DRAFT-DODGIN’ DONNIE

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

DRAFT-DODGIN’ DONNIE
(Sung To Jim Dandy To The Rescue)

DRAFT-DODGIN’ DONNIE TO THE RESCUE,
DON’T HAVE TO WORRY HE’LL PROTECT YOU,
DURING NAM HE STARTED LIMPIN’ AROUND,
THEN WHEN THE WAR WAS OVER
HE STARTED STRUTTIN’ ABOUT THE TOWN.
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DRAFT-DODGIN’ DONNIE TO THE RESCUE,
HE TOOK A KNEE UNTIL THE WAR WAS THROUGH,
AFTER WAR AND HE WAS SAFE FROM ATTACK,
HE LEFT HIS LIMP BEHIND
AND MR. PATRIOT WAS BACK.
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HE JUST DANCED AROUND THE FLOOR,
HE DIDN’T HAVE TO FEAR NO MORE.
HE WAS FREE FROM ATTACK,
SO MR. PATRIOT IS BACK.
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DRAFT-DODGING DONNIE WAS A LOVER,
CHEATED ON HIS BABY’S MOTHER,
SO MR. PUTIN KNEW HE HAD A CLOWN,
AND PUT THE CLOWN IN OFFICE
 SO HE COULD TAKE AMERICA DOWN.
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THEN HE DANCED AROUND THE FLOOR,
HE DIDN’T HAVE TO FEAR NO MORE.
HE WAS FREE FROM ATTACK,
WITH HIS HAND IN AN IDIOT’S BACK.
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DRAFT-DODGIN’ DONNIE TO THE RESCUE,
DON’T HAVE TO WORRY HE’LL PROTECT YOU,
ALL THE PEOPLE USED TO CALL HIM A CLOWN,
BUT WITH MR. PUTIN’S HELP
HE’S NOW THE BADDEST CAT IN TOWN.
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                                                                     Eric L. Wattree
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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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ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE - AND BEING BROKE

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE - AND BEING BROKE
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One Black woman told me, "Barack Obama didn’t do anything for us because he didn’t give us jobs or provide housing." That woman wasn’t out of a job because of what Barack Obama failed to do, she’s out of a job because of what SHE’S failing to do.

Barack Obama has done Black people proud, and any Black person who doesn’t see that is a fool who’s sitting around waiting for someone to come bring them a gift basket.  Nobody’s gonna do that, so you might as well wake up and realize that Santa Claus is a myth.  A good president is one who creates the conditions for you to help yourself.  So the days of waking up and looking under a Christmas tree for your happiness ended when we were kids. So you're going to have to  get up off your ass and learn to do something that people will be willing to pay for, and create your own goddamn jobs.
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Black people have proven that we're a brilliant and creative people, and the very same creativity that went into creating Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, and Marvin Gaye can also be directed toward every other area of knowledge if we'd just take the time to pursue it. I went into business doing legal research and writing legal briefs for attorneys for an upfront payment and a third of their legal fees - I learned to do that fighting my own cases when I was a teenager growing up on the street and I got pretty good at it, I had to if I wanted to stay out of jail. That serves as an example of how the adversity of the Black experience has made us MORE, rather than less. 
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As a result of the knowledge that I picked up on the street just trying to survive, it allowed practicing attorneys to sit on their asses and let me win their cases for them before they even stepped foot in court.  I only lost one case in 20 years, and I never even passed by a law school. The knowledge that I picked up on the street just trying to survive allowed my son and daughter to never have to want for anything in their entire lives. A case would come in and I’d go out and buy a motor home or an Escalade - cash.  But after my kids went out on their own and my wife passed, I gave that up and began to just try to enjoy what’s left of my life.  But here it is over 10 years later, and lawyers are STILL ringing my phone off the hook today - some even call me for legal advice!!! 
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The following is an example of the kind of common sense that Black people consider routine and don't realize everybody doesn't have:  The United States Supreme Court and legal scholars all over this country are debating whether or not Trump has the power to pardon himself. The answer should be clear to anyone with common sense, but they’re just looking in the wrong place. These so-called "legal scholars" keep looking at Article II Section 2 of the Constitution which says, "The president “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment." First, when it says, "except in cases of impeachment," it means except when it involves himself. And they also overlook another part of the Constitution that overrides even that - the Presidential Oath of Office.  Article VI, Clause 3, of the Constitution requires the President to "be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution."  And the Presidential Oath of Office says the following:

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will FAITHFULLY execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, PRESERVE, PROTECT, and DEFEND the Constitution of the United States."
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So no, Trump cannot pardon himself or any member of his extended crime family, because the case involves himself and it's a possible cause for impeachment. It's also a direct violation of the Presidential Oath of Office. He cannot pardon crimes in pursuit of self-service because it violates his oath of office in which he swore to “FAITHFULLY, PRESERVE, PROTECT, AND DEFEND” THE CONSTITUTION."  In addition, his successor cannot come in and pardon him later for the very same reason - he'd be failing to “FAITHFULLY, PRESERVE, PROTECT, AND DEFEND” THE CONSTITUTION as well."  Having a President, or his successor, pardon either himself, or his fellow conspirators doesn't protect the Constitution, it corrupts it.
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So for a president to attempt to pardon either himself, or his fellow conspirators in order to protect himself, is a direct violation of his Oath of Office, and thus, illegal.  It's clear and simple, and anyone who can't see that is either dumb, or they don't want to see it. 
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So I defy ANY legal scholar in America to challenge me on this issue. This simple-minded debate clearly demonstrates just how clueless many of the people we except as "EXPERTS" really are. So we should never be blinded by titles and credentials. That's how we get played. Sharpen your own mind, and then NEVER give anyone else's ability to think priority over your own. And when the need arises for you to assess others, never base your assessment on their titles or credentials. Always base your assessment on their ability to think - period.
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Many of these so-call “scholars,” including Cornel West (I had to mention him) are simply ignorant little men with a receipt from Harvard and a big sign on their door. Yes, they can regurgitate the words of the thinkers of the past, but more often than not, they can’t think for themselves.  We must always remember that Socrates, who's universally accepted as the father of modern thought, was not a scholar, he was a stonemason. If it were not for his proteges, people like Plato and Xenophon, who listened to him hold court on the block, we wouldn’t even know who he was.  So be like Socrates and never underestimate your own intelligence, and since knowledge is free, you don’t have to depend on the White men at Harvard, Princeton or Yale to give it to you. Congress is full of Harvard graduates and people with titles, but it’s the most dysfunctional assemblage of self-absorbed idiots and fools in America - and at this point, it's not even necessary to describe the gross level of ignorance and incompetence that currently disgraces the White House.
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So don't just sit on your ass and wait around for the White man to BRING you a job. Knowledge is not only power, but it’s free. You don’t have to go to Harvard to obtain the knowledge to survive any more than John Coltrane had to go to Juilliard to obtain his musical genius. The adversity that the Black man has had to face has made him more, rather than less. We assume that these so-call scholars and "intellectuals" have some deep and arcane knowledge that we're not privy to, but that's not true. They're simply little men who pass out awards and certificates to one another and give each other big signs to put on their doors.
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Thus, the biggest problem we have in the Black community has absolutely nothing to do with our lack of intellect or ability, it’s based on the fact that we’ve allowed ourselves to be brainwashed into UNDERVALUING our intellect. We're buying into the brainwashing that others have a special kind of intellect that we don't possess, but that's pure, unadulterated bullshit.
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When the White man tells us that we can’t think because HE didn’t give us a receipt from Harvard or Yale certifying that we can think, far too often, we believed him. That’s how he controls the quality of our lives, and our destiny.  In contrast, Jews are taught from birth that they are God's chosen people. That's why they excel, because you ARE what you think.  A White boy told me just yesterday that "You need to get over yourself." I told him in response, "No, I'm not gonna get over myself, because if I don't love and respect myself, who is? And beyond that, I take great pride in having the ability to make you feel just like you're feeling right now - inferior." That's also why bigots hate Barack Obama so intensely, he makes them feel inferior to a Black man, and to some White folks, that's worse than death.
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So as Black people, we need to turn off BET and start educating ourselves. Once we do that the White man will be begging us to take his money in return for our knowledge and creativity.  Black creativity is a very valuable asset.  So if you're broke, that's not Obama's fault, it's your fault, because you're wasting all of your time sitting around learning rap lyrics instead of getting up off your ass and learning to do something that people will be willing to pay you for. A job is not a gift. Applying for a job is about placing your expertise up for sale. So if you can't do nothing, you can't expect to get paid.
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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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TRUMP REPRESENTS A HOT SKILLET

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

TRUMP REPRESENTS A HOT SKILLET
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We’re suffering with Donald Trump for a reason. We're going through this because far too many people were much too willing to just follow the lead of the string-pullers. The DNC told those people to vote for Hillary Clinton or else, and that's just what they did - at least, some of them. If Hillary had won, what would stop them from doing that very same thing in the next election, and the one after that? So instead of pointing the finger at each other, we should just stop for a minute and think about the consequences of blindly allowing others to manipulate our vote. We learn by being burnt, and Trump simply represents a hot skillet, the very same kind of hot skillet that taught me to never vote for a Clinton again.
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I wrote an article discussing the need for Black people to become efficient thinkers in order to move forward. That article applies perfectly here. In fact, I wish I had this discussion as a example when I wrote it. I understand the frustration of many people, but it's misdirected. We've all been played by the DNC, but the first reaction of many is to blame their own people, and to start calling each other names because many refused to vote for the preferred bigot. But the anger of those frustrated over Trump should rightly be directed toward the DNC who used corruption and deceit to force them to have to choose between two bigots in the first place. The DNC made Trump a virtual shoo-in by shoving Hillary down our throats. Too many people saw through Hillary, and they hated what they saw. So it was foolish to even expect to win when even the polls were telling them that the rules have been bent to run the most flawed Democratic candidate since the Civil War. So instead of going online and ranting about their own people, the appropriate thing to do was to direct their anger at the DNC. If the DNC got a few million letters like the one below it would cause them to think long and hard before they tried to manipulate us again.

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HILLARY CLINTON’S CORRUPTION, AND DESTRUCTION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
(ACCORDING TO DONNA BRAZILE, CHAIRMAN OF DNC)

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1). “As Hillary’s campaign gained momentum, she resolved the party’s debt and put it on a starvation diet. It had become dependent on her campaign for survival, for which she expected to wield control of its operations.”

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2). “Gary Gensler, the chief financial officer of Hillary’s campaign, described the party as fully under the control of Hillary’s campaign, which seemed to confirm the suspicions of the Bernie camp. The campaign had the DNC on life support, giving it money every month to meet its basic expenses, while the campaign was using the party as a fund-raising clearinghouse. Under FEC law, an individual can contribute a maximum of $2,700 directly to a presidential campaign. But the limits are much higher for contributions to state parties and a party’s national committee.”
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Thus, Hillary was using the DNC to skirt campaign finance laws. “Individuals who had maxed out their $2,700 contribution limit to the campaign could write an additional check for $353,400 to the Hillary Victory Fund—that figure represented $10,000 to each of the 32 states’ parties who were part of the Victory Fund agreement—$320,000—and $33,400 to the DNC. The money would be deposited in the states first, and transferred to the DNC shortly after that. Money in the battleground states usually stayed in that state, but all the other states funneled that money directly to the DNC, which quickly transferred the money to Brooklyn” - or to the Hillary Clinton campaign.
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“Wait,” I said [DNC Chairman Brazile]. “That victory fund was supposed to be for whoever was the nominee, and the state party races. You’re telling me that Hillary has been controlling it since before she got the nomination?”
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3). “Right around the time of the convention, the leaked emails revealed Hillary’s campaign was grabbing money from the state parties for its own purposes, leaving the states with very little to support down-ballot races.”
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“A Politico story published on May 2, 2016, described the big fund-raising vehicle she had launched through the states the summer before, quoting a vow she had made to rebuild ‘the party from the ground up … when our state parties are strong, we win. That’s what will happen.’ . . .
“Yet the states kept less than half of 1 percent of the $82 million they had amassed from the extravagant fund-raisers Hillary’s campaign was holding. A Politico story described this arrangement as ‘essentially … money laundering’ for the Clinton campaign.”
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So Hillary was using the DNC to take money from the states to use for her own campaign. Could that be the reason that we have so few Democratic governors and other officeholders across America?  Could that also be the reason that Democrats are so vulnerable to gerrymandering across the nation, solidifying the Republican lock on congress?   Really!!!? - because of one woman’s self-serving ambition!!!? 

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A MESSAGE TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE

It has come to my attention that you’ve just adopted a rule requiring candidates to both run, and serve, as Democrats. Such arbitrary rules are, by definition, undemocratic, and they’re also an insult to the voter. You’re trying to deprive the voters of their freedom of choice. Such an action is just as unconscionable as gerrymandering, instituting a poll tax, or a literacy test. It’s an attempt to give the candidates of YOUR choice an unfair advantage. The candidates who the voters choose to vote for should be the VOTER’S choice, not yours. So who wants to vote for - or even trust - people who try to deprive the voters of their right to choose?
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Just the thought of your arrogant attempt at manipulation turns my stomach. That’s why I voted against Hillary Clinton in the last election - and that was in spite of the fact that I knew it could cause Trump to win. But I came to the conclusion that since I was being manipulated out of my right to choose, I would vote for democracy by voting third party - and although I hate Trump intensely, I’d do the exact same thing again even if the election was being held tomorrow and my vote alone would determine whether the Democrats won or lost. Because as I see it, one group of scoundrels are no better than another, and I WILL NOT allow myself to be blackmailed out of my vote - and believe me, there are millions of other voters across this country who feel EXACTLY the same way I do. You’re trying to treat us like children, and personally, I don’t appreciate it a bit.
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One of your cultists asked me, "Didn't you learn anything from the 2016 election?" I did. I learned that many of the people who run the DNC are nothing more than corporate conservatives in drag, and thus, just as corrupt as any Republican. So while I hated seeing Donald Trump win the election, I would have been just as miserable if Hillary had won. At least Trump is serving to wake people up from their state of apathetic somnambulism, but with Hillary it would have been the quiet corruption of business as usual. I only agree with Trump in one regard - Hillary should have gone to jail over her emails, because the one and only reason she used a private server was to try to hide her corrupt pay-to-play schemes from the federal government:
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BILL CLINTON ENCOURAGED TRUMP TO RUN,

THINKING THAT WOULD GIVE HILLARY A SURE WIN

"New Democrats, also called centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats or moderate Democrats, are a relatively centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party that emerged after the victory of Republican George H. W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election. Describing themselves as "centrist", they are an economically moderate to conservative and "Third Way" faction of the party. New Democrats dominated the party starting in the late 1980s after the U.S. electorate turned to the political right, until the mid-2010s following a rise in the Congressional Progressive Caucus" (Wikipedia - New_Democrats).
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And please don’t try to write me off as just another fanatical "Bernie Bro," because I’m not. I'm simply an informed American citizen who's highly insulted over being dealt with like I'm a clueless child, and people like me are growing with every day that's passes. It's time for the American people to send you arrogant bastards a message, and this is mine - you’re NOT our leaders, you’re our EMPLOYEES, and any one of you who don't understand that fact needs to be voted out of office.
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So I sincerely hope you have the common sense to review your thoughtlessly ridiculous decision, because if you don’t, you can add Jesus to your ticket and I’d vote against him - and since he espoused honesty and fairness, I’m sure he’d be in my corner.
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You'll find just a few of the people you've pissed off below.
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TAKING A STAND FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY:
I WILL NOT BE BLACKMAILED OUT OF MY VOTE

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Sincerely,
A TRUE progressive.
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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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A MESSAGE TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

A MESSAGE TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE

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It has come to my attention that you’ve just adopted a rule requiring candidates to run, and serve, as Democrats. Such arbitrary rules are, by definition, undemocratic, and they’re also an insult to the voter. You’re trying to deprive the voters of their freedom of choice. Such an action is just as unconscionable as gerrymandering, instituting a poll tax, or a literacy test. It’s an attempt to give the candidates of YOUR choice an unfair advantage. The candidates who the voters choose to vote for should be the VOTER’S choice, not yours. So who wants to vote for - or even trust - people who try to deprive the voters of their right to choose?
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Just the thought of your arrogant attempt at manipulation turns my stomach. That’s why I voted against Hillary Clinton in the last election - and that was in spite of the fact that I knew it could cause Trump to win. But I came to the conclusion that since I was being manipulated out of my right to choose, I would vote for democracy - and although I hate Trump intensely, I’d do the exact same thing again even if the election was being held tomorrow and my vote alone would determine whether the Democrats won or lost. Because as I see it, one group of scoundrels are no better than another, and I WILL NOT allow myself to be blackmailed out of my vote - and believe me, there are millions of other voters across this country who feel EXACTLY the same way I do. You’re trying to treat us like children, and personally, I don’t appreciate it a bit.
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One of your cultists asked me, "Didn't you learn anything from the 2016 election?"  I did.  I learned that many of the people who run the DNC are nothing more than corporate conservatives in drag, and thus,  just as corrupt as any Republican. So while I hated seeing Donald Trump win the election, I would have been just as miserable if Hillary had won.  At least Trump is serving to wake people up from their state of apathetic somnambulism, but with Hillary it would have been the quiet corruption of business as usual. I only agree with Trump in one regard - Hillary should have gone to jail over her emails, because the one and only reason she used a private server was to try to hide her corrupt pay-to-play schemes from the federal government:
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"New Democrats, also called centrist Democrats, Clinton Democrats or moderate Democrats, are a relatively centrist ideological faction within the Democratic Party that emerged after the victory of Republican George H. W. Bush in the 1988 presidential election. Describing themselves as "centrist", they are an economically moderate to conservative and "Third Way" faction of the party. New Democrats dominated the party starting in the late 1980s after the U.S. electorate turned to the political right, until the mid-2010s following a rise in the Congressional Progressive Caucus."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Democrats
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And please don’t try to write me off as just another fanatical "Bernie Bro," because I’m not. I'm simply an informed American citizen who's highly insulted over being dealt with like I'm a clueless child, and people like me are growing with every day that's passes. It's time for the American people to send you arrogant bastards a message, and this is mine - you’re NOT our leaders, you’re our EMPLOYEES, and any one of you who don't understand that fact needs to be voted out of office.
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So I sincerely hope you have the common sense to review your thoughtlessly ridiculous decision, because if you don’t, you can add Jesus to your ticket and I’d vote against him - and since he espoused honesty and fairness, I’m sure he’d be in my corner.
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Sincerely,

A TRUE progressive.

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TAKING A STAND FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY:
I WILL NOT BE BLACKMAILED OUT OF MY VOTE

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

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THE NARCISSISTIC INSTABILITY OF DONALD TRUMP IS A THREAT TO BOTH AMERICA AND THE WORLD? .

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

THE NARCISSISTIC INSTABILITY OF DONALD TRUMP IS A THREAT TO BOTH AMERICA AND THE WORLD?
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To a very large degree, Donald Trump’s presidency is, at best, quite a troubling phenomenon within our democracy. And he’s not just of serious concern to the average American citizen, but many who have played a significant role in keeping this nation free have chosen to speak out.  Retired Major General Paul Eaton is a perfect example.  The general has penned what many have referred to as a "jaw-dropping" response to Trump’s demand for a military parade. The general said the following:
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“Donald Trump has continually shown himself to have authoritarian tendencies, and this is just another example. For someone who just declared it was ‘treasonous’ to not applaud him, and for someone who has, in the past, admired the tactics of everyone from Saddam Hussein to Vladimir Putin, it is clear that a military parade isn’t about saluting the military - it’s about making a display of the military saluting him.
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“The military is not Donald Trump’s to use and abuse in this way.” The retired major general went on to say that the military would not be “reduced to stagecraft to prop up Donald Trump’s image.
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“Unfortunately, we do not have a commander in chief, right now, as much as we have a banana republic strong man.”
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In addition, Dr. Daniel Barkhuff, former navy seal and president of Veterans For Responsible Leadership, and  William Burke general counsel for VFRL, and both 2001 graduates of the United States Naval Academy spoke of Trump in an article in the Baltimore Sun.  They said,
“The sitting president [Trump]. . .  makes small choices guided by self-interest, ego, impulse and immediate self-gratification. He could never do what we ask our U.S. Naval Academy graduates to do. He is a physical coward, a liar and no leader at all."
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And according to the Pew Research Center, here’s how our allies view the United States under Trump:
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"Of 17 nations for which Pew Research Center has numbers for both 2016 and 2017, only three—Greece, Hungary, and Nigeria—saw a popular uptick for America. All the others were down, some dramatically: Australia (60 to 48), Canada (65 to 43), France (63 to 46), Germany (57 to 35), India (56 to 49), Italy (72 to 61), Japan (72 to 57), Kenya (63 to 54), Netherlands (65 to 37), Poland (74 to 73), South Africa (60 to 53), Spain (59 to 31), Sweden (69 to 45), and United Kingdom (61 to 50)." Thus, in the eyes of virtually the entire world (with the exception of Russia), Trump’s a disaster.
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The problem is, Trump doesn’t seem to recognize that this is the United States of America, not “Trumpville,” and he’s so self-absorbed and emotionally unstable that he doesn’t seem to have any understanding of the fact that a president is suppose to work for the betterment of the nation, not for his own glorification. And this goes beyond a simple character flaw, it is so pronounced that it has become glaring apparent that he’s grappling with a serious psychological disability - and that’s not at all comforting considering the fact that he’s walking around with the nuclear football.
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In it’s article reviewing the book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,” Psychology Today pointed out:
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“John Gartner, Ph.D. is the founder of ‘Duty to Warn’ an organization intent on warning our country that we are in dire trouble due to our president’s mental instability. More than 60,000 mental health professionals have signed John’s petition, which states:
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‘We, the undersigned mental health professionals, believe in our professional judgment that Donald Trump manifests a serious mental illness that renders him psychologically incapable of competently discharging the duties of President of the United States. And we respectfully request he be removed from office, according to article 4 of the 25th amendment to the Constitution, which states that the president will be replaced if he is ‘unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.’”
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If the Republican Party  wasn't in control of congress, Trump would have long since been on his way out the door, but the GOP is so fixated on their agenda of further enriching the rich that they’re willing to place the entire future of humanity in jeopardy in pursuit of that short term goal. They’re demonstrating their complete and utter irresponsibility in service of greed in this regard, and if we manage to survive this episode, it behooves the American people to never forget it. Our grandparent’s generation learned their lesson regarding the Republican Party during the Great Depression. They wouldn't let a Republican anywhere near the White House.
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During their era, Democrat, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to office four times, and finally died in office on April 12, 1945. The Republicans had to promote the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution limiting the president to two terms in office just to have even a remote chance of getting into office. But finally in 1953 they managed to elect the hero of WWII, Republican, Ike Eisenhower to office, but even he was a Republican in name only - in 1957 he sent troops into Little Rock, Arkansas to integrate a segregated school after Gov. Orval Faubus tried to prevent Black students from entering, and as his final act in office he warned America about the Military-Industrial Complex, the very people that Donald Trump and the Republican Party represent today.  They claim to want peace on Earth, yet they're the world's biggest arms dealer.
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So in short, thanks to Republican bigotry and greed, every form of life on this planet is in the hands of a petulant egomaniac with serious psychological problems.  He’s desperate not to be humiliated but he’s now being hemmed in by the Mueller investigation and suffers from the emotional maturity of an eight year-old. I can’t think of any other scenario that could possibly be more horrifying.
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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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OBAMA DRAGGING TRUMP THROUGH THE MUD

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

OBAMA DRAGGING TRUMP THROUGH THE MUD

Knowledge and character
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We’ve got to stop chasing the carrot and start working on self-development. The money game is how this White supremacist society tries to convince themselves, and us, that White people are superior. They use the dollar to measure our relative worth as a people, and if you buy into that game, since the cards are stack against you it’ll have a negative impact on your self-image.
There are many more important things in life than just trying to be rich. Is Donald Trump more valuable to humanity than was Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Langston Hughes, or Martin Luther King?  Of course not. If Donald Trump had never been born this world wouldn’t have even skipped a beat, but that’s not true of the ones mentioned above.
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So all we need is enough money to satisfy our primary needs in life. After that, money can't do a damn thing to increase our happiness or personal value. Proof of that point is, in spite of the fact that Donald Trump is filthy rich, he seems to be one of the most miserable people on the planet, and of next to no value to humanity. Yet, he wants to be loved and admired so badly he’s become delusional, saying things like, “At my inauguration I had the biggest crowds in American history; or, “In my first year in office I’ve accomplished more than any other president in American history.” - Pure bullshit. The man would trade in every penny he's ever made to get the love, honor, and respect of Barack Obama. That's why he's so fixated on him, but it's not going to happen, because Trump lacks the character, intelligence, and class of Barack Obama.
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Trump’s only value as a human being is he clearly demonstrates the fact that no matter how much money you have you can't buy the admiration and respect of others, and that's what we all want most. People respect those with the most intelligence, talent, knowledge, and character. We only want money, and a big house and car, because it's suppose to represent those things, but it doesn't. It takes a personal effort to attain knowledge and character, but all that’s necessary to become rich is the willingness to be a crook, as Donald Trump or any drug dealer clearly demonstrates.
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Below is Barack Obama proving that point with his customary knowledge, elegance, and grace.  On this very night President Obama captured Osama Bin Laden, but he didn't say a word. Trump would have turned the entire night into a celebration of his greatness, or an exercise in the desperation of a wannabe.


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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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ORGANIZED RELIGION IS UNGODLY - ALL OF THEM

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

ORGANIZED RELIGION IS UNGODLY - ALL OF THEM
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I tried to swat a fly the other day but he got away.  Did that mean he was blessed by God for being a good and obedient fly? That may sound like a ridiculous question, but that's exactly the kind of nonsense that religious fanatics would have us believe about our own lives. But since God created both man and fly, what makes man assume that God loves one any more than the other, or that the rules of existence are not exactly the same? God created the fly with all of the instincts he needed to survive, just as he did every other living thing, so, unlike the fly, why does man need  "Holy Men" and a users guide to navigate his way through life?  The answer is, he doesn't.  Just as God gave the fly and all other living things the instincts to navigate their way through life, he did exactly the same thing for man.  It's called "common sense."  Common sense is the word of God, and the word of man is nonsense.
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For example, if God loves and bestows worldly blessings upon those who are most obedient, does that mean that he loves White people more than he does Black people and people of color?  Of course not, but whether you know it or not, if you're a devout Christian that's the underlying nonsense that's being fed into your subconscious, because if God bestows blessings upon those who are most Godly, he must deem White folks more Godly than Black people, because they certainly have more.  On a conscious level, or through common sense, you know that's nonsense, because God uses common sense to speak to you directly, but on a subconscious level, that's what's being fed to your subconscious mind through the Voodoo of man.
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That's the primary reason why many Black people are often so hostile toward their own people. Due to their Christian indoctrination, they're the only people on Earth who's allowed themselves to be convinced that their own people are ungodly. Jews have convinced themselves that they're "God's chosen people," and that's why they prosper, because you are what you think. But Black people have been brainwashed into believing that the White man is Godly, right down to the White Jesus that we're taught to embrace so passionately. But if we used just the tiniest bit of the common sense that God bestowed upon us we'd asked ourselves, how could a blond haired, blue-eyed, White Scandinavian have been born in the desert? But we don't. We simply have "faith" in what we've been told and become hostile toward anyone who has the common sense to challenge that nonsense. That's one of the major reasons Black people can't come together and move forward.
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When I was a kid and learning to play the saxophone, my "God-loving" grandmother used to tell me, "Don't be playin' that Blues in my house." I never understood that, because we used to sit up and watch Spade Cooley singing Country and Western music on television all the time, yet, she never stopped to consider that her attitude was anti-Black.  That's when I first started thinking about the impact that our Christian indoctrination is having on our thinking. It's turning us into Black, White folks - or at least, White wannabes. But by that time I was heavily influenced the brilliance of Charlie Parker, Miles, and John Coltrane, so I didn't wannabe anything but Black, and I wasn't gonna let anyone change that with the threat of Hell and damnation. So I did as the Bible suggested - I "casted the dust from my feet" and left the church behind. I was only 14 years old at the time, and I haven't looked back since. 
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IN OTHER WORDS, IGNORE WHAT GOD
HAS BESTOWED UPON YOU, AND LISTEN TO US

If people truly had “faith” in God, they’d have faith in the mind that God bestowed upon them instead the word of the word of man. They'd understand that those who prosper, prosper due to their own efforts, not because God blessed them for having "faith" in the word of another man. They'd also understand that God did his part when he gave us a brain, and thereafter, it's up to us to use it. For anyone who doubts the truth of that simple common sense, test your faith by getting on your knees in front of an oncoming train and pray that God stops the train before it hits you.  If you don't use your God-given sense to get out the way, you're gonna be dog food, and all of the "faith" in the universe is not gonna prevent that. That's the way that life works, not by faith, but through the use of common sense.  So people need to wake up and come out of their fantasy world, and especially Black people, because many of us have been socialized into passionately embracing the very philosophy that was designed to hold us down. When we're told we must have "faith," they don't mean faith in God, but faith in the nonsense they're telling us, like snakes can talk.

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Common sense should also cause us to ask, if God created religion to guide man, why are there so many of them? There are over 4,200 religions on Earth, so which one of them is true, and what makes you think that yours is the only true one?  The answer to that question is quite simple - none of them are true; they're merely unfounded beliefs - superstitions - conjured up by man to manipulate other men, just like Voodoo.
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The reason there are so many religions is because every society establishes it’s own belief system to accommodate the people's selfishness, greed, and need to feel special. Religion allows the people of every society to convince themselves that they're special and God loves them more than he loves "the heathens" of other religions.  That's why 99% of all wars have religion at their root.
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People feel justified in killing those who they consider "ungodly," and therefore, less than themselves, and that’s exactly how bigoted White people feel about Black people and other people of color. According to their way of thinking, they have God's permission to abuse and/or kill the ungodly, or those who they feel are less than themselves. That mindset led to Europeans killing over 100 million Native Americans to steal this land. The doctrine of "Manifest Destiny" dictated that since the Native Americans were "ungodly heathens," God made it the White man's destiny to eradicate the heathens and bring God to this sacred land.  But what the Manifest Destiny actually was, was an excuse to murder, ravage, and steal.
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Most Black Christians don't even know about the Doctrine of Discovery. That's a Christian doctrine that says that if they show up on the shores of a land where the people who's lived there for thousands of years are not Christian, they had the God-given right to take it. Yet, many Black people are worshipping that gross hypocrisy. That philosophy also accounts for Black kids being shot down in the street by rogue cops with complete impunity.
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Religious bigots in the United States feel like it's their God-given destiny to correct the mistake of infesting this land with ungodly Africans, so they are determined to either domesticate Black people or exterminate them, and by any means necessary.  Due to public outcry, however, they've recently renounced the public lynching of Black people as a means of “holy cleansing,” so now they’ve turned to lynching by bullet on the street, and even in a victim’s backyard. Yet, many Black people are running around talking about "have faith." In what!!!? Being rewarded after you're dead? That's the White man's game as well.  Why isn't he willing to wait until after HE'S dead to be rewarded?  Instead, he's robbing people blind TODAY, just like many Black preachers, and that's exactly why I have very little use for them. 
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The exact same thing is currently going on in Israel. It’s “Manifest Destiny” 2.  In 1948, just after WWII, the Zionists went into Palestine, took over Palestinian land, and then relegated the Palestinian people to an open-air prison in Gaza with poison water and limited electrical power. In addition, they instituted a blockade around Gaza to prevent the rest of the world from lending assistance to the Palestinians with food, medicine, and the other necessities of life.  So they’ve placed the Palestinian people in a position where they would slowly perish, and all because the Zionists claimed that "God wanted them to have the land" that the Palestinians have lived on for thousands of years - and that's in spite of the fact they'd been crying over how brutally they themselves were treated during the Nazi holocaust.  But the reason they felt free to commit such an unjust atrocity is because they've convinced themselves that it's "God's will," he loves them more than he does the Palestinians - and it's all based on their religious myth that they are “God’s chosen people.”
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But while one would think that after the atrocities committed against the Jews by the Germans during WWII that they would demand and takeover a piece of Germany as their homeland, but obviously, in spite of their religious beliefs, they knew that their claim of being God's chosen people wouldn't fly with the White people of Germany, so with the able assistance of United States bigots, they chose an easier target. The entered into a long-term quid pro quo arrangement with the United States - Israel would gradually takeover the land in the area, and the United States will takeover the oil beneath the land, and all in the name of God. So the turmoil in the Middle East, and the deaths of poor and middle-class American troops, is just beginning in the area.
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So based on a religious myth, the Zionists are committing the exact same kind of genocide to the Palestinian people that the Nazis tried to commit against them, but in order that it wouldn’t be so obvious, instead of building concentration camps, they’ve turned Gaza into an open-air prison, and instead of using gas chambers to exterminate them, they’re allowing the Palestinians to slowly perish by depriving them of the necessities of life.  And the exact same kind of atrocities are being committed by religious fanatics all over the world. They're using the name of God to justify the very worst kind of murder, brutality, and mayhem against others.  But when looked at with a clear and unpolluted mind, it becomes clear that it doesn't make any kind of sense that a loving God would be a part of that.
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The very same thing is true of the Evangelicals here in the United States. Nearly 81 % of White Evangelicals voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and that’s in spite of their claim to be following the teachings of Jesus Christ. The fact that Trump is a crook, a philanderer, and undoubtedly one of the most evil men walking the Earth doesn't seem to bother them a bit. The reason for that is ,their so-called religious beliefs are not based on God at all, they're based on self-service, greed, and mean-spiritedness.  Think about it, do you think Jesus would support an evil and corrupt lunatic like Trump for a minute, a man who referred to homeless immigrants as animals!!!? I don't think so. But the Evangelicals voted for him nevertheless, so he could "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN."
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Thus, all of the atrocities being committed in the name of God makes it abundantly clear that religion is evil, and it has absolutely nothing to do with God. Man merely uses the name of God as a justification for murder and greed. Consider  what "Make America Great Again" actually means. It means maintaining White supremacy by any means necessary.  Yet, many Black people have passionately embraced the very religious philosophy that makes that possible. You don't have to believe in walkin' dead men, talkin' snakes, or attend expensive spoken-word concerts every Sunday morning to prove you love God; all you have to do is live a good and loving life.  And just because a man likes to run his mouth and doesn't want to get a job doesn't mean he's been "anointed" by God; it means he's anointed himself - to rip you off.  So many Black preachers are using the techniques designed to oppress Black people to victimize their own people.

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So all of the atrocities being committed by man in the name of religion makes it crystal clear that religion is evil, and it has absolutely nothing to do with God - man merely uses the name of God as a justification for murder and greed.
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So once again, God has absolutely nothing to do with religion. Religion is the "word of man," not God. So anyone who chooses to believe in walking dead men and talking snakes over the common sense that was bestowed upon them by nature (or God), has chosen to give the word of man priority over God.  Evil men came up with all this nonsense to promote their own interests.  And again, that's why in spite of the fact that there's only one God, there are over 4,200 religions in the world, because every group comes up with their own version of God to support their particular interests. So which religion is the true religion?  Let me tell you - NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM.

THE NATURE OF GOD

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Considering man’s limited intellect, there's only so far man can go in trying to understand the concept of God. We don't even fully understand the laws of nature, much less God.  We don't understand the nature of time and space, relative proportion, or even how a subatomic particle can be in two places at once, yet, we know through science that it happens. So if we're so limited in our intellect that we can't wrap our heads around those simple concepts, how can we even hope to embrace the concept of God?
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For all we know, our entire universe may only be a speck of dust under the toenail of some gigantic being. So again, we're simply not equipped to deal with the concept of God. Thus, we're limited to using our logic to try to understand reality (or God), and my logic tells me that nothing that functions with the precision of our universe just happens haphazardly - that's God speaking to me through his medium, common sense and logic. But then, I run into people who think it’s chic and sophisticated to be atheists, and who jump up and down because I refuse to accept their “Everything came from nothing” fanaticism. Their thinking is just as ridiculous as Pat Robertson's.  Religious fanatics - which includes both atheists, and Christians, Muslims, and Jews - are different sides of the same coin.  Neither one of them know what the hell they're talking about. They’re just repeating what some other man has told them - and any man who blindly follows another man is a mindless, unthinking idiot, who instead of having a brain, their skull would be put to far better use as a grape juice container.
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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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IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR BLACK PEOPLE TO BECOME EFFICIENT THINKERS

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

IT IS ESSENTIAL FOR BLACK PEOPLE TO BECOME EFFICIENT THINKERS
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I recently posted a photo to Facebook that I thought was adorable. It was a photo of two children preparing to attend a “Kindergarten Prom.” According to the response, most people had the same reaction to the photo that I did, but because the children were dressed like adults, a handful of people objected to it because they inserted their own sexual attitudes into the mix instead of viewing the event in context. They complained that the dress the little girl was wearing wasn't “age appropriate.”
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When I looked at this photo of these children with the little girl straightening the little boy’s tie it made my eyes moist, because it reminded me of how my late wife use to deal with me. She’d let me go out and swagger and strut around in my masculine bluster like I was the man, but when push came to shove, she was running our family - and that’s the way it is in most functional Black families.  My wife and I didn’t break down our responsibilities in terms of a man’s role, and a woman’s role, that’s a myth. The way we actually broke down our responsibilities was, she took control of those things that she was best at dealing with, and I took control of those issues that I was best in. 
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When it came to having something done to the house, for example. My wife would decided what needed to be done, and she would hire the contractor to do it.  She was in complete control.  But if later, the contractor decided to play games and decided he was gonna try to rip us off, that was when my area of expertise came into play, and she would say, “Wait a minute, let me have you speak to my husband,” and I’d handle the situation.
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So when I saw this photo of this little girl straightening the little boy’s tie, with him standing there in complete compliance, yeah, it made my eyes moist, because it reminded me of my own life.  My wife would say, “Eric, come here and be still. You ain’t going out in the public with me looking any kind of way.” And then she would do whatever she had to do to make me look presentable, and I remember my grandmother dressing my grandfather for church every Sunday morning in the same way, just like he was a child.  So even though in public I would act like I was the man, and runnin' things, in private, I would follow my wife's  instructions and shut up and be still, because that was her area of expertise.  My grandfather was the same way. That's where I probably learned it. He had the key to a stable life. He used to tell me, "All I want from this whole damn nation, is a pretty little wife and a good foundation."  I learned that from him as a child, and later, it colored my life as a husband and father.
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That’s the way a functional family actually operates, and I saw that in these two kids. When I saw that young boy standing there in complete compliance, it became clear to me that they were already learning what makes a successful family work efficiently, and that’s exactly what makes the kind of activities they were engaged in so valuable to our culture. 
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Chances are, if these parents continue raising these kids with the excellence that they obviously are, later in life, you won't see this young man runnin' around with his pants saggin' callin' Black women "bitches" and "hoes." He's gonna get married and raise a functional family, and that's exactly what we need in the Black community. But many people are missing that, because they're focused on the negative connotations that THEY'RE CORRUPTED MINDS are placing on a little girl's dress.

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Now, these critics all seemed like wonderful and well-meaning people, but they completely failed to recognize that the entire point of the event was to give these children the chance to play adult for a day, and to give the parents the joy of seeing what their babies will look like when they actually do become adults - after all, some of those parents won’t live to see that in reality. So the people who are complaining are failing to recognize the positive benefits of parents and children bonding to enjoy a mutually pleasurable activity together - perhaps because many of them have never had that in their own lives. So if all they've ever known in life is ugliness and dysfunction, instead of recognizing the value of such moments, naturally it has caused them to get all worked up over children dressing up like adults.
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But that's their issue, and it has absolutely nothing to do with these families who have come together in a very innocent and fun-filled way that the children and parents will undoubtedly remember for the rest of their lives.  After all, we can't allow the dysfunctional views of a few to undermine the joy and growth of others. That's the kind of twisted thinking that causes our children to be shot down in the street for smiling while Black.
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My educational background is in psychology, and psychologists would say that the event that these families were engaged in was an excellent example of parents bonding with their children, and parental bonding is one of the healthiest activities that a parent can engage in with their child. But instead of recognizing that fact, these people are preoccupied with the kids dressing up like adults on a one-time basis as a part of that bonding.
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That's completely superficial, parochial, and ridiculous thinking. It reminds me of the antiquated thinking of some of the old folks who used to refuse to allow their kids to attend events because they played "THE BLUES" (or Black music) at the event, but they had absolutely no problem with letting their children attend a hootenanny (with White, country music) because they considered it just kids having innocent fun. I remember the frustration of that, because I play saxophone, and I remember how my very God-fearing grandmother used to tell me, "Don't be playin' that blues in my house." Those old folks failed to recognized that their attitudes were simply anti-Black.
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WHITE FOLKS KNOW THIS IS JUST A COSTUME
AND DON'T SEXUALLY OBJECTIFY THIS CHILD,

UNLESS IT'S ROY MOORE.

While these people may not see the correlation between these two issues, it's the same mindset. Just as the old folks, failed to see the negative attitudes toward their own Black culture that had been indoctrinated into them, these people don't the psychological dysfunction that has been inbred into them. And just as my grandmother failed to see that while learning to play the saxophone I was also learning valuable lessons about our culture, these people are failing to take into account that when these parents invested the time, money, and effort to bond with their children, they were making an investment that would reap huge benefits in the future. The people who complained never stopped to consider that. Instead, they inserted the ugliness of their own sexually dysfunctional attitudes into mix. If they tried to explain their objections to that little girl, she wouldn’t have had any idea what they were talking about.
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So just like the old folks in the past associated innocent fun with “the evils” of Black music, these people are associating HEALTHY parent-child bonding, and the fact that the kids were having the time of their lives playing “dress-up,” with their OWN dysfunctional sexual attitudes. That's inefficient thinking.  It’s the exact same kind of thinking that mindless bigots engage in when they associate Black skin with the completely false and negative images that they've conjured up in their minds about Black people.
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Thus, these complainers aren't thinking, they're reacting to an emotional response, and that's not good. It’s very important that Black people learn to think efficiently, because God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to think. The ability to think is what separates man from all other beasts - and yes, we’re just another species of animal. The ability to think is what makes humans most human.  But according to their flawed logic, “Wearing a "sexy" dress is whorish, and that little girl is wearing a sexy dress; therefore, the little girl is being whorish.” Or in other words, “All dogs have teeth, and my cat has teeth; therefore, my cat is a dog.” 
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Epistemologist (scientist who study efficient thought) would tell them that their thinking is horribly flawed. They're engaged in what's called "making unwarranted assumptions." Just because dogs have teeth and a cat has teeth, doesn’t mean that a cat is a dog. Similarly, just because a child playing “make-believe” is wearing a dress that for some reason the critics associate IN THEIR MINDS with sexuality, doesn’t mean that child is being sexual in any way. They have to take other factors into account, like the reason she’s wearing that dress. Just because Shirley Temple wore a military uniform in the movies, that didn’t make her a soldier.
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Black people have got to start understanding the importance of efficient thinking. We weren’t forced into slavery because the White man could beat us up; we were forced into slavery because the White man had a knowledge of gunpowder and we didn’t. So in order to liberate ourselves we’re going to have to arm ourselves with the ability to think, and use knowledge as our weapon of choice. We can’t out-scream the White man, because he controls the media, and we can’t out-fight him, because we’re only 13.3% of the population, and he controls both the police, and the military. So the only way that we’re ever going to liberate ourselves is through the use of our minds, which means learning to become efficient thinkers. That entails being guided by our intellect, instead of our emotions. But the response of those who complained about the little girl wearing an adult “costume” was not being guided by their intellect, they're being guided by knee-jerk emotionalism. They've failed to use their intellect to take context into account. If the little girl wore that dress to a birthday party, yes, it would be inappropriate. But in the context in which she was wearing it, it was perfectly appropriate, and even adorable.
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So the bottom line is, as long as we allow ourselves to be guided by our emotions rather than clear and logical thinking, we’ll be easy targets for manipulation.  In addition, it will always prevent us from uniting as a people, because our emotions will always get in the way. So it is very important to make ignorance a fading part of Black history. 
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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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