Friday, January 29, 2016
Thursday, January 28, 2016
Random Thoughts
1. One on One between Allen Iverson and Steph Curry...Who would win?
2. Is Donald Trump's campaign for real or some big ruse?
3.Since the only thing they can do with the water in Flint, Michigan is flush the toilet...Why should they pay the water bill?
4.The FBI made the first arrests today in that Militia take over of the federal Wildlife reserve...I guess they were tired of being punked for two weeks.
5.Can anybody tell me what purpose snow serves?
6.Chris Christie the governor of New Jersey was asked why he was still in New Hampshire campaigning when there was flooding and snowstorm damage in New Jersey...He replied flippantly-
''What do you want me to do, go down there with a mop?" What if President Obama addressed people like that? Can you imagine the outrage??
7.Donald Trump is not participating in the Republican debate tonight...Depending on your opinion of Donald Trump, you can either blame Megyn Kelly or send her flowers.
8. Beauty or Danger?
9.I love That McDonald's serves Breakfast All Day!
10.I'm sure Gonna Miss President Obama when he's gone!
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Monday, January 25, 2016
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Oscar Blues, Part 2
So the Question becomes...Can the Oscars solve it's race problem? Well...Has it ever tried to??
The Oscars made big news last week, but certainly not the way they intended.
When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed its picks for the year's best performances on Jan. 14, no Black or Latino actors were nominated for the second consecutive year.
What's more, acclaimed films with diverse casts including Straight Outta Compton, Creed, and Beasts of No Nation were shut out of the Best Picture category, and the nominations those films did receive went either to white screenwriters (for Compton) or to a white star (Sylvester Stallone for Creed).
As the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite began trending, just as it did last year, ceremony host Chris Rock joked in a Twitter promo that he was thrilled to be hosting "The White BET Awards."
Then it got serious. Spike Lee, who was honored at the Academy's Governors Awards months ago, and Jada Pinkett Smith announced they were boycotting this year's Oscars and encouraged others to join them. Rock began facing pressure to resign as host in protest.
Each day, more high-profile figures are lending their voices to the chorus calling for change. "For 20 opportunities to celebrate actors of color, actresses of color, to be missed last year is one thing," said David Oyelowo, who starred as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the Oscar-nominated Selma, at an event on Jan. 18. "For that to happen again this year is unforgivable." I agree, but as I said yesterday...This is nothing new.
Although Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs (who has described herself as "heartbroken and frustrated" over the situation) has taken steps to make the Oscar telecast more inclusive -- e.g., recruiting Reginald Hudlin (Django Unchained), who's African-American, to co-produce the ceremony -- only the Academy members can select the nominees. And that's where the problem lies.
A 2012 Los Angeles Times study found that the roughly 6,000-member Academy is nearly 94 percent Caucasian and 77 percent male, with a median age of 62. Invitations to join the elite organization are typically limited to high-ranking professionals who are nominated by at least two peers; once admitted, membership is for life. Since Boone Isaacs was hired in 2013, the organization has added more members than usual, including many women and minorities, and she affirmed her commitment to that mission, vowing in a statement, "In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond." For many, progress can't come soon enough. "If we keep adding women and minorities at the rate we do, how long will it take? A hundred years?" asks one actress Academy member. "We can't wait that long."
This is the white boys club....I'm just speaking plain...62 year old White guys who vote each other in and come from a certain class are ,let's be honest here ,not likely to go see Straight Outta Compton, Creed, and Beasts of No Nation . ..And even if they did..they're not going to appreciate it the same way a younger minority audience might.
They may go to see the Butler because it's filled with well known stars, both Black and White and it still will get no love....
So how does the Academy fix its broken system? How does Oscar solve it's race problem??
DIVERSIFY MEMBERSHIP
Should the Academy add 1,000 new members? Should it admit only people of color for the next five years? That may seem extreme, but there's no question that young, diverse talent would shift the kinds of stories and performances Oscar celebrates. "I do think has to do with recruitment," says one Academy governor. "I don't think everyone is aware of who's out there making good movies, minority or not."
I would appreciate more women at this point...It's still the White BOYS club..Very few women....
REEXAMINE VOTING-
To determine the Best Picture nominees, members select five films in order of preference. That voting is weighted, meaning that first-place votes matter more than third-place ones. Some believe Compton received votes, just not enough in first or second place. Others speculate that voters never watched the N.W.A biopic. "I think the older members didn't think it was a movie for them," says one member. Adds another: "I haven't seen every movie. Who has that kind of time? Especially when you've got to watch Making a Murderer." The Academy might want to determine Best Picture the way it does Best Foreign Language Film: A diverse committee would choose the nominees and then members could only vote if they had seen all the films.
CONSIDER OUSTERS
Should someone be an active member of the Academy if he hasn't worked in 25 years? Perhaps it's time to allow only those people currently working, or mentoring young talent, to vote. It might help prevent conventional sensibilities from becoming entrenched. "Change is coming," says an Academy member. "It'll probably get more messy before it gets better ..." but that's fine...Change is often messy.
Saturday, January 23, 2016
Oscar Blues
You might be surprised at my position on the proposed boycot of this years Oscars by Black Actors and Actresses...
I'm not with it...
But not for reasons Stacy Dash and white racists may think...
I'm just..what is the point? This is not news...The Oscars have been #so white for years now..with a few exceptions when they tossed us a few bones....
How many Latinos have won Oscars? For that matter how many Native Americans or Asians?
You see my point?
As I explained to a friend on Facebook yesterday...I used to watch them and get mad.....I was angry in 1972 when neither Diana Ross ,nor Cicely Tyson won ...I was so mad that by the time I was 18 ,I stopped watching and didn't watch again until the year Lou Gossett Jr. won best supporting actor for Officer and a Gentleman....I was 26 by then...They had gotten better handing out statutes to Denzel,Cuba,Whoopi, Halle,Morgan Freeman,Jennifer Hudson and a few others, and then for the past two years it's been a BLACKOUT...pun intended....I won't be watching this year either!
I can find better things to do with my free time...
I am so over the Oscars....And so should a lot of Black people...I am just tired ,Tired of needing White America for verification of my self worth...
For Stacey Dash and the white racists who say..."Well we don't get mad when White people don't win NAACP IMAGE Awards or BET awards..."which I found funny ,just think of something...Historically Black Colleges and Universities, NAACP Image Awards, BET Awards, Latin Grammys...et al...None of this would be necessary if we truly lived in a color blind society , a post racial society where everybody was recognized and rewarded equally....but we don't...We never have...
Up until 1950....Practically every movie that went through Holywood was 99 percent all white casts...And the only Black people you saw was maids and butlers and if they had speaking parts...It was comic relief...
The explosion of Black cinema in the 70's ..though admittedly cheesy went over most white people(with the exception of Quentin Tarrantino)'s heads....Still there were a few gems...Sounder, Lady Sings the Blues..Nothin But a Man, Watermelon Man , Sweet Sweetback's Badass song..Shaft that were all but ignored by Oscar...
Black people should have been boycotting back then when we were really being ignored....
People are up in the air now...but this is longgggg overdue...
The past two years in a row..There have been no Black nominees for anything...Why is anyone surprised?? Nothing new here...
I'll speak on this some more..
(TO BE CONTINUED)
Friday, January 22, 2016
Weekend Humor II
REALLY?? Listen Sarah...Pick up your paycheck from Donald Trump, Get your dumb ratchet ass off the campaign trail, Take responsibility for YOUR family(Your son and your daughter) and get them the help they need (While you are at it...make yourself an appointment too)!
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
A Scary Thought!
President Obama comes into office and restores the diplomatic communications with them, and they in turn sign a nuclear disarmament treaty which has since been verified by the IAEA.
They've released detained Americans, promptly returned US military Personnel and have dismantled its nuclear reactors...
Republicans would've pushed for more war, more useless sanctions, and increased hostilities... and would have driven the deficit up..
What will we do when Barack Obama is gone???? It's a scary thought...
He got all of this done with diplomacy....Not a shot fired...Not a bomb dropped and not one life lost on either side...
So I ask again...What will we do when Barack Obama is gone???? It's a scary thought...
Monday, January 18, 2016
Friday, January 15, 2016
Weekend Humor
She said, "Sure you can, but how will that help?"
I said, "I'll bet you anything she'll appear out of nowhere".
Everybody have a super groovalicious weekend!
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
The Occupation Continues
The occupation of a federal wildlife reserve by a group of White militia men continues...It's not even a news story now....There have been reports of discord among the occupiers...
First off , the genius's didn't bring any food or water for a contingency...There have been fighting amongst them reported and some of them have even walked off of the reserve and have been seen in town eating and drinking at local establishments...
This thing may not end with a bang, but with a wimper!
Shaking my damn head!
Monday, January 11, 2016
What I've Learned
2. My Brother's Suffering Is My Own.
3.I look at each person I meet as a new experience.
4.The more mistakes you make...The more you learn.
5.A lot of people don't understand the beauty of Quiet!
6.Not One Drop of my self worth depends on some other person's exceptance of me.
7.Even when it feels like you're not going to succeed and everything is crumbling apart, keep going...Success and victory are right around the corner.
8.The only thing that lasts in this world is being good to other people.
9.Shut Down the Haters and Live Your Truth.
10.Living well really is the best revenge.
Peace!
Friday, January 8, 2016
Weekend Humor
3 men are playing golf at a Country Club: Obi Wan Kenobi, Darth Maul and a very old man.
Obi Wan tees off and hits his ball in the sand trap. He mind controls his caddy to mark it a hole-in-one.
Next Darth Maul hits his ball and it lands in the rough. He walks over to his ball and uses the Force to throw it on the green.
Finally, the old man hits his ball over the trees and, into the parking lot, onto a parked car.
The man lifts the car using the Force and brings the car to the green and drops the car on green, the ball then falls of the car and into the hole.
Obi Wan turns to Darth Maul and says, "Damn, I hate playing with Yoda!!!"
Everybody have a super groovalicious weekend!
Finally, the old man hits his ball over the trees and, into the parking lot, onto a parked car.
The man lifts the car using the Force and brings the car to the green and drops the car on green, the ball then falls of the car and into the hole.
Obi Wan turns to Darth Maul and says, "Damn, I hate playing with Yoda!!!"
Everybody have a super groovalicious weekend!
Thursday, January 7, 2016
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
SAY HER NAME!
A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper was charged with perjury in connection to a contentious traffic stop last summer where a black woman wound up arrested for assault and then died three days later in jail. Hours after the indictment, the Texas Department of Public Safety began termination proceedings.
A grand jury indicted Trooper Brian Encinia on the misdemeanor count, alleging he lied about how he removed 28-year-old Sandra Bland from her vehicle during the July traffic stop. The same Waller County grand jury decided last month not to indict any sheriff's officials or jailers in Bland's death, which was ruled a suicide.
Sandra Bland remained jailed following her arrest because she couldn't raise about $500 for bail. Encinia, who has been on paid desk duty since Sandra Bland was found dead in her cell, also faces a wrongful death lawsuit filed by Ms.Bland's family.
The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
Encinia, who is white, pulled Sandra Bland over on July 10 for making an improper lane change near Prairie View A&M University, her alma mater, where she had just interviewed and accepted a job. Dashcam video from Encinia's patrol car shows that the traffic stop quickly became confrontational.
The video shows the trooper holding a stun gun and yelling, "I will light you up!" after Sandra Bland refuses to get out of her car. Sandra Bland eventually steps out of the vehicle, and Brian Encinia orders her to the side of the road. The confrontation continues off-camera but is still audible.
Brian Encinia's affidavit stated he "removed her from her vehicle to further conduct a safer traffic investigation," but grand jurors "found that statement to be false," said Shawn McDonald, one of five special prosecutors appointed to investigate.
McDonald declined to say whether the grand jury considered any other charges.
Neither Sandra Bland's attorneys nor the Texas Department of Public Safety immediately returned messages seeking comment about the indictment. Department Director Steve McCraw said after the incident that Brian Encinia violated internal agency policies of professionalism and courtesy.
About two dozen protesters attended Wednesday's press conference where the indictment was announced. Speaking afterward, one protester, Jinaki Muhammad, called the misdemeanor charge "a slap in the face to the Bland family."
Encinia wrote in his affidavit that he had Bland exit the vehicle and handcuffed her after she became combative, and that she swung her elbows at him and kicked him in his right shin. Encinia said he then used force "to subdue Bland to the ground," and she continued to fight back. He arrested her for assault on a public servant.
Sandra Bland's sister, Shante Needham, has said that Sandra called her from jail the day after her arrest, saying she'd been arrested but didn't know why, and that an officer had placed his knee in her back and injured her arm.
After the traffic stop, Sandra Bland was taken in handcuffs by another officer to the county jail in nearby Hempstead, about 50 miles northwest of Houston. She was found dead in her jail cell three days later, on July 13, hanging from a jail cell partition with a plastic garbage bag around her neck.
Her family has said they were working to get money for her bail when they learned of her death.
Sandra Bland's arrest and death came amid heightened national scrutiny of police and their dealings with black suspects, especially individuals who were killed by officers or who died in police custody.
About two dozen protesters attended Wednesday's press conference where the indictment was announced. Speaking afterward, one protester, Jinaki Muhammad, called the misdemeanor charge "a slap in the face to the Bland family."
But Sandra Bland's Ghost is still speaking from beyond the grave....
Nobody Black believes that she died the way they say she died....
The truth will be heard!
SAY HER NAME!
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
So It Must Be Right ? Right?
This past Sunday...a rumored 150 armed White militia men took over a Government owned Wildlife preserve...
Think about the Meme above and imagine if hundreds of Black Lives Matter activists or Muslims or Mexicans took over a Federal Building and threatened war with the American Government..
Fox News Talking heads would be labeling them domestic terrorists and screaming for their heads!
They wouldn't make it through the week alive...And you're extremely naive if you think otherwise...
Hell,A Black child can't brandish a tou gun without getting blown away...
Here is the really funny thing though...I would have never of heard of this seige had it not been for Facebook and Twitter....CBS,NBC,ABC and FOX have all been mum....CNN and MSNBC are silent...
They cover Mass Shootings and events like San Bernadino ad nauseum around the clock for days and yet...nary a peep about this...
Even the White Right Wing is baffled as to why they aren't getting any coverage...
This Oregon standoff has reignited an already intense debate on social media about policing, race and terrorism.
On Saturday, an armed group of antigovernment protesters took over buildings on a remote federal wildlife refuge in Oregon and warned that they would not leave without a fight. The authorities have held back rather than use force to end the occupation.
On social media, that led quickly to questions about a double standard, particularly from liberals and the left, who asked: What if the armed men were Muslim or black? (Many or all of them appear to be white.) Another theme was about the religion of the protesters. At least one activist has made reference to a prominent Mormon figure.
Some have speculated that the police would have used violent force to remove the activists if they were Muslim or black.There is nothing to speculate...They would have.
Some wondered why the news media and the authorities were not calling the takeover a form of terrorism.
People used the hashtags #YallQaeda, #YeeHawd, and #VanillaISIS to challenge a widely held perception that terrorism applies only to crimes carried about by minorities and non-Christians.
The leader of the armed group in Oregon is Ammon Bundy, the son of Cliven Bundy(Remember him?), a rancher in Nevada who last year engaged in an armed standoff with federal officials, gaining the support of leaders in the conservative movement, and then losing it after declaring that black Americans would be better off as slaves.
As expected...many conservatives on Twitter criticized the debate, and said it was a step too far to call the men terrorists, and pushed back against memes that perpetuated stereotypes about white people.
Others objected to the criticism of the lack of force used by the authorities by drawing comparisons to past deadly standoffs between the federal authorities and armed groups that harbor antigovernment sentiments.
“Worth recalling lessons of Waco and Ruby Ridge before suggesting FBI should simply go to war with Oregon militiamen,” an observer wrote on Twitter on Sunday.
In 1993, a gun battle erupted in Waco, Tex., ending a 51-day standoff between federal authorities and members of a religious sect called the Branch Davidians. The fighting resulted in the deaths of four federal agents and half a dozen members of the sect.
A year earlier, a confrontation in northern Idaho between the authorities and Randall Weaver, a white separatist, led to the fatal shooting of his wife and son. A federal marshal was also killed during the conflict, which came after an 11-day standoff. In 1995, the government awarded $3.1 million to Mr. Weaver.
Hmmph...The government should award some money to the mothers of Trayvon Martin,Tamir Rice and Sandra Bland among others...And police should learn some lessons from these killings like the Feds have supposedly learned from the Waco and Ruby Ridge affairs...
But those involved White People...So I guess that makes it different!
Go Figure!
Monday, January 4, 2016
The Man Who Killed Tamir Rice
By December 5, 2012, Loehmann was no longer a police officer. The Independence Police Department has stated that Loehmann’s employment lasted a total of five months. Four out of those five months were spent in the police academy. Loehmann had spent only a month as an official police officer before his alarming misconduct became too much of a liability for the Independence police force.
According to Loehmann, he voluntarily resigned. According to the Independence Police force, he quit before they could fire him.
In five short months, Loehmann was deemed “emotionally unstable” and unfit for service as a police officer. In his personnel records, his direct supervisors described him as having a “lack of maturity” as well as an “inability to perform basic functions as instructed.”
These supervisors were referring to the disturbing behavior Loehmann exhibited during a weapons training session.
Officer Loehmann’s worrisome conduct and mental instability when handling weapons would become a reoccurring theme in his personnel files.
In another training session held at a gun range, Loehmann suffered what was described as an “emotional meltdown.” In a memo sent to Human Resources, Deputy Chief Jim Polak of the Independence Police Department referred to this incident as a “dangerous loss of composure.” Polak noted that Loehmann’s “handgun performance was dismal” and that he was “distracted and weepy” during the training session.
After Loehmann’s weapons were taken away by the training officer, he continued his “emotional meltdown” with detailed descriptions of his apparent issues with a girlfriend.
HIS GIRLFRIEND???
Yet this guy kept a job....Go figure.
Deputy Chief Polak’s memo included several additional incidents of worrisome misconduct. He concluded the memo with the following:
“Individually, these events would not be considered major situations but, when taken together, they show a pattern of a lack of maturity, indiscretion, and not following instructions.”
“I do not believe time nor training will be able to change or correct these deficiencies.”
In March 2014, after spending two years being denied by every police force he applied to, Timothy Loehmann received an offer from the Cleveland Police Department. They did not check his personnel files.
A few months later, on November 22, 2014 at 3:30 PM, Loehmann shot and killed a 12 year-old child named Tamir Rice.
I wonder if this means he will still keep his shield and gun too?
I could pull the race card here and say that if Tamir Rice had been blond haired and blue eyed and named Ethan Wilkshire that this would have all gone down different or if Timothy Loehmann had been named Tyrone Jackson and been an African-American cop this would be different also...
They'd of done a background check of Tyrone Jackson and he would have never of been hired with a record like that.....
But, that's just me!
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Simple But True
I remember those days at the pump....I had just bought myself a new car....I wasn't happy at all about going damn near broke to fill it..
What is the difference?
It could be that former President Bush and his oil company cronies made out like bandits during his eight years in office. All Bush and Cheney had to do to make oil prices skyrocket was to destabilize the Middle East -- and they did it expertly.
"President George W. Bush’s family has been running oil companies since 1950. Vice President Dick Cheney spent the late ’90s as CEO of Halliburton, the world’s largest oil services company. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice sat on the board of Chevron, which graced a tanker with her name. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans was the CEO of Tom Brown Inc. — a natural gas company with fields in Texas, Colorado and Wyoming — for more than a decade."
It's all a matter of public record...So all of you Donald trump followers...Tell me again how "Obama has ruined our country!"
Saturday, January 2, 2016
Rest In Peace Dr. Frances Cress Welsing
Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, often described as the Queen Mother of Black Consciousness, died this morning at the age of 80. According to friends and family, Dr. Welsing suffered a stroke on New Year’s Day and was in critical condition at a Washington, D.C. hospital.
Dr. Welsing became famous for her work the Cress Theory of Color-Confrontation in 1974 and later published The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors in 1991. Her books explored the symbols and systemic practices of White supremacy and revealed the psychological dynamics of racism.
She'll be sorely missed.
Friday, January 1, 2016
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KEEPING THE FAITH: RANDOM PRAYERS "ON THE DOWNLOAD"
"Mommy, can I go to Timmy's blog and play?"
