I've never understood why Kerry did not face the same level of wrath from Democrats over

his Iraq War Resolution vote. Or Biden for that matter. Or Edwards.

Hillary was the junior senator from a state that had JUST had the worst terrorist attacks, and we were assured that Iraq was planning another attack with WMD's. The IWR authorized war but only as much as to defend the US and after diplomacy had failed.

Yet when people criticize Hillary, it as though she is the ONLY democrat who voted for it, the ONLY person who personally organized the strategies to take Saddam down and have no replacement plans, the ONLY person who caused the disaster that is Iraq.

So called progressives plan on making deceased woman cards for her, when no such wrath was shown towards all the men who voted for this war. A lot of the same people who hold her personally responsible for every death in Iraq, were supporters of Edwards (Susan Sarandon comes to mind), and they didn't make such allegations about him or make him dead men cards.

I find it really bizarre.

I know people mean well when they talk about being extra careful around cops etc.

but black people don't get shot because of carelessness or rudeness or whatever.

they get shot because they are black and because cops have no accountability whatsoever.

so asking black people to be careful, does not in any way really help them, since they have never been the real problem.

Racism, lack of accountability, powerful people closing ranks, prosecutors who need to remain on good terms with police departments, those issues are the problem.

When minority members commit high profile crimes (like domestic terrorism), we all feel under threat

in a way that i do not think majority members ever can fully understand.

When Dylan Roof committed domestic terrorism, most of my white friends and family were upset, but none felt scared for their own lives afterwards.

They did not suffer the "OMG, what will the retaliation to this be" dread.

I hope there is no retaliation for Dallas, but I think we all fear that there will be. And that is a unique and strange fear.

I am not angry at Bernie. I don't really care when he chooses to officially quit.

The primaries are over, and we on du should focus on what it will take to get the democratic nominee HRC elected.

There is no anger, I'm just over pretending that the primary is not over. It is over. She won. Let's help her win the general election.

That is all.

Some one made a point to tell me that i had not commented much about the Orlando shooting

and yes, they are right, I have not. And I haven't not because I don't care about dead gay brown kids but because they all remind me of myself, my brother, my best friends etc.

Those kids could easily been my brother and me partying in the early 2000's at a club. Those kids looked so much like us back then too. (yes, i know they were not all kids, but a large number were)

I have not commented because it makes me so very upset and sick. Not because I don't care.

And yes, i do attribute it to homophobia and guns and mental illness and radical religious craziness.

Whether or not it is internalized homophobia or other form of homophobia, we as a broader are responsible for creating a climate against queer people. And that climate is created by laws, politicians, religion, cultural practices etc. So whether a person is straight and holds this hatred, or whether they are queer and holds this hatred, they are still reflecting society.

We as a society have somehow allowed crazy military style guns to be considered normal.

We as a society sort of shrug when religious people talk about gay people going to hell and deserving death.

We have all to some degree allowed this sort of craziness to continue.

And I am sure that a single gun law will not fix it.

And I don't think we should stop with guns, we should rally around these transphobic laws and other things that create this hostile climate to continue against queer people.

But the more the more we choose to do absolutely nothing, the more we allow these climates to foster. The more we say, 'kill more gay brown kids, doesn't really matter, life goes on'

Crediting white men with the work of minorities and women

A few times today I've seen on DU the crediting of the ideas/work of minorities or women to white men. I am sure no one is being intentionally racist or sexist, however, this has a long history. Most minorities and women could tell you of a time when a white man was credited with their idea at work or school. This is a very common occurrence, and frequently when women have tried to reclaim their achievement they are seen as being petty/not sportsmanlike/not gracious.

Again, I am sure that NO one on DU is doing this intentionally, but please be aware that this sort of thing has happened to a lot of us in our lives (and is well documented in research/academia), so maybe just try to avoid doing it.

The Clinton's and HIV/AIDS: again, let's not lie about them/her

..while Sanders’ comments are welcome, his record is nowhere near equivalent to Clinton’s record, as Black AIDS Institute founder Phill Wilson noted on Facebook. He said, in part:

“For folks who are going to vote solely on a candidate’s HIV/AIDS record, including Secretary Clinton’s horrific revisionist statement about Nancy and Ronald Reagan, Bernie Sanders was elected to Congress in 1991, during some of the darkest days of the AIDS epidemic. While our brothers and sisters were dying and we were fighting for our lives, Senator Sanders was largely silent. I do not recall him demonstrating any leadership on this issue. On the other hand, Secretary Clinton has been there on this issue, every step of the way. I first met Secretary Clinton at AIDS Project Los Angeles in 1992 during Bill Clinton’s first presidential bid. Secretary Clinton demonstrated leadership then and continued to fight with and for us on this issue as first lady, Senator, and Secretary of State. When my lover Chris Brownlie died in 1989, President and Mrs. Clinton sent me a letter. Where was Senator Sanders? There are probably many reasons to vote or against Secretary Clinton or Senator Sanders, but if your litmus test is their track record on HIV/AIDS, we should be angry and hurt, but it would be nice if we could also be fair.”

Slighly Lounge-y post, but I passed my comprehensive exams yesterday

and wanted to share that with you guys. So I'm in a doctoral program, and in April, I passed my master's thesis and last month I sat for our comprehensive exams, and yesterday I learnt that I passed those.

It's been a really rough few months for me, my mom was diagnosed with Cancer in March (she's actually ok now), then my grandmother who was a huge influence in my life, died just a week before comps. Followed by being doxxed and having to change my phone number, so this is a really welcome piece of news.

Thank you for letting me share this here

I blame those of you who deny the influence of race and gender on the lives of women and POC

for what happened to me last week.

A recap of what happened can be found in the AA forum, but in case you missed it, here is what happened

So I've had quite the post racial day

I woke with a troll demanding an apology to white men on du on my private email address

Followed by a demand to delete a thread of mine with my phone number attached. Which I complied with because I didn't want crazy crank calls.

Then I received this message 'In future though, don't fuck with white men. Don't post anything negative about white men. Don't talk about white privilege, because there's no such
thing as white privilege. The bullshit and hate speech that white men have
to listen to on DU will no longer be tolerated. Things are going to
change. You can warn the rest too, because they're no longer anonymous
either.'

So I'm thinking we should have a conversation about the level of privilege you have in society where you feel entitled to stalk someone and then instruct them about what they can and cannot discuss publicly