Monday, October 24, 2016

Toilet Bowl Politics

     
                                                       
                                                             From The Ramparts
                                                            Junious Ricardo Stanton       
                                                             Toilet Bowl Politics

            I never thought I'd see the day the decadence, criminality of the American political system and the depravity of US culture would be exposed in real time for the world to see. Over the course of this election cycle we have seen the 1% manipulate the "news" to protect an enormously disliked career political opportunist with an entitlement mentality because she sold her soul (if she had one) to  the 1% crowd who repaid her by stealing the nomination from Bernie Sanders (as documented in the DNC leaks) to force her down our throats as the next president of the USA.
             On the other hand we have Donald Trump a narcissist egomaniac, a "TV reality show" personality who openly flaunts his "success" by telling the world how he navigated a rigged system to make billions now proclaiming he and he alone can "save" this country from the very people who rig the system. Trump accomplished the unthinkable, he defeated a posse of contenders to win the Republican presidential nomination. Trump is a political outsider, a novice to electoral politics but he has huge name recognition, he's rich, knows the game, has played it well and used the system to his benefit. Now he says he wants to save the country and make it great again.
             Trump has a huge following and it appears nothing the 1%'s sock puppets at the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC et al throw at Trump seems to work. Trump fights back and his support grows with each new attack by the mainstream media. Trump's style is to hit back harder when he is hit. Unfortunately he gets so caught up in hitting back, he loses focus on the key issues because he is a shallow, self-centered narcissist. In his mind it is always about him. Trump fought back during the last two televised debate and went on the personal attack. The campaign has gone into the toilet but what did you expect given the character (or lack thereof) of the two prime contenders for the presidency.
            My mantra "think for yourself, make up your own mind" has been reaffirmed and reinforced throughout this whole election process. You cannot rely on the corporate media for truth or the issues! 
             Exposing a male politicians sexual proclivities is a tried and true formula to ruin him. This is what the Clinton campaign and the media are doing to Trump. It worked on John Edwards, Eliot Spitzer, Anthony Weiner, Herman Cain to name a few and it almost worked against Bill Clinton in 1996. The corporate mind control apparatus thought they could use the same card to discredit Donald Trump and double down by disingenuously linking him to Russian president Vladimir Putin in order to suppress, distract and obfuscate the detrimental Wikileaks E-mails documenting the thorough and unrepentant corruption of Hillary Clinton; from the DNC plot to undermine Bernie Sanders, to the nexus between the Clinton Foundation, The Clinton Global Initiative, the insecure server she used during her time as Secretary of State for pay to play to the just released E-mails  about her speeches to top Wall Street banksters.
             Trump took a major hit when the media coverage took up all the space and air time focusing on his alleged misogyny and sexual abuse which allowed the media to ignore the mounting revelations about Clinton's corruption.
            I predict it will get worse as the election gets closer. The 1% are petrified an outsider like Trump will upset their apple cart. They planned for this race to be between two of their own, possibility Jeb Bush and Clinton or Marc Rubio, Ted Cruz and Clinton with Clinton winning. The system is rigged to the hilt, but Bernie Sanders and Trump  throw monkey wrenches in their plans. Now the 1% crowd shot callers must increase the stakes to make sure their Hillary girl wins. Look for the campaign to go deeper into the cesspool, becoming even more putrid while the real issues impacting us be ignored. Both sides will insult our intelligence; alas no matter who wins this name calling, mud slinging contest the American people and the world will be worse off.

                                                            -30-

            

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 8:42 AM 0 comments

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Nate Parker's Birth of A Nation

   From The Ramparts
   Junious Ricardo Stanton
   Nate Parker's  Birth of A Nation


            Filmmaker Nate Parker's Birth of A Nation has as of this past weekend grossed over twelve million dollars. The film cost eight point five million to make, so it is making a profit despite attempts to undermine this important film about Nat Turner. We went to see it last week. I was  impressed but I also know why the powers that be attempted to sabotage the film by bringing up Parker's personal history of being accused of rape while at student at Penn State. Parker was subsequently exonerated of the charges but his accuser committed suicide several years after the event. All that is tragic but should not have any bearing on Parker's film.
            The film makes a deep political statement, it presents Nat Turner as a hero. By making this film Parker violated one of the most sacrosanct commandments of American race dynamics, "never make white people uncomfortable by telling the truth about their evil."  Parker's film does exactly that, it exposes the vile nature of slavery; what the whites called "the peculiar institution."
            Making a film about Nat Turner is a touchy project.  Even today to whites Nat Turner represents their worst nightmare a motivated and inspired black man who dared to challenge his oppression by using violence as the means to gain his freedom. In 1831 two years after David Walker a free Black man living in Massachusetts published his Appeal to The Coloured Citizens of The World in which he called for the use of violence in the cause of freedom Turner who by all accounts was a literate man led his rampage in Southampton County Virginia.  Turner was an itinerant preacher who felt he was called to lead his people to freedom.
            Parker's version of Turner's life begins when the young Nat is recognized by Africans practicing traditional African customs as a child bearing special marks which destined him to be a leader of the people. Young Nat was allowed to learn to read and write by his owner. The film follows Turner's life as a boy slave learning to read and write but subsequently being taken from the tutelage of the owner's sister to working in the fields. The book she used to teach Nat to read was the Bible. Of course the slave owners wanted docile slaves so servility and submissiveness were stressed.
            A white preacher convinces Nat's owner to use him to influence slaves throughout the county to be submissive and obedient. The white preacher and Nat's owner split the profits the slave owners pay to have Nat preach passivity and obedience to their bondsmen and women.  I won't spoil it for you by telling you any more but suffice it to say Nat Turner makes a three sixty degree turnabout and Parker shows the incidents that led to his transformation.
            I strongly urge you to see this film. I know there have been a rash of slavery films:  Amistad, Twelve Years A Salve, Django Unchained, Belle to name a few but this is a must see film. Parker deliberately linked his film to the Black Lives Matter movement. By  watching his film we see the social and political roots of the systemic devaluation of Black lives and we can connect the dots to present day racial dynamics in the US.  
            America has not dealt with its legacy of slavery, the endemic racial animus, terror and brutal oppression, nor has it dealt with the values and mindset that fostered such a system and allows it to continue hundreds of years later. So rather than deal with the film and the historical material it presents, the powers that be have chosen to demonize Nate Parker. Rather than discuss and connect the dots about the slave patrols (patty rollers) and how the police treat many Blacks today we are subjected to personal attacks on Parker.
            Our biggest problem is we do not know our history nor the forces arrayed against us today. Go see the film. It will fill in some of the blanks and give you some understanding about what our people experienced, survived and overcame.

                                                                                                                          -30-
           

posted by Junious Ricardo Stanton @ 7:12 AM 0 comments