Overthrowing the Tyrant

The right wing element of our country is as close to
power as it has ever been. We have have survived racists like Woodrow Wilson. We have suffered under absolute liars like Tricky Dick Nixon. Our worst military defeat, the invasion of Vietnam, was built on false war propaganda. Through all of this, we have persevered, and so has our constitutional democracy. That era looks to be over.

The current gap between the rich and the poor is at a level that is historically unprecedented. The billionaires have captured our government, forcing cuts for the working class and tax breaks for the already filthy rich. The nation's president has become unglued; he is a completely self absorbed narcissist presiding over the most corrupt administration we have ever experienced.

Like most tyrants, Trump wants to control everything that we the people think. He has opened the door to junk science, attacked free speech on campuses, and created his own fascist organization that shoots first and asks questions later. His billionaire supporters have purchased most of the mainstream media, from the newspapers to the TV programming. That way we can't listen to Stewart, Fallon, or Colbert. We can't watch "60 Minutes," which often revealed governmental wrongdoing. 

If that were not threatening enough, Trump is pushing for endless wars. We had our chance to stop this madman when he conspired to overthrow the 2020 election. But like the Germans after the Beer Hall Putsch, we didn't stop the tyrant when we could have. 

Fred Nagel

Witness to Genocide

In 1945 German civilians from a nearby town were forced to view some of the atrocities that had occurred at Buchenwald, one of the most brutal of the Nazi concentration camps. Movie clips show the German civilians holding their noises and trying to look away from the piles of naked bodies and bones. The GIs escorting the civilians looked straight ahead, made speechless by the charnel house. Over 56,000 people had been murdered at the camp through starvation, exhaustion, disease and medical experimentation. 

Eighty years later, America has its own concentration camps to hide. Over 73,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been slaughtered by bombs, drones, and starvation. 20,000 children have disappeared into the dust and rubble. Here is a list of those who should be forced to look at this carnage of US militarism.  

Representative Pat Ryan has repeatedly voted for sending arms to Israel. The Israel Lobby bribed him with $416,135 last year (https://yourreprecord.org). Pat should cover his nose.

Several presidents of local colleges still proclaim that criticism of Israel is antisemitic. They have threatened students or had them arrested for expressing what is undeniably true: that Israel is a racist state, hell bent on exterminating the Palestinian people. These presidents should pack their bags for Gaza. 

Several county legislatures in the Hudson Valley have officially adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, a false conflation of criticism of Israel with antisemitism. It is time that these legislators are forced to witness the genocide of the US empire.
   
Fred Nagel