- Black Lives Matter may represent the largest social movement in American history. So, it has a lot of powerful very scared.
- Over the Memorial Day weekend, I had a couple of discouraging encounters with “liberal” opponents of Black Lives Matter. They had vague issues with the organization’s “funding,” “corruption,” “hypocrisy,” and “policy” such as defunding the police.
- In one case, circumstances forced me to listen to a podcast of the type just mentioned. It was extremely critical of BLM – all in the name of independent thinking, balance, fairness, neutrality, and self-criticism. However, the liberals in question had no alternative to BLM. And so, in effect, they had joined forces with the right wing and status quo which gladly embrace such “fair-minded” liberals to keep blacks and browns in their place.
- The syndrome is familiar. Any successful progressive organization or leader will be subject to such denigrations, personal attacks, “revelations,” and throwing the baby out with the bathwater. They did it to King; they did it to Gandhi; they did it to Jesus. It’s all an ancient right-wing strategy defending the putrid way things are.
- Progressives have got to decide which side we’re on. Are we on the side of the victims of white supremacy or not? (And yes, contrary to the official story, there are victims in this world — victims of “our” policy!)
- The truth is that if we’re not with BLM, we are against it. Why give and comfort to the fascists and make the perfect the enemy of the good?
- What on earth are Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema thinking by resisting the voting reforms of HR1 and the Pro Act? They’re allowing Republicans to fix all future elections. Face it: Manchin and Sinema are really Republicans. Contrary to post-election happy talk, the Democrats really don’t have control of the Senate. Manchin and Sinema should be primaried.
- What we studied as U.S. history in school was in reality Confederate history – no true account of slavery, labor movements, women’s struggle for the vote, or indigenous slaughter.
- And those Confederate statues? Imagine what we’d think if Germany celebrated Nazism like that — statues of Hitler, Goering, Himmler, Eichmann. . . You won’t find monuments like those in Germany, but you will find their equivalents all over this great country of ours.
- And what’s with all this anti-Russian and anti-Chinese propaganda? Everything nefarious that happens especially in the fields of “cyber-attacks,” Covid-19, and election improprieties is “potentially” linked to China or Russia (and “reportedly” to their governments). Where’s the evidence? Don’t be fooled. It’s all CIA B.S.
- Never forget what CIA head, Mike Pompeo, said about the CIA. He admitted that they lie, cheat, and steal all they time. The CIA offers its spooks entire courses on the topics. The CIA and its agents are not our friends. Never were.
- Neither is the U.S. military. We shouldn’t be proud of it. Never forget what MLK said about our country. “It’s the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” Should we be proud that our children are part of such a gang? Yes, it’s a huge gang.
- At last count, “we’re” now fighting seven wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Niger, Yemen, Somalia – and who knows where else?). Do any of us care? The people under our bombing attacks do.
- Tell me: is it better to deal with terrorism by killing alleged terrorists in those countries just mentioned (along with their children) or with re-education camps like the ones our “leaders” are so outraged about in Northwest China? (Actually, we know nothing about those camps.) Think about that.
- “We” maintain 800 military bases throughout the world. Do you know how many extra-territorial bases China has? One! One!!
- We drop bombs on Muslims every day. China hasn’t dropped a bomb on another country in more than 40 years.
- Why was apartheid in South Africa despicable, but not in Israel-Palestine?
- The U.S. of A is exactly in the position that Hitler aspired to gain in the 1930s. We control the world by military might.
- And long before Hitler, we had already sponsored our own Holocaust (slaughtering more than 100 million indigenous here). It started centuries before Hitler’s atrocious but small by comparison carnage.
- Sad to say: it seems the world would be better off in so many ways without the U.S.of A.
- Does the evidence show that the Sandinistas may well have been right in identifying us Yankees as the “enemy of mankind?”
About Things That Matter 
Hi Mike,
Yes, power corrupts.
Two niggles.
First: independent cybersecurity experts, from multiple countries, agree on the nature of state-sponsored (as in organized groups, including military, intelligence service, and cooperating independent agents) cybersecurity warfare. And yes, the US has them also. Add Iran and N. Korea to the other major actors.
Second: the vast majority of the deaths of the indigenous in the Americas killed as a result of European “conquest” came from diseases carried by animals (pigs, IIRC — that’s how the armies ate) inadvertently. The Europeans involved would rather have had the indigenous alive in order to enslave (by one name or another).
The overall picture is how you paint it. We, the US, need to wake up to who we are.
thanks,
Hank
LikeLike
Thanks as always, Hank, for your thoughtful comment and niggles. Regarding your first point, I realize that cybersecurity warfare is widespread. However, given the track history of official lies, any allegation of malfeasance by Russians or Chinese (or other official enemies) must offer more proof that “reportedly,” “some say,” or “according to sources.” As for the second niggle please see the four-part series on HBO, “Exterminate All the Brutes.” Powerful. It calls into question the “disease spread by animals” theory. See also David Stannards’ “American Holocaust.”
LikeLike