BRAVA!
GERMANY’S CHANCELLOR
ANGELA MERKEL
Chancellor Merkel with her hands in the characteristic Merkel-Raute position
Angela Merkel is TIME’s 2015 Person Of The Year | Chancellor Of The Free World
http://time.com/time-person-of-the-year-2015-angela-merkel-choice/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Merkel?sm_guid=Njc4OTB8Mjc2NTk1MHwtMXx0aWxsbWFubmRpZXRyaWNoQGdvb2dsZW1haWwuY29tfDI4ODAzNnx8MHwwfDE3NTU4ODY1fDc4fDA1
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‘…Terrorism presents a special kind of risk,
because it is not only malicious and destructive,
like other kinds of crime, but also, by design, politically and socially destabilizing.
The whole purpose is to exploit freedom to destroy freedom.’
THE WASHINGTON POST Opinion writer
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Donald Trump’s Muslim Ban Shouldn’t Be a Surprise
By Evan Osnos
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Donald Trump, who has now called for a ban on Muslim immigration,
has ushered the spirit of bigotry onto the main stage of American politics
more overtly than any figure in decades.
Credit Photograph by Joe Raedle / Getty
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On Monday afternoon, the Republican front-runner, Donald Trump, called for the United States to bar all Muslims, including American citizens who are Muslim and currently abroad, from entering the country until leaders can “figure out what is going on.” Trump’s statement, five days after a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, and several hours after a new poll showing that Trump had lost his lead in Iowa, advocates a religious prohibition that is unlike anything in American history.
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This should not be as much of a surprise as it is. During the past six months, Trump has ushered the spirit of bigotry onto the main stage of American politics more overtly than any figure in decades. Initially, when Trump launched his campaign with an attack on Mexicans (“They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”) many observers took his rhetoric as political maneuvering. But, it always ran deeper than that. (My colleague Amy Davidson has written about Trump’s racial politics in the nineteen-eighties and nineties.) In interviews I conducted with far-right activists this summer, I found that they recognized and embraced the heart of Trump’s candidacy:
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On June 28th, twelve days after Trump’s announcement, the Daily Stormer, America’s most popular neo-Nazi news site, endorsed him for President: “Trump is willing to say what most Americans think: it’s time to deport these people.” The Daily Stormer urged white men to “vote for the first time in our lives for the one man who actually represents our interests.” … Matthew Heimbach, who is twenty-four, and a prominent white-nationalist activist in Cincinnati, told me that Trump has energized disaffected young men like him. “He is bringing people back out of their slumber,” he said.
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In the days ahead, some may dismiss Trump as more of an opportunist than a considered racist, a politician desperate to help his poll numbers in the final weeks before the Iowa caucuses. But the harder question is more awkward to ask: What does it say about all of us, as Americans, that he has made it so far? Trump is adept at dividing the world into “us” and “them,” because he knows that audiences find it comforting. But to pretend that we have not allowed his spirit to fester is to grant ourselves a measure of relief that we do not deserve.
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The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell 12/7/15
Bipartisan rebuke to Trump’s ban Muslims plan
Some members of the Republican Party are already denouncing Donald Trump’s call to ban all Muslims from entering the US. But will the GOP party leadership? New York Magazine’s Frank Rich reacts speaking to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell.
http://on.msnbc.com/1TxyJi8
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XENOPHOBIA
[zen-uh–foh-bee-uh, zee-nuh-]
noun
1.
an unreasonable fear or hatred of foreigners or strangers or of that which is foreign or strange.
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PLEASE CLICK:
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2015/11/20/pine-tree-hope-2005-catherine-l-johnson-serenitycourage-to-changeprayer-xenophobia-america-wasis-an-innovation-an-ongoing-experimentimprovisation-of-freedom-humanly-possible-the-empa/
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Showmanship is the jester whose actions appeal to the moment- and are means for applause.
Leadership is both listening; guiding; challenging by asking the difficult questions that calls out creative and critical thinking and creating a vision/language/actions that has the capacity to create real hope.
Which, on the spectrum, DEFINES moral courage?
I believe Donald Trump’s invective demagoguery, his divisive rhetoric of hate,
creates a perfect storm for a national security threat
– a storm that he does not have the authority nor experience to quell or address.
Dangerous.
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From: Catherine Johnson <catherineljohnson@earthlink.net>
Date: 12/6/2015 11:50 PM (GMT-06:00)
To: “Catherine L. Johnson” <catherineljohnson@earthlink.net>
Subject: OBAMA SPEECH TO THE COUNTRY / 6 DECEMBER 2015015
“Even in this political season, even as we properly debate
what steps I and future presidents must take to keep our country safe,
let’s make sure we never forget what makes us exceptional,”
PRESIDENT OBAMA said.
“Let’s not forget that freedom is more powerful than fear.”
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Opinions WASHINGTON POST / EUGENE ROBINSON
Obama’s brave admission about terrorism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obamas-brave-admission-about-terrorism/2015/12/07/ca6d1884-9d15-11e5-bce4-708fe33e3288_story.html
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The DARK SIDE is terror itself.
In this time of fear and uncertainty, it is critical to NOT go to the DARK SIDE.
A choice to go to the DARK SIDE is not creative.
The DARK SIDE will not eliminate invective demagoguery or extremist narrow mindsets of we v they.
It is a mask.
It is a posture that incites and divides.
The DARK SIDE is for those who cower, who lack imagination and think THEY are right.
No moral courage.
Hate is the fuel and an inability to generate alternative visions that embraces multiplicity and diversity.
It organizes its leadership and principles around fascism.
Fascism is the DARK SIDE- and silences the call out of the angels in our nature.
It pulls/saws the wings off freedom within individuals, societies and nations.
The DARK SIDE simply welcomes and inspires greater darkness until there is blindness of any option.
Moral courage to challenge its power and intimidation is the initial phase of moving toward light- where fear is upturned.
The DARK SIDE is NOT conducive to the civil dialogue and open inquiry required to solve our urgent social problems.
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CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 