Been a while, eh?

I'm sure little remember who I am, but oh well. Yeah, it's been a while since I last posted - but it was for the best. Things got too heated and either I had to leave or I was going to say something that really was going to hurt quite a lot of people. Anyway, just thought I'd give ya'all a ring and tell you what is new in my life.

I'm helping out with a campaign (Peter Corroon who is running for Salt Lake County Mayor). I'm about to finish my second year of college (ends at the end of April), and Monday I've got a job interview set up for a possision with the Sierra Club (crosses fingers).

I have had some problems with my father (those that remember me may know what I am talking about), but I'm not going to say much about it here.

So yea, hope you're all doing well.

I just got up out of bed and am still a little tired.

And yes I know it's 11:36 - but this is the only day of the week I get to sleep in, so eat it. ;-)

;) Good luck with the campaign, school and job. Not to mention that other less pleasant problem. It really is good to hear from you.

and welcome back.

Welcome back. :hi:

I've got a friend in SLC who says he's heard of you. I mentioned your name to him when you said you were interested in running for city council -- are you still doing that?

I feel like, I don't know, famous!

I wonder who it could be? Anyway, about the city council thing - I'll have to wait and see what my life is like in 2005. That is when the election is actually going to happen.

For all I know my new job may take me out of Salt Lake City.

I am glad to hear you are doing OK except for the father thing. This too shall pass, eventually. Don't be a stranger anymore and good luck with the interview.

:)

Glad you are back...and hope things are going well with you!

Stephanie

glad to see ya again!! :hi:

keep fightin' the good fight

:bounce:

Good to see you again, lad! :hug: :)

Yup, still kicking. :)

What happened to the Marx avatar?

That and some posters turn into mega-assholes when they see old chuck. Marx should be back sometimes in the next few months.

:shrug:

I remember the wrath that came from my Soviet sig.

and use it as fodder for ad hominems any time that you disagree with them about a political issue. I'm glad to see you, but they are going to be pissed.

:)

Simple as that.

:toast:

It'll just be a never ending circle.

and I hope you never get into office. A few here have it on their sigs etc... such is life. I thought this is the Democratic Underground.. not the Communist Underground.

It really gives good Democrats a bad name and look to have all that garbage from an obviously failed government system and long time enemy of our country floating around.

like you said though.. its my problem i suppose. Its actually a problem for our whole party... but oh well.

that said. hello.

This isn't Democratic Underground in the sense of the Democratic Party. It's democratic Underground in the sense of the ideology and the basic beliefs of our country. As in, the democratic system.

But alas, it isn't a problem for the Democratic Party because most CPUSA memebers, including myself, don't belong to the Democratic Party.

:)

Anyway.. no flame war here... I do not agree with communists.. but oh well you are who you are... I'm no McCarthy either. CPUSA is an ultrafringe element even for 3rd parties and of no real concern anyway IMO. Have fun with it I suppose.

And yes I'll defend myself, but one can do that in a reasonable way. But ya' know what? I don't mind people that have a different political view than I do. I accept that not everyone is going to see eye to eye on every issue.

I just hope people are the same toward my views.

Im sorry Joe Lieberman lost the primary. Tough break for you. I'm sure you were disappointed.

Don't worry though, im sure the swing voters don't read this site.

It was a joke.

You should study the history behind Stalin's emblem. If you have and you still wear it, then I'm not sure you're in the right place here.

And it wasn't a Stalin emblem. In fact the USSR had adapted the emblem before Stalin came to power. The Soviet Flag which bared the hammer and sickle was created in 1918.

Just because the hammer and sickle is most associated with Stalin doesn't mean he adopted it. IMO, it's like saying the American flag is an emblem of hate because of past imperialist presidents: Reagan, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II.

The swastika was orginally a Hindu symbol. The Nazis co-opted it, and it acquired its present meaning.

The American flag wasn't orginally a symbol of hate, yet it's taken on that meaning as of late.

So I guess we should all boycott the American flag now, eh?

The American flag is most widely associated with America, not a hate-filled political movement. Saying otherwise is comperable to claming that the Capitol Building is a symbol of McCarthyism.

I mean, you've associated the Soviet Flag with the hate of Stalin. Why can't I associate the American flag with the hate of past presidents?

the hammer and sickle, or Hitler the swatztica.

The flag has always been a rallying cry for presidents.

How many American flags did you see dot the landscape of American cities AFTER 9-11 and PRE invasion of Iraq? Quite a few my friend.

The American flag is most widely associated with America, not a hate-filled political movement.

I'm betting a lot of people in the world wouldn't get the distinction you're making here. Let me spell it out. A lot of the people in the world would think that something which is associated with America is associated with a hate-filled political movement.
Just one example would be Guatemala around 1955.

I'll readlily concede that we're headed the wrong way under the Bush Administration, but I'm curious to see just exactly how many foreigners would view it as "a symbol of hate." Even those most opposed to American foreign policy probably would be more discrete about describing our flag, at least I would think.

Or other nations where they routinely burn the American flag in disgust. Take off your patriot glasses for one damn second and realize that America is hated throughout the world and many view the flag as a symbol of imperialist rule.

Happy to see you.

welcome back, comrade

Although I took a break from DU for a while, too, so I don't remember a whole lot from before .... Welcome back to DU :)

:hi:

Best. Halloween. Thread. EVER!!

:D

Glad to see you, Sean...hope you stick around awhile. :hi:

Welcome back!

:hi:

I know not everyone in SLC is, but I am (but I live in TX) and there just aren't enough Mormon who aren't republicans.

edited because I see now you aren't a Democrat from reading your posts. :) I should read more often.

But I know of them. ;-)

There was nothing democratic about the former Soviet Union. It was a totalitarian government. The hammer and sickle was a symbol of oppression for millions of people. It was a symbol of death for millions of people. Have you ever read about Stalin's purges?

I find it strange that you would post on a "democratic" forum board with that symbol so prominently displayed.

Eminem quite disgusts me too. So we're on the same level, k?

glad things are flowing along for you...

many blessings-ray.

How often do we talk of civil rights and freedom on DU? How often do we condemn the right for their narrow view of right and wrong? How often do we condemn the right for wanting to force everyone into being like them? But yet some here are wanting to condemn Sean for the symbol he is using on his sig line. Does this not seem a bit hypocritical to anyone else? Is McCarthyism still alive today?

those very civil rights and freedoms we represent. When someone openly bears such a mark, it isn't being McCarthyesque to accuse him of being fascist; Sean points it out himself!

It's just a matter of how one looks at it. To me, the American flag can be a symbol of hate toward civil rights and freedoms that our country is supposed to represent. Remember, under that flag we not only allowed slavery, we allowed the hatred toward women (remember they couldn't vote for a long time). We placed Japanese AMERICANS in concentration camps, but best of all we've massacred thousands in our YOUNG history through imperialist war.

Now don't tell me the hammer and sickle represents one of the greatest enemies to those civil rights and freedoms you represent. Because you own country represents the enemy of that said ideology.

To say so is hyperbole of the most vile form. They were detainment and internment camps,to be sure, and by no means were the imprisonment just or comfortable. But the Japanese were treated much better than the average prison, and a hundred times better than any concentration camp inmate. To use the word "centration camp" implies systematic killings and very poor conditions.
You already insult my ancestry and values with your sig of the hammer and sickle. Would you mind not associating the Japanese internment camps with concentration camp?
----

My butt.

Sorry, they were camps in which we imprisoned innocent Japanese Americans. To me, that IS VILE. I don't give a rats if you don't concider them to be concentration camps. It was still inhumane what we did. This of course coming from a guy who LOVES Roosevelt.

I can not and will never condone such actions.

There's a huge difference.

Sorry, both were inhumane and vile.

Both IMO were scars on their respected countries (Germany and America). Both were done in fear; and patriotism. Both used symbols to rally the nation into supporting such a horrible cause.

A poster points out that the Japanese-American interment camps were not nearly as bad as the Nazi's concentration camps, and instead of acknowledging the obvious, Sean has to trot out the straw mannish "Which makes it all better?"

NO, it doesn't Sean, but that doesn't mean it was a concentration camp.

. I don't give a rats if you don't concider them to be concentration camps.

NO Sean, it's not a matter of what you or I "consider them to be". It what they were and were not. They WERE internment camps. There WERE NOT concentration camps.

I can not and will never condone such actions.

And here's the common "Now I'll pretend that I'm the only one who opposes this immoral policy" ploy.

Breaking News!!!

No one here supports internment camps. Not now, not then, not ever.

impriosned and took away their property.

Brecht has an excellent picture in his journals of proto-freepers signing up for some of the free land that had been confiscated from the Japanese.

So yes, Comrade Reynolds is correct, denotationally anyway.

Only US and Canadian citizens' wishing to distinguish their actions in "concentrating" Japanese-Americans and Japanese-Canadians blurs this distinction.

Incidentally, the Nazis did operate several "concentration camps" which were not death camps (including some on the same grounds as the death camps).

By the way, those of you with unreasoning hatred of the hammer and sickle should actually sit down and read The Communist Manifesto one of these days. It's quite a remarkable piece of work, and espouses quite a different political philosophy than that practiced anywhere under alleged "Communism."

Personally, I'm not tremendously happy with *either* Communism or Capitalism, because both of them fail to account for one thing (the same thing in both cases, albeit in different ways) that makes them virtually unworkable: greed.

I won't take part in trashing choice of icons.

I'm not here to tell anyone what they must or must not do. To take a line from Voltaire: I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." I may not agree with Sean's choice of signature line images, but I won't crusade against his right to use it. On the other hand, I have a right to criticize him for using it. This is what being a liberal is all about.

Welcome back brother.

I think you're a swell guy and I'd like to have beer with you. I say that because I like to piss people off. :evilgrin: :beer: :evilgrin: :beer: :evilgrin: :beer: :evilgrin:

Welcome back! :hi:

raised by Marxist-Leninists, I have no problem whatsoever with your sig. The Communists I knew were people who devoted their lives to social justice, at much personal sacrifice.

I'm glad to see you back, and it sounds like your life is going in some really positive directions.

More power to you!

I remember you..good to see ya. :)

Hope things work out w/ the job interview with the Sierra Club.

I'm glad to hear it!

Sorry about the *father issues* but am glad your headed down a better path! Being a different kind of father/partner yourself one day will be the most challenging aspect of your life, but I am sure you are up to that challenge! :hi:

Welcome Back!!! :toast:

oh , wait....the cold war is over. Who cares about your avatar.

nevermind.
:nuke:

what are you thinking?

There are always communists amongst us.

like it or not, commies won't ever go unless they get what they want.
:evilgrin:fucking degenerates


ooh! great band names!

the Manchurian Candidate.
I rest my case.:evilgrin:
could it be me?

YOU KNOW SKITTLES WOULD NEVER FORGET YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I don't hang here as much either...

Very good to hear from you and all of the good stuff going on in your life at the moment.

Keep it up!

:hi: :hi: :hi:

DemEx

:)