Religion and Politics in America

I want to talk about the US election. However, I am not going to do that quite yet. I will talk more extensively about the US general election this weekend, but for the moment, I want to touch on an issue that is very influential for millions of Americans, or indirectly for all Americans.

The right wing pundits, wonks and politicians love to pander to the American religious right. They love to espouse the idea of dominionism, or simply put, Christians who want to subject America’s secular form of government under the theocracy that they prefer. Why is this wrong from a legal, secular stance? Why is it wrong from a theological point of view? Let’s examine this issue.

Sarah Palin Et. Al.

In 2012, it is ridiculous that the US populace still has to argue over whether a woman has the right to choose. Or the right to have birth control, voting rights, or anything else that should have been solved a long time ago. Yet the religious right wants to end women’s rights in general, they want a patriarchy that adheres to their narrow vision of religion, and Christianity in particular. They don’t accept modern ideas of morality, such as the immorality of letting a woman die because she needs an abortion, or making a woman give birth to the child of her rapist. They don’t accept anything that is not in their so called divinely inspired bible, you know, that book they like assaulting other people with. We know that their ideas are becoming increasingly more unpopular, but I want to touch on one interesting point. More baffling than their support for outdated ideas on women’s rights (or the advocacy for those rights to be rescinded from the female population), more insane than their irrational hatred of different sexual orientations, is their support for so called “free market” capitalism. They argue that the US is becoming socialist (Fuck I wish they were right about that) they argue that setting up a more egalitarian economic system is not only anti-American, it is anti-Christianity, and anti-god. They go by the idea that babies should be born, as many as possible, but when it comes to making sure they are fed, clothed and educated, they don’t give a flying fuck. They want their money, no taxes, no participation in society other than the ability to exploit and be exploited. They want all the money, all the fame and all the power. These Christians like Mitt Romney (I know, many Christians don’t consider him Christian, but I don’t care what they consider him, I consider someone the religion they consider themselves to be, and he considers himself a Christian) are very wealthy, millionaires even. Mitt Romney has multiple houses, horses and cars and more land and money piles upon piles of money. He has more than he’ll ever need, taken by ruining jobs and destroying lives. He was a business vulture. And now he is rich. He gives some of it to the church he goes to and follows. Now, I am not a Christian. I think that is no surprise to you, my faithful readers. However, I think there is a lot of good in the bible. There are wise sayings, some moral stories, it’s part of the fabric of human history, and I can respect that. Now, let’s pretend we’re Christians (if you, my reader are not actually one) for a second, and try to look in the bible for jsutification of this cutthroat capitalistic mindset, this greed, this hoarding and this inequality.

Ok, hmm. Looking, looking hmm, where is this…….

………..

…

..

Ooh, I found something. Here it is!

Matthew 25:35-45 :

“35 for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ 40 And the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’ 41 Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

I think it speaks for itself. Christianity in America is a farce. A fucking farce. Mitt Romney sees all the poor people, many in his campaign, and did he help them? No. Did he advocate for a more egalitarian society to help the poor? No. Does he advocate for using tax to send the to college? No. Sorry Christian dominionists, I think you’re doing it wrong. That whole Christianity thing, yeah, you’re fucking it up.

Trivia tidbit: The early Christian church was communist. True story, look it up. There is no secular, or theological basis for the religious right in the US. NONE. So please, can we as a country grow up and move on? Who knows, maybe some leftist Christians are reading here and have some thoughts?

Unite all workers, of all faiths, or no faith, together, and help us build a better world.

.

What’s behind Kony 2012?

What’s behind Kony 2012 ?                                                                                                                                                              .

he discovery of oil in Uganda in recent years is a contributing factor to imperialism’s interest in the region

What’s behind Kony 2012?

U.S. military intervention cannot be a force for progressive change

By Eugene Puryear

MARCH 8, 2012

The discovery of oil in Uganda in recent years is a contributing factor to imperialism’s interest in the region.

The power of social media is immense. That fact was fully on display as Facebook walls and in-boxes everywhere flooded with messages from a new political campaign “Kony 2012.” Kony 2012 purports to be aimed at bringing to justice Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, an armed rebel band that roams the jungles of northern Uganda and northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

Kony is without a doubt an odious figure. Since 1987, his LRA has roamed across Uganda, the DRC, the Central African Republic and South Sudan. Originally a part of a broader movement in Uganda focused on the rights of the Acholi people, the LRA morphed into a band of armed child soldiers, manipulated and drugged, rampaging wantonly across the landscape with seemingly no real goals or ideology.

Principally, the LRA appears to be a vehicle for Kony’s own leadership fantasies, which are hard to decipher and most likely rooted in some ethereal alternative reality. It is indisputable that Kony and the LRA have had a devastating effect on the regions they have inhabited, engaging in killings, rapes and abductions that are deserving of condemnation.

Once these facts are taken into account, however, it must be said that the aims of Kony 2012, whether sincere or not, have absolutely no chance of helping the people of Uganda or the DRC to mitigate the ill effects of the LRA. Kony 2012 calls for military intervention from Western powers to capture Kony and extradite him to the Hague to be tried for war crimes.

A little-known but not insignificant factor at play in the region is the discovery of oil in Uganda in recent years. “One of the most spectacular recent finds has been in Uganda. The reserves of the Albertine rift, which takes in the Ugandan and Congolese shores of Lake Albert …, are said to need $10 billion for development. All being well, Uganda will soon become a mid-sized producer, alongside countries such as Mexico. Foreign investment in Uganda may nearly double this year to $3 billion. The country expects to earn $2 billion a year from oil by 2015.” (The Economist, May 31, 2010)

Could it be that a desire to get access to this bonanza is a significant factor behind imperialist interests in intervening in the region’s conflicts? To ask the question is to answer it.

Oil, of course, is not the whole story, as Uganda is a key U.S. ally in a number of geostrategic endeavors.  There is much to be said on this topic, but there are three basic points progressive activists and revolutionary militants in the United States should keep in mind when considering the issues around the LRA.

1) Military intervention by the West has already been disastrous

The current Ugandan government has long been a friend of the West. In 1987, the year after he came to power, President Yoweri Museveni implemented an International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity plan. Under Museveni, Uganda became an important supporter of U.S.-backed military operations in the neighboring countries of Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In a July 2011 meeting of AFRICOM, the Pentagon’s agency for coordinating military operations in Africa, AFRICOM commander Gen. Carter Ham called Uganda, “a major partner” in achieving U.S. objectives in the region. (NTV Uganda, July 25, 2011)

As it concerns the LRA, the United States in particular has been attempting to build up Ugandan military forces. In 2008, the U.S. African Command brought together the combined forces of the Ugandan, CAR and South Sudanese military in “Operation Lightning Thunder” to deliver a death blow to the LRA. This operation failed miserably, and in retaliation the LRA killed almost 1,000 people and abducted 700 people. Twenty thousand people were displaced in the process. One further casualty was fledgling peace talks that drowned in blood.

Rather than an isolated incident, this was just the most recent in a long line of failed attempts to destroy the LRA. The LRA operates in an area the size of France, significant parts of which are covered by dense jungle and seriously lacking in infrastructure. These offensives at best serve to drive the LRA further into the hardest to penetrate areas, where they live to fight another day. Small assassination squads and massive military forces have failed over and over to capture or kill Kony or make a significant dent in the LRA’s fighting ability. In fact, the only outcome of U.S.-supported offensives has been significant further suffering in the LRA’s areas of influence, where the innocent have been routinely victimized by the LRA’s retaliatory offensives.

Perversely, President Obama sent 100 troops to Uganda last fall to try again. As always, this new and improved plan is supposed to bear fruit, but the preponderance of evidence suggests that these strategies of dealing with the LRA militarily are at best aspirational and at worst (and most likely) futile.

U.S. imperialist interests and humanitarian interests are mutually exclusive. The Kony 2012 campaign perpetuates the myth that the U.S. military can act as an agent for human rights, and will resonate with many truly well-intentioned people who feel “we must do something.” This only facilitates U.S. military intervention whose real goals are to ensure U.S. geostrategic interests in the region at the expense of the Ugandan people.

2) Conflict is deeper than the LRA

As odious as the LRA may be, it is a limited part of a much broader regional conflict that has been raging across East Africa for well over a decade, in which millions of people have lost their lives and rape has become a weapon of war on an unprecedented scale. DRC, South Sudan and Uganda in particular have been racked by a series of regional conflicts fueled by the resource-extraction mania demanded by the always-hungry, never tired imperialist capital accumulation machine.

Over vast swaths of the countries mentioned above are a series of ethnic and regional conflicts that are further compounded by the desire of elites in these states to establish their rule over both resource-rich areas and havens of their factional opponents.

This has created a vast array of militias of varying sizes and motivations continually fighting and moving across the region as necessary for survival, often using control over rudimentary mining operations to fund their activities. Some of these groups also ally themselves with one government or the other that provide funding and weapons and operate their own very brutal operations. On top of that, Western powers looking to exploit the resources of these regions ally themselves with these governments, arming and funding their military activities.

The Ugandan army that Kony 2012 hopes will put an end to the abuses of the LRA is itself a serial human rights abuser. In suppressing the Acholi revolt that the LRA sprang from, the Ugandan army forced thousands of people in the Acholi areas into concentration camps. There is also the brutal occupation Ugandan forces carried out for years in eastern DRC, systematically looting that country of a significant amount of its wealth. While hunting Kony in CAR, the Ugandan army looted, operated prostitution rings, and raped and infected girls with HIV. The Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, championed by Kony 2012, also has its own sordid record of brutal behavior.

It is patently ridiculous to suggest that sending a group of raping looters to solve human rights abuses will improve the situation for the peoples of Uganda, South Sudan or the DRC.

3) Strengthening the Ugandan army has repercussions for Ugandan progressives

Uganda is a country of deep divisions, and President Museveni has relied on a mix of co-option, intimidation and military campaigns to keep the country “unified” under the aegis of the National Resistance Movement. While a full analysis of the NRM government is beyond the scope of this article, it is worth noting that NRM often suppresses progressive activists, shows callous disregard for the rights of oppositional ethnic groups, and acts as the governmental wing of anti-gay lynch mobs.

Given this context, one cannot overlook the fact that better training, communications and arms for the Ugandan military is likely simply to result in more effective suppressive activity towards legitimate progressive and ethnic movements.

Taking all of this into account, it is clear that Kony 2012 deserves no support from the people of the world whom it seeks to rally under its banner. In the name of fighting for “human rights,” Kony 2012 is championing a rogues gallery of murdering, raping, corrupt governments and militaries that happily ally themselves with imperialist powers that have killed hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan in just the last decade.

Scrutinizing Invisible Children

It is also imperative that progressives seek to understand the origins of the Kony 2012 campaign, which has its roots in the organization Invisible Children. IC has been criticized for spending only 32 percent of its funds on direct services to children in Africa, with the remainder going to staff salaries, travel and transport and film production.

IC supports direct military intervention. Both the Ugandan army and Sudan People’s Liberation Army have been repeatedly accused of rape and looting, but IC continues to defend them, arguing that the Ugandan army is “better equipped than that of any of the other affected countries,” although Kony is no longer active in Uganda and hasn’t been since 2006 by their own admission.

The journal Foreign Affairs writes that IC “manipulates facts for strategic purposes, exaggerating the scale of LRA abductions and murders and emphasizing the LRA’s use of innocent children as soldiers, and portraying Kony—a brutal man, to be sure—as uniquely awful, a Kurtz-like embodiment of evil,” (referring to a fictional character in Joseph Conrad’s novella “Heart of Darkness”).

Chris Blattman, a political scientist at Yale, has written on the topic of IC’s programming: “There’s also something inherently misleading, naive, maybe even dangerous, about the idea of rescuing children or saving of Africa. […] It hints uncomfortably of the White Man’s Burden. Worse, sometimes it does more than hint. The savior attitude is pervasive in advocacy, and it inevitably shapes programming. Usually misconceived programming.”

Rather than lining up with a blood-soaked coalition, people of conscience need to expose Kony 2012 and its deadly agenda, which is guaranteed to sink the region even deeper into the morass of death. There are no simple answers. Any solution to the suffering of the peoples of the region must be rooted in a perspective that seriously addresses the legacy of colonialism and ongoing neo-colonialism and the resulting underdevelopment, ethnic conflict and political corruption.

Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org.

The Attack on Women

The big story in the new of late has been about Rush Limbaugh, and his vicious, slanderous attack on Sandra Fluke. He not only called her a slut and a prostitute for daring to testify to congress, but the apology he eventually gave only apologized for using those two words, not for the diatribe against her, not for telling her to make a sex tape, not for anything else that he said. While this story is outrageous, and Rush is a douchebag of the highest order, the war on women is much larger than a single attack on a college student.

The conservatives are old school, you see. They think that women should be in the home, slaving over the stove, vacuuming, and taking care of children. They don’t want them to have contraception, because if they had free access to contraception they would have control over their reproductive health, and thus control over their own lives. While insurance companies have no problem covering viagra, some do no want to pay for birth control pills that are used for much more than just preventing pregnancy. The right doesn’t like Planned Parenthood, not only because they help provide abortion (even if it is only 3% of what they do), but because the reproductive health choices these clinics give to poor women help to liberate them.

They right wants you to think that they are all about traditional morality. What does traditional morality mean? Well, traditional morality means that men run the country, it means that gays are in the closet, and will be beaten if they ever show their faces. It means that women have no rights, no control over their own lives. They want women barefoot and pregnant. They want a country of haves and have nots, where morality is helping the rich keep his wealth, no matter how many poor kids are starving in the streets. They want more poor kids from women who can’t stop having babies, because they provide cheap labor that is easily exploited by the capitalist class. They want more babies because they need more fodder for the cannons of their imperialist wars. They hate, revile, and slander any woman who dares to think for herself. They hate any woman who has a sense of self worth, that isn’t defined by a husband or children. The slime they spew about feminist women, is because they are threatened by intelligent, thinking women who are strong people.

The women who represent the right are there encouraging women to be complacent, to advance the anti-women agenda of the right.

Sarah Palin spoke out about the controversy, stating he support for the racist, sexist, bile spewing puke that is Rush Limbaugh. Why would she defend such a misogynist? Because she doesn’t fight for women’s rights. She fights for the elite capitalist class, and she is willing to throw women’s rights, her own dignity and the future for women under the bus to grovel to the moneyed interests that really own her.

If you’re a woman, and you support the right, you have been duped. You’ve allowed others to dictate to women what they should be, how they should act, and that men should control their reproductive rights. They are traitors to humanity and women, maybe not even intentionally. Reject the anti-women right wing, and fight for the liberation of all humanity from the capitalist, imperialist, religious controls they want to have on your life.

They have you convinced that freedom is slavery? Reject that, and embrace liberation. You are a worthy human being, as important as any man or woman. End gender oppression now. And reject women like Sarah Palin who would have you in chains.

Indonesian Man Faces Jail for being an Atheist

   The Jakarta post reported a story recently of a young Indonesian man who is facing jail time for simply expressing his views on religion. The man, a 30 year old civil servant is from the very Muslim area of West Sumatra. His arrest followed his creation of an atheist Facebook page in which he stated that he did not believe in god. The authorities reason for his arrest seems to stem from their claim that he was “causing unrest in the community”. Indonesia has harsh laws against blasphemy, and Alexander faces a prison term of five years if he is convicted, in addition to losing his job as a civil servant. Indonesia recognizes six official religions, Islam,  Protestant, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhism and Confucianism. In spite of being attacked by angry mobs, being faced with jail and unemployment, Alexander is defiant and strong in his defense of free thought, saying that he realized what he had said and was prepared to lose his job to defend his beliefs. End the tyranny of government sponsored religion, and free the mind of humanity. We will move beyond this ridiculous barbarism.

Here is the link to the source story: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2012/01/20/atheist-civil-servant-arrested-blasphemy.html

2012: Expectations Etc.

Good morning to all, and a very happy new year as well! As 2012 gets rolling, it is time for a rundown on things to look forward to and watch in the comin year. Let’s get started. (This list is not arranged in any kind of order of significance)

1. 2012 Elections in the US

This November millions of Americans will go to the polls to vote for their congressional representatives, their senators, local measures, and of course for the next president of the US. The GOP primary contest is just getting started, with the Iowa caucus on Tuesday. That will only be the first of many such contests that will decide who Republicans prefer to run as their candidate. Right now the race is wide open, with Romney still holding a minority lead in most polls. Santorum of Google fame has been rising in the polls, but is not expected to win the nomination. Gingrich has fallen quite a bit, and Ron Paul is being bitterly fought against by Neo-Cons who hate his positions on foreign policy and isolationism, as well as by liberals who rightfully hate his history of racism and misogyny.

2. Occupy Protests

The protests that began in New York in September are expected to maintain their momentum heading in to the 2012 election cycle. A movement based around exposing political corruption in the American political system will likely have no shortage of ammunition against the system, as we witness the farce that is the American electoral system. What remains to be seen is any sign of a resurgence of the now tepid and rigor mortis bound tea party; some probably hoping against hope that it can be revived. Not surprising, many Americans will most likely continue to support the much more favored occupy protest movement that calls for democracy and equal rights, against an astroturf movement based in the white upper classes asking for help from the rich. Look for more college students to get involved politically, as student debt continues to rise against an education system that just keeps getting more and more expensive. Look also for more people boycotting the election, or voting for third party candidates as a result of a popular backlash against the lack of influence or power normal poor, and middle class people have.

3. 2012 Olympics in London

2012 is of course a year in which the Olympics takes place, this year coming to London, UK. A time where everyone will pretend that there is peace in the world as millions are distracted by pole vaulting, marathons, and other games of leisure many poor in the world can’t afford to participate in.

4. The Wealth Divide and Austerity Programs

Look for more social unrest as austerity programs hit hard in many Western countries, including the EU economic zone, as well as the Americas. As the austerity programs will affect the poor and middle classes disproportionately, it may cause political problems for the ruling class and the rich. Hopefully, as the wealth gap widens, the poor and working classes will fight back against these reactionary measures, and hold their governments accountable for the wholesale theft that they are extracting from their people.

5.  Imperialist Aggression Continues

Look for more imperialist agression against states that don’t want to play the West’s games in 2012. In particular, keep an eye on the middle East, as countries like Iran and Syria are increasingly under pressure to yield to the capitalist imperialists of the West. Don’t believe everything you hear coming out of the news on these countries, take it all with a grain of salt.

6. The Aftermath of Imperialism

Keep an eye on countries that have already felt the full brunt of Western aggression, as they try to recover from years of war. First in mind is the weakened country of Iraq. The US jsut recently pulled all of its remaining troops from the war torn country, but they still have civilians remaining. In spite of American assurances of stability and trust in the new Iraqi government, the withdrawal was almost immediately followed by bombings and other forms of violence as the Americans vacated the power vacuum they had created.

7. Japan

Japan will be going through a tough year of rebuilding as it tries to recover from the devastating natural disasters, and the nuclear disaster, that occurred last March. In addition to this, Japan is also dealing with the loss of vehicle production centers in Thailand after that country recently suffered horrendous floods.

8. World Politics and Economy

This will be a year on the edge for most countries, as austerity programs are used to try to cover up the waste and mismanagement of the ruling classes. Many major world economies have enormous financial problems facing them, as they struggle to keep the capitalist economic house of cards from falling on their heads.

9. The End of the World

Just kidding. I can say with some certainty that the world is most likely not going to end on Dec. 21st. Instead of worrying about that, join me in building a better world for the future.

Well, that’s all I have for you right now. Feel free to add comments of your own, I want to hear what you think. What major events are you looking forward to/dreading in 2012? Want to berate me for missing something? Go ahead, sound off. I wish all my readers a happy new year, and hope that the coming months bring us peace, progress and socialism. Thanks for reading.

Atheism Vs. Christians

Ok, I’ll admit it. I read cracked.com. Their articles are funny, and many times informative. They have lists about history, and lists with all kinds of cool obscure facts. I like history, and I like random cool facts. My opinion of the intelligence of one of the authors fell though, after reading an entry titled “4 Things Both Atheists and Believers Need to Stop Saying”.

I’m now going to go through them one by one:

1. Theists: “God hates ____”

Yes. You’re right about this one, beating others verbally  over the head with everything your imaginary friend supposedly hates is not only annoying, it’s fucking stupid. No one cares what you think your magical friend hates, really, we don’t.

2. Atheists: God is Not Great

He then goes on to show he has no idea what Hitchens meant by that phrase, why he chose it as a title for his book, or anything else about it really. He tries to say that the phrase is just arrogant, and how could those mean ol’ atheists say something so mean and boo hoo hooo hoo. Really. Read the book with just a small modicum of comprehension and you’l understand what Hitchens was saying. At this point the author sounded like the morons on twitter who were raging over #GodisNotGreat trending.

3.  Theists: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

This one is an obvious. Again, it’s stupidity.If people are capable of helping themselves, why would they have a need for a god’s help at all? Case closed.

4. Atheists: God is a Fairy Tale for Morons

So, you want us to stop saying that. While Christians are trying to outlaw a woman’s right to choose, while the religious are preventing stem cell research that could save lives, while they oppose comprehensive sex ed that saves lives AND prevents abortions, while they do everything in their power to harm and halt the advance of humanity and science, all for the reason that they believe in an invisible being who disapproves of such scientific gallivanting. You see, gods don’t like it when you go poking around his creation, changing things willy-nilly and all the while not needing a god, not a whit. We’re supposed to ignore the religious proclamations of war and violence, ignore the people who are killed, beaten to death or driven to suicide by the religious bigots. We are supposed to sit back while they push harder and harder for a theocratic society. You see, it’s not that the phrase “god is a fairy tale for morons” isn’t true, it’s that it hurts people’s feelings. Well, the truth hurts. God is a made up imaginary being, and rational people don’t have to walk around on egg shells trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings. You want the truth? You want reality? You can’t have that and not hurt anyone’s feelings. You can’t be reasonable without reason.