Glen Ford and poet, playwright and activist Amiri Baraka will be part of a program to welcome a visiting delegation of the Federation of Cuban Women at the Harlem State Office Building in New York City, Mar 10. Details below.
“They have allowed themselves to become tools of U.S. foreign policy, in the age of Obama.”
Late last year, a group of 60 prominent African Americans circulated a letter denouncing racism in, of all places, Cuba. I say, of all places, because almost any other country on the planet would be a better target than Cuba for a scathing and very public racial critique by African Americans. The letter claims that Cuba treats its Black population with “callous disregard.”
It is true that lines of color continue to exist in Cuba 50 years after Fidel Castro proclaimed the triumph of the revolution. Cuba had once been described as the most racist country in Latin America, a Spanish slave colony later subjected to 60 years of U.S. occupation and domination. It would be idiotic to think that such deep layers of racial oppression could be easily peeled away, or made to disappear by decree. But Cuba has made miraculous progress, helped in great measure by the fact that so many of its most racist citizens moved to Miami.Cuba’s solidarity with African liberation is unequaled among nations, both militarily and in support of African civil society. Cuba has offered its life-saving medical services to people of all nations, including the United States. And Cuba has been a haven, a home in exile, for Black American freedom fighters since the early days of the revolution.
So why would a celebrity list of Black Americans single out Cuba for special criticism? They have allowed themselves to become tools of U.S. foreign policy, in the age of Obama. The signatories include Dr. Ron Walters, a veteran activist and distinguished political scientist at the University of Maryland. In an article explaining his actions, Dr. Walters himself noted that there is only a one-year gap in life expectancy between Cuban whites and Blacks and mulattoes, and Cubans live slightly longer than the average for the United States. In the U.S., whites live more than six years longer than Blacks. Black Cubans live five years longer than African Americans. Dr. Walters also notes that Black and mulatto Cubans graduate at higher rates than white Cubans. These kinds of data are clear indications that the Cuban racial divide is far less pronounced than in the United States.
“Black Cubans live five years longer than African Americans.”
The signatories cite figures that purport to show that people of African descent are more likely to be incarcerated than whites. But those same figures show a much lower rate of Black incarceration in Cuba than in the United States, and a far lower percentage of Blacks among Cuban political prisoners. Still, Dr. Walters wants to make the Black condition in Cuba “part of any negotiations on the normalization of relations between the U.S. and Cuba.” In that statement, Walters is saying that the United States – of all nations – should negotiate with Cuba on the status of Cuba's Black citizens, before the U.S. lifts its illegal embargo and otherwise starts behaving like a civilized neighbor. I must assume that means the Cubans will have the same right to negotiate the treatment of Black Americans: an end to mass Black American incarceration, freedom for Black American political prisoners, a lowering of Black unemployment – and all the rest of our problems. But of course, Dr. Walters and the other signatories aren't suggesting that. They're just making themselves useful to the Empire, and saying to Hell with solidarity.
"Why are Obama and the Democrats so incompetent/such wimps/such 'pussies'? They control the White House and both houses of Congress, yet they haven't even managed to [insert embarrassingly modest and/or reformist liberal/progressive goal here, e.g., "pass health care reform that includes a public option", "end the Iraq war", "enact strict regulations on Wall Street", etc.]! Obama needs to 'grow a pair' and start acting more like the Republicans did when they were in power! You know, like a man. I mean, Bush never cared about bipartisanship and consensus-building when he was president. He was willing to use his power to enact his agenda, and he did so without giving the Democratic opposition in Congress a second thought."
The Left's™ persistent broadcasting of variations on the Democrats-as-incompetent-"pussies" (Bill Maher's word, not mine) meme reeks of a highly sophisticated and finely-tuned advertising campaign. The corporate owners of Brand Left™have so thoroughly saturated the nation with this message that even Apple's marketing department has started taking notes.
Of course, it is unsurprising when Brand Left's™ corporate mouthpieces help spread such a patently false characterization of Obama and the Democrats. The Leftists™ that have been anointed by our capitalist dictatorship -- Rachel Maddow,Keith Olbermann, Michael Moore, Ariana Huffington, and Bill Maher (to name a few)- have each done their part to perpetuate this dangerous lie about Obama and the Democrats. One should expect nothing less of such a distinguished cadre of amoral hypocrites.
Despite their faux-leftist rhetoric, they are cut from the same rotting, moth-eaten corporate cloth as Certainly Not News and Fox. The plutocracy has allowed them to express their "left wing" convictions for one primary reason: A few advertising firms conducted focus groups to figure out what kind of programming would best attract a coveted demographic to various media sources where they could be subjected to target marketing (i.e., mostly white limousine liberals who constantly reiterate their love for National "Public" Radio whenever they are going for progressive realness). Likewise, The Jersey Shore was created so that advertisers could target an equally repugnant demographic.
I am frankly unconcerned about the born-again Democrats who actually buy into this transparent lie. There is no hope for such fools. However, I am concerned about folks who claim to be to the left of the "liberal Democrats" and have still fallen prey to such dangerous propaganda. I am referring to the Greens, social democrats, socialists, and "independent" leftists who actually believe that Maher, Maddow, Olbermann, Moore, Huffington et al. are pinko-commie revolutionaries whom they adore with the same reverence one would expect from a bunch of Catholics praying the rosary in front of the Jesus cracker. They somehow cannot see that their favorite Leftist™ media personalities are carefully crafted corporate products designed to sell Snuggies to champagne socialists and perpetuate the status quo by narrowing the range of "acceptable" political discourse in a way that invariably favors the economic interests of the ruling elites.
The aforementioned media products are no better than the corporate media, because they are nothing but performers in the corporate media's Left-wing™ drag show. Consider how these personalities frame Obama and the Democrats as wimps in light of the following segment from Certainly Not News. CNN is so brazen in its effort to limit the range of acceptable political discourse that it might as well have changed the ticker during the segment to read "Chomsky totally underestimated our desire and ability to define national political discourse in Manufacturing Consent".
Now consider that this is the same network that just published an editorial by "journalist" Roland Martin entitled, Time for Obama to Go 'Gangsta' on the GOP. Here are a few choice quotes from Martin's editorial:
"I'm sick and tired of Democrats having power and being unwilling to use it. I've always respected Republicans when they had power because they were willing to use it and maybe apologize later."
"... the president needs to show his toughness and just do it. Forget the threats. The actions of Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, and other Republican obstructionists will continue if President Obama allows them to run roughshod over him. When you're the top dog, you do what you have to do to govern."
"This president got rolled by the Senate over health care. His team made some boneheaded mistakes, and now they are paying for them. Continuing to play footsie with opponents will only get him into more trouble. "
"Obama's critics keep blasting him for Chicago-style politics. So, fine. Channel your inner Al Capone and go gangsta against your foes. Let 'em know that if they aren't with you, they are against you, and will pay the price."
I can already hear some of you starting to retort with "but Roland Martin isn't a progressive!"
No shit.
But he is not the only person to question Obama and the Democrats' manly resolve while praising the Republicans for "at least" having the cojones to fight for what they believe in. Your fellow "progressives" Bill Maher and Michael Moore may have beaten ol' Roland to the punch (see the above links if you haven't already). Maher went even further and demonstrated that he had the biggest cock of the whole Progressive™lot of them by using the word "pussies" to describe the Democrats' supposed cowardice and (somehow vaginal?) incompetence when it comes to governing. Ariana Huffington made almost the exact same statement, but she phrased it in a manner befitting someone of her caste. Maddow, Olbermann, Jon Stewart and other corporate products have all been singing the same refrain, at least when they aren't praising Obama in a fit of ecstasy after an "anonymous source" informs them that he remembered to put the toilet seat back down at the White House last night.
Those of you who consider yourselves to be leftists must stop participating in this charade. It is factually inaccurate to state that Obama lacks courage or that he is incompetent for two reasons. First, the statement wrongly implies that Obama secretly desires to be the pied-piper who will lead us all into a Scandanavian-style Utopian fairyland of free health care, legal pot, immigration laws based on kindness and fairness, and a foreign policy grounded in pacifism. He is just too gosh-darned incompetent, and/or both he and the other members of his party in Congress lack the courage of their convictions.
Please.
If we define "competence" as "governing in a manner that gets things done", Obama is perhaps among the most competent US presidents in history. In just over one year he has signed legislation to fund the escalation of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan, extended and expanded upon the Patriot Act, presided over the biggest heist in recorded human history (i.e., the bailouts or "TARP"), silenced the anti-war movement, agreed to sign a bill into law that would effectively eliminate a woman's right to choose, intentionally led Congress to a point where it will soon provide him with a bill to sign that will result in record profits for the health insurance industry...I could go on, but I suspect that you, dear reader, already know all of this.
Second, someone needs to inform Michael Moore, Bill Maher and Roland Martin that they can take refuge in the fact that Obama is behaving precisely like a courageous, manly Republican....oh, and that they can shut the fuck up already. Obama has ratcheted up the butchering in the Middle East despite presenting himself as the anti-(Iraq) war candidate, announced a proposed spending freeze on virtually every "government program" except the fucking military, enacted policies loathed by his "base" and teabagger-types alike, promoted the use of nuclear fucking energy (what happened to all of those "green jobs" that were supposed to materialize when the windmills needed to be erected from sea to shining fucking sea?), and fixed the economy--well, at least the economy on Wall Street.
Have people forgotten the way this man campaigned for the presidency? He practically managed to convince liberals and progressives that he was a barefoot anti-war vegan organic farmer and labor activist. Of course, he never came right out and said that, but his campaign sure did imply it in a lot of ways. He went from a gaysbien-friendly intellectual tree-sitter named Daffodil to a cross between Karl Rove and that serial killer from Saw in the course of 24 hours. This man who presented himself as the anti-Bush made Bush seem like a friendly little stray poodle starting the day he was fucking inaugurated. And he didn't even pretend to try to hide it. There are a lot of words one could use to describe such behavior, but "cowardice" is certainly not one of them. Now, Obama didn't really have to hide the fact that he was a neo-conservative in Birkenstocks because most liberals and progressives were (and are) under the spell of his Hope bomb.
So you see, when you perpetuate the myth that Obama really is a progressive Bodhisattva at heart who just lacks the courage or ability to implement the Venezuela-style economic reforms we all know he favors, or that he is just too darn nice because he wants to reach consensus with his ideological foes in the other party so as not to hurt their feelings (and don't you go straining your little head trying to reconcile the fact that the Dems have a large majority in Congress-- and that the American public actually favors the "progressive reforms" they thought the Dems would usher in--with the fact that they have done more to advance many portions of the Republican platform in one year than Bush did in eight), you end up with sad, pathetic ads paid for by progressive/liberal groups like this one:
No, that is not a parody, nor is it something I created. Those people are serious. They "still believe" in Obama despite everything that has been unfolding in front of their own fucking eyes. Why? Because deep down, they know the real Obama wants to give everyone free health care, a coke, and a smile. He's just too nice/incompetent/cowardly to do so. That's what the Left is saying on TV/the internet, and their progressive friends all agree on this diagnosis. I guess that means a little begging and pleading are in order.
Well, I hear Obama is currently reading Thich Nhat Hahn's book Cultivating the Mind of Love, so who knows? Maybe the lotus flower in his heart will touch the lotus flower in their hearts and he will drink their suffering deeply and feel compelled to act.
Call me crazy, but I think the reality of what Obama is doing warrants raucous nation-wide protests that will make the most militant and rowdy demonstrations that took place in San Francisco under Bush II prior to the invasion of Iraq seem even more benign than a protest by Code Pink. Obama is a war criminal and should be prosecuted as such alongside every other living former US President. He does not care about you or your loved ones, and the only change you can believe in is that he will help corporate America privatize the fucking air if they can come up with a way to do so. He's already got his eyes on your kids' schools.
The sooner people are able to free themselves of their cherished illusions about the DaliObama and face the awful truth, the more likely they will be to begin taking action to defend themselves and the innocents he is slaughtering on their behalf in Middle East (note that I said "more likely"...don't worry, I am not harboring any false hopes of my own). The danger of the Democrats-as-"pussies" meme lies in the justification it appears to provide for docility and inaction (and voting doesn't count as action...sorry). It allows people on the left to hold on to the irrational belief that fundamental change will take place as soon as we find that Democrat messiah with "balls".
What do you think is in order? What you saw in the above video, or something along these lines (but perhaps a tad more, um, spirited...yeah, "spirited"):
"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another..."
I had to stop there because the rest of the document is full of all this God bullshit, and the fuckers who wrote the piece of trash were a bunch of rich, white, slave-owning wastes of skin. But what's good for the corporate goose...
Sphere: Related Content
"Is it possible to be progressive and support the occupation of Palestinian people? Gottlieb and I will attempt to present facts that debunk the "right" of the Jewish people to this land. Besides the pesky God-given myth, we will present historical facts that contradict the lies told in their quest to eradicate Palestine. We will explore how hawkish ideologues that support the Zionist abuses use misrepresentation, propaganda and the ever-present accusations of anti-semitism to end any dialogue... Supporters of Zionism, no matter how liberal they claim to be on everything else, are right-wing ideologues when it comes to defending the racist, fascist state that is present-day Israel...This subject is taboo, screamed into oblivion in most US contexts. We think its time to address it full on: Yes, it IS ethnic cleansing, yes they ARE concentration camps, and even worse, Zionists are treating Palestinians just like the Nazis treated them"
