Star Wars Political 9/11 Parody

Here is a Star Wars-related political parody I wrote a few months following the terrorist attacks 9/11/2001. This would be great to see in parody video, maybe even deepfake. Unfortunately, I am much more of a writer than a video creator.

A SHORT TIME AGO IN AN ISLAMIC COUNTRY FAR AWAY….

We see the negotiating team of Bill and Hillary Clinton as they venture deep into the Al-Qaeda territory of Afghanistan, seeking the peaceful handing over of Usama Bin Laden. As the couple reaches the audience of the Taliban Rulers, they play a hologram message sent by President George W. Bush for the leaders of the Taliban government.

PRESIDENT BUSH
Greetings, Exalted Ones. Allow me to introduce myself. I am George W. Bush, President of the United States. I know that you are powerful, mighty Taliban, and that your compassion for Bin Laden must be equally powerful. I seek an audience with Your Greatness to bargain for Bin Laden's life. With your wisdom, I'm sure that we can work out an arrangement, which will be mutually beneficial and enable us to avoid any unpleasant confrontation. As a token of my goodwill, I present to you a gift: these two negotiators.

Hillary is startled by this announcement.

HILLARY
What did he say?

PRESIDENT BUSH (cont)
... Neither is hardworking but will serve you well.

HILLARY
This can't be! Bill, you're playing the wrong message.

President Bush's hologram disappears.

The Taliban rulers laugh.

THE TALIBAN RULER
There will be no bargain.

HILLARY
We're doomed.

THE TALIBAN RULER
I will not give up my favorite guest. I like Usama Bin Laden where he is.

The Taliban Ruler laughs hideously.

Several of the Taliban soldiers march Bill and Hillary down a dank, shadowy passageway lined with holding cells. The cries of unspeakable hostages bounce off the cold, stone walls.
Occasionally a repulsive arm grabs through the bars at the hapless negotiators. Bill whines pitifully.

HILLARY
What could possibly have come over President Bush? Is it something I did? He never expressed any unhappiness with my work. Oh! Oh! Hold it! Ohh!

A large arm wraps around Hillary's neck. She manages to break free, and they move on to a door at the end of the corridor.

MANY DAYS LATER, AT THE TALIBAN CAPITAL OF KABUL….

Noisily, the main gate opens to flood the blackness with blinding light and reveal the silhouetted figure of PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH. He is clad in a robe similar to his father's and wears neither pistol nor sword. President Bush strides purposefully into the hallway. Two giant guards move to block his path. President Bush halts.

President Bush raises his hand and points at the puzzled guards, who immediately lower their spears and fall back. The young President lowers his hand and moves down the hallway.

Saddam Hussein appears out of the gloom. He speaks to President Bush as they approach each other, but President Bush doesn't stop and Saddam must reverse his direction and hurry alongside the young president in order to carry on the conversation. Several other guards fall in behind them in the darkness.

PRESIDENT BUSH
I must speak with the Taliban.

Saddam answers in Arabic, shaking his head in denial. President Bush stops and stares at Saddam; he raises his hand slightly.

PRESIDENT BUSH
You will take me to the Taliban now.

Saddam turns in hypnotic response to President Bush's command, and the president follows him into the gloom.

PRESIDENT BUSH
You serve your allies well. And you will be rewarded.

THE TALIBAN GOVERNING CHAMBER

The Taliban Ruler is asleep on his throne. Hillary stands behind the Taliban Ruler as Saddam comes up to him.

HILLARY
At last! President Bush has come to rescue me.

SADDAM
Master.

The Taliban Ruler awakens with a start and Saddam continues, in Arabic:

SADDAM
...George W. Bush, President of the United States.

THE TALIBAN RULER
I told you not to admit him.

PRESIDENT BUSH
I must be allowed to speak.

SADDAM
He must be allowed to speak.

The Taliban Ruler, furious, clobbers Saddam and shoves him away.

THE TALIBAN RULER
You weak-minded fool! He's using the same American trick his father used.

President Bush stares hard at the Taliban Ruler.

PRESIDENT BUSH
You will bring Usama Bin Laden to me.

THE TALIBAN
Your mind powers will not work on me, boy.

PRESIDENT BUSH
Nevertheless, I'm taking Usama Bin Laden and his organization. You can either profit by this... or be destroyed! It's your choice. But I warn you not to underestimate my powers.

TO BE CONTINUED…

A White Middle Class Dude's Take on Joyner Lucas's "I'm Not Racist"

A few months ago, rapper Joyner Lucas dropped a video for his song "I'm Not Racist". The video was a viral sensation, stimulating discussion in hip-hop circles and in the mainstream, to include CNN.

If you haven't seen it, here:



It is definitely a provoking video, touching many third rails. It should make you think. I've been thinking abut it for a while, and am finally writing about it now.

As provoking as it is, in many hip-hop circles, many thought Joyner Lucas didn't express the black side hard enough. On the blog VerySmartBrothas, writer Damon Young wrote that because American racism was originally a white invention, there should be no video. Young writes that white people should just stop using race as a way to divide.

The only conversation that can do that is white people talking to other white people to try to find a way to be less awful to black people

That makes sense if you understand that the entire global capitalist system we live in is a white culture invention. For centuries, global leaders were white and did things in the interests of their more powerful kingdoms and countries. Leaders of non-white countries weren't even part of the conversation.

Along with Damon Young, other rappers wrote their own verses for Joyner Lucas's black man, expressing what they though he should have said. Rapper Mysonne's was perhaps the most viewed and impressive.



Mysonne has some strong points here, although I think they are less effective to the white audience he is trying to talk to.

There is no way for me to speak for all white people here. I can't do it. I won't do it. But what I can do is describe how I feel about the issues based on my background and influences and attempt to describe some of the people around me and why they feel the way they do. And then conclude with why I think Joyner Lucas's spoonfed approach is better than Mysonne's hammer.

I embraced hip-hop in the early 1990s. Hip-hop was growing, it was fresh, it was different. It was also thought provoking. I was feeling stagnated in my predominantly white Florida suburb and knew it wasn't the place for me. My town was great for families and some of my friends, but I didn't see a future there. I listened repeatedly to songs about getting out of the ghetto like my white suburban town was my personal ghetto.

Right after high school, I joined the military. That adventure led me to college, then to city life,
and then to a job that required world travel. My career path has forced me to open my mind academically and socially. I wouldn't have it any other way.

Unfortunately, not all my white friends and family have had those experiences. Some stick to the rivers and the lakes they are used to.

A few years ago for example, I had a white friend drunkenly say "I wish I was black for a day, just to see what it's like."

Even though I had been drinking as well, that statement sobered me up and stopped me in my tracks. Cold. I wasn't about to get into a deep philosophical discussion with her about why what she said was the most white privilege thing she could ever say or why it was horribly ignorant. After a day's worth of drinking, nothing good could have happened from that. So I let it be. But years later, it still bothers me.

I don't wish to be any of my friends. Be they black, white, rich, poor, gay, straight, man, woman, tall, or small. I might wonder what it's like to have a wife, a minivan, and a house full of children, but that's a lifestyle, not a born condition.

Back in the wonderfully innocent 1980s, there was a movie entitled "Soul Man" starring C. Thomas Howell. In the movie, Howell's character dyes his skin and he acts "black" in order to win a scholarship to Harvard. Although the movie is full of awkward hijinks and social commentary, the most powerful part is at the finale when Howell's character has a conversation with James Earl Jones' character about the black experience.

"I don't really know what it feels like, sir. If I didn't like it, I could always get out."



The closest I ever came to experiencing systematic discrimination was while I was in Afghanistan. Work culture on military bases in Afghanistan is very hierarchical. US Military personnel are on top, foreign military personnel are second, followed by US contractors, then foreign contractors. As a US contractor, I couldn't take the US military bus around the base, I couldn't use the better military doctors unless there was a life-threatening injury, and I couldn't eat at the dining facility at the same time. All because of my label.

I didn't like that very much. I didn't have the freedom to eat when I wanted or see the doctor I wanted. I had to use the facility that was for "my people". Perhaps it was "separate but equal", but the separation was not something I was used to.

Fortunately, when my time in Afghanistan was over, like C. Thomas Howell's Soul Man, I could return to my white American comfort zone.

Also in Afghanistan, I would often speak with one of our translators, a young member of the Hazara tribe of Afghanistan. The Hazaras are among the most persecuted people in Afghanistan. Both ethnic Pashtuns and the Taliban targeted the Hazaras and attempted to "ethnically cleanse" the group.

During one conversation, my translator friend told me one of the most eye-opening things I have ever heard. He said the election of President Obama in 2008 gave hope to the Hazara people. According to him, the Hazara felt that if a black man could become President of the United States, then perhaps one day a Hazara could become president of Afghanistan.

That is the type of social advancement and trailblazing America should be doing. We should be empowering not only our own people, but we should be an inspiration for the discriminated and downtrodden around the globe. America should be the land of opportunity, where your potential is determined by your input, not where you were born, the color of your skin, your religion, or the school system you are near.

Of course, a country as wide and diverse as America will always have different points of view. We will never be unified in thought. Some of us prefer a day on the farm and some prefer a day at the beach. Some want to live a life of quiet solitude and others want to be knee-deep in the hustle and bustle of metropolitan life. What we do for fun and what media we consume typically aligns with that lifestyle.

And that brings me back to Joyner Lucas and his video. For those who are comfortable in our society, media that expresses views that society is not acceptable for everyone is upsetting. It is easier for those who are comfortable to listen to music that celebrates their comfort status. That's what country music does. It celebrates the present - the small town, the pretty girl, the pick-up truck, and the complacent country lifestyle. Country music is very conservative. It does not aspire for progress.

That's why many white people like it so much.

Counter-culture music requires upsetting thought. Be it punk, hip-hop, metal, or folk music. Counter-culture requires unpacking and seeing things from other perspectives. Not every white American wants to be challenged to do that. Hence sometimes media that slowly opens up conversation is a better way to inspire change, kinda like hiding a pill in ice cream.

Joyner Lucas's song is safe and easy to digest. It takes elementary school social understanding. Mysonne's verse, while important, requires grad school level social understanding. A lot of white culture is not ready to have that conversation, no matter how many non-white people scream they need to.

Unfortunately, when scared, white people can retreat to their bubble. They can go back to listening to country music and hanging out in an all-white world. As a white person, let me tell you, it is easy to do. It is also lazy. White people should do better.

There are a lot of great things in America. But there is a lot our predominant culture still needs to work on. We need to keep moving forward and we need to understand each other. "Others" are not going away. If understanding them requires baby steps, then take baby steps. If that means jumping into deep philosophical literature, then do that.

But while you are here, listen to Joyner Lucas's "I'm Not Racist". Understand his point of view. Listen to Mysonne's remix. Understand his contribution and point of view. If you need help, ask a friend. Have a conversation. It's easy if you try.

When algorithms miss the point, Exhibit 52,986

Everyone knows algorithms control much of what we see online. If you didn't deliberately look for something on the world wide web, then odds are it was given to you via algorithm.

But sometimes those algorithms miss the point. Sometimes they show the complete opposite of what they should be showing. This is often the case on Facebook, where the algorithm attempts to work quickly based on what user just wrote.

A good example of this happened to me on November 5th. Following the Texas church shooting, I wrote the following on Facebook:



 

Given the current political climate, this could be construed in an anti-gun post, although I did not mention the typical key words of an anti-gun post. I didn't mention the following:

• control


• hearts and prayers


• NRA


• guns


• victims

So perhaps the algorithm didn't know what to do with me when it posted the following ads on my page:



 

Two of the three ads are for firearms-related activities. One is to build a weapon that has often been used in mass shootings. That's not a good look by Facebook.

No, I will not learn the art of reloading, build an AR-15, and drive my pick-up truck. Those are enjoyable actions, but I am not in the market for them when I am posting about a large shooting with multiple gun-related victims.

Perhaps these ads are what the Russians would want me to support given my demographic: guns and trucks. If that's the case, as I wrote in my post: Put me down for the opposite.

Donald Trump and Empathy

The President of the United States has an empathy problem.

His problem is that he has never needed empathy. He has never needed to care about a community, nor anyone outside a community. As a real estate magnate, he was never in the people-caring business.

That's not to say he is the only president who has ever had an empathy problem. I'm sure others have lacked in that department as well. That is also not to say he hasn't shown concern or care for individuals on occasion.

Nor, lastly, is this to say that a lack of empathy is a disqualifier to hold the world's most powerful political office. This is merely an observation on Donald Trump, President of the United States, and his actions thus far in the office.

When Trump won, I knew his lack of empathy was going to plague his administration. He ran a highly divisive campaign in perhaps the most divisive election in America in over 100 years. He kept his campaign focused on taking sides on social issues, instead of focusing on policies - which frustrated many pundits and fellow candidates. But by taking sides, he alienated those who disagreed and he has yet to show interest in building bridges to bring those who disagreed with him into the fold.

Dr. Richard Friedman, a professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the Cornell Medical College, recently wrote that Trump is a master of empathy.  Friedman stated Trump's ability to empathize with his base is what keeps them on his side. He concluded that Trump uses that empathy to feed the fears of his base and create a bond with them.

I think Friedman is right to a point. What he gets wrong is that Trump doesn't really understand the struggles of his base. Trump's political connection with his base is not empathy for people, but empathy for power. He understands there is power in drumming up fear and he used that to sell himself as the savior against all that would reduce the social power of his base - be that globalism, terrorism, or liberalism.

President Trump is an admirer of power. He seems to believe politics is about power, not people. He lauds those who have power, and doesn't identify well with those who don't. That is to be expected from a billionaire. Rarely do those with their own private jet understand those at the bus stops. But as president of all Americans, Trump represents the people at the bus stop as much as those in penthouses and private yachts.

Thus far, Trump's statements have given little indication that he will learn to be empathetic. He pins blame, points fingers, and plays favorites. He might be great at business, tax plans, and trade, and he may tweet a generically empathetic platitude when needed, but connecting on social issues will continue to befuddle him.

Trump's lack of empathy looks even worse when compared to previous presidents. For better or for worse, President Obama was seen as very empathetic to minority struggles in America. Likewise, President George W. Bush was a church-going, God-fearing man with a good heart, although he may have been the victim of bad advice on Iraq and slow movement on New Orleans.

For President Trump, meanwhile, every cameo at a golf course and every awkward speech further distances him from many of those he represents. While many will never like him as a person nor have any tolerance for his policies, his ability to connect could earn him the respect of the position.

Increasingly, empathy is considered an essential element of leadership. Understanding the trials, tribulations, and life decisions of team members is an advantage in building unity and cohesion.

According to Justin Bariso, who writes about Emotional Intelligence and the ability to connect,

If a leader can demonstrate true empathy to individual team members, it will go a long way toward encouraging them to perform at their best. It may even inspire the team to show empathy for the leader.

Trump seems to want Americans to "make America great again", but can't seem to connect with half of them on a personal level. He has a slogan, but getting people to run with that mission statement requires emotional buy-in. If Trump can't connect with people, he will have a hard time motivating them.

This is another difference between real estate and other corporations. Trump's money came from development and the value of land and buildings. There was little production outside of construction. And those doing construction were not building based on Trump's vision, they were building based on his specifications.

Trump's dilemma reminds me of an old Casey Stengel quote, "The secret of managing is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided.” Those who oppose Trump (and there are many) can easily run the narrative unless he shows empathy. Showing empathy and not causing conflict may create empathy for Trump himself.

Among other difficulties, Donald Trump has an empathy problem. It is tough to teach an old dog new tricks, and even more difficult to teach empathy to a 70-year old man whose empathy muscles have atrophied, if they were ever developed.

Key & Peele - East West College Bowl and the Hall of Presidents

I am a big fan of Comedy Central's Key & Peele Show. Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele created on the best comedy sketch shows since the Chappelle Show.

One of Key & Peele's best and most famous sketches is their East/West College Bowl. As of November 2016, it had over 36 million views on YouTube.

I recently noticed something about the sketch: the order in which the players are announced is exactly opposite of the order of the US presidents. In the sketch, there are dozens of black guys followed by one white guy. From 1776 to 2016, there were dozens of white US presidents followed by one black guy.

So being the creative sort, I found a video of Disney's Hall of Presidents and inserted the audio from the Key & Peele sketch. I like how it turned out.

The insanity of political memes

Like bumper stickers to generations, political memes have become the preferred way of choice for people to communicate their political views. They allow people to make big points with little effort. Simply take an image, put some text on the top and bottom, and you have a meme. You get bonus points if it is funny or as some sort of twist to the punchline.

For example, I created this one from a site called memegenerator.com.



Not overly funny, but the character's face combined with the condescending question does send a message.

While the above meme attacks meme culture, most political memes are for the in-group and condescending towards the "others".

But what if two memes on the same subject with different perspectives were put together?



The premise is the same: comparing the words of Donald Trump to the use of different gendered bathrooms by transexual individuals. But each meme takes a completely different perspective and attempts to insult the intelligence of the "others".

The meme on the left assumes transsexuals are not a threat, but Donald Trump is. The meme on the right assumes Donald Trump is not a threat, but transsexuals are.

It is easy to spread propaganda on Facebook. It has become a sandbox for tribalism and group identity. But when we pull media out of Facebook and look at it critically, we see how unoriginal it really is. But like a homemade bomb, it is simple, but effective.

Self-awareness and the 2016 US Presidential Election

I've been thinking long and hard over the last week on how to write about Election 2016. Not in generations has the US seen such a tumultuous and turbulent election. Perhaps not since the 1860s, a decade that brought us to Civil War. Election 2016 was ugly, personal, and divisive. It brought out raw emotions and feelings about the direction of society, not the typical adjustments of policy that typified previous elections.

Books will be written about Election 2016, its causes, and its aftermath. We are living history and it is very difficult to see where you are in the paragraph when the pages of history are being written.

I recently finished a book in business management entitled "Managing the Unexpected" by Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe. This book was written to help managers identify their place in corporate turmoil and not only survive, but often turn the situation into a learning experience and prosper.

According to Weick and Sutcliffe, sensemaking is a huge part of situational survival. A big part of sensemaking is self-awareness. Over the last few days, I have tried to deconstruct not only my thinking but also the thinking of those around me to see why America is currently in the shape it is in.

From the beginning of the campaign season until August, I lived in Tampa near the University of South Florida. Not only did the Tampa metro area vote overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton, but universities are predominantly liberal environments. I'm not looking at why right now, just that they are.

If you had asked me before August, I would have said Donald Trump didn't stand an ice cube's chance in hell of winning.

After my lease expired July 30th, I moved in with a friend in Inverness, Florida, an hour and 20 minutes north of Tampa. Not only were there Trump signs everywhere, but there were Confederate flag rallies on Sunday afternoon on Main Street. This was not the multi-cultural, urban environment I was used to. I'm sure if I asked, they would have given Hillary Clinton the same ice cube's chance in hell.

But given the Confederate flags and Inverness's intolerant history, I wrote off the region as fringe - uneducated, rural Florida, in no way indicative of the general voting public.

While I was in Afghanistan, the US Military deployed giant blimps around the capital city of Kabul. These blimps were used to track terrorists and keep an eye in the sky. I'm not sure how true this is, but I was told when the blimps first went up, uneducated Afghans who never saw a blimp thought they were dragons.

In Afghanistan and everywhere else, uneducated people will buy into dragons and boogeymen and conspiracy theories of Illuminati and Muslim takeovers and anything else that helps them make sense of a complex world they are unfamiliar with. It is basic human nature to attempt to process the unknown through ideas you already hold.

It was easy to dismiss the Trump movement the same way: uneducated and willing to believe the boastful generalities of a real estate mogul / media savvy reality TV star. He was rich and arrogant and willing to say whatever he had to to rile up the people. There was no doubt Trump's threats of invading immigrants and Chinese global growth had the ears of rural America, where the economy hasn't recovered and suicide rates and drug use is increasing.

A few weeks later, I continued my gypsy wandering and began staying with family in middle class, suburban Melbourne, Florida. While some members of my family have always been conservative, I quickly sensed they weren't the only ones on the Trump train. There wasn't a Hillary lawn sign to be seen in Melbourne and Facebook friends from the area constantly posted anti-Hillary and pro-Trump messages and memes.

This was Melbourne, Central Florida, about as Middle America as Florida gets. Mostly white. Mostly suburban. Not as rich as South Florida and not as rural as North Florida. And it seemed predominately, if not overwhelmingly, pro-Trump.

After a few weeks in Melbourne, I started to think Hillary Clinton was more the ice cube than Donald Trump.

It didn't make sense. People in Melbourne were educated, they had jobs, and they were basically tolerant of others. The basic preconceptions I could use in rural Florida didn't apply.

But the people in Melbourne seemed to support Trump not for who he was, but for who he wasn't. He wasn't Hillary Clinton and he wasn't a Washington insider. Hillary was untrustable and unforgivable. Even with all his faults, Trump was going to put money back in the pockets of middle class Americans. He was going to lower insurance premiums and taxes. And if he got rid of "political correctness" along the way, even better.

The American middle class walks a fine line and they know it. They don't want to lose their ground and they thought Hillary was going to move them the wrong way. Their beliefs might not be social conservativism as much as they are financial and status conservativism.

Pundits called Trump's election a "repudiation" of Obama's administration. According to Edward-Isaac Dovere of Politico, Obama's vision of America was "educated and pragmatist, multicultural, cosmopolitan and globalist". I am highly educated, to include a master's degree in International Affairs, have worked and studied with people of foreign cultures, lived most of the last 10 years in a city, eat in ethnic restaurants more than domestic, and listen to more historically black music than historically white music.

Obama's vision was my America.

To me, America has never been greater than it is now. I believe in progress, innovation, and moving forward. Trump's claims that America is a disaster did not resonate with me at all. Not one bit. From the moment he declared his intention of running, there was nothing I agreed with him on.

His America was not my America. But his America is the America of more Americans than my America is.

That's a tough pill to swallow.

Does that mean the ideas of progress are gone? As bad as emboldened bigots are under Trump, the odds are very low that America will digress into ISIS-controlled Syria in four years. We will probably not be executing women in public squares for adultery or chopping off hands for robbery. Even public hangings will probably not come back, despite Trump's advocacy for law and order.

Change, especially social change, is slow. While progress is inevitable, humans were programmed with an innate fear of the unknown. They are not comfortable with change. For some, this fear and discomfort is more pronounced than in others, especially when resistance to change is tied to social or religious fabric.

But change does come. For example, there was a time when Americans didn't know what recycling was. Now it is second nature. Kids today don't know a world without it. Yet according to RedOrbit.com, the first Earth Day in 1970 was called "a Communist trick" and others said it was a "subversive elements plan to make American children live in an environment that is good for them".

Now, barring a major Supreme Court reversal, men can marry men and women can marry women legally. This decision and its support was the result of decades of social campaigning and the acceptance of LGBT people by a majority of Americans. Even those who might not fully accept it know someone who is gay, even in small town America.

What we saw in Election 2016 was bubbles on both sides pushing against each other.

In one bubble, there is a fear of losing traditional American values, individual independence, communism, and stifling by Big Government.

In the other bubble, there is a fear of a repressive society driven by one dominant group and culture.

Like the Big Bang, the resulting matter of two highly energized bubbles crashing into each other could be something totally unfamiliar. This is the ground some political prognosticators are now observing, like scientists at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe. But instead of magnets, the speed and direction of America's social bubbles are accelerated by media, propaganda, confirmation bias, and echo chambers.

So where am I? I am still called a communist by my conservative friends and still told I am not liberal enough by my conservative friends. That's ok. One friend told me years ago that he was "Right in the Middle and Left Out". I think that is a good place to be.

Despite the popular rejection of my urban educated version of America, the nation will continue to progress. It always does. Education is slow, urbanization is slow, and progress is slow. America is a wide nation, with many different viewpoints. Cosmopolitan America isn't for everyone. Liberal educated America isn't for everyone. Globalism isn't for everyone.

But of the vision of the Obama platform, multicultural progress and civil rights should not be given up on. Those should be advocated and protected. Our world is too connected and our inalienable rights too guaranteed to limit the rights of anyone due to race, creed, gender, religion, or sexual orientation. This should be a moral calling not only in America, but across the world.

There may be Afghans who reject an international government and the presence of foreign influence in their country, but I'm sure one day all Afghans will know a blimp isn't a dragon.

Confederate Flag rally in Inverness, FL, August 2016

In my travels, I spent a few weeks in Inverness, Florida, a small town approximately an hour and 30 minutes north of Tampa. I have friends and family who live in Inverness, so I'm there a few times a year.

It wasn't until recently, however, that I realized how overwhelmingly white Inverness is. Being in Tampa, especially by the University of South Florida, diversity is the norm. Every restaurant has tables of white, black, Asian, Latino, and many other ethnicities. But establishments in Inverness were very, very white. In three weeks there, I saw only one black family in a local restaurant.

While out for a stroll down Inverness's main road, I perhaps saw a reason why Inverness is so white.

A Confederate Flag rally sprung up out of nowhere on a Sunday afternoon. Granted, it is not a mass movement, but it was enough folks to be seen. They flew Confederate flags, Don't Tread on Me Flags, and Molon Labe flags. They received several honks of approval from passing drivers.

This doesn't happen in Tampa. While there is a giant, obnoxious Confederate flag that flies alongside I-75 in Tampa, personal flags are rarely seen and rallies don't just happen.

I've mentioned several times on this website that I am not a fan of the Confederate flag. I believe it was an enemy battle flag that opposed the national flag I signed up to defend. Fighters carrying that flag killed more Americans than the Nazis, Iraqis, or Al Qaeda ever did. It belongs in a museum or at a historical marker.

No, I did not engage the Confederate flag rally with my views. I was highly outnumbered and wasn't there to argue. I was there to mosey down Main Street on my Sunday afternoon.

Donald Trump and the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion

The Star Wars Universe is full of parallels to our own. We can find war, politics, religion, and even law reflected in George Lucas’s expansive empire. We know, for example, that the Rebel Alliance was a social movement determined to win back power from a government they deemed illegitimate. Instead of addressing their grievance, the Empire decided to go to war with the Rebels and through several military mishaps and a bit of Jedi luck, the Empire lost their grip on the galaxy and the Rebels eventually regained power.

Similarly, one of the aspects of Episode 8 that I am most curious about is “who is in charge?”. What is the position of the First Order and the Resistance in greater galactic politics? Is there a Galactic President residing at Coruscant? Could it be Lando Calrissian? Please?

But before I postulate about what could happen in future episodes, I’d like to connect a political post I recently read with an era in the Star Wars Expanded Universe (aka Star Wars Legends).

On Monday, October 18th, Benjamin Wittes of Lawfareblog.com wrote a post entitled “A Coalition of All Democratic Forces, Part I: A Political Focus on What's Truly Important”. Wittes, a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, details the looming possibility of a Donald Trump presidency, the threat it poses, and the long list of people opposing Trump’s way of thinking. Wittes writes that Trump has caused Democrats and Republicans to come together as no other threat to democracy ever has. He concludes by putting forth the idea that Hillary Clinton should govern as a nationalist, putting aside party division for the sake of the ideas and values American Government is based on.

(His Part II article is equally interesting, in which he describes how Clinton should govern keeping in mind the support she has gotten from anti-Trump conservatives.)

While many have linked the rise of Donald Trump and the alt-right movement to the rise of Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars prequels ("So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause"), Wittes’ post reminded me not of the rise of the Galactic Empire, but of the Yuuzhan Vong War.

In Star Wars Expanded Universe lore, the Yuuzhan Vong were a species from outside the galaxy intent on wreaking havoc and destroying all in their path. According to the all-knowing and all-powerful Wookiepedia, the Yuuzhan Vong waited decades, poking and prodding the periphery before striking the Star Wars galaxy. When they finally attacked, the New Republic was ill-prepared. Entire systems of planets were destroyed and the entire foundation of the government was lost.

This is what Trump and his supporters talk about when they say they want to “shake up” Washington. They want to completely uproot the current government power structure. As anthropologist Grant McCracken wrote in 2015, Trump is a fire boat sent to port to destroy everything as it current exists.

Defeating the Yuuzhan Vong required the remnants of the New Republic to partner with their old enemy, the Empire. After Emperor Palpatine was killed by Darth Vader, the Imperial Remnant was a collection of warlords and Imperial personnel who held to the philosophies of the Emperor. They kept the battleships and military ideals and personnel of what was once a mighty Imperial military force.

In order to defeat the Yuuzhan Vong, the New Republic needed the Imperial Remnant. Likewise, in order to defeat Donald Trump, the Democrats need the remnants of the GOP. They need conservative voices such as the Bushes, Mitt Romney, and John McCain, those who have spoken out and refuse to support Donald Trump. They need conservatives who are not afraid to break from party lines for the sake of our constitutional republic.

According to Wittes,

“Clinton’s democratic foes also need to understand that however flawed she may be, she is not wrong when she says that, at least right now, she is the only thing standing between America and a political apocalypse of sorts.”

Trump and his cronies represent a Yuuzhan Vong-type threat to Washington. He is the Tea Party on steroids. His belief system is so far out of line with the Washington way of business, he will cause irreparable damage to our way of governance. He will burn down Coruscant and make it uninhabitable.

It is very possible that somewhere in the Star Wars Galaxy, there was a planet untouched by the Yuuzhan Vong War. A planet on which lived a species that hated both the Empire and the Republic. One that thought both systems of governance were useless. One that hoped the Yuuzhan Vong would make the galaxy great again.

The greatest presidential documentary ever

Last year, I wrote about my favorite presidential debate - the lesser-known candidate debate of 2000. This debate had a cast of characters that could not be made up. It featured:

• A gruff former governor as moderator who doesn’t seem interested at all in the proceedings


• A candidate who doesn’t even show up


• A candidate running for Vice-President


• An absent-minded scientist who makes his speech in sneakers and advocates for space travel and world government


• A white guy who ran the United Negro College Fund and wants to hold a new Constitutional Convention and rewrite the Constitution


• A candidate who reads his speech from his paper


• Jim Taylor

Taylor is the star of the debate. He was also the only candidate making a documentary of his attempt to be president. A creative genius by trade, Taylor wanted to create a step-by-step documentary about a normal guy who runs for president.

For 16 years, I wanted to see this video. Fortunately, some benevolent soul posted it on YouTube several years ago. At the time I am writing this, it has less than 100 views. I have made random videos of toys singing Christmas carols that have more views than this important piece of political cinematic history.



There is so much here relevant to the 2016 presidential election.

Getting on the debates - third party candidates are still struggling with this. We even had candidates skipping debates because they thought they were unfair.

Making your own debate - this sounds like a very Trump thing to do. As a matter of fact, a lot of Taylor's steps are Trump's steps but with the backing of a billion dollars.

Doesn't the guy at 1:40 sound a lot like something Trump would say? "I am the only one with the physical, mental, and moral toughness to start this entire government up from scratch."

Then there is Taylor's slogan, "Because Everything is Crappy.". That should be Trump's campaign slogan. Forget "Make America Great", "Because Everything is Crappy" is real. People don't know what a "great America" is. That's debatable. But people know what crappy is. They can agree on that. That's a campaign slogan to get excited about.

Taylor also admits he is an idiot (2:20). He is the complete opposite of Trump, who would never admit being wrong or anything less than a genius. Comparing Trump to Taylor is a bizarro world where everything is opposite with a strain of similarity - that they are both outsiders trying to be president.

Go Where the Cameras Are (4:20) - This is another Trump technique. Always let the cameras see you.

Bother the Other Candidates (5:18) - Another Trump technique. Trump made the Republican primary a mud wrestling fight of insults and innuendos. Candidates couldn't get down to the real issues and solutions because they were constantly having to fend off the latest barrage of Trump statements. Trump was in their head and in the media. Unfortunately of Taylor, the other candidates didn't bite.

Get Votes (7:30) - Again, this is bizarro Trump. Taylor finds one person, a young voter whose car Taylor helps fix. Although I am pretty sure candidates can't walk voters to the voting booth. I think that is illegal. Btw, Jim Taylor's voter, Katie Cailler, still lives in New Hampshire.

The whole part from 8:30 to 9:00 is pure Trump. "Never take victory for granted. The most important thing about running for president is you gotta keep running. Because if you keep running, and you keep running, and you keep running, well, you never know."

Unfortunately, Jim Taylor only received 87 votes in the New Hampshire primary. I guess not enough people believed everything was crappy.

College Humor's Amazing Rocky 4 video

Back in November, College Humor created an awesome mockumentary about the fight that wasn't: Rocky Balboa vs Ivan Drago. They imagined if it did in fact happen.

Once again, I was on the right path, but slightly off. About a dozen years earlier in grad school, I postulated that Soviet failures in non-economic areas were in a small way responsible for the collapse of the Soviet Union. I cited the 1980 Olympic hockey loss as a key moment when the Soviet Union began to be looked as losers and the US as winners.

"Further destroying the confidence of the Soviet people was the continued successes of the West (i.e. the U.S.) and an increasing number of Soviet failures in non-economic areas. Even before glasnost, the Soviet people saw an increasingly confident U.S., possibly led by their 1980 Olympic hockey victory, elect Ronald Reagan, a “preeminent anti-communist” not afraid to take on the “Evil Empire” (7, 2). Meanwhile, the Soviet military’s continued failure in Afghanistan began to chip away at the infallibility of the Red Army. The Soviet ideal was collapsing and needed to be changed."

Just another example why national momentum is important. Countries that lose momentum usually struggle to gain it back. This goes for most political movements, ideas, and even sports teams. People like a winner.

And another example when I wonder what path I should take in life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyWx1CkMTtI

Tampa DJ Kenny K at Huey Newton's funeral

Following Beyonce's Super Bowl halftime show, there has been new interest in the Black Panther Party. Unbeknownst to many, Tampa and St. Petersburg have their place in Black Panther history.

On August 28, 1989, the Black Panther Party laid founding member Huey P. Newton to rest. Among the pallbearers was Kenny Waters, aka Kenny K, the first hip-hop DJ in Tampa. From Sept 11, 1989 Jet Magazine:


The Uhuru Party mentioned in the caption is currently located in St. Petersburg, Florida and was founded by Omali Yeshitela. From the 1970s to 1981, the Uhurus and the African People's Socialist Party were headquartered in St. Pete. In 1981, the Uhuru Party moved to Oakland. This enabled the movement to be closer to the Black Panthers. This picture of Omali and Huey Newton is from asiuhuru.org:

In this background and during this counterculture connection between Oakland and St. Pete, Digital Underground was  formed and Kenny K first took to the airwaves of WMNF, Tampa's community conscious radio. According to hiphopandpolitics.com,

Digital started off being a Black Panther type group. They formed under the name Spice Regime with a game plan of focusing on Black social issues.. They even started to sport black berets similar to the Panthers.

Kenny K meanwhile had connections to Uhuru and pro-Black leaders in hip-hop such as Chuck D of Public Enemy and KRS-One. These connections made him a prominent voice in the Black community.

In my quest to document his life, I have not yet found out how Kenny K became affiliated with Uhuru. I have heard Kenny was close with the Panthers and the Nation of Islam, but I have not talked to anyone yet. Hopefully soon.

Shortly after Newton's funeral, the Uhuru House moved back to St. Pete, where they have been since. Digital Underground relocated to Oakland where Shock G met the poetic son of two Black Panthers, a young aspiring MC named Tupac Shakur.

And the rest is hip-hop history.

Jim Taylor and My Favorite Presidential Debate

Not many people have a favorite presidential debate. Political wonks might cite Nixon vs Kennedy in 1960 or maybe the appearance of Admiral James Stockdale in 1992. But for me, my favorite presidential debate has a good story.

In January 2000, I was living in Salley Hall on the Florida State University campus. It was my second semester at FSU and I had just transferred rooms from my first suite with roommates I didn't completely jive with, to a room with future apartment mate and current long-time friend, Zheke Snow.

January 2000 was also the run-up for the February 1 New Hampshire Republican primary, the first primary in the 2000 election and the first step candidates needed to take on their road to the White House.

At 2:30 am, Sunday, January 30, 2000, Zheke and I were flipping through the channels in our small college dorm room. It was late and we had probably gone out that night. I probably even had a few beers. Somewhere between late-night sports highlights and finding a movie to watch, we stumbled upon C-SPAN and the "Lesser-Known Presidential Candidates Debate".

I can almost guarantee watching the debate was my idea. I've always had an interest in politics and weirdness and the concept of "lesser-known" candidates definitely caught my attention. Of course, we knew George W. Bush and Al Gore and the other big name candidates, but who were these guys who were campaigning in a small dining room in the middle of New Hampshire? Why were they running for president?

So Zheke and I watched. We were probably the only people on the FSU campus watching at the time. Heck, we were probably the only people in Florida watching at the time. But for two highly cynical college students, this debate turned into an instant classic.

This debate has it all:

• A gruff former governor as moderator who doesn't seem interested at all in the proceedings
• A candidate who doesn't even show up
• A candidate running for Vice-President
• An absent-minded scientist who makes his speech in sneakers and advocates for space travel and world government
• A white guy who ran the United Negro College Fund and wants to hold a new Constitutional Convention and rewrite the Constitution
• A candidate who reads his speech from his paper
• And Jim Taylor (43:42 mark)

Jim Taylor was the most unique candidate in the 2000 election. I will never be swayed otherwise. Taylor took the stage in New Hampshire with a guitar on his back, wearing a lei, and challenging the other candidates to a "toilet scrub-off". A self-described "idiot" whose campaign slogan was "Everything is Crappy", Taylor was also documenting his campaign as part of a documentary he called "Run Some Idiot".

The surprising thing is that most of the media panel seem to recognize Taylor and treat him seriously, unlike some of the other candidates. Taylor also comes off as the most credible candidate, despite the frizzy hair and song and dance routine. After re-watching 15 years later, I think I would consider voting for the guy.

Because like in 2000, everything is still crappy.

Protesting Presidents and Attributing Tweets

On Monday, Jan 20th, a candidate for Florida's 68th Congressional Seat got himself in a bit of hot water. According to many media reports, candidate Joshua Black, a taxi driver from Pinellas County, Florida, called for President Obama to be impeached and hung.

"I'm past impeachment," Joshua Black wrote on Twitter. "It's time to arrest and hang him high." - Tampa Bay Times

A Republican candidate for the Florida House is calling for the arrest and execution by hanging of President Barack Obama for treason — but only after a trial. - TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com

Joshua Black, candidate for House District 68, made the comment in a Tweet Monday saying he was “past impeachment” and that “It’s time to arrest and hang him high.” - CBS Miami

Joshua Black, who’s running as a Republican for the 68th legislative district, Tweeted on Martin Luther King Day that Obama should be arrested and then “hang him high.” - ColorLines.com

Monday, he tweeted: - ThinkProgress.org

A Republican candidate for the Florida House of Representatives District 68 seat, Black tweeted, "I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high." The comment gained national attention after being brought to light in a Tampa Bay Times political blog. - BayNews9 (Tampa)

The problem with all these media articles is that Black DID NOT actually tweet that.

Here is the tweet in question:

"@civilwarcometh: @BrandonMArms @RedNationRising I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high. commieblaster.com" Agreed

— Joshua Black 2014 (@JoshuaBlack2014) January 20, 2014

Notice the quotation marks before @civilwarcometh and after commieblaster.com. That means the tweet was a quote. All Black added was "Agreed."

Here is the original tweet from @civilwarcometh:

@BrandonMArms @RedNationRising I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high. commieblaster.com

— stephen abner (@civilwarcometh) January 20, 2014

Black quoted this tweet in his own. Some publications did observe the difference and cite properly.

The remark that launched a thousand tweets came when Florida state representative candidate Joshua Black simply agreed with a comment from another user. - TheDailySheeple.com

When one of Black's followers tweeted, "I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high," Black simply wrote back: "agreed."- Complex.com

He tweeted in agreement with a fellow Twitter user (Stephen Abner) who called for the U.S. president to be executed. - Canoe.ca

Black's official campaign Twitter got behind a plan by one of his followers yesterday: - Gawker.com

Black didn't do himself any favors by re-writing the above tweet in his own Facebook post, confirming he believes in the idea. But again, my point is not to defend him. My point to show that many media members are still unsure how to properly cite Twitter.

This ambiguity is why many people and organizations attempt to put distance between Tweets they type and their quotes and re-tweets. Hence the common "RTs do not = endorsement" phrase in Twitter profiles.

Let me make this clear one more time: I do not agree with Joshua Black. Not one iota. However, I do think many media outlets attributed something to him that he didn't write, although it seems he has no problem claiming credit for it.

Stay tuned next week when I quote the Gettysburg Address on twitter. Feel free to say I wrote it!

Thoughts on Guns and Government Part 2

Since gun control is still in the news, I am again going to drop some of my ideas and theories on the subject here. Feel free to respond.

In science, Newton’s Law says Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It is only transferred from potential to kinetic and back.

I believe the same theory holds with the psychological measurement of Power. Power is in every relationship we have. Bosses have power over employees, friends share power, married couples may share power depending on the culture, slave owners have power over slaves, parents have power over children, etc, etc. Every relationship is a balance of power in some way, shape, or form.

In a positive relationship, power is agreed upon. In a bad relationship, power is disputed.

This goes for individuals, tribes, governments, and even nation states.

In a global community, a nation can only be as powerful as other nations let it. Unless it is the top nation, then no nation can stop it.

Likewise, a government can only be as powerful as its citizens let it. If the people revolt, either they will overthrow the government, die as martyrs, or accept the power of the government. The American constitution was written to ensure the central government cannot have more power than the people. It was spawned from the rejection of a powerful kingdom. Checks and balances were placed in the American Constitution so no body of government could be more powerful than any other.

The US Constitution is a miraculous document. Nowhere in its pages allowed for unchecked power.

With that in mind, let’s look at Power. To many, violence equals power, weapons equal power, and guns equal power.

A chief may hold the sole rifle in a tribe. A nation with more nukes is considered more powerful. Some nations such as Iran aspire to have nukes to raise their power profile in their region.

This is why we have arms races and huge defense budgets.

Someone with a gun is considered more powerful than someone without, especially among the masses.

Consider this:

In 1999, Amoundo Diallo was shot 41 times by New York City cops.

In 2006, Sean Bell and friends were shot 50 times by cops.

In 2012, US Army SSG Robert Bales went into an Afghan village and shot 16 people, including nine children.

These are all examples of the powerful misusing their tools of power on the powerless.

In none of these cases was the ability to bear arms questioned or repealed in any way.

Going back to the national level, over the last 100 years American military, police, and government power has grown unchecked. In the 19^th century, military forces belonged to the state. After the Civil War, soldiers and sailors were organized into a true national military able to project force worldwide. America vastly changed its socio-military culture.

America now has the largest military in the world by far. There is no way any organized military can defeat it. There is also no way any group of citizens or revolutionaries can defeat it either. In its current state, America will probably only collapse under its own weight – budget collapses, etc. That is what happens to all empires.

However, we also have a volunteer military. If revolution were to happen in America, which way would they go? State pride is much lower than it was during the days of Robert E. Lee, so few would leave because of love of state or region, such as the South or Virginia. Would American soldiers turn their arms on American citizens? Or would they lay down their arms and join the proletariat as Russian soldiers did during the Russian Revolution when they failed to get paid or equipped? And what would happen to the nation’s weapon systems if the volunteer force quit?

With all this in mind, in the wake of massacres done by mentally unstable people in America, lawmakers (those with power) are discussing ways to disarm the populace further tipping the balance of power away from the citizens.

Maybe I have listened to too much Public Enemy but I worry about a nation that grants its government unchecked power. I worry about a nation that has far more firepower than its citizens. What if a better form of government was thought up, say as Marx did for Russia or Jefferson did for America? Could we ever uproot our form of government and enact another?

That would take a lot of power.

By the way, I once wrote an article claiming that people who were anti-gun should be for the Iraq war because our premise was that we disarming Saddam Hussein and removing the threat of weapons of mass destruction. We were exercising global weapons control. I also wrote that pro-gun people should be for Saddam having weapons equal to his neighbors, after all, an armed society is a polite society, or something like that.

Unfortunately, as it was counter the real-life opinions on the war, few understood it.

Afghanistan and the American Right Wing View on Media

Living and working in Afghanistan provides for some interesting experiences. None perhaps are more interesting than the conversations you can have with people from all over the world. And among those, some of the more interesting are with some of my fellow Americans.

As could be expected, most of the people working with the military in Afghanistan lean to the conservative side politically. They talk about things like “the left-wing media” and say things like “if you are under 30 and conservative, you have no heart. If you are over 50 and liberal, you have no brain.”

These statements are others of their ilk are not only ignorant, they are completely hypocritical considering the current problems of Afghanistan. These people need to poke their heads out of their myopic little holes, see the greater world around them, and stop making mountains out of what they believe are American problems.

For whatever reason, conservatives believe the “media” is an anti-military, anti-American, Communist machine. Besides the painfully ignorant fact that they only define “media” as cable television, they fail to appreciate the ability of people in America to write, say, or broadcast what they want. Americans are not jailed, beaten, or killed for blogs, videos, or tweets as they are under oppressive regimes. Many conservatives are too busy complaining and bitching about the problems they believe are with a small segment of the America media to acknowledge that American problems are not truly problems.

In Afghanistan, there is no freedom of press. If the Taliban doesn’t like what you write, they kill you. There are few Afghan media voices here documenting corruption, writing about the atrocities of the Taliban, or even telling the stories of everyday Afghans. Most of the press here is international. Few Afghans have running water, no less the ability to go online and blog, tweet, or create a youtube video. There is little press, no less conservative or liberal leaning.

There is an index called the Press Freedom Index put out annually by Reporters Without Borders. In its latest release, America was ranked 47th. Meanwhile, Afghanistan is currently ranked 150th. Syria is ranked 176th, China is ranked 174th, and Saudi Arabia is ranked 141st. What does that tell you about the Afghan freedom of press?

So before American conservatives can talk about what cable station is liberal and why it is un-American for its Globalist outlook, they should talk about the freedom of Afghans to say or broadcast what they want. They should help build successful media networks here instead of complaining about what they think is a problem back home.

Americans should be all about freedom, right?

Review of Dan Drezner's Theories of International Politics and Zombies

I usually don't buy or read books immediately after they come out. Especially when it comes to political texts. I'm more likely to read literature from the Cold War or some other conflict when I can use the perspective of hindsight than to engage something rife with modern opinions and recent theory. I had to make an exception however with Dan Drezner's Theories of International Politics and Zombies.

This book is too important to sit on my shelf for years. I had to read it as soon as possible.

A few disclaimers:

1) Theories of International Politics and Zombies is written for academics, students, or practitioners of international politics.  Although Drezner provides background on the different theories of international politics, enjoyment of the book is most likely proportional to knowledge on the subject. Being that I have never worked in the international field, Drezner used a lot of terms that I haven't seen since grad school.

2) I am a Dan Drezner fan. I've read his blog since 2007, at first when it was on his own site, and then I followed when he went to the Foreign Policy web site. If I thought international theory study could be lucrative and working in the field could provide a retirement to beaches of senoritas and margaritas, there are few professors I would want to study under more.

3) I am not much of a zombie fan. I think their utility in film is vastly overrated. They have zero personality and are the crutch of far too many uncreative filmmakers.

Now that I have that out of the way, Theories of International Politics and Zombies was very enjoyable. Drezner uses the simpleness of zombies as the constant against various political theories. He writes about how responses based on realism, liberalism, American neoconservatism, and constructivism could be used to counter an emerging zombie threat. He also writes about how domestic politics and American bureaucracy could both help and hinder anti-zombie efforts.

At only 120 pages of text, Drezner only tears the flesh of large-scale anti-zombie processes. As I was reading, I thought of a few measures he doesn't cover. One is the idea that a stronger nation could possibly attempt to herd zombies and utilize them as a un-living border patrol. Allowing autonomy to a group in exchange for providing a buffer between a nation and what they perceive as problematic neighbor has been done at various times in history. Imagine a five mile swath between the US and Mexico populated by thousands of zombies. Although there would be a huge initial investment, while US military forces monitored the fence and the zombies (who I doubt would complain about persistent monitoring), this borderland would provide an increased deterrent against illegal immigration.

In his domestic chapter, Drezner fails to mention what I believe is one of the most important laws in America: Posse Comitatus - the limiting of military forces in domestic law enforcement. Since the United States lacks the uniform citizen military ideal seen in Israel or Kurdistan, there is no way private arms, local police, or even the National Guard could coordinate enough force to counter a zombie threat. Posse Comitatus would have to be suspended and that would lead to a major political dispute in at the national level. I would have liked to seen Drezner at least mention this issue.

Another important point I think Drezner missed is the politics of resources. Sometimes even a powerful nation should logically use a capability created by another nation to fight a threat, but they don't due to politics and the impression of strength - even if it costs the stronger nation money and casualties. One of example of this scenario is the Russian fire fighting plane Ilyushin Il-76 which sat on runways while fires burned in Asia, Africa, and South America.  Drezner mentions the need to create international organizations that would work to migrate a zombie catastrophe, but he doesn't mention how difficult it would be for these organizations to sequester the necessary capabilities.

As I mentioned, Theories of International Politics and Zombies is a quick read, but it is well-written, fun to read, and I think it is the precursor of an army of undead academic-themed literature that will soon swarm bookstores everywhere.

By The Time I Get To Tucson

Breaking from the funny for a brief editorial on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I'll resume the lighthearted posts tomorrow.

By The Time I Get To Tucson:

At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized - at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do - it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds. - President Obama, January 2011

This Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I can almost guarantee hip-hop fans, civil rights advocates, and people who believe in fighting the power will be viewing, linking, liking, or sharing Public Enemy's hip-hop masterpiece "By The Time I Get To Arizona". In the wake of the attempted assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords, I say watching PE this year is the wrong answer.

The American media has spent the last week preaching the need to increase civil discourse. Analysts of all ideologies have proclaimed that we must stop the yelling and try to talk out our issues. Arguing and belligerence is not the answer, and neither is violence.

The first reaction after Rep. Gifford's attempted assassination was to blame Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, and the rest of the right-wing media for the actions of Jared Loughner. Right-wing phrases such as "re-load" and "2nd Amendment solutions" made Palin and her ilk the target of intense national discussion. Whether or not Loughner was influenced by these phrases was irrelevant, but the fact that there could have been linkages was the point of debate. Yet those same violent innuendos permeate the video for "By the Time I Get To Arizona". Within the first minute, we see Public Enemy frontman Chuck D leading a posse of people carrying M-16s, practicing karate, and shooting in a gun range. Even Chuck D's lyrics advocate violence as a political solution.

Until we get some land
Call me the trigger man
Looki lookin' for the governor
Huh he ain't lovin' ya

.

.

The cracker over there
He try to keep it yesteryear
The good ol' days
The same ol' ways
That kept us dyin'
Yes, you me myself and I'ndeed
What he need is a nosebleed

Of course, supporters say "By The Time I Get To Arizona" is political art, not unlike Ice-T's "Cop Killer". It tells the story of a person fed up with being disrespected because of his or her skin color and their desire to see the sacrifices of their heroes acknowledged in by the Government of Arizona. I completely understand that, and the freedom to create art - no matter how it could be interpreted - should never be infringed.

However, celebrating Chuck D's message, especially in light of what happened in Tucson last week, is not the way to go. If "rap is the black CNN", as Chuck D once said, then "By The Time I Get to Arizona" is The Glenn Beck Show. For the impressionable, Chuck D's lyrics and images are no different than the words of any political shill who drums up ratings by spouting off controversy. Repeated daily in a medium that promotes itself as a provider of news and educated opinion, these words are not art, they are calls to action. And unfortunately action words - those of anger and emotion - sell more commercials than voices preaching calm and discourse.

(Of course, rap voices are persecuted more frequently in the media than other form of communication, as Davey D of AllHipHop.com writes in this post. Although back in the day, music was how the black community communicated it's message of frustration - through rap, blues, or spoken word poetry.)

Just because the song's subject matter is about Martin Luther King, Jr. does not mean it should be played every MLK Day. It's meaning was important and relevant when it was released in 1991, and it should be remembered and respected as a voice of dissent during a very difficult time, but today, in the words of President Obama:

"let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together."

Let's leave a farewell letter on the door in Arizona and move on to higher ground.

(Interesting note: The classic country song "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" starts with the image of a man leaving a note on the door of his lover. Martin Luther posted the "Ninety-Five Theses" on the door of the All Saints' Church in Wittenburg, Germany, beginning the Protestant Reformation in 1517.)

Florida College Football and the Age of Empires

(Originally posted on ScalpEm.com)

On the morning of the first big weekend in college football, I figured I would make my triumphant return with an idea that has been marinating in my head for the last few months. This probably should have been written sooner, but I had to make sure my research was correct.

Before the season, I was thinking about how important this season is in the annals of Florida college football history.

Being an international affairs major and a bit of a history aficionado, this season reminds me of a very interesting point in 20^th Century world history. Feel free to disagree, but I think the 2010-11 State of Florida college football season is very similar to post-World War I geopolitics. Now this may be the craziest thing you have ever heard, so let me explain:

Prior to World War I, empires still controlled much of the global geopolitical scene. During and immediately following WWI, the three of the biggest of these – the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the German Empire (a fourth being the Austrian Empire) – were still relevant and had much sway on the discourse of nations.  Entering the discussion, but not yet in the class of “Empire”, was a small upstart power called the United States.

For many years, the Florida college football season was likewise dominated by three major players. Like the post-World War I empires, the Florida Empires each face different challenges as they enter the second decade of a new century. And as they confront their own internal identity issues, a new power is slowing emerging, growing every year in strength and confidence.

In matching empires to Florida college football powers, one of the easiest connections to make is that of Florida State to the Ottoman Empire. From 1299 to 1922, the Ottoman Empire covered a vast stretch of land spanning from Algeria to Iraq, Hungary to Ethiopia. During that time, the empire was ruled by a Sultan, who doubled as the Islamic Caliphate, or religious leader. Although power was dispersed, the sultan was still the “supreme monarch”.

Kinda like Bobby Bowden.

Continuing the analogy, during the final few hundred years of its existence, the Ottoman Empire was in a state of stagnation, again not unlike Florida State during the 2000s. Although many believe a portion of the Middle East is still suffering from this malaise, the nation of Turkey recovered from the destruction of the empire thanks in part to new leadership and a new national philosophy. Whether or not new head coach Jimbo Fisher can guide the Noles back up after the plodding rule of Sultan Bobby I has yet to be seen.

The second empire analogy is the University of Miami to the German Empire. Here the comparison is more valid in the years following World War I, when Germany was stripped of many of its national privileges, including the ability to build a military-industrial complex. They also could not export or import at the rate they did prior to the war. Eventually, they looked inward, to a leader who invoked the brightest confidence in glory days gone by. A man who, despite his evilness, promoted an increase in German pride.

Please note, I am not comparing Randy Shannon to Adolf Hitler, AT ALL. However, the hiring of Shannon and the emphasis on his pro-Miami background was done to return a sense of pride in the Hurricane players. The idea that the name “Hurricanes” means something once again to the players is what is important. Team pride is on the rise in Miami thanks to Shannon and slowly they are rebuilding the war machine in an attempt to establish a new Reich.

Unlike the German Empire, which would rebuild and rise from the ashes of WWI and aspire for world domination a generation later, the British Empire was all but deflated after the First World War. According to the Almighty, All-Knowing Wikipedia, World War I crippled the British psychologically more so than physically. Will the University of Florida face a similar fate? Will the years of domination and competition combined with the loss of their most esteemed athlete ever cause UF to slip from the ranks of the elite? It is very possible that the UF fanbase could fall off the immense high they have been on for the last four years and end up like the bored and disinterested Red Sox Nation.

Besides an effect on their national standing, British prestige also took a hit after the Great War. Slowly those who saw allying with the British as the only way to go began to reconsider their options. This phenomenon is not unlike the most recent recruiting class, particularly the decision of highly touted running back James Wilder to attend FSU over UF among others.

Last, but definitely not least, is the University of South Florida. Not considered a major power until recently, USF’s rise to relevancy is similar to that of the United States. An outsider in global geopolitics immediately after the war, the US found itself on level ground with the Empires after the war due to circumstances and opportunity.

Unfortunately however, the United States withdrew from discussion and practiced isolationism for several years until the Great Depression and the Second World War thrust them back in the spotlight. Unless USF loads up their schedule with powder puff cupcakes and focuses only on the Big East, I do not see them taking an isolationist route. Only time will tell if their strategy of taking on the old empires head-on is a wise one, but I think new Head Coach Skip Holtz will carry the tradition of his predecessor and heritage and continue the stampede.

Of course, there have been many other changes throughout college football leading into this season. In the past few months, the headlines have proclaimed tales of new alliances, scandals, reloading, and rebuilding. Across the nation, programs have flexed their muscles (Texas), and had their muscles taken away (USC). But nowhere is the presence of change more prominent than in Florida. And now, as each major program in the state faces its first huge challenge of the year, fans can only watch as a new era of college football in Florida begins.

Fear and Racism in Tampa

Last week, Dontae Rashawn Morris was arrested by the Tampa Police Department, suspected of killing two Tampa police officers the week prior. For nearly a week, the Tampa PD conducted the largest manhunt in city history in an attempt to find Morris. From the reports I read, TPD interviewed his family, his friends, his associates, and many other people who knew him or even knew of him.

However, buried in one of the articles on Morris's capture was a little segment that made me worried.

According to the St. Pete Times,

Meanwhile, in the sprawling Kenneth Court apartment complex that Morris used to frequent, the police remained a constant presence through Friday.

"We all feel like prisoners, like we are being held hostage," said Sherell Mitchell, 24. Seven months pregnant, she was seething about the hours she spent Wednesday afternoon with her two young children, locked out by a police barricade. "They said, 'No one's getting in and no one's getting out.' "

Told of residents' complaints, McElroy said, "it's certainly not our intention to inconvenience or harass the people of this neighborhood."

Notice there was no actual reporting there. Just claims. I'm not sure if the St. Pete Times actually did any investigation or merely put the quotes in to raise eyebrows. But the fact remains, did the cops inconvenience people as they searched for Morris? Personally, I don't know. I don't live in that part of town, nor was I anywhere near during the situation.

If these claims are true, it does open up the possibility of worsening public relations between the people of Morris's community and the Tampa Police Department. There was no doubt Morris needed to be caught. He was public enemy number one. But I hope following the investigation, there was some motion to assuage relations between his community and the authorities.

Something tells me this wasn't and isn't the case.

The picture in this post is from an organization named the Black Peoples Advancement and Defense Organization (BPADO). According to their web site, BPADO's mission is:

The mission of the Black Peoples Advancement & Defense Organization is to: protect and defend poor people, in Hillsborough County and the City Of Tampa, from every aggression of The State, great or small, intentional or accidental, by any means necessary, and educate, organize and mobilize people, in Hillsborough County and the City Of Tampa, in a way that will enable us to control our tax dollars, as well as the government officials responsible for those dollars, and make them work for our greater good, instead of our oppression.

I know Tampa has struggled in the issue of race. Few southern cities haven't. In the four years I have lived in the area, I have noticed the city celebrates it's pseudo-pirate culture and it's legitimate Spanish culture far more than it does any other. It seems the African-American community has struggled here as much as they have in many other places in the south. The Wikipedia article on Tampa Riots, for example, is full of stories of people lashing out against authority, to include a 1987 riot after the police who arrested then-New York  Met pitcher Dwight Gooden were cleared of racist charges.

Has there been overreaction by African-American community leaders nationwide to perceived incidences of racism? I would say so. Jesse Jackson's involvement in the LeBron James saga is a perfect example.

Have there been incidences where public movements have been essential to garner the fair treatment of people? Absolutely. That is the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr..

Although Dontae Morris is innocent until he gets his day in court, he didn't come from the best part of town. His neck of the woods was where drugs and crime are higher than average in Tampa. However, security through citizen manipulation is not the answer, nor can it be allowed to be the perception. My hope is that somewhere between extreme action (or the perception thereof) and extreme reaction (or the threat thereof) there are people in the different communities of Tampa who can work with each other and build bridges of cooperation.

If not, we will continue to see reactive organizations such as BPADO emerge.