Thursday, December 18, 2014

States Are Treading on Municipal Rights


The opening paragraph is "just a point of view" - not necessarily the right one, but I think it's at least worth looking at.  Antiwar.com’s Dan Sanchez has just reported on leaked emails that reveal that the Obama regime exerted influence over the movie The Interview “to encourage assassination and regime change in North Korea”.  Regarding the threats of bombings of theaters if the film was shown, Obama has been personally encouraging people to “go the movies” anyway, while hardliners like Mitt Romney have specifically encouraged people to go see The Interview.  This is not the first time strongman Obama has been closely involved with promoting or influencing Hollywood movies spouting negative propaganda about countries Obama and the US want to invade and conquer.  Michelle Obama personally presented the Academy award for “best picture” for the film Argo.   Argo whitewashed the history of US aggression and genocide against Iran.  Since 1953, the US has been an accomplice in the torture and killing of over a million Iranian citizens, thousands with chemical weapons.  The Interview almost certainly whitewashes the history of US genocide against Korea, and apparently depicts US forces causing the North Korean leader’s head to explode.  In its aggressive attacks against North Korea in the early 1950s, the US intentionally targeted civilians and flattened entire villages and cities, including Pyongyang.  The attacks killed up to 4 million people, mostly civilians, most of whom were killed by the US, many through direct and intentional targeting, such as the machine-gunning of women and children by US soldiers at No Gun Ri.

We know that President Obama will not go after states that have legalized marijuana.  But just as sometimes states complain about loss of “states rights” and some point to Civil Rights legislation using this argument, there is the far bigger and more dangerous issue of States impinging on local sovereignty.  Now I would liken racism to a disease we thought we had conquered with vaccinations but the minute it sees the opportunity it raises its head again.  You see this in the gutting of the voting rights act.  Larry Elder had stated that “With the rise of increased affluence and capitalism- -the free market forces would impel southern eating establishments to integrate.  Ten years ago I almost believed him, but not today.  History has shown that men will cling to prejudice and resentment and greed even when it makes no sense, economically or otherwise to do so.  The other more apparent threat than “violation of State’s Right” today is the treading on municipal rights by the States.  They say for a long time ‘factory farms” weren’t popular because of the high pollution and other unpleasantness, and in general municipalities had prerogatives such as zoning restrictions and the like.  Now because of ALEC, an extension of the Koch Brothers, States write into laws forbidding cities from taking various actions.  We experienced a form of that with Proposition 13 out here in 1978 when the Cities were barred from raising property tax rates.  And from that moment on the State has had money problems because of the more basic problem of municipalities not being able to tax sufficiently thus foisting off their problems on to the state.   So now cities are barred from limiting or outlawing firearms as this dictatorship of the 30 States with both houses Republican and a Republican governor- - exert their massive sway.  Detroit knows about local rights being trodden over.  The Koch brothers were “wise” in a matter of speaking with their State by State strategy.

Thom Hartman states that smoking marijuana causes ten times the damage to the respiratory system as do cigarettes.  So one joint is the same as smoking ten cigarettes.  That could add up.  However I’ve heard the opposite.  There is much more of a danger of eating marijuana in brownies because you don’t know how much is getting into your system so you can get a lot more stoned than you were ever planning on, and it lasts such a long time.  However the brain stem controlling vital bodily functions has no THC (tetra hydra canabanol) receptors so that no matter how much canibus is in your body- - it won’t kill you.  Thom Hartman said that if he ever again began using pot regularly, he’d chose a manner of delivery to the body other than smoking.  Personally I regard smoking it as the safer way to go.  Major claims were made for marijuana today.  It has some “unique” way of relieving pain, but not by blocking the nerve impulses.  It also cures throat cancer, and relieves other things such as asthma and Alzheimers.  And it doesn’t strip the mylon off of the neurons in the way that more dangerous alcohol does.

The top entry on the posting below this one pertained to the fact that no matter how strong the government says that the economy is,  anybody can make an argument that this economy is still very weak.  Poll after poll claims that the economy is still the number one issue with the voters.  Until state governments stop slashing programs for the needy, as well as instituting “pension reform” (meaning pension destruction) then you know that the economy is still contracting.  The more the very rich prosper, the more they complain.  And unfortunately this “whiny spoiled child” has all of the political power.  What it wants it gets.   If the media says that there is a “liberal agenda” in our history books, then they have to be gutted like a fish, removing anything that might lead a student to come to believe progressivism is a good thing.  If the media wants us to believe torture is good, then Dick Chaney will appear on all of the news programs.  The torturers are welcomed on these shows.  The tortured are not.  If the media wants us to believe there has been nothing unusual about the congress we’ve had in terms of intransigence since 2010, then that’s what the people will believe.  The media will not tell us that they themselves are corporately dominated and the news is being censored.   So progressives are consigned to their little corner of the internet and end up talking only among themselves.

Obama Knew Drone Strikes Were Counter-Productive, But Did It Anyway

Previously-leaked documents showed that the CIA warned Obama that funding rebels doesn’t work … but Obama decided to fund the Syrian rebels anyway for cynical political gain.   Top CIA officers say that drone strikes increase terrorism (and see this). Indeed, virtually all aspects of the American “war on terror” strategy creates more terrorists and weakens our national security. Andsee this.  Now, a leaked internal CIA memo shows that the Agency told Obama that drone strikes might be counter-productive.  The Sydney Morning Herald reports today:
According to a leaked document by the CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence, “high value targeting” (HVT) involving air strikes and special forces operations against insurgent leaders can be effective, but can also have negative effects including increasing violence and greater popular support for extremist groups.  The leaked document is classified secret and “NoForn” (meaning not to be distributed to non-US nationals) and reviews attacks by the United States and other countries engaged in counter-insurgency operations over the past 50 years.   The 2009 CIA study lends support to critics of US drone strikes in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen by warning that such operations “may increase support for the insurgents, particularly if these strikes enhance insurgent leaders’ lore, if non-combatants are killed in the attacks, if legitimate or semi-legitimate politicians aligned with the insurgents are targeted, or if the government is already seen as overly repressive or violent”.  ***  The CIA also warns that targeting insurgent leaders “may, by eroding the rules of the game between the government and insurgents, escalate the level of violence in a conflict, which may or may not be in a government’s interest.”  “Israeli HVT efforts from 2000 to 2002 strengthened solidarity between terrorist groups and bolstered popular support for hard-line militant leaders, according to US Embassy officials in Jerusalem and clandestine reporting,” the study says.

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