"Well-Behaved Women Rarely Make History" MoP IWWD Video

MoP Mascot: Badass Billie

 

Ten Women of Uncompromising Ethics and Clarity! 

For the people, with the people in the struggle against US Imperialism!

On March 7th, March on the Pentagon (MoP) presented a tribute to revolutionary women of the past and present (and future).

As the founder and national co-director of March on the Pentagon Cindy Sheehan stated in her opening remarks, politeness and pacifism never advanced any struggle, let alone the struggle for the emancipation of women. Even the courageous Harriet Tubman who put herself under great risk to liberate slaves said, "you can't wound a snake, you've got to kill it."

We believe the "snake" is US imperialism and for the planet to survive and for its inhabitants to thrive, it must be destroyed.

The forum was almost four hours, but it can be watched in more manageable chunks.

Big thanks to the revolutionary women who shared with us and special thanks to MoP Co-director Emma (Fiala) Sron for her technical help and skills during the event.

For bios and more info about our wonderful panelists, please

click HERE.

The video is below, and here are the time stamps (plus or minus) for the presenters and their topics:

Cindy Sheehan

Women, Mothers and US Imperialism

02:00 to  40:00 (Including audience participation)

Randi Nord:

Yemen and US Imperialism

 40:00 to 50:00

Madelyn Hoffman and Diane Moxley

Women and Alternative Politics under US Imperialism

51:00 to 1:27

Lisa Davis

1:28 to 1:54

 Women and the Struggle for Black Liberation under US Imperialism

Emma (Fiala) Sron

1:54 to 2:14

Women and the Community under US Imperialism

Mnar Muhawesh 

2:15 to 2:41

Women and the Struggle Against US Imperialism and Israeli Colonialism in Palestine

Lucy Pagoada-Quesada

2:42 to 3:04

 Women and the Struggle Against US Imperialism and Sanctions in the Global South

Jessica Swim

(F.U.R.I.E.)

3:05 to 3:19

Women and Organizing Against US Imperialism

Sue Ann Martinson

Women and the Environment under US Imperialism

3:20 to 3:42

Cindy and Emma Polemicize against US Military Recruitment

3:44 to 3:52

(Important Piece) 

Video of Forum

After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 became a national holiday there. The day was then predominantly celebrated by socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted by the feminist movement around 1967. The United Nations began celebrating the day in 1975. Since our beginning, three years ago, March on the Pentagon (Originally Women’s March on the Pentagon) has been an internationalist organization in solidarity with all women and others around the world who fight to resist U.S. Imperialism.

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Please donate to March on the Pentagon for our continued resistance to US Imperialism

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Program for March on the Pentagon International Working Women's Day Forum (March 7th, 2020)

PROGRAM

Saturday, March 7th

1:00 PM to 4:30 PM Eastern time

CINDY SHEEHAN: 

WELCOME: WOMEN, MOTHERS AND US IMPERIALISM
 

Cindy Sheehan at March on the Pentagon 2018

Cindy is the Gold Star Mother of Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq on April 4th 2004. Cindy has been involved in the peace and social justice movement ever since. She is currently on the board of Directors of Women's March on the Pentagon and Producer/Host of Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox. In 2005, Cindy set up camp outside of President George W. Bush's Texas ranch, demanding a meeting with the president in hopes of receiving an explanation for her son's death. Cindy was also a vocal critic of President Barack Obama's foreign policy. Cindy lives near her surviving children and is the proud "Gigi" of her five grandchildren.

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RANDI NORD: 

WOMEN OF YEMEN AND SYRIA UNDER US IMPERIALISM

Randi Nord

Randi Nord is a MintPress News staff writer. She is also co-founder of Geopolitics Alert where she covers U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East with a special focus on Yemen.

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 MADELYN HOFFMAN AND DIANE MOXLEY:

WOMEN AND ALTERNATIVE ELECTORAL POLITICS UNDER US IMPERIALISM

 

Madelyn Hoffman

Madelyn was Executive Director of the Grass Roots Environmental Organization (GREO) from 1983-98 where she worked with grassroots citizen groups and communities in New Jersey to clean toxic chemical pollution and oppose new polluting facilities. From 2000-18, she was Executive Director of a now 61 year old grassroots peace organization, working to end and prevent war and to move money from the war budget into needed programs. Since June, Madelyn has worked with the Green Party of New Jersey on an agenda that combines work for a clean environment with work for peace. 

Madelyn is on the Board of Women March on the Pentagon;  member of the US Peace Council. and also a member of the Green Council for the Green Party of NJ. 

She is an adjunct professor of political science and public speaking and has traveled as a peacemaker to:

Afghanistan

Palestine

Tunisia

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Syria

Colombia 

Venezuela

Diane Moxley

Diane is an activist and an attorney. As a member of the Green Party of New Jersey, she is in a state leadership capacity on the Green Council. She embraces the Green Party platform of people, planet, and peace over profit. Diane was a legal services attorney in Newark, NJ for over 14 years. She has been involved with activism in New Jersey and across the country, including getting money out of politics, fighting pipelines and fossil fuels, advocating for healthcare for all, fighting for immigrants’ rights and economic justice. She has stood against racism, imperialism, the military industrial complex, mass incarceration, and more. Diane currently organizes with Extinction Rebellion (with a focus on environmental justice communities) and The Peace Congress in NJ. She is on the Board of Directors of the March on the Pentagon. She is also a member of the U.S. Peace Council, as well as member of Socialist Party.

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LISA DAVIS: 

WOMEN AND BLACK LIBERATION UNDER US IMPERIALISM
 

Lisa Davis

Lisa Davis is a long time strong community activist in NJ who has been passionately committed to the Black Liberation Struggle for over 30 years. She started out at the age of 19 being the youngest person ever elected to serve on the Democratic County committee in her hometown, but soon found a stronger and truer voice in the grassroots movement of the people’s struggles and has made a conscientious choice to stand with the people ever since. From being actively involved in the struggle to end apartheid, to fighting to end police brutality and stop and frisk, Lisa vows to remain committed to the struggles of oppressed people everywhere.
Today she is a member of the People's Organization for Progress, the vice-chair of the Black is Back Coalition (BIBC) and chair of its Healthcare Working Group, which is tasked with the mission of establishing an advocacy network of revolutionary people who are involved in healthcare, be it naturopathic or allopathic, and who are committed to challenging the paradigm of this current racist, for profit, medical system. And whereas she commends the Black Liberation Struggle for being on the forefront of fighting against the abuses of a racist judicial and law enforcement society, she is adamant that we must become equally as vocal about the devastating effects of structural racism in medicine.

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EMMA (FIALA) SRON: 

WOMEN AND THE COMMUNITY UNDER US IMPERIALISM

Emma at March on the Pentagon in 2018

Emma is an activist, documentary photographer, mom of two, and independent journalist. She is on the board of Women Against Military Madness. Emma is an editorial assistant at MintPress News and a journalist and editor at The Mind Unleashed. Her articles have been featured on MintPress, the Anti-Media, Zero Hedge, the Mind Unleashed and Media Roots. She previously interned with Empire Files with Abby Martin, visited Standing Rock, and organized a grassroots rescue effort in Texas after Hurricane Harvey. Emma lives in Minnesota where she frequently participates in and photographs local protests and actions. She is MOP's webmaster and social media guru as well as on the Executive Board.

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SUE ANN MARTINSON: 
WOMEN AND THE ENVIRONMENT UNDER US IMPERIALISM

Sue Ann
Sue Ann Martinson has participated in antiwar/pro-peace activity over the years with the Honeywell Project, Alliant Action, Veterans for Peace and as a long-time member of Women Against Military Madness. In she was part of Stop the Reroute (of Highway 55) and Save Coldwater Springs, organized with young activists and the Mendota Dakota Mdewakanton Community. A writer and editor, her latest peace and justice activities center around publishing a blog, Rise Up Times, Media for Justice and Peace, that focuses on the media and militarism, while posting timely news analysis about climate crisis and the environment, racism, and the many current issues that require activism in this Rise Up Times. While RiseUpTimes.org focuses on in-depth articles and commentary, on her personal Facebook page she posts local events and petitions about many issues. Her interest in the environment goes back many years to before we understood the effects of climate change, when she published an article in the WAMM Newsletter about the devastation of the environment being as great a threat to the future of the planet as nuclear war.

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MNAR MUHAWESH:

WOMEN IN PALESTINE UNDER US IMPERIALISM and ISRAELI COLONIALISM

Mnar Muhawesh

Mnar is founder, CEO and editor in chief of MintPress News, and is also a regular speaker on responsible journalism, sexism, and neoconservativism within the media. Mnar spent time living in Palestine as a child. She began her career as an independent multimedia journalist covering Midwest and national politics while focusing on civil liberties and social justice issues. In 2009, Mnar became the first American woman to wear the hijab to anchor/report the news in American media.

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LUCY PAGOADA-QUESADA: 

WOMEN IN LATIN AMERICA UNDER US IMPERIALISM and SANCTIONS

Lucy Pagoada-Quesada

 Lucy Pagoada-Quesada, is the mother of a teenage son, a New York City Department of Education High School Teacher, Human Rights defender, political and social activist. She is also the official Coordinator of The LIBRE Party, USA-Canada, which is the political Arm of the Honduran Resistance, coordinated in Honduras by President Manuel Zelaya, overthrown from power via a US military backed coup in 2009, under the administration of president Barack Obama and his Secretary of State of State Hillary Clinton. Lucy is a host of the Radio Program "Voices of Resistance" at WBAI, 99.5 FM, NY.

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JESSICA SWIM:

 WOMEN AND ORGANIZING AGAINST US IMEPRIALISM

Jessica Swim

F.U.R.I.E.

Jessica lives in Chicago where she organizes with local political group and Women's March on the Pentagon sponsor, Feminist Uprising to Resist Inequality and Exploitation (FURIE). Jessica is also a head editor and contributor to FURIE's literary journal, The PanWomanist.

Final thoughts, questions, announcements?
(Cindy)



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SPONSORED BY MARCH ON THE PENTAGON

PLEASE CLICK BADASS BILLIE TO DONATE TO OUR CAUSE

 

Join March on the Pentagon for International Working Women's Day Forum (March 7th)

March on the Pentagon is excited to present a live video event for International Working Women’s Day!

After women gained suffrage in Soviet Russia in 1917, March 8 became a national holiday there. The day was then predominantly celebrated by socialist movement and communist countries until it was adopted by the feminist movement around 1967. The United Nations began celebrating the day in 1975.

Since our beginning, three years ago, March on the Pentagon (Originally Women’s March on the Pentagon) has been an internationalist organization in solidarity with all women and others around the world who fight to resist U.S. Imperialism.

Join MoP’s leadership and invited guests on Saturday, March 7 from 1 – 4 pm EST as we explore what it means to be anti-imperialist, pro-peace women in these days of political and social turmoil, but most of all WAR!

Hear from many inspiring women including Cindy Sheehan, Madelyn Hoffman, Diane Moxley, Lisa Davis, Mnar Muhawesh, Lucy Pagoada-Quesada, Randi Nord, the women of FURIE, Sue Ann Martinson, Emma Fiala, and more on topics like women and war, international solidarity, local organizing, anti-imperialist political organizing, black liberation, Israeli colonialism in Palestine, anti-imperialism in Latin America, anti-imperialism in the Middle East, and more. There will be opportunities for questions following each live speaker. 

The forum will be streaming live on our Facebook page and on YouTube. You can RSVP to our Facebook event here. 

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Follow March on the Pentagon on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Join our Facebook community RSVP to Rage Against the War Machine on Facebook RSVP to the Anti-Imperialism Revolutionary Summit Purchase your ticket to the Anti-Imperialism Revolutionary Summit Donate to March on the Pentagon

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Cindy in Greensboro, NC for IWWD (open invitation) *CINDY NOT APPEARING*

*DUE TO THE COVID-19 VIRUS, IN CONSULTATION WITH HER FAMILY AND COMRADES, CINDY'S PARTICIPATION IN THIS EVENT WAS CANCELED*

NC Triad jobs with Justice to Host International Working Women's Day event on Sunday March 8:

Come Join Triad Jobs with Justice As We Celebrate

International Working Women's Day

with the League of Women Voters of the Piedmont Triad

*Featuring anti-war activist and leader of the March on the Pentagon Cindy Sheehan as keynote speaker*

Our other speakers will include Jocelyn Bryant, President of the Triad Central Labor Council AFL-CIO, Viola Fuller 1^st VP of the Greensboro NAACP, Virginia Bynum of AARP 354, and representatives from the League of Women Voters and Planned Parenthood

Time: Sunday, March 8, 2020 from 3-5 PM

Place: Higher Ground Ministries, 107 West Whittington Street, Greensboro, NC 27406

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Speaking Truth to Empire w/Dan Yaseen (February 2020 Edition)

https://soundcloud.com/speaking-truth-to-empire/200219-speaking-truth-to-empire-miko-peled

On “Speaking Truth to Empire” on KFCF 88.1 independently owned and locally operated since 1975 in Fresno, Dan Yaseen interviews Miko Peled an Israeli-American peace activist and author. He grew up in a Zionist family, his grandfather was a signer on the Israeli Declaration of Independence and his father was a general in the Israeli Army.

Miko has dedicated his life to writing, speaking and activism focused on transforming the racist Zionist regime in Palestine into one democratic state with equal rights for both Israelis and Palestinians. Topic of discussion includes the so called ‘deal of the century’ announced by Trump and Netanyahu. He blogs at: www.mikopeled.com

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"Respect the Office?" Absurd! (SOAPBOX PODCAST w/ Guest Margaret Kimberley)

February 19, 2020

Guest: Margaret Kimberley

Topic: Black America and the U.S. Presidents

This week, Cindy chats with writer Margaret Kimberley about her latest book: Prejudential, Black America and the Presidents about the tragic legacy of U.S. presidents and their relationships to blacks. From slavery to Jim Crow, to the "New" Jim Crow of the prison industrial complex, not one president has a positive record on this question.

Cindy and Margaret also discuss the bizarre reverence and preoccupation the people in the US have with the Rogue's Gallery of racists and murderers that have infested the Oval Office and reject the claim that "even if you don't like the current president, you have to 'respect the office.'" B.S.!

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO GET MORE INFORMATION OF MARGARET'S GREAT OFFERING TO TRUTH AND THIS IMPORTANT TOPIC

“This book is an effort to shed light on the truth. . . . To the extent that our leaders embody aspects of who we are as a people, studying how each president has participated in our nation’s complicated and often shameful treatment of black people is as good a place as any to start.”  — Margaret Kimberley from the Preface

"Margaret Kimberley gives us an intellectual gem of prophetic fire about all the U.S. presidents and their deep roots in the vicious legacy of white supremacy and predatory capitalism. Such truths seem more than most Americans can bear, though we ignore her words at our own peril!" — Cornel West, author of Race Matters
 

PREJUDENTIAL is a concise, authoritative exploration of America’s relationship with race and black Americans through the lens of the presidents who have been elected to represent all of its people. 

Throughout the history of the United States, numerous presidents have left their legacies as slaveholders, bigots, and inciters of racial violence, but were the ones generally regarded as more sympathetic to the plight and interests of black Americans—such as Lincoln, FDR, and Clinton—really much better? And what of all the presidents whose relationship with black America is not even considered in the pages of most history books? Over the course of 45 chapters—one for each president—Margaret Kimberley enlightens and informs readers about the attitudes and actions of the highest elected official in the country. By casting sunlight on an aspect of American history that is largely overlooked, Prejudential aims to increase awareness in a manner that will facilitate discussion and understanding. 

 

Check out Margaret's latest column for Black Agenda Report: 

Freedom Rider: Bloomberg is worse than Trump

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Socialism in Brief by Cindy Sheehan

Socialism for the Ill-informed

by

Cindy Sheehan

"I've stayed away from calling myself a socialist because I didn't want to spend half my life explaining that I didn't believe in the Soviet Union or concentration camps."

Bernie Sanders, Boston Globe, 1981

Capitalism has triumphed all over the world, but this triumph is only the prelude to the triumph of labour over capital.

V.I. Lenin, The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism (1913)

 

I do not shy away from calling myself a socialist but, I came by my avowed socialism organically. When I ran against Nancy Pelosi in 2008 with a platform of ending US Empire and using the freed-up budget to fund programs like free education, healthcare, and housing, etc, I realized that if my platform were implemented, our country would be heading towards a social democracy.

Gradually, though, I realized that mere reforms (even though mostly positive) would be near impossible within the system of capitalism. As a US history major, I could see all the times that mere reforms always collapsed over time with the constant erosion of laws passed by the capitalist US lawmakers, or just plain violence of the "captains of industry" against workers and other oppressed populations. Besides, the US has a lot of bad karma to make up for with its near extermination of the indigenous populations and a war that killed almost a million to abolish the evil institution of forced slavery which never should have existed in the first place---yet, we are supposed to trust the establishment to reform itself? I began to see that socialism was true change from the bottom-up through the power of the working-class that could transform an oppressive society (Czarist Russia; Batista Cuba) into communities that took care of its people after seizing power from mis-leaders and overcoming exploitation.

Now, the Democrat and Republican parties and their toadies in the corporate media are fear-mongering over the Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, being a "socialist" or "commie," even though Sanders has gone out of his own way to disabuse people of that misconception of his politics.

For example, on February 9, Sanders was on Meet the Press, and had this to say about the commentator's charge that he (Sanders) is being perceived as a communist: 

"We got a president of the United States who's cozying up to the autocrat, Putin, who says nice things about Kim Jong-un. You know, so you want to talk about cozying up to communists around the world -- it ain't me, it is Donald Trump."
~Bernie Sanders, Meet the Press - February 9, 2020

Sanders revealed himself as a red-baiting, McCarthy-ite establishment Democrat, a la Pelosi or Clinton, but people still think he's a "commie?" Read on. 

Never to forget that Sanders called the heroic Hugo Chávez a "dead, communist dictator," during his campaign in 2015 and recently, and erroneously, labeled the successor to Chávez, Nicolas Maduro, a "vicious tyrant." Whatever one thinks about Sanders, love, hate, or indifferent; to do any of these because you think he is a "commie" is just plain ridiculous. Sanders is no member of the proletariat and regularly and aggressively seeks membership into one of the most exclusive and tyrannical clubs in the world: The U.S. Senate.

The question arises how shall we label Sanders if not a "commie?" 

Is he a "socialist," "democratic socialist," "social democrat," or just plain Democrat Imperialist? Let's examine these ideologies and draw a conclusion.

Communism/Socialism: 

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs" Karl Marx.

As an organic Marxist who has now been able to study some in a more directed manner, I look at the root word in each of the "isms" we are looking at. The root word of "communism" is "community." Communism is a system where people's needs are fulfilled from a place where the workers own the means of production and the means to distribute goods and services (obtained during the socialist phase). It is a classless society where the people also have control over their own destinies and the welfare of their communities, but usually under a socially managed economy.

The communist country of Cuba gets some misguided bad p.r. here in the U.S., but even with decades of a barbaric U.S. blockade of Cuba, it provides free education, health care, and other goods and services to its people, but each community also has a strong committee that helps determine those needs and distribution. Without the blockade, Cuba could be one of those worker's paradises that we hear about, except that its valiant struggle against U.S. imperialism has seen many shortages, but the people of Cuba are always victorious and survive. Plus, they are happy, for the most part. Depression is almost unheard of and drug abuse is nil in a society which we are told is "repressive" and "brutal." 

The root word of socialism is "society," which seems larger than a community, but its all semantics, yes? I have seen "community" added to things as large as the world and "society" to describe something as small as a gardener's club.

I have never seen Sanders advocate for anything approaching a classless society, or worker's paradise, or even the workers owning the means of production and distribution; so to call Sanders a "commie," or "socialist," is very definitely shallow and ignorant.

Usually under socialism individuals can still own property. But industrial production, or the chief means of generating wealth, is communally owned and managed by a democratically elected government. There is a distinction between private property and public commons in socialism, but under communism there is not that distinction.

Democratic Socialism: 

"‘Democratic Socialist’ Is Just a Synonym for New Deal Liberal" Bernie Sanders himself distancing himself from the "socialist" label on CNN.

It's hard to define this because there is an organization called Democratic Socialists. For the most part, these have been like Papandreou of Greece who pushed harsh austerity there. Here in the US, they admit that their energy is devoted to "left-wing" democrats, even though, they too allegedly advocate for worker control and democratically elected representatives. There is not one federally elected Democrat who isn't also an imperialist to one degree or the other, so to advocate the election of Democrats is to advocate for imperialism, in my opinion. Sanders would be more of a D.S., than socialist or communist, but, yeah, he doesn't advocate for worker control or democratic elections---witness his 2016 capitulation to the evil Hillary Clinton and his constant Russia-baiting to blame Trump's victory on Putin without condemning the DNC's treachery against him.

Here, in the U.S. the Democratic Socialists of America lean more heavily on the Democrat part and this is from their own website: 

No, we are not a separate party (from the Dems). Like our friends and allies in the feminist, labor, civil rights, religious, and community organizing movements, many of us have been active in the Democratic Party. We work with those movements to strengthen the party’s left wing, represented by the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

In a 2015 speech at Georgetown University, Sanders further exposed his pro-capitalist/D.S. sentiments by stating: "He explained that democratic socialism is not tied to Marxism or the abolition of capitalism but rather describes a program of extensive social benefits, funded by broad-based taxes. (Not by ending the immoral subsidies to the war machine--author's note)."
 

Social Democracy or the Nordic Model: 

If Sanders was close to any "socialist" philosophy, it would be this model. Social democracy is a political, social and economic philosophy that supports economic and social interventions to promote social justice within the framework of a liberal democratic polity and a capitalist-oriented economy. Social democracy does not seek to abolish or replace capitalism.

The problem with this model working here in the U.S. is that the U.S. is an imperialist state that dumps most of its resources into actively murdering people around the world, or maintaining a vast empire of military bases and troops that commit global carnage. No Nordic country that has great social programs and services maintains anywhere near the scale of this kind of militarism and, thus, are able to use their resources for the betterment of society. 

Since Sanders is a friend of the military industrial complex, he can talk about these wonderful social programs all he wants, but it's just talk. He has voted for nearly every gross military budget and war funding since he began his tenure in the U.S. Congress. He defends and supports the F-35 program in Vermont to bring "jobs," yet doesn't listen to some of his constituency who are adamantly opposed to supporting a boondoggle of an aircraft that's only purpose is to kill. 

In 2006, I pledged that I would never again support a pro-war/imperialist candidate, no matter their political affiliation. In a bid to "look tough" and reassure the establishment of his slavish devotion to Empire, Bernie Sanders recently told this to the New York Slimes in a candidate interview:

Question (Times): Would you consider military force to pre-empt an Iranian or North Korean nuclear or missile test?

Answer (Sanders): Yes.

Not only is preemptive military strike an international war crime, true socialism is not imperialist. Period.

Capitalism:

An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. 

Look at my root word theory---the root word of capitalism is "capital," so the most important thing in capitalism is amassing as much capital as possible by any means necessary: war, exploitation of the workers, environmental devastation and exploitation--then environmental capitalism (i.e. Green New Deal proposed by some Democrats), the murder of labor leaders all over the world; the murder/ouster of political leaders (i.e. Evo Morales of Bolivia) all over the world, predatory banking policies; predatory micro-loans; the predatory sickness industry (ie, the Cancer-Industrial-Complex), etc. 

Imperialism is the dying gasp of capitalism and used to open new markets and attain monopoly control over resources like water and oil.

Democrat Imperialist:

The above is a designation that I just made up. It's a member of the Democrat party, like Sanders, that just held ridiculous impeachment hearings against Trump for things other than what the U.S. government does best: commit war crimes and crimes against humanity around the world.

It's a Democrat, like Sanders, that even though he says he doesn't want the U.S. to send troops to places like Venezuela, he condemns its democratically elected leaders, and by extension, the people who elected them.

It's a Democrat, like Sanders, who voted against Bush invading Iraq, but voted for every war funding bill that comes their way. It's a Democrat, like Sanders, who co-sponsored resolutions calling for Muammar Qaddafi to "step down" from power in Libya, as if the U.S. Senate has anything to do with who's in power in Libya? Sanders loves to cite "human rights abuses" in other countries, but never addresses the human rights abuses right here in the U.S. and with its military arm abroad.

A Democrat Imperialist, like Sanders, supports the use of drones to murder people abroad. 

I can see many leftists being drawn in not by Bernie Sanders so much himself, as they know his flaws and shortcomings, but they think that there is some "hope" (bullshit word used liberally during the Obama campaign and look where that got us) in the energy of his followers.

As someone who has paid a lot of attention to the Sanders' phenomena over the past five-years, I have to say that I look at the excitement over Sanders like the excitement over Obama---then Obama got elected and smashed all the hope that he raised, particularly among black youth. Even if Sanders does transcend his own party, gets the nomination, and is elected, if we are honest with ourselves, will he be able to pass any of his reforms without becoming a dictator? I will get some response to this article in the form of "No, Sanders is not perfect, but we have to get him elected and then hold his feet to the fire."

Really? Get the hell out of here with the "hold his feet to the fire," bullcrap. Many told me that about Obama, then when we tried to "hold his feed to the fire" I was told to "give him a chance," then I was shunned by the same people who should have been on Obama's case about upholding his campaign promises. Again, voters are projecting their good values on a Democrat candidate who doesn't deserve the support, in my opinion.


The Sanders energy was huge in 2016 going into the convention and many of his delegates and supporters said that they would not vote for Hillary Clinton, until she got the nomination and until Sanders campaigned for her and told his people to vote for her. To me, if he were legit, he would have gone back to being an independent and taken that energy with him instead of allowing it to be dissipated back into the vicious Democrat party. I saw a stat that 90% of Sanders voters (many of the rest voted for Trump) seamlessly went to Clinton for the general mostly because they had formed an unearned trust in their candidate and he led them astray like a bad shepherd.

The Sanders movement is like a tsunami that has swept the nation twice now, but will thin out and go down the drain, again this year. Why? Because it's a confused movement predicated on a façade of progressive thought. Even though many people in his party are against him, they know he is a reliable vote and a reliable supporter of Democrat Imperialists from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama and like a good dog, he can be beaten, but will come back licking their hands for love and validation.

Yes, I will agree that perhaps some of the disaffected Sanders voters that didn't cave along with Sanders to the monster Clinton inched a little closer to the left, or true socialism,  but we cannot keep relying on crumbs, the clock is ticking: the nuclear clock is seconds away from annihilation and catastrophic climate change is not getting better. 

Social programs like healthcare, education, housing, and a clean environment are humans rights for all, but so is peace and a right to self-determination of all the peoples--which socialism supports, but Sanders (and other so-called leading DemSocs do not) clearly does not.

So, love Sanders, hate him, puzzle over him (like me), or whatever your feelings for him, please don't call him a "commie,"socialist," or "antiwar." If he really were any of those things, he'd have my support, because he wouldn't be a member of the left-wing of the War Party.

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Weird Week in Review (SOAPBOX PODCAST FEBRUARY 9, 2020)

 February 9, 2020

Guest: Don DeBar

Topic: Political analysis of Weird U.S. Politricks

This week, Cindy chats with alternative media host and producer, Don DeBar about the past week that was jam-packed with political weirdness.

From the cluster-fudge in Iowa to the debacle of impeachment with the sandwich filling of the State of the Union, it appears that both major political parties connected to war and Wall Street are out of control.

Please listen to Cindy and Don's analysis of this

Circus of the Absurd.

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Open Letter to Neo-liberal Election Tyrants by Cindy Sheehan

Dear Neo-liberal Election Tyrants,


This is in response to your recent:

 

An Open Letter to the Green Party About 2020 Election Strategy (L.A. Progressive; January 25, 2020)

 

There is so much to "unpack" so to speak in this excrement-soaked, yet condescending article written by apparent neo-liberal Democrats to "help" form the 2020 electoral strategy of the US Green Party. By the way, did anyone from this autonomous party which is recognized in most, if not all, US states ask for your idiotic opinion in the first place? Or, maybe you all just decided to come out of your Vote Blue No Matter Who Cotillion for a bit to hobnob with the electoral rabble?

 

In full disclosure, I am not a Green (member of the socialist Peace and Freedom Party), so my response to you Tyrants who wrote/signed this letter comes from the perspective of a person who is profoundly interested in true/grassroots democracy, not the version that is being pushed by you all.

 

Your demand that the Greens stand down in "swing states" is so inherently anti-democratic, that in a true democracy, it would be considered treasonous. Of course, in our current failed state, you all seem to consider it Patriotic to stick your Blue noses in where they were not welcome.

 

Your contention that there is a difference between Trump and Clinton is somewhat true. Many believe that a Clinton presidency would have meant MORE war and MORE corruption, and MORE environmental degradation, not less. Of course, there is much verifiable evidence to back up these claims. Clinton has supported every U.S. imperialist war that ever came her way and as her tenure as Secretary of State, she engineered the coup of a legitimately elected government in Honduras and the complete destruction and debilitation of Libya (among many such crimes). The Clinton Foundation has taken more money from oppressive regimes and sown more destruction than could have been dreamed of by any organized crime boss. Of course, Clinton, Inc. are the very epitome of "organized crime," as they went flying by in Jeffrey Epstein's "Lolita Express."

 

For you all to even hint that Clinton would have been a better choice is ludicrous. In my opinion, people who voted for Jill Stein (the 2016 Green POTUS nominee) in "Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan" and not for Trump or Clinton did not "cost" Ms. War Criminal the election, at all. After eight years of a massive transfer of wealth from the bottom to the top and other neo-liberal policies of the Obama regime that saw the war machine grow dramatically and US imperialism blossom like a metastatic cancer, Democrats LOST those states. Honestly, Stein got a little over 1% of the vote nationally in 2016 and if the Democrats couldn't nominate someone that could overcome that small percentage and beat the ridiculous game show host that entered the race on a lark, no wonder they and you pathetic sycophants are searching everywhere for an answer that doesn't point a laser focus right back on them.

 

Also, it appears that you authors/signers of the above referenced letter support the monster Hillary Clinton! I cannot really say enough about her evilness and this alone makes me question the credibility and the motives of you neo-liberals responsible for this dreck.

 

You rely on those tired and already debunked canards of blaming the Greens for 2000 and 2016 and not the system of rigged voting machines, winner-take-all, massive amounts of campaign money, or any of the other Electoral Industrial Complex bullshit that have been designed from the beginning to keep the people's voices out and put either a Trump or Clinton up on top. 

 

Even the upcoming 2020 looming freak-show is pitting worker against worker in ways that further divide us instead of uniting us behind a platform of social activism that could actually have a positive impact like the courageous protests in France or Iraq, for example.

 

You Election Tyrants from this Green "strategy" claptrap seem to believe that the Democrat half of the War Party owns my, or anyone's vote. When, as a matter of FACT, voting for any Democrat or Republican is voting for more murder and more oppression, but you appear to feel that a vote for someone other than the pitiful Democrat nominee is somehow disordered. 

 

Nothing is going to change at all, for the better, if anyone keeps hanging on to the failed strategies of the past, and your outlined strategy not only reeks of rotten hubris, but has proven time, and time, and time, again to be a bad one that hurts people. Can you not see this from your positions of privilege or ivory towers? Do you only care about a political party that shits all over peace, the planet, and all the people? 

 

In trying to silence opposition voices and steering votes to the champions of imperialism and capitalism, you have become the problem.

 

Signed

Cindy Sheehan

 

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