Socialist X-mas Greetings

From Home to home, and heart to heart,

From one place to another.

The warmth and joy of Christmas,

Brings us closer to each other.

Merry Christmas!

'Invented' People

It is hard to believe that anyone who defends Israel's legitimacy as a state would buy into former Speaker 'limp dick' Newt Gingrich's argument that Palestine is an "invented nation".

The singular triumph of the Zionist movement is that it invented a state and a people - Israel and the Israelis - from scratch. The first Hebrew-speaking child in 1900 years, Ittamar Ben-Avi, was not born until 1882. His father, the brilliant linguist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, created a modern language for him to speak by improvising from the language of the Bible.

The founder of the Israeli state was Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), an assimilated Viennese writer who was convinced by the Dreyfus trial in France - and the horrendous right-wing anti-Semitism that resulted from it - that Jews had to get out of Europe.

In 1897, he wrote the book that would essentially inaugurate the Zionist movement. It was called Der Judenstaat (meaning "the Jews' state" or "the Jewish State"), which was his proposal for moving the Jews out of Europe and into their own country.

He didn't specify where the Jewish homeland should be. He was more concerned about quickly obtaining territory anywhere for Jews to seek refuge.

Later, he decided that Palestine made the most sense because that was where the Jewish people both began and exercised self-determination in ancient times, and where there already was a small minority of Jews. But he also spoke of finding a place in Africa or the Americas if Palestine was unavailable.

The reaction to Herzl's idea was primarily that he was a bit crazy. Jews committed to assimilation insisted that Jews were not a nation, but a religious faith. Their nationalities were French, German, Polish, Iraqi or American - not some imaginary Jewish nationality that had not existed for 1900 years.

100 years ago: 'just an idea'

As late as 1943, during the worst days of the Holocaust, the American Jewish Committee - which adhered to the assimilationist view - resigned from the body created by American Jews to respond to the Nazi catastrophe over its "demand for the eventual establishment of a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine".

Seventy-plus years later, it is impossible to argue that the Israeli nation is not as authentic and worthy of recognition as any in the world (more authentic than some, in fact).

The Hebrew language is spoken by millions of Jews and Palestinians. The Israeli culture is unique: Bearing little resemblance to any other in the world. In fact, diaspora Jews have as little in common with Israelis as African-Americans have with Africans.

Israelis are not just Jews who happen to live in Palestine, even though the concept of Israel-ness started just over a hundred years ago as nothing but an idea. They are Israelis, entitled to self-determination, peace and security in their own land.

And the Palestinians are every bit as much a nation. If the ultimate definition of authentic nationhood is continuous residence in a land for thousands of years, the Palestinian claim to nationhood is ironclad. They never left Palestine (except for those who either emigrated or became refugees after the establishment of Israel).

Those who deny that Palestinians have a nation base their case on two arguments, both of which are logically incoherent. The first is that Palestinians never exercised self-determination in Palestine; they were always governed by others from ancient times to the present day.

The answer to this is: So what?

What makes a people real?

Most nations in the world lacked self-determination for long periods of their history. The Polish nation existed between 1790 and 1918 even though the state was erased from the map - divided between Russia and Austro-Hungary. It achieved independence in 1918 only to again lose it to the Nazis, and then the Soviets from 1939 until 1989. Would anyone today argue that the Polish nation was invented?

The idea of it is ridiculous, especially when offered by Israelis or Americans (or Canadians, New Zealanders, Australians... ) whose national existence would have been unimaginable a few centuries ago.

The second argument is that Palestinians never thought of themselves as Palestinians until Jews started moving into their territory, that Palestinian nationalism is a response to Zionism.

Again, so what?

When European Jews docked in Jaffa, Palestine in the early immigration waves of the late 19th century, there were Arabs waiting at the port. When the Jews purchased land, it was Arabs who had to move out.

And if those Arabs didn't call themselves Palestinians until the Zionist movement began, neither did the Jews call themselves Israelis. Until 1948, they were just Jews. But each of the two peoples knew who they were and who the other was.

The bottom line is that today, the Palestinian nation is as authentic as the Israeli nation - and vice versa. Those who think either is going away are blinded by hatred.

To put it simply, the first part of the phrase self-determination is the word self. Both nations have the absolute right to define themselves as two nations which, hopefully, will evolve into two states. The alternative is national catastrophe not for one nation, but for two.

But why would 'limp dick' Newt Gingrich care about that?

Better take some more Viagra Newt....

Militancy

A movement has no reason to exist if it doesn't fight!

The Corporate Capitalist System needs to be overthrown; Right thinking people must prepare for that necessity at all points along the way. Our movement must be contending for power, planning how to contend for power, or recovering from setbacks in contending for power. Certainly, every movement must learn to fight correctly, sometimes retreating, sometimes advancing. But, fighting the Enemy must be the reason for its being. We are building a fighting movement.

Militancy stirs the imagination and raises the vision of victory. Militancy in a street demonstration, in a courtroom, at a rally, in a prison takeover, is recognized and respected as an uncompromising statement. It is a confrontation with the opposing system. Involving people in militant action trains and teaches. It is both an example and a strategy. Militant action is related to the understanding that the struggle is not merely for separate issues but is ultimately for power - necessarily including violence to defeat the oppressive forces of Corporate Capitalism. To leave people unprepared to fight the Enemy is to seriously mislead about the true nature of what lies ahead.

Some people try to dissociate mass struggle from revolutionary violence and condemn any act of public militancy or violence as wrong. This is because they believe that violence is a question of abstract principle, and the illusion is fostered that the System will decay peacefully. "Violence turns people off," "It's too early," "Violence only brings down repression."

- The movement should argue for and explain self-defense, develop parallel strategies, openly support direct action, claim and spread the message of struggle, help create the conditions for the destruction of Corporate Capitalism and the transfer of power to the people. Don't talk to the authorities. Resist probes into the movement. Laying the basis for victory is also the responsibility of mass organizers.

- From the very beginning the potential for violent confrontation develops. Its spontaneity will be slowly transformed into the energy of a popular front.

- Many levels of clandestine propaganda action can be carried out which spread the consciousness of action and give people a way to learn.

- A successful movement needs to keep part of its organization away from the prying eyes of the System. This should be part of the practice of every activist. Survival depends on having networks and resources not exposed to computer patterns, electronic surveillance and infiltration by the repressive apparatus.

- Building a capacity to survive over time is no substitute for militancy now in our daily work. A fanatical and uncompromising, confrontational approach to political work is the best way to inspire the people, build the organization, and learn to fight.

And, that's the Truth!

Korean People Mourn the Death of Kim Jong Il

We express condolences on the passing away of top DPRK leader Kim Jong Il.

Condolences to Kim Jong Un from Former U.S. President

Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) -- Kim Jong Un, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea, received a message of condolences from Jimmy Carter, ex-president of the U.S. on Dec. 19.

In the message Jimmy Carter extended condolences to Kim Jong Un and the Korean people over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il.

He wished Kim Jong Un every success as he assumes his new responsibility of leadership, looking forward to another visit to the DPRK in the future.

Kim Jong Il Will Always Be with Us

Pyongyang, December 21 (KCNA) -- Portraits of smiling Kim Jong Il set up in plazas in Pyongyang are being visited by an endless stream of mourners. 

The grief-stricken people look up to the portraits of leader Kim Jong Il in his ordinary field jacket.

His picture makes everyone feel pangs of compunction as he made long journey of field guidance, going in his field jacket all his life. 

He had inconvenient naps and simple rice-balls in cars or on trains while making the journey of field guidance for the country's prosperity and people's happy life, not even taking a day off.

Mourners cried in chocking voices, "General, you have had pain only for people all your life", "How can you, General, pass away so early leaving us behind?", "We have not fulfilled our obligation".

Kim Jong Il found himself among the people and shared joys and sorrows with them all his life and the Korean people can not live even a moment without him.

People were always in his mind and he was always in their minds. 

That's why people weep so bitterly, crying "General has not left us, He is always with us."

Now would be an ideal time for the United States to repair its relations with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The Coming Crisis

If there isn't one damned Senator in the United States Congress that has the courage to speak out against what is going on in Washington DC then we'll have to do it for them. They are taking our rights away and trampling on the Constitution!

A majority of Congress is just about to put the finishing touches on an amendment to the military budget authorization legislation that will finish off some critical American rights under our Constitution.

Here is how two retired 4-star Marine generals, Charles C. Krulak and Joseph P. Hoar, described in the New York Times the strip mining of your freedom to resist tyranny in urging a veto by President Obama:

"One provision would authorize the military to indefinitely detain without charge people suspected of involvement with terrorism, including United States citizens apprehended on American soil. Due process would be a thing of the past....

"A second provision would mandate military custody for most terrorism suspects. It would force on the military responsibilities it hasn't sought"..."for domestic law enforcement...."

"A third provision would further extend a ban on transfers from Guantanamo, ensuring that this morally and financially expensive symbol of detainee abuse will remain open well into the future."

All of Obama's leading military and security officials oppose this codification of the ultimate Big Brother power. Imagine allowing the government to deny people accused of involvement with terrorism (undefined), including U.S. citizens arrested within the United States, the right to a trial by jury. Imagine allowing indefinite imprisonment for those accused without even proffering charges against them. Goodbye 5th and 6th Amendments.

On some government agency's unbridled order: just pick them up, arrest them without charges and throw them into the military brig indefinitely. This atrocity deserves to be repeatedly condemned loudly throughout the land by Americans who believe in the rights of due process, habeas corpus, right to confront your accusers, right to a jury trial--in short, liberty and the just rule of law.

Some stalwart lawyers are speaking out soundly: They include Georgetown Law Professor, David Cole, George Washington University Law Professor, Jonathan Turley, Republican lawyer, Bruce Fein, former American Bar Association (2005-2006) president, Michael Greco, and the always alert lawyers at the civil liberties groups. Their well-grounded outcries are not awakening the citizenry. 

Where are the one million lawyers? Where are the thousands of law professors? Where are the scores of law school deans? Are they not supposed to be our first constitutional responders?

Where is the Tea Party and its haughty rhetoric about the sanctity of constitutional liberty? Most of the Tea caucus voted for tyranny. Presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul has been an outspoken critic of this attack on our civil liberties. 

The majority also voted to ratify a dictatorial procedure in the Congress, as well. This indefinite, arbitrary, open-ended dictatorial White House mandate was never subjected to even a House or Senate Committee hearing, and was not explained with any rationale known as legislative "findings." It was rammed through by the House and Senate Armed Services Committees without the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees invoking their concurrent jurisdiction for public hearings.

So ignorant are these majority Congressional extremists, composed of both Republicans and renegade Democrats, the latter led by Senator Carl Levin, that the Obama Administration has to lecture them about the fundamental American principle that "our military does not patrol our streets."

It is not as if the imperial presidencies of Bush and Obama need any more encouragement and legitimization to continue on their lawless paths to criminal wars of aggression, unlawful surveillance, arbitrary slayings of innocents, wrongful imprisonments, and unauthorized spending. Instead of Congress using its constitutional authority regarding the war, appropriations and investigative powers, it formalizes its impotence by handing the "go for it" power to the Executive branch with the vaguest of language boundaries. 

Usually there are a few Senators whose upfront defense of our Constitution would lead them to stand tall against the "Senate Club" and put a "hold" on this pernicious amendment. Civil libertarians hope that, before the final Senate vote in the rush to get home for the Holidays, Senators Rand Paul, Tom Harkin, Al Franken, Richard Blumenthal, Ron Wyden, Bernie Sanders, Jeff Merkley, Tom Coburn or Mike Lee would step forth. A "hold" could spark the demand for public hearings and floor debate to give the American people the time and information to react and ask themselves "how dare Congress take away our most fundamental rights?"

President Obama initially threatened to veto the entire bill and make Congress drop these pernicious dictates that so insult the memory and vision of our founding fathers. He is already signaling that he doesn't have the backbone to reject the false choice "between our safety and our ideals," that he asserted in his Inaugural Address.

You had better wake up America - before it is too late - or you will be the 'terrorist' that needs to be locked away. The FEMA concentration camps, the militarization of the police, the strange rulings by the Supreme Court... The future is beginning to take shape... We are heading for a Corporate Capitalist police state and World War III. The pieces of the puzzle are fitting together to reveal the ultimate Holocaust - Nuclear War!

Is death, destruction and slavery the legacy that you want to leave your children?

Then join with me to fight against tyranny....

Newt Puts Israel First

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House who faded into obscurity after resigning in 1998 amid a sex scandal, is back and seemingly ready to say anything to become the next president of the United States - even if it means making sycophantic statements that pander to the pro-Israel lobby but that oppose US policy and the best interests of the American people.

Gingrich apparently revised history when he told Jewish reporter Steven Weiss recently that the Palestinians are an "invented" people. He willfully obfuscated the fact that Palestinians' roots in the Holy Land go back thousands of years. He ignored that Palestinians and Palestine are mentioned in the Torah and the Bible; that they are referred to in many historical documents, including the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which gave British support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". 

The potential GOP frontrunner is far from alone in his pandering to the pro-Israel lobby. Mitt Romney, running a close second to Gingrich, Rick Perry and Michelle Bachman, also have made concerted efforts to undermine President Barack Obama's Middle East policy while emphasising their own loyalty to Israel in attempts to gain the votes of Tea Partiers and Christian evangelicals, who are strongly pro-Israel. During the GOP debate in Des Moines, it appeared as if it were an open season on Palestinians.

That Gingrich would intentionally contradict stated and long-standing US policy, which recognises the Palestinian people and their right for a state of their own, for his own self-interest is extremely troubling. But even more problematic is the fact that Gingrich told Weiss he would consider granting clemency to one of the most notorious spies ever to infiltrate our national security agencies: Johathon Pollard.

Pollard's release

Pollard was sentenced to life in prison in 1986 after he confessed to spying for the state of Israel. Pollard, who was a civilian research analyst with high security clearance for the US Navy, had agreed to spy for Israel for 10 years in exchange for more than $500,000.

According to a January 1999 article in the New Yorker by Seymour Hersh, Pollard "betrayed elements of four major American intelligence systems". He caused extensive damage to US intelligence and US national security because of the nature of the highly sensitive documents he sold to Israel. According to Hersh, Pollard gave up data dealing with specific American intelligence systems and how they worked, a "most sensitive area of intelligence". The espionage was so great that successive presidents have rejected Israel's pleas for Pollard's release.

Gingrich told Weiss he'd consider granting clemency if Pollard were no longer a security threat and also had served time within the range of people with "similar problems". To be sure, seasoned politicians often have to compromise goals - sometimes even ideals - to achieve their own. But when a potential presidential candidate so easily panders to the interests of a foreign country and its lobby here, in the United States, over the interests of his fellow countrymen, he is clearly not fit to hold public office.

And that is only one of the ways in which Gingrich is forwarding a Zionist agenda at the expense of Americans, which is readily seen in his "Class of Civilisations" narrative that became prominent in 2010 during the controversy surrounding the Park 51 mosque project. During the controversy, the country's favourable attitude towards Muslims fell 10 points (from 40 per cent to 30 per cent), according to a study co-authored by the Centre for Race and Gender at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Council on American Islamic Relations.

Islamophobic rhetoric

That same report says Gingrich was one of those at the forefront of fuelling mistrust and hatred of Muslims. In other words, a former Speaker of the House was working against American unity by bringing divisive Islamophobic rhetoric into mainstream discourse.

"He's inflamed tensions in the Middle East where the neutrality and integrity of the United States already is viewed with suspicion and  hostility."

The Constitution founded the United States as a pluralistic society; the First Amendment grants the free expression of religion. Yet Gingrich behaves as if allowing Muslims that right would lead to the loss of American values and liberty. 

Other credible reports - "The Great Isamophobic Crusade", by Max Blumenthal and "The Roots of the Islamophobic Network in America", by the Centre for American Progress - have exposed the link between Islamophobia and the pro-Israel entities behind it. Millions of dollars are funnelled into organisations bent on helping Israel maintain its occupation of Palestine.

One way they accomplish this is by smearing anyone trying to raise awareness about Israel's continued violations of international law. Another way is to demonise Islam in the United States by planting outrageous and false innuendos of a "stealth jihad" here. Or they insinuate that there is a connection between American Muslims and overseas groups on the State Department's list of designated foreign terrorist organisations. These fallacies are then taken up and trumpeted about by unprincipled people like Gingrich.

Gingrich seems to have no qualms allying himself to pro-Israel element and selling the values and safety of the US for his shot in the Oval Office. But based upon published reports, he's failed to impress the pro-Israel Jewish voters he was  trying to court. Instead, he's inflamed tensions in the Middle East where the neutrality and integrity of the US already is viewed with suspicion and in some cases hostility, and he's proven he does not care about the people who, if he were elected president, he'd be sworn to protect.

In trying to "out-Romney" Romney, Gingrich may have passed Israel's litmus test, but he hopelessly failed to show his loyalty to the US or the American people.

Newt Gingrich is a traitor to the American people!

And, that's the Truth!

Wake-up America!

The Corporate Capitalist System doesn't give a flying fuck about you.

When a country works reasonably well - when the schools teach reading, writing, arithmetic and not "political correctness", when the police are few and far between and courteous, when government is remote and minds its business and works more for the benefit of the people than for crooks and special interests, then pledging to it a degree of allegiance isn't foolish. Years ago, America was such a country, imperfect as all nations are, but good enough to cherish.

As decline begins, and government becomes oppressive, self-righteous, and ruthless yet incompetent, as official spying flourishes, as corruption sets in hard, and institutions rot, it is time to disengage. Loyalty to a country is a choice, not an obligation. In other times people have loved family, friends, common decency, tribe, regiment, or church instead of country. In an age of national collapse, this is wise.

A fruitful field of disengagement might be called domestic expatriation - the recognition that living in a country makes you a resident, not a subscriber. It is one thing to be loyal to a government that is loyal to you, another thing entirely to continue that loyalty when the black uniformed security forces of Corporate Capitalism deprive citizens of their rights and the government rejects everything that you believe in. While the phrase has become unbearably pretentious, it is possible to regard oneself as a citizen of the world rather than of the Empire.

Disengagement from the consumerist zeitgeist is essential. Yes, I know. Distaste for a life dedicated to buying the unnecessary can seem a pose: “I am of such lofty character that I do not dirty my philosophical hands with mere... things.”

No. It is not a pose. In a time of economic retrogression, rejection of consumerism is utterly practical. And almost treasonous.

One might ask oneself, “What do I really need, and what things really matter to me? How much money do I really need, and how much am I willing to pay to get it?” Remember, you pay more for money than for anything else...

Here is where the seven points of our American Socialist economic policy come into play:

1.- Tax heavily and hold profits down.

2.- Fix ceilings on prices and rents.

3.- Stabilize wages.

4.- Stabilize farm prices.

5.- Save more; buy less.

6.- Ration all essential commodities that are scarce.

7.- Discourage installment buying, and encourage paying off debts.

The Median Household Income in the United States is $50,221. So, let's say any income over $1,000,000 should be taxed at the rate of 90.5 percent. There should also be a tax on capital gains of 10%. Society at large should profit and not the individual investor.

Prices and rents should be fixed. The average house payment should be around $1154, and the average apartment $575 per month.

The average wage should be $20 per hour.

The farmer should be paid a fair price for his produce, and food from abroad should be taxed heavily. It is the height of stupidity to ship a can of green beans all the way from China and sell it cheaper than green beans grown and packaged here in the United States...

Advertising amounts to 'brainwashing'. It should be banned from the media. Instead, saving money and buying less should be promoted.

Luxury items should be heavily taxed. Essential commodities that are scarce should be rationed. There is too much waste in our society. Everyday three billion dollars worth of food is thrown away. All those frozen foods you leave around Walmart are tossed in the trash!

Credit cards are the scourge of modern society. The consumer debt is burying us. Therefore, we must discourage installment buying and promote paying off debts. You don't need all that shit, and when you buy food on credit you are already bankrupt.

If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it; and if you don’t need it, don’t buy it. Therein lie the seeds of the utter destruction of Corporate America, but I’m not Wall Street’s mother.

Another step toward independence is to disengage to the extent possible from the maintenance cycle. You are much better off in bad times if you can do the kind of plumbing, wiring, and auto maintenance that used to be commonly understood.

Again, circumstances differ and details vary. The principle remains: Disengage, cut your expenses, seek the interstices, and don’t believe in anything unless you are sure it was your idea to believe in it. What is coming looks to be ugly. If so, it will be every man for himself, his family, his friends, and what principles he believes. 

American Socialism or bust!

And, that's the Truth!