leavin brothers

sooooo who's disturbed that lehman and merrill lynch went under? lehman brothers was a 158 year old bank ... i kinda feel like entrenched power just took a major hit ... in 158 years what have any of the members of the lehman fam done to obliterate poverty? just asking ...

i am disturbed by this 'crisis' mainly because no real poor people are paying attention (i live around lots of poor folks and aint nobody talkin bout this trust me) ... i am disturbed that banks can get bailed out by the fed and no one notices or bats an eyelash ... i am disturbed that no fed agency is going to bail out the average homeowner and yet the WORLD's largest insurance company, AIG, is asking the fed for 'emergency funding' ... you know that funding is in the several billions don't you?

i am disturbed by the american people ... who are not connecting the dots ... not connecting g.w. bush to lenient financial regulation which caused this crisis ... not connecting federal bailouts to their income taxes ... not connecting the price of gas in lebanon to the price of coca cola in brasil and then connecting all of that to the diminishing quality of their 3rd grader's american education ...

hey ... maybe it's not connected ... but isn't it at least worth googling?? just a question ... cuz i loves you and i cares bout yall. and i'd hate to see the chaos in wall street personally connect with your wallet.

lastly, i am - as usual - disturbed by capitalism. it's an illusion. and this 'crisis' is what happens when fake money meets real people. do your research ...

you can read an assoc. press article on this matter as well.

pale in comparison

when comparing minorities palin just can't hold water against obama ... there's a story from the LA progressive that palin may have called obama 'SAMBO' ... i can't even be serious about racism anymore ... it's so old and tired ... i can only be sarcastic and facetious so all i can say is mcCain wasn't even smart enough not to get a potty-mouth VIP contender ... potty in her mouth ... yucky lady. should we revoke her minority card? sounds like that's what she wants ... she's not a minority ... she just a human republican (oxymoron?) who can get as racist as the best of em ... good to know miss sarah good to know.

now we payin fannie & freddie's bills too

in case you missed it ... us taxpayers who earn maybe $10 per hour (ok just me?) will be bailing out multi-billion dollar companies, fannie mae and freddie mac ... cuz nobody trusts their word that the loans they made to banks who used the money to lend to homebuyers will ever be re-paid ... or that's what they tell us ... is it coincidence that people who sit on the board of directors for fannie and freddie are second-cousins to g.w. bush? no.

but you are now confronted with a choice. you can find out what's really going on ... why are fannie and freddie so tied to our ENTIRE financial system? why do two companies control almost 50% of all u.s. mortgages? yes, i personally know the answer but ... do you? and now that it effects your pocket will you burry your ass in the sand and add fannie and freddie's bills to your own ... or will you inform yourself about what's really going on? cuz let me tell you ... us taxpayers outnumber congress. we outnumber fannie mae. if we refused to stand for this ... and acted collectively ... of course, something could be done. but what will you do now? ... keep surfing the web or sieze control of your destiny. it is a hard choice. and i love you no matter what but damn ... i'd really love ChANGE.

from cnn: Together, Fannie and Freddie own or guarantee more than half of the U.S. mortgage market - that's more than $5 trillion in loans.

Here's how they work: Banks loan money to home buyers. The banks then sell those mortgages - assuming they meet certain credit standards - to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

But without an "explicit" guarantee from the U.S. government, the stock of both companies continued to drop, and major investors - including the central banks of Russia and China - started selling Fannie and Freddie bonds fast. That made it harder, and more expensive, for Fannie and Freddie to raise money.

That guarantee that investors wanted is now explicit. The U.S. government is now in the business of buying and reselling mortgages, and Paulson and his cohorts hope that sends the message that Fannie and Freddie are safe.

The bad news - taxpayers could get stuck with a $200 billion bill for the bailout.

from bbc:The federal takeover is one of the largest bail-outs in US history.

"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are so large and interwoven in our financial system that a failure of either of them would create great turmoil in financial markets here and around the globe."

from the springfield sun-times: "The bailout will give the mortgage industry a stability that we haven't had in a couple of years," said Rich Cosner, president of Prudential California Realty. "But frankly no, it won't help (struggling borrowers) to refinance."

'merica

hurricane gustav ... made me have an epiphany ....

my new theory is that america is no longer america ... at least not the america that many people BRAND and MARKET her to be (o.k. she never was but it's real obvious now) ... you know that "dream" of america which does include the 'american dream' version as well as this notion that we are a 'first world,' highly developed, super-CIVILIZed, leader of the 'free-market' world... when they took countries out of the 3rd world and put them in the first world, when they took africa, india, and latin america and colonized them the excuse was that europeans were more CIVILIZED ... cuz of, you know, real important things like they wore long skirts and ties and they ate with forks ...


but all that to say america is no longer america ... we are now a bootleg version of our own illusion ... let me explain why i'm downgrading us to business class, to third world, to the bottom of the international pecking order ...

i first thought this cuz of gustav. i mean ... how civilized is it not to rebuild the levees in four years ... but then again the rest of new orleans has also yet to be rebuilt hmmm ... and 85% of the people aint back (not an exact percentage) ... and many refugees still live in trailers issued by the government that turned out to be toxic and cause cancer ... and what about FEMA in GENERAL -- ... a gov. body that is as corrupt as nigeria (NOT an insult to nigeria) ... and then i thought about how the folks would evacuate and gas stations would run out of gas (not very american) and ATMs would be out of money (not american at all)


and supermarkets would have no food or water (so unamerican) and the traffic out of NO would turn a 7 hour drive into 20 hours (kinda american) ...


then i thought .... has the 9/11 destruction been re-built ... no ... there are still craters in the earth and condemned buildings in the bowery ... there is still no 9/11 memorial ...

which led me to think about where our money is at ... oh, iraq ... so if a future disaster or terrorist attack hit ... that shit wouldn't get rebuilt either ...


and this got me thinking about our infrastructure as a whole ... education (is that infrastructure? not sure but it's pretty fucking important) is at an all time low ... kids i taught in philly didn't know what or where the u.s. capital city was ... no bullshit ... and umm the dollar is now valued at less than the euro almost twice as less huh ... our current president is g.w. bush ... and it was americans who voted for him ... health insurance - what's left of it - SUCKS ... jobs that ALWAYS carried health care no longer even offer it ... if they do offer it it's like the cost of college ... and oh that's rising too and gov grants for college are also dwindling ... banks are closing and homes are foreclosing ... is the american dream moving into an apartment?


i would move to cuba but there's a hurricane there. i would move to canada but it's too cold. venezuela and brasil are the last two left on my list ... and ghana is definitely an option ...

cuz as far as i'm concerned this country is now just called 'merica -- it's fourth-world and dropping fast ...(no, i don't believe we can rank worlds it's just cuz i know AMERICA takes their ranking quite seriously.) i told yall ... it's HARD for me to love america with all her pre-occupation with ranking, order, money, materialism ... she always forgets that a country is only as strong as its PEOPLE. and it's only the people that make it a nation.

2006 state of the world address

(i wrote this on monday, october 30, 2006 at 9:35 p.m. but sadly much of it still applies. this is the negativity in the world that fuels me to blog. this is the destruction, death, and mayhem which needs a lot of LOVE rubbed all over it. and this is more of why we still can't wait.)

chaos theory at the end of october 2006

what is the goal
of israel's fresh new raids on gaza?
israel seems to get no
closer to eradicating
hamas
why is the issue of muslim women wearing
veils even up for debate?
is this not the first tenet of western liberal democracy:
freedom of choice
but nobody seems to hear
the implicit euro-centricism and euro-supremacy
underlying the "veil" debate
and the linking of the anti-veil argument
to a false notion of UNIVERSAL
culture&common sense
sense is not common
cuz then someone would really
put a stop to darfur
instead of throwing all these
concerts and forming U.N.
commissions
and it's easy to ignore all the unrest
still unfolding in somalia
and their hints of war with ethiopia
because we've BEEN ignoring them
since the black hawk went down
but what really trips me out is
how robin thicke has so much soul
and how we get on the train everyday
with mllions of random people
but we can't talk
cuz in this modern society
my life has nothing
to do
with yours
right
i wonder when i wander
thru target why little dogs get more
accessories than
homeless people
and more attention
than starving people
these little fucking dogs are becoming
the opiate of the masses
karl marx is rolling in his grave
and sartre is saying
i told you so
i'm not impressed with kerry's comments
either but they are
slightly more important
than who or how madonna
adopts children
and ahhhhhh where are the whispers
about shutting down the concentration camp
commonly referred to
as GITMO
or -- for those who failed to see that great
tom cruise/jack nicholson collabo --
guantanamo bay
no, i cannot handle the truth
the truth about
the depths of human depravity
overwhelm me sometimes, Lord
the man who cut a two year
old clitoris off - his child's -
with a scissor
the three school shootings in
one week
russian women for sale all over
my e-mail account
bullets flying STILL in jamaica
and in queens
much closer to home the good Lord agrees
that i should weep
for my little brothers and sisters
who go to school EVERY DAY
late and without a bookbag
and play playstation and cards
and tag and kill the teacher
who don't know their own value
i even get discouraged by my
black bourgeousie &
RBG afro chic
naturalistic contingent
all the "talented" tenth
wasting their time
college education
and wasting a historical legacy
of freedom
fighters
and their hot breath
in be-moaning the death of hip hop
and the proliferation of the word nigga
i can't read the news anymore
cuz i know it's death
and destruction
i can't listen to world leaders anymore
cuz they keep saying the same
old thing upholding the same old status
quo

my heart is so heavy

but i'ma do my little part
plug away at my slice of the pie
keep carving my niche of like-minded individuals
cuz i also know
the revolution begins in my heart
and dies with each spirit
that gives up

more break your heart news ...

sigh ... i think mcCain has officially lost it ... he watched the DNC convention and he forgot he was in america ... and then he picked his running mate. 44-year-old female gov. of alaska ... who is this lady? mcCain looks like an ass for picking a running mate with no experience and all the credentials that don't matter: opposite sex, opposite age, opposite skin tone ... could they have been anymore obvious and CONTRIVED? go hip hop republicans! your mcCain picked a winner! LOL how can i learn to love mcCain ... i am finding it hard to find any compassion for him so i'ma pray on that.

and who is this sad and sorry looking guy? this is the marine who just got aquitted of murdering four iraqis in falluja, iraq. he did that shit. and justice in america remains missing in action. maybe it's in iraq? nah, probly not. i remember reading about these murders in 2007 ... he did that shit. they acquitted him cuz there wasn't enuff 'evidence' or so the bbc article says. and there wasn't enough evidence cuz two of his fellow marines refused to testify ... i find it hard to feel love for these particular marines ... but actually it's easier to forgive them than john mcCain. these young men enter combat situations and lose their minds. i can dig it. what's mcCain's excuse .... ahh wait a minute ... maybe he thinks he's still in combat ...

now i feel compassion for them. i almost forgive them. but my observations still hold. i still want justice. you can feel both at the same time.

why we still can't wait

example A: an article that appeared in the ny times was titled "Blacks Debate Civil Rights Risk in Obama’s Rise"and it was all about whether the symbol of Obama fools people (white and black alike) into thinking racism was over. now ... isn't there a saying that goes something like ... you can only fool a fool? america is full of fools.

example B: i wrote about this incident -- In March or April 2007, three noncommissioned United States Army officers, including a first sergeant, a platoon sergeant and a senior medic, killed four Iraqi prisoners with pistol shots to the head as the men stood handcuffed and blindfolded beside a Baghdad canal, two of the soldiers said in sworn statements. -- on a different blogsite when the american soldiers were just heading into court ... this is another good reason to vote for mcCain ... sike ... read about the outcome of the trial here.


MLK jr. wrote the book, "why we can't wait" ... i'm ready to get into some non-violent disobedience and some revolutionary LOVE acts ... we can't wait.

bitter plant ... or bitter root

the front page news in america today is all about the dude in the kentucky factory plant who went to work one morning and shot like four of his co-workers ... i think he may have then killed himself ... you can get the more accurate story here ...

i just highlight these goings on cuz ... it reminds us that many of us are sick and suffering ... that dude probably didn't love himself and could find no love in the world ... i feel for him, may he rest in peace, may god bless him and the other victims and their families.

more and more frequently there are stories like this ... i think there is a growing trend and right now it might not effect you ... but one day it could ... is that what it will take for us to start taking notice of each other's humanity?

oprah feeling some bLacklash

sometimes star magazine has important news ... AND reveals something important about america. i read in the june 16th edition (i was in the dentist's office no bullshit) that oprah is "losing it."

pasted on top of a big picture of oprah hugging barack obama are the words: "her ratings are down, her magazine is on the decline, and she is miserable."



the rag mag goes on to say "even tom [cruise] can't save her."

then they published the results of their poll which addressed the question: ARE YOU TURNED OFF BY OPRAH'S SUPPORT OF OBAMA? 61% of STAR rag mag readers said YES! and 39% said NO.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmm .......

what does this all mean? star mag readers are racist? fa sho! but what else? who reads star? many "average" americans who obsess about pop culture, superstars, and fame. but still, A LOT of people read that shit. and now more than half of them ain't fucking with oprah - cuz of barack. and i quote: "oprah's endorsement of democratic presidential candidate, Sen. barack obama made some fans change the channel."

WOW. first, i was struck because i thought white people and other americans would never turn their back on her. oprah is the beloved dark child of white america. oprah has often been the frustration of progressive, radical black americans because she was the beloved of white america and did little to change that image.

second, i was hit with the irony that oprah may have been right all these years. i can't lie, i won't front ... i hated on oprah cuz her show was whitewashed, she catered to whitey, she had damn near all-white audiences, she stayed away from controversial race issues for twenty years ... she used none of her PUBLIC influence to intervene in racial conflict ... she was very negro. old school. blah blah ... but ... maybe she was right.

if she had talked all that rah rah black power shit ... she might not be as famous as she is now ... she might not have as much money (fa sho) ... and she might not be so "well-respected" ... she might not have gained so much power ...

or maybe ... the lesson is that pandering to whitey always makes your power temporary ... at any moment they can revoke your race-invisibility card ... at any moment they can yank your power plug ... even after 24 years on air ... they can decide to paint you black and deem you powerless.

the rag mag says it all started to go downhill three years ago. "oprah's ratings dropped nearly 7% in the last three years. in that same time 'O' magazine lost 1 out of ten readers." gee ... what happened three years ago ... oh maybe barack anounced his candidacy and oprah threw her chips in with the BLACK MAN ...

these are the kinds of observations black people laugh about at the dinner table. i never thought star magazine (or any publication) would print a real article about it ... i know i know, it's star mag ... but it's indicative of larger society.

some very regular unassuming americans read STAR magazine (you'd be surprised) ... even some men read it ...

so now, i sit and wonder (as i often do about oprah) ... how does this make oprah feel? does she feel like she made a mistake? does she wish she could take her endorsement back and be race-neutral again? or was she biding her time - by waiting 24 years to come out publicly as a black person on her own terms, with millions in the bank? i'll probly never know ... and i am content with that.

as for star magazine ... i think i might boycott ... i think it's their turn for some blacklash.

we love you oprah (why not?)! keep the faith! (and get that school in south africa FIXED).

one answer?

NO!

... GOP is so scared. access more story here.

pigs

i don't even really have the right words for the outcome of the sean bell case or his tragic death.

it's one of them things ... you either believe some cops are racist or you don't. you either know they dirty or you don't.

you can believe in your fairytales and nothing i write here can change your mind.

or you can believe the truth. the truth will stand.

when me and you are dead and buried the dna evidence might reveal the truth. or two generations from now we might find a cop's secret diary. or five generations from now we might actually clean up the police and the justice system and admit that many cops have been dirty.

yeah, maybe. and maybe barack obama will be president. maybe.

but for now ... justice and truth ... are as hard to find as a boyfriend.

and they wonder why WE bitter? and they wonder why we stopped snitching? and they wonder why we act like we can't get a fair shake in america? and they wonder why we hate cops? and they wonder why we hate america?

well, i don't hate america (anymore) cuz i won't let her take my soul the way she has with countless others (including cops).

but this ... this sean bell verdict ... this ... is one reason why.

the kingdom

seen this movie?

kind of resembles america sucking its own dick. AT FIRST.

i mean ... i think its a movie that might could make people (more) pro-american, anti-moslem, anti-arab ... and MORE scared about islam and the middle east. that might not have been the intent but that is my analysis of what might be the outcome.

i must say that i do not believe in the american dream. i do not think it exists. i am not a patriot. i don't even call myself american. why must i say this? briefly, i wanted to share my worldview because it informs my opinion about this movie.

so, it's important (for the purposes of this blog) that i don't believe in the american dream. i feel no allegiance to americans JUST cuz they are american. i feel allegiance only to HUMANS because they are HUMANS. i think nations are mental constructs (see 'imagined communities' for more clarification) etc. etc. i did not have any gut reaction, empathy, or character identification issues with this movie.

BUT for a person who does believe in the dream of america they will be very sad at the beginning of the movie when an 'innocent' american gets killed. they will identify with the protagonist's urge to hunt down the muslim murderers and blow them up in turn.

so that is how the movie goes ... very unrealistic, super-smart and well trained FBI team enters saudi arabia in like two days without clearance ... befriends some muslims, hates others and finds the bad guys ... yay!

at the end of the movie it is revealed that the muslims and americans have something in common ... hatred (and lollipops). jamie foxx reveals that what helped jennifer garnet get over the death of her american friend is when he uttered the words "we'll kill them all." and then a little muslim boy reveals that what helped him get past his grandfather's death is when his grandfather uttered the words, "we'll kill them all."

i don't know what the moviemakers intentions were ... do they want to end the hatred or stir it up? my very HUMBLE opinion is that they were well intended. albeit the filmmakers could not escape their own favoritism towards america (which unintentionally clouds their message) and they could not escape their tendency to create movies along the vein of 'die hard' or 'rambo' but seeing past all that ..............

i interpret the film to say: if we do not stop the killing the killing will never stop. the deep message is: it is a cycle of revenge and violent retribution. no, i don't think that's that deep! but it's the truth.

and something you will hear me repeat a lot is: the truth is the truth. believe it or not. (and i got this from don miguel ruiz who i will discuss at length in the future). which only means you can disagree with the truth but truth stands the test of time.

ok so we know the truth -- revenge murders and bombings don't pay and only create more violence. what the film does not say is that what we are lacking is ......... FORGIVENESS. they are IMPLYING that someone will have to forgive someone first. that we will have to forgive each other for murdering our grandfathers, our cousins, our colleagues, our softball teammates, our people.

is this the only thing in the way of peace?????

yes. as i mature and try to become happy in my life i see this as the truth, yes. forgiveness is in the way of healing all people and communities who are in pain and in conflict with others and with themselves. forgiveness stands between israeli and palestinian. israeli and lebanese. kurd and turk. sunni and shiite. chinese and japanese. man and woman.

so the answer is simple.

but the WAY is hard. all you have to do is look in your own life. can you forgive your enemy? can you forgive your boss? can you forgive unpatriotic americans? can you forgive your rapist? can you forgive the pedophiliac catholic priest? can you forgive your mother? can you forgive your daddy? can you forgive your first love? can you forgive your sister?

you will have to answer that for yourself. and i will answer it for myself right here. no, not yet. there are still individuals in my life who have hurt the shit out of me who i need to forgive; but let's take a larger entity -- for the sake of this globally oriented blog -- like the american government. i find it exceedingly hard to forgive them. and yes, Love Johnson, cannot learn to LOVE them yet. i'm working on it! if i can't forgive my own government how can i expect iraqi people, iranian people, afghani people, saudi people, etc. to forgive the atrocities of the american government??

so the answer is simple: FORGIVE. the way is hard .... what do we do? how do we do it?

start small, start with one person, start the conversation with yourself. here's how a convo with myself goes: what is the worse that will happen if i forgive the american government? will i lose love for myself? uhhh no. will my family forsake me? nah probly the opposite. will i become a target of ridicule by black people, iraqi people, 'green' people ... ? maybe but do i care? (another convo!!) will republicans start calling me on the phone? they better not. will i not be able to critique the american government anymore? noooooooooooooo can't see that.

well i have started the convo. even though i still don't forgive america. but yes, i am working on it and ultimately that is my goal. to forgive america. to forgive white people (this is even harder). to forgive all oppressors (hardest). and still use my life and my gifts to fight (non-violently) for justice and peace and a true kingdom of heaven on earth.

the kingdom of heaven is a place where we forgive each other each trespass. and we leave it up to God (any high power you bank on) to prevent trespasses against us. cuz if i kill yo auntie and yo cuzzin for killing my cuzzin ... then they cuzzin is coming ... to trespass against me. and my little human form prevented nothing, changed nothing, and only perpetrated more hurt and pain.

will you start the conversation with yourself? who will you forgive today?