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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 11, 2017)
Page 2 The Skanner January 11, 2017 Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now Bernie Foster Founder/Publisher Bobbie Dore Foster Executive Editor Jerry Foster Advertising Manager Christen McCurdy News Editor Patricia Irvin Graphic Designer Melanie Sevcenko Reporter Monica J. Foster Seattle Office Coordinator Susan Fried Photographer The Skanner Newspaper, es- tablished in October 1975, is a weekly publication, published every Wednesday by IMM Publi- cations Inc. 415 N. Killingsworth St. P.O. Box 5455 Portland, OR 97228 Telephone (503) 285-5555 Fax: (503) 285-2900 info@theskanner.com www.TheSkanner.com The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Association and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. ©2016 The Skanner. All rights re served. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission prohibited. The Skanner Martin Luther King, Jr. BREAKFAST Jan. 16, 2017 Opinion Trumpism and White Tribalism Cannot Prevail O n the eve of the new Trump era of leader- ship, danger lurks. Emboldened by Trump’s win and a series of stunning other victories in recent elections by the “alt- right,” tea party, conservative and ultra-conservative move- ments, in this country and in Europe, white tribalists are openly advocating the most dangerous ideas since the days of Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. Trump and some of his in- ner circle of advisers speak in the most coarse and insensi- tive language, to put it mildly. Carl Paladino, an adviser to the president-elect, is typical. When asked what he would like to happen in 2017 he said he hopes President Barack Obama “catches mad cow dis- ease” and dies after having sexual relations with a Here- ford cow. When asked what he would like to see go away, Paladino, a former Republican New York gubernatorial candidate, said he wanted First Lady Michelle Obama to “return to being a male and [be]let loose in the outback of Zimbabwe where she lives comfortably in a cave with Maxie the gorilla.” Really! Really. That is repre- hensible. Paladino’s comments were in response to a survey by weekly magazine Artvoice, according The Washington Post’s Abby Phillip. Paladi- Askia Muhammad NNPA Columnist no last met with the presi- dent-elect in early December at Trump Tower in New York City. Trump is no slouch, rhetori- cally or Twitter-wise. His per- sonal strategy may be what one historian calls Richard “ bilizing governments in Afri- ca, Asia and Latin America. In fact, all that Founding Fa- thers stuff is just stuff. They were slave owners, whose very presence in slave quar- ters struck unspeakable terror in the hearts of their victims. There was no social media to alarm the public. The murderers and lynch- ers would sometimes stake the heads of the victims as a warning to other slaves not to rise up against their masters. Despite the frequent dis- avowals of the incoming design that conveys how close the world is to destroying its civilization with dangerous technologies of their own making,” including nuclear weapons, climate-changing technologies, biotechnolo- gies and cybertechnology that could “inflict irrevocable harm…to our way of life and to the planet.” “The probability of glob- al catastrophe is very high,” the scientists said. “And the actions needed to reduce the risks of disaster must be tak- en very soon. That probabil- ity has not been reduced. The clock ticks. Global danger looms. Wise lead- ers should act immediate- ly.” But this country’s great- est liability is the sins of its bloody past. Millions and millions of souls kid- napped from Africa and made slaves. Their three centuries of free labor made this coun- try rich. That slave trade and its aftermath constitute a “crime against humanity.” And then there is the geno- cide committed against the native people whose land the European settlers and slave traders stole. That un- conscionable act constitutes genocide. Those crimes were stopped before. They will not prevail in the 21st century, no matter what Donald Trump and whatever combination of four-stars and billionaires he can assemble around himself. Folks who yearn for the Trumpian, “Ozzie and Harriet” world of White comfort within White privilege don’t take into account that what they wish for is wicked and cannot stand Nixon’s “Mad Dog” technique. Nixon wanted it known that he might do anything, like a mad dog, including the use nuclear weapons, in order to intimidate concessions out of the U.S. adversary in Viet- nam. Russia? China? Arms race? Bring it on, Trump says. Sadly, folks who yearn for the Trumpian, “Ozzie and Harriet” world of White com- fort within White privilege don’t take into account that what they wish for is wicked and cannot stand. It was wick- ed in “Ozzie and Harriet” days when this country was desta- Trump administration, I don’t believe Trump and his crew even have good intentions for the future, for world peace or for national security. Which brings us to this mo- ment. Even before taking any of the belligerence of Trump into account, a group of cyn- ics, philosophers and other intellectuals who publishes “The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists” say that human life as we know it is just min- utes from oblivion, according to their “Doomsday Clock.” The Doomsday Clock is de- scribed by its creators as “an internationally recognized