Obama -care a long way from Ted Kennedy's dream

Who is so smug and self confident about their economic " independence " that they can afford to sneer at this modest beginning of a national health care system ? In this new century America even so called " middle class " types might be just a paycheck away from living in their cars.
The former editorial page editor of this newspaper, Robert Whitcomb , had the right-or the Left- idea : just extend Medicare to all Americans.
Obama-care is a long way from Senator Ted Kennedy's dream of health care for ALL Americans as a basic human right.
And I find it ridiculous that our health insurance system separates dental health from general health care. Our vital teeth in the same category as Hair & Nails !
We are way behind Old Europe in basic humanity.Even Euro-capitalism is not the Ayn Rand model-so popular with EVERY Republican candidate for president.
[ radicalrons.blogspot.com ]

       

Robert Whitcomb thought Medicare system could be extended

Hitler's " Mein Kampf " and " Je suis Charlie Hebdo "

     What really limits FREE SPEECH in this American society is class rule. Long ago Karl Marx wrote : " the ruling ideas are the ideas of the ruling class ". Just months ago in France capitalist " democracy " had a FREE SPEECH love-in : " Je suis Charlie Hebdo ! " they all shouted. And then -no doubt- they all-in the spirit of that rally- applauded the publication of a new edition of Hitler's " Mein Kampf " in modern Germany( highly annotated ).
Voltaire was quoted by some participants in the FREE SPEECH circus: " I may not agree with what you say but I will defend-to death- your right to say it."
And that is also the spirit of ALL free speech monitors in this " land of the free ".
But even old Ralph Nader is banned from presidential debates ! And Socialism-what's that ? Just concentration camps and tyranny !

                 

Poor white kids have been invisible for years !

    What does it mean if the American ruling class -the famous ONE PERCENT- completely believes that the black Americans it exploits and oppresses are EQUAL in every way to the white people it exploits and oppresses ? Better times for all ?
For decades now one sided CLASS warfare has hurt black Americans much more than any blatant displays of racism. Many more black youths are murdered by killer cops under the banner of Old Glory than under the flag of the Confederacy.
These establishment professors are trying to separate RACE oppression from CLASS oppression. So in a way the white worker-if he is not very successful in American capitalist society- can only blame himself: he must be lazy and ignorant and shiftless because he is not the victim of race prejudice.
Socialists have no quarrel with affirmative action. But poor white kids have been invisible for years.
I would tell them -unlike this Brown professor- to get angry not at black people. No, get angry at American capitalism.

Poor white kids in the South

                               

                          

U.S. ruling class has turned atheist ( Ayn Rand style )

Ten Commandments Tablet Gone

     The spirit of " love and forgiveness " has rarely disappeared from religious communities-Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Islamic. Yet the recent Supreme Court ruling raised concerns-even among orthodox Jews in Israel -that the wording of the ruling failed to reaffirm freedom to practice religion.
I note in psychopath Dylann Storm Roof's racist " manifesto " not a word about God or faith. The " manifesto " is sick indeed but also quite lucid.
Not everybody " on the Left " is oblivious to systematic bashing of religious faith in this country.
I concluded long ago that  our wealthy ruling class is behind it- not sinister Marxists. Their " culture of narcissism " cannot accept any Supreme Being beyond SELF. They can hardly live with the Ten Commandments.
I remember seeing " The Ten Commandments " monument while taking pleasant long walks in Roger Williams Park.
I do not remember ever being offended by it.
Did Dylann Storm Roof ever reflect on this commandment : " Thou shalt not kill " ?
Just where was his " Christian Identity " ?
Even good atheist humanists should ponder these words from a character in Dostoevsky: " If God does not exist, then everything is permitted ". Yes, even Ayn Rand capitalism.

Other city parks also removed TEN COMMANDMENTS tablet

    

Gay marriage in Israel- orthodoxy still rules

   There is an active gay life community in Israel. But I find it interesting that very many religious Jews over there are as upset with the U.S. Supreme Court ruling as Catholic Bishops in America. They think that the very wording of the ruling on gay marriage does not reaffirm the " free exercise of religion ". It seems that gay marriage-even civil unions-are not around the corner in Israel ( unless the state goes secular ? )
Not everybody " on the left " in America is blind to growing hostility to organized religion. And indeed the New Atheists do not hide their scorn for individual religious people.Read the Christopher Hitchen's cult classic: " God is not great.... how religion poisons everything ". The book is also very Islamophobic.
" In Ayn Rand We Trust " ? I suspect most of the crowd celebrating gay marriage are libertarians-and non believers in a Supreme Being ( not SELF ) .

Israel rejects gay marriage 

  

Best symbols for capitalist state-electric chair and policeman's club-not Cupid

    ISIS is also telling us that we must follow God. Any student of the history of socialism knows that this political ideal inspired the early feminists. And these early feminists wrote scathing criticism of " bourgeois  marriage " as a pillar of private property and social inequality. Engels wrote about the family as an isolated social unit that atomized the working class. He thought that socialist family would be more communal ( Read " The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State " )
    No educated socialist will idealize and sentimentalize gay marriage. But it does prove that ALL human institutions are " plastic "; they change and evolve.
         Engels would have thought it odd for gay couples to seek validation of LOVE from the state-which he associated with class exploitation and oppression.And pacifists have always associated the capitalist state with war and violence and intimidation of the working class.
        The best symbols for the capitalist state are the Electric Chair and the policeman's  club  -not Cupid.
        

The best symbol of the capitalist state is the electric chair-not Cupid

 

        

Show me a pro-capitalist and I'll show you a LIAR !

@Warren    We know a lot about what can happen if we liberate the grocery industry from greedy unions and constricting regulations, because we've been there before. Marc Levinson's The Great A&P is a fascinating and illuminating history, and Upton Sinclair's classic docu-novel The Jungle shows how much cheaper production can be without them. Caveat emptor!

@Naomi Herzfeld    Socialism will liberate the working class Americans from greedy corporate America. Upton Sinclair was a radical socialist. And " The Jungle " was definitely not anti-union, anti-regulation.
Lenin said it was difficult to find an honest and conscientious opponent.
Malcolm X, the American Black Muslim, said : " Show me a capitalist and I'll show you a blood sucker ".
Show me a pro-capitalist and I'll show you a LIAR !

              

Food items: paying the same or more for LESS !

   I too have noticed this form of commercial rip off in food stores. It is used to maximize profits before raising prices. I recall when a small can of tunafish was packed with it. Now the tuna fish chunks sort of swim in it.
I also notice this form of cheating the consumer in bars of soap. How CURVY they are lately.
Behind most capitalist success fortunes there is not a nickel of honesty. I note that " socialist " Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont is now at a statistical tie in New Hampshire with Hillary Clinton.
Will a woman president in the White House end the daily capitalist rip off ? Does Hillary have a quarrel with the profit system ?

 

Holy Mackerel, StarKist Downsizes Tuna - Mouse Print

www.mouseprint.org/.../holy-mackerel-starkist-downsizes-tu...

Mouse Print

Aug 11, 2008 - Well, how about less water and more tuna in each can? ..... There is definitely less tuna, the tuna is MUSH, and it doesn't taste right. 

Only socialists will give you an " honest discussion on race "

    You will get an honest discussion on RACE only from people who call themselves Socialists. Socialists for more than two centuries have explained odious human inequality with reference to the economic structure of society-with CLASS relationships. The root of racism in American society is CLASS oppression and exploitation.
More black youths are shot dead by killer cops under the banner of Old Glory than under the flag of the southern Confederacy. And why ? Because poor black youths are more likely to commit petty crimes against sacrosanct private property.
You can outlaw the N-word and the Confederate flag. But that does not change socio-economic and political reality.
More poor blacks are hurt by government cutbacks than by any overt racism. You cannot even ride in the back of a RIPTA bus if they cancel your bus pass.
They ( the voice of the ruling class ) tell poor blacks and poor whites to GET AN EDUCATION. Then they cancel public school funding.
Poor blacks and poor whites have the dubious privilege of SERVING their country in the military : make the world safer for the American ruling class.

                

Why free speech ?

     The good citizen must ask : why freedom of speech ? Was this just a magnanimous inspiration of the Founding Fathers ? There was much " free speech " in the Golden Age of Athenian democracy-but not for slaves. There was much " free speech " in the Roman Republic -but not for the slaves nor much for the property-less plebians.
There is still much " free speech " in America-for those who can buy it or own news media. The Internet is an immense boon to really FREE " free speech " for common people.
But still, WHY free speech ? Look to the world of Science: only a free flow of ideas and information can feed progress and relative-if not absolute - truth.
The human mind can be changed-and so can " human nature ". For millions of years it was nothing but hopeless MONKEY NATURE.
It took an impish-not a chimpish- human mind to invent Money & Capitalism. But that is not the end of the story.
Only FREE SPEECH can protect the truth.

  
     

Are Jews white ? Ask the Bloomberg View: " Finding it harder to like Israel "

@Ron Ruggieri, your whole post is goofy and irrelevant. Jews??? Israel??? Wow, you'll make up any iota of an excuse to whine about something.

• @Ernie Zielinski How are the facts of my comment irrelevant to the " goofy " Rachel Dolezal story ? WHO is a white person ? WHO is black ? WHO is a Jew ?

The question of apartheid Israel is highly relevant to working class Christians in America. The U.S. ruling class has decided that WE have a special relationship with Zionist Israel. But should we ?
Many black Americans are , in fact, Black Muslims. Who should they identify with ?
How well do blacks and Jews get along in the United States ? And now many non-European Jews in Israel say : " Jews are not white "
Hence the Bloomberg View headline : " American Jews finding it harder to like Israel ".

      

I assure dissenting Justice Scalia: Socialism will abolish the Supreme Court

 

   Also, as an American Socialist I can assure Justice Scalia that a socialist president of the United States - backed by WE THE PEOPLE - will immediately-the day after winning power- abolish the Supreme Court.
And when -as promised-socialism finally abolishes the State, the law of gay marriage and all laws based on private property right -including inherited wealth-will be NULL and VOID.
All married couples will then be UNCOUPLED and FREE by presidential Emancipation Proclamation.

Socialism will abolish the Supreme Court

                                

  

Even gay marriage is always about MONEY !

 

    As a democratic Socialist I naturally approve the Supreme Court officially legalizing gay marriage. You simply cannot have a couple " married " in one state and not another. But also, as a Socialist influenced by both Marxist " historical materialism " and Catholic social philosophy, I can only offer a sardonic smile listening to the " politically correct " Left making sappy and sentimental tributes to bourgeois state marriage as being all about LOVE validation. Legal state marriage is all about private property rights. Indeed bourgeois marriage is a pillar of social inequality and capitalist consumerism.
For a socialist bachelor like me an expensive gay wedding is just a farce of a farce. Now I must get back to that stack of books on divorce here at the Cranston Public Library. You would think- browsing these books- that marriage is always about MONEY !

    

Bourgeois marriage really all about MONEY

Judge Scalia dissents

But the Supreme Court also says corporate bully is a PERSON too !

      I  respect Bishop Tobin's principled-not hateful-opposition to gay marriage. But Church and State can be compared to an airplane and railroad train. Nobody should expect them to collide.
Oddly enough, the old Baltimore Catechism hints at a way to accept the new reality. The old religious classic insisted that the Catholic Church would recognize as holy NO marriage performed by the State.
So the Supreme Court decision does not challenge " holiness " in the world of Faith.
Also, Mother Nature does indeed veto same sex " mating ". No malice here. It just does not work !
The secular Supreme Court is not stymied by God's plan or Nature's. And it is free even to declare a big business corporation a PERSON.
If I keep mocking corporate America in my blog ( http://radicalrons.blogspot.co... ) , I might soon be charged with a hate crime.

            

" The original Rachel Dolezal was a Jew named Mezz Mezzrow "

From " The Times " of Israel

      According  to one Seth Rogovoy of " Forward ": " The original Rachel Dolezal was a Jew named Mezz Mezzrow "( June 16 ). So were Rachel's parents on the level when they insisted their daughter was Caucasian period ?
According to Bloomberg View ( March 20 ) " non-European Israelis are unabashed about saying they do not want Protestant-Caucasians in Washington telling them what to do ".
This " identity politics " is getting too weird. I suspect DNA now tells the big truth: we humans all come from a race of monkeys. Be proud of our Old Family.... in Africa !
     The heading  of the Bloomberg View article is " American Jews finding it harder to like Israel ".

              " Every time I read about a Jew somewhere identifying as a white person, I cringe. As an Israeli Jew, who like most other Israeli Jews, is completely foreign to the concept of Jews being “white” I would like to address this article to my Jewish brothers and sisters in America.

Ashkenazi Jews who identify as “white”..... "

Rabbi Woody Allen

         
    

       

        

The Catholic Church has broadened its PRO-LIFE perspective

• 
  

  No democratic Socialist would oppose the state legalizing gay marriage. Nor would any Marxist educated socialist join in any " politically correct " faith bashing. On the so called Left there has been much lying vilification of the Catholic Church. No honest liberal would accuse the vast majority of Catholics of having hatred in their hearts for ANY group on the planet.
  Pope Francis was right to suggest that his Church had become too obsessive in defending ancient -and perhaps ossified-views on homosexuality and abortion.
  The " greening of Catholicism " has seen a broadening of its PRO-LIFE perspective. What can be more anti-Life in the modern world than over-population and the sick values of Ayn Rand capitalism ?
  And traditional Marxism never sentimentalized " bourgeois " state marriage- a pillar of inequality and private property.
  
       

France must long for bookish communist enemies

   I will bet that the ruling class of France-now ironically led by a phony " socialist " president - longs for the days when its internal enemies were mostly just Kremlin loving , bookish communists who quoted in a menacing tone from Engels work: " Socialism Utopian and Scientific ".
The Russian Revolutionary Leon Trotsky passionately opposed the politics of terrorism. He believed in MASS ACTION . It worked in Russia in 1917.
The root of Islamic terrorism is not the religion of Islam but culture shock in the Middle East- caused by U.S. imperialism and arrogance of its partner
Zionist, apartheid Israel.
Now they are planning to partition Iraq- after ruining it in a criminal war.

   

The greening of Catholicism and Socialism

    I am delighted with the Catholic Pope's position on human caused climate change. Is it not odd that those religion bashing Ayn Rand fanatics- funded by Koch Brother money- are so vociferously opposed to respectable SCIENCE here ? They believe in Reason & Logic, you see. But what is so rational about global capitalism ?( glad to see socialist-Democrat, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, surging in New Hampshire polls. He just might win there ! )

                

    

Savage beheading in France : " Je suis Madame Guillotine ! "

Execution of Eugene Weidmann in France

The  method of execution of these Islamic terrorists -beheading-arouses revulsion in all civilized people. Are not THEY so sub-human savage? And yet the last PUBLIC beheading (using the venerable Madame Guillotine)  was indeed in France on June 17, 1939. The name of the executed prisoner was Eugene Weidmann. He murdered a socialite. The behavior of the wild eyed mob was a national scandal: they were " disgusting, clamoring, unruly, whistling, jostling." Some women wiped their handkerchiefs on the blood stained sidewalk. Soon French officials decided that such gory public executions were an obscenity and did not deter crime but aroused "base instincts in human nature."

Let these fine French people today shout: "Je suis Madame Guillotine!"
Nobel Prize winning French author Albert Camus- a humanistic atheist- wrote about these sickening public executions. And he warned: "In fighting our enemies let us not come to resemble them."

The U.S.  War on Terror is coming to resemble THEM ! 

Link to YouTube Video

Nature would veto gay " mating " - but without political malice

  Just a friendly philosophical question : since when did gay marriage become a self-evident legal right ? Why was it not  recognized in VERY GAY ancient Greece ?
   On the so called intellectual Left there has been much intellectual dishonesty on gay marriage- a product of rather fatuous identity politics.
         The " prejudice " against gay " mating " does have some rather high powered Darwinian support.Nature would veto it-  but without political malice.

            

     

Gay Marriage.... and Frank Sinatra song lyrics

Frank Sinatra sings " Love and Marriage "

   I  have no quarrel with state recognition of gay marriage. But as a democratic Socialist I am amused how the intellectual " left " has completely forgotten the Marxist criticism of bourgeois marriage .Even the early feminists regarded legal marriage as an oppressive institution that props up private property rights. A Socialist society would not leave so many happily divorced couples with any significant PRIVATE PROPERTY to fight over. To put it crudely, the feminist pioneers would just laugh at gay marriage as a farce of a farce.Read Engels " The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the  State."
       Would not a loving friend do anything a legal same sex sexual partner would do ? Should FRIENDSHIP be institutionalized too ?
        Is a gay spouse more likely to be " faithful  " ?  In the 1950s happily married men just hid all those Playboy Magazines in the back of the closet.
      But singer Frank Sinatra also got it right : " Love and marriage.... love and marriage... go together like a horse and carriage.... you can't have one without the other ".
    Frank knew.

---

50+ videos Mix - Frank Sinatra: Love and Marriage                        
                             
                                     

Discussion on WMUR 357 comments

Clinton suddenly in a tight battle with Sanders in NH

   I applauded " socialist " Bernie Sanders entrance into the American presidential race in a published letter in the Providence Journal. The Neo-Democrats represented by President Obama and Hillary Clinton have abandoned old New Deal values still cherished by working class Americans. The Democratic Party went too sappy in the direction of middle class " political correctness ".
The Democratic Party has also forgotten the poor and religious liberals. Many Catholics approve of Pope Francis' scathing condemnation of modern capitalism.
[ http://radicalrons.blogspot.co... ]
Sanders could WIN the New Hampshire primary ! Keep an eye on those amazing polls. A poll commented on by " The Young Turks " a few years ago shows young people more receptive to the ideas of Socialism.

The power elites in the U.S. and Israel are cynical New Atheists

Discussion on SimchaJTV 48 comments

Headline: Israelite History and the Boston Marathon Bombing

Ron Ruggieri 

How cynical ! Whatever religious ideology serves the interests of U.S. imperialism and Zionist apartheid Israel is the Voice of God. The power elites in both the U.S.A. and Israel are in fact New Atheists- not a bit of THE FAITH in them.
And they are capable of limitless evil. A character in the Dostoevsky novel " The Possessed " reflects: " If God does not exist, then everything is permitted ".
Indeed everything is permitted to CIA torturers and assassins and their friends in the government of Israel.They all have faith- faith in the LIE !

        

" God wept this past week " ( Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin )

   Some liberal activist groups are associating this racist maniac Dylann Storm Roof with a sinister movement called " Christian Identity ".  But  Jewish author, Rabbi Jeffrey K . Salkin , wrote on June 23 : " Yes, Dylann aimed at religion too ".  Salkin said many are in denial about " the specifically religious element in the attack ".He began his article : " God wept this past week ".
    Reading Dylann's   sick but lucid " manifesto ", I could not find a single reference to God or faith. I can hardly believe that this drug crazed, mentally disturbed, high school drop out wrote that manifesto.
     The Russian novelist Dostoevsky has a certain terrorist character in " The Possessed " say: " If God does not exist , then everything is permitted ". Like this atrocity in the Old South-  during a Christian church service.
       Dylann Storm Roof, I suspect, was a patsy for a dark anti-religious political group. Cui bono ?
Too early to dismiss a New Atheism role here. The New Atheism is decidedly nasty.The New Atheists are also promoting Islamophobia in America and Europe." God wept this past week ".

                

Not a hint of God in Dylann Storm Roof Manifesto ( New Atheism ? )

     The name of the rabbi in my comment is Jeffrey Salkin , spiritual leader of Temple Beth Am in Bayonne, N.J. His June 23 article was titled : " Dylann Roof attacks religion too ".  Salkin thinks  too many are  ignoring  " the specifically religious element in the attack ". Rabbi Salkin began his article: " God wept this past week ". He ended it with this sentence: " Yes, Dylann aimed at religion ". Rabbi Salkin is the author of books on Jewish spirituality and ethics.
     Again there was not a hint of God in Dylann Storm Roof's  dubious " manifesto ". He is a patsy. Cui bono ? Too early to rescue New Atheism from suspicion.

    

Rabbi Jeffrey Salkin 

Right- wing American Catholicism so out of touch !

      In his emphasis on Catholic social philosophy Pope Francis is far from deviating from the Catholic Tradition. The historic Church of Rome was always at odds with modern capitalism anyway.
    Right wing American Catholicism was always incongruous with that pristine faith of poor and working class Catholics in Old Europe and Latin America.
     I cringed when I heard the corrupt and sinister Father John Corapi say on EWTN  that his " Mother Mary " wore combat boots. Before he was disgraced in a sex-drug scandal Corapi  was an eloquent champion of U.S. militarism and the criminal war in Iraq.
      Just what did the  American  Cardinal  Spellman -the anti-communist fanatic-have in common with Pope Francis ? By the way, Spellman was a Nixon fan.
       What kind of " right to life " Catholics support the death penalty and oppose a national health care plan ? Just what kind of Catholic is Jeb Bush ?

                  

             
    
    

    

What " Christian Identity " in Dylann Storm Roof ?

Rabbi on church killing      What struck me most about the mass murder of nine black people during a CHURCH service was its pagan character. I can't believe there is a spark of even a deranged CHRISTIAN in Dylann Storm Roof.There is not a hint of religious perspective, not a single reference to God ( did I miss something ? ) in Roof's sick but lucid manifesto. Also, I can't believe a mentally disturbed, drug crazed high school drop out wrote that racist manifesto. A Jewish rabbi wrote about " atheism " in practice here. And I agree.
    Did not the Russian novelist Dostoevsky in " The Possessed " have a character think: " If God does not exist, then everything is permitted ". Yes, even killing faithful Christians at a church service in the Old South.
          This kid was a patsy for an anti-religious political group.
    ( I do not associate atheist humanism with evil- on the contrary. But the New Atheism is decidedly nasty )

                   

Haunted Providence Journal Building Sold

   The sale of such an old significant building as 75 Fountain St. , the Providence Journal Building , the very source of so much local history, is worthy of a sentimental poem-if not the new owners.
Could there be any building in Rhode Island more haunted by the past, by memorable personalities ? At least a section of the reconstructed edifice might be considered for a Providence Journal museum or " morgue " as they say.
Viewing old PROJO microfilms might be as poignant an experience as the fictional last scene in the popular Hollywood movie " Cinema Paradiso ".
I can see that at the Cranston Public Library microfilm technology has improved. Perhaps -like many other old newspapers- the Providence Journal can be completely digitized. Last year I read about a similar project for the Brown Daily Herald.
Way back in 1972 I was able to read the real printed versions of the Providence Journal going back to the 1920s at Brown's Rockefeller Library.
It was the next best thing to an H.G. Wells time machine.
I got a feel for what it was like to be poor in Providence in the year of the Great Depression-1933. I also came across my first anti-war letter published in 1967: " Dying for a Colossal Lie ".

           

Socialism culminates in the unity of the human race

     The maldistribution of wealth in this society is not explained by the maldistribution of intelligence.Are the most creative and intelligent individuals in America also the most wealthy? Why should a gifted math teacher or a gifted historian make so much less than a mediocre baseball player ?
  Does the ONE PERCENT work harder than all the rest of us combined ? Medical science has only one objective way to measure EFFORT-intellectual or physical: CALORIES.
     A smart brain would simply burn up with a very high basal metabolic rate.
          The calorie count egalitarian would recommend only modest variations in personal income.
      I can't picture any mother feeding her smart kid fine steak and her " dummy " rancid  dog food.
       Does not human DNA analysis indicate that we were once one united communal family ?
         The religious concepts of God the Father and the Holy Mother are just poetic expressions of this profound truth.
     Socialism culminates in the unity of the human race-not in RACE or   CLASS  division.

                  

" The Music Man " and Rev. Joel Osteen- same message

You Tube, Music Man ending

Even a reactionary Republican like Donald Trump can talk sense now and then. What validation for a democratic Socialist when a conservative declares : " The American Dream is dead ! ".
The official social philosophy of America can be summed up in a best selling book title : " The Amazing Power of Positive Thinking ".
Who do you think the Rev. Joel Osteen will endorse ? But I recall actor Robert Preston as " The Music Man " preaching the same message. Another all-American " professor " !

    

Greek workers owe international bankers NOTHING !

Robert Reich on crooked American bankers     I like Robert Reich . He is right about super-capitalism becoming incompatible with even traditional democracy in America. But as a  democratic Socialist , I see clearly that here Reich is arguing as a liberal. Talking about rogue bankers stealing billions of dollars from public funds, transferring billions more to the ONE PERCENT, he suggests: why not stop them form pouring money into politics ? We socialists suggest: why not just take " their " money away permanently  ?
    Why does Greece   " owe " similar  crooks -these international bankers- anything but a day in the World Court ?
        Capitalist swine telling aging Greek workers that they should work a lot  closer to the predicted age of their deaths .

                      
                        

Brown University 's Alpert family relative was homeless in Lincoln Town Car

  "With all your bitching about capitalist Amerika, why do you live here? Because it is the best country in the world to reside in. The very wealthy pay over 75% of the total tax income of the federal government. If somebody gave you, Ron Ruggieri, a million dollars, you'd fight to keep it. It's called human nature. Don't lie to me otherwise with your self righteousness. "

• 
  

@Ernie Zielinski Ernie, are you paid TROLL, defender of your faith: American capitalism ?
[http://radicalrons.blogspot.com ] I am one of millions of people on the planet with a rather modest socialist vision.

• 
  

@Ernie Zielinski    A close friend of mine inherited a fortune. He did not create any jobs and last year was living in a dilapidated Lincoln Town Car. I smile when "Ragged Dave " calls himself a SOCIALIST. I wrote about his plight in a letter to the editor.
[Dave is related to the Alpert family after which Brown University Medical School is named.
I just read his aunt's ambiguous will at Providence City Hall.Human nature indeed !]

                  

The root of racism is not the Confederate flag

Confederate flag promoted Clinton-Gore campaign

         The root of racism in America is not various racist symbols. Here in Rhode Island one black activist on Talk Radio insists that the official state name- " The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations "-has got to go. But a few years ago this racial complaint did not survive a popular vote. Why not put the Confederate Flag symbolism to a vote in South Carolina ?
         A fight over symbols is the right play for cheap political opportunism.But what will change- a racist SYSTEM ? We democratic Socialists have always believed that the evil of racism is part of the larger evil of CLASS oppression in capitalist America. I think at least ONE Democrat, the " socialist "  Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont,  understands this.
         Police brutality against black people in American happens every day now  under the banner of Old Glory.

    

War on terror ? What about the terror of being poor in America ?

       There is a certain contradiction between these tight state budgets and the infamous ONE PERCENT. Why are states timid about raising the taxes of the super rich? Because they are precious " job creators " ? No they are not creating many jobs.
The phony War on Terror is very costly. And it has nothing to do with protecting ordinary Americans from terror. By the way, what can be more of a terror than being homeless, jobless, and mentally ill ?
The priorities of capitalist America are not our priorities. Both the Democrats and Republicans betray us in their FOR SALE Congress.
But I think Bernie Sanders, the " socialist ", at least understands.

                      

  A homeless man, terrified of being the victim of a hate crime.

True, American racism is part of generalized class oppression

world socialist article

   I  applaud this article on American racism as part of the generalized CLASS oppression in America. Not surprisingly American socialists are more not less sensitive to decidedly racial forms of oppression.
Also, clearly mentally disturbed individuals are not getting the care and attention they need here. Our mental health system stinks. No doubt the capitalist system mass produces insane individuals.
I believe that the de-institutionalization of mentally ill in the United States- beginning about 50 years ago - was a crime against humanity.
Just take a look at the face of 21 year old Dylann Storm Roof. Is it not drug crazed and mentally disturbed ? Was he a patsy - a comic book Neo-Nazi right out of " The Manchurian Candidate " ?
Could a high school drop out have written his published racist " manifesto " ?

Donald Trump right: American Dream is dead !

As a democratic Socialist I can take no pleasure in living in the " Age of Obama ". For most socialists racism is inseparable from generalized CLASS oppression.What does President Obama's domestic and foreign policy have in common with the goals of socialist humanism ?

I know too many honest liberals who are heartbroken disillusioned over this Nobel Peace Prize winning, Afro-American tool of the New World Order of global capitalism.
That reactionary buffoon Donald Trump gets a few things right : Yes, Donald the American Dream is dead ! But even you cannot fire the Congress of the United States.

     

Ominous RIPTA cutback for elderly

RIPTA cutbacks coming ?

    Many Rhode Island elderly benefit from RIPTA Senior Citizen passes. The budget problems of RIPTA are inseparable from the U.S. ruling class' decades long attack on the standard of living of working people. Only a working class counter attack can stop this. Forget about Democrats vs. Republicans. In the 2016 election year democracy in America will be in the streets. There has been a one sided class war here going on for too long. We need a militant Labor Party.

     

American veterans victims of U.S. military mustard gas experiment

NPR story

       What a nightmare for those veteran " guinea pigs " of planned chemical warfare. And this was " The Good War " ! How hypocritical are our Memorial Days. They do not really the honor the veterans of ruling class started wars( working people don't start wars ). They honor WAR- the Moloch god of the U.S. military.
Even the pompous War on Terrorism has nothing to do with protecting ordinary Americans. It is all about the New World Order problems of the ONE PERCENT  Volunteer ? I ask the youth of Amerika . Make the world safe for global capitalism and U.S. imperialism ?
Let the comment " monitors " choke on this ! Not as lethal as the Pentagon's mustard gas.

    

Perhaps black Americans should reconsider the views of Malcolm X ?

      What should be the attitude of black people not toward these race war mongers but toward the police who have been gunning down unarmed black youths with obscene frequency ?
The American ruling class has been waging a one sided class war on ALL working class Americans. The race issue is part of the bigger picture of CLASS oppression in America.
How to explain this STATE brutality ? Lenin put it this way a hundred years ago :the Russian revolutionary leader said the capitalist state was-in essence- a body of armed men organized for the protection of private wealth.
That might shock American high school kids who remember OFFICER FRIENDLY's talks in grade school.
But , of course, any union leader knows exactly what Lenin was talking about.A union leader also knows that racism is intolerable in organized labor.
Not for nothing racist, reactionary Talk Radio hates organized labor.So do all those " Freedom and Prosperity " fanatics.
Perhaps black Americans should reconsider the views of Malcolm X ?

              

Poor white people still invisible in " The Other America "

Dylann Roof Manifesto ?    Americans have a lot of questions about the racist killer Dylann Storm Roof ( the very name sounds like that of a comic book Neo Nazi ).
I question if a drug crazed, mentally disturbed, high school drop out could have written that published racist " manifesto ". Roof is the perfect choice of central casting for " The Manchurian Candidate ". Was he a patsy or pawn for some nefarious conspiracy ?
All the moral effluvia about the evil of HATE is good for futile Sunday sermons but does not go to the root of that evil which has very deep social roots. People don't hate in a cultural and economic vacuum.
Only Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont among the Democrats has directed attention at the plight of poor white people who have been invisible to the capitalist news media for decades now. At least the socialist writer Michael Harrington included them in his influential ( in the 60s War on Poverty )book " The Other America ".
But what will come out of this tragedy ? I can picture President Obama appointing Al Sharpton as Hate Control Czar..

                             

Skepticism on Dylann Roof's "manifesto" and website

    

  " I've taught college undergraduates. If there are no misspellings in this text -- and on a quick scan, I found none -- then Roof, a high-school dropout, didn't write it.
The manifesto is also very well-written, for what it is; I'd want to see a writing sample from Roof, possibly from his high school English teacher, before I concluded Roof wrote it.
So I wonder then, if not Roof, who? Could he simply have appropriate some other racist's work? Well, I Google for phrases from the Manifesto, and I don't find any hits other than this. So who wrote it?
The Times is right to be skeptical:

It is not clear who wrote the words and who took the pictures, but the manifesto appears to trace the evolution of the author’s racist worldview and concludes with a section labeled “An Explanation.

If there's one thing we've learned over the past few years, it's that "Internet evidence is not evidence," because it's too easy to alter or even manufacture it. Provenance is key. So while the site may be authentic, and the pictures may be authentic, there's one big piece of the site that doesn't look authentic at all.
NOTE We might also ask if Roof (high school dropout) had site-building skills. "

Appoint Al Sharpton Hate Control Czar

    As a democratic Socialist I can see the root of hatred in Dylann Roof's " hate filled manifesto " in the official contempt for poor and working class white people for decades now. The poor white kids have become invisible and in their ignorance-check out THEIR public schools- they vilify equally poor and oppressed black Americans.All the moral effluvia directed at " hate " is just good for futile Sunday sermons-unless social inequality in  capitalist America is honestly challenged. I hear this only from the Bernie Sanders campaign. Of course, independent socialists have never ignored the Class Struggle.But the two party system routinely ignores them.
    Why not just declare WAR ON HATRED too  ? And appoint a new bureaucratic Czar ?

                   

Appoint Al  Hate Control Czar 

          

The coming Great Escape from the American Gulag

    So rotten and evil is the American prison system, called " The American Gulag ," that it has caught the attention of the world's human rights organizations. We at least unconsciously root for the GREAT ESCAPE if not for the wicked escapees. But most American prisoners are not dangerously violent. Way back in 1973 the famous American psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote about " The Crime of Punishment ".
The day after an American Socialist Government seizes power at least a MILLION non-violent prisoners will be FREE human beings. I don't know about all those evil judges, lawyers, and cops who put them there.
All those luxurious gated communities can serve as centers of " home confinement ".

      

Why not declare war on HATRED ?

     Talk about " pure evil " really throws no light on the roots of evil. Racial hatred in present day America is inseparable from obscene social inequality. People don't " hate " in a social and cultural vacuum. The ONE PERCENT who own America may not " hate " the rest of us. But they have no intention of sacrificing their class privilege for some " crazy " socialist ideas. They will not send a check to the Bernie Sanders campaign. Nor will they ever present Ralph Nader with an Outstanding Citizen Award.
But why not just DECLARE WAR ON HATRED anyway ? 

                 

Was killer Dylann Roof a Neo-Nazi " Manchurian Candidate " ?

A patsy ?

     I can't believe a high school drop out authored that " manifesto ". A jobless, clueless, mentally disturbed youth was the pawn or " patsy " ( I recall Lee Harvey Oswald using that word ) of a sinister political organization. Also, I can't believe that any Christian-no matter how right wing-would go into a Christian church and kill 9 of the faithful.
The news media is covering a lot up. What hypocrisy over the mere narcissistic baloney of Brian Williams.
Was Dylann Roof a New Atheist crackpot or a Neo-Nazi " Manchurian Candidate " ?

  

Scene from " The Manchurian Candidate "

" I hear you " ( Radical Ron )

Why is it so hard to find a WORD about this Dylann Roof's religion ? Apart from his racist obsession he seems an unreal ideological blank . A " useful idiot " for a shadowy political organization ? Right now he seems to be striking evidence of the failure of the American mental health system. I am very suspicious of his " manifesto ". New Atheism at work here ? Or just lunatic media ?

Chris 39 minutes ago

I hear you. And its not just with regard to religion. There are all kinds of details that should be public information and therefore should be zero effort to find and answer, for which you cannot find a single word written. Religion, political affiliation, work history if any, and on and on. Anything that would suggest Roof associated with any group of any kind ever is being intentionally hidden. It would be too easy for a reporter to find any of this out to say it is not intentionally kept quiet. On the one hand, I can understand how the media may think they are doing the right thing by not disclosing this information--preventing idiots from using the fact that he or his family voted one way or another as a club to bash opponents. On the other hand, I've not seen that kind of restraint from the media before and it is very curious.

Only socialists talk rationally about racist killer Dylann Roof

     I am  hearing too many " official " people resist calling Dylann Roof mentally ill. It is more politically expedient to deal with him as a despicable " hater " . That way their " system " evades blame,. No tragedy -not 100 people murdered- will force them to find any fault with the social, political, and economic system of capitalism.In his manifesto( ? ) Roof rants about poor whites being forced to live and go to school with poor blacks. There is clearly a CLASS issue too.
For years now poor white kids have been invisible to the American news media. At least years ago socialist writer Michael Harrington consigned them to " The Other America ".
Also, we are seeing the consequences of the de-institutionalization of the mentally ill in America some 50 years ago. That too was a crime against humanity.
Perhaps I can expect only the Bernie Sanders campaign to talk rationally about this tragedy.

Ex cop responds to my comment on killer Dylann Roof on abcnews.com

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  ronadolph 

  
  

       "   ' Failure of the American mental health system.' Yes, indeed. Well, not the failure of the Mental Health System exactly, but the lack of one. I was a cop for 35 years on the west coast. Every year we went to the appropriate governmental agency to negotiate, salaries and working conditions. Nearly every year we got pretty much what we wanted, in terms of salaries, training and equipment. But during those years, consistently, the budgets of the mental health systems were cut over and over again. I had a couple of good friends who were Counselors, or Psychiatrists, who lost their jobs during that period. For years I responded to calls for service to deal with people who were clearly in need of mental health services and again and again watched as those very same people went without those services. Instead of talking about guns we should be talking about a very significant infusion of money and commitment to rebuild that system. Many years ago a book and then a movie, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" dealt a death knoll to America's Mental Health safety net. Instead of re-tooling and a re-commitment, most governmental agencies simply turned their backs on that system and allowed it to die. We have a great need to see that system re-built. "

What does Mr./Miss Jenner's DNA say ?

Jenner perfectly sane ?    Sometimes Mother Nature makes a real mistake with reference to the logic of reproduction. A biology student can read about literally bisexual humans ( some plants are bisexual ) But what about when the body in question is unquestionably MALE but the mind says " I am a female " ? This is clearly a mental health issue- but not a matter of " insanity ". What does Jenner's DNA say ?

Neither the nurse nor the priest who wrote here are " haters ".


        

What Is the Definition of Transgendered?

Answered by: Alicia, An Expert in the Love and Sex Category

Recently, Bruce Jenner announced that he has always wanted to be a member of the opposite sex. In other words, he identifies with women more than he does with men, so he has been taking steps to live as much like a woman as he could. This story puzzles many people, and they are wondering what is going on with Mr. Jenner.

What Is the Definition of Transgendered?
Bruce Jenner is a biological male who is experiencing gender dysphoria, and this means that his anatomy and gender identity are incompatible. It’s what leads him to state that he is a female trapped inside a male’s body, and it is also the reason that he enjoys wearing dresses and painting his fingernails. Those who fall under this umbrella fit the definition of transgendered or transsexual.