'Sanders backs Obama “kill list,” troops to Syria' My Response

Bernie Sanders backs Obama's program of drone murders, and when asked

"Do you think what’s being done now is constitutional and legal?"

Bernie Sanders said  "In general, I do, yes."

The drone program is both unconstitutional and illegal.

The targeting and killing by drones is the weapon of a

brutal dictator.

The use of drones to kill people is murder. Bernie Sanders has

no problem with that; neither does Killary Clinton and others.

The Constitution of the United States was written in light of the

experiences of British domination. The Constitution was not written

to protect the rights of all people. People of color, slaves and Native

Indians and women were excluded.

When a person is a suspect and arrested for a crime they are

guaranteed certain rights under the constitution and Court

precedents.

The IV Amendment guarantees "The right of the people to be secure

in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches

and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon

probable causse."

Drone killings abolish this protective measure. Instead of a warrant a

drone comes flying through the air killing the person beofre they are

presented an indictment with a list of charges.

Drone victims, or people on a President's Kill List are deprived of the

right to consult an attorney.

They are deprived of the right to hear the charges against them, and

to have a fair trial before an unbiased court, and with a jury of their peers.

Drone killings do away with the Amendment V protections against
being tried for the same charge twice (double jeopardy). And, as for the

famous V Amendment right against self-incrimination in criminal cases

"without due process of law" There is no due process when a person is

killed by a drone.

Drone killings obliterate the Sixth Amendment guarantees "to a

speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury" to see the evidence against

oneself and provide witnesses and cross examine the State's witnesses.

All this is done away with as a drone comes through the roof.

Drone killings make a mockery of the Amendment 8 protections
against "excessive bail; there is none your dead. As for "cruel and

unusual punishments" drone killings are both cruel and unusual

punishments because they are committed upon persons who

have not been brought to a court of law, nor tried, much less

convicted.

The Amendment 14th states that no State shall deprive any

person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;

nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection

of the laws."

Kill Lists is something a fascist dictator has, and drone weapons

are killing without a conscience. So much for "Change you can

believe in." And, Bernie Sanders supports drone killings. Well

over 90% of the people killed have been innocent, and 100% of

them were not convicted in a court of law.

Gone are the days when the government sent agents to arrest

someone and present a case against them. Drones are something

out of a 1984 World a la George Orwell!

Paul Meuse

Sanders backs Obama “kill list,” troops to Syria - World Socialist Web Site

				Sanders backs Obama “kill list,” troops to Syria - World... Sanders’ statements underscore the unity among all the candidates of the Democratic and Republican parties in favor of war and drone assassinations.
				View on www.wsws.org	Preview by Yahoo

Sanders backs Obama “kill list,” troops to Syria

By a reporter
27 April 2016

Towards the end of a town hall meeting in Philadelphia broadcast last Monday night over MSNBC, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders declared his support for the Obama administration’s program of assassination by drone-fired missiles and its steady build-up of US troop strength in Syria and Iraq.

These statements underscore the unity across the bourgeois political spectrum, among all the presidential candidates of the Democratic and Republican parties, in favor of stepped-up military intervention in the Middle East, including the use of drones that have killed thousands of civilians.

The discussion was initiated by a 29-year-old Sanders supporter, not by MSNBC host Chris Hayes, the moderator of the town hall—a significant fact, since no journalist for the corporate-controlled media has pressed any of the candidates about drone missile assassinations or other lawless actions by the Obama administration.

The questioner, Miguel Garces, was clearly skeptical about Obama’s claim to legal authority to conduct indiscriminate air strikes against targets supposedly linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. The exchange went as follows:

Question: Senator Sanders, you said that you think that the US air strikes are authorized under current law, but does that mean that the US military can lawfully strike ISIS-affiliated groups in any country around the world?

Sanders: No, it does not mean that. I hope, by the way, that we will have an authorization passed by the Congress, and I am prepared to support that authorization if it is tight enough so I am satisfied that we do not get into a never-ending perpetual war in the Middle East. That I will do everything I can to avoid. But the president, no president, has the ability willy-nilly to be dropping bombs or using drones any place he wants.

Hayes then intervened to press Sanders on whether he was actually expressing a disagreement with current US government policy in relation to air strikes and drone warfare:

Hayes: The current authorization which you cite in what Miguel just quoted, which is the authorization to use military force after 9/11—that has led to the kill list. This president—

literally, there is a kill list. There is a list of people that the US government wants to kill, and it goes about doing it. Would you keep the kill list as president of the United States?

Sanders: Look, terrorism is a very serious issue. There are people out there who want to kill Americans, who want to attack this country, and I think we have a lot of right to defend ourselves. I think as Miguel said, though, it has to be done in a constitutional, legal way.

Hayes: Do you think what’s being done now is constitutional and legal?

Sanders: In general, I do, yes.

After obtaining confirmation that Sanders supports Obama’s drone warfare as “constitutional and legal,” Hayes asked about Obama’s announcement Monday morning that the Pentagon would greatly increase the number of Special Forces deployed to Syria—an action that is illegal under international law, since the Syrian government has not given Washington permission to do so.

Sanders replied, “Here’s the bottom line. ISIS has got to be destroyed.” While emphasizing that he favored the use of Muslim Arab ground troops, rather than American troops, except as “advisers” and “trainers,” Sanders reiterated, “We have had some success in the last year or so putting ISIS on the defensive. We’ve got to continue that effort.”

Sanders made similar comments during an interview Sunday on the CNN program “State of the Union,” telling host Jake Tapper that he would support legislation providing a new authorization for the use of military force in Iraq and Syria, giving a new legal basis for the military operations that now involve more than 5,000 US troops in the two countries.

These statements do not represent a shift in the candidate’s positions on war and violence, but their open, public repetition underscores the political reality: Bernie Sanders is an imperialist politician, a defender of the global interests of the very “millionaires and billionaires” he claims to oppose.

The entire MSNBC exchange with Sanders can be viewed here, starting at 35 minutes and 20 seconds.

Irish Water and the right of the people to rebel

Irish Water and the right of the people to rebel

Most Gardai I’ve met are nice people, and mean to protect the people.

I got to know several when I moved here in 1997, and also over the 

years.

But, in every police force there are criminals wearing a badge.

I could say the same about a number of policemen when I lived in 

Boston. But, I knew some slime who worked nights shaking down 

pimps, and Black prostitutes, took their money as well as expecting 

a blow job. They took bribes, protected the mafia’s business while 

harassing legitimate business owners.

There are people like that in every police force.

I am a Vietnam veteran and those in the police forces and military 

have a common defect. They ‘obey orders.’ And ‘don’t question 

authority.’ Garda, like police and members of the military say they 

don’t get involved in politics, but they do; their job is to uphold the 

vested, criminal interests.Even if they never intended to.

What you see in this video is the Gardai (police) protecting a 

corporation that is despised by the overwhelming majority of the 

Irish population.

They are also protecting another class of criminals: the political class, 

or most politicians who do not work for the people, but for the powerful

and unseen interests – people, banking families and other people who

rule the country like it was their personal fiefdom. Not to mention the

so-called ‘investors.’ Parasites.

Remember, what Malcolm X said is true: “Power never takes a back 

step only in the face of more power.” And, in every case of the people 

coming up against Garda, or even the army protecting the financial 

interests that run the country behind the scenes we must never forget 

that a numerically inferior group can rewrite the destiny and course of 

 history.

Remember Michael Collins, Tom Barry and others.

What would they tell the people of today?

You have the power. Do not let them do this to you.

Remember, your numbers are far superior to them.

 The Gardai are on the wrong side of the conflict with Irish Water.

Many years ago the Gardai arrested women, and eventually delivered 

them into virtual slavery: the Catholic launderies!

Many years ago and even recently the An Garda Siochana avoided 

treating members of the clergy who sexually abused, raped, buggered 

and degraded children as criminals. Others, in the civilian population 

would be arrested, and prosecuted, but the Catholic church was off-

limits. 

In every case of developers bribing politicians to rezone land for the

benefit of their financial interests how many did they arrest and 

prosecute?

In Iceland, they appoint a women to investigate the financial interests,

and the result was bankers and others ended up in jail!!

When the CIA was flying their planes into Shannon that ferried

innocent prisoners in chains and drugged and gagged, our politicians

repeatedly denied they knew, or that prisoners were aboard. But,

they refused to investigate and check the planes as is their duty under

international law.

Both the Army, and An Garda Siochana turned their heads.

When US troops were going through Shannon on their way to illegal

wars they were not stopped, nor ever checked.

Last week police at Vienna airport stopped a group of American

soldiers who appeared to have no weapons. They were catching a

connecting flight to the Ukraine. The police in Vienna airport searched

the soldier's luggage and found weapons, broken down so as to fit in

suitcases, so they could hide them.

Democracy also means the people ruling themselves and overturning 

the established order and creating a new society that is more just, more 

equal, and more democratic. Some say that is revolution. Yes, it is, and 

it has been a feature of human societies that has existed, and will 

continue until the human race has evolved further.

But, make no mistake about it, the people have every right to say

'NO' to the present order of the political class putting into place 

measures to economically benefit the unseen, hidden financial interests 

that rule this country no matter who is elected. History shows that real 

change comes from the masses of people rising up and making revolution.

That's what the Irish War of Independence was.

The people have the right to mass and make the work of Irish Water

impossible to do. 

The Irish people are already paying for the water. This is a company

set up so other domestic and foreign investors (scum) can take over

and charge the people and make a buck off it. There has been a big

push among the very wealthy to take over the control of water on

this planet and extort what they can out of people.

The moneyed interests are driving whole nations into poverty whilst
enriching themselves, and this must be resisted. Irish Water falls within
that, and 'IT IS RIGHT TO REBEL' and take control of our destiny away
from the banking and other interests.

VIVA LA REVOLUCION

              

9/11 was a False Flag attack - terrorism waged against the American people.

This is a response - a comment left to a video
'

Brigitte Gabriel gives FANTASTIC answer to Muslim woman claiming all Muslims are portrayed badly » T  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry3NzkAOo3s

9/11 was a False Flag attack - terrorism waged against the American people. It unleashed a tidal wave of hatred that was deliberate on the part of America and the Zionist leaders of Israel.

The tone she spoke to the Muslim woman was completely disrespectful, at best.
Hateful at worst.
She must have not read about the worst fundamentalism on the planet: Christian!
From the Crusades to today. And let's not forget there was relative peace in the
Middle East before the discovery of oil in the Middle East. Since then the leaders
of the U.S., UK, France carved up the region, installed puppet governments and waged
a terror campaign against the peoples of those countries.

There was peace in Palestine until the Zionists of Germany who struck a deal with
Hitler's regime (google the 'Transfer Agreement' - 'Haavara Agreement'). There was
even a medal struck with a Swastika on one side and a Star of David on the other side.

The Zionist ethnically cleansed the Palestinian people from their homes, lands, farms,
fields, businesses and put them in concentration camps like Gaza and the West Bank -
Indian Reservations of the Middle East.

Brigitte Gabriel sounds like a hateful and bigoted woman against Muslims. Let's get one thing straight right off the bat. No planes were hijacked on 9/11 by any so-called 'Muslim extremists.' It is a physical impossible for those commercial airlines to have brought down the WTC towers.

In 1947 a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed in the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in Manhattan. The structural integrity of the building 'was not affected!'

The building was not imploded, though it appears charges went off at levels.
But, then reason we know it wasn't a classic implosion is because if the WTC towers
were imploded almost 1 million tons of steel and concrete would have come crashing
down, and the shock of that would have destroyed the 'bathtub' that kept out the Hudson river. The 'Bathtub' as it is called was built was built as a necessary prerequisite
to building the towers. It is a rectangle 'with sides about 980 and 520 feet, and at a depth of about seven stories below the surface.

That's why it wasn't an implosion. Firemen, and other experts were astonished at
the lack of debris that should have been on the ground. Almost everything was turned
to dust on it's way down. I've seen implosions, and that was extremely weird.

Where did 90%-98% of the steel and concrete go?

In all the history of steel and concrete buildings only two were destroyed by fire,
and that was on 9/11; the WTC towers!

In October 2004 a fire raged in a26 floors of a 56 story building in Caracas,
Venezuela for 17+ hours. The building did not collapse!

There have been horrendous fires in other tall structures:
- May 1988 a fire in the Interstate Bank Building in Los Angeles.
- Feb. 1991 eight floors were destroyed in the Meridian Plaza building
Philadelphia. the fire burned for 18 hours.
- Feb. 2005 a 'towering inferno' in Taiwan. Didn't collapse.
on and on and on.

How is it that some of the 9/11 planes were still in operation and with the
same tail numbers still in use years later.

9/11 was an act of terror from the inside. Another name for that is a 'False Flag'
attack used to provide a pretext for the US global wars.
The right wing neo-cons of the 'Project for the New American Century'
wrote in 'Rebuilding America's Defenses' pushing for global war that the
American people would not accept an aggressive war policy "...absent
some catastrophic and catalyzing event - like a Pearl Harbor." Page 52.

In 1962 the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US military approved a plan to
in the words of 'Operation Northwoods'' "We could develop a Communist Cuban
terror campaign in the Miami area, in other Florida cities and even Washington..."

"We could blow up a ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba."
"Casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of indignation."
They talked about using drones.

9/11 was a new version of 'Operation Northwoods!'

45 years ago today, June 22nd, 1968 I entered Marine Corps Boot Camp

 45 years ago today, June 22nd, 1968 I entered Marine Corps Boot Camp

I had been prepared and told what to expect, but nothing
can really prepare you. My biggest asset was the knowledge
that I could and would take what ever abuse and humiliation
the DIs (drill Instructors) could dish out.

My father and Catholic school (nuns) prepared me for that.
Marine Corps boot camp is all about S&M. The Drill Instructors
are sadist, and have a blank check to smack the hell out of
someone.

the worst thing that happened to me was the day I had eight
teeth pulled out by the dentist. When I got back to the barracks
one DI didn't know I had been to the dentist and smacked me
square in the mouth.

But, I survived the nine weeks, and went on to advanced infantry
training, Staging Battalion in California and then Vietnam. I was
there just over two months by days when medevaced to the states;
dysentary and I had a seizure.

I went back to Vietnam because as odd as it seems I felt more
at home in a combat zone, than back in the US.

Below are some photos of the war; they are not my photos.

http://tinyurl.com/p6ovw8w

Dirty, exhausted looking US Marine on patrol with his squad near the DMZ during the Vietnam War.









 

 Wounded and shocked civilian survivors of Dong Xoai crawl out of a fort bunker on June 6, 1965, where they survived murderous ground fighting and air bombardments of the previous two days. (Horst Faas/AP)


 http://tinyurl.com/nn9ca2f
 
 Women and children crouch in a muddy canal as they take cover from intense Viet Cong fire at Bao Trai, about 20 miles west of Saigon, on January 1, 1966. Paratroopers, background, of the U.S. 173rd Airborne Brigade escorted the South Vietnamese civilians through a series of firefights during the U.S. assault on a Viet Cong stronghold. (Horst Faas/AP)

 http://tinyurl.com/p8q95g5
































Shell shocked wounded Marine being bandaged in muddy jungle during OP Prairie US mil. sweep just s. of DMZ, S. Vietnam.





 http://tinyurl.com/p2hdrph
 

 A South Vietnamese Marine, severely wounded in a Viet Cong ambush, is comforted by a comrade in a sugar-cane field at Duc Hoa, about 12 miles from Saigon, ..



 http://tinyurl.com/qx9dzgc

 
 Thích Quảng Đức, a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk torched himself on 11 June 1963
in Saigon to protest the persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government led by Ngô Đình Diệm. Diem was installed by the US government, and was notoriously corrupt and authoritarian. Wiki source

http://tinyurl.com/pfdz2c9

  
vietnam war rally girl with naphalm burns classic shot


 http://tinyurl.com/pelhdt7
 
 Military police, reinforced by Army troops, throw back anti-war demonstrators as they tried to storm a mall entrance doorway at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on October 21, 1967. (AP)


 http://tinyurl.com/pnxka2e
 
 Fourteen-year-old Mary Ann Vecchio screams over the body of 20-year-old Kent State student Jeffrey Miller after he was shot by the Ohio National Guard during a protest against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War on May 4, 1970. (John Paul Filo/Library of Congress)



 http://tinyurl.com/ou7xkgt



 
Don McCullin Shell Shocked US Marine, Vietnam, Hue 1968, printed 2013 © Don

The effects of combat…human emotions and caring for animals

The effects of combat…human emotions and caring for animals


I am writing this so friends and people may understand a bit about me
in relation to caring for animals, as I receive posts about animal cruelty.

I ignore watching almost all posts about animal cruelty; it's depressing,
and from what I survived in Vietnam I came home numb. Emotionally
numb. Therefore, I try to protect myself from watching animals being
brutalized.

I watch more videos about people being harmed by police, or in Palestine
I'll watch the brutality meted out to Palestinians and their supporters.
And, I limit that, but not as much. I limit the bad because I believe it's
not good to watch too much. I know what can happen.

I also believe that spending too much time watching such videos can
lead to a sense of powerlessness. But, mostly, what happens to humans
bothers me much, much more.

I wasn't in Vietnam a month when another platoon member took me to
see a show, as it were. There was a huge pit, conical shaped that went
down about 30 feet or so that was used to burn/blow up trash. But, this
day other marines were spread out around the rim of the hole (a guess is
about 20 feet across.

There was an air of excitement amongst those already there. A marine was
at the base of the pit with a monkey, and he was teaching the monkey how
to pull the pin of a hand grenade. Once he felt the monkey got the idea he
ran up the sides of the hill and over the top. A few men had rifles trained
on the monkey in case he tried running up the hill.

There would be just one outcome, and soon enough we saw the explosion,
and as the speed of sound is slower than the speed of light, we then heard
the explosion. I may have felt a tiny bit bad, but to survive combat, or just
being in a war zone as a grunt (rifleman) I had to 'not feel,' or not have
feelings about such things. It's self protectection.

In war there are times when the choice is to do right, or wrong in relation to
people, their animals, possessions, home etc. That is doing the right thing
ethically, although I never thought of it that way, and was never confronted
with an order to burn down a family home. Thank God.

But, at other times there is a choice, that to me, was not about ethics, but
a choice between living and dying. In February, 1969, on a jungle ridge in
the A Shau valley at Fire Support Base (FSB) Cunningham my team leader
and I had to put our combat knives to the throats of marines in panic on our
first night.

They began crying, and saying "We're all gonna die they (North Vietnamese
Army NVA sappers - suicide bombers) get in the wire every night."

The third night two men came running towards our bunker in the dark, and
they were screaming "There all around us; we're gonna die..." Once again we
put knives to their throats to shut them up, and sent them back to their bunker.
We then had to listen to them scream as a sapper got into their bunker, and
began knifing them until his six second charge wound down and exploded
killing all three.

In the morning I had to wipe the bunker clean of human remains so the new
guys coming in by chopter wouldn't know. The hardest part for me was not
crying because I didn't want another marine knowing I had cried, so I stuffed
it way down deep. But, it is always with me, and will be till I die.

When I got out of the marines I shot a cat one night, and regretted it
immediately. But, there is a part of me that has insulated myself from feelings
because there is enough pain in me. I survived seeing and carrying the dead, or
being with a friend when his hand blew open, and more. But, what was essential
to surviving was not to let feelings interfere with keeping my senses intact. I'm
not the only one.

There is a buffer within that keeps pain from overwhelming me and rendering
me useless in a sense.

So, if I have a bit of milk with coffee I don't feel bad, but I am moving away
from it. I can use rice milk if necessary.

I love good quality fish and chips, but it is less than once a month. I'm
moving away from fish, not out of ethical concerns, but because I don't
trust eating fish because the oceans are polluted with radioactivity, and more.

You see, war left me damaged, but also with the ability to survive, and
an ability to balance what's bad to others with far worse that I've seen, and
a way to size up which is worse. Eating a chicken, or an egg. To me, eating
a chicken is worse.  But, I don't eat meat, and I try to live and let live.

I lived in Vermont for ten years; a hunter's paradise, but I never hunted
animals because there is nothing heroic about shooting a deer, bear, moose,
or anything with a high powered rifle with a scope.