All hail Indigenous Peoples Day

My Italian American wife disagrees with me on this issue, but I fully support the Chicago school system changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. I loved Columbus Day in the '50's as it meant another coveted school holiday. FDR sure was looking out for us kids back in '34 when he created it. But I lost my interest in Columbus himself when I learned he never set foot in North America, much less discovered the Lower 48. I thought school was intended to provoke leaning, not maintain fairy tales. 

A fervent opponent of imperialism, I've supported the change from the single Columbus to the inclusive indigenous peoples since shortly after Berkeley, CA decreed the first Indigenous Peoples Day in 1992. Actually, South Dakota got the ball rolling two years earlier with the substitution of Native Americans for 'ol Chris.

This issue has stoked fervent opposition from Italian American political and cultural leaders. They vow a battle to overturn the CPS change.But the untold millions of Native Americans and other indigenous peoples, whose history and story were obliterated in the veneration of the European conquerors symbolized by Columbus, should no longer be ignored. Venerating the conqueror at the expense of the conquered is not education. The CPS change, designed to provoke a more balanced understanding of our historical origins, is long overdue.   

Bring me the head of Julian Assange

The US government actually wants his whole body to sit in a US prison till he's dead. A 175 year sentence for publishing factual evidence of US war crimes in Iraq should do the trick. The century old Espionage Act has never been used against a publisher but becomes easy with Australian journalist Assange by simply designating him a non-journalist.

Demonizing Assange becomes easy with US progressives who normally honor free speech as Job One in America. They jettison that sacred principle to blame Assange for electing Trump through alleged collusion with Russia in leaking Democratic campaign email. Their punishment for that offense? Life in prison, the concept of free speech be damned.

Trump has come full circle on Assange, from trumpeting his love for Assange's alleged help on the campaign trail to seeking his eventual death in prison for interfering in US criminal wars.

Assange is currently being primed for a one way ticket to a lifetime US cage by a UK Extradition Court. Assange has an ironclad defense that his extradition is unlawful due to political persecution, outlawed by US and UK extradition law. Like the US, don't count on the Brits to honor that hallowed principle. They worked in lockstep with the zealous US war party to scoop up Assange in Ecuador's London Embassy after the US bullied and bribed Ecuador into withdrawing his diplomatic immunity.

Every US official and every citizen involved in this despicable venture is in violation of the 1971 New York Times v. United States decision in the Pentagon Papers case. It expressly forbids any attempt to prosecute journalists for publishing factual material no matter how they are obtained. Without that explicit safeguard of free speech, democracy withers, may even die. And without undiluted free speech protection to protect us all from governmental mendacity, untold thousands will continue to die in America's endless and unchallenged criminal wars.

Dem candidates should erase 'socialist' meme from their vocabulary

When Joe Biden says "I am not a socialist", he's engaging in a form of McCarthyism to diminish rival Bernie who also is not a socialist. HeDem candidates should erase 'socialist' meme from their vocabulary

When Joe Biden says "I am not a socialist", he's engaging in a form of McCarthyism to diminish rival Bernie who also is not a socialist. He may believe that will help him win the nomination but it won't. Bernie will win because he is the only Dem candidate, including Liz, who resonates with the majority of every voter class except the Republican base of billionaires, bigits, the clueless, the fearful and the uninformed. But using that meme only aids Trumpism in the general election as it will be their only meme. It will not work if we leave it out of the Democratic race and focus solely on the relative merits of each candidate's prescription to heal America and communicate that prescription to the Democratic Primary voters for their verdict. Bernie has charged to the front where he will stay. There is no more similarity between the words socialism and democratic-socialism as there is between communism and commune.

 may believe that will help him win the nomination but it won't. Bernie will win because he is the only Dem candidate, including Liz, who resonates with the majority of every voter class except the Republican base of billionaires, bigits, the clueless, the fearful and the uninformed. But using that meme only aids Trumpism in the general election as it will be their only meme. It will not work if we leave it out of the Democratic race and focus solely on the relative merits of each candidate's prescription to heal America and communicate that prescription to the Democratic Primary voters for their verdict. Bernie has charged to the front where he will stay. There is no more similarity between the words socialism and democratic-socialism as there is between communism and commune.