Hands off Cuban Socialism!

As a citizen of the United States and a democratic Socialist I would hate to see everything good and decent and progressive about socialist Cuba spoiled by the corrupting influence of American vulture capitalism.

Has the world been told the full story behind the collapse of Soviet era communism? How could hundreds of thousands of Russian Communist Party members – almost over night– abandon the rational ideology of scientific socialism (which was never a Stalinist personality cult) and embrace the reactionary American crackpot Ayn Rand? Embrace the socially insane principles of global capitalism?

Link to The Demon-Haunted World

Our popular science writer Carl Sagan reported that all sorts of intellectual rubbish was surfacing in post Soviet era Russia ( read his "Demon Haunted World"). A Lenin could have predicted this (Lenin's  work "Materialism and Empirio Criticism" is still very instructive)

I would love to see a revival of socialist thinking in Russia. In 2017 they should CELEBRATE the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. And once again reach out to the workers of the world.

( comment on article published in Aktyalnye Kommentarii ( Russia ) on Jan. 29, 2015 by Alexander Ionov, WATCHING AMERICA, "The U.S. Always Wants More")

"The NBC anchor must have credibility?" - true but superficial

Link to American Free Press article

I  have no wish to deflate NBC news anchor Brian Williams for inflating or conflating personal Iraq war stories-usually distorted by the fog of war anyway. But behind Brian Williams, of course, are his corporate masters-the very individuals who intentionally LIE us into nasty wars. What was more foolish than for the mass media to propagandize for an endless war on terrorism-every bit as futile and costly as the war on drugs? We see now that even modern medicine cannot win its arrogant WAR ON GERMS.

It is easy enough to protect any news anchor's credibility if he is instructed to tell the truth. But Brian Williams, the face of NBC, is also the face of our war propaganda. Was his phony baloney war story also motivated by a felt need to sell the disastrous Iraq War to the American people, to conflate it with one of our-also phony-GOOD WARS?

Even if Brian Williams is fired, it will be for lost sacrosanct credibility. But TRUTH is not sacrosanct in the capitalist owned news media.

Brian Williams can quickly be replaced by another corporate cardboard, charming charlatan. I recommend our very own Gene Valicenti !

Link

Submitted to: letters@providencejournal.com

Business owners most culpable on sidewalks after blizzard!

I do find fault with many main street business owners. They quickly plowed out their spacious lots in the interest of MAKE-A-BUCK. Their sidewalks neglected in the spirit of contempt for pedestrians. If they could only charge a sidewalk toll!

Just a helpful suggestion.

Submitted To: letters@providencejournal.com

Submitted To: Gene@630wpro.com

Foot note to ProJo article "Nobody should be homeless" ( Jan. 14 )

Link to Providence Journal article

Last year there was one truly odd guest at Harrington Hall in Cranston. My homeless friend, described as " Ragged Dave " in a letter to the Providence Journal, had spent a nightmarish night there. Dave was tired of sleeping in his broken down Lincoln Town Car. Oddly enough he was once a millionaire, related to the Alpert family here in Rhode Island. Brown University Medical School is named after this family.  Dave is the only surviving blood relative of his aunt Grace Kennison Alpert. Grace died in August 2013, and is survived by her husband, Wesley Alpert, former CEO of Alpert Brothers Inc.

Photo: Bob Thayer: ProJo link

I wrote a letter of complaint to the Rhode Island Public Health Department about conditions at the Howard Ave. shelter. ("The shelter listed as accommodating 88 people, housed 145 the night before") They say they will quickly respond to all complaints via e-mail. But I never heard from them. Should they not be held responsible for these deplorable conditions? Should 71 year old Gerard Martineau (front page photo) be living there? Dave also observed a guy in a wheel chair and noted much coughing that reminded him of an old time tuberculosis ward.

Why should homeless people get less respect than convicted criminals in the nearby ACI prison?

Yes, "nobody should be homeless." But capitalism puts profits before people.
I will blog this message to you.

To: dnaylor@providencejournal.com

                                                                                                     

This Society has a race problem ...... WATCHING AMERICA

I am a citizen of the United States and a registered Democrat (more a democratic Socialist) in the beautiful state of Rhode Island. Outraged by the Ferguson decision, many blacks here-with their white and latino supporters- on the day after, blocked interstate Route 95 for nearly an hour.

It was all rather foolish, I think. But it shows that alienation in American capitalist society is reaching a breaking point among the nation's have–nots. For too long Neo-Democrat inspired "political correctness" has racialized  POVERTY IN AMERICA. I can't imagine a million homeless white people identifying with our ONE PERCENT ruling class in common hostility to "lawless and rioting" black people.

The vast majority of white people are just unpretentious working class people who create the wealth and fight the foolish wars of our ruling class. They know that the MAJESTIC LAW swindles the common people.

I am by disposition a believer in non-violent social change. But I wonder if the assassinated black revolutionary firebrand Malcolm X is more relevant today to Afro-Americans than Martin Luther King. Malcolm's last year alive is very interesting to left-wing scholars. He was invited to speak before enthusiastic liberal audiences, mostly radicalized white students. "Show me a capitalist", Malcolm said passionately, "and I'll show you a bloodsucker!".

Will Washington D.C. soon look like Cairo, Egypt in 2011? PEACE!

POST under WATCHING AMERICA commentary published in Die Presse ( Austria ) on 26 November 2014 by Wieland Schneider : "A  Society in which Some Members Feel Locked Out Has a Problem."