TO THOSE WHO VOTE

We have been numbed into submission by those who wield power in this society, into believing that this is the best possible system, in the best of all possible worlds. The end of history. Everyone has a fucking voice under this shit. Bullshit. Lies. And you've bought into it. The truth is, as the old slogan goes, "If voting could change anything, it would be illegal". And that's another thing. Most people have this pathetic worship of all things "law and order", that they can't get beyond it. Laws are created by the ruling class to preserve their rule, and NOT to "protect" us. They are protecting their private property, and everything they do serves this purpose.
   Allow me to quote from J.V. Stalin, (that's right, you chickenshit motherfuckers), about how any meaningful change from the bourgeois order to the rule of the people will not happen under this fucking system....

"Can such a radical transformation of the old bourgeois order be achieved without a violent revolution, without the dictatorship of the proletariat?
    Obviously not. To think that such a revolution can be carried out peacefully, within the framework of bourgeois democracy, which is adapted to the rule of the bourgeoisie, means that one has either gone out of one's mind and lost normal human understanding , or has grossly and openly repudiated the proletarian revolution."

This is true. As uncomfortable as you may be with who said it, it's still true. As far as that goes, read this for another view of Stalin .

And to quote from Lenin:
    "The emancipation of the oppressed class is impossible not only without a violent revolution, but also without the destruction of the apparatus of state power which was created by the ruling class".

Fuck yes. How can meaningful real change be made within the system that was built to uphold and protect the power and privilege of the rich motherfuckers?
And from Bob Avakian, Chairman of the RCP, USA:

We need a revolution. 

Anything else, in the final analysis, is bullshit.

And one more quote on this fucking democracy...

In a world marked by profound class divisions and social inequality, to talk about “democracy”—without talking about the class nature of that democracy and which class it serves—is meaningless, and worse. So long as society is divided into classes, there can be no “democracy for all”: one class or another will rule, and it will uphold and promote that kind of democracy which serves its interests and goals. The question is: which class will rule and whether its rule, and its system of democracy, will serve the continuation, or the eventual abolition, of class divisions and the corresponding relations of exploitation, oppression and inequality.

BAsics 1:2

That's all for now.  There will be more ranting in the future. See you soon.  

FULL OF SHIT

I know I repeat things here over and over again, but there are so many delusional fools who think that just because there's a Black president in office in the u.s., that the system is not racist, or that racism has finally been overcome. Not now, and definitely not under this fascist system. And just because you are uncomfortable with the truth, doesn't make it any less valid. Face up to it. Now read about how obama is a friend of immigrants...

Obama’s Deportations Record—
A Nightmare for Immigrants

February 17, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Launching his second term with the same sort of promises that marked the beginning of his first term, President Obama declared in a speech in Las Vegas on January 29 that “...the time has come for common sense, comprehensive immigration reform” and offered the outlines of a plan that would provide millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. with a “pathway to citizenship.”

It is predicted that by 2014, Obama will have deported over two million people—more in six years than all the people deported from the U.S. before 1997.  In fiscal 2012, over 400,000 were deported, a new high for any year.  Above, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in a pre-dawn raid in Santa Ana, California. Photo: AP

Many Obama supporters, including in the Latino community, hailed the speech and expressed belief that this could be the beginning of something truly worth celebrating. Really? If you want to know what Obama’s presidency actually means for immigrants, look at his record.

A report released by Tanya Golash-Boza, an associate professor of sociology at the University of California, Merced, a few days before Obama’s Las Vegas speech features a stunning fact: at the current rate, it is predicted that by 2014, Obama will have deported over two million people—more in six years than all the people deported from the U.S. before 1997! And the pace of deportation under Obama has picked up, hitting a high in fiscal year 2012 of over 400,000.

Behind such numbers lie the devastated lives of millions of immigrants. As Golash-Boza reports, Obama has not only deported more people than any other president, he has also separated more families. Between July 1, 2010, and September 30, 2012, nearly a quarter of all deportations involved parents whose children are U.S. citizens and can remain in the U.S. while one or both of their parents are forced to leave.

Even as he oversees such towering crimes, Obama shamelessly claims his deportation policies have been more “humane” and that he has focused more on going after “criminal” immigrants, making Americans “safer.” However, as Golash-Boza indicates, most people deported as “criminals” were convicted on minor charges and not of violent crimes. In 2011, nearly a quarter of deportations were for a drug conviction, such as marijuana possession; another 23 percent for traffic violations such as speeding; and 20 percent for the “crime” of illegal entry and re-entry—in other words, for being forced to come here in a desperate search for work because of the plunder and ruin of their own countries’ economies by the U.S. and other imperialist powers.

Obama is the chief enforcer of a capitalist-imperialist system that skins immigrants twice: by viciously exploiting them in the lowest-paying, backbreaking jobs, and then at the same time by hunting them down as “criminals,” forcing them to leave this country and tearing their families apart. Obama told Telemundo TV, “I make no apologies for us enforcing the law as well as the work we’ve done to strengthen border security.”

And now we have the commander-in-chief of the empire, at the start of his second term, making the same kind of promises as he did the first time around, including a plan for “comprehensive immigration reform.”

Two million plus?  Still think Obama is a friend of immigrants?

And I'm reposting an article about how not only has obama been continuing the same shit as ol' motherfucker bush, but in many ways he has been much worse....

Revolution #263, March 25, 2012

Six Ways That Obama Has Been Worse Than Bush

With the presidential elections approaching, there are those who argue, yet again, that whatever problems there are with the Democrats and Obama, the "alternative"—the Republicans—are much worse. So when it's all said and done, the argument goes, people who don't want the "right wing" to take over must fall in line behind Obama and the Democrats. The reality is that in key ways, Obama as U.S. president has been even worse for the masses of people, in the U.S. and worldwide. This is a fact that can be clearly demonstrated. Here are six main ways that Obama has gone beyond Bush in fascistic, brutal, reactionary moves, in service of the ruling system of capitalism-imperialism.

1. Assassinations on the President's Orders

Before becoming the president and commander-in-chief, Obama opposed the prison set up by George W. Bush at Guantánamo to indefinitely hold hundreds of people without charges, simply based on U.S. accusations of links with terrorism. Obama said then that "a perfectly innocent individual could be held and could not rebut the Government's case and has no way of proving his innocence."

Once in the White House, Obama has not only reaffirmed the policy of indefinite military detentions with the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act last December. He has actually gone further than Bush by claiming, and acting on, a supposed presidential authority to assassinateanyone, including those with U.S. citizenship, anywhere in the world just based on the presidential say-so that those targeted are "terrorists" and a danger to U.S. interests.

The world saw this outrageous policy in action last September when missiles fired from a U.S. drone hit a car driving across a desert in Yemen and killed seven men, including Anwar al-Awlaki. Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, was a spokesman for al-Qaeda. (Another man killed in the attack was also a U.S. citizen.) A few weeks later, another U.S. drone attack took the lives of al-Awlaki's 16-year-old son along with his 17-year-old friend. The U.S. claimed that al-Awlaki had a role in planning and directing al-Qaeda terrorist attacks—but refused to provide any evidence or present actual charges, and there was, of course, no trial. This was simply a cold-blooded "hit" ordered by the leading U.S. imperialist godfather.

According to news reports, there is a secret panel of government officials within the executive, part of the National Security Council, that discusses who to place on the kill list, with the president making the final decision. There is no public record of this process, no laws regulating it, no judicial review. In a March 5 speech, Attorney General Eric Holder made the ludicrous but chillingly fascist claim that this ultra-secret process inside the administration makes this executive assassination policy constitutional. As Leon Panetta, Obama's CIA chief, put it, "[The] President of the United States obviously reviews these cases, reviews the legal justification, and in the end says, go or no go."

For an in-depth analysis of this issue, see "Obama Administration: Judge, Jury, and Executioner."

2. Blaming Youth for Their Own Oppression

In a series of Father's Day speeches since coming into office, and in various other public remarks, Obama has consistently put the onus for the poverty, high prison rates, poor education, and the whole oppressive situation that Black and Latino youth face on the people themselves. Like Bill Cosby, Obama claims that the problem is "personal responsibility"—absentee fathers, youth with sagging pants, too much TV, and so on. Left totally out of this is the reality: how this system has devastated communities of the oppressed; left little "choice" for millions of youth except the underground economy or the military; targeted young men with "stop and frisk" racial profiling and outright police murder; and thrown millions into prisons, many for minor drug violations.

And at the core of this message is the revival and strengthening of the patriarchal family, with the father at the head and acting as "role model." In a sick "joke" at a 2010 White House dinner, Obama combined his reactionary push for patriarchy with the broadening war of drones. Addressing the members of the pop band Jonas Brothers who were in attendance, and referring to his two daughters, Obama said, "Sasha and Malia are huge fans but, boys, don't get any ideas. Two words for you: Predator drones. You will never see it coming."

As Carl Dix said in 2009 on the radio program Democracy Now! about Obama's message: "The people are being blamed—and who better than Barack Obama, the first Black president, to blame Black youth for their plight? If George Bush does it, people would say it's racist. But when the first Black president does it, it actually draws people into it."

3. Threatening Preventive War Against Iran

At a March 4, 2012 speech at AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), Obama made one of his most direct and overt threats of war against Iran. He declared, "Iran's leaders should understand that I do not have a policy of containment; I have a policy to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. And as I have made clear time and again during the course of my presidency, I will not hesitate to use force when it is necessary to defend the United States and its interests."

As legal commentator Glenn Greenwald notes, "Here we have the Bush administration's most controversial war theory explicitly embraced: that the U.S. has the right not only to attack another country in order to preempt an imminent attack (pre-emptive war), but even to prevent some future, speculative threat (preventive war)."

Obama's adoption of the principle of preventive war against Iran is worse because, for one, the danger of a U.S.-Israeli war against Iran is even greater today. As Revolution writer Larry Everest has pointed out, "Ground is being laid daily in the headlines and statements by politicians of every stripe in mainstream U.S. politics calling for aggression against Iran—all justified by unsubstantiated assertions that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. Whether or not Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons technology (and there is no proof they are), this U.S. imperialist narrative and framework is an outrageous effort to turn reality upside down—the reality of which of the clashing oppressive forces in the region is the dominant threatening oppressor and bully."

And it is also worse because Obama's assertion of the U.S. "right" to launch war on Iran, to prevent alleged attempts to build nuclear weapons, is treated in the current political atmosphere, and by the media and too much of the "left," as perfectly reasonable and normal.

4. An Escalating War with Drones

The attack that targeted al-Awlaki in Yemen (see #1) is part of the huge leap under Obama in the use of pilotless Predator drones by the U.S. military and CIA to kill people. The Washington Postcalled it "an emerging global apparatus for drone killing" and noted that "no president has ever relied so extensively on the secret killing of individuals to advance the nation's security goals." When Obama took office in 2009, the war by drones was confined to Pakistan, where there were 44 strikes over the previous five years, killing about 400 people. Now, drone attacks have spread, including to Yemen, Afghanistan, East Africa, Libya, and Iran. And the "global apparatus" for murder from the air includes dozens of secret drone facilities in the Middle East, Africa, and Southwest Asia—with the operational hubs within the U.S., thousands of miles away from where the drones actually kill people.

According to a study by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism in England (TBIJ), there have been 253 drone attacks in Pakistan alone under Obama as of early August—one about every four days. The U.S., while keeping the drone wars veiled in secrecy, claims that the targets are terrorists and that very few civilians are killed. "Drones have not caused a huge number of civilian casualties," Obama said this January.

According to the TBIJ, at least 2,347 people have been killed in Pakistan by U.S. drone attacks, and there are "credible news reports" that as many as 781 of those killed were civilians—more than 175 of them children. Another study by the New America Foundation from last May put the figure killed by drone attacks in northwest Pakistan at between 830 and 1,210 individuals, of whom between 180 and 360 were civilians.

But according to Obama—in other words, from the viewpoint of the head of the U.S. empire—these are "not ... a huge number" of human lives.

5. The War on Immigrants

The war on immigrants inside the U.S. borders began before Obama—but Obama has been intensifying this brutal, inhumane offensive to record levels. Last October, the Obama administration released figures showing that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had deported almost 400,000 people in fiscal year 2011. This is the highest yearly number of deportations in the eight years of ICE. More than a million people—overwhelmingly Latinos—have been deported under Obama.

A key part of Obama's war on immigrants is a federal program called "Secure Communities," under which local police send the fingerprints of every person they arrest to the Department of Homeland Security. Those suspected of being undocumented are transferred to ICE detention centers. There is a vast network of immigration detention centers around the U.S., now numbering about 250 and growing. Exposés about these ICE prisons—like the Frontline film Lost in Detention that aired last year on PBS—have revealed widespread brutality, sexual abuse, racist treatment, and other outrages against vulnerable detainees who have no access to lawyers or other help. Secure Communities has expanded under Obama to about 1,600 local police forces, and the administration plans to further expand it to all local jurisdictions by 2013.

Obama officials claim that this anti-immigrant offensive is targeted at people who have committed serious felonies. But the truth is that this has led to mass deportations of people whose only "crime" is to cross the border for work to support themselves and their families. People have been suddenly separated—perhaps forever—from their children and spouses, simply because they were stopped for a minor traffic violation. ICE calls such deportees "collateral"—bringing to mind the civilians the U.S. kills in its wars and drone attacks, and callously dismisses as "collateral damage."

6. Persecuting Whistle-blowers

Before taking office, Obama attacked the Bush administration for fixation with government secrecy and a lack of "transparency," and he expressed support for whistle-blowers—those who leak or publicly come forward to expose various kinds of official crimes, corruption, and wrongdoing. Once in office, Obama has used the Espionage Act to press charges, with potentially very heavy punishment, against people accused of "national security leaks." According to Jane Mayer of theNew Yorker magazine, under Obama there have been "more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous Administrations combined."

And Obama has gone after, with extreme vindictiveness, Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private accused of passing on to WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing site, hundreds of exposing war reports and diplomatic cables, and the infamous 2007 video showing a U.S. Apache helicopter gunning down civilians on a Baghdad street. After his arrest in May 2010, Manning was subjected to 10 months of intense solitary confinement—basically, physical and psychological torture. He is now under military trial, facing more than 30 charges, including one of "aiding the enemy" that carries a possible death penalty. (Prosecutors are recommending life imprisonment, but military judges have the option of the death sentence.) The persecution of Manning is clearly meant to send a threatening message to whistleblowers within the government and military, as well as to journalists, that they will pay a heavy price for exposing crimes being committed by the U.S.

In April 2011, when confronted by Bradley Manning supporters at a fundraiser, Obama said that Manning "broke the law"—thus declaring a verdict before Manning had even been tried. Contrast this with how Obama has refused to even investigate, let alone prosecute, top officials of the Bush regime who blatantly carried out torture and other crimes under U.S. and international law.

Sources (in alphabetical order by name of article)

"Attorney General Holder defends execution without charges," Glenn Greenwald, salon.com, March 6, 2012

"Cornel West and Carl Dix on Race and Politics in the Age of Obama," July 22, 2009, Democracy Now!

"Drone War Exposed—the complete picture of CIA strikes in Pakistan," Chris Woods, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, August 10, 2011

"Jane Mayer on the Obama war on whistle-blowers," Glenn Greenwald, salon.com, May 16, 2011

"'Lost in Detention': As Obama Admin Deports Record 400,000, Film Explores What Immigrants Face Behind Bars," October 20, 2011, Democracy Now!

"Obama administration reports record number of deportations," Brian Bennett, Los Angeles Times, October 18, 2011

"Obama Administration: Judge, Jury, and Executioner," Revolution online, March 19, 2012

"Obama says military force is option to keep Iran from getting nuclear weapons," Lesley Clark, March 4, 2012, McClatchy Washington Bureau

"Obama, Iran and preventive war," Glenn Greenwald, salon.com, March 5, 2012

"Remarks by the President at AIPAC Policy Conference," March 4, 2012, whitehouse.gov

"The Secret Sharer: Is Thomas Drake an enemy of the state?" Jane Mayer, New Yorker, May 23, 2011

"Under Obama, an emerging global apparatus for drone killing," Greg Miller, Washington Post, December 27, 2011

"The Year of the Drone: An Analysis of U.S. Drone Strikes in Pakistan, 2004-2010," Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann, New American Foundation," February 24, 2010

 Only by being aware of the truth, can real fundamental change begin to happen.

CELEBRITIES SUPPORTING FASCISM

In class society everyone lives as a member of a particular class, and every kind
of thinking, without exception, is stamped
with the brand of a class.
“On Practice” (July  1937)

The above quote is from Chairman Mao Tsetung, and is one of those little bits of concentrated wisdom that has allowed me to make sense of why some people do some fucked up and stupid things, right up to the point of fighting against their own interests. This leads us to the shit spewing out of hollywood these days. The shitflicks coming out are supporting the fascist measures the u.s. government is inflicting on the world outright. All of this garbage is only serving to confuse some potentially right-minded people, as well as solidify the brainless fools who cannot and will not attempt to think for themselves. Some actors are just dumbfucks who have no fucking idea as to what they are supporting and promoting, whereas others are fucking fascist pigs who are jumping into the filth consciously. Fucking idiots. Read this.

The Rebranded CIA: 
Still Cold-Blooded Imperialist Assassins

by Alan Goodman | February 10, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

I know you’re workin’ for the CIA / They wouldn’t have you in the Ma-fi-a... ”

In 1975, the band War had a hit single with that line. It pretty much summed up what anyone who claimed to have any consciousness, and anyone who had a conscience, had to say about the CIA. If the Mafia wouldn’t have you, if you were so amoral, so enmeshed in sadistic violence, so willing to carry out the most barbaric crimes in the service of the most debased ends...  if you were the kind of person who would kill babies and torture people without losing sleep, if you were so devoid of a conscience that they wouldn’t let you work for the Mafia as a hit man...  then you were a good candidate for the CIA.

Of course that was true.

Today, self-proclaimed liberals make movies and television shows celebrating the CIA and torture. In the buildup to the Oscars, Kathryn PIGelow’s movie Zero Dark Thirty, justifying CIA torture, is being massively promoted. Ben Affleck’s Argo is winning award after award. And then there is the television show, Homeland and its star Claire Danes, who plays a “flawed but heroic” CIA agent, winning the Golden Globes. And on and on. It’s important to understand that these cultural undertakings are being promoted not just or mainly by those who make them, but by the powers-that-be who control what movies and shows are funded, what gets mainstream distribution, and who define the terms for what is celebrated and awarded in this society.

Think about that line from War—and now think about what Ben Affleck said (quoting Tony Mendez, the real-life CIA agent Affleck plays in Argo): “...[the CIA] is not a place of deranged assassins, it’s a place of people who’ve come in to work, work really hard, care about life, care about their country.” This is the message of Argo. A point from Annie Day’s “Zero Dark Thirty, or How a People Lose Their Humanity” (Revolution, January 13, 2013) comes to mind: “A friend I saw it with said they were afraid of what this movie [and we might add—all these movies and television shows] could turn people into. And they are right to be afraid.”

The Re-branded CIA: Still Cold-blooded Imperialist Assassins

Ali Shalal, above, was tortured as a prisoner by U.S. military and CIA interrogators at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2003. He was told his hands were attached to electrical wires and that he would be electrocuted if he moved. Even more sadistic and gruesome abuse, including murder, sexual abuse, waterboardings, beatings, sleep deprivation, humiliation, and dog attacks were shown to have been perpretrated by the CIA at Abu Ghraib; Bagram, Afghanistan; and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Photo: AP

This is still the CIA. The U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq war was a horror chamber of human rights violations, with rampant and physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, and murder of prisoners sanctioned from the highest levels of the U.S. government. Photos from Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison stunned the world and are deeply embedded in the minds of people everywhere—a searing image of the impact of CIA torture techniques developed over decades.

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, people abducted by the CIA ended up in the U.S. prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where the International Committee of the Red Cross accused the U.S. military of employing “humiliating acts, solitary confinement, temperature extremes, use of forced positions” against prisoners and instituting an “intentional system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture.” The details that emerged of CIA torture at Guantánamo are horrific, and much of the story of what went on there, and what goes on there now, continues to be kept secret. The New York Times quoted an FBI agent who witnessed “interrogations” at Guantánamo: “On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a detainee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times, they had urinated or defecated on themselves and had been left there for 18, 24 hours or more.”

Today, CIA unmanned drone operations begun under Bush have been greatly expanded under Obama. During his administration, more than 300 of these drone attacks have been launched against Pakistan alone, as well as dozens more against Yemen, Somalia, and perhaps other countries in the region. More than 2,500 people have been murdered in these attacks over the past decade, and hundreds of millions live in fear that they will be targets or accidental victims.

So what the fuck is going on? How did the CIA and torture become something to celebrate?

The Lie, and the Devil’s Bargain: “Keeping Americans Safe”

In the last issue of Revolution, we outlined just some of the crimes the CIA has committed since its inception—from orchestrating the assassination of popularly elected Patrice Lumumba in the Congo to coordinating the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile to funding terrorist activity by the Contras in Nicaragua with profits from drug smuggling that flooded the inner cities of the U.S. with crack cocaine.

Between that time and now, what has changed? The role of the CIA evolved to take on new challenges to the U.S. empire. But if anything, the CIA has become more overt, more open in carrying out its crimes. A key turning point was the aftermath of 9/11. The rulers of the U.S. unleashed unrestrained chauvinism and military aggression, and shredded civil liberties within the U.S. Out the window went pretensions that “the U.S. doesn’t engage in torture.” Systematic, widespread torture of the most depraved nature was unleashed, from CIA sites throughout Europe to Guantánamo to Abu Ghraib.

The CIA is now something to celebrate, not keep under cover. Torture is no longer something to be denied and covered up, but something, we are told, is necessary to “Keep Americans safe.” And it is in this context that the powers-that-be (again, not just Hollywood studios, but the ruling class)“green lighted” a slew of movies and TV shows that portray the CIA—which is “a place of deranged assassins,” as “a place of people who’ve come in to work, work really hard, care about life, care about their country.”

Justifying torture as “keeping Americans safe” is both a lie and—for those who buy into it—a pact with the devil. It is a lie because the rulers of this country do what they do in the interests of a global system of capitalism-imperialism. That system, and maintaining the position of the USA on top of it, requires their military domination of key regions of the world—including the oil-rich and geo-strategic Middle East. That, not “the safety of Americans,” is what drives them in what they do—including moving to legalize and legitimize the open use of torture.

And buying into a pact with torturers that supposedly keeps you, or “Americans,” safe is a morality that degrades everyone who signs on to it. It is complicity with a system of exploitation, oppression and environmental devastation—enforced by the most extreme violence.

The Clash of Two Outmodeds

A prisoner is dragged into the U.S. torture center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba in 2002. Photo: AP

The world has changed since the end of the Cold War, and the clash between “the West” and Islamic fundamentalist forces has emerged. But the nature of U.S. imperialism has not changed. Three points that should restore some sanity to how this is understood:

First, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism is in large part a product of the workings of imperialism (including specific policies of the CIA in Afghanistan, where it backed and funded Islamic fundamentalists going up against the Soviet Union).

Second, the crimes of U.S. imperialism—from the Foxconn sweatshops in China to the environmental emergency, from mass incarceration in the USA to the ongoing genocide against indigenous peoples in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, dwarf even the aspirations of these reactionary Islamic forces.

Third, if you don’t oppose, but instead fall into active or passive complicity with either “the West” (U.S. imperialism and other imperialists) or Islamic Jihad, you strengthen them both—in the vicious cycle where every drone attack that wipes out a wedding party in Pakistan (with far, far too little protest in the U.S.) serves to recruit more jihadists, and on and on.

Bob Avakian’s analysis of “the two outmodeds”—two clashing reactionary forces that represent ways of thinking and organizing society that belong in the past—provides a concise and powerful tool for understanding this conflict and acting to change the terms of things:

What we see in contention here with Jihad on the one hand and McWorld/McCrusade on the other hand, are historically outmoded strata among colonized and oppressed humanity up against historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system. These two reactionary poles reinforce each other, even while opposing each other. If you side with either of these “outmodeds,” you end up strengthening both.

While this is a very important formulation and is crucial to understanding much of the dynamics driving things in the world in this period, at the same time we do have to be clear about which of these “historically outmodeds” has done the greater damage and poses the greater threat to humanity: It is the historically outmoded ruling strata of the imperialist system, and in particular the U.S. imperialists.

BAsics 1:28          

Starting From the Interests of Humanity

When you start from the interests of humanity, then instead of aligning with “our government” and celebrating and defending its immoral and criminal actions around the world, the challenge is to break out of the terms of these “two outmodeds” and be part of what Bob Avakian has posed as “bringing forward another way.” There is a different way the world can be, and a real alternative to capitalism and all forms of oppression in the new synthesis of communism that BA has developed, and in his ongoing revolutionary leadership.

Attention anyone with a conscience: Let’s stop having any tolerance for all this obscene bullshit about how “complicated” it is to figure out whether or not it's right for the CIA to overthrow governments, install puppet dictators, torture people, subject people living in a huge section of the planet to the nightmare of drone strikes, and operate a global network of torture centers...  all in service of an oppressive world order.

Here’s the reality:

CIA Stands for Cold-blooded Imperialist Assassins!

INSPIRATION

It's not only the punk rockers (and a small number at that) who see through obama's lies and his continuation, and even worse, of george the motherfucker bush's policies. Lupe Fiasco had the balls to call obama and the killing machine known as the u.s. government out, and at obama's inauguration! Fuck yes. Read this, you fucking pricks...

Lupe Fiasco's Bold Stand—And the Truth About Obama

February 1, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

From a reader:

On Martin Luther King Day, which was also the day of the inauguration of Barack Obama, I woke up angry and outraged. The world does not have to be the way it is. The masses of people here and around the world should not have to live another day under a system of capitalism-imperialism which grinds the majority of people up with no regard, and then tells people that this is the best that humanity can do, and trying to do anything else, especially communism would be nothing but a disaster. That is more than enough to make me sick, and others like me who are fighting for a different, and far better world. Today though something happened that made me even more indignant. All over Facebook, various blogs, and even TV One, a popular cable television channel catered to African Americans, was the news that last night at an inauguration party, Lupe Fiasco, a rapper who is popular among progressive youth was asked to perform.

"Rock On" turned off the stage lights and sent several large men from security to surround the rapper and escort him off the stage. Artists like Lupe Fiasco should be supported when they speak the truth about this system and Obama's role in leading it now.

Lupe Fiasco performed his song "Words I Never Said." If you haven't heard this song he says in his lyrics at the end of the first verse “Limbaugh is a racist. Glenn Beck is a racist. Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn't say shit. That's why I didn't vote for him, next one either.” Well during his performance, he did not shy away from uttering those exact same lyrics in front of a large crowd who was there to celebrate four more years of Barack Obama's rule. He was immediately heckled, and forced offstage. In the aftermath of this I saw that there were various forces on the blogosphere, and other media that were calling for him to be boycotted. This is BULLSHIT!

First off let's get into the essence of the matter. Was what Lupe Fiasco saying have any truth to it? On several occasions during his presidency thus far Israel has taken unjust military action against the Palestinian people. Bombings, raids, assassinations and the advancement of settlements along the West Bank, forcing Palestinians off their land. All of these things have taken place. Not just alleged "enemy combatants," but civilian men, women, and children who have nothing to do with this conflict have been killed as a result of Israeli aggression. This brings me back to the November issue ofRevolution newspaper and the article titled "Israel's Murderous Assault on the People in Gaza... And the Need to Oppose These Crimes NOW." It tells of a doctor's post on Facebook saying that in less than 2 hours, 14 military attacks took place against different targets in different parts of the Gaza Strip, 6 were killed including 2 young girls age 4 and 7, also leaving 11 injured without adequate emergency medication, and no power. He says at the end that this aggression must stop now. Think about this happening over and over again to the people of Palestine and that the U.S. and Israel are inflicting this terror.

What has Barack Obama done during all of this? He has said nothing about all of the horrors inflicted against the Palestinian people. He has backed Israel on several occasions, verbally, saying that "the state of Israel has the right to defend itself." The U.S. before and during Barack Obama's presidency also has continued to provide economic and military aid to Israel, and this will only continue during Obama's next term. We have to look at the facts squarely in the face and in their proper context. What's going on here is nothing more than U.S. imperialism along with Israel continuing to protect its interests, expanding its sphere of influence, and trying to consolidate control over a Middle East that they feel is getting out of control, with Islamic fundamentalism taking hold amongst many of the Arab youth. Capitalism-imperialism, and Islamic fundamentalism are both outmoded and as a framework are nothing but horrors for the masses of people, and need to be entirely swept away if we are going to get to a world free of all oppression and exploitation. But let's get this clear. Imperialism has been the dominant means of devastation overwhelmingly in the world, and Barack Obama is at the helm. Islamic fundamentalism would not even have as much of a current in the Middle East had it not been for U.S. imperialist action and intervention.

Lupe Fiasco performed courageously at the Start Up Rock On (SURO) concert to celebrate Obama's second inauguration. He performed "Words I Never Said." He rapped: "Limbaugh is a racist / Glenn Beck is a racist / Gaza Strip was getting bombed / Obama didn't say shit / That's why I ain't vote for him / The next one neither."

The trend I have been seeing which was even more exposed by the backlash against Lupe Fiasco, has been the uncritical support for Barack Obama during his first four years as president up to now. Anyone who comes out to speak any truth about the reality about Barack Obama, and the system he presides over, even if the criticism is not that articulate or developed is immediately attacked and isolated. Cornel West and Tavis Smiley for example have even been labeled "uncle Tom's" by comedian, and now talk show host, Steve Harvey. This is actually turning reality on its head. It is outrageous quite frankly. The fact that people can get away with saying things like this without being called out is ridiculous. Let's actually take a step back for a moment here and look at this more fully. First off the exploitation and oppression of Black people in this country lies in its foundation and continues up till today. The feelings that the masses of Black people felt when Barack Obama became president had some real meaning after the long night of oppression imposed upon Black people. There was the feeling that anyone could make it under this system now. There were no more excuses. I can't count how many times I've heard that tired old phrase.

If we are going to see things as they really are, then we are going to have to get into what Barack Obama's presidency has actually meant for Black people, and what is this system that he is the Commander and Chief of. First off, the sentiment felt around the country was that this presidency would inspire Black youth to take "personal responsibility" and achieve the "American Dream" that so many had hoped for. Well this ran right up against its limits. Unemployment for Black youth at an all-time high due to lack of decent employment opportunities. Blacks still locked in the ghettos and slums set out to battle each other on a regular basis. 900,000 Black men along with a quickly growing number of women in prison. Police murder. Hundreds of thousands stopped and frisked every year in New York City alone. The majority of them never doing anything wrong in the first place. This is what sociologist Michelle Alexander so correctly pointed out as the New Jim Crow, and what Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party describes as a slow genocide that can turn into a fast one, that we are being conditioned to accept.

Barack Obama has never come out and said anything about these devastating conditions. Instead he has used his platform to tell Black youth that they need to pick their pants up. Take personal responsibility. Be fathers to their children. Blaming the masses of Black people for their conditions that are not of their own making, but rise out of the very system that he presides over. Reinforcing the idea that if you are living under these desperate conditions then it's your own damn fault. There are those that would say to this, that he is the president of the United States, he can't put Black people as a priority. Well let me say this. If there were any other country doing this to a whole section of people, people rightfully so would be outraged crying aloud that this is a serious violation of human rights, and something needs to be done about this. To be honest these conditions demand that this be met as a priority, but they never will under this system. Look, Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America, which is capitalist-imperialist. This is a system that puts profit over people. Things are socially produced on a worldwide scale, and then the wealth is appropriated to the hands of a few. The need to exploit people more ruthlessly for more profit compels those capitalists in competition with each other to go to other countries, mainly in the third world, and pay people far less than they can in this country. Through all of the Presidents in this country's history, nothing has ever changed the way this works fundamentally, and under this system it never will.

What I just described about the functioning of this system ties directly into the oppression of Black people which has been at the foundation and a cornerstone of this country. This system, at a certain point not being able to exploit Blacks as profitably, took their factories and other forms of employment that used to be available to Blacks out of the country and left many Blacks to be of no use to this system anymore. The result is that the majority are locked into the ghettos with no way out facing all the horrors of these conditions, while some Blacks, relatively few compared to the number of those locked in the slums and prisons of this country, are in the middle class. The ruling class of elites have cleverly used all of this, along with the presidency of Barack Obama to say that it's your fault if you've been living under these conditions, catering to Black middle class feelings and aspirations, reinforcing the idea that Blacks have achieved full equality, and the whole "I made it and you didn't" mentality. This ruling class has used this to make far too much of the Black middle class embrace American chauvinism and exceptionalism. This has very dangerous consequences for those trapped at the bottom.

Now the fact of the matter is that the monumental problems that plague this society as a matter of fact are a product of this very system that puts the blame on people for those conditions, and that needs to be fully swept away if we are going to get beyond all this. This means we need a REVOLUTION! to deal with all of these problems at their root and to dig out the vestiges of this system whose time is up. More specifically we need the new synthesis of communism, developed by Bob Avakian, the chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, who has re-envisioned communism. He has looked at its history, the great achievements and errors that have been made, and has figured out how we can do much better the next time the people have power over society.

Artists like Lupe Fiasco should be supported and encouraged when they take the stand that they do, boldly calling out this system and who is leading it at any given time. We desperately need more artists that are breaking out of the confines and taking bold stands like this. It is a part of people fighting back, and can lead people to raise their sights, and see the true nature of this decadent and utterly worthless system.

TEAR IT OUT BY THE ROOTS

The u.s.a. was built on slavery, land stolen from Native people and from Mexico, not to mention the genocide of entire populations of Native people from what is now north amerikkka. Nothing has been done to rectify this history, except for the odd cosmetic bandaid benefit given to the people who have been fucked over. This system has to be torn out by it's roots,and a new one working in the interests of the population of the world put in it's place. And it's not going ot be easy.
Repetition, yes, but truth all the same.

THE PROPAGANDA MACHINE GRINDS ON...

Despite their so called "victory" in Iraq, their fight against the "bad guys" and "terrorists" in Afghanistan, the amerikkkan propaganda machine continues to churn out pop culture propaganda to convince us of the righteousness of their fucking cause. But they have to. Those who dig beneath the surface will see that invading other countries to impose your version of what is right, and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in the process, is not justice. Lying about such lofty ideals just to go in and steal natural resources and turn the population into cheap labour for your fucking corporations, will eventually be found out. Fuck "Zero Dark Thirty"...

  

No, It's NOT Fucking Complicated!

January 24, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Some people coming out of Zero Dark Thirty respond to protesters by saying, "It's complicated."

Say wha-a-a-a-t??!? It's about as complicated as Hitler.

CIA Stands for Cold-blooded Imperialist Assassins!

1953: The CIA overthrew the elected government of Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran when he attempted to nationalize a British-owned oil company. The CIA installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlevi as an absolute monarch, and established the U.S. as the dominant power over Iran. For the next 25 years, the Shah ruled Iran with a bloody iron fist. His hated secret police, the Savak, imprisoned, tortured and murdered huge numbers of Iranians who dared to oppose his regime. "U.S. Relationship with Iran: A History of Imperialist Domination, Intrigue, and War" (Revolution #88, May 13, 2007).

1954: A nationalist government headed by Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala attempted to take over unused land held by United Fruit and distribute that land to peasants. The CIA immediately engineered a coup to overthrow Arbenz and replaced him with Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, who was trained at the U.S. Command and General Staff School in Fort Leavenworth. The coup began a wave of reactionary violence—thousands of people were arrested, many tortured. The tracts of land were given back to United Fruit and other big landowners. "Guatemala: Bones Tell Story of U.S.-Backed Massacres," (Revolutionary Worker#912, June 22, 1997, online at revcom.us).

1960: The CIA orchestrated the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, a popular nationalist leader and critic of colonialism in the Congo. After Lumumba became the Congo's first prime minister, CIA Director Allen Dulles ordered that Lumumba's "removal must be an urgent and prime objective." The CIA worked to destabilize the country and recruit pro-U.S. forces within the army and government, including Joseph Mobutu. After Lumumba's assassination, the U.S. installed Mobutu who ruled as brutal and corrupt enforcer for imperialist interests. "We Are Being Lied To About the REAL Cause of Africa's Oppression and Suffering," (Revolution #172, August 9, 2009).

1961: The CIA organized the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro—the invasion was defeated. The CIA tried several times to assassinate Castro. "U.S. Imperialism, the Cuban Revolution, and Fidel Castro," by Raymond Lotta (Revolution #56, August 13, 2006).

1965-1966: The CIA provided names and addresses of communists to the Indonesian government to aid the massacre of hundreds of thousands of communists and other activists. Time magazine wrote: "Travelers from those areas tell of small rivers and streams that have been literally clogged with bodies." On December 2, 1965 U.S. Ambassador Green wrote a memo to Assistant Secretary of State Bundy about providing 50 million rupiahs to a leader of the death squads and to assure the State Department that "The chances of detection or subsequent revelation of our support in this instance are as minimal as any black bag operation can be." "Indonesia: U.S. Role in 1965 Massacres: Confessions from the U.S. State Department," (Revolutionary Worker #1116, August 26, 2001, revcom.us).

1965-1975: The U.S. invasion and war against the people of Vietnam; the war resulted in the deaths of two million Vietnamese civilians. In mid-1968 the CIA launched its notorious Phoenix program—intended to crush the people's movement by executing the organized "infrastructure" of revolutionary leaders and activists. It was a countrywide death squad campaign.The Vietnamese estimated that these CIA teams killed 40,000 people. "Vietnam Legacy: Heroes and Criminals," (Revolutionary Worker #1047, March 19, 2000).

1973: The CIA coordinated the overthrow of the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile by the fascist general Pinochet. Mainstream sources document the death of some 3,000 people at the hands of Pinochet, and Chilean revolutionaries have said that 30,000 people were killed. Many more were tortured or forced into exile during Pinochet's 17-year rule. Yet another example of the handiwork of the "dedicated men and women" of the CIA. "From Iran to Indonesia, Chile, Afghanistan and Worldwide: CIA's Decades of Criminal 'Service,'" (Revolution#191, February 7, 2010)

1979: After the Sandinista-led uprising that overthrew Anastasio Somoza, a brutal U.S.-backed dictator, the U.S. funded and trained death squads—known as "Contras"—who left a trail of murder, rape, and pillage across the country. The Contras targeted civilians, killing 30,000 people—Sandinista officials as well as many peasants, indigenous people, workers, students, and others. "The Election in Nicaragua, and the Real Nature of U.S. Democracy," (Revolution #70, November 26, 2006).

1980s: The CIA armed and funded terrorist activity by the Nicaraguan Contras with profits from drug smuggling that flooded the inner cities of the U.S. with crack cocaine.Journalist Gary Webb exposed how forces working with the Contras set up a cocaine ring that targeted the Black communities of South Central Los Angeles and Compton. They supplied tons of cocaine to the Crips and the Bloods, which ended up as crack in the ghetto streets. On top of horrors of the crack epidemic, the powers-that-be then used crack as an excuse for the "war on drugs" which greatly escalated the mass incarceration of young Black and Latino men. "The CIA/Crack Connection: RW Interview with Gary Webb," (Revolutionary Worker #912, June 22, 1997, available at revcom.us).

1980-1988: The CIA provided weapons and intelligence to both sides in the Iran-Iraq war. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and 100,000 civilians died. The New York Times(8/18/02) reported that U.S. officials "provided Iraq with critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the decisive battles of the Iran-Iraq war." Also according to the Times, (2/5/2005) a former National Security Council staffer stated that "CIA Director [William] Casey was adamant that cluster bombs were a perfect 'force multiplier,'" for Iraq, and "'the CIA authorized, approved and assisted' Cardoen" [the supplier] in the manufacture and sale of cluster bombs and other munitions to Iraq. "U.S. Hypocrisy on Chemical Weapons: How the U.S. Backed Saddam Hussein when the Iraqi Military Used Poison Gas," by Larry Everest (Revolutionary Worker, September 1, 2002, posted at revcom.us).

1980s: The U.S. government recruited armed groups in southern Africa—to attack the movements who had come to power in Angola and Mozambique, and to help preserve the racist apartheid government in South Africa. The CIA's backing of Jonas Savimbi's UNITA movement plunged Angola into over 25 years of civil war that ruined the country and made large parts of the population refugees.

During the U..S invasion of Afghanistan, there is evidence that more than 100 died at thedirect hand of CIA torturers. One was Gul Rahman, who froze to death in the "Salt Pit," a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan, after being stripped, beaten, and shackled to a cement wall in freezing temperatures. According to U.S. General Barry McCaffrey: "We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the CIA." "Complete Exoneration of CIA Torturers: This Is the Imperialist System... This Is What They Want You to Vote For," (Revolution #280, September 16, 2012).

2004, Khaled el-Masri, a German car salesman, was seized while crossing from Serbia into Macedonia by bus. A CIA rendition team stripped him naked, drugged him, shackled him, and flew him to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he spent four months in a dark cell being "interrogated." Five months later he was dumped by the CIA in Albania, and told his abduction, detention and abuse was a case of mistaken identity. "From Iran to Indonesia, Chile, Afghanistan and Worldwide: CIA's Decades of Criminal 'Service'" (Revolution #191, February 7, 2010),

Today/ongoing: More than 2,500 people have been murdered in drone attacks over the past decade. On February 4, 2012, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that "CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuers and funerals." "Murder by Drone" by Larry Everest (Revolution#288, December 16, 2012).

MUCH BETTER

So far, 2013 has been a far better start than 2012 was. Our friends aren't dropping one by one, and  the Jay Brown Memorial Show was fucking great! (See the previous post). And now, it looks like we're playing with NoMeansNo on Feb. 27th at 919, or whatever the fuck it's called now. It's the club at 919 Douglas St., and it will be my first time playing with NMN since the very last Section 46 show at the Steel St. house back in '91. Yes, we're all that old. Needless to say, we're all pretty fucking excited. The Steel St. house is a decrepit little shack that some friends used to rent (including our bassist Joe) back in the day, located in an industrial part of town (very near where AK-47 practice right now). We played with The Clusterfux, featuring our very own Kent on lead guitar, NoMeansNo, and from Holland, The Ex. All in the fucking living room! The Ex impressed me with their experimental punk sound, (which I normally hate), incorporating everything from the straight up European punk sound, to Gypsy influenced melodies. And they were fucking passionate and intense. Getting to see NMN in a living room was something I'll never forget. Come see them, assholes.