I am sitting here ruminating again during a rainy day in Sacramento.
The Washington Post as did the Sacramento Bee; carried a story of a young man who was gunned down in South Sacramento, an African American community, for pointing a cell phone at officers. He was shot over 20 times in his own backyard. The officers yelled “show me your hands” a couple times, with no wait time and shot 20 times....then they yelled, “show me your hands again and waited”..
Isn’t his a little out of order? Of course, of course the officers were white and the victim was black.
The young man had two children and was engaged...He had spent time in jail for something, but was NOT a violent criminal.
So on it goes. In the most liberal state in union’s capital....a white on black shoot...Black lives matter once again?
Every damned time this happens....every time. And we just appointed an African American as Police Chief, the first one in Sacramento history.
And so it goes. America’s original sin just goes on and on and on.
I am beginning to work on my class for CSU Sacramento’s Renaissance program (for next fall). I am watching YouTube videos, what a great teaching tool, of the genocide that reduced America’s indigenous population from 20,000,000 to 200,000 in three hundred years (and they didn’t all die of disease either). The genocide was planned and executed mostly by the most democratic nation on earth, one with a Bill of Rights, one who fought a Civil War to end slavery, one who is trying to “get great again”. And it won’t...
It won’t because of what happened in an all black neighborhood to a 20 year old kid, who did not evaporate into space fast enough to avoid a hail of bullets.
He was showing the officers that all he had was a damned cell phone for Christ’s sake...and without a hesitation one of them yelled gun (in a second) and shot 20 bullets into his body.
And they were in a “tough” black neighborhood and they were white...and relatively inexperienced.
And they panted like dogs, the adrenaline was so high in them...and after shooting the guy 20 times THEN they suddenly slowed down the “show us your hands” mantra.
Watch the video if you doubt me. Watch it....
We elected a white supremacist as a damned President in direct obvious backlash to the African American President who we elected in 2008. There is no doubt that white supremacy elected Donald Trump.
It killed over 19 million indigenous people, it enslaved millions and 600,000 died in the Civil War, then Jim Crowe took over and over 2000 a year were lynched in the south, segregation in the North and the South, still gives us cities like Sacramento (and every other one in America) that have white zones and black zones (maybe they aren’t official like apartheid, but the cops in south Sacramento knew exactly where they were and behaved exactly as we would expect); fire from fear and fire quick.
And of course I could troop out the statistics that actually show people of color are not as gun violent as the white supremacist majority. I could show you all that..
I don’t want to anymore! I am too sick and tired of this hateful country!
Thursday, March 22, 2018
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
The Darkest Hour
Winston Churchill was a bent over old man, who smoked constantly, had a hair trigger temper and was so obnoxious that he couldn’t get selected Prime Minister for years.
Franklin Roosevelt was a crippled man, retritcted to a wheelchair who could drag himself around on braces that weighted over 30 pounds. Not healthy by any stretch of the imagination. Getting him to a podium was a trial. And most people knew the old man couldn’t walk.
Both leaders voices were shrill when excited, even annoying and did not work well in the new radio medium that leaders like Mussolini and Hitler used.
Hitler and Mussolini were like reality T.V. Stars, their speeches were crafted by public relations experts using media, fire, masses of troops; etc to create an alternative reality of power and courage.
Propaganda had been used in WWI, with mass delivery system of radio especially film, to convey the messages of propaganda all over the world. The enemy was depicted with powerful stereotypes, war was made into a glorified adventure to get recruits; who were chewed up like mincemeat in the trenches of France.
And this was used by Hitler and Mussolini to destroy democracy and establish a totalitarianism based on war. War was to be worshipped. Both used makeup artists to embellish their features. They jutted out their chins in a power mode, speaking to the camera....like reality T.V.
And the “lighting war” Hitler meant no more trench warfare, modern war was fast, decisive, and easy to win......at least at first!
The Darkest Hour stands in stark contrast to that. It shows the reality of war. It shows the reality of leadership.
Leadership is not easy. And it is not always glorious. Churchill was lousy speaker, Roosevelt was hiding a disability. They were pitted against two of the greatest showmen on earth.
And what both of them had was the people on their side. And not a people fooled or manipulated, but who through democracy was able to accurately predict the public consensus the public interest.
And that saved England...And that saved us all.
Look, leadership is not hoopla and staged demonstations of outlandish and sometimes funny statements. Leadership is NOT telling people what they WANT to hear.
Leadership is telling people what they DON’T want to hear....of telling them the truth.
Churchill did it by getting on a subway and visiting with ordinary people. His war cabinet was ready to quit, to surrender. The Army was trapped at Dunkirk, the war was lost. And he talked to some ordinary people, told them what the DIDN’T want to hear; that the war was lost and surrender or die was basically the choice. And to a man/woman they chose fighting on....and that is what turned it.
55 million died in WWII. And it was a DIRECT PRODUCT of a thing like reality T.V. Experts in mass communication fooled millions into believing that Jews caused the Great Depression. And Propagandists convinced the Germans to kill 6 million innocent people as a “cure” for the ills of Germany.
Of course it was all about power.
And Trump is all about power. Trump can rip people apart in his staged, partly rehearsed public talks to the people, his Tweets, where he tells them what they want to hear, not what they don’t want to hear.
And our nation’s survival hangs by that thread!
Franklin Roosevelt was a crippled man, retritcted to a wheelchair who could drag himself around on braces that weighted over 30 pounds. Not healthy by any stretch of the imagination. Getting him to a podium was a trial. And most people knew the old man couldn’t walk.
Both leaders voices were shrill when excited, even annoying and did not work well in the new radio medium that leaders like Mussolini and Hitler used.
Hitler and Mussolini were like reality T.V. Stars, their speeches were crafted by public relations experts using media, fire, masses of troops; etc to create an alternative reality of power and courage.
Propaganda had been used in WWI, with mass delivery system of radio especially film, to convey the messages of propaganda all over the world. The enemy was depicted with powerful stereotypes, war was made into a glorified adventure to get recruits; who were chewed up like mincemeat in the trenches of France.
And this was used by Hitler and Mussolini to destroy democracy and establish a totalitarianism based on war. War was to be worshipped. Both used makeup artists to embellish their features. They jutted out their chins in a power mode, speaking to the camera....like reality T.V.
And the “lighting war” Hitler meant no more trench warfare, modern war was fast, decisive, and easy to win......at least at first!
The Darkest Hour stands in stark contrast to that. It shows the reality of war. It shows the reality of leadership.
Leadership is not easy. And it is not always glorious. Churchill was lousy speaker, Roosevelt was hiding a disability. They were pitted against two of the greatest showmen on earth.
And what both of them had was the people on their side. And not a people fooled or manipulated, but who through democracy was able to accurately predict the public consensus the public interest.
And that saved England...And that saved us all.
Look, leadership is not hoopla and staged demonstations of outlandish and sometimes funny statements. Leadership is NOT telling people what they WANT to hear.
Leadership is telling people what they DON’T want to hear....of telling them the truth.
Churchill did it by getting on a subway and visiting with ordinary people. His war cabinet was ready to quit, to surrender. The Army was trapped at Dunkirk, the war was lost. And he talked to some ordinary people, told them what the DIDN’T want to hear; that the war was lost and surrender or die was basically the choice. And to a man/woman they chose fighting on....and that is what turned it.
55 million died in WWII. And it was a DIRECT PRODUCT of a thing like reality T.V. Experts in mass communication fooled millions into believing that Jews caused the Great Depression. And Propagandists convinced the Germans to kill 6 million innocent people as a “cure” for the ills of Germany.
Of course it was all about power.
And Trump is all about power. Trump can rip people apart in his staged, partly rehearsed public talks to the people, his Tweets, where he tells them what they want to hear, not what they don’t want to hear.
And our nation’s survival hangs by that thread!
Monday, March 5, 2018
It’s a Lie!
“They are stealing your jobs, deport them all” ....it is complex, all human conditions are complex; when a person gets up in front of you and over and over declares it is “easy” or “simple to fix”, they are LYING TO YOU!
Demographically the United States is entering an era of low personnel availability. The Baby Boom is aging and retiring in record numbers. Birth control became available to the masses in the mid-sixties (most of you don’t remember because you weren’t born yet).
I remember the reaction! Suddenly taking a pill was relative assurance that a mother could control how many children they had. Remember this was in the 1960s? That is just 50 plus years ago...
So before that era of real family planning started we have much of the Baby Boom, that are all in their 60s. And they are retiring fast.
Leaving a demographic way short of the jobs that are available even with the reductions in some jobs caused by outsourcing.
So.....Trump is full of shit.
Yes he is full of shit. Immigrants are NOT stealing “our” jobs. Immigrants are filling a couple needs. Unskilled labor still exists in the United States, in agriculture mostly. And the drop in quite frankly white Americans because of birth control, has resulted in an net labor shortage in unskilled labor in agriculture.
Ever wonder why California and other agricultural states have actually encouraged “illegal immigrants”? Simply put, nobody is available in non immigrant communities to work in their fields! It is really that simple. I mean they advertise and without brown workers NOBODY applies!
Do immigrants take white Americans jobs? Yes; in the high tech area. Americans have an educational system they have ignored for years. Conservatives have a political theory that calls for less government, and for some insane reason they have turned their scorn on public education...This has repressed teacher salaries and benefits, teachers are the first fired with state cutbacks (see Kansas) and so a flight from teaching is occurring right now. Math and science teachers are impossible to find...simply impossible.
How do I know. I do WASC Accreditation’s...there is an acute shortage of teachers for k-12 education at the crisis level!
So some districts are recruiting overseas. Our largest competitors still believe in education. They are graduating many more per capita math and science majors. If you want a code maker you look to India or Pakistan.
But Trump was elected because of the false assumption that illegal immigrants were stealing American’s jobs. That simply is a lie.
And now, with “full employment” he is pushing hard to deport millions, including Dreamers who were children when their parents brought them to America. Many of these Dreamers are code writers in the computer industry...many are teachers who we desperately need.
And this with a labor shortage just beginning. This will cripple the American economy fast. It will retard any growth. It is very serious and the blond wonder knows it. But hey, it works right...so he keeps up the lie. It gets white supremacy back in power.
It is all a lie!
Demographically the United States is entering an era of low personnel availability. The Baby Boom is aging and retiring in record numbers. Birth control became available to the masses in the mid-sixties (most of you don’t remember because you weren’t born yet).
I remember the reaction! Suddenly taking a pill was relative assurance that a mother could control how many children they had. Remember this was in the 1960s? That is just 50 plus years ago...
So before that era of real family planning started we have much of the Baby Boom, that are all in their 60s. And they are retiring fast.
Leaving a demographic way short of the jobs that are available even with the reductions in some jobs caused by outsourcing.
So.....Trump is full of shit.
Yes he is full of shit. Immigrants are NOT stealing “our” jobs. Immigrants are filling a couple needs. Unskilled labor still exists in the United States, in agriculture mostly. And the drop in quite frankly white Americans because of birth control, has resulted in an net labor shortage in unskilled labor in agriculture.
Ever wonder why California and other agricultural states have actually encouraged “illegal immigrants”? Simply put, nobody is available in non immigrant communities to work in their fields! It is really that simple. I mean they advertise and without brown workers NOBODY applies!
Do immigrants take white Americans jobs? Yes; in the high tech area. Americans have an educational system they have ignored for years. Conservatives have a political theory that calls for less government, and for some insane reason they have turned their scorn on public education...This has repressed teacher salaries and benefits, teachers are the first fired with state cutbacks (see Kansas) and so a flight from teaching is occurring right now. Math and science teachers are impossible to find...simply impossible.
How do I know. I do WASC Accreditation’s...there is an acute shortage of teachers for k-12 education at the crisis level!
So some districts are recruiting overseas. Our largest competitors still believe in education. They are graduating many more per capita math and science majors. If you want a code maker you look to India or Pakistan.
But Trump was elected because of the false assumption that illegal immigrants were stealing American’s jobs. That simply is a lie.
And now, with “full employment” he is pushing hard to deport millions, including Dreamers who were children when their parents brought them to America. Many of these Dreamers are code writers in the computer industry...many are teachers who we desperately need.
And this with a labor shortage just beginning. This will cripple the American economy fast. It will retard any growth. It is very serious and the blond wonder knows it. But hey, it works right...so he keeps up the lie. It gets white supremacy back in power.
It is all a lie!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)