Your Other Left Video: Doing It Wrong, or If We Can Brexit They Can Fix It

A rant about brexit and the lack of dialectic in our current multitude of schismatic subjects.

Your Other Left: Up The Republic: Feel The Paine

Now that my party, The Democratic Party, has a presumptive nominee, I am bewildered at how few people understand our political process.  Having worked closely with the national party, worked for several state, county and town Democratic and Republican Party organizations/committees, I'd be happy to counsel any voters who are confused as to what the process is, what things mean and how it works.  To the same point, if anyone feels they are confused about civics and government in general, I am glad to explain the inner workings of the republic to you.....or you could watch the West Wing on Netflix.

Your Other Left: Putin's Fan Club

Did somebody say theocracy?

Little by little, the media has begun to notice the deliberately careless slaughter of civilians in Syria by the Russian division of the Iranian armed forces.A theocratic axis consisting of the Iranian twelver Shia cult regime, the Syrian Alawite Ba'athist reality TV aficionado and murderer of 200,000, and the serial poisoner controlled Russia Today Orthodox Church Federation makes the Turkish aspiring dictator, ISIS cheerleader, Hitler enthusiast and recent extorter of the EU look like an amateur.Somehow there is such mass eagerness to accept any criticism of President Obama at face value, that Putina has become the favored opposition and claims made by him, his army of comment trolls or the RT: "Fox News on krokodil" propaganda juggernaut get swallowed and parroted by gangs of mutants, perpetual con-marks in Baghdad, right wing race cults and left wing suicide fetishists alike.

Vladimir Putin, 2014 Time Magazine Person of the Year, has been praised by celebrity imbecile Donald Trump, British Nazi Seance organizer Nick Griffin, famous anti-semitism groupie/Iran TV personality Jeremy Corbyn, and the Ba'ath Party's favorite cosplay kinkster kitten George Galloway.With this clown car coalition of the deranged behind him, and the announcement that the Russian Orthodox Church has declared him god on earth, his holiness, the patron saint of anti-gay violence and the man who brought breadline poverty back to Russia, Vladimir Putin has put his lifelong ambition to ressurrect Russian imperialism in Eastern Europe on hold while he mounts a crusade to support the oppressed, downtrodden and victimized regimes of Iran and Syria. Someone had to stand up for those poor mullahs and despotsRather than being content with his new status as some sort of half-man half-God creature, (I'd have asked the church to make me a centaur instead, but whatever lifts his luggage) Putin has made it his divine mission to defame and debase the President of the United States.This is all one needs to do to be lauded across the globe.The asinine casting of President Obama as arch and cruel by millions of Americans has had all sorts of sad consequences.Creating a western audience for Putinism may prove the worst.

It never ceases to surprise me the rabbit hole of logic that Obama-hatred carries people down.The viral memes presenting a choice between Putin and Obama with questions like "who is stronger leader," "who is better friend to Kurds" and "who is better looking" are hilarious, but indicative of the pervasivenes of the bizarre logic that holds that "if Obama is doing a bad job, Putin must be doing a good job." I don't think Obama is doing a good job in the Middle East, but that has nothing to do with whether Putin is doing a good job or even a good thing.Ask yourself why Putin is there?Does Putin actually care what happens to the Kurds or anyone else?

Putin said he would attack ISIS but he attacked every Sunni fighting against Assad except for ISIS for months.Putin aids and protects the genocidal dictator Assad. Putin has participated in a cynical manipulative move through Assad and clandestine channels to assist ISIS.Putin has taken sides in the sectarian civil war and the power struggle between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran. I have no fondness for Saudi Arabia, but the Iranian regime out does the Saudis at theocratic sadism and is universally acknowledged by Iran's neighbors as the biggest threat facing the region.Israel has more Sunni friends than Iran.

Iran attacks Kurds.They depopulate Sunni villages in Iraq and Syria, which exasperates the refugee situation.They are the largest state funder of jihadist terror.When Iran "got rid of" their nuclear materials they sent them to Russia for safe keeping. If Iran gets a nuclear weapon, they're likely to use it on Bahrain or Israel.Putin has taken it upon himself to intervene in the sectarian conflict on behalf of the Iranian regime.Barack Obama might have a confusing strategy and he may be shamefully silent on the Turkish campaign against the Kurds, but he provides air support for the Peshmerga and YPG, while Putin provides air support for Hezbollah.

Obama has done a lousy job in Iraq and Syria, but he has done one thing absolutely right: he said he will fight ISIS and he is fighting ISIS. Turkish National Islamist President Erdogan declared last summer that Turkey would begin attacking ISIS, and the air strikes rained down on the Kurds instead.When Putin said Russia was joining the fight against ISIS what he meant was they were joining the fight against Syrian rebels and civilians who are not in ISIS.It is a tragic moral failing that President Obama hasn't condemned Turkey's AKP regime and declared absolute support for and partnership with the Kurds.However, none of Barack Obama's failures excuse or validate Vladimir Putin's crimes or lies.

I'll remain opposed to dictatorship, theocracy, terrorism and civilian slaughter no matter how poorly western leaders perform. Russia is a theocratic dictatorship with a vast propaganda operation set on hurting the west with some true, but mostly fabricated or exaggerated claims which sow hysteria and fuel far right and far left maniacs in Europe.

Obama leaves office next January.His replacement is likely to be one of the candidates who have publicly expressed support for the YPG: Hillary Clinton and nearly every Republican candidate.Sheikh Putin, as he is known among some Ayatollah fans in Iraq, will still be the anointed demigod of the Russia Today Orthodox Federation Church. He'll still be terrorizing and molesting his neighbors.He'll still be the partner, mouthpiece, and muscle for the Iranian cult of messianic Shiite rapture.He'll still be the protector and enabler of Assad and Hezbollah.He'll still be the dictator who murders journalists and politicians who criticize him.He'll still be the Russian version of Recep Tayyip Erdogan......with a nuclear arsenal.

Your Other Left: You Call Yourself A Liberal? Resist Left Wing L'appel Du Vide

Liberalism has long been conflated with the left in American politics. Ever since the civil rights era, the Democratic Party, traditionally home to southern white racists, has been the home of most left of center politicians. Before the sixties, the Republican Party was the party of civil rights. Both parties had social liberals and social conservatives in their ranks until the landscape shifted in the tumultuous decade the baby boomers won't allow us to forget. Over the next few decades the political migration of liberals and minorities to the Democrats and conservatives and southern whites to the Republicans settled into a status quo. The conflation of Democrat with left wing and Republican with right wing has made for a confused glossary of political terms.

Ideological orthodoxy is enforced along the lines of 'left vs right' and we no longer expect liberals to uphold liberal principles and conservatives to uphold conservative principles. In fact many liberals prefer the term 'progressive' nowadays, even though it is increasingly clear that these terms are not synonymous. Tribal identity politics has become the dominant force in much of western society, and the classic dichotomy of liberal vs reactionary has been shredded. So let's talk about liberalism and determine if that is what you are, shall we?

Liberals believe in the principles of individual liberty, gender equality, freedom of expression, secular government, and a right to life, liberty, and due process under the law. It can be said that "the rule of law" or the concept of "freedom under law" which was perhaps the most crucial phrase in the proto-enlightenment document: Magna Carta. From there we can trace the advances of civilization and culture to the radical liberals who fought for freedom of expression, equal and civil rights, secular values, and the establishment of democracy in place of monarchy and totalitarian rule. To be conservative was to be reactionary and support the status quo whether it was serfdom or somewhat more advanced. To be liberal was to be radical and change the status quo to remove power from the few and expand individual liberty.

Liberals tend to value science, education, and creative expression. They take a laissez faire or 'live and let live' attitude toward other peoples and cultures, a notion which, in theory, makes very good sense. While monarchs, tyrants, theocratic despots and later communists and fascists promised utopia, paradise, perfection and purity, radicals, enlightenment thinkers and Magna Carta liberals were fighting for and demanding liberty and functionality.

The status quo is always going to be imperfect for somebody because there is no perfect. By the time the enlightenment liberal revolution reached critical mass with the American and French revolutions, liberalism had a manifesto in Thomas Paine's Rights of Man, a declaration of principles in the Declaration of Independence, and an updated Magna Carta in the American Bill of Rights. Later in the twentieth century, representatives from nations who had benefited most from these liberal concepts drafted a document to be upheld as the liberal's grandest aspirational document: the universal declaration of human rights.

The liberal's greatest achievements include the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, the defeat of fascism in Europe, and more recently, the civil rights and women’s equal rights movements. Liberals believe that rights are universal and inalienable. They believe in gender equality, and standing up for women, homosexuals, minorities, and the physically or mentally challenged. If you actively support or apologize for people or ideologies that reject these rights, you are not a liberal. If you apply different standards to different people and societies for any reason, you are probably not a liberal.

Liberals believe that all people are entitled to dignity, fairness, and equal treatment under the law. If you believe people with different skin color, beliefs, or nationalities should be treated differently, infantilized, or held to lower moral standards, you are not a liberal. Principles are more important to liberals than identity. We cannot be equal if we are not equally free and accountable.

Liberals believe in secular democratic representative government, regardless of their own personal philosophical or religious beliefs. Yet many support or ignore those who actively and unapologetically espouse tyranny, theocracy, or even genocide. If you fail to see the hypocrisy in such behavior, you are not a liberal.

Liberals do not support aggression, violence, murder or ethnic cleansing. If you sympathize with those who espouse violence and terror as legitimate political weapons, particularly against innocents and children, you are not a liberal.

Liberals believe in freedom of speech and expression. Yet many who call themselves liberals support silencing those with differing opinions and beliefs simply because they disagree with them or are not partial to their nationality, ethnic background or religion. They very often denounce and smear their interlocutors as racists and bigots, without feeling any need to explain or justify such accusations, much less concern themselves with their consequences. These are not liberal, serious or ethical people.

Liberals believe in science, reason, art, music and education. If you support or enable those who wish to proscribe others from such pursuits or pleasures, you are not a liberal.

Liberals believe in the rule of law and that all people are innocent until proven guilty. If you support or sympathize with those who administer medieval justice, torture, or execute people in the public square without a fair trial, you are not a liberal.

Liberals come from a tradition of enlightenment principles which, above all, value the importance of the individual and his or her quest for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If you believe more in the rights of groups than individuals, or that identity politics and political correctness are more valuable to the human experience than individual rights, you are not a liberal.

Granted, liberalism, by definition, will forever be an imperfect paradox, nebulous and in constant flux, expanding, contracting, and even collapsing in on itself. Lest we forget, from liberal we also get the word libertine, or one who lacks a sense of moral restraint. But for all its blemishes and imperfections, when it comes to fulfilling equality, human rights, and the aspirations of the common people, it’s the only game in town.

(Written by Rufus Chicolini and Keith Carbone, two liberals)