ellenrr
ellenrr's JournalWhy Sanders Will Not be the Democratic Nominee, No Matter What Happens in the Primaries
See, the Democratic National Convention, where the Democratic nominee will be decided, is under no obligation to assign delegates to the winners of primary states. In fact, the rules don’t even specify that the primary results be taken into account when deciding on the nominee.
You may remember this from the last time Clinton ran for president in 2008. The Clintons made noise about a floor fight to wrest the nomination away from upstart Barack Obama, who had a plurality of delegates.
The Clinton team pointed out to the media through back channels that although Obama had won more primaries, it didn’t really matter in the end. Hillary Clinton could still be nominated without winning.
Clinton decided against that floor fight. Obama went on to become president.
This year, Clinton’s lead in superdelegates is already insurmountable. Sanders doesn’t have a chance.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/04/why-sanders-will-not-be-the-democratic-nominee-no-matter-what-happens-in-the-primaries/
The Bundy Militia Raid on Burns: What the Media Left Out
Ammond Bundy’s false narrative should be exposed. He is the son of a rancher that grazes on your public lands: at a reduced cost. He has avoided paying his fees. I am older: I call those types….dead beats or true welfare queens. They are not patriots: they are acting like thugs and bringing in outside influences who don’t give a damn about Oregon.
The Bundy crew is being manipulated by powerful interests who want to privatize public lands. This is not new. In the 1970s: it was called the Sagebrush Rebellion. In the 1990s: the Wise Use Movement. These are efforts by mining, timber, grazing, oil and gas interests to privatize your public lands.
4 Our public lands are crucial for wildlife, purifying water and air, providing recreation and tourist dollars for local economies. Know this: more and more extraction is occurring ON OUR PUBLIC lands. Time to stop this.
5 The false narrative here is that big, bad government types are trying to stir up trouble. In reality: from Ted Cruz to powerful extractive industries: they are desperately seeking ways to give these lands, our lands: back to the states. Then: let the extraction begin with sales of our prized lands to the highest bidder.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/01/04/the-bundy-militia-raid-on-burns-what-the-media-left-out/
Oregon Was Founded As A Racist Utopia
When Oregon was granted statehood in 1859, it was the only state in the Union admitted with a constitution that forbade black people from living, working, or owning property there. It was illegal for black people even to move to the state until 1926. Oregon's founding is part of the forgotten history of racism in the American west.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/22/oregon-racist_n_6523544.html
another group I didn't know existed on DU
who the f*ck would put an atheist group under "religion and spirituality"?!
I have just read a great book by Sam Harris, entitled Waking Up: Spirituality without religion. He strips religious dogma from meditation practices, and as a meditator, I find it very useful.
The Jewish Diaspora Must Stand with Israeli Leftists
The difference, however, between the time of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and now is that when Rabin was murdered the people who incited such violence were not in the governing coalition. Right now the group of people who incited such violence through their hateful rhetoric are in power. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a key critic of the Oslo accords whose hateful rhetoric led to the poisonous environment in Israel leading up to Rabin’s death, is now the prime minister. Even worse, the far right wing MK Ayelet Shaked, infamous for her call to genocide against Palestinians during the 2014 Gaza war, is now the justice minister of Israel.
Now Shaked, who is arguably a fascist, seeks to pass legislation which would persecute left-wing NGOs. It would do this by requiring NGO’s with 50% or more funding from foreign governments to disclose their donations, say they are funded by foreign entities in their documents, wear special badges while at the Knesset,etc. This is unacceptable, for its exemption of donations from private entities means that it largely exempts right wing organizations and thus is attacking the left. Making people where special identification simply because they are different is eerily reminiscent of when Jewish individuals were forced to wear Yellow Stars of David in Nazi Germany simply because they were Jews. While it isn’t as egregious–for this is just in the Knesset–it is still an unacceptable breach of democratic values.
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-jewish-diaspora-must-stand-with-israeli-leftists/
California: Son Shoots and Kills Father Who Killed 3 People on New Year’s Eve
ROWLAND HEIGHTS, Calif. — Los Angeles County authorities say a man shot and killed his wife and two others in his home on New Year’s Eve before his son wrestled the gun away and fatally shot him.
The Sheriff’s Department said Friday that the other two victims killed were the son’s girlfriend who also lives at the house in Rowland Heights and a man who was visiting.
Father of victim killed by shooter said gunman had over 100 guns in house
Sheriff’s officials say the father had been drinking heavily and was somehow set off by an argument with his son’s girlfriend over the washing machine.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1931375-california-son-shoots-and-kills-father-who-killed-3-people-on-new-years-eve/
Racists trying to out-do each other. Warning: disgusting content
Racist White People March in Brownface at New Years Parade and Mock Black Lives Matter
In one of the blackest cities in the country, white people are trying to convince us all that Philadelphia’s minstrelsy-thick Mummers Parade is not racist by dressing in every color painted face they can get away with and verbally bullying #BlackLivesMatter protesters with insults and mudslinging rife with “the N word.” The racist backlash comes in response to the planned Philly Coalition for REAL Justice rally scheduled at the same time as the parade underway as of Friday morning. So far, three rally participants have been arrested, including two of its organizers.
Philadelphia’s Mummers Parade isn’t just vilely racist, it’s also misogynistic, too. “Wenches” have long been a comical element of the parade, almost always played by men.
http://usuncut.com/news/brownface-mummers-parade-mocks-blm-rally/
The GOP’s nipple ban: The war on women gets personal — and even more hateful — in New Hampshire
As reported by Mark Stern at Slate, this bit of government overreach annoyed Democratic state legislator Amanda Bouldin, who took to Facebook on Tuesday to express said annoyance.
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/31/the_gops_nipple_ban_the_war_on_women_gets_personal_and_even_more_hateful_in_new_hampshire/
Abortion defenders in appeasement mode
I think this is so true.
From an article in Jacobin entitled, "Abortion without Apology"
“Abortion is health care,” is the cry today, and it’s weak. Compare this to the rallying cry of feminists who won us abortion rights in the first place: “Repeal all abortion laws.”
Reform vs. Repeal
The radical women’s liberation activists who first won legal abortion wanted to get rid of abortion laws entirely — a flier proposing the “model law” showed a blank page. It was this demand, backed by disruptive tactics, public truth-telling about criminal abortions, and class-action lawsuits aimed at invalidating existing statutes that got the ball rolling nationally.
Women’s liberationists were not afraid to attack the liberals who had been holding hearings for years on creating small loopholes in existing abortion laws, which in most states only allowed abortion if continuing the pregnancy would kill the woman. Reform bills languished in legislatures around the country in the late 1960s, occasionally passing, but only to allow the few women who could prove they had been raped, or were suicidal, to appeal to all-male panels of doctors and psychiatrists.
There are important lessons from these earlier movements. First, the abortion demand was part of the women’s liberation movement instead of standing as a single, isolated issue. Second, women demanded repeal, not reform, of laws that could be endlessly tinkered with. Third, the movement didn’t kowtow to the liberals who perennially assumed little could be done. Fourth, women’s experiences and desires — not triangulating policy organizations or experts — guided the movement.
...
The demand for abortion has had the most success when it’s been joined to larger goals of women’s liberation and is free of preemptive compromise. If we want to back the Supreme Court down this time, we need to quickly absorb the lessons of those past victories.
https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/12/abortion-planned-parenthood-supreme-court-womens-liberation/
Did anyone see BBC "The Killing of Farkhunda" last night?
It happened back in March 2015, and this show was originally broadcast in August.
This is the woman who was beaten, kicked, stoned, and burned to death in Kabal, bec it was alleged she had burned a Koran.
It turns out she had not burned a Koran.
Now she is called a martyr and there is a plaque at the site of her death.
But nowhere in the program did anyone say,
"And if she HAD burned a Koran, would this have been ok?"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06648bx
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