The Many Faces of Fear

The girl next door.

Welcome to the Wanderers Voice Podcast.

This commentary is for the week ending June 3, 2017

Thank you for joining me. 

The Many Faces of Fear

Back in the late 90s the 24 hour news cycle was a relatively new phenomenon. The first demonstration of the power of round-the-clock news coverage was the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Then-President Bill Clinton deservedly faced relentless scrutiny for his sexually predatory behavior. It was the first time since Watergate that a sitting president had been so thoroughly disgraced and the first time in history that there was nowhere to hide from the public shame.  There was no aspect left undiscussed and no minute detail left uncovered.  In the decades that followed, the need to fill air time sacrificed that level of detail for vapid, self-serving, opinion re-inforcing tripe masquerading as news.  24 hour news channels that in 1996 only had two competitors, grew to a space that now boasts more than 10 and it has left us with information ADD.  Now, instead of getting every detail on the most important stories, each network chooses a political focus and only deep dives into stories that fit their narrative, ignoring the dangers of ignoring the whole truth.  The best examples of championing opinion over evidence came this week with the United States withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords and the American reaction to the latest London terror attack.  

 

Graph courtesy of the World Meteorological Association (https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/large-antarctic-ozone-hole-observed)

Whether Dolt 45 believes in climate change as Nikki Haley has suggested or not as he has said himself, is irrelevant.  Years of misinformation, alternative facts, and flat out lies have earned him support among a good portion of the country.  Climate change-denier arguments typically fall into 2 categories.  Some version of "it's not real" or "we don't know if humans are causing it."  Neither holds much weight.  Why?  Remember the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica so many of us heard about growing up?  Well, thanks to the unprecedented level of cooperation shown by the UN in 1987, where every member nation signed something called the Montreal Protocol, its projected to close by 2080.   The Montreal Protocol, a treaty signed by all 197 member nations, banned the use of chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs and remains the only UN resolution to boast unanimous support.  Since its since its passage, levels of CFCs in the atmosphere have either leveled off or fallen, allowing the ozone to heal itself.  Like the Paris Climate Accords, it's legislation, done right, for the right reasons, and definitive proof human activity, without question, is having an impact on climate.   The Accords were on the same path to environmental achievement until our current administration decided to scrap our involvement to score political points with people who ignore facts that don't fit their world view.  We don't go around killing people because we're all going to die anyway.  Why would you take that stance on preserving our planet?  If you think the climate Accords are expensive, wait until you see the bill from the next super storm Sandy or the next Hurricane Katrina or your hospital bill for your impending case of skin cancer than Obamacare can't cover because you want that to go away too. 

Speaking of wasteful bills, Trump wasted little time exploiting Saturday night's attack on the London Bridge for political gain.  

We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2017

Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the U. K., we will be there - WE ARE WITH YOU. GOD BLESS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 3, 2017

We must stop being politically correct and get down to the business of security for our people. If we don't get smart it will only get worse

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017

At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is "no reason to be alarmed!"

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017

Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That's because they used knives and a truck!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017

By the way, these are in chronological order.  He touted the need for his personal goals to be met before offering any sympathy to the victims.

Aside from the fact that on its face it's clearly unconstitutional, The Travel Ban 2.0 is also ineffective. Just like the proposed wall along the Mexican border, the effect would be more psychological than practical. The Muslim ban does not stop domestic terrorism which is largely the type of terrorism the United States has dealt with since 9/11. Also, the ban is for 90 days, after which all restrictions will be lifted again. I'm not sure how banning people for only 90 days "keeps us safe" even if you were to accept the premise that only Muslims commit terrorist acts.  Though I'm sure Ricky John Best, Micah David-Cole Fletcher, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche , 2LT Richard Collins, and the Charleston 9 would disagree with you on that premise.  And what exactly is keeping the administration from performing background checks and this "extreme vetting". while the ban is tied up in the courts?  You don't need the ban to continue background checks on refugees that have already gone through 21 different government agencies and a 2 year or longer waiting list.  It seems the fight over the ban is more of a presidential pissing contest then a national security issue.  Meanwhile, stories like a Georgia white supremacist's failed attempt to weaponize ricin get overlooked.  Ricin, by the way, is a bio-weapon that can kill hundreds with less than an ounce.  We would raise the terror alert level if this had any affiliation with radical Islam. 

America hasn't gotten more polarized solely because of reality television and worsening education standards. The people we trust to keep us informed are also complicit in the undermining of objectivity and its making us less safe.  Divisiveness and anger bring ratings. But it's also brought us quite possibly the most inept, corrupt, and willfully ignorant administration in American history. Facts matter.  Our belief or lack thereof in them doesn't change their existence, no matter how fragile our egos may be.  The day we can no longer take a walk along a pier on a cool summer evening because every day is an ozone alert day or we mourn the dead of a biological attack beause we were too busy focusing on the woman in the hijab and not the man draped in old glory will be the day we finally realize that true evil doesn't have one face.  Whether they are willing to poision our world for profit or poison people who are different for satisify someone's idea of purity, evil can wear a suit or a suicide vest.  Stay vigilant, stay objective, and make sure it isn't wearing your face the next time it strikes.

This is the Wanderers Voice.

Europe Is Already Tired of Trump

Welcome to the Wanders's Voice Podcast.
The Op-Ed for Americans Who Don't Fit in Boxes
This Commentary is for The Week ending May 26, 2017

Angela Merkel looks on as Trump makes a bad wiretapping joke at their joint press conference in Washington on 3/17/17 (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)

So here we are.  70 years of an alliance that has kept the world from spinning into another global conflict may be irreparably broken.  It only took two meetings for Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany and the most powerful woman in Europe to publicly write off the United States and Britain as reliable partners in international affairs, saying Europe can no longer "completely depend" on them.  She also opened the door to more cooperation with Vladimir Putin despite his clear meddling in global elections.  This is the most dangerous development in the 4 months (I know it feels more like years) this administration of ignorance has been in power.

I'm not going go into some boring lecture of why populism is dangerous or the exhaustive list of the POTUS's missteps that brought us to this point.  I'll simply point out the last time that the United States and Germany were at odds was World War II and the last time the United States adopted an isolationist "America First" style policy was World War I.  In fact, in the last century, every time the United States has pulled back from its role as an international leader, chaos has followed.  Note that I said leader, not interventionist.  Not colonizer.  Not meddler.  Not agent of regime change.

Leader.  Diplomatic Leader to be precise.

Despite the xenophobic beliefs of 45 and his legion of misinformed misanthropes, international leadership has been the biggest reason the United States and by extension, the United Nations, has been able to keep the peace since the rise of the atomic age.  Despite the endless parade of would-be dictators in Russia, North Korea, China, and the Middle East, the closest we've come to WWIII has only been the Cuban Missile Crisis 1962. Why?  Bullies aren't so quick to throw punches when they know backup is just a phone call away.  Free trade agreements like TPP and NAFTA and T-TIP(EU free trade), strengthen economic ties and provide an incentive for less developed nations to provide intelligence, military support, and economic advantages that hold countries like Russia and China in check.  It's a delicate balance that worked well before being abused by war profiteers like Halliburton and Blackwater and big businesses that continually make staffing decisions based on profit instead of patriotism.  Translation: Outsourcing.  Profit isn't evil but at what cost?  The current administration, aided by almost 30 years of racist misinformation like the notional that non-whites, immigrants, and the poor are the root of all of America's problems, seems to have abandoned not only the status quo but all sense of reason.  Withdrawing from the world stage while simultaneously lecturing our allies like misbehaving children have now created a power vacuum.  Trump's antics aren't just the musings of a cranky old man who's "draining the swamp."  His impulsiveness, lack of diplomacy (some would say even decency) and unpredictability have made America at best a laughing stock and at worst, untrustworthy.  The proof is the people we've depended on as an extension of our policies and power for almost a century just told us to diplomatically fuck off and opened the door for Putin to have even greater influence in Europe.

The implications of Merkel's stance are probably more than I'm aware of since I'm merely an observer but even with my limited access there are 3 things that worry me.  

1. Trade war.  As I've said before, free trade agreements allow countries to flourish.  A return to old style tit for tat taxes on imported goods only hurts consumers.
2. Emboldening our enemies.  I said before bullies prey on the weak.  "America First" ignores the security strength in numbers provides for all nations.
3. Global war.  I also said nature abhors a vacuum.  An isolationist America takes the largest bully on the block off the chessboard opening the door for Russia to fulfill Putin's plan to return his country to its USSR roots.

If you somehow ignore all of this and still think 45 is some sort of mad genius you need to ask yourself two very important questions.  

First, are you loyal to your country or you loyal to Trump?

Second, What would Reagan do?

The Ostrich Republic

"You have immigration status?" she asked. Her English would have been perfect if we pronounced our letters the way they do in San Juan.

I looked around quickly to make sure I hadn't somehow wandered into the customs line at Newark Airport.  Nope...still on line at the DMV.

"You have immigration status?" she repeated.

This time I felt fully justified looking at her as if she'd grown a second head, "What are you talking about?"

She must have seen the disgust on my face and decided against pressing the issue further. She sighed, "Never mind," and ushered me over to her window to fill out the necessary paperwork.

Wow.  Now I need to clarify my immigration status to renew my license?  Like I don't have enough shit to worry about?  This is the type of nonsense that forces you to either lose years off your life (literally) or...do this.

Life has changed for me since Dolt 45, Tangerine Ceaser, first of his name, swore his oath to use our government as his personal piggy bank.  Maybe not so much the day-to-day stuff but the edges of life, the unwritten social rules, have changed.  The stuff that makes you feel like you've got a handle on how things work are not only being rewritten but the new rules seem determined to kick you back down the ladder.  Mos Def, Yasiin Bey or whatever he's calling himself now was right.

"You start keeping pace they start changing up the tempo.--" Mr. Nigga, Mos Def ft. Q-Tip, Black on Both Sides (1999)


The biggest change I've noticed is for a large group of people, facts really don't mean shit anymore. If you've even been halfway paying attention I don't need to elaborate. Even among normally reasonable people, opinions and safe feelings are now more important than reality.  Group think is at an all time high.  We're even willing to spend money on exaggerated problems (illegal immigrant crime, bathroom laws, Abortion) and conversely we're willing to ignore real problems because they either don't affect us or we simply don't care (Domestic Terrorism, Pollution. Education)  If this seems too high level or too far removed from the day to day for you to care about, read some of the things Dolt 45 is willing to cut off eliminate to build a $20 billion wall that won't do jack shit to stop immigrants who fly in, then overstay their visas.

PBS (Yeah, Sesame Street isn't more important than the wall)
Meals on Wheels (neither are the elderly)
Africa Development Foundation (African slaves built Washington, D.C. but we apparently owe them nothing.)
National Endowment for the Arts (Presumably petty because conservatives are rarely viewed favorably by artists)
Minority Business Development Agency (Self explanatory, but...the WALL!)

Whether your safe space is the belief that Barack Obama is a secret Muslim spy or that Donald Trump is the Kremlin's ultimate weapon, facts seem to matter much less than feeling secure.  That, in turn, has lead to unnecessary deaths.

This...is a SIKH.  Not a Muslim...and it STILL shouldn't matter.

The people who know me offline might not believe this, but I wish I could ignore what's happening. I'm more plugged in than most because of my job but even for people who normally don't pay attention to politics, its become inescapable.  Love sports?  Dolt 45 is a topic in multiple facets. Like ratchet, I mean "reality" TV? He's a topic there too.  Sitcoms?  He's there.  Even when I go to the DMV to renew my license, the Tangerine Ceasar, first of his name, he of low information, quick conclusions, high hypocrisy, and narrow vision has slithered his way in!  I didn't think there was a word anyone could call me that could leave me as taken aback as the N word.  I was wrong. Being a black man in America and the son of immigrants, being treated like a visitor in my own country is nothing new.  What pissed me off and scares the shit out of me at the same time is that I never imagined that I would be a possible target for ICE.  I was born here.  Raised here.  Served my country for 8 years.  If a DMV worker who barely spoke English herself could think its appropriate to ask me for my immigration status, why wouldn't an ICE officer who's looking to fill a quota and having a bad day do the same?  Like most people, I don't walk around with my birth certificate as proof of citizenship at all times.  Why?  Because that's absurd.  But this government's newfound focus on their version of "identity politics" now has me questioning how safe it is NOT to? Furthermore, how safe is my country for me and my family if in addition to having to worry about police harassment I have to worry about being mistaken for an illegal because I "don't look like I belong here?"

This is what America looks like.  Doesn't matter how may Trumps you elect.

The culture is literally changing before my eyes.  Violent racists feel vindicated and are now openly looking for ways to push their agenda.  While there is also an encouragingly high level of push back, I've never seen a community change so rapidly from somewhat tolerant to so blatantly bigoted.  I know the you-should-have-known/can't-trust-them-white-folks crowd will scold me for my naivete but I seem to always hold out hope that eventually we can get it right.  Intellectually, I suppose I always knew being straight laced wouldn't be enough to shield me from the bullshit black faces in white spaces go through (and it hasn't completely) but I've started to reach the point where not only am I seeing diminishing returns for my uptight ways (aka my public face) but my private life is also suffering.  As I mentioned before, politics is wrapping its insufferable claws into every facet of American life.  My life.  My tolerance for being spoken to like Spicer speaks to April Ryan  or watching our best and brightest, like Maxine Waters, being openly demeaned by people who aren't fit to shine their shoes intellectually is  now zero.  It's telling, by the way, that the only rebuttal to the arguments raised by both women is to insult their looks or try to police their behavior.  Seems to be the standard response for people who don't have a real answer to why they do what they do or believe what they believe.  It may feel good, no matter what side of the aisle you stand on, to deflect, discount, marginalize, and disrespect those who disagree with you but sticking your head in the sand only cuts off your air.  And from what I can see, the whole country is becoming Eric Garner.  No one can breathe outside of their chosen safe space.

This is What Democracy Looks Like (Observations from Leonard Lance's First Town Hall)

Almost by rule, town halls are usually boring affairs.  The local empty suit that goes to Washington, D.C. to "represent" us comes back to his/her home district, rents out some library, auditorium, or college theatre to, presumably, listen to what we have to say. Its tends to be a cover for the people who have nothing better to do than go to town halls to tell the guy/gal they voted for how great he/she is.  Like most things these days, however, the Tangerine Ceasar has changed all that.  During the congressional recess, republicans from both chambers of Congress have been met with open hostility and protests promising that this term will be their last if they continue the new, chaotic, borderline inhumane status quo.  Times are even tougher if you wear the magic (R) in a deeply blue state like New Jersey.  In fact, of the 5 districts represented by republicans in Washington, only the 7th, the one Leonard Lance (R-NJ) calls home, got a chance to speak its mind. No other New Jersey republican had the balls to face their voters.  It's low hanging fruit to characterize this as the latest in the long line of GOP lawmakers being lambasted at home because of the President because it's only part of the story.

From what I saw at Raritan Valley Community College, the protesters calling for the removal of Leonard Lance had to be the most unprofessional, disorganized, rag tag group of individuals I've ever seen on a campus.  It was a gathering of mostly women lofting a sea of carboard, magic marker, glitter, and righteous indignation fenced off behind an orange construction fence.  Despite the dampness, low temperatures, and accusations of being on the George Soros payroll, they persisted. They wanted to dump Trump, welcome refugees, make america think again, insist that it's her body/her choice, and investigate all things Russian.  I saw no buses.  If these were the best paid protesters you can buy then Soros should be screaming for a refund.  The police, were actually polite and helpful, something I'm frankly not used to.  Maybe the man purse, sharp diction, and lighter than threatening skin threw them off.  At first there was confusion as to who would be allowed to attend.  There was apparently a call to RSVP your seat which differed from the previous "first come first serve" seating I was accustomed to.  I wasn't the only one thrown off because the chief of security was getting loudly berated by an older woman who was recording him...just in case.  Ironically, the tension this woman was trying to generate felt dangerously familiar.  I knew she was trying to create a viral moment for social media to  prove her politics were right.  In any other scenario, we might have had a synergistic conversation, feeding on our mutual distaste for what's happening in Washington.  At that moment, though, I didn't care.  In that moment we couldn't have been anymore different.  I suppose that's the difference between people who've lost their souls one moment of chaos and the people who can never lose the benefit of the doubt.  I stepped toward the protesters until she either got what she wanted or was escorted out.  Didn't care which.  Even as I type this its crazy to me that I actually felt safer with the protesters than near Lance's security.

After about 20 mins of streaming the protesters I tried to re-enter the auditorium.  The shit starter was gone and so was the line so I got a chance to speak with a now much more relaxed security chief.  He, like the police, was unusually cordial, as were the volunteers that guided me to the over flow room where the Town Hall was streaming on 3 large cinema screens.  The transcripts of the acutal back and forth between Rep. Lance and the crowd are documented already.  The parts that stood out to me, besides the usual skill of political double speak, were his willingness to take the tough questions.  He didn't cower or make excuses for his positions.  When he expressed his gratitude for Paul Ryan's leadership, a name that drew vociferous boos, he didn't cower, flinch, or try to explain himself.  He was consistent in his answers,  The Crimean annexation was wrong and proved that Russia was no friend to America.  The Border Wall needn't be as ambitious as the President claims since sections of the terrain are already an effective barrier and the costs would be absurd.  Public schools should remain funded and shifting money from them to charter schools exclusively would be a grave mistake.  Immigrants should be vetted but the ban shouldn't affect dual citizens nor Green Card holders.  Trump should release his taxes but the current bill being pushed in the House goes too far. The feed cut out on answers regarding Dodd-Frank, concealed firearms, and a few other questions I didn't hear.  The only time he looked truly unable to verbally navigate his position were on the bombshell questions on his inconsistent opinion on oil pipelines and Obamacare.  He supports Keystone XL and the DAPL because he "believes they're safer than land transportation", a fact disputed by the questioner, but opposes pipelines running through his district.  If they're safe, why oppose one here?  One woman detailed with righteous anger why Obamacare saved her life and drove home the point that no one would take lawmakers seriously as long as they didn't have the live by the rules they made for everyone else.  In response, Rep. Lance dropped a bombshell on all of us.
Under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, no member of Congress or their staff can be covered by the government's health care system.  He and his wife had been paying for private insurance.  The hush that took the crowd on the screens and in the overflow room revealed our collective ignorance of this fact.  I'd always assumed blind racist hatred was the sole motivator for the political outrage at a program that was designed to save lives.  Not that it couldn't still be the case but the personal motive fits so much better.  It was 8:45 and I needed to get home so I streamed the last 15 mins from my car.  As I drove off, I was relieved.  I pay so much attention to this stuff that I feared that I'd started to view them like celebrities and I was only going to this Town Hall to be near it. Instead, my faith that people are willing to stand up for what they believe in and speak truth to power is as strong as ever.  The energy I saw on that campus wasn't isolated if the "fake news" is to be believed.  I  felt something I didn't expect, a renewed respect for Rep. Lance.  He wasn't delusional like Chaeffitz or a bootlicker like Ryan.  Despite shift in power, Lance remained the same even keeled principled man I met several years prior at my first town hall.  He could have stayed in the shadows but he chose to accept his responsibility to his voters.  Maybe it's a strategy for 2018 but for one night at least, I recognized my country.

#Resist

If you want to contact Rep. Lance:
Website: https://lance.house.gov/
Twitter: @RepLanceNJ7
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CongressmanLance/

4 Good Things About the Reign of the Tangerine Cesar (No, Really.)

Warning:  This post contains no alternative facts.

1. Access

He's the most accessible President in history. Whether or not you believe that tweeting is appropriate for the leader of the free world is beside the point. Writing or calling your elected officials (nationally) usually gets you nothing but a nice automated e-mail or one of their staffers if you're lucky enough to get someone to pick up.  Even then, the attention you're paid is usually directly proportional to the size of your contribution to their campaign. With this POTUS, the access is there. You can tell him exactly what you think without having to worry about being tackled by Secret Service, get stuck leaving a voicemail, or trying to explain to some 20 year old that they work for you and not the other way around. And that goes both ways. If you truly want the pulse of the country, his (mis)use of Twitter, Facebook, and the tone of the responses (sans the usual trolls) can give you a better pulse of the electorate than any poll.  For a nation that prides itself on representative democracy, written accountability being instantly accessible to the most powerful man in the world is incredibly important.  Think about it.  The leader of the free world is no more than a tweet away.  For the cynics that think he isn't reading them, take a look at what Sean Spicer, one of the POTUS' attack dogs (White House Press Secretary), says about "the media" during his FIRST press conference.  They not only read them.  They CARE.  Future candidates for any national office would be foolish to ignore this.

They're literally mad...about Tweets.

2. Exposing Our Vulnerabilities

We have the strongest military in the world. No country would dare go toe to toe with us on the battlefield. But the Art of War says that you attack your enemy at his weakest point not his strongest and it's clear that cyber security is our achilles' heel.  Every intelligence agency including the FBI believes that the Russians actively sought to erode confidence in our democracy if not control who we put in office. On the former point, mission accomplished. We have never been more divided about how fair our electoral system is. You have Americans who think of themselves as patriots defending a foreign dictator against other Americans because they disagree politically. The incoming president is picking fights with his own intelligence people.  

.@FoxNews "Outgoing CIA Chief, John Brennan, blasts Pres-Elect Trump on Russia threat. Does not fully understand." Oh really, couldn't do...

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2017

much worse - just look at Syria (red line), Crimea, Ukraine and the build-up of Russian nukes. Not good! Was this the leaker of Fake News?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 16, 2017

Even the FBI, who many say had a much bigger impact than any Russian hack, agrees that we were the victims of foreign interference.  For the record I firmly believe RT America was created specifically for this purpose.  But even if you don't believe Russian interference truly influenced how people voted, the seeds of doubt have been planted.  What better way to tear down your enemy by doing what we've been doing to other countries for decades?  Sew division and mistrust among its people and just sit back and watch the show.  It's obvious that we need to shore up cyber security. Will we? Only time will tell.  A house divided cannot stand.

3. Civics Lessons

If you even halfway paid attention to this election you are more versed now in how our the process works than you were before.  The Democrats, the media, and the Left in general analyzed every legal option they could to stop Trump from taking office to death .  How many of us knew that you could lose an election even if you won the popular vote?  Did you know the Electoral College didn't officially pick the next President until 12/19?  How about that Electors were not always bound to vote for who won their state?  I certainly was never taught that Electoral College itself was a compromise between the federal government and slave-owning states at any level of school.  (My opening argument as to why the system itself is obsolete or in need of serious tweaking by the way.)  The "advise and consent" clause that allows the President to pick a Supreme Court Justice is actually up to the Senate?  And how much will we learn about conflict of interest laws, the actual powers of the President, and its legal limitations before/if/when Trump is impeached?  The first challenge has already been filed.  That doesn't even cover the the scrutiny his billionaire cabinet picks are under thanks to major ethical questions and/or questionable qualifications.  You'll  be a much more informed voter in 2018 (mid term congressional elections) whether you want to be or not.

If you didn't vote, your first chance at a mulligan comes in 2018.  (Provided Voter ID Laws don't require 2 DNA samples and sub-dermal tracking chip by then.)

4. Legal Accountability 

Building on the last point, the President's questionable business income setup will test the Constitution's ethics clauses like we haven't seen since the Nixon Administration.  The upcoming cases against the him will set the legal precedent for all future Commanders in Chief.  Is the White House correct in its assertion that conflict of interest laws don't apply to him?  We're going to definitively know in the next 4 years.  We also now have clarity on what the term "natural born citizen" means in regards to Presidential eligibility.  An early campaign attack Trump, and many on the left as well to be fair, used against Canadian-born Sen. Ted Cruz was to question his eligibility to be President.  Similar to the way he attacked President Obama for 5 years, Trump tried to muddy the waters and claim Cruz didn't fit the definition of a "natural born citizen."

He was rebuffed as Cruz was deemed eligible by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court due to his mother being an American citizen.  That, by extension, means Barack Obama could have been born in the middle of the Serengeti Plain attended to by 12 imams and a witch doctor and was still be eligible to run for President of the United States.

End. Of. Story.  

Who knows?  If we survive this, maybe America can progress enough not think a man or woman with those origins is something to fear but celebrated as proof that America really is for all of us.  Not just "traditional Americans."

The legal challenges this President has left himself open to will definitively settle what we should expect from all future Presidents, legally and ethically for generations to come so the next demagogue can't pull the same crap this one did.

Uncertainty Looms for 2017

We're still a few weeks out from the red carpet premiere of "A Clockwork White House" and from the trailers, you're either dripping with anticipation or putting a deposit down on your triple re-enforced graphene lined  bomb shelter. Remember the hype when that first preview of The Force Awakens hit? We saw that little rolling droid and that long awaited scene of the Millennium Falcon taking flight and we knew this was going to be a kick ass movie.  It would answer 30 years of questions that the even the massively in-depth Expanded Universe just couldn't.  This was going to be the most awesome movie of all time!  

...and then we saw it.

Abrams wants us to walk away happy.  He just doesn't give us much to take home. 

 Stephanie Zacharek - "The Force Awakens is Everything is Everything You Could Hope for in a Star Wars Move -- and Less", 12/16/15, Time.com  

Star Wars7: The Force Awakens is a welcome comeback movie for the franchise, and fan love will be enough to propel most viewers past its flaws.

Kofi Outlaw - "Star Wars 7: The Force Awakens Review", 12/16/2015, ScreenRant.com

Waitaminit!  Blasphemy!  God DAMMIT! This movie was supposed to make Star Wars great again!  Don't tell me it's only good because I'm a fan!  It's real to me dammit!

...Sigh.

This equally anticipated event by an uncertain number of the vocal minority ( or is it majority? Electoral collegiate?  Is that a thing?) will be no different.  If you love Drumf, his Twitter feed reads like the sweetest of sonnets.  Verbal ambrosia for die hard disciples of Cheeto-America, the Alt-Right (the pseudo-KKK with a hypocritically PC name), and the He-Man Hillary Haters club.  You're assured that everything you saw in the campaign trailer will certainly be in the movie of governance. If, however, you chose to cast your vote for sanity with small side of Libyan dirt, his feed will have you thinking you've been transported to the Mirror Universe version of 1984.  An incoming American President that praises an autocrat in direct opposition to his own American predecessor?  The top elected official calling for the expansion of nuclear arms when we already have enough to destroy our planet 7 times over?   A leader of the free world who displays a pettiness toward anyone that disagrees with him like you'd expect from a hormonal teenager?  None of this was in the book of America we read.  Who wrote this shit?  

Honestly, his domestic and foreign policy tweets are consistent with a man who's supporters view nuance as synonymous with cowardice, patience as weakness, details as irrelevant, and opposing facts as lies. You could make an argument that the last point has always been the case but you can't argue that this era has taken it to an extreme.  Bullying is now the preferred method of policy enforcement.  Ask GM, Boeing, Ford, Taiwan, Mexico and the Chinese how much they hate Twitter now.  Some will view those tweets as "wins."  Except even if the actions of the aforementioned companies/countries were directly linked to the Cheeto's berating tweets, exactly how long can that practice last?  He and his cadre are acting like they're literally high on his election win.  Like a crack-cocaine addict taking his first hit. I fear they'll continue to behave that way even when they discover governing is very different than campaigning.  Every addicts realizes too late they have to take more and more of their drug to get the same effect and the Cheeto is already a volatile character.  

We have no idea what we're in for.  Whether you voted for this farce or not, it looks like there are going to be several deleted scenes that were shown exclusively to buy votes.  Case in point, any mention of the Mexican Wall lately?  Where's that list of special prosecutor candidates that will go after Hillary after he takes the oath of office?  Where's the secret plan for humane mass deportation? Expectations are a hell of a thing to live up to especially when you literally promised the world on a platter. Beyond campaigning, when you actually have to execute your policy and don't have the luxury of a scapegoat, no amount of tweets will save you from the backlash of an angry electorate. Not even Obama could escape it (Syria, Iraq, Benghazi, Guantanamo).  Love the Cheeto or hate him, we all may end up disappointed in the end.

Inauguration Day

Recovering from the Echo Chamber

It's been a month...almost and I'm not sure if I'm done licking my wounds.  Everyone else seems to have accepted (other than the college kids protesting) that the Orange Cheeto (I still can't type his name without getting physically ill) will be the next POTUS.  The world hasn't imploded.  A black hole hasn't opened up in the sky and swallowed us all.  I'm pretty sure everyone who was predicting disaster still has jobs at whatever propaganda network feeds their Starbucks habit.  Hell, the markets are up thanks to the mislabeled "Trump Rally" so maybe it won't be so bad after all.  Then again, he hasn't been inaugurated yet.  The nightly talking heads not employed by Rupert Murdoch who were warning us against voting for the now President-Elect seem to have shifted their message.  Now they're doing everything their power to prove they were right about him.  Part of me wonders whether any of them are worth listening to anymore.  Even tacitly.  His cabinet picks, to be fair, signal a coming administration that in large part, won't give a flying fuck about anyone who's not part of the elite.  (Yes, working-class-white-people who don't mind being robbed as long as a white man is back in the White House, that means you too.)  But for almost 2 years straight, media, including the Scared White People Network, were treating this election as a coronation for Queen Hillary I.  With every insult, every slap in the face to decency, every bullying remark, every lie, every dick joke, every policy flub, every flirtation with Putin, and every break with tradition (TAXES?), the Cheeto seemed to assure the "smart" people he was un-electable and affirmed that thinking.  Election Day was about formally sending this fool back to his golden phallus in New York, preferably with an iron mask and broken knuckles so we in the real world would be finally safe from his twitterific bullshit.  Or Trump TV.  Whatever.  As long as he was away from the halls of power where the wrong word and a lack of understanding of policy details could literally mean life and death.  George W. Bush that found out the hard way at the cost of more than 4,000 American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Life, however, has a funny way of taking your plans by the ankles, flipping them upside down, and giving your hopes and dreams a swirlie because it was bored.  Now half the country is trying to wipe the taste of piss tinted toilet water out of its mouth only to find the towel is missing and replaced by the last square of toilet paper on the roll.  The other half seems to have taken their win as well as a toddler who hasn't been taught grace.  Except the five year old also says things like, "go back to Africa", "Fuck you Muslim Terrorists", and the ever popular "Build the Wall!"  I'm a non-WASP so honestly I'm used to hearing ignorant shit.  I'm not part of the dominant culture so I can see how those that are can be blinded by their cocoon of All America All the time.  What I didn't see, is that the non-WASPs/woke/liberals have a cocoon too.  Today's version of journalism is crayola 264 neon canary yellow.  You could spill bleach on today's newspapers and it would bead up like water on Armor-All. Impartiality doesn't exist in reporting anymore (if it ever did) and no one in today's generation remembers why the political press exists in the first place.  To provide civilian oversight of government officials.  Can you say that any of the garbage scrolling across your FB feed, Twitter timeline, or chosen news network increased your knowledge of the candidates?  Or did every headline just piss you off and make you even more steadfast in your "values?"  And that's the point.
Social media, Cable News, and the need to sell people shit they don't need has turned spreading knowledge into an exercise in just keeping your attention at any cost.  Our supposed guardians of truth have discovered its much more profitable to lie your ass off about "the others" and tell people you're the only one who cares and will be honest with you.  There's a term for that in psychology.  It's called the cycle of abuse. 

I swore off CNN, FOX, MSNBC, and the newer for-profit bullshit artists One America and Newsmax and their digital counterparts years ago.  The ones that don't have a TV network like HuffPo, Raw Story, Redstate, WesternJournalism, the Washington Times, and a ton of other "sources" need to be added to my no-fly list.  None of these outlets fulfilled their mission in keeping either candidate accountable for the lies they told.  Not one.  Because ratings were more important than the truth, our country may have just squandered the last bit of post-WWII thanks-for-saving-the-world-from-the-nazis good will.  Sadly, you could argue we elected a Nazi.

I'm still in recovery.   I'll let you know when I think its safe to see people again.  If I were to guess though?  It'll be in about 8 years...maybe 4 if I'm lucky.  By then, if this country still resembles the one they taught us as children, maybe we'll finally have learned the lesson in how dangerous it is to only listen to what you want to hear.

Til Next Week...maybe.

A Final Appeal to Sanity - Election Day 2016

My Brothers and Sisters, 

Donald Trump cannot become President.

Hillary Rodham Clinton is guilty of many things.  

• She is a self serving politician of the highest order
• She was negligent at best in regards to important documents during her time as Secretary of State
• She used dog whistle tactics to attack Obama during the 2008 primaries 
• She comes across as insincere 
• She uses her celebrity status to earn exorbitant paychecks for speaking engagements
• The Clinton Foundation has questions that must be answered in regards to Haiti.

I get it.  She comes across as the typical Washington politician that's ignored our community for decades except for election time.  Some of you may even feel betrayed by Obama for not doing what you thought he would for us.  Voting for Trump, you think, would show the Democrats that we're not to be taken for granted, which is exactly how the Republican base feels and why Trump has even gotten this far.  Some of you may feel you'd rather face an open wolf than one in sheep's clothing.  Just for once, you want to be heard, acknowledged as a united group, and to prove that you're no one's political crutch.

Only one problem.  Electing Trump would effectively silence us.

I'm not going to get into all of the ridiculous, insulting, idiotic, predatory, and deplorable (yeah I said it) things he's said over the past 2 years.  The New York Times needed 2 pages to print them all yesterday.  I'm not even going to remind you of his position as Head Birther in Chief.  All I'm going to remind you of his views on black people.

The last Presidential candidate that presented himself as the keeper of "Law and Order" was Richard M. Nixon.  The Nixon administraton felt the best way to deal with black people was to flood our neighborhoods with drugs, heavily criminalize their use, and destroy black families.  It's a legacy many white suburban families are now struggling with.  Anyone older than 40 should easily recognize the rhetoric from Trump as the same buzzwords Nixon used.  Disguised as support for law enforcement, Nixon was really referring to extermination of the Black Panthers.  Trump, of course, is referring to quelling Black Lives Matter.  Under the Obama Presidency, unprecedented levels of racist police corruption were exposed.  Though few of the high profile cases resulted in arrests or convictions, the Department of Justice got more involved in protecting the rights of Black Americans than they have in the past 30 years.  Should we really believe that a President Trump, who thinks we all live in ghettos, go to poor schools, get shot just walking outside, and still thinks the DNA-exonerated Central Park Five are guilty, would direct his DOJ to the protection of black lives?  It's more likely he would accelerate the rate of incarceration (he's advocated expanding stop and frisk to the federal level) then dismiss it as us not taking personal responsibility as most white conservatives do when confronted with the truth of how ghettos were created in the first place.  

A man who wants my vote should actually know what my problems are.  Intimately.  Hillary does.  For all her faults, she knows our grievances inside and out.  She's too intelligent to feign ignorance, which is why the email scandal is so infuriating.  Too often we simply accept Trump's ignorance as Trump being Trump.  I refuse.  Ignorance of our issues as the leader of ALL Americans, the excuse we gave Obama for not being militant about black issues, is unacceptable.  It guarantees that we would be completely ignored and dismissed like whiny children with the same paternal arrogance we see too often from both the left and the right.  Trump wouldn't even pretend to care about our issues because he doesn't understand them.  Only when cars start burning would he respond the way he knows best.  With force.

We have made steady progress in the post Civil Rights era.  This isn't Nixon's America.  This isn't Reagan's America.  This isn't even Bill Clinton's America.  Despite the old guard's best efforts we have more of a voice in our county's future than at any other time in its history.  Cut through the media fluff.  See past the anger.  Don't set us back by electing a man who thinks the best thing about us is our vote.  You can be heard by loudly telling him and his cronies that we demand more of a President than being born a rich white male.  Frankly, that's all he has to offer.

I'm with her.

***Spoilers*** Sweet Christmas! The Wanderer's Voice "Luke Cage" Review

 STOP!

Like it says in the title, there are spoilers.  If you haven't seen it, finished it, or are in the middle of it, stop reading this right now and go watch.  Skip this post until you've seen the series in its entirety.



















***Spoilers ahead!***





















Last chance!

Alright, if you've come this far you've either watched or don't give a shit about knowing what happens ahead of time so here we go!

First, when something as highly anticipated as this is finally released there's always a danger that expectations become unreasonable and the product is doomed to fall short, even if the story is good.  Ghostbusters, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Avatar 2 come to mind. (trust me, the fail is coming)

For a few episodes, Luke Cage had all the earmarks of disappointment...

Thank God they didn't stay too faithful to the source material

Cottonmouth was an idiot crime boss.  Granted, my view is somewhat skewed by the fact I was comparing him to Ghost from Starz's hit series "Power" but Cornell Stokes couldn't even measure up to his in-universe counterpart from Hell's Kitchen, Wilson Fisk.  Both had the NYPD on the payroll, hired goons, and a particular disdain for their respective heroes but you always got the sense that Fisk was a genuine threat.  His reach, ambition, and intelligence made Daredevil seem truly out of his depth trying to take him down.  Cottonmouth?  He felt like a boy wearing his father's shoes.  He was never in control, reacted with emotion, and make mistakes that had me constantly rolling my eyes.  I just wanted Cage to punch him the face so we could end this story...and my misery.  Hell, Ma Mabel was scarier.  A hero is only as good as his adversary and Cottonmouth just didn't seem compelling enough to push Cage to the heights I hoped he'd reach.  Cage himself seemed miscast.  Michael Colter's soft-spoken demeanor was perfect in a supporting role to "Jessica Jones" but as the focus of his own series?  I kept imagining my drill sergeant screaming "SOUND OFF LIKE YOU'VE GOT A PAIR!"  He doesn't talk, he mumbles.  This is supposed to be the 3rd strongest character in the MCU behind Thor and the Hulk and he sounded like he was afraid to be heard!

I was ready to give up on the series until Episode 7: "Manifest."  Cottonmouth went from being an idiot crime boss to a man who should never have been one in the first place.  He may have had little regard for the lives of those who crossed him but he still had a shred of humanity.  He mourned the death of his longtime friend, "Pop," paid for his funeral in full, and executed his murderer, Tone (played by my fellow ICB brother Warner Miller! Congratulations!).  He complained to Shades that, "there's supposed to be rules to this shit," emphasizing that a neutral player like Pop shouldn't have died.  He was angry that his childhood was stolen, being forced to kill the only man who saw him as anything other than the heir to Ma Mabel's empire.  In the end, Cornell was just another victim of the Stokes family legacy, figuratively, and then, literally.  Ma Mabel murdered his soul long before his cousin, Mariah, finished the job.  In retrospect, his death was the perfect series pivot.  It was the also death of Mariah's denial about who she truly was, it gave "Shades" an opening to reveal himself fully, and shifted the series focus from the sins of the Stokes' family to the sins of the Lucas's. And more they delved into Cage's history, the more Colter's laid back portrayal made sense.  Willis was more extroverted because he was chasing his father's acceptance.  Everything about him screamed "look at ME!"  Carl, the more reserved brother, felt obligated to live up to the family name but would've much rather lived without the spotlight.  He wasn't meant to be as brash as his comic book counterpart.  The MCU Luke Cage is the quintessential gentle giant and from that perspective, Colter's performance was perfect.

These need to become the definitive versions of the characters

Diamondback, though not the cerebral villain archetype I enjoy, was a much better challenge for Cage.  Willis Stryker didn't just embrace his dark side, he's so evil he became Cage's dark side too.  Diamondback doesn't care about rules or people the way Cottonmouth did.  He is singularly focused. Driven to not just kill Carl Lucas but burn everything he ever touched to the ground.  His very presence forces Cage to rip open old wounds he'd been running from since we were first introduced to the character in "Jessica Jones."  He's the embodiment of Cage's failures and their consequences.  He's actually what people fear a man with Cage's abilities could become.  Unchecked power. 

Unlimited POOOOWWWWAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

There are times the show gets preachy.  The scene where Luke almost goes on a historical rant about Crispus Attucks smacks of the writers putting their main character on a soapbox but it's forgivable. Most folks watching probably don't know who he is.  It also presses the hot button issues of police brutality and the myth of black fatherlessness more than once.  (A myth that's been disproven but somehow keeps finding its way into popular media.)  What's not a myth, however, is the damage being an "outside child" can do.  For every son left behind and forced to watch his half siblings be treated like the "real" kids, for every child denied their father's last name or even public recognition, and for every child that will never know what it's like to have a father who cares enough, Diamondback embodies that rage and how it can destroy you if you let it.  A nice touch, on the other hand, is the blend of the blaxploitation style and the infusion of hip-hop into the fabric of the series.  Not only is the soundtrack unapologetically hip hop, but if your memory is sharp and your listening catalog deep enough, you'll catch some famous lines woven into the dialogue almost every episode.  Like, "Lemonade is popular drink...and it still is," during Misty Knight's interrogation scene in Episode 9: DWYCK.  Also, every episode is named after a Gang Starr song (RIP Guru).  The easter eggs are plentiful and I think more than enough to satisfy long-time readers, like Misty Knight's makeover into her comic book appearance in the season finale, Misty almost losing her arm, Cage donning the classic 70s costume after his escape from Seagate, Luke refusing to be called a "Hero for Hire," and Pop's insistence on calling Luke "Power Man."

"Luke Cage" feels like it was made for us by us and has enough action and connection with the rest of the MCU that it's accessible to everyone, dropping some knowledge about black culture along the way.  This show was written by conscious black nerds who read comics and listened to everything from Slick Rick to Method Man (who's cameo had me grinning like Cage) and it shows.  It's a groundbreaking show and though it could treat its female characters with a little more respect (Claire comes off like a Magical Negro character and Misty Knight's story isn't advanced at all by having her sleep with Cage for starters), it shows that a show can succeed by being honest and upfront about difficult, too often ignored topics.  The audience has lived through many of them and its willingness to include those issues head on make it all the more relatable.

#blackheroesmatter

Sweet Christmas!  Well Done, Marvel...well done.

Yo Danny...You're Next!

  

On my way...

New Hashtag Same Shit. Are we crazy?

I'm going to be blunt.
If you talked shit about Kaepernick as I did initially but have nothing to say about the deaths of black men at the hands of taxpayer funded public servants you are a racist.  Period.  I don't care how many black friends you have.  I don't care if those black friends co-sign your unwavering loyalty to every form of law enforcement. I don't care if they allow you to call them nigga/nigger or any other conjugation present, past, future participle or derivative therein of the word "negro" that you think gives you a black pass.  I don't care how many black people you've slept with so you think you understand us.  You're a racist.  Just own it so we can all move forward with the discussion.  And in anticipation of the usual gutless, victim blaming responses, I've taken the liberty of preparing a list of answers that I'm sure any black person of any origin who's lived in this country for more than 5 years would appreciate.

1. "You're not oppressed!  Look at how much money (insert black celebrity here) makes!  I mean even the President is black!  What are you all complaining about?"

Right.  Because we all share one bank account at the Black Bank of Black America where TyQan and 'em from down the block can make direct withdrawals from the Black America Sovereign Wealth fund in which every black celeb from Oprah to LeBron to Obama makes monthly deposits to hold us all down until our welfare check arrives.  We all must have forgotten about that.  All 37,685,848 of us.

2. "I'm the real victim of racism here!  You and your Black Lives Matter terrorist thugs just want every special privilege for yourself and not have to work for anything!  Hard working black folks don't have time to go protest and block the highways to complain over nothing!"  

For the the slow....let's settle this once and for all.

Racism = systemic mistreatment.
Like a loan officer refusing to approve a mortgage in an affluent neighborhood because the applicant is melaninated (I love that word, thanks Blavity).  Or creating laws that specifically target black people.  You know, the stuff that keeps African Americans from latching on to those bootstraps you're so fond of.  The ones you've probably never had to pull yourself up by while enjoying the massive wealth and privilege that 87 (1776-1863) years of free labor and another 150 (1864-2016) of disproportionately underpaid labor brings.  Oh and let's not forget that if your a white male, you've always had the right to vote and be considered a full person, and been allowed to live wherever you choose.


Prejudice = an opinion usually held by assholes.
A non-white person that hates you, Mr./Ms. Victim of  "Reverse Racism," usually has no power to act on their opinion other than to make you feel bad.  You have the option of literally turning on your heels and go about your life as if that person never existed.  You never have to worry about losing a job because a non-white person said he/she didn't like you.  Unless, of course, you posted some racist shit on social media first...then you're on  your own.  (No, that's not PC bullshit.  It's called not being an asshole.)  As a member of the "default" class/culture, however, your low opinion of us (born out of decades of stereotypes designed to make mainstream America think we deserve discrimination) can create racism...and actually kill people.  Like #TerrenceCrutcher, #PhilandoCastile, #AltonSterling, #TamirRice, #JohnCrawfordIII, #SandraBland and #EricGarner despite the fact that murdering black people for being black is no longer legal.  (Feels like it though.)  If you want to count not being profiled, harassed, strip searched, disrespected, jailed and/or killed by the people who are charged to protect you then yes.  I want special privileges.  All of them.

Gimme.  Gimme. Gimme.

Protests are usually done by students, who don't work because they're in school and by activists who's actual job is bringing attention to cultural issues.  So they are doing their jobs by telling you they want to stop dying at the hands of crooked cops.  If they block the highway, you still get to go home.  It's an inconvenience, not a terrorist act.  Just because you're afraid when a bunch of black folks are standing together in unison doesn't mean....*sigh* never mind.

"Obey the law and you won't get shot!"

Exercising  your rights is not disobeying the law.
Calling out an officer for a bullshit traffic stop is not disobeying the law.
Talking back is not disobeying the law.
Displaying a weapon in an open carry state is not disobeying the law.
Police are also subject to the law.  (At least they're supposed to be)
It used to be illegal for people of different races to marry.
It used to be illegal for anyone other than land owning white men to vote.  The law is flawed and subject to the prejudices (see above) of the people who write and enforce it.
Summary executions are rarely warranted but it happens to black folks way more often than it should given statistical norms.  Yes nominally more white people are shot by officers but rich people pay nominally more taxes than you do too.  Smaller pot, smaller numbers, much bigger impact.


"You never protest Black on Black Crime!"

We do.  All the time.  It just doesn't affect you so you never pay attention until you try to use it to shut black people up.  And stop saying that.  If you want to really go there "White on White" crime kills far more people.  There's only one demographic that has the single gunman mass murder market locked up tight.

"If you don't like it here, LEAVE!"

We built this damned country together.  Brick by lash driven blood soaked brick.  The first man to die for American independence was a black man.  We have fought and bled for America in every war its ever waged and served in its politics before we were even considered human.  Who the hell do you think you are to tell us to leave?  You don't own America.  You never did.

I've already spoken at length about the steps that need to be taken to end this cycle and I'm not one to repeat myself.  However, this cycle of people who are supposed to be public servants disproportionately killing a segment of its employers is the definition of insanity.  Even if you couldn't care less about the people being killed, which you should if you've ever uttered the phrase All Live Matter, it's your tax dollars that are paying for the screw ups of these incompetent "officers." These settlements, which I think are patently insulting by putting a monetary value on a person's potential, are coming out of your pocket.  How about we stop spending millions of dollars in hush money to grieving families and start spending it on hiring better educated officers?  One's that might have a more complete accounting of our history and aren't so quick to pull the trigger because they've been culturally conditioned to believe that all lives really don't matter equally.  Can we do that?  Or am I the one who's crazy?

...Til Next Week.