For those who don’t know, political conventions are elaborate, very scripted multi-million dollars productions designed to project a compelling message drawing you to the presidential candidate.. Here at the RNC in Tampa Bay, tons of resources were devoted to trying to make people forget about the ‘legitimate rape‘ comments made earlier this month by prominent Republicans like Todd Akins.
The RNC Convention was designed to make you forget that GOP candidates like Tom Smith of Pennsylvania were running around equating out-of-wedlock pregnancies to rape. The RNC convention was designed to make everyone forget that a youthful looking VP Presidential hopeful, Paul Ryan focused on defining ‘legitimate rape’ and would prohibit an abortion under any circumstance..
In spite the ‘diversity of speakers’ on stage at the RNC it was still pretty much a sea of whiteness
The RNC Convention was designed to make the overwhelmingly white, GOP seem vastly diverse. It seems like these guys found just about every person of color they could think of to take the stage and say a lil something about how they love Mitt Romney and how great republicans are. They found some conservative Black and Brown folks who are relatively unknown and have absolutely no pull in their respective community to act like they have the masses on lock..
When they ran out of Black and Brown speakers they made sure to get some multi-racial funk, jazz and gospel bands along with singer Bebe Winans to take up the rear and perform to a crowd that was over 95% white and in more than a few instances quite hostile to people of color.
The camera people were instructed to pan to people of color in the audience, with RNC handlers strategically moving Black and Brown bodies to camera ready locations throughout the building. On top of that signs and hand-held fans that read Hispanics for Mitt were handed out to all-white delegates of Kansas. Global Grind Editor-in-Chief Michael Skolnik was the one who was tweeting live and first reported this, was in utter shock that the GOP was orchestrating this fake diversity.
The RNC was designed to get an ultra hard-right, xenophobic, evangelical base to warm up to Mitt Romney, who just a few months prior they considered a fake conservative whose religious background (Mormonism) was dooming him to hell. The call to action was to humanize Mitt, make him likeable and have him be the friendly face of a Leave it Beaver 1950s bygone era that the GOP is determined, to return to. When they say Take Back the Country.. it’s code for ‘do whatever it takes policy-wise and economic-wise to put ‘minorities’, gays and women back in their subservient place. It’s code for ‘get rid of all safety nets and let the poor fend for themselves‘.
Mitch McConnell
The over arching theme for the RNC was if you’re poor, jobless and deep in debt, its your fault for not working hard enough. In interview after interview we did with folks like; Herman Cain to Ann Coulter to Rick Santorum to Newt Gingrich to countless surrogates the party line was ‘poor people are poor because they wanna be poor’… I want folks to read that again and reflect on that for minute..
I had a chance to Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell, when I asked him if he thought some of the GOP policies would hurt the economically disadvantage? I asked him what would you say to someone in the hood who is struggling about getting on board with some of the GOP Policies.. McConnell, looked at me and did not answer. His handlers and secret service rushed him away even though we were standing face to face. This philosophy of blaming the poor for their plight is rooted in a prosperity religious bent many here at the RNC seem to hold. The thinking is, if you are somehow economically bad off, it’s because you don’t have enough faith in God..
The RNC had been very strategic in using culture and cultural icons to put a friendly face to their intolerance. They have two highly produced movies they put out.. One was put together by the late Andrew Breibert, a former FBI informant Brandon Darby and Citizens United where it bashes the Occupy Movement, and erroneously makes the case that Occupy was a big money backed organization designed to help Obama and the Democrats. The movie depicted members of Code Pink as key members of OWS, something that is so far off the mark, that eveb Stevie Wonder can see it..
A scene from Obama 2016
The other movie, Obama 2016, was put together by former Ronald Reagan staffer Dinesh D’Souza and Gerald Molen who produced Schindler’s List. Itwas designed to demonize President Obama and show the root of his supposed rage by tracing it back to Kenya. The film says Obama grew up to have a strong disliking for colonization and colonial powers. As a result, the film suggests that Obama hates America and basically wants to get revenge on white folks. It’s a very sophisticated, polished Willie Hortonizing type of flick.. The RNC also produced some high-polished videos on welfare which needs to be banished and education which needs to be privatized.
The RNC tried to glitz things up, by calling on, Dirty Harry actor Clint Eastwood. Someone had the bright idea, that the best was to humanize stiff, robotic Mitt Romney was to have the legendary actor sell his good virtues to America. That was a big mistake.. Clint threw away the script, abandoned the GOP game plan they spent hours and countless dollars perfecting and basically did some off the cuff type crap which in the end is likely to cost Romney major points in what looks to be a close election..
Clint Eastwood blew up the spot in a bad way w/ a bizarre conversation w/ an invisible President Obama
Clint came to the stage with slurred incoherent speech and bizarre monologue directed at an empty chair that he said contained an invisible President Obama. The whole ordeal was painful and had everyone wondering the soundness of Mitt Romney’s business acumen. What kind of business man spends millions crafting an image only to throw it away with the recklessness of having an out of touch Clint Eastwood ‘steal the show’? At the end of the night instead of talking about Romney speech,it was Clint Eastwood that was trending on social media platforms that was being talked about endlessly.
What took the cake was when Eastwood, midway threw his act, pretended to slit the throat of Barack Obama..The cameras panned away, some cheered because they really want the President dead and others looked shocked..
Clint Eastwood’s behavior overshadowed Mitt Romney’s strongest speaker and secret weapon Senator Marc Rubio who was gonna set the tone for the GOP moving forward and with his Cuban background, remind everyone within ear shot that the GOP loves Latinos in spite of crazy anti-Brown People laws like SB 1070 and the crowd showing great enthusiasm and giving rousing standing ovations for folks like Az Gov Jan Brewer and Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
During last nights proceedings there were several disruptions both from members of Code Pink as well as upset delegates repping for Ron Paul. The Paul delegates held up signs stating how the RNC had been hijacked and Democracy was stolen. With each disruption the crowd would stand, clap and chant loudly USA, USA USA..
At the end of the day Mitt Romney gave what many deemed a lackluster speech. Skolnic pointed out that during the first part of the speech only the delegates loyal to Mitt were cheering, everyone else was either bored or unimpressed. It was only when he started talking about ways the GOP planned to make money did they warm up, and then only slightly.
Many are speculating that this election is gonna hinge not so much on undecided middle of the road voters which has long been the tradition, but instead its going to hinge on who can get their base out. The GOP has peeped that there is not a lot of enthusiasm for President Obama among key demographics and they are playing to that big time.. House speaker John Boehner spoke to this the other day when he stated loudly that he is looking forward to Black and Brown voters not showing up to the polls. GOP leaders are quick to point out that Obama has lost the enthusiasm of young voters, Black voters and Brown voters who are still upset that this his administration hs deported more than one million people, which means over one million families were broken up.
The biggest irony is even though the GOP has blatant anti-immigrant sentiments, they are hawking Obama’s deportation record while Black conservatives and even quite a few whites are actually stating that Obama has no agenda for Black people. I cannot make this stuff up folks. Look for this rhetoric to be given big microphones over the next few weeks.. Such talking points may not sway voters per say to the GOP, but it may lead to many staying home in November.
Obama supporters like to point out that the president has 94% of the Black vote and 80% of the Brown vote etc.. All that may be true. The problem is percentages don’t reflect actual numbers.. Obama may have 94% of the Black vote of those who actually show up to vote. There is talk that over 90 million people may NOT show up to the polls in November. That’s what Boehner is banking on. The RNC folks seem confident that if lack of enthusiasm for Obama doesn’t keep folks at home then the 26 states employing voter suppression tactics and laws will.
The bottom line is the folks I came across at the RNC are really angry and unrestrained in expressing and acting upon that anger. They are angry about the economy, and their way of life slipping before them. That anger has been directed toward folks of color, women, unions and students. I would not underestimate that anger.. lots of money being spent on the Presidential election, even more money is being spent on the local elections.. The GOP is pushing to win all those small seats that folks wanna ignore..
written by Davey D
There’s some big doings going down this week at Club Mighty in San Francisco.. Legendary Bay Area deejay Ren the Vinyl Archeologist who heads up 
The controversy around writer dream hampton (she spells her name in lower case) sending out a tweet where she asserted rappers Stic.man of dead prez and Jay Electronica were ‘ghost writers‘ for Nas is interesting on several levels. First, a lot of folks saw the tweet or heard about it and immediately jumped up to defend the Queensbridge emcee claiming that him having a ghostwriter is an assault to the ‘integrity of Hip Hop’ and that dream is somehow a bad journalist who should be tossed under a bus. I’ll let folks marinate on that for moment..
Ain’t nothing wrong with that when you consider over the years we’ve seen percussionist Duke Bootee do this for Grandmaster Flash & Mele-Mel with the landmark song The Message. We recently saw Bay Area rapper Paris do this for Chuck D of Public Enemy on the album ‘Rebirth of a Nation‘. No one would ever deny Chuck or Mel’s writing abilities or political prowess…In the case of Nas and Sticman, whether what resulted was co-writing, producing where hooks, ideas and a few bars were provided, scoring of tracks to model for Nas or ghostwriting in the technical sense where full songs were penned minus public credit, none of that seemed shocking, out of the ordinary or a bad thing. There’s a long tradition from Billy Holiday’s Strange Fruit penned by 
We see similar process in beat production. Not everyone who is deemed ‘the producer‘ works the drum machine and craft the melodies. By now its common knowledge that revered producer Dr Dre is not in the studio coming up with every single drum track, it doesn’t mean he’s not capable nor would anyone deny is skill as a producer?
As you can probably tell from the title of my paper, I have a number of topics I hope to tie together. The plan is to pull together many ideas into one big theme (which is): this election matters, but not in the way it is usually framed. I don’t think this election matters politically at all, because politics as this system is now set up tells us nothing really. At best, it reflects the will of the highest bidder, or the frame of corporate media, or the effectiveness of the latest legislative tactics to manage or suppress voting (via voter ID laws or redistricting for example). Those that actually do vote do so with great skepticism, and a large percentage don’t even participate in the process at all. While the outcome of this election will not offer very different results (in terms of governance), it will illuminate two very different trajectories for this country (culturally)…and that matters greatly. That is what I want to focus on in this paper.
Self inflicted wounds may be the most difficult to heal, psychologically at least. Since its inception, the United States has lived with a self inflicted wound that has defined every aspect of this society, most importantly, the distribution and control of all economic and political resources. The racialization of this nation (or the color line as W.E.B. DuBois called it) continues to plague this country (and the globe more broadly) and the election of the first biracial president did nothing to change that reality.
For those that think critically, including sociologists, moving beyond the “what” level to examine “who” is in control is critical to understanding how the status quo power structure remains so entrenched. Much of our sociological analyses focus on the producers of our social woes – the corporate elite (1%), imperialists, corporate media, fascist governments, white supremacists, racists, democrats, republicans, Obama, Romney and so on.
While fewer and fewer control the world’s resources, the world has become more open in other ways, specifically due to technology. Disney was right: It’s a small world after all. 🙂 Technology has forever changed the power to control information. Propaganda is still a viable tool via media framing, but with technology, information comes quickly and much more freely via a number of sources. The status quo power structure will have to take more drastic means to maintain its control; hence more infractions on civil liberties, police state tactics, etc.
Census data shows us that fewer white babies are born today than babies of color. Whether the spike in hate groups and the recent mass shootings linked to white supremacists are manifestations of “white angst” over this reality or not can be debated, but much of the cultural strategy on the right seems to be a direct reaction to the shifting demographics. Nativist movements like the tea party exploit white fear to maintain a system of white supremacy in a country getting browner everyday.
Factor #3: The New Cultural Majority – Demographic make up of the electorate
The right’s cultural strategy involves both short term and long term objectives. The short term strategy consists of taking advantage of the 2010 gains at the local and state levels as well as tapping into white angst via nativist movements like the tea party. From it we have gotten a number of battles:1. Anti-immigration legislation, SB 1070 including even crazy talk about repealing the 14th amendment, 2. Ethnic study bans, revisionist history textbooks etc.2. Anti-gay legislation against same sex marriage etc…or even long lines at Chick Fil A to show support for “family values”3. All sorts of anti-abortion and anti-contraception legislation…probably the most targeted war on women since the women’s movement4. Anti-Muslim hysteria – Mosque protests in NY and TN, look up OC Hate video on YouTube, bans on Sharia law passed here and other nonsense5. Voter ID laws to suppress votes of students (youth vote), people of color (particularly black vote) and elderly (Medicare vote)
Succinctly stated, the left cannot depend on the weakening of the nation-state and shifting demographics alone to foster progressive social change. Demographic shift or not, white supremacy can and will manifest itself for generations to come via resource distribution and control. The LONG TERM war, the end of racialization of resources and the real healing of the wound that continues to plague this country will only be healed through changing attitudes, context, narrative building and cultural work.
While the future is not clear, a few things are: The next generation will be more diverse; social issues will become less relevant with this next generation and hegemonic ideals that shape today’s political landscape will continue to be challenged…in other words, the younger generation is beginning to be a cultural force in politics. Does that mean the end of racialization of all aspects of this society? the end of white supremacy and corporate fascism? Not anytime soon but given the mass rejection of the political system by both sides of the spectrum, there is room for movement politics to take hold and a clear cultural strategy is required to move the movement in a progressive direction.
In countries considered “poor”, i.e. most countries in the world, education is a luxury. In actuality, only about 7% of the global population receives a college education (college degree) and the majority of those people are in what are labeled the “developed” world (read richer nations). Well, while education was never really treated as a right in the United States, the electorate is now being molded to accept education as a luxury that only the most affluent of the society will be able to afford (like the rest of the world). While the push toward privatization has taken on many phases (faces) over the last few years (from charter schools to anti-union measures), the next phase (face) is probably the most deceptive: student success initiatives. Budget pressures and student success task force reports provide the cover for the most dramatic changes to the public education system we will see pass through the state legislators to date. Students who are not already excellent academically or who are not economically able to afford increasing costs will be pushed out…and expeditiously. While public schools are still public, affected constituent groups (students, parents, and educators) must educate themselves on the changing laws and organize vehemently to hold THEIR public institutions accountable to the communities they serve. Education is one of the only paths of upward mobility in class based structures that define our society. The more access to education a society’s members have, the less rigid its class system…the less access to education, the more rigid the class system. The privatization of education in a globalized system is meant to control who has access to education…the elite, and only the elite.
So what does a once educated country do when it stops educating a large majority of its population? Very few countries can boast a “middle class” of the sorts that once defined the United States. But with access to education disappearing, that middle class disappears also. Now what? Plan B. The prison industry has proven to be most lucrative. It should be obvious to all that middle class Americans would never be able to accept competing for slave wages in a global economy, and seeing that steep of a decline in standard of living, a forced alternative was hatched. Legal slave wages under the guise of the prison industry complex. Call it indoctrination into the global economy. Private entities can own prisons and corporations can utilize prison labor – from manufacturing products to telemarketing. Cheap labor once outsourced finds its way back to US shores. Those we are now locking out of education, can now be locked up into private prisons as bodies to fill new buildings and cheap laborers to make products.
It’s always a pleasure and enlightening to sit down and chop it up w/ Atlanta emcee 
During our conversation we talked about standout songs like the melodic ‘Anywhere But Here‘, where Mike gives us a thoughtful and compelling view of New York City and Atlanta. In the first part of the song, he talks about Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Stop and Frisk and the ghost of Sean Bell and others who are victims to police terrorism. He talks about the importance holding police accountable via the Mayor and other politicians who control them. He explained that anyone who allows the police to be out of control don’t politically punish the Mayor for allowing this to happen, has missed the mark in a big way..
Today (Aug 16th) all the stops are being pulled out to remember the death of Elvis Presley the so-called King of Rock-N-Roll.. Ever since yesterday we’ve seen national TV crews camp out all out at Graceland.. Special tributes on radio.. Even some urban outlets are giving Elvis his props.. In typical form Elvis like 
Got a chance to build with Hip Hop legend 