Well-Connected Activists on the Political Left Attack Glenn Greenwald for Forming an Interracial Family Through Adoption

Interracial adoption should be celebrated.  No parent should be treated like Glenn Greenwald was treated after giving an interview about the importance of fatherhood. He discussed the joys of adopting two children with his Brazilian husband. In the video, he tells the story about what happened following this benign and joyful conversation about fatherhood.

I'm certain that my feelings about this topic are intensified by the fact that I am an adoptive parent of two children who were born in another part of the world. They are strong young women, but I will always be ferociously protective of them.  On many occasions I've written about the racist venom increasingly coming from many on the political left. I often see it on Twitter, unapologetic and bold. I've seen a ton of it in training materials leaked from schools and corporations (sometimes it goes under the name of CRT, but not always).  I'm glad that Glenn Greenwald has spoken out so eloquently in this video and I applaud the ways in which he has framed the issues.

Originally, it was right-wingers who railed against interracial families. Having apparently learned nothing at all, more than a few left wingers have taken up this deplorable cause--it's like their brains were transported 70 years back in time. The two main culprits in this case are Rafael Shimunov and Wagatwe Wanjuki, both of them intricately connected to many liberal organizations, including universities. They boldly spewed their racist poison to their online communities, presumably including many people involved in these left-leaning organizations. Shimunov issued a half-assed apology after learning that Greenwald put Shimunov's conduct under the spotlight. Wagatwe has not retracted any of her postings and has not apologized.  Part of this story also mentions deplorable tweets written by best-selling author Ibram Kendi (How to be an Antiracist), attacking Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation process. Her sin was the same as Greenwald's: she had an interracial family.  Kendi has not retracted his disgusting tweets and has not apologized.

Continue ReadingWell-Connected Activists on the Political Left Attack Glenn Greenwald for Forming an Interracial Family Through Adoption

Glenn Greenwald discusses justice for some

Glenn Greenwald recently appeared on Dylan Ratigan's television show to discuss his new book, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful. Greenwald argued that many of our leaders don't even pretend anymore that we should aspire to fairness.   Here's the thought process underlying these claims we so often hear from those who oppose the Occupy movement: "Inequality will be deserved and legitimate because were all playing on an equal playing field."  According to Greenwald, the reason for so much citizen anger (tea party and occupy protesters) is a growing perception that this inequality

is not the byproduct of fair and reasonable and well-deserved accomplishments but the byproduct of cheating, of a tilted playing field, that the winners exempt themselves from the rules to which the rest of us are bound. Typically, it is the law that constrains the most powerful from abusing their power. When law ceases to apply to them, as it has, the only solution that citizens have is to go outside of the system of law and begin to demand that change. That is why so many citizens are taking to the streets and protesting and realizing that working within the system is no longer a viable course of action.

How can this energy be harnessed, for instance through the Occupy movement?

The status quo--the failure to accommodate or to adhere to rules for anyone outside of this 99% is itself extremely volatile and itself extremely dangerous and destructive in that a course of action where citizens do go out on the streets in the United States has become a more attractive and really the only alternative for effectuating the kind of change that people thought that the 2008 campaign would bring.

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald discusses justice for some

The so-called Iranian terrorist plot

About a year ago, I was speaking to man whose son was serving in the U.S. military in Iraq. Without any provocation the man announced to me that we ought to simply drop a nuclear bomb on Iran and "take care of that problem once and for all."   I was not surprised to hear such a blunt call for such widespread sterile violence. I'd heard talk like this before on AM talk radio, and I've heard it since. I'm well-aware that many of our conservative citizens and politicians are wired up in this Manichean/essentialist way, where all people residing in the Middle-East are suspect (or worse) and America is the greatest nation in the history of the entire galaxy, no matter that it refuses to take care of its own while burning $2 billion/week in Afghanistan. I've heard far too many people speak simplistically of burning millions of Iranians in a nuclear fire, all the while racking up such a proposed mass-murder with a shrug after labeling it "collateral damage."   This is what it's now like in the horror-carnival that much of America has become. For those of us who are able to pull our minds out of tribal mode even a bit are witness to hordes of blindered fellow citizens who have been turned intensely incurious by a mass media obsessed with conflict pornography and urged on by psychopathic politicians. [More . . .]

Continue ReadingThe so-called Iranian terrorist plot

Founder of Wikileaks explains why he published secret U.S. documents regarding Afghanisgtan

At Common Dreams, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange explains why he published the confidential U.S. military documents regarding Afghanistan:

These files are the most comprehensive description of a war to be published during the course of a war -- in other words, at a time when they still have a chance of doing some good. They cover more than 90,000 different incidents, together with precise geographical locations. They cover the small and the large. A single body of information, they eclipse all that has been previously said about Afghanistan. They will change our perspective on not only the war in Afghanistan, but on all modern wars . . . This material shines light on the everyday brutality and squalor of war. The archive will change public opinion and it will change the opinion of people in positions of political and diplomatic influence. . . We all only live once. So we are obligated to make good use of the time that we have, and to do something that is meaningful and satisfying. This is something that I find meaningful and satisfying. That is my temperament. I enjoy creating systems on a grand scale, and I enjoy helping people who are vulnerable. And I enjoy crushing bastards. So it is enjoyable work.
Here is the location of the Wikileaks Afghanistan documents. Glenn Greenwald applauds the leak, and condemns the U.S. governments failure to be forthright about the waste of lives and money regarding the U.S. adventure in Afghanistan:
WikiLeaks has yet again proven itself to be one of the most valuable and important organizations in the world. Just as was true for the video of the Apache helicopter attack in Baghdad, there is no valid justification for having kept most of these documents a secret. But that's what our National Security State does reflexively: it hides itself behind an essentially absolute wall of secrecy to ensure that the citizenry remains largely ignorant of what it is really doing. WikiLeaks is one of the few entities successfully blowing holes in at least parts of that wall . . .

Continue ReadingFounder of Wikileaks explains why he published secret U.S. documents regarding Afghanisgtan

Right wing response re Yemen

Glenn Greenwald dissects a "solution" to the attempted bombing of a Northwest airliner coming from the Right Wing of the political spectrum. How barbaric right wingers are to suggest that we "kill them all," even people from Yemen who are innocent. And how ignorant to fail to understand why many people from Yemen are angry with the United States. Greenwald correctly points out the absurdity of the claim that they hate us for our "freedom."

Continue ReadingRight wing response re Yemen