Politics
A Final Open Letter to Deceased Supreme Court Justice…
Article #25: Politics, Race Relations
Politics
Politics
General (Non-Series)
“American Sniper” Chris Kyle’s Widow and President Obama Square…
“American Sniper” Chris Kyle’s Widow Taya Kyle and President Obama square off in a debate on gun safety Executive Orders that President Obama issued and their potential impact, if any, on citizen security. #ItsTimeToFITE. #FITErs.
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Race Relations
My Racist MLK Day
Article #24: Race Relations
Today, my company was suppose to put out a press release about how we are helping aspiring writers, who are members of an eligible Greek-letter organization, to expand their reader base by joining forces with the National Greek Awards™.
I was really looking forward to sharing that with all of my Greek-Life friends and colleagues. Sadly, a temporary cloud decided to rear its ugly, but not unfamiliar head, and I felt it necessary to first shine a light on and through that darkness.
I cannot remember their name, but there was a comedian who said that yes, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was all about non-violence, but if you drove down any street named after him, there would definitely be some violence going on.
Unfortunately, it seems the same goes for racism on any MLK Day.
I’ve noticed over the years how racism seems to get turned up on the day of one of the most non-violent, prominent figures in American history.
It is as though the privileged feel attacked when they are reminded of the atrocities of slavery, genocide, and oppression done by their ancestors and the American economic, political, judicial, and ‘law enforcement’ systems that both directly and indirectly perpetuate those atrocities to this day.
And those of the privileged who are fueled to the fullest by the depths of bigotry and misdirected rage seem to use MLK Day as their own day to “Purge.”
But now they do it digitally.
On MLK Day, I was watching this video online of The Young Turks®, with co-hosts Ana Kasparian, John Iadarola, and comedian Jimmy Dore.
They were discussing some very questionable things former one-term Illinois Republican Congressman and current talk radio host Joe Walsh said about Black Lives Matter…yes, on MLK Day.
Watch for yourself:
(Ok, breeeeeeathe. Relax. Take a few deep breaths and try and remain calm.) Now let’s recap those tweets Joe Walsh did:
One thing that irritates me dearly is when someone is dismissive of things that matter to you. It hurts when a person about whom you care does it, but it can be very irritating when anyone does it.
In this case, what Joe Walsh did was simple:
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He dismissed an entire race’s legitimate and factually-justified movement, and he did it through a social media account, the most cowardly way to do something of that nature.
(And speaking of cowardly…)
Joe Walsh irritated me so much to where I just kept recapping privileged individuals, over the years, attempting to tell the oppressed how, in essence, they should be Ok with being racially profiled, physically shot, economically mutilated, educationally downtrodden…just all-around disenfranchisement.
So, I took to Twitter® to make a quick statement directly to those from whom I’ve virtually only seen those types of statements come:
Yes, those are blanket statements about white Republican males. However…
…seeing the insane state of the current Republican Party and the absolutely racist and tasteless statements they make on a regular basis, not to mention the mob mentality of their attendees in attacking people of color at rallies for Republican political candidates, the reasonableness of my statements increases with each passing thought.
Surprisingly, to my statement, someone responded with an irony that even I didn’t see coming:
WHOA! “Boy. That escalated quickly.”
That definitely came out of left field. And, based on all available evidence, this response was from a white Republican male with the even more ironic Twitter® handle @DontHateMe069 (Man, you can’t write this stuff…Smh).
Now I’d sent the second of what were going to be my only two (2) tweets before I got notification of his first one. So let me show you the rest of the conversation (if you even want to call it that), with a little commentary on the side, so you can see how the whole thing went down in real time.
Fair warning, though.
You might want to prepare to harness your rage.
Here we go:
Yes. He tweeted at me a picture of an assassinated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s National Holiday telling me to stop tweeting because I might disturbing him while “he sleeping,” and a male holding a confederate flag standing on the backs of two seeming Africans?
Yeah, that happened.
The crazy thing is that it was so over the top to where my anger turned over like a car that reached its maximum mileage digitally and just started over at all zeros.
That turned out to be a good thing because it tempered my response:
Now I think I did good. Hey, freedom of speech, even if it’s hate speech, right? Oh, but he wasn’t done:
Really?
How sad do you have to be to have this level of hatred in your heart?
The depths of misery within this person would take multiple psychiatrists and psychologists to even begin to try and begin to diagnose, but, again, he wasn’t finished.
He responded specifically to the second part of my original tweet:
A walking, talking target? Was that a veiled threat?
Before I could respond, another white gentleman tagged me out, jumped in right quick, and threw a 98 mph fastball at A-Rod that he didn’t see coming, and hit him right upside his bigoted head:
PLEASE NOTE: I don’t begrudge work at Golden Corral® or urinal maintenance, and I don’t think Scott does either. They’re both an honest day’s work. However…
…I do see and appreciate him trying to make a point about and an attack on “A-ROD” and his idiocy on my behalf, even if he more-than-likely inadvertently used the wrong verbiage. Thank you for that, Scott.
(Tagging back in, I jumped back on the pitcher’s mound):
Now I was being symbolically tongue-and-cheek when I made that last statement. No actual white person works for me.
That was a symbolic statement about me actually being my own boss and not working under anyone and thereby putting myself in the position to have someone of what he definitely sees as his “superior race” working under me.
Translation:
(From the movie “The Last Dragon”)
Sho’ Nuff: “Who’s the Master?“
Me: “I am. I AM! HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
(Cue the awesome Bruce Lee-style special effects!)
So, having had his tongue tied because he bit off more than he could virtually chew, I went in for the kill:
Kill him with kindness…and humiliation. Nothing like the meme of:
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…a Black man, who is…
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…President of the very country who enslaved his ancestors…
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…the same country that crushed General Robert E. Lee and the Confederacy…
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…laughing uncontrollably at a racist who supports the treasonous, defeated Confederacy.
Pure epic-ness Lol.
So now that he was thoroughly vanquished, I wanted to see who this ‘Twitter® Troll‘ was. And wouldn’t you know it?
A fake profile.
He probably made it in order to protect his anonymity, since he knew the racial hatred inside of him and it, like an energy drink, fueling what he was planning to say was going to stir an online anger pot against him.
Yep, they were definitely right. It’s really easy to talk tough when you’re behind a keyboard. That’s pure ‘Internet gangster‘ stuff right there. However…
…to actually hide behind the safety of your computer, but then not even stand up for your own words when you’re behind that computer? Cenk Uygur, co-founder and host of The Young Turks®, said it best:
Exactly. Cowardice.
Can you tell I was excited that someone with an even larger audience and platform than mine said what I’ve been trying to get across to people for years?
It’s a shame, though. We have violence in the streets, and now we have virtual violence in the tweets. However…
…like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many before and after him, I have The Audacity of Hope that we shall overcome some day.
Entertainment
“Leonardo DiCaprio Wins His 1st Oscar®”: Future Words Born…
Article #23: Entertainment
I saw The Revenant this week. Allow me to break this down for you directly and swiftly:
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Leonardo DiCaprio is one of probably the ‘Top 10 Best Actors’ to ever live, and I do NOT say that lightly. Maybe you all didn’t hear me…
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Leonardo DiCaprio is one of probably the ‘Top 10 Best Actors’ to EVER live.
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Initially, I thought he’d win an Oscar® for this role, until I saw the Danish Girl previews, then I thought to myself: “Nope. Leo’s gonna lose another one. They usually give it to someone who they feel steps completely outside of what they consider to be their ‘comfort zone’ and with whom they severely empathize as that character. A transgender woman? Yeah, they’ll probably screw Leo AGAIN this year.”
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I told that to my good man Jamole Callahan, a fantastic child welfare/foster care youth advocate and motivational speaker, after he said that Leo might win what I call his ‘Eleanor‘ this year; a fitting name, seeing as though Leo has done everything else to win an Oscar® except steal it.
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I am super busy, but Leonardo DiCaprio is my favorite actor and I’d been thinking about Jamole and my conversation, so I decided to watch The Revenant.
I now believe this is Leo’s year…finally.
In The Revenant:
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The hardships he endured were on a legendary scale. The breath of skill that it took to do an acting job of this magnitude, and it be a great performance, very few have.
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The directing of this movie — the awe-inspiring, ‘Ong Bak, the warrior‘-style one-shot filming sequences — intensified almost every scene.
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Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance was mind-bogglingly powerful and virtually flawless.
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I was mesmerized the entire movie, as I watched a periodic above-Cast Away–level solo performance.
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Leo’s character was someone you were rooting for, not someone who you hated that you loved, or at least wanted to be like.
That last bullet point above is the one that I believe has kept our beloved Leo from being awarded an Oscar® in the past.
His characters were just too darn likable and envied.
With the character he played in this frontier-style, monster-of-an-epic, I can’t even begin to explain to you the depths of pain, hardship, and pure, unadulterated perseverance that Leonardo DiCaprio’s stunning, powerful, absolutely towering performance portrayed.
It is just a movie that you HAVE to see if you want to see one of the greatest actors to ever live at the pinnacle of their craft.
Scraping, clawing, crawling, and ultimately willing himself to rise from the dreaded ashes, ironically the movie that will probably and finally give death to the taunts and life to his home’s currently 6-feet-under Academy Awards® shelf is named after and about an individual who returns from the dead.
Long Live Leo.
Economics
Democratic Socialism for Dummies
Article #22: Economics, Politics
If you don’t know the non-Wikipedia, non-right-wing-propaganda-demonization definition of the word “Socialism,” then I suggest you drink a tall glass of shut the heck up, please.
Too harsh?
Forgive me, but I have an extremely high level of disdain for ignorance, especially when it’s purposeful. I find that purposeful ignorance exudes cowardice, and when I look at the right-wing base, all I see is cowardice.
Anyone who is willing to just take what someone says without even thinking about researching it, let alone actually doing it, all because it elicits a strong emotional response, is an intellectual coward. In my opinion, this is the right-wing base.
Their “leadership” publicly lies on a level I haven’t seen since the Bush 43 years, and their base just sucks it up as if it’s truth.
Then they directly contract media propaganda machines like Fox “News” to reinforce the lies through repetition for weeks and months, but with added key buzzwords:
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Socialism
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“Unfettered” Capitalism
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Oligarchy
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Communism
These particular buzzwords are specifically used to evoke a particular emotional response from their massively-ill-informed base.
Democratic socialism is calculatingly-demonized while unfettered capitalism is pushed by the rich and powerful as the ‘gold standard’ of running a country economically.
So, for the easily manipulated, let’s discuss the actual definition of all of these terms right now.
Democratic Socialism: GREAT! Democratic socialism is, in essence, the ‘in-between’ of capitalism and communism.
In other words, “Democratic socialism is the correct balance between universal government programs and regulated capitalism.” ~ Tim Carthon.
Democratic socialism’s champion is 2-Term U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and his philosophy is rather simple to understand, so much so to where I explained it here in this video while traveling in my most relaxed, could-have-been-half-asleep political state ever:
Then, Bernie Sanders did an even more powerful job of explaining Democratic Socialism in his long-awaited speech deciphering the simplicity of it:
Like I said, simple.
“Unfettered” Capitalism: HORRIBLE! Although capitalism is great when regulated, “unfettered” capitalism is one of the worst things economically and environmentally.
Knowing this, the “unfettered” verbiage is used by the rich and powerful as an indirect way of making the common man believe that they will one day be one of the rich and powerful, and that to do so they need nothing to stand in their way (unfettered = unrestricted, unrestricted = unblocked).
Unfortunately, the percentage chance of the common man becoming rich and powerful is almost as minute as someone making it to the National Basketball Association® as a player.
You see, in actuality, the “unfettered” capitalism argument is propagated in order for an extremely small group of people to make insane amounts of money off of the very common man they preach to about it, while simultaneously paying an orgasmically-low tax rate while doing it.
They just need the common man to be their shield and to defend the “unfettered” capitalism verbiage and practice, breeding unlimited greed and financial gluttony, ultimately resulting in financial depressions which, ironically, hurt the very common man who defends this economic insanity for them.
It’s economic Stockholm syndrome.
Just listen to Pope Francis, the current leader of the Catholic Church, speak on unfettered capitalism a few years ago, something he has called “the dung of the devil”:
Oligarchy: POTENTIALLY HORRIBLE! An oligarchy is a small group of people having control of a country, organization, or institution. Sound familiar?
It’s where America almost is now because of the right-wing Supreme Court of the United States’ Citizens United ruling.
An oligarchy relies on the mercy of the small group of people in charge. So, if you have a very humble, giving group of people, then, although not the best form of governing, an oligarchy may not be all that bad. However…
…how often do you find that level of power in the hands of a humble, giving group of people? How many times have you had it in their hands, only for that ‘absolute power’ to ‘corrupt absolutely’?
Hence why I dubbed this one “Potentially Horrible.”
Communism: HORRIBLE! The government has total control of EVERYTHING and you, as a citizen, have virtually no say so in anything.
You can even be put to death with no trial and no consequences to the individuals who ordered and/or executed that death.
Balance is always the key in these situations, and there is only one definitely positive-ending solution to ruling a country that has the correct balance, and that’s democratic socialism. However…
…in America, the word socialism has been purposefully demonized by those who are making hundreds of millions of dollars and gaining unprecedented control over the government and the masses.
To them, it’s not about truth, it’s about narrative.
I’ve told people this a few times and with a number of variations:
Vote for the best presidential candidate with the best plan for the entire country or don’t complain when your candidate screws you and this country over.
From what I see, there is only one Democratic socialist in the current presidential race, and that’s Bernie Sanders. Here are a number of his platforms from Internet memes (don’t worry, I checked them out for legitimacy):
An amazing platform, right? Well, that’s been pretty much his platform his entire life, literally. For what more can one ask from a presidential candidate?
Well, a lot of people are asking for his head on a figurative stick because they believe that his democratic socialism policies will cost the country $18T in additional spending.
This, too, is a completely false talking point.
It’s a faux argument used by the rich and powerful to scare the very people they’ve prepped with the “be scared of debt” argument.
Yet, they’re the same people who find money very quickly to fund or support endless trillion-dollar wars for their rich friends’ military and prison industrial complex-based companies.
Senator Sanders is saying enough is enough. He’s putting these rich people on the spot and showing them how the American economic system should be run, along with other key universal government programs.
Check out his democratic socialist plans:
As you can see, Bernie Sanders’ plan doesn’ cost $18T, it actually saves $18T. That’s a big difference in verbiage, don’t you think?
This plan shifts the financial burden from those who cannot hold it to those who can bear it easily.
Doing it this way will ultimately benefit the entire country, unlike what we have now which is only benefiting a small group of greedy and financially-gluttonous people who currently have control of our country, our political organizations, and our financial institutions. Hmmm…
…sound familiar? (See “‘Unfettered’ Capitalism” and “Oligarchy” above).
As Pope Francis explains, “We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose.“
Bernie Sanders understands that fully, and his plans will re-shift the money we’re spending that is making the rich richer and allocate it to programs that benefit the lower and middle economic classes.
Outside of finding out that he’s an intergalactic alien hell bent on destroying mankind, this man, with his complete understanding of economics and a history of selflessness and positive consistency, definitely has my vote.
