Judgment at Nuremberg

In response to an MSNBC story "As Bush re-emerges on public stage, a mixed presidential legacy takes shape" here or link below I stated the following:

George Bush is dedicating his presidential library this weekend.  The mainstream press waxes salutary as to this incompetent president's legacy.  George W. Bush has no legacy except a malodorous one.  Bush, a ne'er-do-well, took advantage of his name and family’s position, went a-wall from his military Vietnam-avoiding National Guard service, and belongs in the annals of one of the worst presidents in US history.

 

The fact that he is coming out of his hole only to receive obligatory praise by all living presidents who will attend his library dedication makes me ill. This man deserves nothing.  Those who speak in his favor can have no idea what he did, the effects of which are experienced even to this day through a myriad of mistakes that were the hallmark of his presidency. He is the first to have waged preemptive war on a country that did nothing to us and put our troops in harms way leading many to slaughter.  He took this country to a war in Iraq based on lies. 

 

He and his minions are responsible for the worst American foreign policy blunder in US history.  The War in Iraq fractured that tinderbox part of the world handing Iran the keys to the kingdom and destabilized a region. He and his entire administration who wove these bold faced lies took the nation to war on a credit card costing trillions and responsible for the humongous debt about which Republicans say they care so much.

 

On his watch the 9/11 attacks occurred and could have been avoided if he had paid attention to the fateful Presidential Daily Briefing that said Al Qaeda poised to strike in the US.  Instead, Bush went on vacation and took more vacation days than any modern president. He promoted violence and the unnecessary deaths of thousands, responsible for 2 million refugees giving rise to a state of civil war that exists in Iraq today.  His war gives rationale to the very terrorists with whom he said our nation was at war.  His ill-named "Mission Accomplished" ten year war gives life to Al Qaeda’s propaganda that the US is out to destroy Islam and created Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula where it never existed before.

 

Moreover, it was on his watch that the economy nearly collapsed bailing his Wall Street cronies out with taxpayer money asking nothing of the banks whose fraud created the mess.  This nincompoop who could not utter an intelligible sentence was entrusted with the fate of our nation and the world.  His failure was epic.  His administration was born in lies and it ended in lies.  His so called legacy counts on the short sometimes very short strand of American memory.

 

George W. Bush should have been impeached as his crimes truly did rise to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors.  It is a miracle he and many in his administration, proud of their creation of torture, have not been tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.  If the Nazi war crimes judgment at Nuremberg trials do not apply to George W. Bush and his henchmen then they apply to no one at all!

 

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/24/17881706-as-bush-re-emerges-on-public-stage-a-mixed-presidential-legacy-takes-shape?threadId=371040

An overreaction of law enforcement? -- I DON'T think so

Interesting article in Salon.com entitled "Tsarnaevs got the attention they wanted."   The author thought law enforcement's response during and before the lock-down was over done and played into the perpetrators' hands.  I disagreed and posted on Salon as such. I post the author's article here or on the link below.  My response was as follows: 

International terrorism or the threat of it is not simply by comparison benign gun shots of one gang against another for drugs or is it like one disgruntled lover against another. It was not simply looking for one wounded guy.  NO ONE let me repeat NO ONE could know what devices he had or did not have.  They knew they killed coldly and indiscriminately.

The threat of international terrorism is REAL now posed against all of the west and non-west alike.  What does that mean?  Historically insane western foreign policy adventures have brought us to the point where terrorism against mainly innocents all over the globe is REAL.  What do we mean by real?  We mean the threat of the use in our era of radiological, biological, chemical or nuclear weaponry IF deranged religious/politicos who have NO idea what religious fascist brutality truly is COULD be perpetrated at the blink of an eye.

My left of center compatriots and, yes, I am a very proud liberal, I think DO NOT GET IT.  They simply turn their backs on the violent monstrosity that has existed and is now growing exponentially everywhere.

This incident could NEVER have been treated like merely a bank robbery or a drug shoot out because it had the aforementioned components.  What will it take the Glenn Greenwald's (a man I think brilliant) of the nation to understand that treating these events as just another ho hum gun violence reality is IDIOTIC. He and others think that we should immediately read them their rights at all costs! 

I ask do you want to live or don't you?  Do you want to live as many are in Japan after the meltdown of the nuclear Fukishima plant?  They are generationally at horrific risk of cancers and other horrendous diseases that are the result of radiation from that plant and THAT was simply a nuclear power plant.

Ask our vets from Vietnam what diseases from our own Agent Orange wreaked upon them?  Ask Iraq vets what illnesses they suffer.  Ask YOURSELF if it's worth closing down a city and a couple of towns to avoid the POSSIBILITY of this immature child-like perpetrator wreaking that THAT kind of havoc upon us all.  The response to this sickening event was handled with GREAT expertise.  I can fault none of it.  The media will do what it always does whether it’s about Justin Bieber or a terrorist attack.  That will NEVER change.

Will this make others who do not know a fascist belief system from nursery school rhymes plan something again?  Who knows? MAYBE just MAYBE it may give those who would do such a dastardly act think TWICE and a THIRD time before they do.  If they do this nation is prepared to do whatever is possible to thwart it and to protect its people.

I say kudos to everyone who brought these malcontents to justice.  We all win because they did!

http://www.salon.com/2013/04/20/tsarnaevs_got_the_attention_they_wanted/?source=newsletter

Due Process, the Boston bomber and the Will to Live

I consider my politics left of center.  I have been so all my adult life. What my leftist like-minded allies seldom do is protest against the massive violence that has become the very constant face of Middle East nation states.  Our nation must defend against the complexities of that threat.  This is not simple trench warfare. This is not one army fighting the males of another army over turf.  We are, yes, a different nation since 9/11 and now even more so since the Boston bombing too.  We are different and it matters not what our national policies were in past decades within the Middle East and elsewhere that have brought us to this point – and I do think there have been egregious errors in policy that have done so.  What matters, now, since the past cannot be undone is to accept the hand we were dealt, change policy when possible but defend our lives and homeland at any cost.  

There is STILL, I believe, even with all the mistakes this aggressive power has made through decades, something called America that is worth defending.

The early 19^th century philosopher Schopenhauer believed the strongest instinct of man was “the will to live.”  The possibility exits now that massive damage could be inflicted yet again by the acquisition of the most threatening weaponry IF they are appropriated overseas which could hurt perhaps even generationally cripple our nation.  We are NOT talking about simple armed conflict we are talking destructive forces beyond comprehension and all the cost, damage and death that would encompass.  Do you think anyone would care about the bomber's Miranda rights if those who share his political beliefs were to have access to the unthinkable?  I aver most would not.  

The civil libertarian lawyer, writer and brilliant commentator Glenn Greenwald and others like him are fierce defenders without exception of the Fourth and Fifth Amendment Constitutional due process.  I share that basic political thought with them but NOT at all costs.  I will NOT advocate for those who have no Constitutional due process, who would torture and terrorize on a whim and whose concept of free speech is relegated only to the “appropriate” religious texts.  Let the Greenwald’s of our country try to advocate as they do here but in the most violent part of the Middle East and see how quickly their Miranda rights are read to them.  They, of course, would not be.  

The stakes are too high now for me to care about the Boston bomber's Miranda rights if dangers of other bombings loom in the distance.  Let our law enforcement do what it must, preserve due process when it CAN and suspend it only when necessary.  I will live with it -- emphasis on LIVE!

One of the best UTUBES yet. I urge you to click on the link and enjoy profundity!

It's entitled "We Got Scared" but do not be put off by the title, it really has a happy ending IF we choose it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ela3ChTzFcA  or here

A Final Marathon Thought -- So We Can Live

As the morning dawns I add to my sentiments about the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  With the exception of the killing of bin Laden I have never in my life ever seen such amazing expertise of law enforcement officials.  It was jaw dropping.  It is a tribute to those in law enforcement on the state, local and federal government levels.  It is a tribute, too, to our elected officials including Mayor Menino, Governor Patrick and most especially to the president whose focus is laser sharp in defending this nation.  We see that time and time again from bin Laden to Boston, the president's spine of steel shows.

 

            I, a native of Massachusetts all of my life, was asked many times by those who contacted me from out of the state if I felt safe.  Even IF I were in the target zone area I still would have felt safe.  I know and have faith in this country to protect us all.  Never for one minute did I think law enforcement would fail.  I knew they would not.  

 

             I often asked my father because he was a Jew was he afraid during WWII living here as the nation entered the war.  He said a resounding no because, he said, he knew this country would not fail us and he felt safe when so many Jews of Europe surely did not.  

 

             I reiterate his sentiment in our time. 

 

             I give kudos to all those who put their lives on the line so that we all can live.  

    

Incredible -- Boston Massacre II

With the exception of the killing of bin Laden I have never in my life ever seen such amazing expertise of law enforcement officials.  It was jaw dropping.  Kudos to all those who put their lives on the line so that we all can live.  

Incredible indeed!

Food for Thought

This quote by Tacitus, historian of the Roman Empire 56 A.D., I thought captured my opinion about the worst foreign policy blunder in US history, the War in Iraq. It may even be responsible for the utter mess, quagmire and phenomenally expensive war on terror that we fight to this day. The article by Ralph Nader that follows the quote is particularly descriptive as to why this is so. I thought it food for thought as one reflects on our nation's heartbreaking events fueling and consuming our body politic's glucose leaving us weary, tired, broken and broke!

Tacitus: A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all.

In the Public Interest by Ralph Nader

He is Comfortable with Bush's Inferno

George W. Bush is riding high. A megamillionaire, from the taxpayer-subsidized Texas Rangers company, he makes $150,000 to $200,000 per speech, receives a large presidential pension and support facilities and is about to dedicate the $500 million George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum on April 25.

President Obama will be at the dedication, continuing to legitimize Mr. Bush, as he did from the outset by announcing in 2009 there would be no investigations or prosecutions of the Bush officials for their crimes.

In an interview with the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/us/politics/george-w-bush-welcomes-granddaughter-and-a-library.html?_r=0), Mr. Bush continued to say he has no regrets about his Presidency. “I’m comfortable with what I did,” he said, “I’m comfortable with who I am.” He added, “Much of my presidency was defined by things that you didn’t necessarily want to have happen.”

But he and Dick Cheney made them happen, although Mr. Bush attributed some military events to Providence. One of the “things” he is comfortable with was his criminal, unconstitutional invasion and occupation of Iraq, which took over one million Iraqi lives – children, women and men – created 5 million refugees and committed overall sociocide on that country which posed no threat to the U.S. The carnage continues to this day by a militarized al-Qaeda-in-Iraq that didn’t exist before his invasion.

Apparently, Mr. Bush is “comfortable” with the price paid by the U.S. soldiers and their broken families – over 5,000 fatalities and suicides, 200,000 injuries, illnesses and traumatic syndromes – and by U.S. taxpayers, who over time will pay an estimated 3 trillion dollars according to Nobel Laureate and economist, Joseph Stiglitz.

Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) has said repeatedly that Bush and Cheney “lied us into invading Iraq.” Such an understatement. Bush and Cheney not only lied about Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction, they also deceived, covered-up, corrupted or intimidated the mass media, bullied an abdicatory Congress, and delivered a false address to the United Nations with the now regretful Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Two secretary generals of the UN subsequently declared Bush’s war of aggression against Iraq to be a violation of international law.

Bush suffers no qualms about the brutal realities of his war and his recidivist violations of our Constitution, federal statutes and international treaties. “One of the real challenges of life is when you complete a chapter, you don’t atrophy, that you continue to find ways to contribute,” said Bush in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. Army veteran Tomas Young is atrophying from his massive wounds in Iraq. Before he decides to end his devastated life, possibly this month, he summoned his moral energy to write Mr. Bush a poignant letter calling him to account for his war crimes (http://www.truthdig.com/dig/item/the_last_letter_20130318/). Bush, however, never responds. After all he’s “comfortable” and that bloody “chapter” is closed.

The American people have yet to come to terms with the reality that presidents are above the law. Presidents can commit repeated crimes in an outlaw presidency so long as they can invoke, however falsely and vaguely, national security.

Were presidents to engage in personal crimes or obstruction of justice, like Nixon with the burglary of the Democratic Party’s Watergate offices, the law and Congress can hold them accountable. But Bush and Cheney had bigger fish to fry with their destruction of justice. As the ancient Roman historian Tacitus wrote: “The worst crimes were dared by a few, willed by more, and tolerated by all.”

Fortunately, for our fragile democracy, there were dissenters. After 9/11, leading civil liberty groups objected to provisions in the Patriot Act that allowed searches of your home and businesses without telling you for 72 hours. And, the muzzling of librarians and custodians of your financial medical records from even telling you that the feds are retrieving them. And warrantless snooping on millions of Americans.

In the months leading to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, more than three hundred retired generals, admirals, high ranking officers, national security officials and diplomats spoke out against any invasion.

Retired General and former Director of the National Security Agency Bill Odom called the invasion the most strategic military blunder in our history. Bush’s father was privately opposed to the invasion, urging his top retired advisors, James Baker and Brent Scowcroft to speak and write against the pending invasion.

The venerable, conservative American Bar Association weighed in with three White Papers declaring Bush’s many signing statements – that he was not bound by legislation – domestic surveillance and treatment of enemy combatants were unconstitutional actions. Bush never acknowledged these reports. (http://nader.org/2013/04/19/aba-white-papers/.) And this week, a bipartisan report by the Constitution Project (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/report-us-resorted-torture-after-911-terror) concluded that Bush/Cheney approved torture practices at Guantanamo.

All the above plus mass anti-war rallies in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere did not slow the march to war. The protests were not strong enough to penetrate the political and electoral systems. Until that happens, criminal unconstitutional actions regularly conducted at top levels of our government will not, as a practical matter, trigger either the application of the rule of law or the impeachment authority of the U.S. Congress. To the contrary, each succeeding President feels free to push the illegal, unconstitutional envelope further.

So the lawless legacy of George W. Bush continues under Obama – sometimes worse, sometimes not. Indefinite detention, arbitrary use of military rather than civil tribunals, secret evidence and secret laws, war crimes, secret courts, immunity from judicial review, continual snooping on citizens, extraordinary renditions to foreign countries and, for the first time, President Barack Obama claims to have the right to assassinate an American citizen, far from the battlefield, in his sole secret judgment as prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner. All shame the Obama Administration.

The above list comes from the great law professor, Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, who published a chilling article in the Washington Post on January 15, 2012.

The Presidential outlawry continues as a bipartisan dissolution of our constitutional system because the vast majority of the “we the people” are not demanding our constitutionally sovereign power. They give truth to Tacitus’ dictum.

On April 25, George W. Bush will bask in the fawning media sunlight of his presidential library and museum. The devastated people of Iraq and the soldiers of America, sent to kill and die in Bush’s illegal, boomeranging war, may have some exhibits, pictures and artifacts to suggest for the museum’s collection.

One Choice

I am shell shocked by the Boston Marathon violence so I cannot write much at the moment.  What can one say? Violence, violence, violence -- senseless utterly ridiculous violence whether domestic terrorism, Middle East terrorism, war or the violence perpetrated on strangers, children and even within one's own family.  It has meant  hundreds of thousands of lives cut short for nothing! 

The world is more violent than I can ever remember or have ever known and it is sad, very very unquestionably sad!  

Love those who are close to you, hug them and appreciate them every single day that your eyes open to see another day on this beautiful planet.  Fate chose us to see that beauty.  Think on it and reflect that beauty in all that lives around us. 

We have one choice and really the only choice: love and care for one another and treat each day as if it were our last.  

BOSTON MAYHEM

GLOBE: 2 Dead, 120+ Injured... Report: 8-Year-Old Killed... ABC: Remote Detonations... Obama: 'We Still Don't Know Who Did This, Or Why'... NYT: More Devices Found... DEVELOPING... 
How To Help... WATCH: HuffPost Live

What can one say? violence, violence, violence -- sensless utterly ridiculous violence whether domestic terrorism, Islamic terrorism and war...hundreds of thousands of lives cut short for nothing! sad, very very unquestionably sad!

Teaching Truth – The Holocaust and its Denial – the Problem and the Rub

A teacher’s job -- article here or below, in an Albany, New York high school is on the chopping block because of an assignment he gave to his students.  The article entitled “Outrage after teacher assigns Nazi propaganda lesson on why Jews were evil” gives one understanding why this has become a controversy and why the teacher’s job hangs in the balance. 

 

The Holocaust is one of the seminal events in the history of the Jewish people that shaped much of my left of center political thought. I think about the Jewish tragedy every day of my life. When the weather is harsh, freezing cold or boiling hot I think about my people. I think about how much I take for granted. I think about how warm I am in winter and how cool I am in the blistering heat of summer. I think about my people of that time in that era who froze to death in winter and died of heat stroke in summer. I think of those who were worked, starved and beaten to death in any kind of weather.  I think about those who survived the onslaughts but went to their deaths anyway Zyklon B gassed ending up in the ovens of Auschwitz and many other extermination camps strewn all over Europe.

 

Those who have said it could be a teachable moment, a moment of clarification and understanding for the students of that instructor's class to look at that time through the historical eyes of an ordinary German make a point BUT either that teacher had to preface that assignment with exactly what he was trying to do, what the TRUTH of the Holocaust and the murder of between 6 and 15 million Jews truly is or that assignment should not have been given at all.

 

Even if the teacher met all the aforementioned criteria I believe that assignment was given to high school students who probably do not have the sophistication to understand what the teacher's intent was and what it should mean. Some even in their naïveté could believe the arguments illuminating Nazi propaganda and ordinary Germans' sentiment against the Jew were true. And THAT IS THE PROBLEM and the rub. In my opinion, that assignment was given to students who are too young and was seemingly given with NO clear representation of why the teacher thought this important for them to do. 

 

Until I understand more about this teacher and what HIS philosophical and political thoughts are I cannot make a judgment as to whether he should continue to teach. This is NOT a free speech issue IF the teacher harbors Nazi philosophic premises himself and wants to impart them to his students. THEN it is a matter of teaching the TRUTH of the Holocaust and the egregious mistake of those who have the unmitigated gall to teach the falsity of Holocaust denial.

 

A science teacher CANNOT teach the earth is flat, CANNOT teach the sun revolves around the earth, CANNOT teach that bad humors cause disease and a history teacher CANNOT teach denial of the Holocaust. None of those statements is up for debate because truth is truth, cannot be denied and taught to young students as false.

 

The earth revolves around the sun, the earth is NOT flat, bad humors do NOT cause disease and the murder of between 6 and 15 million Jews is indisputable FACT. 

 

Unless the teacher can present a damn good reason for giving the assignment to his high school students, most importantly tell what HE believes to be truth and if he is in any way a Holocaust denier he should be summarily fired!

 

 

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/12/17725459-outrage-after-teacher-assigns-nazi-propaganda-essay-on-why-jews-were-evil?threadId=3703538&commentId=75500888#c75500888

 

 

 

A Beautiful Love Letter to the Developer of Social Security--Frances Perkins

Last night Larry O'Donnell presented a segment on a little known liberal in the administration of Franklin Roosevelt, the first woman in a presidential cabinet, Secretary of Labor, Frances Perkins. Social Security was her idea and under Roosevelt's instruction she was given the task of developing it and also that it could pass Constitutional muster.   

I watch the excellent Larry O'Donnell every evening.  His show, in my opinion, is one of the best on cable television.  I have been treated to endless interesting analysis and riving renditions about the issues of our time by a master of politics.  The segment, though, last evening about Francis Perkins, born on April 10, 1880  was a birthday card love letter from Larry to her and a gift to us.  It was one of Larry O'Donnell's best commentaries.  

You will hear her tell us when she was 82 how she went about developing this safety net Social Security we rely on to this day.  It is why history and elections matter and why we should know about them.  The short segment was fascinating.  I urge you to click on the link here or below to listen to it.

The Bug

Since I have little time this a.m. this was written at lightening speed simply to get to McConnell to put my progressive voice on record. 

Really Senator McConnell your statement about the so called "bugging" your office and that this is how the left operates in Nixonian fashion is disgusting.  GUESS WHAT YOU who are among the misinformed Nixon WAS a Republican!  An entire book entitled Bush's Brain included things about Rove's bugging proclivities.  Not to mention the Acorn fiasco of the Republican James O'Keefe videotaping an office illegally and committing other dirty tricks of which there are a PLETHORA.  

You may think you are putting one over on your misinformed flock but this Democrat/liberal KNOWS Republican lies which they tell constantly.  So if you want to catch someone for bugging look to your OWN staff or other Republicans planting the bug.  The left does NOT operate like that but Republicans surely do. It would NOT shock me if the bug was planted by someone in your OWN Party known for its  dirty tricks whether voter suppression or the telling of LIES and tons of them!  Perhaps like the joke of your Party the BUG is on you!

Unthinkable? Think Again!

The linked article  here or below "Could Democrats Be Rebranded" As the 'Anti-Social Security Party'? by Richard Eskow begins as such: 

"It's time to think the unthinkable: The leader of the Democratic Party is about to submit a budget which cuts Social Security benefits. Party officials are reportedly promoting candidates with no track record on key issues and no apparent interest in politics."  

I urge you to read on and wonder what is happening to our country and how a minority Republican Party gets to wield so much power.  Moreover, I urge you to wonder too how a Democratic Party could be co-opted to think they will run candidates with no ideological bent who will play into the seemingly eternal Republican goal of gutting Social Security and ultimately Medicare along with it.  

Could the electorate be SO stupid as to seek revenge on the Democratic Party blaming the president for the sequester murder of jobs and for submitting an economic bill disaster which would cut Social Security through the so called chained CPI?  Republicans are counting on the electorate, in bitter revenge, to fault Democrats in 2014 for something Republicans did thereby electing more Republicans whom we know have been dying for years to ruin those lifesaving safety nets altogether.  

Republicans are counting on the electorate to place in office more Republicans as revenge for a Republican-forced Democratic compromise on a budget bill.    Forgive the play on the word "dying."  The dying LITERALLY that will be done if Republicans are handed more power will be done by the middle class, the aged and the poor.  This is serious life and death generational stuff.

The fault for our bestial economic stalemate has been the Republican intransigence and their goal to defeat all things Obama no matter the devastating effects to the country.  If they could not do it through gaining the presidency they will do it by gumming up the works in Congress with the eventual takeover of the House AND the Senate in mind.  

Simply look at the Republican agenda in the states where Republicans do have it all.  They are creating NO jobs but are shoving reactionary social policy down people's throats taking away all notions of privacy with no jobs in sight.  On the federal level if Republicans gain power they will take your lives too!

What can YOU do short of a violent insurrection?  Create days of rage by WRITING, emailing or smoke signaling ALL your representatives, senators and the president.  Tell them NOT to cut Social Security or Medicare benefits.  In 2014 get out to vote for DEMOCRATIC candidates who are not empty suits if you want a country left.  If you think the scenario postulated could not happen THINK AGAIN.  It very well could and WILL if you do not act! 

Pass this on to whomever you like.  I post the link to the article above and below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/could-democrats-be-rebran_b_3041851.html?utm_source=Alert-blogger&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Email%2BNotifications

A Topsey Turvey Alice in Wonderland Nation from Head to Thighs

We live in a topsy turvey nation.  What is up to progressives is down to right wingnuts everywhere.  Could the 2010 Republican takeover of the House and state legislatures all over the nation have created this monstrosity of our stuck-in-cement-unable-to-rule nation?  I suspect it did.  It is something we must ameliorate in 2014 -- MUST being the operative word.

 

Republicans SAY they want small government.  How is it small government when what they want government to do is enter the privacy of a woman's uterus to determine for her everything from abortion and contraception to even the TYPE of relations one has with one's mate.  Nothing with respect to control of one's sexual proclivities and the private human FEMALE anatomy is off limits to them.  Naturally, in Republicanland, if one is gay then one has NO choice of one’s life at all! Nice--NOT.   Republicans are OBSESSED with sex and the restriction of it!

 

Anti-choice state legislation is passing in states all over the nation where Republican wingnuts control state legislatures as they do in the south and many other "flyover" states.  They are TRYING in the Congressional House to do the same thing.  Thankfully, for now, rational thought still exists in the senate and the presidency.  If Republicans EVER control it all ... well, paraphrasing Gone with the Wind's Scarlet Ohara, I'm not going to think about that.

 

Am I daft or did I hear Republicans say they wanted to create jobs? Guess not.  Forget the jobs.  Their goal is nothing short of returning the nation to a 19th century world or is it the 17th century Puritan world?  Republicans' goals have been from day one, since that fateful 2010 election, in the Congress, states legislatures and in the courts when they can control them, is to stuff THEIR brand of religious indoctrination and social engineering down our collective throats. South Carolina -- get this -- EVEN tried to gather up enough support for making that state a "Christian" state.  I kid you not. They, so far, have tabled that wholly unconstitutional gem.  Google Rachel Maddow for her explicit description of the insanity that grips red state nation and the halls of the Congressional House of Representatives.

 

Forget the Constitution, forget the separation clause, forget the right to privacy as extremist right wingnuts in state legislatures – mostly men at that – want control of a woman's entire body from head to thighs!  Do they care about providing for the poor, for the jobless, for the sick, for the elderly or for the disabled?  Of course NOT.  They want SMALL government doncha know!  

 

We do live in an Alice in Wonderland topsey turvey nation where up is down and down is up as the science denying idiots move us closer and closer to the social, economic, cultural and science-denying abyss.  I link the article here or below for your reading pleasure.

 

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/06/17623840-kansas-lawmakers-pass-sweeping-anti-abortion-legislation?lite

FOR THIS AND MANY OTHER REASONS REPRESENTATIVE ED MARKEY IS THE ONLY CHOICE FOR THE US SENATE IN THE SOON- TO-BE-HELD DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY IN WHICH WE MUST ALL VOTE.  HE HAS A 100% RATING FROM PROGRESSIVE NATION.  HIS CHOICE IS A MUST AS WE TRY TO INCREASE PROGRESSIVE LIFESAVING VIEWS IN THE SENATE.

Why I Support Ed Markey

We live in a topsy turvey nation.  What is up to progressives is down to Republican rightwing extremists everywhere.  Could the 2010 Republican takeover of the House and state legislatures all over the nation have created this monstrosity of our stuck-in-cement-unable-to-rule nation?  I suspect it did.  It is something we must ameliorate -- MUST being the operative word.  Right now Democrats have the opportunity on April 30 in our special senatorial primary to support Ed Markey, a champion of the rights of women and for many other rational progressive lifesaving causes as well such as gun control legislation.

 

Republicans SAY they want small government.  How is it small government when what they want government to do is enter the privacy of a woman's uterus to determine for her everything from abortion and contraception to even the TYPE of relations one has with one's mate.  Nothing with respect to control of one's sexual proclivities and the private human female anatomy is off limits to them.  Naturally, in Republicanland, if one is gay then one has NO choice of one’s life at all!  Republicans are OBSESSED with sex and the restriction of it!  Radical right wing extremism has become the prevailing face of the once respected mainstream Republican Party and its sometimes conservative compromising Democrats as well.  

 

Anti-choice state legislation is passing in states all over the nation where Republican right wing extremists control state legislatures as they do in the south and many other red states.  They are TRYING in the Congressional House to do the same thing.  Thankfully, for now, rational thought still exists in the senate and the presidency.  If Republicans EVER control it all ... well, paraphrasing Gone with the Wind's Scarlet Ohara, I'm not going to think about that.

 

Am I daft or did I hear Republicans say they wanted to create jobs? Guess not.  Forget the jobs.  Their goal is nothing short of returning the nation to a 19th century world or is it the 17th century Puritan world?  Republicans' goals have been from day one, since that fateful 2010 election, in the Congress, states legislatures and in the courts when they can control them, is to stuff THEIR brand of religious indoctrination and social engineering down our collective throats. South Carolina -- get this -- EVEN tried to gather up enough support for making that state a "Christian" state.  I kid you not. They, so far, have tabled that wholly unconstitutional gem.  

 

Forget the Constitution, forget the separation clause, forget the right to privacy as the extremist right in state legislatures – mostly men at that – want control of a woman's entire body from head to thighs!  Do they care about providing for the poor, for the jobless, for the sick, for the elderly or for the disabled?  Of course NOT.  They want SMALL government doncha know!  

 

We do live in an Alice in Wonderland topsey turvey nation where up is down and down is up as the science denying right wing malevolent move us closer and closer to the social, economic, cultural and science-denying abyss.  

For this and many other reasons Representative Ed Markey is the only choice for the US Senate in the soon-to-be-held Democratic primary.  He has a 100% rating from progressive nation.  Compromise is NOT a choice.  His election is a must as we try to increase the lifesaving progressive science-based rational views in the Senate!  

OUT OF BOUNDS!

If you have not seen the video of Rutgers basketball coach Mike Rice perpetrating physical and verbal violence against his players then click on Youtube and watch it. 

This is some of the most disgusting violent egregious behavior by a coach I have ever seen.  Literally I felt sick to my stomach.  Why on earth Rutgers kept this beast is beyond me. What should happen now? Rutgers has as of this writing fired Rice and appropriately so.   I wonder why it was not done before as there are a plethora of examples on tape of his assaults.  Assault charges should be filed by the players.  Both Rutgers and Rice as an employee of Rutgers should be sued by the parents of the players.  This has been an indecent assault on young men.  It is sadistic violence in extremis on young players with young growing minds.  Rice's behavior has been OUTRAGEOUS and the firing of him should not end the issue.  Rice and Rutgers, a respected institution of higher learning, need to be taught a lesson that is not found in books.  ANY coach EVER violently touching a player or verbally compounding the assault with bigoted profanities is OUT OF BOUNDS!!

Is this what a man in a position of authority over student athletes does to the powerless players? Where is the kinder gentler nation I knew as a child? It seems like it is a long distant memory. We are a part violent, extremist nation and will not be able to survive if we do not learn to ameliorate the worst that is in us.  We need to take a long hard look in the mirror and ask who we are and, more specifically, what kind of nation do we want to be.

In Your Heart You Know He Is Right!

Since the 2000 theft of the presidential election by George W. Bush & Co. I have been loathe to read or watch anything Ralph Nader, the left of center 2000 presidential candidate who took enough votes away from, at that time the infinitely superior Democratic presidential candidate, Al Gore, to allow Bush to steal Florida and “win” the election. The majority conservative Supreme Court handed the CLEARLY unqualified George Bush the hanging chad presidency. We have been paying through the nose for that mistake ever since. Hundreds of thousands have died including thousands of Americans with over 30,000 wounded either bodily, psychically or both. 2 million have become Middle East refugees while if one watches "Democracy Now" one knows the killing in the fragmented Middle East continues even though the lame stream media would have one think otherwise giving the nation sugar coated sap on the evening news that passes for truth but is anything but.

Because of the insane foreign misadventures of neo cons who neo-conned Bush the Lesser to "reform" the Middle East in their rancid image, the powder keg of the globe blew up. Bush, et al racked up a 4 TRILLION dollar debt in a ten-year war that was supposed to last six months and they said would pay for itself though vast Iraqi oil reserves. Oh sure! They love to blame all of this debt and human catastrophe now on the current president. Sorry, it is NOT President Obama's fault.

Add to that horror Republican corruption and an economic catastrophe rivaled only by the Great Depression as Wall Street got bonuses while the rest of us got the boot then one knows WHY Democrats took the whole enchilada in 2008. Unfortunately, Democrats did not retain the House as the 2010 election placed a racist Republican Tea Bag white obstructionist albatross around our collective necks. As Republican South Carolina State Representative Chris Crawford said in January when he told a gathering of doctors, organized by the S.C. Hospital Association, that “it is good politics to oppose the black guy in the White House right now.” How sweet the Republican Party is -- NOT!

Recently, I have been pocketing my anger and have decided to read what Ralph Nader has to say. You know why? As Barry Goldwater's campaign said of Goldwater in 1964 "Because in your heart you know he is right." I offer the following written by Ralph Nader for your reading pleasure.

How Big Corporations Are Unpatriotic

Ralph Nader

March 28, 2013

 
Many giant profitable U.S. corporations are increasingly abandoning America while draining it at the same time.

General Electric, for example, has paid no federal income taxes for a decade while becoming a net job exporter and fighting its hard-pressed workers who want collective bargaining through unions like the United Electrical Workers Union (UE). GE’s boss, Jeffrey Immelt, makes about $12,400 an hour on an 8-hour day, plus benefits and perks, presiding over this global corporate empire.

Telling by their behavior, these big companies think patriotism toward the country where they were created and prospered is for chumps. Their antennae point to places where taxes are very low, labor is wage slavery, independent unions are non-existent, governments have their hands out, and equal justice under the rule of law does not exist. China, for example, has fit that description for over 25 years.

Other than profiteering from selling Washington very expensive weapons of mass destruction, many multinational firms have little sense of true national security.

Did you know that about 80 percent of the ingredients in medicines Americans take now come from China and India where visits by FDA inspectors are infrequent and inadequate?

The lucrative U.S. drug industry – coddled with tax credits, free transfer of almost-ready-to-market drugs developed with U.S. taxpayer dollars via the National Institutes of Health – charges Americans the highest prices for drugs in the world and still wants more profits. Drug companies no longer produce many necessary medicines like penicillin in the U.S., preferring to pay slave wages abroad to import drugs back into the U.S.

Absence of patriotism has exposed our country to dependency on foreign suppliers for crucial medicines, and these foreign suppliers may not be so friendly in the future.

Giant U.S. companies are strip-mining America in numerous ways, starting with the corporate tax base. By shifting more of their profits abroad to “tax-haven” countries (like the Cayman Islands) through transfer pricing and other gimmicks, and by lobbying many other tax escapes through Congress, they can report record profits in the U.S. with diminishing tax payments. Yet they are benefitting from the public services, special privileges, and protection by our armed forces because they are U.S. corporations.

On March 27, 2013, the Washington Post reported that compared to forty years ago, big companies that “routinely cited U.S. federal tax expenses that were 25 to 50 percent of their worldwide profits,” are now reporting less than half that share. For instance, Proctor and Gamble was paying 40 percent of its total profits in taxes in 1969; today it pays 15 percent in federal taxes. Other corporations pay less or no federal income taxes.

Welcome to globalization. It induces dependency on instabilities in tiny Greece and Cyprus that shock stock investments by large domestic pension and mutual funds here in the U.S. Plus huge annual U.S. trade deficits, which signals the exporting of millions of jobs.

The corporate law firms for these big corporations were the architects of global trade agreements that make it easy and profitable to ship jobs and industries to fascist and communist regimes abroad while hollowing out U.S. communities and throwing their loyal American workers overboard. It’s not enough that large corporations are paying millions of American workers less than workers were paid in 1968, adjusted for inflation.

Corporate bosses can’t say they’re just keeping up with the competition; they muscled through the trade system that pulls down on our country’s relatively higher labor, consumer and environmental standards.

Corporate executives, when confronted with charges that show little respect for the country, its workers and its taxpayers who made possible their profits and subsidized their mismanagement, claim they must maximize their profits for their shareholders and their worker pension obligations.

Their shareholders? Is that why they’re stashing $1.7 trillion overseas in tax havens instead of paying dividends to their rightful shareholder-owners, which would stimulate our economy? Shareholders? Are those the people who have been stripped of their rights as owners and prohibited from even keeping a lid on staggeringly sky-high executive salaries ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 an hour or more, plus perks?

Why these corporate bosses can’t even abide one democratically-run shareholders’ meeting a year without gaveling down their owners and cutting time short. To get away from as many of their shareholder-owners as possible, AT&T is holding its annual meeting on April 26 in remote Cheyenne, Wyoming!

Pension obligations for their workers? The award-winning reporter for the Wall Street Journal Ellen E. Shultz demonstrates otherwise. In her gripping book Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers, she shows how by “exploiting loopholes, ambiguous regulations and new accounting rules,” companies deceptively tricked employees and turned their pension plans into piggy banks, tax shelters and profit centers.

Recently, I wrote to the CEOs of the 20 largest U.S. corporations, asking if they would stand up at their annual shareholders’ meetings and on behalf of their U.S. chartered corporation (not on behalf of their boards of directors), and pledge allegiance to the flag ending with those glorious words “with liberty and justice for all.” Nineteen of the CEOs have not yet replied. One, Chevron, declined the pledge request but said their patriotism was demonstrated creating jobs and sparking economic activity in the U.S.

But when corporate lobbyists try to destroy our right of trial by jury for wrongful injuries – misnamed tort reform – when they destroy our freedom of contract – through all that brazenly one-sided fine print – when they corrupt our constitutional elections with money and unaccountable power, when they commercialize our education and patent our genes, and outsource jobs to other countries, the question of arrogantly rejected patriotism better be front-and-center for discussion by the American people. 

Glacier Calving --THIS IS OUR INCONVENIENT TRUTH

This is IMPORTANT for ALL to see.  THIS IS CLIMATE change at its most frightening.  It is what the inconvenient truth is all about!  When these things happen that gargantuan chucks of polar glaciers break off as the oceans warm since carbon pollution raises the earth's temperature, we run the risk as they happen more and more that our cities like NYC WILL be submerged with massive feet of water.  There will or could be no more at least lower Manhattan ever again. You can imagine what this toll would take on the rest of Manhattan, Boston and ALL cities that border the ocean around the globe.   

Our cities all over the earth grew up BECAUSE they were ports to the ocean.

THIS is how much desperate trouble man is in as our volcanic weather patterns so CLEARLY show.  Man has polluted the earth SO badly that he threatens his very existence on planet earth.

AMAZING video, the most amazing I have ever seen!  Feel free to forward this to anyone you choose.  Climate change is NO joke and it is sin to deny it. It is real and will be coming to a city near you!

Click here or below to see it.

 

"CHASING ICE" captures largest glacier calving ever filmed

 

 

Thinking -- Prop 8/DOMA

Yes, we really do have to wait to see what the justices say in their opinion. Brief statement: The BEST way it could be struck down is to say that DOMA is unconstitutional because of the EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE in the Fourth Amendment and that would apply to Prop 8 as well. That would be the best for the pro gay side because then ALL the states would not be able to enact Const. Amendments against it. Of course the right wingnut states would go berserk. So I think THAT is not going to happen because SCOTUS is not that brave like the Warren Court of 1954 Brown v. Board so it probably will not happen in my lifetime.


What is more probable I THINK (not sure) is that Prop 8 will have possibly no standing in SCOTUS referring it back to the CA fed court which ruled it was unconstitutional so gay marriage which now is ahead in public opinion there now anyway WILL be legal in CA. As for DOMA, the Court I suspect will rule it a states rights issue and that is where it is legal those married WILL be able to get Fed. benefits. They will say it is not legal for the Fed. government to discriminate IF and only IF those states that say okay to gay marriage then the Feds cannot discriminate.

So what happens next? As usual when one looks at rights for African Americans since slavery, when one looks at women's rights going back to the Revolutionary War, it will be a LONG LONG slow hard slog as each individual state will have to legalize it on its own.

When will the southern reactionary states EVER recognize it? Many if not most won't so at another time in another day when the generation that is old eventually dies and their children assume power little by little more states will get it. I say MORE. Some may NEVER get it so gays will have to move to states that have it and that is OKAY by me since many gays are very successful and wealthy. Bring that money right on to Mass I say. BTW, why I LOVE this wonderful state. We were the first to recognize gay marriage thanks in large part to the Mass Sup. Ct. headed by Margaret Marshall. I LOVE MY STATE the bluest of blue the most progressive in the country ... well usually!

This is just an brief quick overview as I read the tea leaves. I as usual reserve the right to change my opinion!

NOT JUMPING

for joy quite yet because it will take months before the decision is made but the headlines on NBC are below as is the link to the story!

COURT SEEMS SET TO SCRAP DOMA

Here's the story:  http://www.nbcnews.com/

Who would have EVER believed it in the late 1960's when I became politically active.  It was in the days of Anita Bryant and all that followed. I am thankful for SO SO SO many who are young even before they understand the reality who they are this decision HOPEFULLY will save them from thinking they are something awful or worse ending their lives. 

 I put the big change at AIDS and the outing of big celebrities because of it and of course Stonewall in 1969 the first time gays rioted in Greenwich Village and the late 60's that changed everything.  AMAZING.  Truthfully, I am  hopeful but it ain't over til it's over.  The pro marriage straight religious wingnuts had NO argument.  Their representation could simply mount no defense but we'll see in three months when the decision is handed down.

The Bad Joke is on Plymouth County's Sheriff McDonald

The joke Sheriff McDonald made at a breakfast with mostly Republicans was DISGUSTING but not surprising coming from Republicans.

Lincoln was ASSASSINATED NOT just wounded like Cheney's friend whom McDonald claimed it was like. It is NOT the same. Millions make comments in private and on public forums like the Internet both for and against the president. Some against strain credulity but are defended on First Amendment grounds. I agree anyone has the right to say politically negative things against anyone in office. This president, however, has received more RACIST death threats than any president bar none.

The difference between simply online criticisms no matter how noxious is the fact that Sheriff McDonald is a public persona and one that is SUPPOSED to advocate law and order. It would be different if it were just another person but he is SUPPOSED to represent ALL the people of Plymouth County.

Beyond even that is that he was casting a humorous light on one of the nation's most heinous crimes; one which has had and still does have PROFOUND implications for the negative trajectory of race relations through this century. Lincoln is on Mt. Rushmore for God's sake. NOTHING is funny absolutely NOTHING is funny about the assassination or attempted one of President Lincoln or ANY president. If the shoe were on the other foot and it were Ronald Reagan, who was I might add in fact nearly assassinated, I would say the same thing against making a joke. Making a joke about it is OUT OF BOUNDS! This is NOT appropriate for the subject of comedy. Shame on those who laughed and SHAME ON Sheriff McDonald! He should be FIRED.

A New Pope -- I HOPE!

I have been an ardent critic of the Vatican which is my right BUT I am not -- certainly NOT-- impervious to error.  When I make one, and I have made many observational errors, I am not afraid or incapable of admitting them. SO FAR, emphasis on so far, there is something about this pope I like. I do not agree with him on the social issues BUT I LOVE his reaching out to the poor, I LOVE his going to AIDS patients irrespective of his view on sexuality and things related to it, and attending to those stricken. MAYBE this is a pope who can change things; when I look at him I want to embrace him and say PLEASE keep saying things about the inequities and the sins of our economic systems and continue to be an advocate for the poor.

He SEEMS to be a humanitarian despite the stands he took on social issues years ago. Maybe it was his way of being able to slowly rise through the Catholic ranks ascending ultimately to the papacy so he can really do something. I am willing to change my views and although I am Jewish and very agnostic at that I say, Holy Father, help us. We need someone something to lead us out of such desperate times. I am willing to listen. So far I mostly like what I hear and I like what I see reaching out of the popemobile into the crowd.

As for the rest there is NO way he could EVER change the church's stand on abortion.  Do NOT even look for that. Maybe though he is changing the focus AWAY from the bedroom and, as NYT ediotorialist Frank Bruni and someone else from another newspaper whose opinion I value said, "into the soup kitchens."  Maybe he would stop by the boardroom too as he talks about the inequities of our economic system.

I am willing to give him a chance. Isn't that what Jesus said to turn the other cheek so despite the past behavior of the Church, I so far, like their choice for pope! I do reserve the right to change my opinion.