Dennis Banks passes and the racists in power insist on having the last word about his life.

The New York Times ran this very sleazy obituary... but had to take note of the struggles he led.


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/obituaries/dennis-banks-dead.html

Dennis Banks, American Indian Civil Rights Leader, Dies at 80

By ROBERT D. McFADDENOCT. 30, 2017

All politics is local... the price we pay for Wall Street's imperialist agenda

One thing we can always count on from Democrats and Republicans:

They will always increase funding for militarism and wars at the national level... then slash funding for public education at the national level while pushing for increases in the most regressive tax of all at the local level, the property tax, to pay for education...

This is how they are crippling and killing public education.

And as their bombs drop destroying schools in other countries both Democrats and Republicans unite locally to push all kinds of millages and bond proposals down our throats to pay for public education as they offer vouchers from public tax dollars to send the children of the wealthy to private schools.

And then when people balk at having to pay higher taxes at the local level they say people are "hurting the children" even though their bombing of children in other countries never even phases them as anything other than "unfortunate collateral damage."

Do you have any idea how many public schools could be properly maintained and constructed right here in our own country with what it has cost us to leave Raqqa, Syria in ruins?

But, here again, both Democrats and Republicans will argue none of this has anything to do with local millage and bond proposals even as they argue "all politics is local."

I agree, imperialism makes "all politics local"... but, then again, both Democrats and Republicans shrug off the idea that they are Wall Street imperialists... even though both parties are, in fact, imperialist war parties.

The price we pay for these dirty imperialist wars from which the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction profit is the destruction of public education and going without health care--- as these wars make all but the Wall Street parasites poor... and how do poor people pay ever increasing property taxes?

Imperialism breeds a vicious for which all pay a very heavy price in so many ways.

Local tax increases are war taxes... make no mistake about this... don't withhold your vote--- Vote "No" to higher taxes every single chance you get.

It is imperialism punishing the children, not your "No" vote.

Did you have any say in creating this mess? No. Here again it is the Club of the Rich which has been making the decisions... let them pay through the nose to clean up their mess.

We need progressive, not regressive, taxes to fund public education in order to save it.

The solution to funding public education is to place a good hefty tax on the wealthy at the national level and fund public education from these taxes so every child receives a quality, integrated public education. I can hear the rich cry now over this solution--- they don't care about your kids anymore than they care about the children they bombed, but whose faces they don't want you to see, in Raqqa, Syria.

And let us examine the huge salaries of public school administrators; the profits architectural firms and contractors derive from public education; the huge profits the bond investors, mostly the bankers, derive from bond proposals...

Here again, we pay; they profit... at the expense of our children.

Are you considering voting “YES” on any bond proposals?

Are you considering voting “YES” on any bond proposals?

If so, you might want to check this out before you vote:

https://www.facebook.com/statesman/videos/10156039452884208/


It’s amazing how they are always telling us how small the increase will be in our property taxes but for some reason our property taxes keep going up and up. I don’t think these politicians know the difference between “fare” and “fair.” Vote “NO” on all of these bond proposals and when these politicians come up for re-election give them a dictionary and not your vote. As fewer and fewer of our federal tax dollars go for education and other human needs while these never-ending dirty wars cost more and more the burden of higher taxes is shifted to the state and local level... let the politicians get their priorities in order. It is costing us trillions of dollars to bomb schools and level a city like Raqqa, Syria with bombs when we should be funding education here in our own country. Maybe instead of sending school children out door-to-door selling candy and coupon books the generals should try selling candy bars to finance their stupid wars? How come we never get to vote on if our country should go to war? All politics ends up being local especially when politicians in Congress have messed up priorities.

Drone base in Niger gives U.S. a strategic foothold in West Africa

Not one single member of Congress knows how many U.S. troops are in Niger although these same politicians are making the ridiculous and unsubstantiated claim that these soldiers are "defending America" in Niger... how are these soldiers defending us in Niger? They are defending Wall Street's interests in using cheap labor to extract and steal natural resources--- oil, gold and uranium.





Why do we, as a people, need a "strategic foothold in West Africa?" We don't; Wall Street does.
It is not worth one single American life defending Wall Street's drive for maximum profits in Niger or any other country in Africa or any other place in the world:


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/drone-base-in-niger-gives-us-a-strategic-foothold-in-west-africa/2013/03/21/700ee8d0-9170-11e2-9c4d-798c073d7ec8_story.html?utm_term=.2b9d7bf94efe


Let us heed General Smedley Butler's advice:


Excerpt from a speech delivered in 1933, by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC who became a fervent anti-imperialist.


War is just a racket. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.


I believe in adequate defense at the coastline and nothing else. If a nation comes over here to fight, then we'll fight. The trouble with America is that when the dollar only earns 6 percent over here, then it gets restless and goes overseas to get 100 percent. Then the flag follows the dollar and the soldiers follow the flag.


I wouldn't go to war again as I have done to protect some lousy investment of the bankers. There are only two things we should fight for. One is the defense of our homes and the other is the Bill of Rights. War for any other reason is simply a racket.


There isn't a trick in the racketeering bag that the military gang is blind to. It has its "finger men" to point out enemies, its "muscle men" to destroy enemies, its "brain men" to plan war preparations, and a "Big Boss" Super-Nationalistic-Capitalism.


It may seem odd for me, a military man to adopt such a comparison. Truthfulness compels me to. I spent thirty- three years and four months in active military service as a member of this country's most agile military force, the Marine Corps. I served in all commissioned ranks from Second Lieutenant to Major-General. And during that period, I spent most of my time being a high class muscle- man for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.


I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all the members of the military profession, I never had a thought of my own until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.


I helped make Mexico, especially Tampico, safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefits of Wall Street. The record of racketeering is long. I helped purify Nicaragua for the international banking house of Brown Brothers in 1909-1912 (where have I heard that name before?). I brought light to the Dominican Republic for American sugar interests in 1916. In China I helped to see to it that Standard Oil went its way unmolested.


During those years, I had, as the boys in the back room would say, a swell racket. Looking back on it, I feel that I could have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.

Here we are... it is that time of year when voters are having "bond proposals" thrown at them for everything from garbge collection to education...

By the same politicians who are intent on squandering our Nation's wealth created by our labor on militarism and senseless, illegal, unconstitutional and barbaric imperialist wars with over 800 U.S. military bases dotting the globe protecting Wall Street's interests when these funds should be going to finance human needs like education, health care, child care, infrastructure and creating a society where every single person has the human rights embodied in the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We cannot have a government wasting our resources on militarism and fighting these dirty never-ending imperialist wars and expect human needs to be met--- this has never been accomplished.

These dirty imperialist wars thoroughly corrupt the politics of the Nation from top to bottom--- local, state and national.

We see how the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction distribute the bribes throughout the entire political system in a way that assures they will continue to profit from death and destruction.

Everything is based of the greed driven profit system.

These politicians tell us to "vote yes" on their bond proposals or the children will suffer--- like they care about children; their bombs are killing children all over the world as they even get dropped on schools with children in attendance. These politicians don't care about children or anyone else... they only care about how much money they will make and it doesn't make any difference if they make money charging tax-payers interest on bonds to build schools or manufacturing bombs to blow schools to smithereens like they have done in Raqqa, Syria.

I won't vote for bond proposals for schools or anything else; let politicians get their priorities in order.

As our country creeps towards fascism as a means by those presently in power, this creep towards fascism is intended to stifle the voices of the people in the decision-making process over all things and all matters pertaining to life and death and yet these crooked and corrupt politicians driven by greed and graft with such a disdain for the rights of the people to participate in the decision-making process in a way that our voices really matter hypocritically shout to the world that this country is the world's greatest bastion of democracy.

These politicians involved in brow-beating us into voting for these bond proposals which push us further into debt tell us each time it is such a small amount you will not even notice it on your property tax bill... if this is the case, why are property taxes soaring out of sight beyond the ability of many people to pay... especially people forced to live on miserly and meager Social Security, unemployment benefits and poverty wages. Do you see these politicians offering any property tax relief for those unable to pay?

The time has come to set new priorities for our country and this means beating swords into plowshares... it is time to learn to live in peace and friendship with the rest of the world instead of walking around with a big stick ready to clobber people of other lands who just want the rights guaranteed to them by the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights just like we do.

Trump just loves the Puerto Rican people... as only an imperialist could love a colonized people

http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/13/us/puerto-rico-superfund-water/index.html

Desperate Puerto Ricans are drinking water from a hazardous-waste site

By John D. Sutter, CNN

Updated 1:05 AM ET, Sat October 14, 2017

Dorado, Puerto Rico (CNN)Jose Luis Rodriguez waited in line Friday to fill plastic jugs in the back of his pickup truck with water for drinking, doing the dishes and bathing.

But there is something about this water Rodriguez didn't know: It was being pumped to him by water authorities from a federally designated hazardous-waste site, CNN learned after reviewing Superfund documents and interviewing federal and local officials.

Rodriguez, 66, is so desperate for water that this news didn't startle him.

"I don't have a choice," he said. "This is the only option I have."

More than three weeks after Hurricane Maria ravaged this island, more than 35% of the island's residents -- American citizens -- remain without safe drinking water.

It's clear some residents are turning to potentially risky sources to get by.

Jose Luis Rodriguez

Friday afternoon, CNN watched workers from the Puerto Rican water utility, Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, or AAA, distribute water from a well at the Dorado Groundwater Contamination Site, which was listed in 2016 as part of the federal Superfund program for hazardous waste cleanup.

Residents like Rodriguez filled small bottles from a hose and piled them in their vehicles. Large trucks with cylindrical tanks on their backs carried the water to people elsewhere. Some of the trucks carried the name of the municipality of Dorado. Others simply were labeled with the words "Agua Potable," Spanish for potable water.

In announcing the addition of the Dorado site to the Superfund program, the US Environmental Protection Agency says the area was polluted with industrial chemicals, including tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene, which "can have serious health impacts including damage to the liver and increasing the risk of cancer," according to the EPA.

EPA 'gathering more information'

It's unclear whether there are public health risks from this particular well, however.

The EPA said it plans to do testing in the area over the weekend.

"The EPA is gathering more information about the quality of water from the wells associated with our Dorado groundwater contamination site, as well as other Superfund sites in Puerto Rico," the agency said in a statement issued to CNN on Friday. "While some of these wells are sometimes used to provide drinking water, the EPA is concerned that people could be drinking water that may be contaminated, depending on the well. We are mindful of the paramount job of protecting people's health, balanced with people's basic need for water."

Regional EPA spokesman Elias Rodriguez confirmed the location is part of a Superfund site.

Autoridad de Acueductos y Alcantarillados, the water authority, was unaware that this well site was part of the Superfund program until CNN provided maps showing that this was the case, according to Luis Melendez, sub-director for environmental compliance at the utility.

Melendez maintained the water is fit for public consumption. The well was opened on an emergency basis and is not part of the regular drinking water supply, he said.

In 2015, this well in Dorado, which is located near a shopping center, was found by the EPA to be safely within federal standards for PCE and chloroform, two industrial chemicals.

'I've never seen this before'

Martyn Smith, a professor of toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley, told CNN the levels of PCE and chloroform would be essentially safe for human consumption. "I wouldn't have any problem in drinking this water if these were the only chemicals in it," he said. The problem with Superfund sites, he said, is that you don't know what else is present.

"I've never seen this before," he said, referring to the idea a Superfund site would be used as a source of public drinking water. Boiling the water, he said, would reduce possible contamination. And it's somewhat understandable, Smith added, that people in Puerto Rico would turn to possibly questionable drinking water sources given the scope of the crisis.

Still, a Superfund site -- a location with known health risks -- is just about the last place a person would want to turn to find drinking water, even in a crisis, said Erik Olson, head of the health program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group.

"There are thousands of chemicals out there that could be in a Superfund site and only a relative handful are covered by standards," he said. "What I would be worried about is stuff that isn't showing up on EPA's drinking water standards. It just sounds really risky to me to be serving water out of a Superfund well."

People waiting in line for water on Friday were largely unaware of these concerns. Some of them had heard the EPA announced this week that it had received reports that Puerto Ricans were getting water from Superfund sites. But those interviewed assumed that wasn't this well.

Mayra Perez, a 59-year-old retiree, expressed pride in the quality of the water.

"I'm sure there are no chemicals in this water," she said.

Aixa Chevere, a mother of two, said she would find a new source of water if this site was shown to be contaminated. Already, the family spends three to four hours per day waiting in lines for basic services and goods, including water. "We would boil the water or search for bottled water" if it were dangerous, she said. "We would find some other alternative."

That day, however, she loaded the water into her trunk of her car.

Don't just vote for Dumb Donkeys, engage them...

Here we go, again; with Democrats telling us we must vote for them in 2018 in order to protect ourselves from Trump even though these Democrats have not raised their voices in a way to protect us.


In fact, Republicans like Bob Corker have spoken out more vigorously, and this isn’t saying much for Corker, than Democrats to warn us about Trump’s marching us into World War III.


Peace is the most important issue and the fact of the matter is, Democrats are complicit in pushing us into World War III.

For those urging us to vote for Democrats as a way to save us from Trump, I would suggest they get involved in the Democratic Party at the grassroots level where they will find their neighbors and fellow workers and submit resolutions of substance on issues of peace and disarmament, full employment, a National Public Health Care System, a National Public Child Care System, for Trump’s impeachment, and a resolution to explain the relationship between the carbon footprint left by the Military Industrial Complex and global warming.


I think it is important to engage with grassroots Democrats on the local level as a way to influence Congress.


And make your resolutions very public through letters to the editor, leafleting your neighborhood and tabling and petitioning.


Doing all of this with the intent to bring millions of people into the streets to back up our demands for peace, social and economic justice.


But simply calling on people to vote for these Dumb Donkeys without mustering the power of the people to push these politicians to do what is right is just asking for more of the same from these worthless Democrats.


You can get all the information you need to put together resolutions, letters to the editor, leaflets and educational materials from my blog posts like this:


https://thepodunkblog.blogspot.com/2017/10/a-fucking-moron-sits-in-oval-office.html
I would encourage you to get together with a few other people to work on this. Meet in living rooms, union halls, church basements or a park.


Maybe start a monthly book discussion group. There are lots of good books on these topics.
You might want to start with a discussion of Ken Fuller’s New book, “Hardboiled Activist” about the life of writer and activist Dashiell Hammett.


On the one hand we need a new political party; on the other hand, we have to make due using the Democrats to get rid of Trump.


I will be posting resolutions on these issues you can take before your local Democratic Party organizations.


The thing is, I don’t want people lecturing me about how I have to vote for a bunch of Dumb Donkeys in order to save ourselves who in the final analysis are no better than the Republicans when you are not willing to put in the kind of effort that will push these Democrats to do what is right.


Check out what Elmer Benson had to say:
https://www.pdffiller.com/282034-v47i04p154-161-Politics-in-my-lifetime--Elmer-A-Benson---Collections---Minnesota--Various-Fillable-Forms-collections-mnhs

A "fucking moron" sits in the Oval Office according to his own selected Secretary of State

There is no question Donald Trump is a moron.

The question is:

What are we going to do about it?

At some point we need to be united in answering this question.

The Democrats are content to let Trump continue on thinking his follies will result in Democratic Party victories at the polls but this doesn't do us or the world much good as Trump destroys everything.

Donald Trump's chosen Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, called Trump a "fucking moron" because Trump wants to use military mite and wars to accomplish what Tillerson believes can be accomplished through a perverted form of imperialist "diplomacy."

Notice in criticizing the Republican budget recommendations the Democrats say not one word about the increase in the budget for militarism and wars they voted along with Republicans for...


“With a razor-thin 219-206 margin, House Republicans have passed their FY2018 budget, a $4.2 trillion spending and cuts measure that sets up their tax cut bill to progress through the Senate without being subject to a filibuster, provided they come up with a tax cut bill. This is a non-binding resolution that would set spending—and slashing—priorities for the Congress. Those priorities are a big problem, not just for Democrats but for the health of the nation.
The bill not only instructs congress to do massive tax cuts for the rich through the budget reconciliation process, it instructs lawmakers to reduce Medicaid spending by $1 trillion and Medicare by $473 billion. That's along with the $37 billion in cuts for affordable housing, $100 billion for Pell Grants, cutting Head Start by $3 billion, and essentially gutting the WIC program that provides food assistance to 1.25 million women, infants, and children.
That's so they can get $1.5 trillion in tax cuts for the rich.”


When it comes to squandering our Nation’s wealth on militarism and wars the Democrats and Republicans find common ground.


The Democrats had the chance to tax the hell out of the rich and they took no action because the Democrats and Republicans, in spite of rhetoric to the contrary of both- the Republican claim of helping ease the tax burden on the middle class and the Democrats claiming they are for taxing the rich, both Democrats and Republicans come together in shoving austerity measures down the throats of working people to pay for militarism and wars... this is the bottom line.


Prosperity for ALL is only achievable by ending militarism and wars. Militarism and these never-ending dirty imperialist wars are making us all poor.


It is dishonest of the Democrats to deride the Republican budget when they vote with the Republicans for increased military spending and to fund these dirty wars... or, is it the other way around; the Republicans vote with the Democrats to increase funding for militarism and wars... either way, the Wall Street merchants of death and destruction get rich. Working people pay through the nose in every conceivable way while people all over the world continue to die in these dirty wars... many of which our great free media doesn’t even tell us are going on like in Niger where we hear because four Green Berets are dead but we never hear about the civilian death toll.


We have a “fucking moron” for president and a Wall Street corrupted Congress.


Trump said he was going to drain the swamp and instead of draining the swamp Trump turned the swamp into a stinking cesspool contaminated with racism and anti-Communism.


The Democrats refuse to stop Trump choosing instead to give him free reign for political expediency thinking all of his blundering follies will give them a political victory at the polls when this kind of approach to politics only results in people staying home on Election Day.


Because working people don’t have our own political party we have no choice but to try to push the Democrats to do what is right... Take up impeachment and prosecution of Trump and his crooked and corrupt cronies consisting of his Cabinet.


This will take moving millions of people into the streets.

Only complete morons believe it is possible to fund militarism and wars and have a "Great Society."

How do we get rid of a moron occupying the Oval Office who is pushing us towards World War Three and nuclear annihilation when all we have is an "opposition" party seeking political opportunity at our expense?

Militarism and wars corrupt the political process as Wall Street uses some of its ill begotten wealth derived from militarism and wars to further bribe and corrupt Democrats and Republicans.

We need to build a new working class based people's party that is anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist which understands prosperity for all will only be derived from ending spending on militarism and these dirty imperialist wars which isn't afraid to declare its intent to challenge Wall Street for political and economic power.

We need a new political party which isn't shy about declaring itself for a National Public Health Care System--- socialized health care.

For what we are spending on militarism and these dirty wars we could have a National Public Health Care System instead...


Publicly funded.


Publicly administered.


Publicly delivered.


Nothing any more controversial than public education...


And everyone would be fully covered from pre-natal through burial...


General medical.


Dental.


Vision.


Hearing.


Mental.


And the right to abortion.


All medications included.


No fees.


No premiums.


No deductibles.


No co-pays.


Instead of foreign U.S. military bases dotting the globe protecting Wall Street's interests we could have a network of public community and neighborhood health care centers delivering free world-class health care to everyone living in this country.

A National Public Health Care System would create over twelve-million living wage jobs.

In addition, for all those Democrats and Republicans who claim to be so interested in controlling health care costs, there is no less expensive, more affordable and cost-effective way to provide the American people with health care.

We can not expect these politicians bribed by Wall Street's Military-Industrial Complex to stand in opposition to capitalist market-driven, for-profit health care any more than we can expect them to stand in opposition to militarism and these never-ending unconstitutional, illegal, dirty imperialist wars.

This moron in the White House who finds friends among the KKK and the Nazis is going goose-stepping backwards in the footprints of Joe McCarthy as he tramples the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights as he "leads" us into World War Three and a from global warming into a nuclear winter.

Key to achieving an economy that works for all which provides prosperity for all is ending Wall Street's militarism and its dirty imperialist wars. The time has come to take up the struggle to beat swords into plowshares and make the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights a reality for all people everywhere.

We need a new working class party that is both anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist with peace at the very top of its agenda unafraid to declare it is challenging Wall Street for political and economic power.

We nee a broad-based people's united front to impeach Trump, defend our Constitution and Bill of Rights while fighting for reforms in the streets and at the ballot box.

Education. Organization. Unity in Action is the only way we will win against our common powerful Wall Street enemy.