Congo’s vast mineral deposits. The infinitely corrupt Congolese strongman </font></font><font color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobutu_Sese_Seko"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">Mobutu Sese Seko</font></font></a></u></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"> used to be Washington’s attack dog in Africa. But, in the mid-90s, the Americans opted to back an invasion of eastern Congo by the Tutsi-minority regimes in Rwanda and Burundi, and the other U.S. client-state in the region, Uganda. Washington chose to put its strategic interests in the hands of a small but highly militarized people, the Tutsi, rather than help the Congolese government maintain control over its own territory.</font></font></p><p align="center"><font color="#2323DC">“<font face="Arial, sans-serif"><i>A formula for endless war.”</i></font></font></p><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">Why would the United States choose such allies to protect its so-called “strategic interests.” On the face of it, this would seem like a formula for endless war in the region. Even before the mass killings of Tutsis in 1994, they never comprised more than 15 percent of the population in Rwanda or in Burundi, where Hutu people make up the vast majority. Having lorded it over the Hutus during and prior to the arrival of European colonialism, and having</font></font><font color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burundi_genocide"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">massacred</font></font></a></u></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"> many Hutu in </font></font><font color="#0000FF"><u><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">both nations</font></font></a></u></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"> after independence, the Tutsi are not loved by their fellow countrymen. They have since become a primary source of destabilization and genocide in Congo. So the question is: Why does the United States place its strategic interests in the hands of the elite of a warlike minority in the heart of Central Africa? Why would Washington invest millions in minority-ruled governments of tiny countries like Rwanda and Burundi, which can only be sources of permanent instability in the region? Don’t the Americans understand that support for tiny, aggressive elites guarantees continued chaos?</font></font></p><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">The answer is: Yes, they do understand. Since independence, U.S. policy in Africa has almost always been to choose chaos in those places where it cannot rule directly. And chaos brings genocide. The U.S. reasons that, at any given moment, chaos contains many options, an infinity of possibilities for superpower action – whereas stable regimes with broad popular support provide less room for the foreigner to maneuver, less possibilities for a quick change of policy or regime.</font></font></p><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">Which is one reason that China looks good to Africa and to much of the rest of the formerly colonized world. The Chinese do not foment coups, or encourage whole regions to become saturated in arms. They just want to do business in a stable environment. That’s why China has surpassed the U.S. as Africa’s trading partner, and why U.S. imperialism will ultimately be defeated. Because nobody wants someone around who spreads chaos and mass death everywhere he goes.</font></font></p><p><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">For Black Agenda Radio, I’m Glen Ford. On the web, go to BlackAgendaReport.com.</font></font></p><p><font color="#280099"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"><i>BAR executive editor Glen Ford can be contacted at</i></font></font></font><font color="#0000FF"><u><a href="mailto:Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com"><font color="#280099"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2">Glen.Ford@BlackAgendaReport.com</font></font></font></a></u></font><font color="#280099"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="2"><i>.</i></font></font></font></p><div class="field field-type-text field-field-listen"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item odd"><span id="swftools-swftools-4fffbd1ae33c8" class="swftools swftools-wpaudio swftools-wpaudio-processed"><br /></span></div></div></div></div></div></div>Phila Assoc Black Journalist members get valuable U.S. Census data use traininghttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/phila-assoc-black-journalist2011-02-09T05:36:46.000Z2011-02-09T05:36:46.000ZBaba Bob Shipmanhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/BabaBobShipman<div><div class="xg_headline xg_headline-img xg_headline-2l"><div class="tb"><h1>Phila Assoc Black Journalist members get valuable U.S. Census data use training</h1><ul class="navigation byline"><li><a class="nolink">Posted by </a><a href="http://philly1.com/profile/Rmship">Bob Shipman</a><a class="nolink"> </a></li></ul></div></div><div class="xg_module_body"><div class="postbody"><p>Facts are important in life. They are especially valuable in the field of journalism. Tonight the PABJ held their monthly meeting and was trained in the fine art of the use of United States Department of Commerce , U. S. Census Bureau data interpretation systems and tools. </p><p> The group held it's monthly meeting at the Philadelphia Inquire / Daily News bldg. 400 N. Broad streets and had a presentation by the Partnership Specialist of the Philadelphia region. Ms. Jenaye M. Flamer share the tools and the collection systems of the department. Ms. Flamer covers the region that encompasses the states of New York all the way to DC. <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828523323,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" width="640" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828523323,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="3828523323?profile=original" /></a></p><p> This information also has data about black businesses. The membership president Sarah Glover, Dr. Germaine Edward, Melanie burney, Donald hunt, Manny Smith, Denise James, Chris Murray, Denise Clay, J. Wyatt Mondesire, Porsha Grant, Earl Harvey and a host of undergrads and other professionals discussed PABJ business and was treated to a excellent training.</p><p> </p><p>Jenaye provided the group with the latest information on the Census data releases and an overview of the 2010 Census data products. This information will be of great use to journalist and media professionals, both of whom may use this information in their reporting media workflow. </p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}3828523294,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-right" width="750" src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828523294,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="3828523294?profile=original" /></a></p><p>"The PABJ membership is nearing a all time high", stated Melanie Burney, during her membership, budget and fundraising report. if you check the website you would be surprised as to whom is a member both locally and nationally. </p><p>Chris Murray gave a passionate report about plans to continue meeting with the regions Philadelphia Media network managers. "the lack of diversity continues to be evident in the press boxes locally." Also the lack of diversity representation in the administration and management circles of the major media outlets is glaring. I personally have been involved in the efforts of breaking the glass ceiling of the media world. Being a person of color, and getting press clearance and access is a daunting task, even if you are certified with media and press credentials. My work is used but being hired as staff is a merry go round, long hours, to compete seems to mean little to the decision makers in the Philadelphia region. I have found having college credentials and decades of experience does not guarantee access, amazing. I and others have had to resort to social media to get our work published. Being deaf and disabled does not help matters any in my case, but , I will continue as I feel the next generation will benefit from my struggles for equality.</p><p> </p><p>While the big bucks go to others is very disheartening to broadcast media students across our region.</p><p>I have watched many people attempt to make a living in the field and give up and change careers as the jobs offered are to few and far in between. Philadelphia is fortunate to have a experienced group like the PABJ to continue to give hope and advocate for the future media personal that are still in high schools. I wonder if and when will it change. The small radio stations are being shut out of the airways as the large corporations gobble them up. The struggle continues...</p><p>The group is fresh off a Social media event, that had two panels that outlined the procedures and resources that journalists and media professionals needed to maintain the excellence that the field requires. The group has a number events scheduled for the 2011 calendar.</p><p> </p><h2>Mission</h2><ul><li>Strengthen ties among blacks in all media.</li><li>Sensitize the media to biased news coverage.</li><li>Promote diversity in newsrooms.</li><li>Sponsor scholarships for black high school students interested in journalism.</li><li>Honor excellence and achievement in the media.</li><li>Offer workshops to enhance the skills of black journalists.</li><li>Offer workshops that teach the community how to gain access to the media.</li><li>Expand job opportunities for black journalists.</li></ul><p> </p><p><strong>Philly-area journalist, media professionals and students-</strong></p><p>You are invited to a networking mixer below:</p><ul><li><strong>Philly Media Mixer "Let's Meet and greet!" Friday , February 18, 2011</strong> @ the Pen and Pencil Club 1522 Latimer street- Philly,7-9pm or until. Cash bar and dinner menu available, limited street parking but parking lot next door</li><li><strong><a target="_blank" href="http://www.nabj.org/event/id/120047/2011-NABJ-Annual-Convention-and-Career-Fair.htm">The Association of Black Journalist Convention & Career fair</a></strong> comes to Philly August 3-7, 2011. Let's get acquainted!</li><li><strong>PABJ Black History Forum: Celebrating the History of the black Quarterback in Philadelphia</strong> is being scheduled as well.</li><li><strong>PABJ recognizes exceptional future journalist with scholarship awards.</strong> In 2011 , PABJ will award multiple scholarships with at least one $2,500 and additional $1,000 awards to be distributed at the discretion of the Scholarships committee. Deadline : Postmark by April 21, 2011, </li><li>PABJ- attn: Scholarship- P.O. Box 8232- Philadelphia, PA 19101</li><li>Questions: pabj-scholarship@gmail.com</li></ul><p>Visit PABJ <a target="_blank" href="http://www.pabj.org/">www.pabj.org</a> , is a 501(c)(3) organization </p><h1><a target="_blank" href="http://www.pabj.org/about.html">About PABJ</a></h1><p>The Philadelphia Association of Black Journalists (PABJ) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1973 by journalists concerned about the lack of black journalists in the media and the dearth of coverage of the black community.</p><h1>Become a PABJ Sponsor!</h1><p>Reaffirm your organization's commitment to diversity and assist PABJ with its community outreach programs and college scholarship program. Your sponsorship goes directly toward assisting these initiatives. For more information: please visit <a>PABJ's 2010 Corporate Sponsorship Package</a> <br /><br />Corporate sponsorship contact: Sarah Glover, <a href="mailto:president@pabj.org">president@pabj.org</a><br />Small business/individual/raffle contact: Germaine Edwards,<a href="mailto:secretary@pabj.org">secretary@pabj.org</a><br />215-854-4224 PABJ phone line </p><p> </p></div></div></div>Constitution Solutionhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/constitution-solution2010-02-08T02:55:33.000Z2010-02-08T02:55:33.000Zjo wescotthttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/jowescott<div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma"><u><strong>The Problem:</strong></u></font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma">90% of voting age Americans do not vote in bi-annual congressional primaries, and at least 90% do not know the name of the U.S. House rep. from their own local district. The United States is supposed to be a Constitutional Representative Republic, however widespread lack of participation has created a viscous cycle of dysfunctional government leading to further rejection of government by the people. This is only made worse by those in the media who refuse to treat this as a serious crisis, instead referring to all people as "voters", even in districts were only 10-20% of the people actually vote for their representatives.</font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma">The United States ranks last among industrialized nations in terms of participation by the people. Voter turnout in midterm general elections averages less than 38%. Voter turnout for Presidential elections ranges between 50 and 60%, but the President is given very little power according to the Constitution. So, despite years of work by voter advocates such as Rock the Vote, U.S. citizens vote the least in the most important elections and vote more in the less important ones. The TV and newspapers make the Presidential elections into media events that perpetuate a false left/right paradigm and further distract us from self-governing.</font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma"><u><strong>The Concept of Self Governing - All Politics is Local:</strong></u></font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma">Freedom comes with responsibility, and only the people can be responsible for fixing things in their own government. Refusing to get organized or work with-in the system, because of the belief that the system is hopelessly rigged and broken, becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and only leads to further control by powerful limited interests.</font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma">In Washington, the U.S. House is the most important governing body, because the people are supposed to directly elect their 437 representatives every two years (the Constitution does not ask people to directly elect the President). In addition to legislative powers, the U.S. House has control over the money in the Treasury, they have the final approval of all Executive branch appointments, and they have the sole power to impeach the President.</font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma">State and local governments are also very important. The governor or legislature of a state has much more impact on one's life than the U.S. President. As an example of the backwards nature of American politics, over 60% of Virginians voted in the 2008 Presidential election, but turnout in Virginia dropped to less than 40% in the last state election.</font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma"><strong><u>The Solution:</u></strong></font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma">The solution is very simple: We must start to acknowledge the correlation between widespread lack of participation by the people and the rise of dysfunctional partisan government that is not working for the people.</font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma">Start by getting informed. Find out who your current U.S. House rep. is. Go to your local election web site and also look up your governor, your state rep. and your mayor. Find out who is running against them in the next election. Get organized and join campaigns where people going door to door can defeat the big money candidates who waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on useless mailers that end up in a landfill.</font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma"><br /></font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><font face="Tahoma">Vote! Get right up in their business.</font></span></div></div>ROBERT KENNEDY SPEAKS OUT- GOV. COVER-UP DANGERS OF VACCINEShttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/robert-kennedy-speaks-out-gov2009-07-22T09:00:00.000Z2009-07-22T09:00:00.000ZNgone Awhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/NgoneAw<div><p style="text-align:left;"><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/UQcIV3KnF3yJKJ72vlfZZM4NDS6JGrsTPYgRoHDjWhlugF8GbAaUa*efOwwoeirV3fcD5yrNdOxtPS4SGRv8ztXql0tgpqmS/needle14475.jpg" alt="" width="143" height="107" /></p><br /><p style="text-align:left;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828511203,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" width="550" height="436" /></p><br />REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM?<br /><br />Famous World TrialsROBERT KENNEDY SPEAKS OUT ALARMING DATA ON THE DANGER OF VACCINES COVERED UP BY GOV.<br /><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14510">www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14510</a><br /><a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14487">www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14487</a><br />Global Research Editor's noteWe bring to the attention of our readers this 2005 article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. published by Rollingstone.com.The article sheds light on the collusion between Big Parma and the US government and the dangers associated with vaccines produced by major pharmaceutical companies. This article is of particular relevance to the current debate on the H1N1 swine flu virus and plans by the WHO, The Obama Administration and Big Pharma to develop a swine flu vaccine.The article by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. documented "the government's efforts to conceal alarming data about the dangers of vaccines."For a review of Global Research articles on the H1NI Swine Flu Pandemic, click here.Michel Chossudovsky, July 23, 2009--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Robert F. Kennedy Jr. investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandalIn June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Georgia. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The agency had issued no public announcement of the session -- only private invitations to fifty-two attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, the top vaccine specialist from the World Health Organization in Geneva and representatives of every major vaccine manufacturer, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth and Aventis Pasteur. All of the scientific data under discussion, CDC officials repeatedly reminded the participants, was strictly "embargoed." There would be no making photocopies of documents, no taking papers with them when they left.The federal officials and industry representatives had assembled to discuss a disturbing new study that raised alarming questions about the safety of a host of common childhood vaccines administered to infants and young children. According to a CDC epidemiologist named Tom Verstraeten, who had analyzed the agency's massive database containing the medical records of 100,000 children, a mercury-based preservative in the vaccines -- thimerosal -- appeared to be responsible for a dramatic increase in autism and a host of other neurological disorders among children. "I was actually stunned by what I saw," Verstraeten told those assembled at Simpsonwood, citing the staggering number of earlier studies that indicate a link between thimerosal and speech delays, attention-deficit disorder, hyperactivity and autism. Since 1991, when the CDC and the FDA had recommended that three additional vaccines laced with the preservative be given to extremely young infants -- in one case, within hours of birth -- the estimated number of cases of autism had increased fifteenfold, from one in every 2,500 children to one in 166 children.Even for scientists and doctors accustomed to confronting issues of life and death, the findings were frightening. "You can play with this all you want," Dr. Bill Weil, a consultant for the American Academy of Pediatrics, told the group. The results "are statistically significant." Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado whose grandson had been born early on the morning of the meeting's first day, was even more alarmed. "My gut feeling?" he said. "Forgive this personal comment -- I do not want my grandson to get a thimerosal-containing vaccine until we know better what is going on."But instead of taking immediate steps to alert the public and rid the vaccine supply of thimerosal, the officials and executives at Simpsonwood spent most of the next two days discussing how to cover up the damaging data. According to transcripts obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, many at the meeting were concerned about how the damaging revelations about thimerosal would affect the vaccine industry's bottom line. "We are in a bad position from the standpoint of defending any lawsuits," said Dr. Robert Brent, a pediatrician at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. "This will be a resource to our very busy plaintiff attorneys in this country." Dr. Bob Chen, head of vaccine safety for the CDC, expressed relief that "given the sensitivity of the information, we have been able to keep it out of the hands of, let's say, less responsible hands." Dr. John Clements, vaccines advisor at the World Health Organization, declared that "perhaps this study should not have been done at all." He added that "the research results have to be handled," warning that the study "will be taken by others and will be used in other ways beyond the control of this group."In fact, the government has proved to be far more adept at handling the damage than at protecting children's health. The CDC paid the Institute of Medicine to conduct a new study to whitewash the risks of thimerosal, ordering researchers to "rule out" the chemical's link to autism. It withheld Verstraeten's findings, even though they had been slated for immediate publication, and told other scientists that his original data had been "lost" and could not be replicated. And to thwart the Freedom of Information Act, it handed its giant database of vaccine records over to a private company, declaring it off-limits to researchers. By the time Verstraeten finally published his study in 2003, he had gone to work for GlaxoSmithKline and reworked his data to bury the link between thimerosal and autism.Vaccine manufacturers had already begun to phase thimerosal out of injections given to American infants -- but they continued to sell off their mercury-based supplies of vaccines until last year. The CDC and FDA gave them a hand, buying up the tainted vaccines for export to developing countries and allowing drug companies to continue using the preservative in some American vaccines -- including several pediatric flu shots as well as tetanus boosters routinely given to eleven-year-olds.The drug companies are also getting help from powerful lawmakers in Washington. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has received $873,000 in contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, has been working to immunize vaccine makers from liability in 4,200 lawsuits that have been filed by the parents of injured children. On five separate occasions, Frist has tried to seal all of the government's vaccine-related documents -- including the Simpsonwood transcripts -- and shield Eli Lilly, the developer of thimerosal, from subpoenas. In 2002, the day after Frist quietly slipped a rider known as the "Eli Lilly Protection Act" into a homeland security bill, the company contributed $10,000 to his campaign and bought 5,000 copies of his book on bioterrorism. The measure was repealed by Congress in 2003 -- but earlier this year, Frist slipped another provision into an anti-terrorism bill that would deny compensation to children suffering from vaccine-related brain disorders. "The lawsuits are of such magnitude that they could put vaccine producers out of business and limit our capacity to deal with a biological attack by terrorists," says Dean Rosen, health policy adviser to Frist.Even many conservatives are shocked by the government's effort to cover up the dangers of thimerosal. Rep. Dan Burton, a Republican from Indiana, oversaw a three-year investigation of thimerosal after his grandson was diagnosed with autism. "Thimerosal used as a preservative in vaccines is directly related to the autism epidemic," his House Government Reform Committee concluded in its final report. "This epidemic in all probability may have been prevented or curtailed had the FDA not been asleep at the switch regarding a lack of safety data regarding injected thimerosal, a known neurotoxin." The FDA and other public-health agencies failed to act, the committee added, out of "institutional malfeasance for self protection" and "misplaced protectionism of the pharmaceutical industry."The story of how government health agencies colluded with Big Pharma to hide the risks of thimerosal from the public is a chilling case study of institutional arrogance, power and greed. I was drawn into the controversy only reluctantly. As an attorney and environmentalist who has spent years working on issues of mercury toxicity, I frequently met mothers of autistic children who were absolutely convinced that their kids had been injured by vaccines. Privately, I was skeptical.I doubted that autism could be blamed on a single source, and I certainly understood the government's need to reassure parents that vaccinations are safe; the eradication of deadly childhood diseases depends on it. I tended to agree with skeptics like Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California, who criticized his colleagues on the House Government Reform Committee for leaping to conclusions about autism and vaccinations. "Why should we scare people about immunization," Waxman pointed out at one hearing, "until we know the facts?"It was only after reading the Simpsonwood transcripts, studying the leading scientific research and talking with many of the nation's pre-eminent authorities on mercury that I became convinced that the link between thimerosal and the epidemic of childhood neurological disorders is real. Five of my own children are members of the Thimerosal Generation -- those born between 1989 and 2003 -- who received heavy doses of mercury from vaccines. "The elementary grades are overwhelmed with children who have symptoms of neurological or immune-system damage," Patti White, a school nurse, told the House Government Reform Committee in 1999. "Vaccines are supposed to be making us healthier; however, in twenty-five years of nursing I have never seen so many damaged, sick kids. Something very, very wrong is happening to our children."More than 500,000 kids currently suffer from autism, and pediatricians diagnose more than 40,000 new cases every year. The disease was unknown until 1943, when it was identified and diagnosed among eleven children born in the months after thimerosal was first added to baby vaccines in 1931.Some skeptics dispute that the rise in autism is caused by thimerosal-tainted vaccinations. They argue that the increase is a result of better diagnosis -- a theory that seems questionable at best, given that most of the new cases of autism are clustered within a single generation of children. "If the epidemic is truly an artifact of poor diagnosis," scoffs Dr. Boyd Haley, one of the world's authorities on mercury toxicity, "then where are all the twenty-year-old autistics?" Other researchers point out that Americans are exposed to a greater cumulative "load" of mercury than ever before, from contaminated fish to dental fillings, and suggest that thimerosal in vaccines may be only part of a much larger problem. It's a concern that certainly deserves far more attention than it has received -- but it overlooks the fact that the mercury concentrations in vaccines dwarf other sources of exposure to our children.What is most striking is the lengths to which many of the leading detectives have gone to ignore -- and cover up -- the evidence against thimerosal. From the very beginning, the scientific case against the mercury additive has been overwhelming. The preservative, which is used to stem fungi and bacterial growth in vaccines, contains ethylmercury, a potent neurotoxin. Truckloads of studies have shown that mercury tends to accumulate in the brains of primates and other animals after they are injected with vaccines -- and that the developing brains of infants are particularly susceptible. In 1977, a Russian study found that adults exposed to much lower concentrations of ethylmercury than those given to American children still suffered brain damage years later. Russia banned thimerosal from children's vaccines twenty years ago, and Denmark, Austria, Japan, Great Britain and all the Scandinavian countries have since followed suit."You couldn't even construct a study that shows thimerosal is safe," says Haley, who heads the chemistry department at the University of Kentucky. "It's just too darn toxic. If you inject thimerosal into an animal, its brain will sicken. If you apply it to living tissue, the cells die. If you put it in a petri dish, the culture dies. Knowing these things, it would be shocking if one could inject it into an infant without causing damage."Internal documents reveal that Eli Lilly, which first developed thimerosal, knew from the start that its product could cause damage -- and even death -- in both animals and humans. In 1930, the company tested thimerosal by administering it to twenty-two patients with terminal meningitis, all of whom died within weeks of being injected -- a fact Lilly didn't bother to report in its study declaring thimerosal safe. In 1935, researchers at another vaccine manufacturer, Pittman-Moore, warned Lilly that its claims about thimerosal's safety "did not check with ours." Half the dogs Pittman injected with thimerosal-based vaccines became sick, leading researchers there to declare the preservative "unsatisfactory as a serum intended for use on dogs."In the decades that followed, the evidence against thimerosal continued to mount. During the Second World War, when the Department of Defense used the preservative in vaccines on soldiers, it required Lilly to label it "poison." In 1967, a study in Applied Microbiology found that thimerosal killed mice when added to injected vaccines. Four years later, Lilly's own studies discerned that thimerosal was "toxic to tissue cells" in concentrations as low as one part per million -- 100 times weaker than the concentration in a typical vaccine. Even so, the company continued to promote thimerosal as "nontoxic" and also incorporated it into topical disinfectants. In 1977, ten babies at a Toronto hospital died when an antiseptic preserved with thimerosal was dabbed onto their umbilical cords.In 1982, the FDA proposed a ban on over-the-counter products that contained thimerosal, and in 1991 the agency considered banning it from animal vaccines. But tragically, that same year, the CDC recommended that infants be injected with a series of mercury-laced vaccines. Newborns would be vaccinated for hepatitis B within twenty-four hours of birth, and two-month-old infants would be immunized for haemophilus influenzae B and diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis.The drug industry knew the additional vaccines posed a danger. The same year that the CDC approved the new vaccines, Dr. Maurice Hilleman, one of the fathers of Merck's vaccine programs, warned the company that six-month-olds who were administered the shots would suffer dangerous exposure to mercury. He recommended that thimerosal be discontinued, "especially when used on infants and children," noting that the industry knew of nontoxic alternatives. "The best way to go," he added, "is to switch to dispensing the actual vaccines without adding preservatives."For Merck and other drug companies, however, the obstacle was money. Thimerosal enables the pharmaceutical industry to package vaccines in vials that contain multiple doses, which require additional protection because they are more easily contaminated by multiple needle entries. The larger vials cost half as much to produce as smaller, single-dose vials, making it cheaper for international agencies to distribute them to impoverished regions at risk of epidemics. Faced with this "cost consideration," Merck ignored Hilleman's warnings, and government officials continued to push more and more thimerosal-based vaccines for children. Before 1989, American preschoolers received eleven vaccinations -- for polio, diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and measles-mumps-rubella. A decade later, thanks to federal recommendations, children were receiving a total of twenty-two immunizations by the time they reached first grade.As the number of vaccines increased, the rate of autism among children exploded. During the 1990s, 40 million children were injected with thimerosal-based vaccines, receiving unprecedented levels of mercury during a period critical for brain development. Despite the well-documented dangers of thimerosal, it appears that no one bothered to add up the cumulative dose of mercury that children would receive from the mandated vaccines. "What took the FDA so long to do the calculations?" Peter Patriarca, director of viral products for the agency, asked in an e-mail to the CDC in 1999. "Why didn't CDC and the advisory bodies do these calculations when they rapidly expanded the childhood immunization schedule?"But by that time, the damage was done. At two months, when the infant brain is still at a critical stage of development, infants routinely received three inoculations that contained a total of 62.5 micrograms of ethylmercury -- a level 99 times greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury, a related neurotoxin. Although the vaccine industry insists that ethylmercury poses little danger because it breaks down rapidly and is removed by the body, several studies -- including one published in April by the National Institutes of Health -- suggest that ethylmercury is actually more toxic to developing brains and stays in the brain longer than methylmercury.Officials responsible for childhood immunizations insist that the additional vaccines were necessary to protect infants from disease and that thimerosal is still essential in developing nations, which, they often claim, cannot afford the single-dose vials that don't require a preservative. Dr. Paul Offit, one of CDC's top vaccine advisers, told me, "I think if we really have an influenza pandemic -- and certainly we will in the next twenty years, because we always do -- there's no way on God's earth that we immunize 280 million people with single-dose vials. There has to be multidose vials."But while public-health officials may have been well-intentioned, many of those on the CDC advisory committee who backed the additional vaccines had close ties to the industry. Dr. Sam Katz, the committee's chair, was a paid consultant for most of the major vaccine makers and was part of a team that developed the measles vaccine and brought it to licensure in 1963. Dr. Neal Halsey, another committee member, worked as a researcher for the vaccine companies and received honoraria from Abbott Labs for his research on the hepatitis B vaccine.Indeed, in the tight circle of scientists who work on vaccines, such conflicts of interest are common. Rep. Burton says that the CDC "routinely allows scientists with blatant conflicts of interest to serve on intellectual advisory committees that make recommendations on new vaccines," even though they have "interests in the products and companies for which they are supposed to be providing unbiased oversight." The House Government Reform Committee discovered that four of the eight CDC advisers who approved guidelines for a rotavirus vaccine "had financial ties to the pharmaceutical companies that were developing different versions of the vaccine."Offit, who shares a patent on one of the vaccines, acknowledged to me that he "would make money" if his vote eventually leads to a marketable product. But he dismissed my suggestion that a scientist's direct financial stake in CDC approval might bias his judgment. "It provides no conflict for me," he insists. "I have simply been informed by the process, not corrupted by it. When I sat around that table, my sole intent was trying to make recommendations that best benefited the children in this country. It's offensive to say that physicians and public-health people are in the pocket of industry and thus are making decisions that they know are unsafe for children. It's just not the way it works."Other vaccine scientists and regulators gave me similar assurances. Like Offit, they view themselves as enlightened guardians of children's health, proud of their "partnerships" with pharmaceutical companies, immune to the seductions of personal profit, besieged by irrational activists whose anti-vaccine campaigns are endangering children's health. They are often resentful of questioning. "Science," says Offit, "is best left to scientists."Still, some government officials were alarmed by the apparent conflicts of interest. In his e-mail to CDC administrators in 1999, Paul Patriarca of the FDA blasted federal regulators for failing to adequately scrutinize the danger posed by the added baby vaccines. "I'm not sure there will be an easy way out of the potential perception that the FDA, CDC and immunization-policy bodies may have been asleep at the switch re: thimerosal until now," Patriarca wrote. The close ties between regulatory officials and the pharmaceutical industry, he added, "will also raise questions about various advisory bodies regarding aggressive recommendations for use" of thimerosal in child vaccines.If federal regulators and government scientists failed to grasp the potential risks of thimerosal over the years, no one could claim ignorance after the secret meeting at Simpsonwood. But rather than conduct more studies to test the link to autism and other forms of brain damage, the CDC placed politics over science. The agency turned its database on childhood vaccines -- which had been developed largely at taxpayer expense -- over to a private agency, America's Health Insurance Plans, ensuring that it could not be used for additional research. It also instructed the Institute of Medicine, an advisory organization that is part of the National Academy of Sciences, to produce a study debunking the link between thimerosal and brain disorders. The CDC "wants us to declare, well, that these things are pretty safe," Dr. Marie McCormick, who chaired the IOM's Immunization Safety Review Committee, told her fellow researchers when they first met in January 2001. "We are not ever going to come down that [autism] is a true side effect" of thimerosal exposure. According to transcripts of the meeting, the committee's chief staffer, Kathleen Stratton, predicted that the IOM would conclude that the evidence was "inadequate to accept or reject a causal relation" between thimerosal and autism. That, she added, was the result "Walt wants" -- a reference to Dr. Walter Orenstein, director of the National Immunization Program for the CDC.For those who had devoted their lives to promoting vaccination, the revelations about thimerosal threatened to undermine everything they had worked for. "We've got a dragon by the tail here," said Dr. Michael Kaback, another committee member. "The more negative that [our] presentation is, the less likely people are to use vaccination, immunization -- and we know what the results of that will be. We are kind of caught in a trap. How we work our way out of the trap, I think is the charge."Even in public, federal officials made it clear that their primary goal in studying thimerosal was to dispel doubts about vaccines. "Four current studies are taking place to rule out the proposed link between autism and thimerosal," Dr. Gordon Douglas, then-director of strategic planning for vaccine research at the National Institutes of Health, assured a Princeton University gathering in May 2001. "In order to undo the harmful effects of research claiming to link the [measles] vaccine to an elevated risk of autism, we need to conduct and publicize additional studies to assure parents of safety." Douglas formerly served as president of vaccinations for Merck, where he ignored warnings about thimerosal's risks.In May of last year, the Institute of Medicine issued its final report. Its conclusion: There is no proven link between autism and thimerosal in vaccines. Rather than reviewing the large body of literature describing the toxicity of thimerosal, the report relied on four disastrously flawed epidemiological studies examining European countries, where children received much smaller doses of thimerosal than American kids. It also cited a new version of the Verstraeten study, published in the journal Pediatrics, that had been reworked to reduce the link between thimerosal and autism. The new study included children too young to have been diagnosed with autism and overlooked others who showed signs of the disease. The IOM declared the case closed and -- in a startling position for a scientific body -- recommended that no further research be conducted.The report may have satisfied the CDC, but it convinced no one. Rep. David Weldon, a Republican physician from Florida who serves on the House Government Reform Committee, attacked the Institute of Medicine, saying it relied on a handful of studies that were "fatally flawed" by "poor design" and failed to represent "all the available scientific and medical research." CDC officials are not interested in an honest search for the truth, Weldon told me, because "an association between vaccines and autism would force them to admit that their policies irreparably damaged thousands of children. Who would want to make that conclusion about themselves?"Under pressure from Congress and parents, the Institute of Medicine convened another panel to address continuing concerns about the Vaccine Safety Datalink Data Sharing program. In February, the new panel, composed of different scientists, criticized the way the VSD had been used in the Verstraeten study, and urged the CDC to make its vaccine database available to the public.So far, though, only two scientists have managed to gain access. Dr. Mark Geier, president of the Genetics Center of America, and his son, David, spent a year battling to obtain the medical records from the CDC. Since August 2002, when members of Congress pressured the agency to turn over the data, the Geiers have completed six studies that demonstrate a powerful correlation between thimerosal and neurological damage in children. One study, which compares the cumulative dose of mercury received by children born between 1981 and 1985 with those born between 1990 and 1996, found a "very significant relationship" between autism and vaccines. Another study of educational performance found that kids who received higher doses of thimerosal in vaccines were nearly three times as likely to be diagnosed with autism and more than three times as likely to suffer from speech disorders and mental retardation. Another soon-to-be published study shows that autism rates are in decline following the recent elimination of thimerosal from most vaccines.As the federal government worked to prevent scientists from studying vaccines, others have stepped in to study the link to autism. In April, reporter Dan Olmsted of UPI undertook one of the more interesting studies himself. Searching for children who had not been exposed to mercury in vaccines -- the kind of population that scientists typically use as a "control" in experiments -- Olmsted scoured the Amish of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, who refuse to immunize their infants. Given the national rate of autism, Olmsted calculated that there should be 130 autistics among the Amish. He found only four. One had been exposed to high levels of mercury from a power plant. The other three -- including one child adopted from outside the Amish community -- had received their vaccines.At the state level, many officials have also conducted in-depth reviews of thimerosal. While the Institute of Medicine was busy whitewashing the risks, the Iowa legislature was carefully combing through all of the available scientific and biological data. "After three years of review, I became convinced there was sufficient credible research to show a link between mercury and the increased incidences in autism," says state Sen. Ken Veenstra, a Republican who oversaw the investigation. "The fact that Iowa's 700 percent increase in autism began in the 1990s, right after more and more vaccines were added to the children's vaccine schedules, is solid evidence alone." Last year, Iowa became the first state to ban mercury in vaccines, followed by California. Similar bans are now under consideration in thirty-two other states.But instead of following suit, the FDA continues to allow manufacturers to include thimerosal in scores of over-the-counter medications as well as steroids and injected collagen. Even more alarming, the government continues to ship vaccines preserved with thimerosal to developing countries -- some of which are now experiencing a sudden explosion in autism rates. In China, where the disease was virtually unknown prior to the introduction of thimerosal by U.S. drug manufacturers in 1999, news reports indicate that there are now more than 1.8 million autistics. Although reliable numbers are hard to come by, autistic disorders also appear to be soaring in India, Argentina, Nicaragua and other developing countries that are now using thimerosal-laced vaccines. The World Health Organization continues to insist thimerosal is safe, but it promises to keep the possibility that it is linked to neurological disorders "under review."I devoted time to study this issue because I believe that this is a moral crisis that must be addressed. If, as the evidence suggests, our public-health authorities knowingly allowed the pharmaceutical industry to poison an entire generation of American children, their actions arguably constitute one of the biggest scandals in the annals of American medicine. "The CDC is guilty of incompetence and gross negligence," says Mark Blaxill, vice president of Safe Minds, a nonprofit organization concerned about the role of mercury in medicines. "The damage caused by vaccine exposure is massive. It's bigger than asbestos, bigger than tobacco, bigger than anything you've ever seen."It's hard to calculate the damage to our country -- and to the international efforts to eradicate epidemic diseases -- if Third World nations come to believe that America's most heralded foreign-aid initiative is poisoning their children. It's not difficult to predict how this scenario will be interpreted by America's enemies abroad. The scientists and researchers -- many of them sincere, even idealistic -- who are participating in efforts to hide the science on thimerosal claim that they are trying to advance the lofty goal of protecting children in developing nations from disease pandemics. They are badly misguided. Their failure to come clean on thimerosal will come back horribly to haunt our country and the world's poorest populations.NOTE: This story has been updated to correct several inaccuracies in the original, published version. As originally reported, American preschoolers received only three vaccinations before 1989, but the article failed to note that they were innoculated a total of eleven times with those vaccines, including boosters. The article also misstated the level of ethylmercury received by infants injected with all their shots by the age of six months. It was 187 micrograms - an amount forty percent, not 187 times, greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury. Finally, because of an editing error, the article misstated the contents of the rotavirus vaccine approved by the CDC. It did not contain thimerosal. Salon and Rolling Stone regret the errors.An earlier version of this story stated that the Institute of Medicine convened a second panel to review the work of the Immunization Safety Review Committee that had found no evidence of a link between thimerosal and autism. In fact, the IOM convened the second panel to address continuing concerns about the Vaccine Safety Datalink Data Sharing program, including those raised by critics of the IOM's earlier work. But the panel was not charged with reviewing the committee's findings. The story also inadvertently omitted a word and transposed two sentences in a quote by Dr. John Clements, and incorrectly stated that Dr. Sam Katz held a patent with Merck on the measles vaccine. In fact, Dr. Katz was part of a team that developed the vaccine and brought it to licensure, but he never held the patent. Salon and Rolling Stone regret the errors.CLARIFICATION: After publication of this story, Salon and Rolling Stone corrected an error that misstated the level of ethylmercury received by infants injected with all their shots by the age of six months. It was 187 micrograms ? an amount forty percent, not 187 times, greater than the EPA's limit for daily exposure to methylmercury. At the time of the correction, we were aware that the comparison itself was flawed, but as journalists we considered it more appropriate to state the correct figure rather than replace it with another number entirely.Since that earlier correction, however, it has become clear from responses to the article that the forty-percent number, while accurate, is misleading. It measures the total mercury load an infant received from vaccines during the first six months, calculates the daily average received based on average body weight, and then compares that number to the EPA daily limit. But infants did not receive the vaccines as a ?daily average? ? they received massive doses on a single day, through multiple shots. As the story states, these single-day doses exceeded the EPA limit by as much as 99 times. Based on the misunderstanding, and to avoid further confusion, we have amended the story to eliminate the forty-percent figure.Correction: The story misattributed a quote to Andy Olson, former legislative counsel to Senator Bill Frist. The comment was made by Dean Rosen, health policy adviser to the senator. Rolling Stone and Salon.com regret the error.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Kennedy Report Sparks Controversy"Deadly Immunity," our story about the link between mercury in vaccines and the dramatic rise in autism among children [RS 977/978], sparked intense reaction from the medical establishment and several leading news organizations. The story, by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- part of an ongoing collaboration with Salon.com -- documented the government's efforts to conceal alarming data about the dangers of vaccines.What is most striking is the lengths to which major media outlets have gone to disparage the story and to calm public fears -- even in the face of the questionable science on the subject. In a segment on World News Tonight titled "A Closer Look," ABC pointed out that Kennedy is "not a scientist or a doctor" and dismissed his extensive evidence as nothing more than "a few scientific studies." The network also trotted out its medical editor, Dr. Timothy Johnson, to praise the "impeccably impartial Institute of Medicine" and to again state that Kennedy is not a scientist.The New York Times, in a front-page story on the subject, devoted only one line to Kennedy's article, which it said accused public-health officials and drugmakers of "conspiring" to hide the data on autism -- a word that our story neither used nor implied. (The Wall Street Journal, in an op-ed attacking the article, was even more misleading, using the word "conspiracy" four times.) The Times then went on, for more than a full page, to portray concerns over vaccines as nothing more than the misguided fears of parents who suffer from "scientific illiteracy," unable to understand the medical studies that prove immunizations to be safe. It depicted studies reviewed by the Institute of Medicine as definitive without even bothering to address the host of serious questions raised about their validity: conflicting diagnoses of autism, mixed-up data from HMOs and research skewed to exclude many sick kids.Rolling Stone and Salon fact-checked the article thoroughly before publication, insisting on primary documentation for every statement in the story, and posted links to the most significant materials online to enable readers to judge for themselves. The final article contained six errors. These ranged from inadvertently transposing a quote and confusing a drug license for a patent to relying on a figure that incorrectly calculated an infant's exposure to mercury over six months, rather than citing the even more dangerous amount injected on a single day. (The mistakes were corrected online as soon as they were discovered and can be viewed in detail at both RollingStone.com and Salon.com.)It is important to note, however, that none of the mistakes weaken the primary point of the story. The government's own records show that it has failed to do the science necessary to put to rest reasonable concerns about vaccines. If the scientists had simply done their job rather than covering their tracks, there would be no controversy today. Instead, the government cannot even provide a definitive figure of the number of cases of autism among American children -- a number obviously critical to any serious scientific investigation -- and yet expects the public to believe that it has ruled out any link between vaccines and an illness it does not even track."Science," as one doctor in our story insisted, "is best left to scientists." But when the scientists fail to do their job, resorting to closed-door meetings and rigged studies, others in society have not only a right but a moral obligation to question their work. In the coming years, further research may indeed demonstrate that mercury in vaccines is not responsible for the rise in autism. For now, though, we can only raise a very real and legitimate alarm -- and hope that the government's well-documented mishandling of its own research did not needlessly jeopardize the health of hundreds of thousands of children.Global Research Articles by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.<br /><br />NUREMBURG TRIAL.1945 - 1949Meet the Major War Criminals Trial DefendantsCharter, Indictments & SentencesThe Major War Criminals Trial:Transcript ExcerptsThe Major War Criminals Trial:Assorted ImagesChief U. S. Prosecutor Robert Jackson and Uri Pokrovski,Assistant Soviet Prosecutor, listen to a defense summationin the Major War Figures Trial.Courtroom Diagram with ImagesThe Subsequent Nuremberg Trials:An Overview & ImagesThe Medical ("Nazi Doctors") Trial(Case No. 1)The Justice ("Nazi Judges") Trial(Case No. 3) A Trial Accountby Douglas O. Linder------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />We must face the horrible facts, that we are living with the same demons that gave small pox to the indians in blankets., gave us the Tuskegee Experiment, AIDS and so much more..<br />H1N1, Swine flu, Obama, flu shots, Baxter International, Chicago IL ...... few weeks as Baxter (based out of Chicago and BO owns stock in this company)was ... purchase of the biotech stock that Feb. 22, Mr. Obama initiated what he has ...<a href="http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/h1n1-swine-flu-obama-flu-shots-baxter-in">http://citizenwells.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/h1n1-swine-flu-obama-flu-shots-baxter-in</a>...<br /><br /><object width="445" height="364" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/5neYLYydsl8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" ></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" ></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5neYLYydsl8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" ></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" ></param><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5neYLYydsl8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" width="445" height="364" allownetworking="internal"></embed></object> <br /><br />NUREMBURG TRIALS AFTER THE WAR IN US<br /><object width="445" height="364" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/vZN4cHgs7tk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" ></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" ></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vZN4cHgs7tk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" ></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" ></param><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vZN4cHgs7tk&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" width="445" height="364" allownetworking="internal"></embed></object> <br /> <br />No trial provides a better basis for understanding the nature and causes of evil than do the Nuremberg trials from 1945 to 1949. Those who come to the trials expecting to find sadistic monsters are generally disappointed. What is shocking about Nuremberg is the ordinariness of the defendants: men who may be good fathers, kind to animals, even unassuming--yet committed unspeakable crimes. Years later, reporting on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Hannah Arendt wrote of "the banality of evil." Like Eichmann, most Nuremberg defendants never aspired to be villains. Rather, they either overidentified with an ideological cause or suffered from a lack of imagination: they couldn't fully appreciate the human consequences of their career-motivated decisions....(CONTINUED)<br />.Nuremberg Trials: 1945-1949Extensive site featuring a chronology, accounts of the trials, transcripts, images, and links.<br /><a href="http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/nuremberg.htm">www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/nuremberg.htm</a><br />Famous TrialsThe Einsatzgruppen Trial (Case No. 9)The Movie: Judgment at NurembergLinks & BibliographyWILL WE ALLOW HISTORY TO REPEAT ITSELF?<br /><br /><object width="445" height="364" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/RHpZvv5wRyE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" ></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" ></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RHpZvv5wRyE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" ></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" ></param><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RHpZvv5wRyE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" width="445" height="364" allownetworking="internal"></embed></object> <br />IN LIES WE TRUST<br /><br /><object width="445" height="364" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/8R2hmC6uav8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" ></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" ></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8R2hmC6uav8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" ></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" ></param><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8R2hmC6uav8&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" width="445" height="364" allownetworking="internal"></embed></object> <br /><p style="text-align:left;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828511115,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" width="208" height="169" /></p><br />The Late, Dr. Boyd Graves<br /><br />DR . BOYD GRAVES, THE ORIGIN OF A.I.D.S. (adult language)<br /><object width="445" height="364" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/xtvKK8tl_pM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="never" ></param><param name="allowNetworking" value="internal" ></param><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/xtvKK8tl_pM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" ></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="false" ></param><embed wmode="opaque" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/xtvKK8tl_pM&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="never" width="445" height="364" allownetworking="internal"></embed></object> <br />CHECK INTO COLODIAL SILVER TO PROTECT YOURSELF AND FAMILY (health food store)<br /><br /></div>Congressional apologies are not enough, reparations accord for Blacks is needed, now!https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/congressional-apologies-are2009-06-30T22:30:00.000Z2009-06-30T22:30:00.000ZAri Merretazonhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/AriMerretazon<div>For Immediate ReleaseNational Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA)Contact:Ari S. Merretazon, Northeast Regional Representative; 215-850-1699merretazon@verizon.netBarbara Baker, Midwest Regional Representative 312-720-0648Bbaker601@att.netKamm Howard, Board Member At Large, 773-520-0369khoward.amenta@sbcglobal.netCongressional apologies are not enough, reparations accord for Blacks is needed, now!We don’t think it is coincidental that, at the same time the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N’COBRA) was holding its 20th Annual Conference in Dallas, Texas during the week of “Juneteenth” -- June 19th, the day in 1865 that slaves learned at the end of the Civil War that they were free the U.S. Senate was apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans in a Senate Resolution. Without a reparations accord/proclamation this is just another assault on Blacks in America .N'COBRA has long stated its position on the growing number of resolutions of profound regret and questionable apologies by units of government and private corporations. These resolutions should be viewed only as means to open dialogue about the elements of repair that must be included in a reparations accord. Our position is no different with this most recent Senate resolution.The N’COBRA twentieth conference marked a paradigm shift for the reparations movement in America , defined as The Reparations Accord: The Reparations Movement in the Age of Obama.N'COBRA position remains, notwithstanding congressional electoral politics and this age of Obama as President, that there are at least five injury areas remaining from America ’s system of enslavement that must be resolved and all apologies, proclamations or resolutions must be steps leading toward recommendations, policies, resources and programs of ways and means for repairing the damage.The issue is no longer should reparations be authorized to Blacks, but what should be the elements of a reparations accord to assure that the monstrous destruction of human life, human culture, and human possibilities never occurs again and, that repair and healing begin. N’COBRA will engage the sponsors of the bill on the real work that lies ahead. Among the many areas a reparations accord for Backs must include are five key, broad yet specific injury areas: people-hood, education, criminal punishment, wealth/poverty, and health.Obama, Change, and reparations are good for America .N'COBRA sincerely appreciates Congressman John Conyers' efforts to stay on the front line with his enduring leadership and congressional diplomacy over the last 20 years. He has helped to awaken the moral spirit of justice in the U.S. by submitting H.R. 40 in each session of Congress. The passage of H.R 40, in the age of Obama, will go a long way to repair the damage done to the enslaved ancestors of Blacks in America .Additionally, N’COBRA agrees with Senator Harkin, one of the co-sponsors of the resolution, who is quoted as saying, "Let us make no mistake: This resolution will not fix lingering injustices.” We also join with senator Harkin in the belief it is long overdue, and the real work lies ahead.N’COBRA, as a coalition of individuals and organizations recognizes the continuous, uncompromising hard work of the Reparations Activists in America and throughout the world, as fostering and creating the atmosphere within which an apology of this nature has been made.As with any true apology/confession it is expected that the perpetrator(s) of the crime state as accurately as possible what the apology is for, seek repentance, and be willing to repair the damage done by acts of commission and omission. An apology alone falls short without both full identification and acknowledgement of the conduct that caused the injuries, along with the resources to repair the damage inflicted.The Senate resolution could have been crafted in such a way that it would help lead America out of its shameful denial while contextualizing the inordinately high levels of poverty, health related issues, poor education, poor housing, crime, poor families, etc., existing in present day African descendant communities which can be directly linked to the American system of enslavement.It is not the goal or intent of N’COBRA to bankrupt America , in that the wholesale destruction of human life, human culture, and human possibilities is incalculable. It is only logical that a dialog about the elements of a reparations accord be the next step, in connection with the passage of House Bill H.R.40: Commission to Study Reparation Proposal for African-Americans Act, sponsored by Congressman Conyers, which has been held hostage in committee since 1989.The demand for reparations by Blacks in America is not about a check. Reparations are the cross-road solution to the human capital development of Blacks, and reparations are ways and means of repairing the destruction of a civilized people.So, today, we tell the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives, and the whole wide world, that we lived and are living the “Whereas’ of your resolutions. The resolve of the resolutions, resolves nothing, instead it not only insults and inflames the advocates for reparations, but also reasonable Black people throughout the world working for the various units of the U.S. Government, including those fighting America ’s wars around the world.-30-</div>To The Reparations Movement:https://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/to-the-reparations-movement2009-05-03T10:00:00.000Z2009-05-03T10:00:00.000ZAri Merretazonhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/AriMerretazon<div>The 2009 National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America <b>(N'COBRA)</b> Conference will be in Dallas, Texas, June 18-21, 2009, at the Mt. Tabor Family Life Center, 3700 Simpson Stuart Road, Dallas, Texas 75241. <b>I will be there because registration is only $60, and I got a cheap plane ticket (USAir) out of Philadelphia for $246 roundtrip! For more information call:214-723-6030.</b>With the new strategic tactics of a post-racial America the Reparations Movement must make a course correction and return to the public square with our dialog and demand for reparations for the world to hear. Obama is on the record against reparations, but <b>I believe it is purely political, not intrinsic.</b> Therefore, like the drum, our voice in the public square will come at him with the context he needs to respond to our demand... this will be the foundation leading to the Reparations Accord for Blacks in America within the next 10 years. <b>If he doesn't hear us, he has no basis as the President of all the people of the United States to change his political position.</b>This will be N'COBRA's 20th Conference. <b>Let's keep on!</b> Let's put the reparations movement on auto-pilot at every level of social and political engagement throughout the world and continue the "in the meanwhile internal repair" to strengthen our hands to do this good work.In a previous blog post here on the BlackList is a recent letter to Mrs. Michelle Obama as an example of <b>"auto-pilot" action.</b> Everyone must do some communication/direct action with the White House. We don't have to say the same thing under the same banner. <u>We must say a lot of different things under a lot of different banners, in what ever city we live,however, we must demand the same outcome: Reparations via a Reparations Accord! This will set the context for negotiations with the "enslavers-in-perpetuity" (U.S.Congress, Religious Organizations, and Corporations).</u>Lest we forget, our ancestors were stripped of their human identity, defined out of the human family, <b>and did not participate in framing the terms and conditions of their/our freedom in the Emancipation Proclamation, nor the 13th, 14th, and the 15th Amendments to the Constitution. This is the reason why our people have no equal standing, agency,nor political capacity. This dark bargain of America's past must be made right. We must be at the table this time!</b></div>The Banana Peel of Militarismhttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/the-banana-peel-of-militarism2009-03-30T14:59:20.000Z2009-03-30T14:59:20.000ZJunious Ricardo Stantonhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/JuniousRicardoStanton<div><b>From The Ramparts</b>Junious Ricardo Stanton<b>Obama and the Banana Peel of Militarism</b><i>“WASHINGTON — With a bloody suicide bombing near the Khyber Pass adding urgency to his words, President Obama announced on Friday that he plans to further bolster American forces in Afghanistan, increase aid to Pakistan, and set strict standards for measuring progress in fighting Al Qaeda and the Taliban in both chaotic countries.”</i> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/washington/">www.nytimes.com/2009/03/26/washington/</a>We can’t say he didn’t warn us. Less than sixty days in office and President Obama seems determined to slide down the slippery slope of military escalation in the US misadventure in Afghanistan. Candidate Obama electrified the anti-war base in the Democratic Party by railing against the invasion and occupation of Iraq, calling, it a war that “should never have been authorized and never been waged.” Even as he stumped the country in search of votes denouncing the folly of the Iraq War/occupation he gave hope to the military -industrial complex by promising to enlarge the Army and Marine Corps and expand the war in Afghanistan. Most people were so disgusted with the Bu$h administration and so caught up in the economic collapse, they really didn’t listen closely to what Obama was saying about Afghanistan and Pakistan. I wrote just before the election Obama was no wild eyed peacenik. His justification for expanding the war in Afghanistan was the Bu$h and corporate media lie that the Taliban were terrorists, responsible for 9-11 because they harbored Osama bin-Laden and refused to turn him over to US authorities. What the corporate media didn’t tell us was the Taliban asked the US to provide concrete evidence bin-Laden was responsible for 9-11 before they turned him over to them. The US could not provide absolute proof so they tried to Bogart the Taliban.What Obama seems not to know or care about is the US was planning to invade Afghanistan way before 9-11; not because the Taliban were terrorists, but because they refused to go along with a US plan to build natural gas and oil pipeline networks across Afghanistan to carry Caspian Sea oil and gas for marketing in the West and they had shut down the opium trade a lucrative source of income for Wall Street and the CIA ! This is what the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan are really about. In October of 2001 I wrote a piece entitled What If? In it I said, “Aside from the carnage of the eye for an eye response it is now starting to become more widely known that Afghanistan is a key player in a geological and geopolitical game that has major implications. What most people don’t know is that the area bordering Afghanistan in what used to be called the Soviet Union in the territories in the Caucasus around the Caspian Sea contains literally billions of barrels of untapped crude oil and natural gas. This crude and gas is the prize of many US oil and gas companies that have joined together to form exploration, engineering, drilling and excavation consortiums. Getting the oil and gas out presents numerous challenges physical, political, financial and technological. Politically these now separate governments are free of Russian hegemony and free to negotiate deals with Western (mainly US) energy, engineering and financial entities.Since the Caucasus and Caspian Sea areas are landlocked one challenge is how to get the oil and gas out to tankers to get it to Western markets. Several ideas have been formulated and varying plans have called for pipelines running east from Azerbaijan towards the Black Sea and then another phase taking it through Russia to the Ukraine into Poland. Another proposed set of pipelines will go through from Azerbaijan into Iran, then to Turkey to the Mediterranean. Another route is through Afghanistan and Pakistan into the Arabian Sea. In fact in 1998 the Taliban signed an agreement to allow a proposed 890 mile, 2 billion, 1.9 billion cubic feet per day natural gas pipeline project with a company called Unocal. However in December of 1998 Unocal announced it was withdrawing from the project citing low oil prices, and political instability in Afghanistan. Unocal was also pondering constructing a 1,000 mile, 1 million barrel per day oil pipeline called the Central Asian Oil Pipeline linking Chardzou, Turkmenistan and Pakistan and the Arabian Sea via Afghanistan. My question is this, what if the rush to war at the exclusion of trying all other options was really fueled by American and British lust for crude and natural gas? ” <a href="http://www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?">www.blackelectorate.com/articles.asp?</a>After the US routed the Taliban they installed Hamid Karzai a former ISI/CIA operative and oil consortium consultant as provisional leader. This arrangement was set up by the West until bogus elections could be held in Afghanistan. Is it coincidental the first official act of Karzai after he was “elected” puppet, I mean president of Afghanistan was to sign a pipeline deal approving the trans-Afghani pipeline system? “A popular French book titled "Bin Laden, the Forbidden Truth," which alleges that the Bush administration blocked investigations of Osama bin Laden while it bargained for him with the Taliban in exchange for political recognition and economic aid, is guiding much of the recent European coverage. Written by Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, the book adds another plank to the argument that America's major objective was to gain access to the region's oil and gas reserves. According to the book, the Bush administration began to negotiate with the Taliban immediately after coming into power. The parties talked for many months before reaching an impasse in August 2001. The terrorist acts of Sept. 11, though tragic, provided the Bush administration a legitimate reason to invade Afghanistan, oust the recalcitrant Taliban and, coincidentally, smooth the way for the pipeline. To make things even smoother, the U.S. engineered the rise to power of two former Unocal employees: Hamid Karzai, the new interim president of Afghanistan, and Zalmay Khalizad, the Bush administration's Afghanistan envoy.” <a href="http://www.theblacklistedjournalist.com/column72p11.html">www.theblacklistedjournalist.com/column72p11.html</a>That was then, this is now. Enter Barack Obama. As a candidate in 2007-08 Obama promised to go after Osama bin-Laden who most serious intelligence agencies know died of kidney failure several years ago. Unfortunately most AmeriKKKans still believe the propaganda about the Taliban and the righteousness of the US invasion of Afghanistan. Obama plays on our ignorance and is about to slip on the banana peel of imperialism. The truth is, Obama is beholden to Wall Street and the “defense contractors” for the mad money they pumped into his election campaign. Now that he’s in, it’s payback time. On the financial front Obama selected Wall Street insider Timothy Geithner the former president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and a protégé of Lawrence Summers and Robert Rubin two of the main architects of the current economic debacle to be Secretary of Treasury. All three have ties to the corporatist Clinton wing of the Democratic Party . None of this is a good sign! Geithner is currently putting together a new scam to bail out his banking buddies and keep insurance giant AIG afloat by sticking US taxpayers with their debt and “toxic assets”.On the foreign policy front, to pay off his warmongering benefactors, Obama is about to make the grave mistake of expanding the war into Pakistan. Unfortunately Obama refuses to acknowledge the dry bones of a host of invaders who tried to conquer Afghanistan dating back centuries, most recently Russia. His debt to the military-industrial complex may prove to be the undoing of his presidency. Just as Bu$h drank the Neo Con Kool-Aide and it totally ruined any credibility he had left once he invaded Iraq, Obama is about to repeat Bu$h’s mistake. To make matters worse Obama is about to repeat Lyndon Johnson’s mistakes as well. Johnson escalated the war in Southeast Asia and in so doing, facilitated a colossal waste of money and lives and nearly tore the US apart in the process.By all accounts the war in Afghanistan is going badly. If Obama expands it into Pakistan he may exacerbate the situation given the US puppet Karzai barely has control of Kabul the capital city. He has no control over the rest of the country. The new Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari is on shaky ground as well. The Pashtun tribesmen who live in the region do not recognize the boundaries drawn by the Europeans between Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are sympathetic towards the Taliban. They could become emboldened by the Taliban’s success resisting NATO and US forces in Afghanistan. They realize the invaders do not have enough ground forces to mount nor win a war against the natives in both countries.Now there is talk of a “troop surge” in Afghanistan like the US employed in Iraq and an escalation of US attacks in Pakistan. What most folks don’t realize is the main component of the Iraqi “surge’ amounted to bribing the Sunnis not to shoot US occupiers. This is why the violence dropped not because of US troops. “Instead of dropping bombs in Iraq, we're now dropping bundles of cash in the laps of insurgents who without the crude bribes would no doubt return to ambushing our troops. If the surge has worked, it's due in large part to a surge in bribes, not troops. And that kind of success cannot last.” <a href="http://www.antiwar.com/sperry/?articleid=11669">www.antiwar.com/sperry/?articleid=11669</a> While Obama’s move will enrich the military industrial complex, it will further bankrupt the US and lead to a protracted occupation that will define and ruin his presidency. Watch out for that banana peel Barack.-30-</div>The Real Operation to "Rescue" Ingrid Betancourt and US Mercenarieshttps://www.theblacklist.net/profiles/blogs/2055350-BlogPost-77242008-07-06T13:16:54.000Z2008-07-06T13:16:54.000ZBaba Bob Shipmanhttps://www.theblacklist.net/members/BabaBobShipman<div><p style="text-align:left;"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}3828503575,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="" width="450" height="350" /></p>The Real Operation to "Rescue" Ingrid Betancourt and US MercenariesAuthor: Concerned citizens of irc.indymedia.orgIn order to understand the "rescue operation" of Ingrid Betancourt and the Northrop Grumman Corporation mercenaries who were released with her, it is necessary to piece together articles published in the media, filter the content and out of this is formed a true understanding of the facts of what happened here. A version in Portuguese is available here.1. On June 3rd, Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba revealed that she possessed information that the government of Colombia was negotiating a deal with FARC to trade money for the release of Betancourt and the mercenaries. The official policy of the United States is that they don't "negotiate with terrorists," even as many leaders of Latin American countries accuse President Uribe of supporting the AUC paramilitary death squads and accuse the United States of providing safe harbor to known terrorists such as Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles.2. Careful observers began to question the strange circumstances under which the "dramatic rescue" of Ingrid Betancourt happened. Some guys with Che Guevara t-shirts simply showed up and redirected them into another helicopter? If it were that easy, why didn't they do that years ago? The French media also found strange the fact that Betancourt didn't resemble the gaunt and hungry images we have been seeing in the media -- she seemed well-fed and healthy, as if she were being prepared for release.3. More confusion came when the capitalist media seized this opportunity to hack up Betancourt's press conference, keeping in the parts that glorified Uribe and the United States and excluding the parts that talked about Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Ecuador's Rafael Correa and their important efforts in finding a diplomatic, peaceful solution to the crisis. The press conference was broadcast in its entirety on the Latin American news network, Telesur, but only bit and pieces were shown on CNN, Fox News and other northern news channels. For instance, excluded from the edited version is Betancourt's comments that she felt used by the whole situation and that the operation put the lives of the hostages at risk while a diplomatic solution, like the one pursued by President Chavez, would ensure their safety.4. The capitalist media, without any shame, immediately began to use the situation to promote their own political objectives: everywhere in the corporate media, Uribe was lauded as a hero, FARC's days are numbered and Chavez's successful and peaceful diplomacy that freed other FARC-held prisoners was downplayed.5. However, on Friday, information began to be revealed that, in reality, the government of Colombia had secretly paid $20 million USD to FARC in exchange for the release of Betancourt and the US mercenaries, confirming what Senator Cordoba had said a month before. This story was broken by MediaPart in France and Radio Suisse Romande. MediaPart also reported that France and Colombia guaranteed safe asylum for some members of FARC as part of the deal.6. Dominique Moisi, one of France's most prominent foreign policy experts, said that it was "probable" that FARC was given money in exchange for the prisoners. "They were bought in order to turn them around, like Mafia chiefs," he said on French state television.7. In light of all these events, the government of Ecuador has suspended diplomatic relations with Colombia.8. The report of the $20 million pay-off is now rapidly circulating throughout the corporate media as it struggles with a way to spin this news. The confusion caused by this bizarre operation makes a lot more sense when viewed as a pre-arranged, money-for-prisoners exchange. And, the true face of the Latin American right-wing is once again exposed.9. It is worth repeating that along with Betancourt, also released were private military contractors from the United States who were captured when their surveillance plane went down in FARC-controlled territory during a Plan Colombia operation. Northrop Grumman, an aerospace and arms manufacturing firm, was awarded a $60 million contract to provide logistical support to the US and Colombian military, on the ground in war zones there. Between 1990 and 2002, Northrop Grumman contributed $8.5 million to federal campaigns. Coincidentally, at least "seven former officials, consultants or shareholders of Northrop Grumman" have held posts in the Bush administration, including Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz and Lewis Libby (who was convicted on obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and making false statements to federal investigators for his role in illegally "outing" CIA agent Valerie Plame). In addition, Plan Colombia has been repeatedly criticized by international human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and the United Nations, for maintaining close relationships with right-wing death squads, providing direct assistance to illegal right-wing terrorist organizations as well as directly and indirectly participating in massacres and atrocities. Many of the right-wing terrorists operating in Colombia are former members of the Colombian military, like paramilitary commander "Yair," who openly support Plan Colombia and publicly offer their support to Plan Colombia operations.10. Finally, it should be noted that the Colombian government under Uribe, who has enjoyed widespread celebration by the corporate press in the last few days, is routinely condemned as having one of the worst human rights records of any country in the world. More than 60 members of President Uribe's congressional coalition are under investigation for election fraud or collaborating with right-wing groups classified as "terrorist organizations" by the United States. Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for labor union organizers, with the world's highest rate of assassinations and extra-judicial executions of trade unionists. Since Plan Colombia began, the United States has provided over $4.7 billion to the government of Colombia, described by Senator Cordoba as a "democracy that governs through fear and terror." Senator Cordoba, herself, was kidnapped by 12 heavily-armed government-affiliated terrorists. Senator Cordoba says that the operations of Plan Colombia are only partly used to fight the so-called "war on drugs": "It's also used to silence those of us who speak out against the government. They try to silence us by kidnapping, disappearing and even killing many of us." Unlike many other Latin American countries, who overthrew the brutal US-backed dictatorships which ruled the continent during much of the 20th century, Colombia is an active reminder of what life used to be like throughout all of South America -- fiercely repressive dictatorships which terrorize the population with money and weapons provided by the United States in exchange for support of U.S. policies. How can a government like this receive the kind of tributes and congratulations that have been showered on them by the capitalist press in the last few days since they traded $20 million for the release of Ingrid Betancourt and U.S. mercenaries? How can a supposedly free and democratic media uncritically praise a government like this?Today, Fidel Castro made one of the most sensible declarations about this situation: the imprisonment of civilians is wrong but what is worse is that the United States and the western, capitalist press are exploiting this situation to obscure and justify the genocidal horrors that they have imposed on Latin America for hundreds of years, up to and including this very day.Even now, the soldiers of Plan Colombia and their right-wing death squads continue murdering union leaders in cold blood, continue terrorizing the civilian population of Colombia, and continue protecting terrorists who hunt down and kill anyone seeking social justice in the region, a cause that threatens the profit and power of the dominant, ruling class.Even when the United States and their Latin American allies attempt to create a spectacle of positive public relations for themselves, their hands are so bloody and their crimes are so deep that, in the end, their fabrications do little to change the reality on the ground. Like all dictatorships in human history, their lies are so transparent, their brutality is so brazen and their lifespan is so limited.</div>