THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS’ ENDORSEMENT OF HILLARY CLINTON IS OUTRAGEOUS!

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS’ ENDORSEMENT OF HILLARY CLINTON IS OUTRAGEOUS, AND IT SIGNALS THAT IT'S TIME FOR THEM TO BE REPLACED 

When I first heard that the Congressional Black Caucus had endorsed Hillary Clinton, I couldn't believe my ears.  And yes, I said the Congressional Black Caucus. The debate over whether or not every member of the caucus agreed with the PAC's endorsement of Hillary Clinton is nothing but a political ploy. It merely provides establishment-entrenched Black politicians a backdoor to escape having to account for what is clearly an unconscionable act of political betrayal - or, in other words, politics as usual. If that's not the case, every member who disagrees with Hillary's endorsement should stand up and express why.
.
"Sanders helped found the Progressive Caucus as a member of the House in 1991 and is currently the only member of the caucus from the Senate. The group, which started with six members, has grown into the largest caucus in the Democratic conference with 76 members."  Where was Hillary when she was in the senate?
.
These politicians have obviously been in Washington too long. They've bought into the political assumption that the people are stupid - well, some of us are, but not all of us. So this clumsy ploy could turn out to be a good thing. First, we can now find out once and for all who actually controls the Congressional Black Caucus, the caucus members themselves, or a group of self-serving lobbyists; secondly, if this is a dirty political trick hatched by Clinton operatives to mislead the voters, it could backfire if individual caucus members who disagree with this endorsement step forward and say so in no uncertain terms. It's time that the voters begin to demand that we stop being treated like idiots and assume our rightful place, as the employers of these politicians, not their mindless sheep. And it's also time for us to start getting rid of those politicians who don't know the difference - starting with CBC PAC Chairman, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY).
.
What on Earth could these people possibly be thinking!!!? With this one act, they’ve shown themselves to be puppets of the establishment and of absolutely no use to the Black community. So we should vote every one of them out of office and replace them with people who have sense enough to realize that it was Bill Clinton who created the Prison Industrial Complex, signed NEFTA into law, that not only made it possible, but financially advantageous for corporations to send American jobs out of the country. He also repealed the Glass-Steagall Act that led directly to the Great Recession of 2008. And if that wasn't enough,   Hillary tried to ‘dog whistle’ the assassination of Barack Obama during the 2008 primaries. So what kind of fools are these, who would endorse such a person!!!?
.

HILLARY WAS OUT CAMPAIGNING FOR BARRY GOLDWATER
WHO PLEDGED TO REPEAL THE CILVIL RIGHTS ACT.

Bill and Hillary Clinton are clearly Republicans in drag. When Bernie Sanders was out marching with Martin Luther King, Hillary Clinton was working for Republican Barry Goldwater, who pledged that if elected he would repeal the Civil Rights Act.  And Hillary’s conservative predisposition could also be observed in her behavior during her first high-profile position on the Board of Directors of Walmart.
.
During the six years that Hillary was in that position Walmart was undercutting labor unions, paying their workers slave-like wages, and discriminating against women by paying them less than they paid men for doing the same job, and Hillary didn’t say a word. The reason for that was simple - it wasn’t convenient for her to speak out at the time. Speaking out on behalf of women and the working class wouldn’t do anything to promote her ambition. It was a zero sum gain, and Hillary is not motivated by conviction; she's motivated by self-interest. But all of a sudden - now that she needs the votes of the working class - she’s trying to portray herself as a gladiator for the people, but that’ll only last until she gets into office. Then it’ll be business as usual - paying back political favors (like the $25,000 campaign donation that she received from Walmart to just "explore" the possibly of running), and building up future credits with other corporate elites for her next campaign.
.
The Clinton's net worth is over $100 million and they control a $2 billion foundation - which is currently under investigation, by the way. So the Clinton’s are comfortably entrenched in the very corporate elitist culture that is keeping us virtually enslaved.
.
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2016/01/bill-and-hillary-clinton-republicans-in.html

.
HILLARY CLINTON ON WALMART BOARD OF DIRECTORS

 

"Mrs. Clinton’s six-year tenure as a director of Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest company, remains a little known chapter in her closely scrutinized career. And it is little known for a reason. Mrs. Clinton rarely, if ever, discusses it, leaving her board membership out of her speeches and off her campaign Web site.
.
"Mr. Walton was vocal in his opposition to unions. Indeed, he appointed the lawyer who oversaw the company’s union monitoring, Mr. Tate, to the board, where he served with Mrs. Clinton.
.
"During their meetings and private conversations, Mrs. Clinton never voiced objections to Wal-Mart’s stance on unions, said Mr. Tate and John A. Cooper, another board member.
.
“'She was not an outspoken person on labor, because I think she was smart enough to know that if she favored labor, she was the only one,' Mr. Tate said. 'It would only lessen her own position on the board if she took that position.” http://www.nytimes.com/2007/…/20/us/politics/20walmart.html…
.

And then there's the machinations of Bill Clinton while out of office:

A NO NO-LOSE SITUATION FOR THE CORPORATE ELITE

According to a Washington Post report in August of 2015, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump had a private phone call weeks before Trump got in the presidential race, in which the former president reportedly “encouraged” Trump’s political efforts.  The report by Robert Costa and Anne Gearan  indicated that people close to Trump and Clinton confirmed that the two men spoke some time in May of 2016. It went on to say:
.

"Trump took the call from his office in Trump Tower in New York, according to the four allies, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly. The call came as Trump was making a final decision about whether to run, and he was candid about his political ambitions and his potential interest in seeking the White House during the talk, these allies said. The 42nd president listened intently and then analyzed Trump’s prospects and his desire to rouse the GOP base, the Trump allies said.

"The tone of the call was informal, and Clinton never urged Trump to run, the four people said. Rather, they said, Clinton sounded curious about Trump’s moves toward a presidential bid and told Trump that he was striking a chord with frustrated conservatives and was a rising force on the right."
.
And finally, during her 2008 campaign against Obama, while trying to get Ted Kennedy’s support, it was reported by the New Yorker that Bill Clinton said to Kennedy regarding Barack Obama, "A few years ago, this guy would have been carrying our bags." True progressives don’t talk like that. He was sounding just like a White Southern politician behind closed doors - which is exactly what he was, and is - dark glasses and saxophone notwithstanding. They don't call him "Slick Willie" for nothing. 
.
So one of two things have to be in play with these Congressional Black Caucus members - either they’ve become so comfortable with their huge salaries, perks, and prestige that they’ve lost sight of what’s going on around them, or they’ve been corrupted to the point that feathering their own nest has become more important to them than protecting the interest of the Black community.  But either way, it’s time for them to go.
.
A MESSAGE TO THE BLCK COMMUNITY:  Pay no attention to what they say; always watch what they do.

.

.

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.

Sphere: Related Content

AMERICA IS LITERALLY DYING OF A LACK OF CHARACTER, INTEGRITY, AND MORAL SUBSTANCE

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

AMERICA IS LITERALLY DYING OF A LACK OF CHARACTER, INTEGRITY, AND MORAL SUBSTANCE 

.

Most Americans have embraced a philosophy of "go-along-to get-along," and that's a philosophy that has never served minorities, or the working class, well. It's a philosophy that only serves to maintain the status quo. So if you're at the bottom of the ladder, not being paid a living wage, and being treated unjustly, helping to maintain the status quo virtually guarantees that you'll remain in that condition. On the other hand, if you're one of those lucky few who have managed to accumulate a few of the finer things in life, you're doing a gross disservice to all those people of high moral character and integrity who came before you and made your lifestyle possible.
.
Go-along-to-get-along is a philosophy that's based on self-service, greed, and a disregard for your fellow man, so it not only fosters division within the minority and working-class community, but it negates all of the finest qualities of the human spirit - those qualities that inspired many White men to embrace the ideals of freedom and justice so passionately that they left the love and comfort of their families to go die in the bloodiest war this nation has ever fought.  We rarely see that kind of moral substance today - today it's everybody for themselves, and everybody chasing "the American dream," which is rapidly becoming an American nightmare starring the Corporate/GOP Alliance.
.

We cannot get through this world alone.  If you're not prepared to go out on a limb to help be your brother's keeper, who's going to have your back when the boots arrive outside your door?  Yes, it's good to be self-reliant, but there's a very big difference between being self-reliant and being just plain selfish. But that's the bill of goods that the social manipulators have sold many Americans - "It's all about me and my life; to hell with everybody else; that's the American way."  By embracing that philosophy we make ourselves vulnerable to social exploitation, because the powers that be can exploit us one at a time instead of having to face an opposing force that dwarfs them in its numbers.  
.
The concept should be so easy to grasp - the American people are the source of their own misery. Why do we simply sit back and pour billions of dollars into corporations that claim to be patriotic yet send millions of American jobs out of the country to improve their profit margin?  What kind of patriotism is that?  It's not.  It's all about their indulging in the philosophy described above - "It's all about us, and to hell with the American people," and we're quietly embracing that philosophy.  The American people are living like Stepford wives.  We're begging for crumbs from a table that belongs to us.
.

Frederick Douglass said, "Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them." Douglass' words have proven to be even more true today than when he uttered them. For over thirty-five years, every since Ronald Reagan - the backlot cowboy - found that the American public will accept almost anything if you wrap it in John Wayne's persona, Republicans have been donning cowboy hats and boots and chipping away at American rights, jobs, and our moral sense of outrage over injustice. It's gotten so bad that today if we happen to stumble over justice and fair treatment, we consider it a gift rather than a right. I've said the following before, but I think it bears repeating:  
.

It's Time To Enact A Workers' Bill Of Rights - And Boot out Any Politician Who Refuses To Go Along

.

The American people have been sold a bill of goods. We've allowed the one-percenters to convince us that completely unrestrained capitalism (or greed) is "the American way." Says who, the one-percenters? The "American way" should be what's good for America, not just a handful of industrialists, political cronies, and Wall Street manipulators.
.
Think about the average American's response to the word "socialism." Corporatists have conditioned us to revile even the mention of the word. Most Americans react to it like Count Dracula reacts to a cross. We've been so thoroughly conditioned that it's used as a pejorative to slur President Obama.  It conjures up images of dictators, Red China, the former Soviet Union, the government taking over our lives, and the loss of freedom, but it doesn't actually mean that at all. What it actually means is giving the average citizen a fair shake and not stacking the deck against them by promoting unfettered greed.
..
Yes, socialism has undoubtedly been used as a pretext to take away freedoms and create closed societies, but that was the ABUSE  of socialism, just like the abuse of capitalism led to slavery and the extermination of over a hundred million Native Americans. So it is not the economic systems that are  evil; it's the closed-minded and self-serving motives of the people who implement the systems who are evil.
.

Child Labor During Great Depression
Capitalism Run amok

Thus, with that understood, common sense would seem to dictate that the best system for America would be a democratic socialism that is based on capitalistic principles. That is, we should continue to pursue our current capitalistic system, but with an eye toward not allowing unfettered greed to run so amok that it brings misery upon the American people, as it did under George W. Bush, and continues do to this day
. 
Entrepreneurs should be free to make as much money as they can manage, but responsibly. So we need  a workers' bill of rights in this country. If a company wants to do business in the United States it should have to pay workers a living wage and  maintain a level of employment based on, and commensurate with, the amount of profits that they're pulling from the economy. If the company doesn't want to do that, they should clear out and go do business in another country.  That will open the market up for others who are willing to settle for a mere one billion dollars in profit instead of a hundred billion.

REAGANOMICS AND THE GOP CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE MIDDLE CLASS

Our economy (for the average worker) is currently depressed because, starting with the Reagan administration, it has been based on unrestrained greed, and the average American is being constantly squeezed by the one-percenters to give up an ever larger share of America's pie.  The GOP used Ronald Reagan, with his "Aw shucks, Ma'am," John Wayne-like persona, to convince the American people to buy into "Trickle-Down" Economics - or in other words, "Give us your money and we promise to take care of you." That was the biggest scam ever perpetrated against the people in American history, and we should be mad as hell about it. 
.
They not only stole our money, but destroyed our industrial base by breaking up and selling off some of our most important corporations. In addition, they tripled the national debt in the process! As a direct result, the American middle class has been careening downhill for the past 35 years, or every since.
.
I've related the GOP's grossly irresponsible economic history in several articles, but the head-scratching result of the 2014 midterm election clearly suggest that the American people are just not getting it, so it bears repeating.
.

The Great Depression

From the moment that Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt put "The New Deal For the American People" in place to rescue the American people from ever having to suffer the ravages of the Great Depression again, the GOP and conservatives have been determined to dismantle it.  Even as I write they're mounting an assault on Social Security, Affordable Health Care, and every other program designed to bring relief to the poor and middle class. The closest they've come to succeeding started during the Reagan administration with Supply-Side Economics, or, "Reaganomics" - and the battle is currently raging in Washington D.C. as we speak.
.
Supply- Side Economics was a scheme hatch by U.S.C. economist, Arthur Laffer and the Reagan crowd which was supposed to cut the deficit and balance the budget. The theory behind Reaganomics was ostensibly, if you cut taxes for business and people in the upper tax brackets, and then deregulated business of such nuisances as safety regulations and environmental safeguards, the beneficiaries would invest their savings into creating new jobs. In that way the money would eventually "trickle down" to the rest of us. The resulting broadened tax base would not only help to bring down the deficit, but also subsidize the tremendously high defense budget. When the plan was first floated, even George Bush, Reagan's vice president to be, called it "voodoo economics."
.
Reaganomics, for the most part, sought to undo many of the safeguards put into place during the Roosevelt era and create a business environment similar to that which was in place during the Coolidge Administration. What actually took place, however, was even more like the Coolidge era than planed.
.

Instead of taking the money and investing it into creating new jobs, the money was used in wild schemes and stock market speculation. One of these schemes, the leveraged buy-out, involved buying up large companies with borrowed funds secured by the company's assets, then paying off the loan by selling off the assets of the purchased company. This practice cost the citizens of this country its industrial base. In addition, the bottom fell out of the stock market. On Monday, October 19, 1987 the Dow-Jones Average fell 508.32 points. It was the greatest one-day decline since 1914 - 15 years before the Great Depression.
.
And what about Ronald Reagan's promise to balance the budget and lower the deficit? By the time he left office he was not only the most prolific spender of any president in history, but he also added more to the deficit than all of the other presidents from George Washington to his own administration combined. And what did the Republican Party propose to do about that? One of the Republican proposals was their "contract with America," a capital gains tax cut - for the rich.
.
Heaping ever more money on the rich seems to be the GOP's answer to everything, and as they're doing it, they're telling the poor and middle class that if they had just a little more, the economic conditions in this country will turn the corner for everyone. They've been telling the people this lie for 35 years, and the conditions for the poor and middle class is getting ever worse with every day that passes.
.
Due to the continued freewheeling fiscal policies of conservative Republicans, between 1986 and 1989, spanning the presidencies of Reagan and Bush Sr., the FSLIC had to pay off all the depositors of 296 institutions with assets of over $125 billion.
.
Then in 1988 Silverado Savings and Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $1.3 billion. It was headed by Neil Bush, brother of George W. The investigation alleged that he was guilty of "breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest." The issue was eventually settled out of court with Bush paying a mere $50,000 settlement.
.
Then there was the Lincoln Savings and loan scandal in 1987, involving John McCain. He was one of a group of senators dubbed "The Keating Five" involved in a scandal by the same name.
In 1976 Charles Keating moved to Arizona to run the American Continental Corporation. In 1984, shortly after the Reagan era push to deregulate the savings and loan community, Keating bought Lincoln Savings and Loan and began to engage in highly risky investments with the depositors' savings. In 1989 the parent company, which Keating headed, went bankrupt, and it resulted in over 21,000 investors losing their life savings. Most of the investors were elderly, and the loss amounted to about 285 million dollars.
.
After having received over a million dollars from Keating in illegal campaign contributions, gifts, free trips, and other gratuities, the Keating Five - Senators John Glenn, Don Riegle, Dennis DeConini, Alan Cranston, and Sen. John McCain - attempted to intervene in the investigation into Keating's activities by the regulators. Later, they were admonished to varying degrees by the senate for attempting to influence regulators on Keating's behalf. Charles Keating ended up being convicted for fraud, racketeering and conspiracy, for which he received 10 years by the state court, and a 12 year sentence in federal court. After spending four and a half years in prison, his convictions were overturned. But prior to being retried, he pled guilty to a number of felonies in return for a sentence of time served.
.
Then came the George W. Bush administration that caused close to a million people to die uselessly in an illegal war in Iraq, robbed the American people blind, whose fumbling ignited the longest war in American history in Afghanistan, and whose greed came very close to sending the nation into yet another Great Depression.
.
Now, after all of their repeated efforts to deplete the national treasury, they're unanimously voting against every piece of legislation that the Democrats propose to repair the damage they created and to bring relief to the American people. Then they have the audacity to claim that they're doing it because they're concerned about deficit spending.
.
They're against affordable health care for American families; they're against any kind of spending to put Americans back to work, and they're against extending unemployment insurance to relieve the burden of America's unemployed. What's particularly telling, however, is they're also against any kind of strong legislation to prevent the financial community (them) from being able to rob the American people in the future.
.
The fact is, what they really want is to maintain the status quo, and make damn sure that the American people remained miserable, hungry, and divided until 2016 elections so they'd have a better chance to regain power and raid the treasury again. Republican Senate minority leader (now majority leader), Mitch McConnell, was frustrated and reckless enough to say it out loud prior to the 2012 election - "Our No. 1 priority is to make this president a one-term president" - not to save America, or to bring relief to the American people, but to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Flag pens in lapels and patriotic rhetoric notwithstanding, that says it all about the GOP's lack of concern for America, or the American people.
.
After they lost the 2012 election, their agenda has shifted to making sure that President Obama is not successful, because if he is, and you combine that with the rapidly changing demographic, that could spell doom for the future of the GOP - and it should, because they're grossly out of touch with reality, and, America's best interest. They're out to create a corporate feudalist society. The government shutdown, their repeated obstructionism, and their unconscionable attack on voters' rights clearly demonstrated that they have absolutely no respect for democracy.
.

And this is not just political rhetoric. Here is the activity of the Republican congress who ran in the 2010 election on their claim that their number one priority was to bring economic relief, and create jobs for the American people.
.
History is clear. The conservative Republicans don't mind spending money, they just don't want to spend it on those who need it - us. Remember, they're the party of Alexander Hamilton, one of this country's founding fathers who believed that only those who owned property should even be allowed to vote. He also said:
.
"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).
.
In 1965, CEOs were paid only 20.1 times more than the average worker. Today they make 231 times the average worker (http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2012/09/redistribution-wealth-has-gone-upward-not-down-early-80s).  As a direct result, the top 5% of the population now control 82% of the wealth, while the bottom 80% only control 7%. That's dangerous, and it's a direct threat to our democracy.  As a matter of fact, a study by Princeton University declares that the American government can no longer be called a democracy - it is now an oligarchy that's controlled by the rich.
.
So again, we need to stop buying into the ridiculous proposition that if we just make the one-percenters just a little bit richer they'll take care of us. We need to take care of ourselves, and our lower and middle-class workers. Thereafter, when they spend their money on goods and services, they'll create a thriving economy again. When we put money in the pockets of the poor and middle class it circulates - they go on vacations, which creates jobs; they buy their children toys and clothes, which creates jobs; and they buy new homes, which creates jobs. When we give our money to the rich, it goes into offshore accounts and we never see it again. That's why the bottom 80% of the people now only have 7% of the wealth.
.
We're being sold a bill of goods.  Corporations are making more profits than they ever made in their history, so there's no reason for unemployment to be so high. The reason that it is, however, is because the corporatists are purposely keeping unemployment high in order to strangle the American middle class into accepting a lower standard of living that will be more in keeping with the global economy.
.
Thus, we need to vote many of these demagogues out of office and vote people in who are willing to pass a Workers' Bill of Rights. Then we need to inform these corporatists that they're going to have to dance to a different drummer if they want to do business in the United States. If they don't want to comply, they'll have to do business elsewhere and make room for others who will happily take their place, and for far less money.
.

Eric L. Wattree

wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com

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

Sphere: Related Content

Evil-Doers Are Not Determined By Race - They're Determined By The Power and Opportunity To Do Evil

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

Evil-Doers Are Not Determined By Race - They're Determined By The Power and Opportunity To Do Evil

Reality_Check says:
.
"Dr. Wattree, I understand you mean well, but I respectfully disagree. History and current events simply do not support your assertions. The reason why is because the majority of white people are either racist themselves OR they know people who harm others through racism and they remain SILENT of such atrocities. This is the commission vs. omission principle. Most white people are guilty of racism by omission, meaning that they are aware of racism, when and how it is applied, and the victims of racism, but they do NOTHING to either speak or act against it. This is because white people are keenly aware that they benefit from white supremacy and racism, so they are not willing to sacrifice their privilege to act against racism. They know too well which side their bread is buttered on. This is why they do not oppose racism en masse. You cannot benefit from and simultaneously oppose racism. That is illogical.
.
"I don’t want to hear about what whites have done in the past because the truth is, despite this, the majority of them say and do nothing to act against the every day racism that they know to exist. What you are referencing is a very small faction of white people that protested and demonstrated side by side with blacks during the Civil Rights. Those whites certainly did not represent the average white person during that day. Don’t even get me started on the Vietnam War. Whites were protesting because they did not want to see THEIR sons killed in the war. Their protests had nothing to do with black people. That was a terrible example to underscore your point. The average white person’s silence where racism is concerned makes them just as complicit as the rabid racists who use their influence to oppress others. If this were not the case, then you wouldn’t see such discrimination in employment, housing, education, medical treatment, and the legal system where blacks are concerned. In order for racism to survive and THRIVE it takes more than just a few rabid racist to make it work. It absolutely requires the complicit approval of the MAJORITY of the white race to make it a success.
.
"Now, don’t let this suggest that I’m speaking in absolute terms by saying that ALL whites are racist. This isn’t what I’m saying. I am, however, saying that the majority of whites (meaning the average) practice racism either through action or inaction. If this weren’t the case then you wouldn’t see such disparities in the areas of life mentioned above and you’d see a lot more vocal opponents to the “system.”'
.
Wattree:
.
First, I want to point out right off the bat that I’m not a doctor. I haven’t earn that title so it would be a disservice to those who have put in the effort to allow that point to pass without comment.
.
But with respect to your "Commission vs. Omission Principle," it's invalid, so I have to respectfully disagree with your point of view. People are individuals, and ALL people should ALWAYS be assessed on their own individual merit. That’s one of the primary arguments used to invalidate White racism, so it would be inconsistent, hypocritical, and disingenuous not to adhere to it with respect to White people. One of the angriest complaints that comes out of the Black community is regarding the tendency by some to broad-brush and profile Black people as being all alike, so we shouldn't 'profile' others in that way.  If we fall into the trap of making that mistake it will eventually be used against us.  Let me give you example of that.
.
If we use  your argument that White inaction against racism is in itself a form of racism, logical consistency will demand that we also accept many of the arguments made by bigots against Black people.  Specifically, you said, “Most white people are guilty of racism by omission, meaning that they are aware of racism, when and how it is applied, and the victims of racism, but they do NOTHING to either speak or act against it.”
.
If we use that standard, we also tend to validate many White bigots' contention that ALL (or MOST) Black people are criminals by virtue of the fact that they KNOW about crime yet do nothing to act against it. So through extension that implies that White cops are correct in profiling ALL Black people. I'm sure that's not your position, but logical consistency demands that you take that position in order to embrace your "omission" theory.  So the fundamental problem with trying to indict ALL White people (or all of ANY group) as being the same is that the sword cuts in both directions. Any argument that we use alleging that White people are ALL alike, contradicts our insistence that all Black are NOT alike.
.
In addition, many White people don't speak out about racism (on the job, for example) for the very same reason that Black people are not calling the police and going out on the block pointing out who's dealing drugs, or who robbed the liquor store - they want to survive. self-preservation is their number one priority, and it trumps any civic-minded proclivities they may harbor. They see their first responsibility as protecting themselves and their family.  It's human nature not to rock the boat, so to read anything else into it is based on an unsubstantiable assumption.
.

There’s only two kinds of people in the world – good people, and bad people, period.  I've heard some make the argument that the White man has PROVEN his tendency toward brutality by his very history.  That argument SEEMS to work, until it’s closely examined.  Because if you look at the history of man as a whole, it'll become immediately clear that we all have a history of brutality.  The only thing that distinguishes one group from another is the power, resources, and opportunity to be brutal..  Even as we speak, Black people are in Nigeria killing one another with the kind of brutality, and in numbers, that we can’t even imagine over here:
.
"YAOUNDE, Cameroon (AP) — The Nigeria-based extremist group Boko Haram on Monday threatened neighboring countries Niger and Chad, warning the fighters were prepared to carry out suicide bombings in the countries sending troops to help fight the militants.
.
“The Islamic extremist group has fought a five-year insurgency against Nigeria’s government, leaving 10,000 people dead last year alone. The violence has forced some 157,000 people to seek refuge in Niger, while 40,000 others have gone to Cameroon and 17,000 are in Chad, the U.N. said. Almost 1 million Nigerians are internally displaced, according to the country’s own statistics.”
.
So again, people are people; some are good, and others are bad. What seems to separate us in terms of evil and brutality is not so much the color of our skin, but the power and opportunity to carry out acts of evil and brutality.
.
Finally, I've had this discussion many times before with Black people who want to insist that White people are somehow uniquely flawed. Then when I bring out the issues that I've mentioned above they want to know, "Why are you going to such lengths to defend those people?" But the fact is, I'm not trying to defend White people at all; I'm defending logical and efficient thinking, as I always do.
.
We must always give truth priority over ideology or what tends to make us feel warm and fuzzy inside, because fuzzy thinking is the primary weapon that's been used against Black people for the past 400 years. Thus, truth is the very best defense of both ourselves, and humanity as a whole. We must ALWAYS follow truth, regardless to where it leads, and who's ox it gores, because truth will tell us - and everyone concerned - that racism is no longer the war. At this point racism is merely a weapon of war. We are now in a class war, and the enemy doesn't care any more about poor and middle-class White people than he does Blacks. So if we are to survive, it's time for ALL like-minded people to come together and put all other issues aside, because DIVISION is the enemy's most potent weapon. That's primary reason that Rush Limbaugh and Fox News even exists.
.

Eric L. Wattree

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

Sphere: Related Content

It's Time To Enact A Workers' Bill Of Rights - And Boot out Any Politician Who Refuses To Go Along

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

It's Time To Enact A Workers' Bill Of Rights - And Boot out Any Politician Who Refuses To Go Along

.

The American people have been sold a bill of goods. We've allowed the one-percenters to convince us that completely unrestrained capitalism (or greed) is "the American way." Says who, the one-percenters? The "American way" should be what's good for America, not just a handful of industrialists, political cronies, and Wall Street manipulators.
.
Think about the average American's response to the word "socialism." Corporatists have conditioned us to revile even the mention of the word. Most Americans react to it like Count Dracula reacts to a cross. We've been so thoroughly conditioned that it's used as a pejorative to slur President Obama.  It conjures up images of dictators, Red China, the former Soviet Union, the government taking over our lives, and the loss of freedom, but it doesn't actually mean that at all. What it actually means is giving the average citizen a fair shake and not stacking the deck against them by promoting unfettered greed.
..
Yes, socialism has undoubtedly been used as a pretext to take away freedoms and create closed societies, but that was the ABUSE  of socialism, just like the abuse of capitalism led to slavery and the extermination of over a hundred million Native Americans. So it is not the economic systems that are  evil; it's the closed-minded and self-serving motives of the people who implement the systems who are evil.
.

Child Labor During Great Depression
Capitalism Run amok

Thus, with that understood, common sense would seem to dictate that the best system for America would be a democratic socialism that is based on capitalistic principles. That is, we should continue to pursue our current capitalistic system, but with an eye toward not allowing unfettered greed to run so amok that it brings misery upon the American people, as it did under George W. Bush, and continues do to this day
.
Entrepreneurs should be free to make as much money as they can manage, but responsibly. So we need  a workers' bill of rights in this country. If a company wants to do business in the United States it should have to pay workers a living wage and  maintain a level of employment based on, and commensurate with, the amount of profits that they're pulling from the economy. If the company doesn't want to do that, they should clear out and go do business in another country.  That will open the market up for others who are willing to settle for a mere one billion dollars in profit instead of a hundred billion.

REAGANOMICS AND THE GOP CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE MIDDLE CLASS

Our economy (for the average worker) is currently depressed because, starting with the Reagan administration, it has been based on unrestrained greed, and the average American is being constantly squeezed by the one-percenters to give up an ever larger share of America's pie.  The GOP used Ronald Reagan, with his "Aw shucks, Ma'am," John Wayne-like persona, to convince the American people to buy into "Trickle-Down" Economics - or in other words, "Give us your money and we promise to take care of you." That was the biggest scam ever perpetrated against the people in American history, and we should be mad as hell about it.
.
They not only stole our money, but destroyed our industrial base by breaking up and selling off some of our most important corporations. In addition, they tripled the national debt in the process! As a direct result, the American middle class has been careening downhill for the past 35 years, or every since.
.
I've related the GOP's grossly irresponsible economic history in several articles, but the head-scratching result of the 2014 midterm election clearly suggest that the American people are just not getting it, so it bears repeating.
.

The Great Depression

From the moment that Democratic President Franklin Delano Roosevelt put "The New Deal For the American People" in place to rescue the American people from ever having to suffer the ravages of the Great Depression again, the GOP and conservatives have been determined to dismantle it - even as I write they're mounting an assault on Social Security, Affordable Health Care, and every other program designed to bring relief to the poor and middle class. The closest they've come to succeeding started during the Reagan administration with Supply-Side Economics, or, "Reaganomics" - and the battle is currently raging in Washington D.C. as we speak.
.
Supply- Side Economics was a scheme hatch by U.S.C. economist, Arthur Laffer, and the Reagan crowd which was supposed to cut the deficit and balance the budget. The theory behind Reaganomics was ostensibly, if you cut taxes for business and people in the upper tax brackets, and then deregulated business of such nuisances as safety regulations and environmental safeguards, the beneficiaries would invest their savings into creating new jobs. In that way the money would eventually "trickle down" to the rest of us. The resulting broadened tax base would not only help to bring down the deficit, but also subsidize the tremendously high defense budget. When the plan was first floated, even George Bush, Reagan's vice president to be, called it "voodoo economics."
.
Reaganomics, for the most part, sought to undo many of the safeguards put into place during the Roosevelt era and create a business environment similar to that which was in place during the Coolidge Administration. What actually took place, however, was even more like the Coolidge era than planed.
.

Instead of taking the money and investing it into creating new jobs, the money was used in wild schemes and stock market speculation. One of these schemes, the leveraged buy out, involved buying up large companies with borrowed funds secured by the company's assets, then paying off the loan by selling off the assets of the purchased company. This practice cost the citizens of this country its industrial base. In addition, the bottom fell out of the stock market. On Monday, October 19, 1987 the Dow-Jones Average fell 508.32 points. It was the greatest one-day decline since 1914 - 15 years before the Great Depression.
.
And what about Ronald Reagan's promise to balance the budget and lower the deficit? By the time he left office he was not only the most prolific spender of any president in history, but he also added more to the deficit than all of the other presidents from George Washington to his own administration combined. And what did the Republican Party propose to do about that? One of the Republican proposals was their "contract with America," a capital gains tax cut - for the rich.
.
Heaping ever more money on the rich seems to be the GOP's answer to everything, and as they're doing it, they're telling the poor and middle class that if they had just a little more, the economic conditions in this country will turn the corner for everyone. They've been telling the people this lie for 35 years, and the conditions for the poor and middle class is getting ever worse with every day that passes.
.
Due to the continued freewheeling fiscal policies of conservative Republicans, between 1986 and 1989, spanning the presidencies of Reagan and Bush Sr., the FSLIC had to pay off all the depositors of 296 institutions with assets of over $125 billion.
.
Then in 1988 Silverado Savings and Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $1.3 billion. It was headed by Neil Bush, brother of George W. The investigation alleged that he was guilty of "breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest." The issue was eventually settled out of court with Bush paying a mere $50,000 settlement.
.
Then there was the Lincoln Savings and loan scandal in 1987, involving John McCain. He was one of a group of senators dubbed "The Keating Five" involved in a scandal by the same name.
In 1976 Charles Keating moved to Arizona to run the American Continental Corporation. In 1984, shortly after the Reagan era push to deregulate the savings and loan community, Keating bought Lincoln Savings and Loan and began to engage in highly risky investments with the depositors' savings. In 1989 the parent company, which Keating headed, went bankrupt, and it resulted in over 21,000 investors losing their life savings. Most of the investors were elderly, and the loss amounted to about 285 million dollars.
.
After having received over a million dollars from Keating in illegal campaign contributions, gifts, free trips, and other gratuities, the Keating Five - Senators John Glenn, Don Riegle, Dennis DeConini, Alan Cranston, and Sen. John McCain - attempted to intervene in the investigation into Keating's activities by the regulators. Later, they were admonished to varying degrees by the senate for attempting to influence regulators on Keating's behalf. Charles Keating ended up being convicted for fraud, racketeering and conspiracy, for which he received 10 years by the state court, and a 12 year sentence in federal court. After spending four and a half years in prison, his convictions were overturned. But prior to being retried, he pled guilty to a number of felonies in return for a sentence of time served.
.
Then came the George W. Bush administration that caused close to a million people to die uselessly in an illegal war in Iraq, robbed the American people blind, whose fumbling ignited the longest war in American history in Afghanistan, and whose greed came very close to sending the nation into yet another Great Depression.
.
Now, after all of their repeated efforts to deplete the national treasury, they're unanimously voting against every piece of legislation that the Democrats propose to repair the damage they created and to bring relief to the American people. Then they have the audacity to claim that they're doing it because they're concerned about deficit spending.
.
They're against affordable health care for American families; they're against any kind of spending to put Americans back to work, and they're against extending unemployment insurance to relieve the burden of America's unemployed. What's particularly telling, however, is they're also against any kind of strong legislation to prevent the financial community (them) from being able to rob the American people in the future.
.
The fact is, what they really want is to maintain the status quo, and make damn sure that the American people remained miserable, hungry, and divided until 2016 elections so they'd have a better chance to regain power and raid the treasury again. Republican Senate minority leader (now majority leader), Mitch McConnell, was frustrated and reckless enough to say it out loud prior to the 2012 election - "Our No. 1 priority is to make this president a one-term president" - not to save America, or to bring relief to the American people, but to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Flag pens in lapels and patriotic rhetoric notwithstanding, that says it all about the GOP's lack of concern for America, or the American people.
.
After they lost the 2012 election, their agenda has shifted to making sure that President Obama is not successful, because if he is, and you combine that with the rapidly changing demographic, that could spell doom for the future of the GOP - and it should, because they're grossly out of touch with reality, and, America's best interest. They're out to create a corporate feudalist society. The government shutdown, their repeated obstructionism, and their unconscionable attack on voters' rights clearly demonstrated that they have absolutely no respect for democracy.
.

And this is not just political rhetoric. Here is the activity of the Republican congress who ran in the 2010 election on their claim that their number one priority was to bring economic relief, and create jobs for the American people.
.
History is clear. The conservative Republicans don't mind spending money, they just don't want to spend it on those who need it - us. Remember, they're the party of Alexander Hamilton, one of this country's founding fathers who believed that only those who owned property should even be allowed to vote. He also said:
.
"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).
.
In 1965, CEOs were paid only 20.1 times more than the average worker. Today they make 231 times the average worker (http://www.minnpost.com/community-voices/2012/09/redistribution-wealth-has-gone-upward-not-down-early-80s).  As a direct result, the top 5% of the population now controls 82% of the wealth, while the bottom 80% only controls 7%. That's dangerous, and a direct threat to our democracy.  As a matter of fact, a study by Princeton University declares that the American government can no longer be called a democracy - it is now an oligarchy that's controlled by the rich.
.
So again, we need to stop buying into the ridiculous proposition that if we just make the one-percenters just a little bit richer they'll take care of us. We need to take care of ourselves, and our lower and middle-class workers. Thereafter, when they spend their money on goods and services, they'll create a thriving economy again. When we put money in the pockets of the poor and middle class it circulates - they go on vacations, which creates jobs; they buy their children toys and clothes, which creates jobs; and they buy new homes, which creates jobs. When we give our money to the rich, it goes into offshore accounts and we never see it again. That's why the bottom 80% of the people now only have 7% of the wealth.
.
We're being sold a bill of goods.  Corporations are making more profits than they ever made in their history, so there's no reason for unemployment to be so high. The reason that it is, however, is because the corporatists are purposely keeping unemployment high in order to strangle the American middle class into accepting a lower standard of living that will be more in keeping with the global economy.
.
Thus, we need to vote many of these demagogues out of office and vote people in who are willing to pass a Workers' Bill of Rights. Then we need to inform these corporatists that they're going to have to dance to a different drummer if they want to do business in the United States. If they don't want to comply, they'll have to do business elsewhere and make room for others who will happily take their place, and for far less money.

.

Eric L. Wattree

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

Sphere: Related Content

PREDICTION: GOP TO STUMBLE BADLY IN 2016 ELECTION

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

PREDICTION: GOP TO STUMBLE BADLY IN 2016 ELECTION

As I’m sure most of you know, the GOP is far from a bastion of intellectual giants. So winning the 2014's midterm election could be the worst thing that’s happened to the GOP in the past six years, and it could be the best thing that’s happened to the Democrats since Barack Obama’s 2008 election.
.
Now that the GOP has taken over congress, I suspect that they’re already beginning to recognize that their new role of congressional leadership is not quite as easy as their old role of irresponsible obstructionists. In the last congress, all Republicans had to do was sit back and come up with a pretext for saying no to everything. Then when things began to fall apart as a result of their irresponsible behavior, the American people blamed it on President Obama and the Democrats. But now, they have a responsibility to perform, and to initiate legislation to help move the country forward. That’s an entirely different ball game. Now they're going to be held accountable.
.
The GOP is also going to have to deal with the fact that their corporate supporters are now going to fully expect tons of favorable legislation heaped their way in return for the tons of cash they funneled into the GOP. Then, when you add to that, the virulent, and still growing, antipathy of the American people toward corporate greed, and the GOP’s long tradition - and what's become a conservative obligation - of trying to undermine every program designed to protect the average citizen, they’re between a rock and a hard place.   
.
In addition, conservatives tend to lack a sense of limits, in any event. So it’s not even a gamble to predict that they’re going to overreach and incur the wrath of the American people with their excesses, just like they did during the Civil Rights movement when they attacked civil rights marchers with dogs, brutality, and fire hoses on the street. I predict they’re going to repeat that mistake, but this time, instead of hosing down marchers in the street, they’re going to attempt to hose down the American people as a whole by unleashing the conservative dogs of greed and brutality attack the American middle-class safety net.
.
Due to their devastating defeat of the Democrats during the last election the GOP is more than likely going to misread the meaning of the election.  I doubt that they recognize that they won the last election due to the partisanship of undereducated voters in little towns and fiefdoms across America, not because, as they tend to believe, the American people actually agree with their pro 1% agenda. So they’re already started attacking the middle-class safety net, not realizing that nothing wakes up an undereducated partisan voter like being hit in their own pocket. Such voters tend to be all for the conservative agenda as long as it doesn’t have an impact on the security and comfort of their own lives. 
.
Another problem that Republicans have created for themselves is they seem to have brought out the warrior in President Obama. If the GOP had lost the midterm election, Obama probably would have continued to try to compromise with them in an attempt to get things done. The reason he was so intent on trying to compromise in the past is because he didn’t want to look like a bully who was just rolling over conservatives because he won the election. He’s free of that concern now. In addition, his legacy is on the line, so we’re beginning to see the Obama that many progressives have been calling for, and expected, when he was first elected.
.
So the GOP may very well become the classic victims of unintended consequences, because their behavior is going to change the image of Barack Obama and the Democrats in the eyes of many conservative-leaning partisans from "reckless socialists," to that of defenders of the people. As a direct result, it’s very likely that even as the GOP is hemorrhaging support by incurring the wrath of the American people, President Obama and the Democrats will be gaining support - and just in time for the 2016 election. 
.
Thus, Democrats shouldn’t be depressed over the results of the 2014 midterm election at all. On the contrary, they should be jumping with glee at this point, because they’re going to be in a great position for the 2016 Presidential election. Whoever is the Democratic nominee is nearly certain to become the next President of the United States, and I hope that ticket includes Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, in whatever order - and I predict that it will.  
.
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.

Sphere: Related Content

Portrait of a Sixty-Four Year-Old Child - Look At Rick Perry's Expression

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
 

Portrait of a Sixty-Four Year-Old  Child - Look At
Rick Perry's Expression

.

We're having a little fun with this, but we think it's newsworthy if for no other reason than to show America the kind of mentality we're having to put up with within the GOP.  Rick Perry's face says it all. I bet that's exactly how he looked at nine years old when he couldn't go outside and play. And these brats want us to trust them with the country?

.

*

Perhaps That's Why We Have This Statistic.

*

And the Most Horribly Un-American
Part About it is, the GOP is PURPOSELY
Trying to Keep America Suffering.

.

What Does That Mean For Suffering Americans?
Their Strategy is to Block All Jobs Bills . . .
.

and Then Criticize High Unemployment.
*

The GOP Actually Wants to Try to Impeach Me
For Trying To Help the American People!!!
Then, They Won't Do Their Job.

.

* 

You Can Always Tell When the President's Got Everything Under Control,

Because The GOP Starts Digging For Dirt - Like This:

.

Rush Limbaugh on the President Shooting Pool:

. 

"We have a border crisis, and the president is out there playing pool. Somebody offered him a hit, a doobie. (He had to be tempted.) The last thing this guy can afford to look like is the president right now. He's got to look like anything other than the president in order to stay in tight with the low-information pop culture crowd."

.

.

Bush Vacation Time

.

Bush Fighting Terror on the Golf Course

.

 .

The Bush Commitment to Getting Osama Bin Laden

.

.


I Suggest We Start the Search in
Dick Cheney's Offshore Accounts

*

A True Conservative's Assessment of Rush Limbaugh

.

.

Thank you, sir. That Just About Says it All.

.

Mr. President, it’s Time to Have A Few Fireside Chats.
.
The situation with the GOP has gotten way out of hand. They have literally become the domestic enemy of the United States, and the people need to be informed.
.
The racist animosities that are running rampant among ALL segments of the American people are playing right into the hands of the those who are our most insidious enemy – the global corporatists. These people are intent upon enslaving us all. The only difference between literal slavery and what they have in mind for us is, we'll have to provide our own housing.
.
These people are no longer Americans; they are now globalists, and America is just a virtual cotton field to them. And as long as they keep the poor and middle class fighting and hating one another, we’ll be powerless against their social and political manipulation. So "illegal aliens" and others are far from the biggest threat to the American way of life – the corporatists are.
.

 *

Fellow Americans, Don't Let Our Ignorance Destroy US
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/07/fellow-americans-dont-let-our-ignorance.html

 

 

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.

 

Sphere: Related Content