Riot In Flatbush NY Against the Practices of the NYPD

A Message on Taking Risks and Winning: Go for It

Go for it

(from "Yellow on Black - Asian African Love" blog)
The situations where you're most likely to make mistakes are also situations in which you have the greatest opportunities to make progress. When there's something on the line, there's something to be gained. Don't seek to make mistakes, but don't seek to avoid them either. Seek instead to put yourself in circumstances that challenge you to grow.

When there's the possibility of making a bad impression, there's also the possibility to make a great impression. Success comes from being able to accept the risk of failure. When you ask for something, there's a good chance that you'll be turned down. But if you never ask, there's a rock solid certainty that you won't get what you seek. By asking often enough and sincerely enough, you'll get the answer you're after. By listening to enough people tell you no, you'll find someone who tells you yes. Make the effort, put yourself on the line, and go for it.

Though the road can be bumpy at times, the way to get there is to get going.

-- Ralph Marston Ins

Well It's just . . . just . . . hard to know, ya know?

There are those things we may cherish from our past, that make us yearn for what we thought or think were 'better times', but we know we can only wish for such, because if we ever found it what would we do next? We are just restless creatures who like to build and build upon them..?

Hard to know . . .

Woodside Park, West Philadelphia circa 1945

We all wish for that amusement park feel to cover over whatever it is about life that confuses us, that makes us fear the unknown, that keeps us from being us so much.

Of course, we could falter wondering about it as we do, with what effect none of us know, really.

Young man with 1930 Chevy in 1946. West River Drive. Fairmount Park Phila

Perhaps we will find that magical solace that will make us whole again...perhaps.

or maybe it won't ever will.

Introducing to the Serious Affictionado - Monica Belluci

No need to add dialogue to the obvious: she has to be one of the most beautiful creatures alive today. There have been some before and will be more and better later I'm sure, but we should remember this celebration of beauty is the reason life is worth living today. Live for today, everyone!

Muuuahhwahh!

Chaka Khan....And Rufus - 70s Illuminati

A classic post of 40 years since this group got together in 1972 and fused the blues, jazz and emerging funk sounds of Chicago band Rufus into a musical force with the addition of a young singer, Chaka Khan. Such a midwest-going2Cali feeling amongst youth of that day coincided with market forces moving westward, which brought black celebrities, sports icons (especially the Lakers and Rams) and Soul Train to LA in droves. Rufus already had the link, now was their time to put it to good use.

A young and sexy Chaka Khan black & white rare photo. I've seen some taken in the 70s, and others taken in the early 80s during her solo career while producing with Quincy Jones. Appears she had media aspirations then too.

A Message to the Whiny Bastards - ENUF ALREADY!!!

ISRAELI ROCKET FIRE IN GAZA INTENSIFIES


MAYBE IT'S JUST ME, BUT....


There seems to be a necessity in this part of the world to tow total destruction of each side as a noble goal, in the belief that somehow, some way, the survivors or "winners" will have everlasting peace and been made right in their beliefs - much like their story in the Bible - despite the face of reality that their numerous prior attempts at the same thing have resulted in more conflicts (bombing, killing, starving, hating each other) and attacks. 

WHY DO YOU HAVE TO FIGHT?  WHY THE HELL DO YOU HATE EACH OTHER SO?
IS IT ONE SIDE DOMINATING THE OTHER FOR THE SAKE OF POWER?
OR THE OTHER SIDE HARASSING THEIR "NEW" NEIGHBOR SINCE THEY MOVED IN?

Israel: have you not lived among the so-called "western" nations long enough to know that fascism, of any kind from any body, or apartheid, of any form or body, just is immaturity in being a nation and not a solution to deal with people you perceive as adverse to you. Perhaps you are among "God's chosen people" as sometimes quoted by others, but that doesn't make you God. You should be working towards a strong peace agreement for both sides, and stop playing Master & Commander.

Palestinians: you're gonna have to accept that you are a minority in your own homeland, a result of European colonialism, but this should be the opportunity for you to help re-carve self-determined borders. Of course some will be with Israel - but instead of fighting for everything let's see what we can afford to give up. To a a greater extent you need your own homeland with geographical boundaries as comfortable and as soon as possible. 

Mutual security for both of you is tantamount - for that reason alone you both need to put down your arms and talk peace. Both sides need to restrain their power, aggression, and fanaticism and have a regular, rational conversation. Then you can find solutions to why you can't seem to live with or next to one another, and what each other wants.

You'd think as older cultures they'd know better from experience that hatred rooted in fear is imaginary and their thoughts should elevate above it. Don't their "experienced" diplomats know this? Or psychiatrists? Or lawyers?  Somebody???

The Champ Won, #FORWARD

Shall we call it fight the power?  Some have already referred to this photo as the affirmation of Black Power, although it's actually Obama's infamous fist-bump (or fist-pound) as opposed to the more up-in-the-air raise of the fist that was the original signal of "Black Power".  But either way it is affirmation of a re-elected President whose power cannot be taken away from him, unless he has a sunken moment like Clinton's impeachment trial over lying about Monica Lewinsky, or LBJ's realization that he had lied to the public about our success in Vietnam and the realization that the war was not winnable, or (god forbid) Nixon's Watergate, or Reagan's Iran-Contra Affair.

We are all happy, indeed the world is happy, that this great man has won re-election over a mean-spirited opposition (which is still there, albeit quite wounded and muted) and an empty suit who wasn't suitable to even win over his primary opponents, let alone worthy of being fit to be elected President. American, you made the right choice. Or at least 47% of you did, plus an additional 3% of you that also objectively saw the light or agreed with the 47%. But not 100% of you did, indeed 47% of you didn't. Those 47% class are never going to change their vote, but perhaps they can realize over time that the right person at the right time got elected in 2012. That will come to light eventually as over time their racism eases, and they join the rest of us in 21st Century America in leaning forward. And it is racism, nothing else, that is driving their hate and fear. No more dancing around the issue, we have heard it from pundits, from call-in citizens to talk shows, from constant and increasing statistics about the importance of getting the Latino an women votes, and in general the shift in numbers increasing the leverage of non-white voters and white voters becoming the minority by mid-century (if not sooner). THERE IS A FEAR THAT WHITE VOTERS WILL NO LONGER BE SUPREME IN DETERMINING WHO RUNS THIS COUNTRY. How much that will negatively impact their lives, if at all, is a matter of more focused debate than the simple numbers poked around today suggest.

For example, two of the highest per-capita populations in America are American Jews and Asian-Americans. In fact, the latter has highest median income in the nation. The latter is also growing in number and political influence. The former still holds strongly to liberal values in part because of their past and even current fears of anti-semitism, although there is a conservative element that has grown in their ranks in recent years. Their strength is not in numbers but in economics, and political history (Israel, the Holocaust, Nazi Germany) that maintains a hold on America, although that latter strength was weakened by an arrogant, possibly racist, Israeli leader who now sits naked like a loser at a strip-poker table after betting his pot on the wrong horse. Conservative Jews may not like or trust Obama, but they have no choice but to work with him or nothing at all, considering their miniscule numbers in society which in my opinion cannot be overcome by economic strength. As this recent election proved, you cannot buy the electorate (at least not this time); people vote in their best interests, not yours.

We also learned corporations are NOT people, as Romney and the Supreme Court had alluded.  Oh they may be the collective of real human beings, or considered "persons" by the tax code, but despite the Citizens' United legal decision, the will of the people prevails in the end, not the will of Justice Scalia. And shareholder's interest is not the interest of the people, who need safe streets, health care, jobs, economic and educational opportunity for their families, repair of infrastructure, and many other things in their daily lives. As Shakespeare once wrote "Kill all the lawyers first". Perhaps he should've have added the shareholders second.

On that note, going forward is a disturbing trend regarding the business community. They greatly supported Romney. They oppose the tax increases on the wealthy. They were prime donors to the political campaigns. They are sitting on at least $3 trillion in offshore cash they are not paying taxes on. They cry that they can't find workers trained in the jobs they have open, but want no part in paying for training or re-tooling workers or citizens for those jobs.  Then they blame those same persons for not getting the training (at their own expense, of course). They claim Obamacare will cause them to lay off workers because of the cost, which hasn't even kicked in yet, yet would move to kick them off the payroll as soon as possible if they got sick. They claim lowering taxes would allow high-income citizens, those so-called "job creators", to create jobs, yet their "trickle-down" theory has not yielded jobs in the past with prior tax cuts, such as the current ones from Bush. They don't want to pay you a living wage, but have no problem moving their businesses to China, and then demonize the Chinese as a dangerous economic adversary. The business community claims to be pro-American, and in the past they certainly were. But these days, I think their allegeance is detrimentally misplaced. We must evaluate this trend carefully, and start making plans to economically protect ourselves.

Finally, what did the GOP learn? I hope for their sake they learned that intolerance, and basing election on referendum against someone, is a losing strategy. Intolerance won't work in an increasingly multicultural society, and you can't win by being against someone unless you give people a credible and solid reason to vote FOR someone. Romney was clearly not that person; Republicans themselves were tepid on him in the 2008 primary election, which in the end he lost the nomination to McCain and for that matter Huckabee. 2012 was really no different; he nearly lost to Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum. And he easily beat Rick Perry because he too was an empty suit, showing that a better empty suit can beat an even emptier suit. Running a campaign of intolerance, where you say fuck the niggers, deport all the spics, burn the faggots and dikes, men tell women what to do with their bodies, and Christianity is the only acceptable way to view the world in our Anglo-based society, is a loser from the start. As it stands, this strategy has guaranteed the Democrats will control the White House through at least January 2021, since Hillary will easily win if she runs and in my opinion will also win re-election in 2020. I'll be a grandfather by the time another Republican has a viable shot at the White House. Advice to GOP: don't make it any worse for yourselves than it already is. CHANGE!!

For now, let's hope that no crisis arises in the second term of Obama that could derail HIllary's shot at 2016, or mar his Presidency like those examples I gave at the top. On the other hand, LBJ, Reagan, Clinton and even Nixon were revered as great presidents as time moved on. There's always HOPE :)