News on This Day

The neocons, the war hawks, and the reactionaries are so extreme that they view a moderate Iranian nuclear deal as equivalent to appeasement. They are really sick and war hungry. They lust for a regime change where a puppet regime will rule in Iran. The neo-con Daniel Pipes is wrong to compare Obama and the deal with Great Britain's onetime Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and his "peace in our time" agreement with Adolf Hitler. I think the deal doesn't go far enough, but that deal is never about appeasement at all. “Video of her dying moments went viral, and Neda became a global symbol of the Green Revolution, as the Iranian people called their movement to topple a regime capable of such bloody deeds.” Of course, nearly everything that Lane asserted as fact was not fact. Iran’s 2009 elections were clearly won by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who may have lost among middle-class voters of Tehran but strongly carried the poor and working-class areas of Iran. Even the Iranian opposition was unable to prove any significant fraud. The election results were in line with opinion polls conducted both before and after the election, from inside and outside Iran. The polls never show any Green movement candidate coming anywhere close to a plurality. “These findings do not prove that there were no irregularities in the election process,” said Steven Kull, director of the University of Maryland’s Program on International Policy Attitudes. “But they do not support the belief that a majority rejected Ahmadinejad.” Still, some in the mainstream U.S. news media (led by neocon outlets like the Washington Post) still advance the myth of a stolen election. That is why some Israelis, some Saudis, and some Americans want regime change in Iran. The neoconservatives are hypocrites. They talk about human rights abuses in Iran (which should be talked about. Any human rights abuses in Iran or in any nation ought to be condemned), but lust after regime change by a possible military strike, which will cause more destruction and harm of innocent human life in the region. They ignore the war crimes done by Western forces in the Middle East. Peaceful discussions are better than militarism and imperialism. That is the point that the neo cons ignore. Also, the sanctions are killing folks in Iran now. These sanctions ought to be eliminated period. Bombing civilian targets is banned under the Geneva Convention. The death of children via drone attacks is not shown by the neocons at all. The horror of the war was captured, too, in the fate of 12-year-old Ali Ismaeel Abbas, who lost his two arms when a U.S. missile struck his Baghdad home. Ali’s father, his pregnant mother and his siblings were all killed. As the armless Ali was evacuated to a Kuwaiti hospital, becoming a symbol of U.S. compassion for injured Iraqi civilians, the boy said he would rather die than live without his hands. They died under an illegal war and occupation by Western forces. The CIA orchestrated the overthrow of Iranian democracy back in 1953 including MI5. The new President of Iran Hassan Rouhani seems to be more progressive in negotiations. Also, the neocons ignore how in 2003, Iran offered to work with the U.S. after 911 as a means to reconcile. The U.S. rejected Iran's offer and called them the axis of evil. The PNAC clique is still among us spewing imperialistic plans. Even Iran signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty. The neocons are so extreme that even the ex-President George W. Bush said that he did not want a war with Iran. A non-belligerent, sovereign nation has no right to be invaded or bombed when they are no direct threat to other nations at all.




It is obvious that President John F. Kennedy supported numerous Third World nationalists. This is a history that many folks in the mainstream media omit. Many polls show that JFK as being much admired and his legacy is complex. When he was in office for three years, he did many things for the world. This information is known by Irving Bernstein, Donald Gibson, Richard Mahoney, John Newsman, James Bill, Philip Muehlenbeck, and Robert Rakowe. Eisenhower's foreign policy team had the Dulles Brothers and Richard Nixon (all of them being reactionary on foreign policy matters). When Kennedy was in office, there was a more progressive turn in foreign policy and a turn to the status quo ante came when LBJ was in office. The death of the great black African revolutionary leader of the Congo Patrice Lumumba on January 17, 1961 concerned JFK. Lumumba's death was linked to the approval of a plan by Eisenhower and CIA Director Allen Dulles according to the research from William Blum. Former CIA officer John Stockwell wrote in his book In Search of Enemies that he later talked to a CIA colleague who said it was his job to dispose of Lumumba’s body. (Stockwell, p. 50). Eisenhower and Dulles never criticized colonial rule by NATO allies. Under Eisenhower, the USA never voted against an European power over a colonial dispute in Africa. There were dozens of nations. Nixon made a racist statement about Africa before too. At an NSC meeting, then Vice President Nixon claimed that, “some of these peoples of Africa have been out of the trees for only about fifty years.” (Muehlenbeck, p. 6). And, of course, John Foster Dulles saw this epochal anti-colonial struggle through the magnifying glass of the Cold War. As Muehlenbeck writes, “Dulles believed that Third World nationalism was a tool of Moscow’s creation rather than a natural outgrowth of the colonial experience.” (ibid, p. 6). Therefore, to Eisenhower and his team, Lumumba was a communist. So, that liar Nixon reaped what he has sown. President John F. Kennedy viewed Lumumba as a nationalistic leader who was trying to guide his country to independence politically and economically. As his Under Secretary of State for Africa, G. Mennen Williams, succinctly stated, “What we want for the Africans is what the Africans want for themselves.” So, Kennedy policy was making European interests secondary on this issue. Lumumba was killed and the CIA suspected that Kennedy would side with Lumumba, which he did. JFK did not know that Lumumba was killed at first. JFK wanted to work with Secretary General Dag Hammarskjold at the United Nations to make Congo independent (without East-West competition, he wanted to free all political prisons, and he wanted to restore Lumumba into power). The man Kennedy chose to be his ambassador to Congo was Edmund Gullion, who was the one who had altered Kennedy’s consciousness about Third World nationalism. Edmund Gullion has realistic views on Third World nationalism. Edmund Gullion was in the State Department in the late 1930's. Gullion told JFK that the French could never win the War as the Vietnamese had too much nationalistic fervor via Ho Chi Minh to defeat French colonialism. For instance, in a speech Kennedy gave during the 1956 presidential campaign for Adlai Stevenson, the then-Massachusetts senator said: “The Afro-Asian revolution of nationalism, the revolt against colonialism, the determination of people to control their national destinies. … In my opinion, the tragic failure of both Republican and Democratic administrations since World War II to comprehend the nature of this revolution, and its potentialities for good and evil, had reaped a bitter harvest today — and it is by rights and by necessity a major foreign policy campaign issue that has nothing to do with anti-communism.” JFK was right except that this revolution is totally good. Fighting against tyranny is always right. President John F. Kennedy endorsed Algerian independence too. Kennedy wanted Indonesian independence, he was an ally of Sukarno, and he allowed the release of Pope. He gave nonmilitary aid for Indonesia. So, human beings in areas have the right to oppose colonialism and imperialism and folks should control their own natural resources wisely. We know that the Dulles brothers (with links to the CFR, David Rockefeller, and the Western establishment) love the Western imperial system. That is why true nationalism has been opposed by the elite since true nationalism gives nations the power to determine their own destinies without outside control. As author James Bill notes in his book, The Eagle and the Lion, the Kennedy brothers disdained the Shah’s monarchical rule. At one stage, they commissioned a State Department paper on the costs and liabilities of returning Mohammad Mossadegh to power. To counter the negative image held by the Kennedys, the Shah launched a series of economic and social reforms called the White Revolution but they were unsuccessful. John F. Kennedy tried to work with Nasser too. In 1961, JFK gave hundreds of millions of dollars in loans to keep the Egyptian economy afloat. This is unheard of back then. He viewed the Saudi monarch as a relic and viewed Nasser as the wave of the future. During the civil war in Yemen, Nasser backed Abdullah al-Sallal against the last Mutawakklite King of Yemen, Muhammad al-Badr. Saudi Arabia supported the king to stop the spread of Nasser’s influence and prevent the rise of nationalism. Kennedy also recognized al-Sallal when Israel and England criticized him. JFK wanted to show his alliance with Nasser. Kennedy was allied with Nasser and Algerian leader Ahmed Ben Bella. JFK wanted Liberia to be free. He wanted the Non-Aligned Movement to be strong among nations. JFK refused to fight in Laos. So, the late President John F. Kennedy was right on so many things on foreign policy and he was the most progressive President on foreign policy in the latter half of the 20th century no doubt.

 

 

 

Monsanto, the TPP, and the global food dominance agenda are interrelated. The corporate elite have nearly global food control. They want seed diversity and GMOs (or genetically modified organism) in seeds that can be distributed by only a few transnational corporations. We know that organic food is superior to GMOs. Also, this GMO agenda is bad, because GMO foods are readily not labeled. If the Trans-Pacific Partnership or the TPP passes, then the corporate elite will have more control over our food, our health, our environment, and our financial system. Many corporations put profits before populations. Genetic engineering has grown terminator genes. These genes can cause the production of sterile seeds. This is achieved with a chemical catalyst called Traitor to induce seed sterility. Farmers must buy seeds from their patent owner’s year after years. Food prices are raised to cover these costs, but the harm is greater than to our pocketbooks. According to an Acres USA interview of plant pathologist Don Huber, Professor Emeritus at Purdue University, two modified traits account for practically all of the genetically modified crops grown in the world today. One modification deals with the insensitivity to glyphosate based herbicides or plant killing chemicals. This is found in Roundup and glyphosate poisons everything in its path except plants genetically modified to resist it. These herbicides are allied with GMOs. It kills plants. Even researchers have found that surfactant POEA can kill human cells like embryonic, placental, and umbilical cord cells. These risks are ignored. There is a widespread use of GMOs and glyphosate herbicides. We still have the U.S. spending twice as much per capital on healthcare as the average developed country, but we are rated far down the scale of the world's healthiest populations. The WTO ranked the U.S. last out of the 17 developed nations for overall health. 60-70 percent of foods in the U.S. supermarkets are now genetically modified. By contrast, in at least 26 other countries—including Switzerland, Australia, Austria, China, India, France, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, Italy, Mexico and Russia—GMOs are totally or partially banned; and significant restrictions on GMOs exist in about sixty other countries. The health of Americans can radically improve with a ban on GMO and glyphosate. The TPP is a global trade agreement proposal, which the White House wants to pass. It can harm our society in many ways. Herbicide tolerant super weeds have toxic doses and can harm the ecosystem. Human enzymes are affected by glyphosate just as plant enzymes are: the chemical blocks the uptake of manganese and other essential minerals. Without those minerals, we cannot properly metabolize our food. That helps explain the rampant epidemic of obesity in the United States. People eat and eat in an attempt to acquire the nutrients that are simply not available in their food. According to researchers Samsell and Seneff in Biosemiotic Entropy: Disorder, Disease, and Mortality (April 2013), many parts of glyphosate can negatively harm the body (it can damage cellular system and influence gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, diabetes, heart disease, depression, autism, infertility, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease). We know about 40 diseases linked to glyphosate usage. More are appearing. The September 2013 National University of Rio Cuarto, Argentina published research. It found that glyphosate increases the growth of fungi that produce aflatoxin B1, one of the most carcinogenic of substances. A doctor from Chaco, Argentina, told Associated Press, “We’ve gone from a pretty healthy population to one with a high rate of cancer, birth defects and illnesses seldom seen before.” Fungi growths have increased significantly in US corn crops. The report from the Institute of Science in Society found that glyphosate can harm the environment, crops, and organisms (from livestock, amphibians, insects, etc. It can reduce soil fertility). So, why are governments in the West not doing something about this? Why do they label glyphosate as safe? It has to do with politics. To them, politics trumps science, which is silly. William Engdahl's book "Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation" from 2007 talks about this issue greatly. Even Jeffrey M. Smith or the Executive Director of the Institute for Responsible Technology said that the FDA allows biotech companies to determine if their own foods are safe. Submission of data is voluntary. William Engdahl wrote that global food control and depopulation became US strategic policy under Rockefeller protégé Henry Kissinger (this is shown in the NSM 200 Document). The widespread use of GMO and glyphosate can cause infertility, miscarriage, birth defect, arrested sexual development, etc. in humans and other organisms. In Russian experiments, animals fed GM soy were sterile by the third generation. Vast amounts of farmland soil are also being systematically ruined by the killing of beneficial microorganisms that allow plant roots to uptake soil nutrients. These extremists wanting these poisons in the world could cause mass extinction of life in the planet. The TPP is wrong to have much of their negotiation secret from Congress. It will strip governments the power to really regulate transnational corporate activates. One chief agricultural negotiator for the TPP is a former Monsanto lobbyist named Islam Siddique. That is why there is nothing wrong with permaculture methods or gardens to grow foods. We can have organic farming. We do not need GMOs, or gimmicks to feed human beings. Our representatives should vote against the TPP as it is against our health, our finances, and our environment.

 

There has been much discussion about the Knockout games. Reactionaries and racists are using such stories as an excuse to scapegoat black humanity and especially black youth in America for the overall system of wickedness found in the system of white supremacy. Abagond made an excellent article on this issue. He wrote accurately that this action is not something new. This situation deals with a person or a group of human beings trying to knock out an innocent, unsuspecting bystander with a single blow. This was done in the 1980's. Reactionaries talk about this more since 2011. They want to talk about black on white crime when they ignore or obfuscate white on black crime. Reactionaries like Greta Van Susteren, Thomas Sowell, and others have talked about this issue. Yet, this is event is not something new, it is not spreading, it is not racially motivated totally at all, and most of those doing it are not black youths at all. It is an urban myth. Unprovoked attacks on strangers by teenagers are real, but they are extremely rare. So, folks cherry pick instances as a means to demonize black youth. This conclusion has been written by Mike Males (or a research fellow at the non-profit Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice back in 2011). The truth is that black youth crime is at a 50 year low. Assault by black youths has dropped by 59 percent over 20 years. Much of the made up lie of tons of black youths randomly attacking innocent white people have been said in the 1980's as called "wilding" by the New York City press. The media in many cases (especially neo-cons) will ignore or sugarcoat how white youth beat up minorities all of the time, white hate crimes, and white shooters (or they explain it away as a product of mental illness not for genetic reasons). These crimes by white people are never seen as a trend, but they or certain reactionaries falsely label actions as a trend for minorities. Such stories are used by reactionaries as a means to advance such SYG laws (which racists use as an excuse to kill unarmed black human beings). Black scapegoating is an old pastime in American society and it continues today. Extremists want black people to be jailed, murdered, and suffering hardships. The President was selected by the white elites and now he is blamed collectively for our own problems (which was done by the elite people in charge who act heavily behind the scenes). With events like these, the murders of Renisha McBride, Rekia Boyd, Trayvon Martin, and others, we can see that our lives are threatened. As Trojan Pam eloquently wrote: "... It is now official: it is OPEN SEASON on black men, women, and children in America — LEGALLY, and it is time for black people to get out of denial..." Ironically, most white people kill white people in shopping malls, theaters, offices, schools, and other locations. Still, the police continue to harass even innocent black Americans from Chicago to NYC. So, we should reject black scapegoating and anti-blackness. So, black human beings deserve dignity and respect without scapegoating. Black human beings deserve justice point blank period.



Henry Louis Gates has a life of accomplishment and controversy. He recently dealt with a story on African American history on PBS. In real life, distinguished Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was hassled, humiliated, and mistreated by a Cambridge cop before. We all know full well that the black oppression in the States dealt with slavery and other things. The institution of slavery in America from the 16th century to the 19th centuries was key to the development of American capitalism. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has an establishment mentality still even after his mistreatment. Even the six part PBS series of Many Rivers to Cross ignores certain things. The last part of the series was very disturbing, but most of the series has shown excellent information on the struggle of African Americans indeed. It falsely called the advent of the first black President Barack Obama as the local and inevitable outcomes of the Black Freedom Movement of the 1950's and the 1960's (including the Black Power movement). President Barack Obama should be treated with respect and dignity, but not with a coronation. We have to know about the consequences of social and historical forces in history. The last section of the documentary dealt with Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. Dr. King wanted revolution after he tried reform. Then, rebellions occurred in dozens of U.S. cities. Black people did not own even most of the infrastructure in those cities at all. Gates said that the Black Panther Party emphasized armed self-defense and coolness. Yet, the BPP wanted an end to the evil, bloody warring Vietnam where millions of Vietnamese and Americans died. The Black Panther Party believed in socialist ideals and was against the capitalist and racist empire. Henry Louis Gates Jr. made an error with allying with Ron Karenga. He is a professor and we know that his US organization was part of the FBI's COINTELPRO back decades ago. The FBI used US members to murder several Black Panthers in cold blood. Gates and Karenga share a chuckle about how FBI boss J. Edgar Hoover really didn't mean what he said about the Panther Party being the “greatest threat to the internal security of the United States.” What Hoover really feared, the guy who shot Panthers offered helpfully, was “...a united black front.” That is sick since the Black Panther Party was the real deal. That is why the FBI and local police killed and jailed many of them. The BPP created free health clinics, they helped the poor, they inspired black consciousness in the streets, they focused on developing the community, and they inspired more Black Love including Black Power. The Black Panther Party was a revolutionary organization. They wanted revolution as a means for black human beings to be liberated from oppression. Gates mentions the Black is Beautiful ideal (which is true), Don Cornelius' Soul Train, affirmative action, and the birth of the current corporate-oriented black elite. Gates cites his experience at Yale. He talks about Cosby. The reality is that most of Black America is either middle class or poor, over policed, ill housed, and ill served. Many Brothers and Sisters experience mass incarceration. He talks about Katrina, but ignores the economic exploitation by the enemy before, during, and after Katrina. He mentions Kanye West saying that George W. Bush don't like black people. From there Gates segues to Barack Obama's visit to Katrina evacuees at the Houston Astrodome, and the tears many shed at his inauguration. So, the end of the documentary seems to be a pep rally for the Democratic establishment. The reality is that Democrats, even some members of the Congressional Black Caucus, refused to convene hearings on Katrina for fear of being labeled the black folks' party doing into the 2006 election. So, Henry Louis Gates Jr. showed much interesting information. Yet, the end of his documentary refuses to outline the class and racial oppression caused by white supremacy impacting the lives of black Americans. We including Gates are still oppressed. We have a great legacy indeed. That is true, but we should fight neoliberalism and imperialism that still exists in the era of Obama (President Barack Obama was selected by the elites to be President as a means for him and blacks to be collectively scapegoated for the long history of evil existing in American society. It is as simple as that). Now, we should learn black history and black culture. That is important. We should use the struggle of our ancestors as motivation to fight for justice completely. So, never give up and keep on fighting. RBG 4 Life.

By Timothy