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Saturday, March 31, 2012

Can Social Media re-shape Black America

     The uphill struggle for black equality and respect just got help, social media. The success of the Civil Rights movement was predicated on the unity of like minded people fighting for a common cause. So what happened, who pushed the pause button on the hunt for social equality and economic justice. Some blame the crumbling family structure, others say economic gains by some blacks blurs the line between progress and equal opportunity for the advancement of all. Its true southern segregation spawned sit- ins, marches, protests, suffering and death, televised, but generally localized through the southern states.
     So how now, in these times of two jobs to survive, multiple distractions, and the general complexity of modern life do we get that back. What could be the plan to make a concerted long term statement without taking food off of the table, yet still making a sacrifice for the cause. Recent marches have shown  effectiveness in shedding light on  given issues, but the black community, now leaderless, can learn from the occupy movement, that multiple nationwide marches do little more than raise awareness without real change and sustained results.
     In America the legitimacy of a group is defined by the strength of its block, voting or economic. A unified mass exodus of a given block in either of these two instances garners courtship, thus the block is taken more seriously and treated with respect. But how in the black community, arguably the most fractured block in America do we take our voice back. With practice, and social media. So here's the plan in theory.
     A social media organized boycott by all blacks for one month, lets say Mc Donalds, with their first black CEO ever, and their 365 black program celebrating black history year round, they seem to be sympathetic to the community. They should be 13% of the population makes up 18% of their profit margin so they throw us a bone. Mc Donalds earns 29 billion a year 18% black dollars 5.2billion annually that works out to 433 million per month. Any company that looses 433 million in one month wont go unnoticed, but why Mc Donalds, whats the cause? Plainly put, practice, a dry- run of sorts to re learn how to unite as a unit behind a given cause. To flex our economic muscle and learn effective strategies to garner respect and be taken seriously as a defined united group.
     This isn't designed to topple Mc Donalds or change the diets of black people. Its only to highlight small sacrifices we all need to make to get the wheels of change turning again. Without sacrifice change is hard to come by in any circumstance, and no Mc Donalds for a month would definitely be a small sacrifice in relation to the statement it sends. This might not change perception overnight, but it would mold our reality, back into the form of a people with power, and a voice, with a realistic chance to respectfully navigate our own course, as we all effectively become the new leaders of our own community. We use Social Media for everything else, why not this.
     

Thursday, March 29, 2012

The New Massa... REALLY?

     I never really bought into that modern day slave talk. Inequities sure, racism, got it, but slavery, Really in 2012?  Also, whenever you have to say, that's still going on, or in this day and age, there's probably a good chance that spells out, what ever it is never really stopped. Imagine your a slave owner, 10 slaves working your field, eating your food, clothing them sheltering them keeping them healthy, because sick workers don't make money,  spread illness to others and blah, blah ,blah, we all know the story.
      So fast forward slavery is abolished, and the entire American economy is threatened without a source of cheap labor. A plan is devised, pass insane laws that arrest blacks for ridiculous crimes, charge a fee they can't pay, and lease them to industry to work off the infraction. Plantation owners carried out black punishment while courts handled whites only 10% of arrests at the time. Slavery was not illegal for punishment of a crime and convict labor was 50 to 80 % cheaper, driving down wages for everyone. This new labor force, cheaper than slavery used blacks who made up 12.5% of population 30% of prisoners. This for profit criminalization of blacks forged the social mindset that blacks are bad and thus the basis of segregation and blah blah blah.
     Now 40 years after freedom, the stock market is open, cars are on the road, the Wright brothers are trying to fly, and blacks are still corporate slaves, still beaten and mistreated same ol thing. Through the 40s 4.8 mil blacks still lived like that. 1942 the last arrest was made for slavery. Most importantly from 1877-1966 no white was convicted for killing a black. States Still worked criminals on chain gangs into the 50s to pave roads after private companies were prohibited from using prison labor in the late 30s. Wartime building in the 40s offsetted the loss of income and factories grew and as we now know eventually closed. In '79 restrictions were lifted, and companies were back in the prisoner leasing business. 
     To end it quickly, prison labor is cheaper than third world sweatshops. State workers get .93-4.73$ per day while fed prisoners get .23 to 1.25$ per hr. The government uses prison labor to close budget gaps. BP used prison labor to clean many beaches along the gulf coast. The largest modern day bossman is a congressionaly created company Unicor. 50% of its sales are to the DOD and it employs 22,000 inmates. Prison programs now employ more inmates than any fortune 500 company, besides GM. Some think that's the price you pay for going to jail, but when you look at the incarceration rates, and the profitable prison industry, the connection is clear it doesn't really end. So whats next step, parolees working off time in fields, vacated by migrant workers due to a deportation threat in order to keep labor prices low. They tried it last year in  AL. but the parolees left the fields. To this day AT&T, Target, Macys,  Motorola, Microsoft, Nordstroms, Dell and many other modern companies still use cheap prison labor.These companies get tax breaks for hiring at risk employees. Its all exploitation of the alleged criminals in America through unjust laws ,you know who they are .
     

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Bottom line: Who does America hate least Mormons or The Blacks

   With Mitt sizing up the the big piece of chicken at the GOP convention, and Obama winding himself up into campaign mode. It seems all the money being spent to sway voters one way or another is a waste of time. Its all going to come down to who America has the least amount of disdain for, Mormons or Blacks. How is that even measured? The advantage clearly goes to Romney because one can't look like a Mormon, no matter what the black guy is the black guy. As long as Romney keeps his religion hidden it might remain hidden, but the questions deserve asking, not for ridicule but for clarity. Please, someone ask him, not about magic underwear, or no caffeine or alcohol, ask about the multiple heavens, or multiple gods, or baptizing long dead non Mormon people. Not to mention that whole Jesus in America thing. Then there's the radical black Christian -Muslim, who wants to give away all that white America has worked for, while emposing crippling regulations that will destroy America from within based on its evil treatment of its blacks, something that should be a non issue to him because he's no citizen, he's not one of us.
     So who will they hate least, the flip-floppy, stiff no fun candidate with, in their opinion, a warped version of Christianity. Where a man, Joseph Smith led by an Angel, found gold tablets in 1823 New York, that included a Christian history of ancient America, and have only been seen by eight people, whose stories changed over the years, and were then returned to an Angel. This clearly differs from the beloved Christianity that allegedly forged this country into existence. Or the radical non African American race bating community activist/organizer, who wants to change the power structure of America by stealing citizen wealth and giving handouts to the overwhelmingly larger number of blacks on welfare. The only equalizer is to put Mormon ideals along side Obamas perceived ideals, to see whose structural belief system and rationale disqualifies them from getting behind the wheel. Who will have the courage to ask these questions?

Is NDAA really the worst thing for Obama and America?

    Little known to most people. On Jan. 2, 2012 the President signed the National Defense Authorization Act, giving the government power to detain citizens indefinitely for less than capital charges. But why, its by far the most controversial piece of legislation ever, with the least amount of media scrutiny. In searching for possible reasons, piecing together separate stories paints a picture as to why, and to why Obama might be keeping those reasons quiet. Some believe protests overseas during an economic meltdown can carry over to the US, as the occupy movement grows, and crowds reach numbers far too large to manage. But there's more.
    Recently little known Somali terrorist organisation Al-Shabaad forged an alliance with Al-Qaeda and adopted their cause.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16979440 But why would Somalia providing a safe haven and training ground to terrorists a world away, inspire the signing of this highly repressive law. In the last 25 years America has admitted 83,991 Somali immigrants to the us 43,682 since 9/11. Some being born into American citizenship.
    Recent news stories show, since the economic downturn many terror recruiters have turned to American born children of refuges to take up fundamental causes.http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/07/somali-american-admits-aiding-al-qaeda-terrorists/ Being that they are American, their passports allow them travel freely around the world, and some choose the terror route. Travel information collected as well as American born insurgents captured show a definite link between economically challenged Somali-American students traveling to terror entrenched countries and returning home to continue studies.
     Like the recent terror killings in France, these students, not only Somali but others,http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/02/8585706-born-in-the-usa-but-now-among-somalias-islamist-terrorists may be trained sleepers waiting for the signal to strike. With the terror sentiment remaining stagnant and the economy crawling back from the dead, America is one bad event away from social chaos. Travel records coupled with the freedoms that we've conceded in the name of preventing terror attacks could give the administration cause to be able to round up potential suspects based on evidence of terror without the restrictions of laws protecting law abiding citizens. Hopefully.
 

Saturday, March 24, 2012

5 simple rules for stealing the next election

     The line that separates The Voting Rights Act, Voting fraud ,and manipulation seems to be a big fat grey line. There are so many ways to sway results one way or another not deemed illegal, that its hard to know when you're being had. These are just 5 quick ways our votes are being devalued without generating consolidated complaints. It all starts by perpetuating negative feelings. Modern campaigns use negative ads to highlight the oppositions failures and down falls, which energizes the base but also reinforces in some the instinctive attitude that, they're all crooked so why vote for any of them. Right or wrong this successfuly eliminates a block of independent voters, smaller numbers are more easily managed.
       The remaining committed voters are a tougher nut to crack. Lately, some of the most complicated balloting forms to date are being used to further confuse an already difficult process. This year in Illinois the revised voting sheet was so large it wouldn't fit into the machine, delaying counting. The voting process should at-least be consistent within a given State but that's a different story. Believing in one person one vote can leave you disappointed. The popular vote doesn't win elections, You have to vote for the guy who has a delegate vote who also supports your candidate. It doesn't always work though, some voting districts don't have delegates who support your candidate so no matter how many votes your guy wins, they loose. Not how it should be. Ballot confusion and delayed counting are the second and third steps.
         Restricting voter rights hits on two fronts, one by cutting gains made through the Voting Rights Act, cutting citizen participation, and at the same time allowing business to donate unlimited funds to candidates who promote restrictive revisions on average citizens. New voting laws disproportionately hurt lower income voters and students. Veterans Military ID isn't allowed in some cases, fight for us fine, vote for us no thanks. Students can go to war but not vote on who might send them.
          When all else fails. The last trick is the best. Actual vote manipulation, 130 million people voted in 08. According to computer science and security experts at Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, on quarter of those voting machines can be hacked with 20 dollars worth of equipment and an 8th grade science education. In 06  Princeton University conducted a successful cyber attack on electronic voting machines, but it required knowledge of the voting machines and all types of complicated hacker code. The new hack was done by constructing a primitive remote control out of basic electronics parts and were able to tamper with votes in machines that 32 million people are still on track to use this year. Homeland Security issued a bulletin in 04 http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/bulletins/SB04-252.html#diebold but no technical advances were made. 
          These tactics all focus on the poorest segments of society. With all of these actions currently in play, the hardest part of conducting the fix will be, what margin of defeat would generate the least amount of suspicion that corruption has occurred.

Friday, March 23, 2012

Death to Regulations

    Ever wonder why there are so many regulations. Why does the EPA even exist? I like to start with my favorite point of reference Ohio's own Cuyahoga River. Ask most people what makes this body of water infamous and they probably couldn't tell you. It's the definition of what happens when industry is allowed to police their own without outside intervention. August 1, 1969  Time Magazine reported  " The lower Cuyahoga has no visible signs of life, not even leaches and sludge worms that usually thrive on wastes." its also quite literally a fire hazard. This, after a fire earlier that year June 22 . It also burned 9 times before that. Yes the River burned. Literally.
    The Clean Water act and the formation of the EPA soon followed in 1970. Some believe its main function is to generate income by relentless fining of companies not meeting regulatory standards, unobtainable at worst or not profitable after costly conformation at best. Or its focus may be on keeping our drinking water clean and our agriculture relatively edible.
      Most people do know about how dirty those New York rivers are, you know, no fishing in the Hudson River. That's because Kodak,GE and a host of others used the Erie Canal as their waste disposal area during that regions manufacturing boom that lasted until the 1970's. The best is Lake Onondaga also in New York 125 years of pollution, 20 lbs of mercury per day. All surface water, ground water, and sediment, contaminated. It's the most polluted lake in the country, no swimming since 1940, no fishing since 1970. Its not clean now and experts say it wont be clean for a generation. So at the next Restore our nations freedom obligatory photo op in front of the Statue of Liberty, ask a Republican if they would eat a fish from that water, and what they think it's situation would be without regulations.It's amazing that a whole platform could be based on dismantling regulatory bodies. The death of regulation goes unquestioned as a political talking point by people that were adults when some of these things happened. As politics go, not too shocking, but it still seems kind of dirty to me.

        

Thursday, March 22, 2012

When did Progressive thought become a bad thing ?

   Socially speaking, when did the concept of progressive thought become something worthy of questioning ? Progressive ideas and reasoning have permeated our existence from the beginning of time. Who wants their dentist to get out the pliers for a root canal . Where would modern medicine be? If the Wright Brothers were conservative thinkers where would modern travel be? What about the Pyramids or the Pantheon , the Space Shuttle , the internet , Google, all brought to us through progressive thinkers to push the boundaries of their respective limitations. Why now is the act of progressive thought under attack. Who would promote non progressive thought in their own life, could you tell your kids that's enough progress you've learned enough, no more exercising your mind , no need to keep up with the ever changing world.
    Put plainly the implementation of conservative concepts as a governing guideline would doom our society to a future of mediocrity at worst, and progress by chance and circumstance at best. More importantly the question is why? What would drive so many to silence progressive thought... fear. Fear of failing of being labeled incompetent and eventually irrelevant. The best way to suppress fear is eliminating risk of failing by limiting the reach of everyone's progress, some through religion which offers the security blanket of a predetermined destiny, and some fear the fight to overcome their own perceived limitations. In reality deep inside the mind of a true conservative must be all of the fear and anxiety of a fight they know they cant win.

Is Political climate fueling Treyvon Martin outrage ?

     Why does the Treyvon Martin killing resonate with so many Americans? Do Americans across color lines care more for Trevon than they did for Oscar Grant or Sean Bell ? I say absolutely not, the passion however is clearly increased though all three young men had their lives stolen from them. Though the incidences differ the results are the same. The difference is the climate in witch the Treyvon Martin killing occurred .The overt attempts to restrict the rights of women and minorities in general shines light on the dots to be connected with the perception being that a conservative streak in America wants to turn back the hands of time, to a point where civil and social rights were positioned to keep the powerful in power hence the phrase , most important election since 1865.
     Moving forward, with each violation of progressive civil liberties, marches, rallies and, boycotts have to intensify. With the advent of social media and watching the Arab spring and the 99% sit ins the prospect of standing up and becoming committed to a cause has become a tangible way to incite change. The recent marches and boycotts put the rights of women and minority voting restrictions on our doorstep, in our living rooms.  Even though the fight was against the same ideology the fights remained separate , but the trail of dots became visible.
      The connecting factor comes from this tragedy. The notion of a throwback style good ol boy network type of  investigation reminds us of an archaic process of justice that disrespects minorities and returns us to some of Americas darkest days. So no America doesn't care more about Treyvon than Oscar or Sean , but the times dictate a rising of the people against a vision of America that we already lived and know didn't work for the liberty and freedom of all people, the base of which America was founded. So to a lesser extent the outrage speaks to the push for turn of the 20th century style policies that will continue to unite people hopefully not in the face of such heartbreaking conditions.