Facebook Says It Removed Pages Involved In Deceptive Political Influence Campaign

 

Does not the ruling American capitalist class create a " deceptive political influence campaign " in every presidential election in the USA and in every state and local election ?

     Why should Putin be more concerned for some TWEEDLE DEE Republican candidate than for some TWEEDLE DUM Democratic candidate ?

        This is an insult to the working class voters- who don't need ANY influence-foreign or domestic- to make up their minds on political friends or enemies . But they have been resigned to " lesser evil " selections. WE need an independent American Labor Party - with a democratic socialist platform.

Haunted, abandoned places and the " vanity of human life "

Well, for whatever reasons institutions , people , places ( like old neighborhoods ) -with all their virtues and flaws - fade into the past . Reading OLD magazines and newspapers can only reinforce a sense of the " vanity of human life ".

 

  We are all almost condemned to play some well defined " role " for so long then depart from the human stage.

        We recover our REAL self in solitary walks in the woods or in visits to old abandoned or haunted places.

           Are there ghosts whispering in the walls of 75 Fountain St. ? Sometimes they give friendly and kindly advice. Read Tolstoy's " The Death of Ivan Illyich ".

[ UPDATED: ProJo’s John Hill to Take Buyout, Three More ProJo Employees Seeking Buyouts ]

Abandoned buildings and recovered SELF

House Democrats vote for record US military spending

The CLASS STRUGGLE is never over -even if smothered for years. A premise of revolutionary Marxism is that the modern working class -unlike generations of slaves and serfs - is not a passively suffering, permanently stupefied, politically impotent class. 

It is also foolish to idealize the oppressed. Make them YOUR family and you can deal with their strengths and weaknesses . In " 1984 " Orwell's " hero " Winston Smith observes that the proles " lacked general ideas ". 

Supplying " General Ideas for Revolt " are the creative activity of the vanguard socialist party- not self-proclaimed but proclaimed by a truly MASS movement.

If there is a better source than the World Socialist Web Site, kindly direct me there .

Mueller - GUILTY of " colluding with collusion "

Manafort Heads To Court As First Defendant In Mueller Probe To Face Trial

Does the mainstream news media - biased toward the neo-con, war mongering Democratic Party -think working class Americans are transfixed by this endless, ridiculous , Kafkaesque " Mueller Probe " ? The Honorable Investigator ,Mr. Mueller, will be the most boring or annoying foot-note in American history. The " investigation " will implode by late October.

Mueller will be found GUILTY before History of "colluding with collusion " !

No David Cicilline can serve the interests of working class people

" Congressman David Cicilline is introducing a bill that would prohibit the 3-D printing of plastic firearms that cannot be detected by commonly used security checkpoints. " Local news today about Rhode Island Congressman David Cicilline - with a reputation here for being a two-bit, shady -very Rhode Island - politician.
The " liberals " Democrats- who vote for this obscene, indeed macabre war budget- put a halo around their heads for unyielding ( ? ) support for gun control -even home- made PLASTIC !
They rarely talk about cops having a virtual license to kill or about the horror of Pentagon weapons of war ( like smart bombs and drones ) in supporting the New Colonialism in the Middle East or U.S. nuclear weapons ready for World War III ( a trillion dollars has been set aside by our honorable Congress to upgrade them ).
With campaign funds always in mind , Congressman David Cicilline never fails to bring up " our special relationship with Israel ". 
Would it not make more sense for " openly gay " politicians like David Cicilline to oppose a FASCIST foreign policy, to oppose FBI-CIA intrigue at home and abroad ?
The New Democrats in their embrace of the sinister shadow government of the United States are a long way from half-honest liberals of the FDR and JFK eras. They are now open enemies of the FREE SPEECH tradition in the USA . It would be absurd for frequently harassed and muzzled democratic socialists to demand that officials of the state or officials of public or private universities ban ANY right wing voices from speaking to wider audiences. The defense of TRUTH against the BIG LIE can only strengthen it.

No LIE can serve the interest of working class people. No David Cicilline can serve the interest of working class people.

The American plutocracy - champions of EQUALITY indeed !

"-and comrade, thanks for sticking your neck out with your review, you heated us up for the dialectical arguments and back and forth discussions that are always needed ! "
Almost daily talented individuals are being ruined or punished or self-flagellate for something SAID ( " that is not who I am " ) something offensive to the unwritten commandments of effete and vicious -and DNC based- " identity politics ".

Here is the paradox : enlightened people " on the Left " see big business, the capitalist government, the mainstream news media as the root of much social injustice, of much social evil. Yet it precisely individuals connected to these oppressive institutions who initiate or instigate the destruction of talented individuals innocent of any HATE for any racial or ethnic or religious groups , of hate for gay or trans-gendered people.

How ironic that these JUST JUDGES behind the scenes make themselves - servants of the ruling class - the exalted paragons in all matters of political correctness. How can THEY be the problem if THEY set the standards of decency and fair play ? If daily THEY chastise the vulgar amongst us ?

If THE COMPANY fires a top executive for crossing some line of sexual misbehavior , it must embody unsullied VIRTUE and CORRECT THINKING ? Indeed THE COMPANY is morally superior to the rest of us ?

What else can this " identity politics " be but the tool of the ONE PERCENT plutocracy who look down on 99 percent of the human race ? Champions of EQUALITY indeed !

" But outside was the Red Death ! "

David Byrne’s American Utopia: Fighting difficulties with false cheerfulness

" As a kind of remedy to this, and possibly as a kind of therapy, I started collecting news that reminded me, ‘Hey, there’s actually some positive stuff going on! I will share thoughts, images and audio relating to this initiative and I’ll welcome contributions from others.”

Mindless cheerfulness and obtuse optimism are all too human traits . Just the other night I read one essay on the Holocaust classic " The Diary of Anne Frank " . The writer, a Jewish intellectual , reflects on the popularity of the play .

 It was Ann's pitiful but touching comment that most people were " good at heart " that obscured the bleak truth of her fate, of the Holocaust , indeed of the horror of World War II . The writer argued that this failure to recognize black reaction - and to ACT - might have prevented the Holocaust. 

There is presently a dark cloud of fascism over the United States. The American " death culture " as we called it in the 60s is back . Sometimes THEY ( now neo-Nazi form ) come back. 

We see it today in the USA . Too many highly vulnerable working class people are still whistling in the dark , retreating to the pseudo-normalcy of family life . Is ANY Hollywood movie connected to reality ? Do some 200 cable TV channels pacify you ?

 What programs convince you that most people are really good at heart ? Like the people who rule America ? 

A refrain from the famous Poe story : " But outside was the Red Death ".

THEY are not NICE PEOPLE - our ruling class. Rather than lose privilege they would prefer a NUCLEAR holocaust.

" Outside was the Red Death ! "

Are people really " good at heart "

Trump And 'New York Times' Publisher Clash Over Their Private Meeting

In promoting the HATE RUSSIA , New McCarthyism , the mainstream news media is hardly a bastion of " Democracy in America ". And shame on " liberal " Democrats for conveniently forgetting the sordid history of the FBI and CIA in sabotaging " democracy " here in the United States and around the world.

Is Vladimir rigging " OUR democracy " or are American plutocrats ?

Just consider the mendacious audacity of " liberal " Democrats claiming that Russia's Vladimir Putin " rigged " the 2016 presidential election and is planning to rig the mid-term elections in the United States.

         The American ruling class rigs every election here with its bipartisan campaign donations. Governor Gina Raimondo, a Rhode Island Democrat , warns all political rivals that she has some 4 million already in her war chests.

  Those donations were mostly from working class and poor people here who just want " Wall St. Gina " , friend of " Wall St. Hillary" , to keep up the good work ?

 So is it Vladimir Putin that is rigging " democracy " here or our divine plutocrats, blessed job makers and philanthropists all ?

Does not my new born " Little Honey " niece have a RIGHT to clean, healthy drinking water ?

High levels of toxic chemicals found in drinking water of west Michigan community

Fearing the quality of the drinking water - once a pristine , Proustian memory of the Scituate Reservoir ( used as a background for old Narragansett Beer commercials ) I began regularly buying bottled water a few years ago . Daily radio commercials for home water filtration systems struck me as a PRIVATE solution to a PUBLIC problem. Don't we all have a right to clean, healthy drinking water ? I thought.

            Then I learned that those plastic bottles - exposed to heat - interact with the " natural spring " drinking water making them possibly carcinogenic. Is CANCER the perfect metaphor for decaying capitalism ?

                I should not be too personally neurotic about any environmental dangers at age 71. But what about my " Little Honey " new born niece - a gift to my family and to the whole world ? Don't innocent kids have a RIGHT TO LIFE in the most elementary sense ? Decaying capitalism just says NO !

Capitalists' gift to my " Little Honey "

Hard for third parties even to get on the ballot in " OUR democracy "

" The Socialist Equality Party filed nearly 6,000 signatures last week to place our candidate, Niles Niemuth, on the ballot against Dingell in the November 6 election. One of the central issues being raised by Niemuth is opposition to militarism and war. "

   While phony liberals and pseudo -lefts babble with indignation about " OUR democracy " being threatened by evil Russia they don't see how difficult it is to get ANY third party on the ballot in capitalist imperialist America.

               In 1976 and 1980 I did participate( not as a member ) in the Rhode Island presidential campaign of the Socialist Workers Party. In 1976 their presidential candidate was the fiery gifted speaker Peter Camejo ( later Ralph Nader's Green Party running mate)  .

 Camejo joked that he was " green on the outside and red on the inside " . ) . In 1976 I recall distributing " The Workers Bill of Rights " to striking workers on a picket line. Those rights included , of course , a right to a job .

      Good luck to Niles Niemuth of the SEP in Michigan . It ain't easy !

Camejo in 1976

With a little whiskey in water a dear young friend lectured me on " The History of American Trotskyism "Discussion on World Socialist Web Site • 8 comments

Discussion on World Socialist Web Site   

House Democrats vote for record US military spending

These were stereotypes to be sure, but WOMEN and HOMOSEXUALS once had a prevailing KIND & GENTLE souls public image until the rise of bourgeois feminism.

            I am not impressed with women or gay people in military uniforms or cop uniforms . As I was not impressed by a certain now disgraced Catholic priest who told a reactionary Catholic TV audience that " Mother Mary wears combat boots " ( Here a primal Jungian religious image is soiled ) .

            In the 50s and 60s many " alienated " gay individuals shared Beat poet Ginsberg's horror of the American capitalist social order expressed in his revolutionary poem " Howl ".

               My closest friend in the " Tumultuous 60s " era was a young gay person 17 years old at the time. What could this friend be but a flaming rebel -opposed to war and capitalism and ALL kinds of oppression? A glass of ice cold water with a teaspoon of whiskey in it inspired him to lecture me in the kitchen on " The History of American Trotskyism ", according to one James P. Cannon. Where he is today I am not sure, but I honor his memory.

Discussion on World Socialist Web Site   

Political warfare in Washington escalates with subpoena of Trump organization CFO

 

"But when you cut through all the humiliation, intimidation, and litigation what is the real purpose of Mueller's investigation-- to pursue warmongering against Russia ... "

         But a recent article in the World Socialist Web Site makes it clear that the ruling class news media has failed to arouse any deep hostility to now CAPITALIST Russia.

          There is something profoundly IDIOTIC about the endless " Russian Investigation ".
How will it end ? In World War III to avenge Harpy Hillary ? Or a shamefaced: " That all folks ! "
No bourgeois journalist details the CASE AGAINST RUSSIA, the threat to OUR " democracy " .

             I did not know that " WE " had such a sentimental relationship with the Crimea - long attached to Russia and before that involved in British imperialist intrigue.

              For many long years the Crimea was languishing with a longing to join NATO ?
" WE " want to fight a 100 years war over our beloved Crimea ?

        Did the United States ever turn predatory eyes toward Mexico - perhaps in the era of one James K. Polk , a president so ignorant of Russian solicitude for the Spanish owned Alamo ?

Russians Unsuccessfully Tried To Hack Computers Of Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill

 

I am sure the CIA and the FBI are innocent of any of this " computer hacking ". What I can't understand is why the mainstream news media thinks a smart guy like Vladimir Putin does not know that there is not a dime worth of difference between the Democratic and Republican Parties in the USA . For decades they have been waging a bipartisan war on the American working class. The Democratic Party has quickly evolved into a neo-con , war mongering party.

      Putin might " prefer " Trump to Hillary as I prefer Pepsi to Coke .

Some Doctors, Patients Balk At Medicare's 'Flat Fee' Payment Proposal

 

According to recent Providence Journal editorial July 22 there is “Growing support for socialism”. In a democratic socialist USA no medical doctors or dentists would have any right to refuse Medicare and Medicaid patients. That is what we call the right to health care.

Too many unions in America recall " On the Waterfront " and Johnny Friendly

Discussion on World Socialist Web Site   

UAW corruption scandal reaches the top

 

I agree with the assessment of the World Socialist Web site on hopelessly corrupt trade unions. " Reforming "them is much like reforming the Democratic Party.

              But " Down with the unions " sounds suspiciously like far right drool. The ruling class would love to see a union free RIGHT TO WORK capitalist paradise.

               The workers must quickly CREATE their own organizations based on the old principle of democratic centralism.

                Union hating is the stock in trade of right wing " Red Eye Radio ".

             The two party system is a trap for working class voters. But we don't say : " Down with voting ! "

              To be sure , ANARCHY won't improve the condition of the working class in the United States.

      I would still respect any picket line no matter how corrupt the " Johnny Friendly " union.

           Recall the scene in the movie " On the Waterfront " where dock worker ( Marlon Brando ) spies on insurgent workers meeting in a church.

       In THE END crooked boss Johnny Friendly ends up in the river. The UNION survives.

Final scene in " On the Waterfront "

Bad Vlad Putin spooked voters in the Rust Belt states with his hypnotic eyes !

How And Why Russia Interferes In Elections

When will the silly and endless " Russian Investigation " finally announce in detail THE CRIME ? Abstract " collusion " is not in the law books separate from very specific CRIME .

The guiding spirits of this " investigation " seem right out of a Franz Kafka novel like " The Trial ".
Did Donald Trump offer ownership shares in Fort Knox to Vladimir Putin ? Did Bad Vlad spook would be Hillary voters with sub-liminal messages and his rather hypnotic eyes ?

What a farce - comparable ironically to the Moscow Trials of the 1930s.

" Now just relax and LISTEN to what I say "

The bleak reality behind Marxist abstractions

Marxist Isaac Deutscher on the New Left

The subjective experience of the young working class person in capitalist society -his first experience with the hell of THE JOB- puts real substance into the seemingly abstruse abstractions he or she will encounter in the introduction to Marxism.

                  Platitudes like one must EARN A LIVING hide the CLASS structure of society. Did the earliest humans think about " getting a job " in order to support MY FAMILY ?

                I recall the young Marx pointing out how our minds are stupefied and our thinking cramped by the capitalist division of labor. A school kid is asked : " And what do you want to be when YOU grow up ? " How few of us are completely FREE to determine our economic fate , our successive jobs, careers, free to get " educated " , to acquire the marketable skills necessary for " earning a living ".

            How many working class people experience anything resembling " democracy " in the work place ? How many think that THE BOSS can never be their FRIEND ?

         Nothing abstract about the feeling of ALIENATION in a society where nearly everything -even LOVE - is a commodity ?

        Nothing abstract about striking workers seeing THE COPS as class enemies ? Or the news media as voices of a privileged class ?

               Nothing abstract about thinking that nearly every radio or TV commercial is a LIE .
Nothing abstract about passing by homeless people and thinking " human life is not sacred " in this capitalist society.

               Nothing abstract about experiencing the fraud of EQUAL JUSTICE FOR ALL as an ACCUSED person -unable to afford JUSTICE - in the majestic court rooms where every YOUR HONOR judge is a pillar of PRIVATE PROPERTY RIGHTS and a snob toward the working class.

Nothing abstract about a kid discovering at Christmas time that Santa Claus must think that rich kids are nice and poor kids are naughty.

               Something sad about a poor working class girl wanting to be a princess -just for a day but her parents can't afford the fairy tale wedding.

               Something sad about a working class , middle aged man who loses his job and soon after loses LOVE and his family , then loses his mind in the fog of alcoholism or drug addiction. An then a pauper's funeral .

               All this concrete social injustice behind the abstract phrase : " the hoarding of social surplus value ".

" Getting ahead " in capitalist America much like a pact with the devil

One reason , I am sure, the Providence Journal , dropped COMMENTS ( " Join the Conversation " ) was that pernicious " socialism " - was winning the war of ideas. Again and again you will see capitalism extolled by smugly comfortable people with a very atrophied social conscience . Deep down they think the world in which they are on top simple must be the best of all possible words. Only sinister trouble makers will deny it ?

              The old " beatnik " in me. observed long ago that " getting ahead " in capitalist America comes very close to making a pact with the devil. The cult of CONFORMITY turns decent people into soul dead idiots.

                  The Ginsberg poem " Howl " summed it up. Less poetic but quite eloquent and inspiring " The Communist Manifesto " ( read Leon Trotsky's essay " The 90th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto " ) .

[ I assume you saw the July 21 Providence Journal editorial conflating free markets with free speech and bemoaning the perception among young people "that capitalism is a brutal system that helps the rich feast on the poor, disdains compassion, creates enormous inequalities in wealth and oppresses minorities." , John Marion, World Socialist Web Site  ]     Radical Ron's reply above...

GoLocalProv | More Staff Reductions at Projo and Big Price Increase ...

www.golocalprov.com/business/more-staff-reductions-at-projo-and-big-price-increase

 

Jul 11, 2018 - This comes along with a double-digit price increase this past week. De facto, less reporting and a more expensive newspaper. The Providence ...



LEON TROTSKY SPEAKS

[It is hard to believe that the centennial of the Manifesto of the Communist Party is only ten years away! This pamphlet, displaying greater genius than any other in world literature, astounds us even today by its freshness. Its most important sections appear to have been written yesterday. Assuredly, the young authors (Marx was twenty-nine, Engels twenty-seven) were able to look further into the future than anyone before them, and perhaps than anyone since them.

As early as their joint preface to the edition of 1872, Marx and Engels declared that despite the fact that certain secondary passages in the Manifesto were antiquated, they felt that they no longer had any right to alter the original text inasmuch as the Manifesto had already become a historical document, during the intervening period of twenty-five years. Sixty-five additional years have elapsed since that time. Isolated passages in the Manifesto have receded still further into the past. We shall try to establish succinctly in this preface both those ideas in the Manifesto which retain their full force today and those which require important alteration or amplification.

1. The materialist conception of history, discovered by Marx only a short while before and applied with consummate skill in the Manifesto, has completely withstood the test of events and the blows of hostile criticism. It constitutes today one of the most precious instruments of human thought. All other interpretations of the historical process have lost all scientific meaning. We can state with certainty that it is impossible in our time to be not only a revolutionary militant but even a literate observer in politics without assimilating the materialist interpretation of history.]

" OUR democracy " at work

How And Why Russia Interferes In Elections

Now this article from NPR : " HOW AND WHY THE CIA INTERFERES IN ELECTIONS "

Radical Ron Observed and Supported the RI Hospital Nurses Strike Today!

Photos by Radical Ron 7/25/18 4:02 PM

No surprise - Providence Journal turns against striking Rhode Island Hospital nurses

As a resident citizen of Rhode Island I greatly appreciate this article and will forward it to my old friend whose registered nurse wife is on that picket line. I will try to join it this afternoon.
" Liberal " Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo , a Hillary pal , could only say : " Let the cooler heads prevail ". You can be sure that she was not talking to Dr. Nicole Alexander Scott, Director of RIDOH .

A letter to the editor in the Providence Journal today ( ON-LINE ) by Christine Jennings of Cranston begins :

"The July 20 news story “As strike looms, planning increases” might give readers the impression that nurses at Rhode Island hospitals care about only themselves. Bolstering this idea, a full page advertisement lists the compensation provided by the hospitals. There is surely more to the story. "


Yes , you can be sure that those striking workers have an old and vicious enemy in the editorial board of the Providence Journal. I recall numerous strikes when the newspaper made itself the official voice of the ruling class of Rhode Island.

 To be sure , they have decimated their own work force in recent years. And there were ugly strikes there in the past.

     The short letter that I sent the PROJO supporting the Rhode Island Hospital nurses is not likely to be published. It would upset the fawned upon " Rhode Island Center for Freedom and Prosperity " - more " socialist propaganda " from an old commie.

Load more comments

 

Did WE ever pledge allegiance to INSANITY ?

"They [ the Democrats ] are seeking to manipulate public opinion by resurrecting a narrative of anti-Russian hysteria that goes back to the days of Joe McCarthy and the John Birch Society "
This is so extremely bizarre , so irrational for the mainstream news media , one wonders how it will end. Are we approaching the climax of the endless, Kafkaesque " Russian Investigation " ? Does it just fold up with these scary and powerful " shadow government " bureaucrats saying a week before or after the fall election : " That 's all folks ! "

               How can the ruling class be planning a World War III type showdown with " evil " Russia when the American working class has not been aroused ( " Remember the Maine ! " ) to war fever ?
ONLY the equivalent of " Pearl Harbor " can resign peace loving Americans to yet another 25 years of war.

                The hysteria over Russia " meddling " in " OUR democracy "- not shared by the beating heart of the country- only means that American imperialism needs THE ENEMY - even if a different one every month .

             " How about TWO MINUTES HATE for Venezuela - where SOCIALISM once again raises its ugly head ? Surly WE can impose " OUR democracy " on these third world slackers ? " [ late night thoughts of a drunken CIA big shot ]

                 While a sober socialist thinks : " Let us junk the Pentagon war machine ! "

 
         Is not a country with so many enemies of the week more than a little sociopathic ? Did we ever pledge allegiance to INSANITY ?

And a short white boy can grow up to be a tall black baskerball player ?

'Theybies': Letting Children Decide Their Gender

The basis of SCIENCE is objective TRUTH , objective REALITY . Can the son of President Trump choose to be a POOR PERSON and demand an EBT card ?

          We are entering an Alice in Wonderland world here. " A word means whatever I want it to mean " ? And Michael Jackson was indeed a beautiful white girl ?

                  And tell a short white boy that he can grow up to be a tall black basketball player .

From " Alice in Wonderland "

Is anti-Semitism eternal in the hearts of the UN-CHOSEN ?

Israel’s Nation-State Law and the dead end of Zionism

What on earth does this " Zionism " have in common with the ABCs of the historical materialism of Marx and Engels ? Petty bourgeois " identity politics " encourages neurotic sensitivity about race and ethnicity and makes it psychologically impossible for the incurably obtuse-rarely WORKERS - to SEE the broader CLASS STRUGGLE.

              Please explain with reference to historical materialism how the Jews are an EXCEPTIONAL case of oppressed minority ?

              Just last night I heard from a right -wing CHRISTIAN minister on cable TV the case for Christian Zionism  :
   [    (November 11, 2013 / JNS) NEW YORK—With more than 1.6 million members, Pastor John Hagee’s Christians United For Israel (CUFI) has become a powerful force in pro-Israel advocacy in American politics. Additionally, his humanitarian work—including the donation of more than $80 million to Israeli charities—has earned him growing praise from the Jewish community. ]


              Did Leon Trotsky think that Zionism was compatible with socialist internationalism ?
Is there NO CURE for anti-Semitism or is it forever in the hearts of the mass of the UN-CHOSEN ? A perfect excuse for Eternal Zionist Apartheid Israel ?

             Find SANITY in the socialist movement !
 

President Trump -victim of lynch mob mainstream news media

 

Making Russia Great Again  

Has the mainstream news media 's extreme prejudice against a LEGITIMATE president Donald Trump - its HATE RUSSIA , New McCarthyism - persuaded sober working class Americans that THEY have a formidable enemy in Vladimir Putin's Russia actively hurting " OUR democracy " -and even planning to MEDDLE again in the fall election ?

        This democratic socialist -who did not vote for Trump - thinks not .

A REVOLUTIONARY discovery : most working class people are GOOD !

[She is silent about the role of the working class. Nixon’s few references to the working class and the poor portray them as victims, not as a powerful social force whose independent political mobilization is required in order to win even the most modest reforms amid the crisis and decay of 21st century capitalism " ]

  " Most working class people are GOOD "

        The all important topic of working class consciousness and working class self-confidence needs a detailed study , updated for the year 2018.

          In the past " working class " was associated with " blue collar " factory work and stereotyped " wage slave " jobs . That image only muddled the truth today. ANYBODY who must WORK for a living -and can hardly survive a few months out of work - is WORKING CLASS. This definition applies to brain work as much as it does to skilled or un-skilled labor.

            Apart from the foolish dream of winning the Megabucks Lottery most of us will NEVER escape the working class. Corrupt souls might come up in the world by betraying their class roots but these types are rare. A REVOLUTIONARY discovery : MOST WORKING CLASS PEOPLE ARE GOOD ! They will not lie, cheat , or steal, or murder their way even into the solid MIDDLE CLASS.







        So the only HOPE for a better life -or even a BETTER DEAL - is mass action , the self-organization of the working class.

               It is a crime against humanity to try to lower the self-confidence and self-respect of the mighty working class, to pretend that the IQ is just lacking there for a higher things .

          By the way, high IQ science writer Isaac Asimov came to despise the snobby MENSA . He noted that you can have a high IQ and still be a stupid -and even SUPERSTITIOUS -reactionary

    So " if there is hope , it lies in the proles " ( George Orwell , " 1984 " )

Excerpt from American Trotskyist James P. Cannon 's review of novel " Moon Gaffney "

  [ But even within this narrow framework, a terrific indictment is brought against the higher ranks of the Catholic clergy of New York in general, and its Irish section in particular. "I’m half Irish” says the Catholic newspaperman Schneider, “and I hate their insane pride of race and of religion and their incredible fatuousness… What I hate is a priesthood that lacks both charity and humility and has misled and confused its people until they mistake black for white, hate for love and darkness for light. A priesthood that has substituted chastity for charity and frequently a chastity so warped and misinformed that its ultimate fruits compare with those of lust.” ]


               In  Radical Ron's opinion " Moon Gaffney " was neither anti- Catholic nor anti-Irish just anti-clerical .


 James P. Cannon reviews anti-clerical novel " Moon Gaffney "

Radical Ron not only anti-Semitic but also anti-Irish ?

I really do think your comment here is hyper-sensitive on anti-Irish bigotry. Of course whole books have been written about the " The Irish Experience " in America. There are NO more grounds for bigotry against the Irish than any other people - the Jews, for example. " Socialists from the English speaking world " lately have been accused of " anti-Semitism " when they are simply asserting the ideals of international socialism.


I have also said that socialists should try to build bridges to people of ALL the great religions of humanity- including Islam.


Was James Joyce a self-hating Irish Catholic ? I don't think so. Am I a self-hating Italo- American when I express my scorn for the " Godfather " cult ? Or for Mussolini's Italy ?

                 I always sided with the Catholic Irish fighting British oppression.


  COMMENT


"There is nothing charming about ethnic self-obsession. Can you picture
Ireland retreating to the reactionary Irish-Catholic " culture " James
Joyce wrote about in " Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man " ?"


[ I'm getting sick of this anti-Irish bigotry that seems to be embedded in socialists from the English-speaking world. Catholic reaction in Ireland in the Victorian period was imposed by Britain after the country had lost 3-5 million people in a genocidal attack. It is one phase in a people whose culture was 2500 years old.
But this is always characterised in the anglocentrics as 'little ethnically obsessed Ireland' - always the attack, always the sense of threat to the English world from the 'ancient oddness' of the Irish - who sit in a strategic area of the North Atlantic, imperilling Britain.
None of you know the origin and etiology of your attitudes, which we can explain to you better than you know yourselves - we have been dealing with this bigotry for centuries. ]

Striking workers need our support

I appreciate this support for striking working people - fighting back working people - here at the World Socialist Web Site. I want to bring to your attention the striking nurses at Rhode Island Hospital . The vote to strike was nearly unanimous.


I learned about the pending strike from a dear friend whose registered nurse wife is today walking the picket line - described as " noisy " by local radio news. A cancer patient inside the hospital with a sign in his window supporting the striking nurses was told ( or asked ? ) to remove the sign.
I sent a short letter to the Providence Journal :


"As a resident citizen of Rhode Island I want to express my complete support for the striking nurses at Rhode Island Hospital. The American working class has been suffering bipartisan attacks on their standard of living for decades now. Time to fight back collectively .


I learned about the pending strike at Rhode Island Hospital from a dear friend whose registered nurse wife is walking the picket line today. As a democratic socialist I think every aspect of FOR PROFIT health care must be reformed to fit the ideal – once clearly expressed by the late Senator Ted Kennedy – of health care as a basic human right NOT a big business."

Radical Ron supports striking nurses at Rhode Island Hospital

                                    

As a resident citizen of Rhode Island I want to express my complete support for the striking nurses at Rhode Island Hospital. The American working class has been suffering bipartisan attacks on their standard of living for decades now. Time to fight back collectively .

        I learned about the pending strike at Rhode Island Hospital from a dear friend whose registered nurse wife is walking the picket line today. As a democratic socialist I think every aspect of FOR PROFIT health care must be reformed to fit the ideal – once clearly expressed by the late Senator Ted Kennedy – of health care as a basic human right NOT a big business.

Reply

More from PROJO editor Alan Rosenberg - Radical Ron's reply

On Mon, Jul 23, 2018 at 6:01 PM, Rosenberg, Alan <arosenbe@providencejournal.com> wrote:

[ Don't you think progressives should be kept abreast of what conservatives are up to, so they can formulate responses? We're not promoting Stenhouse and his views; we're reporting them, and people can then act (or not) as they see fit.

Same as when we reported that the progressive Moira Walsh was recruiting women to run for office. You can then choose to run or not run, vote for or against, once you know what she is doing.]

 Thank you, Mr. Rosenberg . But why not also report that some principled conservatives - as well as " progressives " - think this primary day behavior unprincipled ? 
                                                                         Ron Ruggieri

This is what I mean, Mr. Rosenberg ... FROM today's Providence Journal

Subject: This is what I mean, Mr. Rosenberg ... FROM today's Providence Journal

Party disaffiliations

In Rhode Island, where unaffiliated voters can vote in either primary, right-leaning groups waged a campaign this spring to persuade "conservatives″ to disaffiliate from the Republican Party so they could vote against "far-left progressives" in the Democratic primary.

An email blast in May from the Rhode Island Center for Freedom & Prosperity explained the aim: "The greatest threat facing our state is more progressive lawmakers elected this fall who will advance more anti-family and anti-business progressive policies.

"As conservatives, let's be smart and strategic with our votes,″ said one of the emails from Mike Stenhouse, CEO of the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. "Combined with other center-right groups in Rhode Island that are also asking their supporters to consider crossing-over, your primary vote could realistically make a difference in races involving a progressive candidate."

     This  gratuitous advice from a CONSERVATIVE , Mike Stenhouse,  was just discussed on 630 WPRO talk radio. The host himself clearly thought it was rather sleazy and unprincipled.    Remember that a " socialist " Democrat , Bernie Sanders, WON the 2016 Rhode Island Democratic Primary in April of 2016..

             Just WHO decides that PROGRESSIVE is anathema ?   In contrast to the annointed ( by the PROJO ) neo-cons like  " Wall St. Gina " as the true voice of the ( TAX PAYER ? ) .

                                                                                                         Sincerely , keep smiling ( as the Charlie Chaplin song says )

                                                                                                          Ron Ruggieri 

PROJO editor Alan Rosenberg replies : denies suppressing " socialist propaganda "

Rosenberg, Alan	5:25 PM (8 minutes ago)
to me, Edward

Thanks for writing, Mr. Ruggieri. I'm not sure what it is we've suppressed, though. We work hard to provide multiple viewpoints on important issues.

      NOTE from ME : When was the last time they published  ANY letter from " Radical Ron "  ?   Or from ANY " democratic socialist "  ?