The left and Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Criticizing the United States for both its domestic and foreign policies is a crucial function of the country's left, and I say that as a radical draft resister during the US attack on and invasion of Vietnam.

But it can be shocking when the left goes overboard, like Counterpunch's recent claim in a book review that the US is now "scapegoating" Russia:

The CIA is not only an unreliable source (e.g. weapons of mass destruction), Kovalik demonstrates that it is also a far greater threat to US democracy than Russia. The Russian hack story is a ruse to excuse Hillary Clinton’s electoral defeat, but even more it is a justification for an ever more aggressive US imperial project.

Steve Bannon couldn't have put it better!

And then there's the left's long embrace of cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal's bogus cause. San Francisco's "progressive" Board of Supervisors even passed a resolution in 2005 calling for a new trial for Abu-Jamal.

From Counterpunch:

...Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu-Jamal are just the latest in a long line of victims of a cultural genocide and a black oppression agenda that goes back 500 years, with no signs of stopping...Having spent 41 years and 34 years behind bars simply for resisting empire, Peltier and Mumia are perhaps our last living link between the dark past and equally dark future. Their stories, their geography, their art, their words, their ailing bodies, their eyes, today, serve as an atlas of the genocidal and racist white settler history of this country...

Abu-Jamal has been in jail since 1982 for murdering a cop, not "simply for resisting empire." Hard to see how the left in the US can expand its political influence when it peddles bullshit like that.

The ultra-left Truthout also continues to promote that delusional cause, even though it's clear Abu-Jamal was guilty of murdering Philadelphia cop Daniel Faulkner: see Do Black Lives Matter? The Historical Record Speaks for Itself, an excerpt from one of Mumia's books---published by City Lights! And Exclusive Interview: Mumia Abu-Jamal Speaks About Black Lives Matter and Police Violence.

See also danielfaulkner.org and Mumia Abu-Jamal Appeal: Maureen Faulkner in Court, Not Celebrating Anniversary.

Poetry inspired by the Trump Administration

Paul Ryan, Ayn Rand

Poetry by Dan Farber at Legal Planet:

A Man Named Paul Ryan

There once was a man named Paul Ryan,

For whom de-regulation was Zion,

Emissions limits he hated

Lest coal be frustrated,

And his lodestar was someone called Ayn.

The Man From Trump Tower

There once was a man from Trump Tower,

Who longed to have absolute power.

All budgets he’d slash

And the planet he’d trash

And the oceans with acid he’d sour.

A Man Called Scott Pruitt

There once was a man called Scott Pruitt

Who said, “Why, there’s nothing to it!

“You undo all the regs,

“Cut them off at the legs

And tell all the polluters, ‘go to it!’”

The Fellow Named Mitch

There once was a fellow named Mitch,

Whose campaign coffers grew rich,

His passion for coal

Had devoured his soul,

Leaving only a faint smell of pitch.

Trump Administration

There once was an Administration

Whose policies caused consternation.

To turn back the clock

And cause liberals shock

Were their highest goals for the nation.