Archive for the ‘Chris Stevenson’ Category
Destiny Chooses Heroes
by Chris Stevenson
Strange days indeed. We began the day with news of a black everyman hero garnering nationwide praise for his split-second actions in the rescue of some young girls who were kidnapped, detained and tortured for well over a decade by an unassuming Hispanic school-bus driver, and close out the day with the report of a rare guilty verdict of a reasonably-attractive looking white female in a First Degree Murder case. Change you can’t depend on.
This is a day we can all learn from. Charles Ramsey proves that destiny chooses heroes, not popularity, not cosmetics, and-try as they may-not the police. Amanda and Jocelyn Berry, Georgina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight, found it’s possible a black man can save them from pain and humiliation even though much of the country prefers to believe otherwise. And Jodi Arias found out she’s not Casey Anthony.
Jodi Arias found out she’s not Casey Anthony-cs
HeadLine News’ (HLN) Dr. Drew wrote a column hinting that Jodi was not normal: “Arias never understood love or how to deal with the everyday give and take of a normal relationship,” given these facts what else is there but to kill your lover? At least this is now what she is on record as doing to Travis Alexander. Arias met Alexander in Sept. of ’06, they begin a relationship, two months later she joins his Mormon religion and moves to his state (AZ). They break up in June but their sexual relationship continues. Although calling herself a saleswoman and photographer she waits tables and cleans Alexander’s home for extra cash. In May of ’08 she moves back to California and in June 9th Alexander’s body was found in the shower by friends who said he had been shot in the head, slashed and stabbed almost 30 times. The pistol is evidently a stolen 25-caliber belonging to her grandparents.
Police found evidence linking Arias and some sex footage on his camera. She was actually on her way to Utah to to have a fling with another man she had just met, but she made a detour to Alexander’s home for the last time. An astute Grand Jury indicts her on First Degree Murder on her birthday 6/9/08. Her mannerisms after that would force even the most hardened pro-white juror to rule against her from that point. Most glaring is the changes of stories; initially she tells the media during jailhouse interviews that two masked intruders attacked her and Alexander, in August of 2010 she changes it to self-defense as a result of physical abuse. Now Alexander is supposed to be this evil woman-beater. What a dipstick. No overthinking or over-analyzation needed for this one folks. If I’m on that jury, I’m measuring her for the chair. The hero in the Arias drama is the jury, they had their problems, and lost a few, but they kept level-heads on a no-brainer case (no easy task nowadays) and voted unanimously.
The Castro Brothers L-toR Onil, Ariel, and Pedro- photo Cleveland Police Department-cs
On the other hand, the actions of Ramsey the night before in Cleveland made a huge difference in saving 3 women and one child. In spite of his hearing and responding to Amanda’s screams for help, representatives of the Cleveland Police Department are on a program of gradual revisionist history and began broadcasting she was the only hero the next evening. Me personally I find it hard to ignore a guy who sees a girl trying to get out of the house, he walks up to a porch, kicks the door down with the help of a woman named Angel Cordero, and sets her free and calls 911. Yet another news source The Smoking Gun have dug into Ramsey’s history and found some domestic violence incidents, and jail times for the same offenses. Cleveland police have a lot of balls too for trying to omit Ramsey as a hero. The Smoking Gun needs to make themselves useful and find out how Cleveland police failed to effectively follow-up on several calls from neighbors who say they contacted police in connection with reports of seeing naked women crawling in the backyard of a home with dog leashes being led around by three men-most likely Ariel Castro, Pedro Castro and Onil Castro-with the CPD arriving, but never having went inside. TSG also needs to look into why only Ariel is charged with a crime, and not his two brothers?
People on Facebook were upset by the CPD-snub of Ramsey, but I told them a lot of people still don’t understand how the nation’s police sets race policy for civilians. They literally tell you who to like and who not to like, who’s a hero and who’s not a hero. In cities or towns where there is some racial harmony between blacks and whites, police will step in and have dozens of ways to be racially divisive. They take much of this upon themselves. Racial harmony scares many of these urban cops more than crime does. Brother Ramsey said the “right thing” in public about giving the girls the reward money, but he still deserves a reward also. The Cleveland police refuse to wrap their minds around a hero who looks like most of the blacks they are trained to arrest.
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV & Follow his Blogtalkradio interviews on 36OOseconds. Respond to him on the link below.
“Scandal” and the Olivia Effect
by Chris Stevenson
Reality TV might be huge, but let the record show reality and TV rarely ever meet. In fact on a broader scale, whenever there is a sign of general acceptance towards blacks, here comes a network series with the purposeful intent to take your minds in the opposite direction, and set back the clock. Call it racist-savings-time, fall back, fall back.
I’ve explained this before in past columns, nothing powerful whites do is by accident or coincidence. After some civil rights victories were won, here comes a television show starring an outright open racist aimed at normalizing anti-black feelings just at the start of the ’70′s; Archie Bunker of “All in the Family.” White females and feminists who piggy-backed directly from the Civil Rights Movement got shows that greatly humanized the white female image; “Mary Tyler Moore,” “That Girl,” etc., and solid script-writers, (in spite of some of the true leaders of feminism being obnoxious dykes). The Reality show “I love New York” kicked-off a string of like series about battling, backbiting, catfighting females of whom set the women’s movement back a couple centuries. “The Shield” normalized police misconduct and corruption in the minds of the viewers and refocused profiling toward blacks in the immediate post-9/11 years, as was it’s original intent. Diahann Carroll’s “Julia,” was pitched as more of a black victory in terms of a network show had a great star but horrible script-writing that lacked direction. If Carroll’s character Julia Baker was doing the same things as Kerry Washington’s Olivia was doing, ’60′s blacks around the country would have burned Hollywood down. Burn baby Burn. The same would apply to Washington’s last predecessor Teresa Graves (“Get Cristie Love”). And I’m putting this mildly. Are we to consider the machinations of Olivia Pope a victory today? This is what seems to be the case.
A quick glance at America’s current reality, we have a black President, often seen as trying to bring the country together. This guy is highly accomplished under pressure and heavy criticism from the right and some on the left. In his personal life, scandal-free. In these times of waning white male self-esteem, who will come to their rescue? White America needs a scandalous black President, network TV producers say ‘we got this’, and they do, they bring you “Scandal.” Okay since Barack won’t play ball with them by engaging in some of the ridiculous behaviors that the President of “Scandal” does, they give you the best alternative; a white President having an adulterous affair with a black “fixer.” Mighty white of them I say. White man wins all the way around, he gets to sleep with his white wife and black mistress, white cherry and black berry.
Olivia opens up to what may be a thing of the past; a white male President-cs
This cherry/berry Kool Aid is presented to you by 2 black females (creator and writer Shonda Rhimes and co-executive producer Judy Smith; a former Bush-era press aid who evidently did some things during those years that I am afraid to ask) and some smart white people, and black women around the country are gulping it down by the gallons full. Understand this, current reality has a beautiful black female sleeping in the Master Bedroom in the White House with her husband the President, and two black women put their heads together and damn near took us back to the plantation. Sally Hemings with a degree.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not doubting Smith or Rhimes’ intelligence, Hollywood studios have chased intelligent black storytellers off their parking lots for decades. What made them accept this idea? These are two sisters that know what the powerful white man wants, and they have a record of delivering. What more clever way to make themselves not look racist than to be able to say to those pesky black activists and critics ‘Look you N-words, we got a story heah with a black script-writer AND a black woman in the leading role doing some very important, heavy-duty stuff. What’s all the fuss about. That’s what you colored folk wanted right (Hollywood still lives in the “colored people”-era in case you haven’t noticed)? Now get! Get! Shoo, shoo, gon’ nah, gon’ nah.’
Part of the problem is black men in many cases fail to look at interracial marraige and relationships… from the standpoint of the white man. I mean really really look. Yes we all know many of them don’t like seeing white females-especially some of their most beautiful looking women-in the arms of a black man, but it’s one area of disparity between the two races where white men are on the losing side. Black women by-and-large just aren’t attracted to white males, rich or poor. In fact not really on any level. Solution: create a show that attempts to cleverly put white men in vogue (I already told you many white men are suffering an image-beating). Have an attractive sister parading around the offices of high political command, and doing what most white bosses were hoping most of them would do when black females began getting hired in professional positions for during the early-’80′s, but most of them refused to do; fulfill the fantasy of the rich and powerful white man; cavort with them, smile at them, flirt with them, pursue them, sleep with them. Olivia adds an extra bonus on “Scandal;” she rejects the black man (a Senator) who pursues her, by literally accusing him of being-oddly enough-what black women in general have long accused the white man of being; boring. Now sisters, hear me out. I have listened to all your complaints over the decades about us. We are trifling, troublesome, unfaithful, abusive, and game-players. Rarely do we ever get boring. That’s a scandal in itself.
Olivia in one highly-famous episode told this brother she doesn’t want happily-ever-after, “don’t you want painful, difficult, devastating?” Are you f*****g kidding me? This is brainwashing 101 because it makes low-expectations in black relationships official, without Olivia acting loud, argumentative and vulgar like the typical black reality show sister. White producers knew what they were doing with this line. No, she is not required to marry this guy if she doesn’t want to, but great care was taken to make sure her reasons for not wanting him were flawed. Get it? Difficult, Devastating and painful are oftentimes byproducts of an abusive relationship whether it was physical, or psychological. Much of this abuse started when the woman was a little girl, and was abused by her dad, stepdad, uncle, Preacher, Pastor, or sometimes mother. If the girl/woman is blessed enough to get away, many of them are still not free. A pattern behavior is established in her brainwaves where she will seek out another candidate who will see her coming and open her heart to more “difficult, painful, devastating,” and she won’t see it until it’s too late. While outwardly verbalizing she wants a sensitive man, her sadomasochistic-heart will be on auto-pilot . What Olivia does used to be virtually impossible a decade or two ago, before drama became something that was expected from black girls, before it became a means to an end influenced first by R&B drama songs; she can achieve the painful results within herself, without an abusive man, just by being a black woman I guess. It’s the epitome of putting the cart before the horse. The current trend in “reality TV” shows is already training black women the most to be “difficult,” obtuse in their behavior, contrary, unreasonable through a constant demonstration of show and tell. Now along comes Olivia. Like that song by the Whispers “Lost and Turned Out.” Who remembers “Olivia the slave got distracted on her way, to Grandmother’s house?” The brothers back then urged “Olivia break the chains, stop using your body, use you brain.” Olivia Pope says ‘I can do both.’ At least she wants all of her roughly 7.25 million viewers to think she can.
Yes you can view “Scandal,” but do not assume Kerry Washington’s character is a “strong black woman.” Olivia is a strong white image of a black woman. She’s not NeNe, she’s Condi, if President Grant appoints her to a national security or defense position in his cabinet, she’d have no problem blowing up a country and later display a curt half-smile when questioned about it. Her job description is dirty enough but believable. Lack of racial identity and obnoxiousness is not strength. That goes for Olivia just as much as the black women in these ’Real Housewives of Wherever,’ “Love and Hip-Hop,” “Bad Girls Club,” or any other of these modern shows whose underlining mission is to further destabilize the black family. Just because she doesn’t act as ghetto doesn’t make her less responsible.
It’s no coincidence that “Scandal” succeeds while another ABC show starring an African American in a leading role is dead in the water; “Last Resort” starring the veteran actor Andre Braugher as Olivia’s polar-opposite Captain Marcus Chaplin, commander of the ballistic-missile submarine USS Colorado. “Last Resort” made it’s debut a few months after “Scandal” and is already about to be deep-sixed, and why not? What is the appeal to a black naval sub captain who disobeys an order to nuke a country full of people of color because the order came from a restricted radio frequency? Wanda, Brenda, Keesha, and Shaniqua, ain’t gettin’ with that. LOL! Actually Last Resort is on life support due to sunk ratings brought on in my opinion by several holiday preemptings by Charlie Brown shows. Good grief. Even though the shows aired a day apart, in terms of Nielsen Ratings devious Olivia has kicked uppity Captain Chaplin all over the seven seas. After 13 shows Last Resort averaged a 1.4, and 6.26 million viewers per episode. Scandal ratings almost doubled with a 2.4 and 7.25 million viewers in their 2nd season. Thus far the Colorado has been blown up, while Chaplin was inside of it, but there is a petition to do a 2nd season. I’m not trying to be funny, but it’s a true testament to American society that a show starring a black man in a rare authority position who defies his government by standing on principle alone has to beg for more airtime, while the show starring the black female authority figure who heads her own agency devoted to cleaning up the appearance of politically-corrupt officials and virtually begs for white lovers is flying high. Kerry (“sniff”) you sunk my battleship. Please sign the Last Resort Petition and I await your response.
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV & Follow his Blogtalkradio interviews on 36OOseconds. Respond to him on the link below.
The City of Backdoor Deals pt.1
by Chris Stevenson
Buffalo NY is currently undergoing a gentrification litmus-test that will have pivotal ramifications of the overall racial makeup of it’s population if allowed to be successful. On the surface the Rev. Michael Chapman of St. John the Baptist Church has an awesome idea; a $500 million program that will create 15,000 jobs over the next ten years. This is a program the public at-large got to know about back in 2010 which promises to move 150 residents of the Burnie C. McCarley Gardens into new townhouses that will be built on one of Buffalo’s oldest black communities; the Fruit Belt-a series of streets mostly named after a fruit-If you are old school like me you might be telling yourself that it seems like yesterday when McCarley was built (1978), and here Chapman is selling the property to the University of Buffalo (UB) Foundation for $15 million.
Truth be told the powerful white man in Buffalo has has been wanting that precious land bordering St. John’s and the Fruit Belt for decades. Quietly as it’s been kept, Buffalo is a longtime Chocolate City that has survived all kinds of schemes to decentralize blacks politically, urban-renewal, redistricting, political legislative reduction, Regionalism (did I cover everything?) LOL! One mad-scientist-scheme after another has been fired at blacks here, some of those kooky ideas worked and some rightfully didn’t. This latest one is part of a larger program called UB 2020. It’s not really a new idea. Been in the works since the late-’60′s, in 1967 Buffalo General Hospital announced the UB 2020 plan involving Roswell Park cancer research center directly across the street from High Street. To understand the ties between these three entities that make up what is the medical corridor, one must understand the history of the institutions. Roswell was literally founded by a UB Professor of Surgery Dr. Roswell Park in 1898, Buffalo General Hospital was founded earlier in 1855 and is a major affiliate of the UB School of Medicine.
I really can’t complain, given the dysfunction of the black branch of Buffalo’s interlocking directives, blacks in Buffalo could easily be living on reservations next to the Indians. Many of them are masters of talking-black while giving us the blues. We historically have some of the most separate-thinking group of black leaders in the country, I can only credit God for any victories, perhaps all that dancing and hollering in Church has paid off after all in retrospect.
On the other side is a group of McCarley Garden/Fruitbelt current residents who say Chapman’s plan is just another in the long line of urban-renewal-lemons being pitched to blacks to the ultimate benefit of whites. The residents have history on their side. Veronica Hemphill-Nichols and her neighbors are living in a deteriorating conditions. Nichols of Grape St., is a longtime local activist, since 2001 she has been a member of Restorative Justice, and has worked with the Community Action Organization (CAO) as their coordinator/trainer in restorative justice philosophy.
Nichols has written letters on behalf of her Fruit Belt Housing Task Force Unit & McCarley Gardens Tenant Council to Francis Letro , the chairman of UB Foundations Inc., regarding the appointments of a panel, to be later called an Economic Opportunity Panel or EOP. As it turns out, this panel only consists of members of the UB Foundation, St. Johns, and Letro. None of the members listed on the panel live or play in the Fruitbelt. They requested an answer to her first letter by 1/3 and didn’t get it.
Most plans regarding Buffalo are discussed outside of Buffalo and approved by whatever key black leader(s) go along with it at the moment. Whites plan way ahead of time in their best interest, and any black taxpayers getting hip to their agenda can throw them off momentarily, or force a change in plans. While Previous Reverends Burnie McCarley and Bennett Walker Smith Sr., helped local blacks through Civil Rights, we are now subject to the gamesmanship of what former attorney-now-columnist Alton Maddox calls silver rights leaders. Chapman seems to be making choices over the years that have been only about the money. Rumors are flying he is planning to retire and move south before long and is just trying to cash-in. To me the Fruit Belt/McCarley Gardens controversy is a trial-run that if successful will end in the outright ownership of inner city Buffalo through the direct ouster of most of it’s African American population by the UB 2020 program. My fear is also that just as in the past, only a few McCarley residents will be able to be successfully moved as a result of Chapman’s training program. Claiming to train these young black kids in the field of construction and the building trades to have at least 150 new homes ready by 2017-2020 is no small feat, a miracle to say the least. I only see a handful getting moved and the rest of the money claimed to be allocated for them going into somebodies pocket.
If you are black and live in Buffalo now, are you ready to live in the suburbs without equal compensation of the home you were forced to leave? Are you ready to be subject to more racial profiling than ever by the all-white Cheektowaga, and Tonawanda police departments who operate out of the same towns you stand to be kicked into? Rev. Chapman has agreed to terms that have yet to be federally approved, I’m really cutting a long story short (some editors and readers complain that my articles are too long, pfffgggghhhh), representatives of the medical corridor are very unwilling to speak with Nichols or her group, issues such as imminent domain, land banking, and of course gentrification also come into play. I don’t begrudge a good retirement, I love to see blacks doing well, but not at the dangerous costs we potentially face. A petition with more information is being circulated.
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV & Follow his Blogtalkradio interviews on 36OOseconds. Respond to him on the link below.
New Light, Blood Lite
by Chris Stevenson
The Watchtower Bible & Tract Society’s new relaxing of their trademark blood-prohibition makes for good diversion, but few of their members-commonly called Jehovah’ Witnesses-know of the massive bleeding in their financial offices. One day soon their Governing Body may be forced to say ‘Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.’ Pressure is currently being brought upon them that could doom the world’s most famous or infamous doomsday faith. It’s strange irony that the pressure comes from various legal court systems around the world. Their walking papers could conceivably come in 205 languages. Those 7.65 million members attend worship and bang on doors completely oblivious to what is going on because they are not being informed about them in any of the colorful books they are being made to read.
First they are being penalized financially for an old problem they have covered over for decades; the great crowd of child-molestation cases they have skillfully prevented their “slaves” from reading and inquiring about. These cases initially cost them millions in out of court settlements that came with a gag-order. Now other victims are going for the jugular and winning larger amounts. As a result Watchtower factory buildings, associated real estate and Kingdom Hall buildings are being sold off by them as a way to recoup lost judgement dollars, while they concurrently tell their parishioners they are on the move and gearing-up for the end (they are, but not where the average Watchtower and Awake-slinger thinks they’re going).
A short time ago I talked to an old friend from my days growing up in the local Jehovah’s Witness congregation. After some small talk I asked for her and her nephew’s phone number. She replied to me that she couldn’t give me his number because she doesn’t have it, in fact I think she stated she doesn’t know it, “he’s disfellowshipped” she said, and has no contact with him. “He didn’t speak to me when I was disfellowshipped, I remember him saying ‘don’t talk to me.’”
Of course “Disfellowship” is the dreaded word literally invented by the guiding force behind the Jehovah’s Witnesses; the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society (WTS). In an attempt to keep themselves relevant after 1975 the WTS has modified the meaning of their word. It seems the WTS has at various points in their history, not been satisfied with just the mere unconstitutional imposition of the word between followers and ousted members, they have manifested the ultimate obsession of affecting relations between blood-relatives and family members. Of course the basic question arises, is any religion worth dividing your family over? It’s not unusual for any religious leaders to test their parameters when it comes to how loyal their members can be for them. That was my initial impression of the 9/11 attacks over a decade ago, same with the shooting of the little girl named Malala last October. Once you can get a follower to crash a commercial jet into some buildings or kill a defenseless child, regardless of the reason, then that religion in it’s own mind, has achieved it’s ultimate victory; doctrine over discernment. Jehovah’s Witnesses may be one step away from crashing planes into buildings, except they were trained to hold them up by standing against them displaying the latest issues of their magazines or brochures. They have no stomach for battle except for the little trifling mind-games they were skillfully taught. Whereas they won’t shoot little Malala, but they’ll still shun her once she shows her God-given assertiveness and curiosity. Over time this can prove to be equally dangerous. While at one time disfellowshipping meant an order of silence toward an individual ousted from their ranks, the natural interaction between blood relatives etc., was left up to the discretion of the still-active members toward the alienated “sinner.” Things have changed, few realize before the 1950s the Watchtower actually frowned on religious excommunication.
Somewhere between then and now they made the conversion from lambasting excommunication, to adopting it, to being outright amused by it and by now shamelessly enjoying it. Somewhere in New York/New Jersey there are eight old men and one current old WTS President-all white and one black-whom are snickering in amazement to family disputes such as I described in the first paragraph. I can almost overhear them saying ‘can you believe it, these people actually think we’re worth it.’ Yet that’s the kind of drama that occurs when shunning is pitched as a loving-punishment or medicinal cure, as opposed to what it really is; a weapon of perversion; ‘You didn’t speak to me when I was disfellowshipped, I’m not speaking to you now that you’re disfellowshipped.’ Part of the premise behind their form of shunning is to get all their little baptized ducks right before they are destroyed at Armageddon. The rub behind understanding Armageddon is no member of the WTS’s Governing Body ever believed in their own Armageddon teaching, they just insist you do. Truth be told, the Watchtower has less end-times credibility than the Mayans. Their rules on shunning have fluctuated as often as their Armageddon predictions and their rules on blood transfusions. Is the almighty Jehovah bipolar, or is this really the work of some old-white-stick-in-the-muds who just get off on controlling masses of people? How can shunning be declared extremist by them in 1947, be acceptable in natural relations after 1950, become lenient in 1970, and target relatives again in 2008? Because they knew that many of their members would cut their associations with their disfellowshipped family members just as a cautionary measure despite any doctrinal revisions they used to cover their assets over the decades. Today they no longer use the word “disfellowship” when announcing the official shunning of an “unrepentant sinner,” announcement letters read before the congregations are now worded along the lines of “John Smith is no longer a member of Jehovah’s Witnesses.” Consider this a wink wink announcement however, although the language sounds fair and reasonable, there is a common understanding that he or she is still to be shunned.
A passive/aggressive Jehovah’s Witness Couple delivering the “Good News.” Is it the time of their end? (as depicted by actors-cs)
After some 132-years of hating on almost everything and finding at least one scripture to support their myopia, their faithful followers have been operating on auto-pilot. They can use the slightest incident as validation for themselves to continue on even if their spiritual-Titanic is sinking. The word “independent” is as much a hated word to their Governing Body, as “liberal” is to republicans. Their claim of “being no part of the world” has no visible face for others to recognize accept the word “no” by their followers. Unlike Catholics and Muslims and other faiths, the Watchtower has shown no desire to build school’s, industries, hospitals, to facilitate their members as an alternative to the worldly things they were trained to disavow and separate from… even though the WTS is literally worth roughly a billion dollars in liquid assets through contributions, and even more in real estate holdings (given their mounting legal problems you’d think they would have opened up a law school or at least paralegal school by now, but this would conflict with their long-held disdain of higher education that they would see as benefiting their mostly commoner-class followers).
The most divisive doctrines coming from the Watchtower is credited to their 4th President Nathan Homer Knorr. He is seen by some as the one who dreamed-up the most key anti-social edicts like the blood transfusion-prohibition, disfellowshipping, etc., but some believe much of this actually were the ideas of then-Vice President Frederick Franz. Known as the more conservative-kook among those housed in their publishing company Brooklyn Bethel, Franz not only dreamed-up and enforced the blood prohibition, but banned transplants and vaccinations too. Fortunately those were later overturned. Franz was said to be more doctrinal minded than the sexually-obsessed Knorr. His idea of the blood transfusion ban was simply by expanding of the scriptures that condemned “eating” or “drinking” human and animal blood. Of course there has been a history of JWs circumventing the literal eating of blood since the time of Hitler’s Nazi Ravensbruck concentration camp, when an “overwhelming majority” were seen eating “blood sausages.”
The current legal problems regarding the Watchtower Society’s child-sexual-abuse can be traced all the way back to Knorr and his doctrinal-overkill of adult-heterosexual-relations before or outside of marriage, and even masturbation, and scant attention to other forms of sex such as homosexuality and especially pedophilia. Most of the major religions today have some amount of misogamy sprinkled in their teachings. Knorr seems to have set a standard for this by reportedly marrying a woman (Audrey Mock) whom for a time reportedly openly complained that he never consummated their vows. Such paradoxical thinking is not unusual among members throughout the years, it conditions you to prep your mind to accept more offbeat behavior whether that was Knorr’s intention or not. Prior to this the Brooklyn Bethel factory living quarters was off-limits to married couples. What is concurrently taking place is wizardry beyond comprehension between two parallel worlds essentially created by the Watchtower Society exclusively for the mind of their followers. As a result, the average Kingdom Hall attendee believes him or herself to be part of the most cleanest, conscientiousness, courteous, saintly, chaste, aboveboard organization, dispensing the most enlightened teachings that ever graced the planet since Jesus himself. To that single individual Witness the outside world is taught to be the exact opposite of what he or she thinks is going on inside of that building; chaos, greed, a cesspool of immorality, drunkenness, drug-abuse, violence, war, gang-wars, murder, government and corporate corruption, religious hypocrisy, random sex, sexually transmuted disease, marital infidelity, sexual deviancy. The average Kingdom Hall congregation member thinks the Watchtower Society has an issue with all these problems I just mentioned. This however is incorrect. The Watchtower Society only has a problem with you knowing about one thing and one thing only; the middle. Between the extreme good they teach you about themselves, and the extreme evil they teach you about the world outside their walls, is the in-between that is really the “truth.” In real time you just been made to think they have a problem with evil and are doing you a favor by their exposing it and breaking it down to the minutest form. In actuality evil is the Watchtower Society’s lifeblood.
Jehovah’s Witnesses have been taught the Watchtower Society is operating strictly under the guidance of the God this faith is named after; Jehovah. Currently rotting in prison, a man named Jerry Sandusky, the former highly-acclaimed assistant football coach for Penn State is probably kicking himself because he never listened to those couples ringing his door bell. He likely knows now that were he a Jehovah’s Witness, he’d probably be a free man today. Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest religion of all? What was pitched by door-to-door evangelizers to be Snow White, turns out to be a closet wicked witch who looks more gruesome than their artist depictions of the United Nations and world governments in their ’60′s study literature. This is very important because two recent child-molestation court rulings have hurt them, one of them is a landmark verdict. Any given future ruling could break them and send them to the fiery lake of Chapter 11.
Back in ’07 the Watchtower was forced to pay between $16-to-$100 million to 16 victims in 9 cases of child molestation. At the time the biggest child sexual abuse payout ever for a religious organization. These rewards reportedly come along with a gag-order specifying that they not disclose any of their horrendous experiences to the press or public. This in itself is strange considering how groundbreaking the Watchtower has been over the decades in courtrooms fighting for Freedom of Speech. The landmark case deals with just one victim whose name is becoming a household word; Candace Conti. One website calls her a “White Knight,” last summer she was awarded between $11 million and $28 million in punitive damages for being molested when she was 9-years-old by an adult member of the North Freemont congregation (Alameda County, CA); Jonathan Kendrick.
As stated earlier the Watchtower has been selling off some property-not excluding their friendly neighborhood Kingdom Halls-and contemplating a cutdown of their 3-day District Conventions by one day. Their biggest threat looms down under; an Australian court is set to freeze a whopping $3 billion of their assets in a class-action lawsuit involving numerous breaches of mandatory child protection laws and a high number of failure to appear in court summons toward the Governing Body. The suit specifies 14 thousand violations and abuses toward children by elders within their congregations over the past four years. The present and impending financial strain has reportedly pushed them to do what a few years ago would have been considered unthinkable; gradually relax their stance on blood transfusions. Even blood isn’t thicker than a demanding judge.
In all honesty their Governing Body has been drinking blood-lite for decades now if you read the revealing essay by Kerry Louderback Wood called “Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Tort of Misrepresentation” in the Journal of Church and State, published by Baylor University. The strange part is not long ago the Watchtower had many medical institutions right where they wanted them; bending over backwards to not use blood. In Canada however, the Watchtower has slacked off their tight reins on blood-prohibition for two reasons. 1-To escape the scrutiny of child welfare services, since there is no issue regarding abuse or neglect (like there is in the United States, ahem) according to an article by Tom Blackwell in the National Post Staff. The 2nd reason is the lengthy court battles have strained the Watchtower’s resources.
Hospitals in these cases generally defer to Children’s Aid Services (CAS) when it comes to JW kids below the age of consent (18). CAS then asks the court to grant them temporary custody which guarantees the blood transfusion is administered. Toronto has a hospital called SickKids; a research-focused hospital that has made advancements and whose research institute is the largest child health research facility in Canada. Sickkids is said to go through great lengths to comply with the Watchtower blood prohibition, but in case there is no other option they will ask JW parents to sign a “letter of understanding” (not to be confused with a “letter of consent”) that is said to be drafted with the help of the local Kingdom Hall Hospital Liaison Committee. Reportedly this is what opens the door to a transfusion of blood, and it’s where they part company with their usual norm, no courts, no CAS, no huge lawyer fees and court charges. Just blood and confidentiality. Won’t be long before it crosses over into the US.
Of course they could have done this years and years ago, but were too busy enjoying their own bullheadedness. This blood doctrine was introduced in 1945. While any faith has a right to advocate bloodless surgery as a health concern (there are now countless bloodless clinics you can safely assume were founded directly or indirectly through their influence and positive outcomes in alternative treatments), they’re Governing Body have no right on any level to regulate associations and excommunication based on individual or family medical choice. There were no blood transfusions in Bible times, the prohibition is based on a false parallel just as their refusal to aid victims of their child-molesters is based on the same outdated law too ridiculous to repeat.
“Disfellowshipping” based on blood transfusions began in 1961. Prior and no-doubt after that there was always a number of JW members who disagree with the edict willfully and even accepted blood when they deemed fit. Today there is an official group of current (if not anonymous) members in dissent called Associated Jehovah’s Witnesses for Reform on Blood (AJWRB). There is no question that organization badly needs reform, the odds on them doing this before their complete shutdown is highly remote. The power of reform does lie within their various followers, but that camaraderie has been compromised although it usually isn’t visibly evident unless one member has been excommunicated. As long as they allow the WTS to install their loyalty-on-time-delay, individual Jehovah’s Witnesses will never be concerned about anything other their own individual false superiority over ousted or non-believing family members and neighbors in general. The future of their organization and information withheld from them by the Watchtower will be non-issues with them as long as they are primarily concerned with ‘you shunned me, therefore I am shunning you.’
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV. Respond to him on the link below.
Gun Control, or Paddle-Control?
by Chris Stevenson
By now the shooting in that Newtown CT school is common knowledge. Yet how many of you know that the day before in Michigan republicans pushed a bill allowing guns in schools? Insane you say, I must be making this up? Unless this country is ready to not just talk gun control, but outlaw and enforce it, these incidents will only increase. A lot of people are tying in the mentally-ill angle since this is no-doubt the perception of the shooter. What is the difference between a crazed person or a crazed gunman? In most cases the victim survives, in China a man-possibly a copycat living under a gun-ban-stabbed 22 grade-school children. Thus far all are still alive. Gun laws save lives, maybe not all lives for you nitpickers out there, but enough lives to make it rational.
America is the most powerful nation in the world, It is also the most confused nation in the world. After being unable to prevent previous mass-shootings in public, speculation ranges between the two most popular causes as to why a 20-year-old “man”-whose name is unworthy of mention-would unload on some school kids and the staff who tried to shield them; gun-control or mental illness. In truth there really is no debate, a simple look into the home of the shooter shows two ingredients that led up to this tragedy; incredibly stupid single-mother who apparently displayed an array of assault weapons to the point where they were accessible to her son. At this point it really isn’t important if he has a mental-illness, behavioral problem, or just plain normal, if you’re a parent you just don’t do that. That shooting was the result of a lack of common-sense-control.
America has been grooming and turning our young boys into killers for decades now, the culture of violence didn’t just materialize full-blown. From video games to violent rap-videos the message has been clear. Kill, Kill, Kill. Action adventure movies and TV shows have played their part in lowering the value of human life. In days past the media wasn’t such a negative influence, young people during the ’60′s and ’70′s watched James Bond, Shaft, Bruce Lee, and Buford Pusser, accepted it as fantasy, and went on with life. Today’s youth seem very unable to do that, why? The common thread could be that most of these offenders come from single-parent homes, today’s single-mom is vastly different from yesterday’s single-mothers. Sheniqua is no match for Miss Johnson no kinds of way. Sorry but the truth is the light.
Heroic Sandy Hook school Principle Dawn Hocksprung-cs
I lost my mother just last summer, and the thing about her that sticks out in my mind is her ability to make tough decisions regarding me and my older sister, regardless of her love for us. Sheniqua is simply unable or unwilling to do that, she strives to be her boy’s friend. Almost boyfriend. There were times I thought my mom and dad were the new Hitler, didn’t understand it back then. I did after I grew up. Thank you mother. My mother didn’t give a fuck about Dr. Spock or Oprah, would have whipped they ass if they said some of that no-spanking shit to her. Teachers complained about me, they and my mom became tag-team partners, teachers complain about Ray Ray, Sheniqua gets mad at the teacher. Ray Ray is happy. Ray Ray will be in prison before he is 19.
The rash of conversations calling for gun-control is really part-hypocrisy, part-racist-by-omission. These Columbine-type shootings are different from the culture of urban violence that menaces most of the major cities, completely different mindset although the lone commonality is single-parent home and lack of corporal punishment. Most of these people say nothing when black youth kill blacks, in fact more than a few got some perverse satisfaction from that. Today no one can afford to be satisfied. Black boys who join gangs or decide to sell drugs are filling the gap of parental control or discipline at home, or they are mesmerized by the allure of material things constantly being advertised through commercials or one of their peers. Their’s is a targeted shooting-not that they are always accurate-under order of some shot-caller, or territorial beef. The outrage as a result of any black kid shooting up a school would bring them more attention than they wish to have, not to mention the inconvenience of not having a custom-rim car, Android phone, PlayStation, and the latest gear while locked-up in Attica or San Quinton. White boys on the other hand are another matter completely.
Many of these young white mass-shooters come from privilege don’t they? Making many of us wonder what’s their beef? They have no real beef, whenever any youth always get their way, they become bored and depressed. Much of white culture is an amoral culture, skin-color has pulled them through a lot of trouble over the years, mix these factors together and you got your next killer. Endless stories of them cursing and screaming at their parents in public abound, it’s really the beginning of narcissism. Narcissism becomes a mental illness if allowed to go on for years and years without opposing response.
Many of you will will bug-out over my solution to your or they’re ill-mannered children. How can I know more than the “experts?” Totally ignoring how pop-culture has played expert with the imagination of your poor innocent babies. I know this about some of you based on my posts on the paddle being “the original total-transformation.” The paddle when used skillfully (younger parents can have an unbalanced view on spankings, doing it in anger, or overdoing it amounts to abuse which stands to have the same result as no spankings) is cheaper than all these drugs used to pacify behavior or break the child. Your kid is not a horse, but they need to learn right and wrong exists, and you are the prime teacher. Teaching them respect and parameters is not breaking them. Killing their energy and thirst for knowledge is breaking them. Good discipline at home scares today’s police departments and court systems. It doesn’t matter whether your kid is “classified” mentally-ill. How can they make money off you if there is no youth crime? Eventually many will be laid-off and some court buildings will be closed. The criminal justice system and prison industrial complex’ biggest fear is that today’s flaky and fearful parents will wake up.
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV. Respond to him on the link below.
Thanks-Taking Day
by Chris Stevenson
White people love white people, and black people love white people. Where does this leave the Native Americans? Exactly where white colonialists intended them to be left. This brings us to the holiday more whitewashed than any other in this nation’s history; you know it as Thanksgiving Day and are thankful for that. Little attention is paid to what should be it’s real name; Thankstaking Day. The Pilgrims gave nothing to the Native American Indians, not that they were really capable of being thankful. But they were happy. Thanksgiving as we know it began as a celebration of a successful harvest season in Plymouth Massachusetts in 1621. There were earlier Thanksgivings with various colonies, but on this particular year in the northeast the Pilgrims were taught to catch eel, fish, hunt, grow corn, in what amounted to an intense 1-year training program by the Wampanoag tribe.They also benefited greatly from the donations from the Wampanoag’s food storage during times the English didn’t send food to them. Ah yes, the self-sufficient whites.
These Pilgrims in particular were plain and simple a group of religious deserters and malcontents from England who opposed state interference in matters regarding the Church of England. They would eventually separate during the 1500s and given funding by the English to establish a colony in America in 1620. During this “discovery” of America the Wampanoag would experience a decline in population due to exposure to diseases like the 7-day fever and smallpox during the years 1633, 1635, 1654, 1661, and 1667. The biggest of all diseases for them was Christianity. Like the literal ailments the English and French brought over with them, they seemed immune to their religious teachings, and best acted as carriers. They practiced little of what they preached. European Christianity would in time divide the Wampanoag and de-culturalize them.
John Eliot would lead some Puritan missionaries (more hostile to the Indians than the Pilgrims) to help establish “praying towns” for the tribe to be resettled in. Essentially internment-like camp where they would be prohibited from their normal practices the white colonialists would notice them doing; pre-marital sexual experimentation (Wampanoag society would permit sex between a perspective couple to help them determine if they were compatible), polygamy, matriarchal-run households, and migratory farming as a way to “civilize” them into English ways of life. Part of this semi-detainment began years beforehand beginning with a fear the Pilgrims developed shortly after their first successful harvest and Thanksgiving, a fear that may have been based on them hearing news about their fellow colonialists in Virginia being slaughtered in what is now known today as; the Indian Massacre of 1622. The mass-killing of all men, women, and children was a response to John Smith’s ordering spontaneous raids upon Native Americans.
Prior to the 1621 Thanksgiving, some Wampanoag were captured as slaves by Captain Thomas Hunt by enticing them to board his ship. This was in 1614. He would transport them to Spain to be sold as slaves. This capturing of Native Americans was not unusual and was a few years before the first Africans were imported to American colonies in 1619-1620. The Pilgrims had another Thanksgiving in 1623 (July 30). This observance wasn’t communal as the 1621 one pretended to be, it was a celebration of privatized farming. What they learned from the Wampanoag was enhanced by a 14-day rain, resulting in an even larger harvest.
This is just a short history of the beginning of Native American/Euro-Colonial relations that spread from the south and northeast and spread throughout the country; lies, broken treaties, massacres and genocide. It’s very possible to learn from this as we stuff ourselves and watch NFL football. Many of the offspring of Pilgrims, Puritans, and colonialists are still as fearful today as their ancestors were, only their prime targets has gone from red to black. That we’re living in the era of an African American President also proves over the last 4 years that; many whites fear black moral supervision.
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV. Respond to him on the link below.
Why the Dark Ages guy Lost to the Dark President
by Chris Stevenson
Well… evidently ‘We’re White so We’re Better than You’ may be the new feel-good for many out there, it can even win some state-wide elections, but it won’t get you inside the Oval Office without a vacuum cleaner and dust-rags. As a direct result of that, the man called “the president of white male America” by columnist Maureen Dowd, is forced to dry his tears with dollar bills from his offshore accounts amidst the shrinking of his base population.
A population that seemingly didn’t demand anything from him but his lack of melanin. This is something for him to think about if he decides to run in 2016, and he attempts to wade through even more kooks during the GOP Primary and either Hillary, Deval, Cory or whomever will survive the Democratic Primary.
I really think there is a candidate out there among republicans that was capable of beating Obama, I’m just thankful they were too blinded by their own racism to find him or her. Thank you tea associates (Not a real party btw) and Donald Trump. Thank you for not figuring out that in the real world (the world before 2012) even white people want to see your economic plan, and your tax returns instead of hearing your ethno-masturbatory snide remarks to African Americans, Latinos, and women. Thank you for overlooking the fact that if you ignore the number of whites within that 47% it won’t win you jack, and that could prove to have been the difference.
Angry white students at Ole’ Miss go into riot mode after Obama victory-cs
Mitt and his supporters put all of their time, money and energy towards an outdated “Isis Papers” fear campaign, when he could have won easily by being kinder and gentler. He even threatened public broadcasting by attacking it’s face; a children’s educational show Muppet. How dumb can you be? He was high on whiteness. Only an attitude-problem from way back refuses to slow his roll of anti-social behavior. Mitt always embraced his part as spoiled-brat-in-chief and he dragged it all the way up into middle-age.
His contempt for common working people is best illustrated through his dealings as head of Bain Capital. Voters reasoned why should he change as US President? And they voted accordingly, leaving him to scratch his head wondering what happened, and lie about the answer. He also leaves a short-list of clueless, dimwitted Hollywood celebrity supporters with their mouths hanging open; Stacey Dash, Ted Nugent, Clint Eastwood, and Chuck Knucklehead Norris among others.
Romney only lost the popular vote by 3,196,433, according to the last count I saw. What I’m wondering is why Obama only garnered 55% of the women votes? What were the other 40-something percent thinking? They got their own cigarette, and own reality shows, And an equal pay law, who needs a uterus? Latinos voted for Obama at 66%, and although strong attempts were made to compromise the black vote, “Pookie” and “Ray-Ray” got back up off the couch to add to what is well over 90%. All these votes in various states swayed the Electoral Votes to a whopping 332-206.
Pookie of course represents the most unsophisticated element in the black community, the element that generally keeps the hood a hood. He, along with his BFF Ray-Ray, are known best for their uncanny ability to only want short-range services i.e. anything they can obtain in 15 minutes; money, drugs, sex. Voting requires some long-range thinking and keeping up with political news over street-rumors and hip-hop trends, hence it’s lack of appeal to Pookie. But according to the sheer numbers and an article by the Huffington Post Black Voices; in spite of no direct promises or campaigning in the black community “Obama has energized the streets to take to take part in politics, leading gang members, drug dealers, and hip hop stars to turnout to the polls.” This campaign’s black voter turnout exceeds even the one in ’08 in many areas. Insults among those in mainstream media and even so-called black conservatives that marginalize the power of black voters should come to a complete halt once you realize the genius of Obama using this double-standard. Romney publicly appealing to Pookie-assuming he was even aware of him-would shock his supporters and make him look even more racist. An appeal to the cracks and crevices of rural America for Pookie’s white counterpart “Billy Bob” would be needless, Billy Bob was always politically aware despite his personal issues.
While it’s unclear whether Obama’s 61,678,507 votes proved to be just cushion that protected him from tossed black votes by suspect machines owned by firms contributing funds to Romney’s campaign, what is clear is the stock market drop that immediately followed the Dow Jones climb to 48 points the morning after Election Day, just before the market opened. Just one of a whole array of economic issues that await the President as Americans weigh the difference between the recession’s end and the ongoing deficit. Black President, white infrastructure.
While in truth much of these economic and military problems are carry-overs from Bush, Obama still bears responsibility for quite a bit. He just doesn’t want to take the blame for war spending because he knows he would have taken a bullet if he abruptly halted the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan soon after he took office.
In the meantime there is little mystery as to why Romney lost, people all over the country are talking about it. It’s just poetic irony that his 58,482,074 votes only amounted to the same amount of voters that he castigated weeks ago; 47% (actually 47.9). I’m sure he could care less about looking into the actual makeup of that 47%, pssst… the majority are white: 1-Of the non-elderly Medicaid recipients 48% are white, 28% Latino, and 22% are black. 2-Farmers, mostly white and subsidies ran up to $95 billion over the past 5 years, 3-Corporate America; The top 30 corporations (yes including Mitt’s Bain Capital) pay no taxes at all. 4-Red States; Mitt forgot to tell you the largest concentration of these slackers comes from red states. 5-Working poor; 47% of these are children, 33% white, 22% black and 16.7% Hispanic. 6-Disabled Children (14 million), 7-and disabled adults (5.5 million), 8-and young couples who qualify for Earned Income Tax Credit. All Romney did was choose stereotypes over facts the same as white politicians had been doing regarding blacks and welfare since Reagan, but that’s Ok for now, there’s no telling the scorched-earth policies and outrageous financial schemes we avoided. Romnesia at the voting booth is a good thing.
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV. Sign his Petition to permanently Abolish the Death Penalty @ Change.org. Respond to him on the link below.
A Downtown Retractable-Dome Stadium Makes a Hell of a Bargaining Chip
by Chris Stevenson
It’s not that Buffalo practices Band-Aid economics, Buffalo is into a monster of it’s own invention; pot-hole economics. Case in point is Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz, who said back on 9/12 that a deal to renovate Ralph Wilson Stadium before the end of the year is unlikely. In the meantime he offers us his pot-hole filler; an interim or “one year extension.” Whatever happened to this new lease agreement between our big powerful County Exec. and Ralph Wilson Jr., that was supposed to roll over the heads of little peons from the city without us having a say-so?
Maybe some of this talk going around about a new downtown stadium is starting to make Ralph wonder about a few things. Coincidentally this was during the same week that the man who revised the issue of a new downtown stadium was interviewed by Channel 2 reporter Claudine Ewing. And according to Pat Freeman, she didn’t want to go into the mechanics. “She just wanted to talk about tailgating (beer drinking) and parking.” Freeman says it was a 45-minute interview but the clip shows just over 3-minutes. If you know Ewing you understand. Claudine is part of the mainstream. I’m not trying to rhyme, it is what it is. If Buffalo status quo says no space, no infrastructure, no money, that’s the way she’s going to frame it. On the other hand, that Ralph is now thinking about it is good for good reason.
Freeman learned through an inside source that cement damage at the Ralph is estimated between $300-600 million in repairs alone. This only goes along with my prediction months ago that the renovations will go upwards of $400 million when it’s over and done with. This includes the original estimate of $220 million.
Back during the late-’60′s-mid-’70′s the was a wave of new stadiums and sports arenas, many of them built just outside of the cities they claimed to represent. In June of 1967 Wilson asked our confused community to build a new stadium for his AFL football team. War Memorial Stadium was old, small, and “rickety.” Even at the time Wilson made his request, the stadium was 30-years-old. Almost two-decades later sports journalist Brock Yates would write that it “looks as if whatever war it was a memorial to, had been fought within it’s confines.” It seems stadiums nowadays are considered “old” at five or ten years, before NFL owners are pressuring their city for a new one. The Ralph is the 6th oldest stadium in the league.
Shortly after Wilson’s call for a new facility the local Chamber of Commerce-like most groups in Buffalo who refuse to keep it simple-suggested that two stadiums should be built; one for football, and an expandable one for the baseball Bisons (just in case Major League Baseball was going to grant Buffalo a franchise). But only if it should be put in Amherst, and “that they should be built through joint bond issues of the Erie County and state governments (the state wanted nothing to do with it).”
After long months of debate, the City of Buffalo came up with a plan to build an open 2-sport stadium at the foot of Main Street (the then-Crossroads) if the county would fund it. Soon after an auto-dealer and a Texan came up with a plan that really appealed to the majority of local republicans on the county legislature; a proposal for a domed-stadium in Lancaster. They voted 19-0 for a project operating under the duel name of Dome Stadium Inc., (DSI) and Kenford. DSI issued a 20-year-contract to manage the stadium with no one smelling a rat. And why not, it’s initial appeal was it’s being outside of Buffalo, why be suspicious? (DSI/Kenford wanted a 40-year deal) White Flight was the in-thing throughout much of the nation, not to mention the worsening conditions of “The Rockpile.” Whenever it stops being feasible to repair a sports facility, plans for a new one are imminent. It’s the law of nature. Due to the current fact that there is a proposal to build a new stadium in Buffalo, Poloncarz is wrestling with nature.
Freeman talks about his project with Channel-2′s Claudine Ewing -cs
Buffalo News reporter Elwood Wardlow compared our disputes over the pros and cons of building a new stadium here to the difficulties of that of other cities: “But of all the fights, Erie County’s was easily the hardest and least productive (italics ours).” What else makes a hard city except hard heads? What else is a Buffalo but a bull that stands still? So it is on various issues our Buffalo has been watching other cities accomplish their dreams, while just nodding it’s head towards them.
During the ’60′s stadiums were cheap, generally built for anywhere between $50-100 million. In a city with a low cost of living like Buffalo, $50 million could have got you one. Back then our County Executive was B. John Tutuska; one of a long line of people wanting to move the Bills to Lancaster. Others wanted them in Amherst, there was even a threat of Ralph moving them to Seattle, using an anticipated first-round draft pick from USC named OJ Simpson as incentive for Buffalo to get moving on a new stadium. Simpson at the time wasn’t interested in coming to Buffalo, so Ralph flirted with the idea of going out west to him. Simpson was building a stadium in a city he initially hated, and wouldn’t begin playing in it until the year after he ran for a then-NFL record 2003 yards rushing.
In the beginning there was Edward H. Cottrell the auto dealer and local investor and Roy Hofheinz from out of Houston, TX, the operator of the Astrodome, which more or less was the inspiration for most dome stadiums. They both teamed up (Kenford/DSI) and produced several proposals. The legislature voted yes on most of the important votes until the obtuse hour of 4am on 1/19/71. The problem with the dome stadium plan 40-years-ago was too many people bouncing around too many financial figures and making too many changes that eventually saw the legislatures become fed-up, and bail out. All this does is allow for people on their own agendas to instill some chaos.
On 8/18/69 Tutuska signed a contract that basically tried to force DSI and the county into a stadium construction in Lancaster under threat of having to pay for one through increased taxes over the next 20 years. This move of counting domes before they were hatched was a strange arrangement requiring the county to pay for a stadium that would never be. Over time of course we would wind up paying for two stadiums once Rich Stadium (now Ralph Wilson Stadium) was built a few years later. After the legislature 9-10 vote that nixed the Lancaster dome a lawsuit was flied by seven area residents claiming to represent the Town of Lancaster; Kenneth C. Vashay of Tonawanda, Charles T. Hansen, Diana P. Miller of Lancaster, James R. Greer of Orchard Park, John C. Trefts Jr., (a bank president) of Orchard Park, Paul J. Robillard of Buffalo, and John H. Heitehaus of Buffalo, according to an article in the Tonawanda News. It was their hope this suit rendered the 9-10 vote by the Erie County Legislature null.
Cutting a long story short, the suit as well as the whole Lancaster Stadium debacle resulted in two politicians going to prison; Frederick Pordum, and Frank Ludera, over the bribery regarding the stadium votes, and bad health and a lost election for Tutuska, and a bad feeling regarding the whole issue regarding the domed stadium. The official line of why the Lancaster Dome deal broke down among some was because the location was too close to Lancaster High School, the truth is the dialogue should have never been permitted to take the facility out of the range of downtown Buffalo. Frank Schoenle (Frank Schoenle Construction) eventually would build the Orchard Park open-air stadium. Construction on the stadium formerly known as Rich was swift; starting on 4/4/72 and opening in time for exhibition season (as it was called then) on 8/7/73.
While Tutuska was trying to hog-tie the county into supporting an all-weather stadium in Lancaster, Poloncarz seeks to hog-tie us to a stadium in Orchard Park who’s time has passed. Make no mistake about it, the Ralph is becoming just as rickety as the old Rockpile was, and can’t last beyond another 5-10 years. Much of this is due to petty pride along the same lines of what happened during the late ’60′s-early-’70′s. Pride that really has plagued Buffalo for decades on most issues.
It looks like the discussions on this new proposal will stay focused on downtown. We can’t afford another array of kooks to Bogard in with their own not-so-secret AWBB (Anywhere But Buffalo) ideas. This is not even about the Bills per se, this is about all-purpose, all-weather, all-Buffalo facility. If it’s built, all sorts of “they will come” will flow in like biblical milk and honey, including the NFL.
The surrounding potential of the stadium stands to be immense. Freeman says it’s going to be a “job maker” from the construction, to the events. Bringing the Bills back to the urban area is an attraction comparable to Indianapolis’ Lucas Oil Stadium. No one is circling Mark Poloncarz’ Ralph renovation like Patrick Freeman and his new developmental team that will be introduced this coming Tuesday (10/23) in the Common Council Chamber, along with an update on the new stadium.
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV. Sign his Petition to permanently Abolish the Death Penalty @ Change.org. Respond to him on the link below.
Voter-Suppression Springs Eternal!
Several tricks that replaced water-hoses
by Chris Stevenson
Tim Kennedy has been declared the victor in the highly-disputed 63rd District State Senator race against Betty Jean Grant… so says errrrr… ahhh… Tim Kennedy, the Buffalo Board of Elections and the Buffalo News. Now who’s gonna argue that? Answer, Betty. Or at least she needs to.
The last report I heard had Kennedy extending his 91 vote lead back up to almost 300. Kennedy has the pull and juice to demand not just a recount, but a State Supreme Court Justice too (Joseph R. Glownia) will supervise the computer votes. Some have asked why the need for a Judge appointed when there’s already voting machines? When I was there Monday, the process was split into three stages in three rooms: “We don’t know if they’re on the up-and-up,” said community activist Cariol Horne as she was seated in the room where several were popping open to be scanned by the two voting machines located in the room at the rear of the 3rd-floor office area past the cubicles. I asked her where would she prefer to be if granted a choice to make sure the count was fair? “Where would I go? Right there where they are opening them.”
This picture tells it all for the 63rd thus far-cs
While Kennedy had his high-priced attorneys helping him, Grant’s experts came from within the community, well-known figures who know what it’s like to be on the wrong-end of local plots to oust or out-vote them; Horne, former State Senator Antione Thompson, former head of Human Resources Karla Thomas, a who’s who of Brown/Casey victims and the boots used to kick them out. Most of them are pro-bono activists, or close to it. They would help Betty for free, after all, Kennedy was on the money side before while backing former County Executive Chris Collins. Who knows what Kennedy, Brown, Collins, and co., are planning, especially since most of Bufflao’s black officials are backing Kennedy. I find it quite funny really, Buffalo tries it’s best to have a Boule, what Buffalo has got is a BS-lay. Truth be told this national secret society of so-called powerful blacks isn’t worth one quark of your thoughts if they can’t make a dent on the problems facing urban youth. My suspicion is they aren’t even trying.
There is no record of white politicians getting funny with white voters as black politicians like Byron Brown or Barbara Miller-Williams, and others have with black voters. The moment that you do see this, that individual will have packed his suitcase and been at the toll-booth 30-minutes later. White voters ain’t havin’ it. Buffalo is a political recycle paradise, it probably leads the nation in remodified elected officials black and white. Today’s state senator could be tomorrow’s councilman or assemblyman. Whenever political figures run for various offices in different years, your ticket becomes a soap opera. Tim Kennedy is a relative novice to this, but he’s learning quick since his appointment to Erie County Legislature in 12/04 and election in ’05 and ’07. He jumped into the State Senate race and was elected in 2011. He was one of 3 local Democratic Party defectors to form a collusion with 6 republicans against Poloncarze, Grant etc., to keep Collins in office and continue the cuts to urban programs.
Another case in point is Mark Poloncarze, back in 9/09 I voted against Poloncarze for re-election to Erie County Comptroller mainly out of protest against then-Democratic Party Chairman Len Lenihan, who was very sparse on appointing black males, especially when it came to the NY Supreme Court bench. Three years later I had no problem endorsing Poloncarze for County Executive over incumbent Chris Collins who was fiscally running roughshod over the county. Today I find myself opposed to Poloncarze’ efforts to get a new lease agreement between the county and Ralph Wilson Stadium in favor of a new state-of-the-art downtown retractable-domed stadium. In fact I’m the one who did the initial research for sports talk show host Pat Freeman in terms of the original blueprints of past proposed downtown stadiums, and the acreage for a couple of targeted sites. But I digress, this is a topic for my next column, lol.
I’ve watched Ms. Grant hold or seek more offices than this column has room to review, but there’s no denying her following. In fact it’s her following that’s at issue. It seems what the Kennedy group is doing is trying to de-legitamize Grants voters, too many of them are VWB (voting while black). Of most concern to the Kennedy camp is absentee votes (between 1137-42 as of Monday) and something called affidavit votes (478). Thus far Kennedy seems to have been successful in getting 500 or so of them eliminated. This seems like a setup from day one with the switching of voting booths without effective prior notification. There is no record of blacks doing all this moving and shifting poll locations around Buffalo. Betty’s votes, Kennedy’s lawyer, Kennedy’s Judge. There’s one more wrinkle; who owns the voting machines?
New voting machines have replaced the original voter-suppression-cs
According to an ’09 report there are 3 companies that make voting machines; Diebold, Sequoia, and Election Systems and Software (ES&S). All three firms are said to be big GOP contributers, and they have been known to have fixed elections in republicans favor ever since the Bush/Gore 2000 presidential election. It’s basically impossible to discover voter-tampering since “using election equipment under proprietary contract makes it illegal to examine the equipment.”
Buffalo uses the intElect DS200, the BOE bought this machine after leasing it 2-3 years ago. It was used at the polls and during the voter recount. If The BOE owns it outright-just as in the case of the national machine-it may be illegal to have it checked out. The inElect DS200 is made by ES&S (formerly Diebold) and is a highly suspect voter-machine. FFEC urged Florida to rescind certification of the inElect DS200. It seems what’s not good enough any longer for Florida, is great for Buffalo. One site added “The DS200 accepts a voted ballet, but does not record the ballet on it’s internal counter. In addition the marks of the 2nd ballot are not recorded.” Make no mistake about it, it would behoove Betty Jean to continue this fight. All of this counts as voter-suppression, most blacks will fall asleep on this because Kennedy didn’t use the water-hoses. Voter-suppression springs eternal.
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV. Sign his Petition to permanently Abolish the Death Penalty @ Change.org. Respond to him on the link below.
Treason… Or a Continuation thereof
by Chris Stevenson
Four US Army soldiers are in the news for stockpiling assault weapons, and even went as far as kill two people (one of the two, a former soldier) execution-style in order to cover up a plot to shoot the President and overthrow the government. Facing the GA death penalty is private Isaac Aguigui, private Christopher Salmon, sergeant Anthony Peden, and a 4th who cut a deal against the other 3; in exchange for manslaughter and gang activity Michael Burnette. Of course this is nothing new, some weeks ago we heard of DC officer Christopher Picciano; a 17-year veteran on the force and MPD Special Ops division frequently actually assigned to the White House motorcade, make statements to fellow officers about killing the First Lady.
The epitome of youth and stupidity, Aguigui (bottom-L) was the lowest ranking, but still talked the other 3 into his delusional plot to overthrow the government (from Ft. Stewart GA) & kill President Obama-cs
Funny thing about this example is, the more people on the social networks tell me to ignore people who say or post their racist anti-Obama messages, the more incidents like this begin cropping up. What the Michelle Obama threat actually is, is something no White American dares to admit; it reveals a significant segment of white men in uniform to be pure traitors. Most disturbing is the unwillingness to Charge Picciano with a felony and treat him as if he threatened Barbara Bush, Nancy Reagan, or Hillary during their husbands tenures.
Murdered by F.E.A.R. Private Michael Roark (19) and his girlfriend Tiffany York (17)-cs
It was strange coincidence that at the same time the Picciano story broke, two Richmond, VA police officers were fired for threatening remarks they openly made before their colleagues against the President and First Lady. In fact, according to a 7/25 report by Leonard E. Colvin, the Chief Reporter of the New Journal and Guide, during the last month at that point “The Secret Service is investigating threats against the President and the First Lady from law enforcement officers… During the last three months the Secret Service has been looking into threatening comments from police officers in Washington, DC., and Richmond, VA.” The Richmond Free Press reported on 7/13 that two police officers were leaving the department for allegedly making threatening remarks about the President back on May 5th. This had to do with a visit back then by the President and Michelle Obama to a college there where he made a public address. One cop was overheard at some point that morning saying he wished someone would blow up the stage while the President was speaking. The other officer assigned to Obama’s protection detail talked loudly to colleagues about shooting the President while he was speaking. Another made threatening remarks about the First Lady.
The Richmond case was handled by a black Police Chief, Bryan Norwood, who weathered public outcry and at least one Minister called for his removal-cs
According to the report “The Supervisor said to that particular officer ‘You’re down there right? So, you can take a couple of shots, you might have to kill yourself, but you can take a couple of shots.’” Between May 5th of the probable commencement address and the approximate time the two officers were fired on 7/13-well over two months-was some of the most skilled foot-dragging and cover-up that was even more astonishing than what would be seen with the Picciano investigation, no names have been leaked of the two, and a female employee was fired for voicing public concern of the veil of secrecy regarding the identities of the Richmond officers. The Richmond case was handled by a black Police Chief, Bryan Norwood, who weathered public outcry and at least one Minister called for his removal. Norwood was hired on the last day of office by outgoing Mayor L. Douglass Wilder. During a recent interview he talked about the criticism he underwent: “That was pretty sad because at the end of the day those officers have due process… it’s not like I can just walk in and terminate people without any regards to the process.” Though there are and will be those who loath to believe it, Picciano and the 2 Richmond officers at least in their hearts committed treason of the highest level and deserve prosecution just because they are on record for voicing it.
Think about it. It’s been going on for years, and we’ve called it everything but that. Here you have an armed militia conscientiously going after and arresting a portion of the population due to the color of their skin on a normal basis for years, wanting badly to impose similar treatment against the President of the United States, because he is black and seen as liberal.
The Bill Clinton Administration is what first sparked the rapid increase of the armed militias; whites in mostly remote areas forming their own private military. Presently in the Obama years, we see an illegal militia-mentality with many whites already in uniform. They are neither White America’s finest nor smartest, in fact some of them are remarkably dimwitted. Take for example the leader of this plot; Isaac Aguiqui, an Army private. He attended the ’08 Republican National Convention (RNC) as a page. It’s safe to assume he didn’t make this RNC.
Chief Norwood is a bike enthusiast, many white officers have a tough time taking orders from a black superior-cs
I present this column to you out of deep concern, it is not my wish to insult the various officers in the police precincts around the country nor in the armed services. While I feel the vast majority of police officers for example are good hardworking people doing their job of protecting and serving by the book, the numbers of good officers has seen a decline since a black man named Obama moved into the White House. Too many police, corrections and military officers have been waging a personal war against minorities, especially blacks. Much of the police forces are manned by some pure idiots in their rawest form. I implore you to go to Youtube and search for footage of two LAPD officers tackling a white nurse twice, and then fist-banging each other afterwards. If these “men” are of the mind to do this to a white female-someone who could have been their sister-what then can we guess about these two when it comes to blacks, even the black President?
Yes my concern is for the life of the President at the hands of those who get paid for him to trust the most. If indeed Obama is cut down by an assassin’s bullet, what’s the chance of it happening at the hands of one of his “stupidly” acting police officers? Many white police officers have a tough time taking orders from a black Lieutenant, Captain, Precinct Chief, or Commissioner. Today we have a black President, and it’s a good chance we’ll have one for the next four years. That’s an awfully big pill to swallow for many of them. Understand the base reason many of these white boys applied for the job in the first place. Why is the white-guy police/military angle so important? Throughout the decades they have gone ignored as a force or threat against the state for two reasons; 1-There has never been a black President (I’m not counting the several black Presidents cited with a drop or two of black blood, or that may have served before the Articles of Confederacy). 2-Police and military work for the state. Today however, an exorbitant amount of Joe-Six-Packs occupy these positions, in short they took these jobs just so they can enforce their own biases and opinions, not the law.
Being able to lord it over the blacks and browns and make a pretty good living off it enough to live in the suburbs is a tempting idea even for some African American and Latino officers, but the white officers have been doing it when many departments literally paid peanuts, way before the hard-line cop unions. Back then white cops were the nation’s most powerful poor people, during Civil Rights when they should have joined blacks during the early-to-mid 20th Century, they only focused on the difference in skin color, and sided with the highly illiterate KKK. As dumb as that pretext is, many are still doing it. Only this time without the Klan being a major influence on them, racist police by now are on auto-pilot. A white man with an attitude problem may assume he’s boss, a white man with an attitude problem, uniform, badge, pistol and union membership most likely thinks he’s God. But he’s a lower-case god.
White conservatives want payback in this upcoming election. Much of this country’s law enforcement views itself as payback on two-legs, common-sense-proof sentinels of inequality. Even in towns where there was a time when race relations were socially, economically, and educationally doing fairly well decades ago (Detroit, Prince Georges County), their police departments cut through these timelines of relatively-level progress with what we now call profiling, harassment, and brutality that played no small role in the destruction of the spirit of those blacks, and the onset of rioting and/or the breaking of the economic backbone of those black communities, a fear of blacks (as opposed to fear of bad police) and last but not least; structural decline. The individual white racist cop(s) or groups of racists officers may do what they do just because of the rush it gives them and the judicial invulnerability they know they benefit from. In many cases the city’s big business leaders are the ones who do the planning ahead and know the end result.
You won’t consider this an impossibility once you do a little history. It has yet to be common knowledge that the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was very likely assassinated by a cop. Yes his name is Earl, but not the James Earl Ray you been made to think for such a long time. Investigations done in the years since have revealed King’s shooter to be Memphis Police Officer (MPD) Lieutenant Earl Clark. Obviously Clark was a fist-bumping weekend backyard barbecue cop, and not the brains behind it. But he was one of a carefully chosen few for a reason, according to “An Act of State” by William Pepper he was the best shot on the force, and ran the MPD firing range. Clark only did what probably 60% of white cops around the country wished they were chosen to do, but only a fraction were qualified. He was also the beneficiary of a mainstream media whitewash that lasted well past his death in ’87. Earl’s anxious trigger-finger squeezed before 2 or 3 other hired assassins groups posted at various points around the Lorraine Hotel-most of whom were professional military marksmen-could get off a shot.
Today it looks like the number of Obama-hating cops and soldiers are becoming so numerous, so as to make up a poor man’s drunken Illuminati, and become a threat. But that opens up a serious question, how many police officers, Sheriff’s, Sheriff Deputies, are looking to be used in such a way? As I stated years ago, I don’t think the same people or forces that shot JFK, RFK, and MLK are going to go after President Obama. In fact, they may be at least partly responsible for preventing it. Obama kept their wars going, and their oil prices up, they could care less about what poor and middle-class whites see as his “socialists programs,” and “liberal causes.”
What do the 1-percent care about the concerns of the alcoholic, three-times-married, white narcissist, racist cop? What do these powerful entities that control world economics care about the angry white soldier they sent off to die? If he misappropriates blame due to the skin color of his Commander-in-Chief, all the better for the Federal Reserve, Bilderberg Group, and Wall Street. Perhaps there’s an undiscovered class of traitors plotting treasonous acts living and working right in the midst of us, should the President send his Secret Service in to raid donuts and coffee shops where these people are known to congregate? Food for thought.
Chris Stevenson is a regular columnist for blackcommentator, Political Affairs Magazine, and a syndicated columnist. Follow him on Twitter, and Facebook, you don’t have to join any of them. Watch his video commentary Policy & Prejudice and The Network for clbTV. Sign his Petition to permanently Abolish the Death Penalty @ Change.org. Respond to him on the link below.
