Tikkun (https://www.tikkun.org/category/politics__society/page/27/)
Editor’s Note: Tikkun Magazine does not endorse any candidate for public office or any political party. But we do encourage our readers to send us their thoughts about the various candidates if they have something new to say that has not already been said in one of the articles on our website or in Tikkun Daily blog.
Editor’s note: Tikkun magazine does not endorse or oppose any candidate or political party. But we do encourage our readers to send us articles representing their perspectives. We again request that those of our readers who support or oppose any of the major candidates for President of the U.S. in the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian or Green parties to submit articles reflecting their perspectives. –Rabbi Michael Lerner
Could Hillary Be Any Worse? Sure, Add Tim Kaine to the Ticket
By David Swanson
http://davidswanson.org/node/5225
Tim Kaine has been consistently ranked as one of the least progressive Democrats in the U.S. Senate.
Earlier in the week, it appeared that the House Democrats felt helpless and perhaps hopeless about the gun situation. Every attempt to pass even small steps to decrease the number of gun deaths have been met with staunch and unflinching opposition from a legion of Republicans walking in lockstep. It took a filibuster in the Senate even to get a vote scheduled, and the House, without filibuster rules, was left with no choice but to break the rules in order to be heard.
An Illegal Military Strategy Disguised as Technological Advance
By Rebecca Gordon
(originally published at TomDispatch.com)
Think of it as the Trojan Drone, the ultimate techno-weapon of American warfare in these years, a single remotely operated plane sent to take out a single key figure. It’s a shiny video game for grown ups — a Mortal Kombat or Call of Duty where the animated enemies bleed real blood. Just like the giant wooden horse the Greeks convinced the Trojans to bring inside their gates, however, the drone carries something deadly in its belly: a new and illegal military strategy disguised as an impressive piece of technology. The technical advances embodied in drone technology distract us from a more fundamental change in military strategy. However it is achieved — whether through conventional air strikes, cruise missiles fired from ships, or by drone — the United States has now embraced extrajudicial executions on foreign soil.
Another development of equal moment in the news from England was the long-awaited release on Wednesday, July 6th of the Chilcot Inquiry Report. Nearly seven years in coming, this Report presented the findings of an independent investigation chaired by Lord Chilcot that looked into the UK’s role in the Iraq War and particularly into the decision-making process of the country’s leadership.
MAKING THE CASE FOR A “MUHAMMAD ALI DAY”
by Abdul Cader Asmal MD PhD
Muhammad Ali’s legacy can perhaps best be remembered through the words of his wife Lonni who stated, ‘Muhammad wanted to use his life and his death as a teaching moment for young people, for his country and the world. He wanted us to remind people who are suffering that he had seen the face of injustice. But he never embittered enough to quit or engage in violence.’
Though initially treated with hostility for his attitude beliefs and actions, his steadfastness, courage and conviction eventually touched the hearts of millions around the globe so that in his passing there was a reverential awe that celebrated his unparalleled accomplishments with torrents of accolades. These achievements can be best recounted in his own words:
1. As a humanitarian role model, ‘I’ve made my share of mistakes along the way, but if I have changed even one life for the better, I haven’t lived in vain’; ‘Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth.’
2. As an American patriot and civil rights activist: ‘America is the greatest country in the world’; ‘Hating people because of their color is wrong. And it doesn’t matter which color does the hating.
How Hillary Clinton Ignores Peace
July 2, 2016 by Robert Perry
[
In the 1980s, Robert Parry wrote the Iran-Contra news reports – exposing the Ronald Reagan / George H.W. Bush administration’s covert cocaine to money to weapons “triangle trade” / hostages for weapons operations – for The Associated Press (AP) and Newsweek. He received the George Polk Award for National Reporting [ http://www.liu.edu/polk/ ] in 1984 for his work on Iran-Contra at the AP. Robert Parry was awarded the 2015 I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence [ http://www.ifstone.org/medal.php ] }
Special Report: Despite neocon-instigated chaos and bloodshed across the Mideast (and now into Europe), Hillary Clinton continues to advocate more “regime change” wars with almost no fear from a marginalized anti-war movement, writes Robert Parry. By Robert Parry
In Campaign 2016, the American people have shown little stomach for more foreign wars. The Republican candidates who advocated neoconservative warmongering crashed and burned, losing to Donald Trump who sold himself to GOP voters as the anti-neocon, daring even to trash George W. Bush’s Iraq War to an aghast field of Republican rivals.
Editor’s Note: We’ve been trying for a long time to get articles on the current elections and there aftermath that are not just praises of Bernie Sanders (not because we disagree with those, or agree, but because we are a not for profit magazine prohibited by the IRS from being in support of any candidate or political party. So below we finally got one such article, which we print without endorsement in any way of its thesis.–Rabbi Michael Lerner
4 July, 2016
Political Revolution and Self-Deceit
A large segment of the American Left seems to remain trapped within the compulsions of rote ideology. Despite all the blazing brilliance of the minds of American leftists, (we could hardly have a higher degree of raw human intelligence at our disposal), our collective mind cannot properly apply itself, in a self-aware manner, to the nuances of our predicament. Self-aware strategic thought and behavior remain beyond our capacity. We cannot ‘act’.
For many years there has been concern that a terrorist strike on the networks of social connectivity, most commonly understood to include things like power grids, communications networks, and the like, could cause considerable damage to our information-based society. In many ways this concern is warranted, although the primary targets are not those infrastructural networks under corporate control, but rather much more informal networks of face-to-face community formation.
Our marriage, we continue to discover, is more than a mere two-person union. It is two people held in communion, sacred and spiritual association, by their community.
In case you who missed it, here’s Rabbi Lerner’s talk at Muhammed Ali’s funeral. His vision is all the more relevant given the horrific killings in Orlando and the way it is being used to promote fear, hatred and Islamophobia. It has gone viral on social media and inspired over a million people already. If it inspires you as well, please read below for how to be an ally with Rabbi Lerner to help build the world he describes.
Like Woolf’s soliloquies, Hoang’s cry out in despair, ranging in topic from the death of her sister to the verbal abuses of her then-boyfriend. And yet, like Woolf’s, her language somehow basks in that despair, flourishing even.
Rabbi Lerner Invited to Speak at Muhammad Ali’s Memorial Service
It has been several decades since Rabbi Lerner worked with Muhammad Ali in the peace movement challenging the Vietnam War. The US government indicted both of them for their nonviolent actions against that war. But that was many decades ago. So imagine his surprise to receive a call on Sunday morning from Muhammad Ali’s family who invited him to be a speaker at the funeral/memorial ceremony this coming Friday in Louisville, Kentucky. Although Ali was famous as the boxing heavyweight champion of the world, he was most beloved and respected because he gave up that title and refused to serve in the war in Vietnam.
Please know that regardless of the concerns about Hillary’s Clinton’s foreign policy record I have expressed in my writings and I interviews, I recognize that the priority this fall for U.S. voters needs to be preventing Donald Trump from becoming president. And I also recognize the importance of rejecting the many false allegations against Hillary Clinton and categorically condemning any and all sexist attacks and misogynist language in reference to her or her candidacy.
As a non-profit, Tikkun magazine does NOT endorse any candidate or political party. Nor does Rabbi Lerner. This article is a response to distorted media coverage of Sanders’ appointment of prominent progressives to the Democratic Party’s Platform Committee whom the NY Times, the Jewish Forward and other media are describing as anti-Israel. Some of our readers support Bernie Sanders, some support Hillary Clinton, some support Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, and there may be other candidates that some of our readers support. This article is not meant to enter into that debate, but only to challenge the media coverage of Sanders on Israel.