A TEMPLE WITHIN AN IRON ORCHESTRA

by with No Comment CultureFeatured

Silverback’s Note: There are no “Avengers: Endgame” spoilers ahead.

We gather at the Acropolis of Brooklyn. Our sneakers hit the artificial turf from various races, ethnicities, experiences, sexualities, regions, sizes, shapes, journeys, and stories.

Some of us drive the subway cars that herd millions of New Yorkers and visitors throughout this great city.

Some of us have raised our right hands to take an oath to support and defend the laws of the United States Constitution.

Some of us aspire to perform our talents under the brightest lights on the biggest stages.

We are “Kranksters.”

And on the surface, what brings this diverse community together is simply iron, rubber, and sweat.

However, if you attune your ears to the sounds that thunder from Krank Brooklyn you might hear a beautiful harmony.

Situated on the top floor of a less than auspicious storage facility, Krank is a boutique fitness gym featuring a body of citizens that exemplify America’s idealistic goals for diversity.

For me though, Krank has been the buoy that I drift to in my darkest moments lost at sea.

Owner Dan Salazar launched Krank in 2010. His love of performance science and insane competitive drive fueled his passion to master the art of training himself and others. The dude has over 15 training related credentials and certifications. The guy basically has information spilling out of his signature beanie. He is so encouraging, his energy is infectious.

A native New Yorker from the Lower East Side (LES) of Manhattan, Dan’s entrepreneurial spirit embodies a dream that has been fulfilled for millions of Latinos who arrived in New York City just a generation ago hoping to provide a better future for their families.

Dan’s vast knowledge and passion for training is what attracted some of the first Kranksters to join the gym. Admittedly, these first Kranksters were some of his childhood friends from the neighborhood in LES.

You may not be aware of this but it’s a Herculean task to get folks who live in Manhattan to cross the bridge and come into Brooklyn for anything — let alone to work out. The fact that he was able to convince his friends from the neighborhood to cross the bridge and put them through grueling workouts is a testament to just how special of a guy Dan is.

These “O.G. Kranksters” cemented the foundation this community is built upon.

One of these O.G.’s changed the course of his career by joining Krank. Head Coach, Miguel Gonzalez, known by various nicknames that are all synonymous with pain — mostly goes by “Migs” for short.

Miguel is genetically gifted and incredibly hard-working. The gods bestowed upon him a physique that appears to be carved out of marble, and I am convinced that he farts body fat for laughs. Nicknames and body fat aside, my fellow Aquarian is one of the most authentic, genuine, and caring guys I’ve come to know in recent years. I’ve always walked away from our discussions with a deep sense of connection. But more on that later.

Today — almost a decade later — Dan and Miguel continue to conduct Krank sessions like maestros. Directing, instructing, encouraging Kranksters and coaches to push themselves even harder to achieve their goals. All while remaining in tune with the pulse and pace of every section of this iron orchestra.

Traditional orchestras have four sections separated into categories of instrument. There is a woodwind, brass, percussion, and string section. Krank’s iron orchestra also features four sections. There’s the turf section, the rubber section, the iron section, and the raised platform section.

It was at this Acropolis where I built my Parthenon: my temple dedicated to guarding myself against my innermost demons.

Like most first time Kranksters, I couldn’t find the gym for my first session back in 2013. (Spoiler alert, the gym is actually inside the storage facility next to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway)

I hobbled into this no-frills storage facility desperate to make a change.

A few months earlier I had torn my second Achilles’ tendon playing basketball and required surgery to repair the injury.

Against my surgeon’s advice and with my thighs chafing from the August humidity, I rode the elevator thinking to myself, “What the (bleep) did I get myself into?”

Dan and Miguel’s attention to the limitations of my injury and their vast knowledge of modifying exercises for me to prevent further injury reassured me that this gym was the perfect match.

Months later I had reclaimed my body and was stronger than ever, but even more importantly, I had formed new friendships with some amazing people I had met along my Krank journey.

I love to challenge and compete with myself. But how does one compete with themselves without first establishing a baseline of success?

All right: Now I’ll admit that while I was hobbling through my first session I was picking out other Kranksters who I wanted to model my success after.

Later I would meet three Krank legends: Angel, Jamal, and Jessica.

Angel, an O.G. Krankster from LES, is a devoted family man and the strongest person that I know. Now I’m strong for your average mortal, but Angel is a Puerto Rican Samson. His strength is of biblical proportions.

Jamal, an O.G. Krankster from Brooklyn of Caribbean descent, is the most athletic person that I know. After years at Krank, I surpassed him in strength on the bench press and he then put me to shame by walking his large muscular frame on his hands for the entire length of the gym. (Yes, you read that correctly.)

Jessica, an O.G. Krankster from one of those cities in New England (kidding, Boston) is one of the most consistent people I know. There she is, day in and day out, a living embodiment of Krank’s mantra: “Do work, son!” Like me, she’s also of Cape Verdean descent which often reminds me of our ancestors.

Strength, agility, and consistency. Afro and Latino. Togetherness and encouragement. All the qualities that I possess, represented through these legendary Kranksters. The Krank community had breathed life into me and awakened the finest characteristics of my being.

It was also around this time in 2014 that I began to see a therapist on a weekly basis.

Between the almost daily sessions at Krank and my weekly visits with my therapist, I had begun to transform my mind and body. The place where I could release stress, let out a roar, and embrace the sense of community that we social creatures crave. Krank had become my sanctuary, my temple.

In fact, it was in my workouts with Angel and Jamal that the moniker “Silverback” was born.

Then years later through my love of music, I would add “Soulful” to Silverback and here we are.

So you see Soulful Silverback was conceived during a time of holistic wellness in my life. As a result of that healthy foundation, Soulful Silverback represents the finest ideals of who I continually strive to be as a person. Krank is the temple where the Silverback defeats his personal Thanos (the devastating supervillain from Marvel’s Avengers series).

Over the last two years, I’ve allowed that inner Thanos to get the upper hand on me and I found myself yet again lost at sea.

Krank is a short 10-minute walk from my apartment and I had intentionally been avoiding that climb to the Acropolis of Brooklyn.

I had forgotten what the iron orchestra sounded like and I was embarrassed to return in the poor shape I was in.

But like Thor in Marvel’s latest “Avengers: Endgame” film, I had to remind myself that, “I’m still worthy.” (And if you’ve seen the film, I probably looked like him too)

My mind, body, and soul was yearning for a dip in the temple waters.

Then out of the blue, my phone was buzzing. It was a text from Jessica and two other Kranksters wondering where I had been.

Like the Hulk, they encouraged me to come back home to Krank. I got the sense that they missed the Silverback but more importantly, I missed them.

Weeks have passed since I returned to my temple atop the Acropolis of Brooklyn and oh how I have missed rumbling around this sanctuary.

As I was alluding to earlier, the discussions on the temple grounds of Krank are sometimes even better than the workouts themselves (if you can catch your breath).

They are discussions that would make any political pollster salivate. Discussions that express the soaring highs and the dark lows of the human experience. Discussions that center around the eternal principles of art, faith, justice, thought, and love.

They are topics, discussions, and stories that exemplify the storytelling tradition of our species. And in the backdrop, the drive that our species has to improve on what Leonardo da Vinci thought he perfected when he drew the Vitruvian Man.

Dan, Miguel, Angel, Jamal, Jessica, and countless other Kranksters are all central figures in my adventures atop the Acropolis of Brooklyn. They are the people who make Krank a special community to be a part of. It’s these interconnected bonds — a celebration of togetherness — that lures every Krankster back to sweat in that old storage facility.

These days as I take that rickety elevator to the 8th floor — those blue elevator doors slowly peel open and as I get closer to the temple grounds — I can hear the instruments of the iron orchestra get louder and louder.

I smile as I am reminded that there is healing in community, and together we go farther than we could alone.

Time to “Do work, son!” and be the hero of your own story.

Similar Read: Dreams of Wakanda

Beyonce’s Homecoming – For Us, By Us

by with No Comment CultureFeaturedGen Z

If there’s any artist that’s capable of stopping the world, it’s Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter.

In 2018, she delivered her highly anticipated performance at Coachella as the festivals’ first Black female headliner and left observers completely in awe. A year later, on April 17, 2019, her Netflix documentary Homecoming premiered, which chronicles the journey she went on to craft her legendary performance. In the film, Beyoncé says “When I decided to do Coachella, instead of me pulling out my flower crown, it was more important that I brought our culture to Coachella.” Watching Homecoming was very impressive, as it gave me more insight into the hard work, sacrifice and intentionality that went into it. There were many aspects that made Beychella pure excellence, but my favorite aspect was seeing the celebration of Black culture taking center stage. 

Beyoncé mentions in the documentary that she grew up near Prairie View A&M University and spent a lot of time during the early years of her career rehearsing at Texas Southern University. Her father is a graduate of Fisk University and she always dreamed of attending a Historically Black institution of higher learning. Beychella paid homage to the nine Black Greek Letter Organizations and an HBCU Homecoming ceremony, with the inclusion of steppers, majorettes, and a marching band. Although I don’t attend an HBCU, I appreciate and respect the importance and significance that they hold, and have witnessed over the years the way that they’re often undervalued. But in the words of Beyoncé, “There is something incredibly important about the HBCU experience that must be celebrated and protected.” With Beychella, she did just that. 

Beychella also included her own rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”—which the NAACP dubbed the Black National Anthem—which transitioned into her pro-Black anthem, “Formation.” She and her dancers swag surfed, danced to a mix of her hit “Crazy in Love” and Juveniles’ “Back That A** Up”, and included the instrumental to C-Murders “Down For My N*****”. The same day that Homecoming was available for streaming, she released her live album of the same name, which featured her cover of Frankie Beverly and Maze’s “Before I Let Go”, which is a staple at Black functions. Although Coachella’s audience is predominantly White (which made it all the more special that in Homecoming, the camera repeatedly focused on Black audience members), Beyoncé took the opportunity to shine a light on the pure greatness that is Black culture.

While watching Homecoming, one of my greatest sources of joy was that a light was also shone on Black women through voiceovers of icons Nina Simone and Maya Angelou, as well as the many Black women on stage. During Beychella, dancer/choreographer Edidiong Emah was given a solo, and in the film, she says she once felt she was “too short and too thick” and never dreamed she would be there. The space that Black female performers like Edidiong were given onstage was amazing.

In a voiceover, Beyoncé makes a statement that I—and I’m sure many other Black women—could relate to… “As a Black woman, I used to feel like the world wanted me to stay in my little box. And Black women often feel underestimated.” She adds, “I wanted us to be proud of not only the show, but the process and proud of the struggle. Thankful for the beauty that comes with a painful history and rejoice in the pain. Rejoice in the imperfections and the wrongs that are so damn right. And I wanted everyone to feel grateful for their curves, their sass, their honesty. Thankful for the freedom. It was no rules and we were able to create a free, safe space where none of us were marginalized.” Ensuring that her performance made Black women feel prideful, represented, and appreciated was clearly a major priority for her, something that I found very special since the world treats Black women as an afterthought. These women had various skin tones, body types, and skillsets, making Beychella all the more beautiful.

Homecoming provides an insight into the hard work and dedication that was put into Beychella: a stunning display of the beauty that exists in Black culture, Black womanhood, and Black colleges. Black people are the owners of Black culture despite constant attempts to hijack it, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the love of our culture being celebrated by one of its’ actual, rightful owners. Beychella was the embodiment of “for us, by us” and I will forever appreciate it. 

Similar Read: Twice as Good to Get Half of What They Have

Antwon Rose

by with 2 Comments CultureFeaturedGen Z

Black bodies, young and old, are being cut down by blue hands. This has become the American Normal, an epidemic that many have been fighting to find a cure for. Black Lives Matter is the largest movement of today, potentially since the Panthers. Their aim is to establish equality in the Land of the Free, to show that freedom belongs to Black people also.

Since the abolition of slavery, our chains aren’t visible, but that doesn’t make them any less present. Our movements are restricted through racial profiling, generalizations, and a fear of police. The police force was formed to protect people from people by people. This force is comprised of people who go above and beyond to make our neighborhoods and cities safer to reside in. Lately, I have begun to question, safe from whom? 

What determines someone is dangerous? Reaching for an ID which is being asked for? For having on a hoodie with the hood up? For demanding to know why they’re being detained? For resisting arrest? For being Black? While the reasons behind these deaths aren’t certain, in the last few years, the number of fallen Black bodies has been on the rise. Unarmed Black bodies. Unarmed Black bodies of young men and women, of fathers and mothers, of brothers and sisters.

People make mistakes of all proportions. We are all imperfectly human. What makes a person worth their salt is their ability and willingness to take responsibility for their mistakes.

We have to hold everyone to the same extent of the law, which includes law enforcement. Simply because they enforce the law does not mean that they are above it. When an officer is killed, the person or persons responsible for it are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. When a civilian is killed, sometimes the officer is fired, maybe they face jail time, but more often than not it feels as if everyone is getting off scot-free, with a slap on the wrist called an acquittal.

Antwon Rose II was seventeen when he and his friend Zaijuan Hester were pulled over for driving a car that fit the description of one that just did a drive by a mile and a half away. Why did they run after being pulled over? What Black boy in this America would sit still when they see the boys in blue in their rearview mirror? And that officer is White, which is, unfortunately, the common scenario for these wrongful deaths? Get away or die trying.

There was footage taken from an apartment window of the shooting. As discussed in court and what can be plainly seen, Rose and Hester were running. All of a sudden ex-Officer Michael Rosfeld was shooting. There was no pursuit, just three rounds echoing in the silence in East Pittsburgh. I watched this video at least twenty times, trying to see anything other than another unarmed Black body hitting the ground with injuries that proved fatal. Each time I jumped as the shots pierced through the air.

There were three people in the car that was seen in surveillance footage that fled from a drive-by shooting. When Rosfeld and his partner pulled the car over, it would make sense to wait for backup since there was no telling how the situation would unfold. It was a choice to engage the teenagers without waiting. It was a choice to not pursue Rose and Hester as they fled. It was a choice to shoot at them, and those three shots landing into Rose’s back. Rosfeld was charged with criminal homicide, which includes murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter under Pennsylvania law, according to CNN.

As of March 22nd, 2019, Rosfeld was fully acquitted of all charges that could have been upheld. The nation, and especially Rose’s loved ones, are in uproar over the fact the jury’s deliberations lasted less than four hours. Rosfeld was given the proverbial slap on the wrist for murdering a teenage boy, like many others before him.

Race relations in America gets bleaker by the day. America shouldn’t be a battleground. Lives shouldn’t be lost due to itchy trigger fingers and bad snap judgments. We are losing our young people who will make a better tomorrow. While these lives cannot be revived, we can at least in their own effect positive change so that no more bodies join theirs in the statistic of Black lives lost as a result of police violence. 

Similar Read: Dancing With the Devil… A Brooklyn Perspective on Gun Violence 

I Read The Mueller Report… Here is My Summary

by with 2 Comments FeaturedPolitics

I Read The Mueller Report, and Here is My Summary. 

You can read it too if you have the time:

https://apps.npr.org/documents/document.html?id=5955997-Muellerreport

These are my summations and conclusions:

VOLUME 1 – Russian Meddling in the U.S. Election and Collusion with the Trump Campaign

p. 9 Mueller gave the report straight to the Attorney-General because he was ordered to do so by the original mandate. Even if, as evidenced in this memo: https://www.law.com/nationallawjournal/2018/12/20/read-bill-barrs-19-page-memo-ripping-mueller-probe/?slreturn=20190318182817, William Barr is politically compromised in favor of President Trump (a la Roy Cohn), Mueller did his job and followed the letter of the law rather than go rogue and release the unredacted report to Congress or the public. Because of decisions like this, and because Mueller did not make any brash decisions to prosecute Trump even with overwhelming evidence of obstruction (as I will summarize later), Mueller’s credibility is without blemish. This report is to be believed whether you love or hate Trump and his associates.

p. 9 The Russian government interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump get elected. This is not a conspiracy, this is a fact.

p. 9 The Special Counsel’s appointment was predicated on Intelligence gathered BEFORE the Steele Dossier. So there can no longer be discussion about this investigation being illicit on the grounds of wrongly obtained FISA warrants or anything else related to the Steele Dossier.

p. 9 The Special Counsel found that Trump Campaign Foreign Policy Advisor George Papadapoulos had met in May of 2016 with a Russian Government Agent to obtain disparaging information on Hillary Clinton and consequently started its investigation into Russian Involvement in the election in July of 2016.

p. 9 The Russian Government perceived that it could benefit from a Trump Presidency and worked to secure that outcome.

p. 10 Collusion is not a crime and the Special Counsel focused on “coordination” or “conspiracy” which would require an agreement – tacit or express – between the Trump Campaign and the Russian government. It was established that the Russian Government helped Trump and that Trump enjoyed this help, but no evidence could be found to conclude that this was planned prior to the election.

p. 12 The Russians targeted Clinton, her campaign staff, and all her major supporters spreading false information about them as well as accurate information that was damning. These operations were carried out by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) which was funded by Russian Oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin (who is heavily tied to Russian President Vladimir Putin).

p. 12 The IRA started in 2014 with the goal of simply disrupting the American Electoral process and sow discord amongst the United States (the U.S. being Russia’s greatest obstacle to economic and political power). As Trump became a viable candidate in 2016, the IRA switched its objectives to helping him win after identifying him as incredibly favorable to Russian national interests.

p. 13 There were numerous communications between the Trump campaign and the Russian Government (which were lied about, consequently resulting in criminal indictments for many in the Trump Campaign), but the Special Counsel could not establish that there was a prior conspiracy to coordinate the many damaging releases of information by Wikileaks (via the IRA) to hurt Clinton and help Trump.

Again, The Russian Government identified Trump as the best candidate for their future success and worked to help him get elected. It could simply not be proven that Trump conspired with them towards their goal.

p. 13 Trump was trying to build Trump Tower Moscow in 2015 and lied about this during the campaign saying, “We have no business with Russia.” The deal would have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars to Trump.

p. 14 On August 2nd, 2016, Paul Manafort met with a Russian Agent to establish a plan for Russia to control Eastern Ukraine after Trump’s election (while the U.S. would essentially look the other way).

p. 14 Wikileaks (via IRA) released the Podesta emails hours after Trump’s damning “grab ‘em by the pussy” video to help the Trump Campaign change the national discourse from his behavior on that bus to the DNC’s unethical behavior during the primary (which ultimately hurt Bernie Sanders’ chances of winning). This was action taken by a foreign government to interfere in the U.S. election to help Trump win.

p. 15 After Trump was elected, dozens of Russian businessmen started reaching out to the Trump campaign to set up phone calls and meetings.

p. 15 Obama sanctioned Russia for interfering in the U.S. election and Michael Flynn personally requested to his Russian contacts not to escalate the situation because Trump would likely not continue these penalties against Russia.

p. 17 The Special Counsel found a great deal of evidence for contacts between the Trump Campaign and Russia, but not enough evidence to file criminal charges. So, there is evidence of collusion, just not enough to prosecute.

p. 17 Many members of the Trump campaign lied about their Russian contacts and this is why there are so many indictments and Trump campaign members currently serving jail time.

p. 18 The Republican Party changed its stance on Russia (from hostile to friendly) in the summer of 2016, but the Special Counsel could not conclude that this was related to a conspiracy between the Trump Campaign and Russia.

p. 18 MANY INDIVIDUALS INTERVIEWED PLEADED THE 5th, LIED IN THEIR TESTIMONY, OR WERE FOUND TO HAVE DELETED INFORMATION RELEVANT TO THE INVESTIGATION. In other words, the Special Counsel is making decisions based on evidence it could find, but states in this report that a TON of information has been illegally discarded, including via the methods that many Republicans accuse the Clinton campaign of utilizing (acid washing email servers, destroying computers, etc.).

The Special Counsel therefore states that there could be more evidence that DOES prove conspiracy between Trump and the Russian Government.

p. 19-33 information on how the Special Counsel was formed, its jurisdiction, and information about the Russian hacking agency IRA. Most of this is redacted.

p. 33 The IRA spent $100,000 to purchase over 3,500 advertisements on Facebook that promoted groups supporting Trump and spreading false information about Clinton.

p. 34 IRA fake accounts reached tens of millions of people and attracted hundreds of thousands of followers.

p. 34 Before their deactivation in 2017, fake Russian accounts spreading propaganda in favor of Trump and false information about Hillary Clinton had reached an estimated 126 million people.

p. 35 U.S. Media regularly quoted the false information from these fake accounts as factual news, notably Sean Hannity, Michael McFaul, Roger Stone, and Michale Flynn Jr. who retweeted or cited these fake sources on network Television.

p. 37 The IRA organized hundreds of rallies via Facebook across the U.S. by having a Page administrator host the rally and then claim they could not personally attend, leaving the ground organization to the enthusiastic members of the group. The earliest evidence of this technique was a “confederate rally” in November 2015.

SIDE NOTE: Russia’s goal is to destabilize America (because America’s military presence prevents Russia from controlling major resources, trade routes, and strategic lands like the port of Crimea and Georgia which Russia annexed over the course of the Obama administration). But to accomplish this, Russia has studied the issues that sow the most division in America and have sought to fan the flames which already exist here – like racism, Confederate sympathizers, Nazi Sympathizers, the Ku Klux Klan, gun rights, Police protection vs. minority targeting, the Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice battle, anti-Immigrant sentiment, religious division, etc.

Trump’s voting base is almost entirely made up of single “wedge” issue voters who only need to hear one sentence: “I support your position” to gain their votes. This is an obviously successful political strategy that plays perfectly into the goals of the Russian Government: sowing divisiveness. It may be the case that Trump is not a witting agent of Russia (although the Mueller report does not rule that out), but he is at least an unwitting agent of their agenda to get America to fight amongst itself while Russia promotes its interests globally.

p. 39 The IRA recruited individuals it believed could help further its agenda of helping Trump and hurting Clinton. It focused on individuals who could “amplify” its content.

p. 41 The Special Counsel found two definite links between the IRA and the Trump Campaign, but none between IRA and Clinton.

p. 42-65 All the hacking techniques used by IRA including how they got the data and disseminated it via Guccifer 2.0, Wikileaks, and DC Leaks.

Also outlines what actions many Trump campaign officials undertook to defraud the United States and essentially commit treason by assisting Russia/IRA.

MANY REDACTIONS here.

p. 68 Trump Jr. was communicating directly with Wikileaks about damaging information.

p. 69 The Special Counsel did not find that the Trump campaign actually did the hacking or released the damning information, but that they simply welcomed its effect on the election. The famous Don Jr. “I love it,” email when he heard about dirt on Hillary is not evidence of a criminal conspiracy.

p. 70-73 Because Clinton did use a private email server (which was reckless, but not criminal according to the FBI), her communications that she destroyed were vulnerable and in fact had been obtained by many foreign agencies. The Trump campaign was trying to find these emails (to use against her), but this is still part of “politics as usual,” and they did not specifically coordinate with a foreign government in this regard.

p. 74-120 Outlines all the links between Russia and the Trump campaign (there are many).

p. 74 Trump Tower Moscow details (it was a very real project for years).
TRUMP WAS WORKING ON GETTING THE TRUMP TOWER MOSCOW PROJECT DONE WELL INTO HIS CAMPAIGN WHEN HE LIED ABOUT “NO BUSINESS WITH RUSSIA.”

Was this because he was conspiring with Russian Oligarchs to win the election and then help Russian National interests? Or just because he knew it would look extremely bad if the President of the United States was doing business with a hostile nation?

Either way, the President lied repeatedly to the American people for reasons that are extremely impeachable (attempting to use the Office of the President for personal enrichment which violates the Emoluments Clause), or treasonous (conspiring with a hostile foreign power to defraud the United States).

p. 118 At the Trump Tower Meeting, Trump Jr., Manafort, and Kushner met with Russian Agents to discuss “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. Trump Jr. later lied about this meeting after Trump instructed him to (this is public knowledge now after Trump’s lawyer released a letter stating that Trump helped to craft the letter pretending that the meeting was to discuss adoption).

p. 131 Russians at the Republican National Convention (notably Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak) got the Republican platformed changed from “lethal assistance to Ukraine in response to Russian aggression” to “appropriate assistance.”

p. 133 A Trump representative stopped the Republican National Convention Committee from drafting a platform amendment that was tougher on Russian aggression towards Ukraine. Support for NATO was also discouraged with Trump’s representative J.D. Gordon stating that “We don’t want to start World War III over that region.”

In other words, Trump’s position on Europe and Russia is to be hands off and let them figure it out. This isn’t necessarily wrong, but it goes against the US (and Republican Party) policy since probably World War II.

p. 137-152 Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort, his assistant Rick Gates, and their criminal connections to Ukraine and Russia.

p. 153-181 After the election, multiple Russian Oligarchs, Businessmen, and Politicians began reaching out to the Trump Campaign through channels that had been pre-established (including the Russian embassy).

p. 182 The decisions to prosecute (or not prosecute).

p. 183 Trump Campaign did have contact with IRA, but did not do so with criminal intent.

p. 183 Many Russian hackers were charged with Computer-Intrusion Conspiracy.

p. 184-188 Almost all redacted.

p. 188 The Trump Tower meeting was not a conspiracy or a violation of campaign finance law because no evidence of any criminal intent was established. However, this meeting was lied about multiple times and has consequently yielded several obstruction of justice charges already against U.S. citizens.

p. 189 The report defines “conspiracy” (“collusion”) and says that Trump and his associates did many suspicious things, but they could not find evidence of a criminal coordination to defraud the United States. This does not mean there was NO evidence, just not enough to prosecute.

p. 190 Manafort and Gates illegally engaged in acts on behalf of a foreign principal (hence their prosecution and jail time).

p. 191 Michael Flynn also violated the same act. These men were essentially trying to sell out their country in the interest of helping other countries (for lots of money).

p. 192 There was no campaign finance law violations because the Trump Campaign never paid money for the “dirt” on Clinton and thus never unlawfully spent campaign finance money to help win the election.

p. 192-195 Essentially the June 9th 2016 Trump Tower Meeting was incredibly close to violating a Federal Law banning foreign assistance during campaigns, but the Special Counsel could not prosecute on the grounds that “recounting damning information that is historically accurate” does not constitute a “thing of value” (they then go on to define “thing of value” to prove their point).

SIDE NOTE: So there WAS a type of collusion between the Trump Campaign and Russian Agents, but just not technically according to legal definitions. 

p. 196-199 Redacted (this is suspicious).

p. 199-206 All the indictments because of lying to the FBI

VOLUME 2 – Obstruction of Justice Investigation of the President

p. 213 MUELLER STATES THAT HE CANNOT PROSECUTE THE PRESIDENT BECAUSE THAT ACTION IS UP TO CONGRESS. So he is only providing evidence here and it clearly points to the fact that Donald Trump obstructed justice.

p.213 MUELLERS STATES THAT A PRESIDENT CANNOT BE PROSECUTED (ONLY IMPEACHED), WHILE HE IS IN OFFICE. This leaves the door open for prosecution once Trump leaves office.

There is a good reason for this precedent. A President could be implicated in a dozen crimes of which he is innocent and standing trial for those crimes would take all of his or her time away from the all important office and duties he or she is meant to uphold. A President’s crimes must be so egregious and obvious that Impeachment becomes necessary and this requires an enormous majority of Congress to accomplish (which also makes it a Political trial more than an evidence-based trial).

p. 214 IF TRUMP WAS INNOCENT, THE SPECIAL COUNSEL REPORT WOULD HAVE STATED IT. HE IS NOT.

The report on Obstruction all but states that Trump committed Obstruction on the first page, but leaves the conclusion (and trial) up to the Congress.

p. 215 Mueller outlines the main evidence for Obstruction of Justice in the first chunk of this Volume. Here are the main points:

  1. During the 2016 campaign, Trump lied publicly that he did not believe Russia was responsible for hacking the DNC when privately he was seeking even more information from Wikileaks which he knew was connected to Russia.
  2. Trump also lied about having business connections in Russia during his campaign while he was, in fact, negotiating with Russian Oligarchs to build Trump Tower Moscow.
  3. After being elected, Trump expressed private concerns that the Russia Investigation might delegitimize his Presidency.
  4. On January 27th, 2017, the day after the President was informed that Michael Flynn lied to the FBI, the President invited FBI Director Comey to dinner at the White House and demanded loyalty.
  5. On February 14th, 2017, the day after the President asked for Flynn’s resignation, the President told an advisor, “Now that we fired Flynn, the Russia thing is over.” The advisor disagreed and said the investigation would continue. Hearing this, the President cleared the Oval Office to have a one-on-one meeting with Comey (to the dismay of all of Trump’s advisors), and asked Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn.
  6. Trump sought to have Deputy National Advisor K.T. McFarland draft an internal letter stating that the President had not directed Flynn to discuss sanctions with Kislyak (this is actually more proof of Russian Collusion). McFarland declined because she did not know if that was true and this letter would look like a quid-pro-quo for the ambassadorship she had just been offered.
  7. In February of 2017, Trump told Don McGahn to stop Sessions from recusing himself on the Russia Investigation. When Sessions recused himself, Trump expressed outrage and told advisors he should have an Attorney General that would protect him. Trump took Sessions aside that weekend and told him to “un-recuse.”
  8. Later in March, Comey publicly disclosed to Congress that the FBI was investigating “the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 Presidential election,” including any links to the Trump campaign. Trump reached out to DNI and CIA to get them to publicly dispel any suggestion the President had any connection to the Russian election-interference effort. The President also called Comey twice directly, against his own lawyer’s (Don McGahn’s) advice. He wanted Comey to publicly state that Trump was innocent.
  9. May 3rd, Comey testified in a congressional hearing, but declined to answer questions about whether the President was personally under investigation. Within days, the President decided to terminate Comey.
  10. The President insisted that the termination letter, which was written for public release, falsely state that Comey had informed the President he was not under investigation.
  11. The day of the firing, the White House maintained that Comey’s termination resulted from independent recommendations from the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General that Comey should be discharged for mishandling the Hillary Clinton email investigation, but the President had decided to fire Comey before hearing from the Department of Justice so this was a lie.
  12. The day after firing Comey, the President told Russian officials that he had “faced great pressure because of Russia,” which had been “taken off” by Comey’s firing.
  13. The next day, the President acknowledged in a TV interview that he was going to fire Comey regardless of the DOJ’s recommendation and that when he “decided to just do it,” he was thinking that “this thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.
  14. On May 17th, when Robert Mueller was appointed Special Counsel to investigate the Russian Election Interference and possible ties to Trump, the President reacted to this news saying: “this is the end of my presidency” and demanding that Sessions resign. Sessions resigned, but Trump did not accept it.
  15. The President tried to tell aides that the Special Counsel had conflicts of interest and could not continue. His advisors told him those alleged conflicts had no merit and were already considered by the Department of Justice.
  16. On June 14th, 2017, when Trump found out he was certainly under investigation, Trump fired off a series of tweets criticizing the Department of Justice and the Special Counsel’s investigation.
  17. On June 17th, 2017 the President called McGahn at home and directed him to call the Acting Attorney General and say that the Special Counsel had “conflicts of interest” and must be removed. McGahn did not carry out this decision deciding he would rather resign than carry out what he regarded as a potential Saturday Night Massacre (a reference to Watergate).
  18. Two days after directing McGahn to fire Mueller, the President made another attempt to affect the investigation. On June 19th, 2017, the President met one-on-one with his former campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, and dictated a message for Lewandowski to deliver to Sessions. He told Sessions to say that the investigation was “very unfair” to the President, the President had done nothing wrong, and Sessions planned to meet with the Special Counsel and “let him move forward with investigating election meddling for future elections.” Lewandowski never delivered this message, feeling uncomfortable with the request. He asked White House Official Rick Dearborn to do it, but he did not follow through either.
  19. Trump then began blasting Sessions on Twitter mocking him and letting him know his job was in jeopardy (clearly) because he was not fighting Mueller publicly in regards to this investigation.
  20. Trump edited a press statement about the June 9th, 2016 meeting at Trump tower deleting a sentence that stated the Russians had “information helpful to the campaign” and stating the meeting was about adoptions of Russian children. The President’s personal lawyer said the President had no role in drafting this statement, but this was later proven to be a lie. Trump helped to draft this lie to the Public about a very important component of the Russia Investigation (by itself this is obstruction).
  21. In early summer 2017, the President called Sessions at home and again asked him to reverse his recusal from the Russia investigation. Sessions did not reverse his recusal.
  22. In October 2017, the President met privately with Sessions in the Oval Office and asked him to “take a look at investigating Clinton.”
  23. In December of 2017, shortly after Flynn pleaded guilty, Trump told Sessions that if he “un-recused himself and took back supervision of the Russia Investigation, he would be a hero.”
  24. In early 2018, the press reported that the President had directed McGahn to fire the Special Counsel in 2017 and that McGahn threatened to resign rather than carry out the order. Trump ordered McGahn to refute this claim publicly and make a record that this was never the case. McGahn told Trump officials (who were asking him to do this) that the reports were accurate and he would not lie. Trump later asked McGahn why he had told the truth to Mueller about Trump trying to get McGahn to fire him, and why McGahn took notes during their meetings.
  25. After Flynn withdrew from a joint defense agreement with the President and began cooperating with the government, Trump’s personal counsel left a message for Flynn’s attorneys reminding them of Trump’s “warm feelings for him” which “still remain” and for a “heads up” if Flynn knew “information that implicates the President.”
  26. When Flynn’s counsel informed Trump that Flynn could no longer share information, the President’s counsel said he would make sure Flynn knew his actions reflected “hostility” towards the President.
  27. The President praised Manafort in public, calling him a “brave man” for refusing to “break” and said that “flipping” almost ought to be outlawed.
  28. Trump’s conduct towards Michael Cohen changed from praise for Cohen when he falsely minimized the President’s involvement in Trump Tower Moscow, to the castigation of Cohen when he became a cooperating witness.
  29. When Cohen started cooperating with Special Counsel, Trump publicly called him a “rat,” and suggested that his family members had committed crimes.
  30. Trump threatened witnesses in public and dangled pardons and this is still an obstruction of justice even though it was done in plain view.
  31. Trump acted in two phases: prior to being told he was under investigation and afterwards. The second phase also occurred after firing James Comey. His actions, both publicly and privately, after finding out he was being investigated demonstrate a clear motive to obstruct.

p. 220 The President’s counsel tried to stop the investigation into obstruction, but their defenses failed to provide a basis for declining to investigate the facts.

p. 220 The President is not immune from being prosecuted for Obstruction of Justice, but it is the Congress’ job to investigate and prosecute (impeachment).

The next 200 pages substantiate the above conclusions in great details.

In conclusion:

The President of the United States certainly obstructed justice and is also an unwitting (or possibly witting if more evidence presents itself) aid to Russia which is why they helped him win the 2016 election.

Hood Owners Association

by with No Comment CultureFeatured

When a person buys a home, they more than likely become the newest member of their community’s homeowners association. That association has rules and guidelines for residents… rules and guidelines that new residents have little to no say about. 

HOA’s use extreme measures to enforce their rules and often stand by the notion its to “preserve the community for the liking of all residents.” 

Humm… 

If only that mindset could be applied to neighborhoods that are majority Black and Brown.

Nope, Black and Brown people are subject to gentrification instead of preservation. Gentrification… a process I’ll refer to as the grandchild of urban “White flight” post World War II, is possibly the simplest and most forward example of racial division in the United States. 

White flight was when droves of White people moved from within the city limits of most major cities to get away from their Black neighbors.

This continued even until the mid-90s… then a reverse Uno card was placed down on major cities across the country and White people started moving back into major cities.

However, they didn’t move back to major cities with the original residents nor the conditions in which Black and Brown people had to endure. Since the 90s, many White people have been incentivized to move into newly developed and transformed neighborhoods for their pleasure and liking. 

Their homeowners association, the American racism foundation, long neglected the cries of Black and Brown residents. Everyone from real estate developers to elected officials ignored the cry for better recreational centers, places of commerce, and healthy eating options. 

Whole communities from Harlem to Houston have been gutted and transformed with a tag of $2,100 a month rent.

First residents from Cabrini Green of Chicago to downtown Brooklyn were either relocated because of their federal housing status or simply priced out due to higher rents.

Then came the tearing down of aging and dilapidated homes and apartments, followed by swanky new townhomes and condos, then finished off with a new Chipotle, Starbucks, and of course… bike lanes and a pet grooming store.

Black and Brown neighborhoods aren’t even offered fresh food options, yet White residents are given brand new communities before signing their Wells Fargo home loan.

Guess a “hood” owners association should be founded to keep the soul, cost, and originality of communities intact. But we need to act fast! Kroger and CVS are coming soon! 

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A MAN WAS LYNCHED YESTERDAY

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This weekend I experienced overt racism in Arizona.

400 years after the first African human beings arrived in shackles to the shores of the then English colony, Virginia.

162 years after a Chief Supreme Court Justice informed the plaintiff, a free Black man, that he could not try his case as he was not considered a person in the eyes of the American legal system.

72 years to the day after Major League Baseball allowed the first human with Black skin to play a professional sport in Brooklyn.

51 years after a reverend with a peaceful dream was gunned down on a balcony in Memphis.

2 years after sixty-three million Americans got dressed, left their homes, and cast a vote for the sitting President.

1 year after a Lynching Memorial, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, opened in Alabama.

I, a Black American, experienced overt racism in an upscale Arizona restaurant in the year of our Lord 2019.

I’d love to tell you the full story but I refuse. Short of being referred to outside of my given name, the story unfolds in just the way you’d imagine it would.

I shared the story with my Black friends and they responded with a Bran Stark level of surprise.

I shared the story with my White friends and they responded with a Jaime Lannister level of shock.

It’s a tale as old as time. One that Black folks are all too familiar with and one that White folks are all too unfamiliar with.

As if I had forgotten, I was reminded that my blackness is still not welcome in American dining establishments. As the incident was unravelling, I quickly assessed what was happening and it felt like time began to slow down. The moment Black folks fear on a daily basis was actually happening.

This was not a drill. Man your battle stations. We are under attack.

I remained calm, composed, and graceful in navigating our group out of the situation. Not because of anything that I actively train for but because my DNA is hardwired for survival in these moments.

I always walk away from these incidents feeling like I cheated death. Like a victorious warrior in the Roman Colosseum, you almost want to let out a primal roar. However, I moved on clutching to my dignity, my pride, and knowing that my ancestors are always guiding me.

Then minutes go by, then hours, and then days and you struggle to breathe because you still smell that foul odor all around you.

It’s like stepping in a massive pile of dog shit. You look to wipe your shoes in the nearest puddle of water. You find a stick to pick out the particles of shit that are in the grooves of your shoes. You slide your shoes back and forth on the pavement hoping to remove any last bits that remain. You ask people around you if they smell anything funny. But everywhere you go all you can smell is that lingering smell of shit following you everywhere.

Major League Baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson Day on every April 15. Every team and player that plays on Jackie Robinson Day has to wear my favorite number, 42. I always try to attend a baseball game to see all the jerseys adorned in that beautiful number and honor Jackie’s lasting impact on my life.

It’s not lost on me that today is Jackie Robinson Day.

22 years after the inaugural Jackie Robinson Day and I am still yearning for the day that Langston Hughes once wrote about in his classic poem I, Too in 1926. The day that, “They’ll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed.”

Because, honestly, I’m tired of this shit.

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A New Hope (in Political Discourse)

by with No Comment FeaturedPolitics

Last week members of Congress on both sides of the aisle tested a new low in political discourse during hearings on financial institutions and climate change.  Rep. Thomas Massey (R-KY) used his time during a House Oversight Committee meeting on climate change with testimony by former secretary of state, senator and presidential candidate John Kerry to begin his questioning of “pseudoscience” by equating it to Sec. Kerry’s BA from Yale in Political Science as being also a degree in “pseudoscience.”  The entire back and forth where Kerry (for good reason) asked “Is this really happening right now?” was actually more painful to watch than even this sounds, and if you didn’t know already would leave you incredulous that Rep. Massey is also the recipient of a Masters in Electrical Engineering from MIT.

Massie Kerry Exchange

Just down the hallway, while the House Financial Services Committee was hearing testimony from Sec. of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, when he asked to be dismissed at the end of his testimony period to attend a previously disclosed meeting with a foreign dignitary, a standoff ensued where Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), whose committee had fallen behind schedule told Mnuchin that he may leave, but refused to dismiss him. The semantics were not lost on Mnuchin that the Chairwoman intended to later accuse him of abandoning the hearing without being dismissed- something he did not wish to do- eventually after the hearing descended into pettiness and already late for his other scheduled meeting, Mnuchin did leave as he was “free to do” without being formally dismissed.

Waters Mnuchin Exchange

Neither of these hearings was particularly insightful and in neither case was the member of Congress hoping to learn anything useful from the testimony.  The primary objectives were to 1) play to their respective bases by forcing extremely senior members of the current and former cabinet to listen to copious amounts of dressing down that would please their bases in much the same way WWE fans cheer when a wrestler breaks a chair over the head of WWE’s billionaire CEO, Vince McMahon.  And while many of those on the sidelines cheered and jeered one and the other, in both cases, Congress, the Cabinet and all of America got a little dumber.

But I took some hope in something else I saw this week…

A back and forth feud ensued between mayor and presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg and Vice President Mike Pence.  In a similar fashion, they are both on extremely different ends of the political spectrum- although both represent the views of very large blocs of the country and the electorate.  And yet their discourse was so much different.  It was pointed, direct, biting and civil.  People on both ends of the spectrum, in similar fashion, cheered and jeered, and both are men the media on both sides are propping up and tearing down in a personal fashion that doesn’t represent the actual men.. and yet, they remain positive, civil and focused on the issues.

As we head into this election, I’m hopeful that both Buttigieg and Pence will continue to lead us out of this race for the bottom. People on both sides have good reasons to support their candidates and good reasons to have real, honest, heartfelt and passionate fear, excitement and at times anger, but the dumbing down of our leaders has caused us to replace governance with Facebook memes, sound bytes, and personal attacks that distract us from the policies and agendas that underly our elected leaders.  You may hate or love what Pence or Buttigieg represent, but either way, the odds are that you judge them by their policies, their agendas, their beliefs and their objectives.  And if Congress could follow that example, America would be far better off.

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“Presidential Madness”

by with No Comment FeaturedSports

It’s upon us baby (in my Dick Vitale voice)! We’re right smack in the middle of March Madness with the Sweet Sixteen happening this weekend. Unlike in year’s past, this year’s tournament hasn’t produced many shockers or upsets, but there’s still a lot of basketball left for more buzzer beaters and heartaches.

March Madness is possibly the most intriguing sporting event. A 64-team tournament in which six games decided the difference between going home and being a national champion. The NCAA tournament has the feel of football, with only one game being played to either advance or go back to Sociology class, with a touch of the baseball, hockey, and basketball legendary game seven winner takes all vibe.

March Madness had me thinking of another grand competition set to happen later this year, and that’s the presidential primaries… “presidential madness” …if you will.

Given Trump pretty much will have the Republican Party primary on lock, being he’s an incumbent president (which even in 2019 I have trouble getting used too), most of the madness will come from the Democrat Party primary. Which is a 180-degree difference from the 2016 presidential primaries in which the dram was on the Republican side.

I wish there was true “presidential madness” in which regardless of party, all candidates could be pitted against each other, and each debate would decide if they advanced or not.

And the “presidential madness” wouldn’t even have to be truly presidential candidates or even elected officials. I mean given who the current president is, the days of a good “presidential resume” are over. Trump killed that.

This madness will simply be the 64 top seeded people with political stuff going on. So… with that being said imagine this…

#15 Seed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez vs #2 Seed Vice President Mike Pence

How happy would Vegas be if that upset took place! Much financial gain and personal happiness I’m sure. 

However, we know American politics are far too boring for anything like that. Yes, the first couple of presidential debates will be fun to watch, 15 people standing up there creating the best material that SNL writers could ever imagine. Then, by March 2020, the actual two candidates are left (UNC and Kentucky) and the eventual boredom of a once promising and exciting tournament ends with Duke (everyone’s safe pick in their bracket) cutting down the nets. Unfortunately, in this case, that would be Trump… again. ? 

Similar Read: Segregated Rosters

Reframing the Mueller Investigation

by with 2 Comments FeaturedGen ZPolitics

The Mueller report has been finalized, Barr has released a four-page summary to the American people, and now the fight has been moved to Congress to determine what happens from this point on.  Barr’s summary, though it is notably not a substitute for the entire report, states that “no evidence of collusion” was found on the President himself, and the obstruction of justice case produced results that neither “indict nor exonerate” Trump.  For Democrats, perhaps, and especially those that have been counting on Mueller to save them, the outcome, at least so far, was underwhelming. Now, the focus shifts to Congressional Democrats to decide whether they should fight to have the Mueller report released and move forward with a possible impeachment or simply move on.  But it is important to see the end of the Mueller investigation for what it is: not an unsatisfying end but part of the larger process to remove Trump from office. 

Before we go there, though, it is worth looking back at what reasonable observers should have expected at this point. The Mueller investigation took 19 lawyers, 40 FBI agents, 2,800 subpoenas, 500 interviewed witnesses, and almost two years.  Over its course, it charged 34 individuals, including nine connected to the Trump campaign, though it did not ultimately bring about criminal charges for Trump.  In a lot of ways, the Mueller investigation turned up way more information than we should have expected: what was once a question about a few Russian internet trolls and Facebook algorithms now sheds so much light on the wrongdoing inside and around the Trump campaign.  As compared to past scandals, spanning from Iran-Contra to Whitewater and beyond, Russiagate was a very successful investigation: many people very close to Trump are likely to receive justice and Mueller also recommended other findings about unrelated crimes to their respective departments.  For those who want to see Trump out of office and unable to act on his regressive agenda, the Mueller investigation was hardly a failure, even if it was overhyped by some.

Still, something about it feels disappointing, which is likely to do with our own naivety than anything else.  In other words, we should have expected this to be the institutional result of all this Russia-talk. In America, it has long been said that we have two justice systems—one for the poor and powerless and one for the rich and powerful—and that alone should explain the non-result which has come of Mueller’s investigation.  Beyond that, the history we like to remember tells us a much different story than the one which is true. In school, we all learn about Nixon’s impeachment, from break-in to coverup to resignation. We learn that a popular president was eventually forced to resign by an exhaustive investigation and about how the wheels of justice turn against all who are guilty.  But just maybe we forget or are unaware of the important context that goes along with it. A lot has been said recently of the allies Nixon courted precisely because of—and not in spite of—the Watergate investigation, of people like M. Stanton Evans who said, “I didn’t like Nixon until Watergate.” Eventually, the public turned against Nixon, despite their unwillingness to do so earlier, and the Republican Party was prompted to abandon him too.  In this way, impeachments are not like trials with Congress members as jurors, but trials in which the American people force their representatives’ hands.

Due to this reality, the lesson that transcends Nixon is that removing Trump from office through electing a Democrat in 2020 and through a successful impeachment are not necessarily two divergent strategies forward.  They are, at best, one strategy, with two divergent ends. In other words, the way to impeach Trump is not to find enough evidence to change the GOP’s view on him to obtain the votes, but to change the people’s minds enough to force the GOP to abandon him to protect themselves.  To do this, the Democrat’s private strategy must be seemingly at odds with their public choices. In effect, the bar for impeachment is much higher than the bar for voting him out in 2020: while no one who supports impeachment supports his eventual re-election, there are many Americans currently who support neither his impeachment nor his re-election.  The path forward, then, is to use the cloud of the Russiagate scandal along with the failings of the Trump presidency to fell the president, killing two birds with one stone towards getting him out of office.

On the former, the Democrats have a lot to work with: the uncertainty of the verdict of the Mueller report, it doesn’t exonerate the president, nor leave him untouched with the indictments of his former staff; its incomplete nature, as the people have not read the report and the investigation did not touch on many of issues raised since by Cohen’s testimony; and the apparent secrecy of the findings, Barr issued a summary letter when an innocence-proving-document would warrant a public release.  All of this makes up the public strategy forward for Democrats, but—though I am rarely one to warn Democrats about going too far—I would say their private agenda should be one of caution. Clearly, the evidence in the case is not overwhelming, or Barr would have had to cede such findings. Therefore, impeaching Trump on the grounds of Mueller’s investigation alone with a Republican majority in the Senate is patently impossible.  With that said, Democrats need to publicly raise the Russia questions while never quite bringing the issue to a breaking point, which would likely go against them. To the plain eye, Trump is a conman, but the burden of proof for people as powerful as he is high, and that must be understood.

The point in all this is that the left would benefit from a reframing of Mueller’s investigation from a verdict of success or failure towards a realization that this is but one step in the ultimate process.  While they should not count on the Russia scandal, the left also must never forget it: when they win, they hold all the cards to enact their agenda and keep their place. It is then up to the opposition—those who support democracy and the rule of law—to take it from them.  While legal justice requires a standard beyond reasonable doubt, electoral justice only requires 270. 

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Professional Fandom: Donald Trump, Robert Mueller, Sports, and Pop Culture

by with 2 Comments CultureFeaturedPolitics

Last Friday, the most anticipated political moment of the Trump Presidency occurred: The Mueller Report was completed and submitted to the Justice Department. Within minutes of the breaking news, every cable news channel, political blog, and Facebook newsfeed was flooded with a flurry of opinions without any new details. While it is a perfect example of the hyper-polarization of today’s political climate, it is also a microcosm of a much deeper trend that transcends politics. Like our interest levels in sports, music, and entertainment in general, our passion is no longer rational and under control. Due to the global reach of social media with immediate access to anything that strokes our most passionate interests, it is no longer acceptable to be a casual fan. You are required to devote a level of obsession that previously was considered psychotic.

Through social media and advancements in technology, fans of any form of entertainment have access to stoke their curiosity level from casual to knowledgeable to obsessive. There are Facebook groups, hashtags, fan pages, message boards, YouTube channels, smart apps, etc., dedicated to every cinematic or musical genre, sport, team, political candidate, and political or current event. If you are a fan of your college team, there are multiple message boards that provide in-depth analysis, recruiting updates, and behind-the-scenes stories regarding potential coaching challenges that keep you informed before any of it hits the mainstream news. If you are a fan of the WWE, you have an on-demand network that has every match, pay-per-view, or show. If you are a big video gamer, you can play every game online with people across the globe on every gaming console (Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo, PC) that matches your skill level and personal tastes. Simply put, if you have more than a surface-level interest in something, you will be exposed to enough material to progress that interest from ‘Intrigued’ to ‘Passionate’.

Like our entertainment options, the same options are available for our political tastes. Whether it’s the cable news channels that unabashedly market to a specific political affiliation, Facebook groups and fan pages devoted to individual candidates or causes, or the pre-determined newsfeed of our Facebook page from the people we associate with, it is nearly impossible for someone with an interest in politics to not make the emotional leap from a responsible voter to outspoken advocate. As one’s interest grows, the pressure from fellow believers is to only communicate and associate with likeminded views while censuring out anything that challenges or competes with that unassailable principle. One’s community is no longer your next-door neighbours or co-workers; it’s the hundreds of people we communicate with daily across the world. In many cases, these ‘friends’ are people we have never met and will never meet in person.

As our created communities become more politically homogeneous, our tolerance for divergent views weakens. If this were a football game, we became ‘That’ fan with our face and chest painted in team colors standing in sub-freezing temperatures heckling every opposing player or fan present. No one questions our fandom, but opposing fans and even some mutual fans, will dodge us to avoid making a scene or listen to a guilt trip for being a ‘Fairweather fan’. As voters transform from the family taking their kids to their first ballgame to ‘That’ fan, the political candidates who best play to ‘That’ fan are the ones that rise to the top. Donald Trump is NOT the cause of this dynamic, he is the byproduct of it.  

President Trump is the perfect byproduct of this phenomena. For the most part, no one is a casual fan or critic of him. He uses this dynamic to provoke the (predictable) reactions from his audience. If this was a neutral stadium, he’s provoking the liquored-up super fans from both teams to go at in the stands. In a vacuum, we generally find this behavior disgusting, but the reality is we all had a hand in this. The reality is we are all guilty of being ‘That’ fan (I am guilty when it comes to A&M football, Spurs basketball, and the WWE). For some of us, it’s politics. For others, it’s a sports franchise, musical artist, or gaming community. Having passion for something is a GREAT thing, but if our passion controls our behavior and character it will continue to poison the well for future generations. 

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