FailureToCommunicate
FailureToCommunicate's JournalThe bastard offspring of IG Farben continue to foul our world with poisons...
Thalidomide
"Adding to the dark shadow over the company, it is increasingly clear that, in the immediate postwar years, a rogues’ gallery of wanted and convicted Nazis, mass murderers who had practiced their science in notorious death camps, ended up working at Grünenthal, some of them directly involved in the development of thalidomide. What they had to offer was knowledge and skills developed in experiments that no civilized society would ever condone. It was in this company of men, indifferent to suffering and believers in a wretched philosophy that life is cheap, that thalidomide was developed and produced."
http://www.newsweek.com/nazis-and-thalidomide-worst-drug-scandal-all-time-64655
Dan and his brother Phil were forces of nature! As high school students we worked with them around
issues of institutional racism. They were based at Cornell at that time and we made numerous trips up and back to work out starting community based groups raising awareness around race (this was 1968-69 after the Kerner Commission report came out)
I remember them both as some of the nicest, most moral, centered advocates for peace and justice.
Rest In Peace Father Dan. (Phil passed away last year)
There is so much wrong with your post, I don't know where to start. Then I saw how many hides
you have and thought, maybe this is not the place to counter you point by point. Sounds like you've made your candidate decision, so good for you. But if you're going to vote for someone who, in your words, was a "racist" in her campaign in 2008 against Obama, then it just makes me wonder all the more about the validity of the laundry list of charges in your post.
But I do want to add a plea for reasonableness. If you really believe that Bernie's populist, pro civil rights and economic justice outlook is wrong headed, and that his supporters are mostly racist, sexist, privileged, white men, then I really have to wonder what your main source of news is. Where are you hearing that Bernie's supporters are pretty much the same as Trump's base of support?
I ask because, at none of the countless massive rallies and campaign stops have I seen any evidence of your assertion. Quite the opposite in fact. The tens of thousands who show up to hear his populist, anti establishment message look like a fairly diverse cross section of Americans, not hateful white males like Trump rallies.
Do I wish Bernie were even more the right candidate? Sure. Too bad he couldn't have that same message of sweeping reform and be as eloquent and handsome as Barack Obama, or have military experience, or be a latina, or, or, or. But we're stuck with just two. One, an old white guy that just happens to stand for all the things most democrats yearn for, and the other an old white lady who maybe does or maybe not. She talks the talk, but her record doesn't walk the walk. I wish we had more choices but we don't. So I'm supporting the candidate whose values are most in line with mine and apparently also the new generation of young people just getting into political awakening.
-F2C
Jethro Tull saved my life!
Well... my romantic life. Starting in fourth grade and all thru the rest, I was the only boy in school playing flute. For so many years it was not cool to be me. Then suddenly with Ian Anderson prancing around in his boots and bathrobe, the other kids (and girls!) began to see the flute as a cool, rocking instrument!
Thanks Ian, and Tull for helping me morph from flute section band nerd... to a rock prince...at least thru high school!
(But luckily, not many years later, I discovered the world of irish flute, and band like the Chieftains, Bothy Band, Boys of the Lough...)
thanks, hobbit709, for sparking the memories!
Our hastily built elementary school had apparently one large solid wall, in the auditorium, and
we all gathered against that cinderblock surface during duck and cover drills. (When you watch footage of nuke blast damage now, that kind of "protection" seems absurd.)
I tried not to think about the Soviet missiles, and instead focused on being sure I was next to Cathy Duncan when the class huddled next to that wall... 
Vote (and work) for whom YOU trust to be best for you and our democracy. That's Bernie for me, but
it sounds like it is Hillary for you. That's okay.
I certainly would not let any of the jerks posting here change my mind. I **might** try to change their mind, but, normally, jerks are not open to persuasion. They are basically so insecure they only are trying to put down others but not listen to them.
Dear Coolest Ranger, your grandfather of course was correct: that jerks are going to be jerks, so try not to take it to heart. Scream back at them for sure, if it makes you feel better, but definitely don't start drinking because of what jerks say...(there are SO many OTHER worthwhile reasons to start drinking!)
Online friends can be good, bad, or they can be complete jerks. That makes them just like face to face "friends" Sometimes, when they are being extra jerky, you gotta just walk away. Or push back from the keyboard. Take a walk. Nature will ALWAYS be your truest friend...
I like that Bernie keeps reminding us it is 'not about him'...
I really admire the parts of Senator Sander's speeches where he reminds us 'it's not about him'
It is really about US. About all the progressive values we hold dear. About the great social movements, some of which we've witnessed in our lifetime, under attack by forces that would strip them away. About those of us who remember that the America they want to drag us back to ("Make America great again"
was not that great for a huge portion of Americans, like Native Americans, slaves, immigrants, women, people of color, the poor, people with disabilities, LGBTs...
Bernie is just the unlikely guy that is reminding us to hold fast, to not let up in the struggle for progress towards a country that makes good on the lofty promises of the Founders of our great experiment in democracy.
-F2C
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Gender: MaleHometown: Massachusetts
Member since: Sun Sep 14, 2008, 06:48 PM
Number of posts: 14,012
