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Event Reminders:10 Good Things about the Year 2013Thursday, 01/09/2014 By Medea Benjamin - Year 2013 injected some powerful strength into some immensely important movements, from the massive fracturing of the world of unfettered spying, to low wage workers rising up in an ever growing army. Here are Medea's list of the 10 Good Things: NY TIMES: A call for clemency for Edward Snowden Obama Admin steamed over Snowden editorial List of Democratic events in San Diego County To read the best progressive newsletter west of the Mississippi, click on Jellison's EZINE here U.S. and Iran Face Common Enemies in Mideast Return of Steelhead Trout in Sou CA? CLASS: Introduction to Wildlife Tracking in S.D. This 'N ThatIt is in the shelter of each other that the people live.- Irish Proverb If we don't stop the bomb who will take care of the flowers? Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess. People who are willing to give up freedom for the sake of short term security, deserve neither freedom nor security. When death, the great reconciler, has come, it is never our tenderness that we repent of, but our severity. While seeking revenge, dig two graves - one for yourself. We are going to have to find ways of organizing ourselves cooperatively,sanely, scientifically, harmonically and in regenerative spontaneity with the rest of humanity around the earth.... We are not going to be able to operate our spaceship earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. Compromise does not mean cowardice. Instead of tug o' war, let's play hug o' war. Violence produces only something resembling justice, but it distances people from the possibility of living justly, without violence. I don't do great things. I do small things with great love. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of humans as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is not safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. When you give food to the poor, they call you a saint. When you ask why the poor have no food, they call you a communist. Why not go out on a limb? That's where the fruit is. War stirs in men's hearts the mud of their worst instincts. It puts a premium on violence, nourishes hatred, and gives free rein to cupidity. It crushes the weak, exalts the unworthy, and bolsters tyranny .. .Time and time again it has destroyed all ordered living, devastated hope, and put the prophets to death. We are, each of us angels with only one wing; and we can only fly by embracing one another. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love. Warmaking doesn't stop warmaking. If it did, our problems would have stopped millennia ago. The maxim that people should not have a right till they are ready to exercise it properly, is worthy of the fool in the old story who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. A spiritual person tries less to be godly than to be deeply human. The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war. And all good things are yours. A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes. A solid rock is not disturbed by the wind; even so, a wise person is not agitated by praise or blame. If we could raise one generation with unconditional love, there would be no Hitlers. We need to teach the next generation of children from Day One that they are responsible for their lives. Mankind's greatest gift, also its greatest curse, is that we have free choice. We can make our choices built from love or from fear.. If man does find the solution for world peace it will be the most revolutionary reversal of his record that we have ever known. At all the times you can, Peace we want because there is another war to fight against poverty, disease and ignorance. The problems of this world are so gigantic that some are paralysed by their own uncertainty. Courage and wisdom are needed to reach out above this sense of helplessness. Desire for vengeance against deeds of hatred offers no solution. An eye for an eye makes the world blind. If we wish to choose the other path, we will have to search for ways to break the spiral of animosity. To fight evil one must also recognize one's own responsibility. The values for which we stand must be expressed in the way we think of, and how we deal with, our fellow humans. If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life that you ought to be living is the one you are living. Wherever you are, if you are following your bliss, you are enjoying that refreshment, that life within you, all the time. No man is an island entire of itself ... any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. What good is it to me that Mary gave birth to the son of God fourteen hundred years ago, and I do not also give birth to the Son of God in my time and in my culture? We are all meant to be mothers of God. God is always needing to be born. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Since we are to be conformed to the image of Christ, how can we then fight our enemies with the sword? ... Spears and swords of iron we leave to those who, alas, consider human blood and swine's blood of well-nigh equal value ... We are convinced that non-violence is more powerful than violence. We are convinced that non-violence supports you if you have a just and moral cause...If you use violence, you have to sell part of yourself for that violence. Then you are no longer a master of your own struggle. The non-violent technique does not depend for its success on the goodwill of the oppressor, but rather on the unfailing assistance of God. You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" Only in the last moment in history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world. Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal. The absence of risk is a sure sign of mediocrity. The ultimate measure of a person is not where one stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where one stands in times of challenge and controversy. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens. If all the Churches of Europe closed their doors until the drums ceased rolling they would act as a most powerful reminder that though the glory of war is a famous and ancient glory, it is not the final glory of God. The miracle of the wicked is reinforced by the weakness of the virtuous. When nothing seems to help, I go look at a stonecutter hammering away at a rock perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at the hundredth blow it will split in two, and I know it was not that blow that did it but all that had gone before. The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness, could we but see, and to see, we have only to look. I beseech you to look. The arms race can kill, though the weapons themselves may never be used...by their cost alone, armaments kill the poor by causing them to starve. Peace begins when the hungry are fed. I plan to stand by nonviolence, because I have found it to be a philosophy of life that regulates not only my dealings in the struggle for racial justice, but also my dealings with people, and with my own self. Is it progress if a cannibal uses a knife and fork? If in our daily life we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work. Sensitivity to the immense needs of humanity brings with it a spontaneous rejection of the arms race, which is incompatible with the all out struggle against hunger, sickness, under-development and illiteracy. Wars are not acts of God. They are caused by man, by man-made institutions, by the way in which man has organized his society. What man has made, man can change. To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. We can’t become nonviolent on the basis of intellectual conviction. Commitment to nonviolence demands a very profound conversion of mind and heart. If we take the time to pray with Jesus, we too will be converted in mind and heart. It won’t work if we try to reason it out. The only way is through a change of heart, a coming into a way of being that is the way of Jesus. Let all bear in mind that a society is judged not so much by the standards attained by its more affluent and privileged members as by the quality of life which it is able to assure for its weakest members. When we yield to discouragement it is usually because we give too much thought to the past and to the future. The God of life summons us to life; more, to be lifegivers, especially toward those who lie under the heel of the powers. Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it. The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world and taught us: 'That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God's creatures. Belief in God is to love one's fellow men.' | Articles & News: STOP, Gov. Brown: Do not sign FRACKING bill News We have less than two weeks to submit public comments opposing Governor Brown's dangerously misguided fracking regulations, which pose a serious risk to our health by encouraging a massive expansion of this toxic, planet-warming practice in California. Submit a public comment now telling Governor Brown to ban fracking. Fracking pollutes and poisons our precious ground water. Water is quickly becoming more important in California than fracked gas. SIGN PETITION to GOV. BROWN "Death Fugue"Black milk of dawn we drink it at dusk -- we drink it at noon and at daybreak we drink it at night -- we drink it and drink it -- we are digging a grave in the air there's room for us all -- [Romanian poet Paul Celan] FL Law on Drug Tests for Welfare Is Struck Down No austerity for military budget in 2014 POLL: 17% of Americans Support Afghanistan War Anti-Frackers Cheer Court Ruling in Pennsylvania Fukushima Anti-Radiation Pills? 51 US Sailors get cancer after Fukushima rescue Feinstein using every lie in book to protect NSA Cartoons of the Week Obama, the negotiatorTEA Party LooniesUnions & the Middle ClassObama plays poker with GOP Elizabeth Warren: 'WhyRepublicans are losers'
There's a reason Sen. Warren is the face of the party's liberal wing and your cousin Erma isn't, and it's all in the delivery. The money quote is this one: "These threats may continue, but they are not working, and they will never work, because this is democracy. And in a democracy, hostage tactics are the last resort for those who can’t win their fights through elections, can't win their fights in Congress, can't win their fights for the presidency, and can't win their fights in the courts. For this right-wing minority, hostage taking is all they have left, a last gasp for those who cannot cope with the realities of our democracy." -- It's skillful because it casts the far-right Republicans as sore losers, and frames the debate as one between a radical wing of the Republican party and a bipartisan coalition of more reasonable people. It helps her brand because she portrays herself as a source of normalcy in a whirlwind of Washington crazy. Why nobody believes Pres. Obama any more ...
Obama: 'Nobody Is Listening to Your Phone Calls'. June 7, 2013. Either Mr. Obama is terribly deluded, or terribly dumb, but we all know the spooks are listening to our phone calls -- reading our email -- and manipulating the markets and stealing our money. (very short video) France approves 75% tax on millionare income Late-breaking news: This just in ...
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This is so inspiring, so hopeful, so heroic. it brought tears. I think it my favorite vocal performance of 2013. -- This young man, kicked out of his home by his parents when he was 18 years old for being gay, was a contestant on "America's Got Talent" -- and this young man so ordinary and unremarkable in appearance, held the world in rapt awe when he began singing, sending to his family in Tennessee a clarion message of love and greatness of his talent and ambition.
IT GETS BETTER!
Eliz. Warren: Do not cut Soc. Security. EXPAND IT
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren: "Don't Cut Social Security, EXPAND It." -- Add Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) to the growing chorus of voices calling for the expansio of Social Security benefits. The champion of the working middle class and of retirees and the poor, implored Democrats on the Senate floor Monday not to chain Social Security benefits to the rate of inflation or the rise in prices, which is known in shorthand as the Consumer Price Index... She believes the vast economic resources of this nation should be returned to the middle class, and their investments in Social Security be protected from Wall Street vultures.
Saving Civilization: The Zeitgeist Revolution
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Abby Martin speaks with Peter Joseph, founder to the Zeitgeist Movement about the philosophy behind the organization, the unsustainability of the current economic system and the model proposed by the movement for a sustainable future that works harmoniously with nature. How an enlightened 99% Occupy movement can put a check on the 1% profiteers of the current unsustainable economic system which leads eventually to collapse. The new system uses increasingly fewer natural and economic resources to achieve ever greater productivity and richer living.
The speech that brought the wrath of war mongers
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"The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war", spoke Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April 1967. This abbreviated version of perhaps his greatest speech, "Beyond Vietnam", was so powerful it shook the Pentagon and the war machine of America. It drew violent condemnation and spread virulent hatred of him for speaking the Truth. Today we have a new generation speaking the truth, and once again the dark fascist forces are seeking to silence them. These word from Dr. King are immortal.
Manning Video:American troops slaughter civilians
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Video depicts a US Apache attack helicopter killing 12 civilians and wounding two children on the ground in Baghdad in 2007. The helicopter then fired on and killed the people trying to rescue the wounded. Finally, a US tank drove over one of the bodies, cutting the man in half. These acts constitute three separate war crimes. All with calloused video-game contempt for human life. - Manning fulfilled his legal duty to report war crimes. He complied with his legal duty to obey lawful orders but also his legal duty to disobey unlawful orders. -- The Army covered up the evidence and declared the war crime "justified". Now they say that exposing the massacre is criminal.
INFO CLICK HERE:
Sen. Warren sponsors Equal Employment Act
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Senator Warren's interview on MSNBC's "All in with Chris Hayes" about the Equal Employment for All Act. The legislation would prohibit employers from requiring potential employees to disclose their credit history as part of the job application process. It was previously thought that credit history may provide insight into an individual's character, but research has shown that an individual's credit rating has little to no correlation with his or her ability to be successful in the workplace. -- "A bad credit rating is far more often the result of unexpected medical costs, unemployment, economic downturns, or other bad breaks than it is a reflection on an individual's character or abilities," Senator Warren said.
Manning Video:American troops slaughter civilians
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Video depicts a US Apache attack helicopter killing 12 civilians and wounding two children on the ground in Baghdad in 2007. The helicopter then fired on and killed the people trying to rescue the wounded. Finally, a US tank drove over one of the bodies, cutting the man in half. These acts constitute three separate war crimes. All with calloused video-game contempt for human life. - Manning fulfilled his legal duty to report war crimes. He complied with his legal duty to obey lawful orders but also his legal duty to disobey unlawful orders. -- The Army covered up the evidence and declared the war crime "justified". Now they say that exposing the massacre is criminal.
INFO CLICK HERE:
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