“America has no functioning democracy at this moment.”–Jimmy Carter
Editor’s Note: It’s getting tough on liberals and democrats who voted for President Obama. See Cornel West’s remarks below. West is an African-American professor, who delivers his remarks in the rhythmic cadence of gospel and rap, backed up by facts and moral authority. Apparently, former President Carter said, according to the translation of a quote in the German magazine Der Spiegel, the above about the disappearance of an American tradition. Hence Edward Snowden prefers asylum in Moscow, capital of kleptocracy, which asylum should soon be granted, according to his attorney.
Read or watch Cornell West at:
http://www.democracynow.org/2013/7/22/cornel_west_obamas_response_to_trayvon
“Now we’ve got the targeted killing president, the drone president.”–Brother Cornel West: An Excerpt
AMY GOODMAN: In the aftermath of the Zimmerman verdict and the mass protests around the country, we turn right now to Dr. Cornel West, professor at Union Theological Seminary, author of numerous books, co-host of the radio show Smiley & West with Tavis Smiley. Together, they wrote the book The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto, among Cornel West’s other books.
Professor Cornel West—
CORNEL WEST: Yes, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama surprised not only the press room at the White House, but the nation, I think, on Friday, in his first public remarks following the George Zimmerman acquittal. What are your thoughts?
CORNEL WEST: Well, the first thing, I think we have to acknowledge that President Obama has very little moral authority at this point, because we know anybody who tries to rationalize the killing of innocent peoples, a criminal—George Zimmerman is a criminal—but President Obama is a global George Zimmerman, because he tries to rationalize the killing of innocent children, 221 so far, in the name of self-defense, so that there’s actually parallels here.
AMY GOODMAN: Where?
CORNEL WEST: In Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen. So when he comes to talk about the killing of an innocent person, you say, “Well, wait a minute. What kind of moral authority are you bringing? You’ve got $2 million bounty on Sister Assata Shakur. She’s innocent, but you are pressing that intentionally. Will you press for the justice of Trayvon “Martin in the same way you press for the prosecution of Brother Bradley Manning and Brother Edward Snowden?” So you begin to see the hypocrisy.”
“Then he tells stories about racial profiling. They’re moving, sentimental stories, what Brother Kendall Thomas called racial moralism, very sentimental. But then, Ray Kelly, major candidate for Department of Homeland Security, he’s the poster child of racial profiling. You know, Brother Carl Dix and many of us went to jail under Ray Kelly. Why? Because he racially profiled millions of young black and brown brothers. So, on the one hand, you get these stories, sentimental—“
“Martin Luther King Jr. was a free black man. He was a Jesus-loving free black man. Will the connection between drones, new Jim Crow, prison-industrial complex, attacks on the working class, escalating profits at the top, be talked about and brought together during that march? I don’t hold my breath. But Brother Martin’s spirit would want somebody to push it. And that’s part of his connection to Malcolm X. That’s part of his connection to so many of the great freedom fighters that go all the way back to the first slave who stepped on these decrepit shores.”
From William Pfaff:
“Big Brother exists! But he is an American. This is the big secret which the Obama administration spends billions of dollars and enlists millions of individuals to conceal from the very people who are paying for it all. If, or when, this is grasped, Americans will truly have a right to be horrified—assuming it is not too late.”