Fastened to a Dying Animal: The Narcissistic Wound of Hobbled Imperium

by Phil Rockstroh / February 3rd, 2026

A fading empire, like a wounded narcissist facing decline, is a dangerous animal.

“…fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.”

The things of the world that a narcissist cannot exploit, dominate, and control a narcissist will attempt to destroy. Facing collapse from inner hollowness – a narcissist is devoid of a sustaining core — he has merely a brittle facade insofar as facing the world — thus the narcissist grows increasingly desperate for praise (very bad people are denying me my Nobel Peace Prize) and he is prone to lash out in spasms of malignant rage (even to the point of bodies on city streets and reckless acts of military aggression abroad).

That is no country for old men. The young
In one another’s arms, birds in the trees,
—Those dying generations—at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.
– “Sailing to Byzantium,” William Butler Yeats

Trump is an emblem — not the cause: The US has been in a state of wounded narcissism since at least the Vietnam war era. Those damn hippie commie pinkos (like the transgender weirdos of the present, invading hordes of criminal border crossers, and limp-of-wrist, protein-starved soy boys) so demoralized US soldiers in Vietnam that they could not maintain a proper kill count as they faced brigades of spitting peaceniks at home.

The Vietnam era soldier, with the M-16, was deprived of a homecoming parade

MAGA is a narcissistic wound in collective form. Fastened to a dying animal – a deranged, manic mindscape of nebulous grievance and displaced rage – will become ever more deranged and dangerous. Trump exiting the scene will not alter the trajectory of imperial deterioration.

We are confronted with a wounded beast in the form of a hydra. Yes, it will be a relief to rid from our sight the head with the risible hair weave and the malignant mouth. But to kill a hydra one must strike at the heart of the beast i.e., the capitalist dictatorship of money i.e., a heart that beats within the shared body of the Democratic Party heads of the beast.

Thus we have witnessed the reason Democrats have revealed themselves to be feckless against the rise of MAGA hyper-authoritarian excesses. A party unwilling to call out Israel’s perpetual criminality will prove useless against state sanctioned murder at home.

So we are on our own in this struggle. We must collectively strike at the heart of the beasts. Refuse to feed the beast by general, widespread strikes – not day tripper marches.

How do we strike at the heart of the hydra?

Side with, and attempt to protect the powerless, from Gaza to the urban streets of the US, the latter of which Trump, in his narcissistic pique, has flooded with ICE brownshirts. I realize, people are dying in the attempt. In their name, and in the names of all those who have been and will be harmed by ICE thuggery, we are called on to resist.

There cannot be an accurate augury of what the future holds…other than this: If we are not united in struggle the wounded beast will continue its rampage and destroy all in its path before it destroys itself.

From: AI Overview: “Imperium” (Latin for power/command) refers to the raw, often brutal authority, especially in Rome, while “Empire” (from imperium) describes the large, multi-territory state itself[…]”

In Minnesota, the MAGA Reich is attempting imperium, throwing its body armor, armed incel, cosplaying weight around. While imperium’s killer clown cavalcade is evoking mass distress, even perpetrating murder, they are failing in their attempt at full-spectrum dominance, even failing to evoke mass fear that will create submission in the populace. Thus Trump is reverting to form; he is turning taco (i.e., Trump. Always. Chickens. Out.

Now, with the US empire banging the war drum in the direction of Iran, we are bearing witness to an attempt at gunship-style imperial domination: Emperor/Commander Taco’s (grandiose) trope to force regime change in Iran.

His attempt at imposing imperium in Minnesota has been a shit-circus of narcissistic personality-style, self-undermining folly. Trump, I suspect, pumped up into a grandiose swoon of self-regard by Benjamin Netanyahu, is sailing directly towards the shoals of imperial overreach.

Imperium only lasts in the short term. Empires, sometimes, slowly fade; sometimes, they collapse, all at once, into their corrupt core, due to the historical phenomenon known as imperial overreach. Withal, it is uncanny, Trump’s ever increasing mental and physical deterioration is an analog of the decline of US empire itself.

To save his sagging, pasty hind, Trump’s only path away from self-immolation is his streak of cowardice. To that end, then he and the US empire will shamble on to collapse at a later date.

In twisted backwards and turned inside out fascist fashion, the Trump Reich claims immigrants invaded Minnesota — not the true invaders: ICE Brownshirts. They lie: peaceful resistance is terrorism while, in reality, their intent is to terrorize the populace into submission.

They claim their jackboot on your neck is the sweet caress of liberty.

The Trump Reich insists bullying is bravery and standing up to armed gangs of bullies is hatred. They claim they are preservers of life as they shoot mothers in the face and medical workers in the back of the head.

It turns out the murders of Alex Pretti are Hispanic men, Border Patrol Agents from South Texas. True to form for the assbackwardism of the authoritarian right, now, they are practicing DEI fascism.

It all feels unreal because those entrusted with official power have crossed so far beyond the threshold of the normal mendacity of officialdom that returning to the daily homeostasis required for maintaining a society can no longer be achieved by normal means. To wit, the system must be challenged, by, at the very minimum, large scale general strikes. The machinery of death must be brought to a halt.

Things will have to become even more unreal before some semblance of societal sanity can be restored. Or else, state sanctioned murder will be the new normal.

Don’t you feel a soul-caressing sense of safety from the very sight of these cosplaying (Bovino, Noem et al. creepopathic twits?

Yet I am going to take the risk of living my existence among the ranks of undocumented farm workers, landscape crews, restaurant employees, slaughterhouse workers, roofers, construction workers and all the others who labor at underpaying, no benefits, no future jobs, the powerless of the earth, those who the capitalist overclass exploits on a daily basis – then accept and be crushed under the tyranny of the MAGA Reich’s psychotic conception of law and order.

We all require safety from their (fascist, self-serving) conception of safety. In fact, we – and the world in general – would be in a far safer position if this klavern of killer clowns were tried, convicted, and sentenced to lengthy prison sentences.

There are Democratic partisans bragging that Obama, in a graceful manner, without masked thugs and spilled blood, deported 3.3 “illegal” immigrants.

Somehow, these liberacrat authoritarians, who believe theirs’ is a more elegant version of jackboot licking, are willfully deaf and blind to the dismal fact: Obama, AKA President Drone von Citigroup, opened the demagogic door to the MAGA Reich by embracing (then placing in action) the Third Reich adjacent lie that some human beings are illegal.

When the so-called opposition party claims that fascism’s rough edges can be smoothed out…it is an object/abject lesson in how we arrived at this present dire junction of history.

ICE must be abolished. Any Democrat that stands in the path of the solution should be considered a MAGA enabling tool.

De facto bipartisanship on xenophobic immigration and deportation policies dovetails with acceptance and enabling of Israel’s perpetual crimes against humanity:

The foundation of Israel as a ethno-supremacist state set the stage for its genocidal war against the people of Gaza. A nation, established in ethnic cleansing, is off to an odious start. A nation that national identity mythos tell the tale of ever-vulnerable victims/always-pure in their actions heroes who must do what a hero must against the perpetual threat of inherently evil, less-than-human adversaries…in essence, of all those who live near Israel…must be made to live on their knees in permanent supplication because of the sins of Europe.

A nation of war criminals will be resultant from whenever Israel is called, for example, to account for its crimes against humanity by Jews like myself, for our the assertion we are called Kapos — and same applies when the same kinds of present day “righteous gentiles” who would have attempted to save Jews during The Shoah yet who are slandered as antisemites when they evince empathy for Palestinians and demand Israeli war criminals be held accountable for their crimes against Palestinians.

A nation whose citizenry and its Zionist true believers (including the ad hominem inanity spewing trolls who will swarm this post) refuse to reflect on the reasons the world regards Israel as a rogue state and instead ups the volume of their hasbara campaigns of state-sponsored lies — this is a culture capable of genocide and will, in what could be preventable tragedy, follow the dismal and deranged trajectory of genocide-prone — and, ultimately, doomed — nations.

When Zionist hasbara fails. Censorship, on a massive scale begins:

In response to Zionist perpetrated social media purges, extant and looming, I have opened an Upscroll account. My understanding is, the platform will not engage in Zionist-based interference regarding content.

The following was my first Upstrolled posting at Upstrolled:

We Jews need to proclaim the following, loud and often: Zionist billionaires — who lie they speak in behalf of all Jews by way of the conflation that their support for Israel provides protection for all Jews — when, in fact, their hostile takeovers of corporate media plays into odious anti-semitic fictions e.g., Jews control the West’s economies and affairs of state, including the incitement of wars, thus the opportunity for war profiteering by secret cabals.

My narrow, less-than financially flush Jewish tuchus asserts in response: First, the following is addressed to those anti-semites soreheads, at ready to wax jackbooted triumphant with “we tried to warn you” declarations:

There is no secret plot. The media takeovers are transpiring right in plain sight, Moreover, speaking of insufferable, bigoted tools, waxing jackboot triumphant, Netanyahu has been bragging about the fact and has been promising more media domination, by means of High Dollar Zionist interests, will be forthcoming.

Understatement alert: This is bad for Jews such as myself and bad for all the people of the world. Not in the Dark Age cliched sense of Old World anti-semitism. No, Friday evening TikTok will not stream with Shabbat rituals featuring gentile blood sprinkled on Challah — but social media freedom of expression will be subject to massive measures of censorship, as is already the case with TikTok , now inflicted with rigged algorithms and shadow banning, in regard to criticism of Israel.

Understatement alert #2: I am feeling powerless before the trajectory of events. Zionists do not speak in my name and in the name of other anti-Zionist Jews but our voices are drowned out by tsunamis of billionaire dollars. Nonetheless, we must raise our voices, often, wherever we can and to whomever will listen. We must debunk hasbara. We are advised to side with the powerless of the earth. The governmental and corporate forces that enabled the Gaza genocide — understatement alert #3 — the capitalist overclass do not exactly have your best interest in mind.

Regarding which: declaration of the obvious #1: Those without privilege and power: we are all Palestinians in their cupidity and power besotted minds.

“Flower Family” (Blumen familie) Paul Klee

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Phil Rockstroh is a poet, lyricist, and essayist. His poems, short fiction, poetry and essays have been published in numerous print publications and anthologies; his political essays have been widely posted on the progressive/left side of the internet.  Read other articles by Phil, or visit Phil's website.

Are Judges at the European Court of Human Rights Worse than Terrorists?

by Roar Mikalsen / February 3rd, 2026

Imagine a train hurtling out of control, its passengers’ lives in peril. One traveler reaches for the emergency brake, only for others to disable it, dooming the locomotive to crash into a crowded town and claim hundreds of lives. What charges would follow? Under European criminal law, culpability hinges on intent, context, and motive—ranging from terrorism (requiring a deliberate aim to disrupt society, sow fear, or coerce authorities) to intentional homicide or gross negligence. Absent a political agenda, it might qualify as sabotage or murder. Yet, consider a parallel: what accountability befits a judge who disables the rule of law’s safeguards, such as the European Convention on Human Rights’ (ECHR) provisions for effective remedies and proportionality?

The ECHR as a Safeguard Against Systemic Abuse

The ECHR, particularly through Articles 8 (right to private life) and 13 (right to an effective remedy), empowers courts to scrutinize legislation when political processes falter. It serves as democracy’s emergency brake, protecting citizens from entrenched injustices. Drug policy exemplifies this runaway dynamic: the pursuit of a “drug-free society” has, over six decades, subjected tens of millions to punitive measures without diminishing illicit markets. Empirical evidence consistently demonstrates that criminalization exacerbates violence, insecurity, and public health crises, while over a century of expert reports has questioned its rationale. Nonetheless, institutional interests—power, funding, and prestige—prevail over health and rights, perpetuating prohibition amid outdated fears and moral panics.

This reality grows starker as nations like Canada and Germany regulate cannabis to prioritize public health. When less coercive alternatives are ignored, oversight of law enforcement’s adherence to humane directives becomes impossible. Public hysteria endangers lives and liberties, and judges bear a solemn duty to intervene. Entrusted with leadership and substantial remuneration, they must uphold principles. Indeed, a judge who undermines the ECHR’s remedial framework in drug policy cases may pose a graver threat than a mere saboteur, eroding the foundations of justice itself.

The Imperative of Accountability in the Rule of Law

For over sixty years, Europe’s drug-free ideal has fractured societies. Each year, more than a million individuals navigate the justice system due to drug offenses, amid thousands of preventable overdose deaths—estimated at over 7,000 annually in the EU alone, per recent data—that reform could mitigate. Families shatter, children lose parents, all in service of a paradigm from which increasing numbers of countries diverge. Approximately 19 percent of Europe’s prison population serves time for offenses now regulated elsewhere, underscoring a two-century legal tradition reliant on judicial review.

From this vantage, jurists wield potential for harm surpassing that of extremists: unchecked, they can dismantle the rule of law. It is this concern that prompted appeals to the International Criminal Court (ICC) to hold ECtHR judges accountable for neglecting to assess cannabis prohibition’s legitimacy. Since 2010, Norwegian advocates have petitioned the ECtHR to evaluate prohibition’s necessity in contemporary society, yet for fifteen years, the Court has consistently declined substantive review in such matters, shielding policy from constitutional scrutiny. This pattern jeopardizes Western legal heritage, as judges prioritize entrenched norms over legal certainty, inadvertently bolstering an authoritarian framework.

Confronting Institutional Blindness

Despite admonitions from legal scholars, criminologists, sociologists, and historians, the scapegoating persists, yielding catastrophic outcomes. Six decades of unbridled authority have wrought devastation, sustained by judicial reluctance to challenge entrenched prejudices. It is with good reason that Joseph Conrad observed the policeman and the terrorist emerging from the same ethos, both rationalizing violence for an illusory ideal. Fyodor Dostoevsky expanded on these parallels in Crime and Punishment and Demons, portraying enforcers and radicals entangled in ethical quagmires. Similarly, George Orwell’s 1984 and Franz Kafka’s The Trial illuminate how ideology and bureaucracy erode justice, rendering officials complicit in oppression.

These literary insights remind us that society’s greatest peril arises when powerholders become oppressors. The ECHR arose from this postwar epiphany, yet ECtHR jurists, backed by the Council of Europe’s leadership, have neutralized its protections, allowing an illiberal project to persist. In this light, distinguishing jurists from ideologues proves challenging—save for the former’s amplified capacity for systemic damage. While extremists instill terror, judges can forge police states, which is why the ICC has become involved.

The similarities between drug prohibition, witch hunts, Nazi purges, and apartheid regimes are too obvious to ignore: double standards, public apathy, and exaggerated enemy images transform jurists into instruments of repression. Their ideological fervor brings immense suffering, while the integrity of laws continues to suffer, and history will appraise whether recovery is possible after this prolonged erosion. The rule of law demands accountability, and as the Council of Europe shields drug laws from scrutiny, the ICC must intervene to protect Europe’s rule of law from internal erosion. Absent such action, judicial lapses imperil the entire edifice—and the brake must be engaged.

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Roar Mikalsen is a Norwegian human rights activist and leader of the Alliance for Rights-Oriented Drug Policies (AROD). Read other articles by Roar.

 

For All of Us to Live Free, Capitalism–Not Just ICE–Must Die

Black History Month: “The Dirty Business of Slavery.”

by Paul Haeder / February 3rd, 2026

“The Dirty Business of MAGA”

“The Dirty Business of Tech Fascism”

The Dirty Business of Billionaires”

“The Dirty Business of Axis of Evil: Israel/USA”

“The Dirty Business of ICE’s Slave Patrol Roots”

“The Dirty Business of Israelization of the World”

The phrase “our American Israel” comes from a Puritan expression of colonial American exceptionalism. In 1799, Abiel Abbot, a Massachusetts minister, preached a Thanksgiving sermon titled “Traits of Resemblance in the People of the United States of America to Ancient Israel.” The sermon starts by noting common usage at the time: “It has been often remarked that the people of the United States come nearer to a parallel with Ancient Israel, than any other nation upon the globe. Hence, ‘our american israel,’ is a term frequently used; and common consent allows it apt and proper.” This parallel with biblical Israel conferred an exceptional identity on the United States right from the start.

After World War II, similar parallels again made the modern state of Israel appear exceptional in American eyes. The phrase “our American Israel” originally used the biblical nation metaphorically to refer to the United States, yet the possessive construction also expresses how Americans have made Israel their own. This process in the twentieth century involved projection—of desires, fears, fantasies—onto the modern state of Israel. It also entailed concrete exchanges and intimate interactions fueled by the circulation of individuals and institutions between the two countries. This combination of identifcation, projection, and possession has contributed abundantly to ideas of American national identity, and to support for Israel as well.

Abbot’s eighteenth-century sermon grounded the unstable identity of the new American nation-state in the known typology of the biblical Israel. The sermon helped to constitute the new nation as an “imagined community.”8 The word “our” conveyed a sense of national belonging to the community of white Protestant settlers, now citizens of the new nation, in part by excluding outsiders from the circle of possession. It not only distinguished the United States from “any other nation on the globe” but also effaced the memory of the Native communities that had been exterminated by warfare, disease, commerce, and agriculture to make way for the divinely chosen nation.

“The Dirty Business of Capitalism”

 

Rather than dismissing Trump and his crew as “evil,” “wrong,” or “stupid,” Du Bois’s careful delineation of the motives of both sides of capital in the Reconstruction struggle encourages us to think about what this political moment says about the dead-end crisis of capitalism as a whole. Like then, the politicians of the two-party system, with different tactics, have one goal in mind — the preservation of the system of capitalism.

Despite broad public opposition, on Jan. 22 National Park Service (NPS) workers carried out orders from President Donald Trump to remove over a dozen display panels about the history of enslavement in the U.S.

Ahh, Black History Month:

Last May, all 433 National Park Service installations and other Interior Department holdings were given a mid-September 2025 deadline to “rid exhibits, signs, films and bookstores of statements and literature” that Trump and Burgum determined unduly focused on “how bad slavery was.” (New York Times, Aug. 19, 2025)

But covering up the U.S. racist history was not their only goal.

[Trump’s racist, white supremacist executive order called for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to “ensure” that content which “inappropriately disparages” U.S. individuals past or living ceases to exist at national parks, including Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia. In 2026, this park will be at the center of the celebration of the country’s 250th anniversary.]

In California, at Muir Woods National Monument, they ordered a plaque removed that described the beneficial relationship of the planet’s tallest trees in slowing down global warming. They ordered the Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts to stop showing films about the women and immigrants exploited in that city’s textile mills.

Native News Online noted Sept. 8 that the National Museum of the American Indian — with locations in New York City and Washington, D.C. — was one of eight Smithsonian institutions under audit with Trump’s order. The goal was to sugarcoat history while glorifying the crimes of white European settler colonialists.

The Indigenous news service reported that at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C., in early September, U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) gave voice to a far-right, settler-colonial false narrative that “America was founded by and intended for Europeans.”

Alluding to the Manifest Destiny doctrine, Schmitt claimed: “We’re a nation of settlers, explorers and pioneers — born on the ocean waters that carried the first ships to our shores and forged in the crucible of a wild frontier. Our people tamed a continent, built a civilization from the wilderness and wrote our nation’s name in history.”

But the true history that Trump, Schmitt and other neo fascists want to wipe away is the genocidal attacks that these settler colonialists carried out against Indigenous peoples, equating Indigenous resistance to “barbarism,” much like Israel does today with the Palestinian Resistance.

As horrific as the public executions of white Minnesotans Renee Good and Alex Pretti are, they were preceded by the murders of Keith Porter, Jr, Brayan Garzón-Rayom, Marie Ange Blaise, Jesus Molina-Veya, and dozens more under the latest regime’s immigration policies. That the deaths of white people spurred the demands for accountability and even abolition among a larger portion of the population, after the deaths of more than 30 non-white people were not responded to in the same way if at all, is also a by-product of the racial bias inherent in this country’s history that has been ingrained in the psyche of its people. Even the good white people who do want change do not realize how they have been conditioned to not care about the repression of “the other,” and only respond when that repression shows up on their door or the door of someone they can personally identify with. — Continuity of Social Control From Slave Patrols To Policing To ICE Jacqueline Luqman

Go to the bottom of the article and watch the slide show: Thousands in Tucson join national anti-ICE protests

Try ten years ago:

 

Here we go now: Is ICE a Crack in Trump’s Mussolini Project? – Gerald Horne, Jonathan M. Katz, Paul Jay

To Be Published in the Local Rag Sometime in Feb. 2026 (without all the graphics and asides : White Guy Paulo Kirk writing yet another Black History essay for the local rag:

*****

Black History is American History

by Paul Haeder

The 2026 National Black History Month theme, designated by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), is “A Century of Black History Commemorations.” This theme marks the 100th anniversary of the first Negro History Week, established in 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson.

 

By the time this is published, many will have missed an insightful guy’s talk on York, Feb. 9 at the Edgefield in Gresham: Zachary Stocks, executive director of Oregon Black Pioneers, who has been both in Yachats and in Waldport.

York was an enslaved man who took part in the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1803-1806. But what is known about York besides his participation in this journey? Zachary Stocks of Oregon Black Pioneers will present a detailed biography of York which reveals his experiences during the expedition, his life before and after, and his place within national African American history.

Zachary Stocks is the executive director of Oregon Black Pioneers, a public historian and interpreter. He previously served as program director of Grays Harbor Historical Seaport and visitor services manager of the Northwest African American Museum. Zachary is a former intern of Colonial Williamsburg and Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and a former park ranger at Lewis & Clark National Historical Park. He holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the College of William & Mary with a certificate in public history from the National Institute for American History and Democracy, and a master’s degree in museology from the University of Washington.

I’ve had him on my radio show.

In Waldport, Stocks was here to dedicate the bronze statue of this community’s best kept secret: Louis Southworth

Louis came to Oregon in 1853. Slavery was not legal in Oregon, but African Americans had been prohibited from settling in Oregon. The Oregon State Constitution, passed in 1859, contained an exclusion clause making it illegal for African Americans to live in Oregon (the clause was not repealed until 1926, and the population of African Americans in Oregon did not surpass one percent until 1960).

Southworth was born into slavery in Tennessee on July 4, 1829. His owner, James Southworth, brought him to Oregon. James deemed Louis to be his property. He and his brother William Southworth petitioned the Oregon territorial government to protect slave property.

James Southworth caught gold fever, so he, his family and Louis went to California. Louis Southworth made money playing his violin for dance schools, and by 1858, he had raised $1,000 (equivalent today to $39,527.07).

He purchased his freedom.

“In 1879, Louis Southworth and his family homesteaded in the Alsea Valley. He cleared ten to twelve acres per year over a six-year period, using animal power and a wooden plow, hunted with a homemade rifle, and fished to supply food for the family. He also built a sawmill and ferried people up the Alsea River. Southworth was an active member of the community. He donated land for a school, taught his horse tricks for a show at the Oregon State Fair, and played his fiddle for dances in Waldport.”

Now, Zachary and Oregon Black Pioneers have a new talking-visual tour: York, an enslaved man, who took part in the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1803-1806.

Black History month isn’t good enough to erase the outright ignorance and blatant racism of this country, especially under Racist in Chief Trump.

How many teachers know that York was crucial to Lewis and Clark’s success? He was a skilled hunter, successfully negotiated with Native Americans, and cared for ill soldiers. Few know that York was a naturalist who helped describe new plants and animals. However, York has never been formally acknowledged for his contributions to natural history. No plants or animals bear York’s name like those of Clark and Lewis.

Fast forward now, with the Department of War (Crimes) and Cap’n Crunch Hegseth’s racism. Hegseth has insisted that, instead of letting the military evolve like it usually does, to reimpose old policies that will adversely affect Black service members more than any other group.

Hegseth wants to kick people out because they get razor bumps. One thing that I noticed and my 32-year military veteran father observed starting in boot camp is that many Black service members have issues with shaving every day. Disposable razors cause nasty ingrown hairs, and Black men will suffer more than the rest of us from shaving every day. Pseudofolliculitis barbae is the medical term.

We are in this Anti-Black Everyday Celebration under conservatives: Hegseth has found a way to rename bases back to Confederate generals by using non-Confederate heroes’ names, and to rename ships and scrub Jackie Robinson from DoD. Accused rapist Hegseth has removed programs for women service members that Trump had enacted. He’s disrespected the Navajo code talkers.

[Also wiped in the purge — albeit temporarily — were the Navajo Code Talkers, as many as 420 enlisted Marine Corps men who transmitted encrypted messages during World War II by using a code based on their Diné language.

While the Pentagon blamed artificial intelligence for scrubbing websites that have since been restored, the agency’s actions still lingerthroughout the Navajo Code Talker community.]

 

I’ve heard Professor Gerald Horne talk and I am attempting to get him on my KYAQ show.

Here’s what I heard him open up with — “The thesis of my talk this evening is simple: black lives do not matter and have not historically because the settler colonialism that formed the basis for the resultant U.S.A. was structured this way,” said Horne, the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.

In Lincoln County, for this paper’s readership, learning curves are steep. It is not just MLK Junior road signs.

[There are at least 955 streets named after Martin Luther King Jr. in the United States. These thoroughfares are located in 41 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Beyond the U.S., there are more than 1,000 streets named after King worldwide, including locations in Italy, Israel, Haiti, and South Africa.]

Dang, a whole lot of history you have to catch up on: Angela Davis, Malcolm X, Huey P. Newton, Fred Hampton, Assata Shakur, Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture), Robert F. Williams, W.E.B. Du Bois, Audre Lorde, Amiri Baraka, George Jackson.

There are thousands of Black, African and African-American thinkers and activists, scholars and artists. But Gerald Horne sets down a cornerstone for all of us to consider:

“If black lives are to matter in the United States, we’re going to have to engage in an agonizing reappraisal of our present plight, critique the path that has brought us to the precipice of fiasco in recent decades and embark on a new path.”

Here are three pieces of advice for white teachers who want to become accountable allies:

a.) Examine your relationships with Black colleagues and parents;

b.) Avoid performative allyship;

c.) Do more than pay lip service to a culturally sensitive curriculum.

“My advice to those colleagues, and to other white teachers who care about equity and justice, is to look inward as critically and intentionally as you look outward, and commit to tangible change within yourselves. If there is an unwillingness among our white colleagues to interrogate their complicity in white supremacy, our culture is not and will never be a fit. Education is the praxis of freedom. Our fight requires individuals who are willing to go the marathon distance; sprinters are not needed,” says LaTrina Johnson, assistant principal of curriculum and instruction at RePublic High School in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Paul Haeder has been a teacher, social worker, newspaperman, environmental activist, and marginalized muckraker, union organizer. Paul's book, Reimagining Sanity: Voices Beyond the Echo Chamber (2016), looks at 10 years (now going on 17 years) of his writing at Dissident Voice. Read his musings at LA Progressive. Read (purchase) his short story collection, Wide Open Eyes: Surfacing from Vietnam now out, published by Cirque Journal. Here's his Amazon page with more published work Amazon. Read other articles by Paul, or visit Paul's website.