What is Racism? The UN definition of 1965 tells us.

This article is a case study of the behavior of racist governments and anyone who thinks that the UN rescinded its designation of Zionism as racism for any other reason than the pressure applied by the US government (itself an example of institutional racism) is sadly mistaken. ["The UN General Assembly based its 1975 anti-Zionist resolution on the UN’s own definition of racial discrimination, adopted in 1965. According to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, racial discrimination is “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.” "-- Counterpunch, November 5, 2003 "Zionism as Racist Ideology" by BILL CHRISTISON - KATHLEEN CHRISTISON]

Just as a matter of logic, as long as the word "any" is in the Convention how can Zionism escape inclusion in the definition of racial discrimination? Can anyone honestly say that Palestinians and Israeli Arabs have "equal footing" with Jewish citizens of Israel? US democracy is also racist as it does not treat minority people and the poor on an "equal footing" with the privileged white majority. We will never be rid of racism, if we are to be honest, until we have a society in which the principle of from each according to his/her ability to each according to his/her needs is actually practiced.

About this website

NYTIMES.COM

As West Bank Violence Surges, Israel Is Silent on Attacks by Jews

Israel’s government has been reluctant to condemn attacks by Jewish settlers, wary of alienating the movement’s supporters in an election year.

Columbus brings Christian Civilization to the New World

"The implications of the study go beyond climate science and also contribute to research in geography and history, Maslin [co-author of the study] said, noting that deaths of indigenous Americans directly contributed to the success of the European economy." The mass genocide [continuing in the Amazon to this day] of native Americans (56 million) is the foundation on which our present-day Capitalist (especially its American form) system rests. "Make America Great Again" is the outgrowth of the worst forms of this genocide which also produced modern forms of slavery, colonialism, and the warfare state the US has become with its pseudo-democracy and disdain for the peoples of the Third World whom it indiscriminately kills on a daily basis to feed its arms industry and thirst for world hegemony.

CNN.COM

European colonizers killed so many Native Americans that it changed the global climate

University College London researchers estimate that settlers killed 56 million indigenous people, causing farmland to be reforested. That increase in vegetation resulted in a massive decrease in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Is RT reliable versus American Main Stream Media?

Is RT reliable? It reflects the point of view of the Russian "Establishment' [RE] in the same way as the US media reflects the point of view of the US "Establishment" [USE]. On the issue of Venezuela, the RE supports non-intervention as it sees no way that it could benefit from the downfall of the present government. The USE wants to get rid of the present government because it sees many benefits to itself in regards to the direct exploitation of natural resources in the country. 

So, if there is a scale of 0 to 100, 0 being no benefit and 100 being fabulously great riches and power now at your disposal whether you trust the reporting of RT or the US media will be determined by where on that scale you find yourself (or you might think you would find yourself) plus your own value system when it's working. Since I find myself at 0 on the scale and I don't believe in war and killing people by my government just because the people who run it find themselves at 100 on the scale, I find RT, on this issue, more reliable than the mass media in the US. 

Most people are influenced by the mass media e.g., most Germans in 1938 supported their government's worldview on foreign issues, as do most Americans today (even with an idiosyncratic and perhaps mentally unstable president upsetting the bipartisan consensus) and that's why RT's slogan "QUESTION MORE" is better than that of the New York Times which implies it has done your thinking for you since it gives you "ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PRINT."

RT.COM

‘Direct nexus between US sanctions & death’ – UN rapporteur slams ‘economic war’ on Venezuela

The US is waging “economic war” against Venezuela and engaging in a coordinated effort to “demonize” President Nicolas Maduro, believes UN rapporteur to Venezuela and expert on international law Alfred de Zayas.

A Black Life That Didn't Matter

"The guards were not culpable because “none of them expressed any belief that a stomachache could result in her death,” Ms. Becker [the prosecuter] said in an interview.

Staff members receive no medical training that could have helped them assess Ms. Dockery’s condition. “I am pretty sure she is going through withdrawals,” Tiffany Faigh, the work-release coordinator, wrote in an email to seven other employees. “She claims she hasn’t ate since she has been here, which is probably why her stomach hurts.”"

That's the point -- no medical training to assess her condition -- but they assessed it anyway: "pretty sure" it's withdrawal; "probably' her stomach ache due to not eating. If you are not medically trained your duty is to call someone who is and if someone dies because you are practicing medical diagnosis without a license then you are guilty of criminally negligent homicide (involuntary manslaughter). The failure to prosecute is a political, not a legal, decision. It's not that they didn't listen, they didn't care.

About this website

NYTIMES.COM

‘I’m Going to Die Here,’ She Told the Guards. They Didn’t Listen.

Biden sells out for a mess of pottage!

Run Joe Run -- right out of the Democratic Party! Any doubts about Biden? He sold out the DP candidate for a $200,000 speakers fee. This is just the kind of Wall Street Democrat we don't want in the coalition. Enemies of the working class come in many forms, but once exposed progressives shouldn't fall for their blandishments. This NYT exposé should end Biden's presidential bid once and for all -- he sold his chances for a mess of pottage.

About this website

NYTIMES.COM

Joe Biden’s Paid Speech Buoyed the G.O.P. in Midwest Battleground

The former vice president’s address in October helped Fred Upton, a vulnerable Republican, win re-election in Michigan. Mr. Biden earned $200,000 for the speech.

Like

Like

Love

Haha

Wow

Sad

Angry

Comment

Remembering Luxemburg and Liebknecht

"The German communist leaders were assassinated in 1919 as the Spartacist revolt was crushed by the “Freikorps,” a far-right grouping of demobbed German soldiers who had refused to give up their weapons after the German surrender in World War I, on the orders of Social Democrat Party leaders Friedrich Ebert and Gustav Noske." No wonder the Communist Party and the Social Democrats couldn't unite against Hitler -- when push came to shove the Social Democrats ordered the ultra-right to kill the Communist leaders. Not a good recommendation for coalition politics. Today the Social Democrats are pro-NATO and allies with US Imperialism and collaborate in the conservative anti-Socialist government of Angela Merkel.

MORNINGSTARONLINE.CO.UK

Berlin pays its respects to Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht

Ben ChackoMonday, January 14, 2019 Berlin pays its respects to Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht × You can read 19 more articles this month Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here by Ben Chackoin Berlin THOUSANDS marched through Berlin yesterday to pay their respects 100 years aft...

Mongols Biker Club & The Government

SUNDAY SERMON (1-13-19): "Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." --Matthew 7:16-20 Why this quote from The Sermon on the Mount (The Communist Manifesto of its day)? Well, because this story about the Mongols Biker Club is an instantiation of Jesus' sermon in so far as the Mongols are the fruit of the society they have grown up in, they reflect in miniature the capitalist society of "USA, USA". Consider the following quote: “These men, fueled by, based on the evidence which you’ve heard, by rage and methamphetamine, empowered by these symbols that they wear like armor, roaming the world like urban predators searching for people to victimize,” Mr. Welk said". Welk, the prosecutor, could have been describing how many of the poor and oppressed of the world view US Imperialism and it's military (let alone minority communities in the US with relation to the police) and the loyalty they show towards their logo is analogous to the pagan flag worship inculcated by the US government (just replace "methamphetamine" with "addiction to the natural resources and wealth of others"). The Mongols defend themselves from the accusation they are a criminal organization because of the violence associated with some of their members with the following argument: "Mr. Yanny [Mongol's lawyer] also stated that crimes carried out by Mongols were “spontaneous rogue acts of individuals” that were not hatched or approved by club officers. Referring to the brutal 1991 beating of Rodney King by a group of Los Angeles police officers, he told the jury “that doesn’t make the L.A.P.D. a criminal organization."” Really? Shoot a police person and it's a crime; a police person shoots an unarmed, and even surrendering or non-violent ordinary citizen (especially a minority person) and it's .... What? The Mongols, the Police, and the Military, what do they have in common?-- "Ye shall know them by their fruits."

About this website

NYTIMES.COM

Jury Orders Mongols Biker Club to Forfeit Its Logo, the ‘Holy of Holies’The verdict by the California jury was not the final word: The judge said he would first consider the club’s constitutional rights to free speech.

Temple of "Flayed Lord" Found

We can't be too judgemental as our culture worships by engaging in ritual cannibalism by drinking the blood and eating the flesh of a "Crucified Lord" -- just imagine the psyche damage to the unconscious of children who have to give up the belief in a fat jolly elf to whom they leave offerings of milk and cookies for a god whose human body and blood they have to eat and drink! No wonder we have a mental health problem and teenagers driven to drugs!

About this website

NYTIMES.COM

Archaeologists Find Pre-Columbian Temple of ‘Flayed Lord’ in Central MexicoMexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History said archaeologists had found the first temple dedicated to an important fertility god, whose worshipers were said to wear the skin of sacrificial victims.

The NYT: Objective Reporting or a Bit of a Whitewash?

The NYT is trying to look objective but this story is a bit of whitewash of the Israeli military. There is no balance between the two sides in the following quote: "To the Palestinians, she was an innocent martyr killed in cold blood, an example of Israel’s disregard for Palestinian life. To the Israelis, she was part of a violent protest aimed at destroying their country, to which lethal force is a legitimate response as a last resort." Here is why: 1. She was an innocent (an unarmed medic in a white coat); 2. She was murdered in cold blood (shooting at unarmed civilians is a war crime); 3. the protest was against the blockade of Gaza not for the destruction of Israel (fat chance of unarmed Palestinians taking on the Israeli military!); 4. Israel is using lethal force as a choice of first resort not as a last resort. 

Any fair reading of the article should convince you that the Israeli military does disregard Palestinian life (just as the US does by its wholehearted support of the Israeli policies of oppression, occupation and ethnic cleansing.) There is no threat to the existence of Israel and both Israel and a Palestinian state should be able to coexist in the Middle East and that will only happen when the UN and the world community force the US and the ultra-right Israeli government to agree to allow the Palestinians to be free -- unfortunately this doesn't look like it will happen anytime soon so this needless bloodshed will continue.

NYTIMES.COM

A Day, a Life: When a Medic Was Killed in Gaza, Was It an Accident?When an Israeli soldier killed Rouzan al-Najjar, Palestinians called her an innocent martyr and Israel portrayed her as a threat. The truth is more complicated.

Government Sponsored Youth Beatings

This report highlights the fact that these young prisoners were treated exactly like our movies and TV portray the treatment of prisoners in NAZI and Communist prisons -- and this in a state effectively run by the Democrats and Republicans -- both of whom are portrayed as representing the USA as a freedom loving country which would never act like the NAZI or Communist enemies. Meanwhile, our police and correction officers and populated more and more by white supremacists and neo-Nazis who are actively seeking to infiltrate these state agencies. This type of brutality is portrayed as SOP in countries such as Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, etc., but as the result of rogue individuals acting on their own in the US or our allies. President Trump even condones the bloodthirsty murder and dismembering of a journalist by the Saudi Government on the orders of its de facto leader Prince Salman as the action of rogue elements acting behind his back. In NY both the mayor of NYC and the state's governor are aware of the brutality carried out against young offenders by ordinary as well as some of the highest ranking officers and we shall see if any officials are fired, let alone prosecuted as the criminals they are. Kudos as well for the NYT which everyone in a while exposes the bare bones reality behind the surface of bourgeois democracy (when advertising revenue isn't threatened).

About this website

NYTIMES.COM

Young Inmates Say They Were Shipped Upstate, Held in Isolation and BeatenThe abuse was designed for inmates from Rikers Island who had been accused of assaulting correction officers, according to a lawsuit.

Identity Politics vs Class Consciousness

The distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is continually being abused and/or ignored. Also, some of the comments made by the disputants in this article about "all Jews" and all white people should remind us of the perilous terrain we enter when we start talking about "all" of an ethnic, religious, or national group (all Black people, the Chinese are such and such, the Irish, etc.,) this is the soil in which the seeds of racism are sown. The greatest confusion of all is the lack of understanding about class as opposed to ethnicity. Jewish bankers and Jewish factory workers have little in common in their living standards and lifestyles and have more in common with Black Bankers and Black factory workers respectively, and working-class women have more in common with working-class men than either has with upper-class bourgeois capitalist men or women. Identity politics is, in fact, a ruling class invention to tamper down and prevent the development of class consciousness by dividing the oppressed along "racial," gender, ethnic and religious lines as they know full well that once class consciousness is fully developed it marks the beginning of the end of their oppressive rule. Let's not help them in this by playing by their rule book.

About this website

NYTIMES.COM

Women’s March Roiled by Accusations of Anti-SemitismAs the second anniversary of the Women’s March approaches, charges of anti-Semitism are overshadowing the movement and plans for more marches.

Alexandra Kollontai Meets Hillary Clinton

Is Hillary Clinton a perfect example of the bourgeois pseudo-feminist described in this quote from Alexandra Kollontai?* It seems the corporate wing of the Democratic Party that she (along with Schumer, Biden, Pelosi and their allies) represents is utterly incapable of truly representing the interests of working-class women (let alone men) [excuse the binary classification]. The working class vote for Trump is mainly due to the underdeveloped understanding of class consciousness amongst working people [which it is the duty of Marxists to try to correct, and not by uncritically supporting right wing and "moderate" Democrats in the name of defeating Republicans]. Unless Marxists can find a way to radicalize the consciousness of the working class, without compromising opportunistic short-term tactics, the capitalist 1% will continue its rule by playing musical chairs with the leadership of the Republican and Democratic parties while Communists and other progressives will continue to play second fiddle to the bourgeoisie.

*"Class instinct – whatever the feminists say – always shows itself to be more powerful than the noble enthusiasms of “above-class” politics. So long as the bourgeois women and their [proletarian] “younger sisters” are equal in their inequality, the former can, with complete sincerity, make great efforts to defend the general interests of women. But once the barrier is down and the bourgeois women have received access to political activity, the recent defenders of the “rights of all women” become enthusiastic defenders of the privileges of their class, content to leave the younger sisters with no rights at all. Thus, when the feminists talk to working women about the need for a common struggle to realise some “general women’s” principle, women of the working class are naturally distrustful.
— Alexandra Kollontai (1909), The Social Basis of the Woman Question,"

Reeducation Camps in Xinjiang

Actually, we don't really know what is going on in Xinjiang and are basically only getting one side of the story -- the anti-Chinese Communist version. The Chinese have openly stated they are building a new kind of civilization different from the capitalist West and one based on Marxism with a heavy dose of traditional Chinese cultural values originating in Confucianism and one in which a collective consciousness is valued over the Western concepts of egotism and individualism and one not based on values due to religious beliefs which are seen as backwards and divisive. This new civilization, which seems progressive and valuable to the Chinese, appears threatening and distasteful to people in the West who have been conditioned to a different set of values, and especially distasteful to many Americans who think the values of our racially unjust, poverty infected and war addicted society reflect some sort of model that others should find attractive. With one of the largest prison populations in the world parts of which are used for slave labor under the guise of "rehabilitation," the negative comments of Americans addressed to the Chinese will likely fall on deaf ears.

About this website

NYTIMES.COM

China’s Detention Camps for Muslims Turn to Forced LaborMounting evidence suggests ethnic minorities caught in the mass internment drive in Xinjiang are being assigned to new factories making clothes.

Trump & Kushner : Accessories After the Fact in Khashoggi Murder?

Wm. Blackstone in his "Commentaries on the Laws of England" (still cited by the US Supreme Court) says the following: "An accessory after the fact may be, where a person, knowing a felony to have been committed, receives, relieves, comforts, or assists the felon. Therefore, to make an accessory ex post facto, it is in the first place requisite that he knows of the felony committed.18 In the next place, he must receive, relieve, comfort, or assist him. And, generally, any assistance whatever given to a felon, to hinder his being apprehended, tried, or suffering punishment, makes the assistor an accessory." According to this Guardian article, Jared Kushner has been advising Prince Salman on how to escape taking the blame for the murder of Khashoggi and we have all heard Trump trying to justify taking no action to see the prince facing any criminal charges as a consequence of his actions. Any reasonable person would consider them as accomplices ("any assistance whatever") after the fact in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

About this website

THEGUARDIAN.COM

Saudis reject extradition as alleged last moments of Jamal Khashoggi detailed

Kingdom hits back at Turkey’s handling of investigation into death of journalist

1 Comment

Li