Modern Society

Modern Society

By Neil Adams
Poemhunter.com
January 31, 2017

Children know and see today
That life doesn't have to be this way

They open their eyes and realize
It's not all hate, it's not all lies

But what you see is what you get
All the sexism, hate, and racism bet

But just this way is not for the best
They deserve better, lets put it to the test

All the gun and knife fights today
When and why did it start this way

Is the media part of the blame
Or all the role models, all the fame

Jealously is a deep but lonely word
But in today's life it's all that's heard

All the drugs in this world to stay
Never to leave it's just this way

But the world will go on and on
Never to realize that this is wrong

But life is life gotta live with that
And go on and on like society's rat

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/modern-society

Democracy

Democracy

By Langston Hughes
Poemhunter.com
January 29, 2017

Democracy will not come
Today, this year
Nor ever
Through compromise and fear.

I have as much right
As the other fellow has
To stand
On my two feet
And own the land.

I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another day.

I do not need my freedom when I'm dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow's bread.

Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need.

I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/democracy

Voter Fraud

Voter Fraud

By Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
January 27, 2017

Writes Luis P. Almeida:

Lew,

Science project –

1. Type voter fraud into google and hit enter.

2. Type voter fraud into the Russian search engine Yandex and
hit enter.

Compare the results.

We are doomed.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/political-theatre/voter-fraud

Let America Be America Again

Let America Be America Again

By Langston Hughes
Poets.org
January 25, 2017

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed—
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There’s never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.

I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek—
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold!
Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one’s own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.

I am the people, humble, hungry, mean—
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today—O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That’s made America the land it has become.

O, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home—
For I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
And Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
To build a “homeland of the free.”

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?

For all the dreams we’ve dreamed
And all the songs we’ve sung
And all the hopes we’ve held
And all the flags we’ve hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay—
Except the dream that’s almost dead today.

O, let America be America again—
The land that never has been yet—
And yet must be—the land where every man is free.
The land that’s mine—the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME—

Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose—
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath—
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain—
All, all the stretch of these great green states—
And make America again!

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/let-america-be-america-again

Peace Out, Obama

Peace Out, Obama

By Chris Ernesto
RINF.com
January 23, 2017

In the final days of his presidency, Barack Obama deployed 3,500
US troops, 87 tanks and 144 Bradley fighting vehicles to Poland,
and 330 Marines to Norway.

He also signed 'milestone' agreements with Estonia and Lithuania
enabling a broad range of defense-related activities.

For Poland, this marks the first time forces from the West will have
a continuous presence on NATO's eastern flank.

For Norway, it's the first time since WWII that foreign troops will be
allowed to be stationed there.

The US, through NATO, had already begun the "biggest
reinforcement since the Cold War, posting four multinational
battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

In November, Washington announced the deployment of nearly
6,000 troops, along with tanks, infantry vehicles, heavy howitzers,
and combat helicopters to Eastern Europe," according to RT.

Obama's latest provocations put more US firepower at Russia's
doorstep and are (rightfully) being viewed as acts of hostility by
Russian officials.

John Pilger summed up the past 8 years of Obama by writing,
"according to a Council on Foreign Relations survey, in 2016 alone
Obama dropped 26,171 bombs."

That is 72 bombs every day.

He bombed the poorest people on earth, in Afghanistan, Libya,
Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan.

Every Tuesday - reported The New York Times - he personally
selected those who would be murdered by mostly hellfire missiles
fired from drones. Weddings, funerals, shepherds were attacked,
along with those attempting to collect the body parts festooning
the "terrorist target."

Under Obama, the U.S. has extended secret "special forces"
operations to 138 countries, or 70 per cent of the world's
population.

The first African-American president launched what amounted
to a full-scale invasion of Africa.

Reminiscent of the Scramble for Africa in the late Nineteenth
Century, the U.S. African Command (Africom) has built a network of
supplicants among collaborative African regimes eager for American
bribes and armaments.

It was Obama who, in 2011, announced what became known as the
"pivot to Asia", in which almost two-thirds of U.S. naval forces
would be transferred to the Asia-Pacific to "confront China," in the
words of his Defense Secretary.

There was no threat from China; the entire enterprise was
unnecessary.

It was an extreme provocation to keep the Pentagon and its
demented brass happy.

"...Propaganda is his triumph. The lies about Russia -- in whose
elections the U.S. has openly intervened -- have made the world's
most self-important journalists laughingstocks. In the country with
constitutionally the freest press in the world, free journalism now
exists only in its honorable exceptions."

Here are some of Obama's foreign policy lowlights:

Obama ordered ten times more drone strikes than Bush

Obama planned a $1 trillion program to add more nuclear weapons
to the US arsenal.

Obama sold an all-time record $30 billion of weapons to Saudi
Arabia.

Obama bragged that he has "increased foreign military financing
to record levels".

The Obama administration supported - or led - at least 2 coups
of democratically elected governments (Ukraine and Honduras).

Obama wildly supported Israel's wars and occupation of Palestine.

Obama ordered the assassination of four U.S. citizens.

Obama repealed the Propaganda ban, making it legal to spread
government propaganda via news outlets.

Obama continuously regurgitated the sickening and dangerous
myth of American Exceptionalism, claiming that the U.S. is "the
one indispensable nation".

Eight years of Obama's blood-soaked actions have been documented
in the St. Pete for Peace Obama Fact Sheet -- a webpage we are
relieved not to have to continue!

Good riddance, Obama.

http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/peace-out-obama

President Donald J. Trump

President Donald J. Trump

By Expotera
January 21, 2017

Yesterday on January 20, 2017 Mr. Donald J. Trump was officially
sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of America and
below is a copy of President Trump's full, "Inaugural Address" and
as someone who very openly supported him as well as very proudly,
"Voted" for him, I am now very openly praying for him, as well as
very sincerely wishing nothing but the very, very, best for him.

So here's to our Country's new, "President" and here's our Country's new President in his very own words:

Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton,
President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and
people of the world:

Thank you.

We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national
effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of
our people.

Together, we will determine the course of America and the world
for years to come.

We will face challenges.

We will confront hardships.

But we will get the job done.

Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the
orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful
to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their
gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been
magnificent.

Today's ceremony, however, has very special meaning.

Because today we are not merely transferring power from one
administration to another, or from one party to another -- but
we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it
back to you, the American People.

For too long, a small group in our nation's Capital has reaped
the rewards of government while the people have borne the
cost.

Washington flourished -- but the people did not share in its wealth.

Politicians prospered -- but the jobs left, and the factories closed.

The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.

Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have
not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation's
capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all
across our land.

That all changes -- starting right here, and right now, because this
moment is your moment: it belongs to you.

It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching
all across America.

This is your day.

This is your celebration.

And this, the United States of America, is your country.

What truly matters is not which party controls our government,
but whether our government is controlled by the people.

January 20th 2017, will be remembered as the day the people
became the rulers of this nation again.

The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten
no longer.

Everyone is listening to you now.

You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic
movement the likes of which the world has never seen before.

At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction: that a
nation exists to serve its citizens.

Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods
for their families, and good jobs for themselves.

These are the just and reasonable demands of a righteous public.

But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists:

Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-
out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our
nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our
young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime
and gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our
country of so much unrealized potential.

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

We are one nation -- and their pain is our pain.

Their dreams are our dreams; and their success will be our success.

We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny.

The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all
Americans.

For many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense
of American industry; subsidized the armies of other countries
while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military; we've
defended other nation's borders while refusing to defend our own;
and spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure
has fallen into disrepair and decay.

We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and
confidence of our country has disappeared over the horizon.

One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not
even a thought about the millions upon millions of American
workers left behind.

The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes
and then redistributed across the entire world.

But that is the past. And now we are looking only to the future.

We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard
in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power.

From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.

From this moment on, it's going to be America First.

Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign
affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American
families.

We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries
making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our
jobs.

Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.

I will fight for you with every breath in my body -- and I will never,
ever let you down.

America will start winning again, winning like never before.

We will bring back our jobs.

We will bring back our borders.

We will bring back our wealth.

And we will bring back our dreams.

We will build new roads, and highways, and bridges, and airports,
and tunnels, and railways all across our wonderful nation.

We will get our people off of welfare and back to work -- rebuilding
our country with American hands and American labor.

We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American.

We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world
-- but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all
nations to put their own interests first.

We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather
to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.

We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones -- and unite
the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we
will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the
United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country,
we will rediscover our loyalty to each other.

When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for
prejudice.

The Bible tells us, "How good and pleasant it is when God's people
live together in unity."

We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements
honestly, but always pursue solidarity.

When America is united, America is totally unstoppable.

There should be no fear -- we are protected, and we will always
be protected.

We will be protected by the great men and women of our military
and law enforcement and, most importantly, we are protected by
God.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger.

In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as
it is striving.

We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action
-- constantly complaining but never doing anything about it.

The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.

Do not let anyone tell you it cannot be done.

No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America.

We will not fail.

Our country will thrive and prosper again.

We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the
mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease,
and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of
tomorrow.

A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal
our divisions.

It is time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never
forget: that whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed
the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious
freedoms, and we all salute the same great American Flag.

And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the
windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky,
they fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused
with the breath of life by the same almighty Creator.

So to all Americans, in every city near and far, small and large,
from mountain to mountain, and from ocean to ocean, hear these
words:

You will never be ignored again.

Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams will define our American
destiny.

And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along
the way.

Together, We will make America strong again.

We will make wealthy again.

We will make America proud again.

We will make America safe again.

And yes, together, we will make America great again.

Thank you. God bless you. And God bless America.

The Present Crisis

The Present Crisis

By James Russell Lowell
Poets.org
January 18, 2016

When a deed is done for Freedom, through the broad earth’s aching breast

Runs a thrill of joy prophetic, trembling on from east to west,

And the slave, where’er he cowers, feels the soul within him climb

To the awful verge of manhood, as the energy sublime

Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time.

Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe,

When the travail of the Ages wrings earth’s systems to and fro;

At the birth of each new Era, with a recognizing start,

Nation wildly looks at nation, standing with mute lips apart,

And glad Truth’s yet mightier man-child leaps beneath the Future’s heart.

So the Evil’s triumph sendeth, with a terror and a chill,

Under continent to continent, the sense of coming ill,

And the slave, where’er he cowers, feels his sympathies with God

In hot tear-drops ebbing earthward, to be drunk up by the sod,

Till a corpse crawls round unburied, delving in the nobler clod.

For mankind are one in spirit, and an instinct bears along,

Round the earth’s electric circle, the swift flash of right or wrong;

Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity’s vast frame

Through its ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or shame;—

In the gain or loss of one race all the rest have equal claim.

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,

In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;

Some great cause, God’s new Messiah, offering each the bloom
or blight,

Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right,

And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.

Hast thou chosen, O my people, on whose party thou shalt stand,

Ere the Doom from its worn sandals shakes the dust against our
land?

Though the cause of Evil prosper, yet ‘tis Truth alone is strong,

And, albeit she wander outcast now, I see around her throng

Troops of beautiful, tall angels, to enshield her from all wrong.

Backward look across the ages and the beacon-moments see,

That, like peaks of some sunk continent, jut through Oblivion’s sea;

Not an ear in court or market for the low, foreboding cry

Of those Crises, God’s stern winnowers, from whose feet earth’s chaff must fly;

Never shows the choice momentous till the judgment hath
passed by.

Careless seems the great Avenger; history’s pages but record

One death-grapple in the darkness ‘twixt old systems and the Word;

Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,—

Yet that scaffold sways the future, and, behind the dim unknown,

Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great,

Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate,

But the soul is still oracular; amid the market’s din,

List the ominous stern whisper from the Delphic cave within,—

“They enslave their children’s children who make compromise
with sin.”

Slavery, the earth-born Cyclops, fellest of the giant brood,

Sons of brutish Force and Darkness, who have drenched the earth with blood,

Famished in his self-made desert, blinded by our purer day,

Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey;—

Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children play?

Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust,

Ere her cause bring fame and profit, and ‘tis prosperous to be just;

Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside,

Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified,

And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.

Count me o’er earth’s chosen heroes,—they were souls that stood alone,

While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone,

Stood serene, and down the future saw the golden beam incline

To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,

By one man’s plain truth to manhood and to God’s supreme design.

By the light of burning heretics Christ’s bleeding feet I track,

Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back,

And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned

One new word of that grand Credo which in prophet-hearts hath burned

Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven upturned.

For Humanity sweeps onward: where to-day the martyr stands,

On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands;

Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fagots burn,

While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return

To glean up the scattered ashes into History’s golden urn.

‘Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves

Of a legendary virtue carved upon our fathers’ graves,

Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime;—

Was the Mayflower launched by cowards, steered by men behind
their time?

Turn those tracks toward Past or Future, that made Plymouth Rock sublime?

They were men of present valor, stalwart old iconoclasts,

Unconvinced by axe or gibbet that all virtue was the Past’s;

But we make their truth our falsehood, thinking that hath
made us free,

Hoarding it in mouldy parchments, while our tender spirits flee

The rude grasp of that great Impulse which drove them across
the sea.

They have rights who dare maintain them; we are traitors to
our sires,

Smothering in their holy ashes Freedom’s new-lit altar-fires;

Shall we make their creed our jailer? Shall we, in our haste to slay,

From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral lamps away

To light up the martyr-fagots round the prophets of to-day?

New occasions teach new duties; Time makes ancient good uncouth;

They must upward still, and onward, who would keep abreast
of Truth;

Lo, before us gleam her camp-fires! we ourselves must Pilgrims be,

Launch our Mayflower, and steer boldly through the desperate
winter sea,

Nor attempt the Future’s portal with the Past’s blood-rusted key.

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/present-crisis

Gaza

Gaza

By Olfa Drid
January 14, 2017

shelling
shelling
shelling
barren land,
fruitless trees,
wingless birds,
eclipsed sun,
miniscule corpses,
entombed hopes,
decapitated present,
castrated future
death ghost
death's specter
&
global silence…

Israel Is a Rogue State

Israel Is a Rogue State

By John Wight
Counterpunch.org
January 11, 2017

That Israel is a Rogue State has long been beyond dispute in
discerning company.

In light of the recent revelation that an Israeli official, working for
the country’s embassy in London, was plotting ways to “take down”
various British politicians over their opposition to Israeli
settlements and support for a Palestinian state, it is now becoming
increasingly apparent within the mainstream.

Or at least it should be given that this latest scandal comes as only
the latest exposure of such nefarious activity on the part of a state
that has long operated with scant regard for international law at
home and overseas.

Indeed rather than a state operating in accordance with
international law and diplomatic norms, Israel increasingly evinces
the character of a rogue state making up its own rules and norms as
it goes along.

Whether the on-going illegal military occupation of the West Bank,
the expansion of illegal Jewish-only settlements on Palestinian
land, or the siege of Gaza, which comes under rubric of collective
punishment and is therefore illegal, we are talking here a country
that believes it can act with impunity.

The Israeli official in question in this instance, Shai Masot, was
secretly filmed during a meeting he attended a London restaurant
with a British civil servant and former Conservative Party official,
and a man he thought worked for the pro-Israel pressure group
Labour Friends of Israel.

This individual, known as Robin, was in truth an undercover
reporter with Al Jazeera.

The most high profile object of Masot’s ire within the British
political establishment was Alan Duncan MP, the country’s Minister
of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

In a 2014 speech Duncan described Israel’s on-going policy towards
the Palestinians thus:

“Settlements are illegal colonies built in someone else’s country.
They are an act of theft, and what is more something which is both
initiated and supported by the state of Israel.”

He goes on:

“Settlement activity is not carried out by some minority group
outside the orbit of the Israeli state. Settlement activity is
systematically initiated, implemented and supported by the Israeli
Government, who authorize, implement and protect the relentless
illegal expansion of the borders of Israel. This is reprehensible.”

Duncan then makes the key point that “It is no exaggeration to say
that many settlers are state-supported militia, defying international
law, driving out the rightful inhabitants from their land, and
creating an illegal economy at the expense of those who have been
cruelly displaced.”

According to the Israeli embassy in London, Masot was a junior
official. Yet his business card described him as a ‘senior political
officer’. He is also believed to hold a position within the Israel
Defense Forces (IDF) as ‘deputy head of the international
organisations sector’.

The political backlash in response to the exposure of this shocking
violation of diplomatic protocol has involved the leader of the
Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, calling for a full investigation.

In this he is being supported by MPs from both sides of the political
divide. Corbyn has previously come under huge criticism in the
mainstream media for his long record of support for justice for the
Palestinians.

Regardless, the British Government is intent on kicking the issue
into the long grass, more concerned with shielding the Israeli
government from criticism taking a harsh view of the actions of
the agent of another country plotting to “take down” ministers
within Her Majesty’s Government.

Consider the official statement issued by the foreign office
in response to the uncovering of this plot.

“The Israeli ambassador has apologized and is clear these
comments do not reflect the views of the embassy or government
of Israel. The UK has a strong relationship with Israel and
we consider the matter closed.”

If this scandal involved Russian officials does anybody doubt for a
second that mass expulsions of Russian embassy staff would follow?

The Israeli embassy in London has of course distanced itself
from Masot’s actions.

Whether we actually believe their denial of any involvement
in this affair is another matter.

In this regard we should never make the mistake of underestimating
some people’s capacity for naivety.

The fact that Israel is able to engage in these types of shenanigans
and go unpunished or without sanction is impossible to deny.

And when it comes to its UK friend and ally, this is not the first
time its officials and institutions have treated it with contempt.

Back in 2010 Mossad agents used the stolen identities of British
citizens to forge UK passports, which they used to travel to Dubai
to carry out the assassination of Hamas operative Mahmoud al-
Mabhouh.

The British government’s response was given by the country’s then
foreign secretary David Miliband in the UK parliament, who
described the use of stolen British identities as an “outrage” while
pledging to “get to the bottom” of the incident.

What followed was…well nothing very much. Israel
apologized and that as they say was that.

What this latest incident exposes is the fact there are British
politicians acting as de facto agents for the state of Israel.

For far too long their ignoble role in this regard has gone
unremarked except among pro Palestinian activist circles
or by a few dissenting journalists.

What else is the function of Conservative Friends of Israel or Labour
Friends of Israel if not to cover and justify Israel’s brutal system of
apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and illegal military occupation.

Most recently members of both groups have been active in
attacking BDS in the UK, resulting in the Government introducing
new guidance on the procurement of goods and services by local
authorities and public sector bodies, designed to make it illegal to
stand on the side of justice by boycotting goods and services from
Israel, even Israeli settlements, despite the fact they are utterly
illegal.

One of the most highly regarded politicians to ever hold the
position of British foreign secretary was Henry John Temple,
more commonly known as Lord Palmerston.

He held the post in the mid 19th century and is best known for an
analysis of a state’s foreign policy that has stood the test of time.

“We have no eternal allies,” Palmerston said, “and we have no
perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and
those interests it is our duty to follow.”

When it comes to the determination of the successive recent British
government to support Israel despite Tel Aviv repeatedly treating it
with unalloyed contempt, who can doubt that Palmerston will be
waiting for some time to come before he can finally stop spinning in
his grave?

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/11/israel-is-a-rogue-state

Ozymandias

Ozymandias

By Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sunday, January 8, 2017

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said:

Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert.

Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains.

Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

The Prophet

The Prophet

By Alexander Pushkin
January 4, 2017

Longing for spiritual springs,
I dragged myself through desert sands.

An angel with three pairs of wings
Arrived to me at cross of lands;
With fingers so light and slim
He touched my eyes as in a dream:
And opened my prophetic eyes
Like eyes of eagle in surprise.

He touched my ears in movement single,
And they were filled with noise and jingle:
I heard a shuddering of heavens,
And angels' flight on azure heights
And creatures' crawl in long sea nights,
And rustle of vines in distant valleys.

And he bent down to my chin,
And he tore off my tongue of sin,
In cheat and idle talks aroused,
And with his hand in bloody specks
He put the sting of wizard snakes
Into my deadly stoned mouth.

With his sharp sword he cleaved my breast,
And plucked my quivering heart out,
And coals flamed with God's behest,
Into my gaping breast were ground.

Like dead I lay on desert sands,
And listened to God's commands:
'Arise, O prophet, hark and see,
Be filled with utter My demands,
And, going over Land and Sea,
Burn with your Word the humane hearts.