YoungDemCA
YoungDemCA's JournalSince 2010, the Democratic Party has lost hundreds of congressional and state legislative seats.
This is not a record to be proud of. Radical change is necessary, and it has to happen now.
Just donated to Swing Left's fund targeting GOP Rep. David Valadao.
https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/swing-CA-21-lefthttps://swingleft.org/
Let's do this, folks!
Mecca belongs to all Muslims, and Saudi Arabia shouldnt be allowed to run it
“In the years to come, it will be harder for Saudi Arabia to deny the desire of the world’s Muslims to see their holy cities reflect their pieties, and to cease the imposition of a view of Islam which is not only deeply alienating to the rest of the world, but deeply unpopular within the Muslim world.”
https://qz.com/511115/its-time-to-take-mecca-out-of-saudi-hands/
Interesting...
TabletMag: "Trump and his allies are pitting Jews and Muslims against each other." (8/30/17)
Illuminating and poignant article.
Donald Trump placed Islamophobia at the center of his campaign, and his presidency has already wreaked havoc on both the American and the Southwest Asian Muslim communities. Muslim Americans (like Jews) have witnessed a spike in hate crimes, including mosque vandalism and racist fliers. Abroad, Trump’s lax attitude toward military operations and his open lack of concern for civilian casualties (during his campaign, he even called on the military to intentionally kill the family members of terrorists) have led to increases in civilian casualty rates in Syria, Iraq, and Yemen since he took office. And of course, the infamous “travel ban” seeks both to curb the inflow of Muslim refugees to the United States and to minimize the number of Muslim immigrants in general.
This situation creates obvious perils for Muslims. But it also risks conscripting Jews in the service of prejudice. Simply put, the American Jewish community is in danger of becoming an instrument for defending bigotry. Legitimate Jewish and Israeli concerns about anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are being marshaled to justify policies repressing Muslims. We must not let that happen without challenge.
How are American Jews used as a weapon against American Muslims? To begin with, due to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Jews and Muslims are too often pitted against each other in the popular imagination. Geopolitical challenges over the last century have been spun into myths of an “ancient hatred,” such that the conflict has taken on a timeless and universal quality for many. To side with one religious community is to be against the other. We easily forget how localized and modern this conflict is—even the BILU Manifesto, a crucial Zionist document inked as late as 1882, proposed Zionism as a cooperative Jewish-Muslim venture, addressing the sultan with an offer “to help our brother Ishmael in his time of need” by supporting Ottoman foreign policy objectives. But today, far-right politicians nonetheless justify their anti-Muslim policies by claiming to be acting in defense of Jews or Israel.
The concept of the so-called “Judeo-Christian tradition” has further cemented the idea that Jews and Muslims are on opposite sides of a long-term rivalry. Christian political figures with their own histories of anti-Semitism have long used the term as part of their rhetorical toolbox. The idea of a “Judeo-Christian tradition” would have come as news to generations of Christian anti-Semites who saw their faith as superseding a backward Judaism. Nevertheless, the phrase has taken root, and served to categorize Judaism and Christianity as somehow especially similar—and unlike Islam.
http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/244232/for-jews-the-fight-against-islamophobia-must-begin-at-home
Regarding the US-Saudi alliance that was, in my words, "made in hell": I shared the following
on Facebook. A mix of fact and opinion from me, rather polemical, but absolutely sincere on my part. Take that as you will.
Let's be clear: the shockingly cruel and utterly brutal, inhumane, and completely illiberal and undemocratic regime of Saudi Arabia is no "friend" of the United States, human rights, or anything approaching equality or justice. Moreover, US Presidents, politicians, and other political and economic elites affiliated with both the Republican and the Democratic Parties are complicit in enabling what is widely acknowledged as one of the absolute WORST governments on the planet. Senator Sanders is absolutely right in calling out the evils of the Saudi Kingdom, and the US government itself for their continued support of the Saudi regime.
I maintain that the deadliest terrorist attacks in American history (if not world history) - the same attacks that "changed everything", that killed upwards of 3,000 innocent Americans and many from other countries; the same attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, severely damaged the Pentagon, and forever changed air travel, incited fear and anger toward Muslims and people of Arab/Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian descent (the vast majority of whom, of course, are 100% innocent as well; remember, the most common victims of the threat and violence posed "radical Islamic terrorism" are Muslims themselves, and it's not even close!)...the same "evil, despicable acts of terror" that President George W. Bush so aptly identified and condemned and that permanently traumatized the American psyche, would *not have been possible* - and thus, would NEVER have happened - if it were not for the alliance made in hell between the governments of the United States and Saudi Arabia, and the decades of military, intelligence, economic (read: OIL), and geopolitical cooperation that has primarily benefited the wealthiest and most powerful in both countries - to the horrifying detriment of everyone else in the world.
Again: no US-Saudi alliance, no 9/11. Period. That is a matter of record, in my humble opinion.
Anyway, enough of my soap-boxing: here's an excerpt from Sanders's speech from June, on the ongoing Yemeni Civil War:
"The chaos in Yemen has also been strategically disastrous for the United States, providing fertile ground to extremist groups like al Qaeda and ISIS and creating new opportunities for Iranian intervention, in addition to being morally indefensible and strategically short-sighted." Sanders also attributes the spread of "an ultra-reactionary form of Islam throughout the world" to a "decades-long (U.S. funded) effort by Saudi Arabia."
Article link: https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bernie-sanders-5-reasons-united-states-long-overdue-rethink-its-alliance-saudi
The most pro-LGBT Republican candidate/President strikes again!
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/921524504836395008https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Jeffress#Views_on_Social_Issues
Daily reminder that Donald Trump picked now-Vice President MIKE PENCE as his running mate.
I just got word that President Trump's top investigators are on the JFK assassination case.
After I Google'd "Rafael Cruz" I got some suggested searches in "People also ask". Here they are.
What happened to Oswald's wife and daughter?
When did Lee Harvey Oswald get shot?
What is the net worth of Ted Cruz?
Who killed Kennedy?
"Party of government" What about organized labor, the grassroots, people of color, LGBT, the poor?
These are all people and communities who have historically been at odds with the US government. I'd personally be very wary of calling the Democratic Party "the party of government" in a country where "the government" is by and large, disliked - if not feared, hated, loathed, and utterly despised (which it is, by many, many people).
And FWIW, this anti-government worldview (or perhaps more accurately in many case, anti-US government as it exists and has existed in practice) thoroughly transcends any division of Left, Right, Center, liberal, conservative, whatever. This anti-government worldview is by no means limited to racist white male Republicans/Trump voters. It's not limited to racists, it's not limited to white people, it's not limited to men, it's not limited to to Republicans, it's not limited to Trump voters, and it's certainly not limited to voters. Not at all!
Perhaps if Democrats did more to cultivate an image of "outsiders", the "outs" of American society, culture, politics, economics, and so on, then they might do better. After all, so much of the Democratic Party's voter base are certainly on the "outs" in those senses; why not EMBRACE that, rather than run away from it?
If tens of millions of American voters and tens of millions of American non-voters already despise the US government on either some abstract meta-level and/or in terms of legitimate grievances against certain things that the US government does and has done, then how does embracing the "party of government" label do Democrats any good? Not a rhetorical question, BTW.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: CA
Home country: USA
Member since: Wed Jan 18, 2012, 11:29 PM
Number of posts: 5,714
