Black Panther

What is interesting for me about the film is that it is not so much a fantasy as a remembrance of a world that might have been. Not built with vibranium, but with the natural resources that the African Continent is known for. If used for the benefit of the people, the gold, diamonds, oil and all the resources of the earth could have been used to build great societies and been a source of power for the people.

Without the European theft of people during the slave trade and ongoing transfer of resources, we could believe that empires such as Mali might have become the Wakanda of today.

Dereliction of Duty

It is ironic that the talk of mentally ill is being confined to the ban on assault weapons. It clearly should be expanded to include our president, whose behavior and words, and seeming detachment from reality, pose a clear and present danger to the republic. By his refusal to acknowledge what Russian operatives themselves called “warfare on the United States,” he has abdicated his sworn duty to protect the nation against all adversaries, foreign and domestic. The nation was attacked, and the response of the Commander-in-Chief is to not fight back but to whine and condemn us to an era that will live in infamy.

Assault Weapons Ban

There’s a good chance there will be an assault weapons ban with this session of Congress. Much credit will be given to the children’s crusade and the extraordinary young people emerging from the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, but there will be others playing their part as well. Republican fundraiser Al Hoffman, Jr., who has raised “well over $600 million” for Republicans when he was the fundraising chair, said in a CNN interview that he was closing his wallet to Republicans who do not support an assault weapons ban. Told that the NRA spends tens of millions itself and that candidates may go to other sources, Hoffman replied that he’s opening his “little Rolodex” and contacting other donors, urging them not to support those Republicans who do not support an assault weapons ban. I would not be surprised at a Republican change of heart.

Information Wars

Special counsel Robert Mueller and his team have just bagged thirteen Russians for interfering with the election process by sowing discord and the creation of false events to be covered by local and national news.

Some of those events took place in New York and are detailed in excerpts from the 37-page indictment on page 3. If you are engaged in activism for Clinton or Trump, you may find you were an “unwitting” pawn playing a part in a real-life spy novel. For ourselves, it was with dread that we searched our e-mail history here at Our Time Press for the addresses used by the Russians. Thankfully, we came up empty and also did not have coverage of the staged rallies. We stayed under their radar in 2016 and we had stayed away from their Blacktivist group because we recognized it was a fake. But we cannot expect to remain unnoticed in 2018 and rhetoric will be refined.   One lesson that comes out of the reading of the indictment, and if you like a page-turner, this is it if you see e-mails or Facebook posts and ads that are divisive, strident or mean-spirited, notices that speak to the gut rather than critical thinking about issues, then imagine a red circle with a red line through it and move on.

These Russian trolls and their bot programs that infect the Internet gravitate to emotional situations and exploit any divisions they can.   With the Florida shooting, they immediately began posting messages to create fear of an AR-15 ban.

They’re going to be back, they’re going to be sharper, and when the next explosive event in the Black community happens, they will be all over it, and the social media-obsessed and poorly educated are their easiest prey and violent demonstrations in urban areas will be their goal. The midterms are the prize and “vigilance” must be the watchword. They are coming for us!