freshwest
freshwest's JournalI'll go with "This isn’t a natural disaster, this is the terrorism of poverty" for $100, Alex.
Good to see you again, S4P!
He's hanging out with the Koch brothers and their pals, openly planning WW3:
Rick Perry serves up red meat at Koch-backed summitDALLAS – Texas Gov. Rick Perry, in a Friday afternoon speech that sounded a lot like presidential red meat, accused President Barack Obama of overstepping his constitutional authority and abdicating national defense at home and abroad.
“American leadership is needed now more than ever. Presidential leadership is needed now more than ever,” Perry told nearly 3,000 activists gathered in a hotel ballroom here for a summit organized by the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity.
Perry scolded Obama for dropping the ball on ISIS, and on border security.
“ISIS is not the junior varsity. It is a clear and present danger to the free world,” he said. “And Mr. President, the peace of the free world requires presidential decisiveness, not dithering and debating.”
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/08/rick-perry-koch-conference-110458.html
to alp:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014883744
The failure of punditry is to spend time on extremists and not the people fighting them.
In all these countries he may want to cite, there are dissidents. They come to a miserable end, are subject to robbery, rape, torture and genocide and the pundits trample on their broken bodies while they make a buck. Peacemakers in these nations don't make good ratings, their work is called ineffective, and they are called weak, confused or sell outs. The disconnect between the canaries of extremism and the self-indulgent rants of those who live in other countries is nauseating. If the pundits wanted to see some peace, they'd lift up the ones who practiced it and died for it. They are the example we should study, not the media. Of course we would then also become invisible to media. That might not be a bad thing, as media is doing nothing but shoveling trash.
At The Gates Of St. Peter (Picture Heavy)
By Liberal Librarian - 2014-10-15
...The one surety in life is that your time on Earth is short and precious... But the short lives we have now make every moment unique, of a singular nature, whether in joy or sorrow.
Am I making the world better by fulminating that millions of my fellow citizens finally having access to affordable quality health care is an affront to liberty? Not only an affront to liberty, but a positive evil, which will bring about the Republic’s ruin? Am I making the world a better place by suggesting that the thousands of people who are now able to receive life-saving treatments should have been left to die?
I’m far from perfect. I often fail to meet my own standards. But it’s apparent that too few people even ask the question. Am I making the world a better place? Am I helping that one person who needs help? Am I making the world safer not only for my children (I have none), but for others’ children?
Humans are perfect in their imperfection. The human condition is to get things wrong as often as one gets it right. But too many people have chosen ideologies which do not make the world better. And the ironic thing is that often their choices backfire on them. But that’s fine; eventually they’ll strike it rich as long as “they” don’t get something extra. It reminds me of medieval treatises which depicted the Elect in heaven looking down on the tormented of Hell as celestial entertainment...
I will stake my flag here. Making an informed decision is better than reacting blindly from preconceived notions. Helping others is better than hoarding selfishly. Greed is not good, but the source of many of our evils. Empathy for the other does not make you weak or a traitor, but unleashes the best of what being human is. And choosing mean-spiritedness and close-mindedness does not indicate strength, but is a clarion call of weakness...
More at link:
http://theobamadiary.com/2014/10/15/at-the-gates-of-st-peter/
Once again, Liberal Librarian expresses what so many want to say, and the reason why we love our President and First Lady, and are Democrats. There is more at the link worth reading in LL's piece.
BOG post. You know the drill.
Wait in line, he's got lots of company:
Well, he's not in office. But this one is:
Our tax dollars support these clowns!
Yes, the ones who'll repeal Obamacare when they win the Senate next month:
And stocking up on gold and ammo because... Obama!
Obama invoked that term here:
Possibility Of Genocide Moved Obama To Act In Iraqby Josh Lederman at the Huffington Post
...Wednesday was a major tipping point. Obama was engrossed in three days of meeting with dozens of African presidents he'd invited to Washington. But roughly 6,000 miles away, the Yazidis were in trouble, having fled to the mountains to escape the extremists.
With Obama at the summit, his team met throughout the day at the White House, where they learned that the Iraqis had tried — and failed — to resupply the Yazidis, who were in dire need of food and water.
The Kurds, America's closest allies in Iraq, had sought to hold off the extremists. But on Wednesday, the Kurdish militia started falling back, moving precipitously away from Iraq's largest hydroelectric dam as they sought to consolidate their forces to protect Irbil.
Eventually, insurgents took the dam. If fully breached, the dam could flood major swaths of land, endangering the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, joined Obama for the limo ride back to the White House, where Obama said he knew the Yazidis' humanitarian crisis must be addressed. Obama had plans to join the first lady at an Italian restaurant, but the Oval Office meeting dragged on. Dinner would have to wait...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/09/obama-genocide-iraq_n_5664412.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025361592
More here, beware, BOG:
President Obama Addresses the Nation on the ISIL Threat
...ISIL is a terrorist organization, pure and simple. And it has no vision other than the slaughter of all who stand in its way.
In a region that has known so much bloodshed, these terrorists are unique in their brutality. They execute captured prisoners. They kill children. They enslave, rape, and force women into marriage. They threatened a religious minority with genocide...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/110225376
I recall images of Obama looking up at mulitiple overhead screens of what was going on prior to his announcement. His face was determined and keen to retain all that he saw. He was thinking.
Obama has the ability through the infrastructure of the USA government to see what is happening in real time and hear the stories of those thousands of miles away. If he calls it genocide, one should take that seriously.
Now we have some of the numbers. 5,000 executed prisoners. 7,000 women being abuses as Obama said. I find it reassuring that he has never forgotten women and minorities in all matters.
For those who use Twitter, I found an excellent link on TOD today on this. A guy who is there:
Thomas van Linge @arabthomness#Kurdistan BREAKING: #YPG and allies are in control of 70% of #Kobanê according to local journalists. #TwitterKurds #Rojava
10:05 AM - 15 Oct 2014
Unfortunately, I don't do Twitter and unable to make it show. Some TOD comments on the Twitter feed above:
japa21
If Turkey would allow passage of Turkish Kurds to go help in the fight, IS would be thrown out completely in just a matter of days. Erdogan is missing a major chance to gain good will from the Kurds...
And one more point. If IS does get tossed out of Kobane, it will mark a major defeat. If they can’t beat the Kurds, who were underarmed and who had a lot of women fighting, they will lose a lot of their draw. Additionally, the Iraqi forces, including the Sunnis, will not want to be shown up by the Kurds, particularly the female Kurdish fighters.
Losing Kobane, after gaining almost 70% of it, will be, if handled by the allies properly, a major turning point in the battle against IS. It won’t be over immediately, and you can be sure they will make a major push somewhere to show they still have “what it takes”, but resistance in other areas will be hardened...
I went to this guys timeline. Wow, full of stuff and not just about Kobane. I have been out of it so I didn’t realize that Ansar al Sharia, one of the groups implicated in the consulate attack, had taken over control of Benghazi, but it looks like they are being routed by a combination of Libyan army and locals.
Today's issue of TOD.
Exclusive: Ebola didn’t have to kill Thomas Eric Duncan, nephew says
By JOSEPHUS WEEKS
Published: 14 October 2014; Updated: 15 October 2014
On Friday, Sept. 25, 2014, my uncle Thomas Eric Duncan went to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. He had a high fever and stomach pains. He told the nurse he had recently been in Liberia. But he was a man of color with no health insurance and no means to pay for treatment, so within hours he was released with some antibiotics and Tylenol. Two days later, he returned to the hospital in an ambulance. Two days after that, he was finally diagnosed with Ebola. Eight days later, he died alone in a hospital room.
Now, Dallas suffers. Our country is concerned. Greatly. About the lack of answers and transparency coming from a hospital whose ignorance, incompetence and indecency has yet to be explained. I write this on behalf of my family because we want to set the record straight about what happened and ensure that Thomas Eric did not die in vain. So, here’s the truth about my uncle and his battle with Ebola.
Thomas Eric Duncan was cautious.
Among the most offensive errors in the media during my uncle’s illness are the accusations that he knew he was exposed to Ebola — that is just not true. Eric lived in a careful manner, as he understood the dangers of living in Liberia amid this outbreak. He limited guests in his home, he did not share drinking cups or eating utensils...
More at the link:
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/latest-columns/20141014-exclusive-ebola-didnt-have-to-kill-thomas-eric-duncan-nephew-says.ece
The writer, Josephus Weeks is an Iraq War veteran who lives in North Carolina. And he knows a lot more about this man than the media or citizens.
I have defended Duncan both online and offline, had arguments with others over his culpability. I feel that this story, along with others I could cite posted on DU and elsewhere, justify my opinion that this man and his family were treated shamefully and that those who have been most hysterical and angry at him are not on the side of science and justice.
The most heartbreaking an enraging things to me, I have emboldened. When one goes the link for more, this also stands out:
Thomas Eric Duncan could have been saved.
People are not giving him the benefit of he doubt as they should, as a human being. Would they ascribe venal or sinister motives to him if they were talking about themselves or their own families?
It says more about them than Duncan, IMO. This should be hashed out in the AA group, as I am tired of what I'm seeing in other forums about AAs.
Some people are focusing on the disease and not the person, as they would demand to be treated as in real life. I don't have enough facepalm pictures to express my fatigue.
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