Tuesday, July 25, 2017

DONALD TRUMP: TRAITOR IN CHIEF

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

DONALD TRUMP: TRAITOR IN CHIEF
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Trump supporters are constantly claiming that "Deep State" is out to get him. Deep State is not “out to get” Trump, they're simply trying to protect America from an idiot.  That’s their job. Trump is his own worst enemy, and he has made it clear that he's unfit for office. Even his own staff is disgusted with him, that's why the White House is leaking like a sieve. The only people who care about Trump are a handful of bigots, and even THEY'RE beginning to see the light, because it seems that everything he does and says is immature and stupid. So in terms of getting the people's admiration and respect, becoming president was the very worst thing that could have ever happened to Trump, because it’s placed his immaturity, narcissism, and gross ignorance on public display. White House aides can’t stop talking about President Trump like he’s a toddler.
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The real problem is, Putin makes Trump look like the lightweight he is, and that makes the American people look like lightweights. Leaders all over the world know that the best way to get whatever they want out of Trump is to give him a parade, because at his core Trump is an insecure, self-absorbed man-child desperately seeking validation. He’s so emotionally immature that the only thing important to him is self-aggrandizement. That’s why he’s so fixated on the myth that he had the biggest crowds in history at his inauguration. He seems determined to prove that he’s a great man who is adored by the masses, so he doesn’t have time to be worried about little “petty” things like the suffering of the American people or the sorry state of this nation, that’s irrelevant. The only thing that’s important to him is to prove that the American people love and admire Donald Trump, and any evidence that suggests otherwise is “fake news.” The man is absolutely delusional, and anyone who can’t see that is also less than fully grounded - and that’s far more than just an opinion, it's the general consensus of the American people.  Read the polls.
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That makes him an extremely dangerous man, because he'll put self before country every time. He doesn't know how to think in any other way.  Look at his behavior in the current North Korean nuclear crisis, for example. He's capable of starting WWIII just to raise his poll numbers, but he's so clueless he could also do it inadvertently. Without thinking it through, discussing it with his staff, or even giving it a second thought, he told the North Koreans, "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." That was a needlessly stupid escalation of a very dangerous situation. He's playing a game of "chicken," with another egomaniacal lunatic with the lives of the American people. That alone shows that he's completely irresponsible.
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His poor judgement and self-absorbed nature could even be seen when he spoke at a Boy Scout jamboree where it is traditional to give uplifting and patriotic speeches to our youth, but his speech was all about Donald Trump: "Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it's about 200 people. It looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today. You set a record." And then he goes on to say, referring to election night before an audience of children, "But do you remember that incredible night with the maps and the Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red, it was unbelievable, and they didn't know what to say?"  It was so over-the-top that the Boy Scouts of America had to issue a public apology for the conduct of the President of the United States. Politico reported:
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“The head of the Boy Scouts of America apologized to the group’s members on Thursday after President Donald Trump delivered a meandering, controversial and frequently political speech to the organization's National Jamboree on Monday. ‘I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree,’ Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh said in a letter published online. ‘That was never our intent.’ . . . Surbaugh noted in the letter that the group is nonpartisan and has had a ‘long-standing tradition’ of inviting the sitting president to speak at the event since its inception in 1937. He reiterated that Trump’s appearance at the gathering was ‘no way an endorsement of any person, party or policies.”’
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Now that has to be a first, for the Boy Scouts to have to apologize for the behavior of the President of the United States. It clearly demonstrates Donald Trump's horrible judgement, the man we’d have to depend on if this nation comes under threat. Are you frightened yet?  If not, there’s something wrong with you.
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So again Trump has dangerously poor judgement, and he’s completely self-absorbed.  More proof of that is he’s allied himself with an historic foreign adversary against 17 U.S. intelligence agencies whose sole job it is to protect the American people.  That clearly shows that Trump’s only loyalty is to himself, so his allegiance is not to country, or to his supporters - as Jeff Sessions, Sean Spicer, Anthony Scaramucci, and many other White House staffers are currently beginning to recognize - but to whoever smiles at him the brightest on any given day, and a man like that cannot be trusted.  There’s a word for such people - sociopath.  

In a meeting in the Oval Office (in which he banned the U.S. press) he criticized the director of OUR FBI and gave top secret information (information that was so highly classified that it was only disseminated within our own government on a need-to-know basis) to our Russian adversaries just to show what a big shot he is, and length that he was willing to go to protect his very special relationship with Vladimir Putin.  According to the New York Times, He said:  “I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”  Can you imagine ANY President of the United States with even the most routine level of common sense ever saying such a thing to a foreign adversary!!!?
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I'm a former Marine, and I can tell you without a doubt that the people who fought and died for this country (while Trump was getting 5 deferments to avoid putting his own cowardly life on the line) are rolling over in their graves. If Ike Eisenhower (the last responsible Republican to hold office) was still around, he'd have Trump summarily shot.
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That's what's so disgusting about having Trump occupying the Oval Office. His mere presence diminishes the memory of the great men who preceded him. He constitutes nothing less than a smudge on the presidency. That's why it's so important that he be impeached. Trump's impeachment would restore the dignity to the office of the President of the United States, because Trumps very presence suggests to the world that even a treasonous coward can become President of the United States, and that doesn't serve America well.  Some of our oldest and most respected allies have all but completely written us off after only 6 months of observing Donald Trump.  This guy is so self-absorbed and narcissistic that he would get us involved in a nuclear war just to raise his poll numbers.  So we'd better correct this grievous error - and in a hurry!
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Republican Sen. Bob Corker: Trump has not shown 'competence' needed to lead
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“I think in spite of the fact that people are polarized in our nation right now, people have to understand that we should hope that (Trump) aspires, that he does some self-reflection, that he does what is necessary to demonstrate stability, to demonstrate competence, to demonstrate that he understands the character of our nation and works daily to bring out the best in the people of our nation,” he said.

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Trump also needs “to take stock of the role he plays in our nation and move beyond himself, move way beyond himself, and move to place where daily he’s waking up thinking of what’s best for the nation,” Corker said.
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That’s the message that America has got to get across to the handful of true Republican patriots left - that Americans have fought and died for this democracy for over 241 years, and Trump's silly, undignified, and treacherous behavior is a slap in the face of all of those brave American patriots. They didn't give up their lives for this, so by supporting Trump, the modern Republican Party has turned into a party of traitors.
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Just based on what we currently know, the entire Trump family should already be in jail, and Trump knows it. That’s why he fired FBI Director Comey, is publically humiliating Attorney General Sessions, is threatening investigator Mueller, and as we speak, he’s already exploring his authority to pardon himself, his family, and associates. He's furious with Attorney General Sessions recusing himself from the Russian investigation because he was depending on Sessions' "loyalty" to sabotage the investigation into his alleged crimes.
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TO HELL WITH GODWIN'S LAW -
WHAT IF IT'S TRUE?

The Attorney General is suppose to be independent. His loyalty is suppose to be to the United States Constitution, not to some bratty bigshot wannabe having a hissy fit because he can't have his way over the founding fathers. That's not democracy, that's fascism - but the dangerous part is, I don't think Trump even knows the difference. If he did, he'd know what a fool he's making of himself. So we cannot allow him to pardon himself. We should impeach him FIRST - before he fills our government with Russian agents -  and THEN bring criminal charges, and we should impeach Vice President Pence as well for misprision of treason. Donald Trump is his own worst enemy. The man doesn’t even have sense enough not to make himself look guilty, so how can we depend on his judgement to guide this nation? The fact is, we can’t. 
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It took an act of congress to get Trump to sign off on sanctions against the Russians for meddling in our elections, and even then they had to insert a clause saying that he couldn't reduce them - "I'm sorry Putie.  I tried to be a good boy but they won't let me."  As a result, Putin spanked him by evicting the United States from two U.S. embassy compounds, and throwing 755 American embassy staff out of Russia.  You see, Trump goes for bad toward his subordinates and the press, but he's a weak puppet with respect to Vladimir Putin. That's why he's tried at least twice to establish a "backchannel" (secret) means of communication with Putin outside the hearing of our intelligence community.  He's been compromised by the Russians through his private business deals, so there's no telling what he might do to make up for his bad behavior toward "Putie." Trump tweet: "Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow - if so, will he become my new best friend?"  Those are the words of a weakling.  He sounds like a child.  Can you imagine Putin ever saying anything like that about Trump?  Of course not.  Because whatever else he might be, Putin is a serious adult, a trait in which Trump is seriously lacking.
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But through the benefit of 20/20 hindsight it's easy to see how Donald Trump got caught up in this. Due to his arrogance, greed, narcissism, and poor judgement, he thought, and he still thinks, he's above the law.  But there's only one thing I like about Trump, he makes me appreciate the intelligence, dignity, and statesmanship of Barack Obama all the more.  Trump makes George W. Bush look like one of the founding fathers, and he's gonna put Barack Obama on Mount Rushmore single-handedly.

THIS IS WHY TRUMP THREATENED SPECIAL INVESTIGATOR MUELLER TO STAY OUT OF HIS PERSONAL FINANCES


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So Republicans better wake up, or they're going down with him. This can rock their boat for decades.  When all this begins to sink in on the American people, and they begin to realize that this is more than just a fight between liberals and conservatives, America is not going to vote for anyone who supported a traitor.

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FISCAL CONSERVATIVES
Here's the problem. The Republican Party is made up of three factions with coinciding interests.  First you have the fiscal conservatives. These are the globalists like Donald Trump who control the party. They're cynical, unpatriotic, and heartless. Their only allegiance is to the dollar, so they don't care anything about the nation, or the American people.  That's why they're leaving no stone unturned to strip countless millions of Americans of their health-care.  They're willing to let people die in the street in order to give themselves a lucrative tax cut. These people call any attempt to protect the American people from their manipulative greed socialism. They claim that "the American way" is for people to fend for themselves, but ironically, they felt much differently during the 2008 crash when they came, hat-in-hand, begging the American people to rescue them from their own misdeeds.  Then once they were back on their feet, they used their restored wealth to buy politicians to undermine the standard of living of those very same American people who rescued them.
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CHILD LABOR DURING
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
There's a philosophical reason for this that goes all the way back to the founding of this nation.  These people are just as bigoted toward class as any Klan member is toward race - in fact, the Klan was taught to be bigots by these people so they could use the Klan as a tool to undermine the poor and working class.

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Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers of fiscal conservatism believed that only those who owned property should even be allowed to vote.  He said:
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 "All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and wellborn, the other the mass of the people.... The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government." (Debates of the Federalist Convention - May 14-September 17, 1787).
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Hamilton's views were summarily rejected by the founding fathers, mainly because many of them left Europe to escape the class system.  But those who hold Hamilton's view are still among us, they simply have to remain discreet, and contrive various pretexts to camouflage their agenda in order to remain politically viable. Today, these people are called fiscal conservatives, and their agenda is clearly visible to anyone who's not so blinded by hatred and self-interest that they take the time to see.  The fiscal conservative agenda is simply being disguised and hidden within the fabric of purposely instigated racism, sexism, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred, bigotry, and division.  But anyone who takes the time to be objective will immediately recognize that the GOP specializes in using emotion to circumvent clear thinking, and thereby, the will and best interest of the people. 
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The only reason they call the Affordable Care Act "Obamacare" is to remind racist bigots that regardless to whether it is helpful to them and their family or not, it was enacted by an "uppity" Black man, Barack Obama.  And that's the primary reason they're so determined to appeal it - even the lucrative tax cut to the rich is just sweetener, because they're so rich they don't really need it.
SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE
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So as a direct result of this conservative subterfuge we have the second faction in the Republican Party, the social conservatives - or bigots. They serve as the fiscal conservatives' storm troopers.  They keep the people divided so the controlling faction of the Republican Party won't suffer the same fate as Alexander Hamilton during the Federalist Convention.
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Social conservatives, or bigots, tend to be the mediocrity of White society, so they try to use the fact that they were born White to define themselves and to compensate for their lack of personal value. Their entire sense of self-esteem is based more upon group association than individual value and accomplishment, and their entire claim to personal significance is, "Well, at least I'm better than them."
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That's what drove radical conservatives so crazy about President Obama - he's walking, breathing, evidence that they cannot claim superiority by virtue of the color T-shirt they were born in, and that simple fact alone has caused them to suffer a severe attack of cognitive dissonance before the eyes of the entire world. That's also why they're so determined not to allow President Obama to be seen as the great president that he was, even if it means destroying the country - and international corporatists are using the social division inherent in those sentiments to lower the standard of living of the American people - and our hatred, division, and ignorance is playing right into their hands.


MITCH MCCONNELL'S
CONSTITUENTS

So this entire nation, and the future of our children, is being threatened by the desperate attempt of a handful of insecure bigots to maintain their delusions of superiority, and as far as they’re concerned, if the country has to be sacrificed for that cause, so be it . . . thus, Donald Trump.
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So Trump's call to "Make America Great Again" is actually racist code for taking America back to when bigotry was the law of the land, ignorant and undereducated White boys were honored and looked up to, and women were kept barefoot and pregnant. Thus, what we're Currently witnessing in America is not the GOP's attempt to improve the lives of the American people, but the GOP'S desperate attempt to erase Barack Obama from history (by any means necessary), and an effort to resuscitate Jim Crow from the final vestiges of his dying gasp. 
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This nation has NEVER lived up to the myth that the American flag is suppose to represent.  During the "Manifest Destiney" era (when Europeans came here and claimed that "God wants us to have this land"), after being welcomed here by the Native Americans, they responded by presenting them with disease-infected blankets, and then bringing in their army to eradicate them. We condemn the Nazis for killing 6 million Jews, but in the end American settlers killed as many as 100 million Native Americans in order to take their land. Thereafter, they moved on to either kill are make the lives of millions of African slaves miserable. Then after slavery, there was the Jim Crow era in which millions of African-Americans were discriminated against, brutalized, and in many cases murdered. And during that same time the nation was involved in WWII where Japanese-American citizens had their property seized and entire families were placed in concentration camps. In addition, the United States dropped not one, but TWO atomic bombs on the innocent men, women and children of Japan - and since they were noncombatants,  that made it THE MOST horrendous act of terrorism in ALL of human history. But “America the Beautiful” still wasn’t done - it went on to kill 3.1 million Vietnamese (2 million of which were innocent civilian men, women, and children), and then did the very same thing to the people of Iraq (they were more compassionate with Iraqis, however - they only killed a million of them), and for no reason whatsoever, other than they didn’t like the cut of their jib. So in which era of atrocities was "America Great" the first the first time, Mr. Trump?
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So in the true tradition of American hypocrisy, Trump doesn't care anything about "Making America Great Again," because it's never been great; it's all a bunch of patriotic hype.  What he actually wants is a return to the status quo where the rich are free to become richer regardless to who they have to abuse and/or destroy to accomplish that goal - and in this global economy that includes the American people.  So in spite of all of their preaching, pronouncements and evangelizing, it's not simply Obamacare that they're desperately trying to repeal, they're trying to repeal Obama and his legacy, even if it means taking away the healthcare of 22 million Americans.  So that's what we're currently dealing with in this country - ignorant bigots being controlled by the rich who are willing to cut their own throats, and the throat of the nation, because they're too uninformed to see the big picture, and too angry to care.  And due to that very same ignorance, anger and selfishness, these people are easy to control by simply inundating them with a constant drumbeat of disinformation - thus, FOX News.
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But there is hope, because the third faction in the Republican Party are traditional and legitimate conservatives.  These are Eisenhower conservatives - many of my neighbors are such people, and they're beginning to see the light.  These people simply believe in love of country, low-key ideals, and living reasonable and responsible lives, so Trump is much too over-the-top for them - and they don't understand his love affair with Russia at all.  These are the people who can kick the legs out from under the Republican corruption of this country, because they are part of the Republican base.  If Trump loses them, his approval ratings will dip into the low twenties, and Republican politicians will abandon him in droves. So these are the people that progressives should be speaking to.  We've got to bring an end to this tendency to simply talk to ourselves.  Instead of always being so combative, we've got to educate, because all people of good will have simply got to come together.  This is not a liberal versus conservative issue.  This is an American issue, so we better wake up.

I'VE GOT TO HAND IT TO PUTIN,  HE'S CONQUERING AMERICA WITHOUT FIRING A SHOT.  HE’S DEPENDING ON REPUBLICAN HATRED AND GREED OVERWHELMING THEIR LOYALTY TO OUR COUNTRY.  SO IT'S NO WONDER PUTIN WORKED SO HARD FOR TRUMP - HE SAW THE IDIOCY OF HIS SELFISH - TRUMP-BEFORE-COUNTRY - NARCISSISM  BEFORE WE DID.
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Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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THE ANOINTED SEDUCTION  

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

THE ANOINTED SEDUCTION  

The reverend took a young member of his flock down to a basement office of the church. Once down there, he first, took her hand, and then when she didn’t resist, he started to rub her beautiful brown thighs and said, “Now I don’t want you to get this wrong. I’m not trying to seduce you.  I didn’t bring you down here for me; I brought you to this solitary place for YOU.  I’ve been anointed by God, and I can relieve you of all your suffering and pain, and the Lord brought mine eyes upon you while I was preaching from the pulpit. I knew at that very moment that you were chosen. The lord chose YOU to be blessed with my anointment. He chose YOU as the beneficiary of peace, love, happiness, and fulfillment. Say amen, my dear.” And the young woman said, “Amen, Reverend.”
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Then the reverend went on. “Now, many of the ungodly would frown upon this.  They would say, ‘She’s too young, Reverend!’, so we must keep this to ourselves. But these people are ungodly, and they don’t know the workings of the Lord. The Lord works in mysterious ways, and with God there is no age, there are only souls that need peace and guidance. Say Amen, my angel.”  And the young girl said, “Amen, Reverend.” 
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Then as he began to rub her heaving breasts, and freed them from the bondage of her bra, he said, “Just as I’ve freed your breasts, I can free your soul. Do you understand, my dear?” As the young women began to breathe more deeply in response to his lips against her nipples, she said, “Oh, yes, Reverend. I understand. Praise the Lord!” She then sucked in another breath as she began to squeeze her beast into his mouth.
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The reverend then had her stand up, and by now his breath was also coming faster at just the vision of this 16 year-old beauty, and the anticipation of what was to come.  He kissed her gently, as he unzipped her dressed and allowed it to fall to the floor to reveal the most perfectly sculptured young body that he had ever beheld.
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By this time he was beside himself with excitement, and he could feel his throbbing manhood quivering with anticipation.  This wasn’t the first time he had shared the blessing of his anointment with a member of his church, but this was different. This ravishing beauty was so young, so innocent, and so selflessly accommodating. And he could tell that she was just as anxious as he to feel his manly power throbbing within her.  So he laid her on the sofa and began to make mad, and passionate love as she moaned in delight and pushed her hungry body against his thrusting manliness. “Oh, thank you Jesus for bringing this luscious young angel into my sanctuary!”  And the young girl trembled and shouted, “Yes, Yes!  Oh, thank you, Lord!”
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Then at the very height of their passion, when they were both moaning to one another in tongue, the reverend felt an unusual sensation. Then it became more intense, and before he knew it he was itching all over - even his toenails were itching.  So he jumped up and asked in a panic, “What’s going on here!!!?” 
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And the young lady said, “You said you were anointed to relieve me of all my suffering and pain, so I thought you might be able to relieve me of these crabs.  The doctor said they were resistant to medication, but he wasn't anointed by God.  So say Amen, Reverend, and  HALLELUJAH!!!  I feel better already."



Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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AMERICA'S GOT ITS PRIORITIES CONFUSED - WE SHOULD PAY OUR TEACHERS LIKE POLITICIANS, AND POLITICIANS MINIMUM WAGE

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

AMERICA'S GOT ITS PRIORITIES CONFUSED - WE SHOULD PAY OUR TEACHERS LIKE POLITICIANS, AND POLITICIANS MINIMUM WAGE
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Contrary to popular belief, surviving the adversity of the Black community requires the ability to think. When I look back upon my life I can only imagine the contributions that some of my friends could have made to this society had they not succumb to the adversity of having to survive the Black experience. The only reason that I survived was through a combination of luck, and the fact that I lacked the personal courage that many of my friends were blessed with, so I was willing to put up with many of the things that they were prepared to either lay their lives on the line to fight, or they found so unbearable that they essentially committed suicide through the use of drugs or by other means.
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But I wasn’t the smartest of my friends by a long shot - in fact, when I was in elementary school I was about to be placed in "Special Training" because I couldn’t keep up. The only reason I wasn’t was because my teacher at the time, Ms. Lady Lee, convinced the principal, Mr. DiTonto, to give her a semester to work with me, and during that semester, she taught me the key to being a survivor - it’s all about self-concept.
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Ms. Lee was a statuesque, dignified lady. She was also a concert-quality pianist. In any event, she pulled me to the side, and said, "Eric, let’s play a game. For the rest of the year I want you to pretend to be the smartest person in class," and I agreed. It didn’t make sense to me, but I was willing to do anything to avoid the humiliation of being segregated from the rest of the "normal" students and put into the "Dummy Brigade" - which, by the way, is a practice they should do away with. That’s a horrible assault on a child’s self-esteem.
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So from that point on, instead of simply being my teacher, Ms. Lee became my fellow conspirator. We "conspired" to pull off one of the biggest hoaxes ever perpetrated against Holmes Ave. Elementary School, and she had a plan that was brilliant in its simplicity. All I had to do was stay a chapter ahead of the rest of the class so I'd be the only one who had the answer to the questions that she'd put to us. I was amazed at how devious this lady was. I was also amazed that she would help me pull off such an elaborate hoax on all my unsuspecting classmates. But what made me feel especially close to her was that we shared a secret that nobody else knew about. That made me feel special.
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Before long I began to notice that people started treating me differently - in fact, the most sought-after girl in class - a girl who wouldn’t even speak to any of the boys in class - casually walked up to me during lunch one day and said, "Hi, Eric. Can I sit here?" That started a friendship that lasted through high school.  In fact, when we became teenagers she even wanted to take it to the next level, but by that time I'd met the young girl who was later to become my wife and the mother of my children.
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But it wasn’t only Freddie (that was her name) who was treating me differently, by the end of the semester I noticed that I was being treated differently by everyone, peers and grownups alike. Even as a nine year-old kid, I noticed that people seemed to treat me with more respect. Yet, I was the very same person that everyone used to dismiss as dim-witted. I hadn’t changed a bit. The only difference in me was the new respect that I had for myself, and the fact that I would always come home and read a chapter ahead of the rest of the class to maintain the fraud that I was perpetrating.
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After a while I began to cherish this newfound respect that I was getting from others. In fact, I had become so used to it that I knew that I could never go back to the way things had been before, so I use to be constantly afraid that I was going to be found out. But gradually I began to see the light - I had absolutely nothing to worry about, because most "smart" people are perpetrating a hoax.  They realize that the key to making people think you're smart is to simply remain a chapter ahead of the rest of the class, or in this case, society.  It's the confidence you exude by staying informed that makes others think you're smart, and your intelligence grows to accommodate your newfound interests.  I thank God that I learned that as a kid, because I've been using it to pull the wool over people's eyes ever since.
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Thank you, Ms. Lee.
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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Thursday, July 20, 2017

THE FINE ART OF CHILLIN'

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

THE FINE ART OF CHILLIN'
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My woman is always telling me that I'm the only person she knows who don't care about money. She asks, why do you just walk away from money-making opportunities? The answer is simple. Money can complicate your life, and we've got to learn to chill.
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Life is short, and the key to life is happiness, not spending all of your waking hours chasing a dollar. As long as you have enough money to live comfortably and pay your bills, that's all you need. So instead of dedicating your life to chasing a dollar, you should spend your time doing things with your family, developing your mind, and pursuing the things that you enjoy in life. We should dedicate our lives to being more accessible to our mates, and making our children more stable and informed individuals, not running around trying to prove to strangers how much of a bigshot we can be. 
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When my late wife and I first got married at 19 and 21 years old we didn't have a dime, but we would get all dressed up in matching outfits, catch the bus to the show, and then spend the rest of the day downtown "eye-buying."  Then when we were done we'd come back home and make love - after we took a basket of bottles to Fine's Market to help buy dinner. Those were the rough times, when we were kids and just starting out.  But now that she's gone, those are the days that I cherish most, not the ones when we were much more prosperous.  So I've long since recognized that some of the happiest days of my life didn't have a thing to do with money.
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I know, a lot of people are gonna think I'm crazy, but that's why so many of them are unhappy, having strokes, getting divorced, and suffering from high blood pressure, because instead of allowing themselves to be happy, they're busy trying to impress others with how much money they can hoard, how big a car they can drive, and how many women they can juggle.  What's wrong with making one woman happy and basking in her love for you? - "Hey, baby, I'll give you a piece of my chili dog if you'll bring me some ice for my gin."  

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Take Trump, for example.  He has billions of dollars, but he doesn't seem like a happy man to me, and neither do the many millionaires in congress. They seem like people who are desperate to get more of what's not making them happy in the first place, and they don't know why.  But I do know why, because they've allowed this capitalists system to brainwash them into believing that their self-worth is defined by how many dollars they can hoard, even at the expense of stealing it from others and making other people's lives miserable.  We have this need to always want more - which has led to slavery, murder, mayhem, and the genocide of over 100 million Native Americans - because the blind pursuit of dollars has become the be all and end all of life.  I think that’s bullshit. Give me a John Coltrane CD, a comfortable lounger, a chili dog, and a pint of gin, and I'm in Heaven.
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I mean, what do I need a billion dollars for?  As long as I can pay my house note and I've got the price of another chili dog, why do I need a mansion when I can only live in one room at a time?  The answer is, I don't.  All I need is tranquility, peace of mind, and the knowledge that I'll be more in touch with reality tomorrow than I was yesterday - and dollars can't buy me that, because once I hoard 'em, I've got to fight to keep 'em. So it's a never-ending rat race.
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So you can go out there and waste your life always hustlin’ all you like. I’m gonna to spend my life contemplating the wonders of the universe, squeezin' my woman's fine, but growin' body - "Yeah it's growin', baby, but that's all right with me" -  and enjoying what I already have.  And no, I'm not lazy, I just don't let others tell me what's important in life.  Life is about livin’, not hustlin’, and the key to happiness is keepin’ life simple. 
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So naw, I can’t be out there chasin’ no dollars with you today, homeboy, I’m much too busy chillin’.  I'm workin' on my epitaph - "Here lies Eric.  He wasn't rich, but he sure knew how to kick-it like he was . . . "

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"Hey, I like that tune. Turn up the radio and pass me my ax - and give me my chili dog back; you don't need it . . .  But I love you anyway, baby, long butt and all.  You deserve me. Are you happy?"
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See, man,  she's happy, so all I need is her, and another chili dog - "With onions this time, baby." 
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So man, the only thing good about money is having enough to make her smile.



CHILLIN'

"HOME BASE TO VOYAGER, COME IN PLEASE."


Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.


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Monday, July 17, 2017

INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE AND THE IGNORANCE OF BIGOTRY

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

INTERRACIAL MARRIAGE AND THE IGNORANCE  OF BIGOTRY
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"FREE YOUR MIND,
AND YOUR ASS WILL FOLLOW"
Here we go again, with this silly debate over interracial marriage. With all of the real problems we have in this world, you’d think that people would realize that becoming fixated on who's marrying who is just plain dumb.  If you don't like race mixing, simply don’t marry anyone of a different race and mind your own business.  When two people fall in love and get married, it's nobody's business but their own. Yet, in spite of the fact that most people don’t have a firm grip on their own lives, they want to try to control everyone else’s. Life could be so sweet and simple if we’d just learn to mind our own damn business.  But the fact that we just can’t seem to do that is causing much of our misery.
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We're currently in a class war, so if the poor and middle class don't stop this nonsense, recognize that fact, and come together we're doomed. The establishment has Blacks against Whites, straights against gays, citizens against immigrants, and Christians against any and everybody who doesn't look, think and act like themselves, and it's killing us, because as we fight among one another, the corporatists are cutting all of our throats.  That's how we got stuck with Trump, instead of minding their own business, people voted their hatred and anger. Now many of them are threatened with having their badly needed healthcare taken away just to give the rich a tax cut.  But they didn't think that far in advance. All they wanted to do was erase Barack Obama's legacy from history.  They voted to hurt people they didn't like, but what they didn't consider was their votes would come back to haunt them, because they're of the very same class as the people who they're voting against.  That's the way hatred and bigotry works. It invariably backfires, because it's the enemy's most effective weapon against the people. 
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Thus, this foolish backlash against interracial marriage only serves to undermine the people as a whole and promote the interest of our most insidious enemy, the corporatists, because hatred and bigotry divides people who should be allies in the war to save the poor and middle class.  And trying to block love is fruitless in any event. You can't put up barriers to love, because love is nature's way of perpetuating the species and forging humanity into what we are destined to become.  So these loving couples are going to roll right over any attempt to keep them apart, and they have God, nature, and the evolution of mankind on their side.
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WHAT IS THIS AFRICAN AMERICAN'S
ANCESTRY?
As nations go, The United States is in its infancy. It’s only 241 years old among nations like Iraq that’s been around for thousands of years before the birth of Christ.  So we’re destined to become one people just like in more ancient civilizations.  Considering the way that people are coming together and intermarrying, in another couple of hundred years or so to be an American won't simply be a nationality, it’ll  to be an ethnicity, and there's nothing we can do to stop that, because that’s the way the world, and nature, works - and the social media is rushing that day forward even faster, because it's teaching people who ordinarily wouldn't even come into contact with one another that beneath our skin, we're not really that different.  If you'll notice, the internet is not divided by race. People are now grouping based on interests, and worldview, just as they should be.  Because the bottom line is, there are only two types of people in this world, those who are enlightened, and those who are unable to adapt to a changing environment.  
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So with regard to maintaining "racial purity" African Americans have already been mongrelized beyond description. Yes, we have African roots, but pure-blooded Africans we’re not - we're AFRICAN AMERICANS, a unique and separate group of people, with our own traditions, background, and culture. I’ve had people remind me that Barack Obama is part White, and I tell them, yes, that means he’s African American, and 99.9% of all African Americans are part White.  My great grandmother, Miss Cassie, looked like a White woman with big lips, and my great grandfather was German.  Now that I’m getting older, I can’t even wear a natural anymore, because my hair has reverted back to being straight for some reason. So as Afrocentric as I've always tried to be all of my life, some White boy deep in my ancestry is having the last laugh - He's saying, "Hey Homie, peek-a-boo.”  My mother used tell me that my natural looked like a carpet, so if  somebody had told me 20 years ago that one day the wind would be able to blow my hair out of place I would have told them they were out of their mind, but that day has come. Thus, if racial purity is our goal, it’s far too late for that, so we might as well stop whining about it.  We'd be much better served to focus our efforts on bringing the poor and middle class of the various races, and every other division, together to work toward our survival.
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But again, if racial purity happens to be your thing, instead of worrying about other people's marriages you should be focused on many of our young brothers, because they're a huge stumbling block to that effort. They’re killing each other, going to jail, becoming dope fiends, and failing to educate themselves, while the National Center for Education Statistics has reported that "black women are now the most educated group in the United States." According to the report, "between 2009 and 2010, black women earned 68 percent of all associate degrees awarded to black students, as well as 66 percent of bachelor’s degrees, 71 percent of master’s degrees and 65 percent of all doctorates awarded to black students."  The report goes on to say, "By both race and gender, a higher percentage of black women (9.7 percent) are enrolled in college than any other group, topping Asian women (8.7 percent), white women (7.1 percent) and white men (6.1 percent)."  On the other hand, here's what far too many of our young brothers are doing:
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What these brothers are engaged in all but insures that if things continue as they are there’s going to be a lack of suitable Black mates for Black women.  So if we really want to slow down race mixing, we need to stop hating and do something constructive about this - and in a hurry.  We need, somehow, to get these brothers to grow up, because 47 year-old teenagers don't make good fathers. 
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THE AMERICAN FAMILY.
IT'S COMING, SO YOU MIGHT AS WELL
GET READY FOR IT.
The fact is, many Black men have a lot of opinions about what it means to be Black, but unfortunately, none of them seem to have anything to do with improving themselves and moving forward.  Most of their opinions have more to do with trying to be cool, macho, rappers, and driving big cars.  On the other hand, Black women are moving forward at an unprecedented rate. So while Black women have been renowned for their love of Black men and their willingness to stand by them under the most trying circumstances over the centuries, for a highly educated and intelligent woman to have to put up with what is essentially a child with whiskers who refers to women as "bitches" and "hoes", is going to prove more than even they can bear (although, in fairness, sometimes the reverse is also true, where we have upwardly mobile Black men connected to foot-dragging women. I've also known that to be the case).  But the point is, if we want to enhance our culture we shouldn't be wasting our time worrying about who's marrying who, because we have some serious work to do on our own lives.
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THIS IS THE DEATH OF BLACK FAMILIES,
BLACK PEOPLE, AND THE BLACK CULTURE.
Due to our failure to address Black issues on a community level and clearly define who we are and who we aspire to be as a people, as Black individuals we're growing, or failing to grow, at very different rates. We have both absolute brilliance and absolute stupidity coexisting in the Black community.  As a result, many among us are seeking companionship on emotional and intellectual levels rather than by race.  After all, we are what we think, not what we look like, and you can only trust a person who looks like you some of the time, while you can trust a person who thinks like you all of the time.  So when looked at in that way, it makes perfect sense for an individual to seek out and marry a person who's more like themselves by disposition, worldview, and intellect than they are by skin color. When we begin to recognize that we are what we think, the color of a person's skin becomes irrelevant. 
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People are beginning to realize that they don't have to go through life miserable by passing up their soulmate just to prove that they love their people.  If I woke up tomorrow and my woman was White, it might take some getting use to, but it wouldn't mean a thing to me, because I love her because of who she is, not what she is.
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As an example of that, if two people were drowning and I could only save one, I'd save Bernie Sanders long before I'd even think about saving Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, or Allen West, because Bernie thinks more like I do, so as far as I'm concerned, he's my brother. While those others may look like me, they're "brothers from another mother," and many Black people are choosing their mates by using that very same rationale. Thoughtful Black people recognize that if they truly hate bigots, they should never allow themselves to support the philosophy and mindset of one.  If they do, that makes the bigot their brother, and they're simply on the opposing team.
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WHAT WE SEE HERE IS JIM CROW'S DYING GASP.
THAT'S WHY THE TRUMP BRIGADE IS GOING SO SPASTIC.
So haters are spitting in the wind.  In the very near future the term "American" is going to mean a people of mixed heritage born in the United States. America is, literally, becoming a "melting pot," and that's a good thing.  So as Black people, if we really want to preserve what it means to be Black, we must preserve our Black culture - and not Black culture as filtered through the eyes of undereducated rappers, but the very best of what it means to be Black - Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, etc. Because it is also essential that we educate ourselves and use our natural creativity to promote enlightenment, and due to the many adversities that Black people have endured over the centuries, there's nobody in this country more qualified to do that.
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RACIAL INBREEDING?
So instead of using our natural creativity trying to be the coolest and most "fly" people in society, we need to follow the example being set by our sisters and focus on becoming the most educated, and most brilliant people in society - we must begin to focus our attention on owning the race track, instead of becoming the horse. And finally, we need to stop walking around hating on people who are loving one another, raising families, and trying to be productive, because they're doing what they're suppose to be doing to enhance society and to promote the evolution of humanity.
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Nature gives us only two options, to either evolve, or perish. So we shouldn't allow our ignorance to make us the new Neanderthals.  Instead, we should dedicate our creative energy toward working on our cultural dysfunction - and that goes for Blacks and Whites alike.  Our failure to do that is what’s killing us as individuals, as a culture, and eventually, it's going to kill us as a society.
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So if you're a hater - Black or White - your attitude betrays three inescapable facts about who you are as a person - you're ignorant, you lack insight, and you're a burden on society.  And if you're a Christian bigot, you're also a hypocrite who's destined to bounce off the walls of Hell.
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60 MINUTES: MILES, DO YOU HATE WHITE PEOPLE?
MILES: NOT ALL OF 'EM.

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Tuesday, July 11, 2017

TAVIS SMILEY AND CORNEL WEST: WHERE ARE YOU NOW? - A PORTRAIT IN COONISM

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

TAVIS SMILEY AND CORNEL WEST - WHERE ARE YOU NOW?
A PORTRAIT IN COONISM
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I was recently contacted on Facebook by a Black woman by the name of Shirley accusing me of doing a "hatchet job" on Tavis Smiley and Cornel West in my post, “Where is Tavis Smiley and Cornel West Now?” She  also  complained that the piece was three years old, so I thought I'd take a moment to put together this piece in response.
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Shirley, I know excerpts from the piece are over three years old - in fact, I happen to know that they're over  four years old, because I wrote them. It's what's call a recap. But frankly, I didn't understand the significance of your complaint. Are you suggesting, that we should  just walk away from history and let bygones be bygones?  I don’t think so. We've got to thoroughly out these two turncoats as an example to other demagogues who may be waiting in the wings.
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But for the record, I waited four years to recap this disgusting episode because history clearly shows that these two individuals are not being nearly as critical, or treating Donald Trump with anything near the disdain and disrespect that they reserved for the very first Black President of the United States. The Black community needs to explore the reasons behind that and make sure that it never happens again. We need to immediately blackball anyone who ever tries it again - in fact, we need to come together and blackball anyone who brings ANY ignorance into the Black community, whether it be in politics, the arts, or general dysfunction. 
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But with respect to Tavis and West, the jury is in and it's no longer a debate - their behavior toward President Obama was a petty and mindless act of petulance, envy, and blatant self-promotion that did immeasurable damage to the Black community.  We now also know that their slanderous allegations toward the president lacked validity, because in spite of their many criticisms of Obama (both before, and after, he became president) he ultimately became one of the greatest heads of state in American history, and brought great pride and intellectual validation to Black people all over the world.  No, he wasn't perfect, but he was as perfect as we've ever seen in America.  He brought honor to this nation, and with the exception of Tavis and West, he was admired by people all over the world. The man can’t even stop to get a taco without cars honking their horns and people stopping on the street to applaud him, and he’s becoming even more popular as time goes on. On the other hand, Donald Trump can't even show his face without being booed, not only here in America, but all over the world. Even our oldest and most staunch allies look upon him with disdain.  Yet, all we hear from Tavis and West now, are crickets.  So what flaws did they see in Obama that were so serious that they felt the need to get on a bus and travel all over the country badmouthing him, that they don't now see in Donald Trump? 
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So allowing history to sink in is serving to demonstrate the Willie Lynch-like hatred some Black people can sink to due to envy and egotism. Cornel West built his entire reputation on posing as a highly enlightened intellectual, but history has revealed that he’s just another petty Black man with a big mouth, who's lacking in character, and one of the least enlightened people in the Black community; and Tavis Smiley has been revealed to be nothing more than a self-absorbed opportunist. Thus, these two “brothers” are graphic examples of why Black people are at the very bottom of the social ladder, and why it’s incumbent upon us to stop embracing celebrities as heroes and start thinking for ourselves. 

So, how is that a hatchet job, Shirley? What you're calling a hatchet job is nothing less than unvarnished truth. Yes, it's ugly, but it should be, because Tavis and West's self-serving disregard for the Black community and the first Black President of the United States, was ugly.  It was beyond ugly - it was disgusting, and if I have anything to do with it, they'll never live it down.  
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Both of these "brothers" are fraudulent phonies.  That now stands as an unassailable fact. If they weren't, where are they now that we have a fascist White man in office who's trying to deprive 22 million Americans of badly needed healthcare?  But Smiley and West seem to be much more comfortable with having a White man in control - even if that White man is a lying, incompetent, and dysfunctional buffoon.  On the other hand, having a young Black man running this nation who demonstrated competence, excellence, and character - but took attention away from them - was just more than they could bear. Their response to it clearly demonstrates why we had to have Northern White folks come DRAG us out of slavery kickin' and screamin - and even then we had people like Tavis and West fightin' for the South. That also explains why when Union soldiers captured such people they wouldn't even take ‘em prisoner; they'd shoot 'em dead right there on the spot - and I don’t blame them.  They left the comfort of their homes and the love of their families to risk their lives to free us from slavery (among other things), and then they were confronted by some coon shootin’ at them to “protect the massa.”  If I'd been around back then, I would have loaded their guns for for 'em for the execution.
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So Shirley, while you may think I'm doing "a hatchet job" on Tavis and West, just consider this - and I've got video!  On the very DAY that Sen. Barack Obama went to Springfield, Illinois to maximize the historic significance of announcing his candidacy for president in the shadow of Lincoln's former statehouse instead of coming on Tavis' "State of the Black America" jibfest, West stood up and did an impassioned rant indicating that Obama couldn’t be trusted to be president because he didn’t come on the Tavis Smiley show.  Can you even begin to fathom such arrogance!!!?  Who the hell did they think they were!!!?  They were acting like Sen. Obama committed an unforgiveable sin - as if Tavis Smiley was the Grand Poobah of the Black community, and Obama required his permission to run for president, and all the while Tavis was standing there grinnin' like a chess cat. You would have thought they'd caught Obama committing some sort of unconscionable atrocity.  But don't just take my word for it, watch the video for yourself.  Their unmitigated arrogance, literally, made me want to throw up.  And again, this was on the very MORNING that Obama announced that he was running for the presidency.
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So they were trying to sabotage the very first viable Black candidacy for president before it even got off the ground. Because, you see, having a Black president would tend to lower their stature in the Black community, so their entire motivation from that moment on was to say, "Aw, he ain't all that."  You see, Tavis couldn't prevent Sen. Obama from running, but at the very least, he wanted Obama to announce his candidacy on his show. That would have made Tavis look like a king-maker, and it would have also made it look like Obama had come to get Tavis' blessing.  In short, Tavis was trying to put Barack Obama in his pocket (like he had Cornel West), but Barack wasn't having it, and it enraged him.  So what resulted was the most petty, and disgusting display of arrogance that I've ever seen - and Cornel West comes off looking like the Tavis Smiley puppet that he was.  That was the moment I lost respect for his alleged intellect, and began to see him for who he really was - a shallow and big-mouth opportunist. But Tavis and West had the perfect symbiotic relationship - Cornel West had the mouth, and Tavis Smiley had the television exposure.  
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Again, notice how arrogantly entitled West sounds in the above video, as though it was more appropriate for Obama to come kiss Tavis’ ring than to announce his candidacy in the shadow of Lincoln’s former statehouse. I remember becoming slack-jawed at his unmitigated arrogance. Up until that moment I had been a big fan of both Tavis and West, but that was when I first realized that they  were nothing but egomaniacal coons. That was also the morning that I started investigating them, and I’ve written nearly 30 articles on them since.
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The video is also ironically prophetic. Notice how even as West is lecturing the nation on how Obama is surrounding himself with people who can’t be trusted, and asking Obama where his money coming from, you can see Wells Fargo and Exxon/Mobil logos floating by in the background behind him. What makes that so prophetically ironic is, even as West asking Obama these questions, Tavis Smiley was  involved in the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Loans" scam, where Wells Fargo ended up having to settled a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice agreeing to pay poor and middle-class minorities $175 million as a result of  swindling them out of their life savings. This was the biggest scam EVER perpetrated on the Black community involving a Black man as a front, and it was the second largest housing discrimination case in American history, and all the while Tavis was running around preaching to Obama about “accountability.”  But the establishment media was refusing to cover it. That’s how, and why, I became so fixated on bringing the machinations of these two demagogues to the attention of the Black community.
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So, tell me again, sister, how is this is a hatchet job?  You must be a relative of one of these brothers? 
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The Real History of The Poverty Tours
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The hostility that Tavis Smiley and Cornel West have for President Obama is so transparent that if it were glass we would have walked right through it and cut ourselves to shreds. These two are shameless, and it’s not only a national disgrace how the establishment media is allowing them to prance around posing as the savior of the poor and middle class, but they're actually helping them to perpetuate this fraud by providing them constant coverage and millions of dollars worth of publicly supported air time.
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These two thought that they were gonna become the Grand Dragons of the Black Community - which is a very profitable gig when you’re in the business of selling ALEC-connected corporations access to the Black community like Tavis Smiley. Tavis is the biggest corporate shill in the Black community. He fronts for Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, Exxon/Mobile, Allstate Ins., Nationwide Ins., etc. - a veritable who’s who of the corporations that are most responsible for victimizing the poor and middle class in the country, and who are spending millions of dollars to obstruct minority voter rights. That’s what makes it so ironic that they’re trying to portray themselves as the saviors of "the poor minorities."
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During Obama’s first campaign for president Smiley and West had already hitched their wagons to Hillary Clinton. She was 37 points ahead of Obama in the Black community at the time, so they were all set to gain the clout, prestige, and riches of having presidential access and being acknowledged as the new grand viziers of the Black community. But then, Obama won the election - in spite of their most ardent efforts - and caught them by surprise. In fact, Cornel West tried to jump the fence and began campaigning for Obama when it became clear that Obama might actually win, but Obama wasn’t having it. That's what caused the controversy over West not being invited to the inaugural celebration.
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At the time, West tried to frame the issue like Obama was an ingrate for not inviting him to the inauguration after he campaigned for him. But he failed to mention the fact that less than an hour after Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States West went on national television and told the Black community that Obama couldn’t be trusted.
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The video of Cornel's rant was ironically prophetic. Notice how even as West is lecturing the nation on how Obama is surrounding himself with people who can’t be trusted, and asking him where is his money coming from, you can see Wells Fargo and Exxon/Mobil logos floating by in the background behind him. What makes that so prophetically ironic is, even as that spectacle was taking placeTavis was involved in the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Loans" scam, where Wells Fargo ended up having to settled a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice agreeing to pay poor and middle-class minorities $175 million as a result of the scam. This is the biggest scam EVER perpetrated on Black community with the active involvement of a Black man, and the second largest housing discrimination case in the history of the United States but the establishment media refused to cover it. That’s why I’ve become so fixated on bringing the machinations of these two demagogues to the attention of the Black community.

So the Bottom Line is this - when people like myself criticize Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, or Boyce Watkins, we’re not criticizing them because they’re critical of President Obama; our problem with them is they’re cherry-picking their facts and telling half-truths to promote their own agenda.
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HEY, AREN'T YOU THE SAME GUY WHO SAID
I COULDN'T BE TRUSTED?
A prime example of that is they are going out of their way NOT to tell the Black community that the United States Constitution gives sole control of spending to the United States House of Representatives, which is controlled by the Republicans. So the only way that President Obama can spend any money to assist the Black community, or anyone else, is to get the Republican House to go along with him.
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That’s why it’s so important for the president to hold together a coalition of Blacks, women, gays, Hispanics, and every other segment of the American population. He needs ALL of us to place pressure on the Republicans to loosen the purse strings in order for him to get anything done. So anytime you hear Tavis, West, or Watkins pointing their finger at what President Obama is doing for any other segment of the population, they’re doing you a disservice.
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Here’s how politics works - "you support me when I need you, and I’ll support you when you need me." So whenever President Obama does anything for other segments of the population, he’s building up political capital so he can help you. But, of course, he doesn’t discuss what he’s doing for the Black community for a very good reason - as Cornel says himself (when it’s convenient), "Race Matters."
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These gentlemen know full well that if President Obama runs around bragging about what he’s doing for the Black community, the Republicans are going to use that as leverage to tear his coalition apart. They would tell women, gays, Hispanics, and everyone else in America that Obama doesn’t care about them; all he wants to do is help his own people, and that message hurts the Black community. Don’t these so-called intellectuals recognize that? If they don’t, they’re dumb. If they do, that means that they’re purposely trying to mislead you. The question, then, is why?
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So the fact is, when people like Tavis, West, and Watkins run around telling you that the proof that President Obama is not working for you is that he refuses to throw his fist in the air, these people are working against you, not for you - and they know it. You see, their primary agenda is NOT about helping the Black community. Their agenda is about tearing President Obama down, and again, that hurts you. But they don't care - and that's the problem.
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In the end, Cornel West tried to portray Barack Obama as an ingrate by claiming that after campaigning for him, Barack wouldn’t even return his calls.  But he failed to mention that he only started campaigning for Obama AFTER it became clear that Obama was going to win the election.  It was only then that Cornel tried to jump the fence away from Tavis Smiley and tried to ingratiate himself with Obama, but Barack wasn't having it - “Hey, aren’t you the one who said that I couldn’t be trusted?”
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So Cornel West has no shame. He tries to jump onboard any train that happens to be going his way. Now that Tavis Smiley has lost face in the Black community, Cornel won't even be seen with him anymore.  I know, because I've written over 30 articles on him. In my opinion, the only person who knows him better, MIGHT be his mother. That's why I have so much disgust for him. Cornel is the Liberace of faux intellectualism. He's the quintessential phony and the people have begun to recognize that fact.
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So now that he's outlived his usefulness as a Democratic saboteur for the corporatists, they've flushed him down the toilet like a used Tampon. "Dr. West," indeed.  That's a joke - the dude believes in talkin' snakes, and one of the biggest mistakes the Black community ever made was failing to thoroughly vet him in the very beginning - and we made the very same mistake with Tavis Smiley.
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This episode has taught me to be suspicious of EVERY Black person that the White establishment pushes to the forefront, so the first thing I do is thoroughly research them.  We could have avoided this disaster if we had taken note when Tavis Smiley was fired from BET, and also when Cornel West joined forces with Ralph Nader to help get George W. Bush elected in the 2000 election.  But we were too busy being mesmerized by the White establishment telling us what a powerful "Black" intellectual West was.  But in White establishment terms, that only means that he's useful to them and he can read without moving his lips.  And what made him particularly useful is his clown-like style of showmanship. The establishment figured that "ignorant" Black people would relate to that, and we did.  So over all these years Cornel West has traded on personal fame in return for being a Democratic saboteur.  Just look at his record.  He always manages to find something wrong with the side that favors the American people - his tactic is to attack the good for the sin of not being perfect - yet, he rarely utters a word against those who are trying to destroy us.  There's a reason for that, because those are his benefactors.  And Tavis Smiley has the exact same MO - ask Walmart. 
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So Shirley, that said, I just want you to know that I took your complaint very seriously.  I love my sisters and I never like to anger them, because I've recognized since I was a child that you are the glue that holds the Black community together, and you're forced to bear the greatest burden of our pain.  But if you think my speaking out on the petulant and self-serving ignorance of Tavis Smiley and Cornel West constitutes a hatchet job, you're just going to have to live with that, and I'm going to have to live with your anger.
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Eric L. Wattree 
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Friday, July 07, 2017

A Tribute to The Man - John Coltrane

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree


A Tribute to The Man - John Coltrane
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When I was a kid coming up in the 50's, the worst thing that you could be called was a “Black African.” Many fights broke out about that, because it conjured up images of Tarzan, one White man beatin’ the hell out of entire African tribes who were runnin’ around in grass skirts and bones through their noses.  Tarzan also had the assistance of the animals, because even they knew that he was the “King of the jungle.”  He strutted around like a God, with the African people seeming to recognize, and acknowledging his superiority, and their inferiority. The African people were portrayed as being so dumb that they only had a two-word vocabulary - “Boola, boola.”
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KATHLEEN CLEAVER
African American people were forced to live with that imagery of themselves and their culture during the 50's. Then in 1961 John Coltrane came along with a different vision of what it meant to be Black.  When he recorded “Africa” he changed our view of what we represented as a people.  While many of us in the past had been ashamed of our culture, Black pride flowed from Trane's horn like honey. Trane carried dignity in his gig bag, along with Afros, dashikis  and beautiful Black women strutting around in African Sun dresses.  A new era of Black consciousness had begun. 
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I first heard "Africa" when I was 12 years old, and I’ve never been the same since. My mother mourned her "little boy" who loved to cuddle up next to her, because on the very day that I heard Trane I left my childhood behind, never to looked back. He opened up a new world for me, so on that very day I acknowledged a
new King who escorted me into his domain. He revealed a kingdom  
of knowledge, Blackness, and pride. So for me, the battle against
Tarzan was on.
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God bless you Trane, for shining your light upon my darkness.
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AFRICA


THE MAN
(A Night to Remember)

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Young and curious, crusin’ the street,
my partner and I, with life at our feet.
Beautiful days of summer’s ilk,
and beautiful ladies with legs of silk.
Miles on the box with Thelonious in tow,
playin’ ‘Round Midnite--nothin’ but soul.
Miles was moanin’, Thelonious was Monk,
our senses were reelin’, our top in the trunk.
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Down Century Boulevard, past Sportsman Park,
north on Crenshaw, Can’t wait ‘til it’s dark.
Crenshaw was jammin’, not like today,
with cognitive people, who went their own way.
Cadillacs gleamin’, prosperity galore,
ladies a struttin’, that gait I adore.
The ‘hood left behind, no denial or shame,
these were the people who’d mastered the game.
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Dreamin’ and crusin’, yet, chained to the ‘hood,
but into an element we both understood.
Jazz was the thing that had lured our route,
and no chain of poverty was keepin’ us out!
‘Cause THE MAN was in town, with his mighty ax,
and was jammin’ that night at Dynamite Jack’s.
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So anxious to worship THE MAN in the flesh,
the first thing that mornin’ we started to dress.
In our youthful exuberance we saw nothin’ wrong,
with the hours to kill before HE would go on.
Hence, there we were with nothin’ to do,
THE MAN’S first note at 9, it was now only 2.
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So we went to a park on Rodeo Road
and proceeded to get in our mack-daddy mode.
We needed two women with presence and class,
two women who also could dig modern jazz.
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We lucked-out, no doubt, with Debra and Gwen,
two sisters out trippin’ in their step-father’s Benz.
These women were ladies we soon recognized,
not only quite lovely but exceedingly wise.
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We spoke of Dizzy, Dexter, Thelonious and Bird,
and all of the monsters of jazz that we’d heard.
Then just as our session was starting to end,
Gwen mentioned Dolphy, and we at it again.
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We partook of the bush, we had a few beers,
by 8 it was like we’d been partyin’ for years.
But now it was time to hit Dynamite Jack’s,
to hear THE MAN blow, sip Scotch and relax.
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We followed the ladies up into the hills,
to a fabulous pad, must’ve cost a few bills.
We dropped off my car, then got in the wind,
we split to see HIM, and my journey began.
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Dynamite Jack’s was the place to be,
there seemed to be thousands of new things to see.
Doctors, lawyers, pimps and "hoes",
dope fiends with their nostrils froze;
perverts, politicians (one and the same),
everyone seemed to have some kind of game.
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At 16 years old I was really impressed,
with this flash, this glitz, this flamboyant success.
I knew before long, that my turn would come,
I’d shoot for the stars, at least, out of the slum.
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Then HE came on stage to a mighty roar,
as bustling humanity hung all out the door.
A quiet MAN, of knowledge and taste,
yet HIS presence sent a chill through the place!
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Flash became silence, glitz bled to awe,
pure greatness just glistened from THIS MAN we saw;
no posturing, no swagger, no hipster-like mack,
just unfettered greatness, the essence, in fact...
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That one precious moment, I gaped at the stand,
my young reckless mind would take hold as a man.
That moment estranged from the kid that I’d been,
life’s door was flung wide, a new man would step in.
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Many years later, assessing my life,
the greatness of raising two kids with a wife;
THE MAN is no more, on this earthly plain,
but HIS unflaunting manhood stays etched in my brain.
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That kid on that night gave birth to a plan,
that night when he looked up in awe at THE MAN.
Revealed was a path that would color his life,
that shunned the flamboyance and glitz of the night.
To shoot for the stars! That was his plan,
the stardom that’s found in just being A MAN!
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Taking two souls, molding their lives,
away from the flash, and the glitz, and the blight.
Two college age kids now view him with awe,
he now see in their eyes what that night HE saw.
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Greatness is relative, he learned from THE MAN,
through the glint in HIS eye, and HIS demeanor on stand;
don’t have to be famous to be someone grand,
just pull up your trousers, and face life like a man.
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It was KNOWLEDGE and WISDOM that night the kid saw;
the EXCELLENCE of DISCIPLINE that put him in awe,
of one humble spirit, so sweet and sublime,
but a spirit that’ll speak to all man for all time.
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So a droplet of beauty, the kid to mankind,
a pearl of wisdom, a wistful rhyme;
some insight he gained as he bat away tears,
might his essence endure through the unfolding years?
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A journey began, on that faithful night,
that moment a young set of eyes saw "First Light."
When HE tapped out the rhythm to "Africa Brass,"
and my dream to see COLTRANE had come true at last.
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A LOVE SUPREME
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A Love Supreme, A Love Supreme,
A Love Supreme, A Love Supreme . . .
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The mountains, The sea,
The stars above
are part of me.
All a gift from he who is HE,
the wondrous creator
of you and me.
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A Love Supreme, A Love Supreme,
A love Supreme, A Love Supreme . . .
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The ageless tide. It’s mighty roar,
The hue of a setting Sun
that paints the shore,
All a gift,
forevermore,
From A loving God
that I adore.
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A Love Supreme, A Love Supreme,
A Love Supreme, A Love Supreme . . .
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I take my horn
to sing his praise,
Ill sing his song
throughout my days,
And when Im gone,
Im still not through,
I leave behind
this song for you.
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A Love Supreme, A Love Supreme,
A Love Supreme, A Love -
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My loving child,
now that you're through,
I take thou horn,
and lie it next to you;
In loving praise,
you always blew,
Now, sleep my child
as I sing to you . . .
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A Love Supreme, A Love Supreme,
A Love Supreme, A Love Supreme . . .
*
Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.
  

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