tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91370149874280475602024-03-14T01:11:52.746-04:00Daryl T SturgisDaryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-77541443905847330902019-01-27T17:13:00.003-05:002019-01-27T17:23:46.088-05:00Gifs: The story of the Trump Shutdown<div style="text-align: center;">
For the last three years Donald Trump has been saying we need a wall and that Mexico will pay for it!</div>
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Paul Ryan could have passed a funding bill with wall money in it but he didn't. He decided to pass tax cuts for billionaires and corporations.</div>
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Trump meets with Chuck and Nancy in the Oval Office and tells them he has the votes in congress to get the wall approved. Nancy tells him he doesn't have the votes.<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T89RcaUrH6o/XE3mTX72NQI/AAAAAAAAHm8/W0V96bfiTW4lkWqh4GUKsphvcMsCeelbQCLcBGAs/s1600/pelosi%2Bprove%2Bit.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="400" height="180" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T89RcaUrH6o/XE3mTX72NQI/AAAAAAAAHm8/W0V96bfiTW4lkWqh4GUKsphvcMsCeelbQCLcBGAs/s320/pelosi%2Bprove%2Bit.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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Trump says he'll own the shutdown if he doesn't get wall funding.</div>
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The Republican controlled House and Senate vote to fund the government. Trump says he will sign the bill.<br />
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Ann Counter calls Trump weak and says he better get the<br />
wall funded or else his base will turn against him<br />
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pvcFk6e1-1M/XE3h34F95yI/AAAAAAAAHkw/6xqeoViKvQ0AvoYfqCxJ7sZqzzS8YNzGACLcBGAs/s1600/Anne%2Bcoulter%2Breaction.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" height="179" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pvcFk6e1-1M/XE3h34F95yI/AAAAAAAAHkw/6xqeoViKvQ0AvoYfqCxJ7sZqzzS8YNzGACLcBGAs/s320/Anne%2Bcoulter%2Breaction.gif" width="320" /></a><br />
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Trump changes his mind and the government shuts down.<br />
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By this time the control of the house is turned over to the Democrats<br />
who immediately elect Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.<br />
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Trump tells Speaker Pelosi he wants the American taxpayers to pay for his wall.</div>
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Nancy says</div>
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Trump keeps demanding a wall.</div>
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Nancy suggests postponing the State of the Union address.</div>
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Trump cancels Nancy's trip to the war zone, inadvertently exposing national security. </div>
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MAGA goes wild.</div>
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Nancy passes 10 bills to re-open the government!<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zArfVuVKz2k/XE38BrAoagI/AAAAAAAAHn0/fGOiPeA3yDERVg6TYQ1tY5Km9jU9JAhsACLcBGAs/s1600/Nancy%2Bgoes%2Binto%2Bbattle%2Btumblr_ozqb7eq57o1tctq75o4_r1_540.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="223" data-original-width="540" height="132" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zArfVuVKz2k/XE38BrAoagI/AAAAAAAAHn0/fGOiPeA3yDERVg6TYQ1tY5Km9jU9JAhsACLcBGAs/s320/Nancy%2Bgoes%2Binto%2Bbattle%2Btumblr_ozqb7eq57o1tctq75o4_r1_540.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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Trump tries to blame Democrats for the shutdown.</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R5mxDU243OY/XE380IR1nsI/AAAAAAAAHn8/NjiSNo3jvTckFnXp6DSOA7PhCEQtliuugCEwYBhgL/s1600/Trump%2Battacks%2Btrumpwasphone-2MB.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="281" data-original-width="500" height="179" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-R5mxDU243OY/XE380IR1nsI/AAAAAAAAHn8/NjiSNo3jvTckFnXp6DSOA7PhCEQtliuugCEwYBhgL/s320/Trump%2Battacks%2Btrumpwasphone-2MB.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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Democrats be like...</div>
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Republican in the senate be like...</div>
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Senator Lindsey Graham be like...</div>
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Mitch McConnell be like...</div>
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Trump said, </div>
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"I dare Nancy to try and stop me from making my state of the union speech at the capital."</div>
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Nancy Pelosi said, "Not today, Satan! You will not be making that speech in the People's House!"</div>
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Then Flight attendants and Air Traffic Controllers said, "We will lock down every bit of airspace</div>
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and will fuck up the Super Bowl including not allowing private jets to fly."</div>
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Trump caved and accepted Nancy's deal. </div>
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He shut down the government for 35 days and got nothing for it.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-89cReCg1A9M/XE3li0HKH3I/AAAAAAAAHmo/AjehzPnfk6AXl6YYtLnycEWhxBXWRwpMQCEwYBhgL/s1600/Trump%2Bcancels%2Bflight.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="203" data-original-width="360" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-89cReCg1A9M/XE3li0HKH3I/AAAAAAAAHmo/AjehzPnfk6AXl6YYtLnycEWhxBXWRwpMQCEwYBhgL/s320/Trump%2Bcancels%2Bflight.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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And MAGA was like...</div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qZpovUK8Jg8/XE4o05uH_DI/AAAAAAAAHpA/az69Xu3y-KYc58BgS-rMaPvHTxAvYSOWwCLcBGAs/s1600/MAGA%2Brage.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="214" data-original-width="250" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qZpovUK8Jg8/XE4o05uH_DI/AAAAAAAAHpA/az69Xu3y-KYc58BgS-rMaPvHTxAvYSOWwCLcBGAs/s1600/MAGA%2Brage.gif" /></a></div>
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But MAGA was also like...</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-68_-WpPTW2o/XE3m3Mk0AfI/AAAAAAAAHnM/5od-S2b_koA4m16bHJrleWeuugYx0lJAACLcBGAs/s1600/Trumpers%2Breactions.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="480" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-68_-WpPTW2o/XE3m3Mk0AfI/AAAAAAAAHnM/5od-S2b_koA4m16bHJrleWeuugYx0lJAACLcBGAs/s320/Trumpers%2Breactions.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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However, America was like...</div>
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Thinking everything was all good, Trump begged Nancy to let him give his speech.</div>
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Nancy said, "Let me think about it and I'll get back you."</div>
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The White House said the fight wasn't over and they were ready to do anything to get their wall.</div>
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Nancy said, "Bring it."</div>
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Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-81863110562853359002018-10-17T10:19:00.001-04:002018-10-17T10:19:42.110-04:00How to fix the American political system in four easy steps<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Millions of Americans arose on the morning of November 9, 2016 shell shocked. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/2016-election/election-outcome-other-systems/?noredirect=on" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">For the second time </a>in less than 20 years the candidate who lost the popular vote was going to be president. Not only was the loser of the election going to be president, his party, the Republicans--who faired no better in the election that the president-elect did--were going to be in control of all three branches of government. America isn't a direct democracy it is a republic. Which means we elect representatives to vote on our behalf in the federal government. It has primarily worked as it was designed (for rich white landing owning men) for the past 240 hundred years. It has also seen great expansion by giving the franchise to <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/the-fight-for-womens-suffrage" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">women</a> and <a href="https://www.aclu.org/issues/voting-rights/voting-rights-act/history-voting-rights-act" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Black People</a>. Of course those expansions were not without violence. People in power want to hold onto to power. Now, that process has stopped working. What changed? The Republican Party realized a long time ago it was <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/07/the-pro-trump-republican-base-that-many-politicians-fear-may-be-shrinking.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">dying out</a>. A party consisting of voters that are 90% white and aging can not hope to survive in a country that is <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/white-population-aging-rapidly-in-us-dying-faster-than-babies-are-born-data-show" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">rapidly browning</a>. So through a series of tactically bold moves the GOP went about setting up a <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/republican-leader-envisions-100-year-majority" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Permanent Republican Majority</a>. They brilliantly exploited the flaws of our 200 plus year-old election system to ensure they--as an ever shrinking minority party--will grab and hold onto vast amounts of power while ensuring the majority of us are locked out on every conceivable level. In less than two short decades they have mostly succeeded. The supreme court now has a 5-4 Republican majority that will keep the Liberal wish list in peril for the next generation. What's worse they have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/may/30/donald-trump-judges-courts-justice-system" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">weaponized the lower courts</a> by appointing far right-wing judges which will keep American law/ policy outside of the mainstream of the American electorate. As large numbers of people move closer to the left on social and economic issues the courts will keep the country firmly bolted to anti-worker, pro-religious norms. <a href="http://the-handmaids-tale.wikia.com/wiki/Republic_of_Gilead" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gilead</a>, here we come.<br /><br />But things can be fixed. Quite simply. In four easy steps. Here's how:<br /><br /><b>Eliminate the Electoral College</b><br /><br />Without getting into the <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/the-racial-history-of-the-electoral-college-and-why-efforts-to-change-it-have-stalled" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">racist creation of the Electoral College</a> to ensure white, slaveholding southern men get disproportionate power the arcane and antiquated idea just doesn't work in modern America. The demographics and geography of where people actually live has made it obsolete. Many people erroneously argue that without the E.C. presidential candidates will only compete in large populated states and forget everybody else. That may have been true in 1804 but it's certainly not now. The United States is vast with millions of people every where. Even if a candidate won the majority of votes from America's 25 largest cities that would not ensure electoral victory. And the E.C. has replaced candidates going to the most popular states to only campaigning in "battlegrounds" states. So every four years millions of dollars and hundreds of hours of campaigning, winner speculation and cable news time is spent hanging on the opinions of Americans who live in Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Colorado and North Carolina. This ends up being unfair to the millions of voters outside of those 15 or so battlegrounds whose votes literally don't count. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/11/26/503170280/charts-is-the-electoral-college-dragging-down-voter-turnout-in-your-state" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">It also has a suppressive effect</a>. Voter turnout in New York and Oklahoma are lower than the national average. Why? Because those are "safe" states so presidential candidates never bother to show up to campaign in them. So folks in those states don't vote at the same rate as people in Pennsylvania or Iowa. The popular vote/ E.C. mismatch is part of the reason so many liberals are enraged. In spite of receiving more votes than any of her male counterparts (or any man in history save Barack Obama) Hillary Clinton, who won the election by 3 million votes, holds no office.<br /><br /><b>Make all partisan gerrymandering illegal</b><br /><br />This should go without saying. Gerrymandering has been a problem for centuries in this country. It has become horrendous in the age of the Republican desire to consolidate power. In 2016 Republicans only received about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_2016" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">49.1% of the total vote (Democrats got about 48%)</a> for seats in the House of Representatives yet Republicans control 55% of the seats. This means half the country is basically barred from having a voice in a government that controls 320 million people. No other state has been gown zero of voter suppression and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/09/05/644767877/north-carolina-can-use-gerrymandered-map-in-november-court-rules" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">gerrymandering than North Carolina</a>. The Republicans took control of the state general assembly in 2010. Being that it was a census year the GOP legislatures got to redraw the new congressional districts after the census was compiled. North Carolina went from a purple state to deeply red. Even though Democrats have gotten tens of thousands more votes in statewide elections the Republicans have a super majority in both chambers of the legislature and the NC congressional delegation. If you went by actually votes cast Democrats would have 7 seats and Republicans would have 6 seats. Instead Republicans have 10 seats which means they have 60% more seats than they should. Unfortunately for the residents of NC those badly gerrymandered maps will be in use in the 2018 midterms. Gerrymandering cools voting and creates a malaise in the electorate. It drives down voter turnout which in turn helps the Republican Party stay in control. Think about how all of those North Carolinians who voted for Democrats feel knowing they are the majority of the state and a few politicians in Raleigh are doing things that are an anathema to them.<br /><br /><b>Restore the judicial filibuster rule in the senate</b><br /><br />Mitch McConnell has done more to break and destroy our democracy than any other politician in my lifetime. He's as ruthless as Pompey and as ambitious as Lex Luther. He changed the senate rules that forced the senate to require supreme court justices to get 60 votes to be confirmed. Many people will argue that Harry Reid started it by changing the filibuster rule for lower judicial appointments but he did it because <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2017/05/25/blue-slips-and-judicial-nominees-in-senate/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Republicans were gumming up</a> every nominee President Obama put forth. McConnell also stole a supreme court seat from Barack Obama. He has pushed through more right-wing judicial appointments in the first two years of a presidency than any time in our history. Even after his death the affects he has made on the federal judiciary will be felt decades. We must return to the 60 vote rule for both lower court judges and supreme court justices.<br /><br /><b>Judicial term limits</b><br /><br />No president nor political party--no mater how popular or unpopular--should be allowed to appointed judges for a lifetime. Donald will hopefully be a one term president but his judges will be ruling on cases 25-30 years from now. His two SCOTUS picks are 51 and 53 years of age. Imagine Gorsuch and Kavanaugh still ruling on constitutional matters in the year 2043. Let's have term limits of 10-12 years (like the FBI director). This way no political party can have a stranglehold on the courts.<br /><br /><i>Bonus. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/29/magazine/voting-rights-act-dream-undone.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Fix the voting rights act</a></i>.<br /><br /><br />Now let's rerun the 2016 elections with my changes and see how things would be working out for us.<br />
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<li>Hillary Clinton would be president.</li>
<li>The Republicans would control the house but would only have 214 seats. A simple majority but not enough seats to pass legislation without some Democrats joining (you need 218 votes to pass a bill in the house). The Democrats would have 209 seats. Bipartisanship would have to come into play. If you want to see what happens with one party rule look no further than North Carolina. The two parties would have to work together to craft meaningful legislation.</li>
<li>The Republicans would control the senate (51-49). But President Clinton would have to appoint judges that would clear the 60 seat threshold and we would not be stuck with j<a href="https://thehill.com/policy/389256-senate-panel-advances-trump-nominee-who-wouldnt-say-if-brown-v-board-of-education-was" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">udges who believe desegregation</a> (Brown v Board of Education) was a bad idea. </li>
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Democracy is not about winners or losers. It's about everybody feeling represented. Our present system feels rigged and could lead to dangerous consequences for us all. When people feel left out they turn to strongmen and autocrats. We see what a burgeoning dictatorship feels like now. Let's stop it before it gets worse.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-76085006866753639272018-10-04T12:53:00.001-04:002018-10-04T12:58:38.968-04:00America the Broken<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Donald Trump didn't break America. America was already broken. That's how he was able to get elected in the first place.<br />
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How did we get to the point where two uniquely and universally disliked candidates ended up vying for the most powerful elected office in the world? The very thought of the 2016 presidential election conjures the notion that on the morning of November 9, 2016 millions of Americans awoke to the horror or the delight of Donald Trump having been elected president. A man so vile, cruel and inept it still to this day defies logic. But Trump wasn't a magician or a pied piper. He didn't trick anybody into voting for him. There was no illusion to his run. No alchemy. Donald Trump was the product of a generation of right-wing racial resentment, fear-mongering and conspiracy theory rolled into a neatly packaged rage bomb. Trump was the culmination of decades of Republicans programming its members to accept the abnormal and untruthful. But if Trump was the ultimate cypher of Republican sophistry then was Hillary Clinton the ultimate vehicle for Democrats' indolence and equivocation? The answer to that question is, YES.<br />
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<a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=3895966" target="_blank">When Bush's brain, Karl Rove</a>, spoke of creating a "<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-abrams/what-karl-rove-really-had_b_60947.html" target="_blank">Permanent Republican Majority</a>" he understood that the GOP was a dying party. How could it not be. The very voters Republicans rely on are literally dying out. White people. The Republican party is 90% white. A white political party that resides in a country that is getting more brown every day is doomed unless they do things to ensure they hold power long after their numbers can sway elections. So the Republican strategy has not been to expand the party but to expand the party's power. In order to expand power the GOP needs loyal subjects. Foot soldiers that will go to the polls in significant numbers to keep the party afloat long enough to twist the levers of power in its favor. In 1984 Newt Gingrich did something revolutionary. He started his own conservative talk show on C-SPAN. At the time Newt an uncoothly loud back-bencher from Georgia. He was red-faced angry at everything liberals did. It's didn't matter. Liberals were the enemy of the people. Newt brought the simplicity of <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/newspeak" target="_blank">Newspeak</a> to politics. Republicans Good! Democrats Bad. His no holds barred vitriol was seen as gauche then but by 1994 his branding worked. Newt and the "Moral Majority" swept into power. Bringing the House of Representatives under Republican control for the first time in almost five decades. Newt begot Rush. Rush begot Fox News. Fox News begot Breitbart. Brietbart begot internet trolls. And here were are. <br />
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For over two decades Fox News was not only the Republican party's paramour it was its mouth-piece. The cable channel has become the go to source for GOP's orgasmic rage against all things left. As the Republican Party careened from center-right to completely crazy, Fox was there all the way to stoke racial animus, misogyny and xenophobia. Republican strategists know the GOP is bereft of new ideas. They also knew that keeping people anxious, fearful and angry was the best way to get them to vote. In every election. This is why the Republican party is so unified. A Republican from Arkansas will say the same thing as a Republican from Massachusetts. Trump didn't light a fire under the base's asses. They were already conditioned to attached themselves to an ever angrier, ever whiter idol. The Republican party instilled it's members with sociopathy. That's why they <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-493sTbFzjw" target="_blank">can laugh at a sexual assault survivor</a> and <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/sheriff-david-a-clarke-gets-rnc-to-cheer-freddie-gray-cops" target="_blank">cheer at the death of unarmed Black people </a>at the hands of police or t<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/392802-poll-majority-of-republicans-back-family-separation-policy" target="_blank">urn a blind eye to immigrant children locked in cages</a>. The Republicans have built a cult army that is ready to destroy America in order to keep their elite in power and there is nothing anybody can say to change their minds.<br />
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As the GOP was becoming more militant by <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/06/25/ralph-nader-the-democrats-are-unable-to-defend-the-u-s-from-the-most-vicious-republican-party-in-history/" target="_blank">weoponizing people's fear</a>, the Democrats were chasing the ghosts of their past constituencies. After the brutal loses of 1980s the left was hungry for a win. Sensing the country had moved to the right, Bill Clinton along with Al From of the DLC (Democratic Leadership Council) decided to run for president not as a liberal but as a conservative pro-capital punishment Democrat. With that slim victory in 1992 the Democrats abandoned women (<a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?3444-1/representative-geraldine-ferraro-1984-acceptance-speech" target="_blank">Geraldine Ferraro</a>) and Black voters (<a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/on-congress/2009/11/run-jesse-run-25-years-later-022903" target="_blank">Run Jesse Run</a>) to try to woo back the "Blue Dog" Democrats they'd lost to Reagan in 1984. When Newt ascended the speakership in the Republican Revolution of 1994, Clinton doubled down and signed entire swaths of right-wing legislation. I am still nonplussed at the fact that a Democrat (I'm looking at you <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/12/1994-crime-bill-haunts-clinton-and-sanders-as-criminal-justice-reform-rises-to-top-in-democratic-contest/?utm_term=.d166ec6220b3" target="_blank">Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders</a>) signed the Crime Bill, Don't Ask, Don't Tell, the Defense of Marriage Act, the Freedom of Religion Restoration Act and the Welfare to Work Act. Clinton gave the Republicans everything they wanted in return for a few more white votes.<br />
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So the two parties were locked in a viscous cycle. Republicans would act more and more outrageously, the Democrats would crack and acquiesce in the name of decorum. When Barack Obama came to power in 2008 he had both houses of congress firmly in control of Democrats but instead of ramming through every piece of liberal legislation his base was clamoring for he wanted conciliation and compromise. However noble those former norms were President Obama fundamentally misread the landscape by thinking the Republicans were willing to work with him. A <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/the-real-story-of-obamacares-birth/397742/" target="_blank">few did at first </a>but after seeing the seething contempt of their base for a Black president even the most moderate Republicans turned into snarling maniacs. These moderates were further eroded under Trump--see <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXFWkAB1qEk" target="_blank">Senator Lindsay Graham epic meltdown </a>during the Kavanaugh confirmation. Unfortunately Hillary Clinton used the same playbook as Clinton and Obama. Though she was much more forthright and called out the racism on the right, she played it too safe when trying to hold onto some white voters. She tried to thread the needle of not scaring off white moderates while still appealing to Black People and Voters of Color.<br />
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Donald Trump didn't break America. Unfortunately the only way to fix it is by fire. Liberals have to understand that there is an asymmetric war going on for the soul of the country. If the country is to be repaired liberals are going to have to fight for it. This is why I have hope with a new crop of Democrats like Beto O'Rourke, Andrew Gillum, Kamala Harris and Stacey Abrams. Fiery. Determined. Not backing down. They are fighting for a country where higher wages and healthcare are considered radical but arming teachers is not. Maybe if they can stop the runaway train that Republicanism has become then maybe there is a hope of at least staring to unshatter our country.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-73516175925316984032017-08-25T16:29:00.000-04:002017-08-25T16:32:58.238-04:00Stranger Things revisited<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p1H0UCvAmq4/WaCCgc2J5bI/AAAAAAAAHI8/3kMFMtnZWuolXnLQJ5oKftgSZjd0XLM2wCLcBGAs/s1600/maxresdefault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="909" data-original-width="1600" height="227" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-p1H0UCvAmq4/WaCCgc2J5bI/AAAAAAAAHI8/3kMFMtnZWuolXnLQJ5oKftgSZjd0XLM2wCLcBGAs/s400/maxresdefault.jpg" width="400" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hNr0BoWQUqI/WaCCaqQ3TTI/AAAAAAAAHIs/MNFSivrAu9MCLQ7Xc7GchJdepOR7oXgwACLcBGAs/s1600/eleven.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a><br />
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We all know and love the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgS2L7WPIO4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Netflix series "Stranger Things"</a> with its intoxicating mix of 80s synth nostalgia and hip 21st Century self-irony. For Gen Xers its a glimpse into our childhoods; the freshness of Star Wars, Atari and New Wave music. It transports us back to those darken cinemas when horror movies could still scare us without copious amounts of blood and sex. The Duffer Brothers created "The Goonies" if it were directed by "John Carpenter". But ultimately <i>Stranger Things</i> tells us of a time we are probably misremembering. With the uncertainty and jiggery pokery of the current presidential administration, we all long for the simpler time of what we are now thinking the 80s were. The show is set in 1983 in a small Indiana town. Our stalwart crew of 5 friends were all born in the early 1970s. That would put them around their mid-to-late forties now. Here's my guess of what happened to the Boys and El in those 30 intervening years.<br />
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<b><br /></b><b>Will Byers</b>, the boy whose disappearance kicked off a phenomenon realized during high school that it wasn't Jennifer Hayes--the girl crying at his funeral--that he wanted but his best friend Mike. He suppressed his feelings during college, even joining an ultra-religious cult. He tried his hand at being a Christian minister, finally coming to turns that he was gay. He left his wife and children in Hawkins and is not the manager of a graphic design business living with his 28 year-old Honduran boyfriend named Javier in Riverside, CA.<br />
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<b>Mike Wheeler</b>, the leader of the group, remained friends with the Boys until attended Notre Dame where he majored in accounting. He briefly lived in Chicago with El but had to return to Indiana when his father died of a massive heart attack. Eleven kept going back to the Upside Down so he ended up marrying Jennifer Hayes--the girl crying at Will's funeral--before they moved to Arizona and buying a lawn care/ beauty salon business in strip mall in Scottsdale. They named their oldest daughter, Twelve.<br />
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<b>Lucas Sinclair</b>, the brains and soul of the group graduated Hawkins High School, where he became class president, before going to Northwestern University where he majored in journalism and communication. After college he briefly came back to Hawkins where he ran as a Republican for the Indiana state senate. He languished on the back bench for a few years when he realized he was too ambitious for a small Midwestern town. He left Indiana and now owns a media company and frequently appears on cable news as a Never Trumper GOP strategist. He lives in Dallas with his wife who is a local newscaster.<br />
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<b>Dustin Henderson</b>, the funniest member of the group, never really hit his "stride" or at least that what he tells people where he works. He is the co-owner of a comic books store/ coffee house. He still lives in the same house he grew up in. He emails Lucas, Mike and Will regularly but they rarely email him back. He's the only one who is still in contact with El and he tries to go see Mr. Clarke at the SpringCare Nursing home but sometimes his 1997 Toyota Corolla breaks-down. Every Friday night he hosts a classic Sci-Fi party at the Hawkins Cinema.<br />
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<b>Eleven</b> finally found her birth mother in the neighboring town. Their relationship was turbulent and thankfully short. Plus her aunt kept wanting El to give her money for cigarettes and drugs. She lived with Mike for a while when he was in Chicago but she could never adjust to normalcy. She joined the Peace Corp and travelled the world helping people. The last anyone heard of her she had invited a sustainable sweet potato--the proceeds from which she bought stock in Kellogg.<br />
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<b>Nancy Wheeler</b>, Mike's precocious sister, left Hawkins and never looked back. She attended NYU--along with Jonathan Byers. They hooked up once after a drunken party at friend's apartment on St. Mark's but nothing came of it. She went to graduate school in Boston where she studied Political Science. She interned in the Clinton White House. She kept telling Monica Lewinsky, "Don't get caught with the monster, Barb." but the intern just looked at her with distain. Afterward she went to work in various organizations until she was tapped to run the New York Office of Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. She and Steve Harrington still see each other whenever they have time.<br />
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<b><br />Jonathan Byers</b>, Will's brother, got his lifelong wish and attended NYU and studied photography. He never went back to Indiana to live. In 2016 he won a Pulitzer Prize for his coffee table book entitled "Hillbilly Hawkins: A Town and Country in Crisis". The book was about the poor downtrodden white families of Hawkins that had succumbed to drugs when the government shuttered Hawkins National Laboratory.<br />
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<b>Steven Harrington </b>went to the University of Indiana on a lacrosse scholarship. He flunked out and ended up going to East Indiana State where he became a computer programmer. He met his future wife there and they both moved to Indianapolis and started a company that helped corporation protect their data from cyber-attacks. He was fired after one of his major clients, the DNC, was hacked in 2016. His son Kenny, who doesn't talk a lot, also attended East Indie with a kid named Axl Heck.<br />
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<b><br /></b><b>Joyce Byers</b> remained in Hawkins. She went on to manage Melvin's General Store when Donald got too old. There were always rumors that she and Hop had an affair but she and the guy who ran the local Hawkins Radio Shack ended up in a common law marriage. She quietly tells friends that Will "turned gay" after the tragic events of that week in November, 1983.<br />
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<b>Karen Wheeler</b>, Mike's mom was devastated after her husband died of a massive heart attack. She didn't love him but who else was going to take care of her and her young daughter. To get her mind off things she went on a cruise where she met a former Indianapolis Colt running back who owned a string of car dealerships across the Midwest. They were married before the cruise was over and she moved with him to a mansion in Indianapolis. Her daughter Holly, grew up and is the communications director of a mega-church near Cleveland and spends all her time spreading the word of God and trolling liberals with pro-Trump propaganda on social media.<br />
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<b>Chief Hopper</b> stayed on as the local sheriff. He successfully kept the town safe. He never seemed to find love and went through years of unsuccessful relationships with a succession of librarians. He finally retired from the force and pretty much stays in his trailer. He's sometimes seen in town where people whisper that he sits in front of his TV watching Fox News and screaming about the Deep State. They say he refuses to use any electronic devices.<br />
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<b>Tommy H</b> got <b>Carol</b> pregnant. They moved into the trailer park off Mirkwood and had a stormy relationship. They appeared on one of the earliest episodes of Maury for a paternity test. Tommy got caught selling cocaine and went to prison. He was killed in a mysterious hit a run by 3 guys in a van--one of them was identified as looking like Tom Hanks' son. Carol works at the lunch lady as Hawkins High. The kids love it when she comes to work drunk and curses them all out. They post pics of her all the time on Snapchat.<br />
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<br />Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-30842962842433225002017-08-18T13:20:00.001-04:002017-08-18T13:20:19.285-04:00What if hate was on the other foot?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Let's have a thought experiment, shall we? I want you to sit back. Close your eyes. Now picture a beautiful southern city, like, Charlotte. Now imagine if you will a warm summer evening. Now in a part of Charlotte I want you to pretend you see an old decrepit building. The building is at least 100 years old and it has Arabic writing on the side of it. It has four towers. I'm sure you are picturing a mosque. That's good.<br />
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Now imagine this mosque has been dedicated to radical Islamic teachings. The adherents of the teachings of this mosque carried out all sorts of atrocities on Americans for decades. Murders, beheadings, lynchings. All sorts of horrible things. Now, if you can, imagine that the city council of Charlotte has decided to demolish this mosque and build a park in the name of peace in its place. So one Friday night a few young people go to this mosque to hold up signs that read "Love over Hate" and "Tear down this symbol of hate". A short distance from this mosque is a church filled with people holding an interfaith service. Now see a couple hundred Radical Jihadist start marching down the streets of Charlotte carrying torches. Picture in your mind those Jihadist surrounding the church. Chanting "Death to America" and "Die Infidel Die". Image them attack the small number of peaceful demonstrators sending one man to the hospital in critical condition from being punched in the throat by a torch. The man later suffers a stroke because of the severity of his injuries.<br />
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Imagine the next day, these Jihadist--who have decided to go by the term Alt-Religious--have a "legal permit" to show up at the mosque to protest its removal. They arrive bearing symbols of hate. They carry weapons. They bring with them riot gear like shields, helmets and batons. Now think for a moment a group of anti-terrorist protesters show up. They too are angry. They claim the Jihadist have no place in America. So a few fights break out. Soon the Jihadist start beating people with their bats. A young man suffers a broken hand and has to get multiple-stitches in his head. The Jihadist grow more violent and start throwing bottles filled with urine and full cans of soda at the anti-terrrorist protesters. The Jihadist target the Christians ministers who have shown up in solidarity with the anti-terrorist protesters.<br />
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As the tension mounts a 20 year-old radicalized Jihadist jumps in his car and plows into a crowd of anti-terrorist protesters. Bloodied and broken bodies fly everywhere. In the aftermath of the attack, one young woman is dead, 19 injured and 5 remain in the hospital with critical injuries. The country is shocked by the level of violence. People want answers. How can these violent Jihadist, who have a history of abhorrent attacks on Americans, be allowed to behave in such a reprehensible manner. We all love to exercise our free speech rights but these Jihadist encourage violence and have shown no remorse over the death of the young woman killed in the terror attack. Actually these Jihadist are vocal with their praise of the murder and even send the murdered woman's mother death threats.<br />
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Now imagine the president of the United States holding a press conference. Now imagine during that press conference the president of the United States says the following:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I watched those much more closely than you people watched it, and you had a group on one side that was bad and you had a group on the other side that was also very violent."</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"What about the anti-terrorist protesters that came charging at, as you say, the Alt-Religious, do they have any semblance of guilt? What about the fact that they have charging with clubs in their hands, swinging clubs. Do they have any problem? I think they do."</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"I own a house in Charlotte, does anyone know I own a house in Charlotte? It’s in Charlotte, you’ll see. It is the winery. I mean I know a lot about Charlotte."</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"George Washington was very religious. Was George a religious person? So will George Washington now lose his status? Are we going to take down statues to George Washington? How about Thomas Jefferson?"</blockquote>
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Then he goes on twitter and calls the removal of the mosque "foolish". He says, "Sad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and mosques."<br />
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How would that make you feel as an American? Now you can open your eyes. Rerun that story in your mind and replace Jihadist with White Supremacist and tell me if you would feel the same way.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-28590377515864084622017-03-29T12:31:00.000-04:002017-03-29T12:31:04.695-04:00The CIA ain't got nothin' on a woman with a plan<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In the movie "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wn9X3hpuWM" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Two Can Play That Game</a>", Anthony Anderson tells his friend, Morris Chestnut, that "The CIA ain't got nothin' on a woman with a plan." As I was watching this movie last night, I wondered how Anderson and Chestnut ended up leading broadcast network shows and Fox ended up with cheap strippers on reality TV--but I digress--it put our current situation with the Russia Scandal and Donald into perspective.<br />
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I'm noticing an upswing in chatter from Republicans and Donald supporters trying to make this Obama wiretap thing happen. I think many people are repeating rhetoric and political spin they hear on FOX News or Mark Levine's radio show but they don't really understand it. So I'm going to break it down to you. One way will use spy jargon and specific technical terms and the second way will be in easy to understand Shanté Smith, Vivica Fox's character from the movie,<br />
terms.<br />
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If you don't want the long-winded explanation skip right to Number 2.
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Number 1: What really happened<br />
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The US, as with all countries, gathers intelligence on foreign actors in their country. This means if you are a diplomat, world leader, spy, banker, high ranking official--be you from a friendly state or hostile state--your communication is going to be monitored when you are in the US. This has been done for decades. It's a matter of course. When high ranking US officials go abroad they too are monitored or surveilled. It's the secret no one tells you about.
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Once that data is collected and compiled it is given to the NSA, CIA, FBI, DNI or some other "Deep State" agency. Those reports, transcripts and other media are then given to the designated stakeholders, like department heads, cabinet members, congress members, the president, et al. In those reports if an American is "incidentally" (accidentally) monitored their names are redacted from the final reports. Apparently in the case of Mike Flynn, former NSA director and others, those names have now been "unamsked" or revealed. Members of Donald's campaign and transition team came into contact with Russian officials/ diplomats/ spies, etc. Those communications were monitored--because <b>ALL</b> communications with Russians are monitored--and some one inside the intelligence apparatus has leaked those names to member of the press. Republicans are trying to make a case that Pres Obama purposely, and by their inference, sinisterly listened in on a political enemy. The fact that all of this was done routinely without the president's consent or knowledge means nothing to them.
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Number 2: The Shanté Smith Breakdown<br />
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Your cousin KeKe works at T-Mobile in their internal audit department. She has access to all T-Mobile customer's records. She's always suspected your boyfriend wasn't faithful. One day on her lunch break she saw your boyfriend out cheating on you. When she got back to work she pulled his text messages and voicemails and called you up and told you your man was cheating and she showed you the truth. Yes, she broke the law by revealing his personal information. And yes your boyfriend got mad and tried to convince you that KeKe was wrong and that his was the victim. But at the end of the day, he <i><b><u>was</u></b></i> cheating on you.
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So in this scenario, you are America, Donald has been cheating of you with the Russians and the intelligence community is KeKe.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-86951549220234798162017-03-21T17:23:00.001-04:002017-03-21T17:23:40.220-04:00Mexican students attack Americans over Boarder Wall<h2>
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Daryl T Sturgis<br />
21 MAR 2017 AT 16:45 ET<br />
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Lake Winnebago, WI<br />
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Each year hundreds of thousands of Mexican college spring breakers head north of the boarder for fun in the dim light and cold lakes of America's Rust Belt. But this year things got ugly when locals slammed the Mexican tourists for their bad behaviour and down right bigoted attitude toward their host country.<br />
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As the town's newspaper, the Lake Winnebago Cruiser, reported, the rowdy kids had just finished a tour on a boat in the shape of a giant bratwurst. The captain of the fun boat, who spoke anonymously, said, "The Mexican kids come up here every year and do the same thing. They overrun the town. We only tolerate it because it keeps us afloat during the office season."<br />
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This particular day his boat was packed with kids. Witnesses said that once the tour was over it was "pretty clear" the kids were drunk on Pabst Blue Ribbon and cheese curds. It seemed the incident started when a few Americans riding the boat waved American flags. Soon the Mexicans teens were jeering and chanting "<i>Build your wall we don't want your douchey kids anyway!</i>"<br />
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A local woman who works as a housekeeper at the inn, who also refused to giver her name said, "These are some bad hombres. They've been coming here for years." She also commented that her husband who works in a neighboring town said the kids love to eat their steaks well-done with lots of ketchup on them. Some Americans riding the giant bratwurst tried to to express their annoyance but the lushed-up kids just chanted "E.U.M.! E.U.M.! E.U.M.!" Then one student shouted "Get them outta here!"<br />
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A couple who had moved from Colorado Springs, CO years ago, Scottette and Tony Walker, told reporters they usually travel to Ontario this time of year to avoid the obnoxious tourist but found they had to return home because they were not allowed to cross the Canadian border. They said they just found out P.M. Justin Trudeau was building a wall between the US and Canada to make Canada great again. They did say it was a great wall and that they didn't mind that America was paying for it.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-31686569164786047902017-03-20T14:11:00.001-04:002017-03-20T14:11:29.643-04:00The Allies of Evil<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
The Allies of Evil</h2>
When Steve Bannon, chief white house strategist, spoke at <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/24/us/politics/stephen-bannon-cpac-speech.html?_r=0" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">CPAC</a> (Conservative Political Action Conference) earlier this year, he said he wanted the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/top-wh-strategist-vows-a-daily-fight-for-deconstruction-of-the-administrative-state/2017/02/23/03f6b8da-f9ea-11e6-bf01-d47f8cf9b643_story.html?utm_term=.37834bc33187" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">"...deconstruction of the administrative state."</a>Most listeners, both liberal and conservative, interpreted that statement in different ways. For conservatives who have longed for the smaller government Ronald Reagan promised them, these words were the revelation they had been waiting for since Ronnie and Nancy flew off into sunset in 1989. Smaller government is the GOP Holy Grail the Bushes (I and II) couldn't give them. Liberals assumed Bannon, through his cipher, Donald Trump, meant he lusted for the destruction of the U.S. government for no other reason than to see it burn. But the truth is neither that rudimentary or cloistered; and once you realize what is at stake, all other answers seem naive.<br />
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Steven Bannon doesn't want to deconstruct all of the administrative state. He just wants to get rid of the parts he doesn't like and strengthen the parts that give him, and his ethno-nationalistic cronies, ultimate and complete power. Every since the South fell after the Civil War, many southern states have been pushing for States Rights—and make no mistake it may be centered in the south but many other states use it. The concept of States Rights has traditionally been used as a stand-in for state sanctioned discrimination. States Rights were used to keep the African slave in bondage. States Rights were used to keep Black Americans whipped under the lash of Jim Crow. States Rights are now being used to officially discriminate against trans-Americans. States Rights was a favorite of segregationist Democrats before it became the tool of modern Republicans. Since the late 1960s, the GOP has championed States Rights on everything from school integration, to voting rights, to marriage equality. Think of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan's_Neshoba_County_Fair_%22states'_rights%22_speech" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ronald Reagan's thinly veiled racist speech</a> he made during his 1980 presidential campaign where he introduced the Welfare Queen into modern political nomenclature. So it is not surprising that Bannon is also a champion of States Rights.<br />
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Put in simple terms, Bannon wants to ensure that groups he has deemed enemies of the state have no way of fighting the oppression he plans to bring to bear on them. The way he accomplishes this is two-fold:<br />
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First he must get rid of the regulatory agencies that help oppressed groups. So he crops budgets of Departments like Education and HHS (Health and Human Services). He gets rid of programs like Headstart, pre- and after-school, school lunch, et al. He guts NIH (National Institute of Health) funding for programs that are designed to help wellness is diverse communities. He wants to get rid of the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission). His minions in the OBM (Office of Budget Management) advertises the party-line of cutting spending to save taxpayer's money, but the greater effect is to end helping Black, Brown, Muslim, LGBTQ and immigrants get a fair shot.<br /><br />Second he must transform the judiciary. No other branch of government has been used to right the wrongs of racism, sexism, homophobia than the courts. Think of all the landmark decisions over school desegregation, abortion, equal marriage, voting rights that have been made in the last 60 years. Bannon knows if left up to the congress or state legislatures, very few of those governing bodies would have desegregated schools or given gays the right to marriage on their own. In actually, many of those governing bodies would have doubled-down on the discrimination without outside intervention. She North Carolina's ongoing fight over HB2 as an example of this. This judicial transformation starts at the the top. Trump's pick for Supreme Court justice is not just a conservative, he's a conservative who believes in State's Rights and has ruled in many cases, while simultaneously writing concurring rulings stating that laws should be changed so that police officers/ police forces can not be sued amongst other widely-derided decision. The <a href="http://www.naacpldf.org/press-release/statement-ldf-president-and-director-counsel-sherrilyn-ifill-nomination-neil-gorsuch-s" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">NAACP Legal Defense Fund </a>has a 70-page exhaustive record of his over 900-decisions and they have concluded that his should not be on the Supreme Court. Now keep in mind there are over 100 empty federal judge positions open right now. Trump and Bannon can dramatically transform the judicial system to tilt away from rulings like the ones that have found <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/03/texas-gerrymandering-ruling-unconstitutional%20" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Texas</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/30/us/federal-appeals-court-strikes-down-north-carolina-voter-id-provision.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">North Carolina</a> guilty of race-based gerrymandering and voter intimidation; or that found <a href="http://www.factcheck.org/2016/09/is-stop-and-frisk-unconstitutional/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stop & Frisk</a>, a raced-based NYPD street tactic that Trump wants to export nationwide, unconstitutional.<br />
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So think about the world Steve Bannon wants to create. A world where groups he deems unAmerican or even criminal—like Mexican immigrants, Muslims, members of the Queer community and by extension Black Americans—are treated poorly. Are oppressed by their state governments with no recourse to fight that bad treatment using regulation or the court system. A country where white, Christian, cis-gender men rule everything and women and people of color shut up and do as they are told. If that idea seems far off and dystopian don't delude yourself, the framework is already in place. The indolent Republicans in congress are ready to green-light Bannon's master vision by repealing ObamaCare, placing all of his judge picks on the bench and slashing the power of the federal government giving more power to the states. This all under the cloak and dagger of the most unqualified president we've ever elected.<br /><br />Catastrophe is closing that you think.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-66005719126783912242017-01-16T16:58:00.000-05:002017-01-16T16:58:26.304-05:00I fixed Trump's cabinet<div style="text-align: left;">
After a grueling election, the country needs some healing. It doesn't seem like our president-elect is up to the task, what with his less-than-steallar/ less-than-diverse picks. So, I decided to help him. I fixed his cabinet. It's not that I think Black women should be running the country, it's just that all these women are highly-qualified and they happen to be Black. Oh, and I <i>do</i> think Black women should be running the country.</div>
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<b>Cabinet of the United States of America</b> </h2>
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Oprah Winfrey</div>
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<i>Secretary of State</i></div>
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Chairwoman, CEO & CCO, Oprah Winfrey Network </div>
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Ursula M. Burns </div>
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<i>Secretary of Treasury</i></div>
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Chairman & CEO, Xerox Corp. </div>
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Debra L. Lee </div>
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<i>Secretary of Defense</i></div>
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Chairman & CEO, BET Networks </div>
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Loretta Lynch </div>
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<i>Attorney General</i></div>
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Terri Sewell </div>
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<i>Secretary of Interior</i></div>
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US Representative, Alabama 7th District </div>
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Alma Adams </div>
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<i>Secretary of Agriculture</i></div>
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US Representative, North Carolina 12th District</div>
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Lori Dickenson Fouché</div>
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<i>Secretary of Commerce</i></div>
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CEO, Prudential Group Insurance</div>
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Rosalind G. Brewer </div>
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<i>Secretary of Labor</i></div>
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President & CEO, Sam's Club </div>
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Coretha M. Rushing </div>
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<i>Secretary of Health and Human Services</i></div>
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Chief Human Resource Officer, Equifax Inc.</div>
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Margaret Simms, Ph.D. </div>
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<i>Secretary of Housing and Urban Development</i></div>
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Leading expert in public policy and low-income housing </div>
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Thasunda Brown Duckett </div>
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<i>Secretary of Transportation</i></div>
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CEO, Chase Auto Finance Corp/ JPMorganChase </div>
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Shirley Ann Jackson </div>
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<i>Secretary of Energy</i></div>
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President of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and leading scientist </div>
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Ruth J. Simmons </div>
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<i>Secretary of Education</i></div>
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Retired President of Brown University </div>
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Sheila Johnson </div>
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<i>Secretary of Homeland Security </i></div>
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CEO Salamander Hotel and Resorts </div>
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Laverne Council </div>
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<i>Secretary of Veterans Affairs</i></div>
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Undersecretary of IT, Veterans Affairs </div>
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<b>Cabinet Level Staff</b></div>
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Suzanne Shank </div>
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<i>White House Chief of Staff</i></div>
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Founder, President & CEO, Siebert Bradford Shank & Co.</div>
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Myrtle Jones </div>
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<i>Director of the Office of Management and Budget</i></div>
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SVP & head of tax division, Haliburton </div>
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Dr. Wanda A. Austin </div>
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<i>Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency</i></div>
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President & CEO, The Aerospace Corp. </div>
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Marion K. Gross </div>
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<i>Trade Representative</i></div>
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SVP, Worldwide Sustainability, McDonald's Corp. </div>
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Angela McGlowan </div>
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<i>Ambassador to the United Nations</i></div>
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CEO, Political Strategy Group, FOX News analyst </div>
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Lisa D. Cook </div>
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<i>Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors</i></div>
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Leading economist in macroeconomics, development economics, international strategy and economic history. </div>
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Janice Bryant Howroyd </div>
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<i>Administrator of the Small Business Administration</i></div>
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CEO, A*1 Personnel Services </div>
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Barbara Arnwine </div>
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<i>Nominee to the Supreme Court of the United States</i></div>
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Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-58145805845884163862016-12-02T16:15:00.001-05:002016-12-03T23:59:10.456-05:00Baldwin in the age of idiocyI am a writer. I am a student of literature. Criticism. Essay. Beautiful words stitched together for the enlightenment and enjoyment of the soul. Shakespeare. Mankiewcz. Morrison. Gore. Naylor. Massey. Wolcott. Mamet. Parker. Kafka. Parks. Adichie. Last names that don't need first names because if you know them you know their light and their power. These are the people I read. And love. And envy. And adulate. I try to mingle my voice with theirs to little success. But I try.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The inky blackness of the subway tunnel whooshed by the windows. The expression on the masses of people's faces were of passive exasperation. Their collective nonchalance did not soothe Aldrea Highline's apprehension. "</blockquote>
It took two weeks to write those three sentences for my first novel "<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Daryl-T.-Sturgis/e/B002Y84QSI/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1" target="_blank">Solstice</a>". Not because I was lazy but because I wanted them to carry a specific image. A perfect image. To convey my exact thoughts. That's how important words and information are to me. Unfortunately words no longer matter.<br />
<br />
We have reached a point of complete lunacy. Where anarchic monsters have taken over our airways and radiowaves and books. These feral creatures seek out and root away fact. They devour it and regurgitate bullshit leaving a fecal trail of disinformation all over the place. A few nights ago Trevor Noah, the young political comedian, hosting <a href="http://www.cc.com/video-clips/m9ds7s/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-exclusive---tomi-lahren-extended-interview" target="_blank">The Daily Show interviewed conservative firebrand</a>, Tomi Lahren. It was like watching Dick Cavett wrestle a pig.<br />
<br />
Discourse and wit have been replaced with yelling and obstinance. Ms. Lahren just flexed her considerably loud, obnoxious opinion and the right-wing media hailed it as victory. She wasn't/ isn't funny, clever, colorful or graceful. She's rapacious and her voice is as cloyingly annoying as Lesley Ann Warren's Norma in "Victor/ Victoria" with none of the character's charm.<br />
<br />
Lahren and Noah are not equally yoked. He's good but he's no Baldwin. The bigger problem is she's no Buckley. When James Baldwin stepped onto the podium to thunderous applause at Cambridge Union in 1965 to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFeoS41xe7w" target="_blank">debate</a> William F. Buckley, his opening remarks were about perception. How the perception of America was different for Black People than it was for white. That between these bits of nuance lies the true heart of the problem. But nuance no longer seems to exist. We now live in a world of bluntness and primary colors. Of tribalism and nihilism. Where the din of name calling has erased the true rightenous of civic duty by letting people say "Well both sides are wrong."<br />
<br />
No both sides are not wrong. It's not just impolite to create facts and false evelancies. Its not just hearsay its sedition to truth. We have seen this behavior metasize over the years. First with reality TV bleeding into our lives. Where bad behavior became tolerable. Then we saw it in our news rooms, where journalism was treated like entertainment. Where investigative reporters were fired and replaced with pretty, neutral, good-looking automatons that just paraphrased what this candidate said at this event without context. Then it invaded our politics. And that's where we are today. We no longer debate how to fix a problem. We have one side just screaming and insulting the other side and telling them racism nor climate change nor police brutality is a real thing. We have <a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/12/1/13814248/trump-clinton-harvard-conference-shouting" target="_blank">campaign managers saying to audiences</a> without the slightest hint of a lie that there was no white supremacist involved in the presidential campaign she managed, all the while the person in question admitted in an interview to having ties with white supremacist.<br />
<br />
So there you have it. The discussion is stymied before it can start. Not because Tomi Lahren can shut down Trevor Noah with facts and repartee. But because even at his best he can't penetrate her ignorance because it's embedded on a grandular level and we have started to reward the loudest, most obnoxious kid in the class instead of the smartest. Adolph Hitler once wrote "Der Sieger wird nie gefragt, ob er die Wahrheit gesagt habe."<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The victor will never be asked if he told the truth."</blockquote>
Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-74546457535311182672016-08-26T17:07:00.002-04:002016-08-26T17:15:24.318-04:00The ghosts of two cities<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I don't want to be hyperbolic and use death as symbolism, but being a full-time caregiver for a parent suffering from dementia is death-like. It's a task I tell people all the time not to enter into lightly. Alzheimer's is a creeping, evil bitch. It desaturates life. It turns your world from a vivid RGB palette into a barren greyscale landscape. Not with a quick mouse-click, but with a long simmering reduction. Once you get past the shock of the diagnoses--a pot of boiling water you know you must thrust your hand into to retrieve a necessary item. You look at it percolating, frightened and in denial, but knowing the truth is in that hot pot. A pot you must throw yourself headlong into--you have to then learn to live with the disease. It's not like in the movies either, where actors portrait valiant struggles of defiance, as they lose touch with reality surrounded by loving spouses or troubled children. In truth, dementia is more insidious than that. It's a disease of banality. You just sit and wait. Watching. Like a lock in a canal slowly draining of water as it lowers your boat further down. It's doctor visits and food preparation and bed-making and prescription refills and trips to social services. It's bill paying and drool wiping and toileting and doctor's visits and food preparation and bed-making and prescription refills...well you get the picture.<br />
<br />
You become a ghost.<br />
<br />
At first things are fine. You stay in touch with friends. You speak frequently on the phone. You laugh at things that just happened to you last week. The gossip is hot and fresh, because you know all the players. But then slowly they pull away from you and before you know it, the only thing you have to laugh about are things in the past. There are no more new memories with your friends. There are no more Sunday afternoon debriefs about the bar last night. There's no more new discoveries in the city of a tucked-away Persian restaurant with a cute waiter. It's no more impromptu brunches at a friend's house. No more flirtatious summer evenings sitting outside in the park. No more gatherings where you sit around and throw shade and argue over who is the Samantha of the group--I was always Carrie, which I didn't mind because I'm a writer with a shoe fetish. Or repeat lines from the Golden Girls over Ketel One-cranberries. No more meeting up at the gym where that one friend tries to tell you how to do squats but you remind them they are not a personal trainer. New memories are being made but you're just not included in them.<br />
<br />
Now you listen as they tell stories of those adventures and soon the names change and you find yourself a bit lost. You say "Now who is that? Do I know him?" and there is a pause and they say "No, you don't know him? He came after you left."<br />
<br />
You start to feel locked in place. Caught in time; because they have moved on and you haven't. Their kids graduate high school and you're not there to congratulate. They get promoted on their jobs and you're not there to celebrate. They meet "the one", fall in love, fall out of love, break-up and you're not there to commiserate. You become further out of step and out of time. Then you start wondering to yourself will you ever be able to catch up. They are so far ahead of you now and it's as if you are not even in the same space-time with them. You sit from day-to-day watching your parent, a sentinel. <br />
<br />
I can only speak to my mother about the past. She has relatively no memory of the present. So to the life of a caretaker becomes rooted in the past. Just yesterday I was speaking to her about Omar Khayyám's famous poem.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,<br />
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit<br />
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,<br />
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
</blockquote>
<br />
Then she started asking for her dead relatives and I wondered what my friends were doing.<br />
<br />Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-6273831716420309652016-07-07T13:54:00.000-04:002016-07-07T13:55:51.522-04:00Blood, Death and BlacknessBlood, Death and Blackness<br />
I see all around me<br />
Gory phantasms that can't be real<br />
Dead eyes, open mouths<br />
Wounded bodies in pain<br />
<br />
Black children crying<br />
as Black mother's read from scripts<br />
written by a history of violence <br />
against Black Women <br />
Through the murder of their children<br />
<br />
Graves dug open<br />
to receive Black bodies whose<br />
flesh was ripped open for<br />
no apparent reason other than<br />
it was Black flesh<br />
<br />
Blackness so black that all<br />
they see is black but they<br />
don't see the red that we see<br />
when we see the blood<br />
another Dead Black person<br />
<br />
They shoot, we die<br />
They investigate, we cry<br />
We burn and they turn<br />
our pain against us as<br />
They live, we don'tDaryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-75074140513128561432016-03-25T16:29:00.002-04:002016-04-07T16:14:44.067-04:00The fear of everything<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vq8gQffJ1co/VvWbQcG6WjI/AAAAAAAAGrg/zm0Ts0cdjpUVTJ8X6K0Tbw9UWzfcUMT4w/s1600/fear%2Bof%2Beverythig.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Vq8gQffJ1co/VvWbQcG6WjI/AAAAAAAAGrg/zm0Ts0cdjpUVTJ8X6K0Tbw9UWzfcUMT4w/s320/fear%2Bof%2Beverythig.jpg" width="259" /></a></div>
<div class="p1">
When I was a small child, probably 7 or 8 or so I would love to go to Zayre's Department store with my mother. Zayre's was a generic low end retailer that sold cheap goods like depictions of White Jesus in plastic gold frames along side bags of tube socks and polyester moo moos that every grandmother in North Carolina wore in the 70s. While my mother would do her shopping she would let me hang out in the toy aisle. All. By. Myself. That's right. An 8 year old kid, unattended, in a store, with his mother wandering on the other side leisurely picking up items she didn't need. I never left the toy aisle--well I did once and got lost in the tire department (to this day the smell of rubber brings about an uncontrolled panic) but a nice employee used the PA system to call my mother, which made me feel special to the point every time thereafter, I would ask the lady to call my name so I could hear it over the loud speakers. What? I like attention. But my mother would always come back and find me. Safe and content.</div>
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<div class="p1">
The world of the 70s was really dangerous for children. We were allowed to leave home, on our bikes, and pedal to the candy store down the street. We were left unsupervised to play with cousins and neighbors, to create our own island in the Pacific, were we hunted wild boar and jumped off the garage with towels tired around our necks. We had toys that could kill us. I had a Tonka Toy jeep that was made of real metal. I had broken the roof off and the four remaining spikes were razor sharp. I could've put out an eye had I tripped running with that thing. We had sheets that would burn us alive; we had cribs made with lead paint. We constantly inhaled gasoline fumes that were toxic. We had parents and siblings who would do us bodily harm while neighbors turned a blind eye. We didn't have car seats (hell we didn't even use seat belts). We didn't have teachers or student resource officers watching for signs of abuse, we didn't have Nancy Grace. There were real live perverts in white vans. There were real men dressed like clowns. It was a scary time. I write this without nostalgia. WIthout sentimentality. That was just the world of my childhood. </div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
We live in a very different world today. For the last forty years we have been told, first by politicians, then by nightly news anchors, followed by anecdotes at church and the barbershop and finally by social media that our world is too dangerous for children to be left alone in it. It doesn't matter that child abductions are at historic lows. It doesn't matter that we have a child care system overzealously removing children from their parents. The perception--which is reality to most--is that our children need protection from evil. All. The. Time. If you let your child out of your sight for just a split second you are a bad parent. If you let your child walk to the store by himself you may be arrested for child neglect. If a school official sees a bruised arm you are investigated for abuse. Children can't play with children they don't know. Our children's lives have become regimented. A quotidian of scheduled play dates and soccer practice. Parents are constantly living in fear. Fear that something bad will happen to them or their children. This fear is irrational of course.</div>
<div class="p2">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
So it doesn't surprise me that when Charlotte passed an ordinance that would allowed transgendered individuals to use the restroom of their chosen gender that people would frenzy before or without any thought over it. As if come April 1, 2016, when the ordinance would become law, that men dressed in cheap wigs and bad pumps would be drooling at every Ladies Room entrance at the mall. These fears were always telescoped toward women and little girls as if Patriarchy was the calvary riding in to save them from a gorilla on the Rue Morgue. It didn't matter than 8 other cities in North Carolina had similar laws in place and they had been enacted without incident. It didn't matter that many other cities and states in the country had similar laws in place and there had been no indications that child molestation or rape in public bathrooms had skyrocketed. It didn't matter that child abduction or "stranger danger" was at an all time low. It didn't matter that your child is more likely to be sexually abused by one of your own family members or a person that he or she knows and NOT by a unknown person in a public place. Actually statistics have proven that public facilities like restrooms are far more dangerous for transgendered people than the people who are using the facility with them. So the state of North Carolina acted in fear and created a wide-ranging law that neither protects women and children nor the special groups it claims it does. Indeed it makes it more dangerous for those same groups by making it harder for People of Color and members of the LGBT community to sue for discrimination.</div>
<div class="p2">
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<div class="p1">
I think the saddest thing is that we have acquiesced to fear in this country. So much so that we can no longer see each other as human beings. So much so that we can't even be rational. We hear transgender-slash-bathroom and we are ready to kick somebody's ass if they touch my child when the likelihood of that happening is zero. We have given into fear for our jobs so we want to kick Mexicans out; fearful of our religion so we want to kick gays out; fearful of our freedom that we want to kick Muslims out; fearful of our own prejudices that we want to kick Black Lives Matter protesters out. So fearful for our families that the thought of having to share a bathroom with a man or women (you probably wouldn't even recognize as being their original sex anymore) so interminably frightening we want them out too. What this does is create tribalism. The more I am fearful of your tribe, the less empathetic I am to your tribe's plight. So we sit back in fear and watch the rights of our fellow Americans being eroded. What we don't realize is that the same fear is eroding us too.</div>
Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-71269464718497590282016-01-27T23:23:00.003-05:002017-02-14T15:34:55.799-05:00The Mask of the Yellow Hair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UdUTTo8aB2Q/VqmXthuAb3I/AAAAAAAAGpk/vJbtPqOrC6U/s1600/hitler.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UdUTTo8aB2Q/VqmXthuAb3I/AAAAAAAAGpk/vJbtPqOrC6U/s320/hitler.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
With the Iowa caucuses just a few days away we are in full-fledged presidential election season. I've been noticing a lot of my Facebook friends posting memes that compare Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler and while I think most of them are funny here's the problem I have with these images:<br />
<br />
By comparing Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler we're creating the mistaken notion that evil can't reside in the heart of the United States. That somehow fascism or authoritarianism is an alien ideology infecting a country that advertises full throated exceptionalism and broadcasts an image of bootstrapping materialism to the rest of the world. These images prove that only a foreigner like Adolf Hitler can rise to power in a foreign country like Germany. That Trump's very ideals are foreign. But Donald Trump is no aberration. Donald Trump and his blowhard attitude with his reductive views of immigrants and religion are as American as baseball and apple pie.<br />
<br />
We often hear those who support and attend Donald Trump's rallies say that their favorite candidate is only speaking what others won't say. That he is speaking his mind. They are actually telling the truth. Many politicians both left and more so on the right use coded language to signal to voters what they are really saying. So instead of Republicans talking about border security, Donald Trump comes right out and says he thinks Mexicans are rapists and criminals and we should build a wall to keep them out. Instead of using terms like urban crime or entitlement programs, Donald Trump tweets that he thinks African Americans are lazy and violent. Where once national security and terrorism were buzzwords, he openly talks about spying on mosques and banning Muslims from entering the United States. After he says these outrageous things his popularity soars and cable news pundits become apoplectic at what they consider an abomination; an afront to American ideals. That Trump is ultimately a cipher who has tricked the masses with his Pied Piper words or that he's touched on the zeitgeist of an uneducated working class anger.<br />
<br />
The cable pundits are wrong. Racism and xenophobia has existed in the United States much longer than this notion of diversity and equality. Donald Trump is no aberration. He's no fluke. What was a fluke was a biracial man who considers himself African American being elected President of the United States. Twice. That was a fluke. A rich old white man who spouts racist, xenophobic, anti-muslim, authoritarian, misogynistic, pro capitalistic rhetoric is an every day occurrence somewhere in America. So maybe the face underneath the Donald Trump mask is not Hitler. Maybe the face underneath the mask of America is Donald Trump and the millions who agree with him.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-54515122378666160422015-11-20T13:52:00.002-05:002015-11-20T13:59:16.534-05:00Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe freedom of the press<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EQROl-lKNfo/Vk9pze_BBKI/AAAAAAAAGkw/dOF1YQAXBoM/s1600/cnn%2B.tiff" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EQROl-lKNfo/Vk9pze_BBKI/AAAAAAAAGkw/dOF1YQAXBoM/s320/cnn%2B.tiff" width="320" /></a></div>
So <a href="https://www.rt.com/usa/322870-cnn-correspondent-suspended-refugees/">CNN suspends a reporter</a> for correctly tweeting out that by passing a bill that would refuse to allow Syrian and Iraqi refugees into the country without more extensive vetting (<a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-does-the-refugee-vetting-process-work/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">as if that isn't already being done</a>) that the Statue of Liberty would hang her head in shame. Of course after the tweet came the cries of liberal media bias from the right bouncing against cries from the left about CNN's spotty track record when it comes to truth in reporting. This claim of one-sidedness in the media isn't new. The Republican party has turned the notion of liberal bias into a powerful messaging apparatus that ensures the masses of right-leaning voters will only trust rightwing sources. So propaganda becomes the news. The problem with this model is that it doesn't speak to the real truth. That there is no liberal or conservative bias in the news. There's only an American bias.<br />
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Most Americans go through life with the sublime unawareness of our country's actions abroad. We live in a sugarcoated world of football and Jerry Springer; where politicians make proclamations that we are the greatest country on earth. That we are the only country with a truly free democracy and our press is the gold standard of reporting. The reality is much different. Or at least the perception of it by many people across the world is. America is bold. We like big things. Big houses, big roads to drive our big cars. We like swagger and grandiloquence. We eat red meat and freedom fries. We shoot guns. We wave our flags and religion (only Christianity and mostly the Protestant ones) and never once do we think that maybe we are the Sword of Domocles with a tenuous string of petulance holding that sword in place. We hate details in America. As long as it said in brash tones it doesn't matter how off-kilter it is.<br />
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Most of us get our news from cable, or Facebook or Smoke down at the barbershop or Randy at the parts store. Mrs. Falls at the bake sale said "the blacks" were taking over her neighborhood. Uncle Roch (short for Rochester) said he'd never met a Jew or a Aye-Rab that he could trust. These statements may sound outlandish to read but they are cornerstones of family gatherings and small talk after church. And our news media does nothing to disabuse us of our prejudices. Against one another or against the world at large.<br />
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We're taught in school that slavery began sometime hundreds of years ago. Then there was the Civil War (that had nothing to do with slavery though it did end it) and then there was Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech followed by the election of Barack Obama. But what we are not taught was that connective tissue between those milestone events. We are not taught about generational chattel slavery that lasted 246 years. We're not taught that Black women were bred like cattle having dozens of babies before their bodies died. We're not taught about how brutal American apartheid was or how--even after serving their country hundreds of Black soldiers were lynched and killed, mainly in the South and Mid-West, after WWII. We're not taught about the persecution of the Black Power movement of the 1970s. We just skip along from point-to-point not worrying about the fine print. And the media has become increasing culpable in keeping us ignorant.<br />
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If you ask the average American what is ISIS they will correctly reply its a terrorist organization. When you ask them how they came to be the answers becomes murkier. Its because we don't see those dots, hidden behind the hubris and debris of political discourse. We see 9/11, the invasion of Iraq and the Rise of ISIS--always reported with a fanfare of somber music evoking heroes and villains as if in a movie. The news has become so theatrical. It's like we're living in an Orwellian dystopia where we're told "TODAY WE FIGHT THE TALIBAN"--without irony and with the full knowledge that most Americans don't know we helped the Taliban come to power in the first place. So when I hear many conservatives on Facebook parrot what <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/nov/20/muslim-databases-and-rabid-dogs-gop-in-ugly-scramble-to-vilify-syrian-refugees" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dr. Ben Carson or Donald Trump is saying about Muslim databases and comparing refugees to rabid dogs</a>; I know that many of them are shocked and surprised because the media did nothing to expand our worldview nor did we do anything to seek out that information. We have been spoon feed far too long. We invaded Iraq under false pretenses in 2003 which triggered a series of events that cost millions of people all over that region everything they held dear; these events led to a refugee crisis which in turn lead millions to flee their homeland. Some of them inexorably ended up on our doorstep. But because we have been watching Duck Dynasty and Love and Hip Hop their arrival comes as a complete surprise.
So I'm not amazed that we want to turn them away. Why? Because we have been living a dream for so long. An addict's dream where we are high on exceptionalism and braggadocio. We are fully invested in staying asleep. The truth would be too powerful or painful.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-37528374071806886212015-11-12T13:43:00.001-05:002015-11-12T13:46:14.564-05:00Bert Williams: America's first Black superstar in blackface<br />
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<span data-offset-key="fcp0c-0-0"><span data-text="true"><b>Bert Williams 1874-1922</b></span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="31i8a-0-0"><span data-text="true">"I have never been able to discover that there was anything disgraceful in being a colored man. But I have often found it inconvenient -- in America."</span></span></blockquote>
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<span data-offset-key="2n3sa-0-0"><span data-text="true">Bert Willaims was born Egbert Austin Williams in Nassau, Bahamas before his family moved to New York and then California. Forced to abandon his college study of civil engineering at Stanford University to earn a living, he turned his self-taught musical skills and gift for comic mimicry into a lifelong career. Williams was described by film comedian W. C. Fields (quoted by Ann Charters in Nobody: The Story of Bert Williams ) as "the funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest man I ever knew."</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="f7tsh-0-0"><span data-text="true">Bert Williams got his start on the musical hall stage in 1892, when he began working at the San Francisco Museum, where someone was needed to sing in front of the curtain while the sets were being changed backstage. In 1893 he joined Martin and Selig's Mastodon Minstrel Show. It was soon thereafter that he began his partnership with George W. Walker, and billing themselves as "Two Real Coons" they went on to become one of the most successful comedy teams of their era. By 1903 their partnership elevated from the vaudeville circuit to Broadway, where their act evolved to full-scale musical comedy. They produced, wrote and starred in In Dahomey (1902), the first Black musical comedy to open on Broadway.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="fo02-0-0"><span data-text="true">After Walker's death in 1909 from syphilis, Williams joined the shows of Florenz Ziegfeld and starred in the Follies from 1910 to 1919. He created the persona of the "Jonah Man" the unluckiest man in the world, resigned to his fate with rueful self-pity that transcended his color. Williams' trademark character was an expansion of the traditional and simplistic darky role to create a fuller fleshed-out character. Bert introduced a new aspect to the classic dimwit, adding a dimension that audiences applauded not only for its humor but also for its illustration of his talents as an actor. Jonah Man was a dumb coon in appearance only. The man underneath was both dubious and contemplative.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="5ekkv-0-0"><span data-text="true">As a single act, Bert Williams was the first black to become a star comedian on Broadway. Shortly after his opening on Broadway, Theatre Magazine called Bert Williams "a vastly funnier man than any white comedian now on the American stage." He was the first Black featured in a Broadway revue and was the first Black actor to join Actor's Equity. In London he played a command performance before King Edward VII at Buckingham Palace. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="fuem6-0-0"><span data-text="true">Through mime, Bert Williams displayed an emotional range that transcended the boisterous performance style of minstrels or the broad physical comedy of vaudeville. Although the performance was comedic, beginning and ending in laughter, it was also dramatic, touching upon his emotional depth. Although Bert played the familiar Jim Crow character, his performance enabled him to step a bit out of the heavy shadow that the stereotype cast. </span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="326ht-0-0"><span data-text="true">Williams became the first Black comedian to ever appear in the cinema, debuting on screen in 1914, in Darktown Jubilee. A screening of the independent black film in Brooklyn produced boos, cat-calls, and a near race riot from a white audience who rejected the all-black film. Darktown Jubilee was quickly taken out of circulation by the distributor, Biograph.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="71jee-0-0"><span data-text="true">In 1916, he produced, directed and starred in A Natural Born Gambler. The film features his most famous pantomime routine, that of a poker player who goes through all the motions of dealing, placing bets and ultimately...losing. His facial expressions and gestures were subtle, in contrast to the standards of the day, and yet more expressive. He was able to convey a wide array of emotions as his character rode the emotional highs and lows of a single hand.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="4eu9b-0-0"><span data-text="true">Also in 1916, Bert produced, directed and starred in Fish, about a boy who spends hours digging for worms and wants to spend his afternoon fishing, but when he returns home for his pole he finds chores waiting. He sneaks out on the chores and goes fishing anyway. After he catches a big fish he tries to sell it to one of his neighbors, but the neighbor runs him off. The boy's family catches up with him and drags him back to his chores. At 42, Bert's attempt to portray a "boy" was not well received. Bert was frustrated with the limitations of primitive cinema and Fish was his last film.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="19jr4-0-0"><span data-text="true"> Bert Williams continued to play the vaudeville circuit and record songs from his shows for the fledgling recording industry. His phonograph records were more numerous than his films and provided a more extensive view of his talents and abilities. Considered by some to be one of the finest recording stars of the time, he cut seventeen titles during his four-year contract with Columbia Records. While most of his recordings are said to have been “simple parodies of conventional stage humor of the period,” others were more serious songs which showcased his considerable talent.</span></span></div>
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<span data-offset-key="bl89b-0-0"><span data-text="true">Bert's most famous vaudeville character was Mr. Nobody, whose sad song would later be sung by everyone from Nina Simone to Johnny Cash.</span></span></div>
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Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-71470459792778915712015-09-19T14:03:00.002-04:002015-09-19T18:28:41.898-04:00Cut your grass and the rest will follow!I recently saw this post on facebook from a Black man:<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Rant about black folks who want everything but refuse to do the basics for themselves: Earlier this week I commented on a local black radio discussion regarding attracting investment to central city neighborhoods...my prescription was to have residents demonstrate that they care about their neighborhood by cleaning up trash, plant grass if your lawn is bare, become proactive against elements that create opportunity for crime (i.e., monitor children who are just hanging out causing disruption, report crime to the police, turn on porch lights at night, etc)...people will invest in attractive neighborhoods, no business wants to locate to an area where folks don't show care...few want to invest in a business where residents aren't prone to calling police if there are break ins and thefts...the talk host poo pooed my solution to which I said then just let their neighborhood remain an armpit..I can't help black folks that refuse to help themselves...I certainly don't want those kind of black folks living around me"</blockquote>
<br />
As I read his post I just kept hearing EnVogue singing in my mind "Cut yo' grass! And the rest will follow!" It's hilarious to think that we are still talking about how Black people need to behave in order to get the same benefits that white people do, no matter how they act. White folk can <i>ack'a fool</i> but no one will ever tell them writ large to clean their yards, take down those Confederate flags, or discipline their bad kids because inherent in these biases, Black people are still seen as being in need of being controlled. Wether that control is internal or external doesn't matter. Just to keep the driven, wanton, lustful, Black masses, with their jiggly, big-bootied, neck swiveling, angry Sharkeshas from slapping a ho (unless its on reality TV); to the cherry lip-glossed Sapphires ensconced like queens on the throne on welfare; to the BBC mandigos, slangin' molly along with rap lyrics named Rasha'ad who got five baby mammas they don't take care of; and who cares if they don't 'cause they all going to prison were they belong anyway. America loves the affectation of Blackness until they have to wear the label itself then every mutha fucka wants a refund. <br />
<br />
So here's what I said to him:<br />
<br />
Many people (both Black and white) think the problem in poor Black, inner city areas is strewn garbage on the street and ill-behaved children. You like to blame disinvestment on people who don't clean their lawns or fit the way you think a "good Black person" should be. So why don't you use that same fervor to push business owners to build factories in cities anymore. For years, in the north especially, manufacturing jobs help lift many Black people out of poverty. Where are those jobs now? They have been sent oversees. Yet I don't see many conservatives demanding those jobs to come back. What I hear is a lot about deregulations and trickle-down economics. Unions used to help lift Black workers out of poverty. Black people were the driving force for unionization as a matter of fact. Yet union membership is actually lower now that it was BEFORE the <a href="http://www.dol.gov/whd/flsa/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">FLSA</a> was made into law 80 years ago. Wisconsin governor and presidential candidate, Scott Walker, prides himself on destroying unions. In the 1970s a man with a only a high school diploma could make a good living by working as a skilled-laborer on an assembly line, with good healthcare and benefits; now a man with just a high school diploma can only get a job working part-time at Micky Dees or Target for minimum wage and no benefits. If you're a single mom working 2 jobs (and remember even a woman receiving <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/changes-in-tanf-work-requirements-could-make-them-more-effective-in" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TANF</a> has to work PT) the last thing you are going to think about is cutting the grass.<br />
<br />
If you want the neighborhood to change you need to talk to the banks. Have them offer loans in these "trashy" neighborhoods to bring back a good housing base. Often times in these areas you describe as bad, a homeowner has to pay <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-high-cost-for-the-poor-of-using-a-bank" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">HIGHER interest rates</a> than in a suburban community. So what this does is bring in <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/how-private-equity-came-new-yorks-rental-market-and-what-tells-us-about-future" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">slumlords who buy cheap housing</a> for cash then rent them out. HOw about giving incentives to Black working families to move back into these areas. Many of these older neighborhoods had families at one time, but with Black flight, high interest loans, red-lining and the sheer cost of being poor many of these places have now been populated with low-income renters.<br />
<br />
If you want these neighborhoods to change get rid of "<a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2014/12/broken_windows_policing_doesn_t_work_it_also_may_have_killed_eric_garner.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">broken windows</a>" policing. Often we think of Black inner city neighborhoods as crime ridden when many aren't. When I lived in The Bronx, my zip code had a much lower crime rate that some of the city's more affluent neighborhoods, yet all my white friends (who had been mugged steps from their apartments) kept asking me why I lived in such an unsafe area. Stop-&-Frisk is another example of over-policing. Each year in New York City over 500,000 Black and Latino young men were stopped by cops for no reason. The overwhelming majority of them were found to have no warrants, guns, drugs, etc. If we had any other program with a <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/14/stop-and-frisk-new-york-conviction-rate" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">97% failure rate</a> it would have been stopped immediately, yet this continued for over a decade because there was a perception that Black youth commit crimes all the time. Also over policing leads to the removal of millions of Black men from their communities. Right now if you are poor, white and use drugs and live in a rural trailer park you are <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/04/the-blackwhite-marijuana-arrest-gap-in-nine-charts/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">4 times less likely to be arrested</a> for drug possession than a poor Black kid living in the inner city. Right now we have <a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/drug-war-statistics" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">hundreds of thousands </a>of Black men sitting in prison whose only crime was having a small amount of weed/ pot or crack on their person. Those men could be out in the community working, building homes, keeping up their lawns.<br />
<br />
If you want the neighborhood to change give parents a reason to relocate to the area. Change the policy on schools (use vouchers, charters, fix the broken public schools, anything and everything to help get those kids on track). Telling somebody to plant flowers or sweep their sidewalk doesn't prevent their local schools from failing. Get rid of the school-to-prison pipeline. In a recent study it was found that in Wake Country, NC a Black elementary (yes grade-school) student was 11 times more likely to be arrested for an in-school infraction than their white counterparts. People are far less likely to go to college if they went to a school system that failed them from 1st through 12th grade. Failing schools produce failing adults.<br />
<br />
If you want the neighborhood to change then force the city to put funds back into these places. We have starved our cities to death with tax cut after tax cut after tax cut that only end up benefiting the riches people in the community. We have been tricked by the GOP into thinking our tax cut, which may buy you a couple pairs of Jordans and a few extra pizza runs will help you. What these tax cuts do is keep more money in the pockets of the rich--who don't spend it, they just hoard it--while defunding much needed public services like buses, light-pole maintenance and the public defenders office.<br />
<br />
So let's repeat: the prescription to bettering a neighborhood is not cutting grass or disciplining children, its creating good jobs that pay people well, keep them healthy, give them low interest loans and other incentives to buy in the neighborhood while providing their children a solid educational foundation at the same time keeping up the infrastructure. It may sound like a lot but we see this formula replicated all across America, in predominately white suburbs. We know it works there so let's apply it to inner city neighborhoods as well. But telling poor Black people that its their fault businesses won't employ them or banks won't give them money simply because they have raggedy houses with burned lawns or bad-assed loud children is not only condescending its a lie.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-59127056730979137472015-09-05T12:47:00.001-04:002015-09-05T12:47:14.112-04:00The season of the witch<div class="P1normal" style="tab-stops: 40.5pt;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yLYwb3c42Tc/VesZI7dM28I/AAAAAAAAF1Y/N10CvrJV4C8/s1600/dress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yLYwb3c42Tc/VesZI7dM28I/AAAAAAAAF1Y/N10CvrJV4C8/s200/dress.jpg" title="Bette Davis 1939 Oscar Dress" width="133" /></a> <o:p></o:p>Her friend Chrysanthemum Applewhite,
with her sultry lips and pale skin, had finally let her hair grow out. Solstice
thought it looked pretty down but the green changeable taffeta evening gown the
woman wore—with the double-straps and basket weave bodice was just too drab and
austere for her tastes. Solstice wanted something daring. Something
unforgettable. So she chose to have her personal seamstress run up the same
dress Bette Davis wore earlier that year to the Oscars, altered to fit her own style
of course. Bette’s dress was dark but Solstice wanted something more soulful.
Hers was made of gold metallic tulle with an attention-grabbing collar of
peacock feathers that ringed her face with a flourish. Her chocker of faceted
chrysoprase was dramatic but it seemed subdued compared to the massive yellow
sapphire cocktail ring she wore on her right hand. The same hand that held the
glass of champagne she had just spilled on the man now holding her.</div>
<div class="P1normal" style="tab-stops: 40.5pt;">
<br /></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Solstice was tallish for a woman
with a light complexion. “Café con leche.” is what her Dominican suitor kept
calling her. More Ethel Waters than Lena Horne with bright red hair that she
hated and often described as—“an angry nappy bush”—was constantly at odds with
a comb. She reigned over her New Year’s Eve party with the confidence of a tiger
over its domain. An ecru impresario who plied her guests with expensive gin,
hot jazz and an expansive showmanship snatched directly from Josephine Baker’s
groundbreaking performance in “Un Vent de Follie” of the <span lang="EN">Folies Bergère</span>. She saw the show that was
eventually made into a movie starring Maurice Chevalier, Merle Oberon and Ann
Sothern. She had met them all at its 1935 Paris premiere with Shaka Tiberius—oh how
she missed his touch with those broad militaristic shoulders and generously
large hands. That dark mahogany skin and his lush mouth that curled into a
devilishly succulent smile when he felt horny or mischievous. Antonin Crissuki
put on quite a show himself that night for Maurice and the girls at his
notorious after café club Chambre du Sang, but she digressed, Latin men and
champagne had that affect on her. The revelry seemed to come to a stop as if a
red light was turned on; and she, just for a moment, savored her own greatness.
The two-and-a-half thousand square foot ballroom sat on the top most floor of
her doublewide Convent Avenue brownstone in Harlem. When you went to a “<i>Solstice Macaffey Affair”</i>—always in
quotes, always italicized—you were guaranteed to have a wonderful time. A
sitting Queen of Witches would have it no other way. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-18642800625799100222015-09-01T13:51:00.001-04:002015-09-01T13:51:05.902-04:00We got 99 hate groups but Black Lives Matter ain't one<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>"MARTIN LUTHER KING AT COMMUNIST TRAINING SCHOOL"</b></div>
<span id="goog_1860193653"></span><span id="goog_1860193654"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zoMLCuihflQ/VeXfbfj2U_I/AAAAAAAAFr0/StwZo1VPRaM/s1600/99.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zoMLCuihflQ/VeXfbfj2U_I/AAAAAAAAFr0/StwZo1VPRaM/s320/99.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
There it was. In big bold letters. Festooned across the top of newspapers and pamphlets; flyers and billboards. Postcards and mailers. The leader of the Negro movement was backed by communists. In a photograph Dr. Martin Luther King is highlighted, usually printed with a large black arrow with his name inside, sitting along with other "communist sympathizers" supposedly being trained. The photograph had been taken at the Highlander Center in Tennessee. An important incubator for anti-segregation activists that had a long storied history of fighting for racial justice and human rights. The Highlander, situated on rolling hills in the lush high country of Tennessee, had been pushing for unionization, women's rights and integration across of the South for decades. At its height of influence in the 1950s you couldn't throw a stone and not hit a future Civil rights icon; there was Rosa Parks talking strategy in 1955 before the bus boycotts, there was Pete Seerger, Charis Horton and Ralph Abernathy confabbing. You had James Bevel and Bernard Lafayette working on SNCC's next move while singing "We Shall Overcome" to break the tension. The Highlander was closed by the state for "inciting public panic" in 1959. In a now famous standoff the county sheriff evacuated the center's building and padlocked the door. Myles Horton, the founder, stood by and watched as reporters flashed photographs. As the sheriff walked away Horton turned to the phalanx of media people and said defiantly "You can padlock a building but you can't padlock an idea."<br />
<br />
The photgraph itself was innocuous. A lecture had been given at the Highlander but the words across the top were damming. It didn't matter if the origin of the picture had been planted by the Ku Klux Klan. The smear campaign had begun. Dr. Martin Luther King and his horde of communist backed minions were here to bring violence, unGodliness and white slavery to the United States. Many southern newspapers ran the picture and the accompanying story as a rallying cry for Southern whites to wake up. Rise up. To support and defend their Southern heritage at all costs. Of course this was only a part of a large COINTELPRO (COunter INTELligence PROgram)--which is a series of covert, and at times illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations. These schemes were often facilitated by media. With this backdrop in mind we should not find it shocking that <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/elisabeth-hasselbeck-black-lives-matter-hate-group-article-1.2344132" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Elisabeth Hasselbeck suggests the Black Lives Matter movement is a hate group</a>. I'm surprised that this didn't come sooner.<br />
<br />
The goals of Hoover's machinations were simple:<br />
<br />
1. Create a negative public image for targeted groups (e.g. by surveilling activists, and releasing negative personal information to the public)<br />
<ul>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XKkaB6ULJTs/VeXflZSSiTI/AAAAAAAAFr8/Gc10uJVzGoU/s1600/gad.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XKkaB6ULJTs/VeXflZSSiTI/AAAAAAAAFr8/Gc10uJVzGoU/s200/gad.png" width="200" /></a>
<li>Think of how #BLM member <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2015/08/19/shaun-king-s-parents-are-not-black.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Shaun King was "outed" a few weeks ago for not being Black</a>. </li>
<li>Think of how the 2 #BLM Black women who organized the strike on Bernie Sanders's Seattle rally were called out because one of them was a former <a href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2015/08/blm-activist-who-shut-down-sanders-is-radical-christian-sarah-palin-supporter/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Palin supporter and was labelled as a radical Christian</a>.</li>
<li>They claim that civil rights organizations exacerbate race relations and cause violence as in the recent shooting of a Texas law enforcement officer, but are silent when two cops are gunned down execution-style in a Las Vegas pizza shop and covered with the Gadsden Flag (Don't Tread on Me) which has become the standard of the Tea Party.</li>
</ul>
<br />
2. Break down internal organization<br />
<ul>
<li>Think about all those news pundits who keep saying nobody knows what the Black Lives Matter movement really is all about. Even though it has been stated time and time again, on Facebook, Twitter, their website, by members, by me. You just keep hearing this drumbeat of confusion and disorganization. Why aren't the <a href="http://thesouthlawn.org/2015/08/10/black-lives-matter-and-the-failure-to-build-a-movement/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">journalist doing journalism instead of conjecture</a>? </li>
</ul>
<br />
3. Create dissension between groups<br />
<ul>
<li>There's a rule of thumb used in Civil Rights. If the media can find one Black person to refute the claims of any Civil Rights organization, that organization is automatically discredited. We saw this after Dr. King was openly criticized by the Black elite after his blistering "Beyond Vietnam" speech where he excoriated President Johnson for his slow-pace on fair housing here in America while spending millions to send troops to die in Vietnam. They told Dr. King he was being ungrateful and petulant. A year before Dr. King died a poll was conducted that showed 53% of African-Americans viewed him unfavorably.</li>
<li>We see it now as FOX News parades out a string of "coons for coins" who are all too happy to denigrate Black civil rights leaders and organizations. These so-called "experts" are willing to <a href="http://crooksandliars.com/2015/01/black-sheriff-fox-news-naacp-political" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">make the most outlandish and incendiary</a> claims which in turn vacates Hasselback, Doucy, Hannety, O'Reilly, Coulter and others part in race baiting. They can easily say "See this Black hates Obama; he doesn't think racism is real; Black people are lazy, dangerous and sad. And because we love our own magical Negro, Dr. Ben Carson, the other forty-five million of you must be wrong." </li>
</ul>
There are other tools in the White Supremacy gadget box like restricting access to public resources,<br />
restricting the ability to organize protests and restricting the ability of individuals to participate in group activities. All of these are done to dilute, distort, defame and deflect the organization and our attention away from the real matter at hand. To keep the narrative away from the systemic death, destruction and denigration of millions of American lives. So while Hasselback's comments are controversial and she will take some heat for it; the truth is her sentiments were scripted for her years ago by an angry, racist zealot sitting in a marble fortress fighting against the forward momentum of racial justice. From his heart of darkness he has created a still formidable matrix that uses misinformation and apathy to prop-up an untenable situation, one that we must not only confront but affirm that BLACK LIVES MATTER.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-86150956033975384272015-06-27T12:29:00.000-04:002015-06-27T13:16:25.280-04:00White Noise Black Noise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-24titxKJfRI/VY4O0lXaSQI/AAAAAAAAFGY/FwLKoLqItIY/s1600/dissection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-24titxKJfRI/VY4O0lXaSQI/AAAAAAAAFGY/FwLKoLqItIY/s400/dissection.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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I can't remember a more eventful week. Eight epochal days starting with a terrorist act so heinous; so unfounded, so unbelievably evil that the perpetrator became instantly infamous. A Name that Shall not be Named. A name to frighten children and evoke America's long standing history of killing Black people. Nine souls, martyrs, lambs to the slaughter, innocents. Surely in the future the question "Where were you when the Charleston 9 were killed?" shall join those other seminal questions about the Kennedy Assassination and the Challenger Disaster. As the blood ran on those ancient antebellum bricks of Charleston, calls soon came to remove the Confederate Battle flag. A symbol of white supremacy and black fear that had flown continuously somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon since Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse 150 years ago. Then the flags came down. Like detritus shook from the feet of the future. Like a snake shedding its skin. States and retailers alike had finally agreed that the Civil War was at last over.</div>
<br />
But the tectonic plates were only getting started. A social justice tsunami generational in scale was on its way. Our President's signature healthcare reform law; originally derided as, but begrudgingly accepted as, Obamacare was vindicated by the Supreme Court. On the same day the Fair Housing Act was up held ensuring that the feds could go after racial discrimination in housing even when it its not intentional. We learned a new term: disparate impact. Then within 24-hours we were celebrating marriage for all. Now anyone of any gender can marry any one of any gender in any state in this country. It seemed the world was changing right in front of our eyes. A swirling kaleidoscope, tumbling forward, then backward. We were caught in a spinning combine. It was emotional and it was dizzying. It was exhausting.<br />
<br />
I have often said the internet democratized us. Anybody with wifi and a laptop can now become a wisdom chamber, filled with eloquent punditry. Or so we think of ourselves as we write our thoughts in the comments section. Each of us a digital blowhard. Usually this noise is something I can pick through; like looking for strawberries on a hot summer day, the cicadas in the background singing. The buzzing of insects is like that of vox populi; it simmers in the back of my mind but it never really disturbs me. I'd read a blog that is to my liking and discard the duds. But with the social cataclysm that occurred in America in the last week the noise became too much. Pundits, professors, TV personalities, social bloggers, Facebook groups, cousins, that guy in the next chair at the barbershop all had varying opinions, each as passionate as the next. Some were spot on, some were convoluted. But the sheer volume of debate coalesced into a brain-shattering chop suey of words; a cacophony of think pieces, status updates, hashtags, comments, memes; epic battles of dim wits with heavy usage of animated gifs to prove their points. We have been buzzfed, Upworhtied, Briebarted and Huff Posted ad nauseam. Everybody and when I say everybody I mean every-fucking-body had to weigh in on every-fucking-issue! <br />
<br />
By the time President Obama finished eulogizing Rev. Clementa Pinkney, singing "Amazing Grace", the heavens opened up in an eruption of judgment and conjecture. Over the last nine days every word anybody has publically spoken on any of these subjects were dissected. Pulled about, gone over with a fine-toothed comb. President Obama went too far on race or he didn't go far enough. He was too soft, he wasn't soft enough. He was bombastic. He used his bully pulpit. He missed this opportunity. Then came the dissenters. Republican presidential candidates made hysterical pronouncements of doom over gays getting married. This was the final hour of man because jiggery pookery was used on something only God can concretize. People spewed invectives. We charged each other with willful ignorance. One screed after another after another. Social media was awash with liberal intellectual outrage. I felt like I had been dropped down into a pit of tigers or vipers. Hissing and growling their displeasure, ready to devour me at any grammatical or logical misstep. It was overwhelming. And this coming from a person who got a U (unsatisfactory) in behavior in the second grade because my teacher told me I liked to debate every word she said.<br />
<br />
People have a right to their opinions. Everybody has a right to express them. But can we get off our soapboxes for just a few seconds. The racial/ gender/ sexual orientation carrousel will keep spinning. As the president said in his eulogy "We talk about race all the time." The problem is we don't do anything about it. So instead of writing a blog to let the world know how angry you are over injustice, how about writing a blog on how to cure it. Or better yet finish your latte, close your laptop and go boldly into the world and affect the change you have been complaining about. If the president or your congressman or your pastor or your transgendered-same-gender-loving-non-conformist-evangelical-Southern Pride-Sons-of-Confederate-Veterans-common law spouse ain't doing it the way you want it done then do it yourself.<br />
<br />
In the words of Grace Lee Boggs, social activist,<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Rebellions tend to be negative, to denounce and expose the enemy without providing a positive vision of a new future...A revolution is not just for the purpose of correcting past injustices, a revolution involves a projection of man/woman into the future...It begins with projecting the notion of a more human human being, i.e. a human being who is more advanced in the specific qualities which only human beings have - creativity, consciousness and self-consciousness, a sense of political and social responsibility."</blockquote>
Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-12049846629669111222015-06-07T17:56:00.000-04:002015-06-07T17:59:47.509-04:00The Invisible KidI'm so glad that we are living in an age of video and social media. For years many people rationalized or eschewed racial/ gender/ age/ orientation biases as being untrue or unfounded. We have seen over the last 16 months an onslaught of media evidence that can NO LONGER be ignored. There are biases in this country. Biases which are baked into the bedrock of our nation. Now that's not to say those biases make you a bad person because we all have them; but acting on those biases can lead to dire and even deadly consequences. <br />
<br />
So as the story begins to unfold apparently a white teenager confronted a white adult over their racially denigrating remarks about some Black kids that had been invited to a high school graduation pool party in a Dallas suburb. Allegedly this argument between the teen and an adult escalated to the point a fist-fight between some kids broke out. Residents of the mostly white community who had already been calling to complain about the infiltration of Black kids alerted the police. ONE cruiser came out initially and tried to disburse the ever growing crowd to no success. The kids didn't leave. There was no distinction between race at this point. ALL the kids were unruly. The police officer called for back-up and the dispatcher sent eight (8) more units.<br />
<br />
The next set of police arrive and start rounding up ONLY the Blacks kids. Making them lie face down on the ground, handcuffing them, chastising them for "running" away. Cursing at many of the kids who seem in the video to be upset, angry and frightened. One officer seemed to be the most aggressive; cursing, running around discombobulated, wrestling teenage boys the ground. There's a point he even yanks one bikini-clad young Black teenage girl to the ground by her braids then pulls a gun on her friends when they rush to her aid. Had it not been for two (2) other officers who grabbed him to deescalate the situation he may have fired his weapon on unarmed kids. He then returns to the young girl and knees her in the back to force her into handcuffs, all the while she screaming for her mother. Her crime? Having a attitude and speaking out like most teenagers.<br />
<br />
I am so glad we now have images that can back up the stories that I (from my own dealings with police as a youth) and others have been telling for years. That this problem is systemic and not anecdotal. To be Black in America is to be constantly surveilled. Not because of your actions but because you present a perception of criminality and danger. Black people are constantly being told where we need to be, what we need to wear, how we need to act, what we need to say and how we need to say it unlike ANY ethnic group in this country. Instead of us as Americans addressing this very fact we love to point fingers and blame the other.<br />
<br />
I have a prescription to help this country but most people will never use it. To confront the problems of race we have to admit we live in a society that is deeply flawed. That there is a holistic problem of discrimination that; no individual be they a successful Black man or a poor white man can escape. That there is racial disparity in every aspect of American life. Now we can pretend racism ended in 1968 or that everything was fine until President Obama brought it back. But we love to lie to ourselves in this country. The young white teenager who recorded the video remarked that he just stood by and watched as the police rounded up the Black kids and only handcuffed the one white teen. He said he was largely ignored. That's what we do with racism. It is the huge, invisible elephant in the room pressing us back against the walls.<br />
<div>
<br /><br /><a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/texas-police-officer-suspended-after-pulling-weapon-on-teens#.bpOEG7jz4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/texas-police-officer-suspended-after-pulling-weapon-on-teens#.bpOEG7jz4</a></div>
Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-83518406899311617982015-05-20T22:29:00.002-04:002015-05-21T13:15:49.927-04:00Bessie: A near Smith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WL1CysOulRA/VV0_oJaf8AI/AAAAAAAAFE0/z57ynLLMdew/s1600/bessie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WL1CysOulRA/VV0_oJaf8AI/AAAAAAAAFE0/z57ynLLMdew/s320/bessie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
When Queen Latifah's face rose on the darken screen--like Rigel, the giant blue star, on the horizon--I thought I was in for a lush, dreamy treat; a cinematic croquembouche following a meal of collard greens and fatback washed down with corn liquor. An illogical menu fit for one of America's most quixotic entertainers: Bessie Smith. Ms. Smith was a masterwork of contradiction, born into poverty before rising to the upper ranks of society through her sheer will alone; all the while giving no fucks. What I ended up with was a tepid, hesitant meal that was filling in form and function but ultimately unsatisfying.<br />
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The ingredients were all there; a project of love by Queen Latifah, HBO Films, Dee Rees, the phenomenal director whose feature film debut was the powerful character study of Black stud lesbianism "Pariah"; producers Lili and Richard Zanuck (yes those Zanucks) and Shakim Compere (Beauty Shop, Just Wright). That pedigree along with the life and legend of Bessie Smith should have been a five-star Zagat winner but the movie ended up being a routine night at Applebee's albeit with your best drunk girlfriends.<br />
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Born in 1894 in Chattanooga, TN, Bessie started singing early and by her eighteenth birthday was performing on the stage in a traveling troupe with her brother. After a short time under the wing of Blues singer Ma Rainey, Smith set out on her own and within a decade would become the biggest and highest paid Black entertainer of her time. Unlike modern performers, raised on social media and TMZ like Nikki Minaj or Rihana, Bessie Smith didn't seek out the spotlight and her often illicit, ill-temper and bawdy behavior put her at odds with early 20th Century sensibilities. She drank, smoked, fought and screwed anybody and anything she liked.<br />
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The greater part of the film takes place between her humble beginnings in 1912 through her career's decline and resurgence in the early 1930s. Following her life from sweeping inspiration to crashing despondence with a good line or two thrown in the middle. But it was that spectacular opening scene that sealed the deal for me. Full of ribald glamour. It was breathtaking and cinematic but unfortunately the rest of the movie never lived up to that promise.<br />
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I must say Bessie was a good-looking movie. Oftentimes Hollywood throws Black actors under the bus with bad lighting and lens effects. Think of those horrible 80s high school yearbook pictures with those hideous blue backgrounds. Cinematographer Jeff Jur, production designer Clark Hunter, along with art director Drew Monahan did a spectacular job making the diverse cast look good. A special shout-out to costume designer Michael T. Boyd (Secretariat, Into the West). Some of the clothes were anachronistic but he did a fantastic job of dressing the actors. So often--as in movies/ television series like The Great Gatsby, Titanic and Downton Abbey--we see costume silhouettes designed for reed thin women. Queen Latifah and Mo'Nique ain't them. I was so glad he was not afraid to use both color and fit to give the main characters a real period feel. Some of the background costumes were out of step but the main cast looked casket sharp.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5kRj73bDbYU/VV1AFOwbdkI/AAAAAAAAFFE/jxFkvDBoCYU/s1600/mkw%2Bbessie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5kRj73bDbYU/VV1AFOwbdkI/AAAAAAAAFFE/jxFkvDBoCYU/s320/mkw%2Bbessie.jpg" width="320" /></a>As casting goes I think Queen Latifah was a bit out of her depth in this role. She has the natural swagger to pull off Bessie Smith's more outrageous behavior but when it came to the movie's more rigorous scenes, like when her marriage was collapsing, I felt like she retreated into Khadijah James. In one scene where she had to confront her older sister Viola (Khandi Alexander) who had abused her as a child Latifah was so stiff I was hoping Ragine, Max and Sinclair would appear through the door singing "In a 90s kinda world..." just to give her some relief. Now that's not to say she turned in a bad performance because she didn't. There were some parts that were heartfelt and brave--going nude for almost a full minute. Mo'Nique was excellent playing Ma Rainey--but I must say it was Mo'Nique playing Mo'Nique the way she thought Mo'Nique would play Ma Rainey if you can understand that. Of all the actors I think Michael K. Williams, as her manager-husband-sparing partner Jack Gee, did the best with what had been written. His willfulness and violence were supposed to come across as dangerous and sexy, but the way the movie was edited he seemed to be a bit unhinged at times. I feel he was the story's strongest performer and constituted the Greek Chorus of the film. Even in the movie's more salacious moments of lesbian sex and gender bending (Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith would often dress in boy drag) it just didn't seem as shocking or groundbreaking as I'm sure it was in the early 1920s. I would have liked for Dee Rees to pull something more subversive from her performers.<br />
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The script was a bit too routine for me. A movie about Bessie Smith deserved a teleplay that was frenetic like her life. Chris Cleveland, Bettina Gilois, Dee Rees with the story written by Horton Foote gave us something that was a bit too by the numbers for me. It had all the sizzle of a Lifetime movie. It hit all the points a biopic should hit, disadvantaged childhood, soaring talent, booze, sex and decline. There was a series of flashbacks to Ms. Smith's childhood which was supposed to inform us of abuse at the hands of her sister but it just seemed disconnected to the main story and could have been left on the editing floor. My suggestion would have been for the writers to sit down and watch a marathon of Snapped on True Crime TV at least that may have added some more vigor to the script.<br />
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The biggest miss for me was the music. Other than a few stage numbers the movie was basically devoid of Bessie Smith's songs. Instead we got a score written by Rachel Portman (Belle, Cider House Rules) that was just too romantic for me. It put a collar on the film and wouldn't let it move freely and was too manipulative for a movie about such a freewheeling woman. I would have preferred Bessie to punctuate Bessie.<br />
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Bessie was a solid film. Dare I say a good one. A movie I will probably watch many times in the future. But it was sorta like going to your Aunt Cora's house for Thanksgiving knowing she was going to cook her ass off only to find that Cora had let her sister Phyllis from Philadelphia--the one who thought kale and collards were interchangeable--prepare dinner. You had a good time but when you were on your way home you stopped by KFC.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-2910191698091587212015-05-06T12:27:00.000-04:002015-05-06T13:50:12.550-04:00Billie Holiday: the agony and ecstasy of Lady Day The Baltimore Spring was upon us. Turmoil, frustration, beauty, chaos, racism, betrayal and addiction. A potent mix that lead the young people of B-more to rise up and burn the city. It was an ugly situation; with blood and death and anger and unyielding truths juxtaposed against righteous outrage. These same words could be used to describe Billie Holiday.<br />
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Billie was born into a nomadic family. Her mother was ejected from Baltimore when she was only 19 years old to be with a man she fell in love with whom was hated by her family. As these things inevitably go the man left her mother and young Billie alone Philadelphia. Her mother not being able to take care of her daughter let her stay with a half-sister in Baltimore for a time. So its fitting that as I thought about doing a blog about Billie I found her ties to the city we just saw erupt in fire more was than ironic; it was comme il faut. <br />
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Billie Holiday was the real deal. She was the antithesis of the unfiltered <b>gla-MOUR</b> of Lena Horne and the more lived-in older sister of the coquettish sweet sultriness of the ingenue Dorothy Dandrige. Contemporary artist like Jill Scott, Erykah Badu and Amy Winehouse sing in her footsteps with the pain and truth of the love-lorn and addicted. Billie lived her life open and for every one to see. She was often abused by men and drugs and like Baltimore she crumbled and faltered. She was made an example of and mistreated. But when you heard those tones in her voice you knew she knew about the things she was singing about.<br />
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Voices and souls like hers are fleeting. Shining beacons that flare bright and burnout young. At the early age of 17 she had her own night club gig at Club Covan in Harlem. Within a year she had recorded her first two records with Benny Goodman no less. "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1oajFwui-Q" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Riffin' the Scotch</a>" became her first big hit. Soon she was introduced to Louis Armstrong and by 1935 she had a small role as a woman being abused by her lover in Duke Ellington's short Symphony "Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life". In her scene, she sang the song "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GckGoW4pTrA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Saddest Tale</a>". A poetic situation that would be all too true.<br />
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But like Baltimore, there was more to her than the glamorous ruin we remember from Diana Ross's masterful performance in Lady Sings the Blues. She was alive in all senses of the word. She was no stranger to scandal and those close to her said she relished the drama. Her list of lovers was long and notorious from the actor <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-art-of-billie-holidays-life" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Charles Laughton </a>to the director <a href="http://www.60pages.com/billie-holiday-on-her-former-lover-orson-welles/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Orson Welles</a> to the actress <a href="http://graham-russell.blogspot.com/2014/01/tallulah-and-billie.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tallulah Bankhead,</a> their public falling out became the <a href="http://www.hiltonals.com/2013/10/letter-from-billie-holiday-to-her-former-lover-tallulah-bankhead-re-the-formers-autobiography-lady-sings-the-blues/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">stuff of legend;</a> There were rumors of others like Lester Young, Greta Garbo and Carmen McCrae. She was married twice but cheated on both. She was an avid animal lover (though she wore fur and lots of it) and would take her dogs everywhere. Even when she was arrested on narcotics charges. She was both funny and infuriating. She was <i>complicated</i>.<br />
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But whatever you think of Lady Day or Lady Baltimore from the few images of her singing with her iconic gardenia or the glimpse of the now iconic burning pharmacy. The one thing that is true is that neither of their stories has fully been written.<br />
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The Legend, The Icon, The Lady Day</div>
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Billie Holiday at 20</div>
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Ms. Holiday kept few things hidden in her life</div>
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Styling and profiling for your nerves</div>
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After her narcotics arrest in 1956 with</div>
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On the stage at Carnegie Hall, 1947</div>
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Ms. Holiday is not feeling the detectives</div>
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Jamming in a session</div>
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A tale of 2 Billies. Billie Holiday and</div>
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The girl in the middle, darling. <a href="http://illkeepyouposted.typepad.com/ill_keep_you_posted/2009/02/gettin-funky-with-billie-holiday-and-tallulah-bankhead.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Notorious Harlem playboy Dickie Wells and Tallulah Bankhead</a></div>
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Buddy DeFranco, Red Norvo, Beryl Booker, Leonard Feather, Billie Holiday, Louis McKay, 1954 </div>
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One last cigarette. A portrait by Dennis Stock, 1954.</div>
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Tempest in a turban, Duke Ellington, Ms. Holiday and critic, pianist and composer Leonard Feather</div>
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Billie and Ella, back together now</div>
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Riffin the Scotch</div>
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Cover Girl, 1949 </div>
Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-11672142312824249502015-05-01T15:24:00.001-04:002015-05-01T15:24:34.355-04:00What does the George Washington Bridge, The Exorcist and a burned out CVS in Baltimore have to do with each other?I, like many Americans, watched the city of Baltimore devolve into conflagration last Monday night when bands of young people kicked the hell out of a CVS's ass. The national press descended--as they do, the vultures that they have become--on the city and reported the uprising as if it were an unpredicted natural disaster. A seismic anomaly heretofore never seen in this part of the country. An event so bizarre and remote it could be likened to Godzilla rising from the Patapso River bringing great sweeping destruction and radioactive fire.<br />
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We heard anchors use flummoxed words decry "lawlessness" in voice over as images of mostly African American teenagers plunder buildings, throw objects, smash cars rotated ad infinitum on our screens searing in the message that Black teens are unruly beasts incapable of work, abstinence or self-control. Then like an invading alien force the doors of the mother ships opened and the "on the street" reporters were dispatched to give their lopsided moralistic view points; explaining to those of us watching at home that the problem in the inner city was bad parenting, government free stuff and uppity civil rights leaders. The rogues gallery was all there, from FOX News's <a href="http://mediamatters.org/blog/2015/04/29/watch-a-baltimore-resident-confront-geraldo-riv/203475" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Grand Dame of Yellow Journalism, Geraldo Rivera</a>, to CNN's sycophant of White Supremacy <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/12/27/cjr-dart-award-rolling-stone/20940309/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Don Lemon. </a>Presiding over this shit show was Jeff Zucker's tarnished dowager, Wolf Blitzer, enforted in the crumbling capital of fact-free news, the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. They blitzed the streets with as much bring-yourself-up-by-the-bootstrap rhetoric as possible. Chiding the Black community on its behavior as if Baltimore got that way overnight. Once the <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/baltimore-mother-toya-graham-on-why-she-smacked-son-i-dont-want-him-to-be-a-freddie-gray/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">video of Toya Gragham</a> dispensing Black Mama Justice went viral I knew all talk of the root cause of the unrest in Baltimore would evaporate only to be replaced with bullshit and conjecture.<br />
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Watching the coverage kept making me thinking of the novel "The Exorcist". When I was in the 11th grade I read the book "The Exorcist" by William Peter Blatty. At that time I had not seen the movie and wanted to know what all the hype was about. Not only was it a great read; it contained one of the most powerful paragraphs ever written. A passage that I actually had engraved on a plaque to keep it on my desk to remind me there is always a reason to look deeper. It is the first paragraph of Chapter 1: The Beginning.<br />
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"Like the brief doomed flare of exploding suns that registers dimly on blind men's eyes, the beginning of the horror passed almost unnoticed; in the shriek of what followed, in fact, was forgotten and perhaps not connected to the horror at all. It was difficult to judge."</blockquote>
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And there it was.<br />
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America was looking at the horror of a burning Baltimore without connecting it to the beginning. Those roots of despair were being ignored. Those exploding suns of poverty, racism, police brutality, mass incarceration never registered on America's eyes because she was willfully blind. Baltimore didn't collapse because Black people were lazy, <a href="http://www.brookings.edu/research/interactives/2014/concentrated-poverty#/M10420" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Baltimore was engineered </a>to be that way. With a fuse as long as the one in an old "Mission Impossible" opening Baltimore had been smoldering for decades.<br />
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Police violence in nothing new to African Americans. Whereas Jim Crow laws, the KKK and hordes of white people could lynch at will across the South, the police became white supremacy's muscle in the North and West. From Boston to Milwaukee to Oakland cops have always brutalized Black people living in cities. The police force has increasingly been used to keep America's Black poor hidden from the pristine sight of the white suburbs. Like the dirty children of <i>Ignorance</i> and <i>Want</i> under the cloak of the Ghost of Christmas Present. An American cornucopia that many will never eat from.<br />
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The Watts Rebellion of 1965 occurred when angry residents of the Los Angeles community heard that cops had beaten up an African American mother and her two sons after a traffic stop. Twenty-five years later Miami went up in flames when a police officer fatally shot a black man causing his motorcycle to crash killing his passenger, another young Black man. Now, almost like clockwork we have another city burning because a young Black man died at the hands of the police. Yet bad parenting and the dead victim's own culpability seem to always be the culprit instead of America facing the truth: police need to stop killing Black people.<br />
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I knew things were gonna get bad when Nancy Reagan first appeared as the face of the "War on Drugs". Clad in James Galanos, as fabulous as she was, a rich white woman, the wife of a president, speaking to inner city youth could only mean one thing: TROUBLE. And that's what we got. The War on Drugs has been a mother fucker to poor Black people. Starting with Reagan-Bush then Clinton, this one law enforcement effort has put more Black men in prison than were enslaved 100 years ago. Bill Clinton, who is affectionately called our "first Black president", should actually be labeled a sell out. His administration paved the way for draconian drug sentencing laws that decimated entire communities.<br />
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The War on Drugs was never really a war on drugs. Granted during the height of the crack epidemic in the late 80s and early 90s many people both Black and white felt the need to stamp down on skyrocketing violence. But the War of Drugs was a political tactic. It was used famously by politicians like Rudy "the Ghoul" Giuliani in his mayoral race of 1993 and by high profile police officials like Daryl Gates in Los Angeles. The War on Drugs was coded in such a way that it made white suburbanites feel safe to come into cities like Philadelphia or Detroit, because they knew cops wouldn't let roving Black and Latino thugs attack them on their way to the opera or a hockey game. At that time nobody cared that brown kids who could have been saved with sensible laws--<a href="http://www.drugpolicy.org/new-solutions-drug-policy/brief-history-drug-war" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">yes Donna Shalala was right</a>--were being ensnared and locked up for decades for low level drug possession. Around this same time cities like New York came up with programs like "Broken Windows" pioneered by commissioner Bill Bratton, which made it permissible for police to go into neighborhoods and harass/ arrest thousands of young Black men for no other reason except them being on the street.<br />
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The War on Drugs was never really about drugs. If it were there wouldn't be disparity in drug arrests. There have been study after study showing that Black people and white people use drugs at the same rate. Yet in some communities like Baltimore Black men are arrested for drug possession at a rate of 100 times higher than their white counterparts. When FOX commentators kept asking "Where are the fathers?" last Monday night I kept screaming "They're in prison you assholes!"<br />
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I experienced this siege first hand. When I first moved to New York in 1991 the city was a boiling caldera of drug violence. That year more people were murdered than any other single year in NYC history. For many residents violence from both neighbors and police were a daily occurrence. Something had to be done. So the great prosecutorial savior Rudy Giuliani went into action.<br />
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It was the summer of 1995 and I was paying a visit to a friend who lived in the Washington Heights section of upper Manhattan. A predominately Latino, poor community it sat at the foot of the George Washington Bridge. It was hot so we went outside to get a sweet cool treat from a Dominican Icy cart. We noticed a police paddy-wagon and curiosity made us stop and watch. The NYPD had set up a sting operation. White suburbanites would cross the bridge from New Jersey, buy drugs on the streets of Washington Heights then hop back on the bridge and return to New Jersey. But instead of arresting the white folk the cops would only grab the Black and Latino kids. We stood there for about 3 hours sipping on cocofressa and watching in horror as white men and women driving BMWs and Mercedes with Jersey plates pull off and return to their lives in Fort Lee or Paramus or Hacekensack and all points west, with no one ever knowing of their addiction or lawlessness. Yet these young men of color were scooped up and taken away, their lives destroyed in an instant. Just so some politician can claim he's tough on crime. That he rid the streets of thugs.<br />
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Last Monday night I thought about those young men I saw go into that police van twenty years ago. They put so many in there is seemed infinite. An unlucky TARDIS. One minute of bad judgement on 179th Street and Broadway, a lifetime in Ossining or Attica. I often wonder what happened to them? Nobody ever seems to know. They are the vanished. Just like Freddie Gray. Nobody seems to know anything. Freddie Gray went into one of those vans alive and came out so broken he died a week later. We don't know what happened to Freddie Gray but according to the news his mother was sorry, his father was absent, he had a switchblade and he was walking the streets of Baltimore looking at cops in their eyes. None of those things are capital crimes unless you are a Black person. So we sit and look at Baltimore burn. And wonder how we got here.Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9137014987428047560.post-73119449855813620882015-04-21T15:09:00.002-04:002015-04-21T15:17:19.093-04:00Lena Horne, Light EgyptianJosephine Baker may have created the road for Black women on the stage and screen but Lena Horne paved it for all who came after. Starting with her 1943 breakout performance in Stormy Weather, Lena Horne became America's first African American sex symbol. Not only was she stunning she was talented. Not only was she talented she was savvy. Not only was she savvy she was not afraid to speak her mind. The original mocha showgirl. I met Lena Horne once when I was working as a manager at a kitchen store named Lechter's. It was 1995 or so. The store was located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. I was near the back when I noticed a thin women of impeccable taste glissade into our establishment. I was used to seeing glamorous older women shopping but something about her caught my eye. When I noticed who she was I rushed to the front and introduced myself. Her hands were soft and eyes dimmed with age were still full of life. I gushed like a chorus girl. After she left I turned to the cashier and said "Didn't you recognize her?" She said "Yeah, the lady from the toothpaste commercials." If I could I would have fired her on the spot.<br />
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Our paths crossed one again when I had the pleasure of seeing Lena Horne perform one of her legendary cabaret shows. The crowd was sparkling and I must admit I was probably 35 years younger than most of the patrons. Lena sauntered onto the stage and put on one of the most spectacular shows I've ever seen in person. I was thinking I was about to sip a cool iced tea made with refined sugar, what I got was potent blend of bourbon and sugarcane. She sang with such pith and soul I could feel each note tug at my heart. And she was bawdy and sexual. A woman in her eighties rolling the floor in a silk gown growling like a tigress in heat. I loved it. She was a Brooklyn girl.<br />
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Maybe Native New Yorker fierceness made her never shy from being candid. From working closely with Civil Rights leaders to speaking openly about <a href="http://lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/2014/03/lena-horne-lady-who-lunched.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Hollywood racism</a>, Lena was a one of a kind. When the studio thought she wasn't reading "Negro enough" on film they had famed make-up artist <a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126666993" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Max Factor make her a custom shade named "Light Egyptian"</a>, as Lena recalled in her 1981 Broadway show <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena_Horne:_The_Lady_and_Her_Music" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music</a>, the studio took the Light Egyptian make up put it on Ava Gardner and gave her the part on the movie version of Showboat.<br />
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In her long almost 100 years on this earth Lena Horne touched so many lives, from breaking barriers to breaking heart. She was always a class act and she always proved that Black Girls Rock.<br />
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Lena Horne and Bill Robinson giving musical realness, Stormy Weather, 1943</div>
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Lena serving you more legs than a bucket of chicken, darling</div>
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Lena's Tour de France, on board the steamship Liberté with her husband MGM musical director Lennie Hayton on their return to America, 1952</div>
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Pretty angry, Lena Horne by Ricard Avedon, 1958</div>
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Lena believed in keeping a fetching man around the house. Her first husband Louis Jordan Jones in Pittsburgh, 1937</div>
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A studio still from 1935</div>
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Blackglamazon, What Becomes a Legend Most? Lena in fur that's what, 1969</div>
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Lena lifting spirits with Tuskegee Airmen in Alabama, 1943</div>
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The King and Queen, Lena and Harry Belafonte threw Dr. Martin Luther King a party after the March on Washington, 1963</div>
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Lena with Medgar Evers shortly before his murder, 1963</div>
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Now Sissy That Walk, Lena using New York City sidewalks as a runway</div>
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Ava darling I love you but you know Lena shoulda been Julie LaVerne</div>
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Broadway Baby, Lena outside the Nederlander Theater, 1981 </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PI53F8zkMK4/VTaZdPcIlNI/AAAAAAAAE84/LthIK7nYltE/s1600/lena%2Bcivil%2Brights-570.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PI53F8zkMK4/VTaZdPcIlNI/AAAAAAAAE84/LthIK7nYltE/s1600/lena%2Bcivil%2Brights-570.jpg" height="314" width="320" /></a></div>
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Fight the Power, Lena fighting for equality at the March on Washington, August 1963</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zQdhWTIbLoc/VTaZd_d-XlI/AAAAAAAAE9I/oHjxynyhZ38/s1600/lena%2Bhorne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zQdhWTIbLoc/VTaZd_d-XlI/AAAAAAAAE9I/oHjxynyhZ38/s1600/lena%2Bhorne.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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Her face is sickening!</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Pd0UhKTNL-c/VTaZeRvZBpI/AAAAAAAAE9Q/_lADDJyIOxU/s1600/lena%2Bnature%27s%2Bbaby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Pd0UhKTNL-c/VTaZeRvZBpI/AAAAAAAAE9Q/_lADDJyIOxU/s1600/lena%2Bnature's%2Bbaby.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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Background noise, apparently the fitters couldn't take Lena</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c5qYWuSik6o/VTaZfdthmPI/AAAAAAAAE9w/8e0raevN1Q0/s1600/lena-harry-belafonte-lena-horne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-c5qYWuSik6o/VTaZfdthmPI/AAAAAAAAE9w/8e0raevN1Q0/s1600/lena-harry-belafonte-lena-horne.jpg" height="280" width="320" /></a></div>
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Baby I just want to join whatever cause these two are championing</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zk0cB89Ep_o/VTaZfSr-0UI/AAAAAAAAE94/XKMC1BTMlz4/s1600/lena-horne%2Bsolstice%2Bcover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zk0cB89Ep_o/VTaZfSr-0UI/AAAAAAAAE94/XKMC1BTMlz4/s1600/lena-horne%2Bsolstice%2Bcover.jpg" height="320" width="243" /></a></div>
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Lena Horne's iconic pic that inspired me to write</div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YZE8V9RLCck/VTaZgUd9sVI/AAAAAAAAE-M/QLCj93roEdE/s1600/lena-horne-960x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YZE8V9RLCck/VTaZgUd9sVI/AAAAAAAAE-M/QLCj93roEdE/s1600/lena-horne-960x400.jpg" height="133" width="320" /></a></div>
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Girl I make this look too easy!</div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kipRsyLF5Qs/VTaZfxvTuyI/AAAAAAAAE-A/44TbY0u7Sg8/s1600/lena-horne-1947.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kipRsyLF5Qs/VTaZfxvTuyI/AAAAAAAAE-A/44TbY0u7Sg8/s1600/lena-horne-1947.jpg" height="320" width="254" /></a></div>
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In living color, 1947</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zvt0tbC0Fi0/VTaZgLWSgxI/AAAAAAAAE-I/JJZXgEZf2LE/s1600/lena-horne-19472.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zvt0tbC0Fi0/VTaZgLWSgxI/AAAAAAAAE-I/JJZXgEZf2LE/s1600/lena-horne-19472.jpg" height="320" width="252" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mTcVdRRoP5U/VTaeF209GzI/AAAAAAAAE_8/5zoCMbxI5nk/s1600/lenahorne201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mTcVdRRoP5U/VTaeF209GzI/AAAAAAAAE_8/5zoCMbxI5nk/s1600/lenahorne201.jpg" height="244" width="320" /></a></div>
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Now we know where Miss Piggy got her style, Lena Horne on the Muppet Show</div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Al9YGBO6fp8/VTaZb56gMMI/AAAAAAAAE8c/RGSGIHaG6Rk/s1600/Lena-Horne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Al9YGBO6fp8/VTaZb56gMMI/AAAAAAAAE8c/RGSGIHaG6Rk/s1600/Lena-Horne.jpg" height="320" width="260" /></a></div>
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Daryl T Sturgishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01639179855917127547noreply@blogger.com0