- New City/Town Welcome Signs and bring out the history of the area
- Demolish and Scrap Materials from non-salvageable (derelict) buildings
- Promotional Video for Businesses/Tourism to help attract educated professionals/families
- Upgraded website
- Traffic Light improvements
- Sidewalk improvements
- Turning lane /round-a-bout improvements
- Handicap accessibility
- Sister City Status with a Foreign City (working with a Chamber of Commerce to help lure in foreign businesses such as developing office space, warehousing, etc. https://www.sistercities.org/)
- First Responder Coordination (Police, Fire, EMT Services, Hospitals, Pest Control, Poison Control, HAZMAT, any local National Guard Units etc.)
- Stockpile emergency shelters and have evacuation plans
- Church Meetings bringing religious leaders together to help with community service and organizing hiring events with churches so people can get community but also apply to jobs
- Mass Registration Drive to get businesses registered and educated about the Federal Procurement system so they can try to win additional business. SAM.gov, GSA, etc.
- Mass Registration Drive with local schools to run FAFSA reports to help students obtain Pell Grants and also get student athletes registered with the NCAA or NAIA Clearinghouse
- Strict Sex Offender Tracking and Check In Campaign Use existing taxes raised directly by the city (Municipal Option Sales Tax if applicable) or taxes obtained from the joint county and municipal Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) and the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) to fund city projects but outside of taxes there are many federal and state grants to help projects
- Register the municipality itself with a DUNS Number, System for Award Management Profile, and Grants.gov account, and designate a person, such as someone in city finance and the grants office to manage the accounts. This will help with winning awards or contracts/grants
- Set up a Community Development and Grants Office within the municipal government, with a Federal, State, and Corporate Grants Coordinator/Specialist (competent in the FAR, Broad Agency Announcements, Grants, etc.), to help receive grants from agencies such as the DHHS Community Economic Development Program: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/programs/ced
- Establish or Work with any existing Chamber of Commerce that promotes the community’s business interests, improves networking, etc., where the city government works with local businesses over a comprehensive strategic vision that helps businesses with zoning, regulations, land management, grants for clean up etc. https://www.yorkdevco.com/news-&-media/p/item/39432/whats-the-difference-between-a-chamber-&-economic-development-corporation
- Get additional manpower to help with community renewal via AmeriCorps: https://americorps.gov/partner/funding-opportunities
- Cop (Community Oriented Policing) Hiring Program Grants from the DOJ: https://cops.usdoj.gov/chp
- School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP)
- COPS Anti-Heroin Task Force (AHTF)
- Environmental Clean-Up Grants from the EPA: https://www.epa.gov/cleanups/cleanup-grants-and-funding (and) https://www.epa.gov/grants
- Farming Grants, Loans and Assistance via the US Department of Agriculture: https://www.usda.gov/topics/farming/grants-and-loans
- Lead Hazard Reduction Prgoram from the HUD: https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/spm/gmomgmt/grantsinfo/fundingopps/fy21_lhrgp
- Emergency Broadband Benefit Program from the FCC: https://www.fiercetelecom.com/regulatory/emergency-broadband-benefit-still-has-2-7b-out-3-2b-available
- Computers for Learning Program via GSA: https://computersforlearning.gov/ and https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/regions/welcome-to-the-new-england-region-1/region-1-newsroom/press-releases/gsas-computers-for-learning-program-benefits-local-school
- Under the FAST Act (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act) contract your state Department of Transportation, in partnership with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) of the federal DOT, and search for Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) grants (which are renamed the Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) program) for pedestrian and bicycle facilities, side walks, recreational trails, safe routes to school projects, community improvements such as historic preservation and vegetation management, and environmental mitigation related to storm-water and habitat connectivity.
- The Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity, or RAISE Discretionary Grant program, provides a unique opportunity for the DOT to invest in road, rail, transit and port projects that promise to achieve national objectives. Previously known as the Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) and Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grants, Congress has dedicated nearly $9.9 billion for thirteen rounds of National Infrastructure Investments to fund projects that have a significant local or regional impact. https://www.transportation.gov/RAISEgrants/about
- Mobility Services for All Americans (MSAA) initiative the U.S. DOT fosters partnerships among service providers, local governments and other public, private, and non-profit organizations to share data and better manage resources to improve mobility. https://www.its.dot.gov/research_archives/msaa/index.htm
- Historic Preservation Opportunities via the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nationalregister/how-to-list-a-property.htm
- Weatherization Assistance Program via the Department of Energy: https://www.energy.gov/eere/wap/weatherization-assistance-program (and) https://www.energy.gov/eere/wap/how-apply-weatherization-assistance
- Low Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) via the Department of Health and Human Services: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/low-income-home-energy-assistance-program-liheap
- Office of Community Services at the Department of Health and Human Services: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ocs/programs
- Reach out the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for grants for efforts such as Affordable Housing, Veteran Housing Rehabilitation, https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/spm/gmomgmt/grantsinfo/fundingopps
Any links between the New Bedford Highway Serial Killings and the Cheryl Araujo Assault Case? by MRG Staff
Were the New Bedford Serial Killings a response to the jailing of Portuguese American men responsible for the Sexual Assault of Carol Araujo?
With the Gilgio Beach Serial Killer, also known as the Long Island Serial Killer, being in custody (though the suspect has not be convicted formally of a crime by a judge and jury), I am curious will the infamous New Bedford Serial Killer finally have his day in court? With new breakthroughs in science such as family genealogy history, authorities have caught the infamous Golden State Serial Killer (who was a former police officer) and now, most likely the Long Island Serial Killer.
Disclaimer: This post will talk about sexual assault, so if anyone has issue with that subject please be warned. Charities that help with domestic abuse, sex workers protections and sexual assault include (1) https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/stop-domestic-abuse/, (2) https://pineapplesupport.org/, (3) https://swopusa.org/, (4) https://www.crimestoppersusa.org/, etc. [Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with these organizations. It is your own responsibility to do your own due diligence if you choose to donate or cooperate with any of the organizations I listed above. I have no fiduciary or financial responsibility to these organizations or to any readers of this post)].
It dawned on me, that I never heard of any links between the New Bedford Highway Serial Killings which lasted March 1988 – April 1989, 11 victims in a short time-frame of 7 months, affecting the highly Portuguese American community of New Bedford, Massachusetts (also high numbers of Cape Verdean), with that of the previous 1983 gang-sexual assault case involving Cheryl Araujo which happened in New Bedford at a place called Big Dan’s Tavern (now closed) located at 421-423 Belleville Avenue [See article: https://wbsm.com/new-bedford-big-dans-for-sale/%5D.
The victims of the New Bedford Highway Killings were (1) Robbin Lynn Rhodes who went missing sometime in March or April 1988, (2) Rochelle Clifford Dopierala who went missing sometime during late April 1988, (3) Deborah Lynn McConnell who when missing May 1988, (4) Debra Medeiros who went missing May 27, 1988, (5) Christina Monteiro of Cape Verdean descent was last seen in May 1988, (6) Marilyn Cardoza-Roberts last seen sometime in June 1988 and she was neighbors with victim Christina Monteiro, (7) Nancy Lee Paiva last seen walking home from a bar called “Whisper’s Pub” on July 7, 1988, (8) Debra Greenlaw Demello last seen on July 11, 1988, (9) Mary Rose Santos, last seen July 16, 1988 after going to the Quarterdeck Lounge, (10) Sandra Botelho assumed to have gone missing around August 11, 1988, and (11) Dawn Mendes, last seen on September 4, 1988
Yet, I want to be cautious to link the cases.
My conclusion is that there may not be any links between the two cases considering there were so many known suspects with the New Bedford Killings including Kenneth Ponte, a lawyer, who had ties to some of the victims, and was known to carry a badge and gun because he was given an honorary deputy status from NBPD.
Ponte had dated Robbin Rhodes, a victim, and represented Mary Santos in a civil case (going so far as helping her boyfriend make flyers once she disappeared).
Without a Ponte link, Debra Greenlaw Demello was in possession of belongings that belonged to Nancy Paiva (which means they have been friends, or, she randomly found her belongings in area they both frequented, or a killer gave her a gift, but many serial killers keep mementos, rather than giving them out).
Marilyn Cardoza Roberts was neighbors with Christina Monteiro, possibly meaning the same John and/or Killer knew them both, or one saw something they weren’t supposed to see, or they had a same drug dealer, etc.
It’s also important to note that in America, sniffing cocaine (popular in the 1970s and early 80s) had already given way to crack cocaine by the mid-to-late eighties which was based on earlier freebasing (which was dangerous due the flammable ether). Crack addicts can be very erratic and sometimes violent.
To this day, if you review videos about New Bedford, you will still see many stories about crime.
New Bedford is and always been a “hard place”. From drunken whalers of the Moby Dick era, to modern day Latin King drug lords. Simply YouTube videos saying “New Bedford Crime”. It is insane. Even back in the 1970s, there were riots in the town because of police brutality. [See link: https://wbsm.com/memories-new-bedford-1970-riots/%5D

Above image is from Georgia Marie’s YouTube Video. See Video below. The location of Mary Santos is not on this screenshot but her body found lower that the 4 females near 195 near Highway 88.
Relating to the 1983 rape case, Cheryl faced a lot of hate for her accusations including from women within the Portuguese community, so if the women were “protective of their men”, just image what the men must have felt [Watch the Netfilx documentary, Trial by Media which has some of best collection of historical video coverage of the trial]. This patriarchal society that did not welcome outsiders, but were vulnerable to blue-collar economic downturns in the midst of one of America’s worst drug pandemics.
After the conviction of her assailants, Cheryl fled to Florida but later died in a car accident.
It is a theory but were the New Bedford Highway killings a reprisal for the conviction of the men who assaulted Cheryl Araujo? Either the convicted themselves, or, extended family members or friends living in the United States to those of the convicted men, or extended family or friends of the convicted men who had links to Portugal itself?
Or, the killer could have been a member of the community, unrelated or linked to any of the accused and convicted men, who simply hated women (with, possibly, Cheryl’s assailants’ conviction further exacerbating his own hatred of women.
Yet, from all I have watched about the case, there doesn’t seem to have been much talk of sexual assault relating to the New Bedford Serial Killings, so it could be a case of a larger drug conspiracy, maybe with links to dirty lawyer Kenneth Ponte. Such as a larger gang taking out the women because they or a few knew too much, and/or had drug related debts, i.e., possibly victims of human trafficking rings (they get drugs but have to pimp themselves out).
Or, did the treatment of Cheryl Araujo indicate a larger dismissive culture of sexual assault within the area, considering the later New Bedford Highway killings were of sex workers or addicts, so maybe a similar culture existed always in the fishing blue collar community not far from Boston, Providence, Newport, and other dense urban areas.
Note: Jodi Foster starred in the film The Accused which was a factional re-telling of the real events that occurred in New Bedford, MA, with the film with Foster taking place in Washington State.
Six men were arrested and charged in connection with the rape of Cheryl Araujo; four, Victor Raposo, John Cordeiro, Joseph Vieira and Daniel Silva, were charged with aggravated rape; and two, Virgilio Medeiros and Jose Medeiros (no relation), were charged with “joint enterprise,” (i.e., encouraging an illegal act and not acting to stop it) but he Mederios were acquitted. According to Encyclopedia.com (n.d.), “The defense continued to characterize the woman as a drunken liar, and John Cordeiro testified that “she was enjoying herself.”
It is interesting to note that all 6 men involved were undocumented workers being sheltered by the Portuguese community in a time where immigration enforcement was easy to slip by. All one had to do is fly from Portugal and then bleed into the Portuguese community.
A question I have is, was any sort of DNA evidence taken from the men? I doubt it because in the early 1980s there wasn’t DNA technology. In an alternative world, all the men would have had saliva, hair, blood, or even fingerprint residue collected, and today that evidence could be tested against evidence stored with the Massachusetts State Police in relation to the New Bedford Highway Kills case.
According to Mia Michael (2018) of the Historical Journal of Massachusetts, with her piece titled: New Bedford’s Infamous 1983 Rape Case: Defending the Portuguese-American Community, published by the Institute for Massachusetts Studies and Westfield State University, it was stated that ,
“At the same time, personal details and photographs of the accused were published throughout the ordeal. All six men, described at one point as “resident aliens of Portuguese descent,” lacked American citizenship. Daniel Silva, twenty-six years old at the time of the assault and considered its instigator, was a part-time factory worker and agricultural laborer who “lived around the corner” from Big Dan’s; originally from the Azores, he had resided in the United States for six years. Twenty-seven-year-old Joseph (Jose) Vieira was a husband and father of two who lived in Connecticut and worked on a dairy farm. A former Portuguese soldier, he had been in the country for less than five years. John Cordeiro, twenty-four and unemployed, lived in New Bedford and had immigrated to the United States twelve years prior. Also of New Bedford, Victor Raposo was twenty-two and the father of a toddler; unemployed at the time of the rape, he found work within the month as a handyman and painter. Raposo, who had come to New Bedford at the age of five, already had a significant criminal record: in 1979, he was convicted of assault with a dangerous weapon and in October of 1982 was found guilty of indecent exposure. Virgilio Medeiros, twenty-three, and Jose Medeiros (unrelated), twenty-two, lived in New Bedford as well. Virgilio Medeiros, reportedly out of work at the time of the crime, found employment within the year as a shipyard laborer; he had been brought to the U.S. at age nine. Jose Medeiros, a native of the Azores, was an unemployed landscaper. Each of the six men was tried for aggravated rape.” [Source: https://www.westfield.ma.edu/historical-journal/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2018-Winter-Michael-New-Bedfords-Infamous-1983-Rape-Case.pdf%5D
Further, according to Michael (2018) Portuguese-Americans marched by the thousands through New Bedford and Fall River to protest the verdicts and what they characterized as justiça crucificada (“justice crucified”). Comparisons were made to the contentious criminal convictions and executions of Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti six decades prior (Michael, 2018). The Big Dan’s case still attracted attention in April of 1984, when Vieira and Raposo managed to avoid deportation and thereby remain in proximity to their families in Massachusetts and Connecticut (Michael, 2018). [Source: https://www.westfield.ma.edu/historical-journal/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/2018-Winter-Michael-New-Bedfords-Infamous-1983-Rape-Case.pdf%5D
[See: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1984/04/24/Convicted-barroom-rapists-wont-be-deported/8205451630800/%5D This articles states that two of the men, Raposo and Vieira were sentenced to the maximum security Walpole State Prison, but were in the minimum security Concord facility
Another source: https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a32585426/cheryl-araujo-trial-by-media-true-story/
The question then becomes per my theory is (A) When did each man get out of jail, and for the men not in jail what were they doing around the times of the murders themselves?, (B) Did any of the other men’s relatives or close associates either American citizens or Portuguese nationals commit any sort of sex related crimes in the USA or in Portugal, and if so when and where are these individuals?, (C) maybe the assailant was not involved in the Cheryl case but maybe the case, (D) is it possible that a person with police experience was involved, considering it took so long to discover some of the victims even though the victims weren’t located far away from New Bedford?, (E) Long haul truckers or workers using work trucks are notorious of using sex workers and there have been serial killers associated with the trade of trucking, so did any of these men or any relatives/associates do long-haul trucking or were doing contractor work in the area.
Some theories have some of the victims to the New Bedford has possibly being killed by drug dealers. Maybe the women got in debt, couldn’t pay it off, and once they proved too strung out to do forced sex work and come up with the money they were killed. A warning to others who didn’t pay up their debts.
For example, if Ponte knew sex workers who ended up dead, then why is it a stretch to think he didn’t know of dealers or pimps? Maybe Ponte’s relationship with police scarred the dealers and/or pimps, and they went “cleaning up”, making Ponte more paranoid? Ponte as a local lawyer with underworld ties could have been useful to the police.
Also, even though we often want to believe it’s one crazy person based on the stereotype of the unassuming man next door who is a serial killer, there have been plenty of cases of team-killers such as the Tool Box Killers in LA, the Ripper Crew in Chicago, multiple serial killers at the same time, but also gangs.
The criteria to be a serial killer doesn’t mean being a sexual sadist, but its about numbers. A mobster, such as Sammy the Bull, who had his own Youtube channel oddly, in theory can be a serial killer even though we lump that term with people like Gacy, Dahmer, Bundy, etc.
Yet, these killings remind me of Houston based I-45 “Killing Fields” where the murders happened southside a major metro-area with a busy interstate leading towards the sea. Some think there were many killers involved in this area. For example, Baton Rogue, LA had three active serial killers in the 1990s, and California has the three Freeway Killers in the late 1970s easily with a known total body count over 50+ people.
With a simple Google Search of Victor Raposo, I came upon a Duns and Bradstreert (a business registration site) for a man by the name. Could be coincidence like how a John Smith isn’t uncommon.
But, this man is Portuguese and seems to have owned some type of accounting or tax help firm.
Considering the men involved in Cheryl’s case were not US citizens, it seems after release from jail, some many have stayed while others might have been deported. Raposo’s address is listed on D&B at 7540-125, SANTIAGO DO CACÉM Portugal, which is a city south of Libson. [Source: https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.VICTOR_RAPOSO_-_CONSULTADORIA_E_GEST%C3%83O_LDA.e89a504be7ad2caaee04c7c13fd6cfd4.html%5D
Let’s say that there is NO LINK between the Big Dave 6 Man Gang Rape of Cheryl Araujo in 1983 to that of the late 1980s New Bedford Highway Serial Killings. We can make a determination that there are likely some international links, because one of the rapists in the Big Dave case may be living in Portugal, and later a suspect in the Serial Killings may have been in Portugal. Essentially, a lot of back and forth traffic between New Bedford and Portugal and crimes happen.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-01-14-mn-166-story.html
https://www.netflix.com/title/80198329
Ways to Pay for College by Quinton Mitchell
- GI Bill Programs such as the Montgomery GI Bill and Post 9/11 GI Bill (with the latter seeming to be the standard now, e.g., I used Post 9/11), Tuition Assistance, Tuition Assistance Top Up Programs (if the cost of course exceeds the amount covered by federal TA), Enlisted College Loan Repayment Programs. Note: Post 9/11 used to have a time cap but with the Forever GI Bill Harry W. Colmery Veterans Education Assistance Act has expanded a lot of opportunities for the 9/11 GI Bill. Note: Always consult the VA.
- The VA’s Survivors’ and Dependents’ Educational Assistance Program
- Federal US Service Academies (West Point, Air Force Academy, Naval Academy, and, yes the Coast Guard and Merchant Marines, etc.); Senior Military College such as The Citadel and Military Junior Colleges such as New Mexico Military Institute (which can provide a pipeline into a Senior Service Academy but they also offer ECP or Early Commissioning Program which is more catered to the Army and allows cadets to commission in two-years as opposed to four-years in the Army Reserve or National Guard),
- ROTC in general
- Some States offer Running Start-type programs permitting high school students to attend local community colleges while in high school and obtain an Associates Degree. So imagine being 18 with an Associates Degree for example from Tacoma Community College, then going to a 4 year school, only needing 2 years (or taking your time), doing ROTC such as Pacific Lutheran University or going to a Military Junior College and then getting commissioned as a 2nd LT in the Army Reserve and National Guard, potentially serving at Camp Murray in Tacoma, and then using the TA from that to attend graduate school, let’s way UW-Seattle or Tacoma. Basically, in this list, you can see how you can potentially mix strategies for affordable education.
- Some states offer Hope Scholarships such as Georgia which is funded by the lottery and pays for in-state public college tuition, but states how they administer these programs vary, e.g., some pay all, others might only give grants.
- Segal Education Awards through programs such as the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, and I want to also include Teach USA. Also, many colleges are Matching Institutions. If I remember right, it is taxable however.
- Trade Union scholarships such as the American Postal Worker Union (https://www.apwu.org/scholarship-programs), Communication Workers of America (https://cwa-union.org/pages/beirne), Union Plus (https://www.unionplus.org/benefits/education/union-plus-scholarships), United Auto Workers (https://uaw.org/apply-now-union-plus-scholarship-program/). AFL-CIO branches through States,(https://www.massaflcio.org/scholarships), etc. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (http://www.ibew.org/FoundersScholarship).
- Corporate Scholarships and Corporate/Employer-based Tuition Reimbursement Programs
- Private scholarships such as organizations such as 4-H, Kiwanis (Key Club), etc.
- Certain states such as Washington State offer Head Start Programs giving high school students the ability to graduate with an Associates before high graduation.
- 529 Savings Plans (Note: I am not a financial consultant. Always seek professional advice) which is sort of like an “educational mutual fund and savings account”.
- Pell Grants
Some Links:
The FIFA Tournament of the Roman Emperors by MRG Staff
Not all the Roman Emperors were Italian and/or European. It is important to remember that Rome was a multi-ethnic and racial society where of course differences were acknowledged but the ancient world’s view of race or ethnicity was different than our modern concept. With the rise of Right Wing politics appropriating Roman imagery, it’s important to remember that Rome was a melting pot.

Imagine for fun if Rome still existed and they liked playing soccer (football) but each country that competed had to align to the birthplace of the Roman Emperors. Call it the Emperor’s Cup for fun. This list is up to the Macedonian Dynasty of the Eastern Roman Empire, because by the 800s in the former Western Empire, the Franks were already on the rise and would rule the West thus ending Eastern claim over Central or Western Europe.
Albania: Anastasius I Dicorus

Armenia: Leo V the Armenian

Bulgaria: Galerius, Marcian (possibly), Leo I, Tiberius II (Thrace area, so likely Bulgaria, but possibly Greece), Phocas (possibly Bulgaria or Turkey)

Croatia: Valentian, Valens

France: Claudius (Lyon, France), Caracalla Antonius (Lyon, France), Carus (near Narbonne, France), Constantine II (Arles, France)

Georgia: Heraclonas

Greece: Anastasius II (of Greek origin at least but may have been born in Turkey such as in a Greek colony), Irene of Athens, the Nikephorian Dynasty was of Greek origin.

Italy: Julius Caesar (not an Emperor actually), Augustus, Nero, Claudius, Caligula, Tiberius, etc.

Libya: Septimus Severus

North Macedonia: Justinian I

Portugal/Spain: Magnus Maximus

Romania: Licinius

Serbia: Constantine, Diocletian, Decius, Hostillan, Claudius II, Quintillus, Probus, Constantius II, Maximian, Gratian, Vetranio, Jovian, Aurelian, etc.

Spain: Trajan (Seville, Spain), Theodosius, Arcadius

Syria: Elagabulus, Phillip the Arab, Leo III (Syrian descent but Turkish born)

Tunisia: Aemilianus

Turkey: Gordian, Julian, Honorius, Zeno, Leo II, Justin II, Maurice, Heraclius, Constans II, Constantine IV, Justinian II, Leontius, Tiberius III, Philippicus, Theodosius III, Constantine V, Leo IV the Khazar, Constantine VI (possibly Turkey), Michael II

Basilicus (The Balkans, so not specifically defined, but for a modern state equivalent we can say the former Yugoslavia, i.e., Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, etc.), Leo II (not sure his place of birth but he die in Turkey, so I will count him there), Heraclius Constantine (Unsure, possibly Turkey, Bulgaria, and Balkans), Artabasdos (Unknown)
What would a US Space Force Special Forces Look Like? Space Combat Control Party, i.e., US Space Commando? By MRG Staff
Well, if this happens, give a guy a shout out.
Nickname. The Satellite Men and Women of Death.
Motto: Death from Below, Keeps Safety from Above? Mors ab Inferis. Salues Desuper. Or… Bravery for a Free Space? Fortitudo Ad Liberum Spatium. Or… Death and Bravery for a Free Space? Mors et fortitudo, pro spatio libero. (Note, I used Google Translate, so this may not be proper Latin)
Beret: Carolina Blue




Photo credit: A U.S. Soldier participates in a night raid training mission during Emerald Warrior 2012, an exercise put together by U.S. Special Operations Command. Photo: USAFA U.S. soldier participates in a night-raid training mission during Emerald Warrior 2012, an exercise put together by U.S. Special Operations Command. Photo: USAF
This is just a fun post. I’m in no way Rambo, Soldier of Fortune, etc.
But, if the US Space Force had special forces, I would assume it would fall under a newly created US Space Force Special Operations Command (USSF-SOC) that falls under the Unified Combatant Command, with the new command either based out of the Colorado Springs area (able to cross train with local USAF, US Army and US Space Force facilities); Huntsville, AL area, or potentially somewhere in Florida such as Hulbert Field next to existing USAF Special Ops, or Patrick Air Force Base/Cape Canaveral Space Station or MacDill AFB.
But what would they do?
USSFSOC would be the shock force that protects terrestrial satellite stations for sustainment of the Defense Satellite Communication System (DSCS), performs Counter terrorism/CBRNE counter measures, retakes US or allied terrestrial satellite stations, while also incapacitating and taking over enemy ones with hand-to-hand combat, small arms, assault rifles, ordnance, calling in close air support strikes, etc.
A USSFSOC personnel would be like the Air Force Tactical Control Party (TAC-P) mixed with USAF Combat Control (Air Commando) , but this would be a Space Combat Control Party, i.e., Space CCP, i.e., Space Commando.
Similar to how CCTs are FAA certified Air Traffic Controllers, a Space CCP would be a NASA certified Flight Controller taught at the Christopher C. Kraft Jr., Mission Control Center Houston (MCC-H)
They go behind enemy lines, take out or take over enemy communication stations, extract USSF or allied personnel, repair satellites, conduct Flight Controller duties.
Teams would be led by an officer in person or remotely who has an Electrical Engineering background but supported by a cadre of enlisted personnel who are capable of hacking into or retrieving elements of an enemy’s servers located at satellite stations, or setting up /repairing remote satellite stations, etc.
Enlisted members will be designated as warrant officers so they can operate above enlisted but be subordinate to officers.
This will give the US and allies vital intelligence but also the ability to disrupt enemy satellite operations in space thus throwing off an enemy’s GPS targeting systems, etc. Also, USSF-SOC operators can establish/repair remote satellite stations.
Training would essentially be “capture the flag”, i.e., taking over enemy facilities and defending allied facilities.
HALO/HAHO (High Altitude, Low Opening/High Opening) parachuting. Using littoral waterway entrance methods (infiltration via beaches by sea or river) to enter into enemy territory. Using SERE (Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape) tactics to successful bypass/neutralize enemy combatants. Surveil enemies using SALUTE reporting (Size, Activity, Location, Unit, Time, and Equipment). Direct close air support via Joint Terminal Attack Controller methodology to destroy enemy satellite stations. Defend and evacuate US Space Force or other DOD or Allied personnel at satellite stations in combat zones. Establish/repair remote satellite outposts. Physically take over enemy satellite stations either for destruction or for cooption.

Training may consist of (1) selection, (2) SERE school at Fairchild AFB, WA; (3) Ranger School; (4) US Army Airborne School (Parachute Badge) at Fort Benning, GA for Static Line qualification & Army Military Free Fall Parachutist School, Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona for HALO qualification; (5) Cold Weather orientation and Basic Military Mountaineering Course at the Northern Warfare Training Center at Ft. Wainwright Alaska, (6) Combat Diver/ Underwater Egress School at NAS Pensacola, FL, (7) Jungle Warfare at US Jungle Operations Training Center at Schofield Barracks, (8) Desert Warrior Course at Ft Bliss, also advanced training notably with satellite systems at the Jet Propulsion Lab Space Flight Operator Facility, .





Certain satellite field equipment such as HughesNet or L3 Harris technology modified for Special Forces Operations will be used for training members about how to set up remote satellites (See Article: https://www.defensenews.com/industry/2020/01/07/l3harris-receives-100m-contract-to-upgrade-special-ops-communication-capabilities/)
In the future a person who qualifies for USSF SOC Space CCP could qualify for a NASA mission, meaning they’d be the first US Space Force Commando in space.

#military #space #nasa #spaceforce #usspaceforce #specialforces
Basics of Federal Contracting & Opinions on US Foreign Policy and America’s “Recruitment Problem” by MRG Staff
See the cases of (1) The case of Darleen “The Dragon Lady” Darleen Druyun – Wikipedia, DRAGON LADY’S “MASSACRE” | Military.com (2) famous whistleblower Bunnatine “Bunny” Greenhouse” Bunny Greenhouse – Wikipedia; Watch Whistleblower Season 2 Episode 6: Bunny’s War/Opioid Lollipops – Full show on Paramount Plus, (3) See Navy Contracting Fraud Case https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/09/us/bribery-case-implicates-2-admirals.html, etc.
I
Is Gus Van Sant, Ok? Ken “Death” Mieskie’s, Gus Van Sant, the death of Mulugeta Seraw, punk rock, Portland, and LGBTQ intersections with Fascism by MRG Staff
In memory of Mulugeta Seraw
I. Opening Thoughts
II. Gus, Ken Death, A Hate Crime, Portland, and Punk Rock
III. Gay Fascism. Horny for Nazis? And, Remembering Darby Crash of The Germs
IV. Early Punk and Fascism as Irony but later as Reality
V. Was Van Sant a little irresponsible about his relation to Ken Death? Did he know his views?
VI. What was happening in the Ken Death’s Portland of his youth and early adult years?
I. Opening Thoughts
Racism in the U.S. state of Oregon has been discussed ad nauseam. People can’t control the past, however, it doesn’t mean we can’t continue to learn from it and improve for its failings.
Overall, Oregon is a great state with great people, many who are accepting, which I know from my time in college having known many people form the state, yet, I would argue it is still a “Pass-over state” with not much economic opportunity outside the Portland area, meaning there is a lot of poverty and lack of diversity, and these can lead to racism.
The state of Oregon I would argue has done a lot to face up to its “sea to shining sea”, Oregon Trail, Manifest Destiny past of being established as an all-white Anglo-Saxon Protestant utopian state. However, some say the gestures of self-reflection and combating racism may simply be performative gestures of “wokeness”. However, Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) has done excellent documentaries discussing racism in the state’s past while also showcasing the contributions of people of color such as Portland’s historic black neighborhood of Albina. During the George Floyd Protests in the Summer of 2020, Portland was one of the main cities with Antifascist activists protesting police and exposing that some of the police force had connections with right-wing groups such as the Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer, etc. (See article: ‘Disturbing’ texts between Oregon police and far-right group prompt investigation by Erik Ortiz, published February 15, 2019, by NBC News).
However, in the wake of MAGA America, and staring at the potential of a DeSantis Fascist state come 2024 or beyond, where DeSantis and his Florida Republicans have espoused anti-LGBTQ rhetoric with his “Don’t Say Gay Bill” and other fascist moves such as bills limiting the press, removing books discussing BIPOC history, banning political parties, and taking over college boards for being too “woke” (with woke simply meaning not conforming to conservative, white, and male heteronormative standards at this point), this “Aryan” ideal of having the Northwest be an “all-white” area is still a lingering cause to many white supremacists. With the news flaming fears, many people not from the Northwest are buying up land in pristine areas in the Northwest jeopardizing the environment, encroaching on wildlife, etc.
Gavin McInnes, the annoying misogynist hipster founder of The Proud Boys – our modern day brownshirt thugs – talked about conservatives moving to Montana, which interestingly has a history of liberalism, progressivism, Democratic politics (e.g., John Tester), and a “to each their own” mentality in areas like Missoula and Bozeman. Yet, this might be changing as conservatives flood states like Montana, Oregon, Idaho, North and South Dakota, etc., because they see themselves as “refugees” from Democratic-ran cities that full of crime, minorities, communists, etc. Essentially, what every White Supremacist group wants, i.e., the Northwest Territorial Imperative (not to be confused with the progressive based Cascadia Movement).
Yet…the Pacific Northwest was home to many notable Right-Wing events, which I’ll get out the way. (1) William Luther Pierce, author of The Turner Diaries and The Hunter, which inspired terrorist Timothy McVeigh who killed 168 people with the Oklahoma City Bombing, and who inspired serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin who killed anywhere between 8 to 20 people, was a professor at Oregon State University and was inspired to support White Power as a response to the Civil Rights Movement – similar to how white racism is rising in response to the recent Black Lives Matter movement; (2) the White Power group, The Order, led by Robert Jay Mathews, died in a house fire caused by cops as he hid out on Whidbey Island in 1984; (3) In 2019, according to Chris Ingallis (2019) of King5 News, in Arlington, WA, north of Seattle, police seized weapons belonging to the Washington State Chapter of Attomwaffen, a group linked to multiple terrorist attack attempts in the United States including thwarted attacks on nuclear facilities; (4) The Aryan Brotherhood had a fortress in North Idaho near Lake Hayden; (5) Portland, Oregon was the birthplace of now defunct – allegedly -Volksfront; (6) In 2017, racist and convicted felon Jeremy Joseph Christian stabbed two men to death as they tried to defend a Muslim woman, etc.
A little-known fact about Oregon on top of its initial goal of being a WASP only state, according to Douglas Perry (2019) of Oregon Live, was that in 1936, before the US entered war with Germany, a Nazi warship cruised down the Willamette River, and Portlander’s cheered them on. Portland had a small German Bund or “social club” which passed out anti-Semitic flyers. Further, according to Silvie Adams (2019) of the Oregon Historical Society, stated that the German cruiser “Emden” chugged down the Willamette River with the Nazi naval flag, or ensign, at the stern. The ship moored in Portland at the foot of West Couch Street, just north of the Burnside Bridge (Adams, 2019). The photograph shows the flag at half-mast, likely honoring King George V of England, who died on January 20, 1936, the day the ship arrived in Portland (Adams, 2019).
We, or rather we should all know, that Oregon banned black people in its constitution, despite being an anti-slavery state loyal to the Union. The state also forcibly removed Native Americans from their ancestral lands and was also involved in “Yellow Peril” anti-Chinese sentiments of the mid to late 1800s. Further, we can add on anti-Japanese sentiments of the World War II era and anti-Mexican farmworker sentiments which is one of America’s more recent racist concepts (mid-twentieth century to present).
From personal experience, having lived all over the country, Oregon is sort of the boonies once you get outside Metro Portland, with little pockets of hippy areas like Eugene or Bend.
The many small towns dotting I-5 or elsewhere including the coastal areas remind you of towns stuck in the 1950s. They remind me of Castle Rock or Derry, Maine in Stephen King’s fictional universes. Rainy, dingy towns with Back to the Future-like Sunny Valley downtown areas, but with citizens straight from Raymond Carver’s alcoholic “kitchen soap opera” tragedies.
Yet, the state is still very white, which is not a bad thing at all, it is what it is, but just a reality, and with that reality comes lingering issues such racism and racial violence, even if now pushed to the fringes of acceptable societal norms.
As a black man who has lived all over the country, including having Southern American roots, I can attest I’ve had more isolated racial incidents in the progressive Northwest than the “racist South”, mostly from mentally ill hobos or freely released junkies lurking near bus or train stations. Don’t get me started about the West Coast Hobo situation. It’s notorious.
II. Gus, Ken Death, A Hate Crime, Portland, and Punk Rock
This paper however will go into details about famed director Gus Van Sant and his relationship with a Portland based Neo Nazi, Ken Murray Mieske, where with his accomplices, Kyle Brewster, and Steve Strasser – members of groups known as East Side White Pride and White Aryan Resistance (WAR) – murdered Ethiopian immigrant, Mulugeta Seraw on November 12, 1988, on Southeast 31st Avenue. Ken Mieske went under the alias, Ken Death, a punk rock persona in Portland’s punk and metal scene, which was known for hostility towards non-whites back in the 1980s. Mieske received life in prison, while Brewster served 13 years, and Strasser served about a decade behind bars.
It’s interesting to note that Kyle Brewster was later found at a Trump rally in Salem, Oregon and at Proud Boy events in Portland, Oregon, after his release from prison proving he wasn’t reformed, and should have received a longer sentence (or, at least a parole violation landing him back in jail). According to Oregon Live (2021) in its article, Kyle Brewster, convicted in notorious 1988 hate crime killing, seen at pro-Trump rallies in Salem, Portland, was stated has now living in Portland, Oregon. Per the same article, a 2012 essay by an unidentified man who claimed he had done time with Brewster in Oregon said Brewster helped radicalize him behind bars. The man stated that Brewster was a popular white prisoner and helped transform East Side White Pride from a racist street gang into a prison gang.
Further, David Holthouse (2017) of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), in his article titled: Rude & Crude, mentioned that Brewster was lurking around Portland gang, The Brood, at one of their flophouses in Southeast Portland.
Mieske died in 2011 of viral Hepatitis C.
Tom Metzger, the racist leader of WAR, previously based out of the rural areas north of San Diego (with SoCal having its own history of Neo Nazism), flooded 1980s Portland with racist material. Portland and the Willamette Valley during this era had one of the world’s largest Neo Nazi populations. Jim Redden of the Willamette Weekly in 1988 wrote articles analyzing the Neo Nazi scene of Oregon. Redden wrote, “The Faces of Death: Street kid, actor, musician, skinhead—who is the real Kenneth Murray Mieske?” on Dec. 1, 1988, which was published 18 days after Seraw’s murder. In the article, Van Sant mentioned that Mieske was a “great actor”, but also music promotor/venue owner associated with Monqui Presents production company, Chris Monlux, stated Mieske was a street kid later turned musician who introduced him to death metal. Jack Yost, a former peace studies coordinator at Portland State University, knew Miseke was a street kid who was a byproduct of Reaganomics, i.e., poverty, wealth disparity, etc.
Gus Vant Sant in 1988 directed a short film called Ken Death Gets out of Jail where Ken talks about his jail experiences. It is interesting to note that according to IMDB, the film is listed under “gay” and “gay interests”.
Portland based LGBTQ author, Mannie Murphy, wrote the graphic novel I Never Promised You a Rose Garden where according to Google Books, “…brilliantly weaves 1990s alternative culture – from Kurt Cobain to William Burroughs to Keanu Reeves to the Red Hot Chili Peppers – with two centuries of the Pacific Northwest’s shameful history as a hotbed for white nationalism: from the Whitman massacre in 1847, to the Ku Klux Klan’s role in Portland’s city planning in the early 1900s; to the shameful treatment of black people displaced in the 1948 Vanport flood; and through the 2014 armed standoff with Cliven Bundy’s cattle ranch”.
Mieske allegedly was a “houseboy” for a “Mr. X”, where a houseboy is a sort of house servant serving and “servicing” a wealthier older gay male patron, which would make sense considering the gay hustler/houseboy culture was analyzed by Van Sant in his film My Own Private Idaho starring Keanu Reeves and the late, River Phoenix.
Did Gus Van Sant know about Mieske more than thought?
Its sems Gus was quick to distance himself…
If so, does Van Sant have a responsibility to use his art as a means of exploring Oregon’s racism to create a better world? Did he use a lost street kid being brainwashed by Neo Nazism, instead of intervening and turning him on a better path?
III. Gay Fascism. Horny for Nazis? And, Remembering Darby Crash of The Germs
Sometimes in contemporary politics because of concepts like intersectionality we seem to assume that various groups, such as people of color or the LGBTQ+ community are always allies. The truth is you have lots of homophobia in minority groups just as you have racism and white supremacy in gay or queer culture.
Simply because both are different from white male patriarchal heteronormativity (well, per as the theory of intersectionality goes or is understood in popular culture, I guess…), doesn’t mean they are allies necessarily. For example, Morrisey of The Smiths has been known to spout nativist rhetoric (which sucks because The Smiths are pretty dope, so, eh, separate the music from the artist?), Dave Rubin in the USA has shilled for the Republican Party as they actively try to de-legitimize his very existence, Michael Caignet (a French Neo Nazi convicted of pedophilia – I hate even typing that word…), Milo Yunniopolis (who argued for pedophilia – supposedly, he’s not “not gay”), Nicky Crane, Ernst Röhm (Chief of Staff of Hitler’s S.A.), Michael Kuhnen, Herbert Hoover (allegedly), Cecil Rhodes (allegedly), Richard Nixon (allegedly with Bebe Reboso), were all gay men who fought for white supremacy, almost as if they…lusted and pined for a preservation of what they consider a romanticized version of the Western “Greco Roman” male ranging from the “nymph nubile” form to that of the hyper-masculine (i.e., leather daddy).
I learned about a few of men above from an odd site called Conservapedia where in some of the articles the authors are trying to defend the compatibility of homosexuality with Nazism. Interesting… Weird…
Homosexual intersection with explicit fascism aside, legendary punk artists, Darby Crash, previously named Bobby Pyn, real name John Paul Beahm (born, September 26, 1958 – died, December 7, 1980), played and explored fascism, likely not as a real-world political ideology he wanted to come into a political reality, but rather as a social study though music, i.e., a punk rock headman as a type of cult leader. Darby Crash was interested in Hitler same as he was into Charles Manson, likely not because of he liked them necessarily, but he was curious about the dark side of human nature and what humans can do.
The Germs ran with this concept often wearing their iconic black sleeve armband with a blue circle, where the blue circle represented being loyal to the band, and to be loyal to the band one had to get a “germ burn”, i.e., have a cigarette put out on their wrist.
IV. Early Punk and Fascism as Irony but later as Reality
Punk, especially early punk, often played with Nazi imagery to show hypocrisy of the societies they lived in, mostly in the 1970s which were racked by austerity, de-industrialization, messed up war veterans, poverty, the fall out of the hippie movement, etc. Many kids of the early punk movement had parents who fought in World War II, so a way to scare parents was to wear poorly scribed Swastikas. Many punk youths saw themselves as rebelling against their hippie and/or way more conservative older WWII parents, so instead of peace and love, they adopted a postmodern cynicism with watered-down Nietzschean philosophy.
Some got the irony or joke of fascism (for example, Siouxsie Sioux wore a Swastika before but she learned her lesson being assaulted for doing so, yet, later went to perform songs like Israel in the actual state of Israel), while others used fascism to stare into the face of evil or ponder an amoral or at worst an indifferent universe (e.g., Joy Division’s first release features a Hitler Youth and a Joy Division was Holocaust brothel notable in post WWII “stalag” fiction, e.g., think Ilsa the She Wolf of the SS released in 1975). Others such as the later Oi punk of the late 1970s, referred to as boneheads by original non-racist Skinheads, took the fascist imagery seriously and became full Nazis associated with the UK National Front, and this type of punk was re-imported back into the USA by the 1980s, notably in areas like Orange County, which had a notable Skinhead population (i.e., Huntington Beach in John Birch Society Orange County). White street kids who found themselves in serious hot water, i.e., LA County Jail, or worst, the California State Prison System, teamed up in the racially segregated system of the prison system. The already racist culture of prison mixed with the once faux racism of certain punk scenes, and punk in many ways became a recruitment tool for white supremacist gangs. Angry kids from the suburbs found themselves in actual Nazi gangs, having to “put in work” to gain protection. Released inmates indoctrinated by racism and/or scarred by the violence of prison life, would return to the blue-collar white areas, and spread their messages, especially as crack cocaine in the early 80s, sold by lost and impoverished black or Hispanic youth exacerbated racial tension, white flight, etc.
For Darby Crash, a sensitive kid, playing with fascism was a persona rather than his real self, even though his persona got the best of him, as he later died of a heroin overdose, with this death largely overshadowed by the death of John Lennon. Darby Crash and his band The Germs, which featured Pat Smear (real name Georg Ruthenberg, who is a Jewish and black American), are noted as inventing or rather being pioneers of “hardcore punk” or at least West Coast Hardcore Punk (the title of East Coast could be given to the Bad Brains) which was different than the high-brow yet fashionable London scene of Vivian Westwood and Malcolm McLaren, but also different that the “too cool for school style” of The Ramones from the Tri-state area.
Hardcore Punk of the West Coast, in part pioneered by producers like Geza X, was sloppy, playful, ironic, kooky, but with an underlying mania and aggression, while East Coast Hardcore Punk was more political and one could even say more multicultural (for example, the D.C. punk scene), even though the Dead Kennedys from San Francisco – a bastion of left-wing ideology – inserted political awareness into West Coast punk.
West Coast was violent and jittery, kooky but serious, playing with anachronistic fashion often coopting greaser or Mystery Science Theater aesthetics, but it was also faster which is a notable West Coast influence on music in general going back as far as Surf Rock of the 1950s with its emphasis on “whipping out” such as in the sounds of Dick Dale with his song Misirlou, Jungle Fever, OohWhee Marie, etc.
This is all notable because this hardcore punk scene likely traveled up the interstate of Portland and Seattle, which had an already pre-existing garage rock culture dating back to the 1950s such with bands The Sonics from Tacoma and The Kingsmen from Portland.
Mieske’s stage name of Ken Death is like the naming convention style of Darby Crash.
What’s the difference between the two? Darby pulled off being an actual musician with a professionally produced record, whereas Ken Death…was a street kid who didn’t amount to much. His violent actions in Portland were likely stemmed from a sense of failure, on top of a closeted homosexuality, and his racism filled the void between who he really was (gay) while also what he couldn’t be (successful).
It is now largely accepted that Darby Crash was gay or bisexual (in the biopic film, What We Do Is Secret, Crash called his sexuality “relative”). Darby being featured in The Downfall of Western Civilization, with a girlfriend was largely believed to have been staged to his keep his sexuality hidden. It is also possible, just a theory, that Darby’s suicidal tendencies in his later life could been in part depression related to being closeted gay or bisexual young man in a hyper-masculine scene. Crash was inspired before his punk days by Davie Bowie, where Bowie is iconic for his gender bending persona’s notably Ziggy Stardust.
Ominously songs like Five Years and Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide by Bowie seems to emulate the timeline of Darby’s pre-planned “romanticized” suicide, where he died in the hands of a female friend, Casey, or Kasey Cola.
In one of Crash’s last performances at the Starwood in 1980, which he allegedly did just to buy enough heroin to kill himself, it can be heard in the crowd via footage of him being bullied about possibly being gay and Pat Smear seems to get into a physical altercation with hecklers.
This last section of Crash simply sheds light that many gay youths were likely attracted to the punk rock scene of its early years. A sort of “leather daddy” scene for young angry youths, but the scene overall emulated a hetero-normative patriarchal sensibility of aggression, violence, etc. Some were gay, but they were still men and the scene may have offered them outlet to mediate between both positions.
Ken Death may have been in a similar situation to Darby Crash, with Death maybe even ripping off Crash, but instead of suicide, he chose white supremacy and murder.
V. Was Van Sant a little irresponsible about his relation to Ken Death? Did he know his view?
Van Sant in his youth attended the Caitlin Gabel School in Portland but later returned and this city became the basis for many of his films from Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Elephant. Van Sant was also close to controversial director Larry Clark who is famous for his film Kids which was criticized for its visceral depictions of adolescents having sex, even though it brought needed attention to underage sex and health risks.
Van Sant like Clark, and a later Harmony Korine, are gonzo, auteur, experimental directors with an emphasis on exploring the idiosyncratic fringes of society, which is very similar to author Hunter S. Thompson, a Louisville native, which is where Van Sant was born.
It’s important to note that Washington native, Chuck Palahniuk, LGBTQ author, who wrote Fight Club, lived in Portland was inspired to write Fight Club based on a prank club he was associated with. In Palahniuk’s book of memoirs, Stanger Than Fiction (2004), he talks about how he worked in hospice care taking care of men dying of sexual related illnesses in Portland, but also, he discussed loosely the concept of white privilege, describing whiteness as being “wallpaper”, i.e., the ability to be innocuous.
Portland was and is just a “weird place”. It’s not uncommon to see “Keep Portland” weird stickers in the area.
Yet, is it possible that Van Sant was more “intimate” with Mieske than known.
It would have been embarrassing for his burgeoning film director career to have been associated with a Neo Nazi, especially in a sexual sense, and it would have been embarrassing for Mieske (Ken Death) who posing as a tough male archetype in the punk, metal, and white power scene. If anything, maybe Mieske’s previous life as a gay hustler street kid on the dangerous streets of Portland, confronted with a faltering music career, on top of pre-existing racism, led him to overcompensate for his tough guy role and he did the unthinkable…murder an innocent man.
There’s nothing much known publicly about Ken Mieske’s life in his childhood, but maybe he suffered abuse, possibly even sexual abuse, however, I am not saying that to insinuate that being gay is a result of abuse, i.e., I believe people are born that way.
VI. What was happening in the Ken Death’s Portland of his youth and early adult years?
The goal is to paint a scene.
The Portland Blazers won the NBA Championship in 1977 which must have united the city which has a history of racism yet having a small albeit iconic black community in Northeast Portland in the historic Albina neighborhood which is now gentrified. Yet, in 1985 you had the police choking death of Lloyd “Tony” Stevenson, a security guard who was trying to stop a crime but was killed by police anyways.
Ken Mieskie, if he went to high school and simply wasn’t a street kid his whole life, may have gone to Madison or Grant H.S. in the Eastern part of the city, and I speculate this only because Mieskie was a member of Eastside White Pride. He was born in 1966 meaning if he finished high school and on time, he would have graduated around 1984 at 18.
The Eastside of Portland seems to have a more diverse population hence racial tension. Also, by the mid to late 1980s, Portland was hit by crack, and the crack trade brought gangs from California. As you saw more Crypts, white people likely started siding with white power gangs. Also, we can’t forget about the Pacific Northwest’ history of…serial killers, such as the I-5 Killer, Randall Woodfield, who attended Portland State University and was caught in 1981. Portland’s infamy by the 1990s caught the eye of TV producers and the show, COPS, had many of its earliest episodes there.
Some links:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345513/
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/225950000/kenneth-murray-miezke
https://www.wweek.com/news/2018/10/31/wws-reporting-on-how-hate-spread-across-portland-in-1988/
Isla She Wolf of the SS, an example of Naziploitation, released in 1975, https://vimeo.com/288879341
https://www.ohs.org/blog/the-first-time-nazis-marched-in-portland.cfm
The White Abolitionists who helped found Historically Black Colleges and Universities by MRG Staff
It is important to remember, for the sake of unity, that a fair share of white people helped Black Americans get our freedom.
Wilberforce University, Bennett College, Clark Atlanta University, Fisk University, Xavier University of Louisiana, LeMoyne Owen College, Rust College, Shaw University, Alcorn State etc are all named after white benefactors and abolitionists
And it wasn’t about being a “white savior” who infantilizes black people but white allies in the cause of human liberation and progress
We today don’t admit that it was dangerous for white people to help black people especially with white supremacy terrorists in the Reconstruction South.
John Brown was hanged for example for trying to start a slave revolt at Harper’s Ferry. Many Kansas Jayhawkers (abolitionists) died fighting Missouri Pro slavery factions. White women might have faced physical violence for disobeying white male oriented patriarchy.
Let’s not forget the thousands of lives lost in the Civil War where many units were from abolitionists hotbed in Maine, Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania etc.
Even though the United States has kept perpetuating racism in various ways after the Civil War, we in modern times when analyzing the past should also look for stories of unity and positivity.
I have noticed in modern political discourse on both sides of the political spectrum a growing sense of segregation, with the left-wing pushing a de-colonial, Critical Theory (perpetual criticism), and a self-determinist framework, whereas the right-wing also plays the “identity politics” game but with a majority white, reactionary, and coded language mindset.
With each new generation we forget our past of unity or fleeting moments of unity.
It seems right wing racists, foreign intel agencies, the “woke” liberals, the media, political parties farming votes, capitalists monetizing race, etc., can’t help but divide things.
Regardless, here is the list














Ideas to help the USA by Quinton Mitchell. From a Loving Day, Participatory Budgeting, a Space Force Academy, Popping the Tuition Bubble, and Operation Gerbil?
Read the full list since there’s no order to it.
Be a little weird and think outside the box.
1) Participatory Budgeting where citizens vote on what percentage they want their taxes going, everyone’s submissions are averaged out, but then legislators do the same thing. Both are averaged and used as a baseline for Budgeting.
2) Merge the census with tax returns to cut costs if not by law, then by executive order
3) Review federal acquisition procedures to ensure procurement practices are optimal
4) Deleted
5) Better publicize what the federal government does in fun commercials such as what’s going on in science, agriculture, historic preservation, national parks, environmental efforts like the restoring animals on the Endagered Species List, Army Corps of Engineers, NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration)
6) Instill a spirit of customer service amongst public (civil) servants so the general public improves their perception of government
7) The possibility of using Enterprise Resource Planning system tools like SAP in government agencies to better coordinate finance (as to comply with rules such as the bona fide need rule, Misappropriation Act, colors-of-money), procurement offices, auditors, senior leadership, etc. One government, one language as far as ERP, SaaS (Software as a Service), Asset Management Tools, freight carrier guides with 3PLs (third party logistics).
8) Establish a Loving Day based on the Loving Supreme Court case to celebrate multiracial families where celebrities of biracial or multiracial heritage talk about their lives such as Derek Jeter, Pete Wentz, Patrick Mahomes, Mariah Carey, Halle Barry, Blake Griffin, Zach LaVine, The Rock, Meghan Markle, Cameron Champ, etc. See article: https://andscape.com/features/black-pga-golfer-cameron-champ-is-going-places-his-grandfather-wasnt-allowed
9) Repeal the Faircloth Amendment so the federal government has the option to build public housing especially in emergencies. Inspired by Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s idea: https://nurseledcare.phmc.org/advocacy/policy-blog/item/838-faircloth-amendment.html
10) Encourage telework and refurbish commercial space into residential space
11) Deflate the College Cost Bubble by using the Department of Labor to challenge hiring criteria of businesses where many require expensive advanced degrees when jobs might require less costly education, i.e., increasing the value of a high school diploma again, etc.; requiring schools getting federal assistance or whom have had past substantial federal assistance on financial brink to consolidate to cut costs
12) Allow negotiation of Medicare drug costs
13) Establish a federal corporation that invests in prescription drug stocks because by doing so this agency can better negotiate by buying or selling shares
14) Medicare Now! Let people use thru Medicare earlier before retirement
15) Lay the ground work for single-payer Healthcare by flipping the FICA formula so out of the 7.65% where 6.20% goes to Social Security and the rest, 1.45%, towards Medicare/Medicaid (where your employes matches your contribution), you flip it but you do it slowly so those who paid into Social Security and are near retirement can get their full benefits (unless they opt for more Medicare). Raise the overall 7.65% to 8-10%.
16) E.U. style data protection for US consumers
17) Also require digital currencies be backed by some sort of convertible asset like gold or silver
18) Issue a Defense Production Act edict to gold miners to mine more gold and silver to continue increasing our vault reserves
19) Not to Exceed Age Limits for Justices such as 70 or 80 as opposed to term limits so we don’t get activist judges who constantly flip on laws as one judge takes over from the other, etc. Yet, we don’t get judges who are always in the hospital once very old
20) A Total Energy Policy that includes both green and fossil fuels including converting nuclear weapons into energy fuel for reactors, while handing over fuselages to the aerospace industry such as to send satellites into in orbit
21) Full Legalization of Cannabis and help with military recruitment by disallowing the asking about prior or post service (in the case of re-entry) Marijuana usage.
22) See my past article about Cannabis and the military: https://mitchellrg.com/2021/05/23/i-wrote-a-letter-to-congress-that-was-ignored-revising-forms-relating-to-questions-involving-cannabis-and-how-cannabis-is-a-force-multiplier-for-national-security-by-quinton-mitchell/
23) The possible establishment of a US Space Force Academy in a place like Cape Canaveral or Daytona Beach (near Embry Riddle Aeronautical University), Houston, Hunstville AL, Prescott AZ, or Santa Barbara CA near Vanderberg AFB (even if it has to still fall under the guidance of the USAFA and Air Education Training Command). Even if the school has to start off as a two-year school for junior and seniors who do their first two years at the USAFA. An academy size comparable to smaller academies such as US Coast Guard Academy or US Merchant Marine Academy. Sports will be in the small NAIA or NCAA III. Name facilities after famous astronauts or space pioneers.
24) (My personal favorite) Operation Gerbil or Gerbil Maze with NASA and companies like Blue Origin, SpaceX, Astra, etc. Replace nodes on the International Space Station with new sections but send the old ones to the Moon so we have materials to establish a small research facility. Scrap junk missions to land materials on the moon such as wiring, aluminum, etc.
25) More research into oxidation of moon rocks for air on moon facilities. See: https://youtu.be/-HGm2SSRaDs
26) Re-establish mental asylums with funds and grants to states via DHHS to help with the mentally ill homeless population.
27) Separate mental asylums, drug rehab, and jail where in many cases these are merge to cut costs especially as jails become more privatized
28) Fund clean needle exchanges and promote one-time use needles.
29) Urge cities that have lax policies on homeless peoples to encourage these people to clean their areas, aka, you can stay here if you clean the streets. This can be done by coordinating with nonprofit organizations, local police, etc.
30) Urge ISP service providers to require ALL adult sites have Two Factor Authentication to prevent minors from accessing pornography but protect pornography as free speech between consenting adults. Sites that don’t apply this such as those incorporate overseas can be blocked. I support the right to watch adult entertainment, but it is too accessible.
31) Reform federal sugar subsidies
32) Transition After Training (TAT) for Transgender service people where recruits after basic training, completing trade school and upon reaching a rank that permits off base living or single quarters will have the ability to transition.
33) Department of Justice mandate to protect Trans people if jailed be it local, state, or federal such as solitary confinement or protective custody to prevent them being abused or harassed
34) Artic Defense Pact as an extension of NATO, NORAD, and AFNORTH with Canada, US, Denmark, UK, Japan and Nordic countries to exercise and coordinate defense of the arctic especially as climate change opens waterways
35) Audit State Defense Forces for extremist elements. See: https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xdsrAAAAIBAJ&pg=6030%2C1692394
36) Expand the early commissioning program at Junior Military Colleges but also schools like Embry Riddle Aeronautical University
37) Expand the payout for Enlisted College Loan Repayment Plans in the military
38) Expand the Segal Education Award for the Peace Corps, AmeriCorps, Teach America
39) House arrests for petty crimes as opposed to jailing
40) Policies to end racial segregation in jails such as isolating violent criminals from inmates capable of rehab. Segregate based on crimes committed and character (not race) instead of bunching all types of criminals together.
41) STD testing for all inmates before entry, while incarcerated, and before exit
42) Encourage the expansion of open stock market exchanges on Eastern Time to close on West Coast or Central (Chicago) Time so trading hours are extended a little bit
43) Include Mexico’s top universities into the Association of American Universities with the US and Canada to promote goodwill
44) Use Border Wall funding as leverage for increased gun control (not confiscation)
45) Return parts of federal land to Native Tribes and Native Hawaiians
46) Fly the flags of Native Tribes on federal property and deed back parts of federal lands to Native American tribes
47) Investigate Highway of Tears Native femicides with Canada
48) As Reparations Package: Free or very cheap HBCUs; free genetic testing to find African ancestry, and 0% federally insured fixed rate mortgages (Freedman Loans) as a reparations package for black Americans similar to the GI Bill and VA Home Loan
49) Require truck drivers submit DNA swabs since many unsolved crimes were submitted by truckers. Also, pilots such as those who use smaller off the radar air strips.
50) Authorize a “hacker hunter unit” with law enforcement and clandestine operation authority within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA)
51) Have (RPCs) remote processing centers where the US can have courts and processing centers for refugees in foreign nations similar to forward-operating bases (FOBs), thus reducing the need to migrate all the way to the United States when judges can do virtual court sessions, but you have onsite translators, law enforcement officials to run background checks, etc.
52) Cash Preservation Act to ensure that large businesses are still required to do a certain percentage of businesses with paper cash currency
53) Link all successful experiments at attempting to cure HIVAIDs to race for a cure, spanning stem cells, medications, nanotechnology, gene therapy, etc.
Are Black Men, OK? Conspiracy Theory, Postmodernism, Trauma, and “Dr.” Umar Johnson. The Great Re-Segregation? By MRG Staff
I. What is going on? Umar Johnson, Duh F-ck?
Terrence Howard, Kanye, B.o.B, Tyga, DeSean Jackson, Will Smith…something is going on.
I appreciate Umar standing up for black people but I disagree with him on things.
He’s another talker in a sea of people doing the same, chasing that easy money from the “algorithm”
I wonder how many women Dr. Umar Johnson sleeps with after his seminars while touring the country considering a lot of the applause in his crowds seems to come from black (maybe single, maybe not) women. Seriously. He’s selling a product that many want, and I figure many women might want the honor of saying they’re the muse to the “honorable” Dr. or “Chief” or “Emir” Umar Johnson.
For such a judgemental person he’s out of shape and should cut back on the deep fried lemon pepper wings.
Considering his misogyny and bigotry, like the “reject modernity, embrace traditionalism” “black people were better under segregation” of thinkers like Kevin Samuels, with the late Mr. Samuels having been associated with podcasts like the Fresh and Fit Podcasts (which leads to Rollo Tomassi, Andrew Tate, Stefan Molyneux, Lauren Southern, The Young Americans, etc.), I wouldn’t be surprised if Johnson, with his version of Pan-Africanism, is a proponent of polygamy, considering many men are doing whatever they can these days to “get their balls” back, even though I’d argue they were never taken/they’re embarrassing themselves/saying things they might not be able to take back one day. But, who knows? That’s just speculation my part…
I guess according to Umar… people who love each other and have children across “racial lines” have to get…divorced? Split time with their kids? Feel shame?
Fuck you.
Umar chirps about staying in your race and that black men should only date black women but this puts all the blame on men as if black women don’t set the criteria. Marrying someone simply for their race and no other characteristic is stupid to me but it works for some.
There’s plenty of black men for black women and if a woman can’t find a partner that’s more of a sign of her than men. There’s always a willing man more than a willing woman in my opinion. Black women are also allowed to date outside their race and this doesn’t offend me. I remember growing up and there was no love thrown my way and I can admit that. I also grew up traveling as a military brat where environments are very diverse and non-segregated.
Honestly all the anti-whitey talk is a turn off. It’s a turn off to air this supposed dirty laundry. Hate is a turn off. Ignorance is a turn off.
I admit, I’m dating a white woman but black women are beautful but my lady isn’t black. Cool. She makes me feel supported, free, and she doesn’t think she knows better when I speak about race. I can be a nerd. I don’t have to worry about appearances. I can listen to whatever music I want. She simply listens. She shows me affection and there’s no real power struggles. I support her.
No one supported me so why turn my hand away from someone I care for just because of a fat and fat mouthed bigot rapping off black stats and woke talking points I already know about?
I use to live in “Hotlanta” and went to high school there but it wasn’t my style 100%. Bougie. Fast. Heartless. Fake it to you make it. Avarice. Leased cars. Shootings. Strip clubs. Hook up culture. Some of the most spoiled black children I’ve ever seen living in mansions but making fun of poor kids or bullying white kids. Granted there was plenty of old Dixie hate around. I know the S.W.A.T, Ben Hill, Greenbrier, Fort Mac, Old National, Riverdale, the West End near Morehouse and Spelman, just as much as I know the burbs where I grew up where my school was 50% black. Church on Sunday, wings for lunch with extra bleu cheese or Publix chicken with “fixins” on the side. To be honest I miss old days of black culture before rap, before “woke”, but I’m not hating. I grew up with two parents, one from the hood of Miami near Liberty City by way of kinfolk from Alabama near Selma (my grandmother grew up near Coretta Scott King), and my other parent is from the backwoods country of Georgia.
Yet, Umar Johnson has no right to tell a black person who lives the black experience, which is an experience of many experiences, from poor to bourgeoisie, rural to urban, Northern to southern, East to West, native born American or new African immigrant, part black, extrovert, or introvert, straight or gay, tall, or short, “proper sounding” or ebonics, that they aren’t black because they don’t meet his criteria.
When will black people ever stop this? Time and time again…This purity testing? Blackness could be this all-encompassing and loving movement, happy to spread sacred wisdom of the Motherland to influence all mankind, but instead it comes off as hate against hate.
And, who care’s if he’s “eloquent” or “funny”. Hitler was eloquent. Idi Amin was eloquent. Mao was eloquent. Grand Wizard’s can be eloquent or funny.
Dr. Umar who is essentially in the Intellectual Dark Web, like quacks such as Jordan Peterson, Stefan Molyneux, Eric Weinstein, etc. He’s not building anything. He’s not engineering anything. He’s not coding for anything. He’s just another…talker. A paid, viral, algorithm chasing talker with some papermill doctorate, in our postmodern hellscape of self-help gurus with fascist underpinnings hidden under Joseph Campbell Jungian analysis or whatever.
I find it offensive that Umar as one American guy thinks he can single handedly define what Pan-Africanism is. His Pan-Africanism seems like a black man’s wet dream of Hitler grandeur with his Pan-Aryan ideas or some George Orwell 1984 dystopia. Pan-Africanism, Umar aside, despite the noble intentions and the many contributions of self-ascribed Pan-Africanist is inserting a black framework into larger discussion, seems like a form of reverse colonialism where predominately American voices are dictating the narrative, despite America, compared to black countries abroad, is privileged. Yes, systems do oppress black people, but one black American has more opportunity than many black Africans abroad.
I understand the need for we as black people to regain a sense of our roots, but often Pan-Africanism seems like erasure, oddly. It attempts to merge all black aesthetics into one on the grounds of unity, but incidentally might erase the unique nuances that makes the black experience so unique. Further it might not even include things which some might not consider “black enough”. It also might insert toxic elements from the America’s into the family oriented, rural, and pastoral cultures of many African groups. It’s not that Pan Africanism is bad, but how it has come to be, seems slightly problematic but questioning it in certain circles is grounds for something akin to “excommunication”.
And, by the way if you’re some white liberal reading this. Respectfully, all love to you, thank you for being allies to black people in time of need, but on this matter… white liberals have a tendency of listening to the loudest black voice in the room because they’re constantly searching for the blackest “diamond” in the rough.
Pan-Africanism in one way could be considered a bridgehead for the United State’s growing interests in Africa to hedge countries like China, and the US State Department (and intel community) could use “Pan-Africanists” to insert US ideas into Africa.
Adding insult to injury as Umar goes around threatening the existences of interracial couples who are already receive hatred from certain parties, he also DID NOT go to a Historically (emphasis on historically) Black College and University (as if it matters or makes you less black if you don’t go to one). Sorry, is Obama not black enough for going to an Ivy League college, a place where black people were denied for most of American history? Why are we shaming black dance teams at “white colleges” when this could be a showcase of black culture, etc.? Black people act like white folk don’t have (or, didn’t invent) remote controls. It’s not hard for others to watch Grambling vs Southern or the Celebration Bowl.
Umar went to Millersville University and got an advanced degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, where osteopathic medicine is heavily criticized by traditional medicine, but it’s not that Umar cares, or many of his follower’s care, considering we live in a world of Zodiac followers and hand-readers, because he simply needed a Dr. in front of his name to give himself more credence. Good on him for achieving it, but simply because you’re a “doctor” doesn’t mean your prescription to the world’s problems are entirely accurate.
He’s even been caught lying talking about his ancestry to Frederick Douglass according to The Root (2017) article by Michael Harriot, titled: We Fact-Checked Umar Johnson’s Hotep Tantrum with Roland Martin Because Someone Had To. That should have cancelled him, but his hotep followers don’t care, his black female followers obsessed with black men with white women don’t care, no different than Trump supporters not caring for his multiple lies.
The further irony of Umar is that he’s some type of Muslim, but for whatever odd reason, black Americans never question the fact that Islam played a huge role and still does play on in the enslavement of black people. Muslims, whom I have no problem with, but relating to the history of slavery in Africa, weren’t permitted to enslave fellow Muslims, so being in Northern Africa and the Sahel, Muslims made raids into Sub-Saharan Africa or traded for slaves for goods with black African tribes or kingdoms. Tribes who didn’t want to be enslaved and wanted to make money from the gold trade routes converted to Islam as a business decision. These gold trade routes helped Timbuktu flourish, but the wealth of gold trading Muslim African Kingdoms likely tipped off the Europeans who had contact with Islam (for better or worsts).
After the Reconquista of Spain and Portugal over the Moors, the Portuguese simply sailed to areas that Muslims were familiar with, and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade began in the Age of Discovery, especially after Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand sent Christopher Columbus to what would be the new world.
If certain black people are so committed to “de-colonization”, then why not go further, and return to nature-worship which is more indigenous than any Abrahamic religion? However, our ancestors in the USA fought with Christianity inspiring us, so why throw away what our ancestors fought with simply because we want “consciousness”? Why can’t you be a Christian or a cultural one at least (identifies as one, but not a hardcore follower) like most Americans and be equally as intrigued with African culture? Are we better than our ancestors because they were more oppressed than us, but they didn’t “fight hard enough” according to or modern standards? I dunno…
I would argue the existence of black people is miserable because not only are you oppressed by systems out of your control that inherently criminalized or stereotype you, but you’re also policed, haggled, and harassed by your own black people where everyone walks around purity testing the authenticity of the other instead of owning their own lives. You’re a target of white supremacists and get the ire of black nationalists.
Yet, maybe I can’t be mad at Umar because black people are human and most humans care about what other’s think and try to fit in as to not bring negative attention to themselves.
II. Want to Hear a Conspiracy?
Anyways,
Want to hear a “conspiracy theory”?
Ok. Here we go…
White supremacists love black separatism.
Oh, wait, that’s not a conspiracy.
It’s as if the Founding Fathers who supported slavery but knew that the freedom of black people was inevitable, knew that one day, particularly with black people being treated so poorly, would segregate themselves, because they would hate white people, which was their plan all along.
There’s something odd going on to me, but it seems we as a people have accepted the contemporary discourse of self-determination and tribalism as a needed tenant for a more just world, yet, to me, I suspect that this tribalism, particularly in the United States, where white and black are more similar than we given credit for, is and has been pre-planned or is the expression of past segregated/nationalistic ideas still echoing into the present (for example, even the hippies of days past were still racially regressive compared today’s standards but their views or analyses on race, gender, etc., largely remains unchanged to this day).
The Great Replacement Theory” or “Kalegri Plan” is something spouted by conspiracy theorists, white nationalists, and Nazis (and, Fox News) alike, but I would argue that the future is the “Great Re-Segregation”.
The Great Re-Segregation is the innocuous herding of groups into defined spaces (maybe, even “smart cities” with “themes” and within meta-verse spaces, i.e., no different than racially segregated neighborhoods) in a globalized world where groups are essentially herded like animals (without thinking of it as such), where our data is collected (genetic information included), surveillance is everywhere, and the mass media is used to stir up unrest in the public, yet, since levers of power will be largely influenced by Westernized European inspired ideas, policy, etc., but also the growing influence of the homogeneous Chinese.
A society ruled by a technocratic elite (i.e., like things already are), indifferent to progressivism or conservatism, who operate with a pragmatic and “syncretic” viewpoint and manages the species, like a Darwinist exhibition. Sure, we will still have overlap between the groups, because we as a species have always had overlap, because sharing genetics helps “keep gene pools” humble (not inner-bred), which helps the overall longevity of the species (i.e., genetic vigor), but most people will be herded (socially groomed) to segregate and the political right and political left are both responsible.
Countries are essentially “centers” overseeing commodified groups where all nations answer upward to institutions and systems effectively ran by a small group of people, i.e., a pyramid scheme. When consumer bases start to slow down in how fast they replicate while also demanding more rights as they climb the economic ladder, economic down-turns are manufactured, new bodies from around the globe are shifted into industrial ones, and process of segregation in one hand and assimilation in another takes course.
However, I don’t want you to lose faith in all institutions, and institutions in many ways are highly effective at mitigating risks and subsidizing costs to help the public; however, there’s players within these systems that seem to have an agenda, or maybe these leaders are simply operating subconsciously the way the system was designed to, i.e., an empiricist, scientific, sterile mindset of mitigating groups, creating grand narratives, managing the scarcity of resources, etc.
III. Trauma, Conspiracy Theory, etc., etc.
But on black people.
Terrance Howard is flying around the world telling people that he has disproved gravity. Kanye “Ye” West is having a psychotic episode for our sick entertainment as he is handled by white nationalists and antisemites using him as a “pet to prove that they aren’t has “unstable” as Ye. Rapper, B.o.B., attempted crowdfunding to raise money to help prove the Earth is flat. NFL Wide receiver, DeSean Jackson was called out for saying antisemitic things. Rappers such as Tyga often talks about “Jewish money”, etc., the irony is that there’s likely Jewish management working on his albums (with rappers also somehow allowed to say terms like “white bitches”). Will Smith, likely feeling emasculated by social media and his wife (or, life partner, what have you, whom had a relationship with Tupac – who holds a messianic status amongst certain black people), calling his manhood and even blackness into question, assaulted another black man on stage, in front of the whole world, at the world’s most prestigious acting award (even if the event has fallen off in popularity in recent years as far as ratings). Kyrie Irving did share a post of a “Black Hebrew Israelite” adjacent documentary (not to be confused with black people who practice Orthodox or Reformed Judaism) that has antisemitic tropes.
The comedian, Godfrey, and even the radio personality, Charlemagne the God, whom I would say have their heads on right for the most part, sometimes praise the Farrakhan’s of the Nation of Islam, which as a group espouses…Black Nazi rhetoric, even if they make certain good points analyzing power, how things work, etc. I found it interesting that everyone called out Ye for his obvious hatred, yet, there this veneration for figures like the Farrakhan’s which is often a way of proving “how down you are” in a culture were purity testing, i.e., sizing each other up seems prominent.
Black people have been taught that we cannot be racist, but only prejudiced, since we lack institutional power, yet, the irony of this idea is that A) it allows black people to not challenge our potentially bigoted ideas and to feel empowered within those beliefs because traditionally we lack power, and B) this notion seems like a form of infantilizing black people by saying our actions aren’t as comparable to that of our supposed “superiors”, and this can be problematic on multiple fronts such as empowering sociopaths who already lack the ability to take self-accountability, and yes, black people can be sociopaths as well.
Bullet point (B) in my opinion tends to be promoted more by non-black liberals or non-black Leftists, who struggle with how to help or listen for fear of offending. Building empowerment solely on the idea that we as black people don’t have power or haven’t had an impact on power systems, seems defeatists to me, i.e., a victim-based mentality, which sure has plenty of merit – considering black people were and are victims in many ways – but, this tendency also has elements of “erasure”, i.e., it erases the impacts black people have been able to insert on power systems.
We as black people always focus on depression as black people. Our movies are either hilarious comedies or the most depressing family or slavery stories. It’s one extreme to the next. It reminds me of the Greek mask where one half is smiling and the other is sad.
Many self-ascribed black nationalists don’t know every single black person who contributed something of prominence, and we often talk about social leaders and celebrities, as opposed to our engineers, scientists, doctors, etc., which interestingly is something that all groups do, further showing we’re no better or worse than anyone else.
Before I go on, I want to state that I want all humans to be inspired by blackness. I do not want black exclusivity, black segregation, black hierarchies, black gatekeeping, purity testing, etc. We are all humans and should find inspiration and commonality amongst each other because we all have different ways of seeing things, so it’s intelligent to learn and adapt to each other. The same way how when I was kid found a moral is tales like Robin Hood who fought the rich and the state for the benefit of the common man, I want a white kid feeling lonely in the boonies to be inspired by Shaka Zulu.
I’ll get to the point of my beliefs. I don’t like segregation. I was raised with a Christian inspired Abolitionism that seeks a future where are people judged by their actions solely and not for their race.
Even though I am by no way a good Christian, and many Christians would reject me as being a Christian because I’m not an extremist, I still place merit on the teachings on mercy, love, humility, etc., that Christianity teaches.
Interestingly, my political left leanings are in part inspired by Christian mercy.
I believe that racial segregation is social engineering derived from our colonial roots and is a way of dividing the public by manufacturing dialectical (diametrically opposed) tension, cultures., etc.
I find it “funny” that white nationalists support the rhetoric of black separatists, so…if logic is to persist, and black people or the political left say that the US is white supremacists (i.e., Amerikkka), then maybe black separatism was intended to be another force that keeps the races separate, so they can be “farmed” “herded” etc. I find it interesting that certain elements of Left-Wing thought, with its anti-colonial, post-colonial, and de-colonial framework calls for self-determinism, yet, white nationalists or other Right-Wing forces call for self-determination too.
I believe that those in power use both left-wing and right-wing because they have a pragmatic view of power, to maintain racial segregation, hierarchies, etc., but these people, seeing themselves as entitled to “evolve the species”, use tension to merge elements of bipolar opposites, so from the explosion of these opposite agents, you create a new paradigm, but the later repeat the cycle as new diametrically opposed binaries reveal themselves.
There’s a Darwinists and Enlightenment Period based mindset (which includes liberalism, Communism, fascism, and capitalism) that sees chaos and flux as essential in the process of evolution and these concepts are embedded into Western thought, didactic, etc. The common man, burdened by the grind of existence, where the system knows and manipulates our Maslow Hierarchy of Needs by creating scarcity (competition, unemployment, etc.), is more likely to find solace in their identity (the cheapest form of currency in my opinion), and not question how those identities are constructed to be binaries in a system of control for the benefit of a few.
For example, the Nation of Islam, which is listed as a hate group by the US State Department, Southern Poverty Law Center (who helped take down the KKK in the 1960s), and Anti-Defamation League, believes that black scientist named Yakub (insinuating Jacob from the Jewish tradition) created white people and other races with an unspecified birth-control method to be “diametrically opposed” to blackness, and to conquer black people.
Nation of Islam by the way was allegedly created by a man impersonating a black man, and he mysteriously disappeared, potentially stealing money from membership fees of poor blacks. Many poor black people fled up north, and the creator of the Nation of Islam, using the then popular trend of secret groups, like B’nai B’rith, the Klu Klux Klan, etc., focused on these new black migrants who became jaded by racism up north. Before the twentieth century, after the Civil War, the United States saw an increase in spiritualism, mesmerism (hypnosis), seances, etc., because there was a lot of death from the war and a changing of America as new immigrants came in. The N.O.I., is simply a byproduct of these events. Today, the Nation of Islam has ties to Scientology, which is further proof of the mind-control elements the N.O.I. seeks out.
https://newrepublic.com/article/108205/scientology-joins-forces-with-nation-of-islam
Simply reading this I can pull so much. A) black people descended from slaves often make similarities to that of the ancient Jews in captivity since that was the only book that slaves were allowed to read (or, be read too), granted it was redacted by slave owners to justify slavery, B) because of Christianity being forced upon us – my people, as it was for most groups, including tribal Europeans in the Dark Ages, newly freed black people after slavery, notably those exposed to other ideas in Northern Cities, were searching for identity and some chose a religion that was perceived as polar opposite to Christian, rural, and Southern, yet still beholden to the credibility of Abrahamic faiths, and chose unorthodox Islam, and C) the figure of Yakub – a rip off of Jacob – is essentially the concept that not only chirps to anti-Jewish thought, but also the notion of the “Uncle Tom”, “sell-out”, “race traitor”, etc., meaning that the Nation of Islam inserted this character, as a “purity testing” trip-wire figure, as a means of taking the high ground to call any detractors or critics “enemies of the race”, which is a pretty low and lazy way of winning arguments.
There was also an aversion to the COVID-19 vaccines, despite black Americans in certain categories being at increased risk for contracting it due to high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, etc., but also black and Latin workers often work in businesses that were prone to outbreaks such as warehouses, meat packing facilities, restaurants, etc.
Sure, my last point about COVID-19 is more understandable, because to be frank, the virus was new, people had limited information, the virus did fundamentally change how we operate (such as tele-work, social distancing, etc.), and there is a general mistrust of institutions; however, for all the other previous points stated, there is a trend of black men, notably popular black celebrities, descending into what I consider to be postmodern solipsism, relativity, and conspiracy theory.
Further, as this phenomenon of black celebrities going mad is happening, which is not necessarily new, there are public figures willingly to use this distortion or confusion of what is real or what is not real to mix it with Pan-Africanism so these public leaders to ascend to prominent positions.
Umar Johnson, for example, is a Men’s Rights Activist, likely inspired by the late yet controversial Kevin Samuels (whom like Jesse Lee Peterson, tells the story that black people were better off segregated).
IV. Fascism hiding under Postmodernism
Misinformation affects all people regardless of demographic because as a society we are now living in a hyper-reality of late-stage, globalized capitalism – full of parody, pastiche, bad actors, i.e., trolls or agents of misinformation, and recycled pop culture – where the distinction between real and fake, or simulation and simulacra is hard to discern.
We live in a world where corporate power for example is so strong, innocuous, and entrenched and it pervades all aspects of life, including the commodification of race, culture, sexuality, orientation, ideology, religion, education, healthcare, and just about…everything. Even misinformation is commodified.
I say that postmodernism is the chameleon skin that shrouds the predatory animus of capitalism.
The disorienting “skin”, i.e., postmodern culture, is simply a way of capitalism to sustain itself by a) creating relativity so we don’t know what is real or fake, and b) recycling culture, often in anachronistic fashion, because most growth or markets have already been exhausted, and most production isn’t from labor value but is from financialization, i.e., using fiat money to speculate on assets to create artificial demand where those at the top benefit the most, and manipulate business cycles to their own benefit (knowing government’s, already being privatized, will insure their loses at taxpayer expense).
As a result, we live in a world where “Continental Philosophy” encompassing fields such as metaphysics and existentialism merges with “Analytical Philosophy” encompassing fields like linguistics, game theory, logic, etc. In other words, we have a lot of intensive research and data alongside endless subjective interpretations of said data thus leading to a “collective flux”, i.e., mass solipsism, resulting in statements such as “my truth”.
Even though this democratization of information can be inspiring and helpful (e.g., checking institutional power), it does lead to a “triumph of the will” of ideas, i.e., the strongest survives, hence we may be subject to constant and ever-growing ideological conflict as ideas battle each other with no sense of moderation or consensus in sight.
But as a fellow black man, I can understand why there’s this need for truth among black people, yet, it seems to be leading black men (not saying more so than anyone else) down conspiracy rabbit holes.
The truth is, of course, black people had our diverse and often differing indigenous identities stripped and were forcibly yet partially assimilated into Western Civilization, to be labor power, but also to serve as an aesthetic binary to whiteness, where blackness became the magnet for the vileness of white supremacy.
Black Americans were designed to arouse a sense of supremacy in white settlers, many who had nothing but the value of being white.
Black people historically were denied education, reading, the ability to speak up, and our own destinies. Yet, this doesn’t mean that black people lacked aptitude, but rather we were disbarred from understanding the civilization which fell upon us, and which also devalued us. There’s a tendency to think that we’re not getting the entire story, or, there’s a paranoia of some higher deeper and nefarious truth – which is true but can be untrue depending upon on how we seek those truths.
But, how far black people have come is a true miracle.
We must be willing to check our own theses.
Simply because we feel something doesn’t mean that it is true, and the also the simplest path towards a solution is often not the truth but its tempting to take the less arduous path. For example, antisemitism is often a gross simplification of the truth, because Jews don’t run the world, even though, of course, there are powerful players that are Jewish pulling the levers of power, but to time and time again blaming Jews is intellectually lazy and ironic. If Jews really ran the world, why would they not just bulldoze anyone in their way?
White nationalist for example, preach that they are superior one second, while claiming to be victims at the same time, and most of the bad ideas that are affecting everyone – white people included – were created by white people. Karl Marx, a Jew, or a BIPOC person didn’t steal your job, but Mitt Romney working in Leveraged Buyouts did.
The temptation to jump to antisemitism, is disingenuous, and an easy scapegoat, but black people do this too, i.e., we try to find a simple explanation without understanding all the nuances, conflicts, inner diversity of various groups, etc.
When you add all of this with the fact that black men are often the most criminalized, black people in general – traditionally speaking – are often seen as having “less quality” or “less refined tastes”, etc., there is an insatiable thirst for truth to rebuild or regain our “consciousness” “regalia” “honor”, but the trauma on black people, both present and past, both anecdotal and institutional, seems to corrupt the path towards truth. This corruption, which objectively is from a good place I would argue, seems to have some black people questioning everything, even basic principles such as Terrance Howard arguing against basic arithmetic (something all humans developed and understood on their own).
History is already a confusing and rigorous endeavor, but most people fall for conspiracy theories, where I defined conspiracy theories as theories where the conclusion is already predetermined, but the researcher with a specific or ideological bias uses facts that simply serve their point, instead of actively challenging their own thesis or idea. Conspiracy theories as opposed to let’s say investigative journalism often lacks rigorous peer review, panel presentations, debates, etc.