Comment

Comment by Stephen on May 28, 2017 at 4:33pm

Comment by Stephen on May 28, 2017 at 4:32pm

Trump Effect Inspires Radical Christians in Military

By  Nina Burleigh  On 5/22/17 at 1:15 PM  

Newsweek |

Donald Trump’s election has led to such a steep rise in fundamentalist Christian evangelizing and religious bigotry in the U.S. armed forces that the matter is reaching the level of a “national security threat,” according to information shared exclusively with Newsweek by an organization that represents and advocates for secular and minority religious views in the military.

The number of complaints from servicemen and -women in the Army, Air Force, Marines and other service branches to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) has doubled in number since November 2016, according to lawyer Michael “Mikey” Weinstein, a former Air Force officer who founded the organization.

Many of the recent charges are coming from members of minority religions, including Roman Catholics, Jews and Muslims, and from atheists. Among the complaints: military family and marital therapy programs are being infused with Protestant Christianity, which would violate the U.S. Constitution; open anti-Semitism; anti-LGBT statements, posters, symbols and bullying; openly anti-Muslim teachers and Islamophobic attacks; a rise in on-base evangelizing; and increased pressure on recruits or lower-level personnel and service members to convert to fundamentalist Christianity.

Red more= read:http://www.newsweek.com/christian-fundamentalists-us-armed-forces-n...

Comment by Chris on May 28, 2017 at 5:57am

The Rise of Authoritarianism
The popularity of and opposition to authoritarian leaders is rising
Posted Mar 18, 2016

... [a lot of content clipped due to character limits]...

Naomi Wolf, writing in The Guardian, identified 10 steps which reflect a move towards an authoritarian state. Ask yourself: How many of these actually exist now?

1. Invoke both an internal and external enemy. The internal enemy can be a racial or ethnic group. The external can be country but even more nebulous—“terrorism” or “drugs,” "Islam."
2. Create a prison or detention center outside the rule of law (eg: Guantanamo Bay).
3. Develop a “thug like caste.” They don’t need to be uniformed like the brown shirts in Germany. How about the armed militiamen patrolling the border and urban streets, or Federal farmland?
4. Expand an internal surveillance system that spies on the country’s citizens.
5. Harass dissenting citizens or citizen groups.
6. Engage in arbitrary arrest, detention and release of suspected insurgents (read “terrorists”) including creating “watch lists.”
7. Target key individuals who oppose the authoritarian policies with harassment and threats.
8. Control the press and media through policies, legal threats and providing false information.
9. Disseminate the belief that dissent equals treason.
10. Suspend the rule of law through enhanced executive and judicial powers and legislation.

Far too many media and news commentators see authoritarian leaders as an anomaly, not representative of the general populist. This naiveté denies that these leaders are a product of the times.

The bad news is that the support for an authoritarian approach to governing could have disastrous effects on the country and the world in general. The good news is the countervailing trends to sustain a real democracy, and be more inclusionary and reflective of a diverse population have an opportunity to provide healing and unity. Which road will be taken? The answer to that question may have a huge impact the world.

More in the link above.

Comment by Stephen on May 28, 2017 at 3:14am

Image copyright
Facebook

Portland deaths: Son who died trying to stop Muslim abuse 'a hero'

BBC News |

The mother of a US man who died protecting two young women from anti-Muslim harassment has called him "a hero" who "will remain a hero" after his death.

Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche was one of two men who were stabbed to death on a train on Friday in Portland, Oregon.

Police named the other man who died as Ricky John Best, 53, a father of four and an Army veteran.

Another passenger was wounded before the attacker was arrested.

Police have identified the suspect as Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, a convicted felon.

He is due to appear in court on Tuesday, charged with two counts of aggravated murder, attempted murder, intimidation and being a felon in possession of a restricted weapon, Reuters reported.

However, Loren Cannon, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Oregon, said on Saturday it was too early to tell whether the "violence was an act of domestic terrorism or a federal hate crime".

What happened?

On Friday afternoon, two teenage girls, one of them Muslim and wearing a headscarf, boarded a train in Portland.

According to witnesses, they attracted the attention of Mr Christian.

Dyjuana Hudson - mother to one of the girls - said he began "saying all Muslims should die".

Sergeant Pete Simpson confirmed the "suspect was on the train and he was yelling and ranting and raving a lot of different things, including what would be characterised as hate speech or biased language".

Three men then stepped in to help the girls. Ms Hudson told the Oregonian that one of them said: "You can't get at them like that — they're little girls."

Read more=  read:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40073974

Comment by A place called Doone on May 27, 2017 at 3:57pm

From Kevin Drum

Yet More Quotes of the Day

KEVIN DRUMMAY 27, 2017 12:51 PM

On Donald Trump:

President Trump reportedly complained to world leaders about roadblocks he has faced setting up golf courses in the European Union....“Every time we talk about a country, he remembered the things he had done. Scotland? He said he had opened a club. Ireland? He said it took him two and a half years to get a license and that did not give him a very good image of the European Union,” a source told Le Soir.

On Jared Kushner:

Harleen Kahlon was an experienced digital media maven when she was hired by Kushner in 2010 to boost the paper’s digital outreach....At the end of the year, when she went to collect her performance bonus at his real estate office for meeting agreed upon metrics on page views and audience growth, Kushner told her that they couldn’t pay, citing financial concerns, and asked her to “take one for the team.”

....Just before the election, Kahlon described her former boss on Facebook thusly: “We’re talking about a guy who isn’t particularly bright or hard-working, doesn’t actually know anything, has bought his way into everything ever (with money he got from his criminal father), who is deeply insecure and obsessed with fame (you don’t buy the NYO, marry Ivanka Trump, or constantly talk about the phone calls you get from celebrities if it’s in your nature to ‘shun the spotlight’), and who is basically a shithead.”

On Trump again:

After the "family photo" group shot, the other leaders convivially walked down the narrow Sicilian streets to their luncheon. Trump hung back and, minutes later, opted instead to ride in a golf cart.

Low energy. Sad.

Comment by Stephen on May 24, 2017 at 2:52am

Report: Christian Extremists In U.S. Military Are ‘National Security Threat’

Michael Stone 

Progressive Secular Humanist |

Call it the “Trump Effect” – A recent rise in “evangelizing and religious bigotry” from Christian extremists in the U.S. armed forces constitutes a “national security threat” according to military experts.

Trump Effect Inspires Radical Christians in Military

According to the report, the election of Donald Trump “has led to such a steep rise in fundamentalist Christian evangelizing and religious bigotry in the U.S. armed forces that the matter is reaching the level of a ‘national security threat.’”

According to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), the number of complaints from servicemen and women in the U.S. military have “doubled in number since November 2016.”

Among the complaints:

Military family and marital therapy programs are being infused with Protestant Christianity, which would violate the U.S. Constitution; open anti-Semitism; anti-LGBT statements, posters, symbols and bullying; openly anti-Muslim teachers and Islamophobic attacks; a rise in on-base evangelizing; and increased pressure on recruits or lower-level personnel and service members to convert to fundamentalist Christianity.

Read more=  read:http://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2017/05/rep...

Comment by Stephen on May 23, 2017 at 7:54pm

Free refreshment from Manchester Sikh Community, who arrived in Albert Square singing to a round of applause #Manchester #WeStandTogether

Comment by Stephen on May 23, 2017 at 7:37pm

Comment by Stephen on May 22, 2017 at 7:52pm

Manchester Arena incident after Ariana Grande concertExit player

Deaths confirmed after Manchester Arena blast reports

BBC News |

A number of people have died and others have been injured following a reported explosion at Manchester Arena.

Witnesses reported hearing a "huge bang" following a pop concert by US singer Ariana Grande.

Greater Manchester Police said there are a "number of confirmed fatalities and others injured".

Witnesses said they heard two loud bangs, reported to be near the ticket office of the arena. The cause of the reported explosion is unknown.

Manchester Victoria station, which is close to the concert venue, has been closed and all trains cancelled.

Greater Manchester Police tweeted to urge people to stay away from the area.

'Screaming and running'

A number of eyewitnesses have described the confusion in the aftermath.

Robert Tempkin, 22, from Middlesbrough, said: "Everyone was screaming and running, there were coats and people's phones on the floor. People just dropped everything.

"Some people were screaming they'd seen blood but other people were saying it was balloons busting or a speaker had been popped.

"There were lots of ambulances. I saw somebody being treated. I couldn't tell what had happened to him."

Read more=  read:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-40007886

Comment by A place called Doone on May 22, 2017 at 7:49pm

From Kevin Drum and many others

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2017/05/trump-asked-nsa-and-d...

....In addition to the requests to Coats and Rogers, senior White House officials sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of intervening directly with Comey to encourage the FBI to drop its probe of Michael Flynn....“Can we ask him to shut down the investigation? Are you able to assist in this matter?” one official said of the line of questioning from the White House.

This. Is. Nuts. Trump is not only corrupt, he's an unbelievable moron. He personallyasked the NSA director and the overall director of national intelligence to publicly weigh in on an ongoing investigation. Not only that, he basically asked them to lie, since they weren't privy to what the FBI was doing. In what universe did Trump think that either of them would respond positively to such a blunt request? Or that this kind of thing wouldn't leak?

What's more, in addition to directly asking Comey to shut down the FBI investigation, he apparently had some of his aides call senior intelligence officers to ask them to intervene with Comey. There are two big questions here:

• What is Trump afraid the investigation will find? Whatever it is, apparently Michael Flynn is afraid of it too.
• When do the impeachment proceedings begin?

If there really are contemporaneous memos from Comey, Rogers, and maybe Coats, and if all three can be called to testify about their conversations with Trump, then what more do we need? This is Nixon-level stuff.

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• …
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8
• …
• 427
• Next ›
• Page