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    Cornel West In Concert: Would You Have Given Him Tickets To Your Inaugural?

    Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

    Cornel West Responds To Michael Dyson Take-Down
     

    In response to Michael Eric Dyson's scathing take-down, West issued what must have been the shortest comment of his career - probably because Dyson was so thorough in his take-down that it didn't leave West much room for a defense. But even what he did say was so delusional, self-serving, and disingenuous that it ventured into the realm of other-worldliness. One of the things that West said was the following:
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    "Character assassination is the refuge of those who hide and conceal these issues in order to rationalize their own allegiance to the status quo."
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    What!!!!!!?  West either doesn't even bother to listen to his own rhetoric, or he's been in a somnambulistic trance for the past 6 years. He's never seen a high-profile BLACK person who overshadows him whose character he didn't want to assassinate - he tends to give White folks a pass.  Have you ever heard West say ANYTHING, other than a casual passing remark, regarding the impact that Republican obstructionism is having on poverty?  I don't think so.  And is West doing ANYTHING to inform the public that the United States Constitution gives the United States House of Representatives SOLE power over spending, so anything that President Obama wants to do for the poor and middle class he has to get the Republican controlled House to go along with him?  No he is not. He's trying to give the public the impression that President Obama is KING Obama, and why? - in an attempt to assassinate the President's character (http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-has-obama-done-for-poor-and-mid...). 
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    And finally , West is more disingenuous than any demagogue in the public sphere. He tried to paint President Obama as an ingrate for not giving him tickets to the inaugural. If you'd like to know why he didn't get tickets, just watch West "in concert" below, and then ask yourself, would you have given him tickets? West makes a valiant attempt to represent himself as being "a man of the people," but when you're disingenuous, your true mindset seeps out through the cracks, and West's true mindset slipped out in a big way in his performance below. He said that Barack Obama represented "unadulterated mediocrity," In other words, this Black man wasn't qualified to live up to the standards of  the White presidents of the past - and this was WHILE we were suffering through the gross incompetence of George W. Bush, who WEST helped to get elected.   So he has to be a complete and clueless, self-serving egomaniac to even EXPECT the President to give him a pass on his comments.
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    Listen to this guy! - and notice the arrogant smirk on Tavis Smiley's face as "his boy" performs.  But West got so caught up in his performance that he went WAY over the top. Up until that time, I was caught up in the hype about Cornel West myself. But it was at the moment below that I first recognized that we weren't dealing with an intellectual; we were dealing with a fool, and I've been on a mission every since. So I welcome the the insight that Michael Eric Dyson has brought to this debate into West. Maybe with someone of his stature essentially co-signing on what I've been saying for the past 7 years, I'll no longer be spittin' in the wind.

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    CORNEL WEST IN CONCERT
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    BEFORE THE ELECTION
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    AND CONSIDER THIS - EVEN AS CORNEL WEST WAS ASKING OBAMA "WHERE'S YOUR MONEY COMING FROM?" IN THE VIDEO ABOVE, TAVIS SMILEY (HIS GOOD BUDDY AND CLOSEST ASSOCIATE) WAS INVOLVED IN THE WELLS FARGO "GHETTO SCAM," WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, WAS THE SECOND LARGEST HOUSING DISCRIMINATION CASE IN THE NATION'S HISTORY, AND CAUSED 30,000 POOR AND MIDDLE CLASS MINORITIES TO LOSE THEIR HOMES AND LIFE SAVINGS.  WELLS FARGO SETTLED THE CASE FOR  $175 MILLION.  BACK THEN TAVIS SMILEY WAS RIDING HIGH, SO NOTICE HE AND CORNEL'S ARROGANCE, AS THOUGH BARACK OBAMA HAD AN OBLIGATION TO COME AND GET THEIR BLESSING TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT. ALSO NOTE THAT NOW THAT SMILEY HAS LOST POPULARITY, WEST HAS CUT TIES WITH HIM, EVEN AFTER REMAINING CONNECTED AT THE HIP (AND WITHOUT OPENING HIS MOUTH) DURING THE WELLS FARGO SCANDAL. 
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    AFTER THE ELECTION
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    Cornel West spews more racist rhetoric than any Republican in America. The reason for that is he’s essentially an entertainer who specializes in shock and race-baiting as his one and only routine. Clear evidence of that is he's over the top in everything that defines him - he's over the top in his personal image, in his overly gesticulative presentation, and his rhetoric is invariably inflammatory. Everything about him is a contrivance that’s specifically designed to bring attention to himself. The actual issues are meaningless to him. They're nothing more than a platform to launch his performance. In short, Cornel West is the Liberace of faux intellectualism.

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    Have you ever noticed that nearly every public pronouncement that spews from the mouth of Cornel West is literally dripping with racial innuendo? One of his latest racist slanders is that MSNBC is the ‘Rent a Negro’ network. West has said at various times the following:
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    1). President Obama is "a war criminal."
    2). President Obama is "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs . . ."
    3). President Obama is "a black puppet of corporate plutocrats."
    4). President Obama is "a Rockefeller Republican in Blackface."
    5). President Obama "has a certain rootlessness, a deracination."
    6). President Obama Is "Afraid Of Free Black Men."
    7). President Obama is "a global George Zimmerman."
    8). Dr. Harris-Perry is "a fake and a fraud"
    9). Dr. Michael Eric Dyson "is a sellout."
    10). Al Sharpton "is a sellout."
    11). MSNBC is the "Rent a Negro Network."
    12). And if that’s not enough, now he’s quoted as calling the first Black President of the United States “a shell of a man.”
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    Yet, when comedian Steve Harvey called him an Uncle Tom, he said, "When you are trying to talk about issues that affect the people, name calling gets in the way. Name-calling is nothing but another weapon of mass distraction."
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    So name-calling is only objectionable when it’s directed at him. Such unmitigated hypocrisy is mind boggling - but for once, he’s right. Not one of the above assertions is a disciplined, constructive, or scholarly assessment of the facts. On the contrary, they're the reckless and intellectually undisciplined rants of a bitter, self-serving, and severely discredited academic fraud.
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    For Cornel West, there’s something ‘racially defective’ about every Black person who has the audacity to preempt Cornel West from the limelight. West has a propensity for trying to denigrate the character of people whose been in the trenches for years, while West, himself, has done absolutely nothing beyond running his mouth. In order to gain clear evidence of that fact one simply has to ask oneself, what efforts have West made to try to improve the plight of the Black community?
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    1). Is he in the community teaching 3rd grade to help ensure a better education for our children, or teaching at an Historically Black College or University to help "enlighten" young Black students?
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    No. He’s never taught at a school that more than 1% of Black students can even afford to have lunch in throughout his entire career. He’d rather gain props for teaching the children of the economic elites, who he CLAIMS, is the enemy, whenever he MANAGES to do a "Drive-by" in the hood.
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    2). Is he in the community teaching our young men to cherish, honor, and respect our Black women - the very womb of our culture?
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    No. He’s out trying to sell books filled with inane and misleading information, doing $30,000 an hour speeches, and trying to become a hip hop star.
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    3). Is he advising his good friend and business partner, Tavis Smiley, to be consistent with his sermons by being "accountable" to the community, and returning the money that he made on the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Scam" loans that he helped to herd over 30,000 poor minorities into? Or is he out getting arrested in support of the Black Friday Demonstrations against Wal-Mart, the most prolific abuser of poor workers in the world?
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    Nope, not a peep.
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    What kind of true Black man is going to disrespect a sister (Melissa Harris-Perry) - IN PUBLIC - by calling her a "liar and a fraud?" That's not a proud Black man; that's a petulant and self-serving punk who doesn't even have sense enough to respect the very WOMB of his own culture. He would NEVER have said that about a White woman.  That poot-butt needed to be taken down - AND PUBLICLY!
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    Cornel West is one of the two most hypocritical gasbags that the Black community has ever produced. He's running neck and neck with Tavis Smiley.
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    Tavis Smiley and Cornel West Ducked The Walmart Demonstrations . . . AGAIN!!!
    http://wattree.blogspot.com/2014/11/tavis-smiley-and-cornel-west-ducked....
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    Eric L. Wattree
    Http://wattree.blogspot.com
    [email protected]
    Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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    Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

    Comments

    West will probably find his way to Democracy Now!  or Real Time where he will find a friendly interview. He will not go into the lion's den with Harris-Perry or Sharpton.

    I paid zero attention to Smiley's last State of the Black Union Conference except to note when Hillary Clinton appeared. Travis was upset when Obama did not announce his candidacy at the conference. West said that this was an affront to black people. 

    Thanks for pointing out that West lumped Obama in with the "mediocre" choices available. Hillary Clinton would be included in that group. It will be interesting to see if his rhetoric changes if Hillary is the nominee. It will also be interesting to see how feminists who support Clinton will address West's rhetoric if it is as harsh as it has been against Obama.

    West has placed himself in a box. If he is kinder to Clinton, then it must have been a personal attacks against Obama. If he attacks Clinton harshly, this is the same person who attacked Melissa Harris-Perry. Is West a sexist?


    RM,
     

    I guarantee you he won't attack Hillary - he doesn't attack White folks, not even the GOP. But he's undoubtedly both a sexist, and a "bligot."   


    1) West teaches at Unity Theological in Harlem (tied to Columbia U), and earlier taught at Princeton with 7.4% black enrollment. He's a graduate there, as is Michelle Obama - why is this not acceptable as a place to teach? Obama taught at University of Chicago with only 4.75% black enrollment - do you criticize him? Tulane is only 8.9% black - do you criticize Melissa Harris-Perry for not teaching at a traditional

    2) Cornel West charges $20K-$40K per appearance, though NY Mag places this at $25K after Tavis Smiley got him to stop speaking for free. Alice Walker charges $40K and more. Al Sharpton usually gets $50K and charges universities $25K-30K. Jesse Jackson was a no-show at $75K. Condi Rice gets $150k and charged Rutgers $35K for a commencement speech. Colin Powell gets $100K-$200k a speech. Melissa Harris-Perry makes $1.2 million a year and is worth $40 million - certainly makes more than $40K per speech. Do you want to criticize these others for charging too much?

    I've corrected you on these before, but I'm sure you'll trot these points out again.


    I cannot find it right now but there is some link involving a statement that Smiley (hell of a name by the way?) and West are being overshadowed by Farrakhan.

    How in the hell could one ever be more hated by 300 million Americans and Farrakhan?

    It struck me, and I will find it within 24 as it were, but damn!

    We are all in a new age of propaganda for chrissakes.

    But hell, how is America going to find that a Black Muslim is the best choice for Americans?

    Remember when Gingrich (the Grinch) was pissed off because he could not ride in the front seat of Air Force One?

    It is a terrible thing to say (maybe) that West and Smiley are angry because they could not ride in the front section of Air Force One.

    I have no idea where this came from? hahahahah 


    My mother before she died called Gingrich "the Grinch that stole DC."  She died 20 years ago. 


    You can interpret as petty personal grievance, or you can interpret it as an indication blacks wouldn't be allowed much input into Obama policy despite the important role of the block of black voters helping elect him, that they'd be forgotten once he was in.

    Since Wattree doesn't ever seem to criticize Obama, he naturally assumes it's the former. From West's political activity & how he speaks, I assume a bit of both.

    It seems Cornell West did 65 campaign events for Obama in 2008, so you might expect some recognition - contrary to Gingrich who was heading to an Israeli funeral and already involved in a policy fight with Clinton.

    Anyway, you can read more about West's explanation here and make your own mind up.


    There're two ways people interpret that Air Force One story. One way is to call it the cause, the other is to call it a factor. The fight between Clinton and Gingrich was already ramped up pretty high before that flight. I never considered it more than a nudge.

    I feel the same way about West. He's not saying anything that many others on the left aren't saying. He's not alone and he's not even the first to make these criticisms. It's likely a feeling of being snubbed added a couple of degrees but the slant was already there.

    It's not surprising that some of those on the left that convinced themselves Obama was a progressive would feel betrayed and angry when it turned out he was a DLC centrist. That sense of betrayal and the anger it generated is not uncommon among the liberals who were his most vigorous supporters in the primary against Hillary.


    Ocean-Kat,

    Obama is not a centrist, he's just smart, and he doesn't toot his own horn, because he knows that's the best way to get things done.  He's not a gasbag like most of the GOP. If Bush would have gotten Bin Laden the GOP would have rode that mule until it dropped dead of heat exhaustion. But Obama simply did what had to be done, walked away, and you haven't heard about it since.
     

    People seem to forget that Obama is only President Obama, not King Obama.  The United States Constitution is very specific in giving SOLE power over spending to the House of Representatives, which is controlled by Republicans (that’s why they could refuse to pay the light bill and shutdown the government). So President Obama can’t do a damn thing for us without getting the Republicans to go along with him. That’s why he has to slip us everything on the down-low, because if the GOP know it’s for us, they’re going to dig-in, and if Obama goes to war against them over the issue, they're not going to allow him to do anything for ANYBODY. And as President of ALL the people, he can't allow that to happen, so he has to wrap Black interests in the interest of ALL the people. And he also have to out-think the GOP, not out-bluster them.

    In addition, he has the intelligence realize that he has to think in terms of precedents. If he grandstands like Cornel West suggests, and say, "This is what I'm going to do for Black people," what are they going to do when the next White president says, "This is what I'm going to do for White people?" -  and then justify it by calling it "The Obama Doctrine."

    And finally, many people who call Obama a centrist are speaking from ignorance. They're not getting Condition Reports on their desk every morning, so they have absolutely no idea why he's making the decisions he's making.  That's why when we vote, we should vote for a candidate who has the kind of character and intelligence that we can trust to make decisions on our behalf.
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    What Has Obama Done For The Poor And Middle Class

    http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/11/what-has-obama-done-for-poor-and-mid...
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    Somehow Obama was supposed to get an openly racist GOP to actually do something for black people by funding race-specific programs. It was never going to happen. The GOP has made clear that they want blacks disenfranchised and the poor left to starve. That is the public GOP platform. To pretend that they are not a clear and present danger is delusional.

    Along the way, we have had some Progressives tell us to stay home during mid-term elections with disastrous results. We have been shown drug program changes promoted by Curly Rand as something to admire. We couldn't get to Paul's drug proposals because of the stench of everything else he was offering. Give up voting, civil rights, and women's rights and go with Rand on drugs and drones. Rand has shown himself to be just another self-serving a Republican who will say whatever the billionaires paying the GOP bills want to hear. Paul would be roaming away with everybody else. BTW, Holder changed the emphasis placed on federal drug laws.

    The country got to see how the GOP responds to what the country wants. In the aftermath of Sandy Hook, Obama pulled out all stops to get background checks. The GOP response with the aid of the NRA was to say "No". We got no gun legislation. Watch how quickly the GOP will block any call for social or job program funding in the wake of Ferguson and Baltimore.

    As 2016 approaches, my goal will be to oust as many Republicans as possible. It is impossible to work with any of the current GOP members in Congress. Get them out of office. 

    Elijah Cummings was out on the streets of Baltimore last night getting people in his neighborhood to defuse to situation. Curry Rand and Ben Carson grabbed microphones to criticize black parents. The political choice is simple.

    Regarding our dear  brother Cornel West, perhaps he will come to Baltimore for his getting arrested photo-op if things heat up again in Baltimore. It worked so well to change things in Ferguson.


    RM,

    We are on EXACTLY the same page. As for "Curly Rand" (LoL!), I see "Libertarian," and "Tea Party" as a convenient euphemism for bigot.  

    Rand Paul Thug (a staffer) Stomping Democratic Woman's Head


    Where a person sits on the line from left to right is a matter of opinion. I can only go on what Obama tried to do since as you pointed out to pass something he has to get  at least some republicans to go along.

    Those of us on the left, including people like Warren and Sanders, would like to see social security benefits raised. A more moderate democratic position is no cuts to social security or medicare. The centrist position is a grand bargain that includes raising taxes and cuts to social security and medicare. The right wants cuts to social security, medicare, and taxes.

    Obama certainly put a lot of time and effort to get that grand bargain. There's a leaked memo that details the cuts he was willing to sign off on. I know Obama is not a king because if he was we'd have that grand bargain with those cuts to benefit programs. I know that he has to get republicans to go along because it was the republican's total intransigence to raising any taxes at all that scuttled this deal. "Bob Woodward leaked the deal memo from the proposed 2011 grand bargain, which didn’t happen for a number of reasons, none of them being Barack Obama’s reticence to cut a deal."

    What ever you may think about a grand bargain for deficit reduction it's definitely the centrist position. There're no secret Condition Reports in this area that the hoi polloi can't see. The only secret reports on the economy are the documents on the TPP, another centrist DLC priority. You were in the marines, I was in the army. It's likely we both had a security clearance, your's was likely higher than mine. I had the lowest level of clearance but I was still able to see documents that more than 99% of the soldiers could not see. We both know there is no such thing as a classified document no one can see. Whether you're willing to admit it we both know Obama is lying when he claims there is no secret TPP deal just because some congress persons can see the documents. It's classified, they can't look at the documents with their staff, they can't take notes, and they cannot share the information with the press or their constituents.

    Obama gives lip service to a few liberal ideas but what he fights for, where he puts his time and energy, are usually the centrist policies that have long been advocated by the DLC. And those fights are usually from the center against the left in congress not with the republicans.


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