What President Obama Represents - One Of The Greatest Presidents America Has Ever Had

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

What President Obama Represents - One Of The Greatest Presidents America Has Ever Had

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FORMER OBAMA CRITIC AND 
NOBEL PRIZE WINNING ECONOMIST

I get so tired of hearing Black Obama critics claiming that the Black community only supports President Obama because he's Black that if I hear it one more time, the person who says it better do it online, because if he says it in my face, I'm gonna throw up all over 'em. So, although I've said many of the things I'm about to say as a part of previous articles, I think they're worth repeating in an article of their own. I'm utilizing a lesson I learned from Fox News - repetition is the key to getting through to the people. So I figured, if they can get lies across through repetition, certainly I should be able to get across the truth.
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With that said, of course Black people support President Obama because he's Black. Do you really expect us to apologize for that?  We'd have to be idiots not to.  But that's only one reason we support him; the other is, he just happens to be one of the greatest presidents this country has EVER had, and he's carrying our banner high. He's dragging the racist myth that Black people are inferior through the mud, and he's taking that mud and pushing their ignorant little racist faces in it - and without once losing his congenial demeanor. So yes, Black people support President Obama, and if you're Black, and you don't, you're a fool.
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Another myth is that Black resent any criticism of Obama. That's a gross corruption of the truth. Black people don't resent criticism of President Obama -  he should be held to the very same standard as any other president - but we do resent slander, and that is EXACTLY what many of his Black critics engage in - and to the great benefit and delight of the GOP, the world's most dedicated enemy of the poor and minority community.
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Thus, what people like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, Boyce Watkins, and others of their ilk actually see coming from the Black community is Black outrage over their indulging in the crabs-in-a-barrel mentality that was inbred into them as slaves.  insightful and forward-thinking Black people also resent their mindset, which is identical to the mindset of White racists.  It's a mindset that says, "President Obama was uppity to even think he could become  President of the United States in the first place, and after stumbling into office through some sort of circumvention of natural selection and the will of God, he's indulging in the height of arrogance to even assume he's actually qualified to do 'a White man's' job.  So by definition, he's not one of us.  He's sold out.  He's a Black man who doesn't know his place, so he can't be trusted."  It's a classic example of a Willie Lynch-inspired  mentality.
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So most Black people recognize that many of these people are not really interested in policy; they’re just using public policy as a pretext for attacking the President himself, and they’re so steeped in their Willie Lynch mentality that they either don’t realize, or don’t care, that they’re doing a grave disservice not only to the African-American community, but to Black people all over the world.
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Because Black people also recognize that many of Obama’s White conservative critics aren’t really interested in public policy either.  Much Like Obama’s Black critics, they have an ulterior motive as well, but their motive has nothing to do with Willie Lynch. Their primary motive is defending their claim of White superiority, and again, President Obama, in his soft-spoken and laid-back way, is dragging that myth through the mud. That’s why racists and conservatives hate him so.
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Conservatives recognize, as we all should - and especially these so-called Black "intellectuals" - that President Obama is not just another president.  President Obama is the most high-profile symbol of Black competence in the world. In addition, what he has accomplished is the perfect equivalent of a conquered slave rising to become the emperor of Rome - and, one of Rome's greatest emperors.  So Barack Obama is going to be remembered by posterity as one of the greatest men in ALL of human history, and his story will be inspiring Black children a thousand years from now.
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Racists and conservatives recognize that fact, so naturally, they’re desperate to tear down Barack Obama’s image and build up the image of criminals like Ronald Wilson Reagan, and there is no excuse for Black idiots like Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and Boyce Watkins not to recognize that fact. That’s what makes them so detestable. Instead of trying to help racists tear down this Black icon, they should be offering RESPECTFUL suggestions in an attempt to ensure that Barack Obama is remembered as one of the greatest Presidents that this nation has ever had, even if they have to drag him up Mt. Rushmore kicking and screaming.  But instead, they’re allowing themselves to be used by racists who are claiming, "See, even Black people know he doesn’t live up to the standard of White presidents."
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Thus, people like Smiley and West are giving their own egos, self-service, and their Willie Lynch-inspired need to tear-down a Black historic icon priority over Black history, and the role that history is going to play in helping to raise the self-concept of the Black culture.  In short, they’re trying to sabotage the self-esteem of Black children who are yet unborn. The mere thought of that kind of ignorant selfishness is absolutely disgusting - and especially when clothed in faux scholarship.
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So Cornel West and the others like him are not Black leaders, they’re clueless Black cultural afflictions, and if I wanted to take even more time (maybe I'll do it in a book), I could methodically take apart every argument that they've put forward against President Obama. But the short version is, there are some things we have to do for ourselves - and with good reason.
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As alleged "educated" men, they should all realize that Obama is merely President Obama, not King Obama.  The United States Constitution is very specific in giving SOLE power over spending to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans (that’s why they could refuse to pay the light bill and shutdown the government). So President Obama can’t do a damn thing for Black people without getting the Republicans to go along with him. That’s why he has to slip the Black community everything on the down-low, because if the GOP knows an initiative is designed to help struggling minorities they’re going to dig-in, and if Obama goes to war against them over the issue, they're not going to allow him to do anything for ANYBODY, and as President of ALL the people, he can't allow that to happen, so he has to wrap Black interests in the interest of ALL the people.
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In addition, as a thinking man (unlike many of them), Obama realizes that he has to take precedent into account.  If he grandstands like many of these brain-children suggest, and say, "This is what I'm going to do for Black people," what are they going to do when the next White president says, "This is what I'm going to do for White people?" - and he'll justify it by calling it "The Obama Doctrine."
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So Cornel West, Tavis Smiley - and also you others who share their backward-thinking proclivities - you need to use some of that alleged brain power to think instead of burning it up trying to maintain your image, or attempting to hide your true motivations for attacking this President. I didn’t hear you saying a damn thing when Bush was in office. So you're not fooling anyone.  You're just making damn fools of yourselves.  While you can try to clothe your true motivations in the tux of faux scholarship,  it's a tux that reeks of the funky smell of Willie Lynch all over it.

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LET THERE BE NO DOUBT ABOUT IT, 

WILLIE LYNCH IS LIVE AND WELL 

IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY

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What Has Obama Done For The Poor And Middle Class?
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-has-obama-done-for-poor-and-middle.html
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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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Cornel West In Concert: Would You Have Given Him Tickets To Your Inaugural?

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

Cornel West Responds To Michael Dyson Take-Down

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In response to Michael Eric Dyson's scathing take-down, West issued what must have been the shortest comment of his career - probably because Dyson was so thorough in his take-down that it didn't leave West much room for a defense. But even what he did say was so delusional, self-serving, and disingenuous that it ventured into the realm of other-worldliness. One of the things that West said was the following:
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"Character assassination is the refuge of those who hide and conceal these issues in order to rationalize their own allegiance to the status quo."
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What!!!!!!?  West either doesn't even bother to listen to his own rhetoric, or he's been in a somnambulistic trance for the past 6 years. He's never seen a high-profile BLACK person who overshadows him whose character he didn't want to assassinate - he tends to give White folks a pass.  Have you ever heard West say ANYTHING, other than a casual passing remark, regarding the impact that Republican obstructionism is having on poverty?  I don't think so.  And is West doing ANYTHING to inform the public that the United States Constitution gives the United States House of Representatives SOLE power over spending, so anything that President Obama wants to do for the poor and middle class he has to get the Republican controlled House to go along with him?  No he is not. He's trying to give the public the impression that President Obama is KING Obama, and why? - in an attempt to assassinate the President's character (http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-has-obama-done-for-poor-and-middle.html).
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And finally , West is more disingenuous than any demagogue in the public sphere. He tried to paint President Obama as an ingrate for not giving him tickets to the inaugural. If you'd like to know why he didn't get tickets, just watch West "in concert" below, and then ask yourself, would you have given him tickets? West makes a valiant attempt to represent himself as being "a man of the people," but when you're disingenuous, your true mindset seeps out through the cracks, and West's true mindset slipped out in a big way in his performance below. He said that Barack Obama represented "unadulterated mediocrity," In other words, this Black man wasn't qualified to live up to the standards of  the White presidents of the past - and this was WHILE we were suffering through the gross incompetence of George W. Bush, who WEST helped to get elected.   So he has to be a complete and clueless, self-serving egomaniac to even EXPECT the President to give him a pass on his comments.
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Listen to this guy! - and notice the arrogant smirk on Tavis Smiley's face as "his boy" performs.  But West got so caught up in his performance that he went WAY over the top. Up until that time, I was caught up in the hype about Cornel West myself. But it was at the moment below that I first recognized that we weren't dealing with an intellectual; we were dealing with a fool, and I've been on a mission every since. So I welcome the the insight that Michael Eric Dyson has brought to this debate on West. Maybe with someone of his stature essentially co-signing on what I've been saying for the past 7 years, I'll no longer be spittin' in the wind.

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CORNEL WEST IN CONCERT

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BEFORE THE ELECTION

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AND CONSIDER THIS - EVEN AS CORNEL WEST WAS ASKING OBAMA "WHERE'S YOUR MONEY COMING FROM?" IN THE VIDEO ABOVE, TAVIS SMILEY (HIS GOOD BUDDY AND CLOSEST ASSOCIATE) WAS INVOLVED IN THE WELLS FARGO "GHETTO SCAM," WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, WAS THE SECOND LARGEST HOUSING DISCRIMINATION CASE IN THE NATION'S HISTORY, AND CAUSED 30,000 POOR AND MIDDLE CLASS MINORITIES TO LOSE THEIR HOMES AND LIFE SAVINGS.  WELLS FARGO SETTLED THE CASE FOR  $175 MILLION.  BACK THEN TAVIS SMILEY WAS RIDING HIGH, SO NOTICE HE AND CORNEL'S ARROGANCE, AS THOUGH BARACK OBAMA HAD AN OBLIGATION TO COME AND GET THEIR BLESSING TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT. ALSO NOTE THAT NOW THAT SMILEY HAS LOST POPULARITY, WEST HAS CUT TIES WITH HIM, EVEN AFTER REMAINING CONNECTED AT THE HIP (AND WITHOUT OPENING HIS MOUTH) DURING THE WELLS FARGO SCANDAL. 

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AFTER THE ELECTION

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Cornel West spews more racist rhetoric than any Republican in America. The reason for that is he’s essentially an entertainer who specializes in shock and race-baiting as his one and only routine. Clear evidence of that is he's over the top in everything that defines him - he's over the top in his personal image, in his overly gesticulative presentation, and his rhetoric is invariably inflammatory. Everything about him is a contrivance that’s specifically designed to bring attention to himself. The actual issues are meaningless to him. They're nothing more than a platform to launch his performance. In short, Cornel West is the Liberace of faux intellectualism.
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Have you ever noticed that nearly every public pronouncement that spews from the mouth of Cornel West is literally dripping with racial innuendo? One of his latest racist slanders is that MSNBC is the ‘Rent a Negro’ network. West has said at various times the following:
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1). President Obama is "a war criminal."
2). President Obama is "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs . . ."
3). President Obama is "a black puppet of corporate plutocrats."
4). President Obama is "a Rockefeller Republican in Blackface."
5). President Obama "has a certain rootlessness, a deracination."
6). President Obama Is "Afraid Of Free Black Men."
7). President Obama is "a global George Zimmerman."
8). Dr. Harris-Perry is "a fake and a fraud"
9). Dr. Michael Eric Dyson "is a sellout."
10). Al Sharpton "is a sellout."
11). MSNBC is the "Rent a Negro Network."
12). And if that’s not enough, now he’s quoted as calling the first Black President of the United States “a shell of a man.”
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Yet, when comedian Steve Harvey called him an Uncle Tom, he said, "When you are trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling gets in the way. Name-calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction."
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So name-calling is only objectionable when it’s directed at him. Such unmitigated hypocrisy is mind boggling - but for once, he’s right. Not one of the above assertions is a disciplined, constructive, or scholarly assessment of the facts. On the contrary, they're the reckless and intellectually undisciplined rants of a bitter, self-serving, and severely discredited academic fraud.
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For Cornel West, there’s something ‘racially defective’ about every Black person who has the audacity to preempt Cornel West from the limelight. West has a propensity for trying to denigrate the character of people whose been in the trenches for years, while West, himself, has done absolutely nothing beyond running his mouth. In order to gain clear evidence of that fact one simply has to ask oneself, what efforts have West made to try to improve the plight of the Black community?
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1). Is he in the community teaching 3rd grade to help ensure a better education for our children, or teaching at an Historically Black College or University to help "enlighten" young Black students?
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No. He’s never taught at a school that more than 1% of Black students can even afford to have lunch in throughout his entire career. He’d rather gain props for teaching the children of the economic elites, who he CLAIMS, is the enemy, whenever he MANAGES to do a "Drive-by" in the hood.
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2). Is he in the community teaching our young men to cherish, honor, and respect our Black women - the very womb of our culture?
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No. He’s out trying to sell books filled with inane and misleading information, doing $30,000 an hour speeches, and trying to become a hip hop star.
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3). Is he advising his good friend and business partner, Tavis Smiley, to be consistent with his sermons by being "accountable" to the community, and returning the money that he made on the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Scam" loans that he helped to herd over 30,000 poor minorities into? Or is he out getting arrested in support of the Black Friday Demonstrations against Wal-Mart, the most prolific abuser of poor workers in the world?
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Nope, not a peep.
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What kind of true Black man is going to disrespect a sister (Melissa Harris-Perry) - IN PUBLIC - by calling her a "liar and a fraud?" That's not a proud Black man; that's a petulant and self-serving punk who doesn't even have sense enough to respect the very WOMB of his own culture. He would NEVER have said that about a White woman.  That poot-butt needed to be taken down - AND PUBLICLY!
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Cornel West is one of the two most hypocritical gasbags that the Black community has ever produced. He's running neck and neck with Tavis Smiley.
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Tavis Smiley and Cornel West Ducked The Walmart Demonstrations . . . AGAIN!!!
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/11/tavis-smiley-and-cornel-west-ducked.html
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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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THE 2016 ELECTION IS MUCH TOO IMPORTANT TO BE HOODWINKED BY SLICK-TALKING TURNCOATS

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

THE 2016 ELECTION IS MUCH TOO IMPORTANT TO BE HOODWINKED BY SLICK-TALKING TURNCOATS
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The GOP knows there's not a chance in the world that they're going to get anything but the most clueless among Black voters. But they have a way around that - they don't have to get the Black vote; all they have to do is get as many Black voters as possible NOT to vote for the opposition. So every election cycle they trot out a collection self-serving Black people to trash the Democratic Party.  Think about it - how many of you think that Ben Carson has any chance in the hell of getting the Republican nomination for President of the United States, or Herman Cain in the 2012 election?  Neither of these men have,or had, any chance whatsoever of getting redneck conservatives to vote for them, yet, every election cycle the GOP will trot out weak-minded and/or self-serving Black men to confuse Black voters and spew the racist stupidity that they're not allowed to engage in - like Tavis Smiley's idiotic comment that Black people don't have a reason to vote.  This has become a tradition, because the GOP found out during the 2000 election that it works.
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 But unfortunately, every Black person who comes trotting out during the election cycles to attack the Democrats aren't Republicans (or at least, not publicly DECLARED Republicans).  These people have their own agendas - egotism, money, self-promotion, spitefulness, etc. - so they're the most insidious of all, because their agendas aren't as transparent as Black Republicans.  Two such people are the Walmart-sponsored Tavis Smiley and the ego-sponsored Cornel West.  If you'll notice, they always time their book tours to coincide with a national election. In the 2012 election they were riding around on a bus during their "Poverty Tour"and  promoting their book by bad-mouthing the Democratic Party. Then, after the election, they all but disappeared.  The same was true during the 2014 election that gave us a Republican Majority in the senate.  There's definitely a pattern here, so we thought we'd start educating the people right now so they won't be hoodwinked in the 2016 election, because the next election is not simply crucial, but quite probably the most important election in this nation's history. 

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The GOP has become dangerously radical since Obama has been president. It seems that having a Black man in the White House has, literally, driven many radical conservatives over the edge, and when we add the fact that they realize that the demographics are against them and growing worse with every day that passes, they've become not only dangerously radical, but desperate, without limits (as clearly demonstrated by the Republican 47 treason letter), mean-spirited, and well financed, and that doesn't bode well for America.
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A graphic example of just how far over the edge the GOP has slipped can be seen in a quote by a radical conservative retired general. Retired general, and FOX News analyst , Paul Vallely, is quoted as telling the Arizona Tea Party Patriots, "I had a call this afternoon from Idaho. The gentleman said, ‘If I give you 250,000 Marines to go to Washington, will you lead them?’" Vallely said as the group laughed and gasped. "I said, ‘Yes, I will, I’ll surround the White House and I’ll surround the Capitol building, but it’s going to take physical presence to do things" (http://thinkprogress.org/security/2014/01/28/3213361/retired-army-general-tells-tea-party-group-lead-coup-government/).

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It wasn't just the general's words that are chilling, because he could be just another garden variety lunatic, but his words betrayed the fact that such a treasonous action is even being contemplated. Also troubling is the fact that he can openly say such a thing without it being front page news, and he's still walking around free. He should have been immediately arrested, FORCED to divulge who asked him such a question, and then THEY should have been arrested for conspiracy against the United States government. I mean, who has enough clout to provide ANYBODY with 250,000 Marines? Maybe it was all just the bluster of an ultra-conservative wing-nut fool, but we should make absolutely sure of that.

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In addition, the general's words reveals a mindset that suggests that if the GOP manages to win the White House and both houses of congress (they already have the courts) in the 2016 election, America will never be the same again, because due to the rapidly changing demographics, they can't allow it to remain the same.  If they did, the Republican Party could very possibly suffer the fate of the Whig Party of the 19th Century. So the GOP and their filthy rich cronies will never relinquish power again, regardless to WHAT they have to do.  Even as we speak they're trying to disenfranchise a large segment of the population, and since they are clearly without limits, there's telling how far they will go to remain in power - and yes, I know what I'm suggesting, and it can happen here.  Again, Reagan, Bush, Cheney, and the Republican treasonous 47 has already demonstrated that the GOP has absolutely no since of limits, and they are completely oblivious to the United States Constitution.

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That brings me back to the handful of clueless, Black self-serving idiots among us. We cannot allow them to dilute the Black vote again. So here's a snapshot and brief  history of two of the most prominent among them:

CORNEL WEST  

During the 1960s J. Edgar Hoover disrupted the Civil Rights movement by using provocateurs to infiltrate the various civil rights groups and disrupt their activities. The operation was called "Cointelpro." One tactic that was used was to have loud and disruptive Judas goat "super-militants" join the groups and divide the membership by accusing the groups' leadership of being weak, or "Uncle Toms." That seems to be the very tactic that Cornel West has been using very effectively every since the 2000 election where he was very effective in helping to get George W. Bush elected. .
In my previous article, The "Black Prophetic" Mouth of Cornel West is At It Again - And As Usual, Just In Time To Sabotage Democrats In The Upcoming Election, I pointed out the following:
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After Ralph Nader was rejected for the 2000 presidential nomination by the Democratic voters, instead of acknowledging his rejection and falling into line to help defeat the Republicans, Nader went into a petulant snit and ran as a third party candidate. It was clear that he purposely ran as a third party candidate with the mean-spirited intent of sabotaging the Democratic effort, because third parties never win; the only purpose that third parties ever serve is to help elect the people that you like least, because they divide the vote of like-minded people.
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Cornel West joined Nader in this foolish - or treacherous, you make the determination - campaign, and as a result, George W. Bush won the election over Al Gore by winning Florida by a mere 537 votes. The Nader/West coalition peeled off 97,488 votes from Gore in Florida alone. So when I say that Cornel West is more than a little responsible for George W. Bush becoming President of the United States, and thus, your current economic condition, don’t take my word for it – you do the math.
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Most people, if they were sincere, would look at the disastrous results of their activities and be devastated. After all, causing Bush to be elected was the worst possible outcome for everything West is SUPPOSE to represent. So most people would conclude that they had made a grave error, and that they would never do anything to divide the progressive vote again. But not Cornel West, he teamed up with Ralph Nader yet again in the 2012 election against Obama, and tried do the very same thing that they'd done in the 2000 election that resulted in Bush's presidency. The only thing that stopped them was, this time the people weren’t buying it.
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So yes, in September of 2011 Ralph Nader and Cornel West teamed up to try to sabotage the Democratic Party yet again. They canvassed the country for Democratic opponents to challenge Obama in the primaries. According to Nader, "Without debates by challengers inside the Democratic Party’s presidential primaries, the liberal/majoritarian agenda will be muted and ignored." And he goes on to say, "The one-man Democratic primaries will be dull, repetitive, and draining of both voter enthusiasm and real bright lines between the two parties that excite voters." What he failed to say, however, was it kept the liberal voice solid and united. So if Nader and West had been successful, they would have divided the Democratic Party just enough for Mitt Romney to squeak out a victory, and the nation would now be under conservative leadership. Now, just take a moment and think about what life would have been like for poor people then - especially poor Black people.  But did the illustrious Cornel "I love My People" West care about that?  Not a bit.
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Proof That The Ralph Nader/Cornel West Coalition Purposely Helped Bush Become President

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Outside Magazine, August 2000:
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If California tips Green enough, Bush could win the state and the whole damn election. Which, Nader confided to Outside in June, wouldn't be so bad. When asked if someone put a gun to his head and told him to vote for either Gore or Bush, which he would choose, Nader answered without hesitation: "Bush." Not that he actually thinks the man he calls "Bush Inc." deserves to be elected: "He'll do whatever industry wants done." The rumpled crusader clearly prefers to sink his righteous teeth into Al Gore, ... [and] concludes with the sotto voce realpolitik of a ward heeler: "If you want the parties to diverge from one another, have Bush win." 
(http://www.hereinstead.com/QUOTATIONS-FROM-RALPH-NADER.htm)

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So Cornel West is a man who should be watched very closely. Another clear demonstration of just how untrustworthy, disingenuous, and wishy-washy West can be is how he tried to revise history after Barack Obama won the 2008 election. When Barack Obama won the Presidency and didn’t roll out the red carpet to the White House for West, he tried to frame the situation in a way that made Obama look like an ingrate. He complained that after he went out campaigning for Obama, he couldn’t even get a returned phone call from the newly elected Obama. But he failed to point out what a fool he acted on Tavis Smiley’s "State of Black America" broadcast on the very day that Obama threw his hat in the ring to run for President. He all but flat-out alleged that Obama couldn’t be trusted. He even asked Obama, "Where’s your money coming from?" But in spite of that, when it became clear that Obama could actually win, only THEN did Cornel West jump the fence on Tavis Smiley and started campaigning for Obama. 

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So the question is, why would West campaign for someone that he insisted couldn’t be trusted, in the first place? The answer is very simple - Cornel is "Have Mouth, Will Travel." He jumps on board whatever train he thinks is going his way. At the time that the video below was shot, West benefited from the exposure that he could gain from Tavis Smiley, and since it was assumed that Hillary Clinton was going to win the election, West had everything to gain by slamming Obama for not coming to kiss Tavis' ring on Tavis' dog-n-pony show. But again, when it became clear that Obama just might win, West jumped the fence on Tavis Smiley and started grinning in Obama's face - and without a bit of shame.

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EVEN AS CORNEL WEST WAS ASKING OBAMA "WHERE'S YOUR MONEY COMING FROM?" IN THE VIDEO BELOW, TAVIS SMILEY (HIS GOOD BUDDY AND CLOSEST ASSOCIATE) WAS INVOLVED IN THE WELLS FARGO "GHETTO SCAM," WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, WAS THE SECOND LARGEST HOUSING DISCRIMINATION CASE IN THE NATION'S HISTORY, AND CAUSED 30,000 POOR AND MIDDLE CLASS MINORITIES TO LOSE THEIR HOMES AND LIFE SAVINGS.  WELLS FARGO SETTLED THE CASE FOR  $175 MILLION.  BACK THEN TAVIS SMILEY WAS RIDING HIGH, SO NOTICE HE AND CORNEL'S ARROGANCE, AS THOUGH BARACK OBAMA HAD AN OBLIGATION TO COME AND GET THEIR BLESSING TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT. ALSO NOTE THAT NOW THAT SMILEY HAS LOST POPULARITY, WEST HAS CUT TIES WITH HIM, EVEN AFTER REMAINING CONNECTED AT THE HIP (AND WITHOUT OPENING HIS MOUTH) DURING THE WELLS FARGO SCANDAL. 

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So, what incentive does a high-profile Black man have to turn on his own people and play this Judas Goat role?

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RAYNARD JACKSON

In his article, "My Republican Party has Abandoned Me," Black Republican activist, Raynard Jackson, says the following: 

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"For many years, I have approached the party and its supporters about underwriting programs to bring together Blacks who are Republican or lean Republican so we can weave them into every facet of the party structure. The answer is always, No! But, twice this year some of these same people have approached me about funding for some election year tricks that they (White Republicans) have conjured up and simply need a Black face to execute the plan. On these two separate occasions, these funders were willing to spend upwards of$20 million to have me organize a national campaign to identify Blacks who would be critical of President Obama." (http://www.freedomsjournal.net/2012/10/31/my-republican-party-has-abandoned-me/)
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Now, I want to make it clear that I have no evidence whatsoever that West is being paid by the GOP,  but with that kind of money up for grabs, everybody bears scrutiny. And in that regard, consider the following. First, Cornel West helped Bush get elected in the 2000 election, which led to Black misery - at least, additional Black misery - and then he scurried back into his ivory tower to command $30,000 a speech to DISCUSS Black misery. Then later, he rode all across the country on a bus professing to love poor minorities, while sitting next to a man (Tavis Smiley) who was involved in a scam that caused 30,000 poor minorities to lose their homes and life savings in what the Justice Department says was the second largest housing discrimination case in the history of this country. Now, he’s telling us that Black misery is Obama's fault!!!? A person would have to be a fool to believe that, but obviously, there's plenty of them out there.

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Now, anyone who owns a radio or television set knows that Cornel West went to Ferguson, specifically, to get a photo op of himself being arrested, and to publicize the fact that he has a new book out - I’m surprised he didn’t have a copy of it to show the cameras at the arrest site. West seemed to have deep passion for the underclass there in Ferguson, but it didn’t prevent him from waiting until his book came out to join the protest. It was worth it to Cornel West to spend 10 minutes in jail for the hundreds of thousands of dollars of publicity resulting from the photo op. If they wouldn't have arrested Cornel along with all the White folks that were arrested, he would have filed a discrimination suit - "How come I couldn't go to jail with the White folks, because I was Black?" 

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What many people fail to realize is that Cornel West is the consummate opportunist. Again, West showed great passion in Ferguson, but that’s because he has a new book out and there’s an election coming up, so the Ferguson arrest gives him more television time to sell his book and slam the Democrats before the election. He and Tavis Smiley used the EXACT same tactic just before the 2012 election when he and Tavis Smiley went out on their "Poverty Tour." But after the election, and after they had sold all the books they could sell, they essentially dropped off the radar. That's their method of operation - they just do "drive-bys" to pickup photo ops, and to stir up dissension in the community. That helps the GOP, and Tavis' sponsor, Wal-Mart - the only thing that keeps Tavis' head above water, likes that.

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Scott Collins of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "The sluggish economy and reduced corporate spending have threatened the show's viability. But luckily for Smiley, Wal-Mart, a longtime sponsor, stepped up again, this time with a three-year commitment." 

(http://articles.latimes.com/2013/dec/12/entertainment/la-et-st-tavis-smiley-pbs-20131212)

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That explains why, their "love for the poor" notwithstanding, Tavis Smiley and Cornel West were nowhere to be found during the Wal-Mart demonstrations that were being held all across the country - and that was in spit of the fact that one of the demonstrations was being held right down the street from Smiley’s office. They didn't even so much as bother to send a postcard of support.

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Days before the demonstrations, I even challenged them to come and speak-out against Wal-Mart’s abuse of the working poor, and then PREDICTED that they weren’t going to show up. I knew they weren’t going to show up because they were both benefiting from Wal-Mart. So while Cornel West may claim to "love" the poor and downtrodden, there are very specific limits to that love. 

.Prior to the 2014 election that created a Republican majority in United States Senate, West just happened to see fit to publicly  announce that he didn’t vote in 2012. Is he serious!!!?  What kind of Black educator is he!!!? Doesn’t he realize how many people died for our right to vote? He claims to love the poor, but he would rather NOT vote than to vote against the people who would rather shutdown the government than to provide jobs, affordable healthcare, extended unemployment insurance, and food stamps for the poor? And he claims to hate killing and war, yet, he would rather NOT vote than to vote against the people who lied to go to war, and then killed over a million people in Iraq? Such a position strains the limits of credulity.

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Doesn’t West have the intelligence to realize that there is no such thing as not voting, and that failing to vote for one side is a vote for the other? I think he does. I think he understands that fact very well. That’s why he publicized it, to influence his followers to follow suit - which again, benefits the GOP. There are two ways for the GOP to win an election, by either getting MORE Republicans to vote, or getting more Democrats NOT to vote, and that’s EXACTLY what Cornel West has been doing EVERY election since he helped to get George W. Bush elected - dividing the Democratic vote. It’s happening so often, and so consistently, it’s beginning to look like it's his assigned role.

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So one of two things have to be at work here - either West knows exactly what he’s doing and is scamming the people, or he’s the dumbest so-called intellectual that the Black community has ever produced. But either way, he’s not a person that anyone with sense would want to listen to.

TAVIS SMILEY

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Mr. Smiley, do you intend to return the Millions of dollars that you reportedly made from herding poor Black people and Hispanics into the Wells Fargo “Ghetto Loan” Scam to the people who lost their homes and life savings. According to the United States Department of Justice, it was the second largest housing discrimination case in the nation's history.  And Dr. West, in your learned opinion - and in accordance with the "Black prophetic tradition," of course - what is the appropriate course of action for your good friend and associate to take in this matter? 

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NOTICE THE WELLS FARGO LOGO
BEHIND HIM.

A discrimination lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice, and several articles, including one seeded on Newsvine entitle, “Tavis Smiley - "Ghetto Loan" Peddler for Wells Fargo,” closely associates PBS talk show host, Tavis Smiley, with the Wells Fargo Bank scam targeting poor and middle-class Black and Hispanic borrowers. The article quotes Kelvin Boston, host of "Moneywise, and Keith Corbett, of the Center for Responsible Lending, as calling Tavis Smiley “the big draw” of the Wells Fargo scam. Specifically, the article states the following:

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“Smiley was the keynote speaker, and the big draw, according to Boston [host of “Moneywise”] and Keith Corbett, executive vice president of the Center for Responsible Lending, who attended two of the seminars. Smiley would charge up the audience — and rattle the Wells Fargo executives in attendance — by launching into a story about how he hated banks, and how they used to refuse to lend him money for his real estate projects in Compton, Calif., and elsewhere... But what appeared on the surface as a way to help black borrowers build wealth was actually just the opposite, according to a little-noticed explanation of the "Wealth Building" seminar strategy, contained in a lawsuit recently filed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

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“Wells' plan for the seminars all along was to target black borrowers for higher-cost subprime mortgages, not for wealth-building, the suit charged. And the seminars were a part of the bank's overall illegal and discriminatory practice of steering black and Hispanic borrowers into riskier and more expensive loans, the suit said.”

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Subsequent to the law suit, Richard Prince reported in The Washington Independent that Smiley issued a statement indicating that he would sever all ties with Wells Fargo until charges that the company steered minorities into higher-rate loans are resolved. The article went on to say,

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“Wells Fargo sponsored Smiley’s radio show on Public Radio International, and underwrote the annual C-Span-televised “State of the Black Union” conference that Smiley organizes. Smiley’s foundation also distributed Wells Fargo materials to young people at foundation events, he told Journal-isms.

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‘“I cut everything off with Wells Fargo,’ Smiley declared. He said the move cost ‘a lot of money’; he said he did not know how much.”
.Now think about this.  Here's a man who claims to be qualified to second-guess the President of the United States, and he didn't even have sense enough to hire an expert to evaluate the loans that he's helped to heard thousands of poor minorities - that he's claims to love - into?  It boggles the mind - and he's STILL flapping his lips!  What kind of idiocy is motivating this man!!!?

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On July 12, 2012 Charlie Savage reported in the New York Times that Wells Fargo Bank agreed to pay $175 million to settle the discrimination suit which, according to the Department of Justice, targeted over 30,000 Black and Hispanic borrowers for subprime loans with a higher interest rate than for similarly situated White borrowers between 2004 and 2009.

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What makes it particularly ironic that Tavis Smiley would be associated with this scheme to target poor and middle-class minorities is that Smiley is the primary promoter of what he calls “The Poverty Tour,” along with his friend and associate, former Princeton professor, Cornel West. During the tour, on their joint radio talk show, and on numerous media appearances, Smiley and West have gained a reputation for being President Obama’s harshest critics, indicating that the president is not sufficiently focused, and “accountable,” to the nation’s poor and minority community.

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In a statement by Wells Fargo put out after the bank agreed to a settlement of $175 Million, they said that while not admitting to any wrong doing, Wells Fargo agreed to a settlement of the law suit because the bank felt that it was the right thing to do. 

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CNNMONEY quoted Mike Held, president of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, as saying, "Wells Fargo is settling this matter because we believe it is in the best interest of our team members, customers, communities and investors to avoid a long and costly legal fight, and to instead devote our resources to continuing to contribute to the country's housing recovery."

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The settlement includes Wells Fargo paying the Black and Hispanic victims of discrimination $125 million in compensation, and an additional $50 million in down-payment assistance to borrowers in the affected communities. 

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So the question that remains is, if Wells Fargo Bank feels that paying compensating to the poor and middle-class victims of this scam is the right thing to do, shouldn’t Tavis Smiley, the most strident advocate of “accountability” and fervent crusader for the interest of the poor, feel obliged to do the same? Certainly, benefiting from the misery of the poor and minority community would run counter to Mr. Smiley's zeal for the need of the powerful to maintain accountability.

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We’d also like to put that question to Smiley’s friend and associate, Dr. Cornel West. What do you think your good friend and associate should do, Dr. West? What does the “prophetic tradition” dictate is the proper course of action?

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We’ll be anxiously awaiting your response.
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And by the way, just like Cornel West, Tavis also sent out a message to Black voters that was FEATURED on Fox News.

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“No Good Reason To Vote ‘If You’re Black Or Brown, Other Than Helping To Save The Democrats’ Hide."

(http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/10/20/tavis-smiley-no-good-reason-vote-democrats-%E2%80%98if-you%E2%80%99re-black-or-brown%E2%80%99).
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A Los Angeles Times article said the following:

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 "Unlike most TV hosts, who simply do their jobs and collect a paycheck from a network, Smiley has to go out and raise most of the money for his program, which costs between $7 million and $8 million a year to produce. PBS generally contributes about $1 million of that sum. The rest comes from corporate sponsors, which Smiley has to round up himself.
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"The sluggish economy and reduced corporate spending have threatened the show's viability. But luckily for Smiley, Wal-Mart, a longtime sponsor, stepped up again, this time with a three-year commitment. (PBS can only offer a maximum of two years on renewals because, as a government-supported entity, it must be periodically authorized by Congress.) But Wal-Mart covers only about a quarter of the costs" (http://articles.latimes.com/2013/dec/12/entertainment/la-et-st-tavis-smiley-pbs-20131212).

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We'll let you connect the dots.

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RELATED ARTICLE

Poverty Pimp, Inc.

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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