Zorra

Zorra's Journal

June 1, 2016

Church and State must always remain seperate, no matter

what the religion.

In a democracy, the commons should never defer to religious customs and traditions.

May 28, 2016

DU's Official Infamous Chicken Thread Archives:

May 26, 2016

Debating Bernie will eliminate any possibility of Trump winning the Presidency.

I can't see Trump going through with this.

May 21, 2016

The Clinton campaign has been so consisently filthy that it drove away many who would have

held their noses and voted for Clinton. The all pervasive corruption of the Republican party disgusts them, and when they see members of the Democratic party consistently behaving like Republicans, they feel the same contempt for these Democrats that they feel for Republicans. They may feel that, at the end of the day, the lesser of two evils is, at the end of the day, still evil.

"The time is always right to do what is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

I have always found the quotations above and below to be of value when making life decisions:

"By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?"
Matthew 7:16

From this perspective, if Clinton is nominated, we can, in part, blame a President Trump on every one of her supporters who lied, cheated, and pushed false memes designed to libel and slander innocent people in order for Clinton to "win". Many people of conscience find this type of behavior abhorrent, and do not want to be associated with it, or those who promote it, in any way. Some folks might regard this type of contemptuous behavior acceptable, simply just "politics as usual". But "business as usual" would be more accurate.

It is what it is.

May 19, 2016

No. Real Democrats brought us Social Security, Medicare, women's reproductive

choices, civil rights, and the 40 hr work week.

Third Way lesser of two evils DINOs still called themselves Republicans back when real Democrats forced those basic rights into existence. If DLC/Third Way had not taken control of the Democratic party, we'd have the rest pf these basic rights today.

With the exception of President Obama and his administration in the area of social justice, most especially with regard to LGBT rights, pitifully little social and economic progress has been made for minorities/working people by those calling themselves Democrats since the DINO coup of the Democratic Party during the Reagan era. It's shameful. We must set higher standards for our leaders other than to simply be "the lesser of two evils".

We need really great Democratic leaders who want great things for our people, not corporate tools whose only reason for being president is to increase the profits and power of the 1%.

These are the things that great Democratic Party leaders do, and try to do:

President Franklin D. Roosevelt's message to the Congress of the United States on the State of the Union, January 11, 1944:

"It is our duty now to begin to lay the plans and determine the strategy for the winning of a lasting peace and the establishment of an American standard of living higher than ever before known. We cannot be content, no matter how high that general standard of living may be, if some fraction of our people—whether it be one-third or one-fifth or one-tenth—is ill-fed, ill-clothed, ill-housed, and insecure.

This Republic had its beginning, and grew to its present strength, under the protection of certain inalienable political rights—among them the right of free speech, free press, free worship, trial by jury, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures. They were our rights to life and liberty.

As our nation has grown in size and stature, however—as our industrial economy expanded—these political rights proved inadequate to assure us equality in the pursuit of happiness.

We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.”[3] People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

Among these are:

The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.

All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.

America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens. For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world."

President John F. Kennedy:

“I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was founded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”

“Today, we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. … It ought to to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color.”

“Difficulties over segregation and discrimination exist in every city, in every state of the union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety. Nor is this a partisan issue. In a time of domestic crisis, men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics. This is not even a legal or legislative issue alone. It is better to settle these matters in the courts than on the streets, and new laws are needed at every level, but law alone cannot make men see right. We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.”

“The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities; whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated.”

“This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents. We cannot say to ten percent of the population that you can’t have that right; that your children cannot have the chance to develop whatever talents they have; that the only way that they are going to get their rights is to go in the street and demonstrate. I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that.”

Some quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr

"The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood."

"I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

"There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I was arrested Friday on a charge of parading without a permit. Now, there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used to preserve segregation and to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust.

Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was seen sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar because a higher moral law was involved. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks before submitting to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience.

We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal." It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. But I am sure that if I had lived in Germany during that time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal. If I lived in a Communist country today where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I believe I would openly advocate disobeying these anti-religious laws ...

I have no fear about the outcome of our struggle in Birmingham, even if our motives are presently misunderstood. We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. Before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth, we were here. Before the pen of Jefferson scratched across the pages of history the majestic word of the Declaration of Independence, we were here ...If the inexpressible cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands ...

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.

Bernie Sanders:

May 5, 2016

That is one of the best DU posts ever.

Thanks again.

Just want to emphasize this sentence fragment below, because it is such a dark, major milestone in the long, slow Democratic Party demise, a point that many Democrats don't seem to be aware of these days:

"we need look no further than 1968: the establishment made vice president Hubert Humphrey the nominee, despite his not running in a single primary."

I pretty much agree with everything you wrote in your post, but differ in that I firmly believe that we have already come to a similar place in our relationship to the Democratic party to the place that Jefferson spoke of when describing the irreparable, destructive relationship of the Colonies to the Crown:

"when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government." ~ The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

So many Tories; so little time.

Little ~~Debbie~~ Lucy plots to trick the kind, but dangerously gullible, Charlie Brown yet again.

On acheve bien les chevaux?

April 30, 2016

One of my friends voted for Clinton in the primary, and it shocked me when she told

me she voted for Clinton.

I'm still friends with her. Kind of. But I will never look at her the same way. I don't care what her reasons were. There are no valid reasons for anyone with a heart to vote for Clinton instead of Bernie, just as there are no valid reasons for anyone with a heart to vote for a Republican.

She's very well off economically. I now see her as more like the few Republican acquaintances and family members that I associate with, who are also very well off economically.

I have yet to see a single Clinton supporter, on DU or anywhere else, express what I consider a valid reason for voting for Clinton over Bernie

The disparity in comprehensive universal awareness between Bernie and Clinton is enormous, just as this disparity between Bernie and Trump, or Cruz is enormous. The difference between profound and shallow, the difference between authentic and plastic, the difference between wise and ignorant.

So, after much reflection on my friend voting for Clinton, I have concluded that we simply have very different value systems, and that this difference means that I cannot ever trust her enough to be any closer to her than shallow friendly acquaintances.

Because she's deliberately voting to deny my grandchildren the possibility for the critical progressive social, political, economic, and environmental changes that will guarantee my children, and my grandchildren, a future.

In my world, this makes us natural enemies.

All in all, she's just another brick in their wall.

April 28, 2016

Yes, they will definitely get what they deserve.

Unfortunately, as always, they are going to drag the rest of us into the same social, political, economic, and environmental toxic waste pit of a country they knowingly voted to create.

There's no going back. A Clinton nomination means corruption and idiocracy have reached critical mass, it's all downhill into the hopeless void of Neoliberal/Neoconservative Corporatist Oligarchy from there, no matter who wins the GE.

I've recently purged all unnecessary belongings, simplified my life, and will flee the country relatively soon, before the US comes under complete corporate oligarch ownership that can't be effectively politically challenged ever again.

"To begin with, I beg you not to confuse Resistance with political opposition. The opposition does not oppose power but a government, and its achieved and complete form is that of a party of opposition: while resistance, by definition (now useful) cannot be a party: it is not made to govern at its time, but to...resist." ~ Tomas Segovia

April 26, 2016

That is the 100% correct answer. We think for ourselves. Bernie's status as our

candidate rests solely on his merits as an aware, and capable, human being.

We are not cult of personality sycophants in any way, shape, or form.

April 7, 2016

The "economically disadvantaged" can join the military and get

good healthcare, education, and other benefits and opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach for them when working one of the $10/hr or less jobs that are the only logistically possible sources of employment that is available to them.

In this way, the 1% gets the poor to join the military roulette game, and fight and die in their wars for conquest and profit for them, protect their interests around the world, and ensure the status quo. With luck, a vet survives her or his stint in the military without significant damage to their body and/or psyche, and subsequently has greater opportunity for a more lucrative future. The 1% would greatly prefer to cut, or completely eliminate, veteran's benefits, but reluctantly view them as a necessary, but annoying, expense for protecting their interests.

If it wasn't for good people of conscience constantly struggling to maintain, and increase, veteran's benefits, the 1% would use the Republican party and Third Way to cut these benefits.

Those significantly harmed or killed during their military service, in wars begun solely for the interests of the 1%, are of no consequence to the 1%, except to serve as human sacrifices for 1% profit interests and the maintenance of the status quo. The lifelong suffering and grief of the families, friends, and neighbors of the maimed or killed being mere "collateral damage" to the 1%, just another necessary part of their "Business as Usual" program.

Just say "No" to the wars for profit and human sacrifice initiated by the 1%, whose only goal is to maintain their wealth, power, and place in our extremely stratified nation and world.

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Member since: Tue Sep 23, 2003, 10:05 PM
Number of posts: 27,670

About Zorra

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