I've finally achieved consistency in my life. Any person of average or above intelligence can predict what I will say next with unerring accuracy. And what I say will always be wrong.

Thursday, August 04, 2016

[ITSALLABOUTMEMAN] Re: Sign if you agree: Trump must release his tax returns

 

Thank you for your part in getting a totally fucking stupid cold war going again. You militaristic jingoistic war mongering democrats make me sick to my stomach.  I wish you would all go to hell and leave decent people alone.

I'd say the parties have flipped, but you've just returned to democratic party norms.... xenophobia, racism, imperialism...  I hope your party folds along with the Republicans and we get some decent leadership from the Greens for a change

On Thu, Aug 4, 2016 at 10:01 AM, Heidi Hess, CREDO Action <act@credoaction.com> wrote:
CREDO action
Re: Trump and Russia: What is Donald hiding in his tax returns?

Tell Donald Trump:
"Release multiple years of your tax returns and level with the American people about your wealth, your business dealings, how you truly make your money, any financial ties to Russia, the tax loopholes you take advantage of, the tax rate you actually pay and how your tax plan would benefit you personally."

Add your name:

Sign the petition ►

Dear Matt,

Recent reports of Donald Trump's financial ties to Russian oligarchs aligned with Vladimir Putin,1 combined with his encouragement – last week – of the Russian government to spy on the United States, have brought renewed attention to Trump's failure to release his tax returns, and renewed questions about what Trump may be trying to hide.

Since the start of his campaign, Trump has gotten a free pass at every level – from his own party and more importantly from the corporate media that has lavished him with free media and attention around the clock. That free pass has to end now.

Tell Donald Trump: You must release your tax returns. Click here to sign the petition.

Releasing tax returns is something that every presidential candidate has done for the past 40 years, but Trump still refuses to do so. Given his background and history, Trump's wealth and business dealings are the clearest view into his experience and fitness to be president, and now one of the clearest ways to understand if he has relationships or debt with Russian financial interests which could compromise the integrity of a Trump presidency.

Trump continues to hide behind a phony excuse that he can't release his tax returns until the IRS finishes auditing him. Just last week, his campaign manager doubled down on Trump's refusal to release his returns, using that bogus auditing excuse. But that claim has been repudiated by the IRS itself, and nothing is preventing Trump from releasing multiple years of returns.2

Releasing tax returns is a crucial way for a presidential candidate to assure the public that he or she has no conflicts of interest, particularly with foreign governments like Russia. But with Donald Trump, who has made his business experience the central argument for his candidacy, the release of his tax returns are even more crucial. These returns need to be out in the open for Americans to see, and we need to force the issue right now.

Tell Donald Trump: You must release your tax returns. Click here to sign the petition.

Recent financial disclosures made by Trump have already revealed the tremendous profits he has earned from companies whose policies he attacks.3 Trump's tax returns are sure to reveal even more hypocrisy.

Americans need to get the truth about Trump's business dealings, his claims of extreme wealth, how he truly makes his money, what tax loopholes he is using to dodge taxes, the tax rate he actually pays, his ties to Russia, and how his tax plan would benefit him personally.

We can't let Trump get another free pass on his dangerous and destructive path to the presidency.

Tell Donald Trump: You must release your tax returns. Click the link below to sign the petition.

http://act.credoaction.com/sign/trump_taxes_putin?t=7&akid=19143.7132934.eeU0p9

Thank you for your activism,

Heidi Hess, Senior Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

Add your name:

Sign the petition ►

References

  1. Tom Hamburger, Rosalind S. Helderman and Michael Birnbaum, "Inside Trump's financial ties to Russia and his unusual flattery of Vladimir Putin," The Washington Post, June 17, 2016, Peter Stone, David Smith, Ben Jacobs, Alec Luhn and Rupert Neate, "Donald Trump and Russia: a web that grows more tangled all the time," The Guardian, July 30, 2016, and Josh Marshall, "Trump & Putin. Yes, It's Really a Thing," TalkingPointsMemo.com, July 23, 2016.

  2. Kevin McCoy and David Jackson, "IRS: Trump can release tax returns, regardless of audit," USA Today, February 26, 2016.

  3. Christina Wilkie, "Donald Trump Profits In Private From The Companies He Trashes In Public," Huffington Post, May 18, 2016.


FB Share on Facebook
Post to your wall
Tw Tweet this
Post to Twitter

© 2016 CREDO. All rights reserved.

This email was sent to mattlove1@gmail.com.

To change your email or mailing address, please click here: https://act.credoaction.com/me/update/?t=20&akid=19143.7132934.eeU0p9

To unsubscribe, please visit our subscription management page at: http://act.credoaction.com/cms/unsubscribe/unsubscribe/?t=22&akid=19143.7132934.eeU0p9


__._,_.___

Posted by: matt love <mattlove1@gmail.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

Save time and get your email on the go with the Yahoo Mail app
Get the beautifully designed, lighting fast, and easy-to-use Yahoo Mail today. Now you can access all your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.


.

__,_._,___

Tuesday, August 02, 2016

[ITSALLABOUTMEMAN] Re: Matt, will you sign President Obama's birthday card?

 

Shit no, Queen of Chaos

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID


Hillary Clinton <democraticparty@democrats.org> wrote:

Matt --

Last week, President Obama gave a beautiful speech at the Democratic Convention. He spoke movingly about the challenges we face, the progress we've made, and the hope he still has for our country and our future.

I am so lucky to call him my friend.

Sign our birthday card for President Obama -- load images.


Today I have a favor to ask you for President Obama -- his birthday is in two days, and I want to do something special for him this year to show him how much he means to me and this whole Democratic family. Will you sign the official birthday card for President Obama so he can see how many people on this team love and appreciate him?

I've often said that President Obama doesn't get the credit he deserves for saving our country from the worst economic crisis in decades. Because of his leadership, we have 15 million new jobs, the Affordable Care Act, marriage equality, and so much more.

It means so much to me that he's a part of this team, and I know he'll be invaluable as we kick off these final 98 days until the election. So on Thursday, let's show him that we're grateful for all he's done for our country, that we're excited to work with him to win this November, and that we're committed to working together to protect and build on his remarkable legacy.

Add your name to sign his card now -- he'll love knowing that you're thinking of him on his special day:

http://my.democrats.org/Happy-Birthday-President-Obama

Thank you,

Hillary





































 

Paid for by Hillary Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee authorized by Hillary for America, the Democratic National Committee and the State Democratic Parties in these states: AK, AR, CO, DE, FL, GA, ID, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, ME, MA, MI, MN, MS, MO, MT, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, WV, WI, and WY.

Contributions or gifts to Hillary Victory Fund are not tax deductible.

This email was sent to Mattlove1@gmail.com. If this isn't the best email address at which to reach you, update your contact information. Our email list is the best way we have of staying in regular contact with supporters like you across the country and letting you know about the work President Obama and other Democrats are doing. If you like staying in touch, but want to receive only the most important messages, click here. Click here to unsubscribe from our supporter list, but if you leave, it will be harder for you to stay involved in the organization that you've been such a critical part of. This organization is powered by you, and we'd love to hear your ideas. Send us any comments, criticisms, or feedback here, or just reply to this email! Thanks for supporting President Obama and other Democrats.

 

__._,_.___

Posted by: matt love <mattlove1@gmail.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

Save time and get your email on the go with the Yahoo Mail app
Get the beautifully designed, lighting fast, and easy-to-use Yahoo Mail today. Now you can access all your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.


.

__,_._,___

[ITSALLABOUTMEMAN] Re: Trump's latest attack

 

Fuck you with s big one, you astroturf piece of shit

Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID


Perry O'Brien <moveon-help@list.moveon.org> wrote:

GOP leaders have failed to publicly condemn Donald Trump's recent attacks on veterans. Add your name.

Dear fellow MoveOn member,

I'm Perry O'Brien, an Operation Enduring Freedom veteran, and I am appalled by the unrelenting attacks by Donald Trump and his surrogates on the Gold Star family of Humayun Khan, a U.S. soldier who died in Iraq.1

There must be consequences for Trump's consistently appalling behavior. Senator John McCain, a war veteran, has denounced Trump's most recent attack—but that's not enough.2 Will you click here and sign my petition demanding that Sen. McCain and other Republicans withdraw their endorsement of Donald Trump?

Just today, President Obama said that Trump is unfit to be commander in chief and called upon Republicans to withdraw support of Trump's candidacy.3 The first Republican House member, Congressman Richard Hanna, from New York, showed the courage to say he won't be voting for Trump.4 Now it's time for Sen. McCain and other leading Republicans to recognize that denouncing Trump's statements isn't enough. They must withdraw their support—because Donald Trump is unfit to lead.

Please click here to add your name to my petition, which fellow veterans and I will deliver to Sen. McCain and other leading Republicans in the days ahead. It reads:

Donald Trump's attacks on veterans and Gold Star families cannot go unchallenged. Republican leaders must immediately revoke their endorsement of Trump's campaign and declare him unfit to be commander in chief.

Trump's vicious attack on the Khan family is one in a long line of painful examples which make it clear that Trump cannot be trusted to honor the women and men serving this nation in the armed forces.5

And the attacks are getting worse. One of Trump's senior advisors has even gone so far as to accuse Khzir Khan of being part of the Muslim Brotherhood.6

My organization, Common Defense, was started out of a shared belief that Donald Trump is unfit to be our next commander in chief.7 I'm appalled by Trump's disrespect for military families and his use of veterans as political props.

In the Army, I swore to protect the rights of every American. But Donald Trump wants to divide us, and his actions will put us in danger.

Sen. McConnell and Speaker Ryan have both released statements about these attacks that failed to mention Donald Trump by name.8 If Republican leaders do not outright disavow Trump's dangerous rhetoric, we will be forced to assume that they endorse his attacks on veterans and military families.

We cannot allow these comments to go unchallenged.

Click here to add your name to this petition, and then pass it along to your friends.

Thanks for all you do.

—Perry O'Brien, member of Common Defense

Want to support MoveOn's work? Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich says, "As the biggest independent progressive group that supported Bernie Sanders, MoveOn is uniquely poised to help turn out those of his supporters who are most likely to stay home in November." Can you chip in $5 a month to help our ongoing work to turn out progressive voters and defeat Donald Trump?

Yes, I'll chip in monthly.

No, I'm sorry, I can't make a monthly donation.

Sources:

1. "Broad array of military luminaries condemn Trump over attacks on Khan family," The Washington Post, August 1, 2016
https://act.moveon.org/go/4924?t=13&akid=167297.30042692.DHNe_p

2. "John McCain: Trump does not have 'unfettered license to defame those who are the best among us,'" The Washington Post, August 1, 2016
https://act.moveon.org/go/4943?t=15&akid=167297.30042692.DHNe_p

3. "Obama Says Republicans Should Withdraw Support for Trump," The New York Times, August 2, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4933?t=17&akid=167297.30042692.DHNe_p

4. "House Republican Backs Hillary Clinton, Calling Donald Trump 'Unfit to Serve,'" The New York Times, August 2, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4944?t=19&akid=167297.30042692.DHNe_p

5. "Trump at War," The Huffington Post, accessed August 1, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4925?t=21&akid=167297.30042692.DHNe_p

6. "Trump Veterans Adviser Attacks Khizr Khan As A 'Muslim Brotherhood Agent,'" Think Progress, August 1, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4927?t=23&akid=167297.30042692.DHNe_p

7. Common Defense PAC, accessed August 2, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4946?t=25&akid=167297.30042692.DHNe_p

8. "GOP Reacts to Donald Trump's Controversial Remarks on Khan Family," NBC News, July 31, 2016
http://act.moveon.org/go/4926?t=27&akid=167297.30042692.DHNe_p

You're receiving this petition because we thought it might interest you. It was created on MoveOn.org, where anyone can start their own online petitions. You can start your own petition here.


PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

__._,_.___

Posted by: matt love <mattlove1@gmail.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

Save time and get your email on the go with the Yahoo Mail app
Get the beautifully designed, lighting fast, and easy-to-use Yahoo Mail today. Now you can access all your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.


.

__,_._,___

Thursday, June 09, 2016

[ITSALLABOUTMEMAN] Re: I'm with Hillary, Matt

 

Your crooked right hand doesn't know what your crooked left hand is doing, eh, Barack?

White House: FBI probe into Clinton emails is 'criminal investigation'
Obama's spokesman told reporters the president is committed to keeping his hands off the 'criminal investigation,' using those words despite Clinton's preference for the more benign 'security inquiry.'
Share
Daily Mail · 7,160 Shares

Well, it doesn't surprise me you are with her, I just wish it was in a jail cell, contemplating your shared crimes against humanity.


On Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 4:38 PM, Barack Obama <info@hillaryclinton.com> wrote:
I know how hard the job of president can be.

Matt --

I wanted you to be the first to know:

Today, I'm proud to announce that I'm with Hillary.

I recorded a quick message to explain why. Whether you've been by her side since the beginning or you're new to her team, I hope you'll add your name today and say you're ready to make history with us this November.

Hillary for America

I know how hard the job of president can be. That's why I know Hillary will be so good at it.

I don't think there's ever been someone so qualified to hold this office.

She's got the courage, the compassion, and the heart to get the job done. (I say that as someone who had to debate her more than 20 times.)

Even after our own hard-fought campaign in 2008, she agreed to serve our country as secretary of state. I've seen her judgment, toughness, and commitment to our values up close.

And I've seen her determination to give every American a fair shot at opportunity, no matter how tough the fight -- that's what's always driven her, and still does.

I can't wait to get out there and campaign for her. Add your name today if you're with her, too:


Together, we'll build on the progress we've made, and we'll win a brighter future for this country we love.

Let's get to work,

Barack






 









Paid for by Hillary for America, a grassroots campaign of 1.3 million donors committed to electing Hillary Clinton (and keeping Donald Trump out of the White House).

Contributions or gifts to Hillary for America are not tax deductible.

This email was sent to Mattlove1@gmail.com. This is your campaign, so if you have thoughts on anything at all, just click here to send us a message! If you'd like more information on key policies, visit hillaryclinton.com/issues. Getting emails from Hillary for America is one of the best ways to stay in touch with this campaign, but if you really want to scale back, click here to receive less email and click here to unsubscribe. There are other ways to stay involved -- be sure to follow the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Puedes encontrar más información sobre la campaña de Hillary en español aquí. If you're still reading this, you must be a really dedicated Hillary supporter. Yee-haw for you! Thanks so much for doing everything you can to elect Hillary Clinton as our next president.

Hillary for America, P.O. Box 5256, New York, NY 10185

Privacy Policy

__._,_.___

Posted by: matt love <mattlove1@gmail.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

Have you tried the highest rated email app?
With 4.5 stars in iTunes, the Yahoo Mail app is the highest rated email app on the market. What are you waiting for? Now you can access all your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.


.

__,_._,___

[ITSALLABOUTMEMAN] "If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org"

 

This whole article was one big typo. The author imagines an Obama who was ever something other than what he displays on a daily basis, and like Charlie Brown and the football falls for it all over again with Sanders.

The author thinks that election procedures will change?  Clinton stole the Bush playbook, if it hasn't changed in the last 16 years, why would it change now?

I could go on and on but I don't have the stomach for it, the author's comic book conspiracies and overblown theatrics have turned my stomach enough tonight.


http://anonhq.com/theres-one-way-bernie-sanders-can-still-win-not-youre-thinking/

__._,_.___

Posted by: matt love <mattlove1@gmail.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

Have you tried the highest rated email app?
With 4.5 stars in iTunes, the Yahoo Mail app is the highest rated email app on the market. What are you waiting for? Now you can access all your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.


.

__,_._,___

[ITSALLABOUTMEMAN] Re: [progressive] How the US Army has ensured: No more publicity for Objectors like Muhammad Ali

 

Once again, the seemingly unanimous response to an event leaves me feeling deeply alienated.

When I was young and unexamined, I was a tremendous fan of Mohammad Ali. That has changed over the years.

Here is a man who came to fame beating up other people, most of them black.  He joined a wacky invented religion (similar to scientology), with the added feature of a grotesque racism (the belief whites are devils.  Oh, sure we can take that kind of slur in stride, but just switch the races, you know what you have).

When Malcolm X left this cult to become a real Muslim, he was murdered by the cultists. Ali stuck with them.  I read recently that he eventually left, but so did almost everybody else. If there is now a NOI, it's a tiny remnant.

Ali took a principled stand against a conflict in which he was in danger of being forced to fight in. He fell silent on these issues when he personally was no longer in personal danger. (exacly like so many of our peers, others that I have no respect for)/ In fact, less than two decades later he was endorsing Republican politicians like Ronald Reagan, Orrin Hatch, and many others.  Just a couple of days ago I saw some footage of him clowning around with Dubya. What exactly are those principles that people are certain he held?

While he was a great voice for black people, the way he ran down other black men was something to see.  Tiabbi mentions in passing Joe Frazier (who Ali said was ugly and looked like a gorilla - imagine if a white man said that), and suggests that Ali realized later he had been wrong to do that, although I don't know what he bases that on.

If you watch "When We Were Kings" you see how Ali somehow practically managed to convince the people of the Congo that George Foreman was a white devil, or at least a tool of the white devil.  Ali palled around with the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko - pretty grotesque.

Ali's attacks on Leon Spinks were ugly and personal, and those are just the ones I remember. One obituary called it "theater" and suggested that Frazier (again omitting all the others) just got carried away by taking it personally, but it was part of Ali's overall strategy, to declare total war, using every weapon available to him (including psychological) against his mostly black opponents.

In summation, here we have a four times married guy who beat people up, taunted his opponents, made opportunistic stands, somebody with a record as a racist and a bully... folks, we have seen the kind of obituaries Donald Trump will get when he shuffles off this mortal coil!

PS:  I'll disagree slightly with Martin Luther King when he said, "We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society, and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem."  There was no interest in guarenteeing freedoms, the intent was to keep the Vietnamese on the plantation. Did he really mean what he said, or was he just framing it in this way to attempt to persuade a propagandized audence?

On Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 3:23 PM, wytheholt@cox.net [progressive] <progressive@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
 

Muhammad Ali Was a Hero, but His Enemies Have a Legacy Too
By Matt Taibbi
Rolling Stone
08 June 16

The Pentagon learned from the epic mistake of making a martyr of the world's most gifted and famous athlete

When I was growing up, it was impossible to imagine anyone cooler than Muhammad Ali. He had the perfect looks of a rock star, was hilariously funny, and was beautiful to watch in the ring. My friends and I used to pop in tapes of his fights and double over laughing watching his opponents flail about in search of that infuriatingly pretty face of his.

As is the case with many people who are reflecting on Ali's legacy right now, Ali for me later in life also defined what it meant to stand on a principle. The story of how he defied the government and risked jail because he refused to kill on command was easy even for a young person to understand.

So I was saddened to hear of his death earlier this weekend. It's unlikely we'll ever see anyone like Ali again, and not just because he was a billions-to-one marvel of physical and mental gifts.

It's also because his enemies learned from the mistake they made, and spent a generation making sure that the next of his ilk, in the unlikely event that he or she ever comes along, won't become so powerful a dissenting influence.

Ali was famously a person who could make a stage out of anything. Even his weigh-ins turned into acts worthy of Carnegie Hall. But on April 28, 1967, the U.S. government handed him the biggest stage of his life.

At an armed forces examining station in Houston, he refused to step forward to a white line when his name was called. That one step would have signified his willingness to be drafted.

The awesome drama of that moment made Ali hated at the time, but also turned him into a martyr to history. The symbolism of a man who made his living fighting refusing to fight was extraordinarily powerful.

Ali furthermore brilliantly used the moment to link America's bloody quagmire overseas to the domestic warfare that had broken out in places like Watts, Rochester, Newark, Cleveland, Detroit, and Division Street, Chicago.

"My conscience won't let me shoot my brother or some darker people," Ali said. "And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger."

Asking Ali to step forward that day in Houston was an epic strategic blunder. The last thing Lyndon Johnson or his successor Richard Nixon needed was to have Americans of any age, but particularly young people, making a connection between racism at home and wars of colonial domination abroad.

But by demanding that a man as prideful and magnetic as Ali submit to becoming a cheerleader for the bloodshed in Vietnam, that's exactly what they did.

Even stripped of his title, Ali had enormous influence. He grew up in the dawn of the television age, for which his outsized personality was perfectly suited. He was one of the first people to understand the power of celebrity in the mass-media age, and became one of the first truly international media icons, more famous than JFK, Elvis, Khrushchev or the pope.

After refusing induction, Ali used that celebrity to become a dangerous and persuasive critic of the American state. Right away, he received public statements of support from people like Jim Brown, Lew Alcindor (the future Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Bill Russell and Martin Luther King, instantly giving him credibility with young people, particularly nonwhite young people.

King, incidentally, had pivoted toward criticism of the war right around the same time that Ali was refusing induction. He gave a speech in 1967 called "Beyond Vietnam" that made a lot of the same points Ali did.

"We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society," King said at Riverside Church in New York on April 4th of that year, "and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem."

A year after that, unrest over the war essentially cost Lyndon Johnson his presidency. Abroad, the Tet Offensive sent American troops reeling toward a crushing defeat.

And later on, media efforts like the horrific "running girl" photo and the documentary Hearts and Minds helped confirm in the minds of large numbers of Americans a previously unthinkable idea: that the United States, savior of the world in the war against Nazism, was now the bad guy in the movie, a villain state that had murdered hundreds of thousands or even millions of poor civilian farmers for the sake of — what exactly?

The lesson the government should have learned from this disastrous episode was not to try to project power and influence by military occupation. Instead, the Pentagon saw Vietnam as a public relations failure. What military leaders thought they learned from the Indochinese fiasco is that wars are won on the airwaves as much as on the battlefield.

It's not a terribly well-advertised fact, but the Pentagon has the single largest public relations budget in the world, annually spending billions to make sure that what happened in the Sixties does not happen again.

It's being said a lot in the wake of Ali's death that his counterparts today would never make the sacrifices he made. "Today's transcendent athletes are too busy protecting their bank statements to make a political statement," is how Christopher Gasper of the Boston Globe put it.

That might be true, but it's also true that today's athletes haven't been asked to do what Ali was asked to do. Nobody is asking LeBron James to step forward to any white line. Nobody tried to draft Randy Moss or Albert Pujols to fight in Iraq. Who knows what might have happened if someone had?

The government eliminated that variable decades ago. In 1971, just as a comebacking Ali was preparing for the "fight of the century" against Joe Frazier, Richard Nixon signed a new selective service law that led to the end of the draft and the volunteer army. No more Ivy Leaguers or mouthy celebrities would be sent off to fight. It would be mostly poor kids from farms and inner cities on the front lines from now on.

Later on, the military instituted a series of new rules governing the behavior of the press in war zones, of which the ban on photographing military coffins was only the most famous. The Pentagon tightly controlled the imagery that was sent home, making sure that our living rooms weren't filled with footage of young Americans, to say nothing of foreign civilians, being shot and mutilated.

The all-volunteer army, coupled with the new media rules, allowed America to go to war in Iraq without the same level of virulent dissent it felt during Vietnam. One of the particular successes of the new PR strategy was the near-total lack of outrage or empathy over the deaths of Iraqi civilians.

Muhammad Ali in the Sixties easily penetrated Pentagon propaganda about the enemy in the jungle by pointing out that he personally had no quarrel with the Vietnamese. He forced Americans to think about the moral consequences of killing other human beings half a world away who really had nothing to do with us, until we started herding them into "strategic hamlets."

But a generation later, we Americans mostly lack the instinct to even ponder those questions. We sit through movies like American Sniper that tell us that Iraqis are villains because they shoot at our soldiers. The question of why we were ever there in the first place to shoot or be shot at is not talked about as much.

In large part that's because the government has successfully sanitized the use of force. The brutality and ugliness of war is mostly kept separate from pop culture. Wars look like video games to young people today. This isn't an accident. It's the result of billions of dollars of research and propaganda devoted to the problem of preventing the wholesale attacks of conscience that broke out during the Sixties.

Ali wasn't a perfect person. His cruel treatment of Joe Frazier in the runup to their three epic fights is a particular stain on his legacy. That Ali himself came to understand this only slightly diminishes the fact.

But he was still a hero, flaws and all. He would have been larger than life anyway, but his defiant stand against his own government amplified his legend as a fighter of bottomless will and courage, and made him a towering figure in our history.

When he's laid to rest later this week, most people will remember how much he was beloved for those qualities. But let's not forget that not everyone loved him, or found him and his defiance so charming. His detractors have a legacy as well, one that sadly enough might outlast his.

We remember Muhammad Ali in his own words of wisdom and bravado.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/37327-focus-muhammad-ali-was-a-hero-but-his-enemies-have-a-legacy-too


__._,_.___

Posted by: matt love <mattlove1@gmail.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

Have you tried the highest rated email app?
With 4.5 stars in iTunes, the Yahoo Mail app is the highest rated email app on the market. What are you waiting for? Now you can access all your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.


.

__,_._,___

Sunday, June 05, 2016

[ITSALLABOUTMEMAN] Fwd: Thanks for your email!

 

The Program: https://www.wnyc.org/radio/#/ondemand/625010

My email: Where is the comment section for the New Yorker Radio Hour?

How lovely, all this propaganda we get from you nice public radio
around the clock, 7 days a week, all year long. You talk, we listen
(and in the case of theNew Yorker Radio Hour, we can't talk back) -
what a good arrangement. that is how we have become so stupid. I was
listening to the segment about the tragic Kalief Browder. Genius use
of this grotesque absence of justice for propaganda purposes. Imagine
if this had happened in Russia. You can bet it would be an indictment
of the whole society. You'd be blaming Putin personally. Here, Obama
gets to bleat about it and look like a good guy. More and more blacks
sliding into poverty. Hundreds of thousands imprisoned for
non-violent victimless crimes. A trickle released, and Obama walks on
water. Pussy Riot jailed for hate crimes? Putin's fault, even though
he urged leniency in the sentencing. Here, Obama responsible for
nothing, even where he could intercede. Astonishing that the tragic
Kalief Browder turned down a plea bargain that would have kept him
from a trial that could have resulted in 15 years in prison? Wow,
step outside of your privileged bubble, that is how American 'Justice'
works for ALL poor people and most others - they pile up charges that
can total hundreds of years of jail time, and they offer you a plea
bargain. Few have the resources to begin to fight; their court
appointed attorneys urge them to accept. A remarkable number of
people chose what Kalief Browder chose. It is astonishing to you
ivory tower types that poor people have more principles than you. For
certain, those of you in the propaganda industry gave up yours a long
time ago to get along in your jobs.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: NY PUBLIC RADIO <support@nypublicradio.zendesk.com>
Date: Sun, Jun 5, 2016 at 10:18 PM
Subject: Thanks for your email!
To: Mattlove1 <mattlove1@gmail.com>

##- Please type your reply above this line -##

Thank you for contacting the station about our programming.

Please know that we receive a large number of messages every day with
feedback on our programming. Please know that we read and consider
every email we receive. We also pass every comment on to our senior
staff, programming team, and (where applicable) our hosts for them to
read.

Thank you for your listening!

This email is a service from NY PUBLIC RADIO. Delivered by Zendesk
[JDRQX5-YKPN]

__._,_.___

Posted by: matt love <mattlove1@gmail.com>
Reply via web post Reply to sender Reply to group Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1)

Have you tried the highest rated email app?
With 4.5 stars in iTunes, the Yahoo Mail app is the highest rated email app on the market. What are you waiting for? Now you can access all your inboxes (Gmail, Outlook, AOL and more) in one place. Never delete an email again with 1000GB of free cloud storage.


.

__,_._,___