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Joe & Mark do these now! My own post-mortem can wait.
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*Here I offer two time-critical suggestions, below.*
*So skip past my blowhard prelude!*
Like everyone else on the Union/non-Putinist side, I was bollix...
6 days ago
6 comments:
Here's a graphic that says so much along these lines...
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153407317378558&set=a.80293198557.82491.505228557&type=3&theater
Not all Republicans are heartless pursing their greed. Great clip.
"A stiff arm with another gesture." That's actually kind of funny.
But will the Congresman maintain his line of thought after he gets his ass chewed by the Republican leadership, Rush, Faux "news," etc?
I'm in a quandry as to what's the best course of action to deal with ISIS. "Bombing the shit out of them," as Donald Trump said he would do, would obviously make matters worse. At the same time, we can't just let ISIS run roughshod over Europe. And they seem to be in no mood to negotiate.
Would a "surgeon's knife" approach work better instead of a chainsaw? I don't know.
Thanks, Jim. Yeah, terrorism works best on cowards. And even worse than that, the Republican Party is working hand-in-hand with ISIS to spread fear.
Of course, they're doing it to advance their own political goals, but they're still pushing the same response that terrorists are hoping for. Unreasoning fear, bigotry, and downright panic work for both of them.
As this clip shows, there's at least one exception in the GOP, though I know nothing about his stance on other issues.
Jeff, there are no magical solutions. We Americans seem to want to wave a magic wand and have terrorism disappear. That's not going to happen.
At best - at best - terrorist attacks will still occur. You can't stop everyone willing to kill himself in order to kill other people, especially when he thinks he'll go to heaven for it.
Look at America, where mass shootings happen all the time (and not-so-mass shootings are so common they barely make the news). But the news media will pay attention if it's 'terrorism,' and right-wing politicians will attempt to milk it for political advantage.
We have to be better than that. We have to be smarter than that. But are we?
And as Republican Party leaders work hand-in-hand with ISIS to encourage fear and bigotry, you have to wonder if ISIS isn't working for the GOP in return.
Sure, they're ruthless terrorists, but they can't be stupid enough not to realize how much their attacks will help the Republican Party in an election cycle.
And if I really wanted to bring America down, I'd work to elect a President Trump or a President Carson or a President Huckabee, or a President Cruz (who's already working with Castro as an inside man, don't you think?).
Seriously, we've made some huge mistakes in the past - but we have to live with them now. We didn't create terrorism, but we've encouraged it. We certainly helped create ISIS. Admittedly, it's hard to tell how things might have gone, otherwise.
Either way, we can't undo any of that. We can't change the past. And we can't stop terrorism. All we can do is stand firm, refuse to let fear and bigotry affect us, and attempt to minimize the problem in every way possible.
I have no liking for Islam. I'm an atheist, after all. But human beings have the right to believe whatever they want.
There are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Nearly a quarter of the world is Muslim. If all of those people were terrorists, or even terrorist sympathizers, we'd have a huge problem.
Bigotry isn't going to keep them from terrorism. I have absolutely no problem with killing terrorists. But the bigotry? The fear-mongering? That's only going to help the terrorists.
In America, terrorism works. It doesn't even have to be terrorism inside America or against Americans. Fear works against Americans, not least because many Americans see a political and/or economic advantage in it.
If this guy wasn't the rare exception among Republicans, we'd be a lot better off.
Latest headlines:
"Oppressive heat wave grips Nebraska in January"
"Sun rises in West"
"Average gas price drops below $0.30"
"Republican congressman gives speech, makes sense"
Which one of those is most likely to be true?
If I read the transcript of his speech, I'd be positive it was from the Onion. I don't know where this guy came from, but I'm betting he's going to face a primary challenge from the right.
Great clip, Bill - not sure where you found it. Maybe there's a chance for a few voices of reason from the right........
Thanks, Gregg. Then again, this guy ended up voting for the bill to keep out Syrian refugees (here). So maybe it was just empty rhetoric after all.
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