Democratic Presidential Convention--On to November

 

I watched the Democratic convention last evening until my body's demand for sleep overtook me around midnight.  Having followed things political for many years this convention was, in my opinion, one of the best I have experienced.  It was entertaining and excellently choreographed allowing stars of the Democratic Party and others to offer speeches including Michelle and Barack Obama who were, as I thought they would be, excellent. I singularly clapped in my own living room many times wishing I were there.  I will be, of course, watching again tonight when the speakers will include:

Former President  Bill Clinton 

• Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, former presidential candidate
• Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who has a close relationship with Tim Walz
  
• Former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, one of a number of Republicans speaking through the week in support of Harris
• Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who fueled momentum to replace President Biden with Vice President Harris on the ticket
• Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who also ran for president in 2020 and was considered for Harris’ running mate

Many thanks to Joe Biden for selflessly giving up running and for choosing Kamala Harris, his charismatic vice-president, to run for the presidency in his stead.  And thanks

to him for his tenacity and for giving so much to the American people during the 50 years of his tenure.  

The experts are saying the election will be razor close.  That may be so I do not know.  For me, however, the impossible was achieved.  The immoral and unethical bully Trump lost round one. 

 

Hope has been restored.  On to November and let's win then.

NOT ANYMORE

 

I wrote this last week and for the most part sat on it because I did not want my writing to imply anything against Israel. As stated again it is merely an opinion honed in this eternal struggle which has cost thousands of dead. It never stops! The carnage on both sides is incomprehensible.

I paste my opinion below. It is entitled "NOT ANYMORE"

 

I am incredulous that my Jewish people are responsible for these dastardly attacks in Gaza resulting in thousands of deaths -- especially deaths that include children and babies. Hospitals are being bombed. The blood of innocents screams out -- STOP. I a Jew, have honed my politics at a young age based on the Holocaust. Hitler was the poster boy for extreme right wing politics so as a young person trying to decide where I fit on the political spectrum I knew that the right wing was not for me. Those on the right are missing something. They are missing humanitarian ideals. They are missing empathy. My own Jewish people who suffered so much for thousands of years are now killing indiscriminately innocents in hospitals and schools.

 

I have had to come to the conclusion that October 7th and the wholesale slaughter of Jews by Hamas allowed me to become something that I never was, sanctioning inhumane behavior by my own people. After Oct. 7 Israelis said if they do this to me I will do worse to them. I felt proud that Jews fight back. Now, though, I think their pound of flesh has been realized. I have been using Oct. 7 to sanction behavior of my people who are allowing the most heinous barbaric retaliation that equals if not surpasses Hamas' October 7 unconscionable sickening attack that stunned the minds of Jews and non Jews alike. This slaughter MUST stop. The Hamas violence must stop and the attack on Gaza must stop as well. The Gaza assault is a travesty that insults the Holocaust and Jews whose lives lie in graves by the millions in what was once Fascist Europe.

 

I do not like writing this and have thought long and hard as to what I would write. I love Israel but maybe I love Israel so much that I cannot admit their acts would mirror acts by Hamas. Am I glad the Jewish people are strong? Yes, I am glad of that. But, enough is enough. The killing by Hamas and Israelis too must stop. It is in no one's interest to continue the bloodbath. A two state solution is the only way.

 

If there is a God surely He would not sanction this tortuous barbaric massacre. Surely He would say No, never again not anymore!

 

**Postscript: There is no or scant proof of weapons sought below by the IDF. Nor is there any proof of the Israeli hostages. If they are found and if the Hamas weaponry are found below I reserve the right to change my opinion.

The Fire of fear

I cannot advocate strongly enough for Rachel Maddow's podcasts linked below.  The First one: "Ultra" and the second one "DeJa News" are brilliant to say the least. We who are politically under the freedom umbrella of Democracy should be able to avail ourselves of historical periods that mirror the troublesome moment we find ourselves in today. Democracy is threatened but we've been here before and democracy survived.

If one listens to these podcasts one will learn that we have experienced similar events at different historical time periods and we navigated those choppy waters not succumbing to a take down of Democracy, though, the evil forces in our nation surely tried and are still trying very hard to do achieve that.

Again, today Fascism rears its ugly head. The troublesome Donald Trump and his many allies of evil you will see a repeat performance yet again trying hard to build up allies within the Republican Party all over our nation and, indeed, the world. If one Googles "Ultra" and after you finished its episodes then Google "Deja News" you will listen to Rachel's uncanny ability to put out the fire of fear by showing us much of what this nation finds itself now has been tried by different historical players before without losing Democracy.

As she and her producer Issac-Davy Aronson narrate "Deja News," these podcasts will give one new eyes to see that our political predicament is not new and give us the courage to do battle with its ugly forces yet again.

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-presents-ultra

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rachel-maddow-presents-d%C3%A9j%C3%A0-news/id1690932739

 

I smile and I worry

When the indictments came through against Trump with 37 counts levied against him, when I read 3/4 of the indictment with some pages to go, when I saw the scrupulously ironclad case Jack Smith has woven and the incontrovertible evidence against Trump's handling of the most sensitive top secret classified documents that were not his to take and held helter skelter at Trump's summer place Mar a Lago, I still managed to smile.  Finally, I plaintively asked, would Teflon Don be made to answer for his lifetime of many unethical, unconscionable grifts and acts?

There are no words to accurately describe my incredulity at his cavalier treatment of cartons of documents that would have had the worst life consequences if they fell into the hands of adversaries.  There are no words to describe the fear I felt when I realized how many human beings could have been killed because of the actions of Trump, a former president.  We have no idea how many people could have been hurt because of Trump's actions.  How many of this nation's longtime allies could have been horribly affected by the frivolity with which Trump treated these secret and sometimes top secret documents with revelations of military battle plans, maps and the most secret nuclear plans. 

My smile turns to worry. I worry about the violence that is attached to right wing fascist authoritarian politics, I worry about the Judge Aileen Cannon appointed by Trump, whose ruling for Trump was rejected by an Appeals Court panel,  most of all I worry about the millions who put him in office and worry about the millions who steadfastly cling to him despite the solid Special Counsel evidence against Trump. The worse it gets for Trump the more money he makes.  He gains support each time he is indicted or has bad news levied against him. I worry, too, that despite the many millions spent in carefully arguing the case for conviction, this poisonous Teflon snake named Trump might never be stopped. My worry will not subside, I fear, unless and until he is fairly convicted by the very system which he so rudely attacks. I hope fervently that he loses every appeal his hapless attorneys mount.

What is left for we the people to do in the interim whether he is acquitted or hopefully ultimately jailed? We must ensure after the hopeful conviction of this dangerous man that we never retreat from pursuing true authoritarian fascists in our country and in other nations so that they do not live again in other forms.  When this malignant era of Trumpian politics is over we must ensure it never again envelops the world as new fascists are born in Trump's image.  Moral and ethical people of all races and colors must make sure Adolph Hitler's ghost does not rise again in other forms and we must ensure other concentration camps are not created yet again.

Finally, it is, I think, appropriate now in the face of those who work mightily to erase civil liberties, free thought and the other to quote the German poet Heinrich Heine in his work Almansor.  "Where people burn books they will ultimately burn men as well" to which I must answer Never Again!

 

As I see it: Banking failure of First Republic

  

 

An admission: Economics is not my strong suit. With that out of the way I still think I and everyone else too can have an opinion even on things in which they are not expert. The latest Vesuvian eruption to send out the messenger of fear into the body politic is today's announcement of the First Republic Bank's collapse. This bank was rated one of America's best banks months before. If we measure bank failures by the 1929 Great Depression yardstick it catapults us into a depressive state of fear and anxiety. Nothing so far has reached the devastating depressive effect of 1929. Still, it does not mean that when the economic waves of insecurity strike in the form of bank failures that we should not worry at all. The failure of First Republic Bank still wreaks havoc with some of the ships at sea. After all, it was not that long ago that the 2008 economic collapse concerned me and many others too. Banks were overextended then, to say the least, in handing out a plethora of bad mortgages which the buyers could not repay.

Why is this happening? Why can we never be 100% secure that the banks are monitored to within an inch of their life so that they will never overextend themselves again to ensure we will no longer get a surprise that banks were slovenly over extended and that First Republic Bank's slipshod bookkeeping could not be at fault because the Federal government took care of that in 2008 so that this nation never again would have faulty unbalanced ledger sheets. Think again.

The great ideological divide is that conservatives are loath to government intervention of, well, nearly everything especially things financial but progressives since FDR think in certain very threatening occurrences the government should and must come to the rescue. I believe there is a place for government when self monitoring fails.

Coupled with Republican intransigence of raising the debt ceiling that could catapult the US into the thicket of economic ruin the times are worrisome. Jaime Diamond, the CEO of J.P Morgan Trust, bought out First Republic. He said the nation's banking system is solid. Should we take his word for it? As I see it, I think not.

My Letter to Rachel Maddow and cc to Governor Maura Healtey

 

I applaud you yet again for a superlative interview of Governor Maura Healy.  I am indeed proud to be from the great Commonwealth of Massachusetts, voted for Governor Healey and will do so again.  Both you and governor Healey are articulately brilliant.  Thanks for having the governor on and hope we can hear from her again.  Of course, I support both of your positions on abortion and support your position on guns as well. I am saddened by the usurpation of the Republican Party by radical right wing extremists and hope Democrats can gain control of both the Federal House while keeping the Senate and take a majority of the seats in state government as well. 

Keep doing what you do, Rachel.  You are the Edward R. Murrow of broadcasting.  Although I like all the commentators on MSNBC and watch them all I miss seeing more of you during the week.  

Separate and, in fact, not equal--an email to Rachel Maddow

 

Rachel,  I cannot thank you enough for reporting on the death of Judy Heumann, a wheelchair bound advocate for 

the rights of the disabled who suffered from polio she caught in1948. As a survivor of polio in 1954, six months before the Salk vaccine, I appreciate every day what her efforts mean to me.   I can drive and find a closer parking space and/or a ramp that makes it easier for a disabled person to enter a building which must be navigated.

Polio paralyzed my right leg entirely up to and including my hip.  I am 74 and now realize the difficult impact of losing

entirely the use of that leg.  I am at risk of falling and have broken my right leg femur three times because of it.  I cannot fracture it again.  Thanks to Judy Heumann for making my life and countless others in this nation and even the world just a little bit easier. 

Moreover, we must eradicate the separate but equal concept not only for the handicapped but we need, of course, to eradicate it for every other minority group that still suffers from its paralyzing effect. 

Keep fighting the good fight, Rachel, for all the other minority groups in our land.  Let us make the "John Lewis Voting Right Act" the law of the land once again this time permanently because separate, in fact, never means equal.