Johnny Ringo
Bio
Disabled, bisexual American socialist and political activist. Student of politics, aspiring journalist, and academic. Bachelor’s of Science in Criminal Justice.
Stories (35)
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Saudi Arabia and the US: Dirty Money?
An examination of Xiemen Ltd., a company based in Canada, may shed light on further foreign influence on American foreign policy from Saudi or Emirati donors to the Trump campaign. In a May 21, 2018 Associated Press article written by Desmond Butler and Tom LoBianco entitled “The Princes, the President, and the Fame Seekers”, Xiemen is stated to be connected to UAE-influenced legislation pushed through the US congress to declare Qatar, once an ally of the US in the Middle East, a state sponsor of terror. A second article by the same authors in the Lebanese Daily Star details that Xiemen Investments acted as a go-between for a $25 million investment into the Donald Trump campaign.
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in The Swamp
American Police Brutality and its Impact on Society
One of the reasons I completed my studies in law enforcement is to empower citizens to protect themselves against any who violate or abuse the law for their own benefit. But first I have to explain legal details that the average American doesn’t always know or understand. The justification for my analysis here is based in both law and philosophy. You have to remember that police are regular citizens, just like you. They’re not legally distinct from citizens, they are merely citizens who have entered into public employment with their local, state, or federal authorities. They’re not military, even if formerly so. There’s a common saying, “once a soldier, always a soldier”. Maybe in mentality, but not legally. Soldiers are legally distinct from civilians, police are not. This difference is key, but even this legal distinction is temporary and conditional upon active duty service. Once the service is over, the distinction is gone.
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in The Swamp
A Socialist Argument Against Marxist Orthodoxy
For new socialists, Marxism, and its most popular schools of thought; Maoism, strict Bolshevik-Leninist (Trotskyist), and Marxist-Leninist (Stalinist) arguments are among the least accessible, most difficult to understand ideas in socialist and communist thought. This may be why Trotskyists, Stalinists, and other Marxists in general are considered, or perhaps consider themselves, to be the most intelligent, crème de la crème of socialism. Is this perception valid? Largely, this is debatable. The most frustrating aspect of this school of thought for new, young socialists, those just starting out in their socialist thought after leaving neoliberalism, is the inaccessible, ivory tower reputation of orthodox Marxism. Orthodox Marxists of all stripes may view this as an unfair criticism, or an inaccurate analysis, but it pays off to maintain perspective regarding the new socialists, to have an eye for the new “recruits” to socialism, in an effort to grow socialist thought in the United States and elsewhere.
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in The Swamp
On the Sterilized Façade of Political Elitism
From 1993 to 2001, Bill Clinton was the President of the United States. As a young boy growing up in 1990s America, I don’t remember much about Clinton’s presidency, save US forces dropping bombs on Kosovo, gas prices were under a dollar a gallon in my area, the Columbine shooting, and of course, the Monica Lewinsky affair. That affair marred the legacy of former President Clinton above anything else, and was the first time I remember a Congress calling for the President to be impeached.
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in The Swamp
The American Working Class and the Failure of the Left and Right Wings
America’s working class has had it hard from day one. Ever since the presidency of FDR, and the creation of Social Security, or the so-called “welfare state” to take care of America’s disenfranchised workers (thereby creating what has come to be known as “the middle class”), American workers have struggled to be taken seriously by a political establishment that seems cut off, separate from, and blind to the struggles of working Americans. There seems almost a palpable hostility to the average working American, whether that American is a documented immigrant working hard and raising a family, a working mother holding down two or more jobs to feed her kids, a single father struggling to go to work and take care of a baby in a state with “at will” employment that can fire him at any time, for no reason, or the average nuclear American family, with one or more spouses working full time to keep food on the table, and trying to prevent their house from being foreclosed on.
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in The Swamp
The USAPATRIOT and USAFREEDOM Acts
The USAPATRIOT and USAFREEDOM acts, as well as their historical parent legislation such as FISA, Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, and the various Alien and Sedition acts throughout American history, are glaring examples of hostility, distrust, xenophobia, and racism as a matter of public law. To me, it is no different than Jim Crow, or the Dredd Scott 1857 ruling. PATRIOT and FREEDOM are draconian legislation, and an authoritarian’s wet dream. The instituting of PATRIOT into American domestic policy was intended, just like FISA and Order 9066, to give credence to war hysteria, paranoia, and to justify violence. Historically, sources have reported that following 9/11 and the passing of PATRIOT (the fastest legislation ever to be pushed through Congress and enacted as law in centuries), violence against brown-skinned immigrants by American citizens rose somewhere close to 800% when compared to pre-9/11 citizen-on-immigrant violence. A similar rise in violent crimes against ethnic minorities has increased 500% if memory serves, in recent years following the Trump inauguration.
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in The Swamp
Who Watches the Watchmen? An Examination of Police, Racism, and Law
After I finished with college just last December, receiving my bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, I have been searching for jobs in law enforcement and related law fields. Interested in my subject of professional study and being a long-time supporter of the Fraternal Order of Police union (my father is a retired union ironworker and an ardent supporter of unions), my father has kept an eye out for police related newspaper articles in the local paper. Dad saved an article from the February 18th, 2018 printing, an article in the opinion and commentary section by a Peter Moskos, who is apparently “Special to the Washington Post.” The article is entitled “Baltimore’s Police Problems Go Beyond a Few Criminals in Uniform”, and this article is a response to Mr. Moskos’ piece.
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in The Swamp
Saudi Arabia, Oil, and the Future of the Middle East
In the Gulf States of the Arab Peninsula, there is no bigger state, no more powerful player on that stage than Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is a dominant force in the Middle East, having some measure of involvement in the politics of the entire region. Similar to the United States’ involvement in the politics of nearly half the world, one can say that there are a lot of Saudi fingers in a lot of Middle Eastern pies, so to speak. Saudi Arabia is also one of the only friends the United States has left in that region, except for the UAE and Qatar. The UAE has large oil reserves, and the US has spent a large amount of wealth for construction and diplomatic efforts in the UAE. Qatar features one of the largest American bases in the Middle East, and is critical as a foothold for the US to access, trade, negotiate, invade and pressure the Middle East. Since the discovery of oil in the region, western powers such as England and the United States have endeavored to be involved in Arabia’s politics, seeking to secure rights, or at least access, to Arabian oil. The king of oil in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia. But what is the future of the Middle East, what moves are being made, and who do they benefit?
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in The Swamp
Martin Shkreli and the Failure of Capitalist “Justice”
The news is abuzz with tales of justice. Martin Shkreli, the vulture capitalist that everyone loves to hate, has finally been convicted and sent to jail. But this conviction has taken place years after the crimes that Shkreli committed. More than simply a result of the slow process of the court system, Shkreli was at first somewhat insulated from the consequences of his massive price hike for the anti-retroviral drug Daraprim, from about $12 per pill, to about $750 per pill. Obviously, this makes Daraprim literally unaffordable for most AIDS-infected people, but this was not the crime that Shkreli was convicted of, and that is precisely the problem.
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in Criminal
Capitalism, Charity, and the Problem of Social Capital
Matt "Megatoad" Stonie Exhibit A: Matt “Megatoad” Stonie, a 25 year old California native, famous for competitive eating competitions. His largest claim to fame is the above image, a 2015 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Championship victory over 8-time hot dog eating champion, Joey Chestnut, before losing the title the following year. With over 4 million YouTube subscribers and over 800 million YouTube views total, Stonie has a net worth of over $500,000 as of 2017, expected to break well over into $1 million, if it has not already.
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in Geeks
On “Fake News”, Newspeak, and American Apathy and Exceptionalism
The popularity of the phrase "fake news" is infuriating. Every time it is seriously uttered by a Trump follower, or said mockingly by a Trump critic, the fact that anyone can possibly give such an obvious propaganda term serious thought at all is creepy to me. It makes me feel like those who use this phrase unwittingly give more power and more meaning to something that poignantly captures everything about Orwellian newspeak, in a way that just makes my skin crawl.
By Johnny Ringo5 years ago in The Swamp
