Saudi Arabia- Cheaper oil…but at what price?!

 By Steve Otto

We all want cheaper gas…but at what price? This week, President Joe Biden has gone to Saudi Arabia, a country of virtually no human rights, no democracy an absolute dictatorship, one of the worst countries in the world, but he realizes that few Americans will blame him for pandering to a tyrant family that will provide us with cheaper gas prices. But this is a case of cheaper vs. human rights. We are virtually prostitutes’ if we accept Saudi oil!

 Treatment of the Palestinian people is much like the black people of South Africa’s past  apartheid system. But at least he has called for a two state solution that makes part of Israel to be a Palestinians state. That is a great change from the ridiculous stupidity of former President Donald Trump.

So there are some positive positions, despite US commitment to the groundswell of gushing over the tyrant Israel government. Unlike the Biden government which wants to find diplomatic agreements with such advisories as Iran, Israel wants out right war. So Biden’s travels are a mixed bag….diplomacy over arrogant war and pandering to gas tyrants. Imperialism is well and alive today in the US dominated world.   

 

 

Pix by New YorkPost.

Kansans turn out in rally to defeat anti-abortion goons

By Steve Otto

There were many good shirts and many good signs, including a flag that looked like the Tea Party flag, they got from the US Revolution. But it had a uterus rather than a snake and said "Don't Tread on my uterus."

The crowd probably topped a thousand people. According to The Wichita Eagle,[1]:The crowd stretched further than from Third Street to First Street. They started at the Price Woodard Park then marched around to City Hall.

There is an issue on the ballot in August to change the Kansas Constitution to allow bans on abortion. Women across the state are gathering momentum for the vote. This is one of the most important votes in recent Kansas History.

Also, The Wichita Eagle wrote an article about pro-life idiots threatening to harm our governor over her vetoing anti-transgender protection laws. "She better change her locks"- Some ignoramus said. Naturally all the backward thinking Republicans thought the comment was hilarious.[2]

___________________________

[1] Michael Stavola, Crowds turn out to rally Wichita support for Vote NO movement, The Wichita Eagle, vol. 150 issue 191, July 10, 2022, p. 9A. 

[2] Ibid, The Wichita Eagle, p. 5A.

All photos- Steve Otto

 

The Griner case—bad politics and drug laws suck

 By Steve Otto

There are a number of things wrong with the Brittney Griner case, now in Russia. The first is that there is a definite bias (by our mainstream press and our US politicians) against anything Russia does right now. The press has raised a question as to whether or not Griner is guilty at all. According to CBS News:

“WNBA star Brittney Griner pleaded guilty in Russia on Thursday to drug possession and smuggling charges, telling a Moscow court she brought marijuana into the country by accident.

Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport in February after Russian officials claimed she had cannabis oil in her luggage.”

But I have more questions. For example, why would possession of hash oil bring a 10 year prison sentence. Here at home, many states have legalized possession of marijuana or any of its many forms such as “edibles.” There are backward states such as our own state of Kansas where possession of any kind of marijuana is illegal. But 10 years for possession of any drug is very excessive. So even if Griner's crimes are being used for political reasons and even if she is really a political prisoner, as our press tries to portray her, 10 years a way excessive.

Griner has said she packed the oils by accident, not realizing they were in her luggage. That is believable. And that could happen to anyone. What ever happened Griner seems to be used for political reasons. Again from CBS News:

“Russian media had speculated that Griner could be a part of a prisoner swap similar to the one U.S. and Russia arranged in the spring, exchanging former Marine Trevor Reed with pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was jailed years ago on drug smuggling charges.”

Regardless, no one deserves to be treated as Griner has been. Such drug laws should be obsolete in this day and age. Whether in the US or some dumb ass country as Russia, the time to punish people for drug offences should be in the past, now and forever!

4th of July celebration

 By Steve Otto

I’m writing this on the second of July, just two days before our big celebration for the 4^th of July—Independence Day. For leftist of all kinds, there are various views on this day. Some hate it and the US all together. Some like it as a date for an important historical revolution. Most Marxists I know of, hate the 4^th. I see this as an important historical revolution celebration. 

In two days, I will pull out the bar-B-Q, for some chicken, hotdogs and hamburgers. I will stock up on beer. And I have a lot of fireworks I will light off. If I fly a flag, it won’t be the modern day Stars and Stripes. And it won’t be that snake flag, on the yellow background, that I used fly and I used to love before it was taken over by tea-baggers and right-wing jerks. 

Each year I write something about the US revolution.  As I’ve said in the past, it was a step forward for white males. We moved society from feudalism to capitalism, which goes along with Marx’s theories of historical materialism.

 Of course Afro Americans could not vote until the end of the Civil War. Native Americans were made citizens on June 2, 1924, which was four years after women got the vote in the summer of 1920. That was the 19^th amendment. It was the Voting Rights act of 1965 that guaranteed the right to vote of all people, whether black, Indian or women. And today those rights are under attack once again. Republicans are looking for ways to make it harder for minorities to vote. Their motivation is simple. They think that the more white voters that vote, the more likely they are to win upcoming elections. As Hunter S. Thompson once said:

"I believe the Republicans have never thought that democracy was anything but a tribal myth."

So for a look at my earlier writings on the US Revolution see:

That (4th of July) is a holiday I have mixed feelings about. No doubt that there will be plenty of jingoistic TV shows and commercials on TV. There will also be radio spots promoting all the wrong things about this holiday. It was a great revolution for its time. The United States was created out of a change, based in part on the anti-feudalistic political movements in Europe and anti-colonialism in the Americas. A small group of colonies of the United Kingdom decided it was time for their own independent country. So they kicked the British out. They got rid of any form of feudal aristocracy. It all seemed good at the time. And let's not forget that this revolution was strictly for the benefit of white people of European decent. Black slaves and Native American Indians were not invited to this new world government.

 

For the rest click here.

 

Trump —It's not just a riot—it was a coup attempt

 By Steve Otto

Donald Trump goes down in history as one president who actually thought he could create a coup and continue to be president. It has recently been revealed that Trump not only backed those who stormed the Congress building, but he actually wanted to go there and egg on his supporters. According to Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to former White House (CBS News):

"Among Hutchinson's extraordinary revelations was that Trump was told that the crowd at his rally at the Ellipse ahead of the Capitol riot had guns and other weapons. She testified that Trump said "something to the effect of, 'I don't effing care that they have weapons. They're not here to hurt me. Take the effing mags away. Let my people in. They can march the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the effing mags away,'" referring to the magnetometers, or metal detectors, used for security screening. 

Hutchinson also testified that Giuliani said to her on Jan. 2 "'Cass, are you excited for the 6th? It's going to be a great day.'"

Hutchinson said Tuesday that she asked Giuliani to explain the significance of Jan. 6. She said he responded, "We're going to the Capitol. It's going to be great. The president is going to be there, he's going to look powerful," and he encouraged her to speak with Meadows."

So the cat is out of the bag. We all now know that the putsch in the capital not only went on with Trump's blessing, he wanted to go there and take part in it. That makes it an out right coup attempt.

We already know he tried to get votes he didn't earn and he convinced many of his supporters that the election has been stolen. Again, from CBS News:

"Hutchinson also testified about how angry Trump was after Attorney General Bill Barr told the Associated Press in an interview after the 2020 election that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change its outcome."

Not since Former President Richard Nixon has such a leader contemplated using some kind of emergency powers to do away with an election and its outcome. This time Trump didn't just think about it, he wanted to take part in it. He is just as guilty as his followers and it looks like this was not a riot, it was his attempt to over-ride the election and make himself president for four more years.

 

Local DSA chapter starts up again

By Steve Otto

Union activity and gay rights were discussed at last Sunday's Democratic Socialists of America's meeting.

Esau Freeman talked about union organizing a Starbuck's.

"The SIUE (Service Employee's International Union) is helping them" Esau said. "So far they have their own logo and don’t want to use the logo of the SEIU."

Freeman also said the baristas wont get machinist type wages as their union has gotten them. The baristas have had a vote and the union won. Starbucks has not reacted yet and some organizers are afraid that the company will simply shut down the shops that want to go union.

Russell Fox was the MC. He suggested that union organizing might be a good project for DSA. There is a union rally this Saturday. Anyone interested can to go https://seiu.org/.

Also discussed was attempts to outsource some workers for the Wichita School System, USD259, especially their attempt to destroy the janitors union. Also discussed was the City workers union.

There was a suggestion that DSA take up gay rights issues.

DSA member want to support the August vote against the new amendment, but they said they have to vote as individuals. The local DSA chapter does  not endorse elections directly.

DSA will meet the third Sunday of each month.

In Florida- conservatives know better than scientists, Doctors or experts

 By Steve Otto

Now that we have Covid vaccines shots for children as young as 6 months, parents should be jumping for joy. But not in Florida. Their Department of Health led by state Surgeon General Joe Ladapo, an outspoken skeptic of the Covid-19 vaccine, has put the vaccine on hold. According to Politico:

“The Florida Department of Health, through a statement, said Wednesday that it did not place an order with the federal government for vaccine doses for kids five and under in part because it doesn’t advise all children get vaccinated. The deadline for placing a pre-order was Tuesday and 49 other states met the cutoff date.”

And what does he base this belief on? The doctors and experts all agree that children should take the shots. But Ladapo feels he knows better than anyone what children’s health needs. After all he is a conservative. And conservatives know everything. They all have common sense opinions. People keep electing them. How could they be wrong?

All the doctors and experts have is careful study and knowledge they got by years of study in college. There are voters who look down on those kinds of people.

I once heard a commentator say that he could use Republican tactics and in a week, he could convince people that the opinion of a janitor makes more sense than a scientist. He was talking about global warming and how easy it was for Republicans to shoot down the idea that global warming is real.

Pix by cnbc.com.

No one needs US mercenaries in their war

 By Steve Otto

The American Mercenaries caught by the Russians, in Ukraine, are taking part in a war they have no business being involved in. They talk about helping the Ukrainians, but they are simply adventurists who seem to love being in a war. Some of these people left their families to be mercenaries. That is irresponsible. A father’s main responsibility should be to his family and not the adventures of war. Now the families complain they want their relatives back and information on them. They should have stopped them from going at all.

These people are simply mercenaries. They should have stayed home and taken care of their families. Now some are captured, and they are paying the price for what they did.

Our government should stop wasting time on those who choose to get their nose into someone else’s war. We never need mercenaries.

Pix from Flipboard.

March For Our Lives in Wichita

 

Last week as a part of  March For Our Lives, members of Wichita organizations and local candidates for office met to denounce gun violence and call for changes in the law. This event was timed to take place with the national March four our Lives, which took part in major cities throughout the country, June 11.

Another look at Memorial Day- "Whom Will We Honor?"

 

From Zin Education Project:

 

By Howard Zinn

Published on June 2, 1976 in the Boston Globe and republished in The Zinn Reader with the brief introduction below.

Memorial Day will be celebrated … by the usual betrayal of the dead, by the hypocritical patriotism of the politicians and contractors preparing for more wars, more graves to receive more flowers on future Memorial Days. The memory of the dead deserves a different dedication. To peace, to defiance of governments.

In 1974, I was invited by Tom Winship, the editor of the Boston Globe, who had been bold enough in 1971 to print part of the top secret Pentagon Papers on the history of the Vietnam War, to write a bi-weekly column for the op-ed page of the newspaper. I did that for about a year and a half. The column below appeared June 2, 1976, in connection with that year’s Memorial Day. After it appeared, my column was cancelled.

* * * * *

Memorial Day will be celebrated as usual, by high-speed collisions of automobiles and bodies strewn on highways and the sound of ambulance sirens throughout the land.

It will also be celebrated by the display of flags, the sound of bugles and drums, by parades and speeches and unthinking applause.

It will be celebrated by giant corporations, which make guns, bombs, fighter planes, aircraft carriers and an endless assortment of military junk and which await the $100 billion in contracts to be approved soon by Congress and the President.

There was a young woman in New Hampshire who refused to allow her husband, killed in Vietnam, to be given a military burial. She rejected the hollow ceremony ordered by those who sent him and 50,000 others to their deaths. Her courage should be cherished on Memorial Day. There were the B52 pilots who refused to fly those last vicious raids of Nixon’s and Kissinger’s war. Have any of the great universities, so quick to give honorary degrees to God-knows-whom, thought to honor those men at this Commencement time, on this Memorial Day?

No politician who voted funds for war, no business contractor for the military, no general who ordered young men into battle, no FBI man who spied on anti-war activities, should be invited to public ceremonies on this sacred day. Let the dead of past wars be honored. Let those who live pledge themselves never to embark on mass slaughter again.

“The shell had his number on it. The blood ran into the ground…Where his chest ought to have been they pinned the Congressional Medal, the DSC, the Medaille Militaire, the Belgian Croix de Guerre, the Italian gold medal, The Vitutea Militara sent by Queen Marie of Rumania. All the Washingtonians brought flowers .. Woodrow Wilson brought a bouquet of poppies.”

With our culture of guns why are people surprised by gun violence?

 By Steve Otto

One more whack job shoots up a school in Texas and finally some people are beginning to rebel against the Republican Party's expansion of gun rights. Some people are calling for background checks.

People are starting to call for some kind of gun control. As a Democratic Socialist I have always opposed banning guns. I have opposed a lot of the ideas that a lot of liberals propose and support. But the Republican Party has taken gun right to an absurd level. Over the last 15 years, we have seen nearly all states making it legal to carry and conceal guns. We have "stand your ground" laws that make it easy for someone to shoot can kill a person for frivolous reasons. Some states have lowered the age for the right to carry a pistol from the age of 20 to 18. This latest shooter was 18. Some of the other shooters were 18. Has anyone noticed that maybe letting 18 year olds to buy and own assault weapons and pistol just might not be a good idea?

Some states have tried to make it legal to carry a gun in a bar. Does anyone else this is a move of major stupidity?

Every time there is a shooting the NRA[1] keeps saying that we need more guns in more people's hands—for example- they want to arm teachers with handguns.

The majority of people want some restrictions on guns. But they keep voting in Republicans who not only resist any restrictions on guns, they keep expanding gun rights, making it easier to get and carry guns. Few seem to notice that the NRA and Republicans (usually the same people) are making it easier and easier for people of all kinds to get and buy guns. No one wants to point out that along with more guns in society, we also have more gun violence. It seems as if we have been having mindless and random shootings of people in grade, middle and high schools and public places in general. We have such a shooting almost every week. It's getting ridiculous. It should not be so easy for an 18 year old to buy an assault weapon or pistols. With all these shootings it is time to put the breaks on this stupidity. More guns have brought us more gun violence. That should not surprise anyone.

Guns should be legal, but there needs to be some common sense restrictions.

---

[1]National Rifle Association (It might as well be National Republican Association).

Opioid crisis—Kansas legislators care more about controlling morality than saving lives

By Steve Otto

Once again we see the paranoia of anti-drug Kansas conservatives. The latest fiasco is the Kansas legislators refusing to lift a ban on strips that would allow a person to test recreational drugs for fentanyl. According to Kansas Reflector:

"Hutchinson Rep. Jason Probst pleaded with legislative colleagues Sunday to repeal a 41-year-old state statute defining test strips as drug paraphernalia to enable Kansans to more easily test illegal drugs for presence of fentanyl that has fueled a wave of overdose deaths.

The 2022 Legislature returns to Topeka on Monday for what typically amounted to a brief ceremonial gathering to close out the annual session. There is potential, however, the Republican-led House and Senate could be interested in taking up tax or transportation legislation, which could open the door to a longer day and consideration of other issues.

In April before the Legislature took a long break, the Kansas Senate blocked a bill decriminalizing fentanyl test strips. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 100 times stronger than morphine. Dealers can be blend it with heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine, but consumers of those drugs can’t visually discern contents of those substances."

Fentanyl is an extremely dangerous synthetic narcotic. The Kansas Department of Health Environment pointed to 338 overdose deaths in this state from Jan. 1, through June 30, of 2021. They estimated that 149 were linked to fentanyl. That is a 54% rise in overdose deaths from a similar period in 2020.

In my opinion that drug is responsible for the majority of opioid deaths since the so called “opioid crises” began.

For years now, politicians and the mainstream press have attacked all opioid drugs and have accused drug dealers (legal and illegal) of all-out murder. We keep hearing all the statistics of large amounts of deaths attributed to opioids.

I for one have suggested that people who use drugs like that should have some degree of freedom of choice over how they live their lives. There are people who use narcotics for pain relief and at times, self medication for a number of illnesses of both of physical and psychological needs. We don’t need the government to tell us what we can and can’t do in the privacy of our own homes.

Opioids have been around for most of my life time. There have always been some deaths attributed to their use—especially heroin. But the death statistics today seem much higher than in more recent years. The one element that seems to make sense is that fentalyn is much stronger and more dangerous than heroin or any other opioid. Fentalyn is 100 times stronger than heroin. It only takes a tiny pinch of pure heroin to get a person high and just a little more than that to kill a first time user. A fentalyn dose is as small is just two grains of salt. Normally, on the black market, both drugs are diluted by their dealers. It is hard to mix and dilute a drug like Fentalyn, since it takes so little to kill a person.

One problem with Fentalyn is that it is sold legally in hospitals for use to kill pain. Heroin, on the other hand, can’t be sold legally under any circumstances, even though it is the safer drug.

Several years ago, there were people proposing that addicts be given clean needles to stop such diseases as AIDS.[1] Conservatives blocked it and even admitted that they would rather see addicts die rather than take drugs. For a lot of us, such a sentiment is unthinkable and just plane cruel. People with a drug problem, or those who self medicate, don’t deserve the death penalty.

Kansas Reflector provided this example of such an opinion by a Kansas Republican Senator:

"Sen. Kelli Warren, a Leawood Republican seeking the GOP nomination for attorney general, said passage of the bill could appear as if Kansas was creating a haven for consumption of illicit drugs. She said people should take personal accountability and shouldn’t take illegal drugs."

She is one of those who would rather see an drug user die than get high. Those who hold such views are no better than Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte who has made the murder of drug users not only legal but a national policy. Surely we can do better than that.

Those strips do not make it easier to use hard drugs. They can save a lot of people’s lives. It is about time we start focusing on saving people’s lives rather than trying to control personal morality.

America does not need a form of fascism to control drug epidemics. It is time to get rid of those out-dated and destructive laws that prevent us from living in a free society.

Pix by Why fentanyl is deadlier than heroin. 

__________________

[1] acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. 

No debate on sending $40 billion to Ukraine

By Steve Otto

When Joe Biden was running for president against the former president Donald Trump, he said of health care for all: "imagine the cost of that!?"[1] Sure it cost money. But many poor people die much earlier than necessary since  they have no access to health care. They can't afford it so they don't see a doctor until it is too late. As a result—They die—pure and simple.

But now the US is strategically at war with Russia over Ukraine. And just recently the entire congress voted to spend $40 billion on weapons to be sent to Ukraine to counter the Russian invasion.

How much debate took place—ZERO—NONE. Both parties agreed to spend that money. That was money that could have been spent to provide healthcare to OUR OWN PEOPLE!

But instead it went to save other people in a foreign country. And now we see the expansion of NATO[2] to include Finland and Sweden.

According to NBC News:

 

"Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul defied leaders of both parties Thursday and single-handedly delayed until next week Senate approval of an additional $40 billion to help Ukraine and its allies withstand Russia’s three-month old invasion."

 

So the only Congressman to oppose sending all that money to Ukraine was a Republican. Not one Democrat opposed sending all this money to a foreign country.

The Democrats are selling out the American people. Spending money should come to the US people before spending all that money on arms for the people of Ukraine. Both US parties are addicted to war. Poor people in the US are treated as last class citizens and their lives mean less that foreign people in a country a long way off from this one. Also the idea of expanding NATO is the last thing this country, or any country, needs to do.

---

[1] "Many Democrats to his left, starting with Bernie Sanders and his “Medicare for All” proposal, called for scrapping the Affordable Care Act entirely in favor of a more sweeping government-financed single-payer health system. Biden resisted. He instead pledged to build on the existing law — a position that kept him in the center of the debate, while reminding Democratic voters of his role in passing the biggest health reform since Medicare."

[2] North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Action on abortion rights

 From Daily Kos (click her to sign the petition):

The ultra-conservative majority on the Supreme Court is poised to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision.

A draft opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito leaked on May 2, 2022. Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett reportedly all voted in agreement.

The decision to overturn Roe stems from a Mississippi case challenging the state’s law that would ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has yet to be decided—however, this leaked opinion is an unprecedented window into the majority court’s thoughts.

This isn't the final opinion or word on abortion access. This is a time to mobilize for our lives.

Despite Roe being the floor, not the ceiling, and much of the South already in a post-Roe environment, a negative outcome upholding Mississippi’s ban—or throwing out Roe entirely—would throw huge swaths of the country into abortion deserts.

Now more than ever before, we must demand abortion justice for all: abortion must be free, accessible, and available everywhere, in every state, for everyone.

If you're with us—ready to march, rally, volunteer, vote, and loudly demand abortion for all—add your name today.

Sign the petition: I support abortion justice!

This May Day seems to be more dismal and demoralizing than in many years past, here in Kansas

By Steve Otto

Of all the years I can remember, this May Day has been the most quiet in my life-time. Most years someone here in Wichita, does something, whether it is Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) or the Peace and Social Justice Center-- Kansas or on rare occasions, a Marxist Leninist group (which are extremely rare here in this part of Kansas). But this year, May 1st came and went and I barely noticed it.

But I have not seen much action this year—a lot less than most years. It is almost as if most members of the left are in disillusionment. There almost seems to be a sense of frustration and demoralization. It seems universal among most members of the left.

Supreme Court Ruling against Roe v Wade demoralizes the left!

Especially demoralizing is the new US Supreme Court Ruling that is expected to over-turn Roe vs. Wade.

Social conservatives have out maneuvered the centrist US Democratic Party, which has failed miserably to win elections and protect not only abortion rights, but now gay marriage and other types of protections for transgender and gay people. At present the US has nearly no actual leftist representatives in the US House of Representatives or the Senate. We now have The Squad. That is just four people and until they got elected, the US had no socialist or anti-imperialist representation.

Maybe this is a wake-up call to the next generation. Many will grow up and grow old with less Medicare choices in their old age as well as way less or even no Social Security to retire on.

If conservatives hold on to this country, the future looks dim indeed. One thing that needs to change is for the Democratic Party to become more progressive and left-wing. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and all the members of The Squad have all been elected and re-elected proving the progressive candidates can get elected. As Bernie Sanders said in the last election, socialists as himself are electable.