Stoned Again: Portrait of a Political Fixer

Posted on January 25, 2018 by admin

A largely unmentioned neo-Nazi contributer to the alt-right is Roger Stone (pictured below), a master at dirty tricks operations & behind-the-scenes media manipulations, going back to Nixon & Reagan. Whatever Stone’s political position is, it quickly becomes Trump’s position, as he (as much as anyone) created president Trump.

Alt-right is defined as racism, nationalism & greed, dashed with a pro-choice & pro-marijuana agenda, for public consumption & working class appeal. Alt-right is the Libertarian & Tea Party congealed. Alex Jones (Infowars) is Roger Stone’s favorite attack dog & political media mouthpiece.

Get Me Roger Stone (2017) is an informative film, which reminds everyone that Donald J. Trump (the political candidate), was created in 1988. Trump is the exact opposite of a political outsider, despite the claims.

Trump also dallied with the Reform party ticket in 2000, to help George W. Bush, by splitting the Reform party votes for Pat Buchanan, the official nominee.

Background: Ross Perot’s Reform party campaign in 1992 had broad popular appeal, and in the minds of many Republican insiders (Stone included), the Texas technology billionaire cost the Republicans the 1992 & 1996 presidential elections with his meddling.

Never one to be discouraged by what people think, Roger Stone engineered the halting of the Florida recount in November 2000, by organizing the “Brooks Brothers” protests, which turned into a right-wing media frenzy.

In short, these fixers need more exposure, because when they are allowed to operate in the shadows, they produce fascism. As much as the mass hatred for Hillary Clinton (and the Democratic establishment) played a role in her 2016 defeat, the other half of the equation for installing Trump in the White House was this nefarious brand of political manipulation. Get Me Roger Stone (2017), is available for streaming on Netflix, and should be seen by all who need to know their true enemy.

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Top-10: Minnesota Vikings Terrible

Posted on October 18, 2017 by admin

This list was surprisingly easy to compile, ~ 30 minutes off the top of my head. This organization is a model of dysfunction, remarkable in its inefficiency, even by capitalist standards.

10) PK Rick Danmeier, the last of the toe-punch kickers in the NFL. His XPM % would be <50% with today’s rules. Vikings head coach Bud ‘Stoneface’ Grant stuck with Danmeier’s awfulness season-after-season, saying he didn’t see the need to replace him. Maximum FG range– 43 yards or so, depending on the conditions…

Vikings hypothetical scenario in 1983: 4th & 9 on the opposing 28 yard-line, with the wind slightly gusting…. Bud Grant has a decision to make? The field-goal attempt is spotted 7 yards back in that day, making it highly questionable…. Punter Greg Coleman (brother of Vince with the MLB St. Louis Cardinals), is an option here…

Frequent Result: “Vikings called for delay of game penalty– five yards… That definitely takes them out of Danmeier’s range… Coleman boots it high & deep…. and it’s a touch-back. Opposition’s ball on their 20-yard line– 1st & 10.”

9) 1998, when they were by far the best team in the NFL, and still lost in the NFC championship game– to a mediocre Atlanta Falcons team, that lost to the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl. That team is the NFC version of the 18-1 NE Patriots, that lost the Super Bowl to the NY Giants. Roughly equivalent to the NBA’s Golden State Warriors 73-win season, where they lost the finals the Cleveland Cavilers.

8) Losing 4 Super Bowls— all in the 1970’s. Truth is: Tom Landry & Don Shula were more innovative, with roughly the same level of talent.

7) Never making it to another Super Bowl, since loss #4. With all of Bud Grant’s limitations, he’s still the best head coach in their history. I don’t know how you can be proud of that, but many faithful still are. It’s Brad Childress & Dennis Green competing for next-best Vikings head coach by result.

6) Trading HoF WR Randy Moss to the Raiders, for a 1st-round pick, which was yet another draft bust. Hall-of-Fame playmakers don’t grow on trees. Smart teams hold onto them. The only lasting playmakers the Vikings ever drafted (since 1960) are QB Fran Tarkenton, WR Anthony Carter, WR Randy Moss, and RB Adrian Paterson; with too many busts in between.

5) Scat-back Darren Nelson, instead of RB Marcus Allen; In 1983, QB Dan Marino was available, but the Vikes took FS Joey Browner, etc… They’ve never replaced QB Fran Tarkenton, hence their SB-appearance drought. The Bills are are 0-4 in their Super Bowl appearances, but at least they got the QB they needed to get there (Jim Kelley) in this once-in-a-lifetime 1983 draft class. The Bills had to wait for Kelley, who signed with the USFL and played there for three seasons before it folded. That was the inaugural USFL draft, and the top player selected in it was Dan Marino. Their original ownership had more brains & innovation than the NFL, but then Donald Trump (& the rest of corporate America) came along [1].

4) Mike Lynn’s Herschel Walker trade, probably the worst trade in sports history. No deal represents such astounding ownership mis-management & short-sightedness more clearly, with a complete inability to identify talent or essential needs correctly.

3) Losing the 2009 conference championship game to the Saints, when they had the better team with QB Brett Favre in his last great season. They probably would have beaten the Colts in the SB, but were robbed by incompetent & inexplicably bad officiating. The NFL even changed its overtime rules because of how the game ended. It’s characteristic for the Vikings to lose in this fashion, it just is.

2) Les Steckel in 1984. Steckel, a coach with a military background emphasizing discipline, became the 3rd head coach in franchise history, replacing Stoneface. Steckel ran a marine-style training (boot) camp, where his players didn’t learn to play football together, but instead competed for individual endurance & fitness prizes. For the record: All-Pro TE Steve Jordan won the overall team fitness award; and (50-year old) K Jan Stenerud won among the kickers, punters & QB’s [!]. I think they each won a VCR. The Vikes went 3-13 and were the joke of the league that season. Bud Grant briefly came out of retirement to replace Steckel in 1985. For true die-hards, this season hurt like no other in franchise history.

1) The Metrodome & now U.S. Bank Stadium with its a fixed-roof stadium. Metropolitan Stadium was better for the Vikings than either of these boondoggles, but then money rules. Artificial turf is an affront to athletes, as their health and well-being is being disregarded, for the preferences of the bourgeoisie. The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome extended a trend of artificial turf playing surfaces in the 1980’s, precisely when it should have gone away…

… onward to the present:

One of the NFL teams that should sign QB Colin Kaepernick is the Minnesota Vikings. They won’t because they are too stupid to ever win a Super Bowl. One note on blacklists, they’re “unofficial” by nature– therefore impossible to “prove,” unless you use your head and follow the money. Identifying blacklists is very much like dealing with dog shit. If it looks & smells like dog shit– it probably is.

The converse to that is this dirty parable: Two guys are walking along a road and come upon what appears to be a pile of dog shit.
The head guy say to the other, “Looks like dog shit. Take a closer look…”
So the other guy gets down on his knees and looks closely, then responding, “Looks like dog shit.”
Then the head guy says, “Smell it.” So the other takes a whiff and replies, “Smells like dog shit.”
Then the head guy says, “Taste it.” So the other guy sticks his tongue on it and winces, “Tastes like dog shit!”

Then head honcho then grins & nods while summarizing, “Good thing we didn’t step in it.”

Colin Kaepernick would be an immediate upgrade for ~20 NFL teams, yet he can’t find a job. No question he’s blacklisted, that’s what his lawsuit against the NFL for collusion is about [2].

It’s a real problem in America when a top-level QB is blackballed for expressing a political opinion, for which he has every right to express; while (for instance) a serial rapist is still the starting QB in Pittsburgh.

This defines the “character” of the NFL and many of it’s fans. It’s getting to be too much nonsense, with these apologists in favor of blacklisting political dissent. If you feel the same, then speak up and act while you still have the right. It’s those who agree, but remain silent, who are the most complicit. Such behavior parallels Germany in the 1930’s…

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Playing the Trump Card

Posted on April 14, 2017 by admin

Fake News has now become a buzzword. It comes from the common understanding among literate people that all the news we see, read & hear are lies made to serve nefarious interests. The corporations that control these outlets benefit from these lies, so it’s perfectly reasonable to presume that all this is propaganda. It fits the facts as all evidence confirms this thesis.

The news has always been fake. Capitalism does have its well-thought-out niches, and propaganda is most definitely one of them. The reason that corporate news is broadly recognized & despised is the level of irrationality it has now reached. There is very-little-to-nothing that is useful to consumers, as far as reporting facts go. As for editorial commentary, it’s gutter grade journalism across the board.

This means working people now turn off & tune out corporate. This is done in all sorts of ways. Many have dumped cable/satellite TV (cord cutters), and moved to ‘alternative’ news & information sources on the Internet. Many also rely on social media, as a vehicle to discuss issues in dedicated forums and share through Facebook. Facebook is undoubtedly the social media king, as most major sports, entertainment & political news forums connect with it, so ideas can be shared quickly. They also can be censored, by the controlling interest. Mark Zuckerberg is the owner of this all-powerful medium, even though it is really (photo below) Shawn Fanning’s Napster peer-to-peer idea revised.

Quick history lesson: Shawn Fanning was a college drop out who had a genius idea to revolutionize the world through free music sharing back when the Internet was new to most of us. It quickly went viral, and then came under attack from the record industry (RIAA). Corporate music recruited shills (in the form of Metallica [below] & Dr. Dre), to turn public opinion against Napster, despite their willingness to work with artists on a model that would pay them.

The reasons were: 1) it never is about paying the artists, it’s about the record companies getting their money; and they were getting shut out & overrun so they tied everything up in court and now we have iTunes & Pandora– which suck compared to Napster; and 2) Ivy leaguers are supposed to own all-powerful social media platforms, not working class prodigies.

After Napster was killed in court, Fanning’s partner Shawn Parker (with Fanning above) eventually found Mark Zuckerberg (below) and together they created Facebook, which has many of the same original ideas in site construction & content sharing. That’s how a genius gets cut out, diminishing human society.

Getting back to fake news, anyone can see how social media can be a platform for sharing content (revolutionary), while also being a major player in the fake news onslaught (reactionary). This is done through its manipulation of trending on a macro scale, but can also be individualized with precise targeting for anyone. Reach can be cut, by simply not posting it to other feeds– even when requested. Also fake stats on visitors, activity, likes, comments & censoring messages are common tactics. There are definite class forces behind this.

All this leads to Donald Trump, who has now earned the title “Commander-in Chief,” and the media praise he so desperately covets. As discussed earlier, Trump is more of a celebrity than a politician, so playing to his vanity is always the correct move in manipulating him. It is clear that Sean Spicer is his mouthpiece, and he plays the crucial role of Joseph Goebbels as propaganda minister.

Just as in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s, both Trump & Spicer are allowed to say the foulest, most ignorant words imaginable and the media barely blinks an eye, and never demands serious explanation or accountability. With the entire mass media we have thorough corruption, combined with a severe case of the Emperor’s New Clothes.

The fact that nuclear war is being contemplated behind closed doors, with no discussion in the media [!] is the height of ridiculousness. The fact that Donald Trump can say whatever he wants to whomever, and it doesn’t mean a thing, is a serious problem. Yet the media reassures us that everything will be fine, as warships move in on their next attack target.

There are now several flashpoints (Syria, North Korea, Ukraine…) that could set off a shooting war with a major nuclear power. This ends in mutually assured destruction (MAD). Any time this Black Hand (deep state) needs aggression, they can now play the Trump card. This is no longer doom & gloom prophecy, this is materialist analysis of our historical situation. Human society must find & rally around its best elements to avoid a cruel & horrible end.

This is only possible though a socialist transformation of society, into one that eliminates privileged classes & social inequality. It is precisely these class forces that are driving a desperate deep state apparatus. The qualitative change in media propaganda is a measure of their crisis, and also an indication of their ruthlessness and lack of regard for any consequences.

Humans beings are smarter than Donald Trump, and must recognize en masse that he and his fascist cohorts, (along with the deep-state military-intelligence-Wall Street apparatus that is pulling every string), needs to be removed from power. This will only happen through mass action from a united international working class, armed with Marxism & the dialectical method.

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Memorial Day & ‘Free’ Elections

Posted on May 30, 2016 by admin

Donald Trump will be the Republican Party nominee in July, as his hardcore supporters of racists, xenophobes and other forms of haters never wavered. The conservative establishment threw its dream-team of candidates from Jeb Bush to Marco Rubio to Ted Cruz, and each foundered upon itself trying to take out the Trump campaign. There had been very little that was humanly sensible left in the Republican party, but today it can be said there is nothing left. The Republican party is now the official U.S. party of fascism.

Near-sighted fools in the liberal & conservative media never took any of this seriously, until it was too late. Donald Trump has been the recipient of the most free media coverage in election history. It is an indictment on the entire corporate media establishment from CNN & FOX to Yahoo, that this reactionary bigot has been elevated to such respectable status. Attempts to bias media coverage & manipulate social media against him are now useless, as fascism ignores any inhibiting rules while insisting they apply to others. Donald Trump is the truest essence of capitalism in all it’s ignorance, arrogance & ugliness. Simply look at him physically. That fact that so many people can support this filth, is an indictment of capitalist society– sick & rotten to the core. When toxic waste is allowed to dominate politics, then conventional politics is dead.

Now is the time for workers everywhere to organize their revolution, as it’s nearing fight time. This coming world war must be turned into a civil war, whose objective is to overthrow the capitalist state and replace it with socialism– globally. It must be a socialist revolution in permanence, from the working people, everywhere; otherwise the reaction from fascism will be merciless to humankind.

Fascists don’t value life, in any form; they are only obsessed with conquest & power. They never know when they’ve gone too far, because they’ve always strayed too far from rational ideas. Donald Trump’s ‘platform’ is nothing but ignorance, hate & ugliness.

Hillary Clinton has been anointed the Democratic party nominee for weeks now, despite losing the majority of the primaries & caucuses held in that time period. Her ‘superdelegate’ stranglehold from the Washington political machinery (Bill Clinton) ensured her the Democratic nomination from the start. Tens (and really hundreds) of millions of Americans don’t want this presented choice for ‘savior from Trump.’ Americans been down this road before with Barack Obama in 2008, and his Audacity of Hope. Any ‘feminists’ who insist on a woman for similar reasons, are just as delusional.

These will surely be the most reviled candidates in U.S. political history. Why bother with primaries, debates, or any meaningful political discussion when these are the only choices? Nothing good can come from either candidate, and most will be voting against the other, more than for their own.

No, this just won’t do anymore. There are too many important issues being ignored, while the issue of issues– social inequality, is ignored. The official narrative that the U.S. economy is recovering is a lie.

Please note that these are the freedoms for which our brave servicemen fought & died.

Perhaps they were fighting for the wrong causes? Does anyone know what the right causes are?

Is it okay to ask (or think) these thoughts on Memorial Day?

IF FREEDOM ISN’T VIGILANTLY GUARDED & REGULARLY EXERCISED, IT BECOMES A TOOL OF THE RULING CLASS FOR MANIPULATING THE WORKING PEOPLE.

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Update 6-2-16: Best current article on the Democratic party nomination [1].

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Let’s Build a Wall

Posted on March 3, 2016 by admin

Asaad Al-Zoubi & George Sabra (pictured below) head the ‘Syrian opposition delegation,’ which represents the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in recent ‘peace talks‘ at the United Nations in Geneva.

The FSA is a CIA-organized coalition of spies, terrorists, defectors, al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra Front, and ISIS jihadist militants. Here is their Wikipedia page– [1]

The FSA has ravished Syria since 2011.

This is a large part of the current refugee crisis in Europe.

The White House & Pentagon have been conducting airstrikes in FSA support for several years, despite the fact that al-Qaeda has been the official U.S. enemy (in its phony ‘war on terror‘) since 9/11.

The governments of Saudi Arabia, Qatar & Turkey have lent financial & military support to the US-led war in Syria.

In September 2015, the Russian government began airstrikes against the FSA, in defense of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, their political ally.

In U.S. ruling circles, nobody believes that Bashar al-Assad is any kind of threat to national security, but he is an ally of Russia and that’s enough for the warheads in Washington & Langley.

Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany and European Union whip, insists that all of Europe’s external borders must be ‘secured.’

‘Fortress Europe’ will cut off Syrian refugees in Turkey, Greece and the Aegean Sea.

€3 billion has been made available for the building of mass internment camps for refugees on the Turkey/Syria border.

This is the foreign policy reality that is being ignored during ‘Election 2016.’

This political madness which sets mankind course for nuclear war, is Democratic White House policy. A Republican oval office will only insist on further escalation with Russia & China.

Working people need their own candidates– as this garbage just won’t do.

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Presidential Debates: Are You Kidding Me?

Posted on February 12, 2016 by admin

The political side-show circus, funded by an unlimited supply of super PAC money, stops in South Carolina on Saturday, February 13– with only the Republicans on prime-time TV this time. Anyone tuning in, hopeful of gaining a clearer sense of the serious political issues our world is facing today, will only be repulsed & disgusted by what they see & hear.

President Obama just submitted his last budget to congress. Two-thirds of discretionary spending is for military & policing, with huge increases in their budgets. Virtually nothing is left for education, environmental, infrastructure, or any other social service. [1]

“There is no money” is the lie that pours out of the mouths of pleading liberal Democrats & foul-mouthed Republicans, over & over. The corporate media ‘moderators’ and party supporter-packed audiences put on a show for their viewers, dazzling them with insults & sensationalism– no serious discussion is allowed on any topic.

The mainstream media pretends it has no clue as to why Donald Trump is leading the Republican nomination process; as if they never considered the effect of allowing a reactionary bigot to openly propose building a wall between the US & Mexico, or denying religious freedom to Muslims, or condoning known forms of torture (and worse), with audiences that enthusiastically applaud every misanthropic statement. Every hardcore racist, socio-path, and brain-dead narcissist loves the guy.

Trump has been aided-and-abetted the whole way by a vested corporate media, which never criticizes him for what he actually is– a fascist. He & his supporters may look silly & harmless on the surface, but underneath they are the toxic elements of fear, hatred and ignorance. Youth & working people everywhere need to rise up and meet this dangerous tendency with merciless opposition. Supporters of this filth need to be exposed, shouted down, and when necessary– beaten down. This tendency can not be allowed to seize power.

A Marxist understanding of the current political situation is that this is war, with survival for humanity at stake. Fake socialist Bernie Sanders will insist fascism can be tempered and restrained– with soothing language and a spirit of compromise. He is a fool who knows better, the latest in a long line of political dead-ends for those still willing to cling to the liberal illusions of the Democratic party.

It’s up to youth & working people to now organize themselves and take action towards building an independent political voice that listens to and serves their interests. Democrats & Republicans are both bribed by the super-rich, the class enemy of the workers. The only viable solution is throwing off the straitjacket of the two -party system, and building a revolutionary socialist party that unites the workers of the world in the fight against capitalism. The alternative is the fascist jackboot.

We deserve better than this.

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Ric Size

Songwriter, Musician, Artist

Tag Archives: Fascism