"Al Qaeda camps"

Tell yourself that. Murdering civilians, including at weddings and funerals. Classifying them as collateral damage, oops. Classifying every male murdered over the age of 14 as a "militant." Doing absolutely nothing to address the problem and causes of this terrorism. Just showing who the more effective terrorist is.

You have zero case to make that Saudi Arabia is not among the worst, and far worse than Iran, where women can drive and make up the majority of university students. Your Saudi Arabian Wahhabi-exporting ally is of course the original source and still main sponsor of this "Al Qaeda" you use as the excuse for bombing Yemen.

And that other excuse! Let's sell arms to the butchers, since they could get it on the open market. Lovely. As a defense, "just responding to the market" does not even rise to the level of "just following orders." It is odious. It is also just a distancing device for the reality: The Saudi regime exists because of US sponsorship.

The United States has brought enough destruction to the Middle East. Millions are dead. Most of what we see today there probably would not be happening in the same way, would not be as bloody, if not for the decision to launch a planned war of aggression on the nation of Iraq. The US government responsible for that crime has no standing to determine the government of Yemen.

You tell yourself that.

The US has been striking inside Yemen and mostly killing civilians there for about 10 years. Saudi Arabia launched an aggressive invasion that is tearing the country apart, bombing funerals and weddings and threatening to cause mass starvation. Can you guess who provides all of the arms used by the radical Islamist Wahhabi oil kingdom, possibly the worst regime on earth as well as the most important ally of the United States? They have no business invading Yemen to settle its domestic conflicts. The US has no business providing the arms and support for that invasion.

UN Condemns Saudi Coalition Bombing of Yemen Hospital
http://www.voanews.com/a/airstrike-hits-hospital-in-yemen/3467004.html

So fucking fucked.

Constant success = "His dreadful performance"

Please! Every election since Corbyn became leader has seen a rise in the Labour share of the vote.

Oh for fuck's sake, this city's streets...

are and always have been FULL of discarded boxes, suitcases, plastic bags, containers... also garbage bags, garbage cans, dumpsters, etc. all of which are legit. Are we not going to be able to put out the garbage on garbage day now?

Come to think of it, that's any city. There is absolutely nothing constructive to be done about this. Let's hope it blows over (not blows up, ha ha).

It's like that time back in 2002 when they shut down the Brooklyn Bridge and declared Code Orange because of a PLASTIC BAG.

This is as dumb as the "burka panic." (Only people in burkas could possibly be disguising a bomb -- ban those to stop terrorism!)

"Shattered the truce" !

Uh hello? If anything "shattered the truce," and I really hope it's not shattered, it would have been last week's US strike on the Syrian Army, "honest accident" or not, killing 62 Syrian soldiers and allowing ISIS to retake a town.

Trump totally has an idea what he's talking about.

TAKE THEIR OIL has been core message from the start. Make no mistake, he does have a core message, he's not all improvisation and bullshit to grab attention and rile crowds.

He's saying occupy Iraqi oil production.

Remember, from the start, from his first commercial with its first statement of platform:

"He will cut the head off ISIS and TAKE THEIR OIL."

In that case, cut out the bogus patriotism.

The people are the country. A constitutional state is the country. Flags and songs are just that: flags and songs.

The flag is a piece of cloth. Worshipping the flag is not a sign of good citizenship. It mostly says you are ready to follow blindly any fool who waves a piece of cloth. It is unpatriotic to follow blindly!

The great scandal of our schools is that children know some crazy socialist preacher's "Pledge of Allegiance" to a piece of cloth, but they don't know the actual Constitution of their own country. This is one reason why so much shit is accepted that should not be.

The anthem is a war song that continues (in further stanzas) with a glorification of how runaway slaves were massacred.

Worshipping flags and singing anthems are religious rituals that do not befit the self-actualized citizens of a democratic, constitutional, secular republic.

As for your veteran relatives, they certainly sacrificed and no doubt believed it was for the defense of the country or some other high ideal, But unless they fought in the Second World War, that is just not so. Since 1945, the wars have almost always been for empire. U.S. soldiers had no business killing people (or being killed in return) in Vietnam, or Iraq, or Lebanon. Your veterans don't have any beef with people who protest these mass murders, or who sit through a song. Their beef should with a government that turned into a global empire.

They certainly didn't do anything to defend Colin Kaepernick or his rights. That is preposterous. His rights are natural, guaranteed under a rule of law, and in reality defended by people who fight for their rights when under attack right here at home, not by Marines in Syria or wherever.

Sorry that you don't like these realities.

Kaepernick is the patriot!

Would you also agree with that re: Middle East, Ukraine?

Otherwise neither Judy Lynn or I, nor you, need to represent the US in having an opinion on Colombia's mass internal deportations dating back decades. We're allowed to have our own opinions on what's wrong and right. US treatment of the homeless is bad, or even worse depending on the jurisdiction. But if the US really loses any "moral standing" with regard to Colombia, then that is not so much because of the bad moral example in the U.S. itself, but because of the 10 billion dollars of foreign aid given directly to the Bogota death squad narco-regime since 2000!

False premise: That there is one "we" here.

I certainly would never criticize anyone for failing to meet some fanatic standard of participation in meaningless nationalist rituals, let alone a young black woman. She can sit down during the national anthem for all I care, I certainly have done the same.

The false premise is that the same group vilifies Douglas but makes excuses for the Drunken Swimteam Rowdies. I say these are two separate groups of respondents. The Douglas attackers are stupid concern trolls and a minority.

As for making excuses for the rowdy men, whatever. They were stupid, but they really complicated things with their lies. That was their main transgression by far. They should have just taken the rap up front.

But is it a national embarrassment? Hardly. They don't represent all Americans, no one does and that shouldn't be the role of athletes who actually compete as individuals.

Drunken men being stupid vandals breaking a bathroom door when they want to piss -- all too common and not to be excused. But if they had not made up a vile story about Brazilian muggers, if they had spent their night in jail and then left, it would have been forgivable and totally forgettable. That's where they attempted to make use of their white American privilege. IN this case, for a change, it backfired!