text:
Nuri Madina
Evangelical Christians Are Under Assault and They Brought It On Themselves
Collin Hansen, the editorial director for the Gospel Coalition in a book he's writing on the Religious Right said, "This is the last spastic breath from the Religious Right before its overdue death." He's not the only one pointing this out. Michael Gerson wrote in the Washington Post, in reference to their unwavering support of Donald Trump, "Now some evangelical Christians are…playing down the importance of integrity, morality and character in leadership…And so, it turns out, some are making a graven image — of a figure who deserves contempt."
It is indeed baffling how nothing Trump has done or said, including unrepentant lying and cheating, has affected his support in the polls and particularly among a core group of evangelical voters. His top evangelical supporters have even stood by him during the fallout from recent admissions on tape of sexual assault and a consistent stream of women victims reporting his assaults of them. These supporters include Jerry Falwell Jr., Faith and Freedom Coalition Chairman, Ralph Reed and Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. Falwell, a lawyer and chancellor of Liberty University, said he would still vote for Trump even if the allegations against him are true. He and others have attacked the New York Times for even reporting the charges. Women for centuries have decried the society's blaming the victim in these assaults, and here again the Trump camp, supported by these Evangelical "leaders" mount an all-out attack against the victims. You would think that at least Christian women would desert him in droves. Students of Falwell's Liberty University are now protesting their school's association with Trump and Falwell's support for the GOP nominee.
When questioned, these Religious Right supporters tend to dismiss the importance of what Trump himself believes in but Hansen, in his piece, goes straight to the point: "(the) businessman (is) beholden to the unholy trinity of money, sex and power."
For years Evangelical Christians have complained that they are under assault—from non-Christian believers and immigrants, from changing values, and from secular leanings in society. I have finally come to agree with them. Yes, they are under assault but they did it to themselves. Not just through the hypocrisy of their social and religious intolerance, not just from their embrace of a nostalgic return to a "Great (White) America." Consider also that they've undone themselves by holding onto a theology that life, science and their own souls have undermined.
The late Muslim leader, Imam W. Deen Mohammed issued a "A Message of Concern" many years ago and asked the question: "What would happen if people would sit in churches throughout the world for centuries with the image of an African American man as savior of the world before them? What would this do to the mind of the world's children? What would happen to the world's children put under a figure of a particular race presented, pitiable, and in pain "the Savior of all men"?
We are seeing the answer to that question today. The Religious Right, Evangelical Christians have seized upon a "pseudo-savior" in white flesh, Donald Trump, who exemplifies the vilest principles of demagoguery, bigotry and xenophobia. It is the centuries of worship of an image of divinity, incarnate in white flesh, that has made this possible. I understand how they have gotten to this point. If 'god' (Jesus) is incarnate in white, male flesh, then that's making me, other African Americans, other Muslims, Mexicans, immigrants and yes, women, inferior.
The history of African Americans in this country, from slavery, Jim Crow laws, Civil Right and now Black Lives Matter, all demonstrate the consequences of that theology and the underlying philosophy of this country. But the drivers of this ship end up at the same destination as the passengers. Perpetrators need a victim, and now since African Americans have come out from under the burden of inferiority, the perpetrators now have to find a new victim, someone new to blame. If you question these people, you'll find that their core attitude is blaming—everybody other than themselves for their condition.
Most Christians are sincere, but extremism in any form, in any religion, is wrong and the Religious Right prides itself in its own extremism, its own fundamentalism. The worship of the image of divine, in white flesh, is the root of America's racial problems. As sincere as they might be, G-d has forbidden beliefs that violate truth and reason. Imam Mohammed further noted, "Civilized nations should want that their religions be also civilized. False worship is the worst form of oppression. We are no gods. We are only men, "mortals from the mortals, He (Allah) created."
The Evangelical Christians are now responding only to appeals to their most primal instincts-their anger, their frustration, their anxieties and fears-and not to their rational or moral nature. I call this new found embrace of the demagogue Trump a degeneration. Their aversion to truth and facts is proof of this degeneration. They don't even ask the question anymore, "What Would Jesus Do." They've shamed themselves and whatever oppression or assault they feel they are under, they've brought it upon themselves.
We've Always Led Them to Freedom
I stand for the American flag. I respect what it aims for if not its history. I don't put my hand over my heart because my heart belongs to Allah (G-d) and I recognize that where this country was inspired to be, we're not quite there yet. So my patriotism is a sober patriotism and when I stand in respect for the flag I am also respecting Colin Kaepernick's decision and freedom not to stand. A social media comment recently noted, "after we get up from taking a knee, what do we do then?" A good point but Kaepernick's protest has accomplished exactly what it set out to do—that is bring about a dialogue, as he appears on the cover of Time Magazine. Now everybody is taking a side one way or the other, and criticizing, one way or the other. And that's better than pretending that there is nothing wrong.
Protests by athletes are not new and have in many cases been effective. I myself was inspired by the photo of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Olympic runners, who standing on the podium at the Summer Olympics in Mexico City in 1968, to receive their gold and bronze medals, raised their fists in black gloves during the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. And everyone was inspired by the protest of Muhammad Ali, who sacrificed the prime years of his boxing career and became a symbol of resistance to the Viet Bam war by refusing to be indicted into the military service.
So even though I choose to stand, I applaud and respect Kaepernick for his courage because it has taken all of us, those who stood, those who sat, and those who took a knee, and those who gave a life, to advance this concept of freedom in America.
Some say these athletes should just be grateful for opportunity to make a lot of money, but people should realize the NFL and the NBA are not doing these athletes a favor. The athletes are a commodity and leagues and the networks make millions off of them. The relationship is mutual and the athletes don't owe them anything.
There acts have exposed truths that needed to be exposed, like the millions of dollars the NFL receives from the Defense Department for their fake patriotic displays. Like the hate that is directed at these athletes for exercising their freedom. What's the deal here? We respect all these great freedoms you have on paper as long as you don't exercise them. Or is it that they want to define these freedoms for us and define how we should exercise them. Its just like freedom of religion. You can worship as you choose except for the backward folk who would add to that freedom…"as long as it's not Islam." Then there's the right to bear arms which they hold so dearly but we all know that doesn't apply to African Americans. Try open carry, concealed carry or BB gun or Bible or Qur'an carry, and you'll find out how quickly you're shot by police. This is the imperfection in the system and this is what we have to work on.
Those who buy into Trump's campaign that there it is "us" against "them" are just backward and ignorant. I'll put my contribution, that of my family, and that of my people, up against theirs any day. I am not the "other." It is you and your ideas that are "foreign" to the spirit and meaning of America. So you can wrap yourself in the flag or paint it on your ignorant ass, you are no patriot. If you knew what America stood for, you'd know that Obama already made America great again.
The President recently stated: "My name may not be on the ballot, but our progress is on the ballot. Tolerance is on the ballot. Democracy is on the ballot. Justice is on the ballot. Good schools are on the ballot. Ending mass incarceration, that's on the ballot right now," he said. "And there is one candidate who will advance those things, and there is another candidate whose defining principle, the central theme of his candidacy is opposition to all that we've done." Go do the math, and then stop criticizing those who are at least trying to do something and figure out what you can do.
We Must Keep Moving Forward
For those of us who are at a loss to explain the apparent sudden rise of Donald Trump and his followers just at a time when we thought we had turned the corner of racial politics and institutionalized bigotry, let's try to analyze the phenomena. First of all, this rise is not sudden. As long as African Americans stayed in their place-on the football or on the performance stage, things were fine. "Frederick Douglass, the father of the freedom movement, recognized how hard it is to see people in their true value and outside of our preconceived stereotype. "Though the colored man is no longer subject to barter and sale, he is surrounded by an adverse settlement which fetters all his movements. In his downward course he meets with no resistance, but when his course is upward, he is resented and resisted at every step of his progress. If he comes in ignorance, rags and wretchedness he conforms to the popular belief of his character, and in that character he is welcome; but if he shall come as a gentleman, a scholar and a statesman, he is hailed as a contradiction to the national faith concerning his race, and his coming is resented as impudence. In one case he may provoke contempt and derision, but in the other, he is an affront to pride and provokes malice."" "Yes, I Am Your Brother," Nuri Madina"
https://nurimadina.com/2015/09/04/new-book-available-now/
As soon as we had to look at the African American as the leader of the free world that's when the problem came to the surface. The tea partiers presented a very backward representative as Vice President candidate in Sarah Palin and made a statement in effect that "we don't care how ignorant or uninformed you are; we'll support you as long as you stand up for the old world order- white supremacy rule. That was a test, and the American public gave it a failing grade in the election. Then instead of going back to the teacher and finding out what they got wrong, they doubled down on their incorrect answers. Then Republicans met and agreed that they would block anything the president tried to accomplish-regardless to how good it was or how it night have benefitted their own constituents. G-d forbid that the African American be seen in a positive light, let alone bring about change that everyone agreed was needed.
Then Trump kept hope alive with his birther movement, that translated to: He's not one of us. Of course to an intelligent public they could never prove he wasn't American. But to the deplorables all he had to do was establish that He's not one of us-white.
At each these of junctures, they made a decision of political and moral expedience- "we'll do whatever we have to do and say whatever we have to say to secure this political advantage; 'there'll be time for us to be righteous later.' "Although they try to portray all of these efforts as populist movements, they all are merely covering themselves with the "politically correct" blanket of populism when in fact the idea is to make America "great" (white) again. But they are the ones railing against political correctness. In what parallel universe did correctness become a bad thing?
But even all of this is not as insidious as the real plan. The real plan is to remove any remaining moral component from politics. I am not a psychiatrist but I would invite any of them to tell us what the message is to the subconscious mind when I say, as Trump has, that: "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." That is a signal that the moral component has been completely removed from the analysis of a candidate or his position.
The sad thing is that Trump core group of support is Evangelical Christians. These are people who read the Bible, and pray, and some of them even ask "what would Jesus do." It's scary that they are comfortable that Jesus would approve of Trump. The Bible that they profess says at Gen 2:10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads." This tells us that the rivers that nourished the Garden-that excellent moral and spiritual consciousness-left the Garden and became dominant influences in and of themselves. And thus today they are accepting that moral and G-d consciousness has no place in the four main areas of human influence: business, education, politics, and religion. Yes, G-d has been removed even from religion today. Research shows increase in people's spirituality at the same time as their dramatic withdrawal from organized religion.
We can all accept that G-d is Truth; that He is Reality. So, what does it do to the psyche of a person when they allow themselves to accept known lies into their consciousness and accept an acknowledged liar as their leader. Yes, democracy requires that even the 'deplorables' have a right to representation. And in spite of the media attention there is no moral equivalency between the two presidential candidates' positions. And despite the media and the pollsters, I do not believe they will ever be in the majority again. Nevertheless, it is our job, as the adult in the room to make sure that this does not happen.
By taking the moral element out of the equation they force you to make a decision just based on superficial bases- He looks like a strong leader; He insults everyone but that just demonstrates courage. Those rules might apply in the cave, in the jungle or in the playpen, but would you put your children under the rule of a naked emperor?
Congratulations to The Mosque Cares, Ministry of Imam W. Deen Mohammed for another successful Annual Muslim Convention, this past Labor Day weekend. Along with seeing my many longtime friends co-workers in the cause of Islam, and I was also honored to meet Imam Talib Shareef of The Nation's Mosque, Masjid Muhammad, the oldest Muslim community located in the Washington of America, 1930s. I had an opportunity to briefly discuss my new book with him, "Yes, I Am Your Brother."
To any who would doubt the Muslim Americans' commitment and contributions to American society, Imam Talib is also a retired Chief Master Sergeant of the United States Air Force with 30 of service, and among his many others honors is a graduate of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Arabic and Middle East studies, and National Imam of the Muslim American Veterans Association (MAVA).
Sex, Lie and Videotapes
OK, to be perfectly honest—and honesty, truth and reality is what this article is about—it has nothing whatsoever to do with sex. But it's a making a real quick point that is people have hidden the "cheese"—the money, the material resources, the important truths of life. And they are directing our attention away from the things of value in life by pushing these subconscious and emotional buttons. It is about lies and videotapes because the essence of their message is lies and the visual, audio and social media are the vehicles they are using in their scheme.
Allah (G-d) asks the question: Who has denied my servants the good things of the earth? In this context He doesn't ask, "Who has denied my servants the starry crown of heaven? He asks who is denying the good people, the good things of the earth. It is deniers and liars.
This time in man's history is called the Day of Accounting. It's also sometimes referred to as the Day of Separation and most commonly called the Day of Judgment. In an accounting, we identify assets and liabilities—what we have and what we owe. We separate the things of value from those negative and come up with a balance sheet. And then we make a judgment on the health of our finances.
The problem arises when we have been deceived as to the value of things. If our skin color is more important than our human content, we're going to come up with inaccurate accounting. If you don't have the discernment to judge between truth and falsehood, between reality and unreality, between what's important and what's trivial, you're going to come up with an inaccurate accounting.
Thus today you have a small group, the 1% if you will, who are controlling all the resources—they're hiding them in corporate inversions, off shore accounts, bankruptcy schedules, unpaid debts and conspicuous consumption. They keep the resources hidden by keeping the masses focused on lies, unreal Reality shows, and delusions.
The political dialogue today is a perfect example of what it would be like living in a world of data but no facts. I point out in my book that we are living in a time where the public has become addicted to information, not necessarily truth, not necessarily facts, but just information. Look at the people who scientists are now calling "digital dead walkers," who have walked into oncoming traffic and walked off of cliffs, while glued to their PDAs.
"Look at the condition of the general population, with access to more information than ever before in history. Only one in four (¼) Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but more than one-half (½) can name at least two members of the Simpson's cartoon family. 22% of Americans can name all five Simpson family members compared to 1 in 1000 who could name all five (5) First Amendment rights. A 2012 national survey by FindLaw.com, a legal information website, found that nearly two-thirds of Americans are unable to name any of the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court. In 1985, Andrew Postman, in his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, made this point: "TV is turning all public life (education, religion, politics, journalism) into entertainment; how the image is undermining other forms of communication, particularly the written word; and how our bottomless appetite for TV will make content so abundantly available, content be damned, we'll be overwhelmed by "information glut" until what is truly meaningful is lost and we no longer care what we've lost as long as we're being amused." Yes, I Am Your Brother, Nuri Madina
This was written 30 years ago, before the digital revolution and the explosion of even more vehicles for the flow of information. But as Postman points out, the time coming will be one in which the public won't care about the truth or the value of the information.
Allah (G-d) speaks of just such a time when mankind will be lost, except those who promote Truth and Reality. Look at the great percentages of people who have been fed conspiracy theories by Fox (Faux) News and the National Enquirer over the years and the information has now become accepted as truth. It's no surprise that this is the same demographic that is now feeling powerless, disaffected and angry. They have fed their emotional body and starved their rational body. In the real world, as opposed to their alt-right surreal construct, they are indeed threatened—not by anyone coming and taking away their guns or by hoards of immigrants, Muslims, of African American. They are threatened by their own choices. The name of the game is survival of the fittest—the fittest homo sapiens or thinking man-not the fittest brute.
The Apology of Privilege
Words make people and we are what we eat, so when you have an entire subset of the population that has injected the big lie of white supremacy and it's illegitimate first born of white privilege, you're seeing people that have become a victim of their own bad diet. And no matter how hard you encourage them to eat healthier (truth, facts and objective reality), their own metabolism will work against them. The demagogue knows exactly what buttons of primordial anger and cynicism to push, because he knows what their diet has been.
So a Donald Trump, and I'm not talking about "The Donald" because he is not unique. There will always be one of him to come along and push those buttons. Any Donald can present this confused mind with lies–He can prove himself to be a liar, and if he pushes those buttons, they will accept anything he says. Look at how long he claimed President Obama was not born in the US and demanded to see his birth certificate. Neither he, nor his followers were concerned about the truth of the President's birth. The point they were making is that he is not one of us. Even now after the birth certificate has been produced, 53% of Republicans still believe the lie, even in the face of proof and objective reality. As Trump himself said "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters."
A Washington Post report on a 2007 deposition in connection with a lawsuit against Trump, pointed out 30 lies that he had told in the deposition. "At times, he defended the lies, insisting that they were somehow true, even if the numbers didn't reflect it." Similarly, in this presidential campaign, in the face of the most callous and bigoted statements, he has shifted the blame to his staff, the corrupt media, and even the victims themselves.
Now comes, what they describe as the 'pivot.' That is his supposed new posture away from those Republican primary "Trumpettes" who are willing to accept him no matter what and toward those more rational, more independent voters that are key in a general election. In order to accept him though, they will have to hold their noses, and rationalize his behavior. They will have to convince themselves that he really didn't mean all those things he said. They will have to explain away all the lies.
They're already pointing to his "apology" –I do regret it… where it may have caused personal pain–" as a move in that direction. But as James Hohmann, notes yesterday in the Washington Post, Trump's 'apology' sounds like a non-apology. "Linguists and relationship experts, meanwhile, said Trump's comments were ineffective and that his words cannot accurately be described as an "apology." In fact, the GOP nominee did not specify exactly who or what he was talking about." Its like the recent non-apology of Olympic champion swimmer, Ryan Lochte who "apologized" for "his role in taking the focus away from other Olympic athletes" and for "not being more careful and candid." He didn't say he was sorry for falsely accusing Brazilians for a violent or for fabricating a lie when he himself was the criminal. They both make what I call the "apology of privilege." I point to this same insincerity and unwillingness to acknowledge one's wrong in my book, "Yes, I Am Your Brother:"
"For me to feel that you are sincere about wanting me to forgive the wrong you've done to me; I have to ask you if you acknowledge what you did. It's like the halfhearted apology we give sometimes. "If I have wronged you, I sorry." I'm telling you you've wronged me. If you hadn't, we wouldn't be having this conversation. But instead of you saying, "I'm sorry for the particular wrong I did to you," you preface it with "If I did…" You hedged your apology like the No Contest plea in court where you accept the punishment without acknowledging any guilt."
Why would anyone believe you once you've shown the willingness to say anything to get support and the unwillingness to acknowledge ever having wronged anyone? We know when he says Make America Great Again, he means Make America White Again. Statistically and demographically that's not going to happen, so he can only be saying, seize power now before you come under the influence of these minorities–these 'other' ones; these different ones.
We know when he says he'll bring Law and Order to communities, he means he'll support and protect the rogue policemen who have preyed on our communities and he will demonize and sic his followers on anyone that disagrees with him. This is what we've seen and why would we believe any lies to the contrary as part of a pivot?
We know he supports decades of Republican voter suppression in a democracy which is supposed to encourage voter participation–all of this under the guise of preventing voting fraud. In court cases that temporarily invalidated some of the ID laws, including North Carolina, Wisconsin and North Dakota, election officials could barely cite one case in which a person was charged with in-person voting fraud. All research and government investigations and courts have proved voter fraud is mostly a myth. Yet Trump calls for "election observers" on his official website to stop Crooked Hillary from rigging this election."
It won't work with African Americans. We remember when white Southerners dreamed up barriers designed to keep blacks from voting. Some required frequent re-registration, or registration at inconvenient times (e.g., planting season). They implemented literacy tests that were impossible to pass or administered arbitrarily. (Guess how many marbles are in a jar). In 2014 a group of Harvard students took the Louisiana Literacy Test that was administered as late as 1964, and required a 100% score in order to vote. All of them failed the test. They established poll taxes that African Americans could not pay. In the rural counties where most African Americans lived, you had to go to the courthouse to register and voting registration office might be open for a couple of hours in the morning or afternoon maybe one day a week. You had to take off work — with or without your employer's permission — and if a white employer gave such permission, or failed to fire a Black who tried to vote, he might be driven out of business by economic retaliation from the Citizens Council. Sometimes on that registration day, African Americans has to walk pass the county Sheriff and his deputies and intimidation, insults, threats, and sometimes arrest on phony charges, just to get to the Registration Office. Once in the Office they faced hatred, harassment, and humiliation from the county officials. In some states the information entered on your registration was passed on to the Citizens Council and Ku Klux Klan. Is this the "election observers" Trump is calling for? Is this the greatness he is calling America back to again?
The U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., just ruled that the regime of voter ID laws passed in North Carolina clearly demonstrated that the "disenfranchisement of blacks was the very goal of the legislation."
The war of this era is that of truth against lies, and the battle in this day, until November, is to punish the liars and vindicate the truth. They need to be shown that this is a new day—that we remember their history and we don't harbor in rancor in our hearts but we are going to take that one day in November to show them that they must acknowledge what they have done and stop doing it.
We're not Giving Up Anything, and We're Not Going Anywhere
Donald Trump and his backwards leaning group of supporters need to know, that despite the anxiety he has inspired in all of the "othered" groups in America, including Muslims, immigrants and anyone else different from poor uneducated whites, we African Americans are not giving up anything, and we're not going anywhere.
Thanks First Lady, Michelle Obama for reminding them that we built the White House, and that is only a symbol of the contribution we have made intellectually, cultural, economically and socially to America. In fact, my ancestors, both Muslim and Africans were here at least as early as 1843, although Trump's family itself were later comers, arriving here from the south-western part of Germany in 1885.
I doubt also that his family endured the "investment" of unpaid labor, blood, sweat, tears and persecution that mine did. So the point is that we're not giving up anything and we're not going anywhere. We have a much stronger claim to this country than he has and many of the late arrivals that are supporting him now.
And that greatness that he claims he's trying to get back to again, came about from our sacrifice. US Representative and Civil Rights leader, John Robert Lewis, pointing to his own contributions to Americas' claim of greatness, said, "I was beaten, my skull was fractured, & I was arrested more than 40 times so each and every one of us can register to vote." And he reminded us that the struggle was not over. "Do your part" he urged. Lewis asked the officer who was beating him, "Why are you doing this?" The officer replied, "I HAVE to beat you. If I DON'T beat you, then it means NOTHING for me to be white." That's the America we left behind and we're not giving up any of those hard earned rights. We're not going backwards not one day.
Now Donald Trump is visiting Louisiana, no doubt trying to present a kindler gentler image by showing empathy for flood victims, most of whom are probably African Americans. Is he now saying that those Black Lives Matter? As if that is going to make us forget his claim that the Black Lives Matter movement has helped instigate the recent killings of police officers, and his suggestion that he might direct his future attorney general to investigate the civil rights activist group. It's reminiscent of the charges made against Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement as being Communists—anything demonized, anything negative, anything "other" than "us."
As a Muslim, where is that he would send me back home to? What is he going to force me to believe in order to stay here in America? He's the one that should be "vetted" to see if he holds American ideals. That's why he was so offended by the question posed by Khizr Khan, the father of a soldier killed in Iraq: "Have you even read the United States Constitution?"
Even as a Muslim I have a stronger claim to be here and to stay here than he does. We were here even before the recent influx of immigrant Muslims. Khaled A. Beydoun, reported in The Washington Post, August 18, 2016, Before 1965, the Muslim American population was overwhelmingly composed of native-born African Americans." In addition, we should consider that many of the Muslims seeking admittance here are from places where we have destroyed their countries and their homes with our bombs and drones.
So no one is going to be fooled by any pivots to present a new more "politically correct" image. We know who you are now and we know what you represent. But, he is not as scary to me as are the followers and supporters of his that don't see the bigotry, racism, and even mental illness of his positions. What they all should know is that we're not going back, we're not giving up anything, and we're not going anywhere. We will be the last man standing here.
Read more in my new book, available at Amazon. com
Now Available at
www. Amazon.com
and at the link below:
https://www.amazon.com/Yes-Your-Brother-Understanding-Indigenous/dp/1524613460
Message on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day–The Future is Ours
Remember how African Americans used to be portrayed in the public media. They started out years ago as wide-eyed, fearful, ("feet don't fail me now"). Remember how angry we used to be. Remember how they cast us in their movies and on television with that twisted mouth, angry expression, and emotional and angry dialogue.
Compare that to how Matea Gold described the Republican Presidential nomination campaign, on January 5, 2016, for the Washington Post, in a headline, "Forget hopes and dreams: The GOP race is all about nightmares," "Scenes of masked men toting guns and waving black Islamic State flags. Refugees scrambling across the border. Fires and explosions… It's not just a Donald Trump ad. Most of the Republican presidential contenders and their allies are now waging campaigns focused on fear — bombarding voters with ominous television spots that warn of national security threats and amping up their alarming rhetoric on the stump."
"The commercials saturating the airwaves in Iowa and New Hampshire reflect how worries about terrorism are crowding out domestic issues such as tax policy and health care among GOP voters. The candidates are scrambling to outmuscle one another, offering dark assessments of the Obama administration's fight against violent extremists and warning that their rivals are ill-equipped to take up the cause." It is an appeal to fear and anger.
We should not look at these candidates as representatives of all whites. They are not. They are representatives of vested interests—political and economic, who retain their power over people by diverting their attention from the real cause of their problems. G-d provided for everything and everybody that He created and if those resources are not finding their way to those in need it is because of someone else's greed. These candidates are being used in a game of divide and conquer so they can keep ruling people and resources.
President Barack Obama could not have been elected-twice-had it not been for a significant population of conscious whites, so the anger and hatred they direct toward the President is misguided. Minorities and a majority of their own people elected him-twice. (The second time with 65,899,660 popular votes.)
But they are playing to deep seated, subconscious concepts on both sides. White fear of Black (and other than white) uprising and overcoming. And Black fear, anger and rancor of centuries of slavery and terror. But today is a new day and the key to survival now, is consciousness. Imam Faheem Shuaibe, of Oakland, California, in a recent Khutbah (sermon) noted that "the media, authority, status symbols and uniforms of the society are trusted with an unconscious reverence and obedience." We can only survive by rejecting the whispers and suggestions of these authorities when they violate the good moral conscience of you the common person.
As White Republicans blame the poor and the powerless for all their misery, their rage grows. A new NBC/Esquire poll ranked white Republicans as the angriest people of all Americans. But those who refuse to evolve past their negative socializations, have created their own consequence. They are a dying breed. The idea of racial superiority is a dying concept. The idea of divine in white flesh (or black flesh) is a dying concept. It is survival of the fittest today and the human family did not survive and evolve based on inferior organisms and inferior concepts.
Washington Post contributor, Fareed Zakaria, asked the question, in an article on December 31, 2015 "Why is Middle America killing itself?" He was referring to a recent study that noted that middle aged white Americans are dying at increasing rates. So when we hear their rhetoric from Oregon militia and Trump supporters that they feel under siege and fighting for their survival, we can understand their feeling. But it is not Obama that is the cause of their problem. It is their perception of their loss of power.
A study, co-authored by Anne Case and Angus Deaton, analyzed death rates for men and women aged 45 to 54 in the United States, a range often categorized as "middle-age." The duo, both economics professors at Princeton, then compared the data to those death rates found within other domestic racial categories and those seen in similarly wealthy nations.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/middle-aged-white-americans-are-dying-more-than-they-should-be/ar-BBmLBvP?li=BBgzzfc&ocid=wispr
Zakaria points out that "Middle America is killing itself." "They are dying in increasing numbers. And things look much worse for those with just a high school diploma or less. There are concerns about the calculations, but even a leading critic of the paper has acknowledged that, however measured, "the change compared to other countries and groups is huge." The main causes of death are as striking as the fact itself: suicide, alcoholism, and overdoses of prescription and illegal drugs. "People seem to be killing themselves, slowly or quickly," Deaton told me. These circumstances are usually caused by stress, depression and despair. That sounds like exactly what African Americans have lived under for centuries.
It is no coincidence that the demographic of this "declining species" is the same demographic as
Donald Trump's core group of supporters. So our best strategy, for survival, is to not followed them down the dark whole of extremism. Don't let the media and authority figures create discouragement and desperation within us. In the Muslim Holy Book, Qur'an, one of Satan's attributes is the "Discourager."
I believe we are on the right track. Ellis Cose wrote in Newsweek, May 15, 2011, even before President Obama's second election, "Meet the New Optimists" and points out that "Despite all the problems facing the U.S. these days, one group is surprisingly upbeat: African-Americans."
"The optimism that came so easily to many Americans as the new century dawned is significantly harder to summon these days. There is, however, a conspicuous exception: African-Americans, long accustomed to frustration in their pursuit of opportunity and respect, are amazingly upbeat, consistently astounding pollsters with their hopefulness. Earlier this year, when a Washington Post–Kaiser–-Harvard poll asked respondents whether they expected their children's standard of living to be better or worse than their own, 60 percent of blacks chose "better," compared with only 36 percent of whites.
Numerous previous polls found the same confidence. On the eve of President Barack Obama's inauguration, 69 percent of black respondents told CNN pollsters that Martin Luther King's vision had been "fulfilled." Nearly two years later, as America prepared for the 2010 midterm elections, blacks shared little of the disenchantment that had overtaken many whites. African-Americans were more likely than whites to say that the economy was sound, found CBS News. And nearly half (compared with 16 percent of whites) thought America's next generation would be better off."
The Obama presidency of course has had a lot to do with this. When I was a child the highest aspiration of my family for me was to be like Jackie Robinson. Now a new generation of African Americans can truly see themselves as potentially as Leader of the Free World. Then there are his detractors who complain that he has not solved the plethora of Black issues, those that before they were waiting for the Second coming of Jesus Christ to solve. If you ask them though, "What have you done yourself since his presidency to solve your own personal or community problems" in most cases you'll get flashes of anger.
Cose wrote: "Even before Obama came on the scene, optimism was building—most notably among a new generation of black achievers who refused to believe they would be stymied by the bigotry that bedeviled their parents."
This is why we see this sudden deluge of negative news about the death of blacks by police and before that the scourge of black on black killings in our community. The terrorism card doesn't work with us because we've already survived the fear and terror of living in America for centuries. I am more worried about my children being killed by street gangsters or police than I am by terrorists. So that is the subconscious fear and anger that they try to incite in us.
I believe that Dr. King's dream has been fulfilled; that indeed he was a "Moses" of our people. But what followed, scripturally, the Moses, the visionary, was Joshua, the worker. We should see ourselves as the inheritors of his vision, but also as inheritors of the freedom to work and realize the full potential of our souls. To do this though we need to do as, South Carolina Governor, Nikki Haley advised in her recent Republican response to President Obama's last state of the Union message, and that is avoid the "siren call of the angriest voices."
America's Radical Extremist-in-Chief
Just when you thought the race for Republican presidential candidate couldn't get any crazier, any more extreme as presented by Donald Trump and Ben Carson, a new candidate emerges to vie for the title of "America's Radical Extremist-in-Chief-Ted Cruz."
As I have said before, Trump's role has always been that of a "Stalking horse', an experiment to see how extreme a segment of the public is willing to go. (November 27, 20156)
https://nurimadina.com/2015/11/27/the-rise-of-extremism-in-America/
They discovered his support was so broad that they couldn't reach the extreme. When they compared Trump to Hitler, a few commented, a few criticized but most just yawned. So they needed someone to take it even further. Enter Ted Cruz.
First they insulted and demonized Hispanics, then Blacks, and his numbers got stronger. They suggested Muslims should be disqualified from then country's highest office. They proposed registering Muslims, labeling them, closing their Mosques and excluding them if they don't profess Christianity. Now Cruz has the ultimate solution: 'Kill them.' Those are the sentiments of a savage whose only tool in his arsenal is a club.
In his latest proposal, which Paul Waldman of "The Week" calls "disastrously inhumane" Cruz proposes dealing with the problem of Isis by, in his words, "We will carpet-bomb them into oblivion. I don't know if sand can glow in the dark, but we're going to find out!"
http://theweek.com/articles/593448/ted-cruzs-plan-isis-disastrously-inhumane
That part about sand glowing in the dark is an obvious reference to his proposed use of nuclear weapons. Everyone knows that the territory ISIS claims to control is actually civilian populated areas, people who have themselves come under their domination—innocents—the very people we're supposed to be saving. But his solution–kill them all. Is that the ultimate god complex? 'Kill them all. I have the power of life and death.' And his poll numbers surge.
Allah (G-d) Most High says that Satan is in the extremes. He also says that Satan threatens you with poverty and poverty can be a lack or scarcity of anything. If we look at the possibility of any of those radicals being elected we naturally will be concerned—about the loss of our freedom, the loss of revenue, the loss of peace and security.
But these are distractions. I myself have been guilty of being distracted. Most of my blogs have focused on the latest incidents of international and domestic terrorism–about the people in America who demonize the inhumane acts of others and cover up their own. Yes, we do have be aware of these possibilities, be concerned and work against them. But we cannot become obsessed and exhaust our energy worrying about them.
That energy is better used to raise ourselves up—above ignorance, poverty and indecency. That is what will save us from whoever ends up in Washington.
All of this is designed to hide the fact that G-d has favored this nation. That's why everybody wants to come here and everybody wants to be them. But there's a new day, and now he has favored us. But we have to see past the slavery and oppression and know that G-d can take an evil plan and make good come out of it. Know that G-d was in charge then and now. Circumstances put us in the belly of the beast, and some of us were thrown overboard like Jonah and swallowed up, and spit out upon a barren shore. And some of us found refuge on Noah's ark and rose above the waves and rested on the mountain until the waters subsided. But either way nothing is going to stop then rise of this new man (mind) in America.
We are the real patriots
Men Like Moses
"If you love the Qur'an…"
Clyde El-Amin on We've Always Led Them to …
We Must Keep Moving… on NEW BOOK AVAILABLE NOW
The Apology of Privi… on NEW BOOK AVAILABLE NOW
Geraldine Simmons on Message on Dr. Martin Luther K…
Bakkah Rasheed on No Doubt: They Treat Us Harshe…

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: How to override all of the CSS for a specific element? I have a button which is from the bootstrap class; I want to add my CSS to the button too; but it seems that padding of bootstrap overrides my CSS! How can I override the CSS of Bootstrap in this case!
Also it iow sorth mentioning that I could override the bootstrap CSS by putting the CSS inline! But thats not what I what to do! Is there any better way that I can have my CSS in my seperate file and override the CSS of bootstrap in this cas (padding,...)
If you need more clarification, please let me know!
PS: I dont want to change the padding of CSS for the btn class either!
ADDED:
myCSS:
.delete_btn{
    width: 50px;
font-size: 8px;
height: 20px;
position: relative;
top: -7px;
text-align: center;
padding: 0px 10px 10px 10px;

}

my button:
<button id='images[i]['url']' class='btn btn-danger btn-xs delete_btn' >Delete</button>

Thanks,

A: You can take some actions to override the style:

*

*One be sure your CSS is loaded after the bootstrap.

*Two write your class at the end of the file.

*Three you can make more specific your selector with an id  like id="button" or descendent selectors like
 #container .myButtonClass {
       padding:0px;
 }

You can check more about priority of CSS definitions here and here

A: Use 'important' in your CSS.
For example:
You want your padding size not bootstrap provided size, then
.yourClass{

   padding:10px !important;

 }

Or
 #parentElement .yourClass{
 padding:10px;

}

A: Add id to the element and then apply your padding. Ids have higher specificity than classes.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
October 24, 2017 September 4, 2020 janaline's world journey
Walking across Tiananmen Square
Me aproaching Tiananmen Square!
I think that after traveling through China and riding on so many over-night trains I now know exactly what to expect and what to bring along for the ride. Armed with pot noodles and cans of ice-coffee and ice-tea we made the 17 hour train journey from Xian to Beijing. Arrived early morning in Beijing we only had time to leave our bags at the hotel before starting our day of exploring.
We walked up to Tiananmen square which was located just up the road from our hotel. It was really not very far away but by the time we reached the entrance sweat was dripping down my back. I couldn't believe it was this hot and humid already, it was only 10am and I was dying to have a cold shower!
Tiananmen Square is a large city square in the center of Beijing, China, named after the Tiananmen Gate (Gate of Heavenly Peace) located to its North.
This Square is the third largest city square in the world. The Tiananmen square was designed and built in 1651, and has since enlarged four times its original size in the 1950s. It has great cultural significance as it was the site of several important events in Chinese history.
I think that the square is best known to us foreigners as the focal point of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. It was a pro-democracy movement which ended on 4 June 1989 with the declaration of martial law in Beijing by the government and the death of several hundred or possibly thousands of civilians. One of the most famous images that appears during these protests was when a man stands in front of a moving tank and refuses to move. This became a revolutionary icon in fighting against the government at the time.
Standing infront of the south gate known as Qianmen
We entered Tiananmen Square through the south gate known as Qianmen and had to walk through metal detectors before being allowed onto this famous Square. We walked across the packed square. Getting to stand in the middle of this Square where one of the most famous massacres in history took place was such a moving experience.
Me standing on Tiananmen Square!!!
The year after Mao's death in 1976, a Mausoleum was built near the site of the former Gate of China. People were lined up as far as the eye could see waiting for their chance to enter this mausoleum and get a look at the embalmed body of Mao. We were not going to waste a couple of hours standing in line for this and rather explored the huge square before going into the Forbidden City.
The huge bronze Monument to the People's Heroes was breathtakingly huge and stood out above the crowd filling this huge square. Thousands of people come to the Square every day so it is quite crowded.
The National Museum of China
Along the east side of the Square we passed the National Museum of China with its beautifully sculpted gardens (dedicated to Chinese history predating 1919). The Square is heavily monitored by uniformed and plain clothes policemen.
The granite Monument to the People's Heroes is just at the center of the square. Built in 1952, it is the largest monument in China's history. ' The People's Heroes are Immortal' written by Chairman Mao is engraved on the monument. Eight unusually large relief sculptures show to the people the development of Chinese modern history. Two rows of white marble railings enclose the monument, simple and beautiful.
Our fabulous China Odyssey group infront of the Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City
The Tiananmen Gate to the Forbidden City was built in 1415 during the Ming Dynasty. This gate separates the Tiananmen Square from the Forbidden City that lies just across the road.
China Odyssey
Previous The Worlds largest Buddha and the Leshan Dafo Temple
Next Stepping into Beijing's Forbidden City
Forestwoodfolkart says:
Interesting post. I have been told by Chinese international students that the Tiannamen massacre never happened, it was just western propaganda! Yet I saw the footage on the TV all those years ago. I can't forget that.
It is amazing that a country can just wipe out a piece of its history in the minds of its children…its sad that they think it is all a myth. It was a very shocking part of their history that they should know of and learn from, I think.
Totally agree with you.
Bams Triwoko says:
Such a wonderful trip… love the red umbrella.. 🙂
Thanks Bams! It was a wonderful adventure and must say the umbrella did help a bit against the harsh summer heat.
Very nice parasol!
Thank you!! I love these Chinese umbrellas and couldnt resist buying more than one during my adventure.
bebs1 says:
You seem to be full of energy despite the heat and long travels.
Thanks Bebs….I must admit that at times the humidity did get to me but I didnt let it stop me from having a fabulous time exploring China!
lisabonowiczphotography says:
Wonderful photos! And I love that umbrella 🙂
Thank you!! I had so much fun playing with my new Chinese Umbrella that day!
lolaWi says:
great blog and photos Janaline! love the red umbrella! thanks for sharing!
Thank you!! The umbrella was a cheerfull and actually quite usefull addition as it was quite hot during the day and I could hide under the little shade it provided.
Pride in Photos Photography says:
You make every trip look so delightful♥
Thank you!! I must say I enjoyed every trip and place we explored in China so much….I would love to go back someday.
Wonderful tour of Tiananmen, Janaline! Love your red umbralla 🙂
What a tragedy in 1989…
Thanks Amy! I love these playful Chinese umbrellas and ended up buying another one before the end of the tour.
chrisstov says:
Very lovely photographs of interesting architecture and people in Tiananmen Square.
Thank you Chrisstov. It was such a beautiful place to photograph, just a pitty it was so crowded.
Madhu says:
Beautiful photos Janaline. And I love that natty umbrella 🙂
Thanks Madhu! Ended up being a blessing against the super hot sun!
Lignum Draco says:
I was there in 1979. Back then, bicycles outnumbered cars and soldiers on the street outnumbered tourists. Things have certainly changed now.
I can just imagine that it would have been much less crowded back then but that the people also had less freedom….


↑ "Six cities to get metropolitan status". Timeshas of India. Times of India. पहुँचतिथी 8 July 2017.
↑ "Meerut Municipal Corporation e-Newsletter April 2017" (PDF). Meerut Municipal Corporation e-Newsletter: 2. अप्रैल 2017.


All of us in the blueberry industry received great news late last week. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced that the highbush blueberry producers and importers have voted to continue the Blueberry Promotion, Research and Information Order.
The voting took place July 5 - July 26 this year. Eighty-eight percent of eligible voters, representing 98 percent of the volume of blueberries produced or imported by those voting, support continuing the program. With a majority of votes and a majority of the volume, the referendum passed.
Research and promotion programs are self-help programs, funded through industry member assessments and administered by board members selected by the Secretary of Agriculture. They allow commodity groups to conduct promotion, market and production research, and new product development for the benefit of their industries.
All of us at Fall Creek deeply believe in the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council and the immensely valuable work done on behalf of its membership. We were pleased to see such a strong voter turnout. Thank you to all who voted yes to continue these vital efforts!


Bonnie Dumanis' more than three decades of public service have earned her a hefty annual pension of $268,800.
The former district attorney is now running for a County Board of Supervisors seat, and last month The San Diego-Union Tribune uncovered that she had hired a legal team to look into whether she could continue collecting her pension even if she wins a seat on the county Board of Supervisors, where she could earn a sizable salary as well.
Dumanis' political consultant told the U-T that despite the inquiry, Dumanis never intended to accept a county supervisor salary. But records obtained by the U-T did not mention that she planned to decline her salary.
Lawmakers had largely banned "double dipping" — simultaneously earning a public pension and a government salary — but the practice is back for most elected officials in California, thanks to laws passed quietly in two recent budget bills.
On Wednesday, Dumanis held a meeting with reporters where she again said she will not accept a salary if elected. On this week's podcast, hosts Scott Lewis and Andrew Keatts discuss Dumanis' strange explanation for why she didn't say she wouldn't collect a salary on top of her pension while her lawyers were fighting for her right to collect a salary on top of her pension.
She said it's because her official campaign — which everyone thought was officially announced in September — doesn't begin until March.
Also on the podcast, Lewis is seething over ReserveCalifornia, California State Parks' new online system for reserving camping and lodging reservations. He says it's the worst.
Geneviéve Jones-Wright, a Democrat and public defender running for district attorney, joined the podcast this week to discuss her reform-minded campaign.
She said the district attorney's office needs to shift from its tough-on-crime mindset and instead spend some resources on building community trust and preventing crime.
Jones-Wright had harsh words for Dumanis and the County Board of Supervisors. She called the way in which Dumanis stepped down as district attorney and promoted a preferred replacement, whom the board appointed to the interim position, a corrupt succession plan.
She also talks about her stance on the prosecutorial and prison reforms in initiatives like Prop. 57 and Prop. 47, her take on the death penalty and more.
This week's hero is the San Diego Unified School District, which this week reversed course and will no longer send debt collectors after parents who are late to pay their children's school bus fees. A recent Voice of San Diego story revealed that in the 2014-2015 school year alone, the district referred 380 parents to a collections agency.
The city's water department gets goated for its initial dodging of responsibility for overblown water bills received by many residents, a problem the city later acknowledged was likely its fault.


The project aims to strengthen the production, productivity and sustainability of the ovine-caprine sector in the West Bank, improving the accessibility to water, to animal feed and to grazing lands, the profitability of the herds, through sustainable technical services and increasing the profitability of animal farming products managed by women, marketing and commercialization of products and the ability of supplying veterinary services.
Given the particular situation in the West Bank, that includes mobility restrictions and the lack of access to basic services for the population, the project aims to improve the accessibility and management of resources, to the productivity growth through technical assistance, training, support the ability of market penetration of products deriving from animal farming, dairy products in particular, to the support to the structuring of active actors in supplying zoo-technical services, in order to improve long term sustainability in the ovine and caprine breeding sector, being central to the guaranteeing of food for self-consumption and incomes for the Palestinian families from rural areas.
• Improvement of the technical assistance services to the farmers.


Troublesomely averse to giving trouble, perhaps I should have said.
She reached Chalk-Newton, and breakfasted at an inn, where several young men were troublesomely complimentary to her good looks.
The interior of the city is ill built: the streets are narrow and irregular, and the pavement is most troublesomely rough.
The teeth, which lend so much life to the face, are troublesomely small to represent.
Alas, it seemed that this was an old, old struggle that must be troublesomely fought out, again and again down the generations.