Rest in Power, Brother Glen Ford -- thanks for always "afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted!"

Global Research News Hour · Glen Ford Memorial August 6 2021

Being on the "right" side of history and humanity matters to me...

I've followed Black Agenda Report for some time now.  The first reason?  Clear and critical thinking that has always confirmed for me that -- I was not alone.  Second?  That I wasn't losing my damned mind being against the Changeling and his ilk from the get-go.

Not saying I wasn't initially hoodwinked and bamboozled by the only viable, "female" contender for a minute -- cuz I was (chalk that up to the fact that Cynthia McKinney, for whom I voted in 2008, was so Angry-Black-Woman-demonized, she didn't stand a chance and, to my having experienced more than my share of "long-legged Mac Daddies" (as my sister, Sugar used to call the Changeling back in the day -- Sugar, where in the hayell are you??) than the law allowed.

Look, I feel this mixed little boy's confusion, raised by his white mother's half of the family while not looking like them (let's not forget their connection to the Geithner family, m'kay?), with no connection to his African-ness other than his name and a Black wife, with South  Carolina, Gullah roots.  I even  get how having a white grandmama who clutched her purse and pearls when Black folk (who looked like him!) approached, would make him feel that being accepted, adored and written about by white America made him feel more important than being truly humane, like Dr. King (whom he channels whenever necessary), honest -- and Black.  I also get how he needed to feel powerful, important, relevant and most importantly, accepted in these alleged, united states -- by any means necessary (his only connection to Malcolm, please hear me).

But what I don't get is -- notwithstanding all of his "lookin' like us" shit  -- why WE don't, as young sister Lauryn sang,  "Rebel" against the Trojan Horse, megalomaniacal puppetry in which he indulges.

Not casting aside the many, critically thinking others in the following video, I have to say that Kali Akuno and Abayomi Azikiwe, both, have it exactly right in this great compilation of facts.  Family please -- do listen, and maybe learn a thing or two:

Family, turn off the MSM and feed your mind with Black Agenda TV!

Every Wednesday morning, I click on Black Agenda Report for my weekly dose of Black sanity in this White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy we call America.  Imagine my surprise to find "Season 1, Episode 2" of Black Agenda TV!

I don't know how I slept Episode 1, but you can bet I went looking for it, and found it.  I'm posting both episodes here because:

1. I don't want you to have missed any part of this truth-telling and,
2. Since I'm not on Facebook or any other social media forums (because my old ass ain't trying to:  build a presence, which is why I deleted the "Followers" gadget; nor solicit folk for funds that solely benefit my capitalist interests,  which is why I have no ads; nor look for blog awards as confirmation that what I write, "is important") -- this is my only means of helping, in my own small way, to spread this very important word to those of you who take the time, to drop in and read me -- because this thing they're doing, is so very important for us.

No, this is NOT your Mama's or Daddy's Black TV, Family -- not BET, not News One, not Oprah.  What it IS -- is a group of dedicated Black journalists, who've come together to produce the kind of information about which we all need to critically think if we are to survive as a people. Sit back, relax, take it in, chew on it, dissect it and then, if you can honestly say my observation ain't so -- say so, and back that shit up!:






Black Agenda Report has been my shelter in the unending storms of propaganda levelled at Black folk, particularly since the appearance of the Changeling.  For years I kept wondering if I was the crazy one!  Then I found folk, like -- Bruce Dixon, Glen Ford, Margaret Kimberley, Sese, Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, Jemima Pierrre, Mark P. Fancher, Solomon Commissiong, Jared Ball, et. al who weren't "shining up shit and calling it gold."  They were, in the purest sense, "speaking truth to power" and never backing down.  I knew then, that I'd really found a "virtual" home in the Black Diaspora in which I fit -- and which fit me.

From Freedom Rider: "Black Agenda Report at UNAC"

I'm still not  able to log into, or comment on, Black Agenda Report since this happened, so I'm reallly glad Margaret Kimberley posted the following video on her personal, "Freedom Rider" blog.  If you're sure you don't want to blindly follow the Changeling and his string pullers into Armageddon - and particularly if you're not, this United National AntiWar Coalition (UNAC) workshop is well worth a listen (tried linking to UNAC but for some reason, the link doesn't work here):



During my visits to West Africa since 2010, I can definitely attest that what Glen Ford is saying, from the 32:01 to 33:34 segment of the video, is true. The Chinese are there, doing exactly what Glen said - and more.

And speaking of China, remember the Changeling's little, "We're filing a trade case with the WTO against China over their Rare Earths materials" performance a couple months ago? Here's it is if you missed it:

"This case involves, something called rare earth materials, which are used by American manufacturers to make high-tech products, like advanced batteries that power everything from hybrid cars to cell phones. We want our companies building those products right here in America. But to do that, American manufacturers need access to rare earth materials – which China supplies. Now if China would simply let the market work on its own, we’d have no objections but, their policies currently are preventing that from happening, and they go against the very rules that China agreed to follow. Being able to manufacture advanced batteries and hybrid cars in America is too important for us to stand by and do nothing. We’ve got to take control of our energy future and we can’t let that energy industry take root in some other country because they’re allowed to break the rules.” (emphasis mine)

Taking "control of our energy future" - is accomplished by bringing a trade case against China??  It's their shit!!  As Maxine would say:

Or maybe he thought all of us did, Maxine.

Okay, he's threatening to sue China, over their rare earth materials, because our exceedingly greedy and consumptive country -

1. doesn't make a damned thing on its own anymore, except of course - those things with which we and our allies kill others in sovereign countries (as Glen so wonderfully and succinctly explained from the 25:37 to 32:00 segment in the first video) and,
2. didn't, and still won't, plan for this inevitability???

So all of this is China's fault??  Come on, Man!  I guess the gazillion dollars we're indebted to them is their fault too.  Talk about spewing the "company line!" {smdh}

I'm not going to sit here and act like I understand all the specifics of this, but here are some folk who seem to:



I don't know about you, but it seems to me - we can't have our cake and eat it too.  Food for thought.

###

Back to the UNAC video.  I just got back from South Carolina a few weeks ago now, and Bruce Dixon's observation at the 45:26 click is dead-on.  I told my brother as we rode through what used to be the predominantly Black eastside, "Riley and his cohorts are makin' sure the city will only be for white folk - and those Black folk who love to look down their noses at their own people."  And he is.  I'll write more about that, hopefully sooner, rather than later.

Am I the only person blocked from logging in to Black Agenda Report??!!

Since I can find no way to login to my account in order to ask this question, I'm hoping SOMEONE (anyone!) can help me out.

I've been following Black Agenda Report ever since I found them some years ago - because they speak the kind of truth to power that needs to be spoken by Black folk.  Not until they were recently hacked, have I ever had a problem with logging in and commenting.

NOW, the site does not update on my "Blog List" in the sidebar, nor can I log in to comment.  When I try to, I get this message from Norton:

Severity:  High - "An intrusion attempt by lethbrant.com was blocked."  The attacking computer is the aforementioned address, followed by - (188.72.198.50,80) the Attacker URL is the aforementioned address/microworld/zo/radiobutton.

I've no idea what this is, or why it's happening.  All I know is, I'm pissed I cannot interact online with one of my favorite sites!  Has anyone else had this problem?

Wyclef, mon coeur pleure pour le Haïti aussi...

(Updates I, II, III & IV below)

I say in the title, "Wyclef, my heart cries for Haiti too."  And it does, and it has, and it will - still.  Because with all of the monetary aid pouring in, with all the "temporary suspensions" of debt and policies, Haiti will continue to be at the mercy of countries (including our own), who fail to understand - worse yet care - how self-determination works for those who've not had the luxury of calling the shots.

My heart cried for Haiti when I wrote the following column for my small South Florida paper back on November 15, 2002 after a wooden vessel ran aground just southeast of downtown Miami near Virginia Key.  It was an attempt to explain what I saw as yet another example of the entrenched, White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchal (WSCP) behavior continuing to divide and conquer Blacks and Browns - at the expense of the Blacks this time:

Cuban Adjustment Act continues to create discord

A 50-foot wooden vessel ran aground about 500 yards from Miami on Oct. 29. Onboard were well over 200 Haitians migrants seeking a better way of life. At sea for a number of days without food and water and weakened by those conditions, they began jumping and/or dropping their young children overboard into 10 to 12 feet of water, hoping against hope that they could elude the Coast Guard vessels that had been following them for two hours and make it to shore. Twenty-one Haitians had to be rescued from the water after jumping from that overloaded boat.

And what of those who made it ashore? They ran onto the busy, six-lane Rickenbacker Causeway, trying desperately to stop motorists, hoping they could somehow escape the Border Patrol agents they knew would detain them. Their ultimate goal? To flee the abject poverty and despair of the hemisphere's poorest country where two-thirds of the population is unemployed or underemployed and most people survive on less than $1 a day.

But unknown to them, their return was all but guaranteed by a Nov. 8, U.S. Department of Justice announcement which restated the United States post-9/11 stance taken in December 2001 - "As of Nov. 13, all undocumented migrants who arrive by sea - except Cubans - will be detained without bond and placed in expedited removal."

The reason the Bush administration reversed its policy of releasing all asylums seekers into the community after they had established a "credible fear of persecution?" They claimed that releasing the Haitians could threaten national security by prompting a mass exodus, tying up Coast Guard resources that he said should be committed to "homeland security" and the "war on terrorism."

And what of the large number of Cubans who've come ashore in the Keys alone last year? Were there no resources committed to them? While most asylum seekers from every other nation continue to be released within days in Miami, practically all migrants from Haiti are jailed. Does anyone else out there see the blatant double-standard being applied to those of a decidedly darker hue?

Fast forward to earlier this week when, described by a Nov. 12 Miami Herald article as an "escort to freedom," two Air National Guard jets scrambled to accompany a yellow single-engine cargo plane carrying eight family members from Cuba as it taxied into Key West International Airport. According to an airport employee, the article went on to say, "They were dressed like they were on vacation, smiling and casually walking with Customs and INS agents as two Key West police cruisers followed them."

Secure in the "wet foot/dry foot" policy of the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act, this group had nothing to fear once they set foot on American soil. There was no need for desperate measures. They were home free because Cubans who arrive at designated ports of entry into the United States - i.e. airports, seaports and land ports located at the border - are released on bond and granted permanent residency after a year.

And according to an April 1999 memorandum, then INS Commissioner Doris Meissner "clarified" the policy further stating, "Cubans - along with their spouses and children - who arrive at other than designated ports of entry into the United States are eligible for parole, as well as eventual adjustment of status to that of permanent resident, under the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act. This policy clarification, effective immediately, helps define in specific terms those Cubans who are eligible for parole and adjustment of status under the Cuban Adjustment Act, regardless of how they arrived in the United States."

Even if a Cuban national is in the United States without having been admitted or paroled by INS, all they have to do is first surrender into INS custody, receive a grant of parole and wait one year before applying for permanent residence under the CAA. With the grant of parole, he/she is then eligible to apply for employment authorization.

Though the CAA was not a product of this administration's watch, its perpetuation and retooling of this obvious "divide and conquer" piece of politics smacks of the days of Jim Crow - a period in this nation's history that seems unwilling to die the ugly death it deserves. By affording special status to one race, another is completely devalued and a wedge is driven between the two that will, yet again, take generations to heal.

Rather than laying out all the historical reasons why our government - in consort with others - has much for which to account in Haiti, I think Earl Ofari Hutchinson's, Where Was the World When Haiti Really Needed It? sums it up pretty well and is truly worth the read.

My heart cries for Haiti as I see how this recent (because it's hardly the first), natural disaster continues to play out the privilege and racism inherent in our society.  Though I felt these parents' pain as I sat watching this interview by Ann Curry on the Today Show, the "quiet riot" deep in my gut said, "If only their pleas were for ALL the children."  Listen, and tell me if you hear the inherent privilege seeping out amidst the anguish:




And when you're done, listen to Wyclef having to defend his NGO -Yéle Haiti:





Look, having worked with Black non-profits, I admit there's always the probability of someone absconding with some or all of the organization's funds - and I even understand why, which is oftentimes different from why whites do it, but not always (neither makes it right).  But that's not, IMHO, what the current attack on Wyclef is all about.  Quite frankly, I think it's about the possibility of HIM, HAVING THE ABILITY NOW,  TO DO WHAT MANY WHITE, NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED NON-PROFITS (the Red Cross for example) HAVE BEEN DOING FOR AGES - period.  That, and the fact that - due to the high volume of donations he's receiving - he's blocking their "Let's line-our-pockets" blessing (some people just want ALL the damn money) of course.  The outrage, coupled with the massive encouraging of people to donate any and everywhere else BUT Yéle Haiti, is quite telling - if you just listen. 

As for me, I'm giving my few pennies (and my volunteer efforts as soon as I can find a way) to a "Native Son" who really knows the people, the language and the lay of the land - instead of those other "saviors" (the Changeling included) who are rolling in - and out.

UPDATE I:  Wyclef to Oprah: "Haiti Don't Need No More Photo Ops"
UPDATE II:  Credit Card Companies Profit Off Tragedy in Haiti 
UPDATE III:  US Mercenaries Set Sights on Haiti - this piece from Jeremy Scahill at The Nation is particularly disturbing given the reputation of mercenary groups like Blackwater (now "Xe") in Iraq, Afghanistan and New Orleans.  A brief excerpt:

On January 15, a Florida-based company called All Pro Legal Investigations registered the URL Haiti-Security.com. It is basically a copy of the company's existing US website but is now targeted for business in Haiti, claiming the "purpose of this site is to assure construction and reconstruction companies considering a Haiti project that professional security is available."


"All Protection and Security has made a commitment to the Haitian community and will provide professional security against any threat to prosperity in Haiti," the site proclaims. "Job sites and supply convoys will be protected against looters and vandals. Workers will be protected against gang violence and intimidation. The people of Haiti will recover, with the help of the good people from the world over."

With THESE GUYS on the ground - Yéle Haiti's the least of the world community's "aid" problems!  Unless of course they seek out their "protection" services.

UPDATE IV:  It's not All about That!:  Wyclef Jean is fronting in Haiti - from the Haitian Information Project on Black Agenda Report.com.

I have to say that I was not aware of Wyclef's familial connections to the U.S./CIA-backed overthrow of Aristede.  I obviously need to read more shit!  That being said, I still will not donate to the Red Cross in this effort.

DAMMIT TAVIS!! - Guess YOU don't want to be "Accountable" anymore

Okay, because I'm always telling folk - "Don't step to me, unless you're willing to own your shit - and  if you're not, I WILL call you on it." - I have to own my own shit.  I was WRONG about Tavis Smiley for all these years.

There!  That feels good!

When I read this, Tavis Smiley Ends State of Black American Union Show, Continues Media Lockdown of Obama's Black Critics at Black Agenda Report, all I could say was "Dammit Tavis!!"  Bruce Dixon paraphrases the gist of the "announcement" thusly:

Tavis's cancellation announcement, a brief video on his tavistalks.com web site is long on folksy introductions, self-congratulation, thank-yous, and goodbyes. The reasons he offers for ending the annual event are brief and unconvincing. Ten years ago, he offers, “...there was only one syndicated black radio show... there was only one black TV network... we didn't have an African American president... (and) we no longer have to wait for one day a year in February to discuss issues that matter to us...” on TV.  (emphasis mine)

NOW, having an African-American president matters to you when it comes to publcly holding his ass "Accountable?"  After AL-L-L-L your bullshit, faux outrage at the Changeling snubbing the Black community by sending his wife instead of coming his damn self to the (what we now find, is the - final ) SOBU to discuss issues that matter to us before the election??!!   So NOW you're saying the damned mainstream media IS discussing issues that matters to us??  Since when, Mr. Smiley?  Since now that you've really got yours (thank you Walmart, PBS, NPR, PRI, et al)??  What a damned hypocrite you are Mr. Smiley.

Turns out - as PLENTY of people warned me - it wasn't about OUR SHIT after all!!  Was it ever?  Now, I don't think so.  Dammit Tavis!!

Seems to me, it was about ALL the shit they SAID it was about (You, Your Ego and dem dollar bills y'all)!!  And this fumbling, bumbling explanation for pulling the cork on the SOBU is enough for me to believe that everything they said was true (couldn't embed it, but please DO listen):  TAVIS ANNOUNCES END OF SOBU.

I'm too mad right now to expound - maybe later...

h/t to willyjsimmons over at Cinie's Place for this reminder:

For all you "Revisionists" out there - WHITE AND BLACK...

...stop conflating Obama's selection with fulfillment of Dr. King's dream - Please!