Thursday Morning Breakfast For The Brain

Good morning Deplorables, tired of the violent temper tantrums yet?

Black Lives Matter: Marxist Hate Dressed Up As Racial Justice

What’s in a Name?

During the run-up to the war in Iraq in early 2003, a coalition named United for Peace & Justice (UPJ) played a central role in organizing most of the major anti-war demonstrations across the United States. The coalition’s name was deliberately crafted to evoke positive associations in the hearts of the American people. After all, who could possibly oppose such lofty virtues as “peace” or “justice”?

But United for Peace & Justice’s actual purpose had very little to do with either of those virtues. At its core, it was a hate-America coalition that sought to save the regime of one of the monsters of the 20th century, Saddam Hussein, using slogans that relentlessly accused the U.S. of pursuing a “policy of permanent warfare and empire-building” around the world.

The co-chair and principal leader of UPJ was Leslie Cagan, a longtime Communist Party member and a national leader of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy & Socialism, a self-identified Marxist entity seeking to bring “a 21st Century socialism” to America. In the Sixties, Cagan was an enthusiastic supporter of the Black Panther Party, a gang that waged armed warfare against the police and engaged in criminality that included drug dealing, pimping, rape, extortion, assault, arson and murder.

Cagan was also a strong supporter of the Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, whose nation she described as “not an abstract idea of socialism or revolution,” but as a society whose principal hallmark was a type of “humane interaction among people” that she “had never witnessed” in the United States. And she supported the 2002-03 “Not In Our Name” initiative, a project of the Revolutionary Communist Party that seeks to achieve a Communist America by means of a “revolutionary war”—complete with “great bloodshed and destruction”—waged “right within the belly of this most powerful imperialist beast.”

Obviously, the promotion of “peace and justice” could scarcely be described as the true, animating objective of Ms. Cagan and her UPJ coalition.

More recently, another prominent, enormously influential movement—which just happens to be backed by this same Leslie Cagan—has similarly adopted a benign sounding name that resonates quite naturally with people of good will. But that name—Black Lives Matter—deceptively conceals a radical, racist, and horrifically destructive agenda.

An Openly and Proudly Marxist Movement

When BLM was established in 2013, its stated objective was to galvanize a protest movement in response to the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman, a so-called “white Hispanic” man who was tried for murder and manslaughter after he had shot and killed a black Florida teenager named Trayvon Martin in a highly publicized 2012 altercation. Before long, “Black Lives Matter” became a rallying cry for writers, public speakers, celebrities, demonstrators, and even rioters, who took up the cause of demanding an end to what BLM terms the “virulent anti-Black racism” that “permeates our society.”

BLM gained additional prominence following a white police officer’s fatal shooting of an 18-year-old black man named Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014. Brown’s death, which occurred while he fought with the officer just minutes after having robbed a local convenience store, set off a massive wave of protests and riots that grew into a national movement denouncing an alleged epidemic of police brutality against African Americans.

But BLM’s larger objective went far beyond matters of interracial violence and police misconduct. Its overarching mission was to thoroughly discredit the United States as a detestable and irredeemable nation where black people are “collectively” subjected to “inhumane conditions” in a “white supremacist system” that was originally “built on Indigenous genocide and chattel slavery.” Dedicated to advancing this theme were BLM’s founders, three hardcore Marxist black women. One of them was Alicia Garza, a self-described “queer” social-justice activist who reveres the Marxist revolutionary, former Black Panther, convicted cop-killer, and longtime fugitive Assata Shakur for her contributions to the “Black Liberation Movement.” Garza is likewise a great admirer of such luminaries as Angela Davis (another revolutionary Marxist and former Black Panther) and the late Audre Lorde (a black socialist lesbian feminist).

Another of BLM’s three founders was Patrisse Cullors, who in 2015 openly acknowledged BLM’s subversive objectives, proclaiming on video: “We actually do have an ideological frame. Myself and Alicia [Garza] in particular, we’re trained organizers. We are trained Marxists. We are super versed on ideological theories.” In the same video, Cullors revealed that for more than a decade she had been a protégé of Eric Mann, who in the 1960s and ’70s was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society and the Weather Underground. Both organizations aspired to topple U.S. democratic institutions by means of violent revolution, remake the nation’s government in a Marxist image, and promote America’s military defeat in Vietnam.

BLM’s third founder was Opal Tometi, who asserts that “the racist structures that have long oppressed Black people” in the U.S. have perpetuated a “cycle of oppression” and a permanent climate of “anti-Black racism.” In 2015, Tometi attended a “People of African Descent Leadership Summit” in Harlem, New York, where she had a warm meeting and photo-op with Venezuela’s Marxist dictator, Nicolas Maduro. During a speech which she delivered at that Summit, Tometi thanked Maduro and his government for having given her an opportunity to speak there. She also used the occasion to condemn “Western economic policies, land grabs, and neocolonial financial instruments like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.” The following year, Tometi praised the Bolivarian Revolution by which Venezuela’s previous Marxist dictator, the late Hugo Chavez—whose policies transformed Venezuela from South America’s wealthiest nation into an economic basket case—had initially come to power.

BLM’s pro-Marxist orientation was articulated with great passion at a BLM protest in July 2016, when Cornell University professor Russell Rickford declared: “We’ve got to build a grassroots, antiracist movement to defeat capitalism altogether, and it’s not going to happen at the ballot box. There can be no human system under capitalism. Capitalism is an anti-human system.”

With chapters in 14 separate U.S. cities and 3 Canadian cities, BLM is closely allied with numerous groups that are fronts for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), a Marxist-Leninist entity that advocates the overthrow of capitalism. In an article for Accuracy In Media, economist and investigative journalist James Simpson has identified some of these FRSO front groups with BLM ties. They include the National Domestic Workers Alliance; People Organized to Win Employment Rights; the Right to the City Alliance; the School of Unity and Liberation; the Advancement Project; the Movement Strategy Center; Dignity and Power Now; the Black Left Unity Network; Black Workers for Justice; the Grassroots Global Justice Alliance; Causa Justa/Just Cause; Hands Up United; Intelligent Mischief; the Organization for Black Struggle; the Revolutionary Student Coordinating Committee; Showing Up for Racial Justice; Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education; and the Labor/Community Strategy Center (headed by former Weather Underground leader Eric Mann).

As evidenced by these numerous links between FRSO and BLM, Black Lives Matter is in essence, as James Simpson puts it, “one of many projects undertaken by the FRSO.” All three of BLM’s co-founders have been employed by, or affiliated with, one or more of FRSO’s aforementioned front groups at various times.

At all of BLM’s public events, demonstrators invoke the words that their “beloved” heroine, Assata Shakur, once wrote in a letter titled “To My People.” Those words are: “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love each other and support each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains.” (The fourth line was drawn from the Communist Manifesto of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.) In Shakur’s original letter, she described herself as a “Black revolutionary” who had “declared war” against “the rich who prosper on our poverty,” and against “all the mindless, heart-less robots” who served as police officers.

Read the entire article HERE.

Why Are They Capitalizing ‘Black’?

Via American Greatness

There is no “shared sense of history, identity, and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa.” Only left-wingers believe such nonsense.

A few months ago, I noticed that my published column spelled “black” “Black.” As I had submitted the column with “black” spelled with a lower case “b,” I contacted my editor to find out why what I had written was changed. She responded that the syndicate was following the Associated Press’ rules of style, a common practice in journalism and book writing.

On July 20, 2020, the AP published “Explaining AP style on Black and white,” in which it explained:

AP’s style is now to capitalize Black in a racial, ethnic or cultural sense, conveying an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa. The lowercase black is a color, not a person. AP style will continue to lowercase the term white in racial, ethnic and cultural senses.

The AP explanation is drivel.

There is no “shared sense of history, identity, and community among people who identify as Black, including those in the African diaspora and within Africa.”

Only left-wingers believe such nonsense. Not only is there no shared culture or sense of identity that unites blacks outside and inside Africa, but there is also no shared culture among blacks in Africa and none among blacks outside of Africa (“the African diaspora”). The only thing all blacks have in common is geographic origin (but since it is said that we all emanate from Africa, that means little) and color.

Historically, the only identity Africans shared with other Africans was a tribal identity. That is why (black) Hutus could perpetrate the most concentrated mass murder since the Holocaust against (black) Tutsis. That is why black Africans were indispensable to the transatlantic slave trade. Those who rounded up other Africans to sell to Europeans felt no moral obligation, let alone a “shared identity,” with the Africans they sold.

What does a black man raised in the Bronx have in common with a black man raised in Cameroon? The answer is: nothing. They have as little in common as a white man from the Bronx and a black man from Cameroon.

What does a Brazilian black man have in common with a black man from Chicago or a black man from Uganda? Nothing.

Does Senator Kamala Harris, the California daughter of a black and an (Asian) Indian, have more in common with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) or with a tribal chief in Togo? Or, for that matter, more in common with white Pelosi or black Candace Owens or black Larry Elder?

The AP decision, adopted by the New York Times and followed by the rest of the media herd, is based on lies. And, like the rest of the left’s race-based lies, it is pure pandering. It is another attempt to depict blacks as inherently different from nonblack human beings. That’s why the AP offered this explanation for why “white” should not be capitalized:

After a review and period of consultation, we found, at this time, less support for capitalizing white. White people generally do not share the same history and culture, or the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color. . . . capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to such beliefs.

The reason the AP offers for not capitalizing “white” is also based on a lie: “White people generally do not share the same history and culture.”

As it happens, white people “generally” share far more history and culture than do blacks. Whites come from Europe, and the vast majority of them have shared the Christian religion and the Bible. There is nothing analogous among the vast majority of blacks. Moreover, even today, in a post-Christian Europe, a Croatian and an Irishman have more in common than a Kenyan and a Congolese, let alone a black man from the Bronx.

Read the entire article HERE.

Popcorn farmers are sitting on mountains of unsold popcorn, in part due to closed movie theaters

Via Fox News

The popcorn market may have popped.

With movie theaters shut down, people are obviously eating less movie theater snacks. This has left the farmers who supply theaters (and other venues) with a massive surplus of unsold food.

Popcorn farmers who typically sell to movie theaters and other venues (bars, concert halls, sporting events, etc.) are struggling amid the pandemic, The Washington Post reports. For these farmers, the summer months usually mean big business. But this year, it’s a different story.

hile microwave popcorn brands have reportedly seen sales surge, many farmers who provide corn to theaters and other similar venues (typically in 50- to 100-pound bags) don’t have the equipment or infrastructure to switch their sales models.

One company, Preferred Popcorn, reportedly had to construct seven new silos in order to hold all of the unsold kernels.

The problem, unfortunately, is reportedly getting worse. The type of corn used for popcorn is usually harvested at the end of September. After being harvested, the kernels typically stay good for about a year. After that, they become too dry to pop, making them no good for popcorn.

Read the entire article HERE.

Costco yanks product after founder calls BLM a ‘terrorist’ group

Via WorldNetDaily

Palmetto Cheese owner accused of using ‘power and privilege’ to spread ‘hate’

Costco removed a popular pimento cheese brand from 120 of its stores after the owner called the Black Lives Matter movement a “terror organization” on his public Facebook, reported Today.com

Brian Henry, founder of Palmetto Cheese and mayor of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, was reacting to the murder of two local residents when he made the post Aug. 25.

“I am sickened by the senseless killings in Georgetown last night,” Henry wrote. “2 innocent people murdered. Not 2 thugs or people wanted on multiple warrants. 2 white people defenselessly gunned down by a black man. So why do we stand by and allow BLM to lawlessly destroy great American cities and threaten their citizens on a daily basis … this has gone on too long. Rise up America. This BLM and Antifa movement must be treated like the terror organizations they are.”

Screenshots of the now-deleted post circulated on social media, calling on customers to #BoycottPalmetto.

Today.com, citing the Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office, said Henry was referring to 23-year-old Ty Sheem Ha Sheem Walters III, who was arrested Aug. 24 for shooting three people and killing two.

The Post and Courier, which broke the Costco story, published a photo of a sign from the wholesale giant in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, that said the cheese was “discontinued” and would “not be re-ordered.”

Read the entire article HERE.

Fauci Renews Pandemic For Highly Anticipated Season 2

Via the Babylon Bee (Satire)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—At a press conference today, Dr. Anthony Fauci announced to all his loyal fans that the pandemic which took the world by storm in 2020 would be returning for a second season in 2021. According to sources, the decision to renew the dramatic event for yet another year came after intense negotiations between investors, Hollywood actors, and television networks.

“Next season’s pandemic will have twice the drama, twice the action, and twice the stakes!” said Fauci to a screaming crowd. “Wait until you hear what we have in store for you next season. You thought the mask thing was crazy? Well, get ready to wear masks on every opening in your body! Seriously, you ain’t seen nothing yet. It’s gonna be off the hook! In our second season, you will see further development of the characters you know and love, crazy and more disturbing mutations of the virus, and of course, the dashing and heroic central character- me!”

Inside sources confirmed that all 365 episodes of the pandemic will be carried on all networks and streaming services starting January 1st. Fans who purchase Bill Gates’ experimental vaccine will be treated to early access.

Other sources, however, say this is not completely set in stone. If Joe Biden wins the election in November, season 2 will likely be canceled.

Check out all of the Bee’s takes on politics and culture HERE.

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