And As The Seconds Tick Away Towards The New Year…- A Repost

 

As I raise my flute in drunken glee,
I look upon what was once a live tree.
So concerned with this planet and global warming,
my resolution to do better can wait til morning.

For tonight, I celebrate with friends and acquaintances,
spreading well wishes and exchanging whispered confidences.
The wrongs of this world, for just one night
can wait a little longer for us to do what’s right.

A sick child with no health care will have to hold on
until I open my bleary eyes to greet the new dawn.
The Black man being dragged by the Ku Klux Klan
should have seen them coming, he should have ran.

Of course I care about the people who have addictions
just like I care about my neighbor who can’t afford her prescriptions.
I know about the homeless who have formed a tent city.
But for just this night, champagne will take away my pity.
And as the seconds tick away towards the New Year,
even champagne cannot stop me from shedding another tear.

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2017 Shelby I. Courtland

I wrote this one because as we celebrate the ringing out of the old and in with the new, I cannot help but believe that more misery, cruelty, suffering, chaos, war and all things of horror, will follow us into this new year and beyond, for what will have changed?

As we head to our parties tonight, break out our party favors and drink our champagne toasts at midnight, wish each other a “Happy New Year,” are we really going to think that this year will be any happier than 2019 or 2018 or 2017? What is going to change to get us to actually mean it when we say, “Happy New Year?” It will be just another year of the same because we won’t change. We will continue in our old ways of ignoring those who are less fortunate. We will pretend as though there are not wars being fought just because. We will never for a minute think that we have aided and abetted in the destruction of this planet through our selfish acts as we scream, “Happy New Year To One And All!” If we really meant that, we’d know it because it would show, but when you look around, does it show? Does it look as though we give a damn about the children who go to bed, hungry? Does it look like we give a damn about the homeless? Does it look like we care about those who are in unimaginable pain because they have no health insurance? Does it look like we are going to start doing something to hold our elected representatives accountable for the way they continuously make the working poor pay for the idleness of the rich? Does it look like the ‘new year’ will bring about a change in the human psyche which seems hell bent on self-destruction? If any of you ponder these questions, I already know what the outcome will be. Exactly how you were in 2017, 2018, 2019 is how you will be in 2020 and on and on it will go until they plant you. Because we are always going to wait til tomorrow to ‘do’ better. Just like each and every year, we are bombarded with ads to lose weight and get in shape and some people actually make a resolution to do just that and then after a month, what happens? Back to square one. We’re pathetic!

And so, I will not say, “Happy New Year!” I will merely say, “Welcome to the rest of your lives!” War, misery, homelessness, joblessness, starvation, income inequality, racism, ignorance, selfishness, arrogance, greed, lust, apathy and complacency and your solutions to getting through all of this; heroin, crack, alcohol, weed, mass murder and suicide.

“Welcome, To The Rest Of Your Lives! Cheers!”

Youtubers Are Going Crazy Over New Youtube Rules Coming Out In 2020 Thanks To A Hefty FTC Fine Against Google/Youtube

Apparently, there was some sort of law on the books, COPPA, that was being ignored by Google, the owner of Youtube.

Google to pay $170 million for violating kids’ privacy on YouTube

Google will pay a record $170 million fine to settle a lawsuit filed by federal and state authorities that charged the internet giant with violating children’s privacy on YouTube, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said Wednesday.

The settlement requires Google and YouTube to pay $136 million to the FTC and $34 million to New York state for violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, by collecting personal information from children without their parents’ consent.

Kid influencers: Companies make millions while laws protecting children fail to keep up
Amazon’s Echo Dot Kids puts kids at risk, complaint alleges
New program teaches kids how to protect their privacy online

The FTC and the New York attorney general alleged in a complaint that YouTube gathered children’s personal information by using “cookies,” or personal identifiers, that track users online. According to the suit, YouTube earned millions of dollars by using the information to deliver targeted ads to kids.

Also, it has been stated that the FTC will also fine individual Youtubers for each and every single video that they post that is in violation of COPPA, over $42,000. Ouch!

Hundreds of thousands if not millions of people have taken to Youtube to earn a living. If anyone can remember, I posted a blog about multiple Youtubers making videos of themselves eating copious amounts of food for a living and they also encouraged their children to participate. I wonder what is going to happen to those content creators. But I do know one thing, there are many Youtubers whose panties are in a bunch thanks to the fact that Google completely ignored COPPA for years and now that the FTC has caught up with them thanks in part to child advocacy groups, the fur is about to fly starting in January 2020 as the new rules will apply.

People, seriously! Did you honestly think that the gravy train was going to never come to a halt? People had been asking me to start a Youtube channel and speak about the issues on a Youtube channel that I have blogged about. Well, I knew better and that is why I never even thought to start a Youtube channel because I don’t live in the moment. I’m a space woman. I see waaaaaay down the goddamn road and I saw this shit coming. Hell! If people weren’t so dumbed down and stupid, it was right there in front of us all, but because most of us have our heads down, staring at a smartphone and most likely watching a Youtube video, they couldn’t see the forest or the trees.

How could ANY of you think that this technology that we have been encouraged to embrace would be for our benefit? Would better our lives? People have been encouraged not to greater heights of achievements in helping humanity, but have been encouraged to act like jackasses, fools, gluttons, game idiots and assholes. And if anyone says that thanks to Youtube, videos surfaced showcasing outright murders of American descendants of slaves has helped American descendants of slaves, then how so? Because even with video evidence of Eric Garner getting the life choked out of him, what was the outcome of that? Nothing. What happened with evidence of Mike Brown lying in the streets like a dog for hours with not even a sheet to cover him after having been shot dead by a KKKop? Nothing. What happened after video evidence of multiple whites calling the KKKops on American descendants of slaves for barbecuing, selling bottled water, swimming in a pool, doing their job of checking homes for fire code violations, sitting inside a Starbucks and the list is endless? Video evidence of this shit does not matter. It never will. Whites know what the hell they do to us and them seeing video proof of other whites doing the same thing, does not a damn thing. It has changed NOTHING. So who the fuck needs Youtube? Yes, people were making their little coins on Youtube, but as we ALL know, nothing stays the same. The only thing constant is change, so have a backup plan for the backup plan or we’re screwed. And though many of us are trying to ignore the fact, the vast majority of us are indeed, screwed.

I have not been blogging because, once again, I have gone all across America trying to find some other place to live and I am right back, once again, at square one. The shit I’ve seen would curl your toes. I even spent a night in a homeless shelter to see if my suspicions about those shelters was still on point and, yes indeed, they are.

I was in Minnesota and spent a night at The Salvation Army Harbor Light Center
1010 Currie Ave N
Minneapolis, MN 55403
(612) 767-3100

This is what I was supposed to read and I pretended to not understand and so I was given this paper by Salvation Army staff.

This is the back of that.

All ‘guests’ must sign this form.

And if you go to the link, it sounds like the homeless hit pay dirt. Not so fast. The website states that there is a hot meal served. Nope. There was no hot meal served. The site states that this is a place to “begin the healing process.” Nope! When I saw the prison like cot that was supposed to be my bed for the night, I balked. I’m like, “Where is the disinfectant?” None was available. The ‘mattress’ was not even an inch thick. It was clearly older than the ‘Dead Sea Scrolls’ and underneath it was steel. I gingerly sat down on the thing and my legs started screaming because the steel edges of that thing was biting into my legs. I had to get up and sit in my walker. I sat like that for hours until I was so tired, I decided to try and lie down on that ‘thing’. When I tell you that my body hurt everywhere from being on something so hard, it should have been illegal, I am SO fucking not kidding. By the time, I struggled to get up, the cops were coming in the room, bringing in a homeless woman who had been riding the light rail. And in the room, there was four bunk ‘beds’ and so eight people to a room. I saw young and old, Black and white and one Hispanic. I smelled odors that I’d never smelled before. I cannot post pictures because I don’t want the nice ladies who were in my room to be ogled over, but I am telling you if you don’t believe me, I dare you to go, undercover, into one of those so-called ‘christian’ otherwise known as faith-based homeless shelters and tell me that what you found was so very different and better than what I found. The next morning, my cousin came to get me and he burst out laughing because he said that never had he seen bags like those underneath my eyes. He said the bags underneath my eyes were touching my toes. I told him that the women in the shelter told me that clearly I was not cut out for living like that and wondered what I was going to do. I then came clean to them and told them that I had a home, but I couldn’t stand where I was living and was trying to see if I could tough things out and live rough if I had to. They told me to get on the fastest thing smoking back to where I came from and that is exactly what I did. I traded my apartment for a hotel room and then traded my hotel room for a homeless shelter and I am telling you that I now have much more of an appreciation for those who can live rough because I’m telling you, it ain’t easy. It ain’t easy at all.

One Black lady told me that she had been in that homeless shelter for a year. I was stunned, STUNNED, I say because I could not make it to night two. She told me that she thought that she was finally going to get an apartment because a social worker had taken her to view an apartment the day before. I told her how happy I was for her and that I sincerely hope that she gets out of there. The next morning, on the loudspeaker, we were told to start packing up to leave at 8:55a.m. I saw multiple women with walkers slowing heading down the hall towards the elevator. Also, one had a leg that was obviously mutilated and it was curved outward and she was struggling to walk. I could not believe that they were putting her out of the shelter for the day to walk around like that. But the other ladies in the same room as myself had told me that it matters not what condition you are in, you are put out. And that the only way that you can stay is to get a slot on the fourth floor. We were on the 3rd floor.

The fourth floor is for those who have an income and who don’t have a problem when the Salvation Army takes 30% of their income and in exchange for really, no better conditions. The women just get to come and go as they please until curfew which I believe is at 8:00pm. They get three meals a day, but they are still sleeping eight to a room on a cot with the same type of ‘mattress’ that I had and they must also use communal bathrooms. There was one bathroom for one entire hallway and I lost count of the rooms along that hallway. There were two showers inside the bathroom with just a filthy curtain over the opening of each. One woman was washing her clothing in one of the sinks even though there were two washers and two dryers in a different area. She had no money to spend on the washers and dryers. The next time you want to put some money into those red kettles outside of Walmart and grocery stores and department stores, re-read this blog because that money is not going into helping the homeless. But don’t take my word for it. Go to one of those Salvation Army homeless shelters in a town near you, that’ll make a believer out of you!

Those places are foul as hell and are worse than prisons. And it’s not just drug addicts and drunks who are homeless. I spoke with a woman who had retired from the Minnesota school system, had a pension and was receiving Social Security and she was still homeless because senior communities claim that she was making $400 over what she could to get housed. Of course she was an American descendant of slaves and so that explains the TRUE and REAL reason why she was sitting all up in a homeless shelter. Whites will make up any excuse to keep American descendants of slaves out on the streets. That poor woman was actually saving up money so that she could afford a hotel room for a week over the holidays so that she could finally have a bathroom to herself and a decent bed. When I left that homeless shelter, I felt two inches tall because I had not been thankful for the fact that though I hate where I live, I had a home to go to and a bed that was not like that in the homeless shelter which was worse than what you’d find inside a prison hell.

And so while those who have been playing games and eating like there was no tomorrow on Youtube for a living and who are now screeching and wailing that the shit’s about to come to an abrupt end, there are people who have already bottomed out and so if you are about to bottom out when Youtube and the FTC demonitizes your channels and close you down, it will be your own fault because you refused to look up to see where you were headed, into homelessness and foul ass so-called ‘faith based’ homeless shelters. The future is now. The future is dark. And we are all fucked!

I don’t think this guy would make it in a homeless shelter. He looks too soft by far. But there he is bemoaning the fact that Youtube is on its way out and Youtube is his source of income.

And here are more who are going to be impacted.

I’d love to know what these ‘professional mukbangers’ are going to do when Youtube becomes defunct.

There are bunches of them.

Youtubers, you have until January 2020 to figure it out! That’s not that far away. Enjoy the holidays!

As The Tributes Pour In Over The Now Deceased U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings Of Baltimore’s 7th District….

 

….Elijah Cummings’ Baltimore is off the chain. There are many who have lauded the work that Cummings has done for the City of Baltimore and yet, I am wondering, just what did he do for Baltimore? Get a handle on the gun violence? The murder rate?

‘Out Of Control’ | More Than 20 Shot In 4 Days In Baltimore; Murders, Shootings Rise From 2018

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Baltimore has seen increasing violence with more than 600 non-fatal shootings since the beginning of the year — a number that has skyrocketed more than 20 percent compared to last year.

There have been 638 non-fatal shootings so far in 2019. Last year at this time, there were 524. The number of murders is up as well from 243 at this point in 2018 to 273 in 2019.

Baltimore has seen more murders to date than New York City, which has had 249. New York has almost 14 times the population. Chicago, with more than four times as many people as Baltimore, has had 413 killings.

 

This bastard shot a 2-year old in the stomach over a road rage incident.

He already had a lengthy criminal record and yet was out of jail and shot a 2-year old over a road rage incident. This IS Baltimore!

This mess has been going down since before I ever stepped foot in Baltimore and that was in the mid 90s. What did Cummings do about this? Obviously nothing since this shit has been going down the entire time that he has represented Baltimore’s 7th district.

Did Cummings do anything about the epidemic of outrageous poverty in Baltimore? Check out the video and see for your self.

Poverty Rate for residents of Baltimore city, Maryland born US Citizens vs Foreign-Born
Residents of Baltimore city, Maryland who were born as US Citizens have a higher poverty rate than those who were born citizens of a country outside of the United States.

Over 23% of Baltimore’s residents live in poverty. And it should come as no surprise that Baltimore’s Black population is over-represented when it comes to having incomes that are below the poverty level.

What did Cummings do about Baltimore’s drug epidemic?

The opioid epidemic is increasingly killing black Americans. Baltimore is ground zero.

The white GMC truck, open four mornings a week and parked outside the city jail, is an attempt to close a gap in the city’s struggling addiction treatment system. But as the breakdown showed, even the attempts to plug holes in the system sometimes themselves have holes. With the van out of service, doctors and nurses took to their own cars to see patients, some of them already skeptical about getting treatment.

White Amerikkka’s emphasis is on opioid addiction of whites, especially rich whites while poor Black people who live in inner cities like Baltimore are being left to figure it out as best they can. My cousin watches a show titled “Intervention” and it is about intervening when people are killing themselves while on drugs and/or alcohol and he told me that he could count on one hand the number of Black people he has seen on that show. Whites don’t give a damn about Black people and our problems and yet Baltimore had a Black congressional representative that did fuck all about the many societal ills that afflict that city’s people who mostly look like him.

And don’t even get me started on what Cummings failed to do about rampant police corruption and police brutality in Baltimore. Remember the Freddie Gray riots? That was just the tip of the iceberg. Even after the riots, the chaos in Baltimore never really ceased and the corruption pouring from every office in Baltimore continues. Two mayors have had to resign in disgrace after having been embroiled in scandals. I have posted blog after blog highlighting the shit that I have seen and it just gets worse.

If I included the homeless epidemic in Baltimore and the child hunger problem in Baltimore and the off the charts prostitution and STD statistics in Baltimore and the problem of Asians operating liquor stores on damn near every corner in Baltimore, this blog would never end. I have even documented the urban blight here and here and yet, Elijah Cummings is being hailed as some sort of towering giant that stood up for Baltimore and improved the conditions of her citizens when nothing could be further from the truth. And it is almost poetic justice, that the same institution that violated Henrietta Lacks, was also the same institution whereas hundreds of Black women were violated by a Black gynecologist who filmed them without their knowledge during pelvic exams and who allegedly killed himself is also the same institution that Elijah Cummings breathed his last in; Johns Hopkins.

Johns Hopkins’ Disturbing “Hidden Camera” Gynecologist Lawsuit Is Finally Over

 

Dr. Nikita Levy worked as a gynecologist in the Johns Hopkins Community Medicine system for nearly 25 years. During that time, he secretly photographed and videotaped his patients’ gynecological exams, according to a class-action lawsuit filed in 2013. Now, more than 9,000 plaintiffs will get their due, as Johns Hopkins agreed to a $190 settlement over Dr. Levy on Tuesday, marking the largest class-action settlements of its kind.

The lawsuit was brought against America’s leading health system in October 2012, about seven months after Johns Hopkins terminated Levy’s position. The plaintiffs alleged that the hospital should have known about Levy’s pervasive illegal videotaping, but instead failed to act and protect their patients

 

Johns Hopkins had to have known about what was going down because I had the opportunity to speak with several of the women who were a part of this lawsuit and they told me that Dr. Levy’s office was set up like the set of a movie. There were lights resembling what you would see on the set of a movie and yet they did not believe that a doctor they trusted and a hospital with a reputation for being world renown would engage in such activity. They were wrong. And of course, Johns Hopkins settled the lawsuit, but the women received a mere pittance when all was said and done and Johns Hopkins maintained that it had no idea of the shenanigans of a doctor that worked for their hospital system and inside their very doors. Yeah! I’m believing that. Uh huh.

And yet, Elijah Cummings was as silent as the grave his dead body is headed for over all of this. And now, he seems to be yet another ‘victim’ of Johns Hopkins. Poetic justice, indeed.

I don’t know who will take Cummings place. No doubt it will be someone equally as dubious in character as Cummings and equally as unconcerned about the plight of Baltimore as Cummings. I can only hope that I am wrong, but with what has been leading Baltimore and representing Baltimore for decades, I am not overly optimistic. And so no, I will not be joining in with those who heap praises, accolades and tributes on Elijah Cummings’ dead carcass because they are as undeserved as they are unwarranted.

A poem about Baltimore.

Sirens Are Our Lullabies!

Shots ring out every night
in this city gushing blood.
And in daylight, it’s the same,
awash in a crimson flood.

Sirens are our lullabies;
a crime scene, our parade.
We stand and stare at the dead,
then into a grave, they are laid.

None of it makes any sense,
Black men killing their own kind.
And I just make excuses
as though to reality, I am blind.

I blamed it all on poverty;
a lack of jobs and single moms.
And I threw in for good measure
that so many are bearing arms.

I thought I had all the answers.
Open a store or two in the hood
that catered to the poor,
but that won’t do us any good.

What is needed, I don’t know.
I throw my hands up in the air.
Our murder rate is off the charts.
And it would seem that we don’t care.

Another day, another murder.
And sometimes, more than one.
We’re just mowing each other down,
and hell, there ain’t nowhere to run.

More babies without fathers,
more mothers without their sons
because we have lost our minds,
when to solve our problems, we use guns.

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2017 Shelby I. Courtland

Again, what did Elijah Cummings do about ANY of that? Not a damn thing! Rest in piss, you useless piece of shit!

 

Trump Says Baltimore Maryland Residents Are In ‘Hell’! True! And Sell-outs, Cummings And Sharpton Know Why!

It has taken Donald Trump to shine a light on Baltimore, MD that should have long since been in the spotlight over corrupt Black misleadership. While Elijah Cummings has been going after the Trump Administration for everything from collusion with the Russians to corruption and tax evasion, Cummings coonhead ass has been looking the other way over the shenanigans that he and others in the political arena in Baltimore have been engaging in. Cummings has learned how to play the game well; distract, distract again and deflect. And right out-of-the-gate, here comes Al SharpCON and crew shooting “You’re racist!” arrows at Donald Trump for stating the obvious about Baltimore’s Black misleaders. I would wager that every single Black politician in Baltimore is corrupt. Every agency headed by a Black person in Baltimore is filled with corruption from the state’s attorney’s office headed by Marilyn Mosby to the mayor’s office headed by Mayor, Jack Young and we ALL know that the mayor’s office and city council is ‘corruption headquarters’.

Again, Trump is absolutely right; billions of federal dollars have been poured into Baltimore and yet, Baltimore schools are rat infested, lack heat and air conditioning, lack textbooks and computers and so where did the money go? Into the pockets of the Black misleaders in Baltimore, that’s where. And now those same jackals are loudly exclaiming that Trump is just picking on Baltimore because he is feeding the frenzy of his rabid racist supporter base. They are already in a frenzy and so he has no need to feed a frenzy that has taken them over since our ancestors were dragged to this shithole. Those like Cummings and SharpCON and Black misleaders in Baltimore are trying to distract and deflect from the truth of Trump’s accusations. They don’t want to own up to the fact that they have willfully looked the other way over Baltimore’s out-of-control homicide rates, other violent crimes rates, appalling drug addiction rates, abject poverty rates, deplorable unemployment rates and a homeless epidemic that is on par with Los Angeles. Not to mention, nothing has been said by Elijah Cummings or by Al SharpCON about the fact that the NAACP is headquartered on Mt. Hope Drive in Baltimore, MD doing not a goddamn thing to mitigate the serious issues that have plagued Baltimore for decades. The NAACP has done absolutely NOTHING. Because hosting awards shows for the Blacks to showcase their cooning for the whites is not helping Baltimore in any way, shape or form, nor is handing Lifetime Achievement Awards to racist NBA owners as it did with Donald Sterling for being a stomp down, flaming racist.

President Donald Trump resumed his criticism of a prominent black congressman from Baltimore, saying Tuesday that people there are living in “hell” and that it’s a “corrupt city.”

Trump said billions of dollars have been stolen and called on the lawmaker, Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, to investigate the city. Cummings is chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, which has been focused on investigating Trump and his administration.

“It’s a corrupt city, there’s no question about it,” Trump said of Baltimore. He said Cummings has an “iron hand” on city.

On Monday, Trump said on Twitter: “Baltimore, under the leadership of Elijah Cummings, has the worst Crime Statistics in the Nation. 25 years of all talk, no action!”

What Trump said is SO true, it ain’t even funny. People in Baltimore are “living in hell!” And what has Al SharpCON’s sell-out ass done for Baltimore? Not a goddamn thing, but he sure knows how to turn a situation to his advantage. Pretend to decry Donald Trump’s racism over calling out the shit that goes down in Baltimore every day and get some ‘air time’ while trying to look like some sort of defender to Baltimore’s residents against racist Donald Trump. Al SharpCON sold out Black people, decades ago when he agreed to work for the FBI in its efforts to infiltrate the Civil Rights Movement in order to get dirt on the leaders of the Movement, namely Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Al SharpCON is no friend to Black people in Baltimore, Detroit, Los Angeles or any place else. His prime directive is to look out for his ass and only his ass and you have only to look around at what he has accomplished; being a snitch for the FBI and a coon for MSNBC.

And Elijah Cummings has not a goddamn thing to say for himself since what has he done FOR Baltimore? Not a damn thing. He used Baltimore to get where he is today and never once did he attempt to help even one Baltimorean out of poverty, drug addiction, homelessness, prostitution or gangs. He has done not a goddamn thing to reduce crime, homicides, child hunger and poverty, failing schools, a fucked up infrastructure that is failing daily what with streets blowing up or dissolving in sink holes. The light rail is out of commission more times than it isn’t. The metro transit system is a failed experiment. The subway stations are overrun with rats and yet Cummings is attempting to take Trump to task over his alleged crimes? Seriously??!! You fix up your own home before you attempt to get others to fix up theirs and Baltimore is the home that Cummings should to get to work on. But Baltimore has served its purpose and Cummings has no further use for Baltimore because it has already been the means to an end which is his exalted position as the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Cummings loves to exclaim over how many years he has been in politics and that would be fine except for the fact that he has nothing to show for those years in Baltimore City.

Cummings has no moral leg to stand on when he gets to sermonizing over Trump speaking the truth about Baltimore. Those people in Baltimore ARE living in hell. They have been living in hell the entire twenty-three years that Cummings has represented them in the 7th district. There have been no improvements to the lives of Cummings constituents and so he most definitely needs to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up because I’m with Trump on this one. How about we take a deeper look into what irons Cummings has in the fire? How about we shine a light on the shit that Cummings has been doing because there is certainly no reflection on what he has been doing for the good of those whom he represents in the 7th district and so who has benefited from his representation? Ask the people of Baltimore. Oh that’s right, they did!

Robert, a 33-year-old security guard from West Baltimore, says he thinks Elijah Cummings is failing at his job.

“I just want to ask Elijah Cummings one question: What in your twenty years in office have you done for this city? This city is decaying and crumbling,” Robert said.

And Devon Temorgan, a 26-year-old Baltimore resident, noted that on Monday he was on his way to a funeral for a friend who was shot because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time in Northwest Baltimore. He said the city’s youth lacks guidance and have grown “uncontrollable.”

“A lot of people don’t have their fathers because they’re dead or in jail,” Temorgan told Newsweek. “It’s a dangerous place. It’s a beautiful place, but at the same time it’s dangerous.”

Cummings, answer the man’s question. “What in your twenty years in office have you done for this city?” “A city that is decaying and crumbling?” I’ll tellya, not a goddamn thing and yet other Black misleaders are crawling out of the woodwork, coming to Cummings defense even when they know the score. Black-assed motherfuckers who have so-called ‘made it’ are not our friends. They don’t ‘represent’ us. They turn their backs on us the minute they are thrown the scraps from the white man’s table and they got there by cooning for the white man. Black folks, know who your friends are and just because he/she is sporting a ‘Black’ face, does not mean that he/she is your friend. Our own ‘kind’ will throw us under the bus for the white man’s table scraps and Al SharpCON is exactly what he looks like; a relaxed haired, bloated head coon that got his fill of the white man’s table scraps for selling us out; in other words, snitching on us for the white man. And if he is taking up for Elijah Cummings, then Cummings is exactly what SharpCON is; a sell-out coon. The true Black warriors are either still in prison, in exile or dead and so you know that Al SharpCON and Elijah Cummings are on some bullshit time because no assassin’s bullet has found their tired old ass, nor are they cooling their heels inside a For Profit Prison, nor are they in exile in Cuba. If they were about something, they’d not be free to walk the streets pretending to give a shit about Black people and that’s for damn sure!

I want Cummings and SharpCON to ask these people what they are doing for them because photo ops just don’t cut it!

This man is a Baltimore citizen and most likely lives in Cummings’ district and yet, he is in Lexington Market, nodding on methadone, an opioid derivative What are you doing for this man Elijah Cummings?

What are you doing for them Cummings?

Here is a poor homeless man sitting in a wheelchair in Cummings district. This man is sick Cummings and so what are you doing for him? He wants to know!

What are you doing for them Cummings?

Another homeless man in Baltimore wants to know why Cummings hasn’t done anything for him in over 20 years as a representative of the citizens of the 7th district of Baltimore.

What are you doing for them Cummings?

A poor homeless woman walking around the harbor looking for Elijah Cummings to do something for her since she is one of his constituents.

Why is Baltimore looking like this Cummings? Because it shouldn’t since like Trump said, Baltimore has received billions in federal aid? What happened to the money Cummings?

There is row after row of this in Baltimore. This is what Elijah Cummings has done for Baltimore.

Where did the billions go, Cummings? Here?

Yeah! People should want to live there.

Or here?

Why didn’t Al SharpCON come here to do his photo op? His big pus head with its relaxed curls would look good against such a horrible backdrop.

Or here?

Urban blight. The roof on the far right building is gone. Cummings, here is a building in YOUR district that needs a new roof, new walls, floors; the whole nine yards. Now use some of those billions that the Feds gave you to fix up Baltimore. Can’t find it? Then let’s start an investigation into YOUR shenanigans. Why don’t we?

And Cummings, while you’re explaining what you’ve been doing FOR Baltimore for over 20 years, explain why there is the need for this methadone distribution truck to sit right inside YOUR district?

This is a methadone dispensary truck that’s sitting in Elijah Cummings 7th district because to get the heroin addicts off heroin, they give them the government’s version of heroin in the form of ‘methadone’. I guess this is what Cummings has been doing for the people in his district. Yeah! Good job, Cummings!

Yes indeed, I can speak on what is going down in Baltimore because I have lived there and Elijah Cummings name has never been on anyone’s lips at any time that I have lived in Baltimore. He has done NOTHING and I do mean ABSOFUCKINGLUTELY NOTHING for Baltimore. And so this is yet another time that I must agree with Donald Trump. Those people in Baltimore are living in hell, a hell created by useless Black politicians like Elijah Cummings and exploited for gain by con artists like Al SharpCON. Baltimore deserves better, but unfortunately, she won’t get it. Not with the likes of those jackals descending on Baltimore for political points in what is a game to them, but what to Baltimoreans is a life and death struggle in hell!

On The Streets…..Of America

I just watched a video on homelessness and I was quite struck by a brilliant observation from someone who commented on the video.

“People oppose welfare but they defend monopolism with every tooth and nail. They’re both forms of wealth redistribution. The only reason anyone has a good paying job is because they’re employed by companies who are somehow protected from competition, either by IP, geography, zoning laws, or licensing and permit schemes. The same laws prohibit individuals from employing themselves, resulting in widespread poverty. Anyone who has a good paying job has not a square inch of room to complain about welfare.

Nobody can be expected to get a job without a home. If all the money we spend on building new prisons were used instead to build public apartment high rises, crime would drop, minimum wages would go further, and modest rent rates could be a source of public revenue rather than a constant tax liability. The government collects more than enough taxes to guarantee that every citizen has a safe, clean place to sleep and bathe. I don’t care if lazy people chose instead to sit around their apartments all day doing nothing. It’s cheaper than prisons and more civilized than abandoning the poor to loitering the streets, prostitution, drugs, shoplifting, mugging, breaking into homes, sleep in filth, spread bugs and germs and get sick all the time.” – by Ox1A3C3E7

That comment is spot on! We have no problem with the fact that monopolies are encouraged when mere decades ago, there were laws in place to prevent monopolies, but that is a thing of the past. And now because of it, corporate greed runs amok, unchecked and add into the mixture the fact of huge tax breaks for these mega-corporations that have no competition and the people are held hostage by them. How many cable companies are in existence today? Telephone companies? Microsoft software is a monopoly since our computer systems use Microsoft software damn near exclusively. All of this leads to boundless profits for corporations while wages for those who work at the bottom rungs of those corporations earn wages that would not keep a hamster in feed, thus leading to hunger, homelessness and hopelessness. And what does the government do? It continues to aid and abet these corporations into becoming monopolies by refusing to break them up and also by encouraging the growth of monopolies with our tax dollars. Amazon is yet another ‘prime’ example even as Donald Trump likes to pretend to take umbrage with Jeff Bezos. My guess would be that he is just jealous of the fact that Bezos has far surpassed him in business acumen which Trump never had to begin with.

Meanwhile, video after video can be viewed that showcases the plight of homelessness, year after year and yet what is done to rein this in? Nothing. Just talk and more talk and hand wringing. Anyone can follow a homeless person around with a camera for a few days to get an idea of what life is like for the homeless, but when all is said and done, what good does that do? It only elicits a few comments and likes for those comments and suggestions and ideas and then on to the next. The sad fact is that ALL of us are headed where the homeless are. People are not paying attention to the fact that those who are sitting on Skid Row in Anytown, USA are going to have plenty of company. The plight of those who are already homeless will soon be felt by us all because no one is seriously trying to do anything about what millions of people are dealing with every single day. It matters not if I write poetry about the homeless or if people post videos about the homeless because if there is no real feasible solutions to throw at the problems that cause homelessness, the situation is going to continue to worsen.

Those of us who are comfortably looking at the situation from afar are not even thinking that we shall soon be in their shoes. Some of us are content to think that our jobs will always be there as will our pensions. I wouldn’t count on that because pension funds are being raided as I type this and Social Security does not pay enough to live on. And though there are suggestions to move oversees or to Latin American countries where your Social Security will go further, that is just not feasible for everyone. And with many of those countries that are named as great retirement havens in the news for having mass protests over a lack of food, medicine and housing, who in their right mind would head to those areas flaunting their ‘privilege’ in the face of mobs of people, gaunt and sunken-eyed looking to feed their hungry children? Take your ass on over to Venezuela and see how you fare. Try Honduras. Guatemala. Mexico City, Mexico. Either get caught up in drug warfare or get caught up in a United States staged coup against a Latin American country. But either way, your situation is not going to be roses and all things bright and beautiful forever. And even in countries like Ecuador and Costa Rica, the natives are going to get mighty sick and tired of foreigners coming in buying up everything for pennies on the dollar and paying them pennies to wait on them hand and foot.

And as usual, it is mostly whites who can take themselves off when the shit hits the fan for them while those who already have the shit hitting the fan, must stay and deal with a country that is rapidly descending into Third world status. Some of you may think it funny that hookworms are dripping out of the assholes of homeless people, nationwide, but it’s not. Some of you may think it funny that typhus is making the rounds of the homeless population in multiple cities, but it’s not. Add to those issues are the other physical and mental illnesses that most homeless people are dealing with and what that means is that hospitals are overwhelmed with emergency room visits by people whom they cannot collect payment from.

People try and act as though they cannot understand that mass homelessness costs more than housing and necessary services to stabilize the homeless once they have been housed and with communicable diseases on the rise, that is no small problem especially seeing as how there are diseases that no antibiotic can cure. When serious plagues start resurfacing and plagues never before seen start occurring, what is going to be the exit strategy for that? There is none. We’d ALL better wake up to the fact that homelessness is not just impacting those who are sitting out on the sidewalks or who are sitting inside tents or living in their vehicles, it is going to impact us all in some way or another. Something for you to think about while shopping for chicken wings and hoagie ‘meat’ for your Superbowl parties. What we ‘give’ importance to is just too ludicrous for words given the seriousness of the situation as it pertains to the rapid descent of this shithole called America. People are homeless, sick and hungry while those of us who have not yet joined them are anxiously awaiting the Superbowl since bets have been placed and there are parties to be hosted. It is no wonder we are sinking like a stone since we will get behind anything that will distract us from the truth and from seeing those who have already gone where we too shall go. And you can take that to the bank!

While The Americans Are Dealing With An Orchestrated Government Shutdown, The Trump Administration Has Staged A Coup In Venezuela

Once again, Washington has installed another of its puppet dictators, this time in Venezuela, which is why Washington orchestrated this latest government shutdown that induced mass hysteria in the Amerikkkan people, just as it was designed to do. Amerikkkans obediently followed the ‘government shutdown bouncing ball’ which was orchestrated in order to cause the most harm by ensuring that federal workers lose their income while at the same time causing those who rely on federal programs to fear the loss of housing and food assistance even as Washington intends to allow multinational corporations to steal and abscond with everything in Venezuela that is not nailed down, especially its oil, gas and gold since Washington’s puppet dictator will allow Washington to dictate his every move. The U.S. does not intend to collapse without leaving a lasting impression.

 

Maduro claimed an attempted coup backed by the “gringo empire” was under way and urged supporters – and crucially the armed forces – to resist it “at all costs”.

“We are defending the right to the very existence of our Bolivarian Republic,” Maduro said, accusing his foes of trying to steal Venezuela’s oil, gas and gold: “They intend to govern Venezuela from Washington. Do you want a puppet government controlled by Washington?”
 
 

Nicolás Maduro, the duly elected president of Venezuela has given U.S. diplomats 72 hours to leave Venezuela. The Trump Administration’s response was to ignore the demand claiming that Maduro has been replaced by Juan Guaido, self-proclaimed president of Venezuela and CIA installed puppet. Quick to follow Washington’s recognition of Juan Guaido as the new president of Venezuela were Canada, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Paraguay and Costa Rica. Brazil’s new far right president, Jair Bolsonaro, likewise followed suit since he is also just another Washington puppet.

Maduro is absolutely right in that this is indeed, “an attempted coup backed by the ‘gringo empire’.” And Russia has warned the Trump Administration against using military action in Venezuela to force Nicolas Maduro to step down and allow Washington’s puppet to become the next president of Venezuela.

 

“We warn against this,” Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, said in an interview with International Affairs magazine, a Russian media outlet. “We believe that this would be a catastrophic scenario that would shake the foundations of the development model we see in the Latin American region.”

Russia has supported Maduro’s government politically and militarily. The Kremlin dispatched two Russian bombers to Venezuela last month, a provocative move that raised red flags in Washington.
 
 

Once again, the Russians are trying to stop yet another blatant takeover by Washington of a sovereign state. And the Russians are the problem? The Trump Administration has stated that “all options are on the table,” including sanctions and military action. What has happened when the U.S. has used the military to do its dirty work?

 

David Smilde, a Venezuela expert from the Washington Office on Latin America advocacy group said: “Look at Somalia, look at Afghanistan, look at Iraq: all of those cases were supposed to be short military actions and actually what they do is end up generating enormous costs in terms of loss of life and infrastructure.”

 
 

But Washington does not care about loss of life or infrastructure since our tax dollars are then used to rebuild countries that the U.S. has bombed to smithereens and the people who are killed are of no consequence just as we are not, case in point is Iraq. The U.S. military destroyed Iraq and now Americans are footing the bill for the rebuilding of that country even as the U.S. government is ‘shutdown’. The U.S. had no business sending the military into Afghanistan and yet our tax dollars are being used to train Afghan forces to attack the Taliban while U.S. military forces are protecting Afghan opium in order to send shipments back to the U.S. and straight into the veins of Amerikkkans while at the same time claiming a “war on drugs.”

Every single time the U.S. sets its sights on another country, the people of that country suffer for it as does its infrastructure and those of us in the US suffer as well because we are told that there is no money and yet, somehow and mysteriously, money can always be found to buy more missiles and drones to attack countries that have done nothing to warrant the attack. And yet, the Trump Administration is yelling and screeching and grandstanding about the need to build a wall to keep those south of the border from coming to the U.S. when in fact, the Trump Administration’s policies are making life so miserable for those people, they are leaving their devastated countries and attempting to cross the border into the U.S., only to be met with tear gas and rubber bullets. The policies of the U.S. government has caused those people to have to flee their homes and now the U.S. wants to build a wall to keep out the results of policies it put into play to force people to run for their lives? That is insanity!

Iraq’s officials have stated that they want the U.S. out of their country. Libya is still in flames. Somalia, likewise. Afghanistan, the same. Yemen, indeed! And the list is endless. This is ALL because the ‘American empire’ is collapsing and intends to take as many countries down with it as it descends. It is like a gigantic snake that has had its head chopped off, but its tail is still thrashing about, destroying everything it strikes. This bitch, Amerikkka, even in its death throes is still dangerous and the only hope for other countries to make it through to the last thrash of this dying empire is Russia, China and Iran. Russia most definitely understands this since they have already sent military bombers to Venezuela, just as they had to with Syria because if not for the Russians, Syria would have a Washington installed puppet dictator. Maybe Russia is finally understanding what should have been understood hundreds of years ago in that no one can trust Amerikkkans. That ship should have long since sailed. Look at how this country treats its own citizens. Throws them under the bus at every opportunity even to the point of impoverishing those who work FOR the government. How can any Amerikkkan citizen still believe that the U.S. government gives a damn about their safety when TSA federal workers earn a measly $30,000 and have not been paid in over 30 days and come Friday, will miss a second paycheck? Homeland Security federal workers are not being paid and what was that agency set up to do? Keep US safe from so-called terrorists. The terrorists are sitting up on your tax dollars and strutting about the halls of congress and are inside the White House causing you much grief, anguish and hand-wringing since you cannot pay your bills, are about to lose your housing, are about to see your credit score take a nosedive, are about to lose your car and empty your pantry. The U.S. government is not some great entity that ever stood for a belief in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness because the average Amerikkkan is anything but happy.

Are you happy to be broke and destitute and in debt? Are you happy to live paycheck to paycheck? Are you happy about the fact that the government can just shutdown at any time and force you to work without pay over a trumped up excuse for the shutdown? Are you happy to see politicians that they claim you elect, act like children on the playground while your lives are spiraling down, out of control? Do you think the homeless are happy to be living on the streets? Do you think they are happy to have worms falling out of their asshole since hookworm has made a comeback which until now was only found in third world countries? Do you think they are happy battling typhus and hepatitis A,B and C? Do you think children are happy to go to bed at night with their stomachs growling? Do you think those people who just got shot dead in a bank in Florida were happy when those bullets pierced their flesh? Who the hell is happy in this shithole? Who? When federal workers are reporting that they are living paycheck to paycheck, how do you think others are living? Are you happy since you are sitting somewhere likely to blow yourself up with your meth lab? Are you happy that in order to make it through the day, you have to shoot up some heroin that your own government made possible for you to obtain since your government has instructed the military to guard some poppy plants in Afghanistan in order to send them here to feed your addictions since you are just too happy for words? Do you think Amerikkka’s 2.5 million prisoners are happy since many of them were imprisoned on bullshit drug charges while the U.S. government is the biggest drug cartel in the world? Yeah, we’re all fucking happy. Broke, drunk, high, stupid and happy, that’s US!

Stop following the bouncing ball. Look at where they don’t want you to look. When they are focusing your attention on a specific action orchestrated by them such as a government shutdown, then you can best believe that some foul ass shit is going down elsewhere. There is no U.S. media coverage of what the Trump Administration has been initiating in Venezuela. If they are so worried about people from south of the border coming to the U.S. then why are they hell bent on doing everything that would increase the numbers of those attempting to cross the border? It is all smoke and mirrors, people! Smoke and mirrors. Every single news article that I have read has been all about bad news. Verizon is laying off a percentage of its workforce. Apple is laying off people. Despite announcements of increased holiday spending, stores are still announcing closures. J.C. Penney has announced that it may have to follow in Sears’ footsteps. And as this empire collapses, Wall Street will be the last to go down. They are the musicians on this Titanic, furiously intent on ignoring the sinking ship until they are underwater. But sink, they will. Again, it’s ALL smoke and mirrors, people, smoke and mirrors and ‘follow the bouncing ball’ as they fuck up another country by installing a puppet dictator while ignoring the legitimate one. Amerikkka has been in the business of regime change for too damn long and it will not cease until this empire goes the route of Rome and we are definitely headed there. Just take a look around you. I see no ‘amber waves of grain.’ And if you see any, believe me, those waves of grain contain a known carcinogen, glyphosate. And you can thank your government for that as well. If you have not gotten a clue yet, then I don’t know what there is to say about you!

I’ll leave you with a little poem I wrote a few years ago. It seems an apt ending.

Armageddon’s Child Is Born!

The mirrors all are cracking,
and the smoke is blowing away.
You can see the whole thing clearly.
Another crash, they can’t delay.

Follow the Russian ruble.
Focus your attention on Iraq.
They created another terrorist.
And now Ebola’s coming back.

Don’t look beneath the table.
The gamblers all are dead.
The cracking of their bones,
means they have no betting spread.

This show is over folks.
And as the Ball comes to an end,
the rotund lady sings.
And there’s no money left to lend.

The dancers writhe in agony.
Their frenzied pomp is gone.
And the badly written script,
only elicits another yawn.

The bull is now a bear.
And as I look across the sea,
another bear just shakes his head,
over America’s stupidity.

Say “Farewell” to all you know.
The stars and stripes are torn.
As they launch the killing drones,
Armageddon’s child is born.

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2015 Shelby I. Courtland

In case you forgot, they just recently flew an American doctor back to the U.S. They believe he was exposed to Ebola.

No “Merry Christmas” For Laid-off Sears Workers, But A $25 Million Dollar Stocking Stuffer Bonus For Sears Execs Who Are Helping To Cause The Collapse Of Sears Holdings (Sears, Kmart)

Americans are pissed off and they are not taking it anymore! Why……just look at the protesting that’s taking place all across America!

Oh damn! My bad! Wrong video! Below is the correct video, I am sure!

There! The above video has just got to be the pissed off former Sears and Kmart workers who would be well within their rights to riot and protest over the loss of their jobs and the affront to their dignity by having to read that Sears Holdings executives are to receive $25 million in bonuses that were approved by a bankruptcy judge while they were given the ole heave ho without even so much as a by-your-leave!

Oh damn! I forgot to read the title of the video since I just assumed that it was the former Sears and Kmart workers who haven’t anything better to do since losing their jobs. But lo and behold, those protesters are in France protesting the austerity measures they are having to contend with thanks in part to a rich  president who looks on them in disdain for their inability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps in order to head to ‘Billionaires Row’!

Why oh why did I think that Americans would ever grow a pair and go the fuck off??!!!

When Sheila Brewer heard Sears got approval to give its executives millions in bonuses, she felt sick to her stomach.

The 47-year-old dedicated 17 years of work to Kmart and was laid off in September as Sears Holdings, which owns Kmart along with its namesake brand, prepared to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Without a job for two months, Brewer says she was emotionally and financially devastated, struggling to make ends meet.

Last Friday, when a U.S. bankruptcy court approved a plan for the company to dole out more than $25 million in bonuses to hundreds of executives and senior-level employees over the next year, the news hit Brewer hard.

“Are you for real?” Brewer says she thought. “What type of world is this? How could the judge say yes?”

The judge who approved the bonuses and who has yet to be declared insane, decided that it was the prudent thing to do seeing as how the executives who were awarded the multi-million dollar bonuses are necessary fixtures at the helm of Sears Holdings because they are doing such a fantastic job and therefore, Sears Holdings needs to hold on to them because bankruptcy is something every company desires. Every single company that opens its doors expects to close them by way of bankruptcy. Employees simply need to get with the program that companies go into business with the hope that it will go bankrupt and so will pay those who caused said bankruptcy, multi-million dollar bonuses. That is how business works and the simple rank and file workers just don’t understand this basic business principle.

Americans simply refuse to get up off their apathetic and complacent asses and get with the program that they need to go the fuck off because no company executive, no judge, no president and no congress gives a shit about them. All you sad asses do is whine about the fact that you just cannot understand why companies are rewarding those who caused a bankruptcy with millions of dollars in bonuses. What is whining and complaining going to do about the situation? Those who have been awarded those multi-million dollar bonuses don’t give a shit for your whining and complaining because they are laughing all the way to Citibank depositing their ill gotten gains while you sit somewhere, chewing on your lip, wondering what you are going to do about Christmas this year. To hell with Christmas! You’ve got much more important things to worry about than some stupid day that comes around once a year preceded by much pomp and circumstance in the form of those same corporations that don’t give a shit about you, touting deep discounts and so come and get your shopping fix. With what? Your unemployment check?

Meanwhile your patron saint of racists, Donald J. Trump, has ordered more restrictions on food stamps.

Trump directs USDA to expand work requirements on food stamps

So, to those of you who have been given the pink slip by Sears and Kmart, better hurry up and get a job quick because if you are able bodied, Trump has stated that since he has accomplished what no other before him has ever accomplished in that he has taken the unemployment rate to the lowest its ever been, then there is no excuse in the world for you to not have a job. Flip those burgers at Sonic, McDonald’s, Burger King and Wendy’s for $7.25 an hour and then go find a cave since boxes and spots to put them are at a premium and then pick up your $10 in food stamps. And don’t whine and complain because you voted for this. This is what you wanted because if not, why then is ‘Bankrupt Don’ the president of this shithole, “The Businessman of Bankruptcies?”

Businessmen are for what? Businesses. And they don’t give a shit for those who make up the rank and file. Just ask the former workers who used to work at Trump casinos in Atlantic City. You can find them aimlessly walking the streets in search of someone, ANYONE who could possibly spare them some change.

Trump’s Taj Mahal had gone through five(5) bankruptcy proceedings; that’s FIVE! And get this, the employees who had a stake in the success of that casino lost their health benefits and their pension and so does anyone wonder why statistics state that Atlantic City, NJ has one of the nation’s highest foreclosure rates? 

By the time businessmen like Trump, who are at the helm of these large corporations finish with this collapsing shithole, there won’t be enough left for an ant to tote to its hole in the ground. Meanwhile, ‘illegal’ tent cities will continue to form, typhus and hookworm will continue to be problematic, hungry people will be forming long lines at empty food banks and homeless shelters will have signs on their doors stating, “NO Vacancies!” Americans, since you’ve been cowed and neutered, just dig the goddamn hole already so that whomever’s not yet succumbed can just roll your ass on over into it!

America! The land of the stupid and the home of the afraid!

We Can’t Make America Great Again — From Queen to Queens

Today has been difficult for me. Last night as I watched the midterm election results pour in, the hope and joy I felt of the possible restoration of America as I once knew it was quickly replaced by a deep sadness. I, like many people last night, expected a “blue wave” or the overwhelming election […]

via We Can’t Make America Great Again — From Queen to Queens

 

Every single word is right on point! I could not have said it better if I tried. Even though this stolen nation was never great, this young lady brings home her point.

And I will admit, I didn’t even bother voting. I had too much to do. I have not been blogging lately because I have been out in the trenches taking poor sick people to appointments, to grocery shop, to pick up their children from daycare and the list is endless because so many are living in ‘food deserts’ and public transportation is a joke that isn’t at all funny.

While those of you who were standing in line voting, hoping that whites would get their collective act together and disassociate themselves from who and what they are, there were those of us out there doing what we can with what we have because we know ‘whites’. We don’t want to, but we do. Those of us who are descendants of slaves have been on the receiving end of racism, bigotry, prejudice, hatred and violence since our ancestors were dragged here and only through the advent of technology has the world been made aware of our plight in Amerikkka, not that it’s done us any obvious good, nor will it. We have to help one another. No politician on the local, state or national level is going to do a damn thing about a damn thing besides line their pockets by continuing to sell us out since they are owned by corporations and we ALL know how corporations are treating their ‘workers’.

I have heard that women made inroads in the political field  and the LGBTQ community did likewise. Well now, ain’t that just something. Every other ‘group’ will always make headway but those of us who are descended from slaves, we best sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up because a white supremacist’s bullet has our name all over it and the murder of us by them is sanctioned by a government that will never truly be a representative government to us because if we have to be declared ‘citizens’ by amendments to the Constitution, then what does that tell you? I’ll give you a hint. Several prominent politicians and wannabe politicians have made statements in essence saying that “slavery was the best era in Amerikkkan history.” The sad fact of the matter is, what has changed? With three million Black men and women locked up in cages, slavery never went anywhere. It just morphed into the Prison Industrial Complex. Every person who is a descendant of slaves is on lockdown every goddamn day and don’t we ALL fucking know this. We’d better fucking make sure every goddamn light on our vehicles is in functioning order because if not, we are going to be pulled over and nine times out of ten, shot for “failing to comply with orders barked at us by a member of the Klan.”

Who the hell is going to do a damn thing about the school-to-prison pipeline? No member of congress is. We have got to go into our schools and mentor our children. Take those smartphones away from them and put a book into their hands. Who is going to open the prison doors and free our brothers and sisters? No member of congress is. We have got to become lawyers and defend our own in a system set up to send us straight to prison because many of us are too poor to afford a good attorney and so we end up with a public defender. Who in unholy hell thinks that a white parasite paid by the ‘state’ is going to do a damn thing to help a descendant of slaves stay out of jail over some bullshit ass charges? Are we even helping our elderly neighbor get to a doctor’s appointment or asking her if she needs to be taken to the grocery store or to run an errand? There is plenty that we can do. It does not have to be anything big. We don’t need a big, huge church building and a 501c exemption. Churches aren’t the answer. Religion isn’t the answer because if it was, would the shit that’s going down today, be going down if religion is the answer? Hell fucking no! The money that the Reverend, Bishop, Pastor, Rabbi and the like take from the blind, the stupid and the gullible all goes where? You see ANY evidence of church funds helping out the community? Oh, they’ll dole out some expired canned goods, but that’s about it. Why is homelessness so problematic when we have palaces of worship all across this godforsaken country doing fuck all about it? I wish to hell I thought I’d step foot inside one of those palaces of hypocrisy and sit up and listen to dog shit from a pedophile or another hypocrite who is preaching at me about sin and who is, after church service, fooling around on his wife with one or two of the ushers.

Black folks, despair is for those who have no hope. As long as there is someone in need in the ‘Black community’, there is someone who could come to their assistance. Why can’t that ‘someone’ be you? To sit somewhere and moan about the outcome of an election is foolish. You should have known that whatever the outcome, the same problems that existed before the election would continue to exist. Politicians don’t care about us. And you can see that whites are so damn stupid and filled with hatred that even after voting, they have no home to go back to or if they do, they don’t even have dental coverage or adequate health insurance, but that’s fine because according to those fools, ‘white supremacy’ is going to take care of ALL of their issues. Just ask those white folks down in Florida who are still reeling from Hurricane Michael. Many of them are homeless, fucked up and would still vote for Trump if only they could have gotten to a polling place because hate TRUMPS everything, including sickness, homelessness, joblessness and hunger.

So, Black folks, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and realize that if we don’t get our act together, we will never thrive. We should never look to a politician of ANY stripe to help us because since when have they ever??!!! Get real! What you need to do, you won’t do and if you continue down this path, expect despair, hopelessness and death. It need not be this way, but until we understand that looking out for one another is our only hope,  we will continue to be disappointed on ‘Election Day’ and every day thereafter.

Finally, I’ll leave you with a little poem I wrote for Election Day 2016. I titled it:

I Voted!

I voted……..in my sleep.
 Stood in line with the other sheep
as we were prodded, one by one.
Oh I voted, but I voted for none.
Yes, into that voting booth, I went,
made my mind up to some extent.
I threw my ballot on the dirty floor,
said I’d never vote for a war whore.
 And that no bigot would get my vote,
I’d rather drown in a goddamn moat.
The security guards escorted me out,
told me I was crazy, without a doubt.
 But that’s okay because I had my say
on the 6th of November; election day!
Don’t do as I did and vote in your sleep,
head out the door like good little sheep.
Cast your vote for your favorite clown,
and I’ll sit back and watch as you drown
in piles of shit that they fling your way,
because you voted on election day!

Written by,
Shelby I. Courtland
©2016 Shelby I. Courtland

So now you can say that you voted FOR the pile of shit that those politicians will heap on your plate. Not me, never that. Not again. I learned my lesson.

 

Thousands in GOP-led states lost Medicaid coverage this month

 

Trump supporters and those who vote for republicans are set to join their ranks.

Medicaid rolls set to be slashed under Trump-approved work rules

The thousands of people who lost Medicaid coverage this month in Arkansas for not following newly implemented work requirements may be a sign of what’s to come in other GOP-led states.

Indiana and New Hampshire are slated to implement their Medicaid work requirements next year, and a slew of other states are awaiting approval from the Trump administration.

Arkansas has served as a test case of sorts since it was the first state to implement work requirements, and this month it became the first state to kick off beneficiaries for not following them.

The state removed more than 4,000 people from the Medicaid rolls, with some estimates saying that number could climb to 50,000 when the requirements are fully implemented in 2019.

The article goes on to state that “Of those who lost coverage this month, about 95 percent didn’t file the necessary documents with the state. That led to their removal from Medicaid.”

So because those people were working and did not file the necessary paperwork, they were kicked off Medicaid? Or it could be that they had no internet access which is prevalent in rural areas where most people vote republican. Now, you and your children are without medical coverage even as you work minimum wage jobs that obviously qualify you for Medicaid but because Trump and the republicans don’t give a damn about you, AGAIN, you are now without medical coverage.

Tell me this. How is attending Trump rallies and railing against Black people helping you when you’re ill and cannot afford to head to the doctor? Trump stands somewhere, not even pretending to give a damn about you, but because he embodies everything you stand for as it pertains to racism, bigotry, prejudice and hatred, you will follow him to an illness for which you cannot receive treatment because Trump and his cronies have implemented new rules that require you to fill out paperwork before you can access Medicaid and if you don’t, then too bad, so sad and all you do is continue to laud Trump and the GOP as the second coming of ‘Christ’? You really are stupid and unfortunately, even with medical coverage, there seems to be no cure for stupid.

Trump and the GOP are doing everything possible to bring pain, suffering, misery and death to their supporters while their supporters are hanging on to Trump for dear life as if by doing so, that is going to keep them from needing to seek the attentions of a medical doctor because apparently, they are going to be cured by simply looking at Trump. Yeah! That’s going to work!

While Trump and the GOP led congress just handed over a windfall for the wealthiest in America, which certainly did not exclude shareholders of corporations who are to receive even bigger dividend checks, those who are the poor working stiff supporters of Trump got the shaft, again. Not to mention the fact that Trump lied when he said that he would not benefit from the tax plan, when in fact, he does which was the intent when this tax plan was crafted.

9 ways Trump’s tax plan is a gift to the rich, including himself

“No, I don’t benefit. I don’t benefit,” Trump said. “In fact, very, very strongly, as you see, I think there’s very little benefit for people of wealth.”

Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Tex.), who was part of the team that worked with the White House to craft the tax-overhaul outline, was asked a similar question on Fox News. He, too, said this plan does little to help the rich.

“I think those who benefit most are middle-class families struggling to keep every dollar they earn,” Brady told Fox News.

But one look at this plan tells a very different story. It gives an outright tax cut to the wealthiest Americans and it preserves almost all of the most popular loopholes they use to reduce their tax bills.

As some of you can see, those  of you who don’t have their heads shoved up their ass or who cannot see beyond the foam emanating from their mouths thanks to rabid hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice, Trump has done more to feather his already well-feathered nest and has done nothing but cause his base to get into an uproar over immigration, border walls and draining the swamp, which of course was a distraction meant to distract his base from the pain he intended to inflict on them. And by the way, what swamp would that be, the one BEFORE Trump took office or the one Trump now needs to drain thanks to what he in turn, re-filled the swamp with? Trump’s swamp is no better than the one he claimed he was going to drain. What we have seen floating to the top of Trump’s swamp, trumps that of his predecessor and that’s saying something.

But by all accounts, dark days are here for everyone who is not ‘earning’ over $400,000 a year and so those supporters of Trump and the GOP who are not in that income bracket are now having to deal with no medical coverage, food stamp work requirements that mostly hurt children and the fact that Trump is only just getting started. Go ahead, continue showing up at Trump’s rallies, ignorant to what he is doing to you and your families until it is too late and you find yourself with your teeth falling out and too sick to make it in to work. And though you may think that the Emergency Room is going to take care of you because of a ‘no one is to be turned away’ policy, I wouldn’t count on that if I were you because I have known plenty who have been turned away from Emergency Rooms and who then died after the hospital called the police on them to escort their broke, sick ass out of there. No one came to their rescue and Trump and his GOP cronies damn sure are not coming to yours. He has reduced your food stamps that you need to help feed your families because Walmart’s and Amazon’s wages just don’t cut it and now he is cutting your Medicaid off because, as he so proudly stated, he wants to “Make AmeriKKKa Great Again!” That slogan is truly catching, isn’t it? I just hope you don’t ‘catch’ the flu this season. You’ve no medical coverage. Ain’t that great?

How you can help protect Medicare and Social Security — The Most Revolutionary Act

Originally posted on #Monetary Sovereignty – Mitchell: . It takes only two things to keep people in chains: The ignorance of the oppressed And the treachery of their leaders ============================================================================ You endlessly have been told that Medicare and Social Security Trust funds will, in the near future, run short of money unless benefits are decreased…

via How you can help protect Medicare and Social Security — The Most Revolutionary Act

My belief (which I have stated before) is that there is a new global economic realignment happening and the US is being left out – which is why the conditions of Americans’ lives are deteriorating so rapidly. The fact that the entire US infrastructure is computerized has left the country extremely vulnerable – which makes it extremely difficult to predict which system will collapse first – the energy or the telecommunications grid. – Dr. Stuart Bramhall

Wise words, indeed! And true! Quite frankly, I cannot wait for ALL grids to collapse. That is what is needed because the hypnotized Americans are not going to realize how fucked they are until their smartphones go dead and the lights go out. When they can no longer gas up the SUV, there will be hell to pay as well. They’ll wake the fuck up then. Donald Trump’s administration, just as all previous administrations that raided Social Security and threw in worthless IOUs that I couldn’t even use as decent toilet tissue, is also coming for Social Security.  Social Security and Medicare are not on the point of insolvency. The government prints money out of thin air and can just print more money. It has no problem printing money to throw at the U.S. Military Industrial Complex and yet, we are to believe that no monies can be found for Social Security and Medicare? Don’t believe this bullshit and don’t leave it up to the sick ass seniors to save your Social Security and Medicare because it is always left up to the old and infirm to hobble down the street with pitchforks in hand while clutching walkers and canes at the same time. This will impact US all if we allow Trump and the GOP to get away with lying that Social Security and Medicare are about to go belly up. That is simply not true.

And as the number of those living in poverty climbs, the last remaining safety net programs, such as they are, will be sorely needed especially seeing as how even the United Nations issued a shocking report, though not shocking to me, as to the extent of poverty in the United States which was quickly slammed by the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley.

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has taken umbrage at a new United Nations report that examines entrenched poverty in the United States and calls the number of children living in poverty “shockingly high.” She called the analysis a “misleading and politically motivated document.”

A Washington Post article said that the report, written by U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights Philip Alston, says the United States tops the developed world with the highest rates of youth poverty, infant mortality, incarceration, income inequality and obesity. He also said that the Trump administration’s policies will deepen poverty.

Let me repeat this part! “The Trump administration’s policies will deepen poverty,” which means that, like I’ve already stated, Trump and the GOP are coming for Social Security and Medicare which will only ‘deepen poverty’ and too many Americans are living in extreme poverty as it is. While congress enjoys designer health care coverage and a great pension for life, the biggest class growth is the ‘poverty class’ and America is fast becoming a 3rd World nation. The situation is so bad that hookworm has been discovered in America again.

The UN study also found 19 out of 55 people tested in Alabama had hookworm. It’s a disease typically found in developing countries, one that was thought to have been eradicated in the US in the 1980s. Hookworm is most common in developing nations in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America.[2] Areas with poor sanitation, water treatment, and plumbing/sewage infrastructure are especially at risk.  And now, hookworm is also “typically found in the developing country called, ‘America’! For the love of !!!!

What in the world is hookworm? A parasitic nematode worm that inhabits the intestines of humans and other animals. It has hooked mouthparts with which it attaches itself to the wall of the gut, puncturing the blood vessels and feeding on the blood.

And yet Nikki Haley said,

“It is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America. In our country, the President, Members of Congress, Governors, Mayors, and City Council members actively engage on poverty issues every day. Compare that to the many countries around the world, whose governments knowingly abuse human rights and cause pain and suffering.”

Americans are walking around with hookworm that is ‘most commonly found in developing nations’ and so according to Nikki Haley, “it is patently ridiculous for the United Nations to examine poverty in America?” That skank is a depraved, soulless monster as is anyone who works for the Trump Administration and who condones what Trump stands for. I have never seen the like in all my born days! What the hell is wrong with US when we will sit still for this?

None of you see the writing on the wall? Are you that dense? Are your smartphones and personal assistants that distracting that you can’t see what is right in front of your very eyes? First they came for the seniors and the disabled and then they will come for you! You’d better be understanding this! Your smartphone is not going to pay your rent when robots and automation have taken your jobs. Your personal assistant, Alexa, is not going to be able to house and feed you when you lose your income and Social Security is not there to at least, help out in some small way. Obamacare is on life support and so what are you going to do if Trump and the GOP get their way and destroy Medicare? Ask Siri what to do? Yeah! Get your prescription for hookworm from Siri! Your ass is just going to be dropping worms everywhere and don’t damn well come near me with that shit!

No one in the Trump administration gives a damn about any of us who are not multi-millionaires. The United States would rather pull out of the United Nations Council on Human Rights than listen to reports that gives a clear picture in that the United States is descending into 3rd World conditions. They are making excuses that other countries should be looked at for their human rights abuses and how dare anyone confirm what many of us know and that is that the United States has already descended into 3rd World conditions for too many people, including children. Millions of people are living in deep poverty here in the states. Does that have no meaning for you whatsoever? SIGH! I throw my hands up!