Was President Obama’s Re-Election About Our Hopes or Our Fears?

There’s a lot to reflect and say about last night’s election. The re-election of President Barack Obama brought enthusiastic cheers from all corners of the country. But one should be cautious and not misread those cheers. They weren’t the cheers of 2008 where there was literally dancing in the streets as history was made and folks were left hopeful.

Last night what we heard were cheers of relief. It was relief that came from millions of people having to endure he humiliation of chaos at the polls , where many wound up standing for up 6 or 7 hours or were aggressively questioned by Tea Party backed True the Vote poll watchers who suspected their eligibility, and a range other widespread voter suppression efforts.

Last night the cheers were being relieved of having to deal with Neandrathrolic behavior from sitting lawmakers who felt that there was ‘legitimate rape‘ and that women should not only not be allowed to have abortions, but shouldn’t have access to birth control

Last night we heard cheers of relief, because folks were fearful of having what little safety nets were left to be immediate dismantled or repealed on the day those seeking power took office…

Like it or not, Obama won last night’s election because of widespread politics of fear..not hope. Many who voted for him, did so with lots of dissatisfaction and disappointment on an array of policies the President championed or did not champion, but what they perceived was coming down the pipe was so frightening folks quickly got in line and pulled the lever for the President..

It was clear with Mitt Romney that there was a 47% of the population that needed to be ousted. He and many of his supporters felt like many of us were ‘leeches’ and no longer needed to be seen as fellow human beings… The mean-spirited racially charged policies being proposed and brought before the floor in Congress, sent a strong message to many, that there was a helluva a lot of white folks who were not playing around and were going all out to roll back anything and everything that had progressed in the past 50 years. That frightened people and Obama was a beneficiary.

Last night Mitt Romney had a voting base that consisted of 89% white people. That xenophobic angry base and how they see the world is best personified with the remarks of Bill O’Reilly and his Fox News cohorts. Its personified with the nasty tweets sent out by singer Ted Nugent where he refered to Obama supporters as whores and welfare cheats. Its personified by the angry tweets from Donald Trump who said the election was  sham and a travesty and America must fight to stop what had just happened.. (an Obama win)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZZt3jPDvNQ

Only time will tell if what we experienced was some grand exercise of Good Cop Bad Cop with the end game of getting everyone to reinvest into a system that has constantly failed people. But for now many are happy that they pushed back on something they felt would be irreversibly catastrophic. By voting and re-electing Barack Obama many who are part of a growing demographic of folks who feel they’re constantly marginalized felt like they were standing up and pushing back on the type of attitude expressed in the O’reilly video..

Unfortunately, it’ll take more than just voting. More push back is needed. It ranges from deading citizens united which allowed unlimited money to come into politics to having comprehensive election reform that restricts deceptive practices and voter suppression tactics. Close to 5 Billion dollars was spent for this past election..

It’s gonna require push back to stop the relentless attempts by corporate giants to own and privatize everything from our drinking water to FEMA which is what Mitt Romney proposed. It’s gonna require us to push back and demand economic and social justice..

All the forces that worried folks are still here, most likely plotting and scheming on how to better advance their cause. Bain Capitol and uncaring companies like it are still around and doing business as usual. In fact that might be vengeful and economically spurn their workers because of the win.

The forces behind banning ethnic studies books in Arizona have not left. Those who wish to public education and privatize public universities are back at work gearing up for the next round of tuition hikes. Police are still gunning down Black people every 36 hours..The people who obstructed Obama and demonstrated racial hostility are still in Congress and the Senate.

The policies that Obama embraced or didn’t embrace are still in front of us..How will we get him to match the words he uttered in his speech last night that left many feeling re-charged?  How will we become partners in reshaping America so that beneficial for all vs being disposable tools who are only tapped when its election time? In short there’s lots more work to do and hopefully all of us are up to the challenge.

written by Davey D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddx8t6zGWxA

Some Food For Thought on Cali’s Crazy & Controversial Propositions

Yes I know I posted this article earlier, but I’m having to do this again because apparently some of these popular social media sites including the one your reading FB wanted me to pay 2k to reach the large number of followers I spent 4 years building..

In the initial title of my post I called it a voter guide, which we believe triggered a pop up window asking for an obscene amount of loot, so we are reposting this with a different title..  In the meantime readers can do a couple of things to insure our blogs are showing up in your news feed..

1-Go to the our page and click the little “gear” they can add my page or others you like to their “interests” which will make posts from us appear in your timeline (all the time).

2-alert people that not all status updates are being delivered unless we pay some outrageous fee, so visit our page often.. Bookmark it can visit we will do the same for other. Thanks for understanding.. Now  here’s the article on Cali Propositions…

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With a few days left before Election Day, which is Tuesday November 6th 2012.. I wanted to weigh in on a few of the California state propositions and measures.. Yes all the attention is between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama and billions are being spent to get one of them in the White House.. While watching that contest where more than 3 billion dollars has been spent, i wanna remind folks that neither Obama or Romney have any say so on ending the death penalty or 3 strikes in Cali..There are propositions on this years ballot where voters can make those two factors disappear or forever remain.. The hell with those who tell you voting doesn’t matter when you can walk in a elementary school classroom in any hood and damn near every hand is raised if you ask ‘do you have a parent. older sibling or close relative in jail?

The hell with those telling you not to vote when you look at the fact we built 34 new jails in Cali over the past 20 years vs one university. Most doing time are for minor or low-level drug related offenses.. Many of those incarcerated are also getting out with no rehabilitation, training or prospect for employment so they wind up re-offending and heading back.. While the prison population booms, we have a powerful set of corporate backed politicians, many of them Democrats sadly, who are gung-ho about privatizing the California University and college system. The head of the CSUC system recently said students are lazy and that anyone who was a super senior, meaning they been there more than 4 years needs to be kicked out to make room for new students.

Chancellor Charles B Reed who recently stepped down, ignored the fact that tuitions in some universities have increased by 300% in the past 5 years..yes you read that right tuition has increased by 300% Schools that were once free for all Californians now have students strapped with loan debts of 15, 20 and even 30k by their 3rd and 4th years. Many students are holding down 2 and 3 jobs which means their stays at the university are longer, but we still have people like Reed and many on the Board of Trustees at CSUC and on the Board of Regents at UC who not only think like him, but are hell-bent on implementing more tuition hikes and policies to destroy these once revered public schools.. There are propositions on the ballot that will immediate stop proposed fee hikes and turn things around.. Obama and Romney have nothing to do with any of this…

There is a measure on the ballot that will make foods companies tell you when they are using GMOs (genetically modified organisms). It’s a bill against big agribusinesses like Monsanto who routinely sue farmers and other countries and small farmers because their patented seeds blow into other people’s farms and sprout up. Monsanto considers it theft. They’ve also been spending 10s of millions to defeat Prop 37. Obama and Romney have nothing to do with that…

This Monday at 4pm on Hard Knock Radio heard on 94.1 FM KPFA we will being doing a round table with community folks about the propositions… In the meantime here’s a few resources to get you acclimated and here’s my personal endorsements..

California-Calls-2012-voter-Guide2.pdf

http://www.theballot.org/guides/CA

Davey D’s 2012 Proposition Picks

Proposition 30-Vote Yes Save Education..This is a proposition against the 1%. It’s a vote against those who wish to raise tuitions and privatize the UC, CSUC and community colleges. The measure will temporarily raise sales taxes on the wealthiest Californians, many who pay lower rates the majority of us.. Keep in mind many of the folks pushing to raise tuitions at these schools got to go to them for free. There’s no excuse for students coming out of UC to be owing more in student oans then students coming of Ivory League schools. Education is a Right not a Privilege.. VOTE YES on PROP 30

Proposition 31 Vote NO… Govt Accountability.. This proposition is designed to streamline the often confusing and stagnant budget process in Sacramento. It highlights a pay as you go ethos, meaning that no program can be supported unless there’s money to pay for it or there is a revenue stream attached to it.. It also allows any governor to unilaterally cut out programs. It also allows local city government to set up its own rules as to who is and isn’t for state funded programs. I don’t know any way to describe this but to say its a slick confusing austerity measure program where the belief is that our budget crises is caused by folks who are recipients of safety net programs vs those who game the system by not paying their full share via tax loop holes etc.. I say VOTE NO on PROP 31

Proposition 32 Vote No... This is a real sinister bill. It masquerades like it’s a campaign finance reform bill when in reality its a pro-corporation anti-union bill. Given the obscene amounts of money spent on national and now local elections, many people are eager to get behind any bill that would reign the spending in and put a dent in the Citizens United Supreme Court decision. The problem is this bill doesn’t do that

Prop 32 is put together by folks who have the backing of large corporations, Big Oil, Superpacs, the Koch brothers and Karl Rove types all who would be exempt the campaign restrictions put into this bill. I kid you not, big businesses would be free to spend as much as they want like they always could on campaigns. Prop 32 is a bill designed to silence the few unions that are left..Keep in mind 30 years ago 20-25% of workers belonged to a union.. Nowadays its less than 7%..

Under Prop 32 workers in Cali who are trying to unionize Wal-Mart would be prohibited from giving money to campaigns that support their cause like raising the minimum wage, but their bosses who run Wal-Mart which spends millions on campaigns, candidates and superpacs, would be allowed to give unlimited amounts of money to anti-union candidates. This reminds me of Prop 209 from 15 years ago which was against affirmative action but advertised itself as a Pro- Civil Rights Proposition. This is a deceptive bill. Don’t be fooled VOTE NO on PROP 32

Proposition 33 Vote No. This is yet another proposition put together by big corporation with a deceptive premise. Its a bill put together by Mercury Car Insurance where they say they wanna add a hefty surcharge to certain drivers supposedly to save you money. That’s some real laughable BS. Here’s the breakdown..

Insurance companies have been pissed off ever since Cali voters put the clamp on them several years back. At every turn they been attempting to find loopholes and new ways to charge folks new fees. This is the latest scam. They wanna be able to raise rates on any driver who hasn’t had car insurance for 90 days in the past 5 years even if they didn’t own a car.. Yep you read that right..Even if you didn’t own a car they wanna charge you.

Over the past 5 years we had a crazy recession which meant in order to pay rent and put food on the table, many California cut back on everything from cable to internet to car repairs and to car insurance. Hella people, in particular students gave up their cars because things got so bad. The insurance companies now wanna go back and look at everyone’s records, see who dropped insurance and then raise their rates, even if they had stellar driving records.. They said they would make exceptions for soldiers and the unemployed. Don’t be fooled. Unemployed is not the same as Under-Employed which is what most Californians are and were over the past 5 years. VOTE NO on Prop 33.

Proposition 34 Vote Yes.. This a proposition designed to repeal the death penalty. On the surface the bill is no brainer for those of us who feel that far too many innocent folks are on death row, its inhumane to kill and unfairly and disproportionately applied to poor people and people of color. The flip side to this is that while it repeals the death penalty and convert folks to life in prison without the possibility of parole, it would also dead much of the appeals process.

The main complaint in some civic circles is that death row has cost tax payers millions and even billions because of the long appeals process each inmate under takes to save his/her life. While Prop 34 would stop folks from going to the death chambers it would also limit the appeals, so in theory you might have an innocent person doing life behind bars with no chance for appeal. This aspect has been cause for concern and divided many on the issue. I know many who have been incarcerated and heard folks who once were on death row speak to both sides of this issue.

I thought long and hard about this and decided to vote for Prop 34. First and foremost I wanna keep people alive especially if they are innocent. We can fight to make sure cases where its clear there are innocent folks locked up and get them free. We can’t bring innocent folks back who are killed by the state. VOTE YES on Prop 34

Proposition 35 Vote No.. Human Trafficking.. One of the worse things going on in this country is human trafficking. Here in Oakland its a major problem that extends well beyond petty criminals and wanna be pimps. There are serious organized rings that make Human Trafficking an international affair and it needs to be stopped with all those involved severely punished.

Prop 35 will increase sentences, but from the folks I spoke to who really study the criminal justice system, the language while well intentioned is also seriously vague which is a red flag.The way its written is that many consensual sex workers and prostitutes will be caught up getting harsh sentences vs the real culprits and pimping types who often remain hidden in the shadows. Its like a war on drugs where street sellers go to jail but king pins don’t.

We don’t wanna see another 3 strikes situation where we still have violence and hundreds of thousands of non-violent offenders locked up.. Many of the human rights and criminal justice advocates from the ACLU to Women’s Prisoners Coalition are not feeling this bill I think this needs to go back to the drawing board with clearer language and perhaps even a collaboration with those who don’t wanna see all sorts of folks unfairly and disproportionately swept up. A vote against this bill should not be the end in terms of folks fighting to end human trafficking. If folks choose to vote yes.. considering how bad this problem is.. I understand. I say VOTE NO on PROP 35

Proposition 36 Vote Yes.. End Mass Incarceration. This is a proposition designed to repeal California’s infamous 3 strikes law. Its return to Prop 66 which was proposed several years ago and was set to win before Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger threw his weight behind opposing it at the 11th hour. The prop lost by less than 5 thousand votes. Sadly there were many at that time who proclaimed voting was a fraud and didn’t mean anything so lots of folks stayed home and sat on their butts while many in their family and the community languished and still languish in Cali jails for non-violent minor offenses under 3 strikes. For example Black folks make up 7% of California’s overall population of 40 million and consist of over 45% of those incarcerated, the overwhelming majority for non violent offenses. This is a chance to get things corrected.

No this is not a bill designed to cuddle violent offenders. This is a bill designed to get folks out who shouldnt be there in the first place. We need to be working toward rehabilitating folks not warehousing them and thus far 3 strikes has done nothing but make money for the prison industrial complex without applying resources, time and attention to root causes of crime.. VOTE YES on PROP 36

Proposition 37 Vote Yes Food Labeling Bill.. We live in a day and time where millions of people are concerned about GMOs (genetically modified organisms and how they are used in foods we routinely consume. The feeling is many are not fully tested and the many do not want to be unwitting guinea pigs. GMOs come out of the pesticide industry and is motivated as a way to not lose crops vs making sure people’s health is improved. Many big agribusiness farms are behind the GMOs as well as big seed patent giant Monsanto.

Over the past few months tens of millions of dollars have been spent by corporate farmers and their lobbyists along with Coca Cola to stop Prop 37 which would require many foods to be labeled if they contain GMOs. The campaign to oppose Prop 37 has suggested that food prices would rise if they are required to include GMO labeling. They have also resorted to calling labeling GMOS a ‘deceptive practice’, using the language of activists and community groups. .

Millions of folks including myself say BS.. Outlets like Monsanto and their millions somehow got the NAACP to oppose Prop 37 which is a damn shame when you consider most civil rights groups and countries all over the world including Russia and China support labeling GMOs found in foods…It shows you the power of money. The rest of us are 100% behind this important initiative.. Right now there are 20 states with Food labeling initiatives.. All eyes are on California and the millions of fear based ads run by agribusiness to defeat the measure we say VOTE YES on Prop 37

Proposition 38 Vote No.. raise Taxes for Everyone.. This proposition basically came about in response to the push to tax the wealthiest Californians who don’t pay their fair share.. In short tax the 1%. This is basically embodied in Prop 30 and directly connected to stopping fee hikes at state colleges etc. Prop 30 is the measure proposed by Gov Jerry Brown..

The 1% folks got together and crafted Prop 38 which would raise taxes for 12 years on most Cali folks thus putting increased burdens on poor and working families. Prop 38 will absolutely do nothing to Stop the 6 billion dollars in deficit trigger cuts to happen later to education if passed. Prop 30 will stop immediate cuts..The concenses is the billionaire behind the measure Molly Hunger did this to confuse voters especially when she uses wording like this money can’t be touched by politicians in Sacramento. All money in Sac is touched.. Don’t be fooled.In the case of Prop 30 vs Prop 38 there is a transparency aspect to it where all can see where and how the money from these extra taxes are being used.. Vote NO on Prop 38

Proposition 39 Vote Yes.. Close Corporate Loopholes.. The best way to describe this bill is that it’s a way to stop instate outsourcing. In this case what we have are scores of big corporations here in Cali who operate in other states but don’t pay their share in Cali taxes. They use all our commons from freeways to police, fire and other infrastructure, but pay taxes elsewhere. They do this fancy financial trickery to avoid paying.. This bill closes those loopholes and is pretty much a no brainer..It would also push for companies to provide more jobs and training..Look if any of us do work out of state we pay taxes on the income earned.Lets make sure the big boys in business do the same.. VOTE YES on Prop 39

Proposition 40 Vote Yes Redistricting.. One of the most contentious process in government is around the issue of redistricting and how boundaries are drawn.. Over night we’ve seen long time incumbents removed from office that’s to the redrawing of district lines every ten years. The folks in charge have long been politicians. In some states it’s the governor. In other states it’s a governor and his appointees. In any cases district lines have been drawn to satisfy the political goals of those in power.

California decided to do something about this and had on the ballot a couple of years ago a proposition that created a council of citizens who got to redraw district lines. Needless to say this didn’t sit well with some Sacramento politicians, in particular Republicans have been the main opposition to this. If it fails redistrict lines will have to be redrawn again.. Call it a case of sour grapes on behalf of the GOP.. We say VOTE YES on PROP 40

 

What Does it Mean When Romney is Campaigning in Florida while Flood Waters Rise in New Jersey?

Last night I was looking at the footage of the devastation throughout New Jersey, parts of New York and up and down the East Coast and was saddened and shocked to see how much many of us underestimated the type of havoc Hurricane Sandy laid on folks.

Thousands were left homeless. Millions of people were left without power and water. Millions had no heat which was crucial considering that Sandy unlike most hurricanes was not one that came when the weather was warm. This was essentially a winter storm, one that dropped several feet of snow in some places.

It was surreal looking at the carnage and recalling that it was just a few nights before, many were on twitter and Facebook taking what some were calling ‘a storm of storms’ , lightly. Many saw this Frankenstorm as no big deal, especially since it was a category 1 as opposed to a category 5, but history will show, Mother Nature, was and is not to be toyed with. The devastation shown here in the states has left many mournful and speechless. One can only imagine what things are like in places like Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic and other parts of the Caribbean where this monstrous storm struck first and not talked about too much in our media.

Mitt Romney opted to step away from Hurricane Sandy’s carnage & devastation and campaign in Florida

As the footage and stories unfolded about the immense destruction, I was surprised and left wondering why the hell presidential candidate Mitt Romney was a thousand miles away campaigning in Florida. As a leader and potential next President of the United States he should’ve been where the action is. His lack of presence in the storm zone was telling and a clear indication of what we might expect in terms of leadership or his lack thereof.

It wasn’t lost on many of us that Romney has consistently touted he’s a businessman whose acumen in that field lends to him being an effective problem solver.  It wasn’t lost on many of us that one of Romney’s business oriented solutions was to privatize FEMA.You can read about that HERE.

It’s with that in mind one has to wonder, why a supposedly business-savvy Romney was away campaigning in Florida as opposed to convening roundtables with all his business connects, collecting checks and showing the world just how effective the private sector or he as a ‘leader’ could be in rallying up the troops and resources for relief efforts..Yes, I know Romney did some sort of canned food drive/fund-raiser in Ohio, which was good for a nice photo-op, but anyone with an ounce of sense knows that’s not how big fundraisers are done when you play in the economic stratosphere on Romney. You don’t do food and clothing drives, you get on the horn and collect checks, the same way he does when running for office. There was no excuse for Mitt Romney not to have rolled up his sleeves and been in the hardest hit areas alongside everyone else delivering relief in the form of big checks to help in the recovery efforts.

It seems like everyone switched up their scheduled activities to focus, time and effort on victims of Hurricane Sandy. From media outlets which curtailed their regular programming to provide round the clock coverage to first responders from all over the country who ponied up resources, many on their own dime to get back East and chip in.. Mitt on the other hand opted to be elsewhere when he should had his own boots on the ground. What I’m saying is not far-fetched..We’ve seen private citizens with far-less resources and clout step up with great results in wake of a natural disasters

David Banner

Case in point is Mississippi rapper David Banner. In 2005, Banner after toiling for years was finally on the music map, with a massive top ten single, ‘Play’ and a highly anticipated album due out that fall called ‘Certified‘. Banner was in the middle of tour when Katrina, a category 5 hurricane hit the Mississippi coast line and damn near wiped it away.

Most people around the world had their eyes fixed on New Orleans because of the levees bursting and the subsequent flooding, but the main brunt of Katrina was felt in Mississippi where she forever decimated entire towns and left much of the state in darkness and without power.

It was in this backdrop that Banner without hesitation, made the decision to end his tour and use the buses and his own money and resources to start delivering food, water and clothing to those who lost everything. Banner turned to his fellow rappers to join his efforts and soon had big checks from everyone from Nelly who helped him set up infrastructure to properly collect money and goods to Young Jeezy who gave 250k to help in relief efforts. Other artists called up clothing companies and used their endorsement clout to get supplies for those in need. It was all hands on deck as folks came together to help save lives and get people back on their feet. This was in addition to the fundraising concerts Banner organized.

David Banner was relentless in his efforts at great sacrifice. The promotion of his album, the momentum of his career in a fickle music industry and his lucrative tour took a back seat while he put in serious work to help in the recovery of Mississippi. Banner demonstrated leadership, ingenuity and resourcefulness something we saw lacking with Romney who is clearly showing us how a businessman operates in times of trouble, putting the economic and in this case his political bottom line over people.

Instead of showing and proving what he could do as a concerned citizen and leader, Romney and his billionaire cronies are gearing up to spend upwards to another 10-12 million dollars in political campaign ads over the next few days. This is on top of the estimated 5-6 billion spent in this election cycle. One would think some of that money would go toward recovery efforts, but perhaps that’s why so many of us are NOT business people on the level of Romney. We are not ruthless at all costs in our pursuit of the bottom line. We should note how folks who think this way come through or don’t come through during natural disasters.

I recall Banner telling me a year after Katrina that there were label executives who harshly criticize him for turning his attention to relief efforts vs promoting his album. I recall when he was MTV weeks after Katrina, he got major grief for giving out the phone number to foundations and talking up relief efforts vs pushing the release date of his album. Maybe some are in Mitt Romney’s ear telling him its wrong to show up to help those in need vs campaigning. Maybe they’re telling him ‘Win at all costs Get that money that’s the American way and the hell with those who are in need and even dying’.

I bring all this up, because in 2012 we are at a critical juncture, politically, socially and economically. Right now there’s a big push to privatize many institutions and services that in the public sector. It’s a push by folks who sit on both the left and right side of the political spectrum.  Romney and his people wanna privatize social security and outfits like FEMA. Here in places like California its corporate minded Democrats leading the charge to privatize our once revered public universities and colleges. So lets not get anything twisted. Privatizing everything from parks to schools to your local fire department is an end game for a whole lot of folks who are part of the 1% and folks best be thinking about this with every political decision made, no matter who’s in office.We should be asking are those repping us ‘corporate owned’ or ‘corporate free’?.

All of us should be asking what does that mean at the end of the day. Will you have to have good credit and a job to be rescued by a privatized FEMA?  With the devastating fire that torched more than 100 homes in Breezy Point Queens, would privatized relief efforts be for those who paid for premium relief service? Certainly folks recall the Tennessee fire department that stood by and allowed a home to burn because  the family neglected to pay their annual Fire Prevention dues to the local fire department..You can read about that HERE. 

It’s important that folks pay attention. The true measure of a person’s character is how they behave in times of crises. The day after one of the worst storms in American history, if your away campaigning and collecting advertising money  while fires are still burning and flood waters are still rising and millions are left suffering,  then folks should really take to heart when you (Mitt Romney) say things like;  ‘Corporations are People To My Friend‘ . In short, Mitt Romney may have gotten his fingernails dirty if a Bain Capital building got flooded, but if its Mrs Jones down the street, not so much.

Lastly, let me not, I’m no political novice, I get that with political rival President Barack Obama and Mitt’s good friend Gov Chris Christie showing love and publicly cooperating with one another is probably is rooted in political posturing. Yes I get that they are politicians and they are playing the role, but at least they have sense enough to do it in the disaster zone. At least they have sense to do a lil’ something to help bring about relief. If anything their presence has helped motivate people. They’ve demonstrates some degree of competence at the very least and genuine concern and sincerity at most  Romney should’ve been there as well.. The fact that he isn’t shows, just how out of touch he is and how incompetent on more levels than I can lay out in this article. The lack of concern is sickening.

written by Davey D