#and again--hussein had nothing to do with the attacks. and the u.s. still went and bombed the hell out of the country (the civilians!!!)

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

This was known at the time. Also known at the time: Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda (a terrorist organization NOT a government) were responsible for the attacks.

Osama bin Laden (born and raised in Saudia Arabia) was the son of a billionaire who used his inherited wealth to found the terrorist group al-Qaeda

None of al-Qaeda's founders were Iraqi.

Saddam Hussein/the Iraqi government had few if any connections to Osama bin Laden/al-Qaeda

They were completely separate individuals/organizations.

Iraq was not involved in the Sept 11 attacks.

Iraq was not involved in the Sept 11 attacks.

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.

[newstfionline]

Monday, September 13, 2021

UN chief: World is at `pivotal moment’ (AP) U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a dire warning that the world is moving in the wrong direction and faces “a pivotal moment” where continuing business as usual could lead to a breakdown of global order and a future of perpetual crisis. Changing course could signal a breakthrough to a greener and safer future, he said. The U.N. chief said the world’s nations and people must reverse today’s dangerous trends and choose “the breakthrough scenario.” The world is under “enormous stress” on almost every front, he said, and the COVID-19 pandemic was a wake-up call demonstrating the failure of nations to come together and take joint decisions to help all people in the face of a global life-threatening emergency. Guterres said this “paralysis” extends far beyond COVID-19 to the failures to tackle the climate crisis and “our suicidal war on nature and the collapse of biodiversity,” the “unchecked inequality” undermining the cohesion of societies, and technology’s advances “without guard rails to protect us from its unforeseen consequences.” In other signs of a more chaotic and insecure world, he pointed to rising poverty, hunger and gender inequality after decades of decline, the extreme risk to human life and the planet from nuclear war and a climate breakdown, and the inequality, discrimination and injustice bringing people into the streets to protest.

World marks 20th anniversary of 9/11 (AP) The world solemnly marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11 on Saturday, remembering the dead, invoking the heroes and taking stock of the aftermath just weeks after the bloody end of the Afghanistan war that was launched in response to the terror attacks. Victims’ relatives and four U.S. presidents paid respects at the sites where hijacked planes killed nearly 3,000 people in the deadliest act of terrorism on American soil. Others gathered for observances from Portland, Maine, to Guam, or for volunteer projects on what has become a day of service in the U.S. Foreign leaders expressed sympathy over an attack that happened in the U.S. but claimed victims from more than 90 countries.

Phony diagnoses are hiding high rates of drugging at nursing homes (NYT) The risks to patients treated with antipsychotics—which understaffed nursing homes have often used as “chemical straitjackets”—are so high that nursing homes must report to the government how many of their residents are on these potent medications. But there is an important caveat: The government doesn’t publicly divulge the use of antipsychotics given to residents with schizophrenia or two other conditions. A Times investigation found a pattern of questionable schizophrenia diagnoses nationwide. The result: The government and the industry are obscuring the true rate of antipsychotic drug use on vulnerable residents. The share of residents with a schizophrenia diagnosis has increased to 11 percent from less than 7 percent since 2012. At least 21 percent of nursing home residents are on antipsychotic drugs.

Tropical Storm Nicholas forms in Gulf of Mexico (AP) Tropical Storm Nicholas strengthened as it headed for the Gulf Coast on Sunday, threatening heavy rain and floods in coastal areas of Texas, Mexico and Louisiana. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said tropical storm warnings were issued for coastal Texas and the northeast coast of Mexico. Nicholas is expected to produce total rainfall of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 25 centimeters), with isolated maximum amounts of 15 inches, across portions of coastal Texas into southwest Louisiana on Sunday through midweek. The storm was expected to bring the heaviest rainfall west of where Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana two weeks ago.

Britain decides against vaccine passports (AP) Britain’s health secretary said Sunday that authorities have decided not to require vaccine passports for entry into nightclubs and other crowded events in England, reversing course amid opposition from some of the Conservative government’s supporters in Parliament. Sajid Javid said the government has shelved the idea of vaccine passports for now but could reconsider the decision if COVID-19 cases rise exponentially once again. The U-turn came just days after the government’s vaccines minister and the culture secretary suggested that vaccine passports would still be necessary, despite growing opposition from lawmakers. Such passports are required in other European countries, like France. Members of the governing Conservative Party have objected to such passports as an unacceptable burden on businesses and an infringement on residents’ human rights.

Thousands of Catalans rally for independence in Barcelona (Reuters) Thousands of Catalans chanted, sang and waved flags as they marched through Barcelona on Saturday, calling for the region’s independence from Spain. The march, organised by the grassroots Assemblea Nacional Catalana ANC, was the first since Spain’s government pardoned nine Catalan separatist leaders who had been jailed for their role in a 2017 botched bid for independence, which was Spain’s biggest political crisis in decades. Most marchers wore face coverings. Police said about 108,000 people took part. ANC put the figure close to 400,000. The protests took place at a moment of lower tension between Barcelona and Madrid than in past years as the central and regional governments favour dialogue despite their opposing views on independence.

In Hungary, pope meets PM Orban, his political opposite (Reuters) Pope Francis arrived in Hungary early on Sunday, starting an unusually short stay that underlines differences with his political opposite, nationalist and anti-immigrant Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Francis, 84, who is spending only seven hours in the capital Budapest, went directly from the airport to a private meeting with Orban and President Janos Ader in the Museum of Fine Arts. Unlike nearly every other papal trip, there was no live television coverage of the preliminary greetings or the photo opportunities that usually precede and follow such meetings. The pope is making the brief Budapest stop to say a Mass closing an international Roman Catholic meeting, known as an International Eucharist Congress. On Sunday afternoon he moves on to Slovakia, where he will stay much longer, visiting four cities before returning to Rome on Wednesday.

Nine-cent taxi rides in rural South Korea are a “godsend.” (NYT) In 2013, Seocheon County faced a crisis. As its population declined, so did the number of bus passengers, which led to unprofitable routes being canceled, stranding those in remote hamlets who did not own cars. The county’s solution? The 100-won taxi. (Longer routes cost 1,500 won, or about $1.30.) Anyone whose hamlet is more than 2,300 feet from a bus stop can call one, and the county picks up the rest of the fare. The taxis carried nearly 40,000 passengers last year, which cost the county $147,000. Since the 100-won taxi was introduced, people in remote villages have traveled outside twice as often, according to a government survey. More than 2.7 million passengers used similar taxi services in rural South Korea last year.

Strong typhoon cuts power, causes flooding in northern Philippines (Reuters) Several communities remain flooded and without power after a strong typhoon battered the Philippines’ northernmost islands, the authorities said on Sunday, displacing thousands of people. Typhoon Chanthu, which at one point was categorised by the Philippine weather bureau as a category 5 storm, has weakened after powering into the northernmost region, including the Batanes island group, on Saturday, the weather bureau said. “It’s one of the strongest typhoons I’ve felt,” said Dennis Ballesteros Valdez, a resident of Sabtang town in the province of Batanes, which is often pummelled by powerful typhoons. Some 20 typhoons hit the Philippines on average each year, according to the weather authorities.

Taliban flag rises over seat of power on fateful anniversary (AP) The Taliban raised their flag over the Afghan presidential palace Saturday, a spokesman said, as the U.S. and the world marked the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. The white banner, emblazoned with a Quranic verse, was hoisted by Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, the prime minister of the Taliban interim government, in a low-key ceremony. In a tweet, Afghanistan’s first president to follow the 2001 collapse of the Taliban, Hamid Karzai, called for “peace and stability” and expressed the hope that the new caretaker Cabinet that included no women and no non-Taliban would become an “inclusive government that can be the real face of the whole Afghanistan.”

Death and suffering in Iraq a painful legacy of 9/11 attacks (AP) Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. But the terrorist attacks in the United States changed forever the lives of Iraqis. In their aftermath, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, swiftly deposing the Taliban regime that had been sheltering Osama bin Laden, the leader of the al-Qaida terror network blamed for the attacks. But it was not long before President George W. Bush shifted his attention to Iraq, identifying it, along with Iran and North Korea, as part of an “axis of evil” and asserting that its brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein, was armed with weapons of mass destruction and had ties to al-Qaida. No evidence of either was found. What followed was a U.S.-led invasion of a country in the heart of the Middle East that spurred a decade of war, with consequences that reverberate across the region to this day. After decades of conflict, Iraq today has a relatively stable government, and the car bombings, suicide attacks and death squads have subsided. But the economy is in tatters, its infrastructure is crumbling and corruption is rampant. The government, with its fractious politics, is unable to control the dozens of powerful Iran-backed militias that wield enormous control.

[creepingsharia]

Illinois: Grandson of honor-killing, terror-linked ‘Palestinian’ Muslim running for Congress

Rashad “Rush” Darwish’s platform: support for sanctuary cities, amnesty for illegals, and taking guns from law-abiding Americans.

via Ballotpedia:

Rush Darwish (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Illinois' 3rd Congressional District. He is on the ballot in the Democratic primary on March 17, 2020.

via Chicago-Sun Times: Chicago-area congressional candidate’s remarks about Jews, Israel spark questions

Rashad “Rush” Darwish, 42, runs a television and photography production business in Pilsen. He said in the interview he adopted the less ethnic-sounding name of Rush in 2001 — before the 9-11 attacks — when he was hired for an on-air TV news job in Tyler, Texas. He later switched careers and returned to the Chicago area.

His parents, now Lemont residents, were born in the West Bank village of Beitin. At age 6, his family moved from Stone Park back to Beitin for two years to live with his maternal grandmother. At that kickoff event this summer, Darwish said, “The very foundation of who I am, the values I learned growing up in Palestine, is embedded in me.”

Darwish is on the executive board of AMVOTE, the American Middle East Voters Alliance PAC, a state-level political action committee.

As he seeks to make history, Darwish’s newfound political muscle is bringing attention to comments he made this summer and years ago.

At a campaign kickoff event in June, Darwish in a speech incorrectly said Lipinski got $15,000 from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel influential lobbying group. However, AIPAC is not a political action committee, does not endorse and does not donate to campaigns. AIPAC members and allies, like anyone, can contribute as individuals and use their personal networks to raise money for candidates.

Darwish provided no details to back up his $15,000 assertion when the Sun-Times asked him about it, saying “what I can do at this stage” is “take a closer look. … So if I technically said it wrong, then, I would have to look into that.”

Back in 2015, as a provocative radio talk show host, Darwish excoriated a guest, Ray Hanania — who, among other things, comments on and writes about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Darwish told Hanania he sounded “like you are praising the Israeli people and the Jewish civilization as if they are great people.”

Darwish told the Sun-Times, “I’ll be honest with you. I may have misspoke if I said the word Jews. That was a mistake on my part. Usually I think I’m pretty good at knowing on the show not to use the word Jews because Jews are not, that’s not the problem.” His problem, he said is with a “pro-Israeli government agenda.”

--------------------------------

A quick look at Darwish’s webpage and he is open about not only his platform in support of illegal aliens but his ongoing personal support to illegal aliens. Excerpts from his platform below:

In my personal time, I have been connecting undocumented families I know with pro-bono immigration attorneys to assist them in gaining legal status...what we need as a country is comprehensive and fair immigration reform to put these families on a path to citizenship...

As your Congressman I would:

Support sanctuary cities and asylum seekers...

Support comprehensive and fair immigration reform to make our immigration system simpler, more accessible, particularly for non-native english speakers

Expand my work personally to create and market a large network of pro-bono immigration attorneys to assist undocumented families in gaining legal status.

Darwish is also anti-Second Amendment and an open gun grabber. Again from his platform site:

Taking assault rifles, high capacity magazine clips, and other weapons of war completely off our streets...

Rush believes Congress should immediately pass a national ban on the importation and sale of all assault rifles and high capacity magazine clips.  These weapons should only be utilized by our Armed forces and at certain times by local law enforcement.

--------------------------------

Darwish focuses on preventing some law-abiding Americans from even purchasing guns, specifically, what he refers to as “white nationalist” and Trump supporters. There is no mention of his co-religionists and their jihad.

But Darwish is not only an open border, sanctuary city supporting, amnesty for illegals, gun grabbing socialist, Darwish is the grandson of one of the first known Muslim honor killers in the United States.

Twitter user @kristintweeted engaged Rashad, aka Rush, about this on her Facebook page. Shortly thereafter he blocked her. Screen shots here.

Darwish’s father is Amir Darwish, President of “The Coalition of Palestinian-American Organizations.”

In this 1991 St. Louis Post Dispatch article on the 1991 honor killing of Tina Issa, Rush Darwish’s father defended his father in law who was convicted in the Islamic honor killing of his own daughter. via Parents guilty in murder of daughter:

A St. Louis Circuit Court jury deliberated less than four hours Friday before finding Zein Isa and his wife, Maria, guilty of first-degree murder in the stabbing of their youngest daughter.

The prosecutor, Assistant Circuit Attorney Dee Joyce-Hayes, said she was pleased but added she had been concerned that jurors might have found Maria Isa guilty of the less serious crime of second-degree murder.

Her lawyer, Charles M. Shaw, had contended that Maria sided with Tina in a growing family rift. The mother tried to protect Tina when Zein Isa plunged a knife into the girl's chest on Nov. 6, 1989, at the family's South Side apartment, Shaw said.

Amir Darwish of Chicago, a son-in-law of Zein Isa, said he was distressed by the convictions.

''I think all the facts were not on the table for the jury in this case, '' he said.

The prosecution's most important evidence was a secretly made tape- recording of the murder. Seven minutes of it was filled with Tina's shrieks as she was being stabbed. Some jurors cried when the tape was played for them on Wednesday.

But they asked to hear the tape Friday for a second time, and sat grim-faced and alone in the locked courtroom, listening to the tape over headphones.

In her final argument to the jury, Joyce-Hayes said, ''I can't think of any other way to describe this incident other than as a blood sacrifice.''

She said the Isas believed the only way to ''cleanse'' the family was through Tina's blood. ''They assassinated her,'' the prosecutor said.

The prosecutor could not bring herself to call the heinous crime what it really was. An honor killing. And she even went so far as to claim it had nothing to do with Islam.

A 1993 Chicago Tribune article, A FAMILY TRAGEDY OR TERRORISTS' SCHEME?, uncovered the terrorist ties in the honor killing.

Again, this is the family of Rush Darwish - now running for a seat in the Unitied States Congress.

"Quiet, little one! Die quickly, my daughter, die!" Zein Isa said in Arabic. He stabbed her six times while his wife, Maria, held her by the hair.

"Mother! Please, help me!" Tina pleaded.

"What help?" Maria Isa replied.

As Tina lay dying, her father put his foot on her mouth to muffle the cries.

Jurors heard it all. An FBI bug picked up the parents' words and the daughter's screams. Zein Isa, the bureau explained, was suspected of working for the Palestine Liberation Organization, which at that time had not publicly disavowed terrorism.

Jurors were told that he, his wife and Tina's older sisters believed she had dishonored the family, going against Muslim tradition by having a boyfriend.

She dishonored the family. Her penalty was to be honor killed. But the FBI suggested she knew too much about her father’s involvement in an Islamic terror group for which he was later indicted.

The organization, a violent and nihilistic 1974 offshoot of the PLO, was labeled by the State Department in 1989 as the world's most dangerous terrorist group. It is responsible for more than 90 terrorist attacks in 20 countries, according to the department's annual assessment of terrorism.

A federal grand jury in April indicted Zein Isa, 61, already on Death Row for his daughter's murder; Saif Nijmeh, 33, of St. Louis; Luie Nijmeh, 29, of Miamisburg, Ohio; and Tawfiq Musa, 43, of Racine, Wis. All are in Missouri prisons awaiting trial.

The four are accused of a variety of acts under federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) statutes: obtaining illegal weapons, such as a rocket-propelled grenade launcher; procuring and using bogus passports; illegally transferring money overseas; and conspiring to murder Tina Isa.

...

But reviews of tape-recorded conversations between Zein Isa and his daughters and their husbands also show that killing her to preserve the family honor was being discussed as early as August 1989.

-------------------------------

While Rashad “Rush” Darwish was not involved in the honor killing of his aunt, he doesn’t stray far from his ‘Palestinian’ roots. He is adamantly anti-Israel, pro BDS, and he has the support of Hamas-linked CAIR.

Darwish has also campaigned with another name-changing ‘Palestinian’ grandson of an Islamic terrorist whom we posted on two days ago: Ammar Campa-Najjar.

When “Rush” still went by the name Rashad, he was a member of the notorious Hamas-funding Bridgeview Mosque.

The mosque hosted al-Qaeda’s spiritual leader and it’s terror ties were so well known that a bank shut the mosque’s account and refused to do business with them. The mosque was also linked to the largest terror-financing conviction in U.S. history.

What other skeletons are in Rush Darwish’s closet? The media won’t investigate.

Do Illinois voters really want to find out the hard way? Was the lesson of Barrack Hussein “Barry Soetero” Obama not enough? 

In less than ten days we’ll find out.

--------------------------------------------------

Update 1: Rashad Darwish lost, and Lost Big

[patriotsnet]

Why Do Republicans Want To Get Rid Of The Epa

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-do-republicans-want-to-get-rid-of-the-epa/

Why Do Republicans Want To Get Rid Of The Epa

It Is Time To Take Back Our Legislative Power From The Epa And Abolish It Permanently This Legislation Abolishes The Epa Effective December 31 2018 Gaetz Wrote In An E

Gaetz’s legislation has the potential to cause serious harm to the Pensacola area that he represents. The area’s economy relies on tourism. Such tourism would erode as quickly as the Pensacola beaches, if he triumphantly destroys the EPA.

A brief history of the EPA, shows how it rescued that very area. Before the EPA was created, a private wood treatment factory released cancer-causing dioxins into Pensacola Bay without consequence. The EPA cleaned the area up, and saved the tourism industry in the Panhandle. IrregularTimes

As a result of the potential economic harm Gaetz’ legislation will cause to his district, Democratic Women’s Club is protesting his events. For protection against the female protesters, Gaetz has organized militia-men and biker groups. This is the same group of bikers that provided Trump muscle against the Women’s March on Washington.

Come on, Mark! Do you really need biker protection against the Democratic Women’s Club?

If you don’t care about making the world more filthy for tomorrow’s generation, here are some consequences that abolishing the EPA would cause, that you might care about.

Even a Trumpkin could figure out that if we abolish one department, the responsibilities of that department would have to be conducted by someone else.

Getting rid of the EPA would be handing a lot more work to firemen and police officers. Which, in turn, would force them to focus less on their main jobs of preventing fires and crime.

Prior To Going To War In Iraq Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Optimistically Predicted The Iraq War Might Last Six Days Six Weeks I Doubt Six Months

What’s more, Vice-President Dick Cheney said we would be greeted as liberators by the Iraqi people after we overthrow Saddam.

They were both horribly wrong. Instead of six weeks or six months, the Iraq war lasted eight long and bloody years costing thousands of American lives. It led to an Iraqi civil war between the Sunnis and the Shiites that took hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives. Many Iraqi militia groups were formed to fight against the U.S. forces that occupied Iraq. What’s more, Al Qaeda, which did not exist in Iraq before the war, used the turmoil in Iraq to establish a new foothold in that country.

The Iraq war was arguably the most tragic foreign policy blunder in US history.

In 2012 Republicans Predicted That Failure To Approve The Keystone Pipeline Would Send The Price Of Gasoline Sky High And Kill Large Numbers Of Jobs

Despite the fact that the Keystone Pipeline was not approved, the price of gasoline continued to drop below $1.80 per gallon, millions of new jobs were created and unemployment dropped from 8% to 4.9% by early 2016. The most optimistic predictions say that the Keystone Pipeline would only create a few dozen long-term jobs and would do nothing to lower the price of gasoline.

In 1993 When Bill Clinton Raised Taxes On The Wealthiest 15% Republicans Predicted A Recession Increased Unemployment And A Growing Budget Deficit

They weren’t just wrong: The exact opposite of everything they predicted happened. The country experienced the seven best years of economic growth in history.

Twenty-two million new jobs were added.

Unemployment dropped below 4%.

The poverty rate dropped for seven straight years.

The budget deficit was eliminated.

There was a growing budget surplus that economists projected could pay off our national debt in 20 years.

Republicans Predicted That We Would Find Iraqs Weapons Of Mass Destruction Even Though Un Weapons Inspectors Said That Those Weapons Didn’t Exist

The Bush administration continued to insist that WMDs would be found, even when the CIA said some of the evidence was questionable. As we all know, the WMDs predicted by the Bush administration did not exist, and Saddam Hussein had not resumed his nuclear weapons program as they claimed. Ultimately, both President Bush and Vice President Cheney had to admit that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Republicans Predicted That President Obamas Tax Increase For The Top 1% In 2013 Would Kill Jobs Increase The Deficit And Cause Another Recession

You guessed it; just the opposite happened. In the four years following January 1, 2013, when that tax increase went into effect, through January 2017, unemployment dropped from 7.9% to 4.8%, an average of more than 200,000 new jobs were created per month, Wall Street set new record highs, and the budget deficit was cut in half.

Over 5.7 million new jobs were created in the first two years after that tax increase. That’s more jobs created in two years than were created during the combined 12 years of both Bush presidencies.

In 2001 When George W Bush Cut Taxes For The Wealthy Republicans Predicted Record Job Growth Increased Budget Surplus And Nationwide Prosperity

Once again, the exact opposite occurred. After the Bush tax cuts were enacted:

The budget surplus immediately disappeared.

The budget deficit eventually grew to $1.4 trillion by the time Bush left office.

Less than 3 million net jobs were added during Bush’s eight years.

The poverty rate began climbing again.

We experienced two recessions along with the greatest collapse of our financial system since the Great Depression.

In 1993, President Clinton signed the Brady Law mandating nationwide background checks and a waiting period to buy a gun.

Mitch Mcconnell Have Ing A Meeting Days After President Obama Become President To Talk About How They Will Make Him A One Term President

For some reason it was ok to oppose everything Obama did, Even though more people voted for him than any other president in history. Our mandate meant nothing to them. The republicans denounced trump before he was president but support him more and more even though his actions have only gotten worse. The day you make a republican sprint past a microphone and not take the moment to lie about whatever they are doing, Is a cold day. Also tells you how they feel.

Republicans Said Waterboarding And Other Forms Of Enhanced Interrogation Are Not Torture And Are Necessary In Fighting Islamic Extremism

In reality, waterboarding and other forms of enhanced interrogation that inflict pain, suffering, or fear of death are outlawed by US law, the US Constitution, and international treaties. Japanese soldiers after World War II were prosecuted by the United States for war crimes because of their use of waterboarding on American POWs.

Professional interrogators have known for decades that torture is the most ineffective and unreliable method of getting accurate information. People being tortured say anything to get the torture to end but will not likely tell the truth.

An FBI interrogator named Ali Soufan was able to get al Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah to reveal crucial information without the use of torture. When CIA interrogators started using waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation methods, Zubaydah stopped cooperating and gave his interrogators false information.

Far from being necessary in the fight against terrorism, torture is completely unreliable and counter-productive in obtaining useful information.

In 2008 Republicans Said That If We Elect A Democratic President We Would Be Hit By Al Qaeda Again Perhaps Worse Than The Attack On 9/11

Former Vice-President Dick Cheney stated that electing a Democrat as president would all but guarantee that there would be another major attack on America by Al Qaeda. Cheney and other Republicans were, thankfully, completely wrong. During Obama’s presidency, we had zero deaths on U.S. soil from Al Qaeda attacks and we succeeded in killing Bin Laden along with dozens of other high ranking Al Qaeda leaders.

Republicans Said We Must Deregulate Businesses So They Can Be More Profitable And We Will All Enjoy The Wealth Created By Deregulation

This theory failed back in the 1980s when the Reagan administration deregulated the Savings and Loan industry. All the S&Ls collapsed, and it cost taxpayers billions of dollars to bail them out.

They were proven wrong again in 2008 when years of deregulation of the financial industry resulted in the worst financial collapse and recession since the Great Depression. Taxpayers had to spend nearly a trillion dollars to bail out these large corporations. Instead of spreading the wealth around, deregulation cost millions of jobs and created economic turmoil that took the country years to recover from.

Senator Mitch McConnell claimed Obamacare would cost the economy two million jobs.

Republicans Routinely Accuse Democrats Of Wanting To Cut Defense Spending To The Bone And Leave Us Defenseless Against Our Enemies

History has repeatedly proven them wrong. Under Democratic presidents and Congresses, the United States still spends more on defense than the next ten countries combined. Republicans frequently insist on spending hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons systems that the Pentagon doesn’t even want in order to benefit the multi-billion dollar defense contractors. Democrats who criticize this unnecessary spending are accused of trying to cut defense spending to the bone.

In 2009 Republicans Predicted That The Economic Stimulus Package Would Only Make The Recession Worse And Cause More Unemployment

The results show they couldn’t have been more wrong. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 ended the recession after only a few months. Although 750,000 people were losing their jobs each month when Obama took office, after the Recovery Act was passed the rate of job loss immediately decreased each month and within a year the economy showed positive job growth.

Considering the severity of the 2008 economic collapse and the total opposition by Republicans to do anything at all to stimulate the economy, it is remarkable that the US economy recovered as quickly as it did.

Looking at the rate of job loss and job creation, its easy to see that the stimulus of 2009 was highly successful in stopping the job losses and turning the economy around.

In 1993 When The Brady Law And The Assault Weapons Ban Were Passed Republicans Predicted Increasing Rates Of Crime And Murder

Thankfully, just the opposite happened. While the rate of violent crime had increased steadily from the 1970s into the 1990s, it suddenly began to drop after 1993 and continued to decline for more than ten years. What could have happened in 1993 to precipitate such a sudden and prolonged drop in crime? That’s the year Congress passed the Assault Weapons Ban and the Brady Law, which mandated background checks and a waiting period to buy a gun.

Despite Republican predictions to the contrary, the Brady Law and the Assault Weapons Ban were followed by the most dramatic reduction in violent crime since the FBI started keeping statistics. The graphs below, based on the actual numbers from the FBI Uniform Crime Reports website, show how the rates of murder and violent crime in the US dropped suddenly after the 1993 Brady Law and Assault Weapons Ban were passed.

These charts show the rate of murder and violent crime over 35 years based on numbers from the FBI Uniform Crime reports.

Most Republicans Said That President Obama Should Be Impeached Because Of The 2012 Attack On The Us Consulate In Benghazi

Their own investigations, however, proved them wrong. Every Congressional inquiry, including those by the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, concluded that the Obama administration did nothing wrong regarding Benghazi, that there was no “stand down” order given, and that neither the President nor anyone in his administration lied about it. Each and every Republican investigation has reached this same conclusion, but Republicans continue to exploit this tragedy for political gain.

Republicans Said That If President Obama Was Reelected The Price Of Gasoline Would Rise To $545 A Gallon By January 2015

In fact, Senator Mike Lee of Utah said if Obama was reelected, the price of gas would reach $6.60 a gallon. Newt Gingrich, who was running for president in 2012, said Obama’s energy policies, EPA regulations, and failure to approve the XL pipeline would result in $10.00 a gallon gasoline.

Of course, these predictions were laughably wrong. Instead of $5.45 per gallon or $10.00 per gallon, the price of gas in January 2015, was $1.89, less than half of the all-time high of $4.15 a gallon under President Bush.

Republicans Insist That Their Policies Create More Jobs Than Democrats And Claim Democratic Policies Are Job Killers

History, however, has proven them wrong. According to numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, under the last three Republican presidents, there were a total of 21 million new jobs created during their combined 20 years in office .

However, under the last three Democratic presidents, there were a total of 40 million new jobs created during their combined 19 years in office .

So the last three Democratic presidents have seen the creation of nearly twice as many jobs in 19 years as the last three Republican presidents did in 20.

Grist Is The Only Nonprofit Newsroom Focused On Exploring Solutions At The Intersection Of Climate And Justice

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Republican Senator Matt Gaetz From Conservative Florida Panhandle Has A Lot Of Secrets In His Closet Part 1

Feb 17, 2017

My two articles today will both be about the Republican freshman senator Rep. Matt Gaetz, from Florida.

My editor told me to write an article about how republicans want to destroy the EPA. As terrifying as that statement is, my research led me to the door step of Matt Gaetz, a republican senator that few Americans know. The only thing awesome about this guy is how he typifies every single Republican. His district is one of the most conservative in the county. Still, if I had a nickle for every sin he is rumored to have committed, I’d have enough for a phone call.

According to a Fox News report, he is introducing a bill to finally abolish the EPA. I use the word ‘finally’ because the EPA has been bugging republicans for a long time. According to republicans, all that the EPA does is implement regulations that cost the elite lots of cash.

The bill is not even a page long. It looks like it took someone two minutes to write up. However preposterous the bill is, the creep who wrote it, is even more of a joke. With seven arrests, murder suspicions, and even an alleged gay lifestyle, Matt Gaetz is the epitome of the republican politician. From the corner, he preaches, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’

Today The American People Are Drowning In Rules And Regulations Promulgated By Unelected Bureaucrats

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A bill to “completely abolish” the Environmental Protection Agency has been drafted that would close the main arm of the US Government responsible for fighting climate change by the end of next year.

Matt Gaetz, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, has written to other politicians who might support his bill, according to an email obtained by The Huffington Post.

He claimed the “American people are drowning in rules and regulations” imposed by “unelected bureaucrats”.

And the EPA, he added, was “an extraordinary offender”.

The Environmental Protection Agency In The Early Trump Administration: Prelude To Regulatory Capture

Article notesCopyright and License informationDisclaimerhttp://www.ajph.orgCONTRIBUTORS

L. Dillon conducted and coordinated the research and writing of this article. L. Dillon, C. Sellers, M. Sullivan, J. Harrison, and S. Johns conducted interviews. C. Sellers coordinates EDGI’s larger interview project, conducted research and writing, and is the lead author of “EPA Under Siege.” V. Underhill, N. Shapiro, J. Liss Ohayon, P. Brown, M. Sullivan, and S. Wylie contributed to research and writing. J. Harrison contributed to research design. All authors, including authors in the writing group, contributed to the research and writing of “EPA Under Siege.”

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Exclusive: Indiana Republican Sen Mike Braun Will Support Biden’s Epa Pick But Not His Agenda

Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun told IndyStar he plans to vote to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — a departure from many of his GOP colleagues.

For Braun, he said it’s an easy choice.

“The EPA often is at the center of partisan fights,” said the U.S. senator from Jasper. But Biden’s pick, Michael Regan, “seems like somebody who will listen, and he seems like somebody that’s going to talk to the people impacted, like the farmers.”

Regan has been North Carolina’s top environmental regulator since 2017. He was questioned in his confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, of which Braun is a member.

Regan said if confirmed, he would “follow the science and the law,” and focus on issues of climate change, environmental justice and drinking water.

The lines of questioning exposed political divisions among members about how to tackle the climate crisis and environmental regulations, particularly as it relates to jobs and the economy.

Some Republican members expressed concerns that “green jobs” will not be sufficient to replace those being lost from the fossil fuel industry. Many also were concerned about Biden’s plans to revisit controversial rules that were undone by President Donald Trump both at the EPA and in courts, including President Barack Obama’s power plan and clean water rule.

Braun told IndyStar he shares some of those concerns.

Progress ‘out the window’

Careers

In The 1960s Republicans Claimed That The Passage Of Medicare Would Be The End Of Capitalism

California Governor Ronald Reagan even proclaimed Medicare would lead to the death of freedom in America. Of course, they were laughably wrong. Since the passage of Medicare, capitalism has thrived and millions of elderly Americans have had longer, healthier lives and greater personal freedom. Medicare remains the most popular form of health insurance in the United States.

When Bill Clinton raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.5%, Republicans predicted a recession, increased unemployment, and a growing budget deficit. They were wrong.

There Is More Pollution When Congress And State Governorships Are Under Republican Control

Republican politicians have been portrayed traditionally as having less concern for the environment, but what does the evidence say about the GOP and pollution? In new research, Luke Fowler and Jaclyn Kettler examined 20 years’ of data on state-level toxic waste releases. They found that there was likely to be more pollution when the US Congress and state Governorships were held by Republicans, and that pollution was lower when these institutions were held by Democrats.

In contemporary American politics, Republicans have largely been cast as the villains when it comes to environmental issues, especially as President Trump dismantles the Environmental Protection Agency , Republican members of Congress vote against environmental legislation, and climate change denial still factors into party rhetoric. However, the complicated nature of the federal system and environmental policy may limit the influence of Republican partisan control on environmental outcomes. While others have thoroughly examined Republican rhetoric and record on the environment, we ask: does Republican leadership translate into more pollution?

The Trump Administration Rolled Back More Than 100 Environmental Rules Heres The Full List

Over four years, the Trump administration dismantled major climate policies and rolled back many more rules governing clean air, water, wildlife and toxic chemicals.

In all, a New York Times analysis, based on research from Harvard Law School, Columbia Law School and other sources, counts nearly 100 environmental rules officially reversed, revoked or otherwise rolled back under Mr. Trump. More than a dozen other potential rollbacks remained in progress by the end but were not finalized by the end of the administration’s term.

“This is a very aggressive attempt to rewrite our laws and reinterpret the meaning of environmental protections,” said Hana V. Vizcarra, a staff attorney at Harvard’s Environmental and Energy Law Program who has tracked the policy changes since 2018. “This administration is leaving a truly unprecedented legacy.”

Rule reversals

The bulk of the rollbacks identified by the Times were carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency, which weakened Obama-era limits on planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and from cars and trucks; removed protections from more than half the nation’s wetlands; and withdrew the legal justification for restricting mercury emissions from power plants.

In justifying many of the rollbacks, the agencies said that previous administrations had overstepped their legal authority, imposing unnecessary and burdensome regulations that hurt business.

climateteam@nytimes.com or tweet @nytclimate.

Republicans Claim That Raising The Minimum Wage Would Kill Jobs And Hurt The Economy

There is far more evidence to the contrary. Cities and states that have higher minimum wages tend to have better rates of job creation and economic growth.

Detailed analyses show that job losses due to increases in the minimum wage are almost negligible compared to the economic benefits of higher wages. Previous increases in the minimum wage have never resulted in the dire consequences that Republicans have predicted.

Republicans have accused President Obama of “cutting defense spending to the bone”. This chart of 2014 discretionary spending firmly disproves that argument.

The Reagan Administration Takes A Swing At Environmental Agencies And Regulation

Riding these political tides to the White House, the early Reagan administration undertook a frontal assault on environmental agencies and regulation much like what we are now seeing. Gorsuch stepped into the EPA’s helm, hatching plans to cut its budget and personnel by half. Her Colorado colleague over at the Interior Department, James Watt, sought a similar devolution of control over federal lands; OSHA and FDA were also targeted.

But for these Republican anti-environmentalists, the power of the Presidency was not enough. A Democratic Congress, still bolstered by the party’s Southern bloc, stood in the way. Democratic committee chairs geared up for Congressional hearings that spotlighted the ensuing consequences and corruption at agencies under fire. The hue and cry then raised, and courtroom battles the Administration then lost, turned out to be much more than it had bargained for. Within two years, Gorsuch and Watt had resigned and restoration of federal environmental agencies was underway. A seminal Supreme Court decision in 1984, Chevron, Inc. vs NRDC, required judicial deference to environmental and other agencies’ interpretation of statutes, confirming their authority to regulate.

Republicans Have So Corrupted Epa Americans Can Only Save It In The Voting Booth

The Republican Party values polluter wealth over public health

Last modified on Mon 30 Apr 2018 11.01 BST

Like Donald Trump and the rest of his administration, Scott Pruitt has been caught up in so many scandals that it becomes impossible to focus on any single act of corruption. It’s difficult to focus on the damage Pruitt is doing to the environment and public health when seemingly every day there’s a new scandal related to his illegal $43,000 phone booth, or use of Safe Water Drinking Act funds to give two staffers a total of $85,000 in raises , or his sweetheart deal on a condo rental from a lobbyist’s wife , or wasting taxpayer funds on first class air travel and military jets, and a nearly $3m per year security detail, and bulletproof car seat covers, and a bulletproof desk, and so on.

Number of federal investigations into Scott Pruitt has now risen to 11. Reps. Beyer & Lieu say EPA inspector general will take up an inquiry into the $50-a-night condo rental from the wife of an energy lobbyist.

— Lisa Friedman April 27, 2018

But while Pruitt’s unprecedented corruption is staggering and would have resulted in his firing long ago in any other presidential administration, the damage Pruitt is doing to public and environmental health is a far greater scandal yet. As George W. Bush’s former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman wrote in for why TIME included Pruitt as one of its 100 most influential people this year,

Epa Scientists’ Work May Face ‘case By Case’ Review By Trump Team Official Says

“Pollution today is far more subtle,” Ruckelshaus says. It’s invisible greenhouse gases that cause global warming, or non-point pollution sources like the agricultural runoff from a farmer’s land that makes its way to a river. Those are no less threatening than issues like a burning river, Ruckelshaus says. And in some cases — specifically, in terms of climate change — they can be even worse.

“As people are subjected to sea level rise and ever-increasing severity of storms, of floods, of droughts, they know something’s going on,” Whitman says. “They’re often ahead of Washington in that.”

And she believes that as those effects of climate change become more widely felt, the environment will become a top issue for voters again.

That is, she says, unless changes at the EPA and in the country’s environmental regulations by the Trump administration don’t do it first.

How A More Diverse And More Urban Environmental Movement Helped Republicans

Racial and geographic realignments over the 1980s and ‘90s favored the anti-environmental Republicanism Gingrich now sought. Better-off black Americans moved to suburbs of their own, as civil rights groups spearheaded a new movement for “environmental justice.” White environmental groups gained bases in well-off older suburbs as well far-flung newer ones, but energy concerns inclined them to identify with a gentrifying downtown and the “walkability” espoused by a New Urbanism. At the same time, black majority districts were also being created to bring racial equity to Georgia’s Congressional delegations, starting with the 5th district, which was won in 1986 by John Lewis. Black representatives became the state’s foremost supporters of environmental causes in Congress.

This shift in Georgia environmentalism, fortified by redistricting, served Gingrich and the Georgia Republican Party extraordinarily well. With environmental causes coded in these ways, down-playing or opposing them shored up electoral support among rural as well as many suburban whites, especially the working class. Through gerrymandering Republicans worked to pack more blacks into fewer of Georgia’s Congressional districts, making most other districts whiter.

California Eyes Climate Leadership Role But Trump’s Epa Holds A Key On Cars

There is a disconnect though. Why, if the majority of Americans feel that the environment should be given priority, even at the risk of curbing economic growth, do environmental issues rarely come up in political debates. As ClimateWire pointed out, in the 2016 presidential campaign, there were “3 debates over 4 ½ hours, and zero climate questions.”

People don’t vote the issue. National security, health care, guns and trade policy, among others, were all viewed as more important to voters in the 2016 election.

Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment looked at that disconnect in 2005, while Reilly was an adviser.

“And the answer that came back was that the public essentially has concluded that there is no crisis,” Reilly says. “That the kind of issues that were emergency issues that prompted the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency have been very well addressed by the Environmental Protection Agency.”

Other former EPA administrators and officials agree.

“People can’t touch, smell and feel pollution the way they did back in the 1960s, the 1970s,” Ruckelshaus says. “I think the EPA and state agencies have become a victim of their own success.”

Changing tides

As administrator of the EPA, Pruitt has said that he would rely more on the states for environmental protections and look to reign in the federal government’s role.

Former Epa Heads Democrats And Republicans Rebuke Trump Environment Record

3 Min Read

– Four former heads of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Democrats and Republicans, on Monday issued a sharp rebuke of the Trump administration’s record on the environment after the current administrator said the agency is focused on “work that has been neglected for years.”

Former EPA administrators for Democratic presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and Republicans George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush criticized the administration of President Donald Trump for rolling back regulations on methane, vehicle emissions and power plants.

“If you need any more proof of how strongly this is felt by people you have it today in four former administrators… we’ve all come to the same conclusion,” Carol Browner, who ran the EPA under Clinton, told reporters in a call organized by Joe Biden’s presidential campaign.

Two Republican former administrators, William Reilly and Christine Todd Whitman, endorsed Biden on the call, saying the Trump administration’s actions on the environment had been an “aberration.”

“There has been nothing like an administration, on the environment, in the last 50 years to compare with the dereliction that characterizes this administration,” Reilly, who served under George H.W. Bush, said on the call.

In the coming weeks Wheeler said EPA will propose rules to limit lead in drinking water.

Whitman, who served under George W. Bush, was asked to react to Wheeler’s claim that the environment had improved under Trump.

Republicans Predicted That Obamacare Would Hurt The Economy And Kill Jobs

As you may have guessed, they were wrong. 2014 was the first full year that Obamacare was in effect. During that year the United States saw the fastest rate of job creation in 14 years and the best rate of economic growth in over ten years. More jobs were created in 2014 than in any year of the Bush presidency. Not only did Obamacare not harm the economy, it coincided with the best economic expansion in a dozen years.

[thewebofslime]

Eventually, having discussed income inequality, and global warming, and health care as a human right, and cancelling all student debt and making the “billionaire class” pay their “fair share of taxes,” Bernie Sanders gave the members of the Islamic Society of North America just what they wanted to hear. He denounced Trump for once saying that “Islam hates us.” There are many people other than Donald Trump who believe that Islam hates us. They are not all right-wing white nationalists. The famously left-wing Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci believed, from her extensive dealings with them, that Muslims were taught to hate non-Muslims. The ex-Muslim Ayaan Hirsi Ali has described being raised in a society where people were taught to hate Infidels. Trump carefully did not say that “all Muslims hate us.” He was referring to an ideology, Islam, and not to the human beings, Muslims, who may accept, or reject, in whole or in part, what the Qur’an inculcates about non-Muslims. Some Muslims clearly do not hate all non-Muslims, do not wish to “fight” and to “kill” them, to “smite at their necks” and “strike terror in their hearts,” as the Qur’an instructs. But many Muslims around the world clearly do. The existence of “moderate Muslims” does not vitiate the claim that “Islam hates us.” We have only to read the Qur’an and some of the most celebrated hadith to come to that melancholy conclusion. One wonders if Bernie Sanders will ever take the time to read the Qur’an, or will he instead remain happily secure within his complacent ignorance, convinced that “of course” Islam, like all religions, must be based on the principles of “justice, compassion, and tolerance.” Doesn’t his own campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, demonstrate those very principles in his dealings with his Jewish employer and friend, Bernie Sanders? And surely, Sanders assumes, Faiz must be a representative, rather than an exceptional, Muslim. Sanders told his audience that because of Trump, many more Muslims ran for office and won elections in 2018. Is this true? There were two Muslim members of Congress before 2018; now there are three, a gain of exactly one. There does not appear to have been any discernible increase in the number of Muslims elected at the state or local level. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have simply attracted a great deal of attention as Muslim politicians, and made them seem more numerous and significant than in fact they are. Muslims are 1.1% of the American population; they constitute 0% of the Senate, 0.75% of the House, 0% of the Governors. Sanders needs to look again at the results of the 2018 election before making these psephological gaffes. Muslims in America and around the world are being unjustly tarred, Sanders insisted, with the brush of “terrorism.” Could the association of Muslims with terrorism have anything to do with the more than 35,000 terrorist attacks by Muslims since 9/11? Could it have anything to do with the existence of such groups of Islamic terrorists as Al-Qaeda, Islamic State, Boko Haram, Abu Sayyaf, Al Nusra Front, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Al Shebaab, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad? How much Islamic reality does Bernie Sanders expect us to ignore? Sanders told his Houston audience that he deplored the rise of authoritarian rulers, which he appeared, confusedly and unfairly, to blame on the West. But he left out aspects of recent history: some of the worst despots in the Islamic world have been eliminated, often with the indispensable help of the Western powers. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein, a sadistic monster, was deposed by the American military. Should we be apologetic for that? Would Sanders prefer that Saddam Hussein were still ruling over Iraq? in Libya, Muammar Qaddafi was removed – killed – by Libyans who had received critical military assistance from NATO, including naval bombardments by American and British ships, and aerial bombings by the French, of Qaddafi’s forces. Was his removal to be deplored? Other authoritarians, like the massively corrupt Ben Ali in Tunisia, were chased out of office by opponents, many of whom – like the technocrat Mohamed Ghannouchi — had been raised in a Franco-Tunisian intellectual milieu, with Western democratic ideals. Ben Ali and his wife grabbed 1.5 tons of government gold and managed to flee to Saudi Arabia, which had always supported Ben Ali and has refused to extradite him. It’s not the West that should be embarrassed about Ben Ali, but the Saudis. Authoritarianism, whose “rise” Sanders deplores, is nothing new in the Islamic world; the West is not to be blamed. It is the default political system for Islam. In the advanced democratic West, a government’s legitimacy is judged by how well it reflects the will of the people, however imperfectly expressed through elections. In the lands of Islam, a ruler’s legitimacy is judged by how well he reflects the will of Allah, as expressed in the Qur’an. As long as he remains a good Muslim, a despot must be obeyed. The ruling families of the Arab Gulf — the Al-Saud, the Al-Maktoum, the Al-Nahyan, the Al-Khalifa, the Al-Said, the Al-Mualla, Al-Nuaimi, Al-Qasimi, Al-Sabah, Al-Sharqi, Al-Thani – are all authoritarians, but they profit from the legitimacy of being considered good Muslims. They lavish their support on influential clerics; the clerics, in turn, provide their imprimatur to the rulers. One form of authoritarianism, monarchy, was replaced in Iran by another form, theocracy, when the Shah fled and the Ayatollah Khomeini took his place as Absolute Leader. In Pakistan, a pseudo-democracy has disguised a series of authoritarian rulers, mostly military men, some more (such as General Zia ul-Haq) and some less (such as the politician Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) fervent in their Islamic faith. In Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become increasingly authoritarian, having exploited the failed July 2016 coup attempt as an excuse to imprison thousands of his political enemies, including many journalists, and to cause many others to lose their employment — as judges, lawyers, teachers, civil servants of every type — with the government. Erdogan has even built himself a 1,500-room palace, as befits the Ottoman Sultan he would no doubt like to be. Neither in Iran, nor in Pakistan, nor in Turkey, has the West been responsible for these authoritarian regimes. They are home grown. Sanders’ attempt to blame the Americans for this “rise in authoritarianism” is distinctly unfair. The Americans did not help put the Pakistani rulers in office. Nor did they promote or support Erdogan, who has always been anti-American and has become ever more so as he foresees a military contest “between the crescent and the cross.” Nor can the Americans be blamed for the seizure of power by the fanatically anti-American Khomeini in Iran. The Americans are to be faulted only for a naïve faith in the universal appeal of democracy. They tried, with a colossal investment in men and money, to install real democracy in Iraq; the failure of that attempt should be blamed not on America for trying, but on the Iraqis themselves for being so unwilling to compromise through electoral politics. The minority Sunnis in Iraq refuse to acquiesce in their loss of political and economic power when Saddam fell; the majority Shi’a are unwilling to relinquish any of the power that devolved to them when Hussein’s Sunni rule ended. Sanders blames America for the rise of ISIS. He didn’t explain this in his Houston speech, but presumably he means that Saddam Hussein had been sufficiently ruthless to suppress the most fanatical Muslims and should not have been overthrown. It was only in the chaos that followed his downfall that ISIS managed to fill the power vacuum in northern Iraq, and from there enlarge the Islamic State to control more of Iraq, including the key city of Mosul, and eastern Syria as well. Should the Americans have foreseen the rise of ISIS? Why? It was an unprecedented phenomenon, an attempt by fanatics to set up what they called a “caliphate” where life would be lived strictly according to the laws of the earliest Muslims. If the Arabs and Muslims could not have predicted the rise of ISIS, why should the Americans be criticized for failing to do so? Sanders might have told his audience the truth: “We went to Iraq with good intentions. We saw Saddam Hussein – correctly – as a monster of oppression and murder. He killed 182,000 Kurds in order to “Arabize” the Kurdish lands. He killed hundreds of thousands of Shi’a Iraqis to maintain the supremacy of his fellow Sunnis. But we underestimated the difficulty of transplanting democracy. It is a plant that requires long nurturing, and in our naïve enthusiasm we failed to realize that. We aimed too high. An enlightened authoritarian might have been the proper goal, as a political way-station on the path to a future democracy.” He might have; it would have been salutary; he chose to stick instead to the script his audience favored: Muslims always as victims. Bernie Sanders seems, however, to be determined to make the same mistakes that the Americans made in Iraq. He claims that “I will make the promotion of democracy and human rights a priority for the USA.” How does he hope to plant democracy in the stony soil of Islam? Where has a true “democracy” ever been successfully established, for the long term, in any Muslim country? As for “human rights,” how does Sanders hope to have women and minorities treated equally in Muslim countries, given what is said about women and non-Muslims in the Qur’an and Hadith? Sanders was indignant about India’s action in Kashmir, in abrogating Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which had given the Kashmiris a high degree of autonomy. He claimed that “India’s action is unacceptable…The U.S. government must speak out boldly….in support of a U.N.-backed resolution that respects the will of the Kashmiri people.” What “Kashmiri people” is he talking about? Does he mean to include the 300,000-600,000 Hindus (the “Pandits”) who were killed or fled Kashmir since 1990? Are they part of the “Kashmiri people” or does that phrase, for Sanders, only refer to the 96.4% of the population that is Muslim, now that so many Hindus have fled? Shouldn’t the hundreds of thousands of Hindus who were indigenous to Kashmir, but fled Muslim persecution and murder, also be counted as part of the “Kashmiri people”? And what about the people in Jammu, which has administratively always been, with Kashmir, part of one state: Jammu-Kashmir, J&K? Two-thirds of the people in Jammu are Hindus. Shouldn’t they be counted as well, as part of the population of the newly-declared “Union territory” of “Jammu and Kashmir”? Sanders has no understanding of what the Hindus of Kashmir have endured over the past 30 years. He thinks that the Muslims can justly claim to be the only “Kashmiri people” who count. Can Sanders really be unaware of the fate of the Kashmiri Pandits? Yes, I think he can; worse still, he assumes he is well-informed about the matter. Perhaps his campaign manager Faiz Shakir has provided him with a potted Muslim history of Kashmir. And what does Sanders know about Muslim terror attacks inside India? Does he know how many of those attacks were carried out by Pakistan-based terrorists? He fails to mention the role of Pakistan, for example, in supporting the terrorists who struck Mumbai in 2008, killing 166 people. Did he notice that just the day before he gave his Houston speech, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, becoming more hysterical every day, threatened to use nuclear weapons against India if the situation in Kashmir was not resolved to his liking? Shouldn’t Sanders have mentioned that astounding threat, or was he so dead set on taking the Muslim side, for that ISNA audience, that he wouldn’t admit to anything that might give others pause about Pakistan?

[foursprout-blog]

"You Grow Up Wanting To Be Luke Skywalker, Then Realize You've Become A Stormtrooper For The Empire"

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/wealth/you-grow-up-wanting-to-be-luke-skywalker-then-realize-youve-become-a-stormtrooper-for-the-empire/

"You Grow Up Wanting To Be Luke Skywalker, Then Realize You've Become A Stormtrooper For The Empire"

Authored by US Army combat veteran Daniel Crimmins via Upriser.com,

You grew up wanting so bad to be Luke Skywalker, but you realize that you were basically a Stormtrooper, a faceless, nameless rifleman, carrying a spear for empire, and you start to accept the startlingly obvious truth that these are people like you.

Question: How do you Americans as a people walk around head held high, knowing that every few months your country is committing a 9/11 size atrocity to other people. Imagine if the 9/11 terror attacks were happening in America every few months. Again and again, innocent people dying all around you. Your brothers and sisters. For no reason.

Daniel Crimmins from U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division answered:

Many of us are unable. Many of us watched 9/11, and accepted the government and media’s definition of the attack as a act of war rather than a criminal action. A smaller portion, drifting along passively thought a major war was coming, that people we knew were going to fight and die. Some of us maybe worried about our younger brother being drafted, despite being in college. Now, it seems stupid, but in the 72 hours after 9/11, some Americans, maybe suffering from depression, certainly with a mind shaped by comic books and action movies, ate up the “us vs. them” good vs. evil rhetoric spouted by the cowboy in chief. After all, he was the president, and no matter how bright you might think yourself, you can still be swayed by passion and emotion, led to terrible decisions.

Some of us, therefore, left our dorm rooms, and walked down Main Street to the recruiter’s office. Some of us were genuinely surprised the office wasn’t full to bursting of young men eager to avenge their fallen countrymen. Some of us were genuinely surprised when we had to push the recruiter to stop trying to sell desk jobs and just let us join the damn Infantry.

Image via Upriser.com

Some of us got enlisted, then, and went down to Georgia, head high to mask the anxiety and fear they might have helped. Perhaps some number of Americans in this situation discovered that maybe it hadn’t been the best idea, but would be goddamned if they were going to admit it, and let everyone back home smuggly remark on how right they were.

So they persevere. They learn to work as a unit, to look past personality issues, to see each other as Soldiers rather than as a race, or economic status, or any of the other things people hate about each other. They learn to kill.

Then some of these people, perhaps while sitting hungover in the platoon area in the Republic of Korea hear that we have invaded Iraq. They have “Big Scary Bombs”, and Saddam Hussein, the secular Arab dictator had somehow colluded with the devoutly religious Osama Bin Laden to attack the US. They hated our freedom, you see.

Then some of these young American men might transfer back to Georgia and be assigned to the 3rd Infantry Division, and end up in Iraq in January of 2005. And maybe these kids, still drunk on Fox News and fantasies of glory and renown being enough to win their ex-girlfriends back, are excited to go to Iraq. Sure, we hadn’t found any WMDs yet, and we had Hussein in custody, but they were still somehow a threat and had to be dragged kicking and screaming into Jeffersonian democracy. Inside every dirka is a good American, yearning to be free.

So you fight. You kill. Watch friends die. Its usually quick, almost never quiet, but for the rest of your life, when you remember sitting at the bar with them, they’re blown open. You picture the nights you spent downtown at Scruffy Murphy’s, but instead of the stupid hookah shell necklace, your boy’s jaw is blown off, and his left eye is ruined, and he’s screaming.

You fight, you kill, you watch friends die, and you notice a distinct lack of change. You kick in doors and tell terrified women to sit on the floor while you and your friends ransack their home, tearing the place apart, because they might be hiding weapons. There is no reason to believe this house in particular is enemy, same for the next one, and the one after that, or the seven before; they just happened to be there, and maybe they had weapons. Probably not, they almost never did. There were a few times when we had deliberate raids based on solid intel and we’d turn up some stuff, but generally we were just tossing houses because we could.

Then maybe your FISTer [field artillery forward observer] forgets to carry the remainder, and drops a mess of mortars on the village your supposed to protect. Maybe the big Iraqi running at you screaming was just mentally ill. Of course, you won’t know this until after you’ve put seven rounds through his rib cage, and his wailing, ancient mother is cradling his body, spitting at you.

Maybe when you get back to the FOB [Forward Operating Base], the Platoon Sergeant tells you you did the right thing; next time, it might be a suicide bomber. They tell you it was an honest mistake, it wasn’t your fault. They tell you to go get some chow, take a shower if the water works, and sleep it off. You did good work that day, apparently.

Chris Hondros’ well-known “One Night in Tal Afar” photograph (Getty Images) showing the aftermath of a checkpoint shooting – Samar Hassan, 5, screams after her parents were killed after their car unwittingly approached a US Army checkpoint at dusk in Tal Afar, Iraq.

During chow, the TV is on AFN, and they are rebroadcasting some Fox News show, and you’re hearing about drone strikes, and all the great things we’re doing, and you can’t help but see that poor dumb assholes face, looking past his mother as he bleeds to death. He’s in pain, obviously, but he has the most perfectly confused look on his face. He doesn’t comprehend what’s happening. Little more hot sauce on your eggs doesn’t really help.

Then you realize you haven’t seen anything to support the idea that these poor fuckers are a threat to your home. You look around and you see all he contractors making six figure salaries to fix your shit, train Iraqis, maintain the ridiculous SUVs the KBR dicks ride around in. You consider the fact that every 25mm shell costs about forty bucks, and your company has been handing those fuckers out like shrapnel flavored parade candies. You think about all the fuel you’re going through, all the ammo and missiles and grenades. You think about every time you lose a vehicle, the Army buys a new one. Maybe you start to see a lot of people making a lot of money on huge amounts of human suffering.

Then you go on leave, and realize that Ayn Rand has no idea what the fuck she’s talking about. You realize that Fox News and Limbaugh and John McCain don’t respect you or your buddies. They don’t give a fuck if you get a parade or a box when you get home, you’re nothing to them but a prop.

Then you get out, and you hate the news. You hate the apathy, and you hate the murder being carried out in your name. You grew up wanting so bad to be Luke Skywalker, but you realize that you were basically a Stormtrooper, a faceless, nameless rifleman, carrying a spear for empire, and you start to accept the startlingly obvious truth that these are people like you.

Maybe your heart breaks a little every time some asshole brags about a “successful” drone strike.

Your statement is correct enough; if all of America was one dude, that dude would not give a shit about the little brown people we’re burning and crushing and choking to death. We aren’t all like that, but it makes me incredibly, profoundly sad to see what my country actually is.

Some of us care, and I think there are more every day.

[avanneman]

Who are you calling a war criminal?

At yesterday’s Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of State to be (or not) Rex Tillerson, Fla. Sen. Marco Rubio puffed out his young chest and demanded of Rex whether he considered Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” on the basis of recent bombing of civilians in Syria. Well, if you’re going to be secretary of state (or just the head of Exxon), calling the president of a large, strategically located, oil-producing country a war criminal is probably not a good idea, and so Tillerson quite reasonably demurred, despite the fact that there are more than a few unexplained corpses in Vladimir’s past. In fact, Tillerson could have responded—though quite reasonably he did not—that one Donald Trump had explicitly praised Putin for the Syria bombings (as means for fighting ISIS).

But, anyway, Marco’s question got me thinking: Who else could you call a war criminal? And that took me on a bit of a trip down memory lane. What follows is a bit “extended”, but, long story short, if Vladimir Putin is a war criminal, why aren’t Barack Obama, George Bush (père et fils), and Ronald Reagan?

March 28, 2010: So far this year, our current “Slaughter the Innocents” policy in the country [Afghanistan] we are fighting to prevent from having, someday, a government that might, someday, permit someone to attack us has netted 30 dead and 80 wounded, according to this article in the New York Times. This is just from the shooting of “suspicious” characters by American troops riding in convoys and operating check points. But as Gen. McChrystal remarks in wonder, “We have shot an amazing number of people, but to my knowledge, none has ever proven to be a threat.” The good, or bad, news, depending on who’s doing the counting, is that the number of innocent deaths from airstrikes and Special Forces operations appears to be declining, according to the Times, though they don’t descend to such trivia as actual numbers. And the bad, or, again, good news is that, according to the Times, “… those numbers [30 dead, 80 wounded] do not include shooting deaths caused by convoys guarded by private security contractors. Some tallies have put the total number of escalation of force deaths far higher.”

Februrary 6, 2013: The attacks [on Americans in Beirut in 1982 following the entry of American troops as active participants on the side of Maronite Christian forces in Lebanon’s ongoing civil war] didn’t go entirely unavenged. On February 4, 1984, the battleship New Jersey fired about 300 16-inch shells at Muslim positions in Lebanon. The 1,000-pound shells probably killed hundreds of people, though exactly who isn’t clear, because the Navy didn’t know the precise characteristics of the propellant it was using, and the shells may have landed as much as five miles off-target.

March 27, 3013 It all goes back to Iraq Attack I. Nothing succeeds like success, of course, but still it remains astonishing in retrospect how effectively George H.W., James Baker and their gang erased all traces of their former policy, and obscured essential features of their current policy, when they went to war with Saddam Hussein. Two recent books on the Middle East, Kenneth Pollack’s The Persian Puzzle and David Crist’s The Twilight War—which I previously discussed here, amply document the U.S.’s heavy involvement in the war between Iraq and Iran, which ran from September 1980 through August 1988 and which, of course, Hussein started in a pure act of aggression. Both Pollack and Crist argue that U.S. involvement quite probably saved Hussein from defeat, supplying him with invaluable information on Iranian troop movements. In addition, the U.S. navy actively and aggressively patrolled the Persian Gulf, to prevent Iran from halting shipments of Iraqi oil. While the U.S. was supporting Iraq, Hussein was using both nerve and mustard gas against Iranian troops, killing over 20,000 of them with these agents and leaving thousands more permanently injured. In March of 1988, Hussein launched a chemical weapons attack on the Kurdish town of Halabja, killing at least 3,000 and injuring thousands more, most of them civilians. Overall, Hussein’s campaigns against the Kurds resulted in perhaps 200,000 deaths, most of them civilian, and most of them outright murders rather than “battlefield casualties.”

Despite this brutal record of both possession and use of chemical weapons and civilian slaughter, the U.S. remained on cordial terms with Saddam, even after the war with Iran was over. When Hussein was making noises about invading Kuwait (he claimed that after “defending” Arab nations against Persian aggression he deserved to be rewarded, and it appeared that Kuwait was dragging its heels), George H.W. Bush had his ambassador to Iraq, April Glaspie, speak with Hussein. In the interview, Glaspie listens to Hussein whine about how Kuwait isn’t being nice to him and that Iraq is running out of patience. Glaspie responds by assuring him that President Bush wants to “deepen and broaden” the United States’ relationship with Iraq, with the man whom he would be denouncing a few months later as “the worst since Hitler.”

July 16, 2015 In a story appearing in Politico, “Obama team split over next steps with Iran”, Michael Crowley writes that a “senior administration official” denied that there was any possibility of a presidential visit to Iran—“we continue to have very serious differences with Iran.” Crowley remarks that

“That sentiment will be appreciated by military officials who hold Iran responsible for the deaths of hundreds of U.S. soldiers in Iraq during the past decade, and who plan constantly for the possibility of future conflict with the highly anti-American Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.”

If military officials are looking for someone to blame, not for the hundreds of American deaths in Iraq over the past decade, but rather the thousands, they might start with former commander-in-chief George W. Bush, who chose to invade a country that had not harmed the U.S. in any way, nor had any intention of doing so. They might also recall that back in 1983 the U.S. shot down Iranian airliner flight 655, killing all 290 passengers on board, and subsequently lied its ass off about it, or that during the war between Iraq and Iran launched by Saddam Hussein, the U.S. provided Hussein with vital intelligence information that allowed him to foil Iranian counterattacks that might have won the war for Iran. And, yes, Saddam was using his “weapons of mass destruction” that we subsequently found so intolerable. Definitely, something for the brass hats to think about!

[ourcaptainisabelle]

I actually did learn about this. I didn't know that other people didn't know that al-Qaeda and bin Laden were the responsible parties, or about the U.S. response (we should all be really ashamed of it, it was a shitty move)

Thank you @biggest-gaudiest-patronuses for bringing this up, and putting it in such clear, concise language.

(I have reposted this with the original tags, please read them! they have a lot of good extra stuff that didn't quite fit in the main post. The last tag hurts me a little, but is FAR FAR too TRUE, and it makes me sad that richer, upper class people are like this.)

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.

[visible-bisexual-confusion]

Always reblog

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.

[somelonelywordmonger]

THIS. THIS RIGHT HERE IS ONE REASON WHY I LOOK AT THIS COUNTRY WITH THE UTMOST DISGUST.

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.

[fleetstreetpies]

Can we also address how this impacted the ENTIRE Middle East because yes, Iraq was absolutely NOT involved but every single goddamn innocent person in the Middle East, regardless of national origin, was VERY much affected, and so was every Arab-American and every Muslim. None of these countries actually have high wealth, unless you’re a person in the top 0.001% or some similarly ridiculously low number.

Yes, Iraq was not involved. They did NOT deserve what happened. But neither did Lebanon or Syria or Iran or any other fucking nations; can we call this shit out for what it is? It’s American racism and a blood sacrifice for a precious natural resource over there.

I’m as much against terrorism as any other rational person, but with roots over there myself, I have to say that the impact of this tragedy goes WAY farther than what OP makes it out to be. And there’s no signs of stopping.

Stop ignoring the innocent Muslims and Arab-Americans and Arab people who were killed in ALL of the Middle East and ALL of the United States; the violence continues 22 years later.

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.

[tudirkulosis]

op tags:

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.

[dreaming-mystic]

I will not let these stay hidden.

#9/11#politics#serious post#not a shitpost#and fyi al-Qaeda is a Sunni organization. the majority of Iraqi citizens are Shia. Just another degree of separation to keep in mind#Saddam Hussein was a dictator/pile of human-rights-violating garbage but the u.s. was happy to work with him for decades#the u.s. has always been pleased as punch to support dictators in south/central america & anywhere else as long as they were pro-american#and again--hussein had nothing to do with the attacks. and the u.s. still went and bombed the hell out of the country (the civilians!!!)#and left without stabilizing shit. and for no reason. no honest reason. and not even dishonest reasons so much as just half-assed#just completely half-assed reasons to invade and destroy millions of lives#ANYWAY: prev tags->#this should be one of the first things kids learn when they learn about the 9/11 attacks#this is just...it's such an essential and brazen fact and i rarely see basic outrage over it#i want outrage. i want fury. i want disgust over the way fundamental facts are disguised and discarded and downplayed#because there are things we should KNOW. basic fact we should ALL KNOW. and they are tucked away in the footnotes.#and no this is NOT to put the blame on other middle eastern countries#we know this was carried out by a specific terrorist organization not a national government#but King George the Second decided (and was encouraged by his cabinet!) to invade a nation!#a nation that was not at all related or responsible!!!#a dictatorship to be sure--but a dictatorship that King George the First had been happy to support#so what changed? why did we go in guns blazing to DEMOLISH a country *we had NO PLANS OF REPAIRING*???#well. because they wanted a villain didn't they. a nice clean war. clarity of purpose. us the heroes against them the villains#and when you're in that mindframe--truth is irrelevant. you can pick your villain (your victim) by rolling a roulette wheel#truth is irrelevant#worse: to the people in charge#truth is a HINDRANCE#'Alternative facts' existed long before it became a catchphrase#facts don't matter. truth doesn't matter. the impulses of a handful of volatile & rich & power-high people--that's History. congratulations

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.

[bleeding-star-heart]

#and fyi al-Qaeda is a Sunni organization. the majority of Iraqi citizens are Shia. Just another degree of separation to keep in mind #Saddam Hussein was a dictator/pile of human-rights-violating garbage but the u.s. was happy to work with him for decades #the u.s. has always been pleased as punch to support dictators in south/central america & anywhere else as long as they were pro-american #and again--hussein had nothing to do with the attacks. and the u.s. still went and bombed the hell out of the country (the civilians!!!) #and left without stabilizing shit. and for no reason. no honest reason. and not even dishonest reasons so much as just half-assed #just completely half-assed reasons to invade and destroy millions of lives #this should be one of the first things kids learn when they learn about the 9/11 attacks #this is just...it's such an essential and brazen fact and i rarely see basic outrage over it #i want outrage. i want fury. i want disgust over the way fundamental facts are disguised and discarded and downplayed #because there are things we should KNOW. basic fact we should ALL KNOW. and they are tucked away in the footnotes. #and no this is NOT to put the blame on other middle eastern countries #we know this was carried out by a specific terrorist organization not a national government #but King George the Second decided (and was encouraged by his cabinet!) to invade a nation! #a nation that was not at all related or responsible!!! #a dictatorship to be sure--but a dictatorship that King George the First had been happy to support #so what changed? why did we go in guns blazing to DEMOLISH a country *we had NO PLANS OF REPAIRING*??? #well. because they wanted a villain didn't they. a nice clean war. clarity of purpose. us the heroes against them the villains #and when you're in that mindframe--truth is irrelevant. you can pick your villain (your victim) by rolling a roulette wheel #truth is irrelevant #worse: to the people in charge #truth is a HINDRANCE

#'Alternative facts' existed long before it became a catchphrase #facts don't matter. truth doesn't matter. the impulses of a handful of volatile & rich & power-high people--that's History. congratulations

Of the 19 hijackers who carried out the Sept 11 attacks:

15 were from Saudi Arabia (a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

2 were from the United Arab Emirates (also a powerful/oil-rich country the U.S. works hard to maintain diplomatic relations with)

1 was from Egypt, 1 from Lebanon.

None of the hijackers were from Iraq.

None of the Sept 11 hijackers were Iraqi.

None of the 9/11 hijackers were from Iraq.