Friday, June 09, 2017

Friday Information in early June 2016.

The Comey hearing was interesting. The Trump administration is the most bizarre administration in my lifetime. Here are things that I take away from his hearing: On many questions, he didn't answer, because he felt that he can't divulge publicly about the information (in deeming them classified).He threw Loretta Lynch and Jeff Sessions under the bus for in his terms, he accused them of doing problematic actions (especially Sessions. Sessions rescued himself from the investigation of the alleged Russian ties to hacking). Sessions violated his recusal two months later by recommending the firing of the top investigator probing the Trump campaign for possible collusion with Russia two months later. I don't agree with the agenda of Sessions as he is an extremist. Loretta Lynch has denied Comey's accusations against her. He felt that Trump lied about the reasons on why he was fired from the FBI. He felt that Trump defamed his reputation and the reputation of the FBI since Trump accused him and the FBI of corruption and malfeasance. He left it up to the investigators to figure out if Trump did obstruction of justice or not. Jared Kushner will meet with the Senate Intelligence Committee soon. He created notes about his interactions with Donald Trump. He wrote memos too. He said that Trump wanted Comey to have loyalty to him, which is highly inappropriate. He is willing to allow tapes to be released (if they exist). The Trump campaign, in usual fashion, has accused Comey of leaking information to the public. Comey declines to say ‘in an open setting’ whether Trump colluded with Russia. Comey said that he was fired to change how the Russian probe was conducted. So, it will take a while for the real truth to be known.

Muhammad Ali was the greatest heavyweight boxer in history. He was not only a great fighter in the ring. He was a great social activist, a father, and a grandfather. He was a man who showed humor, seriousness, intellectual strength, and a great wit. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky to 2 parents. He worked hard in boxing as a youth. He won the Golden Gloves and he won gold in the Olympic Games over in Rome in 1960. Later, he started his professional boxing career. He had speed. Muhammad Ali's quickness and agility caused his boxing opponents to be defeated. He won the title in 1964 against Sonny Liston. He celebrated and proclaimed himself "The Greatest." Muhammad Ali displayed a confidence that inspired black youth back then and today to show their Blackness with courage and without apology. Muhammad Ali would oppose the Vietnam War since it was a war that didn't have a moral justification. He felt that the Vietnamese people aren't the ones oppressing black people, but a racist system is. The Vietnam War could have ended via a peaceful negotiated settlement long before 1975.

So, Muhammad Ali spoke in colleges and other places to oppose the war in Vietnam (as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, and Malcolm X opposed the Vietnam War too). He was stripped of his title, because of his views. He worked in many jobs and in a play. He spoke and he sacrificed until 1970 when he was finally granted the right to fight in the States. The Supreme Court ruled that he has the right to oppose the war via his religious views. He fought Joe Frazier and lost in 1971. He fought others too and defeated George Foreman in 1974 in Zaire, Africa. Once, he was in the Nation of Islam. He changed to be in Orthodox Islam, he did his hajj, and he worked in humanitarian efforts. He has a deep compassion for the poor and the oppressed. He believed in equality (as before he passed away, he publicly rejected hating people based upon someone's skin color) and religious tolerance. That is why he opened his house to many of his neighbors including people that he didn't know. He was a very giving man. He worked in charities, he lit the flame in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. Muhammad Ali also promoted love and human justice. He lived a long life and his human courage is sacrosanct. He taught all of us about real consciousness and real persistence. He was a living representation of Black manhood and he loved his people.
Rest in Power Brother Muhammad Ali.


It is important to mention more information about Josephine Baker. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri and became an international entertainer. Yet, she was more than a musician and a dancer. She had a great deal of exquisite, powerful consciousness about the world society. She dedicated her life to tolerance and fighting Jim Crow segregation in America. She lived long enough to see legal Jim Crow segregation to be gone by 1965 in America. She also heroically worked for the French Resistance. The French Resistance were fighting the Nazis and the evil pro-Nazi Vichy state during World War II. After the war, she was awarded the Croix de guerre by the French military, and was named a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur by General Charles de Gaulle. She loved Paris as her 2nd love. She did what she did for a reason. She wanted to express the accurate point to the world that racial intolerance has no place in the world. He loved her kids and love that she had was universally cherished by many people globally. She was ahead of her time. Before many artists in our time, there was Josephine Baker. She worked in the Civil Rights Movement and was a proponent of freedom, artistic creativity, and loyalty (or fidelity) to justice.
Rest in Power Sister Josephine Baker.

Today is the centennial of the Birthday of the great legendary Sister Gwendolyn Brooks. Every black writer from the 1960's onward is influenced one way or another by the exquisite, eloquent literature of Gwendolyn Brooks. She wrote poetry which moved communities and expressed the pain, the joy, and the multifaceted experiences of black people. She was part of Chicago. She was born in Topeka, Kansas, but she moved into Chicago at a very young age. When she was growing up, she saw the Chicago Renaissance where Brothers and Sisters exploded with glorious creativity involving literature, art, music, dance, and other aspects of human endeavors. Since she was a child, she wrote literature like poetry constantly. She evaluated her conditions and gave voice to the aches of the poor and of black people in America. She was an activist who yearned for justice. That's obviously self-evident in her support of the Civil Rights Movement (She was part of the NAACP Youth Council in 1937. She protested lynching and racism back then. Also, she wrote in 1963 a work called, "The Bean Eaters" which inspired civil rights activists), the Black Power Movement, and the anti-apartheid movement. She was an educator who loved to exhibit her wisdom and her expertise to assist young black writers to perfect their crafts. A lot of her work delves into subjects of black youth, the rights of black women, societal changes, and life in general. Her genius is irreplaceable including magnificent. She loved us. She loved black people and we love her back. She was raised the Bronzeville district of Chicago's South Side. She knew of the ghetto. She knew of James Weldon Johnson (who was a civil rights icon) and she met Langston Hughes (who is another literary genius in his own right). Gwendolyn Brooks won many prestigious awards constantly because her talent along with the fact that her words were brilliant in its composition. She was a Pulitzer Prize winner, a poet laureate, and a recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Her empathy was incredible and her brilliance is unmatched. We miss her. We owe her a lot. Part of life is to acknowledge the sacrifice of others and Sister Gwendolyn Brooks was a heroic black woman. She was a wife and a great mother. She passed away at the age 83 in the year of 2000.
Rest in Power Sister Gwendolyn Brooks.


By Timothy

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