Showing posts with label The Fairness Doctrine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Fairness Doctrine. Show all posts

Sunday, September 17, 2017

A MESSAGE TO HILLARY CLINTON CULTISTS

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

A MESSAGE TO HILLARY CLINTON CULTISTS
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Whenever Clinton cultists try to point their finger at those of us who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton it makes me want to throw up.  They shouldn’t point their finger at those of us who refused to vote for this woman, but look to themselves for being so delusional that they thought they could force the most hated and distrusted Democratic nominee down the people’s throat since the Civil War. 
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The Democrats didn’t lose to Trump on election night; Trump became the President-Elect during the Democratic primaries due to the unrealistic, short-sighted, and uninformed stupidity of Clinton cultists during the Democratic primaries. They didn’t have sense enough to realize that  trying to force America to choose between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was like trying to force INFORMED Americans to choose between cyanide and strychnine. In addition, they failed to realize that conservatives who claimed not to like Trump, secretly loved everything he stood for, so when they went into the voting booth, they secretly voted for him.
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On the other hand, trying to get INFORMED progressives to vote for Hillary Clinton - who, again, was the most lying, distrusted, and hated Democratic nominee since the Civil War - they were asking progressives who were much more informed than themselves to vote for David Duke, since the Clintons have done a hundred times more damage to the American middle class, minorities, and the Black community than the Klan has ever done. So they need to put that dumb-ass bullshit to rest.  We have Trump as a direct result of Clinton cultist’s closed-minded lying, deceit, corruption, and uninformed determination to shove Hillary Clinton down America’s throat in spite of the fact that we said we didn’t want her. 
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The Clintons walk like liberals and talk like liberals but they always seem to leave conservative policies in their wake. They've been more successful in promoting the conservative agenda and destroying the American middle class way of life than any administration in American history, including Ronald Reagan's. They're responsible for NAFTA, which allowed $20 an hour jobs to be sent out of the country to be performed by people who make less per week than many upper-middle class Americans spent on lunch per day, and they gutted Glass-Steagall (which President Roosevelt put into place to prevent Wall Street greed from plunging the nation into a second Great Depression), which led directly to the 2008 Wall Street crash. Clinton also abolished the Fairness Doctrine (no, it wasn't Reagan as many people think. Reagan simply prevented it from being elevated from a regulation to a law, but Clinton abolished it outright). That led to the creation of the corporate media culture and propaganda machines like Fox News that were then allowed to spew conservative propaganda and disinformation with impunity.
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Clinton's "Welfare Reform" led to the undue suffering of millions of poor Americans. And then, after colluding with Ronald Reagan to flood the Black community with crack cocaine while governor of Arkansas, after becoming president, even as Black people were running around calling him our “first Black president,” Clinton signed the most draconian crime bill in United States history to incarcerate on a massive scale the very victims of the crime that HE committed, just to prove to Republicans that he wasn’t “soft on coons” - and he actually paid states EXTRA to give those victims longer sentences. As result, today there are more Black people under the control of the prison industrial complex than were enslaved in all of America in 1850, a decade prior to the Civil War, and that very same prison industrial complex became one of Hillary Clinton's largest and most prolific political contributors.
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Thus, as a direct result of Clinton’s unconscionable actions the lives of hundreds of thousands of Black people have been completely destroyed - and it’s still having a negative impact on Black people today. There's currently a huge part of an entire generation of young Black people who don't know anything about their culture, and don't really know what it means to be Black, because the people who were responsible for teaching them were either dead, in prison, or mentally disabled by the affects of crack cocaine. As a direct result, instead of developing their potential and preparing for the future, many of these young people, who were literally raised by the corporate media, have been conditioned to believe that their role in life is to be criminals, drug addicts, and at the very bottom of society. In addition, they're being mesmerized by the media by being fed a constant diet of music that celebrates drug use, killing one another, and referring to the very womb of their culture as "bitches and hoes." So their fate is all but sealed. And worse, they're unfit parents for the generation that's coming up - and speaking of unfit parents . . . .
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So when anyone even suggests that I should have voted for Hillary Clinton, I'm absolutely insulted, because it clearly demonstrates that they are, at the very least, completely indifferent to the atrocities that the Clintons committed against the Black community - and unbelievably, this includes many Black people!!! These people will say, "Okay, okay, so they destroyed a generation of Black people and herded others into concentration camps, but what else have they done wrong?" Give me a break!!! If a new election were held tomorrow and my vote alone would determine the outcome, I'd still vote against Hillary, Trump, or noTrump.  It’s much easier to fight a bloviating idiot than it is the insidious treachery of a Hillary Clinton, because it’s more subtle, and not in your face.
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The New York Times reported the following:
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“In lucrative paid speeches that Hillary Clinton delivered to elite financial firms but refused to disclose to the public, she displayed an easy comfort with titans of business, embraced unfettered international trade and praised a budget-balancing plan that would have required cuts to Social Security, according to documents posted online Friday by WikiLeaks.
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“The tone and language of the excerpts clash with the fiery liberal approach she used later in her bitter primary battle with Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and could have undermined her candidacy had they become public.
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“Mrs. Clinton comes across less as a firebrand than as a technocrat at home with her powerful audience, willing to be critical of large financial institutions but more inclined to view them as partners in restoring the country’s economic health.
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“In the excerpts from her paid speeches to financial institutions and corporate audiences, Mrs. Clinton said she dreamed of “open trade and open borders” throughout the Western Hemisphere. Citing the back-room deal-making and arm-twisting used by Abraham Lincoln, she mused on the necessity of having “both a public and a private position” on politically contentious issues [In other words, sometimes it’s necessary to lie to the people].  Reflecting in 2014 on the rage against political and economic elites that swept the country after the 2008 financial crash, Mrs. Clinton acknowledged that her family’s rising wealth had made her “kind of far removed” from the struggles of the middle class.”

HILLARY CLINTON DOG-WHISTLING THE ASSISSANATION OF BARACK OBAMA


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HILLARY CLINTON: A DEMOCRATIC DISASTER JUST WAITING TO HAPPEN

SO DON’T SAY YOU WEREN’T
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http://wattree.blogspot.com/2016/07/hillary-clinton-democratic-disaster.html
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Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.


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Wednesday, September 23, 2015

AN ENLIGHTENED BRAIN CAN'T BE WASHED

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

AN ENLIGHTENED BRAIN CAN'T BE WASHED
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While government has a role in improving conditions in the Black community, the ROOT of our problem is a lack of education and knowledge, and we can't wait for the government to address that issue, because the GOP has dedicated their very existence to dumbing America down, and with good reason - enlightened people don't vote Republican.
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But we could turn their malevolence into our advantage if we're smart. While they're hard at work dumbing the rest of America down, we should double-down on educating ourselves and making the pursuit of knowledge a way of life. That way we can level the playing field. We could make ourselves some of the most literate people in America, because our problem is not a lack of intelligence, it's an indifference toward knowledge. We need to become knowledge junkies.
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We must also educate one another in the wisdom of an enlightened way of life, just like we currently educate one another in our current toxic way of life. I've seen it done before, in the sixties - I'm a product of that environment. When I was in elementary school they were about to place me in "Special Training."  I like to had a fit, because Special Training students were separated in their own little bungalow at the very back of the school, and they marched in formation everywhere they went - the rest of the kids used to call them the Retard Brigade. I became so distraught over the idea of being placed in Special Training that my teacher, Ms. Lady Lee, convinced the principal, Mr. DeTonto, to give her the rest of the year to work with me.
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ONE GOOD TEACHER IS WORTH A BOATLOAD
OF POLITICIANS
But in the end, all she did was teach me that you ARE what you think (that's why it's so important not to think of ourselves as victims). And then she gave me a tip: She said the key to looking, and BEING, smart was to ALWAYS stay one chapter ahead of the class (that forced me to start studying and taking my homework more seriously). I was so determined to stay out of Special Training that I made studying a way of life.  I started outlining our textbooks, and giving each point they made its own place in the outline. Within a month I had outlined all of our textbooks and knew their content backwards and forward. I suspect that's why I'm a writer today, because without knowing it, I fell in love with compositional structure in the process.
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But thereafter, Ms. Lee started asking questions in class that she knew I was the only one who could answer, and I did.  At first, my classmates were amazed, and then finally, they started treating me with a new respect (and so did my mother), and that reinforced my understanding of the value of knowledge. So at the end of the semester, instead of going into Special Training, I went into an advanced class with students who were a year ahead of me, and I've been fooling people by using Ms. Lee's tip every since - because life is not about how brilliant you are, but how knowledgeable.
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Then during the sixties, the Black community went through a similar process. We spun on a dime (or maybe I should say "they spun on a dime," because I was a little late getting on board - I was "doing time" in the Marine Corps). But the community went from being filled with street gangs and crime, to being filled with dashiki-wearing street philosophers. Former gangsters became Black Panthers and joined other organizations to help enlighten and feed the poor. We recognized that we had to do these things ourselves in order to gain the political clout to FORCE the government to change its ways - and eventually it did, and the community began to rapidly move forward. Ford, General Motors, and other major corporations began to open their doors to Black workers, giving them access to the middle class, and the government began to PAY people to be educated and trained.
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We made it cool to be knowledgeable.  If a brother wasn't enlightened, he couldn't even get a girlfriend. It became so hip to be Black that White folks were trying to nap their hair up and wear naturals, and White girls were walking around in cornrows. That's how the Rock and hippie revolution got started. Before that, White musicians were going on stage in black suits and ties singing "Rock Around the Clock," and "Venus" - so we've already demonstrated that we can influence the world.
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ALL WE NEED TO SUCCEED IS
THE DESIRE
But we tend to always allow the White establishment to think 10 years ahead of us (that's why I'm so big on making education our number one priority). They introduced acid, speed, and other drugs into the mix, and the lure of these drugs began to drag us back down. Then in the eighties Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" - one of the nation's primary educational tools, which forced network and radio stations to give equal time to opposing voices every time they tried to spew conservative propaganda - and then Reagan flooded the inner cities with crack ("Just say no!!!!?"). That devastated two generations of Black people. As a result, that severed the connection of the third generation from their Black cultural heritage, because the parents who were supposed to be teaching them about their culture were crackheads. Then the establishment used the media, with things like MTV and BET to serve as a re-education tool, which brings us to where we are today.
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Thus, it is essential that the Black community come together and re-establish our connection with our cultural roots. It's no accident that we no longer see people like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, or Ray Charles coming out of the Black community anymore. The reason for that is we now have a generation of young Black people where many are just as remote from their Black roots as many White people. Yes, they have Black skin, but thanks to the machinations of the White establishment, they aren't anything like Black people once were. They're like cardboard, imitation Blacks who are reminiscent of real Black people.
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Think about it - isn't it ironic that, with the exception of people like Janet Jackson, Tyrese, Mariah, and a handful of others, one of the closest examples of old-school Black soul currently in the public domain is being put out by Robin Thick? - and I know, because I'm a lifelong jazz musician, so I'm listening . . . and Robin sounds good!  And the same is true in jazz.  If you go to a concert where they're playing REAL jazz, it looks like a Tea Party convention, because this generation of Black people don't support, or even KNOW, their own culture. (http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/07/relections-on-stanley-crouch-mtume.html)
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So we'd better wake up, or 50 years from now the only people who are going to have the musical skills to play Black music are gonna be White, because they're devouring our music in music schools and conservatories all over the world as we speak, while we've been seduced by the dollar to spew vulgar nursery rhymes to the beat of electronic drum machines.
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That's what I mean by addressing our cultural infrastructure. We've got to stop thinking of ourselves as victims.  The word "victim" suggests weakness, and Black people are not weak. The adversity that we've endured has made us MORE, rather than less. We simply have to recognize that fact, and be PROACTIVE  in addressing our issues instead of simply reacting to cultural assaults. The bottom line is, we've got to stop telegraphing everything that's on our minds by screaming and grabbing microphones. No one is impressed by that; it just makes us look like reckless idiots. We've got to begin to use our minds to forge innovative and thoughtful approaches to resolving our issues, and we have the resources within our community to do that, right now.  And we must always keep in mind the words of Frederick Douglass - "Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave."
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"THE SAME BOILING WATER THAT SOFTENS THE POTATO, HARDENS THE EGG.  SO IT'S NOT ABOUT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES, IT'S ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE MADE OF."
Eric L. Wattree 
Http://wattree.blogspot.com 
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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Monday, January 19, 2015

America Is Suffering Because We've Turned Our Political 'Employees' Into Aristocrats

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

America Is Suffering Because We’ve Turned Our Political ‘Employees’ Into Aristocrats
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I often hear people complaining about how our system has broken down. As a solution they generally propose that we put term limits into place, and/or institute government-financed elections. I’m all for the latter, but I’m totally against term limits because it takes away the citizens’ right to return people to office who represent them well. I’m against any measure that takes away a citizen’s ‘right to choose.’
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But the assertion that the system has broken down begs the question. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the system as it is. WE are the problem, not the system. We are negligently apathetic. Those of us who even bother to vote and keep ourselves informed about what’s going on around us assume that we can simply vote for the politicians we like then go on about our business and allow the politicians to run the country, but that’s not it’s supposed to work.
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The United States is a huge corporation, we’re the Board of Directors, and politicians are our EMPLOYEES, not our leaders - we’re THEIR leaders, and we’re doing an absolutely horrible job of leading. So again, the system is not the problem, we're simply an incompetent board of directors.
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Instead of staying on top of the day-to-day activities of our corporation as any competent board of directors would do, we’re choosing to remain at home watching BET, MTV, ESPN, and allowing our employees a free hand to run our valuable corporation as they see fit, and as a direct result of our gross negligence, our employees are doing what unsupervised employees are prone to do - taking advantage of the situation by giving themselves undeserved raises and perks, doing favors for family, friends, and favored associates, and generally squandering the corporation's assets.
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So we need to get a handle on this, and we can do just that very easily - and without changing one law. All we have to do is decide that enough is enough, and start firing employees. Corporation's don’t control this government, we do. But the problem is, we’re allowing corporations to control us by using their wealth to influence our thinking. That’s the one and only thing that gives money clout in our political system, it’s being used to influence our thinking. So we’re right back to square one - we’re being manipulated because we’re refusing to educate ourselves and we’re ALLOWING ourselves to be. We are, LITERALLY, allowing snake oil salesmen to come into our homes and convince us that we’re un-American if we don’t buy their snake oil.
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We’ve allowed the Supreme Court to tell us that a non-citizen head of a foreign corporation has as much of a right to the freedom of speech in OUR political system as an American citizen, and we're merely accepting that - and virtually, without even a whimper. That is patently a corrupt and ridiculous ruling. So of course the system is breaking down, because we, as the nation's  board of directors, are being stupidly incompetent and unassertive.
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Again, even if we were talking about exclusively American corporations, that ruling is corrupt and ridiculous, and we need to be taking aggressive action against it. Because the fact is, the only reason a corporation is a corporation in the first place is so its members can avoid personal responsibility, and liability, for its missteps. So the members of the corporation can’t have it both ways. If a corporation is a person, then EVERY person that is a part of that corporation should be held PERSONALLY responsible if it pollutes half the Eastern seaboard due to an oil spill, or causes an earthquake due to fracking, or causes devastating hurricanes due to heating up our environment. And another thing that makes the ruling ridiculous is EVERY member of a given corporation ALREADY has the freedom of speech as individuals, so by also allowing them to assert their will, or speak, as a corporation, is by definition, giving them more rights than the average American citizen. While we may shout, this conservative Supreme Court has given corporations, including foreign corporations, a megaphone.

So what can we do to turn this situation around?

In order to turn this situation around, we must, first, educate ourselves and change our mindset. We must make pouring tons of money into a political campaign a liability rather than an asset in our political process. If we see that any politician or political initiative is being backed by a huge political war chest of funds, we should simply assume that the politician is in the pocket of some corporation or entity that’s not working in the best interest of the people, and the same is true of any political initiative.
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If the people would simply tune-in to the fact that corporations are trying to buy the government, then vote any politician out of office who supported them, and thereafter, exact a pound of flesh from the corporations in the next congress for even attempting to manipulate the system, we wouldn’t have to change one law - even Citizens United. That is the way this system is supposed to work, and that would make money meaningless in politics. Thus, we should seek out our political information through research and grassroots sources, because ultimately, education is the key to resolving all of our problems - at least, the systemic ones.
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Secondly, we must bring the political perks and salaries of politicians back into line with the median income of the American middle class. As I continually point out, America is currently knee-deep in a class war. A study done by Princeton University declares that America is no longer a democracy; it is now an oligarchy, completely controlled by the wealthy, and easily researched facts bear that out. The top 5% of the people in this country control 82% of the wealth, while the bottom 80% of Americans only control 7% of the wealth. Once that percentage dwindles down to 5%, and then 2%, we’ll be virtual slaves. As I’ve mentioned before, the only difference between the condition we’re going to find ourselves in and actual slavery is we’ll have to provide our own housing.
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Yet, we’re paying the people who "represent" us such huge salaries and perks that we’ve elevated them into the class that seeks to enslave us. We’ve got to correct that situation, because our so-call representatives are doing so much better than we are that even if they wanted to, they can no longer identify with us, and many of them no longer even try. So we need to place a ceiling on their salaries and perks not to exceed the median range of the American middle class, and also attach them to a given percentage above the minimum wage.
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And finally, we need to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in order to curb the flood of demagoguery and disinformation that’s completely overwhelming truth in our political system.
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The Fairness Doctrine provided that if any television or radio station in America broadcasted a purely partisan perspective on a public issue, they had to provide equal time to the opposing point of view. The doctrine’s purpose was first, to keep the American people informed, and secondly, to prevent the demagoguery that we see today on Fox News, and it served its purpose well. It provided endless public debate on every public issue, and that, in turn, served to keep the nation informed of every side of every issue. In addition, a person like Rush Limbaugh couldn’t have existed under the Fairness Doctrine, at least, not without having a liberal sitting right next to him who could challenge every lie he told. But some stations found that too combative, so they simply gave a liberal a show with equal time that immediately followed shows like Rush Limbaugh's.
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Some suggest that the Freedom of Information Act abridges a network's right to freedom of speech, but I contend that no network should have the right to corrupt the system with lies.  That's akin to shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater - or worse, because we're not simply talking about bringing possible harm to a room full of people, we're talking about bringing DEMONSTRATED harm to an entire nation.
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But conservatives found that when the people were informed of the facts, the conservative point of view always fell short. That’s why it became so important to them to abolish the doctrine, so they could spew their lies and propaganda with impunity - and that’s exactly what came to pass. Immediately after Ronald Reagan abolished the doctrine, conservative-leaning corporations began to buy up most of the media outlets across the country, effectively shutting out the liberal perspective from the American people. That monopoly, and the ability to corrupt public discourse, must be brought to an end.
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So the only thing left to discuss at this point is how are we going to get politicians to conform to our wishes. That one’s easy - we vote ‘em out of office if they don’t.
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Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

 

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Monday, December 29, 2014

A CALL TO ARMS FOR THE ENLIGHTENED GENERATION: LET US MAKE OUR FINAL ENCORE MAGNIFICENT!

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
 
A CALL TO ARMS FOR THE ENLIGHTENED GENERATION:
LET US MAKE OUR FINAL ENCORE MAGNIFICENT!
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The generation of "Baby Boomers" that came up during the 50s and 60s will forever be remembered as the "Enlightened Generation." We were special. The world had never seen anything like us before, and for the most part, the nation still reflects just how special we were. We were just idealistic kids, but we got it right. We embraced knowledge, educated ourselves, and then demanded that this nation adhere to the values that it professed to hold dear. Even this nation’s founding fathers found it expedient to comprise some of their values, but we didn’t compromise even one, and the fact that this nation elected its first Black president on our watch - a mere fifty years after Black people were being attacked by police dogs for exercising the simple right to sit at public lunch counters - will forever stand as a monument to the astounding impact that we’ve had on this nation. But we got yet one more task to perform before we move on. While we're still around, we’ve GOT to educate the young people of this nation to begin to follow in our footsteps.
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As we’ve aged, our numbers have began to diminish, so the nation, and the world, have started to backslide - and it didn’t happen spontaneously. It was a planned and orchestrated attack against everything we represent. It started nearly 35 years ago under the Reagan administration. First they began to attack public information by abolishing the "Fairness Doctrine." The Fairness Doctrine provided that if any television or radio station in America broadcasted a purely partisan perspective on a public issue, they had to provide equal time to the opposing point of view.
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The doctrine’s purpose was first, to keep the American people informed, and secondly, to prevent the demagoguery that we see today on Fox News, and it served its purpose well. It provided endless public debate on every public issue, and that, in turn, served to keep the nation informed of every side of every issue. In addition, a person like Rush Limbaugh couldn’t have existed under the Fairness Doctrine, at least, not unless he had a liberal sitting right next to him who could challenge every lie he told. But some stations found that too combative, so they simply gave a liberal a show with equal time that immediately followed shows like Rush Limbaugh's.
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But conservatives found that when the people were informed of the facts, the conservative point of view always fell short. That’s why it was so important to them to abolish the doctrine, so they could spew their lies and propaganda with impunity. Then after they successfully got the doctrine abolished, conservative-leaning corporations began to buy up all the media outlets across the country, effectively shutting out the liberal perspective from the American people. It got so bad under George W. Bush that only conservative commentators were being broadcasted to the troops in Iraq. I tried to take up the slack by communicating with the troops online, and I had quite a following. But after a while, a military commander contacted me and politely asked me to cease and desist. He said that I was hurting moral. I found that to be both a profoundly significant, and an extremely telling point of view. If truth hurt moral, what did that say about the mission? 
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After the conservatives effectively blocked the liberal perspective from the airways, they then turned to our educational system. They used tax laws and various other measures to attack and defund our educational system in order to ensure that the generations that followed the Baby Boomers didn’t have the educational background to become independent and critical thinkers. As a direct result of the machinations of this Corporate/GOP alliance, today many people with college degrees lack much of the knowledge that the enlighten generation was armed with when they entered high school. That’s why it’s routine to hear the Republican base make statements like, "Barack Obama is un-American - he’s involved in a socialist plot to insure my family against catastrophic illness." Many in the Republican base actually accept such gross stupidity as logically valid. Personally, I find the fact that people’s minds can be manipulated to that level of stupidity kind of scary.
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Thus, the brutal attack that's currently being waged by conservatives on the nation's educational system that's been ongoing for the passed thirty years, is in direct response to what the enlightened generation was, and who we remain to be.
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We hold the distinction of bringing America closer to what it professes to be than any generation in the history of this country. So we, as a generation, possess the quality of intellect that rabid conservatives are doing their very best to ensure never arises again. We are a direct threat to their agenda to convert America from being a democratic republic, to becoming a corporate feudalist state, where they can lower the standard of living of the American middle class to one that conforms more closely to the global economy, where in many countries, workers make less per week, than many American workers spend on lunch per day.
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And they’re coming very close to achieving that goal. A Princeton University study has declared that the United States is no longer a democratic republic; we’re now an oligarchy that’s controlled by the rich. The top 5% of the nation now control 72% of the wealth, and the bottom 80% of Americans only control 7% of the wealth. This has come about just since the Reagan administration. But consider this. Once the bottom 80% of Americans only control 5%, then 3%, and then later, none of the nation’s wealth, our children - both Black and White - for all intent and purposes, will be slaves. Thus, this is no longer a struggle about merely race - race is now only used to keep the poor and middle class divided. We are now knee deep in a CLASS struggle, and it’s the most dangerous threat to the American way of life that the nation has EVER faced.
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So as Baby Boomers, this nation’s enlighten generation, we have yet one more task to perform for this nation. We must do our best to see to it that our legacy lives on. It is essential that when we leave this Earth, that we leave our spirit behind - we owe it to the nation, we owe it to our children, and we owe it to our passionate brothers and sisters who are now in the wind. That is my life’s mission, and that should be the mission of ALL of us who are still around. We must muster the strength to come together for one final rally against those who are out to destroy our children’s way of life.
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America may not have always lived up to its ideals, but what made it special was it had ideals. That’s what made a generation like ours possible. But that’s no longer the case. Radical conservatives have changed that. At one time Americans could look forward with optimism, but not now - they’ve changed America into an ugly, evil, and dark place of mass suffering (when was the last time you saw a conservative who wasn't mean and hateful - in spite, of their professed Christian values). At one time politicians of different political persuasions could work together to further the interest of the American people, but not now - radical conservatives routinely hold the American people hostage in order to promote their malevolent agenda, and will vote any one of their number out of office who wants to act responsibly on behalf of the people.  At one time politicians sought to inspire, but not now - conservatives seek to anger, and turn one American against another. That’s the only way that they can survive, because their agenda is so toxic to the American way of life that they have to appeal to the very worst in the nature of humanity in order to generate enough hatred between one American and another to get them to vote against their own interest.
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So America needs us more than ever. We may no longer have the vigor that we once had, but we still have the passion, and not only that, we possess the most potent weapon that the domestic enemies of America will ever face - knowledge. We are the most knowledgeable people in America, so as we prepare to leave the stage, let us remind these chumps what we’re made of, and let our final encore be one of love for our children and grand children. Instead of simply saying good night, let us leave them with the gift of love, happiness, and the kind of security that we enjoyed.
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So as we prepare to make our final exit, let us come together one last time and tell our children, "Don’t worry, babies, We got this!" And after we’ve defeated these scoundrels, and as we walk out the door after our final curtain, let us not forget to leave a message for history . . . "All You Need is Love." Only then, will we be free to join our brothers and sisters in the mist, with our heads held high.
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ONE FOR BOOMER
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Receding hairline, failing vision,
hair now turning grey,
an aging boomer in final protest,
Father Time his foe this day.
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Donning his headband, tie-dyed jeans,
and scorched draft card of protests past,
he set out for one last battle,
as in his youth that had quietly passed.
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Ode to an aging Boomer,
a different kind of man;
colleagues all now in the wind,
as he makes his final stand.
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But he found no placards or the sound of Trane,
no passionate speeches in the gentle rain,
no pretty girls wearing mini skirts,
and no solemn guards on ‘pig’ alert.
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All he found was a new America,
and more freedom across this land;
the fruit of his struggle
for women's equality,
and the rights of his fellow man.
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He found Martin, Chavez, and Malcolm X,
all standing by his side;
He found Thomas Jefferson
and all his forefathers
beaming down with pride.
.
He found minority children across this land
whose reach now exceed their grasp;
He found Jim Crow angrily cursing him,
as he took his final gasp.
.
He found pride as an aging boomer,
more hero, than common man;
He found a quirky old fart embraced by history,
for having the courage to take a stand.
.
Alone, an aging Boomer,
fellow travelers now in the wind;
but once again, he limps to his trench,
to defend his fellow man.
.


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

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