"Just above and behind him (the insurrectionist with the Confederate flag) is a painting of Charles Sumner, the ardent abolitionist senator from Massachusetts, (and) a portrait of John C. Calhoun, partially obscured by the rebel flag, senator from South Carolina and vice president under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson, who wrote in 1837:
'I hold that in the present state of civilization, where two races of different origin, and distinguished by color, and other physical differences, as well as intellectual, are brought together, the relation now existing in the slaveholding States between the two, is, instead of an evil, a good—a positive good.'”
America, we have a challenge we must now confront.
The Trump initiated Capitol Hill Insurrection has forced us to choose to become the USA we pretend to be or remain the white racist society we deny we are.
Only the days ahead will reveal our choice.
What happens after the Capitol attacks? | Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), 13 Jan 2021
Congress must vote to impeach and remove Donald Trump.
This isn't a complicated vote. It's a matter of right or wrong.
You're either with the People or you're with that mob.
"Since corruption isn't popular policy, racism works as the cover for the con. That's why addressing racism isn’t a 'distraction'—it's key to understanding the hustle against working people." -more-
Bruce Springsteen & Joe Grushecky That's What Makes Us Great - 2017
Do you believe we must no longer accept the flaws of our system of government and that must correct them so that our government will work for us?
I do.
To accomplish that we must support and elect new political leaders:
Leaders motivated to legislate for the benefit of each of us;
Leaders not controlled by special interests;
Leaders free from the shackles of anachronistic xenophobia;
Leaders free from the shackles of anachronistic racism;
Leaders free from the shackles of anachronistic religious fundamentalism;
Leaders free from the shackles of anachronistic “American exceptionalism” dogma;
Leaders, courageous and on guard, legislating in our best interests, protecting the people of the United States;
Leaders, courageous and open minded, willing and able to legislate for progressive change in our best interests, all of the people of the United States.
Here’s one:
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
"People will vote if there is something worth voting for. And a Green New Deal is exactly what that is.", Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Howard University, 13 May 2019.
Photo credit: Screen capture from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez questions Michael Cohen (C-SPAN) See video clip below.
It's been so long. A few of us have forgotten, but most of us are too young to have seen what it looks like when an Representative actually does his/her job for the people of his/her district and for the people of the United States.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) recently gave us a clear example of an American stateswoman in action.
"Until today, I had been skeptical about the hype over new congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She is, after all, a backbencher from a safe Democratic district in a heavily Democratic state. She won an impressive upset primary victory last year, but is still south of 30 years old and belongs to the small if interesting tribe of self-identified democratic socialists (to which I do not happen to belong). Maybe I don’t spend enough time on social media to understand her mastery of latter-day communications. But I figured she had become a self-perpetuating legend probably resented by her colleagues who spent years toiling for a tiny fraction of the attention she’s attracted."
"But at the end of a long, tedious day in the House Oversight Committee marked by clumsy questioning of Michael Cohen by Democrats, and shrieking hostility to the witness from Trump-loving Republicans, AOC (as she is universally known in the political universe — you know, like FDR and JFK) put in perhaps the single most impressive appearance of the hearing."
"She was crisp, succinct, and very focused on raising some previously undiscussed potential criminal liability issues for Trump that Cohen’s testimony suggested (e.g, insurance fraud), including several where the hot-button issue of Trump’s missing tax returns might be germane. I wasn’t the only viewer who was impressed; so was the fact-checker from the Washington Post, another person unlikely to be excessively biased toward AOC:"
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) instantly, clearly, exposes how and why our system must be reformed. She is the unrivaled master communicator. https://t.co/2vsFy9mrFG— Ronald D. Baker (@rondbaker) February 8, 2019
Following the Bush/Cheney 9/11 false flag crimes and the 9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Congress voted your rights away by passing three, Bill of Rights busting laws: (a) the USA PATRIOT Act (Yes, Congress “repealed” the Patriot Act. But it was in name only. Now we must work to revise the Freedom Act.) (b) the Military Commission Act and (c) section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012.
This combined with several Supreme Court decisions favoring corporations over humans, and /or giving corporations rights previously only enjoyed by humans with souls, such as allowing corporations and special interest groups to spend unlimited amounts to influence elections. (Please see: Citizen's United vs. Federal Election Commission.)
One step toward rectifying these egregious decisions is coalescing in the Green New Deal.
Not only can wrongs be corrected, the process of doing so can be financed through an end run past obstructionist Republicans and their big, dark money corporate sponsors. It’s a move similar to the one that President Franklin Roosevelt (FDR) pulled off back in the 30s.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has presented an outstanding way for funding the Green New Deal. The idea worked in the past and it can work now, so says Ellen Brown, JD*, a banking expert who knows a thing or two about banking, the Federal Reserve, finance, and Public Banking. She is the author of 12 books, including best-selling book, Web of Debt, and hundreds of articles.
“With what author and activist Naomi Klein calls “galloping momentum,” the “Green New Deal” promoted by Representative-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., appears to be forging a political pathway for solving all of the ills of society and the planet in one fell swoop. Her plan would give a House select committee “a mandate that connects the dots” between energy, transportation, housing, health care, living wages, a jobs guarantee and more. But even to critics on the left, it is merely political theater, because “everyone knows” a program of that scope cannot be funded without a massive redistribution of wealth and slashing of other programs (notably the military), which is not politically feasible.
“That may be the case, but Ocasio-Cortez and the 22 representatives joining her in calling for a select committee also are proposing a novel way to fund the program, one that could actually work. The resolution says funding will come primarily from the federal government, “using a combination of the Federal Reserve, a new public bank or system of regional and specialized public banks, public venture funds and such other vehicles or structures that the select committee deems appropriate, in order to ensure that interest and other investment returns generated from public investments made in connection with the Plan will be returned to the treasury, reduce taxpayer burden and allow for more investment.”
“A network of public banks could fund the Green New Deal in the same way President Franklin Roosevelt funded the original New Deal. At a time when the banks were bankrupt, he used the publicly owned Reconstruction Finance Corporation as a public infrastructure bank. The Federal Reserve could also fund any program Congress wanted, if mandated to do so. Congress wrote the Federal Reserve Act and can amend it. Or the Treasury itself could do it, without the need to even change any laws. The Constitution authorizes Congress to “coin money” and “regulate the value thereof,” and that power has been delegated to the Treasury. It could mint a few trillion-dollar platinum coins, put them in its bank account and start writing checks against them. What stops legislators from exercising those constitutional powers is simply that “everyone knows” Zimbabwe-style hyperinflation will result. But will it? Compelling historical precedent shows that this need not be the case.”
*Ellen Brown is the founder of the Public Banking Institute and the author of a dozen books and hundreds of articles. She developed her research skills as an attorney practicing civil litigation in Los Angeles. In the best-selling Web of Debt (2007, 2012), she turned those skills to an analysis of the Federal Reserve and “the money trust,” showing how this private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves and how we the people can get it back.
Harry Belafonte - Man Smart (Woman Smarter) - 1952
