"Putin" a Spotlight on Media and USG lies with guest Anthony Freda (SOAPBOX PODCAST 12/15/17)

December 15, 2016

Guest: Anthony Freda

Topic: Shining the light of truth for peace

Cindy and Anthony at Occupy Peace (2015)

www.anthonyfreda.com

This week, Cindy chats with great friend of the Soapbox, artist and political commentator, Anthony Freda.

Cindy and Anthony chat about the hypocrisy of liberals and the 

outright lies of corporate media and a strategy to work together 

for peace.

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This will be the final Soapbox Podcast for 2016.

This has been a challenging year for Cindy as she has been dealing with her sister and her sister's battle with cancer, but we in the Soapbox family are proud of the shows that we presented to you this year and are excited about 2017 and the new challenges and opportunities for organizing that will be presented in a Trump regime.

 With your help and dedication to The Soapbox for eight years, we will be entering our 9th year in January.

Thank you so much, and Happy Whatever you Celebrate!

With Love,

The Soapbox Team 

Hands off Syria Coalition Presents: Eyewitness Aleppo with Eva Bartlett December 14-16

 

Independent Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett, newly arrived from Syria, will report on her experiences in Aleppo and elsewhere in Syria, as will Gerry Condon, US Veterans for Peace VP and member of the US Peace Council Delegation to Syria. You will definitely hear much that you have not heard elsewhere, and perhaps question what you think you know about Syria.  Eva lived in Gaza for three years and was one of the few western reporters present during the Israeli attacks that killed thousands of Palestinians.

Wednesday, Dec. 14, 7 PM

Peace United Church of Christ, 900 High St., Santa Cruz, CA

Thursday, Dec. 15, 7 PM

Humanist Hall, 390 27th St., Oakland, CA  (between Broadway and Telegraph, 19th St. BART), with brief intro from Jeff Mackler of UNAC

Friday, Dec. 16, 7 PM

Eric Quezada Center, 518 Valencia St., San Francisco, CA (16th & Mission BART), with brief intro from Jeff Mackler of UNAC

Admission: $10-20 sliding scale.  No one turned away for lack of funds.

Organizers, sponsors and co-sponsors: International Action Center (IAC), United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), US Peace Council, Syria Solidarity Movement, Socialist Action, Workers World Party, Resource Center for Non Violence Palestine/Israel Action Committee, ANSWER – SF Bay Area, Cindy Sheehan Soapbox, Mt. Diablo Peace and Justice Center, Peace and Freedom Party (Marin), Peace and Freedom Party (San Francisco), Project Censored, Media Freedom Foundation

To add your group, or for more info: solidarity@ syriasolidaritymovement.org or (925) 324-3358.

Bev Harris and Black Box Voting (SOAPBOX PODCAST 12/10/16)

December 10, 2016

Guest: Bev Harris

Topic: Election Integrity in the U.S.
(or lack thereof)

This week, Cindy chats with the founder of Black Box Voting,

Bev Harris. Bev is one of the pioneers of analyzing the

results of easily tamper-able voting machines.

  

The Ghoulish Legacy of Barack Obama by Cindy Sheehan

“On January 20th I will become the first President of the United States to serve two full terms during a time of war.” —@POTUS

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) December 6, 2016

The above is an actual TWEET of a line from a speech that Barack Obama gave at MacDill AFB on December 6th.

The reaction of the crowd was to cheer for that line, but even though even Obama can't control what thugs applaud in his speeches, one can tell that he is proud of the fact that he has been a war criminal for all eight years of his regime.

One would think that The White House intern in charge of twittering wouldn't tweet something that he/she thought would bring shame on POTUS--so I come to the conclusion that Obama is just as proud to be a war president as Bush was. 

Then Obama went on to say, "We did not choose this fight." Of course, the USA was an innocent bystander on September 11, 2001. It's a given that the US only spreads goodwill and material aid around a planet that adored "The Great Satan" and on 9/11 it was attacked by rogue terrorists that only wanted to hurt the US because of its "freedom and democracy." 

Obama, the Nobel Peace Prize Winning War Criminal has bombed at LEAST seven countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen. I would really like to know who or what chose these fights for Obama? Did some random homeless guy from Hoboken phone him up one day and say, "Hey, Prez, I choose Libya for you to destroy, next?" I more suspect the "fights" are always chosen by the Military Industrial Complex--which includes Wall Street and the fake corporate media.

What Obama is implying is that the United States of America, the Empire which spends over a trillion dollars every year to maintain the largest military force and WMD in history, is actually somehow acting in self-defense in ANY of the above countries? Interestingly enough, though, his actions over the past eight years have gone a long way to harming relations with two nations that may actually have some capacity to fight back: Russia and China.

I cannot in actual fact wait until I don't have to regularly hear Obama's smarmy voice anymore, but that doesn't mean that I do want to start to hear Trump's smarmy voice either. The thing that is the most aggravating aspect (to me) about Obama's two terms is that he was able to (and brag about it) bomb seven countries without any large-scale opposition.

Trump has over a month left before he straps himself into the puppet strings of the x-rated (for gratuitous violence) Imperial Punch and Punch show, and he is already being opposed.

For example, Trump got every liberal all clutching their pearls with chagrin when he tweeted about prison time for flag-burners, when Hillary Clinton TWICE sponsored that same legislation (the Flag Protection Act) when she was a senator--without the same pretend vapors from the "left."

The liberal world went "pearl clutching crazy" again this week when President Elect Donald Trump accepted a phone call from the President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen, because this is such a HUGE affront to China--when these same pearl clutchers never even blinked an eye only a few days earlier when the biggest arms dealer on the planet, Obama, closed a deal to sell 1.83 bn worth of arms to Taiwan. I suspect the newly outraged liberals had never even heard of Obama's Asia Pivot, either.

I don't know how to end this article, because the Ghoulish Legacy of Barack Obama will never end for the lifelong pain of those that had loved ones murdered or were maimed by his regime. 

I know, because my own son was killed by an earlier version of Obama's foreign policy that had manifested itself in George Bush and the war that Obama promised to end, but never quite did.

Because, the rivers of blood spilled and the untold number of lives ruined are Obama's true legacy that most in this country never personally see, so they must concentrate on votes stolen by Russia or tweets tweeted by Trump. 

My motto since my son was killed has ultimately become: "Never forget, but always move forward." With the ending of another  "error," and the beginning of the next one, I hope the integrity of the movement matures to opposition to Empire, not the fake media outrages du jour.

EL IMPACTO EN EL IMPERIO DE LOS EEUU Y EN LA CLASE TRABAJADORA INTERNACIONAL POR EL “SORPRENDENTE” TRIUNFO DE TRUMP* por RAY LIGHT

Haga clic sobre la imagen para el artículo en español.

Highest Tribute Paid to Comrade Fidel from International League for Peoples' Struggle

 

 

CLICK HERE TO READ STATEMENT

FROM ILPS

Fidel: The Proof is in the Pudding by Cindy Sheehan

Young Cubans wait in line to pay their respects to Fidel Castro

"The Cuban economy is a disaster. No, I do not praise Fidel Castro."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) to Martha Raddatz (ABC)

Where to start about last week's death of 90-year old revolutionary, Fidel Castro? 

Well, we'll get to the adverse propaganda soon, but to be clear, I admire Castro and I admire the people of Cuba and the Cuban Revolution. (Read my piece on the occasion of Fidel's 90th birthday.) Because I admire them, it does not mean I worship Fidel, or deny anything negative about him or Cuba. Was Fidel perfect? Is any person perfect? Despite any criticism of Fidel, we should evaluate Cuba today--the "pudding" as you will, or the Fruits of the Revolution.

A lot of people denounce the Castros and the Cuban Revolution because it was "violent." Needless to say, Fidel didn't set out to overthrow a utopian society. The revolution waged battle against a very brutal, US-backed mobster, Fulgencio Batista. As here in the US today, the gap between the rich and the poor in Cuba back then was immoral and the oppression was not supportable.

 I ask if the elitist American Revolution that kicked the British out was peaceful and bloodless? Did the colonists revere the British loyalists and traitors? No, it was a bloody revolution and many poor people who didn't have a stake in the new country were exploited and used by the elites for their own gain. For the most part, the wealthy land and slave owners remained wealthy, and the poor foot-soldier remained poor. In 2016, the US has the world's largest  income disparity (according to the GINI coefficient) in the entire world, and I can only find speculative articles about Cuban income inequality and I cannot find GINI numbers, because the data is compiled with information from the World Bank and the Cuban Revolution withdrew from the dastardly World Bank in 1960.

When "Mr. Pot meet Mr. Kettle"--Sen. Sanders calls out the Cuban economy for being a "disaster" he does not go on to recount the vicious US blockade of Cuba that has persisted for over five decades. The US only tightened the blockade during the "Special" period in Cuba after the collapse of the Soviet Union when the people of Cuba needed the most help. In contrast, when Katrina struck New Orleans hard in 2005, the Cuban government had 75 doctors and supplies waiting on the tarmac in Havana to fly to Louisiana to help out. Of course, to punish Cuba, the Bush regime denied that help, which ended up greatly harming the mostly brown and black people of New Orleans the most.

Cuba's planned economy has not only managed to survive that blockade but provide excellent health, housing, and educational benefits to its citizens. Give me some of that "disaster!" Please! 

According to its own CIA Factbook, Cuba has a lower infant mortality rate than the US and according to UNICEF, Cuba has a 0% child malnutrition rate due to the fact that food is a human right and not a privilege. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), 13.1 million children under 18 in the United States live in households where they are unable to consistently access enough nutritious food necessary for a healthy life. 

Housing is also a human right in Cuba and there are no homeless.

Cuba not only has health care for everyone, but it operates a medical school that trains doctors from all over the world to go and practice in under-served and poorer communities (even in the US). Education is free through university and Cuba also has a higher literacy rate than the United States and no one is burdened with crippling lifelong debt after obtaining degrees in Cuba. Nor do poor people feel the obligation to join the military to receive an education while running the risk of killing or being killed, as in the USA.

I look at the United States which is waging at least a half dozen wars for resources and other financial opportunity in the Middle East and Africa and occupying about 130 countries with over 900 military bases, including one in Guantanamo Cuba which it refuses to close, and I note that Cuba is not militarily engaged in, or occupying one single country. Hmm....how "disastrous" a nation that puts people over the Military Industrial Complex. Again, may we have a portion of that "disaster" over here, please?

The police in Cuba carry no guns, compared with the 878 (according to the Washington comPost) USAians killed by cops here in the US, just in 2016, so far.  Additionally, the USA executes several dozen prisoners every year, where Cuba has not executed a prisoner since 2003 and all death sentences there were commuted in 2010.

I have been to Cuba about 1/2 dozen times now and every other country in the world (except for the US and its illegitimate little brother, Israel) has a healthy relationship with Cuba. Cuba welcomes tourists from all over the planet and now with travel restrictions being somewhat loosened by the US Imperial State, I hope more and more Americans get to travel there and find out how wonderful and gorgeous the island nation is and how much absolute bullshit they have had shoveled down their throats by the US government and toady media for decades.

To me, Fidel Castro Ruiz will be vindicated by history not only for his courage in defeating a dictator in 1959, but also for continuing for the rest of his life to fulfill the promises of the Cuban Revolution and for his love of all oppressed people. 

I have no condemnation of Fidel Castro or the Cuban Revolution, but my question is, why do we put up with unconscionable oppression, poverty, war, and police state brutality here in the US? Who will rise up to defeat the mobsters in DC? 

Rest in power, Fidel.
13 August, 1926 to 25 November, 2016

¡Hasta la victoria, siempre!

"The US government says that a socialist regime here threatens US security. But what threatens the security of the North American people is the aggressive policy of the warmongers of the United States ... We do not endanger the life or security of a single North American family.” -Fidel Castro, May 1961 (shortly after the Bay of Pigs invasion)

The Lavender Party (SOAPBOX PODCAST 12/1/16)

December 1, 2016

Guest: Andrea Mérida Cuellar

(National Co-Chair of Green Party US and
Chair of Colorado Green Party)

Topic: Green Party opposition to Jill Stein's recount efforts

This show is a must listen for Andrea's cogent and articulate

comments.

"Lavender's blue, dilly-dilly, lavender's green;

When I am king, dilly-dilly, you shall be queen." 

Old English Folk Song-Nursery Rhyme

When I first heard of the Jill Stein (Green) campaign's 

efforts to raise millions to recount states where Hillary Clinton (Democrat) lost by a narrow margin (Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania) the above song started to run through my mind.

I thought, "why do we even need a Green Party if it is going to regularly collude with the Democrats?" During the summer, I was dismayed when Stein courted the imperialist Bernie Sanders to step into her slot and run as a Green, but recounting states that could help the mega-imperialist Clinton really bothered me.

Then I was approached by a segment of the Green Party that felt the exact same way I did about the recount, which I summarize:

1) If this is about "election integrity" then why not recount all 50 states, or at least add states where Trump narrowly lost, or North Carolina which is completely refusing to count Green votes.

2) If this is about "election integrity" then why do the complaints that Stein filed with the states only mention "foreign (Russian)" hacking of voting machines?

3) The millions the effort has already raised is mostly coming from angry Democrats, not Green Party members, because Stein has raised almost twice as much in a little over a week than her entire campaign for president raised in total.

4) Appearances count, and no matter what is said publicly, the state filings for a recount spout Clinton campaign talking points and the states targeted point to a Stein collaboration with centrist Democrats. 

5) No "complaint" from the Stein campaign about minority voter disenfranshisement in especially Michigan.

I discovered that the action of the Stein campaign is not supported by the national committee for the Green Party or, reportedly,  even Stein's own running mate. Stein, ignored the vote of the committee and Green principles of transparency and consensus.

In short, I was relieved and pleased to discover in my conversations with GP activists and the great chat I had with

Andrea Mérida Cuellar, that the majority of the US's 4th largest political party is BRIGHT Green and not Lavender!

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Please read the sign-on statement from these Green Party members here:

Greens Speak Out on Recount and Our Commitment to an Independent Party

Please read the complaint to Wisconsin opposing Stein's alleged perjury in signing a statement that blames "foreign" hacking with absolutely no evidence, made by GP member Don DeBar:

 Complaint alleges perjury and fraud in Jill Stein recount petition