The Healing Fountain of Richard Pryor and Renewing My Embargo Against the Word "Nigger"

Nigger is the ugliest word in the English language. In writing about the Republican Party's white supremacist fueled hatred towards Barack Obama, I had no choice but to tell the truth: the White Right views Obama as a "nigger" and it would be much more efficient if they were honest and simply said as much publicly.

Words have power. They also exact a cost. More than ten years ago, I vowed to never use that word unless I was quoting a piece of literature or said language was unavoidable. I now have to reinstate my vow and find my sobriety again.

Richard Pryor is the greatest American comedian of the modern era. His wisdom helped me to delete that word, and the ugly energy it channels, from my day-to-day vocabulary. I wish that others would do so as well. Instead, we see the common silly talk and intellectually flaccid distinctions where otherwise smart people argue trite foolishness that the word "nigger" is somehow different from "nigga".

Shorter version. The word "nigger" is an act of psychic violence and internalized white supremacy against and by black people, respectively.



Any found wisdom, personal codes of honor, or promises that you have made to yourself from which you have deviated and now need to renew?

The Fire-Eaters: The Civil War Antecedent to John Boehner's Dangerous and Racist Lawsuit Against Barack Obama

The irresponsible and anti-government saboteurs in the House of Representatives have voted to sue Barack Obama, the United States's first Black President, for the "crime" of doing his job.

John Boehner's lawsuit is one more example of pathological white supremacy in the post civil rights era, a moment and deed, that reveals how white racists are willing to destroy the Common Good, hurt the American people, and create mayhem in order to spit in the face of Barack Obama's legacy and governance.

Again, white supremacy hurts white people: the ghost of America as a perennial and forever White Republic has transformed into a demon which now possesses the White Right.

I am sharpening up my own metaphorical razor on the old leather strap. As I get the cutting tool prepared, friend of WARN, the one and only Werner Herzog's Bear, has offered up a great essay on the American historical antecedents of the horrific and dangerous lawsuit by John Boehner against Barack Obama. I will slice later; Werner has struck the first blow.

Do call me an outlier, if you so choose. The White Right is so crazy, mad, deranged, and out of control--and they have a plurality of white racists in league with them among the white American public--that the political calculus and conspiranoid thinking of the Tea Party GOP may result in a path dependent solution where they MUST vote to impeach Barack Obama.

Republicans want to depose the black nigger ape Barack Obama. I used no overstrikes in that sentence. Why? For too long, the pundit classes and the news media have been too polite in making masking the white supremacist rage and hostility which have dogged and bitten at Obama from the Republican Party.

If Boehner and his allies in the Tea Party GOP and its Fox News media hate machine would just call Obama a "nigger" in plain speech, matters would be much more simplified and efficient. Racial honesty would be a gift to American democracy.

Movement conservatives in their present guise are dishonest liars; of course, they will not own their first principles and true feelings about the United States' first Black President.

The Black Body is Always a Threat: White Racial Paranoia Killed Eric Garner

I have not written about the videotaped killing of Eric Garner by the New York Police Department--and their subsequent efforts to cover up the crime--because I did not want to contribute to the online necropolis of black and brown people unjustly killed by white American racism.

I have not watched the video of Eric Garner's death. I also would not have looked in the casket of Brother Emmett Till. I make that choice not because of a fear or disgust towards the corpse. My choice is also not one driven by some high-minded claim about a disgust at the spectacular pornography of death and its relationship to the black body.

I worry that to write about the killing of Eric Garner is to give the theft of his life power over me. I know that such a claim is intellectually specious. One cannot deny the fact of gravity because they choose to not think about it.

The naked reveal: meditations on black death are mentally and spiritually exhausting.

The "racism beat" can and does kill those who walk it. White supremacy extracts a high cost.

Moreover, what else is there left to say? Yet, the deed remains a tired repetition which still needs to be performed.

Black life is cheap in America. The historical irony is, of course, that the fluctuations in the value placed on black life, and the labor output it produced, were the basis of America's economy for centuries.

The blues sensibility of black folks has made us very comfortable with death and suffering. In many ways, we are numb to it. Our numbness does not mean that we do not feel hurt, pain, suffering, or anger at how violence against the black body is a routine fixture in American culture.

America was and remains a lynching society--where black bodies were once hung from trees, burned alive, cut apart, or otherwise brutalized by blood thirsty white mobs comprised of men, women, and children, now black people are shot dead by white cops and white street vigilantes.

A Potpourri of News from Comic-Con and Script Doctoring the Newly Announced Sequel(s) to Godzilla 2014

I saw some great films over the weekend.

I Origins was excellent. Although some reviewers say that the post-credits sequence hurts the film, I must disagree. I Origins is a smart, mature, science fiction film.

I also saw A Most Wanted Man. This is a good movie, one that is elevated by the late Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance. He is so alive; and because he is so alive it was deemed that he must leave us early. A Most Wanted Man is a also a reminder that every character in a properly constructed dramatic work is there for a reason. If I were to say more than that, I would be venturing into spoiler territory. I do not want to ruin the surprises contained within A Most Wanted Man.

The lucky folks at San Diego's Comi-Con are being treated to some great events. They saw actual footage from the new Mad Max film(s), a clip from Avengers 2, were spoiled by a viewing of Hercules with its leading man Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and saw the professional wrestling legend, Sting, sit in on a panel with his (now) colleagues from the WWE.

Comic-Con also also featured an announcement about the upcoming sequel to this year's American reboot of Godzilla. IGN reports the following:

But while they had everyone’s attention, Legendary also teased Godzilla 2 -- as well as the monsters we might see in that sequel.

An old-school Monarch film clip was then shown -- that’s the group that studies and keeps tabs on the monsters in the rebooted series -- that confirmed the existence of…

Rodan!
Mothra!
King Ghidorah!

The Monarch analysis concluded that a battle is inevitable: “Let them fight.”

As readers of WARN know, I felt that Godzilla (2014) was a horrible, piss poor, (re)imagining of the Japanese kaiju King of the Monsters. I wanted to love the movie. Instead, I was disgusted by the embryo of what could have been a more than serviceable spectacle, that by its conclusion was a live action version of the 1980s Godzilla cartoon series.

If we are are lucky, horrible first films can birth acceptable sequels. I enjoy playing script doctor. In that spirit, I offer my rough outline of the next two American Godzilla films.

At Which Point HBO's Bill Maher Channels Chauncey DeVega From Several Months Ago: Why Do Republicans Really Hate Neil deGrasse Tyson? He is an 'Uppity' Negro.

The ideas are out there floating in the ether. I do not always agree with Bill Maher's politics. I am also not above smiling and nodding when I hear him echo something on his HBO TV show that I observed several months ago.

I am transparent and honest.

Appearing on Real Time is on my bucket list. If the fates bless me, I would also love to have a to and fro with Rush Limbaugh. Borrowing from professional wrestling, I think that I could have a "good program" with either of them.

I am not suggesting that Maher is a "shark biter". What I am suggesting is that platform and profile can make less than novel ideas seem very compelling and new. The speaker effect is real.

Several thousand shares and comments later on Facebook, Alternet, and the Daily Kos, I pointed out the obvious: Neil deGrasse Tyson is hated by Tea Party GOP white conservative racist mouth breathers because he is black, a scientist, and smarter than they are. Moreover, the White Right's hatred of Neil deGrasse Tyson is a reflection of their hatred of Barack Obama, a black man who is smarter and better than the white Right-wing populist troglodytes who constitute the Tea Party GOP base.

My observation was greeted by much denial from folks elsewhere. It will be interesting to see how they now change their tune given that Maher has reinflated a balloon that I previously floated.

Alas, it is not the first time that I have been there the firstest with the mostest. I do hope that readers and friends of WARN acknowledge those moments and say, "we were talking about that on We Are Respectable Negroes months and weeks ago!"

I also hope that folks recognize the value in We Are Respectable Negroes and support the site during our fundraisers (and other times) when so able or inclined.

In addition, I also hope that the friends and supporters of our endeavor here on We Are Respectable Negroes make sure to correct those people they encounter both online and in "the real world", who want to trumpet the "novel ideas" which you read here first.

Please forgive me my necessary moments of self-promotion and self-indulgence. I am only human.

This is a Shaka Zulu moment: the dots are connecting.

We are approaching phase two here on WARN.

I hope that your weekend will be restful. As is our habit and new tradition, do you have any news items, discoveries, or related issues of private or public concern which you would like to share?

I will start off with a request. Now that I have a found Ipod to fill, I have been adding more southern rock into the rotation. One of the deficits in my musical education involves moving beyond the soundtrack to the great movie The Devil Rejects 2, in order to find some other gems that I was afraid to indulge during my coming of age Public Enemy hip hop black nationalist phase.

Any song suggestions?

The Right-Wing Media Echo Chamber and the "Science" of Speaking in Tongues

I recently had the good fortune to speak with Box Brown, author of the new graphic novel Andre the Giant: Life and Legend. I am busy editing that episode for the podcast series here on WARN. I think that you will enjoy it.

Our conversation reinforced my love of professional wrestling. Some hobbies are passed down from parent to child; I would like to thank my father and grandmother for introducing me to the magic that is the action within the squared circle.

[And on professional wrestling, did anyone else see Paul Heyman's amazing promo for his client Brock Lesnar's match at this year's SummerSlam? Grantland has a great piece on the genius of Heyman's promo--complete with annotations--and how he is now a first ballot hall of fame inductee in the pantheon of great professional wrestling managers. Heyman is approaching Bobby Heenan's level of skill; who would have thought such an achievement would be possible?] 

The Republican Party and its public are a cult. I have said this many times here on WARN, at Alternet, and elsewhere. I am not just "cutting a promo". I try to write and speak in a precise, direct, and forceful manner.

Given how Tea Party GOP propagandists such as Ted Cruz, Glenn Beck, and others are continuing to lie about Obama's policy on Israel, immigration, and are rewriting American history textbooks, it is useful to revisit how movement conservatism is the functional equivalent of a religious cult.

American politics is broken because the Tea Party GOP has created an alternate reality. This is very worrisome: if a culture cannot agree on basic facts about the nature of the world then mayhem and chaos will result.

Because American movement conservatism is now a religious cult, it exhibits the following traits.

A Pachyderm John Holmes? My New Happiness Pill. I Think This Scientist Likes Elephant Penises a Bit Too Much

I do think that the female scientist in the above video is a bit too excited by her handling a massive elephant cock kaboom stick yard arm penis. Her male partner, assuming she has one, is either very lucky and likely blessed with great endowments or in a whole lot of trouble from his inability to follow up on the visual stimulation provided to his paramour by a massive elephant penis.

Elephants are non-human people. They--along with the dignified and graceful sea cow--are one of my favorite animals. Elephants have politics, language, culture, and are self-aware. Elephants also have a problem with ign't wayward male youth in their communities--which they deal with quite effectively.

[I have always dreamed that Bill Cosby could one day lead an army of elephants through some of the United States' inner city communities and clean out the ign't infestation via some serious mentoring and teaching of appropriate rules for manhood...along with some butt kicking as needed.]

Elephants will stop to look at themselves in a mirror. They also use paint to adorn themselves and each other in order to change their appearance. I would like to believe that our elephant friends are capable of vanity. As such, I smile and laugh at the thought of a bull elephant posing in the mirror and saying to himself "yup, I am packing".

I believe that humanity is united by a collective subconscious. Jungian psychoanalytical frameworks are also very compelling to my understanding and vision of the world. We, if we so choose and are able (biology and brain structure varies from person to person), do feel each other's pain.

The invasion of Gaza, the shootdown of the Malaysian airliner in the Ukraine and the subsequent horrible treatment of the deceased's families, immigrant children sleeping in cages at the U.S. border, as well as a broken economy and a sick American political system where the Republicans are cruel and wicked to all but the moneybaggers and financiers, can be draining and depressing.

In those moments, I use one of my personal happiness pills to bring about an instant smile. The clip of the female scientist who is oh so fascinated by a huge elephant penis is now in the permanent rotation along with the "Lamont Goes Karate" episode of Sanford and Son, the bathroom stall "writing on the wall" scene from the great movie Bubba Ho-Tep, The Three Stooges pie fight, any interactions with Bigfoot and Beetlejuice on the Howard Stern show, and this video of a woman's pet raccoon making a mess of her clothes in the closet.

What are some of your personal happiness pills?

The Racial and Moral Hypocrisy of The Wall Street Journal's Essay 'Hamas's Civilian Death Strategy'

Israel's butchery and campaign of mass punishment against the people of Gaza continues.

Israel has now started using flechette rounds, white phosphorous, and DIME munitions, against the civilians in Gaza. The American people's tax dollars are subsidizing wanton cruelty. And again, when the retaliation and blowback comes, the ignorant and the stupid will say, "why do they hate us so much!" American politicians, complicit agents in a civic culture where the masses have been made into asses, will reply, "they hate our values and way of life!"

To tell the truth--that America subsidizes Israel and her meanness, and that American made and supplied helicopters, artillery, planes, and other armaments deal out death to the civilians in Gaza and the other occupied territories--would mean the end of one's political career. Truth is almost always punished. Thus, there are few of us who practice parrhesia as a life mantra. Most will retreat from Socrates's virtuous death.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal's Thane Rosenbaum suggested that the civilian population in Gaza is complicit with their own misery.

He has indicted a whole population as "terrorists" and an existential threat to Israel.

Thus, the rules of war do not apply, because by definition there are no innocents or children in Gaza: the rank-and-file denizens of Gaza share responsibility for the actions of their political leaders.

Consequently, Israel's total war strategy is made valid by the objectification and dehumanization of a whole population.

Salon's Matt Bruenig has done an excellent job highlighting the hypocrisy of American war hawk jingoistic conservatives who were aghast and enraged when the same logic was used by Osama bin Laden and those others who "defended" his attacks on September 11, 2001:

When people — whether bin Laden, Rosenbaum, Churchill, or others — defend slaughtering civilians, they rarely intend to apply their arguments universally. Do you imagine, for instance, that Rosenbaum thinks that it would be legitimate to bomb his house, killing him and his family, because he is a loyal of the American government that fought an unjust war of aggression in Iraq? I suspect not. Do you imagine that he thinks Israeli civilians are legitimate targets of war because they continue to vote for the parties that they do? Again, one suspects not. 

People who push the Rosenbaum-Laden argument do not seek to make a serious plea for a new category of quasi-combatant that it is legitimate to brutalize in war. Few if any people are willing to take any such argument to its logical and grisly conclusion. Instead, they seek simply to provide one-off cover to specific instances of civilian killings that they want to justify for other reasons. The “those civilians deserve it” point almost always comes unsheathed as a desperation move when the side you are deeply loyal to has done the indefensible.

Bruenig is essentially correct. American exceptionalism deems that the lives of Americans are more valuable than the lives of any other people. Moreover, American Exceptionalism means that all of the United States' actions abroad and at home are noble, righteous, and good. Rules of moral, ethical, or philosophical consistency are upended by American Exceptionalism and nationalism.

The argument made by "Hamas's Civilian Death Strategy" is supported by a scaffold of problematic assumptions about personhood, culture, and race that will be familiar to anyone who has reflected on, studied, or through lived experience, had to navigate the American and global color line.

Rosenbaum's logic is also an example of the white racial frame applied on an international scale.

Israel's Butchery in Gaza, Bought and Paid for by the American People: A Question. Is Israel an Apartheid State?

The recent events in Gaza are disgusting.

Watching Bill Maher's panelists support Israel's fiendish behavior towards the Palestinian people on Friday's edition of Real Time made me feel dirty. Am I alone in that sensation?

Dream booking: wouldn't it be great if Norman Finkelstein was invited to be a panelist on Maher's show. Talk about a hell of a show.

Americans, because of a failed educational system and a corporate media, are not forced to ask hard questions about foreign policy and their complicity with the deeds and actions which the United States makes in their name. 

Consequently, when blowback occurs they sit around like ignorant children who are surprised that Santa Clause isn't real and that mommy and daddy actually had sex in order to bring them into existence. Sorry kids, babies do not come out of mommy's belly button.

Israel's butchery in Gaza is bought and paid for by the American people. The Israelis are "mowing the lawn" in Gaza. And please do take note of the old habit wherein how language is used to reduce people to objects in order to legitimate their murder and abuse.

[The Israeli government extracts a high price when its citizens are killed. What is the exchange rate? Is it one thousand Palestinians for 1 Israeli? Higher? Lower?]

I wonder, in the post Hobby Lobby, neoliberal, Age of A La Carte Citizenship, can I cite my deeply held "religious" beliefs and deduct the portion of my tax dollars that support Israel's militarism (which actually undermines American national security)?

I believe that Israel--historically along with Australia and the United States--is an Apartheid society. Apparently, this is a provocative claim in some circles. The great Desmond Tutu agrees with me; I count myself in good company.

What are your thoughts on Israel's status as an Apartheid regime? And what do you make of the recent events in Gaza?

A Potpourri of Political Ugliness and Fantasies: Of Ancient Aliens, "Illegal" Immigrant Children in California, White Nativists, Know-Nothings, White Supremacists, the Fictive Viking Origins of America, and Fox News Hate Talkers

I do hope you have a nice and safe weekend. As is our habit, do treat this as a semi-open thread to discuss and share news items or other topics which you think would be of interest to the readers and friends of WARN.

I have been thinking a great deal about the potpourri of ugliness which has been directed at the "illegal alien" children and refugees in Murrieta, California (and elsewhere) by the Right-wing hate machine.

Some random (but related) thoughts:

1. I wonder how the White Right and its allies and sycophants would respond if it was white children who were sent on a hellish journey to the United States in order to escape rape, murder, sex slavery, and other torments? The Tea Party GOP nativists the love iconography and slogans of "real America" and its nationalist mythologies. The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island implore America to:

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I guess such platitudes and commandments do not apply to black and brown people.

2. Black and brown children are not allowed the luxury of childhood. Adultification is the rule for people of color in the United States. Whiteness is innocence, safety, security, and obligatory empathy. For example, if a white child is in crisis the world is expected to stop. The suffering of black and brown children is expected, thus the world keeps on turning.

3. Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs has done yeoman's work calling out the overt lie by Right-wing professional sewer dweller Jim Hoft that refugee children from Latin America will be housed in a "resort". Unfortunately, the White Right's clumsy grey and black propaganda works despite being exposed as a set of lies and distortions because their public is indifferent to the world of facts. Movement conservatism, the white racial frame, white supremacy and authoritarianism are powerful intoxicants--they are political meth.

4. Friend of WARN, Werner Herzog's Bear also has a great piece on today's White nativists and Know-Nothings in the Tea Party GOP. Do check it out if you are so inclined.

5. The Fox News echo chamber and overt white supremacists both live in a world of fictions, delusions, and conspiranoid thinking. Conservatism is a cult-like religion; overt white supremacists have a high place in their temple. Both traffic in made up fantasies about "Christian America" and its historical origins.

When I survey the White Right's websites and other media I want to laugh at the bizarre alternate reality which they have constructed for their jihadists and zealots. I choose not to laugh because the Right-wing noise machine is killing people and poisoning the United States's political culture.

Reality is to movement conservatives as the History Channel is to ancient aliens.

The Perils of Anti-Racist Triumphalism: The NY Times' Helpful Reminder That Not all White Supremacists Are Stupid

Last weekend, The New York Times offered a palliative for triumphalist American anti-racist triumphalism with its essay "The Data of Hate".

Conservatives and liberals both indulge in the habit; the Times' piece should be a wake up call and incentive to see the world as it actually is, not as one would like to imagine it being.

The Right is desperate to portray white supremacists as throwbacks and rare outliers in order to advance the twin lie that white racism no longer exists as a significant social problem in the United States as a means to advance a narrative of white victimology where the end goal is maintaining white privilege and white power.

The Left enjoys anti-racist triumphalism as a way to declare moral superiority over conservatives and while also celebrating the hard fought victories of the civil rights movement which (in the popular imagination) culminated in the election of Barack Obama.

"We" want to believe that white supremacists are toothless wonders, hillbillies, or country rube Southern primitives who put on Klan robes and shoot cockroaches with guns. Those easy caricatures exist to fulfill a fiction of social/racial integration and cohesion along the color line that legitimates America's multicultural corporate liberal democratic political regime.

The NY Times' "The Data of Hate" subverts those stereotypes:

What Sort of White Person Do I Want to Be? A Conversation With Dr. Paul Breines, Veteran of the Freedom Rides and the Civil Rights Movement

History is made by people.

It is easy to forget that the past isn't really ever the past.

The United States has or soon will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of the monumental legislative gains and victories of the Civil Rights Movement. It is poignant that five decades after the Great March on Washington, Freedom Summer, and the high point of the Black Freedom Struggle, that an African-American is President of the United States. The efforts and spent lives of the black, brown, and white warriors for the full civil rights of African-Americans (and by extension all Americans across the color line) radically transformed the United States. Much work remains to be done; their efforts are betrayed if the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement is viewed as something of the past and not of the living present.

In this new episode on the podcast for We Are Respectable Negroes I had the most fortunate and blessed opportunity to speak with Dr. Paul Breines, a Freedom Rider and activist in the Civil Rights Movement. 

He reminds us that the Civil Rights Movement was and is much more than documentaries such as the magisterial Eyes on the Prize or scenes in movies such as The Butler. 

Paul was so very generous and honest in our great conversation where he provides a first person account of the Freedom Rides, his coming of age as a political activist, experiences with the real, day-to-day folks who had to live under the white supremacist regime that was Jim and Jane Crow, and how he negotiated those experiences morally, ethically, and philosophically. Dr. Breines also connects his work as a political activist to his intellectual work and career as a professor of history at Boston College.

Dr. Breines asks a foundational question during the podcast: what sort of white person do I want to be? The struggle for justice along the colorline would be much improved if more white brothers and sisters were as reflective.

Paul does some great teaching and sharing during our conversation on the podcast. I know that you will learn a great deal from his wisdom and experiences. I most certainly did.

02:18 Given all of the important historical events you were involved in with the Civil Rights Movement, how do you remain humble?

04:25 The Civil Rights Movement was an insurgency. Meeting black men with guns who protected the Freedom Riders, reflecting on the black women and other warriors who supported the movement

07:00 Learning how to be a moral and ethical person from his mother

11:44 How did you decide to become involved with the Freedom Rides?

17:05 Massaging the memory, history, and public image of the Civil Rights Movement

22:20 What sort of white person do I want to be?

26:56 Why did you choose to get involved with the movement and other white folks did not? 

31:07 What did you feel like to be an enemy of the state? Did you think of your work with the Civil Rights Movement in those terms?

33:20 How did you manage your emotions--fear, anger, worry, etc.--in those moments? Some thoughts on being "brave" or "courageous"

37:39 Returning to Madison, Wisconsin after the Freedom Rides

39:30 Memory and reflecting on the Freedom Rides during the 1960s and in later years

43:00 What is it like talking to younger people about the Freedom Rides? What are some of the common questions that students and other young people have for you? How do you feel when you reflect upon the Civil Rights Movement and the Freedom Rides?

46:00 The absurdity of "the race card", white victimology, and racial resentment

54:00 Personal responsibility and signing their last wills and testaments for the Freedom Rides

56:31 How and why did you become a professor? Was your activist work related to your intellectual life? 

64:30 What was it like to be a witness to the Right-wing Culture Wars at Boston College during the 1980s and early 1990s? Some thoughts on life philosophy and life reflections

73:20 Have "we" won or lost with the election of Barack Obama?

81:00 Are young people more or less politically involved and aware than they were during the 1960s?

88:30 How can folks contact you? Concluding thoughts and observations about the Freedom Rides, the law, civil rights, and trying to effect social change

Why is Eric Holder Finally Telling the Truth About the Republican Party's Racist Opposition to Barack Obama?

I hope that you all had a nice and restful weekend. Here in Chicago, we alternated between torrential rains and thunderstorms and wonderful, unseasonably mild weather. The Taste of Chicago, one of the country's largest food festivals, also took place. The additional traffic and tourists are annoying. But, I do like watching folks marvel at a city which I often take for granted.

If I was a professional wrestler, my bio would read "from Connecticut by way of Chicago". "Parts unknown" always makes for an intriguing origin story--rest in peace Ultimate Warrior.

I would like to begin the week with a question. In a recent interview with ABC, Attorney General Eric Holder told the truth about the role played by white racial resentment and racism in the White Right's opposition to Barack Obama where he said how:

“There's a certain level of vehemence, it seems to me, that's directed at me [and] directed at the president,” Holder told ABC. “You know, people talking about taking their country back. … There's a certain racial component to this for some people. I don’t think this is the thing that is a main driver, but for some there's a racial animus."

The readers' comments in response to Holder's statement are boilerplate "colorblind" conservative racism: they follow the tired, but still very revealing script, where white racists use racist logic and speech to deny that they are in fact racists.

Movement conservatism is a white supremacist ideology. Its adherents and advocates are unable to reason outside of that framework; white supremacy is their normal and foundational assumption about the nature of empirical reality. Moreover, white conservatives become extremely agitated and rageful when the role of white supremacy as a unifying ideology for their political belief system is exposed.

Religious fundamentalists act the same way when the concept of God is challenged as a childish myth and fantasy. Contemporary conservatism is a cult where white supremacy is one of the godheads. Both rage at their heretics and those others who are non-believers.

The Myth of the Liberal Media: Intellectual Bumper Bowling. Did You See Michael Eric Dyson's Interview With Dinesh D'Souza About His Propaganda Film 'America'?

How would you demolish Dinesh D'Souza's arguments in his movie America: Imagine a World Without Her?

Once again, there is no liberal media; there is only a corporate media. If there was in fact a liberal media, the nonsense and intellectual poison offered up by Right-wing hacks such as Dinesh D'Souza would not be given a national platform from which their toxins could be spread.

Moreover, if there was in fact a "liberal media", Dinesh D'Souza would not have been interviewed by MSNBC and Dr. Michael Eric Dyson about his Right-wing propaganda movie "America" earlier this week.

I have met and talked to Michael Dyson on several occasions. He is smart and good people. I have no doubt that he could have destroyed, with minimal effort, Dinesh D'Souza during his interview on MSNBC. Propriety and the informal rules of being a good host dictated that Dyson hand off D'Souza to the panelists. Unfortunately, they too were nice, polite, and careful in their criticism of a Right-wing professional liar and thug.

The slavish devotion to "fairness" and "balance" by supposed "liberals" in the mainstream media means that equal time is given to foolish and specious claims about the nature of truth and empirical reality by conservatives. Consequently, myth and fantasy are then debated and engaged by serious people as worthwhile and rigorous propositions instead of the alternative where such claims are rightfully rejected as childish nonsense. In this exercise, the Right wins every time.

Dinesh D'Souza's discussion with Dr. Dyson and his guests was the equivalent of evolutionary biologists "debating" creationists. The latter cannot lose because the former have legitimated their absurd premises.

D'Souza's Right-wing propaganda disinformation film "America" could be easily dismissed by basic questions such as the following.

America is an "exceptional" country is it not? Then why excuse-make for its crimes?

What about pointing out how chattel slavery and the Maafa were a singular and unique crime against humanity?

In a sickening display, D'Souza lies, distorts, and willfully misreads history in order to claim that white European genocide against First Nations people was somehow similar to interstate conflict between those powers.

Dinesh D'Souza and the cabal of Right-wing propagandists (who are routinely given time by the "liberal media") are raping the truth.

Liberals, progressives, and reasonable centrists who provide a platform for Right-wing propagandists are legitimating the latter's fictions and lies. Why do they accept the specious premises of the debate?

Ammosexuals and Open Carry Gun Fetishists Will Not Like 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes'

I had the good fortune to see a screening of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes several hours ago. What follows are some preliminary thoughts on what is a great film, and one guaranteed to make many millions of dollars at the box office.

1. Andy Serkis is a revelation as Caesar. His ape brethren Maurice, Rocket, and Koba are equally impressive. Serkis should be nominated for an Oscar. The "human" actors all give solid performances. The apes in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes are the stars of the film as they should be.

2. Koba's character will be the basis of a meme that conquers the Internet for a few days. He is that compelling.

3. Dawn offers up a nice bit of armchair cinema philosophy about human nature, violence, the state, power, authority, and ethics. There are no easy solutions to the conundrum faced by ape and human society in the movie.

4. The reboot is closer to the original French novel's themes about animal rights, the evils of vivisection, as well as the intellectual and moral perils posed by speciesism. Dawn continues with that narrative, and unlike the 1968 classic largely ignores questions of race and civil rights. Given how white supremacists are obsessed with the original Planet of the Apes films--they view it as a cautionary tale of black dominance and white servitude--I am curious as to how they will shoehorn the new films into their twisted and sick political imaginary.

5. Dawn rewards careful viewing. There is a great deal of detail both in the foreground and background of the scenes. The writers, producers, and cinematographers who crafted Dawn have done a wonderful job creating a believable world. The San Francisco scenes were evocative of the work done in Children of Men, another great film which rewards careful and deep viewing.

The score also does an excellent job of complementing the on screen events while remaining unobtrusive.

6. Dawn's CGI and motion capture work is stunning.

7. Dawn's ending is ambiguous. Two thoughts.

One, fans of the original series will likely be excited that the horrible Battle for the Planet of the Apes will be reimagined as the sequel to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Dawn is heavily influenced by the original Battle; And in many ways, Dawn is Act One of a reimagined Battle).

Two, the reboot is also drawing on the energy of the 1975 Planet of the Apes cartoon series. If the sequel(s) to Dawn can successfully combine those sensibilities then success is ensured.

8. Ammosexuals, the Gun Right, and open carry gun fetishists who massage their personal "Preciouses" in public at stores like Target, will not be happy with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Fox News and the Right-wing echo chamber will attack the movie as one more example of "liberal" Hollywood pushing its "anti-gun agenda" on the American people. Remember, guns don't kill people, people kill people...or in this case, apes and people armed with guns kill each other.

Managing the Optics: Black Conservative Race Hustlers and the Anti-Immigrant Protests in Murrieta, California

The harassment and poor treatment of the refugee families and children in Murrieta, California by Tea Party militia hooligans and thug nativists is embarrassing. I am not bewildered, although I will confess to being disgusted, by how those who wrap themselves in the flag of American Exceptionalism and tired bromides that "America is the greatest country on Earth!" do not understand that a truly great country offers aid and comfort to those in need.

The 24/7 news media is a circus. The Right-wing echo chamber is the center ring, and is in many ways, the greatest show on Earth. As I wrote here regarding D'Souza's propaganda piece "America", and have mentioned many times elsewhere, there is a special role to be played by black and brown people in the Right-wing's human zoo and freak show. 

Black Americans (and other people of color) are loathed by conservatives because conservatism and racism are one in the same thing in the post civil rights era. Black Americans are loved by conservatives when they can be used as part of a political blackface routine or passion play, acting as human proof that white conservatives are not racists because they have a "best black friend" who can vouch for them.

Racism involves a mix of fascination with and disgust for the Other. The Tea Party GOP's relationship with people of color is a clear object lesson in that dynamic.

The protests against Hispanic refugee children and their families which are occurring in Murrieta, California are not spontaneous. Organized anti-immigrant activist groups are coordinating the "protests" with the Right-wing media. Consequently, the optics of the events must be managed and massaged: the crowd should be cross generation, multiracial, and multiethnic. People of color, "Latinos" and "Hispanics" especially, should be foregrounded, as their presence excuses away the ugliness, meanness, xenophobia, nativism, and bigotry on display in Murrieta, California. 

The ultimate trump card in this act of political theater is the obligatory black person. Because black folks are identified in America's public memory as having a unique historical experience with racism and discrimination, their presence is a magical salve which fully insulates the White Right and other nativists from the charge that they are bigots.

Quick Thoughts: Life Lessons and Philosophy Learned from Kill Bill and Hattori Hanzo

Something random...

I know in my heart that Crom, the Force, the Most High, J.C. Soul Brother Number One, the Four Winds, Gravity, and the various other life forces and entities that govern and direct our lives are real.

I am a secular humanist. I am also not a fool. Perhaps, I have read too many philosophical treatises and science fiction novels over the years? Have I listened too closely to the lessons of Brother Bruce and movies such as Kill Bill and gleamed truths that are not contained therein?

We must meditate on our decisions; we must also live in the moment. To what do we owe our regrets? Ought we not to follow through on our first, best, destinies?

To point. The movie Kill Bill is a portrayal of people who cannot help but to be themselves--they are ruled by inexorable destiny.

Thus, a philosophical question, observation, and conundrum.

I have come to realize, during these last few weeks, that I have been so focused on what I perceived to be bad luck and misfortune that I have been unable to see and acknowledge my good fortune and blessed opportunities.

Are we/us/you that myopic? Or I am alone?

When I am processing important thoughts and decisions that have already been made, I retreat to my best "Kosh voice" from Babylon 5: one can be cryptic and also transparent in the same instance.

"Over-sharing" can be a good thing. What philosophical musings or random observations do you have to share on similar or related matters? Life lessons to offer?

A Broken Saxophone Playing 'Hail to the Chief: Are Black Americans Worse Off After Six Years of Barack Obama?

There is an black saxophone playing street musician who is a fixture on Michigan Avenue here in Chicago. I have been living in Chicago for more than ten years. I would guess that he has been here for many more years than me.

There are many black street musicians, drummers, creative types, shoeshine men, newspaper salespeople, panhandlers, and others who comprise the familiar faces, on every block, that make a neighborhood, a town, a city, or a well-traveled thoroughfare more than just a collection of random people and buildings.

This saxophone playing street musician is distinguished and made special by his limited catalog of songs. He plays "When the Saints Go Marching In" with passion and glee. The theme from Sanford and Son is another one of his crowd pleasing classics. He loses his way on songs by Sinatra and the standard "Feelings". His limitations may be a function of a broken saxophone and tired reed, hands not as dexterous as in years before.

He is self-trained. The saxophone man is not a virtuoso who has fallen on hard times, where drink, or drugs, or love, or a bad economy and poor investments broke him.

He is a workaday man who went to a job for many years and somehow through poor decision-making--did the saxophone man do a bid in prison for a petty crime that had the promise of great fortune attached to it by his more streetwise and crooked friends?--found himself with his Alto sax, playing outside, everyday, for monies that he brings home to a relative, friend, lover, or fellow traveler, the latter blessed with more luck than him, which the saxophone man throws into the communal rent and utilities pile.

The brother is always clean. His old clothes are very neat. He takes pride in his work and appearance.

Tourists pay him because that is what tourists, especially white tourists in the "big city" do, throwing some change into the hat or cup of the poor black street musician as part of the fee, the noblesse oblige that is "taking it all in" while on holiday. While on safari, one is expected to feed the animals.

The saxophone playing street musician also extracts a tithe and blackmail money. The folks who work in the office building above wherever he has created an informal stage for the day's performance must pay him, for purposes of productivity, sanity, and piece of mind, to relocate his atonal concert once the novelty and familiarity have grown thin. His playing is an announcement that a new day is here; his playing is also an announcement that a new day in a job that I already do not like is here too. He smiles while accepting the bribe.

On the night of Barack Obama's election in 2008, the black street musician saxophonist played "Hail to the Chief" with enthusiasm and vigor. The marks cum pigeons were ready to be plucked. A smart businessman understands that success is a function of timing, luck, and leveraging the emotions of a potential customer. Obama's election in 2008 was a night of lucre for him, sadly it was the finite and limited lucre of a poor or working class man earning 50 dollars a turn.

He knows it is not much in relative terms. There are businessmen who spend that amount as part of their nightly after work winding down drinking ritual. Some people would kill for less. It is several meals, a fix, or enough to feed their children and pets for a week or two. The symbolic value of 50 dollars is what matters to the saxophone man. The transaction makes him feel like the richest person in the world. His work and art were acknowledged by strangers, they who are his friends.

The Michigan Avenue black street performer saxophonist herald and Pied Piper of Obama's 2008 presidential election blew a broken saxophone that produced off key notes for an emotion filled rendition of "Hail to the Chief".

Featured Reader's Comment: Do You Think That Interracial Hostility and Animus Have Increased Since the Election of Barack Obama in 2008?

I would like to follow-up on our earlier conversation about Dinesh D'Souza's new "film" and the Right-wing propagandized public. 

I featured the below comment on that thread, but I would still like to bump it up here. 

SabrinaBee relayed the following experience:

As to the looney right, my, but they are becoming more frustrated and unable to control themselves. Just bursting with so much anger that, they have to act out in some way. I was in Barnes and Noble and two men, that fit the movie audience you described above, were talking to each other, in a reasonable voice. That is, until I happened upon the new arrivals table. Noticng me, one fine gentleman raised his voice, several octaves and proceeded to voice how bad Obama is for America. Of course, I looked up and, sure enough, he was looking in my direction. I suppose he was expecting to get a defensive reaction out of me when, in reality it was the raising of the voice that caused me to look up. 

If i wasn't afraid the man would have a massive coronary, based on the redness in his face, I might have laughed out loud. Rather, I simply moved to another section of the store. I was amused, though.

As prompted by SabrinaBee's encounter with real-life breathing in the flesh Tea Party GOPers, I have a few questions. Your answering them will help me further refine an essay that I will be sharing here on WARN later in the week. 

Stated with more brevity and precision: your answers will help me to determine if I am grasping at straws, seeing chimeras which are not there, and trying to grab the "shadow people" who are lingering in the corner of my eye.

With the election of Barack Obama in 2008 the White Right predicted an outbreak of black on white racial violence, negro rebellions, uppity behavior by rapscallion colored people, and the end of White American civilization.

Of course, none of these events came to pass. Black Americans have never sought revenge on White Americans for the crimes of the past/present.

We are too generous of spirit and have only wanted our freedom papers and full-citizenship as equal members in American society.

Alas, the Black Freedom Struggle remains a work in progress. 

There is also a potent irony at the heart of African-American political project: we have helped so many others to be free that we have neglected our own personal obligations to communal and political self-interest.

My questions.

1. Have you personally noticed or experienced a general increase in racial animus and hostility in the United States since the election of Barack Obama in 2008?

2. If you are a person of color, have you noticed or experienced an increase in the types of interpersonal racial provocations or microaggressions from white folks as detailed by SabrinaBee's story since the election of Obama in 2008?

3. If you are a white brother or sister, have you personally experienced more hostility or antagonism from people of color, blacks in particular, since the election of Obama? In addition, since President Obama's election in  2008 have you personally observed or seen an increase in racially hostile and bigoted speech, attitudes, or behavior on the part of your white friends, family members, acquaintances, or others in your social network towards people of color?

10 Things I Learned From Eavesdropping on Conservatives Talking About 'America: Imagine the World Without Her' at the Movie Theater

America: Imagine the World Without Her is the newest propaganda hit piece from confessed criminal and Right-wing operative Dinesh D'Souza.

During my weekly visit to the movies, I saw Deliver Us From Evil. It was a movie with great potential (the connection to PTSD and the "demons" that our veterans carry home with them from war could have been more thoroughly developed) that needed a thorough rewrite and editing. I am a sucker for movies about the supernatural and occult. Therefore, I felt obligated to see Deliver Us From Evil.

Dinesh D'Souza's new "documentary" "America" was also playing at the same movie theater (I had already suffered through a viewing of that Right-wing tract). Thus, I decided to do some reconnaissance/observational research on the attendees of D'Souza's newest fairy tale propaganda hit piece.

The actual members of the Right-wing public who are high on the political meth of the Fox News echo chamber are more fascinating to me than the media which is used to create and propagandize them.

While listening to the impromptu debriefing and cult meeting in the lobby that followed a viewing of America: Imagine the World Without Her, I realized that 1) Deliver Us From Evil is far less frightening than D'Souza's newest creation and 2) "America's" view of empirical reality and history is also supernatural, existing outside of the realm of normal logic and reality.

Talking in the abstract about the dangerous and noxious civic culture which has been created by the Right-wing media is one thing; actually listening to and observing this public in person is an altogether different experience. There is nothing harmless about the impact of the Right-wing propaganda machine on the thinking and reasoning processes of conservatives in the Age of Obama.

As I learned earlier this week, their warped logic and skewed perception of social and political reality is extremely dangerous and can/will lead to more incidents of Right-wing domestic violence, because how else would a reasonable person deal with a government that is led by "traitors" and under the control of Satan?

What did I observe while listening to the people who went to see America: Imagine the World Without Her?

The Battle of Hamel: What to World War One is the 4th of July?

I hope that you are having a nice and relaxing fourth of July. I also hope that you do not give into temptation by playing with fireworks and then proceeding to lose an eye or a finger.

Independence Day is a birthday party. As such, it is usually considered poor form to talk about the guest of honor's bad behavior in the past or present, dwell on his or her moral and ethical shortcomings, or stage an intervention about their excessive drug of alcohol use.

I am a poor guest because while drinking and eating the host's food, I would still tell them the truth about themselves if so provoked and pushed. But, I promise to be on good behavior today. I will do my obligatory read of Frederick Douglass' "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?", meditating on the little known fact that more blacks fought for the British than the colonies during the Revolutionary War, playing a few rounds of Empire: Total War, and watching Dr. Gerald Horn's interview on Democracy Now where he details how the notion of freedom as understood by white colonial rebels was constructed around their ability to enslave black people.

During the Revolutionary War and the battle for American independence, "liberty was in the air" and black Americans found ways, as we always have, to further our own struggle for liberty and full citizenship rights.

The Don Lemons of the world, with all of their silly talk about not being "Americans with a prefix" would probably consider such truth-telling observations during Independence Day to be impolitic and rude.

July 4th is a special day for Americans; July 4th is likely just another day on the calender for the rest of the world.

July 4th has history. Given the 100th anniversary of World War One, I was curious as to what major events occurred on that day during the Great War.

Of course, there were the obligatory parades commemorating American independence from the British (this set of photos is a very rich example of how World War One was a means for white ethnics and others to become "fully American" because military service and martial prowess demonstrated their bonafides as members of a "masculine" and "robust" race).

On the killing fields of Europe, July 4th, 1918 was the day when one of the most important battles of World War 1--and of the 20th century--took place. The Battle of Hamel involved a coordinated assault by Australian, British, and American forces (that latter being used in an offensive role for the first time during the war) which subsequently defeated the Germans.

Military historians consider the Battle of Hamel to be the beginning of "modern" warfare because it involved the use of "combined arms" (infantry; armor; planes; artillery). Hamel was also important because the Allied victory that day, and the strategies deployed during the engagement, would foreshadow the defeat of the Entente powers in the months to follow. The combined arms approach used at the Battle of Hamel is not much different from the strategies and tactics that remain the bedrock of military planning in the 21st century.

Do you have any July 4th factoids or other random bits of information (related or not to this day) to share? What are your weekend plans and any BBQ mishaps to report?

Racist Anti-Black Editorial Cartoons from the Reconstruction Era are a Perfect Fit For Fox News and the Tea Party GOP of Today

I hope that you all have some nice and restful plans for the upcoming 4th of July weekend.

I have been processing the feedback and consequences of my viral piece on the Hobby Lobby debacle (which has settled in at about 65,000 Facebook shares).

On one hand the practical results from my "winning the Internet" for day, have been anticlimactic and unspectacular. It is nice to get the traffic and the exposure. But, those interactions constitute a type of drive-by casual engagement--that may or may not translate into growing our group of commenters here on WARN. Thus, the momentary blip is a reminder that your established home base is what ultimately matters.

However, my Hobby Lobby essay has also opened the door to some additional opportunities...more details will be forthcoming.

[In my best Kosh from Babylon 5 voice, "The truth points to itself."]

I am saving two of the pieces which I have been working on regarding Obama, and the vicious and racist assault on his legitimacy by the Tea Party GOP and John Boehner, for next week. There is also a very compelling new article on game theory and racism which I will share next week as well.

The recent commemorations of the Civil Rights Acts and Freedom Summer--and the Hobby Lobby decision--have provoked my reflecting on Howard Zinn's incisive and wise observation that "history is a moving train".

Old battles are still being fought; the present contains many echoes of the past; and how much of what we are witnessing with the White Right at present is just history playing itself out again?

While trying to put Boehner and the White Right's assault on Obama's legitimacy in context, I decided to look through Reconstruction era editions of Harper's Weekly and other publications for images of African-American congressmen and senators.

I was not been able to find the editorial cartoon that I originally sought. However, I did discover several cartoons that would perfectly at home on Fox News, a Republican Party official's wall, or as a cartoon shared via the sewer that is the Right-wing media echo chamber.

Did You See Frank Schaeffer's Amazing Truth-Telling Without Giving a Damn Moment on Today's Edition of 'Politics Nation'?

I am often very critical of how the mainstream news media frames the issues in such a way as to maintain the lie that "both sides do it", and somehow both conservatives and liberals are equally culpable for the crises which have befallen the United States in the Age of Obama.

Such a claim, is of course, a lie.

There are a few brave souls who are willing to have a CBGB moment, do their set, throw the mic down, and not give a damn about the consequences.

On today's edition of Al Sharpton's Politics Nation, Frank Schaeffer, author of Why I am an Atheist Who Believes God, told the unvarnished, unapologetic, unrefined truth about the White Right, its Christian Dominionist base, the plutocrats, and how the Tea Party GOP is a radical and racist organization which hates Barack Obama so much that they are willing to destroy the United States in order to advance their political goals.

I would suggest watching Schaeffer's interview before it is thrown down the memory hole. He lit the match, poured the gasoline, and burned the place down.

Any other gems of writing or information to share about the recent Hobby Lobby theocrats victory or any other matter of concern?

'Hobby Lobby' in Context: How Long Will the Unholy Alliance of Christian Dominionists, 1 Percenters, and Libertarians Last?

I would like to thank all of you who shared my earlier piece on the Hobby Lobby decision, and the counter factual question "What if Muslims Used the Hobby Lobby Decision to Discriminate Against White Christians?".

It has gone viral with about 63,000 shares on Facebook.

As I wrote there, despite the Court's claim that the Hobby Lobby ruling will have a "narrow" reach with few implications, the consequences for how claims of religious freedom and free enterprise can trump standing law and the social compact will be far reaching.

In my earlier post, I alluded to the question of unintended consequences in regards to how Hobby Lobby could potentially blow up in the faces of the White Right. Reflecting on that supposition by putting it within a broader cultural, historical, and political context, Hobby Lobby may actually be an intentional gift to the White Right by the Roberts court.

How?

The Libertarian wing is pleased that federal law and the social compact are further diminished. The Christian Fundamentalists are happy that their twisted and distorted view that the United States ought to be made into a theocracy where "Biblically sound" laws govern was advanced by the Supreme Court. The plutocrats are giddy that they moved one more piece forward on the chessboard of corporate control over all aspects of individual's lives and freedom.

In my original thoughts on how the Hobby Lobby ruling is one more step towards American Theocracy, I erred by assuming judicial neutrality and principled decision making on the part of the Roberts and Scalia Court. My veneration of the Court distracted me from how its Right-wing members have politicized and ruined such an important American political institution.

The contemporary Tea Party GOP (and movement conservatism more broadly) is an unholy alliance of divergent interests. Of course, white supremacy and anti-black racism is one of their strongest bonds; it is a shared value. For the corporatists and the 1 percent it is a means to an end; for the other elements of the White Right it is a core belief.

The Hobby lobby decision offers up a foul, yet appropriate visual, for describing the White Right's Age of Obama Legion of Doom.

The 1 percent and the corporateocracy are voyeurs. They enjoy watching while the libertarians mount the Christian Dominionists and other fundies from behind. The 1 percent are enthralled at the sex show. The Libertarians are not even kind enough to give the Christian Fundamentalists the courtesy of a reach around. The latter enjoy being used; they are topping from the bottom. The open white supremacists are chained to the wall, wearing gimp suits and with gag balls in their mouths, eager to be freed so that they may do the others' bidding.

The question then becomes, how long will this alliance of convenience last?

To the degree that they are separate elements, will the Christian Dominionists, Corporatists/1 percenters and libertarians turn on one another? Will this happen in the near, mid, or long term?

Will the open white supremacists in the Tea Party GOP alliance become disgusted at the relative "moderation" of their allies?

The outrage narrative in response to the Supreme Court's horrible Hobby Lobby ruling is entertaining and compelling. It makes for easy "hashtag" Social Media "activism". The more important and substantive work begins by putting the Court's support of Austerity, neoliberalism, and theocracy within a broader systemic context.

The commentariat should be asking what is the bigger game plan here, whose agenda is being advanced, and how is it being forced on the American people?

A few are following through on that most basic of journalist responsibilities; unfortunately, too many others are going for the "cheap heat".