https://lyricstranslate.com/en/bye-bye-alex-bye-bye-alex.html

Bye bye Alex

The great rebell of yesterday

Agrees to everything now

To the middle-class life

And the things he opposed once

He changed fronts

Everyone likes him

Though his character

Hasn't actually changed

Hey, bye bye Alex!

Only a clown now

Sad to look at you

Cause and effect

Oppression and aggression

It's always the same curse

And nobody will be spared

They all belong to the machinery

As cogwheels in the system

Without them the clockwork

Would not go on for long

Kamala Harris is a Senator from California and Candidate for President of the United States. Just yesterday I received this letter encouraging me to sign a petition to get Attorney General William Barr to resign immediately. Here is the letter:

-SJ Otto

Attorney General William Barr is acting more like the President’s personal attorney than the Attorney General of the United States. Recently, Attorney General Barr refused to answer most of my questions during his Senate hearing — and when he did, his answers were alarming.

His job is to defend the rule of law and serve the American people, not shield the President from justice. He made something very clear: he must resign.

During his hearing, Barr admitted he had never even reviewed the underlying evidence of the Mueller report, and refused to say whether the President has ever ordered him to investigate anyone. This is unacceptable.

I’m running for President[1] because the American people deserve truth and integrity from their elected leaders. That’s not what we’re getting right now. If you’re with me in this fight, I need you now.

Thanks for being in this fight with me.

— Kamala Harris
Senator of California and Candidate for President of the

United States

I’m calling for Attorney General Barr to resign for his mishandling of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in our election in 2016. Join me and sign my petition right now.

ADD YOUR NAME

Pix From Kamala Harris, a Presidential candidate for 2020 – T.

[1] This is not an endorsement for Harris’ bid for the presidency. I have not had time to study her positions on the issues. This is just the letter I received and the information it contains.

Thanks from Democracy and Class Struggle.

By SJ Otto

M*A*S*H used to be one of my favorite TV shows. It still is. But I can’t help feeling there is no way that show would make it to prime time if it had been developed today. M*A*S*H satirized the military and the US war in Korea. Today all TV shows seem to glamorize war. War could not be more popular than it is today. Today we have shows such as The Code, which takes place in Afghanistan, where a real war still rages today.
I live in a time when warriors are very popular. On the CBS Sunday Morning Show that provides us with interviews and explores both issues and persons, they often interview such conservative people as they did this Sunday with Admiral William McRaven, now retire. He was the commander who lead the operation that killed Osama bin Laden. It’s not that there are many people in the US that like bin Laden. He leaves a lot to be desired when it comes to popularity, at least here in the US. Killing a couple thousand people in the twin towers of New York is not something most Americans wanted to see. I didn’t want to see that either.
But McRaven himself leaves a lot to be desired. On the Sunday show he openly admitted he is a warrior. He said he doesn’t like times of peace.

"Peace was meant for some people, but probably not for me."….

….“But somehow, McRaven writes in "Sea Stories,""War challenges your manhood. It reaffirms your courage. It sets you apart from the timid souls and the bench sitters. It builds unbreakable bonds among your fellow warriors. It gives your life meaning. ... War would never lose its allure.”

I find all of that disgusting. To admire fighting wars has got to be one of the most disgusting ideas I can think of.
He has been rewarded with a lot of attention, including being the University of Texas, at Austin, to be the commencement speaker in 2014. His speech led him to a book deal. So he has made a lot of his killing career.
Warriors are people whose occupation is to kill other human beings. I realize that there are times when we need war and killing people needs to be done. I don’t admire people who have chosen fighting wars for their personal ambitions. President Theodore Roosevelt loved war. He saw it as an opportunity for a young man to build a name for himself. If find such love of war revolting. I find warriors revolting. I am disgusted by people who see killing other human beings as career opportunity.

Pix by M*A*S*H TV Show: News, Videos, Full Episodes and and The Code (TV Series 2019– ) - IMDb.

By SJ Otto

Until recently the Republican Party has c controlled every branch of government, and most of the governor mansion in this country, and they have let us all know it. So it is no surprise that they are now trying to eradicate abortion from this country. The latest and most drastic attempt now comes from Alabama. The Senate there has passed the most restrictive abortion bill yet. If it is upheld in the courts, it bans abortions for everything except a medical emergency. What it considers an emergency is very vague. There is no exception for rape or incest.

The fact that they want to force a rape victim to carry a pregnancy to term shows the outright contempt that Republicans have for women. Rape is one of the most horrific crimes a woman can go through. Forcing them to carry a pregnancy of the rapist’s baby is an unthinkable crime. Such a policy will devastate some women and force them to produce the product of rape.

All of this is not surprising as the Republicans, with their grand leader President Donald Trump, pushed through Brett Kavanaugh, for Supreme Court justice, a man who has been accused of several sexual attacks on women. He clearly does not respect women and the only reason the Republicans wanted him on the Supreme Court was so he can vote to ban abortion and over turn Roe v. Wade . According to Yahoo News:

“Supporters said the bill is designed to conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationally, because they hope to spark a court case that might prompt the justices to revisit abortion rights.”

Also from Yahoo News:

“Democrats, who hold eight seats in Alabama's 35-member Senate, criticized the ban as a mixture of political grandstanding, an attempt to control women and a waste of taxpayer dollars.

During debate, Singleton pointed out and named rape victims watching from the Senate viewing gallery. He said that under the ban, doctors who perform abortions could serve more prison time than the women's rapists.

In a statement, Staci Fox of Planned Parenthood Southeast said, "Today is a dark day for women in Alabama and across this country. ... Alabamapoliticians will forever live in infamy for this vote and we will make sure that every woman knows who to hold accountable."

This bill also disrespectful to doctors who can get up to 99 years and a felony conviction for practicing a medical procedure that has been legal for decades. This is one more example of Republicans pandering to religious zealots who see their religious doctrine as more important than a woman’s rights or even life.

Unfortunately it WILL happen again.
_______________________________________

Many died before abortion was legal.

Pix by Here's What Life Was Like for American Women in Am and Irish abortion debate after woman's death resonates in.

By SJ Otto

Public News Hour did an article on Marianne Williamson who is running for president. I don’t know if she has a chance, but she is a major improvement over the centrist running, who keep telling us that they are what it takes to win against President Donald Trump. I’ve already written about Pete Buttigieg who said he wanted to gradually introduce universal health care. That is not what we want. I’m totally against voting for, or backing a centrist Democrat.[1]

Another centrist Democrat running is Joe Biden. I’m not backing him either. PBH, covered Williamson on eight issues. Issues are what is important. We need to undo the damage done by Trump and his Republican Party. It is not enough to just stop trashing working poor people. We need improvements.

Here are some issues important to me:

Health care is a real important issue and we have people, as me, who are too young for Medicare, but they get sick a lot because they are old. We need health care and we need it NOW! And that is what she wants:

HEALTH CARE: Backs universal healthcare

Williamson supports universal health care coverage. She has also backed policies that would restrict the marketing and production of highly-processed and sugary foods.

She has also called for greater government investment in programs aimed at reducing patient overcharges and environmental toxins and diseases.

On foreign policy we need someone who will slow down or stop the

’ imperialist foreign policy. Occupying other people’s countries is not acceptable. We need someone who will respect the rights of other people in other countries. Williamson hasn’t come out and said that, but she has said she is unhappy with our position of supporting ANYTHING Israeldoes. She also criticized Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for being a hypocrite.It is an improvement over a lot of the others:

FOREIGN POLICY: Re-examine foreign relationships.

In an interview with CBS News, Williamson called Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hypocritical for, in her words, seeming to believe “you can promote values around the world and still have strategic partnerships with countries that display no such values,” she said. “You are not promoting your values if you’re not willing to stand on them.” She’s specifically criticized the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, tweeting in February: “Any sane person would realize that if you do something completely immoral (selling arms to the Saudis while they’re killing people in Yemin[sic]) then it will probably come back at you in unintended ways?”

She has also commented on Afghanistan on Twitter. In a tweet in February, Williamson wrote:“The Taliban’s violently oppressive attitude toward women isn’t something we can change, but we should be led by a president whose concern for the well-being of Afghani women is a major factor in determining our policies there. We should always bear witness to the agony of others.”

Williamson also offered her perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace process, saying in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “I don’t think the ultimate answer will be about settlements or checkpoints,” she said.

After seeing Republicans trash abortion rights and the rights of doctors, so it is a relief that Williamson supports abortion rights and the rights of LGBTQ people:

SOCIAL ISSUES: Supports LGBTQ rights, access to abortion

Williamson supports the Equality Act to protect LGBTQ individuals from discrimination in the workplace, housing, health care and service industries.On her campaign website, Williamson said she is “one hundred percent pro-choice.”

Williamson has also proposed providing reparations to descendants of African American slaves. Her original proposal was $100 billion, distributed $10 billion per year over 10 years. She’s since proposed $200 billion to $500 billion over 20 years.

Whether Williamson can beat out the other Democratic competitors is a big question. But if she can, she is a welcome improvement over the centrist who need to be rejected. We badly need a progressive. There is no reason to keep putting up “do nothing, meaningless Democrats” who offer us no real improvements over their Republican rivals. We have put up with conservative politicians and their governments long enough! It is time for some real change!

For the rest of the article click here.

[1] Rep. Alexandria also rejects the centrist or “middle of the road” Democrats….

A day after calling Republicans "sea sponges" for believing she was serious when she said "the world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change," democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took clear aim at a key figure on her side of the aisle: Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, who is reportedly working on plans to provide a "middle ground" approach to address the "existential threat."

"I'll be damned if the same politicians who refused to act (in past decades) are going to try to come back today and say we need a 'middle of the road' approach to save our lives," Ocasio-Cortez declared at a rally Monday hosted by the radical left Sunrise Movement, the same group the incoming congresswoman joined in a sit-in protest at the office of presumptive Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi just days after getting elected last year.

As CNN notes, Ocasio-Cortez's "middle of the road" comment appears to be "aimed directly at Biden," about whom fellow democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders had just blasted on the same stage for not being progressive enough. Their complaints appear to be in reference to a recent Reuters report on Biden's plans to find "middle ground" on climate change.

"Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden is crafting a climate change policy he hopes will appeal to both environmentalists and the blue-collar voters who elected Donald Trump, according to two sources, carving out a middle ground approach that will likely face heavy resistance from green activists," Reuters reported Friday. "The backbone of the policy will likely include the United States re-joining the Paris Climate Agreement and preserving U.S. regulations on emissions and vehicle fuel efficiency that Trump has sought to undo, according to one of the sources, [former Obama adviser] Heather Zichal, who is part of a team advising Biden on climate change."

But Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez made clear Monday that they want none of Biden's "middle ground" when it comes to the issue that Ocasio-Cortez has said is "our World War II." To combat what she and Sanders portray as an existential threat, the freshman congresswoman has proposed her radical "Green New Deal," which even CNN admits would "fundamentally overhaul the US economy," and includes unsustainable promises, like a federal jobs guarantee and complete carbon neutrality in ten years — costing what a former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates could cost anywhere from $50 trillion to over $90 trillion over ten years.

By SJ Otto

These days I see a lot of cowboy shows, westerns as they are called, on such re-run TV stations as ME TV andHeroes & Icons. I get to relive all the great TV shows I saw growing up in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. One thing I don’t like about many of these shows is the way they treat the Native American Indians. On many of these westerns I’ve seen Indian attacks appear as often as cattle drives in the desert or stage coach robberies.

Many of these shows trivialize the roll that Indians played in the Old Wild West. There were a couple dozen cowboy shows. None of them were completely accurate in their portrayal of the Old West. But one of the worst aspects about these shows was their portrayal of Native American Indians. They were often portrayed as just being a nuisance, a simple danger or being in the way while people were moving west and developing the towns, rail roads and other institutions that we now take for granted. There are a lot of old shows I haven’t seen in reruns yet, but there are many I have seen including Gunsmoke,Bonanza,TheRifleman,The Rebel,Maverick,Have Gun – Will Travel,Cheyenne, and The Big Valley to name just some of them. Of them, Maverick is about the worst portrayal of Indians and Gun Smoke is probably the best.

Many of these shows never or rarely portrayed Indians at all. That was a safe bet. Maverick was one that seemed to show the Indians as they were probably viewed by white people in the actual Old West. The Maverick Brothers, Bart and Brett, said they fought Indians when they were prisoners during the US Civil War. They fought for the Confederacy. They often fought Indians during various episodes. There was no dialog to debate the reasons for killing the Indians. In one episode a cowboy casually says, “I killed two Indians on the way here.” It was as if he just killed a couple of animals. However, that episode came up with an interesting ending. It turned out that a women who was cooking for her restaurant to feed local minors, was actually killing some of the men and stealing their valuables. When the men in the camp found out and planed to hang the women, Bart points out that the man who shot two Indians will not be charge with murder.

“It’s not murder. They were just Indians,” the man insisted. Bart pointed out that since it wasn’t considered murder for a white man to kill Indians, it should not be considered murder for an Indian to kill white men. Many of these shows had at least one episode where the morality of killing Indians was questioned. In an episode of Have Gun – Will Travel, the main character, Paladin, hires a guide to take him into Indian country. The guide said something to the effect ‘exterminating the Indians is a dirty job, but the army might as well be the ones doing it.’ That was obvious sarcasm as to what the US Army was doing during the “Indians wars.” In that episode the guide and Paladin discuss the end of the Sioux Nation, explaining that it was just a matter of time before the US Army would wipe out the Sioux Indians from their land and destroy them as an institution. The Cheyenne Show was mixed in its treatment of Indians. They are still fought and at times the main character Cheyenne seems to blame both sides for the Indian Wars. He often tries to explain to other cowboys that the Indians keep their word and can be trusted, while many of the characters around him complain that the Indians are just “savages” that can’t be trusted. Gunsmoke has been the one show that almost always portrayed the Indians in a positive way. They were shown as more than just one dimensional characters and were shown as a people, with a rich culture. Marshal Matt Dillon has a good relationship with local Indians and often defends them against cowboys who hold the kind of prejudice views that were common in the 1800s.

Now that the “TV Westerns” are being revisited by viewers as me, how do we treat them? Many of these shows were entertaining, but they were also attempts to portray a period in UShistory. The Wild West lasted from the end of the US Civil war until about the year 1900. Gunslingers and other interesting characters were written about in newspapers and cheap novels, during the time period in which the Old West occurred. In the 1950s, the new invention of TV allowed a renaissance of that culture years later. The accuracy of these shows wasn’t always that good, but sometimes they got history right. We can use old movies and TV shows as an educational tool. The Indians fought to defend their land and culture, from Europeans who fought to steal their land and destroy their way of life. Later, in many Western books, movies and TV shows, we see their cause trivialized and in some cases they were portrayed unfairly. One common theme we get is prejudice against a people and their culture. There was an arrogance that gave white people the idea that they were justified to taking the Indian’s lands and moving them to reservations. Native American Indians where humiliated and treated in a way that was just plain undignified. In some ways, there are some similarities to the way the US Army treats the people of the Middle East today.

If people can learn these things from these old TV shows, then they can serve a purpose.

Pix by Best TV Westerns of all time: The Son, Deadwood an and How Well Do You Know TV Westerns? | QuizPug.

By SJ Otto

According to what I read in the article below, I can sexually assault women and rip off poor people, through such gimmicks as predatory lending, tax poor people at a higher rate so my rich buddies can get everything for free and I can lie and cheat. I can cheat on my wife. I can be absolutely greedy, but I will get to heaven if I can get God's political agenda passed in government. I didn’t realize it is so easy to get to be a Christian and go to heaven.

From Counter Punch:

A number of evangelical Christians tell us that Donald Trump’s presidency is heaven sent, which indicates that they know God’s will and can even speak for God. In reality, they are using God to gaslight their followers and other citizens into believing that Trump’s presidency is divinely ordained – as is their own calling.

In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, a Southern Baptist, said, “I think God calls all of us to fill different roles at different times and I think he wanted Donald Trump to become president . . . And I think he has done a tremendous job in supporting a lot of things people of faith really care about.” A doubting Muslim from Minnesota, Rep. Ilham Omar, responded in disbelief, “God has a strange sense of humor.” (“Rep. Ilhan Omar Reacts to Sanders Saying God Wanted Trump Elected: ‘God has a strange sense of humor!’” By CNSNews Staff.com Staff, Jan. 31, 2019)

Like Rep. Omar, writer Andy Ostroy was skeptical of Press Secretary Sanders’ divine discernment. He tweeted:

Hey @PressSec…do ya think “God” also wanted #Trump to be a pathologically- lying, sexually-abusive, foul-mouthed, bullying racist serial philanderer who mocks disabled people, attacks the Pope, cages kids, steals an election & betrays his country? –Andy Ostroy (@Andy Ostroy), Jan. 30, 2019)

Don’t think about Donald Trump’s divisive narcissistic autocratic personality. His campaign manager Brad Parscale certainly doesn’t. In fact, he testified to Trump’s divine calling on Twitter: “Only God could deliver such a savior to our nation, and only God could allow me to help. God bless America.” (“The sanctification of Donald Trump,” By Andrew Restuccia, POLITICO, 4/30/2019) It is about evangelicals “help[ing] – and being helped.

For the rest click here.

From Zin Education Project:

By Howard Zinn

Published on June 2, 1976 in the Boston Globe and republished in The Zinn Reader with the brief introduction below.

Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments.

In 1974, I was invited by Tom Winship, the editor of the Boston Globe, who had been bold enough in 1971 to print part of the top secret Pentagon Papers on the history of the Vietnam War, to write a bi-weekly column for the op-ed page of the newspaper. I did that for about a year and a half. The column below appeared June 2, 1976, in connection with that year’s Memorial Day. After it appeared, my column was cancelled.

* * * * *

Memorial Day will be celebrated as usual, by high-speed collisions of automobiles and bodies strewn on highways and the sound of ambulance sirens throughout the land.

It will also be celebrated by the display of flags, the sound of bugles and drums, by parades and speeches and unthinking applause.

It will be celebrated by giant corporations, which make guns, bombs, fighter planes, aircraft carriers and an endless assortment of military junk and which await the $100 billion in contracts to be approved soon by Congress and the President.

There was a young woman in New Hampshire who refused to allow her husband, killed in Vietnam, to be given a military burial. She rejected the hollow ceremony ordered by those who sent him and 50,000 others to their deaths. Her courage should be cherished on Memorial Day. There were the B52 pilots who refused to fly those last vicious raids of Nixon’s and Kissinger’s war. Have any of the great universities, so quick to give honorary degrees to God-knows-whom, thought to honor those men at this Commencement time, on this Memorial Day?

No politician who voted funds for war, no business contractor for the military, no general who ordered young men into battle, no FBI man who spied on anti-war activities, should be invited to public ceremonies on this sacred day. Let the dead of past wars be honored. Let those who live pledge themselves never to embark on mass slaughter again.

“The shell had his number on it. The blood ran into the ground…Where his chest ought to have been they pinned the Congressional Medal, the DSC, the Medaille Militaire, the Belgian Croix de Guerre, the Italian gold medal, The Vitutea Militara sent by Queen Marie of Rumania. All the Washingtonians brought flowers .. Woodrow Wilson brought a bouquet of poppies.”

For the rest click here.

Die Toten Hosen - My Land

This is a letter from Julie A. Burkhart, Founder and CEO, Trust Women:

On Wednesday, I testified in court to bring telemedicine for medication abortions to the people of Kansas. We are fighting to provide more access to health care across the state of Kansas. We are seeking further assurance from the State Board of Healing Arts and the Sedgewick County District Attorney that the law will not be enforced and that we can start providing medication abortion via telemedicine again to give patients greater access.

The telemedicine case that Trust Women brought, in which I testified, is the first case to be heard under the new constitutional provision that the Kansas State Supreme Court issued just a few weeks ago, in the case of Nauser and Hodes, MDs vs. Schmidt.

We waited over two years for the opinion to be issued in this case, which challenged the dilation and evacuation, 2^ndtrimester, abortion ban. This is the case that led to the Kansas Supreme Court ruling that the Kansas State Constitution contains a right to an abortion. I’m delighted, that now were are able to have the telemedicine case heard, taking into consideration the opinion issued just recently.

Without you, this law may have never been enjoined.

Without you, we would have been forced to turn away 1 in every 10 women seeking an abortion. Those are the people and families who would have suffered.

Across the country this week, people came together to oppose abortion bans passed this legislative session in Missouri, Ohio, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi – to name a few. Protecting access to abortion is going to involve mobilizing people, connecting voters to their lawmakers and challenging these terrible laws in the courts. Court cases are a long and expensive process, but they are necessary in order to protect abortion rights.

Thank you for all you’ve done for women.

Will you contribute again so women can live their lives, instead of constantly worrying about losing this fundamental freedom?

The anti-choice faction is gearing up to push a constitutional amendment in the Kansaslegislature in 2020. This summer, Trust Women will launch its fourth wave of door-to-door voter identification canvassing—this time to defend the constitutional protection you helped win.

Help call more voters.

Help knock more doors.

Help us start a ripple effect for reproductive freedom where it’s needed most, from the center of the country. If we can win in Kansas, we can win anywhere.

Trust Women Foundation
5107 E. Kellogg DriveWichita, KS
Wichita, KS67218

United States

By SJ Otto

Not long ago I published an article about a “no-growth economy,” called “We need to adopt a “no growth” economy for future survival,” If that is something the reader is unfamiliar with he/she is not alone. For most people, almost all people, an economy is healthy when it grows. I have proposed a no-growth or controlled growth economy and most people scratch their head and say “what?” It totally throws the off. It is like throwing a Latin proverb at them and expecting them to understand it. Like; “no growth economy? What are you talking about?” I might as well propose a system of legalized incest. Or maybe legalize heroin for sale at Wal*Mart.” When I bring that up among mainstream people at a debate I see blank stares that say the people are stunned.

So I wrote an article about the need to shift away from a “growth economy” to either a controlled growth economy or a no-growth economy. While it seems extremely radical, it really isn’t. Just recently I’ve come across an article by James Dyke, in The Conversation,“Climate change: ‘We’ve created a civilization hell bent on destroying itself – I’m terrified’, writes Earth scientist.”

One big problem with Dyke’s analysis, it is very bleak:

“I was born in the early 1970s. This means in my lifetime the number of people on Earth has doubled, while the size of wild animal populations has been reduced by 60%. Humanity has swung a wrecking ball through the biosphere. We have chopped down over half of the world’s rainforests and by the middle of this century there may not be much more than a quarter left. This has been accompanied by a massive loss in biodiversity, such that the biosphere may be entering one of the great mass extinction events in the history of life on Earth.

What makes this even more disturbing, is that these impacts are as yet largely unaffected by climate change. Climate change is the ghosts of impacts future. It has the potential to ratchet up whatever humans have done to even higher levels. Credible assessments conclude that one in sixspecies are threatened with extinction if climate change continues.

The scientific community has been sounding the alarm over climate change for decades. The political and economic response has been at best sluggish. We know that in order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to rapidly reduce emissions now.

The sudden increase in media coverage of climate change as a result of the actions of Extinction Rebellion and school strike for climate pioneer Greta Thunburg, demonstrates that wider society is waking up to the need for urgent action. Why has it taken the occupation of Parliament Squarein London or children across the world walking out of school to get this message heard?

There is another way of looking at how we have been responding to climate change and other environmental challenges. It’s both exhilarating and terrifying. Exhilarating because it offers a new perspective that could cut through inaction. Terrifying as it could, if we are not careful, lead to resignation and paralysis.

Because one explanation for our collective failure on climate change is that such collective action is perhaps impossible. It’s not that we don’t want to change, but that we can’t. We are locked into a planetary-scale system that while built by humans, is largely beyond our control. This system is called the technosphere.”

He says we can’t change. That is pretty grim. To say we are doomed by our nature is very negative. It may be true. But I really don’t want to believe that. But one of the problems he sees is one that we on this site see and that is capitalism:

“It seems sensible to assume that the reason products and services are made is so that they can be bought and sold and so the makers can turn a profit. So the drive for innovation – for faster, smaller phones, for example – is driven by being able to make more money by selling more phones. In line with this, the environmental writer George Monbiot argued that the root cause of climate change and other environmental calamities is capitalism and consequently any attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will ultimately fail if we allow capitalism to continue.

But zooming out from the toil of individual manufacturers, and even humanity, allows us to take a fundamentally different perspective, one that transcends critiques of capitalism and other forms of government.

Humans consume. In the first instance, we must eat and drink in order to maintain our metabolism, to stay alive. Beyond that, we need shelter and protection from physical elements.

There are also the things we need to perform our different jobs and activities and to travel to and from our jobs and activities. And beyond that is more discretional consumption: TVs, games consoles, jewellery, fashion.

The purpose of humans in this context is to consume products and services. The more we consume, the more materials will be extracted from the Earth, and the more energy resources consumed, the more factories and infrastructure built. And ultimately, the more the technosphere will grow.

The emergence and development of capitalism obviously lead to the growth of the technosphere: the application of markets and legal systems allows increased consumption and so growth. But other political systems may serve the same purpose, with varying degrees of success. Recall the industrial output and environmental pollution of the former Soviet Union. In the modern world, all that matters is growth.

The idea that growth is ultimately behind our unsustainable civilisation is not a new concept. Thomas Malthus famously argued there were limits to human population growth, while the Club of Rome’s 1972 book, Limits to Growth, presented simulation results that pointed to a collapse in global civilisation.

Today, alternative narratives to the growth agenda are, perhaps, getting political traction with an All Party Parliamentary Group convening meetings and activities that seriously consider de-growth policies. And curbing growth within environmental limits is central to the idea of a Green New Deal, which is now being discussed seriously in the US, UK, and other nations.”

At least one part of this problem was obvious. Capitalism needs to go. Many of us have fought that system for all our lives. And this is just one more article that supports our position that capitalism will provide us with the end of modern humanity as we know it. So here is one more article warning us to abandon capitalism.

By SJ Otto

I have never liked the NRA (National Riffle Association). That is not because I am against guns, owning them or even carrying them. But The NRA is an organization that clearly favors Republicans and believes that gun rights are more important than anything. If a person is mentally ill, the NRA protects them. There are no gun laws that the NRA approves of. At some point in time, they may support the rights of kindergarten children to carry guns.

Also, the NRA wields a lot of power. No Republican dares to oppose any position of the NRA. Some Democrats have challenged the NRA and they have found their careers challenged by this very powerful organization.

So is it any surprise that Ilhan Omar got slammed for blaming NRA for Virginia shooting that left 12 people dead?[1] The NRA may not be directly responsible for these killings, but they have clearly influence this event and many others over the last several years. There are a lot of young people who are not just goingto let the Republicans and the NRA do nothing about all the school shootings. Their time is coming. Young people today are going to demand changes at some point in time.

I remember when I sat on the Citizen Participation Organization, of Wichitafor City Commission, back in the 1980s. It was an elected position for placement on an advisory board. That organization was later dissolved and replaced with a boar that was chosen from the City Commission rather that elected. The name was changed to the Citizen Advisory Board.

The point I’m making is that we were responding to a city ordinance that restricted gun sales in the city of Wichita. The building was packed with concerned citizens who opposed the ordinance. It was that night that I realized how intimidating such a group could be for an elected official.

So I now realize what Representative Ilhan Omar was up against when she criticized the NRA.Fox News[2] posted an article, “Ilhan Omar slammed for blaming NRA for Virginia shooting that left 12 people dead.”

As with many conservative organizations, the Fox News article portrayed Omar as a simpleton who got all of her information wrong:

“National Rifle Association (NRA) spokeswoman Dana Loesch ripped Rep. Ilhan Omar after she blamed I the gun rights group for the deaths inside a Virginia Beach municipal building on Friday.

The embattled Minnesota Democrat took a swipe at the NRA just hours after a disgruntled city employee went on a shooting spree that left 12 people dead and four more injured……

“I am outraged and heartbroken,” she wrote in a tweet. “How much longer will we ignore the pain of our communities? We need to immediately confront the power of the NRA and end the epidemic of gun violence in this country.”

Of course I agree with her. Only conservative Republicans would disagree with this. As we can imagine, other conservative news sites attacked Omar for blaming the NRA. In an article called “Here Comes The Blame Game: Ilhan Omar Wants To 'Confront The NRA' Over Virginia Beach Shooting,” for the site called Townhall, Beth Baumann said:|

“Sounds like Omar missed the memo: the gunman purchased his legally. He went through a background check, the very same background check anti-gunners are continually saying don't take place. The gunman had nothing in his background, as far as we know, to indicate that he would carry out this kind of attack. Not only that but suppressors (or "silencers" as gun control advocates like to call them) are already regulated. People have to pay a $200 fee, file an application, go through a background check, wait nine months to a year and then maybe they'll get approved for one. They want a ban on "high-capacity" magazines but that didn't stop other mass shootings from taking place in gun control heavy states, like California.”

These authors all act as if Omar is a complete idiot who knows nothing about the things she says. And yet Omar says what a lot of us are saying: “That the NRA has stopped any changes in gun laws—good or bad.” The NRA has consistently prevented ANY kinds of gun laws that might have changed or influenced this event (or others like it). Since this last year alone there have been an estimated 149 killed in mass shootings such as the Virginiashooting that left 12 people dead. Omar is right to blame the NRA, for at least some of this. Many of us all feel the same way she does. So the conservatives may claim that Omar was “slammed by the NRA,” but many of us realize that the NRA has unfairly slammed a politician who had every reason to blame them for the latest shooting.

Many of us back Omar for what she has said: which we feel is the truth.

[1] Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-slammed-nra-virginia-shooting
[2]Fox News, https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ilhan-omar-slammed-nra-virginia-shooting

By SJ Otto

We know that Donald Trump thinks socialism is the opposite of freedom and now he seems to believe he has the right to prevent nations in Latin America from voting for socialist candidates. He is taking the most undemocratic methods possible to try and stop socialism in Latin America, by banning travel to Cuba..

He has singled out three countries, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela, as undermining

U.S.

policy. FromAP News:

“U.S.national security adviser John Bolton, who declared Cubapart of a "troika of tyranny " along with Nicaraguaand Venezuelaas he outlined plans for sanctions in November, said the new policy is intended to deny the Cuban government a vital source of revenue.”

Apparently

policy is to prevent actual democracy. Of those countries, Nicaraguahas a democracy that was partially created by past

leaders.[1]The only thing

Nicaragua

has done wrong is to elect a man that Trump does not approve of.

His latest actions are to ban travel to Cuba, which is now moving the USbackward to the old cold war with Cuba. Also from AP:

“Cruise travel from the U.S.to Cubabegan in May 2016 during President Barack Obama's opening with the island. It has become the most popular form of U.S. leisure travel to the island, bringing 142,721 people in the first four months of the year, a more than 300% increase over the same period last year. For travelers confused about the thicket of federal regulations governing travel to Cuba, cruises offered a simple, one-stop, guaranteed-legal way to travel.

That now appears to be over.

"Cruise ships as well as recreational and pleasure vessels are prohibited from departing the U.S.on temporary sojourn to Cubaeffective tomorrow," the Commerce Department said in a statement to The Associated Press.”

That takes away a

citizens right to travel as he/she see fit. For those of us who want to see for ourselves what the communist nation of Cuba has to offer traveller, our rights have been violated. Our right to chose where we travel is now gone, when it comes to Cuba. I plan to travel to Cubain just a few weeks through Pastors for Peace.Trump will not be stopping me.

One thing that is obvious in this article I’m using, trump is using this issue to try and win votes in Florida, a major home of right-wing gusanos.[2]According to the AP article:

Collin Laverty, head of Cuba Educational Travel, one of the largest Cuba travel companies in the U.S., called the new measures "political grandstanding aimed at Florida in the run up to the 2020 elections."

And further proof is this comment by Trumps’ Republican hack Marc Rubio:

"The Trump administration deserves tremendous credit for holding accountable the Cuban regime," Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said. "The United Statesmust use all tools available under U.S.law to counter the Cuban regime's deceitful activities to undermine U.S.policy."

The AP article presented several opinions that were opposed to Trumps’ Cuban action:

"This affects all of us," said William Mártinez, 58, a Cuban-born American who lived in Floridafor 46 years but returned five years ago to drive a classic car for tourists. "It's inhuman, the sanctions that they're putting on Cuba."

……"I've been dying to come to Cubaforever, to see the cars, the buildings," said Maria Garcia, a 46-year-old teacher from Puerto Rico who arrived in HavanaTuesday morning on a Norwegian cruise line. "I could do it with this cruise ... Trump needs to understand that people should come to this country, to enjoy and get to know its culture, just like we would do in any other part of the world."

Also:

“Cruises have become more popular than flights for leisure travelers to Cuba- nearly 30,000 more came by cruise ship than flights this year. The figures exclude Cuban-born Americans visiting family on the island.”

There are many of us here in the USwho would like to have more politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez elected to office. There are already political groups trying to smear Ocasio-Cortez as un-American. Some of us would like to see Bernie Sanders elected president. If we lived in a smaller country in Latin America, Trump would be treating us as if we were terrorists. This is the kind of non-sense we all need to stop Trump from doing. Ocasio-Cortez is a member of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). That group has been gaining membership since Sanders ran for president. We don’t need our party treated as an illegal or un-American organization. There is nothing anti-democratic about socialism.

Pix by Cuba to Welcome 26th Pastors for Peace “Friendshipme.

[1]See Trump is so stupid he thinks Nicaragua is a dictatorship.

[2] Gusanos (worms in English) is a slang insult the Cuban left uses to refer to the exiles who live in Florida.

By SJ Otto

I am really glad to see this issue coming up to a vote in various cities. (The article below is about Oakland). To be honest I never thought I would see this happen. But I couldn’t be happier. I have had problems with alcohol in the past. For those who are un-aware, alcohol causes some very bad health problems, with heavy use.[1]And yet alcohol is the only powerful mind altering drug that is legal for all of us to use. I am glad that marijuana is being legalized in various forms—some for recreation, some for medical use. But I don’t like marijuana. Its effects are too difficult for me. The drug mostly makes me feel spacey. It doesn’t bring me a feeling of euphoria.

In small amounts, alcohol does create a feeling of euphoria, but it also creates a kind of sloppy state, where a person looses his/her sense of judgement. In simple language, it makes us act stupid. I like some of the effects of alcohol, but it is hard on my liver and creates other health problems.

My favourite of those drugs are mushrooms, shrooms or as we used to call it: psilocybin. The drug is like a very mild version of LSD.It lacks LSD’s hallucination type qualities. It does cause euphoria, which is something I like in a drug or intoxicating experience. That drug is also easier on the liver and causes far fewer health problems than alcohol. It has not been that easy to find locally here in Kansas, but if it were legal that could all change.

Allowing adults to legally use herbal highs, as psilocybin mushrooms, peyote and ayahuasca just makes sense. This would help me a lot. I have spent a lot of time in rehab places such as AAmeetings. At some point I decided to give up and just try to use alcohol sparingly rather than total abstinence. Total abstinence is just not for me. Life is about developing life styles and I believe that a free people in a free society should have choices as to how they live.

People with narrow minded religious views on drug use don’t have the right to legislate how the rest of us should live. They have learned from the era of prohibition that banning alcohol will never work. But for those of us who seek occasional intoxication, we should have other choices than just alcohol.

We may be on the horizons of drug law changes that finally make sense and allows adults the freedom of choice. That time is long overdue. The following is from Marijuana Moment:

OaklandOfficials Decriminalize Psychedelics And Say They’ll Work To Legalize Sales Next

Oakland, Californiamay become the first city in the United States to legalize the distribution and sale of psychedelic drugs, including psilocybin mushrooms and ayahuasca, in a way similar to how the city was the first to normalize commercial medical marijuana sales.

Much has to happen before that broader drug policy reform becomes a reality, but the Oakland City Council took a decisive first step on Tuesday when it voted 6 to 0 to approve a measure decriminalizing the possession of “entheogenic” plant- and fungi-based substances, also including mescaline and ibogaine.

Such plants have therapeutic potential in treating mental health conditions like addiction, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a slowly but steadily growing chorus of researchers and experts, but access to patients remains risky illegal behavior under current federal and state laws prohibiting them.

Under the terms of the unanimously approved Oakland resolution, “entheogenic plant practices,” including ayahuasca ceremonies and the consumption of mushrooms, are now “amongst the lowest priority” for law enforcement, and “any city funds or resources to assist in the enforcement of laws imposing criminal penalties” for adult use and possession is restricted.

In the immediate term, Decriminalize Nature Oakland, which led the charge to build support for the measure, will run similar campaigns in other Californiacities. The first will be next door in Berkeley, said Larry Norris, a cofounder of Decriminalize Nature.

“People see this, they can see we brought a community out, we made a resolution happen,” he told Marijuana Moment.

For the restclick here.

[1]For an example of health problems see: “Health Risks of Chronic Heavy Drinking.”

By SJ Otto

With all this talk of the bravery of those who fought on D-Day, there were at least two and maybe more Republicans who are all in favour of honouring those who fight our wars, but they never served in the armed forces themselves. Some of us call those people chicken-hawks.

Our President Donald Trump has never spent a single day on the military. Can we imagine Trump eating army food?! It would be funny if Trump weren’t so cowardly. Whoopi Goldberg comment on the View about him:

“Thost Whoopi Goldberg didn't even want to talk about President Trump's visit to Normandy, indicating she was annoyed that someone like him would go there on the 75th anniversary of D-Day.

When co-host Joy Behar mentioned the visit, Goldberg said something that prompted the show to censor her comments. She explained that she didn't want to talk about the issue because "all those people who went and gave their lives — they didn't ask, they didn't have bone spurs," she said on Thursday.

"They went, people went to fight the ugly that was happening. They went and did it, that's all I'm going to say," she added.

"The View" has a history of criticizing Trump over his draft deferments, one of which came after a doctor diagnosed him with bone spurs. Behar knocked Trump over the issue when the panel was discussing his alleged decision to obscure the view of the USS John S. McCain during a visit to Japan.

She joked that if Trump were more like the late senator he might get his own ship, titled "USS bone spurs."

During Thursday's show, co-host Ana Navarro blasted Trump as "out of control" for insulting Americans while overseas. "He's been out of control," she said, before noting his attack on actress Bette Midler. Co-host Sunny Hostin also pointed to Trump's attack on former Vice President Joe Biden.

"He's like a mob guy and yet he broke the cardinal rule of being a mobster. You don't talk about the family outside of the family," Behar said of that attack in May.

Trump is not the only chicken-hawk to honour the vest that fought in World War II. Here at home, on KAKE TV, I saw Ron Estes at a local Wichitaceremony honouring those who fought at Normandy. Ron told KAKE TV that he felt the fighting effort needed to be done—but not with him. He stayed home.

That brings on this poem:

When the smell of danger is in the air,

You can bet Ron Estes isn’t there,

When heroes come to save the day,

That’s when Ron Estes runs away,

When the soldiers go off to war

The chicken-hawks stay way afar.

And now Brave Sir Robin:

By SJ Otto

An article in US News and World Reportexposes one of the most corrupt political campaigns I have ever seen:

“Fentanyl Maker Donates Big to Campaign Opposing Pot Legalization.” The Fentanyl maker is not an illegal chemist, it is a big pharmacy corporation, Insys Therapeutics Inc. While it is not an illegal organization, it might as well be. According to the US News article:

“Insys currently markets just one product, according to an August filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission: a sublingual fentanyl spray it calls Subsys.

Two former company employees pleaded not guilty last month to federal charges related to an alleged kickback scheme to get doctors to prescribe Subsys.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a lawsuit late last month against the company alleging Insys hawked the drug to doctors for off-label prescribing, saying the company's "desire for increased profits led it to disregard patients' health and push addictive opioids for non-FDA approved purposes."

So while this company is legal, it has skirted the law and behaved as if they were little more than a common illegal drug dealing organization. The US News article wrote:

“It's hard to imagine a more sinister donor than Insys Therapeutics Inc. in the eyes of pot legalization proponents, who long have claimed drug companies want to keep cannabis illegal to corner the market for drugs, some addictive and dangerous, that relieve pain and other symptoms.”

It also said:

“Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy campaign manager Adam Deguire tells U.S. News that legalization foes will not return the donation. In a statement he expressed gratitude and stressed that Insys is based in Arizona, unlike the Marijuana Policy Project, which has contributed substantially toward passing the initiative.

A voicemail requesting comment from Insys was not immediately returned.

Advocates for the marijuana legalization initiative Proposition 205, which is up 10 percentage points in a poll released Wednesday by the ArizonaRepublic, condemned the donation.”

Insys Therapeutics Inc. makes Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that may be responsible for as much as 90 percent of the opioid deaths, in recent years, that are being labelled an epidemic. We did an article on this drug, April of last year; “The opioid epidemic is really a fentanyl epidemic—and we don’t need all the hype.”

From 2011 until about last year, Insys also sold a generic equivalent to Marinol, a synthetic version of the cannabinoid THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). So it is a real irony that the company donated $500,000 toward defeating a ballot initiative to legalize the pot plant.

So far there is evidence that shows that legalizing marijuana would have some benefits. According to the US Newsarticle:

“JohnsHopkinsUniversityresearchers concluded in 2014, after studying the effects of state medical marijuana laws through 2010, that "medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly lower state-level opioid overdose mortality rates."

This kind of corruption is not new to the US political system. But, as with the election of President Donald Trump, such corruption seems to be out in the open more and more often. It is open and blatant. It just seems as if conservative organizations like this just don’t care how they achieve political goals anymore. According to the US News Article:

“J.P. Holyoak, chairman of the initiative-backing Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, said in a statement that "we are truly shocked by our opponents' decision to keep a donation from what appears to be one of the more unscrupulous members of Big Pharma."

Holyoak said: "Our opponents have made a conscious decision to associate with this company. They are now funding their campaign with profits from the sale of opioids – and maybe even the improper sale of opioids. We hope that every Arizonan understands that Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy is now a complete misnomer. Their entire campaign is tainted by this money. Any time an ad airs against Prop. 205, the voters should know that it was paid for by highly suspect Big Pharma actors."

This is just like the Evangelicals who support Trump because he supports their political goals. And yet, they don’t seem to be bothered that the man they support for these Christian changes doesn’t follow a lot of their Christian laws, ethics or morality. It would seem that there are a lot of people who oppose legalizing marijuana for moral reasons. But taking money from a pharmaceutical opiate drug dealer seems about as immoral as they can get.

Pix by The Idiot Factor.

By SJ Otto

Big Pharma is making its move to try and kill health care reform. I just got a so called “survey” entitle “2019 National Survey of American Senior Voters on the Democrat “Medicare for all” Plan.” It is conducted by a group calling itself Christian Seniors Association, a part of Traditional Families Coalition, and it was mailed to my father, John Otto, who is now dead.

This is an attempt to reach seniors and I’m sure they are hoping “conservative seniors.”

It doesn’t take long before it is clear what this survey is really for:

“We expect this survey to show Congress that the overwhelming majority of senior voters oppose this “Medicare for All” plan being pushed by liberals- including by every leading Democrat Candidate for President in 2020.”

They list all the people they plan to send this survey to including press and congress people to try and kill Medicare for all. They explained that they only want to hear from seniors who vote, since that is what congress people pay attention to.

Along with filling out their survey, which they have already told the reader how to answer, they also want donations.

This letter is full of scare tactics to entice seniors to oppose health care for those who need it. Fore example on the top of page one it says:

“Campaign to save Medicare by Stopping “Medicare for all.” Which would lead to the Rationingof Medical Care for Seniors.”

Also it includes a box and line that says:

“I have enclosed my $10 Survey Processing Contribution to help cover your cost to tabulate and process my important survey. I agree this survey of ONE MILLION voting seniors will send a strong message to Congress that the overwhelming majority of America’s seniors oppose the Democrats “Medicare for All” plan—which would certainly destroy Medicare as well as bankrupt the country.’

So they are using scare tactics to try and convince seniors that health reform will take away THEIR health care. It appeals to the lowest common instincts of seniors. The message is ‘support your own health care or risk losing it due to someone else getting their health care needs met.’ Another way of looking at it is: ‘you have what you need, if someone else doesn’t—fuck them! Worry about your needs and screw the needs of others. They are betting that most seniors will worry mostly about themselves and not care at all about he needs of their fellow citizens.

This letter is a part of a fight-back strategy for those who benefit from the present health care system—a system based on the greed of big pharma and the belief that insurance companies have the right to profit off of the illness of others. Their profit margins are all that matter to them. Human life has no value to them at all.

Millions of Americans may die way before they need to because the US health care system simply doesn’t value their lives. They value profit. That profit is way more important to them than the lives of poor working people.

We knew something like this was coming. We knew that those profiting from insurance and sky high pharmacy prices were planning to attack the idea of “Medicare for all.” It is important that we become aware of such tactics and try to counter them.

We need to attack the insurance companies directly. They need to go. They are parasites and although a lot of people in this country “like their insurance” They do not realize how unnecessary those entities are. They need to be educated to the idea that insurance companies exist to take money out of the medical system and they provide no other needs. We also need to remind people that there is a reason they can’t afford the medicines their doctor prescribes.

This battle won’t be easy, but many people are fed up with a medical system where they can’t afford the medicines their doctors prescribe them. The insurance companies and big pharma will try and confuse people with ideas meant to kill health care reform. We need to fight back and we need to fight back hard. Everyone needs to take part. If you receive one of these letters, send the envelope back with cat poop rather than money.

Let’s fight back! The battle is on!

Pix byCounty of Ventura Bargaining Update - October 31 2.

From Sarah Hogg, Daily Kos:

For a third time, Trump has nominated a non-scientist with questionable ethics, Barry Myers, to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

NOAA is a critical agency that studies physical science, the atmosphere, and the climate. Previous NOAA administrators have been trained and accomplished scientists ranging from geologists to astronauts. Myers is not a scientist but a businessman and the former CEO of AccuWeather, making him grossly unqualified to head the agency.

Not only is Myers not qualified, he has been on the record calling for the privatization of the National Weather Service, which provides free weather updates to the public and competes with AccuWeather’s business model, highlighting conflict of interest concerns.

This is ridiculous! Sign and send the petition to your U.S. senators if you agree that we need a scientist and environmental leader at the helm of NOAA, not a businessman.

SIGN AND SEND THE PETITION

In addition to lack of credentials and clear conflict of interest concerns, AccuWeather, under Myers' watch, is mired in sexual harassment and assault allegations.

Dozens of AccuWeather employees allege “widespread sexual harassment,” which prompted the Department of Labor's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to investigate when he was first nominated in 2017. Because employees reported these abuses and the company was aware of allegations, AccuWeather was fined $290,000 by a federal oversight agency after the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs published their findings.

Now that his nomination has been quickly shuffled through committee and is already up for a Senate floor vote, it is time we tell our Senators that we deserve much better than Barry Myers, an unqualified pro-Trump businessman whose company is under investigation for sexual harassment.

Sign and send the petition to your U.S. senators: Barry Myers is not qualified to lead NOAA. Please vote against his confirmation.

Pix by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration | Smithsonian Ocean.

By SJ Otto

Why would any one put George Herbert Walker Bush on a stamp? Well the obvious answer is that conservative Republicans wanted to honour him. They run the presidency and the Senate, and largely—the Supreme Court. So they can do what they want. Here in Wichita, conservative Republicans renamed the airport after Ike Eisenhower, even though he spent very little time in Wichitaor Kansas. He was a Republican even though he was left-wing compared to today’s Republicans. But we have city buildings named after Ronald Reagan, the president who is the most responsible for the far left lunge this country has taken since he was in office. I’m sure we will see Ronald Reagan stamps. soon.

Will there ever come a day when left-wing politicians from Wichita’s past ever get their own stamp? Will they ever get the recognition they deserve?

Earl Browder was a famous Communist Party leader here in Wichitaand no one every suggested we put his picture on a stamp. He was a communist. We don’t even put Democrat Party politicians on stamps. In fact, Kansas leaders are pulling such people’s statues out of our US hall of Kansas politicians to replace them with people that a lot of Kansans recognize, such as Eisenhower and Amelia Earhart. Kansaspoliticians have decided to remove Democrats that took part in founding the state of Kansaswith pop culture icons:

“In 1999 Kansaspassed a resolution to replace its statue of George W. Glick with one of Dwight D. Eisenhower, and to send a statue of Amelia Earhart to replace the one of John James Ingalls.”

Will there ever come a day, when Democrats, or progressives from Kansas’ past ever get the recognition they deserve?—not as long Republicans keep writing and RE-writing our history.

Die Toten Hosen: Return of Alex

Die Toten Hosen: Bye Bye Alex

Bye bye Alex

Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris calls for Attorney General William Barr to resign immediately

Manufactured Iranian Threat in the Persian Gulf

I am no fan of warriors—they are nothing but legal Murderers—for a career

Republicans try to destroy a woman’s right to an abortion

Marianne Williamson will make a good president—at least she is not a centrist

HEALTH CARE: Backs universal healthcare

FOREIGN POLICY: Re-examine foreign relationships.

SOCIAL ISSUES: Supports LGBTQ rights, access to abortion

TV Westerns—Modern re-runs allow us to revisit the Old Wild West and the terrible portrayal of Native American Indians

“Gaslighters of God “– Being a god-fearing Christian is as easy as cheating on your wife

US- Another look at Memorial Day- "Whom Will We Honor Memorial Day?"

From Zin Education Project:

By Howard Zinn

Die Toten Hosen - My Land

The fight for abortion rights continues in Kansas

One more article warning that a growth economy will doom us

NRA trashes Omar and acts as the supreme deity over mass shootings

Trumps’ new attacks on Cuba are anti-democratic—anti-freedom

[1]See Trump is so stupid he thinks Nicaragua is a dictatorship.

“Oakland Officials Decriminalize Psychedelics”—at long last adults will have a choice of intoxicants rather than alcohol

D-Day vets honoured by chicken hawks—Trump and Estes

Corporate fentanyl (opioid) dealers donate big money to try and stop legal marijuana

Insurance parasites and big pharma are trying to kill health care reform!

Tell Trump to dump Barry Myers, rather than let him head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

US postage stamps represent the political faction that now runs the country