I’m sick. I’m angry. I’m saddened. Last night in Wisconsin was the all too predictable, natural progression of where the protests for police reform were heading. In case you haven’t seen, because Facebook loves to push down news that paints white nationalists in a bad light, a 17 year old white supremacist shot and killed two Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin. These protests were sparked when civilian Jacob Blake was shot 7 times in the back, in front of his own children, by police officers when they responded to a call about a domestic dispute that Blake was trying to break up as a good Samaritan. Thankfully, Mr. Blake is in stable condition and will survive this horrific ordeal, but is paralyzed from the waist down.
Continue reading “The Shooting Started”On Behalf of the Innocent
I really didn’t want to comment on the situation in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. I was happy to just sit back and share a few posts from people who also just want peace in the region. It feels impossible now. I see posts from people, from all walks of life, that I just can’t get over.
First, you should know, my entire political conscience came alive as a result of the Iraq War. The only political persuasion I had as a high school kid, watching people a little older than me be sent to the Middle East, was anti-war. I simply didn’t agree with motives for the war, and when those ended up being built on false pretenses, my position hardened.
Looking at the human cost of war, military intervention should always be used as the last resort. As a society, we tend to view war as a game. We choose sides, we analyze tactics, we fawn over the stories of heroism while mourning the inevitable tragedy that comes with armed conflict. We fall into the oldest trope, battles between perceived “good” and “evil.” In some cases, it can be very clear where the “good” and “evil” lie. For the most part, it is far more nuanced, and therein lies the issue. When the costs of victory and defeat are millions of lives, the lives of mostly innocents, we must not be so cavalier with how we view and treat war. Even in the most just war, when the outcome of the war is equally as just, the people who die as a result do not get to enjoy said outcome. This is the part that disturbs me the most about the societal view of warfare. The sacrifices by soldiers, and the losses incurred by the innocents, even in victory, are deeply saddening. In war, the people that lose out the most are the people with the least to gain. The “winners” of every war are, first and foremost, defense contractors, and second, the small men in positions that want to feel big by sending other people to die for one reason (natural resources) or another (nationalism).
It is crucial to remember that the position of the government, especially when it comes to military intervention, may not be the popular position of the people of the nation. There will always be the warhawks among us, but most people just want to live quiet, decent lives where they can enjoy time with their loved ones and do the things they love to do. This is true regardless of if you are an American, Russian, Palestinian, Israeli, Somali, Argentine, or Iranian. Nobody wishes to live a life where they are constantly killing their fellow man over a few acres here and there. Some will not wish to even when the war is close to home. We all yearn, and default, to non-violence. It is, normally, forces beyond our control that push us into the crossfire. The government of Israel and the militant organization Hamas, have been putting innocents into the crossfire for decades. Hamas has carried out countless acts of violence towards civilian populations, most notably of late, the massacre at a music festival during the offensive out of Gaza. Israel has routinely conducted military strikes against civilian targets like news organizations, hospitals, schools, and apartment blocks. In Gaza specifically, they have barred Palestinians from leaving the territory, which is contrary to international agreements signed by Israel. Human Rights Watch calls it, effectively, an open air prison. These are millions of people, residing in both territories, that are having their lives destroyed as a result of the refusal of their political and military leaders to pursue a more permanent, and peaceful, status quo. Unfortunately, the rhetoric is getting far worse.
The Israeli defense minister had this to say, as the country declared war:
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly”
It is clear things are about to get much worse in Gaza before they get better. Gaza has over 2 million people living in it. These are not 2 million members of Hamas. These are mostly regular people, just trying to have as good of a life as they can have. They want to go to school. They want to provide for their families. They want to enjoy their hobbies. They will now be brought to their knees for crimes committed by the militant few. Half of the 2 million people living in Gaza are children. This is happening with Israeli citizens as well. Not every Israeli citizen is a war hawk that wants to push Palestinians out of their homes, yet they have to suffer for the crimes of their leaders. What makes it worse, is seeing the cheering on, the bloodlust, of people watching the conflict, like me, from thousands of miles away. To be clear, Hamas should be held accountable for their many crimes against innocent Israeli citizens. Just like all militant organizations that target the innocents they should be brought to justice for their crimes. Unfortunately, that is not what is happening and, from an optical standpoint, it is not politically expedient for leaders to be nuanced in their responses. Normally, acts of violence are met with an escalation of violence.
Americans my age, and older, experienced this first hand with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The tenor of the online posts from the pro-Israeli side are not much different than the blood thirsty rhetoric around Muslims after 9/11. After 9/11, we were(many probably still are) scared of it happening again. The fact that the perpetrators were radical, Islamic, terrorists, fed into our national desire to affix our fears and problems on a people that are “other” to us. A different language, religion, skin color was the perfect foil. Our political class, and media ecosystem fed our bloodlust with xenophobic rhetoric that gave them the excuse to destroy the lives of millions of innocent people in Afghanistan and Iraq. At home, we spent our time thinking everyone from the Middle East and Central Asia was out to get us. It led to a rise in hate crimes in America. It scratched the racist itch America loves to scratch. We are seeing this same thing again with some of the rhetoric around the Hamas attacks into Israel. It is as if we have learned nothing as a society. The calls for a continuation of violence are abhorrent. The ignorance, the reflex to demonize the “other”, so quickly, is putting us down the same path we have been down far too many times in the past century. How many more millions of innocent lives have to be sacrificed before we realize we need to take a different path, both in the geopolitical sense and in societal moral sense?
The Israel-Palestine situation is so unique compared to other regional conflicts when it comes to how it is talked about by our political leadership in America. To not unequivocally support the government of Israel, regardless of which coalition party controls it, would be politically damaging to either party. Partisans are not going to react one way or another over a congressman’s statement on the conflict currently happening in Nagorno-Karabakh, a conflict not the same as Israel-Palestine, but not entirely dissimilar either. Senator Ed Markey said all the “pro-Israel, anti-Hamas” stuff that everyone else was saying, but was then booed when he called for deescalation. It’s the one thing that cuts across the political spectrum in America. It is an indictment on our society that we cannot, universally, request an approach that won’t lead to more death and destruction of innocents. It is not anti-semitic to hope the Israeli government doesn’t kill Palestinian children by laying siege to Gaza. Many Israelis and Jewish people do not want this to happen either! Much like many Palestinians do not want Hamas killing civilians either. We must remember that not everybody shares the sentiments of the most hawkish people in their societies. America is responsible for many crimes throughout our history but that does not mean those crimes were universally accepted by masses. What we can do, something that is required by a society to progress, is to reflect on past atrocities and learn to approach conflict in a way that reduces the impact on the innocent. Inflamed rhetoric is a step in the wrong direction.
Please, for the sake of our fellow humans all around the world, reflect on how we have gotten to this moment. It is easy to call for violence when we live in a country an ocean away from everyone else, with dozens of military bases all around the world. The overwhelming majority of us are here in the United States because our ancestors were escaping situations like the one in the Palestinian territories, victims of the slave trade, or forced into reservations after settlers moved in. Indigenous Peoples Day was this Monday. It is such a great time for all of us to reflect on the human cost that imperial power requires. 90% of the indigenous populations in the Americas were wiped out in the centuries following first European contact. Those that remain, live in a world that we would describe as “post-apocalyptic” if we had to experience it. We so often look to our past for inspiration but often we fail to learn the lessons we are supposed to take from those experiences. We need not lust for the blood of the oppressed. Our comforts come at the expense of so many others. It is our duty to ensure that we do not continue this instinctive imperialism that has dominated the last two centuries of American life. We need to implore our ruling class to learn from the humanitarian failures of US support to right-wing “strongmen” in the 20th century, and adopt a new geopolitical strategy. A strategy that encourages diplomacy over militarism, and self-determination over imperialism.
As individuals, we can very easily just show empathy for our fellow man. None of us would ever want to be in-between warring factions. It is hard, for us as Americans, because we are so far removed from all this strife around the world. There are no enemies at the gates. We sit in our homes, enjoying the privileges of empire, rooting for the suffering of others, because it makes us feel “strong.” This conflict is one where you do not have to choose sides. There will be no winners, and even if there were, what is the cost? What do you have to gain from the killing of civilians halfway around the world? I promise it is a miniscule gain, compared to the losses these people will endure. Once the death and destruction of war begins, it’s hard to stop. We should pray and hope the killing of innocents stops. That is only possible through diplomacy, not further escalation. Be an advocate for peace.
The January 6 Insurrection
The events at the U.S Capitol building on January 6, 2021, should be sickening to every single American. I posted my initial disgust in the moment on my social media pages, but a long form breakdown and rebuke of those involved and those who have enabled these traitors, is necessary. Days like Wednesday, are what I have feared from far-right, white supremacists groups for a long time, especially since President Trump took office.
Wednesday was the culmination of everything the Republican party has been dog whistling and enabling since they nominated Barry Goldwater as the Presidential nominee in 1964. Trump was the match lit this White grievance, radical republican sect, on fire, after a decade of turning the dogwhistle racism of Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan, into a bullhorn. If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying close enough attention. Follow actual historians on your socials (start with Kevin M. Kruse) and stop watching Tucker Carlson.
Continue reading “The January 6 Insurrection”Too Big to Steal
Joe Biden, by historic margins, is going to be the next President of the United States. Ironically, he will win by the same electoral margin that his predecessor did in 2016. What is different about 2020, is that Biden did not win by razor thin margins in a small number of states like Trump did in 2016. For example, in 2016, Trump won PA by about 44,000 votes. In 2020, Biden won PA by 81,000 votes, almost doubling up Trump’s margin. In 2016, Trump won Michigan by about 10,000 votes. In 2020, Biden won Michigan by over 150,000 votes.
Continue reading “Too Big to Steal”Democracy’s Last Chance
In this, my final before election day, I will not be laying our a case on any policy positions for or against Trump or Biden. The last month has made one thing abundantly clear, this will be the last free (relatively depending on your state) and fair election of my life time if Trump wins a second term and/or the Senate stays with the GOP. In this final blog, I am going to make a case for Joe Biden that has nothing to do with his policies, most of which I love, and would love him expand on. The case I will make for Biden is that he, unlike the entirety of the Republican party, is the candidate that is for Democracy over autocracy. The confirmation of ACB this week was not only hypocritical and cynical after the Merrick Garland fiasco in 2016, but is adds another, unqualified, conservative judge to a SCOTUS that has already put Democracy on death’s doorstep. 2020 is the end game year for the Republican party. Another Trump victory, would kill democracy in America for generations to come. This has been the GOP goal since the Reagan administration. A shifting demographic in the country to a more diverse electorate and a growing wage gap, has made the GOP platform unsustainable if you still need more votes than a democrat to win. Without institutions that encourage minority rule, like the U.S. Senate, and partisan Gerrymandering at the state and congressional level, the GOP would never win another election. This isn’t some liberal fear mongering either, this is right from our President’s mouth.
Continue reading “Democracy’s Last Chance”Mailing It In
As discussed previously, the upcoming November election will end up being one of the largest “vote by mail” elections in our nations history. If you are like me, living in Massachusetts, you will have already been mailed an application to vote by mail, and would have already been sent your ballot for the primary taking place on September 1st. I have already cast my ballot for that election and am confident that it will be counted, just as any other ballot would be (See my previous post about Voter Fraud as to why I am confident and why you should be too). The postage was even prepaid.
Continue reading “Mailing It In”Build Back Better
You’re dollar, doesn’t buy as much as it used to, or in my case, it ever did. For too long, the middle/lower class has been left behind when it comes to economic prosperity. We are the richest country on Earth and have been for quite some time. Why then does our money not get us as much as our grandparents money did? Where did all the money go? Pew Research theorizes that factors such as rising employer benefit costs, decline in union membership, lagging higher education attainment and non-compete clauses leading to wages not being increased for workers as wealth has increased for big business. In the interest of time, I will not be diving deep into how these things were able to all occur congruently but just know that most of it falls on everyone’s(certainly not mine) favorite actor/president, Ronald Reagan, and his “trickle down” economic policy that the middle and lower class is still waiting on to feel any benefits.
Note: Eventually, when I am much older, and go for my doctorate, you will get the deep dive I mentioned above. For my money, Reagan is the singular reason for the state of American Democracy.
The pandemic has been exacerbated by an economy that doesn’t work for the average American. For too long, American families have been left behind and that has put lower income and marginalized communities in the cross hairs of COVID-19. According to the CDC, minority groups are 4-5 times more likely to suffer from COVID-19 than non-Hispanic white people. Much of this can be traced back to racist real estate policies and investment that make minority communities more likely to be polluted than white communities, leading to higher instances of respiratory illness.
Combine these inequities with the disastrous federal response to the pandemic, and you get the current carnage the U.S. is living through right now. It is clear that not only is the economy going to have to be rebuilt, but it going to to have to be built in a better, more equitable way.
This is where the choice for President in November should be an easy one. Former Vice President Biden is the person who is going to rebuild the economy to work for all Americans. His Build back Better plan is extensive. The Build Back Better plan is based on four pillars to spearhead a national effort to support, real, economic growth and sustainability, the puts an emphasis on working families.
First, he is making sure that the future is “made in America” through different initiatives and incentives. Right now, the Federal government buys products and gives contracts to companies that do not produce the materials and goods in America. Biden’s plan would redirect government spending, to the tune of a few hundred billion dollars, to make sure large government contracts are going to American manufacturing companies. His plan also emphasizes that the spending would be directed to smaller manufactures and those owned by women and people of color, in order to address the question of equity. Additionally, he plans to send legislation to congress to strengthen the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, in order to greater protect and make it easier for workers to collectively bargain and prevent businesses from classifying workers as “independent contractors,” which allows employers to skimp on benefits. For perspective, the Trump rhetoric around “buying American” is just that, rhetoric. Trump’s 2017 tax cuts rewarded large corporations for outsourcing jobs, military contracts going to foreign contractors increased 12%, and government contracts going to foreign companies are up 30%. It’s time to support a candidate that actually believes in American manufacturing and ingenuity.
But why should you trust Biden with this type of project? Well, after the last republican administration destroyed the economy in 2008, Biden was put in charge by President Obama in early 2009 to overseer the Recovery Act and make sure that the Great Recession was put to an end. He was the one that took accountability for the spending our your tax dollars that made the Recovery Act work. “Government estimates found less than 0.5% of the money doled out to contractors was attributed to waste or fraud.” He is going to make sure your money is spent appropriately. Trump continually enriches himself and his cronies with tax payer money while rewarding large corporations with tax breaks and deregulation that hurts average Americans.
Joe Biden is the man for the job. Look no further than this statistic. During the last three years of the Obama/Biden administration, the economy was rising at a faster rate than it was during the first three years of the Trump administration across almost every metric. The federal “response” to the pandemic has destroyed an economy that was stagnant at best during the Trump administration. A vote for Biden is a rebuke of kleptocracy that has defined the Trump administration. A vote for Biden is a vote for someone who has a proven record of long term national economic gains. Allow his administration to not only meet the lofty expectation he set for himself during his time as Vice President, but exceed them by rebuilding the economy in a way that is equitable for all races, fruitful for the middle class, uplifting for the poor and marginalized, and environmentally friendly for future generations.
Thanks,
John
P.S. If you feel as strongly as I do about making Joe Biden the 46th President of the U.S., go to this link https://votesaveamerica.com/adopt-a-state/ and join me in volunteering to get him and other Democrats elected up and down the ballot. Trumpism doesn’t die with Trump, we have to send his ghoulish supporters up for election, like Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, home.
Self Evident Truths
Like most of the U.S last night, I watched “Hamilton” with my family. It was wonderful, especially the supporting actors and the music itself. Of course, being so close to July 4, the story of one of the major players of the American Revolution has inspired some thoughts.
The founding fathers had their warts. Many were slave holders who’s love for enlightenment ideals did not line up with their love for no cost labor backed up by anti-federalism. This hypocrisy, is America’s original sin and we are still feeling the effects of it almost 250 years later.
One thing that can’t be argued, and has to be admired, is the courage that the founders operated with. This courage, to break away from a parent country, led by a tyrannical monarch and parliament set a tone for a country that was built on radical change. For the first time in centuries, a group of people succeeded in breaking away from autocracy and formed a republican style of government. Had they failed, all would have been executed.
Continue reading “Self Evident Truths”Where is the Bottom?
I haven’t written a lot since the protests against police brutality began. I’ve taken a lot of time to study, and understand more, about the movement in general. I encourage you all to as well.
This blog will not be about that particular movement, but will instead update you on the absolute abhorrent conduct of the Commander in Chief since my last blog. It has become clear over the last month, that there is absolutely not bottom to the madness, corruption, negligent behavior, and criminality that president is willing to engage in.
Continue reading “Where is the Bottom?”Two Americas
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Democracy in America is far from perfect, hence this blog I created. Fundamental flaws permeate it: voter suppression, the electoral college, gerrymandering etc…. There is a common denominator to a lot of these flaws, the impact on diverse communities across the countries. All deserve a hard look at their impact, but on aggregate, they all add up to the systemic inequality and racism that still exists in this country.
Look no further than the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis this week. In a country, where the foundation of the justice system is “innocent until proven guilty,” a police officer knelt on the back of his neck while he begged for his life saying “I can’t breathe” while other police officers stood by and let the murder happen. George Floyd was unarmed and accused of cashing a bad check. The allegations shouldn’t matter. No person anywhere in the world deserves that fate.
This is just another example of police brutality perpetrated against people of color. Time and time again, the justice system fails to hold the murderers accountable for their actions. Enough is enough.
Two Americas exist. The America for people that are white, identify as heterosexual, Christian, male, or any combination of those labels, can count of certain rights and privileges that everyone else outside of those categories cannot enjoy as fruitfully. It is the reason you grew up seeing mainly people on TV and in Movies that looked like you. It is the reason you can go for a run without getting the cops called on you or worse. It is the reason you could play cops and robbers with toy guns as a kid. It is the reason you can wear a hooded sweatshirt in public without fear. It is the reason you don’t get assaulted by police officers if you get pulled over for a speeding ticket or expired registration. White privilege is a real thing. It’s time to acknowledge it and understand that the American experience is different for people who are not white, heterosexual, Christians.
While acknowledging this good for your own conscience, it is not enough. Clearly decades of struggle to gain equality under the law has not come to fruition yet for people of color. Protesting, marching, organizing has to continue. If you are shocked by how the events have turned out in Minneapolis, you haven’t been paying attention. Peaceful protest has been happening for decades on this issue of police brutality and it has been met by the Conservative community with disparity. The same people calling out the looting going on in Minneapolis are failing to remember two things. First, peaceful protest over this exact issue was happening weekly, in front of millions of people, that drew ire from the President and his conservative support system. It looked like this:
NFL players, inspired by 49ers QB Colin Kaepernick, led a peaceful protest against police brutality by kneeling during the national anthem. A technique which Kaepernick did under advisory from a Military veteran’s group. For everyone calling for the protesters to be peaceful about it, it was happening and you still didn’t like it. Secondly, the protests in Minneapolis were peaceful until the police decided to begin tear gassing and pepper spraying them. Treatment that was absent from “peaceful” protests of armed white supremacists across the country who didn’t like being told they couldn’t get a hair cut and had to wear a cloth mask when they went to the grocery store. Again, two Americas. Armed white supremacists get treated better for protesting a public health initiative, meant to keep them safe. This is even legitimized from the highest twitter account in the land:
Also, worth noting in the president’s tweet, is the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The president of the United States is advocating for the shooting of Americans using the U.S. military. If the looting of stores makes you want to justify this stance, or makes you reconsider the “Black Lives Matter” movement, wait until I tell you the story of a liberal group that looted a ship in Boston Harbor and threw all the merchandise overboard. A couple years before that, the military was called to Boston to put down some rioters too. The President has no feelings about the constitution, or anyone other than himself for that matter.
Fundamental change has to happen in order for under-served and underprivileged communities to get the equality and justice they deserve as Americans. Find a cause and donate to support this movement. One thing I always tell my students when we talk about rights and freedoms is that they are something that had to be fought for. Nobody in Washington woke up one day and decided to free the slaves, end Jim Crow, give women the right to vote, or legalize gay marriage. All these things had to be fought for through protests, organization and speaking out. If change is going to happen for the better, so there never has to be another George Floyd, it may be messy, but it is going to be worth it. America can only work to it’s fullest potential, if the ideals of equality and justice are same for everyone. It’s time for one America.
Thank you for reading
John
She's Worth It 