freshwest

freshwest's Journal

April 15, 2015

I accept the number, and it is part of the problem now with the displaced who fill the ranks of IS:

‘Apocalyptic’ Isis beyond anything we've seen, say US defence chiefs.

By Spencer Ackerman - 22 August 2014

...(General) Dempsey, an Iraq veteran, has long been sceptical of US military involvement in the Syrian conflict, citing among other reasons the threat to US pilots from dictator Bashar al-Assad’s air defences. He has frustrated those who advocated American involvement in the two neighbouring wars, such as hawkish Republican senator John McCain, who in June called on Obama to fire Dempsey, saying he “has done nothing but invent ways for us not to be engaged.”

Echoing the White House’s stated position, Dempsey said the US needed “a coalition in the region that takes on the task of defeating Isis over time,” something the administration this week has put effort into broadening and strengthening. But the group’s ultimate defeat, the general said, would only come “when it is rejected by the over 20 million disenfranchised Sunnis that happen to reside between Damascus and Baghdad.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/21/isis-us-military-iraq-strikes-threat-apocalyptic/print

This is no longer just about Iraq. Since Damascus is in Syria, all the way to the Mediterranean and the doorstep to Europe. Many centuries of warfare between the empires, of which the caliphate is planned to be one. And Baghdad is set near the sea on the other end of that stretch of land on the eastern side.

Those 20 million don't all support the Daesh, but that is a huge number and it's not like these people are unable to figure out how to fight to survive. Obama warned Maliki that excluding them them from his government (in revenge for Saddam's oppression of the Shia, I guess) would cause Iraq to break into pieces. So he couldn't fully support Maliki because he didn't govern with inclusion, which would be the only way to have peace.

The result of those fleeing Iraq and impacting other nations created a diasphoria for the new century. The Iraq War was a TEOTWAWKI event and shattered lives and allegiances. The Middle East will be transformed into different nations, because the original fuel for the Daesh is the need of those refugees for a homeland.

Imagine for a moment, an army of 20 million armed and angry and possibly homeless in the USA on the move. Just picture the bloody carnage in the neighboring states in a desperate fight for living space.

The Kurds were accused of being extrene in the past. They managed through the overthrow of Saddam to possess an autonomous region in northern Iraq. The legacy of Bush will hang over us for a generation or more and change the entire world as we know it, too. JMHO.

April 15, 2015

I've read here that Obama has never lost a case with the WTO. This one is part of a larger concern:

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/221589-consumers-win-as-wto-condemns-protectionist-meat-labels

In order to protect American workers and union jobs Obama has won, the result of some quick googling:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141012901

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014272078

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014159436

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002958217

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3757203

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002419556

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/05/us-china-usa-tyres-idUSTRE7842EH20110905

Got to go.

April 14, 2015

Had to cut off cable television. But I think you mean this hairstyle, right?

April 14, 2015

Behind Cuba. Looks like their flag:

April 14, 2015

Perez is speaking the old IWW motto: 'An injury to one is an injury to all.'

An injury to one is an injury to all is a motto popularly used by the Industrial Workers of the World.

In his autobiography, Bill Haywood credited David C. Coates with suggesting a labor slogan for the IWW:

An injury to one is an injury to all.[1] The slogan has since been used by a number of labor organizations. The slogan reflects the fact that the IWW is "One Big Union" and organizes skilled and unskilled workers.

Despite the reduced number of organized workers today, the slogan is still popular with labor unions and other organizations.

The expression is similar to, and may be derived from, a slogan popularized in the prior quarter century by the Knights of Labor, "that is the best government in which an injury to one is the concern of all".[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_injury_to_one_is_an_injury_to_all

Workers without labor rights anywhere, set the stage for us losing ours. I was taught at my union that our movement was always global in scope. That social justice is not just for one country to enjoy.

We extended our belief to include women and minorities of all kinds. Those who didn't agree with the latter, went to join other unions or went off to be contractor labor.

So this may be the dynamic that Perez is thinking in, and wants to include everyone to relieve the pressure on wages here. If all are elevated to the same level, there will be no cause for business to go offshore. They will have to pay good wages here as well as there.

Those businesses that want to do dirty business and not pay as they should here, ought to have their business charters with their local governments revoked.

Unions such as mine, which was an AFL-CIO affiliate, pushed for labor rights in other nations because they knew that economic refugees would be used against labor here. Also, because it was the right thing to do for other human beings.

This has been a long-held belief system among some unions. As I said, some who didn't want to work in an integrated work force, didn't believe in that. Whether this is what Perez is thinking comes from or not I don't know, but it sounds very familiar to me.

We can either get involved and grasp hold of the responsibility with our brothers and sisters around the world, that is up to us. If not us, the global corporations and the corrupt governments that help them keep unnaturally high profits off the hardship of their own citizens in foreign nations, will set the rules that will impact all of us.

Just a few thoughts, here. I am an old unionist, came from an FDR union family, and still believe in the power of equality through labor to protect democracy and give us all a chance at better lives.

The war on workers is global. Our response must be global. We are in a global society and we must be the ones who determine the backdrop of that society. We can't escape, we must do the right thing for all, or we fail ourselves and our principles.

April 14, 2015