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Posts Tagged ‘Trump’

Georgia Governor Race and Trump Reelection Now

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on August 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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While the Trump Movement (Tea Party) is taking over the Republican Party and the liberal Progressives are doing the same to the Democrats, my sensible center of the political spectrum stands idly by.  What is a moderate Blue Dog Democrat to do at this crossroad?

Remember, this time last year, we were saying that Trump could actually win the presidency but it wasn’t as important as supporting high school football in my community.  Some of the players on the field last year are unemployed on the street corners this year while others are serving in the military under a questionable president but our community refuses to take 20 minutes to vote—football halftimes last longer.

Every election is important because local elections are the building blocks to state elections and both are the foundations of federal elections.

To me, it’s all about three R’s: resonance, residual and referendum.   In the Georgia governor’s race, candidates Stacey Abrams and Stacey Evans have maybe six months to create a message and mission that resonates with Georgians—who will catch fire with enough voters to win a general election.   We really need a surge of new voters and/or a riptide of Obama-Trump voters.  Yes, a considerable number of voters were with Obama (labor union members) but bounced on Hillary.  To be honest, getting those blue collar voters back seems more possible than getting grown folks to vote for the first time.

If the Obamas and Clintons couldn’t get you to vote, you can’t be reached and deserve Trump’s peculiar policies, statements and actions.

Elections have residual benefits.  Local elections produce campaign networks that are used in contests for higher offices.  I remember when the Democrats had strong candidates for mayor, city council, county commission, state representatives and state senators.   Candidates for U.S. congressman, U.S. senator and president stood on their shoulders.  Real talk: the Georgia governor’s race is important because it has the residual benefit of driving other elections on the ballot and vice versa; and the 2020 presidential race could come down to the Democrat nominee benefiting from the 2018 Georgia governor race network and field-tested message.

Another form of residual benefit is the fact that candidates for high office who don’t win position themselves well for other endeavors.   What happen to Sarah Palin, Herman Cain and Michelle Nunn? They got crazy paid.  Former Congressman Jack Kingston was defeated in a U.S. Senate race but is on CNN nightly.  Don Lemon recently told Kingston that his profile on-air is his greatest stage for change.   So, some of these candidates for high office have a side eye on Buckhead offices, Georgetown/D.C. firms or a hosting desk on MSNBC.  Can you blame them?

Since he walked onto the national stage, the Republicans have made every election on every level a referendum on Barack Obama.  Well, turnabout is fair play.  A test of any candidate’s soundness could be if Obama or Trump was/is good for America and Georgia.  To me, if you think Trump is a capable leader, you have issues and are in my prayers…as is he.  Remember, local and state officeholders work on issues and problems with Congress and the White House.

Obama is a good man; one of the best in American history.  President Trump functions on the opposite end of the moral spectrum.  Trump is a marketing expert and a master of branding but not suitable for bringing a nation together.  If you are running for dogcatcher in Ty Ty, Georgia, the voters should ask your opinion on Trump because agriculture is the biggest industry in Ty Ty and in Georgia and Trump wants to cut many of the programs at USDA.

The presidential race of 2020 starts with building blocks in 2017 and 2018.  Every political segment should be at the table but the progressives and Trump people seem to have little interest in the sensible center.  Newsflash: the center is larger than those two groups combine and could sway the Republican or Democrat primaries.  The longer term objective of the three R’s mentioned above is having someone other than Trump win the White House in 2020.

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Trump and Jeff Davis High School

Posted in politics, tagged , , on August 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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More than football and hip hop, we must develop an understanding of politics and governing.  It’s a matter of life and death.  First, I am not angry at President Trump for being exactly who he said he would be nor am I ticked off at Republican voters for using him to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House.  I am overwhelmingly pissed at my community for not voting in five or six pivotal states.

Oh, non-voting Blacks escorted Trump into the White House and handed him the nuclear codes.   Our Black –sses will be the first ones drafted into an ego-driven Trump war.  Being drafted by your nation puts you in an awkward situation.   My brother was in the Vietnam War while we weren’t allowed to swim in the local pool or check out books from the library—for the record, he volunteered.

We know that the victor writes history and I have fairly felt that the South in the American Civil War was the most dangerous threat to the United States—more than any power from Europe, Asia or the Middle East in history.  But, I don’t put military personal in the same category as political leaders normally (notable exception being Nazis.)

To me, General Robert E. Lee was a gentleman who strategized for a wrong cause.  Remember, Lincoln offered him command of the Army of the Potomac but his heart was with Virginia.  So, if we are talking about military skills, Robert E. Lee, World War II German General Erwin Rommel and William T. Sherman get military praise.  On the other hand, I am glad Lee and Rommel were on defeated sides and Sherman was so nasty to former slaves during his March to the Sea.  Confederate Lt. General Nathan Bedford Forrest was brilliant on the battlefield but helped found the Klan after the war.  Why do Black guys play football with Jeff Davis County High in Georgia?

Spending 25 years in military service could have been a great career for me but I wasn’t prepared to hear who the president or pentagon saw as the enemy—not while Mandela sat in a cell.  Much of America’s military focus was and is based on the financial interests of fat cats.  America never respected self-governing in Africa or the oil-rich Middle East.  There are some people with legitimate reasons to dislike us but terrorism isn’t the answer.  Blacks in south Georgia see the Klan as more of a concern than the ISIS.  Oh yea, why do we get upset when folks in the Middle East try to have a faith-based government but the conservatives in America seek to do the same thing with our Christian faith.

It never crossed White southerners’ minds that items honoring the Confederacy would be hella offensive to the Black population…the same Black population who built the South for free. But, I say don’t remove anything nor level any Nazi concentration camps…lest we forget.  I am writing this blog post on Lee Street in a small southern town and the street wasn’t name for Bruce Lee.  Finally, Dr. Martin Luther King is turning over in his grave about the trashy ways we carry ourselves on streets name for him…where the good weed can be scored.

To this day, I think Donald Trump is a world class opportunist who never imagined actually winning the White House (which brings forensic examination of his shady business dealings.)  But, his followers on the far Right knew what “take this nation back” meant to them.  They should hug him tightly and not let him go.  Normal Republicans have a few months to figure out how to remove him from their ranks…and when they try, it’s going to be on and popping.

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Scriptures and Southern sayings

Posted in politics, tagged , , , on July 9, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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Scriptures and southern sayings do more for you than the government.  The roles of the federal and state governments need to be reexamined during this non-election year.   My idea is that the best life doesn’t depend on what governmental officials do and we need to hear some of them say that.

Free Milk and a Cow: The Georgia Satellites use this saying as the central theme in their hit “Keep Your Hands to Yourself.”  Beyoncé sang something similar in “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It.)”  Grandmothers once taught girls to hold “the cookie” hostage until a young gentleman (literally a gentle man) presented a long term, whole life package that included caring for future children.  America will always provide a little temporary food assistance to needy families but the government is not now nor should it be your baby’s daddy for 18 years.

2 Thessalonians 3:10-15: Paul broke that thing down in this letter.  “For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.  For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all but are busybodies.  Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread.  But ye, brethren, be not weary in well doing.

And if any man obeys not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet, could him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

Society wants to help the needy but how do we have young parents who are too cool to flip burgers and toss watermelons.  But, you love your kids so much.  Hogwash.  We grew up with parents who had a job and a side job.  Paul’s “Disorderly” would be current thugs but Democrats shouldn’t consider them as the enemy…just brothers who never learned the right way.

Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime: You help those who help themselves.  Unfortunately, we have a large number of half-raised people in this country.  Georgia Governor Nathan Deal was surprised to discover the amount of money our state spends on corrections.  I love calling the prison system “corrections” because that is what it is.  If a fraction of that money could have been spent on better college, technical schools and K-12, we would need less funding for corrections and have fewer crime victims.

Know who you are and whose you are: Back in the day, our community had pride.  You represented yourself, your family, your community, your race and your church in everything you did.  In his first book, Secretary Colin Powell wrote that we need to bring the concept of shame back in America and I agree.  If your kids are hungry but you won’t pick tomatoes as a job, you should be ashamed.  If that same person plays Xbox all day, he should be ashamed.  If you sell dope on the corner which poisons the community and creates a violent illegal commerce, shame on you.

Look, the American way should be an equal opportunity at success for everyone..a fair shot. If you blow off your shot with your actions (playing in school, disrespecting your family, being lazy), you are messing up an opportunity slaves and sharecroppers would have died to have.

They did die to have the right to vote but too many people in our community blow off voting.  Wait a second..the same young people getting temporary assistance don’t vote. Amazing.  The Trump Presidency is reality and  his plan is simple: Reduce government assistance to needy people, they can do the work currently done by illegals…the work Americans won’t do.

Black Lives Matter: Okay, I always thought this movement should have been Black Lives Matter Also but what do I know.  It’s not saying that other lives don’t matter..they do.  As a southern moderate, I find the progressive movement to be a little aggressive with the whole “what government did and what corporate America did” thing.  But, I was hyped to see a You Tube video say Black Lives should matter to Black people.

 

Yes, sir..there it is right there.  Jesus said one of the two greatest commandments was love your neighbor as yourself but you don’t love yourself.   If we took care of our community, the government would be secondary…”defend the borders and deliver the mail” is one more southern saying.

Oh, liberals don’t want to read this blog’s year-long treatise the Best Interests Initiative.

https://bestinterestsinitiative.wordpress.com/long-term-bii/

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Election Winning Coalitions 2018 and 2020

Posted in Georgia, politics, tagged , , , , on June 6, 2017| 1 Comment »

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Coalitions win elections.  After primary battles, the party that gets itself together fastest will likely be victorious.  I am still upset that Ralph Nader pulled enough voters from Al Gore to help George Bush win in 2000.  Like Hillary Clinton, Gore won the popular vote but you must have strategy where it matters.

Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty.   Remember, at this point in 2016, I was telling everyone who would listen that Donald Trump could win the election by playing opossum (playing dead) as we say in the country.  We let our guard down.

I am getting over my feelings about Bernie Sanders Progressives who didn’t vote for Hillary (…if you had it to do over, grasshopper….).  Yes,  those voters could have been the margin of victory in pivotal states.  I want to take a brief look at coalitions on the Republican and Democrat sides relative to 2012 and 2020.

First of all, the Republican base will obviously vote for whomever their party nominates in any election.  They have been so brainwashed about Democrats until they trust the Russians more than us.  To get to 50%, they motivate some rural people with faith and gun issues.  But, most of the Black folks at my church are veterans who own peacekeeping steel also.  Go figure?

So, will working class Whites stay with the Trump division of the GOP?  Will the Dem Team develop and market a package to entice those voters back?  You can’t win a statewide election in the South without a certain percentage of those voters.  It starts with quality schools, jobs and affordable healthcare.  The awkwardness of the Trump administration from day one has tarnished the Republican brand.  They have some decisions to make.

On the Democrat side in the South, we must understand that Blacks for now are the backbone of the party.  To some, the party feels like a plantation with Whites running everything while Blacks do the heavy lifting.  The strategy for me involves a coalition of everyone….city progressives, moderate rural Blacks and some working class Whites who are about to learn that far Right budget cuts know no color.

Know this: there is a difference between a political party and a movement.  Black Lives Matter, The Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, Trump’s Make America Great Again and Sander’s Progressives are movements and not subject to political parties.

We need to know now if movements are going to “act right” if parties give them a national stage. Really, they shouldn’t as activist but just say so from jump street.

We are looking at candidates for governor in Georgia for 2018 and even president in 2020.  My friends don’t agree but I believe in asking candidates how they feel about candidates and officeholders on other levels of government.  You don’t get my vote if you thought Obama was a bad guy and Trump is wonderful….no way.  Actually, the 2018 election will be a referendum on Trump… local, state and federal.

The margin of victory for Democrats in 2018 is narrowed if candidates put a fire in the belly of infrequent voters.

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Jeb Nostradamus Bush’s Face: The Miseducation of America

Posted in politics, tagged , , , on May 17, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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Jeb Bush saw this Trump situation coming like Nostradamus and so did I.  First of all, it’s not about Trump nor is it Trump’s fault.  Donald Trump thought it would be fun building his brand by running for president.  As he said last week, Hillary was supposed to win.

Could enough Americans be so twisted that the least qualified candidate in history gets elected over the most qualified?  Evidently, yes.  The Bushes are basically decent people—notice how Bill Clinton has become an extra son to 41.  Jeb repeatedly said he wouldn’t be president if he had to be a dirty, misinformation candidate to win and the Republican primary voters said take your behind home.  Trump was like “I will.”

In politics and policy, what you want to say to achieve a result and the truth are often two different things.  A noble person would always try to tell the truth and sometimes the truth hurts.  An opportunistic person like Trump thinks “win and get paid” first then deal with whatever later.

People should have a functioning Crap meter to determine when someone is bringing it by the truckload.  At some point, some conservatives determined that the ends justify the means.  Honestly, many of their hopes for America make sense but you can’t get there with dirty methods nor force people to do what they maybe should do.

At some point, Fox News stopped pretending to be unbiased journalism and started saying sensational nonsense that drove ratings up and made money.  It’s misinformation at it’s finest.

A segment of the far Right profits from pitting Americans against each other– flirting with Civil War rather than seeking solutions.  A segment of the far Left wants anarchy.  In his marketing brilliance, Trump saw the opportunity to ride the misinformation wave straight into the White House.  You can see in his eyes that it’s not the fun job he thought it would be.  Hillary was elected president by the popular vote; Trump, by the Electoral College, was elected King.  In our system of government, one person can’t run the nation by the seat of his pants.  Trump might need to let Pence have it before forensic analysis of his businesses leads to real drama for his folks.

All is not lost.  We must reeducate America.  My community needs to understand the importance of voting and keeping up with public policy.  The progressives are hot in the Democratic Party these days and peace to them.  However, the moderate, centrist Blue Dog seats at the table must remain.  I still think we should have a frank discussion about what government can’t/shouldn’t do.  The 1960s Blacks would be appalled by the current lack of voting, desire for assistance and importance of the hip hop culture.  Oh, the thug mentality of some hip hop is holding us down more than Trump.

In 2017, the Democrat Team should be field testing concepts, approaches and issues to find what resonates with my non-urban South.  The Black community is the backbone of the Blue Team.  You don’t need to be Nostradamus to see continued struggle if we don’t do things differently.

 

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Georgia Governor Race: 3 Queens and a Trump Card

Posted in politics, tagged , , , on May 4, 2017| 1 Comment »

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The Georgia Governor’s race is a long shot for Democrats but it could be a win if they play their cards right.   A win can come only if a great candidate with tons of personality builds a statewide coalition.  The required buzz words are platform, energy, message, network, freshness and resourcefulness.

I like the fact that the early mentioned names are women: former interim U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, State House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams and Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson.  All candidates should commit now to stealing a play from Trump’s playbook rather than Bernie Sanders.  “I, state your name, agree to 100% back the winner of the primary and to encourage my team and financial supporters to do the same…so, help me God…really, help me God.”

How many Georgia Republicans wanted Trump to be the nominee?  They knew most of the folks on that stage would be a better president but after he stole that nom, they fell in line.  Hats off to the Republicans who never did and still haven’t to this day.

At first glance, what one key thing comes to mind from the abovementioned candidates?  Yates stood up to Trump like a boss regarding the legality of his travel ban and that fact could net millions in campaign contributions from sea to shining sea.

Democrats have been losing statewide elections for the last twenty years because they wouldn’t use my formula: G.R.= .25% MM   Ok, that’s not a real formula and I have been watching the Einstein based Nat Geo show Genius.  But to me, Grassroots should be 25% of the media money because pouring T.V. ads on the people doesn’t help anyone except the people who sell ad buys.

Leader Abrams seems to be about grassroots and getting all Georgians engaged in the public policy process.  If you noticed, I didn’t say “voting” alone because it involves being a well-informed citizen who watches local, state and national policy and politics constantly…as if your life depended on it.  Look, your life depends on it because it’s a network that stops in the White House.

Mayors, City Council members, School board members and County Commissioners are the building blocks for state legislators.  State legislators are the building blocks for congressmen, who are the building blocks for Governors, U.S. Senators and other statewide races.  Those statewide winners are the building blocks for the Presidency.  As they say at Albany State University, you can’t bulid a chimney from the top.

Columbus Mayor Teresa Tomlinson’s key thing is positive energy.  Various groups in that city just like her; she is a coalition builder and to me, she seems to bring that Obama, Bill Clinton, Sanford Bishop “You can’t dislike me” vibe.  That vibe could go a long way in bringing disenchanted citizens to the polls and presenting Georgia as a state ready to do business.

If Obama and Clinton couldn’t win Georgia, how can someone else?  One word: Trump.  Every Republican candidate will be required to explain why they feel Trump is right for America and Georgia.  Every election in November 2018 will be a referendum on Trump and his supporters.  It’s about who wants to bring people together to find real solutions or who wins by dividing people with fear and ugliness.  Look, my conservative friends are generally good people; my liberal friends are good as well.  But, the sensible center should stand up and take our seat at the table.

In the rural South, the far Right conservatives and the far Left progressives both ignore rural Black moderates.  You can’t win Georgia without rural Black voters in 20 areas south of a line from Columbus to Augusta.  Team Hillary blew us off and did the same in Florida and North Carolina.

Readers of this blog know I hedged by bets by being a Democrat who voted in the Republican presidential primary for Ohio governor John Kasich.  Yes, I wanted Hillary but just in case…  To my friends, I am Nostradamus because I told them so like Chicken Little…”the polls are falling….the polls are falling.”  If they knew Trump could have actually won, they would have helped somebody…ok, anybody.. else be the GOP nom to hedge their bets.

Rural moderates have had it with being ignored by the state and national Democrats.  Remember, rural Blacks are the southern Dem base… act like you know that when you spend all of your energy begging Dixiecrats to come back.  Dixiecrats can be replaced at the Democrat table by reasonable suburbanites and rural Blacks who don’t vote.  My friends and I can light a fire under those disinterested voters; people who voted for Obama and nothing else.

We need to spend the next 12 months building a rural network based on proven local trendsetters.  Also, we need “real” congressional candidates in every district under and on that Columbus to Augusta line…building blocks.  Finally, take it to the people like Sanders did.  The old leaders are primarily interested in keeping power but who can rock a mic like Obama, who is next?

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Georgia’s Democrat Future: Jon Ossoff and/or Moderates

Posted in politics, tagged , , , on April 21, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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The Democrats’ future in Georgia and the South centers on building a coalition that energizes everyone.  While the congressional runoff in Georgia’s 6th district is important, a portion of those millions should be directed to cultivating congressional districts with more Democrats—the 8th, 10th and 12th.

Jon Ossoff is the future of the party in suburban Atlanta and we all wish him well.  But, we shouldn’t forget that every area south of I-20 could flip from red to blue in local, state, and federal elections if the Dems could market to our community as well as Trump and the Tea Party hits his base.

Hillary Clinton won the two coasts but left too much on the table in the rest of the nation.  It was like picking peaches in Fort Valley, Georgia, by only getting the low hanging fruit…hell, reach down and get the fallen fruit (infrequent Dem voters) rather than reaching for fruit at the top of the tree (former Dixiecrat voters.)

We need a voter education project with some teeth.  The community should be hit hard with cold, hard facts—take off the kid gloves.  It shouldn’t be on Ossoff’s young shoulders alone and it shouldn’t have been on Hillary’s alone.  Dumb Dumbs, you don’t ask people to vote for someone..you asked them to vote for themselves by supporting these candidates.

The sleeping giant has always been regular folks helped by Democrats’ efforts.  The same regular folks that don’t bother voting… say what?  Oh, the youth are too cool to vote.  You know what else is cool: being drafted to fight in North Korea because Kim and Trump are trying to one up each other.  Why are you on public assistance but won’t vote?  Oh, we need to have a heart to heart in my community.

These young parents are about to see the crafty re-segregation of the public school systems but they only come on campus for sporting events…we need to talk.

Finally, the moderate wing of the Democrat Party needs to take our seat at the table, the old Clinton/Gore Blue Dogs.  See, the new progressive movement fails to acknowledge the moderate to conservative Blacks in the rural South.  We are talking about Blacks who are clean-cut, work the same jobs for years, served in the military and active in church.

The liberals in the national DNC seem more interested in the roughest element of the community.  Look here, many of those people chose that rough life.  Frederick Douglass said it is easier to build strong children than repair broken men.  The thug/street life glamorized by hip hop is negatively impacting our community more than the Klan.  Yea, we really need to talk about what we can do to help ourselves without governmental involvement.

Let’s get the old band back together.  With a few dollars (50k), the moderate movement in the Dem Party could dust off the Blue Dog ideals in 20 rural areas in Georgia.  The platform should be created now while the nation is eager to fund Trump-push back operations; let’s field test concepts and methods.  If something hot emerges, it could be used everywhere.

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America Could End!

Posted in politics, tagged , , , on March 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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America could end.  Really?  This great republic might go the way of Ancient Rome if we are not careful.  We know that the nation stands on a shaky foundation( stolen land, stolen Africans) but it’s still the best country in history.

We should remember the line from President Lincoln’s first inaugural address regarding the “better angels of our nature.”  I could go back to Paul who wrote in his first letter to the church at Corinth ”Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you: but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgement.”

Oh, there are crazy divisions in America today: Republicans vs. Democrats, Voters vs. Non Voters, the Haves vs. the Have Nots, the two coasts vs. the everywhere else, Black vs. White, Brown vs. Whomever, Christians vs. Those Who Are Wrong (ok, the last one was just fun.)

In the Democrat Party, we have a division of Real Liberals/Progressives vs. Black Rural Clean Cut Southerners.  First of all, this writer thinks of the Dem Party as the party of inclusion while the GOP is the party of exclusion/marginalization.  My Republican friends generally feel they know what is best for everyone—with limited input from everyone else.  I grew up in the Dem Party that included New England and West coasts liberals, Blacks, working class union members, and White Dixiecrats.  Those Dixiecrats were still mad that Republican Lincoln reluctantly freed the slaves.

Hillary Clinton lost the election because the Dems didn’t court Black southerners or working class rural Whites.  Remember, Blacks are the back bone of the Dem Party from Virginia to Texas.  But, the D.N.C. spent most of their time trying to get undocumented Latinos citizenship so they could vote in bloc for the blue.

The DNC is about the business of convincing the heartland to agree with liberal policies rather than listening to our brand of moderation; that moderation is the only hope of getting back the working class White vote.  To Trump’s credit, he was all ears for blue collar voters who are struggling because Trump’s corporate buddies shipped their jobs overseas.

Dilemma: The southern Black rural agenda isn’t important to either major political party.  The national Dems are siding with Socialist Bernie Sanders.  While dude is a cool guy, give me, give me, give me isn’t the answer for Black America.

I will give you what you need and it won’t’ cost a penny in federal spending.  You need to carry yourself in a way that doesn’t depend on who is in the White House or governor’s mansion.  This self-reliant  mentality is rooted in Black nationalism from Marcus Garvey to Malcom X to surprisingly Justice Clarence Thomas.

In the 2018 elections, the Dem will be D.O.A. if they don’t come up with something fresh for my community.  We need to build a network of trendsetters who ensure that the message is clear and plain and that we know the importance of voting.  Of course, this bloggers thinks it starts with ideas and concepts outlined in https://bestinterestsinitiative.wordpress.com/long-term-bii/ .

It took a series of missteps and errors for the Dems to drop the White House with a quality candidate like Hillary Clinton.  If the Dems Team doesn’t appreciate the rural moderates and centrists, we might need to explore swaying elections in the Republican primaries because their candidate selection process seems to be based on arrogance and superiority.  When there is no action in the Dem primaries, I vote in the GOP primaries to assist their more reasonable candidates.  Remember, the Black voting power in the South could sway most elections.

Yes, America could end if we aren’t careful and the fall will started when too many Americans feeling the nation isn’t fair for them.

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“Dead, See Trolls”: Rural Politics post-Obama and pre-Trump

Posted in African Americans, politics, tagged , , , , , on January 17, 2017| Leave a Comment »

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Blogging can be a huge waste of time if nobody reads your stuff.  It’s the modern version of the adage in my community that goes “If you want to hide something from a “blank” put it in a book.”  After I have moved on to selling aluminum roofing in Thomasville, someone might discover these 700 some odd blog post like the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Bedouin shepherds discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946 in a cave in the current troubled West Bank area between Israel and Jordan.  People read blogs that include funny hooks so consider Damon Wayans knowledge deep prisoner character Oswald Bates from In Living Color.  “So, my dear brother, the Dead Sea Scrolls were like some missing extra parts of religious text found…follow this…between Is Real because we need what is real and Jordan because our community spends too much money on Jordan sneakers that don’t take us anywhere but to the poor house.”

President-Elect Trump entering the White House was foretold by some of us in and around the political arena for decades but nobody would listen.  To me, it started when public policy stop being designed by political scientists and the people and became crafted by Madison Avenue marketing experts.  Dr. Frank Luntz has a PhD in polly sci from Penn but he is the consultant/pollster who created the art of running focus groups to gauge the public and designing a few talking points that hit like bullet points.  In the 90s, he was the mastermind Newt Gingrich use to create the Contract With America.

Project Logic GA as a blog is like the Dead Sea Scrolls but rather than putting flashdrives in Mason jars and placing them in Georgia red clay next to the Flint River, these smart ideas might die in cyberspace with the plans of Michael Steele, Jon Huntsman, and Elizabeth Warren.  In those cyber Mason jars, scholars might one day find the “Dead, See Trolls.”

The Dem Party is dead…trolls, see what your mistakes have done.

Yes, there are those who sought hard to save this republic with logic and positive developments.  Public policy should start with helping the people understand the limited role of government in their lives—balance to between compassion for the needy and a desire to end poverty.  On his best days, Speaker Newt Gingrich would explain that America should be the land of equal opportunity for all…with emphasis being placed on opportunity.  If every kid has a fair shot at success, we have it right.  However, if said kid squanders those opportunities by not focusing on development, being lazy or committing crimes, he gets to live in the reality he created. We are usually our own worst enemies.

Mr. Trump becoming president started when campaign experts learn to tell the people what they wanted to hear rather than what they needed to hear.  Republicans wanted to hear in the 1990s that they were the chosen ruling class who could make decisions affecting everyone without input from anyone else. For example, the 1990s Crime Bill cost billions but crime kept growing—who got paid, their friends who owned prisons.  Since LBJ’s effort to end poverty the Democrats wanted to be the party that poured more money into efforts to help the needy.  However, some of that money should have been spent encouraging the future generations to not be “the needy.”

It’s rough when a kid never had a chance because plans for success never came their way.  Actually, the life portrayed by the Cosby Show did so much for some in my generation and the Obamas in real life have done the same.  Oh, the post White House Obamas will be so very beneficial because they can say what they really want to say to my community….hint: moderation is the key.

Could the current toxic political climate have been avoided?  Of course, you should read the “Dead, See Trolls” because reasonable people like me begged to be at the table.  Moderates can communicate with the Left and the Right and over the last two decades it was often Republican friends who saw the importance of crafting a new southern moderate movement.  The elbow-throwing Tea Party put an end to that goodwill.  The southern Democrat Party is a mess because urban liberals in Atlanta want to push a progressive agenda that doesn’t cotton well with rural conservative Blacks…we can’t win elections in cities alone…ask Hillary about that.

We  tried to tell those latte-sipping liberals from Buckhead that the D.C.-designed Democrat platform was almost as alien to us as the vitriol spewed by those who hijacked the Republican Party. But, those of us who drink sweet tea and occasionally coldbeer from Mason jars in the rural Black community were ignored in November 2016…and that’s after we saved Hillary from Bernie Sanders in the primary.  A rising rural star on the national stage is Rep. Tim Ryan from Youngstown, Ohio.  This guy says the Democrats need people who shower before work and people who shower after work.  I love it.

A troll is a mythical, cave dwelling being having an ugly appearance.  I hope the trolls in the Democratic Party find these Mason jars filled with ideas because their team is dead, see.  I tried to tell them that Trump was a marketing genius who was simply playing dead to win the election.  I spent a year writing/crafting a “Contract With America-like” moderate action plan called the Best Interest Initiative.

The B.I.I. is all about what our community can do to help ourselves with limited government involvement.  Remember, candidate Obama always said that the government often isn’t the answer…often it’s you.  The B.I.I. is based on JFK’s statement “ask not what this country can do for you…ask what you can do for this country.”  What you can do is start being a better you…stop being a knucklehead.  Yes, I said knucklehead.  We talk like that inside my community; we say that with love to those who would destroy our area for some money.

The trolls who run the Democratic Party spent a billion dollars on t.v. ads but rarely sought the existing networks of influence in our community.  In other words, the rich boys got their friends richer but never hit the barbers and funeral home directors.  The trolls thought they had the community because the preachers got white envelopes with Get Out The Vote Cash.  Newsflash, church folks vote anyway—that’s preaching to the choir.  The barbers, coaches and those “pay party tossing” kids are the ones who can move the crowd.

When Trump won that election, the Democrats and Republicans lost the White House because neither wanted him.  The Black community has the numbers to sway most elections in the South.  My friends and I mentioned a plan to Democrats to cultivate the Obamacrats outside Georgia’s biggest cities and they blew it off…the same likely happened in North Carolina, Florida and across the Rust Belt.

Oh, Trump was out there in the sticks.  He told them what they wanted to hear—if he can or should deliver that stuff is another subject.  The Dems trolls should learn from Trump that policy should be bottom up and not top down…it’s called grassroots.

To be honest, I am backing away from constantly watching CNN’s political coverage.  We should spend the next few years listening to the people and teaching cultural moderation to the kids.  A better DNC needs to emerge from the ashes because ignoring rural southerners will get us ghost.

I wanted to put some of my favorite blog posts in this cyber Mason jar for the trolls to find.  If they wanted to talk now, I will be waiting on my front porch with sweet tea…bring white envelopes.

https://bestinterestsinitiative.wordpress.com/

https://projectlogicga.com/2009/12/10/cease-corps/

https://projectlogicga.com/2016/07/27/southside-of-the-tracks-us-vs-them/

https://projectlogicga.com/2016/12/19/southern-rural-democrats-astroturf-vs-sod-grassroots/

https://projectlogicga.com/2016/11/21/ongoing-civil-wars-failure-to-communicatea-new-great-triumvirate/

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Hillary vs. Trump: Wife vs. Bride

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on November 6, 2016| 1 Comment »

hillary-clinton-donald-trump

I want to summarize this crazy election year.  Hillary Clinton is a great person who should be president.  Donald Trump is one of the best marketing experts in global history; the guy is a genius.

There is a difference between being a bride and a wife.  A bride is a woman who does an outstanding job of putting on a wedding or getting someone/everyone to marry her.  A bride looks good in a fancy dress and is stunningly graceful on her wedding day.  A wife is a lady built to be part of a healthy union until death does them part.  Wife material is built for the long haul rather than one day.

Some of the best brides don’t stay married long; the relationship was based on the big day only.  She just wanted to be princess for the weekend.  Some of the best marriages involved good husbands and wives who went to the courthouse.

It’s not about Clinton and Trump; it’s about us.  Bride Trump sold himself to the Republican base better than all of those people on the primary stage.  Jeb Bush, John Kasich and maybe Marco Rubio would have been good presidents/”wives” but they couldn’t get to the chapel pass Trump.

Democrat rock stars (the Obamas, Bill Clinton, Al Gore) shouldn’t have to beg and cajole Black people to the polls.  Oh, if Blacks alone would vote in the South and Midwest, this election would be over.  Hell, Al Gore never should have had a hard time with George Bush after the wonderful state of the union created by Bill Clinton.

If Black America doesn’t think it’s important to protect Obama’s legacy by electing a brilliant proven leader like Hillary Clinton, we deserve to go back to the future with Mr. Trump and those who want their country stolen from the Indians back.

Yesterday, I learned the saying “you can’t teach what you don’t know…you can’t lead where you won’t go.” Hearing the childhood story of Hillary Clinton’s mom broke my heart; they left her alone in an apartment for weeks.  Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney use to say soldiers don’t get medals..they get scars.

Hillary can teach what she knows because she has scars…she knows the plight of working people much better than Mr. Trump.  We shouldn’t hate on Trump for never being poor but he is ill-suited to govern.  House Speaker Tom Foley use to say “any jackass can kick down a barn but it takes a carpenter to build one.”

After this election is over, both parties will consider their futures.  The two billion dollars spent being ugly could have done some much good.  The GOP knows they must court minorities while pulling back from the far right.  The Democrats know the Bernie Sanders socialist segment is growing. At the end of the day, Black should conduct our lives in a manner that doesn’t directly involve who the local, state and federal leaders are because they are busy being brides rather than wives.

 

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Appreciation for Candidate Trump, the Georgia Opportunity School Board Amendment and Path to the Black Middle Class

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on October 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »

trump

We will work together as brothers or perish as fools.  Lawd, I evidently have a wide array of friends and this election season has created a civil war on my facebook page.  As Rodney King famously said, “Can’t we all just get along.”  Hell nawl  .

This country was built on a shaky foundation—stolen from the Natives, stolen labor from Africa, women were second class citizens.  At some point, there would be a correction or reconciliation.  Of course, those who benefited would be reluctant to change.

Donald P. Trump didn’t create the current climate.  Hell, Trump is a professional personality—more P.T. Barnum than anything.  The guy is an opportunist who recognized the anger of a certain part of the population…a part of the population that really has nothing to do with him.

I appreciate Donald Trump for saying out loud what others are thinking.  Basically, they want their country back—the country they stole fair and square.  The country that affords certain privileges based on skin color.  (Oh, don’t act like African Americans didn’t do the same thing inside our race…running behind redbones, so-called good hair etc….cast the first stone, my brother.)

Malcolm X often taught that progress starts with putting your true feelings on the table—even if you are considered wrong by others.  If he was with us today, he would hate Trump’s views of Islam but appreciate him saying what was really in his twisted head.

To me, the biggest supporter of Hillary Clinton for president is Donald Trump with a properly functioning microphone.  Mr. Trump, please continue to speak your mind.  If Trump becomes president, those who Democrats seek to help deserve whatever the blank happens to them because they didn’t vote.  I don’t like being separated from my brothers but my brothers vote.

I also appreciate the debate surrounding the Georgia amendment that would give the governor’s office the right to privatize or closed under performing schools.  First, many of these schools are in our communities and kids should have good educations.  However, this horrible amendment is a Trojan Horse; a hidden effort to open up school choice.  Again, Malcolm X acknowledged men and women who spoke their minds rather than those who had undisclosed agendas.

Actually, school choice is a debate we can have because parents should have the options of moving their kids to private schools with a little of their money or teaching them at home.  Personally, I think homeschool kids are too sheltered but that is just me.

Our community must vote because leaders make decisions involving everyone based on what they hear from the few who vote and speak up.  The same people seeking to get their nation back with Trump are also trying to figure out a way to keep their kids away from certain kids and certain teachers.  It’s the resegregation of the school systems.

Let me say something rough: many schools are jacked up for real.  However, I am the only one who will honestly say that poor schools start with poorly prepared kids and parents.  Oh, the school is a lovely building and the teachers well-trained but rotten, half-raised kids will deflate the spirit of teachers and poison the educational process for the majority of youth.

Some kids are raised by the streets and crime-oriented sexy music videos.  They don’t know how to focus in school because video games have spoiled their minds.  Of course, we could focus at school because we learned how to pay attention at church.

We should consider the path Blacks have taken into the middle class. If you think about it, the surest way into the middle class for many Blacks was government work: the military, civil service, nursing and most of all teaching.  This election is an attack on that path because a Trump White House would make the military risky for everyone, the state governments want to privatize civil jobs and the Opportunity School Board Amendment would lead to private companies running schools.  Those companies would replace experienced teachers with new educators who cost less.

 

Bottomline: Good communities, schools and nations don’t happen without honest debate, focused people and hard work.

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Town Hall “Party With A Purpose”: Hear from Everyone

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , , on September 27, 2016| 1 Comment »

grown

We can disagree without being disagreeable.  I swear my friends are all over the place politically and culturally; life would be boring otherwise.  It is wise to listen to everyone (even if you know they are dead wrong, lying or trying the wreak havoc.

During the Civil Rights Movement, Atlanta was proud to be the city to busy doing business to hate.  It’s my understanding that BMW didn’t want to locate a plant in the Savannah area because they were concerned with racial drama among the workforce.  While some are acting silly, others are addressing issues as part of a reasonable community and moving forward financially.

Atlanta is the best Black city in the world and Georgia is the best Black state in the union.  We should manufacture everything here and ship it all to the world on the interstate system and the Port of Savannah.  Of course, industrial attraction starts with a quality schools and livable communities.  Those who like to “wreak havoc” recreationally are killing the golden goose.

If I had a little funding, my blog would host ten or so Town Hall meetups around south Georgia—like a good old fashion political stump.  We should create events so all sides can make their points to someone other than those like them, the proverbial preaching to the choir.  In modern times, the political stump presentation is beamed around the world instantly with social media.

The key effort here is to get people voting and speaking up.  If you don’t vote, decisions don’t reflect a cross-section of the community.  Personally, I am a moderate Democrat who doesn’t care for the Opportunity School Board Amendment or the Republican candidate for president.  However, I would have a coke and slice of pizza with my friends who feel differently just to fairly hear them out.  Actually, you formulate better responses to them when you hear them and at the end of the day, that respectful dialog is what grown folks do.

Now, to get 50 or so trendsetter members of a community into a venue, the “party with a purpose” approach is cool with me.  We could pick a café and pack the place with people leaving a high school football game.  It would take much to identify a local host or two that everyone follows to the hippest functions…and it’s free too.  Finally, we would be creating a network of people linked by social media.

Will this find funding in a few weeks?  It would take the right supporters but it’s better than pouring money into those same old, same old T.V. ads.

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Trump, Clinton, Kaepernick and Condoleezza: A More Perfect Union

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , on September 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »

It’s not about Trump or Clinton at the end of the day.  It’s about you…me…us.  Those two rich people will be just fine.  Americans need to decide what they want from our government relative to what our government can or should provide.

As strange as it may sound, my community might improve after having Trump in the White House because every family will officially know that the government is operated by people who won’t be doing much for you.  We all know parents who did so much for their kids that the children grew up soft and dependent—give me, give me, give me.  On the other hand, other kids come from families who struggled to put food on the table.  These kids started grinding the second they became adults and never looked back.

The fundamental question about the government safety net programs is this: is it fair to tax those hard working Americans to help those who are too “cute” to do entry level work.  So, you are too cool to pick fruit or flip burgers but you have no problem having other people feed your little kids.

At the end of the day, improving your life starts with you…not Trump or Clinton.  My friends come from across the political spectrum.  We must work together to write the next chapter in American history.  America isn’t perfect…the only perfect anything ever on this earth was Jesus in my opinion. But, we still strive to “form a more perfect union.”  This nation was constructed on a shaky foundation because all men here were not created equally.

I will always love my southern homegirl Dr. Condoleezza Rice.  Dr. Rice rightfully said that racism is America’s birth defect.  Oh, that “blank” was deep.  So, quarterback Colin Kaepernick started a national debate that should help some people understand that something to you might be something completely different to others.  At the same time, the glorification of crime and guns in some hip hop hurts my community more than the current Klan…real talk.

Let’s do this before the election: we should have a cool forum series around a conference table on what we should do in the Black community moving forward.  Clinton and Trump will spend billions getting at each other but see if my friends and I can fund this project.

Condi Rice: Racism “Is a Birth Defect” We Will Never Be Free Of – Do You Agree?

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Hillary Wins Georgia If the Grassroots Are Real…Fingers Crossed

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , , on August 23, 2016| 2 Comments »

grass

Black grassroots

In Georgia, the Democrats don’t seem to care about Democrats outside the cities…Atlanta, Augusta, Albany, Macon, Columbus and Savannah.  No candidate can win Georgia statewide without cultivating some rural areas—keep it close in the country and go over the top in the cities.

However, the Dem elite in D.C. and Atlanta only see metro Atlanta as the big prize.  Then, these geniuses meager efforts outside Atlanta consist of running radio ads produced in Atlanta.  If not for the far Right being nutty, the GOP could have capitalized on Dems ignoring rural southerners.  They want statewide candidates who can self-fund so their fancy Buckhead cohorts can get paid consulting fees and media buy fees.

The area from Warner Robins to Thomasville to Brunswick to Statesboro produced some nice numbers for Obama twice but there is little buzz here now…no fire.  If Hillary Clinton wants to win Georgia and if someone else wants to be a Democrat Governor or Senator, it starts with not ignoring big sections of the state this year.  My friends and I are never called but we have been in the middle of the grassroots mix for years.  A recent Washington Post article states that Atlanta again would be the target of Dem campaign monies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-campaign-to-devote-more-money-workers-to-arizona-georgia/2016/08/09/46150062-5e2e-11e6-8e45-477372e89d78_story.html

 

The question becomes this: how long will southern rural moderate Democrats be ignored before we start exploring other options.  Hey, if Dems can’t win in my region, shouldn’t I consider the less crazy of GOP candidates during primaries.  Why do you think this Democrat voted in the Republican GOP primary for John Kasich….to avoid this: President Trump.  If all of Georgia and the nation doesn’t vote, the President Trump nightmare might become reality.

If not for Blacks in the South, Bernie Sanders would be the Democrat nominee.  Donald P. Trump might still be president because his side is about to release two months of hell on Hillary Clinton.  Some of that mud could turn off Clinton Dust Belt voters but southern Blacks will be down with the Clintons and Obamas.  However, we don’t need a zillion dollars in T.V. ads…half a zillion will do.  The other half zillion needs to be used in good old Get Out The Vote with a social media twist….party with a purpose.

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Thank you Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed: Don’t Support Candidates Who Support Trump

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , on August 16, 2016| 1 Comment »

kasim

Mayor Kasim Reed

Is it inappropriate to ask a mayoral candidate who he supports for governor or president?  If it is, I humbly apologize to my mayor because I did just that.  See, local officials are the foundation of state candidates and state candidates are the same to presidential, senatorial and congressional candidates.

Of course, smart local officials dance around those questions because voters might like them but hate presidential candidates.  On the other hand, mayors and city council members seek federally funded and state administered funding.  While those grants are supposed to be merit-base, friends or foes in certain places could be “huge.”

Everyone knows the Democrats in Georgia are being too nice in the arena; they love to make nice with the other side.  But, how many times will the other side play hard ball before we start throwing some elbows also.

Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed has good elbows and he is dumbfounded by Democrats supporting GOP Senator Johnny Isakson.  While Isakson is the coolest Republican since Saxby Chambliss left, he can’t be that cool to support Donald Trump.  Every member of the Senate and most of the House are more presidential material than Trump but party members feel compelled to back him.  Then, the weak Democrats allow major party figures the option of supporting Isakson.  From middle school algebra, we remember “a=b and b=c then a=c.”  In other words, birds of a feather flock together.

Kasim Reed rips into Georgia Republicans who won’t denounce Donald Trump

No sir, you’ll aren’t going to scapegoat Donald Trump after the elections.  Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Trump drives out huge numbers while driving away huge numbers.  We know some sneaky Americans have a reputation of using people then wondering why they are around..i.e. slavery.

Thomas Jefferson was one of the smartest Americans but when ask about slavery he said it was like having a tiger by the tail.  I think he knew that slaves were people but he liked staying paid.

My conservative friends are generally decent people but their party will try to win by any means necessary.  That “win at all cost” mentality started when Donald Trump was still a Democrat.  No, no, no, Trump isn’t Hitler but his use of nonsense propaganda to whip the people into a rage or a frenzy is rather Nazi-like.

Then after one of the ugliest periods in human history, the German people tried to act like they didn’t know what Hitler was doing.  B.S.

The GOP has already started to distance themselves from Trump but not so fast.  We will remember who supported this farce candidacy when you run in the future and as the demographics of our state change.  While a Republican might still get an office, it might be GOPers who closer to the center and away from the far Right people who selected Trump over much better candidates.

Because Trump used fire to win the nomination, Democrats should use nice fire to get the base out and that doesn’t start with our so-called leaders siding with candidates who side with Trump.  Hillary Clinton’s official campaign, the DNC and the state Democratic Party are too nice to get at them on an Art of War style but we can get it done and win the state.

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Georgia Dems Need Unity To Stop B.S. Artist Trump

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on August 9, 2016| 1 Comment »

kramer_cosmo

Where is the fire and energy the Democrats need to win in November in Georgia?  From an organizational standpoint, Georgia Democrats aren’t there for Hillary or Obama.  Rep. David Scott decides to endorse Senator Johnny Isakson while former Senator Sam Nunn and former Governor Roy Barnes are giving money to the senior senator.

I have voted for Senator Isakson in the past but he doesn’t get this Dems vote after getting behind Donald Trump for president.  With some party unity, Jim Barksdale could beat Isakson and help the Dems take the Senate back.

Trump didn’t create the nasty environment on the far Right; that ugliness has been brewing for decades.  He just decided to become the leader of it because he is the quintessential B.S. artist.  CNN Fareed Zakaria explained Trump’s B.S. skills recently.

We should acknowledge the conservatives that put country over party by saying they wouldn’t vote to make Trump leader of the free world.  Jeb Bush said from the beginning that he wouldn’t get in the mud to win the nomination and you see where he is now.  Trump called him “low energy Jeb” but that was actually presidential coolness.

Birds of a feather flock together.  If you insist on riding with Trump, you consign his B.S.  Like it or not, your party has been high-jacked by radicals.  Yes, we are looking at the radicalization of the far Right just like segments of Islam is radicalized as well as segments of Christianity.  While we can have strong beliefs, Trump is fueling a movement that views America as a country belonging to certain people for certain reasons—they stole it from the Indians fair and square.  Talk radio and Fox News produce the best hateful rhetoric.

But, Democrats sit around trying to be nice and begging those former Dixiecrats to come back.  We remember when the radicalized Tea Party tried to get Rep. Sanford Bishop out of office.  The same rural folks Bishop had tirelessly served for years sat idly as ugliness and con artist silliness was hurled.  Check this: your friends don’t stand around while B.S. like this is happening.  But, the Georgia Democrat leadership blow it off and want to make nice.

Donald Trump was the leader of that birther B.S.  He came for the most elegant American since JFK and POTUS still weathered the storm.  Hell, I have a million reasons to vote for Hillary Clinton, the most qualified presidential candidate ever, but I could vote for her as a protest against Trump or as a thank you to Obama.

Trump is a B.S. expert like a professional wrestler or Kramer on Seinfeld. But, he could easily B.S. his way into the White House if everyone doesn’t vote.  Reasonable Republicans denounce his candidacy but those who don’t should have their fitness questioned.  To be fair, I question the Far Left’s “give everyone everything for free” mentality as much as I question the Far Right.

What shall we do to stop Trump?  With secondary regard to the too nice Georgia Democrat leadership, we need to rally the Obama base with hot fire and pure energy. Oh yea, shall we mention that the Democrat leadership are the same people who select and support statewide candidates who can raise millions for T.V. ads.  While ads buys are essential, my community likes good ole Get Out the Vote rallies…perhaps driven my social media.  Campaigns don’t hit your mailbox today because they hit your email box.

Finally, all of Georgia doesn’t live in metro Atlanta.  Sanford Bishop came to Washington after helping Bill Clinton win Georgia.  One of the crowning jewels of his service would be helping Hillary Clinton win Georgia by turning out Columbus, Macon and Albany.  We consider him the leader of Georgia Democrats outside Atlanta so he should also help in areas without much Democrat leadership.

Because the stakes are so high, we really need a grassroots effort to get out all of the Obama voters.  This effort needs to be bold and edgy because we must fight fire with fire.  The Democrat voters need to know what cards Trump played from the bottom of the deck to win the GOP nom. The guy is a good business man but simply not presidential material.

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Southside of the Tracks: Us vs Them

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on July 27, 2016| 1 Comment »

Wilson's Chapel UMC Rural Setting

Us vs. Them and this side vs. that side has me weary.  I am on the side of right.  But, we should consider the plight of the southside today…southside of town, of the state and of the nation.  Oh, it’s an issue because the governor wants to control schools on the southside, Atlanta feels it’s carrying South Georgia at times, and the America South doesn’t get the respect it deserves.

Traditionally, southern towns were divided by railroad tracks and my community was on the southside.  Some of us wax nostalgic for Black businesses, Black schools, and Black neighborhoods.  Was integration a two edged-sword?  The November ballot includes a constitutional amendment to create a so-called Opportunity School District.  The OSD would be a statewide district and the governor’s appointee could closed an underperforming school or privatize it.

In many cases, the schools on the list are the last neighborhood schools on the southside of their towns.  Schools, hospitals and governmental buildings often serve as institutional anchors of an area.

In many Georgia towns, the battle isn’t northside vs. southside; it’s city vs. county.  Let’s be real, southern White people love owning land; I like that myself.  If you have several acres in the country, it seems like your own kingdom or estate.  Fox News and conservative talk radio have those people retreating to their forts…guns in hand.

If you notice, the new schools are in the county or on the outskirts of town because the White exodus left a Black center.  “Wait a minute I might live in the county but my tax dollars pay for too much…federal, state and local. I should still control the city.”  If you are a millionaire in the county, Kesha who works at the plant has more pull in town than you…if she would only vote.  The money-having White minority who live in town controlling everything would be American apartheid.

On the state level, Georgia’s governmental power struggle is between Metro Atlanta and North Georgia.  The governor and a disproportionate number of leaders are from North Georgia. The reason why is simple…they vote every time up there.  South Georgia seems like an afterthought.  Newsflash, every dadgum body can’t live in the Atlanta….and that statement comes from people living in Atlanta.

Nationally, the South has it’s own vibe/favor.  I am going to scream if I continue to hear and read “urban” as a synonym for “Black” in the news and on BET.  Blacks who live in the country want to be in the country.  We should be approached differently than our cousins in the city.  If not for racism and lack of employment, many of those city Blacks would love being back in the piney woods.  If they sold their ATL McMansions and got acres in the county, where would current county folks flee to next?

There is a growing sentiment that the Democrat establishment cares more about the LBGTQ community and the undocumented Latino community than southern Blacks.  Bernie Sanders would have beaten Hillary Clinton if not for Blacks in the South.  I don’t agree with my friends that think all Blacks wanted from the election of Obama was for him to be Black….that’s bull.  We appreciate President Obama’s service…period.

In summary, we must vote, speak up and stay vocal because the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you don’t vote, you have zero right to complain about President Trump’s view of the southside…typing President Trump was difficult.

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Trojan Horse: Vote No on Opportunity School District Constitutional Amendment

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , , on June 30, 2016| 3 Comments »

trojan-horse-in-troy-city

The November election in Georgia is important because the Governor is trying to slip an education Trojan horse into every school system.   The Opportunity School District constitutional amendment sounds harmless or helpful: “Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended to allow the state to intervene in chronically failing public schools in order to improve student performance?”

Intervene.  Intervene how?  The Governor’s Office, not the state department of education, would take over certain schools with the option to declare them charter schools and privatize these schools.  “Oh, you went to a school so bad that the state took it over…what a stigma…do you know what stigma means?”

First, my concerns aren’t about Democrats and Republicans.  When Governor Deal was a congressman from the northern section of Georgia, he did a fine job representing the people of that region.  However, Georgia is a big and diverse state with different regions.  Muhammed Ali once said that the problem with Atlanta is that it is surrounded by Georgia.  Come on, champ, some of us prefer the rest of Georgia.

My point is that the conservative region above Atlanta doesn’t understand that schools fail for various reasons and only bloggers will admit that the primary reasons might be home life—little Johnny can’t focus at school if home is rough.  Of course, we all want kids to be ready to learn, focused and prepared to concentrate like we were…and we were because we grew up focusing from the front pew of church.

Wait a second, my conservative friends have been fighting against federal or state control of local governmental matters for 40 years.  Generally, they would hate a state officer telling them what to do with their local schools.

History

Some ultra conservatives have been trying to resegregate schools since Brown vs. the Board of Education.  Paying property taxes to fund a school full of kids whose parents don’t pay property taxes burns them up.  The situation is exacerbated by the notion that “those kids” at times are the discipline problems that make the public schools unacceptable.  So, Mr. Property Owner must go deeper into his pockets to pay for private school.  For the record, everyone should cheer for the academic success of every child because you want to have an intelligent labor force to attract well-paying industries.  If you don’t pay for school, you will pay in time in prison cost…Georgia State University or Georgia State Penitentiary.

Ultimate Real Deal

The Opportunity School District is a Trojan horse that would open the door to privatizing public schools and taking control of schools from local leaders and citizens.  I bet you will find some corporations that run schools at the center of this idea.  Remember, they tried the same thing with privatizing prisons—built the prisons and they got rich off mass incarceration.  Orange is the New Black is based on facts.

This deal is even cuter. This plan goes down like this: Rather than cherry-picking the best students and putting them into charter schools or magnet schools, you open the door to cherry-picking the worst schools or students, turn them over to private companies and the remaining students will be better off.

Yes, something must be done about under-preforming schools and the effort will require an honest analysis of all factors…including students, parents and environment.  But, the governor’s office taking over schools is not the answer.

Hillary Clinton Smiling

You know that Democrat voters in Georgia are experiencing an enthusiasm problem.  They aren’t necessarily hyped about voting for president because the national media keeps saying that Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida are the only swing states this side of the Mississippi River.  Clinton will win those states and with the help of Republicans running from Donald Trump, Georgia and North Carolina are on the toss-up list.

Clinton should be smiling because this crazy Opportunity School Board mess would light a fire under unlikely registered voters.  If presented to the people correctly, OSB could be a game changer.  Wait, it gets better.  Real money is flowing around the state to stop this ill-conceived amendment.  Traditionally, Dems raise money in Atlanta to spend in say Florida but this year, Hillary and maybe the U.S. Senate candidate Jim Barksdale might win by riding the coattails of the anti-Opportunity  School Board movement.

Bloggers are ready to stop OSB with rallies, cookouts, tailgates, receptions and radio spots.  Georgia Dems can be elitists at times—elbowing each other for glory.  We don’t have time for that crap this time because the stakes are too high…what’s in the balance is the future of our kids.  We won’t let them recreate a second class school system based on race, region, or income. I think they want rural school systems to have a city kids school and county kids school but that is really county kids getting new schools and town kids keeping the old, current schools.

Plan

The plan to stop OSB centers on early voting and educating voters about voting the total ballot.  President Obama recently said at Howard University’s graduation that he would have had a different congress if voters who voted for him would have voted for congress and other ballot items. We must get the word out and it needs to come from trusted members of the community…like me.  They need to put that money on the street…old school style, Maze and Motown playing at rallies, family reunion style.  Oh, I would put a Trojan horse with OSB on him on 3,000 t-shirts in one month.

Citizens should consider their use of time in support of the communities’ youth.  So, you can sit in a high school football game for three hours to support the players, cheerleaders and band but you won’t take 10 minutes to early vote for good candidates and against junk like OSB.  You use your smartphone to play Angry Birds but won’t get angry about conservative politicians trying to quietly take over our schools; we are talking about the same conservatives who constantly called for the end of the state and federal departments of education.  As projectlogicaga.com’s Best Interest Initiative states, everyone has an agenda.

My agenda is to use social media to mobilize and energize every voter this year.

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Democrats and Republicans/Sanders and Trump: For Granted or For Granite

Posted in politics, tagged , , , on May 23, 2016| Leave a Comment »

The 2016 presidential race will be decided by who is taken for granted.  Five groups are in the political arena: the traditional Democrats, the Bernie Sanders liberals, the traditional Republicans, the Trump revolutionaries, and registered voters who might stay home.  If you check history, the side that gets out it’s base while securing the center/moderates wins, i.e. Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan.

“For granted” could be a pun of “for granite” because the foundation of a political party should be etched in stone…rock solid.  In 2016, nothing is rock solid. First of all, Hillary Clinton better not forget that Blacks in Dixie won the nomination for her; Sanders was winning all over New England, the Rust Belt and with the liberals of the Pacific Northwest.

When it’s time to set the Democratic platform, we better see some southern pine planks.  The fear is that Sanders and his people will demand some socialism that pulls Hillary too far left.  The Democrats shouldn’t be surprised that Sanders isn’t a team player because he isn’t really a Democrat.

Of course, the traditional Republicans are pulling out what remains of their hair because Trump is a loose cannon.  They risk permanently damaging their brand if he is the leader of their party but his folks might bounce like Sander’s people if he is disrespected.

The voters who might stay home are primarily Obama supporters who registered to make history in 2008.  About history, Obamacrats need to know that his historic gains would be reverse quick, fast and in a hurry by Trump.

Trump and Sanders created successful national agendas from the bottom up while the two major parties normally sit in D.C. offices and create the agendas—top down. Well, the people have spoken and they like the unconventionality of Trump and Sanders.  Newsflash: you can tell voters you would do this and that if in office but actually doing that stuff is impossible or improbable.

The Trump and the Sanders folks need to consider the hip hop axiom “be where you are celebrated..not tolerated.”

The Bible says in Psalm 118:22 “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”  The side that takes granite for granted will watch their political house fall in the Fall. Black folks have been granite for the southern Democrats but who calls the shots…who is at the table when the money is counted…who gets crumbs after the big dogs feast.

Finally, I want to explore what happens to Black people if Trump becomes president.  Democrats give Blacks a false sense of hope; “the government is going to fix your life.”  We know Trump isn’t “studying” us and that’s the reason our community might be compelled to improve on our own if he was in the White House.  In a strange twist, that man in the Oval Office could bring out our best by necessity.

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Space Cowboys: Can Bill Clinton Dems Save the Day From Trump And Sanders

Posted in politics, tagged , , , , on May 17, 2016| Leave a Comment »

So, Trump has Newt Gingrich and Hillary has Bill Clinton.  That is a really good deal because (as quiet as it is kept) leaders got along after hours for the good of the nation back in the day.  If you notice Bill Clinton is like Bush 41’s play son.  President Clinton and Speaker Gingrich met privately late at night  and supposedly saved Social Security.

It seems most of the players in the political arena are actually acting most of the time.  On the Democrat side, most members of the Congressional Black Caucus care more about keeping their positions of power by promising free this and that than telling the truth about improving our communities.  The truth starts with folks taking an honest look in the mirror.

On the Republican side, a little article in the Capitol Hill newspaper from the Clinton/Gingrich era sums it up for me.  When the Contract With America Republican revolutionaries went on a retreat to Maryland’s Eastern Shore, a cover band that night played Steve Miller Band’s “The Joker” and a surprising number of freshmen put their fingers to their lips on the part about “I am a midnight toker.”  Basically, the reporter felt these high-minded conservatives were no strangers to being literally high.

You know a brother played bass on “The Joker” and that first line about “some people call me the space cowboy…some people call me the doctor of love” got me thinking about the movie Space Cowboys.  In that film four Air Force test pilots hoped to be the first Americans in space but the government in their wisdom replaced the Air Force with NASA and the first in space was a chimp named Mary Ann.  Well, dam.

Four decades later, NASA sought the help of those old fellows because a Russian communication satellite needed to be control and the systems were similar to American old technology.  After taking the space shuttle to the Soviet craft, they discovered four nuclear warheads that would target America if they fall out of orbit.  Tommy Lee Jones’ character decided to use his jet pack to push the weapons into deep space before finally getting to the moon and dying.  Hey, Jones was Vice President Gore’s roommate at Harvard.

Thank you for reading that long movie recap because I needed that foundation to make a point.  The point is that those of us who were around the Congress and White House during the Clinton era seems like those space cowboys.  Remember, Bill Clinton, Newt Gingrich and House Budget Committee chair John Kasich crafted an economic plan (after fighting like cats and dogs) that left America with a budget surplus and a strong, healthy economy.

After riding his coattails, the nasty Republicans figured out a way to toss homeboy Newt.  More surprising, Al Gore loss to George Bush because the same people that the Clinton/Gore White House helped failed to vote.  I am not pissed at the Republicans for winning; I am pissed at our community for not voting.

As in the movie Space Cowboys, it’s time for the old school Clinton Dems or the Blue Dog Democrats to rescue the world from pending disaster.  To me, there are five sections to the electorate right now.  On the Republican side, you have the “traditional establishment, less taxes, pro-business conservatives” and you have the “far Right, listen to talk radio until a blood vessel is going to pop in their forheads, I want my country back” folks.   On the Dem side, you have the Clintonites/Obamacrats who are the Dem establishment and you have the new socialists of Bernie Sanders with their give me, give me, give me mentality.

The 5th section would be the millions of people who will sit at home and not vote this year.  Mind you, these same people might be living in government-assisted housing and eating food….I better stop there but you get the point.

If the Sanders supporters don’t vote for Clinton, Trump is president.  I have friends who argue that Trump being president would be better for our community than Sanders because we will know once and for all that the White House can’t help us and it is therefore vital that we help ourselves by changing our personal actions.

Real talk, Trump’s message of making goods in America sounds similar to the “Look for the Union label” movement of my childhood.  Hell yes, we use to have four factories in every south Georgia town and of course we had agriculture.  Today, stuff is cheap in the dollar store because it’s made by cheap labor overseas.  But, the homies don’t have a dollar because the community is unemployed.  Wall Street did that to increase their profit margins.  I would pay a little more for American made goods and products if that put people back to work.

We can’t fall for Trump’s excellent acting job; he is more P.T. Barnum than F.D.R.  There is a sucker born every minute and you can’t blame Trump for trying to pull off the greatest ruse in history.  Being president is harder than it looks and some folks simply aren’t presidential material.  In the political arena, you have activists and governors.

Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Newt Gingrich, John Kasich and Ronald Reagan are governors while Sarah Palin, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump are activists.  Activists serve an important purpose but to govern requires tact and diplomacy.  There is a big difference between Wall Street and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Winning the White House in 2016 might come down to which side listens to their old school space cowboys.

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