If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man (Woman), my son (girl)! Rudyard Kipling
Let's not forget that many, if not most, of these refugees are among the several disastrous consequences of American promotion of wars and regime changes. In addition to the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, so-called immigrants from Central America should also be considered refugees.
It was former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark who revealed that Bush had these plans to subject other states to the same tender mercies that left Iraq a basket case.
Bush and Cheney may be mercifully gone, but the Washington swamp remains a breeding ground for more proponents of chaos.
It is hard to fathom any mother/sister/daughter wanting to vote for man who has had 5 children from 3 women, and who has boasted he gropes and attacks them.
Marianna: I'm an octogenarian and I'm still trying to divine what makes some women tick, so I'm not surprised that lots of them voted for Trump. Loathing of the Queen of Chaos and her putative consort might have had something to do with it.
The Occupy movement, Bernie Sanders' supporters, and today's (January 21) protest marches have one aspect in common. They show a sizable portion of the people care about a more fair and civilized society. Unfortunately, as recent history has shown protests have very limited effect when it comes to promoting change. As a number of recently published articles have stated, if change is to be achieved then the people must organize and acquire power. The idea of abandoning the Democratic Party and replacing it with a party that will represent the people is well worth considering.
The hypocrisy out of the "conservative" cabal regarding Manning's commutation is truly astounding but not surprising. "But Manning broke the law" they say. This pious claim or something similar was disgorged from the mouths of vile warmongers who pushed for the greatest violation of international law of this 21st century that has resulted in the death, mayhem, and displacement of millions of people and continuing chaos from Afghanistan through the Middle East to Libya. And these vermin are pushing for more wars, including one against Russia. Talking of Russia, don't be surprised if these same wretches blame Vladimir Putin for the illnesses that required hospitalization of Poppy and Barbara Bush.
Each day Chelsea Manning remained in prison would have been a reminder of Barack Obama's role in her persecution and the contempt he and many others have shown towards the Constitution.
in Europe, most Europeans, that is people rather than politicians and members of the beribboned military, see NATO as a provocative arm of US foreign policy...
NATO is the European agency for the United States' military-industrial complex.
The 890,000 asylum applications received by Germany in 2015 are therefore something extremely unusual. That situation derived from a crisis of immigration across the Mediterranean, in which many lives were at stake (some 5,000 attempted immigrants died on the sea last year).
The serious problem with Trump and others hostile to immigrants is their refusal to face up to the fact that U.S. policies have been significant factors in creating those immigrants who are for the most part refugees from war zones where the U.S. has been active in one way or another.
Reactionaries have been attacking the New Deal since the ink on FDR's signature dried. And they have continued to attack any programs that would complement the New Deal.
We are indebted to Professor Cole and others making their valid defenses of John Lewis. He deserves them at a minimum. We would be remiss if we forgot the courage he and others showed during the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s. Hopefully, others of similar qualities will emerge if, as anticipated, Trump's presidency proves to be as disastrous as some people understandably fear.
Unfortunately, heroic figures are often compromised when they advance in years and ascend in power, especially if they become engaged in politics in Washington, DC. Lewis became a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) that has been criticized for its inadequate support for fellow African-Americans in lower economic and social classes. Despite the disastrous consequences for people of color in America that were promoted by the Clintons' "welfare reform" the CBC was unanimous in endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. Towards the end of the Democratic (sic) primary we learned the Democratic (?) National Committee (DNC) rigged the system in favor of their anointed Queen (of Chaos) while stabbing rival Bernie Sanders in the back. If a charge of illegitimacy could be leveled at anyone during the various elections of 2016 it would be at Hillary Clinton.
There are many reasons to believe that Trump's choices for his cabinet will prove to be disastrous. If so, we would do well to remember the senators who consented to their taking office were complicit in making it possible.
The United States senate - the world's greatest deliberative body - what a crock.
But Buzzfeed’s conviction that the document was of public interest and the (at the) (sic) public should be able to see and judge it for themselves can be argued about.
Dissemination to the public is a nice theory, but let's face facts and recognize that most people do not have the time or inclination or judgment to distinguish between fact and fiction, especially in a document of this nature.
America has been accused of decadence for many years. If I recall correctly Nikita Khrushchev was one of several prominent accusers. The accusation then may have been excessive but it seems more plausible now.
"News" without supporting evidence should be regarded with great skepticism, but assuming it might be plausible would be justified.
Psychopathocracy is the rule of persons who lack a basic ability to empathize with others, to feel their pain or to feel guilty about harming them.
This is an American tradition that we can presume will be continued by President Trump.
High schools would do well to incorporate this essay by Professor Cole in their civics and social studies courses.
The greatest cause for concern should be the data about what a large percentage, albeit a minority, of the people can be complicit in the policies of a psychopathic leader.
As the old saying goes, "You vote for the lesser evil, you still get evil." As recent history has shown the evils have become progressively worse with each quadrennial presidential charade. It is long past time for people who care to say, "Enough" and change course.
Meryl Streep's comments are fair enough, but like so much political commentary in these times it has more than its share of hypocrisy. There is a great deal about Trump that is deplorable and ominous, but Streep was on Hillary Clinton's bandwagon and, if anything, she is worse than Trump. Streep explained at a women's forum why she supported Clinton. Apparently, she heard three women from troubled areas give Clinton credit for saving their lives. Saving three women's lives is truly admirable, but how many millions of women have had their lives destroyed through death, maiming and displacement because of policies Hillary supported or pushed for from The Balkans through sanctions and a war on Iraq, and on to regime changes in Libya, Honduras and Syria?
We are all familiar with Madeleine Albright's infamous statement saying "We though it was worth it." The first "it" referred to the sanctions on Iraq that cost an estimated half million Iraqi children their lives. What the second "it" referred to is beyond the comprehension of any civilized person. "We" would certainly have included Bill Clinton and his two-for-one partner, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Trump and the Clintons - a pox on both their houses.
The US NSA hacked the whole world for many years until Ed Snowden blew the whistle on them. And that was when the full extent of Clapper’s mendaciousness became clear. He should have been held in contempt of Congress. He should have been fired. But no. He got away with it.
Despite this evidence of Clapper's dishonesty members on both sides of the cesspool at yesterday's senate armed services committee charade were content to take Clapper's word when he said what they wanted to hear.
Meanwhile over at the senate armed services committee charade the heads of intelligence agencies understood the questions asked by the committee members and the answers that were expected in return. It looks like the warmongers on the Republican side of the committee can count on some Democratic support. Sydney Blumenthal introduced the idea of the people's distrust of the intelligence agencies and James Clapper, who lied to the senate intelligence committee about the torture report, noted that gaining the trust of the people was important. There appeared to be a general acceptance of and indignation regarding the evidence-free accusations about Russia influencing the election. At the same time a sense of Russia, China, and North Korea were the bad guys doing the hacking prevailed while our spooks were paragons of virtue.
Thank you for your excellent comment, but I believe there is one error: "I simply cannot understand how in a country with such a strong democratic and humane tradition as the United States,..."
The U.S. has been responsible for many improvements that have benefited humanity, but they are mostly the consequences of technological and scientific work. On the other side of the ledger are slavery once enshrined in the Constitution and slavery that continues to this day by other names. There was also the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans who continue to be abused. There have been wars of aggression for well over a century to expand the American empire that remain ongoing enterprises bringing death and misery to countless people around the world.
There are many American people and organizations striving to make this a better world, but it seems that others who are prepared to wreak death and destruction on other citizens and nations prevail.
Let's not forget how delighted Les Moonvess of CBS was with Trump when said that Trump was very good for CBS revenues. Instead of "if it bleeds it leads" we will be getting something like "the more outrageous the better."
Then Mother Jones reported that Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Labor thinks workers are over-protected and that they should not get breaks. Contempt for the weak is a major theme of Trump and his team. Such huuje losers. Don’t deserve a doctor visit or a coffee break. Bah humbug.
This man is as morally debased as some of the worst characters in Dickens' novels but with an ability to cause more agony than Dickens could ever have imagined. He is also a lousy manager. Several management studies have shown that workers are more productive if they get breaks. Presumably, this appalling choice for the labor department is more interested in showing how tough he can be.
French workers, for whom Americans have such contempt, would never allow themselves to be walked all over the way American workers have been.
This brings to mind a comment from one of Michael Moore's movies: The French government fears its people, but the American people fear their government.
So what is called a “one-state” solution would be fine with me, as long as all the citizens of that one state had equal rights and it was a genuine democracy.
One of the problems for Palestinians in a one-state arrangement would be the intense racism ingrained in a large segment of the Israeli population. In this regard, Israel is to some degree similar to the Deep South in the US where racism remains a problem after generations of gradual improvement.
The fact that everyone ignores the victimization of the Palestinians ...
Not "everyone" but most contemptibly almost all of the 535 members of Congress and the incumbents in the White House do. But we should not be surprised. There has always been an active community of racists, authoritarians and authoritarian followers within the United States contemptuous of the lives and well-being of others beginning with the kidnapping of Africans to become slaves followed by ethnic cleansing and massacres of the indigenous peoples. Then there was the expansion of the empire that inflicted extreme violence on citizens of other nations. So, if the United States is complicit with Israel in its slaughters and other abuses of Palestinians, consider it a variation on the dark side of American history.
He criticized President Obama: “The heart aches that after eight years of friendship and cooperation with the Obama Administration — a friendship that did see some disagreements over the Iranian issue and other issues — this is the parting shot; a painful, unpleasant, unfair one.”
Hey, Mr. Steinitz, how about the many insults Binyamin Netanyahu and other high-ranking Israeli officials directed at President Obama, the Office of the President of the United States, Vice President Biden and other US officials?
... the false pretense that Israel makes America more secure in the Middle East,...
To the contrary, Osama bin Laden was reported as having said that one reason for the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington was US complicity in Israeli abuse of Palestinians. Also Generals James Mattis and David Patraeus have stated that Israeli actions against the Palestinians threatened US security.
Clearly, Trump and his picks for high office are immense cause for concern. The United States is clearly in decline, and if we are to prevent getting to the point of collapse as so many other empires have done in the past, the American people must be prepared to resist destructive policies coming out of the Trump administration. The suggestion about blocking Trump nominees from the supreme (?) court is well worth considering.
Again, on Iraq, it was Bush and Cheney and Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld who were running their WMD disinformation effort out of the White House, while CIA analysts were urging caution. I think that’s important to remember.
George Tenet, head of the CIA, told Bush it would be a slam dunk to get the "intelligence" Bush wanted. The British ambassador to the US informed his government the intelligence would be fixed to make the case for war. Tenet was also backup for Colin Powell when he lied to the Security Council about WMDs in Iraq.
"US Intel Vets Dispute Russia Hacking Claims: As the hysteria about Russia’s alleged interference in the U.S. election grows, a key mystery is why U.S. intelligence would rely on “circumstantial evidence” when it has the capability for hard evidence, say U.S. intelligence veterans." - https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/12/us-intel-vets-dispute-russia-hacking-claims/
"More insidious and subtle, but even worse, was what Newsweek and its Clinton-adoring writer Kurt Eichenwald did last night. What happened — in reality, in the world of facts — was extremely trivial. One of the emails in the second installment of the WikiLeaks/Podesta archive — posted yesterday — was from Sidney Blumenthal to Podesta. The sole purpose of Blumenthal’s email was to show Podesta one of Eichenwald’s endless series of Clinton-exonerating articles, this one about Benghazi. So in the body of the email to Podesta, Blumenthal simply pasted the link and the full contents of the article. Although the purpose of Eichenwald’s article (like everything he says and does) was to defend Clinton, one paragraph in the middle acknowledged that one minor criticism of Clinton on Benghazi was possibly rational." by Glenn Greenwald - https://theintercept.com/2016/10/11/in-the-democratic-echo-chamber-inconvenient-truths-are-recast-as-putin-plots/
After Reagan won, Tip O’Neill made what I think was a fatal mistake. He decided to work with Reagan, ...
Before Reagan won Tip O'Neill and the other oligarchs (Democratic and Republican) in Congress ganged up on Jimmy Carter rendering his presidency a failure for the most part.
As a senator, President Obama knew part of the solution of these problems is public financing of our elections.
Obama SAID that, but I question whether he was sincere about public financing.
Obamacare is far better than what we had previously, ...
Obamacare is a delaying scam to preclude single-payer which is far and away superior to Obamacare. Stock market investors will disagree with that assessment because the day Obamacare was approved insurance stocks saw considerable gains and the scribes who wrote up Obamacare began their exodus from their government offices to return to their corporate offices.
What kind of signal does it send that a popular Democratic president has to turn to a Republican as Secretary of Defense?
That Obama was deferring to that part of his soul left over from what he sold to the Israel Lobby and was owned by the military-industrial complex. The popular saw about there's not a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans comes close.
I can remember when Scott Brown won a senate seat from Massachusetts, and Obama said he didn’t want to push through Obamacare in Brown’s absence.
Then there was Obama's abandonment of the Wisconsin Democratic Party when it was trying to get rid of Scott Walker.
Walter Karp explained in his book Indispensable Enemies the long history of collusion between the Democratic and Republican party oligarchs. Nothing has changed since Karp wrote that book in 1993 except the names of the players. The system is very much the same.
We will all do well to remember who helped to start this tragedy: "How The New Yorker Mis-Reports Syria April 20, 2016 - Exclusive: The New Yorker and editor David Remnick were catastrophically wrong about the Iraq War, but they continue publishing the same one-sided propaganda on the Syrian conflict, as Jonathan Marshall describes." - https://consortiumnews.com/2016/04/20/how-the-new-yorker-mis-reports-syria/
Given Ellison's pro-Israel stance there is not much hope for his cleaning of the Augean Stable known as the Democratic Party. Its oligarchy is too entrenched, and most of its key players and candidates for office are owned by the Israel Lobby that would very likely be opposed to Ellison even if he gives voice to pro-Israel talking points. The alternative of an alternate party would be a much better solution, but given the fact that almost all of the electorate considered Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump as acceptable for the office of the president of the United States, there doesn't appear to be much hope for an enlightened and humane third party.
I recall a so-called Wall Street titan say on a television business program several years ago that morality was not a factor in business decisions. Recent events suggest that policy remains in effect with worsening effects. Given the business orientation of the president-elect and his nominees for his cabinet only a fool would expect morality to be a factor in future White House decisions. Which probably means business as usual in spades. As far as Hillary Clinton's "deplorables" in Trump's legions are concerned, lotsaluck on keeping or getting jobs.
If, and that is a big "if," Russia did hack and influence the election then it would only be a small part of the corruption of the American election system. There was lots of shouting about rigged voting machines after the 2000 election and talk ever since. There are continually state-sponsored schemes and gerrymandering to disenfranchise sections of the voting public. There is the bribery inherent in campaign finance, including Citizens United. Our elected senators and representatives in Congress know of these travesties, but they refuse to take corrective action. There are also the constant streams of lies from both major parties and gullible citizens who buy into these lies.
... because the Republican Party’s economic policies aim to help rich people at the expense of workers and most African-Americans are working class ...
But 320 million Americans can fight back against Pruitt.
But, of those 320 million Americans how many will fight back?
The Liberty Tree Foundation - http://libertytreefoundation.org/ - appears to be prepared to fight in the political arena that may align with the environmental movement. Something to keep an eye on.
One of the lessons we should learn from the vigil at Standing Rock is that the people can fight city hall. One of the lessons from this and similar articles is that Americans had better be prepared for lots of fights with "city hall" during the Trump presidency.
And let us remember how poor Chuck Hagel was treated, a distinguished Vietnam War vet with two purple hearts and a senator, during the hearing to confirm him as Secretary of Defense, at the behest of Neocon chickenhawks ...
The abuse John McCain and Lindsey Graham threw at Chuck Hagel was utterly repugnant and contemptible, but Hagel also was at fault. He should have told both of these wretched creatures to go "bleep" themselves.
Everybody involved in US foreign policy and security knows that aggressive Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank and siege of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip is a major cause of terrorism against the United States,...
But, unfortunately, not "everybody involved in US foreign policy and security" has drawn the right and just conclusions.
And, as Goethe informed us, "Where there is a will, there is a way." But where is the will?
Obama may be a lame duck capable of ignoring political consequences, but he is probably still dialing for dollars for his presidential library and will be loath to offend pro-Israel moneybags who might forget Obama's $38.5 BILLION gift of more weapons for Israel's oppressors.
Likewise, Cuba denounced the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1978, despite its dependence on the Soviet Union for a lifeline, given the US boycott of Cuba
Meanwhile, all through Fidel Castro's years in charge of Cuba the United States was considered the dog wagged by the Israeli tail. Would anyone care to ascribe Moral Courage Quotients to Fidel Castro and Uncle Sam during that time?
The figures cited for Cuba's GDP and other nations prompts the question, "What would these numbers have been like if Cuba didn't have to contend with the onerous burden of the illegal and immoral embargo imposed on it by its bullying neighbor to the north?"
I have posted before, that the people who run the country are the power behind the throne and Trump, Obama, Clinton Bush and the rest are merely talking heads and are as manipulated as a ventriloquists dummy.
With Mike Pence and his long history of being an agent for the power behind the throne now in charge of Trump's transition team the future can be expected to be pregnant with alarming potential.
I had a neighbor several yeas ago who worked for the county sheriff and was one of the nicest people I could have asked for to live next door to me. He surprised me one day when he told me that he had been a juvenile delinquent who was heading for a life of crime. He was saved by a deputy sheriff who took an interest in him and turned him around. I recently told this story to a corrections officer in the same county who told me incidents like that happen frequently. Until someone presents a better case for convicting this young man in Portland, I'll remain convinced he should have been counseled by someone more enlightened than what he met in the FBI's office. Gave him chances to back out? Lots of teenagers have problems admitting they were wrong and tough it out. How about, instead, "Mohammed, you've been lied to. Let me explain ...?
Grumpy: We are in agreement on your list of things you would like to see, but you only have a very slightly better chance of their being realized under Clinton than under Trump.
Then there is the power block behind the curtain - the plutocrats and their bought-and-paid-for oligarchs in both major parties. Will they gang up on or restrain an overreaching President Clinton or President Trump as they did on Carter? Probably not if the elected president does the Israel Lobby's bidding.
We can oppose her if she drags her feet on key issues.
There is a much better approach but one that is much less likely to occur than manning the barricades against the next President Clinton - subject to a game-changer from Wikileaks in the bottom of the ninth inning. In the movie "Network" the character played by Peter Finch declared he wasn't going to take it anymore. This led to a mass insurrection of the people who also said they weren't going to take it any more. That is what our corrupt and dysfunctional nation needs. An uprising of the people demanding an end to our deplorable national disgrace. Unfortunately, we are more likely to see a nuclear winter - perhaps a version of hell freezing over - before the American people rise demanding a raising of the moral and ethical standards of our so-called leaders.
There is significant war weariness among people everywhere ...
Unfortunately, this war weariness does not seem to apply to potential voters for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Both have made militaristic pronouncements indicating a willingness to wage war, albeit against different perceived enemies. Iran has the unfortunate distinction of attracting the hostility of both leading candidates who have also indicated a willingness to dump more of the national fisc into that five-sided black hole on the Potomac at the expense of several pressing cases affecting a mostly docile and subservient populace.
bobc: I'm delighted that ACA has worked for you and others in your situation, but for others getting sticker shock with the new and higher premiums and deductibles it is a different story.
So why are you supporting an open racist? An open misogynist?
Grumpy: I always appreciate your comments but am disappointed that you imply I'm supporting a racist and misogynist. Note my comment about this choice being like choosing between cholera and bubonic plague. For the record I voted for none of the above in the form of a vote for Jill Stein. The opportunity to vote is not necessarily to pick a winner. It is also a chance to say what kind of government we want. Those of us voting for Jill Stein are saying we want a more civilized and humane society and not what we can expect from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Unfortunately, the majority of people will decline their chance to make such a statement but will instead march like lemmings behind the (un)Democratic and (un)Republican banners.
The interesting point regarding voters supporting Clinton because they, understandably, dread Trump is that they ignore Hillary's record: Support of the judicial murder of Rickey Ray Rector in Arkansas, (as co-president) support of the wars in The Balkans, support of the sanctions on Iraq that cost an estimated half million Iraqi children their lives - Madeleine Albright said, "We thought it was worth it." "We would have including the cabal ensconced in the White House at the time. - war on Iraq that has led to the current chaos in the Middle East and North Africa, regime change in Libya after which she reveled in the sadistic murder of Gaddafi, regime change in Honduras, which is now a basket case, and she wants a no-fly zone in Syria. On that one we must hope intelligence will prevail in the military.
Look at history over the last 100 years and the times when the most progressive policies have been enacted have been when there has been a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress
I don't have time to go into the details of my response, but I happen to be reading my compendium of Walter Karp's writings that contradict your favorable conclusion of the Democratic Party. Woodrow Wilson defied the anti-war sentiments of the American people and got the United States into the First World War - a catastrophe that became one of epic proportions. LBJ chose guns over butter and escalated the Vietnam War, another monumental disaster. FDR's New Deal isn't all it is made out to be. Social Security basically proved to be an excellent development but it was and is rigged to be paid for with regressive taxes. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Walter_Karp/Walter_Karp_page.html
Tammany Hall and the Bourbon Democrats were no friends of the American people. More recently, the Democratic National Committee set out to crush the progressive challenge initiated by Bernie Sanders.
Obamacare? Written by and for the insurance corporations and now being proved a scam.
We can oppose her if she drags her feet on key issues.
Lotsaluck on that one. The Democratic Party has a very long history of riding roughshod over the wishes of the American people often with collusion of the Republican Party. If your mother dropped you on your head you might believe Hillary and her plutocratic and pro-Israel friends and party oligarchs can be persuaded to change course.
To paraphrase Edward Snowden, the choice is between a cholera or bubonic plague.
The strike on the judiciary building, which had a prison attached, could have been predicted to kill civilians. It is therefore a war crime in international law.
But when you're an autocrat controlling one of the largest quantities of oil you are above the law.
Since Americans are often insular and poorly informed by their ramshackle school system and shoddy mass media (and you have to wonder if the corporations like it that way)
Wonder no more. You can bet on that. An ill-informed, apathetic and docile populace is what corporate America and the political oligarchs want. They are less likely to get involved with groups such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter.
Clinton has proven, with her record on Iraq, Syria, and Libya, that she thinks this kind of instability is in the strategic interests of the United States.
Probably of those who heard this woman speak on these topics few listened to her for the same reason they tune out Barack Obama - a belief their words are just that - words to fit some opportune moment but with a short shelf life.
Modern "circuses" are more destructive than those of ancient Rome in that they are laced with lies that endure for a long time - in some cases, a lifetime. The memory of a fight to the death in a Roman coliseum might have lasted a few days, but the propaganda fed to children about our nation being indivisible with liberty and justice for all sticks with them well into adulthood. Or, how about our noble founding fathers and their virtues and wisdom untarnished by the degradation of their slaves?
Certainly, from the point of view of Native Americans who were driven from their lands by white settlers and African Americans who were threatened with lynching by the KKK, terrorism has a long history in the USA.
Gee, I wonder who has been spewing racist hate for the past 18 months that might have encouraged these groups to expand and become more active?
The powder keg was probably loaded generations ago and was just sitting their waiting for a demagogue like Trump and his more rabid supporters to insert and light the fuse.
Even when advised by the US military against striking some bridges and other key infrastructure (because they are needed to get staples to civilian populations), the Saudis and their allies have nevertheless struck them.
Obama often refers to "our values," as in "these are not our values" after some Americans have been caught committing some shameful act. Is our alliance with Saudi Arabia an example of our values?
Frankly, I don’t trust her on any issues. There is what she says on or before November 8, 2016 and what she will say on and after November 9th. Very few of the statements made in one time period will have anything in common with the other.
As for having Al Gore on the campaign trail, that is just more evidence Hillary's ethical judgment is at the same low level as when she hired Debbie Wasserman Schultz immediately after she lost her squalid job at the Democratic National Committee.
I hold no brief for Trump, but he is after all a candidate with no political baggage to his name and the specter of ‘war criminal’ can’t be levied against him.
But the reactions of so many warmongers and misogynists are the epitome of hypocrisy. Surely most women would be offended, some perhaps traumatized, if they were on the receiving end of lust expressed by the "locker room" talk out of Trump and many other men in the shadows. But how does that compare with the consequences for women (and their families) who are on the receiving end of military aggression promoted by politicians of both major parties now so critical of Trump? The Balkans, Iraq economic sanctions, Iraq war, Afghanistan, Gaza, Libya, Syria, etc.?
The point of great concern regarding Trump's bigotry is not so much Trump himself as it is the legions of people who have responded to his squalid rhetoric. At one time, Adolph Hitler was regarded as something of a crackpot ranting from a soapbox in Vienna. He became a much different proposition when large groups of bigots rallied to support him and spread his vile messages.
There are instances when voting for the lesser evil is appropriate such as some versions of the greater evil plunging the nation into the abyss while the lesser evil may stop at the precipice, but there are two arguments against voting for the perceived lesser evil this year: (1) There is no lesser evil when considering Clinton and Trump, (2) Americans have been voting the lesser evil for decades and the choices have become progressively worse with each quadrennial charade so that, according to recent polls, a sizable portion (about half?)) of the American people don't want either Clinton or Trump. Of those who will be casting their ballots for one or the other, many are doing so more in opposition to the candidate they reject than for the one getting the votes.
Mike Pence emphasizes that he is above all else a Christian. Obviously, Christians come in a variety of forms and flavors. He appears to be some concoction of a 12th Century Crusader and an inquisitor from 13th Century Spain both of which had expiration dates centuries ago.
The mainstream corporate media have almost always, if not always, been the propaganda outlet for the Establishment's points of view. That applies from the national level down to regional and local levels that also relay the national establishment's messages.
The choice was to vote for what was morally correct or for economic self-interest. The senators chose the morally correct path; although, they probably voted for their own perceived self-interest with elections coming up and not a belief in what was morally right. They probably also anticipated this: The truth about the Saudi bill: Provision to issue a stay on the lawsuits can range from six months to "indefinitely" despite the Congress passing it. - http://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/americas/2016/09/truth-saudi-bill-160929212904406.html
He said he had read a lot of Buddhist thought, and it came to him that nothing is permanent.
The embedded racism within Israeli society and the consequent Israelis' violent hostility towards Palestinians may not be permanent, but they will endure for generations.
Judging by their war-provoking rants and propaganda Clinton and her neocon friends have learned nothing from these monumental catastrophes in Afghanistan and Iraq. If the US and its mercenaries from NATO couldn't tame and "bring democracy" to Afghanistan and Iraq, chances of success in Russia and Iran are less than zero.
There were knowledgeable people warning that the Iraq war would create chaos in the Middle East. Did any of these wise people think it would be as horrendous as it has become?
the US has enacted a body of law designed to protect the rights and privileges of minorities.
Unfortunately, when it comes to laws protecting the rights and privileges of minorities the US remains on auto-pilot talking out of both sides of its mouth.
The US certainly isn't concerned about the minorities in Israel, especially the people in Gaza who are repeatedly slaughtered by Israeli forces, when the White House and Congress endorse these crimes against humanity and rush to replace the Israelis' expended military materiel.
Zionist leader David Ben Gurion noted in his diary when Israel was established that when the US had been formed, no document set out its territorial extent, implying that the same was true of Israel.
Similarly, the US and Israel share a callous - congenital? - pathological? - indifference to the victims of their ethnic cleansing.
I appreciate your point, but the sanctions triggered the various events that followed. No sanctions then no need for the oil-for-food program and any other actions Saddam deemed essential for his survival.
To a lesser extent the recent sanctions on Iran created problems for Iranians who needed certain vital medicines.
You know well the military history and putting an embargo on airplane parts does not make the US responsible for civil aviation disasters.
Do you agree with those who said the UN sanctions enforced by the Clinton administration were not responsible for the half million Iraqi children who died as a consequence but it was Saddam Hussein's fault? Or, do you agree with Madeleine Albright, the Clintons' secretary of state, it was worth it?
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man (Woman), my son (girl)! Rudyard Kipling
I wonder how much longer the give-him-a-chance brigade will continue to cite this mantra after each abuse committed by president Trump!
Let's not forget that many, if not most, of these refugees are among the several disastrous consequences of American promotion of wars and regime changes. In addition to the Middle East, South Asia and Africa, so-called immigrants from Central America should also be considered refugees.
It was former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark who revealed that Bush had these plans to subject other states to the same tender mercies that left Iraq a basket case.
Bush and Cheney may be mercifully gone, but the Washington swamp remains a breeding ground for more proponents of chaos.
Another way to get people to say what presidents want to hear is to give them high office. It worked with Colin Powell and Condi Rice.
There are Professor Cole's facts and there are president Trump's "alternative facts." Take your choice.
It is hard to fathom any mother/sister/daughter wanting to vote for man who has had 5 children from 3 women, and who has boasted he gropes and attacks them.
Marianna: I'm an octogenarian and I'm still trying to divine what makes some women tick, so I'm not surprised that lots of them voted for Trump. Loathing of the Queen of Chaos and her putative consort might have had something to do with it.
Take it over, purge it of the Clinton and other BS centrist elements, and start getting to work.
Easier said than done. Your car is in a wreck? It is more effective to buy another than restore the pile of junk.
The Occupy movement, Bernie Sanders' supporters, and today's (January 21) protest marches have one aspect in common. They show a sizable portion of the people care about a more fair and civilized society. Unfortunately, as recent history has shown protests have very limited effect when it comes to promoting change. As a number of recently published articles have stated, if change is to be achieved then the people must organize and acquire power. The idea of abandoning the Democratic Party and replacing it with a party that will represent the people is well worth considering.
The hypocrisy out of the "conservative" cabal regarding Manning's commutation is truly astounding but not surprising. "But Manning broke the law" they say. This pious claim or something similar was disgorged from the mouths of vile warmongers who pushed for the greatest violation of international law of this 21st century that has resulted in the death, mayhem, and displacement of millions of people and continuing chaos from Afghanistan through the Middle East to Libya. And these vermin are pushing for more wars, including one against Russia. Talking of Russia, don't be surprised if these same wretches blame Vladimir Putin for the illnesses that required hospitalization of Poppy and Barbara Bush.
Each day Chelsea Manning remained in prison would have been a reminder of Barack Obama's role in her persecution and the contempt he and many others have shown towards the Constitution.
So, too, is this in spades: "The Issue is Not Trump. It is Us" by John Pilger - http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/01/17/the-issue-is-not-trump-it-is-us/
in Europe, most Europeans, that is people rather than politicians and members of the beribboned military, see NATO as a provocative arm of US foreign policy...
NATO is the European agency for the United States' military-industrial complex.
The 890,000 asylum applications received by Germany in 2015 are therefore something extremely unusual. That situation derived from a crisis of immigration across the Mediterranean, in which many lives were at stake (some 5,000 attempted immigrants died on the sea last year).
The serious problem with Trump and others hostile to immigrants is their refusal to face up to the fact that U.S. policies have been significant factors in creating those immigrants who are for the most part refugees from war zones where the U.S. has been active in one way or another.
Merkel replied curtly, “I think we Europeans have our destiny in our own hands.”
Frau Merkel: Does that mean you now have your cell phone secure against NSA spying?
Reactionaries have been attacking the New Deal since the ink on FDR's signature dried. And they have continued to attack any programs that would complement the New Deal.
We are indebted to Professor Cole and others making their valid defenses of John Lewis. He deserves them at a minimum. We would be remiss if we forgot the courage he and others showed during the struggle for civil rights in the 1960s. Hopefully, others of similar qualities will emerge if, as anticipated, Trump's presidency proves to be as disastrous as some people understandably fear.
Unfortunately, heroic figures are often compromised when they advance in years and ascend in power, especially if they become engaged in politics in Washington, DC. Lewis became a member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) that has been criticized for its inadequate support for fellow African-Americans in lower economic and social classes. Despite the disastrous consequences for people of color in America that were promoted by the Clintons' "welfare reform" the CBC was unanimous in endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. Towards the end of the Democratic (sic) primary we learned the Democratic (?) National Committee (DNC) rigged the system in favor of their anointed Queen (of Chaos) while stabbing rival Bernie Sanders in the back. If a charge of illegitimacy could be leveled at anyone during the various elections of 2016 it would be at Hillary Clinton.
There are many reasons to believe that Trump's choices for his cabinet will prove to be disastrous. If so, we would do well to remember the senators who consented to their taking office were complicit in making it possible.
The United States senate - the world's greatest deliberative body - what a crock.
But Buzzfeed’s conviction that the document was of public interest and the (at the) (sic) public should be able to see and judge it for themselves can be argued about.
Dissemination to the public is a nice theory, but let's face facts and recognize that most people do not have the time or inclination or judgment to distinguish between fact and fiction, especially in a document of this nature.
America has been accused of decadence for many years. If I recall correctly Nikita Khrushchev was one of several prominent accusers. The accusation then may have been excessive but it seems more plausible now.
"News" without supporting evidence should be regarded with great skepticism, but assuming it might be plausible would be justified.
Psychopathocracy is the rule of persons who lack a basic ability to empathize with others, to feel their pain or to feel guilty about harming them.
This is an American tradition that we can presume will be continued by President Trump.
High schools would do well to incorporate this essay by Professor Cole in their civics and social studies courses.
The greatest cause for concern should be the data about what a large percentage, albeit a minority, of the people can be complicit in the policies of a psychopathic leader.
As the old saying goes, "You vote for the lesser evil, you still get evil." As recent history has shown the evils have become progressively worse with each quadrennial presidential charade. It is long past time for people who care to say, "Enough" and change course.
Meryl Streep's comments are fair enough, but like so much political commentary in these times it has more than its share of hypocrisy. There is a great deal about Trump that is deplorable and ominous, but Streep was on Hillary Clinton's bandwagon and, if anything, she is worse than Trump. Streep explained at a women's forum why she supported Clinton. Apparently, she heard three women from troubled areas give Clinton credit for saving their lives. Saving three women's lives is truly admirable, but how many millions of women have had their lives destroyed through death, maiming and displacement because of policies Hillary supported or pushed for from The Balkans through sanctions and a war on Iraq, and on to regime changes in Libya, Honduras and Syria?
We are all familiar with Madeleine Albright's infamous statement saying "We though it was worth it." The first "it" referred to the sanctions on Iraq that cost an estimated half million Iraqi children their lives. What the second "it" referred to is beyond the comprehension of any civilized person. "We" would certainly have included Bill Clinton and his two-for-one partner, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Trump and the Clintons - a pox on both their houses.
Angela Merkel’s personal cell phone. An ally .
Perhaps "satrap" or "puppet" would have been a better choice of words given Merkel's tolerance for being spied on.
The US NSA hacked the whole world for many years until Ed Snowden blew the whistle on them. And that was when the full extent of Clapper’s mendaciousness became clear. He should have been held in contempt of Congress. He should have been fired. But no. He got away with it.
Despite this evidence of Clapper's dishonesty members on both sides of the cesspool at yesterday's senate armed services committee charade were content to take Clapper's word when he said what they wanted to hear.
Meanwhile over at the senate armed services committee charade the heads of intelligence agencies understood the questions asked by the committee members and the answers that were expected in return. It looks like the warmongers on the Republican side of the committee can count on some Democratic support. Sydney Blumenthal introduced the idea of the people's distrust of the intelligence agencies and James Clapper, who lied to the senate intelligence committee about the torture report, noted that gaining the trust of the people was important. There appeared to be a general acceptance of and indignation regarding the evidence-free accusations about Russia influencing the election. At the same time a sense of Russia, China, and North Korea were the bad guys doing the hacking prevailed while our spooks were paragons of virtue.
Thank you for your excellent comment, but I believe there is one error: "I simply cannot understand how in a country with such a strong democratic and humane tradition as the United States,..."
The U.S. has been responsible for many improvements that have benefited humanity, but they are mostly the consequences of technological and scientific work. On the other side of the ledger are slavery once enshrined in the Constitution and slavery that continues to this day by other names. There was also the ethnic cleansing of Native Americans who continue to be abused. There have been wars of aggression for well over a century to expand the American empire that remain ongoing enterprises bringing death and misery to countless people around the world.
There are many American people and organizations striving to make this a better world, but it seems that others who are prepared to wreak death and destruction on other citizens and nations prevail.
Comments similar to Mr. Jahanpour's above would never be published in those propaganda rags.
Let's not forget how delighted Les Moonvess of CBS was with Trump when said that Trump was very good for CBS revenues. Instead of "if it bleeds it leads" we will be getting something like "the more outrageous the better."
And the French workers get much better health care than their American counterparts.
Then Mother Jones reported that Trump’s nominee to be Secretary of Labor thinks workers are over-protected and that they should not get breaks. Contempt for the weak is a major theme of Trump and his team. Such huuje losers. Don’t deserve a doctor visit or a coffee break. Bah humbug.
This man is as morally debased as some of the worst characters in Dickens' novels but with an ability to cause more agony than Dickens could ever have imagined. He is also a lousy manager. Several management studies have shown that workers are more productive if they get breaks. Presumably, this appalling choice for the labor department is more interested in showing how tough he can be.
French workers, for whom Americans have such contempt, would never allow themselves to be walked all over the way American workers have been.
This brings to mind a comment from one of Michael Moore's movies: The French government fears its people, but the American people fear their government.
So what is called a “one-state” solution would be fine with me, as long as all the citizens of that one state had equal rights and it was a genuine democracy.
One of the problems for Palestinians in a one-state arrangement would be the intense racism ingrained in a large segment of the Israeli population. In this regard, Israel is to some degree similar to the Deep South in the US where racism remains a problem after generations of gradual improvement.
The fact that everyone ignores the victimization of the Palestinians ...
Not "everyone" but most contemptibly almost all of the 535 members of Congress and the incumbents in the White House do. But we should not be surprised. There has always been an active community of racists, authoritarians and authoritarian followers within the United States contemptuous of the lives and well-being of others beginning with the kidnapping of Africans to become slaves followed by ethnic cleansing and massacres of the indigenous peoples. Then there was the expansion of the empire that inflicted extreme violence on citizens of other nations. So, if the United States is complicit with Israel in its slaughters and other abuses of Palestinians, consider it a variation on the dark side of American history.
He criticized President Obama: “The heart aches that after eight years of friendship and cooperation with the Obama Administration — a friendship that did see some disagreements over the Iranian issue and other issues — this is the parting shot; a painful, unpleasant, unfair one.”
Hey, Mr. Steinitz, how about the many insults Binyamin Netanyahu and other high-ranking Israeli officials directed at President Obama, the Office of the President of the United States, Vice President Biden and other US officials?
... the false pretense that Israel makes America more secure in the Middle East,...
To the contrary, Osama bin Laden was reported as having said that one reason for the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington was US complicity in Israeli abuse of Palestinians. Also Generals James Mattis and David Patraeus have stated that Israeli actions against the Palestinians threatened US security.
Clearly, Trump and his picks for high office are immense cause for concern. The United States is clearly in decline, and if we are to prevent getting to the point of collapse as so many other empires have done in the past, the American people must be prepared to resist destructive policies coming out of the Trump administration. The suggestion about blocking Trump nominees from the supreme (?) court is well worth considering.
Again, on Iraq, it was Bush and Cheney and Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld who were running their WMD disinformation effort out of the White House, while CIA analysts were urging caution. I think that’s important to remember.
George Tenet, head of the CIA, told Bush it would be a slam dunk to get the "intelligence" Bush wanted. The British ambassador to the US informed his government the intelligence would be fixed to make the case for war. Tenet was also backup for Colin Powell when he lied to the Security Council about WMDs in Iraq.
Then there is I. F. "Izzy" Stone's immortal dictum: "All governments lie."
Obama has frequently said that no one is above the law. Do you believe that?
"US Intel Vets Dispute Russia Hacking Claims: As the hysteria about Russia’s alleged interference in the U.S. election grows, a key mystery is why U.S. intelligence would rely on “circumstantial evidence” when it has the capability for hard evidence, say U.S. intelligence veterans." - https://consortiumnews.com/2016/12/12/us-intel-vets-dispute-russia-hacking-claims/
"More insidious and subtle, but even worse, was what Newsweek and its Clinton-adoring writer Kurt Eichenwald did last night. What happened — in reality, in the world of facts — was extremely trivial. One of the emails in the second installment of the WikiLeaks/Podesta archive — posted yesterday — was from Sidney Blumenthal to Podesta. The sole purpose of Blumenthal’s email was to show Podesta one of Eichenwald’s endless series of Clinton-exonerating articles, this one about Benghazi. So in the body of the email to Podesta, Blumenthal simply pasted the link and the full contents of the article. Although the purpose of Eichenwald’s article (like everything he says and does) was to defend Clinton, one paragraph in the middle acknowledged that one minor criticism of Clinton on Benghazi was possibly rational." by Glenn Greenwald - https://theintercept.com/2016/10/11/in-the-democratic-echo-chamber-inconvenient-truths-are-recast-as-putin-plots/
After Reagan won, Tip O’Neill made what I think was a fatal mistake. He decided to work with Reagan, ...
Before Reagan won Tip O'Neill and the other oligarchs (Democratic and Republican) in Congress ganged up on Jimmy Carter rendering his presidency a failure for the most part.
As a senator, President Obama knew part of the solution of these problems is public financing of our elections.
Obama SAID that, but I question whether he was sincere about public financing.
Obamacare is far better than what we had previously, ...
Obamacare is a delaying scam to preclude single-payer which is far and away superior to Obamacare. Stock market investors will disagree with that assessment because the day Obamacare was approved insurance stocks saw considerable gains and the scribes who wrote up Obamacare began their exodus from their government offices to return to their corporate offices.
What kind of signal does it send that a popular Democratic president has to turn to a Republican as Secretary of Defense?
That Obama was deferring to that part of his soul left over from what he sold to the Israel Lobby and was owned by the military-industrial complex. The popular saw about there's not a dime's worth of difference between the Democrats and the Republicans comes close.
I can remember when Scott Brown won a senate seat from Massachusetts, and Obama said he didn’t want to push through Obamacare in Brown’s absence.
Then there was Obama's abandonment of the Wisconsin Democratic Party when it was trying to get rid of Scott Walker.
Walter Karp explained in his book Indispensable Enemies the long history of collusion between the Democratic and Republican party oligarchs. Nothing has changed since Karp wrote that book in 1993 except the names of the players. The system is very much the same.
The suffering of these poor people, ...
We will all do well to remember who helped to start this tragedy: "How The New Yorker Mis-Reports Syria April 20, 2016 - Exclusive: The New Yorker and editor David Remnick were catastrophically wrong about the Iraq War, but they continue publishing the same one-sided propaganda on the Syrian conflict, as Jonathan Marshall describes." - https://consortiumnews.com/2016/04/20/how-the-new-yorker-mis-reports-syria/
Given Ellison's pro-Israel stance there is not much hope for his cleaning of the Augean Stable known as the Democratic Party. Its oligarchy is too entrenched, and most of its key players and candidates for office are owned by the Israel Lobby that would very likely be opposed to Ellison even if he gives voice to pro-Israel talking points. The alternative of an alternate party would be a much better solution, but given the fact that almost all of the electorate considered Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump as acceptable for the office of the president of the United States, there doesn't appear to be much hope for an enlightened and humane third party.
I recall a so-called Wall Street titan say on a television business program several years ago that morality was not a factor in business decisions. Recent events suggest that policy remains in effect with worsening effects. Given the business orientation of the president-elect and his nominees for his cabinet only a fool would expect morality to be a factor in future White House decisions. Which probably means business as usual in spades. As far as Hillary Clinton's "deplorables" in Trump's legions are concerned, lotsaluck on keeping or getting jobs.
If, and that is a big "if," Russia did hack and influence the election then it would only be a small part of the corruption of the American election system. There was lots of shouting about rigged voting machines after the 2000 election and talk ever since. There are continually state-sponsored schemes and gerrymandering to disenfranchise sections of the voting public. There is the bribery inherent in campaign finance, including Citizens United. Our elected senators and representatives in Congress know of these travesties, but they refuse to take corrective action. There are also the constant streams of lies from both major parties and gullible citizens who buy into these lies.
... because the Republican Party’s economic policies aim to help rich people at the expense of workers and most African-Americans are working class ...
Ditto for the (un)Democratic Party
But 320 million Americans can fight back against Pruitt.
But, of those 320 million Americans how many will fight back?
The Liberty Tree Foundation - http://libertytreefoundation.org/ - appears to be prepared to fight in the political arena that may align with the environmental movement. Something to keep an eye on.
One of the lessons we should learn from the vigil at Standing Rock is that the people can fight city hall. One of the lessons from this and similar articles is that Americans had better be prepared for lots of fights with "city hall" during the Trump presidency.
Thank you for that excellent link.
So here is a question for Gen. Mattis and Gen. Flynn: If political Islam is so bad, why is political Christianity better?
Answer: Simple. Political Christianity is "our" faith. Political Islam is "theirs."
And let us remember how poor Chuck Hagel was treated, a distinguished Vietnam War vet with two purple hearts and a senator, during the hearing to confirm him as Secretary of Defense, at the behest of Neocon chickenhawks ...
The abuse John McCain and Lindsey Graham threw at Chuck Hagel was utterly repugnant and contemptible, but Hagel also was at fault. He should have told both of these wretched creatures to go "bleep" themselves.
Everybody involved in US foreign policy and security knows that aggressive Israeli colonization of the Palestinian West Bank and siege of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip is a major cause of terrorism against the United States,...
But, unfortunately, not "everybody involved in US foreign policy and security" has drawn the right and just conclusions.
The trick is political will.
And, as Goethe informed us, "Where there is a will, there is a way." But where is the will?
Obama may be a lame duck capable of ignoring political consequences, but he is probably still dialing for dollars for his presidential library and will be loath to offend pro-Israel moneybags who might forget Obama's $38.5 BILLION gift of more weapons for Israel's oppressors.
He will be, by far and away, the most unpopular person to ever take the oath of office for President.
And, like many, if not most, presidents before him that oath will be meaningless.
Likewise, Cuba denounced the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1978, despite its dependence on the Soviet Union for a lifeline, given the US boycott of Cuba
Meanwhile, all through Fidel Castro's years in charge of Cuba the United States was considered the dog wagged by the Israeli tail. Would anyone care to ascribe Moral Courage Quotients to Fidel Castro and Uncle Sam during that time?
The figures cited for Cuba's GDP and other nations prompts the question, "What would these numbers have been like if Cuba didn't have to contend with the onerous burden of the illegal and immoral embargo imposed on it by its bullying neighbor to the north?"
I respect your point, but there is also much to be said for Dr. Cesar Chelala's: Hamilton vs Trump - http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/21/hamilton-vs-trump/
"Zionists embrace of Trump and Bannon is no surprise" by International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network - http://mondoweiss.net/2016/11/zionists-embrace-surprise/
I have posted before, that the people who run the country are the power behind the throne and Trump, Obama, Clinton Bush and the rest are merely talking heads and are as manipulated as a ventriloquists dummy.
With Mike Pence and his long history of being an agent for the power behind the throne now in charge of Trump's transition team the future can be expected to be pregnant with alarming potential.
If there is a Second Coming, assuming there was a First, Jesus wouldn't be able to vote in Christian (?)America.
As for four grandparents born in America some of their progeny from New England proved to be disastrous for the American people.
I had a neighbor several yeas ago who worked for the county sheriff and was one of the nicest people I could have asked for to live next door to me. He surprised me one day when he told me that he had been a juvenile delinquent who was heading for a life of crime. He was saved by a deputy sheriff who took an interest in him and turned him around. I recently told this story to a corrections officer in the same county who told me incidents like that happen frequently. Until someone presents a better case for convicting this young man in Portland, I'll remain convinced he should have been counseled by someone more enlightened than what he met in the FBI's office. Gave him chances to back out? Lots of teenagers have problems admitting they were wrong and tough it out. How about, instead, "Mohammed, you've been lied to. Let me explain ...?
As long as the FBI headquarters building is named for J. Edgar Hoover the FBI should be regarded with great skepticism - and, perhaps, some fear.
Grumpy: We are in agreement on your list of things you would like to see, but you only have a very slightly better chance of their being realized under Clinton than under Trump.
Then there is the power block behind the curtain - the plutocrats and their bought-and-paid-for oligarchs in both major parties. Will they gang up on or restrain an overreaching President Clinton or President Trump as they did on Carter? Probably not if the elected president does the Israel Lobby's bidding.
For your consideration: The Coming Plague of Poverty Among the Elderly: Clinton’s Plan For Gutting Social Security by Alan Nasser - http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/11/04/the-coming-plague-of-poverty-among-the-elderly-clintons-plan-for-gutting-social-security/
We can oppose her if she drags her feet on key issues.
There is a much better approach but one that is much less likely to occur than manning the barricades against the next President Clinton - subject to a game-changer from Wikileaks in the bottom of the ninth inning. In the movie "Network" the character played by Peter Finch declared he wasn't going to take it anymore. This led to a mass insurrection of the people who also said they weren't going to take it any more. That is what our corrupt and dysfunctional nation needs. An uprising of the people demanding an end to our deplorable national disgrace. Unfortunately, we are more likely to see a nuclear winter - perhaps a version of hell freezing over - before the American people rise demanding a raising of the moral and ethical standards of our so-called leaders.
There is significant war weariness among people everywhere ...
Unfortunately, this war weariness does not seem to apply to potential voters for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Both have made militaristic pronouncements indicating a willingness to wage war, albeit against different perceived enemies. Iran has the unfortunate distinction of attracting the hostility of both leading candidates who have also indicated a willingness to dump more of the national fisc into that five-sided black hole on the Potomac at the expense of several pressing cases affecting a mostly docile and subservient populace.
bobc: I'm delighted that ACA has worked for you and others in your situation, but for others getting sticker shock with the new and higher premiums and deductibles it is a different story.
So why are you supporting an open racist? An open misogynist?
Grumpy: I always appreciate your comments but am disappointed that you imply I'm supporting a racist and misogynist. Note my comment about this choice being like choosing between cholera and bubonic plague. For the record I voted for none of the above in the form of a vote for Jill Stein. The opportunity to vote is not necessarily to pick a winner. It is also a chance to say what kind of government we want. Those of us voting for Jill Stein are saying we want a more civilized and humane society and not what we can expect from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Unfortunately, the majority of people will decline their chance to make such a statement but will instead march like lemmings behind the (un)Democratic and (un)Republican banners.
The interesting point regarding voters supporting Clinton because they, understandably, dread Trump is that they ignore Hillary's record: Support of the judicial murder of Rickey Ray Rector in Arkansas, (as co-president) support of the wars in The Balkans, support of the sanctions on Iraq that cost an estimated half million Iraqi children their lives - Madeleine Albright said, "We thought it was worth it." "We would have including the cabal ensconced in the White House at the time. - war on Iraq that has led to the current chaos in the Middle East and North Africa, regime change in Libya after which she reveled in the sadistic murder of Gaddafi, regime change in Honduras, which is now a basket case, and she wants a no-fly zone in Syria. On that one we must hope intelligence will prevail in the military.
Look at history over the last 100 years and the times when the most progressive policies have been enacted have been when there has been a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress
I don't have time to go into the details of my response, but I happen to be reading my compendium of Walter Karp's writings that contradict your favorable conclusion of the Democratic Party. Woodrow Wilson defied the anti-war sentiments of the American people and got the United States into the First World War - a catastrophe that became one of epic proportions. LBJ chose guns over butter and escalated the Vietnam War, another monumental disaster. FDR's New Deal isn't all it is made out to be. Social Security basically proved to be an excellent development but it was and is rigged to be paid for with regressive taxes. http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Walter_Karp/Walter_Karp_page.html
Tammany Hall and the Bourbon Democrats were no friends of the American people. More recently, the Democratic National Committee set out to crush the progressive challenge initiated by Bernie Sanders.
Obamacare? Written by and for the insurance corporations and now being proved a scam.
We can oppose her if she drags her feet on key issues.
Lotsaluck on that one. The Democratic Party has a very long history of riding roughshod over the wishes of the American people often with collusion of the Republican Party. If your mother dropped you on your head you might believe Hillary and her plutocratic and pro-Israel friends and party oligarchs can be persuaded to change course.
To paraphrase Edward Snowden, the choice is between a cholera or bubonic plague.
The strike on the judiciary building, which had a prison attached, could have been predicted to kill civilians. It is therefore a war crime in international law.
But when you're an autocrat controlling one of the largest quantities of oil you are above the law.
Does Wikileaks have a bigger shoe to drop before the election?
Editorial writer Mikhail Rostovsky does admit that if Clinton instead ratchets up tensions, “things could get out of hand.”
Aye, and with Victoria Nuland in Ukraine and in bed with Robert Kagan, there lies the rub.
Since Americans are often insular and poorly informed by their ramshackle school system and shoddy mass media (and you have to wonder if the corporations like it that way)
Wonder no more. You can bet on that. An ill-informed, apathetic and docile populace is what corporate America and the political oligarchs want. They are less likely to get involved with groups such as Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter.
Clinton has proven, with her record on Iraq, Syria, and Libya, that she thinks this kind of instability is in the strategic interests of the United States.
From Ramzy Baroud over at CounterPunch: - An oddly refreshing, although disturbing ‘truth’ was articulated by Alon Ben-David in the Israeli Jerusalem Post last year. The title of his article speaks volumes: “May it never end: The uncomfortable truth about the war in Syria.” - http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/20/the-many-truths-on-syria-how-our-rivalry-has-destroyed-a-country/
Probably of those who heard this woman speak on these topics few listened to her for the same reason they tune out Barack Obama - a belief their words are just that - words to fit some opportune moment but with a short shelf life.
Modern "circuses" are more destructive than those of ancient Rome in that they are laced with lies that endure for a long time - in some cases, a lifetime. The memory of a fight to the death in a Roman coliseum might have lasted a few days, but the propaganda fed to children about our nation being indivisible with liberty and justice for all sticks with them well into adulthood. Or, how about our noble founding fathers and their virtues and wisdom untarnished by the degradation of their slaves?
Certainly, from the point of view of Native Americans who were driven from their lands by white settlers and African Americans who were threatened with lynching by the KKK, terrorism has a long history in the USA.
Gee, I wonder who has been spewing racist hate for the past 18 months that might have encouraged these groups to expand and become more active?
The powder keg was probably loaded generations ago and was just sitting their waiting for a demagogue like Trump and his more rabid supporters to insert and light the fuse.
Even when advised by the US military against striking some bridges and other key infrastructure (because they are needed to get staples to civilian populations), the Saudis and their allies have nevertheless struck them.
Obama often refers to "our values," as in "these are not our values" after some Americans have been caught committing some shameful act. Is our alliance with Saudi Arabia an example of our values?
Frankly, I don’t trust her on carbon issues.
Frankly, I don’t trust her on any issues. There is what she says on or before November 8, 2016 and what she will say on and after November 9th. Very few of the statements made in one time period will have anything in common with the other.
As for having Al Gore on the campaign trail, that is just more evidence Hillary's ethical judgment is at the same low level as when she hired Debbie Wasserman Schultz immediately after she lost her squalid job at the Democratic National Committee.
I hold no brief for Trump, but he is after all a candidate with no political baggage to his name and the specter of ‘war criminal’ can’t be levied against him.
But the reactions of so many warmongers and misogynists are the epitome of hypocrisy. Surely most women would be offended, some perhaps traumatized, if they were on the receiving end of lust expressed by the "locker room" talk out of Trump and many other men in the shadows. But how does that compare with the consequences for women (and their families) who are on the receiving end of military aggression promoted by politicians of both major parties now so critical of Trump? The Balkans, Iraq economic sanctions, Iraq war, Afghanistan, Gaza, Libya, Syria, etc.?
The point of great concern regarding Trump's bigotry is not so much Trump himself as it is the legions of people who have responded to his squalid rhetoric. At one time, Adolph Hitler was regarded as something of a crackpot ranting from a soapbox in Vienna. He became a much different proposition when large groups of bigots rallied to support him and spread his vile messages.
Eight Times Wrong: the Logic of Lesser Evil Voting by B. Sidney Smith - http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/07/eight-times-wrong-the-logic-of-lesser-evil-voting/
There are instances when voting for the lesser evil is appropriate such as some versions of the greater evil plunging the nation into the abyss while the lesser evil may stop at the precipice, but there are two arguments against voting for the perceived lesser evil this year: (1) There is no lesser evil when considering Clinton and Trump, (2) Americans have been voting the lesser evil for decades and the choices have become progressively worse with each quadrennial charade so that, according to recent polls, a sizable portion (about half?)) of the American people don't want either Clinton or Trump. Of those who will be casting their ballots for one or the other, many are doing so more in opposition to the candidate they reject than for the one getting the votes.
Mike Pence emphasizes that he is above all else a Christian. Obviously, Christians come in a variety of forms and flavors. He appears to be some concoction of a 12th Century Crusader and an inquisitor from 13th Century Spain both of which had expiration dates centuries ago.
The mainstream corporate media have almost always, if not always, been the propaganda outlet for the Establishment's points of view. That applies from the national level down to regional and local levels that also relay the national establishment's messages.
The choice was to vote for what was morally correct or for economic self-interest. The senators chose the morally correct path; although, they probably voted for their own perceived self-interest with elections coming up and not a belief in what was morally right. They probably also anticipated this: The truth about the Saudi bill: Provision to issue a stay on the lawsuits can range from six months to "indefinitely" despite the Congress passing it. - http://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/americas/2016/09/truth-saudi-bill-160929212904406.html
He said he had read a lot of Buddhist thought, and it came to him that nothing is permanent.
The embedded racism within Israeli society and the consequent Israelis' violent hostility towards Palestinians may not be permanent, but they will endure for generations.
Judging by their war-provoking rants and propaganda Clinton and her neocon friends have learned nothing from these monumental catastrophes in Afghanistan and Iraq. If the US and its mercenaries from NATO couldn't tame and "bring democracy" to Afghanistan and Iraq, chances of success in Russia and Iran are less than zero.
There were knowledgeable people warning that the Iraq war would create chaos in the Middle East. Did any of these wise people think it would be as horrendous as it has become?
the US has enacted a body of law designed to protect the rights and privileges of minorities.
Unfortunately, when it comes to laws protecting the rights and privileges of minorities the US remains on auto-pilot talking out of both sides of its mouth.
The US certainly isn't concerned about the minorities in Israel, especially the people in Gaza who are repeatedly slaughtered by Israeli forces, when the White House and Congress endorse these crimes against humanity and rush to replace the Israelis' expended military materiel.
Zionist leader David Ben Gurion noted in his diary when Israel was established that when the US had been formed, no document set out its territorial extent, implying that the same was true of Israel.
Similarly, the US and Israel share a callous - congenital? - pathological? - indifference to the victims of their ethnic cleansing.
I appreciate your point, but the sanctions triggered the various events that followed. No sanctions then no need for the oil-for-food program and any other actions Saddam deemed essential for his survival.
To a lesser extent the recent sanctions on Iran created problems for Iranians who needed certain vital medicines.
Similar US strokes for different folks.
You know well the military history and putting an embargo on airplane parts does not make the US responsible for civil aviation disasters.
Do you agree with those who said the UN sanctions enforced by the Clinton administration were not responsible for the half million Iraqi children who died as a consequence but it was Saddam Hussein's fault? Or, do you agree with Madeleine Albright, the Clintons' secretary of state, it was worth it?
Is the alleged arsonist one of Trump's foot soldiers on Trump's march of folly to "make America great again"?
Because in the minds of "exceptional" Americans non-Americans are nobodies, something like the Nazis' Untermenschen.
Any estimates on what neocon/Clinton wars on Iran and Russia might cost?