WHAT IT MEANS WHEN GM EXECUTIVES PAY TO GET AWAY WITH KILLING PEOPLE

Six hundred dollars. That’s the figure I came up with when I tried to distill the meaning of General Motors’ nine hundred million dollar settlement with the US government to avoid being charged with knowingly selling cars with defective ignition switches — vehicles which I can arguably call pending death sentences — to you non-oligarchs. […]

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON MOVIE THOUGHTS, PART TWO

Part Two: This Movie and Planet Earth Now that I’ve discussed the social backdrop for the Straight Outta Compton movie in my previous post, I want to start this post by giving props to film director F. Gary Gray because Compton was shot and edited well. But of course I have some feedback about the storyline. […]

STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON MOVIE THOUGHTS, PART ONE

Part One: Plantation Cultivation and the American Dream Straight out of the 1980s–90s plantation known as Compton, California, and powered in part by President Ronald Reagan’s Narcotics Entrepreneurship and Small Arms Specialist Training Program, better known to the rest you as the Iran-Contra scandal, five young men pushed their way to entertainment stardom and out […]

BALTIMORE MAYOR LOST IN ISMS AND SCHISMS ABOUT RIOTS

It appears that Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is lost in her isms and schisms over what to call the small fraction of the thousands of protesters who burned and looted parts of Baltimore in response to Freddie Gray’s death at the hands of the police department. Mayor Rawlings-Blake first called the firestarters kids in need […]

IN 20 TWEETS, BALTIMORE ORIOLES’ EXEC SCHOOLS JOURNALIST ON WHAT THE FREDDIE GRAY PROTESTS ARE REALLY ABOUT

First, Freddie Gray dies while in the Baltimore police department’s custody, followed by protests which turned sufficiently chaotic where fans attending a Baltimore Orioles game earlier this week were not permitted to leave Camden Yards. Then, sportscaster Brett Hollander began to beef about the rights of commuting Orioles fans being violated by the inconvenience of […]

WHILE YOU PARTY IN SELMA…

So, you’re marching in Selma today for the star-studded 50th anniversary of the beating Martin Luther King Jr’s followers took as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus bridge. I don’t fault you for attempting to connect with what I also see as an important part of American history, but while you march today in one […]

WHY PEOPLE WALKED OUT OF OBAMA’S SPEECH

Why did crowds of people in Upper Marlboro, Maryland walk out during President Obama’s campaign speech for gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown? My guess Either President Obama has become a tired brand in America, or the American public is having a serious disagreement with Number 44 over what an economic recovery looks like. Think of it […]

EBOLA – REMINDS ME OF THAT FUNKADELIC SONG AGAIN

Sure, you will read tons of stories about how Ebola—just like many social and economic crises—will almost always lead to the general public isolating specific groups of people out of fear or hatred. But I think the fear mongers and their consumers are missing a larger point. Save me the “you’re missing the racial angle” lecture. I […]

1964 CIVIL RIGHTS ACT AT 50 – NEITHER A BEGINNING NOR END

I’ll mark today’s 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act by reading you a piece of legislation: [W]ith a view to affording reasonable protection to all persons in their constitutional rights of equality before the law, without distinction of race or color, or previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude… Sounds familiar? I have […]