Juneteenth and Modern Day Slavery
June 19th is Juneteenth. It celebrates the day in 1865 when news of emancipation reached Texas. Slaveholders conveniently came down with a case of mass amnesia and didn't relay the news of the Emancipation Proclamation issued in 1863 or of the wars ending two months earlier.
Today I came across an article in the Root about Juneteenth and modern day slavery. The authors quite rightly focused on the horrors of human trafficking which exists in this country and around the world. However, I assumed they would also make mention America's mass incarceration which is not only a form of slavery but which is largely targeted at black people.
The United States has both a greater percentage of its population behind bars and a greater number than any country on earth. There is no despot or dictator on earth who puts as many people in jail as this nation does. While black make up approximately ten percent of our population, we comprise half of all people in jail, prisons, or on parole or probation.
While the authors of the Root article may also suffer from a form of selective amnesia, there are thousands of people across the country dedicated to ending this scourge of our so-called civilization. Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow, is spreading the word about a group of clergy dedicated to raising awareness of this issue. The Samuel DeWitt Proctor Conference is dedicated to addressing many social justice issues and they are in the forefront of exposing and opposing mass incarceration.
It isn't really surprising that the Root has no interest in people who are under the jurisdiction of the criminal justice system. We have been propagandized into demonizing them as being unworthy of our attention or concern. The truth is that most of them have not committed violent crimes, but are victims of the forty year long war on drugs and the efforts to literally profit from it and other law enforcement measures. We have private prisons which exist to make a profit. Unemployed people are in jail for failing to pay child support and the child support enforcement system has itself become a privatized profit making venture.
Prisoners are subject to sexual and other violence in jails and prisons, are denied medical care and of the right to vote and to work once they are free. They are victims of involuntary servitude and we must never forget that fact.
Monday, June 13, 2011
I Told You So
Two weeks ago I wrote about The Obama Surveillance State in the Black Agenda Report. Today the New York Times revealed what I and others have been reporting.
The FBI has approved a new manual which expands the powers which agents can utilize in the field. They will be able to go through trash, infiltrate organizations, attend religious services, and conduct database searches without even opening an assessment, which beginning in 2008, were permissible without proof of illegal activity.
The bar gets lower and lower. As I reported last week, the illegal activities which Richard Nixon undertook against Daniel Ellsberg are now legal. The FBI can do anything it wants in order to investigate citizens without fear of committing any illegal activity.
Don't just blame George W. Bush. This new manual emerges from the Obama justice department.
Two weeks ago I wrote about The Obama Surveillance State in the Black Agenda Report. Today the New York Times revealed what I and others have been reporting.
The FBI has approved a new manual which expands the powers which agents can utilize in the field. They will be able to go through trash, infiltrate organizations, attend religious services, and conduct database searches without even opening an assessment, which beginning in 2008, were permissible without proof of illegal activity.
The bar gets lower and lower. As I reported last week, the illegal activities which Richard Nixon undertook against Daniel Ellsberg are now legal. The FBI can do anything it wants in order to investigate citizens without fear of committing any illegal activity.
Don't just blame George W. Bush. This new manual emerges from the Obama justice department.
Tuesday, June 07, 2011
Nixon's Crimes are Now Legal
In last week's Black Agenda Report I commented on the ever expanding surveillance state brought to us by Barack Obama. There is now a dangerous bipartisan consensus in support of the further erosion of our civil liberties. Don't believe me? Just read these words from Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon papers forty years ago.
"Richard Nixon, if he were alive today, might take bittersweet satisfaction to know that he was not the last smart president to prolong unjustifiably a senseless, unwinnable war, at great cost in human life. (And his aide Henry Kissinger was not the last American official to win an undeserved Nobel Peace Prize.)
He would probably also feel vindicated (and envious) that ALL the crimes he committed against me–which forced his resignation facing impeachment–are now legal.
That includes burglarizing my former psychoanalyst's office (for material to blackmail me into silence), warrantless wiretapping, using the CIA against an American citizen in the US, and authorizing a White House hit squad to "incapacitate me totally" (on the steps of the Capitol on May 3, 1971). All the above were to prevent me from exposing guilty secrets of his own administration that went beyond the Pentagon Papers. But under George W. Bush and Barack Obama,with the PATRIOT Act, the FISA Amendment Act, and (for the hit squad) President Obama's executive orders. they have all become legal."
Contrast Ellsberg's treatment with tht of Bradley Manning, who is accused of giving government secrets to Wikileaks. Ellsberg's conviction was over turned while Manning has been imprisoned, tortured psychologically, and denied the right to have private visits. In essence, Obama is now worse than Richard Nixon.
I told you so.
In last week's Black Agenda Report I commented on the ever expanding surveillance state brought to us by Barack Obama. There is now a dangerous bipartisan consensus in support of the further erosion of our civil liberties. Don't believe me? Just read these words from Daniel Ellsberg, the man who leaked the Pentagon papers forty years ago.
"Richard Nixon, if he were alive today, might take bittersweet satisfaction to know that he was not the last smart president to prolong unjustifiably a senseless, unwinnable war, at great cost in human life. (And his aide Henry Kissinger was not the last American official to win an undeserved Nobel Peace Prize.)
He would probably also feel vindicated (and envious) that ALL the crimes he committed against me–which forced his resignation facing impeachment–are now legal.
That includes burglarizing my former psychoanalyst's office (for material to blackmail me into silence), warrantless wiretapping, using the CIA against an American citizen in the US, and authorizing a White House hit squad to "incapacitate me totally" (on the steps of the Capitol on May 3, 1971). All the above were to prevent me from exposing guilty secrets of his own administration that went beyond the Pentagon Papers. But under George W. Bush and Barack Obama,with the PATRIOT Act, the FISA Amendment Act, and (for the hit squad) President Obama's executive orders. they have all become legal."
Contrast Ellsberg's treatment with tht of Bradley Manning, who is accused of giving government secrets to Wikileaks. Ellsberg's conviction was over turned while Manning has been imprisoned, tortured psychologically, and denied the right to have private visits. In essence, Obama is now worse than Richard Nixon.
I told you so.
The dirty trick that launched Anthony Weiner's career
The dirty trick that launched Anthony Weiner's career
I didn't know that Weiner used race baiting to win elective office. Forget the weiner double entendres. This is what counts.
I didn't know that Weiner used race baiting to win elective office. Forget the weiner double entendres. This is what counts.
Friday, June 03, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin on a motorcycle, Sarah on a bus, in Iowa, in New Hampshire, with her kids! Will she? Won't she? Enough already.
Today a NATO air strike killed 15 people in Afghanistan. Obama has publicly pledge to kill people in Libya and force regime change, even if Libyans have to die from bombs or sanctions in the process. What difference would it make if she were president? Yes, she is dumb, but so what? Our smarty pants president does what anyone who wants to be president has to do.
I don't really care if liberal snobs hate Sarah Palin. We will end up with more of the same, giving public money to the private sector, and endless war, regardless of who lives in the white house in 2013. Sarah on a motorcycle. Whatever.
Sarah Palin on a motorcycle, Sarah on a bus, in Iowa, in New Hampshire, with her kids! Will she? Won't she? Enough already.
Today a NATO air strike killed 15 people in Afghanistan. Obama has publicly pledge to kill people in Libya and force regime change, even if Libyans have to die from bombs or sanctions in the process. What difference would it make if she were president? Yes, she is dumb, but so what? Our smarty pants president does what anyone who wants to be president has to do.
I don't really care if liberal snobs hate Sarah Palin. We will end up with more of the same, giving public money to the private sector, and endless war, regardless of who lives in the white house in 2013. Sarah on a motorcycle. Whatever.
The First Memorial Day
David Blight is Yale professor of history who specializes in the study of the civil war era. In today's New York Times, he tells the story of the first memorial day which was celebrated in Charleston, South Carolina.
In the last year of the war, a race track in Charleston was used as an open air prison for union soldiers where more than 200 died and were buried in a mass grave. When the confederates evacuated the city, the newly freed people of Charleston reburied the dead properly and erected a high fence around the new cemetery. On May 1, 1865, they held a parade and ceremony at the site.
The procession was led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing the Union marching song “John Brown’s Body.” Several hundred black women followed with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses. Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantrymen. Within the cemetery enclosure a black children’s choir sang “We’ll Rally Around the Flag,” the “Star-Spangled Banner” and spirituals before a series of black ministers read from the Bible.
After the dedication the crowd dispersed into the infield and did what many of us do on Memorial Day: enjoyed picnics, listened to speeches and watched soldiers drill. Among the full brigade of Union infantrymen participating were the famous 54th Massachusetts and the 34th and 104th United States Colored Troops, who performed a special double-columned march around the gravesite.
I now have a reason to celebrate memorial day. Aside from enjoying a long weekend and an opportunity to have a little more time for fun, I hate this holiday. I hate the celebration of war and death and the implied mandate to have more of both. The first memorial day was a commemoration of America's only good war, the war which killed chattel slavery.
Blight has once again done a great service to history lovers with his research. In 2008 he gave a series of lectures on the war and reconstruction which are available for free download. They are indispensable to anyone interested in that period of American history.
Happy memorial day.
David Blight is Yale professor of history who specializes in the study of the civil war era. In today's New York Times, he tells the story of the first memorial day which was celebrated in Charleston, South Carolina.
In the last year of the war, a race track in Charleston was used as an open air prison for union soldiers where more than 200 died and were buried in a mass grave. When the confederates evacuated the city, the newly freed people of Charleston reburied the dead properly and erected a high fence around the new cemetery. On May 1, 1865, they held a parade and ceremony at the site.
The procession was led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing the Union marching song “John Brown’s Body.” Several hundred black women followed with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses. Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantrymen. Within the cemetery enclosure a black children’s choir sang “We’ll Rally Around the Flag,” the “Star-Spangled Banner” and spirituals before a series of black ministers read from the Bible.
After the dedication the crowd dispersed into the infield and did what many of us do on Memorial Day: enjoyed picnics, listened to speeches and watched soldiers drill. Among the full brigade of Union infantrymen participating were the famous 54th Massachusetts and the 34th and 104th United States Colored Troops, who performed a special double-columned march around the gravesite.
I now have a reason to celebrate memorial day. Aside from enjoying a long weekend and an opportunity to have a little more time for fun, I hate this holiday. I hate the celebration of war and death and the implied mandate to have more of both. The first memorial day was a commemoration of America's only good war, the war which killed chattel slavery.
Blight has once again done a great service to history lovers with his research. In 2008 he gave a series of lectures on the war and reconstruction which are available for free download. They are indispensable to anyone interested in that period of American history.
Happy memorial day.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
"USA" Chant on NYC Subway FAIL
New Yorkers do not like being screamed at while on the subway. It is especially true when some dumb ass asks if anyone with "a pair" wants to join in shouting something stupid. New York, it ain't Podunk.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Tornado Disasters
TVA safely shut down its Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama with emergency backup power this week, but power outages across the Tennessee Valley still left the utility without enough emergency sirens to warn nearby residents of potential safety problems at both Browns Ferry in Alabama and the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Soddy-Daisy.
In a notice to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission released Friday, TVA said more than 60 percent of its sirens around Browns Ferry and about a third of its warning sirens around Sequoyah were inoperable this week when electricity service was lost to the sirens following Wednesday’s tornadoes and wind storms. - Times Free Press
Three days ago tornadoes tore across the southern states of Mississipi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia and Kentucky. Last week tornados touched down and damaged St. Louis' Lambert Field international airport.
The tornados this week killed more than 300 people, mostly in Alabama. President Obama made the obligatory visit, shaking hands and making trite statements about devastation being really, really bad, and people sticking together and blah, blah, blah.
The facts are undeniable. These weather extremes are a result of human made climate change and even advanced countries like the U.S. do not have the means to care for people when natural disaster strikes. Nuclear reactors in Alabama were without power after the tornados and unable to warn residents should the need arise because alarm systems were without power, not to mention the reactors' cooling capacity. Sounds too much like Fukushima for my taste.
By the way, we can't talk about climate change denying republicans without mentioning how Barak Obama sabotaged the conference at Copenhagen. Mr. Environmentalist used his bully pulpit to force an agreement which allows world temperatures to rise two degrees. It doesn't sound like much, but that is the difference between having an ice age or not.
In any case, this country does not have a plan for dealing with large scale disaster and Alabamians and others will suffer like their fellow citizens during the Katrina crisis.
TVA safely shut down its Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama with emergency backup power this week, but power outages across the Tennessee Valley still left the utility without enough emergency sirens to warn nearby residents of potential safety problems at both Browns Ferry in Alabama and the Sequoyah Nuclear Plant near Soddy-Daisy.
In a notice to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission released Friday, TVA said more than 60 percent of its sirens around Browns Ferry and about a third of its warning sirens around Sequoyah were inoperable this week when electricity service was lost to the sirens following Wednesday’s tornadoes and wind storms. - Times Free Press
Three days ago tornadoes tore across the southern states of Mississipi, Alabama, Georgia, Virginia and Kentucky. Last week tornados touched down and damaged St. Louis' Lambert Field international airport.
The tornados this week killed more than 300 people, mostly in Alabama. President Obama made the obligatory visit, shaking hands and making trite statements about devastation being really, really bad, and people sticking together and blah, blah, blah.
The facts are undeniable. These weather extremes are a result of human made climate change and even advanced countries like the U.S. do not have the means to care for people when natural disaster strikes. Nuclear reactors in Alabama were without power after the tornados and unable to warn residents should the need arise because alarm systems were without power, not to mention the reactors' cooling capacity. Sounds too much like Fukushima for my taste.
By the way, we can't talk about climate change denying republicans without mentioning how Barak Obama sabotaged the conference at Copenhagen. Mr. Environmentalist used his bully pulpit to force an agreement which allows world temperatures to rise two degrees. It doesn't sound like much, but that is the difference between having an ice age or not.
In any case, this country does not have a plan for dealing with large scale disaster and Alabamians and others will suffer like their fellow citizens during the Katrina crisis.
Monday, April 04, 2011
Citizenship duties or Drum Rhymes with Dumb
I have long believed that liberals are just as inclined as conservatives to give up their citizenship rights and duties as are the right wing. Most Americans like being led by a leader they love. The urge to exult in a cult of personality extends just as much to democrats as republicans. I pointed this out in my most recent Black Agenda Report column, "Attack of the Cruise Missile Liberals. " Yesterday Glenn Greenwald made an important discovery and just as importantly shared it with the world. These are the terrifying words of one Kevin Drum. "If it had been my call, I wouldn't have gone into Libya. But the reason I voted for Obama in 2008 is because I trust his judgment. And not in any merely abstract way, either: I mean that if he and I were in a room and disagreed about some issue on which I had any doubt at all, I'd literally trust his judgment over my own. I think he's smarter than me, better informed, better able to understand the consequences of his actions, and more farsighted." If Drum doesn't know that much, I don't know why he bothers to be a writer and commentator. He should keep his little two cents to himself. "Literally trust his judgment over my own?" Why doesn't Drum just shut up then and leave the field open to those of us who don't give some politician greater respect than we give ourselves. No, Barack Obama is not any smarter than I am, and he probably isn't smarter than anyone reading this either. I don't care how "smart" he may be, I have a right to say that my country should stop killing people all over this world. Obama isn't Einstein. He makes decisions the same way other presidents do. They listen to a small group of people who have been elevated by a system which rewards anyone who will go along with the status quo. I don't defer to secretaries of state or national security advisers or UN ambassadors either. Their titles and their credentials mean nothing to me. The world is in a mess because we give up our ability to think to a bunch of brown nosing bastards who put themselves and their needs above those of humanity. As for Drum, if you check out the link you will see that he back tracked, but that is only because he was called out and embarassed. He meant what he said the first time, he and the rest of the liberals who will assist Obama in sending us all down the path to hell.
I have long believed that liberals are just as inclined as conservatives to give up their citizenship rights and duties as are the right wing. Most Americans like being led by a leader they love. The urge to exult in a cult of personality extends just as much to democrats as republicans. I pointed this out in my most recent Black Agenda Report column, "Attack of the Cruise Missile Liberals. " Yesterday Glenn Greenwald made an important discovery and just as importantly shared it with the world. These are the terrifying words of one Kevin Drum. "If it had been my call, I wouldn't have gone into Libya. But the reason I voted for Obama in 2008 is because I trust his judgment. And not in any merely abstract way, either: I mean that if he and I were in a room and disagreed about some issue on which I had any doubt at all, I'd literally trust his judgment over my own. I think he's smarter than me, better informed, better able to understand the consequences of his actions, and more farsighted." If Drum doesn't know that much, I don't know why he bothers to be a writer and commentator. He should keep his little two cents to himself. "Literally trust his judgment over my own?" Why doesn't Drum just shut up then and leave the field open to those of us who don't give some politician greater respect than we give ourselves. No, Barack Obama is not any smarter than I am, and he probably isn't smarter than anyone reading this either. I don't care how "smart" he may be, I have a right to say that my country should stop killing people all over this world. Obama isn't Einstein. He makes decisions the same way other presidents do. They listen to a small group of people who have been elevated by a system which rewards anyone who will go along with the status quo. I don't defer to secretaries of state or national security advisers or UN ambassadors either. Their titles and their credentials mean nothing to me. The world is in a mess because we give up our ability to think to a bunch of brown nosing bastards who put themselves and their needs above those of humanity. As for Drum, if you check out the link you will see that he back tracked, but that is only because he was called out and embarassed. He meant what he said the first time, he and the rest of the liberals who will assist Obama in sending us all down the path to hell.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Obama Loves Bill Kristol
“What’s the joke – they told me if I voted for McCain, we’d be going to war in a third Muslim country? I voted for McCain and we’re doing it.” – Bill Kristol
Monday, March 28, 2011
Obama’s War
“For those of you who were able to tear yourselves away from the tragedy in Japan and the US media’s gushing over Obama’s ‘humanitarian intervention’ in Libya, there was some horrifying news from Afghanistan which underscores Obama’s hypocrisy in the area of human rights and violence: the publication in German publication Der Spiegel of a batch of photographs taken by US soldiers with their ‘trophies’ — the corpses of Afghan civilians murdered by ‘kill teams’ who created artificial ‘combat situations’ in order to hunt human beings for sport.”
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
How the U.S. Strikes Fear In Its Own People
“In fact, the only person to suffer any legal repercussions from that NSA scandal was someone named Thomas Tam, who was the mid-level Justice Department whistleblower who found out that this was taking place and was horrified by it and called Eric Lichtblau at the NYT and exposed that it had happened. The person who was the only one to suffer repercussions was the person who exposed the criminality. The criminals were fully immunized.”
A great read. Greenwald explain the importance of Wikileaks and how the incestuous relationship between the government and “journalists” endangers us all.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
The Tea Party and the Media - Glen Ford
Left Forum 2011
Glen Ford and I were panelists at this year's annual Left Forum in New York City. Here is Glen on a panel discussing the Tea Party and the media.
The entire discussion was interesting. Other panelists wrung their hands about the tea partiers and how we progressives should engage them. I for one have no interest whatever in engaging them or worrying about what they fear. No mystery here, they fear black people. Period.
The left need to concentrate on advocating for their own positions and not worry about unrepentant racists and reactionaries.
Overseer Obama Vexed by Disobedient Haitian Negro
OK, so America is once again killing huge numbers of people, this time in Libya. But there is a bright spot some where on the globe. Jean Bertrand Aristide returned to Haiti and the people who elected him president. Barry Obama tried to keep him in his South African exile, but to no avail.
(I stole this title from Distant Ocean.)
Friday, March 18, 2011
Diet Soap Podcast #95: Wisconsin Workers Struggle On
My Take on Wisconsin and Other Things
The Wisconsin union busting story is so two weeks ago. Now we are transfixed by the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan and the resulting nuclear accidents.
Before you forget though, check out my interview on the Diet Soap podcast with Douglas Lain.
Diet Soap Podcast #95: Wisconsin Workers Struggle On
The Wisconsin union busting story is so two weeks ago. Now we are transfixed by the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan and the resulting nuclear accidents.
Before you forget though, check out my interview on the Diet Soap podcast with Douglas Lain.
Diet Soap Podcast #95: Wisconsin Workers Struggle On
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Dont Worry America Israels Behind You! Truth Hurts
Don't Worry U.S.A., Israel Is Behind You
Break it down brother Ayad!
Friday, February 11, 2011
Worthless Liberals
Aren't they always? The shallowness and indeed the corruption of liberal commentators has been on full display as events have unfolded in Egypt.
Atrios and Digby had no problems giving us their two cents when Bush was president, but now that the guy at the top of the greasy pole is a democrat, they can't find anything to say. They see that Obama has been sitting on the fence, trying to look like he wants change when he really does not.
"On Egypt I got nothin'." Really Atrios? Then it is time to close up shop and blog abut restaurants or fashion or travel and leave the commentary to the grown ups.
Hat tip to Chris Floyd
Aren't they always? The shallowness and indeed the corruption of liberal commentators has been on full display as events have unfolded in Egypt.
Atrios and Digby had no problems giving us their two cents when Bush was president, but now that the guy at the top of the greasy pole is a democrat, they can't find anything to say. They see that Obama has been sitting on the fence, trying to look like he wants change when he really does not.
"On Egypt I got nothin'." Really Atrios? Then it is time to close up shop and blog abut restaurants or fashion or travel and leave the commentary to the grown ups.
Hat tip to Chris Floyd
Sunday, February 06, 2011
Hyper Patriotism and the Super Bowl
I am trying to watch the super bowl pre-game show, but I have to be subjected to a recitation of the declaration of independence, and lots of people in uniform. Even Fox isn't stupid, they have football legends everyone loves and many people of color and women in uniform along with men, but it is just too jingoistic for me.
Sports are supposed to be non-partisan. People of any political view point should be able to watch the super bowl without getting a dose of hyper patriotism. Hopefully I can just watch the game now without any more political interruptions.
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