Antonio Gramsci was not a professional philosopher. His intellect was refreshingly situated within an inherent bias towards the common people, the 'subaltern' classes, particularly the working class. 

 He argued that all people are essentially intellectuals, in the sense that all people possess the intellectual faculties for rational thinking and deduction, though “not all men have in society the function of intellectuals”.

 Thus, intellectualism should not exist for its own sake, but as a direct response to the collective needs of society. 

The Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in the decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, ending the right to abortion that had existed since 1973.

Nina Totenberg and Sarah McCammon review the new law for NPR (https://npr.org/2022/06/24/1102305878/supreme-court-abortion-roe-v-wade-decision-overturn). Here are excerpts and comments from their analysis.

“The decision, most of which was leaked in early May [2022], means that abortion rights will be rolled back in nearly half of the states immediately, with more restrictions likely to follow. For all practical purposes, abortion will not be available in large swaths of the country. The decision may well mean too that the court itself, as well as the abortion question, will become a focal point in the upcoming fall elections and in the fall and thereafter.”

I ran for president twice in 2004 and 2008, in an attempt to truly protect and defend the Constitution by ending perpetual war, stopping government intrusion into Americans’ private lives, and transforming America’s role in the world so that we would have the capacity for a true domestic agenda of national prosperity.   

I understand the tactics of the DNC and their media counterparts. I understand how they attempt total control of the nomination process, and attempt to silence opposition in order to advance internal and institutional agendas, which are destructive to our nation. 

The meltdown of the 2024 nomination process began in August of 2022 when the Democratic National Committee (DNC) declared unity for the re-election of President Biden, heading off any challengers, and then, that December, approved rules so onerous as to make an effective run inside the party impossible.  

Rules were crafted so minutely that no viable alternative to the President could emerge. Party leaders in a dozen states had discretion as to whether to even recognize another campaign.  

After Fannie Lou Hamer, Medgar Evers is the black freedom fighter I most admire. Born in 1925 near Decauter. Mississippi, and reared in the most racist state in the union–the historian Lerone Bennett called it “the worst place in the world for a black boy”–Evers was one of five children in a family that included two children from his mother’s previous marriage. His father owned a small farm and worked in a sawmill to support his family.

Black children in the south learned about the deadly consequences of stepping out of line early, and the lessons were reinforced constantly. When Medgar was eleven or twelve years old, a family friend was lynched for allegedly talking back to a white man. Evers remembered that the man’s bloody clothing was left on a fence for almost a year, and everyone acted as though nothing untoward had happened. The refusal to acknowledge the event helped keep the black community safe and alive.