Being a Black American, I noticed that a lot of the more vocal, fiery, and/or analytical voices within Black Liberation politics often attempt to be at odds with “Western philosophy”, yet, they are indelibly… Western through and through.
Most Black Liberation Politics centers around Continental Leftist and or liberal (in the classical sense onwards) types of ideology centering around concepts such as deconstruction, post-structuralism, Critical Theory, existentialism to many extents, anti-colonialism, post-colonialism, and some degree postmodernism (e.g., hip hop as a late stage capitalist form of music that blurs high art with low art, pastiche, hyper capitalism, the subjectivity of morality, pop culture, etc.).
But, for those within Black Liberation politics, stretching from the Ivory Tower college seminars with the stereotypical dred-locked wise sage professor, to YouTube video essayists with their evermore ridiculous thumbnails to attract eyeballs (yes, I am talking about “Foreign Man in a Foreign Land”, etc.), and all the way to fringe cults pushing antediluvian Black Supremacist origin stories (even throw in a few UFOs or mad scientists, e.g., The Nation of Islam, Nuwabians, Hoteps, etc.), what I notice is…. there is no real black philosophy.
Rather, we what we have is blackness expressed through Western philosophy.
What I’m saying is….is that most of the Black Nationalist or liberation types who are quick to call another person’s “blackness” into question, even going so far as using white supremacist Antebellum slavery monikers towards each other, i.e., house slave, house negro, coon, Uncle Tom, the N-word, etc., but these Black Nationalist and liberation types are….living in the “House”, i.e., the house is the Western civilization including its philosophy.
So, to appear to be at odds with the West, when in essence we are products of the West, including using its language, didactic, etc., is ironic. In other words, don’t pretend that you’re higher or holier or more “organic” simply because you push pro-blackness when we are all living collectively under the roof of the house. The only way to truly alleviate this dilemma is to…leave the West.
Full unplug form the West or rather attempt at establishing a coherent “Black Philosophy” or “Southern Philosophy” that with academic rigor pools various indigenous African philosophies under one umbrella. No conspiracy theory, no anti-white girl paranoid black female nonsense, no toxic masculinity, but literal hitting the books and creating a framework that spans ethics, logic, etc.
I say Southern philosophy because we obviously know that Eastern typically represents Asian and/or Indian Subcontinent frameworks spanning Hinduism, Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, etc., whereas Western philosophy touches upon everything from the Sages, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hegel, Continentals vs Analytics, etc. In other words, we live under a global “Eurasianist” viewpoint, which isn’t bad necessarily, but the problem is that it excludes the philosophical frameworks of other parts of planet, so we can’t have a truly united human specifies until we include other frameworks or test them at least.
My call, yes, Quinton Mitchell is saying, that there should be a Southern Philosophy that emphasis the major categories of philosophy such as Ethics, Metaphysics, Epistemology, Logic, and Aesthetics. This could be done my using game theory, Artificial Intelligence, computer regressions, etc.
Before I start this, I don’t like “Dr.” Umar Johnson, I don’t like the Nation of Islam cult, or generally most black nationalist movements. However, I want the best for black people.
Blackness in the context of Western Civilization was intended to be the “antithesis” to the “thesis” of white supremacy, colonialism, exceptionalism, deification, etc. Better put, blackness is the “yang” to the “ying” of whiteness. Though this is a manufactured dialectic, an engineered binary, etc., which was intended to create a caste system for the benefit of generating wealth for a top-down hierarchy between the ruling class and the peasantry – where race was used as a layer of division to disunite the common human proletariat – the truth is that the dialectic has sunken deep into the ontology, consciousness, what have you, of Western civilization. Even if the dialectic isn’t purely from a wealth accumulation standpoint, the truth is we are all human laboring under the illusion of self, etc.
As a result, blackness as personified by African bodies that were forcibly absorbed into Western civilization during the Trans-Atlantic Slavery and Colonial periods, notably of the Americas and continental Africa itself, is…black. By black, I mean nihilistic.
Blackness is the personification of Western nihilism that was constructed to give purpose and meaning to “solution” of “whiteness”. Black bodies are seen as “challenges” to be triumphed against, trained for, brutalized, humbled, etc. Black culture is seen a reminder of the civilizing tendencies of “white culture”. Black de-valuation is seen as an easy means of boosting “white valuation”, for example, impoverished whites seeing themselves as more in alignment with the white upper class rather than black lower class, i.e., whites at the bottom can appropriate upwards, whereas black people who succeed are continuously dragged down by the “black bottom”, etc. Yet, the irony is that black culture is all of these things, i.e., black people also choose to live in the binary of being polar opposites just for the sake of it, and as a result, the system gets what it wants…an easily agitated and divided public.
The further construction of blackness is the tendency towards self-annihilation, and by that I don’t mean breeding or baby making, but rather the cannibalistic and infectious nature of toxic masculinity (street law, street justice, etc.). To me a black man for example means to push out emotion, care, sympathy, honor, etc. Black men brutalize each other each day as black men jockey over petty squabbles of maintaining societal notions of masculinity, but not just any notion, but this purposely crafted dialectical notion explicitly intended for black people.
Wow, I was probably nearly a year ago when I was living up in Seattle.
I was sitting in a restaurant for lunch and noticed a man outside pacing around a fairly busy intersection. He was speaking to himself, his pants sagged, and was walking in a defensive posture, as if he was defending himself from the world, a world of his possibly damaged psyche. He held a rod of some sort and twirled it around defensively at imaginary threats, who seemed to be after what few belongings he had on a rollable cart.
Yet even though my defensive senses were raised, I looked at the guy with a bit of sadness.
As I left the restaurant, I crossed eyes with the man, and I saw fear in him. His eyes had the pinkish redness of a crying toddler or that of an adult on the verge of tears – the eyes slightly burning. Maybe he is freaking out over the fact he doesn’t know where his next meal is coming from, where he will sleep, or if his meds might run out? You never know.
This erratic behavior seems to have been a defensive reflex. Maybe he “looks scary” because he has to? He likely was a mentally ill ex-prisoner fighting for survival, but now is basically a homeless man with shellshock roaming the city, fighting whatever demons he has.
Yet, even as he paced around, people walked right past him.
No one is going to call the cops, because people fear that cops might see a mentally-ill black man and treat him like a violent criminal possibly leading to his death. Police in general in the wake of the Summer of 2020 seem to be not doing their jobs as well as they can because of pride, i.e., they want the public who called them out to crawl back to them.
It seems our current times are this odd mix of dialectical (bipolar) tension. The Left is softer on crime, yet way more understanding about the factors that leads to social issues, whereas conservatives are tougher on crime but being tougher on crime doesn’t fix crime, but simply sweeps it away, just for it to reappear later, especially since crime isn’t simply a matter of oversimplified morals (right vs wrong). The conservative approach is to simply to lock up people, evict people, put them on buses to far away states (liberal ones), etc.
But, seeing people simply walk past him and not make much of a fuss, even as the man tried destroying a sign of an ice cream parlor, it made me think of Michel Foucault.
I’m no expert on the guy. Never read him. I’m aware of him. He’s one of those people who was so influential that you sort of gain his knowledge by osmosis since elements of progressive culture, similar to the impact of Herbert Marcuse, was so influential.
One idea that he was notable for writing about was how systems created a clinical gaze towards the mentally ill, whom previously had been a part of the overall community, e.g., the town-square drunkard or babbling homeless guy, but this modernist clinical gaze created inadvertently a new type of oppression, a type of reductionist viewpoint, resulting in mentally ill people not be treated holistically but being attacked by systemic violence that marginalizes their existences (solitary confinement, forced medications, strip searches, showers by hosing, experimentation, shock therapy, lobotomies, sterilization, etc.). Further, Foucault spoke about the prison style known as the panopticon which is a euphemism for the spy and police state.
Foucault seems to have been trying to say is that the mentally ill still have thoughts, even if their thoughts aren’t conventional, and maybe in some strange way, there’s certain levels of wisdom there, similar to how older or more ancient cultures might have looked on a mentally ill person, such as one suffering from what we consider to be schizophrenia today, and figured they were communicating on higher level.
It seems safe to say that Foucault’s then controversial views have made the world a better place by questioning ableism. For example, Greta Thunberg instead of seeing her Aspergers as a crutch, she rather embraced her condition as a superpower, and she shows she can still be a productive member of society who wishes for its well-being.
It seems that cities with progressive policies are today still subconsciously influenced by Foucault’s anti-ableist analysis and are tolerant of the mentally ill in public.
And, sure, let’s say that is all fine. The only issue is that this tolerance is still inhabiting a capitalist system, where I would argue that the capitalist system is making more mentally ill people, so we end up never getting ahead of solutions but always reacting to issues. Since liberals are still related to classical liberalism, it seems that the charity towards the mentally ill gets monetized and absorbed into bureaucracy, more so intent on provide jobs and administration, rather than fixing the underlying problem.
The pressures of working jobs where performance metrics are becoming more and more draconian on the grounds of maximizing profits; a materialist culture designed to emotionally, physically, and even sexually manipulate us into making consumer purchases to maintain our status in hierarchal social systems; the rising cost of living where most of a person’s income goes toward rents thus to entertain themselves they might self-medicate more (the cheaper option) or dissociate into digital fantasy landscapes, and, let’s not forget the postmodern implications of the internet spewing every conspiracy theory, hyper-real depictions of violence, etc.
We need to fund with taxes overnight and/or court-orereded mental health facilities, because A) they provide a place for people to sleep, eat, be safe, etc., and B) mentally ill people aren’t thrown into jails where they can be prey or harmful to others.
As capitalism continues to eat away at every aspect of modern life, commodifying everything in its path, it is no surprise that we in the United States live with crime, homelessness, disparity, mental illness, communicable diseases, police altercations, gentrification, etc., are growing in scope and scale.
The problem is that our society has merged three things which should be separately funded and managed which are prisons/jails/halfway houses/juvenile detention centers, drug rehab centers, and mental health facilities (i.e., formerly called asylums).
The “merging” is likely due to privatization as former government ran institutions were slowly “contracted out” to free-market businesses, where many are public, thus they have a responsibility to maximize shareholder value. The easiest way to maximize profit is of course to cut costs, reduce quality, and merge job specialties, which are argued for with fancy business lingo or phrases such as achieving economies-of-scale, lean management, maximizing shareholder value, reducing redundancy, etc.
The problem is that the scope of prisons, mental health facilities, and drug rehabs are often merged.
Drug addicts are thrown in jail and many become indebted to criminal gangs, and the inability to pay debts might lead people to be physically or sexually assaulted (pimped out, sexual slavery), etc.
This increases risk of contracting communicable diseases, even if no sexual activity is occurring, e.g., being in a bloody fight with another inmate, being stabbed, etc.
Further, mentally ill people might be exploited outright, and even more so if they have drug addictions. The way the system is designed, it creates a toxic ecosystem. Drug addicts fuel the gang activity, and gang activity is often but not always racially segregated, thus increasing risks of riots and radicalizing inmates who will take their hateful ideology to the public to recruit more people, etc. Many gangs require life commitments, so some inmates once released, potentially fearing for their lives or those of their loved ones, help sustain criminal activity on the inside, .e.g, sending money, smuggling drugs, committing violence against enemies or informants, etc.
Former prisoners often state that the guards purposely created racial division, or rather they sustain it. It’s not uncommon to hear stories of guards watching prisoner fighters, betting on fights, setting up informants to be attacked, assisting in criminal activity such as smuggling, turning a blinded eye to sexual assaults, sexually assaulting inmates, etc.
On top of all these factors, many former inmates have hard times finding jobs or places to live, so drug addicts and/or mentally ill people, or people in general who are on hard times, often become homeless, thus causing another problem. Many inmates once released are given a bus ticket and told good luck and find themselves landing at every seedy bus station in every American city.
Since the night is much more dangerous than the daytime, homeless people might sleep and eat in the day, but are on guard duty the entire night, and many turn to drugs to stay awake.
In other words, everything is connected and understanding those connections and giving each step of the process is the only way to truly bring forth systemic reform. For example, when waging war, counties rarely factor in the high costs of taking care of veterans, and many of these veterans find themselves in the cycles I’ve been mentioning.
We need to fund society, i.e., the people’s government, and not simply take tax money and hand it over to contractors who bloat costs, because bad procurement processes/monitoring by auditing agencies doesn’t do good due diligence.
This is where we come further into conflict with capitalism.
State governments pander to corporations so they come to their state by cutting tax rates, and this ends up leading to a race to zero amongst the state governments. This results in “national austerity” placing long-term pressure on residents and workers who cover the load of taxes to fund society because corporations will threaten to leave if not given what they want. Yet, many people vote for these neo-liberal policies out of desperation, but also good propaganda methods by conservatives who decry big government in favor of “personal freedom”, but they fail to mention that the freedom for a corporation is more powerful than the freedom of a person.
Corporations sell this idea of freedom to the working class so corporate personhood can go untouched. It’s that simple.
Sure, your state might get jobs, but you’ll have underfunded public services, which cost more and more to fix if the problems get too out of control, ironically since private businesses fill the void and there’s no to little control over what they charge for services. The jobs promised by the companies might not pan out, with many creating fewer jobs than they promised to community leaders.
Also, it’s a myth that states without taxes are better off. States that can raise capital through taxes have the ability to invest in the public good, i.e., expanding wi-fi access which helps the poor or young search for jobs or obtain online certifications/education. Well-funded infrastructure is simply good for business. States that invest in mental health and drug reform might see improved relations with communities who see that police aren’t just enforcers of a capitalist system, but rather helpers in the community who can help refer people who need help to the right agencies.
Sure, Texas has a powerhouse economy, and no hate to the state objectively, but it also executes more people than any other state, its separate power grid failed during a winter storm, and I really can’t fathom the amount of pollution or cancer causes by the fossil fuels and corporate farming industry.
How much money did Fortune 500s lose due to Texas’ energy grid disaster? Or, how many Fortune 500 companies have decided to stay in California despite the price because California has the government power to try new things, which has resulted in attracting a skilled workforce?
Every state should have some type of income tax to help fund/hedge public services that serve all people regardless of their identity. States need to stand in unity so all states have some type of income tax so corporations can’t pit the states against each other. This state competition for jobs by reducing taxes causes mass migrations, which can have even more of an impact on social issues.
For example, the popular California vs Texas divide.
Many Californians are leaving the state due to lack of housing (building codes, increased material costs, property taxes, home owner associations, zoning laws, short-term rental market – AirBnB, Vrbo, etc. – which takes homes off the market, and foreign nations buying whole neighborhoods for portfolio assets), taxes, fees, overcrowding, lack of blue collar work, forest fires, state universities prioritizing out-of-state students so they can be charged more money with out-of-state tuition rates, etc.
Yet, the issue isn’t that California has an income tax but it might be an issue of the rate they charge, and the issue with Texas is they have no income tax to create the proper nest-eggs, rainy day accounts or emergency funds, thus corners are cut.
A state like Washington State which is traditionally Democratic doesn’t have an income tax, which is more so to appease the conservative elements of the state, while also appeasing big business who have to deal with Washington’s traditionally strong unionist workforce (IBEW, dock workers, aircraft mechanics, teachers, etc.). Yet, in all my travels and having lived all over the United States, I always noticed the West Coast has a strong homeless or vagabond culture, where people often attribute this to the fact that the West Coast the last destination of the Continental United States. However, Washington State like many other states have been privatizing mental health. A former court-ordered mental health facilities called Western State near Lakewood/Steilacoom WA was closed.
Hitler, the Nazis, the Holocaust, have become, sadly, and oddly, a form of pop culture, and not just any pop culture, but a hyper-real form of culture perpetuated by the omnipotent and fate-sealing power of the “algorithm”.Quinton Mitchell
I call it Nazi Pop.
I understand that history should be taught and preserved. I also understand that having different content creators helps analyze topics form different perspectives. However, I think there should at least be more disclaimers relating to Nazi content or at least some sort more intensive vetting process including but not limited to peer-review for YouTube videos on the subject. Also, creators of such content should have to disclose their public identity rather than hide behind avatars.
A large chuck of the profit percentage should go to charities such as those dedicated to Holocaust education or hate-group watchdog groups.
It seems many content creators have learned that making videos about Nazis is an easy way to get paid, yet many people don’t care about the money but rather they are potential Nazi sympathizers who have adapted to not seeming radical but instead brand themselves as “amateur historians”. For example, the YouTube pages such as the Zoomer Historian and History-at-War.
Sure, not everyone talking about Nazis are bad and the intent is often educational. Yet, even with these good faith actors the need to make money off Nazi content still stands. For example, let us look at lovable and iconic YouTube creator, Simon Whistler.
When I type in Simon Whistler Nazi on YouTube I see the following videos. Why Did So Many Nazis Choose Argentina to Flee to After WWII? (on Today I Found Out); Why Did So Many Nazis Choose Argentina to Flee to After WWII? (on Into The Shadows); Adolf Hitler – The Rise of a Fanatical Fuhrer (on Biographics); The “Nice” Nazis (on Sideprojects); War and Drugs – WWII Soldiers Go Mad on Meth (on Brain Blaze); Inside the Meeting that Engineered the Holocaust (on Into the Shadows); The Rise and Fall of the Nazi War Machine (on Warographics); The 1936 Olympic Games: Nazi Germany’s Gambit (on Into the Shadows); The “XX System”: How MI5 Made Fools of the Nazis (on Into the Shadows)…and honestly, there is at least 20 plus more.
I must stress that I think Simon Whistler is a legitimate content creator interested in sharing snippets of lost history.
Him aside, we have to be real there are likely Attomwaffen SS sympathizers etc. secretly making ambiguous pro-Nazi videos.
This is what I am saying. Is it education or entertainment? Sure, I have hope that humanity has learned its lessons but…we do live in a world that does seem to be dangerously flirting with a nostalgia for strong-men fascism, largely as a means of curbing the externalities of global capitalism (mass migration, free trade, etc.), which ironically is controlled by those who often fund…fascism.
In other words, the elite capital class are responsible for most of the world’s social ills but while they make profit, they also fund isolationist, nationalist, and often racist regimes because these fascist regimes often side with capitalism, especially as a means of opposing egalitarian ideas such as communism.
Elon Musk is the avatar for everything negative I am stating or insinuating in this post. An alleged “autistic savant”, Sorrow of Young Werner, edge lord, “Sit on my face” (Grandma’s Boy film reference), billionaire capitalist who panders to right wing grifters because they are more so aligned with the economic ideology that enables him to exploit, loot, scam, borrow, fake it till he makes it, and profit, etc.
I call this tendency to make Nazi videos for money on YouTube as being Nazi Pop. Nazi Pop Culture.
There seems to be something going on. There are a lot of “historical analysis” videos dedicated to “studying” (cough – worshipping) the Nazis, especially with a target audience comprised of Millennials, Zoomers, and this odd new “Newsweek”-coined generation called “Generation Alpha”. It is as if there is a bot farm spewing out these Nazi historical analysis videos as a means of subconsciously brainwashing a new crop of unwitting racists, “race realists”, etc., notably in the wake of a world that is unfairly – in my opinion – rallying against “wokeness”, where said “wokeness” is often, but not always, code-word in conservative circles for anything that is not white, straight, male, capitalist, selfish and likely Christian.
“Whiteness” has cleverly positioned itself as an “oppressed” status group, however, the political left often can’t help but to not use “whiteness” as the target to most of its own philosophical juxtapositions. Adding to this, because of the burdens of globalism, climate change, poverty, and wars, many refugees have fled into the Global North, thus causing race realist nationalism to rise.
The political left – though not wrong in its political and economic analysis of contemporary issues, at least from a pure analysis standpoint, as opposed to real life political experiments – often uses whiteness as the focal and starting point for many of its analytical arguments, and this, therefore, helps create a situation that actual white supremacist can exploit by providing a “safe space” for the often lost, frustrated, guilty, etc. White people who are tasked with analyzing their privilege but then rejecting the guilt associated with it when they feel they are being unfairly singled out, and at worst, disarmed from self-defense from the basic truths of human nature beyond race or color.
In other words, many white people feel they can’t defend themselves while also being blamed for the ills of society, and many people reject these feelings and are often recruited by bad faith actors who want to inculcate them into race realism, racism, Nazism, etc. Yet, the left or liberals can often be dismissive of this sentiment, but being dismissive doesn’t mean it goes away. However, this does not mean we need to coddle or excuse the truths of toxic masculinity, entitlement, the hypocrisies of patriarchy and the male gaze onto the female form, racism, etc.
I am not saying that whiteness, colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy, etc., as is, as they are linked in our contemporary society, are not topics worth studying, however, the folly of let’s say…Marxists analysis…is that it reduces everything to base “non metaphysical” material that is in need of study, analysis, etc. Yet, my argument is that human nature is sure able to be understood, yet most humans are not thinking too deep about social issues besides simply trying to survive in peace. Also, my rebuttal to a full acceptance of applying Marxist analysis is that life is inherently…nonsensical and absurd. The Marxist tries to reduce everything to realist, evolutionary struggle in a sort of godless universe where no objective truths actually exist besides the truths we can analyze based on our evolution as a species, here and only here on Earth, based on understanding the crux of class throughout space and time. Sounds somewhat reasonable.
But why do we make art? Why do we do anything? What’s the point? The point is there is no point but there is a point. Life has purpose and in theory doesn’t. Life is a walking contradiction but because it is, we naturally apply some level of metaphysical justification to our actions. Sure, we can debate about the scope and scale about how we apply metaphysical explanation or justification to sustain our existences, yet, still humans often operate indifferent to being “analytical nerds” where everything is seen as a mindless construction of petty human efforts.
The tin-foil hat in me thinks that our current racial situation is in part manufactured. A sort of dialectical warfare situation where those at the top, typically the capital owners, use race as a means of disguising the institutional power that ironically helps maintain the one percent. The left thinks it is immune to this, but I suspect this is not the case because those at the top, are smarter than given credit for, considering that the left spends so much time in analyzing them. The one percent needs a racially divided proletariat in order to maintain the systems that maintains their power, yet, oddly, when someone says that “things are rigged” notably in matters of race, I notice the political-left itself is often dismissive of this allegation (which I can understand because such as allegation can be used lazily as a means of not deeply analyzing systemic power, however, it is naïve for the left to not admit that pitting the races against each other has always been a key strategy in debasing proletarian and labor-centric power). However, those on the Left don’t want to be dismissive of marginalized groups voices by prioritizing class consciousness over intersectionality, so if anything, it’s on said marginalized groups to accept that such divisive strategies are possible, but it may ironically not be good strategy for historically oppressed groups to acknowledge this considering the status quo can use this as a means of furthering silencing specific causes. Just one of the many seemingly, damned if you, demand if you don’t Catch 22’s we live under.
With the toxic revolt and reaction against diversity and inclusion, I, as black man who grew up largely in predominately white environments (which, I admit were often positive experiences, but yes I have experienced blatant racism), I notice on YouTube that many “content creators” are uploading videos dedicated to studying Nazism.
And, sure, there’s a lot of unpackage there, but I often suspect more sinister intentions. The phenomena are similar to the notion or trop of the “edge lord”. Instead of seeing what the Nazis did as bad, rather the Nazis are “pornified”. From their Hugo Boss uniforms, their innovations (rockets, synthetic oils, jet engines, the interstate systems, intercontinental ballistic missiles, propaganda, etc.), their national unity, etc., there is something that many people seem to deeply want to emulate. That is the sad thing about these YouTube videos for example. Many but not all seem to be about nostalgia rather than analysis of evil.
We must remember than since 2012 for example, which was the era that kicked off the police brutality riots – often against black people – than many college age people were children. Many have adopted the tenants of social justice to varying degrees, but others see social justice as establishment. This therefore opens the opportunity for actual Neo Nazis, who have innovated into doing video essays online, owning video game Reddit communities, etc., the ability to recruit a new crop of followers or apologists.
At first, the book White Noise by Don DeLillo creeps up in my mind. In that book, the main character, Jack Gladney, is the professor of Nazi Studies at some Midwest college, yet the character of Gladney was used by DeLillo as a means of detailing how even a monster such as Adolph Hitler became a sort of pop culture commodity in a postmodern and post-capitalist world. Even Family Guy by Seth MacFarlane pointed fun at this with his Hitler talk-show in his cartoon.
Even atrocities of wars gone by and the lessons thereof which should humble us as a species, instead become commodities or a means of gaining an income.
DeLillo’s prophetic words in his 1985 National Book Award winning novel (which were not done with justice in the 2023 movie adaptation in my opinion) sort of became reality. Hitler, the Nazis, the Holocaust, have become, sadly, and oddly, a form of pop culture, and not just any pop culture, but a hyper-real form of culture perpetuated by the omnipotent and fate-sealing power of the “algorithm”.
(1) Many Christian conservatives often fall into conspiracy theories, yet, isn’t obsessing over conspiracy theories a sign of not having faith? If their faith is so strong and God is in control, then it seems that Christians don’t really believe God…is…in…control. Once could go further and say that Christians who engage in conspiracy theory are actually engaging in blasphemy despite their conspiracies being against what they consider to be Christian blasphemies.
(2) It’s funny how people say the Second Amendment is about protecting us against a tyrannical government, yet, if that’s the case then why did so many white people not pick up arms to liberate black people from Jim Crow? Or, at a minimum be supportive of black people taking up arms to liberating themselves? Maybe it’s because what is “tyrannical” is subjective, i.e., just because you don’t like something you call it tyrannical, but what’s tyrannical to one is not to another. A lot of people seems Ok when a segment of the population was being oppressed.
(3) It’s interesting how conservatives said that COVID was a hoax, yet, the only way how Trump kept out migrants and refugees was through acknowledging that COVID existed with his use of Title 42 laws (the ability to keep people out of the USA because of public health concerns). So either COVID is real and was a real threat, or the Trump Administration used a hoax per conservative logic to keep out migrants, and in theory, per the law, violate the ability for people to seek asylum.
(4) Republicans say they want to bring money home, such as when talking about the Ukraine Russian War, etc., yet, this is the same party…. that wants to cut public education, raise social security (thus, increasing the chance of not getting it since you’re closer to dying, etc.).
(5) Conservatives are trying to argue that religion should not be separate from state, yet this just leads to xenophobia because society therefore becomes a battle of which religion has more power over the other because people don’t want to be rulee by a religion they don’t align with. Christian Nationalist also wanting secular power also negates their faith because in theory God is control and has a plan, yet it seems Christian Nationalist want to control the plan because deeply they don’t have faith and/or their faith is “bad faith”, i.e., for selfish, racist, sexist, etc., reasons. Which church would even rule? There are thousands of Protestant churches. Will we be…Church of God, Southern Baptist, Missionary Baptists, Anglican, Episcopalian, Methodist, African Methodist Episcopalian, Seventh Day Adventist, Unitarian, Roman Catholic, Coptic Christian, Orthodox, Quaker, Mennonite, Amish, etc.?
(6) Conservatives say the dislike government, despite hailing police agencies which are government institutions. Not saying that is good or bad, but just admit that conservatives do like elements of government.
(7) Conservatives want to ban adult content yet state they value free speech between consenting adults, where adults are legally allowed to enter into contracts, including contracts that includes the use of their bodies. By banning legal pornography all you do is create the market for illegal pornography which empowers criminals and ironically may help increase human trafficking. It’s also insane how Conservatives try to merge legal desire between adults with crime as a low IQ and strawman strategy to guilt people away from not being sexually empowered, educated, fulfilled, etc.
(8) Conservatives were saying All Lives Matters or say “I don’t see Color” but then freak out when a person of color is cast in movie in a role that was traditionally played by a white person.
First off, black people can be racist despite this insane notion these days that black people cannot since black people “lack power”. But to believe this actually defeats Black Nationalist claims of supremacy and fosters a victim mentality, yet being ambiguous between victim and bigot is a form of power but being deceptive about it. Believing black people can’t be racist ironically is dehumanizing which defeats the claim of being empowered. Black people can be racist yet the scope of that racism is lesser if talking in terms of systems. So it’s not that black people objectively can’t be racist if we’re to entrain this often leftist notion, but rather their racism has little impact on larger systems; however, within smaller or interpersonal dymanics, of course black people can be racist within the context of tjem being minorities. Not holding us to the same standards is proof that certain forces want to instigate and perpetuate the racial divide. Everyone can punch but some punches have more weight behind them.
Regardless, I don’t want to hate Umar Johnson. I feel his intentions to want to help are correct but his prescription to solve the problems facing black people are unnecessary. He is playing the racial dialectic game without realizing that in many ways that is…the point of America, i.e., to keep the black-white binary (or, black-white and white adjacent binary – which includes white Hispanic, Arab, Asian, etc.) in perpetual struggle as a means of dividing the public, where such division notably amongst the traditional white poor (and, more recently the social climbing first to second generation Latino still figuring out where they stand in the racial hierarchy scheme) serves to protect the capitalist ruling class of predominantly white or white adjacent men.
Instead of a true class struggle beyond identity politics, figures like Umar Johnson exploit the more-so Left Wing (anti-colonial and self-deterministic) sentiment which calls for the need for certain communities to have their own “incubation period to resolve the issues of colonialism”, etc.
Umar usurps this calling for what I call the “incubation/healing phase” for oppressed groups and instead hijacks it to create a version of black supremacy and what I would argue is black fascism.
Hence, why I say Umar Johnson is the perfect example of the Horseshoe Theory, i.e., in the case of Left-Wing politics, if you go too far Left (for example through “woke territory”) you end up at the opposite end of the spectrum and wind up in Right Wing territory. Same can be said if you go too Right Wing, i.e., what we see to be white racial collectivism abandoning notions of individualism as seen in the liberal tradition in exchange for dictatorial leaders who oversee an expansive police-government state, i.e., a sort of Communist totalitarian state.
In theory, Umar is an unwitting agent to give the system what it wants (a continuation of the colorist and racial caste system needed for divide-and-conquer purposes over the proletariat) because it wants segregation and will use anything, including the political left or wokeness on top of the traditional right-wing methods to achieve that.
I do not think that black people attempting to incubate our own wealth and prosperity is bad thing at all considering the truth of our history, yet, you can do this without being a racialist, colorist, patriarch, etc.
One simple flaw that black people or activist seem to make without realizing it is that they don’t have to call every initiative that attempts to help black people as being “black”, because we already know who the initiatives are for, and often “the system” uses such “exclusive-seeming marketing” as a means of encouraging the further solidification of white supremacy. For example, White Power actually was a reaction to Black Power in the 1960s through white supremacist figures such as William Luther Pierce (author or The Hunter and The Turner Diaries), and sure, of course, we know that Black Power and White Power are two different things – at least in their origins and original intent – but still, black people need realize strategically speaking that marketing every helpful black movement as explicitly black, ironically and systemically is used to continue the oppression black people.
Yet, many black activists would reject my analysis on this because to them they are wanting to make a firm statement and they see anything that doesn’t go “hard enough”, i.e., seen as being un-apologetically black, as not being authentic.
However, my rebuttal to such an accusation would simply be…don’t broadcast all your moves, i.e., don’t put a target on your back just to make a moral or figurative statement. In other words, do not make this about prideful proclamations when you can achieve more without people noticing you often.
For example, “white companies” which are the majority don’t market themselves as “white owned” even though it is understood that most of the profits are going into white hands. Yet, black people wanting to make a powerful statement, flaunt, flex, etc., to prove “we can” always want to slap the “black” this or that label on everything, which ironically limits one’s market-size and potential for market capitalization because…most people will think it’s “only for them”. This is ironic because white or Asian business firms will take money from everywhere rather than just their own respective race or ethnic group, and thus have more capital to assert their dominance over institutions. For example, if we are to accept that hierarchies form naturally in society, then self-segregation limits the scale thus power of your “pyramid”.
And that last paragraph brings me back to the adage of “By Any Means Necessary.” By Any Means Necessary does not necessarily mean “by our own means only”.
Regardless, back to Umar, he cherry picks from the Marxist or Communist/Socialist or Critical Theory analysis of intersectionality and class struggle (spanning black leftist figures from Cornell West, Angela Davis, Huey Newton, Omali Yeshitela, Bell Hooks, etc.), yet, inserts his deep-rooted desires to have a conservative, Right Wing, “blood and soil”, male-driving nationalist community.
The mixing of Left-Wing analytical methods with that of Right-Wing concepts such hierarchies, firm binaries, hyper masculinity, etc., is textbook…fascism. We cannot forget that Mussolini started as a Communist before becoming a fascist. We cannot forget that even though Nazis were not “true Socialist” according to many socialist, notably the Communists because the Nazis hated Communism, we still must realize that early Nazi ideology was influenced in part by post-WWIs strong socialist sentiments. Hitler just so happened to reject the Marxist interpretation of history and co-opted socialism by infusing it with a Right-Wing traditionalism, which interestingly became advantageous to the pre-existing capitalist and industrialist class (i.e., Nazi economics was essentially corporatism ruled by a dictatorship of profit seeking industrialists operating in state-sponsored cartels who owed allegiance first and foremost to the German people and state, i.e., state capitalism nuanced by a cultural or racial supremacy).
Many fascists though they agree with concepts of collectives particularly on a racial-cultural sense, often reject the erosion of hierarchies. Fascist economics could be seen as a “Third Way” or “Third Position” framework where they combine some elements of socialist or egalitarian thought but often reject the Marxist view of history (class struggle), yet, through a type of Will to Power (coopted from Friedrich Nietzsche) via an unconscious “spiritualism” (e.g., Carl Jung’s emphasis on subconsciousness and archetypes) in the “zeitgeist” (i.e., collective spirit as in the writings of Hegel) apply a Right-Wing political framework that justifies the needs for rigid hierarchies, notably in a world of cyclical disorder (e.g., the Kali Yuga in Hinduism which inspired the Occultism elements of European fascism) and where people-groups are engaged in perpetual battle (for example through Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection).
This is why fascist countries, though seeming to emulate elements of socialism are effectively “modern feudalist states” shrouded with cultural imagery, religious devotion, etc. Yet, feudalism evolved into capitalism and capitalism into corporatism, thus current definitions of fascist countries could be defined as “hierarchical corporatist states”.
This is what Umar really wants. A black fascist state, but he could only achieve such goals by band-wagoning or “Trojan Horse-ing” off of current black Left-Wing movements such as Black Lives Matter or even the capitalist inclusion of black empowerment as a marketable product with Disney-Marvel production such as the Black Panther franchise. For example, we live in the era of hashtags such as #staywoke #BLM #wakanda or #wakandaforever. Yet, like most aspiring autocrats, they are often failures at something in their buried past they wish not to be discovered. They also lack the technical expertise to achieve their goals so instead they rely on fiery rhetoric to convince enough smart people to accomplish their goals for them.
In other words, Umar wouldn’t be the Umar we know without him using the current chaos of political discourse and Left Wing wokeness though he opposes the Left Wing and liberalism. Like fascism which has caused many debates about its actual definition, Umar represents a sort of logical ambiguity yet expresses emotionally his deep-rooted desires and dreams of grandeur. He splices ideology to achieve a fascist conclusion.
There are a lot of scars and traumas within the Black Community and in theory that is what wokeness attempts to heal.
Wokeness simply means aware, i.e., being aware of topics such as systemic racism, voter suppression, lack of access to capital markets, police brutality, gentrification, mass incarceration, the complex systems of industrial scale slavery, Jim Crow, Jim Crow’s effects on the modern prison industrial complex, unauthorized and/or inhuman experiments on people such as the Tuskegee Syphilis experiments or how economically weakened African nations are given foreign aid to fight diseases such as HIV/AIDs or malaria, etc., only on the condition they remain cheap resource depots for the “imperialist powers”, etc. We can go on and on. WTO, IMF, World Bank, etc.
I purposely rapped off all that because…that is what wokeness has become. Knowing so much but what does knowing do once it reaches a logical conclusion? It either A) creates a depressive state in a person once they realize how “smart they are” but how helpless they are, B) it creates anger and radicalism to resolve said problems of A, or (C) it creates a manic rollercoaster ride between A and B.
Wokeness is a mixture of factual analysis but also an emotional desire for self-empowerment in the face of a civilization that defined blackness to be the “antithesis” to the thesis of whiteness. Woke is also not inherently political but just so happens to lean to the Left. For example, figures such as Joe Rogan who often expresses Right Wing views could be considered “woke” himself because he too engages in the “factual rapping” of statistics or events to explain how our world works, why its oppressive, and why systems should be seen with suspicion.
So woke is not bad, however, the constant deconstruction, Critical Theory, qualitative studies, anthropology, intellectualism, and faux intellectualism, has not really achieved the goals of what communities such as the black community wants, because in many ways there is an underlying notion that someone owes us something or the reason why we can’t build ourselves up is because no one is providing us our “just dues”.
It’s a contradictory sentiment. We preach how strong we are to not need anyone but then often want someone to help us, and this contradiction can be heard in Umar Johnson’s rhetoric. Also, wokeness meaning aware does not actually mean intelligent, and if so, only means intelligent enough to sense things, but not necessarily to do anything about it.
What I mean by that is the black community needs science, technology, engineering, and math to navigate the complex challenges of the modern/post-modern world, yet, the resounding resolution within most woke circles is simply more…analysis, i.e., an emphasis on social sciences, political science, history, video essays, book publishing, etc.
Better put, wokeness has only solved a fraction of the problem, i.e., we know how to see the sickness within the body (problems within the community) but often don’t push for technical skills to do the surgery. Umar wants to get credit for organizing the surgery though he too is helpless hence he overcompensates with toxic rhetoric. In other words, he’s in his feelings.
For example, why would Umar Johnson start an all-boys residential school that will likely not going to achieve accreditation from any governmental body, when he could have had an online education model? Why invest in physical property with taxes, safety guidelines, health guidelines, FDA and Department of Agricultural school meal guidelines, etc., when he could have had a collective of certified educators via online subscription service? Yet, when Umar was talking on VLADTV, Umar made more excuses by saying that black people in charter schools can’t teach because they need professional certifications. But…wouldn’t you want educators to be certified? Also, there’s plenty of educators with certifications. The thing is, is that Umar wants a school with no accountability so he can craft it in his own image, but to do so he must simply blame the system for not giving him what he wants, though this is on the belief that the rules of the system aren’t there for good reason. For example, we don’t want an Aryan Nation Nazi Schools with no accreditation and un-certified educators teaching children about the superiority of the white race and teaching pseudo-science such as…white people are from Madame Blavatsky root races who once lived on Atlantis or some nonsense.
Umar Johnson at this point is just trying to stay relevant with his racist bombastic style.
I honestly think he is crazy, and I mean as far as mental health. I can’t prove it on the clinical front, but he seems to have some sort of narcissistic personality disorder (dreams of grandeur and with an emphasis on being chosen) and I suspect it may be childhood trauma induced (since he rarely speaks of his past, family, etc.). His professional work involves studying the effects of ADD/ADHD diagnosis on black male youths, which is a noble endeavor, but I’m suspecting that Umar (Jermaine) was one of these kids and held a grudge about his possible experiences. But, this is speculation. He’s set himself up like many online figures to not be criticized because he’s stitched himself to the movements he’s co-opted, so to many people criticizing Umar now somehow means…criticizing black empowerment, but this is the fault of certain segments of the black community for consistently searching for what I call…a “Fuhrer” or Chosen One.
As a side note, this emphasis on looking for a chosen one interestingly can be seen in hip hop with figures such as Tupac (who depicted himself on the Cross in Killuminati – The 7 Day Theory, i.e., Makaveli), the Biblical Ezekiel-like prophetic rage of DMX, and of course the current Charles Manson-like delusions of Kanye West (Ye) who associated with Nazi like figures such as Nick Fuentes.
Umar hiding his past to me is a sign of distancing one’s true identity, a possible sign of embarrassment, etc. This seems especially true since he specializes in family and childhood counseling. In other words, he is not providing any examples of his home life, experiences, traumas, over-comings, etc., to explain or relate to the advice he is giving. If anything, Umar (Jermaine) doesn’t practice what he preaches which will be discussed in this section of my post/paper.
I stumbled upon a video on Instagram by user ” Commonsenseeli” in which Umar is in a room filled with clutter with some odd speech patterns (repeating the same thing over) but he says he was moving to Wilmington, Delaware – where his school for black boys is at. I assume he was just practicing a speech or pitch.
As far as absurd rhetoric, recently he has told black people not to vote in the USA and South African 2024 elections, adding to the already cynical and paranoid public (post CV19 lockdowns, Donald Trump & January 6, the death of Jeffrey Epstein, the riots over George Floyd, etc.) as if not voting will somehow mean someone won’t win and won’t take power.
Even if black people do not vote, you are just increasing the odds of having a party that has openly said anti-black rhetoric or at least uses coded language to criminalize black people. In other words, he is suppressing the black vote or getting black people to suppress it themselves. But, Umar just like Elijah Farrakhan (who won’t die) want this because they are advocates for…Race War.
I personally think that how Marcus Garvey admired the KKK, Umar admires the modern Alt Right and GOP (defined by MAGA). He’s not a liberal. He admires power and a patriarchal form of it. Imagine Umar with unlimited power. It would not be a good thing. [See Article: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/garvey-must-go-campaign/%5D
It is as if the GOP and its wealthy donors realized the Candace Owens, Turning Point USA, etc., route can only work so much with black – especially “hood black” – audiences, so the GOP is getting “multi-racial and religious” in its caucus such as using patriarchal, anti LGBTQ rhetoric etc., within certain elements of black and/or Muslim political discourse.
For example, Patrick Bet David while hosting Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA advocates for including more Muslims into Republican politics despite a likely apprehensive Kirk realizing a big element of right-wing, predominantly white, and Western liberal (in the classical sense) politics has anti-Islam as a key cornerstone (e.g., the European Identitarian movement, the Deus Vult movement of Right Wing Catholicism — typically defined with an anti-Pope Francis undertone for his progressive and reconciliation views).
Culturally, the online space as of 2024 is a mix of “Capitalist grind culture” (which is nuanced by the concept of “manifesting”, i.e., the belief in using psychic power to create your dream reality — which thus links to Zodiac, astrology, and New Age beliefs), memes, A.I. videos pushing conservative tropes (e.g., Thomas Sowell, Pat Buchanan, Milton Friedman talking points, etc.), Jordan B. Peterson musings, the anti-feminist Manosphere/Men’s Rights movement, conspiracy theories with often pseudo-science and religious undertones, etc.
Many black people – some not doing too well economically – seem to be “chronically online” and find themselves absorbing information from the Black spaces of the Red Pill space.
Umar’s core demographic is “woke” people from low income urban areas, black women (despite his patriarchal overtones), and maybe many Africans or Caribbean peoples with online access to black American media. Yet, these African and Caribbean cultures often apply what we would consider in the West to be pseudo-science such as spiritual medicine, witch doctors, but also the residuals of Christian missionaries where many pastors in Africa and the Caribbean use faith-healing, etc. You can also add on indigenous “pagan” religions, Rastafarianism (which has nods to Zion, i.e . Blackness as ordained since Ethiopia for instance has a biblical link) etc.
What we are witnessing in “woke” black culture something similar to European white reactionary politics which also “rejects modernity” and strives for a “racially pure”, organic, etc mindset.
For example, the Fresh and Fit podcast despite being hosted by two black men where one is a Muslim, are linked to figures such as “Rollo Tomassi”, author of the Rational Male, who has ties to racist figures such as Stefan Molyneux, who therefore leads to figures such as Lauren Southern, which therefore links to figures such as Jay Dyer who has contributed to Alex Jones’ InfoWars. We know Alex Jones is the kink between the conspiracy Right Wing to the MAGA movement, with Alex Jones even being on-site with Kenneth Chesboro of the Trump fake-elector plot scandal.
Popular black YouTuber, DJ Akademics (of a conservative Jamaican heritage) is a vocal Trump supporter and he’s collaborated with Fresh and Fit thus by proxy Andrew Tate, Kevin Samuels, and Rollo Tomassi. All are Trump supporters. This thus creeps further and further down the Rabbit Hole leading to the Young Americans (whose clips have been used by Fresh and Fit), the Alt Right, and back to literal Nazis.
In other words, figures like Charleston White, Umar Johnson, Fresh and Fit, etc., represent the “Red Pill of Black Culture”, but the Red Pill community is adjacent to conspiracy culture across racial lines, since conspiracy theories often have the underlying agenda of preserving the status quo by vilifying progressive movements.
Who is Umar Johnson?
But, who is he? He was born Umar Rashad Ibn Abdullah Johnson (Jermaine Shoemake) on 21 August 1974 to a father named Jamal Abdullah Johnson. Doing a simple Google search of Jamal Abdullah Johnson, I see a Jamal A. Abdullah-Johnson, Appellant,v.William J. Henderson, Postmaster General, United States Postal Service (Allegheny/Mid-Atlantic), Agency.
Umar’s possible father filed a suit against the US Postal Services in 1998 alleging discrimination for his race, religion, and mental health issues. KryeirBut this Mr. Abdullah Johnson was denied. Could this possibly have influenced Umar? Umar in an interview admitted to having a disciplinarian father.
I also found online Jamal Abdullah Johnson who served in the US Marine Corps from 1975 – 1985. Possibly, if this is Umar’s dad, that means his dad enlisted just after he was born and possibly after 10 years, went to work for the Postal Service, likely working there for a long time before he had his lawsuit. So, possibly a Black Nationalist, intense Marine, postal service worker father but had a gripe with the “white man” and government. His marine only served 10 years and not the 20 years required a pension. Also, there’s a chance he also didn’t service his 20 years as a postal worker which would give him a pension.
Yet, Umar’s real name may be Jermaine Shoemake, according to a Facebook post I had found, his name was changed by his father per this post when he was in the 3rd grade while in North Carolina. The idea of changing your child’s name when he’s already at least seven years old insinuates his father was a true believer in the Pan Africanist cause.
Philadelphia has always had issues with race like many Northern cities which emphasize racial/ethnic neighborhoods, yet poverty, crime, drugs, etc. are rampant. From New York, Boston, Philly, D.C., Baltimore, etc.
Philadelphia is where the 1985 Move Bombing happened in which the Philadelphia Police Department dropped C4 on the home on the MOVE organization. MOVE is an Afrocentric, anti-government, and naturalist movement founded in 1972 by US Army veteran Vincent Leapheart, i.e., John Africa. 61 homes were destroyed, 250 homeless, and 6 adults with 5 children were killed.
Umar’s possible father if he was the US Marine left the military in 1985, the same year as the MOVE bombing. So, if Umar was born in 1972 by the time, he was 13 the MOVE bombing happened, but Umar’s father likely got involved in similar Pan Africanist movements earlier in the 1970s. I am sure such as event played a role in the Umar, we see but would have likely influenced his father’s beliefs as well.
On VLADTV, he stated he grew up in North to North-Central Philadelphia. He attended George G. Meade Elementary School in Philadelphia. Per a Facebook post, he also attended at least two other elementary schools in the Philadelphia area such as Hartranft and Duckery Elementary. But he didn’t go to an HBCU, which could’ve been for various reasons, yet there are many HBCUs in the Mid-Atlantic such as Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, Cheyney University of Pennsylvania, Delaware State, Morgan State, Bowie State, Howard, etc. I assume this is because interestingly, Umar may have benefited from some sort of affirmative action or racial scholarship to attempt Millersville.
In the interview, he stated he went to the Scotland School for Veterans Children which I found is near Chambersburg, I Pennsylvania. According to Matthew Christopher (2019) of Abandoned America, “According to a state website, “Founded in 1895, SSVC is the only residential school in the nation specifically designed and accredited to educate and care for the children of Pennsylvania military service veterans.”
This would validate the possible link to Jamal Abdullah Johnson.
In the same VLAD interview, Umar said his goal is to open an all-boys residential school…
When I googled Scotland School for Veterans with the word “abuse” a few articles comes up.
I have said aid this before but Umar as an aspiring Right Wing black authoritarian is a rare example of the “Horseshoe political theory” being true in which contemporary progressive discussions/movements of the Left opened the Pandoras box of fringe Afrocentrism which is ironically ultra conservative (patriarchal, homophobic, etc.) and contradicts reason because it is often in alignment with New Age conspiracy theory/cults.
He has a doctorate in osteopathic medicine which is widely considered pseudo-science using practices such phrenology.
Also, for all of his racial division standpoints, Umar claimed descent from Frederick Douglass (which has been denied by the Douglass estate) yet Frederick Douglass had a white wife despite Umar being so against interracial marriage. So, either Umar is a partial descendant of European ancestry (common among some Black Americans) or he hates (well, per his own theory) his family…for being interracial?
Further, Umar says that a “non-African” can’t be good at things “created by Africans or black people”, but sports like basketball were created…by a white guy. Yet, I am sure Umar’s rebuttal is to simply say…black people invited this or that, etc.
Umar also continues to live in a multi-racial country which is 60%+ white and could leave anytime he wants just as Marcus Garvey – who Umar wants to name a school after – would have advocated for. Umar says he respects Kanye because of his antisemitism (a lazy way of explaining the complex issues affecting the world), but Kanye was married two non-black women.
He says the “Prince of Pan Africanism” (a clear sign of narcissism) but then wants to rep Foundational Black Americans who are theoretically opposed to Pan Africanism since there’s an inherent territorialism to FBAs. For example his xenophobic comments about Daniel Kaluuya.
Further, he plans on opening a school, which in theory is noble but…who will accredit the school especially with a curriculum that could be argued as fostering racial supremacy? Not getting accreditation would make the children’s education be worthless as far as higher education, etc.
Version 1 posted on 8/17/2023. Version 2 updated on 8/18/2023. Version 3 updated 8/22/2023. Version 4 updated 8/27/2023.
I. Digging into the Hawaii Emergency Management System anddebunking the rumor that only $700 was given in Federal Aid to Maui Fire Victims
Disclaimer: This section about Hawaii despite having some research backing my thoughts is speculative. I am not putting any personal blame or libelous claims on any companies, government officials, etc. The general theory is that the fires were started by downed power lines in conjunction with environmental conditions, e.g., dry grasses. However, I wrote this specific section of this paper on Hawaii to research more about the emergency siren system itself, its possible OEMs (official equipment manufacturers), etc.
Sadly, in early August 2023, there were multiple fires on the Hawaiian Islands. Conservatives, conspiracy theorists who have blamed the fires on “Chinese Space Lasers” or arsonists trying to clear the precious real estate, anti-Ukraine War people, etc., have tried to place the blame on President Joe Biden. However, it seems this fire situation was an accident (downed power lines per Brianna Sacks, 2023, of The Washington Post) exacerbated by environmental conditions.
I personally know people from Hawaii. I went to college with many and some of my best friends are from the various islands spanning Oahu and Maui. According to one friend, when consulting his father-in-law, the emergency system was simply old and outdated. According to another friend whose father was a federal firefighter on the US military bases in Hawaii, his father said that local firefighters only “contain” fires, whereas federal fighter fighters serving the US military bases are required to fully put out fires. Sometimes there’s coordination between the firefighters on federal facilities with those of civilian firefighters, but my friend did not know much more than that.
There are many rumors being circulated online, such as Biden only gave $700. These rumors often negate to go into detail about how programs, bills, funds, etc., all work, yet, instead they appeal to emotion and rage within our already divided country, with a good chunk still reeling that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. Many of these Trump supporters, but not just them, believe in various conspiracies that been within the pop culture for years such as “FEMA Camps” which are code-word for concentration camps, the New World Order, Mark of the Beast which is code for implants, surveillance, etc.
For example, regarding the $700 payment, FEMA.gov (2023) addressed the rumor, titled, “Rumor: FEMA is only giving Hawaii wildfire survivors $700 per household.”, but responding with “This is not true. There is a range of federal disaster assistance available. Critical Needs Assistance provides a one-time payment of $700 to address immediate needs such as food, water, and clothing. This is just one of several types of federal assistance you may be eligible to receive. As applications are reviewed, you can check your application status online or call 800-621-3362 to find out what types of disaster assistance you are eligible to receive.”
Looking into the CNA Program, FEMA.gov (202) stated that, ““FEMA may provide financial assistance to applicants who have immediate or critical needs because they are displaced from their primary dwelling. Immediate or critical needs are life- saving and life-sustaining items including, but not limited to: water, food, first aid, prescriptions, infant formula, diapers, consumable medical supplies, durable medical equipment, personal hygiene items and fuel for transportation. Critical Needs Assistance (CNA) is awarded under the Other Needs Assistance (ONA) provision of the Individuals and Households Program (IHP).Funds awarded for CNA count toward an applicant’s financial ONA maximum for that disaster, which is an annually-adjusted amount based on the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index. CNA is a one-time $500 payment per household. An affected state, territorial, or tribal government must submit a written request to FEMA to implement CNA. FEMA’s Individual Assistance Division Director may authorize assistance when the majority of applicants from the declared area are, or will be, displaced from their primary residence for an extended period of time, generally 7 days or more.” (end quote)
Note, that this quote/reference is from 2020, so that $500 must have been bumped up to the $700.
Further according to FEMA.gov (2021), Other Needs Assistance (ONA) falls under FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program and provides financial help after a disaster to cover necessary expenses and serious needs not paid by insurance or other sources (FEMA, 2021). The first two categories of assistance – transportation and personal property – are dependent on residents applying for a low-interest disaster loan from the U.S. Small Business Administration beforehand. If applicants are denied a loan, or if the loan does not cover all their needs, they may receive a FEMA grant to replace or repair transportation and/or personal property (FEMA, 2021). Survivors do NOThave to apply for an SBA loan first to be considered for the following categories of assistance, which includes (A) moving and storage equipment, (B) Medical and Dental Assistance, (C) Funeral Assistance, and (D) some miscellaneous item (FEMA, 2021). If you have already applied with FEMA for Housing Assistance, you don’t need to apply separately for ONA (FEMA, 2021).
Regarding the Small Business Loan, states such as Washington State’s Emergency Management page under its Department of Military (i.e., the National Guard) stated that, “SBA disaster loans are available even without a Presidential Disaster Declaration and are a great tool to provide low-interest loans to individuals, families, businesses and organizations that suffer physical or economic loss due to a disaster or other disruption”
But what about this Other Needs Assistance (ONA) maximum which the $700 from the Critical Needs Assistance falls under?
First off, Other Needs Assistance programs are administered by the state and funded 75 percent by FEMA and 25 percent by the state (Washington State Military Department – Emergency Management Division). This 75 to 25 cost sharing between the federal government and states can be found on multiple state’s webpages, etc.
Secondly,
According to the Federal Register (2021), where the Federal Register could be understood as the Federal Government’s bulletin board it was stated that Section 408 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (the Stafford Act), 42 U.S.C. 5174, prescribes that FEMA must annually adjust the maximum amount for assistance provided under the Individuals and Households Program (IHP). FEMA gives notice that the maximum amount of IHP financial assistance provided to an individual or household under section 408 of the Stafford Act with respect to any single emergency or major disaster is $37,900 for housing assistance and $37,900 for other needs assistance. The increase in award amount is for any single emergency or major disaster declared on or after October 1, 2021. In addition, in accordance with 44 CFR 61.17(c), this increases the maximum amount of available coverage under any Group Flood Insurance Policy (GFIP) issued (Federal Register, 2021). [See: https://www.fema.gov/fact-sheet/group-flood-insurance-policy%5D
Further, Federal Register (2021) FEMA bases the adjustment on an increase in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers of 5.3 percent for the 12-month period, which ended in August 2021. The Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor released the information on September 14, 2021.
To wrap our heads around this for the sake of clarity, $700 was given in immediate assistance under the CNA (Critical Need Assistance) Program which is based on an annually-adjusted amount based on the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Price Index, but CNA falls under FEMA’s Other Needs Assistance (ONA) provision, which is a larger type of “expense account budget” where FEMA provides 75% of funding and the state provides the other 25% (as well as manages the program), which is for personal property, transportation, funeral expenses, etc., that is not necessarily for FEMA Housing Assistance (but can be applied for at the same time if applying for FEMA Housing Assistance). ONA however falls under the Individuals and Households Program (IHP) of FEMA. Per Section 408 of the Stafford Act, the ONA maximums are $37,900 for housing assistance and $37,900 for other needs assistance. So, $75,800 overall, but you get $700 up front.
The White House has begun the process of disaster relief, but it is important to remember that the Federal government must work with the State Government regarding disaster relief such as in relation to laws such as Posse Comitatus (federal troops can’t police states in theory), the Stafford Act, etc.
Regarding the conspiracy theory that the fires are due to “Chinese Space Lasers”, even though I have no way of verifying that, nor do I really want to encourage the conspiracy because of its jingoistic/xenophobic undertones, back in February 2023, mainstream outlets such as Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, etc., did address the space laser situation. So, I understand why people may believe this, even though I am not sure if it’s believable or not.
Brodsky (2023) stated that the Chinese pollution-monitoring satellite Daqi-1 probably produced the lights spotted over Hawaii on January 28, according to a NASA scientist.
In other words, a sort of optical illusion in the atmosphere.
Yet, back on track, according to CBS News (2023) by way of CNN, residents did receive some text messages about winds and fires, including a National Weather Service fire warning, but per some residents there was not a major alert akin to an Amber Alert and most importantly there were no sirens. Hawaii residents have long been accustomed to the monthly tests of the outdoor siren warning system (CBS News, 2023).
While Maui’s warning sirens were not activated, emergency communications with residents were largely limited to mobile phones and broadcasters at a time when most power and cell service was already cut (CBS News, 2023).
Most Americans can relate to the feeling. We often get Tornado, Flood, or other Emergency warnings, but often it is hard to gauge the severity of the matter.
Relating to Hawaii, the National Weather Service operates the National and Pacific Tsunami Warning Centers ensuring there is free and not-for-profit tracking of tsunamis which can be caused by earthquakes. The PTWC dates to 1946 when 165 U.S. citizens were killed by tsunamis in Alaska and Hawaii.
However, this Tsunami system seems different than the siren warning system involved in the Maui Fire Disaster.
After looking into the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (n.d.), the actual siren system under question seems to be the Hawaiʻi All Hazard Statewide Outdoor Warning System managed by the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) which is the largest single integrated Outdoor Siren Warning System for Public Safety in the world.
This Warning System is one part of the larger Hawaiʻi Statewide Alert and Warning System (SAWS) which includes FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) which used both the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) to alert the public.
So, who made or worked on the All-Hazard Statewide Outdoor Warning System?
I searched terms such as “Contract”, “Award”, “Supplier”, and “OEM” (Official Equipment Manufacturer), in relation to the All-Hazard Statewide Outdoor Warning System, which we should shorten to AHSOWS, and found an official government website by the State of Hawaii that reveals procurement data of state awards to suppliers. This website is called HANDS, i.e., Hawaii Awards & Notices Data System.
I noticed a few contracts awarded to Federal Signal Corporation by the State of Hawaii for its Defense Department. The Federal Signal Corporation is based in Oakbrook, Illinois, founded in 1901, and specializes in emergency vehicle equipment, warning sirens and public safety systems. They are listed on Nasdaq under NYSE: FSS.
From June 2022 through November 2022, I noticed a few procurements (buys) relating to sirens such as 110w Solar Panels and affiliated equipment for the State’s Emergency Warning Siren System which was awarded to Federal Signal Corporation via a Sole Source procurement (i.e., they were the only supplier solicited, i.e., not procured via a competitive bid) issued under Purchase Order Number G22A0157 in a dollar amount of $60,974.27.
Federal Signal Corporation also received a sole soured award Purchase Order under PO # G2218071 in the amount of $58,366.47 for Satellite Activation and Services (Isat Data Pro System Service) for Emergency Siren Communications. According to the posting, “SAT Data Pro System Service ‐ satellite to provide communication with the State’s Emergency Warning Siren System. The SAT service is a backup communication to the Siren system should the Cellular network fail. Service period from July 01, 2022 – June 30, 2023 DAGS Job No 16‐14‐7242. Federal Signal Sole Source # 21‐001‐SK. Approved Dec 11, 2020. CHANGE ORDER 1 Approved”
Also, under PO G2218061, in amount of $ 40,722.50, via a sole source procurement, Federal Signal Corporation was awarded an annual renewal for their Commander One Subscription Services which per the posting states, “Annual Renewal of Commander 1 Subscription for service period: 7/1/22 to 6/30/23 Includes: 1. Mobile apps & Web access 2. 20 SEATS 3. 5 Organization 4. 512 devices supported, 5. 24/7 after hours suppor 6. SmartMsg updates and 5,000 text and email notifications/month Approved for Sole Source pursuant to HRS 26‐6, 103D‐306, HAR 3‐122‐143 on 12/11/2020 Ref No. 21‐001‐SK, Federal Signal Sole Source Contract DAGS Job # 16‐14‐7242, CHANGE ORDER 1 Approved 3/8/2022.”
Further, PO 22807001, Federal Signal Corporation was awarded a contract for emergency siren equipment due to environmental reasons and vandalism.
Using a different search term I discovered that Federal Signal Corporation was awarded a $9 Million dollar award by the State of Hawaii for the HI-EMA, under PO 16-14-7242, issued by Daniel Jandoc, which in an Indefinite Quantity type of contract. FSC was to furnish Outdoor Warning Sirens for Public Safety (Sirens). This PO had a Period of Performance of 1/1/2021 to 12/31/2022.
The Period of Performance was 7/1/2022 to 6/30/2023 for the Satellite Activation and Services Contract and 6/14/2023 – 6/30/2023 for the Annual Renewal of Commander 1 Service.
Is it possible that the Period of Performance for certain subscriptions expired and that the State of Hawaii was trying to re-issue a new award or exercise an option, but due to lapse in time from June 2023 to early August 2023, there were lags or drops in coverage between the satellites, cell phones, controllers, towers, etc.? It would be nice to know the actual business and contracting behind the emergency system, i.e., was there pre-planning or were procurement offices reactionary once they realized funding was about to dry up or a new contracting vehicle was lingering in some sort of approval phase.
In other words, Federal Signal Corporation as the prime contractor has a complex system in place to support Hawaii (a combination of Software as a Service -SaaS- mixed with Hardware that integrates with other equipment), but while they were waiting for the state to issue funding for a new award or exercise a contract option, that lap in coverage, possibly mixed with vandalism, weather, etc., disrupted parts of the overall Emergency System, and once the fires started, their high temperatures fried the actual hardware.
II. The Federal Response
According to the White House.gov (2023) in an official press release it was stated that Mr. Maona N. Ngwira of FEMA has been appointed to coordinate Federal recovery operations in the affected areas. Further, President Joe Biden, likely by evoking the Stafford Emergency Act, authorized federal funding available to affected individuals in Maui County including assistance on a cost-sharing basis for hazard mitigation measures statewide which includes grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.
Per, the White House.gov (2023) article, residents and business owners who sustained losses in the designated areas can begin applying for assistance at www.DisasterAssistance.gov, by calling 800-621-FEMA (3362), or by using the FEMA App.
According to Claims Journal (2023), Two firms have released early estimates of losses and damage from the devastating wildfires across Hawaii’s Maui Island and the historic town of Lahaina. Catastrophe modeler Karen Clark & Company issued new estimates showing the insured property losses from the Lahaina Fire in Hawaii to be around $3.2 billion. AccuWeather on Monday increased its estimate of the total damage and economic loss to $14 to $16 billion (Claims Journal, 2023). That update followed AccuWeather’s preliminary estimate last week of total damage and economic loss of $8-10 billion, and the latest AccuWeather loss estimate would equate to about 15% of the state of Hawaii’s gross domestic product and would exceed the GDP of Maui (Claims Journal, 2023). The Lahaina fire burned approximately 2,170 acres and devastated the town of Lahaina on Maui, according to KCC (Claims Journal, 2023).
According to Jim Garamone (2023) of DOD News of the US Department of Defense, Combined Joint Task Force 50, under the command of Army Brig. Gen. Stephen F. Logan, has mustered almost 700 DOD personnel and 140 Coast Guardsmen that are part of the coordinated response to the Maui wildfires that killed more than 100 people and destroyed the city of Lahaina last week, according to Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder. This includes FEMA asking for space at the US Army’s Schofield Barracks for billeting (i.e., rooms for troops and personnel, etc.). The Joint Task Force includes the US Army, Air Force, Coast Guard, Marines, Homeland Security, FEMA, and the National Guard. The Task Force is flying two Boeing CH-47 Chinooks (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CH-47_Chinook) with fire suppression buckets capable of 189,000 gallons of water, and the Navy also has two Sikorsky (a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin) SH-60 Seahawks and three Boeing CMV-22 Ospreys on standby to support incoming requests.
More specifically this CJTF 50 is comprised of 402nd Field Support Brigade (responsible for assisting in Quartermaster duties, Sustainment Support, etc. in the Pacific Region) under Colonel Courtney Sugai and Lt. Colonel Timothy Page. Also, there is the 249th Engineer Battalion which is a power generation battalion that answers to the US Amry Corps of Engineers and serves more in a Reservist Capacity. The 249th Engineer Battalion Company is comprised of four companies, but specifically Company A is based at Hawaii’s Schofield Barracks and answers to Lt. Colonel Langston J. Turner. Lastly, the US Air Force and Navy have also established Liaison Officers, i.e., Points of Contract, to help their respected branch coordinate in the CJTF effort. Further, there is the Third Marine Littoral (i.e., nearshore) Battalion under Colonel John G. Lehane of the US Marine Corps providing General Dynamics MQ-9 Reaper Drones for aerial surveillance, Boeing MV-22 Osprey, and a Lockheed Martin KC-130J Super Hercules.
III. We have money for Ukraine, Hawaii, the Border, Crime Prevention, etc.
Sofi Stadium cost $5.5 Billion.
Lionel Messi at FC Barcelona had a $675 Million contract….to himself… but Christiano Rinaldo at Al Nassr has a $536 Million contract.
So that’s $1.2 billion of pledged (not necessarily paid) money on just two athletes.
So, why not hate on sports and not a country trying to maintain independence from Russia, when Russia invaded Ukraine?
[See video, Shut up about NATO expansion]
[See Video: The Dumbest Arguments About Russia’s War on Ukraine]
Regarding the 2008/9 Bailouts of US Auto Industry with giants like Ford and GM, “In all, the federal government extended nearly $81 billion to bail out the auto industry in a rescue effort that began under Bush’s watch and ended in December 2014, well into Obama’s second term.” (Source: Andrew Glass, Politico, 12/19/2018, Bush Bailouts US Automakers, Dec. 19, 2008).
Further, the New York Post (2021) by way of the Associated Press, released an article, titled: Costs of the Afghanistan War, in lives and dollars, which referenced a meta-study by Harvard University’s Kennedy School and Brown University’s Costs of War project. These studies estimated the amount of direct Afghanistan and Iraq war costs that the United States has debt-financed as of 2020 was $2 trillion but with interest will be $6.5 trillion by 2050.
According to Jonathan Masters and Will Merrow (2023) of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), since the war began, the Biden administration and the U.S. Congress have directed more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine, which includes humanitarian, financial, and military support, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German research institute (end quote). Much of the aid has gone toward providing weapons systems, training, and intelligence that Ukrainian commanders need to defend against Russia, which has one of the world’s most powerful militaries (Master and Merrow, 2023). Yet, according to the US Embassy to Ukraine (2015) Vice President Joe Biden announced today in Kyiv, Ukraine, that, pending consultation with Congress, the White House plans to commit approximately $190 million in new assistance to support Ukraine’s ambitious reform agenda.
Note this was when Biden was Vice President, speaking for President Obama in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, so this was only a policy promise and pledge. Yet, Donald Trump got into office and then threatened to pull funding away that Congress was ready to approve if Ukraine didn’t give dirt on Joe Biden.
But, fast forward, according to Lawrence Richards (2022) of Fox News in an article, titled: US leads the rest of the world with $196 billion given to Ukraine amid war with Russia – Russia first invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the article’s headline states that use has given $196 Billion, but in the article, it states “$200 billion in promised or sent aid”. Emphasis on promised or pledged, not actually spent, yet it looks like the US has spent over 200 billion.
Yet not all this money is “new money” being randomly created, but it was already spent on existing hardware or approved on existing budgets. Or it is pledged money that has not been approved yet.
Tom Norton (2023) of Newsweek, in his article, titled: Fact Check: Have U.S. Taxpayers Sent Over $200B to Ukraine? In the article Norton (2023) details how Republicans have repeatedly and misleadingly used the $200 Billion price tag. From Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Monica Crowley who stated, “”$200 billion+ of your hard-earned money has been disappeared into the corrupt money-pit of Ukraine.”, Andy Briggs, Keri Lake, Steve Bannon, and Fox News have all chirped this dollar amount.
Norton (2023) summarized as of April 2023, that Congress has only approved $113 billion for spending in Ukraine. Researchers tracking spending suggest that only around $77 billion has gone directly to Ukraine, a combination of financial, military and other forms of aid.
So let’s summarized…Fox News or at least prominent conservatives have dubiously stated the US has already spent $200 Billion, yet, per Norton (2023) back in April 2023, the US had spent $77 Billion out of $113 billion approved by Congress. Yet, to update this figure, in July 2023, Masters and Merrow (2023) stated that the US has sent $76.8 Billion, so that matches what Norton (2023) was saying on money actually spent, not promised, not pledged, not talked about, etc.
I do not blame people for being angry about Hawaii vs Ukraine situation regarding the perception and reality of responses and funding, but…Ukraine is not affecting Hawaii, no more Social Security or Medicare are affecting Hawaii. We are talking about different pools of money, bills, authorizations, etc. We have checks and balances, appropriation, and financing rules, etc., so to change rules we need Congress to change such rules. I get it. Why can’t we just command things into existence, but the thing is that we in the United States have rules based on checks and balances and tight appropriation laws (color of money rules, Misappropriation rules, etc.)
A lot of the Ukraine Lend Lease Money is money already for paid for assets via the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), and Foreign Military Financing (FMF). According to the CRFB, i.e., the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (2023), using PDA, the President can send military hardware out of the U.S. military’s own stockpiles directly to Ukraine (CRFB, 2023). Through USAI, the federal government contracts with the private sector to provide training, supplies, and other operational needs to the Ukrainian military and other allies (CRDB, 2023). Also, per CRFB (2023), the federal government uses FMF to backfill the stockpiles of NATO allies that have sent their own military hardware directly to Ukraine.
So, when you see this or that billion that is being spent on Ukraine a lot is basically a receipt and public disclosure of something already paid for, not more “pork barrel waste” adding onto our debt. The government did not just “print” with the “Federal Reserve” the money, but the money was also on the books, appropriated, and in many cases already spent on hardware that were sitting in stockpiles. Think of it all as receipts against existing appropriated budgets.
But I get the confusion. Defense funds come from NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) pot of money whereas FEMA funding under Homeland Security comes from the Homeland Security Bill (See HR 8257).
In other words, sending already paid for tanks wouldn’t help Hawaii in a freak act of God accident no one saw coming, so it’s a false equivalency to compare the two, though emotionally I get people’s frustrations. And Congress controls the “power of the purse”, so it is on them to attempt to reform laws, even the constitution, if need be, if they want to change how money is appropriated and spent.
Republicans in Congress, running for office, or anti Biden types talking about this are gaslighting. Congressional Republicans had no problem voting for the NDAA same as Democrats, so if people want more FEMA funding it’s on Congress to do the bills such as budget more for the Homeland Security Bill. The President only signs or vetoes the bills but has certain executive powers to tap into those already existing and approved pots of money, i.e., the PDA program.
According to John M. Donnelly of Rollcall.com (2022), “The Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to pass the final defense authorization bill for fiscal 2023, clearing the sweeping measure for President Joe Biden’s signature. If Biden signs the NDAA into law, as he is expected to do, it would be the 62nd straight fiscal year that the defense policy measure has been enacted. The Senate’s final NDAA passage vote was 83-11, and 60 votes were required. The House passed the bicameral compromise on Dec. 8. When Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., noted that the bill is named after the committee’s top Republican, James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the chamber resounded with applause. Reed said that Inhofe’s leadership of the committee, both in the majority and minority, had been “monumental.” Inhofe is retiring at the end of this year. With enactment of the bill, Washington will have authorized spending about $858 billion on defense programs in this fiscal year, mostly at the Pentagon. That is $45 billion, or 5 percent, more than Biden asked for in March.” (end quote).
Think about that. (A) Both parties voted for the NDAA (because it’s political suicide to not), (B) Congress added more money than what Biden had even asked for, meaning that Congress could have potentially shifted $45 Billion to the Homeland Security Bill or had planned on doing that, which theoretically could have pushed the Homeland Security Bill from $80 Billion to $125 Billion, (C) the bill was named for a Republican.
If you are angry at what is happening in Ukraine, then take it up with your legislators.
According to the Appropriations page owned by the US Senate’s website, The Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23) Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill includes a total of $82.068 billion, including $60.7 billion in net discretionary appropriations.
The below picture is from the US Congress.gov
According to the US Senate Armed Services Committee (2023) 857.9 billion was appropriated for the National Defense Authorization Act of 2023. Out of this 857.9 billion most of the funds goes to the Department of Defense whereas some funding also goes to the Department of Energy considering the DOE overseas nuclear power, certain infrastructure such as electricity attached to our dams (whose construction is monitored by the US Army Corps of Engineers), etc. The bill does allow for up to 6 billion for General Transfer Authority for unforeseen high priority needs via “Reprogramming”. On an interesting note, this FY23 NDAA also authorizes funding to support a 4.6 percent pay raise for both military service-members and the DOD civilian workforce.
So, the NDAA got 857.9 billion, whereas the FY23 Homeland Security Funding Bill of $82.068 billion. So, the NDAA has over 10 times more funding. Yet, whose fault is this? It starts with Congress.
So, can we fund Ukraine to defend itself while protecting the border, funding cops and drug rehabs, investing in public housing and schools, etc? Yes.
The US has money to fund Ukraine and take care of most of its issues at home because our allies are gonna vouch for our debt anyways and buy our US treasuries, because that’s the brilliance of the scheme.
The EU, UK, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Canada, etc., will vouch for our debt and even if the US dollar weakens, a weak US dollar can boost US exports since foreign currencies rise, i.e., they have more purchasing power.
They’ll vouch for our debt because they already have so many US investments that dumping our debt would crash them too and cause a Global Depression. I do not think most of the world wants the Chinese Yuan or Russian Ruble as their reserve currency. And, sorry to the Crypto currency bros, but there’s only so many bitcoins that will ever be made.
The US despite its flaws has a good relationship with most powerful albeit non-Super Power nations. Yet, people have a very conservative framing of how sovereign debt and taxes work as if national financing is the same as personal financing in your personal life, when they’re not the same. Also people forget there were tax cuts on the highest income earners/corporations starting with Bush, the Obama Era Bush tax cut extension, and the Trump cut.
According to the Emily Horton (2017) of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, “In 2013 CBPP estimated that, when the associated interest costs are taken into account, the Bush tax cuts (including those that policymakers made permanent) would add $5.6 trillion to deficits from 2001 to 2018. This means that the Bush tax cuts will be responsible for roughly one-third of the federal debt owed by 2018.”
In theory if Bush didn’t do these cuts and if Americans accepted increases as opposed to reductions in taxes that $6.5 Trillion bill by 2050 with interests included according to Harvard and Brown University’s would have been hedged significantly by the $5.6 Trillion is projected loses in revenue.
So it’s not a matter of not having money for home improvement and Ukraine, when (A) our allies don’t care if we create money because we have the most lethal military as far as weapons that we use to protect them so they do not have to fight, i.e., the US economy is a Spartan mercenary operation at industrial scale, (B) the US has the safest banking system to store the world’s money and if they don’t store it here, they often store it in US dollars, and, (C) we can always reverse the 20 years of tax cuts because the rich are likely investing in this war anyways.
It’s a gaslight to make it seem as if we can’t afford both. Further even if we weren’t funding Ukraine to keep Russia away, our conservative minded, pro business politicians wouldn’t fund the things we want anyways like housing, etc. When has the government ever really invested in people? Bill Maher freaked out when people got COVID relief money.
So pretending like cheapskate frugal Republicans and phony progressive corporate Democrats will make us into a utopia is laughable.
Most people who are against the war are (A) Trump supporters just being Trump supporters, despite, ironically their blood-lust for war with “Communist” China, (B) hippies who have no realpolitik or concept of defense policy who believe peace exist in nature rather than something maintained by projecting force, (C) fake hippies who are actually conservatives who simply want the current Biden Administration to fail but not appearing to be conservative adjacent, e.g. The Hill owned by Nexstar Media, (D) Russian, Chinese, etc., psy-ops that want Russia to win even if they get concessions.
Brown University (2023) Cost of War by the Watson Institute – International and Public Affairs. Source: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures (Date Retrieved. 17 August 2023).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (18 August 2023) Hawaii (DR-4724-HI): Rumor Response and Frequently Asked Questions. Source: https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4724/rumor-response (Date Retrieved 27 August 2023).
John M. Donnelly (15 December 2022) Senate sends fiscal 2023 NDAA to Biden’s desk – With enactment, Washington will have authorized about $858 billion on defense programs in this fiscal year. Source: https://rollcall.com/2022/12/15/senate-sends-fiscal-2023-ndaa-to-bidens-desk/ (Date Retrieved 27 August 2023).
There are so many bot accounts discrediting Black Lives Matters on social media platforms such as Instragram, Twitter (now X), etc. Bots aside, it is a popular talking point to muckrake against Black Lives Matters and you’ve seen this in the Right-Wing eco-system of Charlie Kirk, Candance Owens especially, Tim Poole, Gavin McInnes, etc.
With BLM Global Network having been exposed for money issues such as with Patrisse Cullors buying a 6 Million dollar home, using funds for a birthday party (which she supposedly paid back), and hiring her family members for a near 1 million dollar security contract, this gave the Right Wing the ammunition they needed to further perpetuate anti-black sentiments such as black people aren’t capable, that we are “race baiters”, that we blame all our problems on white people yet seems to want white people’s money, etc.
Anti-blackness runs deep across the globe and its not just the West. Perception does matter, which is why I was disappointed that BLM didn’t do an aggressive PR campaign to own the situation, get a head of it, and create a pathway forward.
Rather, the leaders faded away such as Cullors posting “crystal mommy” Instagram posts or Alicia Garza going off to start other non-profit projects. The attacks of the Right Wing, the money scandal, and other issues such as social media and the news showcasing situations of black citizens attacking Asian Americans, the system got what it wanted…letting “black people” get hopeful, just to pull the rug from up under our feet, so we end up embarrassed after appearing as “mouthy” “angry”, etc.
It is exactly what the Right Wing wanted, and BLM’s anonymity allowed them to use BLM as a means of recruiting arngry white males to Far Right causes, which includes people such as the Buffalo Mass Shooter. Sure, these weren’t BLMs intent but it was a result.
But, I think there’s still hope for BLM but it will take work. PR, scholarships, auditing reports by legit third parties such as Ernst Young, conference calls, grants, an aggressive media campaign, etc. Or, the new non-profits that Garza created need to be absorbed into BLM.
But, regardless…
What about BLEXIT? What are they doing to help the black community, especially since they have more access to billionaire money as opposed to Left Wing organizations who have to scrap for small dollar donations? Candance Owens according to the Daily Beast (2022) article by Kelly Weill, titled: Blexit’s Finances Are Slumping – but Its Paycheck to Candance Owens Keeps Coming, stated that Owens received $230,000 in 2022.
I repeat, BLEXIT has way more access to fundraising and capital potential but it doesn’t seem like there is a coordinated effort to help the black community, but rathe piece-milling grants here and there. For example, Turning Point USA with Owen’s ally Charlie Kirk has received money from billionaires. “Turning Point USA is funded by numerous right-of-center foundations and big Republican donors.
According to InfluenceWatch, TPUSA received $275,000 from the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, the Rauner Family Foundation (run by former Illinois Governor Bruce Raunder (R)) gave $150,000, the Folgia Family Foundation gave $210,000, and the Marcus Foundation gave $72,500. TPUSA has also received smaller donations from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, the Michael and Andrea Leven Family Foundation, the Huizenga Foundation, the Mike Miller Foundation, Dunn’s Foundation for the Advancement of Right Wing Thinking, the Einhorn Family Foundation, Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation (run by the in-laws of former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos), the Gianforte Family Foundation (run by Montana Governor Greg Gianforte (R)), the Thomas Patrick Morrison Foundation, and the Family Taxpayer’s Foundation.” This doesn’t include the various sponsors such as the Heritage Foundation, the National Rifle Association, the Reason Foundation, the Foundation for Economic Education, PragerU, the Job Creators Network, the Leadership Institute, and the Generation Opportunity Institute. [Source: https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/turning-point-usa/%5D
These people and organizations have enough money to buy entire neighborhoods, pay for people’s private schooling or college, but the goal of BLEXIT isn’t help but rather pushing anti-black liberation politics to support the capitalist system as is, which means supporting the 1%, as is.
TPUSA has ties to Lynde and Harry Bradley are related to the Allen Bradley company which is now Rockwell Automation. Harry Lynde Bradley was one of the founders of the John Birch Society which are the group that paved the way for far-right, New World Order, anti-UN conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones with InfoWars. The John Birch Society had an early member, Revilo P. Oliver, who left the JBS because he felt it was “too Jewish” and went to help found Neo Nazi organizations alongside William Luther Price (the author of The Turner Diaries).
Simply saying, “Go get a job” is ironic because the goal of capitalism is to cut costs and the biggest of these is labor. Also, even if you are a self-employed person, you need other peoples’ money to survive, so if they don’t have jobs, they can spend money on repairs, restaurants, auto maintenance, vacations, etc. This is why Universal Basic Income is being floated, but its being floated to sustain a system that benefits those who already won the capitalist system, particularly that of the United States which as reached “scale”. Conservatives make it seems like it is easy to open a truly game-changining business. Most people settle on food, beauty, repairs, etc., but it is much harder to push science, engineering, etc. Even our supposed saviors such as Elon Musk are not really doing anything “game changing” but rather just building on what others already did while trying to monopolize the private space industry. Elon is mostly selling a dream. For example going to Mars would ironically require massive funding underwritten by governments subsidizing private industry.
In other words, as time has gone on, technology and efficiencies has replaced the need for humans, thus replacing the need for where humans live, i.e., their communities, cities, towns, villages, neighborhoods, etc. The nuclear combination of technological progress, bottom-line focused managerial practices (Lean Management, Six Sigma, the philosophies of CEOs such as Jack Welch of GE, etc.), the rigged system of higher education cost between institutions and banks, and the erosion of protectionism in exchange for globalism (for better or worse, i.e., trade facilitates global peace), has made reliable employment hard to come by.
Currently in 2023 we’re already living the reality where the winners have already won, i.e., corporations and private equity firms/hedge funds have already cornered the entire economy. Blackrock, Apollo Management, TPG Capital, Invesco, Franklin Templeton, etc., have so many Assets Under Management (AUM) that basically is a large chunk of the private economy. Cargill controls most US food imports and exports. This is not even including foreign capital and sovereign wealth funds.
Capitalism was always a race to zero, but nearly 200 years after the start of the Industrial Revolution, a few players by chance, luck, inheritance, greed, government contracts, connections, and gaining scale over time, have…won.
For example, how are you going to have the audacity to have shame someone who wants a job who has a hard time finding one when the only jobs in their town are…Dollar Generals?
Where Dollar General, of course, is a listed corporation with tradable stock thus siphoning profits from local communities because they have the public and private capital to achieve lower prices but at the expense of local mom and pops businesses.
Most Americans rely on these massive corporations and conglomerates for employment. Small businesses cannot possibly keep up with these large firms because the larger firms have the on-hand cash and underwriting potential to create capital to drive prices however which way they want.
So, when people say, “Go get a job”, the sad truth is that there may not be a job around for you.
To add on to this sad truth, capitalism needs a large unemployed and poor demographic as a means of undermining worker rights and empowerment, i.e., having a large poor (and often resulting criminal) population, you keep workers on their toes because they know there’s someone else who work for a more desperate and lower wage.
To add insult to injury, corporate America is wanting to send people back to office, but centralized work locations are part of the problem of unemployment, because people may not want to uproot their entire life, social bonds, church ties, elderly parents, etc.
Remote work is one of the only good efficiencies of capitalism because by having mobile workers you essentially create moving capital to areas where that capital is desperately needed. For example, if you’re a Software Engineer able to eat out four times a week as compared to someone who can only eat out one every two weeks, then your money is a major stimulus to small businesses in areas which need help. Remote work not only helps stimulate local businesses, but also helps re-vamp the local real estate market, could help boost local school district test scores, etc.
Telework is essentially a “domestic globalism”, i.e., you have workers able to be more flexible and bring value to businesses in areas they may not have ever realized they could have lived in. Forcing people back into the office would only serve the interests of corporate real estate companies who specialize in large office buildings, skyscrapers, and office parks. So, are we willing to give up this economic booster shot just so a few large real estate firms can make money? The solution to their loss of profits is not helping to force people back into work in passive aggressive ways, but rather re-zone those spaces from commercial to residential. There’s no reason we have a “housing” shortage, but the sad truth is that these large corporate real estate firms (such as Berkshire Hathaway, which has an exclusive group of investors since the share price as of 6/24/23 is at $510,000 per share…yes, per share), don’t want to “re-zone” because it’s not making housing more affordable for you but more profitable for them. Real estate has always been a vehicle for wealth but also a vehicle for tax write-offs because you can deduct depreciation of your assets from taxes, but you can also force the government to use eminent domain to pay you for property that you neglected. Firms may not want to rezone because they are ironically too lazy to tweak their business model because they’re betting on large corporate renters rather than managing what they perceive as more “unreliable” individual (people) renters. Lastly, many of these real estate firms (ranging from housing, apartments, retail space, industrial space, and, even trailer parks, i.e., mobile home communities) made a lot of money by borrowing against their higher valued assets, which were made higher by over a decade of lower interest rate (easy money) policy by the Federal Reserve. To close out this chapter, if housing was a right and we removed restrictions on government housing building, but also forced re-zoning then housing wouldn’t be as much of an issue, but the rich…don’t want that.
Yet, back to employment, the only way to truly fix unemployment is a combination of capitalism but also government employment. There government could do a New Deal sort of job program to destroy old buildings, salvage, and auction materials, clean up garbage, dig trenches for expanded sewer systems, maintain green-spaces, grow food in community gardens, etc. Yet, you would need to have transparency as far as government contracting all the way down from the federal government to the state and local government.
I think we need libertarian and socialist ideas mixing, but people need to have the vision to have these reconciliation conversations. Erasing regulations on smaller businesses but also investing government money into actual job creation and community re-invigoration with New Deal like policies, i.e., not welfare but actual work programs funded by the government.
In summary, the goal of Black Lives Matter, even if not how it was intended, has gone on to help white supremacist reactionary politics by creating a sense of cognitive dissonance in many (i.e., showing sympathy in one hand but then also negative black issues in another), but also providing an easy way for actual racists to be racist but in a passive way by alleging “reverse racism”.Whiteness as a concept was able to engender sympathy as if it was being bullied but really no progress was made that BLM wanted, and racial hierarchy still remains largely in tact.
Before I get into it, I am not throwing black people under the bus. I am all for acknowledging racism, calling out Karen culture, wanting police reform, and generally wanting the best for black people (education, home ownership, generational wealth, access to healthcare, political representation, etc.).
But I personally think that BLM was in part a good idea by a slightly out of touch billionaire benefactor, George Soros, who didn’t have an in-depth grasp of American racial issues let alone black culture.
Black culture in relation to American racism, especially for a Polish born British national billionaire may not have been the easiest thing to understand, even though he may have truly wanted to give parts of his wealth away. Soros, whether you like him or not, saw his family killed in WWII and did what he had to do to survive. His worldview seems to be that there is no higher power and rather those with real world power can affect positive change by playing the game against itself. Like many Jewish men accosted by WWII and the Holocaust, survivors often adopted a Might Makes Right mentality, i.e., they were never again going to be victims.
It may sound crazy but maybe in an inverted sense Soros is a hero in that he pissed off the British establishment which by that point had already become a post-colonial shadow banking empire.
Soros literally took down the British Pound by shorting it. Are we really trying to defend the currency of a former empire who created many of the problems we see such as the creation of random countries and borders causing ethnic tension across the globe from Asia, Africa, the Middle East (leaving Iraq landlocked on purpose for example), Afghanistan, etc.?
Soros simply played the game and won, but because he was slightly an outsider in relation to white supremacy, even though Jews are largely considered “white” (for example, Ghislaine Maxwell was known for being racist and we all know Ben Shapiro), he was demonized. The irony about Right Wing media is that they are funded by billionaires, many of whom are white Protestants, and some of its major personalities are Jewish, so it’s interesting how the Right-Wing projects, obfuscates, etc.
The Right Wing used the fact that Soros is Jewish as a means of pushing the conspiracy that the Jews control black people to attack “innocent” white people. It is essentially what every single American Neo Nazi has been lying about since Revilo P. Oliver.
Even though the Left has a problem with billionaires, the Left is also notoriously broke.
Through his many donations to many non-profits, the George Soros Foundation ended up donating to what would become Black Lives Mattes, which was largely founded by black females. And, it spread from their National HQ to various grassroots chapters, but those in the National HQ became greedy and taken over by power, and things fell apart from there. Also, there were some scandals in certain grassroots chapters as well.
But this is what happens with any organization being a church, nonprofit, etc. Corruption is endemic in human nature. Yet, there were also many good things such linking organizers, community gardens, rent assistance, etc. BLM itself can’t fix the entirety of issues affecting black people and thinking it can, is borderline offensive, and one could even argue a little racist (i.e., we all look alike nonsense), but BLM did owe one simple thing which is integrity because the leaders should have known they had targets on their back. This a country who tried to take down MLK because of presumed extramarital affairs. This is a country where grand theft auto for a black kid is joy riding for a white one. They let greed and clout get to them.
The HQ scandals further played into the hatred towards BLM, in type of “See, I told you so”, or “gotcha” moment.
But, as a slight rebuttal to the “noble Soros” idea, what if the goal all a long was to find incompetent leaders knowing they were going to mess up somewhere and since BLM de facto represented black people overall in man peoples’ eyes, the fall of BLM would be a way of suppressing black people overall?
Black Lives Matters helped…white supremacy, because many white people were able to allege that black people were getting unfair advantages or attention at their expense (not true), and in some sort of reverse psychology way, “whiteness” was able to engender sympathy thus repositioning itself atop the manufactured racial hierarchy, ironically with the lack of any progressive reforms being enshrined into law. They are represented as the “rational” non emotional ones who are capable, whereas blackness as it’s always been defined in America from slavery onwards is seen as the opposite, i.e., emotional, and incapable.
Essentially, whiteness (notably white male patriarchy) got emo, woe as me, and made to people feel sorry for (not saying they are deserving of sympathy), yet that sympathy took precedent over the unfilled promises of BLM such as unpassed police reform legislation, but BLM took up all the space itself.
The goal was basically to make black people…seem racist and entitled, yet, also incompetent, and only capable of progressive by requiring reparations from white people (one reason why I don’t support reparations, but it depends on how we define reparations).
Even if you don’t think that black people can be racist because you ascribe to the notion that one must have systemic power to be truly racist (e.g., I’ve heard black people can be prejudice but not racist), the thing is…. most people don’t buy that. That notion is from a left-wing analysis that has found rebuttals by both the Right Wing and even Liberal Centrist thinkers, and Leftists (who I consider myself as being one) are bad at realpolitik. Leftists often take a high horse quasi-utopian ideal but forgetting how things work, yet, all it does is analyze how things work. In other words, it lacks pragmatism and realpolitik.
The media puts black bodies at the forefront so black people take the brunt of backlash, but it’s a Catch 22, because black people must be activists to bring attention to the unique issues affecting us.
The truth is BLM wasn’t coherent. It was in part an idea, a national organization, decentralized grassroots organizations, a calling, a motto, etc. There was no control over those aligned with it. You can have legitimate activists, scholars, video essayists, etc., making coherent arguments, but you can also have a person with a rough lot in life who finally found a reason to abuse whatever little power they think they’ve obtained.
But many black people were…forced to support BLM because by not doing so, one could have their blackness called into question, thus a major part of their identity invalidated. And by not supporting, I am not talking about people such as Candance Owens who espouse white supremacists and fascists talking points, but rather black people who are sympathetic to black issues but offered advice for caution about how things many have turned out in the end. Those who presented caution or called for unity amongst the races were often seen as “not down enough” or trying to appease white people. Yet, why shouldn’t one try to break bread with other races when we live in a system where everything touches each other. Black people for example only make up 13% of the population, but certain activists talking points, though from the heart, can be divisive, and even though doing this may make one feel “authentic”, it can also be…bad longer term or higher-level strategy in position black people in better and safer positions. For example, many black people likely got a lot of flack for simply being black because people associated them automatically with Black Lives Matters, but if you didn’t support BLM in the way that it seemed most of its adherents were going, then you got flack from your own side. In other words, black people often must worry about scrutiny from their own but also forces of white supremacy. For all the BLM activists living in cities, where were you for the black people living in very white areas without outlets who became targets for harassment in our larger culture wars?
Consider the scandals of BLM Headquarters, bad press of black people on social media platforms (Worldstar Hip Hop, etc.), and even allegations of black on Asian crimes during the COVID lockdowns, the conservative media has efficiently “outflanked” black people as a means of further demonizing us.
That was the goal all a long and it is sad many black people didn’t see this, but many were incapable of seeing it because many black people are from their own segregated environments with little interaction with other races, and if they interact with others they live in areas or spaces with an “unspoken” cultural and racial segregation.
In summary, the goal of BLM, even if not how it was intended, has gone onto help white supremacist reactionary politics by creating a sense of cognitive dissonance in many (i.e., showing sympathy in one hand but then also black crime in another), but also providing an easy way for actual racists to be racist but in a passive way by alleging “reverse racism”. People are “tired” of black liberation politics like how the Civil Rights movement waned before the introduction of right-wing neoliberalism.
It seems almost cyclical and dialectical. Its as if progress in the United States can’t happen without having tensions between binaries but after a period of chaos and new period of orders arises, a little better than how things were before, yet, in certain ways also worst off in certain ways than how they were before, thus the system is able to appear to change but structurally as far as its animus doesn’t change. When relating to a country that was built as what I call a “racial, psycho-sexual colonial caste system”, this means that no matter how far things progress, there will always been a racist and defensive white-centric core to the United States, even if what we consider to be white changes over time, e.g., the introduction of Hispanics into WASP culture, etc.
The system used black people to be the bodies that pushed progress just for us to be demonized for doing so, yet, still coming up empty handed as far as what we wanted such as police reform.
I grew up around white people and most were great, but I also observed certain levels of “collective fear”.
This fear of the urban black masses invading their suburban protected landscapes. Many white people feel silenced when talking about racial issues, so many build up like pressure cookers, and BLM offered a way for them to explode, but still come out on top. The sad truth is that most black liberation discourse is nothing but discourse. It’s nothing more than Black Left Wing “Bread Tube” Video Essayists often analyzing the same old antiquated Antebellum Southern tropes where blackness was bred in such as the tragic mulatto, not worshiping black Queens, House vs Field slaves, etc.
Mitchell Research Group 