Pat Ryan has always done what he was told

November 23

 

GUESTS: Two Palestinian women ask their House Representative Pat Ryan to call for an immediate ceasefire, and to oppose the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.

Democratic Socialists of America key player

How gratifying it was to hear two bright, young Palestinian women educating Representative Pat Ryan. He doesn't know much, of course. All he does is repeat stale Israeli talking points, while throwing in references to his own Jewish children. What an amazing example of PEP (progressive except for Palestine).

What he doesn't talk about yet is his yearly check from the Israel Lobby for close to $30,000. What incentive does Rep Ryan have to learn about Gaza or to consider the definition of genocide? Pat Ryan has always done what he was told, at West Point, and later during two tours in the Middle East. Congress is the same deal. They tell you what to say and do, and you collect your money. 

He has sharpened up his presentations somewhat. He no longer states that he gets no money from the Israel Lobby. He tries to "feel the pain" of the Palestinian people. He is just a good old boy trying to do what is right.

But these Palestinian women would have none of that. The result is searing and meaningful radio. For that is the way we should all treat the murder of over 5,000 children in one month. We should all be demanding that Rep. Ryan stop the genocide being committed in our names. And we should all be looking for a peace candidate to replace this Democratic Party warmonger. 

 

Class war, plain and simple

November 16

 

GUESTS: Alexandria Shaner, from Extinction Rebellion and Matic Primca, Slovenian activist and journalist, talk about what the Z Network is and how it relates to the Influential radical publication, Z Magazine, that featured the writings of Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn.

Z Network

The history of the left in the US is littered with newspapers and magazines. Z Magazine is one of them. The pinnacle of radical thought in its day, it offered the writings of Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn on the Vietnam War and its aftermath. 

“American imperialism has suffered a stunning defeat in Indochina. But the same forces are engaged In another war against a much less resilient enemy, the American people. Here, the prospects for success are much greater. The battleground is ideological, not military. At stake are the lessons to be drawn from the American war in Indochina; the outcome will determine the course and character of new imperial ventures.” - Noam Chomsky 

Media is where these wars are fought. Having courageous publications is so necessary, especially in times of war, when the major media in our country is always filled with Pentagon propaganda. 

Bury the empire and free the media! The US is now in perpetual war, driven by the all powerful weapons makers who buy and sell our Congress and President. Restoring our democracy has to start with overcoming our billionaire class, whose thoughts and whims often sound like the ravings of emperors in ancient Rome. It is class war, plain and simple. 

Behind this horrific carnage

November 9

 

GUEST: Talal Jabari, Palestinian journalist, award winning documentary filmmaker and managing director of Radio Alam, an Arabic-language talk radio station, talks about the current uprising against Israel's genocide of the Palestinian people.

Award winning filmmaker

Talal has been on Activist Radio before. His thoughts seem to come through the lens of his camera; there is a lot of detail to be had. And the full realization of US hypocrisy is always recognizable, right below the surface. 

How can the elite decision makers of our country be so ruthless? How are they able to support and even pay for the carnage visited on millions of Palestinian people. Do they think about those small body bags, all lined up like sardines. Five thousand of them in the first month of high tech onslaught.

Members of Congress aren't stupid; they are war criminals. And if our governmental leaders can do that to another population, what might they do to the 99 percent in the US who are not rich and isolated from life's traumas.

If there ever was a time to put ourselves on the line, this genocide of the Palestinians is it. We can watch it on our computer screens. We can read about it in our newspapers. We see the mountains of debris, with family members trying to dig through it with their hands. Can nothing touch the empire that is behind this horrific carnage?
 

 

A veteran of the IDF

November 2

 

GUEST: Mark Hammel, PhD, psychologist, Israeli citizen and veteran of the IDF during the Yom Kippur War, talks about his ideological journey to being a post Zionist, and a therapist for disabled veterans.

Explaining the Yom Kippur War

As a US veteran, I understand how a young man goes off to war with the best of intentions. He is defending his family and his country. He is doing his patriotic duty.

Once his finger is on the trigger, things look so different. There are women and children in the way. He is somewhere far from home, shooting people who might have been innocent. Suddenly, he questions how he is defending his family in a foreign country. He sees what invasions and occupations do to humanity in the Third World. He sees the slaughter he has wrought.

Now to come home, to be congratulated for all that carnage. Now to begin to live with all those memories. 

Mark Hammel knows that scenario all too well, having fought for Israel in two wars. I think that talking about war and occupation is a first step in regaining one's humanity. Mark is particularly insightful. He is a veteran of the IDF who can no longer accept apartheid.

 

Taking the money and selling their humanity

I don't know what to say about a country whose political class can't call for a cease fire. We see the absolute slaughter of women and children, and still they say nothing. We listen to the stories of families ripped apart or simply obliterated, and yet Rep. Pat Ryan keeps cheering on the carnage. Is our ruling class filled with war criminals?

Does it help to point out how our Congress is bought and sold by the Israel Lobby? Pat Ryan was paid $28,850 by the lobby in 2022 (reported by Opensecrets.org). That money is now covered with human blood.

Have you no shame, Pat Ryan? As a West Point graduate weren't you taught not to butcher civilians? Not to murder thousands of children? What kind of soulless barbarian would defend Israel's mass murder? What kind of human being would take money from the Israel Lobby, if it meant selling their soul?

Let's show our absolute disgust with such supposed leaders, be they Republican or Democrat. Join a local rally, or go to DC (mideastcrisis.org). Ending US support for this racist, apartheid, and bloodthirsty country has to be our most important goal. We will not be "good Germans," as millions are marched to their extermination.

As a citizen and a US veteran, I demand that my flag not be covered with the blood of millions of Palestinians. And those who take the money and sell their humanity must not only be voted out, but shamed for what they have done to our nation.

A familiar Western greed and hegemony

 

October 26

GUEST: John Pottinger, long time peace activist and investigative reporter for the Socialist Action Newsletter, talks about Niger and Northern Africa being caught in the crosshairs of US and French imperialism.

 

Niger in imperialist crosshairs

John Pottinger is an investigative reporter, willing to expose the imperialism of European and American interests in Northern Africa. It is all about robbing African people and taking their natural resources. 

Uranium is the country's biggest mining operation. But there are many more products to be extracted and sent to Europe and the US. None of the profits ever go to the miners and their families, no matter how dangerous their working conditions are, or how ruined their environment becomes. Nigeria is probably the best example in Africa. The extraction of oil has contaminated large sections of the country, and much of their drinking water is filled with chemicals. 

I noticed that this interview was downloaded by fewer stations on Pacifica than previous ones. Maybe Niger is not really in the news, now that the US and Israeli are committing genocide in the Holy Land. But racism and colonialism are the common bonds, and Palestinians as well as Africans are the victims of a familiar Western greed and hegemony.

Racist war machine must be confronted and torn down

October 19

 

GUEST: Ray Acheson, Director of Reaching Critical Will, the disarmament program of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and steering committee member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) talks about Cop City and ending state violence.

Racketeering of state violence

The Cop City resistance is a precursor to the massive demonstrations that we see against Israel. Israel is the symbol of US orchestrated violence in the rest of the world. Cop City is the symbol of violence here at home. The tactics of the empire are plain to see in both the repression of dissent here, and the genocide being perpetrated on the Palestinian people. 

Our elite politicians and military planners have lost their minds. War crimes mean nothing. Killing thousands of children doesn't move them in the least. Our form of government, from the warmongers at the top to racist police, is a failure when it comes to serving the people of our country. In fact, the American Empire is the most dangerous country in the world. Martin Luther King saw it in his famous Riverside Church speech: 

“The greatest purveyor of violence in the world : My own Government, I can not be Silent.”  

Like MLK, we can no longer be silent. The US racist war machine must be confronted and torn down.