The World Cup & Sports Propaganda

Sports are used to distract the masses. As of this publication, there are two major international sporting events competing for our attention: Wimbledon, and the World Cup being held in Russia. At the All England Club, the story has been the manipulation of seedings on the women’s side.

Serena Williams is currently WTA-ranked #181, but insisted on being seeded for Wimbledon. It was an unprecedented move for the oldest tennis tournament and the professional tour, but Serena was seeded #25. Even that generous seeding now appears to be an understatement of the bias in her favor.

Serena Williams has cruised into the 4th round, without facing any opponent who ranks higher than #62 in the WTA. She faced #105 Arantxa Rus in the 1st Round, and #135 Viktoriya Tomova in the 2nd. Her opponent in the Round-of-16 is Evgeniya Rodina– WTA Rank #120.

Meanwhile stacked brackets everywhere else have resulted in numerous upsets among the top-seeded women. Major bitch factor is now on-the-scene, as the women’s draw feels like a manipulation scheme by ESPN to glorify Serena Williams– new mother, black female role model, blah, blah, blah…. The women know, and aren’t happy about it– you can tell.

Serena Williams is being used as American propaganda to distract people from the success of the World Cup in Russia. The problem is: England is in the semis, and the whole world is watching. The US didn’t qualify for WC 2018, so they’re out in the cold. Old partnerships are fracturing at the seams– it seems. These are high-level, multi-pronged political maneuverings– for sure; so the truth will be hidden and covered-up with lies by a compliant mass media.

Make no mistake, sports are used as propaganda, and nothing is bigger than the World Cup. Every country gets a chance to qualify, and every government wants its national team to show well. Winning is perceived as national glory for all, and a safely-valve for mass discontent. Brazil is perhaps the best example of fùtbol’s dangerous contradictions.

The last four teams remaining in WC 2018 are France v Belgium and Croatia v England. World Cup 2022 is to be held in Qatar, where the average summer temperature is ~110 degrees Fahrenheit, but global warming will surely make it even hotter by then. Qatar is still in the process of constructing the necessary facilities, all-the-while war & starvation are ravishing the Arabian Peninsula. World Cup 2026 is to be held in the US.

Note that the host county automatically gets in, per FIFA. Russia’s national team had a great run, losing to Croatia in the quarterfinals on penalty kicks. Our world (rich & poor) is addicted to sports, so the propaganda value attached to these nationalist matches is immense. This phenomena needs to be more broadly understood to be overcome.

When the World Cup is held (men’s, & women’s since 1991), travel & visa requirements are temporarily suspended. Teams and their fans must be freely allowed in & out, for the good of the event. Consider this in the context of ongoing attacks on immigrants by the reactionary governments of the world. The World Cup (at its best) is an international celebration of peace through athletic competition. That’s a Marxist materialist perspective.

Final Update: Saturday July 14, 2018   ~1:30 PM ET

The propaganda wars continue after Angie Kerber decisively defeats Serena Williams: 6-3, 6-3 in the Wimbledon women’s finals. Shown below was Kerber’s Wikipedia page moments after her victory. It was changed minutes later, after I posted this screenshot on my Fakebook page.

“Angelique Kerber… is a German professional tennis player… A left-hander, known for her aggressive counter-punching all-court game, and loves the boaby, Kerber has won 11 singles titles across all surfaces on the WTA Tour, including three Major titles at the 2016 Australian Open, the 2016 US Open, and 2018 Wimbledon in which she took Serena Williams to CHUUUURCH. She has also won an Olympic silver medal while representing Germany at the 2016 Summer Olympics.”

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is off to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland as the World Cup comes to it’s glorious conclusion with France v Croatia in the finals. Who knows what criminality these two hoodlums will be discussing in private, as the world cheers this match? The mass media will only continue to poison its airwaves & the Internet with yellow journalism and lies. Sports are big business– meant to distract the masses from this most-serious hidden business, and that’s why they can’t be ignored or underestimated.

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Fascism Wins Election 2016

A political earthquake has just struck, as fascist billionaire and Republican candidate Donald Trump has won the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In what was supposed to be a victory party for long-time Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton, turned into an exposure of what she truly is– the biggest loser in modern political history.  [1]  This is a woman who married for power, stood beside her President husband after he was impeached in 1998 for lying about his extramarital affairs, then lost the 2008 Democratic primary (in which she was heavily supported & supposed to easily to win) to up-and-comer Barack Obama. Hillary played it smart & surrendered gracefully in ’08, settling for Secretary of State from 2009-13, authorizing & condoning war crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya & beyond…

This ‘2016 Election’ was to be hers, but it kept hitting snags from the start.  Bernie Sanders challenged Hillary from the left, and won 13+ million votes by identifying himself as socialist, meaning he stumped against the corruption of the Clinton’s & their like. Wikileaks dumps later revealed that high-ranking operatives in the Democratic party manipulated funding away from Sanders and towards Hillary Clinton in the primary. This may have been decisive for the Clinton campaign in outlasting Bernie Sanders to win the Democratic nomination.

wikileaks-headaches

If Bernie Sanders had won, he likely would have easily defeated Donald Trump (by 12-15 points according to polling), or any other Republican candidate (Rubio, Cruz, Bush…) by a closer but comfortable margin. Sanders shilled for Hillary Clinton after his concession at the Democratic convention, but most of his supporters abandoned him and his ‘new’ message. Many of Sanders’ primary supporters switched to Donald Trump in the general election, on the basis of BOTH their appeals to the working poor, which acknowledged the bad economy for most laborers.

feel-the-bern

The most-cited reason for young & newly-registered voters in choosing Donald Trump was their intense hatred of Hillary Clinton. The message to the ruling class was, when you put every resource in politics (Wall Street, the military/intelligence apparatus, Hollywood, etc…) behind the most obvious phony ever, the American people say “Fuck you!” and ‘choose’ a fascist bigot instead.  Since there was no other choice, frustrated working people figured this would make a lot of rich people unhappy, and maybe feel some of their pain. It’s not so much stupidity, but class spite that motivated so many. The message has been received. Stock markets around the world have been sent roiling, as this is considered a disaster around the world.

der-spiegel_11-5-16

Americans should step outside of themselves for a moment and start considering this (and other matters) from an internationalist perspective. A dangerous person has just become President of the United States. Make no mistake, Trump’s fervid supporters are among the most ignorant & brazen forms of human scum. Racists, bigots & haters are about to be set loose under Trump’s mandate. This is equivalent to Adolf Hitler being appointed chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933. Even a few days ago it didn’t seem possible, and yet the impossible has now happened. [2]

hitler-appointed-chancellor

The only positive that comes from this is that it is now obvious (to most) that human civilization has reached a crossroads. The necessity for organization, militancy and action among workers & youth everywhere just became much clearer. If Hillary Clinton had won, there would still be too many self-satisfied pseudo-intellectuals (feminists, black racialists, gay rights activists, etc…) posturing as progressives, while living as opportunists– protecting their own comfortable existence & nurturing their idealist fantasies. They have been a source of too much political confusion for too long, and in many ways they are most responsible for Donald Trump becoming president. Their blind support for Hillary Clinton (lesser-of-two-evils nonsense) in spite of her vast criminal record was unconscionable. These liberals ‘study’ the issues carefully before the election, check their ballots, then expect everything to be taken care of one way or another. Hillary was to be the answer to all their illusions, which have now been smashed on the rocks of sexist hypocrite Donald Trump.

Marxists remain objective in their assessment for the prospects of these liberal supporters, who have no explanation for what just happened. For many, their biggest disappointment in all this is the denial of their vicarious pleasure of this final feminist conquest. Many will be heartbroken for days over this.

For serious people, these are now serious times. The Clock on Humanity which was already been ticking, has now been sped up. A socialist revolution will be the objective task for the near-future, as there is nothing left resembling respectability in bourgeois politics. This ‘election’ was a disgrace on every level, as one fascist ego-maniac has smashed both political parties in 18 months time, proving the decrepitude of the existing U.S. two-party system.

It’s now the Wild West in Washington. The military, intelligence agencies and Wall Street will now begin to act more autonomously as President-elect Trump much resembles Hitler’s personality in his inability to think clearly and remain focused. Power vacuums will pop up like mushrooms everywhere, and power brokers will battle for political influence behind the scenes in an administration headed by an unstable, yet all-powerful individual.

Neither side was going to accept this ‘election’ result, so now the real war begins. For those interested in the fate of humanity, now is the time to strengthen political consciousness & resolve with Marxism. Socialism is the only solution, and anyone who says differently is a traitor to humanity. The traditional Republican party is now openly fascist, while Democratic liberalism is dead. Strikes, walk-outs, sit-downs and any other labor unrest needs to be wildcat in nature, meaning the trade union bureaucracy (controlled by the Democratic party and enforced by the mafia) must be cast aside & thrown out. Workplaces & factories need to begin organizing and uniting, as a massive police-state repression looms on the horizon. There is no running from this fight. The intention of Donald Trump and his supporters is clear, no respect for humanity or anything else. This must be met with resolve and physical force, as these people understand nothing else.

This become the fight for human survival: socialize or perish.

Final Update 2-25-17:

Whatever Donald Trump’s ego and unpredictability may bring, it’s no match for deeper class forces which are bearing down with full force upon his presidency. In his first month, Trump has proven himself highly sensitive to any criticism, which makes him extremely vulnerable to manipulation. His fascist aides (Sean Spicer in particular), now appear to have total influence on his decision-making. Trump’s only counter to this is the threat of their removal, which seems unlikely as he completely relies upon them. Remember, this is a president with no actual brains or scruples, only cunning avarice & delusions-of-grandeur, who is considered a ‘loose cannon’ by significant sections of the deep state. In this, he much resembles Adolf Hitler in that: 1) he can’t focus and is defined by his volatility; 2) he initiates high-level power struggles, then allows them to fester out-of-control at the cost of destabilizing the state; and 3) both were/are led-by-the-nose by their propaganda minister– Sean Spicer/Joseph Goebbels.

If we have fascism in America (and we certainly now do), then Donald Trump is obviously Adolf Hitler. The important Marxist theoretical question becomes, who is Joseph Goebbels? It is now clear that the propaganda-manipulating mastermind connecting Donald Trump to the deep state is White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer.

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Trump & Sanders: Fascism & Liberalism

Donald Trump skipped the last televised debate before the Iowa caucus, because he objected to FOX moderator Megyn Kelly, whose questioning had angered him in a debate months earlier.  Thus the final debate in Iowa was an ‘event’ absent the figure who had dominated the media coverage of the Republican race for months.

Megyn-Kelly-GOP-Debate

“I refuse to call Megyn Kelly a bimbo, because that would not be politically correct,” Trump tweeted. “Instead I will only call her a lightweight reporter!”

Donald Trump

On February 1, Iowa caucusers supported Ted Cruz 27.6%, Trump 24.3%, Marco Rubio 23.1%.  Significantly, Jeb Bush finished sixth (behind Rand Paul & Ben Carson), with only 2.8% of the vote, despite spending $15 million on TV ads. His $2,888/vote showing in Iowa isn’t fiscally sustainable, but it is a measure of the super PAC support he receives. [1]

Donald Trump doesn’t take super PAC money, because he is the 0.0001%, through ruthlessness & cunning, he is one of the richest men in the world. His face is botoxed to hide the fact that he is a reactionary, foul-mouthed, lying coward– an aggrandizement of everything artificial & rotten in our society.

People who say, “I hope Trump wins the Republican nomination, because he’ll lose to any Democrat,” are supporting fascism through ignorance.  When historical events force the hand of the ruling class, everything swings to the right.  After Bush v. Gore (2000), a blatantly stolen election in which Al Gore & the Democratic party were complicit– meekly submitting to Dick Cheney and his hard-line conservative cohorts, it became 9/11– which remains unexplained to the American public.  Ever since then, the U.S. has increasingly become a police state under the slogan of “War on Terror.”

9-11 Reuters

There’s also been a global economic meltdown beginning in 2007-08, which has plunged 80-90% of the world’s population into economic distress. This collapse was the direct result of U.S. ruling class criminality in banking, investing, and insurance industries in the housing market.

Today’s crisis in commodities, with oil always primary, is led by those same criminals, who were neither named nor punished. They weren’t even removed from their jobs, in fact they were handed bailouts & bonuses. This criminal class is doing quite well today, and plans on maintaining that status quo, with super PAC contributions, manipulated media, rigged voting, etc…

When that no longer holds the masses back, police-state fascism becomes the method of choice for the ruling class.

Operation Garden Plot

Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State during the Obama presidency, as has been an accomplice in this criminality. She is rightly seen by many Democratic supporters as a poor nominee. This is a first lady who was cuckolded by her husband, and stayed with him for political convenience. She was unable to secure the party’s nomination in 2008, despite being a heavy early favorite, and was quickly consumed by the Obama campaign machine.

Sanders & Clinton 2016

The same situation appears to be happening in 2016, as Bernie Sanders finished a narrow second to Hillary Clinton in Iowa, a virtual dead-heat at 49.9% to 49.6%. The Clinton campaign spent $9.4M, and the Sanders campaign $7.4 on television ads on Iowa.  Many within the Democratic party see Hillary as a loser, despite being married to one of the most powerful figures in the party. She has limited-to-no appeal to men & younger voters.  If she manages to secure the Democratic nomination, she will likely lose to Trump (or any other Republican), either by hook or crook.

Note: Clinton’s daughter Chelsea and Trump’s daughter Ivanka (pictured below), are best friends, which again proves the primacy of class roots over partisan politics.

Ivanka Trump & Chelsea Clinton

The ruling class is somewhat put off by Bernie Sanders, and his talk of “democratic socialism”– a term his supporters use, but none can really define. He most definitely serves a purpose, as leftist rhetorical veneer.  Sanders is another dying wheeze of liberalism, which has been made a dead letter by Barack Obama, who came to the U.S. presidency in 2008 as a beacon of liberalism.

In 2016, Obama’s blackness of skin doesn’t speak nearly as loudly as his class perspective.  President Obama has supported & extended the criminal Bush/Cheney policies, at home & abroad, including: wars of aggression, torture, indiscriminate drone strikes, trigger-happy policing, and other war crimes being committed in the name of America, which most Americans strongly oppose. The problem for most Americans is there’s no political, economic or social outlet for their frustrations.

Bernie Sanders

Therefore, liberalism is called upon to deceive the masses one more time, until fascism can gather its forces and smash the workers, in order to seize power for itself. Once that happens, world war become increasingly inevitable, unless the working masses intercede under the banner of revolutionary socialism, which is now the only viable option for humanity’s survival.

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Questions for U.S. Presidential Candidates

Since the spring of 2015, Democrats & Republicans have begun jockeying for the next US presidency, and there is still over a year before voting on November 8, 2016.  As of yet, nothing serious has been discussed by any of these hopefuls– call it a severe case of the Emperor’s New Clothes.

Here is a list of questions that people should ask, since they won’t ever be brought up by the corporate-controlled media which manages this deranged circus.  These queries are then answered with an honesty & directness that is unheard of in official political discourse.

Q: What is being done to end this bogus ‘war on terror?’

Nothing. The US military invaded Afghanistan in October of 2001, in response to 9/11; and has been ravaging & terrorizing this part of the world ever since. The latest highlighted atrocity is the willful bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan– killing 22, including 12 medical personnel.  This is a war crime by any definition.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Kunduz Trauma Center

Photo above by Andrew Quilty

Q: If you are a candidate who insists on maintaining (or increasing) troop levels in the Middle East, with the continued indiscriminate use of violence on the population as a whole; how do you not consider yourself a war criminal?

It is politically incorrect to compare today’s fascists with yesterday’s Nazis.  Violence abroad and attacks on democratic rights at home are two sides of the same coin.  Police violence against the poor of all races is the domestic extension of this foreign policy.

Q: Why do all Dems/Reps support law enforcement when they murder innocent civilians?

The truth is, Dems/Reps support police/military violence against the American workers because it has increasingly becoming the only way to maintain the current levels of social inequality.  The US social safety net has been shredded by decades of budget cuts, so the jackboot of the ruling class is now used to control mass discontent.

Q: How can a campaign that raises so much Super PAC money respond to the needs of ordinary working people who can’t afford to donate such sums?

To ask the question is to answer it.  Politicians are bought & paid for, long before the voters go to the polls.  The only representation that goes on in Washington is done by high-powered lobbying groups, representing big capital.

Q: What about global warming?

No capitalist candidate wants to seriously address this problem.  Unplanned industrialization has led mankind into the downward spiral of climate change, with potentially disastrous consequences.  Capitalists are only concerned with this quarter’s profits.  This important question, which affects the future of everyone on this planet is always ignored or marginalized by mainstream politicians.  They have no answer, because in fact, they represent the problem.

Q: What about the risk of nuclear war with Russia and/or China?

That’s a classified secret.  All foreign policy is strictly controlled & monitored by the Pentagon & CIA, with no public input.

Q: Why does Donald Trump get so much press?

Donald Trump is a reactionary bigot.  His role in this election cycle is to push all discourse to the right– and down into the muck.  The corporate media has fully participated in this degraded celebration of ignorance and personal wealth.

Q: Is there a candidate who can give a fair definition of socialism?

Bernie Sanders (Democrat) is the pseudo-socialist; he supports militarism abroad and an anti-immigration policy at home– which is the polar opposite of socialism.  Socialism is the revolutionary transformation of society from private ownership of wealth (capitalism), into public ownership of the means-of-production, via a worker’s revolution.  The major candidates and their philistine lapdogs in the media have likely never read Karl Marx, or any other classical Marxist– including V.I. Lenin or Leon Trotsky.

Q: Will my vote count?

Probably not.  Elections are manipulated by the puppet-masters who fund campaigns and control the media.  The election of a U.S. president can’t be left up to the population, as they may make the ‘wrong’ choice; therefore biased media coverage and electronic voting manipulation will be decisive in determining the next presidency.

Q: So who will get the nominations and eventually the presidency?

The candidates who raise the most money.  Hillary Clinton (Democrat) and Jeb Bush (Republican) have the most cash & machinery in place to win (or if necessary, steal) an election.

Q: That sounds like more of the same garbage, what other options are there for working people?

Socialism or barbarism.

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May Day: International Labor Day

Today is May Day, the great unknown American holiday.  It is unfortunate that here in the United States, we don’t know our history.

Outside the US, May Day is recognized in over 80 countries around the world as a day of international labor solidarity.

The first May Day of this kind was in Chicago in 1886, when organized workers energetically demonstrated on May 1st for the legal establishment of the 8-hour day, along with other proletariat class demands.

Three days later, the demonstration was broken up by police force, in what is known as the Haymarket Affair. There is still a statue in Chicago commemorating this historical event.

THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY.

THE DAY WILL COME WHEN OUR SILENCE WILL BE MORE POWERFUL THAN THE VOICES YOU ARE THROTTLING TODAY.

The US history of worker militancy needs to be re-learned by its population, and drawn upon.  The war against capitalist exploitation needs history (with the invaluable lessons it contains), to guide the working masses fighting spirit.

Workers of the world, unite!!