#Patriot Prayer Group

[traumaticemphaticfantastic]

These are four portraits/caricatures I did, back in May and June, of four key figures in the founding of the Reform Jewish movement.

Two of them are from Germany (Geiger and Holdheim) and two of them are from the USA (Mayer-Wise and Einhorn). Reform has its roots in the German enlightenment era, when the German government sought to grant Jews equal rights, and largely succeeded for a time. One of the products of what would come to be known as “The Emancipation” was the birth of a new class of Jewish intellectual, coming out of the darkness of the ghetto and into the enlightenment era, many Jews felt that their tradition was becoming quite archaic and outdated, and sought to update their practices to better fit into the changing world.

However, some of the decisions made by early reformers, particularly the more radical subset, greatly disturbed the more traditionally-minded. Radical early reformers were very concerned with assimilation over the more multicultural inclusion mindset that the movement is known for today, in the beginning a lot of Reform Temples felt more like Christian Churches because they had removed so much that made the Jewish people so distinct from the Christian majority that surrounded them. No head coverings, no tallit, no davening, no Hebrew, it was all in an effort to further emancipate Jewish people into mainstream goyish culture, it seems as though for a lot of radical reformers the key to stopping antisemitism for good was to simply stop being so unique.

This led to a lot of tensions within the growing movement, and it all came to a head in the USA after the infamous Trefa Banquet, where almost every dish served violated Kosher law, several Rabbis walked out, and thus the Conservative movement was born.

As for Reform itself, many Ashkenazi reformers ended up in the USA (Such as Isaac Mayer-Wise), they saw in the growing nation a world devoid of the centuries-old, set-in-stone Jewish law that largely held them back in Europe. Today, Reform Judaism holds its largest communities in the USA and parts of Canada, though there are remaining pockets all around the world. And as for their more assimilationist policies, Reform has largely revoked much of their previous bans in favour of a more personalized and optional approach, many Reform Temples have racks of tallit for those who wish to use them, give the option of head-covering such as kippahs to all regardless of gender, and most Temples recite their prayers in Hebrew, and sometimes the dominant language of the region. In the modern time, Reform Judaism largely prioritizes the individual journeys of its adherence, rather than on telling people what to think and feel (In most cases there are limits of course).

There is also the issue of Zionism, which I will touch upon briefly before ending this post: Early Reform Jews were very strictly anti-Zionist. Abraham Geiger, for example, removed the prayers for the return to Zion completely from his services. This was because of, again, The Emancipation. The Reform Jews in their respective countries firmly believed that Jews were equal citizens of their countries and for a group of people from one country, who insist that they are part of that country, to pray every Friday/Sunday for a mass exodus and return to another nation, well that doesn’t seem very “Patriotic” as it were, does it? And so the Jewish Reformers of old declared that they were no longer a nation, but instead a religious group, completely denouncing the wish of returning to Zion. And so it was, but unfortunately, this decree would not survive the Holocaust, when the world that the early Reformers so strongly desired to be a part of changed irreversibly or, in some cases, ceased existence entirely. It is, in my opinion, one of the many great tragedies of the 20th century.

Sorry it got a bit sad at the end there, I hope you enjoyed learning a bit about Reform Judaism with me today. That will be all, be well.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

John Blake at CNN:

There’s an image that captures the threat posed by the White Christian nationalist movement — and how it could become even more dangerous over the next four years. Taken during the Jan. 6 insurrection, the photo shows a solitary White man, his head pressed in prayer against a massive wooden cross, facing the domed US Capitol building. An American flag stands like a sentinel on a flagpole beside the Capitol under an ominously gray sky. The photograph depicts a foot soldier in an insurgent religious movement trying to storm the halls of American power. What’s unsettling about the photo four years later is that much of the religious zeal that fed the insurrection is no longer outside the gates of power. Many of that movement’s followers are now on the inside, because their Chosen One, Donald Trump, returns this month to the Oval Office.

This is the scenario Americans could face in Trump’s second term. Under Trump, Christian nationalists will have unprecedented access to the power of the federal government. Trump’s GOP has unified control of Congress. And a conservative supermajority, which has already blurred the line between separation of church and state in a series of decisions favoring Christian interests, controls the US Supreme Court.

Trump has not been shy about what comes next. He ran a presidential campaign that was infused with White Christian Nationalist imagery and rhetoric. He vowed in an October campaign speech to set up a task force to root out “anti-Christian bias” and restore preachers’ power in America while giving access to a group he calls “my beautiful Christians.” “If I get in, you’re going to be using that power at a level that you’ve never used before,” Trump told an annual gathering of National Religious Broadcasters in Tennessee during a campaign stop earlier this year. Trump won the support of about 8 in 10 White evangelical voters in November’s presidential election. Nearly two-thirds of White evangelical Protestants in the US described themselves as sympathizers or adherents to Christian nationalism in a February 2023 survey. Scholars have called White Christian nationalism an “Imposter Christianity” whose adherents use religious language to cloak sexism and hostility to Black people and non-White immigrants in a quest to create a White Christian America. So what might life look like over the next four years for Americans who don’t subscribe to this movement? CNN asked that question of Kristin Kobes Du Mez, one of the nation’s foremost authorities on Christian nationalism. Du Mez is a historian and the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.” Her book has become a go-to source for understanding Christian nationalism. It explains how the movement’s tentacles reach deep into American history and pop culture. To many people, declaring America a Christian nation may seem harmless. And it’s important to distinguish Christian nationalists from patriotic Christians who have a more inclusive view of what America should be. But Du Mez says Christian nationalism is ultimately incompatible with American democracy.

[...]

You once said that Christian nationalism and militant patriarchy go hand in hand. What does that mean?

Christian nationalism is the idea that America is a distinctly Christian nation. But there’s a whole set of descriptors that go along with this that we see over and over again. There’s this idea that we need to restore Christian America. What does that look like? It looks like privileging the quote unquote, traditional family, the patriarchal family structure. They believe that the way that God has designed human flourishing is to have a male patriarch, and then to have a submissive wife, one who submits to her husband’s authority, and one whose primary role is a mother and a homemaker. Any family structure that does not look like that is seen as undermining society. You’ll hear the rhetoric that we need strong Godly men to step up to defend faith, family and nation. And so when you get inside Christian nationalist spaces, there is all kinds of militant rhetoric about manly strength, about Christian men who need to step up and take power, and assert their leadership because that is their God-ordained role.

[...]

What happens though to those White Christian evangelicals who don’t subscribe to Christian nationalism. Where do they go? There are a lot of pressures to get on board with this Christian nationalist agenda. It doesn’t need to be overtly supported, but there’s enormous pressure not to object. A person who works in an evangelical media organization explained it to me this way. The memo is: You don’t have to support Donald Trump and the MAGA agenda — you just can’t speak against it, so you can keep your job. When I heard those words, I thought that exactly describes what I’m hearing from people and what I’m observing. So you can quietly hold onto your beliefs, but if you try to object to something that is part of this agenda, if you try to say, fellow Christians, should we be supporting a man like Trump? — that will get you into trouble. If this movement gets everything it wants, what will this country look like?

There will be no meaningful religious liberty. There will be essentially a two-tier society between the quote unquote, real Americans—those who buy into this, or pretend to — and then the rest of Americans. If you’re a person of no faith or a Muslim or anybody deemed not a true Christian, you will have a place, but you will not have a voice. The laws will be rewritten across the board. Rights as we understand them will cease to exist and instead, we’ll have the framework of biblical law.

They want to erase the teaching of actual history to prop up a mythical understanding of what this country was founded to be to justify their radical transformation of the country. There will be no abortion rights, and there will be limited, if any, access to contraception. There will be harsh anti-immigration laws with exceptions for people who subscribe to this Christian nationalist vision or who are seen to fit within it, religiously, politically and perhaps ethnically. There are potential mitigating factors: infighting or incompetence within Christian nationalist and MAGA circles, the role of the courts, resistance within government agencies and at the local and state levels. And of course, the extent to which various aspects of the Christian nationalist agenda align with Trump’s own priorities and with those of members of his inner circle, like Elon Musk. What do you say to people who say you’re being alarmist and playing into doomsday scenarios? I mean, this isn’t “The Handmaid’s Tale.” I would love to be wrong about this. The reason I’m saying these things is because I have been listening to what they (in this movement) have been saying and I have been reading what they have been writing for years. They have been writing these things and saying these things for decades. For a long time, they were a powerful strand in the broader evangelical world and within the Republican Party. But they were offset by a more secular and pro-business conservatism. What we’ve seen now is that they’ve moved into a dominant position within the Republican Party. The MAGA brand is the Republican Party. These ideas are not new. What is new is that for the first time, they are really in a position to carry out these plans.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez spoke to CNN about how White Christian nationalists seek to remake America in their image during Trump’s 2nd term.

[mariacallous]

Black Friday is not just about cheap TVs, cut price gaming consoles, and saving money on laptops; it’s also about getting a bargain on Faraday cages to stop 5G from melting your brain, grabbing a great deal on biblically inspired diet pills, and securing that hot-pink T-shirt with a picture of president-elect Donald Trump on the front.

This year, far-right extremists, MAGAworld, and conspiracists are all jumping on the Black Friday bandwagon to try and persuade their followers to buy untested health supplements, unfunny novelty mugs, and guns—lots and lots of guns.

Rather than advertising on mainstream online marketplaces offered by sites including Google or Facebook, these groups are targeting their audience where they live, on fringe and alternative online platforms with little or no moderation. Spaces like Gab, a white-supremacist-friendly social network run by a christian nationalist. Or Telegram, where election deniers and neo-Nazi groups happily sit side-by-side despite new privacy changes being introduced this year. And of course,Trump’s own Truth Social, where his most devoted followers can be found.

Gab and Truth Social did not immediately respond to a request to comment. Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn said that ads placed through the Telegram Ads platform are vetted before they are shown.

For those feeling a little drained after Thanksgiving, alternative health company Exodus Strong is offering discounts on a dietary supplement which has “7 Biblically-inspired ingredients and a molecular hydrogen generating blend that optimize your Mind and Body to function the way God intended.” The tablets, which are currently being advertised up to 60 percent off on Truth Social, include, among other biblical ingredients, frankincense and myrrh. Those who purchase one of these supplements will even get a free gift: a prayer plan.

Undermining the boasts about the product slightly, however, is the disclaimer on the company’s own website that reads: “These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

Launched just in time for Black Friday, the new online store from right-wing YouTube-alternative Rumble features a who’s who of conspiracy theorists and conservative agitators on its front page, including Trump confidante Laura Loomer and underpants-wearing baptiser Russell Brand.

The store itself is a cornucopia of unimagined gems, everything from Faraday cages for your phone to stop 5G melting your brain, to nuclear fallout preparedness kits for the bargain price of $349. Rumble did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many far-right and conspiracy newsletters and subscription services are offering huge discounts to lock in their audiences for the next 12 months. Gab for example is offering 50 percent discounts on yearly subscriptions to its AI service, whose racist chatbots have been trained to deny the Holocaust.

An antisemitic Irish blogger who is a close ally of white supremacist Nick Fuentes is offering 40 percent off his Substack subscriptions directly to his existing readers, showing that the effort to cash in on Black Friday hype is not limited to extremists in the US.

By far the most popular Black Friday ads on these platforms are from gun manufacturers, who are offering huge discounts on everything from high-powered rifles to a pink “no drill cheek rest” for your scoped long gun. (The “MAGA Patriot,” a Trump-themed AR-15 that was created in the wake of the president-elect surviving an assassination attempt by the same gun, is not discounted for Black Friday.)

Some of these promotions are simply flogging pro-MAGA paraphernalia. On Truth Social, Fox News host Sean Hannity is promoting the Black Friday deals available in his own merch store. From coffee cups with the phrase “leftist tears” to a “Daddy’s Home” T-shirt featuring a picture of Trump in front of the White House wearing a hot-pink jacket, Hannity has something for all tastes—as long as those tastes align with a pro-Trump, MAGA, Christian nationalist view of America.

For those Trump supporters who may be missing the glory days of 2020 when they could come together online to rage against the voting machines for stealing the election, conspiracy group Audit the Vote PA has got you covered with a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “election denier,” advertised on Gab.

And the biggest election denier of them all, pillow salesman Mike Lindell, is, of course, having a massive Black Friday sale. The man who has sponsored huge swathes of the far-right media ecosystem with promotional codes for the last four years is now offering a two-pack of “We the People” pillow covers for just $25.

On these alternative platforms, discussions about Black Friday are not only about getting 50 percent off “Make Christmas Great Again” T-shirts. Those promotions are interspersed with incredibly antisemitic and racist posts about the day, including several featuring children in black face.

Some users of Gab and Truth Social are also pushing back against Black Friday, calling out the “deranged libtards who turn into dangerous NCPs” during the event (misspelling NPC, which is used to describe someone who is predictable or robotic.) Others insist they are “boycotting Black Friday” because it’s a cash grab by the globalist elite.

And of course, conspiracies are never far away.

One user on Trump’s Truth Social, who calls themselves “Trust the Plan” (spelled like trusttheplqn), believes they have uncovered a secret message in one store’s Black Friday promotional material based on “intel” provided by another Truth Social account called Entheos. The conspiracy theory centers on the store promoting a “storewide blackout” for Black Friday, which “Trust the Plan” believes is code for something sinister taking place, though they fail to say exactly what this is.

“Black friday is on the 29th, but their sale starts on 27th (date that Entheos gave). And why would there be a ‘blackout storewide’ for black friday? You want complete opposite of a blackout...so people can actually shop.”

For others however, the situation appears much more dire. One Gab poster shared an article from a conspiracy site discussing a “global escalation” on Friday. The piece suggests that recent comments by Russian president Vladimir Putin related to launching a nuclear strike signal a looming apocalypse. “Stay Armed, Stay Safe, Patriots,” the poster wrote on Gab.

[shosty-we-understand]

Though toted as a resounding success by the Soviet Union, Dmitri Shostakovich's trip to a peace conference in New York City in 1949 was, ironically, not as peaceful as the government let on.

Shostakovich was handpicked by Joseph Stalin in March of 1949 to be part of the Soviet delegation at the Cultural and Scientific Conference For World Peace (or the Waldorf Conference, dubbed from the hotel at which it was hosted). Shostakovich himself was quite hesitant to attend, as this was a very tumultuous period in his life due to many personal and professional strains. However a rather coercive phone conversation with Stalin himself managed to convince him to attend. Shostakovich's music was quite well-known in the United States largely owing to his incredibly popular Symphony No. 7, one of the most famous pieces of music to come out of the Second World War. Indeed, Dmitri Shostakovich was a household name.

The amicable relations between the United States and the Soviet Union following the end of the Second World War were short lived, and the two superpowers were almost immediately at odds with each other over their political ideologies and global interests. The Red Scare in North American added to the tension between the two nations. "Communism" became a dogwhistle, and "Communists" were people to either hate or be scared of, or both.

So when one of the world's most famous communists was suddenly headlining the Cultural and Scientific Conference For World Peace, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel became a lightning rod for anti-communist protesters.

Shostakovich and the Soviet delegate arrived at LaGuardia Airport on March 23rd, 1949 and were greeted on the tarmac by over 70 reporters, photographers, journalists, and more. Inside the airport sat even more reporters, waiting to hold a press conference that the Russians were hastily ushered past and outside to waiting taxis.

Their arrival at the hotel was not much better. Hordes of hundreds of anti-Communist protesters had gathered at the entrance of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, largely consisting of local Catholic activist groups. While originally expecting over 100 000 protesters to show up, they ended up with a measly (by comparison) 1000 picketers. Of those picketing outside the hotel, they included combat veterans and member of the American Legion, immigrants from Soviet and communist countries carrying their country's flags and dressed in traditional clothing, praying priests and kneeling nuns, and many more. They yelled catcalls, boos, prayers, and sang patriotic songs at the Soviets. Many held signs and placards with slogans like "Veterans Love Music But Not From Behind An Iron Curtain", "Ukrainian Insurgents Fight & Die for Democracy & Peace", "Exterminate The Red Rat", or more insensitively, "Shostakovich! Jump Thru The Window", a reference to the Russian schoolteacher Oksana Kasenkina who jumped out of a third floor window in Manhattan in 1948. Some were more understanding, however, with one sign in particular reading "Shostakovich, We Understand", most likely a nod to Shostakovich's being forced to attend against his will.

Aside from the hundreds of protesters, it was estimated that the police had barricaded over 10 000 onlookers and honest-to-goodness fans, there to catch a glimpse of the (current) most famous Russian composer. But Shostakovich wasn't there to sign autographs, and he was rushed into the hotel past the anxious and turbulent crowds. He would go on to call the Waldorf Conference the "most humiliating experience of [his] life", but for other reasons.

Above is a photo from the exterior of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City in March of 1949. Picketers kept vigil outside the hotel, constantly protesting the participation of the Soviet Union.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Chapter Eight. The Crusade

One of the most striking traits of the inner life of a crowd is the feeling of being persecuted, a peculiar angry sensitiveness and irritability directed against those it has once and forever nominated as enemies. These can behave in any manner, harsh or conciliatory, cold or sympathetic, severe or mild—whatever they do will be interpreted as springing from an unshakable malevolence, a premeditated intention to destroy the crowd, openly or by stealth. —Elias Canetti, Crowds and Power [153]

Pastor Russell Johnson stands against the backdrop of a huge American flag with the Christian cross superimposed on the Stars and Stripes. He calls his Christian warriors to battle. He invokes the legacy of the civil-rights movement, speaking of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks. He talks of embattled Christians in America. A war of values and morals, of decency and goodness pitted against forces of darkness and evil, has enveloped the country, and he issues a strident call to arms. He calls Ohio “the tip of the spear to turn back the nation.

“We’re on the beaches of Normandy, and we can see the pillbox entrenchments of academic and media liberalism,” he says. “We’ll take back our country for Christ.”

Johnson, who leads the Ohio Restoration Project, is on a 10-city tour in Ohio. The Christian group’s credo is “Pray, Serve, Engage.” The rallies across the state are thinly disguised campaign events for “Christian” candidates, such as Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Republican nominee for governor. But the speakers also pound home the message that Christians must protect the family, ban abortion, bring back school prayer and register voters who will create a Christian Ohio. There are voter registration cards available, and the few hundred people at the rally are urged to join the “Patriot Pastors”—some 2,000 Ohio pastors, each of whom has promised to recruit 100 new “Intercessors” or “Faithful Servants of Prayer” and 200 “Minutemen Volunteers” to work in the upcoming election. The goal of the movement is to register 300,000 new voters. Johnson has called for a monthly voter-registration Sunday where clergy will show a PowerPoint presentation on how to register, collect cards and send them directly to the office of the secretary of state. These new voters will, in a phrase repeated often at the rally, be like “salt and light for America.” They will stem the forces out to destroy them and the nation. They will return America to the Christian path—which, Johnson claims, was the intent and goal of the nation’s founders.

The fusion of Christian and national symbols marks a completion for those at the rally of America’s new state religion, a Christo-fascism. A choir sings rousing patriotic and Christian hymns while pictures of American troops fighting in Iraq flash on huge screens. There are moments of prayer and a somber honoring of the men and women in uniform, with all veterans in the room asked to stand. Looming above it all is a huge American flag with the Christian cross superimposed on it. On another wall is a flag with a superimposed George Washington, sword by his side, kneeling in prayer. Christian rallies like these are also being held in other states such as Texas and Pennsylvania.

Johnson warns about the “secular jihadists” who have “hijacked” America, removing public prayer from schools, the 10 Commandments and the Bible from public places. He accuses the public schools, which he says promote an ideology of secular humanism, of neglecting to teach that Hitler was “an avid evolutionist.” There can be no negotiation, no compromise, no deals cut with the enemy. And the enemy lives in your neighborhood, teaches in your schools and works in your office. The battle lines are being demarcated in the suburbs of Dayton and across America.

Johnson likens America’s predicament to that of Nazi Germany. He tells the gathering of about 400 supporters that church congregations in Germany would sing so that they could not hear the passing of trainloads of crying Jews headed for nearby concentration camps. He accuses Christians in America of leading “Neville Chamberlain lives,” referring to the British prime minister who naively signed a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler. As Johnson speaks, pictures of Hitler and Chamberlain flash on the screens. If Christians do not begin to act, they will be next. They will be hauled off in freight cars like the Jews in Nazi Germany and murdered.

The rhetoric creates an atmosphere of being under siege. It also imparts the warm glow of comradeship, the feeling that although outside these walls there is a dangerous, hostile world, here we are all brothers and sisters. It is clear to whom Christians bear a moral obligation: to fellow Christians. The world is divided into friends and enemies, neighbors and strangers. A moral obligation, Freud wrote, only increases with our affection for an individual. In this room, the commandment to “Love your neighbor as yourself” is twisted, in ways Freud could understand, to “Love your fellow Christians as yourself.” Loving one’s neighbor presupposes a bond, a shared sense of belonging, but it was a presupposition Freud pointed out was absurd. “If this grandiose commandment had run ‘love thy neighbor as thy neighbor loves thee,’ I should not take exception to it,” he wrote.[154] Loving a stranger, Freud said, was counter to human nature: “If he is a stranger to me…it will be hard for me to love him.”[155] And those outside the Christian community are effectively made strangers. They are no longer worthy of being loved. The distinction creates a world where there are only two types of people. There are godly men and women who advance Christian values, and there are nonbelievers—many of them liberal Christians—who peddle the filth and evil of secular humanism. This dividing line is nothing other than the distinction between human and nonhuman, between the worthy and those unworthy of life, between saved and unsaved, between friend and foe.

In rallies like those in Johnson’s Ohio tour, friends, neighbors, colleagues and family members who do not conform to the ideology are gradually dehumanized. They are tainted with the despised characteristics inherent in the godless. This attack is waged in highly abstract terms, to negate the reality of concrete, specific and unique human characteristics, to deny the possibility of goodness in those who do not conform. Some human beings, the message goes, are no longer human beings. They are types. This new, exclusive community fosters rigidity, conformity and intolerance. In this new binary world segments of the human race are disqualified from moral and ethical consideration. And because fundamentalist followers live in a binary universe, they are incapable of seeing others as anything more than inverted reflections of themselves. If they seek to destroy nonbelievers to create a Christian America, then nonbelievers must be seeking to destroy them. This belief system negates the possibility of the ethical life. It fails to grasp that goodness must be sought outside the self and that the best defense against evil is to seek it within. When people come to believe that they are immune from evil, that there is no resemblance between themselves and those they define as the enemy, they will inevitably grow to embody the evil they claim to fight. It is only by grasping our own capacity for evil, our own darkness, that we hold our own capacity for evil at bay. When evil is always external, then moral purification always entails the eradication of others.

This rhetoric of depersonalization creates a frightening moral fragmentation, an ability to act with compassion and justice toward those within the closed, Christian circle yet allow others outside the circle to be abused, silenced and stripped of their rights. And the passivity of many in America who do not acknowledge the danger of this rhetoric, and the moral fragmentation it inspires, lends itself to the pleasant fiction that these radicals are fundamentally decent, that they do not mean what they say, that they will never actually persecute homosexuals or nonbelievers or execute abortion providers. Such passivity only accelerates the probability of evil. Extremists never begin as extremists. They become extremists gradually. They move gingerly forward in an open society. They advance only so far as they fail to meet resistance. And no society is immune from this moral catastrophe.

The Christian Right, for now, is forced to function within the political system it seeks to destroy. Judges continue to judge. Teachers continue to teach. The media continue to report. Politicians continue to campaign. But in the world of fundamentalist rhetoric, only “Bible-believing” judges are worthy of respect. Only Christian teachers are true educators. And only the pseudo-reporters seen and heard on Christian broadcasts, who portray the course of historical and world events as conforming to purported biblical prophecies, report the real news. Finally, it is only the men of God, those who champion the Christian state, who have the right to rule. The movement is creating a parallel system, complete with parallel Christian organizations, to replace the old one. It is a slow and often imperceptible process, but Johnson’s Ohio rally is the outward expression of vast subterranean shifts that are methodically reorienting the lives of literalist Christians and the country.

Students in Christian schools are being inculcated with the intolerant, heavy-handed political doctrine on display at the rally. The Accelerated Christian Education curriculum, one of the country’s three major publishers of Christian textbooks, defines “liberal” in its schoolbooks as “referring to philosophy not supported by Scripture” and “conservative” as “dedicated to the preserving of Scriptural principles.”[156] And “Conservative Christian schools,” identified by their affiliation with one of four national school organizations that define themselves as evangelical and Christian, are the fastest-growing segment within the private school system. Such schools now represent 15.4 percent of all private school enrollment. The National Center for Education Statistics shows a 41 percent growth in the total enrollment at conservative Christian schools between 1992 and 2002.[157] The National Center for Education Statistics estimates that the number of home schoolers rose from 850,000 to 1.1 million between 1999 and 2003. Of those surveyed, 72 percent of parents cited the desire to give religious and moral instruction as a top reason for home-schooling.[158]

In texts published by A Beka, one of the big fundamentalist publishing houses, African religious beliefs are described as “false.”[159] Hinduism is “pagan”[160] and “evil.”[161] The lack of Christian conversion among Africans is blamed on “Satan’s strong hold on these people,” according to a Bob Jones University Press history textbook for seventh graders.[162] A Beka’s high school world history textbook blames the poverty and political chaos in most of Africa on a lack of faith. It skips over the repressive colonial European regimes that exploited the continent and decimated the population in countries such as the Congo, explaining:

For over a thousand years, there was no clear Christian witness in the vast heartland of Africa; the fear, idolatry, superstition, and witchcraft associated with animism (the belief that natural objects and forces are inhabited by mostly malignant spirits) prevented most Africans from learning how to use nature for man’s benefit and thus develop high culture like that of other African Empires.[163]

Another A Beka textbook argues that “witchcraft and spirit worship” caused most postcolonial self-governments in Africa to descend into dictatorships.[164] Hinduism is described as “devastating to India’s history.”[165] Hindus are “incapable of writing history [because] all that happens is dissipated in their minds into confused dreams. What we call historical truth and veracity—intelligent comprehension of events, and fidelity in representing them—nothing of this sort can be looked for among the Hindus.”[166]

The Muslim prophet Muhammad is portrayed as deceiving followers about his “supposed encounters with angels,” and Buddha is criticized because he desired to “leave his wife and newborn son”[167] in a search for enlightenment. The deaths of Muhammad and Buddha, set against the risen Christ, are taken as proof that Islam and Buddhism are false religions. And while the movement works alongside right-wing Catholic groups, within its own circle it spits venom at the Catholic faith. The A Beka textbook calls Catholicism “distorted” and explains that in Catholic countries such as Ireland children “grow up believing the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church without knowing of God’s free salvation.”[168] The Catholic empires of France and Spain failed to colonize the United States, students are told, because God wanted to make America a Christian nation.

The college protesters of the 1960s were largely the instruments of communists “seeking to exploit youthful rebellion in order to advance their own goals.”[169] Riots occurred in black neighborhoods because “power-hungry individuals stirred up the people.”[170] Those dependent on the welfare programs of the 1960s “became more susceptible to politicians that preyed on economic insecurity…. In this way politicians literally bought the votes of millions of Americans.”[171] And Joseph McCarthy becomes a patriot, with a textbook stating, “McCarthy’s conclusions, although technically unprovable, were drawn from the accumulation of undisputed facts.”[172]

It is this binary worldview that informs those around me at the rally. The room falls silent to watch a video that will precede the talk by Blackwell. It begins with images of the life of Christ. The text that accompanies the images is lifted from a passage in LaHaye’s final apocalyptic novel Glorious Appearing. The novel reprints a sermon by the late Dr. Shadrach Meshach Lock-ridge, who served as the pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church in San Diego from 1952 to 1993. It is pounded out in a raplike beat, the voice deep and sonorous. The narrator slowly builds momentum, and the crowd shouts, rises and erupts in thunderous applause. Blackwell regularly uses the video as a campaign prop.

The Bible says my king is a seven-way king. He’s the king of the Jews; that’s a racial king. He’s the king of Israel; that’s a national king. He’s the king of righteousness. He’s the king of the ages. He’s the king of heaven. He’s the king of glory. He’s the king of kings. Besides being a seven-way king, He’s the Lord of lords. That’s my king. Well, I wonder, do you know Him?[173]

The video builds on this refrain, all the while listing attributes of the king. The beat and pace of the words infect the crowd, which shouts, “Amen!”

He’s indescribable. He’s incomprehensible. He’s invincible. He’s irresistible. Well, you can’t get Him out of your mind. You can’t get Him off of your hand. You can’t outlive Him and you can’t live without Him. The Pharisees couldn’t stand Him, but they found they couldn’t stop Him. Pilate couldn’t find any fault in Him. Herod couldn’t kill Him. Death couldn’t handle Him, and the grave couldn’t hold Him. That’s my king![174]

It is on this euphoric note that gubernatorial candidate Blackwell rises to speak. He turns to the cheering crowd, now on their feet, and shouts: “He is my King! Do you know Him?”

Blackwell is the only candidate for governor to appear at the rallies. He has posted on his Web site a list of 20 requirements for people of “high character.” He helped make Ohio a “State of Character,” part of a movement within the Christian Right that includes the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Georgia and Oklahoma. There are also more than 160 American cities and towns of “high character,” 36 counties and 47 foreign cities, most of them in the Philippines. Blackwell has put funding and resources aside to train citizens and leaders on how to be people of character. To all potential candidates he sends out forms to fill out to declare they are persons of character and posts the names of those who abide by the request on his Web site.

Woven into Blackwell’s 20-point list, which deftly eschews all religious terminology, is a blueprint for an authoritarian state, one where questioning power is unpatriotic and only those with “high character,” as rigidly defined by Christians like Blackwell, have the right to lead and be heard. Individualism, the right to privacy, the belief that other political viewpoints and moral systems have value—all are attacked as disruptive to social cohesion.

Within the movement there is an open call for a uniform moral code, one that needs to be enforced in the public and private realms. In the section titled “Unity,” followers are told:

High-character people strive to build relationships that foster oneness among others who are bound with them to a common promise, vision, mission or purpose. Ethical organizations seek uniformity in their people’s shared character ethics and unity among their otherwise richly diverse people. Without a persevering commitment to shared character ethics, there is no hope for sustainable unity. (Observable Virtues: reconciler.)[175]

In section 7, titled “Accountability,” followers are told how to enforce this unity:

High-character people scrutinize themselves and welcome the scrutiny of others. They acknowledge that human nature compels us toward independence. Our preference for independence results in isolation from one another. Isolation breeds temptation to unethical conduct. High-character people resist this chain reaction by adopting transparent life- and work-styles that invite inspection. They place themselves in relationships that motivate self-examination and encourage constructive critique from others, particularly those they serve. (Observable Virtues: an open, up-front, disclosing spirit.)[176]

Point 14, titled “Honoring Authority,” is a reminder that without moral guides, people of “high character” can go astray and deviate from the ethical standards imposed from above:

All people are imperfect, requiring boundaries for behavior. High-character people willingly yield to the authority of those who are charged with upholding those boundaries. They help shape and then abide by the legitimate laws, rules and boundaries established by legitimate authorities and strive to live within those boundaries for the betterment of all people. When those given authority violate conscience-convicting character ethics, high-character people take wise action to justly hold them accountable. (Observable Virtues: yieldedness, submission/“aligned with the mission.”)[177]

Toward the end of the list, in point 19, under a heading titled “Our Ability to Change,” there is a section titled “Submission to Truth”:

Truth transforms people only when we submit to it. People who seek truth cannot not transform. Eventually everyone confronts the power of truth. When people of conscience are confronted by what is true, they feel convicted to replace or “put off” their lower character by pursuing and “putting on” high-character ethics. Taking action on this choice can occur overnight or over a long and often painful period.[178]

All the points ask people of “high character” to give over all authority for moral and political decisions to leaders who tell them what is true and what is right. All must, if they have “high character,” invite scrutiny by these leaders, by the organs of the state and by their neighbors. These tenets are the pillars of the police state, the state where all are told to watch for social and political deviants, where there is only one orthodox truth, where all dissent is heresy, where those who are not of “high character,” those who do not submit and do what they are told, are not allowed to contaminate the public domain. Those of “high character,” those who abide by these moral tenets, become servile, afraid, bound to the tasks laid out by their leaders, willing to be punished for failing to achieve the moral standards and goals imposed by the state and ready to denounce those around them.

Rod Parsley, the head of the World Harvest Church, is one of the Christian Right’s shining lights, not least because of his crossover appeal among African Americans, who make up about 45 percent of his 12,000–member congregation. Parsley works crowds like a revival preacher. His spitfire phrases tumble out of his mouth. His face is swiftly covered with sweat, which he periodically swipes clean with a white handkerchief. Often, as he did at a rally at Columbus with former Attorney General John Ashcroft, Parsley orders the secular media to leave. He was instrumental in mobilizing voters to support the gay marriage ban during the 2004 presidential elections in Ohio, an effective tool in getting the religious right to the polls to vote for President Bush.

Parsley represents the new breed of Christian Right leaders. His worship services resemble freewheeling chats between him and the congregation. Traditional hymnals and choreographed, predictable liturgies, as well as suits and dresses, have been replaced by a casual come-as-you-are attitude, electric guitars and dancing in the aisles. But the service revolves around Parsley. He exudes the aura of a rock star and the moral authority of a prophet. Parsley, although white, changes easily into the traditional rhythms and cadences of the black church. He questions the biological basis for homosexuality. He argues that the gay lifestyle is morally and physically damaging to homosexuals. He says that liberals defend homosexuality to erode the moral fiber of the nation. Islam, he says, is “an anti-Christ religion” that intends to use violence to conquer the world. Allah, Parsley contends, is a demon spirit.[179] And Christian America has been mandated by God to do battle and defeat all demons to usher in the reign of Christ. Charismatic and funny, he peppers the language of war and violence into his sermons, which usually rouse his audiences to their feet. I heard him speak in Washington, where, in a naked call to battle, he soon had those in the hall standing and shouting. (Part of his peroration appears above, in Chapter 1.)

Throughout history, countries and kingdoms have been birthed on the battlefield of a revolutionary movement. Such crusades have been championed by soldiers and citizens who have refused to be denied or delayed or detoured in their pursuit to take up a cause they believed deserving of even death itself. Now, the effect of such an upheaval has been the escalation of every religious, political, and social event from Communism to feminism, from Marxism to Nazism, from mayhem to martyrdom, from anarchy to democracy. A moral revolution is dependent upon the moral virtue of the people. It becomes necessary when the vice and ignorance, or virtue and intelligence, of a people demand it. At that point, negotiation and compromise become void and revolution is inevitable….

The church that claims to hold the cause of right, yet condemns confrontation, is little more than a social club. They want rain with no thunder, and rain with no lightning. They long to avoid confrontation by dwelling in what I call the devil’s demilitarized zone, inside the safety of their sanctuary…. in order that they might preserve their little façade of peace at any price. But there are those in this room with pigmentation in their skin a little darker than mine that understand this terminology: power—real power—concedes nothing without demand. Somebody’s got to speak up and be seen and be heard. Somebody’s got to say, “I’m not going to the back of the bus, not one single solitary time more. My father owns the bus line; I will sit where I please.” [Applause]….

I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not, but we are at a point of crisis. Our culture is in chaos. The moral foundations once constructed by the tenets of our faith are quickly crumbling around us with no sign of a cure. We are at a point of crisis. We are at a strategic inflection point. And we are this morning faced with a choice. Let me share it with you this way: when complacency exceeds your desire and mine for change, the consequence is concession and chaos. But when comfort and contentment no longer pacify the people, the cry “Freedom at any cost” can be heard, and it alone becomes the catalyst which produces confrontation, which gives birth to change.

Such upheaval was apparent in the early church. Men and women became martyrs and misfits. They didn’t fit in. They were mocked and ridiculed by the social, political, and religious leaders of their day. But…they could not bow, and they would not burn. I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not, but I see the embers starting to flicker again. I see a glorious church just about to rise out of the blurs of indistinction. I see a remnant of people here this morning that are glad to give their lives to a cause greater than themselves.

There’s no greater drama than the sight of a few remnant believers gathered for breakfast, scorned by a succession of adversaries, multiplying miraculously from a world that still doesn’t understand where it came from. We’ve multiplied miraculously. The more they afflict us, the more we prosper and grow. I’m here to tell you, if you think 2004 was something, we have not begun to reach critical mass. We are the largest special-interest group in America.

We’re giving order to chaos. We’re fighting the sword with the Word. We’re fighting savagery with hope. We’re rescuing the downtrodden, restoring the disheartened, reviving the life of Christ in the hearts of humanity. Look at them. Look at us. We’re people and we’re battered, but we are not bowing. Why? Because we are propelled—here’s what they don’t get—we’re propelled by a power that is greater than ourselves.

Christians, evangelical Christians, are the original obsessive-compulsive people. We put down one arm and the other goes up. We cover our mouths, and the gaze of our eyes shouts a hallelujah of victory. We’re compelled by a power greater than ourselves, compelled to serve an infallible leader, an irresistible power which is based upon absolute truth.

Listen, when you get hold of truth—I’m not talking about tolerance, that’s what secular humanism has done to the church of Jesus Christ across America. It has turned us into secular humanists, where we try to use the Bible as a tool to make God give us what we want. It’s time to start singing old songs again, like “I Surrender All”: “All to Jesus I surrender./All to him I freely give./I will ever love and trust him./In his presence daily live. I surrender all. Though none go with me, still I will follow.” A thousand men may fall at my left and ten thousand at my right, but it shall not come nigh thee. With God before me, who can be against?

Men and women of such moral stock will not cave in at the sight of first opposition. You don’t need anybody. Just give us somebody. Give us somebody like David in the Valley of Elah, with five smooth stones, crying out, “Is there another cause?” Give us somebody like Moses. They don’t have to have perfect speech. Give us a Moses to stand in front of Pharaoh, saying, “L-l-l-l-l-let my—better let ’em go.”

Give us somebody. Give us somebody like Martin—what poor whites called Dr. King. Give us somebody like Martin to stand over Washington Mall again, and say, “God hasten that day when all God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, may join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we’re free at last.’”

We don’t need everybody. Just give us a Patrick Henry, who at the birth of the American Revolution cried out, “Is life so dear and peace so sweet that it is to be purchased at the price of these chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what cause others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

Now, this revolution is not for the temperate. This revolution—that’s what it is—is not for the timid and the weak, but for the brave and strong, who step over the line out of their comfort zone and truly decide to become disciples of Christ. I’m talking about red-blooded men and women who don’t have to be right, recognized, rewarded, or regarded. Something unimaginable happens when names and logos and egos are set aside. [Applause.] I’m talking about people who don’t have to be right, recognized, rewarded, or regarded…don’t need a position at the front table. They’re just happy to be in the battle.

So my admonishment to you this morning is this. Sound the alarm. A spiritual invasion is taking place. The secular media never likes it when I say this, so let me say it twice. Man your battle stations! Ready your weapons! They say this rhetoric is so inciting. I came to incite a riot. I came to effect a divine disturbance in the heart and soul of the church.

Man your battle stations. Ready your weapons. Lock and load—for the thirty-forty liberal pastors who filed against our ministry with the Internal Revenue Service. One of their complaints was that they wouldn’t give their names to the media because they “feared retribution.” I asked them, “What do they mean?” One of the newspapermen said, “Well, they’re afraid you’re going to call out the troops.” I said, “I already have. We’ve been in prayer every night for them since they filed.” I don’t think that’s the answer he was looking for.

Spiritual invasion is taking place; if you believe it, say, “Yes.” Let the struggle begin. Let it begin in your heart today with a shout unto Him who has called us to war—not only that, He has empowered you and I to win. I will be silent no more. Our times demand it, our history compels it, our future requires it, but most importantly, God is still watching.

Parsley swings deftly from anger and bellicosity to sentimentality. He is arrogant and self-righteous and then maudlin and ingratiating. He shapes and fashions the moods and emotions of those who stand before him. And he, like many of these preachers, is rich. He collects his millions of dollars by promoting the gospel of prosperity, the promise that if his followers, mostly of modest means, tithe 10 percent of their salaries, God will reward them a hundredfold. This money is in addition to the collections he often solicits two or three times during a service. He has, in the past, urged followers to burn their household bills and give the money to him to be free from debt.[180]

“I just love to talk about money,” Parsley once said. “I just love to talk about your money. Let me be very clear—I want your money. I deserve it. The church deserves it.”[181]

He peddles “covenant swords” and “prayer cloths” that he claims will bring the buyer freedom from financial troubles as well as from physical or emotional ailments. He has written that “one of the first reasons for poverty is a lack of knowledge of God and His Word,” and that “the Bible says that to withhold the tithe is to rob God.” Parsley lives lavishly in a 7,500-square-foot house valued at more than $1 million. He refuses to disclose information about the church’s income or expenditures and has fought off several allegations from former employees charging gross misuses of church funds.[182]

Parsley is one of the masters at peddling this message of greed, hatred and intolerance as gospel truth. The Christian rhetoric, on the surface, is often the same. It is comfortable and predictable. The gestures are familiar. The reverence to God and nation, the deference to the authority of the Bible, do not appear to have changed. But the heart of the Christian religion, all that is good and compassionate within it, has been tossed aside, ruthlessly gouged out and thrown into a heap with all the other inner organs. Only the shell, the form, remains, its empty carcasss wrapped around these wolves like a cloak. Christianity is of no use to Parsley, Blackwell and the others. In its name they kill it.

[webntrmpt2x]

2023

Excerpt:

“In early July, when then-President Donald Trump deployed federal law-enforcement agents in tactical gear to Portland—against the wishes of the mayor and the governor—conditions deteriorated further. Agents threw protesters into unmarked vans. A federal officer shot a man in the forehead with a nonlethal munition, fracturing his skull. The authorities used chemical agents on crowds so frequently that even Mayor Wheeler found himself caught in clouds of tear gas. People set fires. They threw rocks and Molotov cocktails. They swung hammers into windows. Then, on the last Saturday of August, a 600-vehicle caravan of Trump supporters rode into Portland waving American flags and Trump flags with slogans like TAKE AMERICA BACK and MAKE LIBERALS CRY AGAIN. Within hours, a 39-year-old man would be dead—shot in the chest by a self-described anti-fascist. Five days later, federal agents killed the suspect—in self-defense, the government claimed—during a confrontation in Washington State.”

“What had seemed from the outside to be spontaneous protests centered on the murder of George Floyd were in fact the culmination of a long-standing ideological battle. Some four years earlier, Trump supporters had identified Portland, correctly, as an ideal place to provoke the left. The city is often mocked for its infatuation with leftist ideas and performative politics. That reputation, lampooned in the television series Portlandia, is not completely unwarranted. Right-wing extremists understood that Portland’s reaction to a trolling campaign would be swift, and would guarantee the celebrity that comes with virality. When Trump won the presidency, this dynamic intensified, and Portland became a place where radicals would go to brawl in the streets. By the middle of 2018, far-right groups such as the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer had hosted more than a dozen rallies in the Pacific Northwest, many of them in Portland. Then, in 2020, extremists on the left hijacked largely peaceful anti-police protests with their own violent tactics, and right-wing radicals saw an opening for a major fight.”

[jasperjv]

Nationalism is cringe. Local pride is based.

United States national patriotism always feels to me like the "thoughts and prayers" of community identity. The machine is so huge and beyond us as individuals or social groups that it had might as well be a god which one has paternal faith in and just hopes and prays moves in their interest.

Now, city and state politics is a different goddamn story. That's our leg of this giant 50+ footed beast.

[lyledebeast]

On my last rewatch of The Patriot I stuck around for the end, which I have done so rarely in the past 20 years that it is practically as new for me as the scenes cut from the original release that were added back for the extended cut.  Needless to say. there is a lot to unpack.

An idea that is repeated multiple times in the film’s last ten minutes is that the American victory made a drastic and immediate difference in the lives of most people. Writing to Charlotte after the Battle of Cowpens, Martin says, “My hope and prayer is that the sacrifices borne by so many will spawn and fulfill the promise of our new nation,” A similar sentiment is present in General Cornwallis’s regretful words to General O’Hara once the war’s outcome becomes certain: “Everything will change.  Everything has changed.” 

Has it really, though? In the film’s final scene, Martin arrives at the site of his home that Colonel Tavington burned with his five surviving children, a new baby, Charlotte, who is now his wife, and Cornwallis’s two Great Danes. A group of men, including two members of the South Carolina militia, are building a house with the same outline as the one that stood there before.  Occam, the Black man who had earned his freedom by serving in the militia, explains: “Gabriel said if we won the war we could build a whole new world.  Just figured we’d get started right here with your home.” 

In spite of what the audience is told about change, what we actually see is everything being put back just the way it was.  Before Martin returns home, he learns that his friend Harry Burwell has just become a father and named his son Gabriel, and now he has a new child of his own. Two new babies to replace to two sons Tavington murdered.  I can’t help thinking of that Tumblr post where Lestat de Lioncourt, another callous bitch, says this in reference to his husband Louis’s anguish about having almost eaten his nephew: “And then he got so upset about the baby, like they couldn’t just make another one!”

The only family member present at the film’s end who is not there at the beginning is Martin’s wife, but Elizabeth, recently dead when we meet the Martin family, was Charlotte’s sister.  Martin got as close to simply replacing her as he possibly could.  He even has a brand new Not A Slave A Free Man to replace the ones Tavington kidnapped who also, apparently, lives to serve him out of gratitude.

 Before the war, Martin was a respected landowner and famed war hero, but after . . . wait, no, he’s exactly the same.  The question remains: is Benjamin Martin a man who has made great sacrifices in the cause of independence, or a man who is rewarded for his service to that cause by having every person or thing he has lost--and given The Patriot’s treatment of women, children, and Black people, there is little distinction between the two--restored to him?  As I’ve found myself saying about this infuriating movie many times before, It Cannot Be Both!

[thegalievthought]

The Rot Affecting Marxism

Some believe this false notion in Marxism and perhaps even political economics as a whole. That the Marxist position is an international one is only an optional caveat. That the natural position of socialism is that of the sole liberation of a singular nation from capitalism and perhaps even to send a nice party stamped letter that is a tantamount gesture of ‘thoughts and prayers’. Though this notion seems alive most prevalently in the backwards imperialist nations but in particular the four superpowers (The United Kingdom, The United States, The People's Republic of China and The Russian Federation). In these nations, many socialists and so-called socialists alike have either been indoctrinated so or tell lies so that many think that the international aspect of proletarian struggle is non-important like the revisionists in China have proposed focusing on bourgeois statesmanship and nationalism over real proletarian struggle. On the other hand, like in the USA, socialism has been infected with a disease of bourgeois nationalism thinking that patriotism for the imperialist state and socialism are somehow compatible. 

Britain and Russia have had their own experiences with the matter. From the Duginist rot that is the National Bolshevik party in Russia to British Marxist Leninist's opposition to Irish Republicanism. There seems a firm split between socialism in the real sense and the bourgeois lies that infect our thoughts. Lenin says in Corrupting the Workers “with Refined Nationalism that bourgeois parties and groups have been more and more often resorting to the method of dividing the workers by advocating different bourgeois ideas and doctrines designed to weaken the struggle of the working class. One such idea is refined nationalism, which advocates the division and splitting up of the proletariat on the most plausible and specious pretexts, for example, that of protecting the interests of “national culture”, “national autonomy, or independence”, and so on, and so forth.” Lenin further explains that “The class-conscious workers fight hard against every kind of nationalism, both the crude, violent, Black-Hundred nationalism and that most refined nationalism which preaches the equality of nations together”. So I take this to mean that workers of the world must be united against nationalism of all kinds whether it be the lowest rate of fascism or the purest lie such as Stalin's “proletarian nationalism”. Furthermore, we can see the logical conclusions of proletarian nationalism in Russia be it a corruption of Stalin or not, Dugin has only furthered an idea invented by the Stalinist line by forming the National Bolshevik party, So at least in Russia, we can draw a clear line the corruption of the workers and working-class movements there in the acceptance of nationalism. In the United States, you need not look further than the CPUSA and bourgeois traitors like Max Schatman to see that the many failures of the establishment of a firm arm of the American proletariat in some part lines with the failure of the American Marxist parties to divorce themselves with American patriotism. We see this in the modern day with a so-called “MAGA Communist” faction of the CPUSA which argues for no more than a National Bolshevik united states. While no doubt funded by people no more reactionary than the most devout Hitlerites it is still worrying that what is a movement funded by the US government is allowed to grow to the size of a sizable faction of the party. 

And in the United Kingdom you would be hard-pressed to find a Marxist that would dare trend away from the party line of the Labour party and in that nation are firmly committed to social democracy and fascism at worst depending on whatever political poll the labour party has decided that year. And those parties that dare away from the national statements of Labour oft find themselves simply irrelevant and doing nothing relevant or worse actively opposing the rank and file worker like the Trotskyists of the Spartacus League of Britain with their damned near suicidal insistence of opposing age of consent laws. Which recently led the rail unions to cease working with the party. If this is a point of needed education Marx has failed. If the workers are actively against you because you are not progressive enough then you have failed and leadership of the party must be seized from conservatives. Much like what needs to be done with the Socialist Equality Party and David North which takes the position of anti-feminism particularly anti-MeToo which in British Trotskyism is hardly a stance to be taken given Gerry Healy is one of the most known Trotkyists in all of Britain.  

So it stands as no small surprise that these “Marxist” parties which many claims to be so-called bulwarks of anti-reactionism either due to incompetence, bourgeois interference, or downright corruption by reactionary infiltration. Have entered into a position of the reactionary bourgeois party. Either nationalism or the whims of opportunists have made these parties ineffective and disarmed and at worst have made them actively at odds with the workers and active servants of the bourgeoisie. So then what is to be done? The third world alone cannot and should not be expected to carry the banners of socialism alone. A radical shift is needed in the imperial core away from reactionist rot and away from the shattering hands of the bourgeoisie. Radical I know. Firstly as I quoted earlier Lenin was against any and all kinds of nationalism. He saw it clearly and concisely as a corrupting rot, a disease of the bourgeoisie that has been forcefully spread to the working class to divide us and drive us ultimately to the reaction. So it is of the utmost importance that we ask why? And I see no better place to start than with the Marxist-Leninist line of soviet or ‘proletarian nationalism”.

The idea of Soviet Nationalism came to be around the Stalinist period in the years before the second world war. Thought of as a way to fight against the petty-bourgeois nationalism that remained in resistance to the Soviet government. This ultimately had the effect of reviving a Tsarist tool of Russian nationalism. This has directly led to the modern Fascist and National Bolshevik movements in Russia many of which hold Stalin as a great leader of the Russian Nation and not as a leader of the working class. Soviet Patriotism as all nationalism and patriotism will do eventually if not used properly backfired and only breed reactionism and anti-worker movements. That's why I find it imperative to challenge some ideas that were created and conclusions from Soviet Nationalism. Firstly soviet nationalism comes in no small part from Lenin's writings of what came to be known as the national question which we saw an example of earlier where he refused nationalism of all kinds. But there is a grey area in this question. That of national liberation and a question that has split Marxists in Britain for over one hundred years. The question of national liberation is one of fighting off foreign capitalists and imperialists. For example the wars in Ireland. Many Irish Marxists such as James Connolly argue that national liberation against foreign capitalists is an apparent first step in founding socialism in a colonised country and followed by the overthrowing of the national capital. Ultimately I and Lenin agree that for colonised nations this is a necessity but what we established is different and separate from Nationalism because it is simply fighting off of feign capital not an establishment of national importance or greatness. But many Marxists are sceptical, rightly so, that this is a thin line that can lead to fascism just as easily as a Marxist victory as shown with the Irish Free State in 1921. However, Soviet Patriotism ultimately suffers from the latter. It is a revival of nationalism after the revolution which ultimately only serves to revive any nationalism eradicated by the revolution or if not eradicated serves to strengthen it like in Russia. This is why left-wing nationalism does not strive for nationalism in the long term if they are of course properly educated in Marx and Lenin. But rather strives to evict and throw off international and then national capital. And are thus internationalists and this is something that Soviet patriotism does not. 

American soviet nationalism follows much the same line. However, it doesn't need to revive or strengthen its institution of nationalism but only convince the ultranationalist factions of America of socialism a much greater but still dangerous task than that of Russia. In the United States, so-called maga-communists seem to want to mix the ideas of Marxism-Leninism with that of American patriotism which besides the fact this is a genocidal mission. It serves to not only harm the many minorities of the United State but the entire proletarian struggle there is put in jeopardy by these reactionary actors. Soviet Patriotism is undoubtedly not the only cause, however. One other major cause is at play and that is the cause of the bourgeois reaction. 

In the United States and China while nationalism has played its surefire role in destroying the worker's movements there. One factor in both cases is opportunists and reactionary infiltration. In China after the Civil War in a vain attempt to maintain stability, he allowed many fascists and opportunists into the party as well as many former landlords. In the short term, this effect did not have much effect due to Mao's control as well as the cultural revolution. However, after his death, the cultural revolution proved ineffective in preventing reactionaries and opportunists like Deng and Xi Jinping from taking control of the party. Which first led to a clear turn to social democracy and now a turn toward Han Supremacy and fascism in China. In the United States, parties like the CPUSA which split from the SPA in 1919 suffered from quickly becoming an outcast in the socialist movements there. Until the 40s and 50s when many other organisations were disbanded or split and Marxism-Leninism and Stalinism took a clearer hold over other ideologies like Trotskyism which was dominant in the 30s But with their popularity increased so did the amount of so-called socialist patriots which led to seeds of reactionaries in the party though this would be tackled by the party leadership at the time and only emerge in our modern day and have a lack of action from party leaders and no members expelled for reactionary fascist rhetoric in their party. And if a socialist revolution were to be with this party at the lead it would be the worst disaster for socialism since the 2nd International. To put it simply, The CPUSA is incompetent with leadership with no backbone I would question if they have read Marx or even Lenin. The reactionism in these parties often comes with either an acceptance of nationalism or an acceptance of capital. Or with concessions and compromises with conservatives on issues like feminism, and sexual and gender rights. But that is the fool's game because if we sacrifice the rights of some workers for those of privileged workers we fall into a pit of reaction. Just like the SEP and its concession to conservative workers on issues of feminism this hurts our women comrades for the sake of reactionaries and is a move wholly unaligned with Marx. 

In short, I think it's imperative to state that this is not only a critique of the parties and states mentioned it is ultimately a critique of the reactionary cultures and ideas many socialists have allowed in our movement from people like David North and Haz Al-Din to seed reactionism and nationalism in the working class these people need to be expelled from the working class movement by the workers. 

Nextly returning to an earlier question. What is to be done? The answer is to me very clearly the only answer is to fight and expel reactionaries and to always endorse and further internationalism. The international proletariat is one united force against capital and it is clear to me that dividing workers into arbitrary lines only serves to gut the movement and weaken it. As Roman Rosdolsky said “The working man has no country” this is one we must stand by evermore. We the working class movement belong to no country and our liberation our revolution belongs to no nation. The Marxists and the internationalist are the same and any petty nationalism is bourgeois corruption and useless to the worker. So in the final closing, I recommend you address my further writings on the matter of how to combat inter-party reactionary conflicts and on internationalism. Because this is the problem of every modern Marxist and one that cannot be addressed with compromise or concession but with only the utmost hostility and hate toward bourgeois and reactionary agents. 

[bamotees]

Check out this awesome 'Loves Jesus and America Too God Christian 4th of July' design on @TeePublic!

[krispyweiss]

Jackson Browne at Palace Theatre, Columbus, Ohio, June 3, 2023

With a fat songbook so packed with quality deep cuts and hits that he can’t possibly play all - or even most - of them, Jackson Browne walked on stage unannounced and by his lonesome June 3 in Columbus and kicked off his U.S. tour with …

… a solo-electric cover of Warren Zevon’s “Don’t Let Us Get Sick.”

It was an unexpected, gutsy and successful move that immediately won over the nearly sold-out Palace Theatre. It elicited warm applause as Browne sang Zevon’s prayer and immediately established his 74-year-old voice is much younger than its chronological age:

Don’t let us get sick, don’t let us get old/don’t let us get stupid, all right/just make us be brave and make us play nice/and let us be together tonight

It set the tone for a loose evening that found Browne engaging with the audience, teasing his guitar tech and heaping well-deserved praise upon the members of his freshly pared-down group.

After the Zevon number, Browne brought out his powerhouse “half-full band” - Greg Leisz (Watkins Family Hour, Bob Weir and Wolf Bros) on lap steel, acoustic and electric guitars; his wife, Mai Leisz, (David Crosby) on bass; drummer Mauricio Lewak; and singers Chavonne Stewart and Alethea Mills (who doubled on percussion) - and got right down to business with the show proper, which was generous across 60- and 90-minute sets.

Saying “I wanna play them all,” but knowing he couldn’t possibly do so, Browne, who accompanied his bandmates on acoustic and electric guitars and piano, did cover 49 years of music making, crafting a setlist that spanned from 1972’s “Doctor My Eyes” to 2021’s “Downhill from Everywhere,” a warning about the oceans’ fragile health and one of many highlights of the evening.

The reggae-tinged “I Am a Patriot” was another. Though released in 1985, the song seems to have intuited where the United States was headed. And Browne added some new lyrics - I ain’t no xenophobe, he sang - to place it even more firmly in the context of 2023.

Band members came and went to suit the songs. Stewart and Mills - who sang beautifully on occasional co-leads and in harmony with Browne, with whom they’ve developed an almost-familial blend - left their riser and joined the songwriter down front for “Until Justice is Real.” Greg Leisz and Browne played as a steel-and-piano duo on “Walls and Doors” and the (half) full band dug into “Running on Empty” so deeply that Browne kicked his leg high in the air and turned to stare down Leisz as he offered his take on the solo made famous by David Lindley, who died earlier this year.

Being the first night of the tour with a new band and a new set, there were a few hiccups. A muffed note here. Some not-quite-honed arrangements there. The occasional false start and botched lyrics. And Leisz’s pedal-steel guitar sat lonely and untouched all evening long, suggesting Browne was calling audibles as the night unfolded.

Someone wanting to hear the records in a concert hall might say these things were evidence of Browne losing his edge. Someone out for the without-a-net experience (put Sound Bites in this camp) might revel in the not-set-in-stone nature that led to such surprises as Browne deciding the first set wasn’t long enough and tacking “For Everyman” on to the end and causing Mai Leisz to run back on stage after assuming break time had come.

The same thing happened to Greg Leisz at show’s end, when Browne opted to play “The Load-Out”/“Stay” and the multi-instrumentalist - who wowed Browne and the concertgoers all evening long - struggled to get his lap steel situated on time. He made it with less than a bar to spare and Browne rewarded Leisz by calling on him to extend his solo, which he did to rapturous applause.

See more photos on Sound Bites’ Facebook page.

Grade card: Jackson Browne at Palace Theatre - 6/3/23 - A-

6/4/23

[reasoningdaily]

Nowadays, Memorial Day honors veterans of all wars, but its roots are in America’s deadliest conflict, the Civil War. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died, about two-thirds from disease.

The work of honoring the dead began right away all over the country, and several American towns claim to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Researchers have traced the earliest annual commemoration to women who laid flowers on soldiers’ graves in the Civil War hospital town of Columbus, Miss., in April 1866. But historians like the Pulitzer Prize winner David Blight have tried to raise awareness of freed slaves who decorated soldiers’ graves a year earlier, to make sure their story gets told too.

Clubhouse at the race course where Union soldiers were held prisoner.

Civil war photographs, 1861-1865, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

In the approximately 10 days leading up to the event, roughly two dozen African American Charlestonians reorganized the graves into rows and built a 10-foot-tall white fence around them. An archway overhead spelled out “Martyrs of the Race Course” in black letters.

About 10,000 people, mostly black residents, participated in the May 1 tribute, according to coverage back then in the Charleston Daily Courier and the New York Tribune. Starting at 9 a.m., about 3,000 black schoolchildren paraded around the race track holding roses and singing the Union song “John Brown’s Body,” and were followed by adults representing aid societies for freed black men and women. Black pastors delivered sermons and led attendees in prayer and in the singing of spirituals, and there were picnics. James Redpath, the white director of freedman’s education in the region, organized about 30 speeches by Union officers, missionaries and black ministers. Participants sang patriotic songs like “America” and “We’ll Rally around the Flag” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” In the afternoon, three white and black Union regiments marched around the graves and staged a drill.

The New York Tribune described the tribute as “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.” The gravesites looked like a “one mass of flowers” and “the breeze wafted the sweet perfumes from them” and “tears of joy” were shed.

This tribute, “gave birth to an American tradition,” Blight wrote in Race and Reunion: “The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration.”

In 1996, Blight stumbled upon a New York Herald Tribune article detailing the tribute in a Harvard University archive — but the origin story it told was not the Memorial Day history that many white people had wanted to tell, he argues.

An Alfred Waud illustration of the.Union soldiers cemetery known as "Martyrs of the Race course" in Charleston, S.C.

Morgan collection of Civil War drawings at the Library of Congress

The origin story that did stick involves an 1868 call from General John A. Logan, president of a Union Army veterans group, urging Americans to decorate the graves of the fallen with flowers on May 30 of that year. The ceremony that took place in Arlington National Cemetery that day has been considered the first official Memorial Day celebration. Memorial Day became a national holiday two decades later, in 1889, and it took a century before it was moved in 1968 to the last Monday of May, where it remains today. According to Blight, Hampton Park, named after Confederate General Wade Hampton, replaced the gravesite at the Martyrs of the Race Course, and the graves were reinterred in the 1880s at a national cemetery in Beaufort, S.C.

The fact that the freed slaves’ Memorial Day tribute is not as well remembered is emblematic of the struggle that would follow, as African Americans’ fight to be fully recognized for their contributions to American society continues to this day.

Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

NYT: Racked by rain and enraptured by a QAnon-infused "miracle cure" called "medbeds"

Eli Saslow at NYT:

The company was co-founded in 2020 by Warren Armour, a conservative with no media experience who runs a flooring company in Tennessee, but Michael admired the Patriot Party News slogan when he first saw it shared on Facebook last year: “If you hate mainstream media, you are going to love us!” Michael started watching the site’s daily videos about election fraud and vaccine pseudoscience, some of which have now been viewed more than a million times. He signed up for the company’s social media platform and paid $8.99 a month to join the audio channel, which functions like an old ham radio and promised him the chance to “meet comrades in our battle for the soul of America.”

On some days, Michael listened to the channel for as many as 12 hours, with the audio feed piped directly into his hearing aids to drown out the tedium of his pain. He narrated his daily ranching tasks for the group and sent photos of his crops. Other members responded with recipes, virtual prayers for rain and a steady drumbeat of extremist political ideology that increasingly mirrored his own. In a fracturing country, here was an echo chamber with the power to turn fringe conspiracy theories into widely accepted political dogmas — that the Covid vaccine was poison, the mainstream media was deceitful and the federal government was controlled by a “deep state cabal” that had stolen the 2020 election from former President Donald J. Trump and was now trying to orchestrate his assassination.

[...] Cheryl Chesebro, 61, had known her husband to be a realist for most of his life. Michael had enlisted in the Army at 17 because he couldn’t afford to pay for college and then agreed to jump out of planes for a $2,500 sign-up bonus. But after a total of 42 surgeries on his back, shoulders, ankles and knees, he’d come to distrust the government he’d served. He invested in wind and solar power so his family didn’t have to rely on the U.S. power grid. He bought gold in case the U.S. financial system collapsed and then started collecting shoe boxes full of foreign currency from the Middle East and Africa, believing that it could eventually be as valuable as the U.S. dollar. For the first time in his life, he became consumed by politics and then enamored with Trump, another government skeptic who sometimes spoke in the language of conspiracy theories. The former president had helped popularize lies about Barack Obama’s birthplace, widespread election fraud and the “hoax” of climate change — all of which had become part of the founding DNA of Patriot Party News. [...]

Of all the wild conspiracies he’d discovered on Patriot Party News, the concept of medbeds had initially struck Michael as the most far-fetched, even if it was also among the most popular. Every few days, someone else on the platform shared an illustration of a futuristic-looking chamber, sometimes with a doctored image of Trump superimposed in the foreground. The founder of the site, Armour, sometimes mentioned videos or podcasts about medbeds that had become popular on the far-right corners of Telegram, Discord and Rumble, and Michael clicked on the links, as did millions of others. The videos claimed with no evidence that the U.S. military was already in possession of advanced, or possibly even alien, technology that could cure all disease and extend human life. There were said to be at least three types of medbeds already in existence in secret military tunnels. One, a “holographic medbed,” scanned the body to instantly diagnose and then heal any sickness, no matter how severe. Another bed was able to regenerate personal DNA so people could regrow missing limbs in a few minutes. A third was designed for reverse aging and could rewind people’s bodies to the age and condition of their choosing.

The only holdup, according to the videos, was that a collection of liberal billionaires kept hoarding the technology for themselves. On the Patriot Party News audio feed, people speculated that medbeds wouldn’t be available to the public until Trump was back in control of the White House, at which point everyone would be invited to make appointments for free at a secret underground military base. “We are about to cross that start line into our medbed future,” said an Australian woman who called herself Skye Prince and claimed to be a military expert, in a video shared on Patriot Party News that has been viewed several million times. “We are leaving a life of poverty, ill health, uncertainty, and moving into wealth, abundance, perfect health. You could almost say we are about to be born again.” “Thank God the wait is almost over!” Michael heard someone say on the audio channel in the last days of spring. “Medbeds are finally coming. I hope I can get my mom to the front of the line since she’s Stage 4.”

[...] Instead, there was only repetition — the same medbed fantasies repeated over and over each day on the audio feed until the initial shock wore off within a few weeks and Michael’s skepticism wore down into curiosity and then into the beginnings of hope. He knew from experience that the military was capable of harboring secret, advanced technology. He remembered talking to members of his unit on a satellite phone years before one was made available to the public. “The military always gets the fancy toys way ahead of anyone else, so I suppose it’s plausible,” he said on the audio channel.

He’d already tried and failed to treat his pain by scheduling dozens of appointments each year through his health care with Veterans Affairs. He’d tried fentanyl, Percocet, Vicodin, acupuncture, water therapy, nerve blockers, deep-tissue massage and light therapy. Following his doctors’ advice had resulted in only temporary reprieves, along with dozens of opioid prescriptions and an elective surgery that led to a life-threatening staph infection. “The conventional route hasn’t done me any good,” he said on the channel. “When you’re desperate, you’ll try anything. This whole medbed thing has become personal for me.” It was part of Armour’s strategy when he first started Patriot Party News from his home after the 2020 presidential election: to build an audience by focusing on personal issues such as religion and health. He’d watched other far-right media sites like Victory Channel, The Elijah List and Right Side Broadcasting Network amass millions of subscribers in what Armour called the “Christian, MAGA universe” by mimicking Trump’s tendency to favor emotional appeals over facts.

[...] Several other companies had started producing their own versions of medbeds in the last few years. One company, Tesla BioHealing, had purchased a half-dozen old motels in places like Tampa, Fla., Dubuque, Iowa, and Butler, Pa., and then turned them into “medbed centers,” where each room came equipped with proprietary canisters under the bed that provided what the company called “life force energy.” Other groups were running scams on Facebook and charging $800 for “redemption cards” with a photograph of Trump’s face and a code that they said would provide secret passage into the underground military bases where medbeds were said to be ready for use. Baxter’s company was still in its infancy, and he had sold some of his products to churches, private clubs or millionaires who he said were “invested in longevity.” The medbeds at Andrea’s spa were the first to be available by appointment to the public, and he planned to expand into spas across the United States and Mexico. Andrea had decided to charge $85 an hour for use of the beds, but insurance didn’t cover the experimental treatment, and she didn’t believe in turning anyone away.

The New York Times takes a look at the QAnon obsession with “medbeds”, which are a “miracle cure” rooted in pseudoscience.

[mariacallous]

Truth Social, former president Donald’s Trump’s clone of Twitter, has a fraction of the users of competitors like Reddit and X. The company has never turned a profit, and just happens to be the place where Trump is currently posting.

But on the Nasdaq, the stock exchange where Truth Social became a publicly traded company today, there's a different story: Truth Social has become a certified meme stock. Trump supporters seem to have conflated their support for the former president with the stock itself, and are buying en masse.

The stock quickly rose more than 40 percent after being listed and trades under a ticker of Trump’s initials, DJT. The company is now valued at more than $6.8 billion. The value, however, could change quickly; the stock was so volatile that it temporarily halted soon after it was listed. The company’s financial performance has been underwhelming. It posted $3.3 million in revenue and lost $49 million in the first three quarters of 2023, according to regulatory filings.

Still, Trump’s fans have posted on Reddit, X, and Truth Social about how they plan to hold the stock in defiance of traditional investing logic. Previous meme stocks like GameStop and cryptocurrency culture have helped provide the script, but the rhetorical formula is simple: Short sellers will perish, this stock is going to the moon, and don’t sell no matter what.

“Let’s go baby! Trump 2024 to the moon,” one user posted on Reddit, followed by the rocket ship emoji.

In another Reddit thread, stockholders discussed at what price they would sell shares in the company. “At least waiting for the election win,” one user posted, with the tag Diamond DWAC, a reference to “diamond hands,” a desire to hold a stock despite volatility.

“$150 maybe … but probably waiting for the launch of TMTG+ streaming and also stories videos,” another replied. “Or when our founder is The Leader of The Free World (again) and most reported on person on the world with the most attention on him and his platform. So maybe never‼️”

Reddit user deepfuckingbagholder speculated that the company could eventually be worth 1 trillion dollars. When another user replied, saying that valuation would be virtually impossible, deepfuckingbagholder wrote back: “This stock represents the value of Trump’s brand and I personally believe it can achieve that valuation.”

Truth Social is, predictability, a hotbed of conspiracy theories. Election denialism, vaccine skepticism, and the great replacement theory are all prominently featured on the site. The company has also been mired in controversy since it began, following Trump’s ban from Twitter after the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. A former senior employee filed a whistleblower complaint with the SEC, and other former employees have sued the company, alleging breach of contract. Shareholders voted to take the company public last week, merging Trump Media and Technology Group with a publicly traded holding company, Digital World Acquisition Corp.

The outsize valuation of Truth Social has made Trump incredibly rich. His net worth rose $4 billion to $6.5 billion, making him one of the world’s 500 richest people, according to calculations by Bloomberg News. Trump is restricted from selling shares in the company for about six months, so his net worth could still tank, however, if the price of Truth Social falls.

On Truth Social, one user said a prayer. “Bless all the patriots invested in #DJT,” GothamGal wrote. “Bless this investment, and make us successful so that we may do your will and bring glory to you. Bless and protect our president DJT, and our country. In Jesus name.”

[excelsiroar]

okay i can actually add to this

i was in high school for both columbine and 9/11 and have a very interesting perspective on how performative patriotism always seems to turn into enforced behavior. i was taking ASL classes and they made us perform 'God Bless the USA' for our final

except. i wasn't about that shit. i paid attention.

i started sitting out the pledge. and then started getting in trouble for it for 'being un-american'. my response, and my mother's pissed-off argument, was that choosing NOT to do the pledge is the MOST american thing you can do. you are exercising your FREEDOM, including freedom to abstain. i wasn't pleased with what was being done in the name of patriotism.

then they tried to make the 'meet me at the flag' christian morning prayer meetings mandatory.

a group of us, who were either atheists, christians who didn't believe in enforced prayer, or non-christians, walked two blocks down to mcdonalds and got breakfast instead, as a protest. we didn't raise a fuss, we simply walked out, got food, walked back. didn't leave a mess, made sure we were back to class on time. we chose to use this time for something productive instead of paying lip service to things we didn't believe in.

my school haaaaaaated us but yknow what, they dropped all those shitty mandatory policies.

we also chased the military recruiters out of the lunchroom, that was a fun day lmao

dear usamerican high schoolers looking for a way to resist fascism: sit through the pledge of allegiance.

no getting up. no looking at the flag.

everyone will be looking at you. you'll be sweating like a fucking hippopotamus. your teacher will sternly tell you to get up. you'll feel stupid and that maybe its not worth it because you're just a kid in a classroom. but I'm here to remind you that there are no real life consequences to detention. there are however real life consequences to resisting a thoughtless performance of nationalism.

[venkateshwara-group1998]

Shri Venkateshwara University celebrated the 76th Republic Day by raising a 100-feet-tall national flag.

Shri Venkateshwara University/Institute celebrated the 76th Republic day with full fanfare & fervour.

The event started by offering prayers to Mother India & the Goddess of Education Mother Saraswati.

The event was marked by hoisting a 100 feet tall national flag, unity walk & conducting over a dozen cultural programs that exhibited patriotic fervour.

Later we released tricolor balloons, white pigeons into the air to highlight the message of India’s unity in diversity & universal brotherhood.

The Venkateshwara Group Founder President Dr Sudhir Giri, Pro Chancellor Dr Rajeev Tyagi, CEO Mr. Ajay Shrivastava & the VC Dr Krishna Kant Dave inaugurated the event by offering flowers on the portrait of Mother India & Goddess Saraswati.

Dr Divya Mathur, Dr Madhu Chaturvedi, & Dr Rahul Awasthi joined them to unveil the 76th Republic day function.

On this occasion, our medical & nursing students performed group dances that made the audience clap incessantly.

The Venkateshwara Group Founder President, Dr Sudhir Giri, reiterated national service is not just about fighting the enemy on the border. If all citizens work sincerely in their area of expertise and contribute towards a corruption-free nation, then this also counts under national service.

The Indian constitution guarantees certain fundamental rights to its citizens, including the right to freedom, equality, & education making India the largest democracy in the world.

NRI & Chief Officer British High Commission UK, Dr Divya Mathur was the Chief Guest at the event. She asserted abrogation of article 370 from Kashmir, one Nation, one Election, and one law can only be possible through a robust constitution.

Pro Chancellor Dr. Rajeev Tyagi stated that, under the Right to Education (RTE) guaranteed by fundamental rights, underprivileged students can receive free education in expensive private schools in the country.

The VC, Dr Krishna Kant Dave, opined that national service is not just about fighting the enemy on the border. But if we all work with sincerity, integrity & contribute towards a corruption free united India than this also counts under national service.    

Renowned Poet Dr Rahul Awasthi sang some patriotic songs that further mesmerized the dignitaries.

Dr Madhu, along with the VC Dr Krishna Kant Dave, also addressed the 76th Republic day function.

Those present included the Meerut Campus Director Dr Pratap Singh, Dr Ana Erik Brown, Dr Yogeshwar Sharma, Dr Rajesh Singh, Dr Rajwardhan Singh, Dr Vivek Sachan, Dr Shilpi Raina, & Dr Priya Yadav.

Dr VN Jha, Manish Sharma, Dr CP Singh, Dr LS Rawat, Saumik Banerjee, Shri Ram Gupta, SS Baghel, Dev Pratap Singh, Brajpal Singh, Deepak Kumar, Arun Goswami, Sachin, Pritpal & the Media Incharge Mr. Vishwas Rana were all present.

Dr Manish Sharma, & Akhil Kumar from the faculty of Nursing, conducted the program exceedingly well.