The Day After -- Will We?

Some think much of my writing dark. Admittedly, there is some truth to this. If my views are so often about the darkness of the human condition it is because, I believe the immunization through its knowledge is the only way to keep the contagion of it from generationally spreading. Immunization against the disease means seeing its unpleasantries before our eyes no matter the difficulty. The Holocaust is an example of this. It must be kept alive to impress upon generations of humankind of that which man is capable hoping that if one knows it one will keep from repeating it again.

Netflix offers much. If you have it I urge you to search on it for "Hiroshima" and then view it. It is half documentary and half docudrama precisely written with interviews of those who experienced it, from both sides. The American airmen Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets, pilot of the Enola Gay, who dropped the A bomb named "Little Boy" and other Americans were interviewed who were involved it it. Some of the Japanese of Hiroshima who were on the receiving end were interviewed as well. Not many are, of course, left.

The film, brilliantly done, illuminates in detail what it really means to, as some so cavalierly say about American adversaries "just nuke em." What does "just nuke em" mean? I suspect most who say that know not what they say and further have no understanding what dropping a nuclear device really means. There is no comprehension of a day after for those who say such inane and brutal things. Netflix "Hiroshima" will show one what it means. You, your children and your children’s children should see it at a time maturationally possible and know precisely what nuclear war means and why those who would want to subvert discussions about its spread should stop before it is too late.

The end of the film presents a modern view of Hiroshima and discusses in real time both sides of the Hiroshima argument. The question: Did America have to drop the atomic bomb? The opinions come from both those who dropped the bomb – politicians and airmen alike – to those who were the recipients of it. The film also showed Americans dancing in the streets with glee at war’s end. Few knew then the enormity of what we had just done to end it and few knew what it would mean for generations the day after.

Stephen Hawking, the eminent physicist, was asked recently: “What is the most dangerous threat to face mankind today?” He did not say climate change as I expected but he did say human aggression. We should never forget that and we should always remember but will we?

And the Leaks Keep coming

http://www.nbcnews.com/…/radioactive-fukushima-water-leak-w…


Radioactive Fukushima Water Leak Was Unreported for Months: Official

TOKYO — The operator of Japan's tsunami-stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant admitted it failed to report a radioactive rainwater leak from the facility fo...
nbcnews.com

What is happening at MSNBC?

I am hearing things I do not want to hear. I am hearing that they are pushing MSNBC away from its progressive format. They are I have heard but do not know if it is true that Chris Hayes may be given the door. I HOPE this is not true. I ask you to write MSNBC or call MSNBC (phone number is easily available if you Google it) and show him and MSNBC support as they broadcast now.

I have heard too that Joy Reid whom I love is going to do other formats and that Al Sharpton's job is in the crosshairs. DO NOT LET THE CORPORATISTS do what we all feared they would when Olbermann left and Comcast bought MSNBC out. If you let them they will decimate the ONLY major cable network that speaks for the 98%. Their reporting and progressive commentary is spot on correct and excellent.

If you think the Tea Party has been duped and hoodwinked by this corporatist agenda you are right. They have and they do not even realize it. The Republican Party is NOT about most of them. It must appeal to the lesser angels of their human nature. It is racist, mendacious and inhumane. Our nation is being taken over by them. DO NOT LET IT. IT IS WHY YOU MUST VOTE BEFORE you will not have a nation for which to vote!

The Roots of Terrorism -- A Response to Stephen Kinzer editorial

The February 15 Globe article by Stephen Kinzer entitled "A root of terrorism grew from Europe's colonization" was spot on correct.  My letter to the Globe was printed in today's edition.  It is as follows.

As western head-scratching occurs trying to figure out why so many Muslims are so angry and so violent to us, it seems impossible for the west to admit that history counts. The legacy of colonialism and its brutality, while, perhaps, not felt at first, did rear its ugly head later.  It is pitiful that the media rarely makes mention of it.  The gargantuan mistake of the Iraq War based on lies is simply another example of western historical amnesia.  The US illegally invaded a foreign nation, Iraq, that did nothing to deserve it.  Colonialism and it have had disastrous consequences as American go shopping or watch the Superbowl and almost instantaneously forget the consequences of that history.

Human beings resent conquerors and they resent being slaughtered especially when they are guilty of nothing except having the world's most voluminous supply of oil and the west's insatiable appetite for it.  You want to know why the ugly barbarism of ISIS exists I suggest you remember Shakespeare's immortal lines:  "The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars but in ourselves."

I am hearing things I do not want to hear.  I am hearing that they are pushing MSNBC away from its progressive format.  They are I have heard but do not know if it is true that Chris Hayes may be given the door.  I HOPE this is not true.  I ask you to write MSNBC or call MSNBC (phone number is easily available if you Google it) and show him and MSNBC support as they broadcast now.  I have heard too that Joy Reid whom I love is going to do other formats and that Al Sharpton's job is in the crosshairs. DO NOT LET THE CORPORATIST Phil Griffin do what we all feared he would when Olbermann left and Comcast bought MSNBC out.  If you let them they will decimate the ONLY major cable network that speaks for the 98%. Their reporting and commentary is spot on correct and excellent.  If you think the Tea Party has been duped and hoodwinked by this corporatist agenda you are right.  They have and they do not even realize it.  The Republican Party is NOT about most of them.  It must appeal to the lesser angels of their human nature.  It is racist, mendacious and inhumane.  Our nation is being taken over by them. DO NOT LET IT.  IT IS WHY YOU MUST VOTE BEFORE you will not have a nation for which to vote!

Remember -- short narration by Meryl Streep

Always remember, never forget and apply it to all people for all time!

"And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."  Deuteronomy 11:19

http://www.downfacebook.com/download-facebook-video-10153051883204805.html

Think on what will happen if in 2016 the Republicans occupy a majority in the House, in the Senate and the presidency.  Everything you know that makes human life better in this country for the middle class can be eradicated in a heartbeat minute.  The vote is the ONLY thing we have between us and true tyranny against blacks, against women, against Hispanics, against the poor, against the middle class, against unions and against all things that act as safety nets for those of us who are not billionaires.  Think on it and then do what you must -- VOTE Democrat!

I was an American sniper, and Chris Kyle’s war was not my war

My Note: Another View: Just who is a "savage" and who is not?

Feb 21, 2015 · Garett Reppenhagen, VoteVets.org

I spent nights in Iraq lying prone and looking through a 12-power sniper scope. You only see a limited view between the reticles. That’s why it’s necessary to keep both eyes open. This way you have some ability to track targets and establish 360 degrees of awareness. I rotated with my spotter and an additional security team member to maintain vigilance and see the whole battlefield. I scrutinized every target in my scope to determine if they were a threat.

In a way, it’s an analogy for keeping the whole Iraq mission in perspective and fully understanding the experiences of the U.S. war fighters during Operation Iraqi Freedom. No single service member has the monopoly on the war narrative. It will change depending on where you serve, when you were there, what your role was, and a few thousand other random elements.

For the past 10 days, “American Sniper” has rallied crowds and broken box office records, but if you want to understand the war, the film is like peering into a sniper scope — it offers a very limited view.

The movie tells the story of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, said to have 160 confirmed kills, which would make him the most lethal American military member in history. He first shared his story in a memoir, which became the basis for Clint Eastwood’s film adaptation. Kyle views the occupation of Iraq as necessary to stop terrorists from coming to the mainland and attacking the U.S.; he sees the Iraqis as “savages” and attacks any critical thought about the overall mission and the military’s ability to accomplish it.

This portrayal is not unrealistic. My unit had plenty of soldiers who thought like that. When you are sacrificing so much, it’s tempting to believe so strongly in the “noble cause,” a belief that gets hardened by the fatigue of multiple tours and whatever is going on at home. But viewing the war only through his eyes gives us too narrow a frame.

During my combat tour I never saw the Iraqis as “savages.” They were a friendly culture who believed in hospitality, and were sometimes positive to a fault. The people are proud of their history, education system and national identity. I have listened to children share old-soul wisdom, and I have watched adults laugh and play with the naiveté of schoolboys. I met some incredible Iraqis during and after my deployment, and it is shameful to know that the movie has furthered ignorance that might put them in danger.

Unlike Chris Kyle, who claimed his PTSD came from the inability to save more service members, most of the damage to my mental health was what I call “moral injury,” which is becoming a popular term in many veteran circles.

As a sniper I was not usually the victim of a traumatic event, but the perpetrator of violence and death. My actions in combat would have been more acceptable to me if I could cloak myself in the belief that the whole mission was for a greater good. Instead, I watched as the purpose of the mission slowly unraveled.

I served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005. During that time, we started to realize there were no weapons of mass destruction, the 9/11 commission report determined that Iraq was not involved in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, false sovereignty was given to Iraq by Paul Bremer, the atrocities at Abu Ghraib were exposed, and the Battle of Fallujah was waged.

The destruction I took part in suddenly intersected with news that our reasons for waging war were untrue. The despicable conduct of those at Abu Ghraib was made more unforgivable by the honorable interactions I had with Iraqi civilians, and, together, it fueled the post-traumatic stress I struggle with today.

My war was completely different than Chris Kyle’s war. That doesn’t mean his war is wrong, and mine was right. But it does mean that no one experience is definitive.

The movie depicts compounded action scenes with very little political and regional context. It was a conscious decision by Clint Eastwood, apparently, to leave out the cause of the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. It was a conscious decision, apparently, for multiple characters to describe the Iraqis as “savages” and never show any alternative. When I heard of the bigoted reaction some Americans had after watching the film, I was disgusted, but not surprised. Audience members are mistaking Chris Kyle’s view of the war as “the” story about the war. No wonder someone tweeted that the movie made them “want to go kill some ragheads.” It’s sad that such a nearsighted portrayal of Iraqis has caused more people to fear Arabs and glorify violence against them.

It would be refreshing if a big Hollywood movie would take on the task of creating a less dramatized, more nuanced version of warfare. There are some incredible documentaries on the subject. “Occupation: Dreamland” and “Restrepo” capture the life of a service member in a modern deployment without sugarcoating the hard political environment that is a backdrop to the conflicts.

The responsibility to make a picture that takes into account all of the political and social dynamics might not rest on any individual filmmaker. After all, it is just a movie. But that means the public should treat it like that, and educate themselves before jumping to a conclusion that the whole war was just like that. Especially if they support the democratic ideals that Chis Kyle, me and every veteran who put on a uniform swore an oath to defend with our lives.

If you really want to be a patriotic American, keep both eyes open and maintain 360 degrees of awareness. Don’t simply watch “American Sniper.” Read other sources, watch other films about the conflict. Talk to as many veterans as you can, get a full perspective on the war experience and the consequences. Ensure the perceived enemy in your vision is what it seems.

Oscars in Summary

Lady Gaga was amazing. She was wonderful. I agree that Oscars in general was hugely boring and SO much wasted time on junk. Many speeches were much too long. There should be a rule NO thanking your entire family, cast and crew. Just a simple thank you limited to four people and that's it. No one remembers or cares. Many categories are irrelevant to most.

Having said that there were some wonderful films that won and I was thrilled they did not give a reward in the form of an Oscar to a killer who boasted of 160 kills of human beings, American Sniper. They froze that film I boycotted out nearly completely except for one irrelevant film edit. Clint Eastwood will NEVER be recognized again after the what he pulled at the Republican convention insulting the president. Hollywood is not going to recognize him or films that laud killers ... real killers.

All those who won should have won. Julianne Moore for "I'm Still Alice" and Eddie Redmayne for The "Theory of Everything." It is wonderful that they won as they deserved it. Best pic "Birdman" I have not seen but will. It is supposed to be exceptional. So they spread out the gold and that was fine.

THE WORST MOMENT AND BY FAR THE MOST RIDICULOUS MOMENT WAS NEAL PATRICK HARRIS IN HIS UNDERWEAR!! Second worse moment at the end with his stupid briefcase predictions was a waste of time.  No one cared and the jokes fell flat.  Third worst moment when Neal Patrick Harris made a joke at the end of a woman who told of her child's suicide--awful. It was wasted time times ten. Who thinks up these idiotic moments for a three year old who probably is not even watching Harris in his underwear and for this moment should not be watching? It was inane.  The moments about Selma were fine and glad "Glory" won it for best song. Other than that I agree with the Huffington it was boring.

Oh yes one more thing do not run out to see these films except for Redmayne in "The Theory of Everything" and Julianne Moore for "I'm Still Alice." The other films will be on Netflix for free if you get Netflix which for $8.99 a month is so worth it but I do like to reward exceptional films at the box office i like such as the "Theory of Everything" and "I'm Still Alice."  The rest theaters will NOT see my money at $9.00 ticket and popcorn that you need a loan to afford. Movies are much too expensive to go to when you can get it elsewhere for so much less and sit in the comfort of your living room.

Oh yeah, almost forgot. KUDOS to Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras for their documentary "Citizen Four!"


Someone PLAHLEESE cut the time of the Oscars down at least an hour. And BTW, why no mention of I n Memoriam to Joan Rivers and Elaine Stritch?! Bad errors. Someone from the Academy should apologize.

Oscars -- Quick Thought

Thrilled American Sniper was sniped. I think they did a good job selecting the most worthy. I only cared that American Sniper would NOT be chosen and it wasn't. That rotten Eastwood deserves to pack up his things and go home. The vile thing he pulled at the Republican convention insulting the president profanely did not win him votes in Hollywood and Hollywood would not be remembered for lauding a killer. I rather knew the Academy would ditch him. Further a man who was as screwed up as Kyle's claim to fame was that he had 160 kills is a disgusting attribute and in the end one of his own Marines killed him because they were both cut from the same psychotic cloth. To be proud of 160 kills as if they were shooting meat is revolting. More than that Eddie Redmayne really deserved it for best actor of Stephen Hawking's life. And Juliane Moore is the best too for "I'm still Alice" about Alzheimer's.

 I will eventually see all the winners probably on Netflix!

Muslims in Oslo encircled a Jewish synagogue Friday night, standing up to Jihadists

The Jewish Standard

The picture scroll below: Muslims in Oslo encircled a Jewish synagogue Friday night, standing up to Jihadists in the face of rising antisemitism in Europe targeting Jews in markets, synagogues and on the streets.

I saw that last evening and cried it was so beautiful. This is how we SHOULD treat each other.  Underneath it all we are simply human.  We want to live a decent life without the social evisceration and brutality of war.

It is so easy to be kind and to me so difficult to hurt another.

 Wonderful picture which I put on my desk top!

Malcolm X -- After Giuliani

It is the 50th anniversary of the death of the black activist Malcolm X.   I am old enough to have been immersed in the black civil rights movement of the 1960's.   I heard Dr. King, I heard the thoughts of Malcolm X, I read James Baldwin, Marcus Garvey, Frederick Douglas, and the abolitionists.   I knew about SNCC, CORE, the Black Panthers, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church and the killing of four young girls by the KKK and many other crimes against people of color too numerous to mention here.   I became furious at the centuries of injustice black people experienced in this very exceptional country.

I am also a Jewish woman who is not afraid to say I loved Malcolm X. He expressed a rage at the injustice that I feel when I see an obstructionist racist Republican Congress pillory our first black president no matter what he does as they try to lie their way to power any way they can and appeal to the basest instincts of our nature.   I am angry when I see raised the noxious Confederate flag, a symbol of white southern racism and the deaths of thousands of innocent black men at the poplar tree hands of white racists in the south.

 

Flying the Confederate flag is as if a Nazi one were raised in my sight.   What must it mean for persons of color who see that treasonous flag emblematic of a segregationist south?

 

I am angry when a hateful former NYC Mayor Giuliani insults our president disparaging his patriotism. This coming from a man who avoided the Vietnam draft and did not protect the Trade Towers he knew were a prime target for attack.   He impunes the president's childhood while the uncle Giuliani touts as having the most influence on him was a felon who ended up in Sing Sing and worse along with his other uncles evaded the WWII draft. That is who taught former Mayor Giuliani and that is who he thinks taught him patriotism while the president’s grandfather and great uncle fought in WWII and, indeed, his great uncle was among those who liberated Ohrdruf, a Nazi work camp and a sub camp of Buchenwald.

 

I am, indeed, furious about what Giuliani said against our president as furious as I am when Netanyahu tries to spit in the face of the president and accept a Republican obstructionist Congress's invitation to speak before it subverting the all important nuclear talks with Iran. I am furious at the racist inhumane, cruelty and abuse minorities have had to swallow at the hands of white racists like Giuliani and the entire Republican Party of our modern era.

 

What can I do about it? Not much except to universally reject and oppose what he said and for which the Republican Party stands. Disparaging the consummate patriot Obama's good name cannot be tolerated.

 

Malcolm X instilled fear in white America and told it things they did not want to hear.   He said America was racist, treated the black man abominably for centuries and killed him mercilessly while claiming the nation’s “exceptional” character.   Malcolm told America that he and persons of color were not going to take it anymore.   He did not mince words but in soft tones explained to a white interviewer why he believed as he did.   Malcolm said no to violence BUT he would NOT be nonviolent toward those who were violent to him.

 

I loved Malcolm X.   I still do.   No one said it better or fought against injustice harder than Malcolm X did.   This slender 6 foot 4 inch tall man with his piercing eyes, charismatic presence and wry smile told the black man he should take the freedom that should rightfully be his.   After Giuliani’s inane and hateful comments receive such a plethora of news coverage they do not deserve I suspect Malcolm X would say fight those words "by any means necessary."

How much longer can we suffer the insufferable?  How much longer can we take the evil and lies the Republican Party spews.  When will we as a nation come to our senses and reject ALL Republican candidates for anything not even dog catcher.  There is no other election that will be as important as 2016.  It will be the test as to whether our nation lives 98% slave and 1% free or whether we DEMAND what should be the right of the middle classes, a more economically equitable nation and climate change policy that reverses this planetary threat. 

The time grows short as it is five minutes to midnight. Now is the time as there will be no other.  Our planet through our extreme weather is screaming at us.  If only we would listen.  Our only choice is through the Democratic Party.  Do NOT let Republicans fool you again.

Giuliani HYPOCRITE supreme; Wayne Barrett: What Rudy Giuliani knows about love — a response to his 'doesn't love America' critique of Obama

BY Wayne Barrett

Rudy Giuliani knows a lot about love.

Ask Regina Peruggi, the second cousin he grew up with and married, who was "offended" when Rudy later engineered an annulment from the priest who was his best man on the grounds, strangely enough, that she was his cousin. Or ask Donna Hanover, the mother of his two children, who found out he wanted a separation when he left Gracie Mansion one morning and announced it at a televised press conference.

Or ask Judi Nathan, his third wife, whom he started dating while still married to Hanover and New York mayor. In two SUVs, he and an entourage of six or seven cops traveled 11 times to Judi's Hamptons getaway at a taxpayer cost of $3,000 a trip. That's love.

Rudy knows so much about love that he declared the other day that President Obama "doesn't love you" and "doesn't love me" at a private party of GOP fat cats.

EDITORIAL: RUDY GIULIANI'S DISGUSTING ATTACK ON OBAMA

The onetime presidential candidate also revealed at the party that Obama "doesn't love America," an echo of a speech he'd delivered to delirious cheers in Arizona a week earlier when he declared: "I would go anywhere, any place, anytime, and I wouldn't give a damn what the President of the United States said, to defend my country. That's a patriot. That's a man who loves his people. That's a man who fights for his people. Unlike our President."

Rudy may have forgotten the half-dozen deferments he won ducking the Vietnam War, even getting the federal judge he was clerking for to write a letter creating a special exemption for him. And remember Bernie Kerik? He's the Giulaini police commissioner, business partner and sidekick whose nomination as homeland security secretary narrowly preceded indictments. He then did his national service in prison.

Handout A Department of Correction receiving blotter from Sing Sing prison shows the name of Harold Giuliani (aka Joseph Starrett), Rudy's father.

Giuliani went so far as to rebuke the President for not being "brought up the way you were and the way I was brought up through love of this country," a bow no doubt to the parenting prowess of Harold Giuliani, who did time in Sing Sing for holding up a Harlem milkman and was the bat-wielding enforcer for the loan-sharking operation run out of a Brooklyn bar owned by Rudy's uncle.

Though Rudy cited Harold throughout his public life as his model (without revealing any of his history), he and five Rudy uncles found ways to avoid service in World War II. Harold, whose robbery conviction was in the name of an alias, made sure the draft board knew he was a felon. On the other hand, Obama's grandfather and uncle served. His uncle helped liberate Buchenwald, which apparently affected him so deeply he stayed in the family attic for six months when he returned home.

Rudy also said Obama is "more of a critic than he is a supporter of America," an odd admonition coming from a security salesman who told a Tijuana audience of consulting clients in October: "America needs to stop lecturing other countries and start working on how to stop drug use in its citizens," shifting the onus for the Mexican drug trade onto us. He's a consultant in Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, the very countries where right-wing governments, traffickers and/or gangs are driving children and teenagers across the U.S. border.

DE BLASIO, DNC CHAIR SLAM GIULIANI'S COMMENTS

He was a consultant for the government of Qatar, the country his friend and FBI director Louis Freeh accused of hiding 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed before the attack. That's the ultimate triumph of money over memory, since he's still talking, as recently as a week ago, about the 10 friends and 343 firefighters he lost on 9/11.

While Giuliani finds Obama's rhetoric insufficiently pro-American, his 2012 RNC speech was filled with catchphrases like Obama's "a complete and absolute failure," and he just branded the President "a moron" in his Arizona invocation of Neville Chamberlain at Munich, all of it presumably a new form of nationalist celebration. In 2012, Rudy even blasted Obama, without a glance in the mirror, for "attempting to exploit" the killing of Osama Bin Laden, calling it "disgusting."

Rudy contends that his not-like-us Obama insights have nothing to do with race, adding in day-after doubling down that the President "was taught to be a critic of America," while pointing out that his mother and grandparents were white. There are few in New York now, after 12 years of Mike Bloomberg and a year of Bill de Blasio, who doubt that Rudy was a conscious, almost energetic, polarizer. He never acknowledged his dark side then and he's not about to now.

Barrett is author of "Rudy: An Investigative Biography."

The Despicable Giuliani--Off the Top of My Head

Sometimes I feel so strongly about a political issue that the force behind that feeling compels me to write something quickly while sacrificing syntactical excellence. Former Mayor of New York City Giuliani's dastardly comments about the president's, as he put it, "hatred for America" spawned a volcanic eruption in my brain. Hence I sent my opinion in opposition to him stating that objection emphatically and rapidly.

Giuliani's statement is, of course, not only untrue but part and parcel of what the Republicon Party is all about in our time. It is the Party of hatred of the other meaning persons of color. I could not let him get away with such hateful and despicable comments so I sent my off-the-top-of-my-head sentiments (pasted below) to him.

Mr. Giuliani, I think I have never heard more despicable, insulting, sickening words uttered than the ones you did today about our President, a man whom I love. You are without a doubt the most feckless, rude, brazen, disgusting former mayor of the great City of New York. I am thankful every day that you failed to achieve the electoral heights you desired because if you did only God could help us.

On 9/11 you missed the boat and failed to protect the buildings adequately and there are probably many other things I could say that would impugn YOUR patriotism. But I will refrain from doing that and simply say I think your comments were disrespectful not only to Barack Obama, our president and yes, YOUR president too but they were an insult to the nation who elected him and to whom you SHOULD apologize.

I wish I had a nickel for all the times the president has waxed patriotic. Perhaps I would be a part of the 1% richest like you. You are a mean, cruel and utterly disparaging human being.

May you continue, if you try for higher political office or any thing else for that matter NEVER be successful. You are a mean spirited racist brute!

From one who LOVES her eminently patriotic president!

What ISIS Really Wants

After you read the Graeme Wood opinion below Google Larry O'Donnell last night's "The Last Word" and listen to his guests among whom was a feminist Muslim woman, the prescient Phyllis Bennis and others who discuss the eschatological or end days 7th Century Muslim religious belief system ISIS follows and why ISIS is not simply an irrational band of thugs.  Far from it.  They have core beliefs whose etiology begins in the 7th century and they want to keep it for the 21st century and beyond.   

You cannot kill militarily an idea but rather must fight it with modern ideas emanating from the Enlightenment to our modern era.




What ISIS Really Wants

The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.

---

By Graeme Wood

Click on the link here or below.

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2015/02/what-isis-really-wants/384980/?utm_source=digg&utm_medium=email

 

OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD

Judge Temporarily Halts Obama's Immigration Actions here or here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/17/lawsuit-obama-immigration_n_6680366.html#comments ; -- MY COMMENT BELOW PLEASE scroll down and READ my comment.

This is why I was screaming to the rafters in 2014. Latinos, when you KNOW the Republicon Party is NOT about you you get out the vote! They are about sending Latinos back irrespective of whether you have families here permanently or not. Therefore, I said Latinos, progressive, Democrats and others who KNOW what this Republican Party is all about and it's NOT about the 98% of Americans who are not the 1% richest so I screamed, screamed and screamed some more, emailing all the Latino groups I could find along with other progressive allies to get out and VOTE.  You do not let voting go. We as progressives and persons of humane belief KNOW that Republicans in this country do not care about humane policy they care about piling all the money into their corner and leaving the rest of us, the 98% out in the cold.

You should do anything and everything to GET ESPECIALLY LATINOS AND OTHERS ON THE SIDE OF THE 98% OUT TO VOTE. It should have been done in 2014 but it wasn't. Democrats and progressives stayed home. YOU CANNOT STAY HOME. Show them through the ballot box that the only reason these Republican Cretans have power is because it was a low voter turn out election. When we get out to vote we WIN. THEN MONITOR THE VOTE to make sure Republicans do not corrupt it.

Latinos, DO SO in 2016 or they will deport you as fast as jack rabbit can run!

Netanyahu the WRONG Response

Two attacks in Copenhagen is eerily similar to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France and its sidecar attack on a Jewish kosher market.  This time it was an attack on a free speech forum and then an attack on a Jewish synagogue.  The attacks against Jews eviscerates my soul.  It harkens back, for me, to the vicious antiSemitism seen in the culmination of the Holocaust that eradicated 2/3rds of the Jews of Europe.  We are seventy years from that unspeakable time and yet and yet this longest hatred continues for .2%, yes that's right, point 2 meaning 2 tenths of one percent of the world's population.

The Prime Minister of Denmark reached out to the Jewish community asking them not to fear attacks because the country of Denmark will protect them.  What was the Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu's, irrational response?   He urges all Jews to leave Europe and emigrate to Israel.  Oh sure, ratchet up the fear even more insulting the Danish Prime Minister and the Danish people, long time friends to Jews in their perpetual endurance of hate. This is insanity on many levels and it must stop. Jews everywhere should reject Netanyahu's pathological politics of fear, war and mayhem.

This Prime Minister of Israel who says he loves the Jewish state and the Jewish people counteracts the Danish Prime Minister who says Denmark is safe for Jews and that the authorities in it will protect them.  What a great idea Netanyahu has -- NOT. Let's urge all Jews to congregate in one spot so they can be sitting ducks for attacks when the dispersal of Jews throughout the world is a much better preservative action especially in nations that extend their hand to Jews remembering the Nazi atrocities against us.

Netanyahu's actions serve only to inflame and encircle Muslims as if each and every single Muslim is out to kill Jews.  We know this is not so.  The worst action I can think of is meet this situation with fear and violence as violence begets violence all over the world.

Human beings -- Jew, Muslim, Christian, white, brown, black and others must come to their senses and be big-brain rational.  Stop this incessant never ending violent spiral and learn to live with the realities of life.  Humanity is diverse, it is
multidimensional, and is multicultural not just in Europe but EVERYWHERE on the planet.

The Israeli people should reject the religious extremism in its ranks and send Netanyahu a message of defeat in the soon-to-be-held Israeli elections. Netanyahu's path is NOT a path to peace it is a path to permanent war and destruction.  It will continue from generation to generation until someone bold enough, humane enough, and savvy enough chooses a different way.  

My Jewish brethren, do NOT leave Europe but enhance it as we always have.

Core inside the earth's core

Evolution and science denier know-nothings should take a look at the link below. If there is one thing, as if there were not a bazillion other things, that proves conclusively the veracity of evolution it would be this:

Here or http://www.nbcnews.com/watch/nbc-news/scientists-discover-a-core-inside-the-earths-core-398727235892

The Democratic Party is the ONLY Party that recognizes the truths that only science can provide.  Think on this as you get out in 2016 to vote for Democrats.  Another Bush or any Republcon is unacceptable and will kill thousands either by eliminating Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA, regulatory agencies like the EPA that save lives not to mention a do nothing Party on climate change, the evidence of which one can see by looking out my window and/or by eternal war!

The Loss of Giants

The media world has lost either voluntarily or by the untimely clutches of death, giants in its field:  John Stewart, Bob Simon, Brian Williams, Robin Williams and most recently David Carr -- the New York Times columnist.  Here or below is the last discussion David Carr had with Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras.  One could see he was not in the best of health.  He collapsed and died shortly after the interview. 

Robin William's instruction to his students in "Dead Poet's Society" -- Carpe diem -- "Seize the day" holds true. Life is short and we know not each of our fate.  We must do what we can do when we can do it.

Robert Frost's  "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening" which, I think, says the same thing as I interpret "woods" as death's metaphor. 

Finally, below that Emily Dickson's immortal poem: "Because I Could not Stop for Death" never forgotten by me when it was recited by my cousin at his beloved partner's funeral.  Seize the day, indeed!

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Because I Could Not Stop for Death

He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played,
Their lessons scarcely done;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/watch-david-carrs-final-interview-with-glenn-greenwald-edward-snowden/

Three Muslims Shot Dead Near University of North Carolina--Sin no more

Comment:  AWFUL. 

Kayla Mueller, the young girl killed as she helped the besieged people of Syria, I thought would have an immediate impact.  She was a humanitarian supreme and an example to all of us for our time and for all time -- the Gandhi of our era. She cared about people she did not even know and went to lengths few of us could.

Our lives, in my opinion, count for little unless one is on the side of the poor, the dispossessed and the rejected trying to help them any way we can.  Although empathy is in short supply it's something we all have the ability to cultivate if only we would. 

Again, another senseless shooting of innocents and productive innocents at that at an exclusive university in this nation.  When will it stop?  It begins with each of us walking in the other person's shoes and asking who of us would want to trod in their path. 

This story is upsetting because of the ramifications it could have at an already explosive time.  Since 9/11 what have we accomplished, what war have we won, whose hearts and minds have we captured?  Think on that and as one great humanitarian said "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" -- Matthew 25:40.  "Go and sin no more!"-- John 8:11

The story of this tragic happening is below.

Story below:

NBC NEWS:

Students, Parents on Edge After Three People Shot and Killed

NBC News

A suspected gunman has been charged with the triple murder of Muslim family members near a university campus in North Carolina, officials and local media said early Wednesday. Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, shot dead a second-year dentistry student, his wife, and her sister in an apartment complex near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, local police said. Police did not release any information about the possible motive for the alleged crime.

Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad, 19, were found dead at the scene by officers who responded to reports of gunfire just after 5 p.m. Tuesday in the town 20 miles northwest of Raleigh. The Charlotte Observer reported that all three victims were Muslim.

Officials said Hicks had been charged with three counts of first-degree murder and was being held in the Durham County Jail. Officials at the jail told NBC News that he would appear at the in-house courtroom Wednesday morning.

Yusor Mohammad planned to start studies at UNC's school of dentistry this fall, and Razan Mohammad was a student at North Carolina State University, according to university and police officials. UNC said it felt "deep sadness" and said its chancellor, Carol L. Folt, would issue a statement. A Facebook group entitled "Our Three Winners" was set up early Wednesday in tribute to the victims.

Barakat was raising money for a trip this summer to Turkey, where he planned to provide dental care to Syrian refugees, according to his fundraising page. Following the shooting, scores of people donated money and sent messages of condolence. By 6 a.m. ET Wednesday the page had raised $22,657 — far exceeding its goal to raise $20,000 by the end of July.

Chapel Hill Police

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, allegedly shot dead a second-year dentistry student, his wife, and her sister in an apartment complex near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill according to Chapel Hill police.

Lied to Nation; Lying Brian

Michael Moore's quote about Brian Williams -- profanity sanitized a bit for good form -- I post in italics below.  My thoughts are below that.

Let's see... So George W. Bush is now an artist and a painter & roots for dear brother "Jeb in 2016;" Dick Cheney now appears on many networks as a grumpy old man pundit; Condi Rice gets to be on the board that picks college football's Final 4... but it's Brian Williams who's to be punished for Iraq? Are u kidding me?

I mean, an entire country was demolished, trillions were wasted, thousands of our troops were killed & wounded, tens/hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians were killed, and now, FINALLY, someone is paying for Iraq war lies... and it's Brian Williams?

Yes, there is much that can be said about all the network reporters in 2003 who were embedded (i.e., Pentagon-approved) with the troops and getting to "play war" instead of asking the Bush administration the hard questions THAT DID NOT GET ASKED, and yes there is much to say about how all the networks have dumbed down the nightly news and made it unwatchable... BUT - to let the real liars who were responsible for the Iraq War roam free while instead going after Brian Williams for committing the crime of Faux Macho due to his claim of being on the wrong chopper, well, this just begs to be ridiculed and stopped. Sinners (that means you, too, Paper of Record of Judith Miller), put down your stones. Social media mob, put down your noose. Have the guts to go after the big cheese.

Let Brian Williams get back to telling us about the next big storm that's going to drop 3" of snow on New York City and the exclusive report on the lost dog who made it home to help its handicap master. (Note: I don't know Brian Williams personally, but I'll say this about him: in the post-9/11 years, he did the nightly news hour on MSNBC/CNBC, and he was one of the few people in TV news who would allow an opposition voice such as mine on the air. I remember thinking this is a man with integrity.)

My thoughts:

News is entertainment and that is why Williams ratcheted up the news to make it and him more entertaining, fun and oh yes macho.  The news is a show, like the Grammys, Dancing with the Stars or the Kardashians.  Its only goal is NOT the content of the news but the ratings it gets showing how entertaining the news can be.

Like everything else -- foreign policy and eternal war, we get the nation we elect and deserve. Brian Williams is a reflection of the country we are.  An administration takes us to a two trillion buck Iraq war because we believe their WMD lies and then off we go to children's hockey game or go shopping as our then not-too-bright commander in chief tells us we should; a nation elects "W" not once but twice because well he looks so manly in his genitally outlined flight suit. 

"Shock and awe" was so July 4thish awesome fun doncha think as long as we are not at the other end of a nation's bombs?  Glad we did not have to watch the limbs and brains being crushed or our soldiers brought home in those unpleasant body bags with the stars and stripes.

Again the fault dear Brutus is not in Brian Williams, Iraq, or even in Bush's brain or lack of one, the fault is in us and the jerks we elect.

Vaccination Nation -- knows not what they do

What is the most dangerous threat to our nation?   You might have thought I would say measles.  Measles yes, is a threat to be sure, but it is not the biggest threat.  The biggest threat to our alleged first world nation is ignorance, often religion based, and its denial of science.  Without our belief in science and the truth it tells our nation -- any nation -- cannot survive.  This is so because the testing repetition of the hypotheses of science tells us what is true from what is not. We act according to the truths we know and our society advances from its prehistoric state.

You have heard this before:  The earth is not the center of our solar system the sun is; gravity keeps us anchored to our earth; bacteria and viruses cause disease and not bad humors; washing one's hands before a surgical procedure or cleaning a wound prevents infection.  It has taken man many thousands of years to acquire the knowledge that those truths tell.

Wikipedia tells us "Edward Jenner, (17 May 1749 – 26 January 1823) was an English physician and scientist who was the pioneer of the smallpox vaccine, the world's first vaccine.  He is often called 'the father of immunology and his work is said to have 'saved more lives than the work of any other human.'  Jenner noted the common observation that milkmaids who acquired the milder cow pox were generally immune to smallpox." He tested this hypothesis by inoculating a boy with the skin scrapings of milkmaids who had cow pox.  Ultimately the boy did not, when injected with small pox, get the deadly form of disease. Hence the connection was made between immunization of the weakened disease and its effectiveness in preventing its deadly cousin.

Two hundred years later vaccination derived from the science of Jenner's work proves true and it does so thousands upon thousands of times.  Science has verified immunization through vaccination by repeated testing. 

If the credentialed scientists are to be believed there is absolutely no relationship to vaccines and the causation of autism.  The man who promulgated this discredited theory has had his medical license pulled and his "theory" discredited. When laymen listen to quack science they expose not only their child to horrible diseases but everyone else's child to them as well.  Herd immunity works -- look it up if you do not know what it is.  The rights of smokers end where my nose begins and one's ability to choose not to vaccinate ends where the lives of others are risked.  There is NO libertarian right to kill simply because, based on faulty notions, they do not want to vaccinate their child.

Finally, on a personal note, I am living proof that an unvaccinated child can acquire a dreaded preventable-through-vaccination-disease.  The disease I acquired is an anachronism now but it was not in October, 1954.  Vaccination against the paralysis-inducing disease, polio, was not discovered and tested until April, 1955.  Only six months stood between a physically normal life and one marked by total paralysis of one leg, needing braces, crutches, night casts ad infinitum x-rays, three surgeries, bedridden for one year and other psychological trauma associated with it. 

Children grow up and must carry the after effects of the disease as adults and encounter the difficulties of aging and polio's attendant problems.  As an adult I have fractured my polio compromised femur three times.  Due to falls, a polio subject's pariah, I fractured my arm, tore a tendon, dislocated a finger, fractured toes twice, suffered a concussion as a child and acquired an eye problem as an adult from another fall all due to the balance compromises of polio.  Another femur fracture and I could be nursing home bound before my time -- at least that is what my surgeon told me in addition to saying "Don't fall!"

There was no number of miles my parents would have traveled, no limit of money they would have paid, no stone left unturned if their child could have had a life free from the monstrous after-effects of polio.  I, Children's Hospital told me, was lucky I had a mild case.  Others had it worse and still others, unable to breathe, sometimes died.  I can attest to the disease virulence of polio. 

So far, through mandatory vaccination our nation has become and remains polio free.  The disease, however, is out there lurking waiting for its vector to present its gifts if vaccination nation listens to its cranks, religious fanatics and know nothings within who act as charlatans to a public who knows not what they do. 

Ukraine -- A Dangerous Game

Listen here or below.

I LOVE "Democracy Now." I only wish the major corporatist news blatherers and high healed news women looking like they really should be on the street had 1/8th the integrity of Amy Goodman. This is what news SHOULD be but no it's a platform for ratings and good looks. They are hung by the neck of Nielson's rating system and the result is we get corrupted Air America slanted news when we should be getting the truth!

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/2/3/is_ukraine_a_proxy_western_russia

Written by the Truth

The latest ISIS unspeakable barbarity for which there are no words is reported here or below.

Americans' historical memory is short.  ISIS and Al Qaeda, too, were never in Iraq and therefore never in the region until US intervention in Iraq commenced and advanced its war.  The War in Iraq has created its aftereffects of massive civil wars, insurgencies by the dozens, refugees and failed states all over the region. Worse it has created the unspeakable ISIS/ISIL.

Neocons in the following list whose Heritage Foundation with their New American Century philosophical base during the Bush regime, advocated for the American spread of "democracy" in Middle East and, oh yes, to secure oil the life blood of the globe.  These neo Cons were as follows: Richard B. Cheney, Richard Pearle, John Yoo, David Addington, John Yoo, Francis Fukuyama, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Keane Kurkpatrick, William Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Richard Armitage and many more.

Bush, Cheney and their war machine with a misguided philosophy in tow and its ideologue cheerleaders have lit the match that has engulfed and now ignites a region spreading barbaric killings all over the world.  ISIS has spread too the terror observed in Europe, the US and Canada as well.

Cheney, Bush, et al carved out the brilliant idea of deposing Sadam Hussein, the strongman who kept Iraq stable, concocting a lie to create a war, invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq that had nothing to do with the perpetration of 911, the worst terror attack on American soil. The never ending saga of violence emanating from the Iraq War continues.  Mission was, indeed, never accomplished. 

The history of it is now long and complex but it began with one match and can be traced to other misadventures in that region as well. Its barbarity is witnessed by the latest ISIS horror of burning a man alive. One should never forget the actions that have contributed to this unmitigated mess!

Never, in my own observation of history, would I ever have thought Nazi brutality would or could have an equal.  I changed that view today.  It now does and ISIS/ISIL, Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria is its name.  It has the guilty fingerprints, though, too, of George W. Bush and his band of merry Neo Con know nothings written all over it. What to do now?  Intellects sharper than mine must know one hopes but history written by the winners should also be written by the truth.

http://www.nbcnews.com/…/burned-alive-isis-video-purports-s…

Burned Alive: ISIS Video Purports to Show Murder of Jordanian Pilot

LONDON — ISIS militants released a video on Tuesday purporting to show a captive Jordanian pilot being burned alive in a cage, just days after the militants ...

Patriots incredible victory!

GREATEST game I have ever seen.  Thanks Patriots what a game and what a season.  I did not predict this game but one of the times I love being wrong!