THE REPUBLICAN SENATE HAS REVEALED ITSELF TO BE FILLED WITH COWARDLY AND UNPATRIOTIC FRAUDS - JUST LIKE THEIR PRESIDENT

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

THE REPUBLICAN SENATE HAS REVEALED ITSELF TO BE FILLED WITH COWARDLY AND UNPATRIOTIC FRAUDS -
JUST LIKE THEIR PRESIDENT

When you’re trying to dig yourself out of a hole, you’ve got to be careful during the digging not to cause the walls to cave in and make things worse. Well, that’s exactly what the Republican senate has done to themselves by voting not to allow any additional witnesses or evidence to be presented in the Trump impeachment trial. Trump's clumsy and corrupt handling of the Ukrainian matter already had the GOP in a hole, but their even clumsier defense made the situation even worse, and then, their refusal to allow new evidence in the midst of the ever-mounting bombshell evidence leaking out on a daily basis has made the situation a disaster. They don’t even have a credible excuse for their actions. So the evidence is clear for everyone to see – the GOP is engaged in a coverup that gives their personal interests priority over that of the country. That blows all of their claims of patriotism and the wearing of flag pins in their lapels straight to Hell.

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That essentially destroys the credibility of the Republican Party, and conservatism in general, because the claim of patriotism is what they hang their hats on. They not only use it for campaign purposes by claiming that, unlike liberal Democrats, they love America, but they also use it to promote their bigotry. Look at how they used patriotism to attack Colin Keapernick.
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Conservatives claimed that when Kaepernick took a knee during the National Anthem, he was disrespecting the flag. That always struck me as curious. How can Colin Kaepernick be accused of denigrating the flag by taking a knee when the flag is a SYMBOL of free expression? That’s like saying a person is disrespecting the church by being a Christian. That’s not only hypocritical, but stupid.
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As a former marine I can say without a doubt - and I’m sure that Trump’s former Chief of Staff, Gen. Kelly, could also tell him - that American fighting men and women didn’t die for a piece of cloth or a song, they died for what that piece of cloth represents, the very personal freedom that Trump was trying to deny Kaepernick and his fellow players.  While I can fully understand Trump being ignorant in the area of American patriotism - since when the nation called upon him to serve the country, he showed up at the draft board with a note from his daddy's doctor saying his feet hurt - any TRUE American should understand that Colin Kaepernick and his fellow players were not disrespecting the flag at all, Trump did.
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Colin Kaepernick was acting in the truest tradition of American patriotism by speaking out in order to make this country a better place for all. Unlike the Republican senate, he was willing to place his personal interest on the line to confront un-American bigots for being the lyin’ and hypocritical racists that they are - and the bigots know that!!! But once they were confronted with their own anti-Americanism, they claimed that it was the PLAYERS who were un-American!!! That’s typical racist bullshit. People of Trump's ilk also accused Dr. Martin Luther King of being un-American.
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MAJORITY LEADER MITCH MCCONNELL 

AND DONALD TRUMP

But now that these Trumplodytes have given America the collective finger, they’ve made it clear that it’s all been a scam from the very beginning. In spite of the fact that 50 to 43 percent of the American people wants Trump convicted by the senate and removed from office, Republican senators have given the most corrupt and self-serving President in the history of this nation a complete pass on his criminal behavior – and never mind that his reckless irresponsibility and profound ignorance is placing this nation, and the world, in extreme danger, they deem it to be in their own personal interest to turn a blind-eye to it.
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From their point of view, the claim of patriotism can come in handy as long as it’s kept in perspective, but Trump controls the Republican Party and they need their seats in the senate. It's been reported that Republican senators were told that the head of anyone who didn't follow the party line would be placed on a spike. So they did just what they were told and said, to Hell with America. We have mortgages to pay!
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In order to justify their position, Trump's lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, claimed that “Abuse of Power is not an impeachable offense", but that's clearly nonsense. The primary reason the founders left "High Crimes and Misdemeanors" undefined is so CONGRESS could determine whether a given behavior is impeachable on a case by case basis.

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Dershowitz also claimed that whatever the President does, if he deems it to be in the best interest of the people, it's not impeachable. I'm sure you remember that argument from Richard Nixon - "If the President does it, it's not illegal."  But if that's the case, what if the President decides that killing his opponent so he can be re-elected is in the public interest? And since, according to the Department of Justice, the President can’t be indicted or held accountable while in office, if we can't impeach him, what are our options? We wouldn't have any, so essentially, Donald Trump is no longer  President, the Republican senate has crowned him King. He can not only do no wrong, but we can't even present evidence accusing him of doing any wrong, and that's distinctly un-American. Thus, American democracy has been disposed of like a used Tampon.
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Federal law is clear:
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18 U.S. Code § 1621. Perjury
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"Whoever—

(1)
having taken an oath before a competent tribunal, officer, or person, in any case in which a law of the United States authorizes an oath to be administered, that he will testify, declare, depose, or certify truly, or that any written testimony, declaration, deposition, or certificate by him subscribed, is true, willfully and contrary to such oath states or subscribes any material matter which he does not believe to be true; or
(2)
in any declaration, certificate, verification, or statement under penalty of perjury as permitted under section 1746 of title 28, United States Code, willfully subscribes as true any material matter which he does not believe to be true; is guilty of perjury and shall, except as otherwise expressly provided by law, be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both. This section is applicable whether the statement or subscription is made within or without the United States."
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Based on the above law, Donald Trump and virtually every Republican member of the United States Senate is guilty of violating their oaths of office, and the senators are guilty of committing perjury in violating their oath to sit in judgment in the Trump Impeachment Trial IMPARTIALLY. 
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As a direct result of this criminal conduct, there have been 62 impeachments of federal officers in this nation's history, and this is the very first time in history that all witnesses and evidential documents have been blocked. So in spite of their oath to be impartial, the Republican senate told the house in no uncertain terms that we’re not going to allow the American people to either see or hear the evidence in this case, because then we'll have to justify letting this criminal off the hook. In doing so, they've committed a crime, but they think we're too dumb to realize that. And in addition to all of that, now new firsthand information is surfacing that suggests that Trump's defense attorney, Pat Cipollone, was involved in the original crime. It's a total rat's nest. So no wonder they're desperate to hide the facts! 

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The Republican senate is treating the American people like we’re children, so in November we must show them that we’re not. No organization can run efficiently that allows its employees to dictate to management, and that’s exactly what the American people represent under the United States Constitution – the Board of Directors of this nation. So in the next election we must put these insubordinate employees in their place, and relegate them all to the garbage heap of American history. If we fail to do so, our children will no longer live in the America we have come to know. They'll live under a dictatorship.
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There’s a reason why Vladimir Putin is the only man in the world who Donald Trump respects. You'll never hear him call Vladimir out of his name on Twitter. Just take a moment to ask yourself - Why? Let me tell you why, because Donald Trump is greedy and selfish and the Russian mafia pulled him out of bankruptcy when no American bank would touch him - and as we speak they're using his name and businesses to launder money, that's why he's so desperate to keep his taxes hidden. So Trump doesn't care anything about you, your children, or America. All Trump cares about is the Trump Tower he wants to build in Moscow when he leaves office - that is, if he decides that he wants to leave office. Because he now has no choice but to try to turn America into a dictatorship at this point, because if he doesn't, he's going to prison.

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

THE STUPIDITY OF POLITICAL ARROGANCE

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

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THE STUPIDITY OF POLITICAL ARROGANCE

WHERE DO WE FIND THESE IDIOTS? 

“On 1/25/20, Scott <info@dscc.org> wrote:
Hi Eric L. Wattree, Scott here.
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“I'm the Executive Director of the DSCC,
which means I'm in charge of developing the Democratic Party's strategy to flip the Senate in 2020.
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“I asked Kati, our Chief Digital Officer, to comb through our Democratic supporter database and select a handful of our most engaged Democrats to interview. And you're on the list, Eric L. Wattree!
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“101 of the Democrats we selected in your state have already agreed to be interviewed -- but our data analyst tells me we need at least11 more responses before we can review the results and time is running out for us to lock in our strategic investments to win back the Senate.
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“Please, Eric L. Wattree, we selected you specifically. And now, as the Executive Director of the DSCC, I'm asking you: Will you click here to complete your DSCC digital interview?
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“Your input is crucial as we finalize our strategy to help Democrats flip the Senate from Mitch McConnell's control in the next election!
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“Thanks for all you do,
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“Scott Fairchild
Executive Director, DSCC”
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Thereafter, the attached “interview”, where they claimed to be interested in my opinion, was not an interview at all. What it actually was, was a list of all the things the Republicans are doing that they KNEW would anger me. In short, it’s was a pitch to get me in the frame of mind to donate - and of course, at the end of the "interview", they provided a donation form with suggested dollar amounts already added in for my convenience. All I had to do was check the box with the amount I wanted to donate, or pick "Other" to donate more. It was such a transparent scam that I was highly insulted that they assumed I was such an idiot. So I sent them the following response:
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“To the DSCC,
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“I need you to do me a huge favor and PLEASE don't send me any more of this goddamn clickbait. If you're looking for a donation just ask for it upfront and don't waste my time with this transparent bullshit, because it's extremely counterproductive. You're treating me like I'm so stupid that now I not only don't want donate, but I'm reluctant to even give you my vote.

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This contact clearly demonstrates that you're just as manipulative as the GOP. What, do you think I stupid!!!? So please take me off your mailing list and don't bother me with this time-wasting bullshit ever again. 

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“Sincerely insulted,
“Eric L. Wattree”
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This is exactly the kind of stupid nonsense that makes many people feel like they can’t trust either party but we’ve allowed it to become the norm. Both parties treat us like we’re children, but that’s exactly why we’ve got to become even more involved in the political process and clean house! We need to replace these people with politicians who clearly recognize that they’re not our leaders, but our EMPLOYEES, and they need to act like it.
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And the Republican Party is even worse. Every Republican politician in the senate knows that Donald Trump doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing and that he’s an American disaster, but not one of them is willing to step up to the plate to say as much. The reason for that is simple - they consider their own self-interest more important than America’s welfare, and the United States Constitution. So if we hope to survive as a nation, we’re gonna have to get rid of such people. Watch how Sen. Lindsey Graham describes Donald Trump in the clip below:

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But in spite of Graham's distain for Donald Trump, now that the important matter of his own self-interest is on the line, and not just the frivolous interest of America, his political calculus has completely changed.
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The minute we see that a politician is putting his or her interest before the interest of the nation , we should get rid of them, and the best way to monitor that is to watch who has the most money coming in. If a politician has tons of cash coming in from special interests, we know that he's not working for us. The fact is, we should get money out of politics altogether, because it guarantees that the only ones country who'll get a fair shake are those with the money to buy it.
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You heard what Lindsey Graham said about Trump, but now he's his biggest cheerleader in congress. Can you figure out why? I'll tell you why. Because Lindsey Graham is for Lindsey Graham, so instead of telling Donald Trump to go to hell, as he suggested above, he's found it to his advantage to say it to America. That's not a patriot, that's a self-serving manipulator who's cut from the exact same clothe as Donald Trump himself.

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

BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
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Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

ABOUT BLACK CREATIVITY

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

ABOUT BLACK CREATIVITY

Thank you, Cartrell, for both, your kind words, and for inspiring this article. I’m truly flattered by your response to my comments, but complete honesty demands that I reluctantly admit that I'm no one special, nor am I a person of exceptional intelligence. The fact is, in terms of intelligence, when I was growing up I was somewhere around the middle of the pack among my friends. I just got lucky in stumbling upon something that I enjoyed doing, so I put a lot of effort into it. But the truth is, writing and assessing reality are the only two things in life that I do relatively well, so those are the things in which I've devoted my life. I specialize in observing life, and writing about what I've observed. I enjoy that like many men enjoy watching the Super Bowl. 
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Due to that passion I’ve observed many young Black people who truly are brilliant, and who have a trove of natural abilities that are much more pronounced than my own, and I'm proud to say that many of my own children are among them. So I’ve dedicated my life to encouraging these young people to purposely focus on what I only stumbled upon by accident. I’m on a constant mission to try to get them to see what I see, because many of these young people are doing just the opposite of what they should be doing. These exceptionally gifted young people should be singularly focused on developing their intellect instead of wasting their time trying to fit-in with the crowd.They should be striving to become unique and independent thinkers, instead of trying to be one of the many, because "exceptional" means just that - different from most. 
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I try to get them to understand that Black people don’t have to go hat-in-hand begging the White man for a blue-collar job. If they’d just take the time to develop their unique skills, they could make those skills marketable and sought-after. I've been relatively successful in that regard when it comes to my own children and grandchildren, so now I've focused my attention on the Black community as a whole.
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I learned to do legal research and brief writing, for example, and that allowed me to make a killing by simply doing what I love most, writing. Yeah, I had a 9-to-5, but only so I would have a guaranteed income. But on the side I did legal research and brief writing for attorneys, and as a result, my son and daughter never had to want for a thing throughout their entire childhood. I charged the attorneys a third of their fees to work on a case – and they were happy to give it to me, because, as a former hood rat, I understood the key to winning cases, something they didn't always learn in law school.
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While the various law schools taught them to be competent in interpreting the law, the key to winning legal cases is grounded in psychology. Instead of going out of your way to try to sound learned and scholarly, you should stay away from dry legalese whenever possible and focus on making the judge as upset with the opposition as you are.
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I loved having that kind of impact on people. It gave me a sense of power. It’s like being a screenwriter, but instead of writing fiction, you're using factual information as the basis for your plot, and instead of manipulating fictional characters, you're having an impact on the lives of real people. By using that technique - along with solid legal research and a little hyperbole and gaslighting - in many cases the judge would walk into the courtroom as mad at the other side as I was. In fact, in many cases when the opposition’s attorney would read the brief, that alone, would cause them to want to settle. 
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That’s why attorneys didn’t mind paying me, because they got two-thirds of the fees, and I did all the work. But I didn't mind that a bit. While I'd never tell them, I enjoyed it so much I would have almost done it for free, because it allowed me to walk out of that courtroom not merely saying, but knowing, "I am somebody!" It made me immune to feeling like I had to prove I was equal, and all my life, it's allowed me to deal with the White establishment eyeball-to-eyeball. When a bigot tries to talk down to me, I don't look down at my feet, I want to know who the hell he think he's talking to.
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Then, one day I was in a courthouse lobby talking with an attorney and he said, "You know, you could start writing appellate briefs and you wouldn't even need us anymore, because you'd never have to step foot into a courtroom." And he was right, but they kept ringing my phone off the hook nevertheless. I did so much legal research that I knew more about the law than they did, so attorneys would call and consult with me over pending cases that I wasn’t even involved in. They'd call and give me the details of a case and ask, “So what do you think, Eric?” If I could answer them off the top of my head I would, but if I couldn't, I'd research the law and try to devise ways of outwitting it through loopholes, and using one law against another - it was like playing chess, the only game I've ever enjoyed. And you know where I learned to do that, and play chess - when I was a teenager going in and out of jail. So all knowledge is valuable, regardless of where it came from.
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In my case, I just happened to stumble upon the joy and skill of writing and research while preparing for various court hearings, and I was highly motivated because I was constantly catching drug cases and it helped me to stay out of jail. It also benefited me when I was on the street, because it got me a lot of respect as a young, jailhouse lawyer. I knew every gang member in the city, regardless of what gang they were in. I’d party with one gang one night, and another on the other side of town the next. I was given a pass, because I wasn’t looked upon as a gangbanger. I was the guy who could help them beat a case - and quite often I did, and for free. Even many old-school criminals would come to me. So it wasn't only a hobby that I enjoyed, but one that's allowed me to reap huge benefits all of my life.
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So I learned my most valuable skill in jail. As the son of a lifelong drug dealer I started getting arrested for selling the drugs I was stealing from him when I was 12 years old, and by the time I was 19 and caught my one and only case as an adult, the judge was so taken with my attempt to represent myself that he sent me into the Marine Corps instead of prison.
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I'll never forget the look on the judge's face when he asked me where was my attorney and I told him, "If it pleases the court, Your Honor, I'd like permission to appear Pro Per (Propria Persona - Latin for represent myself). When I look back on it I have to laugh at my arrogance. Here's this 19-year-old hood rat with the audacity to try to speak Latin to the court - but I was dead-serious - you would have thought I was Perry Mason. The judge obviously thought it was some kind of joke, but he allowed me to proceed. To his complete surprise, however, I mounted one hell of a defense, but it was based entirely on technicalities in the law. I knew I was headed for the joint, so I already had my toothbrush with me, but I thought, "What the hell," I'll give it a shot.
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I’d been busted dead-bang with a entire briefcase filled with hard drugs - and I mean HARD drugs. So I knew that fact alone was next to impossible to overcome without a huge violation of my civil rights. But unfortunately - for me - the particular cops who busted me were quite professional in the way they went about doing their job, so I could only come up with minor violations of procedure, but nothing serious enough to get the case thrown out. So I was convicted, just as I figured I'd be.
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But when the case was over the judge called a short recess and took me into his chambers. I was prepared for a lecture on how I had thrown away my life, but instead, he offered me a proposition. He was a former Marine Corps office, so he told me that if I would agree to go into the military, he would hold my conviction in abeyance, and if I came out with an Honorable Discharge, he would throw out the conviction. Of course, I jumped at the deal, because that meant I could go home and get high instead of going back to the county jail, because I didn't have a penny for bail money to get me on the street until my sentencing date. So when I walked out of the court onto the streets of downtown Los Angeles I wanted to kiss the ground, because I hadn't planned on seeing the streets again without handcuffs for, at the very least, 5 years. So by developing just one simple skill, the skill of writing, I changed my entire life. It not only kept me out of prison, but exposed me to experiences in life that I otherwise never would have known.
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But what I didn't know was my good fortune was just beginning. The first thing they do when you enter the Marine Corps is test you, and through those battery of tests they identified my predisposition and love for the written word, so they sent me to the Army/Navy Academy to further develop it. Then shortly thereafter, a naval captain (a colonel in the Marine Corps) who was my instructor, got me a job with my battalion commander, and later I became an aide to the Commanding General of Camp Pendleton.
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The general and I became as close as father and son, and his senior officers treated me as such. Everything that came out of his office, I wrote - including their fitness reports, so the officers used to rely on me for a heads-up on what was coming down the pike. The General was also a classical pianist, and I played saxophone and was heavily into jazz. So on the weekends the General and I would drink his scotch, talk about my life, his life, and listen to music. I introduced him to the music of Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Phineas Newborn Jr., and it really turned him out. He also setup private living quarters for me in a room in the rear of the main base library so I could work through the middle of the night without being disturbed, and I lived like a king. I also learned a lot from him, so when I got out of the Marine Corps and went to college, I damn near slept through it - and I made extra money writing term papers in the process.
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So, again, while I’m far from brilliant, and I don’t have many other skills, writing has literally been a lifesaver for me, and it exposed me to many experiences that I ordinarily wouldn't have had. In addition, it's allowed me to take full advantage of what mind I do have. Also, by the way, when I got out of the Corps I went before that very same judge who had sent me in (again, in Pro Per), and he expunged my entire criminal record, juvenile and all. So today, I could run for Pope of the Catholic Church.
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Writing also forced me to organize my thinking, pay attention to detail, and become a critical thinker. That helped me tremendously with my education, because the minute they tried to feed me bullshit – and many educators are filled with it – a red flag would immediately go up, and I’d think, "Wait a minute! That doesn’t make sense." From that, I learned to always do my own research, and I also learn to never give priority to anyone else’s ability to think over my own – no matter who it was, or how many letters they had behind their name. While we should always be open to consuming new knowledge, we should always connect the dot and assess the relevance of that knowledge, for ourselves.
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That came in very handy when they tried to feed me bullshit about how wonderful the White man was. That’s all an illusion that the White establishment tries to convince us to embrace. While the White man has power in this society, he's far from invincible – I proved that by only losing one case in 20 years. But that said, my life experience and common sense has also taught me that you can't profile any entire group of people. You have to assess each individual as an individual. So when I say, "The White man", I don't mean all White men, that's simply ghetto shorthand for "The White establishment". We must also remember that every Black man is not Barack Obama, and every White man is not the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
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Writing and research also helped me to recognize that knowledge is free. As a result, when I got married and had kids, the first thing I did was taught both my son, and daughter to write (or at least, exposed them to it) and they taught all 5 of my grandkids. I’ve gone out of my way to see to it that all of my kids are effective writers, because writing is nothing short of thinking on paper.
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Thus, knowing my attitude toward writing, when my son was in high school he came home very excited about getting an “A” on a term paper. He couldn’t wait to show it to me. But when I looked at it, I immediately recognized that it wasn’t an “A” paper, and I told him as much. My wife and daughter were livid over what they referred to as my "gross insensitivity". They felt that I had thrown ice water on his excitement, and I was discouraging him. But he was about to go to college, so I felt that it was better for me to tell him, and then help him with it, than to just stroke his ego and let some college professor trash him while I was thousands of miles away. And he understood that, because I started by telling him what was excellent about his writing.
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And much of the paper was indeed excellent. It was very well written. That’s obviously what his teacher had graded him on, it’s flow. But he had failed to substantiate many of his assertions, and that’s what I had a problem with. When it came to grammar and style, he had that down. The paper read beautifully, but writing is about much more than just sounding pretty on paper (that’s what I’m also telling his son, and my grandson, Eli, who’s also an excellent writer). Writing is about making an effective point. So what Eric had to learn was very simple - whenever he made an assertion, he should start backing it up in the following sentence, or no later than the following paragraph.
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That’s all writing is about, making statements, and then backing them up with facts. A writer should try to drench the reader in so many facts that his point defies debate. Once he’s done that, then he can go back and make it sound pretty. If he’s only interested in beauty, he should write poetry and stay away from non-fiction. But Lil Eric reminded me of myself. I had the same problem. But when I was in college I had a Professor name Immel, and she told me in front of the entire class, “Eric, you say absolutely nothing more eloquently than any student I’ve ever had.” Then she started reading excerpts from my paper and asked, "What, are you such an authority that I'm just suppose to take your word on all this?" She embarrassed the hell out of me. So Lil Eric and I spent the next day reviewing his paper and driving that point home. He needed to understand that he was writing, not rapin’, and there’s a big difference.
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A year or so Later, after he’d gone to college, my wife read one of his papers and said, “Eric, you’re gonna have to stop writing Lil Eric’s papers. That’s not doing him any good.” So I looked at the paper and said, “I didn’t write this, Eric did.” I was flattered that she couldn’t tell the difference, because by that time he had become a much better writer than myself. But she was greatly impressed, and I took that opportunity to throw back up in her face how she scolded me when he was in high school over his writing.
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Still later, after he had become a federal agent, an FBI agent who he worked with, pointed out how well written one of his reports was. He then asked, “Who helped you with this?” Eric look at him and said, “What do you mean, who helped me with it? I wrote it myself.” And shortly after that, Eric was later given the job of reviewing the reports of all the agents before they went to the U.S. Attorney.
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So the ability to write is a very valuable skill that can allow Black people to not only avoid having to depend on the White man to give them a blue-collar job as a handout, it can also provide them with a sense of personal confidence and independence - and there are many other skills just like it. I've only focused on writing because that just happens to be my thing. But Black people, have many talents and skills, and we have the intellectual creativity that will allow us to standout in life just like we do on Soul Train. 
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But unfortunately, this society works to discourage us, and it tends to pour all of its resources and dedication into convincing us that we're merely beasts of burden, and that it's "uppity" for us to think beyond that.  But don't buy into that bullshit. Be smart and develop your intellect. Then, instead of having to go beg the White man for a job, you can force him to come knocking on your door begging you to apply your intellect on his behalf.
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Thus, whenever you consider your standing in society, you should always remember the following - what we dismissively referred to as soul is nothing less than creative brilliance straining to be unleashed, and it can be applied to any endeavor. We’ve just got to stop Twerkin’ long enough to recognize that fact. 

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BLACK CHILDREN WITH HIGHEST IQs 
IN THE WORLD - EVER!

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Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com

BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS

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

A BRIEF HISTORY OF REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF REPUBLICAN CORRUPTION

The Republican Party specializes in taking a robust Democratic economy and then convincing the people that, with Republican guidance, they can promise even better days ahead. Then once they’re elected into office, they immediately begin to divide the people, loot the economy, undermine the average American, and drag America under a bus. Thereafter, in complete desperation the people turn to the Democratic Party for help, and with that, the cycle repeats itself.

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This economic cycle has been playing itself out every generation for the last hundred years. Every 10 to 15 years, as soon as one generation learn their lesson regarding the Republican Party, another one comes along with dreams of wealth and prosperity to replace them. So the GOP never runs out of victims. Even as we speak, Donald Trump is going around bragging to anyone who will listen regarding all he has done, while taking credit for an economy that he inherited from Barack Obama.

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But in reality, Trump, much like Ronald Reagan, has got us living on a credit card. Things seemed to be relatively stable under Ronald Reagan as well, but once he left office he left the country with a larger debt than all of the presidents that came before him, combined! The same is true of Donald Trump. The $1.8 trillion tax cut that he gave the rich is a debt that’s gonna have to be repaid, and he’s sending the bill directly to the average American in the form of cuts in Social Security, Disability, education, housing, and other safety-net programs.   

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THE GREAT DEPRESSION

History is clear. The Great Depression was brought on by 12 years of Republican governance. Thereafter, Democrat, Franklin Roosevelt repaired the economy with the New Deal and America prospered. Then Nixon came along and brought with him the corruption of Watergate, and later Ronald Reagan flooded our inner cities with crack cocaine, destroyed our industrial base, and made a college education beyond the reach of many average Americans. That not only diminished the nation’s intellectual currency by failing to invest in tens of thousands of brilliant but underdeveloped minds, but at the same time, it also promoted an undemocratic attempt to create a class-based society where the rich continued to prosper, and the average American remained in “his or her place”.

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That’s clearly a failed experiment that the conservatives refuse to give up. Conservatives have always been known for walking around with flag pins in their lapels and spewing their "bone-spur" brand of patriotism. Going all the way back to the very founding of this nation they’ve always used false patriotism and deception as weapons to promote a self-serving agenda to undermine the interests of the average American.  As a result of that attitude, they have always been the most insidious enemy of American democracy. That’s why when our founding documents speak of American enemies it uses the phrase, “Both foreign and domestic.”
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When conservatives first arrived on these shores, they brought with them the European notion of class distinction. They have always suffered from the distinctly undemocratic attitude that the only inherent value of the average American is as servants to cater to the whims of the upper class. Alexander Hamilton, one of this nation’s conservative founding fathers, believed that the rich and "wellborn" should be given a permanent share in government. 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.”
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Hamilton supported a lifetime appointment of the President (after being selected by congress, instead of the people). Can you just imagine that, Donald Trump FOR LIFE!!!?  But America dodged that bullet during the Federalist Convention that took place between May 14 and September 17, 1787.
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Since most of the founding fathers came to America to escape the aristocratic class system in Europe, Hamilton’s desire to preserve the class

system was resoundingly defeated in favor of an unfettered democracy, but that didn’t mean that people of Hamilton’s point of view would quietly go away. Instead, they became the conservative coalition, and lowered their profile as blatant aristocrats, but continued to pursue their agenda by using their wealth, power, and various other strategies to divide the people to achieve their agenda, and that’s what we see today.  That accounts for why conservatives tend to be specialists in obstructionism and division, and why the American people ALWAYS suffer under conservative governance.

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While a class structured society may bring comfort and contentment to the monied class, the damage it’s doing to the nation as a whole can be clearly observed by simply assessing the relative intellectual acuity and quality of leadership of Barack Obama as oppose to Donald Trump. Wealth and intelligence are not synonymous. The nation needs brainpower to prosper, not merely wealth, and Donald Trump is currently a poster child for the proposition that money without brains is a waste.

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But I’m jumping ahead of myself.  Not long after Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush came along. Bush ignored warnings of the pending 911 attack, then lied us into Iraq and created the current destabilization of the Middle East. He also brought us to the brink of a second Great Depression. But in that regard, and following a now familiar pattern, Democrat, Barack Obama came in to clean up the Republican mess.

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Now we have Donald Trump, undoubtedly the most lying and incompetent

president in the history of the United States - and worse, he’s in treasonous lockstep with the Russians. But in spite of that, the GOP is currently leaving no stone unturned to coverup his gross corruption, incompetence, and criminality in pursuit of their own self-interest. .
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That’s the problem with giving wealth priority over character and intelligence. Neither Donald Trump nor the Republican Party have either the character or intelligence to understand the importance of placing the nation’s interest above their own. It’s exactly that lack of understanding that led to Trump’s impeachment – and it would lead to his removal from office if the Republican senate wasn’t so irresponsibly corrupt.

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So once again, as they’ve shown repeatedly over the past one hundred years, instead of adhering to their oath of office, and their oath to be impartial jurors during Trump’s impeachment, in a desperate attempt to corrupt the system for their own self-interest the Republican Party is going to do any, and everything possible to see to it that the American people never learn all the facts regarding Trump's criminality in this impeachment case. That alone undoubtedly makes the Republican Party the domestic enemy of the American people, and as such, they should all be swept out of office and relegated to the garbage heap of American history.
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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
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Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

CHASING THE DOLLAR

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY
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CHASING THE DOLLAR

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Gustavo Escanelle  said, “Prince [Harry] had everything, castle, title, money, fame, what else could go wrong? We shall see, bad call on his part.”

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In response, I don't think so, Gustavo. You left out the most important thing in life - happiness. Prince Harry has just proven himself to be a REAL prince. I know that I look at him a lot differently, because he's proven himself to have character and class. On the other hand, all the stuff you listed are purely superficial. What Prince Harry has done is the stuff that fairytales are made of. This is a real-life Prince Charming, sweeping his Black princess off her feet, saying to hell with what anyone thinks, and riding off into the sunset with the love of his life. Nothing could be more beautiful.

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This is one of those moments in world history that will serve as a metaphor for what all of our lives should be, and I guarantee you that a movie is going to be made about this episode of love and devotion, and for centuries to come, people will be talking about this beautiful love story.  From this day forward, Prince Harry will always be remembered as the world’s most admired prince, because he’s carried himself like one.

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And with regard to what he’s given up, he’s gained much more than he’s lost. I've spent all of my adult life loving my family and pursuing knowledge and happiness. As a result, I've developed skills that people are willing to pay me to utilize on their behalf. Attorneys call me and offer to share a third of their fees to do legal research and brief writing for them, and I do many other things. I don't even know how much money I have in the bank. I received a $20,000 check last week and threw it in a filing cabinet, because as long as when I need money the ATM spits out the cash, it doesn't matter how much I have in the bank. But today is my daughter birthday, so what matters is, I can put a smile on her face, and my granddaughter is a Jackson State, and I can help her to focus on studying to become a doctor instead of worrying about money. 

People waste their entire lives chasing a dollar. That keeps them from enjoying their lives and family in the moment, and in the end it doesn't make them any happier, unless their idea of happiness is trying to impress others with what they can buy. But in the final analysis, while they can go out and buy a mansion, they can only live in one room at a time. So the only way they're really gonna be happy is to make themselves better and more knowledgeable than they were yesterday. We should cut out trying to impress all the middle-men and impress ourselves. That's who we're really after in the first place. Everything we do - including trying to impress others - we do to try to make ourselves feel better about who you are.

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Once, after a case came in, I had my daughter take me to a car lot and I bought a brand-new Escalade truck, in cash (for the most part). But I wasn't any happier when I drove off in it than I was when we entered the car lot. That taught me a valuable lesson in life, and I never forgot it. Yeah, all of my "friends" were impressed by my pearl white Esclade, but they weren't doin' shit for me, so why should I care about trying to impress them? All it did was kept phonies grinnin' in my face. I needed to be trying to impress myself - and that's exactly what I do today.  

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I learned that we should simply gather enough money to be comfortable and not have to live from hand to mouth. Thereafter, we should focus on intellectual development and being happy. Because life flies by, and if we spend it chasing a dollar, we'll look back one day and realize that we’ve never taken the time to enjoy the life we’ve been given. So if you really want to enjoy your life, take the time to enjoy it, and not spend all your money trying to live a lie to impress others. Because in time, the money you save just living a casual and laid-back life instead of trying to impress others can, in itself, make you rich. 
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And in that regard, who do you think is happiest, Donald Trump, with all of his alleged money, or Barack Obama? Think about that. Trump would do anything to be as brilliant, and as loved and respected as Obama, that's why he's always trying to compare himself to him. But he'll never be able to compete with Obama, because Barack has spent his entire life perfecting himself. So the difference between him and Dubious Donald is hugely apparent. In fact, if Michelle decided to run for president, Trump wouldn't have a chance, because even many Republicans would vote to get knowledge, common sense, and class back into the White House. Because NOTHING impresses people like knowledge and character - not even money – and Prince Harry has clearly demonstrated that he has both. So I wish him, his son, and his beautiful princess, much happiness.

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