Fuck this Shit

OK. I got your attention with the title, but that wasn’t the only purpose of that headline. I said it in response to what I’m about to talk about.

Do me a favor

Ok, so, you’re probably viewing this either on a smart phone, or more likely a computer. My request is not a difficult one, so don’t worry. Go to the Huffington Post. Look at the stories that are being reported. Here are some of the actual headlines that are on the front page as I write this: “American Sniper Killed at Gun Range” and “The End Of Football? America’s Favorite Sport Marred By Scandal, Brain Injuries” and “LOOK: Obama Goes Skeet Shooting ” and one more that is really real news “Amanda Bynes Moves Out After Weed Smoking Leads To Eviction Notice “

Do you see a pattern here? It’s all bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit. None of that is shit that you should give a flying fuck about. Which brings me to my first point. The media in our wonderful capitalist societies are shit. It is complete and utter shit. Do we have news about what is happening around the world? Oh yes, here and there if you have the time and stomach to dig for it. We have alternative news sources, but they don’t get very much attention. We have mostly celebrity gossip, non-issues such as gun control, and slide shows of inane shit no one cares about. We have commercials for cars, and websites, and this business and that. Already forgotten are the names of the thousands of dead American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Never known are the names of the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis and Afghanis. We are encapsulated in our little capitalist world. A disturbing news story about the state of the world is on? Quick, switch it over to Honey BooBoo so we can watch their family slowly eat themselves to death while exploiting a little girl whose life is probably already ruined, her only childhood sold as a commodity for profit. Not just as a model or something like that, which in principle I’m not against, but as a 24-hour watched little clown who gets treats for doing doing back flips. Like a jester in a court, but too damn young to know that she’s being laughed at, not with. No, we don’t want to think about things like global warming. We can put that off for later. We don’t want to think about how we’re destroying the only planet we have to call home.

No, no, no. Just go back to your TV and keep watching inane bullshit. Keep the news on, you’ll feel cultured and well informed. War around the world, untold death and destruction being waged on innocent people by your government. Change the channel again. Don’t think about such morbid things. America is a free democratic country, right? OK then, try to run for political office with no money, only on your ideas. Let me know how that works out for you. If you did get elected, let me know what would happen when you stood up against the military-industrial complex and tried to change this country in a real way. Let me know how long it would be before they found a way to toss you out on your ear. Just try running anywhere as a socialist, and see how long it would take for people to tune you out. They’ve been programmed to believe that socialism is a dirty word. When you start talking about poverty, watch as screaming heads start yelling at you that you’re worse than Hitler, and that you just hate America. When you start talking about the dismantling of quality public education in America, watch while they accuse you of just working for “big unions”. When you ask about the state of the environment, watch while they call you a hippy, and a tree hugger. Ask about lobbying, and watch as you’re silenced. Try to change this system from the inside out and you will fail, and fail miserably. You will try to rally the people behind the idea that we can create a better world, that we can change things. They aren’t listening, they’re more interested in whether or not Lindsay Lohan will miss her next court appearance again.

So fuck this shit.

Fuck the false narratives. Fuck the false dichotomies. Fuck the lobbyists with their millions and their hearts of stone. Fuck the media and their deliberate stupidity. Fuck the people who are too timid to speak up and speak out. Fuck the myth of America. Fuck the people who say “support the troops” even though they never question what that means, if anything. Fuck the poverty that is killing our children, and ruining their futures. Fuck this oligarchic system that ruins lives and destroys dreams. Fuck the “immigration reform” that will still leave millions in the US in an economic underclass with no legal rights against the employers that exploit them. Fuck the US government that would rather drone bomb Pakistani children than send its own children to university. Fuck the GOP, their hate, imperialism and greed. Also fuck the Democrats and their fake leftism. They’re exactly like the GOP, but to goddamn cowardly to admit it. Fuck this two party system that ensures the continued rule of the bourgeoisie over the workers, stifling their voices. Fuck this system of war, poverty, death. Fuck the complacent assholes who won’t even stop their boring consumerist lives to think about the real state of the world. People are dying, literally dying, because of this crisis of capitalism. FUCK THIS SHIT.

Fuck this false diversionary bullshit put out by bourgeois media. It is time to say, FUCK THIS SHIT.

Are you prepared to sacrifice to make things better? Are you willing to put your money where your mouth is and demand a better system? Or will you be sucked back into the false GOP/Democrat dichotomy. Will you be willing to fight for real social justice and economic equality? Or will you fall back into your seat and listen to the watered down shit on NBC?

The only way the world will change, is by dedicated people doing everything they can to change it. Nothing less. Revolution won’t come otherwise. Change will always be just a dream. Ending poverty a punchline, and our schools will be sold to the highest bidder. No more science education, we’ll learn about Intelligent Design in Christian charter schools. So start thinking, start reading, start talking. As a friend of mine would say “Wake up, goddammit!”

The world will only change when we decide that we’ve had enough of this capitalist bullshit. It will only end when we as a people rise up and say, “Fuck this shit. We can do better.”

That day, I do believe, will come.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

I went to a forum at my university tonight on the subject of the US election. What I heard was people blatantly lie about both the political process, and the policies being enacted. I had the strong feeling that I was the furthest left person in the room as well, so that certainly made things interesting. I also got dressed down by an elderly woman who was incensed that I wasn’t voting for Obama. Long story short, it got me thinking about the political process in the US, and why it is so, so far out of whack. Why things can’t be improved in the current paradigm, and why we need radical change in our political systems.

Wealth Inequality

One speaker made a load of bullshit accusations and false characterizations about the occupy movement. I answered his stupidity, but it pissed me off that he could stand up there and blatantly lie about a movement he probably never went to, and held such contempt for. This man is white, a lawyer, obviously not poor; in short the poster child for the GOP. He thinks that the protesters were all violent hipsters out to get everything for free, that we just want a free ride in life. Untrue. We’ve worked our asses off for years, for low pay, only to be swallowed in debt, with uncertain futures, a lack of jobs, and a fractured world while men like him play the fiddle and pretend all is well. His material was mostly from the Heritage Foundation, a hack think tank if there ever was one. He slandered and lied the entire time he was slated to talk.

Here are some of his claims:

There is too much debt, the deficit keeps rising, and we’re sinking in debt, and it’s all the democrats fault.

The TRUTH:

Yes, the US is in debt, but why? Because of the democrats and their love for the welfare state? Oh hell no. We’ve spent over a trillion dollars on illegal and pointless wars in the middle east, in addition to massive tax breaks for the wealthy and huge government expansion. (Think PATRIOT Act, NDAA, Dept. of Homeland Security) Bush created a MASSIVE amount of debt, never balanced a budget, and ruined the US economy. Then the GOP gets mad at Obama for CONTINUING THOSE GODDAMN POLICIES.

Another claim: Liberals and the left just want everything handed to them on a sliver platter

The TRUTH: The fact is that in the US, the rich are really scared of something completely different. They’re scared that people will notice that the capitalist class has had everything handed to THEM on a silver platter. They have for too long taken for granted their positions of privilege, and they are now scared that they’re going to lose it. Wanting a society that can provide the basic human needs to the people is not asking for everything on a silver platter. The capitalist class sits around making money off the hard work of the proletariat, and then cries bitter tears of pain when they’re asked to sacrifice a tiny bit of their ill gained wealth for the common good. This only goes to prove that you can’t let the capitalists maintain power and still hope for socialism, or hell, even for some goddamn social progress.

The US Political System

Switching gears now away from the crazy claims of a disingenuous lawyer (also known as a lawyer), the talk tonight really highlighted for me the problem of our political system. There are only two sides. There are the democrats, and the republicans and they will decide what happens to the country. Don’t like the two party system? Too goddamn bad. Don’t like either party? Too bad. While the world is worried about a possible financial meltdown, a possible world war, increasing political tensions worldwide, a lack of jobs, the death of our environment, more war, income inequality, no money for education or housing, no money for anything other than the rich, real fucking problems… While all that is going on our political process consists of two people whose political positions are near enough that they could easily fit into the same political party, arguing on national TV about things that have NOTHING to do with the real problems we face. These same two will not be elected by a popular vote, they will be elected by an unaccountable electoral college, the names of whom no one knows, and political candidates for congress being the same old same old oligarchy that has ruled us since the dawn of this country. No other voices or concerns may enter the debate. No other parties can compete. No other way can be found. Status quo status quo status quo. Neither party candidate wants to end our overseas wars immediately, neither candidate wants us to close our excessive overseas bases, neither of them cares about changing American foreign policy, neither cares about ending the war on drugs, neither cares about anything other than getting elected so they can ensure four full years of power. Nothing changes, and they don’t want it to change. Things are just the way they like it because they can play you all off the other party, and get you so used to this bullshit that you are not educated or brazen enough to speak out against it. “If you don’t vote Republican, the Democrats will win” “If you don’t vote for the Democrats, the Republicans will win”. I said something on twitter the other day that really sums up how I feel about these two corrupt parties. I said “Having to choose between the Dems and the GOP is like being made to choose between salmonella and E.Coli. When will we wake up and see the truth for what it is? The US is nothing more than an oligarchy, a sad corrupt oligarchy that will come crashing down under the weight of its own hubris.

The lawyer who spoke tonight said many damned lies, and tried to back it up with shitty statistics. Like the BS claim that half of all Americans don’t pay tax. (Nearly every American pays tax of some sort)

But this is par for the course. We accept these lies as legitimate debate, when they are not. They are simply lies. Lies like the idea that the human beings who make up the populace of the USA can’t control their own political process, that we are beholden to a hundreds of years old document that we didn’t agree to. The idea that we are to sit down and shut up and not raise these questions. Why are there so many Americans on welfare? Good question, why are there so many Americans who NEED welfare? Are Americans just inherently lazy? It think not, and data backs me up. We’re one of the hardest working countries in the developed world. Why is it then? Maybe it’s because the people hoarding all the money in the US are not the real producers of wealth. Those are the grease stained engineers, the school teachers, the bakers. They are the street sweepers and the hotel desk clerks, they are the mothers and the fathers who bust their asses ever day to provide for their families, and are depressed, hurt and ashamed when there is more month than money. We are the people, teh strugglers, the fighters and the hopeful, and we are the ones who make the wheels of the economy turn. Assholes like that lawyer want you to believe that YOU are lazy, that you don’t want to work that YOU just want welfare. Fuck no. I don’t want welfare, I want socialism. I want a system wherein the workers own the corporations, and there are no CEOs. I want a truly transparent, money free political system that values ideas over political party apparatus. I want a system that believes in free and equal rights for all, including so called illegal immigrants, LGBT et al. I want a better world, not a world where the only way of making it big is to step on the corpses of your downtrodden worker brethren. We can, and indeed we must DEMAND and end to this ridiculous and unacceptable status quo. We need socialism bad, we need real workers democracy bad, we need equal rights for all bad, we need an end to capitalism. That may not be the popular thing to say, but it needs to be said. I will never stop advocating revolution in the US until we overthrow this militaristic fascist state. I will not give in and support Obama and the democrats. I will never OK the current treatment of Palestinians, Libyans and others. I will not accept capitalist imperialism, and I never will

So what are you going to do? Are you going to accept the status qo? Are you going to accept the rhetoric of lies, damn lies and statistics on Fox “news” and CNN? Or will you join me in demanding a better world, and a new political system to bring about that better world. You supported the overthrow of the regime in Egypt, right? Are you too cowardly to advocate the same in the US? It’s high time for a change, it is high time for an uprising, it is high time for a better world.

 

And the Nobel Peace Prize goes to…

The internet erupted with outrage at the announcement of the winner of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. A prize that is supposed to be given to those who have advocated for peace, and helped bring about a more peaceful world. Of course as you most likely know, this year’s prize went to the European Union. After having given the prize to other capitalist imperialists such as Barack Obama and Henry Kissinger, this only helps solidify the meaninglessness of the prize and its control by those who wish to advance, not human rights or democracy, but capitalist control over everyone and everything. Their rationale for awarding the peace prize to the EU was that it had solidified unity on a continent that used to be torn by war. This may sound reasonable to some, but if you dig just below the surface you’ll see that this is a farce, and that giving the peace prize to the EU is like giving a prize for outstanding human rights to the keepers of Guantanamo bay. Now I’m going to tell you why.

Peace and Human Rights my Ass

While it’s true that Europe has managed not to kill off the entire globe yet, that is hardly cause for a Nobel Peace Prize. Hell, I’d qualify for that shit if that was the case. What is the EU’s stance on human rights? Have they actually produced a more peaceful world? The answer to both, unfortunately, is a negative one. Let’s start with the first question, human rights. Is Europe upholding human rights? The answer is an unequivocal NO. Let’s start with the support of many EU countries for and complicity in illegal CIA renditions. No less than 14 EU member countries have been explicit in helping the US with their illegal kidnapping and imprisonment structure in Europe. Countries like the UK, Germany, Poland, Italy, Greece, Sweden among others. Want to read more about this? Glad you asked, because here is a link for you from the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/07/world/europe/07iht-prisons.1915898.html

And that’s not all. Amnesty International reported that migrants to Greece, many of them minors were being unfairly and illegally imprisoned in detention centers. Here’s the story here:  http://www.amnesty.eu/en/press-releases/security-and-human-rights/detention-of-minors-in-greece-shows-failings-of-eus-immigration-policy-0463/

Migrants left to die: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/28/left-to-die-migrants-boat-inquiry

These problems are important egregious violations, and I could talk about support by the EU member nations and participation in the US’s illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that has killed upwards of a million people, but there is something closer to home that I want to focus on.

The EU financial crises is years old now, and the struggle continues as Brussels, Germany and France try to squeeze the poorer member nations for all they have. Greece, Italy and Spain among others are floundering in ridiculously high unemployment, sagging economies and corrupt governance. Hundreds and hundreds of people in countries like Spain and Greece have taken their own lives because of austerity programs that took away from them what they had worked hard their whole lives to build. Men who had worked for a lifetime found that their guaranteed pensions were being stripped away from them, leaving them with nothing to live on. The disabled and sick are left hanging as the government cuts and cuts and cuts social programs that helped these people live with a modicum of decency. Surely it was because all those social programs had bankrupted those countries, right? (this is what the right likes to bray every time you bring up the trouble in Europe) NO. It is the fault of none other than the EU itself. It brought poorer countries like Greece, Spain and Portugal under the common currency when they were not ready to do so, and created a tidal wave of economic excess. Banks borrowed at ridiculously low rates and bet on bad debt over and over again, and the whole economy was managed very very badly. A mountain of debt piled up and the banks were about to go under so the governments bailed out the bad decision making bankers and put themselves deeply into debt. The bankers, the governments made out like bandits, and the working people were thrown under the bus. Higher taxes, for less government services. That’s not fiscal responsibility, that is straight up theft from the working classes. That is reprehensible. Mothers in Greece are abandoning babies they can’t feed, homeless numbers are growing, riots in the streets and anger abounds. The EU is in the throws of a social movement that could possibly bring down the whole damn apparatus. The police hit, shoot, beat and gas protesters for expressing their anger against this travesty, and pictures of bloodied and beaten protesters abounds. Speak out against this sickening fleecing of Europe and you’re thrown in jail, kill millions of jobs and steal pensions, you’re a hero. It is down right sickening. Here’s some pictures from “peaceful” Europe:

This is all going on RIGHT NOW. People are suffering and dying thanks to the economic terrorism wafting out of Brussels, Berlin and Paris, and there are loads of riots and talks of war, separatist groups and economic collapse. And it is to this region, that they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Seems legit.

Dear Europe, you don’t deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. You don’t deserve it because there is no justice in Europe, only class warfare. And as you may have heard before, no justice, NO PEACE.

FUCK the EU and its capitalist tyranny. End the EU and build socialism in your countries.

Also, give up on ever respecting the Nobel Peace Prize, it’s a joke and has been for some time.

It is important enough to say again:

NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE.

Money for War, Can’t Feed the Poor

The US loves to go on about how they are the greatest, most successful, richest and most prosperous country in the world. We sing of alabaster cities and glistening ivory towers. We have our gilded halls and our expensive rugs. There is something else Americans like to say too. “America is broke, we can’t afford these entitlement programs. We just don’t have the money to provide for food, education, healthcare or anything else for the poor. Just look at us, we’re broke!!”

You can’t have it both ways America. You sound like a deadbeat dad who has the money for the bar, but can’t cough up child support. No one is buying it. Seriously, no one (with half a brain) is buying it. The US has a GDP of over 14 trillion dollars a year. That’s nearly 10 trillion dollars more than the next contender China, or Japan right behind it in 3rd place. We throw away more food than any nation on earth. We spend more on health care costs per capita than any developed nation on earth. While McDonalds, your local supermarket, and high class restaurants throw out literally tons of food, people in the US starve, they go without the basic human necessities. The poor are deciding whether to pay their electric bill and have heat for the winter, or to forgo that and be able to eat. The elderly are contemplating whether to have medicine that keeps them alive, or have food to eat. Meanwhile the rich capitalist class is sitting on trillions of dollars. TRILLIONS. That could help pave our roads, pay our teachers,  feed the poor, send poor kids to college, etc etc etc.

“But we’re broke” they naysayers whine. Let me tell you just how “broke” we are most certainly not.

This link takes you to a chart that breaks down government spending by category: http://www.usfederalbudget.us/us_welfare_spending_40.html

Now let me give you some figures from 2011. Surely we poured money into welfare, entitlements, and those damn educational institutions, right? Wrong. Dead wrong.

We spent 903 BILLION dollars on defense in 2011. That’s almost a freaking trillion dollars in ONE year, just on our many wars. How much on education? 153 billion. oops. 131 billion on welfare for families and children, 109 billion for unemployment (be sure to blame that on the unemployed now,not the greedy selfish capitalists who fired them and made the remaining workers work harder for less),  and a paltry 75 billion on housing. Of course the government does cough up 37 Billion dollars to house its 2 million prisoners in this “land of the free”.

Americans live in a country that has a tangled messed up health care system that leaves millions without care for more than the cost of universal health care, the largest prison population in the WORLD (absolute, or per capita, either one), 800 plus military bases in 150 plus countries world wide. We can pay for pointless and destructive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We can pay for thousands upon thousands of bombs and ships and missiles and guns, but no money for a poor child’s meal, or education. We say we don’t have enough to meet everyone’s needs, but that is a bold faced lie. We most certainly do have enough to meet everyone’s needs, and then some. We just don’t have enough, and will never have enough to satisfy the greed of the capitalist class.

All of this is the direct result of living in a country that has a capitalist system. The elite few who own the companies and corporations ride high on the hog while you toil away trying to survive. Their kids are guaranteed education in the hallowed halls of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale, while you’ll be happy if you can afford to send your kid to community college. They make the profit, you do the work. The working class dies in the sands of Iraq, their kids dine on caviar and drive a Ferrari. Your house has leaks and crack and holes, they employ someone like you to make sure their topiary is always nicely groomed. They sell you out, use you up, throw you in the waste basket, and then America, then you praise them and admire them. You gladly wave their blood stained flag and are happy to sacrifice your children to the fires of their Moloch. You are happy to work you say, happy to have a job, they’re happy too. They are happy that you’re not aware that you are a wage slave, that you make them millions while you can’t make ends meet. Open your eyes, look around you and see that this is not a good system. The people are suffering, they are even dying. When they start to speak up, they get pepper sprayed, called dirty hippies, beaten, imprisoned, censored and stomped. NO MORE.

Reject this fake democracy, throw off the shackles of capitalism. How you ask? You won’t change things by voting for the two parties that control government, and get paid by the likes of JP Morgan Chase. You won’t change anything by spending a lot of time talking about how the cops (the running dogs of the capitalist ruling class) are really your friends. We can only change things one way in the US. That is to rise up and demand a new form of government. Please, join a socialist party (maybe the Party for Socialism and Liberation) ANGRILY demand an end to these useless deadly wars, call for a stop to US imperialism, resist the government. If you are in the military, get out NOW. Demand recognition as a conscientious objector, do what you have to. Do not fight any more for their bloody greedy bullshit. Your life is worth more. Start a union where you work. Start conversations with the people around you, show them what kind of a system it is. It is time to build class awareness. This is a class war, and it has been going on for a very long time. Fight for NOT JUST THE US, but the world as a whole. A socialist US is a good thing for the entire globe, and all its myriad peoples. Have courage, speak out, fight back. Workers of the world, UNITE!

“Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.”- Maggie Kuhn

 

The people stand against the NATO Summit in Chicago

The people stand against the NATO Summit in Chicago.

The people stand against the NATO Summit in Chicago

Report and photos from the demonstration

MAY 21, 2012

 

 

 

The ANSWER Coalition published the report below.

 

“NATO: Shut it Down! Wall Street: Shut it Down! Homeland Security: Shut it Down!” That forceful chant rang out as protesters, many thousands strong, marched on the NATO Summit on May 20 in Chicago.

 

Responding with determination in the face of an organized campaign of government threats and intimidation aimed at anti-NATO protesters, an impressive number of young people, union members, antiwar organizations and community members filled the streets to demand “U.S./NATO Out of Afghanistan Now!” during the opening day of the NATO Summit.

 

The Coalition Against NATO/G8 War and Poverty Agenda (CANG8) estimates the crowd size as about 15,000.

 

In the week leading up to the NATO Summit, thousands of people marched and rallied in Chicago. The actions included a large rally of nurses demanding higher taxes on the rich and a march on Mayor Emanuel’s house, 1,000 people strong, which demanded “Health Care not Warfare!”

 

People came in buses, by train and by car caravan from all over the country to take a stand in Chicago against imperialist war and capitalist austerity.

 

In a moving display of solidarity with the people of Afghanistan and the Middle East at the end of the march, Afghanistan and Iraq veterans took off their medals and hurled them toward the NATO Summit grounds. One of those who returned his medals, Marine Vince Emmanuelli, said: “Our enemies are right here and we look at them every day. … They are the millionaires and billionaires who control this planet and we’ve had enough of it.” (WBEZ Chicago)

 

Months-long campaign against protesters

 

Though the military machines of NATO are the greatest purveyors of violence in the world, local and federal law enforcement agencies and the media engaged in a months-long attack campaign against protesters and protest groups.

 

The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild set up a 24-hour hotline to provide support for people who were arrested before and during the NATO protest.

 

Prior to the May demonstration, the NLG Chicago chapter reported:

 

“More than two-dozen people had been arrested so far in the lead up to the NATO summit. At least 7 arrestees in addition to the ones with terrorism-related charges are currently in custody.

 

“During a Wednesday night house raid, police broke down the doors of multiple apartment units with guns drawn and searched residences without a warrant or consent. In addition to 9 arrests made that night, NLG attorneys believe that two undercover police or confidential informants were arrested with the others and were later released. Of the 9 activists arrested, 6 were released without any charges despite being shackled for at least 18 hours in solitary confinement and denied access to attorneys.”

 

At the May 20 mass march, a police mob surrounded and brutally attacked the demonstration as it was winding down, swinging their clubs at people’s heads and injuring many dozens. At least 45 people were arrested. Among those injured were ministers, community activists, journalists and others who tried to rescue people from police.

 

‘The people will not be bullied or silenced by the police and government’

 

The ANSWER Coalition in Chicago went all out to build the March on the NATO Summit, both through street outreach and social media outlets, and had a big presence at the protest with banners and placards and large amplified sound that unified large numbers of marchers with booming chants. The banners and placards read: “No War on Iran! Hands off Syria!”, “Troops Home Now! Money for Jobs and Education!”, “Unite the 99%: Fight Racism!” and “U.S./NATO Out of Afghanistan Now!”

 

Asked what she thought of the protest, ANSWER organizer Ymelda Viramontes said: “Today’s protest shows that the people can and will resist the government and Wall Street’s attempts to bully and silence us. The number of people that came out into the streets of downtown today to show solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, Iran and Syria and demand no U.S. or NATO intervention—that’s a good indication that we can build a powerful movement against war and racism right here in the U.S.”

 

Content may be reprinted with credit to LiberationNews.org.

A Response to an Article on Syria

I read an article on Japan Times online (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/eo20120320a1.html), that was originally published in the Washington Post. Here is my response to that article: 

This article’s myopic nature is surprising coming from a Harvard Professor. His views on Syria are naive, and indicative of the insulated and out of touch nature of neo-liberal thought. I am going to counter his points, one by one.
1. President Assad’s support structure:
His support actually includes a great majority of the country. His repeated assertion of Assad as a hated dictator are completely inconsistent with the facts. A poll conducted by the Qatar Foundation found that about 55% of the Syrian people approved of Assad’s performance as president. For perspective, neither Obama in the US, or Noda in Japan even come close to that approval rating.
2. It is hard to tell much of what is going on in Syria. This is apparent because of the conflicting, and unsubstantiated nature of the reports from Western media coming out of Syria. It is also hard to get a non-biased view of what is happening in Syria since it seems that much of the news of Syria’s problems are from those intent on advocating intervention in some way.
3. Claims of Syria’s impending civil war are indeed premature to say the least. What is happening is that Islamic terrorists are attempting to overthrow the legitimate government of Syria, with the help of foreign intervention. Countries like the US claim to spread democracy, but their real goal is spreading hegemony. While the US claims it wants democracy and secular government, their actions say otherwise when like Mr.Owen, they advocate the overthrow of a secular government in favor of Sharia law and sectarian violence.
4. Libya is indubitably a horrible model for regime change. The terrorist led opposition is not bringing democracy (ignoring the question of if Libya already had democracy) nor did it bring prosperity. It brought an anarchic state of murder, rape and racist retaliation. Thousands sit in make-shift prisons with inadequate access to food, water, or health care. Militias roam the country with no respect for the rule of law, or human rights. In fact, the country has changed from having the highest human development index in Africa, to being a country torn by war, violence and crime. Their hospitals, schools and infrastructure destroyed; it may take decades before the Libyan people recover from this farce of a liberation.
5. Intervention does not only mean military attack. In recent times, moralistic calls to help “liberate” a country has led to horrific results. Iraq still struggles to return to normal after years of war, and Afghanistan, after 11 years, is still waiting for peace. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in those pointless and useless invasions, yet Mr.Owens still holds them up as examples of successful interventions. I think the world has had about all the interventionist help it can handle for a while. In addition to those sobering facts, we should realize that sanctions will do one thing only, and that is hurt the Syrian people. Even if the government is corrupt and evil to the core, an assumption I would question deeply, the people of Syria would bear the brunt of these actions, not the government. We need to end our addiction to interventionism. We cannot solve all of the world’s problems in every country by starving them, by cutting them off from the global economy, or by pretending their people want what our governments want. Maybe the US would be much better served by focusing on responding to the complaints of its own citizens that it has so brutally suppressed, instead of demonizing the Syrian government for defending itself against, not unarmed protesters, but armed militias aiming to overthrow the state. This is to me, another egregious case of the pot calling the kettle black. It’s time for the western world to start practicing what it preaches, and leave poor countries like Libya and Syria alone.

 

Democrats: The Lesser of Two Evils?

As I’m sure you’re aware of, it’s election year. The bourgeois parties are having their little fight to see who will ascend to the top. There are some on the left who think that their only choice is to vote democrat, because the “ultra-right” is way worse of an option. We are supposedly held hostage by our bourgeois system, and must only hope for the least worst option. After all they say, hasn’t Obama done some good things?  Hasn’t he changed things a bit?   My long and drawn out answer to that question lies below. Warning to those easily offended: strap into your seat belt, sit down or whatever. You’re not going to like this, Dems.

What Have the Dems Done: The Clinton Years

Let’s start back in the time of Clinton. I could start much further back, and go over the internment camps of FDR, or the attacks on Cuba by JFK, or the imperialism of Jimmy Carter, but let’s just start a bit earlier for time’s sake.

William Jefferson Clinton. President of the US. I think people genuinely liked this guy, he seemed nice. Too bad that most Americans cannot seem to think deeper than that about a presidential candidate. And so the man from Hope was elected. And what happened after that? Let’s take a look.

One of the first things Clinton did in office was to perpetuate the imperialist policies of his Republican predecessor, Bush, in the impoverished country of Haiti. I’m sure that helped the people of Haiti a hell of a lot. Overthrow their government, subjugate them to the ridiculous enslaving policies of the IMF, and dictate to the Haitian people what their government can and cannot be. The result of Clinton’s attacks on Haiti was even more poverty, crime, corruption and despair. That’s a “progressive”. What else did he do? Well, to continue we’ll be getting away from Haiti, which you can read about here: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/jan2010/pers-j18.shtml

Moving on. Clinton was an imperialist, we can see that in Haiti, and many of his other actions during his 8 years in office. What else did he do? He helped lead the charge to destroy the welfare system in America. He campaigned in 1992 on the promise to “End welfare as we know it”. And he kept that promise. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Responsibility_and_Work_Opportunity_Act

Enough about him though. Read up. See what he did. He was nothing more than another in a long line of capitalist imperialist presidents.

Moving on to:

Obama: Change?

Here’s a list I found of the things Obama has accomplished so far:

1. Escalated an failing war in Afghanistan, leading to even more suffering among the civilians and the Taliban in the nation.

2. Overthrew the left-wing democratically elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, since he was a threat to US interests.

3. Backed the failed Coup through the State Department that attempted to overthrow the disobedient left-wing President, Raphael Correa.

4. Sent various agents, trained in Fort Benning, to Venezuela to reduce the popularity of Hugo Chavez.

5. Signed a Healthcare Bill that is essentially a giveaway to insurance companies without the limitation of public option or cost control.

6. Refused to cut unfair tax cuts for those earning $250,000 and above.

7. Bombed Yemen and made an agreement to cover it up as a Yemeni government operation.

8. Set up a stronger central government in Iraq under extreme control under the US State Department.

9. Lied about closing Guantanamo Bay.

10. Refuses to do ANYTHING about climate change, as well as continuing to ignore the Kyoto Protocol.

So called communists in the Communist Party USA are supporting this man for president in 2012. He has done nothing but continue American imperialism, helped big business, hired people from Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, he’s thrown Bradley Manning in jail for exposing US war crimes, given tax cuts to the rich and rich corporations, he has threatened Iran with war for building nuclear power. He is a conservative, plain and simple. A bourgeois politician who works for the 1%.

Leftists: STOP. SUPPORTING. OBAMA. Stoppit. He is not a socialist, he is not even left of center. He is a member of the capitalist imperialist party of the democrats, and HE DOES NOT WORK FOR YOU.  Stop being swayed by the scraps they throw you from the table. Overthrow the table, set a new one up, big enough for everyone, and take your rightful place. Stop asking for permission to change the world. They’re not going to give it to you. Stop pretending that you’re making any fucking progress by supporting the democrats. Stoppit. The lesser of two evils is by definition EVIL. The democrats gave the bailouts to the banks and the corrupt car companies, BILLIONS and BILLIONS of dollars to the rich ruling class, lining their own pockets at our expense. STOPPIT. Abandon the so called democratic party and start working towards real socialism, and real change. What are you afraid of? That we might achieve something? That we might actually gain something? We will only get what we fight for. And if you’re supporting the democrats, you are not fighting for socialism. You are giving up, you are supporting a capitalist imperialist.

So, CPUSA, : Either stop supporting the democrats, or give up the name CPUSA so real communists can use it.

Rant finished.

P.S. That goes for  and other Obama supporting “communists” and “leftists” and “socialists, STOPPIT.

Priorities

Second post in one night? You readers sure are lucky.

I had to after reading a story originally published in the Washington Post, and republished on the Japan Times news website. Former Secretary of the Navy Gordon England whines that we are making the same mistake we made in the early 2000s. He says that the military was underfunded due to the peace dividends of the Clinton years, and that military members were underpaid, bases in disrepair, and worst of all submarines went out to sea without cruise missiles. Hold on one second while I wipe away a tear. *sniffle* OK. I’m back. 

Military spending went through the roof during the Bush years, as we invaded countries and overthrew their governments; for their own good of course. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died as we handed Iran their mortal enemy Saddam on a silver platter. Afghanistan was ravaged by war, many civilians dying in a war they didn’t understand against an enemy they had no chance of beating. Wars of aggression, military expansionism, have long reigned supreme in the US. No politician dare speak out against our militarism and imperialism, lest they anger the gods of death and the military industrial complex. 

While the American infrastructure fell into disrepair, as the US became one of the highest rates of economic inequality in the OEC. As our economy struggled to keep from stagnating, military contractors were making bank like nobody’s business. Millions of Americans have fallen into poverty, millions more going on the dole because of recession, while we just kept expanding our empire.

And we’re still expanding, building bases in Australia and threatening Syria and Iran. Ever increasing, the militarist beast just can’t get enough to sate its blood-thirsty and infinite appetite. Let me give you a little bit of perspective:

And that’s just the map the DoD provides. There are an estimated 750+ military bases in at least 150 countries worldwide. Maybe we don’t have enough money for our military because our military is too large. It is quite telling that conservatives have no problem throwing trillions of dollars at dropping bombs on poor brown people, but just can’t stand giving money towards education or the poor. Our ridiculous obsession and worship of the military is going to kill us as a nation. Imperialism is destructive, not only to the victims of aggression, but also the aggressor country as well. Just look at Japan, it spent decades invading and attacking its neighbors, thinking it was invincible. It raised a culture of militarism and imperialism. How did that end for the Japanese? It ended with starvation, death and destruction, not only for countries like Korea and China, but also for Japan. The Japanese people suffered greatly for the hubris and excesses of its leaders. You think America’s fate will be any different? 

Priorities. Close the overseas bases, end imperialist expansion, take that money saved, invest in education and infrastructure. If we remember history we may avoid making the same mistakes again, but I won’t hold my breath.

Marine Commits War Crime, the Punishment is?

A U.S. Marine who committed a war crime in Haditha, Iraq has plead guilty to a charge related to said incident. What did he plead guilty to and what was the punishment? Wait, what was the war crime to begin with? Let’s start from the beginning.

Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich was responsible for the murder of 24 Iraqi civilians. He murdered them. They were unarmed, and helpless before a military attack. That is considered a war crime in most places in the world. He plead guilty in his court martial to “dereliction of duty” that led to the deaths of those 24 Iraqis. He will lose a rank. That. Is. It. He will be busted down a rank, but keep his freedom, his job, and his career. One of the most well known (although I don’t for a second believe that this was the largest war crime case in Iraq, as the whole damn war was one giant war crime) cases ended with a guilty plea, and a little tiny slap on the wrist for this unrepentant killer. The AP reports:

“The 31-year-old Camp Pendleton Marine apologized for the loss of their loved ones and said he never intended to harm them or their families. He went on to tell the court that his guilty plea in no way suggests that his squad behaved badly or dishonorably.

“‘But even with the best intentions, sometimes combat actions can cause tragic results,’ Wuterich said in an unsworn statement.”

Give me a break. In other news, whistle-blower Bradley Manning stil languishes in prison for exposing US war crimes to the light of day.

If you’re not outraged, you’re not f***ing paying attention.