(@Dianereynolds - #14)

Thank you for your sincerity, Diane. I don't do labels. Speaking for myself, I question who has the power, and popular support to make any one thing happen. This is so complex. In a move toward generating healthy boundaries for this culture in crisis, I would invite/allow individual choice ... honor the right of any person to determine for him or herself what means most, and to devote their time and energy, accordingly.

That might help untangle this ball of yarn. At least, people who do not support these wars might have the option to serve elsewhere. Only, i think the lines are not that easily drawn. It looks like, no matter what you do, regardless of good intent, some people will protest and oppose, or exploit and abuse.

Is it possible, if Trump makes a 'show of power' that is sure to impress the petty despots of the world, he will gain their confidence and support ... and then, can influence their policies toward peace ...?

Would Trump view that as a heroic path?

I believe that is how he would like to be remembered.

Only, what kind of peace - for whom? That slick little smile on the President of Egypt's face during his visit to D.C. speaks volumes. Does Trump know that lies and deceptive games will only further static impotence in the cultural rot pot?

And if that is the swamp where life begins, it will persist ... the river of sh!t will flow on, heroes will be tested, martyrs will fall, and the precious few who rise to the surface will weave a new design for a new generation, and life will go on.

My one glimmer of hope comes from the myth of King Midas who finally realized he could not eat, or embrace the people he loved if everything he touched turned to gold.

Such a revelation in the heart of the global nation of staunch individualists and companion oligarchs could bring great rewards for one and all.

More on chemical weapons victims

I just realized I didn't finish my thought in my previous post. People and our leaders react when chemical weapons are used; there should be no less of reaction to barrel bombs and all the other weapons that inflict carnage.

Is Syria a means to an end? We've been seeing disturbing efforts in recent months to build support for war with Russia. Pushing for such a war defies logic, but we seem to be firmly in a post-logic era. Having already been drained out economically and militarily by our latest, longest war, the US will lose.

I need to hear a position some rational leftie here expects the US to take in horrible situations like this? Someone please come forth with a plan that will satisfy the Democrat party progressive position.

Don't throw it back on Ronald Reagan. We are here now and what solution makes you happy. No what if's or finger pointing allowed. Reality starts at precisely this point in time.

I will state mine,

Pull entirely out of the EVERYWHERE in middle east and let them sort out this shit for themselves. They have been fighting with each other for 5000 years and will continue to do so for another 5000, or at least the seventeen years humanity has left on this planet according to glowball warming alarmists.

With age comes privilege
!

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RATIONALE COMES LATER - {a rhyme}

This president does stuff impetuously, -

- and THEN commands obstreperously

that his minions contrive a rationale

and sing to the press a praise-Trump chorale.

[“Rationale” should come first,

lest results be the worst.]

===================================

POPE has the solution> "We shouldn't BREED like Rabbits"

Fact> Muslims average 8 kids per family as their Religion

does NOT allow for BIRTH Control> So every 3 generations

when 4th generation arrives WHO IS WORKING? NOT Newborns

nor Aged and when Retirees leave workplace there's only ONE

left to support ALL 4 generations and if its NO BIRTH Control

then DEATH Control ensues> Its called Civil War, just a matter of

numbers and it happens every 3 generations like CLOCKWORK

It occurs in the world wherever there's NO BIRTH Control, like in

Bosnia and Rwanda in mid-90s, and now middle east>

So the REAL Great Evil is Religious Doctrine that promotes BIRTHs

It defines Modern History since proof of Vitamin Deficiency in 1796

and discovery of Cowpox by 1798> Since then every 3 generations

DEATH Control has ensued> Years are 1860s, 1930s and NOW> duh

When George Stephanoplus asked Adam Schiff if Russia was complicit in the Syrian gas attack and Schiff said "absolutely." The very next question should have been…was Donald Trump complicit in the Syrian gas attacks?

Regarding Trump's jobs and infrastructure projects; if playing golf at Mar-a-Lago is the answer, then prosperity is right around the corner.

It occurred to me today that the GOP has successfully pulled off a Coup D'etat and taken over our government with the help of the Koch Brothers and ALEC.

Then the Declaration of Independence came to mind.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us."

This excerp from the Declaration of Independence spells out many things that are eerily similar to what we are experiencing with the GOP in our Congress.

WE MUST RID OUR NATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY FOR GOOD.

The whole thing with the gas bombing this week feels "off" to me. One or two days before the event, I was hearing all over NPR about gas attacks - which hadn't happened in years. I thought it was quite strange at the time. Then there WAS a gas attack with pix all over the media. I don't remember the last time we saw pix of people dying from an war attack. (Vietnam?) Then we had yet another version of "Shock and Awe" with the "Merchants of Death" making a lot of money on missiles. Today's broadcast highlighted our new Secretary of State, who seemed to have finally found his voice. Rex Tillerson informed us that perhaps the Russians will think again about trusting Assad after this week.