You Can't Make This Stuff Up

 

We live in a time where leftists and communists are being labeled as Nazis and real Nazis are being labeled as freedom fighters standing up against fascism. We can't make this up. --Kris Legion

You Can't Make This Stuff Up

by C.A. Matthews

After I read this headline, both my mind and my stomach started to churn:

Jon Stewart and the Pentagon Honor Ukrainian Nazi at Disney World

Disney World? "The Happiest Place on Earth"? Jon Stewart? Welcoming Nazis? Really?

Yeah, really. From The Grayzone:

During the Department of Defense’s annual Warrior Games at Disney World in Orlando, Florida this August 19-28, liberal comedian Jon Stewart awarded a Ukrainian military veteran named Ihor Halushka the “Heart of the Team” award for “inspiring his team” with his “personal example.”

Halushka happens to have been a member of the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which has been armed by the US and integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard. The award-winning ultra-nationalist wore a sleeve over his left arm as he accepted the prize, presumably to cover up his tattoo of the Nazi Sonnenrad, or Black Sun. (...)

...Even the US government propaganda outlet Voice of America [has] acknowledged the Azov Battalion’s embrace of Nazism. Right Sector group has been similarly identified as a fascist organization. Since the invasion, however, Western corporate media has downplayed the presence of Nazis in the Ukrainian armed forces as groups like Azov have taken on prominent front-line roles. (...)

An unlisted YouTube video by the Invictus Games on YouTube offers a close-up of Halushka working out with Nazi Black Sun symbol tattooed on his left elbow clearly visible. Halushka opted to cover the fascist symbol during photo ops at the Warrior Games.

Halushka has never been shy about his ties to the Azov Battalion. During the Invictus Games this April, he whipped out an Azov flag as he accepted a gold medal, which was hosted in The Hague – where war criminals are normally tried, not awarded. Likewise, in Orlando, Haluskha wore an Azov Battalion t-shirt as he accepted a gold medal for indoor rowing. He was honored days later as the “heart” of his team. (...)

It is difficult to believe that Palevska and Halushka are the only members of Team Ukraine that have belonged to neo-Nazi groups.

A photo posted on the team’s official Facebook page show five team members performing a fascist salute in front of a Warrior Games banner.

In other photos, a member of the team wearing a Warrior Games t-shirt can be seen holding a Right Sector flag; and seven veterans associated with the team bear the flag of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the Schutzstaffel (SS), a WWII-era Nazi military formation made up of Ukrainian nationalists.

American taxpayers have already forked $60 billion over to Ukraine since the war broke out in 2014. They are therefore entitled to know whether the Department of Defense paid Team Ukraine’s travel expenses.

The article provides plenty of video links and photos that clearly show these individuals with Nazi symbology tattooed on their bodies and proof that they belong to Neo-Nazi militias such as the Azov Battalion and Right Sector. (More about The History of Nazism in Ukraine here.) There's no doubt that Ukrainians have a thing for fascists as their own postage stamps attest:

So… Disney World welcomes Ukranian Nazis. Bad enough Disney Corp. welcomes the US Department of Defense (more like Department of Offense) inside their fairy-tale-themed, family amusement park, but they're okay as well with individuals and groups who agree with Ukrainian Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera and his favorite person Adolf Hitler, the man who had 6 million people murdered in his gas chambers during World War 2.

You know, this incident gives me a completely different take on “The Magic Kingdom.” I can imagine a Teutonic tour guide in a near dystopian future giving us a rundown of its attractions...

“Velcome to DizNa World! It's zee magical land where everyting is kept spotlessly clean by our slave labor. No ve don't pay them low wages--ve just don't pay them at all! Ha ha ha! It's what that sign Arbeit macht frei (Work sets you free) outside the front gates means.”

“Over here, you will see our most popular ride, It's A Small World. Really, it is! We only allow a few northern European countries to be featured on this ride because… Well, you know why. We only want blue-eyed, blond persons in our fairy-tale land. No other colors or non-European religions need apply!”

“Speaking of which, you might have noticed that DizNa's Princess Jasmine character is now also blue-eyed and blonde. Just like Republican Jesus!”

“The Swiss Family Robinson tree house is, of course, still here. We like the Swiss, especially their bankers who kept our gold for us during World War 2. The Robinson home has been tastefully redecorated in red, white, and black.”

“Whatz dat construction over there? Oh, that’s a new attraction being developed. It’s called The Showers. It’s not for everyone. In fact, if you are Aryan you don’t ever have to worry about it.”

Yeah, the whole “Magical Kingdom” aspect of Disney World has been flushed down the drain for me. I can’t see why celebrating any persons who associate themselves with a Nazi organization is a wholesome thing to do at a family amusement park anywhere in the world. I just don’t.

Biden at Nuremberg?

Here we have Biden sending billions of dollars in aid and armaments to these Neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine while millions of Americans are going without health care, rent assistance, and even food. We have millions suffering under the burden of medical and student loan debt in this country, but we can’t do a thing to relieve their pain. Jackson, Mississippi, and Flint,Michigan, still don’t have safe drinking water, and our federal government can’t lift a finger to help these citizens out. But somehow, we can finance an all expenses paid trip to Disney World for a bunch of Nazis.

Hmm… Jackson and Flint are cities with predominantly African American populations. Could that have something to do with it? Biden doesn’t have any problem sending billions of dollars to white Europeans to run a proxy war, but when it comes to helping out fellow Americans of a different ethnic heritage in need of drinkable water he’s got nothing?

Funding and rescuing Nazis is nothing new to the US government. Remember NASA’s rocket scientist Wernher von Braun? He was one of the 1,600 “nice Nazis” who America kept from the hangman’s noose at the Nuremberg Trials and secreted into the US along with their families in Operation Paperclip. The US government was fine with these scientists' Nazi sympathies as long as they worked hard to give us the edge we wanted over the Soviets’ space program. The US would do anything to best the “Russians" during the Cold War, up to and including inviting avowed Nazis into our country.

The more things change… Honestly, you can't make this stuff up.

I don’t think I could feel more disgusted or more embarrassed than I do today at the antics of the US Department of Defense and the military industrial complex as a whole. Many Americans have parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents who fought the Nazis in World War 2. Many Americans have relatives who survived the tortures of the Nazi work camps, POW camps, and the bombings of their cities. Some older Americans themselves are survivors of Nazi atrocities. And now Americans politicians and entertainers openly welcome Neo-Nazis with their words and actions. 

All I can say is what Captain America said in his original 1940s comic book serials: Punch a Nazi!

DizNa World is the dark world neoliberals like Biden and company dream of, maybe even celebrities like Jon Stewart. Perhaps it's time for Jon to retire? He seems out of touch with reality. Nazis were only funny on TV sit-coms like Hogan's Heroes and the British classic comedy series 'Allo, 'Allo! where they were portrayed as bumblers, not the racist killers they really are.

Either way, it’s not the world our loved ones who died fighting fascism would have ever imagined. Neoliberals will do anything to make money selling weapons so their stock portfolios of arms manufacturers continue to grow. It's all about their wealth, their health, and their propaganda machines churning out stories about how great the Azov Battalion is and how the US is all about "freedom and democracy." (Read last week's blog about how that fictitious labeling of wars for resources comes about.)

Ugh. I don't know about you, but I'm never going to consider taking a vacation at Disney World, Disney Land, or any of their related amusement parks ever again. They've convinced me that Mickey Mouse and friends aren't the sort of fictional creatures I want to hang out with. 

Heck, forget Disney+ and all their movies and online streaming channels. Let the white supremacists support them. There's gotta be enough of them to keep Disney Corp. in the black...and red.

Related Articles:

Jon Stewart and the Pentagon Honor Ukrainian Nazi at Disney World  https://thegrayzone.com/2022/08/31/jon-stewart-pentagon-ukrainian-nazi-disney/ 

Jon Stewart Presents Medal to Ukrainian Nazi at Disney World (video)  https://youtu.be/gFpHtufCIZ4 

Residents in Majority Black Jackson Left Without Drinkable Water https://popularresistance.org/residents-in-majority-black-jackson-mississippi-left-without-drinkable-water/

Decision-Makers Cannot Handle End of White Supremacy https://popularresistance.org/us-decision-makers-cannot-handle-end-of-white-supremacy-former-vice-presidential-candidate/

The Noble Lie of a Democratic West https://popularresistance.org/the-noble-lie-of-a-democratic-west/

With Western Imperialism in Decline, Capitalism is in Crisis
https://scheerpost.com/2022/09/01/with-western-imperialism-decline-capitalism-is-in-crisis-a-new-phase-is-emerging/ 

Democrats Are Violent Extremists https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/democrats-are-violent-extremists 

Wernher von Braun--The Nazi Inside NASA https://youtu.be/Kv0IB-TwFH8

The History of Nazism in Ukraine https://bernie2016.blogspot.com/2022/03/nato-loves-nazis-history-of-nazism-in.html

 Seen on Twitter:

Here is Ihor Halushka, the Nazi honored by Jon Stewart, after he was injured, with his Nazi Sonnenrad tattoo clearly displayed as he grips a Mickey Mouse plushie in his hospital bed https://t.co/NWiqV4GkZS pic.twitter.com/ZWU45ZhL7S

— Alex Rubinstein (@RealAlexRubi) August 31, 2022

Perhaps someone should’ve told Jon Stewart that he was giving a medal to a literal Naaaazi? https://t.co/vO614cXUmF

— Lee Camp [Redacted] (@LeeCamp) September 2, 2022

Europe going to freeze defending this??? https://t.co/QRM3NYOGHy

— Revolutionary Blackout Network🥋 (@SocialistMMA) September 4, 2022

Do the people in Jackson MI want clean water or more weapons sent to Ukraine?

— Eddie (@SoSocialism) September 4, 2022

We live in a time where leftists and communists are being labeled as Nazis and real Nazis are being labeled as freedom fighters standing up against fascism. We can't make this up.

— Kris Legion 🦺📢 (@LegionSocialist) September 4, 2022

The 50 Year Apology

 

The 50 Year Apology

by C.A. Matthews

It’s amazing how fast your mind can go back in time when you hear a name or see a face that you haven’t seen in almost 50 years. 

This week I’m taking the wise advice of Vegematic (subscribe to his YouTube channel and watch his latest here) and taking a break from the stress of the current headlines. I’m tripping down Memory Lane and writing about something that greatly interested me when I was younger, namely film-making and Hollywood.

I wanted to be a movie director/documentary maker when I was fresh out of high school. My dream never materialized, but I’ve followed some film creatives over the years. One face that I saw on television at the Academy Awards Show almost fifty years ago flashed in front of me this past week. 

It made me think of how “important” I thought the Hollywood elite were back then. Now I know better—they are simply puppets, repeating what the oligarchs want repeating so the struggling masses don’t rise up and overthrow the oligarchy. As puppets, what they say and do isn't all that important to me anymore, but I still find their actions and non-actions fascinating.

Zach Sharf of Variety sets the scene:

Sacheen Littlefeather dominated headlines this week after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences issued a formal apology to her for the mistreatment she faced at the 1973 Oscars. Littlefeather, who was 26 years old at the ceremony, took to the stage on behalf of Marlon Brando, who was named best actor for “The Godfather,” and declined the award for him. Brando cited Hollywood’s problematic portrayal of “Native American Indian people in film and television” as his reason for rejecting the Oscar.

 (...)“[John Wayne] did not like what I was saying up at the podium,” Littlefeather said. “So, he came forth in a rage to physically assault and take me off the stage. And he had to be restrained by six security men in order for that not to happen.”

“It was interesting because some people were giving me the tomahawk chop. I thought, ‘This is very racist. Very racist indeed.’ And I just gracefully walked and ignored them,” Littlefeather continued.

 Samantha Ibrahim of The NY Post tells us what all the apology entails:

Littlefeather was sent a formal apology from the Academy earlier this summer regarding the incident and is set to be gifted a longer one during an event titled “An Evening With Sacheen Littlefeather” come September.

“The abuse you endured because of this statement was unwarranted and unjustified,” wrote former Academy President David Rubin in the note. “The emotional burden you have lived through and the cost to your own career in our industry are irreparable.

“For too long the courage you showed has been unacknowledged,” he continued. “For this, we offer both our deepest apologies and our sincere admiration.”

Here's a clip of what actually happened that night:

https://youtu.be/2QUacU0I4yU

Almost fifty years later, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences wants to make a formal apology to Sacheen Littlefeather. They want to say they’re sorry for allowing a bunch of racist assholes to taunt and boo her statement, a political statement she made on behalf of her friend Marlon Brando. They want to say they didn’t agree with John Wayne’s drunken threats, but they don’t want to come out and simply say that Hollywood's most beloved Western actor (and huge money-maker to this day) John Wayne was wrong, either.

But come on! Fifty freakin’ years? What was the big hold up admitting your sins, Hollywood elitists?

Sacheen Littlefeather’s budding career in film was destroyed that night. She was instantly blacklisted (or is that red-listed?) and never appeared in a movie or TV show again. Walking onto that television stage was a big sacrifice to make for a young actress with a promising career, but Sacheen did so because she believed in the nobility of the cause she represented. She admired Brando’s gumption for turning down his Best Actor "Oscar" for The Godfather on the first world-wide live television broadcast of the awards ceremony in order to share a most important message. Viewers around the world heard the name “Wounded Knee” for the first time and were motivated to find out more about the injustices that happened there.

Littlefeather’s life hadn’t been a bed of roses before the incident at the Academy Awards. She was sent at a very young age to live with her maternal grandparents. They forced her to attend an all-white Catholic school where she felt like she didn't fit in. But she started to reconnect with her Apache roots as she matured and became an activist in the 1960s.

Sacheen received a degree in holistic health and nutrition after she suffered from collapsed lungs, a consequence of her childhood  tuberculosis, at the age of 29. Using her healing knowledge, she joined with Mother Teresa to take care of AIDS sufferers in hospices. As a mentor, she has become an admirable role model for many young Native Americans.

No one will ever convince me that the Academy is just about the arts and sciences of motion pictures. Hollywood is just as political (perhaps even more so) as Washington, DC. Obscenely wealthy, powerful white males can never be seen as “weak” to the lower classes, so they couldn’t be seen making an apology to a Native American activist concerning their racist conduct in 1973...or 1983...or 1993… or 2003...or 2013...

That it took almost five decades, a documentary about Sacheen’s life, and the public acknowledgment that she is battling breast cancer, only proves how little their apology really means to them.

So why are they doing it now? There could be some genuine contrition on some of their parts. But I think it’s more likely because the internet has made it far easier for folks to see the horrors of racism up close and personal. 

White elites, like the oligarchs of Hollywood, know that they are making big business off of people of color worldwide and that market is growing. It’s better for their profit margins for them not to be confused with your garden variety, right-winger, white-robe-wearing yahoo type of racist. They want to clean up their image in order to make more money.

If there’s anything that neoliberals have learned over the last six years, it’s this: Make a big production out of looking like a humble servant of the people while you simultaneously screw over the public by spewing tons of propaganda to sell your sick and twisted version of reality. 

You know the reality I speak of all too well. It’s the neoliberal reality where $800+ billion goes to a proxy war (with nuclear war overtones) to fatten the military industrial complex billionaires. It's the reality where nothing much ever goes to feed, house, or provide medical care for struggling working class Americans. In neoliberal reality, there's no such thing as "discrimination" or "racism" because what neoliberals themselves don't experience cannot possibly be happening elsewhere in their country or anywhere on the planet.

You might have been taught from an early age to think that the “good guys” in the movies where the white cowboys like John Wayne and the “bad guys” were the red-skinned “savages” native to North America. Sacheen Littlefeather’s brave sacrifice in front of the cameras in 1973 proves that narrative wrong on oh-so-many levels. Her courage in real life is a billion times more heroic than any silly stunt openly racist John Wayne might have performed on the silver screen. 

May many more activists follow Sacheen Littlefeather's example both now and in the future.

Related Articles:

Sacheen Littlefeather: John Wayne ‘Came Forth’ to ‘Assault’ Me at the 1973 Oscars but Was ‘Restrained by Six Security Men’ https://variety.com/2022/film/news/sacheen-littlefeather-john-wayne-assault-oscars-1235345008/ 

 

Sacheen Littlefeather: Raging John Wayne tried to attack me at 1973 Oscars https://nypost.com/2022/08/19/sacheen-littlefeather-raging-john-wayne-tried-to-attack-me-at-1973-oscars/

‘I promised Brando I would not touch his Oscar’: the secret life of Sacheen Littlefeather  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/03/i-promised-brando-i-would-not-touch-his-oscar-secret-life-sacheen-littlefeather

Sacheen: Breaking The Silence (documentary)
https://www.onebowlproductions.com/sacheen

trailer: https://youtu.be/XggxxJpyrsw 

 

Feb. 27, 1973: Activists Occupy Wounded Knee https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/activists-occupy-wounded-knee/ 

 

Wounded Knee '73: American Indian Movement (video)

https://youtu.be/fY5Wbduzl2Y 

 

Nuclear Waste Ravaged Their Land. The Yakama Nation is on a Quest to Rescue It. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/aug/20/yakama-nation-nuclear-waste-cleanup

 

If Everyone is King, No One Is

https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/if-everyone-is-king-then-no-one-is 

 

Research Shows Critical Race Theory Could Be a Valuable Teaching Tool for Overcoming Racism
https://austinkocher.substack.com/p/research-shows-critical-race-theory

The Human Species is Acting Like a Self-Destructive Individual
https://soundcloud.com/going_rogue/the-human-species-is-acting-like-a-self-destructive-individual
 

The Chris Hedges Report: Psychology of a Klansman

https://popularresistance.org/the-chris-hedges-report-psychology-of-a-klansman/

 

Will You Survive Humanity's Deadly Trajectory? (The Vegematic Show) https://youtu.be/kFVxJlnIRgw

 

Toledo Pride Parade 

The LGBTQIA+ community, another discriminated group, is also due a "50 year apology" from the elite establishment. Some cities celebrate Pride Month in June, but Toledo does things a little differently--it's celebrated all summer long here. This past weekend was the annual Pride Parade, and the turnout was wonderful after the COVID hiatus. Happy Pride everyone!

Seen on Twitter:

The Academy has finally apologized to Sacheen Littlefeather, after she was booed and heckled and almost violently assaulted by a drunken John Wayne in 1973 — and it only them 50 years. pic.twitter.com/pSnYlQ3uAe

— Lakota Man (@LakotaMan1) August 15, 2022

Being casually racist in academia = objective scholar

Calling out casual racism in academia = violent activist

Do i have that right?

— Dr. Matthieu Chapman (@matthieuchapman) August 21, 2022

Native American women were not granted U.S. citizenship until 1924.

Literacy tests and poll taxes were used to disenfranchise them as late as 1962.

Some states labeled them "wards of the state" and claimed living on a reservation excluded Native women from voting rights. pic.twitter.com/EqJuPaIXCR

— AJ+ (@ajplus) August 26, 2022

Cognitive Dissonance

Update: Since this was published online, there's been yet another mass murder--this time at an elementary school in Ulvade, Texas. We'll talk about it in next Tuesday's post, but in the meantime, I believe this week's theme explains much about America's obsession with gun violence and sponsoring bloody warfare around the world.

This week we're all still reeling from the hideous massacre of ten African Americans by an 18 year old white boy. Shooter Payton Gendron drove three hours to predominantly Black East Buffalo to hunt down residents. His 180 page manifesto demonstrates that he idolizes the white supremacy philosophy of the Ukrainian Azov Battalion. Where did an American kid ever get such a horrific idea that actual Nazis are to be worshiped and glorified? 

Could it be that our dumping of billions of dollars of weaponry into the current proxy war and the mainstream media's downplaying of the Nazi white supremacist attitudes of the Ukrainian militias is to blame? Gendron made it clear that he sympathized with the Azov Battalion when he displayed their Nazi symbology, yet Biden and his neoliberal lackeys in the media continually downplay and actively try to rehabilitate their members' heinous reputations.

Our armchair historian gives us the following words of warning to those who would try to excuse fascism.

No Such Animal

by Coast Watcher

Knowing history as I do, I am continuously baffled by those who insist that there are "good Nazis."

People, there’s no such animal!

All those images of young men (and it is young men for the most part) sporting battledress badges and tattoos with Nazi symbols are exactly what they appear to be—Nazis.

Symbols have meaning. A "Caution: Contents will be hot after heating" symbol means the contents of a receptacle will be hot after heating. "Danger: Wet floor" means the surface of the floor is wet and dangerously slippery. Nazi swastika, SS lighting bolt, and black sun images mean exactly what they indicate—the person wearing them is committed to persecuting Jews, Gays, the Roma, the disabled—in fact anyone their extreme right-wing ideology tells them to, to the point of killing them in the most brutal way possible.

There. Are. No. Good. Nazis.

If somebody tells you otherwise, refer them to a history of Nazi German atrocities during the 1930s through to 1945. Don't forget to include those perpetuated in Ukraine and Russia following Operation Barbarossa, the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. The Azov Battalion people you are praising to the skies for defending Ukraine against Russia are ideologically no different to those SS folk 77 years ago. In fact they wear the same symbols to show their ideological connection and affinity with those fascist invaders. The "enemy of my enemy is my friend" does not apply to these people.

Get this through your head: There. Are. No. Good. Nazis.
 

What does this defense of fascism mean to America and the West in the long run? Peace activist and former Green Party Vice Presidential candidate Ajamu Baraka states:

Zelensky talks about the need to “defend the West,” “Europeanness,” “Western values,” and the liberal/left does not recognize the inherent assumptions of white supremacy in those terms. But Payton Gendron did and is why he enlisted in Zelensky’s fight not in Ukraine but in the middle of an African American community.

An exaggeration?

History will determine that. But what some of us see is a racialized discourse operating just below the surface in which Europe and Europeaness that Ukrainians strive for is also connected to a racialized trope of Europe being ontologically civilized while the less-white Slavs are barbarians, prone to irrational violence, like the Russians who decided “out of nowhere” to just attack Ukraine!

We also understand that downplaying the threat of a resurgent white supremacist fascism in its most sophisticated form represented by Zelensky who has become that slick, right-wing politician with politics as racist as Trump but without the crudeness who many feared could emerge in the U.S. No one could have anticipated that person would emerge in Europe as the lovable face of fascism.

Buffalo closes the loop that connects crude white supremacy with its more polished and dangerous expression. Both of these versions represent a consensus that is committed to using force and violence to ensure that white power will not to be “replaced.” This new consensus has created the ideological foundation for the legitimation of a cross-class white supremacist defense of something called European values and the interests of Europe. The lack of concern for the consequences of the war and sanctions on the rest of the world confirms that this consensus and the interests it defends are in contradiction to the interests of the non-Western global majority.

For us, Buffalo is not a wake-up call but a declaration of war. 

--Ajamu Baraka, The New Supremacist Consensus Part Two

Related Articles:

Buffalo Shooter Wore the Same Neo-Nazi Symbol as Ukraine's Azov (video)  https://youtu.be/sZDR7hsMOi8 

Massacre in Buffalo Highlights the Legacy of Racist Violence https://popularresistance.org/massacre-in-buffalo-highlights-the-legacy-of-racist-violence/

The New Supremacist Consensus Part Two--Shootings in Buffalo Solidify the Consensus https://popularresistance.org/the-new-white-supremacist-consensus-part-two-shootings-in-buffalo-solidify-the-consensus/ 

New Laws Make It Hard for Some Educators to Discuss Buffalo Shooting in Class https://truthout.org/articles/new-laws-make-it-hard-for-some-educators-to-discuss-buffalo-shooting-in-class/

Buffalo, The Tulsa Massacre and the Legacy of Anti-Black Violence https://www.rsn.org/001/buffalo-the-tulsa-massacre-and-legacy-of-antiblack-violence.html 

Cornel West: "White supremacy is as American as apple pie, as the latest killings in Buffalo show. Biden needs to take a stand against neofascists."  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/21/trump-black-white-supremacy-buffalo-joe-biden

Anti-Terrorism Bill Targeting White Supremacists  https://truthout.org/articles/anti-terrorism-bill-targeting-white-supremacists-puts-house-gop-on-the-defensive/

TRC's Ukraine War Series  https://continuousrev.blogspot.com/p/ukraine-war-series.html

Hunter Biden Raked in $11 Million from China and Ukraine (video)  https://youtu.be/9FznPmC84bY 

Seen on Twitter:

What goes around comes around.
The Orwellian thought police may pretend Azov aren’t neo-Nazis. But for white-supremacists, the praise being heaped on Ukrainian neo-Nazis is a public relations coup.
That should terrify us all. https://t.co/TYhuLAD33t

— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) May 15, 2022

Biden went to Buffalo, read off the names of the people killed by a white supremacist and said there was no place for white supremacy in America

Days later he stole $40 billion from the American people to use part of the money to arm Nazis that use the same symbol as the killer

— Black in the Empire (@blackintheempir) May 20, 2022

No more civilians to hide behind, no more undertrained Nazis on the frontlines. Now it’s just Russia VS NATO head on. Get ready y’all. The battle is over but the war has just started.

— Unholy (@UnholyRom3) May 21, 2022

literally no one believes this pic.twitter.com/JnGVUnQ8Np

— Brook Hines 🌸 got the existential willies (@nashville_brook) May 21, 2022

They gave an extra 48 Billion and weapons to Ukraine and the next day they lost the battle. 😆 Talk about a waste of money.

— Unholy (@UnholyRom3) May 22, 2022

I knew our country was going downhill but I don't know if I imagined reaching the point where I had to explain why giving billions of dollars to arm Nazis is a bad idea

— Black in the Empire (@blackintheempir) May 23, 2022

Haiku:

Lead in the water,
Dotard in the white house,
Dollars for Nazis.

— Goldlärche (@goldlarche) May 23, 2022

Wars have always come home in one way or another.

— Kris Legion 🦺📢 (@LegionSocialist) May 25, 2022

America’s Place

 

Celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and upcoming Black History Month...

And now a candid look at the world fifty years on from King's assassination...

America’s Place in the World’s Playground

 by Coast Watcher

“With Donald Trump desperately trying to cling to power, President-elect Joe Biden is, for all intents and purposes, the effective leader of the free world.” ~ Brent Budowsky, The Hill November 25, 2020

“President-elect Biden, by dramatic contrast, is already viewed by our alliances as the authentic and trusted leader of the free world, which is not a title in government service but a truth bestowed on individuals who have earned it by action, example and leadership - as Biden has.” ~ Brent Budowsky, opinion piece on MSN.

I don’t know who Brent Budowsky is, but he seems quite keen on Biden. He applauds Biden’s credentials in foreign relations but ignores the substance of the issue: What do the other nations of the “Free World” think of America’s claim to their leadership?

“Trump’s transactionalism abroad and racism at home have robbed the US of a higher moral purpose in its global role.” ~ Sanjaya Baru, Indian Express.

There’s no denying that the soon-to-be-ex president, Trump, did incalculable damage to America’s reputation aboard. Professional State Department officials had to work double overtime to undo the harm their boss inflicted upon international relations with his sulky, petulant, arrogant attitude. Their stock response to post-summit outrage from their foreign counterparts devolved into “Look, we know, all right? Just leave it to us, we’ll fix it and he’ll (Trump) be none the wiser.”

Trump’s attitude proved especially dangerous when it came to the 71-year-old NATO military alliance. He doesn’t seem to know exactly what an alliance is. His sudden decision to withdraw 9,500 troops from Germany created strong tensions between the United States and its allies. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is particularly disparaging of Trump’s qualities as an international statesman. 

In the four terrible years of the Trump presidency, it looks like the international stage has decided it’s better off without American “leadership.” Being berated, belittled, threatened and denigrated can be wearying even for diplomats and heads of state.

But then came the events of January 6 in Washington DC. The world watched with amazement as armed Trump supporters invaded the nation’s Capitol Building. For a few hours the prospect of an armed coup or insurrection in the United States seemed a real possibility. Subsequent investigation uncovered a plot to take hostage and/or kill elected representatives.

Such a coup—had it succeeded—would’ve altered the dynamic of international relations with America. There’s little doubt that China would’ve used the opportunity afforded by the US military’s distraction to invade Taiwan, that perpetual burr under Beijing’s saddle.

Even Biden tacitly admits the situation has changed since Trump took office—and promptly drove it into a golf bunker. In a recent speech Biden stated “We're going to have to regain the trust and confidence of a world that has begun to find ways to work around us or without us.” 

He speaks of building a coalition of like-minded partners and allies, which is a little different from assuming “leadership,” and is of a piece with Biden’s known preference for creating consensus rather than taking unilateral action. His main area of concern is China, with its powerful hegemonic government and expanding interests in SE Asia which bring it into conflict with its neighbors. Biden has also spoken of his desire to coordinate world efforts to combat climate change, something which Trump blatantly ignored and—it might be argued—did his level best to accelerate.

There is a perception in other countries, particularly Europe, that America is an overgrown hormonal teenager, throwing his weight about the world’s playground with little thought or care for the consequences. Perhaps Biden’s more mature approach is what’s needed to repair America’s image abroad, although I doubt he’ll last long enough to see out his first term. The man looks deathly ill, and his VP Kamala Harris is an unknown quantity when it comes to foreign relations. 

When Biden is sworn into office on January 20, there’s no doubt that most of the world will breathe a sigh of relief. Whether that relief will last, or whether Biden will build his desired consensus, remains to be seen. 

 

BIO: Coast Watcher remembers how the media and others set us up when Obama took office--awarding him a Nobel Peace Prize before he'd even proven himself as a lover of peace. Thousands of drone bombings  and the nickname of "Obomber" later, you'd think we'd learn not to assume the military-industrial complex and its financial backers aren't really in charge. Stay awake and keep your eyes open, folks! We're not out of the woods yet.

Related Articles:

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/us-presidential-election-results-trump-biden-6948788/

https://www.oneindia.com/international/us-will-reclaim-its-credibility-to-lead-free-world-joe-biden-3196069.html

https://www.denverpost.com/2021/01/04/nanda-biden-has-an-uphill-trek-to-restore-americas-global-reputation-as-a-world-leader/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-soars-as-leader-of-the-free-world/ar-BB1blX9D

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/2020/11/25/biden_soars_as_leader_of_the_free_world_530096.html

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Tell 27 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to stop taking campaign contributions from weapons companies!   SIGN ON NOW

If elected representatives want to be known as “progressive” then prioritizing the needs of working people over the bottom line of companies like Raytheon and Northrop Grumman should be a no-brainer. Which is why we need members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to live up to their progressive values and refuse to be bought off by weapons companies.  

 Tell 27 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus to STOP taking campaign contributions from weapons companies!

Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus are supposed to be “fighting to rein in bloated Pentagon spending”. Then why, according to a study by the Security Policy Reform Institute, did 27 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus take thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from weapons companies and consistently vote to increase the Pentagon budget during the Trump administration? Weapons companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin rely heavily on defense spending that is approved by Congress for their enormous profits. That’s a serious conflict of interest!   Sign on to tell 27 members of the Progressive Caucus to take this conflict of interest seriously and end campaign contributions from weapons manufacturers!

We’re gearing up to make 2021 the year that Defunding the Pentagon becomes a reality by making sure members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus refuse to be bought off by weapons companies. We’re also ringing in the new year with three creative actions to take on the war machine. Sign up here to join the CODEPINK-style Inauguration Day social media presence on January 20th, the celebration of the illegality of nuclear weapons under international law on January 22nd, and the Global Day of Action to Stop the War on Yemen on January 25th. 

It’s a new year and it’s more important than ever to Defund the Pentagon.  Contact 27 members of the Progressive Caucus now and demand they stop taking campaign contributions from weapons companies and join CODEPINK creative actions on January 20, 22nd, and 25th to take on the war machine. 

Towards peace,
Carley, Cody, Nancy, and the entire CODEPINK team  

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From Public Citizen:

On January 6, 2021, a horde of Donald Trump adherents numbering in the thousands — incited by the president himself — mounted an armed takeover of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. It was the most deliberate attempt to overthrow the government of the United States since the Civil War.

As more and more details emerge about the planning and execution of the insurrection, it is clear that the seditionists were animated by their resentment — stoked by Donald Trump and other politicians, amplified by Fox News and social media — toward changing demographics in America.

Many of us recognize the ongoing reality of white supremacism for the very real threat it is — as a kind of defect in our national DNA (and going all the way back to 1492) that we still have not invested anywhere near enough in curing.

So — on a day when we honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. — I wanted to share a few of Dr. King’s insightful and inspiring words:

From King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (April 16, 1963):

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.”

From King’s “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence” speech at Riverside Church (April 4, 1967):

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. ... We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

From King’s speech announcing the Poor People’s March on Washington (December 4, 1967):

America is at a crossroads of history, and it is critically important for us, as a nation and a society, to choose a new path and move upon it with resolution and courage. ... Consider, for example, the spectacle of ... a nation gorged on money while millions of its citizens are denied a good education, adequate health services, decent housing, meaningful employment, and even respect, and are then told to be responsible.

For justice,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

P.S. For half a century, Public Citizen has been advancing policies that put the needs of everyday Americans before the greed of billionaires and Big Business. That legacy of progress and that ongoing work could not matter more right now, as our nation transitions to a Joe Biden presidency that will be as progressive as we — you and Public Citizen, together — make it.

Of course, we’re also busy undoing damage the Trump administration has already done and watching out for whatever shenanigans a lame-duck Donald Trump tries to get away with. And — like so many nonprofits and small businesses — we continue to experience financial strain related to the coronavirus pandemic.