Dear White Friends

It has been brought to my attention that some of my Caucasian friends don’t know if they are a racist or not!  I know just the idea of this post is probably making some of you gasp and the rest of you salivate knowing me as you do.  Well, this editorial will hope to enlighten you that “don’t know” and bring to light to the rest of you what you already know.  Let me be clear, this is not intended to shock or offend you, this is just to educate you, because you just don’t know.  Let me be clear, I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him..., (insert wink, only if you understand).  So here we go, “Dear White friends”…, 

Take this quiz to LEARN if you are a racist or not.  Don’t be afraid, and please feel free to share it with others who also don’t know who they are.

  You are a racist if:

1. You have Black friends, but they are the “good ones”.

2. You think “those Black guys who the police shot would be alive today if they had only complied with the cops orders”.

3. You don’t want all of those Mexicans in this country.

4. You don’t believe Obama was born in America.

5. You feel that racism ended in America when we elected a Black MAN as President.

6. (Bonus) you think racism got worse in America because of how Obama did everything for only Black people.

7. You think Black people need to “get over it” about slavery.

8. You think Trump was right for saying there were “very fine people on both sides” of the unrest at Charlottesville. 

9. “These Black people who had the police called on them may not have been doing anything wrong, but it is okay for the cops to be called because, well, you never know”.

10. You think “those Black guys in Starbucks should have just bought something”.

11. You see an mixed race couple and think it is “a shame”.

12. You think the Confederate flag and monuments are about heroes and to removes them is un-American.

13. You think Santa Claus IS White and should be portrayed and drawn that way.

14. You have a lot of good Black friends, but you would NEVER date one.

15. You think the NFL players should just shut up and stop kneeling for the flag because it is turning the protest into a racial issue that is dividing the country.

16. Your definition of “Make America Great Again” is to roll things back to when “all the good jobs went to all the right people”.

17. (In lieu of the Roseanne situation) You think ABC was unfair to fire Roseanne Barr based on just a tweet.

18. Now, this was just a quiz.  How did you do?  Do you think you could do better if this quiz was “more fair?”  (That was a trick quiz question)

Look, racism is a hard discussion in this country, and there are some sincere folks on all sides that want to make things better but harbor racist ideas themselves.  Heck, I myself feel some kinda way, based on some certain situations.  I ain’t proud of it, but I work hard at trying to be a better me, every single day.  But if you don’t want things to be better between all races in this country or you think that you and your “people” are better than “those people”, you will never live in a better America, you just want to live in your own version of it.  But as I said, it is a hard discussion, but it IS a discussion that we need to have if we are going to make things better.  Discussion is part of what makes America’s Democracy the envy of the world, we need to embrace that factor and stop retiring to our own silos and complaining about how bad things are.  Democracy was not created in America, it has just been defined here better than anywhere else.  But Democracy is not the exclusive property of some people; the Constitution was not meant for SOME of the People.  It is said that slavery is America’s “original sin”, but it is not.  The “original sin” of this nation was to steal land from, subjugate, and relocate the indigenous peoples of this land and to this day, keep them from achieving socio-economic equality here.  Racism does not mean you have feelings of superiority against just Black people.   It means you feel that regardless of who anyone else is or does or how they treat you, YOU always know that “they” should not have more than you and you will work to do whatever you can to keep perpetuating that belief.
Let me let you in on a little secret, we are ALL in this together, ain’t not a one of us getting out of it alive.  We might as well love, respect, and get along with each other because hating someone else just gives you a reason to make your life poorer for the few minutes you have left.
Oh, and as for scoring the test; how many do you have to “get right” to be a racist?  ONE!

As my good friend used to say: America is a tough town, you snooze you lose, you can’t get everything you want, sometimes you can’t get nuthin’, but you can ALWAYS get somethin’, whether you want it or not!

Sean Hannity and the War on Keurig

So Sean Hannity and the Right Wing Nut Jobs have fallen out with Keurig?  Seems that Keurig has chosen to remove all advertising from his show based on that sham of an interview he did with Judge Roy Moore over these accusations that he is a serial child molester.  So now Sean's viewers are upset and smashing their trappings of excess, these $200.00 coffee brewers.  (I do love the convenience of them myself).  Kinda reminds me of how advertisers got a touch of common sense over Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly.  There SHOULD be consequences for the deeds and actions of people like this.  Subway moved quickly to disassociate themselves from Jared after the ACCUSATIONS were made.  Penn State moved swiftly once things were brought to light (though did nothing when there were just rumors and whispers about Sandusky), Jello, Coke, NBC, all moved harshly and with the quickness to disassociate themselves from Bill Cosby and the man has YET to be "convicted" of anything.  If these accusations had in anyway shape or form been leveled at ANYONE whom Obama endorsed, supported, or even been himself accused, the Right Wing media would have eviscerated that person and would claim to have proof that this was indeed TRUE, facts be damned.

I am so tired, Jesus knows I am tired, of calling Bull Shit on Hannity and the rest of his ilk who find it so very easy to tell a lie to defame anyone  they don't like, but when CLEAR evidence is brought up about someone THEY support, they NEED, they find a way to blame and shame the victim and justify what happened on some ridiculous level.  AYFKM that the women "should not have waited so long to speak out"?!?!?  Didn't hear a single one of them offer that narrative about Bill Cosby's accusers.  No one is screaming that Aly Raisman should have spoken up sooner. No one is condemning the boys who fell victim to Gerry Sandusky.  How many people worldwide are saying the priests that the Catholic Church moved and protected for DECADES can't be held accountable by the now MEN who finally found the courage to pronounce they were molested as children.  This man is a disgrace and even if by some slim margin he really IS innocent, he should do the right thing and step away so that he can "fight these accusations with all he can".  You know, like John Edwards did....................,

The Orange Menace

For 8 years the Right Wing nut jobs told us President Obama was a sleeper cell foreign spy because of the color of his skin, 

His insistence on trying to work within the Constitution, 

Work with Congress 

Give their dumb asses universal healthcare.  

He also;

Passed the $787 billion America Recovery and Reinvestment Act to spur economic growth during the Great Recession

Ordered for the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden
Ended the war in Iraq
Saved the U.S. auto industry
Improved school nutrition with the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act
Expanded embryonic stem cell research leading to groundbreaking work in areas including spinal injury treatment and cancer

So they elected this orange man that's;

•  Married to an Eastern European nude "model"

• Has gone to war with the mainstream media

• Skirted the Constitution

• Bullied our long time allies

• Taken credit for things he hasn't done

• Created fake stories to distract the public from his machinations and failings

• Crippled our national intelligence community by firing the acting chief of the Department of Justice

• Fired the FBI Director, removed key members of Congress by giving them jobs in his administration they weren't qualified for

• Given away military secrets to a foreign leader

• Offered a budget that will give tax breaks to the rich while giving no relief to the lower income supporters

• REFUSED to show his OWN tax returns

• Signed an executive order to take away that healthcare they didn't want but now depend on

• Tried to obstruct justice on an investigation into his campaign

• Openly entertained and showed support for the greatest adversary we've ever by inviting Russian agents into the Oval Office and giving them national security secrets which compromised a long standing ally's (Israel) covert operations. 

 Now, WHICH one seems like a foreign spy?

Trumpback Mountain - The Art of Screwing Everyone from the Top

When commercial fishermen go to do their jobs, which is to catch as many fish as they can, they do what is called "cast a wide net".  You see the larger the net, the wider the area they can fish, the higher the likelihood they will catch enough fish to have a successful day or "campaign".  The whole idea is not to narrow your options, but to expand them so you can be successful, IF that is your intent.  In case you are reading this and wondering, "where is The Nitelifer going with this one". I will get to my point.
Donald Trump announced his campaign by riding on the wave of anger a certain element in this country feels towards Hispanic immigrants, legal or illegal.  There is nothing new about this in America.  After emancipation, Blacks were framed to be all that were wrong with the country, later it was the Irish, then the Italians.  In the 1980's Japanese were the hate targets for "buying up all of America" and then of course, anyone Muslim is gonna be hated from now on.  But what Trump did that day is what all Presidential candidates do; he chose a target and set the target for his campaign.  The problem is, today, Hispanics actually represent a voting block.  There are stats that say overwhelmingly Hispanics vote together.  Is that 100%?  No, of course not.  But with the percentage of the voting population that Hispanics represent, Trump narrowed his net right out the box. After taking hits from all sectors on this stance, Trump, as you well know, didn't back off; he doubled down.  He stuck to his guns and showed us his "tough side".  Points for the Donald from the xenophobes.
Then less than a few weeks later, Trump got embroiled in a "war on women", by character attacking Fox News' Megyn Kelly.  Not that she isn't deserving of disdain, but by going after her, then Carly Fiorona and other female reporters who had the nerve to find fault and question his methods and words.  So now he has garnered sympathy for women that lots of women (and men) normally wouldn't like.  Well done Sir, you have drawn that net even tighter.  But what does that matter, right?  He still has his base, angry White males, most of the 300 Black Republicans.., oh wait!  Well see there is this guy; Dr Ben Carson?  He's "a Black"...., of course HE is going to get ALL the Black Republicans anyway right?  Sure! So why not attack Carson like Trump did on Wednesday; he was closely associated with the birther movement that was laser focused on proving President Obama wasn't born in America, (spoiler, he wasn't, he was born in Hawaii).  But Trump, always the extremest extremist, took it to another level by saying Obama couldn't have achieved as much as he did academically because you know he is "a Black"!  So what if Trump went after Carson's history, he's no Obama.
Now as you know if you've been reading The Nitelifer this year, I am no fan or supporter of Carson.  In my opinion he is just 3 blinks from full blown insane.  He says things that should make EVERY SINGLE BLACK PERSON IN AMERICA uncomfortable and angry.  Statements like "Obamacare is the worst thing in America since slavery" & no gunshot wound he ever treated in an ER was worse than having our gun rights under attack; are just plain crazy talk.  But Trump attacking Carson and in the process calling out all the people of Iowa who are supporting Carson, just narrowed his net, yet again.  Unless in the course of a week, the population of Iowa skewed dramatically, Trump starting cutting into his bread and butter, middle class, middle America Whites.

In trying to stroke his own ego, (as always) Trump continues to proclaim that anyone who is not for him, is stupid.  He really reminds me of a spoiled brat who, if he cannot have his way, will throw a tantrum and call everyone else dumb.  But what is truly interesting and what you really have to deeply delve into is, by his words Trump is not only casting a shrinking net, he is tossing his existing crew off the boat.  If you start out holding hands side by side a diverse group and keep attacking things that people don't line up 100% with you, you can start losing people to hold hands with; you end up hugging only yourself.  No matter how much money you have and spend, you cannot win an election when you are reducing the amount of people who want to vote for you.
Look, the top of a pyramid is its smallest design point, but in order for that point to be supported, it has to have a broader base.  This is why I am wondering if Trump is really trying to work his way out of this race and find a way to scapegoat everyone and anyone so that he can turn to the cameras and declare "I am still the best, I know what's best, but America is too stupid to want ME".
If you want Trump, vote for Trump.  He will not win, and what is worse, he will do absolutely nothing to help you or your family have a better life here in America.  He will just find a way to blame you when any of his reality TV show ideas get shot down as just fantasy.  But he doesn't want to be President America, Trump just wants a platform that we are giving him so that he can try and show just how great and powerful he is.  Just like the Wizard of Oz what just a hollow man behind a hollow smoke and mirror show, Donald Trump is also just a carnival barker who has a captivated audience.

GOP Debate take aways

After watching the GOP Debate tonight from the Reagan Library I have a few observations;

• Michelle Bachmann is no longer the craziest of the candidates, that now goes to Perry, Bachmann is now just VP of bat sh!t crazy
• Rick Santorum has a lot of kids and a lot of bad ideas
• Mitt Romney is correct, Tea Party does not require you to carry a card, cards, like reading, is bad
• Rick Perry says Social Security is a Ponzi scheme and that science should investigate whether science is actually science
• Herman Cain will never be elected nor nominated, he's being quietly marginalized by his fellow Republicans
• Ron Paul thinks America needs to take air conditioners out of the Green Zone and a fence will keep Americans locked in, instead of illegal immigrants out.  In other words, Huh?!?!?
• Newt Gingrich is still rewriting history to make himself out to be a hero and hasn't got an ice cube's chance
• And finally, together none of these people are strong enough to be a serious threat to Obama gaining a second term
• There is a sad section of people in this country that are excited about Texas executing 243 people since Rick Perry took office

It is true that America needs jobs, and it is incumbent upon President Obama to help make them a reality, but with Republican leadership like these people running to take him on, it will be hard to get anything done.  It is impossible to reason with unreasonable people.  None of these people are offering any new ideas, or are able to actually lead.  Other than Perry, I don't see either of them being able to make that call that President Obama did to send troops into a sovereign nation without notification to kill an enemy of the state.  I know Rick Perry will do it, Rick Perry seems to be amped up TO kill.