Many have heard stories of the “Patron Saint” of Ireland: Patrick. But of these stories that abound, and the beliefs that are held concerning him, much is quite erroneous. Many think that Patrick (born ca. 360 CE) was Irish — he was not, but rather he was of Scottish/British origin.
“The place of his birth was Bonnaven, which lay between the Scottish towns Dumbarton and Glasgow, and was then reckoned to the province of Britain. This village, in memory of Patricius, received the name of Kil-Patrick or Kirk-Patrick. His father, a deacon in the village church, gave him a careful education.” (Dr. August Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, Vol. II, p.122. Boston: 1855).
“Patrick himself writes in his Confession: ‘I, Patrick, …had Calpornius for my father, a deacon, a son of the late Potitus, the presbyter, who dwelt in the village of Banavan….I was captured. I was almost sixteen years of age…and taken to Ireland in captivity with many thousand men.’” (William Cathcart, D. D., The Ancient British and Irish Churches, p.127).
“Patrick, a son of a Christian family in southern Scotland, was carried off to Ireland by pirates about 376 A. D. Here, in slavery, he gave his heart to God and, after six years of servitude, escaped, returning to his home in Scotland. But he could not forget the spiritual need of these poor heathen, and after ten years he returned to Ireland as a missionary of the Celtic church.” (ibid, p. 70).
Many also believe Patrick to be of the Roman Catholic system, yet in Patrick’s own Confession which we read part of above, he claims that his father was a deacon and his grandfather a presbyter. While the Roman Catholic Church holds the doctrine of “sacerdotal celibacy,” wherein members of its ministry are to remain unmarried and thus virgins, the ministry of the Celtic Churches held no such doctrine. This is one of many doctrinal distinctions between the two faith sytems. The claims that Patrick was a Roman Catholic are mere fabrications as we shall see clearly. Read More
To support the famine relief effort, British tax policy required landlords to pay the local taxes of their poorest tenant farmers, leading many landlords to forcibly evict struggling farmers and destroy their cottages in order to save money. “Wear green on St. Patrick’s Day or get pinched.” That pretty much sums up the Irish-American “curriculum” that I learned when I was in school. Yes, I recall a nod to the so-called Potato Famine, but it was mentioned only in passing. Sadly, today’s high school textbooks continue to largely ignore the famine, despite the fact that it was responsible for unimaginable suffering and the deaths of more than a million Irish peasants, and that it triggered the greatest wave of Irish immigration in U.S. history. Nor do textbooks make any attempt to help students link famines past and present. Read More
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: Austerity, Scapegoat Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal’ Immigrants for Unemployment, and The Iron Heel.
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99%: Only the 1% Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald said on “Democracy Now!”, “I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody that Chelsea Manning is extraordinarily heroic. She has demonstrated that repeatedly over the last decade in all kinds of ways. But what she’s doing here is really remarkable, because the context is that the Trump administration is trying to do what the Obama administration tried to do but concluded it couldn’t do without jeopardizing press freedoms, which is to prosecute Wikileaks and Julian Assange for what it regards as the crime of publishing top secret or classified documents.” He added, “The Obama administration tried to create theories to say that Wikileaks did more than passively receive documents from Chelsea Manning and then publish them. … The Justice Department under Obama searched high and low for evidence that Wikileaks participated in Chelsea Manning’s taking of those documents. They found no evidence…. “And unfortunately, between the Republicans, who have long hated Wikileaks for exposing the war crimes of the Bush administration and Democrats, who now hate Wikileaks because they published documents that reflected poorly on Hilary Clinton and the Democratic Party, very few people are willing to stand up to this very serious attack on press freedom. The latter refers to Wikileaks’ publishing Democratic National Committee documents that exposed Clinton’s and the DNC’s dirty tricks to sabotage Bernie Sanders’ campaign in 2016. That is, Wikileaks published the truth. But the Democrats are joining the Trump administration in going after Wikileaks for a deeper reason—the whole U.S. government operates behind a vast wall of secrecy, and hates it when they are exposed for their crimes. In 2017, then head of the CIA Mike Pompeo, who is now Secretary of State, charged that “Wikileaks walks like a hostile intelligence service and talks like a hostile intelligence service and has encouraged its followers to find jobs at the CIA in order to obtain intelligence. It directed Chelsea Manning in her theft of specific secret information. … It’s time to call out Wikileaks for what it is: a non-state, hostile intelligence service….” That’s what the federal prosecutors are now trying to substantiate to criminalize Wikileaks and jail Assange. Chelsea Manning won’t go along with this, and is sitting in jail, with nary a squeak of protest by Democrats. — Barry Sheppard, Chelsea Manning jailed — again
The United States is not a Democracy (A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly)! Only the 1%, through their ownership of the Republicrats and who profit from war and the war budget, vote for War and the war budget — A policy, which Gore Vidal called a Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace.— The 99% Should Decide On War — Not Just The 1% Who Profit From War! Under a Democracy, The 99% would have the right to vote on the policy of Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace!
Demands That Trump End Economic War and Attempts at Regime Change at #HandsOffVenezuela March on Capitol Hill “There is nobody in that White House or in this administration that cares at all for the Venezuelan people.” Denouncing the “strangling” of the Venezuelan economy via sanctions and demanding the Trump administration allow the South American country to determine its own fate, pro-democracy protesters marched through Washington, D.C. on Saturday to demand, “Hands Off Venezuela!” By Julia Conley
Americans warned against economic sanctions and a potential military intervention in Venezuela in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. (Photo: @ChuckModi1/Twitter)
US Admits To Supplying Saudi Arabia With White Phosphorus MunitionsThe US has faced growing pressure in recent months over arms sales to Saudi Arabia, as their airstrikes in Yemen have caused massive numbers of civilian casualties. Amid new evidence that Saudi Arabia has begun to use white phosphorus munitions in their war in Yemen, US officials are admitting that the weapons were provided by the United States “in the past.” They declined to say when, or how many weapons were provided. White phosphorus munitions are heavily restricted in their usage under international law, allowed to be used only for smokescreens and signaling, but their incendiary properties and the risk of inhaling the smoke has made their use as an offensive weapon effectively a war crime. The State Department said any country given the munitions was excepted to use them only in accordance with international law, and promised to look into the reports of Saudis improperly using the munitions during the Yemen war, saying the US would take “appropriate corrective action” if this is true. By Jason Ditz
U.S. to impose Visa bans on ICC personnelThe United States will impose visa restrictions on persons responsible for the pursuit of any probe against the country at the International Criminal Court. The move is seen as an attempt by the administration of President Donald Trump to put the brakes on a preliminary investigation launched by the ICC Prosecutor in 2017 into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan since May 2003. While the United States is not a member of the Court, Afghanistan acceded to the Rome Statute in 2003 where the ICC enjoys jurisdiction for crimes committed on its territory.
Trump’s $34 Trillion Deficit and Debt BombThis week Trump released his latest budget for 2019-20 fiscal year. It calls for $2.7 trillion in various social spending cuts over the decade, including $872 billion in reductions in Medicare, Social Security, Disability spending; another $327 billion in food stamps, housing support, and Medicaid; a further $200 billion in student loan cuts; and hundreds of billions more in cuts to education, government workers’ pensions, and funds to operate the EPA and other government agencies. Not surprising, the $2.7 trillion in social program spending cuts will finance spending for the military and defense related programs like Homeland Security, Border walls, veterans, police, and programs like school vouchers. By Jack Rasmus
On the Death of Guantanamo Detainee 10028 Torture, secret confessions and recantations, an ominous email, a mysterious death, a detainee found hanging in a recreation yard outside his cell in the middle of the night — this is the story of the sixth man said to have died from suicide at Guantanamo. Up until now, his story has gone totally untold. Even the location of the camp inside Gitmo where he died was kept secret for years. What follows is an in-depth examination into what really happened. By Jeffrey Kaye
Is Ilhan Omar Wrong…About Anything?It has been clear for some time that Ilhan Omar owes no one any apologies for her remarks on AIPAC and those who tow its line; quite to the contrary, apologies are owed her. Developments over the past several weeks underscore how important it is to drive that point home. By Andrew Levine
Disasters Don’t Discriminate, But Disaster Recovery Does This monster storm tracked through Beauregard and Smith’s Station, destroying nearly every home along a 24-mile path. Victims included three small children, 10 members of one African-American family, and Maggie Robinson, a nurse at the East Alabama Medical Center for 40 years. As the climate changes, deadly storms like the one that killed Maggie are more frequent. Rural areas suffer the most. When a storm hits a community like Beauregard, where many people live in mobile homes and at or below the poverty line, dozens can die in seconds. By Warren Alan Tidwell
ADOS Shrinks Reparationist Politics to Fit the Cramped Horizon of Tribalism“ADOS followers throw away the internationalism of their forbears, embracing instead a sometimes polite, but always frank hostility toward immigrants of all nations on the grounds that they’re either economic competition for native-born blacks…” Why can’t y’all just decide to be what you already are – more like us – a white co-worker named Travis asked me in the early 1980s. He was a diehard Southern Baptist, Reagan was the newly elected president, and we were working at the Chicago Pullman plant, laying on our sides all day or night, whatever shift it was, routing ducts and cabling in the tiny equipment rooms beneath Amtrak cars, talking politics and history. I’d just brought up the war in Vietnam, in which the US killed 3 million Vietnamese alone, and the murderous wars in Central America which were happening as we spoke. I probably threw in some references to the ongoing wars for liberation in southern Africa as well where the US was backing, financing and arming the wrong side as usual. By Bruce A. Dixon, BAR managing editor
Labor:
Economy:
World:
France: mobilise against the judicial repression of the yellow vests!The yellow vests movement strikes fear into its opponents, which incurs their aggression. In addition to violent repression (2,000 people have been wounded, 18 blinded and five have had their hands torn off), the government has responded with an unprecedented intensity of judicial repression. Guillaume E.Serbia: government and opposition defend status quoSeveral organisations, including the Yugoslav IMT Marxist Organisation ‘Reds’, have mobilised together in a united front as the ‘Left Bloc’ for several weeks as part of mass protests in Belgrade, Novi Sad and Zrenjanin. The Bloc put forward social demands in the demonstrations, instead of the merely civil and democratic demands presented by the organisers from the opposition. Our goal was to present an alternative to the policies of the ruling coalition around the Serbian Progressive Party, but also to put forward a different approach from the opposition coalition spearheaded by the Alliance for Serbia, who were organising the protests. By Zvonko Dan
Health, Education, and Welfare:
The government of the United States can pass laws in a few days to spend tens of trillions of dollars for war and the bailout of wall street and the bankers. Yet those who ‘govern’ pass universal healthcare for themselves, but they cannot spend even one trillion dollars for universal health for those who are ‘governed’! This is what is considered, by the powers that be a democracy and part of the democratic way. — Roland Sheppard, Let The People Vote on Healthcare!
Lies, damned lies and Netflix: the character assassination of Leon TrotskyTrotsky, a recent Netflix series produced by Russian state television, is a scandalous misrepresentation of both Trotsky’s life and the October Revolution. Alan Woods and Josh Holroyd respond to this insulting portrayal of Trotsky and the Bolsheviks’ legacy. (How not to celebrate the Russian Revolution ((a personal note from Alan Woods)) “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” – Josef Goebbels (Hitler’s minister of propaganda) On 7 November 2017, I spoke at a meeting in the Trotsky Museum in Mexico City to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the October revolution, together with my old friend and comrade Esteban Volkov, the grandson of the great Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Also on the platform was the then-Russian ambassador to Mexico, Eduard Malayán. During my speech, I pointed out that it was a paradox that the October Revolution was being celebrated in every country in the world, except for Russia. By Alan Woods and Josh Holroyd
Flooding Threaten Nuclear Power Plant, Evacuations Ordered
