Human Rights

Frederick Douglass Is (Still) Doing A Great Job!

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The Belfast city council has approved a statue of key American abolitionist Frederick Douglass to be designed and installed in the city center.

Congratulations, Frederick Douglass! How's he doing, by the way? I heard Trump say a few years ago that he’s “done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more,” but I haven't heard much about him lately. It's great to see his recent accomplishments are now being recognized in the U.K.

Of course, at 201 years of age, he's probably slowing down a bit.


More Thoughts On Biden's Stunning (And Infuriating) Victory

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As I wrote a few hours ago, I have mixed feelings. First, I harbor a lot of resentment at party elites. Yes, they were correct. But if you think it through, the path to defeat Trump was always to rebuild the "blue wall" from Minnesota to New Jersey. But party elites decided to let the nomination battle play out organically until southern leaders decided to hit the override button and rescue Biden’s campaign. They decided that only Biden can rebuild that wall. They were correct, fine. But I will always have rude words for Jim Clyburn. I will never understand why party leaders in South Carolina and Georgia have to be at the helm when we might never win those states again in my lifetime.

Same for Charles Schumer, who failed to convert the all-time voter turnout record for Biden into at least a tied Senate. He has to step down as minority leader, and finally some of his fellow senators agree.

I am furious at how Trump’s projection sometimes worked. Often, the public and media would see through it. But in the case of Cuban and Venezuelan Americans in Dade and Broward counties, it was a brilliant cynical move. Donald Trump, a man who sees himself as an authoritarian and would love to declare himself president for life if given the opportunity, was able to convince hundreds of thousands of hispanics in Florida that Biden was too similar to Fidel Castro and Hugo Chávez. Oh yeah, he is just like them. And that worked. A rare Trump projection that worked right where and when he needed it to work. Bad guys only need to get it right once. We good guys need to block them at every attempt. We failed to block this tactic in south Florida. Spanish language radio and social media in Florida is now an arm of the Republican party, much as it was in the 1980s.

The DNC feared that Bernie Sanders would lose Florida because he would be called a socialist in Miami. However, they failed to protect Joe Biden from the same fate. Pete Buttigieg is a little corporate shit, but he was correct when he said that the GOP would label any Democratic nominee or policy as “socialist.”

But what makes me mad and sad most of all is what the Democrats -as weak and as useless as they are- cannot control. Trump became more popular since 2017. When Charlottesville happened, I and many others thought that Trump just saw himself as president of the 63 Million people who voted for him. We figured some of his voters would die before 2020, and some new, teenage voters would vote with their parents. We thought those should cancel each other out, and Trump ought to to match his 63 Million vote total, but no more. He didn’t do anything to overtly court independents and Democrats to his side. He was never a positive, friendly president. He was angry and negative, which was reflected in the national mood. And of course, he did nothing but harm and insult the 21 states that Clinton won. But this week, Trump got 4 million more votes. 4 fucking million! A Los Angeles of new voters. After everything that has happened. After all the insults and early morning tweets. After all the blatant racism and white nationalism. And in the middle of a pandemic and an economic depression that is ongoing. He gained in popularity. That disgusting, indecent man.

[Update, November 5: Trump now has 5 million more votes than he had in 2016!]

[Update, November 6: Trump now has 6 million more votes than he had in 2016! A Los Angles and a Houston!]

[Update, November 10: Trump now has 7 million more votes than he had in 2016! An incredible 71,469,850 votes and counting]

[Update, November 30: Trump now has over 10 million more votes than he did in 2016! A staggering, scary 74,077,537 votes and still counting!]

And some brothers defected to Trump! A small wave of black men didn't vote at all in 2016 but voted for Trump in 2020. In fact, an estimated 1 in 3 college educated black men in Florida voted for Trump. What would Malcom X say? I know what I say. Ladies, do not give any sex to a man until there's a Federal law legalizing abortion or until Kamala Harris is president, whichever happens first. Actually, all women should make that vow. Yes, it's going to be a long wait.

I will never be comfortable with the fact that 48% of voters would rather burn down the republic than share it with women and brown people. It's been this way for decades. This is just a reminder that nothing has changed. We have made zero progress. Half the nation wants the other half dead. Try to sleep well after being reminded about that fact.

This TV Show Is Going To End

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Donald Trump is just a complaints and grievances machine. When he isn’t destroying the republic, violating human rights, watching TV or tweeting, he whines and complains in an annoying Queens accent. America, why aren’t you giving this guy four more years! He’s amazing! People line up and wait for hours to hear him complain for nearly an hour! He’s the best touring entertainment act we have!

Fortunately, close to 70 Million Americans don’t agree. This show is being canceled.

We Are So Far Past "Enough"

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Anyone who supported Trump after Charlottesville, is a co-owner of his legacy.

Anyone who supported him after he put child refugees into cages, owns it even more so.

Same with anyone who still supported him after his attempt to extort the government of Ukraine.

The same for anyone who still supported him through the current public heath, economic and civil rights crisis. Needless to say, they didn’t budge when it was revealed that Trump knew how serious COVID-19 was, but decided to “play it down.”

Obviously, the same is true for anyone cheering the GOP on for rushing a new Justice onto the Supreme Court to cement their minority rule for another generation.

Ditto for anyone who stuck with Trump through the revelation of his recent tax returns and massive debts.

And finally, the same is true for anyone still sticking with him after he discharged himself from Walter Reed Medical Center and resumed pulling reckless stunts.

We are so past saying “enough,” and yet 42% of Americans passionately support this awful human being.

If the Nixon years were “our national nightmare,” and the George W. Bush years were our darkest days as an empire, then what is this? Granted, we’re not invading nations or killing innocents at record high numbers, but Trump is a dark cloud on the minds of every registered Democrat -nearly 70 Million citizens. Strike that, he is a poison to the majority of US citizens.

Americans can stomach their empire slaughtering Iraqis, Somalis, Yemenis and Afghans, but they have an intolerance to Trump and his threats to destroy what is left of our republic. When and how do these dark days end?

This Feels Like The End

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I had wondered for decades about what could have happened if the American public had reacted differently to the Kent State massacre. What if the majority of Americans reacted with enthusiastic approval rather than shock and horror? What if there were no consequences for the guardsmen or the State? What if there was no compensation for the victims? What if we had a new paradigm going forward: protesters can be shot? Full stop.

We’d have the end of the Republic. The USA would officially become a white nationalist fascist state. We’d have a dirty war, like Chile or Argentina. Maybe we didn’t know how close we came between 1968 and 1974. It seems Hunter S. Thompson and Alan Moore did.

This week, we had a smaller incident in Kenosha, Wisconsin (two dead, one wounded, as opposed to four dead and nine wounded), but the significance could be greater than what happened 50 years ago in Ohio. This time, we had a right wing, teenage shooter, who the police witnessed and didn’t arrest. They let the shooter get back to his car, and drive back to his home in Illinois, over 30 miles away. This kid, Kyle Rittenhouse, crossed state lines twice (possibly without a driver’s license), and violated a town’s curfew to cause trouble. And then he shot first. And while brave young men tried to chase him down and prevent what they thought was a massacre in progress, he shot two more.

Before he was arrested, the police used law enforcement language to describe his terrorist act. His actions were described the way the police would describe one of their own. Kenosha police chief Daniel Miskinis sad, “Last night a 17-year old individual from Antioch Illinois was involved in the use of firearms to resolve whatever conflict was in place.” I really don’t care that the chief later condemned the violence. The fact that he used the words “individual” and “conflict” to describe a boy suspected of of a mass shooting is all I need to conclude that the police are reluctant to stop right wing gangs. And indeed, they are. Many police are members of right wing gangs themselves. They see right wing gangs as “friendlies.” And this attitude is reflected in police behavior. The Kenosha police distributed water to right wing “militia” members earlier this week, but today they arrested a group preparing free meals for protesters.

But the most disturbing news of all this week, is that the loudest voices on the right are trying to re-define who can be shot. In the case of the Rittenhouse, the right wing is arguing that an armed man being chased has the right to shoot his pursuers. This would mean that anyone being chased has the right to open fire. It becomes a license to kill. Meanwhile, the reason we have unrest in Kenosha is because a black man was shot seven times in the back and paralyzed for failing to obey police instructions. It is possible that the victim, Jacob Blake, was not told he was under arrest, and angrily walked to his Dodge Journey in defiance of the police behind him. After he was shot, police found a knife in his car, and concluded that Mr. Blake must have been walking to his car to get his knife and…stab four officers with their guns drawn? But this justification after the fact seems to imply that any black person who owns a knife, holding it or not, can be shot.

Now, the US has not yet become a fascist state where dissenters are rounded up, tortured, imprisoned or shot, but look at how quickly we got here. And we have to acknowledge that this is all tied to the rise of the QAnon conspiracy theory, which has grown significantly more popular in 2020. QAnon is a vast conspiracy, which is able to include a lot of out of context quotes and events to support the existence of a decades-long, underground child abuse economy run by powerful Democrats. It’s actually a repeat of old conspiracy theories involving children being kidnapped and forced into sex slavery. One of the pillars of QAnon, is that the left wing, being a demonic and sadistic segment of the population, need to be brought to justice in a sweeping week of arrests they call “the storm.” Alternatively, if Donald Trump -a president they believe knows about the Democratic child trafficking, rape, and even their eating of children- fails to bring them to justice, then patriots should act and attack Democrats with deadly force. That’s no exaggeration. That’s the logical conclusion a lot of QAnon followers reach in their education. The evil Democrats include celebrities, Jews, elected officials and coastal, wealthy elites. The first violent incident involving a QAnon follower that I know of was in December 2016. Donald Trump was president-elect. The next incident I am aware of happened at the Hoover Dam in June 2018. The convicted guy in that case wrote letters to Trump and was a fierce QAnon believer.

QAnon is not a benign cult or subculture within the GOP. It is aggressive, on the offensive, and is taking over the whole party. It is evolving into a violent faction of our society. And they don’t restrict themselves to Internet comments and wild conspiracy research. If true believers in QAnon are convinced that Democrats are a satanic army, then that army must be confronted and defeated. An increasing number of those under the cult’s spell are lashing out, whether it is at mask mandates, local government hearings, or at anti-racist protesters.

As one who studied the right wing militia movement from roughly 1977 through 2000, I am a little surprised that the violence from the right continued after Trump took office. The movement was known to flare-up when a Democrat was president, and cool down when a Republican took office. But now it's on the offensive -and has intensified- with a Republican president, which doesn't bode well for the future.

One of the reasons I wish Gore won in 2000 was that we'd have a chance to smother and prosecute right wing terrorist groups. But Bush won, and their activity cooled down to the point that they just attacked reproductive health clinics and the occasional mosque or synagogue, and the media didn't cover it. So if they are in-charge and angry now, imagine how furious they will be when they are no longer the ruling minority.

Or, imagine a worse scenario: Trump wins re-election, and they still commit acts of violence in our cities, while the police stand by and let them roam. They evolve into the GOP death squads, as QAnon fully takes over the party. Our nation begins to have scenes of unarmed citizens under fire, similar to the siege of Sarajevo in 1992. I will never forget the fall of Sarajevo. I saw it live on CNN International and BBC News. Aside form the obvious reactions of “this is horrible,” and “why won’t NATO and the UN stop this,” I didn’t think that something similar could happen in the US. That can’t happen here.

But my historian father, Uncle Tim has always reminded me, it can happen here. It can happen anywhere. It has happened on every inhabited continent.

In order to prevent it from happening here, Donald Trump must lose. And even then, there will be bloodshed in the weeks to come. Win or lose, the right win is going to react with extreme violence.

Be safe, everyone.


One Unified Ireland Must Be The Republic's Primary Agenda

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The world reflects on the loss of John Hume today, so this overdue post is ready. The Irish people, and the Scots as well, need to thoroughly  rethink their relation to the United Kingdom. After the world struggles with the COVID-19 pandemic, the issue of what happens to the United Kingdom will be taken-up as a major project. There will be a binding referendum on Irish Unity before 2025. Breaking up the Union is no longer fringe talk, rumblings, murmurs or radical fantasies. It seems to to be on the verge of happening.

Gerry Adams repeated it so well a few weeks ago on his blog. Partition has to go. It no longer serves any logical political, cultural or economic purpose. Major events cause gradual significant change. The UK deciding to leave the European Union on the eve of a devastating pandemic will lead to Northern Ireland and Scotland leaving the Union.

The Most Explicit Example Of Extrajudicial Murder In Some Time

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I didn’t think we’d see a video more explicit than Eric Garner but here we are. There are some striking differences here. First, there was the extended interaction between the police and the witnesses. It went on and on. In the Garner murder, the cops did not interact with witnesses at all. Second, there was no attempt to save Mr. Floyd’s. The arriving medics knew he was expired, and I think the medics and the cops wanted him to stay that way. Third, that’s urine. We see a man pee his pants and die while under the full weight of a law enforcement officer, funded by the city of Minneapolis. And fourth, there wasn’t one instruction from the officers to Mr. Floyd as to what he had to do to make the torture stop. Usually, cops will be brutal, but they will also bark orders. Those orders help protect them from prosecution and lawsuits. Incredible that didn’t happen here. This was murder. It was like the end of Do The Right Thing. It didn’t seem real until everyone noticed that Mr. Floyd had stopped breathing. As the Asian cop (Officer Tou Thao) put it, they tried to get him into their cruiser for 10 minutes, so they were going to snuff the life out of him for 10. This was murder. And I have no expectations of either of these officers ever losing their freedom or their pensions.

We need to demand radical change. We need to show up in numbers and threaten to burn City Hall down. In every city. We need full civilian control of the police. Here in New York. Over where you are. And in the Twin Cities.

All Senate Republicans Need To Go

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All Republicans need to be banned from office. The party is a hate group that wants to destroy the republic to appease the 40% of Americans who support them. But let’s just rip the Senate in today’s post.

The latest, credible allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh again show us why the Republicans are a disgrace. They could have nominated Amy Coney Barrett to the Court. She’s next in line. But they just had to ram through this sexual predator, liar, and utter scumbag. Sooner of later, Kavanaugh and Thomas will be gone. I hope through impeachment, but I can’t expect the Democrats to reverse these grave mistakes.

The new allegations have made the push to remove Susan Collins more intense. As bad as Susan Collins is, the performance of Lindsey Graham during the Kavanaugh hearings was even worse. He was vitriolic, irrational, and a disgrace to the Senate. It past time both he and Susan Collins were shown the exit.