War of the Words. Invasion of the Mind Snatchers by Mickey Z.

Photo credit: Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

Oct. 26, 2015

A 2014 poll found 26 percent of Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth.

Oct. 30 marks 77 years since a 23-year-old Orson Welles helped set off a nationwide panic over a fictional Martian invasion. The Sunday evening radio show began with this announcement: "The Columbia Broadcasting System and its affiliated stations present Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater on the air in War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells." 

But hey, who pays attention to such details? 

What the listening public did focus on was "Professor Farrell” of the “Mount Jenning Observatory" talking about explosions detected on the planet Mars followed by reports of a large “meteor” crashing into a farmer's field in Grovers Mills, New Jersey.

A 2014 poll found 42 percent of Americans believe God created humans in their present form 10,000 years ago.

Gathered rapt around their radios, Americans learned a Martian had emerged from a large metallic cylinder at the New Jersey crash site. 

"Good heavens," the actor/reporter declared, "something's wriggling out of the shadow like a gray snake. Now here's another and another one and another one. They look like tentacles to me... I can see the thing's body now. It's large, large as a bear. It glistens like wet leather. But that face, it… it... ladies and gentlemen, it's indescribable. I can hardly force myself to keep looking at it; it's so awful. 

The eyes are black and gleam like a serpent. The mouth is kind of V-shaped with saliva dripping from its rimless lips that seem to quiver and pulsate."

The broadcast continued as Martians mounted walking war machines, fired "heat-ray" weapons, sprayed poisonous black gas, and quickly disposed of 7,000 National Guardsman. By the time it was reported that similar Martian cylinders landed in Chicago and St. Louis, a panic had begun. 

A 2011 poll found 38 percent of Americans believe the United States has found clear evidence in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda.

According to the Museum of Hoaxes: “Some people loaded blankets and supplies in their cars and prepared to flee the Martian invaders. One mother in New England reportedly packed her babies and lots of bread into a car, figuring that ‘if everything is burning, you can't eat money, but you can eat bread.’ Other people hid in cellars, hoping that the poisonous gas would blow over them. One college senior drove 45 miles at breakneck speed in a valiant attempt to save his girlfriend.”

An Indianapolis woman ran into a church screaming, "New York has been destroyed! It's the end of the world! Go home and prepare to die!"

I guess you could say it went viral.

A 2011 poll found 44 percent of Americans identify discrimination against whites as being just as big as bigotry aimed at blacks and other minorities.

“Mr. Orson Welles and the Mercury Theater of the Air have made one of the most fascinating and important demonstrations of all time,” wrote Dorothy Thompson in the New York Tribune. “They have proved that a few effective voices, accompanied by sound effects, can convince masses of people of a totally unreasonable, completely fantastic proposition as to create a nation-wide panic. They have demonstrated more potently than any argument, demonstrated beyond a question of a doubt, the appalling dangers and enormous effectiveness of popular and theatrical demagoguery.”

As Thompson added: “Hitler managed to scare all Europe to its knees a month ago, but he at least had an army and an air force to back up his shrieking words. But Mr. Welles scared thousands into demoralization with nothing at all.”

Then again… you never know. Maybe the panic story was the real hoax. 

A 2012 poll found 80 percent of Americans believe the U.S. government has kept information about UFOs a secret from the public.

Question. Unlearn. Re-imagine. 

Mickey Z. is the author of 13 books, most recently Occupy these Photos: NYC Activism Through a Radical Lens. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, you can “like” his Facebook page here and follow his blog here. Anyone wishing to support his activist efforts can do so by making a donation here.

"War of the Words: Invasion of the Mind Snatchers" by Mickey Z. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://worldnewstrust.com/war-of-the-words-invasion-of-the-mind-snatchers-mickey-z.

Radical Feminism and Motherhood (SOAPBOX PODCAST 10/25/15)

CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX

OCTOBER 25, 2015

RADFEM AND MOTHERHOOD

Anita Stewart

GUEST HOST: ANITA STEWART

GUEST: MARYLOU SINGLETON

MaryLou Singleton

Once in awhile, Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox uniquely reflects the life and interests of Cindy Sheehan.

This week, we welcome midwife and radical feminist MaryLou Singleton to talk about how "political correctness" is robbing motherhood of its inherent language and meaning.

Cindy gave birth to her children at home with midwives in attendance and her strong motherhood is the very thing that gave her the strength and power to confront George Bush in the first place and to continue her battle against the Empire even to this day.

RELEVANT LINKS:

MARYLOU'S LINKS:

http://4thwavenow.com/2015/09/10/of-uterus-transplants-hysterectomies-and-pregnant-individuals/


https://radfemrepost.wordpress.com/

http://womensliberationfront.org/

http://sexandgenderintro.com/how-did-we-get-here/

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/07/31/gender-patriarchy-and-all-that-jazz/

http://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/10/13/are-we-women-or-are-we-incubators-an-interview-with-marylou-singleton/

ANITA'S PODCASTS:

http://www.wisewomenmediaradio.com

http://www.challengingtherhetoric.com

       

TERF:


terfisaslur.com

CRY WOLF by ANTHONY FREDA

Cry Wolf

Know your wolves.

This is an excerpt from Wolf's bio on Wikipedia:

Washington and Jerusalem

In writing for several Israeli newspapers in Washington, Blitzer has used the names Zev Blitzer and Zev Barak.^[9] Zev (זאב) is the Hebrew word for "wolf" and Barak (ברק) is the Hebrew word for "lightning" (which in German/Yiddish is Blitz).

Blitzer began his career in journalism in the early 1970s in the Tel Aviv bureau of the Reuters news agency. In 1973 he caught the eye of Jerusalem Post editor Ari Rath, who hired Blitzer as a Washington correspondent for the English language Israeli newspaper. Blitzer remained with the Jerusalem Post until 1990, covering both American politics and developments in the Middle East.^[10]
In the mid-1970s, Blitzer also contributed to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) as the editor of their monthly publication, the Near East Report.^[11][12] While at AIPAC, Blitzer's writing focused on Middle East affairs as they relate to United States foreign policy.
Fluent in Hebrew, in this period Blitzer also published articles for several Israeli-based newspapers. Under the name Zev Blitzer, he wrote for Al HaMishmar; using the name Zev Barak, he had work published in Yedioth Ahronoth.^[9]
In 1985, Blitzer published his first book, Between Washington and Jerusalem: A Reporter's Notebook (Oxford University Press, 1985). The text outlined his personal development as a reporter, and the relations between the United States and Israel.

Jonathan Pollard

In 1986, he became known for his coverage of the arrest and trial of Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew who was charged with spying for Israel.^[10] Blitzer was the first journalist to interview Pollard, and he would later write a book about the Pollard Affair titled Territory of Lies.^[13] In the book, Blitzer writes that Pollard contacted him because he had been reading Blitzer's byline for years, and because Blitzer "had apparently impressed him as someone who was sympathetic".^[14] Pollard also hoped that Blitzer would help him "reach the people of Israel, as well as the American Jewish community."^[15]

A review in The New York Review of Books was critical. Reviewer Robert I. Friedman characterized Territory of Lies as "a slick piece of damage control that would make [Blitzer's] former employers at AIPAC (not to mention Israel's Defense Ministry) proud."^[18]

Does anyone believe a man with this bio is an unbiased, objective journalist seeking truth?

Why would anyone let the discredited mainstream media define reality for them? We have the world at our fingertips now. Why let exposed propagandists warp 

historical reality to manufacture our consent?

Why let Them tell us what is important? 

Yes, the truth is that we all are biased. We present and edit information in a way that promotes our point of view.

Full disclosure: My not-so-hidden agenda is to promote peace and freedom. The corporate media uses lies and psychological manipulation to sell us endless 

war, fear and tyranny.

A world populated with sheep will be ruled by wolves.

Anthony Freda

In the belly of the beast 31 Per Cent of World’s Mass Shootings Here by RAY LIGHT

 

FROM NEWSLETTER #92

 

“The U.S. is home to 5% of the world’s population, but has had 31% of the public mass shootings worldwide between 1966 and 2012 …,” according to Adam Lankford, a University of Alabama criminal justice professor. (See “Why the U.S. Has 31% of the World’s Mass Shootings” by Tanya Basu, Time on-line, August 2015) Presenting his new study at a late August meeting of the American Sociological Association, Lankford stated that there were “292 public mass shooters who have killed a minimum of four people between 1966 and 2012. And when you narrow shootings down to just those that occur at school and work, American incidences account for 62% of global cases.”

Lankford believes his study is the first to confirm that “there’s something strongly American about public mass shootings.” He and Time’s writer Tanya Basu try to link this mainly to the number of firearms per capita in the USA which leads the world by far. But Lankford knows there is more to it. He points to the “strong sense of exceptionalism and individualistic culture, something that American kids are taught from an early age.” But the bankruptcy of Lankford’s theory is exposed by the following (cited by Basu). “‘There’s a silver lining, however. Because the U.S. has a preponderance of public mass shootings, the country is better prepared than any other to deal with them,’ Lankford  says. He points to Columbine and Sandy Hook as events that shaped enforcement procedure.” (sic and sick) (My emphasis, ROL) Clearly the orientation of the criminal justice professor is to control the U.S. population, not deal with the society’s sickness.

***

Compare the following excerpts from my 2013 article, “The Brutal and Decaying U.S. Empire and the Newtown School Tragedy” (Ray O’ Light Newsletter #76, January-February 2013):

“President Obama’s response to the tragedy was to immediately back stronger gun control laws. This has been the overwhelming response of the U.S. ruling class, including its military leaders. Already gun buy-back programs have been implemented by such notorious law enforcement agencies as the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). At the same time, other ‘enlightened’ ruling class folks have called for better access to mental health support. And all kinds of social-democrats, pacifists, and other opportunists are prescribing some combination of disarming of the U.S. population (but not the police and the military who are armed to the teeth) and a better mental health care system.

“Whatever their specific prescriptions, however, the apologists for monopoly capitalism have a unified message: there is nothing fundamentally wrong with this imperialist society; just a few tweaks will take care of the problem.

“But a closer look at the facts leads to a different conclusion entirely. The horrific Newtown, Connecticut school tragedy has the “mark of the beast” all over it — the decadent U.S. Empire, having already devoured so many of the world’s peoples as it grew ever more fat and parasitic over the past six decades, is now in sharp decline and is beginning to devour its own young.

“For example, between 1991 when the first U.S. Gulf War led by Republican President George Bush I ended and 2003 when his son, George Bush II, embarked on the second unprovoked U.S. war against the people of Iraq, a constant saturation of U.S. Air Force aerial flights enforced a ‘no-fly zone’ that effectively upheld a U.S. embargo, preventing medical supplies and much necessary materiel from reaching the children of Iraq. The estimates are that from 500,000 to a million Iraqi children under the age of five perished as a result of this U.S. embargo that lasted for more than a decade, most of it under Democratic commander in chief Bill Clinton. Were these Iraqi children any less precious than the twenty children of six and seven who were murdered in Newtown, Connecticut last month?!

“The social fabric of U.S. society in 2013 is woven almost entirely from the reality of the crumbling of the U.S. Empire, that is, from the decades-old violent and parasitic legacy of U.S. imperialist hegemony and from its current and precipitous decline. …

“No wonder millions of ‘red blooded American boys’ have gotten the message that might makes right and that mayhem and murder is the solution to their problems. There is an epidemic of mass murders in U.S. society. Many of them have had a white supremacist and/or fascist motivation. … And there is every indication that tragic mass murder events in the USA will become not less but more frequent in the foreseeable future. …

“Given the current political and economic developments in the USA, the only remedy to this sick situation, the only way to avoid an out-of-control epidemic of mass murders such as have occurred so recently in Aurora, Colorado and now Newtown, Connecticut and the developing military-fascist state is to defeat, dismantle and destroy the U.S. Empire.”

[For a copy of the entire 2013 article, please send your request to:

Boxholder, 607 Boylston St, Lower Level Box 464, Boston, MA 02216]

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton's E-mails by GUEST BLOGGER, Muhsin Y

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton's E-mails
by Muhsin Y.

Sanders and Clinton: Clearly Enemies.

For over a week now, the liberal left of the Democratic Party has been praising Bernie Sanders for his uncharismatic performance at the Democratic Party presidential debate with the other candidates of that party, of which he is apparently a member.

Among the platitudes for which the senator from Vermont was held up as a shining example for what passes for a left in the United States was when party favourite Hillary Clinton was questioned about her e-mail scandal. Sanders, ever loyal to his “good friend” Ms. Clinton, rushed to her defence, stating that he was “sick and tired of hearing about [the] damn e-mails".

Contrary to the empty partisan discourse in the United States, these e-mails do not merely constitute a cheap target for the other of the two unapologetically bourgeois parties which control the US government and dominate all political discourse. As Secretary of State, Ms. Clinton's actions, statements, and views have all had influence far beyond Washington D.C. politics and indeed around the world. It was, for example, in these e-mails that it was revealed that Ms. Clinton covertly supported a coup in Honduras, by the same sort of fascist forces the United States has supported for decades across Latin America. These are the e-mails Bernie Sanders, the “independent” “socialist” is "sick and tired of hearing about"!

Is this “critical support”, as leftists are so used to referring to it? No! This is decidedly un-critical support for a party with no history of standing up for the real rights of the peoples of the United States, let alone for international socialism, to which Bernie Sanders has no meaningful or principled links. After all, it would harm his ability to ingratiate himself with the imperialist government at home if he were not, for example, to condemn the democratically elected leftist Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez as “a dead communist dictator”!

And while the left in the United States is supposed to keep their criticism to a minimum and let Bernie Sanders “open the way” for more radical rhetoric, he uses this unearned privilege to condemn Hugo Chavez, to remain silent about Honduras, to support a Tea Party budget deal, to underscore the view that exemplary “socialism” lies in bourgeois states in Scandinavia, while repudiating the heroic legacy of actually existing socialism, and otherwise to close the way for actual socialists and progressives in the United States!

Sanders, to his credit, does not even pretend as we are asked to pretend that his historic role is to push forward for other socialists in the United States. On the contrary, he openly admits that if he personally is not nominated president, he will automatically get behind the Democratic Party established order (most likely represented by Ms. Clinton) that he was supposed to represent some quantitative if not qualitative change from!

The left in the United States, as weak as it is, is being prepared to surrender to the Democrats again by Bernie Sanders, when it should be formulating a meaningful strategy and creative tactics to confront the Democrats and win over the revolutionary masses. This is what the peoples of the United States deserve.

War Control by Cindy Sheehan

Full disclosure: I hate guns; I always have—even before my oldest son was killed by a gun shot to the head in a foreign land that the US was/still is occupying. (By the way, Casey had a gun, armor, albeit inadequate, PLUS the First Cavalry, and he was still killed by a gun--interesting). However, with my increased knowledge of and dealings with the Empire of Death, my views have changed about the necessity of an armed citizenry. It frustrates me that anyone would think of giving up his/her human right to self defense to an entity that is mired in death and gore and has never exhibited any hesitation to commit murder on a massive scale. 

After the recent mass shooting in Roseburg, OR, (as Ray Light shared in Issue #92 of the ROL, USA newsletter, 31% of mass shootings worldwide happen here in the US) the predictable blather became the recycled, boring, and ultimately useless “debate” about “gun control.” However, as profoundly devastating is that incident, I think the discussion needs to be around “War Control.” Besides saving millions of  lives (the Pentagon receives billions of your tax dollars and needs to be shoved over the Fiscal Cliff), pushing War Control could also save OUR Social Safety Nets: nets that are filled with holes and that the austerity of the 1% are trying to destroy all together.

I am personally not opposed to quick back ground checks and short waiting periods for gun ownership, but why is that restriction only placed on citizens? Here in Police State, USA there is also an epidemic of Killer Cops and I believe that any new applicant to any police force needs to be first subjected to the most stringent background and psychiatric screening AND, then, the hopeful cop would have to pass the screening of a citizens' personnel review board that is comprised of a diverse cross-section of community members before he/she is allowed to openly carry a weapon in society. Why are our police forces becoming so militarized anyway? Obviously, to protect the lives and interests of the 1%, and not us.

Besides the emotionally charged issue of gun control, why are few people making this point as Martin Luther King, Jr. did so eloquently in his Beyond Vietnam Speech exactly one year before he was assassinated: “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government.”

Why, President Barack Obama even has his very own Kill List and an entire bloated military establishment to do his filthy murdering for him. In the mass killings that are becoming too frequent in the US we rightfully mourn the deaths of innocents, but in Yemen (and elsewhere), the ones killed in Obama’s drone attacks are called, “bug splat” by the drone pilots pulling the trigger thousands of miles away. Similarly,  while the mentally ill murderer of students at Umpqua Community College is correctly vilified and pitied, the baby-killer by proxy Obama is enthusiastically welcomed and celebrated almost everywhere he goes (except, ironically, in Roseburg OR, where a large contingent of citizens opposed his visit). I don't get it.

Presidents of the US are inherently the CEO’s of a huge war machine that has momentum on its own, but why does putting ones hand on a bible and swearing an oath confer respectability upon mass murder? Here’s an even stickier question? Why, in the eyes of some, is mass murder by, say, someone named George Bush (R) more horrendous than the slaughter by a couple named Barack Obama (D) or Bill Clinton (D)? I obviously think any murderer is a low-life scum and wearing an expensive suit and tie and traveling with ones own squad of heavily armed goons does not give legitimacy to murdering the innocent.

After the mass murder in Roseburg, OR, it was proven that the US intentionally bombed a hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan that killed dozens. The hospital was staffed by Doctors Without Borders and exposes the heartlessness of Empire ("oops, sorry") and not so coincidentally Obama also announced that troops were staying in Afghanistan indefinitely in that manifestation of the US policy of never-ending war. Then Obama took his blood-soaked hands to Roseburg to "comfort" (read, "politicize the tragedy") some of the families of the victims and survivors. 

Obama is paid very well to be the front-man for Murder INC, USA and making tragedies in places like Roseburg and Kunduz seem like aberrations and not an inevitable by-product of the deeply seeded violence that has infested the US since before it was the US is part of the job description. "Working together" to make sure tragedies like Roseburg "won't happen again," wouldn't be effective, even if Obama was serious about ending the epidemic of Killer Cops and mentally disturbed mass killers.

I used to live near Los Angeles where the LAPD regularly conducted gun "turn-ins." Private citizens bring in guns with no questions asked and then receive a grocery gift card depending on the value of the weapon. That's also a great strategy for War Control and I propose we pay the war machine NOT to produce implements of death and to go away and just leave the world alone.

In conclusion:

If owning a gun is wrong for Joe NRA or Ché Revolutionary, then it’s wrong for Officer Not-So-Friendly.

If it’s wrong to kill children in the US, then it’s wrong to kill children (and others) EVERYWHERE else.

If killing is wrong for me, then it’s wrong for Obama and the Empire.

I dream of (and work really hard for) the day when War Control is a reality and our priorities honor the beating of every living heart while we watch the deadly tools of war rust, breakdown, and return to the soil.

Clinton is NOT the Answer to the NeoCons by Anthony Freda

She is one!

·Don't let war criminals rewrite history and tell you how wonderful their crimes against humanity are.    Libya is a festering pit of radicalism, anarchy and death, epitomizing everything that can go wrong when Western intervention has no clear long-term purpose.  And a woman who believes she should be president of the United States maintains that what's going on in Libya is a success. The Republicans foolishly just gave Hillary an opportunity to do what she does best, rewriting history to present a self-serving narrative that conceals her responsibility for atrocities committed on her watch. By giving her hours of free air time during her campaign and attacking her they also did the seemingly impossible and turned her into someone people could feel sympathetic towards. Helluva job guys. https://reason.com/archives/2015/10/23/hillary-clinton-owns-the-war-in-libya http://theantimedia.org/3-questions-they-should-actually-be-asking-hillary-about-benghazi-but-wont/ Anthony Freda www.AnthonyFreda.com It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Jiddu Krishnamurti

 

Shut Down Rikers Island Action (SOAPBOX PODCAST 10/18/15)

CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX

OCTOBER 18, 2015

GUESTS: Sunsara Taylor and Rev. Jerome McCorry

TOPIC: Shutting Down Rikers Island Action

SUNSARA TAYLOR

 

REV. MCCORRY

 BACKGROUND:

 Why I want to Shut Down Rikers Prison by Cindy Sheehan 

MORE INFO ON #SHUTDOWNRIKERS

Why I Want to Shut Down Rikers by Cindy Sheehan

 

“Your honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.”

Eugene V. Debs at his trial for sedition: September 14, 1918

Before my son was killed in Iraq, I wouldn’t say that I “respected” or “feared” authority—that’s never been in my nature. However, looking back, I think I was terrified of crossing the proverbial line. Relating my rude awakening and experiences since then, I know that the line is drawn by the violent empire and arbitrarily re-drawn whenever it suits the needs of the Police State.

Since my son Casey was killed in another US imperial war based on lies and waged for profit and I have become an anti-Empire activist, I have now been arrested too many times to keep track: I stopped counting at 20.

Besides the frustration of being “popped” for exercising my so-called constitutional rights, the many, many hours I have spent in jail have been ultra eye opening to me.

I have been in holding cells with fellow activists (of course), accused sex-workers, drug addicts, petty thieves, embezzlers, drug dealers, and once with a woman who had stabbed her common law husband (after years of abuse). 100% of the others arrested have been “crimes” of economic deprivation. I have NEVER once been in jail with a War or Wall Street Criminal.

As uncomfortable or abusive as my arrests and incarcerations have been, I always knew that there was someone “out” there who was working to get me sprung as quickly as possible. I have often been in tears leaving my fellow inmates because I knew that most of them wouldn’t be so fortunate.

One of my worst stays in jail (in the top three) was in the legendary Tombs of NYC after the class traitors in blue had brutally arrested me (concussion and dislocated shoulder).  

The four of us activists who were arrested in front of the US mission to the UN were stuck in a large filthy cell for the night with about 20 other women. As bad as that place is, there is the “Abu Ghraib” of the US sitting on an island right off of Manhattan: Rikers.

“Rikers Island is the second largest jail system in the country. It is located on an island in the East River, right next to Manhattan, a mere 300 yards from the runways at LaGuardia Airport. It consists of 10 jails which house an average of 14,000 inmates per night. Since 1990, six class action suits have been filed by the Department of Justice against Rikers due to rampant brutality and gross violations prisoners’ rights. The most recent (2015) class action suit found a culture of "deep-seated violence," resulting in a "staggering" number of injuries, where "adolescents are at a constant risk of physical harm."

In combination with #RiseUpOctober against police murder and brutality, a call has been issued for non-violent civil disobedience to shut down Rikers Island.  Why am I participating?

As an antiwar “criminal” I have always realized my privilege, but I don’t need any commandments, constitutions, or declarations to dictate my behavior: Every last person on this planet has the same right to dignity. Along with the vast majority of the Prison Industrial Complex of the US, dignity is a human right in very short supply at Rikers Island. The system and its lackeys regularly dehumanize those illegally incarcerated (some without any charges for the past six years) with rampant physical and sexual abuse and torture. 

Millions of people in the surrounding area live, work, play, and exist in very close proximity to the scourge of Riker’s Island, and I am confident that most don’t give it, or their fellow humans trapped in indefinite detention there, one thought during the day. We who signed this call do and we are willing to put our bodies on the line for change.

I hope that if it’s at all possible, any one reading this will join us in this very important action on Friday, October 23rd at 9am at the Queens side of Rikers Island. 
(Meet at 19th Ave and Hazen Street)

Facebookevent

Go to:
#RiseUpOctober for more information about this protest and more in the three days of action in NYC.

Obama, Hillary, and All-Important 2076 Election | Mickey Z.

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust

Oct. 15, 2015

Before we talk about the gradual, measured build-up to that all-important 2076 election, first things first: Hail Obama, our brilliant, articulate, and eloquent savior!

All right, so maybe St. Barack has been a tad less progressive than we initially imagined but you can’t say he’s not brilliant, articulate, and eloquent! Right? Plus, c’mon, folks, he’s not even out of office yet. Give the poor guy a chance. You think it’s easy standing up to those nasty Republicans day-in and day-out? Incremental, remember? In-cre-men-tal.

This final year, let’s really hold his feet to the fire and make some serious progressive progress. We’ll get permits to hold weekend protests and give voice to the voiceless (in our designated free speech zones, of course). President Obama will hear us, I’m certain of it. He’ll prove there’s a HUGE difference between the two parties! We just have to be more patient!

For example, I’m willing to go out on a limb right now and boldly predict that by the time Obama is done, the number of U.S. Troops (Our Brave Men and Women™) in Iraq and Afghanistan (and a few other sandy places I may be forgetting) will possibly have decreased by at least .05 percent. 

Yes we can! Yes we can! Yes we can!

To those who demand more, I ask: Do you expect our leader to simply withdraw our brave, heroic, gallant, valiant, superhuman men and women all in one shot? Not unless you want the terrorists to win, that is. There’s no cut and run for the good ol’ USA. (And never forget: we wouldn’t be in this mess if that damn egotistical Ralph Nader hadn’t ruined everything in 2000. He shouldn’t be allowed to run ever again. Make it illegal, I say.)

Looking ahead, yes, we’ll face some minor bumps in the road (e.g. economic, social, and environmental collapse) but I’m totally confident we’ll soon have America’s first female president -- Hillary Clinton -- and she’ll be in office until 2024. Hooray!!!!! What a proud moment for the world’s greatest nation. Equality is ours!!! Patriarchy is history!!!

The stoic, step-by-step march towards 2076 continues… 

Sure, those mean Republicans will steal an election or two. They may even stage one of their infamous false flag operations (something a Democrat would never participate in). But fear not, liberal colleagues, we will prevail. Progressive values will never die and no slimy Republican or more-radical-than-thou nihilist can tell me different. 

I have faith. I have hope. I believe. I read HuffPo. I watch The Daily Show. I regularly tweet at Rachel Maddow. I’m part of the solution, pal. Are you? If you’re not with me, you’re against me!!! This is change I can believe in!!! And how!

As this revolutionary century inches forward, we’re bound to see the first Hispanic-American president, the first Asian-American president, the first indigenous-disabled-transgender-atheist-undocumented president and who knows what other proud breakthroughs lie ahead for the Land of the Free™ and Home of the Brave™? 

Maybe we’ll rescue the planet by cutting emissions by 2 or 3 percent, eradicate poverty by raising the minimum wage by at least 25 cents an hour, and make it so much easier to be a loyal American consumer by making sure the national ID card becomes mandatory! Shopping = freedom!!!

What’s that you say? In the United States, there is a reported rape every 6.2 minutes (key word: reported); one in five women will be raped in her lifetime; and 99.8 percent of those convicted for rape are men? Ten thousand gallons of gasoline are burned in the United States every second? We’re losing 200,000 acres of rain forest every 24 hours? 2.2 billion pounds of pesticides are used by Americans each year? At least 150 to 200 plant and animal species go extinct each day? Eighty-one tons of mercury are emitted into the atmosphere each year as a result of electric power generation? The breast milk of every mother on Earth contains dioxins? Every square mile of ocean hosts 46,000 pieces of floating plastic? Thirteen million tons of toxic chemicals released across the globe each and every day? Seventy thousand new chemical compounds have been invented and dispersed into our environment since 1950? There will be no glaciers left in Glacier National Park by 2030? The Arctic region expected to have its first completely ice-free summer in 2040? Coastal glaciers in Greenland thinning by three feet per year? Roughly 93 percent of the large fish in the ocean are already gone? About 78 percent of the world’s old-growth are already gone? Every two seconds, a human being starves to death while 29,158 children under the age of five die from preventable causes every single day? 

Whooooaaaaa… slow down, Mr. Negative. Take a breath, Debbie Downer.

Don’t bum me out with your pessimistic stats and un-constructive attitude. You’re full of bad news but I notice you haven’t offered a solution. You have no plan. We do! Remember, it’s always best to focus on the positive and not dwell on gloom and doom. That’s how we pulled together to end racism back in the 1960s and abolish homophobia, um, a couple of months ago or so! 

Stay positive! How else can we maintain the hope we need to keep making a difference? How else can we each become the change we wish to see in the world? How else can we justify our faith in the two-party system?

Sure, some things are a little messed up here and there but I deeply sense in my heart of hearts that change will come. It will come slowly, but it will come!!! By the time we finally get to that all-important 2076 election, true radicals will finally be able to vote their conscious. No more lesser evil. No more hold your nose and pull the lever. At long last, we’ll have a presidential hologram that the people (well, whatever humans who are still alive) can support without compromise. 

Stay tuned for 2076, folks. Democracy, peace, justice, and solidarity will be ours -- just in time for America’s 300th birthday!

Mickey Z. is the author of 13 books, most recently Occupy these Photos: NYC Activism Through a Radical Lens. Until the laws are changed or the power runs out, he can be found on the Web here and here. Anyone wishing to support his activist efforts can do so by making a donation here.

"Obama, Hillary, and All-Important 2076 Election" by Mickey Z. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://worldnewstrust.com/obama-hillary-and-all-important-2076-election-mickey-z.

If Americans Knew (About Israel) with Alison Weir (SOAPBOX PODCAST 10/11/15)

CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX

OCTOBER 11, 2015

GUEST: Alison Weir

TOPIC: Being against the policies Israel is not being anti-Semitic 

Alison Weir

 As a long time Palestinian rights advocate, Alison Weir was getting accustomed to being tarred with the slander of 

"anti-Semitic."

However, when prominent Palestinian solidarity groups also began to slander and libel Alison, she struck back!

Please listen to this interesting conversation!

If Americans Knew  

Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel by Alison Weir