Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

Soapbox Community Call-in Show February 27, 2016 On February 24th, The Soapbox hosted a community call in show about the problem of the continuing wars for Empire and the pathetic lack of antiwar opposition to it. Since the Obama regime was installed by another coup d'etat of the War Machine and Wall Street in 2009, I have tried to do what I can with the modest energy and resources I have to keep peace alive.  This year, not only are principled activists struggling against another divisive circus of US electoral politics, but personally, my sister and partner in peace Dede Miller has stage 4 cancer--so we continue to do what we can and Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox is my modest way to share the truth. Please listen to this show as a contribution to the conversation of principled antiwar activism and for the great comments and sometimes lively discussion we had at the end. SPECIAL GUESTS   ANTHONY & CINDY AT OCCUPY PEACE ANTHONY FREDA:

A Revolutionary Approach to the Sanders Presidential Campaign by RAY LIGHT “Engels is most definite in calling universal suffrage an instrument of bourgeois rule. Universal suffrage, he says, … is the ‘gauge of the maturity of the working class. It cannot and never will be anything more in the present-day state.’” (Cited by Lenin in The State and Revolution) The 2016 U.S. Presidential Race thus far reflects the bitter experience of the working class, the urban and rural poor, and the middle class with the capitalist austerity for the 99% and the almost unprecedented boom years for Wall Street and finance capital. This assault on our conditions of life has been provided by the bipartisan “Republicrats” under Republican President George W. Bush and Democratic President Barack Obama since the economic crisis hit in 2007 and 2008. Under the banner of “universal suffrage,” the TV debates, polls, rallies, and constant media coverage have revealed that there is remarkably littl

NYPD Police Academy Graduation Ceremony at Madison Square Garden on Monday, June 30, 2014. Credit: Diana Robinson.Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0) Mickey Z. -- World News Trust Feb. 25, 2016 When the Blue Bloc goes on an arrest binge at a protest or rally, the ostensible reasons may range from trespassing to carrying illegal signs to wearing masks to blocking pedestrian traffic. However, the most common rap remains that old standby: disorderly conduct .  In other words, it's illegal to not conduct oneself in an orderly fashion.  But who exactly is discerning order from disorder in the Home of the Brave™? On the streets, it's typically that militarized gang wearing blue. The unarmed folks calling for justice? They have no virtually say in deciding how order is defined. Which, I submit, leaves us with no other choice than to embrace disorder . “In chaos, there is fertility.” (Anais Nin) What the elites call "order" is threatening all life

Facebook is an electronic ghetto. A place of phantom friends and real enemies. A virtual gulag in Cyberia where ideas deemed dangerous by central planners are selectively censored by robots  who have been alerted to the thought crimes by vigilant and easily offended 'followers".   A digital Dannemora where the prisoners fight with each other for the amusement of the guards. A place where the worst of human frailties are on constant display and the intimate details of our lives are  transformed into commodities to be traded in ways to which we are never privy. I know all of this and more, yet I don't leave. Why can't I break it's spell? Is it just habit, or is my instinctual desire to be part of the hive, to "like" and be liked just too strong to resist? I tell myself I am there to expose Big Brother, but maybe I have been broken by him. Do I love Big Brother?    

SPEAKING TRUTH TO EMPIRE FEBRUARY   On “Speaking Truth to Empire” Dan Yaseen interviews Christopher Bollyn, author and independent investigative journalist who has investigated, researched and written extensively about the events of 9-11. His website is www.Bollyn.com . https://soundcloud.com/ speaking-truth-to-empire/ 20160217-speaking-truth-to- empire-christopher-bollyn    

WALL STREET SEEKS BAILOUT BY SOUTH CAROLINA AFRO-AMERICANS! Statement by Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA – February 14, 2016 The Bush II and Obama Administrations each in turn gave Wall Street an almost one trillion dollar bailout within the first year after these same Wall Street criminals created the 2008 economic crisis. As Senator Bernie Sanders has pointed out, Wall Street has paid $200 billion in fines yet not one of these criminals has gone to jail. In fact, we can calculate that the bailout gifts from these two "Republicrat" administrations (from our tax money) left Wall Street at least one and one-half trillion dollars ahead! Meanwhile, the crisis still plagues most of the rest of the 99% of us in the USA till this very day, almost eight years later. The "generosity" of the rest of us toward the super rich U.S. ruling class evidently does have some limits though: In the 2016 presidential election season thus far the candidates of the mainstrea

After all these years, I am surprised that I can still be surprised. What am I surprised about? I am surprised that anyone who really knows me and knows my dozen years of public activism would expect me to support an imperialist politician and be themselves surprised that I don't. What does being a socialist have to do with this? First of all, I call myself an "organic socialist." I was not a "red diaper baby" and I don't come from a radical family or community. In fact, I grew up in the height of the Cold War and very negative views about socialism were inculcated in me. I was indoctrinated with the Pledge and intimidated by regular nuclear drills that had us Budding Patriots diving under our desks just in case the Red Menace decided to drop an a-bomb on Bellflower. Secondly, as an organic socialist, even though I have now done study on scientific socialism, I see socialism as just pure common sense and caring for society (see how similar th

        Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution Webinar A Revolution Worth Our Solidarity Feb. 28, 2016  -  6:00-8:00pm ET  / 3:00-5:00pm PT organized by the Venezuela Strategy Group facebook.com/ venezuelasolidarity Register now for this educational and motivational webinar. Speakers will describe the current situation on the ground in the wake of January’s electoral take-over of the legislative branch by the US-backed right-wing opposition. The

"Alcatraz Broadway." Credit: Dustin Gaffke. Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Mickey Z. -- World News Trust Feb. 15, 2016 “Mass imprisonment generates profits as it devours social wealth, and thus it tends to reproduce the very conditions that lead people to prison.” (Angela Davis) I just finished reading Fish: A Memoir of a Boy in a Man's Prison , by T.J. Parsell -- beautifully written but yet another stark, bleak, ugly reminder of how male pattern violence , white supremacy, and capitalism laid a foundation for the heinous Prison-Industrial Complex .  It’s not difficult to understand how and why disproportionately incarcerated Black prisoners might sometimes seek a form of dysfunctional “revenge” within such a brutal scenario. But let’s be truly radical and take this issue all the way to its root, shall we? There’s a more deeply embedded dynamic of oppression being played out in jails, detention centers, prisons, and penitentiaries acro

Red and Blue Drink. By Sam Howzit, Flickr (CC BY 2.0) Mickey Z. -- World News Trust Feb. 12, 2016 The sign outside a jam-packed establishment named Democracy promises:  Exercise Your Freedom of Choice with Our Super Varied Lunch Menu! Double Cheeseburger Deluxe: $100 Double Bacon Cheeseburger Deluxe: $100 Liberal: I don’t even have to look. I already know what I’m getting. Progressive: But… Liberal (to waiter) : The usual, please. Just make sure none of that evil bacon touches my less evil meat, cheese, and bun. The liberal and the waiter share a chuckle. Progressive (to waiter) : You got any healthier options? Maybe some vegetables? Waiter: Well, we’re working towards that… you know, one baby step at a time. Be patient, but of course, (pause for effect) keep hoping! Liberal: Change takes time, my friend. Lots and lots and lots and lots of time. They all nod solemnly. The other patrons grow respectfully silent. Progr

Albright, a fanatical advocate for genocidal sanctions and bombing campaigns, is in no place to lecture young women on “feminism.” ORIGINAL LINK FROM LIBERATION I am writing as a working woman, feminist, socialist, and candidate for President of the United States, and I want to condemn in the strongest possible terms the outlandish attacks by Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright on any woman working in support of the political campaign of Bernie Sanders. This attack, particularly on young women who are supporting Sanders in such large numbers, is a shameful and opportunist attempt to use the historic struggle for women’s rights for the narrowest political gains. In a desperate attempt to reverse the growing support among young women and men for her opponent in the Democratic Party primaries, Hillary Clinton has enlisted the support of notorious war monger and advocate of mass murder, Madeleine Albright. As Clinton looked on laughing and clapping, Albrigh