June 19, 2016

It doesn't bother me that Hillary is courting Republicans

Yeah, yeah. Tick fucking tock and all that.

It doesn't bother me that she is moving to the right for the general election

It doesn't bother me that she will almost certainly support the TPP and TTIP

It doesn't bother me that she no longer gives but the most fleeting mention of campaign reform

I don't care who she picks for VP or who she chooses for her cabinet

It does bother me that we'll see a beefed up more muscular foreign policy and more military interventions.

I am sure that she'll pick Justices who will preserve a woman's right to choose and will be socially liberal. I have no hopes that she'll choose justices who will support the people over corporate interests.

It's what I expect. And if she surprises me by, for example, not immediately bombing the shit out of Assad's forces, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

She is far better than Trump. That will just have to do. Faint praise that it is.

(btw, no this isn't bitterness about Bernie. I knew she'd be the nominee. These are opinions I formed about her over many years.)

June 19, 2016

NRA News: Why you need an AR-15 for home defense.

"There is no better firearm to defend your home".

Infuckingsane.

June 19, 2016

As the U.S. ups military funding for Israel, Israel approves more spending on settlements

in the West Bank. Settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. No wriggle room on that at all.

Note: This issue is not just about I/P. It's about the U.S. and Congress approving unprecedented financial support for Israel.




U.S. and Israel Continue Negotiating Unprecedented Military Funding

Democracy Now! | June 16, 2016

This comes as U.S. officials announce breakthroughs in talks over increased U.S. military funding to Israel. While visiting Israel for the talks, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke out.


Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken: "Under this administration, the United States has invested nearly $24 billion in foreign military financing for Israel since 2009, far more than for any other country, more than at any other previous time in the history of the U.S.-Israel relationship. We’re also prepared to sign a new 10-year memorandum of understanding that would constitute the largest single pledge of military assistance from the United States to any country in our history."

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said U.S. military funding to Israel currently amounts to $8.5 million every single day.
read:http://www.democracynow.org/2016/6/16/headlines/us_and_israel_continue_negotiating_unprecedented_military_funding


Israel Approves Additional Funding for Settlements in West Bank


JERUSALEM — The Israeli government on Sunday approved about $20 million in additional financing for Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, underlining its strengthened right-wing orientation and raising the ire of political opponents and the Palestinians.

The move came as the Israeli hard-liner Avigdor Lieberman was to arrive in Washington on his first visit in his new role as defense minister, where he is expected to meet with Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter. Mr. Lieberman, a settler, was appointed last month in a coalition deal that brought his ultranationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party into the government.

The new money would add to what the settlements already receive from various parts of the government’s budget. It was approved days after blistering condemnations of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by two former Israeli defense ministers and military chiefs of staff. Speaking at a prestigious security conference, they accused the prime minister and his government of pushing a divisive agenda that threatened Israel’s future as a Jewish democracy and undermined its core values.

More:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/20/world/middleeast/israel-west-bank-settlements-palestinians.html?_r=0

June 19, 2016

Fine with me. House votes to nix military bands at dinners, dances

WASHINGTON — The next base Christmas party might not feature any active-duty flutists or tuba players.

The House on Thursday passed legislation sponsored by former A-10 pilot Rep. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., that bars the military from using its many troop bands to entertain at dinners, dances and social events.

The bill limits performances to formal military ceremonies and funeral honors.

It is the latest attempt to cut back the roughly $500 million that the Defense Department spends annually on bands, which date back to the birth of the country’s armed forces but have recently run into criticism as Congress wrangles with tight budgets.

<snip>


http://okinawa.stripes.com/news/house-votes-nix-military-bands-dinners-dances

June 19, 2016

Campaign Finance Reform and Economic Justice. What we now know.

We know that democrats can divorce big money and still raise enough to compete.

That is a big deal.

Until the past year, the assumption, across the board, was that it was impossible to do.

You can say that this is unimportant or that corporate/big money has no or minimal impact on democratic politicians, while decrying it in republicans, but that's demonstrably untrue.

How campaigns are funded is a substantial part of the fight for economic justice, something I wish we could all agree, is important. I've said it repeatedly and I'll say it again: Economic justice is inextricably linked to social justice. For example, you can't achieve racial justice if schools in poor minority communities remain so woefully underfunded. Environmental degradation impacts poor and minority communities, far, far more than it does middle class white communities, let alone in wealthy communities. This isn't merely opinion, it is easily verifiable FACT. I have provided links because this isn't something that can be argued.

To forestall the inevitable, let me make it clear that I'm not saying that all racial injustice can be fixed via economic means. But I will say this: Some shop clerk wondering if Oprah could afford some astronomically priced handbag, is not on the same level as millions of minority children getting a subpar education in crumbling buildings. I don't take lightly the horrific practices of institutional racism that are not connected to economic justice. I don't discount for a minute the struggles of LGBT folks that have had little to do with economic issues (and some LGBT issues certainly are connected to economic injustice), but most social justice issues are linked to economic justice.

Reducing the impact on policy that the wealthy and corporations have on Democrats is something I wish we could all agree on. And it starts with campaign finance reform.

My intent in writing this is not inflame, but to keep in the forefront an issue I believe is critical. Economic injustice is crushing tens of millions of Americans.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/public-school-funding-and-the-role-of-race/408085/

http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2014/02/22/let-eat-cake-inequality-school-finance/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-poor-neighborhoods-breate-more-hazardous-particles/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/04/15/pollution-is-substantially-worse-in-minority-neighborhoods-across-the-u-s/

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/1/racism-environmentchemical.html

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/is-america-an-oligarchy

June 19, 2016

What Bernie Sanders Proved. And Why I still Believe His Message Remains Critical

He demonstrated that democrats can divorce big money and still raise enough to compete.

That is a big deal.

Before he achieved it, the assumption, across the board, was that it was impossible to do.

You can say that this is unimportant or that corporate/big money has no or minimal impact on democratic politicians, while decrying it in republicans, but that's demonstrably untrue.

How campaigns are funded is a substantial part of the fight for economic justice, something I wish we could all agree, is important. I've said it repeatedly and I'll say it again: Economic justice is inextricably linked to social justice. For example, you can't achieve racial justice if schools in poor minority communities remain so woefully underfunded. Environmental degradation impacts poor and minority communities, far, far more than it does middle class white communities, let alone in wealthy communities. This isn't merely opinion, it is easily verifiable FACT. I have provided links because this isn't something that can be argued.

To forestall the inevitable, let me make it clear that I'm not saying that all racial injustice can be fixed by economic justice. But I will say this: Some shop clerk wondering if Oprah could afford some astronomically priced handbag, is not on the same level as millions of minority children getting a subpar education in crumbling buildings. I don't take lightly the horrific practices of institutional racism that are not connected to economic justice. I don't discount for a minute the struggles of LGBT folks that have had little to do with economic issues (and some LGBT issues certainly are connected to economic injustice), but most social justice issues are linked to economic justice.

Reducing the impact on policy that the wealthy and corporations have on Democrats is something wish we could all agree on. And it starts with campaign finance reform.

Hillary has barely mentioned CFR in recent months. She pledged to appoint Justices who oppose CU. I hope her base thinks this is an important issue and are willing to hold her feet to the fire if she becomes President.

My intent in writing this is not inflame or to bash HRC, but to keep in the forefront an issue I believe is critical. Economic injustice is crushing millions of Americans.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/public-school-funding-and-the-role-of-race/408085/

http://www.racismreview.com/blog/2014/02/22/let-eat-cake-inequality-school-finance/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/people-poor-neighborhoods-breate-more-hazardous-particles/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/04/15/pollution-is-substantially-worse-in-minority-neighborhoods-across-the-u-s/

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/5/1/racism-environmentchemical.html

http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/is-america-an-oligarchy

June 19, 2016

The Trumpus: U.S. must "start thinking about" racial profiling

Donald Trump: U.S. must "start thinking about" racial profiling

ByEmily SchultheisFace The Nation

cbsnews.com | June 19, 2016, 10:14 AM


Donald Trump said Sunday that in the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando, it's time for the United States to start looking at racial profiling as a preventative tactic.

"Well I think profiling is something that we're going to have to start thinking about as a country," the presumptive GOP nominee said in a phone interview with CBS' "Face the Nation. "Other countries do it, you look at Israel and you look at others, they do it and they do it successfully. And I hate the concept of profiling but we have to start using common sense and we have to use our heads."

"It's not the worst thing to do," he added.

Trump's comments come one week after 49 people were shot and killed in a gay nightclub in Orlando, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. Following the massacre, Trump renewed his calls for a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., saying it would have prevented the attack despite the fact that shooter Omar Mateen was born in the U.S.

<snip>

read:http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-after-orlando-racial-profiling-not-the-worst-thing-to-do/

June 19, 2016

Muslim attitudes about LGBT are complex, far from universally anti-gay

<snip>

Attitudes towards LBGT people in Muslim communities are complex, and far from universally anti-gay.

Some Muslims, like Abdullah, are welcoming what they see as an opening within their communities to address anti-gay attitudes. Several groups supportive of gay Muslims have sprung up within the U.S. in past years, including Muslims for Progressive Values and the Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity.

And young Muslims who often feel differently about homosexuality than their elders are increasingly speaking out in support of gay rights, as religion scholar Reza Aslan and comedian Hasan Minaj did in an open letter to American Muslims after last year’s Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage.

Others are pointing toward the Quran and a history of relative tolerance.

“In 1858 the Ottoman Empire decriminalized homosexuality, 100 years before they did so in the West,” said Abdullah, referring to the empire that ruled over Turkey and much of the present-day Middle East in the 15th and 16th centuries. Its official religion was Islam.

But Abdullah is under no illusions about the strength of homophobia within modern Muslim cultures.

In the U.S., a 2014 Pew Research Center study shows, Muslim Americans are less accepting of homosexuality than Americans as a whole: 47 percent of U.S. Muslims said it should be discouraged and 45 percent said it should be accepted.

But they were not the religious group that was most disapproving: Evangelical Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons oppose homosexuality by larger margins.

Abroad the picture is starker. And a 2013 Pew global study of Muslims showed overwhelming disapproval of homosexuality. In only three of the nearly 40 countries surveyed do as many as one-in-ten Muslims say that homosexuality is morally acceptable: Uganda (12%), Mozambique (11%) and Bangladesh (10%).

And almost all of the 10 countries that allow the death penalty for same-sex sexual relations are Muslim-majority nations. The president of one of those nations, Iran, has denied that gay people exist in his country.

<snip>

read:http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/06/17/muslim-lgbt-gay-views/86046404/

And this interesting piece presents a historical view:

How Did Homosexuality Become So Offensive to the Muslim World?

It wasn’t always this way.


read:http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/americas/.premium-1.725679

June 19, 2016

Israel Plans to Destroy Only Water Source of Shepherds in West Bank Village

Israel intends to destroy a water-holding tank that serves 20 families of Palestinian shepherds and their flocks in the northern Jordan Valley.

This, despite the fact that Israel’s coordinator of government activities in the territories (to which the Civil Administration is subordinate) promised representatives of international agencies that there would be no demolitions during the month of Ramadan, except for structures built during this time, Haaretz has learned.

The simple structure collects water coming out of a natural spring. A rubber hose attached to it runs for a few dozen meters to a plastic trough. The Civil Administration claims the structure was built illegally.

The shepherds, who live in a community called Umm al-Jimal, own 700 sheep and goats, as well as 300 cows and some horses. Last year, a flood destroyed another holding tank that served the families, also blocking the spring’s exit. The families are concerned that destroying the current holding tank will once more block the spring, which is their only close water source.

<snip>

read:http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.725703

June 19, 2016

Swedish Muslim fights anti-Semitism

I don't know how many people here are aware of the situation in Malmo. The anti-Semitism there is widespread and has led many Jews to flee the city.


Siavosh Derakhti, 24, a young Muslim of Azeri origin who lives in Malmö, Sweden, well-known for openly fighting anti-Semitism in his country, is currently visiting Israel.


"If you are a Jew, people blame you for everything going on in Palestine. Everybody hates Israel. I don't accept this and do everything I can to build bridges between Jews and Muslims through education,” Derakhti stated.


Derahkti, director of Young People against Antisemitism and Xenophobia, is considered very unusual in Sweden. Among his activities are organizing demonstrations in support of Jews and organizing delegations of young Swedes—including Christians, Muslims and Jews—to the Nazi death camps. He has a good relationship with the Israeli Embassy in Sweden and even takes part in various programs run by the embassy.

"It is absolutely terrible to be Jew today in Malmö", said the Swedish Muslim. "Anti-Semites believe in conspiracy theories that (Jews) rule the world. I organized pro-Jewish demonstrations and helped protect our cousins. If Jews can’t live in Sweden I feel it's a personal failure."

Derahkti met with US President Barack Obama during his visit to Sweden in 2013. He won the prestigious Raoul Wallenberg award for this activities, and was recently selected by Forbes magazine to be included in the list of 30 most influential people in the world until the age of 30. He's a public figure in Sweden, and frequently appears in local media.

read:http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4817065,00.html