January 21, 2016

The truth is if we didn't elect Obama, we wouldn't have Bernie as President

Hey everybody.
Been away from this forum for awhile because I needed some fresh air.
Last time I was here I was debating about the rights of sex workers & talking about the inevitable destiny of Hillary Clinton as the 45th President of the United States.

Luckily, destiny has been averted with the arrival of Bernie Sanders.
Didn't see him coming but I'm so glad he's here.
I have come to look at politics much like scratchoffs in the Lotto system.
Most likely ain't gonna win nothin' but every now & then I might win a free play or even a couple of dollars.

The Obama era has tempered my already faded hopes that much gets done through the system.
I didn't vote in 2010 out of anger for his half-heartedness.
I KNEW & STILL KNOW that this man can transform the country with a mere word.
His bully pulpit is mighty & when he DID use it things changed. Sometimes virtually overnight.
There's a reason why opposition to gay marriage has collapsed after he gave that interview with gay Robin Roberts on ABC TV.
And when he cries on screen about gun victims & talks about finally doing the basics in getting a handle on these tragedies, you see the results.

I have been tired of the Democrats forever & haven't identified myself as Democrat for many years now.
I joined this forum in 2008 when Obama made his first run & I wasn't a Democrat even then.
I vote WITH the Democrats but I am not a Democrat.
I wanted so bad for Obama to transform the weak-ass Democratic Party along WITH the country.
Hoped so much that he'll turn this political faction into something worth voting for instead of using them to vote AGAINST the obvious problem. Because he OBVIOUSLY had the power.
He WAS the Transformative President.
But that didn't happen & I got mad & sat out for 2010.

Going by the name of this forum I refer to myself as the UNDERGROUND over the DEMOCRATIC.
Many times on this forum I have pointed out the flaws & benefits of both sides.
The DEMOCRATIC has the numbers & the team organization but they lack the conviction & principles.
The UNDERGROUND has the conviction & principles but they lack the numbers & team organization.

Put simply, I see the DEMOCRATIC part of this forum as the Rah-Rah Cheerleaders who swoon over pics of the First Family & other Democratic Party officials as hero figures.
They might not take these figures to task preferring to follow blindly but because of that same trait they also make better team members who work together better.
On the other hand, I see the UNDERGROUND part of this forum as the Lone Wolf Contrarians who'll break on every mini-issue & micro-issue ensuring that they'll end up splintered & not effective.
They might be horrible for team efforts with their splintery ways but because of that same trait they'll challenge the team & keep the principle & convictions on track.
You need BOTH to win & I have come to appreciate that being on this forum for the past 8 years.

After I made this realization (along with the need to keep voting out of respect for my ancestors who fought & died for the right. Yes, I'm Black) I told myself NEVER to skip an election ever again.
EVEN IF I don't believe in the system anymore...STILL do it.
And I use the Lotto analogy to make sense of my participation.
I didn't miss any more elections after 2010 & recognized that it's all about coalitions.
It's about the DEMOCRATIC working with the UNDERGROUND to make things happen.
And obviously both sides are not best buddies & won't see eye to eye on every issue or sometimes many issues.

Even though I KNOW Hillary won't really do much of anything if elected, I was prepared to vote for her for the sake of the coalition.
As much as I was disappointed in Obama, I have to admit that his mere existence in that office has changed the conversation on many things in this country.
The demographics of this coalition that works through this political faction known as the Democratic Party is one of GROWTH.
An optimistic diverse pack of people with lots of youth.
That's the future of this country & the Democratic Party has that coalition backing them up.

Obama REALLY DID change things in America in a subtle way.
We are now looking at the end of the Republican Party as a national political force.
That eventually kills the regional power of that party before long.
The coalition backing the Republican Party is breaking down while the coalition backing the Democratic Party is getting stronger.
Hillary's election would easily further this situation.
Now EVERYBODY will know that the Presidency is within grasp.
A Black can become President & a Woman can too.

And maybe a Jew can too. Especially one with the credentials of Bernie Sanders.
A man who said outloud in the open that he was a Democratic Socialist & didn't flinch.
And THEN he got support across the board.
That mother might just change something. And not subtlely either.
There's a reason why the Black Lives Matter protestors bumrushed his events.
Because he might be the only one who will actually do anything significant.
He might be the only one who cares for real.

We might have won big money on this scratchoff for once.
Our numbers might have just come in when we least expected it.
And when I think about it, NONE OF THIS would have been REMOTELY possible if we didn't get Obama elected as the 44th President of the United States.
Could you imagine Bernie saying these things & winning with it a mere 8 years ago?

That article I read on Salon years ago was TRUE.
Obama and the dawn of the Fourth Republic
It talked about how roughly every 72 years a new structure in the American political system takes place.
For the first half of that time, things go generally in the direction of the one who started the structure.
Then for the second half of that time, things go generally against the direction of the one who started the structure.
At the end of the second half, you have a collapse of that structure & then a new one starts a new structure.

George Washington was the one who started the 1st one.
Abraham Lincoln was the one who started the 2nd one.
Franklin Roosevelt was the one who started the 3rd one.
And Barack Obama is supposed to represent the start of the 4th structure.

This seems to pan out with Bernie AND Hillary running on the Democratic ticket.
Either one who gets in strengthens this coalition.
Bernie takes it much further than Hillary ever will but either way whichever one gets elected is poison to the coalition of the Republicans/Conservatives.
And that means that for about 36 years, this country is about to get more & more Progressive in its policies before it inevitably goes the opposite way.

Bottom line, without Obama we wouldn't have Bernie as President.
And it definitely shows me that all my votes were not in vain.
That maybe it might just be a little more than a scratchoff on a Lotto ticket.
It's about the coalitions & making sure they stay together long enough to get the policies we need.

Hillary's destiny may or may not be denied but this coalition of people who votes for the Democrats will benefit very soon.
It's about to go our way for a good long while so let's get as much done as we can before the pendulum inevitably swings the other way.
Going for Bernie but I will make doggone sure not to let Donald Trump ever SEE the inside of that White House as anything other than a visitor. So if we only got Hillary, I'll take her.
Either one we pick, at least we won't end up like 1945 Germany.

John Lucas

January 18, 2014

Ask yourself "Why do we depend on leaders in the first place?"

I decided to make this post separately as its own topic.
Originally it was a reply to Armstead in his topic Why bother? They're all screwing us over. from January 17, 2014.

I titled it Ask yourself "Why do we depend on leaders in the first place?"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024345076#post192

I wanted to give him a real answer not some rah-rah Democratic Party cheerleading because I don't see much use in that.
The Democratic Party is merely a vehicle to achieve the aims of Utopia, where Civilization protects & benefits each & every member that composes it.
Some people get confused & forget that the Democratic Party is just one vehicle of many.
They begin to sound like Kim Wayans' portrayal of Benita Butrell from In Living Color...
..."Don't nobody better not saying nothin' bad 'bout Miss Jenkins!"

No, I wanted to transform his thought on the entire subject.
Maybe our system is not enough. Maybe ANY government system is not enough.
Maybe our whole tendency to look to leaders to enhance our lives is counterproductive.
Yeah, birds flock behind the lead bird when they migrate. There's always some kind of chief or Alpha or king or whatever ruling some group. It seems as natural as breathing & taking a dump, doesn't it?
But Civilization by definition is a rebellion AGAINST Nature & maybe just maybe we need to question our natural dependence on leaders.

I have observed human nature & I think I have come up with a set of unmistakable universal truths about who we are & how we operate. We're special but we're not THAT special.
There are things that apply to every single member of humanity.

Take a listen to the following words & let me know what you think.

*************************************************************************

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024345076#post192


Why do people want to be LED anyway?
That's the inherent problem right there.
They expect someone they exalt on a pedestal to be concerned with the troubles of those on the dirty ground.
That's not realistic & never was.

There's 2 truths you must know about human beings.
#1: People are Selfish.
#2: People are Lazy.

And another truth is that Thank Goodness for #2 or there would be even MORE suffering on this planet from the hands of humankind.
Most people don't have follow-through & that probably protects us from the fallout of #1.
When people are selfish, people can be dangerous. That's what leads to evil. Putting self above all others always.
Energy is limited so people at most are not as destructive as they can be.
Most people don't have the energy & dedication to become the BTK killer.
Usually most people will do is spout nasty words at you or give you nasty looks.
Only with the energy derived from passion & the heat of the moment do you see people's nasty nature develop further.
That's why separation works best to defuse fights. Energy decreases & they're too tired to close the distance.
Without that laziness, you'd have more BTKs & Son of Sams running around.
Ambition is DANGEROUS when it is not tempered or offset by something else.
The truth is Laziness is a Virtue.

Those 2 rules apply to EVERY human being: me, you, & every other one of those 7 billion plus.

I'm gonna apply a 3rd truth to this maxim.
#3: People are Weak.

And THIS rule is the ONLY reason we have anything good in human society.
Our individual abilities are limited. You can only go so far with your 2 hands & 2 legs.
I don't care if you're a Mensa genius or the World's Strongest Man.
A baby is absolutely selfish from birth. He/she demands you put everything down to serve him/her.
But because babies can't really do much but cry really, we don't notice this seed of evil.
Once the baby gets more mobility & ability, that selfishness, that evil seed becomes MUCH more noticeable.
That's why they call them the Terrible Twos.

It is at THAT point that a baby must be taught to consider others with regard & respect.
Otherwise the kid becomes a monster. Lord of the Flies is real.
Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, got it exactly right when he made the Kid version of Majin Buu the most dangerous.

When we teach kids to respect boundaries all we're really doing is creating selfishness parallels.
Parents are just old babies who want the new baby to adhere to the old baby's selfishness.
Selfishness comes to a standoff between beings & we learn to perform exchange as things equal out.
The new baby has to respect the old babies' rules but the old baby promises to take care of the new baby's needs.
And it is a tug of war match of control all the way through as one selfishness collides with another selfishness over the years of both "babies" growth.

Weakness, the lack of power, the inability to do something, forces us to come to parallel with each other.
It forces us to exchange favors & services with each other creating the social fabric.
The more powerful an individual becomes within a group, the less incentive a person has to want to come to parallel.
They can wall themselves off in their own little bubble & ignore the needs of the others.
This is what privilege is all about.

When we exalt, raise up, pedestal-on-high an individual over us, WHAT IN THE HELL DO WE EXPECT???
There HAS to be a weakness tying that person's needs to the needs of the others or they just won't GIVE a "flock"!
Those who we push up on ivory towers to lead us DO NOT & CANNOT relate to our lives.
Their existence is totally different than ours, their day-to-day interactions are totally different than ours, & they will become different than us because of it.
That's why it's hard to make friends with people too far out of your economic class.
That's why it's hard to make friends with ANYONE too different than you.

We NEVER grow out of our own selfishness really.
It only becomes tempered & offset thanks to laziness & weakness.
If we relate to anything outside of ourselves, it is only because it reminds us of ourselves.
That's why a jackrabbit named Bugs Bunny walks upright on two legs, holds his carrot with his opposable thumb, & talks.
That's why each & every alien in the Star Trek series is some variation on a humanoid.
The aliens of the Alien series repulse us BECAUSE THEY DON'T remind us of ourselves. They look like roaches.

Even though Self is most important to any person, Self Outside Of Self will also get due consideration.
This is why the parent/child bond is the hardest to break (each child is 50% of each parent, a literal Self Outside Of Self).
This is why the Family/Friends bond is the second hardest to break (True Blue Friends are in effect Chosen Family AKA Physical/Ideological Self Outside Of Self).
This is why the Social Circle exists.

The Elite have reached parallel with each other. Ultimately they want it all for themselves alone but they agree to share & exchange power amongst each other because they recognize themselves in each other.
In effect this causes them to see the other human beings outside of this circle as NOT human beings.
We got 2 legs we walk upright on, 2 hands with fingers & thumbs, we can talk, but we're not really PEOPLE.
That's why the words Employee, Worker, Servant, Serf, Taxpayer, Constituent, Soldier, Defendant, Plaintiff, Citizen, Commoner, Layperson, Perp, Inmate, Parolee, Consumer, Demographic, Dependent, & many others like that exist.
We are considered FUNCTIONS not PEOPLE. We are FUNCTIONS in a social/mechanical/political machine designed to serve the selfishness of some overpowered old babies.

We become the 3rd type of human relationships: Service to Self.
This is erroneously called a Lovers' Relationship & erroneously thought to only deal with intimate/sexual relations between people.
It should be called a Lusters' Relationship because it is all about "I want, I want, I want".
Lust does not always concern sexual matters, remember that.
You remember terms like 'a lust for adventure', 'a lust for life', right?
This is the weakest human relationship because it is always one-sided. There's no equal exchange going on.
One person spends his/her life, time, & energy in service to another without much return for the favor.
Once the serving person has fulfilled his/her usefulness, that person is unceremoniously discarded & ignored by the one he/she served.
You're just a tool, you're just a function.

This is how those who lead others & are exalted above others will begin to see those not like them.
If they have no connection to you & they are made more powerful as you use your power to exalt them, they will not recognize you as more than a mere function of a machine.
Why in the hell do we expect this reality to change just because we can supposedly pick our leaders?

Good in society is ALWAYS MANUFACTURED.
Good in society is ALWAYS MANIPULATED.
It is a complex TRICK to get people to come to parallel with each other & exchange the favors that make sure that EVERYBODY'S needs are taken care of.
There has not been ONE, NOT ONE society on Earth then AND now, that has mastered this trick yet.
That includes the supposedly United States of America.
With every Revolution on Earth it seems that we only trade one set of bad leaders for another.
We're never gonna get what we need depending on a leader.

We must somehow manipulate not just American society but EVERY world society to see Self Outside Of Self up & down the line.
We must realize the fiction of national borders & see each other as an Earth society.
We must become Family, familiar with one another. We must have ties with one another to ENSURE that we stay family.
We must counter & offset not only our own inherent selfishness but make it fashionable for OTHERS to want to do the same.
You're not gonna get it on an individual basis. You need numbers. Lots of numbers of people doing the same thing to stand a chance.
But remember that People are Lazy so you will have to find a way that this can be done EASILY with as little energy given as possible. That or you must find a way to energize people for a constructive purpose (much harder to do).
Media is a great way to have people come on board with a message without spending too much energy.
Yes, it comes down to marketing. You gotta sell it. It must hit emotions over logic because people ain't really logical.

Any advancement we ever got in this miserable existence on Earth was because it was manipulated into being.
Elite means Few & physics is always a numbers game. They're too weak to do it by themselves without others' help.
They're too weak to keep it TO themselves without others' help.
If enough old babies who come to parallel with each other outnumber another set of old babies who came to parallel with each other, the smaller set of old babies will either give up some of the MINE MINE MINE to soothe & placate the bigger set of old babies...
...or they might just include the bigger set of old babies inside their circle.

We think we did good when we got the New Deal in 1930s. Hahahahahahahahahaha!!
Man, that was just a bribe! That was a token of concession. Those old babies just gave up a little piece of the MINE MINE MINE.
Once they gave you a few toys from their playpen, you walked away satisfied while they still kept most of the toys.
Those things were conceded to cool down a Revolution.
Same thing happened with the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
They knew if Blacks, Whites, Hispanics, Native Americans, Women, Gays, Peaceniks ever started seeing themselves on the same page, they would come for the toys in the playpen.
They defused a potential revolution by conceding legal civil rights for Blacks.
Neither time did we get what we were supposed to get.

If we can't achieve the best solution that I outlined earlier where all people on Earth recognize Self Outside Of Self with every other, then we just gotta do second best & force concessions from that small but exalted set of old babies.
It's simple physics. One needle isn't gonna scare a bed of needles.
But one blunt massive block will scare the hell out of that needle bed.
A massive blunt block can hammer down those needles, those nails.

Pinning all hopes on one leader is fighting a bed of needles with one single needle.
And it's easy to lose needles between your fingers.
Betcha won't lose that block so easily.
The hardest part is only in building that block.

Think deeply about what I just told you here.
Barack Obama is not gonna save us & neither is Elizabeth Warren nor Hillary Clinton nor even Bernie Sanders.
Only US will save US.
John Lucas

November 18, 2013

Nintendo products have always been the most reliable. Wii U is the best choice.

Remember the Game Boy?

In the 1991 Gulf War, a soldier had a Game Boy in his barracks & then all of a sudden here comes a mortar attack!
The troops had to scramble including the Game Boy owner leaving his Game Boy behind in the process.
The soldier later discovered that his Game Boy somehow survived the attack & was STILL WORKING!
Charred up & melted yet still playing the very same Tetris cartridge it was playing before it was bombed!
Soldier somewhere along the line donated the battle-worn Game Boy to Nintendo & they put it on display at their Nintendo World Store in New York City.
22 years later it STILL WORKS with that VERY SAME Tetris cartridge playing within it.

Here's the item in question.

Another example.
A few years ago G4TV decided to do a stress test on the competing consoles of the 6th generation era—Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's XBox, & Nintendo's Gamecube.
Smashing it with heavy weights, dropping it from stories high, & hitting it with a sledgehammer.
G4TV host Morgan Webb did the hands-on testing & guess which console survived the destruction?




Another example.
Some dudes decided to drag a Nintendo Gamecube behind a car for some reason.
They wanted to see how strong the Gamecube was & how much damage it could take.
Gamecube bounced violently off the pavement, ate the grass, just damaged all around (a poster on the comment board said that another car hit the Gamecube which was edited out of the footage).
The game disc lid was loose & unhinged & it didn't look like the thing would work.

They turn it on later when they get to their house & you can guess the results (they even put a game in it).




One last example.
A site called GizmoSlip decided to do a drop test on the Wii U Gamepad, that tablet-like controller for the Wii U.
(I call it the Upad)
The GizmoSlip host dropped it at 4 foot heights from different angles. Guess what was the result.




People have come up with a catchphrase for this Nintendo phenomenon: Nintendium.
And there are so many anecdotes of Nintendo consoles, cartridges, & discs left outside for months in the snowy cold & the drenching rains, accidentally left in clothes pockets while going through the washing machine, dropped into toilets full of water, surviving house fires yet still surviving & still working.

The site TVTropes.org has a series of entries for Nintendo under its Tonka Tough trope.
Some of the accounts under these entries sound almost like Ripley's Belieive It Or Not level but they are all true.

It's very simple. Nintendo which started as (and still is) a playing card company also became a toy company in the 1960s.
Kids tear up stuff. We know this. So you have to make something that can stand up to the many many innovative ways a kid can destroy an item. Good toy companies know this.
Kids make up & will always make up a major component of Nintendo's audience so their products have to stand up to a kid's abuse.
The high-tech toys known as videogames & videogame consoles fall right into line with that philosophy.


Nintendo is one of the last of the 'Maytag washer' style of companies making products today.
Those old commercials with the bored lonely Maytag repairman exampling the durability of Maytag products (at least once upon a time).
That represents Nintendo's commitment to quality. A quality they maintain in hardware as well as software.
I have Nintendo consoles from over 20 years ago & they still work as good as new top this day despite being caked in layers of dust from years of non-use.
You get your money's worth from Nintendo. They're one of the last companies in the world to actually give a damn.

And they treat their staff very well. When the company goes through a rough patch the president of the company doesn't go around firing his staff to cut costs.
HE takes the pay cut instead.
Satoru Iwata is his name, the successor to the late Hiroshi Yamauchi who transitioned Nintendo from playing cards to videogames.
Nintendo President Takes Blame for 3DS, Getting 50 Per Cent Pay Cut
Satoru Iwata Refuses to Layoff Nintendo Employees

For this reason alone, people should get behind Nintendo.
The Progressives & Democrats at this site should see Nintendo as business done RIGHT.
High quality durable products at affordable prices that last a lifetime backed by a corporate structure that values their employees & their customers.

All this talk about PlayStations & XBoxes...
Nintendo brought this videogame business back from the brink of death in the 1980s & have made it what it is today.
This is their field, this is their baby. Others will come, others will go but Nintendo will always be here like that old oak tree in the forest.
The real home console to look at is the Wii U.
John Lucas

October 18, 2012

Biology forms Identity. Identity forms Culture. Culture forms Politics.

In a thread in the Feminists group about Amanda Todd who was internet stalked online then bullied by her classmates to her suicide, I got into a tangential discussion with LadyHawkAZ (it starts here).
We were debating the culture that led to Amanda flashing her breasts on a webcam chat (which brought out her stalker).

LadyHawkAZ referenced an article that talked about the mixed messages girls get about sexuality in this society.
The Proper Lady/Slut complex AKA Madonna/Whore complex.
"Keep chaste & pure but put out" to put it simply.
She touched on the fact the adult stalker blackmailed Amanda by threatening to expose the pics playing off of this complex so she could pose for him more.
And the fact that the illogical double standard of Lady/Slut was in play when those kids who bullied her leading to her suicide.

I was more concerned about the nuts & bolts of why a girl had such access to the internet without supervision & why the stalker wasn't exposed HIMSELF for making the threats.
While I recognized the reality of that double standard & think it's nonsense to put Scarlet Letters on girls for stuff like this, I didn't quite think it was all cultural that girls in puberty start showing off their sexuality.

I believed that even WITHOUT the Lady/Slut complex females in puberty would start practicing out their sexual allure because
Masculine is PROGRAMMED to be attracted to Feminine
and
Feminine is PROGRAMMED to be attracted to Masculine.
The biological imperative.

It was getting off topic from the point of the thread so LadyHawkAZ asked me to start a new thread to debate this point further.
And here we are.

**************************************************************************************

I believe that Biology determines Identity.
From that Identity come Cultures formed as certain traits are promoted & demoted based on the needs of that environment.
Those Cultures shape the Politics, the Life Views of the people in those societies.

I have a very strong theory on how women's sexuality became oppressed in so many cultures on Earth.

Male biology & Female biology have marked differences.
For instance, it influences our approaches to sex since males drop seed easily & can walk away...
...while females have to carry that seed for 9 months eventually having a hard time walking & a harder time "harvesting" that seed until a 'baby' crop is birthed.

Think of an Extinction Level Event where there are only 11 people left on Earth.
In the 1st scenario think of this group of people as 10 men & 1 woman.
In the 2nd scenario think of this group of people as 10 women & 1 man.
They have to repopulate the Earth with these 11 people.

1st scenario
The 1 woman has sex with the 10 men to make a baby.
Nine months later she has the baby & now there are 12 people on Planet Earth.
Maybe she has twins, triplets, quadruplets & so on.
If so there would be 13, 14, 15 people on Earth.

Minimum 1 extra human being every 9 months.

2nd scenario
The 1 man has sex with the 10 women to make a baby.
Nine months later the women each have their babies & now there are 21 people on Planet Earth.
Maybe they have twins, triplets, quadruplets & so on.
If so there would be 31, 41, 51 people on Earth.

Minimum 10 extra human beings every 9 months.

Look at how this pattern looks from both scenarios:
1st scenario (10 men, 1 woman): 11 ~ 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19
2nd scenario (10 women, 1 man): 11 ~ 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91

This made men more expendable since they can drop sperm very easily to spark life.
They send men to wars & dangerous pursuits since the world doesn't need as many men to reboot life.
This made women more protected since carrying a baby to birth is very hard to spark life.
They say women & children first on ships since the world needs many women to reboot life.

When women are pregnant they are sitting ducks for predators.
They can't run. They can barely fight. And they're protecting precious cargo in their balloon bellies possibly making them clumsy in the runaway.
Men have nothing else to do when women are pregnant except help fend off the predators so that the next generation can be born.
I believe this is how the protector male identity/protected female identity came out.

Being a protector meant being a controller since you were controlling your environment for the protection of the female.
Conflation took place & then the protectors started controlling the women & not just at pregnancy time.
Before you know it all the former protectors were about was controlling the women not for the women's sake but simply for their function of delivering babies.
Now women have value only by proxy. Children were the valuable ones & women were just a means to an end.

The identity has become a culture.

But all this because of that root biological structure that says men shoot & go and women carry the load.

Each culture assigns different status & functions for all the varied types of the human design.
With the feuding nature of Order & Chaos, we have form thanks to the static-ness of Order but our forms shape very differently thanks to the randomness of Chaos.

There are tall people, short people, fat people, thin people, muscular people, curvy people, physically strong people, physically weak people, extroverted people, introverted people, athletic people, scholarly people, creative people, near-sighted people, far-sighted people, people with 20/20 vision, fast people, slow people, talkative people, quiet people, heterosexual people, homosexual people, bisexual people, try-sexual people, dark-skinned people, light-skinned people, curly-haired people, straight-haired people, no-haired people, all-haired people, & on & on & on...

The biology of each person shapes how they see the world.
Take a person who is 6' 7" who can look at the tops of everyone's heads & see people coming in crowd from far away.
Take a person who is 4' 10" who can't see past a crowd being stuck in the middle crowded watching elbows, knees, & other body parts to make sure they don't smash into him/her

Height alone shapes so much of your personality & how you interact with other people.
That 6' 7 person with long legs doesn't need to make quick steps because of his/her long legs giving him/her a long stride.
They move like Shaggy from Scooby-Doo covering lots of ground with a slow gait.
That 4' 10" person has short legs & has to walk fast just to be able to keep up with the crowd, to keep up with their friends.
They move like Speedy Gonzales with many quickly struck steps to make that fast gait.

Biology also shapes the mind & personality since the brain & the hormones that color it are physical parts of matter.
I have a better word for the designation LGBT.
Intersexed.

That's what they are. Just different variations on the spectrum of intersexed people.
In the womb gay/bi/trans people are formed when at particular times in the fetus' formations certain hormone sets wash over the developing brain.
Depending on what set of hormones wash over at what particular time, you get your spectrum of homosexual people, bisexual people, & transsexual people.

When they found out that homosexual men's brains were very similar to heterosexual women's brains...
...and homosexual women's brains were very similar to heterosexual men's brains...
I KNEW that was the answer.

It's basically the case of a female brain working through a male shell (body) or a male brain working through a female shell (body).
The male shell still gives off lots of testosterone so gay men still come out a little different than straight women.
The female shell still gives off lots of estrogen so gay women still come out a little different than straight men.
But basically it's just like we see it in the culture: a little woman in a man's body, a little man in a woman's body.

The only real difference between Gay/Lesbian, Bi, 'Trapped in the Wrong Body' Trans is the timing & intensity of the hormones washing the developing brain.
Gays are satisfied with their bodies being different than their brains. Bis got it mildly so they're half-gay for lack of better words.
Transsexuals want their bodies to match their brains.
And in the case of Chaz Bono we can see it can be fluid where a lesbian decides to become a transman.

Each culture decided to do something different with these mentally intersexed people.
Native American nations called these people Two-Spirit & accepted them as full-fledged members of society.
The Puritan-based American society treated these people as abominations & ostracized them from society.

For whatever reason these 2 cultures took different paths into assigning status to these human types.
Fear of a population's annihilation may have spurred on a culture of fervent reproduction & gays being drawn to the same physical sex would not reproduce. So they were selected to be weeded out since they didn't fit the 'make babies' mentality of that society.
In another culture gays not being tied down with familial obligations could help in the rearing of the children made by the babymakers. So they were selected to be accepted in since they could shape society at large for the good of all.

From these cultures came the political views that gays were monsters living in sin in one & that gays were helpful citizens in another.
In some cultures gays were pedestaled as Godly.
It all depends on what that culture promotes.

Biology changes (see the aging process) & that changes Identity.
Once Identities change the Culture changes.
Cultures can change & BE changed causing Politics to change.
But at the root of all these other things is Biology.

Our whole world is determined by those genes & those gene expressions.
We ARE fated. We have choices WITHIN that fate but we are fated.
And one of those fates is that Masculine & Feminine are like the (+) & (–) poles on magnets.
Programmed to attract the opposite.

Discuss all of this & I'll elaborate.
John Lucas

October 10, 2012

ELECTION SPOILER: Obama wins in a LANDSLIDE

All this handwringing & worrywart crap.
It means nothing to me.

All the 'this poll says this' & 'this poll says that'.
It means nothing to me.

All the carrying on about the outcome of the first debate.
It means nothing to me.

I KNEW from DAY ONE as soon as the field of Republican candidates was established that
President Barack Hussein Obama II...
...would get his 2nd term.

How can I be so sure?
Well, just LOOK at these fools.

Sarah Palin was too scared to run for all that fuss she made in the past 4 years since she got her ass whooped in 2008.
Chris Christie was too scared to run because he knew he had no chance in hell of getting past the beast that is Obama.
Tim Pawlenty knew he didn't have Enough. Plenty of Not Enough.

Then what they had left was a crew of Keystone Cops, a pack of Circus Clowns on parade.
Who they got?

Herman Cain?
Michele Bachmann?
Rick Perry?
Jon Huntsman?
Newt Gingrich?
Rick Santorum?
Ron Paul?
Mitt Romney?

What? Hahahahahaha!

Herman Cain. Hahahahaha!!
Never mind his bull about Pokémon & Sim City. Never mind his sex scandal even.
He wasn't going NOWHERE because ain't no way Republicans would have a decision between a Black man & a Black man.
Ain't HAPPENIN' with the Southern Strategy embedded in that party. And he knew it. He ran for the SuperPAC money.
(I was so hoping he would get past just to see what would happen. Would have drove them people crazy! Hahaha!)

Michele Bachmann was a Discount Palin. At least Palin was original.
This was a wannabe & she was crazy as hell from jump. It was no surprise when she whimpered out after getting stomped in Iowa.
Besides I really wonder if Republicans trust women in a Presidential role. They're supposed to be traditionalists after all.

Rick Perry was the dumbass from Texas who replaced that other dumbass from Texas in 2000 as Governor.
When Bush Junior left for the White House, Perry went to the Texas Governor's House.
He showed his dumbassness on that debate with his "duuuuuhhhhhhh" response of the 3 departments he would cut.

Jon Huntsman posed the biggest threat to Obama from this list of nominees.
He wasn't dumb. He wasn't crazy. He seemed reasonable & open to compromise.
But he couldn't get ARRESTED! Hahahahaha! He might as well have been invisible.
Plus he worked under the Obama administration as an ambassador. That may have worked against him, maybe.

Newt Gingrich is the textbook definition of CORRUPT.
He's the one who had his Contract on America while playing up Bill Clinton's sex scandal.
Except that his sex scandal was WAY worse than Bill's was.
Women were not going for this cat after how he treated his wife on her hospital bed to leave for another woman—who's now on the campaign trail with him. Lots of women take that personal & it was a giant strike on the character scorecard.
Besides Newt represents the Old Guard. He's the old Republican from the 80s & 90s. The 90s were 20 years ago.
Also he was unorganized! How you gonna run a Presidency when you can't even get your name on the damn ballot?!

Rick Santorum was a faceless goon who only got as far as he did because everybody else dropped out.
Because so many were dreading that Mitt Romney would be the nominee they put all their efforts behind the only man who was left.
He was a lame motherfather too. "I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them other people's money" becomes...
"No no, I said BLAH people" Oh really now. This lame ass jabroni!
Most telling of his lameness was when his daughter got sick & he cancelled the campaign to look after his daughter.
No, Rick. You don't do EITHER/OR. You do BOTH/AND. Look after your daughter THEN come back to the campaign trail later.
Obama's grandma died, he went to her funeral, & came back to the campaign with tears in his eyes. That's how it's done.

Ron Paul had his Cult of Personality, no doubt. Of all the Republican candidates no one had a more enthusiastic base than Ron Paul.
Badgering internet forum after internet forum with the zeal only a true believer can have.
Problem was he wasn't really a Republican Republican. He was a Libertarian Republican.
A Paleo-Conservative which is just another way of saying Fossil (get it? Paleo? Fossil?).
A Relic from a Republican Party of decades past.

Oh speaking of fossil, he's OLD. 77 years old.
His lifespan & mental sharpness may be long-ranging for all we know but people get wary when candidates get to this level of age.
It worked against John McCain in 2008 & he was only 72 then.
People got scared he would die in office & then Sarah Palin would be Prez. People remember the Alzheimer's stories of Reagan.
It's one thing to be Robert Byrd & Strom Thurmond as a Senator of a state.
It's another thing to be in charge of the Nuclear Button as President interacting with foreign regimes.
But none of this mattered to the Ron Paul acolytes. Never mind the flaws in his policies (gold standard really?) & his lack of votes.
They were so WITH him that they would be WITHOUT anyone else & I KNEW this would be a problem for whoever became the nominee.

Mitt Romney was the inevitable uninspiring candidate. Nobody wanted him at all.
But pragmatically they believed he had the best shot of taking down Obama with the collection of clowns they had running.
His votes were reluctantly given & in the primaries his challengers got the ANTI-Romney vote.
With the exception of Ron Paul, all the Republican contenders were the Anti-Obama vote but Romney himself was faced with Anti-ROMNEY votes!
Anybody But Romney BEFORE Anybody But Obama??? Hahahahahaha!
Also he couldn't go against Obamacare because Obamacare is essentially ROMNEYCARE!
And his Gubernatorial record in Kennedy-land Massachusetts works totally against the Tea Party-style Republicans.
He would have to switch his whole belief systems all over the place like an Etch-A-Sketch to maintain hold on those Teapots.
Throw in his shadiness on showing his taxes, his barely hidden mean-spiritedness, his record at Bain Capital & you've got yourself a loser.
Also certain religious-head voters are wary of his Mormonosity. They think it's a spooky cult & don't trust him.
And he was considered the BEST OF THE BUNCH!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

If Romney's your Best of the Bunch, you're done from the moment you step out the door!

BUT ABOVE ALL THIS, Jeb Bush didn't DARE show his face in 2012 after the dismal era of George Junior.
He was the one they were supposed to run, ol' Jebediah.
If they were serious about uprooting Obama they would have put him up, but Obama was JUST THAT FORMIDABLE.

So you see I had no more worries about the 2012 election once the Republicans showed their field of nominees.
I knew more & more as each day went on that we were looking at the end of the Republican Party on the National Stage.
The Southern Strategy DIES in this election.
They hold a strong bitter Plurality but no longer a Majority.
Appealing to the Bigots for the benefit of the Selfish Rich will no longer work on Presidential elections after this.
Once the Republicans lose the National Stage they will eventually lose the Regional Stages.
Either the Republican Party TRIPLES down for 2016 with the same strategy & lose even harder
Or the Republican Party goes searching for another reliable voting block to pad the Elite (AKA Few) Greedy Rich's numbers for future elections.
That takes time & they lose in the short term in search of this new base.
If they don't find one in time, they lose permanently.

This is a Realigning Election.
Obama will win this HANDILY.
It's not a matter of IF he will win or even WHEN he will win but HOW MUCH will he win by.
I say a LANDSLIDE of 20 points in the Popular Vote. Minimum 15.

Damn the polls. Damn the crying & carrying on.
My confidence in my prediction is strong.
Even WITH the racism factor working against him in 2008 he beat McCain 53% to 46%.
Now with his accomplishments & the opposition he faces, I say he will widen that lead like you have never seen.

The Mandate is coming & the openly Progressive President we have been waiting for will emerge in the 2nd term.
John Lucas

September 1, 2012

A long story about The Southern Strategy

The political parties of the United States of America were rooted on the Issue of the Black People.
From the very beginning through the 3/5 Compromise of 1787 through the Missouri Compromise of 1820 through the Civil War of the 1860s through Franklin Roosevelt & Harry Truman desegregating the miltary in 1948 through Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on John Kennedy's behalf to today, it's always been about the struggle between The Black People vs. The White People.

•The 1700s•

Thomas Jefferson grew up on a Southern plantation filled with African slaves & wished to maintain State autonomy from the original Confederacy to keep the slavery institution intact for his Agricultural money-making endeavors.

Alexander Hamilton grew up in a Northern family of bankers & wished to have Federal authority over State authority banking on this central government to enhance his Commercial/Industrial money-making endeavors.

Alex & his crew were Federalists.
Tom & his crew were NOT the Federalists AKA Anti-Federalists.

But it sucks to name yourself under the name of your opposition so these Anti-Federalists came up with this name:
Democratic-Republicans.

Demos = People (in Greek), Crat = Rule (in Greek),
Res = Matters (in Latin), Public = People (in Latin).
So that's People Rule the Matters of the People, right? Sounds like "States' Rights" go WAY back.

Federalists were sorta here or there about the slavery issue but Democratic-Republicans were dependent on slavery for their profits.
Should the U.S.A. have slavery or not? "YEAH!" "NO!" "YEAH!" "NO!" "YEAH!" "NO!" Argue argue argue. Yak yak yak.

"Tell ya what, we'll let you Democratic-Republican slaveowners keep your slaves & count them for Representative power in the Congressional House...but only on a 3/5 basis.
For each & every slave you got we'll count them as 3/5 of a man, 3/5 of a woman, 3/5 of a human being.
How 'bout dat?"
"DEAL!"

And naturally the Agricultural-based slaveowning South gained more political sway with that Representative edge motivating them to increase the number of slaves they had to get more power. The South & Slavery became inseparable from one another.

•The 1800s•

Then they went West.
Each piece of the Natives' land they stole, they added it to U.S. territory. They later turn these territories into full-fledged States.
When it becomes a State will slavery be allowed in the region or not?
"YEAH!" "NO!" "YEAH!" "NO!" "YEAH!" "NO!" Argue argue argue. Yak yak yak.

"Damn, THIS again? Okay alright. This is the deal.
For every new state west of the Mississippi River if it goes under this line, it'll be a Slave State.
If it goes above this line, it'll be a Free State.
We'll let you keep Missouri as Slave & just count its bottom border as the dividing line.
Reminds me of the old Mason-Dixon line come to think of it.
How 'bout dat?"
"DEAL!"

Then the Missourians took over this giant piece of Mexican land called Texas.
"Come on now. That ain't fair. Do you know HOW many Representatives you'll get in that big ol' chunk of land? You'll run EVERYTHING, you Democrats! Be reasonable!"

Oh yeah with this Representative edge, the Democratic-Republicans had long pushed the old Federalists out of power.
The Democratic-Republicans were about the only game in town & got so big that they turned on themselves.
Some in the North, some in the South, some in the East, some in the West.
And because their party name just got too long to say, they just cut it short to Democratic.
People Rule!

And boy did they rule. The Congress was more powerful than the President.
To put a stop to the Democrats' overwhelming power, some folks started putting on the English wigs that the Federalists were known for wearing (reminds me of the Tea Party & their teabags) & called themselves the Whigs. Federalists Part II: The Sequel!
*SQUASH!!* *SQUISH!!* *SPLAT!!*

So much for that lame opposition...

What land do we settle first? Do we go North of the Mason-Dixon & make more Free States or do we go South of the Mason-Dixon & make more Slave States? Hey let's a pick a fight with the Mexicans & just raid their junk. It's our Manifest Destiny after all.
Achievement Unlocked: New Mexico Territory, Utah Territory, The State of California.

"Hey wait! All of this land is under the Mason-Dixon line! You already got Texas & now you want even MORE Slave States??? We will not allow you to turn these into Slave States!! You already got enough!"
"Hey a deal's a deal! We stole these lands fair & square. More Slave States, more power. Deal with it."
"OK OK one last compromise. Let California be a Free State. OK? We'll let the voters decide on whether the New Mexico & Utah Territories be Free or Slave. Also we'll throw in more punishment for runaway slaves for an extra bonus.
How 'bout dat?"
"Ehhhh...mehhhh...deal...I guess. Whatever."

Wimpy Whigs were put on their powderpuff asses & there needed to be a new coalition of political interests to shutdown these overreaching slaveowners of the South.
Let's call it the Republicans.
Matters People? People Matter!

It was time to put a stop to the South's Representative Edge.
It was time to end Slavery in the U.S.A. because People Matter...even Black People.
The Republican Party's slavery abolition platform attracted Moral Abolitionists who felt that slavery was simply wrong & Political Abolitionists who simply wanted to break that Solid Southern Edge.
Then all of these Anti-Democrats put their forces together to get Republican Abraham Lincoln in office in 1860.

"HELL NO!" each Southern stronghold said as they separated from the U.S.A. in rebellion to create the C.S.A., the Confederate States of America. "States' Rights (to own slaves)" is BACK baby!
And with that the C.S.A. declared war on the U.S.A.
5 years later the C.S.A. got their asses whooped as Abe Lincoln ended chattel slavery in the U.S.A. forever.
Of course Abe had to pay for his good deed since no good deed went unpunished.
How to get back at these Southern sore losers? Put those former slaves into positions of power in those defeated former Slave States.
Willie once cleaned your "chamber pot". Now he's your State Senator. How ya like dem apples?
Pretty good work on that Reconstructive surgery, Union guys.

Then after 12 years the Republicans suddenly left the Blacks in lurch. Slavery was over, the South's Representative Edge was no longer. It's time for new battles & new challenges. Let the Blacks fend for themselves.
Show me the money! Federalist Reserve Notes!
Commerce! Industry! Let's have a Grand Old Party in this Golden Age!
Southern sore losers like the Ku Klux Klan made sure to correct that Reconstruction, didn't they.
State Senator Willie has been downranked to sharecropper. He's free alright...free to clean our chamber pots on his own time now.
Gonna be some long decades for the Blacks...

•The 1900s•

Fast-forward past Workers' Unions, Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, 1914's Birth of a Nation & all that jazz.
The money money Republicans allowed the country to fall into a Great Depression.
A rich guy from one of those non-Solid South band of Democrats (remember when the Democrats split on themselves?) named Franklin Roosevelt decided to forge a new coalition to capture all of the demoralized & spread out factions that existed in the U.S.A.
He added Blacks to this new big tent coalition. Smart move.

12 years later he got America over its Depression & helped to win World War II. He taxed his fellow rich at a maximum of 94% compared to the 25% they once paid. He pushed this powerful legislation called the New Deal which contained the excellent Social Security program among its many gems. He spelled out the Second Bill of Rights. Take points off for how he treated Japanese-Americans during the war.
Too much badassness & he died in office after a record 4 terms
(the opposition made sure THAT wouldn't happen again).
To finish off one of Roosevelt's plans, his Vice-President now President Harry Truman decided to go ahead & just desegregate the Military letting Blacks in freely.

Bad move in the eyes of the still-bitter Democrats of the South in 1948. "How dare a fellow Democrat help those slaves?! They shouldn't be running around free. They should be cleaning my chamber pots—I mean—toilets! Truman's from Missouri for God's sake! He should know better than anyone!"
These still-bitter sore losers came up with the name States' Rights Democrats (hmm I've seen this before, haven't I?).
Dixiecrats to their friends...in the land of Dixie hooray hooray.

The Issue of the Black People stares them right in the face especially with the new medium called Television.
After all these long decades of injustice we are gonna get what is rightfully ours: our human rights, the Black People pledged.
It was a force to be reckoned with for sure & the Republicans marginalized by FDR's powerful legacy sought to reach out to Blacks for voting numbers.
Thank you Republican Dwight Eisenhower for sending those Federal troops to Arkansas to protect Black kids going to public school.
Thank you Eisenhower for protecting our right to vote. Thank you Eisenhower for finishing desegregation of the military.
The Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court case said that separate schools for Whites & Blacks were unconstitutional during your term.

The Dixiecrats said "Who do we vote for?!" Got our Democrats helping them N*bleep*ers on one side & then got these Republicans helping them N*bleep*ers on the other side. I expect the Republicans to try to get back in bed with them N*bleep*ers since they were the ones who fought against us 100 years ago but what's the deal with these so-called Democrats? I stage a protest to all this N*bleep*erization going on. With a Rebel Yell I cry 'No No More!'
(raise the big red flag with the big blue X on it)"

Then John Kennedy, another Democrat from the North gets elected in 1960.
He has an ear to the Blacks just like Roosevelt did.
Just like 100 years before the Rebels strike against the union in violence & none of John Kennedy's good deeds go unpunished.
What does his Vice-President Lyndon Johnson do as he ascends to the Presidency?
He signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to end the South's evil order against Black people & all others who may be treated similarly.

"THAT TEARS IT!! I AM A DEMOCRAT NO LONGER!! THEY HAVE HELPED THE N*bleep*ERS FOR THE LAST TIME!!"
As the Dixiecrats lost their minds at the Central Federal government overriding the States' Rights to abuse Blacks, the Republican Party knew they lost the ability to corral Black people into a reliable voting block & pad their numbers.
DDE did good but FDR, HST, JFK, & LBJ pushed the Democratic brand into the stratosphere.
The Democratic Party was atoning for its past misdeeds with these measures.
These People Rule!

So there was only one thing left to do to keep this Republican Party from turning into the Whigs, invite the angry Dixiecrats into the fold & let their bigoted energy fuel our voting power. Good strategy, no?
The new Republican Party was born.
What's the Matter, People? Don't you know that this is the party that freed the slaves?

LBJ squandered the goodwill of the Democratic Party with this stupid Vietnam adventure & the New Republicans had an opening.
Richard Nixon made use of this Southern Strategy to get his jowly face into office at the end of the 1960s.
Slowly but surely throughout the 1970s the Republicans built their power using this strategy (Southerners are usually Southern Baptist & that lines up with this Moral Majority gambit).
Then they got actor Ronald Reagan into office in 1980 as the cherry on top.

Finally the money money Republicans could begin rolling back everything set from FDR through LBJ.
First thing on the list is this tax thing. LBJ's break of 70% ain't good enough.
Reagan, roll that back to 50%, no no make that 38.5%, no make that 28%. Yeah that's the ticket.
Unions? Nuisances. Get rid of 'em.
Regulations? Annoyances. Get rid of 'em.
Commerce! Industry! Show me the money! Federalist Reserve Notes!
Gordon Gekko says Greed Is Good.

Mondale? What? Good night! Dukakis? Hahahahahaha!
Nobody cares about our Iran-Contra scandals or the Savings & Loan scandals.
Put that George Bush guy in after the Alzheimer's patient leaves. Ronnie Raygun did what we needed him to do.

The Democrats were too shook to fight these bigot-backed Republicans like FDR, HST, JFK, & LBJ did.
They kept looking for a Third Way to get back some of those former bigot Democrats back into the fold while trying to continue the legacy of FDR's Democrats.
A Southerner from Arkansas named Bill Clinton figured out how to do this. First Democrat President since Georgia's Jimmy Carter, another Southerner.
He backed off of National Health Care & Gays' human rights in the military but at least he tried to balance the budget.
He signed George Bush I's NAFTA plan. D'oh! Curse this religion of the Free Market!
He only raised the top tax rate to 39.5% but at least he raised it instead of lowering it further. We'll take what we can get at this point.

These comparatively mild efforts were enough to cause the Republicans to mount a character assassination campaign using a silly intern named Monica Lewinsky. Then Clinton tried to redefine the word "Is".
Go ahead & repeal Glass-Steagal while you're at it, Slick Willie. You let those Republicans run you like that? Come on!

•The 2000s•

When it came time for his VP Al Gore to make his run after Clinton's 2 terms, he was so embarrassed of scandal-ridden Clinton that he avoided linking with him on the campaign trail. I like the 'lockbox' idea but he made it sound so robotic & stiff.
George Herbert Walker Bush's son (& possible clone) George Walker Bush glad-handed his way to match Gore in the 2000 election & make the steal. Gore had lockjaw along with his lockbox & gave up fighting Bush Jr. over the Presidency.

It was revenge on the Clintonites. A Bush replacing the Clinton who replaced the Bush.
NOW with the Democrats demoralized in the public eye again, the Republicans went even HARDER in the paint to roll back FDR's legacy. Roll the top tax back to 35% why don'tcha?
Republican Bush II runs the Executive Branch, Republican runs the majority of Congress in House AND Senate for Legislative Branch, & Bush appoints a Republican Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court running the Judicial Branch.
The Republicans owned the keys to the store now & the bigots hoped that this would be the beginning of the end of that Democratic Party which betrayed them.
Then somebody collapsed the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

First foreign attack on the U.S. mainland since the 1800s & it happens when these Republicans run all branches of government.
Instead of making that insight, nearly everybody gets caught up in the 'Rah Rah!' war sentiment.
Muslim is the new Black.
George Bush Junior plays on that war sentiment & plays a shell game transferring Afghanistan with Iraq.
Who's Al-Qaeda & Osama Bin Laden? We gotta get Saddam Hussein! All those Muslims look alike anyhow.
WMD people!! WMD!!
The N*bleep*ers are comin' to get us! I mean we must win the War on Terror!
Democrats still shook over the Clinton scandal don't oppose the Rah Rah & go along to get along.

Kerry? Ha! He voted FOR the war before he voted AGAINST it. NEXT!
More Bush. Get ready.
Hurricane Katrina happens nearly 9 months into his 2nd term just like 9/11 happened 9 months into his 1st term.
Geraldo was crying in the streets at all those dead Black people.
You heard what Kanye said "George Bush doesn't care about Black people"
I mean, hell, Junior's mama didn't want to worry "her beautiful mind" about the situation.
Once again the Issue of the Black People is at the cusp of another political change.

The wars wear on & on wrecking families across the nation. There WAS no WMD.
Saddam is dead but he had nothing to do with 9/11.
Osama Bin Laden keeps sending YouTube videos showing how alive he is.
And they're torturing prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.
This is what happens when you leave these Republicans the keys to the store.
The Democrats retake Congress but they prefer to keep their powder dry with these war criminals.

2008 & it was time to win one for the Clintonites.
A Clinton taking out a Bush that took out a Clinton that took out the other Bush.
Wait who's this? Barack Obama? Oh our perennial Jesse Jackson-style candidate. Here to make it interesting but we remember how Jesse couldn't make it past Mondale & Dukakis. He's there for flavor.
Wait what's this? He's beating Hillary in the primaries??? What?! He's STILL beating Hillary in the primaries?????
HE'S THE NOMINEE?!?!?!

The Issue of the Black People is center-stage once again.
Baby Bush wrecked the Republicans' power so they ran John McCain to distance themselves from Junior.
But now here's a Black guy with a Muslim middle name & a name that rhymes with Osama taking over the political scene.
Even with a Reverend that said "GAWD DAMN AMERICAAA!" in his corner.

Republicans needed that extra boost to get past Obama & McCain picked Alaskan redneck Sarah Palin as his VP.
They were counting on the Obama/Hillary rift in the Democratic Party to last 'til November.
And hey Sarah's a woman too!
Then the waiter served the bill for Junior's decade of destruction. Great Depression II?
The bigots got behind McCain in force to keep this ultimate Democratic slap-in-the-face from gaining the Presidency.
"Boy we made the right choice leaving the Democrats all those years ago. They're putting a N*bleep*er right at the head of office now. The only office he should be in is the office of cleaning my chamber pot—I mean toilet."

If old John McCain dies, then that means Sarah Palin is the President. Hmmm...
{X} OBAMA
{ } MCCAIN

Barack Hussein Obama II becomes the 44th President of the United States of America. The 1st Black President.

It's not such a Grand Old Party for the Republicans now. Those bigots are Peed off—I mean Teed off.
"OK money money Republican masters, we're not just gonna be your rank & file support anymore.
We're taking over this joint. How COULD you let that son of slave, that N*bleep*er take the Presidency?"
The old Dixiecrats & their pals held a Tea Party just like the Mad Hatters they were.

Whether because of chess strategy or fear of assassination Obama flirts with those same Third Way tactics Clinton did.
BUT he does get some form of National Health Care established (sort of), he prevents full-fledged Depression, he saves the U.S. auto industry, he finally expresses support for the human rights of Gays to marry. Don't Ask Don't Tell is dismantled on his watch.
Oh & he finally killed that Osama Bin Laden guy. Remember him?
Screws up Guantanamo but he ends the Iraq War at LAST.
Needs to stop prolonging Baby Bush's policies though.

Now here we are in 2012. The Tea Party's cup have run dry & they're stuck with a Etch-A-Sketch Mormon who's more robotic than Gore EVER was!
Is this the last hurrah for that old tried & true Southern Strategy?
A strategy that goes back much further than 1964. A strategy that has defined the direction of this country from the beginning.

The Republican Party gave away its moral edge when it left the Blacks in the lurch in 1877, when it absorbed the bigots of the Democratic Party in 1964. They might just end up like the Whigs after all by not standing by what is right.
Who can they get to join them if the bigot coalition is defeated in 2012?
The rich money money guys are always few in number. That's why you need big reliable voting blocks.
The Republicans have alienated EVERYBODY trying to maintain hold on those energetic bigots.
The Democrats have one more chance to restore FDR's direction for the country.
If they succeed, the Republican Party cannot stay the same.

What will happen to those old Southern bigots if they are cast aside to the margins?
Will they finally recognize the humanity of the ones who were once called 3/5 of a human being?
Will they try to tear the country in two one more time?

The struggle between The Black People vs. The White People carries on.
But for this country to Progress, we will need a new verse.
John Lucas

May 12, 2012

My post on a Yahoo! news story "Many blacks shrug off Obama's new view on gays"

I made this post on an Associated Press story placed on Yahoo! News detailing my disgust with Black people's opinions on gays marrying.
I'm Black myself & I see it as the ultimate in hypocrisy ESPECIALLY since—as the Trayvon Martin situation proved—we don't fully have a grasp on obtaining equal rights & protections OURSELVES.
(see story about some gun range selling Trayvon Martin-inspired shooting targets with bullseye on hoodie, Skittles & iced tea in pocket. Report: Trayvon Martin gun range targets were sold online)

Many blacks shrug off Obama's new view on gays
http://news.yahoo.com/many-blacks-shrug-off-obamas-view-gays-221003333.html

Excerpts from article

My comment in response to this article

I'm Black (& straight) & I'm disappointed that many of my people don't see the parallels between the disenfranchisement of Gays & the disenfranchisement of Blacks. Oppressors used the Bible to justify our slavery in the 1700s & 1800s. The cursed Hamites who were born to be a servant class was the mentality of the time. It was wrong then & it is wrong now. There is none of the Ten Commandments that says "Thou Shalt Not Gay". You're not supposed to eat shrimp or wear mixed fabrics & women are always supposed to have their heads covered up according to The Bible™.

Well, America ain't no theocracy so screw what The Bible says. It says "Thou Shalt Not Kill" too but this is one of most warring nations on Earth. People use that book to justify their crap & oppress others they don't like. Gays marrying is simply a Civil Rights issue so Blacks should be THE LAST people trying to oppose that inequity. It ain't been but about 40 years since Martin was gunned down & Blacks wanna act brand new about equal rights. Hell, personally I think marriage is antiquated & obsolete. Us straight folks prove it everyday with the high divorce rate & even higher marriage misery rate for those who stay together. But EVERYBODY should have the right to marry if they want to marry. End of discussion. No more Bible-based bigotry. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere."
Blacks don't have the luxury of playing this oppressor role.

John Lucas

February 6, 2012

A post I made on Yahoo on story "Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'"

Saw a story on Yahoo while I was watching the Super Bowl yesterday.
It was an Associated Press story called Some blacks insist: 'I'm not African-American'
http://news.yahoo.com/blacks-insist-im-not-african-american-181257715.html

Excerpts like the following bothered me a little bit. I'm a Black man myself, by the way.

"I prefer to be called black," said Shawn Smith, an accountant from Houston. "How I really feel is, I'm American."

"I don't like African-American. It denotes something else to me than who I am," said Smith, whose parents are from Mississippi and North Carolina. "I can't recall any of them telling me anything about Africa. They told me a whole lot about where they grew up in Macomb County and Shelby, N.C."

Gibré George, an entrepreneur from Miami, started a Facebook page called "Don't Call Me African-American" on a whim. It now has about 300 "likes."

"We respect our African heritage, but that term is not really us," George said. "We're several generations down the line. If anyone were to ship us back to Africa, we'd be like fish out of water."

"It just doesn't sit well with a younger generation of black people," continued George, who is 38. "Africa was a long time ago. Are we always going to be tethered to Africa? Spiritually I'm American. When the war starts, I'm fighting for America."

I knew the story would be full of confusion as most stories on "race" are. I'm not personally comfortable in relegating Africa as "the past". Like it's something us Black folks should shove into the attic. I also understood the confusion from people on the outside looking in. I can hear people saying, "Well doggone! What the hell do you people want us to call you?! Make up your mind for goodness sake!"

So I made a post to clarify & educate everybody. Black folks & everybody else on the outside looking in.
Yahoo sucks of course & the post wouldn't show up no matter how many times I posted it. I finally got it to post just now long after the story left the Yahoo home page feature story promotion.
So I brought it here where perhaps better discussion & insight can be had. Let me know what you think about it.

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OK to clarify. I'm Black & there's nothing wrong with the descriptives of African-American, Negro, Black or Colored in my eyes. I refer to myself as "Black" because it's just simpler to say. Less syllables than the 7-syllable African-American. That just takes too long to say. BUT I love the feel of African-American because we ARE connected to Africa. I think that is VERY important. The phrase of the African Diaspora to represent all those semi-recent descendants of Africa spread around the world.

The words Negro & Black mean the same thing—the color black. And African people were named this because of their dark skins which were so deeply brown that they appeared virtually black. But for the descendants who to differing degrees are mixed with White (Europeans), Native Americans, Asians, & who knows, what's "black" about their skins? They're more tan or brown or bronze or beige or even sometimes peach! Some "Black" people have skin colors more close to "White" people. That's why the word Colored or People of Color makes more sense in this instance. But then is People of Color inclusive OF those Asians, Polynesians, Native Americans, Hispanics, Indians (India), Middle Easterners, basically anybody with a significant degree of melanin in their skin? It CAN. So that's not always the best name to signify those African descendants.

The way I see Black is shorthand code for Africans and those of MODERN African descent (since originally we're ALL descended from Africa). Black covers not only the skin color of the original Africans but the facial features, hair textures of those of modern African descent. Even with light beige skins, some of the African hair textures & facial contours may still show. However, Africa is a continent & there are many Black/Negroid type of faces. You can see how the Whites, Asians, & all other groups may have descended & evolved when you look at the phenotypes in Africa.

Outside of this Black AND African-American also can be a coverall term to specify the various cultural practices of those African descendants. The music, the food, the languages, the dialects, the religions, the political views. Some African-Americans are Americans who descended from the African slaves in the United States. Some are descendants of African slaves in the American continents, North & South America like Jamaicans, Bahamians, Haitians, Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Colombians, Panamanians, & Brazillians. Some are (non-American slave descended) African immigrants to America from Sudan, Kenya, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa.
But the best term for this in my opinion is Pan-African. African from Africa & Beyond.

At the end of the day, all of these descriptions are incomplete. No label is all-encompassing. Human beings are multi-faceted & are many things at once. In case of doubt, just refer to us with respect when you talk to us or about us. Like every other human being. We got Black History Month, the United Negro College Fund, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and African-American studies at colleges. It's all the same thing. The whole thing is about respect.
John Lucas