Now Is the Time
Now Is the Time
Junious Ricardo Stanton
The concept of time is an artificial construct
invented by humans to help us understand the processes of living by providing
reference points using such notions as the past, present and future. Humans
have marked time differently over the millennia. Some used the moon, others the
sun while others invented calendars to mark the passing of days months and
years.
But in the end, time is merely a man-made construct
something all cultures internally agree upon to suit their needs and purposes. In
our era, we say things like: time marches on, time stood still, or time is
speeding up. It is none of this, because the concept of time is something we
make up, it is not real, it is not an actual thing.
Many of us
are fascinated by time. We’re always focused on some aspect of time, the past,
the future and the present. Unfortunately, most of our focus is in the form of
worry, anxieties, apprehensions, anticipations and expectations. Remember when
you were younger you couldn’t wait to turn a certain age or you felt you couldn’t
wait for your natal day, a holiday or special event to arrive? That was in the future
something you were enthusiastically anticipating. On the other hand, there were
things you dreaded, maybe a doctor’s visit, a school examination or a
conversation with teacher, your parents, a girlfriend or boyfriend. All of these
were couched in the concept of future time.
On the other
hand, many of us are overly fixated with the past. We spend inordinate amounts
of energy and thought thinking about, emotionalizing, rehashing, regretting and
reliving events and experiences that have already happened not only to us but
others whether a few days, months or even lifetimes ago. For example, history
is seen as the past, some of us want to leave it there and not remember it at
all while others carry it with them constantly for better or worse. We spend
our energy often agonizing about our experiences, or joyously reliving them
because of what we accomplished and achieved or didn’t.
From a
practical perspective all we have is now, the present. The past has already happened
and the future is yet to occur. Yes, we can learn many valuable lessons from
our past, our history impacts our present because life is a continuum, on
ongoing process. We can use past
experiences to help us navigate the present. We are all creatures of habit. We
tend to do things over and over again often because it feels “comfortable” or
because we want to fit in, conform to others’ expectations and demands of us,
their norms or our cultural patterns. All
we have is now, that being the case let us decide to use this now, this moment
to be our best selves.
The best
way to effectuate this type of self-actualization and transformation is by
living in the now, being aware of the present, what many call being mindful.
Our present can be better than our past if we choose it to be regardless of happenstance
or what is going on around us. We have the power to alter our lives, we have
the ability to effectuate change, to either deconstruct or reconstruct our
lives by changing our thoughts, attitudes and our behavior. We have the ability
to refashion and change the trajectory of our lives for better or worse. This
is a powerful ability one very few of us take full advantage of because too
often we are stuck in the past, worrying about the future or conforming to
someone else’s vision or agenda!
Daily we
are manipulated by nefarious forces using highly sophisticated technology to
create a false reality and manufacture a state of being which benefits and
enriches them totally at our expense. They want to enslave us in a dystopian technocratic
hellscape. They do this by keeping us distracted, deceived, discombobulated and
divided. We can escape their manufactured milieu by thinking critically, being
aware, mindful and envisioning a purposeful life for ourselves here and now. We
can not only alter our own destiny and quality of life; we can help change the
world for the better. It is possible. Now is the time, take full advantage of all of
its possibilities and potential.
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We're On a Slppery Slope
We’re On a Slippery Slope
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Donald Trump’s
deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles California, Washington D.C. and
his threats to do the same in Chicago Illinois and Memphis Tennessee is placing
this nation in an untenable predicament. Under the guise of public safety, Trump is
using the National Guard for purposes they were not intended to serve. The
Natonal Guard is for emergencies: to assist in natural disasters or to quell
uprisings and riots. Usually, the
governor of the state is the one who calls for the activation of the National Guard
units in the state once he or she has declared an emergency, not the president.
The situation
in L.A. with the wildfires was an emergency yet neither the governor nor the
mayor called for the National Guard to be deployed. Trump took the unusual step
of bypassing both of them and calling for the deployment of the California National
Guard. There the guard performed a variety
of tasks from aerial firefighting using their planes and helicopters to try to
contain the blazes, on the ground firefighting, aid distribution, traffic
control and security.
In D.C. Trump’s rational for
deploying the Guard was to boost security, augment policing, and clean-up of squalor.
The Guardsmen and women were deployed around federal property as well as
several neighborhoods in D.C. The mayor of Washington D.C. did not request
assistance from President Trump and was resistant to his activation. Several
Republican governors supplied their Guard Units for deployment in D.C.
With
regards to Chicago and Menphis, Trump is threatening to send in the guard and
use them as law enforcement to supposedly augment those cities’ police
departments. The problem is, just like L.A. and Washington D.C. neither the Chicago
and Memphis mayors nor the governors of those states has requested federal aid!
Trump is literally militarizing the National Guard authorizing them to perform
duties the state and local governments have not requested! His Republican pal
governors are supply the troops to comply with Trump’s activation orders which
is quite unusual!
On the
surface it seems like Trump may be or could be considered well intended, but
upon closer scrutiny he is overstepping his bounds. Using high crime rate data,
Trump is playing on the fears, anxiousness and gullibility of the American
people, something this nation already has an abundance of. These cities are run
by duly elected mayors who just happen to be African-American which plays well
with Trump’s base who believe everything he says no matter how foolish, untrue
and fabricated it may be. Trump is subtly playing the race card insinuating
these elected officials are unable to deal with the problems in their own
cities and states. Meanwhile it is apparent Trump’s policies both domestic and
foreign are ineffective and wishy-washy.
The mayors acknowledge they have crime in their
city; all cities even Red State cities and towns have crime; but these mayors challenge
Trump’s assertions the crime rates in their cities warrant the deployment of
the Natonal Guard. In fact, the mayors say crime is down in their
municipalities. National statistics, even Trump’s FBI’s data, verify violent and
property crimes are down in the US, that homicides despite what the nightly
news says are down across the US!
Nevertheless, Trump is using
contradictory data to justify his actions. Trump ever the showman/circus barker
is using this disinformation to accomplish several objectives: one, he is brazenly
overstepping his constitutional authority, the Posse Comitatus Act
forbids deployment and use of troops in a law enforcement capacity, but Trump
is ignoring this. Second, by mobilizing
the Guard he is getting Americans used to experiencing soldiers on their
streets in a law enforcement capacity, third Trump’s deployment of the Guard is
complimenting the use of surveillance and biometric recognition technology such
as Palantir to spy on Americans and set up a Big Brother police state infrastructure
that would make George Orwell blush with envy. Lastly by calling on Red State
governors to supply and deploy troops in Blue State cities, Trump is exacerbating
the partisan divide in this country.
Whether or not Trump is aware he is
doing all these things is not the point, he could very well be an unwitting tool
of the Deep State. Trump is not the first US president to be used and played by
nefarious forces and interest groups like the Military Industrial Complex, the
banksters or foreign governments.
What does this mean for us? It
means we are already on an extremely slippery slope, one that, along with the
other bone headed moves Trump is making, could take this nation into the abyss
of a technocratic police state, and this is not hyperbole.
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Don't Fall for the Okey-Doke Again
Don’t Fall for the Okey-Doke Again
Junious Ricardo Stanton
The murder
of Charlie Kirk was merely one of numerous shootings, killings and murders that
occur in America on a daily basis. The fact he was a political influencer is
immaterial. He was a Soul whose life like so many in this country was
needlessly and prematurely snuffed out. Whether it was a political hit or a
random act of violence is not the issue, the issue is there is a lack of
respect for the sanctity and importance of life, a lack of morality in a
culture that uses gratuitous violence as the predominant form of entertainment.
Then when something like this happens, we feign shock and horror despite the
fact violence has become a rampant daily occurrence.
Unlike the
hundreds of Americans who are shot and killed in America on a daily basis, Charlie
Kirk was somewhat famous, he had a media following, he had a platform, he was
the darling of the right, a conservative influencer and organizer. He was a
personal acquaintance of Donald Trump; he campaigned on his behalf and Trump
included him in his MAGA circle of supporters and acolytes.
As a “celebrity” Kirk was known and
revered in right wing circles and held up for his public pronouncements and
ideology. His strident commentaries reflected an animus against liberalism,
progressives and their policies.
Kirk rose to prominence within
ultraconservative circles when he co-founded Turning Point USA a student-based
organization in 2012. The organization grew nationwide and became his major
platform for his ideology. He was supported by wealthy and influential
Republicans and toured the nation sponsoring debates between young, college
aged Republicans and Democrats after dropping out of Harper College a community
college near his home in suburban Chicago Illinois.
Kirk had been influenced and radicalized by The
Tea Party an insurgent group that denounced US fiscal and to some degree US
foreign policies. He was a skillful organizer and he targeted younger Americans
with his message. Soon Turning Point USA became one of the largest conservative
organizations of its kind in the US. Kirk railed against the culture wars and
what he considered Marxist influence even publishing a list of college
professors whom he considered purveyors of “leftist” propaganda. His professors list caught on and through it he
gained even more attention and followers.
Kirk distanced himself from the virulently racist
Neo-Nazi fringe of the right and embraced Christian Nationalism which is still predominantly
White oriented. He was a supporter of Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential
run, he hobnobbed with Trump’s sons and became a key player within the Trump
wing of the Republican Party.
Turning Point USA subsequently established
several subsidiary organizations and Kirk became a role model for young
conservatives due to his zeal and organizing skills. He had a popular podcast;
he authored several books, he sponsored college and university speaking tours
around the country where he promoted free market capitalism (which doesn’t actually
exist), limited government and he was a harsh critic of America’s current
socio-political-economic conditions. Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on September
9, 2025 at a college in Orem Utah where he was speaking.
Now the Right is in arms about his
murder. They are calling it a political assassination and making him into a
martyr. Many are saying his murder is the opening salvo of a new US “Civil War”!
Donald Trump has ordered the lowering of all US flags to half mast in honor of
this man.
Meanwhile several HBCUs were closed and put on
lockdown due to threats. However, there is no evidence these threats had a
direct correlation or connection to right wing supporters of Kirk!
Nevertheless, US history is replete with examples of White ire and outrage
being focused against Blacks due to the Whites’ fears and prejudices over the
economy, their tenuous socio-economic status or whatever boogeymen and hobgoblins
they conjure up rather than dealing with the root causes of whatever problems
real or imagined they are experiencing. Today
in the US right wing White males are full of anger and angst; who knows what
they might do. Look at what they did on January 6, 2020. The Left is just as
animated and agitated and the nation is polarized and divided.
We must remain vigilant but don’t
fall for the okey-doke. There may be civil unrest but there is not going to be
a civil war. In our communities we are more likely to be the victim of a home
invasion or random attack by our own then by rabid right-wing fanatics! We have
our own issues to resolve and truth be told we cannot rely on White folks or
the government to do so.
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Labor Day Contradictions Abound
Labor Day Contradictions Abound
Junious
Ricardo Stanton
Today is Labor Day, a day set aside to remember and honor
workers and organized labor and their struggles to gain respect,
decent wages, safe working conditions, benefits, the right to bargain
collectively and a place at the workplace decision making table. The
irony is on this day there is an ongoing attack on organized labor
and unions spearheaded by the government at the behest of corporate
executives, the financial sector supported by national elected
officials and oligarchs alike.
President Donald J. Trump has been in the forefront of this attack
on organized labor which goes back several decades. Billions of
dollars have been spent to push back the gains made by both public
and government unions and this pattern will continue into the
foreseeable future. Upon his return to the White House, Donald Trump
has overseen the negation of hundreds of thousands of federal
government workers collective bargaining rights. He has terminated
400,000 employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the
Department of Environmental Protection collective bargaining rights
and illegally terminated thousands of government employees.
He
has done this by Executive Order, fiat, personal
decrees which are
highly authoritarian. He is using little known legislation like the
1978 Civil Service Reform Act which allows for the setting aside of
collective bargaining if collective bargaining is not applied in a
manner consistent with national security requirements. This
is a seldom used piece of legislation that Trump
is applying unilaterally to dozens of federal agencies such as:
Federal
Communications Commission, Environmental Protection Agency and the
National Science Foundation.
Trump seems to like following Ronald Reagan’s model and example.
In 1981 President Reagan broke a strike called by the Air Traffic
Controllers Organization who were demanding better pay and working
conditions. Reagan swiftly decertified the ATCO, effectively
rendering it a non-entity while simultaneously firing all 11,000
members of the union! Ironically Reagan was a former union member
himself having served as the president of the Hollywood Screen Actors
Guild.
What made Reagan’s gambit work was the fact that powerful unions
like the Teamsters and Longshoreman failed to support the ATCO
membership. Had just these two union gone on strike in solidarity
with the ATCO, all commerce across the nation would have stopped,
Reagan would have had to back down, and been forced to deal with the
air traffic controllers. Alas that did not happen and Reagan won a
major victory for anti-union forces.
Similarly Trump seems to have little organized opposition, there
have been a few lawsuits filed by federal union employees which are
winding their way through the courts. Trump has won a few decisions
in the lower courts while others are still pending. Trump’s
Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was not created by
an act of Congress so it really has no authority. It really was a
working group or consulting entity.
Following the firing of thousands of government workers by DOGE,
Trump was forced to scramble to get the Republican controlled
Congress to approve the job cuts and his tax bill. It remains to be
seen how the courts will rule on his firings and the abolition of
collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of government
employees.
Meanwhile people are partying, cooking out and going about their
business celebrating a federal holiday that was created to honor the
struggles and hard fought victories of workers, oblivious to
organized labor’s long history or to the implications of what Trump
is doing now!
The fact of the matter is, union membership is in decline in the US.
Only 11.7% of private sector employees are union members while their
federal worker counterparts make up 29.9% union membership. Decades
of deindustrialization in America, offshoring of jobs and the shift
to a service economy with so called gig worker has accounted for much
of the decline in private sector union membership. However the push
to de-unionize by corporate owners, employers and the federal
government is also a major factor. We should think about this as
Labor Day 2025 comes to a close.
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