Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Radical Columbia

https://socialistworker.org/2016/09/08/radical-columbia

https://www.amazon.com/Young-Black-Determined-Biography-Hansberry/dp/0823413004/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483023088&sr=1-5&keywords=lorraine+hansberry

https://www.amazon.com/Movement-Documentary-Struggle-Equality/dp/B0006BMBMI/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483023170&sr=1-8&keywords=lorraine+hansberry


https://www.amazon.com/Shaping-Black-America-African-Americans-1619-1990s/dp/0140175687/ref=sr_1_51?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483025287&sr=1-51&keywords=African+American+History

https://www.amazon.com/Deliverance-Fields-African-American-Carrier/dp/0997877006/ref=sr_1_39?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483025228&sr=1-39&keywords=African+American+History

https://www.amazon.com/Official-Smithsonian-National-African-American/dp/1588345939/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483023524&sr=1-4&keywords=National+Museum+of+African+American+History+and+Culture

https://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Museum-Smithsonians-National/dp/0451476379/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483023524&sr=1-5&keywords=National+Museum+of+African+American+History+and+Culture

https://www.amazon.com/Posing-Beauty-African-American-Present/dp/0393066967/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Michelle-Obama-First-Lady-Photographs/dp/0393077470/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1629143871/ref=pd_luc_rh_rk_sim_03_01_t_img_lh?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/National-African-American-History-Culture/dp/158834570X/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

https://www.amazon.com/Begin-Past-Building-National-American/dp/1588345696/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1483023524&sr=1-2&keywords=National+Museum+of+African+American+History+and+Culture

NOURA ERAKAT

https://www.mecaforpeace.org/events/oakland-ca-save-date-palestinian-american-activist-scholar-and-attorney-noura-erakat

https://www.thenation.com/authors/noura-erakat/


Fitness Experts



https://www.instagram.com/theajzone/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/miss_dreea/

https://www.instagram.com/flexxybrown/

https://www.instagram.com/p/BMlx7m9BQ8s/?taken-by=miss_dreea

Saturday, September 03, 2016

Regina Taylor Wins Best Actress TV Series Drama - Golden Globes 1993

History



http://www.blackagendareport.com/in_defense_of_panthers


http://theculture.forharriet.com/2016/02/former-party-chairwoman-elaine-brown.html#axzz4JDl3H6yM

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/10/16/a-good-film-but-not-good-enough/


https://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2016/02/26/vanguard-of-the-revolution-is-liberal-history-strips-and-omits-socialism-from-history-of-the-black-panther-party/

http://www.marxist.com/on-the-program-of-the-black-panther-party-which-way-forward-for-black-workers-and-youth-part-two.htm

http://www.marxist.com/lessons-from-the-history-and-struggle-of-the-black-panther-party.htm

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/07/03/ex-black-panther-leader-elaine-brown-slams-stanley-nelson-s-condemnable-documentary.html

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/icl-spartacists/black-question/10_MalcolmX.pdf
_________________________________________

http://isreview.org/issue/102/political-revolution-lesser-evilism

https://racismws.com/2016/03/31/what-are-black-parents-teaching-our-children-about-racism/

http://racisminamerica.org/6-black-on-black-crime-racist-implications-and-damages-to-black-society/

https://racismws.com/2016/06/02/is-the-roots-remake-a-history-lesson-or-a-prediction-of-our-future/#comment-78197


http://jezebel.com/lena-dunham-and-amy-schumer-team-up-for-an-embarrassing-1786100937


Nixak*77*  9 days ago
Beyond ‘mere’ ‘Blindly Religious’ Faith- Why it’s quite Logically Reasonable to Believe in God!
One Could point out the fact that 85% - 90% of Earth’s people believe in spirituality in some form- w fully 57% of Earth's people being of the Abrahamic Faiths Tradition [IE: Jews / Hebrews, Christians, & Muslims, etc...] –vs- just 5% to Less than 10% of the World's people are atheists / agnostics. Of course that in & of itself is NOT necessarily a scientifically sound reason to believe in God. So below I list 6 good scientific reasons why it’s logical to believe in the God of the Universe [aka The Creator of the Heavens & the Earth]:
1} The ‘Birth’ of the Universe: The Big Bang shows that the Universe indeed had a beginning, which prior to that there WAS NO such thing as Time, space, Nor matter- IE: NOTHING in the [strict] Material sense! So how can you even get an entire Universe from absolute nothingness??? This is such a vexing problem that either scientists avoid talking about what’s the ultimate source of the Big Bang, or strict materialists minded ‘scientists’ ‘fudge the real definition’ of ‘nothing’. Note: Big-Bang Theorists say the Universe burst into existence as a burst of light energy. Genesis says the Universe began as ‘Let There be Light’ shined thru the ‘Darkness’.
- 2} Fine Tuning of the Universe: There’re a number of fundamental universal parameters & constants, that seem precisely fined-tuned to allow even the possibility of life in our Universe. Such that should just a few of these many fundamental universal parameters & constants be even slightly changed, not only would life as we know it be impossible, but chemistry & even the formation of stars, solar systems & galaxies would / could NOT have even occurred. Note: Cosmic ‘inflation’ theory was proposed to try to skirt one aspect of the Fine tuning ‘problem’, even though it violates Einstein’s speed of light [C] as the absolute cosmic speed-limit for matter & energy traveling in space!
- 3} Origin of Life [OOL]: According to top molecular chemist James Tour, NO-One has the slightest idea how, via random forces in nature alone, even the simplest microscopic organism could be formed from inherently inert / non-living matter. The ‘famed’ Urey Miller experiment was/is hyped as a big-step in ‘solving’ the OOL ‘problem’, but in-fact there were several key issues w Urey-Miller that effectively invalidate it re: the real-World. But even if it were valid on its own terms, Urey-Miller at best shows how a few amino-acids might have formed via random forces in nature, but can NOT show how these few amino-acids then became assembled into functional proteins, let alone how those proteins then became assembled into simple but LIVING Self-replicating microscopic [let alone complex macroscopic] organisms. – Note: The Fine tuned Universe & OOL ‘problems’ have even led to strict materialists to hype the pseudo-scientific so-called ‘multiverse’ {non}’Theory’ as a phony ‘solution’ to these vexing ‘problems’! Also note that Darwinists kinda-sorta ‘punt’ on the OOL issue- even though NO OOL = NO Darwinian evolution!
- 4} The Cambrian Explosion [aka Big Bang of Life]: Marks the sudden advent of a wide variety of complex macroscopic life-forms. Even Darwin himself understood the real-risk that the issues re: the Cambrian Explosion could eventually SINK his theory. Darwin dismissed this issue by insisting that numerous missing-links [to explain the Cambrian Explosion via a Darwinian mechanism] had NOT been found in the fossil-record during his day. Well its over 150 yrs later & the Cambrian challenge to Darwinism NOT only still exists, it’s actually gotten even worse! The Cambrian shows there was a sudden [unexplained] quantum-leap in biological info, w little if any real precursors [see Stephen Meyer’s ‘Darwin’s Doubt’]!
- 5} Haldane’s Dilemma: Shows via population genetics & mathematics that for mammals in general, & especially Humans & primates in particular- a Darwinian evolutionary mechanism can NOT work / does NOT explain how our alleged so-called ‘ape-like’ ancestor could have genetically ‘evolved’ into humans- NOT in 6 million yrs [the standard time given], NOR 60 million yrs [standard time of dino extinction leading to the rise of mammals & birds], nor 600 million yrs [just prior to the Cambrian Explosion], nor 6 Billion Yrs [= even before the formation of the Sun & Earth], NOR Even 60 BILLION YRS [= 4Xs – 5Xs the estimated age of the Universe]. This is so even when one focuses on the supposed ‘mere’ 2% difference between humans’ & chimps’ genome [which in the wake of ENCODE will likely be shown it’s significantly MORE than just a 2% difference].
- 6} The Development of Human Language: Famed MIT Linguist Noam Chomsky has recently coauthored a scientific paper saying the current fad of studying apes in the wild to try to explain the ‘evolution’ of human language, is just a waste of time [& resources]- which IMO should be blatantly obvious since wild apes Neither talk NOR read & write!! IMO it just shows that Darwinists do NOT really have a clue how human language [which also implies the human mind too] could have ‘evolved’ via strict Darwinian means.
These 6 cases show such [dare I say seemingly 'MIRACULOUS'] quantum-leaps of information re the ’real’ material world, that IMO they're likely impossible to fully account for via strictly materialistic means & explanations. Such that IMO the basic idea re: the ‘God Hypothesis’ is NOT only justified, but is entirely reasonable. Atheistic strict materialists & Darwinists give a ‘Whole Lotta’ sciency sounding ‘Huff & Bluff’ to try to skirt &/or dismiss these issues, which IMO is what you do when you really don’t have a clue [yet refuse to admit it]- about how to really deal w them!!


Thursday, September 01, 2016

Flint

rosa roja • 4 hours ago
"The shutdown of Flint’s auto industry and the economic devastation visited on the city as a consequence was part of a wholesale assault on the working class as a whole." Absolutely true!

"Structural racism played no role". Absolutely false!

Prof. Hammer covers up the former, wsws covers up the latter. God only knows why.

---------------------------

On the small chance that it will do any good, I will repeat the following for the umpteenth time. Your claim that black people are incapable of implementing racist policies is so indefensible (not to mention worn out and predictable) that it puts you in the same category as a colonial apologist.

I can prove that the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia has nothing to do with European domination, because it's all done by African soldiers!

I can prove that the police cannot be agents of the capitalists, because they all come from the working class!

Can't you see the inanity of this sort of "proof"?



What you should have -- and so easily could have -- written in this article is: It requires a political struggle to unify all sections of the working class, of all races, in a common fight against unemployment, poverty, inequality, RACISM, IMPERIALISM, and the capitalist profit system. But I guess you would have choked on those words. Instead you wrote: "it is clear that broader issues are involved—bound up NOT with racial divisions".... Oy gewalt. Queue the mindless attacks from the usual suspects.... I don't intend to answer them any more.

___________________________________



Jon Geene • 16 days ago
Racism cannot be separated from class rule in the United States. American society, despite the enormous gains made in the Civil War and the Civil Right movement, of historical necessity, drags the chains of history behind it. This manifests itself in ongoing racial inequalities.

The epidemic of police violence in the US - far in excess of what we see in any other advanced country - is a product of the crisis of the particular form of the crisis bourgeois rule. As US history is marred by especially violent and repressive forms of racism, the contemporary expressions of class conflict cannot help but have a racial component.

The collective "white guilt" suggested by some bourgeois commentators is an attempt to disguise the responsibility of the growth of US capitalism, as an entire socio-economic system, for the racist outrages of American history. No-one outwith the Fox News studios would claim that this racism does not linger in many facets of contemporary American life. This history and legacy of racism must be contextualized within the glaringly obvious fact that US capitalism today is responsible for a generalized impoverishment and brutalization of broad swathes of society of all races.

There are certain facts about police violence in America that must be examined, including facts relating to race. Attention to such phenomena does necessarily box one into the category of "identity politics" - a phrase that I have problems with, as being black or a woman or disabled, for examples, is not just an "identity" but an objective fact that often brings with it very real problems with discrimination.

Almost all the victims of police killings in the US are poor or low-income. This is class war, make no mistake. Black people are more likely to be poor than white people, another unavoidable legacy of US history that is perpetuated by ongoing (albeit less egregious) racial discrimination today. About 25% of African Americans are poor - a shockingly high level (just slightly higher than the percentage of Hispanics who are poor, though this figure may underrepresent the problem due to non-reporting by undocumented immigrants.) About 10% of non-Hispanic whites are classed as poor, which should also be an affront to any decency society.

African Americans make up about 13% of the US population. White people, around 64%. Now, look at the police killing stats (which are incomplete due to the deliberate refusal of authorities to document and analyze these killings). According the the Washington Post's police killings tracker, 1500 people have been killed by the police so far this year. An utterly disgusting figure in and of itself. Just less than half of those killed by the police this year were recorded as being white and just less than a quarter of those killed were identified as black. This means that an "average" black person is 2.5 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than an "average" white person.

But it is not a statical average that's being gunned down by cops. It's poor/low-income people. And we can see from the poverty figures is that African Americans are 2.5 times more likely to be poor than white people.

Therein might lie, in large part, the racial difference in police killings.

As I said, the disproportionate percentage of black people who are poor is itself a legacy of the peculiar racial brutality of class rule in the US. This increased prevalence of poverty among African Americans must surely be buttressed in countless ways today. And there are of course racist cops, as well as general racial biases - including biases among African American officers.

I don't claim to have any special knowledge - all these stats are readily available. But it seems that one must first acknowledge: 1. that the legacy of racism is real; 2. that this manifests itself in particular in poverty for black people; 3. that the poor are way more likely to be killed by cops, and therefore black people are disproportionately likely to be killed; 4. that while there must be many examples of black people being targeted and then killed by cops because of present day racism/bias in police forces, this does not appear to have a major impact on the statistical correlation between poverty and police violence.

What conclusions to draw from this? Police violence is the sharpest expression of class war in America. That black people get the rawest deal in terms of both poverty and police violence is a tragic but unsurprising product of hundreds of years of American history. A fightback against this bourgeois class warfare must unite people across racial lines, focusing on a war on poverty and inequality from below (as opposed to the LBJ version that quickly floundered, though not without certain gains for the poor). There can be no effective fight against poverty and social inequality for one race but not another, a fact recognized by Dr King.

Finally, please let's avoid any counterposing of "All Lives Matter" against "Black Lives Matter", something I saw in an editorial a while ago. It seems like an obvious statement: well, all lives matter, don't they? But that's a rather sterile argument. And the phrase is associated with attacks on Black Lives Matter from the right. Grey is theory, and we must theorize based on the evidence. Nonetheless, millions of black people vividly experience police violence in their neighborhoods, where both poverty and state brutality are more likely to be concentrated. Therefore appropriate language to address that living experience needs to be developed.

Colin Kaepernick Is Righter Than You Know: The National Anthem Is a Celebration of Slavery

https://theintercept.com/2016/08/28/colin-kaepernick-is-righter-than-you-know-the-national-anthem-is-a-celebration-of-slavery/



https://theintercept.com/2016/08/31/veteransforkaepernick-stand-right-sit/

Sunday, August 07, 2016

2 Years After Ferguson

Words from reginat1956@yahoo.com :

I will never forget the rambling no bill speech that never once addressed the reason that ex cop chased and shot at Michael Brown for over 100 feet away from his car, and during that chase at what point his life or anyone else's was in danger, considering that M B was UNARMED.......

How is celebrating their son's memory near anything that you just posted?????? Just because you did not see the corrupt grand jury no bill due to a bias prosecutor, or all of the lies the police chief from and Ferguson, and the one from st Louis told in the beginning, that's on you........😠

The DOJ investigated civil rights violations not the killing of MB.....And a shove is hardly a strong arm theft, and the ex cop knew nothing about it at the time of the incident......Even though it was woven into the lies told by the police chief from Ferguson, and the one from st Louis , and a bias prosecuted that she have recused himself, instead presenting as a defense attorney......And please stop comparing apple's and oranges, as far as urban crime goes, because there is none.....You are not the first with that same comment, and probably will not be the last.....It is not an original one by far.....And lastly you are losing no one, so stop pretending to care, especially when you care to understand all of the underlying issues,.........😕 😠By the way white people commit crimes also.....The % of pedophilia, rape, theft, and white collar crimes are higher in your communities.....And statistically speaking, you are more likely to shot by another white person than any other ethnic group...Considering the amount of guns your community is in love with..

https://socialistworker.org/2016/06/28/can-the-police-be-reformed

http://www.marxist.com/on-the-program-of-the-black-panther-party-which-way-forward-for-black-workers-and-youth-part-one.htm




http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/12/1/1348720/-The-audio-recording-of-the-Michael-Brown-shooting-proves-Darren-Wilson-s-story-is-false 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/3/6/1368911/-Why-would-Eric-Holder-accept-Darren-Wilson-s-lies-STDDs-Week-27

http://www.blackenterprise.com/news/shaun-king-exposes-ferguson-pd-lies-about-michael-brown-case/

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/12/report_key_witness_in_darren_wilson_case_caught_in_web_of_lies/

https://socialistworker.org/2014/09/17/obstruction-of-justice-in-ferguson

https://socialistworker.org/2014/11/25/justice-denied-yet-again 

https://socialistworker.org/2015/08/05/year-one-of-black-lives-matter

http://officialburn.com/blog/blog/darren-wilson-s-interview-with-george-stephanopoulos-and-the-lies-that-he-told

https://socialistworker.org/2014/08/18/ferguson-is-fighting-back

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/12/21/3606084/how-a-startling-admission-from-the-ferguson-prosector-could-restart-the-case-against-darren-wilson/

http://addictinginfo.org/2014/11/25/prosecutor-fundraising-wilson/

http://www.salon.com/2014/11/26/everything_the_darren_wilson_grand_jury_got_wrong_the_lies_and_mistruths_that_let_michael_browns_killer_off_the_hook/

http://www.vox.com/2014/11/25/7280989/darren-wilson-evidence

Monday, July 18, 2016

BLM News Part 2

https://theconversation.com/slow-death-is-the-trauma-of-police-violence-killing-black-women-62264

http://www.aapf.org/sayhername/

http://www.jcsu.edu/news-events/march-on-washington/civil-rights-timeline/civil-rights-timeline

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-republican-convention-2016-live-protests-in-cleveland-well-under-way-in-1468791510-htmlstory.html

https://www.popularresistance.org/we-can-stand-together-protesters-prep-for-cleveland-as-rnc-nears/

http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/08/04/8-european-kings-queens-noblemen-considered-black-one-drop-rule/3/

http://www.cosmicdoorways.net/CosmicDoorways/CD-LIBRARY_OF_CONGRESS.html

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/07/america-bye-why-black-america-is-leaving-while-staying-put/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016_timeline#April_2

http://thewalters.org/assets/pdf/revealing-the-african-presence-in-renaissance-europe.pdf 

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/18/democratic-unity-edge-progressives-await-clintons-vp-pick

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/gun-control-orlando-homophobia-discrimination-mass-shootings/

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/magazine/how-police-see-us-and-how-they-train-us-to-see-them.

http://www.ebony.com/life/blacks-in-technology-wonderwomen

BLM News Part 2

https://theconversation.com/slow-death-is-the-trauma-of-police-violence-killing-black-women-62264

http://www.aapf.org/sayhername/

http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-republican-convention-2016-live-protests-in-cleveland-well-under-way-in-1468791510-htmlstory.html

https://blackmattersus.com/11207-raqiyah-mays-what-it-is-like-to-be-black-woman-in-america/

http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2014-National-SSH-Street-Harassment-Report.pdf

https://www.popularresistance.org/we-can-stand-together-protesters-prep-for-cleveland-as-rnc-nears/

http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/08/04/8-european-kings-queens-noblemen-considered-black-one-drop-rule/3/

http://www.cosmicdoorways.net/CosmicDoorways/CD-LIBRARY_OF_CONGRESS.html

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/07/america-bye-why-black-america-is-leaving-while-staying-put/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016_timeline#April_2

http://thewalters.org/assets/pdf/revealing-the-african-presence-in-renaissance-europe.pdf 

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/18/democratic-unity-edge-progressives-await-clintons-vp-pick

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2016/07/gun-control-orlando-homophobia-discrimination-mass-shootings/

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/07/08/magazine/how-police-see-us-and-how-they-train-us-to-see-them.

http://www.ebony.com/life/blacks-in-technology-wonderwomen

Monday, July 11, 2016

BLM News

https://blackmattersus.com/10939-stop-the-killing-children-address-police/?utm_source=service_worker&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=push20160408

http://www.eji.org/presumption-of-dangerousness-behind-police-abuse-of-black-people-cbs-this-morning

http://theweeklychallenger.com/the-ocoee-massacre/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-stop-black-victims-forgive-white-victimizers-article-1.2707230

http://www.marxist.com/malcolm-x-death220205.htm

https://www.facebook.com/lovebeingblack/photos/a.206506106927.169127.18493706927/10154097930541928/?type=3&theater 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154381900764516&set=p.10154381900764516&type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/BlackBusinessesMatterTour/photos/a.1408201466169782.1073741827.1408194452837150/1655507151439211/?type=3&theater

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-dreier/martin-luther-king-was-a-democratic-socialist_b_9008990.html

http://www.vice.com/read/the-alt-rights-fear-of-a-black-planet

https://www.facebook.com/rolandsmartinfanpage/videos/10153826305152831/

http://www.essence.com/2016/07/11/trump-campaign-staffer-wants-deray-mckesson-disappear?xid=essence_socialflow_facebook

http://blackagendareport.com/bakari_sellers_hit_man_israel

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/07/baton-rouge-cops-barge-into-womans-yard-to-arrest-black-lives-matter-protesters-she-invited/

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/12/south-africa-ireland-blacklivesmatter-finds-solidarity-worldwide

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/07/12/dem-platform-includes-plank-close-notorious-school-americas

https://www.facebook.com/topic/Minnesota-Lynx/108051739222909?source=whfrt&position=1&trqid=6306627899845532918

Tuesday, July 05, 2016

Information on the American Revolution




rosa roja
Marcus, do you really want to attack us as servants of the bourgeoisie? I think what we have in common is that we are sensitive to imperialism and the genocide that goes with it. It's up to you whether you wish to look away from it, but no political party that looks away will ever lead a socialist revolution. As for Gordon Wood, I don't know much about him, but he is clearly a bourgeois historian, and seems to be a favorite of Newt Gingrich to boot.

___________________________________


Maxwell  Marcus • 11 hours ago
Sorry Marcus no matter your intent you got this one wrong in a colossal fashion.

The founding fathers in almost all cases did everything they could to protect the propertied and disenfranchise the working class people. Whatever is in the DOI or Constitution that suggests protection of the interests of the working class people was the bare minimum so as not to make it too obvious that the people who fought the Revolution - while the founding fathers stood on the sidelines testing the winds - were
being completely sold out. In short order, the property-less were excluded from political meetings, denied the franchise, and betrayed on their promised pay and pensions.

The main impetus behind the American Revolution was NOT an innate aversion to taxation but an uprising of the merchant class against the oppressive East India Trading Co., the world's first large "corporation."

Colonists could not make their own ironware; it had to be purchased from company outlets that sold the goods manufactured back "home" in Great Britain. The list of prohibited items goes on and on. After all,
why else incur the expense of "colonization" -- such as stationing troops and underwriting "explorations" and issuing land grants -- if not to bring the raw materials and profits back home?

Other "revolutionary" interests began to coalesce: Thomas Paine to Patrick Henry, John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, and the "class struggle" was replaced with more of an "independence" motif

The founding documents were designed to reign in the "mob" - the mob that had actually fought and won the Revolution.

You are saying to ignore what they did and focus on what they said. I would submit that this is exactly what many people do in all areas of politics, and it is exactly the way they get fooled again and again.

The man who wrote "all men are created equal" owned slaves. One of the men who assisted in producing that document was angling for a lucrative land grant from the crown a month earlier, and used a finagled position as postmaster to eliminate his rivals and build a printing empire. Another man who assisted with those flowery words called for the exclusion of the property-less from political participation and enacted the Alien and Sedition Act. Other "fathers" used the revolution to pull off massive real estate swindles. And that is only the beginning.

You will find their portraits in your wallet, and that is appropriate. They created a system where money is power, and where they and others like them who came later would come out on top and have all power.

Of course they used flowery words - otherwise, how could they have pulled off the deception?

Over the years people have taken their words seriously and fought to bring them into reality, starting with the workers associations right after the Revolution, and then with the Abolitionists in the 1830s and on.

You can honor and remember those fighters if you wish but please not the deeds or words of the "founding fathers."


___________________________



Marla
This is just my interpretation of war that in most cases they are usually started by the exploitation of the poor and disenfranchised by the wealthy and the American Revolution was no exception. True, the Colonist (or Patriots) may have wanted their freedom from what they believed was tyranny but that never excluded them from being tyrannic of their own right. The Colonist took land, killed innocents, robbed native populaces of resources and shelter and displaced families (sound familiar?)

Exploitation of one human being by another is the truest ugliness of capitalism. Both sides had much to gain and much to lose and it was both sides who were funded by large sums of money to propagate bloodshed all in the name of freedom and liberty. In school, I too was taught to believe that America could do no wrong simply on the basis that was the American Revolution and how it always stood for what was right. No one spoke of disease, starvation, and the brutal slaughter of indigenous people, and no one ever said to me it was a rich man's war (like most wars are) because it definitely took a lot of finance to keep it rolling.

In the end it was the rich man who gained his "freedom" the exploited never had such a luxury.

_________________________________


Infarction • a day ago
The words of Jefferson, et al are beautiful in their richness and vision, and indeed, they are world-shaking even today. Yet, in the main, the American war for independence from the British Crown was mostly a war led by one rich white-man's club against the "tyranny" of another rich white-man's club.

The waving of little US flags that were made in a sweatshop in some distant hellhole, notwithstanding, the US is still far from the pillar of democracy that many of its rulers proclaim it to be. The US Constitution still allows for slavery of those incarcerated in the for-profit gulag run by the oligarchy. Financial inequality is at a point not seen in the US in nearly a hundred years. The notion of free quality education is but a distant memory. The empire's eternal wars for profit continue unabated.

Whatever high-sounding phrases the nation's founders composed are just echoes in the breeze. These are long forgotten as the occupying police forces across "the land of the free" continue their summary executions at will. The president of the US declares that he will look forward, not backward regarding the war crimes of past administrations as he declares the right to imprison and murder anyone on the planet at his whim. The banksters are too big to fail and jail.

Happy 4th of July? Don't make me laugh!

_________________________________



Maxwell
I think when modern Americans read the bios of the "Founding Fathers" (what again did they "find" in a stolen land?),they can't look at them objectively because that precise mix of qualities and backgrounds set the pattern for a new type of aristocracy distinct from the European aristocracy, and a new type of tyranny, and that became the model for what we take for granted to this day as the qualities that are appropriate for leadership and power. John Kerry's bio e.g. would fit in nicely there - wealthy, educated, married into money, law background, connections. We can't imagine any other narrative for success, any other hierarchy, any other path to power, so the bios of the founding fathers don't seem remarkable or interesting to us. "Of course. That is the way the world works." We unconsciously look at those bios from the viewpoint of the American ruling class, and we can't see the American aristocracy because we are immersed in the pervasive apologies for it and assume it as an inevitable and unavoidable state of affairs. "He is a pretty smart and accomplished man." "You can't argue with success." "Well he has done some good things."

The pattern that was set by the Revolution and the Constitution persists today. The net results of that pattern are tyranny and destruction. Who was set free by the revolution and for what purposes? Who is protected by the Constitution? Those who find a way to rise, to make a fortune one way or another - born to it, marry it, use capitalism to amass it, kiss up to it as some sort of court jester - as with the attorneys for the wealthy and powerful. This is a distinctly American pattern, and is not a law of the universe or the inevitable outcome of something about human nature.

This new class - from New England shipping magnates to slave traders to bankers to real estate speculators to brokers to dealers and developers,with their connections and law degrees and control over the legislatures - ascended to power and remains in power. Those whose skills and contributions cannot be leveraged into massive fortunes are left behind. We can't expect a nurse or a teacher to make a fortune selling their skills on the supposed free market, and that means they are powerless in the American system, unless they organize, and the history of the country is an ongoing ruthless suppression of such organizing.

The Revolution liberated, and the Constitution protects, a new group of striving, upwardly mobile men and a particular path to amassing wealth and gaining power. The crown was a check on their lust for power. The working class didn't benefit by the Revolution and is not protected by the Constitution. Were that true, then we would expect to find that the working class would have been dramatically worse off in Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and in the UK itself over the years.

We are to believe that because we threw off the monarchy, and because we
don't have a European style landed aristocracy, that we are therefore “free.” Pointing out that there were working class men fighting in the Revolution who, "whether or not they had property demanded the franchise" tells us nothing. Working class people at all times and places have yearned to overthrow the tyranny of the aristocracy. That doesn't legitimatize or mitigate the replacement of one tyranny with another.


 I have not lost sight of what the Constitution and the American Revolution are purportedly about. I was educated in the public schools in the US that repeated the myth of freedom and equality in the US everyday.

I simply object to blatant hypocrisy. Lots of pretty words about high ideals were written by slave masters and landowners, who would not give the poor or even their wives the same equality that these rich white men felt entitled.

I admit, you had going until you brought up Bernie Sanders. That tool of the Democratic Party simply corralled the gullible back into the Democratic Party. He was a supporter of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama from the get go.

This illustrates the points I've made in the posts on this thread. What has really changed in the US since the lauded revolution. It appears to me that the counterrevolutionary forces have rolled back whatever hopes workers might have had at any point in US history. The nation is still ruled by the aristocracy, even after 240 years.

____________________________

Aaron Aarons • a day ago
For those interested in a left critique of the settler-colonists' rebellion against English rule, I recommend The Counter-Revolution of 1776: Slave Resistance and the Origins of the United States of America by Gerald Horne. I also recommend an earlier book, Slave Nation: How Slavery United the Colonies and Sparked the American Revolution by Alfred W. Blumrosen and Ruth G. Blumrosen.

And yes, slavery and White supremacy, including the suppression and near-extermination of native peoples, should be treated as more important than the issues like hereditary limited monarchy and heavy-handed treatment of the settler population by the mother country. If that's "identity politics", it's preferable to the white identity politics that underlies United States nationalism.

_________________________________


 лидия  Aaron Aarons • 17 hours ago
I could add the recc of "Settlers" by G. Sakai.

лидия  Human6 • 17 hours ago
Slavery was not something out of order in USA capitalism - and nothing "pre-feudal", but very modern - slaves produced to capitalist market and the Northern capitalism depended on their labor too. It was a capitalist slavery, so to speak.
And do not forget that this "liberation" struggle was based on the Native's dispossession and genocide and opened the opportunity to even more of the same. Not unlike the Zionist "struggle", no wonder that some Zionists saw in USA colonization a good example to themselves - like Jabotinski, for ex.

______________

Aaron Aarons
"Did the Revolution of '76 overturn property relations? No, but it was a vital step towards doing so in 1865."

The settler-colonial counter-revolution of 1776 had, as one of its consequences, the survival -- and more than mere survival! -- of chattel slavery in the United States for three decades after its 1834 abolition in the British Empire! It did, however, accelerate the expropriation of the communal lands of native nations and the conversion of those lands into capitalist property, or into the semi-feudal property of slave-owners.

And it is obscene to compare the colonial-settler rebellion of 1776 with the Irish rebellion of 1916 that Lenin was referring to. If there was an analog in pre-partition Ireland to the American insurrection, it was the threatened Ulster Protestant rebellion against the possible recognition by the British state of majority rule in a united Ireland. Other analogous colonial-settler rebellions against the British Empire were the Zionist war against both the British state and the indigenous people in Palestine, and the white 'Rhodesian' "declaration of independence" in Zimbabwe in 1965. None of these rebellions deserve the support or praise of anybody on the left.

____________________________

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/14/8-myths-and-atrocities-about-christopher-columbus-and-columbus-day-151653

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/05/18/american-history-myths-debunked-no-native-influence-founding-fathers-113702

https://blackmattersus.com/10537-bad-old-racial-profiling-interview-with-victim/?utm_source=service_worker&utm_medium=push&utm_campaign=push20160408

https://www.emaze.com/@AOQITTLO/Civil-Rights

http://libcom.org/news/brexit-tanks-eu-working-class-12062016

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/whitney-dunlapfowler/the-black-history-month-o_b_9253710.html?utm_hp_ref=bv-life
_______________

solerso  rosa roja • 3 hours ago
It also ignores dozens of European peasant revolts and movements to weaken the power of the nobility from the late 14th century right up to 1776
________________________________________

rosa roja
To expand on my original comment, the article is not only ahistorical, but it is embarrassingly Eurocentric. What are we to make of a sentence like this? "Before the American Revolution, society for nearly 2,000 years had been based on the aristocratic principle, the "great chain of being," and the divine right of kings." (Or this: "the American Revolution provided THE ideological and political impetus for the French Revolution and ALL subsequent democratic, egalitarian and socialist movements"(!))

Exactly what "society" and where are you talking about? Do you mean the Islamic civilization that led directly to Europe's "enlightenment"? Perhaps you mean the egalitarian Iroquois federation in eastern north America, which provided the inspiration for parts of the US constitution and, in my opinion, provided the example that inspired the early socialists in Europe (and which demonstrably inspired the womens' movement centered in central New York. Even the site of the famous meeting at Seneca Falls, is named for one of the Iroquois nations). If we are honest, the article can only be called childish.

Monday, July 04, 2016

The People's Summit



http://blackagendareport.com/democrats-in-denial

http://blackagendareport.com/need_a_social_democratic_party

https://disqus.com/by/disqus_JjrQnI9ddD/





   








Nixak*77*
These guys at the so-called 'People's Summit' talk a good game, but IMO BAR's Bruce Dixon & Glen Ford [& Margaret Kimberley & Paul Street too] say what this 'People's Summit' is really all about:
- Bruce Dixon's take on this so-called 'People's Summit':} 'Democrats in Denial: The People's Summit' [@ http://blackagendareport.com/d... ]: The “People's Summit” in Chicago might have been a chance for Berniecrats to compare experiences and insights. But summit organizers, afraid to even call themselves Democrats knew they couldn't trust rank and file activists to stick to the script. Instead of hearing activists, they tried to herd them, preaching and exhorting attendees from keynotes and the front of the room to unite and hold their noses if need be for the lesser evil [aka HRC]... {
- And Glen Ford's take:} 'Sanders Supporters Need to Split or Get Off the Pot' [@ http://blackagendareport.com/n... ]: Bernie Sanders is trying to figure out how to capitulate to Hillary Clinton and her corporatist masters next month, in Philadelphia. “The Sandernistas – now minus their commandante – can either slither into Hillary’s big corporate tent, or get down to the hard work of building an opposition, social democratic party that reflects the politics of around 40% of the U.S. public.” The alternative is perpetual defeat inside the Democratic Party ['Where progressive movements go to DIE']... - The Green Party's Jill Stein was refused permission to address this so-called 'People Summit' [recently held in Chicago], thereby shutting the door to an actual voting choice for anti-corporatists. Sanders has never deigned to respond to Stein’s offer to share the ticket with him, in November... {
Thus what BAR's Mr Dixon & Ford are saying is that the 'People's Summit' mainly featured key-note Sandernista speakers who ultimately are mostly just smooth-talking Dim shill apologists faking like 'independent progressives', because why else would they have Refused to allow the GP's Jill Stein to speak at this so-called 'People's Summit'??!



Nixak*77*  Vivian LaPage  24 days ago
That's NOT what Abby said, She said 'Looking at Hillary and Trump, I actually don’t know who is less evil...'
In effect what Abby's saying is Trump's an egotistical RACIST SEXIST Blowhard wannabe, but Killary is the Real Deal w a Really Bloody Track Record to PROVE It!!!
- Billary was all for Slick Willy's draconian 3 strike's law [& 100 to 1 crack vs coke drug-war law], which led to the US' biggest increase in Black mass incarceration- even more so than under Repugs Ronnie Ray-Gun & Bush Sr.
- Ditto again re Slick Willy's Welfare DeForm, which like NAFTA & the 3 Strikes Law, He did in 'bipartisanship' w Newt Grinch-witch's Congressional Repugs!! That's really worked-out just 'GREAT' for Black working-class / working-poor moms & their children & families- Huhh?? NOT!!
- FYI: Trump's talking about building a wall along the Mexican border, but Slick Willy actually began building one, in the wake of him & Mr 'Green Jeans' Gore Hyping NAFTA. Yet Clinton & Gore claimed NAFTA would lessen the Mexican immigrant 'issue'. This shows they knew full-well that claim was just BS [FYI: Billary too was all for NAFTA, & as Obama's Sec of State helped push the TPP = NAFTA on steroids].
- Killary ['I came, I saw, He Died. Ha, ha, ha!'] Clinton, along w Sue Rice & Sam Power, were the main ones pushing to R2P do-in Libya- Even over OBomber's then Repug Sec of War Bob Gates' public reservations re 'R2P' attacking Libya [Note Gates resigned shortly after Killary got her way to do-in Libya]. FYI: Libya's an African country where many Black Libyans & African migrants were Persecuted & LYNCHED by Killary's AL-CIAeda linked so-called 'freedom-fighters' in Libya!!
- Honduras is NOW likely the most dangerous place to live in Latin America, in the wake of the 2009 coup vs its democratically elected Pres- Fully backed by Killary as Obama's Sec of State!
- Billary & Slick Willy have been a hi-powered traumatic-duo tag-team for SCREWING OVER HAITI!! Billary's own Brother now owns a literal Mountain of Gold in Haiti, & what happen to all those BILLION$$$ controlled by Slick Willy that was supposed to go to rebuilding Haiti after the devastating 2010 Haitian Earthquake??!! And the Clintons personally manipulated Haiti's 2010 presidential elections to put in their guy who most Haitians rejected!! FYI: Haiti's a very poor & Black Caribbean nation.
Paul Jay says Repug Trump wants to destroy ISIS; Yeah but so does OBomber, Bernie & especially KIllary. But Killary goes beyond just wanting to destroy ISIS, she also hawks the NeoCONs' regime-change agenda vs Assad, even to the point of risking starting a shooting air-war w Russian Jets over Syrian Skies!! In fact Billary seems hell bent on picking a fight w Putin's Russia [who she calls the 21st century 'Hitler'] & even China too [even though both are also nuclear-armed powers]- while Trump says he thinks he could make a deal w Putin.
Thus IMO Dim Billary may effectively be even more dangerous than Repug Trump! Because she's a much shrewder more-polished poly-trician who's better connected to the power Elites than is Trump, & as a 'liberal' woman Dim- she'd be allowed to get away w Much MORE [without effective push-back] than Repug Trump would ever be allowed to!! And NO! I'm AIN'T saying go vote for Racist Repug Trump, but that don't mean one should just 'hold their nose' & vote for LOTE Dim Billary either!!
-
-
PS: IMO Abbey may in effect be right re: Gore & Iraq. Jay & others who assume that had the Bush Bros NOT HI-Jacked the 2000 POTUS election, a Pres Gore would NOT have done Iraq Attack Pt-2. Maybe so / Maybe NO- But the wild-card(s) that Jay & his ilk seem to over-look in this hypothetical scenario is- The 9-11 'New Pearl Harbor' Event & that Joe Lieberman was Gore's NeoCONish / Neo-'Liberal' VP running-mate!! So what if a Pres Gore's Oval-Office had been targeted & taken-out during the 9-11 or Anthrax attacks, leaving Lieberman as the post 9-11 POTUS??! Would things really have been so much different than what the Bush-Cheney-NeoCON cabal unleashed in Af-Pak & Iraq??? IMO Lieberman would likely have even picked his 'good-friend' John [Bomb, Bomb, bomb Iran] 'Insane' McCain as his VP or Sec of War!!! Thus we'd not only still been in shooting wars in Af-Pak, Iraq, Libya & Syria- but also in Iran & IMO likely even w Russia too = WW!!!