samoyeddogs

I’ve been finishing up The Afterlife of Malcolm X published last year.. I’ve been reading all of it all the way through. I’ve retained interest in Malcolm X. My interest originated from TV news items of the day in the long ago when I was starting out as an infant.

It’s true he was portrayed as and the implication was that Malcolm X was a radical, which he was, but also a dangerous radical because how could a black guy demanding, not asking for, but demanding something from white people as ridiculous as decency, respect and equality not be dangerous?

I was scared myself of what he seemed to represent as I rattled the bars of my crib. Black guy not going to take any crap. Dangerous. But Malcolm X also had a quality. He had the mystery of charisma and speaking forcefully and uncompromisingly. He was a preacher but he never preached violence. He wasn’t a violent man. His violent end just six weeks after seeing his segment on the ancient half hour Tuesday nights at 7:30 “Front Page Challenge” just before my last bottle and nighty-nights shocked me. And I’ve never forgotten who this Malcolm X guy was because even as a baby I was interested in all things American. America came from the TV and to my little mind had to be the best place in the world because it had “The Flintstones” and Disneyland and cute scary black guys like Malcolm X.

One day in the long ago seven black guys were hassled then shot at by Los Angeles Police Department members outside a mosque. One black guy died. Malcolm X didn’t like the cut of that cloth and had something quite forceful to say about it.

At the time he was high in the Nation of Islam hierarchy. This was before his break from the nation and its leader “the honourable Elijah Muhammad.” Turned out Elijah Muhammad wasn’t so honourable. He was a serial sexual predator. Malcolm X thought that was a bad look for the NOI and did the exposing of Elijah Muhammad then left the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X had converted to Islam while in prison.

“In order for you and me to devise some kind of method or strategy to offset some of the events or repetition of events that have taken place here in Los Angeles recently we have to go to the root. We have to go to the cause. Dealing with the condition itself is not enough and it is because our effort getting straight to the root that people oftentimes think we are dealing in hate. We are oppressed. We are exploited. We are downtrodden. We are denied not only civil rights but even human rights so the only way we are going to get some of this oppression and exploitation away from us or aside from us is to come together against the common enemy. 

“Who taught you to hate the texture of your hair? Who taught you to hate the colour of your skin to such an extent that you bleach to get like the white man? Who taught you to hate the shape of your nose, and the shape of your lips? Who taught you to hate yourself from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? Who taught you to hate your own kind? Who taught you to hate the race that you belong to so much so that you don’t want to be around each other? No, before you come asking for Mr. Muhammad does he teach you hate you should ask yourself who taught you to hate being what God gave you? And I for one as a Muslim believe that the white man is intelligent enough, if he were made to realize how black people really feel and how fed up we are and without all that compromising sweet talk. Stop sweet-talking. Tell him how you feel, tell him how what kind of hell you’ve been catching and let him know that if he’s not ready to clean his house up, if he’s not ready to clean his house up he shouldn’t have a house. It should catch on fire and burn down.”

They shot him, February 1965.. And in a place called the Audubon Ballroom. How could it be that the bird book guy Audubon had a so-called ballroom in Harlem, New York City where people went and got shot? Crazy talk. Malcolm X was thirty-nine when he was murdered.

Mark Whitaker has written a big book. Three black guys went to long term prison for the crime of murder in the first degree.. Two of them took no part in Malcolm X’s murder and the other one knew it and knew who fired the fatal shot, but said nothing. I was glad to hear the two innocent guys were exonerated even if it was a lifetime later and one of them was already dead.

The guy who did the shotgun blast lived openly across the Hudson River from New York in a town in the state of New Jersey until he packed it decades later when he was in his seventies. Somehow, it was important for me to at last know all this. The shotgun guy had once been what in the U.S. military used to be called and may still be a Green Beret and supposedly was a well respected member of his local community. I should hope so after what he did. But he never faced justice.

Elijah Muhammad and all the other stuff about Malcolm X and his falling out with the Nation and how it led to his demise and his time generally is here and well worth a look.

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Trump is the magician who has unleashed the evil genius of America. Look out for ICE. I don’t even know what that acronym means. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” There, fixed it for me. Ice is coming to get you. Trumpler’s America. I thought we killed this off, but no, it’s back. It’s quite a distinction. The absolute worst kind of person infecting large numbers of people with the absolute worst kind of person virus. It’s historic.

I’d be worried myself if I went down to America and I haven’t done anything wrong. Doesn’t matter. Those days are gone. But I’d probably be fine. My skin is lily white. I’m white I’m all right.

I’ve never thought of myself as white. I had to go look at myself. In a way America would be a fascinating place to visit right now. What’s that like?

I’m sure it’s fine. Trump is laughing at you. So everything is wonderful. There’s also this:

A word says a thousand pictures. Bob and Pete. A couple of great guys. That’s the message. The ugliest guy in America, arms akimbo, standing tall with Heggsy at the exclusive Guys Who Can’t Go Anywhere Else gym in DC close to the federal district. The new America. Going to the gym is important for regular guys like us. We come here regularly and that’s what’s important for America and that’s what’s important for you. And I might add:

And getting a bit tubby talking to the press. It’s that rich fascist food. And he won’t be outdone. And another thing. He can have you disappeared but he’s not like that. I’m just a bald regular guy. While Kennedy is the ugliest man in America and Hegseth is drunk on God, his idea of protection from the truth, Stephen works incredibly hard and can even disappear those guys if he wants. Pretty sure he thinks so. Who the devil knows? Now this:

He caught the wrong boat. Who hasn’t done that? I wonder if he’s read Present at the Creation. Dean Acheson. Doubt it. Probably. Little Marco is making the best of it but seems troubled. He the man.

El Presidente isn’t going to be around a long time. The brother looks tired, bagged. He’s the oldest evil comedian America’s ever seen. It’s genius. Megalomania doesn’t begin to describe it. He’s very weak. I hope he’ll be all right. That’s not true.

It’s disturbing and fascinating. It’s hard to believe it won’t blow up. This terrible weakness. It’s unAmerican isn’t it? I’ve heard quite sufficient from these guys. Moving on. Anywhere else will do. Sick to death with these crazy Americans.

Seven of these things were on the mission, as these things are called. A source tells me this is a third of all the B-2s there are in the, what is it? Oh yeah. Arsenal. In the arsenal. Well that’s just fine. They havn’t replaced the beloved B-1B but they’re going to, apparently, eventually. I told you about the B-1, the Bone, that flew low above me that time, right? it was a few years ago. The telling and the event even further back. My accounting prof was right. it can get confusing.

It’s not remarkable that these airplanes went and bombed targets in Iran. Half of them or something created a diversion so they could really sneak up and it’s been hailed as a great, world-conquering success. What’s totally remarkable is the author of this bombing run, Don, brought in the almighty at the end of his little address to the people of that make great again nation.

“And I want to just thank everybody. And, in particular, God. I want to just say, we love you, God, and we love our great military. Protect them. God bless the Middle East. God bless Israel and God bless America. Thank you very much. Thank you.”

I nearly choked on my stew. God in particular gets thanked. Sweet man. Picks God out of the crowd and thanks God personally. I do believe God is great again. It’s heartwarming. I think the thing is it’s a Republican president and they usually have the gift of unintelligibility to a more refined degree, at least since I’ve been around, than the Dems. I can see that for some people that’s a big plus which can be the only explanation for why Republicans keep turning up as president. It’s a recurring problem, or not. Point of view. I’m staying out of it.

And this bunch of Repubs close almost all their little speeches and harangues with religious BS. Don’s announcement the other night with Little Marco, Booze Hegseth, and J.D. Entrance. I mean Vance. But he is entrancing. Have you looked at him? I’ve never seen a guy whose eyes are so close together. And all that facial hair hiding his cute little chubby cheeks. The worst thing is these clowns have no sense of humour. And the religious hokum.  Stay far away. if only it weren’t impossible.

Has Heggsie ever smiled in his little life? Everybody thinks he’s a dope and he certainly knows it and that, yeah, I am, I’m a dope, and that can be hard on a man. I’m sure of it. I understand. They all need a hug and there’s no doubt legions of counsellors who would be happy to help or try to, but it’s hopeless.

Heg’s. The statement this is not an act of war. That’s what’s funny. Messing up a lot of quite expensive stuff and ridding the world of quite a number of human beings with your magic machines from America, right, that’s a friendly act.