As I've asked many times since this controversy began, how can Colin Kaepernick be denigrating the flag by taking a knee when the flag is a SYMBOL of free expression? That’s like saying he’s disrespecting the church by being a Christian. That’s not only hypocritical, but stupid. As a former marine I can say without a doubt - and I’m sure that Trump’s Chief of Staff, Gen. Kelly, could also tell him - that American fighting men and women didn’t die for a piece of cloth or a song; they died for what that piece of cloth represents, the very personal freedom that Trump is now trying to deny Kaepernick and his fellow players.
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But I can understand Trump not being able to fully grasp the concept of patriotism. After all, when it was his turn to fight for this country he applied for, and obtained, 5 draft deferments to avoid fighting in Vietnam - and the very same was true of Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh. But now that they don't have to put their OWN lives on the line, all of a sudden they've morphed into these "Super Patriots" and want to wave their flags at our troops from the sideline - until the troops come home broken and wounded, then they call them deadbeats and want to deprive them of public assistance. This has been a pattern with Republicans. During Herbert Hoover's administration, 15,000 WWI veterans marched on Washington demanding that they be paid what they were owed by the government. Hoover responded by calling in federal troops to throw these ex-servicemen off government property.
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So patriotism is just an abstraction to Trump and his kind. He doesn’t understand that Colin Kaepernick and the others are not disrespecting the flag, he is. These players are simply confronting bigots for being the lyin’ and hypocritical racists they are - and all bigots know it!!! They wave the flag as a pretext for their bigotry, but defending the flag is not what they're about at all. What Trump and his bigoted cohorts are actually about is trying to get us to celebrate their right to continue to kill Black people and abuse other minorities with impunity. But now that they’re being confronted with their own anti-Americanism, they’re trying to claim that it’s the PLAYERS who are unpatriotic!!! That’s pure racist bullshit.
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There are many good people in this country, but they have to be educated into seeing America as it is, instead of the John Wayne version of America that they've been spoon fed all of their lives. Many White people can’t see past that, but due to our experience in America, virtually every Black person who's not a complete idiot sees America's hypocrisy and moral corruption clearly. So we can't afford to tap dance around this issue. We must state the facts in no uncertain terms, and here are those facts.
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The fact is, this nation has NEVER lived up to the myth that the American flag is suppose to represent, so it’s past time for us to stop living a lie and begin to actually live up to the ideals in which we profess to believe. They say, lets “Make America Great Again.” Well, let’s take an unvarnished look at what they’re REALLY talking about:
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After being welcomed to this land by the Native Americans, European immigrants responded by presenting them with disease-infected blankets and then bringing in their army to eradicate them. In the end they killed as many as 100 million Native Americans in order to steal their land. Thereafter, they moved on to either kill are make the lives of millions of African slaves miserable. Then after slavery, there was the Jim Crow era in which millions of African-Americans were discriminated against, brutalized, and in many cases murdered. And during that same time the nation was involved in WWII where Japanese-American citizens had their property seized and entire families were placed in concentration camps. In addition, the United States dropped not one, but two atomic bombs on Japan - and since the men, women, and children of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were innocent noncombatants, that constituted the most brutal and heartless act of terrorism in all of human history.
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But “America the Beautiful” still wasn’t done. It went on to kill 3.1 million Vietnamese - 2 million of which were also innocent noncombatant men, women, and children. Then they did the very same thing to the people of Iraq, but they were more compassionate with the Iraqis - they only killed a million of them, but for no other reason but the fact that they didn’t like the cut of their jib.
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TRUMP SOUGHT, AND OBTAINED, 5 DRAFT
DEFERMENTS TO AVOID GOING TO VEITNAM
So tell me, exactly what is it that Colin Kaepernick and the others suppose to be so proud of that they should feel obligated to stand every time they hear a song? What the hell are we supposed to be so proud of? It’s not as if either the song, or the flag, represents a history of great acts of human compassion, it’s a flag that represents 241 years of criminal brutality, thuggery and mayhem. But in spite of all that, when Colin took the knee, he wasn’t ranting and raving about not loving this country, his actions simply suggested that we should stop lying about who we profess to be, and every TRUE American - or at least, those who subscribe to the United States Constitution - should agree with him.
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In order for this nation to adhere to the prescription for greatness that was laid out by its founding fathers, we must constantly seek to become better each day than we were the day before. Because the fact is, anyone who claims that America has been anything even approaching “great” in its past, is living in a delusion.
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A REAL AMERICAN DURING A RESCUE OPERATION - NO TRUMP-LIKE BLUSTER, JUST ACTION
I know there's a lot of people who are going to resent what I've said, and they're going to find it hard, if not impossible to swallow, but try to objectively challenge any fact that I've laid out here and see what you come up with. The only thing "great" about America is its potential, and that's what we should focus on, instead of continuing to live a lie. It’s trying to live that lie that’s destroying this country. Bigots like Trump will say America is fine just like it is, but it’s not, and it’s trying to live his delusional vision of America that’s preventing us from moving forward toward TRUE greatness.
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The truth is, America is an Affirmative Action program for the rich and powerful who are leaving no stone unturned to keep the rest of us divided and subservient, and our ignorance and bigotry is their most effective weapon. So to have cowardly bigots like Trump wrapping themselves in the flag is a national disgrace.
MICHELLE OBAMA IS JUST WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS RIGHT NOW
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Michelle Obama is an intelligent, down-to-Earth, and highly competent woman - what we in the Black community call a “Sister-girl” - so being President of the United States would be a piece of cake for her. While she would be every bit as competent as Barack - don’t forget, she used to be Barack’s mentor - but she wouldn’t be as easygoing. The Republican Party would have their hands all the way full, because every time they’d say something stupid, they’d get some blowback. She’d give them the kind of tongue lashing that they wouldn’t want to see on the evening news. So they would think very carefully before they shot off their mouths.
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I know these things for a fact, because I was married to a “sister-girl” for 34 years. Even though I had more education, when she died she was making $37,000 a year more than I was. One tax man joked with me and said, “I know you shame.” But I wasn’t ashamed at all, I was proud. That woman was responsible for everything I do today. And America would be proud of Michelle, because I’m sure that she played the very same role in Barack’ life. She would bring us love, admiration, and pride, not only here at home, but abroad. Because very few people like to mess around with sister-girls. They’re not the kind of women who will whimper as they’re being abused. While they can be very sweet, very beautiful, and extremely feminine, they will look a man dead in the eye, and tell him, “Bring it on, homeboy!” And they’d mean it, from the very depths of their soul.
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This one’s for you, baby. Rest in peace. I got this.
HILLARY SEEMS TO BELIEVE SHE SHOULD BE HANDED THE PRESIDENCY BECAUSE IT'S 'HER TURN'
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I wish Hillary Clinton and her supporters would stop running around trying to find a scapegoat for why she lost. All they’re trying to do is setup a scenario where they can claim that her lost to Trump was an aberration, so if she ran again in the 2020 election she’d be successful this time. But that’s not true. All she would do would be to create yet another Democratic disaster. So progressives need to nip Hillary’s obsession in the bud before she revves up her political corruption machine again.
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Hillary’s unbridled ego, ambition, and sense of entitlement is causing her to believe that she has a RIGHT to the presidency because it’s her turn. But the American people don’t share her sentiments. So the people have to make it crystal clear to her exactly why she lost, and why she would lose again in 2020. The fact is, she lost because the vast majority of Americans don’t like her, and they want her to go away.
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Donald Trump’s support is firm, because it’s based on hatred and bigotry. But Hillary Clinton’s support is tenuous. Many progressives who voted for her were holding their nose and weren’t actually voting for her, but against Trump. But there are also a sizeable number of informed progressives, like myself, who can’t stand her. They don’t like what she represents - her lying, her corruption, her sense of entitlement, or her condescending attitude toward the people.
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So the fact is, if a new election were held today, and my vote alone would determine the outcome, I’d STILL vote against Hillary, Trump or no Trump, and there are a large number of progressives who feel exactly the same way I do. Yes, Trump is a buffoon, and he’s dangerous, but virtually the entire nation has risen up against him. But Hillary is just as dangerous, because she’s sneaky, insidious, and she has a well oiled political machine poised to cut our throats, just like she and Bill did the last time they were in the White House, with NAFTA, the gutting of Glass-Steagall, Welfare reform, the prison industrial complex, and the abolishment of the Fairness Doctrine, which allowed the conservative corporate media - including Fox News - to virtually take over our airways and spew conservative propaganda with complete impunity.
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Yet Hillary claims that it was Bernie Sanders' fault that she lost. But the fact is, she didn’t actually lose on election night. The 2016 election was lost when the DNC used corruption and deceit to nominate her in the first place. The DNC miscalculated. In spite of the fact that they knew full well that next to Donald Trump, Hillary was the most hated politician in America, they tried to shove her down our throats under the assumption that given a choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the American people would hold their nose and vote for Hillary, but they were wrong. Many of us either voted 3rd party, or didn't vote at all. Hillary was just too much for us to take.
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So Hillary, her supporters, and the DNC need to own up to that and stop trying to blame everybody else for the Democratic disaster that THEY brought about. After all, if they engaged in the very same kind of corruption to give Steve Harvey the nomination, when he lost, who’s fault would that be, the peoples, or there’s? If you want to win an election, you’ve got to give the people who THEY want to vote for, not the choice of the DNC.
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So the bottom line is, if the Clinton machine got Hillary the nomination again in 2020, all we’d see is a replay of 2016. So go away, Hillary, and spare us your neurotic obsession. And one other thing - Hillary supporters, wake up!
. Eric L. Wattree
Hutch, I am truly shocked by you. Generally you are a very efficient thinker, but in this case you seem to think that in order to be against Trump, we have to embrace Hillary. That's the kind of thinking that got us Trump in the first place, because there are a lot of very thoughtful people who saw right through that flawed logic and refused to vote for either one of them. But those of you who did buy into that nonsense allowed the Democratic establishment to manipulate you into engaging in the pick-a-bigot game. I don't play that. If the Democratic Party would have nominated David Duke would you have voted for him? Well, the Clintons are no better. Twenty-seven years later the Black community is STILL suffering from what the Clintons did to us.
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I don't like Hillary or Trump, and I'm going to fight against both of them, regardless to how Clinton loyalist feel about it. One is just as bad as the other, so just because I refuse to drink cyanide, doesn't mean that I have an obligation to consume strychnine. You see, I don’t become enamored with personalities. I fight for and against issues, and in this case, both Trump, and Hillary, represent bigotry, corruption, and injustice - and from my point of view, there’s no such thing as a lessor bigot. A bigot is a bigot - period.
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So I'm currently on Hillary because she doesn't seem to get the point. She doesn’t seem to realize that it’s time for her to get the hell off the political stage; she’s done enough damage. But due to her unbridled ego and ambition, I believe she's planning on running again in 2020. So it is my intent to inform the people of exactly who she really is in order to nip that in the bud. But that doesn't mean that I can't also go after Trump. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other, so it's the height of stupidity to try to conflate the two. It constitutes nothing less than giving one bigot a pass, and any Black person who embraces that philosophy is a damn fool.
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Hillary supporters - like yourself - like to recite the DNC mantra that "If you don't like Hillary you must like Trump." That is so goddamn childish and lame that it's unbelievable that they would even try to pass that nonsense off to thinking adults. Actually, the people should be pissed at the Democratic Party for thinking that we would be so stupid as go for that. If they had any respect for us they would have recognized is as an insult to our intelligence, and for many of us it was just that. That's why we have Trump in the Oval Office today, because hoards of Democrats voted 3rd party, like myself, or didn't vote at all. The thinking people among us realized that if they could get us to pick between two corrupt and lying bigots this time, how many more corrupt and lying bigots are they going to try to get us to support in the future? So in that regard, it's good that Trump did win, because it should teach the DNC a lesson.
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So no, I don’t like Hillary, but neither do I like Trump, and I find that to be perfectly consistent with good and common sense:
Trump supporters are constantly claiming that "Deep State" is out to get him. Deep State is not “out to get” Trump, they're simply trying to protect America from an idiot. That’s their job. Trump is his own worst enemy, and he has made it clear that he's unfit for office. Even his own staff is disgusted with him, that's why the White House is leaking like a sieve. The only people who care about Trump are a handful of bigots, and even THEY'RE beginning to see the light, because it seems that everything he does and says is immature and stupid. So in terms of getting the people's admiration and respect, becoming president was the very worst thing that could have ever happened to Trump, because it’s placed his immaturity, narcissism, and gross ignorance on public display. White House aides can’t stop talking about President Trump like he’s a toddler.
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The real problem is, Putin makes Trump look like the lightweight he is, and that makes the American people look like lightweights. Leaders all over the world know that the best way to get whatever they want out of Trump is to give him a parade, because at his core Trump is an insecure, self-absorbed man-child desperately seeking validation. He’s so emotionally immature that the only thing important to him is self-aggrandizement. That’s why he’s so fixated on the myth that he had the biggest crowds in history at his inauguration. He seems determined to prove that he’s a great man who is adored by the masses, so he doesn’t have time to be worried about little “petty” things like the suffering of the American people or the sorry state of this nation, that’s irrelevant. The only thing that’s important to him is to prove that the American people love and admire Donald Trump, and any evidence that suggests otherwise is “fake news.” The man is absolutely delusional, and anyone who can’t see that is also less than fully grounded - and that’s far more than just an opinion, it's the general consensus of the American people. Read the polls.
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That makes him an extremely dangerous man, because he'll put self before country every time. He doesn't know how to think in any other way. Look at his behavior in the current North Korean nuclear crisis, for example. He's capable of starting WWIII just to raise his poll numbers, but he's so clueless he could also do it inadvertently. Without thinking it through, discussing it with his staff, or even giving it a second thought, he told the North Koreans, "North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen." That was a needlessly stupid escalation of a very dangerous situation. He's playing a game of "chicken," with another egomaniacal lunatic with the lives of the American people. That alone shows that he's completely irresponsible.
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His poor judgement and self-absorbed nature could even be seen when he spoke at a Boy Scout jamboree where it is traditional to give uplifting and patriotic speeches to our youth, but his speech was all about Donald Trump: "Boy, you have a lot of people here. The press will say it's about 200 people. It looks like about 45,000 people. You set a record today. You set a record." And then he goes on to say, referring to election night before an audience of children, "But do you remember that incredible night with the maps and the Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red, it was unbelievable, and they didn't know what to say?" It was so over-the-top that the Boy Scouts of America had to issue a public apology for the conduct of the President of the United States. Politico reported:
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“The head of the Boy Scouts of America apologized to the group’s members on Thursday after President Donald Trump delivered a meandering, controversial and frequently political speech to the organization's National Jamboree on Monday. ‘I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree,’ Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh said in a letter published online. ‘That was never our intent.’ . . . Surbaugh noted in the letter that the group is nonpartisan and has had a ‘long-standing tradition’ of inviting the sitting president to speak at the event since its inception in 1937. He reiterated that Trump’s appearance at the gathering was ‘no way an endorsement of any person, party or policies.”’
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Now that has to be a first, for the Boy Scouts to have to apologize for the behavior of the President of the United States. It clearly demonstrates the Donald Trump's horrible judgement, the man we’d have to depend on if this nation comes under threat. Are you frightened yet? If not, there’s something wrong with you . . . (MORE)
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Eric L. Wattree http://wattree.blogspot.com/ Ewattree@Gmail.com Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA) . Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.
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. .
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
. Rita, we're very dear friends, and I’m noticing that people who I thought would be around forever are dropping like flies. While I fully expect to outlive everybody I know, just in case I’m gone tomorrow, these are a few things I want you to always remember:
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*Ignorance is the root of all evil, because it is ignorance that gives money priority.
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*A conservative is one who is dedicated to "conserving" America's racist traditions. . *A compassionate conservative is one who cuts your throat with tears in his eye. .
*"Faith" is choosing to believe in what man says over the common sense that you KNOW God gave you. . *Religion is the belief in man over God. . *A man of God is a pimp who only works on Sundays. . *A politician is one who has chosen to embrace a life of self-service, lying and deceit. . *Patriotism is the belief that God loves the lies that we tell more than the lies of others. . * Think as a way of life, not just as a hobby. . * Never think about what all the people are doing, think about all the things they are NOT doing.
. *You must recognize who you are, to visualize who you can be. .
*Never seek recognition. Always seek excellence, and allow recognition to seek you.
. *You are what you think, so if you refuse to think, you're nothing.
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*Seek to own the race track, not to become the horse. . *Waiting on circumstances to make you happy will insure an unhappy existence. So be happy now, regardless of your situation. . *The only mature form of competition is to compete against who you were the day before. . *Never give anyone else's ability to think priority over your own - including mine.
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*Never become so enraptured by the thoughts of others that you fail to formulate your own.
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*Heroes are for kids, because kids don't have bills to pay.
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*Seek to become your own hero, and never allow anyone to remove your cape.
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*An unexamined life is a waste of skin.
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*Ignore hostility and haterism, because they’re the product of weak and frustrated minds.
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*There are only two kinds of people in this world - good people, and bad people - and ignorance is the dividing line between the two.
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*Without mistakes you would never grow, so you should never mourn your mistakes; you should celebrate your growth.
. *We can't out-scream 'em because they control the media, and we can't out-fight 'em because they control the military and police, so our only option is to out-think 'em, and we can do that if we'd just come together and think as a class. . *Efficient thought requires that you first, see life as it is, and only then, as you would have it. . *Intelligence is not static. It rises to accommodate your level of curiosity and your desire for accomplishment. . *The subconscious mind doesn't deal in self-assessment, so what you tell it you are, it believes, and begins to work under that assumption. So always think of yourself as the world-class diva that you are, and never doubt yourself for a second. . *Don't tell people who you are, show 'em. . *Friends are at their best while embracing your mutual failure as their comfort zone, but if they succeed beyond you, you’ll soon find that many weren’t friends at all. . *True love is always having your lover's back, and knowing you don't have to worry about your own. . *Some of the greatest minds I've ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lot of ghetto liquor stores, so never discount their wisdom. . *Never confuse credentials and the sign on a person's door with intelligence. . *Never assume that an academic receipt for knowledge is valid. . *Before you point your finger at someone else, always smell it first. . *Adversity is the Harvard University of the hood, and it's graduates are just as distinguished. . *Wit without wisdom is a waste. . *Man's innate thirst for knowledge will someday overwhelm his passionate lust for stupidity, so remain optimistic. . *Show me a man who believes that Moses parted the Red Sea, and I'll show you a man whose grip on reality can't be relied upon, so season the words of ALL fanatics with a box of salt. . *There's no such thing as a walkin' dead man or a talkin' snake. . *More often than not, the happiest moments in your life didn't cost you a dime, so remember that while seeking wealth and fame. . *Every experience is a source of knowledge, so having to endure adversity makes you more, rather than less. . *You should take great pride in being the product of adversity, because your mere survival provides you with unassailable credentials, and it adds lyrics to your song. . *If one can’t find happiness in poverty, wealth will prove to be an ineffective mentor. . *We say that we’re Black and we’re proud, but for far too many of us, that's only until we escape the adversity of being Black. . *We must buy a license to marry, but we're free to hate with impunity. Consider that. . *Always follow truth, regardless to where it leads, or whose ox it gores. . *A personal observation: Older women aren't quite as frisky as young ones, but at least I have someone to talk to when I'm done. . *Another personal observation: Older women are capable of stimulating the mind as well as the body, so always celebrate your growing maturity. . *The perfect woman: One who only tells me to go to Hell half the time. . *A personal epiphany: A man knows he's aging when he's got the hots for the lady in the Depends commercial. . Eric
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.
To flat-out claim that there is no God is just as silly and groundless as right-wing evangelism
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GOD
Our galaxy alone is over 100,000 light years across, with over 200 billion stars that are light years apart, and there's over 10 TRILLION galaxies in the universe just like it. So if you go and look out at the night sky (as I do every night as part of my personal spirituality) some of the light you see, just from stars near by, left its respective stars traveling through time and space at 186,000 MILES PER SECOND - which is 7 1/2 times around the Earth in one second - for over 100,000 years before Jesus was born just to hit your eyeball. Yet, our galaxy is just a dust particle in the universe as a whole. There are thousands of billions of galaxies just like it, and billions of times more distant - and the universe is still expanding in every direction at the speed of light. There are a billion times more galaxies in the universe than there are grains of sand on every beach, desert, and particles of sand beneath the sea. I'm impressed by that.
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Every since my late wife died over 12 years ago, I’ve become something of a recluse. My current woman along with my son, daughter, and grandkids refer to me as “The Hermit.” When I’m not either writing, playing my saxophone or doing research, I spend every minute of my time sitting in my backyard observing nature. I’ve gotten to the point where I can tell you what time it is within 30 minutes by just looking at the position of the Moon in the sky, and I can tell you within two or three days when the peach tree in my back yard is going to spring back to life and begin to blossom.
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I've become such a fixture in my backyard environment that as I’m sitting in my yard staring out at the universe between midnight and 3 a.m. in the morning or such, possums casually walk pass me like I’m a member of their family, and I’ve watched countless generations of cats go under my house, have kittens, and then bring them out and teach them to hunt, fight, and survive. So I know for a fact that anyone who actually takes the time to observe will quickly recognize that there’s an intelligent rhythm to nature, and everything works with more precision than the most expensive Rolex watch. In my opinion that's not by accident.
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So it completely amazes me when man tries to apply his minuscule intellect to the task of trying to assess the nature of God, and then when he finds that the concept of the creator is beyond his ability to comprehend, he comes to the conclusion that there is no God. In other words, "because I don’t understand the nature of God, he must not exist." What kind of arrogance is that!!!?
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The key to life, and thought, is keeping it simple. So for me, "God" is simply whatever force was responsible for creating what we refer to as "nature," "reality," and/or "the universe" - period. And in response to those who maintain that creation just sprung into being, I say, if that's the case, then God is creation itself. . It's not my place to try to read God's mind, or define his nature, and I'm not arrogant enough to think I can. Nevertheless, I know God, not in a Bible thumpin' way, but through the spiritual connection that he established within me, and all of creation, upon creation. I know him by what he has done. He’s created an infinite universe with birds that fly, fish that swim, and men who think. That’s good enough for me, and it’s all I need to know. . Thus, I worship what is, not my assumption of what should be, and I base my belief in God on what I can see, not on some arbitrary concept of faith. As far as I'm concerned, people should always base their conclusions on what they think, not the thoughts of others - that's why God blessed us each with our own mind. So I'm not prone to try to shove my personal beliefs down other people's throat, and I don't believe that people will be "punished" for not believing what I believe. . The concept of "faith" is merely a scare tactic designed by religious fanatics to manipulate the masses into embracing their point of view. You don't have to have "faith" in God, because you can see him in everything he's done, and continues to do; you only have to have "faith" in what man tells you about God, and I have absolutely none. But it is my personal opinion, however, that anyone who chooses not to believe in God, is already choosing to live in a mundane "Hell" of uninspired, and tedious monotony. . These are the things that God tells me as I sit in my backyard and gaze out upon the heavens, and he would speak to you as well, if you would only take time to listen.
GENESIS
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As I walked the sandy shore
in wretched sadness,
the mighty surf reached out to me.
Its thundering voice
spoke not of cold, dark fathoms
or the mystery of desolate expanse,
but whispered softly
of an endless moment,
that moment when we were one.
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It spoke of a time, before time,
when time stood still,
when we danced as siblings
enraptured against the breast of God.
It spoke of the mighty thrust,
that eternal moment
that casted creation
into the windless void to meet our destiny–
he the mighty sea,
destined to caress the shore,
and me, the eyes of creation,
smiling back upon itself.
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The awe of its ageless mystery embraced me
in the familiar warmth of eternity,
as its timeless roar gently
began its song -
a love song,
whispered to a loved one’s ear -
a love song of eons past,
but of a love that’s always near:
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“Oh, sweet sibling,
I embrace your pain,
but this too shall pass,
and we’ll be one again.”
- Wattree
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.
God created us to love. Then man came right behind him and gave us religion, which taught us to hate everyone who doesn’t look, think, and act like ourselves. For that reason the very same man who is a devout Christian in Georgia would be a devout Jew if he'd been born in Israel, a devout Muslim if he’d been born in Iraq, or a Buddhist if he’d been born in China.
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This is a very important fact to take into account, because it clearly demonstrates that in spite of what the many self-serving preachers and theologians try to say, religion is not from God, it's merely a form of cultural indoctrination by man in order to control other men. Clear evidence of that is the fact that 81% of White evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in spite of the fact that he's been married three times and bragged about grabbing women's genitals, all of which is diametrically opposed to their professed Christian values. Yet, for years I've heard these so-called “anointed men of God" recite the mantra that “I was called by God to spread his word.” But obviously, as these polls suggest, they consider "God's word" whatever is convenient for them at the time.
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So I've always been suspect of such men, but unlike them, I've never considered myself to be a part of God's inner circle, so I never thought it my place to directly accuse them of lying - at least, out loud. But I think the world is currently in such dire straits that it's time to seriously examine the contention of these men. In that regard, every since I was a child I've always wanted to ask such people (generally men) two questions - first, what makes them think they're so special that God would choose them to speak on his behalf, and secondly, how did they know it was God calling and not simply their desire to make a dollar without having to go to work like everybody else?
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Thus, it has always been my view that most of these "men of God" share three things in common - they're arrogant, they're presumptuous, and they're less than trustworthy. They're arrogant to assume they know what's on God's mind; presumptuous to think he needs their help to carry out his will; and they're less than trustworthy to even make such claims. I mean, would God choose Pat Robertson to speak on his behalf? Somehow, I don't think so.
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WOULD GOD CHOOSE PAT ROBERTSON
TO SPEAK ON HIS BEHALF?
God doesn't need man's help to either spread his word, or to express his will, any more than he needed to anoint a "holy pigeon" to teach other pigeons that it's his will for them to fly. He incorporated both his will, and his word, into everything he created at the moment of creation just as he willed the Sun to shine and the billions of galaxies to hurl through space in search of the center of the universe. So if God didn't need man's help to create the universe or to send our galaxy of over 200 billion stars hurling through the emptiness of outer space, he certainly doesn't need the help of a mentally challenged preacher to teach us how to live our lives.
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The fact is, the so-called clergy is more of an impediment to living a Godly life than anything else. Just imagine how much more Godly this world would be if we didn’t have Christians, Muslims, and Jews killing one another over their varying interpretations of "God's will." When I was in the Marine Corps I found it completely ironic that we had military chaplains praying for God to help us kill more of "them" than they killed of us. Thus, these people are so delusional that they think they can actually draft God to help them in their fight to steal oil from the Middle East.
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BLESS YOU, MY CHILDREN
So what we often refer to as "the word of God" is nothing more than man's attempt to control the lives, votes, and bank accounts of other men. Therefore, if we take the time to look closely enough, we'll find religion at the very root of all of the murder, hatred, bigotry, and destructive mayhem on the face of the Earth. Think about it - virtually every war and act of terrorism throughout the world is based on religion, and there's a very good reason for that - because the very purpose of religion (ALL RELIGION) is to promote man's selfishness, greed, and false sense of superiority. That's why the primary pitch of these so-called "anointed men of God" is that they're God's best friend, so unless we want God to do something horrible to us, we have to pay homage to them with our money, loyalty, and through our absolute and unwavering "faith" in every form of idiocy that spews from their mouth.
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To the average person with common sense, the idiotic demands that these "men of God" make as a requirement for "everlasting life" is immediately recognized as complete lunacy, but what's so unbelievable about it is how effective preachers have been in convincing so many highly educated, and normally intelligent people, to embrace their nonsense. Even my own brother, who I've always considered a pretty smart guy, told me, "You're gonna be sorry about what you said when you have to face God." I couldn't believe it. Since when do we have to be sorry about speaking the truth and not being a fool? Do Christian values impose a moral obligation upon us to be absolute idiots? Unfortunately, they do - that's what they're designed to do. That's why Christians are often referred to as "sheep," and the Lord as their shepherd - but since the Lord is not around, the preacher steps in to take his place. There's a phrase to describe that technique - it's called "mind control," and that's why the word "faith" plays such an important role in Christianity. Christians are required to have unwavering faith, not in God, but in what they're being told about God.
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A perfect example of the hypocrisy inherent in this epidemic of backward-thinking can be seen in the fact that women are virtually NEVER allowed to lead any church or religious cult, because
"Will you get up off your knees and quit
beggin' - I did my part when I
gave you a brain, fool!"
as we all know, God doesn't speak to women - it's God's will that they just keep their mouths shut, stay in their place, and do what these "anointed" men tell them to do. In fact, in many Muslim countries it's against the law for women to even drive a car or rent an apartment without being sponsored by a male - even if that male is their own son. They're treated like children, in spite of the fact that women gave birth to, and raise these young men and boys who are require to "sponsor" them.
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But if you're a Christian, before you begin to smirk, you need to take a look at your own "faith." According to what we see in the Bible, the Whiteman reigns supreme in the eyes of God. In fact, he occupies a status just beneath that of God himself. The Bible says, "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ.” - Ephesians 6:5. In other words, when Black people allowed themselves to be freed from their "masters" after the Civil War, they committed a sin. Just like the Confederacy, the Bible considers the emancipation of Black people in the South the theft of private "property."
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Frederick Douglass had the following to say about Christianity and the jackleg preachers of his time:
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"The church of this country is not only indifferent to the . . . [bad treatment of] the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the . . . [defender] of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Many of its most eloquent . . . [preachers], who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world . . . [as] Christianity."
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In addition, the Catholic church - which was responsible for compiling the "Holy Bible" under Pope Damasus I - refuses to allow women to become priests. That suggests that women are inferior to men. So if the pope is truly suppose to be advancing the will of God, somebody must be a bigot, either the pope, or God himself. So if we agree that God's not a bigot, that's prima facie evidence that the pope is lying about advancing God's will. What he's actually doing is perpetuating man's bigotry toward women, and if that's true, we then have to ask ourselves where else is God and the truth slipping through the cracks?
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IF IT WEREN'T SO SAD IT WOULD BE A JOKE
And yes, I referred to the world's greatest religions as cults, because anyone who believes in walkin' dead men and talkin' snakes is, by definition, a part of a cult. After all, how is what Pat Robertson and T.D. Jakes preaching any more credible than Voodoo? The fact is, it's not. They all believe in zombies, so they'll never be able to convince me that being stupid, ignorant, and superstitious is a part God's will - and, to my brother I'd like to say, I'm prepared and more than willing to argue my case before God himself in the hereafter.
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So while I'm a firm believer in God, it's for intellectual reasons that I can defend, not because I believe in Voodoo, talkin' snakes, and walkin' dead men as a matter of blind faith - and I neither require, nor expect, God to do magic tricks for me in order to prove his existence. In fact, why should God care whether or not man believes he exists? If we don't believe in God after observing this wondrous universe around us, it simply means we're stupid. So there's no reason for God to be fixated on us. In terms of just this galaxy alone, man is about as significant as a germ under a toilet seat in Ozbekistan, so I doubt very seriously that God's walking around worried about whether or not we believe in him. We're simply not that important, and the mere fact that we're under the delusion that we are clearly demonstrates that we're on the mother of all ego trips.
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So whenever I hear these preachers, witch doctors, and soothsayers talking about God like he's their next-door-neighbor, I have to scratch my head and ask myself, "What kind of idiot is this?" And what's even more amazing is how they can look you directly in the eye and spew the most outrageous kind of nonsense, and then act like you're crazy if you refuse to believe that Moses commanded the Red Sea to scoot over and get out of his way. So no wonder man is suffering. Many of us are just as backward and superstitious as we were when we were living in caves - yet, I'm suppose to have faith in these men as God's valued confidants!!!? I don't think so. Even if I was so "God fearing" that I tried, I'd be lying, and God would know it.
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FIND EARTH
And we're just looking in one direction of one galaxy in a universe that's filled with hundreds of billions of them just like it.
Our galaxy alone is over 100,000 light years across, and has over 200 billion stars that are light years apart - and there's over 10 TRILLION galaxies in the universe just like it. If you go and look out at the night sky (as I do every night as part of my personal spirituality) some of the light you see, just from stars near by, left its respective stars traveling through time and space at 186,000 MILES PER SECOND (7 1/2 times around the Earth in one second), for over 100,000 years before Jesus was born just to hit your eyeball, and our galaxy is just a dust particle in the universe. There are thousands of billions of galaxies just like it, and billions of times more distant - and the universe is still expanding in every direction at the speed of light. There are a billion times more galaxies in the universe than there are grains of sand on every beach, desert, and particles of sand beneath the sea - and yet, man claims to know what's on God's mind!!!? That's utterly ridiculous. So for me, "God" is simply whatever force that was responsible for creating what we refer to as "nature," "reality," and/or "the universe" - period, and case closed. It's not my place to try to read God's mind, or define his nature, and I'm not arrogant enough to think I can.
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THE “HOLY” BIBLE
THIS IS WHAT RELIGION IS ALL ABOUT, BUT SINCE GOD TOOK THE TIME TO BLESS ME WITH A BRAIN, DOESN'T THAT SUGGEST THAT IT WAS HIS WILL FOR ME TO USE IT, AND NOT SIMPLY HAVE "FAITH" IN THE WORDS OF OTHER MEN?
The word "faith" simply means that you've chosen to believe in what some other MAN has told you instead of what God has done. Nobody can speak for God, so your so-called "faith" is an agreement that you've entered into with man to ignore the common sense that God gave you and intended you to use, and replace it with what another man tells you. Thus, your "faith" is not in God, it's in man.
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The Bible that Christians Worship today was compiled and “blessed” by the Catholic Church, not God. At the time, any book that disagreed with the Catholic Church was banned. What Christians call "The Holy Bible," and what preachers run around thumping, wasn’t even compiled until almost 400 years after the death of Jesus. So everything in it is hearsay. In terms of years, at the time the Bible was compiled they were twice as far away from the life and times of Jesus Christ as we are away from the life and times of George Washington today. So in reality, they didn’t know fact from fiction any more than we know whether or not George Washington actually chopped down a cherry tree:
. "For the first 300 years of Christianity, there was no Bible as we know it today. Christians had the Old Testament Septuagint, and literally hundreds of other books from which to choose. The Catholic Church realized early on that it had to decide which of these books were inspired and which ones weren't. The debates raged between theologians, Bishops, and Church Fathers for several centuries as to which books were inspired and which ones weren't. In the meantime, several Church Councils or Synods, were convened to deal with the matter, notably, Rome in 382, Hippo in 393, and Carthage in 397 and 419. The debates sometimes became bitter on both sides. One of the most famous was between St. Jerome, who felt the seven books were not canonical, and St. Augustine who said they were. Protestants who write about this will invariably mention St. Jerome and his opposition, and conveniently omit the support of St. Augustine. I must point out here that Church Father's writings are not infallible statements, and their arguments are merely reflections of their own private opinions. When some say St. Jerome was against the inclusion of the seven books, they are merely showing his personal opinion of them. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion. However, A PERSON’S PRIVATE OPINION DOES NOT CHANGE THE TRUTH AT ALL. There are always three sides to every story, this side, that side, and the side of truth. Whether Jerome's position, or Augustine's position was the correct position, had to be settled by a third party, and that third party was the Catholic Church. . "Now the story had a dramatic change, as the Pope stepped in to settle the matter. In concurrence with the opinion of St. Augustine, and being prompted by the Holy Spirit, Pope St. Damasus I, at the Council of Rome in 382, issued a decree appropriately called, "The Decree of Damasus," in which he listed the canonical books of both the Old and New Testaments. He then asked St. Jerome to use this canon and to write a new Bible translation which included an Old Testament of 46 books, which were all in the Septuagint, and a New Testament of 27 books"
(http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080928064041AATOZUD).
. SO THE POPE HAD SPOKEN, AND THE ISSUE WAS SETTLED. THUS, WHAT CHRISTIANS REFER TO AS "THE HOLY BIBLE" IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD AT ALL, IT'S THE WORD OF POPE DAMASUS I.
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So if you're waiting around for Jesus to come back and "save" you, you can forget it. Dead men don’t come back. That’s why God blessed you with a mind, so you could handle your own problems. So believing in the Bible and believing in God are two different things. To believe in the Bible is to believe in the nonsense of man, where believing in God is to believe in the common sense that God bestowed upon you, which man claims is the Devil trying to mislead you. Therefore, going around worshiping man’s nonsense is the source of our misery, not our salvation. Just look around you! If God blesses those he loves, based on the suffering that Black people have endured for the past 400 years, one would think he must hate our guts. But that's not the case. We're suffering because we've been taught to fall on our knees instead of getting on our job. God blessed us with the most powerful computer of any species on Earth, but instead of using it to move forward, we're wasting it analyzing football games, worshipping other men, and writing rhymes calling the very womb of our culture "bitches" and "hoes" - and then, we don't understand why we can't get any respect. We're the only group on Earth who denigrate our own mothers, sisters, and daughters worse than we would any dog. That's the very definition of self-hatred, so why should anyone else respect us if we don't respect ourselves? And here's how we got that way:
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The Conversion
"Come here nigga and let me teach yo crazy, animal ass about the Lord. The first thing you got to learn is to Love thy Neighbor . . . especially me."
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"Yes sir, Massa. Why would anybody not love you, Sir? You so good to me, Massa. Anybody don't love you needs to have dey ass beat real good, Massa."
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"Shut up, nigga. I'm talkin'."
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"Listen, you been blessed already, and you don't even know the Lord. The Lord made it where you don't have to worry 'bout a thing. I feed you, I put clothes on yo nasty ass, and I give you a shed to sleep in, and all you have to do is whatever the hell I tell you to. Do you know how blessed you are?"
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"Oh, indeed I do, Massa. You take good care of me. I's so happy."
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"Now, listen real good 'cause dis impotant. God said, thou shalt not steal from me, thou shalt not kill (unless I tell you to), thou shalt not stick another coon's wife (unless we tryin' to make some mo niggas), and nigga, whatever you do, thou shalt not even look like you want to stick a white woman, or we gon lynch yo black ass. You here me, nigga?"
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"Oh yes, Massa. We know dat! But Massa, I thought you said thou shalt not kill?"
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"Dat means people, fool - real people! Dat don't go for niggas. God wants us to keep you in yo place."
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"Dat's right, Massa. We sho gotta keep niggas in dey place. No tellin' what a happen if we let dese niggas git loose. God so smart."
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"I said shut up, nigga, and listen to the word."
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"The next thing you got to learn is, whatever happens on this plantation is God's will bein' done. And if you listen to me, you'll get to live like I do when you die and go to Heaven."
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"Live like you, massa? A nigga ain't got no business livin' dat good. What a Po nigga like me gon do with all this? You know I ain't got sense enough to run nothin' like this."
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"Just shut up, nigga!" When you dead you gon get some sense - the lord gon give it to you. The Lord can do anything, even give sense to a nigga. And he gon give you all the other niggas you gon need to help you in the fields, too."
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"Massa, you so good to me! Thank you for tellin' me all dis. I'm gon be a good nigga - the best nigga you ever seened. Look, I'm gon pray for you right now, and thank the Lord for givin' me so good a massa."
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"Shut up and get up off your knees, ya dumb nigga! The fields need tendin'! You pray to the Lord on your own time. God don't won't you talkin' to him when you s'pose to be workin'."
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"A couse, Massa. What I been thinkin'? I's so dumb. I don't know why you put up with me, Sir."
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"How many times I got to tell you to shut the hell up, nigga?"
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"Yes Sir, I's a shuttin', Massa. I's a shuttin', right now."
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"Now get yo ass out there in that field and let's get some work done around here . . . Oh, and Toby, have yo woman meet me in the barn. I need to tell her 'bout the Lord too."
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"Yes sir, Massa."
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"And another thing, Toby, if my momma come a lookin', tell her I'm playin' in my tree house."
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"Why you gon go fibbin' to yo momma, Mr. Tommy? She knows you like to sit wit Lou Ann."
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"Just shut up, nigga, and do what I said! And tell Lou Ann to wear that pretty dress I like, cause we gon be talkin' 'bout the Lord, so it's gon be like chuch."
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"Yes Sir, Mr. Tommy." . . . . "Whaaaaaaat a friend we have in Jeeeeesus . . ."
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So that's how Black people - and many poor White people - got where we are today, and we're gonna stay there until we learn to get off our knees and start thinking. God helps those who help themselves. That’s why your preacher has a much bigger house than you do - and he worked a whole lot less to get it.
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Finally, there are only three commandments, and you don't have to read a "holy" user's manual to find them. You were born with this knowledge:
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1). Live the best life you can.
2). Help others whenever you can.
And most importantly,
3). Mind your own damn business.
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That came directly from God. It’s called common sense.
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AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED. 81% OF WHITE EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANS VOTED FOR DONALD TRUMP
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Eric L. Wattree http://wattree.blogspot.com/ Ewattree@Gmail.com Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA) . Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.
Strive To Become Your Own Hero... Then Let No One Remove Your Cape.
BIO
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s been a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Star News, The Atlanta Post, and is a member of the Sigma Delta Chi Society of Professional Journalists (http://www.spj.org/). He’s also the author of "A Message From the Hood."
Some of the greatest minds I’ve ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lots of ghetto liquor stores, while some of the weakest minds I’ve ever known roamed the halls of academia in pursuit of credentials over knowledge.
Am I a hater, you ask? You're damn right I'm a hater. I hate injustice. I hate hypocrisy. I also hate demagoguery, apathy, and the stupidity that allows it to exist. Hater? Absolutely. I'm a big time hater. I hate what I see happening to this country, and I hate watching the development of a culture that embraces ignorance with a stupid sense of pride. So yes, I am indeed a hater, but not only that - I'm a hater with a very low threshold for bullshit, so step off.
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