I can't see the factual error in this post, nor any sign of right wing trolling, or where it amounts to an attack on Democrats. To me it points out the hypocrisy of making bigger headlines of civilian guns killing 7 people when the US military, with the support of most Americans, kills thousands overseas, often without even probable cause. (Extrajudicial killings by troops or drones.)

I took this as "let's add these other issues to our plate of outrage" and I think it deserves to be discussed... not hidden.

I'm not seeing what "community standards" got violated here by this poster.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1080213

1.1 million dead in the middle east from government guns vs 7 dead in the USA from a civilian gun.

1.1 million dead in the middle east from the US government guns vs 7 dead in the USA from a civilian gun.

100 people died in Iraq the other day from our Imperialist military stealing resources and land that doesn't belong to them, but who cares, let's have mass hysteria over a shooting of 7 people and pass some law that will end up having the opposite effect.

2500 dead people in Mexico <--"who cares"sarcasm), thanks to the US government's fast and furious in gun-controlled-Mexico, funny how those drug cartels don't care about gun legislation btw.

What's the solution? Ban guns for civilians!

Meanwhile let's commit more acts of war against Iran by imposing sanctions to starve children like we did to half a million kids in Iraq.

Thousands died from cancer and diseases related to overeating but hey, let's not go to the theater because a crazy gunman might kill us, even though we're statistically far more likely to die from a car crash.

While we're going broke let's borrow some more money from China to get a TSA employee in every living room to keep us safe!

Our government is great at sending drones to kill unarmed people and innocent bystanders in the Middle East with the help of their "brown people terrorist detector" network

but when armed non-brown people right here in America prepare to go on a theater rampage, stock up on weapons, alert psychologists that they're a threat, and clearly plot to shoot up Sikh churches...

we're utterly inept at catching them.

What the fuck. What is the use of Homeland Security if these obvious signs get missed?


Do your damned job, fascists.

LOVE this commentary!

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/olympics-fourth-place-medal/serena-williams-did-gangster-crip-walk-winning-gold-135906507--oly.html

Serena Williams dropped it like it was hot on Saturday, celebrating her first singles gold medal by performing an impromptu crip walk, a short dance move popularized by gang members in her hometown of Compton.

The move mostly passed by without incident because crip walk controversies date from the same era in which a bare bottom on "NYPD Blue" was considered risque. The dance was just a dance, a nice homage to Serena's hometown. But then someone overreacted and ginned up a phony controversy on this side of the Atlantic and now the very fabric of our culture is threatened because Serena chose to do a rhythmic shout-out.

On FoxSports.com:

And there was Serena — the tennis legend, the winner of 14 individual Grand Slams, the best player of her generation, the American girl being crowned at the All-England Club as the queen of tennis — Crip-Walking all over the most lily-white place in the world.

She didn't do it on purpose. It was a moment of unbridled joy. She pumped her fist, jumped up and down, looked into the crowd, then did her ill-timed dance.

You couldn't help but shake your head. It was as if Serena just couldn't seem to avoid dipping into waters of controversy even as she'd ascended to the top of her sport.

Relax, everyone. This makes it seem like Serena crip-walked away from the Queen after stealing the crown jewels. She broke out the dance for three seconds, while looking at her sister sitting in the player's box! It's a dance move, not a political statement. Are we going to analyze what the implications of Andy Murray climbing into his player's box too? Maybe it a was subtle commentary on the War of Scottish Independence and symbolized his nation's impeding ascent.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/insight-deadly-india-car-factory-220545983.html?l=1

Insight: Deadly India car factory riot sounds alarm bells for industry

By Henry Foy and Anurag Kotoky

MANESAR, India (Reuters) - Hiding in his office near the Indian capital as workers armed with iron bars and car parts rampaged through the factory, Maruti Suzuki supervisor Raj Kumar spent two terrified hours trying to comprehend the warzone his workplace had become.

By the end of the day, one of his colleagues had been burnt to death and dozens wounded, many with broken bones, as a long-running struggle between the shop floor and management exploded at a factory racked by mistrust.

While police investigate and the carmaker counts its mounting losses, the July 18 clash has rattled corporate India and shone a light on outdated and rigid labor laws in a country where cheap labor drives manufacturing and draws foreign investment. High inflation, a shortage of skilled labor and rising aspirations have emboldened workers' demands.

"There was always a strong sense of unease," Kumar, 43, told Reuters as he stood outside the locked factory gates more than a week after the riot in the industrial town of Manesar.

"We are living in fear... The kind of violence these guys showed was unbelievable."

I'm withholding my opinion on this lest I be taken out by a drone.

http://news.yahoo.com/zambian-miners-kill-chinese-supervisor-over-pay-100110409.html

LUSAKA (Reuters) - Zambian miners killed a Chinese supervisor and seriously wounded another on Saturday in a pay dispute at the Collum coal mine, labour minister Fackson Shamenda said on Sunday.

Chinese companies have invested more than $1 billion in copper-rich Zambia but animosity towards them is growing as Zambian workers accuse firms of abuses and underpaying.

Workers at the Collum mine, situated 325km (200 miles) south of the capital, attacked the Chinese men demanding wage rises in line with those stipulated by the government in July.

Zambia last month raised minimum wages to 522,000 kwacha for maids and household servants, and to 1.1 million kwachafor shop workers without unions.

"We are yet to establish the exact circumstances but the report I have is that one Chinese was killed and another injured as the workers demanded the new minimum wage," Shamenda told Reuters on Sunday.

Workers get berated on here for fighting back against 110 degree temperatures at an Amazon warehouse.

We're utterly awash with people who feel extrajudicial executions are okay as long as it only involves pesky Middle Eastern brown people who are accused of being terrorists.

And now it's okay to hate on Unions?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=1075300

I can't wait until global warming deniers and supporters of privatized schools start calling themselves Democrats. Every other seller of Republican political positions has come into the tent...

Protectionism works for China, and it works for us.

If China can do this, we can do it.

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16031596,00.html

Chinese exports crushing German solar industry

Tough competition, price pressure and dwindling subsidies - these are the woes facing the German solar technology production sector. While the outlook seems grim, some believe that things will improve.

The golden era of the German solar energy sector is over. At its peak, Germany had a 20-percent share of the global solar energy market, but now the figure stands at just 6 percent. After a rapid decline in recent months, more job cuts are expected to hit the industry.

"It has never been this bad," said German Solar Industry Association head Carsten Körnig at the opening of Intersolar, the world's largest solar energy trade fair, in Munich. And this despite the fact that last year, more photovoltaic systems were installed around the world than ever before.

Price dumping blamed
The main reason for these losses is a dramatic price decline.

"Despite growing demand in recent years, production capacity has increased even faster, and this of course leads to huge price pressure," Körnig told DW.

Germany is doing it now, making large scale switches to solar power. This is happening relatively quickly, and it is why Germany produces more solar power than most of the world COMBINED. Moreover, Germany's plan strongly empowers communities, instead of major corporations - this means their solar power infrastructure is far more decentralized than America's.

This is happening. If American Exceptionalism really existed, we would outpace Germany. We can outpace Germany... if we have the will.

http://cleantechnica.com/2012/03/19/small-town-solar-revolution-has-created-jobs-galore-driven-down-price-of-power-in-germany/

Small-Town Solar Revolution Has Created Jobs Galore & Driven Down Price of Power in Germany
MARCH 19, 2012 BY ZACHARY SHAHAN

Solar energy policies in Germany have resulted in a jobs boom and have driven down the price of power on the EPEX Power Exchange. More people work in Germany’s solar energy sector than in its coal and nuclear sectors combined. (Don’t tell this year’s GOP candidates — they somehow think clean energy and green jobs is all just talk.) But there’s a lot more to get excited about than just jobs (even though those are pretty sweet).

Solar Energy Is (or Can Be) Community Energy
Solar energy can allow “the little guy” to power the country (well, a lot of little guys). “A small-town energy revolution is going on in Germany, with more than 100 rural communities becoming 100% renewable,” Craig Morris of Renewables International writes. The result? Money for electricity goes back into one’s own community, rather than out to some mega energy company. Even if that electricity were to cost you a bit more, it would go back into services and people in your community who would improve your life in other ways.

“Yes. Germany is replacing central-station plants that can only be run by large corporations with truly distributed renewable power. While Germany’s Big Four utilities make up around three quarters of total power generation, they only own seven percent of green power. Roughly three quarters of renewable power investments have been made by individuals, communities, farmers, and small and midsize enterprises.”

Or, actually, mother nature does.

How's the war on global warming doing? In which direction are we making small, incremental steps? Anyone wanna hazard a guess?

We need major, sudden, drastic changes. NOW.

Or Mother Nature will make them for us.

Time to choose.

Do we really have that right to ultra cheap computers and clothes even if it means perpetuating the slave labor, child labor, barely subsistence-level pay, and rampant water and air pollution that occurs in other nations SPECIFICALLY to make our cheap goods possible?

Really? Is that what globalism boils down to?

Do we have a right to THIS?


http://www.thenation.com/article/161057/wikileaks-haiti-let-them-live-3-day#

WikiLeaks Haiti: Let Them Live on $3 a Day
Dan Coughlin and Kim Ives June 1, 2011

Contractors for Fruit of the Loom, Hanes and Levi’s worked in close concert with the US Embassy when they aggressively moved to block a minimum wage increase for Haitian assembly zone workers, the lowest-paid in the hemisphere, according to secret State Department cables.

The factory owners told the Haitian Parliament that they were willing to give workers a 9-cents-per-hour pay increase to 31 cents per hour to make T-shirts, bras and underwear for US clothing giants like Dockers and Nautica.

But the factory owners refused to pay 62 cents per hour, or $5 per day, as a measure unanimously passed by the Haitian Parliament in June 2009 would have mandated. And they had the vigorous backing of the US Agency for International Development and the US Embassy when they took that stand.

To resolve the impasse between the factory owners and Parliament, the State Department urged quick intervention by then Haitian President René Préval.