Lloyd Kaye: “Metro West News, November 29, 2015 Lives lost to 'knee-jerk militarism” -- My Response

Lloyd Kaye--Lives lost to knee-jerk militarism:  There are still some people unwilling to walk down the path of militarism. I am one of them.

Vietnam was insane. Iraq was a crime. And what we have done and doing to the Middle East and its people is simple indiscriminate bombing of huge populations of civilians. There is no justification, only families left lifeless in their own homes as a result of 500 pound bombs from U.S. aircraft or drones. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and now Syria. Justifying this policy of militarism has never been and will never be acceptable.

The result of such large-scale bombing has already left millions of refugees all over the borders of Jordan and other nations unable to provide the services needed for so many. The unwillingness of the West to reform the Picot-Sykes borders or to stop supporting dictatorships for decades at a time has resulted in a societal destabilization of the Middle East and is now spreading to Europe and Asia. One of the problems related to all this is the unwillingness of the West to admit publicly what they have done in the Middle East the past 40 years.

Sadly, I am hoping mature diplomatic negotiations and agreements will take place and prevail. However, the knee-jerk reaction of militarism has again taken the West down a path of wasted time and resources and lives.

My Response:

Lloyd, another wonderfully written opinion by you and one to which I agree most profoundly. Nations it seems rarely admit fault or guilt for the heinous actions of violence they employ in war unless they are roundly defeated. With the exception of Nazi Germany I am having a hard time coming up with ones who admit guilt.

Every war you site in which the US has engaged in merciless tactical killing of innocents I believe is correct. At least the obliteration of the hospital of Doctors Without Borders engendered an apology and an admitted mistake by US military brass but that is rare. Not only does the US not apologize for is gruesome mistakes of waging futile wars it does not usually even admit the mistakes exist.

The Middle East mess is courtesy of a George Bush administration -- a man who did not have the cerebral capability needed for a president of the most powerful nation on earth. It was chilling that man who did not even get the popular vote was elected by a politicized Supreme Court. Now we pay the price when we elect clearly unqualified leaders.

The chickens are coming home to roost even to our allies because this nation post WWII is addicted to war that makes millions of bucks for our Washington entrenched military industrial complex. The first rule of an alcoholic addiction problem is to admit one has one. Now we suffer not only in trillions of bucks wasted but so many lives lost and other lives by the tens of thousands perhaps if one counts those who are on the receiving end of the bunker busting bombs millions ruined. It is a tragedy, an American tragedy, of Shakespearean proportions which still has no end in sight.

A Thanksgiving response to a friend

The sentiments that you said in your email made me cry out of thankfulness. You are MY template for all that is good in us. I am more than thankful for you, I am blessed because of you!

I just had time to read the attachment you sent. There is nothing to oppose. The Indians like so many "others" got their posterior handed to them by Anglo Europeans. Learning these things does not surprise me nor does learning about Indian history before the Anglos had the inclination to overtake the land surprise me either.

What it does is emphasize man's proclivity to view every "other" with suspicion and worthy of ultimately eradication. That never left us as we so often today see war a constant method of ameliorating the bad as we define it. Will it ever be different?
I say the Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the wisdom to accept the things I cannot change, change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference."

Our nation's Thanksgiving myth will probably never be eradicated and in truth maybe it shouldn't be. It emphasizes befriending the "other," sharing a meal with him and accepting each other for who they are. Okay, so it's a myth but the sentiments are good and let's face it the Anglo European culture (though thoroughly mixed) is not going anywhere any time soon. I say, know the truth but remember the good parts of myth as it is better than always thinking that the Anglos brought disease to a people who were later trampled to death, nearly eradicated through the wars that were waged a upon them and the agreements Anglos made with them broken.

What would our nation be like had the Europeans never set foot on this soil? I suspect whatever it would have been it would not be so great. This Mecca of amalgamation that is America may, as Lincoln said, not perish from the earth.

Love always to all those you love in your life

"Spotlight": Why a free press matters

I saw the film "Spotlight" which is, as most likely know, a film about the Boston Globe’s “Spotlight” team’s exposé of systemic pedophile sexual abuse of children by priests in the Catholic Church in Boston and the Church’s cover-up complicity of it.  Viewing it took courage as, quite frankly, some things despite the worldly horrors we are privy to each day, are so noxious, hypocritical and sickening that it takes fortitude to view the stories about it in detail.

 

The film itself starring Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams was expertly crafted and the acting was without flaw.  Happily, it did not reenact the many sickening crimes.  Through a few adults re-telling their horrific experiences one could, I thought, cope with the retelling of their trauma.  It was a seamless and truth-telling reenactment of the "Spotlight" team's investigation of the Catholic Church's most impactful and nearly self-immolative destruction not only in Boston but ultimately all over the nation and even the world.  The Globe's exposé was an earthquake indictment of an institution many thought sat next to God himself.

 

Sadly, most institutions whether the Church or money-driven power-crazed government will sell their soul for a price and the Church paid a heavy price for doing just that transferring pedophile priests from parish to parish and "treatment" centers to "treatment" centers without a whisper to the authorities of the priestly crime of sexual abuse of minors lest it cast aspersions on a sacrosanct institution.  The church remained in silent cover-up of itself despite its rape of so many young souls.

 

I viewed it because I thought it important to do so much as I think it important to view the history of the Holocaust though it is difficult to do. We view these things so that light can be shown on silent darkness and so others may never know such crushing experiences again. "Spotlight" is spotless in its focus and makes crystal clear why a free press matters. Without the exposure of these indelible crimes by the press they might never have seen the light of truthful day and nothing would ever change from one generation to the next.

 

Framing this utterly funny pic Norman Rockwell would love!

Eating Trump would make me sick!

here or

https://www.facebook.com/PeeFartyHatriots/photos/a.146479628702533.28614.146475095369653/1226505297366622/?type=3

MORE TO THANKSGIVNG HISTORY THAN PILGRIMS

I thought this blogger's post below was worthy of note.  It is in response to those who do not celebrate Thanksgiving or do so as a holiday of mourning--the Indians.  There is another story someone posted that remembers history which does not begin in 1620.  I paste it indented and in italics and my response is below it.

There is more to the history of Thanksgiving than the Pilgrims.  He states:

The Mashpee Wampanoag were (literally) decimated before the Pilgrims arrived; first by war with another Indian tribe (the Tarrantine War 1607-15) then by an epidemic (1616-19), leaving only about 10% of the 1600 population to greet the Plymouth landing in 1620.

The then-leader of the Mashpee Wampanoag ( Massasoit) allied with the Pilgrims for protection against the Narraganset, which proved provident when the Narraganset attacked the Wampanoag in 1632 and the Pilgrims came to their aid.

It was not until the next generation that the settlers and the Wampanoag fell out, resulting in the1675/76 King Phillips War (King Phillip was Massasoits's son.)

Few Americans know our own history let alone history before the Pilgrims arrived.  That is the problem. Our history by many is divided into the white hats (the good guys) and the black hats (the bad guys.) If it were examined one would see the hats are a variety of shades of grey.

I for one am thankful my grandparents had the foresight at the beginning of the 20th century to have immigrated here. If they had not either the Russian pogroms or ultimately the Holocaust would have killed them. I celebrate Thanksgiving as my favorite of all American holidays with the knowledge that there is always more to the story.
Every time I take a shower and clean water comes out I sing "God Bless America!" So many in this sad world of ours look forward to a life of famine, disease and/or war. We must help humanity improve living conditions which in the end is the real key to ending conflict and send war to the ash bin of history!

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

THE REPUBLICAN SOUL

Someday historians -- good ones -- will analyze our era, as most now do of my idol FDR’s internment of the American Japanese during WWII, as shameful. NPR broadcast a segment of a Japanese woman who, as a young child, was interned in a Japanese-American camp. What her family went through, like many Holocaust survivors, was heart wrenching. The psychological scars often did not heal and, like many who survived the German camps, her father could not and never did talk about it. Their property was confiscated and their lives wretchedly uprooted.

George Takei of Star Trek fame tells a harrowing story of his family and him bused to a Japanese relocation camp of an American variety. These were people who did NOT hold allegiance to Japan.  They were thoroughly American. Their only sin was to be born Japanese at a time when this nation was at war with Japan.  Interning them is an indelible stain on this nation's history that can never be washed away.  I thought when I heard the rendition of the American Japanese experience that our nation would never again do such a thing but, as the conservative icon Ronald Reagan would say, "There you go again."  The rancid rhetoric and treatment of those Syrians who merely want to escape war with their lives in a nation whose Lady Liberty statue welcomes the huddled masses with open arms is an abomination.

The US Syrian refugee vetting process is in extremis complex and the ad infinitum requirements to get into this country many.  The fiery hoops Syrians must jump through to gain sanctuary let alone citizenship are daunting.  Why Syrian refugees would want to come to our exceptionally unwelcoming land I do not know.  It's hard enough for persons of color whose ancestors came here in chains. Those African Americans who were born here have had their voting rights taken away, many have been jailed and more than a few have been shot dead in the streets by over-reactive police. 

A pox on Republican heads whose racist rhetoric is reflected in what comes out of the mouths of the leading Republican candidates and is a national disgrace. When these mendacious Republicans die may their souls, if they have them, never rest in peace!

"Turkey Shoots Down Russian Military Plane Near Syrian Border" + a joke

"This complicates an already complicated situation in the Middle East"
here or http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/turkey-plane-syria_56541c75e4b0258edb32ce67

Points to remember: Russia's ally is Syria and our ally is the rebels trying to overthrow Syria's Assad. Russia is targeting the rebels, Turkey's enemy is Syria and Turkey is our ally. Turkey just shot down a Russian jet? Sounds like the bane of my existence -- an algebraic word problem:

"If I have 3 apples and you have 9 pencils then how many pancakes will fit on the roof? Purple. Because aliens don't wear hats!" Okay, just trying to see some levity in this horror show. http://weknowmemes.com

Welcome to war in the Middle East. If you thought World War One was too complicated to understand this makes that war seem like a sandbox dispute. This is utter LUNACY and we will be dragged into just what ISIS wants another war.

This is NOT good. I just hope it is not WWIII. Call me a pessimist -- that I am -- but I think there is some merit to the madness of my worried thought.

Mental Illness Madness: Babysitter in alleged Hamilton kidnapping held without bail

Babysitter in alleged Hamilton kidnapping held without bail
Abigail Hanna, 21, allegedly kidnapped 2-year-old: story here or below:

Tom Crosby and his wife should be given heroes' medals. Initially, as they drove down a sparsely-settled dirt road in Rowley, Mass, they thought they saw a doll lying face-down naked in the leaves at the side of the road but they had the good sense to turn around to make sure and by doing so found a little girl shivering from the cold, bruised with cigarette butt burns on her body. They called police and saved that gorgeous child's life. Kudos to them and kudos to all those who were and are involved in the investigation of this heinous crime.

Clearly, the alleged 21 year old perpetrator is saturated with mental illness and, who knows, an arm-chair diagnosis of possibly psychosis. Our nation is drowning in mental illness in so many ways. What happened to us or maybe it was always this way but never discussed. I do not know. We have so many fixes for diseases below the brain but little fix for the brain itself especially so for mental illness. It is very hard to treat and meds are often thrown into a hat to try with little or no measurement for their use. Mental illness, too, takes lives but our culture has little empathy for one who suffers from it. Is it genetics or environment -- nature or nurture? In the end it is a disease which needs an ameliorative fix as other diseases do. Unlike other diseases of the body like diabetes or even cancer mental illness affects behavior and therefore has implication for all of us who are at the other end of its ugly assault.

My heart goes out to everyone in this story. At least there is a happy ending win for the child victim but a probable ruined life loss for the perpetrator of this unconscionable act. Our collective nation should be benefiting from research into the causes and cures of mental illness so that those who suffer from or who are the victims of its onslaught will be spared its ruin.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/11/23/parents-kidnapped-hamilton-girl-expressed-thanks-child-found-safe-after-horrific-ordeal/2qDDMUkpAWEFr5xcHo01AK/story.html

If you want to hear something gorgeous listen--9 years old! "Hello"

She is 9 years old singing Adelle's "Hello" with a phenomenal voice.

here or http://www.drewoliviatillman.com/

Restores my faith in our species.

My letter to Dr. Malk M.A. Kahn of Islamic Center of Boston, Wayland

Dr. Malk M.A. Kahn wrote a condemnation piece of the Paris attacks for the Islamic center in the Middlesex News.  I paste it here and below.  I commented on his thoughts.


It is so disgusting and heinous that Dr. Kahn even has to write an opinion of the Islamic rejection of the Paris attacks and really even all attacks for which innocent Muslims are so grievously indicted. Dr. Kahn, truly I think there are more who harbor views as I do believing in our constitutional system which CLEARLY separates church from state. Your belief is your business and rejecting these unconscionable attacks should NOT have to be stated by you or any in the greater Muslim community.

It is a given through our Constitutional principles that a man is considered innocent and it is up to the state NOT you to account for guilt. Your statement is well received by me, a Jew, who would no more hold you to account for any crime not committed by you than I would for me. Painting the Muslim community with a broad brush of guilt for something most would never think of committing is simply morally reprehensible. Most acts of violence are committed by a few political extremists or psychopaths and most all in the Muslim community are not about that.

Personally, in Paris I loved the hugs given to each other that show love and caring of one another. One woman was a Jew and the man was a Muslim. They hugged proving we are all human. I am you, Dr. Kahn, and you are me. We are the same under the skin. It is sad, indeed, that in this nation we have carnival barker Republican candidates that would take us back nearly a century when Jews were forced to identify themselves as Jews by a star of David on their clothing. Trump makes me ashamed.

The day when someone forces you to enter your name in a data base or wear a crescent on your lapel is the day I leave what will be a God forsaken land that has gone temporarily insane!

THE ANTIDOTE FOR THIS HATRED IS TO KICK REPUBLICANS OUT OF OFFICE EVERYWHERE AND KEEP THE OVAL OFFICE, THE SENATE AND THE HOUSE IN DEMOCRATIC HANDS.  OVERTHROW ELECTORALLY REPUBLICANS IN STATE LEGISLATURES. REPUBLICANS ARE AN EMBARRASSMENT TO THIS NATION.  DO THIS BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.  GET EVERY DEMOCRAT OUT TO VOTE!

Read and Learn

CONFESSIONS OF AN ISIS SPY

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/15/confessions-of-an-isis-spy.html

A Deal Breaker

Glenn Greenwald: It's 'Irrational' To Blame Paris Terrorism On Snowden

"Many large scale terrorist attacks have been successfully perpetrated well before anyone ever heard the name Edward Snowden." Link here or below.

I used to be a Glenn Greenwald fan. I even heard him speak at Harvard where one person said to me he was "a national treasure." I wish I had written the name of that person down to see what he thinks now.

Well before the ISIS attacks, initially when Snowden spilled the beans he and his mouthpiece Glenn Greenwald made me, a civil liberties aficionado, uncomfortable. I saw his pitch BUT also see the realities of the world in which we live. I thought Snowden's leak was utterly dangerous, stupid and naive to a fault.

In an imperfect world one must be intellectually challenged to think that this country's adversaries would accord one the freedom that has been for years accorded to Glenn Greenwald. I always wondered what if Snowden and Glenn lived in Snowden's present residence, Russia, and Snowden had the same job for Russia that he held in the US. What if Snowden saw equal or even more egregious civil liberties abridgements, torture, jail for homosexuals and others who do not meet a patriotic test and even death for those who are deemed traitors to the state would Snowden have felt comfortable doing what he did here there and would Glenn, a citizen of Russia, too, have felt comfortable traveling all over the globe to get this story out?

I submit they would have been jailed without trial in a heartbeat second, probably tortured and then disposed of forthwith. Yes, I am willing, in view of the noxious attacks I have seen from ISIS and others to allow my government to do anything it needs to protect the homeland. I aver one does not appreciate what one has until one looses it and if both Snowden and Greenwald did what they did in Russia they would appreciate how good they had it here.

Snowden and Greenwald cannot pretend to know everything  Snowden released and if there were one shred of information that helped our nation's murderous adversaries -- which I am sure there is -- supporting both Snowden and Greenwald is a deal breaker for me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/glenn-greenwald-irrational-to-blame-snowden-leaks-for-paris-terrorists_564b4005e4b08cda348a7d00?utm_hp_ref=hpl

A Metaphor for Darkness

"Massive Police Raid In Paris Suburb Targets Terror Mastermind

The seven-hour siege focused on Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks."  Link here and below.

 

The Paris plotters are killed or captured but there are oceans more to take their place.  This is the face of eternal war.

12 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia but the genius Bush was persuaded into attacking Afghanistan and Iraq.  Bombing Afghanistan possessed, perhaps, some justification because they provided a safe haven to train those who would and did attack this nation.  Attacking Iraq based on a WMD lie, a nation that did nothing to us, to warrant military invasion became not only insanity but a war crime.  It revived ancient tribal and religious civil wars between Shia and Sunni Islam about which Bush did staggeringly not know.  He did not even know the difference between Shia and Sunni.  Iraq's strong arm Hussein, the glue that kept Iraq together, was deposed and control of all the oil in that area was in the American neocons’ sights.

 

The neo con barbaric know nothings like Cheney, Wolfowitz, Pearle and others were salivating as their long-held vision for total American domination of that region was, it seemed to them, possible and Bush’s  cozy love relationship with Prince Bandar of the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia -- you know where massive amount of oil flows -- was the ticket to ride.

 

This nation dismembered a sovereign entity that did nothing to us, fractured an entire Middle East tinder box region, deposed dictators that kept the lid on revolution, killed innocents and created a million Iraqi refugees.

 

The Republican criticism of Obama is that he did not stay in Iraq long enough breaking the “Status of Forces Agreement” to leave, breaking the rationale for his electoral win and breaking his word to the American people that he would extricate us from Iraq but who cares about all of that?  If Cheney was alleged to have said "F___ the Constitution favoring warrantless wiretaps he could easily have said F___ the Status of Forces Agreement and remained in Iraq in perpetuity.

 

The Iraq War waged by Bush and his so called "coalition of the willing" is wholly responsible for the present chaos not only in the Middle East, Syria and elsewhere but for the carnage in Paris as well.   A straight line can be drawn from the Middle East destabilization of Iraq and other Middle East nations to the Paris attacks, the refugee Syrian crisis, the growth of ISIS, ISIL and Al Qaeda in Iraq now omnipresent all over the region (and even the world) where they never existed before.

 

The know nothing Republicans and their carnival barker so called "candidates" for the 2016 presidency will continue to spew their lies and short sighted cruelty of a now anarchic Middle East to elect another RepubliCON to the nation’s highest office with his finger on the nuclear black box button.  He will commit your children and your children’s children to eternal war.

Paris, now, is a metaphor for darkness in the city of light.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gunfire-exchanged-raid-in-paris-suburb_564c003ce4b06037734bb306

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN REPUBLICANS ARE ELECTED.  DO WHAT IS NECESSARY ELECTORALLY TO ENSURE THIS NEVER HAPPENS!

Robert H. Jackson (1945) Opening Statement -- Nuremburg 1945

Said to be one of the greatest pieces of oratory at the beginning of the Nuremberg trials of crimes against humanity and should be viewed and listened to among those of all nations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJj6NcWHkDE

Singularly Lucky

I cannot stop thinking of Paris. What can and should be done to ameliorate our fears? What can we do at this moment in our time? Would removing all western troops from the Middle East even help now? I suspect no it would not. It is much more complicated than that now and one blog or opinion cannot say it all so I summarize my thoughts.

I love the west which is no secret from those who know me. I love the freedom of expression, I love the freedom to believe OR not to believe in religion. The two most important freedoms -- the freedom to speak as one chooses and the separation clause of the US Constitution that implies you may say anything you want ... ANYTHING for or against religious belief and religion itself remains separate from the state.

One can say, most especially, anything for or against a political belief or for or against any political policy which god knows I utilize that freedom with consistency because I may do that here. I am not afraid of the NSA, the FBI, the CIA or any other government institution entrusted with this nation's security because I love and believe in this nation and the impenetrable Constitutional principles on which shoulders our way of life and our freedoms rest.

In elementary school I remember thinking how wonderful it was that I could ask my teacher anything. So young was I to appreciate even then the blessing that was bestowed upon me. I was singularly lucky and so are we all who were lucky enough to be born in the west!

Are there changes in Middle East policy we must address? To be sure there are many and our nation has done much wrong. Still, with all of our nation's faults at least we can discuss them and ultimately change them. Yes, we were singularly lucky to be born in the west! It is worth preserving and it is worth changing policy to ensure those freedoms, we often take for granted, do not disappear from our midst.

(Sunday Homily) Massacres in Paris: The Apocalypse Is upon Us

Brilliant, unique and interesting interpretation By Mike Rivage-Seul of the Apocalypse spewed in hundreds of fundamentalist churches throughout the land. I urge you to read it and THINK! Think about what your leaders are asking you to do. Ask the question why and who does it benefit.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sunday-Homily-Massacres-by-Mike-Rivage-Seul-Apocalypse-Apocalyptic-End-Of-The-World_Empire_Isil_Jesus-151114-803.html

Dr. Irvin Yalom discusses Death

What I have not heard yet and what plagues me about death is not only the inevitably of it BUT worse for me losing those I love, family, friends, etc. Even though we are all in this together we face it really alone and especially alone if we are left but our family and friends have died.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMbkIYpZ1v8

Il n'y a pas de mots

There are no words!

My Letter to Senator Warren

Senator Warren, I just got through listening to your book "A Fighting Chance" on CD. I enjoyed it thoroughly. I am one of your ardent supporters from Framingham you mention in your book. I have been a supporter of yours since I first saw you on Bill Moyers PBS show. When you ran for the Senate to take back the seat Teddy Kennedy occupied for 50 years held after his death by a Republican the views of whom Teddy would have loathed, I cheered as it returned to Democratic hands.

I could not be with everyone at the Copley Plaza Hotel cheering your Senate victory because I am disabled from polio. Yes, I was one of the unlucky ones who contracted the dreaded disease inducing paralysis before Dr. Salk and Sabin freed humanity from its terror. FDR who began the March of Dimes to find a vaccine for it proved to me government can work for the greater good. If my legs are not so well functioning my mouth surely is and my pen writes, I humbly say, rather well.

I cried at the end of your book out of sadness and empathy when your beloved dog Otis died and I cried out of happiness when you won that seat back for the people of Massachusetts. Teddy would have been so proud.

I have watched you closely over the years and every time Rachel Maddow has you on I am glued to the interview. I will work hard for any Democrat who wins the 2016 presidential primary as I did for you for the Senate. I am hoping, one day, you will take a seat in the oval office and I will live to see that day too.

I love you Senator Warren. You give me hope and instill the same for the powerless and hopeless many. May you be in our political midst for many years to come. Finally, you have proven, despite all odds, we the people have a fighting chance!

Yalom's Cure

This clip below is in English and hit a bulls-eye to so much about which 
 I have given thought. It's short.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B_PGY3eN6Xw

Wrong

I confess, I did not watch the Republican debate last night. I could not because it hurt too much to hear their spewing that passes for policy truth when I know they are the Trojan Horse waiting to strike and kill a nation. I could not watch those who are the most unqualified for the highest office in the land burp policy as though they knew what they were talking about. I could not look at a Ben Carson, the most unqualified in the group, whose belief in fantasy which included hitting his mother with a hammer in his youth, stabbing someone and whose ego makes him think he, the most unqualified of the sad Republican slate, could handle the Herculean task of assuming the presidency of the strongest nation on earth and who will hold the nuclear keys to the box that could annihilate the globe.

These science denying know nothing Republican candidates are poised to destroy this nation if not by weapons then by doing nothing to stop the climate disasters we have seen with frequency so vividly across the nation. Science denial is their most egregious sin as man's knowledge of science is the key to our species' survival. The key to Republican survival is to court the richest oil, gas and bank barons who support their candidacy with oodles of cash.

The Republican Party genius is that it has made their Tea Bag and other middle class income supporters think they are all about them. They surely are not. They are, as I and others much smarter than I, have said so many times about the top richest 1% and care nothing for most of you.

All the Republican tax plans will add trillions to the debt, take programs away from those who need them most and nearly all pledge this nation to eternal war in the Middle East. If this is what you want for your children and succeeding generations then by all means vote Republican. Vote for a Republican Party that is mendacious – lying ALL the time and doing so with impunity.

Republicans will never have an immigration plan as they will NEVER deport 11 million Hispanics and others or build a wall and make Mexico gleefully pay. They will never round up 11 million human beings who will go happily into the night like Jews to the German slaughter. Hispanics and others will fight back and it will be bloody sending millions to their graves or jails in privately owned prisons that are already stuffed to the gills belching humanity that cannot fit into their crowded cells.

I have sat on the left humane side of the political spectrum and have been a strong Democrat all of my adult life. I did so not because I think Democrats are always right but because Republicans in times of significant economic upheaval and war are nearly always wrong. You simply have to look to modern history to believe it.

Ben Carson and the Truth by Charles Blow

This serves to emphasize my point.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/opinion/ben-carson-and-the-truth.html?comments#permid=16611904

Eighth and Ninth Wonders of the World

"Dr. Ben Carson Plays Defense as Biographical Questions Pile Up" -- link here or below.

After what has been uncovered about the probable fabrications of Dr. Ben Carson’s life by him, it is the eighth wonder of the world that this man has gotten to be a Republican front-runner for the presidency, the highest most powerful office in the land arguably the world.

It is the ninth wonder of the world that Fundamentalists and other humans cannot accept truth scientific or otherwise in the face of unmistakable falsehoods of Biblical myth or the mounting evidence of the personal lies a presidential candidate tells about himself.

Those who support him will turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the truth even if the truth is in front of their nose because it is so important to their mental health that all of these fabrications and untruths are really true. If they are not true, which a rational mind would know they are not, then I am guessing the Fundamentalists and their world with them would collapse. It is frightening, indeed, when in the face of Carson’s obvious lies he gains not loses support within mostly Republican ranks.

Carson promotes these lies, in my opinion, to make money and oodles of it. One should never give money to charlatans whether it’s people peddling religious falsehoods or snake oil salesmen trying to sell you junk. You may think they care about you but they don’t. What they do care about is their own bank accounts and making millions off the suckers who swallow their tripe. Carson, it appears, is smart enough to float a made up story about his own life that sells to Fundamentalists and others gullibles.

The truths of science and its experts cannot be denied as they ensure survival of only the fittest when its laws are known, admitted and followed. Those who reject the truths science tells us will die out. It is the evolutionary law of nature and it has been billions of years correct!

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/dr-ben-carson-plays-defense-biographical-questions-pile-n459411

Democratic Forum--Auditory Excellence

 If you want to hear policy at the adult's table then I paste for your enjoyment the questioning by Rachel Maddow the Great of the three Democratic candidates for the presidency. I have never seen or heard more professional, brilliant political programming than the one led by Rachel tonight.

It was a pleasure to listen to it and entertaining to boot. If you did not catch it on MSNBC I paste it below or you can get it on the Rachel Maddow online site. It was a gem and could not be more different from the Republican Barnum Bailey Circus. How anyone in this nation can even contemplate being Republican and worse voting Republican I will never know.

Listen to excellence here or below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democrat-forum-msnbc_563d4e8fe4b0b24aee4a7fc8
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/democrat-forum-msnbc_563d4e8fe4b0b24aee4a7fc8

Gran Mal Seizures

Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship. Carson's campaign on Friday conceded that a central point in his inspirational personal story did not occur as he previously described. Linked here or below:

What a LYING charlatan to fabricate all that and think he is going to get away with it that no one is going to check as he runs for the highest most powerful office on earth. Carson, you JERK, if they checked W. Bush's draft dodging status they will SURELY check everything you say.

The press needs to report the allegedly 8 medical malpractice lawsuits two of which have apparently been adjudicated. He LOST but they have non-disclosure of fee agreements. They have pics, however, of the patient and it is tragic. Makes me think the payment was hefty. Well if you were a brain surgeon and allegedly left a sponge in someone's skull or allegedly diagnosed a malignancy where there was none I might want a little cash for those gran mal seizures!

Just shows to go you you do not have to be brilliant to be a brain surgeon. Kind of makes me think of Leonardo DeCaprio in "Catch Me If you Can" based on a true story of a man who fabricated many occupations which included being a doc. Now just what does Johns Hopkins have to say?


http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/ben-carson-west-point-215598

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!