Global warming is urgent. I voted for Hillary in the primary because I know she can hit the ground running and has the foreign policy experience to get cooperation from other nations. But I always liked Bernie.
From 1932 to 1980, the Democratic Party had a very effective left wing. Even Ted Kennedy was still getting things done before he died. The United States needs reform, particularly reform that helps working Americans while we transition to green energy. I hope Bernie is successful. He's in a place right now where he can be a big help.
The pirate argument seems to have a lot of truth to it. Pirates, in literature anyway, are romantic and heroic and very much about manliness (the incident of vigilantes defending the Nevada rancher comes to mind, though of course we're talking about ISIL). The argument can be pushed too far, though. Most pirates, for example, don't wear suicide belts (then again, a cornered pirate is willing to jump off a cliff rather than submit to authority).
From some of the things I've read here on Informed Comment and elsewhere, I'm struck by the two different groups that join ISIL: some are petty to serious criminals with a range of motivations, including, in their own mind, redemption. Some are nonreligious people stuck out in the middle of territories held by ISIL who need income literally to support their families.
So what did we learn from George W.'s fiasco in Iraq? We learned the worse thing we can do is create more enemies. And that clearly is a lesson conservative Republicans have not learned. I'm suspicious that part of the motivation for the attacks by ISIL is to alienate enough Europeans that they turn on the refugees. This strategy is already working on a large number of American conservatives.
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Global warming is urgent. I voted for Hillary in the primary because I know she can hit the ground running and has the foreign policy experience to get cooperation from other nations. But I always liked Bernie.
From 1932 to 1980, the Democratic Party had a very effective left wing. Even Ted Kennedy was still getting things done before he died. The United States needs reform, particularly reform that helps working Americans while we transition to green energy. I hope Bernie is successful. He's in a place right now where he can be a big help.
The pirate argument seems to have a lot of truth to it. Pirates, in literature anyway, are romantic and heroic and very much about manliness (the incident of vigilantes defending the Nevada rancher comes to mind, though of course we're talking about ISIL). The argument can be pushed too far, though. Most pirates, for example, don't wear suicide belts (then again, a cornered pirate is willing to jump off a cliff rather than submit to authority).
From some of the things I've read here on Informed Comment and elsewhere, I'm struck by the two different groups that join ISIL: some are petty to serious criminals with a range of motivations, including, in their own mind, redemption. Some are nonreligious people stuck out in the middle of territories held by ISIL who need income literally to support their families.
So what did we learn from George W.'s fiasco in Iraq? We learned the worse thing we can do is create more enemies. And that clearly is a lesson conservative Republicans have not learned. I'm suspicious that part of the motivation for the attacks by ISIL is to alienate enough Europeans that they turn on the refugees. This strategy is already working on a large number of American conservatives.