The Russians Ate This Blog

Hola Everybody,
I had written a whole blog justifying the widespread panic regarding the allegations that the Russians hijacked the presidential election. Unfortunately, a three-legged dog stole it, so you’re getting the following instead.

The Russians are Coming!

(Or: How I Stopped Thinking and Came to Love the CIA*)

No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.
 -- Edward R. Murrow 

Have you no sense of decency, sir?
 -- Joseph N. Welch to Sen. Joseph McCarthy

There’s been a lot of hysteria emerging from the recent and unproven allegations that the Russians hacked our democracy with the intention of skewing the election in favor of Donald “Le Grand Orange” Trump. Proof you ask? Well, maybe you didn’t ask as you rushed out the door looking for the nearest nuclear bomb shelter, but the proof, as a Washington Post article alleges, lies in some secret CIA document (“assessment”) presented to legislators in recent days. Mind you, the anonymous sources cited in the article aren’t the ones who did the assessment, but are unnamed sources guessing at what the people who did the assessment were thinking!

If you think that’s weird, consider that leading the war cry are recalcitrant Hillary Clinton supporters (“pragmatic liberals”) who didn’t have a word to say when credible evidence (i.e., not a “secret document”) was provided regarding the thieving during the Democratic primaries that saw the DNC going in the tank for Hillary. If you doubt the veracity of the evidence in that instance, consider that top-level democratic operatives were forced to resign once the evidence came to the surface.

But back the WashPo article. Glenn Greenwald does a great take down of that particular hit piece masquerading as journalism here. Essentially Greenwald decries the irresponsibility of accusing a nuclear-armed power of directly and deliberately interfering in the U.S. election in order to help decide the winning candidate without any credible evidence. This is how wars are started -- or have we forgotten the Iraq war yet? The CIA is an organization dedicated to propaganda and professional lying. They brought us COINTELPRO (the documented campaign to sabotage the Civil Rights Movement) and Contra-Crack Cocaine. It gave us Pinochet in Chile, and the overthrow of freely elected leaders the world over, and we’re to take their word based on a “secret document”? 

So to sum it up: politicians, gullible people (aka pragmatic progressives), and the corporate press are now in high dudgeon over an allegation based on no evidence. Not even a smoking gun. 

Still, the election has been hijacked. However, the culprits likely weren’t the Russians but U.S. conservatives on both sides of the aisle. As previously noted, the DNC and news outlets were in cahoots against Bernie Sanders during the primaries. In fact, during one 16-hour period, the Washington Post managed to publish 16 negative Bernie Sanders stories. This is the same paper, by the way, that recently published an article decrying “fake news.” The irony is that the Post had to “append” that article after discovering their anonymous sources were flaky, to say the least. Hence, the same paper that used cowardly anonymous sources to besmirch legitimate news sources, itself trades in fake news. I can’t make this fuckin’ shit up, people.

Meanwhile, the Democrats have refused to take leadership in forcing a recount in states that show suspiciously skewed statistics. The real election culprit has been a Jim Crow-like attempt to disenfranchise Black voters and other voters of color. In the mean time, while the aforementioned pragmatic progressives waste their time whining about Russians, they have completely missed the essence of the problem. In the blackest city in the nation, Detroit, 87 vote machines broke on Election Day. That’s 59 percent of the voting machines there. Considering that Trump won Michigan by the tiniest of margins, you would think that the Democrats would be showing some leadership on this travesty. Actually, they are nowhere to be seen. The lone voice in the wild here is the Green Party’s Jill Stein. However, she’s probably run into a brick wall: Michigan officials passed a state law that says any time a vote counting machine breaks and causes it to display a different vote total than the one in the precinct log books, those votes legally can’t be recounted.

That’s a New New Jim Crow -- clearly a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment. So “cousin Pookie” (a racist stereotype our current neoliberal president loves using to beat other black people over the head) did vote, but his vote didn’t count. Add to that the millions of Pookies who have lost their right to vote due to felony disenfranchisement, the millions of votes lost due to the racist and criminal practice of crosschecking, and right there alone you have the stealing of an election. There’s no need to go to Sarah Palin’s front porch to peer at Russia, the crimes are being committed here, on our soil. As Jill Stein points out, if you live in a rich white suburb, you have nothing to worry about. However, if you live in a multicultural urban enclave the chances of your vote being invalidated grows exponentially.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The same factors that skewed Detroit are played out throughout the country. We have an electoral system that’s antiquated, undemocratic, and racist. The least of our worries should be the Russians, or any outside entity. The enemy is within. All this let’s-kick-Russia-in-the-ass-rah-rah without a shred of evidence is pure insanity and eerily reminiscent of the lead-up to the Iraq war. Same con job.

If the CIA has credible and verifiable evidence that the Russian government conspired to have Trump ascend the seat of the most powerful office in the known universe, then by all means, publish it! Obama needs to declassify that assessment and throw it out there for public consumption. But (fuck!) let’s also look at the ways conservatives -- both Democrat and Republican -- game the system to invalidate votes and skew the results in their favor.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… 

*Apologies to the film, Dr. Strangelove, for mangling the title.

Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, please consider helping me out by sharing it, liking me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, or even throwing me some money on GoFundMe HERE or via PayPal HERE so I can keep calling it like I see it.

The Evil of Two Lessers

Hola mi gente,
One of the proudest moments in my professional life was being recognized in 2012 by my peers for my advocacy work. As many who read me know, Citizens against Recidivism will be holding their annual awards dinner Saturday, October 22 at The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Center.

I would like to give a shout out to this year’s honorees:

Donna Hylton & Laura Whitehorn

Johnny Perez & Dinah Ortiz

Andre Ward

Darryl Johnson

Michael Pass

If you’re going, consider purchasing the tickets from yours truly. I will hand deliver the tickets wherever you want if you buy them from me (cash only). Drop me a line and let me know.

The Evil of Two Lessers

Ultimately we know deeply that the other side of every fear is a freedom.
 -- Marilyn Ferguson

No, I didn’t watch last night’s debate because I refuse to support corporations that stand to make profits while they make a mockery of our electoral process. Period.

It’s really hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that this was one of the most watched debates in the history of POTUS campaigns. 

It’s as if the US electorate was looking forward to an honest, enlightened and enlightening discussion of the important crises of our time, and how best to resolve them, by two dedicated public servants with a desire to help others and save the world, each of whom will use their best understanding of the actual facts and logical argument to persuade the electorate that they have the most compelling plan to achieve their vision of the future, as well as clearly explaining why their vision of the future is something we should all look forward to achieving.

There are many reasons why I will not be voting for Hillary Clinton. I’ll put it this way: What we fear from Trump, we have already seen from Hillary Clinton. I will expand on this in the comings days, but just know that eight years of Hillary would be a disaster.

I will I will be supporting and voting for Jill Stein and other genuinely progressive candidates, and I hope you will consider a similar strategy. I will say this much: the prevailing narrative, masquerading as “sensible” or “adult,” of the lesser of two evils, is the opiate of the masses. Hillary will be a horrible candidate who will continue the same policies that redistribute wealth upwards and advocate for endless war. If you believe otherwise, please contact my people. I have a bridge for sale.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… 

Learned Helplessness vs Social Change

Hola mi Gente,

Last night something remarkable happened, defying statistical models and the predictions of the chattering class, Bernie Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in the Michigan primary. What is even more remarkable is that a little-known, 79-year-old Jewish dude from Brooklyn is giving Hillary a run for her money. Stay tuned, this is not your father’s election cycle. LOL

* * *

Learned Helplessness vs Social Change

Culturally the Negro represents a paradox: Though he is an organic part of the nation, he is excluded by the entire tide and direction of American Culture... Therefore if, within the confines of its present culture, the nation ever seeks to purge itself of its color hate, it will find itself at war with itself, convulsed by a spasm of emotional and moral confusion.

 -- Richard Wright, Black Boy

First, let me be clear about my position regarding the current election cycle. I do not support any candidate. Period. I believe voting is the least effective of all the tactics for creating social change and I refuse to essentially vote to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. However, if forced, I would vote for Bernie Sanders. In addition, I could never vote for a Clinton. Period.

In the Gospel According to Eddie, one of vilest sins (second only to willful ignorance) is the notion that we have no agency -- the ability to be an active participant in our lives. The sentiment seems to be, “Well, sure ____ (<-- a="" any="" attitude.="" attitude="" belief="" bother.="" but="" called="" can="" cannot="" defeatist="" difference="" escape="" form="" getting="" here="" i="" in="" insert="" is="" make="" negative="" observe="" of="" overarching="" psychology="" reamed="" so="" suffering="" system="" t="" that="" the="" this="" type="" why="" wrong="" you="" your="">learned helplessness

. Learned helplessness is the best way I can describe the attitude of  many Hillary Clinton supporters, who seem to have adopted as their motto, “No we can’t!”

I was reminded of this psychological concept when I recently came across a study that study from Princeton that argues that over the past few decades America's political system has slowly transformed from a democracy into an oligarchy, where wealthy elites wield most power.

Using data drawn from over 1,800 different policy initiatives from 1981 to 2002, the two conclude that rich, well-connected individuals on the political scene now steer the direction of the country, regardless of or even against the will of the majority of voters (click here for an interview with the lead investigator of the study).

Listening to the responses from so-called progressive pundits and activists, I can see why we may already have lost our democracy -- or whatever it was we had. We have become so conditioned to authoritarianism that we have self-professed progressives openly advocating against single payer health care, the model used almost universally in developed countries. They say it is impossible, so they dismiss the effort as unrealistic or pie-in-the-sky day dreaming. Overturning Citizens United? “Impossible! Get that out of your head!”screech the Hillary supporters. 

And you go on down the whole list of progressive values and these so-called progressives dismiss them all. We must vote for a right-of-center democrat or we are naïve political children, they say. Of course, these political “realists” ignore the fact that the current right wing hate group acting as a majority in two branches of government has not bothered to work with the current right-of-center POTUS, Barack Obama. Using this line of logic, I am glad these people did not win the day when civil rights activists decided to desegregate southern establishments. Using this utterly clueless worldview, they would have been content to be able to sit at a diner for only one hour a day. I am only half joking, folks… 

I was once marching in Washington, DC against some injustice, I forget which. At the time, like now, I had been feeling very frustrated at the state of politics in this country. I was marching alongside an elderly African-American lady who had to use a walker. She was veteran from the peak years of the civil rights movement -- someone who marched in the South when they would let dogs loose on you if you had the audacity to demand equal rights. I asked her how she could continue the struggle in the face of so much failure. Her response will stay with me until the day I die and it is why I still fight.

She asked me, “What is your ethnicity?” I answered that I was of Puerto Rican descent. Then she said, “Do you know that you probably have an ancestor who fought against slavery though he knew he would never see the light of a free day?” Then she turned to a young woman standing next to me and said, “Do you know that it is very likely that you have an ancestor who fought for the right to vote though she knew she would not be able to cast a vote herself?” And on she went with the rest of the group, pointing out how those who came before us laid the groundwork though they knew that they would never live to reap the fruits of their collective labor. Many lost their lives in the struggle.

With a smile that belied her rebel attitude, she explained that she didn’t march because she hoped or expected win over the oppressors. Rather, she recognized that -- as little power as she had -- she was determined to use her courage and determination as a weapon to harass embedded power structures. Her goal was defiance. She also explained that she avoided discouragement because the moment she chose resistance as a strategy against slave mentality, she was triumphant. Nothing the power elite could do could ever diminish her triumph.

Finally, she emphasized that we owed it to both our ancestors and our children. We owed it to our ancestors, many of whom fought slavery and oppression knowing they would never see it abolished in their lifetimes. More importantly, we owe it to our children, who need to have the road cleared for their own resistance. Children who need a power of example of defiance in the face of hate in order for them to shake off the shackles of ignorant passive acceptance and learned helplessness.

And this is what concerns and frustrates me the most about the Hillary Clinton campaign and her so-called liberal and progressive supporters. This is a campaign with no vision -- a campaign of diminished expectations at a time when what we need the kind of leadership that audaciously demands progressive values in the face of entrenched racism and power. 

I will not tell you who to vote for. In fact, I will encourage you to do more. But do not ever tell me that voting for and supporting the Clintons, a white southern political dynasty that in the past has used racist dog whistles in order to incite moral panics resulting in the unprecedented mass incarceration of mostly black men, is “practical.” 

Do not try to tell me that the same political cowardice that implemented economic policies (again, using racist tropes) that decimated the most vulnerable in our society, is somehow pragmatic. Fuck you with that nonsense. You stand there and take the pain while you push the lever that inflicts that very pain, but do not call it practical, or realistic, or (shit!) progressive. 

Do not try to white wash trade policies that destroyed our manufacturing base, resulting the loss of millions of jobs just so CEOs could the corporations they run could stow the profits in offshore accounts. That is not practical or even inevitable. It is oligarchy, not democracy.

What is important is that you take a stand, whatever it is. I will not engage your thinking on this. If you act, you act; if you don't, you don't. This is about action (or the lack thereof), not talk.

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization… 

Resources

Jill Quadagno: The Color of Welfare: How Racism Undermined the War on Poverty (click here)

Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page (2014). Testing theories of American politics: Elites, interest groups, and average citizens. Perspectives on Politics, 12, pp 564-581. doi:10.1017/S1537592714001595.

When Youth Violence Spurred ‘Superpredator’ Fear, NY Times (Click here)

The Superpredator Myth, 20 Years Later, Equal Justice Initiative (click here)

Fast Track to Lost Jobs and Lower Wages, Economic Policy Institute (click here)

Lee Atwater on the many ways to say the n-word without saying it (click here)

The Runaway Society

Hola mi Gente,

My contempt for the so-called “liberals” on MSNBC and elsewhere increases as the days go by. Case in point, Rachel Maddow…

Last night Rachel performed what can only be described as a hatchet job on Sanders last night. She disputes that there was a record turnout for the democrats, throwing shade on Sanders claim that he has energized the electorate. And while the numbers weren't as high as they were in 2008, they came close! You see what she did there?

“Voters for Democrats showed up in numbers just shy of the turnout seen in 2008… ”

So the New Hampshire numbers didn't shatter the 2008 numbers but Sanders turned out the vote in numbers that came close to a record shattering year. Other inconvenient facts left out by Ms. Maddow was a new and prohibitive voter ID law targeting college students (among others), a key Sanders demographic, that wasn't in effect in 2008 and possibly impacted turnout. Finally, one the reason why the GOP garnered more voters was that there were eight GOP candidates:

“In Iowa our two candidates, along with Martin O’Malley, turned out 171,000 caucus-goers, compared to the eleven Republican candidates — who ended up virtually in the same spot at 180,000,” Democratic National Committee Chairman Luis Miranda said in a memo after Tuesday’s voting. “We saw that same kind of enthusiasm in New Hampshire.” [here]

Any first-year political science major could’ve told you this, but not Rachel Maddow -- she didn't mention any of this. This was shoddy reporting.

* * *

The Runaway Society

I don't give a damn about semi-radicals...

This is not a time of gentleness.

It is not a time of lukewarm beginnings.

It's a time for open speech and fearless thinking.

-- Helen Keller

Towards the end of Emile Zola’s The Beast of Man, an engineer and a fireman are quarreling in the locomotive of a passenger train. In his rage, the fireman has stoked the engine’s fire into an inferno. They grab at each other’s throats, each trying to force the other through the open door. Losing their balance, both fall out and perish. The train rumbles on at breakneck speed. The passengers, soldiers en route to the war front, are sleeping or drunkenly unaware of the impending disaster.

Zola’s story has been seen as a parable of modern runaway societies. Those supposedly in charge, embroiled in their own personal dramas, paralyzed with performance anxiety, or caught up in their ambitions, have left the driver’s seat. Meanwhile we, their oblivious passengers, are about to pay the price.

So how did we all get here? Let us consider some facts. A common conservative strategy is setting up government agencies for failure (by slashing funding, for example) and then blaming any failure, not on disinvestment or deregulation, but the very agencies they set up to fail. Politicians, who rail against government and how they hate government (actually, “We, the people… ”), run for the offices of that very government. We ignore the fact that a gun endows people -- in a violent gun culture -- the power to inflict destruction like no other instrument. Sure pencils don’t cause people misspell words, but let me see how many people you can shred with one pencil as opposed to an assault weapon. All of these things are true but as a society we become inured -- we have fallen asleep -- to our reality. The train hurtles on while we watch “reality” on a two-dimensional flat screen.

The genius of the conservative movement lies in how they have convinced many of us that a regressive rather than a progressive tax structure is better for us (they call it “tax relief”). Conservatives have been very strategic in how they convinced a number of us to go along with trickle-down or “supply-side”economics -- an economic theory no real economist has ever backed.

In any case, our opinions are most often driven by the beliefs -- or better put, by the metaphors we live by. Conservatives have known this for some time and that is partly why many of you voted for Trump in the New Hampshire primary and why many more consistently vote against their own economic interests, or find some identification with something called a teabagger. Conservative operatives discovered long ago that people vote their values, not on the issues. Therefore, if you can frame, say, “family values” in a way that puts conservatism in a better light, you have co-opted the most important metaphor we all live by -- families.

Progressives have labored under the false notion that reason or issues should come first. Yes, issues are important, but people vote on values (frames) and if you can’t connect with people on values, you will never get your agenda on board. Let’s take the following facts as an example:

On trade, polls consistently show the public is very suspicious of the free trade agreements that have hurt the middle class. On health care, surveys dating from as far back as President Truman’s administration consistently show that about two-thirds of those asked desire a government-guaranteed universal health-insurance system -- even if that means higher taxes.

If the mainstream is more left of center, then why aren’t these issues on the table for public discourse? Why? Well, for one they haven’t been framed adequately and there is a substantive number of so-called progressives who have abandoned the progressive principle of health care as a right rather than a privilege. Many of Hillary Clinton’s supporters, for example, like to say they support this principle but will not vote for a candidate who wants to implement it, nor advocate for it. This is what they call pragmatism -- the politics of “no you can’t!”

And this is unfortunate because one of the ways issues are framed is through repetition. Comic Jon Stewart formerly of The Daily Show, made a career highlighting hilarious video clips of the right-wing noise machine using the same words over and over. Every day. This is a very effective way to express and embed an idea. The words come with frames of reference attached. Those frames in turn latch on to and activate deeper, subconscious frames. When repeated incessantly, the words serve to reinforce deep frames by actually strengthening neural connections in listeners.

In that way, I can stand up on a stump and yell out catch phrases like “family values!” or “tough on crime!” and immediately in your brain a barrage of conservative-framed neurologically connected issues appear. I can blurt out, “tax and spend” and immediately conservative frames come to your mind. “Tough on crime!” “Traditional marriage!” “Choice!” For the last 40 years, a vast network of think tanks, newspapers, radio and TV shows have embedded these values into the collective mind of unsuspecting or apathetic Americans, creating a passive mindset. Shit, people all over the world, who are taking to the streets to fight for their equal share are wondering, “Where are the Americans?” Sadly, we have fallen asleep and the train is hurtling towards sure disaster... 

My name is Eddie and I’m in recovery from civilization…