There is the historic nuclear deal between established between the P-6 (or the nations of the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, and China) and with Iran. This deal will have the final goal to try to normalize Iran’s civil nuclear program over the next 15 years. This deal is very strict and hardly pacifist as the extremist neo-conservatives has classified it. The neo-cons are made up of many war mongers who desire a military strike against Iran, which will cause even more devastation in the Middle East. The deal is also known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA. It allows sweeping concessions and a strict framework agreement reached in Lausanne, Switzerland on April 2. It has further conditions and stipulations highly advantageous to Washington. Iran must dismantle or roll back and freeze the key elements of its nuclear program (and must submit to the intrusive nuclear inspections regime ever devised). The deal said that Tehran has for the next decades to end two-thirds of its centrifuges including its more advanced ones. Iran also must get rid of 95 percent of its stockpile of low grade enriched uranium. It must remove the core of the reactor at its Arak heavy water nuclear plant. Tehran must submit to the demands of the IAEA or the International Atomic Energy Agency that Iran must answer any and all questions relating to “the possible military dimensions” of its nuclear program. Iran has denied the allegations (which has been based on forged documents and unsubstantiated claims) that it has carried out nuclear weapons related to research at the beginning of this century. After those steps are done, which will take six months, the agreement’s implementation period begin. Only after that when the U.S. and the E.U. obligated to lift the punishing economic sanctions imposed on Iran. The sanctions have caused crippling poverty, starvation, frozen more than $100 billion in Iranian central banks reserves and oil sale proceeds in foreign banks, denied people lifesaving drugs and other medical supplies, and other evils against Iranians. Some sick people love the evil sanctions. The deal is totally pro-Western. If Iran breaks the deal, then sanctions will be imposed in Iran. The JCPOA will allow the UN ban on Iran’s import and export of weapons and weapons system for 5 years after the implementation day. Geopolitically, the deal is about the West trying to make Iran more amiable to U.S. imperialism. In other words, the West want to isolate Russia and China more and cause Iran to make a bourgeois regime in Iran to serve U.S. strategic interests covertly and overtly. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has, himself, repeatedly authorized overtures to Washington. In 2001, Tehran assisted the US in installing Hamid Karzai as Afghanistan’s puppet president. And in 2003, shortly after the US’s illegal invasion of Iraq, Khamenei authorized a secret offer to the US, in which Tehran agreed to recognize Israel, and withdraw military support for Hezbollah and Hamas, in exchange for a US disavowal of regime change. The President has threatened to veto a bill by Congress if the bill rejects the agreement. Khamenei is celebrating the deal. The West wants Tehran to reduce its support of al-Assad in Syria while aiding Iran’s anti-ISIS efforts. Israel and Saudi Arabia is not an ally of Iran because of obvious reasons. Both nations have criticized the deal. The deal is very strict.
The dropping of the atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States is one of the most controversial and devastating actions of World War II. The myth that Japan was not going to surrender has been exposed by documentaries, authors, and historical scholars especially in the past 20 years. Today, we know a greater amount of information about the atomic weapons program and the attacks in Japan. To start, we must begin with the origins of the atomic weapons program of America. America began the program first in fear of the Nazis having nuclear weapons technology, which could be used against Americans, etc. Yet, the Nazis abandoned atomic weapons research early on during WWII. In December 1938, German physicists split the uranium atom. Many feared that the Nazis would have this technology. Therefore, Albert Einstein, Szilard, and Eugene Wigner wrote letters to President Roosevelt to create a program to establish an atomic bomb. FDR agreed to start it. Later, Einstein said (to chemist Linus Pauling) that he regretted sending Roosevelt a letter in favor of establishing an atomic bomb, because of its savage nature. At first, the process of creating such a bomb in America was slow. Wartime science administrator James Conant put Nobel Prize winning physicist Arthur Holly Compton to work on the bomb design. First, scientists have to be called up like J. Robert Oppenheimer (who was a charismatic theoretical physicist. He admitted that he had ties to Communist organizations and he was a strong progressive person), Edward Teller, and Hans Bethe. In Met Lab in the city of Chicago, scientists were successful in creating the first nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942. They were lucky that they didn’t blow up the city of Chicago. Next, we have the establishment of the Manhattan Project being created by Americans in Los Alamos, New Mexico. This project was headed by Brigadier General Leslie Groves. Groves and Oppenheimer worked together, but each man had different personalities. Groves was conservative and Oppenheimer was more progressive. Groves had a more angry personality. Groves’ assistant was Lieutenant Colonel Kenneth Nichols. When Roosevelt passed away, Truman was President. Truman was heavily influenced by Stimson and others who never trusted the Soviet Union. Truman was notified about the atomic bomb development program. Scientists exploded the atomic bomb for the first time on July 16, 1945. It happened in the desert outside of Alamogordo, New Mexico. The Trinity test exceeded expectation. It was an 18.6 kiloton blat. Oppenheimer said the following when he thought about the test: “…I am become death, destroyer of worlds.” Groves gloated over the test as being great. Truman soon heard word of it. Truman never really trusted the Soviet Union. Truman wanted to use the bomb as leverage against the Soviet Union, so the Soviets would be subordinate to U.S. interests involving WWII and beyond. The Soviets planned to invade Japan, but the Soviets didn’t trust Churchill who was bellicose against the Soviets for years. Roosevelt was more conciliatory and moderate when dealing with the Soviet Union, which is why FDR called Stalin “Uncle Joe.” Japanese leadership desired to surrender only if the unconditional surrender proposal from the U.S. was eliminated including the elimination of the imprisonment of the Emperor of Japan. The U.S. would not budge and refused any concessions on the unconditional surrender language. Politicians and scientists from America tried to inspire Truman to not drop the bomb. Truman refused and decided to drop it. Truman was influenced by Byrnes and Stimson, who were reactionaries on foreign policy matters. Byrnes was an outright racist and segregationist. Even Dwight D. Eisenhower and General Douglas MacArthur opposed the decision to drop atomic weapons in Japan. Japan by 1945 was on the verge of defeat with their cities and towns being massively bombed. A simple change in the surrender terms could have caused Japan to surrender much earlier than September of 1945. On July 25, 1945, U.S. General Carl Spaatz, Commander of the Strategic Air Force in the Pacific received directive to drop the atomic bomb in Japan. Enola Gay was the plane that housed the “Little Boy” A-bomb. It was dropped in Japan from 1,900 feet above Hiroshima with a force equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT. This act was a crime against humanity and a crime against God. It was totally evil. Even I can’t detail the destruction in full detail. Children died instantly. Grown human beings died with the organs dissolved. Many parts of Hiroshima were burned to the ground. About 140,000 people died in Hiroshima by the end of the year. The second bomb was dropped in Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. It had about 22,000 of TNT in equivalent. 70,000 died in Nagasaki by the end of 1945 from the effects of the atomic bomb. The atomic bomb didn’t end world conflict. It started the Cold War and the Soviets had atomic bomb technology from a spy working inside of Los Alamos. The Soviets dropped their atomic bomb in August 29, 1949. The evil atomic bomb drops in Japan reminds us about how valuable the dignity of human life is and it shows us the destructive nature of war.
From the 1970’s to the 1990’s, radical changes came in Los Angeles. There was deindustrialization in which automobile factories became to be shut down from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. Tire factories and steel mills left LA. Many of the agricultural and diary operations that were prospering in the 1950’s have moved to other counties. The furniture industry moved greatly into Mexico and other low wage nations. In 1971, the San Fernando earthquake happened and the Los Angeles Convention Center opens. Tom Bradley becomes the first African American mayor of Los Angeles in 1973. There has been the growth of television and music industries in Los Angeles. That is why people come to Los Angeles all of time as a way for them to try to get an entertainment career. CBS Television City, 20th Century Fox, and other studios operate in LA. Many Japanese firms like Toyota have moved to LA or to surrounding areas. There is a strong port system in Los Angeles and Long Beach, which makes up the nation’s largest harbor port. It handles 44 percent of all goods imported by cargo container into America. There was an economy boom from 1985 to 1990. The catch is that the income gap between the rich and the poor has massive increase since the 1980's. Los Angeles is the most socioeconomically divided city in America today. Gangs have always existed in Los Angeles and all over America for decades and centuries. From the 1970’s, more gangs were acting in a direction of survival and showing more nihilistic violence (instead of limited rivalries). One reason is the growth of income inequality poverty, and bad social conditions. In 1955, Nickerson Gardens was built, which was the city’s largest public housing complex with 1,100 units in the Watts neighborhood. Many gangs were created as a way for people to protect themselves from racism and discrimination. Street clubs were formed in 1950 as a way for black people to defend themselves from white racist gangs who were attacking black people. Gangs in LA have been based on neighborhood, race, and nationality. The Slausons was a famous LA gang which existed before the Crips.
There are gangs made up of Hispanics, black people, Filipinos, whites, Chinese, Cambodian, Samoan, and I can go down the list. Hundreds of gangs exist in Los Angeles. Some of the famous gangs are the Crips, the Bloods, MS-13, Mexican Mafia (and their affiliations), etc. Raymond Washington formed the Baby Avenues in 1964. He founded the Crips in the year of October 13, 1969. The Crips expanded quickly in Los Angeles and throughout the nation. Stanley Tookie Williams joined the Crips in 1971. On December 1973, The Piru Street Boys formed the Blood gang. The Bloods acted as a rival gang to the Crips since the Bloods was an alliance of people who originally opposed the actions of the Crips. Raymond Washington was murdered in 1979 by a person. By the 1980’s, violent, criminal gangs were involved in the drug trade like the Mexican Mafia, the Crips, the blood, etc. The Drug Trade and the War on Drugs harmed communities all over Los Angeles of every color. Crack cocaine came into LA in January 1981. Militarized police or SWAT Teams would harass poor and communities of color during the 1980's. Poverty would plague LA including police brutality. Movies like Boyz N the Hood (which came out in 1991), whose Director John Singleton is a South Central native including musicians like Ice Cube (of NWA) would describe the reality of the inner city. I don't about agree with any misogynistic lyrics in various songs, but the brutality of black people and others in Los Angeles by crooked cops should never be ignored. The Ramparts scandal of the 1990's documents massive police corruption during that decade. Rodney King was assaulted by numerous police officers. All of the officers were white. When, the offices were all acquitted, people were legitimately outraged and the LA Rebellion happened in 1992. This occurred when I was in elementary school. Rebellion happened in Los Angeles and all over the city. National Guard troops were sent by then President George H. W. Bush to respond to the situation. From 1992-1993, the Blood and the Crips would have a truce. Afterwards, some cops were convicted, but it was a cosmetic convictions. By the mid-1990s, there are 650,000 gang members in the U.S. and 150,000 in Los Angeles County alone. Blood and Crip gang factions are found throughout the U.S. as well as abroad. In the 21st century, Tookie Williams died via the death penalty in 2005. Some think that he was innocent, some view him as guilty, and Tookie Williams proclaimed his innocence throughout his life. LA issued gang injunctions massively in 2004 and 2006. Gang violence is a reality in LA. The crime rate in Los Angeles now has gone down since the 1990’s. One important point is to be mentioned. It is not enough to condemn crime. We have to use programs to end the War on Drugs, end police brutality, and to end the corruption found in the prison industrial complex (as the system of mass incarceration must end), so people can live fuller, healthier lives.
The criminal justice system is a disgrace. I have no problem with the commutations, but we all know that we have much more to do. Also, it is important to see that more has to be done. We have unfairness in not only sentencing (sentencing practices have been racist and classist as documented in so many mainstream studies), but many people have been executed in America who have been innocent. We have the legalization of a barbaric, murderous practice (which was once banned in America in 1972), which has been banned in numerous nations worldwide. People from across the political spectrum want nonviolent drug users to never receive sentences longer than murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals. The War on Drugs has failed. It must end and be replaced with progressive alternatives. Nonviolent drug users need treatment not incarceration. The massive privatization of the prisons along with the economic exploitation of these prisons by the oligarchy has economically harmed communities nationwide. We reject the New Jim Crow. Angela Davis, George Jackson, Michelle Alexander and so many Brothers and Sisters have accurately talked about this issue (of how the prison industrial complex has ruined the lives of so many innocent human beings). We need revolutionary change beyond reform. The murderer is not in prison. The settlement is important, but this is not justice. De Blasio acted submissive to the Patrick Lynch when Lynch called him as having blood on his hands (which was a lie). As a human being, if I was mayor, and some police official said that I have blood on my hands in public (when that's false), then I will publicly criticize that police official and say a lot of commentary (which will not be P.C.) about that official. The most important issue is that the family of Eric Garner received a settlement (which is the least that the city could do) and that is legitimate. Yet, this is not justice, because a murderer is free to live his life. That murderer can go back to his family. Eric Garner is gone physically. One Police Union leader in NYC (whose name is Ed Mullins, president of the Sergeants Benevolent Assn.) made a recent statement that again disrespected Eric Garner (and blasted the settlement). Ed Mullins ought to be ashamed of himself. I wish the best for the family of Eric Garner.
RIP Eric Garner.
By Timothy
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