WOW!! Ok, so I've been MIA for a minute but trust and believe, my absence isn't for shits and giggles. I've been grinding, as I do, and that has left little time for the work that you see on my social media. But I swear, I haven't fallen off, I've just been busy! But I do thank those who have emailed and asked about me. It's good to know folks care!!
So what have I been doing? Well, there are some personal, family issues going on and I won't get into that but some ish went down and I'm dealing with that. Plus, I'm looking for a new place and that's going... well, it's going. In between running here and there, I've been discovering some woke ass YouTubers that have been very helpful in expanding my way of thinking, especially in what all has been going on personally. One YouTuber I've been on is the Lucid Living channel. I'm not sure exactly what her name is (I've seen maybe 5 of her videos) but she is beyond woke. I'll leave the link here and you can check her out for yourself. I have a ton of respect for this woman because the quantity AND quality of information she puts in her videos (free) is definitely the type of content that people would happily pay for. Now, I can't say that I agree with everything she says in all of her videos, a lot of it is out of the realm in which I can comprehend, however, MOST of what she says makes a lot of sense. Couple that with the fact that she is highly intelligent, it's hard not to believe her. Anyway, I just wanted to put that out there for anyone who may be interested in what she has to say.
Next, I want to talk about the first 2020 Democratic debate. I can't continue without mentioning that it looks like a complete sideshow with all of these people on the same stage. 27 candidates, 20 on stage, broken into two nights. This is a hot mess and I don't understand how anyone could pay close attention to the questions that needed to be answered. Hickenlooper, Bennett, Gillibrand... all of those who not a lot of people even recognize; we're not going to discuss them. They're going to be out within 6 months, tops. So let's get into those who stand a chance on stage yesterday, June 27, 2019
Biden
Biden is a career politician who knows how to debate, how to avoid questions, and how to stand out. He's been in some trouble these last few months with the unwanted touching and whatnot but over these last few weeks, he's been held to the fire by almost any and everyone involved but instead of speaking out about his discretions, he dodged questions left and right... until...
Harris
Kamala straight BODIED Biden last night, so much that he got on the defensive and Joe playing defense is NOT a good look on him. He had been riding Obama's coattails all the way to the stage so when it was time for him to speak on his mistakes, not Obama's, he didn't have the words. While everyone else spoke over the moderators, Joe cut himself short, especially during his rebuttal to Harris' accusatory flaming of his past in working with the extreme right. Now, to Joe's defense; he had to. You WANT to flaunt your bipartisanship skills, especially when running for president. He's never shown much tact in his speeches and I think that's where he ran into a lot of trouble. That's easily explained but what Harris should've brought up was his signature on bills that kept the Black community from climbing. There was no way he would have dodged that but she focused on the wrong thing. The major issue she had last night was handling her emotions. I know, that's a super messed up thing to say, especially about another woman of color but she needs to get that in check before going up against trump, otherwise the entire Republican party will drag her as being an "emotional woman".
Yang
Yang isn't my guy but I like him. A lot. He came out super strong in the beginning, answering questions, laying out thoughtful plans, he's a legit dude. Then somehow, somewhere in the middle, he kinda just faded away. Yes, let the other candidates get their words in, but don't let the American people forget you're still there. I follow him a lot and know what his major policies are and what he'll push for once in office. I think it's admirable but he's too quiet... except for when he let the word "asses" slip on live tv. That's a Biden mistake.
Buttigieg
First of all, I will never learn that man's last name. Second, he came into the race as a quadruple minority and understood his privilege. or so it seemed. Here is a blog post from our Brother Durell from King Truth podcast that explains more in detail about Mayor Pete's issues within the Black community. Pete was never my guy but he damn sure isn't now. South Bend, Indiana's Mayor has a lot of work to do within his own community, he even said as much on the debate stage, to which my initial response was; So wtf are you doing here trying to run for president if your own town is in turmoil, turmoil that YOU could've fixed? Even if he had an excuse for HOW things went about in South Bend, there's no excuse for leaving one job unfinished and expect people to vote for you. Sorry, not sorry, NEXT.
Sanders
Good ole' Bernie. Not my guy either, but how can you not love a little old man like Bernie Sanders? What shocked me the most was that nobody went after him. No one mentioned his track record of signed bills that impoverished the Black community that HE was behind. Nobody came after the fact that a lot of the policies he feels so strongly about (free college and health care) have so many holes, there's no WAY it can be done or even close to being done during his term. Even if he were to be elected and re-elected, even if in his old age, he was able to actually see two terms the entire way through, we STILL wouldn't have free healthcare and college for all. Focus on what you can change: free community college (that cuts university tuition down in half which is not only popular but actually doable within the first term), doing away with student loan debt, changing the laws in which health insurance run with. These are actionable, realistic goals but none of these folks wanted to talk about that...
Everybody had all of these pipe dreams, these crazy Utopian idea of what their America would become, but no one other than Andrew Yang has a clear, consies plan as to how to get any of it done. Yang wants every citizen over the age of 18 to receive $1,000 from the government every month to help offset living expenses. That money will in turn be recycled back into the economy. The money would come from the money that big named corporations like Amazon and others save from paying $0 in taxes. They have the money to do it, he'd make it happen. This is simple enough for anyone to understand but everyone else who has the great big dreams of "getting shit done" don't have a plan that a layman can follow and let's face it, most people in this country don't know the exact inner workings of politics, nor do they want to.
But none of this makes any difference to me because the question about reparations wasn't even brought up last night and that pisses me off about EVERYONE on that stage. Ok so they weren't asked. Well these folks weren't asked about a lot of things they ran their mouths about but they did it anyway. They were told they had an allotted amount of time, they ignored that too, with the exception of Joe Biden whenever he was trying to dodge a question. It's funny to me how they were all in a tizzy about reparations when they're asked but crickets on a national platform. I'm not sorry; If you don't have a Black agenda, I can't rock with you. Period. Now, obviously, I'm going to back whoever opposes trump in 2020 but if any of these folks are really trying to be "The One", they gotta step up their game. And so do we! Just because Charlamagne tha God asked Bernie about reparations, doesn't mean we're done with the conversation. That's how we keep getting left behind. Notice the influx of police killing Black people whenever we start going quiet about it? This is no accident, it's by design. We continuously celebrate MLK and Rosa Parks because during that celebration, we tend to forget that we still need people like that TODAY. Yeah, we may not have to go through what our parents went through but where is Black Wall Street today? Still dead, that's where.
So what do we do about this circus of candidates? They need to get together, figure out who's seriously running and who's just playing politics. The serious candidates all work tirelessly to find the worst dirt on everyone else. Whoever has the least scandalous file, runs and everyone else backs them. That's how you get the strongest and that's how you protect everyone else's reputations so that they have a chance to run again. I don't want somebody like Mayor Pete Bootyitches to become the president of these united states in 2021, BUT, COMPARED TO WHAT WE HAVE NOW, I'd vote for him. It's easier to hold REGULAR people like Pete accountable for their actions and help them change than it is to get The Great Orange Ape to shut the hell up and do his job.
Btw, that idea was stolen from an episode of Scandal. I miss that show.
That's about if for this blog post. Stay updated on this website or my Insta feed for updates on new episodes! At the moment, I won't put out very many and when I do, they won't be long.
Stay Black.