August 30, 2014

Reverend Dr. William Barber on what needs to be done and why

Published on Jul 11, 2014

Moral Monday founder Reverend Barber fires up AFT delegates with a message about what true morality means.

An excellent summary. I learned today, August 30th, is his birthday.

to mobeau69:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025463057#post12

August 30, 2014

Argh. No fuss in my southern public school when we quit saying the prayer or the pledge.

The 'restore prayer in school' and this stuff is a Reagan era aberration. I went to a SBC at the time and they didn't make a peep about it back then.
Believed in separation of church and state and the First Amendment.

This country has been dragged so far backward, I don't know it anymore. Every single thing has been politicized by the RWNJs.

If this guy is so worried about the troops, he can serve. Does he really think that is what soldiers go to war for? Did he think soldiers in WW2 cared more about a park being open than the nation they fought to save from the Axis powers?

Wonder if he wants the draft reinstated, too. He needs to put his ass on the line instead of telling people what to do or say.

August 30, 2014

It's a pack thing.

People and dogs.



http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=5458905

August 30, 2014

Dogs can save lives:

No one was killed there.

August 30, 2014

#BBCtrending: Disowned on video, gay teen speaks out

When college student Daniel Pierce first came out to his family last October, they seemed to be supportive. His stepmother responded positively, even if his father said nothing.

He never expected that nine months later, they would kick him out of the house.

When he arrived at his Kennesaw, Georgia, home after finishing work on Tuesday, 26 August, Mr Pierce says that his family was waiting for him. Sensing that something was amiss, he took out his phone and began to film.

"I recorded the video because I knew something was going to happen and I wanted to protect myself in case I was harmed in any way," he told the BBC...

But then the world saw what happened and came to his aid and he recieved a lot of love from many people:



More at link:

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-28977410

This is going to do great good, William. Just like the video of the GOP judge who beat his disabled daughter. She had a video running to record what she knew was possible.

She has cerebral palsy and could not escape. She was crying, begging him to stop and he kept on cursing and beating her savagely.

I don't care about this 'family values', 'sanctity of the home' stuff when so much evil is being done. There is a reason that is the RWNJ's theme song. They don't want what they do in private made public.

But this young man is now safe and has a chance for a better life. I think we have a happy ending here, folks.

August 29, 2014

Oh, no, Sir! You can't say 'imperialist.' Only the West is imperialist. Just a warning.

Only America seeks empire, no one else ever has.

All of their causes are just and ours are ignoble. I reject that because it's not logical nor is it proven in history.

Thanks for the reality check. It will be dismissed, though, as it's not doctrinaire.

August 29, 2014

That just made me cry. That's like my own. Could be him. The witnesses are credible. Look how far

they go to be fair and honest in their words.

No sensationalizing in their statements. Just the truth and not coached or prejudiced, they are not hateful to Wilson, either. This speaks to their open mindedness and integrity.

This is The Last Word on this raging cop who was clearly out of control, before the shooting. And when the adrenaline died down, he knew he was guilty and the police and city are covering up for his crime.

This was not a lawful use of force as law demands, and falls into the realm of murder in some degree. IDK what the laws in Missouri are, they vary.

I see nothing at all in the response of the witnesses that is dishonest. I'm reading comments on the grand jury but have not seen a news story posted saying there is one. I want them to hear from all of these witnesses, if possible.

Not sure if they would have to wait for a trial, but I believe them whole-heartedly. I don't think any defense attorney will be able to intimidate them as they come from a place of decency and honor.

I want to see Missouri charge Wilson with some counts for a jury to select where he falls into them. From the highest level of murder to manslaughter. Don't deny Brown justice.

His life being so cruelly taken. You know it had to hurt like hell to be shot in the hand, then the chest and arms and as he fell, he was in agony. He was protecting his body with his arms or just using the instinct to hug in pain. That's why he was laying down in that strange position as shown in so many pictures.

If only Wilson had not kept shooting as he fell, he may have recovered to live another day, instead he died for jaywalking. The intent of laws for jaywalking is to protect the one doing it. Not as punishment.

I hope all the KKK and the rest of the media demagogues will finally hide their heads in shame and shut up about the alleged inhumanity or lack of morals of black people.

I see none of it here!

August 29, 2014

Only through NATO requests, and as I've said before, Ukraine never made it into NATO. Other members

must agree. NATO is allied with the UN. We signed onto the treaty as did other members, for our own defense. We still are fighting to prevent a repeat performance of:



There was an arms race in the middle of WW2 that never ended from Allied side, unwilling to allow it again. The close of that conflict officially did not end the arms race as the alliance between the West and the USSR collapsed.

Russia has always had an edge on NATO in nuclear technology, which Putin has recently referred to as an indication of the power of Russia, posted in another thread today. Most of us within range of Cuba in the 1960s were taught to get under school desks and kiss our ass goodbye during that time. We were separated according to how far our homes were from school. If lived close, we were told, we'd be allowed to go home to be with our families and die. If not (and I was one of those) we would have to stay at school and die. They showed us images of what the atomic bomb did and the deaths that followed. That was going to be our fate, we were told. In any case, we would die. Kruschev beat on the podium in the UN and said he would bury us, years after WW2 was over with. I don't think it ever was, now. So these institutions exist to keep the fighting less deadly. But death is part of it.

Look at the casualties on both sides, the Allies who are mostly in NATO now, lost by far the most lives, both military and civilian. Especially percentages of population. Our current generations have not seen, and can scarcely conceive, of the costs of that in psychological terms to all involved. We can only see the images and statistics, but it is what is under the surface.

The Jews made 'never forget' their meme, but no one else in power has forgotten. It's why the President goes to place a wreath or do homage on D-Day in Europe. This is what created our world with its prosperity, and set into motion many things that could be for good or evil. It's not all just one or the other, but the mind reels at the data being input and tries to simplify it in B&W terms.

We are tired. But the WW2 generation lived and died in what is called 'total' warfare on a scale not seen since, because of the treaties. I've researched and posted a lot on this when Libya and Syria hit the news. It was eye opening to me, as I'd thought, NATO, pfft! Military, double pfft and get out of my wallet! And various other pffts one might adopt in order to not go along the road of militarism. It's not that easy, though.

The member states of NATO hold the majority of military power and technology and spend more money on it than any other nation singly, or in combination, on the face of the planet. Their people came to rely on those awful preparations for war, and were free to live without being called to sacrifice personally or financially except as part of their social contract.

A secularist, like myself, knows there are things my taxes are paid to do that I don't want; and things that I do want. I respect that some may not want to spend federal money on abortion, birth control, affirmative action, social and public services that I do want.

To them, I give the finger. To those who believe the mission of government is purely to defend 'the homeland (ugh)' I also give the finger. But I can't have one without the other, sad to say, because the human race does not appear to have evolved.

Torture, murder and mayhem have always been with the human race and I see nothing special in what we have done, no matter how much outrage I feel. It's only remarkable in the comparison, and only that we feel ownership and betrayal. There have always been those who do such things and never had a ideal that could be betrayed.

I'm tired of humanity, or rather my own hopes for evolution of the species, right now, so forgive me if I speak negatively. We are coming at a point in our world that our ideals may mean little with what the wounds of nature will now inflict upon us. I would rather be killed by a tornado for there is no malice, no intent to degrade. It just is what happens.

Back to NATO and our moral authority to act. Bush, Jr. abused the other members of NATO, which has the mandate for joint action when a member state is attacked, after 9/11. The fraudulent use of that has made member states very wary.

The responsibilities of the different NATO member states vary. It appears the USA was given the role of supplying boots on the ground and operating the technology of death, but others no so much. They do give support they feel comfortable with as they have less people. All contribute money to make it all work for all.

The reason our military took action in Libya and threatened Syria was because UN member states or NATO members demanded we enforce the treaties and take the heat for it. Specifically, Turkey has repeatedly called for intervention in Syria, as the fighting there is destabilizing them.

The CWC of the UN played a big part in those events, and it still plays a part in all that we do in the Middle East. The CWC covers chemical weapons, biological and radiological ones. And nuclear weaponry is part of that equation.

The USA made successful overtures to Iran who has supported Syria to get them to turn over their chemical weapons. We are no longer adversaries of the kind we had been under Bush and before. North Korea has been called a state sponsor of terrorism for supplying Syria and other nations things forbidden under the CWC. Before Libya and Syria made the news, they were not signatories to the CWC and now they are. All was done without our boots on the ground.

Yes, there will be covert operations done. Some are good and some bad, IMO, but those involved would disagree they are doing anything wrong. I'm not qualified to judge them from the media spin but some days sit back in wonder at the complex nature of the world and where people find their place in it. Obama has pushed the world toward peace, we can say in one way. It's less of the idyllic version of peace we may want to see happen, yet it is not total war. It's going to continue to be full of skirmishes and genocides that are violent, bloody and disgusting and we see it around the world.

The absence of war does not give the exhilaration of soldiers returning to the USA at the close of WW2. A permanent level of small wars is what we appear to be entering. There will be death, there will be torture, looting and war crimes. Our view of war crimes comes from the prism of WW2. Take away that foundation, and there will be no standards.

That's long and rambling, more than you wanted to hear but I need some coffee to wake up. In many more words than you expected, my answer is yes, we do have the moral authority to do things, but only as have been granted in treaties we have promised to uphold.

Obama has acted solely within those treaties, and not one step further. The wisest thing to do will be sanctions, but there is no will to stop the raising of new flags or redrawing maps by Americans, or the West. We just don't feel it's our place, and we may or may not let the treaties that protected us lapse and have WW3. Those treaties were put in place to prevent WW3.

JMHO.

August 29, 2014

That was a better television series than this, though...

August 29, 2014

For BOG Members: Gee, Obama caught saying what he really thought in 2011. I heartily approve!

CNN: President Obama caught on open mic

Uploaded on Apr 15, 2011 by CNN

The White House is downplaying some behind-the-scenes remarks made about the budget battle that were caught on tape.

The description is wrong. The narrator acts as if this was a 'gotcha' moment, when it is anything but.

Even the video doesn't fit the description when it says, 'The White House is downplaying...' since they said they had nothing to apologize for.

This leads to their meme that 'Obama is weak,' or 'arrogant.' How very GOP of them!

But then, CNN was taken over by the tabloid guy who's done nothing but feed viewers BS for years.

This is same crew who had talks with Beck about bringing him to prime time on CNN this week.