History – Page 6 – Doug's Views

July 16, 2013April 18, 2020

White Supremacists Don’t Always Wear Hoods

created image of a guy in suit wearing a Klan hood

The Supreme Court overturned part of the Voting Rights Act, overturned DOMA based on a ‘state’s rights’ claim, and a jury in Florida found nothing criminal when George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed black teenager. Why does this trouble me in the so-called ‘post-racial’ United States? Paul Rosenberg over at Crooks and Liars has the answer. In 2013, white supremacy is alive and well and it isn’t always burning crosses or wearing hoods.

Rosenburg makes a point that we shouldn’t call what is going on racism because it lets white supremacists off the hook. That’s how we get four frames of colorblind racism:

July 7, 2013April 18, 2020

Why Do We Have To Choose Between Privacy Or Security?

created image of guy looking in a window with POLICE on shirt

If you aren’t doing anything wrong then this should not be a problem, right?

The media coverage over what National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden did, by publicly revealing the large surveillance program conducted by the NSA, included ridiculously breathless stories about his whereabouts, if the guy is a traitor (he’s not), and if Glenn Greenwald should be jailed for doing his job of reporting the story. What still isn’t being discussed is the reasons and methods behind the program Snowden exposed and why there isn’t much discussion about the accountability of the program. We have been given a false choice between privacy or security.

Bob Sullivan, on the NBC News website wrote a good essay about the problem of having the false choice of privacy or security:

April 21, 2013April 18, 2020

Separating fact from fiction for the Boston and Texas tragedies

famous image of Police going into action after Boston Marathon bombing

Police go into action after Boston Marathon bombing

It was a rough week for a lot people last week. Two bombs were set off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. A fertilizer plant blew up in Texas on Wednesday. The manhunt for the Boston bombing suspects heated up early Friday morning then concluded with the final suspect captured Friday evening. It is still early in these events and we don’t have all the information but I wanted to share some thoughts on the week where the known facts don’t match what is being said by other people.

April 8, 2013April 18, 2020

Holocaust Remembrance Day: Heeding The Warning Signs

Eternal flame at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum

April 8th 2013 is Holocaust Remembrance Day (aka Yom HaShoah) and begins the ‘The Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust’ here in the United States. This year’s theme is Never Again: Heeding The Warning Signs which is a good idea no matter the reasons. Just as humans are capable of great kindness, we are also capable of great evil. We all need to heed the warning signs to try to prevent an immense evil like the Holocaust from happening again.

March 1, 2013April 18, 2020

GOP Has No Incentive To Change The Sequester, They Got What They Wanted In 2011

Speaker John Boehner: I got 98% of what I wanted… HA! HA!

Earlier on Thursday, Republicans in the Senate filibustered a bill meant to replace the “dreaded” sequester due to take effect today (March 1st). I mentioned to my friends on Facebook that I guess the The GOP didn’t want to stop the sequester. My Republican friends complained that President Obama didn’t want to end the sequester cuts either and offered an out of context video clip from 2011. The actual facts show that Republicans have no incentive to change the sequester because they got exactly what they wanted back in 2011.

Here is a clip of the article I posted on Facebook: