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Veterans Challenge Trump’s Islamophobia

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By Brian Trautman

President Donald Trump revealed his inner nature again last week when he retweeted a series of anti-Muslim propaganda videos from the deputy leader of an ultranationalist, neo-fascist hate group in the UK.

Trump sank to a new low in terms of the blatant falsehoods and myths he will invoke and propagate to incite enmity against Muslims. He’s demonstrated repeatedly that white nationalism and the demonization of Islam is something that he wholeheartedly embraces and intends to advance at every opportunity.

The encouraging news is that Trump’s fear and hate mongering against Islam and Muslims is increasingly being denounced by a wider spectrum of individuals and groups, including many staunch conservatives, both in the U.S. and abroad. The groundswell of resistance is steadily growing.   [Read more…]

The Last Original Navajo Code Talker: Chester Nez | Video Worth Watching

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So, who were the men that were being honored by the ceremony that was unceremoniously dishonored by our current commander-in-chief? Here’s a brief video that features Chester Nez, relating some of his combat experiences. At the time of the recording he was the last survivor of the initial group of 29 Navajo code talkers.

For more about Chester Nez as well as the situation which created the nationwide buzz concerning this event, check out the Charles P. Pierce article on the Esquire site. In his witty acerbic style Charlie lays out the issues and skewers the current administration’s responses.   [Read more…]

Feeding the Deportation Pipeline: Caveat Recruitees

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By Isidro Ortiz / Draft NOtices

A previous Draft NOtices article, Removing a Few Bad Hombres, discussed the deportation of immigrant military veterans. Non-citizen immigrant recruits in the United States now find themselves possibly facing a similarly cruel and irreversible fate.

In this case, their potential deportation isn’t due to any criminal actions on their part. Instead, its roots lie in the Department of Defense’s (DoD) proposal to terminate the Military Accession Vital to the National Interest (MAVNI) program over security concerns. The program’s end would result in the cancellation of enlistment contracts with non-citizen recruits.

As reported in media venues such as NPR, this action would leave 1,000 non-citizen recruits without legal protection from deportation. Their plight is yet another reminder of the highly problematic and untrustworthy nature of the institutional commitment to those who aspire to serve in the military.   [Read more…]

One Veteran’s Dream – Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘War In Reverse’ | Video Worth Watching

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Kurt Vonnegut’s experience of surviving the fire-bombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war provided a fundamental component of the raw material for his novel “Slaughterhouse Five”. In this video Vonnegut reads a passage from the novel accompanied by remarkable imagery using archival footage in an unconventional way and suggests how Vonnegut may have longed for that history to have been rewritten.

(BTW, today, November 11th, is Vonnegut’s birthday)   [Read more…]

The New and Improved Armageddon 2000!

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Leonard Eiger / The Loose Nukes

Remember the Armageddon 2000? The Armageddon 2000 Nuclear Hardened Travel Trailer is the only travel trailer that you can enjoy all year long and, when the mushroom clouds start to appear on the horizon, instantly converts into a bomb shelter.

We introduced the Armageddon 2000 way back when President Trump was about to take office, and since then sales have gone through the roof. There is a one-year waiting period to get one (humanity should last that long)! And you can bet that all those people on the waiting list are getting nervous as Trump’s days in office seem to go on forever and his Tweets keep pushing the world closer to the coming Trumpocalypse.   [Read more…]

Two More Knees Need Attention

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Camp Lejeune’s history of poisoned drinking water causing illness, disease, birth defects, and death is one all Americans should hear about

By Nancee Kesinger

This tale of two knees is timely and true.  The first knee is mine, touching down to meet the cool tile floor of a hospital exam room a few weeks ago in mid-September.  Yes, I am the person kneeling, yet the story is not mine.

Far from stadium crowds and television cameras, under fluorescent clinical lights that render no warmth, I tilt forward out of my chair to approximate eye level with my loved one who is lying face down on the low table enduring the physical pain of a bone marrow biopsy and aspiration.  He has the pose of a day-dreaming sunbather with arms raised above his shoulders and hands casually crisscrossed under his head, but this beautiful black man doesn’t need a tan, and his relaxed position betrays some starker truths.

My taking a knee on this day is wholly in support of this glad-hearted and serene Marine—my partner of many years, my significant other, my mate—who is learning on this day the complete details of his alarming, week-old leukemia diagnosis (cancer of the blood and bone marrow).    [Read more…]

Candlelight Vigil for Peace Set for Shelter Island as Trump Heads for Korea on Tuesday

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“We will speak, sing, and pray for wisdom and grace in the face of nuclear holocaust.”

Starting a war with Korea is a really bad idea. What’s even worse are the people who think there would be a ‘winner’ in such a conflict. As President Trump visits the Korean peninsula on Tuesday, it’s almost a sure bet he’ll rattle the swords of war.

Indivisible San Diego and Interfaith Worker Justice of San Diego County are urging people to join them for a 7pm candlelight vigil for peace on Tuesday at Japanese Friendship Bell Park on Shelter Island (across from the Kona Kai).

  [Read more…]

On The Ground With The Rohingya Muslim Refugees Escaping Myanmar | Video Worth Watching

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The Rohingya Muslims are still facing ethnic cleansing in their homeland of Myanmar (Burma). AJ+ investigator Jason Motlagh documents the conditions facing the latest refugees and hears them relate their harrowing tales of persecution and flight.   [Read more…]

Gold Star Parents of Army Specialist Etienne Murphy, Who Died in Syria in May, Talk About What Matters to Them Now | Video Worth Watching

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Gold Star parents, Sheila and Calvin Murphy, interviewed by MSNBC’s Ari Melber, talk about their son who was killed in Syria. 22-year-old Army Specialist Etienne Murphy died in May after an armored vehicle he was in rolled over. For Sheila, the issue is “not really about whether or not [the president] may have called or did something more than the previous one. It’s about what are you doing now to help those who are left behind, who have to struggle day to day …”   [Read more…]

My Father is an American War Hero Rep. Duncan Hunter Wanted to Deport and Ban

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By Kilian Colin

A couple of days after the Battle of Baghdad in April 2003, after the fires had ceased, my father, Adam Colin, took me with him to downtown Baghdad to look for a job. We rode the bus for nearly an hour to the outer border of Downtown before having to continue on foot since the streets had been damaged during the invasion days earlier.

We headed to the Al Rasheed hotel, which was where the U.S. military had taken up headquarters. The hotel was surrounded by heavily armed vehicles and the scene looked like it was straight out of a Star Wars movie.

It wasn’t long before my dad told me to turn around, that we should head back home because the situation might be too dangerous for me. I told him not to worry, that because of my size I could sneak in between the hundreds of people protesting the occupation and lack of jobs outside the hotel to the front.   [Read more…]

The Miramar Air Show: Just Don’t Go

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By Dave Patterson, San Diego Veterans for Peace

The San Diego Veterans For Peace is now in its second year of working to influence the public away from attending the MCAS Miramar Air Show. We view American militarism as a clear and present danger to our society and the world, and the most visible symbol of militarism in San Diego is the annual Miramar Air Show.

Every day we read of budget cuts to virtually every aspect of government expenditure except for military spending, which keeps on going up. The spending of our tax dollars should be a choice of the citizenry and not left solely to the political-military-industrial complex.

However, we believe that the public is being influenced to accept continuous increases in military spending in part by the display of military power exhibited at the Miramar Air Show.   [Read more…]

Sun Ra on Nuclear War – If They Push That Button, Your Ass Gotta Go | Video Worth Watching

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I couldn’t find any videos of Sun Ra’s ‘Nuclear War’ that were of a live performance illustrating Sun Ra and his Arkestra in their glorious glittery outsider finery. This compilation of blast footage, however, is perfectly apt for the work, and a well crafted statement in its own right. “If they push that button, your ass gotta go …”   [Read more…]

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