Vote Distribution In Kentucky Is A 'Significant Anomaly'

What you should know: Republicans steal elections and think nothing about the ethics of doing it. Just ask Al Gore in 2000 and if you research it I am sure there are many instances of more Republican fraud. Funny they are the ones who prevented persons of color and other Democrats from voting to "reduce fraud." Oh sure. Believe that and I'll tell you another lie.

The election in Kentucky was an anomaly. Here is the link that casts doubt on it. The problem is proving it now is difficult and in my opinion Conway conceded too soon.

Moral for 2016: Watch YOUR voting booth and make sure things are ethically pristine. Do so all over the nation!

http://crooksandliars.com/2015/11/we-may-never-really-understand-what

Citizen Charlatan

Carson is a charlatan times 10 and has had six medical malpractice suits against him during his tenure at Johns Hopkins.  I have on good authority Carson is NOT all that great a physician and not really that respected in his field. He got lucky because he was on a team there that separated conjoined twins but after that things went south (pardon the pun)  including a case when he left a sponge in the brain of a woman he operated on and erroneously operated on another for a brain tumor she did not have. I have not read the links in their entirety but I will post them for you below.

In sum Democrats, progressives and liberals must get off their asses and vote. Only 30% voted yesterday and while Rome was burning Democrats fiddled since 2008 and even earlier than that to maybe 1972 when Nixon planned his southern strategy. This horrendousness is done by mainly older whites but the country will NOT stay that way. The Republicans knew that and did their homework; Democrats made up of the youth vote concentrated on the next IPhone or tech gadget and did not think it was important enough to vote in off year elections. 

These idiots in Kentucky just took 400,000 off of health car and these Baggers fail to see the Republicon (sic) Party is NOT about any of them. They care about racist conservative social issues more than they care about universal health as a right or if someone goes to bed hungry it is society's obligation to feed them. That's the domain of Democrats who FAIL miserably to tell their truth!

http://www.occupydemocrats.com/ben-carsons-long-history-of-medical-malpractice-will-shock-you/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3264044/Ben-Carson-sued-malpractice-six-times-including-girl-suffered-facial-disfigurement-woman-claimed-left-SPONGE-skull.html#ixzz3qZIrQwDb

Worries -- BIG Worries

I have worries -- big worries -- about our nation. Since the late 60's when I was imbued with great hope, when voices like the late Howard Zinn influenced me like no others could I had the bright enthusiasm of a 20 year old who thought all things humane were possible. Prof. Zinn always said change comes from the bottom up but judging by yesterday's 2015 state/local elections and if one wants to use it as a bell-weather election which I did, very very few bottom up efforts won. In Kentucky my yardstick for a bell weather state saw a Republican governor elected for the first time in many years, turning Kentucky more red than ever. Other states hopeful of obtaining Democratic majorities in state legislatures did not such as Virginia. Moreover, equal rights including LGBT rights lost in Houston as did the legalization of marijuana lose even for medicinal purposes in Ohio.

Where is this nation headed with its steeped in gerrymandered Republican districts and a Republican Party soaked in cash and allowed to use it?

When I look at the 2016 presidential slate especially on the Republican side I turn white with fear nauseated by what I see and hear. It could happen that either a wild Trump appealing to our nation's worst racist instincts actually could win. Even worse than he, in my opinion, is the horrific brain surgeon Carson proving that you don't have to be a brain surgeon to be smart. He is simply the worst of the worst and more frightening because he is a person of color who just may take some African Americans votes who voted for Obama away because they do not realize how extremist Evangelical fanatic this guy really is and many persons of color are very religious which may be his appeal to them. Imagine a man of science believing in Biblical creationism and eschewing the science based truth of evolution. Is that possible? I say only in America.

Is there hope or should I simply take my toys and go home, hide under the covers and forget the hope that once burned so brightly in me?

I WILL NOT SAY AGAIN AFTER THIS AS I AM TIRED OF SAYING IT GET OUT AND VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS AS IT SHOULD BE CONSUMMATELY OBVIOUS BY NOW WHAT WE ALL WILL LOSE. IF YOU DON'T YOU WILL GET THE VIOLENT, RACIST, HEALTH CARE AND MEDICARE, SOCIAL SECURITY REPEALING NATION ONE DESERVES IF ONE DOES NOT VOTE DEMOCRAT ACROSS THE NATION!!

The Preeminence of Science

Ben Carson Leads 2016 Republicans In New National Poll. See story here or below.
 
Why is this nation the laughing stock of nations that value intellect, science and the truth they bring to the advancement of man?
 
How is it possible that Ben Carson, a man SUPPOSEDLY of science, indeed, a neurosurgeon, denies what even my 9th grade biology high school teacher and all preeminent scientists especially in the fields of biology, virology, infectious disease, chemistry, archaeology, and more know to be true and provable multiple times over? Evolution is NOT theory as is our popular definition of theory. Evolution is FACT and Carson denies it.

One cannot understand the mutations of bacteria, viruses, the progression of infectious disease and these microscopic beings' evolutionary ability to survive despite all drugs thrown at them without understanding evolutionary DNA mutation. Evolution explains ALL life on earth.

How is it possible that a man, SUPPOSEDLY acknowledged in his field of neurosurgery, holds the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial backward belief in the anti-intellectual reactionary era of Tennessee and Appalachia at that time?

It has been said by some that Carson, when he does NOT become president, and he will not, will earn millions from the religious fundamentalist science denying communities through book deals, religious lectures, Christian TV and many other venues of the truth denying Evangelical religious extremist environs. Carson knows he can make millions from them and from those who ridiculously and erroneously think the Bible science.

Those who value intellect, academics, science and its proof should NOT allow him to get within an inch of White House power! We who love the truths of science should research his medical background at Johns Hopkins to see how a science-denying charlatan can overtake even Trump. Both men are preeminently unqualified for the presidency.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ben-carson-nbcwall-street-journal-poll_5637e8cce4b00a4d2e0b97f7?ref=topbar

TransCanada Shelves Its U.S. Keystone Application

YEEEEEHAAAAAA!! Activism works!!! I just said when the story broke that the Canadian NEWLY elected VERY LIBERAL Justin Trudeau government probably had as much to do with the sinking of this disgusting tarsands trans oil pipeline as did the very effective opposition here. Rachel Maddow just said that was so. I cannot believe I called it I say humbly. A BIG WIN for the planet and a big loss for filthy, disgusting, polluting, climate destroying rancid oil!!


 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/transcanada-suspends-us-permit-application-for-keystone-xl-pipeline_5637fafee4b027f9b969d94d

Sweet Sweet People

Metrojet Crash: What Could Cause a Plane to Break Up in Midair? Story here or below:

My vote: A BOMB on board creating an explosion. Why? 1. It is being said by many experts that the plane was solid -- lets out mechanical failure; 2. A missile? No, ISIS does not have the capability of shooting a missile that far up. 3. EXPLOSION? -- YES either a suicide bomber which these fanatics think will get them 152 virgins in heaven or someone surreptitiously left it on-board and then got off the plane. My final vote: A suicide bomber. Sweet sweet people -- NOT! 

Mr. Putin:  Your move!

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/russian-plane-crashes-in-the-sinai/metrojet-crash-what-could-cause-plane-break-midair-n455591

What a World

Curious, a Russian passenger plane en route from Egypt to Russia crashes in the Sinai probably killing all on board. Story here or below. I have questions. Sure, it could have been mechanical failure or weather events or even a bird but now that Russian bombers are working their magic in Syria and given the proclivities in that neck of the woods to be so utterly chaotic anything is possible. Yes, I do mean anything.

Simple answers are a thing of yesteryear and even then information was controlled. Remember the Maine, remember Gulf of Tonkin, remember the vanishing WMD of Iraq -- lies, lies, lies, and more lies. We the people of innocence pay the price. It, I am sure, is no different in Russia maybe even in triplicate.

The power brokers think they have unlimited control over every quixotic event in which they sink their boots. They don't. Others have a say in the matter and the innocent pay with their blood. Is that true in the case of the Russian passenger plane? I do not know but because the plane was flying from Egypt to Russia and Russia is bombing Syria to prop up Assad my warning lights of sabotage are blinking.

I could be wrong and proof with its revelations must determine the verdict IF one could only get at the truth.

As the wicked witch said in the Wizard of Oz as she was melting: "What a world, what a world!" What a world indeed.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/russian-passenger-plane-disappears-radar-n454971

CNBC Republican Debate Performance

The Republicans are kvetching (complaining) about the debate moderators and CNBC. The RNC as of this writing fired NBC.

I believe, however, the questioners must have planned the questions they would ask a bunch of carnival barkers who should never be near the oval office. I believe the moderators were dedicated to giving what they THOUGHT the Republican primary voter would want -- low on substantive policy (the most important thing for analysis) and heavy on gotcha sensationalist nonsense that has nothing absolutely nothing to do with how a candidate would govern and what, importantly, POLICY they would implement to perfect their vision.

This is a nation of about 350 MILLION human beings. Is it important for the questioners to stress poll numbers and insults? I think NOT but obviously CNBC came into the "debate" thinking that would make for riveting entertainment which translates into money. After all most news is entertainment.

If one wants hard hitting, smart good news, one should turn to "Democracy Now." That's an idea how about having Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales deliver the questions in the next Republican debate? Oh, of course not, God forbid presidential contenders should answer challenging questions even if they are not from the right wing extremist part of the spectrum!

Family Pride -- My Cousin with John Kerry

This is my cousin Jon Finer (second from the left) the great grandson of those who made it out of the pogroms of Eastern Europe and certain death for the Jewish people of that area.  He now stands with our Secretary of State negotiating with Iran to prevent nuclear war.  Imagine!  THIS is what makes our nation great.  Do not let a small hateful segment of our population ruin it!

The Republican "Debate" -- The Vice of Extremism

The Republican Party cannot get its act together. It is impossible because they ARE what millions saw on stage -- Extreme, more extreme and most extreme.

One lonely Republican, Kasich, realizes the moderation and normality it takes to govern. The rest are trying to outdo each other and seek the most extreme right wing perch on which to land. Normality and moderation are not words in the Republican lexicon in our time. Even the extremists are split between more extreme and most extreme. Hence it is an impossible mix the views of which the nation itself does NOT reflect.

Moreover, the Republican extremist game on immigration, 11 million Hispanic Roundup, or a variation thereof will lose them the Hispanic vote and thus lose the election as Mitt Romney so astutely predicted.

Reality speaks. If Republicans do not wax right wing extreme they lose their base and the primary vote. If they win through extremism and enter the general election they lose it to the Democrat.

Republicans and Republicans alone have created the combative barbed wire prison in which they live and the key of moderation to exit they do not possess.

Baby Deer does not want to leave the man that saved her life :)

Scroll down. It has a happy ending.


https://www.thedodo.com/little-deer-leave-her-rescuer-1418770786.html

The Interview

Rachel Maddow's interview of Secretary Clinton was spellbinding excellent. I am smitten. Bernie Sanders is wonderful. I am not disputing that BUT he reminds me of the fervor progressives (including me) had for George McGovern. Up against any Republican McGovern was eminently superior. McGovern captured the base of the Democratic Party but that is all he captured and in the general lost every state with the exception of DC and wonderful Massachusetts.
Bernie Sanders is popular, even very popular, among the base BUT he simply, in my opinion, cannot win. Hillary can win AND I am predicting, she will.
Her persona on Rachel Maddow was as relaxed and informative as I have ever heard or seen her. If you get a chance to see the interview with Rachel, do so. She and Rachel too were superb. This is what excellence looks and sounds like. Secretary Clinton is seasoned, polished, articulate and ever-so-smart.
If any Republican in that Barnum Bailey Circus excuse for a Party crosses the oval office I am applying for Canadian citizenship.
Hillary Rodham Clinton is qualified and then some for the highest office in the land!

EXACTLY NOTHING -- HILLARY ON THE DOCK

The Republicans created, though their 47 million taxpayer buck hearings on Benghazi and the latest 11 hour marathon questioning of Secretary Clinton, exactly nothing. The anemic Benghazi Committee made other committees like Watergate look like the Nuremberg trials. Thousands upon thousands of hours of testimony taken over the past two years about an event that took four lives less than were taken in the Lebanon bombing killing 241 marines during the Reagan years, the USS Cole which took 17 lives in 2000 or on 9/11 that took three thousand lives.

Republicans may have just handed Hillary Clinton the presidential victory she wants for their barbaric badgering of a very dignified witness under Republicans' own admittedly political questioning solely designed to take the presidential candidate down. Secretary Clinton handled herself with dignity, reservation, maturity and aplomb during 11, let me say that again, 11 straight hours of testimony. She more than stood up to the plate. She hit it out of the park.

This was an investigation in prime time that could have concentrated on issues surrounding the Benghazi tragedy that mattered and ones that had universal foreign policy appeal. The question should be how a nation – an exceptionally expansive one – protects its State Department officials in the war zones to which it sends them. How is foreign policy made, who orders it and at which desk does the buck stop?

The issue for me is why we are in Benghazi in the first place and why is the electorate so far removed from its nation’s war policy? Who ordered the Libyan overthrow of Qaddafi, why was it ordered and what can we do to safeguard our personnel in dangerous milieus like it?

Why is this nation involved in the taking down and propping up of regimes in which the indigenous people of those regions have little or no say? In short, why do we bomb them, take out and put in leadership like quarters in a slot machine agreeable to us but with no consent of the governed. It seems to me, historically, this nation has some experience with the idea of no representation.

Why is this nation sowing upheaval in a part of the world filled with tribal conflict, fractured by internecine relationships and constant acrimonious religious war? Whose side are we on and why? What ammunition gets into the hands of those who ultimately kill us with it when loyalties shift like the desert sand? Finally, why should a nation let any bully on the block control its interests?

The Middle East has been saturated with those who think the west is trying to undermine its religion and its civilization. It is angry when in 1953 the US overthrows by coup a beloved Iranian leader, Mosadeq, because he wanted to nationalize the oil and keep the profits for Iranians. The American oil magnates did not like this particularly and its CIA put a friendly tyrant in place -- the infamous Shah with his deadly secret police, Savak, that wreaked mayhem on the masses and prompted the Iranian Islamic Revolution.

Western boots are all over the Middle East, all over their holy places and all over their deserts to collect the western oxygen -- OIL. That is what Middle East politics is all about post WWII -- drilling for, getting and selling oil, making billionaires more billions while the poor stay poor. That is why our soldiers die while poor people see little of that for which they die. Maybe Middle Eastern ire is incurred because western boots are on their holy lands. Why is this nation all over the Middle East like mud on the bottom of a shoe? Because we need their oil and we take it because we can.

Secretary Clinton could have been asked far more poignant policy questions than she was. The issue has been and always will be oil as long as it is the energy source de jour, vital to the western world’s life force.

Should we have deposed Mosadeq and put the Shah in his place, should we have deposed Kadafhi, Mubarak, Hussein and now depose Assad? All these strong arms kept the lid on their respective prone-to-warring nations. Now that they are gone an environmental vacuum of anarchy and continual war takes their place. Refugees flee to Europe and beyond by the soon-to-be millions. Ask Secretary Clinton about that why doncha? No, Republicans do not want to upset the American foreign policy apple-cart. They like it that way. They simply want to upset Secretary Clinton. Well, they failed miserably at that.

Benghazi Baloney

What a PILE of horse manure the RepububliCONS are loading on to Secretary Clinton. It's much ado about nothing only dedicated to ruining Clinton as their leadership has said. Guess what? She comes out smelling like a rose to have endured this tripe. Chairman Gowdy, et al look like the IDIOTS they are.

Does one think for one minute after ALL that was said from Republicon leadership that this was merely to get back at Clinton NOT to find out how better we can protect our agents? It is crystal clear and they are waterboarding the secretary FOR NOTHING now all day for the 8th time and 47 million bucks later! I cannot believe she takes it with such aplomb. I would want to take something and throw it at the RepublCONS in this faux committee! What a joke they are.

Keep doing it, Mr. Gowdy. I feel bad she has to go through this swill but she is strong as heck and is doing a GREAT job. Thank you, Sec. Clinton, the soon to be President of the US!

MAKE HER PRESIDENCY A REALITY AND FLIP THE HOUSE AND THE SENATE TO GET THESE REPUBLICON ALBATROSS BEASTS OFF OUR NATION'S NECK!

Compassion -- "A Thousand Miles in Their Shoes"

"Syrian refugees risk everything for a chance at survival" see link  below

My heart breaks for them, the Syrian refugees. After the Holocaust I vowed and I thought it would NEVER happen again; that the world would not turn its back on those desperate fleeing for life. I put my feet in their shoes and can do that easily because I know, as a Jew, what it is like for the world (including this nation at that fateful time) to turn its back and through its inaction act as if we did not matter. But we DID matter.

Yes, in this context, ALL life matters ... ALL of it. We must try each and every one of us in our own way to say NO to cruelty, NO to inhumanity and YES, to our fellow humans who are in trouble and need our help. The refugees are in trouble and need many to help; to extend their hand and say I understand and will help you. We must put our feet in their shoes and if someday each one of us needs help it will be there for us too.

We are human after all, the species with the big brains capable of compassion. Nature put that ability to be compassionate in us for a reason -- we do better as a group when we care about not just a religion, not just a tribe, not just an ethnicity but we are better when we care about all who need help and we all do better if we lend a hand.

Be kind, says the Old and New Testament, to the stranger because you were strangers once in a strange land! Compassion is a lesson for the ages but it is especially a lesson for us now in our never ending atmospheres of violence and hate!

http://testkitchen.huffingtonpost.com/1000-miles/

My Letter to the Vice-President

Mr. Vice President. My sincere condolences for the loss of your son, Beau.  I am amazed at your special strength with which you deal with this tragedy. 

I will preface my opinion by telling you I am a STRONG (emphasis on strong) Democrat.  I have been so nearly all of my adult life.  It is because of this passion for humanitarian politics I place myself squarely in the Party that most reflects my views, the Democratic Party.  We have, I think I can correctly say, divided politics.  Democrats now stand for one set of principles and Republicans another.  The thought of another Republican in the highest office makes me want to run as far away from the country I love as possible.

It is because of this I believe your running for the presidency now is ill-advised.  The wait for your announcement has been too long; it is almost anger provoking long. Either make a decision or do not.  I do not think things will change all that much as Thursday I expect Sec. Clinton to knock the Benghazi hearings out of the park and the Republicans on their posterior.

I do NOT want one thing to upset the Democratic race as nightmares of the Bush presidency haunt me daily.  A Republican means loss of life, loss of treasure and loss of our ethical humanity. 

I believe at this time Hillary Clinton has the best shot (assuming nothing sinister is found in the emails which I doubt) of the ever-so-important reality to keep the presidency in Democratic hands.

I do not want your candidacy to create a threat of ensuring a Republican victory.  IF you do run please be mindful that Democrats -- and ONLY Democrats MUST win in 2016!

Climbing the Hill Toward Everest

Paul Begala, Democratic political consultant and commentator was asked prior to the Tuesday Democratic debate his feelings about Hillary's assent to the presidency. He said that he liked Hillary, he will vote for Hillary but, he asked, is he excited about it? His answer was no. He pretty well summed up my thoughts at the time. The Democratic Socialist, Sanders, as I see it, cannot win due to this nation's Maynard G. Krebbs-like allergy to the word "work" but this time to the Sanders word socialist (to understand this analogy see 1950's TV sit com Dobie Gillis.) What a difference a day and a debate make!

Hillary surpassed my expectations as she slid into home plate to win the game for herself and I would aver to the intellectual-superiority-by-far of the Democratic Party. Way to go, Hillary! She now at this time is, in my opinion, the Democratic Party's number one best shot to reach the presidential peak of Everest.

The debate itself was light years better than anything the two Republican debates put together had to offer. Republicans are a vessel of hate; maligning and impugning even nature's DNA roll of-the-dice composition of the faces and hair of their fellow Republican candidates. It was short, no it was minuscule if non-existent, on policy and long on looks and hair. It was an embarrassment to the nation if not to the world for its carnival barking stupidity in its quest for the highest office in the land better left by the Republicans to a Ringling Brothers circus.

I have never in my life seen such verbally moronic Republican "debates" in attack mode throwing each Christian colleague on their stage to the lions. The lesser candidates in the Republican field stood in glassy eyed catatonic fear of the pummeling egotist-in-chief, Trump, with his two other front runners making up stories and telling lies. No one in Republican land researches the truth as to what their candidates say. Why look for truth when lies work so well for them in Republican primaries?

The Democrats, the other party of American political pugilism, could not have been more opposite to Republicans if they practiced it longer than the Lion King performed on Broadway and to my eyes, it was just as entertaining. It was an enthusiastic but polite, multi-layered and detailed exchange with enough emotional excitement to light the lights of New York City. In my view Hillary Clinton won her Kentucky Derby well beyond my expectations. Will she win the triple or the quadruple crown? I do not know but my Las Vegas bet is on her to do so.

Hillary Clinton made me proud to be a Democrat as they intelligently and quickly shot out policy like an AK47 shoots out the bullets Republicans with their NRA mountains of cash propping them up seem to love so much.

In short, the Republican Party is not about most of us. It isn't even about most Republicans. Unfortunately the white, racist, nativist and extremist so called "freedom caucus" cannot figure that simple fact out for themselves. Republicans are about protecting the wealth of the 1% while they push for government control, they say they hate so much, with attacks on Planned Parenthood, a woman's right to choose the life she wants, the Republican repeal ad infinitum of the much maligned Obamacare, and lest we forget, Hillary's email. Why should Republicans hate health care for the American people so much and every other government policy that helps human beings in trouble? When it's the Party of hate that is what they do and they do it so well. Their uber loud voice for what they want is Donald Trump. As Bernie Sanders said: "Damn the email. Let's talk about policy!" Republicans cannot because they have none.

Republicans have not made it to even the Mountain’s base camp while the Democrat, Hillary Clinton, is climbing the presidential hill to Everest’s summit and I cannot wait to see her make it!


TO SAY THE NATION IS DESPERATE FOR MORE INTELLIGENT LEADERSHIP IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. GET YOURSELF, YOUR FRIENDS, AND YOUR RELATIVES OUT TO SIGN UP DEMOCRATS TO VOTE. THEN MAKE SURE THEY GET OUT TO DO SO AS WELL! OUR NATION CANNOT SURVIVE ANOTHER BUSH-LIKE LEADERSHIP OF THE INTELLECTUALLY STARVED AND SCIENCE DENYING REPUBLICANS. MAKE SURE WE DO NOT GET IT.

On A Positive Note

Despite PBS being Koch Brother influenced there are SOME things it does well and this is one.

My cousin recommended this documentary "How We Got to Now" that sheds light on how far we have come even in a mere 150 years. It is on Netflix too.

As one who sees the glass half empty more often then full it is good to realize how far we have advanced to live a life attempting to be free of disease and hardship that killed other generations early in life. It throws cold water (pardon the pun--you will see why) on us to sometimes accentuate at the positive. I began to watch it last night and positively hope to complete it all.

Here is the link or below: 

http://video.pbs.org/program/how-we-got-now/

Yes, I blame him for the disastrous election of a war criminal administration that of George W. Bush in 2000 by taking votes away from Al Gore. What a different world this would have been. What is done, however, is done and we must play the ball where it proverbially lies. The following article by by Ralph Nader hits one in the face with its accuracy. Read and heed is what this nation should do but will it?

Article by Ralph Nader

The photographs in the New York Times told contrasting stories last week. One showed two Taliban soldiers in civilian clothes and sandals, with their rifles, standing in front of a captured U.N. vehicle. The Taliban forces had taken the northern provincial capital of Kunduz. The other photograph showed Afghan army soldiers fully equipped with modern gear, weapons, and vehicles.

Guess who is winning? An estimated 30,000 Taliban soldiers with no air force, navy, or heavy weapons have been holding down 10 times more Afghan army and police and over 100,000 U.S. soldiers with the world's most modern weaponry -- for eight years.

ISIS forces from Syria have taken over large areas of northern and western Iraq, including its second largest city, Mosul, and the battered city of Fallujah. ISIS forces in Iraq and Syria are estimated to number no more than 35,000. Like the Taliban, ISIS fighters, who vary in their military training, primarily have light weaponry. That is when they are not taking control of the fleeing, much larger, Iraqi army's armored vehicles and ammunition from the United States.

Against vastly greater numbers of Iraqi soldiers, backed by U.S. weapons, U.S. planes bombing daily, 24/7 aerial surveillance, and U.S. military advisers at the ground level, so far ISIS is still holding most of its territory and is still dominant in large parts of Syria.

The American people are entitled to know how all this military might and the trillions of dollars spent in Iraq and Afghanistan, since 2003 and 2001 respectively, can produce such negative fallouts.

Certainly these failures have little to do with observing the restraints of international law. Presidents Bush and Obama have sent military power anywhere and everywhere, regardless of national boundaries and the resulting immense civilian casualties, in those tragic, blown-apart countries.

The current perception of the U.S. in these countries is that of invaders on a rampage. Recruiting motivated fighters, including a seemingly endless supply of suicide bombers, is easier when the invaders come from western countries that for over a century have been known for attacking, carving up boundaries for artificial states, intervening, overthrowing, propping up domestic dictators, and generally siding with oligarchic or colonizing interests that brutalize the mass of the people.

It hasn't helped for these invasions to be supported by an alien culture rooted in the Christian crusades against Islam centuries ago, whose jingoism in the U.S. continues among some evangelical groups today.

But of course more contemporary situations are, first and foremost, the wanton destruction and violent chaos that comes with such invasions. With the absence of any functioning central governments and the dominance of tribal societies, the sheer complexity of the invaders trying to figure out the intricate "politics" between and within tribes and clans turns into an immense, ongoing trap for the western military forces.

When the U.S. started taking sides with the Shiites against the Sunnis in Iraq, or between different clans and tribes in Afghanistan, U.S. soldiers, not knowing the language or customs, were left with handing out $100 bills to build alliances. Our government air-shipped and distributed crates of this money. With the local economies at a standstill, public facilities collapsed, fear gripped families from violent streets and roads, and all havoc broke lose in the struggle for safety and survival.

Afghan soldiers, who are paid only $120 a month, will do almost anything to supplement their income, including selling weapons. At higher levels, bribes, payoffs, extortions create an underground economic system. The combination of lack of understanding, the systemic bribes, and the ensuing corruption has produced a climate of chaos.

Then there is the reckless slaughter of civilians -- wedding parties, schools, clinics, peasant boys collecting fire-wood on a hillside -- from supposedly pinpoint, accurate airplanes, helicopter gunships, drones or missiles. Hatred of the Americans spreads as people lose their loved ones.

Our "blowback" policies are fueling the expansion of al-Qaeda offshoots and new violent groups in over 20 countries. On 9/11, the "threat" was coming from a corner of one country -- northeastern Afghanistan. The Bush/Cheney prevaricator frenzy led to local bounty hunters taking innocent captives, falsely labeled as "terrorists," who were sent to the prisons in Guantanamo, Cuba. These actions have damaged our country's reputation all over the world.

All this could have been avoided had we heeded the advice of retired, high-ranking military, national security, and diplomatic officials not to invade Iraq and their advice not to overreact in Afghanistan. But the supine mass media, and an overall cowardly Congress let the lies, deceptions, and cover-ups by the Bush regime go unchallenged and, as Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) put it, Bush/Cheney "lied us into the Iraq War."

It isn't as if the Taliban and ISIS are winning the "hearts and minds" of the local people. On the contrary, while promising law and order, they treat local populations quite brutally, with few exceptions. But the locals have long been treated brutally by the police, army, and militias jockeying for the spoils of conflict. Unfortunately, there is still no semblance of ground-level security.

All empires fail and eventually devour themselves. The U.S. empire is no different. Look at the harm to and drain on our soldiers, our domestic economy, the costly, boomeranging, endless wars overseas and what empire building has done to spread anxieties and lower the expectation level of the American people for their public budgets and public services.

Not repeatedly doing what has failed is the first step toward correction. How much better and cheaper it would be if years ago we became a humanitarian power -- well-received by the deprived billions in these anguished lands.

What changes are needed to get out of these quagmires and leave a semblance of recovery behind? Press those gaggles of presidential candidates, who war-monger with impunity or who are dodging this grave matter, for answers. Make them listen to you.

Why Ben Carson's Rant About Gun Control and the Holocaust Is So Dangerous

Read this link here or below from The Forward and learn "Why Ben Carson's Rant about Gun Control and the Holocaust is so Dangerous."  Know why the Republican Party's "presidential" candidates, this one in particular, Ben Carson, are SO idiotic, ignorant and border on the insane!  The article says it all.

Many Jews, when they heard Ben Carson’s recent remark that if Jews had owned guns, the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened, probably said to themselves (to use the vernacular): “WTF?”

Those familiar with Carson’s long history of bizarre, ignorant and just plain weird pronouncements were likely less surprised, but have probably chalked it up to just another Weird Carson Moment. The only mystery, they probably mused, is why 20% of Republicans think this guy should be president.

But both are wrong. In fact, Carson’s outrageous and offensive claim is part of a long crescendo of pro-gun rhetoric that invokes Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. That theme, unlike Carson, is deeply rooted in the Republican Party and the National Rifle Association. And it is profoundly anti-Semitic, immoral and disgusting.

Here’s what Carson actually said: “The likelihood of Hitler being able to accomplish his goals would have been greatly diminished if the people had been armed,” he told CNN on Thursday. Today, he doubled down, explaining that “Basically, what I said is when tyranny occurs traditionally around the world, they try to disarm the people first.” 

On first blush, this statement fails the rules of rational political discourse in three ways. First, and perhaps this goes without saying, it is ludicrously false. If Jews in Nazi Germany had owned guns, they would have been rounded up, sent to labor camps, gassed and burned by an authoritarian regime with many more guns, and with the support of at least half the general population.

Even if said Jews had today’s advanced armaments, the Nazis would surely have had more advanced ones, including tanks, an organized army, and a machinery of death unprecedented in human history. In the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, for example, armed Jews killed roughly two dozen Nazis. The Nazis, during the same uprising, killed 13,000 Jews.

This is why the Anti-Defamation League has long called such claims “historically inaccurate and offensive.” 

Oh, and another thing, the Weimar Republic, which preceded Nazi Germany, actually had strict gun control laws . The Nazis relaxed them, for everyone except Jews. In other words, the Nazis sought to arm the populace in order to further their totalitarian, anti-semitic goals. Oops. 

Second, Carson’s statement is so offensive as to beggar the imagination. Most of my great-grandparents, and many of my grandparents’ generation, died when the Nazis and their Ukrainian collaborators rounded up entire villages and massacred them in the forest. So, Dr. Carson, what killed them was gun control?

No, what killed them was anti-Semitism, bigotry, hatred and extreme nationalism — all of which, incidentally, are far more prevalent on the Right than on the left. In the ADL’s words, “Gun con­trol did not cause the Holo­caust; Nazism and anti-Semitism did.”

To suggest otherwise is to desecrate the memories of my relatives. And non-Jews should know better than to invoke them in the first place. For shame.

Third, Carson’s statement is a perfect example of Godwin’s Law, which posits that once Hitler and the Nazis have been invoked in conversation, the conversation is over. Which really is the point: pro-gun zealots have long been completely unhinged from reality. Obama’s coming to take our guns, they say. And, in Carson’s words, “there is a reason that these dictatorial people take the guns first,” implicitly linking President Obama with the Fuhrer.

But we err if we suppose that Carson’s statement is just a WTF moment, or another example of the surgeon-candidate acting like the dullest scalpel in the drawer. Because this is an old, deep, and broad theme among America’s right wing.

Carson’s exact argument has been made by morons as disparate as Matt Drudge, Ted Nugent, Fox News commentator Andrew Napolitano, racist ex-ballplayer John Rocker (now a favorite on the Tea Party circuit), current NRA President David Keene and former NRA President Wayne LaPierre. 

Carson is one of the more prominent people to have openly made this argument, but to gun nuts, it’s as familiar as the muzzle velocity of an AK-47.

Amazingly, according to historian Neal Knox, it appears that this crackpot theory originated with Jews — in particular, the firearms dealer turned gun rights activist Aaron Zelman, who founded the fringe group “Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership” in 1989.

I remember getting the JPFO’s mailings back in the nineties. They resembled lunatic manifestoes, like the Unabomber’s or the one in the background of Dr. Bronner’s Soap packaging. And they made about as much sense.

But this particular idea has thrived. It deflects what gun extremism is really about — compensating for a sense of lost control or impotence, plus fear, racism and paranoia — into Tea Party style patriotism. Guns are to protect us from tyrants, not black men from the ghetto. We are defenders of liberty, not property. We’re not paranoid, we’re proud.

And by now, it’s everywhere in the Radical Right, complete with false quotations from Hitler praising gun control (he never said them), false constitutional theories (the second amendment has nothing to do with individual gun ownership), false histories and false implications for contemporary policy. The lie has grown so big that it’s begun to resemble the truth.

Inside the right-wing echo chamber, that is. What Carson’s statement really represents is — rather like his and Donald Trump’s entire candidacies — a sudden outing of the Right wing’s crazy aunt in the attic. In the case of Trump, the cray-cray is a weird xenophobia detached from all notions of economics, sociology or morality.

In the case of Carson, it’s what “everyone” knows to be true about Hitler, the Holocaust, and guns. Thanks to Carson, now the rest of us now know what “everyone” thinks. And we should be very, very afraid.

There is a very decent Republican Party out there, that is fiscally conservative, strong on Israel and fundamentally reasonable. Likewise, there are actual gun owners out there, who may own a hunting rifle or two, or even a small handgun, but who agree that we ought to keep the psychologically disturbed from buying assault weapons as easily as they grab a case of beer.

But these groups are in the minority when it comes to the actual Republican Party, which is now (post-Kevin McCarthy in particular) increasingly ruled by the Fox News-is-too-liberal crowd. They, not a few smart Jewish Republicans inside the beltway, are what the modern G.O.P. is really all about. They are the ones enamored of Trump and Carson. And they all know that guns could have stopped the Holocaust.

Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/national/322394/why-we-shouldnt-ignore-ben-carsons-rant-about-gun-control-and-the-holocaust/#ixzz3oATTQRGN