Parry writes: "Sen. Sanders showed guts when he broke from the political lock-step of unrestrained praise for Israel, but his loss in the New York primary shows there's little reward for such courage."
Bernie Sanders. (photo: AP)
No Reward for Sanders's Israel Stance
By Robert Parry, Consortium News
22 April 16
Sen. Sanders showed guts when he broke from the political lock-step of unrestrained praise for Israel, but his loss in the New York primary shows there’s little reward for such courage, writes Robert Parry.
o much for political bravery! Sen. Bernie Sanders had the audacity to say that the Palestinians are human beings, that there are two sides to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “not right all of the time” – and lost the New York primary by more than 15 percentage points.
Obviously, there were many other factors, including the tightly closed rules for the New York primaries, requiring voters to have declared their party affiliation by last October or be barred from participating.
But still New York Democrats did not appear to reward Sanders for breaking with Official Washington’s orthodoxy on Israel, which holds that the only permissible political stance is total obeisance to Netanyahu and his government. Whether Sanders’s stance hurt him may be debatable but the election result could resonate nonetheless with future candidates who might be more chary about taking a more even-handed position on Israel-Palestine.
In one of the sharper exchanges from last Thursday’s Democratic debate, Sanders, who is Jewish and once worked on an Israeli kibbutz, chided his rival, Hillary Clinton, for appearing before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee last month and giving a speech that “barely mentioned the Palestinians.”
While political insiders gasped at his heresy, Sanders plunged on, “All that I am saying is we cannot continue to be one-sided. There are two sides to the issue. … There comes a time when if we pursue justice and peace, we are going to have to say that Netanyahu is not right all of the time.”
By contrast, former Secretary of State Clinton and the three remaining Republican candidates, including front-runner Donald Trump, went politically prostrate before AIPAC, competing to see who could out-pander the others.
Clinton Prevails
Despite serious efforts by Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, Clinton appeared to come out on top in the pander-off, perhaps partly because she is more experienced at telling Israel’s right-wing government what it wants to hear. She depicted Israel as an innocent victim in the Mideast conflicts facing unconscionable challenges from Iran, the Palestinians and global activists seeking to put pressure on Israel through a program of boycott, divestment and sanctions.
“As we gather here, three evolving threats — Iran’s continued aggression, a rising tide of extremism across a wide arc of instability, and the growing effort to de-legitimize Israel on the world stage — are converging to make the U.S.-Israel alliance more indispensable than ever,” she declared.
“The United States and Israel must be closer than ever, stronger than ever and more determined than ever to prevail against our common adversaries and to advance our shared values. … This is especially true at a time when Israel faces brutal terrorist stabbings, shootings and vehicle attacks at home. Parents worry about letting their children walk down the street. Families live in fear.”
Clinton promised to put her future administration at the service of the Israeli government. “One of the first things I’ll do in office is invite the Israeli prime minister to visit the White House. And I will send a delegation from the Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs to Israel for early consultations. Let’s also expand our collaboration beyond security,” Clinton said, adding:
“the first choice is this: are we prepared to take the U.S./Israel alliance to the next level?”
Clinton’s one-sided presentation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict fit with her longstanding approach to the Middle East, where she has either actively supported or quietly accepted Israel meting out military retribution on the region’s Arabs, even when justified by clear-cut bigotry.
For instance, in summer 2006, as a Senator from New York, Clinton shared a stage with Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman while Israeli warplanes pounded southern Lebanon, killing more than 1,000 Lebanese. Gillerman was a well-known Muslim-basher who had once quipped, “While it may be true and probably is that not all Muslims are terrorists, it also happens to be true that nearly all terrorists are Muslim.”
At a pro-Israel rally with Clinton in New York on July 17, 2006, Gillerman proudly defended Israel’s massive violence against targets in Lebanon. “Let us finish the job,” Gillerman told the crowd. “We will excise the cancer in Lebanon” and “cut off the fingers” of Hezbollah.
Responding to international concerns that Israel was using “disproportionate” force in bombing Lebanon and killing hundreds of civilians, Gillerman said, “You’re damn right we are.” [NYT, July 18, 2006]
Clinton did not protest Gillerman’s remarks, since doing so would presumably have offended an important pro-Israel constituency.
Clinton has learned those lessons well. They may have helped her trounce Sanders in the crucial New York primary, pulling her close to clinching the Democratic nomination. By contrast, Sanders might have won scattered praise for political courage but his bravery clearly did not turn around the New York race.
Investigative reporter Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories for The Associated Press and Newsweek in the 1980s. You can buy his latest book, America’s Stolen Narrative, either in print here or as an e-book (from Amazon and barnesandnoble.com). You also can order Robert Parry’s trilogy on the Bush Family and its connections to various right-wing operatives for only $34. The trilogy includes America’s Stolen Narrative. For details on this offer, click here.
The Paris Agreement Will Not Be Enough to Save the Planet
Friday, 22 April 2016 14:04
DiCaprio writes: "After 21 years of debates and conferences it is time to declare no more talk. No more excuses. No more 10-year studies. No more allowing the fossil fuel companies to manipulate and dictate the science and policies that effect our future."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon meeting with Leonardo DiCaprio. (photo: UN)
The Paris Agreement Will Not Be Enough to Save the Planet
Thank you, Mr. Secretary General, for the honor to address this body once more. And thanks to the distinguished climate leaders assembled here today who are ready to take action.
President Abraham Lincoln was also thinking of bold action 150 years ago when he said:
“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. As our case is new so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country.”
He was speaking before the U.S. Congress to confront the defining issue of his time—slavery.
Everyone knew it had to end but no one had the political will to stop it. Remarkably, his words ring as true today when applied to the defining crisis of our time— climate change.
As a UN Messenger of Peace, I have been traveling all over the world for the last two years documenting how this crisis is changing the natural balance of our planet. I have seen cities like Beijing choked by industrial pollution. Ancient Boreal forests in Canada that have been clear cut and rainforests in Indonesia that have been incinerated. In India I met farmers whose crops have literally been washed away by historic flooding. In America I have witnessed unprecedented droughts in California and sea level rise flooding the streets of Miami. In Greenland and in the Arctic I was astonished to see that ancient glaciers are rapidly disappearing well ahead of scientific predictions. All that I have seen and learned on this journey has terrified me.
There is no doubt in the world’s scientific community that this a direct result of human activity and that the effects of climate change will become astronomically worse in the future.
I do not need to throw statistics at you. You know them better than I do, and more importantly, you know what will happen if this scourge is left unchecked. You know that climate change is happening faster than even the most pessimistic of scientists warned us decades ago. It has become a runaway freight train bringing with it an impending disaster for all living things.
Now think about the shame that each of us will carry when our children and grandchildren look back and realize that we had the means of stopping this devastation, but simply lacked the political will to do so.
Yes, we have achieved the Paris agreement. More countries have come together to sign this agreement today than for any other cause in the history of humankind—and that is a reason for hope—but unfortunately the evidence shows us that it will not be enough.
Our planet cannot be saved unless we leave fossil fuels in the ground where they belong. An upheaval and massive change is required, now. One that leads to a new collective consciousness. A new collective evolution of the human race, inspired and enabled by a sense of urgency from all of you.
We all know that reversing the course of climate change will not be easy, but the tools are in our hands—if we apply them before it is too late.
Renewable energy, clean fuels and putting a price on carbon pollution are beginning to turn the tide. This transition is not only the right thing for our world, but it also makes clear economic sense, and is possible within our lifetime.
But it is now upon you to do what great leaders have always done: to lead, inspire and empower as President Lincoln did in his time.
We can congratulate each other today, but it will mean nothing if you return to your countries and fail to push beyond the promises of this historic agreement. Now is the time for bold unprecedented action.
My friends, look at the delegates around you. It is time to ask each other—which side of history will you be on?
As a citizen of our planet who has witnessed so much on this journey I thank you for all you have done to lay the foundation of a solution to this crisis, but after 21 years of debates and conferences it is time to declare no more talk. No more excuses. No more 10-year studies. No more allowing the fossil fuel companies to manipulate and dictate the science and policies that effect our future. Thisis the only body that can do what is needed. You,sitting in this very hall.
The world is now watching. You will either be lauded by future generations, or vilified by them.
Lincoln’s words still resonate to all of ushere today:
“We will be remembered in spite of ourselves. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the last generation… We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of Earth.”
That is our charge now—you are the last best hope of Earth. We ask you to protect it. Or we—and all living things we cherish—are history.
Taibbi writes: "At the worst possible time, we lost one of our best."
Prince. (photo: Rolling Stone)
Goodbye, Prince - You Were the Best of Us
By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone
22 April 16
At the worst possible time, we lost one of our best
he song "Purple Rain" begins with an apology. "I never meant to cause you any sorrow, never meant to cause you any pain."
In the context of the movie Purple Rain, that could have meant Prince's "The Kid" character apologizing for betraying and hitting his girlfriend Apollonia. Or Prince could have been channeling the guilt of the Kid's father, Francis L., like Prince's own father, a struggling musician. The fictional film version had hurt his wife and his son, and ultimately himself, with his abuse and his controlling nature. Or the Kid could be talking to his parents, the mother he didn't protect or the father he disappointed, and apologizing to them just for not being a different child, one who could take all of them away from their problems.
Whatever the context, "Purple Rain" is a song about pain, which is unusual for the kind of iconic global hit it became. The singer is sorry for the trouble he's caused. He's sorry that he's ruined things. And even if it's too late to make things better, he wants you to know that he wishes he could.
He wishes we could go to a place where it could all be washed away. The paradise he picked, Purple Rain, doesn't exist on Earth, but he passionately believes in it. In the song, he uses his guitar and his voice to scale every possible note in search of it up there. He frantically plays and sings his way higher and higher, soaring in an ecstasy of creation until for a moment we're all there with him in the Purple Rain, his characteristically weird name for heaven, where everything is forgiven and we all love each other again.
Thematically it's a little like John Lennon's "Imagine," I guess, except the song wasn't political but personal. Prince didn't point the finger at priests or corporations or people who made war as the obstacles to a better world. He started with himself. He apologized, and then he tried to make things better the only way he knew how, by using his extraordinary gifts to make beautiful things.
Prince's greatest moment may have come on February 4, 2007, at halftime of Super Bowl XLI. It was a miserable game. Not only was it not a close contest, but it was played in a torrential downpour that made the game hard to see, and an ordeal for the spectators who of course had been bled for every last cent en route to their seats. The athletes on the field for the most part didn't rise to the challenge of the conditions, and played a sloppy game, adding to the impression of an overhyped, expensive letdown.
Then Prince came out at halftime and acted like he didn't even notice the weather. He started with his usual concert-opening anthem, "Let's Go Crazy," and then did something nobody ever does at Super Bowls: He forgot to promote himself. He played other peoples' songs, a weird mix including everything from Hendrix/Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower" to Queen's "We Will Rock You" to "Best of You" by the Foo Fighters, a band whose members had no idea this was coming. He wasn't selling himself, just music.
Then at the end, when he played "Purple Rain," nature upstaged the most scripted event on Earth to unleash torrents of water on the stadium. The joy on Prince's face was unmistakable as he screamed his guitar higher and higher while buckets of rain came down on him. It was something you never see anywhere, let alone on TV: pure happiness. And tens of millions of people swayed along to his by then familiar ballad about the hope of finding something better in this world.
That was all of us at our best.
The world we live in today may have just become too angry for someone like Prince. If that's the case, maybe it's our turn to look inward and apologize. At the very least we should recognize what we lost yesterday. Goodbye to Prince, who was the best of us.
Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=35003"><span class="small">Stereo Williams, The Daily Beast</span></a>
Friday, 22 April 2016 08:38
Williams writes: "Prince Rogers Nelson was - and still is - the gold standard of artistry. A brilliant guitarist, bassist, arranger, and producer, he was more than a visionary. He was an entity unto himself."
Prince. (photo: Ethan Miller/Getty)
No One Will Ever Compare to Prince
By Stereo Williams, The Daily Beast
22 April 16
Prince Rogers Nelson was—and still is—the gold standard of artistry. A brilliant guitarist, bassist, arranger, and producer, he was more than a visionary. He was an entity unto himself.
rince’s death gutted music fans everywhere. The iconic musician became synonymous with music over a four decade-long career that challenged convention and championed freedom—and he became a benchmark for any artist who believes themselves driven by creativity and unwilling to relinquish control. But with his passing, there is something that needs to be stated, once and for all. Whatever your preferred genre of music—you need to understand something:
We just lost the greatest recording artist of all time.
The world is devastated, shocked, and stunned. The biggest icons in music, sports, and even the president of the United States reacted with sorrow and disbelief when it was announced that Prince had died. But this is more than just the death of a popular artist. We lost the gold standard for artistry. We lost the man who was the living, breathing embodiment of everything you could want an artist to be.
Prince’s humble beginnings in Minneapolis, living home-to-home after his parents’ divorce as he began writing and playing his own music around the city, was shrouded in secrecy and half-truths for much of his career. But his father forged his love of music and his mother encouraged his passions; and he began working with childhood friend Andre Anderson (aka Andre Cymone), eventually landing a management deal with businessman Owen Husney and a subsequent contract with Warner Bros.
His debut, For You, would be recorded in L.A. and released to little fanfare in 1979—although “Soft and Wet” would become an R&B hit. Prince was more fully formed on his self-titled sophomore album, moving past the futuristic disco-influenced funk of his debut for a more dense combination of funk, hard rock, and pop. It set the stage for what would be a decade of dominance.
In the 1980s, he released music at a relentless pace: nine official Prince studio albums, two releases from his funk-jazz side project Madhouse, three albums from the Time (which featured mostly Prince’s production and playing), the lone 1985 album from his Time follow-up The Family, various recordings by MAZARATI, another side project—plus bootlegs like The Black Album and scattered recordings from the abandoned, original 1987 Crystal Ball project. It’s an insane amount of content from an artist at his commercial peak—at which Prince certainly was from 1980 to 1989. In the midst of all that music, he was still touring, released two feature films (Purple Rain and Under the Cherry Moon) and managed to shepherd the career or contribute to hits by artists like The Bangles, Sheena Easton, Stevie Nicks, and Sheila E.
His list of musical collaborators has become a famous part of his legend; Andre Cymone, Doctor Fink, Bobby Z, Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, Dez Dickerson, Sheila E., Eric Leeds, Tommy Barberella, Rosie Gaines, Sonny T, Ida Neilson, Hannah Welton, and a host of others all contributed to Prince’s tremendous body of work at various points in his career. But there was never any doubt that his vision and creativity was what drove his art and performances. Prince was an entity unto himself and anyone who worked with him was pulled into his orbit.
He started the ’90s on just as much of a tear. He released the movie Graffiti Bridge and its accompanying soundtrack, the hugely successful Diamonds and Pearls album and Love Symbol Album within a two-year stretch. His battles with Warner Bros. famously curtailed his output after 1993, as he dropped his famous moniker for an unpronounceable symbol and released the music he wanted to release—as his former label churned out leftovers like Come and Chaos & Disorder. By 1996, he was finally free from Warner—and in true Prince fashion, his first release, the pointedly-titled Emancipation, was a triple disc, quasi-concept album. He followed it two years later with another triple album, named Crystal Ball but different in conception than the aborted project from the late 1980s. His commercial standing had slipped, but his artistic output never wavered and he didn’t seem to mind that Prince singles weren’t dominating the radio anymore. Prince’s muse was his music. Fuck if you like it. Fuck if the label likes it.
His personal life had always been a well-documented aspect of his intensely private public persona. His female companions have almost become the musical equivalent of “Bond Girls”: from Vanity to Apollonia to Susannah Melvoin to Susanna Hoffs to Carmen Electra—his infamous libido became almost as talked-about as his music. But with Prince, these women were never presented like ornaments or trophies—they were collaborators, muses, and peers. His adoration of women didn’t come across as hedonistic or exploitative; Prince related to women in a way that most male artists of his popularity and visibility never seemed to.
That persona—his willingness to tear down gender norms and traditional ideas of sexuality—became his calling card. In an era when rock stars were known for displaying women in cages and R&B singers mostly turned women into prizes to pursue, Prince offered a more complex, conflicted, and intriguing depiction of the sexes. He loved women. Women loved him. But he always made seduction a two-way affair, and, with songs like “If I Was Your Girlfriend,” he made it clear that he was just as willing to be his woman’s muse.
He was as prolific as anyone who’s ever set foot in a recording studio, as proficient as anyone who’s ever decided to pick up an instrument. He wasn’t satisfied with being a great singer—he was a great guitarist, great bassist, great arranger, and a brilliant producer. There is no one whose music saturated their peak period in the same way and delivered that music without a stellar set of musicians or a genius producer directing the show. The Beatles can’t say that. Michael Jackson can’t say that. Bob Dylan can’t say that. Even the genius of luminaries like Miles Davis and John Coltrane is linked to people like Sonny Rollins, Paul Chambers, Herbie McCoy Tyner, Hancock, Tony Williams, Ron Carter, Elvin Jones, and Jon McLaughlin—not to mention each other.
Prince stands as a unique figure, in that regard. A largely self-contained genius who was bursting with creativity. His musical influence stretches through everything since 1980, from the funk-rock riffs of Lenny Kravitz to the percolating beats of the Neptunes. You can hear Prince in Janet Jackson’s ’80s music (via her producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis—former members of the Time and Prince protégés) and you can hear Prince in the INXS hits of the same period—with their combination of rock riffs and danceable grooves. Prince is everywhere.
Which is what made this news so hard for so many. We lost so much today because he’s given us so much for so long. He was always cool; showing up enough to maintain his visibility, but always allowing his mystique to define his public image. Fans know of his personal losses; the death of his newborn son in 1996 and his failed marriages were things that he chose to keep private—or at least as private as he could. But he never leaned on the public for his own sense of purpose or self. He trusted who he was. And we trusted him without demanding he show us more.
It’s a sad day for music. Because we’ve just lost the best. We’ve lost the artist who set the standard for what brilliance should mean. It should mean not giving a shit if your fans don’t always get it or if you release too much; and committing yourself to always delivering a stellar performance for anyone who sees you on a stage. It means loving music like it’s the only thing in the world that matters.
There will never be another one like Prince Rogers Nelson. The beautiful ones you always seem to lose.
Galindez writes: "Let's play this out and let the people who haven't voted yet express their preference. Then let's go to the convention and fight it out on the platform, the rules, and the leadership of the party. This process is not just about nominating a candidate. This is also an opportunity to influence the direction of the Democratic Party."
Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., center right, and wife, Jane, smile as the crowd cheers for them at a town hall, Saturday, January 9, 2016, in Des Moines, Iowa. (photo: Jae C. Hong/AP)
We Can Still Win!
By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
21 April 16
“Without a struggle, there can be no progress.” – Frederick Douglass
’m not going to sugar coat it, New York needed to go better to widen Bernie Sanders’ path to victory. There is still a path, but it got narrower Tuesday night in the Big Apple. This should not be seen as a reason to not continue working just as hard – remember, the political revolution is just beginning. Even if Hillary Clinton becomes the nominee, the next phase of the political revolution will be to go to the Democratic convention with as many delegates as we can and work to reform our rigged political system.
We keep hearing how we have to come together to beat Donald Trump. I am sure that most longtime Democrats will unite and vote for Hillary Clinton. What the pundits and many party activists are ignoring is that the political revolution includes many Independents and others who voted in the Democratic Party for the first time. Those voters are not automatic votes for Hillary Clinton – their votes have to be earned. Voters who have voted Green or even Libertarian will have to be swayed that voting for Hillary Clinton is in their interest, or they will return to the party that better represents them. I’m not saying Bernie can’t win, I’m saying don’t be discouraged by the daunting task ahead. Win or lose, we can still make progress in the fight to take our country back.
So let’s play this out and let the people who haven’t voted yet express their preference. Then let’s go to the convention and fight it out on the platform, the rules, and the leadership of the party. This process is not just about nominating a candidate. This is also an opportunity to influence the direction of the Democratic Party.
Here are some ideas that will help further our cause in the future:
Eliminate superdelegates. Let the people decide the nominee. The days of deals in the back rooms by party leaders should end.
Stop stacking southern states at the beginning of the process. Let’s not let one state or region have more influence than any other state – which means ending the practice of Iowa and New Hampshire going first.
One person, one vote. Let’s have primaries in every state. The best-case scenario is to have the national popular vote decide the nominee. Delegates should only be elected to pass a party platform and other business matters. Let the people choose the nominee in 100% open primaries with same-day registration.
Those are just a few reforms on how the party would choose the nominee.
Less important would be the party platform. This seems to be a list the revolution would agree with that we can push for at the convention:
Overturn Citizens United
Single payer health care
$15 an hour minimum wage
Free tuition at public universities and colleges
Rebuild our infrastructure
Stop the TPP
End Fracking
Expand Social Security
There are many more issues that resonated in this campaign. We must continue to fight for them, and continue to unite against the rigged political system. I am not saying we should just fight for these issues at the convention. Let’s continue to build a movement around these issues. I loved the quote from Harold Meyerson, “Bernie Sanders didn’t create a new left, he exposed it.” We have been here all along – now let’s come together and fight for power. We may not get it this November but if we come together, our time will come.
I hear many of you saying here we go again, it’s a waste of time to take on the establishment. But look no further than the Republican party. The establishment has been crushed. The Tea Party has succeeded in taking over the Republican Party. It is our turn to do the same.
As I have heard Bernie say often, it is not about me, it is about what we can do together.
Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be
spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.
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o much for political bravery! Sen. Bernie Sanders had the audacity to say that the Palestinians are human beings, that there are two sides to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “not right all of the time” – and lost the New York primary by more than 15 percentage points.
eonardo DiCaprio’s address to the United Nations at the 
he song "Purple Rain" begins with an apology. "I never meant to cause you any sorrow, never meant to cause you any pain."
rince’s death gutted music fans everywhere. The iconic musician became synonymous with music over a four decade-long career that 
’m not going to sugar coat it, New York needed to go better to widen Bernie Sanders’ path to victory. There is still a path, but it got narrower Tuesday night in the Big Apple. This should not be seen as a reason to not continue working just as hard – remember, the political revolution is just beginning. Even if Hillary Clinton becomes the nominee, the next phase of the political revolution will be to go to the Democratic convention with as many delegates as we can and work to reform our rigged political system.
