Showing posts with label JFK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label JFK. Show all posts

Sunday, January 03, 2016

MLK, Malcolm X, And Assassinations



We know both were super closely watched by the intelligence agencies. Their every move was followed. Their associates were watched. Their phones were tapped. Not only the agencies micro watched, but they also intervened here and there at will. Like, fire that staffer of yours. As in, it was important for them to let MLK know he was being watched. That was psychological warfare designed to unnerve him, to perhaps break his will.

There is a reason why the right to privacy is a basic human right. The right to privacy is essential to a human being’s sense of self. Unless you have a probable cause that you are shadowing a criminal, in which case you get approval from a judge with an intent to persecute, you have no business shadowing a human being. The agencies violating MLK’s right to privacy was gross and racist. America’s heart stopped in the 60s because JFK, MLK, RFK all got killed. It was not assassination. It was heart attack. Why do conservative elements on the political spectrum have ready and entrenched allies in the state apparatus? The state is supposed to stay neutral.

If you violate a human being’s privacy enough, in the organized and thorough ways that an intelligence agency’s resources make possible, at some point they no longer feel like human beings. You could snuff their life and not even feel a thing. It is objectification of the highest order. It is kind of like, those who commit hate crimes first have to dehumanize their objects of interest. I am not sure if the MLK assassination was a hate crime or a genocide. A people’s dream got wiped out just like that. The world had to wait for a BHO. Those were long decades.

It is not hard to kill and not leave a trace. There is no proof. How hard is that to do? Most murders in America (and the world) go unsolved. And these are loner criminals doing the deed, or maybe some organized gangs. Intelligence agencies have way more resources than the mightiest cartels down south. See in the movies how it gets done. There is no trace. There is no way to find out.

I am not pointing fingers. I have no proof. But I am tempted to connect the dots. The intelligence agencies totally, thoroughly violating MLK’s right to privacy was gross beyond words can describe. He was never suspected of any crime, so why was he followed around like he ran a cell for the Al Qaeda? It is not like they were throwing a security blanket around him. The country should have given him bodyguards. The Dalai Lama gets bodyguards in India. And he has no sworn enemy. MLK received death threats like you and I receive phone calls. MLK was let out to pasture. It was deliberate.

MLK’s right to privacy being violated is not like a public figure’s right to privacy being violated. The public figure chooses to go into the public domain. The public figure is not micro shadowed like he/she were a terrorist. There is no agency collecting relentless data and analyzing and making counter moves as if the public figure is a criminal. What MLK deserved was a security blanket provided for by the state, what they call Z grade security in India. Instead he got monkeys tapping on his phone.

The surveillance state can get out of hand. It is like the top Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan got held at an airport in New Jersey for hours because his name showed up on some list. I am sure his last name is on every list! But you just wronged a billion strong nation.

The surveillance state can get out of hand and ordinary people can suffer in scores. Racial profiling can be taken to a whole new level through the surveillance state. No community deserves to be harassed.

There has to be a way for you to get your name off a list if you suspect maybe your name is on some list and erroneously so. Like you have a right to know what your credit history is. You have a right to know if your name has been put on any list. Muslims are the blacks today.

The right to privacy is like the right to free speech, like the right to follow the faith of your choice. If a community is being harassed for being Muslim, that right to follow the faith of one’s choice is being violated, and that’s a no no. The American state impinging on the fundamental rights is the American state doing the bidding of the people it is at war with. Their attack is on values, not on some physical structure. Values are hard to hold, and that is why they have to be held to in a tight embrace.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

JFK, Primaries, Social Media, DirectConnect


JFK invented the primary system we know of today. Before him it was the party bosses in smoke-filled rooms who decided on the party nominee. It was party bosses who decided on FDR. It was party bosses who decided on Lincoln.

Barack Obama's massive use of social media took JFK's invention to a whole new level. Take away all that technology and Obama was toast. All prominent blacks in the country were lined up in the opposite camp. Pretty much all elected officials were lined up in the opposite camp. All the labor unions were lined up behind Hillary pretty much. There was no doubting her credentials. And there was something historic about the idea of the first woman president too.

At some level I was torn having had to choose between the idea of the first black president and the first woman president, and I am on record at this blog rooting for an eventual Barack-Hillary ticket. But at the end of the day it was not about the first black president. It really was about Barack Obama the person, it was about this particular individual. It was about moving on past the Clinton generation. It was about Obama's emphasis on getting people to meet in person, it was about his use of the newest in technology.

JFK took a big step in the direction of what I call DirectConnect, the idea that there ought to be nothing and nobody between the candidate and the voter. Barack took another big step in the direction of DirectConnect.

Endorsements and political clubs and the status quo will matter less and less going into the future. 2010 is the year of the insurgency. But it is not an insurgency of throwing one party out for another. The insurgency has been about throwing the bums out in both parties. Suddenly primaries matter like they always needed to. A lot of incumbents across the country are facing real contests. Many have faced them and lost them. More will.

The good news is primaries matter, and DirectConnect is more possible than ever before.
You want people to get engaged and stay engaged. But that is not to say polls have substituted the need for leadership. The need for leadership is acute as ever. If we did not need leaders, we would not need elections. But we do.

We have a president who has been wading FDR waters since the passage of health care reform. The recession is not over yet. It will be over finally when the unemployment is down to five per cent. And there leadership matters big time. The guy at the top has many decisions to make, and I believe he will.



Enhanced by Zemanta

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

John Liu: Victory



This guy could be Mayor in four years. He is going to be the same age as JFK was when he became president. The point being, he is not going to be too young. I think it is a choice between four and 12 years. I would recommend four. Like JFK once said, "They will forget me, others will come along."
This guy has had me excited. For the first time in New York history, thanks to him, Chinatown now finally has an Asian American on the city council, a long time coming.

He completes the Blac equation for me, Blac as in Black, Latino, Asian coalition. John's victory has been an Obama moment for New York City. Barriers have been broken.
Barack Obama gets compared to JFK often. But John actually shares JFK's name. Rumor has it he was named after JFK. Did he have hippy parents?

Facebook Photo Albums
Reblog this post [with Zemanta]