AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND DAMN FOOLS: WAKE UP BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM AND DAMN FOOLS: 

WAKE UP BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE
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I'm against ALL racists, whether they be Black or White. One must be evenhanded in that respect, because one cannot claim to be against racists without being against RACISM in all its guises. Thus, in the most literal sense, I'm something of a bigot myself - I'm an absolute bigot against anyone who takes pride in their own stupidity - and that's exactly what ALL racists do, irrespective of their ethnicity as clearly evidenced by Rev. James David Manning in the video above.  He's what I call a "bligot" - a Black-on-Black bigot The irony of the video is, the good reverend fails to realize that he's been so traumatized by the very views that he's espousing that he's become a classic victim of the Stockholm syndrome.
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And there's a very good reason for that - Black people are the produce of the very same racist
environment her in America as White people, so as I constantly tell people, some of the weaker minded Black people in this country are just as bigoted toward other Black people as any barefoot Hillbilly. Racist attitudes toward Black people are so pervasive in this country that regardless to who you are, or how much effort you put into trying to avoid being racist, you have latent racist attitudes deep within your psyche. That account for why in spite of the fact that African-Americans control $1.1 trillion in spending power (equal to the gross national product of Germany - the third richest industrial nation in the world), they spend only 2 cents of every dollar with Black businesses.
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In addition, anyone who has ever worked for the United States Postal Server will tell you that if you separate many Blacks from a group and give those individuals just a little bit of power, they'll be twice as brutal and unfair to Black employees than they are to any other group.  In fact, that tendency is so consistently reliable that the USPS has built a business tactic around it. They'll select certain Black employees - not the best and the brightest, but those who are the most self-serving, and have the least amount of character - place them in lower middle management, and then set unattainable goals for them.  Thereafter, all they have to do is sit back and watch them work they're employees like slaves to try to reach those goals. And what makes the tactic so perfect is, they can violate the civil rights of their employees with impunity, because it's next to impossible00 to for one Black person to file a successful Equal Employment Opportunity complaint against another person of the same race.
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So if Black people are even racist toward one another, one can only imagine what it's like trying to deal with many White people.  But the good news is, Contrary to popular belief, things are changing between the Black and White racial dynamic very rapidly. The mere fact that Barack Obama was elected not once, but twice, is clear evidence of that. African Americans constitute only 13% of the population. If group in the population was allotted the number of votes that corresponded to their percentage of the population and Obama needed 51 votes to win, Black people would only be able to give him 13 votes. Where did the other 38 votes come from?
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So in spite of what many say, the election results suggest that we indeed are living in a post racial American. But if that's the case, why are we seeing so much police brutality in society, in Ferguson, Los Angeles, New York, Texas, etc.?  The answer is very simple - because we're watching the dying gasp of Jim Crow. In short, we're witnessing the bigots' last stand.
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For the most part, Americans are good and decent people who just want to live their lives and raise their families, but the corporate media has a vested interest in giving us the impression that America is in turmoil. So all they're showing us is the biggest fools in the country. The corpo-conservative coalition have both a business and political interest in keeping the poor and middle class hungry, angry, and hostile toward one another. That prevents us from coming together to defeat their agenda, which is to lower the standard of living to conform to the global economy where some workers make less a week than middle class Americans spend on lunch per day, and prevent us from using our higher demographic numbers to defeat them at the polls.
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So it's not newly arriving immigrants that's taking away our jobs. Our jobs are being GIVEN away by self-serving and greedy billionaires sending them over seas so they can keep us divided here at home by forcing us to fight over scraps and crumbs that are left.  So we've got to stop letting ourselves be played
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With regard to his message, in the fight against racism, and bigotry in general, we must have the presence of mind to distinguish between the delusions of racism and the discomfort of truth. Rev. Manning, shown above, is both a victim and a disseminator of racist, White male Anglo-Saxon Protestant bigotry based entirely on a deluded distortion of fact. He's an ideologue, who's clearly giving ideology priority over truth.

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On the other hand, Rev. Jerimiah Wright has also been portrayed as a racist.  But Rev.Wright is not a racist at all. He simply held a mirror up for America to take a look at itself.  But since America is not use to such unvarnished honesty, it was simpler for the American people to spin Rev. Wright into a caricature that was more acceptable to American sensibilities - "It ain't nothing wrong with America; that's just the rantings of one delusional and unGodly preacher." But the fact is, even though America is filled to the brim with wonderful people of every race, the United States has been one of the most blatantly hypocritical, disgustingly greedy, and shamelessly barbaric nations that has EVER existed on the face of the Earth, and Rev. Wright, being a man of the cloth, merely told us so, just as Jesus Christ would have done had he been preaching in Wright's place. The facts are clear and undeniable:

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Rev. Jerimiah Wright
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THE CONVERSION

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 "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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"ONE NATION

 UNDER GOD,

WITH LIBERTY,

AND JUSTICE,

FOR ALL."

Hmmmmmmmm . . . No shit?

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

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DID HILLARY CLINTON TRY TO 'DOG-WHISTLE' BARACK OBAMA'S ASSASSINATION?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

DID HILLARY CLINTON TRY TO 'DOG-WHISTLE' BARACK OBAMA'S ASSASSINATION?

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POLITISPEAK FOR 

YOU'RE STILL A BARRY GOLDWATER REPUBLICAN,

RIGHT DOWN TO THE REPUBLICAN TALKING POINTS - 

AND WHAT'S A "NEW DEMOCRAT?"

Once Hillary Clinton became desperate over her all but certain loss to Barack Obama in the 2008 primaries, she began to continually allude to the assassination of Robert Kennedy during the 1968 primary. She kept repeating that "Calling all wingnuts!" 'dog whistle' as justification for why she didn't simply get out of the race.
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But the mere mention of this episode seem to drive Clinton supporters up the wall. They say it’s "water under the bridge," and others try to make light of it as though I’m some sort of crazy conspiracy theorist - "Was Hillary also responsible for the sinking of the Lusitania, and by the way, where's her birth certificate?" But the fact is, this issue is not funny, and it can't just be fluffed off as water under the bridge. It should be seriously examined, because it strongly suggests that there's a very dark sociopath lurking beneath Hillary’s public facade.
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What made Hillary's remarks seem much more malevolent than a simple gaffe was, as pointed out in a Keith Olbermann commentary below, someone had obviously told her that her mention of the word "assassination" was inappropriate, since Sen. Obama had been receiving death threats every since the day he threw his hat in the ring to run for president, so Hillary stopped using the word - temporarily. But as her situation became more dire and it was all but certain that she was going to lose to Sen. Obama, she began using the word "assassination" again.
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And later, on May 11th 2008, while appearing on Meet The Press, Hillary’s campaign chairman, Terry McAuliffe, made the same kind of statement to Tim Russert. He said that in order for Hillary to win the nomination "something big" would have to happen. Then Russett asked, "An act of God, or something catastrophic?", and he said, "Yes, something big would have to happen–absolutely."
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So how much farther did they have to go, say, "Calling all wingnuts! If somebody - ANYBODY - doesn't hurry up and kill this guy America could end up with a Black man for president!!!?"
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So why did President Obama make Hillary his Secretary of State? That’s very simple. Obama had the good sense to understand that he needed to heal the rift within the Democratic Party so he threw her a bone. But while Bill was pushing for Hillary to be made Vice President, Obama had much better sense than to place her one heartbeat away from the presidency, because there’s one thing Barack has never been accused of, and that’s being a fool.
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But this episode clearly shows that Hillary Clinton would do ANYTHING, no matter how horribly unconscionable, to appease her own ambition, and that's not a good thing in any leader. It also shows that while Hillary saw fit to change her party to accommodate her ambition, she’s more than managed to maintain her Republican instincts - she has absolutely no hesitation to play dirty politics, and she also lacks a sense of limits. Those are distinctly Republican traits. 
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Hillary is quoted as saying, "I’ve gone from Barry Goldwater Republican to a new Democrat, but I think my underlying values has remained pretty constant; individual responsibility and community. I don’t see those as being mutually inconsistent."
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AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HILLARY CLINTON IS -

PART OF THE PROBLEM

That sounds innocuous enough - who can be against personal responsibility and community? But it’s actually politispeak, a coded message to her corporate supporters that says, "the people are on their own." Those exact words - "individual responsibility and community" - are a major part of the Republican mantra; they could have come from the mouth of Paul Ryan. It's a coded slander of Black people (like "welfare queen"), and it implies that anyone who expects government assistance - like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, veterans benefits or extended unemployment insurance - lacks personal responsibility. But what about corporate responsibility? "About $59 billion is spent on traditional social welfare programs. $92 billion is spent on corporate subsidies. So, the government spent 50% more on corporate welfare than it did on food stamps and housing assistance in 2006" - and one of Hillary's staunchest corporate supporters, Walmart, is one of the biggest corporate "welfare queens" in the country.
http://thinkbynumbers.org/government-spending/corporate-welfare/corporate-welfare-statistics-vs-social-welfare-statistics/
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So as is clearly demonstrated in this very article, one should listen to Hillary Clinton very carefully, because she's always been big on subliminal messaging, and she’s extremely condescending toward the average American. She thinks we’re dumb, and unfortunately, many of us are. Why didn’t Hillary simply say, I’ve gone from Barry Goldwater Republican to a Democrat? Instead she said a "NEW Democrat." It’s quite simple - because in the code of politispeak they have two very different meanings. So what does Hillary mean by a "new Democrat?" I took the time to look it up for its exact meaning:
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According to Wikipedia, "New Democrats, also called Centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats, Moderate Democrats, or Neoliberal Democrats, is an ideologically centrist faction within the Democratic Party that emerged after the victory of Republican George H. W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election . . . The New Democrat Coalition is a Congressional Member Organization within the United States Congress made up of Democrats who support an agenda that the organization describes as moderate and pro-growth."
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So it's Hillary's intent to come over from the Republican Party and redefine what it means to be a Democrat. She wants to push the party to the right so it will be more accommodating to the corporate agenda (or 1%ers), which also means, less accommodating to the people. Isn't that already the problem? Most liberals prefer the old Democrats, like Ted Kennedy and, yes, Bernie Sanders, who fight for the people. So liberal Democrats need to send a clear and unequivocal message by using the primaries to get rid of these so-called "New Democrats," because all they are, are just like Hillary - Corpora-Crats feigning to be Democrats in Democratic districts.
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The fact is, both Bill, and Hillary, are Republicans in drag - and they always have been. While they talk and act liberal, whenever they walk away, they always tend to leave Republican policies behind, like NAFTA, that laid the foundation to outsource American jobs. They also managed to cut the throats of many poor Black, and White, welfare recipients and unskilled workers while in office.
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"Clinton has been heavily criticized for overseeing the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which made it more affordable for manufacturing companies to outsource jobs to foreign countries and then import their product back to the United States. This policy caused a significant decrease in the amount of unskilled jobs in the United States." But When Clinton  signed NAFT into law (with a Republican majority), he said, "NAFTA means jobs. American jobs, and good-paying American jobs. If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't support this agreement" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Free_Trade_Agreement).  Nevertheless, we see how it turned out.
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So the fact is, Hillary, just like Bill, cannot be trusted. At the very least, she’s a fiscal conservative, and the only thing that she truly cares about is her own unquenchable ambition. Her every action is staged to manipulate "the little people," and if you pay close attention, you'll notice that even when she laughs it sounds forced and disingenuous.
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Consider this. At seventeen years old she was working for the Barry Goldwater campaign, who pledged that if elected he would abolish the Civil Rights Act. Then in college she was not just a member of the "Young Republicans," she was their PRESIDENT!
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Hillary supporters claim that’s all irrelevant. They claim that she was only a child at the time. But when carefully considered, that makes it even more relevant. A teenager generally merely "leans" toward a particular political philosophy, but not Hillary. Hillary was so dedicated to the conservative Republican philosophy that she actually got involved in Barry Goldwater’s campaign before she was even old enough to vote, and then later in college - while most left-leaning students were demonstrating against the Vietnam war, and protesting for Civil and women’s rights - she was the president of the "Young Republicans." That not only showed a deep commitment, but a deep dedication to conservatism.
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Her supporters also try to fluff that off by saying, "Well, people change." While that may be true, people rarely change a commitment that is as deeply ingrained in them as the commitment that Hillary demonstrated toward Republicanism. One’s politics is much like one's religion - most people carry their predisposition to the grave, and there are many indications that Hillary is also doing just that, like joining forces with the neocons in her support for the invasion of Iraq, and her appeal to the "hard-working White people" during her 2008 campaign against Obama, and her cozy relationship with the corporate 1%ers. In addition, during her 2008 campaign against Obama, while trying to get Ted Kennedy’s support, it was reported by the New Yorker that Bill Clinton said to Kennedy regarding Barack Obama, "A few years ago, this guy would have been carrying our bags." True progressives don’t talk like that. He was sounding just like a White Southern politician behind closed doors - which is exactly what he was, and is - dark glasses and saxophone notwithstanding.  They don't call him "Slick Willie" for nothing.
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Another indication of Hillary’s conservative predisposition could be observed in her behavior during her first high-profile position on the Board of Directors of Walmart. While she was in that position Walmart was undercutting labor unions, paying their workers slave-like wages, and discriminating against women by paying them less than they paid men for doing the same job, and Hillary didn’t say a word. The reason for that was simple - it wasn’t convenient for her to speak out at the time. Speaking out on behalf of women and the working class wouldn’t do anything to promote her ambition. It was a zero sum gain, and Hillary is not motivated by conviction; she's motivated by self-interest. But all of a sudden - now that she needs the votes of the working class - she’s trying to portray herself as a gladiator for the people, but that’ll only last until she gets into office. Then it’ll be business as usual - paying back political favors (like the $25,000 campaign donation that she received from Walmart), and building up future credits with other corporate elites for her next campaign.
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A NO-LOSE ELECTION FOR CORPORATE ELITES
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BILL 'SLICK WILLIE' CLINTON CALLS TRUMP

"A new Washington Post report reveals that Bill Clinton and Donald Trump had a private phone call weeks before Trump got in the presidential race, in which the former president reportedly “encouraged” Trump’s political efforts.
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"Yes, this new report today from Robert Costa and Anne Gearan has people close to Trump and Clinton confirming they spoke some time in May.
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"There was apparently no talk specifically of 2016, but the former president reportedly “encouraged Trump’s efforts to play a larger role in the Republican Party.” And while Clinton never explicitly encouraged The Donald to run against his wife, he also said Trump “was striking a chord with frustrated conservatives and was a rising force on the right.” http://www.mediaite.com/online/bill-clinton-and-trump-had-private-phone-call-weeks-before-trumps-2016-announcement/

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So has Hillary Clinton really changed since her younger days of Republican activism? I don’t think so. I think that as an ambitious young woman of the sixties she saw what direction the wind was blowing. Thereafter, she made the cynical decision to switch parties in order to accommodate her ambition - Period.

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Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

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

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DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING - BLACK MOSES

Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

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

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WHY THIS BLACK MAN HAS NO SYMPATHY FOR BILL COSBY

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

WHY THIS BLACK MAN HAS NO SYMPATHY FOR BILL COSBY

When I first heard the allegations against Bill Cosby it literally made my stomach go weak. I listened for undated reports hoping to hear that it was all some kind of scam initiated by an irate or greedy woman who was simply trying to get into his pocket. I felt what I can only call a vested interest in that being the case, just as I suspect that many of his defenders and apologists are feeling today.
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After all, this was a Black man who was world renown as "America’s favorite dad." That was saying something - even many bigots liked and respected him. He commanded much of the moral stature of President Barack Obama, before there was a President Obama. He was one of the few Black men in the media who was portrayed in a positive light, and his very presence gave me the feeling that maybe there was hope for America after all.
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But I learned early on as both a writer, and twenty years as a paralegal, that I must always give truth priority over what I want to believe, and to always follow truth wherever it leads and regardless to whose ox it gores - that’s one of the primary reasons that at one point or another I offend almost everybody. But I have to think that way in order to be an effective and creditable writer, otherwise all I would be is a liberal-leaning imitation of Fox News. So while I recognize that I don’t corner the market on either wisdom, intellect, or knowledge, I want the reader to have confidence in the fact that I’m writing what I truly believe to be the facts - whether I’m right or wrong - and not trying to bend the facts to promote some kind of pet agenda.
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So regardless to what I previously thought of Bill Cosby, it has been reported that as many as sixty women (count ‘em, SIXTY!) have come forward and alleged that he either raped, attempted to rape, or abused them in some way. If these women are found to be credible, in civil law that would constitute the "preponderance of the evidence," and in criminal law, "beyond a reasonable doubt." So that alone would be grounds to find him guilty. Thus, as much as I would love to wake up and find that this was all a dream and see Bill restored to his former spotless stature, I’m not going to try to delude myself to make that happen, and that’s exactly what I think many of Bill’s defenders are trying to do, much like the Republicans did with the "Birther Conspiracy." Many conservatives just couldn’t wrap their heads around the fact that America had elected a Black man President of the United States, so instead of simply accepting it, they slipped into a state of delusion to try to deny his legitimacy.
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That's exactly what Cosby’s defenders are doing. They just can't wrap their heads around the idea that a man who they've loved and respected all these years is some kind of sexual pervert - and that's exactly what I think he is, because with all of his wealth and fame Bill didn't have to get sex the way it's alleged that he did. Many of these women, or at least some of them, might have given in to him willingly, but he didn't want consensual sex - his sexual perversion required him to steal it - and for me, the word of sixty women says that's a fact.  
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Nevertheless, his defenders are insisting that America is jumping the gun in condemning Bill. They claim that none of the allegations have been substantiated, but at the very same time many of them would have us believe the totally unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that a powerful cartel of bigots set this up to bring Cosby down in order to prevent him from buying NBC. Now I’m not saying that the White elitist establishment is not capable of such conduct, but even if they tried, one would think that they’d have had sense enough to use just two, three, or maybe even five women who could be effectively managed, not sixty! With that many people involved, what are the chances that the conspiracy wouldn’t be leaked by at least one of them who came down with an attack of conscience, or for some other reason? In addition, it would give Cosby’s legal team many more opportunities to poke holes in the scam. So to use sixty women in a conspiracy would be both dumb, and ridiculously over the top. I think any good lawyer would have told them that, and presumably, they’d be able to obtain the very best legal advice available.
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Another flaw in the conspiracy theory is it’s designed to suggest that we should take the word of ONE man over SIXTY women. That's not only ridiculous, but it clearly demonstrates this society’s sexist mentality.  To even suggest that all of these women are lying as part of a conspiracy that "they" cooked up in order to bring Bill down could be shot down in flames with just one question - Who is this "they" you keep talking about?" Give me a name - just one.
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So while I would really love to support this Black man, my sense of truth tells me that he's lying, he's guilty, and as a people we have a responsibility to protect the very womb of our society. And once again - because this bears repeating over and over again - to even suggest that we should take the word of one man over sixty women is a prime example of just how bigoted we are in this society. Women and Black people should know better, because given our long experience and hardship as a result of bigotry, there are very few things on this Earth more stupid than a bigoted Black person, female, or Jew - and thanks to Donald Trump and the religious right's "fools for Jesus" movement, I can now add Muslims and Mexicans to that list.
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This episode is also a prime example of just how effective our media is in shaping our attitudes and opinions. Think about it.  Most of us have been loved, raised, and nurtured by a woman, so how could we possibly grow up to feel that just one man’s word should have more value than the word of sixty women!!!? And again, what really makes me scratch my head is how many women are buying into this "horrible women, poor little innocent billionaire" mentality!!! We certainly couldn’t have form this attitude regarding the relative worth of men and women due to the character of men, because if many of us had to depend on our father’s to feed, clothe, and raise us, we would have starved to death in childhood. So as a society, this should be a teaching moment that causes us to re-examine not only our attitude toward women, but all of our attitudes and beliefs.
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Nevertheless, Bill's diehard defenders seem to think their trump card is, "But why are these women just coming out now?  Why didn't they come out right after the incident?"  That's very simple - the reason that they all started coming out at once is because they were afraid to come out against the wealth, fame, and power of Bill Cosby alone. People fear power, but when others started coming out they said, "Hey, he did that to me too!" Now they were no longer alone - or, little me, against big Bill.  There are probably many others who still haven't come out.
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But when I try to explain that to Bill's defenders, they continue to insist that I’m being unfair to Bill because I'm convicting him without a trial. So all of a sudden they seem to have found Jesus in our judicial system - the very same judicial system that declared George Zimmerman innocent, and treat many of the rogue cops, who are shooting down our kids on the street like rabid dogs, like they're performing a public service. So one can't help but ask, when, and why, have they all of a sudden developed this new-found faith in the courts? Black lives matter, and so do female vaginas. Our children weren't born to be used as target practice for rogue cops, and a woman's vagina is not a toy designed for the entertainment of big shot billionaires. Thus, society has got to be firm in making that message abundantly clear - court, or no court.
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Now, I might be wrong regarding what I'm about to say, because as I pointed out above, I don’t claim to corner the market on either knowledge or intellect, but personally, I think Bill’s legal team knows that he’s guilty, and they also know that if they can't find a technicality to get him out of this, "Dr. Huxtable" is going to the joint. That’s why he’s going to court unshaven, walking with a cane, and acting like he can barely get up the steps without help from his attorneys. They’re already preparing for his sentencing hearing. They’re going to claim that Bill is so sickly that he can’t survive a stint in the joint, so to sentence him to prison would amount to the death penalty, and therefore, constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Thus, he should be given probation and public service for the rape and sexual abuse of a multitude of women.  Oh, really!!!? 
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THIS IS MY GRANDDAUGHTER AND TWO

OF MY GRANDSONS.

THEY ARE WHO I GIVE PRIORITY TO,

NOT BILL.

But that's our judicial system for you. It's pocked full of loopholes for the rich and powerful, and it accommodates all manner of convoluted logic which allows it to do absolutely whatever it wants to do - they're trying to have Bill's case dismissed on a technicality even as I write. That's why our prisons are filled with poor Black people, and George W. Bush and Dick Cheney - who have committed more heinous crimes than all of the criminals in all of the prisons in America collectively - are walking around free.
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True justice is nothing but an illusion in America, as is clearly demonstrated by the plight of these sixty women, and any one of them could very easily be our daughter, sister, or granddaughter.  So I'm not going to allow myself to be distracted by what color Bill is.  I have no interest in factionalism - a predatory pervert is a pervert. This is not a racial issue. It's about defending the dignity of women. We're knee-deep in a class war in which women are considered a part of the lower class, and America will do well to never forget that.  So thanks for the memories, Bill, but you've got to go down, brother - and if the courts don't do it, we've got to do it as a society.
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And I don’t think I'm being unfair in not waiting for the court before making up my mind about Bill. I’m merely measuring him with his own yardstick, and you can't be any more fair than that, can you?  And in that regard, when Bill was flying high and deluding himself into believing that he was an honorary member of the "White Elitist Society," he said the following in his infamous "Pound Cake" rant:
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"Looking at the incarcerated, these are not political criminals. These are people going around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake! And then we all run out and are outraged, 'The cops shouldn't have shot him!' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand?"
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Well, maybe he was hungry, Bill.  Does that warrant the death penalty?  On the other hand, you were stealing something of a lot more value than Coca-Cola, so let me ask you the same question - what the hell were you doing with Quaaludes in your hand?  So don't try to look all sad and put-upon now, because you're the one who set the standard by which you're now being judged. 
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Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

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

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THE BOOMERS

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

THE BOOMERS

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As my hair now starts to turn grey, I feel very proud to be a part of one of America's greatest generations.  We came together - Black and White - to danced in the park as kids in dashikis, Afros, and with flowers in our hair, and we did our very best to make America live up to its professed ideals. We used to say, "Don't trust anybody over thirty" with their antiquated ideas.  Now we have children older than that.  The years have flown by like minutes, and now we're dropping like flies, but we showed the world how it was done.  We loved, we partied, and we raised hell.
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 Where are those idealistic kids that we once were? I thought time was standing still and I would be young forever.  But time hasn't stood still. Now when I brush my teeth in the morning I'm looking at that crotchety old guy that I never took seriously as a youngster.  I thought I just missed  a "love-in," not forty years!!!    It's unreal, because I don't feel that way.  I'm still thinking the very same thoughts that I did in my twenties, and I've held up pretty well.  But now, with grey hair sprouting like Spring, and "my babies," whose jaws I so loved to kiss now in their forties, and my beautiful young wife that I loved so desperately in the grave, it says it all.  I now have grandchildren older than I was when my late wife and I fell in love.

But in spite of all that, sometimes I forget how the time has flown, only to be reminded by life in no uncertain terms, like when I run into young gangsters in the liquor store and they say, "What's happening OG (original gangster)?" Or like a couple of months ago when I noticed this gorgeous woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties staring at me in a restaurant. I have a woman so while I was flattered, I just nodded and smiled. But before she left, she turned around and started walking toward my table. As she was walking toward me I was thinking, "Wow, how am I going to get out of this gracefully?"  But when she got up to the table she said, "SIR, I really love your salt and pepper beard. It reminds me of my father's . . . before he died." I could barely hide my disappointment.  So life is telling me that I'm clearly no longer a kid, and I have more life behind me than I have to look forward to.  
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Where has the time gone!!!?  I want a do-over!!!  I want to hear Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, and Dexter Gordon for the first time again. I want to hear Aretha singing "Skylark," and I want to turn on my radio to the voice of "Mr. Kicks, the Jammin' Jai Rich." I want Jimmy teaching me "BEAD" on the saxophone, and dazzling me with a flurry of 16th notes to "A Night In Tunisa," and Miles brooding to a lady name Stella on a sultry Summer night. I want Tollie Strode back to tell an impressionable teenager that "Excuses are the tools by which, with incompetence, we build monuments of nothing."  I want Malcolm back, and Martin, and Huey.  I want Rick Holmes, telling me it's "Rick's Affair, with the melodic, lyrical, powerful sounds of jazz." And I want my eyes to rest upon those proud young sisters walking in the park in mini skirts, with beautiful brown thighs, Afros, and hooped earrings again. I want to hear a young Don Carnelius saying, "You can bet your last money, it's gon' be a stone gas, honey,"  and I want to walk into a room and see a beautiful young woman's' eyes saying, "He might work."
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I want all that back. I want to relive the sixties and seventies - but savor it this time, with the understanding that once it's gone, it can never be recaptured.  This time I won't take it for granted, I swear. But I guess that's what heaven is all about, playing a bad imitation of John Coltrane to congas and gyrating beauties in Griffith Park, and nurturing sweet dreams of what life holds in store.
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BEST MAN AT CHARLES MEEKS' WEDDING
SHOWING OFF MY PRECIOUS BABIES -
I STILL SEE 'EM THIS WAY, AND IT SEEMS 
LIKE YESTERDAY.

Yes, I want all of that back, but that said, I take great pride in being a part of the greatest and most artistic and knowledgeable generation that America has ever known, and I'm proud to say that spirit continues to live in me.  We were a part of one another, and we continue to live in each other's soul.  Whenever I see a brother or sister whose hair is turning grey, I feel a very close kinship to them. I say to myself, "They were there, and we are one."
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We were about love, and knowledge, and celebrating life. We were about anti-war, anti-bigotry, and people coming together, regardless of their race, creed, color or sexual orientation. We were engaged, and we held the establishment's feet to the fire. We forced a president to resign, ended mandatory conscription, demanded the end of a war, and we forced equality for women and minorities.  We had it together. The world had never seen anything like us before.
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So I want to take this opportunity to say, well done Boomers. Yeah, we got a little high and raised a little hell at Woodstock and a jazz festival or two, but we had style, and intelligence, and we did ourselves proud. History will remember us fondly . . .  And just think, they tried to call us crazy.  America should be so crazy today.
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But Boomers, we have a job that is yet to be completed. Those of us who are still around need to dedicate the rest of our lives to transforming America; our brothers and sisters who are now gone expect it of us.  So let us keep the flame burning, and not let them down.

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ONE FOR BOOMER

Receding hairline, failing vision,
hair now turning grey,
an aging boomer in final protest,
Father Time his foe this day.
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Donning his headband, tie-dyed jeans,
and scorched draft card of protests past,
he set out for one last battle,
as in his youth that had quietly passed.
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Ode to an aging Boomer,
a different kind of man;
colleagues all now in the wind,
as he makes his final stand.
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But he found no placards or the sound of Trane,
no passionate speeches in the gentle rain,
no pretty girls wearing mini skirts,
and no solemn guards on pig alert.
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All he found was a new America,
and more freedom across this land;
the fruit of his struggle
for women's equality,
and the rights of his fellow man.
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He found Martin, Chavez, and Malcolm X,
all standing by his side;
He found Thomas Jefferson
and all his forefathers
beaming down with pride.
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He found minority children across this land
whose reach now exceed their grasp;
He found Jim Crow angrily cursing him,
as he takes his final gasp.
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He found pride as an aging boomer,
more hero, than common man;
He found a quirky old fart embraced by history,
for having the courage to take a stand.
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Alone, an aging Boomer,
fellow travelers now in the wind;
but one last time he limps to his trench,
to defend his fellow man.

Eric L. Wattree

wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com

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

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