Trumpcare doesn't

Trump has made his worthless bid to try to control drug prices in the US.  He claims that we pay more for drugs because other countries pay less.

In reality, the 2 countries in the world that pay the most for drugs,  the USA and New Zealand, have one thing in common: Direct to Consumer Advertising.  If you go to Europe, you will not see or hear drug commercials or advertising because they won't allow it.  In the US we do.  That is 60% of the cost of the drugs. Development of the drug is less tha 10% according to some sources. And given that many drugs are based on research done at public universities,  I believe it.  R&D costs can be expensive. Nothing like adverstising costs on radio, tv, the internet, & print though.

And why is he bringi bringing this up now? Elections.  He & the Republicans are afraid of the threatened "Blue Wave" of Democrats that could seize power and (laugh) hold him accountable. As if they will impeach him with Pence as Vice President. We'd go from incompetent businessman to religious zealot. Neither one is good for leading this country.  And the fear of Kavanaugh being investigated & removed from the Supreme Court? I doubt that too.

This is all a sham and a scam.  The only true solution to this crisis is a Medicare for all system for insurance and public ownership of all medical research and production.  Capitalism is only about making money.  Any way they can & scam,  they will.

Until then,  we are at the mercy of talking heads and empty promises.
And the capitalists pay a ton of money for those talking heads.
It's another reason we suffer with high prices.

Bannon's blather.

Steve Bannon visited Elma yesterday to try and drum up support for the trump administration and agenda.   His goal was to get voters to vote for politicians that would support trump and his misguided & mistaken agenda.

Do trade wars that raise prices on the working class work for you?

Does giving tax breaks to multi- millionaires and billionaires that close US factories and send jobs overseas benefit you?

Does cutting Medicare, Medicaid, Social Secuirty, and other social programs benefit you?

Does increasing the military budget to buy weapons systems that don' t work and support wars that we don't need to be involved in work for you?

Does supporting racist policing policies work for you?

Does spouting off hate speech about LGBTQI people work for you?

Does attacking migrants work for you?  Especially when the policies of the US government is what creates the migrants innthe firtst place?

I can go on about the failures of the trump agenda.  It's all to easy.

And as much as I dislike the Republican party & it's agenda,  it really isn't much different than the Democratic party and it's agenda.
Remember that great promise of health care reform? The Affordable Care Act? Reminds me of Mitt Romney's Massachusetts health care plan  force people to buy private health insurance.  Solved nothing.
A real solution was single payer or Medicare for all.

The Yemen war was started by Obama and Trump is continuing it.  Will the Democrats reign in the disastrous capitalist foreign policy that we follow?
Doubt it.
I know there is so much more to add to this criticism.
Switching from republicans to democrats won't change much, if anything because the capitalists controls the halls of power.

We need a socialist revolution or actual socialists running for government to make the changes that we need in order to change the path that this country is on.
Fred Linck is running, or trying to, in Connecticut and the guardians of the gateway are doing every3they can to keep him off the ballot.

Other socialists are running but on the Democratic line & are selling out to the Democrats and the DNC in order to get on the line.
Unacceptable.

We need to change the way the elections work so that we have real democracy in this country.

 

WNY is no place for hate

Elma had the misfortune to be the host of alt-right (and always wrong) fearmonger Loose Cannon Steve Bannon.

For the record: alt-right is politically correct speak for neo-nazi, racist, and any other fear living epithet that you can think of.  There is no love in these people.  They live in a fantastic, fictional, and romanticized past that never was and never will be.  They are on the wrong side of history with their lies and distorted views.

He spoke at the Elma Fire Hall, as per his First Amendment Rignts.  Even if what he says is factually challenged and has no basis in reality.

Please don't get me started about how Wall Street is not the economy, how the 1% can not save us, and how caucasians are equal to every other race on this planet.  And for what it is worth, and no one can seem to answer this question, when did America stop being great? 
Alone we are nothing. When we work as a team of equals, we succeed beyond our wildest dreams.

Smart Republican politicians were wise to stay away from the event. Carl PaladiNo was there. (Someone should remind him of all the tax breaks his company has been given over the years. He is far from a self made man. By the way - we're still waiting for the promised jobs. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for him to deliver. Jesus will return first. Or Mohammed. Or the Messiah will come. Or...)

Bannon has his roots in the post Vietnam Era where the USA lost a war it never should have fought. 58,000 died in theatre & many more  died from Agent Orange poisoning, drug addiction, alcoholism, suicide, & other unnatural causes.  Then there are the 1+ million Vietnamese people that died and still suffer to this day from their War of Independence.  He saw the disaster of the attempt to rescue the American Embassy personnel.  If The United States  government would have respected democracy in Iran & Vietnam, these disasters would never have take  place.  (Sad to say,  America speaks about democracy, it does not support any ones' right to it.)  He is not wise enough to see this and holds the anger of a misguided foreign policy in his head and the fear of losing in his heart.  He also fails to see how corporate capitalism  is destroying this country.  This drives him to live the fear in his life every day.

We do not need this fear in WNY.

We are a proud multi- cultural society that is learning  (or trying to) from the past and moving on to a bigger,  better, and brighter future.  We recognize that immigrants bring new life to this  country. We recognize differences in people as strengths. We value the lives of all and see that when one is denied their rights,  it hurts all of us.

He can spout what he wants. We need to see it for what it is: Fear.

And fear can  ever give life.
It only takes it away.

Bannon isn't here to save our country.  He is here to destroy it from  within.
As a history major in college,  I know that the end of a country always begins from within.
And we had the poison that will destroy US in in WNY.

Familiar slam. No dunk.

True to form, Republican candidates are using the Solar City / Tesla factory as a whipping boy for Democratic candidates.
Predictable and boring.

Comptroller candidate Jonathan Trichter went after Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli over the Buffalo Billion.  And we all know that the Buffalo Billion is nothing but a capitalist scam.  It's an example of a public - private partnership.   The public pays all the bills and private companies reap and keep all the profits.  It could be built by the public and run as a cooperative, but that never enters the discussion.  Coops don't donate money to political campaigns. 

What is this really? A failure of capitalism.  Cost over runs that opponents always bring up?  Can we talk about over runs in the military budget?  Yes,  I know it's a state issue vs a federal issue.  However,  when bringing up fiscal responsibility the Republican party doesn't have a leg to stand upon with how they have run up the deficit & want to put the costs on tbe back of the working class. 

And Elon Musk is known for big talk, small walk.  His electric cars are ... I'm still waiting to see one here in WNY. I doubt it could handle the snow.  (Frozen battery anyone?)  We have an how many regional colleges with Engineering Departments that could do the R&D.  Many more that have Business Departments that could handle the management. Much of our solar technology is coming out of colleges, so why not let them handle it?

The big problem that Republicans have with the project is that they were not in power when the project was announced and they did not propose the funding scheme that freely gave tax dollars to private corporations without accountability or oversight.  There are a plethora of examples from other states where Republicans gave tax dollars to private companies and the projects went bust.  And they defend it by talking about the failures of the private companies and not Republican leadership.

Instead of wasting our tax dollars on these capitalist get rich quick schemes,  we need to help workers develop their own companies that can compete and grow.  We do not need capitalist saviors that take our tax dollars out of town and state.  We need to develop our own talent that keeps the profits in our own communities.

No sunshine here Trichter.
Just another Republican trick.

End the game on the Compact

NY has a double standard when it comes to dealing with the First Nations peoples and honoring treaties.
It likes to read the treaty in question in a way that benefits NY government and screws over everyone else.

Case and point: The Casino Compact which has vefy specific language on how long the Seneca Nation is to pay a percentage of proceeds to NY. Next to none of the money that was paid to NY came back to Niagara Falls, Buffalo Creek, or Salamanca.  To NY that is not the issue.  The Upsate casinos are a cash cow for buying NYC loyalty at election time.

And the language of the Compact spelled out how long the Seneca Nation would have to pay a dividend. It also prohibited NY from opening up private casinos in this region.

NY, specifically Governor Cuomo, sees the situation different from the language of the Compact and, true to form, found ways to violate the Compact and punish areas with casinos if they accepted money from the Seneca Nation.

The violation was the opening of the private casinos. (From what I hear they  are not doing well. The Nation Casinos are better run and more established. Plus the entertainment line ups. Not that I advocate gambling, but the concert lines are amazing &  my friends tell me that the seating  is nice.  One of these years I will go to the Native American Music Awards.)

The punishment is that NY will reduce state aid by however much money the Seneca Nation gives to the various communities.

This is an insult to the Seneca Nation, which has been lied to and cheated out of land, benefits, and rights whenever government gets a chance.
It is also an insult to the communities that are struggling without the money that the Seneca Nation is holding for them until arbitration is decided. This is money that is needed for schools, roads, and other public services.

NY needs to back down and honor the Casino Compact. Instead of twisting treaty interpretation to suit the needs of Albany politicians,  it needs to honor the Compact, close the illegal Upstate casinos, or turn them over to the Seneca and Cayuga Nations, and allow the money that being held for the various communities to be released without penalty to the communities of Salamanca, Niagara Falls, and Buffalo Creek.

Chris Collins needs to go

Congressman Chris Collins is unfit to serve in government. Period.
If he were a Democrat, he would have been drummed right out of office.
Look at the Democrats in  Congress that left because of the MeToo movement.
Other politicians have left office because of insider trading issues.

However, he is a Republican and that means a different  standard must be put up. 
Rare is it that Republicans leave office quietly after being indicted.
And I know that an indictment does not mean guilty, but look at the evidence that his associated benefited from knowledge that he had.

However,  the capitalist class needs its pawns, & Chris Collins is all too willing to throw his constituents under the bus for the 1%.

When he did drop out of the race, it was very telling that the replacement candidate was going to  be chosen behind closed doors by the regional party elite rather than holding a special election to determine the interests of the voters.  I do not write that as supporting the Republican Party but more in supporting the principles of democracy.  The people need to decide, not party elites. It is i teresting to see that the smoke filled room extends far beyond the hallls of power in Albany. They infect the gerrymandered districts all around us.

And the running scared mentality of the party by bringing in the extremist agitator "Loose cannon" Steve Bannon to rally the party faithful & true believers was a poor choice & a disaster in  the making.  We do not need racist agitators in WNY.  Wherever he shows,  democratic minded individuals  (note the small "d") need to protest his presence. 

I do not endorse his opponent  at all. I am not i  the district and will not do so. We all know that the Democrats & Republicans are the two faces of the capitalist class.

In any event,  he needs to drop out & let the voters decide who shall represent the district.

Disrespecting democracy

Tonight the 2 representatives of the capitalist political system will engage in the 1 and only debate of the entire election season.

The Democratic  Governor, Andrew "Status" Cuomo will engage with the Republican candidate Marc Molinaro over who is best suited to represent the capitalist class in the halls of power in Albany. 

I have several problems with this.

1. Only  1 debate?  There are 5 different regions in NY: NY City, the Capitol  Region, Northern NY, Syracuse, & WNY.  I'm sure others could break it down even more. One could argue for Rochester & Binghamton to be regions as well.  I am targeting major media markets.  However the two listed are fair suggestions.  In any event,  these different regions have differences in their needs based on their economic drivers & social make up.  Lenin recognized this in 1917 whe n he called for "Land, bread, & peace."  One debate will not address all the differences that this state has. Not in economics. Not in race. Not in gender. Nothing.

2. Noted by their absence are the 2 minor party candidates that were present in the last 2 debates.  The Green Party candidate of Howie Hawkins & the Libertarian Party candidate of Larry Sharpe.  They were included in previous debates but, for some reason, are not needed this time.  While I can criticize the Green Party for its defence of green/environmental capitalism and the Libertarian Party for its defence of unregulared capitalism, the  greater issue that that they are being excluded from the debate for whatever reason.  The electorate is being denied access to information about who is running for the offfice of governor.  And if you check the corporate owned media,  neither one will be mentioned. This is despite the fact that in the last gubernatorial election that the Green Party netted 175,000 votes.  That is 3 times what Presidential Candidate Dr Jill Stein won in 2012 or 2016, if memory serves me correctly.

And what will they discuss? Molinaro will attack the capitalist corruption in Albany & the failures of the Buffalo Billion, etc. Ad nauseum. Yes, we are sick of it all.
And Status Cuomo will make this about President (sic & sick) Donald Trump, Molainaro's inexperience,  and other Republican failures in Albany.

Neither candidate will discuss the failure of capitalism and the capitalist class in meeting the needs of the working class in this state.

Neither will discuss racism, sexism, climate change, the failure of the education system, or anything that really matters to the working class.

I will watch the discussion between the two faces of capitalism.
I'm not expecting anything great to be said.

The only thing that gives me hope is that people will wake up to the lies of capitalism & throw off the chains one day.

Celebrating Socialism

On November 5th the Eugene V Debs Initiative will be hosting a celebration of socialism at the Adam Mikiewicz Library & Dramatic Circle.  It is located at 612 Fillmore Avenue in Buffalo.    It starts at 6 PM & goes until 10 PM.  It will include a showing of a film about Debs created by Bernie Sanders. Hopefully there will be food & drinks. I know they have a bar there.

Attemding will be many groups that share one thing in common - the end goal of creating a socialist society.

America has a strong history of socialism going back before the Civil War, if one includes the unknown & unread writings of Thomas Paine.  People do not know about this history because of the way textbooks are written.  See James W Loewen Lies My Teacher Told Me for how textbooks are written.  Let us remember that the capitalist class owns the press & media.  And that great aphorism is true: Freedom of the press is guaranteed to those that own a press.  The internet should be the great equalizer, but the capitalists own the major search engines & social media constructs.

So, take the time to come down to the Library and meet with like minded individuals & organizations.  We may disagree on methods, but our goals are the same: a just society for all.

I hope to see & meet you there.

Solidarity.

Hell Hath No Fury

Written by: Richard Trotsky                                

                        

        Over the decades and even centuries there have been countless tragedies befallen many different races and ethnic groups under the premise of religion granting these tragedies as acceptable. One in particular immediately comes to mind that, when I ponder it, completely consumes my very being with anger, that being the plight of the Palestinian people. Over the past decade we have seen and heard countless stories of the immense levels of suffering forced upon the people of Palestine, many of which could very well bear the hallmarks for the bringing forth charges of crimes against humanity. Enacting blockades to restrict the flow of goods and services, limiting access to critical services, blatant indiscriminate murdering of innocent civilians, how much more must they endure? How long will those of us who empathize with their suffering anguish over the conditions that have been forced upon them?

        For those who would say that the Jews always inhabited that land, I would simply point to historical facts and even a historian of Jewish descent who transcribed the events of the siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, Josephus Flavius. Due to significantly oppressive policies that stood at odds with the religious laws of the Jews, a significant rebellion took place in 66 CE. Vespasian Flavius had been appointed generalship from Nero and appointed an army to quell the uprising, however in 68 CE, Nero took his own life and Vespasian returned to the capital and was declared emperor. His son Titus was assigned command of the army to continue to combat the dissent. By 68 CE the northern part of the province had resistance quelled, and the Roman army then focused on Jerusalem. Josephus had actually been a former leader of the Jewish revolt who had surrendered to the Romans and had won favor from Vespasian Flavius. In gratitude, Josephus took on Vespasian's family name - Flavius - as his own. By 70 CE the Roman army had surrounded Jerusalem and laid siege to it long enough to begin to strangle it off.

        The Roman soldiers set the temple ablaze, (although against Titus’ wishes and direct orders) and in the ensuing chaos, indiscriminately massacred all who stood before them. Unarmed civilians, women, and even children were butchered, thousands perished. Of those who were fortunate enough to be spared, thousands were sent to mines in Egypt, others to the various arenas throughout the empire. The resistance continued on, albeit insignificant, for another three years until it was finally extinguished in 73CE when the remaining pockets of resistance fell, along with the stronghold in Masada. Fast forward over a thousand years, and it becomes the Ottoman Empire who lays claim to the land, followed by the British, who gained the land through the Sykes–Picot Agreement and named it Palestine.    

   

There were in fact Jews living there, however they were considerably small in number, but increasing Jewish immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries added considerably to the Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Jaffa. During World War I the British government issued the Balfour Declaration of 1917, stating that the British Government favored the establishment of national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The British captured Jerusalem a month later and The League of Nations formally awarded Britain a mandate over Palestine in 1922. The land west of the Jordan River was under direct British control until 1948, while the land east of the Jordan was a semi-autonomous region known as Transjordan Emirate, under the rule of the Hashemite  family from the Hijaz, which gained independence in 1946. The 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine was an uprising by Palestinian Arabs against British colonial rule and mass Jewish immigration.

After the Nazi Holocaust, pressure grew for the international recognition of a Jewish state in Palestine. In 1947, the British Government announced its intention to terminate the Mandate. The United Nations General Assembly voted to partition British Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states, with a special international regime for Jerusalem. The Arabs rejected the partition of Palestine and civil war erupted in the immediate aftermath.

The Jews of British Palestine declared the independence of the State of Israel in May 1948. During the 1948 Palestine War, Israel overran far more territory than was proposed by the Partition Plan; Jordan captured and annexed the West Bank, while in the Gaza Strip the All-Palestine Government was announced in September 1948. In the Nakba, or "Catastrophe", hundreds of Palestinian villages and over 70,000 Palestinian homes were ruined and destroyed. 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of their homes by the Israelis. The Palestinian refugees were unable to return following the Lausanne Conference of 1949. The question of the Palestinian right to return of the refugees and their descendants remains a source of contention. During and after the 1948 war, a wave of Jewish refugees from Arab countries arrived in the newly created state of Israel. The All-Palestine Government was shortly moved from Gaza to Cairo and eventually dissolved in 1959 by Egyptian President Nasser. Gaza was taken into Egyptian military administration until 1967.

The Palestinian national movement gradually regrouped in the West Bank and Gaza, and in refugee camps in neighboring Arab states. The Palestine Liberation Organization emerged as its leading umbrella group in 1965. During the Six-Day War in June 1967, Israel seized East Jerusalem and the West Bank from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt, as well as the Golan Heights from Syria. Despite international objections and UN resolutions calling them illegal, Israel began a policy of establishing Israeli settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories. The PLO under Yasser Arafat gradually won international recognition as the representative of the Palestinian people. From 1987 to 1993, the First Palestinian Intifada against Israel took place, ending with the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords.

These accords established a Palestinian National Authority as an interim body to run parts of Gaza and the West Bank (but not East Jerusalem) as per an agreed solution to the conflict. During the Second Intifada (2000–2005), Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and began building the West Bank barrier. In 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections and took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, triggering the Israeli and Egyptian Blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is still in place today. In 2008–09 and again in 2014, Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip engaged in conflict.

Now that we have properly established the historical context that the nation of Israel was created in, we can examine these events a bit more closely. From the very inception of it’s creation in 1948, the nation of Israel has unjustly obtained more and more land by underhanded and forceful means. The populations of these areas were forced from their homes by the Israeli government, it essentially stripped thousands of their homes that had been in families for decades, if not potentially longer. The Israeli/Egyptian blockade established was essentially to block the Palestinian people from receiving any forms of humanitarian aid and essential supplies from any sympathetic nations. It’s nothing more than a noose around the neck of the people of Palestine. Some will point to Hamas’ control of Gaza as the rationale for this maneuver, however it’s very understandable the level of animosity generated from the actions of Israel that led to Hamas taking the actions that it has. That statement is in no way any offering support or even condoning their actions, merely a declaration that the actions are understandable. The tragic aspect of that is because of the heavy handedness of the Israeli government, Palestinian civilians have paid the price in blood for them.

Perhaps the most viable option would be for Hamas to move away from the tactics they have been utilizing, as their countrymen are paying a very harsh price for their actions, to disarm and declare an end to their former stance, and seek assistance from sympathetic nations, as even the UN has condemned the actions of Israel. However, if that were the case, the international community would need to come to their immediate assistance, lest Israel perceive an opportunity to eradicate them. Perhaps they should seek to engage in the political arena, and not the battlefield. This would lend legitimacy to their cause in the eyes of the world, since as it stands now, they bear the official label of terrorist organization. So long as they bear that designation, they will always be seen as unacceptable.

There have been accusations that Hamas uses civilians as essentially human shields, however as seen in the recent massacre of scores of Palestinians protesting too closely to the barrier erected between Israel and Gaza, the Israeli military is entirely capable of inflicting harm and death on civilians without that even needing to be the case. The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross for the Middle East, Robert Mardini, stated as of 19 June 2018, more than 13,000 Palestinians have been wounded, most of them severely, with approximately 1,400 struck by three to five bullets. No Israelis were physically harmed from 30 March to 12 May, then one Israeli soldier was reported as slightly wounded on 14 May, the day the protests peaked, when 60 Palestinians were shot dead at twelve clash points along the border fence. I even recall the story of a Palestinian medic being targeted by an Israeli sniper while she tended the wounded and gunned down. If this medic was clearly identifiable as medical personnel (which I’m sure she probably was, for safety reasons), that stands as a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions, which states medical personnel that are clearly identifiable as such are in no way to be engaged.

Israel’s use of deadly force was condemned by several human rights groups (Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, and Amnesty International), and even the UN in a General Assembly resolution that was brought before it on 13 June 2018, however that resolution was blocked by the US’s appointed ambassador. It seems the current administration has no worth for ensuring human rights do not get violated except if it’s perpetrated against a nation who shares the same stance as it does. The government of Israel exerts direct control over Gaza and indirect control within. It controls 6 of the 7 border crossings, and even access to essential services, among them water, electricity, and telecommunication services. Under the Geneva Conventions the Palestinian people fall under the classification as protected persons, yet they are clearly in no way being adequately protected by the international community. All because the bully on the block, the US, continues to stand in opposition to their protection, it’s time for us, and the global citizenry, to demand this comes to a close.

Interestingly enough, calls for a Jewish “state” were never mentioned by the founders of the Zionist movement. They intentionally refrained from using that terminology and chose to utilize terms such as “homeland”, as declaring a strictly Jewish state would in essence create an apartheid state, as citizenry would be strictly limited to Jews, and no one else. However, actual quotes from the founder of the Zionist movement show a nefarious plan being conceived. Theodor Herzl, the father of the Zionist movement stated the following… "It would be an excellent idea to call in respectable, accredited anti-Semites as liquidators of property. To the people they would vouch for the fact that we do not wish to bring about the impoverishment of the countries that we leave. At first they must not be given large fees for this; otherwise we shall spoil our instruments and make them despicable as 'stooges of the Jews.' Later their fees will increase, and in the end we shall have only Gentile officials in the countries from which we have emigrated. The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies."

This hardly seems like it’s an idea that comes from the premise of the Torah or the Talmud, let alone in any way, shape, or form, even remotely associated with anything that could be floated as being acceptable to God. For a man to conceive a plan of this nature is one strictly to further his own ambitions, and has absolutely nothing to do with the will of God. In 1920, other Zionists voiced similar ideas, including Nahum Goldmann, later president of the World Zionist Organization and World Jewish Congress head. Israel’s first president, Chaim Weizman, said Germany had too many Jews. In 1921, Jacob Klatzkin called for German Jews to undermine Jewish communities as a way to acquire a future state.

In 1963, Moshe Sharett (Israel’s second prime minister from 1953 – 1955) told the 38th Scandinavian Youth Federation Annual Congress that Jewish freedom imperiled Zionism. Delegates at the 26th World Zionist Congress were told that easing US anti-Semitism and freedom endangered Jews. It has absolutely nothing to do or even remotely connected to the ways and desires of God, simply the desires of man. Sadly, there are thousands, if not millions who are completely ignorant to these historical truths because they are intentionally not being revealed. As a Jewish man and firm believer in God (although not the traditional views advocated by many), I stand in full solidarity with the Palestinian people. Does this mean in any way I am anti-Israel? Absolutely not, I firmly believe the Jewish people should in fact have a homeland, however that it should in no way be established through injustice and suffering inflicted against the Palestinian people. Their espousement of Zionism must cease. If the religious heretics of the Zionist movement believe they have God siding with them, they are sadly mistaken. According to belief, God is very patient, but patience only lasts so long.

To those who would say that the actions of Israel are acceptable in the eyes of the Lord, I offer the following:

Proverbs 31:8  פְּתַח־פִּ֥יךָ לְאִלֵּ֑ם אֶל־דִּ֝֗ין כָּל־בְּנֵ֥י חֲלֽוֹף׃

Speak up for the dumb, For the rights of all the unfortunate.

Proverbs 31:9 פְּתַח־פִּ֥יךָ שְׁפָט־צֶ֑דֶק וְ֝דִ֗ין עָנִ֥י וְאֶבְיֽוֹן׃ (פ)

Speak up, judge righteously, Champion the poor and the needy.

Jeremiah 22:13 ה֣וֹי בֹּנֶ֤ה בֵיתוֹ֙ בְּֽלֹא־צֶ֔דֶק וַעֲלִיּוֹתָ֖יו בְּלֹ֣א מִשְׁפָּ֑ט בְּרֵעֵ֙הוּ֙ יַעֲבֹ֣ד חִנָּ֔ם וּפֹעֲל֖וֹ לֹ֥א יִתֶּן־לֽוֹ׃

Ha! he who builds his house with unfairness And his upper chambers with injustice, Who makes his fellow man work without pay And does not give him his wages,

Hosea 10:13 חֲרַשְׁתֶּם־רֶ֛שַׁע עַוְלָ֥תָה קְצַרְתֶּ֖ם אֲכַלְתֶּ֣ם פְּרִי־כָ֑חַשׁ כִּֽי־בָטַ֥חְתָּ בְדַרְכְּךָ֖ בְּרֹ֥ב גִּבּוֹרֶֽיךָ׃

You have plowed wickedness, You have reaped iniquity— [And] you shall eat the fruits of treachery— Because you relied on your way, On your host of warriors.

Deuteronomy 16:20 צֶ֥דֶק צֶ֖דֶק תִּרְדֹּ֑ף לְמַ֤עַן תִּֽחְיֶה֙ וְיָרַשְׁתָּ֣ אֶת־הָאָ֔רֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ נֹתֵ֥ן לָֽךְ׃ (ס)

Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

Proverbs 22:8 זוֹרֵ֣עַ עַ֭וְלָה יקצור־[יִקְצָר־] אָ֑וֶן וְשֵׁ֖בֶט עֶבְרָת֣וֹ יִכְלֶֽה׃

He who sows injustice shall reap misfortune; His rod of wrath shall fail.

Trump's Game

By Richard Trotsky

In recent weeks we have seen heart wrenching images of children in tears, after being stripped from their parents arms. We have heard the audio recordings of the terrified and confused children wondering where their mothers or fathers are. We have witnessed the callous disregard that elected officials have expressed for these unfortunate individuals, and we have even seen some attempt to justify these atrocious actions using religion as a means of justification. I myself have been brought to tears imagining what I would do if I were in that situation, and my two beautiful daughters were taken from me in those circumstances. What heinous crime are these people guilty of that could warrant such a cruel and inhumane course of action? That of desiring a better life for themselves, and for their families. The desire to be able to provide a sense of safety and security for the ones they love and cherish.

Both sides of my family, my mother’s and father’s, both emigrated there from their respective home countries. I’m only a third generation American, my great grandparents on my mother’s side came to this country with the hopes of having a better life for themselves and their children. As far as my father’s side, well, that’s more of a bit of a mystery that my siblings have been unable to unravel, so not much is known about it. Never the less, they left all they had behind and came to this country longing for the embrace of Lady Liberty as they were part of the huddled masses yearning to breathe free.  America has long been a beacon of hope for oppressed millions throughout the decades and even to this very day, millions more still see it as that beacon.

I find it particularly appalling that the current administration has acted in such an inhuman manner. Immigrants have been continually painted in a broad stroke as criminals, thugs, and terminology has been used that essentially compares them to some kind of infectious disease that is a danger to average Americans and should be eradicated. That seems like a significantly far cry from the words Emma Lazarus wrote which are enshrined on the base of The Statue of Liberty. Have we strayed so far from those ideals which led to America becoming the great beacon of hope of which so many long to be a part of? In short, the vast majority of us haven’t, yet it seems there is a very thin layer of those who have. This layer, has somehow entrenched itself in American politics, it has infected the fibers of the moral fabric of our nation. Yes, I used the very term that has been used incorrectly to demonize immigrants, as it’s much more appropriate when used in this context.

This blatant xenophobia is based on inaccurate statements made by the president himself. Continuously making references to specific gangs in South America in an attempt to mislead the masses into believing there are thousands of these individuals coming across the border in droves. The fact of the matter is quite the contrary, and actual statistics show that there are not in fact thousands coming across the border, but more along the lines of several hundred. Hardly the quantity that the president would have us believe. That comes as no surprise, as he repeatedly makes baseless accusations in his statements, only to be forced to back peddle once factual evidence to the contrary is presented. Even more ridiculous, on several occasions he actually denied making such statements, fortunately for us, he seems to lack the general knowledge that social media sites keep records of posts on their servers. This kind of behavior could very well be an indicator of some form of mental illness.

Lets analyze some of the accusations that he’s made thus far. He alleges that there are hundreds, if not thousands of violent gang members crossing the border illegally. Since the Trump administration took office, the Border Patrol has detected fewer gang members crossing irregularly than during the Obama administration. In FY2017, these amounted to 0.075 percent of the total number of migrants (228 MS-13 members out of 303,916 total migrants). When combined with MS-13’s rival, the Barrio 18 gang, the number rises only slightly to 0.095 percent. So as far as his accusation that there are thousands coming across the border, try again Mr. President.

Next, let’s take a closer look at his statement that undocumented immigrants take American jobs. Well, it seems according to the Brookings Institute’s Senior Fellow Vanda Felbab-Brown, many of the jobs undocumented immigrants take are often physically demanding positions that most Americans don’t want, such as gutting fish or farm hands. What’s more, in a 2016 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine which assembled research of 14 leading economists, demographers, and other scholars (including several of Ivy league accreditation) states the following:

• “We found little to no negative effects on overall wages and employment of native-born workers in the longer term,” said Francine D. Blau, an economics professor at Cornell University who led the group that produced the 550-page report.

• Some immigrants who arrived in earlier generations, but were still in the same low-wage labor markets as foreigners just coming to the country, earned less and had more trouble finding jobs because of the competition with newer arrivals.

• Teenagers who did not finish high school also saw their hours of work reduced by immigrants, although not their ability to find jobs. Professor Blau said economists had found many reasons that young people who drop out of high school struggle to find work. “There is no indication immigration is the major factor,” she said.

• High-skilled immigrants, especially in technology and science, who have come in larger numbers in recent years, had a significant “positive impact” on Americans with skills, and also on working-class Americans. They spurred innovation, helping to create jobs.

Hmmmm, that sounds like significantly different assessment to me than the “sky is falling” approach to immigration that the president presents. What’s even more delusional, is the assertion that this “law” he cited on several occasions as being enacted by Democrats cannot be recalled by any Republican member of government. To directly quote California Republican Representative Jeff Denham “I don't think we're sure what bill he is actually commenting on, so we're waiting for him to clarify”. Yet again, simply another clearly deceptive statement given by the president to attempt to justify his blatantly fascist policy. The alarming truth is that it was simply his decision granting the institution of a zero-tolerance policy towards immigration, which was enacted by his fascist cohort, Attorney General Jeff Sessions.  

There is a significantly disturbing event in history that closely parallels the actions undertaken by the administration, and I won’t even mention the issue of a senior member of government citing scripture as validation to undertake such an injustice (must I point out Jefferson’s open letter to the Danbury Baptists, in which he directed attention to the dangers of the interfusing of church and state?). That event occurred in the early 1940’s, where approximately 400,000 children were taken from their parents and placed in “assimilation” camps to be properly “Germanized”. These poor children never saw their birth families again, and were essentially stripped of their identities and given ones more pleasing to the Nazi regime. There is actually one individual who is currently bringing suit against the German government for these actions committed, and this poor soul has no idea of whom he was before he was sent to the camps.  My heart truly breaks for this man.

There seemed to be a glimmer of hope, when the president signed an executive order granting the reunification of the children with their parents, yet this was a half-hearted half-measure, as it contained no definitive course of action to reunite them. It was nothing more than an attempt to appease the massive outcry from the American people in response to this cruel injustice. According to this new order, it kept children of undocumented immigrants detained together with their families, however allowed for modification of a condition that could potentially allow these families to be detained indefinitely. Fortunately, to my knowledge that condition was never modified

   

Most recently was the announcement of the federal court judge issuing a ruling ordering the children reunited with their families. This order has one significantly inherent flaw, that separations could still occur provided the parent is deemed unfit. Fortunately it would seem that Customs and Border Protection found a slight degree of humanity and stated it would freeze criminal referrals for crossing the border illegally, as this could very well be grounds to question the fitness of parents. However Justice Department officials displayed no such sign of humanity nor mercy, stating that U.S. attorneys would continue to prosecute the cases. In an even greater farce of the immigration system legality, these children have actually started appearing in court without any council to represent them, and often have to complete the complex immigration forms alone. Sadly, in immigration proceedings, unlike criminal and family law proceedings, the court is not obligated to assign council to the defendants if they have no ability to retain such. There are literally toddlers representing themselves in immigration court! How does this amount in any way, shape, or form any semblance of a fair hearing?

This ruling allowed the administration 14 days to reunite children under the age of 5 with their parents, and 30 days to reunite children the age of 5 or older with their parents. This would appear on the surface as a significant step in the right direction, however the ugly face of the half-hearted measure enacted by the president struck again. There have been deportations of individuals who had been detained already undertaken, with their children still remaining in detention facilities. These children are now alone in detention centers faced with the potential life devastating affect of never seeing their parents again. There has been talk of resorting to DNA testing to reunite the children with their parents since there has been such chaos on account of the clearly vague, and simplistic executive order. Which was issued by an individual who has no concept of the political arena, clearly cannot fathom the interconnectedness of the contemporary global capitalist economy, and has incited vicious attacks against Muslims, people of color, and anyone who doesn’t adhere to his nationalistic aspirations, including the media. All his mind can comprehend is how to deregulate so the elite can amass even more multitudes of wealth.

The administration has requested an extension of the deadline stipulated in the court order, and I truly hope it gets denied. It is my steadfast hope that this administration will be found in absolute contempt. It would in no way be a befitting punishment for the audacity that the administration has to enact such half-hearted measures, and display the callousness it has, yet it still would be a punishment. What is truly needed is a mass mobilization of individuals in response to these clearly xenophobic policies and racist rhetoric. What is needed is not in fact a strictly political revolution, as stated by some. That does nothing but replace those in power with more of the same institutional actors, but rather a genuine social revolution that forces the elite to surrender power and places it squarely and firmly in the hands of the masses. What’s needed is genuine and authentic change, and that begins with us. That begins with a political party that truly represents the best interests of the workers and the oppressed. That hope does not lie with those who remain embedded and in reverence of the current system. Such a contradiction can never, and will never be able to occupy the same space and time. Those who uphold the system will always consume those trying to break those bonds. The thought that one can enter a rigged game and come out the victor couldn’t be clearer in it’s absurdity. In this game there are only ever allowed two players, those being the two capitalist parties themselves. Thus, the only option is to smash the game itself.